Big Bad Duumvirate / Live-Action Films

• Alone in the Dark (1982) has Frank Hawker, Ronald Elster and Byron the Preacher, a Terrible Trio with the same goal: Kill Dr. Potter, whom they believe to have killed the doctor who he replaced in the asylum they are being held in. They are initially a foursome with Skagg the Bleeder, but he leaves them during a looting caused by a blackout to pursue his own goals.
• The Amazing Panda Adventure: The poachers, Shong and Po, appear to be in an equal partnership.
• The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Max Dillon goes insane after becoming "Electro", and is freed from Oscorp custody to continue his rampage by Harry Osborn, who took the mantle of the Green Goblin to cure his genetic disease.
• Andersonville: Wirz, the commandant of the Hellhole Prison, and Collins, leader of "the raiders" who rob, starve and murder the other prisoners so they can live in (relative) luxury.
• Antichrist: The Three Beggars, Grief, Pain and Despair, three supernatural beings who haunt Eden and caused the plot by driving She insane.
• Around the World in 80 Days (2004) has one formed by General Fang and Lord Kelvin, who both have their own reasons to try and ensure that the titular journey around the world isn't completed in time.
• Attack of the Giant Leeches: There are two giant leeches terrorizing the town.
• In the third Austin Powers movie, Dr. Evil teams up with Goldmember against Austin Powers.
• The Banana Splits Movie has Fleegle and Drooper, who have more screen-time and kills than Bingo and Snorky.
• Batman: This tends to occur when two or more villains do a Villain Team-Up.
  • Batman: The Movie (1966) has Joker, Penguin, Catwoman and the Riddler all acting as equals in a 4-man villain band against Batman and Robin. Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders, an animated film based on the 1966 era, sees the return of this 4-man band.
  • Batman Returns has the Penguin team up with Catwoman midway through in a plan to turn Batman into a villain. This ends when Penguin proposes to Catwoman.
  • The Riddler and Two Face in Batman Forever. The Riddler is the Evil Genius who comes up with the plan, while Two-Face provides the Riddler's scheme manpower in exchange for the opportunity to humiliate Batman.
  • Batman & Robin sees Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy acting as the joint main villains. While it's Poison Ivy who comes up with the Evil Plan and manipulates Mr. Freeze into going along with it, Freeze still manages to be her equal by virtue of the fact that her plan was dependent on Freeze's technology in order to succeed.
• Morris and Hazar in Big Game, although their cooperation is more along the lines of Teeth-Clenched Teamwork than anything else. They both want to hunt Moore down, although for somewhat different reasons.
• Black Christmas (2006): Billy Lenz and his sister Agnes are tag teaming their murders.
• Black Panther (2018) has Ulysses Klaue and Erik "Killmonger" Stevens serving as the film's Big Bads, as they are working together to steal vibranium weapons and sell them. About halfway through the film, Erik kills Klaue and becomes the sole Big Bad.
• Bonnie and Clyde: Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, the Outlaw Couple leaders of a bank robbing gang.
• Ward Abbott and Yuri Gretkov in The Bourne Supremacy. True to form, Gretkov refuses to come to Abbott's assistance near the end of the movie, leading to Abbott's capture by Bourne and suicide by gun.
  • The Bourne Series has an overall Big Bad Duumvirate that gets larger as the series goes on. In the beginning it was just Ward Abbott who was behind Project Treadstone, but as the series goes on it becomes Abbott, Ezra Kramer, Noah Vosen, Albert Hirsch, Eric Byer, and Robert Dewey, all of whom were involved in the conspiracy in some way.
• Cyrus "The Virus" Grissum and Nathan "Diamond Dog" Jones in Con Air. Nathan is technically taking orders from Cyrus, but they both have equal authority and Nathan admits he is only doing so for the time being.
• Constantine: The Antichrist Mammon and rogue archangel Gabriel are in an alliance to bring Hell on Earth.
• The Creeping Terror reveals that there are two monsters on the ship.
• In The Dark Knight Rises, Bane and Talia al Ghul are either this or Bane is The Dragon to Talia; the movie allows a multitude of interpretations. Although Catwoman appears, she isn't part of the Big Bad club by any means.
• Django Unchained has Calvin Candie and his head slave Stephen.
• It's heavily implied that the crime syndicate in Drive (2011) is run jointly by Bernie and Nino, though both aren't always aware of the other's actions.
• Earth vs. the Flying Saucers has the two unnamed leaders of the Alien Invasion.
• Freaks has Hercules the strongman and Cleopatra the trapeze artist.
• Deckard Shaw and Mose Jakande from Furious 7.
• James McCullen a.k.a Destro and The Doctor a.k.a Cobra Commander in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.
• Godzilla:
  • Godzilla vs. Gigan has both Gigan and King Ghidorah as the Kaiju villains. Gigan would return to team up with Megalon in Godzilla vs. Megalon.
  • The two MUTO monsters from Godzilla (2014) are more or less this, though the female is arguably the bigger threat (and literally the bigger monster) as she carries with her thousands of baby monsters and is the most protective of them.
  • In Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), a pair of human terrorists work together trying to unleash kaiju on the world for their own ends: Emma Russell is a Well-Intentioned Extremist who believes the creatures can renew the world instead of destroying it, but she doesn't anticipate Ghidorah turning out to be a Draconic Abomination from space who just wants to kill everything for his own ends. Alan Jonah is a nihilistic Misanthrope Supreme who sees the monsters as the key to making his species suffer at any cost, and he's willing to let Ghidorah wipe out not just humanity but all life as we know it to that end.
• Yuri and Irina Komarov are revealed to be this at the end of A Good Day to Die Hard.
• In Goodfellas, Jimmy and Paulie are personally responsible for much of the conflict here. Paulie is an intelligent, cunning, feared, and respected captain within the Lucchese family, providing direction and leadership to lower-ranking members and associates; whereas Jimmy is a more active and violent associate, carrying out many of the more direct actions. The actions of both characters influence the development of the story and lead to significant consequences for Henry.
• Hardcore Henry: Akan and Estelle.
• Hercules (2014): Cotys and Eurystheus are in an alliance to take over Greece.
• The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard has Aristotle Papadopoulos, the terrorist leader trying to shut down Europe, and Michael Bryce Sr., his head of security. The two are also confronted at the same time in the climax: Aristotle by Kincaid and Sonia and Senior by Bryce.
• Simon Skinner and Inspector Frank Butterman in Hot Fuzz.
• In Hudson Hawk the main villains are Darwin and Minerva Mayflower, the world's richest, most evil, most obnoxious couple.
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade has Walter Donovan and Elsa Schneider. One may argue that Donovan is the true villain here but both he and Elsa manipulated the Joneses and Elsa was the last one standing out of the two.
• The James Bond film series is fond of this trope:
  • Subverted in The Man with the Golden Gun. Hai Fat imagines he is this with Francisco Scaramanga, but Scaramanga proves him spectacularly wrong.
  • Kamal Khan and General Orlov in Octopussy. Orlov is the one who formulated their plot, which involves detonating a nuclear warhead in western Europe, while Kamal Khan is working with him purely for his own personal benefit and is the one who largely ensures things go as planned.
  • General Georgi Koskov and "General" Brad Whitaker in The Living Daylights. The two are collaborating on a plan to smuggle and sell opium in the west, the profits of which Koskov intends to use to buy more arms from Whitaker.
  • Elliot Carver and General Chang in Tomorrow Never Dies are implied to have this kind of relationship, but in practice Chang is a Minor Major Character who only physically appears in one scene for less than 5 seconds. As far as the plot is concerned, Carver is the sole Big Bad.
  • Elektra King and Renard in The World Is Not Enough, though Elektra is the true Big Bad of the film with Renard being The Dragon, albeit with Renard being very plot-relevant throughout the film and being Elektra's love interest.
  • Max Denbigh and Ernst Stavro Blofeld in Spectre. The latter is dominant, but the success of the Evil Plan depends on the former and each has a different reason to want it to succeed (the former is a Well-Intentioned Extremist, the latter a straight-up villain). The two are confronted at the same time: the latter by Bond and the former by M and Q.
• Jungle Cruise: Prince Joachim and Lope de Aguirre are the main villains.
• Just Before Dawn: The murders are committed by two inbred Hicks only known as the Mountain Twins.
• Kamen Rider × Super Sentai: Super Hero Taisen has Dai-Shocker from Kamen Rider Decade return under the leadership of an alliance of various past Kamen Rider Big Bads and other major villains (which includes General Shadow, Shadow Moon, General Jark, N-Daguva-Zeba, Arch Orphnoch, Joker Undead, Gryllus Worm, Bat Fangire, Weather Dopant and Narutaki, in the guise of Doktor G). It also introduces Dai-Zangyack, an alliance of Super Sentai villains led by a group of past Sentai Big Bads (which includes Black Cross King, Silva, Hades God Dagon, Long, Yogoshimacritein, Doukoku Chimatsuri, Brajira and Warz and Ackdos Gill). Then at the end of the movie, the two groups team up to form one massive Duumvirate.
• Its sequel movie Kamen Rider × Super Sentai × Space Sheriff: Super Hero Taisen Z features a much narrower Duumvirate between Shadow Moon, leader of Space Shocker, and Reider of the Space Crime Syndicate Madou, who are both working to revive Madou's leader Demon King Psycho.
• Eddie Arkadian and Sho'nuff the Shogun of Harlem in The Last Dragon.
• Lockout: Alex and Hydell, the pair of prisoners who lead the riot and are brothers. Between the two, Alex takes center stage as the man with the plan much more often, but Hydell is so utterly psychotic that he's a much bigger threat because of his wanton murder and destruction. Hydell eventually murders Alex himself to become the main villain for the final minutes.
• Torrez, Senator Mc Laughlin, and Von Jackson in Machete.
• The Man from Nowhere: Man-seok and Jong-seok are two brothers who run a drug-and-irgan trafficking ring.
• Meatball Machine has the unnamed duo of aliens that created the Necro Borgs.
• Boris and his 1969 self (thanks to Time Travel) in Men in Black 3.
• Jeff and the White Ninja in Miami Connection.
• In Mission: Impossible – Fallout, once it's revealed that the White Widow is actually working with the IMF and the CIA, and that Walker and Lark are one and the same, the Big Bad group turns out to be two people: Solomon Lane and August Walker, who are not associated beyond their deal: Walker helping Lane inflict a Fate Worse than Death revenge on Ethan, in exchange for Lane helping Walker carry out his plan to irradiate 1/3 of the world's water supply, and neither is really taking orders from the other. Walker is The Heavy, driving the action by having hired the Apostles for his scheme, but he's also stuck following Lane's plans for Ethan to get what he wants. Both of them are also confronted at the same time in the climax. Benji and Ilsa have to fight off Lane to defuse the bomb he's guarding (with Luther and Julia already working on defusing the first bomb back at the medical camp) while Ethan tries to stop Walker from escaping with the detonator.
• In Oz the Great and Powerful, Evanora, The Wicked Witch of the East, and her Ax-Crazy sister, Theodora, The Wicked Witch of the West join together to try and take over Oz, and kill Glinda the Good. They fail.
• The People Under the Stairs: Mommy and Daddy Robeson, a duo of depraved child kidnappers.
• Some of the Planet of the Apes movies get into this, playing the Evil Versus Evil version of the trope.
  • Beneath the Planet of the Apes has General Ursus, a militaristic gorilla demagogue leading the apes to war against the human mutants, led by Sinister Minister Apocalypse Cult leader Mendez XXVI. Both leaders are presented as pretty bad, with the more noble characters trying to Prevent the War and failing, leading to the Earth's total destruction once and for all.
  • Battle for the Planet of the Apes, set earlier and in a different timeline where the future seen in Beneath might still be possible to avert, echoes the other film's central conflict. This time, the war is started by the human mutants, led by Kolp, a former Punch-Clock Villain turned apocalypse-maddened warmonger (with Mendez I appearing as his Token Good Teammate). At the same time, among the apes, Treacherous Advisor General Aldo is planning a coup against Caesar, the (mostly) Good King.
• Miraz, Glozelle, and Sopespian have elements of this in Prince Caspian- Miraz is dominant, but he is forced to (grudgingly) rely on the other two. When they've finally had enough of him, they kill him and become a full Big Bad Duumvirate for the remainder of the film. The three have elements of this dynamic in the book as well, though the movie gives all three more screen time and therefore emphasizes it more.
• In The Princess Bride, after Big Bad Wannabe Vizzini is killed off unceremoniously, the focus shifts onto a duumvirate of The Evil Prince Humperdinck - a Smug Snake Dirty Coward - and his trusted advisor, Count Rugen - an brilliant but psychotic alchemist. Technically, Humperdinck is the clear boss, but the story puts around as much narrative weight on Rugen, who is probably more dangerous than the prince; he's definitely smarter and seems to be a much better sword-fighter. Rugen also has a personal history with one of the heroes, and his death scene is one of the most satisfying moments in the movie, while Humperdinck is deliberately spared by the heroes, left "to live a long life, alone with his cowardice". We hate Rugen, but we feel contempt for Humperdinck.
• Clarence Boddicker and Dick Jones from RoboCop (1987). While Boddicker is technically working for Jones, his position and connections as a crime boss in Detroit put him on near equal footing in power with Jones as the vice-president of OCP. As well, Jones is a Non-Action Big Bad handling corporate politics while Boddicker serves as the main muscle with his gangs on the street.
• Scream (1996) has the various main characters being stalked and killed by Ghostface, who turns out to be an alias shared by Billy and Stu. While this isn't the only time a film in the Scream franchise had more than one killer, it isn't until Scream (2022) that the killers are again on equal footing.^note The Big Bad of both Scream 2 and Scream 4 had an accomplice they were planning to use as a scapegoat from the very beginning. In fact, the third film is the only one where the killer isn't actually two characters sharing the Ghostface costume. And in the original script, it was.
• Peoples Hernandez and Walter Wade Jr. in Shaft (2000).
• Strange Behavior has Dr. Gwen Parkinson, director of the mind control operation at the university, and her (not actually) deceased mentor Dr. Le Sange.
• Thirst (1979) has Dr. Gauss and Mrs. Baker, two high-ranking members of the vampire cult known as the Hyma Brotherhood who embark on a mission to indoctrinate Kate into their ranks.
• In Total Recall (1990) there's Vilos Cohaagen and Hauser, who formulated the plan to take down the Mars Resistance together.
• Transformers Film Series:
  • Megatron and Sentinel Prime in Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Though by the end of the move, it's clear that Sentinel is the one calling the shots; as Carly points out, Megatron is " Sentinel's bitch."
  • Bumblebee has Shatter and Dropkick, two Decepticon hunters that are hunting scattered Autobots, eventually tracking Bumblebee to Earth where they manipulate Sector 7 into aiding them in his capture.
• It is unclear if Darren "Wall Street" Bettencourt was The Dragon to Mr. Kwai in the first of The Transporter movies, or if it was an example of this, with Kwai as the more senior partner.
• William Stranix and Commander Krill in Under Siege.
• Venom (2018): The Life Foundation — led by Dr. Carlton Drake — discovered the symbiotes on an asteroid, brought them to Earth using a space probe, and is using them unlawfully on test subjects that could die as a result of the exposure. On the other side, there's Riot who's spearheading an invasion force of symbiotes to conquer Earth and eventually bonds with Drake to accomplish this.
• The Virgin Spring has the two unnamed shepherds who raped and killed Karin.
• Albert and Ray in A Walk Among the Tombstones.
• We're No Angels: In the remake, there's the ruthless warden who wants to keep Ned and Jim from crossing the border and their Ax-Crazy fellow escaped convict Bobby are both prominent antagonists, although neither of them has too much screen time.

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