History GreaterScopeVillain / LiveActionFilms

* ComicBook/NormanOsborn in ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan''. He is Curt Connors' boss, who is said to be dying and wants Connors' experiments to save his life, and he is [[TheGhost never seen on screen and speaks through his assistant]]. It's also heavily implied he was involved in the deaths of Peter Parker's parents. With the character's (apparent) death in the sequel, it looked like Gustav Fiers/The Gentleman was going to be the Greater Scope Villain from this point on.

* ''Film/Dune2021'': While Baron Vladimir Harkonnen serves as the movie's BigBad, being directly responsible for the death and fall of most of House Atreidis, the one who sets the plot to end the reign of House Atreidis in motion behind the scenes is actually Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV, who remains TheUnseen in this movie.

* Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse:
** ComicBook/{{Thanos}}, a genocidal galactic overlord with vast armies at his command, has served as TheManBehindTheMan to ''three'' different {{Big Bad}}s: he is the true commander of the Chitauri army he has lent to Loki in ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'', Ronan the Accuser's benefactor in ''Film/{{Guardians of the Galaxy|2014}}'', and the initial owner of the Scepter that is used to create Ultron in ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron''. The heroes never meet him face-to-face in either film. When Thanos finally faces off against the Avengers (as well as ''literally everyone else'' [[CrisisCrossover in the MCU]]) in ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'', he defeats them all and [[TheBadGuyWins succeeds in his goals]], with his "snap" effecting every MCU film from that point onward.

* In ''Film/TheManchurianCandidate'', [[EvilMatriarch Eleanor Iselin]] is the BigBad running the evil plan to [[DayOfTheJackboot turn the United States into a dictatorship]], but she's being bankrolled by Communist China, who she [[TheStarscream intends to nuke back to the Stone Age once in power]] for selecting her son to be their [[ManchurianAgent brainwashed agent]].

* ''Film/TheMatrix'': The original film's BigBad is Agent Smith and his fellow agents within the Matrix. The film presents only a hazy understanding of there being a society of machines in the real world that are the masters of the Agents and the direct threat to humanity. Other than their attack dogs, the squids, they aren't seen in the film. The sequels flesh out machine society and make it more of a focus in the story.

* Franchise/MonsterVerse:

* In John Carpenter's ''Film/PrinceOfDarkness'' Satan, the BigBad in this dimension, turns out to be just TheDragon for his father: the Anti-God, who is in a mirror-universe waiting to be summoned.
* ''Film/ThePurge'': The New Founding Fathers are responsible for the annual Purge's existence, along with the millions of people murdered as a result of it and what the main characters go through, yet none are shown or directly confronted in the film or its sequel. They finally show up in ''[[Film/ThePurgeElectionYear Election Year]]'' to take a more active role as antagonists.

** The Mandarin in the ''Film/IronMan'' films. He is the leader of the Ten Rings, the terrorist organization who held Tony Stark hostage in ''Film/IronMan1'', and he personally appears as the BigBad in ''Film/IronMan3''. In actuality, ''3'''s Mandarin is just an actor named Trevor Slattery who was drugged and hired by the real BigBad of the movie, Aldrich Killian, as a cover for his failed Extremis experiments. Killian stole the mantle of the Mandarin for himself, and he refers to himself as such near the end of the film. ''Film/AllHailTheKing'' reveals the existence of the ''true'' Mandarin, on whom Trevor's (and Killian's) portrayal was loosely based. Said true Mandarin finally appears on screen in ''Film/ShangChiAndTheLegendOfTheTenRings'', as portrayed by Creator/TonyLeungChiuWai.

* In ''Film/JennifersBody'', while the titular [[DemonicPossession demonically-possessed]] AlphaBitch Jennifer Check is the main threat to the characters, the real villain is Low Shoulder, the {{emo|Music}} band who [[RockMeAsmodeus sacrificed Jennifer to Satan]] for fame and fortune and are directly responsible for her resulting possession, and whose hit single "Through the Trees" is frequently heard throughout the film to the point where it feels like it's taunting [[FinalGirl Needy]]. The film ends with [[spoiler:Needy breaking out of the psychiatric hospital she was sent to after the events of the film and handing Low Shoulder their KarmaHoudiniWarranty by murdering all of them]].

''Film/StepUp'': Alexxa from ''All In'' fails to win much favor with either the cast or the audience for [[spoiler:rigging the contest and being so flippant about it. However, a quick line at the end emphasizes that she is just a hired worker for the show and that the unseen producers are the ones making the call about who wins the rigged show]].

* ''Film/TheFastAndTheFurious''

** ''Film/FastAndFuriousSix'' reveals that Owen Shaw was this to Braga's cartel in ''Film/FastAndFurious''[[note]] the fourth film[[/note]], as the reason they were able to become such a threat and easily kill any mole the authorities tried to plant in their organization, was because Shaw's massive intelligence network feeding them information.