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The dichotomy of hero versus villain is a popular one in cinema. And, yet, the protagonist doesn't always win in the end. In fact, there are quite a few movies where the antagonist comes out victorious.
Read on and get to know the movies where the bad guys win. It goes without saying that this gallery contains spoilers!
'The Talented Mr. Ripley' (1999)
Tom Ripley (Matt Damon) takes over Dickie Greenleaf's (Jude Law) life after killing him. Indeed, a very talented psychopath.
Matt Damon has a range he doesn't get to show off much these days. In The Talented Mr. Ripley, though, we see Damon play a psychopath with chilling skill. The movie follows Tom Ripley (Damon), a low-class man who rises up the ranks of young high society in the 1950s thanks to a relationship with Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law), a wealthy, aimless young man.
Ultimately, Tom's love for and jealousy of Dickie proves too powerful, and he kills him at sea. Instead of confessing to his crime, though, Tom takes over Dickie's life, and all of the wealth that it entails. Tom spends the rest of the film trying desperately not to get caught, and he succeeds. He gets away with that murder — and another one. Tom Ripley may not be a good person, but he is very good at what he does, and he proves that at the end of The Talented Mr. Ripley.
'Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith' (2005)
All of those rooting for the Force couldn't believe it when Anakin Skywalker succumbed to the dark side. That is, except for those who already knew he would become Darth Vader.
There was basically no way for the Star Wars prequel trilogy to give fans a happy ending, but the lack of surprise doesn’t diminish the tragedy of the final installment one iota. No matter how you felt about Jar Jar and midichlorians, it’s hard not to weep as Anakin Skywalker succumbs to the dark side, the Jedi are stabbed in the back by their clone compatriots, and Padmé dies in childbirth. (Her children will eventually take down the Empire, but it’s still a bum deal for her.) Empire Strikes Back gets a lot of praise for ending on a minor key, but that’s practically a Carly Rae Jepsen song compared to the symphony of sadness that is Episode III’s ending.
'The Omen' (1976)
This horror classic scores another win for Satan and evil. Guess that's what you get for adopting the Antichrist himself.
It's hard to beat Satan. The Omen is a classic horror film for many reasons, but one is undoubtedly its bleak ending. The film tells the story of a couple who unknowingly adopt the antichrist, a young boy named Damien (Harvey Spencer Stephens). Unsurprisingly, the movie doesn't end on a particularly happy note.
Robert Thorn, Damien's father, spends much of the movie trying to determine where his adopted son actually came from. Along the way, a number of people die under questionable circumstances. As the movie approaches its climax, Damien's adopted mother is killed by his nanny, and when Robert discovers that his wife has been murdered, he stabs the nanny to death.
Then, he takes Damien to a church and places him on the altar, only to be shot down by police before he can kill his demonic son. The movie ends with a joint funeral for Damien's adopted family, and Damien himself cracking a smile. By the end of The Omen, evil has conquered good, and everyone who knows what Damien really is has already ended up in the ground.
'The Usual Suspects' (1995)
The bad guy is Turkish criminal Keyser Söze, right? Wrong. It's actually Roger "Verbal" Kint (Kevin Spacey), but we don't find that out until the end of the movie. Verbal Kint manages to trick everyone, audience included.
Few movies pull the rug out from audiences as successfully as The Usual Suspects. For most of its runtime, we think we're getting a reliable version of the film's events from Verbal Kint (Kevin Spacey), the only survivor of a five-man crew who decides to pull a robbery that goes terribly awry. In the film's final moments, though, we realize that Verbal has been lying the entire time.
The film's villain, a terrible criminal known only as Keyser Soze, is actually Kint, and the limp he's had for the entire movie is fake. It's unclear how much truth there is in the story that Kint tells, but he ultimately escapes without a scratch. He deceives everyone, and the movie's final moments are devoted to watching Kint drive away, having killed several people without any sort of punishment.
Spacey's performance in the film won him an Oscar, and it's easy to see why. There's a menace hiding underneath the supposedly vulnerable Kint that becomes obvious as soon as you know the twist. Kint is just telling a story to get out of a tough bind, and the cops who are listening fall for it hook, line, and sinker.
'Basic Instinct' (1992)
Sharon Stone plays femme fatale author Catherine Tramell, who gets away with murder. In the end, Detective Nick Curran (Michael Douglas) doesn't quite succeed in his investigation.
The fun of Paul Verhoeven’s kinky masterpiece isn’t in figuring out whodunit. You know that Sharon Stone’s crime novelist Catherine Tramell very likely took an ice pick to her retired rock-star boyfriend, 31 times. And she wrote a novel in which a mysterious blonde kills her lover with an ice pick as an alibi. And she’s just toying with police during that infamous interrogation scene. But like Michael Douglas’s detective Nick Curran, you find yourself seduced by Catherine anyway, even as she reveals that her new novel is about a woman who murders her detective lover. For Verhoeven, the tension lies not in the bodies that keep piling up, with the arrows clearly pointed at Catherine, but in whether Nick’s survival instincts can overpower his sexual ones. Spoiler alert: They can’t, and the two find themselves alone in her bedroom, an ice pick beneath her bed. You can guess what happens next.
'Seven' (1995)
Kevin Spacey plays serial killer John Doe. He ends up dying in the end, but not until after he committed another one of his "deadly sins." Detective David Mills (Brad Pitt) shoots Doe in the head, who becomes the final victim of the sin "wrath." Messed up, right?
Se7en follows detectives William Somerset (Morgan Freeman) and David Mills (Brad Pitt) as they investigate a series of murders by a mysterious criminal who uses the seven deadly sins as his calling card. The movie gains speed as the duo uncover the first five sins (gluttony, greed, sloth, lust, and pride), but before the last two take place, the murderer, known as John Doe (Kevin Spacey), turns himself in to the authorities while covered in the blood of an unknown victim.
As the movie wraps up, the sense of impending doom is palpable. Doe directs Mills and Somerset to the desert, where he informs them that the last two victims will be found. Of course, they're already present, as Doe confesses to being envious of Mills' idyllic life with his pregnant wife Tracy (Gwyneth Paltrow) before a box arrives on the scene with Tracey's head. Mills kills Doe, becoming the final victim of wrath. Messed up in so many ways, the storyline never leaves the control of the antagonist, with Doe in the driver's seat all the way to the final minutes.
'Gone Girl' (2014)
This David Fincher movie has Amy (Rosamund Pike) going missing (she staged her death as part of a revenge plot) and her husband, Nick (Ben Affleck), looking for her and nearly ending up in prison accused of murdering her. Amy literally gets away with murder, gets a baby, and her husband in the end. That's a win in our book.
If your wife tried to frame you for her murder, would you take her back when she returned? Most people would likely say no, but not Nick Dunn (Ben Affleck), one of the characters at the center of Gone Girl. The movie follows Nick in the aftermath of his wife's disappearance, as evidence begins to pile up suggesting he's the killer. As we learn midway through the film, though, his wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) has been setting him up the entire time.
From there, the movie tracks Amy's decision to return home, and her ultimate plan to trap Nick in their relationship. She's pregnant with his child, and he decides that he has to stay to help raise it. It's a genius move, but it's also one that gives Nick an excuse to do what he wanted to do anyway.
As Amy, the film's ostensible villain, tells him, he actually likes the life she gives him. She's exciting and challenging, and that's what he wants, even if it means that he's occasionally accused of murder. In the end of Gone Girl, Amy gets everything that she wants, even though she's murdered at least one person along the way.
'Valkyrie' (2008)
Tom Cruise plays Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg in this movie about the attempted assassination of Adolf Hitler. Yes, Hitler did survive in the end (of this particular incident).
Not only does this one end on a grim note, it's actually based on a true story. The 2008 film Valkyrie is inspired by the harrowing assassination attempt made against Adolf Hitler in the summer of 1944 by a cabal of German officers aiming to overthrow the Nazi regime. Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise) joins Major-General Henning von Tresckow (Kenneth Branagh) and other conspirators, who lay careful plans to kill the dictator and use the Reserve Army to maintain order and establish themselves as the new government. From there, they plan to use their power to negotiate favorable peace terms with the Allies, who are clearly marching towards an eventual victory at that point.
The film follows the story as it unfolds, with everything seeming to move towards a satisfying conclusion, almost making you forget that history tells us the crusade will fail. But alas, unlike Inglourious Basterds, Valkyrie is ruthlessly tethered to reality. Initially, the assassination comes tantalizingly close to success, with the planted explosives going off and Operation Valkyrie being initiated. But before long, reports surface that the Fuhrer has survived the explosion, and from there the plot collapses. The movie ends with Hitler still breathing and the would-be heroes dead, things having gone pretty well for the villains.
'No Country for Old Men' (2007)
This Coen brothers' movie shows us that sometimes people do bad things and get away with it. Psychopath killer Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) is a great example.
At one point in No Country for Old Men, Woody Harrelson’s Carson Wells is asked if Anton Chigurh, the man chasing him, is dangerous. “Compared to what?” he says. “The bubonic plague?” It’s an apt comparison: Chigurh, played by Javier Bardem, isn’t your typical villain, operating under some plan or evil intention. Instead, he’s more like a natural disaster, as unfeeling and merciless as a tornado sweeping across a plain. Even killing he leaves up to the chance of a coin flip: He provides space for fate within the bounds of his brutality. And his ultimate impact isn’t in what he does or doesn’t accomplish, just as a tornado doesn’t win or lose. For Tommy Lee Jones’s Sheriff Bell, Chigurh represents the forces of the world that we can’t control, forces that are quite possibly evil — forces that may end up winning out.
'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' (1975)
Randall McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) pleads insanity to avoid doing hard time in prison and is placed in a mental institution that is ruled by the tyrannical Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher). McMurphy, who tries to rebel, eventually dies, and Nurse Ratched continues to rule the institution with an iron fist.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is about a rebel who loses. The film stars Jack Nicholson as Randall McMurphy, a new patient at a mental institution who pled insanity in order to avoid hard labor while imprisoned. Once he arrives, he discovers that the hospital is being run under the strict supervision of Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher), and decides that he wants to challenge her rule. The film chronicles McMurphy's attempts to rile the other patients at the institute up in defiance of Nurse Ratched.
Ultimately, though, McMurphy's attempts at defiance fail. At the end of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, it's determined that the only way the threat McMurphy poses can be neutralized is if he is lobotomized. In the film's final scene, Chief (Will Sampson), a character who has been silent for most of the film, asphyxiates McMurphy with a pillow and escapes from the institute. Although Chief gets away with his life, McMurphy, the rebel at the film's center, does not. Nurse Ratched quashes his attempt to get himself and his fellow patients more freedom, and he dies. Ratched's tyrannical rule over the facility remains.
'Memento' (2000)
Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce) suffers memory loss every few minutes, and uses tattoos and polaroid pictures to keep track of events. He's quite relatable, until the end, when we find out that he's indeed a murderer who has been able to erase any traces of guilt.
Christopher Nolan has a gift... for letting villains win, at least. In this case, we have a movie that is as convoluted as they come. The narrative follows Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce), who suffers from memory loss every five minutes. This is a recent condition, occurring ever since two men assaulted and murdered his wife. After Shelby killed one of them, the other knocked him on the head and escaped, leaving him with his new mental handicap.
Shelby is dead-set on hunting down the other man responsible for his wife's death, but plagued with short-term memory loss, he is forced to use tattoos and Polaroid cameras in an elaborate system to remind himself of what he discovers. The movie is filmed in both color and black-and-white sequences, showing different angles of perception and giving a sense of bizarre confusion that helps the audience relate to the protagonist... except Shelby isn't the protagonist. As the movie concludes, we find that he has been cyclically hunting down and taking "vengeance" on innocent people for a year. Repressing this information, Shelby tampers with his own photographic evidence, allowing his condition to wash all guilt away within the next few minutes and permitting him to continue his villainous behavior.
'Ex Machina' (2014)
AI Ava (Alicia Vikander) ends up killing her owner, trapping computer programmer Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) in her place, and escaping.
There aren't really any good guys in Ex Machina, but that doesn't mean that the villain doesn't ultimately win the day. The movie, which tells the story of a low-level computer programmer named Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) who travels to a tech billionaire's house in order to test his advanced artificial intelligence, exists in a moral gray area. Ava (Alicia Vikander), the artificial intelligence, seems kind and gentle, but obviously resents the cage she has been placed in by her creator.
Eventually, Ava escapes that cage, killing her billionaire creator and trapping Caleb inside her former home. Ava commits murder in the process of escaping, and the movie treats her escape with a sense of dread. Although she sends some characters to their doom, it's hard not to feel at least part of yourself rooting for Ava. She's been trapped by men for the entirety of Ex Machina, and in the end, she finally gets a chance to break free.
'The Dark Knight' (2008)
Christopher Nolan's 'The Dark Knight' has the late Heath Ledger playing the iconic Joker. While one can argue he doesn't win, Joker did manage to prove that anyone can become a monster just like him, even Batman.
Another film which keeps the villain in total in control throughout, director Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight delivered more than just an incredible performance from a greatly-missed actor. Heath Ledger's portrayal of the Joker also marked one of the most iconic superhero films in which the villain clearly has his way with the hero from beginning to end. From the moment he enters the dramatic opening heist sequence, the infamous DC villain steals the show.
Much like the Thanos-centered focus of Infinity War, The Dark Knight revolves squarely around the machinations of the Joker. It follows his rise as he distressingly yet playfully antagonizes Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) while they progress through a series of showdowns throughout Gotham. This second film in Nolan's epic Dark Knight trilogy leaves Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal) dead, Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) getting warped into Two-Face before falling to his own death, Batman taking responsibility for Dent's crimes to preserve his reputation, and Commissioner Gordon destroying the Bat-signal (a symbol for lost hope if there ever was one). Sure, the Joker was technically apprehended, but, truth be told, he had everything his way from start to finish. No doubt about it.
Covenant' (2017)
Android David (Michael Fassbender) is actually the xenomorph's creator, and ultimately the villain. He manages to escape the planet where he was stranded, meaning more evil aliens will terrorize the universe in the future.
The Alien movies are generally fairly bleak affairs. In the first couple, though, protagonist Ellen Ripley gets out of danger by the end, even if there are heavy casualties along the way. By the time Ridley Scott got around to directing Alien: Covenant, even the endings aren't necessarily happy. Unlike most previous Alien movies, though, the villain of Covenant isn't a xenomorph, but the android David (Michael Fassbender), who was first introduced in the preceding film, Prometheus. In this movie, we learn that David is the xenomorph's creator, and we watch as he slowly picks off the crew of the ship that has discovered him.
Although several crew members do survive the film, David undoubtedly emerges victorious, and successfully escapes the planet where he was stranded. He's going to spread xenomorphs all over the galaxy, and those very same aliens will eventually terrorize Ripley and her crew on the Nostromo. David's victory in this film is not just bleak because of what it means about Covenant, but also because of what it foretells about the rest of the Alien universe.
'Arlington Road' (1999)
Unlikely terrorist neighbors? Check. The protagonist being dragged into their plot to blow up an FBI building? Check. The terrorist neighbors getting away with it? Check!
Playing on the paranoia caused by terrorist bombers in the 1990s, Arlington Road is about suspecting that your neighbors are terrorists... and ultimately finding out that you're right. The movie follows Michael Faraday (Jeff Bridges) as he meets his new neighbors and begins to suspect that they're lying about their lives. Ultimately, he discovers that they're part of a terrorist organization and their goal is to blow up part of an FBI building located near their neighborhood.
Although Michael attempts to warn the authorities about the incoming attack, his neighbors are ahead of him at every turn. Ultimately, a bomb does go off, but the bomb has been planted in the back of Michael's car. Because Michael was at the FBI building to warn them, it blows part of that building up, and Michael appears to be the lone wolf responsible for the explosion.
Michael's neighbors, meanwhile, get away scot free, and move to another suburb where they can find someone else to blame for their latest attack.
'Unbreakable' (2000)
Samuel L. Jackson plays Mr. Glass, the villain opposed by hero David Dunn (Bruce Willis). The whole narrative plays around the hero versus villain dynamic. In this case, the villain wins.
Mr. Glass (Samuel L. Jackson), the villain at the heart of Unbreakable, believes in the archetypes that comic books establish. He knows he's a villain, and that David Dunn (Bruce Willis) exists to oppose him. The movie's twist isn't that Glass has pulled off some major scheme. What we discover is that he's been a terrorist this entire time, and that his ultimate goal was to uncover other people with special abilities like his.
Glass gets away with his plot because he carries it out before the movie even really begins. He discovers David in the process, and while David ultimately imprisons him, he's actually doing exactly what Glass wants him to. Glass's only goal was to find a hero to oppose him, and he's done that by discovering David. He never wanted to escape from his plan without consequences. He wants to fulfill his comic book fantasy, with everything that might entail.
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