The Most Evil Main Characters in Movies, Ranked

A movie’s protagonist is often an inherently heroic person. They do the right thing, save the day, and focus on making things better for others. Anti-heroes are still heroic in their own ways, even if their methods or personalities are not. However, in some films, the main character is unquestionably the villain, often making it difficult for audiences to relate to them.




That said, villainous main characters may have redeeming features, and they may even win the audience’s sympathy. These villains are not good people — their character arcs exist as cautionary tales against their favor. They work toward evil ends, torment others, and commit all manner of terrible deeds. Such a protagonist can be hard to write without losing the audience, but there are a few villainous protagonists who have gone down in cinematic history.

Updated on August 28, 2024, by Ajay Aravind: A villainous protagonist sounds counterintuitive, even antithetical, to the Hero’s Journey archetype. However, this trope has existed for a long time, with notable examples like Macbeth in Shakespeare’s eponymous play and the pernicious Humber Humbert in Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita. They aren’t really meant to be empathized with, even if fans have started idolizing a lot of them. At the same time, there are a few villainous protagonists who aren’t as bad as their peers. Given the prevalence of this trope in modern movies, however, we have expanded this article with some more relevant information.



25 The Saw Franchise’s Jigsaw Makes It Easy To Root For Him

Portrayed by: Tobin Bell

Tobin Bell as John Kramer in Saw X

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6.6

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Starz

Fans of the horror gore subgenre agree that the first Saw movie was easily the best of the lot, especially given that the main villain remained in clear view for most of the movie. Jigsaw’s ultimate revelation was so iconic that it fanned the flames of the entire franchise, leading to numerous other Saw movies. Unfortunately, most of them turned out to be mediocre imitations of the original — that is until the release of Saw X in 2023.


Boasting the highest Rotten Tomatoes score in the series, Saw X offers a twist that makes Jigsaw (or John Kramer) the protagonist of this specific movie. Kramer has been suffering from cancer long before he begins his brutal quest, and he attempts to stave off death by participating in an experimental procedure in Mexico City. He soon realizes that the entire business model is nothing more than a scam, which is the only reason he abducts and tortures the people involved. It’s rather difficult to root for such a horrifying serial killer, but Saw X makes it shockingly easy.


24 Stuntman Mike Dreams Large But Dies Small And Pathetic

Portrayed by: Kurt Russell

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7.0

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Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof doesn’t get as much attention and acknowledgment from the fandom, at least in comparison to the rest of his filmography. That said, this movie happens to be one of the director’s best. It stars Kurt Russell as a Hollywood stunt car driver named “Stuntman” Mike, who traps women in the passenger seat of his car and takes them for a fatal ride. He has probably killed several by the time he decides to play the same game with a different group of women.


Abernathy, Kim, and Zoë Bell take a 1970 Dodge Challenger for a test drive, and Zoë insists on racing along the highways with her riding the car’s hood. Mike rams the Challenger and nearly kills her on numerous occasions, but the unkillable Zoë survives long enough for the women to exact their revenge. The three of them chase Mike down and give him the beating of his life, ending with a fatal axe kick to the head. Kurt Russell has played antagonists before, but Death Proof features his first and only villainous protagonist.

23 Keyser Sozë Turns Out To Be The Least Suspected Candidate

Portrayed by: Kevin Spacey

Keyser Soze's face obscured by smoke


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The Usual Suspects is an iconic crime thriller centered around a mysterious villain and crime boss named Keyser Sozë. Throughout the movie, Kevin Spacey’s Verbal Kint — known to the LAPD as a second-rate con artist — reveals the story of Keyser Sozë, painting him as an extremely dangerous and powerful man with the capacity to wreak considerable havoc. For much of the screentime, both fans and detectives keep trying to guess the villain’s identity, finally concluding that it must be Dean Keaton.


Although he rejects the idea of testifying against his boss, Verbal Kint also admits that Keaton is the mastermind before he’s released on bail. It is only after Kint disappears completely that US Customs Agent Kujan realizes that Verbal Kint had been Keyser Söze the whole time, which is confirmed by a police artist sketch. Audiences at the time considered this to be one of the greatest twists in cinematic history, but keen-eyed viewers might realize that the devilish villain could only be the mild-mannered protagonist.

22 Hans Landa Can Never Be Free Of His Nazi Past

Portrayed by: Christoph Waltz

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8.4

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Nazis are almost always depicted as villains, and this includes SS-Standartenführer Hans Landa. Played by the inimitable Christoph Waltz, Hans Landa is one of the many main characters in Inglourious Basterds. While he’s clearly an antagonist, the fact that Waltz gets more screentime than Brad Pitt means that Hans Landa can also be interpreted as a villainous protagonist. At the beginning of the movie, he manages to have every member of the Dreyfus family killed, leaving only Shosanna alive.

This turns out to be his undoing, because Shosanna’s plan to kill Adolf Hitler and the rest of Nazi High Command is a massive success, albeit with the help of the titular basterds. Landa ultimately surrenders to Aldo Raine in exchange for an immunity deal. Raine agrees, but then decides to kill Landa’s radio operator before carving a crude Swastika into the Nazi’s forehead. This is one villainous protagonist whose past will follow him wherever he goes.


21 Godzilla Can Be The Hero, But He’s Usually A Villainous Protagonist

Portrayed by: Various People/CGI

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7.7

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Netflix


Godzilla has had countless iterations over the last 70 years. Although it’s mostly a villainous protagonist, it has also been benevolent in a few instances. However, this doesn’t include the first Godzilla or the most recent version in Godzilla Minus One, where it’s a devastatingly powerful beast hell-bent on destroying humanity and its creations. Godzilla not only kills random soldiers on an island in Godzilla Minus One, but it later goes on a rampage in Tokyo.

The resulting destruction leads to thousands of deaths and considerable property damage, leaving the human survivors practically helpless. In the end, they come up with an elaborate plan involving Freon tanks, IJN destroyers, and a dilapidated Kyushu J7W Shinden jet fighter. Koichi Shikishima, the human protagonist of the story, flies the plane into Godzilla’s mouth right before it can unleash its Heat Ray. This causes the creature to implode and seemingly perish, but it will be back — Godzilla always comes back.


20 Patrick Bateman Is a Portrait of Hidden Evil in American Psycho

Portrayed by: Christian Bale

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7.6

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Netflix

Patrick Bateman is one of the most famous villainous protagonists of all time. As American Psycho‘s title suggests, Patrick is a dangerous man who cares nothing for others. The most significant scenes in the movie are his grotesque and graphic murders of his friends, colleagues, and random bystanders. American Psycho doesn’t try to make Patrick sympathetic. Much of its tension comes from Patrick’s erratic behavior and clear misery in his pointless lifestyle.


However, American Psycho‘s ending puts a twist on it. With all evidence of his crimes gone and one of his victims allegedly alive, it’s questionable whether any of Patrick’s atrocities even happened. Bateman is left with nowhere to go, having realized that people aren’t going to believe him even though he desperately wants redemption.

19 Thanos Is the True Protagonist in Avengers: Infinity War

Portrayed by: Josh Brolin


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8.4

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Disney+

After his mid-credits cameo in The Avengers, it took Thanos another six years to step up to the plate as the main villain of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Nonetheless, when he finally does things himself in Avengers: Infinity War, the film very quickly becomes about the Mad Titan and his actions. Even the Infinity War comic series from 1992 features Thanos in the limelight.

Meanwhile, the movie Infinity War‘s story is split between various characters. Gamora, Iron Man, and Vision all get significant plotlines. However, the indispensable Thanos drove the story and got the most screen time of the cast. Despite being the MCU’s most dangerous villain yet, the genocidal Thanos is undeniably Infinity War‘s central character. He did survive in the comics though, so it’s entirely likely that Thanos can be resurrected by the MCU.


18 Daniel Plainview Is Capitalism’s True Face in There Will Be Blood

Portrayed by: Daniel Day-Lewis

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8.2

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Daniel Day-Lewis won his second Oscar for playing Daniel Plainview, a California oil prospector in the early 20th century. Although he starts in poverty, Plainview soon builds an empire through sheer misanthropy in Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2007 drama There Will Be Blood. He succeeds beyond measure, only to be left alone on his estate as an alcoholic wreck being eaten alive by his own hate.


The film is loosely based on the Upton Sinclair novel Oil! and is largely a condemnation of capitalism. But Day-Lewis is present onscreen for almost the entire running time, and those who oppose him are either powerless to stop him or at least as awful as he is. In his own way, he may be the worst figure on this list, acting not just out of a need to succeed but from a fervent wish to destroy everyone else in the process, even his son.

17 Sadie and McKayla Are Killers for the Digital Age in Tragedy Girls

Portrayed by: Brianna Hildebrand (Sadie) & Alexandra Shipp (McKayla)

Sadie and McKayla enjoy their viral posts in Tragedy Girls


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6.0

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Prime Video

Tragedy Girls offered a subversive and contemporary take on the slasher movie by having a pair of teenage girls be the killers, not the victims they usually tend to be. The inseparable duo of Sadie and McKayla want to be famous online as well as in real life. Their solution is to kill their schoolmates and “mourn” them on their true crime blog, “Tragedy Girls.”


Sadie and McKayla’s body count starts with individual murders, but it culminates in a fiery massacre at the school prom. After burning their schoolmates alive, Sadie and McKayla get the fame they wanted and move out of town to begin their college lives. It can be assumed that they’re going to continue this line of work on a university campus, which would honestly be a phenomenal sequel to this underrated slasher comedy.

16 Jack Torrance Is a Writer Gone Mad in The Shining

Portrayed by: Jack Nicholson

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8.4

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All three members of the Torrance family are major characters in The Shining. Jack, Wendy, and Danny all take center stage at different points in the film. However, the bulk of the film’s plot follows Jack Nicholson’s Jack Torrance, a struggling writer and bad husband, as the Overlook Hotel takes an increasingly sinister toll on his psyche. Jack slips closer to villainy the longer he stays in the Overlook, although some fans argue that the supernatural atmosphere of the hotel merely brings out his innate malevolence rather than changing his true nature.

By the third act, Jack is unquestionably the villain despite driving the action for much of the film. As such, the hero’s role shifts more to Wendy and Danny when Jack embraces his dark side. For the first two acts, Jack is the closest thing the film has to a sympathetic protagonist, but The Shining ends with him frozen to death in a maze after trying to kill his family.


15 Carrie White Becomes Every Bullied Kid’s Vengeance in Carrie

Portrayed by: Sissy Spacek

Carrie wreathed in flames in Carrie

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7.4

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Max

Few “villains” in movie history are more sympathetic than Carrie White, the mercilessly bullied teenager of Stephen King’s debut novel who uses her nascent telekinetic powers to take bloody revenge on her tormentors during the film’s now-legendary high school prom. In his book On Writing, King cites a pair of real-life high-school classmates on whom he based the character, and both the book and film essentially state that a number of her victims really had it coming.


What makes Carrie villainous is the indiscriminate nature of her revenge. Her destruction of the school prom kills almost everyone in the building, including people who had been trying to help her and others completely unconnected to her torment. She’s past caring at that point, of course, but as understandable as her rage may be, it doesn’t excuse her monstrosity. “Hurt people hurt people,” as the saying goes, and Carrie White may be cinema’s greatest example of what that looks like.

14 Norman Bates Is Surprisingly Sympathetic in Psycho

Portrayed by: Anthony Perkins


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8.5

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Psycho‘s Norman Bates doesn’t become the main character until a third of the way through the film. The first act follows Marion Crane as she steals money from her workplace. The Bates Motel is just somewhere she happens to stop as she grapples with the morality of her actions. Then, Norman kills Marion in the shower in one of the most iconic movie scenes of all time.


After that point, Psycho shifts its focus to Norman. Although other characters also guide the action, the plot becomes about Norman’s attempts to cover up his crime and his battle for freedom from “Mother.” Norman went on to become the Psycho series’ main character and was even redeemed at the end. Anthony Perkins’ Norman Bates appears in all three Psycho sequels, although his character in the Bates Motel TV series is played by Freddie Highmore.

13 Adolf Hitler Faces the End in Downfall

Portrayed by: Bruno Ganz

Adolf Hitler going on his rant about the generals in Downfall


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8.2

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Prime Video

Downfall is a biopic about the genocidal fascist dictator Adolf Hitler. The film is a fictionalized version of the real events in the final days of Hitler’s government in Nazi Germany. It takes place in and around the bunker where Hitler eventually ends his life as the Russian army closes in. Given how Adolf Hitler has consistently been one of the most hateful names of the 20th century, it’s impossible not to picture him as a villain, even in his own biopic.

That said, the film follows Hitler’s last attempts to make something of the war and genocide he had instigated rather than painting him as a cackling villain. He gets several scenes of genuine humanity and poignancy but is never transformed into a sympathetic character. Ultimately, Downfall depicts Hitler as an evil yet pathetic human who deserves all the hatred he gets.


12 Daniel, Adrian, and Paul Think They’re the Heroes in Pain & Gain

Portrayed by: Mark Wahlberg (Daniel), Anthony Mackie (Adrian), Dwayne Johnson (Paul)

Anthony Mackie, Mark Wahlberg, and Dwayne Johnson The Rock in Pain & Gain.

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6.4

60%

Paramount+

Like in many crime dramas made before it, Pain and Gain stars reprehensible criminals who were convinced that they were the heroes of the story. What set the ruthless and greedy Daniel, Adrian, and Paul apart from their genre contemporaries was how they were vicious but incredibly dumb villains. Pain and Gain is based on a real-life gang of over-muscled men from Miami known for murdering, kidnapping, and blackmail during the early ’90s.


Pain and Gain mocked the three airheaded bodybuilders, but it never sugarcoated their cruelty. Daniel and his team stole a client’s life and wealth, and things only got worse from there. Daniel justifying his crime spree with vapid self-help quotes and a terrible take on the American Dream made his acts more detestable and selfish.

11 Jordan Belfort Gets Rich on Fraud in The Wolf of Wall Street

Portrayed by: Leonardo DiCaprio

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8.2

80%

Fubo


Jordan Belfort is the wisecracking, hedonistic playboy protagonist of The Wolf of Wall Street. The film follows his journey from an entry-level stockbroker to becoming one of the most notorious fraudsters of the ’90s. Belfort’s life drove the film, which focuses on the failure of his two marriages and the FBI’s investigation into his crimes.

Belfort is a real-life criminal and the darkly humorous The Wolf of Wall Street is based on the book he wrote after his release from prison. The audience saw his human side and were invited to laugh with him. However, what he did was undeniably criminal and wrong, and it’s hard to find any redeeming factors in him. The real Jordan Belfort has since invested in cryptocurrency and travels the world giving motivational speeches.


10 Yuri Orlov Sells Weapons and His Soul in Lord of War

Portrayed by: Nicolas Cage

Nic Cage's Yuri Orlov showing a gun to a man in a beret in the desert in Lord of War

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7.6

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Hulu

Lord of War approached the war movie formula differently by focusing on arms dealers instead of generals or soldiers. This, in turn, made the focal arms dealer Yuri Orlov one of the most amoral and inhuman villains in the genre. Not only did he profit from war, but Yuri actively enabled death and worse around the world and felt zero empathy for those lives that his weapons had ruined.


Yuri had a knack for business, but he used his skills to get close to dictators and warlords because it was a quicker way of making money. Yuri also threw away his ethics and any chance of normalcy to stay in business and enjoy the rush of selling guns in active warzones. Yuri never killed anyone personally, but he was worse than the murderers he partnered with. Actor Nicolas Cage would go on to receive widespread acclaim for his portrayal of Yuri Orlov.

9 Alex DeLarge Embodies Society’s Dark Side in A Clockwork Orange

Portrayed by: Malcolm McDowell


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8.3

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The Criterion Channel

A Clockwork Orange‘s Alex DeLarge is one of the most repugnant protagonists in film history. He spent the first act doing nothing but enjoying a vicious crime spree. His sins include fighting, murder, and sexual assault. Alex is a clear villain who the film never redeems; instead, it puts him up against worse forms of evil. On the other hand, the source of his crimes can be clearly traced back to his upbringing, offering a shred of sympathy for this villainous protagonist.

The controversial A Clockwork Orange followed the government’s attempt to rewrite Alex’s morality to “rehabilitate” him and its horrific implications. Alex never redeems himself because a crucial point of the film is that he can’t if he doesn’t have free will. Alex ends the film in exactly the same villainous place as he begins it, raising questions about the power of determinism against political hierarchy.


8 Anakin Skywalker Falls to the Dark Side in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith

Portrayed by: Hayden Christensen

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7.6

79%

Disney+


In many ways, Anakin Skywalker is the main character of the Star Wars franchise, especially the prequels. The first six films follow his beginnings as a young Jedi Padawan, his ultimate defection to the Dark Side after following Darth Sidious, his rebirth as the evil Darth Vader, and finally, his redemption through his son, Luke. Vader is also Star Wars’ best-known villain and one of the most popular characters in all fiction.

Anakin’s villainy was best displayed in Revenge of the Sith. Here, he finally gave in to the Dark Side and helped usher in the Galactic Empire. Even as he fell into evil at the halfway point, Anakin’s actions drove the plot. He and Obi-Wan Kenobi shared the title of “main character,” but their destinies clashed violently in the third act, effectively forging Darth Vader from the smoldering remains of Anakin Skywalker.


7 Eight Career Criminals Turn on Each Other in Reservoir Dogs

Portrayed by: Tim Roth, Steve Buscemi, Lawrence Tierney, Chris Penn, Harvey Keitel, Quentin Tarantino, Michael Madsen, Edward Bunker

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8.3

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Prime Video

Reservoir Dogs is rare in that it doesn’t just have one villainous protagonist. Instead, it has eight of them in the form of a group of armed robbers and violent criminals. There is no single main character in the film. The narrative attention is shared by Mr. Orange, Mr. Blue, Mr. Pink, Mr. Brown, Mr. Blonde, Mr. White, Eddie Cabot, and Joe Cabot — all of whom have their own designs. Some get more focus than others, but the group as a whole and their dynamics drive the plot.


All things considered, however, none of the group can be considered as good people. The worst is undoubtedly Mr. Blonde (portrayed amazingly by Michael Madsen), who revels in acts of cruelty. At the same time, no one in the film can be described as genuinely heroic. Even moral characters like Mr. White only try to avoid making things worse instead of stopping the other monsters.

6 Tyler Durden Weaponizes Toxic Masculinity in Fight Club

Portrayed by: Brad Pitt


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8.8

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Hulu

Fight Club has two protagonists: the nameless narrator and the charismatic Tyler Durden. The two create the titular fight clubs together, only for Tyler to attempt to turn them into a nationwide terrorist organization. This leads to many deaths and one of the most famous twists in movie history. The third act involves the narrator trying to stop his former friend, Tyler. However, the two are eventually revealed to be the same person.

Tyler was simply the narrator’s power fantasy and evil impulses come to life. Both the protagonist and the antagonist were the same person, driving every event between them. Interestingly, although very little attention is given to her in the film, Helena Bonham Carter’s Marla Singer. It can be argued that Marla plays an in-between figure, neither heroic nor villainous, making her character arc rather fascinating in context.


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