Great Movies Come From Great Villains

We root for the underdog and we root for the home team.  We cheer on the hero.  But, as M. Night Shyamalan noted in his sleeping ode to comics, Unbreakable, the heroes are nothing without the villains.  Without a hero, you almost don't have a show.  But without a perfect foil for the hero, one with purpose and true lethality not only to the body of the hero, but to the mind and soul, a movie falls flat. 

Arguably the most interesting director these days is Christopher Nolan, and it isn't hard to see why.  His breakthrough film, Memento, gets a lot of props for it's inventive storytelling and twist ending.  But (spoiler alert) making the unwitting hero into the villain was a stroke of genius.  Then look at the Batman movies.  You can point to the villains, sure.  But the true villain is what can break him without touching him...crime and corruption themselves.  The villains are built on themes.  Fear in the case of the Scarecrow and Chaos in the cases of the Joker and later Two-Face.  They aren't just self-serving evil-doers.  Instead they are the embodiments of those primal elements, and that is what makes them so good to watch.  Excellent acting and direction help, but without those foundations deep in the human psyche, they wouldn't be nearly as interesting.

And then, of course, we have Inception.  Who is the real villain there?  Guilt.  A whole movie based around fighting guilt in a personified real form.  Again, another brilliant turn by Nolan.  If he continues this streak, I can't wait to see what he cooks up next.

But enough of singing his praises.  We need better villains.  We need people to write more intelligent bad guys.  Villains, not heroes, are what raise movies from B-rate action flicks, to memorable Oscar contenders.  Anyone can write a mob boss, a drug lord, or a terrorist as a villain.  And heck, we do need a few simple bad guys once in a while to sharpen our hero on, but the true nemesis will be the one able to break down a hero psychologically, emotionally, and philosophically.  They must have a real chance at destroying the hero or the plot isn't nearly as compelling. 

In the comments, lets hear about your favorite villains and why they were great.

Post your sci-fi ideas - or not

I dream.  As do most people.  I'm not talking aspirational dreams like world peace.  I'm talking funky talking marmoset as James Bond flying in a purple blimp dream.  You know the kind you have when you're asleep.  Often the make little sense when I'm awake, but in the early 30 seconds or so after I wake up, they seem to make perfect sense to me, and awesome ideas for movies.  Most of them would have to be some sort of science fiction because I'm pretty sure it is the only genre elastic enough to contain them.

I've had quite a few ideas for movies.  I even tried to write one down once.  I got two chapters in and was so bored, I canceled myself.  But that doesn't mean the premise of the plot was bad.  It just means that I should have taken more classes in creative writing.

Additionally, I've noticed that many movies are "based on an idea by" someone.  They take some crazy idea and build a whole movie around it.  And, given the fact that Hollywood may be out of ideas, I thought this could serve as a repository for great movie starts.  And we might get a few laughs jump starting our imaginations.

I'll go first with one I thought about today:

It's several centuries into the future.  Mankind has taken control of evolution by selecting the genetic traits it wants in its offspring and weeding out the genetic diseases and weakness.  We have engineered new genes that give us better advantages and fill in some of the genetic blank space in our DNA.  Only one problem...a disease attacks that mankind has evolved past and has not genetic code to resist.  Our only hope is to re-integrate with the luddites that resisted change and were persecuted almost into non-existence and genetically are almost another species.  Only they have the naturally evolved DNA to survive.  Themes of class struggle and trying to control nature could be explored.

If you're a movie exec or an author and would like to use my idea, get in touch and we'll do lunch.  (really, a nice lunch is probably all I need to sign over the rights.  That and maybe a good movie).

Post your own ideas in the comments. (although given the sparse comments so far, I'm not holding my breath)

P.S.  - rights belong to the commenter.  I won't steal your ideas.  I'm not sure how to steal an idea anyway.

What is it?

Some people just have it, but I'm not sure what it is.  Some people just ooze success and confidence.  They strike up conversations with people and put them at ease with natural smiles.  They are not supermodel beautiful, and as a matter of fact, some of them are very...um...homely.  But they have what it takes to understand people and make relationships easily.

What is it?  And why don't I have it?  I went to school with them and I made the mistake of linking to many of them on LinkedIn, which sends me regular postcards about their accomplishments and success.  My sisters seem to have it, too.

I'm not dumb.  I'd like to think that my intelligence is above average (having actually taken an IQ test once, I will only state that I'm almost 2 sigma above average) which isn't bad.  But intelligence isn't enough.  As a matter of fact, it might be a problem if not used properly.  But I can't figure out how some people can just walk into a situation and control it.  I don't thaw out until I've been in a group for a while.  I have good ideas, but I'm often too shy to express them.  Or too slow.

Self-confidence and charm.  Those are the weapons that conquer the world.  Everything else is pointless without them.  It's what nerds wish they had.  It's why the jocks rule.  It's what the executives that know jack have and why the brilliant peons toil.  You can't fake those, at least not for long.

Rant Complete.  End Transmission.