10 Movies That BRILLIANTLY Avoided Huge Cliches

7. Beck Is A Good Guy - The Negotiator

Watchmen Ozymandias
Warner Bros.

It's always a hoot when movies toy with our preconceptions of an actor and the types of roles they tend to play, and The Negotiator did that quite wonderfully with David Morse.

Morse has had an incredibly fruitful career playing hard-ass characters and card-carrying villains - that's just the aura he carries as an actor, and it's evidently served him well.

And so, when he shows up as ill-tempered SWAT commander Beck in the movie and starts clashing with hero Chris Sabian (Kevin Spacey), we're basically conditioned to assume that he's going to end up being the secret villain who has framed Danny Roman (Samuel L. Jackson).

Beck really seems strangely keen to kill Roman for a large chunk of the movie, and so why wouldn't he be the twist villain? Except, he isn't - he's simply an impatient, ill-mannered guy who believes that Roman is guilty.

And better yet, Beck even gets a moment of glory at film's end when he prevents the real antagonist, Frost (Ron Rifkin), from killing himself. Who could've seen any of that coming?

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Contributor

Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.