History Main / CutLexLuthorACheck

* ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'': The franchise as a whole zig-zags on this idea. The modern-day [[MegaCorp Abstergo Industries]] is a front for UsefulNotes/TheKnightsTemplar who are dedicated to [[TakeOverTheWorld taking over the world]] by [[TheEvilsOfFreeWill abolishing free will]], and they have dedicated much of the past several hundred years to locating [[{{Precursors}} First Civilization artifacts]] as their creators were specialists in mind control. While they keep the artifacts themselves a close secret, they've reverse-engineered a lot of the ancients' technology and shared it with the mass market and have profited enormously thereby. Their most valuable technology by far, however, remains a secret: the Animus, a machine allowing GeneticMemory to be experienced and recorded in real-time. By the time of ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIVBlackFlag'', they've perfected the Animus sufficiently to create a version that allows ordinary people to replay memories not in their own bloodline. Rather than offer this to researchers, historians, and documentarians to permit humanity to gain a never-before-attained glimpse into the truth of the past, they instead form an entertainment division dedicated to selling video games and feature films with dumbed-down, mass-market dreck based on heavily edited and propagandized versions of the lives that they've unearthed. The given justification is that making money and benefiting humanity are secondary to their main goal of turning humans into easily controlled sheep.

* In ''Film/AustinPowersInternationalManOfMystery'', Number Two grows furious with Dr. Evil for engaging in high-risk world-threatening schemes when their front companies were already making billions a year, ''legally and pretty much risk-free''. Ratcheted up in the second movie where Dr. Evil has a time machine and only uses it to thwart Austin Powers and to attempt to hold the world ransom in a decade that has less money to extort.

* Applies to [[VideoGame/MegaManClassic the original Dr. Wily.]] He’s one of the two or three best roboticists in the world, and in our world could have been a billionaire with contracts everywhere (the guy made a [[VideoGame/MegaManV space station,]] for goodness sake). Unfortunately, he’s hampered by being [[MadScientist seriously crazy]] and obsessed with one-upping Dr. Light, who only ever wanted him as a friend and partner.

* While it's questionable if they're "evil", the management in ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'' possesses animatronics... that can walk around by themselves very quickly and have the strength, intelligence, and dexterity to pick up heavy endoskeletons (and humans) and put them in suits. Pretty damn advanced for mere animatronics. Then the new animatronics in ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys2'' one-up them by also being able to crawl through air ducts (again, unaided) and having advanced facial recognition [[spoiler:in '''''1987'''''. Far beyond even anything made in '''''2014''''']]! And eventually, they just straight up make fully conscious AI! How are they still a small-time pizza joint and not the robotics equivalent of Apple or IBM?!

** In a short arc of the ''Best Wishes'' series, Meowth poses as HeelFaceMole towards Ash's team, winning them over with his negotiator skills. While it was all just an act to lure them into another Pokemon-stealing trap, he was actually rather good at it most of the time, ending up solving several dilemmas the heroes ran into on their journey. Back in ''Diamond & Pearl'', ''another'' HeelFaceMole venture nearly turns into a legitimate HeelFaceTurn after the heroes point out Meowth's talents could easily make him a TV celebrity. However, just on the way to finding some media connections, the heroes start their usual beatdown on Jessie and James, [[UndyingLoyalty and he just doesn't have the heart to turn his back on them]]. In ''Anime/PokemonJourneysTheSeries'', the three ended up producing a popular podcast, although it wasn't enough to lift them out of PerpetualPoverty.

* ''Literature/TheStepfordWives'' has a justified example. The men of Stepford are revealed to be pulling a KillAndReplace on their wives - replacing them with lifelike robots that act like {{Housewives}}. The robots are almost exact duplicates, and extremely advanced that only take four months to properly refine. However, the villains are ''already'' rich, and it's made clear that their desire isn't to make money, but have subservient wives with no thoughts and desires of their own. Attempting to patent their technology or sell it would interfere with the lifestyle they have cultivated for themselves.

** Orange Lantern serves works to support this and subvert ReedRichardsIsUseless. The reason for this trope is also pointed out - most villains don't have the social skills or business savvy to make legal money off their powers; most of them can only think of using them as a club. Of the ones who have both the smarts and the people skills, usually the various mad scientists and variations thereof such as Leonard Snart (Captain Cold), most of those guys are usually legitimately insane or mentally ill and don't care or want legal work. Snart is brought up as a specific example, he has severe paranoia and psychosis due to his abusive father and isn't capable of functioning in a civilian setting. The Terror Twins are the other example, they didn't know any way to use their power other than to steal until Orange Lantern points out that they are perfect for specialized heavy labor.

* Deconstructed in ''Webcomic/QuentynQuinnSpaceRanger'': The protagonist gives out Replicator technology to the planet Kalufrax in order to solve their serious economical crisis. The Kalufraxians prove extremely adept with the matter constructors, solving most of their problems with sophisticated engineering skill. The remaining problems end up killing millions; rather than join in the post-scarcity civilization, the Oligarchy "freaks out" and attempts to murder everyone involved using the privatized militaries of the world. Why? Because they would rather control a starving world than let everyone be happy. Their rivals, an Islamic parody, also induce slaughter by sabotaging some of the floating cities with modified replicators, killing even more to satisfy their hatred rather than solve the economic problems that caused said hatred. Also, the disgruntled Kalufraxian who tried to assassinate the protagonist had a stable job and high skill in replicator programming but was plotting revenge for having his people turned into a glorified (and wealthy) slave caste for replicators.

** Syndrome nicely averts this trope, mentioning during a monologue that he was able to finance the construction of his island base and Omnidroids by selling inventions across the world.

* * Averted in ''VideoGame/TheSecretWorld''

* ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' features [[Characters/MarvelComicsThanos Thanos]] [[spoiler: successfully using the Infinity Gauntlet to wipe out half the Universe]] as he claims there aren't enough resources to support everyone. He could have simply used the gauntlet to create more resources. The problem is that Thanos is motivated by pride as much as anything else -He wants to prove his [[TheyCalledMeMad original proposed solution]] of culling half the population to save his homeworld would have worked. Increasing resources wasn't an option for him then, so he isn't interested in doing it now. In ''Film/AvengersEndgame'', when faced with hard evidence that it ''doesn't'' work, his response is [[NeverMyFault to blame the survivors for refusing to move on]] and attempt to destroy the ''entire'' universe so he can remake it as grateful to him.

** [[spoiler:Subverted in that it turns out any usable form of the life-extender machine is completely useless without Australium, which is both extremely expensive and hard to get a hold of (and now horrifyingly scarce), due to Australians being extremely protective of it. It doesn't help that the Announcer seems to be trying to ''destroy'' the entire world supply of the stuff for as-of-yet unrevealed reasons.]]

** In ''VideoGame/SonicColors'', he manages to grab several planets, build amusement parks and rides on them, and tethers them to the Earth with a SpaceElevator without affecting any planet's gravity. He broke so many rules of physics with the stunt alone, and the 3DS version implies it is a really fun park (in the Wii version, Sonic snuck his way in there the day before it opened.) If only Eggman wasn't using this as an excuse to harvest [[PoweredByAForsakenChild life energy from aliens]] to build a MindControl Ray to TakeOverTheWorld! Even Sonic and Tails admit that they'd happily pay to [[GoKartingWithBowser enjoy Eggman's new theme park]] for a while... if it wasn't such a painfully [[SchmuckBait obvious trap]], of course.

** ''VisualNovel/TheMurderOfSonicTheHedgehog'' reveals that he ''does'' write books - specifically an autobiography and recipie book, at least. [[spoiler:Also, he quietly created a bunch of high-tech self-cleaning smart passenger trains, both as a potential trap for Sonic and also because he thought public transport infrastructure in various towns was substandard. The Mirage Express, which is one of them, is exceptionally high-quality - if he actually got into the business of constructing public transport vehicles for municipalities, he could do an incredibly good job of it.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/SonicBoom:'' Eggman would be able to make himself rich fairly easily if he used his many inventions for just about anything other than trying to attack Sonic. In one episode, Eggman briefly becomes a successful businessman by selling (genuinely delicious) tomato sauce and would've made a fortune if he had just stuck to selling it instead of using it as a Trojan Horse to sneak his robots into everyone's homes and then bragging about it on television, torpedoing the sauce business.

** In ''Film/TheWorldIsNotEnough'', King Oil is doing well and stands to make a lot more money thanks to its pipeline from Azerbaijan even before [[spoiler: Electra plans to blow up a Russian nuclear submarine in the Bosphorus, crippling the principal rival east-west oil pipeline and giving her one a near-monopoly.]]

** In ''Film/{{Moonraker}}'', Hugo Drax has succeeded in not just planning but ''building'' a fully-functioning space station with a built-in radar-jamming cloaking device which renders it undetectable from Earth. Were he not a psychopath intent on wiping out humanity and creating his own master race out of the people on the space station, he could have made a fortune from the cloaking device alone by selling it to whichever government (either the Americans or the Soviets, going on the time period) would be wiling to pay the most for it.

** Elliott Carver, the media mogul in ''Film/TomorrowNeverDies'', controls one of the most influential and powerful media empires in the world, even without going to the trouble of kick-starting a war between Britain and China in order to increase his (already large) share of the market.
** In ''Film/TheWorldIsNotEnough'', King Oil is doing well even before [[spoiler: Electra plans to blow up a nuclear submarine in the Bosporous, giving her east-west pipeline a near-monopoly.]]
** Averted in ''Film/TheManWithTheGoldenGun''. Scaramanga uses the Solex Agitator (a highly efficient solar energy converter) to power a DeathRay, but it's just a toy to amuse himself. Instead he intends to sell the Solex Agitator to the highest bidder, or take a larger offer from the oil producing countries not to.

** Kananga of ''Film/LiveAndLetDie'' owns a thriving chain of soul food restaurant, while San Monique (the Caribbean island of which he is the president) appears to be doing very well out of tourism.
** Franz Sanchez of ''Film/LicenceToKill'' owns banks, casinos, and a cheesy New Age Televangelist racket. The latter was just supposed to be a front, but he's amused to note that the televangelist has actually made it profitable.

** Kananga of ''Film/LiveAndLetDie'' owns a thriving chain of soul food restaurants.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'':

* ''Anime/PumpkinScissors''. This trope is almost the premise of the series -- this is a world where rather than building safer tanks or devices to protect people from chemical weapons, they engineer people who can withstand tank-fire and chemical weapons. Lampshaded in the interlude where a lab assistant finds a report about the protective fluid that the Flamethrower Troopers use and mentions that they could be used to help burn victims. Her superior replies to that by telling her to throw it out because he doesn't need it anymore.

** ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil6'' sheds some light on Umbrella's madness: [[spoiler:the Simmons Family is Biohazard's version of TheIlluminati, having secretly controlled America since colonial times from the sidelines AND had a controlling share in Umbrella, giving them access to Spencer's research with every breakthrough]]. So Spencer was at war with America all along, and his planned outbreaks were to weed out the spies.

** [[spoiler: Subverted in that it turns out any usable form of the life-extender machine is completely useless without Australium, which is both extremely expensive and hard to get a hold of, due to Australians being extremely protective of it. It doesn't help that the Announcer seems to be trying to ''destroy'' the entire world supply of the stuff for as-of-yet unrevealed reasons.]]

* In ''Film/ThePrestige'', Angier has a [[spoiler: duplication machine, which creates an exact copy of any object in the machine, from nothing.]] built for himself by [[spoiler:Tesla]]. It takes little imagination to think up all sorts of wonderful uses for such a machine, including several magic tricks. Angier instead uses it only for one specific trick, to copy and one up something his rival Borden did. In this trick [[spoiler: Angier copies himself, drowns one of the copies, and uses the other to appear to have teleported.]]. [[spoiler: He usesthe rowing to frame Borden for murder, but Borden gets revenge and kills Angier anyway.]]