Villainous Breakdown/Film: Difference between revisions

* [[Pandorum]]: goes crazy with this trope. {{spoiler|It is revealed to the audience that Gallo is the one responsible for the malicious mutants and nightmarish madness on the ship. At one point, Payton locks Gallo in an escape pod, and he cracks, screaming/yelling and threatening to carve Payton up. He escapes, and attacks Payton. Payton's own sanity is questioned in this fight when he also threatens to carve Gallo up. After the fight, it's revealed that Gallo and Payton are the same person, with Gallo being the manifestation of a breakdown Payton had before the movie plot started. And yes, this reveal makes Gallo (Which is his real name) evil.}} So, just to sum it all up: The villainous breakdown ''itself'' has a villainous breakdown while fighting the villain, who has a breakdown during that fight without even knowing he was the villain. {{spoiler|Later in the movie, Gallo has a calm voice and demeanor...until Bower says Gallo is suffering from pandorum, which results in nihilistic rants, trying to kill Nadia, and [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|a not-so-calm voice.]] }}

* In ''[[12 Angry Men]]'', Juror #10 engages in a lengthy racist rant about how the defendant, a Latino immigrant kid, is scum from birth and is racially programmed to lie, steal and murder. It so offends and disgusts the other jurors, even the vindictive Juror #3, that all of them either walk away from the table or turn away from him in disgust until:

'''Juror #4''': I have. [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Now sit down and don't open your mouth again]]. }}

* Norman Stansfield from ''[[The Professional|Leon]]''.

* ''[[Rock and Rule]]''. Mok has a spectacular breakdown when his climactic demon-summoning plan goes badly awry:

"The magic of ''one voice''!...of ''one soul''!...But there ''is''...''NO...ONE!...''" }}

** It's also foreshadowed in his crazed rampage after Angel comprehensively spurns his advances...

* ''[[300]]'' has King Xerxes flip out and execute half his generals after they repeatedly fail to dislodge the Spartans. Later, being grazed with a spear ([[A God Am I|which reminds him that he can, in fact, bleed]]) causes him to have a [[Villainous BSOD]] as well.

* In ''[[Kick-Ass (film)|Kick-Ass]]'', Frank D'Amico gets so distressed by Big Daddy's disruption of his crimes that he starts using drugs again and kills a Kick-Ass impersonator in broad daylight. His Dragon is vocally distressed by it.

** [[Casino Royale|LeChiffre]] goes from coldy and effortlessly dismantling his opponents at the poker table to a screaming, sweaty nervous wreck that has to resort to his own [[Groin Attack|dirty work]].

* Number Two, normally a calm executor of Dr. Evil's plans, throws a hissy fit at the climax of the first ''[[Austin Powers]]'':

** Scott Evil does this in the third movie in reaction to his father's {{spoiler|[[Heel Face Turn]]}}.

* In ''[[Die Hard]]'', Hans Gruber acts very calm and collected up until the point where Holly calls him "just a common thief", at which point you can see his facade of civility crumble into derangement.

* The [[Big Bad]] of the [[Die Hard on an X|Die Hard-on-a-bus]] film ''Speed'' has two such breakdowns. The first is when he realizes that his bus-bomb has already exploded with nobody on it, and the second happens when his money is ruined by a dye pack.

* The Operative in ''[[Firefly|Serenity]]'' is unflappable for most of the story, going so far as to proclaim that Mal ''can't'' make him angry during their first confrontation at the Companion Training House. If you watch carefully, though, you can see the first pebbles of the rockslide earlier in the movie... until the climax where he [[Oh Crap|freaks out]].

'''Operative:''' ... target the {{spoiler|Reavers}}. Target the {{spoiler|Reavers}}! [[All of Them|Target ''everyone''!]] ''SOMEBODY FIRE''! }}

** And then he {{spoiler|shoots Mal in the back. Truly, no power in the 'verse can stop Mal from pissing people off.}}

* While not always cool and calm, Jean-Baptist Emanuel Zorg of ''[[The Fifth Element]]'' certainly fits the bill with his preferred means of shouting to display his disappointment.

** Another example fits this trope better: near the ending, Zorg opens a box supposedly filled with [[Cosmic Keystone|Cosmic Keystones]], does an [[Evil Laugh]]... and starts to cry, as it is empty.

* [[Robert De Niro]] has a pretty memorable one as Al Capone in ''[[The Untouchables]]'':

** And his ending breakdown, when he's been convicted of tax fraud and his criminal empire is being dismantled, is a pretty significant one as well:

'''Al Capone''': Ah, you're nothin' but a lot of talk and a badge. ''[Ness pays him no attention; louder]'' You're nothin' but a lot of talk and a badge! ''[Psychotically]'' '''''You're nothing but a lot of talk and a badge!''''' }}

* HAL from ''[[2001: A Space Odyssey]]'', right after Bowman gets back onto the ship to pull his chips. This one is a little hard to detect, as he sounds just as calm as he does when he was a psychopathic killer, but through his words you can hear his desperate attempts to save his own life:

* Lord Cutler Beckett in ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]: At World's End'' has an unusually calm breakdown when {{spoiler|his flagship is being torn apart between two legendary ships, and he can't even give the order to abandon ship. Instead, he just says "It's just... good business" and walks down the stairs to his doom}}.

* "Baby" Jane Hudson, of ''[[What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?|What Ever Happened to Baby Jane]]?'', goes completely insane upon learning in the end that the accident which crippled her sister, Blanche, was in fact caused by Blanche herself in an attempt to kill Jane, and not Jane in an alcoholic bender, and launches into her old song and dance routine, despite being 40-50 years too old.

** "[[Understatement|Bummer!]]"

* In ''[[The Truman Show]]'', when it looks like Truman's about to escape the island on a sail boat or die trying, previously unflappable director [[Meaningful Name|Christof]] begins acting increasingly unhinged, culminating in a screamed order to "INCREASE THE WIND!" and capsize Truman's boat, regardless of the fact that Truman has tied himself to the sail and could drown as a result.

** He also has a much quieter breakdown after Truman {{spoiler|rebuffs his offer to stay.}} While it seems like a simple BSOD breakdown at first, look closely when his screen shuts off and you see him slump over, either dead or in shock.

* Luthor, in the ''[[Superman]] vs. Atom Man'' serial, undergoes a subtle breakdown in the final few chapters as Superman closes in. He doesn't go completely over the edge, but after maintaining a picture of composition for most of the story, his shadowed eyes and (delightfully) deranged demeanor make it clear that he is losing his grip.

* Captain Queeg in ''[[The Caine Mutiny]]'' combines this with [[Engineered Public Confession]] when he's put on the stand in the trial of the man who mutinied against him, who has argued that he did it because Queeg was mentally unbalanced but forced to confess that he had never seen the captain "ranting and raving" as such. Under the defense attorney's questioning Queeg does start genuinely ranting and raving while also displaying his nervous tic of rubbing a pair of ball bearings together. Rather unusually we in the audience, having been privy to all that happened leading up to the mutiny, can kind of see where he's coming from, and it's left ambiguous whether he's actually insane.

* ''[[Shadow of the Vampire]]'' has its [[Bad Boss]] and secondary villain Director F. W. Murnau breaking down under the stress of using Max Schreck, a real vampire, in his film production. Already considered somewhat eccentric due to his addiction to laudanum and his obsession with realistic film, Murnau cracks during the final day of shooting, after Schreck kills the cinematographer and the producer: rather than ranting and raving, however, he simply orders Schreck back into position in a somewhat [[Creepy Monotone]] and continues filming. Eventually the doors of the makeshift studio are opened, exposing the vampire to sunlight, killing him; as Scheck disintegrates, Murnau continues working the film camera, rambling insanely:

'''Murnau:''' Thank you. I think we have it. }}

* The Duke Brothers in ''[[Trading Places]]'' have a nice one after the heroes manipulate the <s>stock</s> Frozen Concentrated Orange Juice market and cause them to lose everything. Randolph has a heart attack, and Mortimer abandons all pretense of civility, declaring [[Precision F-Strike|"Fuck him!"]] (re: his brother), and screaming for them to reopen trade:

* Fritz Lang's movie ''[[Dr. Mabuse the Gambler]]'' ends with the eponymous villain (played by Rudolf Klein-Rogge) suffering one of these, while being surrounded by the ghosts of all the people he had murdered earlier.

* {{spoiler|AUTO}} in ''[[WALL-E]]'' sums up the trope with one sequence. {{spoiler|The captain has raised the Holo-Imager on the lido deck, so AUTO knocks him aside and hits the button to retract it. WALL-E blocks it from retracting with his body. AUTO hits the button again, and when it still hasn't gone down, he hits the button so hard and rapidly it ''cracks''. AND THEN TASERS IT.}}

** There is also a [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5467423/1/WALLY_The_Novelization_Humanized fanfic] where the author humanizes all characters. And {{spoiler|Human!AUTO's}} breakdown is... well, it's a much worse version of this, since he's an indoctrinated officer, bent on following orders completely. He isn't sane already and, seeing the orders he was raised to follow being broken isn't very good for temper and mental health. Humanizing him made his breakdown much scarier.

* General Hein in ''[[Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within|Final Fantasy the Spirits Within]]'' was [[General Ripper|never the most balanced individual]], but he rapidly loses what marbles he did have when given permission to fire the [[Kill Sat|Zeus Cannon]]. He continues to fire the cannon even though it is overheating, ignoring all warnings:

'''Hein:''' '''''I! KNOW!''''' }}

** His persistence, at least, is admirable: he is still firing the cannon as it explodes around him and only death manages to finally stop him.

* [[Magnificent Bastard|Magnificent]] tyrant [[Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan|Khan]] has had a few of these. The most notable one occurs between the original series episode [[Star Trek: The Original Series|"Space Seed"]] and the beginning of the film, when an [[Apocalypse How]] ruins his world and kills his wife. He has another when his two puppet-controlled assassins fail to kill Kirk. His last one is when his attempt to destroy the Enterprise in a Nebula fails. Strangely enough, Khan quickly regains his composure and goes back on the offensive in line with the Magnificent Bastard he is. But it's clear that his psyche is damaged by his constant need to dominate.

** Khan's only true breakdown is when Chekov tries to claim that Khan was given a fair deal being exiled on Ceti Alpha Five which had since turned into a dead wasteland.

'''Khan:''' [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v{{=}}Uhu5V8VRxFU THIS IS CETI ALPHA FIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!] }}

:: In the making of the movie, Ricardo Montalban who played Khan even commented that he wanted that scene to be Khan's one true breakdown moment where he blew his top rather than acting or speaking in a deliberate controlled fashion.

* Towards the end of ''[[Return to Oz]],'' the Nome King suffers a breakdown when Dorothy manages to finally beat him at his own game- three times in a row: for every victory, the King loses both his temper and a little of the humanity he'd gained from the contest, gradually transforming from an [[Affably Evil]] humanoid to a [[One-Winged Angel|gigantic Earth Elemental]]. He even destroys his [[Good Smoking, Evil Smoking|pipe]] with a blast of magic, ends the contest in a tantrum, and goes on to destroy his entire palace in his attempt to kill Dorothy- {{spoiler|which would have been successful had Billina not laid an egg.}}

* ''[[Speed Racer (film)|Speed Racer]]'': On the final lap of the Grand Prix...

* ''[[Falling Down]]'' is essentially one of these spread throughout a movie.

* In the 1930s and 1940s, any villain played by Tod Slaughter could be counted on to have one in Every. Single. Film. Fortunately, he was talented enough to make this work, since his villains were all different in motivation and action.

** Frank grew less stable as the film went on, too. "Don't laugh! This ain't reality TV!"

* In ''[[No Country for Old Men]]'', [[Complete Monster|Anton Chigurh]] has a ''very'' subtle one in his encounter with the wife of Llewelyn Moss, who he promised to kill if Moss didn't get him the money. He decides to place her fate on a coin toss.

Carla Jean: [[You Keep Telling Yourself That|The coin don't have no say.]] [[Psycho for Hire|It's just YOU]]. }}

* Deliberately exacerbated by Mameha to Hatsumomo in ''[[Memoirs of a Geisha]]''.

* Peter Lorre in ''[[The Maltese Falcon]]'', turning on Sidney Greenstreet after finding out the eponymous statue is a worthless fake made of lead:

* In ''[[Fargo]]'', as his plans (which weren't ''that'' incredibly well thought out to begin with) spiral rapidly out of control, Jerry Lundegaard experiences several relatively minor outbursts of increasing intensity as things he didn't anticipate come back to bite him (such as an arm-waving tantrum in a frozen carpark while trying to scratch ice from his windscreen, and slamming his blotter down on his desk). By the end of the movie, everything has gone catastrophically wrong and he's been forced to flee, and when the police finally catch up with him he's reduced to a hysterical, shrieking wreck of a man writhing about on the bed of a motel room as the cops try and restrain him. All of this just serves to show what an ultimately pathetic, inadequate man Jerry is and how deeply out of his depth he's gotten himself.

* Synoamess Botch from ''[[Twice Upon a Time]]'' goes absolutely ballistic when his evil plot is foiled by Ralph. He then becomes terrified to the point of begging for his mother by the threat of a leftover nightmare bomb going off in his face. {{spoiler|Said bomb is really Ralph's buddy Mumford in disguise.}}

** A more subtle instance: Red Skull attempts to invoke his [[Hannibal Lecture]] about what Dr. Erskine stated to Steve Rogers about the formula, and how he was lied to, Captain America replies that the only thing Erskine ever told him about Red Skull was that Red Skull was insane. He is briefly seen irritated, but he regains his composure and deduces that he must have seen something inside him that Erskine believed deserved the formula far more, and asks what was special about him. Captain America doesn't give him the response he wants ("Nothing. I'm just a kid from Brooklyn."), and he breaks down completely, punching Captain America three times.

* Towards the end of ''[[The Avengers (film)|The Avengers]]'', {{spoiler|Loki, after seeing his plans turning south, begins throwing a hissy fit at the approaching Hulk. [[Talk to the Fist|He doesn't]] [[Shut UP, Hannibal|get far]]. His final reaction after the battle is much more composed, however.}}

* In ''[[Kung Fu Panda]]'', Tai Lung's composure really starts to fall apart once he actually sees the Dragon Scroll he so coveted. Instead of fighting intelligently and using environment to his advantage, like he did in every fight before, he single-mindedly pursues the scroll, losing more and more of his cool, as Po starts to give him problems. After he obtains the Dragon Scroll and finds it to be blank, he suffers from this full out, and it just gets more intense after he discovers his pressure point technique to be ineffectual against Po, causing him to throw all semblance of strategy and martial arts mastery out the window, and after getting beaten and barely able to get up and stumble around, he just keeps rambling and trying to fight back.

** And in the sequel, [[Kung Fu Panda 2]], Po appearing as Shen is about to sail to triumph seems to result in the peacock finally losing it; {{spoiler|while he remains sane, he kicks the [[Attack! Attack! Attack!]] strategy he'd employed with his cannons up to 11, even willing to fire on his own fleet to clear out all obstacles and casually knifing his own [[Dragon]] when he refuses. This results in Shen refusing to cease using his cannons even when Po has perfected the catch and return technique, resulting in a pretty epic [[Oh Crap]] when Po's final returned shot makes a yin-yang symbol before striking his flagship. When Po confronts him on his ship after crippling it, he finds Shen completely stunned by both the fact everything he created has been destroyed and the fact that Po managed to overcome his traumatic past and find inner peace. When Po explains it to him, he snaps and tries to kill Po. Unlike Tai Lung, however, Shen doesn't lose his head, managing [[Tranquil Fury]] despite his breakdown, resulting in a much more even fight.}}

** {{spoiler|This is most likely due to the Soothsayer's prediction starting to come to pass and by this point Shen is getting desperate to change it. His [[Mind Screw]] didn't work and force is his only option. You can sense it in Shen's voice when he ask how Po overcame his trauma. Even if its calm, his ambition has been left in ruins and he got nothing to lose. Leading to the final assault and ultimately death at his own hands.}}

* Darla Dimple of ''[[Cats Don't Dance]]'' gets a big one at the end. Darla's attempts to sabotage Danny's last-ditch effort to show that animals can be stars actually ''helps'' them. At the end, frazzled, exhausted and more than a little mad, Darla crawls up to Danny and, in front of the audience, accidentally outs herself as the one who sabotaged his earlier attempt.

* Cal of ''[[Titanic]]'' on account of being such a [[Yandere]]. By the end of the scene, he's giggling when he realizes the irony of him losing the Heart of the Ocean.

* ''[[Orphan]]'': After failing to seduce John, Esther runs to her room, removes everything she uses to pass herself off as a nine-year-old, while throwing a screaming fit and wrecking the room.

* Screwface, the [[Big Bad]] of [[Steven Seagal]] film ''[[Marked for Death]]'' has one moment a little less than halfway in the movie where he loses it. He goes to sit down at a card game with his [[Mooks]], then notices one his men is missing and asks where he is. For a second or two after Screwface is told that Seagal's character killed that mook, he seems to take it calmly, then he start pounding on the table, turns it over, rips a leg off the frame and starts beating a mook who can't get out of the way fast enough with it. Then he screams that he wants Seagal and Seagal's whole family dead, and if they aren't up to it, ''he'll'' do it... then he'll kill all of them.

* Neville Sinclair in ''[[The Rocketeer]]'' suffers this kind of breakdown when he is confronted with the information that he is in fact a Nazi spy. He first breaks down in this way when he catches Jenny reading up on it and kidnaps her for real (and not having to fake it anymore).

'''Neville:''' ''(about to take her hostage)'' A what? Spy? Saboteur? Fascist? All of the above. }}

** That's nothing compared to when Cliff manages to convince Eddie Valentine and his gang that Sinclair, their boss, is a Nazi, and they promptly [[Mook Face Turn|turn their back on him]]. Sinclair responds with an [[Accent Relapse]], becoming [[Bilingual Bonus|bilingual in English and German]] in the process, turning on Valentine's gang, just as they had turned on him, and joining up with another gang, this one of Nazi spies lurking in the shadows.

** In the first film Gaston increasingly goes from being a [[Jerkass]] [[Stalker with a Crush]] into an unhinged [[Yandere]] [[Complete Monster]]. It's especially evident after [[Not Good with Rejection|Belle keeps refusing him]].

* When he's captured by the police in ''[[Casablanca]]'', Ugarte has a brief but memorable breakdown.

* The Other Mother is normally a creepy [[Stepford Smiler]]. She loses her fragile composure after ''[[Coraline (animation)|Coraline]]'' refuses to apologize to her and after Coraline throws the cat at her face and it [[Eye Scream|claws off her button eyes]]. Also, when Coraline is escaping to the real world from the other world the Other Mother looses it and screams "DON'T LEAVE ME! DON'T LEAVE ME! I'LL DIE, I'LL DIE WITHOUT YOU!!!!!!" Also, after they throw the hand and the key inside the well, if you listen closely, you can hear the Other Mother whispering 'No'.

* ''[[Misery]]'': Annie has these frequently being so [[Ax Crazy]]. Like after Paul supposedly burns the manuscript.