History BadBoss / LiveActionFilms

* ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom'': while climbing up the wrecked rope bridge during the climax, Mola Ram grabs one of his own men who managed to hang on when Jones broke it and throws him down at the heroes to try to make them fall.

*** ''Film/{{Spectre}}'': He does it again to a henchman who was supposed to have the Pale King/[[spoiler:Mr. White]] eliminated by ordering his NumberTwo to [[SickeningCrunch have his skull bashed on the table]], [[EyePoke eyes gouged out]], before killing him with a NeckSnap. And the way Blofeld also deals with the Pale King/[[spoiler:Mr. White]] for defecting also qualifies, as he had poisoned his cell phone with thallium so that he dies a slow but painful death, watching his own body deteriorate via radiation poisoning.

* ''Film/SixUnderground'': Rochav orders the next men in line after his generals killed as they stood the most to gain in their deaths. He isn't actually sure who did it, but it's just to be safe. The men behind ''them'' he then promotes.

** The Joker from ''Film/Batman1989''. When he gets angry at Batman, he asks Bob -- his most loyal henchman -- for a gun; Bob gives Joker the gun, and the Joker kills him with it, for no reason other than he feels like killing ''someone''.

* Subverted in ''Film/Blade1998'': BigBad Deacon Frost asks a lieutenant, whose losing and subsequent regrowing of arms has been something of a RunningGag throughout the movie, to hold out his hand, ostensibly to test the sharpness of Blade's CoolSword by cutting his arm off.

* In ''Film/ConanTheBarbarian1982'', Thulsa Doom demonstrates his power by ordering one of his worshipers to leap to her death with a gently worded, "Come to me, my child."
* ''Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse'':
** Amanda Waller from ''Film/SuicideSquad2016'', while a WellIntentionedExtremist, clearly treats both her subjects and employees horribly. Not only is she fully willing to execute her Squad just for disobedience and screw them over in the end despite after everything they had done, but also shows no qualms murdering her own staff members in order to cover up her own incompetence.
** ''Film/WonderWoman2017'': Ludendorff murders a subordinate simply for complaining about his men being tired and hungry.

* ''Film/TheEnforcer1951:''

** The President of the USA [[spoiler: casually sends his adviser away to die with all the other infected drug users despite her working for him 20 hours per day, seven days a week. Her insane workload was the reason she got into drugs in the first place, which he doesn't give a shit about.]]

* ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'':

** ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2014'': The Collector imprisoned one of his assistants in one of the glass cages of his museum for disappointing him, and uses her as an example to another to keep her from doing a disappointing job as well. [[spoiler:This bites him in the caboose later on, as the mistreated assistant grabs the Infinity Stone, which is known to cause extremely violent explosions when touched by living beings, in an attempt to kill both herself and the Collector.]]

** Thanos in all his appearances is shown to be a terrible leader, as almost everyone who serves him in ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2014'' betrays him at the earliest opportunity, his own children despise him, and even those who are absolutely loyal to him fear his wrath should they fail him. At the end of ''Film/AvengersEndgame'', [[spoiler:he orders his subordinate to fire on the battlefield even though many of his own troops would be caught in the crossfire just to save his own skin]]. A rare [[JustifiedTrope justified]] example in the last instance: [[spoiler:the whole point of that battle was to get the Infinity Stones into Thanos's hands so he could destroy the universe. If he died, their objective failed, no matter how well the rest of his troops fought.]]

* ''Film/RoadHouse1989'': Zigzagged by Brad Wesley. He beats the stuffing out of one of his {{Mooks}} for failing to strong-arm Dalton and then berates him for ''bleeding too much'', and sure enough, the guy still shows up to work for him every day. Then again, it's also indicated he pays them ''very'' well and regularly throws parties for his boys with HookersAndBlow, so there's plenty of incentive to work for the scumbag.
* Clarence Boddicker from ''Film/RoboCop1987'' when one of his men is shot in a bank heist upon finding him he asks him "Can you fly, Bobby?" He then has him thrown onto a police car that was pursuing them.

* Played for laughs in ''Film/The Cocoanuts'', with [[Creator/MarxBrothers Groucho Marx]] as the owner of a Florida hotel. His EstablishingCharacterMoment has him talking his way out of paying his employees the money that he owes them.

* Subverted in the first ''Film/{{Blade}}'' movie: BigBad Deacon Frost asks a lieutenant, whose losing and subsequent regrowing of arms has been something of a RunningGag throughout the movie, to hold out his hand, ostensibly to test the sharpness of Blade's CoolSword by cutting his arm off.

** ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger'': Johann Schmidt, a.k.a. the ComicBook/RedSkull, continually shows no concern for the welfare of his men, despite their fanatical devotion to Schmidt, having them chomp {{cyanide pill}}s when captured to avoid giving out information on him, [[YouHaveFailedMe executing one merely for surviving an attack on a HYDRA base]], and activating the self-destruct sequence at another HYDRA base when the Allied forces overrun it, not caring that hundreds of his troops will be killed in the blast

** Kylo Ren is slightly better about this, usually opting to take out his frustrations [[PercussiveTherapy on the environment around him]] rather than his subordinates. However, at one point in ''Film/TheForceAwakens'' he does become enraged enough to telekenetically drag a First Order officer across the room and choke him. In ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'' he grabs a man and throws him around the room for expressing caution to the idea of joining forces with Palpatine.
* Amanda Waller from ''Film/{{Suicide Squad|2016}}'' while a WellIntentionedExtremist, clearly treats both her subjects and employees horribly. Not only is she fully willing to execute her Squad just for disobedience and screw them over in the end despite after everything they had done, but also shows no qualms murdering her own staff members in order to cover up her own incompetence.

* ''Film/{{Wonder Woman|2017}}'': Ludendorff murders a subordinate simply for complaining about his men being tired and hungry.
* Per his characterization in [[BadBoss/ComicBooks the comics]], Magneto's leadership in the Film/XMenFilmSeries is often revealed to be this, most notably in the original trilogy (and in particular during ''Film/XMenTheLastStand''). His callous abandonment of longtime [[TheDragon Dragon]] Mystique after she is [[DePower depowered]] foreshadows how willing he is to kill her in the prequel film ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'' (admittedly to [[WellIntentionedExtremist save all of mutantkind]]). Even in ''Film/XMenFirstClass'' he shows shades of this, stylizing himself as the DrillSergeantNasty to the titular first class. There's a ''reason'' why, when Magneto makes his WeCanRuleTogether speech at the end, Mystique is the only one to take him up on the offer.

** Creator/JackNicholson's ComicBook/TheJoker from Creator/TimBurton's ''Film/{{Batman|1989}}''. When he gets angry at Batman, he asks Bob -- his most loyal henchman -- for a gun; Bob gives Joker the gun, and the Joker kills him with it, for no reason other than he feels like killing ''someone''.
** Creator/HeathLedger's Joker in ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' is arguably even worse. In the first scene, he has his gang slaughter each other, and later plants a phone bomb into one of his men. To even join the gang, there are tryouts which involve having the recruitees fight each other with halves of a broken pool cue.

'''Jerjerrod:''' ''(visibly pales)'' The Emperor's coming here?!\\

** Kylo Ren has thus far been slightly better about this, usually opting to take out his frustrations [[PercussiveTherapy on the environment around him]] rather than his subordinates. However, at one point in ''Film/TheForceAwakens'' he does become enraged enough to telekenetically drag a First Order officer across the room and choke him. In ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'' he grabs a man and throws him around the room for expressing caution to the idea of joining forces with Palpatine.

%%* ''Film/DrGoldfootAndTheBikiniMachine'': The eponymous mad scientist towards his flunky Igor: "...Why must you listen to me when I'm ''wrong!?''"

--->'''Moff Jerjerrod:''' The Emperor's coming here?!\\

'''Jerjerrod:''' We shall double our efforts! The station ''will'' be completed on time!\\
'''Vader:''' I hope so, commander, for your sake. The Emperor is not as ''forgiving'' as I am.

** Thanos in all his appearances is shown to be a terrible leader, as almost everyone who serves him in ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2014'' betrays him at the earliest opportunity, his own children despise him, and even those who are absolutely loyal to him fear his wrath should they fail him. At the end of ''Film/AvengersEndgame'', [[spoiler:he orders his subordinate to fire on the battlefield even though many of his own troops would be caught in the crossfire just to save his own skin]]. A rare [[JustifiedTrope justified]] example in the last instance: [[spoiler:the whole point of that battle was to get the Infinity Stones into Thanos's hands so he could destroy the universe. If he died their objective failed, no matter how well the rest of his troops fought.]]

*** ''Film/FromRussiaWithLove'': EvilGenius Number 5/Kronsteen looks on smugly, confident that fellow underling Number 3/Rosa Klebb is being held terminally accountable for their scheme's failure -- only for the poisoned blade from Morzeny's shoe to change direction. Klebb is visibly terrified of facing Blofeld's wrath after witnessing Kronsteen's death.

* ''Film/TheMummyReturns'': Neither Imhotep himself or [[TheEvilGenius Baltus Hafez]] have any problem with sacrificing their cultists in the pursuit of the power of the Scorpion King.

* ''Film/TankGirl'': The BigBad Kesslee, UpToEleven. He kills a loyal minion/doctor because she couldn't repair his face. So, downloading him into a holographic projection of his head is somehow an improvement. He also kills a competent captain of his men, because he hadn't yet captured a small area of land. Maybe if he didn't kill all of his competent people, he would have survived.

* ''Film/RoadHouse'': Zigzagged by Brad Wesley. He beats the stuffing out of one of his {{Mooks}} for failing to strong-arm Dalton and then berates him for ''bleeding too much'', and sure enough, the guy still shows up to work for him every day. Then again, it's also indicated he pays them ''very'' well and regularly throws parties for his boys with HookersAndBlow, so there's plenty of incentive to work for the scumbag.

* The first ''Film/BadBoys'' movie gives us French gangster Fouchet, who never had pity for anyone and orchestrated several murders pretty unnecessary. He has one of his men dress up as a police officer to steal millions of dollars worth of heroin from a police station evidence lock up, and then kills him in order to create a distraction. Fouchet kills Eddie, who helped him set the heist up, for partying with some hookers and a tiny portion of the stash, and his chemistry team for "fucking with my schedule".

* In ''Film/TheBigClock'', Earl Janoth is [[ClockKing time-obsessed tyrant]] who runs his publishing empire with an iron hand, even down to controlling his employees' private life. his acts include sacking a printer for disagreeing with his choice of ink colour, and:
-->'''Earl Janoth:''' [''talking on intercom to Steve Hagen''] On the fourth floor - in the broom closet - a bulb has been burning for several days. Find the man responsible, dock his pay.