9. Syndrome – The Incredibles (2004)
Pixar’s beloved take on the superhero genre is a thoroughly excellent film, but its villain is actually far more sympathetic than he seems.
To get the obvious out of the way, he does lure aging heroes to his island to study their capabilities before killing them, but it’s the events that lead him there that effectively justify his hatred of Supers.
In the film’s opening scenes, The Incredibles introduces Buddy, a Mr. Incredible superfan who even optimistically dubs himself “Incrediboy”. He’s clearly remarkably gifted, inventing cutting-edge gadgets even as a child, but his hero simply shrugs him off. Actually, Mr. Incredible brutally cuts Buddy down by telling him that he’s not a Super, crushing the boy’s dreams in a distinctly not-heroic fashion.
Buddy then becomes Syndrome, a master inventor who intends to use his gadgets to become the world’s greatest hero… except he intends to do it by killing all the Supers. His plan is clearly unhinged, but given that we’ve seen exactly how he was dismissed and belittled by his childhood hero, it’s an understandable – if still irrational – reaction.
At heart, Buddy always wanted to be a hero, and he ended up resorting to murder to achieve his goal. However, his childhood hero murdered his dreams first, so who’s the real monster?