Who doesn’t love a good movie villain?
They capture audiences and inspire hatred due to their menace, their twisted morals, and because they usually have an unusual balance between skill and chance, which adds to their success.
Do they all operate with cold, calculated precision, or do they live in pure chaos, with luck bailing them out more than it should? Here, you will be walked through four movie villains, noted for either their alleged skill or luck, so you can see where you stand on their success.
The Joker (The Dark Knight, 2008)
Of course, the Joker from The Dark Knight was going to be at the top of this list!
Played by the late Heath Ledger, few villains embody unpredictability and genius better than this guy. However, even for those seasoned fans of the Dark Knight trilogy, the question remains: did he plan the whole thing, or was he just really, really lucky? Would he win if he were to play online slots through incalculable prediction, or would he just keep going until he did? The improbable timing, the unplanned reactions of others, all seem too good to be true, but does this supervillain have more than luck on his side? As an agent of chaos, he remains on the fine line between being either a brilliant tactician or one of the luckiest anarchists in cinematic history. The ambiguity of his power, as well as the performance, has made him one of the most notable movie villains of all time.
Hans Gruber (Die Hard, 1988)
An oldie but a goody, the villain of Die Hard, Hans Gruber, represents strategy in the world of villainy almost perfectly. His takeover of Nakatomi Plaza is planned down to the last detail, with timed explosions, fake motives, and extreme manipulation. So much manipulation! He does benefit from luck, though, of the bad kind, as he could not have predicted that John McClane would become a threat, and he also shows that even the most well-thought-out plans are susceptible to randomness.
Emperor Palpatine (Star Wars Saga) (1977-present)
Unlike Hans and the Joker, Palpatine is on a galactic scale. The strategies that he uses unfold over decades, seeming to blend foresight, politics, and manipulation. He engineers both sides of a war, while rising to power, and corrupts Anakin Skywalker. However, luck is simultaneously on his side and against him, as unexpected alliances, narrow escapes, and the complacency of the Jedi help to secure his rise. Again, this blurs the line between mastermind and lucky survivor.
Anton Chigurh (No Country for Old Men, 2007)
Guided by a code that seems both strategic and fatalistic, Chigurh appears to be unstoppable. The success of this villain seemingly stems less from planning and a commitment to efficiency. He avoids capture, finds critical information by chance, and also luckily survives a horrific accident. He is also not a planner, which leads many movie fans to question just what makes him have the appearance of a supernatural strategist.
Much like with people in real life, the answer to whether movie villains are master strategists or just lucky seems to depend on the individual and their circumstances; however, in movies, it is easier to watch villains play to the extremes of human nature, as people will always be fascinated with exploring villainy, as much as the heroism it takes to rise up against the darkness.
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