The Most Iconic Movie Villains From The '90s

Between "Pulp Fiction," "Jurassic Park," "Schindler's List," "Toy Story," "Fight Club," and "Good Will Hunting," the '90s were one of cinema's strongest decades. So it's no surprise that these years produced more than their fair share of epic movie bad guys. In fact, there were so many timeless villains that plenty of worthy ones — the T-1000 from "T2: Judgement Day," Harry and Marv from "Home Alone," Cal Hockley from "Titanic" and Tommy DeVito from "Goodfellas" among them — simply couldn't fit on this list. Believe us, we tried.

But the ones that did are even greater. They're cruel. They're cunning. They'll stop at nothing to win. Some are even based on or inspired by real people. Some are hilariously entertaining, others are downright terrifying, and still others manage to be both. There's a wide variety of baddies here, but the one thing they have in common is that they're lots of fun to hate. These are the greatest movie villains of the 1990s.

Stephen King's "It" — the 1990 TV movie, not the 2017 one — hasn't exactly aged well. It's an awkward, under-budget, melodramatic schlockfest filled with goofy writing and questionable performances. But there's one element at play here that truly works and even gives its 2017 counterpart a run for its money: Tim Curry's performance as Pennywise the Dancing Clown.

Derry, Maine's "Loser's Club" doesn't seem to find Pennywise all that amusing, seeing as how he's trying to kill them and eat the other children in town before returning to another 27-year hibernation in the sewers. But from the safety of our couches, we can admit that Curry's killer clown is every bit as hilarious as he is terrifying. In one scene, Pennywise torments an adult Richie Tozier (Harry Anderson) at the library by having blood-filled balloons that no one else can see burst in his face in an attempt to get him to leave town and stop meddling with his evil plans. But it's hard to be as scared as Tozier because Pennywise is sitting on the banister upstairs, tossing out lame jokes and just hamming it up. It's comedy gold, and it's far from the only scene where Curry brings the laughs.

At the same time, Tim Curry succeeds at haunting your nightmares despite the less than believable performances of his terrified victims. The red eyes and razor-sharp teeth help, but it's Curry himself who manages to so effectively channel King's ancient, otherworldly, shapeshifting demon.

Hugo Weaving's performance as Agent Smith shouldn't have worked. "The Matrix" is a franchise that takes itself very, very seriously. If anything, most of the other performers underact, turning in almost wooden performances. On top of that, Smith is a literal robot with a serious job, portrayed by a man who often plays similar characters (see Elrond in "The Lord of the Rings"). Given all of that, you'd expect a cold, emotionless performance. And it would've been serviceable.

Instead, Weaving hams it up in every scene, sometimes stretching his face to Jim Carrey levels of rubber-faced absurdity as he howls with laughter or sneers at our heroes, plotting their demise. For reasons we can't put our finger on, it's wonderful. Perhaps it works at least partially because Weaving seems to understand and embrace the inherent silliness of "The Matrix" movies.

But don't think he's a joke. Smith — a computer program that's tasked with thwarting Morpheus, Neo, and Trinity's plans to free mankind from the titular virtual reality prison — is an extremely dangerous foe. He's a crafty, manipulative, virtually unkillable shapeshifter who's more than a martial arts match for our heroes — no pushovers themselves — until Neo embraces his destiny as the "One." Even then, Neo almost dies defeating Smith in 2003's "Revolutions."

Smith is simultaneously a cartoon and a chilling threat. It's hard to imagine anyone but Weaving striking that balance with such precision.

The one thing that unites all Gary Oldman performances — since he never plays the same character twice — is his sheer dedication. Have you ever seen the guy phone it in? Neither have we. And boy, does he have some manic fun here as Ivan Korshunov, a terrorist ringleader who takes over the titular plane and uses its occupants as hostages in an attempt to negotiate the release of an imprisoned warlord. He's all smiles and handshakes when he flashes fake press credentials to board the craft, but once the gloves come off, he's one of the most menacing '90s villains. His temper is startling, and he's willing to go to any lengths to get what he wants — even executing hostages.

This is, of course, Harrison Ford's movie. In fact, other than "Indiana Jones," it might even be the Harrison Ford movie. He's in top form as the gruff, stone-faced President James Marshall, whose no tolerance policy on human rights abusers kicks off the movie's events (and makes him the greatest fictional movie president ever). In other words, Marshall winning at the end was never in doubt. Him strangling Korshunov and throwing him out of the hangar ("Get off my plane!") was predictable, but it was also a well-earned, crowd-pleasing, and delicious moment. Oldman was so much fun to hate in this movie that you can't help but cheer when he gets his comeuppance. That's the mark of a great baddie.

Disney's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" follows Quasimodo, a young French bell ringer who's confined to the Parisian cathedral he works in because of his physical deformities. Beautiful Esmeralda takes pity on the character and shows him that his gentle soul makes him beautiful, despite his appearance. But the cruel Judge Claude Frollo, who'd reluctantly adopted Quasimodo as a child after murdering his mother, is ashamed of the Hunchback. He often refers to him as a demonic abomination and is determined to keep him locked away from the public.

There are plenty of Disney villains from the '90s that could've made this list. Ursula from "The Little Mermaid" comes to mind, as does Sid from "Toy Story," Scar from "The Lion King," and Gaston from "Beauty and the Beast." But Frollo is simply in a league of his own. He's a cartoon, yes, but only technically. Spiritually, his self-righteousness and racist, genocidal hatred of the local Roma population channel the most insidious literary and historical villains to a degree that's simply shocking for a G-rated, animated Disney movie. Like many of history's most loathsome individuals, Frollo is blind to his own failings, seeing himself as above the law — the righteous, purifying instrument of a displeased God among filthy, sinning peasants. Few cartoon baddies (or villains in general) are as monstrous or as much fun to despise.

"Se7en" follows two cops — a young hotshot (Brad Pitt) and a seasoned detective close to retirement (Morgan Freeman) — who hunt down an elusive, brilliant serial killer. At first, the killings appear random, but macabre clues left at the crime scenes reveal that each victim had committed one of the seven deadly sins and received what the killer thought to be a thematically appropriate punishment. A morbidly obese man is force-fed until his stomach ruptures (gluttony). A criminal defense attorney is forced to mutilate himself as punishment for greed. You get the point.

The investigation eventually leads to John Doe (Kevin Spacey). Unlike other villains on this list, who are fun, wacky, and prone to emotional outbursts or maniacal laughter, Doe is the opposite. But his being emotionless and soft-spoken doesn't make him less fearsome. On the contrary, it unnerves you to the core. Doe is fanatically committed to his own moral code and accompanying twisted logic. Unlike most crimes, he commits the acts not out of desperation, anger, or delusion but due to an unshakable faith in a violent, holy crusade. He is beyond reason, two steps ahead of the heroes at every turn, and thoroughly deserving of a spot on this list.

It takes some doing to be the most memorable character in a movie where you're neither the protagonist nor the antagonist. But Anthony Hopkins, who won an Oscar for his performance as cannibalistic criminal mastermind Hannibal Lecter in 1991's "The Silence of the Lambs," was up to the task.

Another factor that should restrain the character's sheer menace but doesn't is the fact that when hotshot FBI detective Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) first meets him as part of her investigation into serial killer Buffalo Bill, he's already in prison. This isn't a comic book movie, which means there's no risk of him ripping apart the bars of his cell and devouring her. No, he's going nowhere, at least for now. It's the mind games he plays (as well as his predatory stare and that haunting hiss) that make him so chillingly memorable.

Lecter lacks basic human traits and yet understands people better than almost anyone alive. His experience as a psychiatrist before he decided to start eating people for fun gave him enough tools to read Starling like a book and negotiate a more favorable sentence for himself in exchange for insight into the criminal mind at work. By the end of the film, he devours his guards and escapes, setting up a few sequels. But those weren't necessary. Hopkins' Lecter was terrifying enough in the original film to become one of the greatest villains in cinematic history.