Popular culture, in general, and movies, in particular, are one of the major influences on the public’s perception of science, and therefore on the level of trust audiences feel inclined to put in science. The science communication community has made great progress in helping the entertainment industry move away from stereotypes like the crazy-haired old white male scientist in a dungeon laboratory and more accurately portraying scientists and scientific work to better reflect the diverse reality of scientific research in media. This has been achieved through constructive collaborations like the National Academy of Science’s Science and Entertainment Exchange. However, a prevalent trope, which we call “The Evil Corporation Trope”, has been repeatedly used in science-fiction films. We present an analysis of this trope in several major science-fiction films, spanning nearly forty years of cinema. We follow David (Kirby, Lab Coats in Hollywood: Science, Scientists, and Cinema, The MIT Press, 2011) framework of cinema as a “virtual witnessing technology” that allows publics to immerse themselves in possible futures or inaccessible realities, and experience what their perceptions and reactions would be. We discuss how the fictional reality that audiences virtually witness in these blockbuster movies, which systematically portray science or tech companies as the antagonist and the source of all evil, has the potential to influence audience trust in science, for example, when big corporations develop and distribute the COVID-19 vaccine. Our content analysis includes the identification of patterns found within the films using this trope, including corporations in these movies with ties to the military, and abuses of artificial intelligence.