History Main / PsychoPartyMember

Compare PsychoForHire, who was already psychotic before joining the team. Contrast with TokenEvilTeammate. Could also overlap with AHouseDivided and ZombieInfectee.

** Whirl from ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye''. He's an AxCrazy {{Jerkass}} who is initially kept around because his skill and willingness in combat makes him useful to the crew. However this causes some problems as Rodimus learns the hard way that Whirl isn't easy to control. For instance, waiting until the crew's backs are turned than chasing down and torturing info out of a mook against orders. That being said, as fits the comic's CentralTheme, [[HiddenDepths there's more to him than just murder,]] and by the end of the comic he's calmed down a ''lot''.

* Mr. Blonde from ''Film/ReservoirDogs''. His response to someone hitting the alarm during the heist that makes up the movie was to go on a kill-crazy rampage, and so it's little wonder that a good 90% of anyone else's dialogue about the man is how psychotic he is. And that's before we get to the ColdBloodedTorture scene...

* The opinion of several members of the resistance during Marvel's ComicBook/CivilWar of ComicBook/ThePunisher. ComicBook/CaptainAmerica even calls him insane after he throws him out for gunning down a pair of C-list villains who wanted to join.

* The 2014 movie ''Film/BlackSea'' has Fraser, who is mentioned from the get-go to be a "psychopath" and shortly after is said to have been coming in and out of jail for some time now; but he still is recruited for the recovery mission/heist at the bottom of the titular Russian ocean because [[BunnyEarsLawyer his capacity as a salvage diver makes him necessary ("he's half-fish")]]. The '''two times''' the crew's sub sinks and nearly kills everybody is because he loses his head and kills another member.

** The Wolf himself seems like this to the rest of Daenerys' court, always advocating for the least peaceful resolution possible and applauding acts of necessary violence in others. Subverted in that he's not psychotic but utterly dedicated to gods who reward slaughter, and is quite good at playing both sides due to looking and acting like (and to be fair, ''[[NotAnAct being]]'') a giant Chaos-worshipping BloodKnight.

* Bats([[MeaningfulName short for "batshit crazy"]]) from ''Film/BabyDriver'' is a ScaryBlackMan whose TriggerHappy nature and volatile temper makes him a PsychoPartyMember. [[CardCarryingVillain And he's proud of it.]] Indeed, much of his hostility to Baby stems from the fact that he feels Baby's AmbiguousDisorder puts his place as the sole crazy one in jeopardy.

* ''VideoGame/DeadInVinland'' has the very last person you would expect in the band of survivors as this: [[spoiler: Brother Angelico, who's basically a male WhiteMagicianGirl, is also a SerialKiller who doesn't remember his crimes and will eventually kill another party member at random if he's kept around long enough.]] Its predecessor ''Dead In Bermuda'' had a much less surprising one: CrazySurvivalist [[TheSocialDarwinist Jacob]], who may eventually [[spoiler: attempt to murder TheCutie Illyana because he thinks she's TheLoad, by throwing her into the campfire]].

* Whirl from ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye''. He's an AxCrazy {{Jerkass}} who is initially kept around because his skill and willingness in combat makes him useful to the crew. However this causes some problems as Rodimus learns the hard way that Whirl isn't easy to control. For instance, waiting until the crew's backs are turned than chasing down and torturing info out of a mook against orders.

* The ComicBook/IncredibleHulk in ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'', at least during the first two acts. He's a smash-happy beast [[spoiler:and an important part of Loki's plan is to manipulate the emotions of the Avengers and set off Banner's UnstoppableRage in a place where nobody can run away from him (the Helicarrier).]]

* ''Series/{{Euphoria}}'': In Season 2, Cassie turns into this after dating Nate where she becomes unhinged, abusive and a bigger threat to her friends and family.

* In a reference to Ash from ''Film/{{Alien}}'', above, [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Darth]] in Cube's chapter of ''VideoGame/LiveALive''. [[spoiler:He turns out to be not only a good guy, but one of only two human survivors.]]

* In ''Film/HoodedAngels'', Ellie is a PsychoLesbian KnifeNut as a [[RapeLeadsToInsanity result of having been gang-raped by Confederate militia during the Civil War]]. Most of time, her lover Hannah is able to keep her under control. However, when she starts to think that she losing Hannah, and especially when Hannah is separated from the rest of the gang during their escape, she becomes increasingly violent and unstable. She vows to kill the gang's TeamMom for preventing her from murdering an unarmed man they were robbing, and tries to make good on her vow while the Widow is sleeping. By the end, she lobbing lit sticks of dynamite into the showdown between the gang and the posse and not caring who she kills.

%%* WebVideo/EverymanHYBRID brings you [[KnifeNut Evan]].

* Dr. William Weir from ''Film/EventHorizon''. For the most part he was still sane up until the film's climax, where [[spoiler:he gets possessed by the ship]]. In fact he was genuinely remorseful when he came across [[spoiler: Peters's body after the ship [[TrickedToDeath tricked her into taking a long fall]]]].

* Dr. William Weir from ''Film/EventHorizon''. For the most part he was still sane up until the film's climax. In fact he was genuinely remorseful when he came across [[spoiler: Peters body]].

* Micah Bell from ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption2'', who joined the Van der Linde Gang six months prior to the events of the game. At first he just seems like a cruel bully who's hated by every other member of the group save for their leader, Dutch, but his true nature as a deranged monster is revealed when Micah forgoes a speedy prison escape to go on a shooting spree throughout the town of Strawberry just to retrieve his favorite guns. Throughout the game, Micah acts like the Devil on Dutch's shoulder serves, escalating Dutch's own corruption and insanity, and eventually leads to a schism in the gang by fueling Dutch's paranoid distrust of his followers [[spoiler:all while Micah himself acted as an informant to the Pinkertons to save himself]].

->''"There's always that one guy on the team too, he was a last minute replacement. He's not one of the original gang.\\
But one of the other guys vouches for him. 'No, no, dude... trust me, this guy's cool. He's solid and he's cool.' But he's not cool, is he? He doesn't really say anything ever, right?\\
He just stands there, looks cool... and then at one point he might be like... 'Let's kill these bitches.'"''

-->-- '''Creator/DaneCook''', on heist flicks

A group of survivors is rarely written as a cohesive group, or if they are, there's one little catch. One of them is emotionally fragile, and given the right situation, will have a psychotic breakdown, usually due to crossing the DespairEventHorizon. So now the group of survivors has to be wary of not only external threats, but an internal one as well, from someone who could possibly slaughter everyone in the group without knowing it. This character isn't (normally) evil, but they are a convenient obstacle for the protagonists. Usually, there's a tough decision on whether or not to kill the person in question. When it's someone whom you least expect to flip out, the trope becomes that much more chilling.

-->-- '''Creator/DaneCook'''

* Ronald Speirs in ''Series/BandOfBrothers'' has this vibe going, and actually [[CrazyAwesome makes it work for him]]. His comrades speculate whether he's ''really'' as psychotic as the stories make him, or [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation if it's all just an act]]. As with the above, this is also TruthInTelevision, and to this day no one is really sure whether the stories told about Speirs during the War were true or if it was an image he allowed his subordinates to cultivate. He was certainly well-respected and [[AFatherToHisMen popular]] among the men of [[BadAssCrew Easy Company]].