Hero With Bad Publicity / Live-Action Films

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• It's a plot point in The Adjustment Bureau, where the hero unsuccessfully runs for the United States Senate because of a college reunion prank where he exposed his bare backside has been caught on film.
• Deconstructed in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Ford's killing of Jesse is clearly cowardly but he tried to play it off like it's heroism. Nobody buys it and Ford is widely vilified, and later murdered in Colorado by a lone gun nut, Edward Capehart O'Kelley, seeking to avenge Jesse's death (who, to twist the knife further, is buried as a hero, while Ford's tombstone reads "the coward who killed Jesse James"). The irony is that Jesse was actually a Villain with Good Publicity — while the public at large thought he was a Lovable Rogue, he was actually a violent, brooding, paranoid lunatic who had recently murdered several members of his gang because he thought they'd betrayed him, including one that he shot from behind, just like what happens to him later. In private Ford confesses that, ultimately, the real reason he killed Jesse was that he seriously believed Jesse was going to kill him, and based on the evidence he was Properly Paranoid. To top it off, James is implied to be a Death Seeker and let Ford kill him to escape a miserable life constantly on the run from the law.
• The titular hero goes through this during Batman Returns, thanks to the manipulations of the Penguin, the resident Villain with Good Publicity. The mayor hangs a lampshade on this at the end of the movie.
• In Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, several protestors, politicians, and such angrily blame Superman for the massive destruction and loss of life from his battles against General Zod and his forces in Man of Steel. Batman also considers Superman a threat to the planet instead of a hero.
• The Batman (2022): Due to Batman's brutality and Terror Hero shtick, he is hated and feared by the citizens and all the cops except for Friend on the Force Jim Gordon try to arrest him. At the end, he becomes praised as a hero when he saves everyone from the Riddler's plan and then aids recovery efforts when Gotham City is flooded.
• In Bridge of Spies, attorney James Donovan believes that the American edicts of equality for all and Constitutional justice apply even to a Soviet spy. Since this is taking place during the height of Cold War hysteria, this gets his family targeted.
• Andy Barclay, The Hero of the Child's Play series, gets kicked out of multiple foster homes and eventually ends up in a military school because he is believed to be insane due to his claims that his doll is alive and a serial killer. Not only that, some people even insinuate that he is responsible for the murders. This also applies to other protagonist of the series, Nica Pierce, she was blamed for Chucky's murders and put in a psychiatric facility for it.
• In The Dark Knight Trilogy, this seems to be one of the most direct results of the Joker's efforts. Batman deliberately takes this on himself at the end of The Dark Knight when he convinces Gordon to blame him for the murders committed by Dent. This is part of Batman's Zero-Approval Gambit to get criminals to fear him again, and more importantly, protect Harvey Dent's reputation and legacy.
• Dark Waters: The Tennant family get treated like dirt in town for years for suing the towns biggest employer. Then the Krieger’s and many others get blamed due to the long delays that follow the blood testing before they can go to trial.
• The Desperado series of TV movies follow Duell McCall, an innocent man framed for one murder who travels from place to place, upholds justice, defeats evil men and inevitably gets blamed for everything that happens in the film so his bounty just keeps getting bigger.
• In Die Hard, John McClane tries to alert the hostages that they're standing on the roof which is rigged with explosives and tries to get them to run back downstairs so that the police can reach them. He opens fire to scare them into running down when they can't hear his verbal orders, making an FBI helicopter mistake him for a terrorist and start firing at him. McClane remarks, "I'M ON YOUR SIDE, YOU ASSHOLES!"
• Vlad Dracula in Dracula Untold, according to his son.
  "My father was a great man. A hero, so they say. Sometimes the world does not need another hero. Sometimes what it needs... is a monster."
• The Ghostbusters, who are largely thought to be charlatans while they are saving the city. Ghostbusters II shows that many people continue to doubt their legitimacy even after the climax of the first film.
• Godzilla: A recurring theme when Godzilla and/or other Kaiju seve an Anti-Hero role:
  • Godzilla vs. Gigan: In spite of Godzilla's shift to heroism (this also applies to his allies Rodan, Anguirus, Mothra) since Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, the JSDF make it clear they don't want any giant monsters on human-occupied territory by shooing away Anguirus.
  • This also applies to the MonsterVerse Continuity Reboot (see below).
• The premise of The Green Hornet is this. He posed himself as a villain, but his deeds are actually heroic. Look at the Comic Book example above. In The Green Hornet Serials, the Hornet framed himself for murder (of a gangster) on his first outing.
• Hancock starts off with this and the PR agent who volunteers to try to improve his image.
• Independence Day: Before the alien war, President Whitmore took a lot of crap from others who either hated his policies or felt that he was too young to run a country. Much of what happens on the news prior to the attack is pretty much everyone badmouthing him.
• I Shot Jesse James examines Robert Ford's typical depiction. While he did shoot Jesse In the Back for selfish reasons, Jesse was a vicious outlaw that just killed three men and was planning another robbery. In this film, Ford's vilification and Jesse's romanticization is portrayed as a result of hypocritical Western society, and portrays Ford as a Jerkass Woobie that can't escape his reputation and the guilt of killing Jesse.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Elves view Isildur with this level of disappointment after he refused to destroy the Ring, instead keeping it for himself.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • As shown in Avengers: Age of Ultron, the Avengers are generally seen as heroes, but some nations are distrustful of them, seeing them as tools of American cultural imperialism. More specifically, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch don't believe Iron Man is genuinely working to atone for his arms dealer past, as they lost their parents to one of his weapons.
  • While the Avengers are considered heroes to the public, there are some who look at them the other way; going as far to blame them for some of the tragedies they tried to prevent. It eventually reaches a boiling point in Captain America: Civil War where Zemo schemes to break them up as revenge for the death of his family in Sokovia. In that same movie, Wanda gets innocent people killed when she botches her efforts to contain Crossbones' suicide bomb, and the press brand her as a pariah (while completely ignoring the fact that she and the rest of Steve's team were trying to take down a terrorist who was stealing a bioweapon capable of killing thousands). The bad press prompts various world leaders to push for the Sokovia Accords.
  • A variation in Spider-Man: Homecoming: unlike most portrayals of Spider-Man, this take on Peter Parker doesn't really have a reputation. When he swings around the city, people react more with a confused curiosity than anything else. Over the course of the movie, he becomes A Hero to His Hometown and takes pride in being a "friendly neighborhood Spider-Man" instead of a major superhero like the Avengers.
  • In Avengers: Endgame, Ant-Man's complete lack of name recognition is one of many jokes at Scott Lang's expense.
  • In Spider-Man: Far From Home, Mysterio retaliates against Spider-Man defeating him by sending out a doctored video of their final fight, with the intent of changing Spider-Man, whom he also reveals to be Peter Parker, into one of these. How the public as a whole reacts to this remains to be seen, but J. Jonah Jameson of TheDailyBugle.net believes it and eagerly begins an anti-Spider-Man campaign.
• Godzilla in the MonsterVerse is feared by humans for his huge size and potential for destruction, and as because the humans don't know much to tell him apart from other monsters who actually are malicious and invasive in nature such as the MUTOs, Rodan or King Ghidorah.
  • In his 2014 American movie arrives in San Francisco to battle the MUTOs. He carefully tries to pass through the Golden Gate Bridge without causing any human casualties, but all the humans see is a giant monster that could crush them like ants. When Godzilla's spikes move the boats, the U.S. Navy fire upon him even though Godzilla is clearly not attacking them, causing Godzilla to lose his balance and crash through the bridge splitting it into two pieces.
  • In the 2019 sequel Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019):
    • Although Godzilla has saved humanity from the MUTOs five years ago and is working to rid the world of Ghidorah, he is still deemed a threat by the United States. Even Mark Russell, the human protagonist, wants Godzilla dead because his son was collateral damage during Godzilla's fight in San Francisco. Only Serizawa and Monarch appear to be on Godzilla's side. Thankfully by the end of the movie this seems to be going away, as multiple newspapers report about how Godzilla is keeping other Titans away from cities once the Titans accept Godzilla as their king.
    • Also at the start of the film, the majority of the public are blaming Monarch for the San Francisco incident, and the organization are consequently on trial by the government. It's implied the backlash is further influenced by Monarch's refusal to reveal what they know about the Titans or how many more there are; but more than that, the government and most of the public just want to try killing all the Titans indiscriminately, and don't care for Monarch's arguments that that isn't a good idea.
  • In the 2021 sequel Godzilla vs. Kong, Godzilla starts attacking people making the human race confused over why he is going on rampages on human territory. It's later revealed that a sinister corporation Apex Cybernetics is building Mechagodzilla to wipe out all Titans off the face of the Earth to reinstate humans as the dominant species, and Godzilla (correctly) deduces Mechagodzilla as a threat to him.
• Mystery Inc. in Scooby-Doo: Monsters Unleashed after some vicious slander from a reporter.
• Sam Carpenter, the Final Girl of Scream (2022), gets accused of being the actual killer in the third Woodsboro killing spree in the sequel. There are subreddits dedicated to proving her guilt, and people harass her in the street because of it.
• SHAZAM! Fury of the Gods has the Shazam family earning the nickname "Philadelphia Fiascos" given they're prone to Destructive Savior moments.
• Ballard gradually transforms into this over the course of Silver Lode. The townspeople initially side with Ballard as they know and trust him, being skeptical or outright distrustful of outsider McCarty and his accusations. As further events and details seemingly corroborate McCarty's account however, they turn on Ballard. By the end, only his ex Dolly and his fiancée Rose remain on his side.
• Much like the source material, the Spider-Man Trilogy features the titular hero facing a lot of flack mostly because of a smear campaign led by J. Jonah Jameson. Though by the second film, the general public begins to accept him more as a hero. In the third film, despite JJJ being unrelenting with his slander of Spider-Man, it no longer affects the public opinion of New York, as everyone loves Spidey and the city even goes as far to throw a parade in his honor.
• The Autobots in the Transformers Film Series, both in the Bay-verse's first, fourth and fifth movies and the reboot film Bumblebee.
  • In the Bay-verse, almost as immediately as the first movie begins the Decepticons kill a bunch of humans and when the Autobots arrive to prevent further human casualties, the humans assume that the Autobots are also hostile and capture Bumblebee, tormenting the poor bot until Sam Witwicky convinces the humans to start trusting the Autobots because they will protect humanity.
  • Autobot and human relations stay cordial for the second and third movies although strained thanks to the Obstructive Bureaucrat du jour being a jackass (Galloway in ROTF, Mearing in DOTM) but then for the next two sequels the humans pull a massive Jerkass Ball and outright declare war on the Autobots.
  • In the reboot film Bumblebee, Decepticons Shatter and Dropkick deceive the humans into believing that their target Bumblebee is a dangerous fugitive on the lam who must be brought to justice. Subverted in the sequel Transformers: Rise of the Beasts as while the Autobots still maintain vehicle mode to stay hidden from humans the Maximals are revealed to have established a cordial relationship with multiple generations of a human tribe in Peru for a millennia.
• Van Helsing: The title character is stated early on to be the most wanted man in Europe, due to his Destructive Saviour tendencies and the fact that many of the creatures he takes out revert to human upon death.

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