When the world gets too much to bear, and it feels like the news is too weighty, I like to put on a movie where the bad guys get their asses kicked, and the good guys prevail, just to restore my faith in humanity.

And there's no baddie I like seeing get torn apart more than fascists. You'd think they'd have disappeared off the face of our earth, but these films show we need to remain constantly vigilant and punch them in the face when they rear their heads.

So, what are the ten best movies where fascists get punished?

Let's dive in.

1. Inglourious Basterds (2009)

  • Director: Quentin Tarantino
  • Writer: Quentin Tarantino
  • Cast: Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Mélanie Laurent, Diane Kruger, Eli Roth

I love seeing Nazis get scalped. It's the least they deserve. In a glorious bit of revisionist history, we see the Nazi high command, including Hitler himself, trapped in a movie theater and turned into Swiss cheese by a hail of gunfire and a massive nitrate film fire. I wish it hurt them more.

2. Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

  • Director: Guillermo del Toro
  • Writer: Guillermo del Toro
  • Cast: Ivana Baquero, Doug Jones, Sergi López, Maribel Verdú

This is a movie about the power of resistance and of imagining a world where fighting is over. Captain Vidal, the personification of Francoist cruelty, is shot by the resistance after being told his son will never even know his name. It effectively erases his fascist "legacy" forever. Good riddance.

3. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

  • Director: Steven Spielberg
  • Writer: Lawrence Kasdan (Screenplay), George Lucas & Philip Kaufman (Story)
  • Cast: Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, Ronald Lacey
I think this has one of the most powerful endings in film history. When the Nazis attempt to harness the power of God for their own military gain, the Ark of the Covenant literally melts their faces off and vacuums the entire regiment into the heavens. It sends a clear message to these rats.

4. V for Vendetta (2005)

  • Director: James McTeigue
  • Writer: The Wachowskis
  • Cast: Natalie Portman, Hugo Weaving, Stephen Rea, John Hurt
When the people band together, their voices are more powerful. But sometimes they need a fearless leader like V to rally behind and to cause a ruckus. High Chancellor Sutler is executed by his own right-hand man, and the Houses of Parliament are blown to smithereens as a symbolic end to the Norsefire party's totalitarian rule over Britain. All because one voice started to speak out.

5. Jojo Rabbit (2019)

  • Director: Taika Waititi
  • Writer: Taika Waititi
  • Cast: Roman Griffin Davis, Thomasin McKenzie, Scarlett Johansson, Taika Waititi, Sam Rockwell
The Allied forces liberate the town, and the titular Jojo finally realizes the absurdity of the ideology he followed. We get to see this kid not get corrupted, but literally kicking his imaginary friend Adolf Hitler out of a window. Proving that despite the brainwashing, the kids will be alright.

6. The Great Dictator (1940)

  • Director: Charlie Chaplin
  • Writer: Charlie Chaplin
  • Cast: Charlie Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Jack Oakie
In an absolutely hilarious ending, the "Dictator" Adenoid Hynkel is arrested by his own men and taken to a concentration camp. A humble Jewish barber takes his place on stage to deliver a world-altering speech that dismantles every pillar of fascist ideology. Can it be any more perfect than that?

7. Starship Troopers (1997)

  • Director: Paul Verhoeven
  • Writer: Edward Neumeier
  • Cast: Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards, Neil Patrick Harris
The film is a satire of fascist propaganda. No one really gets punished, but we see fascists lampooned by the reality of the war itself: the "perfect" soldiers are slaughtered by the millions by an enemy that their arrogant leaders completely failed to understand.

8. The Rocketeer (1991)

  • Director: Joe Johnston
  • Writer: Danny Bilson, Paul De Meo
  • Cast: Bill Campbell, Jennifer Connelly, Alan Arkin, Timothy Dalton
Man, this is one of my all-time favorite movies, and it is such a rambunctious send-off of Nazis everywhere and that exist in any time. Even the mafia wants nothing to do with them. When a suave Hollywood leading man is revealed to be a secret Nazi spy attempting to steal jetpack technology, his hubris literally goes up in flames as he attempts to escape in a faulty pack, crashing directly into the "Land" portion of the Hollywoodland sign.

9. The Sound of Music (1965)

  • Director: Robert Wise
  • Writer: Ernest Lehman
  • Cast: Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Eleanor Parker

This is its quietest punishment on the list, but it’s a profound one. The Von Trapp family uses their musical talent to stage a public defiance of the Anschluss, making the local Nazi officers look incompetent as the family slips over the mountains to freedom under their very noses. It brings a tear to my eye. And bonus points for tearing up the Nazi flag.

10. Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

  • Director: Joe Johnston
  • Writer: Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely
  • Cast: Chris Evans, Hugo Weaving, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan
There's a montage of Hitler being punched in this movie that gets me every time. But the real punishment comes when Red Skull, the leader of the Nazi-adjacent HYDRA, tries to harness the power of the Tesseract to rule the world. Instead, the artifact deems him unworthy and disintegrates/transports him across the galaxy, while his "invincible" Valkyrie wing is ditched into the Arctic. Take that, you scum!

Summing It All Up 

Life is not fair, the world can feel upside down, but it's still fun to put a movie on where everything goes right at the end.

These are the movies I like to put on when I want to see fascists lose.

Do you have more to add?

Let me know what you think in the comments.

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