There’s a valid argument to be made that a memorable demise is all part and parcel of being an iconic movie villain. An unforgettable character deserves an unforgettable end, the cinematic exemplification of just desserts being served. There are few more cathartic sights in all cinema than watching a wicked bad guy get taken out in blockbuster fashion after a litany of evil deeds, providing viewers with a feel-good movie ending to proceedings to reward their emotional investment.

Accordingly, when a great villain bites the dust in less-than-inspired fashion, this can often deprive the audience of a meaningful sense of closure, even conceivably damaging the wider reputation and lasting impact of the character in question. Whether their respective demise came across as unbelievable, premature, or straight-up comical, the manner of execution in these cases meant that I was left extremely disappointed with these lackluster movie villain deaths for one reason or another.

10

Owen Davian

Mission: Impossible III (2006)

Brought to life by the late, great Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Mission: Impossible III’s sinister lead villain, Owen Davian, arguably doesn’t get the recognition he deserves among the franchise’s laundry list of memorable antagonists. Regrettably, despite an incredible performance from Hoffman for the remainder of the movie, this could have something to do with the last impression of Davian that viewers are left with, namely, the central focus of one of the least inspiring death scenes in recent memory.

It doesn’t speak much to Owen’s reputation as one of Mission: Impossible’s most formidable villains that Ethan Hunt is able to physically overpower him with relative ease, despite having an explosive device lodged in his skull. Compounding the farcical aura of his final moments, Davian is finished off in absolutely cartoonish fashion. After tumbling out of a window during a brawl with Hunt, Hoffman’s charge barely has time to blink in shock before being obliterated by an oncoming car, going out in a manner more akin to Wil E. Coyote than a Machiavellian mastermind.

9

Pennywise

It Chapter Two (2017)

Serving as the overarching antagonist of Andy Muschietti’s two-part adaptation of Stephen King’s It, the eponymous supernatural enтιтy most commonly takes the form of Pennywise the Dancing Clown, brought to life in blood-curdling fashion by Bill Skarsgård. Pennywise is implied to have terrorized the town of Derry for years, inflicting seemingly endless bloodshed and misery on multiple generations to underline its status as an extremely powerful and formidable villain.

Accordingly, it’s extremely difficult to take Pennywise’s drab demise in 2019’s It Chapter Two seriously. Skarsgård’s charge is essentially bullied to death, with the adult Losers Club shouting various forms of abuse at him until he collapses in on himself like a deflated whoopee cushion, allowing Mike Hanlon to finish him off by ripping out his heart. Considering the sheer amount of death and destruction caused by Pennywise over the years, it’s somewhat hard to believe that nobody had tried that at one point or another.

8

Jürgen Voller

Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny (2023)

From Arnold Toht getting turned into a melting human waxwork in Raiders of the Lost Ark to Walter Donovan being reduced to dust in The Last Crusade, the Indiana Jones movies were renowned for bestowing invariably spectacular demises upon their villains, until the debut of 2023’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Played in a typically menacing turn from Mads Mikkelsen, astrophysicist and former Nazi scientist, Jurgën Voller, takes up the reins as the primary antagonist of the franchise’s conclusive outing.

Unfortunately for his reputation within the storied adventure series, Voller goes out with a whimper that is sharply contrasted against the bangs of his predecessors. Attempting to travel back in time to 1939, Mikkelsen’s charge finds himself at the Siege of Syracuse instead; terrified soldiers shoot his plane out of the sky, leaving the scientist to nosedive to his doom. Despite his lofty ambitions to change the course of WWII, Voller’s only lasting claim to fame ended up being the fact that he technically became the first man in history to die in a plane crash.

7

Dr. Mann

Interstellar (2014)

While Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar doesn’t feature a main villain in the traditional sense, it’s hard not to label Matt Damon’s Dr. Mann as the 2014 sci-fi epic’s lead antagonist. Initially touted as the fearless leader of the Lazarus Project, Mann actually faked data indicating that his planet was hospitable in the hopes of being rescued. The actions of Damon’s cowardly charge placed another crew in jeopardy, long before he attempted to murder Cooper and maroon the remainder of the Endurance’s crew on his doomed world.

Blown to pieces in a failed docking operation with the Endurance as he tries to abandon his rescuers, there’s undoubtedly an element of poetic justice about Mann’s demise. However, considering that he risked humanity’s survival just to save his own sorry skin, there’s also an argument to be made that the doctor was such a despicable human being that his near-instantaneous death saw him get off quite lightly considering his heinous actions.

6

Le Chiffre

Casino Royale (2006)

Charged with bringing the first major Bond villain of the Daniel Craig era to life, Mads Mikkelsen’s chilling bow as Le Chiffre in 2006’s Casino Royale also marked the Dane’s international breakout role. A private banker for international terrorism, Le Chiffre’s cold air of calculating detachment, his penchant for Texas hold ’em, and a memorable condition that caused him to weep blood from the corner of one eye rendered Mikkelsen’s charge the textbook Bond villain on paper.

Accordingly, the ignominious manner of Le Chiffre’s demise felt more than a little disappointing. Casino Royale’s infamous chair torture scene around the movie’s three-quarter mark concludes with Mikkelsen’s villain being summarily executed by Spectre operative, Mr. White; retribution for Le Chiffre gambling with the organization’s money. It’s not so much a knock against Casino Royale’s exemplary quality, more of a testament to the excellence of Mikkelsen’s performance that I was so gutted to see him unceremoniously gunned down without an epic final sign-off.

5

Preston Packard

Kong: Skull Island (2017)

Chronicling a perilous mission to the home of King Kong, 2017’s Kong: Skull Island acts as the second installment in the Monsterverse franchise. While our heroes find themselves confronted with all manner of prehistoric monstrosities throughout the film, the movie’s overarching human antagonist is Samuel L. Jackson’s Preston Packard. The expedition’s chief military escort, Jackson’s army veteran, becomes consumed with an implacable hatred for Kong after the ape kills several of his men.

The primary issue with Packard’s fate is how the movie builds the soldier up to be a ᴅᴇᴀᴅly combination of brains, brawn, and vengeance, only for him to go out in abjectly stupid fashion; his demise is practically comical on paper. Jackson’s charge hated Kong so much that he was willing to face certain death just to get the satisfaction of delivering the killing blow, but he still failed to detonate the charges covering the giant ape quickly enough, allowing Kong to smash him into the ground like a toddler crushing an ant.

4

Ronald Noland

Predators (2010)

Played in a delightfully unsettling turn from The Matrix alum Lawrence Fishburne, supporting antagonist Ronald Noland is introduced around the halfway mark of 2010’s Predators. A veteran of the U.S. Army Air Cavalry, Noland is revealed to have survived multiple cycles on the Predators’ game reserve, taking out at least two of the formidable alien hunters in the process. Utilizing his pursuers’ salvaged tech to scratch out a shadow existence in this ᴅᴇᴀᴅly world, Fishburne’s charge is clearly a survivor of the highest order.

Ironically, that’s what robs his notably lackluster end of any credibility. Even though he’s supposedly managed to evade his hunters for years, the soldier somehow fails to realize that trying to smoke a room full of armed mercenaries to death isn’t going to go down silently, as Adrien Brody’s Royce uses an explosive to lure the Yautija Super Predators to his lair. Funnily enough, Noland runs face-first into his tormentors attempting to escape, with the Tracker Predator blasting him into bloody chunks shortly thereafter.

3

Captain Phasma

Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi (2017)

A front-runner for the Star Wars sequel trilogy’s most unnecessary character, it’s been a rough fall from grace for Gwendoline Christie’s Captain Phasma. Renowned for her distinctive chrome armor and menacing tones, Phasma was a Commander in the First Order’s forces, with promotional material prior to The Force Awakens‘ release hinting at heavy involvement for this visually arresting new villain. Unfortunately, this proved to be a red herring, with Phasma featuring in an extremely limited capacity across two appearances before being bumped off.

Knocked to the ground following a brief brawl with John Boyega’s Finn on an exploding starship, the floor collapses under Christie’s stormtrooper, leaving Phasma to plummet to a fiery death below. It was such a thoroughly ignominious end that it legitimately begs the question as to why this character was even included in the story to begin with. A deleted scene from The Last Jedi that revealed an alternate demise for Phasma went some way to salvaging matters, but the damage was arguably already done.

2

Poppy Adams

Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2014)

2017’s Kingsman: The Golden Circle may not have lived up to the standards of its predecessor, but that’s not to say that Julianne Moore’s Poppy Adams wasn’t an exemplary villain. The quintessential wolf in sheep’s clothing, Adams’ charming, borderline-effervescent personality served as a cover for a psychopathic drug lord, whether she was blowing Kingsman’s headquarters to Kingdom Come or forcing her latest employee to eat the man who got him the job as a test of his loyalty.

A truly despicable supervillain who was willing to murder every drug user on the planet if it furthered her goals, Moore’s antagonist actually gets off relatively lightly considering her heinous acts and agenda. Following the climactic battle at Poppy Land, Eggsy injects Adams with a dose of her own toxin-laced heroin, leaving her to succumb to its poisonous effects in a state of borderline hysteria. While it was poetic justice watching Poppy overdose on her own devious concoction, The Golden Circle’s purported main villain was arguably too whacked out of her mind on heroin to register her own just desserts sufficiently.

1

Bane

The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Widely touted as one of Tom Hardy’s finest movie roles, the Englishman’s menacing turn as Bane in 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises served as a worthy villain to round out arguably the greatest superhero film trilogy of all time. Eloquent, theatrical, and utterly ruthless, the enigmatic personality of Hardy’s colossal villain made for first-rate cinema, a status quo complemented by his physical abilities. Heath Ledger’s Joker had presented a terrifying foil for the Caped Crusader, but here was a man capable of literally breaking Batman in half.

As such, the manner in which Christopher Nolan ultimately chose to dispatch his big bad came across as slightly baffling. If The Dark Knight Rises has a flaw, it’s how the film spends the better part of three hours building Hardy’s charge up to be a virtually invincible villain, only for Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman to unceremoniously blast him off his mortal coil with the Batcycle’s guns like a common goon. Losing to Batman in a fistfight is one thing, but Bane’s ultimate demise felt straight-up insulting for a villain of his caliber.