While it is often given that the villain's plans should unravel when the hero rises up to defeat them, sometimes the villain's plan is so good that it seems like they are getting cheated. In our lives, we value hard work and intuitively feel that if we put in enough of it ourselves, we will be rewarded. Here are some villain plans in movies that feel like they definitely should have worked.
10 Scar's Take Over - The Lion King (1994)
Scar's insidious plot in The Lion King was a multiple-decade affair that pretty much did work at first. By lying low in the king's family, he could ingratiate himself with the patriarch and earn a position of trust. He maintained this facade despite going off every so often to the dark places of the kingdom and singing about his master plans. Scar managed to kill off the king without witnesses and banish the heir in a single move.
Then, while Simba was growing up in the jungle, he reigned for tens of years and managed to keep the whole kingdom united under his leadership. Basically, by the time Simba came to overthrow him, he had already won. The fact that his army was defeated by Simba makes you question how we were able to control pride rock in the first place. He must have had many well-thought-out plans over the years that kept him in power and his subjects loyal despite his exploiting the land and its resources.
9 Hans Gruber’s Theft - Die Hard (1988)
Hans Gruber in Die Hardhad the perfect plan to take over Nakatomi Plaza and extract millions of dollars for himself to live out the rest of his life as a king. He knew every detail of the building and assembled a crack team that could get the job done. His plan went off without a hitch, and if it wasn't for the insane luck of John Mcclane, he would have succeeded. Mcclane should have died so many times in that movie but kept getting by the skin of his teeth.
Sometimes a villain's plan can be perfect, but the universe still decides that he has to fail. His plan was so good that it would have happened without alerting the authorities or causing any complications at all. He even had the plan to fake his own death, but unfortunately, he ended up experiencing a real death.
8 Zemo Turning the Avengers Against Each Other - Captain America: Civil War (2016)
Zemo was an interesting Marvel villain because he fought the Avengers, the world's most premiere superpowered group with no powers at all. Driven purely by revenge, he set into motion a plan to get them to turn on each other and make them hated by the world. He did all of this while still keeping his identity a secret. His plan did ultimately succeed, as the Avengers turned on each other and made the situation worse.
Ultimately, he is defeated by the Avengers, but it feels like they just got lucky this time. If not for the Black Panther overhearing Zemo's conversation and tracking him down, he would have gotten away with his plan. Although Zemo may have just ended his own life anyway, he tried to do so instead of getting captured.
7 Voldemort Creating Horcruxes - Harry Potter (2001-2011)
Voldemort is the primary villain in the Harry Potter films. He is an unnatural creature that spreads his essence across several objects known as Horcruxes that tie his being to the world. These Horcruxes were hidden even to the most experienced wizards and allowed him to conduct his plans with impunity. However, somehow, at every turn, his plans were continuously thwarted by Harry Potter and his friends. They had no plan but still managed to expose Voldemort's operations despite them being planned for a long time beforehand.
One of Voldemort's Horcruxes was even Harry Potter himself, meaning that he could not die if Harry died. It seems like if you are a villain, tying your defeat to the hero's defeat is an intelligent plan. Inexplicably, when he tries to kill Harry, he kills the last piece of his soul instead of Harry himself. Although he did not know that Harry was a Horcrux, it was still highly unlucky for him that that was the way the rules worked.
6 Darth Sidious Taking Over the Galaxy - Star Wars
Darth Sidious had every advantage in his plan that should have worked in the Star Wars movies. His power of the dark side was so great that he was able to cut the Jedi from seeing the future. This allowed him to engineer the extermination of their order and the only group of superpowered beings that stood in the way of his takeover. Then he managed to become a powerful person in the galactic senate, acquiring the republic's resources and army to his own ends. In the galactic civil war, he essentially controlled both sides of the conflict. This allowed him to transform the galactic republic into an empire that lasted decades.
At this point, his plan seemed entirely successful. The rebellion was under-powered with worse technology, lower numbers, and virtually no standing army by the time Luke Skywalker got involved. Somehow, one Jedi learning how to swing a lightsaber allowed the rebellion to topple the empire completely. In reality, the rebellion should have been crushed by Sidious, whose master plans had been succeeding by decades at the point of his defeat. One could say that Sidious got too arrogant in his later years, but even still, the shattering of the empire feels unrealistic.
5 Sauron Taking Over Middle Earth - Lord of the Rings (2001-2003)
Sauron had a well-conceived plan in Lord of the Rings that seemed primed to allow him to take over Middle Earth. Somehow, the races of Middle Earth united to stop him and found the one way to defeat him, destroying the one ring. Conveniently, destroying this ring also destroys the ability of the other rings to contain Sauron's power, defeating him at last. A band of unlikely heroes makes the journey to the heart of his power in Mordor to destroy the ring, but even that should not have happened.
While many say it was Sauron's arrogance over "the little people" that led to his downfall, his plan was too perfect to be thwarted.
4 Syndrome Giving Everyone Powers - The Incredibles
Pixar
Syndrome in The Incredibles planned to take out the world's superheroes to allow himself to be the only superhero. He would create a grand reputation for himself as a protector, and then when he retired, he would gift his technology to the world, so everyone could be a superhero. To that end, he invented a robot that could adapt to any situation and defeat any hero eventually. He also had the zero-point ray, which could immobilize anyone, super-powered or not.
Inexplicably, the heroes keep surviving all of these attempts to kill them through sheer luck. Syndrome's plan is only stopped by himself. His omni-droid ended up being too good at its job and was able to defeat Syndrome himself when he put on a show to stop it.
3 The Joker's Scheme Against Batman - The Dark Knight (2008)
The Dark Knight was an interesting movie because it put the Joker on an equal level with Batman. Joker and Batman are seen as two sides of the same coin, with their two minds working similarly to achieve different goals. Christian Bale said in an interview that he found the villainous side of Batman interesting, which inspired him to sign up for the role. Joker's plan was so effective that he was able to convince the characters in the film and even the audience watching that he didn't have one.
Ultimately, though, Joker intended to destroy the hope in people's hearts by showing that the people responsible for protecting them could not protect them when it was necessary. Ultimately, his goal was to corrupt Batman himself, and it seemed like his plan was all set to work. But Gotham is still saved in the end.
2 Thanos Gathering the Infinity Stones - Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
Thanos had been smugly sitting in his chair at the end credits scene in Marvel movies for years before he finally decided to initiate his plan. Once he gathers the infinity stones, he can initiate the snap and stop the universe from descending into madness. However, his plans are undone by time travel, which feels pretty cheap. The heroes also fight an alternate universe version of Thanos to undo his plan, which also isn't fair. The original Thanos that succeeded isn't even allowed to defend himself.
1 The Aliens Preparing for Thousands of Years - War of the Worlds (2005)
The aliens in War of the Worlds had been preparing for their conquest of Earth for thousands of years. The film was widely praised for its filmmaking techniques, Wars of the Worlds was nominated for three Academy Awards. However, despite this praise, it always feels like the aliens should have won. They had the complete advantage in every sense over humanity, but didn't anticipate bacterial infections for some reason.
While this decision lines up with the themes of the film, it feels like the aliens got cheated. They didn't think of viral infections for the thousands of years they were planning this invasion? Ultimately, the humans had no right to come out of the situation with a victory.
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