10 Movie Villains That Were Complete Fanboys
These movie villains were completely OBSESSED.
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00:00Few movies are complete without a villain to give the hero purpose and let them achieve
00:04their full potential, but it's also fair to say that most movie bad guys have fairly
00:09typical generic motivations – to kill the hero, dominate the world, destroy and enslave
00:14all of mankind, and so on.
00:17Sometimes though, things get a little more interesting than that, especially if the antagonist
00:21actually ends up being rather fond of the hero in question – in fact, they can sometimes
00:25be obsessed with them enough to be an outright fanboy.
00:29The fanboy culture is definitely a strange phenomenon, and to see it reflected in movies
00:33themselves is weirder still, yet given how obsessive people can evidently be in reality,
00:38it absolutely makes sense to witness it on screen.
00:41So that's what we're here to talk about today as I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com,
00:45and these are 10 Movie Villains That Were Total Fanboys.
00:4810.
00:49Kylo Ren – Star Wars The Force Awakens
00:52Perhaps the single smartest idea in the entire Star Wars sequel trilogy was to make the new
00:57primary antagonist Kylo Ren a card-carrying Darth Vader fanboy.
01:02From early on in The Force Awakens, it's made abundantly clear that Kylo is obsessed
01:06with Vader, to the extent of even worshipping the melted remnants of his mask.
01:10It's of course worth mentioning that this adoration is only exacerbated by Kylo being
01:14Vader's grandson, and throughout the sequel trilogy, he desperately attempts to live up
01:19to the legacy of Vader's tyranny.
01:21While The Force Awakens perhaps felt a little too much like a soft reboot of the franchise,
01:25portraying the new Vader figure as a literal Vader fanboy, and a hilariously petulant anger-prone
01:30one at that, made for a rather clever twist.
01:33Some even went as far as to suggest that Kylo was designed to poke fun at Star Wars fanboys
01:37themselves, what with his childish tantrums and initial obsession with the past.
01:41That is, until he decided that it was better to burn it all down in The Last Jedi.
01:459.
01:46Aldrich Killian – Iron Man 3
01:49Iron Man 3's main villain is genius scientist Aldrich Killian, who during the film's opening
01:541999 set flashback is revealed to be a fawning Tony Stark fanboy.
01:59The nerdy Killian approaches Stark and Maya Hansen at a New Year's Eve party, where
02:03he gushes his admiration for the pair and invites them to join his company, Advanced
02:07Ideas Mechanics.
02:09Hansen politely humours Killian, but Stark cruelly pranks him by promising to meet him
02:13on the roof, yet never showing up.
02:15This ends up being a huge mistake on Tony's part though, given that it motivates Killian
02:19to seek revenge years later under the guise of the Mandarin.
02:22When Killian resurfaces, he's shed his scruffy prior appearance and he's been cured of
02:26his physical disabilities by the Extremis virus, which has also given him superhuman
02:31regenerative capabilities, making him quite the adversary for Stark.
02:35And to think, things could have been so different had Tony simply shown some respect and not
02:39blown him off quite so rudely back in 1999.
02:428.
02:43Richie and Amber – Scream
02:45The Scream franchise has featured a number of fanboy antagonists, whether obsessed with
02:50horror movies or franchise heroine Sidney.
02:52Though the recent fifth film offered up a terrifically pointed and contemporary riff
02:56to this very idea.
02:58As it turns out, the killers are Richie and Amber, a pair of literally diehard fans of
03:02the Stab horror movie franchise, a series of in-universe films adapted from the original
03:07Ghostface killings.
03:08The pair reveal that they met online and, after both being disappointed with the Rian
03:12Johnson-directed Stab 8, decided to embark on their own killing spree in Woodsboro.
03:18And the goal here?
03:19To create the source material for a new Stab movie, while luring out the original cast
03:23– that is, Sidney, Dewey, and Gale – to get them back into the fold for good measure.
03:28As commentaries on toxic fandoms go, it's pretty ingenious, revealing the villains to
03:32be a heightened, nightmarish version of all the social media trolls who make their favorite
03:36movie franchise their entire personality.
03:397.
03:40Zero – John Wick Chapter 3 – Parabellum
03:43Though the marketing for John Wick painted antagonist Zero as a typically stoic Japanese
03:47assassin, he's actually a far more irreverent character in the final movie.
03:51This is especially apparent later in the film, when he and John meet up within the safe haven
03:55of the Continental Hotel, where combat is prohibited.
03:58Hilariously, Zero sits uncomfortably close to John on a sofa, and when John moves, Zero
04:03awkwardly turns to him to basically start gushing like the Jew-eyed fanboy that he is.
04:08Zero tells Wick that he's a huge fan and that, amid their scuffles, he hasn't disappointed
04:12with regard to his legendary reputation.
04:15Zero then fawns over John as his dog leaps up to his lap.
04:18It's a testament to Wick's reputation that, despite being charged with killing him, Zero
04:22can't help but fanboy out, basically being reduced to a quivering dweeb in Baba Yaga's
04:27presence.
04:28In fact, Zero's admiration for John extends far enough that he avoids numerous obvious
04:32openings to kill him during their final battle, and once John has mortally wounded him, takes
04:36a clear perverse pleasure in John acknowledging that they had a pretty good fight.
04:416.
04:42The Riddler, Batman Forever, The Batman
04:45Two separate Batman movies have depicted The Riddler as a shameless Batman fanboy, albeit
04:49in starkly different ways.
04:51In Batman Forever, Edward Nygma is a kooky scientist working at Wayne Enterprises who
04:56idolizes Bruce Wayne, and after Bruce rejects Nygma's mind control experiment, he spends
05:00the rest of the movie psychotically plotting revenge against him.
05:04While in the recent The Batman, the audience is led to believe that Edward Nashton has
05:07figured out the Dark Knight's true identity.
05:10But during their climactic confrontation at Arkham State Hospital, Nashton reveals
05:14that he's actually a Batman fan.
05:15More to the point, his attempts to expose Gotham's corrupt underbelly were inspired
05:20by Batman's own crusade, under the impression that the two could eventually work together
05:24to help clean up the city's streets.
05:26It ties so perfectly into the film's overall thematic, that Bruce must learn to fight crime
05:31in a way that inspires not vengeance, but hope, while showing him the ultimate, dangerous
05:35potential of vigilante copycats.
05:375.
05:38Rupert Pupkin – The King of Comedy
05:41Martin Scorsese's masterful black comedy The King of Comedy centers around Rupert Pupkin,
05:46an aspiring stand-up comedian with mental health issues who becomes dangerously obsessed
05:51with famous late-night TV show host Jerry Langford.
05:54Following an encounter with Langford, Pupkin believes that his big break as a comedian
05:58is on the horizon, only to be rebuffed by Langford's staff and eventually Langford
06:02himself as he persistently attempts to book a slot on his show.
06:06Rupert's obsession only ramps up from there.
06:08Pupkin ends up going up to Langford's home and eventually kidnapping him, holding him
06:11ransom in exchange for an appearance on his show.
06:14Though Rupert's routine actually goes down rather well with the audience, albeit under
06:17the impression that he's joking about kidnapping Langford, he's arrested immediately thereafter.
06:22While the film's final sequence is steeped in ambiguity, it's nevertheless clear that
06:26Rupert's delusional fascination with his idol hasn't diminished in the slightest.
06:304.
06:31Syndrome – The Incredibles
06:33Fanboy villains don't get much blatant than The Incredibles' buddy Pine, who as a 10-year-old
06:38boy idolised superhero Mr. Incredible and even attempted to fight alongside him as a
06:42sidekick under the name of Incrediboy.
06:45But when this results in near disaster, Mr. Incredible rejects buddy, causing him to bitterly
06:49reinvent himself as a supervillain called Syndrome, re-emerging 15 years later with
06:54a bevy of high-tech gadgets which he hopes will make the very idea of superheroism absolutely
06:58obsolete.
07:00Back in 2004, the idea of a jilted superhero fanboy turning into a supervillain seemed
07:04incredibly ahead of its time.
07:07And in an era where superhero movie fandom and discourse is regularly unbearable and
07:11so-called fans might often seem intent on tearing down the very thing they supposedly
07:15love, it's a notion that has aged so very well.
07:183.
07:19Rowan North – Ghostbusters 2016
07:22The 2016 Ghostbusters reboot featured a villain by the name of Rowan North, a mad scientist,
07:26a cultist with a god complex and a major chip on his shoulder about unspecified bullying
07:31which happened to him in the past.
07:33His plan?
07:34To flood New York City with ghosts to basically get revenge on the world he hates.
07:37And while Rowan himself isn't a scorned fanboy of the Ghostbusters, his character
07:41was very clearly designed to be a thinly-veiled parody of overzealous Ghostbusters fanboys
07:45themselves.
07:46The second that Sony announced that an all-female Ghostbusters reboot was in the works, the
07:50usual suspects took to social media to moan that their childhood was being pissed on,
07:54and much of that petulant, misplaced energy feels very apparent in the hateful manchild
07:59Rowan.
08:00Meanwhile, he even ends up literally turning into a kaiju-sized version of the ghost in
08:04the Ghostbusters logo, not-so-subtly symbolizing that he's literally made Ghostbusters his
08:08entire damn personality.
08:10Hilariously, the director aggressively thumbs his nose at the movie's haters by having
08:14Rowan ultimately be defeated when the Ghostbusters fire their proton packs right into his dick.
08:192.
08:20Electro – The Amazing Spider-Man 2
08:23Spider-Man fans were extremely excited when Jamie Foxx was cast as Electro in The Amazing
08:27Spider-Man 2, but that enthusiasm quickly melted away within minutes of meeting him
08:32in the movie.
08:33As it turns out, the baffling decision was made to reimagine Max Dillon as an ultra-nerdy,
08:37lonesome Spider-Man fan who, after being rescued by the web-slinger at the start of the movie,
08:42develops a deeply unhealthy obsession with him.
08:44Max comes to believe that they're the best of friends, and even creates his own obscenely
08:48creepy Spider-Man shrine.
08:50But after an accident transforms him into Electro, his newfound abilities turn him into
08:54a power-drunk bad guy.
08:56Were he not so pathetically obsessed with Spider-Man, he would have been a sympathetic-ish
09:00antagonist, and considering how poorly received this aspect of the characterization was, it's
09:05little surprise that it was dropped entirely for his reappearance in Spider-Man No Way
09:08Home.
09:09Hiring an actor as cool and as badass as Jamie Foxx to play a sweaty, fawning nerd is, uh,
09:15definitely a choice indeed.
09:171.
09:18Mr. Glass – Unbreakable
09:19And finally, we have Mr. Glass from M. Night Shyamalan's Unbreakable.
09:24Now Glass, whose real name is Elijah Price, suffers from brittle bone disease and finds
09:28solace in the comfort of comic books, of which he is an undeniable expert.
09:32Glass seeks out David Dunn, the sole survivor of a train crash, under the belief that the
09:36pair may be real-life superheroes.
09:39On the one end, the ultra-fragile yet extremely intelligent Price, and on the other, the invulnerable
09:44Dunn.
09:45But at film's end, we learn that Mr. Glass actually caused the opening train crash himself,
09:49as well as numerous other high-profile air quotes accidents, all in an attempt to find
09:53his superheroic counterpart, the person who would emerge unscathed and give him a true
09:57life's purpose.
09:59Price was so desperate for the hero-villain dichotomy of his beloved comics to be real
10:03that he engineered the circumstances through which himself and Dunn would be brought together.
10:08Fanboys don't get much more unhinged than that.
10:10And there we go my friends, those were 10 Movie Villains That Were Total Fanboys.
10:14I hope that you enjoyed that, and please let me know what you thought about it down in
10:16the comment section below.
10:18As always I've been Jules, you can go follow me over on Instagram where it's at RetroJ,
10:21but the O is a zero, hope to see you over there.
10:24But before I go I just want to say one thing, even though we spoke today about fanboys who
10:27were maybe a little bit too obsessed, there is one thing that I am most definitely a fan
10:31of and you should be a fan of as well, and that is yourself.
10:34Treat yourself with love and respect my friend, because you deserve all of the best things
10:38in life alright?
10:39Like love, happiness and success, and do not let anything or anyone else tell you otherwise.
10:43Be your own biggest cheerleader, and let's get you out there and smashing your life goals
10:47today.
10:48I believe in ya.
10:49I've been Jules, you have been awesome, never forget that, and I'll speak to you soon.
10:53Bye.