10 Sci-Fi Movie Villains Who Actually Won
2. Big Brother - 1984
But before Brazil there was 1984, the adaptation of George Orwell's legendary novel, which similarly ends with the tyrannical authority dominating and brutalising the populace - and our protagonist in particular.
The film takes place in a dystopian superstate, Oceania, in the year 1984, with low-ranking civil servant Winston Smith (John Hurt) working at the Ministry of Truth, where the truth is quite literally rewritten at the behest of the never-seen, overarching figurehead known as Big Brother.
Yet after Winston embarks on an affair with a free-spirited co-worker, Julia (Suzanna Hamilton), he's captured and "rehabilitated" - that is, tortured - by the authority into a state of docile compliance, where any rebellious thoughts have been suppressed.
At the end of the movie, with another outspoken free-thinker brainwashed into conformity and possibly soon to be killed, Big Brother's reign continues, with absolutely zero sign that anyone will be able topple the Oceanian army.