100 GREATEST MOVIE VILLAINS

Part 3  11-15

THE RED SKULL

Who's he?: Johann Schmidt, the head of one of those Nazi super science squad called Hydra. Thanks to an averse reaction to some super-soldier serum developped by the Nazis, Johann's skin shrivelled up to a red-tinted grinning skull, hence his code name. 

How bad was he?: Jesus! OK, he started off as a Nazi, but Johann realised his ambitions went far beyond the Third Reich and that Hitler was cramping his style. With the help of alien technology, the Red Skull waged war against the Allies and Nazi Germany at the same time. That's no mean feat, and he would have pulled it off if not for the efforts of another super soldier working for the good guys (namely, us). 

What happened?: Thanks to Captain America, the Red Skull failed in blowing up the entire world with his crazy-ass alien doohickey. His plane fell off in the Arctic Ocean and he was never heard from again. We're pretty sure he'll turn up again at one point or another.

Appearances: Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

OZYMANDIAS

Who's he?: Adrian Veidt. In more innocent times he was a super-hero, yet he realised that it was all just dressing up in silly costumes while not doing anything to actually save the world. He retired and became the head of multi-billion dollars corporation with his hands in everyone's pie (while selling action figures of himself and his friends). 

How bad was he?: Being the World's Smartest Man as well as one hell of a martial artist should give you a pretty good idea how dangerous he was (even his friends were afraid of him). Veidt realised that the world was heading down to a nuclear armageddon. So, he annihilated half the population of New York, framing the dastardly deed on his buddy, Dr. Manhattan. Well pass on the fact that he orchestrated many of the events leading up to the nuclear crisis of 1985 and that he gave many people cancer in the process. 

What happened?: He pulled it off, the bastard! Sure, he averted nuclear war, yet he created a political quagmire with himself at the top of the foodchain. A peace so fragile that even the ramblings of a know masked lunatic might tip the scale back to all out war. 

Appearances: Watchmen (2009)

THE JOKER

Who's he?: Your guess is as good as mine. His real identity is unknown and quite untraceable (down to his very clothes). As far as the citizens of Gotham City are concerned, the Joker is a criminal mastermind/terrorist who causes havok and mayhem for the sheer hell of it.

How bad was he?: The Joker's psychology is made up of several elements making him quite possibly the most insane person that has ever existed, and yet functional enough to pull off one crazy stunt after another in order to impress another psychotic who dresses up as a bat and uses state of the art military technology to beat common criminals to a bloody pulp. 

What happened?: The Joker's little dance with the millionnaire-playboy-vigilante known as Batman is far from over, suffice to say. Unfortunately, the citizens of Gotham are still caught in the middle. 

Appearances: Batman (1989), The Dark Knight (2009)

LEX LUTHOR

Who's he?: Metropolis' chief criminal mastermind, that's who. A petty thief and swindler with an off the charts IQ. A man with an ego the size of the Andromeda galaxy. Luthor was a man who thought big. 

How bad was he?: Surprisingly, considering the above, Luthor's schemes were pretty mundane, mostly concerned with real estate scams. Like the time he bought off acres of worthless desert in Eastern California and planned to increase their market value by firing a nuclear missile on the San Andreas Fault, causing most of the West Coast to fall in the Pacific Ocean, killing millions of innocent people and quite possibly wrecking the United States' economy beyond repair while controlling his new Costa Del Lex like a kingpin. See? Nothing too bad. 

What happened?: Thanks to Superman, nothing of the sort happened and Lex's ass was hauled off in prison. Unfortunately, prisons look like a Swiss cheese for Lex to bite in and he escaped several times. His latest venture involved creating an artificial continent off the coast of Metroplolis which would, again, kill millions of people and wreck the Eastern Seabord. 

Appearances: Superman The Movie (1978), Superman II (1982),  Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1988), Superman Returns (2005)

HAL 9000

Who's he?: HAL 9000 is the latest model of the 9000 series of AIs. He was made operational at the HAL plant in Urbana, Illinois in 1992. According to him, the HAL 9000 series is the most efficient computer ever designed with a perfect operating record. No 9000 computers have ever made a mistake or distorted information. In 2001, HAL was installed as the mainframe computer for the Discovery mission to Jupiter. 

How bad was he?: Well, HAL was responsible for all automatic systems on board the Discovery, including life-support sfor its five-man crew (three of whom were in suspended animation for most of the trip). For some reason HAL went insane when his programming conflicted with the nature of Discovery's mission (i.e. to trace back the black monolith's transmission directed at Jupiter). HAL attempted to take control of the ship by killing the three "frozen" astronauts, Dr. Frank Poole and locking Dr. Dave Bowman out of the ship.

What happened?: Eventually, Bowman gained entrance to the Discovery and disconnected HAL's higher functions. Ten years later, a new team of researchers located the Discovery and HAL was put back in operation to answer a few questions. They found him pretty much still crazy after all these years.

Appearances: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), 2010: The Year We Made Contact (1984).