People Explain 30 Movies From The Villain’s Perspective And You May Never Look At Them The Same Again
Forty-two years ago, critic Roger Ebert said that because heroes and gimmicks tend to repeat from production to production, "Each film is only as good as its villain."
To deepen our understanding of the complex nuances that antagonists bring to their stories, let's take a look at a recent online discussion. It started when Reddit user CynicalCosmologist made a post on the platform, asking everyone "What movie is really sad when told from the 'villain's' perspective?"
It quickly went viral, and now has 5.7k comments, many of which vividly illustrate the profound change that occurs after we switch the narrative lens.
Image credits: CynicalCosmologist
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Baby's father in Dirty Dancing. Dude just wants to have a nice family vacation.
IvanaDrago:
Right? Heaven forbid he protests against his 17-year-old daughter getting seduced by the 25-year-old resort dance instructor. The dad also has to medically treat Johnny's ex-girlfriend for an infection after a back alley abortion. Of course he doesn't want his underage daughter getting involved.
CountryFriedQuinoa:
Worse, he wasn't just a dance instructor. The story is he's banging hot moms for money while giving private 'dance' lessons.
notsmartprivate:
Anyone over the age of like 25 completely understands the father's perspective.
I always thought he was a good guy for treating Penny no questions asked.
Man, the Grinch just wanted to hang out with his dog on the mountain, and asked his stupid neighbors to shut up.
We managed to get in touch with the author of the now-viral post and they kindly agreed to have a little chat with us about it.
"I was talking to a friend from work about this subject, and he said how so many examples that fit the subject of a sad backstory are simply born into a world of brutality," CynicalCosmologist said, describing the origins of the post to Bored Panda.
"One commonality of many movie villains is based on the natural world, where these villains are simply carnivores who have to hunt, kill, and destroy in order to survive. This is what made me add my comment on the T-Rex from The Land Before Time; he is fundamentally just a famished creature who has to go to great lengths simply to survive at a time of ecological disaster."
Jaws. Bruce is just trying to be a shark, man.
UrbanGimli:
THESE SHARK INFESTED WATERS!!!!!
you mean their home?
KILL THE MONSTER!!
SpookyYurt:
The phrase 'shark-infested waters' drives me nuts. Are our living rooms human-infested?? No. That's just where people live. Sharks don't 'infest' the ocean, that's where they belong.
Ok, hear me out: Richard from Crocodile Dundee. You're Richard, Sue's boyfriend and boss (ok, off to a great start...). Your girlfriend Sue INSISTS on doing a human interest piece on some dude. You're like, "come home I miss you", and she's like "just this one more story", and you're like "ok, you're the best." So she goes off to find Michael J "Crocodile" Dundee. Within 48 hours of meeting Mick, she's making out with him. You, Richard, have no idea...but it's gotta be suspicious that she BEGS to bring him back to NYC. It's IMMEDIATELY apparent what's going on. Sue is basically drooling over Mick, she's parading him around the upper crust of New York society, they're having some moments. She even f*****g invites him to the first date the two of you have had since she got back. You're understandably salty about this...and you get punched out for it. Feeling desperate to save your relationship, you throw a Hail Mary. While visiting her family - which you're on GREAT terms with - you propose. She says yes! Crisis averted...until the NEXT DAY when she takes it back and chases Mick into the subway to tell him she loves him. It's been like a week since the two of them met. And you know the worst part? You, Richard, *paid* for all of this to happen: this whole thing went down on the newspaper's dime. And the second worst part? You're still Sue's boss. You'll be seeing her at the office on Monday. You have less than 24 hours to pull yourself together. Richard got cheated on, villainized, and broken up with in the coldest way...and his only crime was not being happy about it. He's not the bad guy in this story. **Sue** is the bad guy in Crocodile Dundee. Thank you for attending my TED talk.
This happens in a lot of movies I find, where the bf is just ditched for another man for no good reason at all, and apparently it’s ok.
Other commonalities that CynicalCosmologist has noticed are personal tragedy and trauma. "Villains such as Two-Face in The Dark Knight, or Tai Lung in Kung Fu Panda, lost everything that they cared about, and their lifelong dreams were destroyed, due to matters that were beyond their control. Similarly, we have villains who only want to protect those they care about from some greater threat, which, for example, applies to Magneto (X-Men) and V (V for Vendetta)."
The Redditor thinks that because of the way these characters are portrayed in film, it's difficult not to see them as "hate-fueled, remorseless monsters."
"If we ever found ourselves in their shoes, however, we would understand the terrible trauma which many of these 'villains' have endured, and I think it's important to recognize this as a driver for their actions, as a human trait," they added.
Squidward from SpongeBob SquarePants. All he wants is some peace and quiet.
circa285:
You know you’re a fully developed adult when you start to find SpongeBob really annoying and identify with Squidward’s point of view.
We Bought a Zoo - I mean damn, the ‘villain’ literally is a safety inspector and is doing a public service making sure the dangerous animals you’re keeping for public display are safe, secure and not mistreated.
Storytellers know this and, especially those who are good at their craft, understand their antagonists. George Langelaan, who penned The Fly, a cult classic sci-fi/horror short story about a research scientist turning into a huge monstrous fly, said in a January 1961 issue of Suspense magazine, "As a writer I take such a liking to villains that I try to give them a jolly good time and, in the end, to let them off as lightly as possible."
He even proposed creating The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Villains.
X-Men. Magneto was right and his backstory was very sad.
Tom and Jerry. They’re secretly friends, but Tom has to hunt him and “fail” every time. One episode the homeowners wanted to swap Tom for a cat who actually would kill Jerry, but Tom tried to stop that.
Jerry is the reason they keep Tom around in the first place, so their rivalry ensures job security and housing for both I guess
This can teach us a lot about empathy. "If we extend this logic to the real world, we see how many people who landed themselves in jail have only committed their crimes out of fear, trauma, and desperation," CynicalCosmologist continued. "Sure, there are fictional and real-life villains who are psychopaths, and have no remorse at all for their actions, but many of them have much more troubled histories."
"A movie can paint a very vivid picture of what they have been through, and it can help people understand what led people down such dark paths, and hopefully get them to rehabilitate. That's why I think this discussion topic is a powerful and meaningful one; it can help make recovery much more humane and effective for many."
I recently re-watched The Little Mermaid and, well, let's just say I was rooting for her father rather than the 16yo wanting elope with a person she saw for like a minute. That said, Triton doesn't really handle the situation well.
Deep-Jello0420:
Ariel: 'I'm 16! I'm not a child anymore!'
7-year-old Me: 'Yeah! She's basically a grown up! Don't be mean, Triton!'
41-year-old Me: 'She is absolutely a child and I wonder if my parents thought that line was as ridiculous as I find it now when we watched it 30+ years ago'.
_space_pumpkin_:
'bUt DaDdY I LoVe HiM!' Sh*t makes me cringe now every time.
Yes she gave up her family, friends and literal voice for a guy who gave her a half arsed smile
Thor 1. Loki loses everything, finds out his whole life is a lie, even his skin is a lie, the people who he was supposed to trust the most (his parents) betrayed him about who he was and brought him up in a society that thought his real race were disgusting savage monsters to the point that he thought it was ok to try and kill them all, and in the middle of having a mental break down his dad goes into a coma while his mom is emotionally unavailable to give him any support because she’s busy watching the dad, and his friends betray him to go help his brother on earth, so he is completely isolated with no support system undergoing the worst crisis of his life and goes off the rails, to the point of committing suicide because he realized no matter what he did he could never gain the approval of his father or belong there as the only frost giant in all of Asgard.
It’s an epic tragedy when you look at it from his perspective.
The Redditor has taken notice of many cool movie villains over the years. "I am a lifelong Star Wars fan, and Palpatine has consistently had me on the edge of my seat," they said.
"Sure, the plot developments of each era of the franchise have sparked a lot of controversies amongst the fans, but Palpatine was the mastermind behind the entire conflict from day one. He manipulated and murdered the people closest to him to rise through the ranks of the Sith order, the Galactic Republic, and the absolute control of the galaxy."
"If that's not enough, I was just as captivated by his sinister demeanor and chilling gravitas as a kid as I am today. Emperor Palpatine is the embodiment of the perfect movie villain for me," CynicalCosmologist said, explaining that they might be a little bit biased. "The actor, Ian McDiarmid, went to my postgraduate alma mater, [and] I think [that's] pretty cool."
Sound of Music -- not the N*zis obviously, but the baroness. Imagine you're a wealthy, savvy, child free woman open minded enough to date a sulking widower with a billion children he ignores in favor of travel and partying-- in other words, your lifestyle. You're not into kids but you try to be a presence in their lives when he finally deigns to introduce you to them (same time he announces that he's marrying you, so he's a super great father). You put on a cheerful face anyway, and when it's apparent the kids hate you (you are a stranger after all!), you consider sending them to boarding school where they might benefit from, say, structure and attention and schooling that they are not getting at home from their father/endless rotating nannies. Then the super virginal, younger au pair moves in, and your boyfriend suddenly decides he is totally into being father of the year again after his Austrian rumspringa, and dumps you.
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/i-regret-to-inform-you-that-my-wedding-to-captain-von-trapp-has-been-canceled If you've never read this - it's hilarious and exactly from her point of view.
Lion King. I'm not saying Scar was right for killing his brother and running the Pride Lands into the ground, but they call him Scar because he had a physical deformity. Before he was nicknamed Scar, his parents named him Takka... Which means garbage. "Oh hi. Let me introduce you to my sons 'King' and 'Garbage'" How is that not setting your youngest up for failure?
As their thoughts on Palpatine suggest, the Redditor believes the "perfect" villain is one who has a grand, thorough scheme for everything. "They consider every possibility before making their next move. An ingenious villain with an ingenious scheme leaves the viewer constantly guessing where the plot of the movie (or franchise) is going to lead; or retrospectively, piecing together the story so far and predicting the outcome."
This is why CynicalCosmologist has thoroughly enjoyed movies with enigmatic puzzles like Glass Onion, or mind-bending twists like The Usual Suspects, and we can only agree that meticulously crafted villains not only enhance the suspense but also contribute to the overall depth and richness of the story.
Titanic
Imagine you are just chilling in the ocean and a big boat comes and hit you and the boat gets all the attention.
Worse yet, the humans then proceed to cause climate change which ends up melting you
Peter Pan. Poor Captain Hook. Constantly taunted by a group of hoodlums who never want to grow up. Imagine the PTSD this guy has from losing a hand to a crocodile! Then he’s constantly taunted by these kids and their clock-filled buffoonery.
Damn kids! He's at the "get off my lawn!" stage of life and the little so-and-sos won't leave him alone!
Mrs Doubtfire because imagine how scared Pierce Brosnan was when Mrs Doubtfire tried to kill him with pepper.
Embarrassed-Ad-1639:
He also survived a drive-by fruiting.
gringledoom:
Of course your wife is going to divorce you if she comes home from her breadwinning job, and you’ve got a petting zoo running around the house, after walking out on yet another job, when you’re already on thin ice! But the whole movie is acting like his ex-wife is a mean, borderline-evil shrew! And all the judge was asking him to do was get literally any job and keep it in order to see his kids more often! I love my kids!' Fine, why don’t you show it by acting like a goddamned grown-up for once.
Pierce Brosnan was in this movie?!! What? It's been so long that I didn't even notice.
“Black Panther” Killmonger was a Prince. His father was murdered by his uncle, the King. He spent his life in poverty, while his family was incredibly wealthy. When he finally got to Wakanda, he was appalled that they kept all that wealth and technology from the descendants of the diaspora around the world. I love his last quote: “Bury me at sea with my ancestors who jumped from the slave ships because they preferred death to bondage.”
The character of Killmonger totally over shadowed Black Panther! Michael B is a really talented actor!
Yeah, I gotta say that 'Despicable Me' hit me right in the feels when you saw how Gru went from stealing an entire moon to being a dad. Who knew little yellow minions could make such an impact? Overall, 10/10 would ugly cry again.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Imagine: you're 16 years old. Your father is in prison. Your home has been taken over by a N*zi cult that you've been indoctrinated into. The leader of the cult is telling you to kill your principal, someone exceptionally powerful who could easily beat you in a fight, or he will kill you and your family.
The hyenas in the Lion King were banished to an elephant graveyard and were hungry. It's not like the lions weren't killing things to eat themselves, but Mufasa wasn't going to let hyenas get away with that.
Of course they're going to follow the guy who promises them food. Their part in Be Prepared is "we're going to be able to eat!" And then when they do get to leave the graveyard they overdo it because they'd never been allowed to eat anything but elephants who came to die, which probably isn't an everyday occurrence.
The hyenas being scared away by lions is unrealistic in itself. If the hyena pack is big enough (which seems to be the case in the lion king if you think about Scar's death scene), they can easily steal and keep the kill from hunting lionesses. Mostly because they are incredibly stubborn and just keep attacking. Hyenas killing lions for their kills is also a thing that happens.
Prince Nuada from Hellboy: the Golden Army. He’s the Prince of a dying race of fae, has to see his father lead his kind into darkness and obscurity, and THEN see humanity tear down everything he loved for their own greed/expansion. His speech about how the world will never see the likes of the Elemental Forest God was heartbreaking.
Zee_whotookmyname:
This isn’t the first story where humans started off living side by side with fairy tale or mythical creatures, then ultimately pushing them out to extinction. This movie did have me wishing for an alternate version where humans are the ones to lose.
Anakin Skywalkers' story from the light side to the dark side was motivated by the love he had for his mother and Padme, but in the end, he can't save his mother and nearly kills Padme. He loses them both and ends up horribly disfigured in the confrontation with his life-long master obi wan. He has to suffer the rest of his life without his loved ones, and he now is more machine than man. He can't live without his suit. The tragedy of Darth Vader is incredibly sad.
Born a slave on a desert planet with no father. Forced to join a cult of space wizards at a young age. Watches his mother die, was only allowed to marry in secret because of the wacko cult's rules. The man who offers him salvation is the devil himself. He loses all four limbs, scarred and burned to the point that he was put into a living coffin in order to survive. Enslaved to the devil himself.
Thick-Worry5028:
Never knew freedom, never allowed to live his life. Used by everyone...
Bee Movie 😂 A bee stole this man’s girlfriend.
RVelts:
It's a wild ride. I shrugged it off years ago as just being some kid's movie Jerry Seinfeld felt like making. I didn't realize how insane the plot is... the courtroom scenes, the romance, the wild ending, the snipers...
DNP96:
This man is losing his wife to a literal bee and everyone thinks he’s crazy.
It's a fun movie to watch as an adult just to see the absolute nonsense and absurdity
Encanto.
Family obsessed with 'keeping up appearances' shun Bruno for simply telling the truth, that people naturally don't like to hear. Ends up being demonised and alone while the head narc and family lie and blame him for their failings and bad experiences.
I think other than the family itself nobody considers Bruno a bad guy
**Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan**
Dude is allowed to live in peace and rule an untamed planet instead of going to prison. He's living his best life.
His planet gets turned into a barren wasteland, wife and some family members die, and some get a nasty case of earworms. All because some toupee-wearing space douchbag never bothered to occassionally check up on them.
Sooooo much better than the remake. Ricardo Montalban yes, Cumberbatch no.
Cato from The Hunger Games. He’s been brainwashed to believe that the Games are an honor. He’s trained his whole life, but then he gets into the arena and it’s a lot of killing and awfulness. Then he loses, dies a long death and all his preparation and fanboying isn’t worth anything.
Cary Elwes' perspective in Liar Liar too.
You've had a legitimate, mostly positive relationship with your girlfriend and are now at the point where you're trying to get to know her son. There's a lot of trust invested by this point.
You've accepted that her ex-husband is an important part of her life and are happy with the arrangement of her son dividing time between you and his biological father.
In other words, you're a pretty mature family man. Except her ex-husband starts crossing boundaries and trying to convince your girlfriend to get back together with him. You don't always realise what's going on, but you get the feeling that some sort of undermining is going on between him and their son.
Meanwhile, your girlfriend is becoming more and more emotionally torn because her ex-husband keeps breaking promises and disappointing her son, but equally tries to undermine you to her and beg for further chances.
This culminates in the terrifying face of Jim Carrey appearing outside your plane window during high speed takeoff, eyes wide open and manically shouting, on the day you were originally going to move city as a "new family".
Yet despite this, you retain a godly amount of humility and gracefully back out of the relationship, knowing that Jim has won over the family and that it wouldn't be fair on any parties for the farce to continue.
Yeah, Cary Elwes is intentionally goofy at times and jumped the gun on the relationship, but the man is a bit of a saint for putting up with that.
Meet the Robinsons.
Agreeable_Oil_936:
Goob just needed some sleep is all.
Geminii27:
I can understand that. I've shouted at people who wouldn't let me sleep, before.
Austin Powers. Dr Evil’s upbringing is tragic: The details of my life are quite inconsequential.... My father was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with low-grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery. My mother was a 15-year-old French prostitute named Chloé with webbed feet. My father would womanize; he would drink; he would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Sometimes, he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy, the sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament.
gardenfella:
My childhood was typical: summers in Rangoon... luge lessons... In the spring, we'd make meat helmets... When I was insolent I was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds—pretty standard, really. At the age of 12, I received my first scribe. At the age of 14, a Zoroastrian named Vilmer ritualistically shaved my testicles. There really is nothing like a shorn scrotum—it's breathtaking... I suggest you try it.
Pirates of the Caribbean. This pirate crew found treasure, it was cursed. They became undead, feeling nothing, tasting nothing. A shadow of their former selves. For some reason, everyone was trying to stop them becoming mortal even though it would be easier for all parties to help them restore the treasure.
Also as most pirates are on the ship when the curse is lifted, they surrendered to the Royal Navy. They were all undoubtably hung immediately after the credits role.
Les Miserables. Javert was born inside a jail and we see repeatedly how unforgiving Paris is to children without a support system and the destitute. He miraculously manages to works his way from that to a respectable middle-class job. And that’s before Jean Valjean shows up and becomes the greatest failure of his career eventually driving him to s*icide.
Note: this post originally had 59 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
Wicked Witch of the West in Wizard of Oz. All she wants is her dead sister's shoes back but the bratty kid who killed her sister won't let her have them.
And then a bunch of midgets start dancing around and singing about how glad they are that she's dead. Like, seriously?
Load More Replies... I didn’t see it but I want to mention Jessica Fletcher. The villain of Murder She Wrote who was a serial killer who was never brought to justice but instead made money selling novels of her murders.
And considering that the only law enforcement was Mr Cunningham from Happy Days, she knew she would never be caught.
Load More Replies...
The Santa Clause. You're a psychologist and your stepson is adamant that his father killed Santa and became him, that you went to the North Pole and met elves, etc. The father doesn't refute any of this. Of course you're gonna be worried that the father is a bad influence.
There's a book called "The Dracula Tapes," (by Fred Saberhagen, I think). It's the story of Bram Stoker's Dracula, but told from Dracula's perspective. "No, no. You got it all wrong! I wasn't trying to KILL Mina Harker! I was trying to SAVE her! Van Helsing was killing her with his stupid transfusions of untyped blood! We vampires have known about blood types for CENTURIES!"
I got a couple. Imagine you’re a dinosaur, just chilling, when suddenly a giant ball of fire kills you. You wake up in some sort of lab, then are sent into an enclosure. You’re a big guy and you need to eat. Plus you hate being kept prisoner, so you break out and start eating these tasty little snacks that also kept you prisoner in the first place. You’re in a completely new world, so you do the only thing you feel comfortable doing. Hunting. The second is Mr. poppers penguins. This dude keeps exotic animals in his apartment which is extremely dangerous for them and possibly illegal, so this guy tries to take them to the zoo where they’ll be safe (he can’t very well mail them back to the South Pole). Then this weirdo who is trying to replace his ex wife with penguins beats you up and steals them. You were just trying to keep them safe because you actually care about them.
Ranger Smith from the Yogi Bear cartoons. When you're a kid, he's this mean park ranger who won't let Yogi enjoy picnic baskets or have fun. As an adult, he's just trying to do his job and keep the park in order but this one bear keeps breaking all the rules and getting into trouble.
How about Khan from the remake Star Trek movie? Guy was doing everything possible to save his crew, the people he loved from being turned into weird weapons of mass destruction. Does the crew of the Enterprise help him? No. They kill him. But they did save his blood to heal the mostly dead radioactive Kirk. So it was all in good fun…
About half of these are just direct plot summaries that either make the villain sympathetic (e.g. we are *shown* Magneto's background story in the movie), or reveal that they aren't actually villains (e.g. Despicable Me). A lot of people apparently didn't read the assignment!
The two jocks in terminator 2; all they did was try to help John when he cried out for help and he had the terminator rough them up. What a dips**t
A lot of 'terrorist' characters in movies and tv shows often have backstories where... I kind of agree with them. Or, at least, I can see why they're doing what they're doing. I don't think killing innocent people is ever the way to retaliate, but sometimes what is done to them first is horrific and I certainly understand it.
Wicked Witch of the West in Wizard of Oz. All she wants is her dead sister's shoes back but the bratty kid who killed her sister won't let her have them.
And then a bunch of midgets start dancing around and singing about how glad they are that she's dead. Like, seriously?
Load More Replies... I didn’t see it but I want to mention Jessica Fletcher. The villain of Murder She Wrote who was a serial killer who was never brought to justice but instead made money selling novels of her murders.
And considering that the only law enforcement was Mr Cunningham from Happy Days, she knew she would never be caught.
Load More Replies... The Santa Clause. You're a psychologist and your stepson is adamant that his father killed Santa and became him, that you went to the North Pole and met elves, etc. The father doesn't refute any of this. Of course you're gonna be worried that the father is a bad influence.
There's a book called "The Dracula Tapes," (by Fred Saberhagen, I think). It's the story of Bram Stoker's Dracula, but told from Dracula's perspective. "No, no. You got it all wrong! I wasn't trying to KILL Mina Harker! I was trying to SAVE her! Van Helsing was killing her with his stupid transfusions of untyped blood! We vampires have known about blood types for CENTURIES!"
I got a couple. Imagine you’re a dinosaur, just chilling, when suddenly a giant ball of fire kills you. You wake up in some sort of lab, then are sent into an enclosure. You’re a big guy and you need to eat. Plus you hate being kept prisoner, so you break out and start eating these tasty little snacks that also kept you prisoner in the first place. You’re in a completely new world, so you do the only thing you feel comfortable doing. Hunting. The second is Mr. poppers penguins. This dude keeps exotic animals in his apartment which is extremely dangerous for them and possibly illegal, so this guy tries to take them to the zoo where they’ll be safe (he can’t very well mail them back to the South Pole). Then this weirdo who is trying to replace his ex wife with penguins beats you up and steals them. You were just trying to keep them safe because you actually care about them.
Ranger Smith from the Yogi Bear cartoons. When you're a kid, he's this mean park ranger who won't let Yogi enjoy picnic baskets or have fun. As an adult, he's just trying to do his job and keep the park in order but this one bear keeps breaking all the rules and getting into trouble.
How about Khan from the remake Star Trek movie? Guy was doing everything possible to save his crew, the people he loved from being turned into weird weapons of mass destruction. Does the crew of the Enterprise help him? No. They kill him. But they did save his blood to heal the mostly dead radioactive Kirk. So it was all in good fun…
About half of these are just direct plot summaries that either make the villain sympathetic (e.g. we are *shown* Magneto's background story in the movie), or reveal that they aren't actually villains (e.g. Despicable Me). A lot of people apparently didn't read the assignment!
The two jocks in terminator 2; all they did was try to help John when he cried out for help and he had the terminator rough them up. What a dips**t
A lot of 'terrorist' characters in movies and tv shows often have backstories where... I kind of agree with them. Or, at least, I can see why they're doing what they're doing. I don't think killing innocent people is ever the way to retaliate, but sometimes what is done to them first is horrific and I certainly understand it.
