3. Ozymandias – Watchmen (2009)
Ozymandias is all about being several moves ahead. That’s why he’s such an obvious choice for a list of movie villains with genius plans. Honestly, his plan is so brilliant it could easily be number 1, but that feels sort of like cheating. It is his power, after all.
Watchmen‘s story is relatively complicated, so we’ll keep this simple. Basically, the whole film is about the vigilante detective Rorschach attempting to unravel the conspiracy behind the murder of a former vigilante known as the comedian. Eventually, it leads him to Adrian Veidt, A.K.A. Ozymandias, the so-called “smartest man on the planet”.
As Rorschach confronts him, he works out that Veidt’s plan is to set off nuclear warheads around the globe, framing a fellow vigilante and thereby earning a tentative peace around the world at the cost of millions of lives. Then, Veidt calmly announces that he’s already carried it out, and Rorschach has already failed. Bathed in blood though he may be, you’ve got to respect a villain so confident in his genius. It’s a brilliantly cunning plan, and an even better reveal.