The 25 best action movie villains of all time, ranked

Resident madman Gary Busey made his mark in the action movie villain business in 1987's "Lethal Weapon." As Mr. Joshua, a Vietnam veteran turned mercenary henchman drug dealer, he faces off against former company mate Martin Riggs culminating in a fight to the death outside of Riggs' partner's house, which naturally ended in his death.

Memorable moment: As Mr. Joshua searches for Riggs and Murtaugh, he comes across a TV with "A Christmas Carol" on screen as Scrooge asks a child what day it was. Shooting the TV with his machine gun, Joshua replies, "It's g-d Christmas!'

Dirty cops are a staple of the action movie genre, and Gary Oldman's turn as Agent Norman Stansfield was no different. Oldman was in rare form as a drug-addicted DEA agent who goes on a rampage after discovering that a family he just murdered had a survivor, one who could ruin everything for him. His end comes in the form of a vest full of explosives attached to the man he just fatally shot.

Memorable moment: After tangling with the titular professional, Stansfield desperately searches for a solution, which means calling in for everyone, yes, EVERYONE.

Julius J. Carry III played Sho'nuff the self-titled 'Shogun of Harlem' in the 1985 martial arts homage "The Last Dragon." Without actually explaining why there was a Kung-fu power struggle in 1980's Harlem, Sho'nuff is hellbent on being the best with his only adversary, Bruce Leroy (Taimak), standing in his way.

Memorable moment: Demanding fealty from Bruce Leroy, Sho'nuff forces him to kneel down and "Kiss his Converse" gym shoes.

Picking up where 'Mad Max' left off, Mel Gibson finds himself in the middle of a post-apocalyptic power struggle, with one side led by the hulking Lord Humungus, a hockey-masked villain who predates Jason Voorhees' first appearance in the mask by over a year. 

Memorable moment: Lord Humungus' first appearance, where he is referred to, amongst many titles, as the "Ayatollah of Rock-n-Rolla." Few action villains have enjoyed such a distinctive honor.

A pimp who trained his girls to be assassins, Bill (David Carradine) was the object of revenge in Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2." Bill was a master swordsman, battling his prized pupil and victim The Bride (Uma Thurman) to a near standstill. Unfortunately, he was no match for the Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique.

Memorable moment: In the moment before his death, Bill straightens himself up and takes one last final walk, asking how he looked, before walking confidently towards his end.

In 1991's "Point Break," Patrick Swayze plays Bodhi, a Zen master of villainy who splits his time between surfing and robbing banks. He takes a liking to undercover FBI agent Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves), and even after he discovers he's a cop, Bodhi still shows deference towards Utah, even as he's unrepentant of his crimes. Swayze plays Bodhi beyond cool, and once the film reaches its conclusion, Bodhi's final scene makes all the sense in the world.

Memorable moment: "The ocean lets us know just how small we really are."

Former comrade turned vicious henchman Bennett (Vernon Wells) certainly qualifies as a bit of a cartoon, but his gleeful zeal in being the bad guy, not to mention his chain mail vest earns him a spot on our list. It was hard to tell throughout "Commando'" if Bennett wanted to kill John Matrix (Arnold Schwarzenegger) or kiss him, and it's that homoerotic campiness that adds a layer of humor to the proceedings that slightly buffers the wanton violence. Either way, viewers will be happy to 'let off some steam' with this villainous performance.

Memorable moment: "I love listening to your little piss-ant soldiers trying to talk tough, they make me laugh. If Matrix was here, he'd laugh too."

As villains go, Castor Troy, featured in 1997's "Face/Off," is one of the more interesting on our list, as he's portrayed by two different actors (Nicholas Cage and John Travolta), although the role is pure Cage. Troy, an international criminal is set at odds with nemesis John Archer (Travolta), and the pair end up switching identities, or more to the point, faces, leading to a series of battles between the two. Troy is unhinged and gleefully so, as he's willing to murder women and children in order to achieve his goals.

Memorable moment: "I never really enjoyed the Messiah."

Ben Gazzara twirls his metaphorical mustache with aplomb as Brad Wesley, a small-town overlord in "Road House." Gazzara plays Wesley with little in the way of sympathy as he is every bit as amoral and evil as they come, but what sets Wesley apart from stock villains is just how comfortable he is with being over-the-top when called upon to do so. He's a thorn in the side of his community, and when he hits, he makes everyone feel it, but he IS a businessman at heart.

Memorable moment: "JC Penney is coming here because of me!"

Casting James Earl Jones as villain Thulsa Doom in the wake of his imposing vocals as Darth Vader in the "Star Wars" series was nothing short of a coup, as he took a one-note role and gave it a depth and gravitas that honestly elevated the film around him, delivering each of Doom's lines with a thundering timber and a seductive tone. Doom may have started as a two-bit warlord seeking out the finest steel, but he would evolve into a dark wizard who controlled a powerful cult with his very words. 

Memorable moment: Thulsa Doom's monologue on the power of flesh over steel.

Arguably one of the best action films ever made, 1987's "Predator" was in danger of being a total failure. While the film had all the look and feel of a standard Schwarzenegger vehicle, the problem lie in the titular character, an alien hunter, who originally looked not unlike a cockroach. Thanks to the firing of Jean Claude Van Damme and the hiring of Stan Winston, audiences were delivered a true iconic villain built for the hunt and proving to be more than a match for Schwarzenegger.

Memorable moment: The unmasking.

Roy Batty was a replicant, an artificial human being, in search of more life. His lust for life, which in the world of "Blade Runner" lasted only five years, set him on a violent, no holds barred path that resulted in the death of his creator upon learning that the five years he received would be all he could get. Batty, expertly portrayed by Rutger Hauer, was a bulldozer who would stop at nothing to achieve his goal, only to have time catch up with him at the end.

Memorable moment: Batty's "Tears in Rain" monologue.

Eight years after the film that made Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Cameron household names, the pair reunite for "Terminator 2: Judgment Day." Since Schwarzenegger is the hero this time, a new kind of villain was needed to up the ante, and it came in the form of Robert Patrick as the liquid metal terror T-1000. Patrick takes a page from Schwarzenegger's original role by making his Terminator every bit as straightforward and menacing as his predecessor. 

Memorable moment: "Say, that's a nice bike."

On the surface, Clarence Boddicker (Kurtwood Smith) is your run-of-the-mill psychopathic thug, but despite the reality of his sadism, Smith plays Boddicker with an undeniable zeal that makes his performance fun to watch. Even though RoboCop beats the hell out of him over and again, comes back for more.

Memorable moment: "Can you fly, Bobby?"

Alan Rickman makes his first appearance on our list with an inspired performance as the Sheriff of Nottingham in "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves." Never mind the lack of English accent from Kevin Costner, Rickman's turn as a satan-worshipping hedonist whose swagger befits his rock star, blow-out hairdo. He plays the role with a maniacal glee, so much so that maybe you might want him to beat Robin Hood, especially since he's by far the more interesting of the pair.

Memorable moment: "Cancel the kitchen scraps for lepers and orphans, no more merciful beheadings, and call off Christmas!"

The only action movie villain on our list who is more war hero than bad guy, General Hummel, from 1996's Michael Bay coming out party "The Rock," is a motivated, if not conflicted man who is simply fed up with the system and the way it treats veterans. Unfortunately, instead of going on a moral crusade, which would make him a hero in any other film, Hummel chooses to take hostages on Alcatraz Island and threaten the city of San Francisco with VX gas warheads. While Hummel sees the error of his ways by the end of the film, audiences are treated to one of the better and morally ambiguous villains we've ever seen thanks to the solid performance from Ed Harris as Hummel.

Memorable moment: During his call with the Pentagon explaining his demands, Hummel makes it extremely hard not to be on his side as he details how the U.S. Government routinely chews up and spits out the very soldiers we're told to honor and support.

Hugo Weaving instantly achieved icon status from the very first purring of the line "Mr. Anderson..." in "The Matrix" trilogy, starting with 1999's "The Matrix." In the films, humans are plugged into a machine-generated world, policed by Agents, who are tasked with helping the machine world stamp out those who hack into the program to "wake up" humans. Agent Smith, within the context of the trilogy, evolves from a dogged take on Javert to a megalomaniac who wishes to control the very world he was created to serve by any means necessary.

Memorable moment: "Mr. Anderson... what good is a phone call if you're unable to speak?"

1980's "Flash Gordon" is a bit of a garish, if not beloved, curiosity. Produced in the wake of the success of "Star Wars," a film that took a significant amount of influence from earlier serial versions of "Flash Gordon," the film was a miasma of color and sound, and in the middle of it we find Max Von Sydow vamping it up as Ming the Merciless. What could've been a thankless role awash in "Orientalism" stereotypes from the era in which it originated, Von Sydow instead turned Ming into a cackling sexual deviant with a layer of cool that made him possibly the most enjoyable aspect of the film (besides Brian Blessed's bellowing).

Memorable moment: Ming offering Flash (Sam J. Jones) his own kingdom to rule in Mongo in a scene that should've been a fight, but played out like a negotiation, and was captivating in every second of screen time.

Although he has a star-making turn in 1982's "Conan the Barbarian," Arnold Schwarzenegger was not yet a household name, but all that would change with the help of director James Cameron in "The Terminator." As a killer cyborg, the Terminator's lines were very limited, but when he did speak, there was an immediate impact. Schwarzenegger used his imposing physique to good effect, positively selling the image of a relentless killing machine. It's rare when the role of a villain can make someone an icon, but this is definitely it.

Memorable moment: 'I'll be back.' 

Terence Stamp makes his stamp on action movie villains with his over-the-top performance as General Zod in 'Superman II'. As a Kryptonian criminal, Zod doesn't look at humanity as worth saving, but rather worth ruling. Stamp, despite often awful lighting and inexplicable green makeup, chews the scenery in a way befitting the best comic book villains.

Memorable moment(s): "Kneel."

The late Heath Ledger never got to see the impact of his take on the Clown Prince of Crime in 2009's "The Dark Knight." Here, his version of the Joker is neither a clown nor a buffoon, but rather a cold, calculating nihilist who would indeed rather watch the world burn rather than accept a place within it. He aims to be Batman's (Christian Bale) greatest test, and by the end of the film, it's hard not to argue that the Joker didn't come out on top.

Memorable moment: "How 'bout a magic trick? I'm gonna make this pencil disappear."

Veteran actor Christoph Waltz skyrocketed to fame with his portrayal as Nazi officer Hans Landa in Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds." Waltz uses a genial charm to cover a dark viciousness as he cuts his way through the film, stealing each scene in which he appears. As villains go, Landa is a pure classic.

Memorable moment: Landa cutting a deal with Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) and Pvt. Utivich (B.J. Novak) that effectively ends WWII, delivered with a level of grace and charm that belies practically all of his previous calculated brutality.

Ricardo Montalban uses a charm every bit as rich as fine Corinthian leather to pick up a role he left off 20 years prior in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan." Driven by revenge in the wake of the episode of "Star Trek" he previously appeared in, Khan challenges the crew of the Enterprise in every way imaginable, and despite his "two-dimensional thinking" manages to nearly best Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) with his "superior intellect."

Memorable moment: "I've done far worse than kill you, I've hurt you. And I wish to go on hurting you. I shall leave you as you left me, as you left her: marooned for all eternity in the center of a dead planet, buried alive. Buried alive." (You know what happens next.)

On every other list of villains you're likely to see, Darth Vader is probably No.1, which makes a lot of sense from a standpoint of pure branding. Even though Vader is somewhat a knockoff of Fantastic Four villain Doctor Doom, any influence George Lucas used to create the obsidian Sith Lord is minimal compared to the iconic status the character would gain since his first appearance in 1977. Vader is, for many, the go-to villain, despite the fact that his collective screen time in all "Star Wars" films comes in at less than two hours.

Memorable moment: "No... I am your father." (Obviously.)

As if there was any doubt. Hans Gruber makes No. 1 on our list because as action movie villains go, he's simply awesome. One part Bond villain and another part roguish gentleman, in any other heist movie, he might be the hero, but in "Die Hard" he's more than a match for shoeless cop John McClane (Bruce Willis). Alan Rickman uses the same level of charm and menace he would later employ in "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves," but to a more serious degree. Of all the villains on our list, Hans Gruber is the slickest, and well deserving of the top spot.

Memorable Moment: "Clay...Bill Clay." Also...THE FALL.