The 25 Most Physically Dominant Movie Villains of All Time

T-800 Model 101

Played by: Arnold Schwarzenegger

Movie: The Terminator, 1984

Dossier: Before he turned heroic in later installments, Schwarzenegger’s musclebound robotic villain tried to hunt down Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) to stop her from giving birth to John Connor—the man who would lead the resistance against the machines. Schwarzenegger’s days as a champion bodybuilder made him perfect for the part—so intimidating, in fact, that he only needed a few lines and a handful of menacing stares to immediately become one of the most memorable movie villains of all time. The Terminator had his hands on some humongous guns in the film, but he did just as much work with his jumbo biceps. Check out Arnold’s daily workout and watch how he bulks up and stays in shape.

Bane

Played by: Tom Hardy

Movie: The Dark Knight Rises, 2012

Dossier: Director Christopher Nolan wanted a physical nemesis for Batman (Christian Bale) after Gotham’s defender took on The Joker in The Dark Knight and damn, did he get one in Hardy’s Bane. The actor put on over 30 pounds of muscle and pure body mass to play the villain, doing four training sessions per day to turn into the imposing physical menace borrowed from one of the darkest storylines in comics history. Hardy’s character, a superstrong mastermind, breaks Batman’s back and holds all of Gotham hostage before being taken down in the climax of the movie, but his hulking presence and Hardy’s performance made Bane one of the toughest, most physically dominant villains ever.

Deckard Shaw

Played by: Jason Statham

Movie: Furious 7, 2015

Villain Info: Shaw gets the full Statham treatment—meaning some badass fights, witty one-liners, and more than enough menacing stares—as the villain takes on Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Vin Diesel in the seventh installment of the mega Fast & Furious franchise. Statham has made a career of playing likable antiheroes, but here he totally owns the villain label and plays it to perfection, getting himself into some action-packed situations.

Mr. Hinx

Played by: Dave Bautista

Movie: Spectre, 2015

Villain Info: The 6’5” former wrestler and Guardians of the Galaxy hero put his spin on the classic Bond villain, truly getting into the role during filming with Daniel Craig’s 007. “Dave Bautista was picking me up and throwing me,” Craig said of the filming. In one of the most memorable sequences in Bond filmography, the two battle it out on a train, moving from car to car with punches, kicks, and choke-holds.

Victor Creed a.k.a. Sabretooth

Played by: Liev Schreiber

Movie: X-Men Origins: Wolverine, 2009

Villain Info: Battling Hugh Jackman in any movie is tough, but when he’s portraying Wolverine, you’d better come prepared for a fight. Schreiber, a cinematic martial arts specialist, worked out hard in the gym to take on his character’s mutant half-brother—it really shows in this fight between the two characters—adding 30 pounds of muscle to his already imposing 6′3″ frame.

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Jean Vilain

Played by: Jean-Claude Van Damme

Movie: Expendables 2, 2012

Villain Info: Taking on a crew that includes kickass dudes Sylvester Stallone, Liam Hemsworth, Jet Li, Terry Crews, and Statham is no easy task, JCVD gets it done in this sequel. Playing Jean Vilain—look, the franchise was never really big on creativity—and joined by a right-hand man played by martial arts master Scott Adkins, Van Damme goes full Kickboxer mode in his badass battle with Stallone. We won’t tell you how the fight ends, but it’s a wild one.

General Zod

Played by: Michael Shannon

Movie: Man of Steel, 2013

Villain Info: Going up against former Men’s Fitness cover star Henry Cavill is tough—especially when you check out his Superman workout program—but Shannon was perfectly cast as the manic Kryptonian villain who puts the Man of Steel through a skyscraper or two. The actor was “all about the squats” during his training for the film, bulking up with trainer Mark Twight (who has worked with Jason Momoa, Ray Fisher, and director Zack Snyder on Justice League), getting Shannon in shape enough to take on the ‘Man of Steel’ as the two basically destroy all of downtown Metropolis in the film.

Bucky Barnes, a.k.a. The Winter Soldier

Played by: Sebastian Stan

Movie: Captain America: The Winter Soldier, 2014

Villain Info: Bionic arm? Check. Cool hair? Check. Tortured backstory? Check. Stan followed a rigorous training routine to get in shape for this film—and for the sequel, Captain America: Civil War—and prepare for battle with Captain America, played by the jacked, helicopter-stopping Chris Evans.

Clubber Lang

Played by: Mr. T

Movie: Rocky III, 1982

Villain Info: What’s his prediction for the fight? PAIN. That’s just one of the classic lines (in addition to “I pity the fool” ) spouted by the bad guy tailor-made for the first truly nasty dude faced by Rocky Balboa (Stallone). Supposedly a combo of legendary boxers like Sonny Liston, Larry Holmes, and George Foreman, “The Southside Slugger” infuriates Rocky by pushing his mentor Mickey, causing a fatal heart attack—and knocking out the Italian Stallion himself.

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Cain Marko a.k.a. Juggernaut

Played by: Vinnie Jones

Movie: X-Men: The Last Stand, 2006

Villain Info: Jones bulked up to play the 900-pound villain—an epic feat for even the most muscular actor. So he was fitted with a muscle suit that took four hours to apply, leading to a (yes, somewhat prosthetic) jackedness for the former professional soccer player. The unstoppable mutant battles against Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, and runs through walls, soldiers, and more walls. But in all honesty, the battle is almost irrelevant—few movie one-liners are better than “I’m the Juggernaut, bitch!”

Slade Wilson a.k.a. Deathstroke

Villain Name: Joe Manganiello

Movies: Justice League, 2017

Villain Info: The April 2016 Men’s Fitness cover star will don the assassin’s mask in the DC Entertainment Universe, taking on heroes in his own solo film after appearing in Justice League. Deathstroke is no ordinary mercenary—he possesses super strength, speed, and agility, and he’s an expert in all forms of hand-to-hand combat and martial arts—making the 6′5″ goliath the perfect physical specimen to step in as the villain. 

Ivan Drago

Played by: Dolph Lundgren

Movie: Rocky IV, 1985

Villain Info: Dolph Lundgren was chiseled, jacked, and seemingly cut from stone as the 6’5”, 260-pound Soviet boxer who was grown and molded to be a champion. Armed with a punch that hits with 2000 psi, the Russian (Lundgren is actually Swedish) kills Apollo Creed in the boxing ring to set up the showdown between Rocky and Drago—later sparking one of the greatest training montages ever seen on film—where he says, “I must break you,” before going 15 rounds with the Italian Tank.

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Another villain note: Lundgren almost “killed” Stallone while filming the movie: “After the third take of taking body blows, I felt a burning in my chest, but ignored it,” Stallone said to Ain’t It Cool News. “Later that night I couldn’t breathe very well, and they took me to the emergency room…The next thing I knew I was on a low-altitude flight from Canada to St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica, and there I resided in intensive care for eight days…He struck me so hard in the chest that my heart slammed against my breastbone and began to swell, so the beating became labored, and without medical attention the heart would’ve continued to swell until it stopped. Many people that have car accidents die like this when the steering wheel slams into their chest. So in a sense I was hit by ‘a streetcar named Drago.’”

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Rictus Erectus

Played by: Nathan Jones

Movie: Mad Max: Fury Road, 2015

Villain Info: The 7’0”, 300-plus-pound former powerlifting champion, strongman, professional wrestler, and convicted criminal—yeah, he served time in a maximum security prison for crimes committed during his youth, so he has some real-life experience for his movie career—taunted Tom Hardy’s Max in the Academy Award-winning film, armed with weapons, huge arms, and a big temper. Jones said that the shoot was wild, fun, and “full of energy.”

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Firefly

Villain Name: Ray Stevenson

Movie: G.I. Joe: Retaliation, 2013

Villain Info: The 6′4″ actor is no stranger to playing villains and badasses in films—he played the antihero Frank Castle a.k.a. The Punisher in Punisher: War Zone, Volstagg in Thor, and Titus Pullo in Rome—but he’s especially threatening as Firefly, a Cobra Organization mercenary who blows up a ton of stuff and wages battle against the Joe’s. Firefly goes head to head with Dwayne Johnson’s Roadblock multiple times in the movie—and anyone who can survive a battle with The Rock is a badass villain indeed.

Gregor Clegane a.k.a. The Mountain

Played by: Thor Björnsson

TV Show: Game of Thrones, 2011

Villain Info: Okay, fine: Game of Thrones an HBO show, and not a movie. But the series basically is one huge, awesome, sprawling movie-like epic, so we’ll allow it. Whether he’s protecting Cersei Lannister, crushing dudes with his bare hands, coming back from the dead, or murdering innocents, “The Mountain”—a nickname Bjornsson adopted for himself as well—is one of the most terrifying villains in entertainment. All Thrones fans remember this scene: Clegane battling with the Oberyn Martell (a.k.a. The Red Viper) in a trial by combat, in which Martell gets the best of the gigantic villain before the tables completely turn, and then…well, you should probably look away if you haven’t already seen it. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Colt

Played by: Chuck Norris

Movie: Return of the Dragon (aka Way of the Dragon), 1972

Villain Info: Two martial arts legends to go head-to-head in this film, with Bruce Lee taking down Norris in the climactic final battle to the death—and one located in the Coliseum, no less. It is one of the most iconic fight scenes in all of martial arts cinema: Two actors at the peak of their powers, dishing out a flurry of fantastic kicks, punches, and elbows—and only one man walks away victorious.

Anno Tanaka

Played by: Shidô Nakamura

Movie: Fearless, 2006

Villain Info: Not all great villains are huge—some are distillations of pure deadly skill. Nakamura does battle with action legend Jet Li in this film set in the final years of the Qing Dynasty, battling with swords and martial arts mastery.

Zangief

Played by: Andrew Bryniarski

Movie: Street Fighter, 1994

Villain Info: Arguably the most physically imposing villain from this perfectly campy cult classic, Bryniarski portrays the enormous fighter (and hulking character from the video game) Zangief, Bison’s massive bodyguard. He has an intense fight with the character E. Honda—tank-vs.-tank showdown against Peter “Navy” Tuiasosopo’s Samoan giant—before ultimately connecting with none other than Jean-Claude Van Damme’s Colonel Guile.

Chong Li

Played by: Bolo Yeung

Movie: Bloodsport, 1988

Villain Info: Yeung stars as the final nemesis of Jean-Claude Van Damme’s character in this film, in which the two have a brutal fight to the finish. Yeung, a famous Chinese bodybuilder and a mainstay brute of martial arts movies throughout the 1980s and 1990s, is the glacier to JCVD’s ice pick in one of the most brutal action movies ever produced. (It turns out Yeung had some good genes—his son went on to become a bodybuilder too.)

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Jaws

Played by: Richard Kiel

Movies: The Spy Who Loved Me, 1977, and Moonraker, 1979

Villain Info: Fine, he’s not exactly shredded. But no Bond villain ever projected such an aura of physical invincibility as Jaws, the super-strong, steel-toothed giant (Kiel stood 7’2″) who battled with Roger Moore’s super-spy (not to mention a freaking shark) in two films. It’s a rare Bond villain who makes a reprise. Also, let’s not forget one of Kiel’s most memorable roles as Mr. Larson in Happy Gilmore.