10 Movie Villains You Didn't Realise Actually Won

2. The Joker - The Dark Knight

Heath Ledger's tour de force performance as the Clown Prince of Crime has already become legendary. He captured the playful insanity and terrifying darkness of the character in a way that few others could hope to ever emulate. More than being a suitable match for Bale's gruff portrayal of Batman, he has become a standard to which all screen villains are now held.

Spreading his own form of chaos and criminality around Gotham's streets he causes problems for heroes and villains alike. Not that this fazes him as he has an army of lunatics with which to do his bidding and he's certainly not above getting his hands dirty when the situation calls for it. He's not motivated by any personal gain which makes him almost impossible to predict. This allows him to get creative in his criminality; attacking a police convoy to murder the District Attorney of Gotham and holding two ferries hostage with large quantities of explosives his means of holding the city hostage.

The main thing to be taken away from this is that he accomplishes what he sets out to do with Gotham and its heroes. He manages to grip the entire city with fear; Harvey Dent is corrupted and killed in addition to Batman being forced into exile. While Ledger's tragic death prevented the return of the character for the third installment of the Dark Knight trilogy it's safe to say that had this not come to pass, he would not have been locked up for long. While it was Bane who eventually broke Batman's back, never forget that the Joker who managed to crushed his spirit. "All it takes is a little push" as The Joker says... a push that would finally bring Batman to kill Dent at the climax.