One-Scene Movie Villains

9 min read

Deviation Actions

KurvosVicky's avatar
By
Published:
738 Views
So yeah. I've now worked up a top 10 list of favorite one-scene movie villains to mention. Basically means villains appearing for only one scene in the entire movie, but still leaves you with an impact.
I've tried to have some rules to go with it. No creatures without personality that are more of obstacles than villains, such as the predator dogs in Predators. And, not someone like Madame Mim who appears in the last act of Sword in the Stone, since that technically counts as two scenes she appears in (Arthur as a bird encountering her in her cabin, then Merlin having a magic battle with her).

Still, I got two honorable mentions of villains appearing in a movie before, but appear in a completely new unexpected way as drastically changed characters. Arnim Zola from Captain America: The Winter Soldier, who awesomely enough they dared to make him be a computer and helping the movie feel more like a comic book.
And... Captain Jack Skellington from James and the Giant Peach. For some reason, Jack ended up in the ocean as a pirate captain with skeleton pirates at his command (including skeleton Donald Duck), capturing one of the main characters and seemingly is about to kill him. Uhm... maybe this is a new scare-tactic of Jack? XP lol

Anyway, let's get moving with the actual list now.

10. Humma Kavula (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)
Very weird and odd villain, but... still very low on this list. I mean, he is a part of a pretty silly religion making it a bit hard to take him too seriously - but John Malkovich's performance helps. And, his eyes being inside his glasses while behind the glasses are just two hollow eye sockets is pretty disturbing. And, so is the fact that he can split his body in two and walk around on small robotic spider-like legs. A very unique design, definitely.

9. Pale Man (Pan's Labyrinth)
From one character with disturbing detachable eyes to another. Pale Man is an ogre-like monster the main character encounters with a very skinny body and hanging skin, and no eyes... but, eye sockets in his hands for him to put a pair of eyes into. And, he eats children who dares eating his food, leaving their shoes behind.
But... funny enough, I kinda hate the scene. The main character Ofelia is a moron in it, eating a grape and ignoring the fairies warning her to do so, and then won't even look back to see if the beast wakes up as he eats... and, when she sees he is, she just stands there and stares at him. I've heard she starved because of rationing... but that doesn't excuse her from not even trying to be careful. Also, there is a LOT of food more suitable on that table to help an empty stomach still it's hunger - why pick something like a tiny little grape?!

8. Baron von Strucker (Avengers: Age of Ultron)
Only seen the movie once to date, but he still left an impact on me. We saw him being forshadowed at the end of Winter Soldier, and got to see him as the "opening villain" of this movie. And he of course holds significants due to the two siblings of the movie.
I do not particularly remember much of his character, but it was very nice we got to see him in it.

7. Reggie, Darnell and Two Fingers (The Princess and the Frog)
Maybe you remember them better if I also mention they were the three inbred hillbillies trying to capture the two frogs to eat them. It almost feels like Disney is paying a homage to Hanna Barbera, because these three are very similar to their types of characters. And, while they are cartoony stereotypes, that's intentional. And the scene is hilarious slapstick wise. XD It may have been a bit of a filler scene - but it was fun as hell.
Maybe it's because of my nostalgia for Looney Tunes, but I do think most people into cartoons can love and enjoy the scene either way.

6. Sebulba (Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace)
Despite the podracing scene being a show-stealer in itself, Sebulba manages to leave a permanent mark on me. With him, we got to see the new alien race known as a "Dug", walking on their hands like feet and using their feet as hands... and of course, a larger-than-life podracer with the most awesome engine sound ever. XD
And his podracer is colored orange - I wish more villains could use the color orange. And sure, Sebulba is an archetype "cheating racer"-villain... but, well, it fits within it's context, and makes the podracing scene even more enjoyable than it already was.

5. Mikey (Men in Black)
This is th first alien we get to see in the movie. And I think it's absolutely brilliant we get to see this big monstrous-looking alien who just so happens to be a regular intergalactic crook disguising himself as a human (in a very unconventional and unexpected way, I might add). Even talks casually with the two MiB agents and is all like "Hey, guys, what's up? Oh, come on, be a slack, will ya? Buddies?" with them. X'D
And as soon as another human sees them, he gets out his fangs and goes into a monster rage. I can't decide if he was more adorable or more disturbingly intimidating. LOL

4. Mr Hyde (Van Helsing)
Hands down, best part of the movie to me. Mr Hyde is a lot more of a fun and interesting villain than any of the other villains of the movie (though, the three Brides were pretty entertaining too). The CGI can nowadays be seen as obvious CGI, but I think it looks fine either way - they made Mr Hyde very expressive both through body language and through facial expressions. The interaction between him and Van Helsing makes me feel like it would be fun to have Mr Hyde as a regular rival of his.
Sure, it's kinda dumb with Mr Hyde's "Here I come, ready or not!"-moment, but... it's passable. It's still a lot of fun, and I can tell the voice actor had a lot of fun with the role as well. Also, the design for Mr Hyde is a pretty unique and fun one at that.

3. The Giant Spiders of Mirkwood (The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug)
While Smaug is the obvious big show-stealer of this movie, I really do think these spiders deserves to be credited as well. And even though I don't have Shelob in this list, don't get me wrong - I love that character too... but, it's for more than one scene technically, and she isn't as much of a character as she is an obstacle.
But these spiders talk... a lot. The first time they are constantly wispering "attercop". But later on when they've captured them all, they talk a lot more. And it makes them be a weird combination of really creepy and yet kinda adorably funny. XD They talk like old witches about to eat children or something, nagging with one another. By far, these are my favorite spider characters of any fiction. Also, it's in this scene Bilbo gets to name his sword "Sting". ^^

2. Tom, Bert and William (The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey)
Funny enough, this is our second kinda dumb family trio in the hunt for live food to cook. But what intrigues me about them is that they do not even seem to be related, and they seem to argue a lot... yet, they look out for each other. They have a lot of conversations about different things, and it's really amusing to listen to it all.
And it's definitely a big plus that they all three have very distinctive designs. Not to mention, look very different from other trolls we've seen in these movies. And also, it finally made us get to see the event of the "Bilbo trolls" they refer to twice in The Fellowship of the Ring. And that makes this scene really, REALLY satisfying to watch.

1. King Louie (Disney's The Jungle Book 1967)
Not sure if people actually thought of this - but King Louie is indeed technically a villain. He kidnaps Mowgli and tries to persuade and bribe him into telling him how to make fire and promises him to make sure he'll stay in the Jungle as long as he follows his terms.
And he's the ultimate quirky ape character. Shoving poor Mowgli full of bananas til he can't eat them anymore, thinking of it as a friendly geisture to make him feel more comfortable. And of course, he's a very spoiled royal archetype too, having everything but wanting more (fire in this case, as said). Even can't take others having the spotlight, getting constantly mad at a small monkey trying to do so. XD
He's a villain I could have seen the whole movie be about. I love Shere Khan, but still. It makes me wonder what would happen if he found Mowgli as a baby instead of Bagheera. Would he then raise him to become a spy for him, spying on the humans and be a mole among them, trying to figure out how to make fire and weapons among other things? Let's not underestimate how diabolical Louie might actually be. :XD:
It's also hilarious he's so proud of his temple he is willing to stand still trying to hold it up after Baloo accidently breaks a pillar. Makes one wonder what the poor bastard did after these events. XP


So, this was my list. There are many more movies I could have probably brought up - Baron Munchhausen and Alice in Wonderland have plenty of characters they encounter too, some of them arguably villains. Heck, could have even considered including Gollum's scene from An Unexpected Journey here, but... well, we already know him by this point anyway, and I already have enough characters from the Middle Earth movies. XP
Do you have any favorite one-scene villains of your own? Like any of these? Please do share your own thoughts. ^^
© 2015 - 2024 KurvosVicky
Comments25
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
Morggehan's avatar
honestly... i can't think of any special one-time-villains in movies.

videogames on the other hand has them in plentiful quantities. RPG's in particular, wether it's Skyrim or Fire Emblem Awakening, chances are high the game have a dozen villains who appears one time only to dissapear from the games face... mostly because you killed him.