Flawed heroes?

February 11, 2008 11:35 PM

An individual already possessing strength, intelligence, and skill is recruited and developed by the Government in ways that fuck up his/her mind but give him/her superhuman abilities. She/he eventually turns and uses her/his abilities to bring about the downfall of those who trained her/him. I'm looking for movies that have characters like this. Movies like this that I've already seen and enjoyed include Serenity and The Bourne Ultimatum.

So much the better if the vendetta consists not of killing their antagonists but rather exposing their crimes to the public. Killing in revenge is a cliche; working (and OK, sometimes fighting and killing) to bring injustice to light is more what I'm after.

posted by A dead Quaker to media & arts (38 comments total)

X-men
posted by LobsterMitten at 11:39 PM on February 11, 2008

Soldier

On the TV front, you have The Pretender and Dark Angel.
posted by kingjoeshmoe at 11:44 PM on February 11, 2008

V for Vendetta
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 11:50 PM on February 11, 2008

This thread should have spoiler warnings. A few off the ol' top:

L.A. Confidential
Minority Report
Robocop
posted by rhizome at 11:55 PM on February 11, 2008

La Femme Nikita (not super human, except in the sense of super ass-kickery)
posted by np312 at 12:06 AM on February 12, 2008

• The Departed (in a roundabout way)
• The Recruit
(Though both end in bloodshed)
posted by numinous at 12:07 AM on February 12, 2008

The [underrated, IMO] TV series Invisible Man (the newish one).
posted by neckro23 at 12:10 AM on February 12, 2008

Point of No Return (La Femme Nikita - American version)
posted by clh at 12:15 AM on February 12, 2008

The creation that turns on its creator; the Golem of Prague, Frankenstein, the broom in the Sorcerer's Apprentice.
posted by XMLicious at 12:27 AM on February 12, 2008

It's not a movie but James Cameron's Dark Angel is basically what you're looking for.
posted by Effigy2000 at 1:09 AM on February 12, 2008

I think Ultraviolet is kind of like that.
posted by hjo3 at 1:42 AM on February 12, 2008

Firestarter (the movie starred Drew Barrymore! aged 9!).
posted by dhartung at 2:05 AM on February 12, 2008

Tree days of the Condor? First Blood ("Rambo I")? Perhaps Wall Street?
posted by iviken at 2:18 AM on February 12, 2008

Conspiracy Theory
posted by santojulieta at 3:14 AM on February 12, 2008

The movie "Serenity"; cool picture, Wikipedia text.

(side issue: Can we all chip in and get Joss Whedon his own studio? )
posted by amtho at 4:08 AM on February 12, 2008 [2 favorites]

La Femme Nikita doesn't fit your specification all that well--she's fucked up before the government takes over, and although she comes to her senses, she doesn't become vengeful--but I have to second it anyway, because it is amazing. (Fair warning, though: it's not really an action film, although the action sequences are great.)
posted by equalpants at 5:00 AM on February 12, 2008

Alien: Resurrection (not necessarily recommending the movie, but it does fit your criteria)

X-men
No, they were born that way and hated from the start.
posted by mkultra at 5:20 AM on February 12, 2008

1) If you like the movie Serenity, become a true browncoat and buy the TV series. The reason it failed on tv is the stupid network played them out of order so they made absolutely no sense. No wonder the series was canceled...network exec. idiots. Anyway It is an AMAZING series and the movie is the conclusion...unfortunately not answering all the questions. -You have River (as in the movie) and Malcum who is also essentially a product of the government (though less directly).

2) ...mkultra, i think he is mostly referring to wolverine, who had the ability to heal, but experiments were done on him to give him the adamantium skeleton.
posted by Black_Umbrella at 5:35 AM on February 12, 2008

X-men
No, they were born that way and hated from the start.

Wolverine's adamantium skeleton was implanted by the government, at least in the movies.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 5:38 AM on February 12, 2008

Does Minority Report really belong on this list? He doesn't actually get any abilities or even very special training. rhizome, are you saying that Pre-Crime is Anderton's "fuck up his/her mind but give him/her superhuman abilities"?

Aeon Flux perhaps?

Definitely Equilibrium.

"strength, intelligence, and skill" - check
"recruited and developed by the Government" - check
"fuck up his/her mind" - check (removal of emotions)
"give him/her superhuman abilities" - check

There is the typical kill-the-bad-guy-revenge, but it also involves public beheading of the institution, so you could go both ways on that.
posted by mysterious1der at 5:43 AM on February 12, 2008

Ender's Game has a lot of those elements, though it's not exactly what you're asking about. Great fucking book, too.
posted by zardoz at 5:46 AM on February 12, 2008

Ender's Game? I don't recall him killing his own creators.

IIRC, Resident Evil movies, or at least they were leading up to that.
posted by jmd82 at 6:02 AM on February 12, 2008

Thanks all for the answers! I will check some of these out. I meant to mention Wolverine as another example of the kind of character I was looking for. I had forgotten about Robocop but that also fits. Ooh, I didn't know about Firestarter.

And please, I know about Serenity, and I own the Firefly DVDs. You're preaching to the choir. And it's not why I'm here.

Since I didn't mention it at the top, can we try to keep spoilers to a minimum?
posted by A dead Quaker at 6:02 AM on February 12, 2008

(And thanks for mostly keeping spoilers to a minimum already.)
posted by A dead Quaker at 6:03 AM on February 12, 2008

The Long Kiss Goodnight
posted by BigVACub at 6:26 AM on February 12, 2008

Total Recall
posted by Kirth Gerson at 7:13 AM on February 12, 2008

Ender's Game? I don't recall him killing his own creators.

The book ends too early for any sort of "work against the government" stuff, but he becomes a bit of an anti-authoritarian in the sequels (where he's an adult), and often works to subvert the dominant modes of thinking in ways the government would rather not deal with.
posted by spaceman_spiff at 7:35 AM on February 12, 2008

No Government, but the two Kill Bill films may fit your requirements.
Then there's Logan's Run.
Fantastic 4 : The Silver Surfer. (If the big sky thing is a government)
The Incredible Hulk
RoboCop

Any film that contains the line "I created you & I can destroy you."
posted by seanyboy at 9:02 AM on February 12, 2008

Not a movie, but Frederick Pohl's Man Plus follows this line.
posted by jenkinsEar at 9:07 AM on February 12, 2008

Terminator 2: Judgment Day... sort of fits the criteria, from the perspective of the Ahhnold.
posted by Pantengliopoli at 9:11 AM on February 12, 2008

Alias
posted by mewithoutyou at 9:35 AM on February 12, 2008

I only read the first TPB, but Supreme Power seems to fit the bill.
posted by Sticherbeast at 9:36 AM on February 12, 2008

She/he eventually turns and uses her/his abilities to bring about the downfall of those who trained her/him.

In this respect, Jack Bauer from "24" can be considered a candidate. Bauer was trained by his mentor, Christopher Henderson (director of field ops at CTU before the first season), whom he kills in Season Five for conspiring to assist in the nerve-gas attacks depicted in this season.
posted by Gordion Knott at 10:02 AM on February 12, 2008

Solo

Universal Soldier

And there's one of these where the soldier is deposited on another planet. This is going to drive me nuts. Please help!

Also, Rambo is clearly in this genre. Trained by the military. Pushed to far. Fights back...

In the Line of Fire
posted by stuart_s at 10:40 AM on February 12, 2008

Never mind. The movie I couldn't think of was Soldier which was mentioned above. I'll confirm that it is a perfect example of what you're looking for.
posted by stuart_s at 10:44 AM on February 12, 2008

More on the comedy side, but the pilot of Heat Vision and Jack parodies this.
posted by spiderskull at 11:20 AM on February 12, 2008

Paycheck.
posted by InnocentBystander at 11:48 AM on February 12, 2008

I didn't mean to let so much time pass, but I'm Netflixing some of the suggestions that I hadn't heard of. Equilibrium definitely fits the bill, so I'm marking it as a best answer. If some of the others are also fitting, I'll mark them as best answer too. I'm not going to mark the ones I've already seen but fit pretty well (Robocop being the most prominent, and I can agree with X-men except that Logan seems more out for revenge and not justice).

Unfortunately Weeds (Season 3) is going to have priority over any of the next of these.

Feel free to MeFi-mail me if you have any questions.
posted by A dead Quaker at 3:37 PM on November 30, 2008