Marty, Mean Creek (2004)
His Comeuppance: By the end of the film, he’s a wanted fugitive, which probably isn’t going to end well for him.
Ace Merrill, Stand By Me (1986)
The Bully: Kids will fight over all sorts of things, but it takes a special kind of disturbed teenager to want to fight over a dead body. As the leader of Castle Rock’s nastiest bullies, Ace (Kiefer Sutherland) likes to terrorise younger kids, and when he thinks a gang of pre-teens are going to take credit for finding a corpse in the woods, he gets violent.
Meanest Moment: Threatening to kill children in the woods. That’s about as mean as it gets.
His Comeuppance: The kids one-up Ace by pulling a gun, and in the end, no-one gets the reward for finding the body.
Johnny Lawrence, The Karate Kid (1984)
The Bully: Johnny (William Zabka) is into karate – specifically, Cobra Kai karate, a particularly vicious sub-discipline that seems to be mostly useful for beating up smaller or meeker kids.
Meanest Moment: Determined to win a tournament, Johnny attacks his opponent’s already injured leg. Not exactly sporting, is it?
His Comeuppance: Soundly beaten, Johnny actually has the humility to present his rival with the trophy. Awww.
Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter franchise (2001-2011)
The Bully: Bratty Draco (Tom Felton) comes from a family of Death Eaters – so when the Sorting Hat sticks him in Slytherin, it’d almost be disappointing if he didn’t turn out to be horrible. Luckily, he’s pretty horrible.
Meanest Moment: He’s got a lot of them, especially in the later films, but let’s go with his wizardy racism, which sees him slinging around insults like “Mudblood” and generally mistreating anyone who doesn’t have pure wizard blood.
His Comeuppance: Well, he gets turned into a ferret at one point.
Fred OBannion, Dazed And Confused (1993)
The Bully: Most of the seniors in Dazed And Confused are pretty horrible to the new kids, but O’Bannion (Ben Affleck) takes his bullying duties seriously. It’s a little bit disturbing how keen he is to spank the freshmen with his personalised bat.
Meanest Moment: Lurking outside a middle-school baseball game to beat up the soon-to-be freshmen before they can leave.
His Comeuppance: The kids get their revenge, throwing a bucket of paint over a paddle-wielding O’Bannion and ruining all his fun.
Jack Merridew, Lord Of The Flies (1963)
The Bully: Jack (Tom Chapin) is one of a group of schoolchildren stranded alone on a desert island. As a choir boy, you’d expect him to be well-behaved, but Jack’s soon leading a tribe of brutal child savages.
Meanest Moment: Breaking Piggy’s glasses. Unforgiveable.
His Comeuppance: He probably got roundly told off by his parents when he finally got home.
Miss Trunchbull, Matilda (1996)
The Bully: Not all school bullies are children. Agatha Trunchbull (Pam Ferris) is the headmistress of Crunchem Hall, and she’s the biggest bully of the lot, terrorising all the kids she’s supposed to be teaching.
Meanest Moment: Forcing greedy Bruce Bogtrotter (Jimmy Karz) to eat an entire chocolate cake. In front of the whole school. Bleurgh.
Her Comeuppance: Once Matilda (Mara Wilson) learns how to control her telekinetic powers, she menaces Miss Trunchbull with reminders of her former crimes, scaring her into confessing her guilt and leaving the school. Hurrah!
Chris Hargensen, Carrie (2013)
The Bully: Already a pretty nasty piece of work in the 1976 version of Carrie, Chris (Portia Doubleday) is spectacularly evil in the 2013 remake. Not only does she scheme to tip a bucket of pig’s blood over poor old Carrie (Chloe Grace Moretz) on prom night, she insists on butchering the pig herself.
Meanest Moment: Other than the whole pig’s blood thing, uploading a video of Carrie panicking in the school showers to YouTube is undeniably mean.
Her Comeuppance: Carrie kills her by telekinetically crashing her car as she attempts to flee the prom with her boyfriend. Ouch.
Regina George, Mean Girls (2004)
The Bully: Regina George (Rachel McAdams) isn’t just a mean girl – she’s the mean girl. She’s the ultimate queen bee, and the rest of the school is in her thrall, terrified and in awe.
Meanest Moment: Spreading the contents of the Plastics’ Burn Book around the school, turning her friends into outcasts and even insulting herself to avert suspicion.
Her Comeuppance: She gets hit by a bus, as symbolic payback for bullied kids everywhere.
Biff Tannen, Back To The Future (1985)
The Bully: Biff (Thomas F. Wilson) is the kind of bully who haunts every kid’s nightmares: big, aggressive, and stupid. He also never goes away, and never grows out of being a bully, tormenting George McFly (Crispin Glover) for a good 30 years (at least, in one timeline).
Meanest Moment: “Mean” isn’t quite the right word for date rape, but that’s Biff’s biggest crime, sexually assaulting Lorraine (Lea Thompson).
His Comeuppance: With a bit of help from his time-travelling son, George eventually fights back and knocks Biff out. Not that we’re advocating violence or anything, but that was pretty well-deserved.
