5 Most Dangerous Mad Scientists In Sci-Fi Movies, Ranked

Often in science fiction movies, the problem at the center can be traced back to some boffin who thought they had it all figured out. The eccentric scientist who, after scribbling on chalkboards and tinkering with gizmos, thinks they have the answer to all their problems, or even humanity's. The truth of the matter is that it's unfortunately anything but. Some of these scientists are good, some of them are bad, but the one character trait that links them all together is that they are, in fact, just a little bit, well, mad.

Whether they're hoping to help mankind or make massive breakthroughs all for personal gain, sci-fi movies have been plagued by mad scientists. Now, after some careful calculations, we've selected some of the most notorious ones who tinkered with their test-tubes and, in turn, sparked some incredibly dangerous or horrific incidents. The kind that either forced others to intervene or, on the rarest of occasions, were acknowledged at the last minute for very much being "their bad." So what are you waiting for? Put on your protective goggles, try not to stick your finger in any bubbling liquid, and don't be as crazy as this lot, because honestly, very little good can come from it.

He might not be the most dangerous doctor on this list, but there's no question that his accolades make Dr. Heiter (Dieter Laser) the most evil physician on it. Whereas all the other science bros in this selection began, for the most part, with the best intentions, Heiter, on the other hand, is just a really bad dude. Focused on the simple goal of giving some strangers the worst case of pink eye ever recorded, "The Human Centipede" chronicles his basic and brutal plan to stitch people together from top to bottom. From there, he's relishing the misery of his test subjects as they try to figure out how to (shivers) detach themselves from one another before it's too late. The good news is that Heiter meets his maker by the end of the film. The bad news is that the only person who survives this ordeal is the middle portion of his experiment.

At least in some other cases for the scientists on this list, they've learned the error of their ways by the end of their story, even if it takes more than one movie for the lesson to land. That's really not the case for Heiter, though. His devotion to his dream experiment makes him one of the most despicable characters in horror movie history, and more importantly, a stain on the world of science...and centipedes.

Before Bruce Banner went green, there was the OG scientist who found his darker side in Robert Louis Stevenson's novel from 1886, "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." It's a tale that, much like its central character, has transformed over the years and detached from its origins: Henry Jekyll was a prim and proper scientist who created an elixir to transform himself into Mr. Hyde, allowing him to indulge in activities that Jekyll wouldn't be associated with. Over time, Jekyll developed an addiction to escaping his normal life and letting Hyde take over, so much so that the formula was no longer necessary, leaving Hyde to take the wheel and leading to murder, mayhem, and the good doctor being lost forever.

Jekyll's intentions are, like any mad scientist, questionable, particularly as they're really born from his own insecurities. Wanting to break free from his persona leads him to become a chaotic, monstrous version of himself, only with a different name tag. Nevertheless, this story of dual identities has been retold in various forms and has inspired works such as "The Incredible Hulk," David Cronenberg's "The Fly," and even "The Nutty Professor." Perhaps with that in mind, Jekyll should be further up the list, as he's also inadvertently responsible for so many other monsters we're now familiar with, and that includes "The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps."

It takes a certain level of crazy for a scientist to believe he can actually undo the basic laws of science and dodge death itself without there being some minor repercussions. Well, we say "repercussions" when what we really mean is having a hulking, monstrous creation of dead bits and pieces questioning his own existence before hunting down his maker. Those are the problems faced by Dr. Victor von Frankenstein, another highly respected health advisor from the horror genre that has been revisited for decades. Unlike Dr. Jekyll, though, Victor's tale is bound in tragedy, as he was a scientist who grieved his mother's passing and sought answers to how to give a dead patient a brief jolt of life. Spoilers: it goes really, really badly.

There's no doubt that "Frankenstein" is easily one of the oldest and most well-known tales of a mad scientist making a massive miscalculation. It's a tale of being driven by obsession and then ultimately forced to face the music, which in this case is a moaning, groaning abomination that just wants to understand the life he didn't ask for. Over the years, some incredible iterations have come and gone, with legends like Colin Clive immortalizing "It's Alive," actor and director Kenneth Branagh giving it a good go opposite Robert De Niro, and most recently Oscar Isaac making a monster out of Jacob Elordi in Guillermo Del Toro's gorgeous iteration. Quite simply, Dr. Frankenstein set the bar for bonkers experiments and made the clichéd mad scientist the revisited and regularly revived trope it is today.

We've seen plenty of science geniuses get into scuffles with superheroes, but one of the best to ever do it was Alfred Molina's Dr. Otto Octavius in "Spider-Man 2." A genius with high hopes of helping mankind, Otto's mission was to harness the power of the sun in the palm of his hand, which initially sounds like a noble goal. The result, however, is that he ends up broken, widowed, and unhinged enough to have full-blown conversations with the robotic appendages permanently attached to his spine. From there, he's fast-tracked to becoming one of the greatest comic book movie villains of all time, a truly mad scientist with a twisted new purpose.

This originally good-hearted mentor to Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) continues his mission to create a new form of energy by any means necessary. Are civilians of New York City going to end up in danger? Maybe. Might Otto resort to using an old woman as a bargaining chip against Spider-Man and Peter Parker? Yes, and it's one of the coolest sequences in superhero movie history. In the end, though, Otto's dangerous, deluded second attempt leads to Spidey slapping some sense into him and making him see the errors of his ways at the eleventh hour. That's what sets Otto apart from some of the other scientists on this list, as he accepts what needs to be done even at the cost of his own life. Even so, it doesn't undo the actions that saw him come scarily close to ripping New York apart, whether Spider-Man saves the day or not.

Creating a nuclear energy source that could wreck a city is dangerous, but for a scientist who uses it to power his time-traveling ride, it's hardly something to sweat over. Christopher Lloyd's Doctor Emmett Brown might be the most well-intentioned inventor in cinema history, but let's face the facts here — the guy almost wrecks the space-time continuum on two separate occasions. In the brilliant sci-fi franchise, "Back to the Future," high school student Marty McFly escapes in Doc's plutonium-powered, iconic vehicle and things spiral out of control from there. It isn't long before Marty is close to undoing his own existence and sending things into so much chaos that the space-time continuum is at risk of being wrecked forever.

Admittedly, during repeated viewings of Robert Zemeckis' science fiction masterpiece, problems get overlooked simply because of how gosh darn lovable that mad-haired physicist is. He's just a crazy old loner having some fun and bringing his good friend Marty along for the ride. It might be one of the greatest depictions of just how time travel can mess with things and the ramifications it can have, but it's really hard to acknowledge just how much of a threat to science and reality Doc Brown is when he's leaving trails of fire all over the place or making his car fly. Yes, he's an immense danger, but Great Scott! is he doing it with some style.