Eeeeeevil conspiracies in movies

[smiling bandit]

I'm going to do a quick piece of non-angry art criticism here. This had better remain civil; I dislike the Pit.

I'm getting real tired of Hollywood and "Eeeevil." Specifically, Hollywood tends to portray various corporations, industries, political groups, governments, etc. as Eeeevil conspirators. They do this regardless of the logic involved; Hollywood types love sneering villains who enjoy engaging in overly complicated plots and doing horrible nasty things for no reason.

Some of this is politically charged. Some is not. When it is, it desfitely tends to be lefty, but that's not what this is about. No, I'm irritated by the sheer insanity of it all. They treat sanity more or less like actual science in movies.

Take The Constant Gardener. This acclaimed thriller stands a good chance of picking up an Oscar, given the kind of buzz surrounding it. Captain's Quarters (http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/005378.php) Adeuately explains. Left-wing Dopers should note this is a conservative-leaning website, but tyhe analysis here is spot-on regardless of your politics.

On a non-political scale, look at the wacky shenangans of Live and Let Die, one of the wierder Bond movies. The villains goes through extremely wild gyrations so he can... smuggle drugs into the U.S. Like this requires fake faces and voodoo and prophets and so on. :rolleyes:

So bring it on Dopers. Toss up and grind down crazy plots. Heck, go ahead and make your own if you like!

[Annie-Xmas]

Rosemary's Baby. The whole evil Satanists plot is carefully planned and executed.

[Lumpy]

Any of the "we could have clean cheap energy but the eeeevil energy/oil/auto companies have supressed it" plots that are too numerous to list.

BTW: should we agree on how many "e"s in eeeevil?

[Gangster Octopus]

No evil plot has ever been as convoluted as last season's 24 (perpetrated not by an eeevil corporation or governement agency but by some Middle Eastern terrorists).

It's all listed in this Wikipedia article on 24 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/24_%28television%29). But to summarize:

the crashing of a commuter train
the attempting melting down of every nuclear power plant in th U.S.
Kidnapping the Secretary of Defense
Shooting down Air Force One by a stolen Stealth fighter
To capture the nuclear football to launch a stolen nuclear warhead at Los Angeles
Done with the aid of a Chinese National, leading a diplomatic situation with China

[Evil Captor]

Any of the "we could have clean cheap energy but the eeeevil energy/oil/auto companies have supressed it" plots that are too numerous to list.

BTW: should we agree on how many "e"s in eeeevil?

"Passion Network" is about a group of rich people who have set up this secret society so they can pay young people to have sex with them. They even fake a death to make someone who's planning to go the police about their Passion Network look like a nut. Didn't somebody tell these horny, wealthy people that there exists a large coterie of sex industry professionals who would happily have sex with them, that a secret society for such purposes is, like, TOTALLY UNNECCESARY!!!???

Apparently not.

[HPL]

No evil plot has ever been as convoluted as last season's 24 (perpetrated not by an eeevil corporation or governement agency but by some Middle Eastern terrorists).

It's all listed in this [url"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/24_%28television%29"]Wikipedia article on 24[/url. But to summarize:

the crashing of a commuter train
the attempting melting down of every nuclear power plant in th U.S.
Kidnapping the Secretary of Defense
Shooting down Air Force One by a stolen Stealth fighter
To capture the nuclear football to launch a stolen nuclear warhead at Los Angeles
Done with the aid of a Chinese National, leading a diplomatic situation with China

You forgot about the Defense Contractor who was trying to kill a government agent and black out half of LA with an EMP bomb because they didn't like the government looking through their files. Oh, and they have their own little private army.

[BrainGlutton]

On a non-political scale, look at the wacky shenangans of Live and Let Die, one of the wierder Bond movies. The villains goes through extremely wild gyrations so he can... smuggle drugs into the U.S. Like this requires fake faces and voodoo and prophets and so on. :rolleyes:

Actually, Dr. Kananga's plot is a bit more challenging than that -- it's to flood the U.S. with dirt-cheap heroin and drive all existing suppliers out of the business. And later, presumably, once his monopoly is safely established, raise his own prices. Don't know if it would work. But the voodoo stuff is just to keep his own people, on their little Caribbean island, terrified/submissive/entertained.

[Otto]

Why, I'm watching one right now! Sneakers, in which eeeevil and crazy Ben Kingsley wants to use a code-breaking box to wipe out all records of private ownership in order to bring about a worldwide classless utopia. Yeah, that'll work.

[WordMan]

The first movie that comes to mind is Warren Beatty's Parallax View, which deals with presidential nominee assasinations and the like - very disturbing in a '70's sort of way...

[Don Draper]

The most ludicrous eeeeevil plot of them all had to be Blofeld's scheme in "On Her Majesties' Secret Service". To wit, Blofeld has rounded up a gaggle of international supermodels and intends to give them toxic makeup which will spread widespread disease throughout the world.

Even without Bond's interference, the plot wouldn't work. Given that supermodels are, *like, totally* into this velvet rope culture, not enough 'normal' people would ever get close enough to them for contract the infectious diseases. The only folks who would be infected would be the 1960s equivalents of Paris Hilton, the Jessica & Ashlee Simpson, and Britney Spears...eh, hmmmmm.

Well, actually maybe the plan WOULD work as once these people are dead, the common man would exalt Blofeld to the status of living saint for ridding the world of useless, overexposed supermodel types. (Of course, killing off people like Paris, Jessica, Britney is a plan which may not be considered eeeeeevil!;) )

[Leaper]

Well, how about... Conspiracy Theory? :D

(That one involves "sleeper" assassins and an MK-ULTRA psychologist gone freelance.)

[HPL]

The movie "The Wicker man" has a nice little conspiracy that you suspect early on, but works pretty well regardless. Though the victem almost deserves it because he's an asshole and stupid to boot.

The Manchurian Candidate had a nice aspect to this, and the movie "Invasion of the Body Snacthers" had a very nice feel of not knowing who you can trust because anyone could be a pod person.

[Smeghead]

I seem to vaguely recall a conspiracy or two in the X-Files movie...

And that one was so complicated not even the people running it knew what the hell was going on.

[Little Nemo]

How about JFK? It was pretty incoherent but my understanding of it was that a vast conspiracy composed of right-wing Texan CIA homosexuals wanted to wear make-up and dance with each other and have a big war in Vietnam so they decided to kill the President.

[Tapioca Dextrin]

How about movies where the conspiracy isn't what it seems? 12 Monkeys revolved around a conspiracy by the Gang of 12 Monkeys to wipe out the humanity by spreading a deadly virus, but they were, in fact, a bunch of wannabe losers who did nothing more that set a bunch of zoo animals stampeding through Manhattan

[NDP]

How about movies where the conspiracy isn't what it seems? 12 Monkeys revolved around a conspiracy by the Gang of 12 Monkeys to wipe out the humanity by spreading a deadly virus, but they were, in fact, a bunch of wannabe losers who did nothing more that set a bunch of zoo animals stampeding through Manhattan
It was Philadelphia.

As for conspiracies in movies, how about the ones in Chinatown and Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

[jellyblue]

The Bourne Identity (& Supremacy), and, to really show my age, The Osterman Weekend and Three Days of the Condor. These movies had plots so complicated I can't even begin to synopsize them. :confused:

[Ranchoth]

As Smeghead noted, The X-Files: Fight the Future. Something about an alien bio-assimilation virus designed to be spread by bees that mutates and turns the victims into slavering alien beasts (which may or may not have been a design feature) and because The Conspiracy doesn't invest in decend security they have to blow up their bases every time someone slips in the back door. And Scully still doesn't believe Mulder.

So...what do we win? :D

[FriarTed]

Beta Epsilon Lambda

BEL as in THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE BELL- a made-for-TV potential-pilot movie in which Glenn Ford refuses to obey an order from his old college frat, only to find that it's the Secret Society which launched his business success, arranged his marriage, and controls damn near everything.

[Exgineer]

It's gotten to the point where "large corporation" is shorthand for "evil" these days. They don't even feel that they have to establish that a large company is evil, but just expect us to assume that it is.

The aforementioned Manchurian Candidate remake is a prime example. Instead of a Chinese conspiracy, like in the original, they changed it to a corporate conspiracy for no real reason, even though that forced them into some lame backfilling so the title would still make sense.

[Little Nemo]

Beta Epsilon Lambda

BEL as in THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE BELL- a made-for-TV potential-pilot movie in which Glenn Ford refuses to obey an order from his old college frat, only to find that it's the Secret Society which launched his business success, arranged his marriage, and controls damn near everything.
Looking around suspiciously to see who suddenly leaves the thread.

[Evil Captor]

It's gotten to the point where "large corporation" is shorthand for "evil" these days. They don't even feel that they have to establish that a large company is evil, but just expect us to assume that it is.

The aforementioned Manchurian Candidate remake is a prime example. Instead of a Chinese conspiracy, like in the original, they changed it to a corporate conspiracy for no real reason, even though that forced them into some lame backfilling so the title would still make sense.

A corporation turned me into a newt!

[Finagle]

Have you ever noticed that in all these eeeevil conspiracy movies, the bad guys seem to always manage to find hordes of trained killers and gunmen? Gunmen who are willing to chase good guys down heavily populated streets firing randomly, and engage in frenzied car chases? Not to mention who are always willing to step out on a weekday night and whack a witness or two. What kind of retainer do you need on guys like that? How do you go about hiring them? Gives new meaning to monster.com...

Last season's 24 was particularly notable for this -- the bad guys had a bigger stable of trained assassins than Walmart has greeters.

[Ol'Gaffer]

The Bourne Identity (& Supremacy), and, to really show my age, The Osterman Weekend and Three Days of the Condor. These movies had plots so complicated I can't even begin to synopsize them. :confused:

Considering all four of those movies are based on Robert Ludlum novels, I can appreciate your confusion.

[jellyblue]

Considering all four of those movies are based on Robert Ludlum novels, I can appreciate your confusion.

Wow! I didn't realize that. A trend!
Maybe I should have read the books. Does it help?

[BrainGlutton]

As for conspiracies in movies, how about the ones in Chinatown and Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

As it happens, those plots were based loosely on real-life conspiracies. Very successful ones, too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Aqueduct

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy

[brownie55]

Considering all four of those movies are based on Robert Ludlum novels, I can appreciate your confusion.
The first three, yes, Ludlum. Thre days of the condor (originally sis days) was James Grady.

[brownie55]

The first three, yes, Ludlum. Thre days of the condor (originally sis days) was James Grady.
Damn, Three Days and Six Days...

[Zeldar]

The first movie that comes to mind is Warren Beatty's Parallax View, which deals with presidential nominee assasinations and the like - very disturbing in a '70's sort of way...

What I thought of on seeing the title to the thread. Above average for the genre.

It's almost a tie with Capricorn One from about the same time in history.

For preposterous, you can't beat either version of The Manchurian Candidate but the Sinatra version is hands down better.

[NDP]

As it happens, those plots were based loosely on real-life conspiracies. Very successful ones, too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Aqueduct

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy
I didn't say the conspiracies in those movies had no basis in fact (unfortunately). In another thread, I mentioned the same thing. However, there is some debate (http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_335.html) about whether the GM/streetcar conspiracy really happened.

[HPL]

It's gotten to the point where "large corporation" is shorthand for "evil" these days. They don't even feel that they have to establish that a large company is evil, but just expect us to assume that it is.


I'm reminded of Team America.

Tim Robbins: Let me explain to you how this works: you see, the corporations finance Team America, and then Team America goes out... and the corporations sit there in their... in their corporation buildings, and... and, and see, they're all corporation-y... and they make money.

[Elendil's Heir]

As it happens, those plots were based loosely on real-life conspiracies. Very successful ones, too.
...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy

As the Wikipedia article notes, The Master has already tackled the GM streetcar conspiracy story:

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_335.html

For other good eeeeevil conspiracy movies, may I suggest FX, The Conversation, Enemy of the State, No Way Out, and The Big Clock (the movie which inspired it).

The Matrix is really about the biggest conspiracy in human history, if you think about it. Now eat that red pill.

[Elendil's Heir]

Oops, NDP beat me to it with the SD cite. Thanks!

[BrainGlutton]

So . . . given that Hollywood has long since internalized the idea that conspiracy movies, however preposterous, make for good box office . . . why has nobody ever made an Illuminatus! movie?! :mad:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminatus%21

Of course, given the long and convoluted nature of the story, it would be impossible to do it justice in any format but a miniseries . . . and the only outfit that would have any interest in such a project would be . . . the Sci-Fi Channel . . .

:eek:

Just forget I said anything.

[smiling bandit]

With regards to Live and Let Die.

This was like in the 70's. It was a bit late to be flooding the U.S. with dirt-cheat drugs. Plus, he's a freacking drug kingpin. What did he need to use Voodoo to keep people happy/frightened? He's got guns!

And of course, the Aqueduct wasn't even much of a conspiracy. As far as it went, it was just a pack of dishonest government officials who bought some land before making it much more valuable. Everyday, dime-a-dozen corruption, I'm sad to say.

Now, if it had involved Columbian Drug Cartels, Jack Bauer facing an armageddon death clock, ninjas, pirates, and SuperOmniMegaUltra Evil Corporation, it would make a good movie. Or they could just tell the real sory and call it Chinatown. :D

[Max Torque]

Every James Bond movie has a conspiracy of some sort, but I had to cock a suspicious eyebrow at the one in Tomorrow Never Dies. Let's see: a media tycoon steals a device that lets him manipulate the GPS satellites. And he uses this power to cause conflicts between nations (at the beginning, China gets mighty angry when a ship, thinking it's still in free water, strays into Chinese space), and because he causes these conflicts, he knows about them first and can report on the conflicts first, thereby becoming the world's news leader.

So, it's all about selling newspapers? Wouldn't just hiring better writers, and more of them, be easier?

[Elendil's Heir]

And I hear there's a movie called... what is it? Oh, yeah, The DaVinci Code coming out this summer. Supposed to be based on a book or something. Someone told me it's about an eeeeeevil (and ancient) conspiracy of some kind.

But I could be wrong.

[Zeldar]

And I hear there's a movie called... what is it? Oh, yeah, The DaVinci Code coming out this summer. Supposed to be based on a book or something. Someone told me it's about an eeeeeevil (and ancient) conspiracy of some kind.

But I could be wrong.

Conspiracy? I hear that it's the stone truth. Read that in National Enquirer, I believe.

[Push You Down]

Conspiracy? I hear that it's the stone truth. Read that in National Enquirer, I believe.


Even better....The History Channel.



Has no one mentioned Joe Versus the Volcano?

Okay it's tiny conspiracy....Just Lloyd Bridges getting his doctor to be Tom Hank's doctor and then getting him to tell Hanks that he is dying of a brain cloud.

How many steps does it take to be conspiracy?

[BrainGlutton]

And I hear there's a movie called... what is it? Oh, yeah, The DaVinci Code coming out this summer. Supposed to be based on a book or something. Someone told me it's about an eeeeeevil (and ancient) conspiracy of some kind.

But I could be wrong.

IIRC, the whole point of that story is that it's a conspiracy but it ain't evil. (The RCC, OTOH . . .)

[Ranchoth]

So, it's all about selling newspapers? Wouldn't just hiring better writers, and more of them, be easier?

Actually, there was a bit more to Tomorrow's conspiracy than that—

He'd stolen a nuke from the British ship he'd sunk, after making both sides think the other one had attacked them. Afterwards, during the U.K./Chinese naval confrontation that followed, he was going to launch it at Beijing from a stealth ship, again making it look like it was a British commander who'd done it, which would decapitate the Chinese leadership...and giving his accomplice, a Chinese general who'd then be next-in-line to take over, the opportunity to seize power. In exchange, after the "war" was quickly ended, Carver's company would get exclusive broadcasting rights in China for the next century.

Which, I guess, just boils down to selling a hell of a lot of newspapers. :D

[MacSpon]

Why, I'm watching one right now! Sneakers, in which eeeevil and crazy Ben Kingsley wants to use a code-breaking box to wipe out all records of private ownership in order to bring about a worldwide classless utopia. Yeah, that'll work.
One has only to read slashdot to realise just how many people today think it would work. Elimination of property (especially property of software or music) ==> utopia. Scary, isn't it?