With the magic of cinema, audiences can freely celebrate when aggressively unlikable characters bite the dust on screen. This list will not be a look at the big bads who were taken down after a messy fight, or even mini bosses our heroes have to take out along the way. Instead, this is a collection of characters who are technically antagonists but who mainly do an amazing job getting on the audience’s nerves.
Most of these characters have definitely done something to get into trouble, whether it’s betraying their extremely vindictive crime family or renting out a person’s comatose body. However, some of these folks just earned the ire of the audience by being flat-out annoying. No matter why they’ve made the audience’s hit list, their deaths are all gruesome, and all elicit cheers from even the most reserved of viewers.
Buck, ‘Kill Bill, Vol. 1’
Photo: Miramax Films
His name is Buck and he’s here to… well, you know. With his few memorably disturbing scenes in the first half of Kill Bill, it makes sense that the audience, the characters, and even Quentin Tarantino himself wanted to see this guy get murked. Buck’s not a main villain in the series by any means, but this male nurse is easily the creepiest person to stand in Beatrix Kiddo’s way.
After the Bride is put into a coma during her wedding, she winds up in the long-term care wing of the hospital, where Buck charges men to use her body while she’s konked out. When the Bride wakes up and realizes what Buck’s been doing, she smashes his head in between the door and the door jamb, turning his noggin into a squishy mess.
It’s so satisfying to see this creep get his head obliterated. If anyone gets what he deserves in this movie, it’s Buck. Even more so than the actual culprits of the Massacre at Two Pines.
Viserys Targaryen, ‘Game of Thrones’
Photo: Game of Thrones / HBO
A lot of people in Westeros are certain they belong on the Iron Throne, but Viserys Targaryen is reaaaaallly certain he’s the guy who’s meant to be in charge. After a lifetime of being humbled by his circumstances, you’d think Viserys would be at least kind of gracious while hatching his plan, but he’s a complete wretch to everyone he meets – including his sister.
After essentially being taken in by Khal Drogo and the Dothraki after he marries Daenerys off to the fearsome bulked-up warlord, Viserys manages to be an overbearing snake every moment of the day. Things reach a fever pitch when his sister takes away his ability to ride a horse, the ultimate indignity for a Dothraki.
From then on, it’s pretty much a countdown to Viserys’s final moments, and whoo boy, are they rough. After threatening to take out Drogo and Dany’s unborn child unless he gets the crown he deserves, Drogo melts a bunch of gold medallions and pours it over the poor guy’s head, giving him a “crown for a king.” It is absolutely brutal – one of the most brutal demises in the show’s entire run, which is especially impressive considering he’s not all that important a villain by the time everything is said and done.
Iosef Tarasov, ‘John Wick’
Photo: Lionsgate
As far as fearsome Russian mobsters go in the John Wick franchise, Iosef is pretty low tier. He may be the son of big bad Viggo Tarasov, but for most of the original film, Iosef is either just talking trash or playing PlayStation. Oh, and along the way he sets off John Wick’s whole scorched-earth thing by stealing his car and killing his dog.
Every gangster in New York knows that Iosef “just” took out Wick’s pet/only friend/reminder of the love of his life, and while the underworld is intent on keeping him safe, it’s also clear he’s a soon-to-be grease stain on the arc of history. When Wick tracks Iosef down to his safe house, he doesn’t even let the little creep get out his final words before delivering the headshot.
Carlo Rizzi, ‘The Godfather’
Photo: Paramount Pictures
Of all the unsavory characters introduced in The Godfather, Carlo is easily the most hateable of the bunch; he’s just so pleased with himself for having married into the Corleone family. Frustrated with the fact that he’s not allowed in the inner workings of the family, he goes out of his way to abuse Connie Corleone, which might be the worst thing someone in his situation could do. Well, almost the worst thing.
Carlo signs his own death warrant when he hatches a plan with the Barzini family to snuff out Sonny Corleone. The plan goes off without a hitch, but Carlo’s such a goon that he doesn’t realize an even bigger blot is swirling around him. Vito and Michael Corleone bring him deeper into their family with a job and protection, and the poor sap doesn’t even realize he’s being conned.
When Michael takes over from Vito, he reveals to Carlo that they’ve been aware of his backstabbing since the moment it happened, but that if he admits what happened, he’ll be kicked out of the family, but kept safe. Carlo does admit his guilt… and he gets garroted by Clemenza anyway. It’s a real chef’s kiss of an ending.
Frederick Chilton, ‘The Silence of the Lambs’
Photo: Orion Pictures
Even in a movie with a calmly psychotic cannibal, a serial killer using women to make a skin suit, and a nameless inmate who throws bodily fluids at anyone who looks at him, it’s Dr. Frederick Chilton that gives audiences the most palpable creeps. Not because he carves anyone up or has a bunch of bodies beneath his floorboards – the guy is just a straight-up gross-o to Clarice Starling.
Aside from making nonstop passes at her when she’s attempting to interview Hannibal Lecter, he’s also incredibly jealous of her abilities as an investigator and tries to steal the spotlight for solving the Buffalo Bill case. Because of Chilton’s ball-hogging, Lecter escapes and Clarice is left in the wind with the Buffalo Bill case.
Once everything has been wrapped up, Lecter calls Clarice to let her know he’s not coming after her – before casually ending the call by mentioning he’s “having an old friend for dinner.” The audience is clued in to the fact that Lecter has followed Dr. Chilton on his vacation in Jamaica. We may not get to see Chilton get turned into dinner, but it’s nice to know he’s getting his just desserts.
Todd Alquist, ‘Breaking Bad’
Photo: AMC
From the moment that Todd arrives on the scene, it’s clear he’s a total whack-job. Brought into Walt’s crew as an extra set of hands for a train job, Todd shows how much of a wild card he is when he stoically guns down a kid hanging around the area at the end of the job. He endears himself to Walt when he helps the boss dispose of Mike’s body, but that’s where his “positive” attributes end.
Anyone watching when Todd took Jesse captive to turn him into a meth-cooking slave was crossing their fingers that Todd would be murked in the most off-the-wall manner. Maybe he’d be methed to death or trapped inside of a snow globe. Instead, audiences got the satisfaction of watching Jesse choke Todd out with the very shackles he had to wear for months. Honestly, that was even better than watching Walt unload on the rest of the captors with that giant automatic gun jury-rigged in his trunk.
Ralphie Cifaretto, ‘The Sopranos’
Photo: HBO
No one can play a character who’s both menacing and truly annoying like Joe Pantoliano. As Ralphie in The Sopranos, he’s not just a frustrating presence, he’s one of the biggest monsters in the DiMeo Crime Family (which is saying something). He goes out of his way to burn bridges and peeve off his fellow mobsters, all with the knowledge that there’s nothing anyone can really do to him.
Initially, Ralphie is fine. He’s annoying, but it’s whatever. It’s not until he cold-bloodedly beats a dancer from the Bada Bing to death – a dancer with whom he was having an affair – that it becomes clear how awful he really is. After he gets away with this heinous act, he goes out of his way to show Tony and the rest of the family that he’s untouchable. Not only does he body shame Johnny Sack’s wife, but he kills the racehorse that he split with Tony, “Pie O My.”
When Ralphie makes fun of Tony’s remorse over the death of Pie O My, that’s the last straw. Watching Tony beat the life of this jerk for what feels like 10 minutes straight is so, so, so satisfying. There was never anyone on The Sopranos who deserved to have their head bonked in as much as Ralphie.
Dennis Nedry, ‘Jurassic Park’
Photo: Universal Pictures
Dennis Nedry is just trying to make some extra money. Apparently, he doesn’t make enough working at the only scientific research center on the planet that’s brought dinosaurs back to life, but that’s neither here nor there. He’s not evil for carrying out corporate espionage, he’s just playing with fire.
As Nedry is the human villain of Jurassic Park, it’s obvious he’s going to bite the big one, but knowing he was taken out by a gunk-spitting Dilophosaurus is such a nice feeling. It’s not like the audience stands up and cheers when he gets murked (okay fine, that’s probably happened once or twice), but he did cause the entire breakdown of Jurassic Park that led to a bunch of dinosaurs running loose and destroying the place. On top of that, he’s set back genetic research dozens of years. Fare thee well, Dennis Nedry.
Waingro, ‘Heat’
Photo: Warner Bros.
No one in Heat‘s central heist crew is “good,” per se – there are only people with differing levels of amorality, but Waingro is a true psychopath. Hired onto Neil McCauley’s team for a score of $1.6 million in bearer bonds, he callously alienates himself from the rest of the group – and the audience – by killing an unarmed guard in cold blood, triggering an unnecessary shootout that brings down major heat (ugh, sorry) onto McCauley.
As if that weren’t bad enough, Waingro turns on McCauley’s crew and agrees to take them out for another mid-tier member of the Los Angeles underworld. After Waingro ruins the professional nature of McCauley’s gentleman thief operation, it’s nice to see him get what he deserves with a couple of caps in the chest and one in the head while vibing in a hotel robe.
Anthony Cooper, ‘Lost’
Photo: ABC
Anthony Cooper is a classic con artist, but unlike the fun, lovable con artist of fiction, Cooper is a straight-up monster. Before getting to the island, Cooper seduced Sawyer’s mom and used her to steal tens of thousands of dollars from her husband. The infidelity – not to mention being left broke – sent Sawyer’s dad into a tailspin that ended with him offing his wife before taking his own life. Naturally, this had a lasting effect on poor Sawyer.
Off the island, Cooper goes out of his way to torment both Sawyer and Locke while swindling whomever he can. He manipulates Locke into giving him his kidney, for crying out loud. Once on the island, Cooper ends up bound and gagged by Ben Linus – a great visual in and of itself – but the most thrilling part of this guy’s story comes when he mocks Sawyer for wanting revenge for the demise of his parents. It’s a bad move that ends with Sawyer choking him out with a chain.
