Jerkass/Film

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Every single character Kurtwood Smith has played in a film.
  • Christopher McDonald is an actor who also has made playing a Jerkass an art form. Oddly enough, his first role in the movie Breakin' has him as a genuinely nice guy, making it a retroactive case of Playing Against Type.
  • Almost every character Dabney Coleman ever played.
  • Henry from Ever After. He gets taken down a peg, though, and ends up all right.
  • Lord Farquaad in the first Shrek movie and Lancelot as well as his friends in the third.
  • Gaston from Disney's Beauty and the Beast was a major one.
    • The Villagers were also heavily implied to be just as bad.
    • The Beast himself was one, too before he learned to love.
  • Sid Phillips and Mr. Potato Head in the first Toy Story, Al and Stinky Pete in the second, and Lots-O'-Huggin' Bear (aka Lotso) in the third.
    • Woody initially also had his moments with Buzz in the first movie.
  • Biff Tannen, as well as his whole family line from the Back to The Future trilogy.
  • Buzz McCallister, along with Harry and Uncle Frank from the first two Home Alone movies. Also, the hotel Concierge in the second film.
  • Practically every character D-FENS runs into in Falling Down: the convenience store owner, the two knife-wielding street thugs, the Nazi, the employees at the fast food restaurant, the snooty golfers, the homeless guy, the road crew worker, et al. - all, of course, to "justify" D-FENS's Disproportionate Retribution toward them as he slowly turns into a psychopath. (Actually, D-FENS himself is one by the movie's climax, at least until his Heel Realization.)
  • Stretch, Stinkie and Fatso in the first Casper movie start off as Jerkasses but are also later shown to actually be loving and caring deep down inside. (Amusingly, they're proud of their reputations for being annoying, even saying "Thank you!" when the film's heroine calls them on their behavior.)
  • The bullies in Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown, with Lucy and Peppermint Patty to a lesser extent than usual.
  • A good example of comic-relief gone awry would be L.J. from Resident Evil: Apocalypse. His obnoxious, stereotypical and totally inappropriate "street flava" nearly makes him a modern day Ethnic Scrappy, and left many viewers wondering why the other characters didn't give the audience a break and just shoot him in the face.
    • In the follow-up movie he is killed off, but by then he'd dropped the Modern Minstrelsy crap and became somewhat sympathetic.
  • Andy from Wet Hot American Summer lets multiple six-year-olds drown, cheats on his girlfriend (who might be a Alpha Bitch if she weren't so nice), and refuses to clean up his breakfast. It's never really made clear whether the rest of the counselors, save for Coop and Katie, are aware of his jerkass tendencies, or just see him as a Handsome Lech. Either way, he's bad news with a beautiful face and incredible body.
  • Being the villain is a given, but The Kurgan from the first Highlander film takes it further with his more comedic Kick the Dog moments like frightening an old lady.
  • In the same mold, Steve from the 2004 version of Dawn of the Dead is an unbelievably obnoxious jerk who never misses an opportunity to be snide and petty, no matter how serious the situation. Thankfully, the filmmakers were aware that the audience would hate him, and he does end up with a bullet in his head by the movie's end. Ahh...
    • Not to mention he causes the break in of the mall in the first place, by leaving his post and not opening the security door when the protagonists are trying to get back in after a rescue of Sarah. He does it out of spite, and even greets them with a grin and a "Hey, guys, where were you?!"
  • The protagonist of Forty Days and Forty Nights is surrounded by Jerkass 'friends' and co-workers who take advantage of him at the drop of a hat. Not that that is the only problem with the film...
  • Tommy DeVito from Goodfellas is certainly an example, made especially true because he actually is a full blown sociopath.
    • And based on a real person.
    • Tommy's friends at least seem to tolerate him because he directs his insanity toward other people and never attacks them (in the famous "Funny Guy" scene, Henry calls him out on this). His superiors in the mafia however, refuse to put up with his insanity any longer and shoot him in the back of the head when they learn that he murdered a made man.
    • The other gangsters as well as Henry Hill and Jimmy Conway.
  • Daniel Plainview in the film There Will Be Blood takes this trope to disturbingly unhinged levels, especially at the end of the film.
  • Sheridan Whiteside of The Man Who Came To Dinner straddles the line between Jerkass and Villain with Good Publicity.
    • People need to stop saying someone straddles the line between two tropes there is no line between.
  • Will Smith's new movie Hancock is about a Jerkass who's a subversion of the classic Flying Brick - all of the powers, none of the Cape-ness. He realizes (with the urging of a PR Agent whom he saves) that doesn't make for a popular hero and try to change it. He is quite sensitive about his Jerkassed nature and does not take kindly to being called an Asshole by anybody, particularly criminals.
  • There's usually at least one of these in a horror movie. David and Ed in Shaun of the Dead stand out, though.
  • Detective James Carter (played by Chris Tucker) is a huge Jerkass at the start of Rush Hour and he knows it. Of course, since he's the hero he's also the Jerk with a Heart of Gold and has Badass tendencies.
    • He gets worse in the second and third movie, becoming increasingly racist and even attempts to use his police status to molest a couple of girls. For humor, of course.
  • Apollo Creed in Rocky was a famous Jerkass. And in his case, Redemption Equals Death.
    • More like cockiness equals death. He and Rocky had been fast friends for a while by the time that happened.
  • Pick a horror movie centred around a group of four to seven friends. One of them is usually the Jerkass. Sometimes they get Redemption Equals Death, sometimes not, but they die.
    • A particularly egregious example is Trent from the Friday the 13th remake, who pretty much starts his Jerkass resume by being a complete dick to Clay, whose sister was missing and he was searching for her. The rest of his time is spent bitching about his drunken friends ruining his cabin, even bitching about a chair broken when one friend fell over it after burned his lips while doing a flaming shot. Add on his 80s hair, and his death couldn't come soon enough.
      • Don't forget cheating on his girlfriend with the whore that just happened to come along. He was the most unredeemable character I've seen in a recent horror film.
      • Just after his girlfriend comes back with Clay, screaming that there's a maniac trying to kill them, Trent's first reaction is to accuse her of cheating on him with a random stranger...literally minutes after he had just finished doing the same thing! AAAGGGH!
  • Kraven from the Underworld movies definitely fits this one.
  • The extreme sports punks who constantly torment the main characters in Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle fit this trope.
    • Although they are later revealed to be big softies due to their musical tastes.
  • Johnny Depp played Willy Wonka this way in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the remake of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. He didn't like the kids, he didn't want them there, and he wasn't particularly shy about showing it. Then he still notices that Charlie is decidedly underfed and ladles him up a generous drink of chocolate; in the book this was perfectly in character-in this particular movie it was out of place.
    • It's not a remake, it's the new adaptation of the book.
    • Out of place? He watched that Charlie was the only non-jerkass child of the group, and he felt sympathy for him when he knew he was poor and hadn't ate.
  • In Snakes on a Plane one memorable character that oozed Jerkass was a snobby, self-absorbed bald guy who showed about as much human emotion and common sense as a tin cup and generally acted like Steve in the Dawn of the Dead remake only not funny or interesting. At least the villain had a kind of human pathos and the annoying Ethnic Scrappies showed courage and determination when they needed to, Bald Snooty Dude was just a douche for no reason at all, even going so far as to off-handedly insult a woman and her baby for having the nerve to sit by him. Of course he got his, after a literal Kick the Dog moment... he's devoured by a massive snake, and later his corpse is shot out of the plane after it decompresses.
  • American Pie's Steve Stifler. This was an important plot point in the 4th movie (American Pie Presents: Band Camp) when his younger brother Matt, who for most of the movie is trying to emulate Steve, changes his ways when he finds out that EVERYONE hated his brother. Because he was a Jerkass.
    • And in another movie even Steve admits he's a Jerkass and is glad that one of his relatives, the protagonist of that movie, isn't like him.
  • The antagonists of the Ocean's Eleven trilogy (the first one, Terry Benedict, threatened to (and conceivably could) Kill'Em All while the second one, Teloure, sicced Terry on the band of thieves because a friend of the heros unknowingly insulted his Gentleman Thief mentor) but especially Willy Bank from the third film, who screwed over one of Ocean's friends by taking advantage of his connections, cutting him out of their hotel's partnership, and on top of all that he renamed the hotel after himself. It doesn't help that the Ocean & Co. have to go to Terry for financial aid in the middle of their Revenge plot.
  • Randal from Clerks.
  • In The Prestige both leads become jerk asses when they get obsessed with oneupping and sabotaging each other which began with a grudge held over an accident causing the death of one lead's wife.
    • Ironically enough, their rivalry also winds up with the other lead's wife hanging herself and his secret twin's girlfriend leaving him.
  • All characters in The Family Stone at at least one point. Sometimes it's funny, sometimes it goes really way too far.
  • The protagonist of Bad Santa is an alcoholic Child-Hater Mall Santa Con Man who mooches off a young boy and his grandmother while planning to rob the department store at which he's working. The entire film is essentially about his transformation from a Jerkass to a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
  • DEA Agent Duncan Malloy(Colm Meaney) in Con Air.
  • Meeko the raccoon is this to anyone with food (which usually happens to be Percy), stealing it from them without any provocation. He even taunts the victim afterwards. He does do some good things on occasion very rarely does some good things, though, making him a Jerk With A Heart of Gold Silver Bronze.
  • Walter Peck from Ghostbusters, whose actor William Atherton has made a career of playing Jerkasses.
  • Sy Benson in My Favorite Year.
  • Richard Cameron in Dead Poets Society. Neil's father is this as well: He drives his son to suicide and blames Keating for it, not thinking for a second that he had anything to do with it. And sadly, he gets away with firing Keating.
  • The Emperor from Curse of the Golden Flower. At the end of the movie, he gives his rebellious son, who had conspired with the Empress to attempt a (failed) coup a choice -- either he can die horribly, or be pardoned -- as long as he personally serves the Empress the poison that the Emperor has been slowly killing her with. Of course, the son Takes a Third Option. The Emperor also beats his youngest son to death with a belt.
    • Some believe that the Emperor is a subtle metaphor of the current Chinese government. You can't beat him, but he's left thoroughly unhappy after destroying all close to him out of paranoia and spite.
  • Preston's father in Blank Check does come across as a jerkass on one more than once occassion. When his son was nearly run over by a car, he scolds his son about the bike that got run over instead and then proceeds to ground him.
    • To say nothing of the fact he gives the boy's room to his equally Jerkass older brothers, lets them steal his life savings and admonishes him, at eight years old, for not starting a 'business' like said older brothers.
  • Phil in The Hangover seems to count -- he's abrasive in a very frat-boy sort of way and doesn't appear to have any qualms about cheating on his wife, although he gets better by the end, kind of. Extra points because he's a handsome elementary school teacher and they are not typically jerkasses in film.
    • He immediately subverts expectations of the kindly male teacher by pocketing the money the kids have handed in with permission forms of some sort to take to Vegas with the other main characters!
    • For all his talk, Phil's scenes at the end with his wife and son pretty much negate his earlier impression of hating his life. Although he got pretty messed up during the trip, he stated clearly that he wasn't willing to jeopardize his family.
  • The protagonist of Bruce Almighty is obnoxious, selfish and whiny whom it takes divine intervention to straighten up. In the sequel they took it Up to Eleven by making God(!) a jerkass. Instead of a benevolent being who basically "gives a guy a bar of soap and some rope to see if he takes a bath and goes mountain-climbing" we have an arrogant asshole who brutally enforces himself upon an innocent person and humiliates him, doesn't give a damn about his wishes and sprouts lines like "The World Flood story was a love story". Worship THAT?! NEVER!
  • Roberto Volare from Brain Donors has an impressively inflated ego due to his status in the ballet world, and is unrestrained about using it to woo his partner Lisa away from her beau Alan.
  • Andy Wainwright and Andy Cartwright from Hot Fuzz.
  • Almost every single character in The Fighter, but mainly Dicky (self-absored crack addict brother), Alice (crooked boxing promoter who uses her son to make money off of him) and Sherri (a mother who shows her daughter a documentary that is obviously not for her age all for the purpose of making the father look bad).
  • Myron Larabee, Ted Maltin and the motorcycle cop, Alexander Hummell from Jingle All the Way.
  • The main character's little sister in the Disney Super Hero film Up Up And Away. From Memory she was abusive verbally, regularly reminded him he was normal and not a super like the rest of the family, purposely ratted him out after he'd stolen money from his parents (Which he was hypnotized to, and didn't even know he did do) simply for the amusement of it, and then in the end melts his shoes to the floor (Which is just scenes after he saved the family by being a Badass Normal). Most of which is Played for Laughs, but fails because of how much of a Woobie the main character is that she becomes The Scrappy.
  • In Shark Tale, Mr.Sykes & his Idiot Henchmen (named Ernie & Bernie) are (total) jerks to Oscar.
  • In Igor, Dr. Glickenstein & King Malbert are real jerks to the title character.
  • Anybody in Loser that's not Jason Biggs or Mena Suvari. Biggs' roommates and the professor played by Greg Kinnear who sleeps with Suvari's character are horrible human beings.
  • Sgt. J.J. Sefton from Stalag 17. With the exceptions of Cookie and Joey, he sees everyone in the compound as simply an opportunity to get resources to trade for goods (a result after getting his stuff stolen during his first week at the prison). This comes to bite him in the ass in the beginning of the story; when he barters with the Nazi guards using the cigarettes he won from a bet involving a botched escape attempt, he is suspected of being an agent planted by the Germans.
  • Moe from The Three Stooges. And then some.
  • Jason in Mystery Team is on the road to becoming this before Kelly sets him straight.
  • Chuck Tatum, (played by Kirk Douglas) in the movie "Ace in the Hole". A star reporter who has fallen from his pedestal, Chuck crawls through a dangerous tunnel to present a friendly face and reassuring words to a man trapped in a collapsed mine. He then arranges to have the man stuck in there for a whole week, sleeps with his wife, and uses the whole situation to advance his career
  • Several of Jack Nicholson's characters are jerkass, like the misogynist Melvin Udall in As Good as It Gets, or Daryl Van Horne in The Witches of Eastwick.
  • Richard Vernon from The Breakfast Club. He starts hinting at Jerkass Woobie status as the day wears on, particularly during his conversation with Carl Reed.
    • John Bender also easily qualifies, but down deep, he's a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, once you get beneath the antisocial cynicism of a physically abused kid.
    • Andy Clark is a Jerk Jock who feels like he has to be an asshole and a bully to the weaker students because his father expects that behavior out of him. When he plays a humiliating and painful prank on another kid, he feels terrible about it afterward, but his dad is only upset that he got caught.
  • The Room: Lisa, her mother, Johnny and Mark qualify.
  • Cal from Titanic. The guy sees Rose as only a means to solidify his fortune and is willing to do almost anything to keep her (or at least make sure no one else gets to have her), not to mention the same being said in trying to get off the sinking ship.
  • Upson Pratt in Creepshow's They're Creeping Up on You!
  • Pretty much everyone in the movie Gamer.
  • The Wreckers of Transformers: Dark of the Moon. As one government official states, "We don't let them out much because they're assholes." The Wreckers are Autobot scientists who work at the Kennedy Space Center, monitoring the Xantium, the Autobot starship that brought the second wave of Autobots to Earth (Sideswipe and co.). They also work alongside humans (including former NEST soldier Epps), but their verbal abuse is reported to reduce many NASA employees to tears. And that doesn't even cover their attitude toward Decepticons...
  • Jet Li in "Jet Li's Fearless" until he makes a Tragic Mistake, undergoes a Redemption Quest and then becomes the savior of his country (trope?)
  • Pony Sugrue in Darby O Gill and The Little People
  • Lloyd from Dumb and Dumber. Harry, in addition to being somewhat smarter, is a Nice Guy in his own bumbling way, whereas Lloyd is often sadistic and mean-spirited, and not always obliviously so.
  • In the Die Hard films we have Police Chief Dwayne T. Robinson in the first film, Airport Police Captain Lorenzo in the second film, and tv reporter Dick Thornburg in both films.
  • Practically just about every named character in the remake of Scarface: Elvira, Frank, Omar, Mel, Hector The Toad, Sosa, et. al. Even Manny, Gina and Chi Chi to a lesser extent, were nearly close to falling into this territory. (Actually, Tony himself, who is an amoral criminal, also counts as one when he is controlling towards his sister, until his Heel Realization when he killed Manny in a fit of anger.)
  • Pretty much the main cast themselves of Glengarry Glen Ross.
  • ALL of the soldiers themselves from start to finish in Platoon. Especially Barnes, Bunny and Wolfe.
  • The amoral thieves themselves in Reservoir Dogs. And to a lesser extent, the cops too. However, Mr. Pink and Nice Guy Eddie fits the cake.
  • Just about every named character in Pulp Fiction. Vincent, Jules, Ringo, Yolanda, Lance, Jody, Marsellus, Mia and etc. Particularly because they all constantly swears.
  • The Dude and Walter Sobchak in The Big Lebowski. But the nihilists definitely counts. And everyone else to a lesser extent, Jesus Quintana and millionaire Big Lebowski in particular.
  • Just about everyone in Casino, especially Nicky Santoro and Ginger Mckenna. And to a lesser extent, Sam Rothstein.
  • Practically every cop and gangster character in The Departed: Billy, Sullivan, Costello, Dignam, Mr. French, Ellerby, and etc. And to a lesser extent, Queenan, Brown and Madolyn came close to this territory too.
  • Let's face it, Godzilla can be a serious asshole if he wants to. One highlight is Ghidorah, the Three Headed Dragon where he seems to auidibly laughs at Rodan when Rodan gets attacked by Mothra. According to Mothra and her fairies, who can understand the kaiju, he is quite foul-mouthed as well.
  • In Observe and Report, Ronnie Barnhardt, Detective Harrison, Brandi and Saddamn were all real assholes.
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