For every protagonist, there’s also the big villainous antagonist who flexes their power and authority over them. And the world of villains is no longer just a man’s world. Female villains in movies are often better than the main female character—in beauty, in talent, and in being a badass. Which can make them hard to root against, even if they stand against our beloved protagonists. Here are some of the most badass female villains in movies!
10. Bellatrix (Harry Potter)
Lord Voldemort is the main villain of the Harry Potter movies, but Bellatrix Lestrange is the most hated and most badass of all the villains introduced in that story. With her wicked giggle and peculiar behaviors, she’s not someone you can talk lightly to and must avoid crossing her path. The heartbreaking scene where she kills Sirius Black in front of Harry? Oh, that made many fans hate her character all the more.
9. Mystique (X-Men)
Have you ever crossed a street and saw yourself on the other side? If you did, it might’ve been Mystique of the X-Men movies. Mystique is a mutant with the ability to copy someone else’s appearance at will—a complete copy that includes their fingerprints and eye patterns, as seen when she entered Cerebro (which only Professor X can enter using biometric security). With her ability, she dominates the screen even though she’s an enemy of Xavier and his ideology and follows Magneto, who sought to rule the world with other mutants. Mystique is also a strong fighter that can even fight Wolverine in hand-to-hand combat.
8. Ain (One Piece Film: Z)
Ain is the second-in-command of the Neo Marines in the movie One Piece Film: Z. Her devil fruit is called the Modo Modo no Mi, which gives her the ability to return anyone she touches to 12 years past. And in the worst case, her ability can be used to bring someone to a moment before they were born—causing them to cease existing. Aside from her devil fruit ability, she’s an excellent combatant (demonstrated during her fight with Roronoa Zoro).
7. Rain Ocampo (Resident Evil)
Rain Ocampo is an operative who’s tasked to shut down the Red Queen in the Hive to avoid the spread of the virus. Sounds like she’s on the good side, right? Resident Evil: Retribution introduced Rain as the villain, a heartless and cold clone of Rain Ocampo created by the Umbrella Corporation. She manages to fight Alice, who was another deadly clone gifted with incredible abilities and instinct.
6. Witch Queen (The Last Witch Hunter)
She may not be as beautiful as any of the other names on this list, but the wit of the Witch Queen is extraordinary. She managed to get her immortality back from Kaulder (played by Vin Diesel) whom she cursed with a never-ending life hundreds of years ago. Her strategic mind and impeccable planning make her a badass villain, with her influence running in the veins and ideologies of modern witches even though she’s dead.
5. Maleficent (Maleficent)
A wicked witch portrayed by Angelina Jolie, Maleficent is the protagonist of her movie, which is a spinoff of a famous fairytale wherein she was the villain. In other words, Maleficent is a movie that tells the story of Sleeping Beauty from Maleficent’s point of view. Many kids might wonder, “How did the evil witch become the hero?” Well, with a bit of creative liberty and imagination, these filmmakers have told this story—and made the character quite badass.
4. T-X (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines)
T-800 (the Terminator portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the Terminator franchise) was already a badass character, but T-X is a lot more than that. Designed for heavy combat and assassinations, the T-X model is loaded with various weapons—like her iconic plasma cannon hidden underneath shapeshifting arms. With her Mimetic Polyalloy covering, she can transform into any human being (which is best for assassination missions), with the only downside being that she can’t liquefy her body like T-1000 (her predecessor who was also made entirely of Mimetic Polyalloy).
3. Angel Dust (Deadpool)
Aside from Juggernaut, there’s only one character—a female villain at that—who can knock down our mighty Colossus and make him kneel from pain. Angel Dust is Ajax’s subordinate and was also a product of the same experiments as Deadpool. She’s a ruthless combatant and a torturer of her victims, even though she was also made to endure her own harsh torturous experiments. Her superhuman abilities are on par with big guys like Colossus, who she can bring down single-handedly.
2. Briar Rose (The Curse of Sleeping Beauty)
Whereas Maleficent became the protagonist of a retold story based on one where she was the villain, this time we have Briar Rose, the original hero who becomes the villain. In The Curse of Sleeping Beauty, Briar Rose ends up on the wrong side. The story is full of twists and deceits that artfully turn Briar Rose into a badass villain and a terrifying monster upon waking up.
1. Young-Sook (The Call)
In this past-meets-future movie, two girls from different times are able to communicate using a strange phone. Young-sook is the girl from the past, who’s able to make contact with Seo-yeon from the present. She looks wild and untamed because she’s been kept like an animal by her mother. When her fate becomes entwined with Seo-yeon’s, her greed and discontentment and unstable mind get the better of her. She’ll do anything to make Seo-yeon’s life miserable, stopping at nothing between her and her goal of hate-fueled revenge.
