10 Movies Where The Villains BOTCHED An Easy Win

Face/Off's psychopathic antagonist Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage) really had everything he needed to win - he'd swapped faces with FBI agent Sean Archer (John Travolta), and had Archer's daughter Jamie (Dominique Swain) held at gunpoint, ready to blow her away.

But Troy made one huge mistake earlier in the film, when he roughed up Jamie's lecherous boyfriend and gave her a butterfly knife to protect herself, while advising her to twist the knife when stabbing for added damage.

And so, when Troy has a gun to her head in the climax and is a second away from firing, she pulls out the knife and does just as he instructed.

This leaves Troy massively vulnerable during the final shootout and speedboat chase with Archer, leaving to his eventual demise-by-speargun.

Granted, Troy's plan became increasingly messy the moment he decided to try and assume Archer's life rather than simply flee to a country with no U.S. extradition, but for all intents and purposes he would've claimed his victory by murdering Archer's daughter.