4. Robert Neville – I Am Legend
No, this isn’t about what Neville is forced to do to the dog – although that’s impossible to forgive (or forget).
Sort of the whole point of I Am Legend is that Robert Neville is the bad guy, but it’s easy to miss as the film attempts to make him as sympathetic as possible. Before the outbreak of the virus, Neville was a virologist for the U.S. Army, and he – coincidentally – finds himself immune to the virus. Living out his days alone in a world filled with vampiric, cannibalistic former humans called “Darkseekers”, Neville works at attempting to find a cure.
Throughout the film, Neville captures and experiments on a Darkseeker, attempting to cure her of the condition. He kidnaps her from her partner, who eventually comes to rescue her, and an alternate ending reveals that the Darkseekers are still capable of complex thought and emotion.
This actually makes Neville the boogeyman to the Darkseekers – he walks in the light (which badly hurts them), kills their people or snatches them for his sick experiments from which they never return. To the Darkseekers, Neville is an unstoppable bringer of death, and therefore something of a villain.
Also, he shot the dog, and that’s unforgivable.
Even though Villains are right the Hero is NEVER the Villain.
Terms like “hero” and “villain” are generally a matter of perspective, but “8 Movie Heroes With A Major Flaw In Their Reasoning Or Less-Than-Wholesome Ulterior Motive” was a long title!