It really depends on the nature of the movie I suppose but I have been having a discussion elsewhere regarding the movie 2010 which reminded me of an aspect of The Martian. In both movies there are no ‘bad guys’, any tension that appears is from external factors (the Cold War tensions in 2010) or from different views on how best to achieve their goal, but acting from noble intentions.
On a side-note compare and contrast the crew dynamics in Prometheus and 2010/The Martian, I know which I find easier to watch. I recently watched Alien Covenant and that was somewhat better, at least none of the crew were outright jerks although they didn’t display much more competence.
So any other examples of movies with nothing but good guys?
Apollo Creed is the antagonist, and he shows overconfidence, but he isn’t really a “bad guy”. He’s the one who wants to fight an unknown, and by the end it’s clear that Rocky has earned his respect.
The Disney film “Bolt”, maybe? The most “bad guy” character in the movie is the agent, but while he seems to care more about money than about Bolt or Penny’s feelings for Bolt, he’s never truly antagonistic. And Dr. Calico is just a character in a TV show, I wouldn’t consider him to be a bad guy.
There also isn’t a bad guy in 9 1/2 Weeks. Mickey Rourke’s character arguably acts like a dick at some points, but that’s not the same thing.
(Why would I bring up those two movies specifically? Because they’re also two rare examples that I could think of, off the top of my head, of movies that “fail the reverse Bechdel Test”, from a thread on this very board about that topic. Here is the original thread.)
Both of those films fail the test.
The Royal Tenenbaums also doesn’t have a “bad guy.”
Hidden Figures has characters with definite personality flaws, but all of them have, by the end of the movie, at least made significant progress towards mending those flaws.
Ladies in Lavender. Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, and a young Polish violinist washed up on the shore near their Cornwall cottage. I kept expecting bad things to happen with the villagers… but nothing really did.
I disagree. There were clearly people trying to stand in their way (Jim Parsons and Kirsten Dunst’s characters mainly). Now the protagonists won in the end by having those two change their ways, but they were still the “bad guys.”
My Cousin Vinny has no real bad guys, aside from the convenience store robbers, who are never shown on screen anyway so they don’t count. The judge is tough, but fair. The prosecuting attorney, despite being played by Lane Smith, simply wants to win the case, but he willingly dismisses the charges once it becomes obvious that the defendants are innocent. That awful screech owl’s a jerk, though.
I have no idea why, but the first thing that popped into my head was, Welcome to Mooseport, with Ray Romano, Maura Tierney and Gene Hackman. Protagonist v antagonist to be sure, but no bad guys.
*Crash
Chariots of Fire
Funny Girl
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
A Thousand Clowns
Nashville
On Golden Pond
The Big Chill
Hannah and her Sisters
Broadcast News
Four Weddings and a Funeral
Apollo 13
Finding Neverland
Love Actually
*
The basic structure of a story is you have a protagonist who is trying to either overcome something or achieve something. Overcoming an opponent is a major plot but you can have other ones. People have mentioned movies in which the protagonist is trying to overcome the challenges of the situation they are in (Apollo 13, Castaway, My Cousin Vinny) - no human opponent is needed in these stories.
Another basic plot is the protagonist trying to achieve something. Loves stories are about the protagonist trying to achieve a relationship and these stories don’t require an opponent.
While they’re minor characters, the punk on the bus, the Russian whalers, and the Klingon ambassador arguing for Kirk’s prosecution for war crimes, are all bad guys.