Times The Good Guys In Movies Were Actually Wrong

The bad boys and girls of cinema are often what make movies so much fun to watch—yet while they typically get the best costumes, the best lines, and just look like they're having more fun than the heroes, it's almost never okay to be on their side. It's the heroes we're supposed to be rooting for, after all. Sadly, even heroes make terrible mistakes from time to time—in fact, in some movies, they're hardly heroes at all. With that in mind, here's a look at some of the more glaring good guy misfires in movie history. Watch out for spoilers ahead!

Between Tony Stark's Iron Man and Bruce Banner's Hulk, there aren't many figures—hero or villain—who have wreaked as much havoc in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. (A bit surprising, as they're generally regarded as the two smartest inhabitants of the MCU.) As much carnage as they've wrought on their own, they topped even themselves when they teamed up in Avengers: Age Of Ultron.

With a little help from Loki's scepter, their combined brain power birthed the A.I. that would become the villainous Ultron. In an act of astonishing hubris, the pair ended up putting Ultron in charge of Tony's gadget factory and essentially S.H.I.E.L.D. itself—then, once they put Ultron in charge, they basically walked away and never bothered checking in and making sure the sentient program hadn't, for instance, gone crazy with power and decided to take over the world.

Don't get us wrong, we still love our Iron Man and our Hulk, but something tells us there are a few thousand Sokovians who still have some pretty strong feelings about these two brainiacs.

Reporters have been at the center of some of the most memorable films in history, and they're often deeply flawed characters who make a lot of mistakes before they heroically break their big story. Few, however, made as many mistakes as Rachel Keller—and fewer still have terrified us quite as much as The Ring.

It's almost easy at this point to forget that Rachel was actually a journalist chasing a lead in the 2002 horror classic, and that it was the suspicious death of her niece that set the action in motion. It's Rachel's misguided search for the juicy story that leads her to Samara's deadly tape, and it's her tragic misunderstanding of the situation that leads her to "help" the accursed child, which she really shouldn't have done—and she never even broke her story. To make matters worse, Rachel only saves the day by helping her son make a copy of the death tape so they can pass it on and condemn unknown numbers of people—and it was only dumb luck that she stumbled on that trick.

Stars Wars fans the world over would have you believe that Obi-Wan Kenobi is among the wisest characters in George Lucas' galaxy far, far away, but a quick glance at his actions might lead you to think otherwise.

To get to the heart of the matter, we'll go back to the beginning—Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. Young Obi-Wan almost single-handedly unbalances the Force when he demands—against the better judgement of Yoda and pretty much every member of the Jedi Council—to train the midi-chlorian rich Anakin. Obi-Wan failed in his training, and Anakin became the biggest, baddest Sith in the galaxy.

Jump ahead to Star Wars: A New Hope and the long-in-hiding Obi-Wan doesn't really fare much better by keeping Luke Skywalker's identity—i.e. who his big, bad daddy is—a secret from the would-be Jedi. Those facts might've helped Luke in his own Jedi training. At the very least, they could've saved him from passionately kissing his own sister. Instead, Obi-Wan doubled down on his mistakes by deciding to check himself out of the action, thus taking those secrets to his grave.

Grandpa Joe is unquestionably set up as Charlie Bucket's personal hero in 1971's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. So much so that he's the first person Charlie runs to after unwrapping that final golden ticket—and he's also Charlie's plus-one on their fateful tour of the unhinged candy tycoon's confection factory.

Before we get into that psychedelic tour, let's revisit the fact that Grandpa Joe is a bed-ridden geriatric when the film begins. He even claims to be incapable of working, thus leaving his family to live in utter poverty—that is, until Charlie comes charging through the door with a ticket to the good life. The second that happens, well, Grandpa Joe suddenly becomes a regular Gene Kelly, singing and dancing across his family's one-room hovel.

To top things off, once Charlie and Grandpa Joe are neck deep in their tour of Wonkaland, it's actually Joe who encourages Charlie to to steal some of that fizzy-lifting drink. You know, the same bubbly beverage that nearly leads them both to being diced up by the fan in the ceiling vent and almost disqualifies Charlie from inheriting Wonka's factory. Call us crazy, but we're thinking Charlie might want to pick his heroes a little better moving forward.

Joss Whedon has made a career of crafting heroes and villains with equal affection, but he took that approach to giddy new heights with his 2008 musical series Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. For much of the series, it's actually kind of hard to figure out who the real villain is, even though the titular doctor is actively trying to join the ranks of the Evil League of Evil, and is bent on bringing down churlish local superhero Captain Hammer to prove his supervillain status.

Still, we begin to see the potential for heroism inside the would-be baddie when he falls for Penny, a do-gooding beauty from his neighborhood. As it happens in most tales of good vs. evil, the fates of hero, villain and damsel converge in a harrowing final showdown, and not everybody can make it out alive. Unfortunately, it's the damsel who pays the price this time, and it isn't Dr. Horrible who does the deed.

No, it's Captain Hammer who picks up the Death Ray in those fateful moments and—against Dr. Horrible's desperate pleas—pulls the trigger. The misfire and ensuing explosion leaves Penny impaled by a piece of shrapnel that ends up killing her—and the rest of us thinking, "nice going, Captain Moron."

Over the years, Edgar Wright has cobbled together a virtual A-team of untenable slacker heroes, some so thoroughly flawed that it can be hard to root for them at all. It was almost fate that Wright was drawn to adapt the heroic tale of affable hipster extraordinaire Scott Pilgrim.

On paper, Scott's tale is in fact a romantic epic of epic proportions, one that Wright presents with truly epic 8-bit flair. Wright's stylish blend of action, comedy and romance make Scott Pilgrim vs. the World a one-of-a-kind cinematic experience—so much so that it's easy to forget that Scott himself is a bit of a scumbag, and vain as hell to boot.

Sure, it's a bummer that he's forced to fight and defeat all eight of Romona Flowers' evil exes in order to prove his love, but let's not forget that the twenty-something Scott was skeezing on naïve high-schooler Knives Chau the whole time he was pursuing Ramona. And yes, there was definitely some "overlap" there. Though Scott atones for his actions late in the film, he never really does right by Knives, ultimately leaving her broken-hearted and treading water in his oh-so romantic, self-serving wake.  

Did we mention that Edgar Wright loves himself a slacker hero? Well say hello to Shaun. He works at a low-level electronics store, he can't remember his mother's birthday, he hangs out with his weed-dealing bestie Ed way too much, and he can't seem to commit to his longtime girlfriend Liz. When the zombie apocalypse threatens to end humanity, Shaun finally steps up and sets out to save the lives of everyone he loves. His plan? Get them all to his favorite pub the Winchester, lock the doors, and have a pint while things blow over.    

Yes, you read that right. Shaun's bright idea for staying safe during the zombie apocalypse is to head to the pub and wait things out—and it turns out to be just as ill-advised as you'd think. Even setting aside the perilous road to get to the Winchester, matters get out of hand quickly once Shaun and his crew find their way inside. Windows break, bullets fly, and lots of people die. Not Shaun, though—he somehow finds a way to safety, and even manages to save Liz. Still, Shaun will be forced to live the rest of his life with the blood of those fallen companions on his hands, giving new meaning to the phrase, "You've got red on you."

Daniel Hillard—a.k.a. Mrs. Doubtfire—was a good father. If nothing else, he definitely threw the best birthday parties and tried to teach his kids right from wrong. Unfortunately for Daniel, being a good father and being a good husband are very different things, and while it wasn't quite fair that he ended up getting divorced and losing custody of his children, the out-of-work actor probably should've seen it coming.

So, what does Daniel do when his life inevitably crumbles around him? Get a steady paying job and try to work his way back into his children's lives by actually getting his act together? Nope. Instead, he dresses up like a kindly old lady, dupes his ex-wife into hiring him as a nanny to his own children, and then tries to sabotage said ex's new relationship.

Whether or not you buy into Mrs. Doubtfire's unabashedly heartwarming charms, that plot still sounds sort of creepy. Daniel's noble but deeply misguided actions prove a gross betrayal to the trust of the entire family, and while those actions ultimately lead to something positive, they unquestionably prove that his ex-wife was right about everything—and, well, we can only imagine the emotional scarring he caused his son, who walked in on his father in the bathroom, standing to pee in full drag.

Here's a few pointers for all of the lovers out there who can't quite tell whether or not that certain someone you've just met is "the one."

If you wake up in the middle of the night and find them in your room, uninvited and watching you sleep, it's time to end that relationship. And if they break up with you in the middle of the woods and leave you there crying and alone rather than giving you a ride home, you should stay broken up. If they're overprotective to the point of threatening your friends just because they're talking to you, you might want to take some space. If they ever almost kill you because they really, really like the taste of your blood, you should probably seek out the authorities. And for Pete's sake, if they turn to you after just a few dates and declare that, "You are my life now," just go ahead and get a restraining order.

Somehow this alarming behavior was not just deemed okay when Twilight hit theaters back in 2008, it was actually thought by many to be romantic. Thankfully, the sparkly sheen of Twilight has lost some luster in the years since, and people are starting to see that Edward Cullen was really just an undead creep—and that Bella's life would've been totally fine if he'd just left her alone.

Being a superhero means making enemies—and making enemies means the people you love will always be in peril. That's the one lesson Peter Parker learns the hard way in The Amazing Spider-Man 2—and he learns it at the expense of his girlfriend Gwen Stacy.

Of course, Peter didn't have to learn that lesson at all—because he had someone explicitly lay out the the stakes of being a hero. Gwen's father, Police Captain Stacy, died while saving Spider-Man's life. With his dying words, he had one simple request: that Peter not date his daughter, so she'd never be the target of one of Spider-Man's enemies.

That truly touching moment comes near the end of The Amazing Spider-Man. Just FYI, Peter completely ignores it in the sequel when he starts dating Gwen. It should come as no surprise that she's eventually taken hostage by the bad guys, that she pays for Peter's decision with her life, and that Peter will have to live the rest of his with Gwen's blood on his web.