100 Greatest Movie Characters: 16

"You're a fucking ugly bitch. I want to stab you to death and then play around with your blood."

16. Patrick Bateman
American Psycho

The epitome of Yuppie scum, Patrick is greedy, callous, egotistical, shallow, and heavily addicted to sex and drugs. He also kills people, but that's beside the point. Even if he didn't kill everyone he thinks he did (and there's a possibility it's all in his head), he's still a fucking repugnant human being. Not even he can stomach himself, so he dissolves into this fantasy world of murder and Huey Lewis.

Although often claiming he is devoid of emotion, Bateman frequently experiences panic attacks and, of course, moments of extreme rage. Stemming from his own deep-seated insecurities, Bateman's victims are usually killed because they make him feel unimportant. His own ego problems are solved with extreme personal grooming and obsessive attention to detail and style, stroking his vain ego as much as possible to make himself feel like more of a man.

But then again, does any of this really matter? In a world of self-absorbed investment bankers, does anyone listen? Patrick confesses multiple times to his own crimes, but they are consistently laughed off by his friends and co-workers who either view it as a joke or are simply just not listening. He even lengthily confesses it to his lawyer, who confuses him for someone else and laughs at his "good joke." His confessions mean nothing in this day and age. There is no solution for Patrick Bateman's crimes, no poetic justic, no chance of the good guy winning. Not even Patrick wins. Everyone loses. No matter what.

Defining moment: I'm gonna WALL-E this again, because there's a number of great Patrick Bateman moments.

• The murder of Paul Allen. Decked in a clear trenchcoat and shiny-as-hell axe, he discusses the important message on the wonder of conformity in Huey Lewis and The News' "Hip To Be Square" before hacking Allen up into tiny pieces
• Chasing a hooker. Naked. While holding a chainsaw. And killing her by dropping the chainsaw on her from a few stories up.
• Anytime he talks about music ever
• Blowing up a cop car with his handgun and then looking at the handgun with disbelief
• FEED ME A STRAY CAT