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With over 25 years of acting under his belt, ranking Mads Mikkelsen's movies from worst to best is far from straightforward. The Danish actor established himself by appearing in popular franchises and for his ability to elevate any story. From indie films to blockbusters, Mikkelsen's vast catalog crosses a variety of genres.

Mads Mikkelsen was born in Østerbro, Denmark in 1965. In Denmark, he began a career in dancing before his breakout role in Pusher skyrocketed him to stardom. Since, Mikkelsen has acted in several Danish arthouse films and big-budget franchises like Harry Potter and soon, Indiana Jones. His key roles in recent years include the nefarious Dr. Hannibal Lecter from NBC's Hannibal, where Mikkelsen showcased a unique talent for portraying charming villains.

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Over the course of his impressive career, Mikkelsen has featured in no less than 30 different movies. These run the gamut from big-budget Hollywood epics to more considered character-driven dramas. However, with almost every appearance, Mikkelsen demonstrates his range and skill as a performer. Here is every Mads Mikkelsen movie ranked.

30. The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman

The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman is a neo-noir romance. At the request of his dying mother, Charlie (Indiana Jones' Shia LaBeouf) travels to Bucharest, Romania where he meets a mysterious woman who weaves him into a dangerous web involving her possessive husband Nigel and his crime syndicate. For a film based around Romanian gang violence and overarching conflicts of marital abuse, it faces substantial issues with its pacing. Mikkelsen's sexy and charismatic take on Nigel's character uplifts the scenes that have minimum connective tissue to hold a cohesive plot structure together. Overall, however, the surreal film lacks solid objectives and relatability.

29. The Three Musketeers

Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, The Three Musketeers is a 2011 adaptation about D'Artagnan (Percy Jackson's Logan Lerman) who valiantly goes up against France's king and his forces, namely Captain Rochefort who Mikkelsen portrays to a playfully wicked degree. However, Anderson's film suffers from a bloated plot and stale characters. The best aspects are the action sequences and joyously campy performances. The cast is filled with A-list names such as Orlando Bloom, Luke Evans, and Christoph Waltz (of Django Unchained), so the end result is entertaining, even with its confusing narrative.

28. Age Of Uprising: The Legend Of Michael Kohlhaas

Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas tells the tale of the horse trader Michael who experiences abuse of royal power in the 1500s. Amongst several instances of a Baron's prejudiced injustice, Michael decides to enact violent revenge. Mads Mikkelsen demonstrates incredible skill in this role, since Michael's stoicism and righteous charm are traits Mikkelsen frequently excels in. However, if any film could be described to overutilize its liminal spaces in both dialogue and plot structure, it would be Age of Uprising as its snail's pace and overly broad conflict prove that the story could have had a much shorter run time.

27. Shake It All About

Shake It All About is an LGBTQ+ romcom about engagement of Jacob (Mads Mikkelsen) and Jørgen (Troels Lyby). Despite asking Jørgen to marry him, Jacob grows romantically entangled with a woman named Caroline. Though the film is progressive in 2001 for open discussions of gay marriage, the implication of Jacob's possible bisexuality is not expanded upon aside from being the catalyst of his pattern of cheating. Danish humor and Mikkelsen's natural charisma and chemistry with his co-stars elevate a comedy that would have otherwise left audiences frustrated and unsatisfied with an underdeveloped love triangle.

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26. Clash Of The Titans

Louis Leterrier's 2010 remake ofClash of the Titans follows the mythological tale of Persues, Zeus' son, on a quest to thwart Hades' plans to overthrow the Gods and destroy the Earth. While the film is made with an obvious passion for both its source material and respective mythology, the cheesy script and poor special effects detract from the tale it is trying to tell. Mads Mikkelsen's Draco is a convincing authority figure, but as underdeveloped as every other character. It's also notably tailor-made for 3-D which ruins the immersion.

25. Chaos Walking

Chaos Walking is a 2021 dystopian flick starring Tom Holland where men can hear each other's thoughts and women are absent from a group of New World colonists. The group is led by Mads Mikkelsen's Mayor David Prentiss. The film experienced so-called production hell for nearly a decade after dismissing Charlie Kaufman as the lead writer, obvious in its final product. Excessive rewrites highlight plot holes in exposition and dialogue. Mikkelsen plays a convincingly conniving villain but the Mayor's intelligence is disregarded in moments when it's convenient for the plot, boiling Chaos Walking down to an average YA novel adaptation.

24. Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky

Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky is a 2009 French romantic drama directed by Jan Kounen. In France in the early 20th century, famous composer Igor Stravinsky (played by Mads Mikkelsen) meets fashion designer Coco Chanel (Anna Mouglalis) who begins an affair with him after Stravinsky has fled to France to escape the Russian Revolution. Mikkelsen and Mouglalis share palpable chemistry which the film heavily depends on. Though it starts out strong, the period piece never regains the strength it attempts to exude from its first minute of screen time.

23. Nu

Nu is an abstract short film directed by Simon Staho. The relatively silent and black-and-white style allows room for hypothesizing its deeper meaning, but regardless of the beautiful locations and meticulous mise-en-scène, the film lacks depth beyond its impressive visuals. Mikkelsen and Persbrandt (of Netflix's Sex Education) are outstanding at highlighting the friction caused by heterosexual marriage when one party is homosexual. While the film properly expresses the consequence of repressing yourself, its leisurely pacing does not always meld with Nu's shock value concepts.

Related: Every Actor Considered For The Title Role In NBC's Hannibal

22. Arctic

Arctic is a run-of-the-mill survival drama directed by Joe Penna. Following the crash of his plane, Mikkelsen becomes stranded in the arctic and attempts to rescue himself from harsh conditions. Mikkelsen's increasing desperation throughout his grueling journey creates the proper amount of anxiety for this genre, and each arduous step away from the safety of the plane’s shelter adds additional stress. However, Arctic gives off a placid impression of a documentary rather than a drama. Despite setbacks, the storytelling is cohesive.

21. Polar

Directed By Jonas Åkerlund, Polar stars Mikkelsen in the role of Duncan "The Black Kaiser" Vizla. The concept of a retired assassin isn't new and is likely marketing off the success of John Wick, Mikkelsen develops the baseline plot into an exciting action-revenge flick, but Polar suffers from a glaring overuse of tropes. Mikkelsen's combat abilities in taking out his captors one-by-one in the style of Park Chan-wook’s Old Boyare undeniably impressive, but Polar falls flat when it doesn't have much to offer aside from great action sequences.

20. The Green Butchers

Mikkelsen stars alongside Nikolaj Lie Kaas as a co-owner of an organic meat shop that sells cuts of coveted mystery meat in The Green Butchers. Though Anders Thomas Jensen's personalized humor does not often fall flat, The Green Butchers struggles to balance its grim subject matter with the quirky Coen Brothers-esque comedy Jensen is known for. Along with its hilarious cannibalism concept, Kaas and Mikkelsen's captivating dynamic in the film is the sole element that keeps the story afloat.

19. After The Wedding

The 2006 Danish-Swedish drama film After the Wedding revolves around Jacob (Mikkelsen) who runs an impoverished Indian orphanage. Later, Jacob discovers he has a biological child. The tragic tale of loneliness, love, and betrayal is simple but powerful, effectively portrayed by both Mads Mikkelsen and Sidse Babett Knudsen (playing Helene, the mother of Jacob's child). The script does not mince words when it comes to exposing hard-to-stomach topics like poverty and cheating. After the Wedding is an average story with meaningful themes about rediscovering love.

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18. The Salvation

The Salvation is a Danish western film starring Mads Mikkelsen, Sin City's Eva Green, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan (of Supernatural and The Walking Dead). After witnessing the assault and murder of his wife, Mikkelsen's Jon takes revenge on the man responsible. Mikkelsen proves he can be adopted into any genre of film and elevate a typical narrative into an unforgettable experience. The Salvation is an excellent homage to old Western cinema, but it occasionally puts so much attention on paying its homage that it neglects to weave originality into the story.

17. Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore is the third installment in the Fantastic Beasts series. Though a marked improvement from its preceding films, it still falls victim to the muddled lore its universe depends on. That said, Jude Law and Mads Mikkelsen's portrayal of Dumbledore and Grindelwald's shattered relationship stands out. There is never a moment where Dumbledore and Grindelwald's past love isn't felt, uplifting what could have been another dispassionate adventure in the wizarding world into a profound romantic tragedy.

16. King Arthur

King Arthur 2004 is a Sarmatian variation on the tale of the knights of the round table, starring Mads Mikkelsen, his co-star from Hannibal Hugh Dancy, Keira Knightly, and several other big names. By reputation, King Arthur is remembered as one of the more historically inaccurate adaptations to portray the legendary knights, but its atmosphere and commitment to its characters and their legacy make the issues of realism not as blaring. Though each actor is not given an equal amount of time on screen to shine, their acting chops elevate an over expository script into an exciting action-adventure flick.

15. Flame & Citron

Based on the Danish resistance during WWII,Flame & Citron is a 2008 war drama about two men, Citron played by Mads Mikkelsen and Flame played by Thur Lindhardt, working together to assassinate Nazi collaborators. Through its fast-paced and dramatized depiction of war violence, Ole Christian Madsen manages to direct an exemplary and tense narrative revolved around a relatively unexplored side of WWII in cinematic history. Even so, Madsen doesn't always hit his points home. Mikkelsen as the nervous and self-conscious Citron plays a perfect foil for Lindhardt's Flame and makes for a vibrant starring dynamic to contrast the film's gritty themes.

Related: Vikings: Valhalla - How Each Main Character Is Similar To Ragnar

14. Valhalla Rising

Centered around 1th-century Scandinavian warriors, Valhalla Rising focuses on the captivity of a legendary fighter named One-Eye (Mads Mikkelsen) who rises up against his captors and violently kills them before leaving to go on a spiritual journey. The violence is as unabashedly gory as it is in any Nicolas Winding Refn film which is favorable for Valhalla's concept. Slowly formatted and with little exposition throughout to link every scene together smoothly, Valhalla Rising can submerge its viewer in a wistful quest. The cinematography and beautifully desolate locations add to the superb realism of the period piece. Mads Mikkelsen shows he is the master of micro-expressions, as he is able to express the feelings and fears of an otherwise indifferent warrior.

13. Doctor Strange

Doctor Strange is the Marvel film that introduces the character Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) into the MCU. Mads Mikkelsen plays the villain named Kaecilius, the typecast to which he has grown accustomed by this point having played notorious antagonist Hannibal Lecter just a year before 2016. The Marvel formula makes for an equally funny and melodramatic magical adventure. Cumberbatch and Mikkelsen play off each other wonderfully, both hamming up their matter-of-fact personalities. Though Doctor Strange faced controversy during its release, it remains a substantial installment in the MCU.

12. Adam's Apples

From Anders Thomas Jensen, Adam's Apples is a 2007 black comedy about a former neo-Nazi who is sent for rehabilitation at a religious commune run by the buoyant priest Ivan (Mads Mikkelsen). Adam's Apples