History BrokenAesop / LiveActionFilms

* ''Film/JurassicPark'' wants to warn us about the consequences of trying to control nature ("Life finds a way"), except that it also has a heavy dose of DoNotDoThisCoolThing, and ultimately misattributes the cause of the problem: extremely shoddy management and security systems that would look poor in a city zoo, brought on by corporate espionage and bad business practice.

* ''Film/{{Steel}}'' has an anti-gun message, even though Steel uses a weapon that is, by definition, a gun. Moreover, he wants to create more such weapons to stop the bad guys.

* ''Film/AmericanHistoryX'' is about Derek, a reformed neonazi, trying to help his younger brother Danny to not go down the same path as him, which leads to them reflecting on the origin of their prejudices. In the end of the movie, Derek sucessfully convinces Danny to abandon his ideology... only for Danny to be shot dead by a black gang member in the school bathroom. To make things worse, the only thing that Danny did to him previously was [[DisproportionateRetribution puffing cigarrete smoke on his face]]. Not only it makes the movie a ShootTheShaggyDog story, but also turns the aesop from "don't let blind hatred consume you" into "be nice to the minorities or they will kill you" in the very last seconds.

* ''Film/HellboyIITheGoldenArmy'' has a anti-prejudice message, showing the Hellboy's struggles to be accepted by regular humans. Somewhat undermining the message of tolerance:

* ''Film/Banlieue13Ultimatum'' contains one of the most broken Aesops ever seen: [[spoiler:After having foiled the villain's plan to blow up Banlieue 13 in order to have it replaced by a rich suburb, and exposed his orchestration of the civil violence leading to that decision, the leaders of all five stereotypical ethnic gangs (Black Rastafarians who look like rejects from the Lord's Resistance Army, robe-clad bearded Arabs, TriggerHappy Portuguese used-car salesmen, tattooed Asian martial artists and ''white Neo-Nazi skinheads'') -- who all ''voluntarily'' racially segregated themselves into different blocks and have only united to fight a common enemy -- give the French President an "inspirational" speech on how they're like a ''family that protects, unites and brings people together''!]]

** Adrian also decries the fact the Arks are essentially representations of TheElitesJumpShip (he points out to a group of passengers boarding the Arks (the aforementioned elite) and snarks about if they have anything useful to bring to the future of humanity and looks around his cabin and says "you could have fit ''twenty'' people in here!"). While the first scene has a BothSidesHaveAPoint moment (Anheuser mentions that if the elite did not footed the astronomical bill the Arks just would not have been made after snarking back "what, life is not fair?"), the second scene has nobody telling Adrian the fact that such arrangements have an increased chance of causing CabinFever -- so you save ten more people and you sentence them to go crazy.

* ''Film/SeventeenAgain2009'': A subplot involves Ned romantically pursuing the school principal. His advances are rebuffed as long he is presenting himself as a ManOfWealthAndTaste; it's only when he reveals his true nature as a LovableNerd that he is successful -- because it turns out that the principal is also a ClosetGeek. The moral of the story seems to be that you'll have romantic success as long as you BeYourself, ''provided that the object of your affection happens to secretly have the exact same interests as you.''

* ''Film/TheSwarm'' (1978) preaches environmental responsibility: the military wants to use pesticides that would damage the environment, while Creator/MichaelCaine's scientist, Dr. Crane, keeps suggesting other methods. Unfortunately, the threat of the killer bees is [[GodzillaThreshold so overdone]] (at one stage, they cause the [[FailsafeFailure explosion of a nuclear power plant]]) that this continuing refusal is hard to justify. Especially when Crane finally succeeds by ''pouring oil on the ocean and setting it on fire''.

* ''Film/HangmansCurse'' was probably ''meant'' to have an anti-bullying and anti-prejudice message. The jock bullies are portrayed as unquestionably wrong for picking on the Goths just because they're different, and the school administration is criticized for failing to do anything about it. Even the one halfway sympathetic member of the football team acknowledges that he should have known better than to engage in that sort of prejudice. However, the film's happy ending includes the Goths changing their entire looks and personalities to be more "normal", which undermines the central message by implying that they were in the wrong for being "weird" (and that, by extension, the jocks had a valid argument against them).

* The ''Series/HannahMontana'' movie spends the entire movie preaching the {{Aesop}} of "BeYourself", even if it means giving up on the glittery lifestyle... And then it completely breaks it with a ResetButton ending. [[spoiler:Miley reveals her true identity to the people of Crowley Corners, and sings a heartfelt song about having learned said Aesop... and then immediately afterwards the people of Crowley Corners proceeds to all agree to keep her identity a secret and let Miley continue her dual life.]]

** Adrian also decries the fact the Arks are essentially representations of TheElitesJumpShip (he points out to a group of passengers boarding the Arks (the aforementioned elite) and sharks about if they have anything useful to bring to the future of humanity and looks around his cabin and says "you could have fit ''twenty'' people in here!"). While the first scene has a BothSidesHaveAPoint moment (Anheuser mentions that if the elite did not footed the astronomical bill the Arks just would not have been made after snarking back "what, life is not fair?"), the second scene has nobody telling Adrian the fact that such arrangements have an increased chance of causing CabinFever -- so you save ten more people and you sentence them to go crazy.

* Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin star vehicle ''Film/TheCondemned'' revolves around a shady producer who arranges for ten death-row inmates from around the world to be dropped in an island and forced to fight to the death while the "show" is broadcast onto the Net under the name "The Condemned", hence the movie's title. However, Wrestling/{{WWE}} Films made the bizarre decision to turn this into a moralist tale by having several characters berate the brutality and senseless violence of the show … all the while showering ''the audience'' with scene after scene of brutality and senseless violence ([[GratuitousRape and some rape for good measure]]). To top it all off, it culminates with this quote: "[[YouBastard All of us who watch … are]] ''[[YouBastard we]]'' [[TitleDrop The Condemned]]?" To which several critics replied "Yes. Yes we are." It doesn't help matters that the intended aesop itself conflates fictional violence with real violence. In short, it's a very hypocritical film whose message goes against the franchise that made it. Oops.

* ''Film/TheGladiator'' (a 1986 TV movie) tells the story of a mechanic who, distraught after the death of his younger brother in a car crash, Mad Max-es his tow truck and starts dishing out vigilante justice by disabling the cars of drunk drivers before they can do any damage. Except … the man responsible for his brother's death ''wasn't'' a drunk driver. He's actually some kind of vehicular serial killer of whom the mechanic's brother was just one of many victims. The whole anti-drunk driving motivation just doesn't seem to work

*** After realizing that saving people like Barry's mother, Burtonverse Batman, and Supergirl, from their fated deaths is impossible, Barry implores his younger alternate self to let them go because they can't be brought back to life, but it's okay because they'll always exist at some point in time. However, this is around the same time that the movie brings out UncannyValley CG recreations of both Creator/ChristopherReeve and Creator/GeorgeReeves as Superman (plus Creator/AdamWest as Batman, though that one is at least reused archival footage), a that has generally been derisively called digital necromancy for cheap nostalgia-bait by viewers because both actors couldn't consent to their usage in this movie and probably wouldn't even if they could, the latter because of his resentment about [[IAmNotSpock never being able to escape from the character's shadow]] in his career, and the former because he forbade the creation of new imagery using his likeness standing up after his paralysis, with only one exception for a charity video.

** The premise of ''Film/TheFlash2023'' is that using time travel to alter the unpleasant moments in your past can have disastrous consequence. In this instance, it causes the multiverse to gradually converge on itself after too many do-overs. Among the elseworlds featured is ''Film/SupermanTheMovie'', which featured Superman reversing time so he could save Lois Lane from dying and there was no negative side-effect from his actions.

* In ''Film/Barbie2023'', Barbieland is presented as a {{matriarchy}} that treats the male Kens as second-class citizens, claiming that [[RefugeeFromTVLand America in the real world]] does the same [[PersecutionFlip but inverted]]. [[spoiler:However, the entire comparison is rendered moot by Barbie choosing to be human and live in the real world in the end despite the film [[{{anvilicious}} repeatedly]] claiming that society wouldn't allow her to succeed. Furthermore, while it was covered up with CondescendingCompassion the discrimination against the Kens was much more severe than anything women face in the modern West, making the whole situation a false equivalence from the start and the film ending with a restored status quo that only vaguely alludes to any attempts at equality.]]

* ''Film/AvengersEndgame'': Steve Rogers hosts a support group for people who lost loved ones to the genocide of Thanos. He tells them that loss is a natural part of life and that sooner or later one needs to start moving forward, using his own loss of Peggy Carter as an example. At the end of the film when the Avengers have perfected the science behind time travel, Steve goes back and reunites with a young and living Peggy. So in other words Steve's whole viewpoint is dictated entirely by his options. Although to be fair, he did help bring all the loved ones they lost BackFromTheDead as well so he wasn't a hypocrite.

* ''Film/AvengersEndgame'': Steve Rogers hosts a support group for people who lost loved ones to the genocide of Thanos. He tells them that loss is a natural part of life and that sooner or later one needs to start moving forward, using his own loss of Peggy Carter as an example. At the end of the film when the Avengers have perfected the science behind time travel, Steve goes back and reunites with a young and living Peggy. So in other words Steve's whole viewpoint is dictated entirely by his options.

* ''[[Film/TwoHundredPoundsBeauty 200 Pounds Beauty]]'': The main character begins the movie overweight, providing the singing voice for a backup dancer turned pop star and nursing an unrequited crush. She gets a crazy amount of plastic surgery and remakes herself as Jenny. She has fame, beauty, and the attention of the guy she was in love with. She underwent a great deal of pain but it seems like it was worth it. But then the problems start. She is paranoid about her love interest touching her and either damaging her new body or discovering what's fake. She betrays her family and friends. But then she reveals all and keeps her fans. The movie makes it clear that she still has her detractors but she's also a very successful pop star and her personal life is great. So plastic surgery is bad and you should just be yourself, but you should also go for it anyway because all those fears are just in your head. The movie ends with her plastic surgeon being very successful and her best friend going in to also get a ton of plastic surgery.

* The 1999 adaptation of ''Literature/AnimalFarm'' falls into this due to AdaptationalKarma. The original book is principally about the problem of the FullCircleRevolution, and how any authority that places itself above the workers while taking the lion's share of their efforts is wrong, whether they identify as capitalist or communist. Humans, in the world of the book, [[HumansAreBastards embody the exploitative ruling class]], and any attempt by the animals to emulate humans is treated as a sign of placing themselves above their kin. The book ends with the [[MeetTheNewBoss pigs becoming no different from humans,]] bullying and killing the other animals to make their money. However, the film decides to instead end with the farm being bought by another family of humans after the pig's organization collapses, and this is treated as a happy ending, because the new family will obviously run it much better than the pigs. So it turns out that an exploitative ruling class is perfectly fine, after all; just so long as it's a ''friendly'' exploitative ruling class. Indeed, considering that the farmer in the book was a clear metaphor for the Russian monarchy, apparently the movie is saying that the Soviet Union could have been fixed just fine [[{{Metaphorgotten}} if they'd reinstated the Tsars.]] Given when it was made, this may have been altered to reflect the fall of the USSR and [[UsefulNotes/TheNewRussia capitalist Russian Federation]] supplanting it (along with the other post-Soviet states), which was viewed favorably by most at the time (after Putin became effective dictator, many people's views soured).

* ''Film/{{North}}'': The film's message is ostensibly about the value of family and accepting one's parents. There was also "home is where the heart is." It does nothing to convince the audience that North had any real world logic in going back to them.

** Adrian also decries the fact the Arks are essentially representations of TheEliteJumpShip (he points out to a group of passengers boarding the Arks (the aforementioned elite) and sharks about if they have anything useful to bring to the future of humanity and looks around his cabin and says "you could have fit ''twenty'' people in here!"). While the first scene has a BothSidesHaveAPoint moment (Anheuser mentions that if the elite did not footed the astronomical bill the Arks just would not have been made after snarking back "what, life is not fair?"), the second scene has nobody telling Adrian the fact that such arrangements have an increased chance of causing CabinFever -- so you save ten more people and you sentence them to go crazy.

* ''Film/XMen1'': The audience is supposed to find Senator Kelly's Mutant Registration Act reprehensible, but he brings up a good point that there's nothing stopping people with superhuman abilities from using them with ill intent. He specifically brings up Kitty Pride's ability to phase through walls, remarking that there's nothing stopping her from waltzing into a bank vault or into the White House, and indeed in ''Film/X2XMenUnited'' Nightcrawler does exactly the latter, teleporting right past all the Secret Service agents and coming ''this'' close to assassinating the President.

* ''Film/TwoThousandTwelve'' has Dr. Adrian give a rousing speech aboard one of the doomsday-evading-Arks on the importance of humanity looking out for one another and convinces the captain to open the gates, allowing more people in. While well-intentioned, this decision indirectly results in the DiabolusExMachina offings of [[spoiler: Gordon and Tamara via the ship flooding]]. No one even mentions all the Chinese workers they just sent off the boats to die, either.
** The movie itself seems to want to condemn modern society and technology, implying that it made mankind arrogant while they were unable to predict a global disaster that the Mayans supposedly predicted thousands of years ago, and hinting at the end that the survivors of mankind have been humbled and will now go back to living with the land as their ancestors once did. This all ignores the little details that they only survived because they ''used modern technology'' to build the arks in the first place -- not to mention that Jackson and his family use everything from an airplane to an RV to escape all of the disasters that occur...

* The 1999 adaptation of ''Literature/AnimalFarm'' falls into this due to AdaptationalKarma. The original book is principally about the problem of the FullCircleRevolution, and how any authority that places itself above the workers while taking the lion's share of their efforts is wrong, whether they identify as capitalist or communist. Humans, in the world of the book, [[HumansAreBastards embody the exploitative ruling class]], and any attempt by the animals to emulate humans is treated as a sign of placing themselves above their kin. The book ends on the chilling note that the [[MeetTheNewBoss pigs have become no different from humans,]] bullying and killing the other animals to make their money. However, the film decides to instead end with the farm being bought by another family of humans after the pig's organization collapses, and this is treated as a happy ending, because the new family will obviously run it much better than the pigs. So it turns out that an exploitative ruling class is perfectly fine, after all; just so long as it's a ''friendly'' exploitative ruling class. Indeed, considering that the farmer in the book was a clear metaphor for the Russian monarchy, apparently the movie is saying that the Soviet Union could have been fixed just fine [[{{Metaphorgotten}} if they'd reinstated the Tsars.]] Given when it was made, this may have been altered to reflect the fall of the USSR and [[UsefulNotes/TheNewRussia capitalist Russian Federation]] supplanting it (along with the other post-Soviet states), which was viewed favorably by most at the time (after Putin became effective dictator, many people's views soured).

* ''Film/Banlieue13Ultimatum'' contains one of the most broken Aesops ever seen: [[spoiler:After having foiled the villain's plan to blow up Banlieue 13 in order to have it replaced by a rich suburb, and exposed his orchestration of the civil violence leading to that decision, the leaders of all five stereotypical ethnic gangs (Black Rastafarians who look like rejects from the Lord's Resistance Army, robe-clad bearded Arabs, TriggerHappy Portuguese used-car salesmen, tattooed Asian martial artists and ''white Neo-Nazi skinheads'') give the French President an "inspirational" speech on how they're like a ''family that protects, unites and brings people together''! Keeping in mind that they all ''voluntarily'' racially segregate themselves into different blocks and have only united to fight a common enemy…]]

* ''Film/{{Contact}}'' has a [[AnAesop Aesop]] that seems to be something along the lines of: "We ''all'' have faith in what we believe, and just because your beliefs are in science (rather than religion) that doesn't give them more credibility." Except, of course, that the very last exchange between [[JerkAss Kitz]] and Constantine completely blows that premise out of the water in Ellie Arroway's specific case:

* ''Film/{{Descendants}}'''s main [[AnAesop aesop]] is about how you are not defined by your parents no matter what they may try to raise you to be... even though just about everyone in-universe introduces themselves as so-and-so's child and some even ''try'' to follow in their parents' footsteps, while some characters have almost no identity ''outside'' of who their parents are. Most notable with Lonnie (Daughter of Mulan), who of course tries to join a swordfighting team that's all male in the second film after being portrayed as a much less tomboyish in the first.

** Beth wants Neil to marry her, but he doesn't believe in marriage. Then she dumps him despite seven happy years of living together. The movie reveals Neil to be more devoted and dependable than most husbands who are shown as either lazy or unfaithful. Beth soon realizes this and asks Neil to take her back. Refreshingly, in a ChickFlick, no less, we have AnAesop that marriage doesn't automatically [[HappilyMarried make a couple happier]] or more committed, and a woman can still find happiness without it. '''[[YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle BUT]]''' then Neil breaks it by asking her to marry him anyways. Meaning that no, a woman truly can't be complete without marriage after all and that a man ''will'' always marry a woman if he loves her.
** This is also an issue with Gigi and Creator/JustinLong's character. The entire movie lays out the premise that women need to accept men as straightforward -- if they say they're not interested, women need to accept this. But every single man who says this then changes his mind, proving that the women who were supposedly deluding themselves were in actually fact accurate -- Gigi was the exception to Alex's rule, Beth was correct in thinking a man will marry you if he loves you, etc.
** Actually, it goes deeper than that. All film Alex constantly spells out to Gigi, not that men are straightforward and will just tell a woman when he's not interested, but that actions speak louder than words. If a man seems to be giving "mixed signals," as in he says he's interested but then leaves the woman to do all the work and make all the compromises to be with him, cheats on her, won't leave his wife for her, etc. odds are [[TitleDrop "he's just not that into you"]] and she should move onto someone who is. But then the film breaks this {{Aesop}} by portraying Neil as a man who honestly doesn't believe in marriage yet doesn't love Beth any less, then breaks ''that'' {{Aesop}} by having him cave by marrying her anyway. Then, of course, Alex breaks his own {{Aesop}} that his own "he's just not that into you" behavior toward Gigi was to hide that he was into her, etc. The film is very inconsistent about its own message, with some couples proving the "he's just not that into you" rule and others not.

** ''Film/CyberSeductionHisSecretLife'' attempts to preach AnAesop about how looking at Internet porn will ruin your life. The 14-year-old protagonist starts out as a champion swimmer and ends the film as a suicidal mess. Except because it's Lifetime TV, the most they can actually show is just Justin looking at [[FullyClothedNudity women in skimpy costumes]] and the film's Aesop gets undermined when all the problems that happen to Justin don't actually come from looking at porn in general. He gets addicted to energy drinks simply because he drinks them when he looks at porn, which could have just as easily happened from drinking them regularly during ''any'' activity; he also gets into trouble with people in town because the classmate whose porn he was watching accuses him of raping her because he ''won't'' sleep with her, which raises a ''lot'' of questions about said classmate's actions (and reaction to getting rejected) and why she's making porn of herself and hosting it on the Internet despite being underage - all of which, of course, [[SkewedPriorities the film completely ignores]] to focus on the clearly worse issue of a teenage boy looking at pornography.[[note]]The movie does throw a bone to the argument that it's perfectly natural for a teenage boy to look at porn by having the father espouse that belief, but he's [[TheUnfairSex a man in a Lifetime movie]]; he could have introduced himself by telling us the sky is blue and he'd still be in the wrong.[[/note]] Half the kid's problems stem less from him looking at/getting addicted to pornography and more from having a mother who feels such a habit warrants arm-flailing hysterics, therapy and interventions. And yet [[DesignatedHero the mother is meant to be the heroine of the story]].

* ''Film/MoulinRouge'' is a movie about how love is the most wonderful thing there is and, more specifically, about how "The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return"... despite breaking them both brutally. Yes, love can make you extremely happy... [[LoveMakesYouDumb but it can also make you dumb]] like Satine, who bought into Zidler's "BreakHisHeartToSaveHim" ploy to keep Christian away [[spoiler:after she learnt that she was terminally ill from consumption]] to prevent him from finding out. [[LoveMakesYouCrazy Or, it can make you crazy]] and [[LoveMakesYouEvil evil like the Duke]], who almost raped Satine and threatened to take away the Moulin Rouge or kill Christian if she didn't go with him because he thought she loved him. Or all of them, like Christian, who didn't realize falling for a prostitute would mean she'd have to sleep with other men and who cruelly slut-shamed Satine in front of an entire audience after being beaten up by the Duke's thugs and having his heart broken by her because [[GoneHorriblyRight he thought he really didn't mean anything to her but easy money]]. And in the end, all the happiness Christian and Satine had together is [[LoveHurts dwarfed by all the pain, suffering and misery it caused them in the long run]] [[spoiler: and by [[DownerEnding her death]], and seeing how broken and desperate Christian is after that, it's implied that [[TheLostLenore he probably will never get over it]]]]...so, was it really "the greatest thing"?.

* ''Film/{{Penelope|2006}}'' has essentially the same problem as ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'', of which it is a gender inversion -- once she learns to accept her own appearance as an ugly person with a pig nose, she transforms into an attractive Christina Ricci.

* ''Film/SaturdayNightFever'' did this to ''an entire culture'' -- it glamorized the disco scene of TheSeventies (to the point that it was released in a sanitized PG-rated version that stripped out much of the more shocking elements), despite being a {{Deconstruction}} of said culture. Even with that excuse, the apparent message audiences took from it is far different than what the characters experience. It portrays heavy drug and alcohol use, empty casual sex, {{Jerkass}} protagonists with a serious case of MoralMyopia, and date rape (which is implied to be [[BlamingTheVictim Annette's fault]] for getting drunk and high, and wanting to make Tony jealous, instead of blaming Tony's friends for taking advantage of her.) And yet, disco is portrayed as glamorous: there's all the dancing, the obvious escape from reality, the cool outfits, and a great soundtrack featuring Music/TheBeeGees. In fact, if it weren't for this film, disco wouldn't have been as popular as it was.

** ''Film/BlackAdam2022'' makes a big song and dance over how Black Adam is unique and the hero Kahndaq needs because he's willing to kill, despite the Justice Society wanting to arrest him for this. However, not only is Adam's willingness to kill not actually special within the DCEU, but he usually demonstrates this by just casually murdering random henchmen... which doesn't particularly help anything. In fact, when Amon is kidnapped by Intergang, the only reason they find him is because Hawkman went out of his way to save the henchmen that Adam was trying to kill so they could be interrogated. Similarly, Adam killing the BigBad is meant to be the final say on the matter... but the BigBad only became so powerful ''because'' Black Adam killed him in a fit of rage (which also injured the kid he was trying to rescue) thanks to an ancient artefact that allowed him to be resurrected as a demon; if Adam hadn't killed him, no killing would've been needed at all. So, at no point was Adam's killing actually useful for anything other than making up for an instance when his killing caused more problems.

* ''Film/{{Descendants}}'''s main [[AnAesop aesop]] is about how you are not defined by your parents no matter what they may try to raise you to be... even though just about everyone in-universe introduces themselves as so-and-so's child and some even ''try'' to follow in their parents' footsteps. Most notable with Lonnie (Daughter of Mulan), who of course tries to join a swordfighting team that's all male in the second film after being portrayed as a much less tomboyish in the first.