A staple in any good action movie is the rivals who stand against the hero, with secondary antagonists being extremely common across the genre. Action movies cover a broad range of topics, and they tend to intersect with other genres. However, the center of an action movie is informed by the name of the genre. It has to have action, intensity, brawls, and high stakes.
They also typically star an action hero, who is a person with unique skills and abilities that make them the perfect person to step into the ring and deal with whatever trouble is in their way. But, in order to make a hero really stand out, they need their foil. And while the overarching villain will present the greatest threat to the hero or the things they are protecting, there are some really incredible secondary antagonists who deserve some praise for their roles in creating tension as well.
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Johnny Ringo – Tombstone
In Tombstone, Kurt Russel tackles the role of Wyatt Earp, a retired peace officer who finds himself dragged back into a conflict when a group of rowdy cowboys begin making trouble. This great American Western boasts plenty of action, and a spectacular cast which sees Russell joined by Val Kilmer, Sam Elliott, and Bill Paxton in order to push back against the antagonistic group which is led by William Brocius, better known as Curly Bill.
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However, when Curly Bill meets his end at the hands of Wyatt Earp, Johnny Ringo, played by Michael Biehn, steps up as the new leader of the Cowboys gang. Ringo is a more than worthy successor, and one who looks set to put the Cowboys on top. However, when he encounters his rival, Doc Holliday, and the pair have a showdown, Ringo meets his match.
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Karl Vreski – Die Hard
Die Hard is held in high regard as one of the best action movies of all time. With Bruce Willis standing out as the incredible one-man army, John McClane, against a building full of opportunistic terrorist thieves. And while Hans Gruber may be the brains behind the entire operation, there are plenty of other henchmen who put their lives on the line to take him down. But one in particular stands out as being a near match for McClane, Karl Vreski.
Karl is the second-in-command in Gruber’s operation, and he also provides the muscle, due to being a much larger, more physically imposing man. However, Karl is also blinded by his rage when he learns that McClane has killed his brother. The pair come into conflict numerous times in the Nakatomi Plaza, but McClane gets the upper hand and leaves Karl for dead in chains. However, due to his sheer constitution and determination, Karl breaks out and makes one more attempt on McClane’s life on the ground floor, before being fatally shot by Officer Powell.
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Elle Driver – Kill Bill Vol. 2
Kill Bill is an incredible action thriller that follows the Bride on her mission to get revenge on the Deadly Viper Assassin Squad and their leader, her husband, Bill. Uma Thurman does a spectacular job playing Beatrix Kiddo, better known as The Bride, and things get even more tense in Kill Bill Vol. 2 after the Bride wakes up from a four-year coma. And while Bill is the primary villain, he prefers to operate from the shadows, sending out other assassins to do the dirty work.
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Enter Elle Driver, aka, the California Mountain Snake. As revealed by her codename, Elle is particularly adept at killing other snakes. Elle is lethal, and her devotion to Bill makes her an incredible threat to Beatrix. While the pair have encounters throughout the film, the fate of Elle is left ambiguous, showing that she may have been one of the only survivors of the brutal events of the film.
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Captain Hadley – The Shawshank Redemption
The Shawshank Redemption is regarded as one of the best films ever made, and a big part of that comes down to the expertly designed and developed villains who populate the story. While the protagonist, Andy Dufresne, played by Tim Robbins, can hardly be called a hero, he clearly has opposition from some intense villains. Characters like the other inmates cause trouble for Andy, and the Warden appears to hold all the strings, but one particularly awful secondary villain is Captain Byron Hadley.
The actor behind Hadley is Clancy Brown, who is famous for voicing Mr. Krabs in SpongeBob SquarePants, and he recently appeared as gang leader Salvatore Maroni in The Penguin. Brown is an immensely talented actor who is able to infuse bitter malice and poison into his roles, or comedic greed and frustration, but his role as Hadley was a career-defining moment. He is cruel, abusive, and power hungry, making life in prison hell for the inmates.
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Hannibal Lecter – The Silence Of The Lambs
The Silence of the Lambs is a dark and tense thriller that features plenty of action-heavy scenes throughout. The film follows Clarice Sterling, a young FBI agent played by Jodie Foster, as she searches for a brutal serial killer known as Buffalo Bill. However, in order to track down the monster who frequently skins his female victims, Sterling needs to get inside the mind of a monster, and that’s when she calls on the positively terrifying Hannibal Lecter for help.
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Anthony Hopkins is a phenomenal actor who elevates any project he is involved with, but when he played the role of Hannibal in this 1991 film, it was a revelatory experience. The brilliance of the villain here is his subtlety, and the atmosphere of fear and unease that he inspires in those around him. The role is iconic, and so spectacularly gripping that the film is largely discussed in regards to Hopkins’ performance, despite Hannibal not being the main villain of the piece.
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Johnny Lawrence – The Karate Kid
In 1984, Ralph Macchio became a hit sports action hero despite being just a teenager for his role in The Karate Kid. The movie went on to inspire several sequels, and a thriving spin-off today, in addition to more movies planned to expand the universe further. However, it all started with a boy and his sensei, as they tried to push back against the bullies at the Cobra Kai dojo.
Daniel LaRusso did not have a lot of friends, and with the Cobra Kai kids targeting him, things were not shaping up all that great for the young champion. And while Sensei John Kreese was clearly the evil brute leading the charge for Cobra Kai, and someone who appeared to have a vendetta towards Mr. Miyagi, it was Johnny Lawrence who stepped into the ring with LaRusso. Being just a kid, Johnny was easily influenced, but he did cause intense injury to Daniel in their All Valley match, and intense fear off the mat.
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Ash – Alien
Alien tells a gripping action adventure story in space, as the crew of the Nostromo come face to face with a terrifying, bloodthirsty alien. As the crew is slowly killed off one by one, Ellen Ripley stands out as the sole survivor of the crew, fighting the Xenomorph’s and trying to ensure the monsters do not make it back to Earth to harm anyone else. Meanwhile, one of her own crewmates was working against her the entire time.
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Ash, played by Ian Holm, is initially believed to be just one more human crew member on the Nostromo, but as events unfold in Alien, the truth is revealed. Ash is a synthetic human, created by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, and assigned to ensure that the Xenomorph is safely transported back to Earth in the hopes of creating some sort of genetic weapon. Ash actively betrays his crew, and though he is eventually defeated, his contrary mission puts everyone else in danger.
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Al Dillon – Predator
Predator created a neighboring franchise that leaned even more into its action roots. A group of military officials embark on a mission deep in Guatemala. Dutch, Dillon, and the rest of the crew seek to complete their mission quietly and efficiently, but when the terrifying Predators appear, hunting their party and killing them brutally, the team is terrified.
However, there is dissension in the ranks when it is revealed that Dillon actually led the team on a mission to simply kill rebels, rather than rescue someone, as they had been told. Dillon put his team in danger, and betrayed the trust of his friends. However, he does have a slightly redeeming moment when he faces the Predator, but had he not led his friends into the territory in the first place, they could have all survived.
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Scarecrow – Batman Begins
Christopher Nolan’s stunning The Dark Knight trilogy took Batman to a whole new level after the character had frequently been portrayed as a more comical or cheesy hero in earlier adaptations. In Batman Begins, the movie establishes a darker, more serious tone, with Christian Bale’s brooding Bruce Wayne on a vendetta to clean up Gotham. And while he finds himself trying to contain a threat from his powerful former mentor, Ra’s al Ghul, he is also confronted by another terrifying villain, Scarecrow.
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Played by Cillian Murphy, the Scarecrow is a genius scientist who creates a chemical compound capable of causing people to spiral into a debilitating fear cycle. The potent chemical could potentially send Gotham into a chaotic spiral, but Batman does his best to eliminate the threat. However, coming face to face with his own worst fears is not an easy ride, and it leads to The Dark Knight struggling to keep his cool.
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Sabretooth – X-Men Origins: Wolverine
There were a lot of things wrong with X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The film alters the history of the character, it features a bizarre version of the iconic hero Deadpool, and it races through decades of history in an effort to capitalize on the success and popularity of Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, but when it comes to its depiction of the villains, it’s pretty spectacular. William Stryker is an old rival of Wolverine whose presence is strongly felt in the film, but the secondary villain is arguably better, Liev Schreiber’s Sabretooth.
This version of the hero’s story positions Logan and Sabretooth as brothers, which is a unique choice, but the performance and characterization of Schreiber’s Sabretooth is genuinely awe-inspiring. He’s vicious, cruel, and really taps into the primal animalistic nature of the character. It’s an iconic performance, and one that continues to resonate years after the film’s initial release.
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