7 Movies Where The Villain Dies Earlier Than You Think

It's generally accepted that David Fincher's 2011 re-adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is an entertaining if slightly overbaked effort. That's partly down to the gruelling 158-minute runtime dragging on for almost an entire half-hour after the villainous Martin Vanger (Stellan Skarsgård) is killed, in an attempt to wrap up basically every possible plot thread.

While you'd be forgiven for assuming the more modest 2009 Swedish original were a little more terse and snappily paced compared to Fincher's deliberate style, it's actually paced almost exactly the same way.

Basically to the minute, the original film spends the same amount of time tying up its various hanging plots after Vanger's (Peter Haber) fiery demise, which while playing out as Stieg Larsson's source novel dictates, nevertheless ditches the villain uncommonly early and results in this elongated and somewhat deflating conclusion.