20 Most Intense Movie Performances Of All Time

14. Bronson (Tom Hardy) - Bronson

Though he'd already turned a lot of heads thanks to his performances in Stuart: A Life Backwards and Meadowlands (and in Star Trek: Nemesis to a lesser extent), Tom Hardy really arrived thanks to Bronson. In the strange semi-biopic - in which Nicolas Winding Refn liberally bent the truth - he plays Britain's most notorious prisoner, Charles Bronson.

And the film is really no more than a vehicle for Hardy's performance, which Winding Refn clearly encouraged him to exaggerate as much as possible. Every quirk, every tic and every manifestation of his psychosis is amplified to a cartoonish level, in fitting with the decision to present the film as a stage show. He's hyper-violent, theatrical and that special kind of exhibitionist the best villains tend to be: just try breaking his gaze.

The performance is as horrifying as it is captivating and if you wanted the best/worst endorsement of it possible, the real Bronson gave it his stamp of approval.