Every hero needs a formidable villain and action titan Sylvester Stallone has faced plenty. We look at the ten best villains in Stallone movies…
Most action films live or die on the strength of the villain. An underwhelming villain can kill a film, especially if the hero isn’t all that interesting. We’ve taken a look at the best antagonists in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s back catalogue which was a stellar selection of wrong ‘uns. So how does Arnie’s big rival of the 80s, Sylvester Stallone stack up? What level of villainy has Stallone had to face throughout his career? It’s time to count down the ten best villains in Sly Stallone’s films…
John Lithgow – Cliffhanger
It’s fair to say that though Sly Stallone can boast two iconic franchise characters in comparison to Arnold’s one (unless you count one and a half good Conan movies) the Austrian Oak’s overall output was stronger, especially during the peak years.
Still, Stallone has delivered some solid action films and has faced plenty of excellent, scenery-chewing villains. A prime example is Cliffhanger, one of Stallone’s better 90s era actioners that saw him and Renny Harlin deliver a big-scale snowy mountain set action opus with plenty of spectacle.
It also benefited from a strong villain with the ever-reliable John Lithgow going full Hans Gruber with his Euro-trash villain (in this case with a British accent). Lithgow is hammier than a joint of gammon but fits in with the excessive stylistics throughout the film. Harlin never did (still doesn’t) do subtlety. Ironically, Lithgow has vocally lamented his own performance in years since. John, we loved you buddy.
Jack Palance – Tango and Cash
You may be able to do hammy as a villain but can you reach Jack Palance levels of ham? It’s a tough task for anyone to achieve, particularly from the latter era of Palance’s career when he just seemed to revel in scenery chomping and to hell with any director who might dare tell him to dial it down.
Tango and Cash is a solid and underrated buddy cop film from the golden age of the subgenre. Stallone and Kurt Russell work well as a pairing, facing off against a selection of villains including James Hong and Brion James, all of whom work under the watchful eye of Palance.
Palance barks and growls all his lines in his inimitable style. Spinal Taps amps go up to 11. Jack Palance’s ham-o-meter goes up to 12.
Donald Sutherland – Lock Up
Lock Up has always been something of a forgotten entry in Stallone’s canon. It came slap bang during his heyday but also exemplified a late 80s full of questionable choices having effectively ruled the box office in 1985.
The Rocky meets Shawshank prison set film doesn’t have the grace or skill of those aforementioned but has a game cast and plenty to enjoy. Every prison set film about a ‘good con’ just trying to see out his sentence, needs a villainous and corrupt prison warden.
Step forward, Donald Sutherland. With a cold-blooded intensity and irredeemable nature, Sutherland’s performance is superb. It’s almost too good for an otherwise average film. He certainly does some elevating here.
Armand Assante – Judge Dredd
Die hard aficionados of the Judge Dredd comics hated this Stallone-led adaptation with a burning passion. It’s easy to see why with Stallone horribly miscast and the film very quickly becoming an all too traditional Stallone actioner, rather than a faithful Dredd film (see Karl Urban’s version for a better depiction).
However, I have a lot of time for this. Sure, the Blade Runner production design recycling, clumsy direction and Rob Schneider are issues, but it’s also got masses of spectacle and a great cast including Max von Sydow, Jurgen Prochnow and Joan Chen.
The biggest strength is Armand Assante, because he rivals Palance for unrestrained theatricality here. He goes so big that he effectively pummels life into scenes that would have been left dormant by what Stallone was bringing to the table. I love Sly, but he’s terrible in this. Assante doesn’t so much give this film the kiss of life, but tickles its lungs with his tongue.
Antonio Banderas – Assassins
Stallone on his day is a great actor, as two Oscar nominations attest. On that front, he has a broader range than his hulking Austrian rival. However, even as a dude who grew up on team Sly I have to say he was often overshadowed by his villains. Stallone seemed to have a generic hero default for many of his roles, which in part were down to linear screenplays.
Whilst Arnold’s inherently larger than life and somewhat cartoony persona meant he was rarely upstaged by good (even great) villains, Stallone’s more stoic laid back and hound dog approach was easy pickings for someone like Antonio Banderas to swoop in and steal the movie.
Whilst Assassins boasts a screenplay from the Wachowskis (which didn’t retain as much of their version as they’d have liked) and solid direction from Richard Donner, it’s a film which sags as soon as Julianne Moore is brought into proceedings.
However, it’s still a decent action film from the era and the cat-and-mouse battle between Stallone and Banderas makes it interesting. Though Sly’s haunted Assassin isn’t so interesting as a character, particularly given an uninspiringly morose performance, Banderas does plenty of heavy lifting and is given license to express himself.
Mr. T – Rocky III
Rocky is one of cinema’s most enduring characters, most well exemplified in his more carefully written films such as the original, Rocky Balboa and Creed. It’s in those we really see how great Stallone is at delivering sincerity, pathos and affability of a good-hearted Balboa.
If the third and fourth films descended more into montage and fight theatrics, they still had their moments and benefited from more cartoony villains. Though Apollo Creed was an antagonist of sorts he wasn’t particularly a villain, and given his turn from ‘heel’ to ‘face’ we’ll discount him from the list.
When it comes to Clubber Lang though, there’s no doubting this cat was bad. He wanted to tear Balboa to pieces and take everything from him. What Mr. T lacked as a skilled thespian, he made up for with presence and his on-screen persona. He is unbridled anger and aggression in this, a fearsome opponent.
Rutger Hauer – Nighthawks
Nighthawks is so often overlooked in Stallone’s CV, which is a shame given the fact this action thriller is one of his better non-franchise pictures. He’s most certainly made worse.
Stallone partners up with Billy Dee Williams to hunt an international terrorist and said villain is played with a chilling and icy fearsomeness by Rutger Hauer in his breakout US role.
Hauer had a real gift for creating memorable and intense antagonists and became a reliable go-to for years. The genius of Hauer’s work is his ability to give a role like this layers and magnetic charisma.
Wolfgang has no empathy, but his skin-crawling ability to feign a charming façade makes him one of the best villains in Stallone’s filmography. Rumour has it Stallone wasn’t too enamoured with Hauer’s performance, largely because it was clear to see he was being outshone.
Dolph Lundgren – Rocky IV/Creed 2
Speaking of chillingly icy villains, if Hauer had a charismatic range, then Stallone’s nemesis in Rocky IV was far more simplistically designed. He’s a man-mountain near superhuman specimen able to punch with as much power as the jaws of a shark can muster.
Dolph Lundgren was unleashed upon cinema as Ivan Drago, a role so iconic it’s still his most spoofed and meme’d part. Lundgren’s physical stature saw him tower over Stallone (occasionally exaggerated via angles and even standing on a box) but the fearsomely dead glare also works brilliantly.
Yet Drago isn’t without moments that inject a little humanity into him when self-doubt creeps in or when he finally has a moment of rebellion against the state-controlled coach who holds his leash. More of that humanity was delved into, to brilliant effect in Creed 2 with a beleaguered and older Drago looking for redemption through his son.
Wesley Snipes – Demolition Man
Demolition Man opened to solid box office and so-so reviews in an era where Stallone really needed a critical and commercial smash. In time, however, the legacy of this film has grown exponentially.
Not only has that blend of satire, action and comedy become more popular in recent times, but the film’s depiction of an Orwellian, tightly controlled future (where even swearing results in fines and salt is banned) looks like a Nostradamus-level prediction coming to pass right now.
Stallone has plenty of fun as the fish out of water 20th-century cop on the edge, thawed out in the mid-21st century, where his methods are shockingly outdated to the feckless society of the time. The old-fashioned cop is against his old nemesis, a ruthlessly old-fashioned maniac played with devilish menace by Wesley Snipes.
Stallone was well established as one of the main action titans of the era, whilst Snipes was just transitioning from dramatic character actor to action star. As Simon Phoenix, Snipes is a force of nature. Demolition Man may also be one of the most undervalued action films of the 90s.
Brian Dennehy – First Blood
Although Galt (played brilliantly by Jack Starrett) was more overtly villainous, his early demise in First Blood rules him out, whilst Brian Dennehy’s superb performance makes Sheriff Teasle a classic example of the misguided antagonist who never backs down from an unwinnable situation.
The further Teasle keeps digging himself into his hole through blind pride and a pinch of arrogance, the more he endangers the town he’s trying to protect from the fugitive Nam vet, Rambo.
Stallone gives arguably his greatest performance here in a film that has way more depth than the subsequent sequels may allow credit for. First Blood is just a very different beast to every subsequent Rambo outing which dumped subtlety in favour of run-and-gun action. That rang true of the villains, usually played with rigid archetypical simplicity (albeit in the case of Steven Berkoff as a classic Russian villain, effectively).
READ MORE: How Brian Dennehy owned First Blood
Even as great as Sly is in First Blood, Dennehy gives the performance of the movie as the man incapable of digging anywhere besides further down into the mire.
(Dis)Honourable Mentions:
Jason Momoa – Bullet to the Head
Steven Berkoff – Rambo: First Blood Part 2
Eric Roberts – Expendables and The Specialist
James Woods – The Specialist
Brian Thompson – Cobra
Jean-Claude Van Damme – Expendables 2
Who is your favourite villain in a Stallone movie? Let us know on our social channels @FlickeringMyth or hit me up @JolliffeProductions…
