Adaptational Villainy / Live-Action Films

Adaptational Villainy in Film.

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Franchises with their own subpages:

• Marvel Cinematic Universe

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Individual examples:

• 2001: A Space Odyssey: In the book by Arthur C. Clarke, HAL-9000 is a beautifully defined and deeply sympathetic character who is so human that he develops a psychosis, and his reasons for why he takes the actions he does are completely explained. The instructions that he was given from the White House to conceal the monolith clashed with his basic programming not to conceal information from the crew. HAL was working on a non-murderous solution to the problem, but overheard plans from Mission Control to temporarily disconnect him. HAL didn't understand the concept of sleep and thought that this would kill him, so he panicked. The movie, deprived of the ability to use a narrative voice to make this clear, makes HAL seem far more monstrous than the original intent, and sadly the film is often cited as an example of A.I. Is a Crapshoot. The movie of 2010: The Year We Make Contact sticks more closely to the book and redeems HAL, but it's often regarded as a very poor relation to the original movie.
• Seven Days in May: Downplayed. In the novel, it's only speculated that Admiral Barneswell stayed out of the coup out of pure pragmatism and will deny everything if confronted about his confession to Girard. In the film, he does make such a denial and also admits that he didn't join Scott because he likes to be sure of things.
• In Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Jekyll has none of the good qualities he has in Stevenson's book, purposely using his murderous Mr. Hyde persona as an assassin against anyone who risks exposing his illegal experiments. Mr. Hyde himself is a near-mindless brute sought by the police as a Serial Killer.
• Abominable: This film portrays sasquatches as far more violent and destructive than traditional folklore depicts them. The sasquatch in this film is extremely violent and dangerous, being a bloodthirsty man eater. In contrast, most folklore depicts Bigfoot as rather timid and peaceful. Justified if you take the title and Dr. Suessmeyer's belief at face value and assume this is actually a yeti, as the yeti is traditionally depicted as far more violent than a North American sasquatch.
• The Addams Family: In the TV show, The Addamses are a textbook example of Dark Is Not Evil, defined by their caring and generous nature, and they were repeatedly shown to be kind, welcoming, cheerful, and unfailingly polite to any strangers who happened upon their home even though most people kept their distance. In the movies they are closer to villains, being thoroughly into both causing and receiving pain (this trait was present in the TV show but they only ever acted this way to each other, in the films it sometimes extends to other people), can be contemptuous towards those who cross them (though not towards all ordinary people—they're perfectly welcoming to Margaret despite her wearing pink and not sharing all their interests, and a deleted scene in the script has Gomez sincerely trying to make friends with Judge Womack), and heavily hinted that they consider murder, torture, and cannibalism to be perfectly normal and are strongly implied to actually commit these crimes while the TV show versions could be interpreted as simply finding the idea of them fascinating, being friends with a group of cannibals according to one episode but not established as eating people themselves.
  • In an interesting zig-zag of the trope, the films' depiction is much closer to the original comics, which were heavily toned down for TV. Scenes like pouring boiling oil on Christmas carollers come straight from the comics, as did the implications of cannibalism. (Of course, given that the Addamses would probably enjoy having boiling oil poured on them, it's hard to say for sure that this is malicious—to them it might seem like, at worst, a harmless practical joke.) In fact, the comics lacked any of the sympathetic traits that even the films give them, with Morticia being a rather cold and distant mother in several of the comics, Gomez advocating mistreating employees, and the whole family viewing Lurch "like a joke" according to Charles Addams—whereas in the films they're depicted as loving each other, being generally polite towards Lurch and Thing, donating generously to charity, and apparently having fairly progressive political views (or at least, Wednesday seems quite opposed to bigotry and prejudice.)
• Aladdin (2019): While Jafar in the original movie certainly wasn't above murder, this version of the character is far more murderous, killing people (or attempting to do so) for much less reason. For example, he pushes a lackey down a well for unintentionally pressing his Berserk Button, and when he becomes a genie, he comes very close to wiping out all of Shirabad. Also, he's much more of a General Ripper, trying to urge Agrabah to attack other kingdoms even before he takes the throne, whereas the original seemed pretty content to Take Over the City without bringing up the issue of war.
• Around the World in Eighty Days: Detective Fix is a misguided Scotland Yard detective who pursued Phileas Fogg because he mistakenly thought that Fogg had committed a robbery. In the 2004 film, he is a Corrupt Cop hired by Lord Kelvin to stop Fogg out of of petty jealousy.
• The A-Team gives two prominent examples:
  • In the show, Lynch was an Inspector Javert who was just doing his job by pursuing the Team. The worst things about him were his buffoonery and his Glory Hounding. The film's version of Lynch is a lot more ruthless and we eventually learn that he's responsible for framing the Team in the first place, as part of a plan to swipe valuable engraving plates for his own personal use. But since "Lynch" is portrayed here as a codename and he's replaced at the end, it is possible he's not meant to be the same character.
  • In the show, Colonel Morrison did give the Team the orders that made them fugitives, but he did it to bring an end to the Vietnam War, and the only reason he didn't clear their names afterwards was because he'd died. The film's version of Morrison was complicit in Lynch's plan to steal engraving plates and frame the team, then faked his death and betrayed Lynch to keep them for himself.
• Bad Moon:
  • In the book, Ted only kills one person as a werewolf, while in the film, he amasses a much larger bodycount. He also provokes Thor to attack him in the film, while Thor does that without being provoked in the book due to realizing that Ted will threaten the family and that killing or badly injuring him is the only way to remove the threat.
  • The salesman never tries to kill Thor in the book.
• The Banana Splits Movie: The Banana Splits were heroes in the TV series, but in the 2019 movie, this is their first villainous role as the more psychopathic animatronics that gone haywire that takes revenge on the show cancellation.
• Barbie: Ken similar to Toy Story 3 is a much more flawed and antagonistic character than the Nice Guy Hunk Love Interest he usually is in the toy line and other media. Existing as little more than an accessory to Barbie whom wants to be independent and not his girlfriend eventually drives Ken over the edge and he introduces Rated M for Manly patriarchy into Barbieland becoming the antagonist for the latter half of the movie. Ken does however eventually have a Jerkass Realisation at the end and accept he and Barbie need true interdependence from each other.
• Battle Royale: For the film adaptation, Kazuo Kiriyama goes from an Empty Shell that kills people because he doesn't know right from wrong, to an Ax-Crazy maniac that signed up for The Program for fun.
• The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms: In the short story that the movie is inspired by, "The Fog Horn" by Ray Bradbury, the dinosaur is a much more sympathetic and tragic figure which usually avoids humans, but comes to a lighthouse every year because it mistakes the fog horn for the cry of a member of its own species. It is strongly implied to be the only survivor of its species and desperately lonely. Although it destroys the lighthouse in a rage when the horn is turned off, no one is killed, and it returns to the ocean in peace without destroying anything else. The human characters even remark that this turn of events is for the best, as it spares the dinosaur from wasting its feelings away on something that can't return them. In the film, the creature is a mindlessly violent Prehistoric Monster which destroys the lighthouse, along with many other places, for no reason and must be killed to end its threat, with none of its tragic qualities from the short story.
• Beowulf (2007) portrays Beowulf as being seduced by Grendel's mother, lying about it, and having the dragon with her. Also, King Hrothgar is Grendel's father, something he wasn't in the original poem. The film seems to interpret the original epic poem as having been written by Beowulf himself (or at least based on his testimony), and that he was an Unreliable Narrator.
• Beauty and the Beast:
  • In most versions of the story that have a rival suitor, said suitor is usually a boorish idiot. Even more sinister versions, like Gaston, are more stupid than malicious. However, Sven of Blood of Beasts uses the Beast as a way to do a coup on his kingdom.
  • Downplayed, but in Beauty and the Beast (2014), two of Belle's brothers betray their sister's trust by leading the bandit villain Perducas to the Beast's castle to plunder it, which doesn't happen in the original story. Additionally, the Beast himself gets this due his backstory getting changed, with him being cursed due to him ruthlessly hunting and killing the golden doe which turned out (unbeknownst to him) to be his then wife Astrid in deer form, as she was the nymph daughter of the god of the forest, in contrast to the original story, in which an evil fairy tries to seduce the Prince and curses him into a beast in retaliation for him rejecting her.
• The Blob (1988): The remake version of the blob is clearly more intelligent than the Grey Goo version from the original, making it come across as far more sadistic in the way it chooses to toy with its prey, along with those deaths themselves generally being Bloodier and Gorier.
• Blood & Chocolate (2007) villainizes several characters from the book.
  • Big time with Gabriel. While he does cause conflict for Vivian in the book, he's presented as a sympathetic character and ends up being the winning love interest. Here, he's the Big Bad. His tragic backstory in which he accidentally killed his human lover is also removed, as is his ban on harming humans (he actively encourages the pack to hunt humans here), making him much less sympathetic.
  • The werewolves in general are depicted in the film as regularly hunting humans, treating it as a sport, while in the book deliberately harming humans is forbidden (especially as it would draw too much attention to the pack) and the werewolves mostly want to be left in peace.
• The Book of Masters, a Disney production yet filmed in Russia with Russian cast and crew, does it to the Mistress of the Copper Mountain. In the original tales by Pavel Bazhov she was quite harsh, with a peculiar sense of sarcasm, and sometimes kept guys that she fancied for years in her mountain – but, nevertheless, she was always honorable in her own way, was always there to help if a real Big Bad turned up, and always rewarded the good guys. In The Book of Masters, renamed the Stone Princess, she is an Ax-Crazy Big Bad herself. Just the main things include: ordering her soldiers to go raiding villages For the Evulz, killing off stone-carvers because they fail to bring a magical stone to life, trying to pull out her adopted daughter's soul for the sake of the same Impossible Task, turning her most trusted minion to stone because he fell in love with her daughter, and planning to take over the world and turn all of it to stone.
• The Brady Bunch: In the original series, the Dittmeyers were simply the Bradys' neighbors. In the movie, Mr. Dittmeyer wants to destroy the neighborhood in order to build a mall and is willing to break the law to do it.
• The Bravados:
  • Douglas is an honest, well-adjusted man in the book, accompanies the posse out of concern for Emma, and only kills under justifiable circumstances. In the movie, he's a Knight Templar on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
  • In the book, Lujan is in jail over a Miscarriage of Justice and has no past affiliation with Zachary, Taylor, and Parral. After the jailbreak, Lujan helps the posse track down the other prisoners to rescue the kidnapped Emma. In the film, while he's an Anti-Villain at heart, Lujan is involved in multiple murders and never lifts a finger to help Emma.
• Brideshead Revisited: In the book, Lady Marchmain is a well-meaning mother with understandable anxiety about her son's drinking problem and a sincere Catholic faith that unfortunately gets on the nerves of her male relatives. In the movie, she comes off more as a domineering religious zealot who continually undermines her children's happiness.
• The 2005 version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, a work that traditionally has No Antagonist — the four brats are nasty, even more so in adaptations, but don't actively work against other characters (they're too self-absorbed for that) — does this to Willy Wonka. In the novel and most adaptations he is a Nightmare Fetishist who has extremely Skewed Priorities and No Sympathy for those who disregard his warnings but is also imaginative, polite, friendly, cheerful, and capable of amazing generosity. He may be portrayed as an Anti-Hero in adaptations (i.e. the 2013 stage musical) but nothing worse. In the 2005 film, rather than the Gentleman and a Scholar of the novel he is an apathetic Insufferable Genius Manchild who rarely shows any real kindness to the other characters, and in a Not His Sled twist tells Charlie he must leave his family behind if he wants to inherit the factory. This turns out to stem from a film-specific Backstory for Mr. Wonka — who in all other versions is Inexplicably Awesome and has a Mysterious Past barely touched on at most — that gives him a Freudian Excuse, and he does get better in the denouement. Due in part to Values Dissonance making their punishments seem disproportionate to their offenses in the twenty-first century, Mike, Augustus, and especially Violet tend to get more vicious personalities in adaptations.
• Scrooge in A Christmas Carol (1984) comes across as a great deal colder than most. Rather than being indifferent he seems to find the suffering of others darkly amusing. He also makes more efforts to defend himself from the spirits than in most versions.
• The Chronicles of Narnia:
  • Miraz from Prince Caspian gets a good deal of this. In the book, he appears infrequently and while he has done evil things such as killing his brother to take the throne and meant to kill his nephew Caspian himself after his own son was born, aside from that he is more pathetic than sinister, being easily manipulated by his subordinates who eventually betray him and at the beginning was just a strict uncle to his nephew Caspian rather than being outright abusive. In the film (due to Adaptation Expansion) Miraz's cruelty and tyranny is dialed up to the extent where he's basically the Narnia equivalent to Tywin Lannister for how much of a sociopathic bastard he is. The act of killing his brother, horrifies even his wife when she learns about it and he actively derides and mocks Caspian for his compassion even while the latter has a sword up against his throat. Additionally, unlike the book where Miraz at the very least engaged in a fair duel with Peter, Miraz in the film instructs The Dragon Sopespian to cheat by killing Peter with a crossbow should the fight sway in his favor. All in all, Miraz provides a greater case of Humans Are the Real Monsters in the film than the book version does.
  • The Sea Serpent from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. In the book it’s just a playful beast who wraps itself around the Dawn Treader before the crew group together to push it off and pop out of its coils, Lucy notes the dumb thing seems to be amused by this action and it doesn't even chase after them. In the film on the other hand the Sea Serpent is the Final Boss created by the Dark Island being an Animalistic Abomination Mental Monster brought to life through Edmund's thoughts and needs to be slayed by Edmund himself.
  • Nikabrik in Prince Caspian, while he meant to resurrect the White Witch in the book as well with the help of the Hag and a Werewolf, he was very open about it and got killed for treason before he could actually achieve anything. In the film he is sneakier and more sinister about it, telling Caspian that there is a way of defeating his uncle and persuading Caspian to let the harpy and Wer-Wolf initiate a ritual around him which partly brings Jadis back from the dead and she just needs a drop of Adam's blood to fully return. All of which is more malevolent than Nikabrik's foiled scheme in the book, as when Peter and the others come into rescue Caspian, he is hypnotized and tempted to give his blood to the witch, and only stopped thanks to Edmund's Moment of Awesome destroying Jadis from behind. Also Nikabrik's death in the film is due to Trumpkin killing him to protect Lucy whom Nikabrik tried to kill himself, while in the book Nikabrik was just killed in the scuffle between the heroes in the dark.
• Cinderella (2015): In the animated film, the Duke was a bumbling minion to the boisterous king. In this film, the Duke is a schemer more closely mirroring Lady Tremaine, and who wants the Prince to marry based on politics rather than on love. That said, he's definitely more honourable than Lady Tremaine, and it's worth noting that he has clearly the kingdom's welfare in mind. While a schemer to achieve his ends, the novelization states that he is looking out for the kingdom and the king.
• Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away: The creatures that emerge from the sand to spook and separate Mia from the KÀ good guys here are comic relief in the original show.
• City of Ember: As awful as Cole is in the books, he at least takes his cronies with him while trying to escape the city, while in the film he knocks down Looper and locks him out of the vault with their stashed food despite Looper begging for shelter and reminding Cole that the mayor promised him a spot.
• Clash of the Titans (2010): While Medusa is very much a Designated Villain in Clash of the Titans (1981), the remake increases her villainy by having her cackling cruelly, clearly enjoying murdering Perseus's comrades. Likewise taking her head is the second option, as the soldiers first say that she can't be reasoned with. Oddly enough the movie also paints her as a Tragic Monster — with Io revealing her sympathetic backstory.
• Cloud Atlas: Mephi, who in the book was a University professor who joined the Union not knowing it was part of Unanimity. In the film, he is a major antagonist and head of the Neo Seoul police.
• The Da Vinci Code: Bishop Manuel Aringarosa, the head of Opus Dei, was originally just an unusually conservative clergyman who got roped into helping The Teacher out of desperation, since the Catholic Church was planning to disown Opus Dei and he needed help to keep it afloat. The film version makes him a member of a splinter cell within the Church that actively wants to find and destroy Mary Magdalene's remains to hide the truth about Jesus' descendants, and it has him manipulating Fache (an Opus Dei member in the movie) into hunting down Langdon despite his innocence. Notably, the book gives him a happy ending, where Fache realizes that The Teacher manipulated him and ensures that he goes free. In the movie, he's last seen being arrested by an angry Fache and hauled off by the police.
• The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008):
  • In the original film version The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Klaatu was a messenger from an advanced race who believed that humans have a capacity for good, his main concern that humans are warlike and, having developed nuclear power, would threaten other worlds when they achieved space travel. In the remake, Klaatu comes to Earth intending to wipe out humanity with Grey Goo because humans are destroying the planet's ecosystem.
  • In the original film, Gort the robot was an enforcer of peace, generally not attacking until Klaatu was threatened. In the remake, GORT, who is actually a Swarm of Alien Locusts designed to only attack people and things made by people, is the aliens' method of destroying the human race.
  • In the original short story by Harry Bates, Gort doesn't attack anyone at all. He tries to resurrect the dead Klaatu, eventually succeeds (after causing some damage and scaring the bejeezus out of some Earthlings), then they both leave.
• Dead Calm being Darker and Edgier compared to the original book gives Hughie Warriner this treatment. In Charles F. Williams novel Hughie is more sympathetic and tragic as he committed the Accidental Murder of the captain Rus’s wife when having an agoraphobic reaction while diving, causing him to have a psychotic breakdown and take the heroine Rae hostage while escaping on her and the hero John’s honeymoon boat. It’s explained he’s a Manchild due to abusive parents and seeks a maternal figure in Rae and he doesn’t hurt anyone else. In the Australian film version Hughie (played by Billy Zane) is unmistakably Ax-Crazy as he killed and mutilated the five people he was sailing with and his Alone with the Psycho actions with the married Rae are more disturbing with him forcing her into sex (she goes along with it to make Hughie lower his guard, but she ultimately didn’t want to, making it essentially rape). This goes hand in hand with his Dies Differently in Adaptation as in the movie he gets harpooned multiple times and thrown overboard by Rae before John kills him for real with a flare after he pops up again for one last Jump Scare — whereas in the book Hughie instead just kills himself by jumping overboard after hallucinating that Rus was his father.
• Death Note (2017): In the original Death Note, Ryuk is a neutral figure who was only interested making sure Light used the Death Note. He had no issues with how Light used it as long as the Death Note was used, but also made it clear he was not Light's friend and wouldn't help him unless he got something in return. In the film, Ryuk is more outright sinister and sadistic, not only goading Light into using it for the first time but also being the one who tells Light he can specify a cause of death. It seems he also has a habit of betraying previous Death Note keepers, as a warning Light finds informs him to not trust Ryuk, and Ryuk states that past owners have tried to use the Death Note to kill him.
• Death on the Nile (2022): Simon and Jacqueline the Outlaw Couple killers would get hit with a good deal of this compared to the book and 1978 and 2004 adaptations. While they did murder Rich Bitch Linnet for her inheritance and in turn were forced to kill those who witnessed their crimes, they were still incredibly sympathetic being poor and in love and only wanting to have better lives for themselves and by the end they explicitly regretted their actions with Simon eventually confessing to killing Linnet. Poirot himself takes pity on them and allows Jackie to use the second pistol to kill Simon and herself so they can be Together in Death and avoid being sentenced for their crimes. In the 2022 film, since Linnet gets Adaptational Nice Girl and Adaptational Sympathy, Jackie and Simon naturally get the inverse being more callous and psychotic, they even pull out guns when Poirot outs them as the murderers. It's strongly implied they were planning to kill Linnet before she even met Simon and fell for him, unlike the book where it was after the fact. Jackie in particular has her lowkey Cute and Psycho traits dialed up as rather than just stabbing the maid Louise after she demanded money for her silence, Jacqueline slits her throat and actually shoves her body in Karnak's paddlewheels. Jackie's sweet moments (such as a friendship with Poirot) are downplayed or given to other characters entirely.
• The Deep (1977): Coffin is only a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing in the film. In the book he is a dependable ally with fatherly feelings toward Treece.
• Die Hard: In the original novel, Nothing Lasts Forever, Gruber and his gang attacked the Office Building mainly to expose the oil company's illicit dealings with Chile's junta. The movie changes them to thieves in it for the money.
• Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920): While Carew in the book was described in almost angelic terms, here he's closer to Lord Henry from The Picture of Dorian Gray, corrupting Jekyll into sin. (In fact, his title cards borrow some of Lord Henry's lines).
• Dracula (1931):
  • In the famous 1931 movie, and many other adaptations after it, Renfield is a willing slave to Dracula. In the original book, while Renfield is under Dracula's control, he isn't so happy about it. He even tries to kill Dracula at one point to protect Mina, although unsuccessfully. He's something of a Composite Character. At the start of the movie, Renfield fills the role of Jonathan Harker in the book; a skeptical young solicitor sent to take documents to Count Dracula. Unlike Harker, Renfield is fed upon by Dracula and apparently is largely under his control or possibly even part-cursed with vampirism. The actual Harker in the movie, is a supporting character mostly serving as assistant to Dr. Stewart or Dr. Van Helsing, and being properly concerned when Mina is preyed upon by Dracula.
  • A more mild example is that of pre-vampire Lucy. In the book, she's borderline Purity Personified. In various adaptations she's portrayed as anything from a Femme Fatale to The Vamp (no pun intended) thus introducing a rather unfortunate Madonna/Whore comparison between herself and Mina, with Lucy as the silly flirt who "deserves" to be vamped and staked.
• Dracula: The Dark Prince: Renfield gets this once again, whereas most adaptations and the source material depict him as a mistreated slave at best or a sycophantic minion at worst, this version is a vampire (albeit one subservient to Dracula) and revealed to be responsible for his master's descent into evil, as Renfield conspired with other advisers to assassinate Dracula's wife when she was left in charge of their castle. The other conspirators became fall guys and were executed, while Renfield walked free and was turned into a vampire when Dracula renounced God and turns into The Starscream during the climax where he tells the whole truth.
• Dragonball Evolution:
  • Mai gets this along with Adaptational Badass. In the source material, she's a fairly Harmless Villain, just like her pathetic boss Emperor Pilaf, and she's terrified of actually evil characters like King Piccolo. In Dragon Ball Super, Mai actually heel-turns to good and becomes Trunks' love interest. In the film, Mai is ruthless and loyal to Piccolo, willing to shoot a cowering mother and child and doesn't show any good qualities like her manga and anime version.
  • Goku himself gets this in a roundabout way. To explain, it's revealed in the film's climax that he is Oozaru, the monster henchman of Piccolo, who turned into a human baby and was found and raised by Gohan. In the source material, "Oozaru" is just a Saiyan race transformation that Goku (and all Saiyans) go through under the full moon, and Goku (despite his warrior race heritage) is always good thanks to Gohan's upbringing, inherited compassion from his kindhearted mother Gine, and hitting his head and getting Easy Amnesia for good measure. In the film, it appears that Oozaru is Goku's true evil nature before he regains his humanity through Roshi's dying words.
• The Dukes of Hazzard: The movie version has Roscoe and Boss Hogg portrayed as traditional, competent evil guys instead of the goofball minor incompetents they usually were in the TV show. While they were corrupt, greedy jerks in the show, too, they were known to Pet the Dog on occasion, were relatively harmless villains, and had lines that they wouldn't cross - for example, Hogg hated violence and avoided physically harming people as part of his schemes.
• Elektra: Unlike the title character, who received the opposite of this trope in Daredevil (2003), Stone is a member of the Hand as opposed to a loyal devotee of the Chaste.
• Pazuzu, the demonic entity from The Exorcist, was originally a more ambivalent figure from Sumerian mythology. In mythology, while Pazuzu was a demon, his image was also invoked as protection for women and unborn children against his rival Lamashtu and to drive away other demons.
• In First Blood Police Chief Wilfred Teasle, gets a great deal in comparison to the book. Book Teasle is a beautifully deep and wonderfully complex Hero Antagonist who while deeply flawed, still has genuine sympathy and respect for Rambo and what he’s been through even while hunting Rambo down for the murders he’s committed. In the movie on other hand, since Rambo is a Lighter and Softer character who doesn’t deliberately kill anyone, Teasle gets the hard opposite being in the words of the original author a “stereotypical redneck”. Movie Teasle is just an unapologetic douchebag who looks down his nose at Rambo and gets pissy at the adoration and respect other characters give him. There is some fleeting hints in the film towards Teasle’s book background as a Korean War vet to partially justify his animosity with Rambo, but the film doesn’t expound upon them.
• Flubber: Shelby in The Absent-Minded Professor was not the main villain, but just a prideful Jerkass who gets in the way of Professor Brainard in his pursuits of his girlfriend. In the remake, he is renamed Wilson and he is The Man Behind the Man.
• Frankenstein:
  • There are a lot of film adaptations in which the monster is portrayed as, well... a monster. In the original book, Frankenstein's "monster" is actually a tragic, erudite victim of circumstance. In the most famous adaptation, it's suggested that the monster became evil and dangerous because Frankenstein was given a criminal's brain to create it, while the book, where the monster becomes violent and vengeful after bad treatment from humans, comes down on the "nurture" side of the Nature vs. Nurture debate.
  • Victor Frankenstein himself is also a complex character with plenty of sympathetic moments, but many films portray him as a two-dimensional cackling Mad Scientist who is often willing to kill people to use as parts for his monster, while Victor in the book, for all his faults, never killed anyone for his creation. For instance, in The Curse of Frankenstein, Victor murders an elderly college professor to use his brain for the monster, which he does not do in the book. He also uses the monster to kill his maid Justine, while in the book Justine was deliberately framed by the creature for the murder of Victor's brother and Victor is genuinely upset by her trial and execution.
• The film adaptation of The Giver paints the Chief Elder as a Knight Templar villain. In the book, she was a fairly minor character.
• Godzilla:
  • Throughout the various films, Godzilla has at best been a force of nature, neither good nor evil, a large animal that only attacks humans when provoked or needs radiation for sustenance who just happens to pass through cities on the way to nuclear plants, and unintentionally saves them from a greater threat. However, the Godzilla in Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack! is the original Godzilla (the film's version is nicknamed "Ghost Godzilla" by fans), brought back to life through the vengeful spirits of victims from World War II, and is attacking Japan out of purely evil reasons.
  • Godzilla 1985 has some changes in its portrayals of the Cold War superpowers that reflect the perceptions of those powers in the US as opposed to Japan. What's the same in both versions is that a nuclear missile is launched at Tokyo from a Soviet satellite when Godzilla appears there, and the US military successfully intercepts it with a missile of its own. In the Japanese version, both the US and the Soviet Union are shown to have nuclear-armed satellites and while the Soviets do launch a nuclear missile, it was more out of desperation and misguidance than malice. In the US cut, produced by New World Pictures under the direction of conservative studio executives, the shots depicting the American satellite are removed and while the USSR still want to nuke Godzilla, the Soviets are more ruthless and malicious in intent.
  • Godzilla's offspring in Godzilla (1998) are the film's secondary villains, shown eating people after they run out of fish due to said humans smelling like the fish. Minilla and Baby Godzilla were never shown to attack people even once. It wouldn't be until Godzilla Fillius that one of his sons was an enemy to humanity again.
  • In Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), the Terror-dactyl kaiju Rodan is depicted as an outright antagonist, siding with King Ghidorah and becoming The Dragon to him after being defeated by him. Notably, Rodan in previous films has often been depicted as Godzilla's ally, or the very least a neutral figure playing off as a Token Evil Teammate. At the end, though, Rodan joins Godzilla's side after Ghidorah is defeated. Speaking of which, King Ghidorah himself is much more vile than he was in the original Toho version, being a direct Satanic Archetype who goes out of his way to try and kill a small girl who crossed him.
  • Played With regarding Godzilla vs. Kong featuring Mechagodzilla. The original version was built by aliens who wanted to conquer Earth, while future films reinvent the character as built by humans for to defeat Godzilla. This version is based more on the more recognizable take on the character, but is instead built by a Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist who seeks to assert dominance over the Titans rather than any actual good. This version of Mecha G has one of the brains of deceased King Ghidorah as part of its computer, so when it awakens inside its new body, it kills off its creators and goes on a rampage. This makes this version the only one to be genuinely evil, as the original was just a war machine with no mind of its own.
  • Godzilla Minus One: Arguably, this Godzilla is the least sympathetic version since GMK. Whereas previous versions of Godzilla treat human deaths as collateral damage when something else has his attention, this Godzilla actively hunts down humans and inflict the most possible damage even while there is no other present threat. Most notably, during his rampage in Ginza, he throws train carriages into the path of moving trains and crushes fleeing civilians under his feet even though they don't pose a threat to him. Even before being horrifically mutated by the atom bomb, this Godzilla is violently hostile towards humans so he doesn't even have the Freudian Excuse to provide tragic rationale to his actions.
• Hairspray: While Velma Von Tussle is the villain in all versions, she is portrayed as a considerably darker character in the 2007 film, which shows her rigging the Miss Hairspray pageant, attempting to seduce Wilbur, and even implying she may have murdered her husband for startup money ("He... accidentally suffocated himself"), none of which she did in the original stage musical or the original film. This is also apparent in her ultimate fate in each version: in the 2007 remake, she is taken down by Wilbur and Edna in an Engineered Public Confession, while in the show she does a last-minute Heel–Face Turn due to The Power of Rock (the original movie, for the record, ended with her and her husband arrested for trying to bomb Tracy with an explosive hidden inside a wig).
• Harry Potter:
  • Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire excised a lot of Barty Crouch Jr.'s more sympathetic traits, particularly his love for his mother and the scorn and neglect he received from his father, which partially explained why he looked up to Voldemort as a mentor figure. In the film he just seems to join the Death Eaters entirely For the Evulz.
  • Umbridge was still a horrifically vile person in the books, but she only inflicted her "Blood-Quill" punishment method on two students (Harry and Lee Jordan), as well as getting Fred, George, and Harry a lifetime note ban from playing Quidditch. In the film, she did it to practically every student who disagreed with her, even first years, and threatened McGonagall with everything up to legal action on trumped-up charges.
  • From the same movie Percy Weasley is shown as a Ministry enforcer arresting Harry without explanation with even Harry uttering "Percy?" in confusion while being held by him during the scene in Dumbledore's Office. In the book it's detailed that Percy had a massive falling out with his father and became estranged with his family due to his loyalty to the Ministry who wanted to silence Harry. However since that subplot was omitted from the film, it seems like Percy just pulled a Face–Heel Turn against his allies for no good reason.
  • Pius Thicknesse, the nominal head of the Ministry when the Death Eaters take over, was explicitly Mind Controlled in the books. The movies give him a slightly bigger role but don't even hint at this, making him seem like The Quisling.
  • Peter Pettigrew. In the films, he seems generally nastier than in the novels, giving quite a few taunting Psychotic Smirks on his reveal, whereas in the books he's more of a Dirty Coward.
  • Minor character Scabior one of the Snatchers who capture Harry, Ron and Hermione gets a good deal of this. In the Deathly Hallows book he was pretty much the Token Good Teammate of the Snatchers and an example of Even Evil Has Standards, he even offers genuine sympathy to Harry when he pretends be a Muggle-born Slytherin. In the film however he’s an overtly sinister leering creep who has multiple I Have You Now, My Pretty moments with Hermione. This likely due to the filmmakers taking Fenrir Greyback’s personality (right down to the sexual predator vibes in regards to Hermione) as well his role among the Snatchers and giving it to Scabior.
  • Grindelwald, while being the Predecessor Villain in both the books and the films of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, doesn’t have the Redemption Equals Death moment he does in the book. When Voldemort comes to get the Elder Wand from him, he snarks at him, tells him he’ll never understand its true power, and then lets him kill him. While why he ultimately does that is open to a few different interpretations (see note)^note  Voldemort was going to desecrate Dumbledore’s and he doesn’t want that to happen. This could be out of romantic affection, just general respect, or he could just draw a line at desecrating a grave. It could also be out of genuine remorse for what he’d done. Another way to look at it is that he was a Death Seeker after being looked in a prison for half a century, especially after the only person he’d arguably ever cared about had died., in the movie he gleefully tells Voldemort where to get the wand.
  • Crabbe's actor was unable to appear in the final film, so Blaise Zabini was brought in to round out Draco and Goyle's trio. In the books he's a Fantastic Racist, but nothing implies that he's an actual Death Eater.
• Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers: Anubis gets this once again, this time being a Human Sacrifice demanding god of chainsaws instead of the benevolent god of mummification.
• How the Grinch Stole Christmas!: In the 2000 film adaptation, the Whos are for the most part more materialistic and unsympathetic than they were in the book, in part to make the Grinch more sympathetic. In the film, while well-meaning and never deliberately nasty, they are extremely commercial and need to learn what Christmas really means. In the book and animated special, the Whos kept up the Christmas spirit, even after the Grinch stole their gifts, without any prompting, and this is what impresses the Grinch into a Heel–Face Turn.
• In The Howling (1981), Bill ends up being a fair bit more villainous than his novel counterpart, Roy. While Roy is no saint and treats his wife poorly, even after becoming a werewolf he attempts to fight back against his more malevolent impulses, warning Karyn to run after luring her into a trap and fighting another werewolf to protect her. In contrast, Bill becomes physically abusive towards Karen, ignores her pleas to save her from the other werewolves and joins in their attack on her and Chris, including being the one to bite her.
• The Iliad (AKA The Trojan War): Film and TV adaptations of this mythological tale tend to play up the villainy of the Greeks while portraying the Trojans in a more sympathetic light - despite the fact that it was started because their prince Paris stole Helen, wife of the Greek warrior king Menelaus. The 2004 film adaptation, Troy, in particular went to great lengths to portray both Menelaus and his older brother, the supreme king of Greece, Agamemnon, as the bad guys. Agamemnon comes off as a shallow, superficial, one note mustache twirling bad guy. Now in the original poem Agamemnon's not exactly a nice man to begin with, but in the 2004 film he's practically a Nazi.
• Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom similar to the Pazuzu example in The Exorcist above gives Kali from Hindu Mythology this treatment. While she is a fierce goddess, Kali is really an example of Dark Is Not Evil being a Terror Hero who protects the innocent from harm. In the film however, she’s worshipped by the radical Thuggee cult, who sacrificed innocent people to her and brainwash people supposedly using her blood. Now granted this demonic portrayal of Kali, completely not in line with mainstream Hinduism stems from Big Bad Mola Ram and the Thuggee who have a misaimed and twisted perception of her, but the film doesn’t make that distinction, painting Kali as an outright God of Evil. It even implies she’s responsible for dark supernatural elements like the blood that turns Indy evil.
• Into the Woods:
  • Cinderella's Prince. At least in the musical he had nine plus months to get bored with married life; here he turns around and cheats on Cinderella with the Baker's Wife practically the day after their wedding!
  • The Witch also comes off worse in the adaptation, as her warnings to Rapunzel (who apparently survives) about the dangers of the world come to naught, taking away the (thin) justification for having kept her locked up but "safe" all those years. She also seems more villainous for wanting to turn over a younger Jack over to the Giantess, compared to the older versions of Jack seen onstage, and also because she doesn't have the trauma of having watched Rapunzel get squashed by the giantess to drive her over the edge into despair.
• It's a Wonderful Life: In the short story that the film is based on, "The Greatest Gift", Mr. Potter is only the owner of a photography studio and doesn't meet, much less cause problems for, George Bailey. In the movie, he is a corrupt slumlord, Jerkass, and all-around nasty piece of work who goes out of his way to make George's life a living hell (and almost drives him to suicide).
• James Bond:
  • In the books, Ernst Stavro Blofeld was a thoroughly nasty individual. However, he did have lines he wouldn't cross and some humanizing moments. For example, when he learns that a young woman he'd been holding hostage had been raped while in his captivity, he executes the minion responsible and refunds part of her ransom. The movie version lacks these moral standards and moments of altruism, and his schemes — if successfully carried out — would have even more devastating consequences. This contrast is especially pronounced in the book and film versions of You Only Live Twice: in the book, he's "collecting death" by letting people commit suicide at a Japanese castle he owns; in the movie, he's trying to start a war between the United States and the Soviet Union.
    • In Spectre, Big Bad Franz Oberhauser is one of the worst villains in the Bond franchise, being that he relishes in wanton violence. It's later revealed that Oberhauser was not only the man who was behind all of the misery Bond faced since Casino Royale (2006), and is later revealed to be not only Bond's older but estranged step-brother, and has renamed himself Ernst Stavro Blofeld. In short, Blofeld in the Daniel Craig era is really a monster compared to the icy sociopath he was in the earlier films.
  • Kronsteen gets this treatment in From Russia with Love. While he was hardly a nice guy in the book, he was nevertheless just a Soviet operative doing his job. Here, he's a high-ranking member of one of the world's worst criminal organizations.
• John Carter: In the book, Sab Than gets very little characterization but comes off as something of a Worthy Opponent, while the movie version is a straight-up villain. This is due in part to his being a Composite Character of book!Sab Than and his father, Evil Overlord Than Kosis, as well as the emphasis on the Helium vs. Zodanga conflict (Sab being the leader of the latter).
• Judge Dredd: Judge Griffin is one of the bad guys here, filling a similar role to Judge Cal from the comics in framing Dredd and trying to take over the city, but with the insanity toned down and paired up with Rico. Judge Griffin in the comics was one of Dredd's main allies against Cal and served as a decent Chief Judge for some time afterwards.
• Jumanji: In the original book, Van Pelt was only a lost jungle guide and harmless toward the main characters. In the movie, he is a murderous Egomaniac Hunter who likes Hunting the Most Dangerous Game.
• The Jungle Book (1994):
  • Zig-zagged with Kaa, as he is portrayed as a dragonlike monster who King Louie uses to protect the treasure from thieves. Same with King Louie, who also is affected by it, sending Kaa out to kill Mowgli before Mowgli uses a knife on the snake. However, they willingly helped Mowgli in dealing with Boone much later in the movie.
  • Played straight with Buldeo. In the original novel, Buldeo was just an arrogant hunter who plays off the villagers' superstition to turn against Mowgli for his own ambitions. Here, he became a wanted outlaw for provoking Shere Khan to murder Mowgli's father and two British soldiers, and is more sadistic and willing in his intents to help Boone and the others find the treasure in the jungle ruins, even if it means murdering several of Brydon's loyal soldiers and taking Brydon and Kitty hostage.
• The Jungle Book (2016): In the Disney animated version, King Louis is a goofy, bebopping orangutan who gets a bit cross but ultimately isn't terribly threatening when Mowgli can't give him fire. In the new movie, he's a Gigantopithicus with the mannerisms of a mob boss who tries to crush Mowgli to death when he doesn't get his way.
• Jurassic Park:
  • In the book, Donald Gennaro the lawyer, while a bit of a Jerkass, is reasonably brave; he volunteers for several dangerous missions, he goes on to punch out a Velociraptor at one point, becomes The Lancer to Alan Grant (and survives). In Jurassic Park (1993), Gennaro is a Dirty Coward who abandons any concerns about the park's safety and readiness once he realizes how lucrative it could be and gets bitten in half by a T-Rex while sitting on a toilet. The movie version of Gennaro inherited all his worst traits (including his depraved cowardice and his violent death) from the character Ed Regis, who appeared in the novel but not the movie. So he's actually a twofer — Adaptational Villainy combined with Composite Character.
  • In the book, Dennis Nedry had a reason for sabotaging the park and stealing the dinosaur DNA beyond sheer greed: InGen had essentially blackmailed him into adding extensive modifications to their already-extensive computer systems for no pay. In the movie, he's given no such justification and is in it for the money, being essentially an unscrupulous backstabber who is open to bribes. Though the book's explanation is given a nod when Dennis warns Dodgson, "Don't get cheap on me. That was Hammond's mistake."
  • Inverted with Hammond himself, who is much more sympathetic in the movies than in the book.
  • In Jurassic World and its sequel, geneticist Dr. Henry Wu turns his talents to designing dinosaurs as weapons, creating powerful hybrids like the Indominus rex and Indoraptor, both creatures intelligent, uncontrollable monsters even compared to the Velociraptors. On top of this, he associates with unambiguously villainous characters and intentionally created the I. rex as part of a conspiracy to sabotage Jurassic World. In the original book, Wu's worst crimes were overconfidence and his reluctance to take responsibility for the consequences of his work, but he's not a full-on villain and uncovers Nedry's sabotage of the park. He never shows interest in using his creations for military purposes and actually wanted to modify the dinosaurs to be slower and more docile than the "real" thing. His earlier appearance in a small role in the Jurassic Park film was closer to his original book counterpart morally speaking, but when he got a bigger role in Jurassic World, that's when the trope set in for him. Ultimately, he undergoes a Heel–Face Turn in Jurassic World Dominion, making amends for his mistakes.
• In The Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors by Vitaly Gubarev, Anidag is a cruel and scheming Rich Bitch, but she does genuinely love her father. In the film adaptation, even that sympathetic trait is gone and she plots to poison him so that he wouldn't hinder her rise to power.
• Kingsman: The Secret Service:
  • Eggsy's comics counterpart's upper-class, Oxbridge-educated fellow recruits do make some comments regarding his background, but they're mostly friendly and even fight alongside him in the finale. They're mostly all absolute dicks in the movie, though. One of them even turns up in Valentine's bunker party in the end and betrays Eggsy to Valentine.
  • Sir Giles, Arthur's equivalent character in the comics, does not join forces with the villain and attempt to poison the protagonist. This role is fulfilled by Rupert Greaves, Merlin's comic equivalent instead.
• Krampus. In most of the original tales, Krampus was simply doing his job of tormenting children who were naughty as he was a servant, or friend in some cases, of Santa Claus. In this film, Krampus is acting on his own and is pictured as a cruel, sadistic demon who enjoys tormenting children and adults, although the ending suggests he may have been simply trying to Scare 'Em Straight.
• Lady and the Tramp (2019): Downplayed. In this version, Elliot is hell-bent on capturing Tramp and strays out of normal procedures, such as barging in on the Darlings to do so. However, when they adopt him at the end, he drops the issue without argument.
• Land of the Lost: In the original TV show, Enik the Altrusian was gruff and somewhat self-centered, but was otherwise a good guy and helped the main characters when they needed it, in contrast to his more vicious Sleestak relatives. In the movie, he is a Manipulative Bastard and murderer who wiped out his own people, tries to Take Over the World with an army of mind-controlled Sleestaks, and briefly tricks the main characters into helping him do so.
• The Last Airbender: Fire Lord Ozai actually manages to be even worse in this version. Like in the cartoon canon, he scarred and banished his son, but in the cartoon he at least gave his son a small ship and crew, even if they were not royal guards or special forces. Zuko's Story revealed that when Zuko was banished from the palace in the film universe, he was forced to live on the streets and try to recruit a crew from bars and failed. Ultimately, Zuko had to resort to asking Azula to ask Ozai to give him a ship. And even then, Ozai only give Zuko the ship to get rid of Iroh.
• Les Misérables:
  • Two American film versions came out in periods of major hysteria about Communism, one in 1935 during the First Red Scare and the other in 1954 during the Cold War, and both of them portray Enjolras in an incredibly negative light, as a dangerous fanatic who co-opts Marius's nonviolent protest movement and turns it into a bloody rebellion. The '34 version even cast John Carradine, better known for numerous turns as Dracula, in the role. In the original novel and more accurate adaptations like the stage musical, he is of course the leader from the beginning and a borderline Messianic Archetype, and what's more, Marius isn't even all that die-hard of a follower. This change was quite obviously made because nobody would have accepted a violent revolutionary as a hero at the time.
  • Inspector Javert, while not that nice to begin with, is much more cruel in quite a few adaptations (such as the 34, 35, 52 and 98 versions).
• In the original film of The Little Shop of Horrors, Mr. Mushnik is one of the main viewpoint characters, a somewhat ridiculous but very likable small business owner, and one of the best representatives of that movie's extremely Jewish humour. In the stage musical adaptation, Mushnik is a little more morally ambiguous, but still basically a decent guy doing the best he can in a very bad situation, and his murder is treated as the moment Seymour really crosses the line and becomes a bad guy. In the movie of the musical, however, Seymour is portrayed a lot more sympathetically, which means that Mushnik gets a dose of this trope: he's a greedy, abusive boss who tries to blackmail Seymour over a previous (not entirely unjustified) murder. Notably, this version of Mushnik is a lot less Jewish than previous incarnations.
• In The Long Goodbye, unlike the novel it was based on, Terry Lennox really is the murderer. While he wasn't a very moral man in the book, he never actually killed anybody.
• Maleficent: King Stefan in Sleeping Beauty was a dashing debonair and loving Bumbling Dad who was fiercely protective of Aurora. He is a much nastier character in Maleficent, in which he is the Big Bad of the movie. He betrays Maleficent and cuts off her wings to become king, provoking her into cursing Aurora, and becomes increasingly more evil, tyrannical, paranoid, and unstable throughout the film, showing little love to his daughter and late wife. Also in the sequel, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Gerda is the female version of Lord Duke that is evil and corrupt. As Queen Ingrith’s evil stewardess, she carries her evil deeds in playing a pipe organ that unleashes a red iron dust that kills almost all the magical creatures of the Moors and Flittle, except Knotgrass and Thistlewit.
• Man-Thing: In the original comics featuring Man-Thing, he is a mindless, neutral being who burns people who feel negative emotions around him. However, he is a sympathetic character who usually only really harms Asshole Victims and can be protective of the innocent. In the movie, he is intentionally murderous and much more monstrous than the comics' Man-Thing.
• Matilda: The school's cook. In the book, she disapproves of Miss Trunchbull's abuse, but is unable to do anything about it due to her old age. In the film, the cook appears to be in cahoots with Miss Trunchbull and happily supports her child mistreatment. Also, Matilda's brother Michael; while he's the favorite child of the Wormwoods in the book, he doesn't taunt Matilda himself to the extent the film version does and in fact rarely interacts with her at all.
• The McKenzie Break: Schluter's book counterpart is willing to cruelly order the deaths of fellow prisoners, but he's far less enthusiastic about it and has a far lower bodycount than his film counterpart, who kills many people personally. The last act of the book also reveals that he is contemptuous of Hitler, while the film indicates that he is a diehard Nazi.
• Jim Phelps in Mission: Impossible (1996). In the original series, he was a major protagonist. It seems almost like a deconstruction of what the movie thinks is the 'idea' of Jim Phelps. He's a Cold War agent who ran his own show, but when the conflict is over he finds himself in a low-paying job without a say in policy and a lousy marriage to a woman he doesn't love, so he throws his morals out the window by selling out his country to work for money. Ethan Hunt works as a reconstructed successor to the antiquated "old spy" Jim Phelps, reaffirming his loyalty to his country after they turn on him and ushering in a new era of espionage.
• Thaddeus Valentine in Mortal Engines. While certainly no hero in the book, in the movie he murders Magnus Crome and tries to sacrifice London itself to destroy the Shield Wall.
• Mortal Kombat (2021):
  • Though he was always a murderous, amoral assassin, Bi-Han, the original Sub-Zero, joined the tournament in the first game to kill Shang Tsung. In the reboot, he's one of Shang Tsung's loyal enforcers, and helps in his plot to conquer Earthrealm. Also, while Bi-Han did kill Scorpion in the games, he was not involved in the death of his family, and had no idea that they and the rest of the Shirai Ryu clan would be murdered by Quan Chi. Here, Bi-Han not only killed Scorpion, but also his wife and son to ensure that the Hasashi bloodline would end there.
  • While he later returned to villainy in Deception, Kabal was a good guy in his first appearance and fought against the forces of Outworld. In the movie, he works for Shang Tsung against the heroes of Earthrealm.
  • In Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, Nitara was a neutral Anti-Hero, being the last of her kind as a vampire and is actually fighting against Shang Tsung and Shao Kahn, not for them. In the 2021 film, however, she's the loyal Dark Mistress of Shang Tsung.
• Murphy's War: The U-boat crew murders enemy sailors and then celebrates doing so while having a mock ceremony to award their captain a medal for the massacre. In the book XO Lauchs (who is solely responsible for the massacre in the book while his crewmates didn't know what he was doing until afterward.
• Harry Warden in My Bloody Valentine 3D compared to the original. The original Harry was motivated by a desire to avenge himself and his fellow miners, as he was the only one to survive the cave-in, all the other miners were killed instantly. Harry only killed the two men he blamed for the cave-in. The Harry in the remake is motivated by selfishness and sadism, as other miners survive the cave in, and Harry kills them himself to preserve his own air. After awakening from his coma, Harry massacres an entire hospital consisting mostly of invalid patients and (according to news reports) children, all seemingly for no reason.
• The Northman: Unlike the legend of Amleth, Gudrun encouraged Fjölnir's murder of Aurvandill. In addition, there's Gudrun's claims about Aurvandill's own villainy, which Amleth was oblivious to and which is presented as true, but this does in a way mirror the legend, as Feng made false claims about Horvendill's mistreatment of Gerutha to justify his usurpation.
• The Nutty Professor (1996): In the original Nutty Professor, Buddy Love is pretty obnoxious and conceited but doesn't do anything villainous. In this film, Buddy starts out as a likable guy but becomes evil as the film progresses, eventually attempting to make the transformation stable and permanent which would cause Sherman's identity to be entirely consumed and replaced by that of Buddy (as opposed to Sherman's being killed outright).
• October Sky: Homer's father is turned into a Jerkass, presumably because there wouldn't really be a villain otherwise. In the book it was based on, his father is much nicer and more supportive of his rocketry work.
• The Outlaw Josey Wales: A lot of the atrocities committed by the Union and the Redlegs in particular were invented wholesale for the film. For example, the massacre of surrendering Confederate bushwhackers never happened in the novel; there their oath was accepted and everyone parted ways with no more than a few insults. Also, the novel's Redlegs were pro-Union bushwhackers rather than Union regulars, and considerably less savage in their hunt for Confederate sympathizers.
• The Parent Trap (1961)/The Parent Trap (1998): In the original book, Lottie and Lisa, the father's fiancée is clearly an unsympathetic antagonist, but hardly a villain — she seemed to genuinely like the girls' father (even if attracted to his fame as well), wanted to have her own children with him and only planned to get rid of his daughter (by sending her to boarding school) after the latter came to her house to openly object to their marriage. The fiancée didn't actually get to do anything villainous. However, in both movies, she's portrayed as Child Hater and Gold Digger (in the original, she's in fact much richer than her would-be husband) who Would Hurt a Child and resents the daughter he has custody of just on principle.
• Paycheck: In the original short story, the only real threat for Jennings comes from the security police, not from Rethrick (who after the end of Jennings' contract actually offers him to work for the company again at any time). In the adaptation it's almost inverted - to the extent that Rethrick, of practically neutral alignment in the original, seems to be motivated primarily by For the Evulz in the film.
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Hades in the book series is imposing and menacing, described as resembling every dictator in human history, but it turns out that he isn't one of the bad guys, and he eventually helps fight against the Titans while his son Nico becomes an important ally of the protagonists. Not so much in the movie. In the book, his main goal was revealed to be to reclaim his Helmet of Darkness (which he wrongly believes Percy stole along with the Master Bolt), only wanting the bolt to use as a bargaining chip if Percy was not the one with the helmet. In the film he plans to use it to overthrow Zeus.
• In Pet Sematary (2019), the titular burial ground is apparently worse than it was in the original novel. In the novel, it was stated that most animals brought back to life in the sematary just come back 'off' rather than explicitly bad, but here Jud explicitly states that everything he's heard of that was brought back to life came back mean and cruel, and also acknowledges that the place has the power to twist minds so that they tell themselves it might work out better this time. This is explicitly demonstrated in Church, who far from the stinking, slightly dull cat of the novel or the hissing glow-eyed feline of the 1989 film, is actively malicious. It's implied that Church lured Ellie out into the path of the truck in revenge for Louis abandoning him outside of town.
• The Phantom (1943): Byron, Diana's love interest in the archaeological expedition, gets handed a Jerkass Ball near the end and becomes an antagonist for the sake of monetary gain. The Byron of the comics, even as a rival to the Phantom for Diana, was never less than honorable.
• The Phantom of the Opera (1989): Unlike most versions of the Phantom, there's absolutely nothing tragic or sympathetic about the title character. He's a slasher-style killer who sold his soul to the Devil and makes masks out of his victims' skin.
• The Phantom of the Opera (1998): The theatre owners in the novel are well-meaning bumblers who are completely out of their depth. In this film, one of them is a pedophile who attempts to prey on the young girls of the ballet and gets his comeuppance at the hands of the Phantom.
• Planet of the Apes (2001): The entire ape society. In the original movies, they evolved from slave apes who Turned Against Their Masters. In the remake, there's no sign that the apes were oppressed in any meaningful way but still rebel against humans due to a particular power-hungry ape among them (from whom General Thade descended). Also, the humans they have currently enslaved themselves are shown to possess actual sapience, whereas Nova and her people, in the originals, were mute and had an intellect on par with cows. Finally, Thade's reasons for wanting to exterminate all humans are driven more by bigotry and lust for power compared to Dr. Zaius' genuine worry about the inherent destructiveness of humankind since he's actually seen the results of their atomic war. Zaius would certainly never consider casually murdering another ape to advance his own plans like Thade did.
• The Stinger of Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City gives this treatment to Ada Wong, who (in a big case of Swapped Roles) is the sinister agent of Umbrella who hires Wesker to be The Mole and betray the good guys, unlike the games such as RE4 in which Wesker is the one employing Ada to do Umbrella's dirty work before she betrays them for a third party. Since Ada's humanizing traits, such as her relationship with Leon during the events of RE2, are Adapted Out, she's a clear cut Greater-Scope Villain rather than the morally neutral Femme Fatale from the games.
• In RoboCop (2014), Chief Karen Dean, the Gender Flipped version of Sgt. Reed, Murphy's supervising officer from the original trilogy is presented as a Corrupt Cop aligned with crime boss Antoine Vallon, whereas Reed was an honest cop who stood up to OCP.
• The Satan Bug: Alistair MacLean's novel has a climax taking place aboard a helicopter. In the book, the pilot is an innocent bystander forced by the villain to fly the copter for him, and he and the hero cooperate to defeat the villain. In the movie, however, the pilot has become a henchman of the villain and even tries to kill the hero.
• Scooby-Doo (2002): While Scrappy-Doo was previously an ally of the good guys in the series (although disliked by a lot of fans), in the movie, has a Face–Heel Turn and becomes the Big Bad, trying to kill Scooby and friends by sucking out their souls. His motivation in the film is anger at the Mystery, Inc. gang for kicking him out of the Mystery Machine when he demanded that they make him leader.
• The book The Seven-Per-Cent Solution treats Moriarty's status as a criminal mastermind as something that Sherlock, in a drugged up state, only imagines. The movie does this too, but he is not entirely innocent either. In the book, Moriarty is merely the person who informs Sherlock of his mother's affair and death at her husband's hands. In the film, Moriarty actually is Mrs. Holmes' lover, and Sherlock sees him flee the scene after Squire Holmes shoots his wife dead, right in front of Moriarty and Sherlock.
• The Servants Of Twilight: In the Made-for-TV Movie adaptation of Dean Koontz's book, the Private Detective protagonist's friend/mentor Henry is revealed to be a member of the cult trying to kill his client/love interest's son, whom the cultists believe to be The Antichrist. The possibility of Henry being The Mole is discussed in the novel but is a Red Herring. Additionally, the end of the movie reveals that the boy is The Antichrist, while the novel was ambiguous leaning towards "probably not, no point in worrying"; whether or not this negates the "villainy" of the first example is up to the viewer.
• The Shawshank Redemption: While the various wardens and headscrews aren't nice people in the novella, they don't go as far as to murder anyone, as Samuel Norton and Byron Hadley do to Tommy Williams in the movie. In the novella, Norton instead transfers Tommy to another prison in exchange for his silence on Andy's innocence, and Hadley retired before Norton's tenure.
• Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows:
  • Moriarty, much like the 2010 TV show and other adaptations has his evilness dialed up to Hannibal Lecter-levels. While he was a criminal mastermind in the books, Arthur Conan Doyle painted Moriarty as a genuinely polite villain who was a Benevolent Boss to his underlings. In the 2011 film, Moriarty is a Faux Affably Evil sociopath who willingly targets Watson and Mary on their honeymoon even after Sherlock explicitly requested he keep them out of their conflict - purely for spite's sake. Also while he does have Villain Respect for Holmes like the book, that doesn't stop him giving Sherlock Cold-Blooded Torture while singing along to "Die Forelle" on a phonograph. He doesn't even have his literary counterpart's care for his underlings poisoning Irene Adler for failing him in his first scene. Moriarty's plans likewise are more diabolic than the book where his schemes didn't extend beyond London, here he is trying to destabilize Europe's governments and instigate a world war.
  • Downplayed but Irene Adler in the first film and sequel (much like the 2010 show) is the direct subordinate (pretty much Dark Mistress) of Moriarty. In the book "A Scandal in Bohemia", Irene's worst crime was withholding a incriminating picture of herself with the King of Bohemia but of which she has no intention of using, only keeping it as protection against him and overall she's more of a Hero Antagonist. In the films she commits (albeit half-heartedly) multiple crimes and acts of terrorism on Moriarty's orders. It's still downplayed though as Irene's Dating Catwoman relationship and alliance with Holmes helps redeem her, although it does also get her killed by Moriarty in the second film.
• She (1965): Billali, a leader of the Amahaggers who in the novel is a friend and helper to Holly and Leo, is evil in the film, kidnapping Leo on Ayesha's orders and trying to kill Leo in order to gain immortality in the fire.
• The Shining: The book version of The Shining makes Jack more sympathetic than in the movie and he ultimately redeems himself and doesn't kill anyone in the book. It was this factor that launched criticism from its creator, Stephen King (mostly because Jack is an Author Avatar for King himself when he struggled with alcoholism).
• Zoffy has constantly been a Big Brother Mentor to the Ultra Brothers in the Ultra Series. In Shin Ultraman, Zōffy is the one who summons Zetton to destroy the Earth at the film's climax, believing that if humanity gains access to the Beta System, they will threaten the balance of the universe.
  • Ironically, Zōffy's Adaptation Name Change, black and gold color scheme, and role are based on an erroneous Monster Encyclopedia for the original series.
• Sodom and Gomorrah: The sins of Sodom and Gomorrah are only vaguely described in the Bible. Here, the film omits any homosexuality (per censorship at the time) aside from it being implied with Bera and her handmaid. Drunkenness, greed, sadistic punishments, selfishness and slavery take its place (some of which are at least somewhat implied in the Bible's later references to the cities, but not elaborated on).
• In Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik manages to be even more sadistic and cruel than he is in the source material despite being Laughably Evil. While no version of Robotnik is a Nice Guy, in the games he holds a certain amount of respect for his adversaries and has a sense of self-restraint when it comes to achieving his goals. Here, not only is he a massive Jerkass and Insufferable Genius who is pretty much incapable of being in the vicinity of another living being for very long without being rude and condescending to them, but he also has no regard for the lives of other people and actively holds contempt for his fellow man. While Eggman in the games lived by Despotism Justifies the Means, movie Eggman went off the deep end after getting stuck in Mushroom Hill Zone for almost a year and upgrades it to Dystopia Justifies the Means in the sequel.
• The Sound of Music:
  • In the original stage production, Rolfe finds the Von Trapp family and calls for his Lieutenant, but decides not to turn them in after seeing Liesl. In the movie, Rolfe almost lets them get away after the Captain takes his gun but ends up calling for the Nazis anyway.
  • Zig-Zagged with Baroness Schroeder. She's cattier to Maria in the film adaptation, and even that is fairly downplayed, but once she realizes she's lost the Captain to her, she exits much more gracefully and amicably than in the original stage musical, where she hardly interacts with Maria at all, and she and the captain split messily after it becomes clear they can't agree on whether or not to collaborate with or oppose the Nazis.
• Star Trek: First Contact would famously do this with the Borg. While highly destructive, frightening and one of the greatest threats in the Trek universe, the Borg aren’t necessarily completely evil and do have capacity for good. Episodes like "I Borg" from Star Trek: The Next Generation and a lot of Star Trek: Voyager stress that the Borg are not that different from all the rest of the races in the universe and can actually reform and help other cultures in decidedly non-antagonist roles. First Contact however empathises their villainous traits portraying the Borg as little more than Always Chaotic Evil robo space zombies, in addition to giving them an evil Hive Queen. Sadly, due to the success of First Contact, this more malevolent take on the Borg would become the norm and is folded into later installments such Star Trek: Picard.
• Star Trek Into Darkness:
  • The film gives a darker view on Khan's origins. In the original series, Khan's origins depicted him as a "benevolent tyrant" who was repressive but not wholly murderous (though he may have just been a Villain with Good Publicity; it's rather odd, but nobody in Starfleet had even heard of the guy, even though he was supposedly a prominent warlord). Into Darkness has Spock state that history indicates that Khan and his followers were planning to destroy those deemed inferior. Khan doesn't confirm it but doesn't deny it either. The tie-in comics clarify the situation: Khan was genuinely a Well-Intentioned Extremist who saw himself as the savior of humanity and wanted to rule, not destroy. However, he used very questionable methods (including nuking Washington D.C. and Moscow) which would certainly justify humanity recording in their history that he was an Omnicidal Maniac.
  • While we never knew what Admiral Marcus's intentions were in the original series, it would be safe to assume he wasn't a Manipulative Bastard who wanted to start a war with the Klingons.
• Street Fighter: Dee-Jay and Zangief are portrayed as lackeys of M. Bison (although the former is Only in It for the Money and the latter does a Heel–Face Turn at the end).
• Striptease: Chris Rojo is a spoiled party boy involved in bribing Dilbeck in both versions, but the film makes his father or his uncle a Composite Character and he participates in the debate about whether to murder Mordecai. Chris favors paying the blackmailer and letting him live, but he doesn't stop his father from going through with the murder.
• Tekken (2010):
  • In the games, Yoshimitsu is an honorable, Robin Hood-like warrior who helps those who cannot help themselves, while in the movie, he's corrupt and accepts a bribe to kill Jin during their bout, even though he ultimately fails.
  • Likewise, Kazuya lacks his tragic origin story and is just straight-up evil from the beginning, with it even being implied that he raped Jun when they were younger.
  • Law is an Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy who seems to take pleasure in hurting his opponents, in contrast to his humorous, good-natured characterization from the games.
• Tetris (2023): The real Robert Stein was more direct in his dealings and was, in fact, already negotiating handheld rights with Atari when Henk Rogers contacted him^note  In reality, the Game Boy had already been out in Japan, without any bundled games, for some time by then, meaning he didn't go behind his back to screw him. His company, Andromeda Software, was also much more than a simple IP leecher; it had, in fact, developed over 70 titles by the time Tetris came along, and Stein is known in his home country as "The Father of Hungarian Video Game Development". Also, the movie severely underplays the fact that he was the man who discovered Tetris, recognised its huge potential and first bought it to a wider audience. In general, he was a much more complicated and sympathetic person than the Corrupt Bureaucrat with a Chronic Backstabbing Disorder portrayed in the movie.
• While they didn't become villains of their own free will, in The Thing (1982), Bennings and Norris are absorbed by the title creature and become alien agents. In "Who Goes There?", the original short story, these two characters were never assimilated and remain human throughout the story. In particular, the scene where Thing!Norris kills Dr. Copper is absent, and Copper survives, too, Norris in particular remaining a useful ally in exposing and defeating the alien. While Bennings's fate is a little more ambiguous, he isn't listed by Copper at the end as one of the casualties, heavily suggesting he survived.
• In The Thing from Another World, the scientists are naive in general but Dr. Carrington sticks out as The Load, thinking that the blatantly hostile alien is Not Evil, Just Misunderstood long after it starts killing people - he actively sabotages the heroes to protect the alien, who clearly couldn't care less, and grows miniature Things for his own research. Since this version of the Thing has no assimilation powers, he doesn't even have that excuse. In the short story, while many of them do vote to thaw the creature, none of the scientists are under any illusions that the alien can be reasoned with once it reveals itself as hostile. Dr. Blair in particular, likely Carrington's original counterpart, snaps under guilt over his vote and stress and tries to kill everyone in an attempt to stop it from spreading, although this only gets him locked up and assimilated. Other scientist characters, like Norris and and MacReady himself (a trained meteorologist in the short story) are both competent and heroic. In the Truer to the Text 1982 film, both of the characters whose scientific training is highlighted, Blair and Fuchs, quickly realize how dangerous the Thing is and try to take an active role in fighting it. Not that it does either one any good - Blair becomes too unhinged and paranoid to work with the others and is infected at some point while Fuchs, in the best-case scenario, committed a painful suicide to save himself from being digested alive, his research giving the alien a reason to take him out quickly.
• The Three Musketeers:
  • In most film adaptations, Rochefort is turned into The Dragon of Cardinal Richelieu and is usually killed in a climactic fight with d'Artagnan. In the novel, he insults d'Artagnan and steals his letter of recommendation in the beginning. He barely appears in the rest of the story. Occasionally d'Artagnan spots him and tries to chase him down to have a duel, but never catches him. At the end, Richelieu orders them to become friends, which they eventually do after several non-lethal duels. The Musketeer from 2001 even elevates him to Dragon-in-Chief who goes rogue and takes the Queen and the love interest hostage with his army of mooks, horrifying Richelieu (well, the character is named Febre and Rochefort is actually in the film as well separately, but Febre is clearly based on Rochefort, so this is just a case of Decomposite Character). Both The Musketeer and the 1993 Three Musketeers make him the killer of D'Artagnan's father. In the novel, D'Artagnan's father is still alive.
  • Richelieu himself is probably one of the biggest examples in all of fiction. Several adaptations make him out to be the Big Bad with diabolical intentions when in fact the original novel portrayed him as an Anti-Villain at worst. He's not exactly a good guy and he is a devious schemer, but he's more interested in making sure that he has more influence over the King than the Queen or anyone else does. Otherwise, all of his actions are ultimately intended for what he views as the good of France. He's willing to commit some small crimes and immoral actions to get that far, but he isn't trying to have the King or Queen murdered or attempting to take over the country. Doubles with Historical Villain Upgrade as well, since the novel version is much closer to the Richelieu of real life.
  • The real villain of the original novel ends up being M'lady de Winter, Richelieu's actual dragon who he eventually decides is a dangerous liability because she's a dangerously homicidal Manipulative Bitch. She's the instigator of most of the Musketeers problems -part of her problem with D'Artagnan is 100% his fault, but she severely overreacts- and her vendettas and manipulation eventually tick off not only the Musketeers but her ex-brother-in-law.
  • The Three Musketeers (2011) does this to Buckingham, along with a Historical Villain Upgrade. In the books he's an adversary of France just by virtue of being English. And shtupping the Queen. But otherwise he's presented as a wise and honorable man who assists d'Artagnan and the Musketeers on a number of occasions in their duties to the Queen, before Milady is sent to assassinate him by Richelieu over his support of Protestant rebels at La Rochelle. In this film he's working with Milady.
• Turkish Mockbuster film Three Big Men, has Captain America and El Santo fighting together in order to stop the evil criminal mastermind Spider-Man. He is portrayed as a visibly overweight sadistic leader of a gang who delights in killing his enemies via boat propellers, switchblades, and bloodthirsty guinea pigs.
• Tolkien's Legendarium:
  • The Lord of the Rings:
    • The book version of Denethor was a complicated man with genuine wisdom and virtues, who had reasons for his obstructionism and harmful decisions—secretly, he had access to a palantír of his own, which Sauron had used to fool him into despair and increasing madness with disinformation. The film was obliged to skip these details, and the character looked far more malignant and callous as a result. His favoritism of Boromir and his dislike for Faramir are also much more blatant, and he's much more hostile towards the latter.
    • In a case that's more Adaptational Anti-Heroism, Faramir, although on the good side in both, is more antagonistic towards the hobbits in the film version of The Two Towers than he was in the book. He also falls under the Ring's spell in the movie - in the book, he's smart enough to know that anything made by Sauron is probably dangerous, and is one of the only human characters to reject the Ring. Word of God says it was because they didn't have enough time to do the complex character development that scene would require to explain why Faramir is able to refuse without even being tempted.
    • In the books, Saruman does not seek a sincere alliance with Sauron, merely to give the impression of one until he can take the One Ring for himself and then use it against Mordor. He can hardly be called a good guy, but at least he doesn't support the current Dark Lord — rather, he wants to take Sauron's place. The films turn Saruman into a sincere ally of Sauron who has completely gone over to the latter's side.
    • Ugluk, Saruman's Uruk-hai leader, while evil in the book as well, is shown to have a code of honor, believes himself to be heroic, and is very offended at the thought of eating orc flesh. In the movie adaptation, Ugluk's Even Evil Has Standards moments are cut, as opposed to disdaining cannibalism, in the film Ugluk gleefully kills and eats one of his men.
  • The Hobbit:
    • In The Hobbit, the Master of Laketown is a greedy, corrupt coward but doesn't actively get in Bard's way. In The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, he is more openly antagonistic towards Bard, who he sees as a rival, to the point of locking him up while the dragon is approaching the town.
    • Thranduil/The Elvenking, while more a Jerkass than a villain, has his unpleasant and racist side played up to the hilt in the movies, with less emphasis on his redeeming qualities. In the book, he is the most reluctant between himself, Thorin, and Bard to start a war over Smaug's treasure, shifts his priorities from claiming the dragon's hoard towards providing relief to the survivors of Smaug's attack on Laketown, and is considerably warmer to Bilbo. He also seems to be on good terms with his son Legolas by the time of The Lord of the Rings (he's the one who sent Legolas to the Council of Elrond), while his actions ultimately estrange them in the films.
    • The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey: The Great Goblin, only in comparison of his reasons for being a villain in both versions. The sole reason is his willingness to help kill Thorin for Azog even before the dwarves are caught in Goblintown, whereas in the book, he and the goblins believe the dwarves are spies and have come to attempt to destroy them. It doesn't help that Gandalf kills him in attempt to save the dwarves. Not to mention the goblins pursued Thorin's company to avenge their ruler, and even worse, later in the book after the slaying of Smaug, the goblins believed the dwarves, elves, and men to be more of a threat with Smaug's treasure, regardless of the three armies not exactly willing to share the treasure. In the first film, Gandalf's killing of the Great Goblin is justified as Azog and his own orcs are pursuing the dwarves since the beginning, and instead of the Goblintown goblins following Thorin's company, Azog's orcs continue to follow. Additionally the Great Goblin valued goblin lives in the book, while in the movie version kills his own men For the Evulz.
    • Smaug the Golden, while still a wicked and greedy dragon, is still far less vile than the other evil forces in Middle-earth like the Orcs and Sauron. In the movie, Smaug's evil traits are dialed up and it's clear he butchered the Dwarven race out of sadistic pleasure, not just for their treasure hoard. Additionally Smaug's attack on Lake Town in the book was because he mistakenly thought Bilbo and the Dwarves were working for them (thanks to Bilbo calling himself "Barrel Rider"), meaning it was Misplaced Retribution more than anything else. In the movie Smaug sees firsthand that it's actually Thorin and the Dwarven company trying to kill him, but For the Evulz Smaug goes and attacks the unaware Lake Town anyway, just to spite them and Bilbo in particular. The Extended Edition of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies puts the cherry on top, revealing Smaug was an ally of Sauron all along.
    • In a similar case to Faramir above, Beorn, while not a villain by any means, is harsher and more menacing towards the dwarves than he was in the book, and is introduced attacking them in bear form. In the book, he's a generally more comical character and ultimately reasonable after a bit of convincing from Gandalf. He's still Anti-Hero-ish and potentially dangerous — although mainly to goblins and Wargs.
• Touch of Evil:
  • In the original novel, Quinlan is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who is innocent of framing anyone while his partner is the Big Bad. In the film, he's guilty.
  • In the book, the victim's son-in-law is innocent of his murder, while in the film, the Knight Templar cop apparently succeeds in framing the right person.
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon: Sentinel Prime, in his earliest appearances in the Transformers comics, was Optimus Prime's predecessor as Autobot leader, and is usually depicted as a good guy. Here however, he is the Big Bad and has no qualms about killing and enslaving humans to restore Cybertron. Granted, this isn't the first time Sentinel's actions were morally reprehensible, but this is the first time that he's depicted as an outright villain. Though, there were plans that, in season 4 of Transformers Animated, Sentinel would have taken a possibly much more antagonistic role.
  • There was a possibility that it could have gone even further, with early treatments and call sheets putting future Autobot leader Ultra Magnus in Sentinel Prime's role, but this was changed after early test screenings.
• In Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Ned Land is one of the main heroes, and even more emphasized in the 1954 Disney film in which he's pretty much THE lead hero. However, in the 1997 TV-movie adaptation starring Michael Caine as Captain Nemo, Ned Land (Bryan Brown) is a despicable villain. Probably because being a harpoonist, thus making a living out of killing whales, was no longer fashionable enough to be a good guy in the 90s.
• Happens to Shuichi Saito in the film adaptation of Uzumaki. In the original manga, Shuichi is a well-intentioned Waif Prophet who Looks Like Cesare from spending too much time without sleep. He and the protagonist, Kirie, spend about equal amounts of time protecting one another from danger or at least attempting to. In the film, he's an abusive twenty year old "dating" the much younger Kirie while trying to take the place of a lost parent. He's also the primary antagonist.
• V for Vendetta: Adam Susan in the comic book is arguably already a villain, but of the Anti-Villain sort and gives the air of a rather complex psychological profile. Adam Sutler in the film is an all-out Card-Carrying Villain shouting (idle) threats at his minions and basically begging for the audience to root for his downfall.
• In Victor Frankenstein, the Monster is not a sympathetic Anti-Villain or childlike creature. It's just a mindless killing machine that needs to be put down.
• Vikingdom: Thor in the original Norse myths was considered mankind's friend and protector who frequently defended Midgard from giants and monsters. In this movie, he is a vengeful Omnicidal Maniac bent on destroying Midgard by fusing it with Vallhala and Hel in response to humans abandoning their religion in place for Christianity. It could be possible this version is a Fallen Hero, but he seldom lacks positive qualities, as he commits many atrocities as well as being generally a Bad Boss who doesn't care for his mortal underlings.
• War of the Worlds (2005) presents Harlan Ogilvy as a violent madman. In the book, Ogilvy is an astronomer who, far from being violent, was the narrator's friend who was killed by the Martians early on during an attempt at communication. The character's more antagonistic and unhinged personality comes from the deranged curate that the narrator meets in a cellar, not Ogilvy himself.
• Weird: The Al Yankovic Story does this with Madonna, and how! She ends up becoming an international drug lord who has Al assassinated.
• Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory:
  • Veruca Salt, like in the book, was an insufferable brat, but despite having a rich dad, she is willing give the Everlasting Gobstopper to Slugworth for more money. This is what sets Charlie apart from her. Despite losing out on the chocolate he was promised by sneaking fizzy-lifting drinks, Charlie doesn't have it in his heart to cheat Wonka and gives back his Gobstopper.
  • Violet was very much a Designated Villain in the book. While not as mean as she is in the 2005 film, here she's shown to be far more arrogant than she is in the book - as well as frequently fighting with Veruca.
  • Slugworth is only given a brief mention in the book as one of Wonka's candy making rivals. Here, he's portrayed as a Corrupt Corporate Executive who bribes the golden ticket finders with money and a better life in exchange for stealing an Everlasting Gobstopper from Wonka. Ultimately subverted when "Slugworth" reveals himself to be an employee of Wonka who subjects the kids to the Secret Test of Character.
  • Mrs. Teavee is the only parent known to have accepted Slugworth's offer to acquire an Everlasting Gobstopper for him. Moreover, she and her son, Mike, spend their time on the tour looking for other secrets that they can sell to Slugworth.
• The Wizard of Oz (based on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz):
  • In the novel, the Flying Monkeys were neutral and were bound by an enchantment to serve the Wicked Witch of the West (she owned the Golden Cap, which meant that she could command them three times). They even serve Dorothy once the Witch is destroyed and she gains control over the Cap - her third wish releases the Monkeys from its power. In the film they are the willing servants of the Witch. This follows through to other Oz adaptations where the Flying Monkeys retain their role as henchmen, sometimes even after the Witch's death.
  • The Witch herself counts too, sort of. In the book, she does not appear until near the end where Dorothy and the others are told to retrieve her broomstick, and her arc in the story is minor, although she does want the (unknown) power of the Silver Slippers. The film expands her role to make her the lead villain, wanting revenge on Dorothy for the death of her sister, the Witch of the East, and, more importantly, to get the ruby slippers from her.
  • The 1925 film version, which omits the Witch, instead does this with the Tin Man and Uncle Henry, of all people. The Tin Man ends up betraying Dorothy and her allies, and Uncle Henry is abusive towards Dorothy. It can be shocking for those used to the book or the much more famous MGM film adaptation.
• In The Wolf Man (1941), Sir John Talbot, while he has a strained relationship with his son Lawrence, is genuinely horrified and upset when he learns that the werewolf he killed in both self-defense and to protect Gwen was his son, and in sequels it's stated that the grief killed him. In the 2010 remake, Sir John is a werewolf himself, was the wolf who infected his son, and in his backstory killed his wife while transformed. He then sent young Lawrence to an asylum to force the memories out of him. Over the course of the film, he kills his other son Ben, murders his manservant whose weapons he sabotaged, and outright tries to murder Lawrence more than once with no hesitation or remorse.
• The Mi-Go in The Whisperer in Darkness make an attempt at conquering the Earth in the climax. In the original short story they don't seem particularly interested in taking over the Earth, though with their numbers and technology they could, and come as miners instead. They only target humans (like Henry Akeley) who get too interested in their activities to cover their tracks. Even then they prefer to remove the brains of the people they catch and keep them alive, bringing them along on their journeys across space, rather than kill them.
• Wonka subjects Slugworth to this to a greater extent than even Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, by portraying him as The Don of a cartel of chocolatiers who seek to squash any rivals that could compete with them, when in the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory story, he was just one of several rivals of Willy Wonka.

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