Greatest Movies/Shows Featuring 'Evil' Protagonists

[Timothy Hunter]

'Evil' is a very loaded and hyperbolic term. I use it in this instance to describe a character who is irredeemably bad. You may argue whether or not Tony Soprano or Walter White are 'evil' persay, but they are without a doubt bad people.

[AndrewCrossett]

A Clockwork Orange

[K7P5V]

Akira

[Midvillian1322]

Nevermind didn't read the whole post

All I'm coming up with is Natural born Killers maybe. I feel like most villian protagonists are somewhat likeable. Joker was sympathetic. Chronicle maybe because I ddint feel bad for that kid. American Psycho ..... yea iono I don't have a single one I'd put out there for sure. Most villians are somewhat redeemable. Scarface had his moments much like Tony Soprano where you felt for him. More so Soprano though.

[Godzilla2099]

Dexter

10 Char

[j9ac9k]

Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer.

Hannibal (it was clearer in the book that he was the main protagonist and not Clarice, but the case could be made in the movie as well)

Nightcrawler

House of Cards

How I Met Your Mother

I think being likable or sympathetic and evil are not mutually exclusive.

[Username taken]

Depending on how one looks at Michael Corleone, I would say the Godfather Part 2.

[Castle]

'Evil' is a very loaded and hyperbolic term. I use it in this instance to describe a character who is irredeemably bad. You may argue whether or not Tony Soprano or Walter White are 'evil' persay, but they are without a doubt bad people.

Walter White went down a bad part in the end, he is like Anakin Skywalker but this difference is , he could not redeemed himself.

Tony Soprano was bad and also an anti hero. I think this is why the fade to black ending was perfect. the writers did not want to give him a happy ending but at the same time did not want to condemn the character to the death officially on screen.


Although I heard one of the creative team- writer reveal that Tony did die

[Cyke]

Essentially Infinity War, but not Endgame.

Scorsese seems to love villain protagonists. Casino, Goodfellas, Wolf of Wall Street. One could maybe argue for Taxi Driver on the margins, I think.

The Shield is comprised of almost all bad cops.

Every single one of The Gang in It's Always Sunny. Whatever redeeming qualities they may show are usually overridden by several orders of magnitude by the credits. (One could make the case that Charlie might not qualify, though likely because he's the only one that actually does work and is slightly more innocent in motivation. But ultimately he wants to keep up with the rest, which leads to him being just as petty, sociopathic, and is maybe the most anger-prone of them all).

[ChrisIII]

Depending on how one looks at Michael Corleone, I would say the Godfather Part 2.

It's kind of weird. Vito of course sort of had lines he wouldn't cross which of course set the entire plot of the original in motion. Michael of course kills Fredo (although Fredo was at least partially responsible for a hit on him), Michael later regretted it.

[ChrisIII]

Walter White went down a bad part in the end, he is like Anakin Skywalker but this difference is , he could not redeemed himself.

Tony Soprano was bad and also an anti hero. I think this is why the fade to black ending was perfect. the writers did not want to give him a happy ending but at the same time did not want to condemn the character to the death officially on screen.


Although I heard one of the creative team- writer reveal that Tony did die

Some would say that he kind of redeemed himself by saving Jessie, who was the real good guy when you think about it (Once Walt's body count started to include more and more innocents, especially, with Walt being sociopathic compared to him).

Kind of curious how Saul/Jimmy is going to end up at the end of the "Cinnebon" segment, as well as other characters whose fates are unknown (Kim and Howard, also Nacho and Lalo although it's possible the latter is probably alive by BB).

[Castle]

One good one would be Road to Perdition, the character of Michael Sullivan Snr.

[Timothy Hunter]

Movies with protagonists ranked from bad to monstrous

Shattered Glass
Catch Me If You Can
Despicable Me
The Social Network
Kids
Taxi Driver
King of New York
Bad Lieutenant
Lolita
Cruel Intentions
Lord of War
Badlands
Joker
Nightcrawler
Goodfellas
A Clockwork Orange
Maniac
Natural Born Killers
American Psycho
The House That Jack Built

[Sutekh]

Training Day with Denzel Washington or The Corrupter with Chow Yun-Fat. Arguably, Ethan Hawke or Mark Wahlberg's characters are the 'protagonists' of those movies, but it sure doesn't feel like it, watching them.

Pulp Fiction had some pretty evil protagonists, for that matter, but most Tarentino movies do.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Pulp Fiction had some pretty evil protagonists, for that matter, but most Tarentino movies do.

Hmm, I honestly don't know if Jules, Vincent, Butch, Mia, Ringo or Honey Bunny could be considered "evil" in the truest sense of the word. Marcellus? Most definitely, but the rest? I'm skeptical. Now, when it came to Reservoir Dogs, hell yeah, they were all serious bad guys, especially Mr. Blonde.