Line #23 VillainTeamUp/Film


1	[[quoteright:350:[[Film/BatmanForever https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sin_ttulo_0.png]]]]
2	* The 1966 ''Film/BatmanTheMovie'' featured a team-up between Joker, Penguin, Riddler and Catwoman.
3	** Several of the TV episodes of that series featured team-ups between various villains, they did no better or worse than usual against Batman.
4	* ''Film/BatmanForever'' has Riddler and Two Face team up, while ''Film/BatmanAndRobin'' has Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy team up (whether Bane is a villain or a henchman, you pick). In the latter's case Ivy is manipulating Freeze, which doesn't work out for well for her when he finds out. ''Film/BatmanReturns'' deconstructs this trope, showing Catwoman and the Penguin working together for all of five minutes before breaking it off.
5	* ''Film/BatmanBegins'' has the Scarecrow initially working with Falcone, and unwittingly working ''for'' Ra's Al Ghul. ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' is borderline, as the Joker creates the second villain but never truly works with him; however, the Joker does initially work with the mob. In ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'', Selina Kyle being blackmailed into providing ''some'' assistance to Bane is borderline given she becomes more of an {{Anti Hero}}ine later and [[spoiler:is the one who kills Bane at the end]]... but [[spoiler:Talia Al Ghul being [[TheManBehindTheMan the woman behind the man]]]] is a definite case.
6	* ''Series/KamenRiderDenO: Climax Deka'' features the Imagin Negataros forms an "evil syndicate", and to strengthen their numbers, he recruited [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Fangire]] into his cause. In turn, this necessitates the arrival of the Fangires' main enemy, ''Series/KamenRiderKiva'', to come to the aid of Den-O and his allies.
7	* All of the ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'' films feature this:
8	** ''Film/IronMan1'' features the Ten Rings terrorist group teaming up with [[spoiler:Obadiah Stane/Iron Monger]].
9	** ''Film/TheIncredibleHulk2008'' has General Ross and Emil Blonsky, before [[spoiler:Blonsky forces Samuel Stern to turn him into the Abomination, forcing Ross to [[EnemyMine team up with the heroes]] to beat him]].
10	** ''Film/IronMan2'' has Whiplash team up with Justin Hammer, although their alliance is short-lived.
11	** ''Film/{{Thor}}'' gets twisty. Loki manages to convince Laufey of Jotunheim that they're working towards the same end [[spoiler:but winds up betraying him so that he can justify an attack against Jotunheim]].
12	** ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger'' has the Red Skull and Arnim Zola.
13	** ''Film/TheAvengers2012'' has Loki and the Chitauri soldiers, later revealed to be an army on loan to him by [[spoiler:Thanos]].
14	** ''Film/IronMan3'' has the Mandarin and [[spoiler:Aldrich Killian]], along with [[TheDragon Eric Savin]]. Subverted, as it turns out that [[spoiler:"the Mandarin" is just a British actor who is used as a face by Killian, and [[Film/ShangChiAndTheLegendOfTheTenRings the real Mandarin]] [[Film/AllHailTheKing isn't happy with someone stealing his name]]]].
15	** ''Film/ThorTheDarkWorld'' features Malekith the Accursed and Algrim, who becomes Kurse.
16	** ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'' has the eponymous Winter Soldier, [[Brock Rumlow Crossbones]], and [[spoiler:a computerized Arnim Zola]] all working for [[spoiler:Alexander Pierce and HYDRA]]. Batroc the Leaper appears to be working with them as well, [[spoiler:though he ends up being just a RedHerring]].
17	** ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2014'' has Ronan the Accuser allying with Nebula, who's acting as an emissary of Thanos. [[spoiler:They both turn on him once getting the Infinity Stone.]]
18	** ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' has Ultron team up with [[spoiler:Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, who work with him under the impression that he can help them get revenge on Tony Stark]]. They [[HeelFaceTurn defect to the heroes' side]] once they find out what Ultron's ultimate goal is. Ulysses Klaue also appears as an ArmsDealer who sells vibranium to Ultron.
19	** ''Film/AntMan1'' comes the closest to averting this, but near the end it's revealed that Darren Cross has been knowingly associating with [[spoiler:undercover members of HYDRA]] and is preparing to sell them the Yellowjacket and Ant-Man suits. More subtly [[spoiler:one of the HYRDA mooks is revealed by a tattoo to be associated with the Ten Rings organization]].
20	** ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'' inverts this: the most teaming up that the main antagonist Helmut Zemo does is through coercion with mostly unwilling partners. The main team-ups are done by the opposing groups of heroes, and which side is the more antagonistic one is left up to the viewer.
21	** ''Film/DoctorStrange2016'' features the sorcerer Kaecilius and his zealots attempting to contact the cosmic being Dormammu in order for him to bring about the engulfment of Earth into the Dark Dimension.
22	** ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol2'' has Nebula team up with a group of rogue Ravagers to overthrow Yondu, and said Ravagers also have dealings with Ayesha of the Sovereigns to help her get revenge on the Guardians. None of them however team up with the film's main villain [[spoiler:Ego the Living Planet]], and [[spoiler:Nebula]] teams up with the Guardians to help take [[spoiler:him]] down.
23	** ''Film/SpiderManHomecoming'' features the Vulture employing the Tinkerer, Darter, Montana, and the Shocker, and selling weapons to the Scorpion. The Prowler attempts to buy weapons for him as well, [[spoiler:but later expresses his discomfort with the Vulture's weapons and helps Spider-Man find him]]. It's also implied that the Prowler at one point had dealings with the Scorpion before the events of the film.
24	** ''Film/ThorRagnarok'' has Hela team up with Skurge to take over Asgard, while on the planet Sakaar, Scrapper 142 [[spoiler:(who is later revealed to be Valkyrie)]] collects prisoners for the Grandmaster. Both underlings end up [[spoiler:rebelling and joining the heroes]]. Loki naturally switches sides a few times before ending the movie on [[spoiler:Thor's]] side. The movie also features an interesting variation on this trope: [[spoiler:to stop Hela, Loki unleashes Surtur to bring about Ragnarok on Asgard and destroy her, in a strange instance of one antagonist teaming up with another to intentionally help the heroes]].
25	** ''Film/BlackPanther2018'' has Killmonger teaming up with Klaue to steal some Vibranium and sell it on the black market. [[spoiler:However, it later turns out that Killmonger was planning all along to betray Klaue, so that he can present his corpse as a present to Wakanda, to buy his way into an audience with the elders and lay his claim to the throne.]]
26	** ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' features Thanos teaming up with the Black Order (referred to in-film as the "Children of Thanos") in order to retrieve the Infinity Stones. Subverted with Loki, who attempts to re-form his alliance with Thanos from the first ''Avengers'' film; [[spoiler:it ends up just being a ruse so that he can get close enough to Thanos and stab him. Thanos ends up seeing through Loki's deception and kills him instead]].
27	** ''Film/AntManAndTheWasp'' has the Ghost and [[spoiler:Bill Foster]], but neither of them [[spoiler:could be considered outright villains by the end of the movie]]. The film's other major antagonist, Sonny Burch, has contacts within the FBI but beyond that does not team up with any of the other villains.
28	** ''Film/CaptainMarvel2019'' features [[spoiler:Yon-Rogg]] teaming up with Ronan the Accuser to take down Carol near the end of the film, though Ronan does it under the impression that they're wiping out a Skrull invasion on Planet C-53 [[spoiler:(a.k.a. Earth)]].
29	** ''Film/AvengersEndgame'' has Thanos once again teaming up with the Black Order. [[spoiler:As the movie is a TimeTravel film that has the heroes going back to the events of ''The Avengers'', ''Thor: The Dark World'' and ''Guardians of the Galaxy'', then the team-ups featured in those films are technically implied in ''Endgame'', with Thanos from 2014 at one point discussing his team-up with Ronan and recognizing the Avengers from 2023 due to his team-up with Loki in the first ''Avengers'' film.]]
30	** ''Film/SpiderManFarFromHome'' features [[spoiler:Quentin Beck recruiting a crew of disgruntled ex-Stark Industries to create the Elementals and Mysterio]].
31	** ''Film/BlackWidow2021'' has Dreykov and his Black Widow assasins, as well as Taskmaster. [[spoiler:Yelena Belova and Melina Vostokoff]] work with him as well before [[spoiler:their]] [[HeelFaceTurn defections]].
32	* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'':
33	** ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan2'' has a Villain Team-Up between Harry Osborn/the Goblin and Max Dillon/Electro. The alliance is shaky (since Dillon doesn't have any sentiment for Harry due to his background with Oscorp; Harry brokers the team-up by saying both of them were shafted by Oscorp) but Dillon's desire to strike back at Oscorp and Spider-Man is enough to get them working together. At the end, Harry [[spoiler:is working to compile a team of empowered individuals to eliminate Spider-Man, which heavily suggests that he wants to form the Sinister Six]].
34	** ''Film/SpiderMan3'' has a team up with Sandman and Venom, with New Goblin just sort of hanging around.
35	* ''Film/SupermanII'' has Lex Luthor initiate a team up with the 3 Kryptonians, but ends up with the short end of the stick very quickly.
36	* ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' crossover movies typically have the current villain group team up with the remnants of the previous villain group.
37	* ''Film/XMenTheLastStand'' had Magneto convince Jean Grey in Phoenix form to work together; sadly, this was because [[spoiler:Jean didn't trust Charles Xavier and killed him while Magneto watched.]]
38	* ''Film/Glass2019'', the third in Creator/MNightShyamalan's superhero trilogy, has [[DiabolicalMastermind Mister Glass]] (the villain of ''Film/{{Unbreakable}}'') and [[SuperpoweredEvilSide the Horde]] (the villain of ''Film/{{Split}}'') incarcerated in the same psychiatric institution, along with [[TheCowl David Dunn]]. Glass convinces the Horde to team up, break out of the institution and cause havoc, forcing Dunn to break out too.
39	-->'''Mister Glass''': That sounds like the bad guys teaming up.
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Context VillainTeamUp / Film