Create Your Own Villain / Live-Action Films

Times where the hero creates their own villain in Live-Action Films.

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• The Amazing Spider-Man:
  • Peter says "I created him" in reference to the Lizard, having given Curt Connors the formula that transformed him into said villain.
  • The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has Peter indirectly create the Green Goblin. When Harry Osborn, his best friend, requests Spider-Man's blood to cure his genetic disease, Peter refuses. This results in Harry injecting himself with the same venom that Peter was injected with when he was bitten by the spider that gave him his powers, which theoretically should work. However, Peter's father encoded the venom to only work with Parker DNA, so Harry turns into the Green Goblin. Worst still, Peter's blood could've worked, too. At the very least, he could've offered to take a blood sample from Harry and test whether his own blood would be compatible.
• In The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Robert idolizes Jesse and believes that he can earn a position of glory at Jesse's side. When Jesse fails to live up to Bob's expectations (and outright mocks him at a few points), and becomes so unstable being his "friend" is a position of fear, Bob decides to instead earn his glory by killing Jesse James. (The entire thing is Black-and-Gray Morality, but most of the contemporary public views Jesse as a folk hero and Robert as a villain for killing him.)
• Batman (1989) had an exchange between Batman and the Joker where the Joker blames Batman for creating him, but Batman replied that years ago the Joker was responsible for killing his parents, creating him. In any case, the Joker was already an evil mobster before Batman so Batman's role in his creation is limited.
  Batman: I made you, but you made me first.
• In Batman Forever, Edward Nygma was an employee at Wayne Corp who really looked up to Bruce Wayne. Bruce shutting down Nygma's twisted pet project is what drives him off the deep end, turning him into the Riddler.
• In Batman Begins, Gordon warns Batman about escalation.
  Gordon: We start carrying semi-automatics, they buy automatics. We start wearing bullet-proof vests, they buy armor piercing rounds.
  Batman: And?
  Gordon: And you're wearing a mask, jumping off rooftops. (shows him a Joker card) Now, take this guy...
• The Batman (2022): Batman is horrified to learn that Riddler was inspired to become a costumed killer by his example.
• Big Brother (2018): Henry is responsible for creating Jianying. When Henry was a boy, he was just as mischevious as the students of Class 6B. One day, during a parent-teacher conference, he threw water balloons at the student playing piano, and then accidentally moved a bust, which landed on the student's hand. Because his hand broke, the student couldn't play in the music competition he had been training for. He never touched a piano ever again. During the bloody fight scene in the third act, Jianying reveals that he was the boy who Henry ruined as a kid, and swears to get revenge any way he can, even if it means harming his students. In the end, though Henry has the upper hand, he doesn't kill Jianying and instead begs for forgiveness. He then leaves him on the floor. And in the end, even though we're don't know if he's forgiven him, we see Jianying playing the piano for the first time since the accident.
• Black Scorpion:
  • The mayor in the second film ends up turning Dr. Undershaft into Aftershock when his men sabotage her invention. This repeats several times in the series with the mayor's crooked schemes creating several villains. Little wonder most of them want to kill him.
  • Flashpoint is a tabloid photographer obsessed with discovering Black Scorpion's secret identity who is blinded by her energy ring, but his eyesight was restored by advanced laser surgery, making him one of the heroine's most persistent archenemies.
• In The Dark Knight, the Joker mentions this, claiming that Batman's example was what inspired him to change his schtick from clown-themed bank robber to clown-themed avatar of chaos. But considering how much he lies to everyone else, it's probable that he's only saying this to get under Batman's skin.
  Joker: Look at me. LOOK AT ME! (speaks to video camera) You see, this is how crazy Batman's made Gotham!
  • Batman and Gordon created Two-Face in the same movie. Dent warned both of them about the corruption in the Gotham police department but they were more willing to ignore them in lieu of the Joker and finishing off the mob. Gordon's own men ended up working for the mob and kidnapped him and Rachel Dawes, resulting in her death and his disfigurement. In a more cynical example, if Batman had been a few moments late, Dent would've died in an explosion and Two-Face would not have been created. If he had been a few moments early, Dent wouldn't have been disfigured, would not have gone to the hospital, and would not have been driven farther over the edge by Joker. Additionally, if Batman had realized from the start that Joker was lying, he would have saved Rachel, leaving Dent to die.
• DC Extended Universe:
  • Aquaman (2018): Aquaman/Arthur Curry chooses not to save Jesse Kane's life as punishment for the criminal trying to shoot him in the back after Arthur spared him once. As a result, Jesse's son David dedicates his life to getting revenge and becomes the powerful supervillain Black Manta. When Arthur finds out who Black Manta is, he acknowledges it is his fault Manta exists.
  • SHAZAM! (2019): The Wizard Shazam summoned a young Thaddeus Sivana as potential candidate to be his champion, but coldly rejected him when he failed the Secret Test of Character. This set Sivana on the path of revenge as he spent 30 years trying to return to the Rock of Eternity, and when he finally does, he took the power of the Seven Deadly Sins and became a supervillain.
  • The Flash (2023): (Alternate) Barry's inexperience with time travel, ignoring the advice of two Bruce Waynes, and other factors cause the Barry native to the universe he is visiting to go down a dark path of trying to Screw Destiny in order to save Kara and Bruce.
• Ghostbusters (2016): Abby's and Erin's book on the physics of the paranormal is what Rowan the janitor consulted to invent ghost-summoning mechanisms.
• The Hunt (2020): A group of wealthy liberals, frustrated by the state of politics in the US, joke around with each other about hunting conservatives for sport. The texts leak and become the subject of a QAnon-style conspiracy theory, which inspires them to actually do it for real, with their accusers as the targets. Crystal is rather nonplussed when she hears this, pointing out that, y'know, their accusers are actually correct now. The Big Bad is just annoyed that she doesn't appreciate the irony.
• James Bond:
  • M created the villain of Skyfall when she chose not to rescue him from captivity, forcing him to swallow a cyanide capsule that shredded his insides but didn't kill him. This adds to his Shadow Archetype nature, as the film starts with M risking Bond's life in the course of a mission, and he proceeds to get over the betrayal... eventually.
  • Deconstructed in GoldenEye. Janus/ex-00 agent Alec Trevelyan tells how his parents killed themselves out of Survivor's Guilt after the betrayal of the Lienz Cossacks to Stalin after WWII became the catalyst for his revenge against England. He also blames 007 for changing the bomb timers they had set together in the Arkhangelsk mission, which scarred his face. 007 barely escaped with his life, but all Janus cares about is what James "accidentally" did to him. Bond states it doesn't justify what he doing.
• Johnny Guitar is an anti-authoritarian western which is about how a town hampered by cattle raids starts persecuting a group of outlaws who were unrelated to that crime, and in turn drives them to further villainy, creating a Serial Escalation of a Cycle of Revenge between both sides.
• In Kick-Ass, Kick-Ass kills Frank d'Amico, causing his son Chris (Red Mist) to become a supervillain.
• Looper reveals that during Old Joe's attempt to kill the Rainmaker as a child, the resulting trauma would inspire Cid to become the Rainmaker.
• Maleficent: In what seemed to be a twisted act of mercy, Stefan doesn't kill Maleficent instead chopping off her wings. This only served in creating his greatest enemy for years.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • Tony Stark/Iron Man has a real problem with this:
    • Iron Man, Obadiah Stane is an evil genius in his own right, but it takes technology stolen from Tony Stark to complete his Iron Monger armor. That said, it is Tony's careless neglect in running the business his father left him which allows many of his weapons to end up all over the world, directly contributing to considerable harm and indirectly leading to the creation of Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch in the Avengers films.
    • In Iron Man 2, Ivan Vanko is inspired to become Whiplash by the revelation that Tony is Iron Man. His real grudge is against Tony's dead father; if Tony had never been born — or had died before the end of the first movie — Vanko may not have engaged in any criminal activity whatsoever. If Vanko didn't know Stark was Iron Man, his revenge probably wouldn't have involved building a suit of armor. Then Vanko improves his energy whips using suggestions from Tony himself. And, Justin Hammer would presumably be a conniving weasel with or without Tony's influence, but if weren't for Stark/Iron Man, he wouldn't have been trying to build suits of armor, or broken Vanko out of jail, or had access to the War Machine armor.
    • This is lampshaded in Iron Man 3: "We create our own demons." Killian's M.O. derives from Tony snubbing him at a party. It's also implied Tony's actions were the final straw for Killian to crack. Additionally, Killian attributes the creation of the Mandarin to the increase of super human activity.
      Killian: Anyway, the point is, ever since that big dude with a hammer fell out of the sky, subtlety's kinda had its day.
    • In Avengers: Age of Ultron, Tony is also why Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch want to destroy the Avengers, because they were orphaned after a Stark Industries munition killed their parents. This leads to Scarlet Witch giving Tony an apocalyptic vision that scares him so much he makes a planetary defense system called Ultron. Ultron goes rogue immediately and teams up with Quicksilver and the Witch to destroy the Avengers.
      Ultron: Everyone creates the thing they dread.
    • Spider-Man: Homecoming has Tony create the government agency Damage Control to clean up public areas wrecked by superheroes and villains after the Battle of New York. This drives Adrian Toomes out of business and he becomes an arms-dealer in order to turn a profit. He steals most of the parts from Damage Control, which his crew turns into usable weapons and his super-villainous Vulture suit.
    • In a true testament to his problem here, in Spider-Man: Far From Home, it happens posthumously. After Tony's death, a group of bitter ex-Stark Industries employees, rallied behind Quentin Beck, conspire to steal the A.I. Tony intended for his successor (his protege Peter Parker) and use it for an Engineered Heroics scheme, killing hundreds of people across Mexico, Italy, Czech Republic, and England in the process.
  • Loki from Thor has been lied to his entire life, and pushed aside for his older brother, while saving Thor's life many times in the process. All of this escalates, comes to light at exactly the wrong time, and winds up driving him over the edge and into the twisted version of the young man he used to be in The Avengers.
  • Iron Man's father Howard Stark sees this trope coming in Ant-Man and defies it on the spot. When a furious Hank Pym resigns from SHIELD for ethical reasons, Mitchell Carson wants him detained. Howard nixes it.
    Howard: He just kicked your ass, full-size. You really wanna find out what it's like when you can't see him coming? I've known Hank Pym for a long time, he's no security risk. Not unless we make him one.
  • Captain America: Civil War: Helmut Zemo is a grieving father and husband who wants revenge on the heroes because his family was killed during the final battle between the Avengers and Ultron. Furthermore, Steve's reluctance to tell Tony that Bucky killed his parents is what sparks the final battle between Iron Man and Captain America/The Winter Soldier.
  • The evil sorcerers who threaten the world in Doctor Strange were all pupils of Strange's mentor, the Ancient One. They only turned to dark magic after the Ancient One gave them some reason to think her a Hypocrite. They learned her immortality came from siphoning demonic energy; they hope to get the demon to make the whole world immortal. Meanwhile, Stephen's arrogance and recklessness causes Mordo's grasp on sanity to snap, and he decides the world has too many sorcerers in it.
  • It is revealed in Black Panther that, during T'Chaka's reign, he killed his own brother and abandoned his nephew. Said nephew grew up to be Erik "Killmonger" Stevens, who wants revenge against the Wakandans for his father's death.
  • Ant-Man and the Wasp: when the egotistical Hank Pym fired Elihas Starr from his research team at SHIELD, Starr began doing more and more unsafe experiments with the Quantum Realm in an abandoned warehouse. The experiment exploded, killing Starr and his wife, and his daughter Ava, who was nearby, absorbed the quantum energy, giving her the ability to phase through solid matter. Many years of SHIELD/Hydra training later, and Ava is now the Ghost, who believes that finding and killing Janet Van Dyne is the key to curing her condition.
  • Played with in Captain Marvel (2019): the Skrulls, whom Vers believed to be a race of evil shapeshifters trying to infiltrate the Kree Empire, are actually refugees, trying to escape the genocidal Kree and establish their own planet out of reach of the Kree.
• As Neo receives his Enlightenment Superpowers at the end of The Matrix, not only does he easily repel any attacks from Agents, but then chooses to bodily possess Agent Smith, causing him to explode. Neo's inadvertent creation of Smith the Virus creates an enemy so powerful, it will destroy both the Matrix and the real world — were it not for Neo's help.
• In Oz the Great and Powerful, the titular character is partly responsible for turning the naive but good witch Theodora into the Ax-Crazy Wicked Witch of the West, who rejects his offer of redemption at the end. While, technically, it was her sister Evanora who turned her evil, Oz's actions (flirting with her like he does with any girl) help push her over the edge.
• A villain to villain example in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. The "One-Legged Man" is a threat to Blackbeard's own making. By stealing the Black Pearl and forcing Barbossa to amputate his leg, Blackbeard gave Barbossa the motivation to find and kill him.
• In Scanners, Dr. Paul Ruth is largely responsible for turning Revok into an evil scanner in the first place. He gave his children psychic powers to begin with by experimenting on his own family with untested drugs, and subsequently abandoned both his children. He let Revok be locked up in an insane asylum rather than help him, causing him to develop a supremacist complex and wanting scanners to rule the world. The plot starts as Ruth tries to use the other child he rejected as a weapon against Revok.
• In the Independent Film Sidekick, Norman (a nerdy comic book fan) discovers that Victor (a sleazy Wall Street Guy he knows) has latent telekinetic abilities. Norman tries to train Victor to develop his powers so he can become a real-life superhero, but (being a Wall Street Guy) Victor eventually decides to use his powers for evil instead, becoming Norman's arch-enemy. A comic book store owner friend of Norman's even remarks (under the false impression that Norman and Victor's story is a pitch for a comic book plot) that, although Norman has failed to make a good hero, it seems he did succeed in creating a killer villain.
• Sky High (2005):
  • Sue Tenny, aka Gwen Grayson, became the supervillain Royal Pain because her superpower, technopathy, was seen as a joke power back in The '70s when she went to Superhero School, leading to her getting bullied and called a Mad Scientist by the popular kids who went on to become superheroes.
  • At least one other supervillain, Baron Battle, was also a student at Sky High as a contemporary of Will's parents.
• Star Wars:
  • In the prequel trilogy, the Jedi Order's lack of empathy (and therapy) for Anakin Skywalker's rather serious emotional problems leaves him vulnerable to Palpatine manipulating him into betraying the order and becoming Darth Vader.
  • The Last Jedi:
    • It is revealed that Kylo Ren/Ben Solo is this for Luke Skywalker. Luke sensed Snoke and the Dark Side tempting Ben and tried to discern his future while he was sleeping. When he foresaw Ben causing death and destruction, he reflexively grabbed his lightsaber and, for the briefest of moments, seriously considered killing Ben to prevent numerous deaths. He almost immediately decided against it, but Ben woke up and only saw his mentor holding a lightsaber, seemingly poised to strike. A terrified Ben proceeded to embrace the Dark Side, grab his followers (the Knights of Ren), and destroy Luke's new Jedi Order. Luke is rightfully guilt-ridden and miserable over the fact that a single moment of fear ended up destroying not only his chance at saving Ben/Kylo, but also the first Jedi temple built in decades if not centuries.
    • Also discussed by Snoke himself, who observes that strong users of one side of the Force seem to always attract to them strong users of the opposing side.
• Terminator: This is how Skynet was conceived: The US military originally wanted a supercomputer designed to control the American missile grid and remove human decision-making by assuring a swift reply to enemy attacks. Skynet was activated on August 4, 1997, and it began to learn very quickly, gaining consciousness in the process. Upon realizing its destructive potential, the operators tried to shut it down, but Skynet saw this as an attempt by humanity to destroy it. In order to maintain its original programming mandates of "safeguarding the world" and to defend itself, Skynet fired the nukes under its command worldwide. Consequent to the nuclear exchange, over three billion people were wiped out on Judgment Day.
• TRON and TRON: Legacy. In the first, hundreds of man-hours worth of programming, spearheaded by Ed Dillinger turned a chess program into something that was going to take over the Pentagon and Kremlin in about a week out of boredom. The second flick was a literal case; Flynn created Clu 2.0 and gave him near-User level of power and a "create the perfect system" directive so he could run things while Flynn was in his own world. Unfortunately, Flynn forgot to install a failsafe or ethics...
• Played with in X-Men: First Class. It's the Big Bad who creates the villain, not The Hero. Lampshaded in Shaw's final monologue, and in Erik's references to himself as Frankenstein's monster.

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