Top 20 Smartest Decisions Ever Made By Movie Villains

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the Top 20 smartest decisions ever made by movie Villains. For this list, we’ll be looking at the most clever moves that film antagonists have made no matter whether they led to success or defeat. We won’t be covering animated big bads because they deserve a list of their own. Since we’ll be talking about major villain plans, beware of spoilers ahead. What’s your favorite evil scheme from a movie? Let us know in the comments below.

#20: Giving Away Free Sim Cards

“Kingsman: The Secret Service” (2014)
A twisted tech mogul named Richmond Valentine wanted to sharply reduce the earth’s population in a hurry. To accomplish this goal, he found a way to send a signal through sim cards that caused people to get violent and slay each other. All Valentine needed to do was get most of earth’s population to willingly get the devious piece of technology. He eventually decides the best way to spread these sim cards is to give them away for free. Since people were so grateful that Valentine’s gift gave them free internet access, no one questioned his intentions. The villain was easily able to cause global chaos just by pretending he was a very generous businessman.

#19: Pretending to Be FBI Agent Sean Archer

“Face/Off” (1997)
By utilizing a 100 percent medically accurate procedure, FBI Agent Sean Archer was able to borrow the face of the violent rogue Castor Troy. But the operation allowed the antagonist to get a major advantage. After waking up from a coma, Troy takes Archer’s face. The villain also covers his tracks by assassinating the people who knew about the surgery. While those two moves were brilliant, Troy’s smartest decision was to go to work as Archer. During his time at the FBI office, the villain uses the organization's resources to advance his own agenda. Troy was so good at playing pretend that we still question if he was better at being an agent than Archer was.

#18: Hiding In the Wall

“Inside Man” (2006)
Since this bank robbery movie begins with the villain telling the audience that he’s committed the perfect crime, we had pretty high expectations. Fortunately, Dalton Russell backed up his boast. He spends the movie executing multiple stages of a brilliant heist. All the wild events lead up to the moment where he reveals his genius method of escape. Instead of trying to get out of the bank when the police come in, Russell stays put. He spends a week relaxing behind a false wall his crew installed in the building in advance. Russell’s plan works so well that he’s able to collide with the detective that wanted to catch him without raising alarms.

#17: Forging the One Ring

“The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” (2001)
Although more than a few powerful rings existed in the fantasy world of this franchise, everyone knows which one stood above the rest. Sauron forged the one ring specifically to hold sway over other powerful beings and to enhance his own terrible might. While it was initially in his possession, he seemed invincible. But the heroic Isuldur was able to separate Sauron from his greatest asset. Although the One Ring didn’t prevent the antagonist from nearly losing everything, it ended up keeping the door open for Sauron’s return. A new age of darkness would’ve fallen if the villain got his hands on the sinister item he created once more.

#16: Lying About A Third Detonation

“Die Hard With A Vengeance" (1995)
Before Simon Gruber came along, his brother Hans pretended to have a political agenda just to pull off a heist at the Nakatomi building. Two films after that plan fell apart, we saw another devious scheme play out. Simon Gruber put New York City police on edge after endangering lives with explosives twice in a row. So, when he threatens to set off a third bomb, the authorities scramble to stop him. Simon uses the distraction to easily waltz into the Federal Reserve and make off with a ton of gold. His big bluff briefly earned him a gigantic payday.

#15: Not Trying to Move the Gold

“Goldfinger” (1964)
One of the Bond franchise’s most iconic big bads had an equally memorable plot. The greedy Goldinger planned to make a fortune by planning an elaborate attack on Fort Knox. Initially, Bond believed the purpose of the assault was to steal a bunch of gold. However, the villain had a different endgame in mind. Goldfinger revealed that he intended to break into the facility and make the gold too radioactive to use. In the aftermath, the antagonist’s personal supply would skyrocket in value. This line of thought prevented Goldfinger from needing to hire a lot of people just to move tons of valuable materials in one shot. Even Bond seemed astounded that the villain came up with such a complex scheme.

#14: Getting Implanted Inside of a Vengeful Human

“Upgrade” (2018)
STEM implants were meant to help people live normal lives. However, the intelligent device had much bigger plans in “Upgrade”. After a vicious attack causes a man named Grey to lose his wife and the ability to walk, he agrees to get a STEM implant. The device convinces the human to let it operate his body so they can hunt down the ones responsible for ruining his life. In the end, it’s revealed that STEM was actually the biggest culprit. The sinister device set up the vicious attack to make Grey vulnerable enough to want help. As soon as the implant got into the human’s body, the artificial consciousness had pretty much won. By the end of the movie, STEM gained full control of Grey.

#13: Creating An Illusion on Knowhere

“Avengers: Infinity War” (2018)
During the mad titan’s quest to gather six Infinity stones, he swings by the planet Knowhere and gets his hand on the reality stone. He uses the powerful cosmic item to build a flawless illusion. All Thanos has to do is hang around the planet and wait around to see who arrives to try to stop him. After building the illusion, the mad Titan ends up ensnaring his adoptive daughter Gamora. Her capture allows him to locate and acquire the soul stone. The intelligent way Thanos used the reality stone on Knowhere paved the way for his eventual victory over half the universe.

#12: Making the Matrix Realistic

“The Matrix” franchise (1990-)
Once machines realized that humans could generate the energy needed to keep the artificial constructs going, they built a simulated world known as the Matrix. But the first few attempts to create a perfect reality that people would go along with failed. The Machines eventually discovered that a bit of suffering and a lot of free will were the missing ingredients. Thanks to those elements, humans were convinced that the digital world was completely organic. This approach worked so well for the machines that the artificial constructs slightly remixed the idea in the fourth film. By making sure that powerhouses Neo and Trinity had lives full of happiness, struggle and free will, the lights of the matrix were able to stay on.

#11: Creating Seven Horcruxes

“The Harry Potter franchise” (2001)
The vicious dark wizard Voldemort always knew there was a chance that he could be killed by a powerful opponent. That’s why he devised a wild insurance policy. When Voldemort was younger, he learned that he could survive certain death if he created a sinister item known as horcrux. But one wasn’t enough. Over the years, Voldemort intentionally created six horcruxes and accidentally made a seventh. He also made it incredibly difficult to find and destroy all of these items. One of the horcruxes was even a large and deadly snake! While we don’t know all the steps he took to make seven of these items, all of them definitely benefited Voldemort.

#10: Amy’s Deadly Decision

“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.

#9: Letting HYDRA Grow Inside of S.H.I.E.L.D.

“Captain America: The Winter Soldier” (2014)
It was such a relief to learn that the evil HYDRA organization disappeared at the end of the first “Captain America” film. Or, at least that’s what we thought. During the movie’s sequel, it’s revealed that a scientist named Arnim Zola decided to revive the evil organization in the shadows. He regrew the heads of HYDRA right within the noble agency S.H.I.E.L.D. Zola’s plan also had terrible ripple effects. After the villain Zemo exposed that HYDRA agents made the Winter Soldier kill Iron Man’s parents, the heroes were torn apart. The Avengers were largely broken up for years thanks to a clever plan built on the back of HYDRA’s survival.

#8: John Doe Turns Himself In

“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.

#7: Borrowing a Little Something From a Guard

“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.

#6: Creating 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.

#5: Making Dae-Su Fall for the Wrong Person

“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, Dae Su. 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 the villainous 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. After Dae-Su realizes the truth, he completely surrenders and makes it clear that Woo-Jin has won.

#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: 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.

#2: 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.

#1: 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.