Support NeoGAF

[Billbofet]

So I am sitting here watching The Jackel (1997) with Bruce Willis, which I have seen multiple times. I want Bruce Willis' character to "win" over Richard Gere each time I watch it.
I love how he's a guy just doing an excellent job at his job. On the other hand, Richard Gere kinda sucks in comparison.

I also always root for Robert DeNiro's character in Heat over the irritating and insufferable Al Pacino character, Vincent Hanna, probably for most of the exact same reasons.

What movies have you watched and rooted for the bad guy/person?

 

[Dacvak]

I’ll say The Dark Knight. Heath Ledger’s Joker was so good, it made me want to root for him.

 

[Trogdor1123]

Karate kid, I was totally rooting for Daniel to win!

 

[T4keD0wN]

Godzilla (the humans are always boring and seeing Godzilla kick ass for 2h sounds more fun)

 

[bitbydeath]

Controversial maybe, but I never liked Doug in The Hills Have Eyes (2006).

While he eventually grew a pair, he started as a violence pacifist despite everything going on around him.

I just found it incredibly frustrating.

 

[eddie4]

I’ll say The Dark Knight. Heath Ledger’s Joker was so good, it made me want to root for him.

 

[Husky]

There's a western called The Great Silence / Il grande silenzio where I really root for Klaus Kinski's character over the protagonist. Kinski probably gets more screentime, and motivates the story a lot more, which makes him easier to identify with.

In The Creator, I was rooting for the US army, and against the main characters trying to defend robotic AI. That movie had a really weak story, and didn't effectively portray its robots as anything but hollow shells that could mimic humanity. It ends up feeling a lot like the protagonist is being manipulated by a brood parasite, or a cuckoo. It's visually excellent though, to the point that it's worth watching just for its looks.

Disney's Wish sucked, the main characters sucked, and the villain opposed those characters, so...

 

[Seraphym]

Law Abiding Citizen, I mean he pretty much wins...

 

[AV]

Anything with Hannibal Lecter in.

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

A bond movie where a leading 007 actually dies to the villain and a new actor moves into the 007 role as intended.

 

[jufonuk]

It’s really difficult to think of one right now.


But mostly this
Maybe it’s a movie I watched as a kid. That now I am an adult I understand the parents motivations so originally even though the parents were portrayed as “Bad Guys” most of the time they have a point.


Oh and the first incredibles. Mr Incredible was kind of a dick to buddy, who as syndrome did kind of have a point. But he shouldn’t have killed all those heroes.

 

[RickSanchez]

In Avengers Endgame, a small part of me was hoping Thanos would be successful in doing the snap a second time and killing everyone and the MCU would have just ended there. It felt really good at the end of Infinity War each time he gathered and slotted a stone and in the end he is able to do the snap because Thor was late on the scene. That just felt so refreshing after 20 very predictable movies that came before it.

 

[RickSanchez]

So I am sitting here watching The Jackel (1997) with Bruce Willis, which I have seen multiple times. I want Bruce Willis' character to "win" over Richard Gere each time I watch it.
I love how he's a guy just doing an excellent job at his job. On the other hand, Richard Gere kinda sucks in comparison.

I also always root for Robert DeNiro's character in Heat over the irritating and insufferable Al Pacino character, Vincent Hanna, probably for most of the exact same reasons.

Agreed with you on both counts. I guess the trick to making the audience root for the bad guy is to give them a personality, some charisma, and some level of success. Same with the Joker in The Dark Knight.

 

[BadBurger]

Well, this goes way back to The Odyssey, but Troy (2004). Hector and Troy would have won in a perfect world. The Greek factions under Agamemnon were tyrannical.

 

[Peggies]

I usually root for the villains unless they're straight out assholes like Joffrey Baratheon. God, I hated that little shit!

But here are some of my favourites:

I really rooted for Thanos. I mean his plan was brilliant.

Bane in "The Dark Knight Rises". Poor little guy got friendzoned by Talia al Ghul.

Ed Kemper in Mindhunter. I mean there wasn't much to win for him but he seemed like a nice guy and had his points about his mum being a bitch.

Oh and Ed Harris in "The Rock"! What a lovely, lovely man.

 

[GymWolf]

New jurassic trilogy, i was rooting for the dinos, especially when this absolute turd of a character was on screen

 

[Mr Reasonable]

Always rooting for the shark.

Just put a net up. Or better yet, swim in a pool.

 

[SirTerry-T]

Ivan Drago's kid should have won the fight in Creed 2, he was, by far, the more interesting character in that film.

 

[winjer]

I was rooting for Kaise Soze in The Usual Suspects.
Though he does win in the end.

 

[thefool]

Ed Kemper in Mindhunter. I mean there wasn't much to win for him but he seemed like a nice guy

 

[West Texas CEO]

Boba Fett

 

[Toots]

Blade 2.
You cannot really root against Wesley Snipes' blade, but i found the vampire prince tragic storyline well done and really wanted him to have his revenge.

Spoiler: blade 2 ending

 

[Putonahappyface]

Robert De Niro's character "Neil McCuley" in the film Heat. I really wanted him to retire and start a new life somewhere with his new lady friend.

 

[Eimran]

Karate kid, I was totally rooting for Daniel to win!

I reward your post with one sexy Zabka pic. Use it wisely.

 

[Eimran]

Robert De Niro's character "Neil McCuley" in the film Heat. I really wanted him to retire and start a new life somewhere with his new lady friend.

Good one. I hate the moment he decided to go back to take out Waingro.


He was pretty much free, had tons of cash, got Eady.

 

[Power Pro]

While I agree that Thanos makes a point about scarcity and life spreading too much too fast, his solution is fucking idiotic, so I can't agree with wanting him to win. Cutting populations in half is such a short sighted and short term solution. Just looking at human history alone, the world is populated at around 8 billion people in 2023...we were half that in 1975. It only took less than 50 years for us to double our numbers, so Thanos solution would end up being undone in the blink of an eye on the cosmic scale. What would've made more sense is to lower birth rates.

 

[mansoor1980]

 

[FunkMiller]

I’ll say The Dark Knight. Heath Ledger’s Joker was so good, it made me want to root for him.

And he did win...

 

[ahtlas7]

Avengers: Endgame

 

[Lunarorbit]

The passion of the christ

 

[mitch1971]

The original King Kong.

 

[jason10mm]

Hans Gruber.

If that fascist cop hadn't shown up then no one would have died (well, other than that capitalist pig Takagi and his mercenaries), I'm sure he wouldn't have actually blown up the top of the building if he wasn't forced to do it. So Silas and a couple FBI guys would lived as well. Then Hans could have taken that liberated money and contributed to struggling brother's and sisters in arms for a socialist utopia....right???

 

[Hudo]

I’ll say The Dark Knight. Heath Ledger’s Joker was so good, it made me want to root for him.

That was the first thing that came to my mind as well.

 

[Furiousrunt]

Was rooting for this mad lad in Gray Man.

 

[drganon]

The first order aka the empire in the sequel trilogy.

 

[TommyCronin6969]

Downfall

 

[willothedog]

Wargames. WOPR was going to do us all a favour and give us that sweet-sweet nuclear winter.

 

[SirTerry-T]

That fella with funny moustache in all those war films....name escapes me for the moment


(This is a joke post btw)

 

[nkarafo]

I really wanted the Devil to fulfill his plans in "Devil's Advocate".

Especially after that speech at the end.

 

[MDSLKTR]

Still think we should have an alternate timeline movie where it's him against Wick

 

[HAYA8U5A]

Point Break

The original and best Fast & Furious before turning the "villains" into the "heroes" of the franchise.

And after making them the "heroes" as the series progresses you start liking villains like Shaw (Again before shifting him to "hero") and Dante more.

 

[calistan]

The Matrix. Once you find out that the humans are just a bunch of mystic hippies partying in a cave, I choose the Matrix.

Of course you could just forget that the godawful sequels ever existed. Ignorance is bliss.

 

[UltimaKilo]

When I was a kid I was flabbergasted that Jafar in Aladdin, was the villain when in reality, he was the victim and the protagonist was the villain.

 

[DeepEnigma]

I usually root for the villains unless they're straight out assholes like Joffrey Baratheon. God, I hated that little shit!

But here are some of my favourites:

I really rooted for Thanos. I mean his plan was brilliant.

Thanos, for sure. Unfortunately it seemed to miss Ms Marvel and every damned girl power in the snap. Ironically hamfisted current year writing.

 

[Toots]

Was rooting for this mad lad in Gray Man.

That's just your daddy fetish

 

[Furiousrunt]

That's just your daddy fetish

I would feel so safe in those arms

 

[Fbh]

Not a movie but in the TV show "The Man in the High Castle" they made all the good guys so boring and unlikeable that it was hard not to root for the nazi bad guy by the end

I actually think part of the reason why the final season was so shit is that the writers realized a big part of their audience was rooting for the bad guy and they panicked.

 

[Arsic]

Not a movie but Eren from Attack on Titan lol.

 

[22:22:22]

Good and bad are concepts that are inherently tied to context and personal perspective.

Gremlins?

 

[poppabk]

Law Abiding Citizen. That they had to turn the genius bad guy into a moron so they could have a 'good' ending makes it doubly so.