Just Between You and Me: Difference between revisions

* Despite popular belief, rarely played straight in ''[[James Bond (film)|James Bond]]''. Bond often has the gist of the plan figured out, and though the villain often gloats, they rarely have to explain too much, at worst clearing up the details.

** [[Justified]] in ''[[On Her Majesty's Secret Service]]'', where just for once Blofeld actually has a sensible reason for keeping the captured Bond alive and explaining the plot to him: Bond's credibility will lend weight to Blofeld's threat to the United Nations.

** Subversion in ''[[Goldfinger]]'': Auric blabs about his master plan to a bunch of goons, not Bond. Bond just so happens to be peeking in. Then Goldfinger kills the goons; however, he made sure they told their people to cooperate before he eliminated them. Then inverted, when Bond himself explains the plan to Goldfinger. Initially Bond thought the plan was a heist, but when Goldfinger says it isn't, Bond realises what the true plan is, and tells Goldfinger that it's actually quite brilliant.

** Averted in ''[[Moonraker]]'' where Hugo Drax lampshades the trope and then says he's not going to follow it. But when Bond and the [[Bond Girl]] follow Drax up to his space station and see [[Story-Boarding the Apocalypse|most of what's happening anyway]], Drax helpfully provides the remaining details before ordering them [[Thrown Out the Airlock]].

*** Later on when Bond arrives at the oil rig base Blofeld gives him the grand tour and explains his plans fully. Justified since the plan is to hold the world hostage with a [[Kill Sat]] for money- and he's already made his demands and threat known, and is only telling Bond what targets he might choose. Bond has already figured out how to stop it as well.

** Mild inversion in ''[[Tomorrow Never Dies]]''- the [[Evil Plan]] turns out to be ''less'' heinous (though still heinous) than what the heroes thought it was (they thought Carver was trying to start [[World War III]] [[For the Evulz]] and for rating; he's ''actually'' in a [[Big Bad Duumvirate]] ([[Offstage Villainy|of sorts]]) aimed at installing a new Chinese government via nuking the old one and blaming it on the British, with his ally emerging as a [[Villain with Good Publicity]] when he takes over the country and negotiates a truce (Carver is still after ratings). Also a perfect example of how Bond movies subvert this trope- they were ''already'' trying to foil his plan before he even explained it.

{{quote|'''Syndrome:''' "You sly dog, you got me monologuing."}}

* In ''[[Dogma]]'', the villain taunts the heroes in this way, but then [[Defied Trope|defies it]].

** In ''[[Return of the Jedi]]'', Palpatine gleefully explains his trap to Luke... But there ''isn't'' anything Luke can do and the Rebels fall into it. And not only that, Palpatine's gloating is not just for fun, he needs to get Luke angry, upset, and hating him for the Dark Side to kick in.

** In ''[[Attack of the Clones]]'', Dooku has Obi-Wan imprisoned and tells him the truth. Darth Sidious is in control of the Republic. Not only does this ''not'' backfire, it actually ''helps''. By telling the Jedi this, they start investigating Republic senators and Sidious latches on to this to create tension between the Jedi and Republic, ultimately allowing him to declare them traitors. [[Xanatos Gambit|If they did nothing, Sidious continues his plan unbothered so he wins wither way.]]

* Spoofed in ''[[Sky High]]''. {{spoiler|Gwen, after outlining her [[Evil Plan]] to turn all of the superheroes into infants and then raise them again as villains, then tells The Commander (who has been turned into an infant, and who she is cradling in her arms) that this is the best villainous speech she's ever given, and it's too bad that he can't understand a word she's saying.}}

* Subverted in ''[[Damnatus]]'' in that G'guor {{spoiler|''does'' kill Nira half way through his [[Evil Gloating]]. Not to be put off, he continues monologuing to the [[Soul Jar|spirit stone]] she was carrying.}}

Know about ''what''? }}

* ''[[Warrior Cats]]'': {{spoiler|Hawkfrost}} does this at the end of ''Sunset''. His plan wasn't particularly complicated, but before trying the strike the killing blow, he felt the need to tell Brambleclaw that he was just testing him. And of course, after {{spoiler|Brambleclaw impales him}}, he remembers something else important and says a little extra as he bleeds to death.

* The villains in the ''[[Alex Rider]]'' series have a habit of doing this.

** Lampshaded by Alex when he says that one of the downsides of being a criminal is that you can't tell people about your crimes

{{quote|'''Orient:''' This is--this is the part of the movie where the villain tells the hero everything, because he's going to kill him anyway. Except that I can't think of any more questions.}}

* Lampshaded in [[The First Law|Best Served Cold]] where Cosca asks Victus why men with a crossbow tend to gloat instead of simply firing.

* Spoofed in ''[[The Laundry Series|The Jennifer Morgue]]'' by [[Charles Stross]], in which the [[Big Bad]] (who's deliberately following supervillain tropes) explains his evil plan to the hero via PowerPoint! The Horror!

* In [[Artemis Fowl|Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident]], Foaly manages to record this on [[Chekhov's Gun|Artemis's laptop]], saving the day.

* "[[Chuck]] Versus the Ring Part II:"

{{quote|'''Chuck''' (the '''good guy''' to the main villain): "I'm sorry, are you asking me to make the classic villain mistake of explaining my dastardly plot to you? You know what, I'd love to."}}

* In ''Loyalty'', one of the later [[Horatio Hornblower]] TV films, Hornblower and his men taken prisoner after a [[The Mole|traitor]] on their ship hands them over to the French. Hornblower is invited to [[No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine|dinner]], where the traitor reveals that he is neither the only traitor nor even the biggest traitor in Admiral Pellew's squadron. Hornblower notes that it would be cruel to send him to his death without even telling him who the traitor is. Of course, {{spoiler|[[The Mole]] is [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]], and simply agrees that it would be cruel, before [[Subverted Trope|sending Hornblower back to his cell.]]}}

* In Heroes, Sylar tells Alejandro that he plans on using Maya as a toy after he gets her to harness her plague power. It's justified in this case, as he is perfectly aware that Alejandro won't understand a thing he says anyways, as Alejandro does not speak nor understand English.

 

* In the ''Marvel Super-Heroes'' RPG, the section on villains actually outlines this in game terms: villains get a karma bonus for telling the heroes their plans.

* In ''[[Exalted]]'', an [[Dark Messiah|Infernal Exalt]] who has offended his or her demonic masters can atone by behaving like a [[Card-Carrying Villain]]. One method is called "Infernal Genius Declaration," and involves showing off to a captured and helpless enemy by delivering a monologue describing his or her evil plan in great detail. The Infernal will receive this atonement, incidentally, whether this monologue leads to their plans being thwarted or not.

 

 

* ''[[Resident Evil]] 4'' had a particularly bad example. Saddler's plan revolves around kidnapping The [[Presidents Daughter]], infecting her with the Virus, having her rescued, and then have her take control of the United States from within. And he goes and tells her rescuer the entire plan as she's being rescued. Smart move, villain.

** [[Let's Play|The Dark Id]] had a field day with that one.

* At the end of ''[[The Elder Scrolls]] III: Tribunal'', {{spoiler|the [[Physical God]] Almalexia explains to the [[Player Character]] how she convinced him/her that another god, Sotha Sil had gone insane and tried to attack the capital city of Mournhold, while it was all in fact orchestrated by her so that she could kill the other two gods of the Tribunal, turn the player into an unwilling martyr, and rule as the sole remaining god herself.}}

** {{spoiler|Her}} reasons for doing so seems to be twofold: one, {{spoiler|she used to be the possibly loyal, possibly not wife of Nerevar, and is convinced you are his reincarnation}}, and two, {{spoiler|her grip on reality is not the best anymore}}.

* Constantly parodied [[Subverted Trope]], [[Inverted Trope]] and [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] [[Once an Episode]] in ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' when Perry the Platypus is captured by Dr. Doofenshmirtz in his lair. Sometimes Perry and Dr. Doofenshmirtz act as good friends, though Perry never fails to thwart the villain anyway. The whole [[Evil Gloating]] thing seems to be part of the Secret Agent/Evil Scientist contract. Doofensmirtz even says that since Perry's his nemesis, he has to tell him everything. Sometimes with visual presentations, pop-up books or musical numbers [[Summon Backup Dancers|complete with backing dancers]].

* Actually [[Justified Trope]] in the ''[[Justice League]]'' crossover episode of ''[[Static Shock]]'', where Braniac explains his plans to Static and Gear to distract them until he can attack.

{{quote|'''Chairface Chippendale:''' Ah, [[This Is the Part Where|this must be the part where]] I reveal my sinister plot!}}

* ''[[The New Adventures of Superman]]'' episode "The Saboteurs". The [[Villain]] "The Chief" tells Lois Lane and Clark Kent his plan after he captures them.