| abstract | - If you've seen a Disaster Movie, you've seen this trope. There's an oncoming disaster and The Hero is trying to get everyone to see the Cassandra Truth. Problem is that there's this one Suit With Vested Interests in something that's going to suffer if the disaster comes about. He'll argue against people believing the hero or an Ignored Expert, he'll try to convince people that they are safe with his product and he'll try to stop word from getting further so that the stock prices don't sink all the while the boat does. The vested interest varies. He could be the owner of the project that is actively causing the disaster or whose destruction is the disaster. On the other hand, it could just be that they would lose a lot of money from the Attack of the Town Festival. In fact, in the Attack of the Town Festival, expect this role to be played by the mayor. Similarly, his portrayal and motivation varies. He could be an outright Corrupt Corporate Executive who believes the disaster and just doesn't care or, and it tends to be this way in the better works, he is simply so emotionally invested in what he has that he can't bring himself to face the truth. The latter way tends to resonate better and appear more realistic to audiences, as well as having a natural connection to the common theme in disaster movies of Mankind vs. His Folly. The age can be either old set-in-his-ways businessman or young, up-and-coming-with-a-lot-to-prove, charming guy. Gender nearly Always Male due to the age of these movies, the characters, the nature of the flaw and the Love Interest occasionally starting off as his and then changing over to the hero. By the way, the old guy vs. young buck choice tends to work as a foil to the hero. Stoic Paul Newman or Charlton Heston as the lead? Young, charming, slightly smarmy businessman. Young, energetic Poor Man's Substitute of Robert Redford? Old suit. He'll often be the Doomed Contrarian and get finally called out with "What an Idiot!" by Ernest Borgnine. Examples of Suit with Vested Interests include:
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