Movies where you rooted for the bad guy

[Rodney-2187]

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[evilive]

The mercenaries from Avatar. Those dudes were badass.

[stdepriest]

Heat (Neil's teams)
Catch Me If You Can (Frank Abagnale)
Carlito's Way (Carlito)
Christine (the car)
Quick Change (Bill Murray's team of bank robbers)
Gone in 60 Seconds (Memphis Raines team)
Any Fast and Furious franchise movie
Inception
Nowhere to Run
A Perfect World (Butch)

As an American, I usually root for the US in war movies, but I root for the crew of U96 every time I watch Das Boot.

[Groot]

Hannibal (Any Version)
006 (Goldeneye)
Joker (Any Version)
Darth Vader
Khan (Into Darkness)
Zombies (Any Movie)
Dinosaurs (Jurassic World)
Crazy Assassins (Smokin' Aces)
...and tons more

[baheidstu]

Originally Posted by surfdude12

Also add:

Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood
Michael Corleone in Godfather II
Dracula in Bram Stoker's Dracula

Originally Posted by Al_The_Strange

[LIST]
[*]Alex in A Clockwork Orange[*]Deadpool[*]Godzilla in about half of all the Godzilla movies made[*]Jason in Freddy vs Jason[*]Magneto in various X-Men films (especially the last few)[*]The Predator in Alien vs Predator
[*]Tonny Montanna in Scarface[*]Wesley Gibson in Wanted

Does this sort of thing count though? I mean, for films like Scarface or A Clockwork Orange, it's natural for root for the protagonist in a film even if they are "bad". Unless I'm misinterpreting, I think the spirit of the thread is to come up with bad guys who you are not supposed to cheer for, i.e. rooting for the villain in a Bond film to succeed with his plan for world domination, or cheering for the Predator to succeed in the first Predator movie, not the AVP movies.

[qb2333]

In addition to some listed, here are a few:

Everyone in Pulp Fiction (except for Zed, or the gimp)
Scrooge (all versions)
Freddy Krueger
Keyser Soze

[Buscemi]

Serenity
Don't Breathe

In both films, I had absolutely no reason to sympathize with the protagonists and couldn't wait for the villains to off them.

And I'm surprised by the listing of the Hannibal series. Hannibal Lecter's a great character and all but Will Graham makes the series what it is. It wouldn't be the same show without him.

[qb2333]

Originally Posted by baheidstu

Does this sort of thing count though? I mean, for films like Scarface or A Clockwork Orange, it's natural for root for the protagonist in a film even if they are "bad". Unless I'm misinterpreting, I think the spirit of the thread is to come up with bad guys who you are not supposed to cheer for, i.e. rooting for the villain in a Bond film to succeed with his plan for world domination, or cheering for the Predator to succeed in the first Predator movie, not the AVP movies.

Maybe you're over parsing it. Rapists, cannibals, drug dealing murderers. They're all bad guys whether one's the main character or not. I root for Vader or Joker just as much as i do for Tony Montana or Michael Corleone

[spanky87]

[Sky_Captain]

I empathised quite a bit with Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood.

[owenstar]

A lot of great ones in here. Especially those mob movies with DeNiro or Pachino.

My vote goes for Bill the Butcher in Gangs of New York. I have never been a huge Decaprio fan, and his on again off again accent was terrible. Daniel Day Lewis is such an amazing actor, hard to root against him.

While typing the guy above me mentioned DDL in another flick....its trending haha

[headphones]

The movies I watch don't generally have bad guys. But I don't root for bad guys at all.

[baheidstu]

Originally Posted by qb2333

Maybe you're over parsing it. Rapists, cannibals, drug dealing murderers. They're all bad guys whether one's the main character or not. I root for Vader or Joker just as much as i do for Tony Montana or Michael Corleone

Could be, but the idea of a film like A Clockwork Orange or There Will Be Blood is that even if the protagonists are bad guys or anti-heroes, you're supposed to identify with them and it's the filmmaker's intent that you're "on their side" no matter how horrible their actions. I mean, with A Clockwork Orange the "bad guys" of the piece are supposed to be the prison officials, cops, truant officers, former Droogs who abuse and attack Alex. Now if someone said they were cheering for those characters that would truly be going against the grain.

[headphones]

Some movie thought, the "bad guy" isn't always bad. They are just trying to do what they feel is the best thing possible to protect humanity. Like you see this a lot with government agents. That's why they often have them acting incredibly dickish, so that you have a reason to root against them, even thought they are doing what is "technically" right.

[DanTheMan]

Is it wrong that I kinda wanted Faora and Zod to kick so much ass in Man of Steel?

But still root for Superman to prevail in the end?

[surfdude12]

Originally Posted by baheidstu

Could be, but the idea of a film like A Clockwork Orange or There Will Be Blood is that even if the protagonists are bad guys or anti-heroes, you're supposed to identify with them and it's the filmmaker's intent that you're "on their side" no matter how horrible their actions. I mean, with A Clockwork Orange the "bad guys" of the piece are supposed to be the prison officials, cops, truant officers, former Droogs who abuse and attack Alex. Now if someone said they were cheering for those characters that would truly be going against the grain.

LOL rooting against Alex is hardly "going against the grain"

Clockwork is the most polarizing film in movie history for a reason. I'd guess that half of the people that watch it warm up to Alex, whereas the other half feel their blood boil after each rape and either shut the film off or keep it on and watch with utter pleasure as he suffers.

Same with There Will Be Blood - I can easily see half of the viewers in that film being utterly detested with Daniel at the end, particularly with what he does with bowling pin LOL

[Jennifer Lawrence Fan]

Dan Stevens in The Guest. I don't know. Just something likeable about his character.

[Show spoiler]Even if he is a stone cold killer.

[Optimus]

Johny Lawrence in Karate Kid

[TommySyk]

Originally Posted by Buscemi

Serenity
Don't Breathe

In both films, I had absolutely no reason to sympathize with the protagonists and couldn't wait for the villains to off them.

How could you say that about Serenity?

I mean, I don't know if you've seen Firefly or not, but Mal's crew is so damn charismatic and likeable that it truly shocks me seeing someone say that!

[Buscemi]

I really don't like Joss Whedon's writing in general. He's so in love with his own dialogue that what's supposed to be hip ends up coming off as smug. And I felt River was one of the dumbest, most unlikable protagonists in film history (it seemed like most of the crew's problems were caused by solely by her).

For me, Whedon works better in teams (the case with Roseanne, Speed, and Toy Story) or when a more talented person is handling his work (the unfairly maligned Alien: Resurrection and and the even more unfairly maligned by Whedon fans Jean-Pierre Jeunet), as others could tell him when he's getting too self-indulgent. The same with Dan Harmon (I worry about Harmon's involvement with the new MST3K but since Joel's in charge, I think they'll be able to calm him down).