Despicable Me: Economy of Evil

A point touched upon once or twice during the movie is that Gru needs money. And why wouldn't he? He has a home, multiple vehicles, a massive underground base, and an army to feed (possibly) and pay (possibly). Because of this, he is indebted to the 'Bank of Evil.'

In this universe, evil is a business, and business is good. The bank president has money to spare, with such extravagances as a gold laptop. From what we see in the movie, you steal something, hold it for ransom, then reap the rewards. The bank profits by funding these villains, then taking what I assume is a healthy portion of the payoff. This is a great system for all evil parties involved.

However, for such a system to work, there are some dire implications. First, that governments will in fact negotiate with terrorists. From what is shown in the movie, while the items stolen are pretty important, they're not really all that dangerous (the catastrophic environmental damage from the removal of the moon and subsequent addition of the moon to the upper atmosphere notwithstanding). It would make a lot more sense for the government to either ignore the ransom for the object, or launch an all out attack on the villain. As we've seen, these people aren't exactly discreet.

The second implication is that there really is no form of law enforcement. The world of Despicable Me is a harsh world, where a person is only as safe as their strength allows them to be. There's evidence of this all throughout the movie. People are able to walk into the orphanage's office to talk to the headmistress, and right there are kids being kept in boxes. In a world with law enforcement that would get reported right away. Gru violates hundreds of parking and traffic laws in his exceptionally conspicuous vehicle, and we never even see a squad car.

In a world such as this, it wouldn't just make sense to be a supervillain, it'd be foolish not to be. Given these factors, the Bank of Evil is actually pretty generous with it's loans. You'd think an aspiring villain would only get once chance to prove their worth. After all, there's always another possibly more capable villain standing next in line. But Gru has apparently had several chances with a pretty low payoff. Sure, he successfully stole some things, but it doesn't appear that anyone paid the ransom, being as he still has them. Maybe he's just that charismatic?

In any case, it's time for me to prepare my presentation for my loan. After all, it's going to take a lot of money to perform the 'Great Sears Tower Heist.'

Zel-kun out.