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** ''Film/AViewToAKill'': HerrDoktor [[NaziGrandpa Carl Mortner]] is a Mengele-sque eugenicist who conducted a SuperBreedingProgram in an effort to create the "ideal" soldier for the Nazis. While most experiments failed, the few DesignerBabies that survived became highly intelligent -- but also [[TheSociopath sociopathic]] due to the {{Psycho Serum}}s used. [[BigBad Max Zorin]] and [[TheDragon May Day]] are the two only suxh surviving "experiment results".
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** ''Film/AViewToAKill'': HerrDoktor [[NaziGrandpa Carl Mortner]] is a Mengele-sque eugenicist who conducted a SuperBreedingProgram in an effort to create the "ideal" soldier for the Nazis. While most experiments failed, the few DesignerBabies that survived became highly intelligent -- but also [[TheSociopath sociopathic]] due to the {{Psycho Serum}}s used. [[BigBad Max Zorin]] and [[TheDragon May Day]] are the two only suxh such surviving "experiment results".
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* ''Film/ThePrestige'' gives you two for one. Nikola Tesla (played by Music/DavidBowie) builds a matter duplicator, which one of the two main protagonists (antagonists?) uses to perform an "impossible" magic trick. The scientist is mad (see ''Real Life'' below) and so is the magician who uses his device.
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* ''Film/PoorThings'' has Godwin Baxter, who is not only a mad surgeon and low-key MakerOfMonsters, but whose BizarreHumanBiology and ScaryStitches were inflicted on him by his father, who was clearly ''even madder''.
* ''Film/ThePrestige'' gives you two for one. Nikola Tesla (played by Music/DavidBowie) builds a matter duplicator, which one of the two main protagonists (antagonists?) uses to perform an "impossible" magic trick. The scientist is mad (see ''RealLife'' below) Life'') and so is the magician who uses his device.
* ''Film/ThePrestige'' gives you two for one. Nikola Tesla (played by Music/DavidBowie) builds a matter duplicator, which one of the two main protagonists (antagonists?) uses to perform an "impossible" magic trick. The scientist is mad (see ''Real
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* ''Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask'' has a skit featuring Dr. Bernardo, a mad sex analyst whose experiments include measuring premature ejaculation on a hippopotamus and building a 400-foot diaphragm. ("Contraception for the entire nation at once!") The segment ends with Allen's character battling one of the doctor's creations -- a gigantic, disembodied human breast.
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* ''Everything Creator/WoodyAllen's ''Film/{{Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But but Were Afraid to Ask'' Ask}}'' has a skit featuring Dr. Bernardo, a mad sex analyst whose experiments include measuring premature ejaculation on a hippopotamus and building a 400-foot diaphragm. ("Contraception for the entire nation at once!") The segment ends with Allen's character battling one of the doctor's creations -- a gigantic, disembodied human breast.
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%%* ''Film/AlienResurrection'': Dr. Mason Wren.
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* ''Film/TheMosquitoCoast'' starring Creator/HarrisonFord is a non-Science Fiction example. Ford plays an engineer who specializes in refrigeration technology; only problem is, most people already have fridges and air conditioners. So he moves his whole family out to the jungle in the middle of nowhere and builds a giant refrigeration machine just so his talents will be better appreciated. This isn't enough to satisfy his budding megalomania, so he goes on a quest to show a block of ice to some reclusive tribals who have never seen it, presumably so everyone would ooh an ahh over it and him.
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* ''Film/TheMosquitoCoast'' starring Creator/HarrisonFord is a non-Science Fiction example. Ford plays an engineer who specializes in refrigeration technology; only problem is, most people already have fridges and air conditioners. So he moves his whole family out to the jungle in the middle of nowhere and builds a giant refrigeration machine just so his talents will be better appreciated. This isn't enough to satisfy his budding megalomania, so he goes on a quest to show a block of ice to some reclusive tribals who have never seen it, presumably so everyone would ooh an and ahh over it and him.
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** Mr. Ling, the EvilGenius and Red Chinese agent working with ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}, is a specialist in nuclear fusion and in charge of helping the evil eponymous businessman detonate a nuclear weapon in Fort Knox in an attempt to cripple the American economy and increase the value of his gold supply.
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** Mr. Ling, the EvilGenius and Red Chinese agent working with ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}, ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}'', is a specialist in nuclear fusion and in charge of helping the evil eponymous businessman detonate a nuclear weapon in Fort Knox in an attempt to cripple the American economy and increase the value of his gold supply.
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* In ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'', Comicbook/LexLuthor is both a gifted scientist and extremely mad, going so far as to use the knowledge and resources of a Kryptonian ship downed during [[Film/ManOfSteel General Zod's attack on Metropolis]] and the corpse of [[spoiler:Zod himself]] to do a Dr. Frankenstein and create Doomsday, an almost unstoppable killing machine.
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* In ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'', Comicbook/LexLuthor is both a gifted scientist and extremely mad, going so far as to use the knowledge and resources of a Kryptonian ship downed during [[Film/ManOfSteel General Zod's attack on Metropolis]] and the corpse of [[spoiler:Zod himself]] to do a Dr. Frankenstein and create Doomsday, an almost unstoppable killing machine. He seems a good deal less crazy after escaping from Arkham Asylum in ''[[Film/ZackSnydersJusticeLeague Justice League]]''.
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* Most of the traditional image of the Mad Scientist probably derives from various adaptations of Creator/MaryShelley's ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'', especially [[Film/{{Frankenstein 1931}} the 1931 movie]]: "It's alive! IT'S ALIVE!" The original book is wildly different -- see MadScientist/{{Literature}}.
* The 1931 ''Frankenstein'' and other horror films of the time also drew heavily for their portrayals of mad scientists on Rotwang in Fritz Lang's classic 1927 SF film ''Film/{{Metropolis}}''. Rotwang, in turn, draws on the Mad Scientist depictions of Frankenstein in nineteenth-century stage melodrama. It's worth pointing out that Rotwang from ''Film/{{Metropolis}}'' is not only the earlier Trope Maker, but was himself largely inspired by the popularity of the wild-haired, heavily accented Einstein and other "eccentric German physicists" at the time who were upending people's notions of the limits of science in an unsettling manner. They helped inspire the image of the ReluctantMadScientist who is obsessed with his research and doesn't really expect it to be misused.
%%* ''Film/AlienResurrection'': Dr. Mason Wren.
* ''Film/AttackOfTheKillerDonuts'': John's Uncle Luther is the one [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom who's animation serum lead to the events of the movie]]. He's introduced testing it on a dead rat, which then comes to life and attacks him, giving him a bite wound on his shoulder.
* ''Film/AttackOfTheKillerTomatoes'': Dr. Putrid T. Gangrene qualifies, what with his diabolical plans to conquer the world with giant killer tomatoes, tomatoes turned into people, people turned into tomatoes, etc., etc. Don't call him mad, though. HE IS NOT MAD. A little angry sometimes, but not mad!
* In ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'', Tony Stark tells Bruce Banner that they need to own up to the fact that they both are mad scientists as his justification for [[spoiler:going through with creating the Vision]].
* The ''Franchise/BackToTheFuture'' trilogy has Emmett L. Brown, who is a bit more cuddly than your average Mad Scientist. Then again, this is the man who stole weapons grade plutonium from Libyan terrorists and promised to build them a nuke ([[ILied he lied]]).
-->'''Dr. Brown:''' They wanted me to build them a bomb, so I took their plutonium and in turn gave them a shoddy bomb-casing full of used pinball machine parts!
** If that's not enough, he has a good deal of inventions in his garage lab, many of which don't work the way he wanted to. That said, he still has some successful ones, such as a fridge made from huge parts in 1885 Hill Valley or his famous [[CoolCar DeLorean time machine]] which used his swindled plutonium. He also proves to be just as zany when upgrading his TimeMachine, giving it a new, more efficient energy converter/reactor and giving it [[FlyingCar flying circuits]] in 2015. He even built ''another time machine out of a [[CoolTrain steam locomotive]]!''
* ''Film/{{Barbarella}}'': BigBad Durand Durand is a brilliant scientist who prefers using his intellect to make powerful weapons and creative torture and execution devices, and he plans to use the former to take over the universe (he reveals this complete with an EvilLaugh).
* In ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'', Comicbook/LexLuthor is both a gifted scientist and extremely mad, going so far as to use the knowledge and resources of a Kryptonian ship downed during [[Film/ManOfSteel General Zod's attack on Metropolis]] and the corpse of [[spoiler:Zod himself]] to do a Dr. Frankenstein and create Doomsday, an almost unstoppable killing machine.
* In ''Film/{{Bats}}'', it is revealed that Dr. [=McCabe=] created the bats with the specific intention of killing people (rather that is being an accident as he originally claimed). He is killed attempting to communicate with them.
* ''Film/BlackSheep2007'': Though Astrid Rush is ostensibly trying to create genetically enhanced sheep, she's rather happy to find an instance of a man turning into a weresheep. And there was [[NoodleIncident that thing about leeches.]]
* ''Film/BrideOfTheMonster'' has Professor Doctor Eric Vornoff who completely lives this trope. He has a MadScientistLaboratory, an [[TheIgor Igor]], [[HerrDoktor an eastern European accent]], he wants to prove [[TheyCalledMeMad people who called him mad]] wrong, he has an EvilLaugh and his plan is to [[NuclearMutant create a race of atomic supermen]] [[TakeOverTheWorld to conquer the world]]. He's played by Creator/BelaLugosi after all [[ChewingTheScenery who chews the scenery a lot]].
* ''Film/TheCabinetOfDrCaligari'': Dr. Caligari is a little bit of this and a little bit of CircusOfFear.
* ''Film/TheCarsThatAteParis'': The FrontierDoctor enjoys lobotomising his patients, and Victorian HerrDoktor Dobbin collects and measures the skulls of criminals like Film/MadDogMorgan.
%%* ''Film/TheCityOfLostChildren'': Krank certainly counts. And he appears to be [[spoiler:the creation of another mad scientist]].
* ''Film/TheClonesOfBruceLee'': Dr. Nai may have been influenced by Thomas Edison; he's a mad scientist who actually has other people do all the inventing for him, such as a vegetation-destroyer, while he wears a business suit and yells at his scientists to invent faster.
* ''Film/TheCreeps'': Dr. Winston Berber stole the manuscripts of four classic monsters to place in his device, the "Archetype Inducer", which has the power to bring fictional characters to life in the real world. His plan is to make an army of monsters who will do his bidding.
* ''Film/TheDamBusters'': [[HistoricalDomainCharacter Barnes Wallis]] is a {{Downplayed}} Mad Scientist who invents the bouncing bomb and perfects its design to enable an attack on major German dams as part of Operation Chastise.
* ''Film/DayOfTheDead1985''. Dr. Matthew Logan, nicknamed "Frankenstein" by the soldiers. He is so obsessed with his work he fails to consider how the soldiers will react to him cutting up their deceased comrades for his experiments.
%%* ''Film/DoctorStrangelove'': The title character.
* In ''Film/DraculaVsFrankenstein'', [[EvilCripple wheelchair-bound]] mad scientist Dr. Durea, the last descendant of the original Dr. Frankenstein, takes to murdering young girls for experimentation in hopes of perfecting a blood serum of his own creation with help from his mute, simple-minded assistant Groton. Durea hopes the serum will heal his crippled legs and cure Groton of his condition.
* ''Film/EdwardScissorhands'': Creator/VincentPrice might just be the kindliest Mad Scientist ever. His second-most-impressive creation (after Edward) is a giant cookie-making machine. And he creates Edward with the expressed desire to see if it's possible to make an artificial being with human love. And then amuses both of them with silly poetry later. Aw!
* ''Film/TheEroticRitesOfFrankenstein'': Victor Frankenstein (of course), and his nemesis Cagliostro, who is both a Mad Scientist and an EvilSorcerer. Frankenstein declares that Cagliostro is his equal in the understanding of science.
* ''Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask'' has a skit featuring Dr. Bernardo, a mad sex analyst whose experiments include measuring premature ejaculation on a hippopotamus and building a 400-foot diaphragm. ("Contraception for the entire nation at once!") The segment ends with Allen's character battling one of the doctor's creations -- a gigantic, disembodied human breast.
* ''Film/ExMachina'': Nathan is a reclusive and secretive creator of artificial people, who considers himself a god and thinks nothing of destroying them in his sick experiments.
* ''Film/TheFly1986'': Seth Brundle, but he doesn't start out that way. Prior to his fateful teleportation (an impulsive choice he makes while he's drunk) he's a subversion. He's '''driven''', doesn't have great social skills, and is -- well -- working on teleportation, but he is a sane man working for the greater good with a clear ethical code. Post-teleportation, a gradual SplitPersonalityTakeover (plus, at least before he learns what's happening to him, a DrunkWithPower feeling) turns him into a straight version of the trope, albeit a sympathetic one -- he is desperate to hold back the ruthless, remorseless insect nature that now dwells in him, but he'll use any means necessary to do so.
* ''Film/ForbiddenPlanet''. Lampshaded by Dr Morbius after demonstrating that JustForFun/RobbyTheRobot is ThreeLawsCompliant, saying that even if he was the proverbial mad scientist of the "tape thrillers", he could not possibly harm anyone with the technology he has. Turns out Morbius has other attributes of a mad scientist like hubris, lack of self-awareness, and a failure to think things through. And of course a [[MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter beautiful daughter]].
* In ''Film/Frankenstein1970'', Victor von Frankenstein is obsessed with continuing his ancestor's work. He plans to revivify the original FrankensteinMonster, but give it his own face, so the Frankenstein line may continue.
* ''Film/FrankensteinsCastleOfFreaks'': His name is Count Frankenstein and he is attempting to revivify the dead. Take a wild guess.
* In ''Film/FrankensteinIsland'', Sheila Frankenstein, her husband Dr. Van Helsing, and Dr. Frankenstein all count. The entire island is set up to allow Dr. Frankenstein to continue his blasphemous work from beyond the grave by using Van Helsing as a psychic conduit.
* In ''Film/TheFreakmaker'', Professor Nolter is obsessed with creating a race of [[PlantPerson human/plant hybrids]] and is kidnapping and experimenting on unwilling victims as of way of achieving this.
%%* ''Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}}'': The Ghostbusters, especially Egon.
* ''Film/Ghostbusters2016'': Jillian Holtzmann, the one who builds all their gadgets, has no regard for safety procedures, habitually makes new weapons with no discernible purpose (what do they need a laser bear-trap that sends ghosts to Michigan for?), and when Patty shows up with a hearse is excited at the possibility of there being a dead body in the back ("do you know how many uses that could have?") and later paints said hearse white and bolts a siren and a nuclear reactor to the top. [[spoiler:While Rowan uses the other Ghostbusters' research to make devices that summon ghosts in an attempt to get revenge at the world.]]
%%* ''Film/GIJoeTheRiseOfCobra'': The Doctor, a.k.a. [[spoiler:Rex Lewis]] a.k.a. [[spoiler:Cobra Commander]] takes the role of the mad scientist.
* ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'':
** ''Film/{{Gojira}}'' has Dr. Daisuke Serizawa, who invents the Oxygen Destroyer that ultimately kills Godzilla. However, he isn't evil; he's more of a ReluctantMadScientist.
** ''Film/GodzillaVsBiollante'': Dr. Shiragam's experimental fusion of [[MixAndMatchCritters Godzilla's DNA, Rose DNA, and the DNA of his deceased daughter]] ends up causing the creation of Biollante. He's not evil either, but he's certainly mad with grief over the loss of his daughter.
** ''Film/TerrorOfMechagodzilla'' has Dr. Mafune, who not only turns his own daughter into a cyborg but he also invents a device that allows him to control the sea monster Titanosaurus.
* ''Film/Gremlins2TheNewBatch'': Doctor [[PunnyName Catheter]], played to the hilt by Creator/ChristopherLee. Interestingly he subverts it later on when he rejects his experiments as immoral, and vows that he will not commit cruel genetic experiments on animals again.
* Doctor Moreau, probably one of the best well-known Mad Scientists in pop culture, appears in several films, most notably ''Film/IslandOfLostSouls'' (1932) played by Creator/CharlesLaughton, in ''Film/TheIslandOfDrMoreau1977'' played by Creator/BurtLancaster and ''Film/TheIslandOfDrMoreau1996'' played by Creator/MarlonBrando. In all films is a crazy scientist trying to turn animals into humans.
* ''Film/{{Help}}'': Professor Foot. Lampshaded by John when he says "This is absurd! You're nothing but a trite, hackneyed mad scientist!"
* Film/JamesBond occasionally runs into some of these, including in his movie debut. He also works with one, if you consider his GadgeteerGenius and weapons man Q to be as "mad", given his role involves designing and constructing lethal assassination weapons disguised as ordinary items.
** The villain of the very first official Bond movie is the titular mad scientist ''Film/DrNo'', half-German half-Chinese genius in Nuclear Physics and an agent of the NebulousEvilOrganization known as S.P.E.C.T.R.E. Bond investigates him after he orders the murder of a fellow British agent who was snooping into his business- toppling American missiles to prove the power of his organization, a task assigned to him due to his unique understanding of nuclear radiation (his weapon of choice in this mission). Bonus points for his more personal motive of wanting revenge on America AND Russia for rejecting him when he offered his services, as well as his experiments accidentally costing him [[EvilCripple the use of both hands]], forcing him to rely on [[ArtificialLimbs metal hands of his own design]].
** Mr. Ling, the EvilGenius and Red Chinese agent working with ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}, is a specialist in nuclear fusion and in charge of helping the evil eponymous businessman detonate a nuclear weapon in Fort Knox in an attempt to cripple the American economy and increase the value of his gold supply.
** ''Film/AViewToAKill'': HerrDoktor [[NaziGrandpa Carl Mortner]] is a Mengele-sque eugenicist who conducted a SuperBreedingProgram in an effort to create the "ideal" soldier for the Nazis. While most experiments failed, the few DesignerBabies that survived became highly intelligent — but also [[TheSociopath sociopathic]] due to the {{Psycho Serum}}s used. [[BigBad Max Zorin]] and [[TheDragon May Day]] are the two only suxh surviving "experiment results".
** Dr. Valdo Obruchev in ''Film/NoTimeToDie''. He conceived Heracles, a devastating mix of {{Nanomachines}} and ThePlague that spreads via {{touch|of death}} and can be programmed to target specific people based on genetics. He gladly accepts working for Lyutsifer Safin and even suggests to use it to wipe out entire ethniticities. [[DeathByRacism Saying the latter out loud ends up being his last mistake]].
* ''Film/JesseJamesMeetsFrankensteinsDaughter'' has Maria Frankenstein, who experiments on the inhabitants of a Mexican village in an effort to recreate her grandfather's BrainTransplant technique. Her brother Rudolph has the same skills, but is plagued by a pesky conscience.
* ''Film/JurassicWorld'': Dr Wu angrily denies the trope when the ''Indominus rex'' appears to have GoneHorriblyWrong [[spoiler:but we discover there's plenty of justification for it in his case, as he was secretly creating a dinosaur to demonstrate the potential of weaponised hybrids.]]
* ''Film/KissMeQuick'' has Dr. Breedlove who is creating a race of {{Sexbot}}s and other sex related mad science in his MadScientistLaboratory.
* Dr. Laurience in ''Film/TheManWhoChangedHisMind''. Already obsessed with the idea of transferring souls between bodies, he descends into full insanity when the scientific community rejects his theories and literally laughs him out of the room.
* ''Film/TheManWithTwoBrains'': Dr. Michael Hfuhruhurr eventually becomes one of these -- or, rather, a parody of one:
-->'''German Detective:''' You're playing God!\\
'''Michael:''' ''Somebody's'' got to!
* ''Film/TheMosquitoCoast'' starring Creator/HarrisonFord is a non-Science Fiction example. Ford plays an engineer who specializes in refrigeration technology; only problem is, most people already have fridges and air conditioners. So he moves his whole family out to the jungle in the middle of nowhere and builds a giant refrigeration machine just so his talents will be better appreciated. This isn't enough to satisfy his budding megalomania, so he goes on a quest to show a block of ice to some reclusive tribals who have never seen it, presumably so everyone would ooh an ahh over it and him.
* ''Film/MysteryMen'': Dr. Heller is on the side of justice, but definitely not right in the head. Lampshaded when the Bowler criticizes their decision to call on him for help:
-->'''The Bowler:''' See, this is why a mad scientist is generally not preferable to a garden-variety ''regular'' scientist.
* In ''Film/TheNeanderthalMan'', an anthropologist creates [[DevolutionDevice a serum that can temporarily reverse a million years of evolution]] in order to prove his theory that Neanderthals were smarter than humans. When he tests the serum on himself, he turns into a murderous ape-man.
* ''Film/{{Nightwish|1989}}'': The professor eventually takes his students captive to force them to cooperate with his dangerous experiments to investigate ghost activity. He even fatally stabs his assistant in the gut when he threatens to expose what the professor is doing.
* ''Film/LaPielQueHabito'': Dr. Robert is a plastic surgeon who lost his wife in a automobile fire and seeks solace in recreating her appearance on an unwilling victim.
* ''Film/ThePrestige'' gives you two for one. Nikola Tesla (played by Music/DavidBowie) builds a matter duplicator, which one of the two main protagonists (antagonists?) uses to perform an "impossible" magic trick. The scientist is mad (see ''Real Life'' below) and so is the magician who uses his device.
* ''Film/ThePrincessBride'': While Count Rugen isn't technically a scientist in the modern sense, he does treat torture as a science, having built a complex machine for "sucking the life" from his victims x number of years at a time. After he sucks a year of life out of Wesley he even asks Wesley how it felt, for the sake of his "research".
-->'''Rugen''' ''(pen poised over paper):'' And remember: this is for posterity, so... be honest.
* ''Film/ReAnimator'': Dr. Herbert West is driven Faustially to perfect his corpse-resurrecting Re-Agent formula.
* ''Film/TheReturnOfSwampThing'': Dr. Rochelle is more interested in causing mutations than researching the key to eternal life like his boss would want him to.
* ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'': Dr. Frank N. Furter, who is also a VillainousCrossdresser. (Although it's hinted that Furter's "butler" Riff Raff is the one who did most of the actual Mad-Sciencing, with Furter characteristically stealing the credit.)
* In ''Film/ScannersIITheNewOrder'', Dr. Morse uses his neurological research institute to enslave psychics with his dangerous drugs and use them for Commander Forrester's megalomaniac purposes.
* ''Film/{{Sharkenstein}}'': Klaus is a former Nazi scientist who's continued to work on a project from UsefulNotes/WorldWarII that involved the brain and heart of FrankensteinsMonster. To that end, he made an ArtificialZombie shark out of the body parts of several different sharks, and planned to put the brain and heart in it. His ultimate end goal was to create an army of Frankensharks to sic upon the world.
* ''Film/SpidersIIBreedingGround'': A mad geneticist named Dr. Grbac is having people kidnapped by the corrupt crew of a cargo transport ship to implant them with GiantSpider eggs. [[spoiler:He gets HoistByHisOwnPetard.]]
* ''Film/TheSpiderwickChronicles'' has Arthur Spiderwick.
%%* ''Film/UnderSiege2DarkTerritory'': Travis Dane, the BigBad, is this.
* ''Film/WonderWoman2017'': Dr. Poison has dedicated her life to creating new painful and horrific chemical weapons, at least one of which she tested on herself. She is downright giddy when observing people dying under the effects of her creations.
* ''Film/XMenFilmSeries'': In ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'', Bolivar Trask’s main scientific objective seems to be genocide-via-robot, though he's rather subdued for the archetype.
%%** ''Film/XMenFirstClass'': Sebastian Shaw as Klaus Schmidt.
* The 1931 ''Frankenstein'' and other horror films of the time also drew heavily for their portrayals of mad scientists on Rotwang in Fritz Lang's classic 1927 SF film ''Film/{{Metropolis}}''. Rotwang, in turn, draws on the Mad Scientist depictions of Frankenstein in nineteenth-century stage melodrama. It's worth pointing out that Rotwang from ''Film/{{Metropolis}}'' is not only the earlier Trope Maker, but was himself largely inspired by the popularity of the wild-haired, heavily accented Einstein and other "eccentric German physicists" at the time who were upending people's notions of the limits of science in an unsettling manner. They helped inspire the image of the ReluctantMadScientist who is obsessed with his research and doesn't really expect it to be misused.
%%* ''Film/AlienResurrection'': Dr. Mason Wren.
* ''Film/AttackOfTheKillerDonuts'': John's Uncle Luther is the one [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom who's animation serum lead to the events of the movie]]. He's introduced testing it on a dead rat, which then comes to life and attacks him, giving him a bite wound on his shoulder.
* ''Film/AttackOfTheKillerTomatoes'': Dr. Putrid T. Gangrene qualifies, what with his diabolical plans to conquer the world with giant killer tomatoes, tomatoes turned into people, people turned into tomatoes, etc., etc. Don't call him mad, though. HE IS NOT MAD. A little angry sometimes, but not mad!
* In ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'', Tony Stark tells Bruce Banner that they need to own up to the fact that they both are mad scientists as his justification for [[spoiler:going through with creating the Vision]].
* The ''Franchise/BackToTheFuture'' trilogy has Emmett L. Brown, who is a bit more cuddly than your average Mad Scientist. Then again, this is the man who stole weapons grade plutonium from Libyan terrorists and promised to build them a nuke ([[ILied he lied]]).
-->'''Dr. Brown:''' They wanted me to build them a bomb, so I took their plutonium and in turn gave them a shoddy bomb-casing full of used pinball machine parts!
** If that's not enough, he has a good deal of inventions in his garage lab, many of which don't work the way he wanted to. That said, he still has some successful ones, such as a fridge made from huge parts in 1885 Hill Valley or his famous [[CoolCar DeLorean time machine]] which used his swindled plutonium. He also proves to be just as zany when upgrading his TimeMachine, giving it a new, more efficient energy converter/reactor and giving it [[FlyingCar flying circuits]] in 2015. He even built ''another time machine out of a [[CoolTrain steam locomotive]]!''
* ''Film/{{Barbarella}}'': BigBad Durand Durand is a brilliant scientist who prefers using his intellect to make powerful weapons and creative torture and execution devices, and he plans to use the former to take over the universe (he reveals this complete with an EvilLaugh).
* In ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'', Comicbook/LexLuthor is both a gifted scientist and extremely mad, going so far as to use the knowledge and resources of a Kryptonian ship downed during [[Film/ManOfSteel General Zod's attack on Metropolis]] and the corpse of [[spoiler:Zod himself]] to do a Dr. Frankenstein and create Doomsday, an almost unstoppable killing machine.
* In ''Film/{{Bats}}'', it is revealed that Dr. [=McCabe=] created the bats with the specific intention of killing people (rather that is being an accident as he originally claimed). He is killed attempting to communicate with them.
* ''Film/BlackSheep2007'': Though Astrid Rush is ostensibly trying to create genetically enhanced sheep, she's rather happy to find an instance of a man turning into a weresheep. And there was [[NoodleIncident that thing about leeches.]]
* ''Film/BrideOfTheMonster'' has Professor Doctor Eric Vornoff who completely lives this trope. He has a MadScientistLaboratory, an [[TheIgor Igor]], [[HerrDoktor an eastern European accent]], he wants to prove [[TheyCalledMeMad people who called him mad]] wrong, he has an EvilLaugh and his plan is to [[NuclearMutant create a race of atomic supermen]] [[TakeOverTheWorld to conquer the world]]. He's played by Creator/BelaLugosi after all [[ChewingTheScenery who chews the scenery a lot]].
* ''Film/TheCabinetOfDrCaligari'': Dr. Caligari is a little bit of this and a little bit of CircusOfFear.
* ''Film/TheCarsThatAteParis'': The FrontierDoctor enjoys lobotomising his patients, and Victorian HerrDoktor Dobbin collects and measures the skulls of criminals like Film/MadDogMorgan.
%%* ''Film/TheCityOfLostChildren'': Krank certainly counts. And he appears to be [[spoiler:the creation of another mad scientist]].
* ''Film/TheClonesOfBruceLee'': Dr. Nai may have been influenced by Thomas Edison; he's a mad scientist who actually has other people do all the inventing for him, such as a vegetation-destroyer, while he wears a business suit and yells at his scientists to invent faster.
* ''Film/TheCreeps'': Dr. Winston Berber stole the manuscripts of four classic monsters to place in his device, the "Archetype Inducer", which has the power to bring fictional characters to life in the real world. His plan is to make an army of monsters who will do his bidding.
* ''Film/TheDamBusters'': [[HistoricalDomainCharacter Barnes Wallis]] is a {{Downplayed}} Mad Scientist who invents the bouncing bomb and perfects its design to enable an attack on major German dams as part of Operation Chastise.
* ''Film/DayOfTheDead1985''. Dr. Matthew Logan, nicknamed "Frankenstein" by the soldiers. He is so obsessed with his work he fails to consider how the soldiers will react to him cutting up their deceased comrades for his experiments.
%%* ''Film/DoctorStrangelove'': The title character.
* In ''Film/DraculaVsFrankenstein'', [[EvilCripple wheelchair-bound]] mad scientist Dr. Durea, the last descendant of the original Dr. Frankenstein, takes to murdering young girls for experimentation in hopes of perfecting a blood serum of his own creation with help from his mute, simple-minded assistant Groton. Durea hopes the serum will heal his crippled legs and cure Groton of his condition.
* ''Film/EdwardScissorhands'': Creator/VincentPrice might just be the kindliest Mad Scientist ever. His second-most-impressive creation (after Edward) is a giant cookie-making machine. And he creates Edward with the expressed desire to see if it's possible to make an artificial being with human love. And then amuses both of them with silly poetry later. Aw!
* ''Film/TheEroticRitesOfFrankenstein'': Victor Frankenstein (of course), and his nemesis Cagliostro, who is both a Mad Scientist and an EvilSorcerer. Frankenstein declares that Cagliostro is his equal in the understanding of science.
* ''Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask'' has a skit featuring Dr. Bernardo, a mad sex analyst whose experiments include measuring premature ejaculation on a hippopotamus and building a 400-foot diaphragm. ("Contraception for the entire nation at once!") The segment ends with Allen's character battling one of the doctor's creations -- a gigantic, disembodied human breast.
* ''Film/ExMachina'': Nathan is a reclusive and secretive creator of artificial people, who considers himself a god and thinks nothing of destroying them in his sick experiments.
* ''Film/TheFly1986'': Seth Brundle, but he doesn't start out that way. Prior to his fateful teleportation (an impulsive choice he makes while he's drunk) he's a subversion. He's '''driven''', doesn't have great social skills, and is -- well -- working on teleportation, but he is a sane man working for the greater good with a clear ethical code. Post-teleportation, a gradual SplitPersonalityTakeover (plus, at least before he learns what's happening to him, a DrunkWithPower feeling) turns him into a straight version of the trope, albeit a sympathetic one -- he is desperate to hold back the ruthless, remorseless insect nature that now dwells in him, but he'll use any means necessary to do so.
* ''Film/ForbiddenPlanet''. Lampshaded by Dr Morbius after demonstrating that JustForFun/RobbyTheRobot is ThreeLawsCompliant, saying that even if he was the proverbial mad scientist of the "tape thrillers", he could not possibly harm anyone with the technology he has. Turns out Morbius has other attributes of a mad scientist like hubris, lack of self-awareness, and a failure to think things through. And of course a [[MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter beautiful daughter]].
* In ''Film/Frankenstein1970'', Victor von Frankenstein is obsessed with continuing his ancestor's work. He plans to revivify the original FrankensteinMonster, but give it his own face, so the Frankenstein line may continue.
* ''Film/FrankensteinsCastleOfFreaks'': His name is Count Frankenstein and he is attempting to revivify the dead. Take a wild guess.
* In ''Film/FrankensteinIsland'', Sheila Frankenstein, her husband Dr. Van Helsing, and Dr. Frankenstein all count. The entire island is set up to allow Dr. Frankenstein to continue his blasphemous work from beyond the grave by using Van Helsing as a psychic conduit.
* In ''Film/TheFreakmaker'', Professor Nolter is obsessed with creating a race of [[PlantPerson human/plant hybrids]] and is kidnapping and experimenting on unwilling victims as of way of achieving this.
%%* ''Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}}'': The Ghostbusters, especially Egon.
* ''Film/Ghostbusters2016'': Jillian Holtzmann, the one who builds all their gadgets, has no regard for safety procedures, habitually makes new weapons with no discernible purpose (what do they need a laser bear-trap that sends ghosts to Michigan for?), and when Patty shows up with a hearse is excited at the possibility of there being a dead body in the back ("do you know how many uses that could have?") and later paints said hearse white and bolts a siren and a nuclear reactor to the top. [[spoiler:While Rowan uses the other Ghostbusters' research to make devices that summon ghosts in an attempt to get revenge at the world.]]
%%* ''Film/GIJoeTheRiseOfCobra'': The Doctor, a.k.a. [[spoiler:Rex Lewis]] a.k.a. [[spoiler:Cobra Commander]] takes the role of the mad scientist.
* ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'':
** ''Film/{{Gojira}}'' has Dr. Daisuke Serizawa, who invents the Oxygen Destroyer that ultimately kills Godzilla. However, he isn't evil; he's more of a ReluctantMadScientist.
** ''Film/GodzillaVsBiollante'': Dr. Shiragam's experimental fusion of [[MixAndMatchCritters Godzilla's DNA, Rose DNA, and the DNA of his deceased daughter]] ends up causing the creation of Biollante. He's not evil either, but he's certainly mad with grief over the loss of his daughter.
** ''Film/TerrorOfMechagodzilla'' has Dr. Mafune, who not only turns his own daughter into a cyborg but he also invents a device that allows him to control the sea monster Titanosaurus.
* ''Film/Gremlins2TheNewBatch'': Doctor [[PunnyName Catheter]], played to the hilt by Creator/ChristopherLee. Interestingly he subverts it later on when he rejects his experiments as immoral, and vows that he will not commit cruel genetic experiments on animals again.
* Doctor Moreau, probably one of the best well-known Mad Scientists in pop culture, appears in several films, most notably ''Film/IslandOfLostSouls'' (1932) played by Creator/CharlesLaughton, in ''Film/TheIslandOfDrMoreau1977'' played by Creator/BurtLancaster and ''Film/TheIslandOfDrMoreau1996'' played by Creator/MarlonBrando. In all films is a crazy scientist trying to turn animals into humans.
* ''Film/{{Help}}'': Professor Foot. Lampshaded by John when he says "This is absurd! You're nothing but a trite, hackneyed mad scientist!"
* Film/JamesBond occasionally runs into some of these, including in his movie debut. He also works with one, if you consider his GadgeteerGenius and weapons man Q to be as "mad", given his role involves designing and constructing lethal assassination weapons disguised as ordinary items.
** The villain of the very first official Bond movie is the titular mad scientist ''Film/DrNo'', half-German half-Chinese genius in Nuclear Physics and an agent of the NebulousEvilOrganization known as S.P.E.C.T.R.E. Bond investigates him after he orders the murder of a fellow British agent who was snooping into his business- toppling American missiles to prove the power of his organization, a task assigned to him due to his unique understanding of nuclear radiation (his weapon of choice in this mission). Bonus points for his more personal motive of wanting revenge on America AND Russia for rejecting him when he offered his services, as well as his experiments accidentally costing him [[EvilCripple the use of both hands]], forcing him to rely on [[ArtificialLimbs metal hands of his own design]].
** Mr. Ling, the EvilGenius and Red Chinese agent working with ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}, is a specialist in nuclear fusion and in charge of helping the evil eponymous businessman detonate a nuclear weapon in Fort Knox in an attempt to cripple the American economy and increase the value of his gold supply.
** ''Film/AViewToAKill'': HerrDoktor [[NaziGrandpa Carl Mortner]] is a Mengele-sque eugenicist who conducted a SuperBreedingProgram in an effort to create the "ideal" soldier for the Nazis. While most experiments failed, the few DesignerBabies that survived became highly intelligent — but also [[TheSociopath sociopathic]] due to the {{Psycho Serum}}s used. [[BigBad Max Zorin]] and [[TheDragon May Day]] are the two only suxh surviving "experiment results".
** Dr. Valdo Obruchev in ''Film/NoTimeToDie''. He conceived Heracles, a devastating mix of {{Nanomachines}} and ThePlague that spreads via {{touch|of death}} and can be programmed to target specific people based on genetics. He gladly accepts working for Lyutsifer Safin and even suggests to use it to wipe out entire ethniticities. [[DeathByRacism Saying the latter out loud ends up being his last mistake]].
* ''Film/JesseJamesMeetsFrankensteinsDaughter'' has Maria Frankenstein, who experiments on the inhabitants of a Mexican village in an effort to recreate her grandfather's BrainTransplant technique. Her brother Rudolph has the same skills, but is plagued by a pesky conscience.
* ''Film/JurassicWorld'': Dr Wu angrily denies the trope when the ''Indominus rex'' appears to have GoneHorriblyWrong [[spoiler:but we discover there's plenty of justification for it in his case, as he was secretly creating a dinosaur to demonstrate the potential of weaponised hybrids.]]
* ''Film/KissMeQuick'' has Dr. Breedlove who is creating a race of {{Sexbot}}s and other sex related mad science in his MadScientistLaboratory.
* Dr. Laurience in ''Film/TheManWhoChangedHisMind''. Already obsessed with the idea of transferring souls between bodies, he descends into full insanity when the scientific community rejects his theories and literally laughs him out of the room.
* ''Film/TheManWithTwoBrains'': Dr. Michael Hfuhruhurr eventually becomes one of these -- or, rather, a parody of one:
-->'''German Detective:''' You're playing God!\\
'''Michael:''' ''Somebody's'' got to!
* ''Film/TheMosquitoCoast'' starring Creator/HarrisonFord is a non-Science Fiction example. Ford plays an engineer who specializes in refrigeration technology; only problem is, most people already have fridges and air conditioners. So he moves his whole family out to the jungle in the middle of nowhere and builds a giant refrigeration machine just so his talents will be better appreciated. This isn't enough to satisfy his budding megalomania, so he goes on a quest to show a block of ice to some reclusive tribals who have never seen it, presumably so everyone would ooh an ahh over it and him.
* ''Film/MysteryMen'': Dr. Heller is on the side of justice, but definitely not right in the head. Lampshaded when the Bowler criticizes their decision to call on him for help:
-->'''The Bowler:''' See, this is why a mad scientist is generally not preferable to a garden-variety ''regular'' scientist.
* In ''Film/TheNeanderthalMan'', an anthropologist creates [[DevolutionDevice a serum that can temporarily reverse a million years of evolution]] in order to prove his theory that Neanderthals were smarter than humans. When he tests the serum on himself, he turns into a murderous ape-man.
* ''Film/{{Nightwish|1989}}'': The professor eventually takes his students captive to force them to cooperate with his dangerous experiments to investigate ghost activity. He even fatally stabs his assistant in the gut when he threatens to expose what the professor is doing.
* ''Film/LaPielQueHabito'': Dr. Robert is a plastic surgeon who lost his wife in a automobile fire and seeks solace in recreating her appearance on an unwilling victim.
* ''Film/ThePrestige'' gives you two for one. Nikola Tesla (played by Music/DavidBowie) builds a matter duplicator, which one of the two main protagonists (antagonists?) uses to perform an "impossible" magic trick. The scientist is mad (see ''Real Life'' below) and so is the magician who uses his device.
* ''Film/ThePrincessBride'': While Count Rugen isn't technically a scientist in the modern sense, he does treat torture as a science, having built a complex machine for "sucking the life" from his victims x number of years at a time. After he sucks a year of life out of Wesley he even asks Wesley how it felt, for the sake of his "research".
-->'''Rugen''' ''(pen poised over paper):'' And remember: this is for posterity, so... be honest.
* ''Film/ReAnimator'': Dr. Herbert West is driven Faustially to perfect his corpse-resurrecting Re-Agent formula.
* ''Film/TheReturnOfSwampThing'': Dr. Rochelle is more interested in causing mutations than researching the key to eternal life like his boss would want him to.
* ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'': Dr. Frank N. Furter, who is also a VillainousCrossdresser. (Although it's hinted that Furter's "butler" Riff Raff is the one who did most of the actual Mad-Sciencing, with Furter characteristically stealing the credit.)
* In ''Film/ScannersIITheNewOrder'', Dr. Morse uses his neurological research institute to enslave psychics with his dangerous drugs and use them for Commander Forrester's megalomaniac purposes.
* ''Film/{{Sharkenstein}}'': Klaus is a former Nazi scientist who's continued to work on a project from UsefulNotes/WorldWarII that involved the brain and heart of FrankensteinsMonster. To that end, he made an ArtificialZombie shark out of the body parts of several different sharks, and planned to put the brain and heart in it. His ultimate end goal was to create an army of Frankensharks to sic upon the world.
* ''Film/SpidersIIBreedingGround'': A mad geneticist named Dr. Grbac is having people kidnapped by the corrupt crew of a cargo transport ship to implant them with GiantSpider eggs. [[spoiler:He gets HoistByHisOwnPetard.]]
* ''Film/TheSpiderwickChronicles'' has Arthur Spiderwick.
%%* ''Film/UnderSiege2DarkTerritory'': Travis Dane, the BigBad, is this.
* ''Film/WonderWoman2017'': Dr. Poison has dedicated her life to creating new painful and horrific chemical weapons, at least one of which she tested on herself. She is downright giddy when observing people dying under the effects of her creations.
* ''Film/XMenFilmSeries'': In ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'', Bolivar Trask’s main scientific objective seems to be genocide-via-robot, though he's rather subdued for the archetype.
%%** ''Film/XMenFirstClass'': Sebastian Shaw as Klaus Schmidt.
