Here are the deadliest movie dads in cinematic history, ranked from least to most deadly.
But First
Movies sometimes have weird ideas about the role of dads. They feed into the idea of the dad as protector – and of course parents should be protectors — but sometimes their conception of fatherhood means doing anything to protect their families, including killing people.
And sometimes being a dad, in the movies, just feels like an excuse for all the killing.
So with that said, here are the five deadliest dads in movie history.
Michael Corleone in The Godfather Saga (1972-1990)
Michael Corleone commits his first two kills — of drug kingpin Virgil Sollozzo and crooked cop Mark McCluskey — in his capacity as a dutiful son, following an assassination attempt on his father, Vito.
His next kills, however, are in his capacity as the Godfather, when he returns from Italy and takes his father’s place as the patriarch of the Corleone crime family.
According to The Godfather Wiki, Michael Corleone orders 29 killings, in addition to the two he personally commits. Making him No. 5 on our list of the deadliest dads in movies. Congratulations!
Jim McQuade in Lone Wolf McQuade (1983)
Lone Wolf McQuade stars the late Chuck Norris as ex-military Texas Ranger Jim “J.J.” McQuade, who lives with a wolf but soon runs up against a criminal gang led by the evil Wilkes (David Carradine).
Things get very ugly, especially when Wilkes kidnaps McQuade’s daughter Sally (Dana Kimmell) and takes her to Mexico.
McQuade kills more than 30 people in his quest for justice, just barely edging out Michael Corleone’s kill count to earn the No. 4 spot on our list of the deadliest dads in movies. And since he’s played by hands-on action guy Chuck Norris, McQuade does all his killing himself.
John Matrix in Commando (1985)
Commando star Arnold Schwarzenegger rattles off a series of deadly one-liners as John Matrix, who goes wild after bad guys from a made-up Latin American country make the foolish mistake of kidnapping his daughter (Jenny Matrix), while leaving him alive.
By one fan’s account, Matrix kills 87 people over the course of Commando — which is more than one a minute when you subtract the end credits from this 90-minute, flawlessly plotted action epic.
Congratulations to No. 3 on our list of the deadliest dads in movies.
Brian Mills in the Taken Saga (2008-2014)
The Taken films star Liam Neeson as Brian Mills, a dad who in the first film has to rely on his “very particular set of skills” to save his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) from being auctioned off into slavery. He and his family have to fend off a series of escalating threats in the two sequels.
Interestingly, Brian Mills is a deadly dad who kind of mellows with age, with a decreasing kill count in each Taken film. According to this fan account, his kills go from 44 in the first Taken to a mere 35 in Taken 2 to a paltry 30 in Taken 3.
Like so many deadly dads, he’s just a big ol’ softie. Aside from his 109 killings, of course. He’s No. 2 on our list of the deadliest dads in movies.
Darth Vader in The Star Wars Saga (1977-Present)
This terrifically detailed fan video puts Darth Vader’s kill count at 55, but includes The Emperor, who, we learned in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, did not actually die when Vader threw him down a Death Star shaft in Return of the Jedi. If, like us, you like to pretend Rise of Skywalker never happened, Vader’s count still stands at 55.
But! We’re putting Darth Vader above Brian Mills because we think he deserves at least some of the blame for Grand Moff Tarkin’s destruction of Alderaan in A New Hope.
He just stands there — and even holds back his daughter, Princess Leia — as her home planet is vaporized. We know he could have prevented it if he wanted to, given his often-demonstrated powers to choke people with his mind.
A Note
Some people will say also say that unlike the others on this list, Darth Vader isn’t doing his killing in his capacity as a dad.
We respectfully disagree. It’s perhaps true that Vader doesn’t know, as Alderaan is destroyed, that Leia is his daughter. But he must sense… something. A New Hope is definitely playing off the generation gap between the Military or Greatest Generation (represented by Vader and the Empire) and the Baby Boomers (represented by Leia and the Baby Boomers).
Vader’s most basic motivation seems to be his failure as a partner to Padme — the mother of his twins — and his failure as a father to Luke and Leia. His redemption only comes when he makes peace with his son. (Sadly, no big reunion with his daughter ever happens. Maybe he still feels guilty about Alderaan.)
Anyway, congratulation to Darth Vader, No. 1 on our list of the deadliest dads in movies.
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Editor’s Note: Corrects typo in Taken item.
