The 5 Most Ridiculous Action Movie Villains Ever

I watch so many action movies. I love them; I find them relaxing. In this crazy world, sometimes there's nothing better than just seeing good and bad face off without nuance.

The thing is, all these movies have kind of standard heroes, but their villains are where they take some liberties. The villains we meet are usually crazy, maniacal, and another level of evil.

But once in a while, they can be a little ridiculous. You know the kind, the ones that make you pause the movie, look at the screen, and laugh or even wonder how they came up with someone so crazy.

Today, I want to go over those ridiculous action movie villains and talk about their work on screen.

Let's dive in.

Howard Payne | Speed

- YouTube www.youtube.com

• Movie Title: Speed (1994)
• Director: Jan de Bont
• Writer: Graham Yost
• Cast: Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock, Dennis Hopper, Joe Morton, Jeff Daniels

Speed is easily the best movie on this list. It has everything you want in an action film, including a memorable villain. But Dennis Hopper brings some manic energy here that is a little bonkers. It works in the movie, but you have to admit it is kind of crazy.

Hopper plays Howard Payne, a disgruntled former bomb squad officer who decides the best way to secure a comfortable retirement is to rig a Los Angeles city bus to explode if its speed drops below 50 mph. In the closing subway chase, he is so crazy that it's borderline.

Castor Troy | Face/Off

- YouTube www.youtube.com

• Movie Title: Face/Off (1997)
• Director: John Woo
• Writer: Mike Werb, Michael Colleary
• Cast: John Travolta, Nicolas Cage, Joan Allen, Alessandro Nivola, Gina Gershon

Okay, Nicolas Cage always has a pass, and in this movie we have him playing John Travolta and this insane villain who should live in the annals of history as a character only Cage could pull off. Castor Troy is a sociopath who wears gold-plated guns, dances in a priest’s robe, and plants a biological weapon in Los Angeles. He sticks his tongue out a lot, has a son he doesn't live with, and is also willing to switch faces in order to cause chaos. Balancing him inside Cage is amazing, but the fact that they balance him inside Teavolta too is what makes it so ridiculous. We have this xcrZzy part of the story where both actors get to play the most insane person ever. It makes me love the movie even more.

Cyrus "The Virus" Grissom | Con Air

- YouTube www.youtube.com

• Movie Title: Con Air (1997)
• Director: Simon West
• Writer: Scott Rosenberg
• Cast: Nicolas Cage, John Cusack, John Malkovich, Steve Buscemi, Ving Rhames

Malkovich seems like he's having fun in this Simon West movie. His character is hilarious on paper, even though he's a killer. He's so nuts that he chooses to spend his genius-level intellect orchestrating a mid-air prison transport hijack with a motley crew of unmanageable maniacs after using the same genius to kill people all over. Seemsl ike it would have been better to make money, but some people love the game too much. Then he decides to crash-land the plane on the Las Vegas Strip to make an escape. Again, this guy is a little over the top, but I respect the chutzpah.

General M. Bison | Street Fighter

- YouTube www.youtube.com

• Movie Title: Street Fighter (1994)
• Director: Steven E. de Souza
• Writer: Steven E. de Souza
• Cast: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Raul Julia, Ming-Na Wen, Damian Chapa, Kylie Minogue

The original video game movie that united us youngsters in the early 90s. It's not a good film, but it features some of my favorite actors, including the late Raul Julia. As legend has it, he took the role of General Bison because his kids loved the game so much. Man, what an actor, a guy who could do anything. But he could not make the evil plot of minting his own currency ("Bison Dollars") something I cared about as a kid.

Nuclear Man | Superman IV: The Quest for Peace

- YouTube www.youtube.com

• Movie Title: Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)
• Director: Sidney J. Furie
• Writer: Lawrence Konner, Mark Rosenthal
• Cast: Christopher Reeve, Gene Hackman, Mark Pillow, Jon Cryer, Mariel Hemingway

The fourth Superman movie was extremely bad. But it tried to be Cold War-relevant, where we saw Superman get rid of all the nukes, only for Lex Luthor to make a nuke in the form of a person. His powers make no sense; the sun powers him, but a cloudy day renders him useless. The whole movie is ridiculous, and this villain fits in perfectly.

Summing It All Up

These are some of the craziest villains ever in action movies; I could have picked more, but I had to make some cuts. If you have others, let me know about them.

And the next time you're working on an action movie, try to walk the line between ridiculous and fun, so you give an actor something to grip onto while maintaining the logic of the world.

Let me know what you think in the comments.