10 Movie Villain ‘Twists’ We Saw Coming A Mile Off

4. Alexander Pierce - Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Remember way back in the Obadiah Stane entry that we said Marvel have their own formula now? We weren't kidding. Little things like humour injected into typically tense moments and periodic nods to yet-to-be-realised properties help create a sense of style, but sometimes they literally reuse the same plot points.

When Nick Fury was killed in The Winter Soldier we knew he'd be back before the credits rolled (and not just because Samuel L. Jackson still has three films on his contract). The same trick had already been played by Marvel five months earlier with Loki in Thor: The Dark World, as well as with Agent Coulson in The Avengers and Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Clearly the cliché of the nonpermanent comic-book death is making the transition to films.

The same is true of secretive villain reveals. Whenever a new character is introduced in a prominent role in a Marvel they have one of three directions to go; love interest (Agent 13, Iron Man Three's Maya Hansen), new supporting hero (Falcon, War Machine) or the big villain (Killian, Loki, Justin Hammer, John Garrett in Agents, Stane). And when they're played by a big name actor it can really only be the latter.

So yeah, when Robert Redford was stunt-cast (his starring role in Three Days Of The Condor plays up the conspiracy thriller side of proceedings) as Alexander Pierce it was unthinkable he'd not be the big bad come the third act.