15 Greatest Character Names In American Film History

6. Jean Vilain ("The Expendables 2")

Sylvester Stallone's Expendables-films are in themselves rather mediocre and cynical attempts at fast cash-grabs. But they remain somewhat entertaining to people who can catch the numerous references to its ensemble's earlier works. The second film in the series was greatly improved by the presence of Jean-Claude Van Damme. Van Damme, who actually has proven to be a capable actor ("JCVD"), takes his role as the film's nefarious villain seriously and provides us with what are arguably the best scenes in the film. Now, Van Damme is Belgian and he speaks with a strong accent. That has always been one of his trademarks, and Stallone would be a fool to ignore this. Let's give his character a French-sounding first name; that would save us minutes of unnecessary exposition. Hm, what French names are there? Jean? Claude? Jean is good! Van Damme is also the villain of the piece. How can we make this come across as obviously as possible? Let's give him a villainous surname: Vilain! So, there we have it: Another brilliant name that tells us everything we need to know about the character before we even meet him: He comes from a French-speaking country and he is the bad-guy.