Action movies: The Bad Guy is debonair, suave and sophisticated, has an english accents, lots of disposable thug flunkies, is rich & powerful but seeks to become richer & more powerful, is generally weak & cowardly by himself, but sneering & arrogant when surrounded by his minions. He will take The Girl (The Heroes’ love interest) hostage in a desperate attempt to escape when his plot is foiled. He will typically sacrifice or punish one of his less accomplished minions sometime in the first act, just to show how ruthless he is.
Women’s “empowerment” flick: the Bad Guy is The Heroine’s husband. He is absolutely perfect in every way until one minute after The Heroine says “I do!” Then he inexplicably transforms into a beer-swilling, lowlife control freak who routinely beats the heroine, refers to her as “bitch” or “woman” and controls her life to the umpteenth degree, and uses their children in underhanded, manipulative ways to emotionally blackmail The Heroine…until the day The Heroine decides she can take no more and stands up for herself, and fights back! She either pummels him mercilessly with her newfound kickboxing skills, or sets their marital bed on fire!
Serial killer movie: The Bad Guy is (obviously) a serial killer; but not just any serial killer. He is a devious mastermind genius with unparrallelled knowledge of just about everything; and an arrogant, bitter disdain for all the rest of humanity. The killer is particularly obsessed with The Hero/ Heroine police detective who is tracking him. The killer enjoys playing cat & mouse with The Hero/Heroine. His series of grisly murders will be accompanied with clues enabling The Hero/Heroine to track him.
Scoobie Doo cartoon: The Bad Guy is…Old Man Withers, the caretaker for the spookie hotel. He realized there was a gold mine beneath it, and tried to scare everybody off with a fake ghost so he could take control of it…And he would’ve gotten away with it, if not for you meddling kids!"
