Oh how the tables have turned... Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the best moments when an otherwise seemingly harmless character turns bad. It would be evil of us not to issue a spoiler alert.
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00:00I don't want to be rich, you know, and someone important, like an actor.
00:10Whatever you want, Mr. Reagan.
00:12Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the best moments when an
00:16otherwise seemingly harmless character turns bad.
00:19It would be evil of us not to issue a spoiler alert.
00:22Number 20, Andrew Kills Steve, Chronicle.
00:35Sort of an anti-superhero film, Chronicle chronicles the tragic downfall of Andrew Detmer.
00:48Andrew lives a rather sad life, an outcast at school, and the target of his father's
00:52drunken abuse.
00:53He soon develops telekinetic abilities, but despite using them for good, Andrew also uses
00:58them as a tool for destruction and revenge.
01:05The turning point comes when he accidentally kills Steve with a lightning strike.
01:08Yes, it was an accident, but it portrays the violence inherent in Andrew's mind, and
01:13it's the catalyst that leads him to believe that he's an Apex Predator.
01:16Thus, the supervillain is born.
01:27Number 19, Thomasson speaks with Black Phillip, the witch.
01:31Chronicle is about the birth of a supervillain, and the witch is about the birth of, well,
01:35you can probably guess.
01:36The young witch in question is Thomasson, the teenage daughter of Puritan settlers William
01:41and Catherine.
01:48Thomasson is accused of practicing witchcraft throughout the film, the primary scapegoat
01:52for the creepy and troubling goings-on around the homestead.
01:56She's not responsible, but someone can only be pushed so far before they snap.
02:07With her entire family dead or missing, Thomasson speaks with the family goat Black Phillip,
02:12who's revealed to be Satan, and makes a literal deal with the devil.
02:15She then goes to live deliciously amongst the trees and the local witches.
02:28Number 18, Captain Smith kills Jack Vincennes, L.A. Confidential.
02:32James Cromwell was born to play bad guys.
02:34We didn't know it at first, but Captain Dudley Smith is among them.
02:42The main antagonist of L.A. Confidential, Smith seems to be a solid police captain and
02:47commands his troops to find the person responsible for taking over Mickey Cohen's drug empire.
02:53Of course, that person is himself.
03:02We find this out when he shoots and kills Detective Jack Vincennes, who comes a little
03:06too close to figuring it out.
03:07With that startling act, Smith's true identity as a gangland drug lord is revealed, and the
03:12entire plot is thrown into third gear.
03:21Number 17, Lotso is replaced, Toy Story 3.
03:25We all remember the heartbreaking montage from Toy Story 2 where Jesse is abandoned
03:29by Emily.
03:36Luckily, the cowgirl turned out okay, if a little traumatized.
03:42But the story of Lotso shows the other side of that coin, the side where abandoned toys
03:46don't turn out okay.
03:56Lotso Huggins-Bear was just another toy at one point in his life, the proud plaything
04:00of young Daisy.
04:01When Daisy accidentally lost Lotso during a road trip, she returned home and had him
04:06replaced.
04:07This, in turn, fueled a lifelong cynicism towards humans and what he perceives as their
04:11lack of loyalty.
04:24It's heavy stuff, and it leads Lotso to become the tyrannical ruler of Sunnyside Daycare.
04:29Number 16, Doctor Octopus lets the arms take over, Spider-Man 2.
04:33So where exactly does Otto Octavius end and Doctor Octopus begin?
04:37If you ask us, it's when he finally relents to the mechanical arms and decides to finish
04:42his experiment on a grand scale.
04:51Before this, the arms killed several nurses and doctors, but they were acting independently
04:56of Octavius's mind.
04:57He personally never meant to kill anybody, but, feeling dejected and without the inhibitor
05:01chip to prevent the arms' manipulation, he heeds their direction and decides to rebuild
05:06his experiment in the remains of the abandoned boathouse.
05:15This requires lots and lots of money, leading to Octopus's first true act of villainy
05:19in the movie, robbing the bank and taking Aunt May hostage.
05:30Number 15, Kissing Kate Barlow shoots the Sheriff, Holes.
05:34You know, for a kids' movie, Holes goes really hard.
05:37Stanley's past is tied with Kissing Kate Barlow, a 19th century outlaw who buried a
05:41treasure chest full of jewels and valuables.
05:48She wasn't always an outlaw.
05:49She was once Catherine Barlow, a simple and good-natured schoolteacher from Texas.
05:54She fell for a local handyman named Sam, who's subsequently killed by the jealous Trout Walker
05:58for kissing Catherine.
06:05For failing to stop the crime, the local sheriff is shot and killed by Catherine, giving rise
06:10to Kissing Kate Barlow, the fabled outlaw of the Wild West.
06:23Number 14, Leonard Shelby lies to himself, Memento.
06:26It wouldn't be a Christopher Nolan film without a good twist.
06:37One of the biggest twists of Memento comes at the very end, or we guess the beginning,
06:42when we learn that Leonard Shelby isn't such a good guy.
06:45Leonard suffers from amnesia and is on the hunt for one John G., a man who supposedly
06:49murdered his wife.
06:51Leonard is the villain of his own story, however.
06:58We learn that he accidentally killed his wife with insulin shots and continually tricks
07:02himself with fake John G. stories out of some desperate search for purpose.
07:07Basically, he picks random people as targets, kills them, and then plants fake clues for
07:11himself so he can do it all again.
07:15Yep, that's a serial killer, alright.
07:28Number 13, Arthur Fleck smothers his mother, Joker.
07:31When does Arthur turn into the character we all love to hate?
07:34It was obvious from the very beginning that something was wrong with Arthur.
07:37A social outcast who lives with his mom, doesn't fit in at work, and is desperate for help
07:42from unhelpful social services.
07:44And have you thought more about why you were locked up?
07:52The injustices accumulate, and the final straw comes when Arthur learns that Penny is not
07:56his biological mother and that she allowed her boyfriend to abuse him as a boy.
08:08His mind now thoroughly snapped, Arthur murders Penny by smothering her with a pillow and
08:13begins to don that oh-so-famous makeup.
08:16Arthur died with his mother.
08:24Number 12, Jean Grey kills Scott Summers, X-Men, The Last Stand.
08:28There are a ton of heroes gone bad in superhero cinema, and one of the most famous examples
08:33has to be Jean Grey.
08:35Jean seemingly dies at the end of X2, sacrificing herself so the team can escape a flood.
08:40She suddenly appears in The Last Stand, confronting Scott Summers at the site of her grave.
08:44The reunion isn't as happy as we had hoped, as Jean kills Scott while the two share a
08:49kiss.
08:59Xavier posits that when Jean sacrificed herself, she inadvertently released the Phoenix, an
09:03evil alter-ego that had previously been repressed by the Professor.
09:07With that, the X-Men films tackle the legendary Dark Phoenix saga, with mixed results.
09:23Number 11, Ash tries to kill Ripley, Alien.
09:26One of Ian Holm's first major roles was Ash, the head science officer of the Nostromo,
09:31and homicidal robot.
09:32But we don't learn that until later.
09:43Ash is responsible for bringing the Alien on board, defying Ripley's orders, and breaking
09:47quarantine by allowing Kane inside the ship.
09:50It gets a whole lot worse from there.
09:52You see, Ash is an android, programmed to follow the orders of Weyland-Yutani, and they
09:56want that Alien.
09:58When Ripley confronts Ash about his orders, he finally breaks character, so to speak,
10:02and tries suffocating her with a rolled-up magazine.
10:12It's sort of a two-for-one, revealing both the deception of Ash and the careless qualities
10:16of the company.
10:23Number 10, Ozymandias destroys various cities, Watchmen.
10:27A retired superhero turned businessman, Adrian Veidt is a nasty piece of work, and easily
10:32one of the evilest supervillains in movie history.
10:41As we learn in the famous climax, Veidt, going by the name Ozymandias, orchestrated much
10:46of the movie's events, including the death of Blake and the banishment of Dr. Manhattan.
10:51The worst event comes in the form of rigging Manhattan's energy reactors, causing them
10:55to explode and kill millions of people.
11:07This accomplishes his true mission, attaining global peace by framing Manhattan as a common
11:12enemy.
11:13It's a moral test taken to the extreme, and we're not quite sure if Ozymandias passed
11:17it.
11:29Number 9, Travis Bickle tries to assassinate Palantine, Taxi Driver.
11:33Robert De Niro plays one of the most fascinating characters in all of cinema.
11:37Travis Bickle is a somewhat sympathetic character, and most of us can relate to his problems.
11:42He's also deeply, deeply disturbed, and he becomes increasingly unhinged throughout the
11:47movie.
11:56Travis eventually snaps, shaves his head, and attempts to kill presidential candidate
12:01Charles Palantine.
12:12It's not out of some moral redemption that he doesn't go through with it.
12:15He's just noticed by the Secret Service.
12:17It's at this point that Travis has lost it completely, falling from a sympathetic if
12:21troubled character into a full-blown murderous villain.
12:24And De Niro sells his tragic downfall with total conviction.
12:36Number 8, Syndrome Kidnaps Superheroes, The Incredibles.
12:40Poor Buddy Pine just wanted to help.
12:43He begins his life as a devoted fanboy of Mr. Incredible, and wants nothing more than
12:47to be taken on some adventures with his idol.
12:49Bob rejects him, fueling a lifelong resentment not just of Mr. Incredible, but all superheroes.
12:59For many, the story would have ended there, but this is a supervillain we're talking about.
13:11Young Buddy Pine grows into Syndrome, who develops high-tech weapons to mimic superpowers
13:15and kidnaps superheroes to fight and perfect his powerful Omnidroid.
13:19Kidnapping?
13:20Mass murder?
13:22Just another day in the life of a supervillain.
13:31Number 7, Carrie White Gets Blood Poured On Her.
13:34Carrie.
13:35Yet another social outcast to join our list, Carrie White is not accepted anywhere in life.
13:39She doesn't have any friends, she's often tormented by her classmates at school, and
13:43she's subjected to abuse by her fanatically religious mother.
13:57By the time prom comes around, Carrie's mental health is hanging by a thread.
14:01And that's when she's doused in pig blood.
14:03It's the final straw for poor Carrie, and she immediately turns into one of the biggest
14:07and scariest villains in movie history.
14:20With wide eyes and some terrifying sound design, Carrie telekinetically commits mass murder
14:25and burns her entire class alive, both the guilty and the innocent alike.
14:38Number 6, Jack Torrance Talks With Grady, The Shining.
14:41So when exactly does Jack go mad?
14:43Judging by the famous all-work-and-no-play scene, it's been a long time.
14:47But he likely loses all sense of judgment and agency when he talks with Delbert Grady.
14:55Jack encounters Grady in the gold room, and the butler spills some alcohol in his jacket,
15:10which was likely not an accident.
15:12Taking him into the bathroom to clean the spill, Grady talks with Jack and tells him
15:16that he needs to correct his family, just as he did many years before.
15:36It's after this that Jack tries killing Wendy with an axe, seemingly proving that Grady
15:40He either manipulated Jack completely, or somehow possessed him into committing murder.
15:51Number 5, Cypher Traps The Crew In The Matrix, The Matrix.
15:54Like all great villains, we relate to Cypher on some level.
15:57He's been freed from the Matrix, but hates his life in the New World, having to live
16:01on some joyless grey ship and eating watery slop day after day.
16:05Who'd want to live like that?
16:20So he turns to the Agents, offering them Morpheus in exchange for an ignorant life back in the
16:24Matrix.
16:25The point of no return comes when he betrays Morpheus and traps the crew inside the Matrix,
16:30unplugging and killing most of them in the real world.
16:42Fortunately, Tank survives his assassination attempt and kills Cypher, putting an end to
16:46the madness and freeing the surviving crew members.
16:59Number 4, Magneto Kills Shaw, X-Men First Class.
17:03We return to the X-Men franchise with First Class, a prequel that serves as an origin
17:07story for the famous group of superheroes.
17:09Of course, that means showing the origin of Magneto's villainy.
17:14The supervillain begins the story as Eric Lencher, a Nazi hunter who can manipulate
17:19electromagnetic fields.
17:20Much of the film's drama comes in the form of Eric and Xavier's philosophical discussions
17:25about the responsibilities and potential of their superpowers.
17:35Eric eventually uses them for evil, which we see when he kills Shaw by shoving a Nazi
17:39coin through his brain.
17:40It's an incredible act of violence that shocks Xavier and sends Eric down the dark
17:45path to become Magneto.
17:53Number 3, Anakin Skywalker Stops Mace Windu, Star Wars Episode III, Revenge of the Sith.
17:59Prequels are often a great way to explore moral philosophy, explaining how famous villains
18:03came to their warped conclusions.
18:07One of the biggest draws to the prequel trilogy was seeing how adorable little Anakin Skywalker
18:11became the hulking, heavy-breathing, force-choking Darth Vader.
18:21Anakin embarks on a moral battle throughout the trilogy, but as we knew it would, it all
18:25ended in tragedy when he sided with Palpatine against Mace Windu.
18:29Just before Windu can finish off the Emperor, Anakin cuts his hand off, allowing Palpatine
18:33to kill him.
18:49It's this act of loyalty that finally links Anakin to the Emperor, and he's officially
18:54knighted as Darth Vader.
19:10Number 2, Harvey Dent Meets The Joker, The Dark Knight.
19:14Widely considered the best Batman movie, The Dark Knight contains a number of iconic characters,
19:19including Heath Ledger's Joker and Harvey Dent, who slowly morphs into Two-Face throughout
19:23the events of the film.
19:32Both are present in the tantalizing hospital sequence, which sees the Joker visiting Dent
19:36after half of his face is burned in an explosion.
19:50The Joker uses Dent's newfound disillusionment, manipulating him into becoming a vigilante
19:55and avenging Rachel.
19:56He proceeds to murder gangsters and police officers alike, becoming the infamous Two-Face.
20:01The Joker's quest for corruption is complete.
20:29Number 1, Michael Corleone Eliminates The Competition, The Godfather.
20:33A brilliant piece of character work, The Godfather showcases the tragic downfall of Michael Corleone,
20:38a young and heroic Marine who slowly succumbs to the influence of power.
20:50Michael's progression is masterfully done, with each little event slowly accumulating
20:54throughout the film and culminating in one of the most famous sequences in movie history.
21:05While attending the baptism of Connie's son, Michael usurps total control from the
21:09five families and has all the Dons simultaneously murdered.
21:12The irony of the baptism is apparent, with Michael sinking into sin, rejecting religious
21:16doctrine and becoming the fabled Don Corleone, renouncing Satan indeed.
21:24Can you think of any other examples?
21:27Let us know in the comments below.