Superheroes just can’t stop fighting at the moment. Barely a month since Batman and Superman battled because [FILE NOT FOUND], this week’s “Captain America: Civil War,” the thirteenth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe mega-franchise, sees the title character and Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man squaring off over a question of superhero regulation, with each gathering a team of likeminded heroes for the battle.
The new film (read our enthusiastic review here) has an advantage, in that the feud between the two has a basis in friendship —while Steve Rogers and Tony Stark have sometimes butted heads, they’ve been fighting and joking alongside each other, and even sharing shawarma, since “The Avengers” four years ago (and since 1963 in the comics).
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The background as such gives the film more than a little additional emotional punch. But Cap and Tony are hardly the first buds to turn on each other: we’ve been seeing friends fall out and become mortal enemies throughout cinematic history. So to mark the release of ‘Civil War,’ we’ve gathered together a dozen of our favorite movies where great pals come into conflict —take a look below and let us know your own faves in the comments.
Professor Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr – “X-Men: First Class” (2011)
“Civil War” is far from the only time a superhero movie has revolved around former friends becoming enemies: from Peter Parker and Harry Osborne in “Spider-Man” to Bruce Wayne and Harvey Dent in “The Dark Knight,” it’s a pretty common trope of the genre. But it’s perhaps most important in the “X-Men” films, which have always had at heart the uneasy relationship between mutants Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr, and is explored best in the first of the recent prequel/reboot trilogy “X-Men: First Class.” The characters —one a telepath, the other able to control magnetic fields— had differing viewpoints as to how to coexist with mainstream humanity, based initially on Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, though their comic book relationship has often been a more traditional hero/villain rivalry. Matthew Vaughn’s “First Class” isn’t perfect by any stretch, but its best elements come in the depictions of young Charles (James McAvoy) and Erik (Michael Fassbender), who find a real kinship, even though their philosophical differences are already apparent. There’s a real thrill for fans in watching them work side by side, and a surprisingly potent sense of tragedy when they eventually fall apart. It’s the rare prequel that actually helps the movies taking place prior.
Mark Zuckerberg & Eduardo Saverin – “The Social Network” (2010)
It’s hardly uncommon for two friends to fall out over money (as this list shows), but business winning out over loyalty has rarely had such a bruising human face as in David Fincher’s modern classic “The Social Network.” Aaron Sorkin’s screenplay might be about the founding of Facebook, but it finds its in-point by focusing on the relationship between Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) and his semi-forgotten partner Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield). It’s clear from the film’s flashback structure that all will eventually not be well between the Harvard coder and his wealthy best pal (“Your best friend is suing you for six hundred million dollars,” one attorney tells Zuckerberg), but they clearly make a fine team when we first meet them —Saverin’s smoothness making up for Zuckerberg’s social awkwardness. There are always cracks in the relationship —the way that Saverin’s kept in the dark over the increasing influence of the Winklevi, for instance— but it’s the entrance of a third party, Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake) that dooms it, dividing, conquering and finally leading Saverin out in the cold. The split (and split feels like the right word: their relationship feels more like a romance than many here) takes a while to come, but Saverin’s “lawyer up” moment as he realizes what’s been going on feels like a final rebuke to those who find Fincher’s work lacking emotion: it’s utterly devastating to anyone that’s ever lost a friend.
Allie Jones & Hedy Carlson – “Single White Female” (1992)
They’re only now getting a revival thanks to movies like “Gone Girl” and “The Girl On The Train,” but the female-driven domestic thriller sub-genre was a big deal in the early ’90s, and few films of this ilk caught the zeitgeist quite like “Single White Female.” Based on John Lutz’s novel “SWF Seeks Same,” adapted by future “Opposite Of Sex” helmer Don Roos and directed by Barbet Schroeder, the film sees software designer Allie (Bridget Fonda) taking on a new roommate, the seemingly sweet-natured, if clearly a little… eccentric Hedy (Jennifer Jason Leigh). They become fast friends, but Hedy becomes increasingly obsessive and possessive, inveigling herself in every aspect of Allie’s life, stealing her look and seducing her boyfriend (Steven Weber). One wonders if the film might be a little more interesting if it had a female writer or director in charge, but there’s still an interesting push and pull between the film’s genuine feminist streak and its bitch-be-crazy villainy, and Schroeder handles the tension with a command that, if it’s not quite Hitchcockian, is at least in the right neck of the woods, preying on the universal fear that the stranger you share a home with could be a lunatic. But his greatest asset remains Leigh, who gives Hedy the pathos that all the great movie monsters need.
Robert Angier and Alfred Borden – “The Prestige” (2006)
Fierce rivalry, professional or otherwise, can be important —it encourages you to push on to greater and greater heights. But it can also be utterly destructive, and few films show that toxic combination better than Christopher Nolan’s “The Prestige,” the bleak, unloved oddity that the filmmaker made before he became a bulletproof brand name between “Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight.” Yet it might still stand as his best. Based on the novel by Christopher Priest, it sees aspiring magicians Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Borden (Christian Bale) initially as friendly fellow apprentices for an older magician (Ricky Jay), albeit their relationship is marked by philosophical differences about the nature of magic and performance. But when Angier’s wife (Piper Perabo) dies in a trick gone wrong that he blames Borden for, the two end up in a rivalry that comes to dominate their lives and causes both to pay a tremendous cost. The two actors (Jackman gives certainly his best performance, and Bale might be doing his finest work too) are neatly cast: Jackman’s Broadway showmanship hides a deep vein of bitterness that contrasts beautifully with his natural likability, while Bale’s cerebral, Method commitment is perfect for a man committed to the technical brilliance of magic but unconcerned with the showmanship (it’s perhaps unsurprising which of the two Nolan ultimately sides with). It’s an intense, dark, prickly film without an obvious hero, but it’s only become more involving over the last decade.