11 Surprise Movie Villain Reveals Everyone Loved

10. Rollo Tomassi - L.A. Confidential

Memento Ending
Warner Bros.

Based on James Ellroy's 1990 novel of the same name, Curtis Hanson's L.A. Confidential is a neo-noir crime masterpiece.

With Guy Pearce and Russell Crowe thrown together as unlikely partners whose relationship is left strained thanks to the manipulation of outside forces, Pearce's Ed Exley and Crowe's Bud White have to overcome their own personal beef as they look to decipher who the shadowy crime boss known as Rollo Tomassi really is and why he orchestrated the Nite Owl Killings.

The closing act reveal of L.A. Confidential sees Captain Dudley Smith - as played by talking pig wrangler extraordinaire James Cromwell - being the man behind the mystique of Rollo Tomassi, with the heroin business the order of the day for Smith/Tomassi.

What makes this reveal so effective and rewarding for fans, is that the figurative unmasking of Dudley Smith as Rollo Tomassi moves to reinforce how Bud White really is one of the good guys. Throughout the film, White has been the rough-around-the-edges lawman who has an aggressive, darker side to him - an aggressive, darker side that Smith appeals to as he attempts to get Bud to join his crusade during the movie's final moments.

Thankfully, Bud White proves that you can be both honourable and an absolute badass, as he helps Exley in putting a stop to the corruption personified by Rollo Tomassi.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.