[[quoteright:316:[[{{Kirby}} http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/MarxPlan.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:316:[[TheReveal "I got the sun and moon to fight. I got you to go into space..."]]]]

->''"Ah, how shall I do it? Oh, I know. I'll turn him into a flea, a harmless, little flea, and then I'll put that flea in a box, and then I'll put that box inside of another box, and then I'll mail that box to myself, and when it arrives... ''I'll smash it with a hammer!'' It's brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, I tell you! Genius, I say!''" ([[ThatPoorPlant BAM]]) "''..Or, to save on postage, I'll just poison him with ''this!"''
-->-- '''Yzma''', ''TheEmperorsNewGroove''

So you've got your BigBad EvilOverlord, looming over the world like a colossus. But he can't just [[OrcusOnHisThrone putz around on his throne all day]], waiting for the BigDamnHeroes to show up and kick his butt. And while TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness doesn't seem to do much but [[WeWait sit around and wait]] while spouting off cryptic nonsense, they've got to have some sort of [[HiddenAgendaVillain hidden agenda]] to hide or there isn't much of a point.

So they've got to have a plan. An evil plan. Otherwise there's not much of a story, is there?

Some popular examples of Evil Plans:

* ''TakeOverTheWorld'': Of course! Probably the most popular villainous scheme of all. The scale of conquest can vary depending on the setting - some warlords are content to settle with conquering a kingdom or nation, while ScienceFiction overlords will go for nothing less than universal (or multidimensional) domination.
** ''TheEvilsOfFreeWill'' is a popular means to this end, by robing everyone of their free will they will have no choice but to serve their rightful ruler!
* ''[[EarthShatteringKaboom Destroy The World]]'': Why take over the world when you can blow it up?
* ''[[KillAllHumans Kill All The Humans]]'': No one's going to miss [[HumansAreBastards the little bastards]], right?
* ''[[OmnicidalManiac Kill Everything]]'': Why stop with just the humans?
* ''[[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Cause The Apocalypse]]'': Not so much destroying the world or humanity as really screwing up civilization; though the former two may be involved in the bargain.
* ''[[AGodAmI Gain Unlimited Power]]'': Don't just play God, BE God!
* ''[[MacGuffin Grand Theft Macguffin]]'': Steal an ancient artifact with untold powers. Of course, this is usually done in the pursuit of one of the other Evil Plans.
* ''[[SealedEvilInACan Unleash The Evil]]'': Release the source of all Evil from its prison. [[EvilIsNotAToy This rarely goes well for the villain attempting it]].
* ''[[{{Revenge}} Vengeance Is Mine!]]'': You know that guy that wronged you in the past? It doesn't matter how [[DisproportionateRetribution petty]] or misplaced your grievance is, it's payback time! Time to kill the bastard, or make his life a living hell!
* ''[[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney Get Rich Quick]]'': Or, if you're already rich, get richer. Any scheme is fair game in the pursuit of the profit margin, be it theft, blackmail, or auctioning the world off to hungry demons. Unfortunately, this lust for wealth [[StepThreeProfit falls prey to poor planning]].
* ''[[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans Create A Perfect Society]]'': You know how people keep hurting themselves and each other? Make them stop, by whatever means are necessary. [[WellIntentionedExtremist No ill will required]]!
* ''[[PokeThePoodle Ignore A "Keep Off The Grass" Sign]]'': [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking ...Wait, what?]]

Normally, these are accomplished with StockEvilOverlordTactics. Of course, most of the smaller-scope plans can usually be accomplished [[WhyDontYaJustShootHim in a less grandiose fashion]].

Can involve a XanatosGambit.

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!!Examples:
* Of Boris and Natasha's many Evil Plans on ''RockyAndBullwinkle'', this troper's favorite has to be the sinister plot to for giant, robotic mice from the Moon to eat through American TV antennas so that entertainment-starved Americans will flee the country, leaving it ripe for conquest. Boris is, of course, the Big Cheese.
* The less creative of us may use the [[http://members.tripod.com/~mrpuzuzu/plan.html Evil Plan generator]].
* Cobra Commander from ''GIJoe'' once wasted a huge amount of resources stealing equipment to build a giant laser... so he could carve his face in the moon. Destro was not impressed.
** Another attempt by Cobra Commander was to use a love potion to allow TheBaroness to seduce a ship magnate, only to have a fight break out between Cobra and G.I. Joe over the chemical, only to have the potion stolen by a crab. At least this time Destro found the whole silly fiasco hilarious.
* Endlessly [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] and [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] over and over again by the various [[CardCarryingVillain Card Carrying Villains]] of ''KimPossible.''
** In fact, while tutoring another villain, Shego explains how it's the single most important part of being a villain.
* Parodied ([[StealthParody we hope]]) in ''JusticeLeagueUnlimited'', where Grodd's elaborate evil plan turns out to be "[[spoiler:transforming every man, woman and child on Earth...'''''[[LargeHam INTO AN APE!!!]]''''']]" This is appropriately lampshaded, and also [[CoupDeGrace face-shotted]].
* The Robot Devil in an episode of ''{{Futurama}}'': "My ridiculously circuitous plan is one-quarter complete!"
* Raphael from the ''{{Soul Series}}'' has some of the most ridiculously insane plans ever devised, [[LoveMakesYouEvil all for his adopted daughter]]. In ''Soul Calibur 2'' he planned to destroy the country that he fled from by giving its nobles the Soul Edge on the basis that they would tear the country apart in a demonically-dueled civil war so that the world would..somehow.. be safer for his adopted daughter Amy. In ''Soul Calibur 3'', on discovering that he and Amy had been accidentally turned into [[OurVampiresAreDifferent basically vampires]], he decided to turn the ''entire world into creatures like them so Amy wouldn't feel left out''. Amy may constitute a pretty drastic subversion of a {{Morality Pet}}.
* Tons in ''SluggyFreelance''.
** [[TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness Hereti]] [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Corp]]: 1) create an army of invincible alien clones to conquer the world, 2) locate Oasis by making the [[ManchurianAgent trigger]] for her [[BrainwashedAndCrazy homicidal rages]] the symbol for a national fast food chain.
** Chilus: release a swarm of mind-eating insects to bring about "the end of the world through bugs" as prophecied.
** Dr. Steve: [[{{Brainwashed}} brainwash]] his [[HikaruGenjiPlan adoptive daughter]] so she can "go on a date with a lesbian and then tell all." Okay, they can't all be winners.
* Every JamesBond villain has had one of these:
** ''{{Dr No}}'''s plan was to dominate the world by controlling U.S. spaceship launches from his Jamaican island.
** Kronsteen and Rosa Klebb in ''FromRussiaWithLove'' wanted to steal a cryptographic device from the Soviets and sell it back to them, as well as take revenge on Bond for killing Dr. No.
** ''{{Goldfinger}}'''s scheme was to nuke Fort Knox to devalue American gold and increase the value of his own.
** Emilio Largo's plan in ''{{Thunderball}}'' was to steal two nuclear missiles and try to get ransom from the U.S. by threatening to launch them.
** Blofeld's plan in ''YouOnlyLiveTwice'' was to start World War III by destroying American and Russian spacecraft.
** Blofeld's plan in ''OnHerMajestysSecretService'' involves turning young women into unwitting terrorists.
** Blofeld's plan in ''DiamondsAreForever'' is to use stolen diamonds to build a KillSat and hold the world hostage.
** Kananga/Mr. Big from ''LiveAndLetDie'' wanted to corner the heroin market with the help of voodoo.
** Scaramanga, ''TheManWithTheGoldenGun'', wanted to hold the world to ransom during the energy crisis.
** Stromberg from ''TheSpyWhoLovedMe'' wanted to start World War III by hijacking nuclear submarines.
** The plan of Hugo Drax of ''{{Moonraker}}'' was the genocide of the human race in order to repopulate the world with his own "ideal" specimens. Given that the original villain of Moonraker was a Nazi, this shouldn't come as much of a surprise.
** Kristatos in ''ForYourEyesOnly'' wants to recover a MacGuffin for the KGB.
** A RenegadeRussian in ''{{Octopussy}}'' wants to start World War III, and part of that plan is detonating a nuke at a circus.
** Max Zorin's ultimate plan in ''AViewToAKill'' is to detonate explosives along the Hayward and San Andreas Faults, causing them to flood. The other major bomb was set to destroy a "geological lock" that's in place to prevent the two faults from moving, causing a double earthquake that would cause massive destruction.
** Whitaker's evil plan in ''TheLivingDaylights'' is to get ludicrously rich using the profits from a large shipment of opium paid for using diamonds and to repay the loan from the Russkies he took and is a bit late in returning.
** Sanchez's scheme in ''LicenceToKill'' involves cocaine in gasoline sold to Asian drug dealers, conducted via a televangelist. He also plans to buy Stinger missiles from the Contras. The story, however, is more about Bond's RoaringRampageOfRevenge.
** Alec Trevelyan of ''GoldenEye'' sought revenge against the British government for betraying his family, who were Lienz Cossacks sent back to Stalin, by detonating the titular KillSat over London.
** Elliot Carver of ''TomorrowNeverDies'' wanted to start a war between the West and China for ratings reasons.
** ''TheWorldIsNotEnough'' has Electra King and Renard scheming to raise petroleum prices by triggering a nuclear meltdown in the waters of Istanbul.
** ''DieAnotherDay'''s BigBad, Gustav Graves, takes a page from Blofeld's book from ''DiamondsAreForever'' and uses a diamond-powered KillSat that runs on solar energy.
** ''CasinoRoyale'', involves two bad guys who short-sell successful companies and engineers terrorist attacks in order to sink their stock values and turn a profit, but get pissed when Bond wins their poker tournament and decide to make him suffer.
** ''QuantumOfSolace'' involves Dominic Greene wanting to hold the revolutionary government-to-be of Bolivia over a barrel by controlling the majority of the [[spoiler: water and not oil]] through a system of planned underground demolitions.
* ''BrokenSaints'' has a whole big complicated scheme. The short version? [[spoiler: Lear Dunham wants to bring down the corrupt power systems of the world and end the suffering they cause. To do so, he plans to use various high-tech gadgetry to blast a {{Mind Rape}}ing "God signal" across the entire planet. Major world leaders and military honchos implanted with a certain chip--a chip they thought was supposed to protect them while the blast took care of their enemies--would find that in actuality the chip ''enhances'' the signal, and all implanted with the chip will die horrific deaths, and surrounding un-chipped populations would be hit with massive psychic trauma. The rest of humanity would receive the signal but would not die; instead they would hear the ominous voices, see the giant [[EvilEye "eye of God"]] in the sky, and feel the signal-stimulated fear in their hearts, and submit themselves to the angry God. Those few whose brains are less prone to the signals power would be drawn to Lear's EvilTowerOfOminousness, where he would make them his apostles, helping him rebuild the world. Oh, and in order to broadcast the "emotion" element of the signal, he uses ''his own daughter'', an [[TheEmpath empath]] born and bred to fulfill precisely this function.]] SoYeah.
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