Michael Shannon’s exceptional on-screen career has spanned nearly 30 years. He is known for his breakout roles in Bug, Shotgun Stories, and Revolutionary Road, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor (later earning a nomination for his amazing work in Nocturnal Animals). For better or worse, and despite being a funny actor whose work in comedy shows like Delocated and At Home With Amy Sedaris is delightful, Shannon has become famous as a go-to villain in Hollywood.
He has always been great at playing antagonistic characters. In The Iceman, the actor portrays a serial killer. In Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and the upcoming superhero film The Flash, Shannon steps into the role of a supervillain General Zod. In The Shape of Water, the actor’s character is a brutal colonel. Whether downright psychotic or a Machiavellian manipulator, here are Michael Shannon's best performances as a villain.
8 Fahrenheit 451
The 2018 drama Fahrenheit 451 is an adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s dystopian classic of the same name. The film follows Guy Montag (played by Michael B. Jordan), a firefighter who is hired to burn books – but over the course of the story, he begins to rebel against the reality of his dystopian world. Shannon plays Montag's fire chief, Captain John Beatty, who hates books. Despite the negative critical reviews, a strong and intimidating Shannon performance and some good sci-fi world-building makes Fahrenheit 451 worth watching.
7 Premium Rush
The 2012 action thriller Premium Rush follows a bicycle messenger, Wilee (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who becomes the target of an entertaining semi-psychopath, bad cop Robert "Bobby" Monday (Michael Shannon). Bobby begins hunting down Wilee to steal the package worth a ton of money. In Premium Rush, Shannon portrays an almost cartoonish version of a villain as opposed to the more terrifying, subtle psychopaths of other films and shows. As a result, the actor steals every scene he is in.
"He’s Premium Rush’s villain, but Shannon doesn’t attempt anything like the austere derangement of a Hans Gruber type, even though he specializes in playing terrifying nutjobs. Instead, he’s a buffoon of the first order, and his hapless tomfoolery sets the tone for a light, fast, frequently hilarious 90 minutes", The A.V. Club wrote.
6 My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done
Directed by Werner Herzog and co-produced by David Lynch, the 2009 drama My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done centers on a mentally unstable man, Brad McCullam (Michael Shannon), who kills his mother with an antique sword. Detective Hank Havenhurst (Willem Dafoe) interviews witnesses, including Brad’s fiancée (Chloë Sevigny), to track Brad’s descent into madness. Shannon was a great choice for the film, and his long-haired, unstable performance is brilliant. "I always had feelings that he was the best of his generation", Werner Herzog said.
5 99 Homes
Set in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, the 2014 drama 99 Homes follows single father Dennis Nash (a great Andrew Garfield), who is evicted from his Florida home by an affectless, gun-toting real-estate broker, Rick Carver (Michael Shannon). Later, Dennis finds himself working for his enemy, Rick, in exchange for his home. Rick Carver is the Gordon Gekko-like entrepreneur, an example of a "corporate" psychopath, who twists a broken system to his advantage and cares about nothing but himself and his money. For this standout performance, Shannon earned Screen Actors Guild Award and Golden Globe Award nominations.
4 The Iceman
The 2012 biographical crime The Iceman tells the real story of a stone-cold New Jersey psychopath, Richard Kuklinski, believed to have murdered over a hundred people while managing to hide crimes from his family. The film follows the life of the murderer from his early days till his arrest in 1986. Michael Shannon is outstanding in the role of the psychopath with a double life, and Winona Ryder plays his naive wife. The New York Times stated, "If the narrow biographical focus of The Iceman prevents it from being a great crime movie, on its own more modest terms it is an indelible film that clinches Mr. Shannon’s status as a major screen actor,"
3 Boardwalk Empire
Warner Bros. Television Distribution
HBO’s Boardwalk Empire (2010 - 2014) centers on a corrupt political figure who controls Atlantic City, Enoch "Nucky" Thompson (played by Steve Buscemi). Shannon steps into the role of one of the series’ most notorious baddies, Nelson Van Alden. Alden is a puritanical fundamentalist and an agent for the Bureau of Prohibition who started out on the "right" side of the law but transformed into a Walter White-esque outlaw on the run himself. Shannon frequently stole the show, and the scene in which he uses a hot iron to burn his own co-worker has become legendary. For his intense performance, the actor has received three nominations for the Screen Actors Guild Awards.
2 Man of Steel
With Shannon’s role as Kryptonian antagonist General Zod in the 2013 reboot of the Superman movie series, Zack Snyder's Man of Steel, the actor’s reputation as a villain-for-hire got global recognition. As the general with the same superpowers as Superman, Shannon is going up against Henry Cavill as Clark Kent / Superman. Snyder stated, "Zod is not only one of Superman’s most formidable enemies, but one of the most significant because he has insights into Superman that others don’t. Michael is a powerful actor who can project both the intelligence and the malice of the character, making him perfect for the role".
1 The Shape of Water
Directed by Guillermo del Toro, the Oscar-winning romantic fantasy The Shape of Water tells the beautifully strange story of mute cleaner Elisa (played by Sally Hawkins) who falls in love with a humanoid creature who is being violently studied in the government laboratory. Eliza’s boss is a sadistic government agent Richard Strickland (Michael Shannon) who wants to wield power over everyone in his path. Shannon’s character is more than what he seems on the surface – because the actor’s evil is never just pure evil. "No matter what dark dimensions his characters possess", Guillermo del Toro tells Esquire, "he always brings a humanity, almost a vulnerability. I’ve never worked with anyone that combines precision and emotion to such a degree".