10 Greatest Villain Introductions In Movie History
This evil lot had you shaking in your boots from the second they showed up on screen...
Making a great first impression isn't just important in everyday life, folks. It's also vital when it comes to introducing the world to a brand new big-screen baddy.
If a team behind a feature doesn't quite stick the landing with their diabolical antagonist early on, audiences will likely struggle to genuinely take this debuting threat seriously for the remainder of the flick.
However, when filmmakers manage to expertly catch movie fans off-guard with jaw-dropping swerves, unsettling monologues, and disturbing opening salvos while presenting their fresh source of evil, it's pretty much impossible to not spend the next two hours glued to the action going down in front of you.
A fantastic and instantly iconic villain introduction can take many forms, of course.
There are those scoundrels who grab you by the scruff of the neck out of the gate with an utterly shocking act or explosive arrival. While other mesmerising film heels just slowly draw you in with their increasingly creepy energy during their earliest moments in a picture.
Whether they were demanding your undivided attention from the get-go with their unquestionably chilling look, stressing the life out of you during their first few minutes of screen-time, or rendering you speechless with something as simple as the taking off of a mask, these masterful first villainous encounters all had the planet undoubtedly hooked.
10. Raoul Silva - Skyfall
You can't have a list of terrific villainous arrivals on the big-screen without including at least one first appearance from a James Bond foe.
And perhaps the most hypnotising debut of a 007 enemy to date went down during 2012's Skyfall when Daniel Craig's version of the iconic agent gradually came face-to-face with a disturbing ex-MI6 operative.
With our beloved James tied to a chair, after being brought before the man he's been searching for throughout the flick, Raoul Silva finally makes his long-awaited entrance via elevator at the other end of a rather echoey hall.
Instead of jumping to an ominous close-up of the Bond's biggest threat to date, the camera stays put on a shot over 007's shoulder, inviting viewers to lean in and hang on the cyberterrorist's every eerie word as he tells the story of how his grandmother managed to rid her island of a bunch of rats.
By the time Silva has magnificently explained how the final two rodents had their nature changed by grandma's cannibalistic oil drum method after becoming a set of survivors, much like himself and Bond, Javier Bardem's disarmingly charming mug is entirely visible.
In the space of about a minute or so, Silva hinted at exactly how calculating and merciless an adversary he could be through his chilling rat-ologue. And he did it all with an alarming twinkle in his eye.