In your mind, are there any heroes in Double Indemnity? If so, who?
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I don't think that any of the characters in Double Indemnity could be considered heroes. In the beginning of the film, it appears as if Phyllis Dietrichson is the hero, treated unjustly by her evil husband. However, the entire movie is centered around her committing an act that makes her just as evil. We also find out later in the movie that she is manipulative and scheming, and that her plans went far beyond just escaping from her husband.
We could also see Walter Neff as a hero. In the beginning, he helps the defenseless Mrs. Dietrichson and risks exposure and punishment. However, even the goodness of this act is masked by the romance that ensues between him and Mrs. Dietrichson, resulting is his gaining as much, if not more than, Mrs. Dietrichson from their committing the murder of her husband. Even in the end, when he pulls the trigger on Phyllis and confesses his evil deeds to his coworker Keyes, he runs away from the punishment he deserves instead of facing his sentence heroically.
Lastly, there's Keyes. The suspicious coworker, that only serves to burden the main characters. Though Keyes lacked full understanding of the plots and motivations of the other characters, he had the potential to foil their plans early on. Small issues of timing and the over-looking of minuscule details are the only things that stopped him from figuring everything out sooner. For example, when he visited Mr. Neff at his home and narrowly missed Mrs. Dietrichson, who had also stopped by. If any character in this film had the potential to be a hero it would have been Keyes, even if circumstance did not allow him to reach that title.
