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The old saying claims that a movie is only as good as its villains. And a one-dimensional villain or simply a lacking one can indeed ruin even a promising story. In recent years, the trend has been to make villains more fleshed out by giving them a tragic backstory.
While this strategy works and makes the villains seem more sympathetic to the audience, it's good to remember that a movie villain doesn't really need a tragic backstory to be awesome and loved by many viewers. Some of the best villains in movie history had many reasons for their actions than their tragic past, and they continue to fascinate people to this day.
6 Norman Stansfield
To many people, Gary Oldman will best be known for playing the sympathetic Sirius Black in the Harry Potter movie series. But Oldman has portrayed many roles over his career and proved that he can both be charming and chilling. In the case of Norman Stansfield from the 1994 movie Leon, it's the former. Stansfield murders Matilda's entire family, and then he relentlessly pursues her as well once she crosses his way.
The movie doesn't delve deep into his background, so the only thing the audience really knows about Stansfield is that he's a dirty cop...and a ruthless person. And because Gary Oldman manages to sell his character's most likely psychopathic tendencies, Norman Stansfield comes across as a genuine threat.
5 HAL 9000
Not every villain has to be a human or even a humanoid. Stanley Kubrick's 1968 science fiction movie 2001: A Space Odyssey is considered one of the best movie classics of all time. And a large part of its success can be attributed to the ship computer HAL 9000. HAL is originally friendly and ensures that the ship's crew has what they need and that the ship operates well. However, HAL eventually becomes evil and decides to kill the crew.
Considering his intelligence and the resources at his disposal, HAL is very capable of doing anything he wants, which makes him close to unstoppable. The movie clearly shows that putting too much power into the metaphorical hands of artificial intelligence is never a good idea since it can easily turn against those who created the AI in the first place.
4 The Terminator
While Arnold Schwarzenegger was an imposing villain in the first Terminator movie in 1984, his successor T-1000, portrayed by Robert Patrick, left an even stronger impression. Not only is T-1000 technologically more advanced than older versions of the Terminators but because his body is made of liquid metal, he can change his shape and assume the form of the people he killed.
T-1000 uses his considerable powers multiple times in the movie as he pursues the young John Connor, determined to kill him and change the future. What makes the Terminators especially frightening is that it's not possible to reason with them, unlike with some villains, and the only way how to stop them is by eliminating them. The lack of morals, empathy, or any actual feeling makes T-1000 a scary killing machine.
3 Thanos
As one of the biggest villains of the MCU and one of the few ones that actually succeeded in their plan, albeit for only a while, Thanos is one of the fan favorites. It helps that he doesn't have a tragic backstory. Thanos approaches his mission, his plan to erase half of all life in the universe, with calm rationality that makes him chilling and relentless.
Thanos also isn't without feelings, as he proves when he's forced to kill his adoptive daughter Gamora in order to get the Soul Stone. Despite that, Thanos makes the sacrifice, which demonstrates that fulfilling his goal is more important for him than the one person he loves. The heroes have defeated Thanos in the end, but there's no denying his actions have changed the MCU forever.
2 The Alien
The Terminator and The Alien are two of the most famous science fiction franchises. Perhaps it's not an accident that they work with a very similar type of villain, one that doesn't reason with its victims and goes after them with a determination that's difficult to fight with. The Alien has no respect for human lives and is much deadlier than the poor people who cross its way.
Since it's so alien, it's impossible to figure out what the Alien is thinking, or whether it's purely driven by instinct. Whatever the case, no rational person would have ever wanted to come across the Alien since it would rapidly lower their chance for survival.
1 Hans Landa
Colonel Hans Landa in Quentin Tarantino's movie Inglourious Basterds (2009) brought the actor Christoph Waltz international stardom. Despite working for the Nazis and pursuing Jews, many viewers of the movie liked Landa since he could be polite and charming when he wanted. He was also intelligent and defeated his enemies more than once.
So even though the good guys won in the end, Landa had a lot of facets to him and came across as a multidimensional villain without the need to delve into his background and give him a tragic backstory. In another actor's hand, the role could have turned to caricature, but Waltz delivered an unforgettable performance and won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for it.