5 Action Movies Where The Villain Wins

gamerant.com:

The draw of most action films are fast-paced fights and battles, but most still manage to end with the good guy standing and the bad guy dead. The alternative, though rare, shocking, and often depressing, can still be a ton of fun in the right context.

The most common downer ending for action cinema comes in one part of a larger story. The middle part of a trilogy often features an «all is lost» ending to set up for an even more satisfying victory in the end. Even so, the occasional opportunity to see the villain stand atop their kingdom, if only for a moment, is still interesting. Spoilers ahead for every film mentioned.

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Everyone knows how this goes. Infinity War is Thanos' movie, his chance to finally take the spotlight he's teased for the previous several years. He does so with great aplomb and people have been lining up to praise him as one of the best villains of cinematic history ever since. Yes, Thanos claims the Infinity Stones one by one. He defeats the army of heroes who rise up to take him on and undergoes every sacrifice and trial necessary to get his hands on his weapon. He succeeds thanks to overwhelming natural power, unstoppable ambition, and reckless willingness to do anything in pursuit of a terrible goal.

Unlike any other Marvel Cinematic Universe film, this one ends on an immediate and nightmarish moment of death. Thanos wins, half of all life is destroyed, and the audience gets to enjoy the spectacle of several of their favorite characters reduced to dust. The blow is softened by immediately watching Endgame, but people cried in the theater back in 2018.

Keanu Reeves' directorial debut is a fun martial arts romp that gets a bit muddled in the narrative details.