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Almost every movie needs an antagonist. Someone who will stand against the heroes and make their lives more difficult. Except for the movies where the heroes are their own enemies, there are other people or different forces who make them miserable. But while some antagonists are pure villains who enjoy bringing pain to their enemies, others are much more complex and can't really be considered villains even though they function as antagonists.
This usually happens when the antagonist isn't responsible for their evil actions, the story is told from a perspective that makes them look bad, or simply when they have a tragic background that explains their actions and paints them in a more favorable light.
7 Bruce The Shark In Jaws
Steven Spielberg has directed many iconic movies but to this day, Jaws remain one of his best pictures. And a large part of the movie's success can be attributed to the main villain, the shark who takes the lives of multiple people, and who was called Bruce by the filmmakers. However, even though the movie does its best to make the audience afraid of Bruce, it could be argued Bruce isn't a villain.
Judging sharks by behaving based on instinct doesn't work the same way as judging people for their bad actions. So while Bruce the shark is a good example of an antagonist who doesn't have villainous intentions because he's an animal, he's not the only one. The same could be also said for Godzilla, or any type of animal that goes against the people who hurt it and entered its territory.
6 Ghost In Ant-Man And The Wasp
While the MCU has had its fair share of sympathetic villains, a lot of them committed bad deeds because they thought it was hilarious (such as Loki, the ultimate trickster). But Ava Starr, aka Ghost, is a different case. While Ghost crosses paths with Ant-Man and the Wasp multiple times and doesn't treat them pleasantly, she isn't aggressive because she enjoys it.
Instead, she's driven by the everlasting pain that she's going through, and nothing can stop her in her desperate search for a cure. But the moment Ava finds a way for the pain to stop thanks to Janet van Dyne's help, she stops fighting the heroes as well, proving she was never really villainous in the first place, just driven to a corner.
5 Severus Snape In Harry Potter
Throughout the Harry Potter series, Severus Snape doesn't treat Harry or his friends in the best way. He's even responsible for killing Dumbledore in the sixth movie. However, as the series later reveals, Snape was always one of the good guys, and he played a double agent for Dumbledore, even though it put him at a great amount of risk.
He also tried to protect Harry despite his dislike for the boy, such as when Quirrell tried to kill Harry during Quidditch by enchanting his broom. Luckily, Snape gets the recognition he deserves in the series finale. So even though he doesn't survive, at least his name is cleared and he's no longer remembered as the villain.
4 The Iceberg In Titanic
The usual course of action in movies is to have a live antagonist, most often a human. However, an inanimate object can also serve as an antagonist. Movies and literature are filled with examples where nature serves as the primary obstacle to the protagonist. But just like animals, these objects don't have evil intentions, they just exist. That's also the case of the iceberg in the record-breaking Oscar-awarded movie Titanic (1997). When the ship crashes into the iceberg, it leads to the death of hundreds of people. A dramatic struggle for survival then ensues.
However, while the iceberg is technically responsible for all the pain and suffering, it's the human error that's at fault. The movie soon proves it by switching focus on the more villainous characters, most notably Rose's fiancé Cal, played by Billy Zane, who's standing in the way of her romance with Leonardo DiCaprio's Jack, creating a love triangle as a result.
3 Carl Hanratty In Catch Me If You Can
Steven Spielberg seems to have a unique talent for creating antagonists who aren't truly evil. It helps that Tom Hanks, who's considered one of the most popular actors, plays Carl Hanratty in this movie inspired by real events. Hanratty is the man investigating Frank Abagnale Jr.'s actions, and he doesn't stop until he finds Frank. However, Hanratty isn't a corrupt FBI agent, as the audience can so often see in the movies.
Even though he becomes obsessed with finding Frank, who's toying with him, there is no real malice from Hanratty's side. Ultimately, he comes across as a man who's just doing his job and is trying to find someone committing crimes. Had their positions been reversed in the story and Carl Hanratty told the tale, he would easily be considered the hero, not Leonardo DiCaprio's Frank Abagnale Jr.
2 Miranda Priestly In The Devil Wears Prada
Meryl Streep has a knack for portraying characters whom the fans love even though they're not necessarily sympathetic. Most recently, it was her President of the United States in Don't Look Up! But in 2006, Streep shone as the seemingly ruthless Miranda Priestly, who leads her magazine with an iron hand. While Priestly isn't as emotional or empathetic as many movie characters, she's also not a villain who would find her pleasure in the suffering of others.
She cares about her job and knows how important it is to try and work hard if people want to get to the top and stay there. Miranda Priestly definitely proves she isn't a bad person when she tells Andy's new potential boss that not hiring Andy would be a mistake. That doesn't come across as something a villain would do!
1 All The Human Bad Guys In The Cabin In The Woods
The Cabin in the Woods initially seems to be a typical horror flick about a group of young friends who go to the woods together and are targeted by murderers. But things are much more complicated in this case. It turns out that all the bad things that happen to the group are orchestrated by a team of workers who send the murderous family after the students.
That seems like a clearly villainous action until the audience learns that this team is just trying to save the world and everybody else from dying. So even though their methods are questionable, to say the least, and include killing more or less innocent young people, they still have good intentions in the end. Unfortunately, even their good intentions aren't enough in this case, and as a result, the world gets destroyed by ancient monsters.