10 Movie Henchmen Who Stole Movies From Villains

Despite the overall high reputation of Chad Stahelski's John Wick series, the second entry, John Wick: Chapter 2, has always felt ever-so-slightly under-appreciated to me. While there's a clear upward trajectory on a technical front with each successive entry - Stahelski, Keanu Reeves, and the action geniuses at 87North upping the stakes for each film accordingly - the first John Wick sequel boasts this luscious balance of tragic atmosphere, character work, and show-stopping action that isn't quite as finely tuned in its siblings, refining some of the dings of the first film and delivering an altogether more focused and exhaustive piece of action cinema in the process.

In any case, Reeves' tortured hitman has been blessed (cursed?) with an array of brilliant equals who have attempted to take him down in each film, starting with Daniel Bernhardt's Kirill in the first John Wick, and being followed by the likes of Marc Dacascos, The Raid alum Cecep Arif Rahman and Yayan Ruhian in John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum, and then the inimitable Donnie Yen in Chapter: 4. However, while all of these characters fit the criteria for the heavy, only Kirill really qualifies as a henchman, and he can't quite compete on an impact front as the subject of this entry: Ruby Rose's Ares.

The perfect foil for Reeves in Chapter 2 is most definitely Common's Cassian, but again, he's not really a henchman so much as he is a bodyguard who's trying to be morally righteous. Ares, on the other hand, is working directly for the evil party, seems to revel in causing John misery, and distinguishes herself nicely from the competition by being a mute assassin. Rose's defined off-screen aesthetic also lent itself perfectly to the world of John Wick, forming a striking counterweight to Reeves that explodes in an entrancing hall of mirrors confrontation.

Not a surprise given how the film itself is passed over in favour of its later follow-ups - and also because there have been better villains in those films - but Rose's work in John Wick: Chapter 2 feels somewhat slept on. Riccardo Scamarcio's Santino is an excellent villain, but Ares' striking silence complements the series' physicality perfectly.