We all know the trope of the hero defeating evil, getting the girl, and they live happily ever after. That isn't always what happens in life or at the movies. Sometimes the bad guy wins. Sometimes the hero can't come out on top. These movies will sometimes stick with us days or weeks, so here's our list of the times the bad guy wins in the end.
Warning: Spoilers ahead, of course.
No Country for Old Men
Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) is a reluctant hero in No Country for Old Men. He stumbles onto a briefcase full of cash from a deal gone bad by the Mexican Cartel and finds himself on the run from them and the assassin Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem). Despite his resourcefulness, which leads audiences to believe he'll come out ok, his mother's mistake leads to Moss getting killed and losing the money while his wife (Kelly Macdonald) is (probably) murdered by Chigurh.
Se7en
Kevin Spacey's John Doe in Se7en is one of the most evil villains in cinema history and a big reason why is that in the end, he gets everything he wants. He completes all seven of the deadly sins when Detective David Mills (Brad Pitt) kills Doe and becomes the seventh sin, rage. So while Doe ends up dead, he still wins.
Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
Throughout the Star Wars saga, good and evil have traded blows with both sides coming out on top at different times. The first example (or second, depending on what order you watch the Star Wars movies in) is the legendary end of The Empire Strikes Back. Luke, handless, dangles from a tower as Darth Vader tells him about his lineage after Han Solo is carted away, frozen in carbonite. It's bleak.
Silence Of The Lambs
The ending of Silence of the Lambs is a mixed bag. Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) gets Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine), but another villain, Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) gets away and hunts his nemesis down on an unnamed tropical island. Some may call Lecter an anti-hero here, but he's pure bad guy in reality.
Rocky
One of the reasons Rocky is such a timeless movie is because, in the end, Rocky (Sylvester Stallone) actually loses the fight. It makes the movie real and gritty. Its true brilliance is that the end it still triumphant, even though Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) wins the fight.
Avengers: Infinity War
It was the snap heard 'round the universe after Thanos collected all the Infinity Stones and in a millisecond wiped out half of the population everywhere. Marvel is not where audiences ever expect to see a movie end with the villain winning, but Avengers: Infinity War changed everything and it's brilliant.
Chinatown
One of the reasons Chinatown has one of the greatest scripts ever written is because of the twist ending no one sees coming. Jake (Jack Nicholson) has just worked out all the ins and outs of the scam he's been trying to uncover for the whole movie when he's caught by Cross (John Huston) and forced to help Cross complete his plan. Cross gets away and Jack can only watch it happen.
Kingpin
The stakes are quite a bit lower in Kingpin than in some of the other movies on this list, but that doesn't change the fact that the villain, in this case bowler Ernie McCracken (Bill Murray) defeats Roy Munson (Woody Harrelson) in the final match of the movie. Munson just can't catch a break.
The Usual Suspects
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist and the greatest trick The Usual Suspects pulls is having Keyser Soze (Kevin Spacey) escape right out from under the noses of the authorities. Hailed as one of the great twists in cinema, while all the clues are right there for audiences to see, the mysterious Soze completes his plan and gets away.
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
R.P. McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) is one of the greatest anti-heroes in literary and cinema history, but that doesn't mean he gets to win. No, in the end, it's one of cinema's greatest villains, Nurse Rachet (Louise Fletcher), and the system that wins leaving McMurphy lobotomized.
Rosemary's Baby
Rosemary's Baby is one of the scariest movies ever made and just when you think Rosemary (Mia Farrow) might figure out what is going on with the weirdos in her apartment building, the coven wins, and Rosemary births Satan's child. What's worse is that Rosemary gives in and decides to raise the child.
Primal Fear
The shocking twist ending to Primal Fear was a controversial one, but it's so satisfying when you think about it. Yeah, the good guy, attorney Martin Vail (Richard Gere), and everyone else, is fooled by Aaron/Roy (Edward Norton) and a murderous villain basically gets away with killing multiple people, but it works so, so well.
Saltburn
One of 2023's most talked-about films, Saltburn leaves audiences guessing until the end with what is really going on. Oliver Quick's (Barry Keoghan) is a bit of a mystery until he reveals that he is pretty evil. He manipulates an entire family so he can get what he wants, which is apparently to dance...um...freely, through the Saltburn estate.
Skyfall
No one ever expects James Bond to lose, and he rarely does. Sometimes, however, the villain does at least partially win. Skyfall is a great example. Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem) is one of the best Bond villains of all time, and in the end, while he doesn't live, Silva does take out M (Judi Dench) and in a way, breaks Bond on his way out.
The Wicker Man
Whether it's the classic original from 1973 or the ill-advised "comedic" 2006 remake of The Wicker Man, the results are the same. The police officer investigating the cult of pagans doesn't get his man in the end, in fact, they get him.
Fallen
While Fallen isn't going to top any list of great Denzel Washington movies, it is an example of the bad guy winning in the end. It's a weird story, involving demon possession and other occult-ness, and in the end, while Washington's character thinks he's got the upper hand by poisoning himself and shooting his possessed partner, played by John Goodman, it turns out he doesn't and the demon walks away after possessing a cat. Seriously.
12 Monkeys
12 Monkeys is as confusing as it is visually stunning and because the plot can be so confusing it's hard to say if the bad guy wins definitively. It's even hard to say who the baddies are definitively. What is clear is that despite Bruce Willis' character trying to do what's best for himself and his future, fate, the scientists in the future, or whomever, steps in to take him out. So the good guy doesn't win, which is close enough.
Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith
There's no surprise that Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith is on this list. It's an interesting addition because most fans knew exactly where this part of the Star Wars saga was headed. Palpatine/Darth Sidious (Ian McDiarmid) wins by drawing Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) to the Dark Side and creating Darth Vader. Bummer.
The Bad New Bears
The Bad New Bears is a classic sports comedy that follows a tried and true formula. A group of misfits come together after struggling and make it to the championship game. Unfortunately for the Bears, they lose in the championship to their rivals, the Yankees. The bad guy is most definitely the terrible coach of the Yankees, who even slaps his son before the game ends, yet he's rewarded by winning. Bad news for the Bears.
Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines
In the Terminator series, fans waited a long time to see Judgment Day, when Skynet became aware. That finally happens at the end of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. John Connor (Nick Stahl) and Kate Brewster (Claire Danes) seek to shut down Skynet before it becomes sentient, but find their destination is the wrong place to do that. Skynet becomes aware, launching the nukes that would kick off the war with the machines.
A Clockwork Orange
A Clockwork Orange turns a lot of tropes on their heads. For starters, audiences end up rooting for Alex (Malcolm McDowell) despite being a horrid, homicidal maniac. When he's sent to the hospital to be reformed, the brainwashing works and Alex is "cured" of his ultra-violent tendencies, and yet, we're all left disappointed somehow and the bad guys become those saving the maniac. Or did they...
Taxi Driver
Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) in Taxi Driver is a bad guy. There's no way around it. He might have been driven to madness, but that doesn't mean he's good. Still, he never pays for any of his horrible crimes and in the end, is still driving his cab. It's a win for the anti-hero that shouldn't even be considered that.
Swimming with Sharks
When Guy's (Frank Whaley) dream job turns into a nightmare at the hands of one of the worst bosses in movie history, Buddy Ackerman (Kevin Spacey) in Swimming With Sharks he comes up with a plan to end Buddy's reign of terror. Instead, Buddy turns it around on Guy and Guy becomes everything he tried to avoid. Chalk another one up for the bad guy.
The Talented Mr. Ripley
Tom Ripley in The Talented Mr. Ripley is a grade-A sociopath and when presented with an opportunity to weasel his way into a lifestyle he craves, he resorts to everything up to murder to do so. He kills friends, lovers, and other innocent people to get what he wants, without even a hint of remorse most of the time. He also gets away with it all, getting everything he wants with no consequences.
Cool Hand Luke
"Cool Hand" Luke Jackson is another anti-hero we all love. He's incorrigible and untamable in the best way. That is until he meets The Captain in a prison in Florida who goes out of his way to break Luke in Cool Hand Luke. The Captain is so brutal on Luke, that the movie ends with Luke's death. The Captain wins and seemingly will continue his brutal ways in the future.
Network
Network doesn't have one bad guy that wins, it has a bad system that wins. Corporations and capitalism are the bad guys, not state actors or terrorists. "There is only IBM and ITT and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon," according to Arthur Jensen (Ned Beatty). Howard Beale (Peter Finch) tries to take them down, but he's just yelling madly out a window. Almost 50 years after Network came out and the corporations are still winning.
Basic Instinct
Catherine Tramell is a great villain in Basic Instinct. The role is played so well by Sharon Stone that by the end, audiences aren't sure if she's good or bad, if she's a murderer or not. It's less ambiguous when we see the ice pick in the final scene. Still, she wins, she gets away with murder, or multiple murders and lives on, ready to commit at least one more, maybe.
Sicario
Sicario's morality is all over the place. Audiences are left asking more questions about it than answers to be found in the movie. Is the CIA evil? Are the U.S. policies in the War on Drugs? Is the Mexican Cartel? What about Benicio Del Toro's character? We just don't know. What we do know is that no one wins, especially not the good guy.
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
In George Lazenby's only appearance as James Bond, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, James Bond saves the world but loses his wife, which definitely qualifies as the bad guy winning. After Bond stymies Blofeld's (Telly Savalas) plans and rescues his love interest, Tracy (Diana Rigg), Blofeld returns the favor when he and his henchwoman gun down Tracy in a drive-by shooting as the couple are leaving their wedding. It's safe to say the moment changed 007 forever.
Arlington Road
In Arlington Road Michael (Jeff Bridges) suspects his neighbors, played by Tim Robbins and Joan Cusack, as being terrorists, and he pursues them in a cat-and-mouse game that ultimately leads to Michael discovering he was right, but the terrorists are one step ahead of him and Michael dies in an explosion at FBI headquarters and is framed as the perpetrator of the blast. Meanwhile, his neighbors, who are responsible, get away scot-free.
Gone Girl
Just who is the bad guy in Gone Girl? Is it Nick (Ben Affleck) for the way he treats his wife, or is it his wife, Amy (Rosamund Pike) for the way she frames him? It's hard to answer, but by the end, Amy has trapped Nick in their toxic relationship, so in one way or another, the bad guy wins.
The Dark Knight Rises
The Joker in The Dark Night Rises is quite possibly the best villain in any comic book movie ever. Heath Ledger's performance is worthy of all the praise it gets. And while he doesn't get everything he wants, to destroy the soul of Gotham, he does manage to destroy Batman's (Christian Bale) psyche and that is enough to say the bad guy won.
It's nice to not always have the bad guy lose, even if we don't like it in the moment. But as the Rolling Stones said, sometimes you need to have a little "sympathy for the devil."
