Every movie needs an antagonist, and among the most hateful is the image of the traitor. The traitor can be a spy, a snitch, or a thief, but it's usually the character that the audience hates the most. Something about the idea of a betrayer awakens the most visceral, raw hatred in the viewing public, and the most infamous villains in cinematic history have always been traitors — those who stab their friends in the back and betray those who trusted them.Looking at some of history's most memorable traitors on film, it's interesting to note that the movies in which they appear are some of the greatest movies of all time. It goes to show that the better the villain, the better the movies.
8 Fredo Corleone, The Godfather: Part II (1974)
There are mixed feelings about Fredo Corleone, given his portrayal as a harmless idiot, but Michael sees this as a serious liability. It was his father who chastised his older brother Salvatore with such severity for openly challenging the family in the first movie, and this is an echo of that sentiment along with an expression of Michael's descent into paranoid madness.
Fredo is one of those traitors that's hateful because he seems to have little understanding about what his family does, aside from how much it affords him personally. He left his brother and his family open to an assassination attempt and then lied about it, which is silly considering the environment in which he grew up. What did he expect Michael to do?
7 Cypher, The Matrix (1999)
As soon as Cypher tells Trinity that for a long time, he thought he was in love with her, plenty of viewers groan and roll their eyes. We all know this guy: the bitter obsessive whiner who can't take a hint, and if he can't have the girl, nobody will. That's Cypher, who wished that he had taken the blue pill instead.
It's not that the audience isn't sympathetic with this former hacker's plight. That juicy steak beats the heck out of tasteless snotty oatmeal, and everyone watching the movie has been there. The problem is that we like Neo, Trinity, and especially Morpheus more than we like him. When he burns, the audience cheers.
6 Archibald Cunningham, Rob Roy (1995)
Few other bad guys evoke the same visceral reaction in movie viewers as Archie Cunningham, the many-faced antagonist of Rob Roy. He betrays so many of his allies, including his own mother, that it's hard to keep track.
Archie's rampage across the Scottish countryside includes stealing from his former friends to cover gambling debts, rejecting the mother of his unborn child, and literally raping and pillaging the fiefdoms of Scotland that are the property of his host, Montrose. The final duel is a bit anti-climatic considering what a hateful character Archie was.
5 Saruman, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring (2001)
Saruman betrays his allies and takes Sauron's side in The Fellowship of the Ring and meets his untimely end in the next movie. However, in the books, this character is allowed to live on a while longer and manages to betray the terms of that deal, too.
Saruman isn't just any Wizard, either. Nobody would have cared if Radagast had turned bad. But Saruman is the head of the Council and the most powerful Wizard in Middle Earth. Not only has he been messing with a Palantir, but he's also been using it to talk to the Big Bad in Mordor. No wonder Elrond was so upset about this.
4 Dennis Nedry, Jurassic Park (1993)
Viewers can sympathize with Dennis Nedry's financial issues, but as his boss says, they are his problems. Rather than be a grown-up and deal with these issues responsibly, Nedry decides to steal a bunch of dinosaur embryos from his trusting employer and sell them to rival geneticists.
This is bad anyway, but what makes it even worse is that his greed and stupidity get a lot of people killed. His ending, on the other hand, is a perfect example of poetic justice and is extremely satisfying, even if it happens too early in the story.
3 Anakin Skywalker, Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005)
For anyone who's seen the original trilogy, it's already a foregone conclusion that Anakin Skywalker betrays the Jedi Order and becomes to a Sith Lord. The story of how he gets there is supposed to be what draws the viewer to sympathize with his character, but after three movies and some of the worst writing in movie history, that was never going to happen.
By the time viewers get to the third movie in the Star Wars prequels, however, there's very little here to sympathize with, and the viewer just wants him to stop whining. Anakin is a hateful traitor for the worst of all reasons: being a colossal bore.
2 Carter Burke, Aliens (1986)
This is another villain who's dangerous because of his superiority complex and greed as opposed to any kind of physical might. Carter Burke represents a private company on Earth that wants an alien baby, because why not? Ripley tries to explain that isn't a great idea, but of course, he doesn't listen.
Most of the action, including the terror, pain, body horror, and death, that happens in the course of the film is thanks to Carter betraying everyone on the crew. Burke is so vicious and sinister that he locks Ripley and Newt, who is only a child, in a room with a face-hugger hoping one of them will be made into a host as a convenient way to get the alien back to earth.
1 006, Goldeneye (1995)
What kind of villain would be a match for James Bond? How about another MI6 agent with all the same gadgets and training as him, but also has a dark past and a massive chip on his shoulder? Alec Trevelyan is an equally badass spy who turns against Queen and country for revenge.
The other layer to this onion is that Trevelyan and Bond were friends in real life, and 007 takes his betrayal personally as well as professionally. The resolution is a good one, as it always is for characters played by Sean Bean, as Trevelyan's death is elaborate and messy.