History BrainwashedAndCrazy / LiveActionFilms

* Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse:
** ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'' gives Loki the ability to easily turn people over to his side by tapping their heart with his scepter. Unusually for this trope, the brainwashing seems to simply change their perspective on the world rather than actual mind control or manipulation, and they maintain their usual personality and knowledge while working for the other side. It utterly fails when he attempts to do it to Tony Stark, thanks to his Arc reactor blocking the heart. All we hear is a "ding" of metal on metal. Tony makes a joke about "[[TheLoinsSleepTonight performance issues]]", further pissing off Loki.
** In ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'', the title Winter Soldier (who oscillates between WalkingSpoiler and ItWasHisSled depending on whether you've read the comics) is revealed to have been brainwashed and turned into a weapon by [[spoiler:HYDRA, and that he is really ComicBook/BuckyBarnes, Steve's best friend]].

* ''Film/XMenFilmSeries'':
** ''Film/X2XMenUnited'':
*** Done to Nightcrawler with a mind-control serum to make him kill/try to kill the President (it's not clear if he was meant to succeed or die in the attempt). He snaps out of it and escapes when a bodyguard shoots him. This is also done to [[spoiler:Cyclops]] later in the movie and had already been done to Lady Deathstrike.
*** Also [[spoiler:Charles Xavier]], by William Stryker's mutant son Jason, who is himself Lobotomized and Crazy.
** ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'': The prototype Sentinels were constructed entirely from polymer, but Magneto controls them through metal he fused to their components.
** ''Film/XMenApocalypse'': [[spoiler:Wolverine, when he's discovered by Jean, Scott and Kurt in the Alkali Lake base, has been turned into a mindless weapon. Jean mentions that Logan has lost his humanity and been experimented on. When he emerges, he massacres Stryker's troops in a rage without hesitation, and is only stopped when Jean reminds him of his humanity and removes his helmet.]]
*** Unlike most versions of the character, the film version of Apocalypse notably does not use this method to "recruit" his Horsemen. [[spoiler: This comes back to bite him during the final battle when two of his Horsemen turn on him and side with the X-Men, helping them to ultimately defeat him.]]

* In the first ''Film/TheNakedGun'' movie, Reggie Jackson is brainwashed to kill Queen Elizabeth II during a baseball game, and Jane Spencer is brainwashed to kill Frank Drebin. (And later in the series, she'd inflict upon him a fate worse than death: marriage.)

* In the 1994 movie ''Film/TheShadow'', Shiwan Khan sends a mind-controlled Margo on a mission to kill the Shadow. The Shadow breaks her hypnotic trance after she mistakenly shoots a mirror showing his reflection. Margo realizes that, despite Khan never mentioning The Shadow's name, it was Lamont Cranston she tried to kill, because Lamont and The Shadow are one and the same. [[spoiler:It turns out that Khan counted on her learning The Shadow's identity, though he didn't count on The Shadow not killing her to keep it a secret.]]
* ''Film/XMenFilmSeries'':
** ''Film/X2XMenUnited'':
*** Done to Nightcrawler with a mind-control serum to make him kill/try to kill the President (it's not clear if he was meant to succeed or die in the attempt). He snaps out of it and escapes when a bodyguard shoots him. This is also done to [[spoiler:Cyclops]] later in the movie and had already been done to Lady Deathstrike.
*** Also [[spoiler:Charles Xavier]], by William Stryker's mutant son Jason, who is himself Lobotomized and Crazy.
** ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'': The prototype Sentinels were constructed entirely from polymer, but Magneto controls them through metal he fused to their components.
** ''Film/XMenApocalypse'': [[spoiler:Wolverine, when he's discovered by Jean, Scott and Kurt in the Alkali Lake base, has been turned into a mindless weapon. Jean mentions that Logan has lost his humanity and been experimented on. When he emerges, he massacres Stryker's troops in a rage without hesitation, and is only stopped when Jean reminds him of his humanity and removes his helmet.]]
*** Unlike most versions of the character, the film version of Apocalypse notably does not use this method to "recruit" his Horsemen. [[spoiler: This comes back to bite him during the final battle when two of his Horsemen turn on him and side with the X-Men, helping them to ultimately defeat him.]]

* The major plot point of ''Film/{{Zoolander}}'' is that Mugatu offers Derek a trip to a "day spa" to prepare for his runway show, the spa is actually a facility where Derek is brainwashed to attack the Malaysian Prime Minister when the song "Relax" by Music/FrankieGoesToHollywood is played. MakesSenseInContext.
* In ''Film/TronLegacy'', [[spoiler: Tron attempted to hold off and defeat Clu while Flynn escaped, seemingly being derezzed in the process. In actuality, Tron was brainwashed by Clu into becoming Rinzler, and evidently became a merciless killing machine until Flynn wonders what Clu did to him during the chase, in which he regains his original memories and turns against Clu.]]
* During one scene in the ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' movie ''Film/{{Serenity}}'', River, the resident heroic AxCrazy and whimsical-in-the-brainpan [[TheWoobie Woobie]], is exposed to a subliminal message buried in a Fruity Oaty Bars commercial. This activates River's deadly [[WaifFu martial-arts-killing-machine programming]] put into her mind by the Alliance, and she proceeds to methodically wipe out a whole bar full of people, even taking down Jayne when he tries to restrain her, and is only stopped when her brother intervenes with a code-phrase in Russian that serves to put her to sleep.

* In the first ''Film/{{Wishmaster}}'', a cop wishes that a criminal who has gotten away on seven counts for a crime (not stated what kind) would just commit something that the cops could easily nail him for. The Djinn then controls his body from a distance, and causes the guy to turn into an almost-supernatural killer who immediately grabs a cop's gun and starts a shooting frenzy in the police station. He kills a half-dozen cops before he dies from his own wounds.
* In ''Film/{{Videodrome}}'', [[spoiler:Max eventually becomes compelled by the Videodrome tapes to murder his partners at Civic TV in cold blood. When he goes after Bianca O'Blivion, she reprograms him to kill her enemies (the people who programmed Max to become an assassin in the first place) for her.]]
* In ''Film/CubeZero'', [[spoiler:Haskell]] is remotely reprogrammed by activating the military chip placed into his brain from when he was a soldier. He tries to kill Wynn and Rains before they escape him.
* Played with in ''Film/AngelHeart''. [[spoiler:Johnny/]]Harry kills several people under Satan's influence, but it's left deliberately vague whether the Devil is directly compelling him to commit the murders or if he's allowing [[spoiler:Johnny Favourite's vile personality some freedom to indulge in these acts and Johnny is keeping Harry from finding out the truth about himself.]]

* In ''Film/TheHungerGamesMockingjayPart1'', [[spoiler:Peeta has been tortured and conditioned to associate Katniss with mortal danger, so upon seeing her he immediately attacks her and tries to kill her]].
* ''Film/HardcoreHenry'': All of [[BigBad Akan's]] cyborg soldiers have had their memories altered in order to induce loyalty to him [[spoiler: and [[BitchInSheepsClothing Estelle]]]].
* ''Film/MadMaxFuryRoad'': The [[MartyrdomCulture War Boys]] are conditioned and trained by [[BigBad Immortan Joe]] to see him as a godlike figure BackFromTheDead. They believe that if they "[[DyingMomentOfAwesome die historic]]" and "[[ThisMeansWarpaint shiny and chrome]]" in service to him, that he has the power to resurrect them in [[WarriorHeaven Valhalla]]. This makes merely wounding a War Boy an extremely dangerous prospect as they have no moral compunctions against a SuicideAttack.
* In ''Film/PacificRimUprising'' when the [[MegaCorp Shao Industries]] drones, which were created to replace the Jaeger program as earth's sole defense against [[HiveMind the Precursors]] and their {{Kaiju}}, go haywire and start attacking the Jaeger instalations, Newton "Newt" Geizler and Hermann Gotlieb investigate and try shut them down, only for [[spoiler: [[BigBad "Newt",]] who had kept a Kaiju brain in his apartment, [[TheReveal to reveal]] that [[FaceHeelTurn he was orchestrating the return of the Kaiju]] to finish the job [[HostileTerraforming of making earth habitable for the Precursors.]] When Hermann tells him to not obey the precursors' commands, "Newt" says he's not strong enough to do so, and escapes to set the plan in motion.]]

* In ''Bollywood/RaOne'', Sonia is brainwashed by the titular villain, via a glowing ball of "electricity" to the head, and sent off at the helm of a RunawayTrain.