The most gratuitous "I am evil" scenes...

[VorpalBunny]

The one that really sticks out in my mind is Vader and Captain Antilles:

"... IF THIS IS A COUNSULATE SHIP, WHERE IS THE AMBASSADOR?!"

gurgle.... gurgle.... crunch

maybe not the best example of an "I'm pure evil" scene, but when you're nine years old it does make an impression...

 

[Dark Jezter]

I can't believe that nobody has mentioned Ernst Blofeld from the old James Bond movies. That guy had an "I am evil" scene in nearly every Bond film he appeared in... usually, it involved him killing one of his henchman an unpleasent manner because they failed him. From burning them alive to feeding them to pirahnas, Blofeld was the master of the "I am evil" scene.

Other famous characters who are unashamedly evil:

Prince Humperdink from the Princess Bride.

The Joker from the first Batman movie (although this could apply to pretty much all comic book villains).

Agent Smith from The Matrix ("What good is a phone if you have no voice?).

Every Republican character in any script written by Aaron Sorkin.

Edward Longshanks from Braveheart (prima nochte).

Jeremy Irons' character in the Dungeons & Dragons Movie.

 

[The Serge]

The Usual Suspects: When Keyser Soze kills off his entire family, two of the thugs that threatened them, and then let one go in order to send a message to anyone stupid or crazy enough to screw with him.

Return of the Jedi: Uhhh... From the moment that nasty old bastish walks off the shuttle, with the brooding male chorus in the background, we know that this guy's worse than Darth Vader. "Give into your anger. Take your Jedi weapon. Use it! With each passing moment, you become more my servant. It is unavoidable. It is your destiny. You -- like your father -- are now... MINE!" Evil bastish.

The Godfather II: Although most people are pretty ambivalent about Michael Corleone, I'm certain he's an evil bastish (the epitome of LE IMO). After discovering that his only surviving brother, Fredo, betrayed the family, Michael disowns him and tells him people to make sure that nothing happens to him while their mother lives. Fredo, sick with guilt, begs to be let back into the family, but Michael won't speak to him. It takes the death of their mother and their sister to convince Michael to see his brother at the wake. Michael confronts a tearful Fredo and the two embrace, Fredo clearly repentant for what he did and truly committed to his brother. However, we see Michael give one of his lieutenants a look... Afterall, their mother is dead.

X-Men United: Colonel Stryker's in his bunker, viewing the few mutant children he was able to take after his successful assault on Xavier's Institute on closed circuit. He is now ready to complete his goal to kill all mutants. When his henchman asks why Stryker's keeping the children, the Col. replies with a smile that, "I'm a scientist... I like to study the effects of my research."

X-Men United: Magneto manages to stop Xavier from destroying all mutants. Rather than free his old friend, he reworks Cerebro II and tells the hypnotized Xavier to kill all humanity before leaving his former friend to be sealed in a subterranean bunker forever.

There are many more... But the best are those that feature The Joker!

The Joker: When don't we have an "I am evil" scene from him. In The Dark Knight Returns, he kills the entire audience of a talk show (parodied from David Letterman) before beating the hell out of Selina Kyle before serving poisoned cotton candy to boy scouts before scattering bombs around a carnival before committing suicide in such a way to frame The Batman for his murder (in one of the best death scenes in any comic). In A Death in the Family he takes some medical supplies he plans on selling to the blackmarket... but rather than just replacing the real medicine with empty boxes, he switches it with his Laughing Gas... and then he beats Robin to death before blowing him and his mother up. In The Killing Joke, The Joker shots Barbara Gordon (witlessly -- we think -- ending her career as Batgirl), crippling her; then he strips her, takes pictures of her torture, and shows the pictures to a kidnapped Commissioner Gordon. And, finally, in No Man's Land, just before Gotham is reopened, to reflect that there is no hope, The Clown Prince of Crime kidnaps all of the babies born in No Man's Land a few days before, intent on blowing them up. Gordon's wife, Sarah Essen, finds him first and The Joker kills her and gives himself up. When Gordon confronts him and has an opportunity to kill him since Batman won't stop the execution, Gordon can't bring himself to shoot even as he commiserates over the fact that The Joker tortured him, crippled and tortured Barbara, and murdered his wife, The Joker says "Don't you have a son too?" Brilliant.

 

[Rhialto]

NO ONE is pure evil. Only cartoon villains, and even then, the best of them are not.

Serial killers. Various dictators, torturers, and other unpleasant individuals. Do a little looking and you'll find people who pretty much fit the bill, I'm afraid.

It just makes the whole plot unbelievable. I mean - if villains went around randomly killing henchmen, for instance, they'd soon find themselves alone - because no one would want to work for them.

Never stopped Adolf Hitler. Or Joe Stalin. Or Mao. Or Pol Pot. Or...

The best villains - the believable ones - are the ones with shades of grey. The villains who, but for a slight change of circumstances, would be heroes. Who perhaps could be heroes. But ok, I guess I'm getting off topic here.

See this is where I really find fault. Grey villains are fun, but they can be just as badly or as well-done as 'pure evil' villains. Both types have their place in the world, and in fiction.

And personally I'd say the bit in The Dragonbone Chair establishes character and is the first indication of the growing atmosphere of dread. But then again, I really like that book...

 

[Silver Moon]

In the Dirk Pitt Novel "Trojan Oddessy" by Clive Cussler (a good book btw). An bad gal kills a good gal and then carves an image of a Celtic running horse into her abdomen. No reason - just establishes the fact that the bad guys are really the bad guys.

I think you missed it, the reason for the killing was explained later on. She was a druid priestess and killing the woman was a human sacrifice with the horse carving being part of the ritual. She took the extra time for the sacrifice to grant herself luck in making a successful escape. And yes, it was a good book.

 

[takyris]

The key word here is Gratuitous. Gratuitous is generally considered a not-positive word. In the literary sense, something gratuitous is something that is thrown in there far more than necessary in order to ham-handedly whack the reader over the head with something that the author wants them to understand.

I thought that Darth Vader's killing of the captain wasn't gratuitous, because we hadn't seen much of Vader at this point in the film. It established his villainous nature in a very impressive and scary method, but it didn't insult the audience with its obviousness (ie, Vader didn't take a lightsaber to a puppy in order to use the puppy's blood to distill an illegal street drug that he would then sell to orphans in exchange for kitten carcasses, which I had a villain in one of my Action Movie d20 Modern games do in order to tell the players that he was evil). In Empire, Vader is killing folks offscreen -- we cut to a lackey falling down dead, clutching at his throat, and then Vader walks past and says "Apology accepted". If we'd been treated to ten minutes of Vader choking somebody each time, it'd be a bit gratuitous.

 

[RangerWickett]

I really hope that all the writers of the Joker in comics have used him as a vehicle to get such . . . sick . . . ideas out of their heads, rather than as a form of practice to get ready for the real fun. Man, the Joker is a twisted ****.

 

[s/LaSH]

Does Grand Moff Tarkin's decision to wipe out Alderaan count? It's a well-reasoned decision, of course ("Dantooine is too remote to serve as an effective demonstration"), but it's also frightfully cruel.

... and I can't think of any more.

Not from a book but from the new Battlestar miniseries.

The Cylon woman looks down at a baby and then while it's mother isn't looking kills it. No reason why, shouldn't have even been there, but that's just my opinion.

I thought that was obvious... she'd obviously been constructed from 'human plans' found on the Internet (or wherever) and didn't know the first thing about real life. She was just curious, and, when poking around looking at its neck (which she actually mentions seems too weak to hold up its head) must've exceeded boundaries she didn't know about.

That's not a gratuitous evil scene, that's a gratuitous alien-nature scene of a grotesque stripe. I'm still half-convinced her agenda is different to that of the planet-nuking cylons, too (but only half-convinced), partially because she doesn't look too happy after that scene...

 

[Silver Moon]

...Vader didn't take a lightsaber to a puppy in order to use the puppy's blood to distill an illegal street drug that he would then sell to orphans in exchange for kitten carcasses.

Damn, you should have put a spoiler warning on that! You've now given away the entire plot for Episode III!

 

[ergeheilalt]

I think you missed it, the reason for the killing was explained later on. She was a druid priestess and killing the woman was a human sacrifice with the horse carving being part of the ritual. She took the extra time for the sacrifice to grant herself luck in making a successful escape. And yes, it was a good book.

Go and spoil it - I haven't even finished it . Meh, I'll be done with it before the week is out and then it's time to go book shopping again. I hate running out of them so quickly...

Erge