# Best stories in which the bad guys win **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 9, 2010, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-stories-in-which-the-bad-guys-win/542591 "2010-06-09T23:21:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-stories-in-which-the-bad-guys-win/542591/21 "2010-06-10T01:26:06Z")
Paths of Glory. Heartbreaking so but a great story. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-stories-in-which-the-bad-guys-win/542591/22 "2010-06-10T01:27:18Z")
Animal Farm Invasion of the Body Snatchers The Talented Mr. Ripley ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-stories-in-which-the-bad-guys-win/542591/23 "2010-06-10T01:27:19Z")
**Fallen** ETA: Well…maybe not _best_ come to think of it. But it is _one_ where the good guy fails :). ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-stories-in-which-the-bad-guys-win/542591/24 "2010-06-10T01:29:22Z")
_The Last Seduction_ ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-stories-in-which-the-bad-guys-win/542591/25 "2010-06-10T01:32:11Z")
Cujo. I’m glad I read the book before I saw the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-stories-in-which-the-bad-guys-win/542591/26 "2010-06-10T01:54:17Z")
Legion. I don’t want to spoil too much but the good guys and the bad guys are the same guys. Original ending to Dodgeball. I am Legend (some interesting debate here probably.) ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-stories-in-which-the-bad-guys-win/542591/27 "2010-06-10T02:03:23Z")
_[Arlington Road.](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0137363/)_ ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-stories-in-which-the-bad-guys-win/542591/28 "2010-06-10T02:11:09Z")
Mr. Brooks is also a good one where the villain wins…and is the main character. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-stories-in-which-the-bad-guys-win/542591/29 "2010-06-10T03:11:35Z")
_Against All Odds_ ---
**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-stories-in-which-the-bad-guys-win/542591/30 "2010-06-10T04:33:07Z")
_As Good As It Gets_ _You’ve Got Mail_ These are both movies where the male protagonists are selfish jerks whose behavior borders on the outright evil. They go through their respective stories unredeemed other than by one or two nice acts which they undertake for entirely self-serving reasons. Yet somehow, apparently by sole virtue of the fact that they are in ostensible romantic comedies, they end up getting the girl. They get what they want, and they’re still jerks. We’re supposed to be ok with this. I, for one, am not. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-stories-in-which-the-bad-guys-win/542591/31 "2010-06-10T05:08:53Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > I am Legend (some interesting debate here probably.) Which one? The book The vampire society are perhaps bad because they’re neofascists. Neville isn’t necessarily good though, as the title suggests. The movie? The writers are clearly the bad guys for butchering the story (for the third time?). Okay, I’d say they won the box office. Also, _No Country for Old Men_. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-stories-in-which-the-bad-guys-win/542591/32 "2010-06-10T06:24:39Z")
This is spoiler city, but I guess anyone would be a great fool to open the thread if they cared about spoilers, or (in my case) they were pretty confident that they had already seen everything. My choice is a little-seen film with Michael Caine where he plays a guy who does some very bad things, gets away with it and lives happily ever after. [A Shock To The System](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100602/) ---
**Author:** ![Sr\_Siete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Sr\_Siete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sr_Siete)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-stories-in-which-the-bad-guys-win/542591/33 "2010-06-10T06:39:35Z")
_ **A Clockwork orange.** _ What do I win? ---
**Author:** ![Dahnlor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dahnlor/32/533_2.png) [@Dahnlor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dahnlor)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-stories-in-which-the-bad-guys-win/542591/34 "2010-06-10T06:47:41Z")
_Rocky_ ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-stories-in-which-the-bad-guys-win/542591/35 "2010-06-10T07:03:38Z")
\*Being John Malkovich. \* ---
**Author:** ![Sr\_Siete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Sr\_Siete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sr_Siete)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-stories-in-which-the-bad-guys-win/542591/36 "2010-06-10T08:14:06Z")
Come to think about it, there’s the disturbing ending to **Con Air** , where Steve Buscemi’s serial child-killer gets away scott free, and that’s not even presented as a bad thing. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-stories-in-which-the-bad-guys-win/542591/37 "2010-06-10T09:27:07Z")
> [@Sr\_Siete](#): > > Come to think about it, there’s the disturbing ending to **Con Air** , where Steve Buscemi’s serial child-killer gets away scott free, and that’s not even presented as a bad thing. Michale Bay films tend to exist in a morality-free zone. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-stories-in-which-the-bad-guys-win/542591/38 "2010-06-10T11:22:51Z")
The bad guy usually wins in Flannery O’Connor’s stories, her observation being that all we put up against it is empty pretense and conceit. ---
**Author:** ![Baboonanza](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f475e1/32.png) [@Baboonanza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baboonanza)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-stories-in-which-the-bad-guys-win/542591/39 "2010-06-10T11:53:51Z")
The first 3 **Terminator** films. Sure, The Terminator gets destroyed everytime but the nuclear war still happens and the robots end up ruling the earth. And **Blackadder Goes Forth** doesn’t really count. Nobody in the series is evil, just grossly incompetent. **Dexter** is an obvious one. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-stories-in-which-the-bad-guys-win/542591/40 "2010-06-10T11:58:26Z")
Dexter, IMHO, is a good guy. In fact, he may well be the most moral character on TV - while other protagonists are instinctively good, Dexter has made a conscious decision to be so. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-stories-in-which-the-bad-guys-win/542591.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-stories-in-which-the-bad-guys-win/542591.md?page=3)