Betty And Veronica / Film

Examples of Betty and Veronica in the film medium.

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Animated

• In The Book of Life, Maria is the Archie, while kind-hearted musician Manolo is the Betty and Glory Seeker soldier Joaquin is the Veronica. Both are childhood friends, a role usually reserved for the Betty.
• The two fiances in Corpse Bride fit this trope—shy, proper, living Victoria is the Betty and the lively-but-dead Emily is the Veronica. Except that Victor specifically wants to marry Victoria; Emily was in the picture thanks to a rather weird Accidental Engagement. Victor eventually ALSO wants to marry Emily; but, knowing that doing so would kill him and would make Victoria as sad as she is herself without any chance of closure, she rejects him at the last moment.
• Princess Anna (Archie) from Frozen (2013) initially falls for the auburn-haired, handsome, charismatic Prince Hans (Veronica), but later develops feelings for the practical, blonde iceman Kristoff (Betty). The contest ends when Hans is revealed to be a Prince Charmless Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who tries to murder both Anna and her sister Elsa to take over their kingdom. Kristoff, meanwhile, braves the gigantic snowstorm Elsa accidentally set off to try to rescue Anna.
• My Moon: Earth is in a relationship with Moon (the Betty), who Earth genuinely enjoys the company of, but his practical purpose in her life isn't as clear as Sun's, though it's later revealed she needs Moon to light the world at night. Sun (the Veronica), helps support Earth's lifeforms through his light, but their relationship comes off as a lot more spontaneous as opposed to the quiet and secure romance she has with Moon, and Sun is not as available for her when night falls.
• The sequel to Disney's Pocahontas, Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World has the dashing young English diplomat John Rolfe as the Betty, but Pocahontas is still pining after her presumed dead lover John Smith (although the Veronica is largely absent in this case anyway). In the end, Pocahontas follows the history books in winding up with John Rolfe.
• Robots: Protagonist Rodney Copperbottom attracts the attention of the boisterous, tomboyish teenage outmode Piper (the Betty) and the calm, level-headed Bigweld Industries executive Cappy (the Veronica).
• Shark Tale has longtime friend Angie as the Betty and The Vamp Lola as the Veronica.
• In Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, you have Marina, who is engaged to be married to Proteus (the Betty), but develops a romantic interest in his old roguish friend Sinbad (the Veronica). While she may not have been in love with Proteus, she cared about him enough to go with Sinbad to ensure that he retrieves the Book of Peace from Eris so that Proteus won't have to die for his screw-up. In the end, when Proteus realizes that Marina loves Sinbad, he privately breaks off the engagement and lets her leave Syracuse with Sinbad and his crew.

Live-Action

• This trope is a favourite for David Lynch, although he never plays it straight.
  • Mulholland Dr.: Betty is, well, "Betty", and Rita is "Veronica". Initially subverted in that, instead of being two sides of a love triangle, they initially develop a lesbian relationship. It gets more complicated later on. One might even argue that Rita is the Archie and Adam is the Veronica.
  • Blue Velvet has Jeffrey torn between the blonde girl-next-door type Sandy and the mysterious, tortured Broken Bird Dorothy.
  • Twin Peaks sets up the wholesome Donna Hayward as the Betty, in contrast to rich bad girl Audrey Horne. The twist is that Audrey turns out to be probably the better person of the two, with her plot arc serving as a deconstruction of how Veronica-type characters are usually "punished" in stories. Audrey puts herself in danger to try to solve the murder. Donna puts other people in danger, and eventually drives an innocent man to suicide. Also, they don't seem to really have an Archie equivalent who must choose between them - the contrast between them exists without any particular love triangle.
    • Played pretty straight with Cooper, Audrey (Veronica) and Annie (Betty). There's also Laura with James (Betty) and Bobby (Veronica), James with Maddie (Betty) and Donna (Veronica), Big Ed with Nadine (Betty) and Norma (Veronica), and Catherine with Pete (Betty) and Ben (Veronica).
  • Played very weirdly, much like everything else of course, in Eraserhead, where Henry cheats on (or perhaps, only fantasizes about cheating on?) his frail, weepy wife, Mary, with the mysterious, nameless Beautiful Girl Across the Corridor.
• John Hughes has used this binary triangle with some success.
  • In Pretty in Pink, the traditional "Betty/Veronica" triangle exists between two boys and a girl (Blaine, Ducky, red-headed Andi)... Yet the unpleasant "Reggie" archetype is played by the blonde, wealthy James Spader, who seeks to sabotage his friend Blaine, an "Archie" type nice boy. The character of Duckie is comic relief, like "Jughead," but unique in that he's also a love interest. Pretty in Pink was originally shot to have her end up with the Betty (Ducky) as well, but thanks to Executive Meddling, that didn't happen.
  • Hughes also played this trope straight in Some Kind of Wonderful - a red-haired "Archie" (Eric Stoltz) loves a popular girl (Lea Thompson) with brown hair, but can't see that his blonde best friend (Mary Stuart Masterson) loves him.
  • This was also used in Sixteen Candles, when the male love interest is dating the blond cheerleader (Veronica) but spends most of the movie trying to hook up with the red-headed plain but not-superficial girl (Betty). The cheerleader gets this herself, when she leaves said male love interest (Veronica) for a geeky but sweet kid she went home with while drunk (Betty). And since that geeky kid had a crush on the plain red head, he himself chose the Veronica over the Betty.
• Michelangelo Antonioni is fond of this trope.
  • L'Avventura: Sandro dates first Anna who is an alluring, assertive and sultry brunette, later Claudia who is a timid hesitating blonde.
  • La Notte: Both Betty and Veronica are brunettes there. Betty is Valentiona Gherardini, the daughter of an industrialist played by Monica Vitti. Veronica is Lidia, the jaded wife of Giovanni, seemingly much older than Betty though the age of two actresses is fairly close.
  • L'eclisse: Vittoria is clearly Betty for Piero, she is blonde and compassionate. "Veronica" is the girl who only makes a brief appearance, it is a brunette whom Piero meets and then drops the appointment. Stressed by the fact that she was formerely blonde and then dyed her hair darker.
• 5 Card Stud: Protagonist Van Morgan has two Love Interests: brunette rancher's daughter Nora (Betty) and blonde Miss Kitty Lily who runs a barbershop-cum-bordello (Veronica). At the end of the movie, Van chooses Lily, realizing that they fit better together, and that neither of them is under any illusions about who the other is.
• In The Age of Innocence, Newland Archer is engaged and eventually married to May Welland, a lovely but completely ordinary socialite (The Betty), while falling in love with her cousin Ellen, the family reprobate (The Veronica). This trope is played even stronger in the book, where May is blond and blue-eyed and Ellen dark-haired. Subverted somewhat in that in this case, the Betty is wrong for him, despite their similar backgrounds and upbringing.
• In the 1993 ski film Aspen Extreme, one of the main protagonists, TJ Burke, is involved in a love triangle between two very different women: a down-to-earth and beautiful radio DJ named Robin Hand (the Betty) and a seductive millionaire businesswoman named Bryce Kellogg (the Veronica).
• The Babysitter (2017): Both Melanie and Bee are blondes with varying degrees of affection for Cole. Between the two, Melanie is presented as a nice girl and Cole's 12-year old neighbor and classmate, who lives in the house across the street from his. Whereas Bee is his sexy babysitter, making her the hot "older woman" Cole initially has a childhood crush on. But as the film progresses, Cole soon sees Bee for who she really is: a Satanic cultist and a psychopath who intends to kill him. This sparks a harrowing ordeal where Cole has to protect himself and Melanie from Bee, which brings them closer together.
• Beach Party:
  • Dolores is the wholesome Girl Next Door Betty to the alluring Veronica that is Ava. Of course, the latter is just a Romantic False Lead.
  • Interestingly enough, Frankie is the wilder Veronica to Robert Sutwell's quirky, down to earth Betty.
• Bram Stoker's Dracula has (although Bram Stoker's Dracula does not) a genderswapped version with Mina as Archie, Dracula as Veronica and her much more average fiance Jonathan as Betty. Dracula dies, but it is not made entirely certain that Mina goes back to Jonathan.
  • On the other hand, one could view Mina as the Betty and Lucy as the Veronica to 'The Man Himself'. As it's a matter of Death rather than love, and Dracula does try for both, this is probably a subversion (or even just a nod to the trope rather than an instance proper.)
• Can't Hardly Wait has Preston as Archie, his best friend Denise as Betty, and Amanda, the popular girl that Preston was in love with, as Veronica.
• In Canyon Passage, Logan is torn between two women: the worldly and adventurous Lucy, and the quiet homebody Caroline. Interestingly, the normal hair colours are reversed, with Lucy being blonde and Caroline a brunette.
• A variant appears in The Captains Paradise, where Henry is married to quiet homebody Maud but has the sexy and vibrant Nita as his wife in another port. Hilarity Ensues when he mixes up his presents for them, making Maud ecstatic that he sees her as physically desirable and Nita thrilled that he's willing to acknowledge her domestic side.
• While the two female love interests in Cassandra's Dream aren't part of a love triangle, each being involved with one of the two brothers, their personalities fit perfectly the trope: Kate is the soft, reasonable girl next door, and Angela the sexy, intellectual actress.
• Cat People has the male lead falling for the beautiful, exotic, Serbian Irena, but later leaving her for his sweet, dependable, American coworker Alice. (Partly because Irena wouldn't sleep with him.)
• In Caveman, Atouk lusts after the sexy but shallow Lana. When she becomes interested in him, he rejects her for his friend Tala.
• The Rupert Grint movie Cherrybomb (2009) has another genderswapped version, with Michelle as the Archie, having to choose between the (relatively) safe and dependable Malachy (Betty) and the rebellious, dashing Luke (Veronica).
• The 1945 French classic Children of Paradise. Amid its Love Dodecahedron is the triangle between the mime Baptiste, the sultry carnival performer Garance (Veronica) and Nathalie (Betty), daughter of the manager of the theater where Baptiste is a star. In a variation on the usual formula, Garance loves Baptiste, but his shyness and her many other suitors stand in the way of their romance (also, both women are brunettes). Eventually Baptiste marries Nathalie, only to have Garance re-enter his life.
• Choose Love: Paul is the Betty (nice, compatible boyfriend with a steady job) to the protagonist Cami's Archie. The arrival of Veronicas Jack (an activist who offers a life of saving the world together) and Rex (a rock star who offers a glamorous life of making music together throws a wrench into his relationship with Cami, who is now torn between the three men.
• The Cincinnati Kid has a textbook Betty and Veronica love triangle, so much that the 2nd paragraph of this page sounds like it's describing this movie. Steve McQueen is the hero, a poker player dating Tuesday Weld (Betty) who is pretty, sweet, and kind of dull, but he's drawn to the wild and sexy Ann-Margret (Veronica), who is married to a friend of his but constantly flirts with him. True to form, Weld is a blonde and Margret is a redhead.
• A Cinderella Story: Football-quarterback-and-closet-poet Austin Ames has the choice between his bitchy ex-girlfriend Shelby Cummings or Sam Montgomery, this mysterious girl he's been writing on the internet. At the beginning you could say Shelby is the Betty because she knows Austin very well and hangs out iwth him and his popular friends, and Sam would be the Veronica because she is his mystery "dream girl." But after he finds out who "Cinderella" is, Sam is his down-to-earth, shy Betty and Shelby is his cunning, mean-spirited Veronica.
• In the 1925 silent film Cobra, Mary is the good, wholesome Ingenue while Elsie is the evil, vampish "cobra" of the title. Gee, it seems to be a bit Madonna-Whore Complex in here. Also, from Mary and Elsie's perspectives, Jack is the Betty to Rodrigo's Veronica.
• In Dangerous Beauty, Marco Venier is caught in a love triangle between his dutiful, God-fearing, obedient wife, Giulia de Lezze, obviously the Betty, and the sensuous, promiscuous, dangerous courtesan Veronica Franco, who is, well, the Veronica. Interestingly, Veronica was very much a Betty herself, and she and Marco were in love in their youth, and wanted to marry, except that Veronica's family had no money for a dowry, forcing her to become a courtesan in order to support herself. The film in general has much more sympathy for Veronica, who is, after all, the title character, protagonist, and heroine, than for Giulia, whose only faults are that she is not as sexually adventurous as a courtesan, and that she resents the fact that her husband openly patronizes a courtesan.
• The Dark Knight Trilogy:
  • Gender Flipped in The Dark Knight: Bruce becomes the Veronica, as the rich playboy as well as a vigilante hero competing for Rachel's affections against the upstanding and morally just attorney Harvey Dent (Betty). It ends badly, with both Rachel and Dent dead (the latter after becoming Two-Face), though she reveals in a letter that she chose him over Bruce.
  • Subverted in The Dark Knight Rises. Bruce Wayne/Batman is attracted to both Miranda Tate (CEO of Wayne Enterprises, as well as a prim and proper society lady) and Selina Kyle (Catwoman). However, Selina Kyle's poor background starts to hint she's really the Betty, and Miranda turns out to be Talia al-Ghul, Bane's Man Behind the Man and the film's Big Bad, who wants to nuke Gotham. Talia dies in a truck crash at the climax, and Bruce fakes his death and starts a new life in Europe with Selina.
• In Death Becomes Her, Helen, a shy, timid Betty in the beginning of the movie, is desperately afraid her fiance Ernest will fall for Madeline, her childhood friend, who is a flashy actress and definite Veronica. Depending on how you define the roles, though, they become less distinct after the first fifteen minutes of the movie.
• The Deaths of Ian Stone sets up the protagonist with a sweet-natured blonde Betty, then shifts him to dating an increasingly unnerving dark-haired Veronica as the Dream Within a Dream kicks in. Neither he nor the Veronica are even remotely human, and he loved her before abandoning her for the Betty who by all rights should have been his prey. The plot of the film is based in her attempts first to snap him out of it, then to get revenge.
• Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) has Muriel Carew (Rose Hobart), Jekyll's fiancée, and the promiscuous singer Ivy Pierson (Miriam Hopkins), a singer Jekyll rescues from an attack.
• In Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1973) Jekyll's sweet fiancee Isabel is contrasted with the earthy barroom dancer Annie.
• In The Far Country, James Stewart has to choose between a young, virginal, sweet blond Betty and an older, sexually adventurous, Miss Kitty brunette Veronica.
• Forgetting Sarah Marshall inverts the standard "protagonist chases after the Veronica, but ends up with the Betty" formula. Instead the protagonist chases after the wholesome, apple-pie blonde all-American girl and ends up with the wild, exotic boob-flashing brunette from Hawaii.
• Played completely straight in A Free Soul, except for the Gender Flip, with Jan having to choose between the earnest, affectionate, deathly dull Dwight and the handsome, confident, manly, aggressive crime boss Ace. She has sex with Ace. Her boyfriends are even color-coded correctly, with Dwight having light hair and Ace having Clark Gable's dark hair.
• In The Gunfight at Dodge City, Bat Masterson is caught between Lily, the widow who owns the saloon (Veronica) and Pauline, the minister's daughter (Betty).
• In A Guy Thing, Paul is engaged to marry the sweet and reliable Karen (Betty in this analogy), who is a brunette. But after his bachelor party, he wakes up next to an attractive blonde dancer, who he later learns is Karen's cousin Becky (Veronica). While Karen has a steady job and seems to be the perfect girl to settle down with and bring home to mother, Becky is still "finding herself", switching jobs almost daily and jumping into and out of relationships. Now, Becky has no intention of sabotaging her cousin's marriage, but events conspire for them to meet up several times and spend time together, and Paul realizes he actually enjoys her fun, free-spirited outlook on life.
• Hallelujah!: Zeke has Missy Rose, the good girl adopted by his family who clearly adores him. He also has the darkly sensual and clearly promiscuous Chick, who leads him astray.
• The Hand That Rocks the Cradle: Michael is married to brunette Claire, but the family nanny, the blonde, devious Peyton, attempts to seduce him. There’s a moment where it seems like he’ll give in to her advances, but he ultimately chooses his wife Claire..
• In The Heartbreak Kid (2007), Eddie is Archie, Miranda is Betty and Lila is Veronica. Miranda is a beautiful sweet and gentle woman, who dresses conservatively. Lila is an exotic, sensual, rude and completely crazy woman. Miranda is brunette and Lila is blonde.
• Heathers has a very straightforward example with the character of Veronica Sawyer, a dark-haired rebellious girl and her old childhood friend Betty Finn, an innocent, bookish girl with fair hair.
• How to Lose Friends & Alienate People: Protagonist Sidney has to choose between sensible and earnest coworker Alison and seductive yet vapid starlet Sophie Maes. Alison, meanwhile, has her own Betty and Veronica scenario - with Sidney as the Betty and Sidney's boss Lawrence Maddox as the Veronica.
• The Hunger Games: Peeta is the Betty to Gale's Veronica for Katniss.
• The silent film It (1927). has reserved, aristocratic blonde Adela (the Betty) and sexy, fun-loving working class brunette Betty (the ironically-named Veronica) vying for Cyrus's affections. As Betty is the titular "it" girl and Cyrus is clearly attracted to her (even when he doesn't want to be) and oblivious of Adela's feelings for him throughout the entire film, it should be obvious which girl wins in the end.
• In the backstory to It's a Wonderful Life, young George Bailey has to choose between Fille Fatale Violet and wholesome Mary — naturally, he picks Mary. Later in life there are vicious rumours about the fact that George and Violet are seen having private conversations (gasp!), though really he's just helping her out financially.
• King Creole: Danny's love interests are the honest and conventional working girl Nellie (Betty) and Maxie's cynical and disillusioned moll Ronnie (Veronica).
• The Legend of Frenchie King: The bumbling sheriff is attracted to the leads Maria Sarrazin and Louise Leroi. Maria is the Betty, being the one the sheriff has known for longer and therefore more approachable, and the mysterious (outlaw) Louise is the Veronica. He wins neither. They seem more interested in each other than in him at any rate.
• The Lord of the Rings film trilogy has the love triangle: Éowyn/Aragorn/Arwen. Both of the females, Éowyn and Arwen, could be seen as Betty and Veronica in two different ways, and here is how:
  • Éowyn (Betty) is more down-to-earth and has a crush on Aragorn (Archie), but he prefers Arwen (Veronica), who is more exotic and she is an Elf, so their love is sort of a "star-crossed romance."
  • Arwen (Betty) knew Aragorn (Archie) and was his lover for a very long time. Aragorn meets Éowyn (Veronica) while joining the Rohirrim in the Battle Of Helm's Deep, who is more wild and headstrong.
• The Maltese Falcon - Effie Perine is the Betty and Brigid O'Shaughnessy is the Veronica, with Sam Spade as Archie
• While this is spread across multiple movies, Marvel Cinematic Universe Bruce Banner has a literal Betty (Ross) who is a level-minded scientist, and a Veronica in Black Widow, an Action Girl with a troubled past. (as a reference to the trope and its namer, the huge armor used by Iron Man to control Banner's superpowered side is codenamed V.E.R.O.N.I.C.A. - as Joss Whedon made clear, "I called it Veronica because Bruce used to be in love with a woman named Betty, and the opposite of Betty is Veronica.")
• The Mask features a variation in which the Betty, plain news reporter Peggy Brandt, sells Stanley out to the Big Bad, while the Veronica, dazzling nightclub singer and the Big Bad's Moll Tina Carlyle, is the one who stays true and ends up with him.
• In My Best Friend's Wedding, Julia Roberts' sarcastic, redheaded New Yorker (Veronica) tries to stop her best friend Dermot Mulroney (Archie) from marrying sweet, blonde, blue-blooded Cameron Diaz (Betty). She doesn't succeed.
• My Soul to Take: Bug is infatuated with Brittany, a Beta Bitch who is involved in petty crimes and getting Bug beaten up by her boyfriend, but gets several Pet the Dog moments and seems to like Bug back. In the meantime, Penelope The Fundamentalist seems to have a crush on Bug that she can't quite voice and protects him from being bullied by Brittany and her friends. None of this amounts to anything, as both of them are killed by the Serial Killer, while Bug survives.
• The Natural had Roy Hobbs as Archie, Iris Gaines as Betty, and Memo Paris as Veronica.
• Terrence Malick's The New World applies this trope to the story of Pocahontas, who has to choose between John Smith (Veronica) and John Rolfe (Betty).
• Norbit: Norbit is Archie, Kate is Betty, and Rasputia is Veronica. Kate is a beautiful, gentle, sweet woman and dress conservatively. Rasputia is a morbidly obese, extremely rude woman who dresses in the shortest and most revealing clothes possible. Subverted: Norbit loves Kate and hates Rasputia, and only marries the second because he is forced by her and her family.
• Subverted in Not Another Teen Movie, where Janey, having to choose between Jake (Lovable Jock who dates her only because of a bet with his Jerk Jock buddy) and Ricky (the annoying, whiny loser of a "friend"), chooses the former, causing him to have a change of heart, while the latter remains an annoying whiny loser.
• The Phantom has Diana, Kit's ex-girlfriend, and Sala, the female leader of a gang of Air Pirates.
• Also gender-flipped in Pirates of the Caribbean with Elizabeth as the Archie, Jack as the Veronica and Will as the Betty, not that there's ever much doubt about who Elizabeth will choose, seeing that she's been in love with Will from the beginning and never shows much interest in Jack. But still, the option was there (and fans in particular liked to explore it). However, Will only takes the Betty role when compared to Jack, by being a slightly less bad choice, as at least he's well-behaved. Usually. He takes the Veronica role when compared to James Norrington, a hard-working suitor from her own social class whom her father would have preferred her to marry.
• In Plan B, Laura is dating sensitive Pretty Boy photographer Pablo but is also sleeping with the more macho and cocky Bruno who used to date her but dumped her when he got bored. However, Bruno is secretly trying to be the Veronica to Laura's Betty for Pablo (after hearing from a friend that Pablo's open to sleeping with other guys), because he plans to get back together with Laura after he seduces Pablo away from her — only for him to get caught up in his own Betty and Veronica quandary when he finds out that Pablo is more thoughtful and easier to hold deep conversations with than Laura whose relationship with him is mainly sex-based. Basically, it's a Love Triangle where all three members are torn between a more reliable member and a more seductive member of the triangle.
• Playing It Cool: Her has to choose between Stuffy (who offers her everything she wants in a life partner, but who also apparently bores her enough to make her flirt with strange men at parties) as "Betty" and the Narrator (with whom she's got great personal chemistry, but who is also childish and unreliable) as "Veronica."
• A "color-coded" triangle exists in film noirs The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), Tension, and Out of the Past (where the evil Veronica, Jane Greer, dresses all in white, as Lana Turner had in "Postman"). In the black and white film Dark Passage, both the Veronica and Betty characters (Agnes Moorhead and Lauren Bacall respectively) are brunettes, but Moorhead's character loves and is coded by the color orange.
• Invoked in The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, where Mabrey instructs Nicholas to seduce Mia with the thought of a passionate romance to contrast her intended Marriage of Convenience with Nice Guy Andrew.
• In a deleted scene from Pulp Fiction, Mia Wallace runs a personality/pop culture test on Vincent Vega. One of the questions is "Betty or Veronica", and Vincent chooses Betty, claiming never having gotten Veronica's appeal. Which is made interesting by the fact that Mia is a total Veronica.
• Queen of the Damned has:
  • A genderswapped version with Enkil as the Betty and Lestat as the Veronica to Akasha's Archie. Lestat most decidedly wins when Akasha murders Enkil in order to pursue Lestat. And then...
  • Akasha as the Veronica and Jesse as the Betty to Lestat's Archie. Jesse wins when Lestat turns on Akasha in order to save his Betty.
• At the start of Quicksand, Dan has recently broken up Helen (Betty)—a brunette Girl Next Door type—because she was getting too serious and talking about marriage and he didn't want to be tied down. He the falls for Vera (Veronica)—an exotic worldly blonde with a mysterious past. When Dan falls into a life of crime, Vera actively encourages him, seeing him as a shortcut to her goal of owning a mink coat. However, when goes sour, Vera rats Dan out to the cops in an attempt to save herself. Helen, however, sticks by Dan no matter what he has does, and promises to be there for him no matter what.
• In Red Riding Hood, Valerie is in the middle of a Love Triangle between Rebellious Spirit Peter (Veronica) and Nice Guy Henry (Betty).
• A Room in Town has Violette as the sweet, optimistic Betty compared to Edith's daring, frustrated Veronica.
• The Room (2003): Johnny as the Betty to Mark's Veronica for Lisa. Johnny is a laid-back, plain guy (and that's probably generous to describe Wiseau), while Mark has the good looks to convincingly pull off a "bad boy" image.
• In A Safe Place (1971), Noah's two love interests are Fred, who is kind, gentle and sincere, and Mitch, who only visits Noah when he fights with his other girlfriend, and who is frequently emotionally abusive to her. At one point, Noah says she prefers sex with Mitch because he's willing to hurt her.
• Scott Pilgrim vs. The World has Knives, the sweet and loyal girlfriend, competing with Ramona, the mysterious girl who just came to town, changes her hair color every week, and has a VERY complicated relationship history including seven evil exes.
• In Shallow Hal, Hal is Archie, Rosemary is Betty and Jill is Veronica. Rosemary is a fat, sweet and gentle woman, who dresses conservatively (before meeting Hal). Jill is an exotic, sensual woman, a little more rude and cold. Rosemary is blonde and Jill is brunette. Downplayed, though, because Jill is shown to a nice and pleasant person who simply objected to Hal's lechery and overt come-ons, and she makes a move on Hal after seeing what she believed was Character Development on his part in dating such a big girl (at this point, Hal is still hypnotized into seeing Rosemary as being thin). Hal lets her down gently.
• She's Out of My League plays around with this. For Molly, Kirk is the dorky Betty and Cam, her ex-boyfriend, is the Veronica. Meanwhile for Kirk, the beautiful and worldly Molly initially seems the Veronica and his familiar ex-girlfriend Marnie is the Betty. However Molly is genuinely nice and Marnie is not.
• Janet's boring husband Brad and his long lost brother billionaire Farley Flavors are this in Shock Treatment.
• In Mormon movie The Singles Ward the protagonist dumps the non-Mormon Veronica for the Mormon Betty after he has an epiphany and realizes that he values his faith.
• Something New: Mark (Betty) and Brian (Veronica) for Kenya (Archie). Mark has no cultural or color divide to overcome and works a similar professional job and comes from an acceptable social status. Brian does not.
• The Sound of Music has Captain von Trapp choosing between the widowed, somewhat manipulative Baroness (the Veronica) and the virginal would-be nun Maria (the Betty). Given the whole movie is his and Maria's love story, he obviously marries her.
• Spider-Man 3 reverses the comics' version of the characters, casting Gwen Stacy as the Veronica and Mary Jane Watson as the Betty to Peter Parker's Archie. Peter eventually chooses Gwen while under the influence of the Venom symbiote, but manages to offend and alienate both of them with how much of a douche he's become.
• Star Wars. With Princess Leia Organa herself as the Archie, good-hearted, loyal, and friendly farmboy/Jedi Luke Skywalker is the Betty. Roguish, rough, and experienced Han Solo is the Veronica. Rather luckily (given the later revelation that she was Luke's Long Lost Sibling), she chose Han.
  • The Sequel Trilogy has Rey as the Archie, with her loyal friend Finn as the Betty, and her enemy Kylo Ren as the Veronica.
  • In Legends, these abound (no shock) but the most prominent examples seem to settle on, oddly enough, Han and Leia's kids: Jaina has a long-running thing with Zekk (Betty; Unlucky Childhood Friend and The Cape by way of The Atoner) and Jag Fel (Veronica; dashing, Officer and a Gentleman, and her equal as a pilot), Jacen with both Danni Quee (Betty; brilliant but awkward scientist who he rescued from the Vong) and Tenel Ka (Veronica; Hot-Blooded warrior-princess, also a childhood friend), and Anakin was mostly steady with Tahiri (Betty; mostly innocent, passionate about everything, also rescued from the Vong, also also a childhood friend) but got a lot of attention from Alema Rar (Veronica; way down on the Femme Fatale scale, tipping into Dark Action Girl). Two of these ended in tragedy; one just never ended due to authors preferring different partners for Jaina.
• In A Story of Floating Weeds there's Kihachi's old flame Otsune, who is demure and accomodating in a traditional Japanese feminine way, and his new lover Otaka, who is a cigarette-puffing actress who is not abou to put up with Kihachi's crap.
• Featured but skewed in Strange Days, where the Betty is an ass-kicking tough-as-nails limo driver who is devoted to the (slightly skeevy) main character, and the Veronica is a flaky, self-centred punk rock singer who broke the main character's heart and who he's been obsessed with ever since. The Betty wins out, mainly because the Veronica slept with the main character's best friend and conspired with him to frame the main character for two murders.
• Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street somewhat deconstructs the plot with the Johanna love triangle. To the audience it's very clear that Anthony (nice guy her own age) is Betty and Turpin (ruthless old pervert who raped her mother) is Veronica. However Turpin sees himself as a responsible gentleman Betty attempting to "shield Johanna from the evils of the world" by fending off a lustful young Veronica.
• In Teen Wolf, the main character Scott Howard lusts after the blonde cheerleader Pamela, while ignoring his Hollywood Homely female best friend Boof (who is in love with him). When he becomes popular, he has sex with Pamela. In the end he becomes involved with Boof.
• In Titanic (1997), Rose is betrothed to Cal Hockley but falls in love with Jack Dawson. From a more conventional point of view, Cal would be the Betty (he seems to be the safe choice, because he's rich and will allow Rose and her mother to stay within high society) and Jack would thus be the Veronica (he's the poor but charming and alluring new-comer in Rose's life). But you can also see Cal as an icy and eventually abusive Veronica and Jack as a kind-hearted and more reliable Betty.
• In the film version of To All the Boys I've Loved Before, Lara Jean's two love interests are her dependable childhood friend/neighbor Josh (Betty) and classmate/popular jock Peter (Veronica). Meanwhile Lara Jean herself is the sweet Betty to Alpha Bitch Gen's Veronica, Peter's ex-girlfriend.
• The Toxic Avenger: Sara is the Betty to Julie's Veronica. Julie is one of the villains. She seduces, Melvin, who is very excited about the idea of having sex with her. However, it was only part of a cruel prank she planned to play on him, telling him she wanted him to wear a pink tutu because it makes her hot. The prank leads to his gruesome transformation into Toxie. After He becomes the Toxic Avenger, he falls for a blind girl named Sara who loves him for who he is, stating that he's a beautiful person while touching his face. She's the one to, possibly, deflower him later, and we see their relationship progress to them dancing, playfully wrestling, and setting up a home together. Later, as part of his revenge, he ends up going after Julie and cutting off all of her hair with scissors.
• The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll plays with the trope. While most Jekyll and Hyde adaptations have Jekyll struggling between two women who both love him, here he's already married and Hyde lusts after two women, one of whom doesn't know Jekyll at all. Kitty also struggles between her marriage to Jekyll and her love for Paul Allen.
• The plot of Two Lovers, although the brunette is the stable one while the blonde is wild. Another exception in the brunette and blonde appearing to be of equal attractiveness.
• Vertigo has two love triangles where one partner is a nice, normal lady and the other is a haunted woman with a dark family history.
  • In the first half of the movie, the main character fall desperately in love with a mysterious, sensual married woman named Madeleine, while being pined after by his down-to-earth college sweet-heart Midge.
  • In the second half, the protagonist dates an average woman who looks a lot like Madeleine. He's still clearly in love with Madeleine for the duration of the relationship, to the point that he makes this nice lady dress up and act like Madeleine
• In Vicky Cristina Barcelona, the blonde Cristina (Betty) and the brunette (Vicky) are involved in a love triangle with Javier Bardem's character.
• The View Askewniverse:
  • In Clerks, Dante Hicks is dating Veronica (Betty) when an old flame from high school comes back into his life, Caitlin Bree (Veronica). Veronica brings him lasagna at work and is trying to get Dante back in school. Caitlin is engaged (but calls off the wedding), and cheated on Dante in high school. He winds up trying to go for Caitlin, and losing them both. Veronica dumps him, and Caitlin goes catatonic after screwing a random dead guy in the Quick Stop's restroom, thinking it was Dante.
  • In Clerks II, Dante has another choice between his high-maintenance fiancee Emma (Veronica) and his boss, Becky (Betty). This time he actually gets the girl and ends up with Becky.
• X-Men: First Class:
  • While Raven may or may not have feelings for Charles, her attention soon turns to sensible Hank (who prefers her human form) and enigmatic Erik (who prefers her mutant form).
  • And on the Charles' part, he seems to have a choice between Raven (in human form) and Moira. Note that Raven, who is the Veronica, is his childhood friend, which is normally a Betty characteristic.

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