Random Movie Villains Who Were Probably Right All Along (29 items)

• 

  (#1) Jack Doyle

  • Gone Baby Gone

  With the entire city of Boston looking for one Amanda McCready in this Gone Baby Gone adaptation, turns out it's Morgan Freeman's Captain Doyle who has her. 

  Why We Hated Him : He kidnapped a child, made it look like a drug dealer's doing, had the entire city and the child's family gripped with fear, and ultimately was responsible for the deaths of multiple people. 

  Why He Was Probably Right: Amanda had the worst parents in the world. A mother who couldn't even remember the name of her favorite doll, and who just recently stole money from a Haitian drug lord, because, yeah, that always works out. When Patrick (Casey Affleck) found him with Amanda, she was smiling and happy, well taken care of by Doyle and his wife. 

  When she's returned to her home, her mother banished her aunt (the one member of the family who actually cared for her) from ever seeing Amanda, and then left her completely alone with Patrick to go on a date. Jack saw what we all saw, but unlike many of us, he decided to do something about it. 
  
• 

  (#2) Dalton Russell

  • Inside Man

  Clive Owen's devious thief in Inside Man ends up carrying out the "perfect robbery," outsmarting just about everyone, including one Denzel Washington.

  Why We Hated Him: Taking over a bank, taking hostages, scaring people half to death, demeaning them (they had to strip and change clothes), and altogether causing massive problems for the city.

  Why He Was Probably Right: Russell was stealing one thing, and one thing only: a safety deposit box with evidence incriminating the bank's founder of working with the Nazis. He was offered a great deal of money to destroy it and escape any lengthy prison sentence, so he'd be rich and free, and yet still refused. 

  After making his escape, he leaves behind enough evidence for Denzel Washington's Frazier to investigate and bring down the Nazi sympathizer. None of this would have been possible had Russell not staged this heist, and a Nazi would have gone on living in luxury off of the misery of an entire race.
• 

  (#3) Roy Batty

  • Blade Runner

  Leader of escaped cyborgs, this primary Blade Runner villain caused all sorts of havoc for humanity, going up against Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) and coming out the loser, though his body shut down at a pretty convenient time.

  Why We Hated Him: He was a trained killer, a combat Replicant. There's no possible way that him being on Earth was going to be a good thing. 

  Why He Was Probably Right: His goals were completely understandable -- he just wanted to live longer, and he was forced into four years's life by design, a blink of an eye even by human standards (heck, dogs live way longer). While humanity on Earth wanted his immediate destruction, there was no indication that Batty was planning on any kind of damage to us. Everything he did was directed at people who were directly involved in Replicants -- or engaging in self-defense against Deckard.
  
• 

  (#4) Mystique

  • X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men: First Class, Epic Movie, X2, X-Men

  Both Rebecca Romijn and Jennifer Lawrence portray the film version of this Marvel character across numerous X-Men films.

  Why We Hated Her: Because she threw in with Magneto, rejecting Professor X's attempts to co-exist peacefully with humanity. And we all see what Magneto's plans for us non-mutants are. 

  Why She Was Probably Right: Really, she'd been abused her entire life. She literally had to use her power to hide her actual self, because her true appearance would disgust and distress people on the streets. She was hunted and hounded by all manner of law enforcement, politicians, and vigilantes. It really isn't all that hard to wonder why she didn't have much sympathy for them. 
• 

  (#5) Brigadier General Francis X. Hummel, USMC

  • The Rock

  The leader of a team of soldiers who take over Alcatraz with chemical weapons, Ed Harris's Colonel Hummel was a man bent on changing the status quo for his soldiers, putting the entire city of San Francisco at risk. 

  Why We Hated Him: Chemical weapons pointed at San Francisco. It's not all that complicated. He also put many soldiers in a position to be killed by other US soldiers. Not exactly the military leader of the century. 

  Why He Was Probably Right: The truth that floated under the surface of The Rock was that just about everyone involved agreed with him, even Michael Biehn's Commander Anderson, who literally pointed a gun at Hummel to get him to stand down while actually agreeing with what Hummel wanted. 

  Furthermore, it became clear that Hummel never intended to actually do anything with the chemical weapons, that it was all an elaborate bluff and he'd never actually kill innocents. It'd be great if he hired better, or not dangle a payday in front of his troops. 
• 

  (#6) Steve Hadley

  • The Cabin in the Woods

  Tequila is his lady, and Bradley Whitford's character in The Cabin in the Woods was a great source of conflict and comic relief. 

  Why We Hated Him: Sending actual monsters after actual teenagers. His job was to literally kill children, and to make them suffer as much as humanly possible. And he was good at his job. 

  Why He Was Probably Right: Because if he didn't do all of those insane things, it would bring about the end of the world. Every single human being in the world would die to the Ancient Ones. Billions of lives snuffed out. Someone had to do it, and if you're going to do it, you've got to be good at it. For all our sakes. 

  Unfortunately, he and his buddy Sitterson just couldn't get it done that last time. Sooner or later the luck was going to run out. It simply happened to occur on his watch.
• 

  (#7) Wicked Witch of the West

  Yup, we're absolutely going to defend this one: She's probably the one everyone across the world knows, constantly hounding Dorothy and company on their way to The Wizard of Oz.

  Why We Hated Her: She looked hideous, had a frightening cackle, and fully intended to "get [Dorothy], and your little dog too!"

  Why She Was Probably Right: Dude, Dorothy killed her sister, and took her slippers. That's rough right there. The slippers were all that the Witch wanted, and rather than Dorothy just giving her back the slippers she stole off a woman she killed with a house, she instead killed the other Witch, too!
   
• 

  (#8) Captain Viktor Tupolev

  • The Hunt for Red October

  This intense submarine captain was played by Stellan Skarsgård in one of his earlier American roles.

  Why We Hated Him: He was going after the Red October, where he intended to sink her and kill everyone on board, including Sean Connery, Alec Baldwin and all the other people we liked in that movie. 

  Why He Was Probably Right: As the film made a big deal about the Russians having a completely silent submarine, thus creating an imbalance in nuclear deterrence, it painted Tupolev in a completely villainous light. 

  But the reality was simple: He was a Russian naval officer, given a clear directive to sink the Red October, the captain of whom was committing all sorts of treason against his country. And worse still -- Tupolev took it as personal honor to do the deed, because he considered Connery's Ramius a close friend. He worried greatly at the rest of the fleet killing him without respect. Tupolev wanted to take responsibility for executing Ramius, rather than someone he didn't know.
• 

  (#9) Tyler Durden

  • Fight Club

  The folk hero for many millennial boys during their years in college, Tyler was (SPOILER) really the villainous half of Jack's broken psyche in Fight Club, taking over when Jack went to sleep -- or at least thought he was going to sleep. The result was a bare-knuckled fighting ring turning into a global revolution. 

  Why We Hated Him: We didn't hate him, he was a lot of fun and, when in the form of Brad Pitt, easy on the eyes. But ultimately he was torturing Jack and giving in to our worst impulses -- destroying property, beating up people in authority, vandalizing signs, putting magnets to video tapes, and being an all-around jerk to the average person who just wants to go home and open a bottle of Merlot without being harassed in some way. 

  It was funny because the movie made it funny, but the truth is any of us would be outright furious if we had to deal with Durden in real life. And the damage he caused was catastrophic. 

  Why He Was Probably Right: Tyler was trying to destroy that rat race we've all grown accustomed to. Of course, his plan now couldn't possibly work, what with cloud computing and all (blowing up those buildings wouldn't erase any records; it'd just cause a lot of property damage and probably damage nearby businesses who aren't contributing to societal ills).

  But Tyler wanted to set people free, believing the greed of corporations to be keeping us working folk down. 
   
• 

  (#10) Ozymandias

  • Watchmen

  The ostensible villain of Watchmen, he was the mastermind behind everything, resulting in a number of nuclear reactors detonating. 

  Why We Hated Him: He leveled entire cities, murdering millions of people across the world. He was also arrogant and real condescending about it all, too. 

  Why He Was Probably Right: The whole point was to create an enemy that the United States and Soviet Union could band together over -- and he did just that in Dr. Manhattan. His goal was world peace, and judging by news reports, he accomplished exactly that. A few cities leveled to forever prevent an all-out nuclear holocaust. In that lens, it's a fair trade.
• 

  (#11) Erik Killmonger

  • Black Panther

  Michael B. Jordan took on the role of Erik Killmonger in the 2018 Black Panther, and his sympathetic portrayal really makes you reevaluate the character. In September 2018, Marvel announced a Killmonger miniseries that explores his backstory.

  Why We Hated Him: Killmonger was never exactly hated by Black Panther fans, as he's one of the more sympathetic villains in the superhero genre. However, fans were hesitant to embrace Killmonger's plan to distribute vibranium weaponry to the oppressed masses, as this would have spurred worldwide violence and the potential loss of innocent lives. 

  Why He Was Probably Right: As many online commentators have pointed out, Killmonger did not simply want to murder thousands without cause. Having grown up witnessing the systemic oppression of racism first hand, Killmonger felt revolution was necessary. And, at times, it may be. Had Killmonger gotten his way, would it have been a bloodbath? Sure. But, as Victor Hugo once wrote, we call the brutalities of progress revolution. Mankind has been treated harshly, but it moves forward. 
• 

  (#12) Ed Rooney

  • Ferris Bueller's Day Off

  One of the greatest villains of all time, Ed Rooney (Jeffrey Jones) was a crazed Dean of Students who chased Ferris Bueller all across Chicago. 

  Why We Hated Him: He was certifiably insane, and absolutely obsessed with ruining Ferris' day. He also broke into Ferris' house and scared the crap out of Jeanie. 

  Why He Was Probably Right: He was doing his job! Ferris was skipping school, and had done so nine times ("Nine times?" "Niiiiiine times."). He was ruining his academic career, and then convinced two other people to start doing the same. Rooney said, "he gives good kids bad ideas," and Ferris literally did that, resulting in Cameron destroying a Ferrari. 

  Those kids needed to get back to class.
• 

  (#13) Doctor Octopus

  • Spider-Man 2

  Doc Ock himself, he took to Spider-Man 2 and went mad during an attempt to create limitless energy. 

  Why We Hated Him: The "good" doctor maimed, murdered, and ran rampant across New York City, robbing banks and nearly leveling the city. 

  Why He Was Probably Right: Really, a reactor with that amount of power, if it worked, could have actually saved the world. The A.I. arms fused to his spine certainly had a little too much aggression, but altogether Dr. Octavius, even committing horrific acts, was trying to change everything for the better. 

  And if it had worked -- it would've brought incredible prosperity for the future.
• 

  (#14) Poison Ivy

  • Batman & Robin

  Uma Thurman rocked this filmed version of the plant-wielding villain in Batman & Robin. 

  Why We Hated Her: Besides being in the worst Batman movie of all time? Well, probably because she was trying to kill Batman, and also killed Nora Fries, Dr. Freeze's wife, simply to put suspicion upon Batman. 

  Why She Was Probably Right: Basically, we're destroying the planet. She used Venom to get plants to protect themselves. Others used it to create Bane, and intended to use Venom to build nothing but supersoldiers to sell to dictators. Really, we're going to destroy the planet on our own, but Ivy's way meant that something would survive. 
• 

  (#15) Henri Ducard

  • Batman Begins

  Actually Ra's Al Ghul, Ducard trained Bruce Wayne and gave him the skills to become Batman, but ultimately they couldn't along, what with Bruce wanting to save Gotham and Ducard wanting to blow the whole thing up.

  Why We Hated Him: The dude tried to use a weaponized hallucinogen to make an entire city's worth of people lose their minds and run off killing each other. He's not exactly going to win Humanitarian of the Year. 

  Why He Was Probably Right: The thing is, Gotham is a cancer on the world. It's run by crime bosses, and even Batman's work to shut them down results in worse consequences. While the plan was going to kill a lot of people, Ducard was thinking about the greater picture, about keeping humanity in balance. Sometimes that requires great sacrifice. 

  And, as we saw in later movies, Gotham never actually got any better. When the best you can hope for is that it doesn't get vaporized by a nuke or taken over by a clown-faced maniac? Your bar is pretty low. 
• 

  (#16) Thanos

  • Guardians of the Galaxy, The Avengers: Age of Ultron

  Josh Brolin plays the Mad Titan in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In Avengers: Infinity War, the Eternal makes it his mission to collect the Infinity Stones in order to wipe out half of the population.

  Why We Hate Him: The idea of someone randomly snuff out 50% of the Earth's inhabitants is nothing short of horrifying. Thanos snaps his Infinity Stone-laden hand and some of Earth's Mightiest Heroes - along with roughly 3.2 billion other people - disintegrate into dust, leaving those left behind completely devastated.  

  Why He Was Probably Right: Thanos cites overpopulation, famine, and disease as some of the many reasons he has been annihilating half the population of various worlds. Thanos is not a villain who destroys for fun; he genuinely believes his actions can lead to a universe free of suffering. He treats overpopulation as a doctor would treat any illness - he eliminates the virus, or in this case, humans. 
• 

  (#17) Wilford

  • Snowpiercer

  An Ed Harris villain, Wilford built Snowpiercer, the titular train designed to run forever, and the mastermind behind the train's rigid class system. 

  Why We Hated Him: Well, the people in the back of the train were basically starving, being used as slaves, and if you step out, punishment is doled out in the form of sticking your arm out and freezing it to the point of shattering. Wilford indoctrinated children with blatant propaganda, and executed many. 

  Why He Was Probably Right: No one knew more about the train and its inhabitants than Wilford. Resources were ridiculously scarce, and there just plain wasn't room for more. At a certain point, either some people had to die, or everyone was guaranteed to die. And guess what? His solution would've worked. It was brutal, but it kept humanity going. 

  Curtis' (Chris Evans) solution -- blow up the train, resulting in only two children surviving and forced to continue on in a snowy wasteland -- seems downright intolerable in comparison.
• 

  (#18) Col. Nathan R. Jessep

  • A Few Good Men

  Jack Nicholson earned an Oscar nomination for his role as the intense Marine Colonel in A Few Good Men. 

  Why We Hated Him: He illegally had a violent punishment given to a Marine, which resulted in his slightly-accidental death. 

  Why He Was Probably Right: The Marine in question, Private William Santiago, was an overall failure. His fellow Marines didn't like him, he violated the chain of command multiple times, and largely made things incredibly difficult for his commanding officers. 

  Jessup knew that Santiago was damaging unit cohesion, and simply transferring the kid to another division would just damage the Marines over there. Jessup wasn't trying to get Santiago killed; he was trying to make him a Marine -- someone ready to defend the United States from all threats. 

  And keep in mind: this is a volunteer army. Santiago chose to be a Marine, and then proceeded to ignore all of its traditions. While Jessup certainly deserved to go to prison for his extreme actions, the reasoning behind it was sound. 
• 

  (#19) Daniel Plainview

  • There Will Be Blood

  The complicated man at the head of There Will Be Blood, Daniel Day-Lewis' Daniel Plainview squared off against Paul Dano's Eli Sunday, a preacher who uses his local oil field as a political tool. 

  Why We Hated Him: Daniel Plainview was a monster, plain and simple. He was ruthless in his dealings, and he bullied, beat and murdered anyone who got in his way. Oh! And he used a dead coworker's child as a prop to portray himself as a family man.

  Why He Was Probably Right: Because the Sunday family was awful. They beat children (a practice Daniel firmly stopped), they ran a church that never seemed to actually include scripture in sermons, and basically bilked an entire town out of a lot of money for a salvation that Eli never intended to provide. (Indeed, Eli himself denounced his faith over money.)

  Plainview, on the other hand, gave the town everything they asked for. Sure, he was going to lowball them and he secretly took the oil under the one holdout's land, but it's bad business to be known as a townkiller. 
• 

  (#20) Capt. Frank Ramsey

  • Crimson Tide

  The Captain of the USS Alabama, Gene Hackman's Frank Ramsey squared off against Denzel Washington's Lt. Commander Ron Hunter when a second set of orders after they were given orders to launch nuclear missiles were broken off due to an attack by a Russian submarine. 

  Why We Hated Him: He was dead set on firing those nuclear missiles, something that no one should ever take lightly. Furthermore, he was impulsive, prone to acting without much thought, as well as causing tensions amongst crew and damaging morale. 

  Why He Was Probably Right: While the second set of orders may have been to terminate the launch of nuclear missiles, they never received it. At the end of the day, while there's supposed to be a concurrence with the Executive Officer, the XO's disagreement does not prevent him from being replaced. 

  Ramsey had orders and was intent on following them. His XO violated orders, staged a mutiny and caused one heck of a mess, even pointing a gun at his fellow crewman,  and threatening the life of a serviceman who had nothing to do with whatever plot Hunter had in mind. 
• 

  (#21) The Operative

  • Serenity

  The primary antagonist of the Joss Whedon film Serenity (continuing the sometimes too beloved Firefly series) chases after Malcolm Reynolds and company to recover River, killing a whole lot of people along the way. 

  Why We Hated Him: Well, because we loved Mal and his lovable Serenity crew. And let's not forget the fact that he's a mass murderer, who's directly responsible for killing Shepherd Book, and indirectly responsible for killing Wash. So there really ain't going to be any tears shed for his inevitable defeat. 

  Why He Was Probably Right: If you really look at Serenity and the Firefly universe, we're celebrating a failed rebellion and we cheer on outlaws who often create more problems than they solve. The Serenity crew had a living, breathing weapon of mass destruction on their ship. Furthermore, River knew about a failed experiment that created the Reavers, information that would cause a new civil war that would kill millions.

  With that in mind, can you really blame The Operative for going all out to get her away from a band of literal criminals? He was willing to die for a better world that he even admitted he would never actually see or be allowed to live in. 

  Mal, on the other hand, was also willing to die for his beliefs, but "that ain't exactly Plan A." 
• 

  (#22) Alexander Conklin

  • The Bourne Identity

  A CIA spook, Alexander Conklin had one job and he was very intent on completing it: Killing Jason Bourne. 

  Why We Hated Him: Pretty obvious, right? Jason Bourne had to evade and defeat a comically-large number of assassins, and all were sent at the orders of one Conklin. The guy knew Jason better than Jason really knew himself, and along with all of the attempts to kill him, Conklin also had assassinated an exiled dictator. And that's all that we actually saw -- with a long career in the CIA before his untimely death, who knows what other evil things he did?

  Why He Was Probably Right: All that Conklin knew was that a) Jason Bourne did not complete his mission, and b) that he was acting erratically. When an asset with crazy kill-skills goes off the reservation, there's really only one solution to that. 

  Jason was (and still is!) a liability to the CIA, an agency that's supposed to protect US interests abroad. When Bourne went off the reservation, he became in Conklin's eyes a direct threat to America. And technically, he wasn't wrong.
• 

  (#23) Jeffers

  • The Way of the Gun

  Taye Digg's strongman from Way of the Gun meets an untimely end, but throughout, remained resolute. 

  Why We Hated Him: He was definitely a jerk, hounding Juliette Lewis. Ultimately, he forced her to undergo a C-section in a dirty motel in Mexico, before getting shot in the dang throat. 

  Why He Was Probably Right: The guy was doing a job. His job was to protect Mr. Chidduck's child and, by extension, surrogate mother Robin. Again and again, he said that their priority was the child. When the mother intended to run away, he worked to bring her back. When she was captured and ransomed, he braved fire to get her. 

  Jeffers wasn't evil by any stretch. But he was given a job, and he intended to do it. It could even be argued that, when Robin told him the baby was hers, he simply didn't believe her after all the other moves she'd pulled. 
• 

  (#24) Cosmo

  • Sneakers

  Ben Kingsley and his dodgy American accent battle Robert Redford's Martin Bishop over a "black box."

  Why We Hate Him: He kidnapped people, worked for the mob, and was just all-around untrustworthy. He intended to destabilize the world economy.

  Why He Was Probably Right: Not necessarily right, but Martin refused Cosmo's offer to join him on the basis that he was "crazy." (Let's remind you, this was after Bishop basically got Cosmo arrested and put in prison, which Cosmo seemed to be willing to forgive.)

  But when it was all said and done, what did Martin Bishop do with the black box? He bankrupted an entire major national party that he didn't agree with. Yes, Republicans do have a lot of rich donors, but there would have been a lot of small-time people donating to the RNC as well. The disruption to the political process in America would have been catastrophic and not at all true democracy. 

  Cosmo wanted to "shut down the whole damn system," and he was honest about it. He didn't want to pick and choose winners, he wanted to put everyone on an even playing field. Bishop, in comparison, used the black box to destroy enemies completely decided by him. Doesn't seem terribly heroic.
• 

  (#25) Ivan Korshunov

  • Air Force One

  Gary Oldman's iconic terrorist, Ivan squared off against Harrison Ford's President James Marshall for control of Air Force One. 

  Why We Hated Him: He's a straight up terrorist. He committed many acts of murder, holding (and executing) hostages. He took over Air Force One, which ultimately resulted in the most secure plane in the world falling to the ocean. 

  Why He Was Probably Right: Not all that "right," but in this case, "right" and "wrong" are relative. While a terrorist, he didn't attack any civilian targets. Air Force One was (and is) military hardware. He went after the administration of the country that killed many of his countrymen, chained up his leader, and altogether made life hell. In his eyes, compared to the outright devastation of his nation, a few bodies killed quickly was a small price to pay to get what he wanted.

  As far as he was concerned, he was a soldier waging war. 
• 

  (#26) President Bennett

  • Clear and Present Danger

  William Moffat's President Bennett got into some hot water with Harrison Ford's Jack Ryan in Clear and Present Danger. 

  Why We Hated Him: He encouraged an illicit war while at the same time doing so in such a way to insulate him from any blame. Good soldiers died as a result. 

  Why He Was Probably Right: Those soldiers were fighting the biggest drug cartel in the world. This wasn't some country with oil in it -- the enemy were unrepentant bad guys whose blood, money, power and, yes, drugs were all seeping into the United States. While Bennett may have been motivated by the death of his friend (who had dealings with the cartels, unbeknownst to anyone), it cannot be stated enough that he took us to war against bad guys. 
• 

  (#27) President Snow

  • The Hunger Games

  Going up against him tended to mean your death, and it was a teenaged girl who ultimately brought him down. How unfortunate. 

  Why We Hated Him: Oh, let's see, murder, murder, murder, making literal children fight to the death, firebombing an entire District, torturing and brainwashing Katniss's boyfriend, and more murder. 

  Why He Was Probably Right: Things were stable until Katniss came around. She set off a rebellion that was killing people, and Snow was doing everything possible to retain order. Knowing the kind of person future President Coin was, he even tried to help Katniss, warning her that Coin would be no better than he. 

  And as far as the Hunger Games themselves were concerned, Snow was one year old when they started. Many of the things being rebelled against were established protocol by the time he arrived. 

  And finally: District 13 wasn't bombed, but actually signed a non-aggression pact with the Capitol, allowing them to be independent -- a pact they forced by pointing nuclear weapons at the Capitol. And this was all a pact that District 13 completely intended to tear up. 
  
• 

  (#28) Dr. René Belloq

  • Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark

  The adventurer extraordinaire, Belloq's probably most famous to us for getting his face done melted by the Lord in Raiders of the Lost Ark

  Why We Hated Him: He was working for the actual, true blue Nazis. That's not exactly something you really come back from. 

  Why He Was Probably Right: Well, he wasn't (see: again, working with Nazis). However, had he completed his quest as originally intended, picking up the Ark of the Covenant and bringing it to Adolph Hitler, it would've been Hitler's face melted as well. Indiana Jones actually made things worse by getting in Belloq's way. 
• 

  (#29) Robert Kelly

  • X-Men, X2

  The Senator was on a mission to identify all mutants in X-Men -- well, before Magneto got to him, forced a mutation and ultimately killing him. 

  Why We Hated Him: He was really promoting direct racism, no doubt about it. The Mutant Registration Act would have enshrined in law systematic prejudice against mutants who cannot control that they have mutated. 

  Why He Was Probably Right: A bunch of those mutants killed a lot of people, and represent direct threats to the safety of billions across the world. If your neighbor knew how to shoot actual fire out of their hands, you'd probably want the government at least aware of who they were.

New Random Displays    Display All By Ranking