Silence is golden! Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for those movie characters who made a great impression without uttering a single word.
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00:00I watched him for 15 years, sitting in a room, staring at a wall.
00:05Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for those movie characters
00:09who made a great impression without uttering a single word.
00:12We'll accept unintelligible sounds and utterances, but not silent movies.
00:21Ah-ah!
00:22Uh-oh.
00:25Number 10. Dumbo, Dumbo
00:27Here is a baby with eyes of blue, straight from heaven, right to you.
00:31There may be some who say this one is obvious, since Dumbo's an elephant and elephants can't talk.
00:35But as all of us Disney fans know, talking animals are the studio's bread and butter.
00:39From Bambi to Simba, animals have been chatting, and often singing, their way through Disney movies for many years now.
00:44Everywhere you look, I'm standing in the spotlight.
00:48Not yet!
00:49But not Dumbo. The titular, adorable protagonist from Disney's 1941 movie doesn't say a word.
00:55And he doesn't have to.
00:56His expressive face and big ears melted audiences' hearts back then, and they continue to do so today.
01:01What's the matter with his ears?
01:03I don't see nothing wrong with them.
01:05I think they're cute.
01:06Number 9. Lurch, The Addams Family
01:08Yes, we know that Lurch was known to say a word or two in the 1960s Addams Family TV show.
01:13He even had his own catchphrase.
01:16There are reports that Lurch was supposed to be mute in the TV series,
01:19and that the you rang catchphrase was an ad-lib by the actor that caught on.
01:23Regardless, when the show was brought to the big screen in the early 90s,
01:26the Addams-Frankenstein-esque butler went back to being quiet.
01:29Pugsley, head for the dung heap.
01:31Mamma and Morticia, the shallow graves. I'll take the abyss.
01:34Lurch, check out the bottomless pit.
01:37Well, there were still a few grunts and such, but no words and no catchphrase.
01:40Dang, you're a handful.
01:42Number 8. God, Dogma
01:44Anyone who isn't dead or from another plane of existence would do well to cover their ears.
01:49Right about now.
01:51Is it ironic that Alanis Morissette, a singer who made her fame and fortune with her distinct vocal stylings,
01:56was cast as God in Dogma and never says a word in the film?
01:59Maybe we all know that.
02:01Number 8. God, Dogma
02:03Yes, we know that.
02:06What we do know is that it was great casting on the part of director Kevin Smith,
02:10and that while Morissette never says a word,
02:12her vocal prowess is honored via an encompassing scream
02:15so powerful that it causes Ben Affleck's head to explode over his feet,
02:18if only she had done it with one hand in her pocket.
02:20Why ain't this broad talking?
02:22Number 7. Dopey, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
02:25This is Dopey. He don't talk like that.
02:27Dopey.
02:29Dopey.
02:31Dopey.
02:33And this is Dopey. He don't talk none.
02:36Of the Seven Dwarfs, Dopey is easily one of, if not the most memorable,
02:40and yet he is the only one who never speaks throughout the movie.
02:43Even as they're all singing hey-ho and heading home from a long day's work in the mines,
02:47Dopey might whistle a little, but neither a hey nor a ho ever emanates from his mouth.
02:51Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's home from work we go.
02:55Yet even without saying a word,
02:57Dopey manages to be so eloquent and emotive in his body language and facial expressions
03:01that there's never any doubt as to what he's feeling.
03:03You think he can talk?
03:05He don't know. He never tried.
03:07Number 6. Mini-Me, Austin Powers franchise
03:10Breathtaking. I shall call him...
03:14Mini-Me.
03:16The character of Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers trilogy
03:18spoke some of the funniest lines in the history of film comedy.
03:21However, his clone, the small-downed version of himself who he dubbed Mini-Me,
03:24is famous for having never said a word throughout the two films he appeared in.
03:28He's like a vicious little chihuahua thing.
03:32He'll kill me the first chance he gets.
03:34Probably.
03:35That isn't to say the little guy doesn't express himself.
03:37He uses written notes in his middle finger to let those around him know exactly what he's thinking.
03:42And as for sounds, he does make some.
03:44There are multiple E's and he even imitates his master clone's laugh on a few occasions.
03:48Check out Mini-Me.
03:50Yeah.
03:51He's gone mental on account of the chocolate.
03:54It's like frickin' catnip for clones.
03:57Number 5. Gromit. Wallace and Gromit franchise.
04:00You simply have to do something.
04:02Certainly, ma'am.
04:03Think we're about to go up in the world, lad?
04:06Gromit might be an anthropomorphic dog, but that anthropomorphic-ness stops at verbal communication.
04:11He can cook and clean, drive a car, and apparently even read the newspaper.
04:14But speak, he cannot. Or at least, he does not.
04:17I know you're doing this for my own good, but the fact is, I'm just crackers about cheese.
04:24As with most silent characters, especially ones of the animated variety,
04:27Gromit expresses himself and emotes his feelings and desires through body language and his cute doggy face.
04:33Those big, expressive eyes let everyone know exactly how he's feeling.
04:36Whether it be happy, sad, angry, or about to be attacked by a bunch of rabbits.
04:40Oh, Gromit. I don't want to be a giant rabbit.
04:46Number 4. The Pale Man. Pan's Labyrinth.
04:49In Pan's Labyrinth, Guillermo del Toro created one of the most mesmerizingly unforgettable fantasy horror characters of the century.
04:55And he's a character that doesn't speak.
04:57Now, we're just going to say it, if you see via eyeballs in the palms of your hands, then you don't ever need to say a word.
05:08Just holding said palms up to your head to look out at the world is enough to freak us out and create a pretty terrifying aura about you.
05:14He does make sounds, mind you.
05:16Add to that fact that this Pale Man is also a child-eating monster, and we say again, who needs words?
05:21Dialogue would just be superfluous.
05:30Number 3. Kevin. Sin City.
05:32Because there's blood on your breath, and I think I know what kind.
05:36So I sniff around to see what's buried.
05:43Here we go.
05:44They say a picture's worth a thousand words.
05:46All the images we have of Kevin in Sin City are well worth thousands of words.
05:50And he doesn't need to speak any of them.
05:52I'm sure a silent cannibal killer is a freaky character to begin with.
05:55Damn. He eats people.
06:01But the icy cold silence with which Elijah Wood portrays him makes Kevin a truly frightening entity.
06:06And when we say silent, we mean silent.
06:08He doesn't grunt or shout or snicker.
06:10He doesn't even scream to make a sound when Mickey Rourke's Marv cuts off his legs and sends Kevin's own pet wolf to chow down on his guts.
06:16Just silence and a smile.
06:25Number 2. Oddjob. Goldfinger.
06:32James Bond franchise has given us some of film's most iconic quotes.
06:35From Bond, James Bond, to Shake and Not Stir.
06:38However, there was one character who made his mark in Bond lore without ever saying a word, except for a few ah-ahs and an R.
06:44Oddjob. Goldfinger's mute henchman with the deadly bowler hat makes quite an impression in the 1964 film.
06:55So much so that his iconic hat sold for 62,000 euro at a 1998 auction.
07:00Mark Myers even paid homage to the silent but deadly character with the shoe-throwing random task in Austin Powers' International Manic Mystery.
07:07We'll also give a quiet shout-out to the silent bad guy Patrice in Skyfall.
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07:35Number 1. Michael Myers. Halloween franchise.
07:45When Rob Zombie made his Halloween movies in the aughts, he had originally planned to have Michael Myers speak his childhood nickname, Boo, in the finale moments of the 2007 film.
07:54However, the director changed his mind, thinking that hearing the character speak would demystify him.
07:58We agree, and obviously so too did every person involved with making the multitude of Halloween movies over the last four-plus decades.
08:12Because while the Myers character has appeared in over ten films, the adult version of him has never spoken a single word.
08:17They say that actions speak louder than words, and in the case of Michael Myers, that couldn't be more fearfully true.
08:23That's also the case for Jason Voorhees, another horror icon who almost never speaks.
08:29Yo, man, it's cool. It's cool, man. It's cool.
08:32Which of these silent characters made the biggest impression on you? Let us know in the comments.
08:36I need absolute silence before I fall on the character.
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08:58Thanks for watching.