Some of the best movies include a fight between good and evil in some form, sometimes it’s obvious like Harry Potter or Star Wars, where the protagonist must take down the antagonist to bring peace. It creates tension and it almost makes the audience pick sides, or at least see how our hero will overcome their personal demons and other challenges that are represented by a worthy foe.
Surprisingly, not all movies have a central antagonist that torments our protagonist or forces him or her to act or go on this crusade to take them down. Sometimes the struggle for the protagonists is all the tension needed to drive a plot and make a quality movie. Let’s look at some of the best movies with no antagonists.
Bruce Almighty (2003)
This early 2000’s favorite stars Jim Carrey, Jennifer Anniston, Steve Carrel, and — perhaps most memorably — Morgan Freeman as God. It revolves around the underappreciated news reporter Bruce (Carrey), who is passed up for a promotion and he blames his bad luck on God (Freeman), who he claims is out to get him. When God challenges Bruce by giving him his powers, Bruce tries to turn his luck around and instead learns a lesson about humility.
Although the movie had a lot of turning points and characters that were crucial to add to the tension, there was really no antagonist that forced Bruce to use his powers to save the world. It would’ve been pretty epic seeing Bruce take on the devil or something, but that would’ve robbed Bruce Almighty of what made it unique among similar Biblical comedies.
Elf (2003)
Starring Will Ferrel and Zooey Deschanel, Elf follows Buddy (Ferrel), a normal kid who somehow makes it to the North Pole and is raised by Santa’s elves to become an Elf. When he discovers his true origins, Buddy sets out to find his real dad in New York City, where he is thrown into reality and made to live like an adult instead of the fantasy world of the North Pole.
Although Buddy the Elf faces many struggles transitioning from happy go lucky elf to a normal person, he is never faced with an antagonist who makes him rethink his life’s choices. Despite this, it is still a very enjoyable movie.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002)
Spending her entire life as a part of a big Greek family with certain traditions, Toula tries to break free of her Greek heritage. When she meets a non-Greek man, eager to experience the Greek culture, hilarity ensues as he is thrown headfirst into the traditions and heritage of the family.
Given that it is a movie about accepting who you are and relying on family, there is no need for an antagonist, nor would it make sense to have a bad guy try to break up the family of over 100 family members.
50 First Dates (2004)
Starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, this rom-com is about a zookeeper Henry (Sandler) who meets and falls in love with a young Hawaii native Lucy (Drew Barrymore). After the two hit it off, Sandler is surprised when he sees her the next day and she no longer remembers their interaction. At first, he thinks she might be blowing him off but he soon finds out she had a traumatic brain injury that caused her to forget the events of every day.
Henry works hard to get her to notice him every day and tries some pretty unorthodox ways to get her attention, despite her father’s and brother’s objections. There is a struggle to get her back, but there is no antagonist preventing him from accomplishing his mission.
Big (1998)
When 13-year-old Josh makes a wish to become an adult, he wakes up the next morning as his 30-year-old self. Starring Tom Hanks as Josh, the literal manchild is forced to live a life like an adult, including getting a job and meeting the (adult) girl of his dreams.
The comedy of a child trying to make it as an adult is a plot of it in itself and doesn’t require an antagonist tormenting the central manchild. Josh does butt heads with an envious coworker, but even that’s not the focus of Big.
Liar Liar (1997)
Liar Liar stars Fletcher Reed (Jim Carrey), a hotshot lawyer that spends more time in the courtroom instead of with his family, which leads to him missing a lot of events in his young son’s life. When his son is fed up with his dad’s lying, he makes a birthday wish that his dad couldn’t lie for 24 hours. When the wish becomes literal, Fletcher finds it impossible to tell any sort of lie, leading to a lot of conflict with his coworkers, his clients, and his family.
The hilarious scenes of Fletcher trying and failing to tell a white lie to combat his son’s wishes and the important lesson he learns along the way require no real antagonist; only some of Jim Carrey’s classic reactions, facial expressions, and slapstick shenanigans.
Forrest Gump (1994)
Forrest Gump is one of the most well-written movies of all time and to make it better, it stars none other than Tom Hanks as the titular character. Forrest is born with polio and a learning disorder that causes him to be ridiculed at a young age. As he gets older, he outgrows his leg braces and becomes one of the fastest people in his town, earning a scholarship to play at Alabama. After that he joins the army and becomes a war hero, then a ping pong champion, then a millionaire.
Forrest has one of the most fulfilled lives despite his setbacks and struggles and requires no antagonist to carry the plot along. He learns a lot in his experiences and in the end, he lives a quiet life in rural Alabama with his young son.
The 40-Year Old Virgin (2005)
Starring Steve Carrell, Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd, and Catherine Keener, this raunchy comedy is about the middle-aged Andy, (Carell) who reveals to his friends during a drunken game night that he had never had any intimate relations with a woman. Surprised, his hedonistic friends are then determined to get him to experience sex for the first time in his life and work to find him a suitable person to do the deed.
He then finds a single mother who he falls in love with and he experiences his first real adult relationship. The closest there is to an antagonist here is the pressure he gets from his friends to do something he’s never done, and all the ladies that come before meeting his soulmate. That, and the juvenile misconception that being a virgin makes one a loser.
Miss Stevens (2017)
This indie classic follows a young teacher tasked with taking a group of theater students to a competition. When one of the students (Timothee Chalamet) starts developing a crush on her, she tries her best to keep it professional, despite his persistence.
It’s an interesting movie with a lot of twists and turns and revelations but it never includes a central antagonist, because the story doesn’t need it. The constant emotional struggle between the young teacher and the love-struck student is all the plot needed.
Finding Nemo (2003)
This beloved Pixar movie is about an overprotective father named Marlin who loses his son and then searches the sea to get him back. Along the way, he meets Dory, a young fish that has trouble remembering and proves to be a challenge for Marlin, who is impatient and desperate to find his son.
The two go on an adventure while trying to find Nemo and although they do face hungry sharks, seagulls and humans, there is no real antagonist that pushes the plot along. In fact, the closest thing to a proper antagonist that actively harms Marlin and Dory are the jellyfishes who, to be fair, don’t know what they’re doing because they don’t have brains.
