7. The Joker – The Dark Knight (2008)
The Joker’s whole deal is that he’s not a criminal mastermind, he’s just out create chaos. In other words, he’s a madman without a plan. Except he does have a plan, and it’s as elegantly simple as it is destructive.
The Dark Knight‘s Joker is basically out to prove that chaos is the natural order, and that no one is truly “good”. His plan involves exposing both Batman and Harvey Dent as selfish and hypocritical, but also proving to Gotham’s general population that they’re the same. The general idea is that he sees the world as painfully dull and predictable, and just wants to cause a little havoc.
What exactly makes him a movie villain with a genius plan is that it so nearly went off without a hitch. Throughout The Dark Knight, people act and react exactly as the Joker predicted they would, allowing his plan to almost come together perfectly. Ironically, it’s only by upsetting the Joker’s plan and acting unpredictably that his scheme falls apart, so it’s unclear whether he won in the end. He seemed to have fun either way, so he was probably pretty happy with it.