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Being a movie villain can be a thankless task. Your job is to do a bunch of terrible things to make the audience hate you and root for the hero to kick your ass. While the heroes and side characters get to major story arcs to grow as people, most of the villains are pretty much stuck with being bad throughout the movie.
But some villains are breaking with this tradition. Some villains become such fan favorites that despite their evil deeds, audiences can grow to love them. In such cases, the villains often go through their own character arcs to become better people. Let’s take a look at a few of the movie’s villains who become good guys halfway through the movie.
10 Mini Me – Austin Powers in Goldmember
the Austin Powers The franchise started out as a great parody of the James BondSpy movie style. But it’s been pretty clear since the first movie that the villains of the franchise were more interesting characters than the titular Austin Powers and his gang to do good. Among the villains were criminal mastermind Dr. Evil and his evil clone sidekick Mini-Me.
While Dr. Evil and Mini-Me were very tight-fisted, the former also had a teenage son named Scott who longed for his father’s approval. by time Austin Powers in GoldmemberScott finally succeeds in becoming evil enough to please his father. This causes Dr. Evil to announce Scott as his new sidekick instead of Mini-Me. Then the emotionally injured clone decides to switch sides and team up with Austin Powers instead to become a good guy.
9 John Preston – Balance
Dystopian science fiction films almost always deal with worlds of the future where humanity struggles to regain its moral center. One of the most interesting versions of this story was told in 2002 Equilibrium. John Preston is a man who lives in a futuristic totalitarian state where emotions are forbidden. Citizens are required to regularly take medication that suppresses their ability to feel emotions.
John acts as an enforcer charged with eliminating anyone acting out of emotion through the creative arts such as music and literature. One day, John is accidentally prevented from taking his daily medication. For the first time he feels a rush of emotion, and this leads to a transformative awareness of the real world, and the importance of being able to feel things. Thus, John sets out to overthrow the totalitarian government and establish a new world order where civilians are allowed to feel free again.
8 Loki – Thor: Ragnarok
Disney
Although the Loki character started out as a powerful villain, he quickly became one of the MCU’s most popular characters. After plotting to kill his brother Thor and take over Asgard as the new king, Loki becomes even more sinister in The Avengers When he brought an alien army to raze Earth in the service of cosmic tyrant Thanos. But no matter how many times he breaks bad, fans won’t stop cheering for Loki.
All this led to Motorcycle rental, where Loki begins as a guest on an alien planet where Thor is brought as a prisoner. At first, Loki is still a bad guy who only cares about personal gain. But as he continues to interact with Thor, Loki begins to put his emotional baggage aside and reconnect with his brother. Not only did he help Thor and his allies, but Loki eventually became a full-fledged hero helping the people of Asgard escape the destruction of their planet.
7 Maleficent – Maleficent
Disney loves to mine their classic animated movies for live-action content. 2014 was one of the earliest examples of this trend mischievous. The film was a retelling of the events of 1959 sleeping beautyIt is told from the point of view of the villain in the story. Maleficent begins as a powerful fairy who despises mankind due to the attacks a local king commits on her person.
Because of her hatred, Maleficent plots to harm the King’s daughter Aurora by placing a curse on her when she was an infant. While waiting for the curse to take effect, Maleficent watches over Aurora and inadvertently finds herself coming to take a deep interest in the young girl. With Aurora’s evolution into womanhood, Maleficent officially assumes the role of her guardian. When the curse finally catches up with Aurora, Maleficent is drawn into a battle against time to save the young princess’ life.
6 Nux – Mad Max: Fury Road
the Mad Max The series may be all about action and things thriving, but the series has always shown a surprisingly 3D side to what living in a post-apocalyptic wasteland would do to a person. One of the best examples of this can be seen in Nux Mad Max: Fury Road. The character is a War Boy who is fiercely loyal to his tribe’s leader, Immortan Joe.
Serving his master, Nux has no problems going on a suicide mission to kill Imperator Furiosa and her allies who are trying to banish the brides of Joe. Nux is unable to complete his mission, and is captured instead. Stuck on the road with Furiosa’s crew, Nux begins to undergo a change in his viewpoint, and realizes that he has been serving the wrong master all along. That’s when Nux decided to turn on Immortan Joe and help Furiosa help the puppeteers escape to safety.
5 Cable – Deadpool 2
Wade Wilson aka Deadpool is the anti-hero of comics, a self-confessed psychopath who has no problem cheerfully killing or torturing his enemies, but still generally tries to limit his actions to only targeting the bad guys. But Deadpool wasn’t the only crazy ’90s creation made specifically to ride the wave of anti-hero comics at the time.
Another product at the time was Cable, in which he was featured Deadpool 2 as a smoldering villain bent on killing Wade’s friend and orphaned teenager, Rusty. As far as the villain’s plans go, it doesn’t get much darker than this. But halfway through the story, Cable realizes that his mission will not succeed without Deadpool’s help. Thus, he decided to finally explain to Wade why Rusty was dead, and the two came to an agreement that would solve Cable’s dilemma without him having to kill Rusty.
4 Singing – Kung Fu Hustle
Stephen Chow is a famous Chinese filmmaker who first came into the international spotlight with his 2001 action comedy film Shaolin football. Zhao followed up this success with an even more ambitious one Kung fu hustle. Unlike the sympathetic protagonist Shaolin footballAnd Kung fu hustle It features a lead character who is a volatile villain.
Sing (played by Chow) is a petty con-man who dreams of becoming a feared gangster. To this end, Singh engages in a number of criminal schemes to curry favor with the notorious ax gang. But after finally becoming a member of the gang, Singh begins to feel twinges of his conscience as he observes the devastation he has wreaked on innocent civilians through his actions. In the end, Singh decides to do the right thing, and in the process discovers a wellspring of strength within himself that he had not known about before.
3 Ram – RRR
Action and historical musical adventure $$$$ It begins with the introduction of perhaps the most exciting movie antagonist ever. We see a group of thousands of freedom fighters outside an English police station in British India. After a protester broke a picture of the British monarch, the lead officer asked a policeman to arrest and bring the protester. The only man brave enough to do the job is an Indian policeman named Ram.
Showing superhuman determination and resilience, Ram gets kicked, punched, battered and bloodied by the crowd. But he eventually managed to bring the pretender to his boss. This proves Ram’s physical prowess, as well as his willingness to punish his countrymen in the service of the British Empire. But after playing a villain in the first half of the movie, audiences are given a glimpse into Ram’s true intentions behind helping the Empire. Then, Ram teams up with the film’s protagonist, Fahim, to end the injustice being done by the British police on Indian citizens.
2 Diego – Ice Age
The early 2000s was a time when a lot of animated films were experimenting with non-traditional heroes that would appeal to an older audience. It was one of the best animated films of the era ice Age. It tells the story of a group of animals living in the Pleistocene era. When a human female dies while trying to save her baby from a pack of saber-tooth tigers, it falls to Manny, a woolly mammoth, and Sid, a sloth, to get the baby to safety to his father’s tribe.
Unknown to Manny and Sid, the saber-tooth tigers keep a close eye on their activities. The Tigers’ leader sends Diego, his smartest lieutenant, to trick Manny and Sid into giving up the baby. At first, Diego intends to completely betray Manny and Syd after he is their new mentor. But after spending some time with the duo and the human child, Diego begins to experience a change in his way of thinking. He ends up helping Manny and Diego defeat the other tigers, and the trio go on many adventures together as a package.
1 Puppy – Despicable Me
At a time when the MCU was dominating Hollywood like no other, animated films like despicable me And megamind They were showing the other side of the story by making the supervillains their main characters. in despicable meAudiences are introduced to Gru, a criminal mastermind who wants to steal the Moon to establish his legacy as the world’s most feared villain.
As part of his plan, Gru has to adopt a trio of adorable girls from the local orphanage. Intent on using the girls in his nefarious plan before dumping them in a park, Gru unexpectedly finds himself developing a relationship with the trio. Gradually, Gru’s ambitions begin to shift away from world domination and turn into being a good father to his new daughters.
