11 Surprise Movie Villain Reveals Everyone Loved
10. Rollo Tomassi - L.A. Confidential
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.