10 Movie Villains Whose Conscience Got The Better Of Them

9. Godzilla - Various (1954-2014)

Like Jason, Godzilla began as a pretty simple character with a pretty simple purpose: to cause havoc among people who would otherwise be minding their own business. Godzilla can't always be placed firmly in the "antagonist" category, though, and in fact has been likened to a Shinto God of Destruction by producer Shogo Tomiyama, an entity that lacks moral agency and simply destroys in order to facilitate rebirth. More often than not, Godzilla is painted as a force of nature that must be taken down for the survival of humanity. On occasion, Godzilla is the lesser of two evils, still a destructive force and threat to humanity, but mostly cropping up in order to battle another massive beast. The recent American remake was largely boring due to a focus on the human characters and a distinct lack of kaiju punches, but one interesting point was the explicit depiction of Godzilla as a force that would ensure the survival of humankind, rather than their destruction. The moment where Godzilla almost seemed to nod at Aaron Taylor-Johnson's moronic protagonist Ford Brody (as if to say "I got your back, bro") was a bit excessive, but it did manage to show that the King of Monsters has some inkling of right vs. wrong.