Movies are all about the main characters overcoming obstacles in one way or another. Sometimes that obstacle can be an alien warlord who wants to lay waste to half the universe with the help of a magic glove. But other times, the threat is posed by something much more grounded and closer to life. Like the classic bully in films. Bullies have long been a part of popular narratives. They are the ones who torment the main characters and actively keep them from achieving their full potential through fear and intimidation. Over the years Hollywood has given us a wide variety of shades of the stereotypical bully. Let us take a look at some movies where the main characters have had to fight off one or more bullies.
10 Carrie
Best selling author Stephen King has long made a habit of doing case studies of bullies across his many, many novels. Indeed, King's breakout hit was a 1974 book about a high school girl named Carrie who is relentlessly bullied by her classmates. Suffering extreme emotional and physical torture from her peers, Carrie ends up acting out violently when she discovers she has telekinetic powers.
The success of the novel Carrie soon led to it being adapted in Hollywood. Until now, four movies have been made based on the novel, with 1976's Carrie directed by Brian De Palma being the most well-known of the bunch. For several generations of viewers, Carrie has come to represent the cruelties children often inflict on one another in groups, and the horrors of abusive parenting.
9 It
The most well-known book that Stephen King has ever written is undoubtedly It. It not only cemented King's reputation as one of the most popular horror story writers, but also firmly cemented the idea of a scary, murderous clown in the imagination of the general public. And yet, the main villain of the novel is not Pennywise the Dancing Clown, but the various townsfolk who relentlessly bully the main characters.
It has been adapted many times, with the 2017 two-part film adaptation drawing great acclaim and success at the box office. The movie sees the main characters, a group of school children dubbed "The Losers Club," being threatened and assaulted by Henry Bowers, a psychopathic older student who rules the roost in their home town of Derry along with his group of teen delinquents.
8 Revenge of the Nerds
There was a time when Revenge of the Nerds was considered the ultimate revenge fantasy for downtrodden geeks who lack the physical strength to defend themselves against bullies. The movie takes place in a college setting where the resident "nerds" are driven out of their hostels by the local gang of rich and aggressive athletes.
The rest of the movie follows the quest of the nerds to take back their house and get vengeance for the way they have been treated by the jocks. Unfortunately, the methods through which this is achieved has been increasingly called into question, and the general consensus nowadays is that the nerds are no better than the jocks that are supposed to be the bad guys of the story.
7 The Devil Wears Prada
Who says only schools have bullies? The Devil Wears Prada proves that all it takes is a person being given power over another to encourage bullying behavior even among adults. Andy is an up-and-coming member of the fashion industry who manages to land her dream job working as an assistant for Miranda Priestly, the head of a powerful fashion magazine.
Unfortunately, Andy soon finds herself trapped under Miranda's icy and bullying behavior. Over the course of the movie, Miranda effortlessly manages to undermine Andy's sense of self-worth, and has her constantly questioning whether she is good enough or deserving of being in her position. We also see a more devious side to bullying in the movie, as Miranda makes a habit of pitting her employees against each other to win her favor.
6 Lord of the Flies
You might see the Hunger Games series and think that it's quite a grim examination of the concept of unsupervised children in the wild violently attacking each other. You might then find 2000's Battle Royale an even more grim imagining of a situation where murderous children attack each other in the most gruesome manner. But both those movies pale in comparison to the 1954 classic novel that inspired their creation, Lord of the Flies. The novel, and its 1963, 1990 movie adaptations, follow a group of school children who get ship wrecked on an island.
With no adults to guide them, the children quickly devolve into a brutal hunter-gatherer society. Tormenting and bullying the weaker children is considered a sign of strength and manliness, and the main character Ralph and his friends suffer the full brunt of this kind of twisted group think, ultimately ending in murder. Lord of the Flies is a chilling reminder of how quickly mankind can resort to savagery when stripped of the leavening effects of culture and civilization.
5 The Waterboy
The '90s was a career-defining time for Adam Sandler, and 1998's The Waterboy was one of the films that put him on the map as a leading man. In the movie, Sandler essays the role of Bobby Boucher Jr., a sweet, helpful guy who is not very bright but always tries his best. Bobby works as a waterboy for the local college football team, where he is relentlessly bullied by the jocks.
Bobby's life changes when he is enlisted in the team as a quarterback. Unfortunately, this makes the bullying by the other jocks even worse, and Bobby's coach encourages him to put all the pent up anger from the constant bullying in his gameplay. Bobby also endures a different kind of passive bullying from his autocratic mother, and must learn to stand up for himself against the people who are always picking on him for one reason or another.
4 Mean Girls
Most high school bullies in movies tend to use their larger size and numbers to physically harass other students. But Mean Girls introduces a new kind of bully: the callous school queen bee. When sixteen year old Cady Heron enrolls in North Shore High School, she becomes friends with a group of girls called "Plastics." Chief among them is Regina George, the most fashionable and powerful girl in the school.
At first Cady goes along with Regina and the world of the Plastics. But gradually she realizes her new friends use psychological bullying and social pressure to make the rest of the student body dance to their tune. Cady vows to break the existing power structure by taking down Regina, but inadvertently starts down a dark path that make her own actions little better than what the Plastics do to the other girls.
3 Whiplash
Most movies about bullies take a look at students harassing each other. But Whiplash provides a rare and brutal example of when the teacher becomes the bully. Andrew Neiman is an aspiring Jazz drummer who is ecstatic to be accepted into a prestigious art conservatory in New York. But Andrew soon realizes that his dream carries a heavy price when he is confronted with his new instructor, Buddy Rich.
J.K. Simmons shines in an Oscar-winning role as Buddy, a teacher who will do anything and everything to push his students past the breaking point as artists. Over the course of the movie, Buddy heckles, denigrates, and physically assaults Andrew, who must decide whether his musical ambitions are worth the daily abuse he suffers at the hands of the sadistic Buddy.
2 Spider-Man
Spider-Man is one of the most popular superheroes in the world. Part of his appeal is that the hero's civilian identity as Peter Parker is deeply relatable to audiences. Despite his powers, Peter has never led a happy life, and in fact spends a lot of his time being bullied by people who try to take advantage of him at every turn. All of this is particularly on display in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man movies.
The first movie starts with Peter getting bullied and made fun of on a school bus. Things only go downhill from there, as students like Flash Thompson insist on picking on him and trying to beat him up. Even Spider-Man deals with a recurring bully in the shape of J. Jonah Jameson, who continuously runs false news articles excoriating the webbed wall-crawler as a public menace and takes great pride in being the reason why Spider-Man quits operating as a superhero in the second movie.
1 Harry Potter
Warner Bros. Pictures
Considering that his life is under constant threat by the most powerful dark wizard of all time, it can be easy to forget that the titular character in Harry Potter also faces a host of bullies on a smaller scale throughout his life. It all starts very early, with Harry's own cousin Dudley relentlessly bullying him and beating him up during their tween years. Harry feels he might find an escape from the misery when he gets accepted into Hogwarts.
But it turns out that the world of magic has even worse bullies to offer. Chief among them are Draco Malfoy, an arrogant school bully who uses his father's influence to intimidate the other students, and potions teacher Severus Snape, who bullies and harasses all the students, but takes special pleasure in taking his hatred for Harry's father out on Harry.
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