If you want your movie to have a villain that the audience will instantly despise, just make them one of three things: a Nazi, a snooty restaurant maître d', or an employee of the government. If you want your audiences to run at the screen and rip the canvas with their bare hands, make him a combination of all three...or just him a member of the latter.
By Danny Gallagher
10. Milton Dammers from The Frighteners
Source: Universal Pictures
It takes a brave and creepy soul to want to join the darkest corners of federal law enforcement, but this G-man puts the "special" in "special agent." He's a total occult nut with phobias that even a Maury Povich guest would find pathetic and he's totally committed to busting Frank Bannister that he accidentally unleashes the soul of a ruthless killing machine that can't be killed. The worst part is he probably got overtime pay.
9. Maj. Eaton from Raiders of the Lost Ark
Source: Paramount Pictures
An ordinary archeologist finds the most coveted religious artifact in recent history and quite possibly, mankind's closest connection to understand the concept and existence of God. Then he turns it over to a man who not only doesn't understands its power, but is willing to lie about its whereabouts while its locked away in some nameless government warehouse along with the water-powered car, the world hunger pill, and the monkey mind-control helmet. "In God We Trust" my ass.
8. Agent Smith from The Matrix
Source: Warner Bros.
Even if you remove Agent Smith's government connections, everything about him screams evil. He wears a non-conforming suit that screams order and control. He speaks in a cold and calculating tone that shows no human emotion. He walks, acts, breathes, and speaks just like a mindless robot programmed to memorize an endless list of rules and regulations without regard for their actual impact. He's either a control program designed by a giant powerful machine or an IRS auditor.
7. Bob Alexander from Dave
Source: Warner Bros.
Abraham Lincoln once said, "Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." Bob Alexander not only failed that test miserably, but he misspelled his name on the Scantron form. When the president lapses into an irreversible coma, he leaps on the opportunity to seize the office for himself by hiring a look-alike to replace and disgrace him. Frank Langella's portrayal of the President's Chief of Staff was so cold and underhanded that it served as perfect practice to play Richard Nixon in Frost/Nixon.
6. Kent Mansley from The Iron Giant
Source: Warner Bros.
Remember that teddy bear or favorite stuffed animal when you were a kid, the one that you loved unconditionally and believed with all of your being had a heart and a soul that was totally devoted to your happiness? Imagine if a giant white guy in a gray suit busted through your front door and snatched your stuffed friend out of your chubby little hands all in the name of "national security." That's Kent Mansley, the federal government's biggest child fun-smasher since the CPSC outlawed lawn darts.
