# Movies with no bad guys? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 8, 2018, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-bad-guys/813826 "2018-05-08T20:13:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Doubticus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@Doubticus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doubticus)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2018, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-bad-guys/813826/61 "2018-05-14T17:09:00Z")
“April Fool’s Day”, that might be a spoiler. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2018, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-bad-guys/813826/62 "2018-05-14T17:47:08Z")
The Game. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2018, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-bad-guys/813826/63 "2018-05-14T18:03:17Z")
Forest Gump. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2018, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-bad-guys/813826/64 "2018-05-14T20:35:38Z")
> [@edspellman](#): > > My Dinner with Andre, no bad guy at all Um, the waiter? ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2018, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-bad-guys/813826/65 "2018-05-14T22:50:07Z")
How about many war films? For example, in Zulu, the Zulus are enemies but not bad guys; similarly, in The Longest Day, the Germans are enemies but not bad guys. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-bad-guys/813826/66 "2018-05-15T13:21:19Z")
\*\*Marooned Earthquake The Swarm Koyaanisqatsi Fantasia\* Journey to the Beginning of Time The Andromeda Strain\*\*\*\* Most of these are, I have to admit, really bad movies. Koyaanisqatsi (and its lesser-known sequels) don’t have a plot. \*Fantasia doesn’t, either, but you can see the T. Rex in the Rite of Spring sequence as a villain, and Chetnobog in the Night on Bald Mountain piece, but otherwise, there aren’t any Bad Guys. Fantasia 2000 is similar, although it’s easier to see the Firebird in that last segment as a Bad Guy. in principle, any Man-against-Nature thing doesn’t have a Bad Guy, but a lot of these are insipid 1970s-era disaster film like Earthquake. I suppose you could throw The Towering Inferno in there too (faulty wiring isn’t necessarily Bad Guy stuff.) In monster films, the monster serves the same function as the Natural Disaster in the disaster movies, but because it’s concentrated in one being, it gets taken as the villain. So Godzilla and Jaws and the like have “Bad Guys”. If you can view a space virus as such a being, then Andromeda Strain has a Bad Guy Too. And all those Hot Zone/Infection, etc. movies. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-bad-guys/813826/67 "2018-05-15T14:15:43Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I suppose you could throw The Towering Inferno in there too (faulty wiring isn’t necessarily Bad Guy stuff.) I think that Roger Simmons is pretty clearly the bad guy of the film. He knowingly installed substandard wiring. Then later tried to escape the tower leaving everyone else to die, instead of staying to oversee the evacuation and being the last to leave. ---
**Author:** ![wevets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-bad-guys/813826/68 "2018-05-15T14:52:13Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > The aliens with their incredibly destructive whale communications probe were definitely bad guys. At best, they showed complete disregard for the dominant intelligent species on the planet and nearly accidentally killed everyone, at worst genocidal maniacs who nearly deliberately killed everyone. Almost no one has ever read the novelization of _Star Trek IV_, but I did. Some scenes are told from the probe’s perspective - it didn’t view humans and other aliens as intelligent, just the equivalent of interstellar ants. It may be complete disregard, but it certainly wasn’t intentionally evil. “Bad guy” is debatable. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-bad-guys/813826/69 "2018-05-15T16:57:12Z")
_ **The Quiet Man** _ Red Will Danaher is a stubborn cuss, but not truly a bad guy (he and the Duke are pals by the end) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-bad-guys/813826/70 "2018-05-15T16:59:16Z")
> [@wevets](#): > > Almost no one has ever read the novelization of _Star Trek IV_, but I did. Some scenes are told from the probe’s perspective - it didn’t view humans and other aliens as intelligent, just the equivalent of interstellar ants. It may be complete disregard, but it certainly wasn’t intentionally evil. “Bad guy” is debatable. I read it. Vonda McIntyre was a Hugo-winning author who you’d think was above doing movie novelizations, but when you read what she did for Star Trek II, III, and IV, it’s clear she was having fun with fleshing things out and seeing what she could get away with. And, yes, like any good writer she cast herself into all roles from their perspective. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-bad-guys/813826/71 "2018-05-15T17:23:59Z")
_Napoleon Dynamite_ No real bad guys, just odd awkward people. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-bad-guys/813826/72 "2018-05-15T21:58:38Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > _Napoleon Dynamite_ No real bad guys, just odd awkward people. You mean besides almost all the popular high school kids (“Napoleon, give me some of your tots.”), the jerks who screwed over Napoleon and Pedro at the chicken farm and the martial arts guy? Etc. The confrontation between the high school jerks and Pedro’s relative’s crew is great. Reverses the expectation of who the good and bad guys are. And don’t get me started on Rico. Gosh. ---
**Author:** ![wevets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2018, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-bad-guys/813826/73 "2018-05-16T13:12:19Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I read it. Vonda McIntyre was a Hugo-winning author who you’d think was above doing movie novelizations, but when you read what she did for Star Trek II, III, and IV, it’s clear she was having fun with fleshing things out and seeing what she could get away with. And, yes, like any good writer she cast herself into all roles from their perspective. It was surprisingly good and well-written! I never read the novelizations for II or III, but it sounds like maybe I should have! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-no-bad-guys/813826.md?page=3)