The Crazy Reason Why On-Screen Villains Won’t Have iPhones
Movieguide® Contributor
It seems like the bad guys can’t have iPhones under Apple’s alleged “villain clause.”
“If you’ve ever been watching a movie and noticed that some characters are wandering around with the latest iPhone, while others are stuck with an old brick, there’s actually a reason why,” LADbible said.
“That’s because, allegedly, Apple doesn’t allow villains or bad guys to use their products in TV, film or advertisements. The entertainment industry has coined this rule the ‘no villain clause,’” PEOPLE reported Sept. 1.
KNIVES OUT director Rian Johnson said there was a clause, but some movies, like the newly released TRAP, seem to show villains with iPhones.
“While the policy is not explicitly written in Apple’s Guidelines for Using Apple Trademarks and Copyrights, the document states that ‘the Apple product is shown only in the best light, in a manner or context that reflects favorably on the Apple products and on Apple Inc,'” PEOPLE said. “You may not use an Apple trademark or any other Apple-owned graphic symbol, logo, or icon in a disparaging manner.”
Johnson said, “Apple, they let you use iPhones in movies, but — and this is very pivotal — if you’re ever watching a mystery movie, bad guys cannot have iPhones on camera.”
He joked, “Every single filmmaker who has a bad guy in their movie that’s supposed to be a secret wants to murder me right now.”
Apple hasn’t directly addressed the alleged “villain clause,” but others besides Johnson have hinted at it.
Prop master Heidi Koleto said, “Apple is very specific. I got a script once where an actress is supposed to be looking at her phone while she’s driving drunk and crashes her car. They wanted to see a text message pop up and I had to be like, ‘We can’t do that. We’ve established this character with an Apple phone. We can’t have her driving drunk and crashing while looking at an iPhone. They will never work with me again.’ “
She added that Apple details their expectations — how they want the phone to be viewed and even the kind of cases that it can be put in.
“There are several examples in TV and film that could prove Apple’s alleged ‘no villain clause’ to be true, including Johnson’s KNIVES OUT. In the film, every character has an iPhone except for Ana de Armas’ character Marta (who acts guilty), and Chris Evans’ character Ransom (who is guilty).”
In the KNIVES OUT sequel, GLASS ONION, the villain doesn’t have an iPhone either.
In HBO’s SUCCESSION, most of the characters have an iPhone except for the villains, and the same goes for the 24 series.
“Following Johnson’s eye-opening interview, viewers have discovered several films that don’t appear to follow Apple’s alleged ‘no villain clause,’ PEOPLE said. “In JOHN WICK, the man who kills John’s dog and steals his car is seen using an iPhone, and Josh Hartnett’s serial killer character in TRAP also appears to be using an Apple device. Some fans pointed out that an iPhone also appears in a villain’s briefcase in Marvel’s 2015 movie ANT-MAN.”
“While it’s still unclear what the exact parameters around the use of Apple products in film and TV are, it’s still fun to hunt for iPhone easter eggs on-screen — you’ll just have to wait until 2025 to see what Johnson does in KNIVES OUT 3,” PEOPLE said.
Apple takes the cake when it comes to the most product placements in TV and movies. The Merge reported, “According to Merchant Machine, which counted how often product placement occurs in 2,227 movies and 890 TV shows featured on productplacementblog.com, an Apple product appeared 1,884 times in movies.”
Business Insider and other outlets have reported that Apple doesn’t pay for product placement.
“Apple won’t pay to have their products featured, but they are more than willing to hand out an endless amount of computers, iPads and iPhones,” Gavin Polone, executive producer of Curb Your Enthusiasm, said.
Movieguide® previously reported on another kind of product placement:
Virtual Product Placement (VPP) seems poised to invade the space of many unsuspecting viewers who have paid subscriptions to major streaming services such as Paramount, Amazon Prime, Disney, and Netflix…
“A new report from insights firm Radicle sponsored by VPP firm Ryff… estimates the total opportunity to make addressable revenues from feature films and TV series libraries in the U.S. is $6.6BN, with legacy titles like NCIS and Friends the best suited for exploitation.”
He concludes: “In practice, VPP sees paid-for products and brands placed into shots in post production — effectively an alternative to traditional advertising, but despite having been around for a while now hasn’t yet really taken off….Should that change, Paramount, Warner Bros Discovery, Disney, NBCUniversal and Netflix could be among the biggest winners….We’ll see next year if VPP becomes a meaningful part of media firms’ business plans, or if it’s a false dawn.”
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