Moral Event Horizon/Film: Difference between revisions

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* In [[The Dark Knight Saga|Batman Begins]], the League of Shadows seems earlier on like a group that's dedicated to justice, [[Knight Templar|even if their notion of what qualifies as justice seems rather warped]]. {{spoiler|When they talk about how Gotham needs to be destroyed, that does not confirm that they mean it, given the nature of their training. Then you get to hear a bit more detail on how they plan to do it, but that still doesn't rule out that the option of talking them out of it before it's too late. Then you see Ducard switch on a microwave emitter, vapourizing the water supply that he apparently knew had been laced with Crane's drug, as a means of drugging the people of Gotham, including the innocent children, into mass panic. Not exactly justice...}}
** In [[The Dark Knight]], the Joker's likely crossed the line well before the movie began (if he didn't, he crossed it when he killed Rachel and followed it up by driving Harvey to madness). It's implied the mob crossed it when they {{spoiler|hired the Joker in the first place}}.
** And from [[The Dark Knight Rises]], we have Bane and {{spoiler|Talia Al-Ghul's}} ''entire'' plan of cutting off Gotham City from contact with the outside world, turning it into a chaotic hellhole while uplifting convicted criminals, the poor, and other people who are at the bottom of society {{spoiler|while planning on obliterating it all in a nuclear explosion.}}
* In ''[[The Phantom (film)|The Phantom]]'' [[The Movie]], the [[Big Bad]] Xander Drax seems to be [[Affably Evil]] at first (being played by Treat Williams helps), but slides into [[Faux Affably Evil]] territory in the scene where he punishes a librarian who unwittingly leaked the research he was doing for Drax to a reporter. Drax has the hapless man examine something under a microscope...which has [[Eye Scream|retractable blades hidden in the eyepieces]]. As the victim screams piteously in agony, Drax ''laughs'', snaps his glasses in half, and says, "Well, won't be needing ''these'' anymore!"
* Two possible ones for [[Die Hard|Hans Gruber]]: either when he kills Mr. Takagi when he refuses to tell him the password the the vault, or later on when he threatens John McClane's wife to get him to surrender.
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* At first, Professor Moriarty from [[Sherlock Holmes (film)|''Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows'']] comes across as an [[Affably Evil]] [[Worthy Opponent]] to Holmes, but any possible claim to playing fair is utterly destroyed when he announces his intent to make Watson collateral damage for no other reason than to hurt Holmes, and in the same breath reveals that he has already {{spoiler|poisoned Irene Adler because she outlived her usefulness}}. And that's just the beginning; he speeds joyfully deeper into complete monster territory throughout the course of the movie. Disturbingly brutal torture is involved.
* The bullies (especially the male ones, particulary their leader Anders, Paul, and few others) and, by extension, almost ''the entire class'' from the Estonian film ''Klass'', cross this line. Their treatment towards Joseph and Kasparr is very cruel and despicable, even for bullies. In the beginning of movie, they bully and belittle Joseph in a basketball game, then fully undress him and push him into the girl's changing room. This was so bad that it made Kaspar, one of the bullies, [[Heel Face Turn|have a change of heart]] and become Joseph's friend after realizing what he has been doing. Then the bullies begin targeting both Joseph and Kaspar and their bullying gets worse: stealing Joseph's notebook and not giving him it back, later forcing Joseph to apologise for telling the teacher about their bullying, cutting and stealing his shoes, assaulting him both at school and out of it, calling Joseph and Kaspar homosexuals because they are friends, sending them insulting notes, framing Kaspar for Joseph's bullying. Later, they begin beating Joseph and Anders kicks him in the stomach several times. After that, they still want to force Joseph to apologise for telling about their bullying. The girls of the class also join the bullying by laughing at Joseph's suffering, insulting him, and supporting the bullies. After Joseph consequently tells his parents about their bullying and they inform the school about the class bullying Joseph, the class choose to blame Joseph for everything, despite the fact that they were the ones who started bullying Joseph. Wanting revenge, they call both Kaspar and Joseph into going to beach by writing emails to them showing each other as the fake sender. If you don't think they have crossed the [[Moral Event Horizon]] a while ago, you most likely see this point as crossing that crucial line for the remotest of antagonist sympathy. They {{spoiler|force Kaspar to fellate Joseph at knife point and photograph the sexual act without showing the knife}}, emotionally breaking both Kaspar and Joseph by doing this, and they simply laugh at their suffering. Even worse, before doing this, Paul, one of the bullies, thinks that '''''this is not evil enough'''''! This finally pushes Joseph and Kaspar over the edge and thus leads them to {{spoiler|stealing the guns from Joseph's father, going into the school, and killing the bullies to avenge themselves}}. While the ending is terrifying, {{spoiler|the class deserved their deaths due to their treatment and those who escaped the shooting will have to deal with the fact that the people they cruelly bullied almost killed them}}. The only people from Joseph's class who escape this territory are Joseph and Kaspar, Kaspar's ex-girlfriend Thea (although she's no saint herself as she broke up with Kaspar because he was protecting Joseph and participated in their bullying herself), who was disgusted with the aforementioned {{spoiler|fellating}}, and Kerli, the goth girl of the class and the only one who did not participate in the class bullying of Joseph and Kaspar and was disgusted with the class' treatment of the two boys (a few scenes indicating that the class teased her too due to this). Joseph and Kaspar {{spoiler|allow her to leave the cafeteria, before they begin to shoot the bullies}}. Made worse by the fact that the film was based on [[Real Life]] events.
* From ''The Amazing Spider-Man 2'', Harry Osborn/The Green Goblin crosses this whenever {{spoiler|he steals his dad's achievement (In the comics) of murdering Gwen Stacy. It's especially this due to the fact that it was done purely out of pettiness towards Spider-Man: he was pissed since Spider-Man (rightfully) denied him a blood transfusion that Harry thought could save his life, and once he realizes Peter Parker is Spider-Man, he decides to kill the person he loves most in order to take away his hope like Peter did to him.}}
** Donald Menken from the same film also had one of these moments: he not only framed Harry for Max Dillon's accident, but {{spoiler|got him fired from Oscorp, leaving him to die a penniless wreck while taunting him about his approaching death from Norman's inheritable disease like the slimy asshole he is.}}
* From Sam Raimi's [[Spider-Man]] films, we had the Green Goblin/Norman Osborn cross it in the first movie when he forced Spider-Man to choose between saving Mary-Jane or a lift full of ''children'' from falling to their deaths. He had other moments that could qualify such as setting a building on fire to lure Spider-Man to him or hospitalizing Aunt May, a ''harmless old woman'' to get to Peter, but it was this [[Sadistic Choice]] that showed how low the Goblin could sink when it comes to hurting Spider-Man.
 
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