Films where the bad guy gets away with it? *READ SPOILERS AT OWN RISK!!!*

dr gonzo

Ive found that these endings are always brilliant or terrible, never really mediocre, they either work or they dont and can in a way ruin a film that might have been very good up til then or make a good film brilliant. But i was trying to think of some after watching a film with one recently and only a few come to mind

Two are:

Chinatown which i thought was an excellent ending as its quite a dark film anyway with the final line really tying the whole movie together.

and

Arlington Road which i felt was trying too hard to be controversial in explicitly having the antagonists win however i did leave the movie annoyed and maybe that was the in fact the point.

what are some more examples of this and do they work or not?

spadesaspade

the exorcist, i heard that baddie is still popping around to a few homes:eek:

Voodu Child

The Town.

Would have been much better if Affleck was shot to bits at the end.

HavingCrack

No Country for Old Men

...kind of I suppose. Nobody really wins except those pesky Mexicans :pac:

liah

The Usual Suspects.

:cool:

dr gonzo

liah wrote: »

The Usual Suspects.

:cool:

Wow, completely forgot that very obvious but very brilliant one!

bnt

My first idea was mentioned in the first post: but what about the Godfather films? Even in Part III, in which

Michael Corleone loses his daughter then later dies himself - but he was on the way out anyway, and the new bad guys took over.

I wouldn't count films in which the bad guy wins a temporary victory but loses in a sequel e.g. the Star Wars films. Some others are debateable e.g. Se7en:

John Doe may have "won", but didn;t get to enjoy his "victory", what with being dead and all that

. Leon has the same problem, I suppose.

gandalf

The first one to spring to mind is not a classic film

I am of course talking about Swordfish, with John Travolta and Huge Jackman, dodgy hacking, big explosions and questionable acting. Anyway at the end we see that Travolta's character Gabriel gets the money and keeps on with his one man war against "the terrorists".

The Usual Suspects is an excellent example as well

LittleBook

Voodu Child wrote: »

The Town.

Would have been much better if Affleck was shot to bits at the end.

Similary Heat

where Val Kilmer gets away

.

The Wicker Man -

bad guys kill good policeman and prolly get away with it

Zodiac -

serial killer gets away with it

chin_grin

Recently watched

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. Was amazed that after all he did he just drives off and roll credits. Great ending.

D-FENS

Fallen
American Psycho (At least i think he did..)
Silence of the Lambs
Hannibal

Ridley

Revenge of the Sith for obvious reasons.

Infernal Affairs - Ming survives when another mole in the kills Yan as Mark Wahlberg isn't there to shoot him in the face. But his survival is the price he pays (until the sequel anyway) and what makes it a better film than The Departed.

And depending on which cut:

The Good, The Bad, The Weird - 'The Weird' is revealed be the "Finger Chopper" criminal 'The Good' mistook 'The Bad' and The Weird lives to fight another day.

DeepBlue

Primal Fear - at least I think he got away with it. Been a while since I've seen it.
Infernal Affairs - perhaps not quite as the "bad guy" wins but seems to have changed his ways. The US remake The Departed changes this part of the ending - for the worse imo.

Edit: snap ^^

D-FENS

Interview with the Vampire

ziedth

Arlington Road: I watched it all along and expected a flag waving American Victory. Was genuinely surprised and thought the film really benefited from it

tony1kenobi

Fight Club.

kdevitt

memento - the guys essentially a serial killer with a dicky memory

FlashD

The Usual Suspects
Goodfellas

cosmic

Irreversible

-

the guy who gets his head smashed in by the fire extinguisher isn't Le Tenia

SugarHigh

Watch gangster movies from the 30's and you will find a lot of films where the bad guy gets away. "The good guy always wins" and "crime doesn't pay" only really came in with the hollywood code of conduct in the 40's.

krudler

not to be too pedantic but its kinda pointless putting spoiler tags on text without naming the movie first, you dont know what you're reading spoilers for!

although then if you name the movie first then someone will know the bad guy wins, confusing thread is confusing :pac:

TheWarrior

Memories of Murder

Saw it Sunday night- wow, just wow!

ricero

inglorious basterds. hans landa

kdogkeith

Pans Labyrinth Spoiler: The Girl dies and so does the bad dude, I loved the film but i didnt really like the ending

Sorry if you guys see the white text when you dont want to, i dont know how to do the grey thingy

rednik

The long good Friday. Poor old Bob Hoskins is plagued from start to finish in the movie by the provos. Then in the last scene when he gets into the car, the look on his face when he has a gun put to his head. A great film.

Ellian

The Last Seduction - Linda Fiorentino's character makes off with the loot and leaves patsy to fry for her crimes.

Nolanger

Phonebooth.

Savman

Not so obvious, but

Sherlock Holmes

.

Top Dog

The Fast & Furious Spoiler;

Where Vin Diesel drives off in the Supra at the end

:pac:

bonerm

I love how this thread is full of titleless spoilers that you can't even risk hovering over anyway. Totally pointless presentation.

Turtyturd

Infernal Affairs as has already been mentioned.

I also though Collateral missed a really good opportunity for this.

Mellor

LittleBook wrote: »

Zodiac -

serial killer gets away with it

Well, its a true story and well he did get away with it. Probably the most famous one to do so since The ripper.

bonerm wrote: »

I love how this thread is full of titleless spoilers that you can't even risk hovering over anyway. Totally pointless presentation.

On the other hand, if somebody goes

Usual suspects:

ramdom spoiler text

It kinds lets everyone know that the bad guy gets away with it in usual suspects

Andre80Johnson

The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans

Funglegunk

tony1kenobi wrote: »

Fight Club.

Not really...

Funglegunk

krudler wrote: »

not to be too pedantic but its kinda pointless putting spoiler tags on text without naming the movie first, you dont know what you're reading spoilers for!

although then if you name the movie first then someone will know the bad guy wins, confusing thread is confusing :pac:

I agree with Krudler.

the whole year inn

"Blue Streak"

Mellor

The devils advocate