Between the slash-and-burn reboot of the U.S. government led by a fan of dank memes and the relentless push of AI by venture capital-backed blowhards, 2025 has felt like peak obnoxious tech bro. Fittingly, jargon-spouting, self-important digital visionaries also became Hollywood’s go-to villains this year, appearing in everything from blockbusters to slapstick spoofs. Spare a thought for the overworked props departments tasked with creating fake Forbes magazine covers that herald yet another smirking white guy as “Master of the Metaverse” or something similar.
With such market saturation, the risk is that all these delusional men blend into one smarmy mess. It seemed reasonable to expect that Stanley Tucci might add a little flavor to The Electric State, Netflix’s lavish alt-history robot fantasy. As Ethan Skate—creator of the “neurocaster” technology that quashed an AI uprising and then turned the general population into listless virtual-reality addicts—Tucci certainly looked the part: bald and imperious in retro Bond villain attire. But even the great cocktail-maker couldn’t squeeze much out of sour existential proclamations like, “Our world is a tire fire floating on an ocean of piss.”
There was more baldness in Superman, where Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor embodied the worst kind of wannabe paradigm-changer: one desperate to appear on talk shows. Incensed that the world seemed to ignore his genius in favor of a flying alien do-gooder, the LuthorCorp founder spent a fortune to rig social media, deploying an army of vivisected monkey cyborgs to flood platforms with anti-Superman hashtags and memes. That the film itself was met with manufactured outrage over perceived wokeness added a disconcerting hall-of-mirrors feel to what was essentially an overstuffed crowd-pleaser. Hoult’s Lex was also a distractingly attractive tech CEO, which pushed the film further into the realm of fantasy.
Is it more appealing when these self-important jerks are funny? In the heightened world of the killer doll action thriller M3gan 2.0, Jemaine Clement was sleazily overconfident as Alton Appleton, a high-functioning billionaire whose latest scheme was pushing an unwanted neural implant on the masses. Seduced by an impassive fembot assassin, Alton was humiliated in his final moments, his signature Altwave tech effortlessly hacked, his weird prosthetic six-pack coming unstuck. It was pathetic but humanizing. As the movie trundled on, you actually began to miss him.
If Clement nailed tech bro obliviousness, Danny Huston had to remain deadpan opposite Liam Neeson’s blathering Frank Drebin Jr. in The Naked Gun reboot. Huston’s Richard Cane was a hybrid Jeff Bezos/Elon Musk-esque blowhard who used the galactic profits from his online retail and electric car empires to create a “Primordial Law of Toughness” device. His master plan was to zap the general public back to a prehistoric mindset, violently culling the herd and ushering in a new age for humankind (or at least his billionaire class). Cane was obsessed with men’s sperm counts, building luxury bunkers for the super-rich, and Black Eyed Peas. In other words: truly psychotic.
In the goopy, grungy world of The Toxic Avenger reboot, Kevin Bacon’s floppy-haired biotech villain Bob Garbinger stood out simply because he looked so pale and pampered. While it’s not a great sign when a self-proclaimed “healthstyle” guru mixes up Sisyphus and syphilis, Garbinger’s habit of going shirtless while promoting “proprietary cutting-edge bio-boosters” in TV ads felt like a timely skewering of immortality-seeking biohackers like Bryan Johnson.
In 2022, Evan Peters played the lead in Netflix’s ghoulish Monster: The JeffreyDid the Dahmer story influence his casting as a second-generation nepo baby in Tron: Ares? To be fair, his character Julian Dillinger—grandson of David Warner’s boardroom bully from the original 1982 Tron—came across as more neurotic than psychotic. He’s a baby-faced tech huckster with cheap circuit board sleeve tattoos, whose bold venture into 3D-printing wicked neon war machines and digital commandos was only slightly derailed by the fact that they imploded within 30 minutes. A wildly expensive, resource-intensive, and essentially useless product? Whether intentional or not, it felt like a fitting metaphor for the AI bubble.
But why stop at just one obnoxious tech bro? Jesse Armstrong’s sharp satire Mountainhead took the bold step of making every single character the absolute worst of the “move fast, break stuff” billionaire mindset, isolating them—and the viewer—in a remote, disgustingly luxurious ski lodge as the threat of possible Armageddon loomed. As the Musk-like owner of a social media app spreading dangerous AI-augmented misinformation, Cory Michael Smith captured the glib, morally indifferent tone of someone richer than God who sees the world as their plaything.
As Venis (Smith), silverback investor Randall (Steve Carell), savvy algorithm tamer Jeff (Ramy Youssef), and aspiring wellness app mogul Souper (Jason Schwartzman) relentlessly needled each other, there was an illicit thrill in tuning into the combative quartet’s insider banter of boasting, toasting, and roasting. But as the world lurched further into chaos, watching these four so-called thought leaders clumsily brainstorm how best to exploit the situation was depressing—not least because it felt all too plausible. We’ve all been forced to absorb the pathologies of our tech overlords due to their disproportionate influence in the real world. As a new cinema year approaches, is it too much to ask that we don’t have to keep doing it at the movies, too?
Frequently Asked Questions
Of course Here is a list of FAQs about the trend of the move fast and break things tech entrepreneur as Hollywoods favorite villain in 2025
Beginner Definition Questions
1 What does move fast and break things even mean
It was a famous motto in Silicon Valley especially at Facebooks early days It means prioritizing rapid innovation and growth over caution even if it leads to mistakes disruption or negative side effects for society
2 Why are these tech founders suddenly the goto movie villains
Hollywood often reflects cultural anxieties By 2025 people have seen realworld consequences of unregulated techdata privacy scandals social medias impact on mental health and AI disruption These founders represent a modern relatable form of power and hubris
3 What are some examples of this villain in recent movies or shows
Think of characters who are charismatic genius founders of a worldchanging app or company whose pursuit of a grand vision leads them to ignore ethics manipulate people or destabilize society While specific 2025 titles are fictional recent parallels include characters in The Social Network Devs Black Mirror and Upload
4 How is this different from the old evil corporation villain
The old villain was often a greedy faceless conglomerate The new tech villain is the foundera personally driven messianic figure who believes theyre making the world better The danger isnt just greed but a dangerous idealism and a belief that they are above the rules
Advanced Cultural Impact Questions
5 Is this trend fair to real tech entrepreneurs
Its a dramatization While most entrepreneurs dont become villains the trope exaggerates real critiques the cult of founder worship the disruption of stable industries without regard for the human cost and the immense unaccountable power wielded by a few tech giants
6 What realworld events fueled this Hollywood trend
Key events include the Cambridge Analytica scandal congressional hearings with tech CEOs concerns about algorithmic bias the rise of deepfakes and public debates about AI ethics and job displacement These made the break things part of the motto feel more sinister
