10 Movies That Wanted You To HATE The Hero

8. Nick Dunne - Gone Girl

Scott Pilgrim
Fox

On paper, Gone Girl's Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) might sound like an easy-to-root-for hero, given that he's wrongly accused of his wife Amy's (Rosamund Pike) disappearance.

As it turns out, Amy framed Nick for her murder, and so in theory, we shouldn't struggle to cheer Nick on as he uncovers his wife's deception and brings her to justice, right?

Except, as much as he was wronged, it's tough to deny that Nick Dunne is an a**hole in his own right.

For starters, he cheats on Amy with a much younger woman - and to make it ickier, she's one of his students.

While not the worst thing in the world, it's not great, and inadvertently sets in motion Amy's subsequent frame-up, once she learns what he's up to.

Yet there's one major moment that left audiences screaming at the screen, calling Nick an irredeemable idiot.

At the end of the movie, Amy stages her "return" from being kidnapped and announces to Nick that she's pregnant with his child, having used sperm he stored at a fertility clinic.

Nick reluctantly agrees to stay with Amy in order to be there for his unborn baby, much to the frustration of both viewers and his sister Margo (Carrie Coon).

Though Nick should be a relatively sympathetic character in theory, he so thoroughly dooms himself through his own actions that one might end up hating him only marginally less than, you know, his murderous schemer of a wife.

Contributor
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.