Most films aren’t complete without a bad guy. Someone for our hero to overcome and remind us that although life is harsh and cruel, justice will always prevail in the film world.
Well, almost always
Unless introduced as a third act twist, the villain of the piece is usually pretty clear. Batman had the Joker, Sarah Connor had the Terminator and Tina had Ike; however there are occasions in films where the real villain of the story is not who you think.
Jurassic Park
Who we think the villain is?
The Velociraptors
There’s more than one dangerous dinosaur on the island but the velociraptors are the most feared, even going so far as to kill someone in the opening scene. Even the park’s game warden doesn’t want them on the island and the script often refers to how dangerous they are. Also the only dinosaurs to kill any likeable characters.
Who it really is?
Dennis Nedry
Nedry is Jurassic Park’s head computer programmer. He’s also secretly working for a rival company whom he plans to steal dinosaur embryos for. In order to do this he has to shut down virtually all the security in Jurassic Park. Given that these guys could create life you’d think they’d have examined their security a little closer. Curiously Nedry the raptor paddock remains closed, however since the only way to wipe the virus he put on the system is to reboot the server (and open all remaining enclosures in the process) it implies that Nedry intended to kill any potential witnesses on the island, by dinosaur, discrediting the park in the process. Let’s hope his other bosses weren’t hoping to build a rival park as this would have proven a difficult pitch after what happened here.
Does he get his?
Eaten by a rubbish dinosaur. Poetic.
Jaws
Who we think the villain is?
The Shark
A large Great White that spends its days terrorising and eating the good people of Amity Island. The film was so successful in demonising sharks it affected the tourist trade of real coastal towns and led to a huge decimation of the shark population.
Who it really is?
Mayor Larry Vaughan
Regardless of what films have spoon-fed us from an early age, sharks are not evil. They don’t kill out of malice, spite or revenge and they don’t fucking roar either. People on the other hand are built a little different. Vaughan cares about money, voters and wearing suits with small anchor designs. When a young girl is murdered by the shark, Larry spins any excuse he can think of to keep the beaches open. Even when a small boy is ripped apart (in a scene too brutal for any PG film), Vaughan plans to only close the beaches for 24 hours. In his defence, he does reopen them when he believes the shark to have been killed, however that counts for nothing when a fucking shark expert tells him there is an even bigger shark in the water. Throw in another very public death and Larry, after persuasion, decides to pay a professional to do the job. It’s unconfirmed if Larry decided to close the beaches while the shark was being hunted.
Does he get his?
Well, no not really. In the sequel Amity seems to be thriving again, with Vaughan ignoring warnings of another shark eating everything from residents to orcas (yeah it’s big). And since Quint was eaten by the first shark, he probably didn’t even pay out on the contract.
Ghostbusters
Who we think the villain is?
Gozer the Gozerian
An androgynous Sumerian shape-changer god of destruction who is summoned to Earth so that it can destroy our world with the help of two devil dogs and a giant marshmallow man. Rates pretty high on the evil scale with extra marks for originality.
Who it really is?
Walter Peck
Walter Peck is a lawyer, which also ranks him pretty high on the evil scale though he gets no points for this being a surprise. Despite much evidence to the contrary he’s convinced that the Ghostbusters are frauds and vows to make their lives as difficult as possible. He also believes their equipment is dangerous to the people of New York and the environment, wanting to shut down their unlicensed nuclear containment unit that’s used to store ghosts. Seeing as how they actually have an unlicensed nuclear containment unit in their basement and in fact carry unlicensed nuclear proton accelerators, he does have a point. That doesn’t give him an excuse for what he does though, and that’s kick-start the apocalypse. After ordering the unit to be shut down, an explosion occurs releasing evil onto the city. Even once New York is being torn apart by ghosts, he still argues that the Ghostbusters are orchestrating the whole charade and are criminals. Thankfully common sense prevails, the Ghostbusters are released and the world is saved.
Does he get his?
He gets covered in marshmallow. Pretty tame but it is a comedy after all.
Aliens
Who we think the villain is?
The Xenomorphs
Terrifying killing machines apparently designed for no other purpose than to inflict horror and death, and to populate through horror and death.
Who it really is?
Carter J Burke
Fifty seven years have passed since Ripley first encountered the fearsome Alien. In that time the planet it came from, LV-426, has been turned into a successful terraforming colony with her employers at Weyland Yutani denying that any alien life form resides there. Burke’s curiosity gets the better of him though and he orders a search of the derelict spacecraft that Ripley describes. Naturally the poor family selected for the job are attacked by the xenomorphs who then take over the whole colony, effectively killing everyone (well, almost. So close). Burke pleads ignorance until Ripley confronts him with the truth, that he is responsible for the death of an entire colony. Burke defends himself as he explains how much money the aliens are worth and writes off the deaths as a “bad call”. A complete and total bastard, Burke also has no conscience when it comes to killing all the main cast just so he can smuggle an alien off the planet. Shame he didn’t stick around for the follow up where he would have had Sigorney Weaver doing that for her own selfish means.
Does he get his?
Comes face to face with a xenomorph. Deleted scene shows him cocooned. A nuclear explosion also occurs. Educated guess he’s dead.
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