10 Movies That Made You Sympathise With Terrible People

We’ve had murderers, rapists, Nazis, child molesters. But occupying the number one spot for unlikely sympathetic protagonists - it’s jihadi terrorists. Three years after the 7/7 tube bombings in London, British writer/director Chris Morris releases a knockabout comedy about a group of hapless jihadis who plan to commit a suicide attack on the London Marathon. To make a film where terrorists are not merely humanised, but are likeable, funny, and absolutely the heroes, is massively brave.

Morris is a professional provocateur. The title alone is deliberately goading the English jingoists. The group of jihadis is led by Omar (Riz Ahmed) who is headstrong and devout in his desire to punish the West. The other members are all total plonkers. From blowing up crows, to running around shaking their faces with shopping bags full of explosives, Morris takes the very real threat of terrorists and dials the ridiculousness up to eleven and makes us laugh.

And yet the threat remains real. In the film’s best scene, Omar uses the analogy of The Lion King to explain to his son why he won’t be seeing daddy again the night before the terrorist attack. It is touching, it is darkly hilarious. We sympathise with a devout family man before realising this is one of those awful jihadis we hear about on the news. On the other side of the coin we sympathise with dim-witted Waj because he believes that committing a suicide bombing will fast-track him onto the “Rubber dinghy rapids” of the afterlife.

Four Lions is a stroke of genius because it defies every depiction of jihadi terrorists that we are used to, without de-fanging them. They all detonate themselves and innocent people die. But the targets - a Boots, a kebab shop, a crow - are hilarious. And don’t pretend like you weren’t singing along with “Dancin’ in the Moonlight” with the boys as they journey down the A1 to commit their jihad.