Movies where the villain's identity is a surprise.
 

I was trying to think of some movies where the villain's reveal was a surprise to the audience, and I know I've seen them, but can't think to recall any.

I'm think of when it's like a friend to the protagonist and it winds up being a twist or something.

I know it's a cartoon, but Frozen is the only one that I can think of.

Any help?

Re: Movies where the villain's identity is a surprise.
 

Recently, PREDESTINATION.

Re: Movies where the villain's identity is a surprise.
 

I'm assuming The Usual Suspects would be the first movie most people think of.

Re: Movies where the villain's identity is a surprise.
 

Maleficent.

Re: Movies where the villain's identity is a surprise.
 

Batman Begins, sort of.

Re: Movies where the villain's identity is a surprise.
 

Iron Man 3

Re: Movies where the villain's identity is a surprise.
 

Are you referring to a twist where the villain turns out to be somebody we didn't suspect? Or are you talking about a reveal where we never really had a chance because the villain is not really in the rest of the movie (such as Seven)?

Re: Movies where the villain's identity is a surprise.
 

Re: Movies where the villain's identity is a surprise.
 

The Dark Knight Rises also sort of counts.

Re: Movies where the villain's identity is a surprise.
 

Any whodunit (Agathie Christie, etc)

Re: Movies where the villain's identity is a surprise.
 

Transformers 3: Dark of the moon

Re: Movies where the villain's identity is a surprise.
 

Re: Movies where the villain's identity is a surprise.
 

Seven was the first one I thought of. A lot of mysteries would count, as long as the audience isn't privy to something that the movie characters aren't.

Re: Movies where the villain's identity is a surprise.
 

Re: Movies where the villain's identity is a surprise.
 

Therein lies the rub. I love a good mystery and I really like Seven, but when the reveal came I was pissed. It wasn't fair to have the villain be somebody we never could have known ... On the other hand, I now love that angle. The police never had a real suspect, so we were never given real suspects. We only knew what they knew. I had become spoiled by Hollywood tropes and kept waiting for the butler to appear.

I was so spoiled that I developed the Laurie Metcalf Postulate (based on whichever Scream movie she was in). It states that a semi-recognizable actor cannot appear as an extra or cameo; said actor is immediately the primary suspect.

Re: Movies where the villain's identity is a surprise.
 

You either die a hero or live long enough to become the bad guy?

Re: Movies where the villain's identity is a surprise.
 

http://cdn-static.denofgeek.com/site...?itok=6xwp1JpP

Which gives me an excuse to post this clip.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vW4TOsL7e3M" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Re: Movies where the villain's identity is a surprise.
 

^

http://img.pandawhale.com/105723-Arc...y-but-xVft.png

Re: Movies where the villain's identity is a surprise.
 

Most "twists" movies are like that:

Unbreakable
Identity
The Usual Suspects

I love Wild Things. I know it isn't much of a movie movie, but if you want my realistic choice of future classics, that's on the list. It's one of the few trashy movies that's well made and knows EXACTLY what it is and never for a second pretends to be above it.

Re: Movies where the villain's identity is a surprise.
 

Comically The Man With Two Brains and dramatically Stalag 17.

Re: Movies where the villain's identity is a surprise.
 

Read the title and the first thing to pop to mind was:

Saw.

Re: Movies where the villain's identity is a surprise.
 

Bone collector. There was no way to guess who the killer was. It was random.

The body guard had a surprise villain as well.

Re: Movies where the villain's identity is a surprise.
 

Devil (2010)

Re: Movies where the villain's identity is a surprise.
 

Attack of the Clones

Re: Movies where the villain's identity is a surprise.
 

Does IM3 count?