21 Iconic Movie Villains That Weren't Villains At All

We're all familiar with the concept of a hero. The character whom we root for to triumph at the conclusion of the story, what about the other dude? That’s right: we're talking about villains!

Hollywood villains are a cornerstone of the film industry. Scratch that–iconic villains are often the cornerstones of the stories that feature them. They're the villains we love to despise and even sympathize with, even though they have their unique reasons for acting the way they do. Villains can sometimes be terrifying or hilarious, but they come in all different shapes as well as sizes in both cases.

Politicians can only dream of being as dishonest as Hollywood executives. They've already informed you who you're rooting for and who you want to lose horribly before you've even bought your overpriced bucket of pop corn. Things change dramatically when you remove all the explosions, tragedy, and wackiness and just look at the "protagonist" naked.

We sought the aid of image sorcerer AuntieMeme to help us lift the curtain off certain cinematic nice men who were all along the dickheads.