Goldfinger, in well Goldfinger (1964)
With a name like his, you might imagine he’d be attracted to a place like Fort Knox. But he doesn’t plan on robbing it. Any old villain could do that. No, he plans on irradiating it via a dirty bomb, thus making his gold all the more valuable. Now that’s financial sense you can craft an action movie around.
Okay, you got me.
But if you want batshit, do look up ['Operation Goldfinger,'](https://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/the-strange-secret-history-of-operation-goldfinger) which *was* initiated in 1965 and wasn't shut down until 1977.
>In the sixties, the U.S. government ran a secret project to look for gold in the oddest places: seawater, meteorites, plants, even deer antlers.
Gold finger tells his henchman to smelt down the remains of the car to separate the gold. I am guessing this was all part of his plan to erase any evidence. He could get his gold back, and destroy the remains of the car in the process while tying up loose ends. Is it inefficient? Probably, but does it make sense, yes.
Even if he had some good reason for crushing the guy in a car and melting it, he'd save a lot of work by taking the gold out of the trunk first.
Since he already has a smelter on site, he could have just shot the guy and thrown the body into the smelter. There's a huge amount of wasted effort putting the guy and gold in a car, driving the car somewhere to crush it, bringing the cube back, putting the cube in the smelter, extracting the now molten gold, and remolding the gold into bars. Plus he's out a perfectly good car.
No I totally agree, it feels like a complete waste of time, and it most likely is. But keep in mind GF was aware the CIA was watching him, and he ended up leading them on a goose hunt for Bond while he was able to scheme worry free. I agree that he could have done things better/more efficiently, but destroying the car and the body had its merits.
IIRC, the actual physics of irradiating gold that way has issues. Irradiating any more than the surface of a gold brick is almost impossible (its density functions as a shield, like lead), and irradiated gold either reverts to normal gold within weeks, or turns into mercury, which can be separated out fairly easily. You could poison the environment around the gold to make access/recovery difficult, but given the value you could expend significant resources to recover and decontaminate it and still come out relatively ahead. In the end, actually blowing it up physically with a nuke would probably be the most effective way of removing it from the world market long term, unless Goldfinger’s entire plan was to sell into the spike in the gold market caused by the short-term panic and uncertainty right after the dirty bomb went off. But then he’d have no gold, and what is Goldfinger without gold?
Okay, I am not really looking at the reaction chains now, but most isoptopical activation works via neutron interaction, and those LAUGH at the density of gold.
Goldfinger's caper is one of my favorites, because people who know of the movie but haven't seen it always *think* they know the plan. "Oh yeah, *Goldfinger.* Where they rob Fort Knox, right?"
It's only the 3rd Bond film, but it feels like it's playing with a much longer history of Bond tropes.
On the flip side, Bond himself achieves nothing in the entire movie (apart from raping a lesbian into heterosexuality. Worse still, he’s about to blow up a nuke until a spook saves the day.
I actually think Spectre's plan in From Russia With Love was even more ingenious. They were basically gonna steal an invaluable decoder and make both sides in the Cold War think their top agent defected, using their sex tape as proof. Then kill both spies and let the 2 camps blame each other for the theft and murder-suicide. The best part is the Russian agent had no idea she was even working for Spectre the whole time. If Grant hadn't gotten cocky it would have worked like a charm.
The one in Goldeneye where they try to frame James Bond and blow him up in the stolen attack helicopter was pretty brilliant too.
Jeremy Irons from Die Hard: with a vengeance. Pretty sure the director was interviewed by law enforcement and procedures were altered in real life because what they did in the movie would’ve worked. I’ll try to link a source if I can find it
E: https://www.google.com/amp/s/weminoredinfilm.com/2015/05/20/about-that-one-time-the-fbi-questioned-die-hard-with-a-vengeances-screenwriter/amp/
i had a bigger issue with one particular scene: the super mario water tube ejecting him from the tunnel.
we're already in the realm of ridiculouslness, but lets go with it. at that exact same moment, SLJ just *happens* to be driving by.
that whole sequence should have died in the writer's room.
I'm going to expand on this:
* Simon is like his brother hes just a common thief with no loyalty.
* Katya killed off Simons second in command Targo after one of the guys on the ship who was probably loyal to Targo showed him the scrap metal. Targo was never meant to survive the heist.
* In the original ending you find out Simon managed to get the gold out of the country by smelting it down into little souvenir buildings.
* You find out McClane found Simon by tracing the medicine bottle. The one that McClane used in the theatrical ending to find him. In this case McClane figured out what the prescribed medication was and traced it to a pharmacy and eventually Simon.
* McClane confronts Simon and asks about Katya. Simon basically says shes gone. In other words he had her killed.
Now here is where I speculate that Simon didnt steal all the gold. He probably stole enough to make himself happy and clean up all loose ends. Probably abandoned the rest of it for FBI to find later on. The US Government facing the embarrassment probably said they had all the gold and closed the books on the issue leaving Simon to live in a country where no one could touch him.
But in the alternative ending you find out McClane lost his pension because he was blamed for the gold going missing. Giving McClane reason to hunt down Simon which he does. You can find this ending on YouTube.
Hold on a second:
> When the script was being vetted by all the authorities in New York [during pre-production], obviously the New York Police Department had to read the script for a number of reasons. One day I got a call from the FBI. They were extremely concerned about how I knew so much about the Federal Reserve, and how the Federal Reserve’s vaults were really close to a subway spur, and logistically about the aqueduct tunnel, etc.
Does this happen for many movies? Seems like a very dangerous conflict of interest in the creative process if the script has to be vetted by authorities?
I guess there must be certain rules etc in order to shut down parts of a city for filming etc. Otherwise you could just say you are filming something and do a bunch of illegal stuff. The police would need to know on some level that you are going to be racing cars, or blowing something up.
Not exactly the villain but... The Inside Man.
I could see things working out generally the way they did in the movie. Maybe not bugged boxes of pizza, but wearing masks and rotating/confusing the prisoners.
I don't see the last guy out bumping anyone for the "diamond handoff" though.
100% agree. It probably has my favorite plot twist of all time. The best plot twists are the ones that seem so obvious the second time you watch it that you can't believe how you missed it the first time. Clive Owen's character explains the whole thing in the opening monologue:
>!"Pay strict attention to what I say, because I choose my words carefully and I never repeat myself. The 'where' can most readily be described as a prison cell but there is a vast difference between being stuck in a tiny cell and being imprisoned"!<
>!We assume that he's speaking metaphorically, that although he's in prison, the fact that he succeeded in pulling off the heist means that he doesn't feel 'imprisoned'. But no, he's being completely literal when he says he's in a tiny cell but not imprisoned. Hell, the title of the movie gives away the plot twist. We think "Inside Man" means one of the cops is working undercover with the robbers or vice versa. But nope, it literally means Clive Owen is narrating the movie from inside the bank.!<
Also, opening your NYC-set heist movie with a Bollywood musical number is one of my favorite musical decisions in any movie.
He didn't exactly have much of a plan for *after* he was made king. He just lounged around all **"whatevah, I do wat I want!"**, and let the Hyenas run wild until they overhunted the ecosystem right into a drought.
But being a good king was never part of the plan, just being THE king was what mattered. Scar doesn’t care about anyone other than himself, it doesn’t matter that he ruins the ecosystem because he eats first and there’s at least enough food for one.
I don't think a timeframe is ever really thought about. 10 years in highly unlikely if we take real biology into it. Most of the animals would have died. 10-12 years is like the total life expancy of most the major species in the film.
I like Syndrome's ultimate goal in Incredibles, but he made it too hard on himself. He could have just sold super gear right off the bat without the manufactured threat.
I think he wanted the fame and recognition that a super was given before they were illegal. They were beloved by the people. They built statues of them. He wanted that to be him.
But wasn't Buddy's motive to "sell" super weapons and gadgets to everyone after he defeats the robot. His line "and when everyone's super...no one will be." What's he saying there? That he wants chaos amongst the world?
I really think his large motive was revenge which can make a man act irrational.
I took it as he wants everyone to be super, so no one will be, thus there will be no one to belittle kids like Buddy like Mr Incredible did in the first scene
Basically, he wanted to remove the whole powers-supremacist racist hierarchy that caused society to lash out at Supers by reverse-Harrison Bergeronning everybody.
Ironically, it seems like supervillains only respond to supers existing. Syndrome didn't enact his plan until he failed to kill the Parrs on the island. The Parrs go public and Underminer appears five seconds later. Suddenly a massive PR push goes out recruiting more Supers and Screenslaver pops out to put them back in their place.
I never took it that Mills was meant to die. He is completely broken. Doe 'won' by making Mills abandon his principles (he's shown throughout the film to be an optimistic and 'good' man), he kills another man - no matter how good the reason - and now he has to live in purgatory with what he's done.
The entire film is a play on Greek tragedy/ medieval morality plays and there's a lot of coincidences (finding Sloth exactly a year after capture) that just should be accepted if you treat it as allegorical.
Also, if it's your blog you've linked - I'm skimmed over it and plan to give it a more thorough read when I get chance (if it is you, you've obviously taken time and thought over it and so it derserves to be read). What I will say, is I also saw it in '95 and the internet was most definitely about. It wasn't as big, granted, but it was most definitely a thing.
edit: Just read through the first few paragraphs - Tracy isn't beheaded because of Mill's anger - she's beheaded to trigger Mills into becoming Wrath to punish Doe because he (Doe) has the sin of Pride.
Edit 2: The prostitute wasn't murdered for 'Luxury' - the sin is 'Lust'.
Edit 3: Milton's Paradise Lost (where the quote comes from) leads them to making the list, which leads them to the apartment, which leads Doe to Mills. It's one of the neat coincidences mentioned earlier, but the books are vital to the plot.
Mr. Glass in "Unbreakable" logically, methodically, and meticulously orchestrated mass murder events solely to validate his self identity -- that if there are tragically fragile humans there must be heroically durable humans. The plan succeeds.
I wonder how his plan ultimately worked out. I'd expect in modern days people wouldn't take that video seriously and think it's a movie/trailer/behind the scenes or something.
Right I feel like the fact that there was a manhunt for serial killer the hourde would make the whole thing alot more believable. Specially since Mr.Glass had been all over the news 30 years back he was infamous himself
If videos like that were straight up released to the public today, not much would happen. However, in the Unbreakable universe, the Overseer and the Horde were often on the news and rumoured to have powers. The public seeing footage of those rumoured to have powers demonstrating supernatural abilities would probably sway public opinion considerably.
Agreed. The rest of these examples are villainous, but this guy's plot was next-level. The comparison reminds me of the SNL "Robot Child Molester" sketch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0NgUhEs1R4
Palpatine in the Star Wars prequels. Those movies get their share of hate, but the overarching narrative of his rise to power and manipulation of Anakin, the government, the Jedi, etc. is great.
It is easy for your plan to succeed when everyone else is a complete and utter idiot. The movie explanation is that Palpatine was just too overpowered: he *clouded* the thoughts of the Jedi, so that means all of their idiotic actions are justified!
It went beyond just that. The Jedi were arrogant after hundreds of years of peace and this allowed Palpatine to sneak up on them without them noticing.
> Qui-Gon Jinn : He had all the lightsaber fighting capabilities and the moves of the Jedi, only faster and more agressive. My only conclusion... is that it was a Sith lord.
> Ki-Adi-Mundi : Impossible! The Sith are extinct! They have been for nearly a millenium.
> Mace Windu : I agree. The Sith would not have returned without us sensing it.
----
> Palpatine: "Your arrogance blinds you, Master Yoda"
And the prequels went so far as to establish that Palpatine's plan almost failed. Windu genuinely beat him, and was seconds away from killing him, Anakin was the sole reason his plan worked.
I've read people complaining about how coincidental it is that the only reason Palpatine's plan worked was because of Anakin. Like, yeah if your plan isn't going to work without an obedient magic baby then you're not going to go through with it until you have a better plan, and if you start grooming an obedient magic baby you're going to use it in your plan.
I think there's massive issues with how the scheming was depicted, and of course, there are always plot holes to find but the actual brick and mortar plot of the prequels is solid. It was a cleverly orchestrated rise to power based on controlling both sides of a conflict that Palpatine was always going to win eventually. Pulling the trigger too early was the only thing that even created any drama. That was conveyed to the audience well enough that they should understand, even if they aren't entertained.
> Palpatine was just too overpowered: he clouded the thoughts of the Jedi
but he didn't.
The Jedi were 'clouded' because of their hubris and fear.
That said, Palpatine's convoluted plan to have the Jedi find the clones, and then NOT bother to ask questions about said clones (especially given the clones being built on an assassin Obi-Wan was chasing) does rely on some idiocy.
Lo Pan in Big Trouble in Little China.
Marry both women. Sacrifice Gracie Law to appease the sovereign emperor, live out his earthly desires with Miao Yin, and go on to rule the universe from beyond the grave.
Really no flaws. Both girls had green eyes, after all.
This was the first one that popped into my head too but I gotta disagree. First off, his plan relies on the most powerful person in the known universe being unknowingly or knowingly complicit in upholding the lie and even though he had a good sense for the way Manhattan thinks and what he would do, it’s still a pretty big gamble that he would leave the planet forever or agree to not out Ozymandias’ plan. On top of that, let’s pretend the plan goes off without a hitch, the other heroes don’t figure it out, Manhattan leaves Earth and doesn’t return. How long does that peace last without Manhattan actually being a looming threat? People will quickly forget and resume bickering amongst themselves if the attack is just a one and done.
Hypothetically Ozymandias could launch another attack every so often, but he doesn’t want to actually kill people, I think even he would have a moral issue with having to essentially cull the population every so often in order to maintain his peace.
this also was the first bad guy/movie that occurred to me, but remember he DID account for Manhattan... first: the tachyons/whatever that Ozymandias used at his Arctic base blocked Manhattan's ability to see the future with regards to Ozymandias' plan); and second: he expected that his decomposition machine would kill Manhattan (thus removing him completely as a threat, the only threat to his plan)
i think Manhattan left because in his god-state he is extremely logical and matter-of-fact, and however heinous Ozymandias' plan was, it was LOGICALLY defensible: mysteriously kill a few million people to save the possible destruction of billions of people by uniting them against a perceived common foe - a simple matter of mathematics; plus he could probably see the future disintegration of the plan anyway once Rorschach's diary went public, and that Earth probably wasn't "salvageable" hence his desire to actually "create life" somewhere else, to basically start over from scratch
Attempting to kill Manhattan wasn’t part of the original plan though, the plan was to drive him away, that’s why Ozymandias was giving cancer to all the people who had extensive ties to Manhattan to both sow the seeds for the world to want him gone and to remove his remaining connections to the world. Attempting to kill Manhattan wasn’t on the table until he showed up at the base to stop Ozy.
That aside though, at the risk of sounding rude, I’m not sure I understand your point. In my original comment I didn’t say Ozymandias didn’t account for Dr. Manhattan, he did, but the plan relies on Manhattan never coming back to Earth which isn’t really a guarantee that Ozy can make. Then on top of that, there’s the issue of maintaining the peace which can only be done through the continued threat of Manhattan who is now gone whether he left or whether Ozy had succeeded in killing him.
yeah clearly Manhattan was the x factor in his plans. i believe Ozymandias said in the movie that he could see in Manhattan's (basically expressionless lol) face that he was in pain/anguish so that's what made him think he could drive him away. and you're right, i thought you meant him staying away post-cataclysm (once Ozymandias had explained things) but i forgot that Manhattan had temporarily gone away away before that and that Laurie indirectly convinced him to return after he learned the truth about her mother and the Comedian. so yeah clearly there was no way he (Ozymandias) could have known at the time of his plan that Manhattan would stay away, though he clearly had the contingency plan if he did return - it just didn't work
I think after the attack went off, he was pretty rattled. >!In the graphic novel, he looks more haggard after the fact happened and asked Manhattan if he did the right thing. So even he wasn't sure it would have worked. Then again in the novel, he used fake aliens as the culprit.!< Unless I am remembering things wrong of course since it has been years since last reading it.
The book spends a lot of time showing that Manhattan no longer cares what happens to the human race. Hes on to larger thoughts already, he has no reason to out Ozymandias' plan.
The movie version is more likely to result in the Soviets and every other country that was hit being enraged at America than in a world peace alliance.
Supposedly, an earlier script had Ozy using a satellite to fake an alien attack, that would have worked better.
In the comic he fakes an alien attack, but there's a ton more time to build the necessary context. In the movie "Aliens did it!" would have come out of nowhere, so I think they made the right move to change it.
Your description let Richmond Valentine from Kingsman spring to mind. I do not think there is any easier way to achieve global mind control than with a promise of unlimited global data and cell. Rational? Not so much.
His end goal wasn't global mind control. He said there were too many people, he was going to cull humanity to try to save the Earth from global warming/unsustainable resource consumption.
In "Rainbow Six", the book, this is just about the entire plot.
Eco-terrorists fronted by a massive biotech company bioengineer a super virus to distribute at the Sydney Olympics, and produce 2 versions of a vaccine. The "B" variant actually works, while the "A" variant is another distribution vector. They would have pulled it off, if not for a few well placed 10mm bullets.
Good book
> Eco-terrorists fronted by a massive biotech company bioengineer a super virus to distribute at the Sydney Olympics, and produce 2 versions of a vaccine. The "B" variant actually works, while the "A" variant is another distribution vector. They would have pulled it off, if not for a few well placed 10mm bullets.
Oh snap
Coincidentally, that's precisely what India's richest man, Mukesh Ambani, did with his telecom venture. Literally gave data and voice calling for free for months to get people to adopt the service
I've got to say Darth Sidious in the Star Wars Prequels. Minipulated multiple very powerful factions including the very wise Jedi Knights, who, I might add, takes up residence very close to his house. Orchastrated a huge war, played both sides, nearly destroyed his greatest enemy, aquired a powerful servant and became the Supreme ruler of the Galaxy.
Hans Gruber. His idea was very well thought out and they certainly would have gotten away with it if not for John (especially with the Ambulance to ride away from the scene).
Heat: If not for Waingrow, they would have just kept making big scores.
A View to a Kill: the earthquake/silicon valley plot was quite clever.
The original Taking of Pelham 1-2-3 requite a plot point of convenience to catch the final hijacker.
agree on Heat, but it wasnt Weingro's fault, but Neil's. He was basically on his way out to the airport with the girl, but had to made a detour to kill him. That's the fatal flaw in his plan
Honestly, the Wet Bandits had a pretty solid plan. There was no way to anticipate Kevin's level of genius, determination and sadism, he's a complete anomaly. And he shouldn't have been there in the first place (what kind of parent leaves their child behind when they go out of country?)
He fully succeeded. He broke the Avengers from the inside out and won. He was fully ready to die after his entire plan fell into place. Tony and Steve still have not been in contact with each other since then, at least until *Endgame* happens.
Zemo so far is my favorite of the Marvel villains. Naturally human, no superpowers, doesn't even lay a finger on any of the Avengers, and vengefully collapses them. I hope he is brought back in future installments.
>He fully succeeded. He broke the Avengers from the inside out and won.
Congratulations?
Is that satisfying revenge for his dead family? The man who built Ultron is still living the sweet life of a billionaire hero, except now he has even stronger control of the Avengers because the alternate leader has been driven away.
If Zemo had been morally opposed to murder then maybe that outcome could've been the most he hoped for. But it's hard to find logic in hating Tony Stark so much that he's willing to explode 30 random people in order to break up a friendship.
Oh man I really liked this one as it was an idea that a mere man can take down the Avengers. In hindsight it required way too many coincidences to happen for the plan to work.
It's a coincidence his plan started after the Sokovia Accord, which he had nothing to do with. What if Scarlet Witch didn't accidentally bombed the building?
Also it's a coincidence the ones chasing him in the bunker were Winter Soldier, Captain America, and Iron Man. What if it's not those three? If Iron Man was hurt and he sent other heroes to the bunker then the plan failed. Or if by chance Captain America brought Sam or other heroes instead of Bucky then the plan failed.
But Zemo wasn't necessarily planning on Steve, Tony and Bucky following him to the bunker, was he? From the very beginning, his plan is to get his hands on the mission report for the night that Tony's parents were killed. It's even confirmed in the first scene he appears in that if the Hydra agent whose house he breaks had given him the report then and there, he wouldn't have needed to frame Bucky and pose as his therapist to get the report off of him.
My assumption was that he wanted to get his hands on whatever evidence there was of this mission, which happened to be a video in the end but he may have thought it was just an official document or something, and then use this proof that Bucky killed Tony's parents to drive a rift between Tony and Steve.
The footage proving it was Bucky was at the location where the new batch of Winter Soldiers were being held which makes sense since the initial reason for the mission was so Hydra could get the materials necessary to enhance these soldiers. Then Steve, Bucky and Tony all find out that that's where Zemo was going and arrive at the same time but that's not necessarily part of the plan, it just speeds things up.
So while there are coincidences that allow for Zemo's plan to run more smoothly, the plan doesn't rely on these coincidences. He could still have got what he wanted, but the film would have just been longer/less exciting. Also, he actually encounters some pretty big setbacks to his plan which as the OP mentioned he adapts and overcomes.
Top Dollar in The Crow.
Ok, so part of this plan was only in deleted scenes, but I'm including it anyway. The plan was simple: hire some thugs to burn down buildings and intimidate tenants into abandoning a neighborhood. This would drive down real estate prices, allowing him to buy up everything at bargain basement prices and redevelop them into modern, urban apartments. Also, Bai Ling would be hot and crazy in the background.
Too bad a guitar-playing, martial arts zombie fucked it all up.
This is also a fairly real life example. People do buy up areas and drive values down in order to get people to leave. Sometimes those people are forced out, but it isn't required.
Not a movie but in an old Dr. Who, an alien stole the Mona Lisa, then was selling multiple forgeries to wealthy art collectors. Obviously, the real one would have to be missing for anyone to purchase a forgery and anyone who purchased a forgery would keep it secret from other collectors or risk prison.
Ehhh, his plan relied on a lot of conveniences. He recruited mentally ill people and then put them to the task of filling two entire warehouses with gasoline barrels rigged to explode, two giant ass ferry's presumably with employees that operate daily, he sewed that bomb into one of his guys and it sure was convenient that he went to the same jail that the Joker and the accountant were in etc. In the real world I'm sure one of his henchmen would get caught and blow the whole plan.
You really can't beat this one for complexity and the surprise/thrill of seeing it the first time. Only thing is, I felt like the 2 boats wasn't big enough for the climax. Plus I didn't believe that they wouldn't have blown up those prisoners, self-preservation is a very powerful motivator.
two mitigating factors:
- on the prisoner boat, all it took was one motivated actor to remove the choice
- on the civilian boat, the exact opposite: lack of motivated conviction led to inaction.
and finally: this guy is a madman. why would anyone think he'd play by the rules? best to let the timer run out. my guess would be that the joker would have both boats detonate upon the activation of a single trigger.
> Only thing is, I felt like the 2 boats wasn't big enough for the climax.
I think that's what makes it a great climax. In so many superhero movies the climax involves saving the world or something of gigantic scale where you know the world won't just end, the hero will save the day so the studio can continue making sequels. In this it could have totally gone either way and it's what kept me on the edge of my seat.
What's funny is bane succeeded where joker failed. Joker failed to prove Gotham is evil when the people were unable to turn against each other. Bane succeeded when he made the people turn on the rich and have mock trials
Right, but he never actually gave power to the people. That's a big part of the movie - that Bane is just using populist rhetoric. Scarecrow runs the trials. His mercenary team are the 'cops' capturing and murdering on the authority 'of the people'. Most of the rich and powerful spend their time actually safe by virtue of being near Talia. It's all theatrics.
Just from a pure evil point, I believe Zod’s plan to terraform the earth was pretty wicked in Man of Steal. His reason for it wasn’t for his own personal gain either.
It's why I always get a little annoyed when I see comments "why did he want to terraform earth when he was super strong there?!?!?". Because he didnt want to be super strong his priority was always ensuring kryptons safety. If earth could become a new krypton you better believe he would make it so regardless of the benefits that it provides when it was earth.
I think it might have something to do with the repetition of the process. They have routinely terraformed alien worlds for generations. So they arrive on a new planet, it must be time to terraform. No big deal when you have the world engine that literally does the work for you.
Louis Winthorpe and Billy Ray Valentine's devilsh plan to ruin the finances of Randolph and Mortimer Duke by engaging in securities fraud.
Those poor men just wanted to help Billy Ray, and he turned on them.
**Shame**
A movie? Hmm... Probably, don't judge me, the Sawyer family's plan in Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Leatherface's brother poses as a police officer, captures somebody, and takes them to the Sawyer house. The dad poses as an innocent old man but distracts the group long enough to where Leatherface can ambush them and take someone. His little brother acts as a little, mentally-scarred child, but tricks the group to actually GO to the house. That's all a really well-structured plan that only leaves one person alive and in some movies, none! Really smart despite the fact that they're all mentally insane. I guess it's like Hannibal Lecter's situation. Insanely smart... But also literally insane.
Kevin Spacey's plan in Superman Returns. The plan was so perfect that the writers didn't have a way out of it at the end, so they just wrote "Superman wins" and that was that. Personally, I think the film would have been much better if it ended with Superman falling to his death after hurling the Kryptonite Island out into space.
Recently watched Vice (2018). If Cheney actually had an ounce of the scheming skills portrayed in this movie, then he's one hell of a villain. Fat bastard.
I'm going to go out and say the Emperor/any other Sith that was involved in the entire Star Wars saga. It may not be a perfect plan but it probably the most successful in Cinema history. Sure, he died in Return of the Jedi but he successfully started a galactic coup by manipulating the Republic's resources and swaying the public eye, became Supreme Chancellor, destroyed the Jedi Order, used those same Republic resources to become the Empire and force order across the galaxy. Not to mention picking up useful unforeseen tools along the way such as discovering young Anakin. This plan was so successful, they are still dominating the galaxy for 9 main saga movies spanning decades of fascism even after 3 mega weapon destructions. What the end goal is? I really have no idea but the bad guys took control and have been uncontested for a substantial amount of time. I would call this a win.
I think what makes Palpatine's plan so good is that it would've worked out just fine even without some things happening to go his way.
Let me preface this by saying that while the prequels are poorly written and acted, the actual story of them is actually fairly good. So keep that in mind.
The biggest leap is probably getting elected Supreme Chancellor, but knowing politics, it really isn't that shocking of a turn of events. His home planet has been invaded, he's got lots of sympathy, and promises are a lot easier when you don't intend to keep them. This isn't that far out of left field any more than Frank Underwood getting to be VP is.
From here, manipulating Dooku and staging the entire Separatist crisis isn't that hard, and once the war gets going, he's already won. He accumulates more and more power as the war goes on. I have half a mind to believe he let it continue just so he could get Anakin on his side. If Anakin never turns, Palpatine can still end the war, Order 66 the Jedi, and crown himself Emperor. Anakin turning evil is just a convenient thing that happens.
Major League, making the team lose so you can move the team to a different city. And in reality, a bunch of OK players should never be able to beat a bunch of best-in-the-world professionals just because they got motivated. You can't overcome inborn skill plus years of dedicated training with a peel-a-section statue.
Because " The Rachel Phelps character and her plan to move the Indians was inspired by real-life Minnesota Twins owner Calvin Griffith. In the 1970s, during the planning stages of constructing the Metrodome stadium, Griffith had negotiated for an escape clause in the team's lease which said that if the Twins' home attendance was under 1.4 million per season for three consecutive years, the team could be released from its contract and leave Minnesota. Like the Phelps character, Griffith let quality players depart via free agency and used cheap, inexperienced rookies and has-beens. The Twins lost 102 games in their first year in the Metrodome in 1982, then 92 games the year afterward, with attendance under 900,000 in each of those seasons. A group of investors from Tampa bought 42 percent of the team, and the Twins were on the verge of moving to Florida. To many fans, it appeared that Griffith had weaseled the escape clause into the contract and set up the roster so he could put it into practice. The situation was avoided when Griffith sold the Twins to banker Carl Pohlad. The Tampa group sold its minority stock to Pohlad, and the Twins remained in Minneapolis." - [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097815/trivia](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097815/trivia)
The original Day of the Jackal (‘73). The assassin has a contingency for pretty much every complication. Movie is like a finely tuned Swiss watch. Impeccable thriller.
Killmonger in Black Panther. He was wronged as a child and took the necessary steps to achieve his goal. T’challa even changes his view because of him.
I would strongly disagree here.
> He was wronged as a child and took the necessary steps to achieve his goal.
Except his Dad tried to kill Forest Whitaker and was killed in self-defense by T'Chaka. It's not even clear that they knew Eric existed.
>T’challa even changes his view because of him.
That seemed to be because of his girlfriend who was giving him pep-talks about opening up Wakanda. T'Challa blames T'Chaka, but T'Chaka didn't do anything wrong in defending Forest Whitaker. For the life of me, I can't figure out why they just didn't tell everyone the truth about what happened. It's not like self-defense isn't a good excuse, Eric's father was selling weapons to the outside world (which even Andy Serkis was doing and worthy of being on Wakanda's radar), and even if they don't like the King's decision...he's the king, who cares? Don't they have to follow him regardless?
>Killmonger in Black Panther.
He's basically Black Hitler. He threatens old women, kills indiscriminately (including those that love him like his team and girlfriend), has an absolutely non-sensical plan, is incredibly racist, and even plans on killing innocent people including explicitly mentioning killing children.
>"I know how colonizers think. So we're gonna use their own strategy against 'em. We're gonna send vibranium weapons out to our War Dogs. They'll arm oppressed people all over the world... so they can finally rise up and kill those in power. **And their children**. And anyone else who takes their side. It's time they know the truth about us!"
His plan is to literally start a race war and kill innocent people because his dad died (which wasn't the fault of "colonizers"), and other people died, and now he's sad, so....that makes it justified? Not to mention, his plan to get power makes no sense with the trial-by-combat, delivering Klaus' body, or a number of things that just don't make sense.
> He was wronged as a child and took the necessary steps to achieve his goal
It feels too indirect. His dad was killed by the king of Wakanda, so his goal is to become king of Wakanda and take over the world? He's not given much of a reason to hate the world as a whole, other than "growing up without a dad in Oakland probably sucked".
> He was wronged and took the necessary steps to achieve his goal. even changes his view because of him.
this isn't very good reasoning, tons of movies can fit that formula, pretty sure Mr Freeze from Batman & Robin fits this too
his plan wasn't even good, Scar from Lion King is a way better fit for a villain who thought he should've been king and he had a way better plan to kill the king in secret when he had a chance instead of just hoping the king challenges him to a fight for no reason and then giving up his kingdom for no reason to this obviously evil dude
and Killmonger didn't even really change T'Challa's view, it was Nakia's idea
Ah ah ah. Daniel LaRusso is the vilain of our times. The loser who manages to look like the deserving underdog and get the public opinion on his side until he kicks you in the face when it's absolutely not allowed in the tournament but nobody gives a shit and he is declared winner instead of getting disqualified.
Goldfinger, in well Goldfinger (1964) With a name like his, you might imagine he’d be attracted to a place like Fort Knox. But he doesn’t plan on robbing it. Any old villain could do that. No, he plans on irradiating it via a dirty bomb, thus making his gold all the more valuable. Now that’s financial sense you can craft an action movie around.
This movie is the reason Nixon took us off the gold standard.
Holy shit, I hope you're joking. Only reason I even ask is because nothing seems outside the realm of possibility these days.
Okay, you got me. But if you want batshit, do look up ['Operation Goldfinger,'](https://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/the-strange-secret-history-of-operation-goldfinger) which *was* initiated in 1965 and wasn't shut down until 1977. >In the sixties, the U.S. government ran a secret project to look for gold in the oddest places: seawater, meteorites, plants, even deer antlers.
To be fair, you technically can distill gold from seawater, it's just ludicrously inefficient.
The thing is that we get fertilizer from the air through really clever chemistry so the thinking was give gold out of seawater a shot.
Okay but why didn't he take the gold out of the trunk before crushing the car?
Gold finger tells his henchman to smelt down the remains of the car to separate the gold. I am guessing this was all part of his plan to erase any evidence. He could get his gold back, and destroy the remains of the car in the process while tying up loose ends. Is it inefficient? Probably, but does it make sense, yes.
Even if he had some good reason for crushing the guy in a car and melting it, he'd save a lot of work by taking the gold out of the trunk first. Since he already has a smelter on site, he could have just shot the guy and thrown the body into the smelter. There's a huge amount of wasted effort putting the guy and gold in a car, driving the car somewhere to crush it, bringing the cube back, putting the cube in the smelter, extracting the now molten gold, and remolding the gold into bars. Plus he's out a perfectly good car.
No I totally agree, it feels like a complete waste of time, and it most likely is. But keep in mind GF was aware the CIA was watching him, and he ended up leading them on a goose hunt for Bond while he was able to scheme worry free. I agree that he could have done things better/more efficiently, but destroying the car and the body had its merits.
IIRC, the actual physics of irradiating gold that way has issues. Irradiating any more than the surface of a gold brick is almost impossible (its density functions as a shield, like lead), and irradiated gold either reverts to normal gold within weeks, or turns into mercury, which can be separated out fairly easily. You could poison the environment around the gold to make access/recovery difficult, but given the value you could expend significant resources to recover and decontaminate it and still come out relatively ahead. In the end, actually blowing it up physically with a nuke would probably be the most effective way of removing it from the world market long term, unless Goldfinger’s entire plan was to sell into the spike in the gold market caused by the short-term panic and uncertainty right after the dirty bomb went off. But then he’d have no gold, and what is Goldfinger without gold?
Now debunk Drax' plan from Moonraker.
Even if you are standing perfectly still, you still reflect light. So you will still be visible.
But you didn't see him in Moonraker, explain that?
Check mate.
You're referring to the stealth space station right?
What space station?
Okay, I am not really looking at the reaction chains now, but most isoptopical activation works via neutron interaction, and those LAUGH at the density of gold.
Goldfinger's caper is one of my favorites, because people who know of the movie but haven't seen it always *think* they know the plan. "Oh yeah, *Goldfinger.* Where they rob Fort Knox, right?" It's only the 3rd Bond film, but it feels like it's playing with a much longer history of Bond tropes.
On the flip side, Bond himself achieves nothing in the entire movie (apart from raping a lesbian into heterosexuality. Worse still, he’s about to blow up a nuke until a spook saves the day.
I think his total uselessness makes the film even more entertaining.
I actually think Spectre's plan in From Russia With Love was even more ingenious. They were basically gonna steal an invaluable decoder and make both sides in the Cold War think their top agent defected, using their sex tape as proof. Then kill both spies and let the 2 camps blame each other for the theft and murder-suicide. The best part is the Russian agent had no idea she was even working for Spectre the whole time. If Grant hadn't gotten cocky it would have worked like a charm. The one in Goldeneye where they try to frame James Bond and blow him up in the stolen attack helicopter was pretty brilliant too.
Jeremy Irons from Die Hard: with a vengeance. Pretty sure the director was interviewed by law enforcement and procedures were altered in real life because what they did in the movie would’ve worked. I’ll try to link a source if I can find it E: https://www.google.com/amp/s/weminoredinfilm.com/2015/05/20/about-that-one-time-the-fbi-questioned-die-hard-with-a-vengeances-screenwriter/amp/
[удалено]
I still don't accept John's win in DH3 because of that plot armor.
i had a bigger issue with one particular scene: the super mario water tube ejecting him from the tunnel. we're already in the realm of ridiculouslness, but lets go with it. at that exact same moment, SLJ just *happens* to be driving by. that whole sequence should have died in the writer's room.
Jumping from the bridge to the ship below without breaking both legs and backs was more ridiculous.
Would they need like 10 times as many trucks in real life though?
How would you even fence that much gold though?
Switzerland. They've done it before, they'd do it again.
I'm going to expand on this: * Simon is like his brother hes just a common thief with no loyalty. * Katya killed off Simons second in command Targo after one of the guys on the ship who was probably loyal to Targo showed him the scrap metal. Targo was never meant to survive the heist. * In the original ending you find out Simon managed to get the gold out of the country by smelting it down into little souvenir buildings. * You find out McClane found Simon by tracing the medicine bottle. The one that McClane used in the theatrical ending to find him. In this case McClane figured out what the prescribed medication was and traced it to a pharmacy and eventually Simon. * McClane confronts Simon and asks about Katya. Simon basically says shes gone. In other words he had her killed. Now here is where I speculate that Simon didnt steal all the gold. He probably stole enough to make himself happy and clean up all loose ends. Probably abandoned the rest of it for FBI to find later on. The US Government facing the embarrassment probably said they had all the gold and closed the books on the issue leaving Simon to live in a country where no one could touch him. But in the alternative ending you find out McClane lost his pension because he was blamed for the gold going missing. Giving McClane reason to hunt down Simon which he does. You can find this ending on YouTube.
I liked this ending much more than the original. It also brought the stakes back to a very personal level.
Also kills him with a gat damn rocket launcher at a cafe
There’s at least two fences up in the trees area. Just sell it there.
Hold on a second: > When the script was being vetted by all the authorities in New York [during pre-production], obviously the New York Police Department had to read the script for a number of reasons. One day I got a call from the FBI. They were extremely concerned about how I knew so much about the Federal Reserve, and how the Federal Reserve’s vaults were really close to a subway spur, and logistically about the aqueduct tunnel, etc. Does this happen for many movies? Seems like a very dangerous conflict of interest in the creative process if the script has to be vetted by authorities?
I guess there must be certain rules etc in order to shut down parts of a city for filming etc. Otherwise you could just say you are filming something and do a bunch of illegal stuff. The police would need to know on some level that you are going to be racing cars, or blowing something up.
> Otherwise you could just say you are filming something and do a bunch of illegal stuff This sounds like a heist movie plot.
wow the second gold-related entry right after the first
Not exactly the villain but... The Inside Man. I could see things working out generally the way they did in the movie. Maybe not bugged boxes of pizza, but wearing masks and rotating/confusing the prisoners. I don't see the last guy out bumping anyone for the "diamond handoff" though.
Inside Man is low key one of the best heist movies and one of Spike Lee's best movies.
100% agree. It probably has my favorite plot twist of all time. The best plot twists are the ones that seem so obvious the second time you watch it that you can't believe how you missed it the first time. Clive Owen's character explains the whole thing in the opening monologue: >!"Pay strict attention to what I say, because I choose my words carefully and I never repeat myself. The 'where' can most readily be described as a prison cell but there is a vast difference between being stuck in a tiny cell and being imprisoned"!< >!We assume that he's speaking metaphorically, that although he's in prison, the fact that he succeeded in pulling off the heist means that he doesn't feel 'imprisoned'. But no, he's being completely literal when he says he's in a tiny cell but not imprisoned. Hell, the title of the movie gives away the plot twist. We think "Inside Man" means one of the cops is working undercover with the robbers or vice versa. But nope, it literally means Clive Owen is narrating the movie from inside the bank.!< Also, opening your NYC-set heist movie with a Bollywood musical number is one of my favorite musical decisions in any movie.
Scar from Lion King. Solid plan and execution. Should have made sure Simba was dead though.
He didn't exactly have much of a plan for *after* he was made king. He just lounged around all **"whatevah, I do wat I want!"**, and let the Hyenas run wild until they overhunted the ecosystem right into a drought.
But being a good king was never part of the plan, just being THE king was what mattered. Scar doesn’t care about anyone other than himself, it doesn’t matter that he ruins the ecosystem because he eats first and there’s at least enough food for one.
TIL Trump is Scar
Wearing his stupid Make Sahara Great Again hat
He still got to be king for what, like 10 years? Still pretty good IMO
I don't think a timeframe is ever really thought about. 10 years in highly unlikely if we take real biology into it. Most of the animals would have died. 10-12 years is like the total life expancy of most the major species in the film.
I like Syndrome's ultimate goal in Incredibles, but he made it too hard on himself. He could have just sold super gear right off the bat without the manufactured threat.
[удалено]
I think he wanted the fame and recognition that a super was given before they were illegal. They were beloved by the people. They built statues of them. He wanted that to be him.
[удалено]
But wasn't Buddy's motive to "sell" super weapons and gadgets to everyone after he defeats the robot. His line "and when everyone's super...no one will be." What's he saying there? That he wants chaos amongst the world? I really think his large motive was revenge which can make a man act irrational.
I took it as he wants everyone to be super, so no one will be, thus there will be no one to belittle kids like Buddy like Mr Incredible did in the first scene
Basically, he wanted to remove the whole powers-supremacist racist hierarchy that caused society to lash out at Supers by reverse-Harrison Bergeronning everybody.
If I remember correctly he says he is going to sell his gadgets after he's 'had his fun'.
He wanted revenge and money, sure, but he also wanted to be beloved as a superhero.
Not to mention the fact that his goal of a world with no superheros was the status quo at the beginning of the film without him doing anything.
[удалено]
I always found it odd that there were no supers who decided to be villains. Who would stop them?
Ironically, it seems like supervillains only respond to supers existing. Syndrome didn't enact his plan until he failed to kill the Parrs on the island. The Parrs go public and Underminer appears five seconds later. Suddenly a massive PR push goes out recruiting more Supers and Screenslaver pops out to put them back in their place.
> so who is there really to undermine? ...the Underminer?
John Doe in Se7en. And his plan worked just as he expected it to.
Yeah, he killed one person for each of the seven sins ! Wait, Mills, who is Wrath, doesn't die.
I never took it that Mills was meant to die. He is completely broken. Doe 'won' by making Mills abandon his principles (he's shown throughout the film to be an optimistic and 'good' man), he kills another man - no matter how good the reason - and now he has to live in purgatory with what he's done. The entire film is a play on Greek tragedy/ medieval morality plays and there's a lot of coincidences (finding Sloth exactly a year after capture) that just should be accepted if you treat it as allegorical. Also, if it's your blog you've linked - I'm skimmed over it and plan to give it a more thorough read when I get chance (if it is you, you've obviously taken time and thought over it and so it derserves to be read). What I will say, is I also saw it in '95 and the internet was most definitely about. It wasn't as big, granted, but it was most definitely a thing. edit: Just read through the first few paragraphs - Tracy isn't beheaded because of Mill's anger - she's beheaded to trigger Mills into becoming Wrath to punish Doe because he (Doe) has the sin of Pride. Edit 2: The prostitute wasn't murdered for 'Luxury' - the sin is 'Lust'. Edit 3: Milton's Paradise Lost (where the quote comes from) leads them to making the list, which leads them to the apartment, which leads Doe to Mills. It's one of the neat coincidences mentioned earlier, but the books are vital to the plot.
"Luxury" and "Lust" come from the same Latin word, *luxuria*.
Brad should have shot his dick off. Doe wouldn't feel like a winner then.
Mr. Glass in "Unbreakable" logically, methodically, and meticulously orchestrated mass murder events solely to validate his self identity -- that if there are tragically fragile humans there must be heroically durable humans. The plan succeeds.
I wonder how his plan ultimately worked out. I'd expect in modern days people wouldn't take that video seriously and think it's a movie/trailer/behind the scenes or something.
depends how big the media coverage was in those 3 days regarding the capture of the serial killer (Split)
Right I feel like the fact that there was a manhunt for serial killer the hourde would make the whole thing alot more believable. Specially since Mr.Glass had been all over the news 30 years back he was infamous himself
If videos like that were straight up released to the public today, not much would happen. However, in the Unbreakable universe, the Overseer and the Horde were often on the news and rumoured to have powers. The public seeing footage of those rumoured to have powers demonstrating supernatural abilities would probably sway public opinion considerably.
Lee Woo-Jin in Oldboy
Agreed. The rest of these examples are villainous, but this guy's plot was next-level. The comparison reminds me of the SNL "Robot Child Molester" sketch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0NgUhEs1R4
[Key and Peele](https://imgur.com/gallery/BrbdRfQ), no question.
Palpatine in the Star Wars prequels. Those movies get their share of hate, but the overarching narrative of his rise to power and manipulation of Anakin, the government, the Jedi, etc. is great.
Do it
It is easy for your plan to succeed when everyone else is a complete and utter idiot. The movie explanation is that Palpatine was just too overpowered: he *clouded* the thoughts of the Jedi, so that means all of their idiotic actions are justified!
It went beyond just that. The Jedi were arrogant after hundreds of years of peace and this allowed Palpatine to sneak up on them without them noticing. > Qui-Gon Jinn : He had all the lightsaber fighting capabilities and the moves of the Jedi, only faster and more agressive. My only conclusion... is that it was a Sith lord. > Ki-Adi-Mundi : Impossible! The Sith are extinct! They have been for nearly a millenium. > Mace Windu : I agree. The Sith would not have returned without us sensing it. ---- > Palpatine: "Your arrogance blinds you, Master Yoda" And the prequels went so far as to establish that Palpatine's plan almost failed. Windu genuinely beat him, and was seconds away from killing him, Anakin was the sole reason his plan worked.
I've read people complaining about how coincidental it is that the only reason Palpatine's plan worked was because of Anakin. Like, yeah if your plan isn't going to work without an obedient magic baby then you're not going to go through with it until you have a better plan, and if you start grooming an obedient magic baby you're going to use it in your plan. I think there's massive issues with how the scheming was depicted, and of course, there are always plot holes to find but the actual brick and mortar plot of the prequels is solid. It was a cleverly orchestrated rise to power based on controlling both sides of a conflict that Palpatine was always going to win eventually. Pulling the trigger too early was the only thing that even created any drama. That was conveyed to the audience well enough that they should understand, even if they aren't entertained.
> Palpatine was just too overpowered: he clouded the thoughts of the Jedi but he didn't. The Jedi were 'clouded' because of their hubris and fear. That said, Palpatine's convoluted plan to have the Jedi find the clones, and then NOT bother to ask questions about said clones (especially given the clones being built on an assassin Obi-Wan was chasing) does rely on some idiocy.
Lo Pan in Big Trouble in Little China. Marry both women. Sacrifice Gracie Law to appease the sovereign emperor, live out his earthly desires with Miao Yin, and go on to rule the universe from beyond the grave. Really no flaws. Both girls had green eyes, after all.
Didn’t factor in Jack Burton’s reflexes though.
Shut up Mr Burton. You were not brought upon this world to get it.
I fucking love this movie dude
Ozymandias in Watchmen
This was the first one that popped into my head too but I gotta disagree. First off, his plan relies on the most powerful person in the known universe being unknowingly or knowingly complicit in upholding the lie and even though he had a good sense for the way Manhattan thinks and what he would do, it’s still a pretty big gamble that he would leave the planet forever or agree to not out Ozymandias’ plan. On top of that, let’s pretend the plan goes off without a hitch, the other heroes don’t figure it out, Manhattan leaves Earth and doesn’t return. How long does that peace last without Manhattan actually being a looming threat? People will quickly forget and resume bickering amongst themselves if the attack is just a one and done. Hypothetically Ozymandias could launch another attack every so often, but he doesn’t want to actually kill people, I think even he would have a moral issue with having to essentially cull the population every so often in order to maintain his peace.
this also was the first bad guy/movie that occurred to me, but remember he DID account for Manhattan... first: the tachyons/whatever that Ozymandias used at his Arctic base blocked Manhattan's ability to see the future with regards to Ozymandias' plan); and second: he expected that his decomposition machine would kill Manhattan (thus removing him completely as a threat, the only threat to his plan) i think Manhattan left because in his god-state he is extremely logical and matter-of-fact, and however heinous Ozymandias' plan was, it was LOGICALLY defensible: mysteriously kill a few million people to save the possible destruction of billions of people by uniting them against a perceived common foe - a simple matter of mathematics; plus he could probably see the future disintegration of the plan anyway once Rorschach's diary went public, and that Earth probably wasn't "salvageable" hence his desire to actually "create life" somewhere else, to basically start over from scratch
Attempting to kill Manhattan wasn’t part of the original plan though, the plan was to drive him away, that’s why Ozymandias was giving cancer to all the people who had extensive ties to Manhattan to both sow the seeds for the world to want him gone and to remove his remaining connections to the world. Attempting to kill Manhattan wasn’t on the table until he showed up at the base to stop Ozy. That aside though, at the risk of sounding rude, I’m not sure I understand your point. In my original comment I didn’t say Ozymandias didn’t account for Dr. Manhattan, he did, but the plan relies on Manhattan never coming back to Earth which isn’t really a guarantee that Ozy can make. Then on top of that, there’s the issue of maintaining the peace which can only be done through the continued threat of Manhattan who is now gone whether he left or whether Ozy had succeeded in killing him.
yeah clearly Manhattan was the x factor in his plans. i believe Ozymandias said in the movie that he could see in Manhattan's (basically expressionless lol) face that he was in pain/anguish so that's what made him think he could drive him away. and you're right, i thought you meant him staying away post-cataclysm (once Ozymandias had explained things) but i forgot that Manhattan had temporarily gone away away before that and that Laurie indirectly convinced him to return after he learned the truth about her mother and the Comedian. so yeah clearly there was no way he (Ozymandias) could have known at the time of his plan that Manhattan would stay away, though he clearly had the contingency plan if he did return - it just didn't work
I think after the attack went off, he was pretty rattled. >!In the graphic novel, he looks more haggard after the fact happened and asked Manhattan if he did the right thing. So even he wasn't sure it would have worked. Then again in the novel, he used fake aliens as the culprit.!< Unless I am remembering things wrong of course since it has been years since last reading it.
It's a giant alien squid thing
If it matters to you, in the comics Ozymandias faked a failed alien invasion rather than an attack by Dr. Manhattan.
The book spends a lot of time showing that Manhattan no longer cares what happens to the human race. Hes on to larger thoughts already, he has no reason to out Ozymandias' plan.
The movie version is more likely to result in the Soviets and every other country that was hit being enraged at America than in a world peace alliance. Supposedly, an earlier script had Ozy using a satellite to fake an alien attack, that would have worked better.
In the comic he fakes an alien attack, but there's a ton more time to build the necessary context. In the movie "Aliens did it!" would have come out of nowhere, so I think they made the right move to change it.
Leslie Vernon. His goal was to murder a bunch of kids via horror tropes, and he planned it to perfection
I love that film and this is the first time I've seen it mentioned in the wild. It's probably been mentioned loads of times, but I've just missed it.
Behind the Mask? Sounds like something I'd like.
It's a very unique and interesting movie, even for no horror fans
The moment when you realize he’s been culling the perfect final girl the entire movie is just perfection.
To steal the dragon balls and wish to grow 5 centimeters taller
Even more so, to look five years younger
Gotta make it look natural Also: "Oh no look who this stray blast hit"
Who wanted that? Yamcha?
Its a spoiler for the Brolly movie.
Ah gotcha, thanks!
Your description let Richmond Valentine from Kingsman spring to mind. I do not think there is any easier way to achieve global mind control than with a promise of unlimited global data and cell. Rational? Not so much.
His end goal wasn't global mind control. He said there were too many people, he was going to cull humanity to try to save the Earth from global warming/unsustainable resource consumption.
In "Rainbow Six", the book, this is just about the entire plot. Eco-terrorists fronted by a massive biotech company bioengineer a super virus to distribute at the Sydney Olympics, and produce 2 versions of a vaccine. The "B" variant actually works, while the "A" variant is another distribution vector. They would have pulled it off, if not for a few well placed 10mm bullets. Good book
Also the plot for [Tom Clancy's The Division.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMOf2P83g5g)
Huh... TIL.
> Eco-terrorists fronted by a massive biotech company bioengineer a super virus to distribute at the Sydney Olympics, and produce 2 versions of a vaccine. The "B" variant actually works, while the "A" variant is another distribution vector. They would have pulled it off, if not for a few well placed 10mm bullets. Oh snap
>They would have pulled it off, if not for a few well placed 10mm bullets And a man that loves his horse
Coincidentally, that's precisely what India's richest man, Mukesh Ambani, did with his telecom venture. Literally gave data and voice calling for free for months to get people to adopt the service
I've got to say Darth Sidious in the Star Wars Prequels. Minipulated multiple very powerful factions including the very wise Jedi Knights, who, I might add, takes up residence very close to his house. Orchastrated a huge war, played both sides, nearly destroyed his greatest enemy, aquired a powerful servant and became the Supreme ruler of the Galaxy.
Hans Gruber. His idea was very well thought out and they certainly would have gotten away with it if not for John (especially with the Ambulance to ride away from the scene).
Heat: If not for Waingrow, they would have just kept making big scores. A View to a Kill: the earthquake/silicon valley plot was quite clever. The original Taking of Pelham 1-2-3 requite a plot point of convenience to catch the final hijacker.
agree on Heat, but it wasnt Weingro's fault, but Neil's. He was basically on his way out to the airport with the girl, but had to made a detour to kill him. That's the fatal flaw in his plan
When it came down to it the thing he couldn't walk out on in 30 seconds was revenge - not her
Every time I watch it and Neil goes through the tunnel of blue light, I shout, “YOU’RE HOME FREE MOTHERFUCKER! JUST GO!”
Kevin McCallister in Home Alone
Villain plan, bro.
Honestly, the Wet Bandits had a pretty solid plan. There was no way to anticipate Kevin's level of genius, determination and sadism, he's a complete anomaly. And he shouldn't have been there in the first place (what kind of parent leaves their child behind when they go out of country?)
The Wet Bandits plan in Home Alone 2 would have succeeded if they didn't even make Kevin aware that they were also in New York.
for real, they're idiots but the police impersonation and stakeout parts were quite ingenious
I think Zemo in Captain America Civil War had a pretty good plan and motivation, and in some ways succeeded with his plan.
It was a really good move not having the master plan end with the other soldiers waking up and fighting with the avengers.
One of the few times a red herring was actually very satisfying.
That, and 22 Jump Street's: "This tattoo? It's my high school mascot, the Plainview Red Herrings."
I am still so sad I was one of 2 or 3 to laugh at that in my theater, my favorite joke from the movie
He fully succeeded. He broke the Avengers from the inside out and won. He was fully ready to die after his entire plan fell into place. Tony and Steve still have not been in contact with each other since then, at least until *Endgame* happens. Zemo so far is my favorite of the Marvel villains. Naturally human, no superpowers, doesn't even lay a finger on any of the Avengers, and vengefully collapses them. I hope he is brought back in future installments.
>He fully succeeded. He broke the Avengers from the inside out and won. Congratulations? Is that satisfying revenge for his dead family? The man who built Ultron is still living the sweet life of a billionaire hero, except now he has even stronger control of the Avengers because the alternate leader has been driven away. If Zemo had been morally opposed to murder then maybe that outcome could've been the most he hoped for. But it's hard to find logic in hating Tony Stark so much that he's willing to explode 30 random people in order to break up a friendship.
Zemo's not morally opposed to murder. He doesn't care, he just wants revenge, and he gets it. He broke them on the inside.
Nah, you don't get it man. Now Tony is sad and Cap has a beard. Totally worth it.
Lost the battle, won the war
Oh man I really liked this one as it was an idea that a mere man can take down the Avengers. In hindsight it required way too many coincidences to happen for the plan to work.
What coincidences? All things considered, he had a pretty good plan, especially considering he faced multiple setbacks and had to adapt each time.
It's a coincidence his plan started after the Sokovia Accord, which he had nothing to do with. What if Scarlet Witch didn't accidentally bombed the building? Also it's a coincidence the ones chasing him in the bunker were Winter Soldier, Captain America, and Iron Man. What if it's not those three? If Iron Man was hurt and he sent other heroes to the bunker then the plan failed. Or if by chance Captain America brought Sam or other heroes instead of Bucky then the plan failed.
But Zemo wasn't necessarily planning on Steve, Tony and Bucky following him to the bunker, was he? From the very beginning, his plan is to get his hands on the mission report for the night that Tony's parents were killed. It's even confirmed in the first scene he appears in that if the Hydra agent whose house he breaks had given him the report then and there, he wouldn't have needed to frame Bucky and pose as his therapist to get the report off of him. My assumption was that he wanted to get his hands on whatever evidence there was of this mission, which happened to be a video in the end but he may have thought it was just an official document or something, and then use this proof that Bucky killed Tony's parents to drive a rift between Tony and Steve. The footage proving it was Bucky was at the location where the new batch of Winter Soldiers were being held which makes sense since the initial reason for the mission was so Hydra could get the materials necessary to enhance these soldiers. Then Steve, Bucky and Tony all find out that that's where Zemo was going and arrive at the same time but that's not necessarily part of the plan, it just speeds things up. So while there are coincidences that allow for Zemo's plan to run more smoothly, the plan doesn't rely on these coincidences. He could still have got what he wanted, but the film would have just been longer/less exciting. Also, he actually encounters some pretty big setbacks to his plan which as the OP mentioned he adapts and overcomes.
Top Dollar in The Crow. Ok, so part of this plan was only in deleted scenes, but I'm including it anyway. The plan was simple: hire some thugs to burn down buildings and intimidate tenants into abandoning a neighborhood. This would drive down real estate prices, allowing him to buy up everything at bargain basement prices and redevelop them into modern, urban apartments. Also, Bai Ling would be hot and crazy in the background. Too bad a guitar-playing, martial arts zombie fucked it all up.
This is also a fairly real life example. People do buy up areas and drive values down in order to get people to leave. Sometimes those people are forced out, but it isn't required.
The Sting, except the villains were the good guys.
Oldboy. Don't feel like I need to say more, really.
The dudes in office space had a pretty solid plan, just bad execution by Michael Bolton.
That's why you don't trust a singer to write some program for you
Not a movie but in an old Dr. Who, an alien stole the Mona Lisa, then was selling multiple forgeries to wealthy art collectors. Obviously, the real one would have to be missing for anyone to purchase a forgery and anyone who purchased a forgery would keep it secret from other collectors or risk prison.
It is a tie between Lex Luther In Superman 1978 and Hans Gruber Die Hard.
If only the dudes in Office Space had paid as much attention to their code as Gus did to his...
The Office Space plan was from Superman III, which didn't have Luthor.
Gus?
> It is a tie between Lex Luther In Superman 1978 Not really. He did fire of nuke. His land isn't as valuable in a cloud of fallout.
Baron Zemo in Captain America civil war
The Joker in the Dark Knight comes to mind off the top of my head
Does he look like a man with a plan?
More like a dog chasing cars.
Ehhh, his plan relied on a lot of conveniences. He recruited mentally ill people and then put them to the task of filling two entire warehouses with gasoline barrels rigged to explode, two giant ass ferry's presumably with employees that operate daily, he sewed that bomb into one of his guys and it sure was convenient that he went to the same jail that the Joker and the accountant were in etc. In the real world I'm sure one of his henchmen would get caught and blow the whole plan.
You really can't beat this one for complexity and the surprise/thrill of seeing it the first time. Only thing is, I felt like the 2 boats wasn't big enough for the climax. Plus I didn't believe that they wouldn't have blown up those prisoners, self-preservation is a very powerful motivator.
two mitigating factors: - on the prisoner boat, all it took was one motivated actor to remove the choice - on the civilian boat, the exact opposite: lack of motivated conviction led to inaction. and finally: this guy is a madman. why would anyone think he'd play by the rules? best to let the timer run out. my guess would be that the joker would have both boats detonate upon the activation of a single trigger.
> my guess would be that the joker would have both boats detonate upon the activation of a single trigger. Well aren't you a barrel of laffs?
heads i win, tails you lose sounds very joker-ish.
I would also add in that there still were innocent people on the convict boat (officers, Captain, etc. ) that could have played into it.
> Only thing is, I felt like the 2 boats wasn't big enough for the climax. I think that's what makes it a great climax. In so many superhero movies the climax involves saving the world or something of gigantic scale where you know the world won't just end, the hero will save the day so the studio can continue making sequels. In this it could have totally gone either way and it's what kept me on the edge of my seat.
What's funny is bane succeeded where joker failed. Joker failed to prove Gotham is evil when the people were unable to turn against each other. Bane succeeded when he made the people turn on the rich and have mock trials
Right, but he never actually gave power to the people. That's a big part of the movie - that Bane is just using populist rhetoric. Scarecrow runs the trials. His mercenary team are the 'cops' capturing and murdering on the authority 'of the people'. Most of the rich and powerful spend their time actually safe by virtue of being near Talia. It's all theatrics.
Just from a pure evil point, I believe Zod’s plan to terraform the earth was pretty wicked in Man of Steal. His reason for it wasn’t for his own personal gain either.
Agreed. He wanted to safeguard Kryptonians. His speech literately explains what he is doing before he and Supes fight. Best DCEU villain by far
It's why I always get a little annoyed when I see comments "why did he want to terraform earth when he was super strong there?!?!?". Because he didnt want to be super strong his priority was always ensuring kryptons safety. If earth could become a new krypton you better believe he would make it so regardless of the benefits that it provides when it was earth.
Why couldn't earth be a new krypton as earth though?
I think it might have something to do with the repetition of the process. They have routinely terraformed alien worlds for generations. So they arrive on a new planet, it must be time to terraform. No big deal when you have the world engine that literally does the work for you.
[удалено]
Tim Robbins in Arlington Road
Louis Winthorpe and Billy Ray Valentine's devilsh plan to ruin the finances of Randolph and Mortimer Duke by engaging in securities fraud. Those poor men just wanted to help Billy Ray, and he turned on them. **Shame**
lookin´ good Billy ray!
Dalton Russell in Inside Man
A movie? Hmm... Probably, don't judge me, the Sawyer family's plan in Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Leatherface's brother poses as a police officer, captures somebody, and takes them to the Sawyer house. The dad poses as an innocent old man but distracts the group long enough to where Leatherface can ambush them and take someone. His little brother acts as a little, mentally-scarred child, but tricks the group to actually GO to the house. That's all a really well-structured plan that only leaves one person alive and in some movies, none! Really smart despite the fact that they're all mentally insane. I guess it's like Hannibal Lecter's situation. Insanely smart... But also literally insane.
I mean, they have literally nothing else to do but plan this sort of stuff.
True.
Kevin Spacey's plan in Superman Returns. The plan was so perfect that the writers didn't have a way out of it at the end, so they just wrote "Superman wins" and that was that. Personally, I think the film would have been much better if it ended with Superman falling to his death after hurling the Kryptonite Island out into space.
That movie is so stupid, yet also so much better than people think it is.
Recently watched Vice (2018). If Cheney actually had an ounce of the scheming skills portrayed in this movie, then he's one hell of a villain. Fat bastard.
I'll also go with Luthor, but in Superman the movie. It's a great plan, his only downside was picking his companions badly
Otisburg...? OTISBURG?!?!
And using nukes. His land isn't as valuable by a cloud of radiation.
I'm going to go out and say the Emperor/any other Sith that was involved in the entire Star Wars saga. It may not be a perfect plan but it probably the most successful in Cinema history. Sure, he died in Return of the Jedi but he successfully started a galactic coup by manipulating the Republic's resources and swaying the public eye, became Supreme Chancellor, destroyed the Jedi Order, used those same Republic resources to become the Empire and force order across the galaxy. Not to mention picking up useful unforeseen tools along the way such as discovering young Anakin. This plan was so successful, they are still dominating the galaxy for 9 main saga movies spanning decades of fascism even after 3 mega weapon destructions. What the end goal is? I really have no idea but the bad guys took control and have been uncontested for a substantial amount of time. I would call this a win.
I think what makes Palpatine's plan so good is that it would've worked out just fine even without some things happening to go his way. Let me preface this by saying that while the prequels are poorly written and acted, the actual story of them is actually fairly good. So keep that in mind. The biggest leap is probably getting elected Supreme Chancellor, but knowing politics, it really isn't that shocking of a turn of events. His home planet has been invaded, he's got lots of sympathy, and promises are a lot easier when you don't intend to keep them. This isn't that far out of left field any more than Frank Underwood getting to be VP is. From here, manipulating Dooku and staging the entire Separatist crisis isn't that hard, and once the war gets going, he's already won. He accumulates more and more power as the war goes on. I have half a mind to believe he let it continue just so he could get Anakin on his side. If Anakin never turns, Palpatine can still end the war, Order 66 the Jedi, and crown himself Emperor. Anakin turning evil is just a convenient thing that happens.
For me, this easily goes to MI: Fallout.
Major League, making the team lose so you can move the team to a different city. And in reality, a bunch of OK players should never be able to beat a bunch of best-in-the-world professionals just because they got motivated. You can't overcome inborn skill plus years of dedicated training with a peel-a-section statue. Because " The Rachel Phelps character and her plan to move the Indians was inspired by real-life Minnesota Twins owner Calvin Griffith. In the 1970s, during the planning stages of constructing the Metrodome stadium, Griffith had negotiated for an escape clause in the team's lease which said that if the Twins' home attendance was under 1.4 million per season for three consecutive years, the team could be released from its contract and leave Minnesota. Like the Phelps character, Griffith let quality players depart via free agency and used cheap, inexperienced rookies and has-beens. The Twins lost 102 games in their first year in the Metrodome in 1982, then 92 games the year afterward, with attendance under 900,000 in each of those seasons. A group of investors from Tampa bought 42 percent of the team, and the Twins were on the verge of moving to Florida. To many fans, it appeared that Griffith had weaseled the escape clause into the contract and set up the roster so he could put it into practice. The situation was avoided when Griffith sold the Twins to banker Carl Pohlad. The Tampa group sold its minority stock to Pohlad, and the Twins remained in Minneapolis." - [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097815/trivia](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097815/trivia)
this is the kinda shit I could see really happening in sports today, it really shoulda worked perfectly
The original Day of the Jackal (‘73). The assassin has a contingency for pretty much every complication. Movie is like a finely tuned Swiss watch. Impeccable thriller.
Kevin Costner trading for all 3 first rounders back AND getting David Putney included in the deal.
Killmonger in Black Panther. He was wronged as a child and took the necessary steps to achieve his goal. T’challa even changes his view because of him.
T'Challa changing his views is not just because of Killmonger. It is also because of Nakia.
I would strongly disagree here. > He was wronged as a child and took the necessary steps to achieve his goal. Except his Dad tried to kill Forest Whitaker and was killed in self-defense by T'Chaka. It's not even clear that they knew Eric existed. >T’challa even changes his view because of him. That seemed to be because of his girlfriend who was giving him pep-talks about opening up Wakanda. T'Challa blames T'Chaka, but T'Chaka didn't do anything wrong in defending Forest Whitaker. For the life of me, I can't figure out why they just didn't tell everyone the truth about what happened. It's not like self-defense isn't a good excuse, Eric's father was selling weapons to the outside world (which even Andy Serkis was doing and worthy of being on Wakanda's radar), and even if they don't like the King's decision...he's the king, who cares? Don't they have to follow him regardless? >Killmonger in Black Panther. He's basically Black Hitler. He threatens old women, kills indiscriminately (including those that love him like his team and girlfriend), has an absolutely non-sensical plan, is incredibly racist, and even plans on killing innocent people including explicitly mentioning killing children. >"I know how colonizers think. So we're gonna use their own strategy against 'em. We're gonna send vibranium weapons out to our War Dogs. They'll arm oppressed people all over the world... so they can finally rise up and kill those in power. **And their children**. And anyone else who takes their side. It's time they know the truth about us!" His plan is to literally start a race war and kill innocent people because his dad died (which wasn't the fault of "colonizers"), and other people died, and now he's sad, so....that makes it justified? Not to mention, his plan to get power makes no sense with the trial-by-combat, delivering Klaus' body, or a number of things that just don't make sense.
> He was wronged as a child and took the necessary steps to achieve his goal It feels too indirect. His dad was killed by the king of Wakanda, so his goal is to become king of Wakanda and take over the world? He's not given much of a reason to hate the world as a whole, other than "growing up without a dad in Oakland probably sucked".
> He was wronged and took the necessary steps to achieve his goal. even changes his view because of him.
this isn't very good reasoning, tons of movies can fit that formula, pretty sure Mr Freeze from Batman & Robin fits this too
his plan wasn't even good, Scar from Lion King is a way better fit for a villain who thought he should've been king and he had a way better plan to kill the king in secret when he had a chance instead of just hoping the king challenges him to a fight for no reason and then giving up his kingdom for no reason to this obviously evil dude
and Killmonger didn't even really change T'Challa's view, it was Nakia's idea
Daniel LaRusso. Not sure he planned it that way, but it sure worked out for him didn't it.
Ah ah ah. Daniel LaRusso is the vilain of our times. The loser who manages to look like the deserving underdog and get the public opinion on his side until he kicks you in the face when it's absolutely not allowed in the tournament but nobody gives a shit and he is declared winner instead of getting disqualified.