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The most evil movie lines in the history of cinema

Yes, these are worse than 'sticks and stones'...

The most evil movie lines in the history of cinema
Marc Chacksfield
10 August 2022

While many of the most evil acts in film have been carried out without a word being uttered (yes shark in Jaws, we're referring to you), a mean-spirited one-liner has left carnage in its wake time and time again.

Here are the 50 most evil lines in the history of the movies - the most devious dialog ever uttered in movies. We don't recommend trying any of them out.

Let us know which ones we missed out at the bottom...


The most evil movie lines in the history of cinema

1. The Dark Knight

"Do you want to know why I use a knife? Guns are too quick. You can't savour all the... little emotions. In... you see, in their last moments, people show you who they really are."

The Joker (Heath Ledger)

2. The Return of the Jedi

"You underestimate the power of the Dark Side. If you will not fight, then you will meet your destiny!"

Darth Vader (James Earl Jones)

3. Se7en

"I visited your home this morning after you'd left. I tried to play husband. I tried to taste the life of a simple man. It didn't work out, so I took a souvenir... her pretty head."

John Doe (Kevin Spacey)

The most evil movie lines in the history of cinema

4. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

"If Mr. McMurphy doesn't want to take his medication orally, I'm sure we can arrange that he can have it some other way. But I don't think that he would like it."

Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher)


5. Wall Street

"The point is ladies and gentlemen that greed, for lack of a better word, is good."

Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas)

6. Saw II

"Oh, yes, there will be blood."

Jigsaw (Tobin Bell)

7. The Devil Wears Prada

"Is there some reason that my coffee isn't here? Has she died or something?"

Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep)


8. The Matrix

"Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You're a plague and we are the cure."

Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving)

9. Gladiator

"They tell me your son squealed like a girl when they nailed him to the cross."

Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix)

10. Moonraker

"Look after Mr Bond, see that some harm comes to him."

Drax (Michael Lonsdale)

11. Batman

"Ever danced with the Devil by the pale moonlight?"

The Joker (Jack Nicholson)

12. Wolf Creek

"I'm going to do something now they used to do in Vietnam. It's called making a head on a stick."

Mick Taylor (John Jarratt)Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

13. Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire

"Don't you turn your back on me, Harry Potter! I want you to look at me when I kill you! I want to see the light leave your eyes!"

Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes)

14. Revolutionary Road

"You're not worth the trouble it would take to hit you! You're not worth the powder it would take to blow you up. You are an empty, empty, hollow shell of a woman."

Frank Wheeler (Leonardo DiCaprio)

15. Superman

"It's kryptonite, Superman. Little souvenir from the old home town. I spared no expense to make you feel right at home."

Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman)

The most evil movie lines in the history of cinema

16. American Psycho

"I have all the characteristics of a human being: blood, flesh, skin, hair; but not a single, clear, identifiable emotion, except for greed and disgust."

Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale)

17. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves

"Cancel the kitchen scraps for lepers and orphans, no more merciful beheadings, and call off Christmas."

Sheriff of Nottingham (Alan Rickman)


18. The Silence of the Lambs

"A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti."

Hannibal Lector (Anthony Hopkins)

19. The Exorcist

"Your mother's in here, Karras. Would you like to leave a message? I'll see that she gets it."

Pazuzu (Linda Blair)

20. Double Indemnity

"I never loved you, Walter, you or anybody else. I'm rotten to the heart."

Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck)

21. Rocky IV

“If he dies, he dies.”

Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren)

22. It's A Wonderful Life

"You're worth more dead than alive!"

Mr. Potter (Lionel Barrymore)

23. The Witches

"Everywhere I look, I see the repulsive sight of hundreds, thousands of revolting little children."

Grand High Witch (Anjelica Huston)

24. Swimming With Sharks

"You are nothing! If you were in my toilet I wouldn't bother flushing it. My bathmat means more to me than you!"

Buddy (Kevin Spacey)

25. Training Day

"How you want it, dawg? Closed casket? Remember that fool in the wheelchair? How'd you think he got there?"

Alonzo Harris (Denzel Washington)

26. The Shawshank Redemption

"And the library? Gone... sealed off, brick-by-brick. We'll have us a little book barbecue in the yard. They'll see the flames for miles. We'll dance around it like wild Injuns! You understand me?"

Warden Norton (Bob Gunton)

27. In The Company Of Men

"Never trust anything that can bleed for a week and not die."

Chad (Aaron Eckhart)

28. It

"I'm every nightmare you've ever had. I'm your worst dream come true. I'm everything you ever were afraid of."

It (Tim Curry)

29. Ferris Bueller's Day Off

"How would you feel about another year of high school? Under my close personal supervision."

Ed Rooney (Jeffrey Jones)

The most evil movie lines in the history of cinema

30. Reservoir Dogs

"I don't give a good f*** what you know, or don't know, but I'm gonna torture you anyway, regardless. Not to get information. It's amusing, to me, to torture a cop."

Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen)


31. Office Space

"Oh, oh, and I almost forgot. Ahh, I'm also gonna need you to go ahead and come in on Sunday, too.."

Bill Lumbergh (Gary Cole)

32. Leon

"I take no pleasure in taking life if it's from a person who doesn't care about it."

Stansfield (Gary Oldman)

33. Shadow Of A Doubt

"Do you know, if you rip off the fronts of houses, you'd find swine? The world's a hell. What does it matter what happens in it?"

Uncle Charlie Oakley (Joseph Cotton)

34. Aladdin

"Now where were we? Ah, yes - abject humiliation!"

Jafar (Jonathan Freeman)


35. The Shining

"You didn’t let me finish my sentence. I said I’m not gonna hurt ya. I’m just gonna bash your brains in."

Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson)

36. Once Upon A Time In The West

"People scare better when tey're dying."

Frank (Henry Fonda)

37. Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring

"Hunt them down. Do not stop until they are found. You do not know pain, you do not know fear. You will taste man-flesh."

Saruman (Christopher Lee)

38. Mission: Impossible 3

"Do you have a wife? A girlfriend? Because if you do, I’m gonna find her. I’m gonna hurt her. I’m gonna make her bleed, and cry, and call out your name."

Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman)

39. Cape Fear

"I've got something planned for your wife and kid that they ain't ever gonna forget."

Max Cady (Robert Mitchum)

40. The Patriot

"Would you like a lesson, sir, in the rules of war? Or perhaps your children would?"

Colonel William Tavington (Jason Isaacs)

41. Pan's Labyrinth

"You’d do better to tell us everything. But to make sure it happens, I brought along a few tools."

Captain Vidal (Sergi López)

42. Batman Returns

"They wouldn't put me on a pedestal, so I'm layin' 'em on a slab!"

Penguin (Danny DeVito)

43. Con Air

"Before I kill you, Poe. I just wanted you to know the last thing that little Casey Poe ever gets to smell will be my stinking breath!"

Cyrus 'The Virus' Grissom (John Malkovich)

The most evil movie lines in the history of cinema

44. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

''I've done far worse than kill you, Admiral. I've hurt you. And I wish to go on hurting you."

Khan (Ricardo Montalban)

45. Kill Bill: Volume Two

"I'm a killer, a murdering bastard. And there are consequences to breaking the heart of a murdering bastard."

Bill (David Carradine)

46. Flash Gordon

"I like to play with things a while before annihilation."

Ming The Merciless (Max Von Sydow)

47. 300

"Imagine what horrible fate awaits my enemies when I would gladly kill any of my own men for victory."

Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro)


48. Bram Stoker's Dracula

"I am the monster that breathing men would kill. I am Dracula."

Dracula (Gary Oldman)

49. There Will Be Blood

"I have a competition in me. I want no one else to succeed. I hate most people."

Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis)


50. Rob Roy

"I will tell you something, to take with you. Your wife was far sweeter forced than many are willing."

Archibald Cunningham (Tim Roth)

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