Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of cinema’s greatest action heroes and he’s come up against some great villains. Here’s the 10 best!
Arnold Schwarzenegger was one of the defining heroes of the 1980s and early 90s, ruling the action genre alongside Sylvester Stallone and making up one-half of an iconic cinematic rivalry. When you look through his CV it’s not merely enviable for a rival action man, but some of Arnie’s peak-era films are legitimately great movies, not least his most legendary first two Terminator films. James Cameron’s two entries in the franchise, which quickly went on a rapid decline without him, are both classics.
It’s often said that every great hero needs a great villain to help make their story even more compelling. Schwarzenegger has made a great villain himself, as shown in The Terminator which remains arguably his best-ever role. So cold, and mechanical but immersed into the role like very few actors playing a cyborg have managed. Thankfully Schwarzenegger’s stellar career has seen him come up against some really impressive villains, and even on occasion villains who have managed to elevate otherwise disappointing films. Here are Schwarzenegger’s ten greatest movie foes…
10. Jim Caviezel – Escape Plan
Escape Plan was billed as the titanic team-up action fans had long waited for. A Stallone and Schwarzenegger two-hander that would see the Titans share the screen in a significant way. The Expendables franchise had already teased the prospect with two Arnie cameos in the first two films, but Escape Plan was a proper double headliner.
Unfortunately, the high-tech prison set escape movie never feels like the kind of project Sly and Arnie are best suited to, but it’s not without its highlights. For one, Schwarzenegger enjoys his role and manages to outshine Stallone, whose character is a little too generic. The other major highlight is Jim Caviezel who relishes chewing scenery as the sadistic prison warden. Caviezel is doing his very best Eric Roberts impression and gives a formulaic film a hiss-worthy villain that makes us want to stick around long enough to watch his demise.
9. Sarah Douglas – Conan The Destroyer
Arnold’s exploits as Conan are pretty iconic but there’s a clear decline in quality between Conan The Barbarian and its sequel, Conan The Destroyer. The latter slips a little more into a more comfortable 80s sword and sorcery mould, lacking the depth and artistic merits of the first. Despite that, it was still one of the better films of the genre that decade, many of which were (charmingly) flawed.
It’s also filled with dazzling visuals and benefits from the larger-than-life presence of Arnold as the titular hero. It also has a great villain in the form of Sarah Douglas who at this juncture was well known in genre circles for a memorable villain turn as Ursa in Superman and Superman II. Douglas’s angular features and cold but beautiful demeanour saw her a little typecast but she was effective. She plays Queen Taramis with sultry elegance and glides across the screen in some memorable fantasy costumes. Ultimately, she helps elevate Destroyer over many of its contemporaries and proves a memorable foe for Conan.
8. Ronny Cox – Total Recall
Ronny Cox is one of the great 1980s villains and found particular success gnawing the scenery for director Paul Verhoeven in RoboCop and Total Recall. Cox’s role as Dick Jones in RoboCop is immense and to an extent, he plays more or less the same character in Total Recall (otherwise he might have ranked higher). Verhoeven’s brilliantly violent and excessive sci-fi opus is a genre classic and one of the best Philip K. Dick adaptations we’ve seen on screen. It’s filled with great characters, amazing visuals, a brilliant score and excellent villains. It’s also got one of Schwarzenegger’s best ‘human’ performances.
Cox effortlessly slimes his way through scenes as the epitome of soulless corporate villainy. As you would expect from an Arnold and Verhoeven collaboration, the way that Cohaagen is despatched is gruesomely unforgettable. Bad guys die with style in a Verhoeven flick, that’s for sure.
7. Gabriel Byrne – End of Days
Let’s just say this right now. End of Days is utterly ludicrous. The script is totally ridiculous, filled with goofy moments and daft lines. Objectively it’s a pretty bad film but it’s so ridiculous, played so seriously, that somehow the film just works. It’s such a preposterous project for Schwarzenegger to have done for his big (post heart-op) comeback. Unsurprisingly it bombed, greeted with awful reviews but in time it’s grown something of a cult following for just how endearingly goofy the whole thing is. Where else can you watch a film where Miriam Margolyes beats the shit out of Arnold Schwarzenegger? It’s one of the most insanely brilliant fight scenes in film history that should be in a Naked Gun film, not a deathly serious apocalypse action thriller.
Best of all, and key to the film working, is how brilliant Gabriel Byrne is as the Devil himself. He has a lot of fun with it and plays it with just the right amount of awareness that he’s in a complete pile of bollocks. In fact, it seems as if Byrne might have been the only one with the presence of mind to know he was in a turkey (alongside Rod Steiger perhaps) and just rolled with it. He’s great and he elevates this a hell of a lot.
6. Michael Ironside – Total Recall
So many great villains are backed up with great henchmen. Hans Gruber had Karl, Dick Jones had Clarence Boddicker and Cohaagen had the ruthless and sly, Richter played to aplomb by Michael Ironside. One of the great genre character actors of the 80s and 90s, Ironside often played intense villains with a side order of shit-eating grin. As far as the overlord and right-hand man in Total Recall, it’s Richter who is probably the more memorable villain and like his boss, also gets dealt with in brutal fashion.
5. Charles Dance – Last Action Hero
A hodgepodge of ideas and differing visions between the studio, the long list of writers (beginning with Shane Black), and the star and director John McTiernan resulted in a big-budget film that was initially derided. In time though, Last Action Hero’s occasionally illogical shifts and pick ‘n’ mix approach to its influences have seen its status grow. On the one hand, it perfectly sends up Schwarzenegger’s image and on the other, it takes aim at a whole host of genres and tropes.
All the meta aspects are fused with a fantastical storyline (itself pilfered from other films) that many felt was a little childish but which has now matured nicely with the blockbuster landscape. Maybe without even realising it, Last Action Hero was perfectly ahead of its time, acting as a precursor to Deadpool and the like. It’s also now able to exist in an era where the blockbuster market has been entirely taken over with ‘childish’ ideas as most of what’s released is fantastical and/or based on comic books. Additionally, the scattershot ideas and influences now feel more digestible in an era where logic and coherence are quaint bywords of blockbusters from yesteryear. Nothing has to make a jot of sense anymore.
Here, everyone has a great time aping genre tropes but Charles Dance approaches the whole thing like he’s strolled in from a far more serious and grounded action thriller. It’s one of the great villain performances of the 90s and Dance is far and away the best part of a thoroughly enjoyable film.
4. Vernon Wells – Commando
Commando is a perfect movie. It’s one of the most infinitely repeatable action films that exemplifies the glorious excess of 80s action better than any other film. You take a ruthlessly simple storyline and then put an almost superhuman protagonist in the middle of it and fill the whole thing with one-liners and over-the-top action. Although Last Action Hero might spoof the conventions laid out in something like Commando, this film itself is only a notch less ridiculous than the films which spoofed it.
Arnold is a larger-than-life comic book-esque hero, systematically bludgeoning his way through villains to retrieve his kidnapped daughter, all backed up by tight direction by Mark L. Lester and a classic James Horner 80s action score (sax and steel drums for the win). Something this dialled up needs a big villain and in Bennett we get a villain dialled up to 12. Vernon Wells, looking like Freddie Mercury on ‘roids and dressed like he’s just come from the Thunderdome, goes nuts with gleeful relish.
3. Kevin Peter Hall – The Predator
A villain so visually incredible that a franchise is still running 36 years later. The titular predator could have been far less impressive had Stan Winston not retconned initial designs to save the original film at the last minute and create a creature that would become iconic. Predator is all about taking a simple concept and delivering it incredibly well. As far as tight and taut creature action films go, Predator is one of the best ever. It takes some well-defined characters and throws them into a survival battle loaded with tension, gruesome finishers and stunning set pieces. Much like Jaws, it probably shouldn’t work as well as it does, but works thanks to being directed to within an inch of its life.
Schwarzenegger delivers one of his strongest performances and perhaps one of the first where he’s tough but comparatively vulnerable compared to his opposition. For the first time, audiences probably feared for a Schwarzenegger hero. The Predator itself is such a great villain though, simple but brilliantly designed and then brought to life by amazing prosthetics and the physical performance of Kevin Peter Hall.
2. Robert Patrick – Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Creating a memorable hero is tough and perhaps even more so, creating a villain that is unforgettable and stands the test of time. You need only look at the low success rate of decent villains in the MCU and modern blockbusters in general to see that. In fact, take a look at the subsequent Terminator sequels after the second film and you’ll see a franchise lumbered with not just pale retreads of the iconic second film, but really dull villains more focused on refining an already perfectly scary tech, rather than having a well cast and interestingly played role.
Arnold played the Terminator and became one of cinema’s greatest-ever villains in the original film, setting a bar that was incredibly high. Robert Patrick took what Arnie did, ignored it and offered entirely his own unique spin on a soulless killing machine. He moved like liquid and when running had a sleek and predatory animalistic stride. Arnie gave a sense of a machine analysing and computing every decision, and though there’s a sense of that with Patrick, he felt more like an eagle surveying prey below him. Aided by groundbreaking visual effects and a really well-thought-out creature concept, the T1000 is a terrifying villain that firmly presses Schwarzenegger beneath him as the cyborg underdog. It’s like a PS5 having a tech battle with an NES.
1. James Earl Jones – Conan The Barbarian
Ever put a bowl on your head and cut your own hair? Sure, James Earl Jones is given that haircut in Conan the Barbarian but he doesn’t let that take away any of the intense power of his performance. Conan the Barbarian is probably not as heralded as it deserves to be. It’s the best of its genre bar none, and has an incredible script that is probably the last aspect to be garnered with praise. It’s a unique, operatic opus with stunning visuals and an even more stunning musical score from Basil Poledouris.
Schwarzenegger was the perfect person to play a role of such distinct comic book levels of physical stature. All that muscle and at the same time he managed to carry some sincerity and heart. A grand and occasionally Shakespearean opus must have a villain of grand imposing presence and that’s where James Earl Jones comes in. He’s an exceptional actor with an inimitable voice but the intensity he imbues Thulsa Doom with is incredible. It’s a mesmerising, almost hypnotic performance and Jones shines reciting some of the great dialogue the film has.
Conan was once dismissed as a big dumb movie and the poster boy of a big dumb genre, and whilst the latter part has some truth, the first part does not thanks to Oliver Stone and John Milius’ approach to adapting a comic book like they’re making an Opera version of a Shakespeare play (minus the singing). Throw in a stellar cast to support a relatively inexperienced Schwarzenegger (who is helped by having very little dialogue) and it’s way better than many appreciate (although the appreciation has grown in time) and Jones is an exceptional and intriguing villain.
Dishonorable Mentions: James Caan, Eraser. Phil Hartman, Jingle All the Way, Ed O’Ross, Red Heat. Richard Dawson, The Running Man. Tia Carrere, True Lies. Sharon Stone, Total Recall.
Who is the best villain in Schwarzenegger’s CV? Let us know on our social channels @FlickeringMyth or hit me up @JolliffeProductions…
