The bad guy isn’t supposed to win, right? It doesn’t matter if they’re human or not, the antagonist is usually supposed to end up losing by the time the story is over. But there are movies that have broken this formula and done just fine with it. To be fair, it still catches people off-guard now and then when it does happen, but it gives a little better representation to real life in a way since it indicates that the heroes aren’t always bound to overcome the antagonist since there are those times when there might be a bad guy that the heroes can’t handle, or there might not be a protagonist in sight that can handle the bad guy. However it happens, any story that lets the bad guy win one is bound to be seen as a bit of an outlier since such movies are heavily outnumbered by those that have a happy ending, in one way or another. Here are ten movies where the bad guy managed to win.
10. The Cave
It’s definitely one of the many movies that have been forgotten, but The Cave is still a movie that counts when stating that the antagonist won since the virus that changed those that fell into the darkness is the real villain in this movie. While it’s tough to combat a virus when one doesn’t know anything about it, the fact that the doctor at the end was willing to make her way into a society where she could spread the virus made it appear that the virus was a little more complex than had been seen.
9. Alien: Covenant
David turned out to be a real snake when all was revealed and the truth of how Prometheus ended came out This kind of hearkens back to the days when Ash was the real villain in the original Alien movie. Well, he was an agent of the company, that much is obvious and was following his programming, but it still feels comfortable labeling androids as the villain when they’re the only ones in the room. Plus, was anyone really controlling David at this point?
8. Avengers: Infinity War
So yes, most people realized that there was going to be another movie and Thanos would end up getting his comeuppance at some point. But seeing an image of him sitting serenely in his own little spot, happy with himself and what he’d done, was all kinds of emotional for a lot of people that love the MCU. Several of their favorite characters had been snapped into oblivion, and the mad titan was happy about it.
7. Life
It’s a little difficult to be mad at an organism for doing what comes necessary to survive since Calvin, the creature in the movie, didn’t like being prodded by an electric poker, and it showed. Well, you can’t blame any organism for that, but for being a creature that was all muscle and brain, Calvin appeared to be rather vindictive when it came to getting back at those on the space shuttle. One could assume that Calvin was purely about survival, which could explain why something like this would seek to attack instead of finding a way to communicate.
6. Saw
Saw was a shocking movie that was simple but somehow still capable of getting the type of attention that a franchise can only hope for at times. The shock and awe of this movie franchise became something that people couldn’t get enough of, and part of it is that the person doing the punishing, the antagonist that sets up everything and selects the victim, continually ends up getting away, at least until there’s no longer any use for them.
5. The Usual Suspects
Verbal Kint comes off as a rather pathetic character for most of the movie since he can’t really do much on his own, but this is a part of the genius that goes into his character since he’s the type of guy you wouldn’t suspect until it’s too late. Some folks might have even finished the movie and still been confused as to what the hell was going on when Verbal suddenly lost his limp and started walking normally.
4. Payback
Porter is the bad guy, there’s no doubt about this since he’s the type of person that will shoot someone without hesitating if he has a reason. Plus, he’s a crook and doesn’t care who knows it, so the fact is that he’s the antagonist as well as the protagonist. The rest of the bad guys in this story are just dumb enough to cross him and in effect put themselves on his radar as he tries to get his stolen money back. There aren’t really any heroes in this movie to speak of, just villains.
3. Brightburn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58b3FpkS7Bk
The idea of a young boy with powers that no one knows about until it’s too late and the inability to understand why hurting people is wrong is kind of terrifying. Just imagine when this kid goes through puberty and his emotions really start kicking in. If there’s ever a Brightburn 2 it’s bound to happen that we’ll see a time jump occur, but it’s fair to think that Brandon would be even worse than he was in the first movie.
2. Dead Silence
Yes, this was a very campy horror movie, but at the same time, it was great since Mary Shaw was obviously quite a bit smarter than the people she was taking her revenge on. If anyone had been a little smarter they might have realized that Mary was a very capable woman and, as a result, had become far more dangerous than her legend indicated.
1. Secret Window
No, not every fiction writer is bound to have a psychotic break at one point or another, since this is a little bit beyond that. But in Stephen King’s original story, Mort didn’t end up getting the better of anyone since he was the one that bought it in the end. Sometimes having the bad guy win can make for a more interesting, if tragic, story.
Saw
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