10 More Movie Villains You Didn't Realise Actually Won

Ozymandias' victory was more water-tight than you probably think.

Watchmen Matthew Goode
Warner Bros.

While the hero doesn't always come out on top in movies, it's generally made abundantly clear when the bad guy wins, right?

For example, when Thanos (Josh Brolin) wiped out half the universe with a snap of his Infinity Gauntlet-clad fingers in Avengers: Infinity War, nobody was in any doubt that he just secured a massive W - at least temporarily.

But every so often, movies get a little more sly and subtle about a villain's victory, perhaps because they don't want to downplay the hero's successes or make the picture a pure downer.

Yet all the same, following up our 10 Movie Villains You Didn't Realise Actually Won, these further 10 rogues also came out on top, whether you realised it or not.

In some cases, they achieved everything they set out to do and even lived to tell the tale. For others, they had a good old-fashioned Pyrrhic victory, where they succeeded albeit at massive, possibly fatal costs to themselves.

Either way, these villains pulled off most of what they intended to from the outset, and on the balance of assessment, they absolutely came away as a winner...

10. Robert Callaghan - Big Hero 6

Watchmen Matthew Goode
Disney

Big Hero 6's villain is a masked man known as "Yokai," later revealed to be Professor Robert Callaghan (James Cromwell), who faked his death as part of a revenge plot against tech magnate Alistair Krei (Alan Tudyk).

And though Callaghan is ultimately arrested at the end of the movie, he straight-up accomplished everything that he set out to do. He obliterated Krei's HQ by reactivating the teleportation portal, and most importantly, he got his daughter Abigail (Katie Lowes) back, who disappeared while working as a test pilot on one of Krei's portal experiments.

All in all, a few years in jail for executing his plan as intended is probably a pretty acceptable trade-off for Callaghan, especially as he rescued his beloved daughter.

It's just a shame that the plan inadvertently led to the death of protagonist Hiro's (Ryan Potter) older brother Tadashi (Daniel Henney), which Callaghan at least expresses regret for.

Even so, the outcome for Callaghan was absolutely a net-positive.

Contributor
Contributor

Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.