If you're into bad boys swipe left because I am a good boy

November 24, 2024 12:12 PM

Seeking movies with no bad guys.

I'm looking for recommendations for dramatic, suspenseful movies featuring dangerous situations and all involved parties doing their best. NO BAD GUYS. No blames, no faults, just a bad situation full of helpful, bright people doing their jobs and taking care of each other.

Perfect examples of this kind of movie:
Apollo 13
The Martian
Thirteen Lives

The closest I want to get to a bad guy is an ineffective bureaucracy that slows but doesn't thwart the solution.

Things that don't specifically have bad guys but are not the vibe: individuals struggling with addiction/mental health, romcoms, madcap comedies.

[title]

posted by phunniemee to Grab Bag (47 answers total)

Is it important that it end with the core problem /obstacle solved?
posted by seemoorglass at 12:24 PM on November 24

Response by poster: It's important that there's no bad guys and that everyone tries.
posted by phunniemee at 12:26 PM on November 24 [1 favorite]

Sully
Castaway
A Man Called Otto
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 12:30 PM on November 24 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: lol side category: Tom Hanks movies, America's sweetest boy
posted by phunniemee at 12:31 PM on November 24 [7 favorites]

Arrival
posted by TDIpod at 12:32 PM on November 24 [6 favorites]

A limited series, not a movie, but Station Eleven?
posted by nanook at 12:33 PM on November 24

um, Station Eleven (loved it, beautiful) definitely has a bad guy
posted by supermedusa at 12:35 PM on November 24 [7 favorites]

or maybe The Andromeda Strain & similar of the genre where the bad guy isn’t human?
posted by TDIpod at 12:37 PM on November 24

Jules

(Oh, sorry - there is one bad boy. And the cats may be problematic, as well)
posted by Rash at 12:41 PM on November 24 [2 favorites]

→ A Man Called Otto

I know it's been impossibly saccharined-up from the original, but this would definitely hit the not the vibe thing. The main character is more than struggling, let's just say.
posted by scruss at 12:42 PM on November 24 [2 favorites]

Apollo 13
The Martian

As I recall, First Man has the same antagonist as these movies (i.e. sometimes spacecraft don't work how you want them to).
posted by LionIndex at 12:44 PM on November 24

Gravity.
posted by mochapickle at 12:46 PM on November 24 [3 favorites]

Letterboxd list here ranked in order of fit to the brief. I’ll keep updating or reordering if I think of more!
posted by seemoorglass at 12:48 PM on November 24 [1 favorite]

Also, caveat for Gravity, the cast is really limited, so it's light on the teamwork angle. But there's no villain and it's plenty suspenseful.
posted by mochapickle at 12:49 PM on November 24 [1 favorite]

Man on Wire, maybe? I don't recall there being any real villains, though obviously there are antagonists (the cops, etc).
posted by BungaDunga at 12:57 PM on November 24 [3 favorites]

I know it's been impossibly saccharined-up from the original, but this would definitely hit the not the vibe thing. The main character is more than struggling, let's just say.

He's struggling, but he's not bad. He's a really good guy. I have not read the original book it is based on. But int the movie he's a a really good guy. Who is absolutely struggling, yes.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 1:00 PM on November 24 [1 favorite]

um, Station Eleven (loved it, beautiful) definitely has a bad guy

Shoot, you are right.
posted by nanook at 1:04 PM on November 24 [1 favorite]

My Neighbor Totoro, if you’re accepting animation.
posted by potent_cyprus at 1:06 PM on November 24 [15 favorites]

I'm really into the Denzel Washington film "Unstoppable." The villain is a runaway train.
posted by kensington314 at 1:07 PM on November 24 [4 favorites]

A bit of a left-field Down Under suggestion, but if you're able to find it, then I wholeheartedly recommend Kenny as a bit of feel good watching. Good people, a little romance, friendship, and a happy ever after. CW: lots of very low level toilet humour and broad Australian accents
posted by ninazer0 at 1:09 PM on November 24

You want the things on the list at Competence Porn (tvtropes). Except for Casino and the Ocean's Films (which have bad guys). Also maybe skip Now You See Me because it's not particularly good, but ymmv.
posted by axiom at 1:19 PM on November 24 [3 favorites]

In the Tom Hanks oeuvre I was going to recommend Bridge of Spies (there's technically a bad guy in the form of Mark Rylance's excellent turn as the Soviet spy, but the story is not about his spying), but then I remembered that it fails the qualification of "all involved parties doing their best," since almost everybody is committed to making Hanks' character's job more difficult.

But IIRC The Terminal fits the bill, despite its profoundly silly premise.
posted by Pedantzilla at 1:21 PM on November 24

hidden figures
posted by HearHere at 1:34 PM on November 24 [7 favorites]

Other space-related things:
Moon - Greedy corporation is kind of an antagonist, but just in the way they set things up, not actively
Close Encounters of the Third Kind - Richard Dreyfus' character is a shit, but not in a way that affects the central problem the characters face
2010 - Antagonist is basically Cold War US-Soviet relations
posted by LionIndex at 1:35 PM on November 24 [2 favorites]

The wife recommends Armegeddon (which, LOL, but true I guess); she also recommends Contact, though we disagree on whether there's actually a "bad guy" in that (I say fanatics who blow things up and kill a bunch of people count).
posted by Pedantzilla at 1:37 PM on November 24 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: hidden figures
posted by HearHere

I regret to inform you but racism is in fact a bad guy thing.

So are ideological bombings of Alien Technology And The Nerds Who Love It (Arrival, Contact).

Great movies though.
posted by phunniemee at 1:45 PM on November 24 [1 favorite]

I think The Dish fits, unless you need the team to be all together all the way through. There's early conflict before everyone pulls together.
posted by EvaDestruction at 1:52 PM on November 24 [5 favorites]

Maybe Everest? I haven’t actually seen it myself but just read the plot and I think it fits. In general, Mt Everest themed movies are perhaps worth looking at because they often have the mountain itself as the antagonist.
posted by maleficent at 2:20 PM on November 24

Original Poseidon Adventure, just regular folks trying to make it out alive. I think Deep Impact might also fit this.
posted by Iteki at 3:26 PM on November 24 [2 favorites]

The Perfect Storm
posted by castlebravo at 4:46 PM on November 24

I feel like heist movies are going to be big scorers here. Like Oceans 8. There's no bad guy, really? Just extremely competent women robbing people.
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:16 PM on November 24 [2 favorites]

I mean, the first thing that sprang to mind are heist movies. everyone is working toward a common goal, and one of the objectives is not hurting anyone and in fact not being noticed.
posted by evilmonk at 5:27 PM on November 24

Response by poster: A key component I'm seeking that I've apparently failed to convey is that the core conflict of the story isn't caused by the actions of any people.
posted by phunniemee at 5:36 PM on November 24 [2 favorites]

My Cousin Vinny
posted by infinitewindow at 5:51 PM on November 24 [3 favorites]

The Straight Story
posted by Spinneret at 6:41 PM on November 24 [7 favorites]

→ But int the movie he's a a really good guy. Who is absolutely struggling, yes.

Look, I didn't want to say it but CW: attempted suicide of the main character in A Man Called Otto / Ove
posted by scruss at 7:05 PM on November 24 [1 favorite]

If documentaries are OK, Touching the Void. It's based on a biographical book of the same name- in 1988 two friends are mountain climbing, get separated during a sudden storm and one of them ends up having to make it back off the mountain with a broken leg.

Much drama and suspense (since I'm kind of wimpy about suspense, I might have found it hard to watch if they hadn't occasionally intercut the action with interview clips to remind you that everyone survives), but no villains unless blizzards are an issue.
posted by Dorothea Ladislaw at 8:50 PM on November 24 [1 favorite]

The Manhattan Project - high school science project is a malfunctioning atomic bomb
posted by Sophont at 9:05 PM on November 24

127 hours.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 9:51 PM on November 24

Red Skies of Montana.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 9:54 PM on November 24

Past Lives is that S.Korean film from last year about the young woman now living in NYC whose boyfriend from long ago comes to visit, but he's not a bad guy. No dangerous situations, however.
posted by Rash at 9:23 AM on November 25 [1 favorite]

Past Lives is sad as fuck and all about pain and loss of self and roads not taken, so it may not be the vibe.

But it is 100% emphatically true that there are no bad guys. Even the people who might reasonably be expected to respond to what is happening as conflict/heartbreak in some way, most definitely opt instead to comport themselves with kindness and empathy.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 12:39 PM on November 25 [1 favorite]

Maybe the film Late Night? There is an antagonist that drives the plot, but I wouldn't call them a bad guy by the time film is over.
Playing by Heart is sort of a romcom but not along traditional lines and might work
The King's Speech
The Inside Out movies
I don't think A League of their Own really has a bad guy
posted by Salamandrous at 3:30 PM on November 25

If documentaries are OK, Touching the Void.

I was coming here to suggest that too.

(My memory of Everest is that it doesn't have Bad Guys per se but it does have quite a bit of Guys Making Bad Decisions For Bad Reasons; Touching the Void is much more purely "bad situation occurs, is overcome." And is fantastic.)

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Double-billed with Jaws, maybe?
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 5:45 PM on November 25 [1 favorite]

Not fiction, but Free Solo?
posted by rhamphorhynchus at 12:51 PM on November 26

Flight of the Phoenix (the original 1965 version only, the 2004 remake added unnecessary bad guys).

Adrift, if a cast of two is acceptable.

All Is Lost, if a cast of one is acceptable (it helps that the cast is Robert Redford).
posted by automatronic at 4:17 PM on November 27

I think A Quiet Place is a good fit for this, and also A Quiet Place II (with the exception of one scene that includes zombie/feral like people who are very much not characters).
Shaun of the Dead and Volcano feel like good candidates as well.
posted by pie_seven at 5:21 AM on November 28