With Great Power Comes Great Insanity / Film

Power causing insanity in movies.

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Animated

• Titan in Megamind mixes this with great immaturity. Hal is a feckless, mildly stalker-ish manchild with a creepy crush on Roxanne. Normally, he's completely harmless. But once he gets powers, that instability creates a complete psycho.
• The villains of the My Little Pony: Equestria Girls series of movies tend to go psycho when toying with power that they don't understand. They also tend to get much more hammy.
  • Sunset Shimmer in the first move. After putting on the Element of Magic, she undergoes a Painful Transformation into a demon, and promptly jumps off the slippery slope, with her goal changing from "get Princess Celestia to acknowledge me" to "conquer Equestria with my brainwashed army". Notably, when she's taken down and reverts to human form, she's crying in horror about the things she did.
  • In My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Friendship Games, Human Twilight is pressured by Principal Cinch and the others into unleashing the magic from her device to help Crystal Prep win the games, which contains all the captured magic from the Mane Six over the course of the movie. The intense exposure causes her to snap and transform into a evil magical winged demon form called Midnight Sparkle, Drunk with Power and dead set on opening dangerous portals to Equestria in order to understand magic, at the expense of destroying their world. It takes the combined efforts of Spike and Sunset Shimmer to snap her out of it.
  • In My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Legend of Everfree, Gaea Everfree is the result of someone going through this. It turns out to be Gloriosa Daisy, who had been using some of the magical ability in small crystals to control plant life. When Gloriosa goes from using some of the magic to all of it, she transforms into a monstrous version of herself, surrounding the entire camp with thorns to prevent the camp from being taken over by Filthy Rich.
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Magical Movie Night has Juniper Montage who in the third episode finds a magic mirror that shows her what she desires (to be an adored movie star). After using the mirror to grant her wishes and sucking the main cast inside, the mirror powers up and turns her into a giant version of her movie star self, as well as giving her delusions that the people running and fleeing in terror are all actually just admiring fans. The quick down-slide in her sanity from the second episode (where she just sabotaged a movie) is blamed on the mirror and she is Easily Forgiven, with references to Twilight and Sunset's instances of the trope from above being used as justification.
• As the page quote shows, Russ Cargill, head of the Environmental Protection Agency in The Simpsons Movie, quickly loses it. What starts as sealing away Springfield to keep an environmental disaster from spreading leads to preventing anyone from escaping the city, roaming death squads, and ultimately trying to destroy Springfield altogether.
• In Turning Red, Ming's kaiju-sized red panda spirit is quite feral and uncontrollable when angered, blindly destroying a concert with no concern for collateral damage. In fact, one of the main reasons why the other Lees urge caution to Mei about bonding with her panda spirit (if it's manageable enough) because some red panda spirits like Ming's are too destructive and have to be sealed away. It's a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy due to generational habits, because in peacetime the descendants of Sun Yee regard the Blessing of the Gods as a burden, instead of the divine intervention it was always meant to be. Consequently, by rejecting the red panda, they and Ming are denying a fundamental part of themselves. By suppressing it, the spirit can only come out explosively when it inevitably resurfaces. Happily, Ming gets better by the ending, treating her red panda as a family pet instead of a demonic entity.

Live-Action

• Subverted in Amazon Women on the Moon, when Ed Begley, Jr. plays the son of the original invisible man. He creates a potion that he believes will turn him invisible but not insane. Unfortunately, he becomes insane but visible.
• Back to the Future Part II: Biff was already a snide Bad Boss to George in the original timeline. But after his future self goes back in time and helps his younger self make a fortune through sports betting, Bad Future Biff becomes a monstrously corrupt Corrupt Corporate Executive thanks to his newfound wealth and power, murdering George and getting away with it, and happily mistreating Lorraine and Marty to his hearts' content.
• Bananas: After overthrowing the government of San Marcos, rebel leader Esposito declares himself the new president. Esposito also announces "the official language of San Marcos will be Swedish", "citizens will be required to change their underwear every half-hour", and "all children under 16 years old are now 16 years old." He spends the remainder of the film in an insane asylum.
• Andrew from Chronicle. After a string of events lead him down the Despair Event Horizon, he snaps and goes into full A God Am I, Omnicidal Maniac mode.
• Brightburn: Brandon was a troubled boy with disturbing behaviour but being a Superman Substitute once he fully became a Flying Brick, all his unhinged qualities became horrifying as turns into a Ax-Crazy Beware the Superman Enfant Terrible. Perhaps the most chilling aspect is its implied that this monstrous insanity was completely unavoidable no matter how well his parents raised him.

• The Fly (1986) besides the eventually sickening Body Horror, the worst part about Seth's Slow Transformation is that the new state of being Seth accidentally brings upon himself drastically alters his personality and makes him go insane. It's especially notable earlier on when Seth has been invigorated by his new strength and confidence, and goes from an introverted but sweet Nice Guy to a deranged, aggressive, lustful, chauvinistic Jerkass. Several reviewers of the film, such as Ryan Hollinger, note that this psychological change is Seth in many ways more frightening and upsetting than the monster he becomes, as it suggests that Seth always had the potential to be like this.
• Forbidden Planet exhibits this principle most chillingly through Morbius.It's more of an Enemy Without, though; Morbius seems sane right up to the end. Morbius may have a mental block preventing him from understanding what has happened because it's simply too horrible for him to accept that the monster is an inherent part of himself, which means that he had killed all of his friends.
• The villain in Frostbite states that his first goal was to cure vampirism, until he decided that he should enhance it instead.
• Hollow Man:
  • Sebastian Caine goes nuts after gaining his ability because he realizes he can get away with a lot of crimes while invisible. It goes from disgustingly creepy (opening a sleeping co-worker's top) to badness and murder real soon. There's some talk about the invisibility Psycho Serum causing insanity, but it's never made clear how much of an effect it's supposed to be having on him.
    Sebastian Caine: It's amazing what you can do when you don't have to look at yourself in the mirror.
  • As expected, the failure with Caine doesn't stop the government. In the sequel, they use the serum on several more people, including a decorated soldier, who also goes insane and starts killing people. Unfortunately, his soldier training makes him doubly difficult to kill. Unlike the scientist, who already had quite an ego, the soldier goes insane from a side effect of turning cells transparent. Since the skin no longer protects the brain from solar radiation, this causes unavoidable mutations and, as a result, insanity.
• Inverted in Lucy. If anything, the title character seems to become even more rational, cool, and focused as her power grows to godlike levels.
• The Man Who Could Work Miracles: Realizing that others, even The Vicar, wish to exploit him for their own ends, Fotheringay decides not to trigger a Golden Age after all, but instead to create an old-fashioned kingdom in which he is the centre of the universe. In a fit of reckless pompousness, he changes the Colonel's house into a spectacular palace of real gold and marble. He then summons up all the pretty girls, not to mention the Colonel's entire regiment, dressed as Beefeaters, after which he summons the butlers in Essex, the leaders of the world, the teachers, musicians, priests, etc. He dresses up like a king and appoints the girl he loves as queen, then commands the leaders of the world to create a utopia, free of greed, war, plague, famine, jealousy, and toil.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • Mechanical example with Obadiah Stane from Iron Man. While Obadiah is already an immoral Arms Dealer, upon donning a Powered Armor suit of his own, he goes completely off his rocker, murdering and attacking people, including civilians, during his fight with Tony Stark — a stark contrast to the mature and sane businessman he was at the start of the film, and quite different to Tony's heroism when donning his suits.
  • The Incredible Hulk (2008) finds hardened veteran soldier Emil Blonsky being given a prototype super-soldier serum to put "what I know now into the body of a man ten years younger". The combination of being defeated despite this and the taste of such power grows into the classic Comes Great Insanity. Funnily enough, that serum is all but directly stated to be the one that gave Captain America his powers, but with Blonsky lacking the additional radiotherapy, his insanity is a classic symptom of the Super-Soldier serum gone wrong. Then he demands (against repeated warnings) a dose of an even more experimental serum from a much less reputable source and... let's just say the end results of that little cocktail ain't pretty.
  • Loki in both Thor and The Avengers (2012) has his already troubled and insecure personality take an Ax-Crazy turn upon gaining power such as taking the Throne of Asgard in Thor and gaining a mind-control sceptre and army from Thanos in The Avengers. Complicating matters further in the latter example is that the Mind Stone is part of the sceptre and is implied to be affecting Loki's already highly volatile mental state. Funnily enough, while not wielding great power, Loki is saner and more affable.
  • In Captain America: The First Avenger, it's stated that Johann Schmidt was the first person to receive the super-soldier serum, but for various reasons (namely a combination of the serum not being perfected yet as well as his dark inner nature), he received a tremendous power boost at the cost of his sanity (and his human form). Steve Rogers, however, is selected for being an Ideal Hero, and thus is responsible with his power.
  • In Iron Man 3, everyone who gets injected with Extremis (with the exception of Pepper Potts) becomes incredibly unstable both physically and mentally. Aldrich Killian, Eric Savin and Ellen Brandt display deranged behaviour thanks to the newfound power, although in Aldrich's case, it helps that he wasn't the picture of good mental health to begin with.
  • Zigzagged with Wanda Maximoff, who jumps off the deep end once unlocking her powers due to a traumatic past, much like in the comics. In Avengers: Age of Ultron, her cruelest moments are when using her powers to Mind Rape others, though she ultimately does a Heel–Face Turn and begins use her powers for good. Played straight in WandaVision; unable to cope with losing Vision after the events of Avengers: Infinity War, Wanda unwittingly unleashed her buried Chaos Magic to enslave Westview and its inhabitants to her will and create an idyllic sitcom world for herself, viciously lashing out whenever someone tries to force her to accept the truth. In the end, though, she finally realizes how much pain she's causing and accepts that this is far from the healthiest way to process her grief, letting Westview go. Played straight again in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness when Wanda becomes so consumed by the power of the Darkhold that her Sanity Slippage is to the extent that she is unwilling to accept that her children were constructs created with her magic and starts Jumping Off the Slippery Slope in her quest to find them by trying to kill a child for her powers, brutally kills anyone who tries to stop her, and nearly destroys the multiverse with her powers. Once again, she has a Heel Realization after seeing her sons terrified of her and redeems herself by destroying the Darkhold, seemingly dying in the process.
  • It is noted in Ant-Man that Darren Cross is mentally unbalanced due to a combination of experimenting with shrinking particles and desperately trying to impress his father figure Hank Pym, who upon seeing Darren's growing obsession, spurned him — which only set Darren off further. Hank explains the dangers of shrinking technology thusly:
    Hank Pym: The process is highly volatile. If one isn't protected by a specialized helmet, it can affect the brain's chemistry. I don't think Darren realizes this, and, you know, he's not the most stable guy to begin with.
  • Erik Killmonger from Black Panther (2018) was already a ruthless and cruel man, but upon ingesting the Heart-Shaped Herb, which grants him the enhanced abilities of the Black Panther, he truly becomes an insane tyrant. His first action is to give the Elder who fed him the Herb a Neck Lift while demanding that she burn the remaining plants. While fighting the Dora Milaje in the climax, Erik sports a massive Slasher Smile.
  • Thanos from Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame is a complicated case. He was already a bit of head-case with a chip on his shoulder, due to the extinction of his race on top of being a ruthless Blood Knight, but when donning the Infinity Gauntlet, he well and truly lives up to his moniker of "The Mad Titan" as he kills half of all life in the universe in ill-thought-out plan to solve overpopulation. In Endgame, he only gets worse, as when the Avengers attempt to undo his actions, he decides to commit genocide on the entire universe and create a new, "grateful" one in his own image.
  • Another mechanical example with Mysterio from Spider-Man: Far From Home. Beneath the Mask, Quentin Beck (which likely isn't his real name) is initially just a jerkass with a petty grudge, but upon getting access to E.D.I.T.H and an army of Stark drones, he starts threatening to kill his colleagues for a slip-up and attempts to murder a bunch of teenagers for sake of keeping his true identity a secret from the world.
• The Mask: This happens to Stanley Ipkiss whenever he wears the Mask (and when Milo puts it on as well). Dorian Tyrell, not so much. As explained in the Comic Books subpage, the Mask unlocks the suppressed part of a person's psyche. Tyrell, an unrepentant criminal, already had all his nastiness full on the surface, so the Mask just made him invincible and monstrous.
• Agent Smith in The Matrix Revolutions. Smith was already a sociopathic, short-tempered and humanly volatile AI program in The Matrix, but thanks to becoming an all-powerful virus and absorbing the Oracle, he completely disregards any cold sensibility he once had, letting loose a Large Ham Evil Laugh to signify how insane he has become.
• In Scanners II: The New Order, Peter Drak's rebuttal to David when he tries to reason with him to use his powers for good is that killing people is more fun.
  Peter Drak: Power doesn't make you good, David. It just makes you powerful.
• In Serenity, River Tam is a paranoid schizophrenic who suffers from hallucinations, delusions, post-traumatic stress, identity and memory disorders, and unfiltered emotional responses. All of this is due to government experimentation on her brain that gave her uncontrolled empathic Psychic Powers that tie in with implanted combat abilities that make her the single most devastating weapon in the setting.
• Spider-Man Trilogy:
  • In Spider-Man, this is the origin of the Green Goblin. The process to make him a super soldier also seems to produce a homicidal second personality. Ironically, Norman subjected himself to the serum in an effort to prove that it would not have this effect on humans...
  • Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man 2 is made crazy by his robot arms after the inhibitor chip he built is destroyed during an accident. In fact, they slaughter a room full of medical personnel while Otto is still unconscious. He overcomes their programming just in time for a Heroic Sacrifice.
  • Same with Flint Marko in Spider-Man 3. He wasn't an especially good person before the accident that turns him into Sandman, but afterward, he's just nuts. Eddie Brock, on the other hand, starts out as a psycho; gaining the Venom symbiote just allows him to express it in new ways. Flint Marko is desperate, which led to all the bad things he was involved in (including his part in Ben's murder). He needs money desperately to save his daughter's life and will do anything to get it.
• Star Wars:
  • A Central Theme with the Force is that the more in-tune the wielder is, the greater risk of the person being insanely Drunk with Power and turning to The Dark Side. Most Sith Lords and Dark Jedi seen in the franchise are either unhinged and volatile at best and Ax-Crazy and cackling at worst. Even the more aloof Darth Maul and Count Dooku display power-mad tendencies, which is likely due to the Dark Side feeding off negative emotions.
  • Anakin Skywalker, aside from being a case of From Nobody to Nightmare, falls to this. As he grows from a rescued slave-turned-Jedi Padawan to a Jedi Knight proper, steadily becoming stronger and stronger, Anakin's mental stability begins to deteriorate in direct correlation to his rise in Force power. Further triggered by the torture and the murder of his mother and visions of his wife Padme dying, Annie soon becomes convinced that he can become the most powerful Jedi ever in order to prevent his loved ones' deaths, and falls under the influence of Big Bad Palpatine. After killing Mace Windu, Anakin Jumps Off the Slippery Slope and becomes a murderous Sith Lord who willingly Force-chokes even his pregnant wife. Ironically, as Darth Vader, he isn't as Ax-Crazy, but still opts to strangle people on a whim and frequently shows his unstable side in Expanded Universe material.
  • Ben Solo, Anakin's grandson, similarly displays an extremely volatile mental state which seems to suggest that it may be In the Blood. Despite having loving parents and a Cool Uncle, Ben — due to almost getting killed by a droid as a toddler, growing up isolated, and having daunting expectations put upon him — becomes just as unbalanced as Anakin was. This became worse when Ben developed his Force powers, as thanks to his mighty heritage, he excelled at his training whilst simultaneously becoming more obsessed with power and proving himself to others. This made Ben an easy target for Snoke (a puppet of Palpatine), who turned Ben to the dark side and helped him become Kylo Ren, a ruthless Dark Side Force-user like his grandfather before him.
  • Sheev Palpatine is a much less complicated case, but still a prime example of this. Already an arrogant and immoral Royal Brat from Naboo, he already had the makings of an Enfant Terrible long before sensing Darth Plageis through the Force and meeting with him. Upon becoming a powerful Sith Lord, Palpatine's unstable qualities skyrocketed, and after killing his master and infiltrating the Senate, he became the cackling Ax-Crazy Person of Mass Destruction we know today.
  • Non-Force example with the creator of the Death Star, Orson Krennic from Rogue One. Initially he seems like a stuffy Affably Evil Imperial officer, but his devotion and obscene pride to his planet busting super weapon betrays his real psychopathy, as seen when Grand Moff Tarkin takes the Death Star from him and Krennic has a mad fit of outrage.
• In Terminator Genisys, it is revealed that Skynet has been experimenting with nano-tech to convert humans into the new Terminator model, the T-3000. Basically all previous attempts to convert humans in such a manner failed as the subject was left catatonically insane from the horror of the transformation, but tragically, John Connor came through the process with his sanity reasonably intact, albeit leaving him now dedicated to protecting Skynet rather than humanity.

• In The Wolfman (2010), Sir John's lycanthropy has most certainly gone to his head.
• Jean Grey in her manifestation as Dark Phoenix in X-Men: The Last Stand. It is explained that she was already mentally unstable as a girl, and her massive powers had to be reduced for her own good and that of everyone around her by putting mental blocks into her psyche. When these were removed, she started killing people with her mind.^note This is actually closer to the original Phoenix story than the later comic and adaptation stories that portray Jean as having been Touched by Vorlons; see the Marvel Universe subpage for more.

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