9 Movie Heroes & Villains That Didn't Know Each Other Existed

Sean Penn's criminally underseen psychological drama The Pledge follows a soon-to-retire detective, Jerry Black (a stellar Jack Nicholson), as he attempts to bring a child murderer to justice.

And while Jerry obviously knows the child murderer is someone, by the end of the film he still hasn't gotten his man or decisively learned their identity.

Though Jerry has a persuasive belief that he can catch the killer - referred to as both Oliver and "The Wizard" - in a sting operation at film's end, a cruel twist of fate sees The Wizard die in an unrelated car accident before he can be brought in.

And to make it even worse, Jerry never connects the dots that the car accident victim and the Wizard are the same person, and so defeatedly believes the killer is still out there.

Considering that Jerry unknowingly came face-to-face with him earlier in the movie while visiting the chocolate shop where he works, it's an especially savage bout of dramatic irony.

The killer, naturally, didn't even think about Jerry at all.