10 Movies You Didn't Realise You Were Following The Villain

9. Nightcrawler

Nightcrawler is a great example of a movie which boasts an implacable, initially somewhat ambiguous protagonist, whose true motivations aren't fully crystallised until later in the film.

It's no secret from early on in the movie that Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a difficult character to warm to: he commits theft through violent means if necessary, and seems tirelessly committed to becoming a successful videographer.

But at least for a time, it still feels like we're supposed to cheer him on, that he's simply an emblem of bloodthirsty ambition in a derelict, uncaring American economy.

By the third act of the film, however, that all changes. He literally phones in a shootout between the police and criminals for his own gain, and even intentionally causes his assistant Rick (Riz Ahmed) to be killed in the crossfire due to leverage he held over him.

The final scene sees Rick expanding his own media empire with interns and a new fleet of vehicles, confirming that he wasn't merely a down-on-his-luck weirdo desperate to make a modest living, but an entrenched psychopath obsessed with ensuring his own endless upward mobility at any cost.