After spending a month watching some pretty Badass TV Characters, we now head to the movies! For our second bracket we’ll be tackling: “Who is the Most Badass Movie Villain?”
Below you’ll find 50 characters (sorted by movie title) that were selected based on many of the suggestions from this post and some of our own favorites. Not all of these characters, however, are worthy of making it to the bracket! We’re conducting a seeding poll, where the top 16 characters will be ranked by votes for head-to-head match ups throughout the month of June.
After it’s all said and done, we’ll be sending a “Certificate of Awesome” to the actor that plays that character.
Here’s the schedule:
Seeding Poll (Selection of Top 16) – June 1 to June 4
Sweet Sixteen – June 8 to 13
Elite Eight – June 15 to 20
Final Four – June 22 to 27
Badass Championship – June 29 to July 4
Up today is the Seeding Poll, where you can pick as many (or as few) characters from the list as you wish. Based on your votes, we’ll be able to narrow the field down to 16 competitors. A tie breaking voting will be held on Friday and Saturday if necessary.
After the jump is your Seeding Bracket. Poll is open until Thursday, June 4 at 11:59pm EST! May the most Badass win!
Who Are The Most Badass Movie Villains?
- The Joker - The Dark Knight (53%, 72 Votes)
- Darth Vader - Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back (42%, 58 Votes)
- The Operative - Serenity (39%, 54 Votes)
- The Terminator - Terminator (34%, 47 Votes)
- Magneto - X-Men (34%, 47 Votes)
- Sauron - Lord of the Rings (34%, 46 Votes)
- Agent Smith - The Matrix (33%, 45 Votes)
- Lord Voldemort - Harry Potter (27%, 37 Votes)
- Hannibal Lecter - Silence of the Lambs (26%, 35 Votes)
- Scar - The Lion King (24%, 33 Votes)
- T-1000 - Terminator 2: Judgement Day (24%, 33 Votes)
- Freddie Kruger - Nightmare on Elm Street (22%, 30 Votes)
- The Alien - Alien (22%, 30 Votes)
- Megatron - Transformers (19%, 26 Votes)
- John Doe - Se7en (19%, 26 Votes)
- Anton Chigurh - No Country for Old Men (19%, 26 Votes)
- Kahn - Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn (19%, 26 Votes)
- Emperor Palpatine - Star Wars (18%, 24 Votes)
- HAL 9000 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (18%, 24 Votes)
- Hans Gruber - Die Hard (17%, 23 Votes)
- Count Dracula - Dracula (16%, 22 Votes)
- Alex - A Clockwork Orange (16%, 22 Votes)
- Ozymandias - Watchmen (16%, 22 Votes)
- Dr. Evil - Austin Powers (15%, 20 Votes)
- The Shark - Jaws (15%, 20 Votes)
- Tony "Scarface" Montana - Scarface (14%, 19 Votes)
- Darth Maul - Star Wars - The Phantom Menace (14%, 19 Votes)
- Nero - Star Trek (13%, 18 Votes)
- The Wicked Witch of the West - Wizard of Oz (13%, 18 Votes)
- Costello - The Departed (12%, 17 Votes)
- Ursula - The Little Mermaid (12%, 17 Votes)
- Kurgan - Highlander (12%, 16 Votes)
- The Jackal - The Jackal (12%, 16 Votes)
- Verbal Kint - The Usual Suspects (11%, 15 Votes)
- Pennywise - IT (11%, 15 Votes)
- Hades - Hercules (9%, 13 Votes)
- Ivan Drago - Rocky IV (9%, 12 Votes)
- Davy Jones - Pirates of the Caribbean (8%, 11 Votes)
- Gaston - Beauty and the Beast (8%, 11 Votes)
- Frank Lucas - American Ganster (8%, 11 Votes)
- Annie Wilkes - Misery (7%, 10 Votes)
- Pin Head - Hell Raiser (7%, 9 Votes)
- Johnny Lawrence - The Karate Kid (5%, 7 Votes)
- The Hawks - The Mighty Ducks (5%, 7 Votes)
- Obadiah Stane - Iron Man (5%, 7 Votes)
- Travis Bickle - Taxi Driver (4%, 6 Votes)
- Snyder - 3 Ninjas (3%, 4 Votes)
- Christine - The Phantom of the Opera (2%, 3 Votes)
- Richard Nixon - All The President's Men (2%, 3 Votes)
- Max Cady - Cape Fear (2%, 3 Votes)
Total Voters: 137
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11 Comments
Do you people even watch movies? How are the Jackal, Costello, and Frank Lucas not cleaning up? I’ll forgive you if you go out and watch those movies and then come back and logically explain that those are not the most badass villains.
Many of these villains are evil and, dare I say, villainous, but not many of them are badass. Badassness, as often honored in the Badass of the Week award, implies a certain amount of unexpectedness and uniqueness. That is why the Joker is totally cleaning up.
Tickled pink to see “Christine – Phantom of the Opera” listed. Since when is she the villain? Or even remotely badass, for that matter?
@Priscellie – You’re going to have to ask Matt for that!
I’d like to pontificate for a moment, if I may.
These Badass brackets are not popularity contests. We’re not looking to see what everyone’s favorite movies/actors are. In this particular bracket, we don’t want to know who is the most evil. We are looking for the most Badass.
To me, for a villain to be “Badass” it takes more than just memorable scenes. A Badass villain is one who is smooth and nonchalant. Like The Operative, he knows that he’s the villain, but it’s ok. He’s not going to sweat it. The most badass villain should be someone like The Jackal, who is so Badass that even though you hate him, you are secretly rooting for him the whole time. Darth Vader (at least in Eps 4-6) is so confident in his role, so dismissive of his enemies, so powerful that you can’t help but be awed. These are Badass villains.
On the other hand, Dr. Evil is hilarious. He’s a great character, and I love him… but he’s not a Badass. HAL is a computer program, and while cold and calculating, has no real personality. Bone-chillingly frightening, yes. But a Badass? I don’t think so.
Maybe I’m not helping, but if someone else can shed light on what it means to be Badass, go right ahead.
Where is Patrick Bateman?
Second the the questioning of a lack of patrick bateman, i want a write-in.
For some reason, I can’t seem to agree with Sauron as a badass villain. I guess, I prefer my villains to have that personal touch like Hannibal Lecter.
Christine’s a villain? Maybe Stephen King’s Christine…but the one from Phantom of the Opera? I thought she was the damsel.
Patrick Bateman is just out-of-control psycho. His techniques were gory but not without the surgical precision of Hannibal Lecter. He’s an evil by-product of his kind but not in the same league as The Joker (Heath Ledger’s).
The Operative FTW!
Let’s go Operative! So cold and calculative, knowing he’s is evil and vile, yet killing, killing, killing.
How do I vote?