Top 20 Movie Villains With Justifiable Motives

Turns out these movie villains ain't all bad. For this list, we’ll be looking at villains who actually had some good points. Our countdown includes "The Matrix", "Looper", “Captain America: Civil War”, “The Rock”, "Black Panther", and more! Did we miss your favorite sympathetic villain? Let us know in the comments.

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[BigFella]

“As children we love the heroes, but when we grow older we understand the villains.”

[TheGrandThrawn]

Thanos placed at 10th lol, just in the middle, perfectly balanced.

[leemangaming]

Magneto's motivatives in the X-Men really make sense especially with how damaged humans made him in the first place. Why should he treat humans with respect when they always hate for who he is not matter what he does; which is like what the Green Goblin said to Spider-Man "despite everything you've done for them, eventually they will hate."

[newelljoseph]

The scene where Magneto was preparing to throw the missiles back at the army and Charles says 'they are just following orders' to people like Magneto who suffered at the hands of Nazi soldiers who explained away their sadism with such a line, was hands down the poorest choice of words ever

[elkensteyin]

There is one scene in the first X-Men that really holds the most emphasis for me. When Magneto & Senator Robert Kelly finally meet, Kelly says that mutants should be tagged and managed, and then Magneto shows him his arm where he was tattooed by the Nazi's, saying he's already had that happen to himself. That was enough for me to be on team Magneto after that.

[prithvirajbasu]

Especially with Barbossa in this, How on earth can Davy Jones be forgotten? His motivations came from being broken hearted and betrayed by Calypso.

[toddstarks]

I would also have to add.. Gerard Butler in “Law Abiding Citizen”. And Russell Crow in “Unhinged”.. they cut him off for gods sake.

[emilyglass]

Magneto is my favorite complex villain. He survived the Holocaust and has seen mutants get treated like dirt despite saving everyone's butts over a hundred times so he kind of has a point on why he does what he does even though he's the big bad of the X-Men franchise.

[christophermerlot]

You forgot Bruce the shark from Jaws. He has the most sympathetic motive of all: the munchies.

[argoth]

Spider-Man 3 also has one of my favorite scenes in it: Sandman's transformation. There are no words as he materializes himself, and the image of him trying to grab that locket still hits me right in the heart. Being able to pick it up is what gets him into a more solid form. It's a beautiful scene in a terrible movie.

[kevinclapson]

Killmonger loses a lot of steam as a sympathetic or justifiable villain when you pay attention to the movie. He wasn't out to liberate, he was out to overthrow and recreate the world order with HIM at the top. The entire character is an analog for the dangers of the "its ok when we do it" mentality. I've said it for years, his fathers character was the more interesting and sympathetic character.

Ditto Barbosa. All his suffering was literally due to his own selfishness. Hard to justify someone that did it to themselves.

[HappywifeTaylor]

I agree with magneto being number 1. As humans we have always been afraid of what we don't understand. He has every right.

[henri]

"Just bury me in the ocean...with my ancestors that jumped from the ships, because they knew that death was better than bondage" - Killmonger during his death

[HunterShark]

Koba is one of the most underrated and original villains in cinematic history. Matt Reeves is a genius.

[theprofessor]

I was just thinking about *Raoul Silva* from *Skyfall.* While one couldn't condone the hell he unleashes, the circumstances that drove him to become the monster as we know can't be overlooked for sure.

[williamthomas]

honestly Magneto is far more sympathetic in the comics and tv series then he was in the movies. The most sympathetic he gets was in Xmen Apocalypse. Just trying to live his live with his family than having them all killed in front of him made him join Apocalypse was very understandable. But once again, you are seriously under utilizing Roy Batty here. He was definitely the villain in Blade Runner, but he doesn't really try to commit genocide like Magneto in X-Man 2 nor does he kill a bunch of people like with Killmonger and Koba. He even saves Dekard's live saying now you know how it feels. If that's not sympathetic, I don't know what is.

[stevegallo]

Magneto's goal, to protect his fellow mutants, was noble. The way he went about trying to achieve it was not. It's easy to see why he went about it the way he did though, with his parents being sent to concentration camps.

[williamthomas]

Also I'd put Ghost in there from Antman and the Wasp. She was turned into a weapon and all she wanted to do was survive. Very understandable.

[alexlazzerly]

Vulture from Spiderman Homecoming immediately came to mind for me. He was just providing for his family.

[Lupinemancer]

I always felt that Magneto had a just cause and if I had been a Mutant as well, chances are I'd have joined him.