5. President James Dale (Jack Nicholson) in Mars Attacks! (1996)
“I want the people to know they still have two out of three branches of the government working for them. And that ain’t bad.” Jack Nicholson weaponizes his smarmy charm as President James Dale in Tim Burton’s ludicrous Mars Attacks! Though the Martians are ostensibly the villains, Burton’s film revels in the rotten core of humankind—a doomed species even without help from alien invaders. Look beyond Dale’s impassioned speech about brotherhood across boundaries to spot hints of self-serving motives; even the Martians know better than to trust a politician. Still, credit to President Dale for getting them to listen in the first place.
