10 Movies You Can't Remember Who The Villain Really Was
8. Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes
Despite being an unexpectedly terrific film, Rise of the Planet of the Apes does rather suffer where its lead villain is concerned.
To firmly hammer home the tensions between a fleet of imprisoned "smart apes" and their human captors, we're introduced to Steven Jacobs (played by a thoroughly wasted David Oyelowo), a businessman with little interest in ethics or safety when there's money to be made.
He's shown to harbour active contempt for the apes while ignoring clear warning signs that his experimental project needs to be shut down.
In effect, he's responsible for not only causing the pandemic which wipes out a huge swath of mankind, but also kick-starting the war between apes and humans.
Sadly he never rises above being a predictable cartoon of a business magnate, and all you're likely to remember about him is his hilarious overkill death, where Koba lets him drop hundreds of feet off the Golden Gate Bridge.
Jacobs being such a damp squib is all the more glaring when you consider that both sequels delivered a number of compelling villains between them - especially Dawn of the Planet of the Apes' vengeful Koba (Toby Kebbell).