The Bad Guys: An Examination of Gangs and Organized Crime
Intro
People always make references to gangs like ‘Blood vs Crips’ or may use the word ‘gang’ to friendlily refer to a group of people, but do we actually understand the inner workings of gangs or organized crime?
Basic Storyline
The film The Bad Guys (2022) features characters who make an effort to form a group of criminals (started by The Big Bad Wolf), who are all villainized due to their appearance, coming together to be more successful. But what larger implications are there to this origin story?
This story takes place in Los Angeles, California. Most of the Bad Guys (who are all animals) don’t belong in such a dry, urban habitat, potentially hinting that they may have been displaced from their original habitats and migrated to the city in hopes of a new home. Or, they could’ve been brought to the country against their will, which could potentially draw a parallel between trafficking exotic animals and trafficking human beings.
The Bad Guys are not accepted and turn against society, which has turned its back on them. This could resonate with the flood of Vietnamese refugees who fled to the US as a result of the Vietnam War and the start of Vietnamese-American gangs, especially in the Bay Area and Orange County in California. The reality of switching to a new environment for safety or better opportunities, yet not belonging, is also famously shown in West Side Story, a musical about rival gangs, both marginalized in New York City, fighting for their place.
In The Bad Guys 2 (2025), the gang tries to become good and lead regular lives, but it becomes increasingly difficult due to their criminal history. They struggle to find jobs and suddenly, a new gang has been taking the world by storm and seeks them out for help to execute a master plan. As the story progresses, the Bad Guys return to their old ways and the main character is even encouraged to go back to a life of crime. After all, he was never given a chance to be seen as a good person, but was easily accepted as a villain and thrived. This is a real problem former gang members have to face when they try to get back on their feet.
Where Gangs Fall Short
While it’s nice to be around people who relate to you in a way others can’t, gangs aren’t exactly heaven on earth. This becomes obvious in the latter half of the movie when Kitty, the new gang’s leader, threatens one of her members over a simple disagreement. Her members start to realize she doesn’t actually care about the team and is merely using them for her own agenda.
A research paper from Asian Law Journal at Berkeley discusses the type of abuse that takes place within gangs. The former gang member being interviewed describes an instance where an elder beat up a group of younger gang members because they didn’t “respect” him. Gangs are synonymous with cults: they’re for people who have lost hope and are vulnerable. You can get the basic rules right, but if you do something that even slightly angers the leader, you are severely punished as if under a dictatorship.
The Joker was Right
The real villain is not the Bad Guys nor Kitty’s girl gang. It’s society. The Bad Guys wouldn’t have turned bad if they hadn’t been deemed scary since the beginning. In The Bad Guys 2 (2025), we eventually find out that Kitty became a criminal because she was singled out by a teacher as a bad kid when she was little. The teacher gave every kid in class a lollipop except for her, so she began to steal lollipops, influencing her to steal bigger and better things as she grew up.
But there was one character who consistently stays evil in the movie: Professor Marmalade. Now, to be fair, he is in jail in the first part of The Bad Guys 2, but once there was a sliver of a reason to release him, the government took it. And he was celebrated! For literally doing nothing, as if he wasn’t suspicious enough.
At the end of the day, this is because of how he looks, because he is a guinea pig, a presumably innocent animal. He’s so small and innocent looking, how could he hurt a fly? That’s how people get away with crimes and others get framed. This is not uncommon as there are many stories of past and present where someone is wrongfully accused of a crime, then punished without further investigation.
Conclusion
The Bad Guys 2 is a good movie to watch with family and the book series is even better. It’s a story about what happens when you let other people’s opinions control you and then take that control back. I did wish the movie was more sympathetic in portraying Kitty, though.