Jerkass / Live-Action Films

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A-K

• 12 Feet Deep: Clara is a thief who is willing to take advantage of the trapped sisters and blackmail them for money under the threat of leaving them to die.
• The protagonist of 40 Days and 40 Nights is surrounded by Jerkass 'friends' and co-workers who take advantage of him at the drop of a hat.
• Chuck Tatum (played by Kirk Douglas) in the movie Ace in the Hole (1951). A star reporter who has fallen from his pedestal, Chuck crawls through a dangerous tunnel to present a friendly face and reassuring words to a man trapped in a collapsed mine. He then arranges to have the man stuck in there for a whole week, sleeps with his wife, and uses the whole situation to advance his career.
• The Alamo: William Travis. This is actually one of the film's rare Truth in Television moments, as Travis was by all accounts not well liked at all among the rest of the defenders.
• American Pie:
  • Steve Stifler. This was an important plot point in American Pie Presents: Band Camp when his younger brother Matt, who for most of the movie is trying to emulate Steve, changes his ways when he finds out that everyone hated his brother. Because he was a Jerkass. As a result, Matt gets better and, in American Reunion, Steve himself finally realizes the error of his ways and becomes a good friend to everyone.
  • In the Naked Mile movie, Dwight and Erik Stifler, cousins of Steve and Matt, talk to each other with Dwight appreciating that Erik is nicer than any other Stifler, although even Dwight himself is not a Jerkass like Steve or Matt, since he focuses his Stifler-like traits on his enemies.
• Angry White Man: Bulldog Hayes, a successful country music singer who isn't even American, but British. He spends most of his screen time getting it on with pretty women, not caring about his career, and in general being a not very pleasant person.
• Several of Jack Nicholson's characters are jerkasses, like the misogynist Melvin Udall in As Good as It Gets (who is forced to change for the better), or the possibly demonic Daryl Van Horne in The Witches of Eastwick (who as a proud Sleazeball, never tries to improve).
• Any Tannen character from the Back to the Future series qualifies.
• The protagonist of Bad Santa is an alcoholic Child Hater Mall Santa Con Man who mooches off a young boy and his grandmother while planning to rob the department store at which he's working. The entire film is essentially about his transformation from a Jerkass to a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
• The Banana Splits Movie has three characters fit this role, all of whom end up getting killed by the end of the film.
  • Stevie is the textbook example of Nice Character, Mean Actor, being an extremely rude and condescending alcoholic. He bullies the Splits in telling them their show got cancelled, though this doesn't end up well for him...
  • Andy is the corrupt studio executive who decides to cancel the show for no reason aside from it being "boring and stupid" and "wanting to do something more cool and edgy." And he plans to sell the Splits to the black market.
  • Mitch is Beth's husband who cheats on her with his co-workers and is neglectful towards both her sons. He even belittles Austin after the latter calls him out for his behavior.
• Kid Culprit in Beyond the Lights is the very definition. He starts out being rather insensitive (with sexting to his girlfriend after her suicide attempt), then gets worse after Noni breaks up with him (after starting to fall for Kaz and realizing that her heart lies with him) — to say the very least.
• Mark Baum from The Big Short has No Social Skills, drops F-bombs on anyone who crosses his path, and has very little patience for society's rules of common courtesy.
• Black Christmas (2019): Kris is very insensitive towards Riley, not caring how she feels unless it benefits her, and is apathetic to Helena's disappearance.
• Preston's father in Blank Check does come across as a jerkass on one more than once occassion. When his son was nearly run over by a car, he scolds his son about the bike that got run over instead and then proceeds to ground him. And to say nothing of the fact he gives the boy's room to his equally Jerkass older brothers, lets them steal his life savings and admonishes him, at eight years old, for not starting a 'business' like said older brothers.
• Roberto Volare from Brain Donors has an impressively inflated ego due to his status in the ballet world, and is unrestrained about using it to woo his partner Lisa away from her beau Alan.
• The Breakfast Club:
  • Richard Vernon starts hinting at Jerkass Woobie status as the day wears on, particularly during his conversation with Carl Reed.
  • John Bender also easily qualifies, but down deep, he's a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, once you get beneath the antisocial cynicism of a physically abused kid.
• Tina from Bumblebee delights in belittling Charlie, even having a tremendous Kick the Dog moment by mocking her deceased father. Charlie clearly is shown to be emotionally damaged due to her constant harassment. Thankfully, Tina gets her comeuppance when Bumblebee smashes her car flat with the encouragement of Charlie and Memo.
• Bunni:
  • Lisa's husband in the intro, who's cheating on her with a stripper names Bunni, and beats her up for trying to talk to him about it.
  • There's also Rick, who rarely has anything nice to say, and is probably cheating on his own girlfriend.
• Capps Crossing: Justin is something of a jerk to the others, even his own girlfriend. He shows a complete Lack of Empathy when she hurts her leg, not accompanying her back to the camp, instead going on ahead to continue his geocaching.
• Stretch, Stinkie and Fatso in the first Casper movie start off as Jerkasses but are also later shown to actually be loving and caring deep down inside. (Amusingly, they're proud of their reputations for being annoying, even saying "Thank you!" when the film's heroine calls them on their behavior.)
• Johnny Depp played Willy Wonka this way in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the second film adaptation of Roald Dahl's book. He didn't like the kids, he didn't want them there, and he wasn't particularly shy about showing it. Then he still notices that Charlie is decidedly underfed and ladles him up a generous drink of chocolate; in the book this was perfectly in character — in this particular movie it felt out of place. He did see that Charlie was the only non-jerkass child of the group, and he felt sympathy for him when he knew he was poor and hadn't eaten. Augustus was gluttonous, Veruca was a spoiled brat, Violet was a boastful competitor, and Mike Teavee was a know-it-all addict.
• The entire cast of Chicago. Now, some of them you would expect, like Amoral Attorney Billy Flynn, and self-obsessed showbiz wannabe Roxie Hart, but even the characters that would be sympathetic in other productions, like the one A.D.A. who isn't on the take, the straight-shooting and competent detective and the Intrepid Reporter are just as awful people. About the only ones who don't fit the mold are Hunyak (who is innocent of the murder she's accused of) and Amos, though Amos is enough of an Extreme Doormat it is hard to maintain any sympathy for him either.
• Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022): None of the Valley Gang are great guys, but while Sweet Pete at least has a tragic origin, and Bob and Jimmy are Affably Evil, Putty is a traitorous, sadistic, greedy asshole with nothing likable beyond being Laughably Evil.
• Conspiracy (2001): One of the things that makes Dr. Klopfer a Hate Sink in addition to an evil Nazi is that he's obnoxious and rude even to his fellow Nazis.
• The Emperor from Curse of the Golden Flower. At the end of the movie, he gives his rebellious son, who had conspired with the Empress to attempt a (failed) coup a choice — either he can die horribly, or be pardoned — as long as he personally serves the Empress the poison that the Emperor has been slowly killing her with. Of course, the son Takes a Third Option. The Emperor also beats his youngest son to death with a belt.
• Steve from the 2004 version of Dawn of the Dead (2004) is an unbelievably obnoxious jerk who never misses an opportunity to be snide and petty, no matter how serious the situation. Thankfully, the filmmakers were aware that the audience would hate him, and he does end up with a bullet in his head by the movie's end. He causes the break in of the mall in the first place, by leaving his post and not opening the security door when the protagonists are trying to get back in after a rescue of Sarah. He does it out of spite, and even greets them with a grin and a "Hey, guys, where were you?!"
• Richard Cameron in Dead Poets Society. Neil's father is this as well: He drives his son to suicide and blames Keating for it, not thinking for a second that he had anything to do with it. And sadly, he gets away with firing Keating.
• Dementia (1955): The rich man is walking the woman through the lobby of his ritzy apartment building, and a cleaning lady is washing the floor. The rich man then tosses aside his cigar butt right into the spot on the floor the cleaning lady is cleaning.
• Lloyd from Dumb and Dumber. Harry, in addition to being somewhat smarter, is a Nice Guy in his own bumbling way, whereas Lloyd is often sadistic and mean-spirited, and not always obliviously so.
• Elysium:
  • The head of Armadyne. His first concern on discovering one of his employees has been blasted with radiation? Keeping the bedding on the gurney in the medbay clean. Oh, and don't let your dirty Earth germs get on him, cover your mouth.
  • Max's foreman, who only cares about his fracture in a way a broken tool needs to be replaced and causes Max's irradiation in the first place by forcing him to fix a stuck pallet jamming a blast door. However, it does look like he feels bad when it's announced that Max has 5 days to live.
• Henry from Ever After. He gets taken down a peg, though, and ends up all right.
• In Exam, White is arrogant, abrasive, and shamelessly manipulative. Not to mention, racist, sexist and ableist.
• Almost every single character in The Fighter, but mainly Dicky (self-absorbed crack addict brother), Alice (crooked boxing promoter who uses her son to make money off of him) and Sherri (a mother who shows her daughter a documentary that is obviously not for her age all for the purpose of making the father look bad).
• Force of Nature: The Dry 2: Alice is not a very nice person. Everyone who works with her identifies her as a bully, and her 'in your face' attitude and insistence that she is right only gets worse as the group gets further and further lost. She eventually provokes the group into into physical violence: largely directed against her.
• Leo Beebe in Ford v Ferrari has a vendetta against Ken Miles from the moment they meet. He does what he can to exclude Miles from Ford's racing program, and orders Shelby to tell Miles to slow down toward the end of Le Mans to finish alongside the other Fords, ultimately costing Miles the win.
• Freddy Got Fingered: Gord is a self-centered Psychopathic Manchild who terrorizes and abuses everyone around him, including his own friends and family. He even spurs a malicious rumor that tears his family apart and ruins his father's life.
• Free Guy: Antwan casually fires an employee just because, thinks little of his employees and the game's players, and only cares about the money he can get out of the latter. And when he goes into his Villainous Breakdown, he begins to destroy the Free City servers just because Guy is about to reveal that he stole Life Itself's code.
• Trent from the Friday the 13th (2009) remake, who pretty much starts his resume by being a complete dick to Clay, whose sister was missing and he was searching for her. The rest of his time is spent bitching about his drunken friends ruining his cabin, even bitching about a chair broken when one friend fell over it after burned his lips while doing a flaming shot. And just after his girlfriend comes back with Clay, screaming that there's a maniac trying to kill them, Trent's first reaction is to accuse her of cheating on him with a random stranger... literally minutes after he just finished doing the same thing. Add on his 80s hair, and his death couldn't come soon enough.
• Get Ready to Be Boyzvoiced: All three of the band members are this to some extent, but especially M*Pete, who on top of being an inept musician is an utter sleazebag willing to sleep with girls just barely above the age of consent (which is 16 in Norway).
• Godzilla:
  • Let's face it, the Big G can act like a serious asshole prior to turning away from rampaging. One highlight for some fans is Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster where he seems to audibly laughs at Rodan when Rodan gets attacked by Mothra — though she was trying to calm down two destructive forces who at the time did not like each other. According to Mothra and her fairies, who can understand the kaiju, he was being quite foul-mouthed as well. It might be a bit subverted in how he felt humanity was attacking him, but he was until that point venting destruction without being provoked.
  • The MonsterVerse has its share of these. Rodan, even if he is at first justified when you consider his own P.O.V. of the aerial attack on his nest, and even if he is under King Ghidorah's control for most of the movie from there; he's far more of a Blood Knight than he needs to be when slaughtering Monarch's Gold Squadron, and he's antagonistic toward Godzilla before quickly backing down once the latter threatens him. Although Mark Russell is on the good guys' team, he's not a pleasant guy to put up with; acting self-righteous and talking as if the whole world revolves around his self-loathing and self-pity, while treating just about everyone else poorly. Maia Simmons is a cold, rude, snooty Rich Bitch who doesn't make it easy for anyone In-Universe or out to find her likeable.
• Tommy DeVito from Goodfellas is a full blown sociopath who disturbingly teases or antagonizes everybody.
• In Great White, Jijo is consistently obnoxious, opinionated, superior, demanding and condescending from the moment he arrives, up until he accidentally causes Benny's death.
• The Green Hornet: Britt Reid, played by Seth Rogen. He's self-absorbed, irresponsible, immature, stupid, ungrateful, spoiled, etc.
• Will Smith's movie Hancock is about a Jerkass who's a subversion of the classic Flying Brick — all of the powers, none of the Cape-ness. He realizes (with the urging of a PR Agent whom he saves) that doesn't make for a popular hero and tries to change it. He is quite sensitive about his Jerkassed nature and does not take kindly to being called an asshole by anybody, particularly criminals.
• The Hangover: Melissa, Stu's domineering girlfriend, has no trouble having an extramarital affair with a cruise ship bartender. At the end of the movie, Stu decides she is not worth getting married to and breaks up with her.
• Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle: The extreme sports punks who constantly torment the main characters fit this trope.
• The protagonist of Hellraiser: Inferno is a complete prick, abusing everyone around him, ignoring his family and living like a hedonist. This ends up being his own undoing as he condemns himself to Hell.
• Being the villain is a given, but The Kurgan from the first Highlander film takes it further with his more comedic Kick the Dog moments like frightening an old lady.
• Andy Wainwright and Andy Cartwright from Hot Fuzz.
• Hot Tub Time Machine:
  • Lou is very obnoxious, rude, and immature. He undergoes some Character Development and he finally lets go of his friends and accepts them for who they are, making him a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
  • Blaine and his crew repeatedly gang-up on people (particularly Lou) for their own amusement. They do help the bellhop when he loses an arm, giving them a Pet the Dog moment.
• In the Name of the Father:
  • The detectives who brutally interrogate the Guildford Four are (aside from Dixon) unrelenting assholes (not surprising given they believe they're terrorists).
  • Deptford Jim also applies. He has a go at Gerry and Paul, blaming them for the bombings. Jim later willingly talks to the police, implicating Paul Hill and the Conlons out of spite (possibly more than that; see Green-Eyed Monster above), thus putting the disastrous events of the film into motion (in reality the source who caused their arrest is unknown).
• James Bond, the one played by Daniel Craig in particular, can be very cold at times even when his allies are killed. He gets better though, becoming a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
  • The villains that 007 routinely faces are hard core megalomaniacs and sociopaths to begin with.
• John Wick: Iosef Tarasov is the entitled and arrogant gangster son of mob boss Viggo Tarasov. He starts the movie off by beating up John Wick and killing his dog for not lending him his car. When John finally catches up to him, all he can say was "it was just a dog!" before John gives him a well-deserved Boom, Headshot! for good measure.
• When the jungle trek in Jungle starts turning into a Doomed Expedition, Kevin's obnoxious side comes out. He is willing to abandon Marcus when his feet mean that he cannot keep up, and becomes an ugly American. However, when he is rescued from the river, he becomes The Atoner and does everything within his power to rescue Yossi.
• Joker (2019): A trio of Wayne businessmen bully Arthur when he grabs their attention by laughing and brutally beat him up on the spot. Since Arthur has by this point acquired a gun to defend himself with, this results in the death of all of them.
• Dean from Kingsman: The Secret Service, he's a jerk to Eggsy, and physically abusive towards Michelle.

L-Z

• The Little Hours: Alessandra, Ginevra and Fernanda give the first gardener Lurco crap for no real reason. All he does is look at them in a friendly way and make conversation. They respond to this by insulting and then even pummeling the poor guy.
• In Long Drive Home David is a grumpy misanthrope who bullies everyone he encounters for no real reason, is implied to be having an affair with a married woman, and uses highly ruthless business practices.
• Anybody in Loser (2000) that's not Jason Biggs or Mena Suvari. Biggs' roommates and the professor played by Greg Kinnear who sleeps with Suvari's character are horrible human beings.
• Louis de Funès played those very convincingly, even if over-the-top at times. In all his good films he is a hyperactive, self-important and stubborn little old man prone to temper tantrums. To aggravate this he also shamelessly sucks up to his superiors. Whether he is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold or just Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist varies.
• Mars Attacks!: The Martians are some of the most assholish aliens in cinema. They invade Earth not to conquer it but to simply wipe out all life For the Evulz. The novelization clarifies that the entire basis of their civilization is attacking planets and wiping out all life for fun. They are incredibly mean spirited and sadistic, treating their mass slaughter of innocents as a shoot'em up video game. At one point, they kidnap a woman and her dog and swap their heads around and show the woman the results just for the fun of making her unhappy. Many of the humans in the film are also unlikable jerks, if only to make the Martians killing them funny.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe: When he's not being Affably Evil, Thanos, in his few brief appearances before Avengers: Infinity War, quickly established himself as a Bad Boss and Abusive Parent, even telling Nebula in Infinity War that the only reason he didn't kill her is that it would've been a waste of parts.
• A New York Christmas Wedding: Vinnie is a huge asshole to Gabby, which is why nobody feels bad when Jenni punches him right in the face.
• In the movie North Country, nearly every male character is portrayed as a complete asshole. There are only two decent guys in the entire movie. Almost every other character is an unlikable jerkass to a point where the main character Josey is living in a crapsack world.
• Not Okay: Some white guys shoot firecrackers onto the stage when Danni and Rowan are giving a speech against violence, causing Rowan (who'd survived a school shooting) to have a panic attack as these sound like gunshots while they yell "snowflakes". Then on Twitter we see that many users are mocking Rowan over this, claiming that "real" victims don't react this way. "Jerkass" is really putting it mildly here.
• The antagonists of the Ocean's Eleven trilogy (the first one, Terry Benedict, threatened to — and conceivably could — kill everyone while the second one, Teloure, sicced Terry on the band of thieves because a friend of the heroes unknowingly insulted his Gentleman Thief mentor) but especially Willy Bank from the third film, who screwed over one of Ocean's friends by taking advantage of his connections, cutting him out of their hotel's partnership, and on top of all that he renamed the hotel after himself. It doesn't help that the Ocean & Co. have to go to Terry for financial aid in the middle of their revenge plot. Ocean's 8 follows the tradition with Claude, Debbie's ex who she helped in his art scams, only for him to make her take all the blame when the scheme was discovered.
• Office Space is full of them: Brian (Joanna's obnoxious brown-nosing coworker), Bill Lumbergh of course, Dom (another one of Pete's bosses), etc. The main characters also have their occasional moments of jerkassery. The various bosses are more jerkasses of the passive-aggressive flavor, which is less outwardly abrasive than your typical jerkass, but no less infuriating to deal with.
• Only the Brave: The Hotshot crew lead early in the film is very dismissive of Eric's suggestions to save a community threatened by fire, basically telling them to stay out of the way and let the professionals work. Eric turns out to have been right, and the town goes up in smoke.
• Paranormal Prison: Matthew, one of the hosts of "The Skeptic and the Scientist" (specifically, he's the skeptic, can be a smug douche about rationally explaining away the supernatural. He reaches his zenith of meanness when he pretends to be possessed by a ghost in front of Sara. The end result is Sara temporarily giving up believing in ghosts.
• In The Phantom of the Opera (1962), Lord Ambrose D'Arcy is haughty and rude to everyone around him, able to get away with such behavior because of his wealth and prestige. He also expects that the beautiful women who audition for the leading role in "his" opera sleep with him, including Christine, who is dismissed when she does not do so. It is eventually revealed that D'Arcy is also a thief with no musical talent of his own, having stolen the life's work of a poor composer named Professor Petrie (who would go on to become the titular Phantom).
• Playing With Dolls: The landlord of Cindy's apartment building is established to be a very unpleasant man. He has no sympathy about Cindy's roommate leaving and taking her money with her, states he can evict her legally if he wants to, and even offers to let her stay if she will have sex with him.
• In The Prestige both leads become jerk asses when they get obsessed with one-upping and sabotaging each other which began with a grudge held over an accident causing the death of one lead's wife.
• Project X (2012):
  • Costa belittles his friends, does wildly reckless things, and is just unpleasant to everyone he meets.
  • On a smaller scale, Thomas' father. He mentions in a private conversation that he feels Thomas is a loser because he doesn't take any risks. He is actually surprised and even a little proud when he sees the aftermath of the party.
  • The midget is pretty indiscriminate about who he targets with his Groin Attacks, even going after a woman for no reason at one point.
• In Razors: The Return of Jack the Ripper, Zack Walker is an obnoxious know-it-all who spends most his screen time sneering, whining, or accusing others of cheating and trying to steal his thunder.
• A Recipe for Seduction: Billy puts on the facade of being a gentleman when he's trying to propose to Jessica, but he's actually a scumbag who grabs her roughly, gets easily jealous, and cheated on her with her own mother.
• A good example of comic-relief gone awry would be L.J. from Resident Evil: Apocalypse. His obnoxious, stereotypical and totally inappropriate "street flava" nearly makes him a modern day Ethnic Scrappy, and annoyed many viewers. In the follow-up movie, he is killed off, but by then he'd dropped the Modern Minstrelsy crap and became somewhat sympathetic.
• Rise of the Scarecrows: Carlos is established as one in the start of the movie. The biggest example of this he displays of this is towards a farmer named Rufus who's just trying to sell some fresh fruits and vegetables on the side of the road. Carlos insults his choice in prices and knocks the table with the basket of food on it over. Then, when he's back in the van, he decides to go and apologize. He leaves the van... and throws a tomato at poor Rufus.
• This is Rob Zombie's modus operandi in his movies, where finding a character who isn't a violently unlikable jerkass is quite a feat.
• Roger in Rovdyr. He is rude to his friends (although there is very little evidence that even regards Mia and Jorgen as friends); abusive and possessive towards his girlfriend; condescending towards the locals, and tries to pick a fight with them; flirts with another woman in front his girlfriend; overrides others' very justified concerns in a highhanded manner...the list goes on. About his only positive character is courage, and even that seems more like arrogance.
• Detective James Carter (played by Chris Tucker) is a huge one at the start of Rush Hour and he knows it. Of course, since he's the hero he's also the Jerk with a Heart of Gold and has badass tendencies.
• Due to the cynicism in the Sergio Leone's films and considering the Black-and-Grey Morality in his films, any character, whether hero or villain, of any of the spaghetti westerns certainly qualifies:
  • A Fistful of Dollars: Ramon and Esteban Rojo.
  • For a Few Dollars More: El Indio.
  • The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Angel Eyes and Tuco.
  • Once Upon a Time in the West: Frank and Harmonica.
  • Even The Man with No Name has some of these traits, though not by much.
• There's usually at least one of these in a horror movie, so when they die, you don't have to feel bad for them. David in Shaun of the Dead stand out: while Ed is at times rude, lazy and annoying but ultimately likable, David is shown to be an example of the apocalypse truly bringing out the worst in someone.
• SHAZAM! (2019):
  • Both Thaddeus Sivana's father and brother made fun of him for having a Magic 8-Ball and were constantly disrespectful to him. After a car accident occurs, they treat him badly even more, which leads to Thaddeus pursuing a path of villainy.
  • The Breyer Brothers not only constantly bully a helpless Freddy, but they make fun of him for being motherless — which becomes Billy's first instinct to save Freddy from their wrath due to losing a mother himself. Speaking of which...
  • Marilyn Batson, Billy's biological mother. While she is revealed to have had a difficult life prior to getting separated by Billy, this doesn't take away from the fact that she abandoned him without telling him, which — regardless of being with police officers at the time — could emotionally scar a little kid for life. Not only that, but she refused to reconcile with him when he finally meets up with her after ten years of searching for her.
• Bart in Sheitan. He is a whiny and obnoxious ingrate; hits on women who aren't interested in him, and won't take no for an answer; picks fights he can't win and relies on his friends to bail him out of trouble; and even hits on his mates' girlfriends. His mates Ladj and Thai aren't a lot better, but at least possess some basic social skills, a modicum of personal charm, and have a reasonable understanding of their own weaknesses.
• In Siren (2010), Ken seems to embody most of the unpleasant stereotypes of the yuppie. He also gives off an unpleasant 'rape-y' vibe around Silka.
• In Snakes on a Plane one memorable character that oozed Jerkass was a snobby, self-absorbed bald guy who showed about as much human emotion and common sense as a tin cup and generally acted like Steve in the Dawn of the Dead (2004) remake only not funny or interesting. At least the villain had a kind of human pathos and the annoying Ethnic Scrappies showed courage and determination when they needed to, Bald Snooty Dude was just a douche for no reason at all, even going so far as to off-handedly insult a woman and her baby for having the nerve to sit by him. Of course he got his, after a literal Kick the Dog moment... he's devoured by a massive snake, and later his corpse is shot out of the plane after it decompresses.
• Sonic the Hedgehog (2020): Dr. Robotnik (played by Jim Carrey) is a rude, obnoxious, and condescending asshole who can hardly finish a sentence without insulting someone. And he's trying to kill Sonic for his own greedy purposes (as well as threatening to kill Tom). He's such a jerk that when he's banished to Mushroom Planet, the government pretends he never existed and tries to forget about him.
• Sgt. J.J. Sefton from Stalag 17. With the exceptions of Cookie and Joey, he sees everyone in the compound as simply an opportunity to get resources to trade for goods (a result after getting his stuff stolen during his first week at the prison). This comes to bite him in the ass in the beginning of the story; when he barters with the Nazi guards using the cigarettes he won from a bet involving a botched escape attempt, he is suspected of being an agent planted by the Germans.
• Jabba The Hutt, Palpatine (aka Darth Sidious), Darth Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin, from Star Wars movies.
  • From the latest films, General Hux of the First Order. The Force Awakens also has the chubby alien on Jakku, Unkar Plutt, and the Stormtrooper that is a victim of Rey's Jedi Mind Trick.
• Steam (2007): Laurie's ex-husband Tom is a huge asshole who's never anything but critical and intrusive in her life still despite them being divorced, trying to get full custody of their son as he dislikes what she does as a single woman (namely dating a younger man, but he has a much younger wife himself).
• Strays (2023): Doug, who is more or less the embodiment of how not to be a good dog owner. When he first appears, he curses at his dog Reggie and tosses his emptied can of beer at him. He constantly attempts to abandon Reggie, culminating in trying to kill the dog in the climax. Fortunately, he gets what's coming to him big time.
• Barry Champlain from Talk Radio is crass, unpleasant, cruel, and condescending. He's actually exploited this trope; being a Shock Jock, he's used his naturally blunt personality to become famous.
• The Three Stooges:
  • Moe. In Pop Goes The Easel, following a clay fight, Moe demands to know who started it. When someone says "YOU did!", Moe responds by angrily yelling "Oh YEAH?!" and then promptly spins around with his hand extended, slapping Larry, Curly and three or four other guys with one continuous slap.
  • Most of the stooges' antagonists, played by the likes of Bud Jamison, Vernon Dent, and Kenneth MacDonald (or the drill sergeant played by Richard Fiske in Boobs in Arms) are also naturally Jerkasses.
• This Is the End has exaggerated portrayals of real-life actors who aren't portrayed as good people to begin with, but these guys are easily the worst of them:
  • Danny McBride. He selfishly wastes all of the food rations, tries to waste all the water when told he could only have one ration, and is generally a massive douche to everyone. He even becomes a cannibalistic rapist who has enslaved Channing Tatum and later eats James Franco alive.
  • Jonah Hill, who is willing to pray for Jay Baruchel's demise. He is also shown shoving Jay into the hellhole and purposefully stabbing him with a knife to make it appear accidental.
  • Michael Cera, ironically, is shown to be a rude, foul-mouthed cokehead.
• The Wreckers of Transformers: Dark of the Moon. As one government official states, "We don't let them out much because they're assholes." The Wreckers are Autobot scientists who work at the Kennedy Space Center, monitoring the Xantium, the Autobot starship that brought the second wave of Autobots to Earth (Sideswipe and co.). They also work alongside humans (including former NEST soldier Epps), but their verbal abuse is reported to reduce many NASA employees to tears. And that doesn't even cover their attitude toward Decepticons...
• Tropic Thunder: Les Grossman is a foul-mouthed Corrupt Corporate Executive who abuses his workers, being more concerned with his financial success than their well-being. He even orders the director to be hit in the face simply for his incompetence. He actually manages to be a Karma Houdini by earning millions of dollars from his movie. That being said, he is obviously such a Large Ham that we can't help but find him amusing anyway.
• Cal from Titanic. The guy sees Rose as only a means to solidify his fortune and is willing to do almost anything to keep her (or at least make sure no one else gets to have her), not to mention the same being said in trying to get off the sinking ship.
• John from Twice Round the Daffodils is without a doubt the rudest patient at Lenton Sanatorium. He's dismissive of all the other patients, flippant with the nurses, and bullies poor Chris for not being as manly as him. This is caused by how much he misses his family, and how he worries how they're getting on without him to provide for them.
• Uncut Gems:
  • Howard (played by Adam Sandler) is a conceited gambler who frequently cheats on his wife and cheated a group of Ethiopian miners of their money. This is deconstructed because every one of his transgressions results in his own death by the film's conclusion.
  • The violent mobster Phil regularly terrorizes Howard for the sake of it, including when he kidnaps him during his daughter's play, strips him naked, and locks him in the trunk of his car. Any sympathy for Phil is lost when he remorselessly kills Howard after the latter wins his biggest wager and kills his boss Arno for objecting.
• English Bob in Unforgiven. Even taking aside that fact he's a cowardly Professional Killer, he is also extremely rude and condescending to his American hosts and uses the 4th July to engage in some very smug Cultural Posturing against Americans ("Why not shoot a president?", he says when President James Garfield had been shot only two days earlier). It means people aren't likely to feel bad for him when he is afterwards beaten like a dog in the street by local Rabid Sheriff Bill Daggett.
• Unfriended: Nearly everybody who appears in the film is a flat-out horrible person, even the ones who initially come off as comparatively sympathetic. Laura, who commits suicide due to being bullied, is said to have been a bullying Alpha Bitch herself, and Ken, who is rather blameless in the actual situation that led to Laura's death, turns out to be just as horrible as the rest of his friends when he says blankly that Laura deserved what happened to her. And let's not get started on Blaire, who cheated on Mitch twice and may have posted the video in the first place, causing her best friend's death. More than one critic found the film's depiction of the sheer amorality of American millennial teens more terrifying than the premise of the film itself.
• The main character's little sister in the Disney Super Hero film Up Up And Away. From memory, she was abusive verbally, regularly reminded him he was normal and not a super like the rest of the family, purposely ratted him out after he'd stolen money from his parents (which he was hypnotized to, and didn't even know he did do) simply for the amusement of it, and then in the end melts his shoes to the floor (which is just scenes after he saved the family by being a Badass Normal). Most of which is Played for Laughs, but fails because of how much of a Woobie the main character is that she becomes The Scrappy.
• In the 2011 film Warrior:
  • Tommy is pretty much of a dick to his father and brother the whole movie, albeit with a fair enough Freudian Excuse.
  • Brendan, while supportive of his brother, is a Jerkass to their father. He is not impressed by the news of Paddy's sobriety, and yells at him when he comes to visit his family, telling him that he's restricted to phone calls and mail. He also slams the door when Paddy tries to come in to see his grandchildren. Later, when Paddy tries to support Brendan in the tournament, Brendan is unaffected at best.
• The Way, Way Back: Trent tries to act like a likable parental figure and boyfriend, but he's actually an adulterous, emotionally abusive control freak. He cheats on his current girlfriend and then lies to her about it, belittles her teenage son as a disdainful loser, and has no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
• Plenty of romantic comedies have Jerkass boyfriends in them, but Sack Lodge from Wedding Crashers nearly reaches Harry Potter villain status with how evil and sadistic he is.
• Wet Hot American Summer: Alex lets multiple six-year-olds drown, cheats on his girlfriend (who might be a Alpha Bitch if she weren't so nice), and refuses to clean up his breakfast. It's never really made clear whether the rest of the counselors, save for Coop and Katie, are aware of his jerkass tendencies, or just see him as a Handsome Lech. Either way, he's bad news with a beautiful face and incredible body.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive Max Fairbanks in What's the Worst That Could Happen?. He cheats on his wife, insults his mistress, belittles his attorney, shamelessly uses his personal assistant, and steals Kevin's ring as an act of sheer petty-mindedness.
• Whiplash has Terence Fletcher, a racist, anti-Semitic, gay bashing, foulmouthed music teacher who runs his class like a drill sergeant. Over the course of the movie, he makes fun of a kid for being fat, throws a chair at protagonist Andrew Neyman's head when he is playing slightly off tempo, yells at him, smacks him, taunts him about his mother leaving him, mocks his crying, forces him to scream "I'm upset" in class, screams profanity at his students, forces his drummers to stay after class and continue practicing until 2 AM, shows no concern when Andrew shows up to class bloodied and injured, kicks Andrew out for being unable to play in said condition, and tries to ruin any chance Andrew might have of becoming a musician. (says something that all of his students subsequently become jerks who will turn on anyone who threatens them falling from their positions, and Andrew in particular gets more and more arrogant and unpleasant after meeting Fletcher)
• The Windmill Massacre: Douglas is a loudmouthed, obnoxious jerk who spends most of the movie snapping and snarling at everyone. Even when they are trapped in an abandoned shed by a maniac wielding a scythe, he yells at Jennifer for damaging his coat and says he is going to send her the bill for cleaning it.
• X-Men Film Series
  • X2: X-Men United:
    • Ronnie, Bobby's brother, calls the cops on Bobby and his friends under the pretense that they were holding his family hostage.
    • Likewise Pyro, who, swayed by Magneto's words, starts falling into the dark side. Even escalating the whole situation with the police by openly attacking them when the others were trying to halt the situation peacefully — though to be fair, one of the cops had just shot Logan in the head.
    • Mitchell Laurio is an insecure, sadistic slob.
  • Agent Zero in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Even before becoming Stryker's right hand man after the war, he was cold and distant.
  • In X-Men: First Class, although the CIA staff in general acts like jerks most of the time, the worst is William Stryker Sr. What makes him most deserving of this trope is that John McCone, himself sexist and a hot headed jerk, actually calls out against Stryker twice, first in regards to his decision to keep Emma Frost detained (since the law requires that they hand her over), and the second when Stryker decides to have the American and Soviet navies bombard the Cuban shore to eliminate the mutants specifically because one of their human agents was present as well. Both times, he dismissed him, stating that he's not handing her over because the law doesn't apply to mutants, and in the latter case insensitively stated that the agent was "collateral damage."
  • Shingen Yashida from The Wolverine is stand-offish and rude to just about everyone.
• You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah: Andy Goldfarb may be popular, but he's also an egotistical, self-centered Spoiled Brat. Even his friends outright tell him that he's a mean person.
• Wichita from Zombieland. She was a Con Artist before the outbreak, and she doesn't consider the walking dead taking over America to be much reason to change her lifestyle. She fakes a Zombie Infectee scenario to steal Columbus' weapon and vehicle and leaves him for dead, and later does the same again plus kidnapping him. She gradually gets slightly better (to the point that by Zombieland: Double Tap, she's less outright mean, and more "frequently annoyed"), but it doesn't stop her stealing his transportation a third time to take her little sister to Pacific Playland. It takes Columbus and Tallahassee saving their lives for her to finally really trust them.

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