# movies where the bad guy wins **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 13, 2002, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-the-bad-guy-wins/142471 "2002-12-13T08:43:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-the-bad-guy-wins/142471/41 "2002-12-13T18:03:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ravage2 \* > \*\*Ocean’s Eleven (funny how you forget that Clooney et al are actually THIEVES committing a crime against the casino guy) \*\* In the original, rat pack, _Ocean’s Eleven_ the thieves get away with it but lose the money anyway. Kind of a mixed bag, I guess. DD ---
**Author:** ![Albert\_Rose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Albert\_Rose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Albert_Rose)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-the-bad-guy-wins/142471/42 "2002-12-13T18:19:27Z")
How about the Donald Sutherland movie _Don’t Look Now_, where he catches the serial murderer (who he thought was his daughter) by surprise, but gets his throat cut as a reward? ---
**Author:** ![Legomancer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/779978/32.png) [@Legomancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Legomancer)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-the-bad-guy-wins/142471/43 "2002-12-13T18:32:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by kingpengvin \* > \*\*And Lego mancer I’d love to hear that argument… Sounds like a possible hijack but that is one of my favorites \*\* Which argument? The one that the bad guys won or the one that they didn’t win? Assuming the latter, I simply feel that there is no other way out for Sam. He’s not going to change the world. He gets away the only way he can, to a place where they can’t touch him. ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-the-bad-guy-wins/142471/44 "2002-12-13T18:55:26Z")
Vanishing Point. ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-the-bad-guy-wins/142471/45 "2002-12-13T19:53:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by yojimbo \* > \*\*_The Last Seduction_ Linda Fiorentino has ice water for blood. Gets away with it all and still manages to be IMO one of the most sexiest characters I have ever seen in a movie. \*\* Amen Brother! I Love that movie! Linda Fiorentino is so deliciously evil! E3 ---
**Author:** ![c\_goat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@c\_goat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/c_goat)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-the-bad-guy-wins/142471/46 "2002-12-13T20:31:10Z")
What about _The Way of the Gun_? I seem to remember the two guys bleeding to death at the end. I don’t think they survived. Actually, there really wasn’t a good guy (kind of like Payback) so it was more like nobody won, but it was entertaining none the less. ---
**Author:** ![TheeGrumpy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@TheeGrumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheeGrumpy)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-the-bad-guy-wins/142471/47 "2002-12-13T22:50:20Z")
No qualifications, no equivocations: the bad guy wins in _Colossus: the Forbin Project_. It’s 30 years old, so I’m not spoiling anything when I say the heroes try everything they can to defeat Colossus, but for a change the bad guy is just too powerful. Ah, remember the good old days when downbeat endings were the norm in SF/fantasy (i.e. “You maniacs! You blew it up!”)? ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-the-bad-guy-wins/142471/48 "2002-12-13T23:45:32Z")
Has anybody mentioned _The Parallax View_ yet? ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-the-bad-guy-wins/142471/49 "2002-12-13T23:45:38Z")
The implications are that the bad guys won in _Gone With the Wind_ and in _Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid_, it is pretty obvious that the bad guys won. And in _Snatch_…hell, I never know who the good guys and the bad guys are in that film. And in _Freddy Got Fingered_, the bad guys definitely won. They got my money for that piece of #@&%\*! ---
**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:** [December 14, 2002, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-the-bad-guy-wins/142471/50 "2002-12-14T00:06:59Z")
_A Fish Called Wanda_. Not only do John Cleese and Jamie Leigh Curtis successfully escape with the loot (we were rooting for them anyway), but even the villainous Otto escapes to become a chief of security in some repressive regime. (I think Michael Palin’s character also ends up doing OK.) ---
**Author:** ![Scruff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Scruff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scruff)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2002, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-the-bad-guy-wins/142471/51 "2002-12-14T00:18:06Z")
_Body Heat_ – Kathleen Turner clearly got away with it at the end of the movie. _Chinatown_ – I know someone already mentioned that one, but it is one of my favorite movies. ---
**Author:** ![hardygrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a3d4f5/32.png) [@hardygrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hardygrrl)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2002, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-the-bad-guy-wins/142471/52 "2002-12-14T00:24:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by yojimbo \* > \*\*_The Last Seduction_ Linda Fiorentino has ice water for blood. Gets away with it all and still manages to be IMO one of the most sexiest characters I have ever seen in a movie. \*\* One of my favorite movies and performances. The scene at the end where she burns the fake mailbox label, the only piece of evidence linking her to the setup, while riding in a limo is a classic. She’s always one step ahead. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2002, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-the-bad-guy-wins/142471/53 "2002-12-14T07:07:34Z")
\*Carlito’s Way \* - Black Hawk Down \* _Primal Fear_ _12 Monkeys_ ---
**Author:** ![Ersatz\_Shmoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@Ersatz\_Shmoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ersatz_Shmoe)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2002, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-the-bad-guy-wins/142471/54 "2002-12-14T09:07:30Z")
If you keep watching _12 Monkeys_ over and over again, do the good guys eventually win? ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2002, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-the-bad-guy-wins/142471/55 "2002-12-14T09:16:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ersatz Shmoe \* > \*\*If you keep watching _12 Monkeys_ over and over again, do the good guys eventually win? \*\* Only in the sense that a cure is able to be developed for those in the future due to cole’s actions. 5 billion people still die in 1997, no matter what happens. That the point of the film. You can’t change the past, only the present. ---
**Author:** ![broccoli](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@broccoli](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/broccoli)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2002, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-the-bad-guy-wins/142471/56 "2002-12-14T10:33:42Z")
Movies not yet mentioned… \*Soylent Green The Others A walk in the woods / Evil Dead The Empire Strikes Back Carrie\* I’ll come up with more later - it’s 5 am. And i’ll have to disagree on movies where the hero is an anti-hero. A ‘bad’ good guy is still the good guy. Also gonna vote no on movies with no real discernable good guys. This means i’m gonna have to put in a ‘no’ vote for: \*Snatch Lock, Stock and Two smoking barrels Memento\* LOL - AND i’m gonna throw in my no vote for movies where no one really ‘wins’… this includes: Any slasher flick the _Alien_ series _Chinatown_ Finnally I must add that in _Heat_ the bad guys most definately do NOT win. Unless you count dying or losing everything you love as winning. Sure, Kilmer gets away, but at what cost? ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2002, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-the-bad-guy-wins/142471/57 "2002-12-14T10:45:47Z")
I just watched _Empire_ and the bad guy’s don’t win. The whole point of freezing Han was to get at Luke, and while Darth does manage to lop off his hand he winds up not accomplishing anything in the end. At best it’s a stalemate. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2002, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-the-bad-guy-wins/142471/58 "2002-12-14T11:17:12Z")
- Dr. Strangelove \* ends with a rather lose-lose situation. So does _Fail-Safe_. _Paths of Glory_ ends pretty badly. - 20,000 leagues under the sea \* if you consider Nemo the good guy. - The Alamo \* - American History X \* definatly. - Bandits \* - The Seventh Seal \* as only Death seems to win. - Casino Royale \* turns out pretty bad for all invovled. - The 9th gate \* implies evil winning. - Jeepers Creepers\* Though, then again, I was kinda rooting for a demon at the end because the kinds were so fricken mornonic. ---
**Author:** ![FallenAngel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@FallenAngel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FallenAngel)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2002, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-the-bad-guy-wins/142471/59 "2002-12-14T12:14:23Z")
Bordello of Blood. After all that vampire fighting, Angie sticks her fangs into Dennis’ neck just before the credits roll. Lucky, lucky man. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2002, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-the-bad-guy-wins/142471/60 "2002-12-14T21:12:43Z")
_Angel Heart_: **THE** bad guy wins! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-the-bad-guy-wins/142471.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-the-bad-guy-wins/142471.md?page=4)