Movies Where the Hero Is the Real Villain

Rewatch any of these as an adult and switch sides.

Entries
10
Category
Film
Updated
  1. An empty carnival Ferris wheel at night, one gondola swinging slightly, a straw boater hat fallen on the ground below.

    10. The Notebook

    Nick Cassavetes · 2004

    Noah meets Allie by hanging off a moving Ferris wheel and threatening to let go unless she agrees to a date. It made a list of the most romantic movie moments of all time. It would also make a list of things to tell a carnival operator about.

  2. A pink lunch tray holding a stack of plain wrapped nutrition bars and a burn book with its cover closed.

    09. Mean Girls

    Mark Waters · 2004

    Cady infiltrates a clique, feeds Regina high-calorie Kalteen bars sold as diet food, and fakes needing math help to get close to Regina's boyfriend. Tina Fey wrote it as a cautionary tale. Cady just happens to be the caution.

  3. A bowl of jambalaya at a fancy restaurant table with a tipped-over jar of red cayenne pepper spilling beside it.

    08. Mrs. Doubtfire

    Chris Columbus · 1993

    Daniel disguises himself as a nanny to spy on his ex-wife, then learns her boyfriend Stu, played by Pierce Brosnan, is allergic to pepper and dusts his jambalaya with cayenne. He does perform the Heimlich after. Credit where due.

  4. A pair of aviator sunglasses on the edge of a carrier deck, a fighter jet streaking low past a control tower window behind them.

    07. Top Gun

    Tony Scott · 1986

    Maverick buzzes the control tower against orders, ignores his wingman, and flies through Iceman's jet wash into the flat spin that kills Goose. Iceman spends the whole movie calling him dangerous. Maverick takes it as a compliment, which proves the point.

  5. A workbench covered in toy parts reassembled into odd new shapes, a soldering iron cooling next to a skull-print T-shirt.

    06. Toy Story

    John Lasseter · 1995

    Sid is a creative kid who rebuilds broken toys into new ones, and the toys repay him by coming alive in his yard and threatening him. In Toy Story 3 he is a garbage man, still in the skull shirt. That is not a villain origin. That is trauma.

  6. A hard hat, a lunch pail and a roll of blueprints floating in empty space beside half-built gray station scaffolding.

    05. Return of the Jedi

    Richard Marquand · 1983

    The second Death Star was still under construction when the Rebels blew it up. In Clerks, Randal points out that means plumbers, roofers and aluminum siders, independent contractors just trying to finish a job. Nobody ever mentions the contractors.

  7. A blinking metal containment unit in a firehouse basement with an official clipboard and a cut power switch beside it.

    04. Ghostbusters

    Ivan Reitman · 1984

    Walter Peck, an EPA inspector, wants to look at a basement facility run by three unlicensed men who wear what Venkman himself calls unlicensed nuclear accelerators. Shutting it off went badly. The questions were still fair.

  8. A red vintage convertible crashed backward through a glass garage wall into the trees below, an odometer glowing on the dash.

    03. Ferris Bueller's Day Off

    John Hughes · 1986

    Ferris fakes illness, hacks his absences down from nine to two, and talks his anxious best friend into taking his father's 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California into Chicago. By the end the car is through the garage wall and Cameron is taking the blame. Great day.

  9. A paint can swinging on a rope at the top of a dark staircase, a blowtorch and an iron lined up on the landing below.

    02. Home Alone

    Chris Columbus · 1990

    An eight-year-old turns his family home into a series of escalating injuries for two burglars, including a blowtorch to the scalp and a paint can to the face. He does call the police, eventually, once he's finished having his fun.

  10. A garden hose dripping beside a skeleton-print costume crumpled on a tile floor, a gold karate trophy glinting in the background.

    01. The Karate Kid

    John G. Avildsen · 1984

    Daniel turns a hose on Johnny at a Halloween dance, then wins the All Valley with a kick to the face. Barney Stinson spent How I Met Your Mother insisting Johnny was the real hero, and then Cobra Kai built six seasons on the idea. Barney was right once.

Honorable mentions

  • A circle of folding chairs in an arcade basement, a coffee urn and a plate of cookies on a side table, glowing cabinets behind.

    Wreck-It Ralph

    Rich Moore · 2012

    The inverse case: a villain who has spent 30 years being thrown off a building for doing his job, sitting in a Bad-Anon support group with Bowser and Clyde from Pac-Man. The one movie on this list that switches sides on purpose.

Dishonorable mentions

  • A pair of thick taped glasses lying beside a tangle of camera cables on a college fraternity porch.

    Revenge of the Nerds

    Jeff Kanew · 1984

    The underdog heroes put hidden cameras in a sorority house, sell the nude photos, and Lewis has sex with Betty while disguised as her boyfriend, which is assault. The movie plays it as a win. Kanew later told GQ the scene was not excusable.

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