History VillainousBreakdown / Film

* Captain Queeg in ''The Caine Mutiny'' combines this with EngineeredPublicConfession when he's put on the stand in the trial of the man who mutinied against him, who has argued that he did it because Queeg was mentally unbalanced but forced to confess that he had never seen the captain "ranting and raving" as such. Under the defense attorney's questioning Queeg does start genuinely ranting and raving while also displaying his nervous tic of rubbing a pair of ball bearings together, Rather unusually we in the audience, having been privy to all that happened leading up to the mutiny, can kind of see where he's coming from, and it's left ambiguous whether he's actually insane.

** It's also worth mentioning that this breakdown is likely an intentional case of dramatic irony, as earlier in the film, the Joker spoke to [[spoiler:Harvey Dent/Two-Face]] about how normal people break when things "don't follow the plan" and that he's immune to this because he "has no plan". But when things don't go the way he thought they would, he is clearly upset by it and has his, as it were, [[InvertedTrope reverse breakdown]] (going from his usual hysteria and out-and-out insanity to a quiet, solemn tone... the exact opposite of a normal example of a VillainousBreakdown.) Despite what he may have said or even thought, the Joker ''did'' have a plan... and he was not happy when it failed.

* The 1939 film ''MrSmithGoesToWashington'' ends with a VillainousBreakdown. The secondary villain Senator Paine, previously conflicted but standing firm on staying on the side of evil, finally snaps when Jeff Smith collapses from the exhaustion of his ordeal. Senator Paine rushes out of the senate room, tries to shoot himself, and when that fails, he runs back into the senate room screaming the truth regarding the corruption that he is a part of, giving Smith the victory.

* Robert [=deNiro=] has a pretty memorable one as Al Capone in ''TheUntouchables'':

** In ''QuantumOfSolace'', when BigBad Dominic Greene's plans begin to explode ([[StuffBlowingUp literally]]) around his ears, he goes totally insane, trying to chop Bond to little pieces [[AxeCrazy using an axe]] while making sounds more appropriately shrieked by demonic monkeys. His fury gets the better of him when he ''axes himself in the foot''.

* Norman Stansfield from ''[[TheProfessional Leon]]''

-->'''Mok:''' [[ThisCannotBe You can't do this to me!]] '''[[ThisIsSparta I! AM! MOK!]]'''
* [[ThreeHundred 300]] has King Xerxes flip out and execute half his generals after they repeatedly fail to dislodge the Spartans. Later, being grazed with a spear ([[AGodAmI which reminds him that he can, in fact, bleed]]) causes him to have a VillainousBSOD as well.

* Fritz Lang's movie ''DrMabuseTheGambler'' ends with the eponymous villain (played by Rudolf Klein-Rogge) suffering one of these, while being surrounded by the ghosts of all the people he had murdered earlier.

* At the end of Disney's animated ''TheGreatMouseDetective'', Ratigan goes from being a smarmy, smug intellectual to a feral, crazed rat, savagely attacking Basil. Although he does have quick seconds of losing his cool throughout the film, he is just as quickly able to recollect himself as calm and collective. Until the end, of course.

* In the final ''HarryPotter'' movie Voldemort resorts to hitting and kicking Harry despite the fact that that sort of thing is for ''[[FantasticRacism Muggles]]'', and he's passing up an opportunity to kill him immediately. The implication presumably is that forget the practicalities, he wants to ''hurt'' Harry, and doing so with magic isn't satisfying enough.

* Clu in ''TRONLegacy'' as he searches Flynn's abandoned home, reminding him how much he still loves his creator. His reaction to the flashback when he was first created is a defiant rage. And later when [[CallingTheOldManOut confronting Flynn]], he screamed at Flynn for breaking his promise and shouting "I did everything you asked!" When Flynn admits that perfection could never be achieved (and thus everything Clu had done was a lie), he simply lost it.

* ''SpeedRacer'': On the final lap of the Grand Prix...

* ''[[RepoTheGeneticOpera Repo! The Genetic Opera]]'' had a great one at the end of the film -- [[spoiler:Rotti Largo loses it in front of the entire audience at the Genetic Opera when Blind Mag defies him during her final song. He kills Mag -- all the while insisting to the audience that it's AllPartOfTheShow -- drags Nathan and Shilo on stage, and tries to force Shilo to kill Nathan. When she refuses, he kills Nathan himself. The stress of his breakdown causes him to finally succumb to his disease. His last actions are to insult his betrayed children and insist that the world was lucky to ever have him.]]

* Peter Lorre in ''TheMalteseFalcon'', turning on Sidney Greenstreet after finding out the eponymous statue is a worthless fake made of lead:

* Norman Stansfield from ''[[TheProfessional Leon]]'', who gives us the above quote.

** Darla Dimple of ''CatsDontDance'' gets a big one at the end. Darla's attempts to sabotage Danny's last-ditch effort to show that animals can be stars actually ''helps'' them. At the end, frazzled, exhausted and more than a little mad, Darla crawls up to Danny and, in front of the audience, accidentally outs herself as the one who sabotaged his earlier attempt.

* HAL from ''[=~2001: A Space Odyssey~=]'', right after Bowman gets back onto the ship to pull his chips. This one is a little hard to detect, as he sounds just as calm as he does when he was a psychopathic killer, but through his words you can hear his desperate attempts to save his own life:

* General Hein in ''[=~Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within~=]'' was [[GeneralRipper never the most balanced individual]], but he rapidly loses what marbles he did have when given permission to fire the [[KillSat Zeus Cannon]]. He continues to fire the cannon even though it is overheating, ignoring all warnings:

** In ''Film/{{Batman}}'', the Joker ends up breaking down completely near the end of the movie, when he has Batman and Vicky Vale hanging for dear life. While he was insane beforehand, he at least had some self-restraint to his insanity. By that point however, he couldn't stop himself from laughing insanely and frequently, not to mention destroying parts of the Cathedral ("Oh, they sure don't make 'em like they used to! (mad laughter as he smashes the bricks with his feet) do they, huh? (insane giggling) Eh, Betsy? (laughs up a storm)")

* ''[[RepoTheGeneticOpera Repo! The Genetic Opera]]'' had a great one at the end of the film -- [[spoiler:Rotti Largo loses it in front of the entire audience at the Genetic Opera when Mag defies him during her final song. He kills Mag -- all the while insisting to the audience that it's AllPartOfTheShow--drags Nathan and Shilo on stage, and tries to force Shilo to kill Nathan. When she refuses, he kills Nathan himself. The stress of his breakdown causes him to finally succumb to his disease. His last actions are to insult his betrayed children and insist that the world was lucky to ever have him.]]

* ''Shadow of the Vampire'' has its BadBoss and secondary villain Director F.W. Murnau breaking down under the stress of using Max Schreck, a real vampire, in his film production. Already considered somewhat eccentric due to his addiction to laudanum and his obsession with realistic film, Murnau cracks during the final day of shooting, after Schreck kills the cinematographer and the producer: rather than ranting and raving, however, he simply orders Schreck back into position in a somewhat CreepyMonotone and continues filming. Eventually the doors of the makeshift studio are opened, exposing the vampire to sunlight, killing him; as Scheck disintegrates, Murnau continues working the film camera, rambling insanely:

* The Duke Brothers in ''TradingPlaces'' have a nice one after the heroes manipulate the [[strike:stock]] Frozen Concentrated Orange Juice market and cause them to lose everything. Randolph has a heart attack, and Mortimer abandons all pretense of civility, declaring [[PrecisionFStrike "Fuck him!"]] (re: his brother), and screaming for them to reopen trade.=:

--> '''Chekov:''' You lie! On Ceti Alpha Five there was life! A fair chance-

* Fritz Lang's movie ''DrMabuseTheGambler'' ends with the titular villain (played by Rudolf Klein-Rogge) suffering one of these, while being surrounded by the ghosts of all the people he had murdered earlier.

* Peter Lorre in ''TheMalteseFalcon'', turning on Sidney Greenstreet after finding out the titular statue is a worthless fake made of lead:

** In ''Film/Batman'', the Joker ends up breaking down completely near the end of the movie, when he has Batman and Vicky Vale hanging for dear life. While he was insane beforehand, he at least had some self-restraint to his insanity. By that point however, he couldn't stop himself from laughing insanely and frequently, not to mention destroying parts of the Cathedral ("Oh, they sure don't make 'em like they used to! (mad laughter as he smashes the bricks with his feet) do they, huh? (insane giggling) Eh, Betsy? (laughs up a storm)")

* Emperor Palpatine in StarWars has a subtle one. When Luke refuses to give into his hatred and spares Vader, Palpatine is visibly shocked. After this, he simply drops the SmugSnake and tells Luke "If you will not be converted then you will be destroyed." For the first time in the entire Saga things have not followed his script, and he is not pleased about it.
** More of "for the first time in a long time," suggesting in hindsight that he'd lost the cunning and ability to improvise and shift priorities that he'd had in the prequels.
*** It also didn't help that Palpatine was offering the one thing to Luke that he never really sought: power. Luke wanted to defeat the Emperor, save his father, his friends, and free the galaxy, but he never wanted power for its own sake the way Anakin did. The Emperor having enjoyed absolute power for so long, simply couldn't fathom that any force user would reject it.
*** You could argue that the Emperor didn't really care whether or not Luke accepted his offer. Either he kills Darth Vader and becomes the #2 Sith (a powerful one indeed), or refuses and faces the Lightning. Either way, there's one less Jedi running around.