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Which movie villain had the most clever and airtight scheme?
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00:00Every now and again, the antagonist of a story will devise a scheme that's actually really clever.
00:05Even if it doesn't work, the amount of effort the evildoer puts into it is impressive.
00:09Now, their actions may be deplorable, but you have to tip your hat to how well thought out some of these ideas actually are.
00:16So, with that in mind then, I'm Ellie with WhatCulture, here with smartest villain plans in movies.
00:22Syndrome's Omnidroid in The Incredibles
00:25In The Incredibles, Syndrome plots to launch his destructive robot, the Omnidroid, onto a heavily populated city.
00:32After he swoops in to destroy it, it's assumed that society will perceive him as a superhero.
00:37In most comic-themed stories, the villain has some sort of doomsday device which the hero ultimately destroys after exploiting an obvious weakness.
00:45However, Syndrome is fully aware of this.
00:47He's been obsessed with superheroes since childhood and knows how resourceful they are at uncovering weaknesses in weapons and doomsday machines.
00:55In fact, Syndrome used this fact to his advantage.
00:58For years, he hired superheroes under the guise of a mysterious benefactor and asked them to destroy the Omnidroid, which had supposedly gone rogue on an island.
01:07If the superhero emerged triumphant, Syndrome rebuilt the robot so it was immune to the way it was defeated.
01:12If the Omnidroid won, then that was one less superhero for Syndrome to worry about.
01:16By the time the insidious supervillain believed he had killed every superhero on Earth, only then did he release the Omnidroid on the public, which by this point was nearly invincible.
01:26Although Syndrome was beaten by a baby, it was still a masterfully orchestrated stratagem, hiding in plain sight in more ways than one in Inside Man.
01:36Inside Man opens with a criminal called Dalton Russell claiming he pulled off the perfect bank robbery.
01:42Now, every facet of Russell's plan is meticulously thought out.
01:45Forcing the hostages in the bank to dress the same way as the robbers so the police can't tell them apart is genius.
01:51He also sends recordings of Albanian chatter through the police radio waves, so the detective on the case will waste hours to translate and decipher the messages, unaware it has absolutely nothing to do with the robbery.
02:02But the masterstroke is the finale. Once the police have the bank surrounded, it looks like Russell is done.
02:07Instead of trying to escape, Russell takes a bag of priceless diamonds and seals himself inside the supply room behind a fake wall.
02:14One week later, he exits through the fake wall and walks out the front door.
02:17What makes Russell's success all the more satisfying is the fact that he bumps into the detective just before he leaves the bank.
02:24That detective was in the presence of the man he was assigned to arrest, and he just let him walk out, oblivious of his true identity.
02:30In Goldfinger, James Bond learns that a German tycoon called Oric Goldfinger aims to break into Fort Knox.
02:40Assuming that he plans to steal the vault's gold, Bond confronts the maniacal mogul and explains that his scheme won't work.
02:47Because there is nearly 13,000 tons of gold in the facility, there's no way Goldfinger could steal it all before the army intervened.
02:53But Goldfinger isn't going to steal the gold. He's going to irradiate it.
02:57His plan is to set off a dirty bomb in Fort Knox, making billions of dollars worth of gold inert for half a century.
03:04This would cause Goldfinger's own gold to skyrocket while the economy collapses.
03:08Even though most Bond villain plans are fantastical, this one is theoretically possible.
03:13In fact, an economist for the World Bank stated that Goldfinger's scheme is pretty solid.
03:18What's really interesting is that Goldfinger was intending to steal the gold in the novel and the original script.
03:24When the filmmakers realised the logistics of such a crime would be impossible, they altered Goldfinger's plan to make it more realistic.
03:31Frankenstein switches bodies in Revenge of Frankenstein.
03:35Throughout the Hammer series of Frankenstein, the authorities are constantly pursuing the titular scientist to put a stop to his barbaric and ungodly experiments.
03:43Because his ability to reanimate the dead is disregarded as pseudoscience, each film in the franchise revolves around Victor Frankenstein trying to recreate his most famous experiment to prove his naysayers wrong.
03:55After living for over three years under the unsubtle pseudonym of Dr. Stein, Frankenstein is exposed and viciously attacked by the locals.
04:02When the police come to arrest him, they learn the deranged doctor has died from his injuries.
04:06After inspecting his body, they confirm that Victor Frankenstein is finally dead. Or so it seems.
04:13Before he perished, Frankenstein had his assistant transfer his brain into a new body, which was then reanimated with the same technology that brought his original monster to life.
04:22Now that the authorities have closed the case on Frankenstein, the mad scientist is free from all persecution, allowing him to live freely in his new form.
04:30He's also satisfied that he evaded the authorities by performing the exact same experiment that all of society condemned him for.
04:37Palpatine's Order 66 in Star Wars Episode 3, Revenge of the Sith
04:42As a galactic senator, Sheev Palpatine cultivated the persona of a politician with his people's best interests at heart.
04:49Little did anyone know that he was secretly reviving the Sith under the persona of Darth Sidious.
04:54As he claimed more and more political power, he performed atrocities behind the shadows, including putting hits on Queen Amidala, having Qui-Gon killed, and commissioning the construction of a moon-sized battle station.
05:05The reason why Palpatine's plan worked so well was because he knew when to act, and more importantly, when not to.
05:11When he was promoted to Supreme Chancellor, he didn't expose his true intentions.
05:15Even after he assembled a clone army, he didn't attack anyone publicly.
05:19Only after he turned Anakin to the dark side did he execute Order 66, forcing the clone troopers to instinctively hunt and wipe out all the Jedi.
05:28By the time Obi-Wan and Yoda learned Palpatine was the mastermind behind the Sith return, it was too late.
05:33He had too much power politically and physically.
05:36The Jedi were gone.
05:37It may have taken Palpatine years to initiate his plan fully, but it allowed him to rule the galaxy for decades.
05:44Sauron's failsafe in The Lord of the Rings
05:46Most villains' downfall stems from the fact that they overestimate themselves.
05:51Even though criminal masterminds like Kingpin and the Joker are defeated time and time again, they always assume their next crime spree will succeed.
05:59They rarely consider the possibility that they are destined to fail.
06:02But one person who didn't suffer from this trope was the antagonist of The Lord of the Rings, Sauron.
06:07Because he led the largest army in Middle-earth and harbored the One Ring, the ruler of Mordor was the strongest being in existence.
06:14Despite his vast power though, Sauron wasn't arrogant enough to believe his plans could not end with failure.
06:20In the event of his death, the Dark Lord placed a failsafe on the One Ring, so his soul would transfer to it.
06:25Despite the fact the ring could be destroyed in the fires of Mount Doom where it was forged,
06:30Sauron poured his dark magic into it so the wielder would be compelled to protect it under any circumstances.
06:35Even after his body was destroyed, this backup plan allowed Sauron to cheat death for 2,500 years.
06:43Thanos wins in Avengers Infinity War
06:45Before the release of Avengers Infinity War, many cinema goers unfamiliar with Thanos were worried that the Mad Titan would prove a disappointment.
06:54What does he even do? He's just sat in a chair for years.
06:56Why doesn't he get the Infinity Stones himself if he wants them so badly?
06:59But when the film was released, it was clear that Thanos' inaction was because he was waiting for the perfect moment to obtain the Cosmic Gems.
07:07After he knew where all but one of them were, he still couldn't make a move since the Space Stone was heavily guarded in Asgard.
07:13But the instant Asgard was destroyed, he tracked the Power Stone first, knowing it would allow him to overpower anyone.
07:20He then located the Asgardian ship that housed the Space Stone and used its properties to teleport around the universe,
07:26allowing him to easily retrieve the others.
07:29Even though he had been preparing this plan for years, he attained all six stones in days
07:34and successfully wiped out half of all life in the universe with their power.
07:38The Avengers may have reversed his actions, but the ending of Infinity War proved to be the most humiliating defeat Earth's mightiest heroes had ever received.
07:47Ozymandias' pre-emptive strike in Watchmen.
07:50Since the dawn of storytelling, antagonists have had a habit of monologuing their diabolical scheme in astounding detail,
07:57either to another character, the audience, or even their arch-nemesis.
08:01The ancient Greeks did it. Shakespeare characters did it.
08:04Heck, Bond villains explain their master plan to their mortal enemy with charts, models, and video footage.
08:09But no one monologues more than supervillains.
08:12It's regarded sacrilegious for a comic book baddie not to lay out their intentions in graphic detail.
08:17But the big bad of Watchmen, Ozymandias, did away with this time-honored tradition.
08:21After Night Owl and Rorschach learn their former comrade intends to kill millions to save billions,
08:27Ozymandias explains he will blow up key cities across the globe using Dr. Manhattan's radiation signature,
08:33framing Manhattan in the process.
08:35Because Manhattan's power is perceived as godlike,
08:38all nations would be forced to put their differences aside and ally against their common enemy.
08:42When the heroes threaten to expose him,
08:44Ozymandias points out that he initiated his plan minutes before they arrived.
08:48He then turns on the monitor, showing he's already triggered the Manhattan explosions,
08:52killing 15 million people.
08:54Even though the closing shot hints that Ozymandias will be implicated,
08:57the heroes still failed to stop him.
09:00Simon's plan would have worked in Die Hard with a Vengeance.
09:04In Die Hard with a Vengeance,
09:05Simon Gruber threatens to blow up a school in New York
09:08unless John McClane plays a cat-and-mouse game with him.
09:11Meanwhile, the FBI and the police force are desperately trying to locate which school harbors the explosive.
09:16What they don't realize is that Simon has sent them off on a wild goose chase
09:20while he breaks into the Federal Reserve Bank,
09:22which contains more wealth than any vault on Earth.
09:25Disguising his men as subway car repair workers,
09:28Simon breaks into the reserve through an aqueduct
09:30and hauls out $140 billion worth of gold in 14 dump trucks.
09:35After scripting this scene, the writer Jonathan Hensley was contacted by the FBI
09:39and asked how he knew the reserve's vault was beside a subway spur
09:43and could be accessed through an aqueduct tunnel.
09:45Hensley reassured the Bureau that he wasn't a criminal,
09:48but the agent he spoke to said someone could actually pull this off.
09:51He even had a meeting with other agents to strengthen the reserve's security.
09:55That's right, the FBI thought that this plan was so foolproof
09:58that they thought the writer may have been a terrorist
10:01and had to update the vault's safeguards.
10:03Richmond Valentine Manipulated Everyone
10:05Kingsman The Secret Service
10:07Kingsman The Secret Service is an off-the-wall, for lack of a better term,
10:12crazy movie that takes full advantage of eccentric and bombastic visuals and action sequences.
10:18As such, it needed an equally eccentric and bombastic villain,
10:22which it got in the form of Samuel L. Jackson's Richmond Valentine.
10:26As a multi-billionaire with the ultimate goal of culling the world's population,
10:30leaving only the elite and wealthy,
10:32Richmond utilised his resources immaculately well.
10:36Not only was his seemingly limitless pot of money put to good use,
10:40so were his reputation and his connections.
10:43Valentine preyed on those he wanted to rid the world of
10:46by appealing to what they needed and wanted most,
10:49essentially unlimited data that wouldn't cost them a penny.
10:52This was master manipulation,
10:54and through his SIM cards put the entire world within range of the signal he led off
10:59that set them all to slaughtering each other.
11:01Jackson's character brought onto his side powerful people,
11:05including the President of the United States, Swedish royalty, and the Head of Kingsmen.
11:10Had it not been for the suspicion and sleight of hand of Eggsy,
11:13Arthur would have killed the one remaining threat to Valentine's scheme,
11:17and it would have gone off without a hitch.
11:19Even with what remained of the Kingsmen ultimately bringing him down,
11:23this villain still managed to successfully set off the impulse
11:26that must have seen an immeasurable amount of people killed.
11:30Frank Costello made himself untouchable, the Departed.
11:34Sometimes, the genius of a villain doesn't necessarily come through in their actions or their schemes.
11:39In the case of the Departed's Frank Costello,
11:42it was the infrastructure of defence he built around himself to ensure his own protection.
11:47Costello was involved in some pretty heinous things
11:50and naturally became a high-priority target of the Massachusetts State Police.
11:55So what better way to stay ahead of the curve than to have someone on the inside?
11:59Instead of buying someone already on the force,
12:01Frank took a young Colin Sullivan under his wing
12:04and sent him to the academy for the sole purpose of being his mole.
12:07Sullivan rose through the ranks and was able to misdirect investigations from within,
12:12tip his boss off about would-be career-ending sting operations,
12:15and give him a layer of protection that saved him and his operation on more than one occasion.
12:20Aside from Sullivan, Costello also protected himself
12:23with the smart move of becoming a protected FBI informant,
12:27trading information for even more grace from the feds.
12:31All movie gangsters have a shelf life and are eventually stopped,
12:34but Costello's intelligence and contingency plans
12:37allowed him to operate and enjoy the life a lot longer than most.
12:41Who knows how long he would have gone on unbothered
12:43had Sullivan not found out he was an informant and killed him for it.
12:47Bane and Talia al Ghul took over Gotham City, The Dark Knight Rises.
12:52In Batman Begins,
12:54Ra's al Ghul unsuccessfully fought to bring Gotham City
12:57his own warped version of liberation and justice.
13:00He was stopped in his tracks by Batman,
13:02who tore down the League of Shadows,
13:03but in The Dark Knight Rises,
13:05Tom Hardy's Bane looked to fulfil his former master's destiny.
13:09The plan was simple yet effective.
13:11He got rid of the Batman,
13:13he trapped every GCPD cop underneath the city,
13:16he created a huge nuclear bomb and murdered the only man capable of disarming it,
13:21and forced the army to keep everyone inside the city
13:23by threatening to blow it up if even one person escaped.
13:27Bane even destroyed both Harvey Dent's character
13:29and the ideals that came with it with the truth about his villainous turn.
13:33The prisoners of Blackgate Prison were freed and Gotham fell under martial law,
13:38and under the control of the likes of Bane,
13:40the Scarecrow and the rest of the criminal underworld.
13:43Things would have stayed this way if it wasn't for the miraculous
13:45and frankly unbelievable recovery of Bruce Wayne,
13:49and the ease with which he managed to return to his home under complete lockdown.
13:52Of course, Bane was working under Ra's al Ghul's daughter, Talia,
13:56who in her role as Miranda Tate managed to convince Bruce
14:00to build the fusion reactor that would eventually become the bomb way in advance.
14:04This was the perfect plan to bring all of Gotham completely to its knees,
14:08had they not underestimated the power and resilience of the Dark Knight himself, of course.
14:13Cole Williams earned some retirement money.
14:1621
14:17In 2008, 21 released recounting the true story of a group of MIT students who counted cards in Vegas.
14:25After taking the casinos on the strip for unthinkable amounts of cash,
14:28Jim Sturgis' Ben Campbell was caught by pit boss Cole Williams,
14:33who beat him to a pulp before making him an offer.
14:36He would allow Ben one more night of gambling in his casino.
14:39He would even let him keep the winnings,
14:41so long as team leader Professor Rosa was brought into his grasp.
14:45Williams didn't care about Ben.
14:47He held a long-time grudge against Rosa,
14:49who had taken his casino for seven figures when he was at his father's funeral,
14:53and in doing so, cost him his job.
14:55The plan was executed perfectly,
14:57as Ben and his team made a profit of $640,000,
15:01while Rosa fell into the hands of Williams as agreed.
15:05When the time came, however,
15:06Cole went back on his word and demanded that Ben hand over the chips.
15:10Just to be certain, he made sure he was taken seriously with just a glance at his gun.
15:14The ruthless pit boss took the money and went from the brink of being forced out of a soon-to-be-obsolete profession
15:19with no pension to speak of,
15:21to living the high life sunning himself by the pool.
15:24Some villains find success with intricate plans,
15:27while the genius here was in its simplicity.
15:29Let Ben rob the casino blind,
15:30then intimidate him into handing the money over without so much as lifting a finger.
15:34Winner, winner, chicken dinner.
15:36Zemo destroyed the Avengers, Captain America Civil War.
15:39The Avengers made for themselves no shortage of enemies
15:43since first teaming up to fight off Loki's invasion in 2012.
15:47One of which was the incredibly calculated and utterly ruthless Helmut Zemo,
15:51who swore to destroy Earth's mightiest heroes.
15:55After seeing his entire family killed in Sokovia,
15:57something for which he blamed Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man and co,
16:01and watching these so-called heroes go home and celebrate victory,
16:05Zemo crafted a plan to bring down the team.
16:07For this, however, he had to think smarter than just about every other MCU villain before him.
16:12Zemo was intelligent and self-aware enough to know
16:15that he couldn't beat the Avengers in a fistfight.
16:17Stronger beings than he had tried and lost.
16:20Instead, he sought to plant the seed so that the team crumbled from within,
16:24something that worked to devastating effect.
16:27Utilising what he knew of HYDRA
16:29and centering around the fact that Bucky Barnes had killed Tony Stark's parents,
16:33he manipulated Cap and Iron Man until they were quite literally at each other's throats.
16:38A lot can be said about the intricacies of Zemo's plan,
16:41sometimes bordering on the ludicrous and relying too much on what he arguably couldn't control.
16:46But he brought the Avengers to their knees just as he had promised.
16:51John Doe knew exactly what Mills would do.
16:53Seven
16:54There is some fierce competition, but you could argue that Seven is up there
16:58as the best work to come from acclaimed director David Fincher.
17:01It is a thriller from start to finish,
17:03but the genius of the whole thing hinges on the final moments
17:07as John Doe's ultimate plan comes to fruition.
17:10Throughout the film, the killer targeted unconnected victims based on the seven deadly sins.
17:15With five bodies down, there was just envy and wrath left on the list,
17:19which is where the true nature of his masterpiece was revealed.
17:22It was at this point he brought Brad Pitt's Detective Mills into proceedings.
17:26John Doe committed arguably the most heinous and vile murder of them all
17:30by decapitating Mills' innocent wife, Tracy,
17:34and presenting her head to the detective in a box.
17:36He knew exactly how Pitt's character would react,
17:38and in doing so, solidified his posthumous victory.
17:42In a blind fit of rage, Mills gunned down John.
17:45The villain knew exactly what would happen and sacrificed himself for the sake of his work,
17:49becoming the victim of wrath to conclude his masterpiece.
17:53He truly was ahead of the curve for the entire story,
17:56and used everything he learned about his adversaries
17:59to lure them into a scenario from which they couldn't possibly have won.
18:03Jigsaw's first game, Saw.
18:05There are plenty of villains who have manipulated the people around them like pieces on a chessboard,
18:10but in Saw, the Jigsaw killer was different.
18:13He didn't just move the pieces, he created the entire game
18:16and made it so that there would only ever be one winner.
18:19Prior to kidnapping Lawrence and Adam,
18:21and pitting them against each other with horrifying instructions and brutal mind games,
18:26John Kramer dished out his brand of hideously ironic punishments,
18:30and did so while eluding capture by the police.
18:33He even created contingency plans so that if anyone did come sniffing around,
18:37as Tap and Sing did,
18:39he could lead them right into getting their head blown off their shoulders.
18:42Jigsaw was described as thinking through every possible angle,
18:46and he was always multiple steps ahead.
18:49He tracked both Lawrence and Adam,
18:50forced them into doing exactly what he wanted,
18:53and he even found a way to experience it all first-hand
18:56by posing as a corpse between his two shackled victims.
18:59Arguably, the smartest part of Jigsaw's plan
19:02was the fact that he kept himself clean
19:04and manipulated others into doing the killing for him.
19:07He himself didn't kill a single person in the 2004 outing.
19:11Whether he wanted Lawrence to kill Adam,
19:13or Zep to kill Lawrence's family if Adam remained alive,
19:16ultimately, they had no choice but to obey.
19:19Even if he wanted his victim to do something so unthinkable
19:22as to saw off their own foot,
19:24they would eventually have to do it.
19:26Twelve Moving Parts
19:27Murder on the Orient Express
19:29Originally published way back in 1934,
19:32Murder on the Orient Express is a classic,
19:35and arguably one of the most famous murder mysteries of all time.
19:38A fitting introduction to Kenneth Branagh's take
19:40on the legendary Hercule Poirot in 2017.
19:44The retelling of the story featured a genuinely stellar ensemble cast,
19:48all of which came together to murder Johnny Depp's Edward Ratchet
19:51upon the famous train.
19:53The logistics of getting all 12 killers in the same place
19:55required a certain genius in and of itself,
19:58but the act of the murder was on another level.
20:01The plan anchored on 12 stab wounds from 12 separate people,
20:05with each forming part of an alibi that would clear
20:08not only themselves, but also others in the party.
20:11The spanner thrown in the works by the train being stopped
20:13could have derailed the entire plan,
20:15but for some equally genius improvisation and misdirection
20:19to keep Poirot off the scent,
20:21like a carefully placed knife in the back
20:22to create the illusion of a single killer still on the loose.
20:25Ultimately, the murderers on the Orient Express
20:28were brought down by mere coincidence
20:29and the back luck of being on the same train
20:32as the self-proclaimed greatest detective in the world.
20:34No one but Hercule Poirot could have pieced together this mystery
20:38and found that the guilty party was not one, but 12 killers.
20:42Mysterio died a hero, Spider-Man Far From Home.
20:46Villains in the MCU have been fuelled
20:48by different motivations throughout the years,
20:51from the want for power or revenge to perceived justice
20:54and the so-called correction of the universe.
20:57In Spider-Man Far From Home,
20:58Quentin Beck was different, however,
21:00as he wanted to become the world's greatest hero
21:03in a world without Tony Stark.
21:05Whether or not he was actually a hero didn't matter.
21:08It was about how he was perceived by the world.
21:11So he used his BARF technology
21:13to produce the illusion of believable Avengers-level threats
21:17before posing as a saviour from another dimension
21:20and dispatching them,
21:21earning the love of the adoring public.
21:23So good were Beck's illusions
21:25that he tricked Peter Parker
21:27into giving him access to every single one
21:29of Tony Stark's protocols.
21:30This was the genius of his plan,
21:32and even when Spider-Man seemingly defeated him,
21:35Mysterio still had one ace up his sleeve
21:38that meant that he would die
21:39with everyone still believing
21:41that he was the next Iron Man.
21:43His fail-safe in the event of being defeated by Spider-Man?
21:46Something as simple as doctoring some footage,
21:48painting Spidey as a murderer
21:50and revealing poor Peter's identity.
21:52Even now, much of the public of the Marvel Cinematic Universe
21:55believes that Mysterio was the greatest hero they had,
21:58which is exactly what Quentin Beck wanted.
22:00Like Zemo, he won.
22:02Kaiser Soze stayed hidden.
22:04The usual suspects.
22:06You could argue that the best villains,
22:08or at the very least the smartest villains,
22:10are the ones who are never caught.
22:11In the case of the usual suspects,
22:13Kaiser Soze went to great lengths
22:15to ensure that he remained elusive,
22:17even when he was actually brought into police custody.
22:20The name of Kaiser Soze became something of a myth
22:23in both the criminal underworld
22:25and the circles of law enforcement,
22:27but no one could ever claim to know who he was.
22:30This was the first step of brilliance.
22:32Soze always kept a middleman between himself
22:34and anyone he worked with.
22:36Often people were working in his employ
22:38and didn't even realise it,
22:40making it impossible for him to be implicated.
22:42This middleman, a lawyer by the name of Kobayashi,
22:46if Soze himself was to be believed,
22:48ensured that none of the untrustworthy characters
22:51he worked with could ever bring him down.
22:53He was untouchable.
22:55Even when he did find himself in police custody,
22:58he had the presence of mind to spin a tale of lies
23:01that saw him walk right out of the door.
23:03The man under the guise of verbal kint
23:05strung along Special Agent Kuyan
23:07during an interrogation
23:08with a story pulled out of thin air,
23:10with a little inspiration from the bulletin board
23:12in the office,
23:13selling the ghost story of Soze
23:15while earning his own freedom.
23:17Kuyan may have eventually suspected the truth,
23:19but by that time,
23:20it was far too late.
23:22Verbal kint was gone,
23:23as was his limp.
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