Top 15 Movie Villains of the 2000's

By Connor Eyzaguirre

In more than one way, the villain is the most important part of a story. The villain creates the conflict. The villain is the driving force against the hero. There are millions of movie villains out there, and thousands from the past decade alone. I have assembled a list of my 15 personal favorite movie villains of the 2000's. Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!

15.) White Goodman in Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004)

Kicking things off here is the CEO of Globo Gym himself, White Goodman. Ben Stiller rarely plays a villainous character, so his turn as Goodman surprised a lot of people. Goodman is a fitness freak who despises Vince Vaughn's character Peter La Fleur, so much so that he enters a dodgeball tournament to stop him from getting the money he needs to pay off his gym. White Goodman is the very epitome of a gym douche, and actually stands out as an evil character in an otherwise kindhearted movie.

14.) Fernand Mondego in The Count of Monte Cristo (2002)

2002's adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo is one of my personal favorite movies and contains one of my most hated villains. Guy Pearce portrays the backstabbing Fernand Mondego in this film, the rat bastard who turned on his oldest friend Edmond Dantes and framed him for treason, causing Edmond to rot in prison for 13 years. Mondego then proceeds to marry Edmond's fiancee and raise the child he didn't know he had. Pearce plays Mondego so vicious and cruel that, for me at least, it's hard to see him as anything else.

13.) Patrick Bateman in American Psycho (2000)

Just when you thought you couldn't hate Wall Street any more than you already do, this psychotic prick shows up. Christian Bale's performance as Patrick Bateman in American Psycho remains one of his greatest roles, and it's obvious why. Bateman is a wealthy investment banker who moonlights as a vicious serial killer. There isn't a scene in the film where Bateman is even a little bit likable. When he's not hacking away at people, he's rubbing his obscene wealth in their faces and freaking out over the lack of a watermark on his business card. Truly a despicable human being (his love of Huey Lewis aside).

12.) O-Ren Ishii in Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)

O-Ren Ishii was easily the best part of the Kill Bill saga. Not only is she one of the people who shot up the Bride's family, she's the head of the Yakuza and a force to be reckoned with. She has the entire Japanese mafia at her disposable, most notably her personal bodyguard, the Crazy 88. O-Ren has a very interesting backstory and her reasoning for doing what she does actually makes a sick sort of sense. Lucy Liu played her as unmerciful, unforgiving, and ruthless, making her one of the best villains ever to grace the silver screen.

11.) Francis Dolarhyde in Red Dragon (2002)

The Hannibal Lecter franchise is filled with unforgettable psychopathic villains, the best being of course Dr. Lecter himself. 2001's Hannibal alienated a lot of fans, but Brett Ratner (Believe me, I'm just as surprised as you are) brought them back with 2002's Red Dragon. While Lecter does appear in the film, the main antagonist is Francis Dolarhyde, the vicious killer who calls himself the Red Dragon and is played phenomenally by Ralph Fiennes. Dolarhyde is a psychotic murderer and rapist who believes he is possessed by the spirit of a powerful dragon that makes him kill. It could also be due to his mentally and physically abusive grandmother who raised him (that seems more logical, don't you think?) and left scars that will never leave him. Fiennes plays Dolarhyde in a near sympathetic light, but never lets you forget the monster he truly is.

10.) John Kramer in Saw (2004)

The Saw series is arguably the best horror franchise of the 2000's and a huge chunk of that success is owed to Tobin Bell's subtle but strong portrayal of John Kramer, the Jigsaw Killer. Kramer is the driving force behind every film in the franchise, and an argument can be made that he's not even a killer. He kidnaps people he believes don't appreciate their lives and sets them up in elaborate traps that often force them to mutilate themselves or their loved ones to survive. He's a technological genius and has set up enough traps to last several years after his own death at the hands of the cancer that's eating away at him. Though his apprentices are great villains themselves, nobody comes close to the main man.

9.) Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men (2007)

"What's the most you ever lost on a coin toss?" With this line, Javier Bardem cemented his place in the movie villain hall of fame with his portrayal of relentless hitman Anton Chigurh in 2007's No Country for Old Men. Chigurh is in hot pursuit of Llewelyn Moss (played by Josh Brolin) after Moss steals about two million dollars from him. Throughout the film, Chigurh is unstoppable. He can't be bargained with, he can't be reasoned with, and he absolutely will not stop until Moss is dead. Bardem's performance earned him an Academy Award for best supporting actor in 2008, an award well deserved and well earned.

8.) Davy Jones in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)

Geoffrey Rush's Captain Barbossa was awesome, but it's Dead Man's Chest's villainous Davy Jones that makes this list. Bill Nighy provided both the voice and mo-cap for Jones, giving us a terrifying performance and a freaky-looking arch-nemesis for Captain Jack Sparrow. Jones is the captain of the Flying Dutchman, a ship that carries souls from this world to the next. Jones is practically immortal, apart from his own heart which he keeps in a chest. He practically commands the ocean itself, making him a very formidable opponent. What makes him so interesting is his backstory, in which it is revealed that he betrayed the woman he loved and became a loveless man with no ties to the mortal world. Kind of sad when you think about it, isn't it?

7.) Alonzo Harris in Training Day (2001)

For a guy who plays such noble heroes, Denzel Washington plays one hell of a scary villain. Washington's performance in Training Day earned him his second Oscar, and it's very clear why. Denzel plays Detective Alonzo Harris, a corrupt narcotics cop who's descent into madness gets clearer and clearer as the film goes on. Ethan Hawke's character Jake Hoyt is a rookie who Alonzo tries to take under his wing, only to find out Hoyt is an honest cop. Alonzo Harris is such a despicable human being, mainly because he's the epitome of everything we hate about corruption in law enforcement.

6.) Magneto in X-Men (2000)

Magneto was the first of Ian McKellen's most iconic roles last decade (the second being Gandalf the Grey) and it stands out amongst the rest. Magneto was the villain you kind of wanted to win. He's a Holocaust survivor who's witnessed firsthand the cruelty of mankind. For that reason, he wants to wipe every last human off the face of the earth. Can you really blame him, though? Magneto is the primary antagonist of the X-Men franchise and remains one of Ian McKellen's best performances.

5.) Bill the Butcher in Gangs of New York (2002)

Bill "The Butcher" Cutting is, in my opinion, the best performance of Daniel Day-Lewis's career and should have won him an Oscar. He plays the brutal, Irish-hating gang leader of the Five Points in New York, 1863 and the murderer of Amsterdam Vallon's father. Vallon, played by Leo DiCaprio, swears vengeance against Bill and spends the majority of the film getting close to Bill and being forced to witness every despicable act of cruelty Bill exacts upon the Irish and other immigrants in New York. Considering how method Daniel Day-Lewis is, I'm surprised he didn't go on an Irish killing spree while filming this movie.

4.) Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)

It was a dark day for Potter fans everywhere when You-Know-Who returned. Then again, it was also one of the most insane moments of the entire franchise and remains so to this day. Ralph Fiennes (again) played the Dark Lord in the last half of the Harry Potter franchise, but it's his arrival in Goblet of Fire that put him on this list. He emerges from fire and blood, anew and vengeful against Harry. His eyes and face are snakelike in appearance and it suddenly becomes very clear why the entire Wizarding World fears him unanimously. We'll never have a franchise villain like He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named ever again.

3.) Gollum in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

Has there ever been a more creepy, sadistic, and vile little thing than Gollum? Andy Serkis played this vile creature, in a role that launched his career as the king of motion capture. Gollum worships the One Ring and will do anything to get it back before Frodo Baggins destroys it. He spends the entirety of The Two Towers and a good chunk of The Return of the King pretending to be their ally and guide, before turning on them once they reach Mordor by attempting to feed them to Shelob, a gigantic spider. In the end, it is technically Gollum who destroys the Ring (of course, it's not intentional) and he remains, to me at least, the true villain of The Lord of the Rings.

2.) Col. Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds (2009)

This slimy bastard. This film introduced America to Christoph Waltz, a phenomenal actor who's mostly known for portraying one of the most vile Nazi scumbags in film history. Colonel Hans Landa is the main antagonist in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds (Despite Hitler actually appearing in the film) and is responsible for murderering Shosanna Dreyfuss's entire family. Her vengeance against Landa is the driving force of the movie, with the Basterds basically appearing as secondary characters. Waltz owns every scene he's in and even won his first Oscar for the role. It's hard now not to see him as a Nazi bastard after seeing the movie.

1.) The Joker in The Dark Knight (2008)

Once again, were you expecting someone else? Heath Ledger's turn as the Joker pretty much tops every list nowadays, and for very good reason. He's simply the best movie villain of the decade and one of the best of all time. He set the bar so high that it's nearly impossible to top, with most of the fans not even wanting Hollywood to try. Ledger's sudden death in 2008 put a bit of a black mark on the character as a lot of people blamed his death on Ledger's need to get inside the character's head. Regardless, Heath Ledger's legacy is intact with his phenomenal performance and iconic portrayal of the Joker.