History AdultsAreUseless / LiveActionFilms

* ''Film/BattleRoyale''. Not only does the government allow the capture of entire classrooms of children, but they allow putting them on an island, giving them deadly weapons, and telling them to go kill each other and last one alive wins and is free to go. On top of that, the parents never even ''try'' to save their children from being murdered, and instead the entire country (or possibly even the world) allows it to happen, waiting for the competition to end and see the winner. The protagonist, Shuya Nanahara, loses his father who commits suicide by hanging himself with a belt without any concern that Shuya now has to fend for himself, and Mitsuko's mother tried to pimp out Mitsuko when she was only 6 years old to a pedophile for the money.
** In the original novel, most parents, upon hearing their children have become part of the Program, merely resign themselves. Those who ''do'' resist are gunned down.
*** This is true in both the manga and novel; the first chapter of the book hints it, and the manga integrates it into at least one character's back story.

* In ''Film/Shazam2019'', none of the staff stop the Breyer Brothers' bullying nor even punish them — beating a kid with a crutch should've got them expelled, let alone hitting him hard enough with their truck to leave a scratch on the paint, right in front of the school in front of dozens of witnesses.

** In the Grinch's flashback, not only does the teacher do nothing to stop the kids from mocking the Grinch for his facial cuts but she's actually shown ''laughing alongside them''.

* In the first ''Film/{{Transformers}}'' movie, much of the first tier of authority that Sam Witwicky encounters regarding the title being is best summed up by his disbelieving question of a police officer, "Are you on drugs?!" This only applies to the ''civilian'' adults. Those involved in the military usually perform rather well considering the circumstances, even if it's not always the best actions to take.

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* ''Film/{{Matilda}}'' is full of this. Not a single student at Crunchem Hall manages to convince their parents that Ms. Trunchbull is abusive towards everyone. This is explained in the books, that the Trunchbull [[RefugeInAudacity uses such extreme punishments that no parent would possibly believe them.]] It's also mentioned that Trunchbull treats the parents the same way she treats the kids.
* In ''Film/{{Mikey}}'' the only characters that seem to display any common sense about Mikey's behavior are his teacher and Jessie.
* ''Film/{{Minutemen}}'': One of the reasons Virgil comes up with the idea of helping the other kids like them at the school is because the faculty there doesn't seem to be doing anything about it. At one point, they find Vice Principal Tolkan in front of a vending machine that Chester is currently stuck inside and doesn't seem to bother doing anything about it on account of not being able to "change the way high school works”.

* ''Film/MysteryTeam''. The main characters insist that they're more suited to solve the case than THE POLICE.

** Brandon's mother doesn't seem to realize (or is in denial) that her son is displaying troubling behavior and doesn't call him out when he uses bad language in front of her and Gemma. He's also a few years older than the group of children Cady is with that she justifies as "a growth spurt" when Gemma questions his age.

* This is justified in ''Film/NobodyKnows''. The adults can't help because they don't know the situation and the kids don't tell them either. Not helping is that Keiko (the kids' mom) rented the apartment without telling the landlord about her two youngest kids, so telling the landlord could get them evicted

* Miss Gulch in ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' practically controls half the county even forcing Aunt Em and Uncle Henry to surrender Toto. In the Land of Oz Dorothy looks to many adult figures to solve her problems such as Glinda and the wizard, but the wizard is powerless. However, Dorothy discovers the power to return home was inside of her and didn't need help from either Glinda or the wizard.

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* ''Film/BadMoms'': Applies to the protagonist Amy's children Jane and Dylan. Amy quits her motherly duties to party and run rampant. She doesn't appear too concerned about her children missing meals or falling behind in school, and insults them at every chance she gets whenever they ask her for help. She then snaps right back to her senses when the kids run away to their dad and desert her as payback for her neglectful behavior.
* ''Film/BattleRoyale''. Not only does the government allow the capture of entire classrooms of children, but they allow putting them on an island, giving them deadly weapons, and telling them to go kill each other, last one alive wins and is free to go. On top of that, the parents never even TRY to save their children from being murdered, and instead the entire country (or possibly even the world) allows it to happen, waiting for the competition to end and see the winner. The protagonist, Shuya Nanahara, loses his father who commits suicide by hanging himself with a belt without any concern that Shuya now has to fend for himself, and Mitsuko's mother tried to pimp out Mitsuko when she was only 6 years old to a pedophile for the money.

** The staff at their school are mostly ignorant if not outright passive with what the girls do and they only ever intervene if a full-on fight breaks out.

* ''Film/TheKarateKid1984'' plays it straight and subverts it. On one hand, Mr. Miyagi is there to stop the fighting between Daniel and Johnny. On the other hand, the kids' parents do nothing at all to prevent the fights. Daniel's mom provides moral support for her son, but doesn't do much. Ali's parents shrug off the fighting like it is nothing. Johnny's parents don't even appear in the film.

* ''Film/LetMeIn'' one of the main themes of the film is how none of the adults in Owens life protected or helped him in anyway. Despite the fact he was deeply lonely, and openly being tortured by bullies and coming back to his apartment with bloody cuts. Its even reflected in the cinematography of the film where the director chose to never show his parents on screen, his mothers face obscured throughout the entire film and only his fathers voice making an appearance.
* ''Film/TheLostBoys'' has a group of 12-year-old vampire hunters attempting (and at one point succeeding) to kill the group of teenage vampires. In fact all the main characters are younger than 20 with the adults being unaware until the big reveal at the end where one character displays he knew what was going on all along. Even then, he doesn't know everything that was going on, although he immediately knows that his house has just been destroyed in a vampire attack. That his daughter was dating a master vampire appears to have been completely unknown to him.

* ''Film/{{Minutemen}}'': One of the reasons Virgil comes up with the idea of helping the other kids like them at the school is because the faculty there doesn't seem to be doing anything about it. At one point, they find Vice Principal Tolkan in front of a vending machine that Chester is currently stuck inside, and doesn't seem to bother doing anything about it on account of not being able to "change the way high school works”.
** Similarly, instead of helping a bare naked Chester get his clothes back from bullies, Tolkan tells him ''straight to his face'' that helping him would mean that he’d be "breaking the food chain".

** The first ''Film/ANightmareOnElmStreet1984''. Nancy's mother helped start the whole thing, her father doesn't do anything and the rest of the police only hinder her or ignore her frantic cries for help.
** The sequels more or less follow suit, but there's a bizarre subversion in ''Film/FreddyVsJason''. It turns out that [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve the more people are aware and afraid of Freddy (these two usually go hand by hand) the more powerful he becomes]]. Hence when the adults really got down to it they effectively eliminated the threat by erasing all written notions of Freddy, banning his name or any details from mentioning, and forcibly institutionalizing and submitting those kids who still remembered about him to a dream-depriving drug treatment. He did eventually find a loophole but still they did their best.

* ''Film/{{Sky High|2005}}'' has the Commander and Jetstream as the only competent heroes shown in work, but [[DeusExitMachina they are taken down in seconds]] by the villain in the finale. Principal Powers appears to be competent but she is only seen putting students in detention. Anything worthwhile is done by adolescents. Even the villains are all young. Sort of. (Except Stitches, but he's basically controlled by Royal Pain anyway.)

* ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'': John Connor's foster parents Todd and Janelle are very neglectful of him, which angrily coerces John to spend his whole time outside home. Later on, T-1000 mimicking Janelle on the phone calling John "honey" and offering him beef stew for dinner makes John point out Janelle would never do something like that.

* Miss Gulch in ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' practically controls half the county even forcing Aunt Em and Uncle Henry to surrender Toto. In the Land of Oz Dorothy looks to many adult figures to solve her problems such as Glinda and the wizard, but the wizard is powerless. However Dorothy discovers the power to return home was inside of her and didn't need help from either Glinda or the wizard.

* Miss Gulch in ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' practically controls half the county even forcing Aunt Em and Uncle Henry to surrender Toto. In the Land of Oz Dorothy looks to many adult figures to solve her problems such as Glinda and the wizard, but the wizard is powerless. However Dorothy discovers the power to return home was inside of her and didn't need help from either Glinda or the wizard.
* In ''Film/MassacreAtCentralHigh'', no adults even appear until the final scene. David won't tell anyone about the extreme bullying at Central High because "tattling's not in my nature," while Mark knows David is a SerialKiller but doesn't tell anyone out of personal loyalty. Gets to ridiculous extremes after three kids are killed by explosions on campus on the same day, and there's no investigation at all.

* ''Film/KickAss''. Dave alias Kick-Ass is a 17-year-old boy, and as a superhero far from being BadassNormal. He is known to have fought against three gangsters to protect an innocent. But later the mafioso of New York believes that he is the one who kills his subordinates and hurts his "company". Still, neither the people who work for him, nor the New York police, who are partially corrupt, can track him.

* Film/JustOneOfTheGuys, being a teen comedy, plays this straight. The main characters' parents leave town for two weeks and two high schools are depicted as essentially devoid of responsible adult figures.

** In the Grinch's flashback, not only does the teacher not do anything to stop the kids from mocking the Grinch for his facial cuts, but she's actually shown ''laughing alongside them''.