Val Kilmer excelled as the villain in 2010's MacGruber

Val Kilmer's last comedy role came in the 2010 spoof MacGruber, where he plays the villainous Dieter von Cunth. Based on Will Forte's Saturday Night Live sketches, the film leans into action-movie parody, and Kilmer matches its irreverent energy. He and Forte display strong onscreen chemistry, with Kilmer using his charisma to play a relatively straight, believable antagonist rather than an unhinged caricature.

The movie's backstory complicates that villainy. Von Cunth murdered MacGruber's wife, Casey Janine Fitzpatrick (Maya Rudolph), but the trio were once friends in college: Casey had been engaged to Von Cunth, left him for MacGruber, and was pregnant with Von Cunth's child before MacGruber says he asked her to terminate it.

Forte, who co-wrote the script, builds to the comic reveal and MacGruber's line, "To this day, I have no idea," highlights the absurdity of the feud while making Von Cunth more sympathetic and MacGruber less heroic. The film's finale leans into that moral ambiguity.

val kilmer, macgruber, will forte, maya rudolph, snl, von cunth, villain, parody film, antagonist, feud