10 Sci-Fi Movie Villains Who Actually Won

Terry Gilliam's incredible Brazil takes place in a dystopian future where life chugs along uneasily under the rule of a hyper-bureaucratised government - a banal and highly inefficient machine which nevertheless seeks to repress any voices which dare to dissent.

One such dissenter is low-level civil servant Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce), who at film's end is captured, told that his love interest Jill (Kim Greist) has been killed, charged with treason, and then tortured by his old pal Jack Lint (Michael Palin).

In a brutal final gut-punch, it's revealed that the torture has left Sam irreversibly insane, and so the movie concludes with Sam smiling and humming to himself, blissfully unaware of what's in fact happened to him.

Meanwhile, the government's grim stranglehold over its populace continues with little indication of significant opposition. It's depressing, but also depressingly believable when you look at the world around us.