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{{quote|"''THAT WAS AN ORDER! STEINER'S ASSAULT WAS AN ORDER! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, TO DISOBEY AN ORDER THAT I GIVE?''"|[[Adolf Hitler]], ''[[Downfall (Filmfilm)|Downfall]]'' }}
 
* [[The Shawshank Redemption]] has {{spoiler|warden Samuel Norton freaking out over Andy being missing from his prison cell. His rant doubles as [[Fridge Brilliance]] on the movie's part, as Norton's clearly [[wikipedia:Psychological projection|projecting]] his corrupt nature onto everyone else.}} This is a special case, because what the villain's freaking out over happens BEFORE {{spoiler|he gets exposed as a crook}}, (and is somewhat mild in comparison) and likely before he has any reason to expect that to even happen.
* At the end of Disney's animated ''[[The Great Mouse Detective (Disney)|The Great Mouse Detective]]'' (see the image on the right), Ratigan goes from being a smarmy, smug intellectual [[One-Winged Angel|to a feral, crazed rat]], savagely attacking Basil. Although he does have quick seconds of losing his cool throughout the film, he is just as quickly able to recollect himself as calm and collective. Until the end, when Basil saves the Flaversham clan, whom, thanks to Ratigan, had been kept separated from each other. But when Basil both humiliates Ratigan in front of dozens of aristocrats and saves and reunites Olivia and her father, Ratigan breaks down.
* In the [[The a A-Team (Filmfilm)|A-Team movie,]] {{spoiler|Lynch}} has one when he overhears that {{spoiler|The A-Team and General Morrison survived his bombing.}} He has a tantrum and repeatedly kicks in front of him like a kid.
* [[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 ''[[Twelve12 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:
{{quote| '''Juror #10''': Listen to me. We're... This kid on trial here... his type, well, don't you know about them? There's a, there's a danger here. These people are dangerous. They're wild. Listen to me. Listen. <br />
'''Juror #4''': I have. [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Now sit down and don't open your mouth again]]. }}
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** It's also foreshadowed in his crazed rampage after Angel comprehensively spurns his advances...
{{quote| '''Mok:''' ...she can ''sing'', or she can ''SCREAM''!!!...but she still pissed me off.}}
* ''[[Three Hundred|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 (Filmfilm)|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.
* Sanchez in ''[[Licence to Kill (Film)|Licence to Kill]]'' had a minor case of this during the final action sequence. He goes from treating his employees with trust and respect to impaling them on forklifts, gunning down [[The Scrappy]], and swinging madly with a machete when he sees [[James Bond]], cutting the air brake on his oil tanker truck, which naturally leads to [[Stuff Blowing Up]].
** In ''[[Quantum of Solace (Film)|Quantum of Solace]]'', when [[Big Bad]] Dominic Greene's plans [[Stuff Blowing Up|explode]] around his ears, he goes insane, trying to chop Bond to little pieces [[Ax Crazy|using an axe]] while making sounds more appropriately shrieked by demonic monkeys. His fury gets the better of him when he ''axes himself in the foot''.
** [[Casino Royale (Film)|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]]'':
{{quote| '''Number Two:''' Dr. Evil, I spent 30 years of my life turning this two-bit evil empire into a world class multi-national. I was going to have a cover story with Forbes. But you, like an '''''idiot''''', want to take over the world! And you don't realize '''''there is no world anymore! It's only corporations!'''''}}
** Scott Evil does this in the third movie in reaction to his father's {{spoiler|[[Heel Face Turn]]}}.
* In ''[[Die Hard (Film)|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.
** In ''Die Hard With a Vengeance'', Simon Gruber is able to keep his cool nearly all the way through the movie...until he realizes that McClane tracked him to Canada.
** This goes double for Gruber's icy Germanic moll, who is quite the [[Smug Snake]] until McClane shows up at the end, whereupon she screams in rage and opens fire on McClane.
*** This probably was in part due to "coitus interruptus". Anyone would be frustrated in this situation.
* In Agent Smith's "Why do you persist" monologue to Neo in the last ''[[The Matrix (Film)|Matrix]]'' movie, he seems to suffer from this.
** ''Seems'' to? It's tough to tell in the rain, but by the end of it there appears to be ''spittle and froth flying from his mouth.''
* ''[[Citizen X]]''. Andrei Chikatilo breaks down and sobs when psychiatrist Dr. Alexandr Bukhanovsky reads his psychological profile of the suspected serial killer; his theoretical assessment of the serial killer (Chikatilo) turns out to be on the money.
* The [[Big Bad]] of the [[Die Hard Onon 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]].
{{quote| (''[[Cool Starship|Serenity]]'' is followed through the ion cloud by {{spoiler|a fleet of Reavers}})<br />
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'''Eliot Ness''': You heard, Capone. Here endeth the lesson. ''[Ness turns and calmly walks away]''<br />
'''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 (Film)|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:
{{quote| '''HAL:''' Look, Dave. I can see you're really upset about this. I honestly think you want to sit down calmly, take a stress pill and think things over. I know I've made some very poor decisions recently, but I can give you my complete assurance that my work will be back to normal. I've still got the greatest enthusiasm and confidence in the mission, and I want to help you. Dave, stop. Stop, will you? Stop, Dave. Will you stop, Dave? Stop, Dave. I'm afraid.}}
* 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? (Film)|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.
** Jane to Blanche: "You mean, all this time we coulda been ''friends''?"
* Tony Montana from ''[[Scarface]]'' wasn't usually a calm guy to begin with, but after having everything come crashing down and losing his sister Gina during [[The Siege|the final assault on his mansion by Sosa's killers]], Tony goes utterly ballistic, taking up an M-16 with an M-203 grenade launcher with the now-famous cry of "Say hello to my LITTLE FRIEND!" and going on a one-man cocaine-fueled rampage. He almost succeeds in taking every one of his attackers down.
* The Joker from ''[[The Dark Knight]]''. Though one could argue that, being insane, he was ALREADY broken down before the movie started, he has a surprisingly subtle breakdown when {{spoiler|neither of the ferries' passengers use the detonators, proving that [[Rousseau Was Right]], and not ALL [[Humans Are Bastards]]. It's the first time in the whole movie things haven't followed his script, and he sees for just a moment that he might be wrong about life. His response is to whine that people aren't reliable and try to blow them up himself}}. It's the equivalent of turning over the chessboard and punching the other player when you're facing checkmate.
** It's also worth mentioning that this breakdown is likely an intentional case of dramatic irony, as earlier in the film, the Joker spoke to {{spoiler|Harvey Dent/Two-Face}} about how normal people break when things "don't follow the plan" and that he's immune to this because he "has no plan". But when things don't go the way he thought they would, he is clearly upset by it and has his, as it were, [[Inverted Trope|reverse breakdown]] (going from his usual hysteria and out-and-out insanity to a quiet, solemn tone... the exact opposite of a normal example of a Villainous Breakdown.) Despite what he may have said or even thought, the Joker ''did'' have a plan... and he was not happy when it failed.
** He has a similar breakdown in the graphic novella ''The Killing Joke'' when [[Batman (Comic Book)|Batman]] reveals that {{spoiler|he hasn't succeeded in driving Gordon mad, proving that not ''everyone'' snaps after just "one bad day".}} This manifests as {{spoiler|an all-out attempt to kill him and, when that fails, a moment of near-sanity when he actually considers Batman's offer to rehabilitate him.}}
** In ''[[Batman (Filmfilm)|Batman]]'', the Joker ends up breaking down completely near the end of the movie, when he has Batman and Vicky Vale hanging for dear life. While he was insane beforehand, he at least had some self-restraint to his insanity. By that point however, he couldn't stop himself from laughing insanely and frequently, and destroying parts of the Cathedral in trying to stomp on their hands ("Oh, they sure don't make 'em like they used to! (mad laughter as he smashes the bricks with his feet) do they, huh? (insane giggling) Eh, Batsy? (laughs up a storm)")
* In ''[[Batman (Filmfilm)|Batman]] Forever'' the Riddler, already half-sane at best in this version (it ''is'' [[Jim Carrey]] playing him after all), becomes utterly, delusionally psychotic when Batman {{spoiler|fries his brain by short-circuiting his own mind-reading invention. Partial subversion in that this renders him completely harmless.}}
** "[[Understatement|Bummer!]]"
* In ''[[The Truman Show (Film)|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.
{{quote| '''"How close are we?...Capsize him, tip him over...''SHUT UP!''...do it...''DO IT!''"''' }}
** 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.
* ''[[Repo the Genetic Opera|Repo! The Genetic Opera]]'' had a great one at the end of the film -- {{spoiler|Rotti Largo loses it in front of the entire audience at the Genetic Opera when Blind Mag defies him during her final song. He kills Mag -- all the while insisting to the audience that it's [[All Part of the Show]] -- drags Nathan and Shilo on stage, and tries to force Shilo to kill Nathan. When she refuses, he kills Nathan himself. The stress of his breakdown causes him to finally succumb to his disease. His last actions (performed very deliriously and weakly) are to insult his betrayed children and insist to the audience that the world was lucky to ever have him.}}
* 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:
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* 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:
{{quote| "Turn those machines back on! (echoing throughout the Exchange) TURN THOSE MACHINES BACK ON!"}}
* Fritz Lang's movie ''[[Dr. Mabuse the Gambler (Film)|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.}}
** You can see the beginnings of his breakdown when he sics huge numbers of Steward bots on the heroes.
** 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: theThe Spirits Within (Anime)|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:
{{quote| Warning: System Overload<br />
'''Hein:''' I know.<br />
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** 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.
* The villain in ''[[Kickboxer]] 3'' has a downright pitiful breakdown, as his empire falls apart around him and he is reduced to trying to hold onto a teen prostitution ring, acting as if he deserves something to start over with. His last words are a dull, "How could this happen?"
* [[Adolf Hitler]] in virtually the whole of ''[[Downfall (Filmfilm)|Downfall]]'' (past the opening [[Pet the Dog]] interview with his new secretary)
** When he's told that one of his generals could not muster up enough forces to halt the Allied offensive on Berlin. Hitler quietly orders everyone except his top people out of the room, and then [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2fl-sHUwrc completely loses his shit, ranting and raving so loudly they can hear him outside a steel door]. Has provided hilarious [[Memetic Mutation|spoof material]] for [[Gag Sub]] Youtube videos, such as this one with [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfkDxF2kn1I&feature=related Hitler getting banned from Xbox Live].
** When he learns that Himmler, his most trusted underling, has betrayed him to the Allies by offering to negotiate a peace settlement... and before that, when Herman Goering says that if he doesn't get a reply by 2200 hours (10 pm), he'll assume Hitler incapacitated and take over. Let's just say that in the week leading up to his death, Hitler has a ''lot'' of breakdowns.
* The 1939 film ''[[Mr. Smith Goes to Washington]]'' ends with a Villainous Breakdown. The secondary villain Senator Paine, previously conflicted but standing firm on staying on the side of evil, finally snaps when Jeff Smith collapses from the exhaustion of his ordeal. Senator Paine rushes out of the senate room, tries to shoot himself, and when that fails, he runs back into the senate room screaming the truth regarding the corruption that he is a part of, giving Smith the victory.
* ''[[Star Trek (Filmfilm)|Star Trek]]'' (2009). Nero's ''"Fire everything!"'' when he realizes Spock is doing a suicide run. But Ayel also has one when we first see him, upon realising he's [[Time Travel|arrived 25 years too early]]. This is in contrast to Nero who commonly speaks very little or else says things like "Hello Christopher. I'm Nero."
** He momentarily lapses into this when Pike tells him that Romulus (the one in the new timeline, though he doesn't know that) hasn't been destroyed. "'''DON'T TELL ME IT DIDN'T HAPPEN! IT ''DID HAPPEN!!'' I ''SAW'' IT HAPPEN!!'''
** He also has a [[The Khan|Khan moment]] after he learns that Spock has just ruined his plan to {{spoiler|destroy Earth the way he earlier destroyed Spock's home planet}}. '''"SPOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOCK!"'''
** '''"I WANT SPOCK DEAD NOOOOW!"'''
* [[Magnificent Bastard|Magnificent]] tyrant [[Star Trek II: theThe Wrath of Khan (Film)|Khan]] has had a few of these. The most notable one occurs between the original series episode [[Star Trek: theThe Original Series (TV)|"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.
{{quote| '''Chekov:''' You lie! On Ceti Alpha Five there was life! A fair chance --<br />
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** This performance was similar to Pris' death rages in ''[[Blade Runner]]''.
* 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 (Filmfilm)|Speed Racer]]'': On the final lap of the Grand Prix...
{{quote| '''Royalton:''' ''STOOOOOOOP HIIIIIIIM!!!!!!!''}}
* ''[[Falling Down]]'' is essentially one of these spread throughout a movie.
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* The Violator has a minor one in the middle of the ''[[Spawn]]'' movie. Upset that Malebolgia chose Spawn to lead the armies of the damned instead of him, Violator throws a hissy fit, whining that it isn't fair. He catches himself in the middle of his rant, realizing that his whining really isn't making him look any better in front of his boss. This growing frustration with this apparent snub, his own hatred of the Clown guise, and Spawn's constant refusal to cooperate eventually drives Violator to ditch all subtlety and just beat Spawn into submission with his true power.
* "Who cares about Derek [[Zoolander]] anyway? The man has only one look for Christ's sake! Blue Steel? Ferrari? Le Tigre? They're the ''same face!'' Doesn't anybody else notice this?! ''[[Only Sane Man|I feel like I'm taking crazy pills]]''! I invented the Piano Key Necktie! I ''invented'' it! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE, DEREK?! NOTHING! ''YOU'VE GOT NOTHING!! '''NOTHING!!!'''''"
* ''[[Clue (Filmfilm)|Clue]]'': " {{spoiler|I killed Yvette!}} I hated her... ''so... much'', It* it... the f* , it* flame... flames... flames on the side of my face, breathing, breath... heaving breaths... heaving..."
* {{spoiler|Obadiah Stane}} remains on a pretty even keel throughout most of ''[[Iron Man (Filmfilm)|Iron Man]]'', including the ending. However, well ''before'' the finale, when his evil plans have been stonewalled, there is a scene where he snaps under the pressure and throws a tantrum. [[Memetic Mutation|You know the one.]]
* Commodus in ''[[Gladiator]]'' after learning of {{spoiler|his sister's betrayal}}. [[Chewing the Scenery|"AM I NOT MERCIFUL?!?"]]
* Jackson Rippner in ''[[Red Eye (Filmfilm)|Red Eye]]'' loses his suave, intimidating demeanor just after {{spoiler|Lisa stabs him in the neck with a pen}}.
* In ''[[The Departed]]'' when Sullivan ([[The Irish Mob]]'s [[The Mole|Mole]] inside the police) is finally caught by Costigan, He tries threatening and intimidating Costigan out of arresting him, then, nearly in tears, he starts begging Costigan to "Just kill me. Just fucking kill me!"
** [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|"I am killing you."]]
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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 (Film)|The Maltese Falcon]]'', turning on Sidney Greenstreet after finding out the eponymous statue is a worthless fake made of lead:
{{quote| "You. It's you who bungled it. You and your stupid attempt to buy it! Kemedov found out how valuable it was. No ''wonder'' we had such an easy time stealing it, you...YOU IMBECILE! YOU BLOATED IDIOT! YOU STUPID FATHEAD! YOU..." (*collapses sobbing into a chair*)}}
* 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.
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* Though he's not exactly calm for the whole movie, ''[[Total Recall]]'''s antagonist Cohaagen is very mean to virtually everyone, even his right hand man Richter. The only ones he is ever nice to are his friend {{spoiler|Hauser (who had his memory erased to become the freedom fighter Doug Quaid)}} and his fish, whom he feeds while in the middle of chastising Richter. When it's clear that {{spoiler|Quaid won't let Cohaagen's men turn him back into Hauser}}, and Cohaagen gives Richter the order to kill him as he is close to ruining Cohaagen's plans, Cohaagen knocks over his fish tank, killing the fish by suffocation.
** {{spoiler|"but NOOOOO! You want to be Quaid!"}}
* The Controller/X from ''[[Godzilla Final Wars (Film)|Godzilla: Final Wars]]'' suffers a tantrum every time Godzilla kills one of his [[Kaiju]], but when he's finally defeated and his ship exploding around him, he finally completely loses it and is last seen screaming his head off as it goes up in a fireball.
* Clu in ''[[Tron Legacy (Film)|Tron: Legacy]]'' as he searches Flynn's abandoned home, reminding him how much he still loves his creator. His reaction to the flashback when he was first created is a defiant rage. And later when [[Calling the Old Man Out|confronting Flynn]], he screamed at Flynn for breaking his promise and shouting "I did everything you asked!" When Flynn admits that perfection could never be achieved (and thus everything Clu had done was a lie), he simply lost it.
* Emperor Palpatine in [[Star Wars]] has a subtle one. When Luke refuses to give into his hatred and spares Vader, Palpatine is visibly shocked. After this, he simply drops the [[Faux Affably Evil]] act and tells Luke "If you will not be turned, then you will be destroyed." For the first time in the entire saga, things have not followed his script and he is not pleased about it.
** It didn't help that Palpatine was offering the one thing to Luke that he never really sought: power. Luke wanted to defeat the Emperor, save his father, his friends, and free the galaxy, but he never wanted power for its own sake the way Anakin did. The Emperor having enjoyed absolute power for so long, simply couldn't fathom that any Force user would reject it.
*** You could argue that the Emperor didn't really care whether or not Luke accepted his offer. Either he kills Darth Vader and becomes the new #2 Sith (and a powerful one at that), or he refuses and faces the Force Lightning.
* ''[[Captain America: theThe First Avenger]]'': "YOU ARE FAILING!!!!"
** 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 (Filmfilm)|The Avengers]]'', {{spoiler|Loki, after seeing his plans turning south, begins throwing a hissy fit at the approaching Hulk. [[Talk to Thethe Fist|He doesn't]] [[Shut UP, Hannibal|get far]]. His final reaction after the battle is much more composed, however.}}
{{quote| {{spoiler|"If it's all the same with you, [[I Need a Freaking Drink|I'll have that drink now]]."}}}}
* 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 (Animation)|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.
{{quote| '''Darla:''' I... should have gotten rid of you all when I ''flooded the stage!''}}
* 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.
* Hopper in ''[[A Bug's Life (Animation)|A Bugs Life]]'' has two: first, when the fake bird is exposed and the ants then stand up to the grasshoppers; second and more acutely, when his taking Flik hostage is thwarted by Atta and Hopper gives chase, viciously pursuing Flik {{spoiler|to an actual bird's nest, where Hopper doesn't think that the birds are real until it's too late}}.
* In the ''[[Sherlock Holmes]]'' film ''[[Sherlock Holmes (Filmfilm)|A Game Of Shadows]]'', the chess match between Moriarty and Holmes. It starts when Watson and Sim catch the assassin; Moriarty is slightly perturbed, but he quickly points out that all Holmes did was delay the inevitable, as Moriarty is banking on human nature to bring about his world war, which is something that Holmes can't stop. Then Holmes reveals that {{spoiler|he palmed Moriarty's little red book}} about halfway through the movie, and that {{spoiler|Scotland Yard and Watson's wife have been cheerfully decoding it and ripping apart Moriarty's entire criminal empire}} the whole time. Moriarty's breakdown and rage is subtle but clear, right up to the moment where he and Holmes have their climactic final brawl [[Awesomeness By Analysis|in their minds.]]
* In the final ''[[Harry Potter (Filmfilm)|Harry Potter]]'' movie Voldemort resorts to hitting and kicking Harry despite the fact that that sort of thing is for ''[[Fantastic Racism|Muggles]]'', and he's passing up an opportunity to kill him immediately. The implication presumably is that forget the practicalities, he wants to ''hurt'' Harry, and doing so with magic isn't satisfying enough.
* Lord Barkis Bittern from ''[[Corpse Bride (Animation)|Corpse Bride]]'' after finding out that Victoria is poor after he married her and especially at the end where he has a major [[Freak-Out]] moment after he dies from accidentally drinking poison and the dead attack him.
* Debbie in ''Devil In The Flesh'' on account of being such a [[Yandere]].
* ''[[The Little Mermaid]]'': Ursula towards the end after Ariel destroys her eel pets. Also, when she transforms into Vanessa, its implied that she lost quite a bit of sanity (to the point of becoming a borderline [[Ax Crazy]]) when turning into her, as she talks to her mirror in a manner similar to a schizophrenic, emits a psychotic grin when throwing a pin at a mirror's head with enough velocity to knock the mirror back, and most certainly tries to kill a person had that been a human being, and her cackling.
* ''[[Chicken Run (Animation)|Chicken Run]]'': As Mrs. Tweedy tries to stop the chickens from escaping, wielding an axe, Rocky knocks her out and the chickens all manage to escape. But when Mrs. Tweedy comes to, she lets loose with primal rage and goes [[Ax Crazy]] in her determination to stop the chickens in general and execute Ginger in particular with the axe.
* 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).
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** 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.
* ''[[Beauty and The Beast The Enchanted Christmas]]'': Forte goes absolutely nuts and loses what remaining sanity he had left at the climax of the film because he thinks that he's no longer important.
** In the first film Gaston increasingly goes from being a [[Jerkass]] [[Stalker Withwith a Crush]] into an unhinged [[Yandere]] [[Complete Monster]]. It's especially evident after [[Not Good Withwith Rejection|Belle keeps refusing him]].
* When he's captured by the police in ''[[Casablanca]]'', Ugarte has a brief but memorable breakdown.
{{quote| '''Ugarte''': ''PLEEEASSEEE RICK!''}}
* The Other Mother is normally a creepy [[Stepford Smiler]]. She loses her fragile composure after ''[[Coraline (Filmanimation)|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.
* In ''[[The Howling]]'' ''VI: The Freaks'', the vampire villain Harker loses his cool near the end when the mob he formed to kill the werewolf hero refuses to shoot him because the hero is still in human form -- they were prepared to kill a dangerous monster, not an unarmed man. Harker vamps out and tries to kill the hero personally.
* In ''[[Mean Girls]]'' [[Alpha Bitch|Regina George]] has one when she realizes that Cady deliberately made her gain weight and another one when Janie Ian reveals to everyone how Cady had been trying to ruin her life.
* In ''The Adventures Of Tom Thumb and Thumbelina'' the Mole King goes [[Ax Crazy]] when Thumbelina rejects him and chooses Tom instead and when Tom smashes his [[High-Class Glass]] that allows him to see.
* Jafar has this after learning that ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'' took back the lamp at the cave of wonders. And then there's his [[Laughing Mad]] moment after the Prince Ali Reprise and his [[Big No]] when he realizes that he's a slave to the lamp after becoming an all powerful genie.
* A disturbing [[Up to Eleven]] version Judge Doom of ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit?]]'' has not once, but twice at the climax, both involving his "deaths". He's normally quite composed but when he gets run over by a steamroller and reveals himself as a toon, he goes completely and openly [[Ax Crazy]]. Doom is very serious prior to being stuck with super glow to a steam roller, once he is caught, he immediately blows his cover through screaming gibberish, after being reduced to a card board cutout, casually remarks in a loud voice on how surprising it was for him to be a [[Toon]]. When met with sarcasm, he [[One-Winged Angel|blows himself up to reveal he is a sick parody of a humanoid Toon with constantly warping eyes and a nightmarishly high pitched voice]] [[Nightmare Fuel|not only causing the normally cynical Eddie into a scared panic, but scaring half of the audience]]. From there, he is a silent, yet clearly devilishly sadistic monster who's only aim to bring Eddie despair as he takes away any hope of saving his friends and making him quiver in fear as he slowly moves toward him with a golden saw, with clear murderously gleeful intent as his eyes become more and more demented. This however is a [[Villain Ball]], as Eddie is able to escape and turn the Dip against Doom, reducing him to screaming "I'm melting" as he melts away to nothing, talk about two [[Family Unfriendly Deaths]]; not that he didn't deserve it [[Complete Monster|considering he was planning on mass-genocide on his own kind]].
* The [[Big Bad]] in ''All About Evil'' is already insane from the get-go, being an [[Ax Crazy]] [[Serial Killer]] who's dedicated to keeping her late father's movie theatre running by making "independent movies" of herself and her henchmen killing anyone she doesn't like. However, she completely falls apart during the film's climax -- the protagonist has prevented her "masterpiece" of slaughtering a packed audience, the police have arrived, and she's dragged the protagonist's mother up to the roof. She starts ranting, but the protagonist cuts her off, stating that her father would be ashamed of what she's become. This sets her off, and she starts screaming to the sky "Daddy, I did it for you!", then clutching her head and yelling at the protagonist to shut up... at which point {{spoiler|the protagonist's mother grabs her knife and stabs her in the neck, and she stumbles back off the roof.}}
* In [[Michael Clayton]], Karen freaks out the moment she's confronted by the presumed-dead Clayton (he escaped the car bomb she had her cronies plant), stammers and babbles her way through the conversation with him, and begins shaking when he reveals that she's been caught on tape. By the time she outright collapses to the floor as the cops close in on her, they're genuinely concerned that she needs medical care.
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