Movies (Where The Bad Guys Win)

[Spidey Revivey]

Basic Movie Plot: Good Guy does good guy things, Bad guy comes along and takes something from Good Guy, They do battle, and the Good Guy wins.It's the same in almost every movie to date. Their names change but it's still pretty much that one movie plot.

But there are those rare few that give the villain the victory. This thread is meant to pay tribute to the antagonists that took it to the protagonists and walked away. Believe it or not there are quite a few out there- and I'm not talking about HORROR movies either. That's usually a given.

So I ask this: What movie features the bad guy coming out on top? (Excluding Horror)

Please explain in good detail. I expect some discussion from my movie peeps.

If there has already been a thread on this then I apologize.

Here is my pick:

Probably the easiest pick I know, but I like to provide a challenge to you movie goers. Who has not seen this movie, really? The ending featured the most villainous win in any movie I have seen. It featured Han Solo frozen in carbonite and sent to Jabba, Luke gets his hand cut off by his father, and The Galactic Empire pretty much owns The Rebel Alliance in this one.

Yeah, it's not the last movie in the trilogy, but it is still a movie that had the baddies win.

 

[The Mark of Zur-En-Arrh]

The Dark Knight. Joker fucked everyone over.

Dawes got blown up, as did a judge. Commissioner Loeb was poisoned. Dent got blown up and went schizo, resulting in Maroni getting killed. Two of Maroni's right hand guys were murdered and half the mobs money and soldiers were usurped. Gordon's wife and kids came within a hair's breath of being blown away and the Batman was reduced to being a fugitive after his name was dragged through the mud for weeks on end, and being given a make believe chance that he could save the woman he loved, who was only ever in danger BECAUSE he loved her.

Oh, and unless someone was kind enough to let him down, Lau was incinerated on top of a giant pile of money.

And The Joker had a good laugh the whole way through.....

 

[hatehabsforever]

How about "The Usual Suspects?" In the end, Keyser Soze escapes, and poof, he was gone. He was pretty bad ass in the movie, and even though they unknowingly have him in custody, they let him go and he escapes, never to be seen again.

 

[Mitch Henessey]

Well since you already took The Empire Strikes Back, then I guess I'll have to go with another one.

Dr. Hannibal Lecter escaping towards the end of The Silence Of The Lambs was awesome. Lecter killed the guards, and he even used one of their faces to fool the people in the ambulance. It was a classic escape. And Lecter makes sure to gloat at the end by calling Jodie Foster's character from a distant location. The movie was great, and the way Lecter got away was just classic.

 

[INDYjon22]

How about Irreversible? For those of you who have seen it then you will know what I am talking about. Monica Bellucci gets raped in a creepy ass hallway. Aside from raping her, he also beats her up and smashes her face against the floor, ruining her good looks and putting her in a coma. Her boyfriend, Vincent Cassell learns about this and begins a search for the rapist. His search takes him to an underground gay club, where he seemingly finds the raper and begins to fight the guy. The supposed rapist break Cassell's arm, but is then beaten to death by Cassell's friend who is wielding a fire extinguisher. The only problem is he wasn't the rapist at all. The real rapist was in the room but when the melee broke out he left. In the end the rapist beat a woman up and put her in a coma, her boyfriend wound up with a broken arm and attempted murder, the friend did commit a murder, and a man was killed. Whereas, the rapist got off scott free. In the most horrible of ways, the villain certainly won in Irreversible.

 

[Darryl The Hitman]

I suppose it depends upon what you consider to be a bad guy. Reese Witherspoon's character in Election doesn't break any law that I can recall
but she's such an aggravating overachiever that it just feels wrong to see her end the movie in such a good place while Matthew Broderick's teacher pretty much loses everything and has to start over.

 

[Chardee Macdennis]

How about Primal Fear? Edward Norton's BEST work ever (which is REALLY saying something). He pretends to be a multi-personality pyscho and totally fools everyone, including his own lawyer, only to find out in the end, he planned it all. If you've not seen this movie, I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend renting it as soon as humanly possible. One of the best movies of all time!!

 

[LSN80]

Any of the "Saw" movies could easily fit into this category. Jigsaw manipulates, plays games with, and controls others through inhumane traps, using others to do his bidding. When one of his "followers" fails or dies, the next of his followers takes their place.(After Jigsaw became too ill, and eventually died.)

Each movie ends with the "victims" of his traps failing to survive, while his protege gains the upper hand, utterring "Game Over", before the movie fades to black. More often then not, the person dying at the end wasn't all that bad, and certainly not deserving of death. Most times, they were attempting to do the right thing. But they wind up dying excruciating deaths, with Jigsaw and his legacy living on. I won't spoil how the final one is really the exception.

 

[FunKay the Inevitable]

No mention of it yet so I think I'll post it:

Se7en

As was previously mentioned, Keyser Soze is a pretty nasty person, but Kevin Spacey also played an even more demented, sick & twisted individual in David Fincher's crime masterpiece Se7en - John Doe. Doe was kept in the shadows practically 3/4 of the movie, plotting and planning his ultimate end to his game of the Seven Deadly Sins (he commits murder for each sin). In the end, Doe manipulates our two heroes Detectives Mills & Somerset into playing his game and in the end screws pretty much everyone over, giving him the final victory.

 

[sharmaq]

How about Arlington Road. Tim Robbins and Joan Cusack play a couple who move in next door to Jeff Bridges, a widower (his wife was an FBI agent) with a young son. Various things lead Bridges to become suspicious that his new neighbours may be involved in some kind of terrorist activity (he has lectured on this at university so knows a bit about it).

Bridges does some digging and finds out that Robbins is using a false name and built a bomb when he was younger. Robbins finds out and confronts him and reveals that he built the bomb to get back at the government, who he blames for his father's suicide because they took over a river running through the family's farm, causing their business to collapse. Bridges' gf follows Robbins one day and sees him deliver a suspicious looking package and calls Bridges to tell him - she then runs straight into Cusack, who kills her off screen.

Robbins and Cusack then use the pretext of a Scouts trip to hold Bridges' son hostage. Bridges rents a car and follows the van his son is in, into an FBI building garage. He gets out and quickly realises that he followed the wrong van. He runs back to his car and opens the boot/trunk and finds a bomb which explodes seconds later, killing him and over a hundred others. Bridges is blamed for the attack and he is vilified as a terrorist. His son is left not knowing that his father was innocent, and Robbins and Cusack strongly hint that they are moving on to repeat their actions somewhere else.

 

[Darryl The Hitman]

I thought of another one: The Human Centipede. Technically, the bad guy dies at the end but when you consider the state of the lone survivor, you couldn't possibly say she "won" the movie. She survived but even so, you'd have to think she'd be scarred--mentally, emotionally, physically--for life.

 

[LSN80]

How about Matt Damon in "The Talented Mr. Ripley"?

The movie is set in the 1950's where Tom Ripley(Damon is struggling to make a living. He's approached by the father of Jude Law's character, who accidentally believes him to both be a graduate of the same University as Law, as well as his friend.

Ripley quickly inserts himself into Law's life, including becoming close with Law's fiancee, Gwenneth Paltrow. He kills Law in the movie, as well as Law's best friend when he becomes suspicious of Ripley, believing he killed Law.

He then assumes Law's identity and strikes up a relationship with Cate Blanchett's character, a wealthy heiress. He forges a suicide note for Law, and agrees to go away with Blanchett's character. He is ironicly given a large portion of Law's estate by his father, who notes that "Ripley was the best friend Law ever had."

On the cruise, he meets up with a former male lover, who also knows Blanchett's character. He knows that his ruse will be up, as the man and Blanchett will likely exchange words at some point. He can't kill Blanchett, because shes there with family, so he strangles his former male lover instead as the movie comes to the end.

So in essence, Damon gets away with assuming someone else's life, stealing his inheritance, and murdering Law and everyone who is about to out him.

 

[Mustang Sally]

How about "The Perfect Storm," in which the bad guy was the weather?

Having spent years watching all these movies with happy endings, I was positive that this film would end with Diane Lane standing on the "Widow's Walk," only to end up seeing George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg pull safely into port.....even after battling seemingly impossible odds to get through that storm.

When we learned they had died, I was disappointed for a bit. Then, I realized that it was good that some movies should end with the bad guy winning; if only so we can more fully appreciate the effect of a happy ending.