Picking a side in a story is one hell of a task! But again, it's only natural to do so, because no story is neutral—it all depends on who is narrating it. That’s one of the natures of storytelling that makes misdirection in movies so effective: any story takes the form of the narrator. So, if your viewers are struggling to pick a side, congratulations, you’re doing something right.
That being said, I totally understand how bad it hurts when the guy you believed to be the good guy or at least innocent turns out to be a work of menace.
In this article, let’s share the pain with a list of characters who you didn’t know were bad guys in the garb of goodness.
11 Characters Who We Thought Were Good Guys
But they’re not!
1. Amy in Gone Girl (2014)
Gone Girl (2014)Source: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Amy is introduced to us as the damsel in distress. She goes missing on the day of her wedding anniversary, leaving behind a bloodied kitchen, and we soon find out that her husband was cheating on her. As the narrative progresses, while we’re sweating and worrying about Amy, we suddenly realize that she is the villain of this story: a literal psychopath who stages an entire murder, poses to be dead, and then frames her cheating husband for it, only to return back alive, so that she can hold him by his neck and keep him under her control, forever.
Agreed, Nick, her husband, is in the wrong for cheating on her, but how she chose to teach him a lesson is just brutal.
2. Woody in Toy Story
Toy Story (1995)Source: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Woody’s actions are only cute because he is a toy. Imagine if he were a full-grown human cowboy —so jealous of his best friend's new best friend that he literally tries to hit him with a car to knock him into a crevasse (and misses… which leads to the new guy accidentally falling out of a second-story window). He’d have been arrested for attempted manslaughter in the real world. Even though Woody loves Andy and leads his fellow toys capably, he is also a man-child who’s needy, hostile, vengeful, selfish, and condescending. I mean, he’s kind of a bully when he doesn’t feel like the top dog. Not so cute anymore, is he?
3. John Hammond in Jurassic Park
Jurassic Park (1993)Source: Universal Pictures, FilmFlex
The man who brought Jurassic Park to life is a seemingly harmless old man, fiercely driven by his ambitions. One really cannot hate him for being motivated, inventive, and innovative at his age. When the three scientists, Dr. Ian Malcolm, Dr. Ellie Sattler, and Dr. Alan Grant, challenge his decision to build a theme park inhabited by literal dinosaurs, his arguments for his decision aren’t necessarily bad.
He is a dreamer who believes in the magic of nature and in taking calculated risks. He turns into a villain because he is overconfident and doesn’t know when to stop chasing his impossible dreams. If only he had been sensible and not blinded by his desire to achieve his goals, he’d not have the blood of so many people on his hands.
4. Ferris Bueller in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)Source: Paramount Pictures, United International Pictures
Ferris Bueller may be cool because he is the protagonist of the story, but off-screen, I’d stay miles away from a man like that. Reckless, self-obsessed, lazy, and a rebel without a cause, why would anyone want such toxic vibes around them?
He keeps pushing his friends Cam and Sloane into one mess after another, being absolutely inconsiderate of their needs as he tries to teach his school principal a lesson by ditching school for a day, dragging the other two down with him. If you have such a friend, congratulations, you have the greatest enemy.
5. Yoda and the Jedi Council- Star Wars
Star Wars Source: 20th Century Fox
Hold your breath for this one—the Jedi Council is a romanticized bureaucracy. It takes a couple of viewings until you realize that these peacemongers actually love war and are power-thirsty. No wonder it was so easy for Anakin to turn against the Jedi Order. Who wouldn’t after witnessing such gold-plated hypocrisy? Think of Yoda as that abusive parent who never realized or acknowledged that they screwed up parenting big time.
6. Scott Pilgrim in Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World Source: Universal Pictures
This guy is another insufferable character who is in desperate need of redemption. Again, he is cool only because he is the hero of his pathetic story. An average-looking guy (I’m not saying Michael Cera isn’t good-looking! Because he is!) with no legitimate skills, who judges every woman he ever meets, like it’s his job and he’s qualified to do it–that’s basically Scott Pilgrim. First, he dates a schoolgirl and then gaslights her into believing that she is the needy one, although it’s him who runs to her, anytime anything is dicey, literally keeping her as a backup, hanging and confused, in case the romance with the other woman doesn’t work out.
And the attention-seeking nature and self-obsession, as if his love life is the news of the country. Considering how he was dating a high school girl and then literally cheating on her, insulting and deceiving her—basically toying with her, while pursuing another girl like a desperate creep, at least to me, he’s not a nice person.
7. Torrance Shipman in Bring It On
Bring It On (2000)Source: Universal Pictures
Has a friend ever told you how badly they’ve been wronged, only for you to realize that they deserve it? That’s basically what happens in Bring It On. The protagonist, Torrance, is not a bad person, technically, but it is hard to sympathize with her given her shifting morals. The fact that she is okay with stealing choreography from the less affluent, predominantly black East Compton Clovers squad, and goes on to perform their piece in the big competition, surely chips away at the respect I built for her over the narrative every time I watch the movie. I thought she was better than that.
8. HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)Source: Warner Bros., United Artists, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
HAL was sent to assist and protect Dave and the crew of Discovery One on their mission to Jupiter. However, he does the complete opposite. HAL is soft-spoken and seemingly caring, which prevents us from realizing his ulterior motives and seeing his true nature since he got the order from the company. As an AI, he manipulates the crew, pitting them against each other, ensuring that their trust in each other is gone for good. He plays from the shadows without getting his hands dirty, ensuring that the people getting in the way of the mission are duly taken care of.
9-11. Neo, Trinity, and Morpheus in The Matrix Trilogy
The Matrix (1999)Source: Warner Bros., Warner Bros. Pictures
If you do everything that the bad guy does, how are you any different from him? I guess the three leads of The Matrix Trilogy never thought their actions through, from this perspective. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been this comfortable with killing people who are “plugged in,” abusing their privilege of being “free” since they and their chosen ones have had the pill. I wonder, why would Morpheus wake people up from the Matrix only to throw them into a war against machines? It’s cruel if you ask me. I kind of agree with Cypher.
Did we miss any? Let us know if you know more such characters who turned out to be nothing like what you thought in the beginning.
