9 Movie Villains Who Are Really The Victims
Without villains, films would be lost. Sure, everything would be peaceful, but there would be no heroes. There would no struggle. No arc. No triumphant overcome of circumstances. No chance to cram in a one-liner before a spectacular death. We all like Spider-Man, Batman, Superman and the like, but the first question we ask when we learn about their films is whos the villain going to be?. We cant always relate to the hero, dashing and athletic, saving the day and getting the girl but we can generally all agree that the man trying to conquer the world should probably be stopped. But villains arent always as clear cut as this, they come in all shapes and sizes with different amounts of sympathy behind them. There are forces of nature, nemeses, petty thieves, manipulating mob bosses and everything in between. Then there are those who merely appear to be the villain. To borrow a phrase from Wreck-It Ralph, just because youre a bad guy it doesnt mean youre a bad guy. They have their motives and their methods, questionable on first glance but in reality it is the films world, or sometimes the actions of the heroes themselves that forces characters to be seen in a villainous light. This list looks at those characters. Looked upon as monsters, oppressors and just generally the enemy whereas they are, in fact, the unfair victims of the story. Kicking off the list is...
9. The Reavers in Serenity
Throughout the Firefly series, Mal Reynolds and his crew always find themselves on the fringes of the law, running from both The Alliance authorities as well as the horrifying, animalistic Reavers. The Reavers are just about the only thing that hardened Serenity crew member Jayne is scared of and theyre known to capture and torture people. While The Alliance has the political power to bring you down, a Reaver scavenger ship could just pop out of nowhere and tear you apart.
The Reavers arent given a whole lot of explanation but are thought to be men who reached the edge of the star system and out in the cold void of space were driven mad. That alone would qualify them for the list somewhat, but in Serenity we find out the true cause of the Reavers. This being an experimental chemical that turned 99% of a planets inhabitants into people so subdued and passive that they simply stopped doing anything and died. The other 1% had the adverse reaction and became the hyper-vicious Reavers, meaning every encounter with them is, essentially, fighting the innocent victims of a government science project.
Theyre a variation of zombies in a fashion, certainly not being referred to as human anymore though we know they used to be. Theyre essentially zombies if they could organise themselves together and had access to space flight. Jesus. Thats terrifying.