It's easy to root for a movie's heroes, but villains are usually the best part of a movie.
Maybe it's because they dress cool.
Maybe it's because they have all the best lines.
Or maybe it's because they always look like they're having way more fun than anybody else
around them.
But maybe, just maybe, it's because we occasionally agree with at least part of the logic behind
their less than noble endeavors.
While we'd never, ever condone the dastardly deeds and malfeasance of these sublimely evil
characters, we still can't help but think that they might have had a point.
The Wicked Witch
Yes, she chases Dorothy halfway around Oz hell bent on catching her and her adorable
little dog too, but the Wicked Witch may just be misunderstood.
Bloodlust aside, all she really wants is to get her hands on those glistening ruby slippers
that Dorothy makes her way across Oz in.
Don't forget, those magic shoes do not belong to Dorothy.
She actually scores them from the lifeless body of the Wicked Witch's sister -- whom
she lands on with her house.
"Slippers, yes."
From a legal standpoint, Dorothy's possession of those slippers is questionable at best.
And one could hardly blame the Wicked Witch for desperately trying to reclaim a family
heirloom that rightfully should have passed to her.
Roy Batty
One of the central questions in 1982's Blade Runner is whether replicants are really people,
or if they're merely meant for slave labor.
For big bad Roy Batty, the answer is clear: He is sentient and he does not want to be
destroyed by Deckard or one of his cohorts for being some anomaly.
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe."
So, he engages in a massive slaughter spree that lands him on the Tyrell Corporation's
most wanted list.
But Batty doesn't think of himself as some kink in the system -- he knows he's proof
of evolution.
So the question becomes, was his bloody flight to Earth the act of an evil robot, or was
it the act of a sentient revolutionary who just wants to live, and to try and understand
the humanity with which he's been blessed?
One should hardly need a Voight-Kampff test to know the answer to that question.
Detective Jack Doyle
There really aren't many good guys to cheer for in 2007's pitch-black crime drama Gone
Baby Gone.
In fact, the film presents a particularly damning view of metropolitan Boston, brimming
with drunks, druggies, gang bangers, and more.
But the biggest baddie is none other than Morgan Freeman's unassuming Detective Jack
Doyle, who's guilty of kidnapping of a 4-year-old girl and colluding with his police buddies
to cover up the crime.
But the crime may not be as immoral as it seems on the surface.
"Don't come in here trying to get noble, boy."
See, the parents of the missing girl turn out to be a no good junkie of a father and
a raging drunk of a mother with absolutely no parental instincts or moral compass.
So, they aren't exactly upstanding citizens, and Doyle's abduction is really just a noble
attempt to give the whip-smart little girl a real shot at life.
And nobody—not even Casey Affleck's do-gooding private detective—believes she's going to
get that with her mother.
Principal Ed Rooney
It's almost impossible to like Principal Rooney.
He's stuck up, he's rude, he's got that awful mustache, and he has it out for that most
lovable of scamps, Ferris Bueller.
But if you stop and think about Ferris Bueller's Day Off for even half a second, you might
start to see that Bueller is no prize himself.
He's brash, cocky and overbearing—and he's wearing a sweater vest for crying out loud.
That alone is a crime of fashion.
So, suffice it to say, he needs some kinda lesson to get his act together.
Who better to teach that lesson than a dedicated educator and impassioned public servant like
Ed Rooney?
We can all agree that Principal Rooney took matters a tad too personally—and ultimately
way too far—but we can't help but admit that he was kinda right.
Ferris Bueller is a total wisenheimer who lies to his parents, skips school, bullies
his best friend, steals a priceless car, and impersonates a distinguished sausage entrepreneur
for the purpose of stealing his reservation at a fine-dining establishment.
And he gets away with all of it.
Miranda Priestly
The Devil Wears Prada's fashion-savvy villainess is condescending, self-centered, and not afraid
to demand perfection from everyone around her—especially her new assistant, Andy.
But then, she is the head honcho of a massive publishing empire.
And any woman running a billion dollar company in a male-dominated business environment is
probably being held to a different standard than her male counterparts.
Which means nothing less than perfection will suffice to keep her on top.
"Which exposed the…"
"That's all."
So how can she expect anything less from the people around her?
As hard as Miranda is on Andy, she's just as hard on everyone else.
It's worth noting, too, that Miranda's approach actually works.
Throughout the film she manages to pull the best out of every single person around her,
including Andy.
The U.S. government
Let's face it, pegging the U.S. government as a villain is not as hard is it used to
be.
But back in 1982, E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial had to exaggerate their threat factor a bit
by making them gun-wielding goons who strongarm kids just trying to have a good time with
their new otherworldly pal.
But their bad rap might be misplaced in this movie.
After all, they are investigating what may or may not be a hostile alien invasion -- and
without access to the creature, how are they supposed to know he's a lover, not a fighter?
"Ouuuuuuch."
They could just ask Elliott, of course, but as far as they know the powerful psychic bond
the boy shares with the alien being is just some unknown form of mind control.
In the end, those agents are a bit coarser than they have to be, but if and when a real
alien invasion happens, you'd probably want the feds to take all precautions, wouldn't
you?
General Francis Hummel
Speaking of federal foes, The Rock's General Hummel is a guy responsible for instigating
a hostage crisis on Alcatraz and threatening to unleash weaponized nerve gas on San Francisco
if the government doesn't pay him $100 million bucks.
But really, Hummel has no intention of releasing any chemical weapons on anyone.
He only leads the abhorrent mission in an effort to get compensation for families of
fallen soldiers after the government refuses to honor or support them.
He even tries to do it the honest way first.
Did we mention that the "ransom" money was to be collected from an illegal government
slush-fund too?
Call us crazy, but Hummel sounds more like an impassioned advocate for veterans' rights
than a villain.
Walter Peck
Ghostbusters baddie Walter Peck is exactly the sort of snooty, stick-up-his-butt bureaucrat
you'd expect to show up at your door if you've got an unlicensed, unregulated and massively
unstable nuclear reactor tucked away in the basement of a near-condemned building.
Even if Peck is boorish and confrontational and easy to hate, he's still just doing his
job of protecting the environment from harm.
"Yes, it's true.
This man has no d---."
Yes, everything is holding okay until Peck turns off the electricity, but how is he supposed
to know he'd be opening the gates to a near apocalyptic supernatural event?
Syndrome
It's an age-old question as to whether villains are the result of nature or nurture, but in
the case of The Incredibles, the latter certainly seems to be true.
After all, Buddy Pine is a born genius who was a wizard with tech and capable of greatness
even as a young man.
And he really, really, really wants to be a hero.
"Who are you supposed to be?"
"Well, I'm Incrediboy."
When he tries to join up with Frozone and the Incredible family, however, those "heroes"
respond with excessive scorn and ridicule before ostracizing the gifted young inventor
for not being blessed with superhuman abilities.
It's their cruel shunning that gives birth to the genius super-villain Syndrome, so one
could hardly blame him for harboring a deep rooted resentment towards the conceited superheroes
who wouldn't let him play along.
"This isn't the end of it!"
The Xenomorph Queen
Picture this: you're living a quiet life on a desolate planet so far out in deep space
that virtually no other living being can even find you.
Then one day, spaceships show up full of alien creatures sent by a greedy corporation to
rob your planet of precious minerals and—let's be honest—probably destroy your home's ecosystem
in the process.
That, in a nutshell, is what the Alien story might look like through the eyes of the Xenomorph
Queen.
It's kinda like Avatar, but without the pretty blue people.
The Xenomorph Queen might serve as the central villain in the Alien franchise, but for her,
these human invaders are pretty hell bent on capturing, weaponizing, or outright destroying
her legions of unborn children.
So the question becomes, is the Xenomorph Queen an evil, alien creature out to destroy
humans?
Or is she a doting mother out to protect her home, her family, and maybe her entire species?
Elijah Price
Unbreakable's Elijah Price is definitely not one of the good guys.
With countless casualties caused by his hand and the full breadth of his treachery still
unknown, Elijah is basically the poster boy for homegrown terrorism.
And no, his own tragic circumstances don't even come close to excusing his actions.
"In a comic, you know how you can tell who the archvillain's going to be?
He's the exact opposite of the hero."
But at the end of the day, those deplorable acts do exactly what Elijah expects them to
do—find someone on the opposite end of the spectrum as himself: someone whose bones didn't
shatter like glass.
Someone strong as a team of oxen and tough as a tank.
Someone who could only be classified as a superhero.
That's exactly what David Dunne turns out to be.
And try to remember that Dunne may never embrace his gifts if Elijah Price doesn't push him
to do so.
That might been enough for Price to claim hero status himself—if not for all the pyromania
and bombings and such.
Jigsaw
We're not going to say we saved the "best" for last, because there isn't much to like
when it comes to the torturous psychopath we've come to know as Jigsaw.
As far as movie villains go, John "Jigsaw" Kramer is pretty much the worst of the worst.
But it's still important to note that, while he doesn't make it easy for some people to
live, he technically never ends anyone's life with his own hands.
His twisted traps and devices are puzzles meant to be solved so that the people trapped
inside—most of whom have questionable morals to begin with—can escape with a newfound
respect for their miserable little lives.
It's also worth noting that those who do escape ultimately do seem to find new purpose.
"And brought meaning to it."
Throw in Jigsaw's own backstory—as a dad-to-be who tragically loses everything before surviving
his own near-death experience—and it's a little easier to see him as a radical life
counselor.
Of course, to do that you'd have to overlook all of the torture and blood on his evil hands.
Hey, nobody's perfect, right?
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