What are some of the best scenes in which the bad guy gets his satisfying comeuppance? Of course we can pick where the bad guy just dies horribly, like, say, Rob Roy, but I’d prefer the eternal humiliation / disgrace angle.
My nominations:
Ever After. What can I say, I actually liked this movie. Espacially the scene at the end where the evil stepmother and daughter think they’re arriving “in style” so the daughter can be named queen, but then the tables are turned. I even didn’t mind the over-the-top ending where they get tossed in the vat of steaming hot laundry water. (Although they got a little carried away with the purplish tint to their faces).
Absence of Malice. The scene where Wilford Brimley comes in and cleans house. “You weren’t no pres-ee-dential appointee, Elliot. Th’ one that hired you is me. You got thirty days.”
Quigley Down Under, in which Alan Rickman’s character discovers that even though Quigley doesn’t care for pistols, it doesn’t mean he’s not handy with one.
The arrest of the KKK member deputy in Time to Kill.
Sal Tessio realizing he’s screwed in The Godfather, which of course also had Paulie, Turk, the Irish cop and a variety of mob bosses getting comeuppances.
The warden realizing just f*cked he is in Shawshank Redemption (a scene that wasn’t in the book but should have been).
Tony Goldwyn’s character (movie name eludes me) typing in the account information and finding $4 million of mob money gone in GHOST.
Sleeping with the Enemy. Julia Roberts has a gun pointed at the bad guy. Picks up the phone, calls 911, gives them her name and address, and says she’s just shot an intruder. Fade to black.
Cinderella. “But, Your Excellency, I have the other glass slipper…”
Ladyhawke, when Ysabeau walks up to the priest and hands him her jesses…
Diggstown.
Burce Dern, Louis Gosset Jr. and James Woods.
For the ending-
[spoiler] Earlier in the film Bruce Dern shows his power in the town during a boxing match by calling out to one of the boxers and giving him a thumbs down. The boxer takes a dive.
At the end of the movie, Bruce Dern has called in a tough prison boxer as a wringer for the finale of the marathan boxing match(es) that Gosset is fighting. James Woods just got out of the same prison with this guy and there may or may not be some bad blood.
Dern thinks he’s just won because there is no way the beaten and tired Gosset can beat this fresh prison brawler. As the match begins, Woods calls out to the prisoner and gives him a thumbs down. The prisoner takes a dive and Woods and Gosset win the boxing marathon and a huge bet. [/spoiler]
Its one of the few times I’m been in a theater where EVERYONE cheered. About 25% of them stood up and cheered even.
There’s a nice one in Superman III, even though the ‘bad guy’ concerned is just an incidental character. Thug in a diner picks on a temporarily non-super Clark Kent and beats him up. At the end of the movie, being ‘super’ once more, Clark returns to the same diner, and allows the same thug to pick on him again. It’s very nicely done.
The Untouchables- scene in the train station when Ness chases the baby carriage down the steps while Stone comes running across the room, tosses a pistol to Ness, slides to the bottom of the steps & stops the carriage, while taking a bead on the thug holding Capone’s accountant:
Ness: One–
Ness: Two!–
Ness, to Stone: You got him?
Stone: Yeah, I got him. (shoots thug in forehead)
Stone: Three.
[I forget the movie]:
Bully: I eat shits like you for breakfast!
Protagonist: You eat shit for breakfast? Caddyshack:
Noonan putts, ball stops on edge of hole-
Bad guys cheer-
Carl depresses plunger and explosions ensue-
Ref stares at hole-
Ball drops-
Crowd erupts!
“Nighthawks” - Rutger Hauer, after having his kidnapping plan thwarted, seeks revenge on the girlfriend of the cop who messed up his plans - helpless Lindsay Wagner doing the dishes.
Reese Witherspoon’s “Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal lord and savior” moment in Speedway, and later the courtroom scene (“look who got beat with the ugly stick!”). (To say more would be spoilerville.)
**Captain Blood **-- The evil plantation owner who has been making life hell for Errol Flynn for most of the movie returns to Port Royal at the end of the movie only to discover that he has been disgraced, Captain Blood has been named governor of the colony in his place, and … the Captain is marrying his niece! The look on his face is sooo satisfying … .
