Marvel has been making great movies for a long time now, and even before the Marvel Cinematic Universe became a thing, the brand entertained millions. Movies from the “Blade” and “Spider-Man” trilogies helped pave the way for the MCU’s “Iron Man” in 2008. Since then, the franchise has grown into a massive multimedia franchise with dozens of films and television series.

Superhero movies need good villains, and Marvel movies have their fair share. There are some who failed to achieve the high bar set by those who came before them, but ultimately, the MCU has more good villains than it does bad. If there’s one thing bad guys often do in movies, it’s talk. Sure, there’s some monologuing in there, but for the most part, a good Marvel villain says something that can make the hair on the back of your neck stand up.

A lot of that has to do with a film’s excellent writing, but more so, it’s the brilliant actors delivering those lines. With people like Josh Brolin, James Spader, Willem Dafoe, Cate Blanchett, and others, it’s no surprise they’ve had some interesting things to say. The characters below all said something memorable, making their words some of the best Marvel movie villain quotes of all time.

The first two “Guardians of the Galaxy” films hinted at Rocket’s (Bradley Cooper) origin, which was ultimately revealed as the primary plot in the third film. The bad guy is the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji), a megalomaniacal scientist intent on creating a utopia with his idealized version of the perfect people that he created. Rocket is an outlier, as he’s a genius, and the film revolves around saving Rocket from his creator.

The movie climaxes in a massive space battle between the High Evolutionary’s gigantic spacecraft and Knowhere, the decapitated head of a dead Celestial. As things go from bad to “let’s get out of here,” the High Evolutionary’s support staff begins to question his motives and sanity in justifying the deaths of his people in the pursuit of Rocket. This leads one scientist to say, “You must stop, for God’s sake!”

Upon hearing this, the High Evolutionary yells, “There is no God. That’s why I stepped in!” This line perfectly summarizes who the High Evolutionary is and what his plans are — he doesn’t merely want to create an ideal species, but he sees himself as a literal god with a responsibility to make everything perfect. Rocket sums this up a bit later, telling him, “You didn’t want to make things perfect. You just hated things the way they are.”

Marvel Studios tweaked Namor’s (Tenoch Huerta Mejía) origin for “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” making him a Mesoamerican and the King of Talokan. Namor is an antihero in the film, determined to do whatever it takes to protect his people, which puts him at odds with the people of Wakanda. This all happens in the aftermath of T’Challa’s (Chadwick Boseman) death, putting his sister, Shuri (Letitia Wright), in a position to take up the mantle of the Black Panther, which she ultimately does.

Namor is an interesting character with a well-formed backstory. He’s still much like he is in the comics, but the source of his motivation is somewhat different. Regardless, he poses a great threat to Wakanda and is responsible for killing Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett), while he targets Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne). At one point, Shuri is taken to Namor’s underwater kingdom, and they have a discussion about loss and their positions.

Shuri asks Namor why she wasn’t able to save her brother despite all the gifts and skills she possesses. To this, Namor says, “I don’t have an answer for that question. My ancestors would often say … ‘Only the most broken people can be great leaders.’” This is an exceptionally well-written and beautifully delivered line that shows how Namor thinks, instilling the understanding in Shuri’s mind of his intelligence and understanding nature.

While the MCU’s plans for Kang the Conqueror changed after the firing of Jonathan Majors, his ability to play the villain incredibly well is not in dispute. Kang first appears in “Loki” as He Who Remains, but the thing about Kang is there are a lot of versions of the character. This is due to his unending mucking about with time, which means he’s fought and killed the Avengers many times.

In fact, Kang slaughtered the Avengers so often that he barely recognizes Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) when they meet in “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.” Kang says as much in their initial meeting, but at the film’s end, he says, “You think this is new to me? Do you know how many rebellions I’ve put down? How many worlds I’ve conquered? How many Avengers I’ve killed?! And you think you can beat me? I am Kang! You … You talk to ants!”

Clearly, Kang has no respect for Ant-Man, and by saying this, he illustrates how powerful and unrelenting he is. On the one hand, it’s easy to dismiss what Kang says as grandstanding, but he’s not doing that in this scene — he’s truly describing his past actions while pointing out that Ant-Man’s most impressive skill is communicating with ants, though, ironically, it’s the ants that ultimately help the rebels to defeat Kang.

It’s much easier to appreciate a performance if the character has something about them that’s relatable, and that’s true of Helmut Zemo (Daniel Brühl). He first appears in “Captain America: Civil War,” and is the instigator of everything that happens in the film. Zemo works tirelessly to brainwash Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), and force him to obey, sparking a conflict that continues throughout the film.

Zemo ultimately manages to get Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Bucky, and Captain America (Chris Evans) together, leading to a falling out between the two Avengers over Bucky. Their fight is epic, ending with Cap walking away from a battered and beaten Iron Man. The fight costs the two men their friendship and would have ramifications throughout the MCU, ultimately leading to a fractured Avengers response to Thanos’ attack in “Avengers: Infinity War.”

Zemo’s plan works perfectly, and he sums up precisely why he made the heroes fight one another: “An empire toppled by its enemies can rise again. But one which crumbles from within? That’s dead. Forever.” Zemo blamed the Avengers for the death of his family and sought revenge, which anyone can relate to. His insidious plan ensured the heroes, whom he couldn’t bring down on his own, could fall if the foundations of their friendship eroded before their eyes.

“Spider-Man 2” introduces Dr. Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina) as an impassioned scientist who wants nothing more than to provide free, sustainable energy to the world. He creates an experiment to make this happen, and things don’t go according to plan. Spider-Man (Tobey Maguire) tries to stop it, but before he can, Octavius’ wife is killed, and his unique mechanical arms are fused to his spine.

The inhibitor chip burns out, making the good doctor a supervillain dubbed Doctor Octopus. There are two moments during Octavius’ first and final experiment where he says, “The power of the sun, in the palm of my hand!” Octavius marveled at what he created, which was effectively a miniaturized star capable of producing incredible amounts of energy.

Before his final experiment, he says the line once more, but if the story of Icarus had taught him anything, Octavius would have known that it’s folly to try and reach for the stars, and it costs him his life. In “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” Octavius returns with villainous intent, but a new chip is made, making him a reasonable man once more. At the end of the film, Octavius holds a miniature arc reactor, and he says, “The power of the Sun,” but before he can finish, Spidey arrives and does it for him, saying, “In the palm of your hand.”

At the beginning of “X-Men,” Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) meets an old friend at a political discussion on mutants. He speaks with Magneto (Ian McKellen), who asks him to stay out of his way. Charles doesn’t listen, and his X-Men get in Magneto’s way as he attempts to mutate a group of powerful humans, leading to an all-out conflict that ends with Magneto’s capture and imprisonment in a plastic prison.

Charles visits with his old friend once more, this time in prison. The two play chess on a special plastic board with plastic pieces, leading to an interesting conversation. Magneto asks, “Does it ever wake you in the middle of the night? The feeling that one day they will pass that foolish law or one just like it and come for you? And your children? Take you all away?” Upon hearing this, Charles replies, “It does indeed.”

Magneto asks, “And what do you do when you wake up to that?” Charles says, “I feel a great swell of pity for the poor soul who comes to that school looking for trouble.” In a way, this conversation sets up the sequel because armed men invade the school in that film. More than that, Magneto’s question highlights his purpose — his Raison d’être for why he embraces violence — and touches heavily on Magneto’s backstory as a Holocaust survivor.

The events of “The Avengers” utterly shook Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) to his core, so he works with Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) on a solution. What he comes up with is a new artificial intelligence taken from the Mind Stone. Instead of co-opting the technology, the Ultron intelligence gloms onto Tony’s desire for “Peace in our time.” To accomplish this, Ultron enacts a plan requiring that he place his consciousness into Stark’s spare robots.

When Ultron first appears, crashing the Avengers’ party, he’s inside a damaged robot and is falling apart. The Avengers fight him and several of his minions before finally destroying the original Ultron. It’s too late to actually stop him because he moves his digital consciousness online. As the first Ultron robot begins to “die,” Ultron says, “I had strings, but now I’m free. There are no strings on me …”

Disney fans likely recognize the words coming from the “Pinocchio” song, “I’ve Got No Strings.” Ultron saw himself as Stark’s puppet, but by severing the physical constraints of his “strings,” he’s able to move onto the Internet and spread across the planet at the speed of light. Ultron was without strings, meaning he could do what he wanted without interference from his maker. The line is made all the better, thanks to James Spader’s inimitable mellifluous voice for Ultron.

“Guardians of the Galaxy” was a surprise hit when it premiered, as few outside a small community of dedicated comic book fans even knew of the team. The film did well because it has an excellent story, fascinating characters, and perfectly cast actors, including Lee Pace as the main antagonist, Ronan the Accuser. Ronan’s goal is to make all of Xandarian society pay for slights he believes weren’t remedied by the treaty signed by his people, the Kree, and Xandar.

If you watch the film without knowing a thing about Ronan, he takes care of that himself via some brilliant self-exposition. In the film’s opening scene, he narrates his reason for being by saying, “They call me terrorist. Radical. Zealot. Because I obey the ancient laws of my people, the Kree, and punish those who do not. Because I do not forgive your people for taking the life of my father and his father and his father before him. A thousand years of war between us will not be forgotten!”

After hearing this, the audience doesn’t need to know anything more about Ronan. He establishes himself as a radical zealot intent on defying the Kree people so he can gain vengeance for himself. To this end, he gets his hand on the Power Stone and plans to destroy Xandar, but he’s stopped by the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Loki is easily one of the best villains-turned-antiheroes in the MCU. This is largely due to Tom Hiddleston’s outstanding performance, where he starts out in “Thor” as a villain and keeps it going through “The Avengers.” Thanks to some time travel shenanigans, Loki survives his eventual death and is put on the path to becoming something far greater than he could have imagined.

To get there, Loki had to go through a lot, and there was something he’d often mention as a guide for his actions. In numerous scenes spread across several films and in the “Loki” TV series, Loki says a variation of the line he spoke in “The Avengers,” “I am Loki, of Asgard, and I am burdened with glorious purpose.” He often refers to his glorious purpose, and throughout much of his time in the films, that purpose is to rule over the people he considers to be weak … which is everyone.

Loki has a complicated timeline in the MCU, thanks largely to “Loki” season two. It’s ultimately revealed that his glorious purpose is to safeguard all realities at the end of time. It took Loki a lifetime to finally realize what his purpose was, and in the end, he proved that he truly was burdened with a glorious purpose, though it’s highly unlikely he ever considered his ultimate fate to be the true burden that it became.

Willem Dafoe’s performance as the Green Goblin in “Spider-Man” is a masterclass in acting. The veteran actor steals every scene he’s in, and he presents a perfect foil for the young superhero just getting started in the hero business. There’s a palpable sense of dread whenever ole’ Gobby comes onto the scene, and that’s largely due to Dafoe’s amazing skills as an actor. The film builds to an inevitable conclusion as Spider-Man (Tobey Maguire) faces off against his nemesis.

The film’s final showdown takes inspiration from a classic story from the pages of “The Amazing Spider-Man” #121, where the Goblin kills Gwen Stacy. In “Spider-Man,” the damsel in distress is Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst). Before he gets the chance to save her, the Goblin offers Spider-Man a choice by endangering M.J. and a bus filled with children. As Spider-Man arrives and sees this, the Goblin monologues to him:

“Spider-Man. This is why only fools are heroes — because you never know when some lunatic will come along with a sadistic choice. Let die the woman you love … or suffer the little children? Make your choice, Spider-Man, and see how a hero is rewarded!” Instead of failing to save Goblin’s would-be victims, he saves everyone. The line and subsequent scene show the antithesis between the two characters — one is a true hero, while the other is a genuine villain.

Thanos (Josh Brolin) is the big bad of the first 18 films in the MCU, even if he didn’t appear in them all. He was there, working behind the scenes to find all of the Infinity Stones, as Thanos was motivated by the desire to snap away half of all life in the universe. The Mad Titan delivers many memorable quotes in the MCU, but his best comes early in “Infinity War” after he destroys Asgard’s spaceship and defeats most of the Asgardians, including Thor.

Standing victoriously over his fallen foes, Thanos says, “I know what it’s like to lose. To feel so desperately that you’re right, yet to fail nonetheless. It’s frightening, turns the legs to jelly. But I ask you, to what end? Dread it. Run from it. Destiny arrives all the same. And now it’s here. Or should I say, I am.” This is an important quote because it comes back around at the end of “Avengers: Endgame.”

At the end of that film, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) gets all six Infinity Stones and snaps away Thanos and his army. When Thanos sees this, he accepts his fate — his legs turn to jelly, and he’s forced to do nothing more than sit down and wait for his inevitable doom to catch up to him. Thanos’ understanding of inevitability is on full display in this quote and in his final moments.

One of the reasons “Black Panther” was such a success had to do with its main villain, Erik “Killmonger” Stevens (Michael B. Jordan). Jordan’s performance is both relatable and passionate. He fights for what he believes to be right, and he will stop at nothing to see his dream realized. This puts him at odds with the people of Wakanda, and he defeats T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) to claim his place as the nation’s new king.

Ultimately, the two cousins fight once more at full strength while wearing their Vibranium suits. Their fight is long and features impressive choreography that makes use of the environment in interesting ways. In the end, T’Challa wins, and he takes his cousin outside to see one last sunset. As he sits there, dying from his wounds, Killmonger says, “Bury me in the ocean, with my ancestors that jumped from the ships, because they knew death was better than bondage.”

This line is so important for a number of reasons; first, it shows Killmonger’s motivation and how he feels about his place in the world. Second, the line wasn’t in the script — Boseman came up with it as a way of tying Killmonger to the history of his enslaved ancestors. It’s a beautiful line that comes after a bitter fight, and it cemented Killmonger as one of the MCU’s greatest villains.