More specifically, these ten years were filled with terrific actors delivering equally terrific performances as villains.

The way the film humanizes Hitler doesn’t feel disasteful in the slightest.

His performance is as towering as it is vulnerable, as terrifying as it is intentionally pathetic.

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Custom Image by Federico Napoli

This is one ofthe best war movies ever made, and that label is largely owed to Ganz.

It’s the kind of performance that defined the 2000s.

Quiet, yet strident; dominant, yet surprisingly human.

Bruno Ganz as Adolf Hitler looking grim in Downfall’ (2004)

Image via Constantin Film

She’s by far one of the 2000s' most interesting villains.

Streep is a tour de force in this.

Gladiatoralmost starts feeling like a horror movie every time Commodus shows up in a scene.

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He stops at nothing and doesn’t seem to follow the rules that regular, mortal humans do.

Chigurh is a force of nature, almost a personification of the Grim Reaper.

Waltz’s pitch-perfect portrayal of Landa may just bethe greatest villain performance of any war film, ever.

Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman wielding an axe in a fancy apartment in American Psycho

Image via Lionsgate

It’s a coming-of-age about an abused, illiterate teen living in Harlem in the late ’80s.

It’s an absolutely devastating performance full of loud pain yet many subtle layers.

Several of the best-acted scenes of the late 2000s come from Mo’Nique inPrecious.

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Without his powerhouse performance, it’s possible thatThere Will Be Bloodwouldn’t be quite as praised.

Batman, James Gordon, and Harvey Dent must then work together to put an end to the madness.

Rarely in the history of modern cinema have there been villainous performances as transcendental as Ledger’s Joker.

Meryl Streep as Miranda Priestly staring in the distance in The Devil Wears Prada

Image via 20th Century Studios

KEEP READING:The Most Important Movies of the 2000s, Ranked

The Devil Wears Prada Movie Poster

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Image via Warner Bros. Pictures

The poster for Training Day

Emperor Commodus giving the thumbs up in Gladiator

Image via Paramount Pictures

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Anton Chigurh tells store owner to call the coin flip in ‘No Country for Old Men’

Image via Paramount Pictures

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Hans Landa pointing to a telephone in Inglourious Basterds

Image via The Weinstein Company

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Mary smoking a cigar while sitting on a couch in Precious.

Image via Lionsgate

Precious Movie Poster

Daniel Plainview with his face covered in oil in There Will Be Blood (2007)

Image via Paramount Vantage

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Joker taking a card from his jacket and presenting it while smiling in The Dark Knight

Image via Warner Bros. Pictures

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Movie

The Dark Knight

There Will Be Blood