Throughout history, movies have introduced us to some iconic characters. From Darth Vader to Forrest Gump, from Tony Stark to Michael Corleone, we have met the characters who have changed the pop-culture landscape forever. These characters are complex, layered and compelling. They develop stories and keep the audience engaged.
Unfortunately, we have also been introduced to some of the most insufferable characters imaginable. Over the years, some of these characters have become iconic, and some of these characters immediately became universally hated by viewers across the world. However, the one thing they all have in common is that despite the opinions of society, they are all incredibly infuriating.
Below are the 15 worst characters in the history of cinema.
15. God, Bruce Almighty
A movie in which God gives all of his powers to a clinically depressed guy from Buffalo who was just fired for going absolutely berserk on all of his coworkers on live TV sounds like the plot of a horror movie. That was wholly irresponsible.
That guy, drunk with power, goes on to force a monkey out of another man’s anus as a sick form of retribution, have a meteor strike Earth for better TV ratings, ruin the career of a workplace associate, and frame rival newscasters with copious amounts of drugs.
Everybody laughs at Bruce Almighty, but the real story here is that God just sat back and let all of this happen so that he could prove a point to one guy who said his job was easy. He put 7 billion people at risk because one guy criticized him. That is absolutely inexcusable.
14. Rose Tico, Star Wars: The Last Jedi
God damn it Rose. Finn was on his way to completing the greatest story arc in the entirety of the Star Wars franchise. Sacrificing himself to save the rebellion by stopping the very people for whom he used to work would have been stellar character development.
After she prevented him from stopping the Empire, Finn walked over to the wreckage in which she laid, and asked her what in the world she thought she was doing. She mutters some nonsense (likely due to a concussion), calls Finn a dummy, then plants the most awkward kiss in cinematic history on him. It was like watching two 8th graders, who have no idea what they were doing, go at it and it made the entire world’s collective skin crawl.
Not to mention, if Rose had let him die in The Last Jedi, and complete his arc there would never have been that weirdly forced romantic storyline between Finn and Jannah in The Rise of Skywalker.
Outside of that, Rose spent the majority of her screen time complaining about how hard her life had been. Growing up poor seems like small potatoes when there is a spaceship that is literally eviscerating planets to dust within seconds.
Jar Jar Binks will not appear on this list, because at least as children, we were able to laugh at him. Rose is just horrific for all ages.
13. Vito Corleone, The Godfather Part I
When Marlon Brando brought Don Vito Corleone to life in The Godfather Part I, he introduced us to what would become the most overrated movie character ever. The truth is that compared to Michael, Sonny and Tom, Vito is a terrible character with absolutely no complexity.
Michael juggled his family life, his professional life and his romantic life. Sonny was dedicated to his brothers, his sister, his father and his kids. He refused to let anyone hurt his loved ones. He was also a ruthlessly aggressive mobster who always did what he thought would benefit the entire crime family. Tom showed fierce loyalty at every turn despite his Irish heritage keeping him from climbing the ranks.
Vito mumbled at people, looked like he had 3 pounds of chewing tobacco in his mouth, got shot, and had a heart attack. That was literally his whole story. Robert DeNiro later brought a younger, more active and complex Vito to life. But prior to that Vito was just like an old dog that you desperately needed to put down because he was more of a nuisance than anything.
12. Ginny Weasley, Harry Potter
Ginny was weird and feeble. First notable thing she does is write in a diary that “talks back to her”. If someone came up to you and said their best friend was a book would you even CONSIDER talking to them? Weirdo.
To make her even weirder, she also has her pet snake almost kill a cat. Later on she decided to write a sinister message on the wall of her school IN BLOOD. Am I crazy or does this sound like the origin of a serial killer?
Ginny then opened up the Chamber of Secrets because her best friend (a book) told her to do so. Absurd. And as if it wasn’t bad enough that she fell victim to a leatherbound book and opened up a part of the school that hadn’t been accessed in 50 years, when they find her, SHE IS NAPPING ON THE FLOOR OF THE CHAMBER. Completely useless.
We don’t see Ginny do anything else of note until The Order of the Phoenix. In that film, she casts two spells. The first destroys the practice dummy that the entire class was using because Ginny is a selfish weirdo who has a craving for excessive violence. The second spell she casts misses all of her enemies, causes thousands of dollars worth of damage and almost kills all of her friends.
In Deathly Hallows Part 2, her mother fights her only battle, as she forces sweet Molly Weasley to murder someone because Ginny simply doesn’t have the stones. In the ultimate Hail Mary attempt to stay relevant in the story, she grabs Harry to make out while the school is under attack and people are dying all around them. Just a tremendous waste of everyone’s time. She did not deserve Harry…. or screen time.
11. Rose Dawson, Titanic
Rose is a shining example of a girl who rebels for attention. Everyone look at me with the poor guy! Please daddy, pay attention to me.
Early on, we see Rose try to jump off the boat because she’s unhappy in her life of riches, while she heads to America on the most expensive cruise in history, for which she did not pay a dime. But it’s okay because when Jack tries to talk her down, she BERATES him because he’s not rich. Then she treats him like dirt again the next day, because, you guessed it, he’s not rich. Pretty pompous for someone with no discernible talent, living off daddy’s money.
THEN when the boat is sinking and everyone is BEGGING to get a seat on the lifeboats, she gives up her seat to go find that guy she met on a cruise four days ago. I want you to sit back and think about that. You meet someone and then four days later give up sure survival to go roll the dice with the poor guy you met the other day.
And as we all know…. the hogged door. Couldn’t share the door. Probably because he was poor.
10. Bruce Banner, The Avengers
Let’s look at a timeline of Hulk’s actions throughout the Marvel Infinity Saga.
First, in The Avengers, he spends the whole movie whining that he can’t control his powers, he attacks his allies and then reveals that he can, in fact, control his powers, thus negating everything he’s said to that point.
Second, in Avengers: Age of Ultron, Bruce spends the entire movie getting absolutely BODIED by Tony Stark both physically and mentally. Tony bullies him so bad, I’m surprised he didn’t shove him in a locker and take his lunch money.
Then, in Avengers: Infinity War, he gets smoked so bad by Thanos that he literally becomes unable to access his only superpower. Basically he got the superhero version of erectile dysfunction. He then says the most unnecessary line in the entire Infinity Saga.
Thanos rolls up to Wakanda wearing an Infinity Gauntlet decked out with FIVE Infinity Stones. 83% of the stones are sitting on the right hand of an 8’3 purple beast who just appeared out of a blue cloud. At this point, Bruce Banner dramatically looks to Captain America and says “Cap, that’s him.”
IS IT BRUCE?! THANK YOU FOR TELLING ME. I WAS UNABLE TO SNIFF THAT ONE OUT. YOU SOME SORT OF SCIENTIST? THANK GOD WE KEEP YOU AROUND OR ELSE WE WOULDN’T HAVE THIS INCREDIBLE INSIDE INTEL!
Finally, in the Avengers: Endgame final battle, he does not contribute in the slightest. Stands around twiddling his thumbs because he has a booboo arm.
In conclusion, Bruce Banner is an absolute useless waste of space.
9. Dorothy Gale, The Wizard of Oz
I know when she flew into Oz in a house and crushed the Wicked Witch of the East, it was unintentional. HOWEVER, involuntary manslaughter is at least an eight year prison sentence. Dorothy is a murderer. Plain and simple. Why is it that when Liam Neeson wants revenge, he’s touted as a hero and gets three movies, but when the Wicked Witch of the West wants revenge, she’s a horrid villain.
On top of that, when all of her friends get gifts from Oz at the end of the movie, she isn’t supportive. She immediately asks “Anything for me?!” No you greedy little nobody. Pipe down. The adults are talking.
Finally, right before she leaves, she turns to the Scarecrow and she straight up tells him that she’ll miss him most of all. She says this while standing THREE FEET AWAY FROM THE OTHER TWO GUYS WHO JUST RISKED THEIR LIVES FOR HER. If Lion and TinMan just decided to kill her right there, they would have been within their rights after that disrespect.
8. Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter
Kind of a dick. Right off the bat in The Sorcerer’s Stone he just decides to give 170 points, and the House Cup to Gryffindor just to watch the Slytherin kids cry. For Christ’s sake, he gives Ron 50 points because he’s good at chess. 50 points for being a nerd.
Then, in The Goblet of Fire, he just shoves Harry into a wall because he’s mad at him. Absolutely not allowed. He’s a teacher. Can’t just hit kids. What year is this?
Later on, in The Order of the Phoenix, Harry needs serious help coping with Voldemort’s return and Dumbledore just straight up ghosts him. Worst thing ever happened? Better put my phone on Do Not Disturb so that geek with the glasses doesn’t bother me.
To cap it all off, in The Half-Blood Prince, the first time we see Dumbledore, he’s staring at a lingerie ad in a train station for what feels like an eternity. I mean, what an absolute creep. Gettin’ his jollies from a Victoria’s Secret ad? This guy is educating our children?
7. Captain America, The Avengers
There is not a more self-righteous, narcissistic, egomaniacal character in the history of film. First off he breaks the law and tries to illegally sneak into the army, as if the US Military simply could not live without him.
He then goes on to get juiced up with nuclear steroids and acts like that makes him better than everyone else. He’s basically the Barry Bonds of superheroes, only with half the charm and a fraction of the stats.
He goes against the US Government and harbors a serial killer, because he “knows him”, and expects everyone else to go along with it just because he says so.
On a smaller scale, one time Iron Man said “shit” and Captain America decided to scold him like a tween in front of all of his colleagues because he’s above swearing. Imagine a grown man reprimanding another grown man because he said “shit”.
6. Private Upham, Saving Private Ryan
Saving Private Ryan was, by all accounts, a masterpiece. In an otherwise flawless movie, there is but one blemish. Private Upham just makes mistake after mistake and never redeems himself.
His crowning achievement is convincing Tom Hanks to let a German prisoner go. That German later goes on to kill not one, not two, but THREE members of Upham’s unit.
The kicker, however, is that after the German kills two of Upham’s friends, UPHAM JUST LETS HIM WALK RIGHT BY WHILE HE COWERS AWAY AND CRIES LIKE THE BETA HE REALLY IS (see above picture).
He goes on to kill that German. But at that point the German had already killed Tom Hanks. That was sort of like asking for applause because you poured a cup of water on a fire you started.
Guy is just an insufferable piece of garbage and deserved to be tortured by the Axis powers.
5. Jenny Curran, Forrest Gump
What would you do if I told you that a mentally handicapped person, with whom you grew up, has been in love with you for 40 years and would walk to the end of the Earth for you?
Would you completely ignore them, never give them the time of day, go out into the world, contract AIDS, get pregnant, return, and die, leaving the mentally handicapped person with an AIDS baby?
BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT JENNY DID.
“I love you, Jenny” K here’s AIDS and a baby. PEACE
Horrid HORRID woman.
4. Rachel Dawes, The Dark Knight
What a useless human being. Her ex-boyfriend is Batman. Her current boyfriend is the best district attorney on the planet. She just stands beside them and takes all the credit for them putting away criminals.
Like in what world does Rachel belong as a lawyer on the biggest cases in Gotham City? Just because she’s slamming the DA she gets top level clearance?
To make matters worse, she tells both Batman and Harvey Dent that they should quit their jobs as defenders of Gotham and just run away with her. She doesn’t even care about the city! “Let these people die” says Rachel probably.
It brings me such joy that in The Dark Knight the Joker tricks Batman and the police and nobody makes it to Rachel in time. She died thinking that nobody cared about her and that she was irrelevant, which, of course, she was.
3. Daisy Buchanan, The Great Gatsby
The gold standard of terrible women. She can’t decide between Tom or Gatsby so what does she do? She just continues to juggle both of them. She toys with both of their feelings because she can.
To be fair, they both have redeeming qualities. Gatsby left and became a millionaire so that he could return and give Daisy a better life. Tom constantly cheated on her and mercilessly beat the living daylights out of her. So you can see where she couldn’t make a decision.
Gatsby goes on to get murdered because Tom set him up and Daisy doesn’t even attend the funeral. I’m not gonna sit here and say she deserved a nightmare husband who cheats on her. But I will say….that’s what you get.
2. Grandpa Joe, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
The single greatest piece of garbage in history. Not just movie history. All history.
The Bucket family was eating boiled water with a lil bit of cabbage for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. Their roof had a person-sized hole in it and they just left it there.
When I say they were the poorest of the poor, I mean they were like one step above a homeless guy on the N Train sitting in his own feces.
With four, that’s right, FOUR, disabled grandparents laying in a bed (in the middle of the living room, for some reason), the Buckets had seven mouths to feed.
Suddenly, when Charlie wins a free tour of a chocolate factory, Grandpa Joe can walk. Excuse me. I misspoke. He leaps out of bed, dances around and hits a tight musical number that he had clearly rehearsed prior to that moment.
So after years of swindling a poor family out of whatever little amounts of money they had by pretending to be crippled, he goes to the factory and immediately breaks the rules jeopardizing riches for the whole family.
In the end of the film, when that crackhead Willy Wonka flips out on a tween for no reason, Grandpa Joe just tucks his tail between his legs and runs. He can’t even defend his goddamn grandson? Just a con artist who could not give any less of a damn about anyone but himself.
Honorable Mentions:
Black Widow, The Avengers
I love that scene in The Avengers when Iron Man fires up the phasers, Captain America grabs the shield, Thor catches the hammer, Hawkeye readies the bow and arrow, Hulk flexes and Black Widow……..loads a pistol? There are aliens coming out of a hole in the sky and you’re….loading a Glock?
Tommy Huff, Step Brothers
While he may be in just two scenes, Tommy Huff managed to piss off the entire world. His solo in Sweet Child O’ Mine and his delivery of “What’s this guy’s deal?” are forever burned into my brain. Loathe entirely.
1. Woody, Toy Story
Woody runs an absolute clinic on being a sociopathic borderline murderer throughout the Toy Story franchise.
In Toy Story, Buzz Lightyear comes in and gets attention from all of Woody’s friends, so Woody KICKS HIM OUT A WINDOW. After his attempted murder, Woody doesn’t even think twice about lying to his peers about Buzz Lightyear’s whereabouts. Woody spends the remainder of the movie telling Buzz how insignificant and irrelevant he is.
In Toy Story 2, Woody gets pumped about his new home in a museum with his new clique. However, as soon as his friends return, he drops his new companions like a hot potato, and shows no emotions about it, like the true sociopath he is.
In Toy Story 3, Woody forces everyone to vow to stay together no matter their fate. Then when Andy tosses everyone in the trash but Woody, he backs out of the pact and goes his own way. He masterminded a suicide pact and then backed out when all of his friends hung themselves.
In Toy Story 4, Woody leaves his friends of 20 years basically because his ex texted him “U up?”. Be any more of a simp, Woody. You can’t.
Every installment of Toy Story features another tremendous flaw to Woody’s already impressively long resumè of atrocious acts.
Ranked by Tom Fitzgerald
Written by Tom Fitzgerald
Edited by Jake Zall & Nick Mandala