History BigBadWannabe / LiveActionFilms

* ''Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy'':
** Carmine Falcone from ''Film/BatmanBegins''. As Gotham City's major crime boss, he makes very clear to Bruce that he's completely untouchable; but once Bruce becomes Batman and starts to get serious against crime in Gotham, he stands no chance and he ends up becoming a guinea pig for the experiments of Dr. Crane, a guy he thought was his underling but who actually worked for the true BigBad[[spoiler:, Ra's al Ghul]].
** Salvatore 'Sal' Maroni the new Mafia Boss from ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' aspires to replace Falcone as the new master of Gotham, but he's no threat compared to the Joker.
** John Daggett in ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'' pays Bane "a small fortune" for helping him attempt to take over Wayne Enterprises. Bane later points out that, contrary to what Daggett thinks, [[MoneyIsNotPower this doesn't give him any power over Bane]] [[spoiler:before then swiftly killing Daggett now that he's at that point [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness no longer of any use to Bane]]]].

* In the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse:
** Raza Hamidmi Al-Wazar in ''Film/IronMan'' captures Tony Stark and orders him to build Jericho Missiles for the Ten Rings, otherwise he would die. However, while Obadiah Stane ordered Raza to kill him, Tony was still alive, albeit barely. Though Tony manages to build the first Iron Man suit behind their backs and escapes, Raza still manages to lay death and destruction upon Afghanistan due to Stark Industries still dealing arms to them. After Tony busts up the attack, Raza talks with Obadiah Stane about building various Iron Man suits to conquer all of Asia, though Stane paralyzes him with a sonic taser and takes the first suit while ordering his men to kill Raza's lackeys.
*** [[Recap/WhatIfS1E6WhatIfKillmongerRescuedTonyStark In an alternate timeline]], Obadiah himself is on the receiving end of this trope [[{{Pun}} ironically]] when Killmonger exposes all his secrets for the whole world to see, causing Tony to order security to arrest him, and Happy Hogan to knock him out with one punch.
** Justin Hammer in ''Film/IronMan2'' believes he's going to take down Tony Stark, especially since he just "hired" Ivan Vanko, a brilliant tech wiz that can create gear rivaling Iron Man's. When he presents his idea he comes out dancing or at least a poor imitation of it, to Average White Band's 'Pick Up The Pieces' and goes on with bad jokes that make no sense ("The newspapers are about to run out of ink!") to outright showing what is clearly Stark technology (the second Iron Man suit, the one with the icing problem), only with a lot of guns welded on, all to scattered applause. All Tony does is show up in his new suit, during Hammer's presentation, and he gets a standing ovation. Hammer has absolutely ''no'' control over Vanko as the latter hacks into his system, derails his PoweredArmor prototypes into unmanned drones, and so on. Vanko even plays up YouNoTakeCandle for no other reason than to annoy Hammer and get him out of his way. Hammer is most clearly shown as pathetic when he tries to force Vanko into line... [[PokeThePoodle by taking his pet bird. And his shoes.]] Even his ''[[{{Mooks}} goons]]'' are pathetic, armed only with tasers and mace and taken down with zero effort by Vanko (also Black Widow, but we're not exactly blaming them for getting their asses kicked by her).
** Loki in ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'' has got the Chitauri backing him up and he puts on a big show, but in the end, he is nothing more than a self-absorbed pawn to Thanos. Thanos' emissary, the Other, easily bullies him into submission. According to the EvilPlan, Loki will get Earth, but Thanos will get the Infinity Stones and pretty much the whole universe.
** TheStinger in ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'' made Strucker out to be the next great threat, and he was talked up a lot in season 2 of ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' as a GreaterScopeVillain. Then in ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'', he quickly surrenders in the first few minutes and later is unceremoniously killed off-screen by the actual BigBad, Ultron.
** Ronan in ''Film/{{Guardians of the Galaxy|2014}}'' seems to think he's the biggest threat around, when in reality he's basically just a glorified courier bringing a stone to Thanos. While the Other's attempts to cow him result in his death, Thanos puts him in his place, giving a blistering ReasonYouSuckSpeech in the process.
--->'''Thanos:''' The only matter I do not take seriously, boy, is ''you''. [[KnightTemplar Your politics]] bore me. Your demeanor is that of [[PsychopathicManChild a pouty child]].
** ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol2'' has two, mostly to distract the audience to the real villain [[spoiler:Ego, the Living Planet]].
*** Taserface believes that Yondu's going too soft and leads a mutiny, but only succeeds with help from Nebula who has no problems overriding his order. Even after the mutiny, Rocket can't take him seriously thanks to his AtrociousAlias and after Yondu gets his weapon back, he and the rest of the traitors are dispatched in a truly devastating CurbStompBattle. Even his dying wish gets laughed upon by the Sovereign because of his name.
*** Ayesha is the queen of an incredibly arrogant race, the Sovereign, and swears vengeance on the Guardians for daring to offend them. When the Sovereign forces try to pursue them, they end up getting easily swatted away by Ego. They try to hire the Ravagers to find the Guardians, resulting in the aforementioned mutiny. Once they find the Guardians, they try to capture them again but end up only distracting the Guardians while they're fighting the real villain. As of TheStinger, Ayesha's still at it, but even the other Sovereign are getting tired of her wasting resources on the Guardians. Then, in ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol3'', she's revealed to ultimately be a flunky of the main villain the High Evolutionary, who is much more of a threat and treats her with no respect and ultimately [[spoiler:indirectly gets her killed]].
** ''Film/AntManAndTheWasp'' has Sonny Burch. Sonny is an arms dealer with connections to the Black Market and a mole in the FBI. While this makes him a credible threat on his own, Ghost is a greater threat than he is, because unlike Sonny, she actually has superpowers of her own, [[spoiler:and she's desperate to cure [[{{Intangibility}} her condition]] before it kills her]]. By the end of the movie, he and his goons are taken out by Scott's friends and are handed over to the cops.

* Shingen Yashida really thinks he's the mastermind in ''Film/TheWolverine'', with his plan to have his own daughter Mariko killed because his father Ichirō named her as the heir to the company. He tries have Mariko killed at Ichirō's funeral using the Yakuza, but both Wolverine and Kenuichio Harada the Black Clan archer throw a wrench into this plan. Even when he is able to find Mariko [[spoiler:his Yakuza henchmen are easily cut down by the Black Clan, and he is killed by a repowered Wolverine]]. The real mastermind is [[spoiler:Ichirō who planned to take Wolverine's abilities to gain immortality]].

** ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'': The eco-terrorists [[Characters/MonsterVerseAlanJonah Alan Jonah]] [[spoiler:and [[Characters/MonsterVerseEmmaRussell Emma Russell]]]] think themselves the ones in charge when they unleash "Monster Zero" in their plan to awaken the Titans and restore the damage to the Earth's environment that humans have caused. Unfortunately for them, Monster Zero, a.k.a. King Ghidorah, is far more powerful and dangerous than they expected. Furthermore, Ghidorah turns out to be an alien and has no interest in helping the planet, [[AliensAreBastards but rather wants to cause far more destruction than humans themselves are capable of to make the planet more to his liking]].
** ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'': Apex Cybernetics and its CEO [[Characters/MonsterVerseWalterSimmons Walter Simmons]] wish to be the ones that conquer the Titans to insure humanity becomes the dominant species on Earth, conspiring to manipulate Godzilla into killing millions of people so that the world will think Apex justified for killing him. But their own technology backfires as [[spoiler:they uplinked King Ghidorah's mind to [=MechaGodzilla=] and thus are killed off by their own creation. Maia Simmons and her own army of men on the other hand are swiftly eaten or crushed to death by Kong and Hellhawks]].

* ''Film/TransformersDarkOfTheMoon'' reduces Megatron to this thanks to some VillainDecay. After having part of his head blasted off by Optimus Prime in [[Film/TransformersRevengeOfTheFallen the last movie]], he spends most of his screentime recovering and stays out of the action as much as possible. While he’s nominally in a BigBadDuumvirate with [[spoiler: Sentinel Prime]], the latter is more powerful and quickly takes control of the Decepticons from him. This works in good guys' favor as some [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech choice words from Carly]] motivates him [[spoiler: [[VillainousRescue to attack Sentinel]] and try to reclaim his spot as the Big Bad, giving Optimus the opportunity to finish them both off.]]

* ''Film/TransformersDarkOfTheMoon'' reduces Megatron to this thanks to some VillainDecay. After having part of his head blasted off by Optimus Prime in [[Film/TransformersRevengeOfTheFallen the last movie]], he spends most of his screentime recovering and stays out of the action as much as possible. While he’s nominally in a BigBadDuumvirate with [[spoiler: Sentinel Prime]], the latter is more powerful than him and quickly takes control of the Decepticons. This works in good guys' favor as some [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech choice words from Carly]] motivates him [[spoiler: [[VillainousRescue to attack Sentinel]] and try to reclaim his spot as the Big Bad, giving Optimus the opportunity to finish them both off.]]

** Carmine Falcone from ''Film/BatmanBegins''. As Gotham City's major crime boss, he makes very clear to Bruce that he's completely untouchable; but once Bruce becomes Batman and starts to get serious against crime in Gotham, he stands no chance and he ends as a guinea pig for Dr. Crane, a guy he thought was his underling but who actually worked for the true BigBad[[spoiler:, Ra's al Ghul]].

** Biomajor from ''Godzilla vs. Biollante'' are an American corporation that try to get ahold of Godzilla's Cells for their own nefarious purposes, and later resort to holding Japan ransome for the cells by threatening to release Godzilla from a volcano. They might have been a good BigBad contender for the film if they weren't also competing with another corporation whose best agent kills all of their agents to get the cells for his bosses. By the time Godzilla is released, they cease to factor in the film any further.

** The stinger in ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'' made Strucker out to be the next great threat, and he was talked up a lot in season 2 of ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' as a GreaterScopeVillain. Then in ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' he quickly surrenders in the first few minutes and later is unceremoniously killed off-screen by the actual BigBad, Ultron.
** Ronan in ''Film/{{Guardians of the Galaxy|2014}}'' seems to think he's the biggest threat around when in reality he's basically just a glorified courier bringing a stone to Thanos. While the Other's attempts to cow him result in his death, Thanos puts him in his place, giving a blistering ReasonYouSuckSpeech in the process.

*** Taserface believes that Yondu's going too soft and leads a mutiny but only succeeds with help from Nebula who has no problems overriding his order. Even after the mutiny, Rocket can't take him seriously thanks to his AtrociousAlias and after Yondu gets his weapon back, he and the rest of the traitors are dispatched in a truly devastating CurbStompBattle. Even his dying wish gets laughed upon by the Sovereign because of his name.
*** Ayesha is the queen of an incredibly arrogant race, the Sovereign, and swears vengeance on the Guardians for daring to offend them. When the Sovereign forces try to pursue them, they end up getting easily swatted away by Ego. They try to hire the Ravagers to find the Guardians, resulting in the aforementioned mutiny. Once they find the Guardians they try to capture them again but end up only distracting the Guardians while they're fighting the real villain. As of TheStinger, Ayesha's still at it, but even the other Sovereign are getting tired of her wasting resources on the Guardians. Then, in ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol3'', she’s revealed to ultimately be a flunky of the main villain the High Evolutionary, who is much more of a threat and treats her with no respect and ultimately [[spoiler:indirectly gets her killed]].
** ''Film/AntManAndTheWasp'' has Sonny Burch. Sonny is an arms dealer with connections to the Black Market and a mole in the FBI. While this makes him a credible threat on his own, Ghost is the greater threat than he is, because unlike Sonny, she actually has superpowers of her own, [[spoiler:and she's desperate to cure [[{{Intangibility}} her condition]] before it kills her]]. By the end of the movie he and his goons are taken out by Scott's friends and are handed over to the cops.

** Carmine Falcone from ''Film/BatmanBegins''. As Gotham City's major crime boss, he makes very clear to Bruce that he's completely untouchable; but once Batman gets serious, he stands no chance and he ends as a guinea pig for Dr. Crane, a guy he thought was his underling but who actually worked for the true BigBad.

** John Daggett in ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'' pays Bane "a small fortune" for helping him attempt to take over Wayne Enterprises. Bane later points out that, contrary to what Daggett thinks, this doesn't give him any power over Bane [[spoiler:before then swiftly killing Daggett now that he's at that point [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness no longer of any use to Bane]]]].

** John Daggett in ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'' pays Bane "a small fortune" for helping him attempt to take over Wayne Enterprises. Bane later points out that, contrary to what Daggett thinks, this doesn't give him any power over Bane [[spoiler:before then swiftly killing Daggett now that he's at that point [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness no longer of any use to Bane]].

** John Daggett in ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'' pays Bane "a small fortune" for helping him attempt to take over Wayne Enterprises. Bane later points out that, contrary to what Daggett thinks, this doesn't give him any power over Bane [[spoiler:before then swiftly killing Daggett now that he's at that point [[OutlivedYourUsefulness no longer of any use to Bane]].

** John Daggett in ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'' pays Bane "a small fortune" for helping him attempt to take over Wayne Enterprises. Bane later points out that, contrary to what Daggett thinks, this doesn't give him any power over Bane.

** Carmine Falcone from ''Film/BatmanBegins''. As Gotham City's major crime boss, he makes very clear to Bruce that he's completely untouchable but once Batman gets serious, he stands no chance and he ends as a guinea pig for Dr. Crane, a guy he thought was his underling but who actually worked for the true BigBad.
** Salvatore 'Sal' Maroni the new Mafia Boss from ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' aspires to replace Falcone as the new master of Gotham but he's no threat compared to the Joker.

** Jiro and Torohata in ''Godzilla vs Mothra'' are the villains of the film's first half, being a pair of crooked businessmen who want to exploit Mothra's egg for profit. But once Godzilla enters the story they're reduced to a footnote who are ultimately killed by a combination of greed, infighting and Godzilla passing by their building and unintentionally destroying it.
** Biomajor from ''Godzilla vs. Biollante'' are an American corporation that try to get ahold of Godzilla's Cells for their own nefarious purposes, and later resort to holding Japan ransome for the cells by threatening to release Godzilla from a volcano. They might have been a good BigBad contender for the film if they weren't also competing with another corporation who's best agent kills all of their agenta to get the cells for his bosses. By the time Godzilla is released they cease to factor in the film any further.

*** Ayesha is the queen of an incredibly arrogant race, the Sovereign, and swears vengeance on the Guardians for daring to offend them. When the Sovereign forces try to pursue them, they end up getting easily swatted away by Ego. They try to hire the Ravagers to find the Guardians, resulting in the aforementioned mutiny. Once they find the Guardians they try to capture them again but end up only distracting the Guardians while they're fighting the real villain. As of TheStinger, Ayesha's still at it, but even the other Sovereign are getting tired of her wasting resources on the Guardians. She may ascend to true BigBad status in ''Vol. 3'', as she's bioengineering a powerful being called "[[spoiler:Adam]]"; but it also has the potential to backfire on her really badly (as in the comics, [[spoiler:[[ComicBook/Warlock1967 Adam Warlock]] is a powerful ''hero'']]).

* ''Film/JackTheGiantSlayer'': [[EvilChancellor Lord Roderick]] is first introduced as an incredibly ambitious man already in an ArrangedMarriage with Princess Isabelle that hopes to usurp the throne of Cloister from King Brahmwell. And when the time comes for the journey to be made up the beanstalk to the sky based kingdom of the giants to rescue Isabelle, he opportunistically tags alongside Jack, Elmont, and the other knights that go on the journey under the hopes that he can use the magical crown of the legendary King Erik to place the giants under his control and use them as an army with which to take over Cloister as the new king. But while he does manage to successfully get ahold of the crown and use it to temporarily appoint himself leader of the giants, his decision to reveal his treachery to the heroes prior to getting back down from the giants' realm and subsequent overconfidence in his own power as the commander of the giants' forces lead to him getting easily sent falling to his doom by Elmont when the latter confronts him before he has the chance to try to go after Jack and Isabelle and the all-important crown getting snatched away from him prior to his death by the giants' leader Fallon, who swiftly proves the true BigBad of the film and serves as the FinalBoss.

%%* [[spoiler:Roderick]] from ''Film/JackTheGiantSlayer'' [[spoiler:is quick out of the proverbial gate, but [[LoopholeAbuse fades in the stretch]]]].

** Biomajor from ''Godzilla vs. Biollante'' are an American corporation that try to get ahold of Godzilla's Cells for their own nefarious purposes, and later resort to holding Japan ransome for the sales by threatening to release Godzilla from a volcano. They might have been a good BigBad contender for the film if they weren't also competing with another corporation who's best agent kills all of their agenta to get the cells for his bosses. By the time Godzilla is released they cease to factor in the film any further.

** ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'': The eco-terrorists [[Characters/MonsterVerseHumans Alan Jonah]] [[spoiler:and Emma Russell]] think themselves the ones in charge when they unleash "Monster Zero" in their plan to awaken the Titans and restore the damage to the Earth humans have caused. Unfortunately for them, Monster Zero, a.k.a. King Ghidorah, is far more powerful and dangerous than they expected. Furthermore, Ghidorah turns out to be an alien and has no interest in helping the planet, [[AliensAreBastards but to cause even far more destruction than humans themselves are capable of to make the planet more to his liking]].
** ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'': Apex Cybernetics and its CEO Walter Simmons wish to be the ones that annihilate the Titans to insure humanity becomes the dominant species on Earth, but their own technology backfires as [[spoiler:they uplinked King Ghidorah's mind to [=MechaGodzilla=] and thus are killed off by their own creation. Maia Simmons and her own army of men on the other hand are swiftly eaten or crushed to death by Kong and Hellhawks]].

* ''Film/ScreamVI'': In a first for the franchise, there's actually ''two'' different factions of Ghostface killers, though the first one -- a pair of film fanatics seeking to finish the job started by [[spoiler: Ritchie]] in [[Film/Scream2022 the previous film]] -- doesn't last past the opening sequence, as they're killed by the main Ghostfaces of the movie, [[spoiler: [[AvengingTheVillain Ritchie's family]],]] who are utterly dismissive of them and make quick use of their resources for their own plans.