10 Best Movies Where The Protagonist Learns Nothing

9. Scarface

Scarface is one of pop culture's quintessential "rags to riches" stories, and though it's inspired the crime genre for three decades, protagonist Tony Montana (Al Pacino) doesn't really encounter any personal change or growth throughout Brian De Palma's iconic thriller.

Montana is as much a ferocious scumbag when he's fresh off the boat from Cuba as he is when huffing a giant pile of cocaine and annihilating goons with a grenade launcher during the film's unforgettable climax.

Montana's empire obviously blooms over the course of the film, but the man himself remains largely unchanged, still struggling to find contentment despite his mass of wealth, and still a violent pile of human garbage.

It's especially interesting as Breaking Bad is frequently cited as a contemporary successor to Scarface, despite the fact that the show takes a far more complex and nuanced approach to character development, that is, by actually having some.