Loyalty is in short supply on the big screen.
From science fiction epics to Quentin Tarantino actioners to comic book adaptations to even
family-friendly animated flicks, here are the most shocking betrayals in movie history.
In the Wachowski siblings' genre-defining 1999 sci-fi epic The Matrix, viewers were
introduced to a world in which humans have been dominated by machines after a lengthy
war.
The sun’s light has been blocked out, and people have been placed into pods to live
in the computer-simulated reality of the Matrix.
When Tom Anderson, renamed "Neo," learns the truth from his mentor Morpheus and his right-hand
woman Trinity, he chooses to leave the Matrix behind and return to the real world.
He then finds himself in a run-down dystopia where humans must hide from the machines to
survive.
But trouble is brewing in Morpheus' crew.
Cypher, played by Joe Pantoliano, is secretly working with the Matrix's band of evil Agents,
trading his friends' livelihoods for a comfortable life of ignorant bliss.
"Ignorance is bliss."
In a shocking turn during a mission, he leaves the Matrix for the real world and then brutally
kills most of the ship's crew.
It was a stunning betrayal that left audiences reeling in the aftermath.
Neo ultimately ends up saving the day, but Cypher's actions nevertheless have serious
consequences.
Quentin Tarantino's 1992 feature-length debut Reservoir Dogs put the acclaimed director
on the map in a big way.
Throughout the movie, the gang of thieves attempting to pull off a diamond heist are
known only by their codenames: Mr. White, Mr. Blonde, Mr. Pink, Mr. Blue, Mr. Brown,
and Mr. Orange.
After the heist goes terribly wrong, the group kidnaps a policeman and tortures him in one
of the film's most brutal and unforgettable scenes.
But before long, the gang realizes that there's a mole in their midst.
Mr. Orange, who was injured during an earlier shootout, confesses that he's an undercover
cop after he shoots and kills Mr. Blonde.
Mr. White is floored and devastated by his friend's betrayal.
He ultimately kills Mr. Orange after a standoff, and Mr. Pink makes off with the diamonds,
botching the entire heist and leaving pretty much everybody else for dead.
Tarantino is no stranger to both shock value and violence, and he would go on to feature
even more stunning betrayals in his career.
But the one in Reservoir Dogs still stands out as perhaps the most startling twist in
his filmography.
In Jordan Peele's 2017 acclaimed horror film Get Out, audiences are introduced to a young
couple, Chris and Rose, who are headed to visit Rose's family for a weekend.
Though Chris is initially nervous that Rose's family will disapprove of their interracial
relationship, Rose assures him that there won't be any problem, so they head out to
the remote family estate in the country.
After Chris is introduced to Rose's parents, Missy and Dean, and her erratic brother Jeremy,
he starts to settle in, but he also notices some strange things throughout the house,
especially the questionable behavior of the Black employees.
After a party that goes awry, Chris wants to leave, and Rose readily agrees.
But there's just one problem: Chris can't drive.
As Rose tauntingly dangles the car keys in his face, he realizes that she's been in on
her parents' gambit all along.
She's actually been kidnapping Chris, as she has done with so many other Black lovers before,
to steal his body for a wealthy white patron to live in.
Allison Williams' performance as Rose is pitch-perfect, making for one of the most heartbreaking betrayals
of all time.
"You were one of my favorites."
Christopher Nolan's critically beloved Dark Knight trilogy features a darker side of Bruce
Wayne's story than what we'd previously seen on the big screen, and that storytelling lens
extends to some of Batman's most famous villains.
In the series' middle installment, 2008's The Dark Knight, viewers are introduced to
Nolan's pitch-black take on the Joker, played to perfection by Heath Ledger before his untimely
passing.
But while that performance has been deservedly hailed as a classic, there's also another
villain lurking in plain sight.
Introduced as Gotham's district attorney, the virtuous Harvey Dent sets out to save
Gotham from lowlifes like the Joker.
But after the supervillain kills Dent's girlfriend and Bruce Wayne's childhood love Rachel Dawes,
Dent becomes a changed man, inside and out.
With half his face blown off in an explosion caused by the Joker, Dent becomes Two-Face,
known for flipping a coin to decide who lives and who dies in Gotham.
Bruce Wayne has very few allies to begin with, and losing Dent in his prime is a serious
blow, especially after they lose Rachel, the love of both of their lives.
Wes Craven's 1996 horror classic Scream is widely regarded as one of the greatest slasher
flicks of all time, thanks in large part to its clever storytelling and gutting twist
ending.
The film focuses on Sidney Prescott, a high school student grappling with the one-year
anniversary of her mother's bloody death amidst a new string of killings in the sleepy small
town of Woodsboro, California.
Throughout the movie, the knife-wielding masked killer constantly stalks Sidney and her friends.
The chase comes to a gruesome conclusion during a party where the killer dispatches most of
Sidney's classmates.
As it turns out, there's actually not one, but two killers: Sidney's boyfriend Billy
and his goofy pal Stu have been working together, which explains how the masked Ghostface often
seemed to be in two places at once.
Not only are they responsible for the deaths of several teenagers, they were also the ones
who killed Sidney's mom.
"Why did you kill my mother?"
"'Why?'
Why?!
You hear that, Stu?
I think she wants a motive."
Ultimately, Sidney and a few other survivors rally together and kill Billy and Stu themselves,
thus putting an end to their spree.
But this betrayal was undeniably a horrible blow to Sidney, and it's one that horror audiences
won't forget anytime soon.
Over the course of the Harry Potter series, the students of Hogwarts end up with a new
Defense Against the Dark Arts professor every single year, thanks to a long-standing curse.
In their fourth year, as chronicled in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, that teacher
is Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody.
A heavily scarred and formidable wizard who bears a fake eye with a mind of its own, Mad-Eye
teaches Harry and his classmates some pretty dangerous spells, while telling them to remain
constantly vigilant in the face of dangers like Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters.
But as it turns out, Mad-Eye isn't who he initially seems to be, or even Mad-Eye at
all.
As the international Triwizard Tournament comes to a close at Hogwarts, Harry discovers
Mad-Eye's horrifying secret: he's actually a disguised Barty Crouch Jr., who's a wanted
Death Eater, using Polyjuice Potion to impersonate Mad-Eye.
After getting close to someone he thought he could trust throughout the year only to
discover that his professor was really a Death Eater trying to deliver him to Voldemort,
Harry feels betrayed, and it's not hard to understand why.
Martin Scorsese's 2006 Best Picture-winning mob epic The Departed features plenty of betrayals
and backstabbing, but one character stands out among the rest as the king of the double
cross.
Massachusetts State Police Officer Colin Sullivan might seem like a fine upstanding man.
He's played by Matt Damon, after all.
But for years, he's been indebted to and working with mob boss Frank Costello and his clan,
serving as a mole within the FBI to keep Costello's empire running.
But his days may be numbered when Billy Costigan joins the police force in secret to work as
a mole within Costello's organization, and the two men scramble to uncover the other
mole first.
Unfortunately for Costigan, Sullivan is selfish to a fault, and he will stab absolutely anybody
in the back to save his own skin.
After enduring his own personal betrayal when he finds out that Frank has been working as
an informant for the police for years, Sullivan shoots Frank, his father figure.
He then mows through anyone else he can, indirectly getting Costigan killed and directly killing
several other police officers to try to salvage his reputation.
But in the end, karma comes calling, as he's killed himself at the eleventh hour.
The original Star Wars trilogy features plenty of beloved characters, but few of them made
as strong an impression as the dashing, quick-witted con man Lando Calrissian.
But not everything he did was particularly lovable.
One of his most shocking moments occurs in the second film, The Empire Strikes Back,
which sees him betray a close friend and ally.
When audiences first meet Han Solo's old friend Lando, the former gambler is working as the
administrator of Cloud City.
Although Lando welcomes Han with open arms, that embrace isn't totally warm, as he ends
up stabbing his friend in the back.
When faced with threats from Darth Vader, Lando hands Han over, allowing him to be encased
in carbonite, while also giving Leia [LAY-uh] and Chewbacca over to Vader as well.
Thankfully, Lando is ultimately given the chance to fully redeem himself by helping
Leia and Chewbacca escape in the Millennium Falcon and eventually rescue Han from Jabba
[JAH-buh] the Hutt.
But in the moment, his betrayal stings so badly that fans are still talking about it
to this day.
"I was just trying to help!"
Based on Ian McEwan's award-winning novel, Joe Wright's 2007 period piece Atonement spans
several different timeframes to tell the story of star-crossed lovers in 1930s England and
their ultimate fates, both real and fictional.
In 1935, a young Briony [BRY-oh-nee] Tallis takes notice as her beautiful older sister
Cecilia begins a flirtation with Robbie, their wealthy family's groundskeeper.
Briony also has feelings for Robbie, and when she finds explicit letters from him that are
meant for Cecilia, she gets the wrong idea.
And then when she finds Robbie and Cecilia in a compromising position in the family's
library, she tells her family that Robbie assaulted Cecilia.
Afterwards, Robbie is accused of another assault as well and sent away to prison.
After serving his prison sentence and also fighting in World War II, Robbie starts a
life with Cecilia in London.
Briony goes to apologize to them, thus seemingly resulting in a happy ending for all the main
characters.
But as it turns out, this ending is a fiction, concocted by a much older Briony to atone
for her sins.
After Briony's false accusation of Robbie, he died in the war before ever having a chance
to reunite with Cecilia, while Cecilia died in one of the Blitz bombings in London.
By writing a happy ending for her sister and Robbie, Briony attempts to repair her betrayal,
but unfortunately, real life can't be rewritten, and her betrayal lingers as one of the most
devastating betrayals anyone could possibly imagine.
"Briony!"
Even beyond its mega-hit song "Let it Go," Disney's 2013 animated flick Frozen is a notable
installment in the studio's canon thanks to its clever plot and subversion of typical
Disney storytelling tropes.
As the film begins, viewers meet sisters Anna and Elsa, who must soldier on after their
parents' tragic death, despite the rift between them caused by Elsa's magical ice-based powers.
During Elsa's coronation as queen of Arendelle, Anna falls head over heels in love with the
handsome, dashing Prince Hans, who seems like the perfect Prince Charming.
Despite Elsa's misgivings about her sister marrying somebody she's just met, Anna and
Hans get engaged.
As it turns out, Elsa was right to be suspicious.
Hans is far from a classic Disney prince, as he's actually in Arendelle to kill both
Anna and Elsa and claim the throne for himself and the southern isles from which he hails.
In the end, just as Hans is about to kill Elsa, Anna sacrifices herself to save her
sister, and Elsa then saves her life in return.
Even though Anna does find her true love in the end in the form of Kristoff, it's the
love between sisters, not romantic love, that triumphs over everything else as it proves
powerful enough to overcome even the deadliest of betrayals.
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