10 Movie Heroes Who Turned Evil In The Sequel

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You either die a hero, or...

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00:00Harvey Dent said it best, you either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself

00:05become the villain.

00:06Movies are full not only of villains who go through their own redemption arc and wind

00:10up as heroes, but also the exact opposite, heroes who make Dent's words ring true

00:16by breaking bad and taking a complete 180 U-turn on their good guy stance in a sequel.

00:22I'm Ewan, this is WhatCulture, and here are 10 movies where the hero turns evil in

00:27the sequel.

00:2910.

00:30Bucky Barnes – Captain America, The Winter Soldier

00:33Best friends back in 1940s Brooklyn, Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers were inseparable and

00:39were with each other till the end of the line, even after one had been captured, had his

00:44mind completely corrupted, and was sent back into the world to kill the other.

00:49As a member of the Howling Commandos, Bucky was a war hero and one of Captain America's

00:54greatest allies.

00:55As the Winter Soldier, however, he was one of the most ruthless and successful assassins

01:00the world had ever seen, so elusive and so impeccably skilled in what he did that most

01:06of the intelligence community didn't even believe he existed.

01:10Bucky ultimately came good again, but that initial reveal didn't lose any of its shock

01:14value and it made the transition from page to screen.

01:179.

01:18John Connor – Terminator Genisys

01:21For four previous movies, John Connor was the hero of the Terminator franchise and his

01:26life needed to be protected.

01:28The fifth film in the franchise, however, followed a different timeline in which he

01:33was caught by Skynet.

01:35The villainous AI, personified in this case by a barely-there Matt Smith, essentially

01:40killed John Connor's conscience and took over his body, sending humanity's greatest

01:46hero back in time as a T-3000.

01:49What better way to stop those meddling heroes from getting in the way of an evil plan than

01:53by literally sending the best of them back as an enemy?

01:56Thanks to Genisys underperforming both critically and commercially, Dark Fate followed several

02:01years later and, in killing John Connor, essentially retconned anything that happened in Rise of

02:06the Machines, Salvation or Genisys.

02:09Still, 2014 had that brief window where humanity's greatest hero became its strongest adversary,

02:16a moment I need blissfully terminating.

02:19Number 8 – President Coin – The Hunger Games Mockingjay Part 2

02:24When the districts rebelled against President Snow's rule over them from the Capitol,

02:28it was Katniss Everdeen that was the initial spark.

02:32She shared the nightlock with Peter, preventing Snow from having his Hunger Games winner,

02:36and she fought as the Mockingjay, the focal point of the whole rebellion, to bring an

02:41end to Snow's regime.

02:42That's not to say that she did it alone, though, or even that she was in charge.

02:47There were teams of people around her to help, from Haymitch to Prim, Gale and more, and

02:51of course, in Mockingjay Part 1, there was Alma Coin, who acted as general of the rebellion.

02:58Without Coin, there would have arguably been no District 13, and the revolt would have

03:02been crushed before it even started.

03:04Under her leadership, the revolution was successful and Capitol finally fell, where she would

03:09then take the role of President from Snow in Part 2.

03:12Her first act?

03:13Punish the Capitol by forcing their children to compete in a Hunger Games of their own.

03:18So she learned absolutely nothing and in just one conversation, proved herself to be no

03:22better than Snow.

03:23Number 7 – Koba – Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

03:26Caesar led the Apes' fight against human oppression in the excellent rebooted Planet

03:31of the Apes films, and next to him all the way was Koba, who didn't cheer when the

03:36abused ape was able to drop his tormentor from the Golden Gate Bridge at the end of

03:39the first movie.

03:42Flash forward 10 years later though, and while Caesar was happy to live alongside humans

03:46so long as they didn't bother and torture all the apes, Koba's hatred still raged.

03:52He wanted every human to die, and this disagreement in ideology ultimately drove the two brothers

03:58in arms apart.

04:00Not only did Koba manipulate the other apes, he appeared to kill Caesar, using the leader's

04:05death to bring about a bloody war with the humans.

04:08He became a ruthless leader who was followed out of fear more so than respect and loyalty,

04:14and as a direct result of his actions, killed many, many apes.

04:19Ironically, Koba claimed that Caesar loved humans more than apes, and yet he was the

04:23one who outright murdered his own kind in some kind of power display.

04:28Number 6 – Thorin Oakenshield – The Hobbit – The Battle of the Five Armies

04:33One of the biggest downgrades of the Hobbit trilogy was going from Aragorn to Thorin Oakenshield,

04:39who just wasn't all that compelling to follow.

04:42Thorin's struggles as a protagonist were compounded further by his more villainous

04:47turn in the final entry in the trilogy.

04:49Once Thorin and company took Erebor back from Smaug, and after the people of Laketown paid

04:53the price for the dragon's disturbance, the new king under the mountain grew greedy.

04:58He coveted the Arkenstone, and with that came a certain kind of paranoia, and something

05:04of a sickness too.

05:05He became just as protective of his gold as the dragon before him.

05:09He had struck a bargain with Bard too, and he owed the people of Laketown fair recompense.

05:14But instead of paying what was rightfully owed, Thorin locked himself in the mountain

05:19and gave himself one more enemy on the battlefield in the lead up to his ultimate death.

05:265.

05:27Jean Grey – X-Men The Last Stand

05:29Okay, so putting it out there, X2 X-Men United is still one of the better combat movies we've

05:35gotten, and it ended on a bittersweet note with the seeming death of Jean Grey, who sacrificed

05:40herself to protect the X-Men as they made their getaway from Alkali Lake.

05:44We then got a glimpse of the phoenix rising from the lake at the end of the movie, promising

05:49one of the most iconic X-Men storylines would be explored in the sequel, the Dark Phoenix

05:54Saga.

05:56And explore it it did, but really amazingly, in X-Men The Last Stand, which saw Famke Janssen's

06:02Omega-level mutant being taken over by the dark side of her personality and joining up

06:07with Magneto.

06:08She smoked Cyclops and Professor X along the way to a final confrontation with Wolverine,

06:13who then reluctantly kills her to prevent the phoenix from harming anyone else.

06:174.

06:18Letty – Fast & Furious 6

06:212009's Fast & Furious is arguably the most forgettable entry in the series, but it is

06:26important for a few key reasons.

06:29Mainly as it saw the return of Vin Diesel to the franchise for the first time since

06:33the debut entry, but also because it placed Paul Walker's Brian firmly in the Toretto

06:38family and all the corona-sipping barbecues that entails.

06:42More dramatically though, Fast & Furious also killed off Michelle Rodriguez's Letty, Dom's

06:47wife.

06:49after tracking Braga, leading Brian and Dom to rekindle their unlikely friendship and

06:54avenge her.

06:55Letty stayed dead for Fast 5, but was mysteriously resurrected as an amnesiac mercenary in Furious

07:006 after an ending tease in the previous film.

07:03The new villain of the sequel, Owen Shaw, played by Luke Evans, had taken in Letty after

07:08she survived the explosion from Fast & Furious, using her talents as part of his anti-familia

07:14team.

07:15Letty eventually breaks out of her funk and gets back with Dom, who then also went briefly

07:19evil in F8.

07:21Number 3, Optimus Prime, Transformers The Last Knight.

07:25The absolute madness that is Transformers The Last Knight gifted us with lots of great

07:30stuff.

07:31Cogman, prestigious actor Anthony Hopkins getting absolutely obliterated by a giant

07:36robot, Transformers being in World War 2, and it also led to a surprise flipping of

07:42roles for Optimus Prime.

07:43After the ending of Age of Extinction, Prime travels to Cybertron and encounters Quintessa,

07:49who transforms him into evil Optimus, aka Nemesis Prime.

07:53Bumblebee ends up coming to blows with his former Autobot commander, only for Prime to

07:58get the upper hand and nearly kill him.

08:00Bumblebee then manages to speak to Optimus in his original, non-radio voice, which snaps

08:05him out of the brainwashing and turns him into the lovable Autobot we all know and love.

08:11Number 2, Wanda Maximoff, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

08:16Technically, Wanda Maximoff's introduction in the MCU was as a villain after being recruited

08:21by Ultron, but she soon switched sides to the Avengers.

08:25You could have made the argument that Wanda was the villain of WandaVision, as she imprisoned

08:29countless people within her hex just to live out her fantasy to avoid dealing with her

08:33grief.

08:34But when the hex came down and she was forced to say goodbye to Vision, again, and the children

08:39she manifested, that's when she truly began to manipulate and utilize her powers as the

08:44Scarlet Witch.

08:45Wanda's villainous turn in the Multiverse of Madness was one fueled by grief and loss,

08:50and the fact that she would do absolutely anything to be with the children she knew

08:53existed in another universe.

08:55The Scarlet Witch seemed to have been shown the error of her ways by America Chavez, so

08:59if she does return, there's currently no telling on whose side she'll actually be.

09:06Anakin Skywalker – Star Wars Episode III – Revenge of the Sith

09:10There was one story that the Star Wars prequels were produced to tell, and that was the transition

09:15of Anakin Skywalker to Darth Vader.

09:18Forget Jar Jar – actually, don't forget Jar Jar, I love him, sincerely – the Jedi

09:22Council and even Obi-Wan Kenobi, this was literally the story of a hero's turn to

09:27evil.

09:28In the original Star Wars trilogy, Darth Vader immediately announced himself as a villain

09:32for the ages, but there was so much more hidden underneath the mask.

09:36Hints and breadcrumbs were dropped for a new trilogy of movies to pick up on two decades

09:41later.

09:42Now, there are several moments throughout Revenge of the Sith that you could accredit

09:45the exact moment Anakin began his spiral towards the dark side, but even in the face of the

09:49prequel trilogy's criticisms, they were all put to screen incredibly well.

09:54And those were ten movie heroes who turned evil in the sequel.

09:58How do you feel about these villainous turns?

10:00Love them?

10:01Loathe them?

10:02Let me know your thoughts down in the comments section below, and don't forget to drop

10:04the video a like if you enjoyed it and subscribe if you're new.

10:07Either way, I've been Ewan, you've been watching WildCulture, and I will hopefully

10:11see you next time… as a villain.

10:14Mwahahahaha!

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