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Jack Doyle from 'Gone Baby Gone' (2007) -

Police Captain Doyle (Morgan Freeman) orchestrates the kidnapping of a little girl from her problematic family. The girl eventually returns home, only to be neglected by her mother again. The moral dilemma is pretty divisive, but maybe Captain Doyle had a point.

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Wicked Witch of the West from 'The Wizard of Oz' (1939) -

The Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton) may seem terrifying, but let's not forget that Dorothy killed her sister and took her slippers. That sounds like a fair reason to be angry, right?

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Assistant Principal Vernon in 'The Breakfast Club' (1985) -

Authoritarian Assistant Principal Richard Vernon (Paul Gleason) may have seemed tough on students. But he too was spending his Saturday in school, trying to discipline difficult pupils who actually deserved detention. 

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Mystique from the 'X-Men' movies -

The Marvel character, played by both Rebecca Romijn and Jennifer Lawrence, has to use her powers to hide her true self to avoid further trauma. Mystique was hunted and abused all her life, so it's easy to see why she doesn't have much sympathy for non-mutants. 

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Dalton Russell from 'Inside Man' (2006) -

Dalton Russell (Clive Owen) is a criminal, yet, he refuses to steal a safety deposit box that contains evidence linking the bank's founder to the Nazis. He's offered a lot of money and freedom from prison, but he still refuses to do so. In the end, he leaves enough evidence for the police to incriminate the Nazi sympathizer. 

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Dr. René Belloq from 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' (1981) -

Dr. René Belloq (Paul Freeman) was working for the Nazis, so if he had brought the Ark of the Covenant to Adolph Hitler, the dictator would have been melted to death once it was opened! 

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Jake Houseman in 'Dirty Dancing' (1987) -

Jake Houseman (Jerry Orbach) might have seemed a bit strict, but he was just a concerned, protective father. After all, his 17-year-old daughter Baby (Jennifer Grey) was getting romantically involved with a much older man, dance instructor Johnny Castle (Patrick Swayze).

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The U.S. government in 'E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial' (1982) -

We all root for Elliot and his friend from outer space, but the US government was just doing its job. After all, there was an alien on Earth. His presence on our planet had to be investigated thoroughly, right?

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Ed Rooney from 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' (1986) -

Principal Ed Rooney (Jeffrey Jones) may have been a ruthless Dean of Students who tried to make Ferris Bueller's life hell. Truth be said, Ferris had skipped school nine times and managed to persuade two other students to join him. Maybe Principal Rooney just wanted to safeguard his students' academic year from ruin. 

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Ozymandias from 'Watchmen' (2009) -

Ozymandias (Matthew Goode) may have detonated nuclear reactors, but in the end, he created a common enemy to unite superpowers and achieve world peace. 

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Captain Frank Ramsey from 'Crimson Tide' (1995) -

The Captain of the USS Alabama (played by Gene Hackman) wanted to launch nuclear missiles. He butts heads with Commander Hunter, who wants to stop him. In the end, the Captain never received the orders not to launch the missiles, so he was just doing his job. 

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The Joker in 'The Dark Knight' (2008) -

Sure, the Joker (Heath Ledger) is undoubtedly a ruthless sociopath, but he may have a point when he argues that humans were not born to live in a structured society like Gotham's.

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Johnny Lawrence in 'The Karate Kid' (1984) -

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Inspector Javert in 'Les Misérables' (2012) -

Inspector Javert (Russell Crowe) was just trying to do his job upholding the law. He might have been an enemy, but maybe not quite a villain. 

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Erik Killmonger from 'Black Panther' (2018) -

Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) grew up witnessing oppression and lost the throne of Wakanda to T'Challa. His plans may not have been perfect, but in the end, he was just a revolutionary fighting for change. 

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Roy Batty from 'Blade Runner' (1982) -

Cyborg Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) is the leader of a renegade replicant group. He's a trained killer, but really, all he wanted was to live longer than he was programming allowed: four years. He targeted those responsible for the replicants, and not the world at large.  

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Carl Anheuser in '2012' (2009) -

POTUS Carl Anheuser (Oliver Platt) may have closed the gates of the Ark, leaving many people behind, but this was a small price to pay to save humanity from the apocalyptic tsunami. 

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Xenomorph Queen in 'Aliens' (1986) -

Xenomorph Queen might have been nasty, but maybe having a bunch of humans trying to kill her unborn children and exterminate her species, didn't help.

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Miranda Priestly in 'The Devil Wears Prada' (2006) -

Meryl Streep plays the mean fashion magazine editor-in-chief Miranda Priestly. She's pretty tough on her new assistant Andy (Anne Hathaway), but in the end, she manages to pull the best out of her. 

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General Hummel from 'The Rock' (1996) -

General Hummel (Ed Harris) puts his soldiers' lives and the entire city of San Francisco at risk of a nuclear explosion. All he wanted was payment for the Marines' families, and he never really intended to use the chemical weapons. 

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Elijah Price in 'Unbreakable' (2000) -

Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson) was a terrorist, but if it wasn't for his evil deeds, perhaps David Dunne (Bruce Willis) would've never become the superhero he was meant to be.

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Alexander Conklin from 'The Bourne Identity' (2002) -

The corrupt high-ranking CIA officer (played by Chris Cooper) wanted to kill Jason Bourne. It turns out that Bourne was in fact a liability to the CIA and potentially a threat to America. 

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Daniel Plainview from 'There Will Be Blood' (2007) -

Oil man Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) was as ruthless as it gets, but it was maybe a good thing that he had beef with preacher Eli Sunday. The Sundays were indeed nasty people.

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Dr. Otto Octavius from 'Spider-Man 2' (2004) -

Dr. Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina) spread havoc across New York City, but in the end he was just a mad scientist who was trying to create limitless energy. Had the rector worked, it would have probably been a good thing for the world.

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Tyler Durden from 'Fight Club' (1999) -

Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) was likable enough, but he was also pretty destructive. In the end though, Durden was just trying to free us all from evil corporations and the rat race. 

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Ivan Korshunov from 'Air Force One' (1997) -

Ivan Korshunov (Gary Oldman) was a straight-up terrorist, but instead of going after civilians, he targeted the leader of the country. In the end, he just had a tough life because the Soviet Union collapsed, which apparently ruined his country.

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Jeffers from 'Way of the Gun' (2000) -

Jeffers (Taye Diggs) might have been a jerk at times, but he was just doing his job, protecting Mr. Chidduck's child and his surrogate mother Robin.

Sources: (Ranked) (Looper) (Screen Rant) (IMDB)

See also: Classic cinema's most notorious villains

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