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But not everything on the big screen has a happy ending.
Sometimes the bad guys winand it makes for a great story.
The following 32 films all have villains or baddies who come out on top when the credits roll.
Sure, maybe they’ll get bested in the sequel.
But, for now, they are the cinematic champions.
However, it is the superior ending.
The Clonus Horror’s ending is much bleaker than the blockbuster do-over, though.
He escapes the facility only to be lured to his death.
Sure, the covert cloning operation gets exposed, but Richard ends up a frozen corpse.
Brightburn
Year:2019Director:David Yarovesky
ThisJames Gunn-produced movie puts a horror spin on the classic superhero formula.
What if this superpowered teenager were evil?
He eventually encounters Raymond (Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu), who claims to know Saskia’s whereabouts.
The Sith certainly got their revenge!
Alien: Covenant
Year:2017Director:Ridley Scott
Alien: Covenant has a dastardly ending.
Funny Games invites questions of reality and how complicit viewers are in violence.
Turns out he made it all up on the spot while being interrogated, and he is Keyser Soze.
Christine is dragged to hell by flaming skeletons as Clay helplessly watches on.
But we’re still putting this movie on the list.)
Bjrn and Louise are only their latest victims, and they meet a brutal end.
That’s a pretty definitive supervillain victory!
Brazil
Year:1985Director:Terry Gilliam
The totalitarian state wins at the end of Terry Gilliam’s singular sci-fi movie.
The three attackers don’t have a good reason, nor do they face any consequences.
Athena is an intense, visually stunning experience that feels like a Shakespearian tragedy at times.
However, its big gut-punch of a moment comes with the final tragic reveal.
Gone Girl
Year:2014Director:David Fincher
Nick (Ben Affleck) isn’t exactly a perfect husband.
Then forces Nick to stay married to her by getting herself pregnant.
Amy gets what she wants and doesn’t pay a price.
In wrath, David executes Doe, who was expecting exactly this and counts himself as envy.
Doe may be dead, but his plan is complete, and David is ruined.
Only Morgan Freeman’s Detective William Somerset, now more disillusioned than ever, endures.
Once there, she discovers that all the women are extremely small-c conservative and oddly subservient to their husbands.
Chinatown
Year:1974Director:Roman Polanski
“Forget it, Jake.
It’s Chinatown.”
The ultra-rich rarely do.
