History ContrivedCoincidence / LiveActionFilms

* Film/KingsmanTheSecretService: Eggsy just so happens to get into enough trouble he has to call in his one favour with Kingsman at the exact moment Lancelot dies and Harry has to nominate a replacement.

** A specific example from ''Film/ANewHope'': the odds of Luke meeting up with childhood friend Biggs at the Rebel base (as shown in the Special Edition) is next to nothing — as the two characters themselves acknowledge earlier in the film (this part of the footage was not restored).

* ''Film/MyCousinVinny'': The crux of the movie hinges on this trope. Bill and Stan are accused of murdering a convenience store clerk, with three witnesses testifying that they saw the two men arrive at the store in a mint-green car, then leave a few minutes later. [[spoiler: Vinny and Mona eventually determine what really happened: after Bill and Stan left, another pair of men--who look nearly identical and could thus be confused for them--pulled up in a car that ''also'' looked nearly identical to the first one (to the point where only an experienced auto mechanic would be able to easily distinguish them), got out, committed the crime, then drove off. Each of the three witnesses also just so happened to be distracted long enough to ''not'' see Bill and Stan leave the first time and the second car arrive, but DID see the two men who looked identical to them escaping.]]

*** Reversing the damage caused by Thanos would not have been possible if it wasn't for [[spoiler:a random rat in a storage locker stepping on the right button to release Scott Lang from the Quantum Realm. If it wasn't for that, no one would have possibly seen time travel as a reasonable solution]]. That said, [[WebVideo/GameTheory Film Theory]] [[https://youtu.be/vImyXlST6g0 has analyzed that]] [[spoiler:the rat outcome is actually far more likely than one would expect]].

*** Reversing the damage caused by Thanos would not have been possible if it wasn't for [[spoiler:a random rat in a storage locker stepping on the right button to release Scott Lang from the Quantum Realm. If it wasn't for that, no one would have possibly seen time travel as a reasonable solution]].

* ''Film/JurassicPark'':

** In ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'', [[ComicBook/CaptainAmerica Steve Rogers]] just happens to befriend a random Air Force veteran who turns out to be trained in using a classified [[Film/IronMan Stark Industries]] flight exosuit that allows him to become ComicBook/TheFalcon.

%%* ''Film/RunLolaRun'' is [[spoiler:one long LampshadeHanging, hung on variations on a [[ForWantOfANail theme]]]].

** In the [[Film/HomeAlone1 first movie]], Kevin being punished and sent to his room after punching Buzz for eating his pizza kept him out of sight from the rest of his family when they left for the airport. Also, a tree branch happened to fall on the power lines, muting the alarm clocks and caused the family (all ''fifteen'' of them) to oversleep which drove them into such a hurry that they forgot about Kevin, and finally, a nosy neighbor boy who bears a quick passing resemblance to Kevin is counted in the initial head count.

*** When searching for the Sith wayfinder on Kef Bir, Rey happens to wind up standing in the exact spot where she needs to be in order to fit the dagger into the outline of the Death Star II's wreckage (which somehow has not shifted, collapsed, and/or been scavenged in the decades since ''Return of the Jedi''. Amazing how it just lines up to the wreckage.

* During the famously frightening "Raptors in the Kitchen" scene from ''Film/JurassicPark'', one of the raptors knocks over some pots and pans with its tail, happening to hit Tim and Lex who are crawling past it one aisle over and they panic, making more noise. Tim hides just around a corner next to a bunch of hanging ladles and other utensils, hitting most of them and barely avoiding detection by the raptor. And then the ''one'' ladle that he ''didn't'' touch falls off its handle ''all by itself'' and clangs on the floor. Improbable? Yes. Scary? ''You bet it is.''

*** [[spoiler:Rey is the granddaughter of Darth Sidious]], putting the Millennium Falcon, the map to Luke, and [[spoiler:the descendant of the former Emperor]] all within 10 miles of each other.

* ''Film/GetCarter:'' LondonGangster Jack Carter returns home to Newcastle to investigate his brother's suspicious death. A porn film plays an important role in the plot: Carter goes to bed with a woman who happens to be involved with both the local gangsters and the production of the film. She just happens to have the film set up in a projector by her bed, and Carter just happens to run the film, which just happens to feature people who he knows. Suddenly Carter has a good idea of why his brother died, and who might have done it.

*** When searching for the Sith wayfinder on Endor, Rey happens to wind up standing in the exact spot where she needs to be in order to fit the dagger into the outline of the Death Star II's wreckage (which somehow has not shifted, collapsed, and/or been scavenged in the decades since ''Return of the Jedi''. Amazing how it just lines up to the wreckage.

*** When searching for the Sith wayfinder on Endor, Rey happens to wind up standing in the exact spot where she needs to be in order to fit the dagger into the outline of the Death Star II's wreckage (which somehow has not shifted, collapsed, and/or been scavenged in the decades since ''Return of the Jedi''. Not to mention that the dagger would likely have been created ''before'' the destruction of the Death Star. Amazing how it just lines up to the wreckage.
*** The droid that Poe and the others bring back with them from the droidsmith on Kijimi just happens to have extensive records of Exegol, the mysterious Sith planet that barely anyone even knew existed that the group is trying to reach.

* ''Film/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince'' hangs a lampshade on the frequency Harry, Hermione, and Ron stumble into a plot that puts the whole school in danger, which is every time it happens.

** The fact that the twins, having been separated since birth and living in two different countries, end up going to the same summer camp in the US.

* In ''Film/BackToTheFuture'', the day Doc invents time travel just happens to be the same day that Marty's parents meet. Later, Old Biff chooses the same Saturday night (a week after the aforementioned date) that the climax of the first film happens on to give his younger self the future changing Almanac. Lampshaded by Doc in ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'':

** A number of the traps are also dependent on being encountered in the right sequence, even though they're not placed sequentially. For example, the breakable ornaments under the windowsill are only effective because Marv first tried and failed to climb up the basement stairs, losing his shoes and socks in the process. Similarly, while most of the traps are designed to ensnare a single robber, there are two paint cans rigged to be thrown down the stairs; naturally, Harry and Marv reunite just before encountering this trap, and both are subsequently hit.

* ''Film/{{Superman}}''. When Otis screws up and enters the wrong coordinates into the first nuclear missile they just happen to be the coordinates for Hackesnsack, New Jersey, where Miss Teschmacher's mother lives. This motivates Miss Teschmacher to save Superman from Luthor's DrowningPit so he can stop the missile. What are the odds?

* The 2010 film ''Film/DoubleWedding'' sees twin sisters Deanna and Danielle independently meet and fall for the same man, Tate, who through a series of coincidences assumes that the twins are the same woman (he and Deanna were paired on a dating web site, he got Danielle’s personal number after meeting her in a café, and everyone calls both twins ‘Dee’). At one point Tate ends up making a crucial date with both of them because he was talking to them both on separate lines (Danielle is taking part in a cooking show that Deanna was going to watch with the rest of their family) and his phone was damaged so that both of them were on the line at once; since they were saying the same thing to him at the same time he assumed the phone was just echoing.

* {{Toku}}satsu action film ''Casshern'' runs on this in almost every single scene, with the broken lightning bolt from a giant mountaintop statue accidentally landing in a scientist's mystical Neo-Cell soup and reanimating a bunch of dismembered body parts into the badass Shinzo-Ningen...who then just happen to stumble during their escape into the funeral of the scientist's dead war-hero son and kidnap his mother and then just happen to find a giant war factory in the middle of ''nowhere'' with an army of robots for them to use...while the scientist resurrects his dead son whose expanded musculature can only be contained by a super-suit coincidentally designed by the scientist dad of his girlfriend... and that's only the beginning! The only excuse this movie has for ''any'' of it is its stylized weirdness and the epic, Gotterdammerung-esque tone that hints that, though not explicitly stated, literal DeusExMachina may be involved. After all, that was a convenient lightning bolt.

* The 2010 film ''Double Wedding'' sees twin sisters Deanna and Danielle independently meet and fall for the same man, Tate, who through a series of coincidences assumes that the twins are the same woman (he and Deanna were paired on a dating web site, he got Danielle’s personal number after meeting her in a café, and everyone calls both twins ‘Dee’). At one point Tate ends up making a crucial date with both of them because he was talking to them both on separate lines (Danielle is taking part in a cooking show that Deanna was going to watch with the rest of their family) and his phone was damaged so that both of them were on the line at once; since they were saying the same thing to him at the same time he assumed the phone was just echoing.

* ''Enough Said'': The much-mentioned and dreaded ex-husband of Eva's new friend Marianne just happens to be Albert, the man who Eva has recently started dating. She also happens to have met both of them at the exact same party within mere minutes of each other, with neither of them knowing that the other was there.

** In ''Film/CaptainMarvel2019'', S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Keller and Skrull commander Talos happen to have the same voice, though they speak with different accents, since they're both portrayed by Creator/BenMendelsohn.

*** Captain Marvel is able to locate Tony and Nebula stranded far in deep space, with no indication how she spotted them or that she was searching for them specifically, particularly since her only last known objective was to retreat to Earth from wherever in the universe she was before.
*** Retroactively explained in the post-credits scene from ''Film/CaptainMarvel'', where the post-snap Avengers are trying to figure out what the signal Nick Fury sent was for, and turn around to find Captain Marvel standing right behind them, demanding to know "Where's Fury?" Presumably they told her about Tony, Spider-Man, and the Guardians who weren't accounted for, and she goes looking to see if he survived.
*** Reversing the damage caused by Thanos would not have been possible if it wasn't for [[spoiler: a random rat in a storage locker stepping on the right button to release Scott Lang from the Quantum Realm. If it wasn't for that, no one would have possibly seen time travel as a reasonable solution]].