The latest Renfield movie starring Nicholas Hoult is the perfect way to draw focus away from super villains and towards their put upon henchmen, or rather hench-people. That movie shows just how hard it is to be a loyal henchman to the end. While Renfield ended up breaking up with Dracula once and for all, in a particularly violent fashion, many other henchmen out there showed how loyal they were all the way to the ends of their lives. Sometimes even beyond that.
These loyal servants range from bounty hunters to monsters to assassins and even to the greatest secretary in the history of cinema. These assistants can be loyal due to an unwavering belief in their villain to simply a monetary incentive. Here are 20 of the most loyal henchpeople in the history of cinema.
20 Oddjob - Goldfinger
There have been many loyal henchmen in the James Bond series such as Mr. Hinx, Xenia Onatopp, Baron Samedi, Jaws, Mayday, and more. They are all in the shadow of the single greatest henchman in the series, Oddjob from Goldfinger. He is the servant of the titular Goldfinger who is strong enough to crush a golf ball into dust and throw his trademark hat hard enough to decapitate a statue. His style and his threatening demeanor inspired legions of loyal henchman with signature attacks against James Bond over the years.
Add to that a whole generation's love of Oddjob for a completely different reason. He was the favorite playable character to use in the famous versus mode in the Nintendo 64 classic, Goldeneye. Due to his short stature, Oddjob was slightly harder to hit than any of the other characters, offering a slight advantage.
19 Bane - The Dark Knight Rises
All of the trailers for The Dark Knight Rises made fans assume that Bane was the true villain of the film. Even for 90% of the movie's runtime, it seems as though Bane was the terrorist in charge of taking over Gotham City. In the end, we discover that he's actually the loyal servant of the real head of the League of Shadows, Talia al Ghul. It turns out that every fight that he had with Batman, every billionaire that he broke to pieces, and every threat made to the citizens of Gotham was on Talia's behalf.
It's clear that Bane does this not out of loyalty to the League of Shadows, and out of hatred for Batman but out of some kind of love for Talia herself. He was more than willing to blow himself up, along with all of Gotham, for Talia and the cause. Not to mention all of the hard work he did on sculpting that ripped body of his. Every day was arm day for Bane.
18 Minions - Despicable Me
The Minions are true oddities in the henchmen world. For starters, they are mysterious yellow, capsule-shaped people that speak in an odd language and have strange origins. They're from the same kind of fun, but strange kind of fever dream that also birthed Willy Wonka's mysterious Oompa Loopas. What also sets them apart is how much childlike joy they take in serving the evil masterminds they work for, such as Gru from Despicable Me. They are fiercely loyal, full of joy, and competent despite their silly antics.
What's also strange is how much Gru seems to genuinely love his little Minions. While they often get on his nerves, there's no denying that he has more affection for these little guys than Dracula or most other villains do for their beleaguered servants. No wonder the Minions love him so much.
17 Lurtz - The Lord of the Rings
Saruman and Sauron have legions of loyal servants in The Lord of the Rings. Those include Orcs, Ring Wraiths, monsters, and soldiers across all of Middle Earth. Throughout the trilogy, there is no soldier for the cause that has quite the passion that Lurtz the Uruk-hai. After Saruman inspires him to become the leader of the first group of specially bred Uruk-hai to hunt down the Fellowship, he tracks them across Middle Earth.
Eventually, he manages to do more against the Fellowship than the legions of Uruks who follow him are able to do. He takes one of them out. After skewering Boromir with arrows, he battles against Aragorn with a twisted sort of glee. Even after Aragorn stabs him in the leg, removes one of his arms, and runs him through with his sword, Lurtz still mocks Aragorn as if he's already won. That is until Aragorn removes his head altogether.
16 Cassian - John Wick: Chapter Two
Most of the assassins in the John Wick universe are motivated to hunt John either by the insane bounties that get group texted to the entire community or by some sort of obligation to the nefarious High Table. There's one assassin who chased after John simply out of loyalty. Cassian, the bodyguard for Camorra crime lord Gianna D'Antonio, chases John across the world simply out of loyalty and arguably out of love to Gianna. The rage that he has after finding Gianna's body leads him to fight John harder than anyone else in John Wick: Chapter Two does.
There's no other servant in the John Wick world who would fight that hard for their boss long after their boss has left their life behind. Cassian seemingly lived at the end of the film, so hopefully he will be seen in one of the many spin-offs in the works already.
15 Bob - Batman
Long before the introduction of Harley Quinn, the Joker had another henchman who was famous for their loyalty. That would be Bob, the right-hand man of Jack Nicholson's take on the character in the 1989 version of Batman. He originally served the gangster Jack Napier and continued to serve him after he turned up with a gruesome smile, paper white skin, and a gleefully violent attitude.
No matter what was asked of Bob, from poisoning cosmetics, to defacing priceless works of art, to arranging a huge parade to poison Gotham City, Bob didn't so much as talk back to the Joker. For all of this loyalty, the Joker still asks for his gun and shoots him down just for the fun of it.
14 Ebony Maw - Avengers: Infinity War
We didn't get to spend a lot of time with Ebony Maw, or the rest of the Black Order that dutifully served the Mad Titan Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War, but what little we did see of Maw made quite the impression. Not only was he the most powerful servant of the Black Order, but he was also the most loquacious. He was the herald of Thanos who announced his presence with an almost religious degree of devotion. He had quite the way of impressing upon his enemies just how great a threat Thanos was.
The only servant of Thanos who rivaled Ebony Maw's devotion was The Other from The Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy. It's unfortunate that Ronan the Accuser broke his neck and deprived us of seeing Ebony Maw and The Other competing for his affection.
13 Bellatrix Lestrange - Harry Potter
The Death Eaters who serve Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter series are all fiercely loyal, up to a point. Eventually even the likes of Lucius Malfoy and Snape turn against him when it is no longer advantageous to serve him. There is one servant who never once doubted her devotion to him, Bellatrix Lestrange. She is the only Death Eater who is arguably more frightening and deranged than Voldemort himself. It will be hard to find another actress who can bring her to life quite like Helena Bonham Carter does.
If you go to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child you'll find out just how far her devotion to Voldemort truly goes. She ends up bearing him a child. That is truly a high level of devotion considering the inhuman appearance of Voldemort.
12 Jango Fett - Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones
Jango Fett is one of the greatest Bounty Hunters in the Star Wars universe. While his only true loyalty is to himself and his son Boba, for a price he will be the greatest henchman credits can buy. For Count Dooku, he was willing to go the extra mile again and again. Not only did he participate in the vast conspiracy at the center of Attack of the Clones, but he was also willing to submit his DNA to the Kaminoans so that they could clone him into a vast army capable of taking over the galaxy.
His devotion led him all the way to Geonosis where he had the misfortune of being sent into battle against the Jedi Master Mace Windu. He gave it his all but Windu was able to take Jango down with a swipe of his lightsaber. Fett fought all the way to the end for Dooku and the Separatists.
11 Theo - Die Hard
In Die Hard, Hans Gruber and his band of well-dressed thieves made history as some of the greatest villains in all of cinema. Gruber's fearsome ballet-dancing henchman Karl gets most of the attention, largely because of the hurt he puts on John McClane throughout his journey through Nakatomi Plaza. He even manages to survive certain doom until the very end of the film where Sergeant Al Powell finally took him out. Despite all the attention Karl gets, he's not the MVP of Gruber's squad.
The true best player for Gruber's team is Theo, the hacker who was able to make his way into the Nakatomi vault. Unlike Karl, there's not a single moment where his loyalty comes into question. Not only that, but he tries to get his revenge on McClane in a battery commercial that unfortunately serves as the final appearance of both characters.
10 T-1000 - Terminator 2: Judgment Day
There have been many Terminators that have been sent through the timeline at the behest of the evil artificial intelligence of the future known as Skynet. While the T-800 Terminator played by Arnold Schwarzenegger is the most famous in the series, he betrayed Skynet to become a hero in the franchise. The best Terminator to fully serve Skynet is without a doubt, the T-1000 played by Robert Patrick in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. His advanced shape-shifting abilities along with his typical Terminator skills made him the most frightening robot to ever try and destroy John Connor and his family. There was simply no way that he would ever become a hero in a subsequent sequel.
Every Terminator that has followed the T-1000 has tried to emulate it in some way or another to varying levels of success.
9 Faora - Man of Steel
Man of Steel started the beloved Snyderverse with the invasion of General Zod against the city of Metropolis. While Zod was ressurected into Doomsday in Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice, but his greatest servant was not so lucky. Faora-Ul was Zod's greatest lieutenant who fought Superman through his hometown of Smallville. Actress Antje Traue made quite the impression upon fans with her cold, frightening performance as the deadly Faora. She was even canonized into the comics after this appearance.
If that wasn't enough, she is set to return in The Flash when Barry Allen must save the world from Zod without Superman's help. Hopefully Michael Keaton's Batman and the new Supergirl will get to fight against Faora and her epic one-liners. Someone warn Smallville's IHOP that it's going to get torn to pieces...again.
8 Mr. French - The Departed
It's hard to be a gangster warlord in The Departed. Frank Costello has several rats in his operation that are informing on him to the Boston police. He himself even has rats within their department. Not to mention the fact that he's a rat to the FBI. There's only one criminal in the entire organization that seems to be beyond reproach. That would be his cruel right-hand man, Mr. French. Along with being Costello's go-to man for every brutal crime in the organization, he also marches through the city telling people who they can and cannot hit. Even to the very end of his life, he is driving right alongside Frank, until the cops surround them.
While Mr. French and Costello were quite a pair in criminal history, actors Jack Nicholson and Ray Winstone didn't get along well at all. Art does not always imitate life.
7 Joachim - Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
We are told in both Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan that the dictator of the 1990s, Khan Noonien Singh is one of the greatest evil geniuses that has ever existed. Unfortunately, in The Wrath of Khan he is completely obsessed with the titular wrath to his own doom. His right-hand man, Joachim, is the only one who tries to save him from his self-imposed fate. Despite dutifully doing everything Khan orders him to do, he tries to remind him that with the Genesis device he could easily become the emperor of the galaxy.
It isn't until Joachim has been crushed under the crumpled bridge of the Reliant that Khan realizes that he was right all along. Only then, it's clear that Khan will also have to give his life in service to this revenge. Apparently he missed the point of that Moby Dick book that he was always quotting.
6 Edith Marie McClurg - Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Not every henchperson has to serve an evil genius bent on conquering the world or the galaxy. Sometimes all a true antagonist needs is a really good secretary. Principal Ed Rooney is assisted with tireless loyalty by Edith Marie McClurg who stands by him despite how deranged his pursuit of Ferris Bueller in Ferris Bueller's Day Off becomes. The way that she keeps up with the school's gossip provides essential intelligence Rooney requires to catch Bueller in his tracks. She even goes on to say that he reminds her of Dirty Harry, which is undoubtedly the best compliment he's ever received.
While Rooney might be technically the Principal of Glenbrook North High School, it's clear that McClurg is the one who really runs the school.
5 Count Rugen - The Princess Bride
The nefarious Prince Humperdinck may be the villain of The Princess Bride, but he's not the true face of evil in the film. No, that would be Christopher Guest's Count Rugen. He is as loyal an evil servant that any scheming prince could ever hope to have in his employee. He, along with his secret evil base, has all of the means of torture and twisted evil science that any cruel plot could make use of.
Unfortunately, all of that evil genius wasn't enough for him to remove his sixth finger that revealed that he was the one who had slayed Inigo Montoya's father. At the very least he was able to put up more of a fight in the final battle than Prince Humperdinck was able to manage.
4 Stephen - Django Unchained
In Django Unchained it seems like Leonardo DiCaprio's Calvin Candie is the ultimate evil in the South. That is until we arrive in his home and discover that Samuel L. Jackson's Stephen is actually the evil brains behind the whole operation. Though it seems like his affection of Calvin is true enough. Even after Calvin is slain, he gets very creative when it comes to the torture of Django for revenge. Unfortunately for him, it isn't enough and Django manages to come back and slay them all in a blaze of glory. In retrospect, maybe he didn't have to get quite so creative with his revenge against Django.
Samuel L. Jackson evidently holds this part as one of his best, because he thinks that this is the one that should've gotten him an Oscar nomination.
3 Sabretooth - X-Men
In the original X-Men, Magneto has assembled himself a loyal group of mutants for his plans. They include Toad, Sabretooth, and his right-hand woman, Mystique. Unfortunately, Mystique turns against him once he turns against her in X-Men III: The Last Stand. It turns out that the loyalest servant that he had was actually Tyler Mane's Sabretooth all along. He managed to hunt Wolverine and fight against the X-Men with real skill until Cyclops shot him off of the Statue of Liberty.
Perhaps one of the biggest mysteries remaining from the collapsed X-Men 20th Century Fox universe is how Liev Schrieber's Sabretooth in X-Men Origins: Wolverine became Tyler Mane's Sabretooth a few years later. That one will never make any sense. Though it isn't the biggest plot hole in the series.
2 Renfield - Various
It seems perfect that Nicholas Hoult's Renfield is the one to break the long-standing tradition of Renfield being loyal to the very end. Funnily enough, the director considers him to be the same version of Renfield from the original Dracula film that starred Bela Lugosi as the Count and Dwight Frye as a very familiar looking Renfield with the same hairstyle as Hoult's.
The character has appeared several times across the decades as a poor soul who is so devoted to Dracula that it borders on a religious obsession with the vampire. Other actors who have famously taken on the role include Tom Waitts for Bram Stoker's Dracula, Mark Gatiss from the Dracula BBC series, Sean Pertwee from The Invitation, Nonso Anozie from the Dracula NBC series, and many many more. He may be the most famous henchmen of all time.
1 Sebastian Moran - Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
The Sherlock Holmes book series has inspired a great deal of subsequent works, such as the detective genre, the superhero genre, and much more. If Sherlock Holmes is the precursor to the superhero and Professor Moriarty is the precursor to the super villain, that means Moriarty's right-hand man, Sebastian Moran is the precursor to the henchman. He is Moriarty's sniper who has served him through countless iterations through the many different incarnations of the franchise.
Moran's lingering threat after Moriarty's demise is why Sherlock Holmes is forced to fake the end of his own life along with his greatest foe's. While the third film in the Robert Downey Jr. Holmes film series is on its way, it's unclear whether he will have to defeat Paul Anderson's Moran before he can rejoin Watson for good.
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