Fast & Furious 8: Ranking Every Character From Worst To Best

4. Cipher

The Fast & Furious franchise has a rather spotted history with villains: there have been some highs (the only redeeming thing about 2 Fast 2 Furious is the villain, in fact), but the rest have most been conventional action hero cliches (aside from Jason Statham's excellent man on a mission Deckard Shaw).

In contrast, Charlize Theron's Cipher is more like an old-fashioned Bond villain from the Pierce Brosnan era - obsessed with tech and holding governments accountable thanks to her inflated sense of self.

It helps considerably that Theron refuses to play the material down: she's subtle and simmering rather than explosive and pantomimey (when there was infinite scope for her to become Alan Cumming's Invincible Boris) and there is complexity hinted in her emotional performance that far outweighs what the script demands she says.

In that respect she offers a sense of intrigue at what her true backstory is (and why she's so disgusted by the idea of family) and her evil feels authentic rather than convenient, and it's good to note that we'll probably see more of her soon.