One can admire nerds for a variety of reasons. Nerds typically don’t need to continuously remind others of their particular qualities and aren’t superficial; instead, they follow their passions. Smart nerds love being passionate about things that others might find irrelevant.

Being a nerd implies you are aware of what is happening in the world and where you fit in. Even in trying times, you’ll stay true to yourself, and by doing so, you’ll inspire others to do the same.

Yet, there have been some movie character nerds that took a turn towards evil. Maybe a few too many knock-backs took their toll and while there are plenty of examples of movie characters that have used rejection to strengthen resiliency and go on to be successful, some appear to have become embittered and went on to seek retribution. Some of these fictional nerds may have simply had few people to interact with regularly which resulted in a blatant disregard for the feelings of others and they became evil. Whatever their origin story, the evil genius is on a mission to achieve his goals by any means necessary, including exacting vengeance for both actual and imagined slights.

There have been a couple of movie characters that didn’t hog the limelight but certainly fit this profile.

Die Hard

For the evil genius in Die Hard, you need to look beyond Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman), as there is another character behind the scenes. He possibly doesn’t have the requisite vision, charisma, or leadership abilities to take the lead, but Theo (Clarence Gilyard Jr.) is certainly an evil genius. The hacker/safe cracker Theo is clearly intelligent, but lacking the brawn to kill, he’s happy to watch the other mercenaries murder innocent civilians. 

There are many traditions at this time of year, with many of us searching the list of recommended operators to find the best casino bonuses for games such as Christmas Cashpots or Christmas Big Bass Bonanza and there are normally some great Christmas promotions to be found. While others prefer a Christmas movie or a Christmas not-really-Christmas movie. Lethal Weapon, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Rambo: First Blood, and Batman Returns are great options, but Die Hard is the king. 

Evil genius Theo vanished after being knocked out by Argyle the chauffeur (De’voreaux White) and it is unknown what became of him. It may be assumed that he, along with Kristoff (Gérard Bonn), who was conceivably knocked unconscious by McClane, was discovered by the police and taken into custody. Theo was the only terrorist who unquestionably lived and didn’t run into McClane, so there’s still a chance he could reappear as a future villain. 

GoldenEye

There are many reasons to love GoldenEye and the N64 game will be a primary reason for many. The first Bond movie to not use material from Ian Fleming’s books was GoldenEye, which was written by Michael France and got its name from Fleming’s Jamaican home. The actual movie is surprisingly star-studded with Pierce Brosnan, Sean Bean, Judi Dench, Robbie Coltrane, and Alan Cumming as Boris Ivanovich Grishenko.

Russian computer technician Boris Ivanovich Grishenko worked at the GoldenEye command post in Severnaya, Siberia. He served as Alec Trevelyan’s (Beam) nerd-henchman and was okay with betraying his comrades and having them slaughtered, by Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen). It is clear that Boris has an unrequited love for Natalya Simonova, a fellow technician played by Isabella Scorupco, and we can infer that this is the cause of his transformation into an evil genius.

Best known for his “I am invincible!” line, things don’t go well for Boris as some liquid nitrogen canisters explode.

<iframe width=”950″ height=”397″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/8Zw8ylP4buA&#8221; title=”GoldenEye Official Trailer #2 – Pierce Brosnan Movie (1995) HD” frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture” allowfullscreen></iframe>

A couple of truly evil geniuses that may have gone noticed by many and no one wishes to emulate. Yet, if things had gone differently, could some of our favorite nerds have turned evil? If we think of the characters from the original, rather than the recent Ghostbusters: Afterlife, could Egon Spengler or possibly Wayne Szalinski have become evil geniuses if their early lives were a little different?