Movie Villains that Actually Won

From the beginning of a movie, we are usually rooting for the hero; it is just instinct. But in the end, after our hero gets their happily ever after, we may have missed the misfortune that is about to fall upon them. Sometimes, we miss the villain's true motives and the fact that they may have actually defeated our beloved hero whether anyone notices it or not. Here is a list of some movie villains that actually won.

John Doe

John Doe had one clear goal from the beginning of the movie: to commit a series of murders representing each of the seven deadly sins. By the end of the movie, John has already crossed five of the sins of his list: Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Lust and Pride, leaving two more sins, Envy and Wrath. To the surprise of many audience members and our protagonists, John Doe turns himself in. Eventually, Doe admits to being envious of Mills and his happy life with his pregnant wife, and he confesses to killing her by presenting her decapitated head in a box. This results in Mills being furious and killing Doe. These last two kills were envy and wrath, thus finishing what John Doe had started.

Tyler Durden

Mischief, Mayhem, Soap... this is not only the slogan to the movie, but also a good idea of what Durden wanted and planned. After creating Fight Club, he simply wanted to create destruction and anarchy in order to dethrone materialist and corporate organizations. In order to do this, his final plan consisted of blowing up all of the corporate buildings around him to erase debt and allow everyone to start from the beginning. Although the narrator manages to disembody himself from Tyler by shooting himself in the mouth, the bombs still go off and the buildings still collapse, thus ensuring that Tyler got what he wanted.

The Joker

Although the Joker was a very ambiguous character, leaving not much for the audience to understand about his backstory or ambitions, his goal regarding Batman and Gotham were clear. He wanted to prove that even the most just can be corrupted, and he proved this using two examples: Harvey Dent and Batman. Joker easily managed to corrupt Harvey Dent after killing his fiancee and blaming Gotham's corruption for it, causing Dent to go on a killing spree. This leads to how he corrupted Batman. Batman was forced to kill Harvey Dent to save Commissioner Gordon's family, causing him to break his one rule. Although what Batman did was just, he had to make himself look like the bad guy to save Dent's reputation, thus corrupting the image of the Dark Knight in Gotham.

Chigurh

Chigurh had one obvious goal for the whole movie, and that was to kill our hero. Although the audience does not get to see it, we do see Chigurh escape after the suggested gun fight, thus meaning Chigurh got his kill. To add to this, we get a monologue where Sheriff Bell admits to giving up this manhunt due to his desire to retire and his belief that the search is futile. All in all, Chigurh not only got his kill, but even got away with it as well.

John G

Although we know him as Leonard Shelby throughout most of the movie, John G was our likable hero who we could not help but have sympathy for as he works to avenge his wife's death while overcoming his short-term memory loss. Towards the end of the movie, when Leonard finds "John G," the man who he believes killed his wife, he finds out that he himself is John G and he has been killing other John Gs and suppressing his memory in order to escape his guilt. At the end of the movie, he makes the person who told him this truth his next target and then loses his memory again, having a new John G and ridding himself of his guilt.