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If until recently i film villains were easily identified by their facial scars, devilish laughter and collared capes, the iconography of Hollywood has changed significantly in recent years. Turtlenecks and hoodies – the signature look of a billionaire running a tech empire – have become the hallmarks of sinister contemporary supervillains, our new favorite villains. Take Rian Johnson’s Oscar-nominated film for example Glass Onion – Knives Outwhich revolves around the figure of Miles Bron, a multi-billionaire in gray T-shirt played by Edward Norton. At the beginning of the film Bron is ready to launch a dangerous alternative fuel based on hydrogen, only to gradually reveal himself, but not too much, a complete idiot. For many of the viewers of glass onion the association with Elon Musk was immediate.
Rising trend
The reason is obvious. The most ruthless super-villains actually hide in plain sight. It is the case of New Santa Clause wantedthe sequel series of the film saga The Santa Clause, which began in 1994. Premiering on Disney+ last November, the series begins with Santa Claus (Tim Allen) retiring and looking for a replacement. The choice falls on the inventor and game developer – and would-be Jeff Bezos – Simon Choksi (Kal Penn), but betrays the spirit of Christmas and reveals his wickedness, before his daughter puts him right.
A decade after the cinema release of The Social Networkthe film that recounted the birth of Facebook, Powerful tech CEOs are increasingly portrayed as villainsor at least as anti-heroes. Upgrades, from 2018, features Eron Keen, an inventor of chips equipped with artificial intelligence; in Don’t Look Up of 2021 is avid cell phone maker Peter Isherwell (sporting the ever-present wolf cub), while in Free Guy – Hero for game, also from last year, the CEO on duty, Antwan Hovachelik, steals ideas for his video games from other people. The trend has also caught on in the world of children’s entertainment: before New Santa Clause wantedthe animated film Ron – An unscheduled friend of 2021 introduced Andrew Morris, upstart COO of a company that builds robots.
Mirror of society
The mad scientist has therefore been replaced by the mad innovator. But why is this happening? And why now? To some extent, movie villains have always mirrored society’s anxieties: James Taylor, film lecturer at the University of Warwick, says the mad scientist trope first emerged after World War II because of fears related to the atomic bomb. Bad guys don’t just reflect our fears, “but they also feed these anxieties, helping to shape and spread themTaylor adds.
L’antagonist of SupermanLex Luthor perfectly embodies the evolution of villains. “Initially the character was a mad scientist, then in the eighties he became the CEO of a multinational company and in the recent incarnation on the big screen Jesse Eisenberg has added the features of the tech entrepreneur Taylor continues. We can easily relate all of this to the changed cultural concerns”. After all, we no longer associate scientists with “new technologies designed to annihilate humanity”. On the contrary, “In the current climate crisis, this category is often presented as noble and unsuccessfully trying to get insensitive CEOs and politicians to recognize and reverse the damage caused to the planet“.
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