Top 10 Walton Goggins movies you must watch

If there was an actor who could eclipse a scene with just a crooked grin and a raised eyebrow, it’s Walton Goggins. With a Southern drawl that drips like honey and eyes that flash between charming and threatening in seconds, Goggins has carved out a niche as one of Hollywood’s most compelling character actors. Whether he’s playing a silver-tongued fugitive, a dubious preacher, or an ostentatious tech dealer, he’s the kind of actor you just can’t take your eyes off!

From the morally complex Boyd Crowder in Justified to the gun-slinging rogue Billy Crash in Django Unchained, Goggins doesn’t just play characters, he embodies them. He brings a level of grit, charisma, and unexpected depth that turns even the smallest roles into something unforgettable.

So buckle up, as we dive headfirst into ten of Goggins’ best and boldest films, where his characters don’t just walk on screen, they go down in history as classics.

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Fatman (Jonathan Miller or Skinny Man, 2020)

In Fatman, Walton Goggins plays a character so delightfully deranged, he turns a dark Christmas comedy into something out of a Coen Brothers’ fever dream. He is Jonathan Miller, known simply as “Skinny Man,” a slick, calculated hitman with a vendetta against Chris Cringle. Opposite Mel Gibson’s grizzled and surprisingly grounded Chris Cringle, Goggins plays the role like a man with ice in his veins and coal in his soul.

He’s hired by a rich, spoiled kid after the boy receives a lump of coal for Christmas. The mission? Kill Santa. Goggins brings a twisted elegance to the role. He strolls through the movie with quiet menace, polishing his guns while monologuing about his traumatic Christmas memories. The contrast between Goggins' icy demeanor and Gibson’s weary Santa makes Fatman a brutally funny, genre-defying holiday flick.

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Tomb Raider (Mathias Vogel, 2018)

In the reboot of Tomb Raider, which came out in 2018, Walton Goggins portrays Mathias Vogel, a villain whose insanity is born not out of ambition but out of isolation. Stranded for years on the mythical island of Yamatai, Vogel is less of a power-hungry megalomaniac and more a man unraveling at the seams. Facing off against Alicia Vikander’s agile, determined Lara Croft, Goggins’ Vogel is focused and grounded. Unlike many of Goggins’ characters, Vogel isn’t smooth or stylish, but sweaty, sunburnt, and walking a tightrope between sanity and madness.

He kills without flair, commands with paranoia, and serves as a cautionary tale about obsession and loneliness, and that's what makes him even more dangerous. Goggins imbues the character with just enough pathos to make us grasp the root cause behind his apparent hysteria. The final confrontation between Vogel and Lara, where she finally turns the tables on him, is a brutal, muddy, close-quarters battle, and even as he breathes his last, Vogel leaves his impression. Goggins once again takes what could’ve been a generic villain and makes him striking.

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Ant-Man and the Wasp (Sonny Burch, 2018)

Marvel has given us many colorful antagonists, but Sonny Burch, played by Goggins in Ant-Man and the Wasp, is a rare kind of villain. Just as charming as an incompetent crook, Sonny is a black-market technology dealer with a syrupy Southern accent and a penchant for saying “partner”. Burch is all smarm and no chill. Sonny Burch is more of a nuisance than a threat, but Goggins plays him with delightful relish.

He’s greedy, petty, and hilariously out of his depth. Whether he’s threatening to "peel you like a grape" or getting zapped by Wasp, Goggins’ comic timing and smirking menace add a welcome layer of comic relief to the film. One thing remains clear: Only Walton Goggins could make a Southern-accented tech dealer simultaneously hilarious and vaguely terrifying.

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Django Unchained (Billy Crash, 2012)

In Quentin Tarantino’s bloodstained, gorey revenge epic, Django Unchained, Walton Goggins isn’t in every scene, but when he appears, he sears. As Billy Crash, a loyal enforcer at Calvin Candie’s plantation, played with sadistic charm by Leonardo DiCaprio, Goggins channels raw, Confederate-era malevolence. He oozes arrogance and cruelty, especially toward Django (Jamie Foxx). He snarls at Django as he's hanging upside down, eyes narrowed, and he prepares to torture him with a hot iron. Goggins leans fully into the darkness of the character, a reflection of the systemic brutality of slavery and white supremacy that the film confronts head-on.

There’s no redeeming Billy Crash as he's all venom and violence. But Goggins' portrayal makes him frighteningly real, a product of history and hatred. It’s a testament to his talent that in a film filled with towering performances, from the likes of Foxx, DiCaprio, Christoph Waltz, and Kerry Washington, Goggins still manages to leave a lasting scar. His demise, bloody and brutal, befitting his actions, but it’s also deeply satisfying.

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The Uninvited (Sammy, 2024)

In this slow-burn American comedy drama, Goggins delivers a humorous performance as Sammy, a slick Hollywood agent and Rose's (Elizabeth Reaser) emotionally abusive husband, proving once again why he's an actor to be reckoned with. Directed by newcomer Nadia Corners (Goggins' real-life wife), this American comedy-drama is a poignant cocktail of love, regret, and the strange poetry of growing older. Goggins doesn’t just play Sammy; he inhabits him, playing a man caught between the fading glitter of fame and the uncomfortable honesty of his long, crumbling marriage to Rose, bringing emotional nuance and razor-sharp timing to his character.

As Rose hosts a big party in the Hollywood Hills, long-buried truths and unexpected guests unravel decades of denial and deceit. Goggins struts and stammers through the evening with his signature charm, but beneath the bravado, there's vulnerability. Corners’ script gives him space to breathe, allowing subtlety to shine where most comedies would go broad. The film is as much about what’s not said as what is, and Goggins masterfully navigates the silences. Far from a typical Hollywood rom-com, The Uninvited is a mature, slow-burn revelation, punctuated by moments of deadpan humor and heartbreaking recognition. Goggins delivers a performance that’s both sharply funny and devastatingly real, and one of his finest in recent years.

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Maze Runner: The Death Cure (Lawrence, 2018)

In Maze Runner: The Death Cure, Walton Goggins is nearly unrecognizable as Lawrence, a disfigured, revolution-bent resistance leader hidden in the radioactive ruins of a shattered cityscape. It’s not the first place you’d expect to find the swaggering Southerner of Justified fame, but here, cloaked in makeup and incredible prosthetics, Goggins brings tragic intensity to a role that, although a supporting one, feels spiritually central to the overarching themes of the Maze Runner movies. Goggins turns what could’ve been a standard dystopian rebel leader into a living symbol of what’s at stake.

With a face half-ravaged by the Flare virus, he’s the physical embodiment of a system’s failure, and an uneasy and problematic beacon of hope. His scenes with Dylan O’Brien and Rosa Salazar (Brenda) pulse with tension and reluctant alliance. Director Wes Ball crafts Lawrence as a ghost of what humanity could become, and Goggins leans into the bitterness with magnetic charisma. It's not a leading-man role, but it’s jarring nonetheless, a performance that redefines Goggins' penchant and prowess in playing damaged characters.

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That Evening Sun (Paul Meecham, 2009)

Set against the faded glory of Tennessee’s farmland, That Evening Sun is a brooding, emotionally taut drama, and Goggins, playing the semi-antagonistic Paul Meecham, delivers a masterclass in indifference rife with moral ambiguity. In a deceptively simple plot, the 80-year-old Abner Meecham (played by Hal Holbrook) escapes a nursing home that his son put him in to return to his old farmhouse, only to find it rented out by Paul to an old enemy and his family.

What follows is less a feud than a slow-burning psychological duel, steeped in pride, poverty, and generational decay. Goggins never lets Paul become a caricature. Sure, he plays the uncaring son, discarding his duty towards his father at a time when he needed it the most, but he’s also worn down by life, by circumstance, by the sheer exhaustion of trying to rise above a legacy of failure. There are no heroes in That Evening Sun, just broken people grappling with the inheritance of bitterness.

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The Hateful Eight (Sheriff Chris Mannix, 2015)

Walton Goggins and Quentin Tarantino were made for each other, and nowhere is that more apparent than in the movie The Hateful Eight. As Sheriff Chris Mannix, Goggins chews through Tarantino’s dialogue with a wicked grin, his character slipping between buffoonery, bigotry, and something approaching reluctant decency. Introduced alongside bounty hunter Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson), Mannix is a former Confederate renegade with delusions of grandeur. And yet, after nearly three hours of snowbound claustrophobia, Mannix's character evolves.

He might be racist, reckless, and ridiculous, but he also might be the only character left with a shred of honor. Goggins holds his own in a stacked ensemble that includes Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kurt Russell, Tim Roth, and Bruce Dern. His chemistry with Jackson in particular is electric, like oil and fire, forced into alliance by circumstance. Sheriff Mannix is a paradox, both a fool who just might be right and an anti-hero who might save the day. Goggins plays him to the hilt, in a performance so layered and so gleefully unpredictable that it steals the show.

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Predators (Stans, 2010)

As a death row inmate with a twisted sense of humor, Walton Goggins delivered a standout performance in the role of Stans in Predators (2010). His character, armed with just a shiv and a knack for unsettling remarks, provides a stark contrast to the heavily armed mercenaries around him. Goggins masterfully portrays Stans with both repulsiveness and a strange charm, keeping the audience engaged and adding depth to the film's dynamic.

He is introduced as a volatile and unpredictable figure, boasting about his 38 murders and displaying a disturbing nonchalance about his crimes. His interactions with fellow survivors are laced with tension, yet he occasionally reveals glimpses of vulnerability, hinting at a complex psyche beneath the surface. Despite his heinous past, Stans exhibits moments of unexpected heroism. In a climactic scene, he confronts a Predator head-on, sacrificing himself to allow others to escape. Goggins ensures that the character remains one of the most intriguing elements of Predators.

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American Ultra (Laugher, 2015)

Switching gears from history to mayhem, American Ultra is a genre-bending stoner-action-comedy in which Walton Goggins, once again, stands out as the deliciously deranged antagonist, Laugher, a government-programmed assassin with a 'Joker' grin and a twitch in his soul. Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg headline the film as a sleepy small-town couple swept into a CIA mess.

But Goggins' character is more of an experiment than a man; a giggling psychopath aptly named “Laugher” is both ironic and deeply disturbing. Goggins prowls through the movie with unnerving delight, a kind of gleeful grotesque. Even as the bullets fly and bodies drop, he imbues Laugher with a weird flicker of sadness, showing an echo of a man destroyed by the system that created him. In a movie that embraces absurdity, Goggins is the anchor of chaos. He’s terrifying and tragic in equal measure, and a reminder of how versatile Goggins really is as an actor.

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