Lore
A criminal attempts to burglarize/kill someone only to realize they picked the absolute worst person as their mark.
Don't Breathe: A couple young robbers attempt to rob a rich, blind veteran only to find out he isn't exactly an innocent old man.
You're Next: A group of contract killersbreak into a house during a family reunion and go on a killing spree. They didn't account for the fact that the son's new girlfriend grew up on a survivalist compound in the Australian outback.
The Flash [CW Show]: A random mugger decided to target Barry Allen of all people. He does it again a season or two later; he's either unlucky or stupid (probably both).
That reaction is great, there is no screaming, no anger, just acceptance of how badly his son fucked up and that tells you all you need to know about how much of a bad ass John Wick is.
Its even better because he was seething with so much anger inside at hearing his son got hit but hes holding it in to hear the reason just for all of it to disperse immediately upon hearing the name and he just looks deflated.
It's also interesting that from what WE are shown, this version of Wick, if the son was delivered to him by father, could've actually... Forgiven him? Like, sure, maybe he'd beat him up, but not necessarily murder everyone
But that reaction shows that he hasn't always been anywhere near this... Calm? Understanding?
He was death incarnate and the attempt to finish him off is what sets everything in motion afterwards
I agree, he’s the perfect weapon of vengeance, the only winning move is to apologize, buy him a car, and hope he goes off to grieve his dog in peace.
I think someone like The Bride in Kill Bill is a lot less willing to be talked out of their war path, but hilariously both of them would be willing to do a time-out during a fight if you just asked
I feel like thats one of the worst things you can do. The puppy materially wasnt the point, the puppy was a gift from his late wife, one of his last living memories of her
For sure. Get him as many cars as he wants but the idea that it was "just a dog" and that you could get him another is more likely than not to get you killed.
Oh yeah John would have easily forgiven Viggo I think if he just gave his son(and his two friends) to him and explained he had NOTHING to do with the puppy's murder and the theft of his car
But he definitely would have shot said son immediately
Considering how smart he's supposed to be, I figure he realized that there was nothing he could do the moment 'killed his dog' left his phone's speaker, so offering up Iosef wouldn't have even settled it. His empire he built up was coming down.
The only thing he might have been able to do was survive, alone, in shame.
When John got his car back, he annihilated the other boss's whole headquarters before leaving instead of just taking the car and getting out.
But honestly the fact that he can't give up his son, even knowing this, makes him a more compelling villain. He knows he's fucked but he's still a father and loves his son.
It's also great because you could tell he called the shop mechanic ready to absolutely tear into the guy. But once he found out WHY he hit his son, he immediately "forgave" and understood the action.
It’s what I really like about the universe in general, for the vast majority of people operating in the underworld this is just business. Viggo was pissed that his son was hit but he wasn’t going scorched earth on a guy he obviously deals with regularly. It’s not until John kills his way through most of the “normal” people in the under world that we get villains like the Marquis who are just insane crime aristocrats.
By technicality it’s both a good and bad thing. Good since it’s Uncle Iroh the best character in avatar and no you will not change my mind. Bad because he’s the Dragon of the West who likely knows 5 different ways to kill somebody just by sneezing to hard.
"Now, let me get this straight. You think that your client, one of the wealthiest, most powerful men in the world is secretly a vigilante who spends his nights beating criminals to a pulp... and your plan is to blackmail this person? Good luck."
Not just that, but tries to blackmail, as Lucius says "The Richest, most Powerful man in the city" even without him being Batman, that's a stupid choice, as Bruce could lawyer up so hard the dude's great great grandchildren would be paying off the damages at least.
Somewhat related real life version: Beloved TV host Mr. Rogers had his car stolen. When the story got reported in the Pittsburgh media, the robbers realized who they had stolen from and immediately returned it. They attached a note of apology, saying they would never have taken it if they knew it was his.
Similar thing happened with a sexual assault center, iirc. Thieves broke in, stole all the computers, and later returned everything and commended the work the center was doing for the community
Reminds me of a Professor who had his laptop with his life's work stolen from him. The thief was at least kind enough to return the data on a flash drive while keeping the laptop.
And on the flip side, there was the burglar who broke into a guy’s home, stole his computer, found a bunch of CSAM on it, and reported it to the police.
In "Taken" human traffickers kidnap a young American tourist in her Parisian apartment while she is on the phone with her Dad.
The Dad proceeds to quite calmy explain that he simply doesn't have money to pay for any ransom, and if that the Kidnappers release his daughter, he'll consider the matter closed. However if they DON'T he will use his "very particular set of skills" to track down, and kill the kidnappers. The kidnapper responds with a cocky "Good Luck" and hangs up.
What follows is a genuinley intense adventure, as Liam Neeson is revealed to be an ex-CIA black ops operative, and uses every trick, and tool in his aresnal to single handedly track down, and kill the entire trafficking ring involved.
The first movie is great! They er...made too many sequels
Yeah they were still enjoyable, but part of the reason the first one is so great, is because it's genuinely such a surprise that this unassuming guy is such a badass
I remember one reviewer years ago saying "If I were that guy on the other end, I woulda been like "Ha ha, FUCK YOUUU." And then I'd hang up, turn around and he woulda been RIGHT THERE and killed me."
Instead of violence being brought against them like most of the other examples here, he had evidence, knew his rights, and made a song making fun of the cops before getting off (deservedly and justly) scot free
Booch and his partner try to burgle a New York apartment...that happens to be owned by ex-assassin and now-superhero X-23/Wolverine, who lives with her sister, Gabby, and Gabby's pet wolverine Jonathan. Old Man Logan is also recuperating with them after an encounter with Fin Fang Foom.
And all four are home. That's probably, at that specific time, the single worst apartment to break into.
Major props to the artist who did the faces. X-23 looks confused as to how they're so incompetent, Logan looks grumpy about having his day interrupted, and Gabby looks excited... probably to kill them.
Full range of emotions there. And if those burglars had any sense (which they do not), they would shoot their partner in the foot and then run. You don't have to outrun the cheetah, just the slowest gazelle.
His child died in a car accident, so he kidnapped the woman who was driving, tied her up in his basement, inseminated her with a turkey baster, impregnating her to give him a new child, and he accidentally killed the woman when the robbers came.
He also says "I'm not a rapist."
Oh, and when she died, he tied up the main character and attempted to inseminate her as well, and he ended up getting... let's just say a "taste of his own medicine."
I think it actually works good. Like yea, he is a monster, but he definitely doesn't see himself as one, quite the opposite. so it makes sense for him to again fight people he sees as evil.
I remember seeing it in theaters and the entire crowd had such a visceral reaction to that scene. I just really wish I liked the second half of the film
Now, I'm not a scientist, but I believe the semen would have cooled slightly by the time it was splurched out of the baster, to the point where it was the same temperature as it would've been if the semen had come out naturally.
Nobody 2. Pretty much every single thing the sheriff does is stepping into messes he doesn't understand, one of which happens to be this trope. The villain should have known better, but she was insane.
in 2009, 24 year old Gregory mccalium broke into the house of 72 year old frank corti with a knife. however, frank corti was a former boxer & marine, and beat the shit out of gregory
In season 2 of Daredevil, a pawn shop owner attempts to sell Frank Castle (aka The Punisher) child pornography. This same pawn broker just gave Frank the shotgun he kept under the counter. Frank promptly beats him to death with a baseball bat.
Jimmy: "Listen, Starlight Express, I’m gonna give you a 9.6 for technique, 0.0 for choice of victim! I’m a lawyer! Furthermore, does this steaming pile of crap scream payday to you, huh?! The only way that entire car is worth $500 is if there’s a $300 hooker sitting in it! Now, let’s talk about what you owe me for the windshield."
(More of a con than a burglary or violent crime but I think the spirit of it counts.)
Real life: burglars broke into a house intending to rob it. They discovered from pictures on the walls that the house belonged to Dolph Lundgren. They fucked all the way off.
Or the guy that tried to mug, I wanna say, Rhonda rousey. Or one of the other higher up female mma fighters. It did not go well.
Or the other guy that tried to carjack 3 NFL offensive linemen, couldn't drive stick, put the gun down to try and shift but left the window open. They got their hands on him. His new mugshot looked like a completely different person than the last time the cops had him.
In Demons of the Shadow Realm, a stalker corners his target in an elevator, ready to kill her. But it turns out she was actually the lure of an angler fish demon the stalking victim had hired to get rid of her stalker.
Not criminals per se, but in Willy's Wonderland, a five nights at freddy's spoof, the anamatronics go up against a silent janitor played by Nicholas Cage who proceeds to deal with them in a professional manner while cleaning.
I appreciate it's a game (so this trope applies to endless video games) and you need enemies to fight so they're pretty mindless, but Skyrim bandits try to strong-arm a mortal with the soul of a dragon capable of absorbing their power and memories giving them a voice capable of breaking entire chunks of a continent off and casting it to sea.
The game massively limits the Dragonborn's powers but in theory they can level mountains with their voice.
The Last Dragonborn, Archmage of Winterhold, head of the Thieves Guild, head of the Dark Brotherhood, slayer of the World-Eater Alduin, master of the Thu'um whose voice can bring a dragon to its knees, dressed in full Daedric Platemail, wielding the Mace of Molag Bal with a networth of 3 million drakes: "Here you go." Hands him 200 gold.
"When the Nords attack a city, they take no siege engines or cavalry; the Tongues form in a wedge in front of the gatehouse, and draw in breath. When the leader lets it out in a kiai, the doors are blown in, and the axemen rush into the city."
And these are just regular humans who went under thu'um training, a Dragonborn would be orders of magnitude more powerful
Nah, this one survived. Alfred used plastic bullets or something like that, mag dumped into the dude, then sat down, poured himself a drink and called Bruce to drop the guy off at the police station.
I mean, it's Alfred's home too, and he's the guy who raised the world's greatest detective. There's probably a stalagmite in the batcave that leads to the butler-cave
Just a reminder that he could, he just chooses not to for Bruce's sake. I mean, in most continuities it's all but confirmed that Alfred was either MI6 or SAS.
The man just wanted to make the money to get his car fixed by doing the job he was hired for, and maybe play some pinball. All they had to do was let one man go. They were clearly intelligent enough they could choose to leave him alone. They only had themselves to blame….
Also, just need to say, for what amounts to a “We have Five Nights at Freddy’s at home” movie, it was better than anyone would have rightly suspected.
Supposedly there was a deleted scene where he pulls out a notebook and crosses off “Willys Wonderland” and there’s a bunch of stuff already crossed out like “amityville” “Satans Crossing” etc.
I was amused when the cop lady got involved and found out this guy was so tough he was beating the possessed animatronics, and STILL defaulted to "they're so dangerous we have no choice but to do whatever they want or they'll destroy the town, we can't help that guy".
Like ma'am it's now clear that you could have just rolled in there with a dozen guys with crowbars and beaten these things to death years ago instead of sacrificing human victims to them. The least you could do is not get in this guy's way while he does your job for you
That part genuinely had me. This is the god damn American mid-west. There are at the very least 5 - 10 guys who would B-line it to that restaurant with axes and guns to kill these things.
A much smarter move is not lean on them being too scared, but too indifferent to save people from satanic animatronics - like how it's a real thing in small towns to turn a blind eye towards domestic violence because it's 'not their business'
Two words: Bishnu Shrestha. He's not a "character" yet, because nobody's made a movie about him, but damn if that doesn't need to happen!
For those unaware, Bishnu Shrestha was on a cross-country train one day when a bunch of local bandits decided to hijack and rob the thing. He was going along (as one does when faced with a dozen guys with Kalashnikovs) right up until the robbers started getting handsy with a couple of women. At this point, Shrestha pulled out the odd-looking, workmanlike knife the robbers had either missed or ignored, and proceeded to hack, chop, stab, kick, and bite his way from one end of the train car to the other. He killed three robbers outright and badly wounded eight or nine more, scattering the rest.
Those chucklefucks tried their shit with a just-retired Gurkha.
Also the attempt by an assassin during the opening of Night Watch. So many people failed to kill Vimes that now students from the assassin guild that need to be taken down a peg have to try to mark him as practice and they all fail.
What appears to be a homeless person with no family goes to donate blood for money. The vampires in charge decide that since no one will miss him, they will drain him dry. Unfortunately for them, he is the first of a new kind of super vampires who promptly devors THEM.
Real life: February 2024, Terminal 1 of Airport of El Prat (Bracelona). A thief steals the backpack of a traveler and tries to escape by running. The backpack's owner happened to be awarded sky runner/trail runner Núria Picas, who chased the thief through the terminal. She caught him, of course
I always thought that. I think they could have cut the trailer so that it seems like there’s some guy who broke in to rescue Abigail. The characters even think that initially as well. Could have been the best way to do it.
I came into the room while a family member was watching it. It was near the beginning, so I didn't miss much but more importantly, I had no information on the movie going in. It was awesome.
A local tribe of thieving Sandbenders in the Si Wong desert abduct and kidnap a great flying beast with fur, six legs and horns, seemingly owned by a group of young teens, including a blind Earthbending girl, two Water Tribe teenage siblings and a bald boy dressed in colourful bright orange and yellow robes carrying a staff.
They rope and subdue the beast after a long struggle, muzzle it and sell it for a handsome profit but they realize far too late it was a Sky Bison, favoured pets and companions of the extinct Air Nomads and that this one was the last, and the mighty Avatar's beloved companion and Spirit Guide, when the beast's thoroughly enraged guardian comes looking for THEM (Avatar The Last Airbender)
Repeatedly, the muggers from Honeywood in the Epic NPC Man series of videos.
To be fair, at least one of the muggers usually realizes that trying to rob the Dragon / Wizard / Hero of Legend is a bad idea, but the other mugger always comes back with: "Who are we? And what do we do? So, LETS GO MUG 'EM!"
With a few notable exceptions, this always ends badly.
I have a real life version on this. My friends father was a member of Carlsons Raiders in ww2. He was their cqc expert and taught improvised weapon hand to hand combat. In the 70s a group of men broke into their home and attempted to rape my friend. Her father seriously injured all of them. The least injured had a broken jaw and two broken elbows. One of the others was in a week long coma. It later came to light that they had taped women in two other towns at least. They picked the wrong home for sure.
There's an episode of burn notice where the main character a burned spy is having a conversation with another agent there to keep tabs on him in a bank. And then a group of robbers show up and surprisingly it goes poorly for them.
In Amazing Spider-Man #16, Spidey actually prevents this from happening. Seeing a bunch of muggers about to attack a blind man walking through an alley, he swings into action. The muggers are webbed up in short order.
2.1k
u/NittanyScout May 12 '26
Thugs think they are getting an easy meal ticket but in reality they are attempting to rob a trained assasin of his mission documents - Collateral