History PragmaticVillainy / LiveActionFilms

* Frequently comes up in ''Film/SchindlersList''. Originally, Oskar Schindler plays this trope straight, being a profiteer who uses the plight of the Jews in Nazi Germany to turn them into easily exploitable labor. Later, when he comes to care about them and actively tries to save them, he still invokes this trope by trying to convince the Nazis that his employees are more useful alive and working for the war effort. This both does and doesn't work: his factories remain open until the end of the war, saving the lives of many of his workforce. However, many of the people he tries to save still die throughout the film, killed by various Nazis who consider killing Jews to be an ends in itself regardless of whether they might be more useful alive.
* In ''[[Film/{{Selfless}} Self/Less]]'', [[spoiler:Albright]] says at one point that [[spoiler:shedding initially ''was'' supposed to use artificial bodies, as advertised. The only reason they began having pre-existing people sell themselves for the process was because they have yet to figure out how to feasibly manage that. Once they do, he claims they'll switch to that exclusively.]]

** In ''Film/ANewHope'', after Wedge Antilles' X-Wing gets damaged, prompting him to leave the Death Star trench, Vader tells his wingmen to let Wedge go and stay focused on Luke. Earlier during the conference on the Death Star, this was likely the reason when Tarkin ordered Vader to cease choking Admiral Motti when Motti mocked the Force, seeing that Vader made his point and it would be a waste of time to kill and replace Motti for his petty opinions.

** In ''Film/RogueOne'', Krennic is ready to use the Death Star to blow up all of Jedha, but Tarkin [[spoiler:settles for just destroying the capital city, since The Empire needs "a statement, not a manifesto"]]. Later in the movie, Vader disapproves of [[spoiler:Jedha City's]] destruction, since it creates unrest when the Empire's not ready to reveal the Death Star's existence.

* ''Film/WildRiver'' proves a somewhat meaner version then most. Knowing of the obstacle that she's posing to Chuck's project, Bailey says that he'll go out to the island himself and force Ella off if Chuck backs down about hiring black workers for the dam, which Chuck refuses to do.

* ''Film/{{Highlander}}'': The Kurgan may be an AxCrazy immortal barbarian, but he does not kill indiscriminately. He kills the other immortals to claim the prize, but never really targets mortals. He leaves Candy the prostitute alive in [[DefiedTrope defiance of]] DisposableSexWorker, he [[spoiler:did not kill Heather after raping her back in the 16th Century (and then arguably more did so as an act of dominance over Ramirez than anything else)]], and didn't even care to finish off the CrazySurvivalist who [[MoreDakka shot him with an Uzi]]. It's almost as if Kurgan associates so little with mortal humans that he sees no functional difference between killing them personally and [[YourDaysAreNumbered sparing them to live out their years]] (and not killing them means he doesn't have to deal with the authorities).

*** Small-time criminal Aaron Davis ends up helping Spider-Man find Toomes and his gang because while he may have been looking to buy a gun off them so he could rob people, he recognizes that the weapons they're selling are too dangerous to let out on the streets. Plus, as Davis points out, you don't need weapons of that caliber to pull off a simple mugging.

** ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}'': Instead of stealing the gold outright as originally intended in the book, Goldfinger's [[AdaptationalIntelligence true goal]] involves nuking Fort Knox, thereby making the value of his gold stockpile skyrocket even more. Since he doesn't have neither the time nor the manpower needed to empty Fort Knox, Goldfinger's plan is much simpler in the movie and even points it out to Bond.

*** On a smaller scale, he's also one of the few villains who has an actual reason to invoke WhyDontYouJustShootHim If Bond's [=MI6=] and CIA allies found him dead, they'd simply send another agent to infiltrate Goldfinger's operation, but as long as he's alive and visibly close to Goldfinger, they'll assume he's still successfully undercover and stay away to avoid arousing suspicions. It works, too. Goldfinger simply hadn't counted on Bond persuading one of his employees to turn traitor.

*** Likewise, Vader stops Fett from shooting Chewie when he was having his tantrum in Cloud City's freezing chamber, considering having the Wookie dead means he is useless as a hostage.

** Many of the gangsters, drug kingpins, and warlords that Yuri does business with do not try for a BallisticDiscount because Yuri is a valuable supplier and killing him would not only eliminate the opportunity for return business, but serve as a giant red flag to other potential arms dealers that this particular client cannot be trusted. For instance, the warlord in Sierra Leone doesn't kill Yuri even after [[spoiler:Vitali kills one of his allies and]] destroys half the weapons that Yuri brought him. He just swipes away half of Yuri's payment since he's still entitled to the other half.

* The VillainProtagonist of ''Film/LordOfWar'', Ukranian-American arms dealer Yuri Orlov, at one point reveals he has never done business with Osama Bin Laden "not on any moral grounds" but because "back then he was always bouncing checks". In fact, he even shipped cargo to Afghanistan while they were fighting the Soviets. His rival, Simeon Weisz, would only sell weapons to those whom he wanted to see fulfill their goals. In the case of the Iran/Iraq War, he supplied both sides in hopes that they would both lose.