

Is the suspect wearing a white hat, like the sheriff in "Hot Fuzz" or William in "Westworld"? Then they're probably going to be wearing a black hat by the end of the story.


Narrator: And you see this trend over and over again in Hollywood. Kuntz: A lot of times he creates connections between his villains and his heroes, so sometimes it's kind of difficult to tell them apart. Narrator: For example, Alfred Hitchcock is famous for crafting his villains as charismatic, seemingly good, regular people. They've seen a lot of movies, and they know a lot of the tricks that people can pull. Kuntz: Your audiences are pretty villain-literate at this time. Narrator: That's Jonathan Kuntz, a professor of American film history at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. Jonathan Kuntz: I think the trick to portraying villains has to be that you've gotta change up things as often as possible. Orange, who's bleeding to death early on in "Reservoir Dogs." In the most drastic case, the villain is even presumed dead. These characters are often too nice, like Agnes, or too weak, like Mr. They might even be portrayed as a victim. Because the first thing to think about when searching for a villain is to focus on anyone who seems like they are definitely not the bad guy. In "WandaVision," Agnes is immediately established as the overly friendly neighbor, so we should be suspicious of her right away. Keyser Söze: The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist. But identifying a surprise villain requires knowing exactly where to look and when to listen. We probably should've figured out this twist as soon as Agnes walked through the front door. The most recent example of this is Marvel's "WandaVision." But modern filmmakers have made it more difficult to identify mystery villains, dropping small clues throughout the story for viewers to piece together before the big reveal. Narrator: Back in 1903's "The Great Train Robbery," you could easily spot the bad guy. Confidential," "Watchmen," "Alien," "Get Out," "Saw," "Gone Girl," "Toy Story 3," "Westworld," "Hot Fuzz," "Strangers on a Train," and "Unbreakable." Spoiler warning for the following TV shows and movies: "WandaVision," "Reservoir Dogs," "Frozen," "Psycho," "Stage Fright," "Incredibles 2," "The Usual Suspects," "Monsters, Inc.," "L.A.
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