The hero’s journey. It’s an enduring trope engrained in the collective moviegoer consciousness for viewers to expect that, when the lights come up in the theater, and warm and fuzzy feelings about good triumphing over evil are running high, the film will have ended with the hero standing victorious over the villain. But some films are different; they flip the script entirely.
Sometimes it’sone film in a larger series– for example, it’s common for the second film in a trilogy to end on a downer, setting the stage for the hero(es) to come back in the final installment to defeat the big bad. Other times, it’s just a straightforward bait-and-switch, in which the director diverts the viewers’ expectations and has the villain come out on top just because, well, they can do whatever they want. Aside from the various reasons why a director might subvert the traditional hero’s journey narrative, these films are significant because they’re rare in the greater genre of action flicks and, frankly, cinema in general.
Warning: spoilers below.
The first film in Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s classic sci-fi action space odyssey novel,Dune, leaves the good guys in need of a serious comeback. Baron Harkonnen (played by Stellan Skarsgård) is victorious – for the moment – in controlling the planet of Arrakis, after overtaking House Atreides, now led by Timotheé Chalamet’s Paul Atreides after his father Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac) is killed. But come part II, House Atreides is due for some vengeance – and they’ll have help from psychedelic superhuman drugs and sandworms.
James Bond does not let the bad guy get away with it. But, with 2012’sSkyfall, 007’s flawless track record was besmirched. Raoul Silva – a former MI-6 agent, played by Javier Bardem, who was disfigured during his tenure as an agent, and is out for revenge – sets his sights on killing M, the director behind all secret service operations. And he succeeds; M shockingly dies. However, Bond is somewhat victorious, too, in that Silva also dies in the climactic fracas.
Related:The Greatest Villain Introductions in Movies of All Time, Ranked
6Avengers: Infinity War
The penultimate film in the MCU’s Infinity Saga,Avengers: Infinity War, ends with Thanos successful in what he set out to do, The Snap, in which he uses the Infinity Stones to wipe out half of all life across the universe. The Avengers are left defeated, with some of them disintegrating into dust and effectively out of existence. Meanwhile, Thanos uses the stones to teleport to a distant planet, where he watches the sunrise, breathes a sigh of relief, content with his victory. But it’sall just a setupfor a big comeback from the good guys inEndgame.
Related:5 Movies Where the Villain and the Protagonist Fall in Love
Loosely based on historical events, Zack Snyder’s ultra-violent, visually-enigmatic 2006 film300follows a group of ridiculously muscular Spartans as they take on the god king, Xerxes, and the Persian empire. The Spartans are preposterously outnumbered; however, they put up a formidable fight and Leonidas (played by Gerard Butler), king of Sparta and leader of his troops, proves that Xerxes is just a man, not an omnipotent deity, with a spear chuck to the face. Ultimately, the 300 Spartans are overwhelmed by the sheer number of the Persian forces. Their fight ends with Leonidas, standing proud, as a tidal wave of arrows descends upon his flesh.
4Inglorious Basterds
Quentin Tarantino has created some of cinema’s most memorable villains over the years, and a forever favorite is the Nazi commander Hans Landa, expertly played by Christoph Waltz, in 2009’sInglorious Basterds. Landa spends much of the film doing his darndest to foil the Basterds’ attempts to kill as many Nazis as possible and to meddle with the Third Reich’s grand plan. However, in a surprise turn of events, Landa turns his back on the Fürher and strikes a deal with the Basterds and the Allied Forces, granting him a pardon. But Landa doesn’t get off that easy; the Basterds leave Landa with a parting gift in the form of a swastika carved in his forehead.
The story ofOldboyis essentially one very long con, which leads to terrible consequences for all parties involved. However, the bad guy achieves what he set out to do. Evil mastermind Lee Woo-jin imprisons the drunken, good-for-nothing businessman, Oh Dae-su for 15 years. Once Oh Dae-su is released, he sets out on blood-fueled rampage to find his captor. Along the way, he falls in love with a young girl, Mi-do. In the film’s climax, Lee Woo-jin reveals that he was behind it all, and that he orchestrated the forbidden romance between Oh Dae-su and Mi-do, who happens to be his daughter. Understandably, Lee Woo-jin is gutted. However, even though Lee Woo-jin pulled off his evil plan, he’s wrecked by guilt and he takes his own life.
2Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back
In one of the franchise’s most iconic scenes,The Empire Strikes Backsees Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader face off with lightsabers in an eerie airshaft. Vader gets the best of Skywalker, slicing off his right hand, and Luke is forced to flee from the battle, as he jumps down the airshaft, eventually being picked up by the Millennium Falcon. The crew is left to lick their wounds before they can return victorious in 1983’sReturn of the Jedi.
1The Matrix Reloaded
In the sequel to the original film,The Matrix Reloadedsees Keanu Reeves’ Neo and his team essentially losing to the machines. The film ends with Neo in a coma, the sentinels descending upon Zion, the last bastion of human existence, and the destruction of the iconic human battleship, the Nebuchadnezzar. But, of course, this is all a setup for a big rematch in the following film in the original trilogy,The Matrix Revolutions.
