The 7 best movie villains of all time, from the glamorous to the downright evil We know why some movie villains broke bad, but it may be even scarier when we don't. April 14, 2021 — 8:20am Text size Copy shortlink: What is so good about being bad? We root for James Bond and "Alien's" Ripley to win, but they're at their best when they're matched with a charismatic baddie. Sure, we know Bond will triumph in the end, but we need to believe — at least for a couple of hours — that the villain will get close to shutting down the power grid or laser-beaming the Earth's core or whatever it is he wants to do. (Unfortunately, it is always a "he" in Bond movies; how great would Anjelica Huston or Jessica Lange have been as a 007 archenemy?)