Has there ever been a hero that becomes the villain?

Arlington Road? It's a stretch, but at least in the world of the film, he becomes the villain.

Also, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.
 
Arlington Road is a actually a good example, I think. The fact he is trying to be the good guy and fails miserably doesn't make it irrelevant. In fact it makes a good point. The actors who play the great bad guys in cinema almost always state that they sought the headspace where the character believed himself the hero. In the name of a cause all things can be justified. I doubt Hitler saw himself as the bad guy in his own story and in the end no doubt he believed himself the victim.
 
If you watch the new film The Ides of March, that is specifically what the story is. A young idealist good-guy in politics becomes corrupted in the end.
 
Egg Born Son said:
Arlington Road is a actually a good example, I think. The fact he is trying to be the good guy and fails miserably doesn't make it irrelevant. In fact it makes a good point. The actors who play the great bad guys in cinema almost always state that they sought the headspace where the character believed himself the hero. In the name of a cause all things can be justified. I doubt Hitler saw himself as the bad guy in his own story and in the end no doubt he believed himself the victim.
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But in Arlington Road he is tricked into doing a deed for the bad guy, by the actual bad guy. Not what the original poster was asking. Good and evil are still clearly defined in this film. Jeff Bridges doesn't actually become evil.
 
KrickProductions said:
I would say Anakin Skywalker if you are watching them in the numbered order for the first time.
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Which, on an unrelated note, no one should ever do of course, because the biggest reveal in the entire story (Anakin/Darth is Luke's father) is spoiled at the very beginning of ep 1.
 
Ted Spencer said:
Which, on an unrelated note, no one should ever do of course because the prequels were wretched examples of retcon garbage
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Fixed that for you.

More seriously, I've only seen a couple of minutes of it (and it looked pretty bad) but Law Abiding Citizen is another example of a protaganist gone bad.
 
kenkyusha said:
Fixed that for you.
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LOL!

Funny about that. Seemingly, people of a certain age - generally those who were teenagers when the original trilogy came out - are the most antagonistic to the Star Wars prequels. Younger folks (like my nephew, who was 10 when ep 1 was released, and thought it was the greatest movie he'd ever seen...and yes, he'd seen all the originals many times), as well as somewhat older folks (like me - I quite enjoyed all three preq's - so sue me) are often much less so. C'est la vie...

There was even a recent doc about this: "The People Against George Lucas" (which is largely where I observed the age-demographic correlation). The vehemence with which some of these folks detest the prequels is simply breathtaking.

It didn't stop the films from grossing a couple billion dollars though of course...

Ok that's all...apologies for the OT spin-out...
 
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Coming up with a new better version of Star Wars is like coming up with a new better version of 2001 a Space Odyssey. I think it can be done but no doubt people will become upset when a classic is tampered with.
 
Yes, but almost none of the films people have posted here...

Law Abiding Citizen. Complete protagonist/antagonist swap.
 
nolankubrick said:
... without a hint of evil ...?
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No. That's just bad storytelling. A trick on the audience, one they wouldn't stand for. However; two movies do come to mind. One is strangely Lenny in "Of Mice and Men." He was this big loveable goof that wouldn't hurt a fly, intentionally. And then look what happened. The second would be Cary Grant in Hitchcock's "Suspicion." And I believe the original story called for Grant to actually become a murderer. But the studio felt his public wouldn't stand for it. So there ya go.
 
There were three films that came to mind to me.

Mission: Impossible (Jim Phelps, played by Jon Voight)
The Midnight Meat Train (Kaufmann replaces Mahogany)
The Dark Knight (Harvey Dent becomes Two-Face)
 
One of a half dozen new screenwriter cliche ideas, along with "it was all a dream"! The main problem is the protagonist is the audience identification character - the audience *becomes them* for 2 hours. So, if we become the good guy and then find out we're the bad guy - we aren't going to be very happy about it. In fact - the concept is kind of taking a dump on the audience... why would you want to do that? The USUAL SUSPECTS is the version that works - and it works because the protagonist is a *suspect* being grilled by the police - so when he's exposed as the bad guy, it's the audience's revenge against the cop who just made our lives hell for 2 hours. The other versions - as mentioned - are things like FIGHT CLUB where the protagonist is split into two characters. That works because we can feel sorry for Ed Norton's character because of all the trouble Tyler Durden gets him into. But you should note that FIGHT CLUB was a *massive* box office flop that almost took down 20th Cent Fox and *did* get the studio head who green lighted it *fired*. So, no one really wants to buy that script again. The problem with this concept is that it's very difficult to pull off - it's telling the audience that *they* are the villain, and they are not going to like that. If you can split the story into buddy protagonists and one ends up the bad guy, that has a better chance of working... but *why* do you want to do this in the first place? Just as a stunt? Or do you have a story that you are passionate about - that is your personal story - that requires it?
 
DarrenJSeeley said:
There were three films that came to mind to me.

Mission: Impossible (Jim Phelps, played by Jon Voight)
The Midnight Meat Train (Kaufmann replaces Mahogany)
The Dark Knight (Harvey Dent becomes Two-Face)
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I've not seen "The Midnight Meat Train"(2008), but in those other two cases, and in the case of each character example, neither are The Protagonist.

They are supporting characters, whose 'true' character, is revealed in a plot twist... which in the case of MI I, seems pretty 'grafted in'. In the case of TDK, the Dent character acts as a 'there by the grace of god go I', wherein good intentions, become inverted.
 
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