10 Movie Villains Who Actually Got Away With It
4. Leonard (Memento)
Christopher Nolan seemingly duped the audience into rooting for, and empathising with, the villain in Memento through some ingenious narrative trickery. Guy Pearce plays short term memory loss-sufferer Leonard, who is searching for his wife's killer across a two-pronged narrative that fleshes out events before and after her death.
The movie's infamous twist reveals that Leonard not only killed his own wife via an insulin overdose, a result of his condition, but also that his deluded quest for vengeance resulted in the death of several others, including Teddy, an undercover cop who has been helping/using Leonard for a year.
Not everyone agrees that Leonard is an out-and-out villain, though one compelling school of thought suggests that he deliberately blacked out the police accounts of the attack and has burned previous photos of "John G", knowing his vengeance mission will restart. He certainly knew what he was doing when he etched Teddy's death warrant onto the back of that polaroid.
The movie ends with Leonard suffering no consequences for his actions, not even guilt over his killings, since his amnesia means he's perpetually forgotten his role in them.