Many actors claim playing a villain in a film is much more fun than starring as the protagonist. “Bad guys” tend to have more interesting personalities, and this nature trickles down to the cars they drive on screen.
Almost without exception, the evil characters in movies have exceptional taste in cars. Unlike flicks where the vehicles themselves are possessed by the devil such as Stephen King’s Christine or the silly film The Car, these villain mobiles are essentially innocent bystanders. Still, the cars tend to take on this evil by association.
There’s nothing inherently nefarious about a Lincoln Mark III, but when driven by the heroin kingpin in The French Connection this black personal luxury coupe takes on a very dark image. The French license plates (and possibly French-mandated yellow headlights under the covers) only adds to this mystery of how this thing even got there.
For a ubiquitous, Camry-like Bad Guy Car you simply can’t beat a Mercedes, particularly a W126 sedan in black. Hell, even guy-you-love-to-hate JR Ewing drove one on Dallas. You can’t forget Eddie Murphy chasing one in Beverly Hills Cop:
Big Benzes also featured prominently in the Lethal Weapon movies, including a chase with a black Sacco masterpiece in the fourth installment:
My favorite car-and-villain pairing of all time? I simply can’t think of a better one than David Carradine’s character in Kill Bill and his ride of choice: A DeTomaso Mangusta.
This untamed beast with a Ford 351 Cleveland in back was a car that made Ferraris look like dainty little kiddie cars. Raw, iron fist performance under a beautiful but sinister-looking glove.
Enough of my Bad Guy Machines. What are some of your favorites?
The only villians I care about fly around in multiple kilometers long spaceship.
The Overlizards have the best rides
Personally i’ve always been a fan of the various Acuras found in the Avengers franchise movie films. Not only are they from the indisputably best period for Acura, but they are also a logical pick for fleet cars for an American espionage agency.
Apologies if this has already been posted, but I love Casanova’s C3 limo in Mystery Men.
I just read all the earlier comments. Congrats to Data for posting this first.
Christopher Lee’s flying AMC Matador in The Man with the Golden Gun is one of my favorites. I loved the flip-over dash that changed from car to aircraft gauges and the idea that you could clip a backpack onto a normal car and it would somehow make a great aircraft.
AMC Matador Coupé | James Bond 007
Goliath from Knight Rider was a badass rig!
The black Porsches driven by the Brochnoviatch in Condorman. Especially the slant nose.
How about the Gold Train in Speed Racer?