Headscratchers / The Bad Guys (2022)

Professor Marmalade

• How did Marmalade know that the Bad Guys were going to steal the dolphin trophy, thus allowing him to use them?
  • Possibly just savviness like Diane. As she stated, it was pretty obvious they were going to "make it personal" after she trash-talked them on live TV, and she set up the W.P.S.S.T. trap in preparation, it would make sense that Marmalade planned his own in turn, knowing both sides were arrogant enough to screw up and take the bait.
• How did Marmalade manage to take the time to pose as an old lady, and apparently change his voice to sound like one, and then go back to his regular persona? He is never shown beforehand to have any skills of creating realistic human costumes or changing his voice.
  • As shown, Marmalade is independently wealthy to the point that he can burn money on frivolous things like a statue of himself holding a precision full-size replica of a famous meteor that's only been on-planet for about a year. Making an old-lady disguise or getting a voice changer would likely be less than pocket change for him.
• Why did Marmalade make an exact lamp replica of the meteor? Then there wouldn't have been a switcheroo and he would've won with everyone still seeing him as a good guy.
  • To be fair, "group of ex-criminals steals my lamp and uses it to destroy my evil plan" was probably not something the ever-smug Marmalade even considered when commissioning the piece...you'd have to be some sort of paranoid nut to think of something like that.
  • To answer the original question: Likely the same reason why he wanted to steal it and use its power for his own gain. He was obsessed with the meteor and what it represented. Commissioning an exact replica that could glow on command would be completely in line with such an obsession.
• Why was he there to investigate the meteor? It's not like a meteor crashing into the earth would help his public image and he only found out its capabilities by chance.
  • The meteor itself wouldn't help his public image, but helping with the aftermath of its impact would. By spending money to aid clean-up and relief efforts, he could have potentially gotten much closer to the meteorite itself than any of the general public.
• Why did Marmalade need to steal the meteor? Was the city not going to give it back to him after the gala? And if the city wanted to hold on to it, why did they originally let him keep it in the first place?
  • The main reason why he had to steal it was to deflect suspicion from himself for the ensuing heist. If he'd used the meteor when it hadn't been "stolen", then suspicion would land squarely on him. By orchestrating a very public theft, he's less likely to be suspected of anything that results from use of its power. As for why the city let him keep it, he may have sold them on the idea that he could contain it safely on his own dime and save the city the effort to create a secure and safe facility for it (which is pretty much what he tried to propose again at the end of the movie).
• Why does Mr. Snake never eat, or try to eat, Marmalade? He says near the beginning of the movie that he wants to, and he proves later on that he is perfectly willing to and capable of eating guinea pigs. When Marmalade lets Mr. Snake wear the mind-control helmet, that seemed like it would have been the perfect opportunity for Mr. Snake to hypnotize Marmalade and eat him.
  • It may simply be that while Snake talks a big game about killing, him actually killing people is a line he doesn't cross.
  • The answer's simple; Snake's entire plan was to exploit Marmalade's cynical nature by faking a betrayal from the other Bad Guys in order to get in close and sabotage the guinea pig's heist from within. If he tried to hypnotize Marmalade right off the hop and it didn't work, then his entire plan was screwed.
  • This could be that Mr. Snake learned to control his hunger for Guinea Pigs thanks to the botched Sunnyside Labs heist or Marmalade's betrayal would have made him stop liking to eat this rodent species.
• If Marmalade wanted to steal money from his own charity so badly, why pull off this elaborate, mind-controlling heist? Why not just do some good, old-fashioned, white-collar-criminal embezzlement?
  • Embezzlement is something that could potentially be traced back to him. The main draw of the scheme was to remain above suspicion.
  • Also like the Bad Guys and Diane, he is likely in it more for infamy than for profit. It isn't the most practical scheme, but as Wolf notes, it would likely go down as the most elaborate and infamous heist ever set up. Like the other criminals, Marmalade wants the legacy of the best bad guy out there.
• Why exactly does Marmalade accept Snake's proposal to "be bad together" so eagerly? His scheme already goes smoothly and has no use for Snake (or any partner, for that matter). He has no personal need for companionship. So why does Marmalade burden himself with a partner he has nothing to gain from and, presumably, has to share the stolen money with?
  • Snake had info that Wolf and Diane were out to sabotage him, and as Marmalade notes later on, having a former comrade should have allowed him to anticipate their next steps. Not to say it wasn't insanely gullible and complacent of Marmalade, though it is made apparent he intended to betray Snake again anyway. After easily outsmarting Wolf and the Crimson Paw, two of the best rival criminals out there, he likely thought he could easily beat a supposed goon of the former to the punch, and until then, it's just something more to rub in their faces.

Miscellaneous

• How did Mr. Wolf come to the conclusion that the old lady was Marmalade in disguise just because Marmalade happened to say the same words as her? Yes, it makes sense that Marmalade has been manipulating everything after that, but Marmalade hadn't shown any hints of being able to disguise himself as a human or change his voice.
  • Because it wasn't just the words, but the gesture as well. Tone of voice probably helped as well. Especially considering that it was a recent and formative event for Wolf. Same words, same tone, same gesture? Not a big leap to same person from there.
• Why do the police do nothing to even try and stop the hordes of guinea pigs hijacking vehicles? If it was too much for them, why didn't they call for reinforcements? They didn't know that the guinea pigs were only trying to steal money. For all they knew, this incident could have been a physical threat to the city.
  • It’s entirely likely that it was such an Outside-Context Problem that the police had no idea what to do in response. It’s not like that kind of thing is covered in basic training.
  • I mean, maybe they did! The gang was just away from all of that trying to escape the guinea pigs. And maybe the police were more focused on getting the citizens to safety than exterminating the pigs.
• What happened to Mr. Cuddles at the end of the movie? Last we saw him, he was just sitting in the pilot seat of a barely-functioning, but landed, helicopter.
  • If this trooper recalls correctly, Cuddles discreetly edges out of the scene when it starts looking like his boss is going to be arrested.
• Lions and Tigers and Humans... Oh, My! is fine, but why are anthropomorphic animals such a rare breed in this world? All the background characters are humans. Maybe there are other cities with more animals? Hopefully this isn't Fantastic Racism...
  • On the What Could Have Been page, one troper mentions how there were originally going to be more animals, but it was changed to show how humans were stereotyping and practicing racism instead of other animals. I mean, Zootopia already did that, eh?
• Why did Mr. Wolf try to grab the dolphin trophy if he suspected that it was a trap? It felt like a forced way for him and Diane to get captured.
  • Wolf's character development was travelling smoothly at this time, but I suppose that his years as a thief overrode his common sense. Also, during the gala, he is shown to have some very Sticky Fingers!
• When did Mr Wolf find the time to sneak back to the Bad Guys’ lair and leave that last push pop in the freezer for Mr Snake to find after Governor Foxington repossessed everything, thus setting off the gang’s Good Feels Good epiphany?
  • Perhaps it was already there, but he somehow left a note or something to let Diane know to leave it alone. Or maybe he left it there without a note, Diane noticed it but didn't have the heart to remove it, and when Wolf realized this, he credited it to himself? Wait, but that wouldn't match with his Character Development. Actually, this is a very good question.
  • Maybe Wolf scribbled something about leaving behind a push-pop on the map with their hideout marked that he gives to Diane before the Bad Guys were arrested?
• Wolf and Diane are being lowered into a death trap. Horrifying. But, uh, how does Snake not catch his friend screaming at the top of his lungs? And not slither back in and realize his friend is being lowered into a death trap?
  • One of the hardest parts of being a Fake Defector is having to maintain your cover at any cost while performing your subterfuge. If Snake had reacted adversely to Marmalade ordering Wolf and Diane’s death, it would have blown his cover and likely jeapordised his planned switcheroo with the meteorite and the lamp. Whether he was counting on the rest of the reformed Bad Guys pulling their Heroic Rescue, or whether it was just extremely good fortune, Wolf and Diane getting free and stealing what turned out to be the lamp helped him complete the switch.
    • Yikes, Snake being forced to pretend to not care about his friends is sad, but Snake being forced to pretend like he doesn’t care about his best bud’s death? That deserves a spot on the Nightmare Fuel section.