10 Movie Villains Killed By Their Own Weapons

The Matrix, Avengers: Endgame and Episode III are just some films with deliciously ironic deaths.

Cypher The Matrix
Warner Bros.

Is there ever a greater display of karmic justice than a villainous movie character having their own weapons turned against them? Destruction works both ways, so if you're going to run into battle with the most lethal instrument ever devised by man, you probably shouldn't be so surprised when your enemy decides to grab it and stick you on the end of it.

Of course, a weapon can take many forms, and not all of the deaths that result from them are acts of outright murder by the other party. In fact, you could argue that a lot of movie villains technically kill themselves, regardless of their intended action or target.

The characters of this list are those who, long story short, meet their end in trying to cause someone else's. Whether they're meddling with powers they can't hope to control or just woefully unlucky, their own weapons of choice are the very things that bring their stories to a rather poetic close.

10. Joe "Mental" Mentalino - Dumb And Dumber (1994)

Cypher The Matrix
New Line Cinema

Taxi driver Lloyd Christmas becomes enamoured with one of his passengers, Mary Swanson, and when he sees her leave a suitcase unattended at the airport, he and his friend Harry travel all the way across America to return it to her. Unbeknownst to them, Mary left it there on purpose to pay off a ransom held against her wealthy family.

One of the ransomer's henchmen, Joe "Mental" Mentalino, poses as a hitchhiker to get close to Harry and Lloyd, thinking them to be hired professionals. When they stop at a diner, Mental plans to poison them by slipping arsenic into their food. Totally oblivious, the pair load Mental's burger with chilli peppers, which causes his ulcer to burst when he bites into it.

Writhing in agony on the floor, he tells them to reach into his jacket for his pills. And, not knowing the difference, Harry and Lloyd eagerly feed him the whole bottle of rat poison tablets.

It's the painful misunderstanding on both sides that makes this scene so interesting to watch. Mental's final look of hatred as he mistakes their actions for a deliberate tactic is truly priceless.

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Graduate composer, on-and-off session musician, aspiring novelist, professional nerd. Where procrastination and cynicism intertwine, Lee Clarke can be found.