Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs

Top 10: Movie Villain Monologues

If The Incredibles taught us anything, it’s that if you can get a villain monologuing, you’re likely to find out what they’re up to….and quite possibly live (or not) to regret it.  WatchMojo has delivered another fantastic list focusing on the greatest monologues from movie villains in screen history.  I would take issue with some of their placements, and I’d swap out a few, but these are 10 amazing scenes.  It’s no mistake that of the actors featured in these roles, five were nominated for Oscars for these performances and four won.  Some of these moments we’ve broken down before like Silva’s Rat Monologue in Skyfall and Colonel Jessup on the stand from A Few Good Men, but a few of these just jumped to the lead in future installments, because each one is worthy of examination.  Watch, enjoy, and weigh in with what other movie monologues you think were worthy of inclusion on the list.Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight

7 thoughts on “Top 10: Movie Villain Monologues”

  1. Schindler’s List. Goeth. “Today is history.” Always makes me want to cry the angry kind of tears. Fiennes gives the best villain performance of all time in that movie IMO.


    Harry Lime in The Third Man deserves so much more than an honorable mention. He should have been really high up on the list. The Third Man is sooooo awesomely good.

    I don’t like Django, but DiCaprio is… surprising in that movie. One of his best roles.


    I know you hate Apocalypse Now, and I respect that, if ever there was a movie where I could understand the polarization, this is it. But I love it. One of my pet peeves growing up as a movie nerd was that everyone said the film fell apart at the end, became directionless, when Kurtz entered the picture. People would brag that they actually walked out of the movie. But what exactly was the film supposed to say to wrap things up? That war is wrong and insane? Was a character actually supposed to say those words? I never got the criticism. The film is not actually about Vietnam, I would argue that at its core it’s not even about war. It’s Heart of Darkness, read the book. The speech by Kurtz was always the center of the complaints, but Kurtz’s speech, an improvised speech BTW, is brilliant, because Kurtz knows that Willard is there to kill him, and he is very deliberately giving Willard the courage to do just that. Happily I don’t hear the criticism about the last 20 minutes much anymore, now that the years have gone by. Out of fashion.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I would have included Wall Street and Third Man instead of Blade Runner and Se7en, just off of what they offered. Also if we wanna go meta, Syndrome monologuing about monologuing should have gotten an HM, but Harry Lime should have absolutely made this list.


      Liked by 1 person

      1. The monologue is not the best part of my cherished Blade Runner. Got to be honest, it wouldn’t have even crossed my mind if had I been making a list of the best monologues, with no restrictions on how many I could include.

        But ah, Syndrome. Unique personality, truly genuinely evil and sick, believable as a threat, totally understandable philosophy/motivation, and given a showcase scene/speech so memorable, it’s already enshrined in film history. Every comic book movie should look to the guy, and yet they sooooo do not.


        Liked by 1 person

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