10 Disturbing Backstories Behind Your Favourite Movie Characters

Not all fun and games.

Forrest Gump
via Paramount Pictures

What is any movie without a wonderful cast of fan favourite characters who audiences can root for? Great movies will invest viewers in the human beings behind the action and drama, fleshing them out as believable and relatable people in their own right.

But for every iconic movie character with a riveting, well-known backstory - think Batman, for instance - there are those whose origins are decidedly lesser-known, with fans needing to dig deeper beyond the movie itself to discover the truth.

With these 10 beloved movie characters, whether heroes or villains, there's more to them than meets the eye, as evidenced by their unexpected, shocking and often downright horrifying backstories, as revealed by either the more expansive original source material or the cast and crew themselves.

Naturally, it's up to individual viewers to decide for themselves whether or not they accept these revelations within their own "head-canon", because a movie adaptation typically stands on its own two legs.

But for the most part these unsettling origin stories fold neatly enough into what we saw on the big screen...

Advertisement
Contributor
Contributor

Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.