movies where you rooted for the bad guy

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

One that I'm not sure has gotten mentioned yet is Bad Ronald. 

For those of you not familiar with the film, it's a 1970's made for TV film about a mother sheltering her son from the outside world and the bullies that prey upon Ronald Wilby every day.

Anyone who has seen the movie knows my slant here, and also know that Ronald was definitely the good guy, and beset by circusmatances beyond his control and his comprehension. Great movie that needs to be seen again!

[InformationGeek]

There's an anime series called Megazone 23.  In the second episode, in particular, the "bad guys" were so sympathetic I didn't even realize they were supposed to be the bad guys.  It all of a sudden hit me, "Hold on, the movie wants me to be on the side of the biker gang?  $#@! that!"

I've watched a lot of anime and for sure, there are a lot of series where I ended up rooting for the villians.  Gunslinger Girl, Code Geass, Death Note (Well, L & Near are techincally the bad guys since the series has Light as the protoganist), Darker than Black, and there's probably more.

[AndyC]

There's an anime series called Megazone 23.  In the second episode, in particular, the "bad guys" were so sympathetic I didn't even realize they were supposed to be the bad guys.  It all of a sudden hit me, "Hold on, the movie wants me to be on the side of the biker gang?  $#@! that!"

I've watched a lot of anime and for sure, there are a lot of series where I ended up rooting for the villians.  Gunslinger Girl, Code Geass, Death Note (Well, L & Near are techincally the bad guys since the series has Light as the protoganist), Darker than Black, and there's probably more.

Anime is pretty good at doing the "honorable adversary" thing, giving the antagonist an understandable motive and just generally making really cool villains. And I can think of a few examples of villains becoming the heroes' allies after a new enemy comes along. It's such a different way of looking at things compared to most western animation.

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

There's an anime series called Megazone 23.  In the second episode, in particular, the "bad guys" were so sympathetic I didn't even realize they were supposed to be the bad guys.  It all of a sudden hit me, "Hold on, the movie wants me to be on the side of the biker gang?  $#@! that!"

I've watched a lot of anime and for sure, there are a lot of series where I ended up rooting for the villians.  Gunslinger Girl, Code Geass, Death Note (Well, L & Near are techincally the bad guys since the series has Light as the protoganist), Darker than Black, and there's probably more.

Anime is pretty good at doing the "honorable adversary" thing, giving the antagonist an understandable motive and just generally making really cool villains. And I can think of a few examples of villains becoming the heroes' allies after a new enemy comes along. It's such a different way of looking at things compared to most western animation.

Good point, AndyC. Dragonball Z comes to mind, because of Vegeta.  His character development as his love-hate relationship with Goku went on all thruout the show was a great example.  A lot to mention, but anyone who has seen the show knows the deal.

[Dr. Whom]

Deep Blue Sea - they were trying to make Saffron Burrow's character out to be the bad guy because she genetically altered the sharks, but to me she was by far the most sympathetic and likable character in the whole movie.  The so-called "good" people came off like a bunch of self-righteous pricks.

I was rooting for the sharks from the moment they got Samuel L Jackson.

[SaintMort]

Sorry for the s**tty video quality

http://youtu.be/Kzt409x8L14

[Trevor]

AL Pacino's character of Walter Burke in The Recruit ~ after you find out what had happened to him in his CIA career, you start to root for him.

[Archivist]

Thor.

I kinda liked Loki...

TOTALLY.  I thought Loki's character was sympathetically written and I liked him a lot.  I hope they do good things with him in future movies, rather than make him some one-dimensional bad guy.  And Hiddleston is a great actor; you can see his stage and Shakespeare experience.

[ChaosTheory]

JAWS - not so much the first one, but the sequels?  I wanted to see Bruce chomping down the whole seaboard.
THE MATRIX - again, more in the sequels, but Agent Smith was just so much cooler than the good guys.
TERMINATOR 2
XMEN movies - I always kind of liked Magneto
A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE - the Ed Harris character
THE HITCHER (remake)
THE JACKAL
FRAILTY
ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES

[Mr. DS]

Another one for me, Who Framed Roger Rabbit.  I would love to have seen RR dipped in the turpentine.

[Chainsawmidget]

Ye-es!

I root for the villain about 38% of the time. Of course, that's in the books I've read. (46% of the time for the hero and 16% of the time for a character that is neither the hero nor the villain.)

Did you actually sit down and do the math on this one? 

Myself, the MAJORITY of the time when a movie has Dracula in it, I'm cheering him on.

[InformationGeek]

Spy Kids 4-D: The villian's motives... were not all that evil.  Hell, the good guys looked much worse than him, especially considering how Jessica Alba's character put her children at risk tons of times, even when she was pregant!

[Leah]

Transfomers- Where the robot in the Black Mustang cop trying to run down Shia.

[Rev. Powell]

I didn't root for the bad guy in THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY, but I did root for the ugly guy.

[BoyScoutKevin]

Ye-es!

I root for the villain about 38% of the time. Of course, that's in the books I've read. (46% of the time for the hero and 16% of the time for a character that is neither the hero nor the villain.)

Did you actually sit down and do the math on this one? 

Myself, the MAJORITY of the time when a movie has Dracula in it, I'm cheering him on.

Ye-es! I keep a list in a notebook of all the characters for whom I feel some empathy, whether in a film, on a TV show, or in a book. And when it comes to the books I have read, 38% of the time I have more empathy for the villain, then I do for the hero. And while I do not have an exact total with me, that is out of some 55 to 60 characters. And when it comes to films and TV shows, there are fewer characters for whom I have empathy, but the percentage of villains is even greater. Somewhere around 50% of the time, and there again, I don't have an exact figure, I have more empathy for the villain than I do for the hero.