SMALL SPOILER FOR FIFTH ELEMENT**
I thought this was a particularly charming idea in Fifth Element, although I didn’t notice it until someone pointed it out. Bruce Willis’ character (Korben Dallas) and Gary Oldman’s character (Zorg) never actually see each other, and they don’t even communicate once. I don’t think Korben is even aware of Zorg.
I started trying to think of any other examples of this last night and couldn’t. So I turn to you guys. Other movies like this?
Well, Nobody saw Ernst Stavro Blofeld’s face in the first several James Bond movies (and Bond himself never physically came into his presence) until 1967’s You Only Live Twice, even though Blofeld was the Prime Mover behind the mayhem in every Bond movie up until that point (except for Goldfinger). Although it must be admitted that Bond did meet the other villains in each film.
So the Bond-doesn’t-meet-Blofeld movies are: Doctor No
From Russia With Love
Thunderball
The closest thing to a bad guy in that movie, though, is AF General Jack Ripper. The president never meets or sees him, either – but the closest thing to a good guy is RAF Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, who does.
Yes, but he has no idea that Zorg is the one trying to hurt Lelu, does he? Or that he is trying to get the stones? Basically Zorg is a faceless entity to him. It would be like being laid off by IBM.
True, but Bond not only meets him, he pats him on the head*. And he definitely sees his face.
*In On Her Majesty’s Secret Service Bond and Blofeld have a knock-down drag-out fight. That was an anomaly – Bond and Blofeld otherwise never got physical. In For Your Eyes Only they never touch. In Diamonds are Forever, Bond apparently fights Blofeld and apparently dshoots him, but those are revealed to be doubles. He later does bash the poor guy up, but Blofeld’s in his minisub and Bond’s in a crane, and they can’t even see eavh other.
Bond never meets Blofeld in the non-Eon film Never Say Never Again, too. Althopugh, again, he gets to beat up Largo in this remake of Thunderball.
Come to think of it, in the first three **Star Wars[/B[ movies made (#4-6 chronologically), only Luke, out of all the Good Guys, ever sees The Emperor.
IIRC, the only time that Luke Skywalker sees Darth Vader in the first (fourth) Star Wars movie is when Vader fights Obi-Wan Kenobi – but he never gets to interact with him at all.
Right. But Vader wasn’t chasing Luke’s X-Wing because he was the hero. He was chasing him because he was just another rebel. It’s not so much a hero vs. villian fight as it is a villian vs. some-guy fight.