How the Tech Villain became today's bad guy 

The only reason Tony Stark isn't considered a villain is because the writers says he isn't. But objectively speaking outside of that bubble he would AT LEAST be an accidental villain.

The line “Facebook apologized for its role in the Myanmar genocide” is gonna be in our grandchildren’s history books.

“They’re not even smart enough to be as evil as you’re giving them credit for” is such an iconic quote

Never Forget: Victor Frankenstein was the OG TECH VILLAIN.

Did anyone else guess that Evelyn would be the Villain in "Incredibles 2" when she was first introduced? It was repeatedly mentioned how Evelyn was adept with technology, which the Screenslayer used to control their victims. Even my six year old cousin saw it coming from a mile away.

It's so frustrating as a minority in tech. I'm a woman in electrical engineering, and want to make a startup someday, so I've gone to some meetups. At one of these, someone literally said to me that I reminded them of Elizabeth Holmes because we look alike. We really don't, we just both are light haired white women. I've experienced quite a bit of sexism, and I know it's only going to get worse when I become a CEO/CTO instead of just another techie, but it's the only way to get rid of the idea that because a real life tech villain has existed that looks like me, all people like me in our industry must be tech villains too. Just super sucks in the meantime.

The key to recognize a tech villain is the awkward silence that ensues if you ask "for the better?" whenever they say they are going to "change the world"

You should do a video on the Overprotective Dad trope ie. The Dad who thinks it’s his role to stop his daughter having sex

I'm fascinated by the Noble Cause Villain, because I find that it's often an allegory of historical revolutionary leaders who initially wanted to topple a deeply injust regime but ended up replacing it with an equally unjust one. I guess it's merely human that if there are no checks and balances, even the most idealistic hero can be corrupted into a vengeful, power-hungry (and eventually paranoid) villain. Mandela is noted for being remembered not for a revolution but a transition (to liberal democracy). Not many revolutions in history have turned out to be an improvement overall. With the possible exception of the American Revolution (notably for landless white men of humble birth).

So from cartoonist evil to incompetence to petty narcissistic monsters. Perhaps rather than scandals there should be more … permanent punishments for tech CEOs

The DCAU Lex Luthor is a pretty good amalgamation of many of these tropes. He has one my favorite lines, "Do you know how much power I'd have to give up to be President? That's right, conspiracy buff. I spent 75 million dollars on a fake Presidential campaign, all just to tick Superman off."

The Take hard carrying the pop culture/socio-political analysis genre on RU-vid. Thank you for this beauty.

This was a great video, makes me want to watch a lot of these shows. I like how Damien Drake from Venom doesn't even let the kid ask her question in the end.

_Again_ IMO *The Take* brings us another exceptional video essay. Superbly written, and extensively well researched. . 😎👍

Made for Love's Byron Gogol is my current favorite "tech villain." Billy Magnussen does a fabulous job in the dark comedy! I would love if your channel would do a full breakdown on the show. It deserve so much more attention than it's getting.

About Metropolis, from Fritz Lang... The "Mad Scientist" movie plot we know today is a perversion of the original film. US distributors of their time saw to that. The true motivation of the scientist in the original film was grief. After the death of his beloved wife, the character created a female android (or gynecoid, as "andros" is old Greek for "male") to ease his pain. The US distributors didn't like the film's premise, so, they went ahead and bloody changed it without permission. Sadly, that wasn't too uncommon to do back then. Even worse, the only surviving film is the US modified version. Poor Lang...

"Money's greatest ability is to allow bad people to continue doing bad things at the expense of those who don't have it." Daaaaaaaaamn.

My favorite type of “tech villain” is the AI that turns on humanity, like HAL9000 or AM.

Speaking of accidental tech villains, Richard Gatling invented the machine gun because he wanted to reduce the number of soldiers that were killed at war.

Jesse Eisenberg is this cute, awkward guy who I want to see in more lighter roles. I hope FILMMAKERS stop casting him as a villain (he does a good job of them though).

My favorite take on the Tech Villain is Mark Beaks in the Ducktales reboot. They covered every trope so well.

Perfect timing for a video on this trope. It's so scary how we relay so much on tech to

The Noble Cause Villan is worth exploring more. It's the system's way of demonizing the perspectives that threaten the system.

This channel never disappoints. I saw the title and thought it better mention Evelyn from Incredibles 2. And it did!

I'm truly shocked you left Devs completely out of this discussion.

5:27 I love that Rotwang was included here, but this isn't an accurate description of his motives at all. Rotwang creates the robot and puts the uprising into motion entirely based on personal revenge against one person. We get pretty much 0 indication that he actually cares about injustice or the plight of the lower class. He just uses that anger to his advantage to cause some chaos and make his enemy suffer.

Gavin Belson is one of the best sitcom villains ever made.

Tech Bro here and a huge fan of your channel, I think that there is also an important point that makes the tech industry that easy to vilify, that the industry it still pretty hidden for everyday people. Its pretty easy to imagine what a doctor does (and there are lot of TV shows about medicine), a chef and a lawyer and still have close approximation to the real thing. Still a programmer will be a nerdy cis white male in front of a screen that shows 1s and 0s. The day to day work is still IMO wasn't shown as is by the film industry, and tech people are still seen the same as they were in the 80s. Even silicon valley, the show that humanized tech the most still had a famous monologue that called programmers magicians that push the world forward. It still easier to hate and be afraid of the unknown thus making the tech industry easy villains. Not all of the tech industry are Bezoss and Zukerbergs who are money and data hungry, in fact a lot of the tools that run today's world such as apache servers, Linux, React framework are open source that can be used and their code can be downloaded for free (like free free, not free we get your data free) and being developed by a lot of passionate volunteers .

"Hanlon's Razor" is just good plausible deniability. It's basically used as a deflection from overt malice. Just my opinion. 🤷🏻‍♀️

So arrogant so narcissistic so robotic. Where's the heart? Also they seem to be very good at and I'm looking at you Mark Suckerberg, at stealing other people's ideas and claiming them as their own.

Finally watched "Sorry to Bother You"earlier this week. That shit was crazy.

Lex Luthor is one of those villains that succeeded where marvel failed. Thanos' motives were completely ridiculous and killmonger's motives of wanting to make the lives of black people better with wakanda's technology and resources the villain. Lex's motives made sense in regards to how his character is portrayed and how he sees Superman and unlike these other villains, he actually succeeded.

When Alexa commercials came out, immediately remembered that old Disney movie, Smart House, where the computer AI takes over to “help” the family and eventually tries to become their mother.

Thank you ladies! The documentary on this trope is super interesting and deffinitly helping me out to better shape characters I create in writing!

Sorry to bother you is such an underrated film. I wish more people would watch it

“It’s easier to get people to hate you than to like you.” And when you can tap into that dark confidence fueled by chaotic neutral energy and blend the lines between reality n fiction in a compelling story; you get magic.

Never thought i would hear Jesse Eisenberg being described as Patron Saint of twitching computer nerds..LOL

This is why oversight while not perfect is needed. Wealth and power are not morally superior.

A mad scientist with an unlimited amount of money and a big corporation on their back. What could be more scary?

You can look at Tech-based vilification from 2 perspectives: Yes, some of them can be awful and be shameless and patronising capitalists but also can be one-dimensional caricatures by storytellers who don’t understand basic advancements in technology.

We can't forget Dr. Doofenshmirtz..the ultimate tech villian

Ultron want programed by Tony, it was a separate AI

Upgrade and Invisible Man are two underrated movies with good tech villains.

I think it's maybe more convincing to say that Tech Villains are becoming more arrogant, gullible and plain stupid because of our society's (relatively) democratized access to technology. Back in the old days, very few people had access to the knowledge and resources that would turn someone into a "mad scientist", there's a level of respect or curiosity in that villain type simply because they're so rare or unique; they stand out as more than human, because the gap between them and the average person back then was wider. When a lot more people have access to powerful tech (computers and coding), and can begin to make claims that they're doing amazing things in regards to that tech, people fail more often, and end up looking stupid. We've also become far more tech literate overall and skeptical of a company being able to deliver on grand promises. What I'm saying is that back then, there was a bigger gap between a normal person and Frankenstein, as opposed to a normal person now and Jack Dorsey, in terms of skills. I could absolutely take him in a fistfight btw.

Honorable Tech Villain Mention : Amy Acker aka Root. Starred In "Person of Interest".

Technocrats, scientists, coders...they r all just people who r curious about how things work and pursue that knowledge and it's solutions without thought of anything else...particularly not ethics and other people. Which is y in science and engineering etc, there r checks and balances...with other people who focus on ethics and societal context. Somehow, this is missing in tech, until long after the code has been created and implemented...possibly because so few of us understand what the code means. Not sure how u find a way around this...

Love the hackers reference one of my favorite movies.

I believe the more that technology changes, the more people want to go back to older technology. Cd players and record players are being made again. With fantasy and YA novels, more people are inspired to sword fight or fence as well as bringing back archery and more “obsolete” tools. Typewriters, at least to me, are becoming cool again. The more people abuse technology, the more we want to go back to simplicity with older technology. Letter writing is more fun again because it allows us to think about what we write and it is fun experiencing different places and/or cultures through their writing or drawing. It is also nostalgia. We always want to go back to a time that seemed better or glamorized. While striving for a better future is good and dandy, there is nothing wrong with embracing something from each decade/era either.

One person who is framed as a hero in all the movies he's in but I consider not so much a full villain but deffo not worthy of hero status is Tony Stark. He is responsible for half the villains in the MCU. Even after his death. Stains, Vanko, Hammer, Cillian, Vulture, Mysterio, Ultron. He is the reason why the Maximoff Twins joined Hydra. Also who allowed him to give 2 teenagers incredibly dangerous weapons and high sophisticated technology. He also constantly put his so called "friend" Rhodey's career at risk all the time. Tony is always striving for one more suit, more efficiency, more technology, "a suit of armour around the world" making the Avengers and the military obsolete. He is narcissistic, egotistical and a show off. He has a superiority complex and wants to look cool and flashy. He's a billionaire and wants every opportunity to flash the cash. I really don't like that we were meat to root for Tony. Going through a space portal with a nuke and his death don't make up for the sins of his past. Tony is not a hero.

The best, and one of the earliest, versions of the modern tech villain is Christopher Walken's Max Zorin. He's a Steve Jobs type silicon valley tech CEO in the James Bond flick "A View To A Kill".

I loved the “Hi, Friends!” Bit 😂

In the long view, blaming FaceBook for facilitating genocide is like blaming the printing press for facilitating the Thirty Years' War.

Why don't all the scenes have the film's title displayed?

Like NASA sending a signal into space trying to reach aliens. Like STOP THEY DON'T WANT TO BE FOUND, IF THEY EVEN EXIST😒

Jeffrey Bezos is the tech villain paragon

I know superhero movies don't get awarded, but I still think Molina deserved at least a nod for Spiderman 2. He gave that movie genuine gravitas.

Frank Zappa said something along the lines of don't trust anyone selling you inner peace with $80,000 worth of watches.

Lex Luthor being reimagined into a tech bro in Batman v Superman was genius. Feel free to argue, but I am a wall. Edit: kinda disappointed the "if God is all good" line wasn't included considering the whole core of Lex across every version is his narcissistic inability to comprehend Superman's unshakable and genuine goodness in relation to his power.

I think a good recent example of a tech villain is The Illusive Man from the Mass Effect games. He sits in an office on an unknown space station outside a dying star, showcasing his power. He is the head of Cerberus, a syndicate of tech developers and businesspeople who seek to uplift humans and protect her galaxy. Maybe he did believe it was the right thing, but the Illusive Man has anterior motives. His complete distrust of others, even Shepard's team, and desire for power over the vicious technology of the alien Collectors and the Reapers shows that whatever good intentions were there have gradually slipped into overpowering others with this technology, with the Reapers manipulating his genius and ego to destroy the galaxy.

It's a shame you don't cover video games. Ted Faro from Horizon Zero Dawn would be perfect in this. He's up there with the tech guy from Don't Look Up.

I am waiting for " The Greedy Group" troupe, outsmarting a pure hearted entrepenuer or "girlboss" or " cool girl" or " final girl" going " tech villian".

Could you talk about 'save the farm' stories? Like, why do people hate them so much? I don't even think they're as overused as people claim they are.

So glad to see Sneakers featured here! Love that movie!!

Have you guys watched Manifest. I’d be curious to get your take on it ahead of Netflix releasing season 4.

It’s hurts me so much that the Tech woman is not only as much to blame but is in an environment where she cannot do any good because no one will pay her mind. Not to mention the violence. I really believe the SA suffered by Holmes pushed her over the edge and contributed to her delusions of grandeur. You really wanna be the best when you’ve been violated in such a vile way.

I love this archetype when done well. It can just as easily be obnoxious though. In Netflix's "The Old Guard", the bad guy of Charlize Theron's immortals turned out to be a tech villain (Dudley Dursley!) and he was kinda lame.

I’d love a the take video on hbo’s made for love! It would have totally fit in this video and in some prior ones too

DO THE TAKE ON DAVID ROSEN "The real Nice Guy" from Scandal. Terry Jeffords from B99. And such

Ok, imma need a Letterboxd list for every movie you guys mentioned in the video

One of the problems i see for the future tech is that we don't put humanity science on debate and integrate in the evolution. All the speech from our real tech companies saying that "this tech is for make the world better" was and will always be for profit and dominance, no matter the negative human impact. So it's not wrong to say the technology is becoming one the greatest evil of mankind, because nobody, no goverment, no ethical moral, no society etc are putting limits on it.

Just something to think about for a video essay, the trap of undesirability,

Sure, the tech from the ‘60s was a bit weak, but nothing can outmatch the Rube Goldberg machines of the 1920s and earlier

Byron Gogol is a great tech villain! From made for love, shame u didn’t talk ab him

PLEASE do actual videos on Mr. Robot that show is criminally underrated 😩

It’s already a dystopia

Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Great video! I have to ask.... What is the fun synth-tech song playing in the background called?

Dr. K fits the “accidental villain” thing with this in Power Rangers.

Whatever happened to The One on Netflix? I remember it left off with a cliffhanger

I think Lex Luther deserves to be the first culprit in this arena of villainy.

My favorite tech villain is the one guy from Grandma’s boy

CEOS and therampalist are villains its not exclusively a tech thing

better call saul season 6 needs you

Mr. Milchick and Mrs. Selvig in ‘Severance’. That’s it. That’s the comment.

Do a video on heroes turned villains or villains turned heroes

Y'all make such good videos 😂

Do made for love next!!!

Gavin Belson is ELON MUSK!!

In Mr Robot Elliot was the well-intentioned hacker because of which it went out of control and as a result Angela became the "sympathetic" tech villain by using Elliot's mistakes and accidents for her personal gain and wielding them against him.

where's Made For Love

You need to watch "the 100"! (Season 3 spoiler incoming) An AI ended the world but her creator is actually a really good person and the second version of the AI has the potential of being incredible good

Wow I’ve never considered this trope

Question unrelated to the topic of the video: Where can one get the music played in the video?

secret @$$whole villain lolll

thanos wAS STUPID WHEN YOU HAVE THE REMOTE CONTROL TO THE UNIVERS YOU CAN DO ANY THING CAHANGE THE RULES SO LIFE NEVER REACES MORE THAN FIFTY PERCANT YES THATS POSABLE OR MAKE EVERONE IN THE UNIVERS AGREE WITH YOU

I just want to know why the narrator went out of her way to describe a character as a young BLACK girl but didn’t talk about the race of any other characters ???

Wework guy is not a Tech Villain - he is a real state villain pls let us the tech people finally have our own villains ( hate them or love them) but you still use social media, computers with a windows OS and so on ...

Villain redemption trope and child vs adult trope (even if it’s reversed)

I do not text, so not have social media, never send personal emails whilst having a social life and full-time job. This reliance is a myth. Live like it is 1995. You will be happier.

*sees tiltle* Yes! I've noticed for the last decade this trope became insanely repetitive