The movie Breakdown from 1997. Kurt Russell and Kathleen Quinlan’s car breaks down on a car trip and JT Walsh kidnaps Quinlan. It’s an interesting movie, Walsh doesn’t seem to have much motivation beyond “because he’s the bad guy” but they have a scene where they show his home and his son so they’re building something more than just some mustache twirling villain. Russell finally tracks him down and gets his wife back, vehicles crash and whatnot and it’s pretty clear that the antagonist is beaten. The good guys win and maybe the cops can come in and take him away or something… instead… they drop his semi truck right on him. Because the bad guy has to die at the end, I guess?
Also in Ransom, some punks kidnap Mel Gibson’s son. Gary Sinise is the cop working with him to get the kid back until one tense scene in the middle of the movie shows that he’s in on it. We get to the end of the movie and Gibson beats up Sinise and gets his son back. Sinise is about to be taken away by uniform police so he grabs one of their guns and gets shot up for the effort.
Two decent movies that I think are spoiled a bit by some kind of notion that you have to kill the villain at the end.
It’s been a while since I’ve seen this, but I think you’ve grossly oversimplified the story. Quinlan is kidnapped. And not just blindfolded and driven somewhere, she’s transported in a coffin-like compartment for HOURS in the bad guy’s truck.
The bad guy’s motivation was to user her to get ransom from Russell. I seem to recall Russell is somewhat well off.
Russell, in the meantime, gets NO HELP from law enforcement. So he needs to track his wife down all on his own.
When he finally finds his wife and they escape, the bad guy then pursues them with the intent to kill them - so that they don’t blow the whistle on him.
Now, after “winning” such an ordeal, it would take QUITE a person to simply say “let’s let the authorities take over”. A trial would require Quinlan to have to recount her entire harrowing ordeal. I think Russell breaks a few laws in his pursuit.
But most importantly, after the guy who kidnapped his wife and put both of them through hell, is now out to kill both of them, do you really think the “hero” would not want to seek revenge/justice at that moment ? As far as villains go, I can’t think of too many that were more “deserving”.
Johnathan Kent in Man of Steel. Sure, according to canon, he’s supposed to die eventually (traditionally, from a heart attack), but he could have totally run across and into the shelter along with everybody else and not get killed by the tornado.
This is incorrect and gives the bad guy much more humanity than he deserves.
Both the husband and wife were supposed to get into Walsh’s truck. Russell was supposed to get in the truck too. And if had, they would have both been murdered. THAT was then plan. Kill them, bury them, take all their stuff and wait for the next victim.
Because one of the purposes of art is to selectively re-create and refine real life into a sequence of events that allows us, the audience, to give them some meaning? That meaning doesn’t have to be simple-minded or straightforward, it can even be that “life sucks.” But I prefer there to be some intended meaning, even when I don’t understand what it is.
Wash had to be killed off, since the Rules of Hollywood have declared you can’t have a happy monogamous marriage. :rolleyes:
Shepherd Book also died due to the Rules, which declare preachers are bad and evil. So a good preacher must die. :rolleyes:
I admire Joss, but he kowtowed to the “Rules” too much there.
Rusty Heller (Elizabeth Montgomery) in The Untouchables “The Rusty Heller Story”. After ditching Pops Felcher’s (Harold J Stone) mouthpiece, played by the future Larry Tate (David White), she tries to play off both Pops and the Capone mob by selling them the same information (that Pops is an illegal alien). It almost works but she gets killed at the end and Mrs Felcher gets the mink coat that Rusty felt she deserved. In that era crime had to be shown not to pay but Rusty was a lot of fun that even Eliot Ness almost fell for her.