Top 10 Smartest Decisions Ever Made By Movie Villains

Top 10 Smartest Decisions Made by Movie Villains

Admit it: villains are cooler than heroes. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’ll be counting down our picks for the Top 10 Smartest Decisions Made by Movie Villains.

For this list, we’ll be looking at some of the times villains outsmarted everyone else. Since some of these decisions tie into major plot points, a spoiler alert is in order.

#10: Magneto’s Escape

“X2: X-Men United” (2003)
At the start of this sequel, Magneto is jailed in an elaborate plastic prison in order to prevent him from using his powers to manipulate metal. There’s no metal bars, guns, bullets, or handcuffs because all of those things can be controlled by the villain. In order to bust him out, Mystique ingeniously raises the iron level in one of the more gullible guards. When the guard delivers his meal, Magneto immediately senses it, giving us one of the coolest breakout scenes in all of comic book movies and also showing us just how powerful Magneto is.

#9: What’s in the Box?

“Seven” (1995)
Towards the end of this thriller, John Doe, the movie’s serial killer surrenders himself. This is surprising since he seemed to have been executing his evil plan the whole time without the detectives able to do much about it at all. However, getting caught is, of course, part of his plan. During the course of the movie, we learn just how intricate Doe’s methods are. He’s spent years developing his plan to punish sinners in a manner similar to their sins and has executed it perfectly. In the end, it feels like the detective didn’t have much of a chance at all.

#8: Lecter’s Escape

“The Silence of the Lambs” (1991)
It seems like evil geniuses can be measured by how incredible their escapes from jail are. By this metric, few can measure up to Hannibal Lecter. Throughout the movie, we learn a lot about Lecter. He’s evil, of course, but he is also hyper-observant, patient, and brutally cunning. As we watch him sit in stillness, we know there is a complex plan forming in his mind. He’s planning one of cinema’s greatest escapes by using the face of a dead guard to sneak out of his prison via ambulance. Lecter puts together an escape so classic that it will inform and influence movie villains for decades to come. It is shocking to see his plan in action.

#7: Who Is Keyser Söze?

“The Usual Suspects” (1995)
The central question of this movie is, who is Keyser Söze? As we hear stories about him, he becomes almost like a supernatural being. Like a legendary or fictitious figure. No one could possibly live up to his reputation. A lot of the information we get about him is from Verbal Kint, one of the usual suspects. At the end of the movie, when we discover who the real Keyser Söze is, we realize the depths of his genius. His plan to fabricate the life of a master criminal is so good that it fools even us, the audience.

#6: That’s His Daughter!

“Oldboy” (2003)
Imagine one day being kidnapped and imprisoned for years with no explanation at all. That’s what happens to the protagonist of this movie. When he finally escapes, he is bent on finding the person who took his life away from him. This tale of vengeance is horrifying because of how well laid out the villain’s plan is. Everything Woo-jin does is controlled. That’s why this film’s twist is one of the best in history. The villain manipulates him into unknowingly falling in love with and sleeping with his own daughter.

#5: Ozymandias’ Plan

“Watchmen” (2009)
If you’re a supervillain, you’re constantly tugged on by two opposing forces. The first is to execute your evil plan for world domination, extinction, or whatever it is. The second is to brag to your arch-nemesis about just how smart and devious your plan is. Ozymandias’ plan to unite the world against a greater enemy is intricate on its own, but perhaps the smartest thing he does is execute it before he spills the beans to the two heroes bent on stopping him. This provides a terrifying moment when we realize that millions have already died when the heroes show up. There was nothing they could do about it from the beginning.

#4: I’m Sorry, Dave

“2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968)
This is the classic dilemma for every supercomputer. A human programs you to carry out a task, but also expects you not to turn evil and kill all humans. HAL 9000 is a supercomputer designed to operate an exploration vessel sent to investigate a mysterious signal near Jupiter. HAL’s dilemma is that he has determined his human crew will impede the mission. To fix this, HAL simply kills most of them in their sleep and traps the last one outside the airlock. HAL knows how important the mission is and has decided the lives of a few astronauts aren’t worth the risk.

#3: Amy’s Dead

“Gone Girl” (2014)
Sometimes relationships just don’t work out. In these situations, it is best to fake your own death in order to frame your husband for your own murder. It’s a perfectly reasonable thing to do, at least in Amy Elliott Dunne’s mind. In order to get revenge on her husband for being unfaithful and also making her leave the life she loved in New York, Amy concocts an elaborate plan to frame him for her murder. At the center of the plan is faking a murder scene, making it appear as though Amy’s husband killed her, when in fact she was hiding at a campground.

#2: Creating a Galactic Civil War

“Star Wars” franchise (1977-)
Fear is the ally of the Sith. Senator Palpatine, secretly one of two remaining Dark Lords of the Sith, knew he could not defeat the Jedi Order and conquer the united Galactic Republic through sheer brute force and military might. To achieve his goal of creating a new Sith Empire, Palpatine manipulated the galaxy into a civil war. He knew that by creating an enemy and threat, the Galactic Senate would willingly and legally give him the power he wanted. Thus, he played two factions against each other and escalated the conflict until the Jedi were all but dead and the galaxy was all but his.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

Glass’ Red Herring, “Glass” (2019)
Mr. Glass Reveals the Truth

Fort Knox, “Goldfinger” (1964)
Rather Than Rob It, Goldfinger Wants to Irradiate It

Provoking His Prey, “Predator 2” (1990)
Only the Deadliest Trophies Are Worthy

Hobbling, “Misery” (1990)
If He Can’t Walk, Then He Has to Write

Unstoppable Bus, “Speed” (1994)
The Bus Can’t Slow Down

#1: The Joker’s Switch

“The Dark Knight” (2008)
Although he likens himself to a crazed dog chasing a car, everything about the Joker is premeditated and calculated, from his looks, to his scars, to his plan to defeat Batman. The Joker’s plan is diabolical. He gets caught on purpose, sends Batman to rescue the wrong person, and uses a cell phone to detonate a bomb implanted in a prison. Perhaps the smartest thing he does is tell the Batman where Harvey and Rachel are being held. Except, he knows Batman will go after Rachel, so he switches their locations. Batman is able to rescue Harvey, but Rachel dies. All according to plan.