Films where the baddies win

[Famous Mortimer]

I got home from work to find the last half hour of "The Anderson Tapes", an excellent tense thriller from the early 70s, directed by Sidney Lumet, featuring Sean Connery, a very very young Christopher Walken, and a host of others.

Anyway, the original ending..."Columbia Pictures was not happy with the planned ending of the film, in which Connery escaped to be pursued by police helicopters, fearing that it would hurt sales to television, which generally required that bad deeds not go unpunished."

It got me thinking about films where the baddies, or the people on the wrong side of the law, get away with it. I was trying to think of earlier examples, because nowadays it's all criminals doing bad things and being rewarded for it. What are your favourite early examples?

[Sexton Brackets Drugbust]

Cactus Jack

[Egyptian Feast]

The Parallax View. For the test sequence alone it's a classic, but the ending is also chilling.

[Thomas]

Skyfall. But Bond essentially regenerates in the process and so also wins, sort of. It's a personal victory.

EDIT - Ah, wait, you said early examples.

[Noodle Lizard]

'Se7en' DUH.

'Final Destination'?

[Blumf]

The Conversation

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978 version obviously)

Brazil

[El Unicornio, mang]

Chinatown. One of the bleakest endings I've ever seen.

Carlito's Way

[Johnny Townmouse]

Very recent, but given that the protagonist is not a baddie, I would nominate Eden Lake.

And Irreversible.

[El Unicornio, mang]

Very recent, but given that the protagonist is not a baddie, I would nominate Eden Lake.

Not a baddie?

[Johnny Townmouse]

Aye.

[El Unicornio, mang]

Putting a tire round a kid's neck and setting it on fire is pretty bad, I'd say

[Noodle Lizard]

Putting a tire round a kid's neck and setting it on fire is pretty bad, I'd say

I think they're trying to say that the chick wasn't a baddie ... but I honestly don't know why they mentioned it.  They really should have just said "I nominate Eden Lake because it satisfies the criteria of this thread".

[El Unicornio, mang]

But she dies at the end!* In that house with the kid and his dodgy parents

*Plus she's not a baddie

[Johnny Townmouse]

It got me thinking about films where the baddies, or the people on the wrong side of the law, get away with it. I was trying to think of earlier examples, because nowadays it's all criminals doing bad things and being rewarded for it. What are your favourite early examples?

I was merely indicating that I mentioned it was a recent film, but not one in which the main characters are baddies/criminals.

[Noodle Lizard]

But she dies at the end!* In that house with the kid and his dodgy parents

*Plus she's not a baddie

FOR FUCK'S SAKE.

YES, SHE'S NOT A BADDIE.  SHE DIES AT THE END, AT THE HAND OF THE BADDIES.  HENCE IT'S A FILM IN WHICH THE BADDIES WIN. 

[Noodle Lizard]

I was merely indicating that I mentioned it was a recent film, but not one in which the main characters are baddies/criminals.

Yeah, you shouldn't have fucking mentioned that last fucking part.  Look what you've done to this forum.

[Johnny Townmouse]

Yeah, you shouldn't have fucking mentioned that last fucking part.  Look what you've done to this forum.

I should have learned by now the CHAOS that ensues with such posts.

[El Unicornio, mang]

That's my bad, I was getting 'protagonist' and 'antagonist' mixed up. Although I thought this was just general films where baddies win, not when the baddies are the protagonists.

[BlodwynPig]

Home Alone 2

[Johnny Townmouse]

That's my bad, I was getting 'protagonist' and 'antagonist' mixed up. Although I thought this was just general films where baddies win, not when the baddies are the protagonists.

[NurseNugent]

Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss. Not that any of the characters are particularly good, but the most evil characters profit from their crimes and get away with murder. 

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Scanners might not be the best example but seeing that picture reminded me that it was a film where right up until the end, nearly right at the end of the film you have no idea who is going to win.

[garbed_attic]

Blade Runner / controversial

And less controversially, Herzog's Bad Lieutenant which is still dizzyingly amoral in its worldview, though wryly.

[Black Ship]

Time Bandits?

[Gulftastic]

Sweeney!

The shadowy people pulling the strings get away with it.

[Mustow Green]

Little Shop of Horrors, (Frank Oz remake).  The ending was filmed and then cut to the happier ending.
Here's the 'Don't feed the plants' song where Audrey 2 and friends destroy New York.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSPsyCYaIW4

There is more, the old, unfinished work print includes the scene where Seymour feeds a dead Audrey to the plant then he also get's eaten, (all these clips are on Youtube in B&W - almost 15 mins in total was changed).

[SavageHedgehog]

The Lawnmower Man? He wasn't mowing lawns anymore by the end, that's for sure

[Kane Jones]

The Usual Suspects

[Johnny Townmouse]

The Long Good Friday

[biggytitbo]

All Quiet on the Western Front.