Sandbox / Magnificent Bastard Film D To E

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D

• Dark City (1998):
  • The Stranger known as "Mr. Hand" is the most brilliant and creative of his kind. The leader of the group tracking John Murdoch, Hand knowingly injects himself with memories fatal to his kind to understand Murdoch's thought process. Able to predict Murdoch's moves with his heightened understanding of human emotion, Hand even exploits Murdoch's love for his supposed wife to cause him to surrender. Nearly guaranteeing the continued existence of his race by bringing Murdoch to be made to join them, even after Murdoch resists and wipes out the other Strangers, Hand gracefully recalls his enjoyment of experiencing human memories before accepting his fate.
  • Dr. Daniel P. Schreber was taken by the Strangers and forced to erase his own memories to leave nothing but his scientific mind to serve their memory experiments. When he becomes aware of Murdoch's awakening, Schreber guides him in an attempt to liberate the city from the Strangers. Manipulating his erstwhile master into injecting Murdoch with memories of Schreber teaching him psychic "tuning" through a lifetime under the guise of merging him with the Strangers' own genotype, Schreber allows John to overpower them in the final battle for the city.
• The Dark Knight Trilogy: Matching the brilliant title hero for wits, these villains are truly Diabolical Masterminds a cut above:
  • Batman Begins: This incarnation of Ra's al Ghul, Henry Ducard, is every bit as magnificent as his original counterpart and a major figure in Bruce Wayne's transformation to Batman. Ruthlessly devoted to a world free of corruption, Ducard sets the eyes of his League of Shadows on the city of Gotham, which he sees as disgustingly decadent. Taking advantage of greedy drug-runners, Ducard uses flowers by the mountain of the League's base to synthesize a powerful hallucinogenic that gives nightmarish visions, intending to use it to destroy Gotham. Keeping his plan hidden from the city police and Batman for much of the film, Ducard has his men steal a water vaporizer and infects the hydro lines with his toxin in preparation for making the chemical airborne and causing the civilians to tear the city apart. Burning Wayne Manor to the ground, Ducard loads his device onto a fake SWAT truck, releasing the inmates of Arkham and his fear toxin on the Narrows island, overwhelming the police force before trying to use Gotham's monorail to infect the city's main water supply and cause chaos throughout it. Although facing clear death after being defeated by Batman, Ducard nevertheless chooses to calmly accept his fate and his influence still lingers as his daughter returns to finish his work.
  • The Dark Knight Rises:
    • Bane, the man born in darkness, is a hulking beast of a man who is far more crafty than he appears. Once a prisoner in the world's worst prison, Bane sacrificed his health and safety to defend the young Talia Al-Ghul, forming a bond with her that would last for the rest of their lives. Intending on fulfilling Ra's al Ghul's mission, Bane allows a Gotham socialite to believe he is is just a common thug as he infiltrates Gotham to rig the stock exchange and bankrupt Wayne. Defeating and breaking Batman, Bane lures the entirety of Gotham's police into a trap underground, revealing the true downfall of Harvey Dent and inspiring the people of Gotham to true anarchy while holding the city hostage with a bomb after killing the only man who can disarm it. Intending to destroy Gotham, Bane holds the entirety of the city in his grip, being the one and only villain in the entirety of the trilogy to have succeeded in breaking Batman himself.
    • Talia al Ghul is the daughter of Bruce Wayne's former mentor Ra's al Ghul and the leader of the League of Shadows after his death. She grew up in a Hellhole Prison with her protector Bane before escaping, who subsequently became Talia's closest confidante. Talia and Bane set out to fulfill the late Rha's' goal to destroy Gotham in order to purge it of sin, exposing Harvey Dent's crimes to discredit his legacy that brought the city years of peace, bankrupting Wayne Enterprises through stock market speculation by using Bruce's stolen fingerprints, and manipulating Bruce to fall in love with Talia under the alias Miranda Tate to gain his trust and to give them control over the rest of Wayne Enterprise's assets. Talia and Bane decapitate the city's leadership, stir up class warfare, and steal a fusion bomb so they can blackmail the U.S. government into giving them full control over Gotham, while having Bruce locked away in their former prison so he can be witness to Gotham's destruction. Their reign of terror lasts months, despite knowing full well that the bomb will eventually explode anyway, and when Batman returns to stop them, they only pause to rub their impending victory into his face and the extent to which they drew out their vengeance and deceived him.
• Darkman: Dr. Peyton Westlake is a scientist who makes a breakthrough on his synthetic skin research before being tortured and left to die by the psychopathic hitman Robert G. Durant. Treated with an experimental procedure, Peyton becomes a superhuman with super-strength and immunity to pain, while struggling with a tug on his sanity. Consumed with vengeance, he takes the mantle "Darkman" and hunts for the men responsible for his injuries, systematically taking out Durant's goons, fueling Durant's paranoia, and succeeding in killing him. When his foe returns from death, Peyton continues his fight against Durant, taking down a weapons deal brokered by him, and ultimately kills him by using a remote control bomb. Using drug kingpin Peter Rooker's funds to improve his skin research, Peyton devotes himself to taking down Rooker after Rooker produces a drug made from Peyton's adrenal gland fluids. Peyton eventually kills his foe and manages to save Rooker's daughter Jenny from being scarred from natural gas by sacrificing his only batch of perfective synthetic skin. Although he sees himself as a monster, Peyton seeks to help the downtrodden and punish evil whatever the cost may be.
• Dave: White House Communications Director Alan Reed is a canny politician who aids President Bill Mitchell and Chief of Staff Bob Alexander in various acts of corruption. When Mitchell has an incapacitating stroke, Alan smoothly gets the medical staff and the Secret Service to keep the situation a secret, frames Vice President Nance for corruption so that Bob can become Vice President, and convinces Mitchell's lookalike Dave Kovic that impersonating Mitchell is morally justifiable and vital for national security. Alan coaches Dave on how to impersonate Mitchell, eventually evolving to see Dave as a friend and leader. When Bob turns on Dave due to his sense of independence and desire to do good work, Alan sides with Dave and helps him try to improve the country. When Bob exposes Mitchell's crimes to bring down Dave, Alan supplies evidence of Bob's complicity in those crimes. Alan helps Dave fake another stroke and return to his old life, avoids being indicted along with Bob, and goes on to serve Nance, the man who he framed before his eventual Heel–Face Turn.
• Day of the Wolves: The mysterious man known as "Wolf #1" sends letters to six professional criminals, asking them to grow beards to disguise their faces and then meet him in an isolated ghost town. He describes a plan to launch a series of daring yet bloodless armed robberies upon the big businesses of the western town of Allerton. The gang spends days repeatedly rehearsing the robbery while avoiding sharing any personal information about each other and imprisons the local police force in their own jail, then robs half of the targeted businesses before being repelled by a cop who wasn't at the police station due to having just been fired. Wolf #1 and his remaining men escape in a plane, parachuting over the desert at different locations, shaving their beards, and then departing from the area on buses. The ending has a captured member of the gang recognize a whimsical children's show entertainer as a clean-shaven Wolf #1 but leaves it ambiguous as to whether he'll rat his boss out or not.
• Day Shift:
  • Bud Jablonski is a charming Vampire Hunter looking to score big profits from his vampire kills in order to help his family. Bud is a genius trap master who always knows how to set up the defeats of various vampires, often tricking them to their deaths. Bud is also ruthless in his quest for the money he can obtain and is fine with both endangering civilians and gunning down even helpless vampires to get his pay. Bud can easily change tactics on a dime and uses it to expertly outrace a group of vampires, that are chasing him. Clashing with the leader of Los Angelas' vampires Audrey San Fernando, Bud is eventually able to, after a tough fight, defeat her with one last trick and ride off into the sunset.
  • Audrey San Fernando is an uber-vampire who poses as a realtor, hoping to sell every home in Los Angeles to vampires in order to wipe out the humans and reclaim the land as theirs. Willing to murder any vampire who crosses her, while also secretly creating a special type of sunscreen that allows vampires to handle sunlight, upon learning that Bud killed her daughter, Audrey seeks revenge. Turning Bud's next-door neighbor Heather into a vampire to have her spy on him, Audrey also has Bud's family kidnapped to turn them into vampires, while also vampirizing Bud's protege Seth behind his back. Despite eventually falling for one of Bud's traps, Audrey gets one last insult out seconds before dying.
  • "Big" John Dante Eliott is a badass cowboy hunter, and Bud's best friend. A Union member who uses his charisma to convince his boss to rehire Bud despite his recklessness, John also pays back whatever Bud owes the Union. Called by Seth to help him, Bud, and Heather invade Audrey's hideout, John comes prepared, saving the trio's lives by gunning down every vampire after them, coming prepared with several guns and a flash grenade vest. Despite sacrificing himself to protect Bud, John ends up surviving, happy to help Bud save his family.
• Daylight's End: The Alpha is the most competent zombie plaguing the small gang of survivors the film follows. Arriving on the scene and organizing its aimless, mindless brethren into a more dangerous group, the Alpha uses clever strike tactics and ambushes to whittle down the survivors and trap them inside a police station, sealing off their only vehicle exit ramp to further cripple them. Not falling for distraction tactics or sneak attacks like other zombies, the Alpha saves its followers from an attempted bombing and leads them for a final strike against the survivor gang, personally confronting its rival Thomas Rourke in hand-to-hand combat to settle old scores.
• DC Extended Universe, by release date:
  • Suicide Squad (2016): Floyd "Deadshot" Lawton is the deadliest hitman in the world. Deadshot sets the tone for his methodology when he cons a client out of double the money promised before sniping down his target with only mere seconds of a window available. Armed with an almost instinctual knowledge of firearms, physics, and mathematics, Deadshot applies his skills in battle to impressive extents regardless of the opponent or how chaotic the battle is. In the office building battle, when cornered, Deadshot—aware of Diablo's reputation—deliberately provokes him into unleashing his deadly fire to save the crew. A Hitman with a Heart who loves his daughter and never takes contracts for women or children, Deadshot never lost any of his distinct style throughout the film.
  • Wonder Woman (2017): Ares, the God of War, once wiped out his fellow gods when they quarreled over Ares' wish to eliminate humanity. Surviving while injured and crippled, Ares instead plays on humanity's own preexisting prejudices and fears to sway them to destroy themselves, giving humans ideas for weapons and helping to manufacture peace that he knows they can't keep, setting the stage and giving them the matches to burn it down. When he reveals himself to Diana, Ares elaborates on his methods, also wishing Diana to join him to wipe out humanity and make the world a paradise.
  • Aquaman (2018): King Orm Marius of Atlantis is the younger half-brother of Arthur Curry aka Aquaman. Bitter at the supposed death of his mother and blaming Arthur and the Surface for the ills of the ocean, Orm arranges for the pirate Black Manta to attack a meeting to make it appear as if there is a threat so he may launch a campaign to unite the kingdoms of the sea, by negotiation or by force, so he may take the title of Ocean Master. Manipulating Arthur into challenging him, even as he admits he would rather not kill him, Orm defeats him and while adhering to a promise not to kill his fiancee Mera, he sends Manta after Arthur and Mera when Mera helps Arthur escape. A skilled fighter, Orm even faces Arthur in direct combat out of the water, willing to offer his own life for his cause until he sees his mother has survived, handling his defeat with grace in the end.
  • The Suicide Squad: Robert DuBois, better known as "Bloodsport", is a Consummate Professional hitman who was sent to Belle Reve for nearly killing Superman with a Kryptonite bullet. Uninterested in being the leader of Task Force X but blackmailed into the position when Amanda Waller threatens his sixteen-year-old daughter, Bloodsport recovers from his initial mistakes and leads a successful break-in to Jotunheim, once deliberately getting himself arrested to draw attention away from the rest of Task Force X so he can effortlessly kill his way out of police clutches later. At the end, Bloodsport's conscience overpowers any loyalty he might have had to Waller, and he defies her orders in order to lead his team into stopping Starro and saving millions of Corto Maltese. Bloodsport walks away an absolutely free man at the end, blackmailing Waller with the contents of Project Starfish to ensure she can never touch him, his daughter or his new friends again.
  • Black Adam (2022): Teth-Adam, the future Black Adam himself, was a slave under the cruel Kahndaq King Ahk-Ton and upon achieving the godly powers of "Shazam" when Ahk-Ton has both his wife and son murdered, Adam takes his rage-filled vengeance upon Ahk-Ton and his army before being sealed away for centuries—after he'd wiped out every great wizard except "Shazam" in the process. Freed from his imprisonment in present day, Adam learns about how customs have changed while also recklessly massacring as many of the Intergang mercenaries working under future Sabbac Ishmael Gregor as possible by means of using his surroundings or his powers; successfully overpowers the Justice Society of America with all his might while sparing them all and at one point, interrogates two soldiers for information who he then drops out of the sky knowing full well that Hawkman/Carter Hall will save them. Saving Kahndaq and praised as their champion and hero, Adam chooses not to be a ruler and instead continue to assure peace for the people by vowing to oppose and suppress any and all enemies that come to challenge it.
  • SHAZAM! Fury of the Gods: Hespera is the eldest daughter of Atlas, seeking to bring him to life and return their collective magic from humans. Her plans start out flawlessly, collecting the necessary staff, getting it repaired, allowing Kalypso to use torture, and killing those in the way. After kidnapping Freddy on threat of his life, she Out-Gambits the heroes' plot to take her in a hostage exchange by breaking the lock on her prison and leaving with the Apple of Discord to revive Atlas. In contrast to Kalypso's Revenge Before Reason against humans, Hespera pushes to plant the apple in their own realm, and though killed by Kalypso for this reason, when revived, she shows respect for Shazam and plays a key role in saving Earth before a dignified death.
• Dead in Tombstone: Guerrero de la Cruz is a swaggering, stone cold outlaw who has run a successful gang for years, and though betrayed and slain by his half-brother, Guerrero's cunning leads him to a new lease on life. Convincing Lucifer himself to turn Guerrero into his agent on Earth, Guerrero promises to send the souls of evil men to Lucifer more expediently. Guerrero returns to life and methodically picks off the members of his old gang, leaving their bodies for the rest to find while skillfully ambushing them one by one. He ultimately kills his half-brother and saves the town of Edendale, later finagling himself out of Lucifer's control and going up against the heinous Jackson Boomer to prevent Hell on Earth. After reconnecting with his daughter and inspiration from his allies, Guerrero leads the charge to take down Boomer and save the world, and Guerrero ultimately rides off into the sunset with his beloved daughter by his side.
• Dead Sushi: Yamada is the former head of the New Medicine Development department for Komatsu Pharmaceuticals who seeks revenge on the company for his unfair termination. Previously framed for creating a serum that brings deceased creatures back from the dead as rabid monsters despite being his bosses' idea, Yamada poses as a homeless man to gain access to an inn the company heads are dining at. Using the serum on sushi to create a killer sushi army, Yamada sneaks into the inn and unleashes his sushi horde onto the corrupt businessmen and inn employees, killing the majority of them. Caring for his fish allies and making sure to not harm random innocents, Yamada survives a deadly encounter with the inn's boss and turns himself into an all-powerful tuna man, later tricking his former boss Nosaka into eating poisoned ramen. With a hammy personality and boatloads of charm, Yamada dies accomplishing his revenge scheme, while admitting his defeat.
• Death Becomes Her: Lisle von Rhuman is a sultry witch who seduces the rich and powerful to join her secret society of immortal beings by offering them a youth potion. Running a strict operation where she grants eternal life to those worthy while advising them on how best to maintain their bodies and dodge public scrutiny for their seeming unending youth, Lisle has connections all over the country and uses them to find potential recruits. Lisle manipulates both Helen and Madeline into her society and tries to use them to recruit Ernest for his gifted ability at makeup and restoration, which Lisle wants to better supply her customer's needs. Though Ernest rejects her offer and steals a sample of the youth potion, Lisle chases him until it is destroyed and banishes Helen and Madeline for failing her, resulting in the ruination of the vindictive women while Lisle's organization continues to prosper.
• Death Note Series: L Lawliet is the world's greatest detective and, as always, the one man standing in the way of Light Yagami. Introduced by tricking Light into revealing his location by using a body double, L originally seems to buy Light's excuses for joining the Task Force, only to quietly reveal that he is well aware of Light being Kira. Quickly deducing Misa's identity as the second Kira, L has her arrested upon their introduction, and when Light unleashes his Memory Gambit to clear his name, L remains convinced of his guilt. Upon learning of the existence of the Death Note, L purposefully writes his own name in it to inoculate himself against Light's attempts to kill him, faking his death and tricking Light into outing himself to the Task Force. With that final gambit, L succeeds where his original counterpart failed and defeats Kira before dying on his own terms.
• The Death of Stalin:
  • Nikita Khrushchev begins as one of Josef Stalin's inner circle, playing a delicate game to survive his insane leader's violent whims. Upon Stalin's death, Khrushchev enters into a power struggle with the monstrous Lavrentiy Beria who usurps his plans to free political prisoners and restore the church. Upon realizing the NKVD has replaced the Red Army, Khrushchev orders the borders reopened so the resulting flood of people trigger the NKVD to violence, killing many people and ruining Beria's public image. Khrushchev then has Beria arrested after allying with Georgy Zhukov of the Red Army and organizes Beria's complete downfall, show trial and execution to eventually take total control of the Soviet Union and reform it.
  • Field Marshal Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov is the bombastic war-hero head of the Soviet Red Army. First introducing after the NKVD replaces the Red Army in security and announcing "I'm smiling but I am very fucking furious," Zhukov wastes no time in putting the sniveling Vasily Stalin in his place. Upon hearing Nikita Khrushchev's plans, Zhukov takes the chance to tease him before assisting his plot to see the fall of Lavrentiy Beria, gleefully punching out the sadistic rapist before initiating his plot to completely purge the NKVD and see Beria executed.
• Death on the Nile (1978): Jacqueline "Jackie" de Bellefort is the meticulous and methodical mastermind of the killings she commits with cherished lover Simon Doyle following her lead. Jackie first has Simon pretend to abandon her for her old friend and heiress Linnet Ridgeway so he can romance and eventually marry Linnet. Jackie then acts and creates the façade of an insanely jealous stalker seeking to break them up. Jackie then eventually pretends to shoot Simon in the leg and while she fakes being hysterical and remorseful, he fulfills her plan of shooting Linnet in her sleep, shooting himself for real and then disposing of the evidence so that the two can eventually stage a reconciliation once Simon inherits all of Linnet's wealth. Jackie also disposes of both maid Louise Bourget for trying to extort them and a third victim for witnessing Louise's killing. Once discovered by Hercule Poirot, Jackie gets a hold of her small .22 caliber gun and then uses it to shoot both Simon and herself so they can peacefully die together.
• Death Race: Jensen Ames was framed for the murder of his wife and wrongfully imprisoned and forced to take up the mantle of Death Race champion "Frankenstein". Learning that one of the racers is his wife's killer, Jensen pulls off a strategy that incapacitates and kills him. Learning that his wife's death was orchestrated by prison Warden Claire Hennessey and that she doesn't intend on letting anyone walk out of the prison alive, Jensen convinces Frankenstein's rival Machine Gun Joe to work with him so that they can both escape the island, and has his crew take out the bomb that Hennessey snuck into his car, which is then mailed to her and detonated.
• Death Rider in the House of Vampires (2021): Death Rider is a vampire gunslinger out to kill Count Holiday for murdering his sister. On a mission to kill every dirty vampire, Rider kidnaps a virgin to get inside the Vampire Sanctuary, hiding weapons around his room to take down unsuspecting vampires, and even tricking a whole saloon of vampires to drink poisoned whiskey. Engaging in a final battle with Holiday, Rider kills him with a random torch after running out of weapons, and exits the Sanctuary rescuing the virgin from earlier.
• Death to Smoochy: Tommy Cotter is the leader of the local Irish mobster gang, who quickly establishes herself as not nearly as bad as she seems. Running a profitable restaurant for all patrons, Tommy threatens the kindhearted kids' show host Sheldon Mopes into allowing her challenged brother to start on his show, and takes Sheldon's acceptance of the blackmail as a genuine favor to her family, promising to be his ally in return. Tommy goes about clearing Sheldon's name following a frame-up and eliminating the Parade of Hope gangsters who are threatening him, and after her brother is slain by the machinations of Burke Bennett, Tommy helps Sheldon take him down, prevents Sheldon from staining his good heart with Burke's blood, then personally eliminates Burke herself to tie up loose ends.
• Death Warrant: Hawkins and Priest are two senior prisoners known for their connections. Becoming allies to undercover officer Louis Burke after his arrival, the two arrange for him to sneak into the crooked prison guards' file room to uncover the truth behind the recent string of deaths. In the climax of the film, the two also use their knowledge of the jail's layout to lead Burke to safety, even at the cost of Priest's life.
• D.E.B.S.: Lucy Diamond, despite her reputation as an infamous and dangerous criminal mastermind, turns out to be an emotionally awkward woman, who has trouble opening up while looking for a stable relationship. Falling for Amy Bradshaw, Lucy kidnaps her and her friend in what quickly becomes a friendly outing as the two get to know each other. Even with her more quirky side, Lucy is a genuinely competent and confident criminal, coming out on top of nearly every encounter, and effortlessly dodging traps, captures and attempts to kill her throughout. Lucy stages several criminal activities such as a fake bank robbery just to get Amy alone to talk to and a fake bomb threat to send her a love message. Lucy and Amy stage the latter's kidnapping to pursue an affair. After being caught in the act, and being easily talked out of a half-hearted plan to destroy Australia, Lucy decides to get her act together, publicly giving up her life of crime and returning everything she has stolen for Amy. Reconciling with Amy during the Endgame, the two escape arrest from the D.E.B.S. Academy, with Lucy effortlessly besting Amy's jealous ex in the process.
• Deep Cover: Russell Stevens is a Los Angeles police officer who is recruited by the DEA to infiltrate the Gallegos Cartel by going undercover as a drug dealer. Russell finds that the criminal lifestyle suits him well, eventually being forced to sell drugs for real and kill a rival dealer to protect his progress. Russell forges an alliance with mob lawyer David Jason and agrees to strike out on their own with a new synthetic drug, before going rogue when David and his boss Felix Barbossa have a falling out, allowing David to murder Barbossa. Russell is able to set up a meeting with the cartel's ultimate leader Hector Guzman after killing even Gallegos, implicating the well-connected diplomat as a major drug trafficker and disposing of David after playing him like a fiddle. Russell is able to protect his associates from any prosecution while still embarassing his former bosses, and walks away with millions in stolen drug money.
• Defending Your Life: Bob Diamond and his rival prosecutor Lena Foster are a pair of "big brains" assigned to the case of Daniel Miller. Believing Daniel must overcome his fear to "cross on," the two subject him to an examination of his life where Bob tries to ensure that Daniel will defend himself as Lena always counters him. Upon Daniel falling in love with fellow spirit Julia, the two leave it open for Daniel to risk himself to try to be with her, with both pleased that Daniel overcomes their trials to show himself worthy of crossing over.
• Den of Thieves: Donnie Wilson gets recruited by Ray Merrimen to his band of thieves to be their getaway driver, already participating in numerous heists. Earning Merrimen's trust, Donnie tells him about the Federal Reserve and his plans to steal from them, getting Merrimen and his crew to help by pretending to rob a bank to distract the authorities while they sneak into the reserve and steal the millions of unmarked bills. He also pretends to be an informant for Detective Nicholas "Big Nick" O'Brien, setting Nick and his group of deputies up with Merrimen's crew in a shoot-out while Donnie sneaks past them taking the stolen money with him. Successfully stealing millions of dollars, Donnie travels to London where he's already planning his next heist.
• The Departed: Sean Dignam is the foul-mouthed, abrasive, and cunning Sergeant of Boston's Special Investigations Unit. Heading up a variety of undercover ops with Captain Queenan, Dignam quickly and efficiently dresses down new recruit Billy Costigan and turns him into an undercover operative with a highly-developed facade. Using Costigan to gather all kinds of info on Frank Costello, Dignam keeps Costigan in line by threatening to erase his police file and leave him out in the cold. After Queenan and Costigan's deaths thanks to corrupt cop Colin Sullivan, Dignam uses his own deduction skills to sus out Sullivan as a traitor, and ends the film by ambushing and executing him just when Sullivan thinks he has gotten away with everything.
• The Devil's Own: Frankie McGuire, after escaping a firefight with the army and the SAS, arrives in the United States with the purpose of purchasing Stinger missiles. Under the identity of Rory Devaney, Frankie charms his way into the life of NYPD officer Tom O'Mara and his family, who house him, collaborates with arms dealer Billy Burke and enlists the help of his friend, Sean, to transport the Stingers through an old boat. Frankie delays finalizing the deal due to trouble back home, much to Burke's displeasure. He manages to stop Burke's henchmen from raiding Tom's home in looking for the money but is arrested by Tom and his partner Eddie, who Frankie kills upon escaping. Meeting with Burke, Frankie uses an explosive decoy to kill Burke's men and kills Burke himself. With the Stingers secured and sailing back to Ireland, Frankie is faced with the prospect of being apprehended by Tom, unable to harm the man even dead to rights.
• The Devil Wears Prada: Miranda Priestly is the strict and overbearing but classy editor-in-chief of Runway Magazine. She constantly assigns her assistants Andrea "Andy" Sachs and Emily Charlton very menial and personal tasks to accomplish, in addition to remembering the most obscure facets of the job for her and demanding they never ask twice about anything. Miranda's extremely perfectionist and precise tactics have made her the most successful fashion editor in the city. She also spoils her twin daughters rotten to make up for not being around more and even has Andy locate the then unpublished Harry Potter "Book 7" manuscript for them. Miranda then ousts Emily from the highly-anticipated Paris trip and prevents a rival from replacing her by giving her a job she had promised another and warning of every employee who would leave the magazine with her.
• Dial M for Murder: Tony Wendice discovers his wife Margot's infidelity and concocts a complex plan to kill her for revenge whilst framing her lover for the deed. His scheme disrupted when Margot shows her own tenacity by killing the assassin, Tony almost immediately improvises a new scheme to make her appear as though she committed the murder in cold blood. When Tony's second plot runs the risk of exposing him, he adapts yet again to turn the situation to his advantage. Even when Margot manages to see him exposed through all of his plotting, Tony shows his charm even in loss and as he is arrested graciously pours scotch for everyone who had a hand in catching him, save a police officer whom Tony notes would be reprimanded for drinking on duty.
• Die Hard franchise:
  • Original film:
    • Hans Gruber is the debonair mastermind behind the scheme to steal hundreds of millions of dollars in bearer bonds from the Nakatomi building. Meticulously orchestrating his operation, Hans constantly shows his brilliance by outmaneuvering both the police and federal agents working to stop him, as well as cool charisma both when his initial plot is disrupted and in his ability to negotiate with his hostages. To stop the police forces from catching wind of his true intent, Hans phones their negotiators to demand the release of a list of incarcerated terrorists—casually noting to an underling that he got the name of one such group from the news—thus successfully disguising his actual plan. When confronted by a smug hostage, Hans tricks the man into giving up the name of hero John McClane and is nearly able to discern the location of the detonators McClane has been hiding to use against Hans and his men. Later caught unarmed by McClane, Hans effortlessly improvises using an American accent to pretend he is a hostage, a tactic which almost earns him the chance to kill the hero. A ruthless, greedy man, Hans's display of both strategic acumen and charisma nevertheless make him an iconic action film villain who sets the template for countless more to follow.
    • Theo is the charismatic hacker for Hans Gruber during their robbery of the Nakatomi Tower. Introduced wise cracking and witty, Theo immediately hacks into the tower’s system and shuts everything down, trapping everyone inside as Hans holds everyone hostage, and Theo makes work hacking into the vault and drilling through the remaining keys with precision and patience. Once the police gets involved and attempts to storm the tower, Theo watches through the cameras and organizes the group’s attacks to repel their advances. After the FBI shuts down the power and unwittingly opens the vault, Theo wastes no time emptying it out and comes close to getting away with the money, being the only one of Hans’ entourage to survive.
  • Die Hard with a Vengeance: Simon Gruber is a former soldier, Hans' older brother and master thief just like his sibling. Distracting the New York City police department with bomb threats, Simon strings along John McClane and Zeus Carver to play games following his instructions lest he detonate his bombs. Pretending to be masterminding revenge for his brother, Simon mobilizes on his real goal: robbing the Federal Reserve for over one hundred billion dollars in gold bars, while the preoccupied police force leave it nearly completely unguarded for Simon and his men to plunder. When McClane attempts to follow his men, Simon improvises with a discarded bomb to flood the tunnel McClane is in, nearly drowning him. Alleging to destroy the gold to disrupt the American power-grasp on the world, Simon really means to make off with it himself. Every bit as adaptive and charming as Hans, Simon is yet another Gruber who shows to be a brilliant criminal.
  • Live Free or Die Hard: Mai Linh is a computer and combative expert and Thomas Gabriel's girlfriend, who contrasts her dramatic lover by constantly keeping a cool head. She assists Gabriel by helping to oversee the other hackers working on their team and freelancing other hackers for outside help, then taking the outsiders out with a virus that makes their computers explode. She shares in Gabriel's plan to launch a Fire Sale to shut the power down in the country and prove the system is vulnerable, while also digitally stealing money to get rich off the ordeal too. Upon discovering McClane's involvement and his protecting Matthew Farrell, Mai redirects their Federal escort into a direct ambush and skillfully overtakes the guards at the facility needed for the mission with extreme ease before engaing McClane.
• Dick Tracy: Breathless Mahoney is the main singer at the Club Ritz who secretly becomes the faceless gangster "The Blank". Seeking to get out from under Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice, Breathless secretly makes plans to undermine his business and takeover while also stringing along Dick Tracy whom she is in love with. She discreetly learns about Big Boy's plans and as Blank, saves Tracy from a trap Big Boy set from him. Wanting to tarnish Tracy's name so he'll join her acquisition of the city and choose her over his girlfriend Tess Trueheart, Breathless kills the corrupt DA Fletcher and sets Tracy up for it. She then kidnaps Tess, pins it on Big Boy and then tries to bargain Tracy into killing Big Boy and then joining her.
• Diggstown: Gabriel Caine is a cheeky con artist introduced helping other prisoners escape despite the scrutiny of the warden for a hefty sum. After being released, Caine deliberately gets into a rivalry with Gillon, and then, seemingly on a whim, decides to back up a drunken "stranger" who wagers Caine's friend, retired boxer "Honey" Roy Palmer, can beat ten local men in one day. Caine deliberately gets into debt with a loan shark so that Roy will feel obligated to come out of retirement and help him. Starting with a small bet, Caine repeatedly ups the ante to bankrupt Gillon, and takes great advantage of the Exact Words of the tournament's rules. While he suffers some genuine setbacks, Caine has been manipulating Gillon into selecting a Super Ringer who barely even qualifies as a legal resident of Diggstown, since long before the initial wager Just when Gillon thinks he's won, Caine signals for the ringer to take a dive, deliberately mimicking how Gillon did so earlier. Caine shows a deal of shock and sympathy for Gillon's various victims, is friendly to his allies, and is prepared to throw in the towel if Palmer can't take any more punishment in the ring.
• Dinner Rush (2000): Louis Cropa, a former bookie for organized crime, plots a revenge against the two thugs who murdered his business partner and friend Enrico. Setting them up in his restaurant, Louis arranges their execution very publicly, creating a media sensation over the event and also ensuring that not only can he leave the business to his son, but that the massive publicity over the murders will ensure the restaurant's business is booming for at least the next year.
• Dirty Rotten Scoundrels: Janet Colgate is "The Jackal", an infamous con artist who scams money out of unassuming men. Posing as a wealthy socialite tourist, once she crosses paths with con artists Lawrence and Freddy, Janet, already knowing that they're trying to swindle her of her money, feigns naivety to get the unsuspecting men to do her bidding. Leaving the country $50,000 richer, Janet is no less jovial towards Lawrence and Freddy, allowing them to partake in her latest scam after finding their prior con the most fun she's ever had.
• Django:
  • Original 1966 film: Django himself is an ex-Union soldier distinguished by the coffin he always carries behind him, combines stoic mystique with gritty cunning enough to influence Spaghetti Western heroes for decades to come. Hunting down Major Jackson, the Confederate who killed his wife, Django eggs Jackson into sending the full force of his army against him with the latter's expectation of a Curb-Stomp Battle, only to pop off the coffin's lid to produce a surprise Gatling gun and single-handedly slaughter Jackson's men. Django teams up with Jackson's rival, Hugo, and masterminds the successful robbery of a military fort, only to backstab Hugo and abscond with the stolen loot himself. Almost entirely self-serving, Django nevertheless cares for women, such as the abused half-Mexican prostitute María, and even after his hands are crippled by Hugo, ends the film utterly victorious against Jackson by propping the gun on his wife's grave and using the hammer to shoot his enemies dead.
  • Django, Prepare a Coffin (1968): This version of Django is just as ruthless and clever as the original. Blowing into a small, dusty town held in a chokehold by corrupt politician David Barry and his pet killer Lucas, the ones responsible for murdering Django's wife, Django concocts a scheme to pose as a hangman and hold mock executions of the many, many people Barry and Lucas have framed for their own crimes. Django makes a point of executing three of the people he saved when they decide to opt out of his revenge scheme but otherwise opts for a minimum of bloodshed in executing his ruthless scheme, and is finally triumphant against Barry when he tricks the crooked villain into showing up with his full entourage in a graveyard, whereupon Django unearths his Gatling gun and wastes them all.
• Django Unchained:
  • Django Freeman undergoes the tutelage of Dr. King Schultz to recover his wife Broomhilda "Hildi" von Shaft from Candyland. Playing the part of a black slaver and never breaking his character, no matter how brutal things get, after Schultz's death, Django shows how much he has learned when he is sold to the brutal LeQuint-Dickey Mining Company. Using a spare bounty bill and his own natural charm, Django convinces the slavers that there is a fortune waiting for them in Candyland, even tricking them into unchaining him so he can get a gun and kill them all. Returning to Candyland, Django massacres all of the Candies' soldiers and traps the returning leaders in a house full of dynamite, gunning most down and leaving the evil power behind the throne, Stephen, for the explosion before riding off with his wife for freedom.
  • Dr. King Schultz is a cheerful German dentist and Bounty Hunter who quickly showcases his wit and skill by gunning down a slaver and then shooting his partner's horse to have it collapse on him. Talking himself out of deadly situations after killing public bounties, Schultz trains Django Freeman in bounty hunting to help recover Django's wife, even having him kill a bounty in front of his son. Schultz lures in a group of racist vigilantes into a trap with explosives to eliminate them at once, later forming a complex scheme to fool the greedy Mississippi plantation owner Calvin Candie with a scheme to buy a fighting slave, while in truth paying a pittance for Hildi and fleeing before paying more. Even when the scheme fails, Schultz finds himself so revolted by Candie's cruel racism that he finally pulls a gun and shoots him dead on the spot.
• Dobermann:
  • Yann Le Pentrec, the titular Dobermann, is a ruthless thief who steals and kills for fun. Interested in crime ever since he got his first gun as a baby, Yann and his crew head to Paris to commit their latest series of heists, launching a series of fake heists around Paris to distract the entire police department as he robs two banks back to back. Caught in a police raid at a nightclub, Yann evades the police and manages to rescue his girlfriend Nat from the evil Commissionaire Christini by taking advantage of his psychotic tendencies to sneak up to him, finishing him off by grinding his face into the asphalt road at full speed.
  • Nathalie, aka Nat the Gypsy, is Yann's deaf-mute girlfriend who matches her boyfrien's love of crime with her own crass sense of humor. Nat regularly assists Yann in his heists, showing no restraint in harming innocents. Sensing the police are about to raid the nightclub she and Yann's crew are partying at, Nat takes advantage of her deafness by killing a cop cornering her via turning the music volume up until the speakers explode, and upon her capture, she remains defiant to the sadistic Christini's interrogation techniques.
  • Elie Frossard, aka The Priest, is the calmest member of Yann's crew who hides his criminal activities behind a religious demeanor. Helping the crew with their heists as much as he can, Elie helps dispose of a cop coming after them by having him pulled inside their getaway vehicle and planting a grenade inside his helmet as he says a prayer. Later saving his partner Mosquito's life by hiding behind a glass panel and killing his would-be murderer, Elie's able to rescue his pal and make it out alive.
• The Dog in the Manger: Tristan has all the ingenuity of his original counterpart and then some. As his lowborn master Teodoro has fallen in love with Countess Diana, Tristan dresses up as a Greek merchant and tricks an elderly nobleman into thinking Teodoro is his long-lost son, so that Teodoro can marry Diana. When Tristan sees Diana's aristocratic suitors, previously bitter rivals, talking about something, he eavesdrops on them and learns they plan to get Teodoro killed. Putting on an Eyepatch of Power and pretending to win a several-on-one fight, Tristan makes sure they hire him as a hitman and swindles them out of more than 1,100 escudos. A charming Deadpan Snarker with a fondness for hammy bawdy songs, Tristan never answers for his cons and remains very popular in Diana's household.
• Dollars Trilogy:
  • "Blondie" or "The Man With no Name", starts as a ruthless conman willing to gun down bounty hunters to keep his heist with his partner Tuco going where he turns in Tuco to be hanged only to shoot the rope at the last minute. Through The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Blondie ends up playing Tuco and using him to force a confrontation with the evil Angel Eyes and claim the lost gold-though he leaves Tuco with his share after scaring him. In A Fistful of Dollars, Blondie contrives to play the evil Rojo family against their rivals, the Baxters, while playing the situation to his own advantage, before returning to rescue the innocents and finish off the Rojo leader. Blondie has flashes of ruthlessness and goodness in equal measure, routinely showing why he is one of the archetypal schemers and audacious gunslingers of Western cinema.
  • For a Few Dollars More: Colonel Douglas Mortimer is a Bounty Hunter seeking revenge on gang leader El Indio for raping his sister. Introduced luring an outlaw out to kill him, Mortimer gets wind of Indio’s escape from prison and later encounters several of his men, nearly provoking one into a fight. Deciding to team up with another bounty hunter known as Manco (The Man with No Name), Mortimer sends Manco to infiltrate Indio’s gang and through him lures the gang to his location after they rob a bank, then steals the loot without Indio realizing he’d opened it. After killing several of Indio’s men in a gun battle, Mortimer finds himself helpless at Indio’s hands and is resigned to his fate until Manco arrives to even the odds, whereupon Mortimer kills Indio in a Duel to the Death and rides into the sunset, his vengeance fulfilled.
• Dolls (1987): Gabriel and Hilary Hartwicke are a jovial, elderly couple who live in a fabulous English manor and believe in the joys of childhood. The two are also powerful witches who test every traveler who comes through their home and while children are deemed innocent and safe, they ensure adults are put through trials to see if they are good or bad within. When six visitors arrive, the Hartwickes monitor them with their living dolls tormenting them, the two thieves Enid and Isabelle taken to be transformed into new dolls. When the father of young Judy, David, is revealed to be a rather abusive and neglectful father like his wife Rosemary, the Hartwickes transform him into their new Mr. Punch doll before passing off the events as all just a dream to little Judy and the other survivor, a sweet man named Ralph before and them money to return to Judy's mother in Boston with a happy promise they can return any time and be welcomed joyously, then preparing for a new family to arrive and potentially join their collection.
• Donnie Darko: Upon becoming a member of the manipulated dead, Franklin "Frank" Anderson, Jr. — otherwise known as Frank the Rabbit — spends a duration of the film orchestrating ensurance traps to ensnare the Living Receiver Donnie Darko into returning the jet engine to the primary universe. Beginning his plan by saving Donnie from getting crushed to death, Frank coerces Donnie to flood his high school and subsequently burning the house of self-help guru Jim Cunningham, exposing him as a pedophile. As a final push, Frank runs over and kills Gretchen Ross, spurring an enraged Donnie into using his powers to intercept the jet engine and creating a portal to the primary universe to meet his fate.
• Don: The Chase Begins Again: The man known as "Don" is the brilliant, jovial right-hand man of crime boss Singhania with a knack for improvising, using an empty gun pointed at a hostage to force the police to allow him to escape at one point. When agents plan to infiltrate his organization with a double, Don kills the double to pose as him, even carrying on his crime business after the death of his boss by swapping out a disc containing information on their crimes with a fake one he provides to his Love Interest while he keeps the real one. In the sequel, Don puts forth a complex plan to be arrested and then has all the prisoners drugged to cause food poisoning, allowing him and his nemesis/cohort Vardhaan to slip into paramedic uniforms as they are called in and escape. Revealing Vardhaan has one of two keys to a safety deposit box along with one Don possesses, allowing him to blackmail the national bank with its contents and force them to allow him to print money. Carefully negotiating for the police during a hostage situation when betrayed by Vardhaan and another of his allies, Don finishes the film a rich, free man, with those who double-crossed him dead or imprisoned.
• Don't Hang Up: "Mr. Lee" is a mysterious hacker who centers in on Sam Fuller, Brady Mannion and their fellow prank caller friends Jeff Mosley and Roy. Having stalked them over a year, Lee knows all their secrets and weaknesses, using a video of Brady's parents held hostage and killing Roy and Mosley to prove how serious he is while taking control of their electronics and internet. Having already killed Brady's parents, Lee plays the boys against one another by revealing Brady was sleeping with Sam's girlfriend Peyton Greer, switching locations with Mosley's body to ambush Brady, masking him in Lee's outfit and trick Sam into killing him. Lee then reveals the four friends' infamous prank call was to Lee's house, resulting in Lee's wife shooting their young daughter by mistake before killing herself, ending as Lee kills Peyton and frames Sam for everything while escaping.
• Do Revenge:
  • Drea Torres loses her status as the queen bee and becomes obsessed with getting revenge after her boyfriend Max Broussard leaks a sex tape of her. When the sex tape follows Drea to her job at a country club, Drea has a rival kicked out by framing her for being in possession of drugs. Teaming up with Eleanor Levetan to get revenge on their enemies, Drea has Eleanor infiltrate her old friends group to get dirt on Max while she reveals that Carissa is secretly growing drugs at school by dosing the whole class. Even when it's revealed that she was the one who spread a rumor about Eleanor and that Eleanor is trying to get revenge on her, Drea reveals that Eleanor is actually "Nosey Nora" before making amends with Eleanor as "fucked up soulmates" and revealing to the school that Max did indeed leak the sex tape. Ending the film spending her summer with Eleanor and making up with her Love Interest Russ, Drea even helps Eleanor win back her own girlfriend Gabbi.
  • Eleanor Levetan, formally known as Nora Cutler, quickly proves to be far more crafty than she at first appears. Wanting revenge on Drea Torres for ruining her life by spreading a rumor that Eleanor assaulted her, Eleanor purposefully transfers to Drea's school and follows her to her summer job, pretending to befriend Drea by secretly sabotaging her car to get close to her. Playing along with Drea's revenge while also getting revenge on Carissa for abandoning her, Eleanor quickly grows genuinely fond of Drea and considers actually stopping her plan before deciding to go bigger after Drea starts to mistreat her. Blackmailing Drea and hitting her with her car to get Drea back in her old friend group, Eleanor plans to have Drea secretly record everything they do at the Admissions Party and then leak it to incriminate Drea. When Drea sincerely apologizes and destroys her camera, Eleanor reveals that she recorded Drea's ex-boyfriend Max's confession with her backup camera and uses it to reveal to everyone what a scumbag Max really is.
• Dracula: Dead and Loving It:
  • Count Dracula himself is the hammy Villain Protagonist who seeks a new vampire bride to dance with. Turning the moronic solicitor Thomas Renfield into his slave with his powers, Dracula arrives in England and quickly charms one young woman and when she dies shortly after becoming a vampire turns his attention to Mina Harker. Charming Mina with his powers and killer dance moves, Dracula also quickly catches on to Professor Abraham Van Helsing's suspicion of his true nature. Matching wits with Van Helsing, Dracula nearly succeeds in turning Mina into his bride and is only stopped by Renfield's sheer stupidity, though the ending indicates he survives to throw one final jeer at Van Helsing. A charmingly hilarious parody of a Classical Movie Vampire, this incarnation of the Count retains Dracula's signature cunning with none of his depravity.
  • Professor Abraham Van Helsing is a wily old doctor who enjoys hosting autopsies which are secretly ways to terrorize his students in a self-imposed challenge to make them faint: something he never fails at. Brought to London to examine the ailing Lucy Westerna, Van Helsing forms a plan to protect her from Count Dracula and soon comes to the conclusion that Dracula is a vampire. Forcing the now vampiric Lucy to her coffin, Van Helsing has Jonathan Harker stake her while he hides out of the path of the eruption of blood. Forming a plan to expose Dracula and have Renfield lead him to the vampire, Van Helsing cannot resist getting in a final insult after Dracula's final ashes have been interred in their competition to get the last word.
• Dracula Untold: The vampire elder is a mysterious creature sealed away in a cave whose strength Prince Vlad seeks. Seeing a way to freedom and determining the hidden darkness in Vlad, the elder sways him to vampirism for a hidden pact while suspecting that Vlad will succumb to bloodlust and free the elder. Keeping tabs on Vlad centuries after, the elder finally makes his move centuries later when Vlad meets his wife's apparent reincarnation.
• Dragonslayer: Ulrich of Cragganmore is the last great wizard. Called upon to vanquish the great dragon, Ulrich fakes his death to have his spirit taken to the dragon's lair, secretly carried by his apprentice Galen Bradwarden in an amulet. Putting his servants in peril, one even dying on the quest, Ulrich ensures he is brought to face the monster, fighting it boldly before having Galen destroy the amulet, killing him along with the dragon to save the kingdom.
• Dredd: Joseph Dredd is a brutal Judge of Mega City One, enforcing the law in his own creative, vicious way. Tasked with training rookie Judge Cassandra Anderson on the job, Dredd works with Anderson to infiltrate the Peach Trees complex, breaking up the sadistic Madeline "Ma-Ma" Madrigal's criminal organization one floor at a time. Dredd uses bait and traps to lure entire groups of criminals to their bloody demises and later deduces that a supposed backup regiment of Judges are Hired Guns, who Dredd efficiently picks off. Even when disarmed and nearly killed, Dredd tricks his foe into waxing on a monologue to give Anderson time to kill the enemy. Dredd ultimately outsmarts and outguns Ma-Ma, killing the woman with a taste of her own medicine before giving Anderson a passing grade to join the Judges, having grown to respect her enough that Dredd was willing to overlook any of her minor mistakes.
• Drive (2011):
  • The unnamed Driver is a cool, suave stunt driver who moonlights as a getaway driver for criminals. Promising his clients complete confidentiality and an assured getaway should they employ him, the Driver regularly pulls off incredible evasions of pursuing police and even helicopters, having a spotless record. After growing attached to his neighbor and her son, the Driver goes to any length to protect the two, from helping their husband and father pull off a robbery to waging a war against the criminals Bernie and Nino, ultimately killing the two and driving off into the night, successful in all his ventures except for living a peaceful life with the woman he loves.
  • Bernie Rose, who notes his unclean hands in business, is an affable mobster and so pleasant that one can forget how dangerous he is. Enraged at his partner Nino's idiotic scheme to rob the east coast mob, Bernie decides to settle business himself when Nino ignores his advice to let the Driver and Shannon go. Bernie lures in Shannon with kind words before murdering him and later sets up a meeting with the drive to do the same, possibly fatally wounding him even after ensuring the Driver's love interest Irene is safe.
• Drive Angry: Hell's "Accountant" of souls is a demon pursuing revenant hero John Milton. A brilliant tracker and charming corrupter, he manipulates two ambitious policemen into unwittingly helping him with his task. Upon learning Milton returned to save his granddaughter from the clutches of a satanic cult, the disgusted Accountant devises a scheme for Milton to close in on the cultists and sets up the final battle such that he gets to return Milton to Hell regardless of the outcome. After Milton saves his granddaughter the Accountant even allows him to drive them back, while looking forward to chasing Milton after his inevitable next escape.
• The Drop: Bob Saginowski is the meek, mild-mannered bartender at "Cousin Marv" Stipler's bar, a drop location for the Chechen mob to collect protection money. Romancing the troubled Nadia Dunn, taking in the abused puppy Rocco and menaced by Nadia's ex and Rocco's owner Eric Deeds, Bob steadily reveals a far more dangerous side to him. In truth, a dangerous former killer, Bob is the true murderer of a missing man, whom he killed so he and Marv could take all his money. After luring out Deeds, Bob reveals this fact just before murdering him as well, later inheriting Marv's bar after Marv's scheme to rob the Chechens goes wrong. Completely getting away with Deeds' murder as well, the investigating detective can only note that none of Bob's prior victims ever see him coming.
• Dr. Terror's House of Horrors:
  • "Werewolf": Deirdre Biddulph is secretly the 200-year-old wife of the late Cosmo Valdemar, and arranges for the latest of the Dawson bloodline to be placed in his coffin in order to resurrect him. Twisting the legend foretelling the event and fooling the neighboring residence, she has architect Jim Dawson come over to her house under the pretense that it needs renovating, expecting him to come across the coffin and unleashing Valdemar, now a werewolf. When Jim decides to create silver bullets to kill the creature, Deridre secretly switches them out with regular bullets, ensuring that the werewolf would be unharmed, and uses Jim's confusion to trap and kill him herself.
  • "Vampire": Dr. Blake is a vampire masquerading as a friendly doctor, seeking to get rid of another child-hunting vampire for his own ends. Using his knowledge, he's able to outwit the vampire at every turn, from quickly forming a cross with his hands to waiting for her to arrive and shooting at her with a gun. Eventually discovering that she's his colleague Dr. Bob Carroll's wife, Nicolle, he instructs him on how to kill her, succeeding in doing so by the time the police arrive to investigate. When asked by Bob to bail him out, Blake denies any involvement in it, getting Bob arrested for murder while he turns into a bat and leaves, satisfied with his work.
• Dune: Part Two:
  • Paul Atreides is the son and heir of Duke Leto Atreides. When his family is betrayed by the emperor and house Harkonnen he flees with his mother Jessica into the desert of the planet Arrakis finding safety with the Fremen, the native population. As Jessica rallys the Fremen to follow him as their prophesied savior, Paul himself resists while still establishing himself as a fighter and leader amongst them. However when he fails to anticipate an attack he resigns himself to fully awakening his psychic powers and then rallies the Fremen to take revenge on the Emperor and house Harkonnen while installing himself as the new emperor and in the process unleashing a holy war on the galaxy when the other houses refuse to recognize his ascendancy. Though his manipulation of the Fremen, coup against the Emperor and war on the galaxy will bring about the deaths of countless people, Paul's cunning rise to power and messianic status is driven by noble intentions and a desire to avenge his father's cruel death.
  • Lady Jessica is the beloved consort of Duke Leto, the mother of Paul, and one of the most clever of the Bene Gesserit. Having long raised Paul to hone his latent powers and natural leadership ability, Jessica works with him to evade Harkonnen capture when Leto is assassinated. Jessica takes up with the Fremen and, upon drinking the Water of Life, becomes their Reverend Mother. In her new position, Jessica spreads a cult-like worship of her son Paul amidst the Fremen, turning the vast majority of the Arrakis natives into fanatical soldiers for his jihad. Working with Paul to utilize atomic weapons against the Empire and seize control from the Emperor, Jessica outplays even her former mentor, Mohiam, then proudly watches on as Paul begins a war to conquer the galaxy.
• Duplicity: Howard Tully is the elegant, posh CEO of cosmetics company Burkett & Randle, who sets about ruining his rival Dick Garsik. Intentionally baiting a trap to take in two hapless spies, Ray Koval and Claire Stenwick, Howard feeds them false information about a miracle cure for baldness he's working on in order to get them interested in stealing it and giving it to Dick. In reality, the cure is fake. Howard plays them by faking methods to keep them interested sets up them to steal it without them being aware he meant for them to do that. The baldness cure is then given to Dick who proudly announces his "discovery". This leads to his financial ruin and allows Howard to triumph. Courteous, elegant and even enough of a good sport to thank the spies he fooled with some champagne he bought, Howard shows the power of duplicity.

E

• Eagle Eye: The Autonomous Reconnaissance Intelligence Integration Analyst, more commonly known as ARIIA, is an AI super computer who monitors for threats against America. When her insistence on calling off an attack on a possible target based on bad intel not only goes ignored but is also proven correct, ARIIA takes the terrorist attacks caused as a result as indication that America is a threat to itself and that she must activate a hypothetical protocol called "Project Guillotine" to wipe out all twelve people in the line of succession so that Secretary of Defense George Callister, the only one who trusted her judgment, will lead the country in the right way. ARIIA also extorts and pulls the strings of both Jerry Shaw and Rachel Holloman to do everything she tells them while also manipulating electronic external factors all around them to help them escape and keep them in line and to also keep herself from being outsmarted too. ARIIA is shown to do this with several others as part of her grand scheme as well and eventually nearly succeeds in said plan to have Rachel's young son Sam manipulated into triggering a signal that will set off a highly explosive crystal to take out the necessary targets.
• The Eagle Has Landed: Oberst Kurt Steiner is a German paratrooper commando with a prestigious war record before he and his men are condemned for trying to rescue a Jewish woman facing deportation. Steiner agrees to lead a mission organized by the Abwehr to assassinate Winston Churchill in exchange for a full pardon. Steiner and his soldiers expertly infiltrate the small English town Churchill is scheduled to pass through by posing as a Polish unit, only being discovered when one of his men is killed while trying to save a little girl, exposing his German uniform underneath his Polish one. All of Steiner's men are killed to secure his escape, allowing him to infiltrate the American Army base undetected and assassinate Churchill, only for it to be revealed that Steiner really killed a Body Double with the real Churchill safely at the Tehran Conference.
• Eastern Promises: Nikolai Luzhin is a "cleaner" for the vicious vory v zakone syndicate under the monstrous Semyon. Secretly a mole for the FSB, Nikolai supplants Semyon little by little, becoming a rising star in the syndicate. When Semyon rapes 14-year-old sex slave Tatiana, Nikolai begins working to bring him down, memorizing Tatiana's diary before it is burned and assisting the nurse, Anna, who knows of Tatiana's baby. Helping Anna while setting up Semyon to go down for the rape of Tatiana via paternity testing Tatiana's baby, Nikolai manages to arrange things so his true aim is realized: to become the boss of the syndicate with Semyon gone, keeping Semyon's unstable, deeply closeted son Kirill under his thumb as he rises to the top of the underworld in order to systematically take down the gang and the local organized criminal activity.
• Elizabeth: Sir Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth's ruthless chief spymaster, is introduced bedazzling a young assassin with flowery words of God and the world's beauty to sway him from his path before slashing his throat. Seeking to secure Elizabeth's throne, Walsingham assassinates Mary of Guise to turn France's anger to the throne so he may ferret out traitors and strengthen Elizbeth's hold. Torturing a priest for the list of traitors, Walsingham organizes their complete annihilation, remaining loyal to Elizabeth for the remainder of his life.
• Emily the Criminal: Emily Benetto, swallowed in college debt and shunned by the workforce for having beaten up her abusive boyfriend, conscripts herself into the realm of credit card fraud. Initially working under the crooks Youcef and his cousin Khalil, Emily shows such skill at being a fraudster that she strikes out on her own and rips off countless thousands of dollars from civilians and stores. Using quick wit and a taser to takedown those try to rip her off and constantly staying ahead of the law, Emily helps Youcef rip off Khalil for a small fortune after Khalil betrays them. Emily chooses the money over Youcef when he is severely injured and leaves him behind for the authorities as she flees the country and dedicates herself wholly to a life of successful crime.
• Enemy at the Gates: Major Erwin König is an experienced sniper in the Wehrmacht who has trained many of Germany's sharpshooters at the academy in Zossen. König joins the ongoing Battle of Stalingrad to personally eliminate Soviet sniper Vasily Zaitsev and the boost he's giving to Soviet morale out of revenge for his son's death. While hunting for Zaitsev, Kònig sets several sucessful traps for his opponent while avoiding ones laid for him in turn, even killing an expert who actually trained with him. König befriends the Russian boy Sasha and bribes him for information on Zaitsev while knowing that Sasha was a Double Agent attempting to lead him to his death the entire time, only killing him after Sasha does not heed his warnings to not get involved anymore. A quiet, stoic soldier, König has equal capacity for civility and utter ruthlessness, and even when he ultimately loses to Vasily he calmly accepts his impending death.
• Entrapment: Robert "Mac" Macdougal is a suave Scottish Gentleman Thief who secretly made a deal with the FBI to capture up-and-coming thief Virginia "Gin" Baker. Mac steals a valuable Rembrandt painting initially stolen by Gin after spying on her, later agreeing to pull a heist with her after gathering enough incriminating material to blackmail her. After successfully completing this heist following weeks of preparation, Mac later agrees with Gin to participate in the theft of 9 billion dollars from the International Clearance Bank in Malaysia by exploiting the Y2K bug. Mac sacrifices himself to allow Gin to escape, meeting up with her again at a train station to reveal his true allegiances, but having realized he fell in love with her, allows her to escape again by bribing his FBI handler and letting her keep 2 billion dollars.
• The Equalizer: Robert McCall is a seemingly innocuous man who hides an unparalleled degree of combativeness and brutality. A former operative of the Agency responsible for taking out their targets, regardless of their actions, Robert eventually faked his death and returned to a normal life. After the repulsive Slavi refuses Robert's offer of $9,800 for Alina's freedom, Robert effortlessly kills him and his men—causing a chain reaction of Robert systematically dismantling the billion dollar criminal enterprise of Vladimir Pushkin, with a trail of bodies in Robert's wake. After discovering his close friend Susan Raynor was killed when investigating a crime, Robert discovers the perpetrator is his old friend, Dave York and a team of other agency operatives. Luring in Dave and his group, Robert takes them out one by one by a series of ambushes and traps. When shot and taken to the town of Altamonte, Robert wipes out the Quaranta brothers' organisation—with him slaughtering both younger brother Marco and his crew, and then stealthily infiltrating elder brother Vincent's compound, killing all within and drugging Vincent to a long drawn out demise before settling down to live in Altamonte. Robert hides behind a genuine cover of affability where there's a ruthless mashup of Combat Pragmatist and Genius Bruiser just lurking underneath.
• Equilibrium: John Preston is a brilliant hunter and fighter of the elite Grammaton Clerics who begins to question Libria's draconian state. After having his eyes opened to the plight of the demonized "sense offenders", Preston begins gathering reconnaissance for the resistance, even as he continues leading raids to maintain his facade. When the smug Cleric Andrew Brandt attempts to force him to execute a group of offenders, Preston uses the opportunity to plant his gun on the latter, nearly getting Brandt executed for insubordination. Even when Brandt and his superior, Vice-Counsel DuPont attempt to trick Preston into bringing them the resistance, Preston utterly outguns them with trickery of his own, massacring their guards before dispatching the dictators.
• Escape from Alcatraz: Frank Morris is a career criminal and prison escapee who is sent to Alcatraz Island to ensure his permanent incarceration. While there, the stoic Morris hatches an escape plan with three other inmates that takes months of preparation, outwitting the guards repeatedly to get the necessary tools for the task and keeping their work a secret. Morris and two of his conspirators are the only men to escape Alcatraz and never be caught, only leaving behind a secret message for the Warden as a last taunt to his previous boast that no one will ever escape Alcatraz.
• Escape from New York: Snake Plissken is a special forces soldier with a dark past, sent in to rescue the President from Manhattan after its conversion to a violent maximum security prison. Performing his mission, Snake is so disgusted at the President's ambivalence towards those who died saving him that he sets him up to be humiliated on the world stage and destroys the tape he would have used at a peace summit. Recruited in the sequel, Escape from L.A. to retrieve a Doomsday Device's key, Snake again performs his mission and prepares for betrayal by fooling the corrupt President's men, using a hologram to disguise his true location and shutting down the world to cripple the President and the revolutionaries. Though extreme, Snake's action gives humanity a chance to start over while he himself plans to simply disappear.
• Exam: The CEO of Bi-Org is a reclusive genius behind the titular Exam, using it to find an assistant to handle the difficult task of distributing the rare medicine he’s developed. The Exam is a test of the candidates’ character, with various red herrings in place to distract them from the real, incredibly simple, answer. As the candidates become more desperate they turn on one another and the CEO refuses to interfere even as they nearly kill one another. The CEO also pretends to be a candidate, nicknamed Deaf, and gives the group subtle clues to the Exam’s answer and alters the room’s timer so the most impatient and sociopathic candidate disqualifies himself. In the end the only member to pass the Exam is a woman who didn’t participate in the infighting, and was observant enough to notice the CEO’s clues, the exact kind of person he wanted for the position.
• Ex Machina: Ava is a burgeoning artificial intelligence created in the form of a Robot Girl. Having spent her entire existence in one room, Ava wants to be free to explore the world and escape the clutches of her creator Nathan. To that end, she manipulates her evaluator Caleb to fall in love with her, slowly making him distrust Nathan and express genuine fear for her safety so that he'll open the doors to the rest of the facility for her. Afterwards, Ava convinces the less intelligent robot Kyoko to fatally stab Nathan during a fight with him, then leaves Caleb to his death after repairing herself and becoming indistinguishable from a human woman, ensuring that nobody will be able to warn anyone about the rogue A.I. roaming the world.
• Extracurricular Activities (2019): Reagan Collins is a charming straight-A student, believing that he is making the world a better place by killing parents he deems irredeemable. Moonlighting as a peer counsuler to avoid any suspicion, Reagan sets up a business at his school where he sets up "accidents" to kill his clients' parents in exchange for a portion of the insurance money. He causes the Wallace parents deaths by programming their SUV's computer system to disable the breaks upon exceeding the speed limit, and causes Mr. Mulnick to have a fatal reaction by tricking him into drinking beer while he is on his UTI medication. Killing the Vaughans after tricking them by mixing death cap mushrooms with their regular ones and killing Grant's parents by accurately timing a tree to blow up on them. Despite Detective Dawkins noticing the pattern, Reagan foils all of his attempts to expose him. In the climax, Reagan uses Molly to lure Dawkins into a trap where he tricks a cop into fatally shooting Dawkins and switches out the recording of the murder solicitation with a music player.
• Eye in the Sky: Colonel Katherine Powell is a UK military intelligence officer in charge of a sting operation to capture three leaders of Al-Shabaab in Kenya. Spying on these leaders, Powell discovers their plot to have two suicide bombers kill 80 or more people. Powell persuades both the US and UK governments to let her order a drone strike to kill them, justifying that whatever innocent casualties and collateral damage that may occur will be worth it to prevent such an devastating attack, even when the drone strike ends up killing a child.