When we think about cinematic psychopaths, the usual suspects tend to also fall in as movie villains that we love to hate. We think of Hannibal Lecter from Silence of the Lambs, the anarchist antics of The Dark Knight's Joker, and - of course - Mean Girls' Regina George. There are times, however, when we might realise that some of cinema's most dramatic sociopaths are actually the heroes. They exhibit behavior that - after watching the movie a second or 25th time - we notice to be particularly troubling. Keep in mind that being a psychopath doesn't necessarily make you "evil," though some people in this list do fall into that category. Psychopathy is actually found in people who do things with little remorse. They embody our most selfish and narcissistic tendency to do whatever it takes to accomplish A, B, and C, and they don't care (or really think about) who might end up suffering in the process. You may have already thought of some movie protagonists who fit that description, so here is just a brief list of just some of Hollywood's most psychopathic heroes. You'll see just how deeply troubled these seemingly innocent characters really are, and why they would actually make better villains than the villains themselves...
Jon is the author of the Pixar Theory, the narrative that combines all of the Pixar movies in one timeline. You can read more about his random nonsense on jonnegroni.com
