3. Roy Batty - Blade Runner (1982)
Many fans of Ridley Scott's
Blade Runner will likely already have their own cases to make regarding Roy Batty's villainy, though for the casual fan, Batty may appear to a bad guy of undoubtably epic proportions. He murders a bunch of people throughout the movie, and inflicts a lot of damage on Deckard, the protagonist tasked with shutting him down. But consider the life that has been thrust upon the poor guy and his associates, and you start to realise where he's coming from... Remember that Batty is an android - an artificial human - who knows that he only has four years to live. That's something he's always known. Imagine if you were told that you only had that amount of time left before you were going to die, and that there was possibly a way to prevent it - you'd want to find out how, and you'd also likely go a bit insane in the process, too, right? Don't forget that the only "life" he's ever had has been off-world, where he and a whole bunch of other replicants have been forced to work dangerously in places that humans simply wouldn't. Thing is, Batty is (as the saying goes) "more human than human," because - through his circumstances - he has learned to appreciate life more than anybody else. Despite being completely human in almost every way, he's still forced to live horribly. Ultimately, it's Tyrell - the man who created and designed the replicants - who emerges as the movie's real villain. And despite the fact that Batty spends much of Blade Runner letting his anger get the better of him, in his dying moments he understands the extent to which life is so precious, and saves Deckard - who has spent the movie trying to kill him - from a horrible death. What a great freakin' guy, and a talented poet, too.