Where would movies be without action? It’s practically written into the DNA of the medium. And wherever you find action, you’ll almost always find villains doing their dastardly deeds. And while villains may not get the love that heroes get, they’re every bit as important. Sometimes more so. A weak or forgettable villain can deep-six a perfectly good movie.
But what makes a memorable villain? Is it the mustache twirling? The costume? Choice of weapon? Or the actor who brings him to life? Who can say? But one thing is certain: we all know a great villain when we see one. They make their marks on the pop culture and stick with us for decades after their first appearances.
But that’s enough talk. Let’s get to the action.
These are the 50 Greatest Action Movie Villains of All Time.
30. Wong Hoi (Shing Fui-on) | The Killer (1989)
Wong Hoi gets shot by a cop in front of a bunch of other cops, and by the time this happens, you’re so happy to see it that you almost don’t care that Li Ying (Danny Lee) is probably going to jail for doing so. Wong Hoi is a ruthless gang leader, sure, I mean he even hired Ah Jong (Chow Yun-fat) to kill his own uncle in order to take over the gangs. And then (big mistake), tried to have Ah Jong killed to prevent him from revealing that fact. (Never mind that Ah Jong is honorable and never would.) All the terrible things Wong Hoi does boil down to being a paranoid coward without honor, and if he had just followed through on his commitments (and maybe stopped going nuts) he’d have been fine. As it is, his behavior is so egregious, so violent, and so beyond the pale that we cheer his cold-blooded murder while in police custody.
–Bob Cram
29. Charles “Scorpio” Davis (Andy Robinson) | Dirty Harry (1971)
Although loosely inspired by the real-life Zodiac Killer, Scorpio is as far removed from that serial killer as humanly possible. He doesn’t wear a mask, and he doesn’t deal in ciphers. All he cares about is creating chaos and fear. Scorpio’s terror spree across San Francisco is not driven by ideology, revenge, or even greed. Instead, he is defined by his randomness and volatility. He threatens to kill schoolchildren, priests, and anonymous civilians unless paid a ransom, which seems inconsequential to his ultimate goal. This unpredictability makes him a deeply modern villain. He’s not a mastermind. He’s not charming. He’s not even particularly organized. He is violence for violence’s sake—the antithesis of Dirty Harry’s brutal, if simplified, sense of justice.
Scorpio isn’t the first chaos agent of villainy, but he is one of the first to take it to such an extreme. There’s no line he won’t cross and since he uses the rules of the system to his advantage (he is released from custody because he argues his rights were violated even after everyone knows he’s the killer and even pays a thug to beat the shit out of him to convince everyone he’s the victim of police brutality), he always seems to be one step ahead of the law. Through Andy Robinson’s unforgettable performance, Scorpio emerges as a villain who doesn’t simply challenge the hero—he challenges the system, the audience, and the very idea of due process. Cold, erratic, and vicious, he remains one of cinema’s most unsettling manifestations of evil.
–Sailor Monsoon
28. Mad Dog (Yayan Ruhian) | The Raid: Redemption (2011)
It’s rare for a secondary antagonist to completely eclipse the main villain, but when that henchman is Mad Dog, no boss can stand a chance. He is the walking embodiment of raw brutality and martial arts intensity. He is less a man than a force of nature, and in the slums in which he dwells, he is the apex predator. Mad Dog earns his name not from erratic behavior but from his willingness to inflict pain on whoever he’s told to hurt. He finds satisfaction in the process of violence, not its outcome, which is why he doesn’t use guns. Mad Dog operates by a twisted kind of warrior’s code. He doesn’t kill for sport; he kills to test himself, which is why it takes the combined efforts of both Rama (Iko Uwais) and Andi (Donny Alamsyah) to eventually take him down. He isn’t just an obstacle to be removed; he’s a living, breathing boss fight. And in a film structured like a video game, Mad Dog is the level that players die on over and over.
–Sailor Monsoon
27. Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah) | Kill Bill (2003–04)
Elle Driver is an absolute icon. Sporting her eyepatch and a garish fashion sense, she exudes confidence and formidability the second she graces our screens. She is given the final task of killing the Bride, and without Bill’s timely phone call, she would have succeeded. She’s one of the members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad who lives the longest, and it’s mostly due to her wit, cunning, and all-encompassing self-interest. Still, Bill is her soft spot, and while she doesn’t hold a place in Bill’s heart quite like the Bride, she’s loyal to him. Her final confrontation with the Bride is one of the best scenes in Kill Bill: Volume 2, and just thinking about her scenes makes me want to do a rewatch.
–Valerie Morreale
26. Toecutter (Hugh Keays-Byrne) | Mad Max (1979)
Toecutter is the leader of a violent motorcycle gang, but he’s much more than that. He’s the representation of the collapse of society, a herald of the world that is to come. He and his crew are out for kicks, gas and revenge and their nihilistic wordlview means that those who stand in their way are fair game. They’re going against the natural order of things, after all, where the strong take what they want. It’s obvious Toecutter has had some education in the past and he even seems capable of being polite and even merciful, but somewhere along the line he’s decided that it’s better to be crazy in a crazy world than to fight to hold on to the civilization that is crumbling around him. Not that he’s got a heart of gold – he’s a vicious and greedy killer, with the symbol of his gang (the Phi symbol) being an irrational number. Of course it’s also a symbol of the “golden ratio,” indicating that God has created everything perfectly – something laughable in the world of Mad Max, where it’s all falling to chaos. Or it could just be the sign made when a motorcycle burns rubber in a circle and then races off, leaving a line through it. Maybe it’s all of these things, and Toecutter knows it and lets everyone (like me) make their own meaning. Hugh Keays-Byrne plays Toecutter brilliantly, and it was awesome to see him again (as a different foe, of course) in Fury Road.
–Bob Cram
25. Johnny Wong (Anthony Wong) | Hard Boiled (1992)
Action movies usually have great heroes or great villains. It’s rare for a movie to have both, and it seems like when John Woo was making Hard Boiled, he immediately chose the former based on the fact that he named the main character Tequila. That’s such a badass name that there was no way any villain could come close to matching it, and while most actors couldn’t, Anthony Wong proved that he isn’t most actors. In the film, he plays Johnny Wong, a ruthless and calculating crime lord obsessed with consolidating power by any means necessary. Wong represents the new breed of kingpin—ambitious, brutal, and without the honor codes that once governed the underworld. His methods (mass executions, betrayals, and manipulation) reveal a man for whom human life holds no value beyond its utility. In contrast to the moral codes of older triad figures or even those of the Italian Mafia, Wong is pure opportunism and power. He is devoid of honor, ethics, morality, and loyalty. All he cares about is power and will do anything to get it and maintain it.
–Sailor Monsoon
24. Mr. Joshua (Gary Busey) | Lethal Weapon (1987)
The Gary Busey we know today is an eccentric figure, known for being erratic and a little … unstable, I guess is the best word I can think of. These character quirks are said to be due to a traumatic brain injury that happened in a motorcycle accident in 1988, two years after filming Lethal Weapon. While Mr. Joshua and his calm, cold, quiet insanity would probably be downright chilling anyway, watching Busey portray such a subdued figure makes it that much more unsettling. The scene where his boss holds a flame to his arm while Mr. Josha stands there with nothing more than a little grimace on his face is downright creepy. He’s not the main villain of the movie, but he’s certainly the most interesting.
–R.J. Mathews
23. Damon Killian (Richard Dawson) | The Running Man (1987)
Unlike many other notorious Stephen King villains, Damon Killian has a convincing public persona. For most of his time on screen, the public loves him and thinks he loves them back. In reality, though, Killian is a scheming businessman ala Donald Trump in his Apprentice days, chasing money and power no matter the cost. It’s these dual personas that make him stand out, and the ability to hide his cruelty under the veneer of entertainment and showbiz. This flashy nature makes his inevitable (and equally bombastic) demise all the more satisfying, and I can’t wait to see what they do with this character in the remake.
–Valerie Morreale
22. Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem) | Skyfall (2012)
Of the Bond villains in the Daniel Craig years, Raoul Silva is by far the most compelling. A former agent himself, he feels betrayed when his cyanide pill fails, leaving him alive but permanently disfigured. He doesn’t exactly have dreams of grandeur; he just wants M dead. What makes him even more interesting, though, is his trippy mind games with Bond, even going as far as sexual propositions just to try and throw him off his game. Bond’s too clever though, and the interaction triggers the iconic response, “What makes you think it’s my first time?” Shippers everywhere rejoice. Joking aside, despite Skyfall’s mixed reception, Raoul remains one of the best and most compelling parts of the film, and a standout in the Craig-led Bond era.
–Valerie Morreale
21. Sheriff William Teasle (Brian Dennehy) | First Blood (1982)
First Blood is not your typical 80s action popcorn flick. It cuts deeper than the standard offerings, and even though we didn’t know it at the time, it stars the greatest action movie hero of all time. It’s raw, believable, and filled with impactful performances. I could go on and on about Sheriff Teasel, because there’s a lot going on here. Brian Dennehey rises to the subject matter, bringing a realistic ego and fragile masculinity to the sheriff. You can buy the premise of the central conflict, even if – on paper – it seems thin. Teasel displays the honest traits you’ve seen a million times in small town tough guys who get in over their head and then cannot summon the humility to admit they were wrong. They’d rather go on causing damage and doubling-down on their mistakes, hoping it’ll all pay off somehow.
Another aspect of what makes him a great villain is that you see the depths of his toxic arrogance in the behavior of his subordinates, especially Chief Deputy Galt. Galt and his cronies escalate Teasel’s initial hostility, which causes Rambo’s rampage. Later on, it’s Galt who shoots at Rambo recklessly, paying for it with his life. Hell, Rambo tries to surrender at one point, and Teasel’s trigger-happy wannabes open fire on him! It says a lot about Teasel’s leadership.
In a layered film, Sheriff Teasel is a layered villain. In him you find aspects of America’s treatment of Vietnam vets, the subtle and self-conscious hostility of law-enforcement officers toward military personnel, and the mounting rage of a big fish in a small pond being challenged on his behavior. He’s believable, you can see where he’s coming from, and yet you wanna feed him his own teeth by the end of it.
–Jeff Cram
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Who are some of your favorite action movie villains? Maybe they will show up later in the list!