History KickTheDog / Film

[[quoteright:290:[[Film/BackToTheFuture http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kick-the-dog_bttf2_4_4808.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:290:"Is this your ball? Do you want it back?"]]

* ''Film/ThreeNinjas: High Noon At Mega Mountain'': Where male lead villain Lothar shows that he's a big unsympathetic jerk. First he pops a kids balloon, then on his way back to central control, he steals a kid's ice-cream, with the kid crying after that. Later on, fifteen-year-old Rocky, the oldest of the heroes, tries to save his girlfriend from [[ChainedToARailway becoming roller-coaster roadkill]]. With a sword, Lothar engages into battle with the unarmed Rocky, to the point that they climb up the roller coaster tracks.
* ''Film/TwentyEightDaysLater'': The soldiers. Not only are they going to [[MoralEventHorizon repeatedly rape a woman and teenage girl]], but they have Jim and the only soldier who tried to stop them taken out into the woods to be shot. Not only that, but one of the men who is to execute them affixes a bayonet to his rifle because he wants the sergeant to suffer. [[spoiler: [[MercyKill Fortunately, the other soldier shoots the sergeant before he's stabbed.]]]]
* ''Film/AguirreTheWrathOfGod'': The eponymous VillainProtagonist yells at a horse so hard that it collapses. Also, infamously tosses a squirrel monkey.
* ''Film/AliceInWonderland2010'':
** Villain-on-villain kicking: In this Creator/TimBurton film, [[spoiler: The Knave of Hearts tries to kill The Red Queen after she all but confesses her love for him]].
** Also, the Red Queen having a talking frog [[OffWithHisHead decapitated]] just for stealing her food. As if that wasn't cruel enough, she then proceeded to instruct one of her footmen to go to the frog's home and collect his children, for the sole purpose of ''eating them''. "I love tadpoles on toast." To add insult to injury, she concludes this scene by making a remark about loving tadpoles as much as caviar... while addressing a talking fish in a-not-so indirect threat.
* ''Film/AmericanGangster'': Done by a corrupt cop in -- he shoots the dog.
* ''Film/AmericanPsycho'':
** Has a literal example. When the dog of the homeless man Patrick Bateman has just stabbed to death starts barking, Bateman coolly stomps it to death, shutting it up. Later, he is at an ATM when a kitten starts rubbing against his leg. He picks it up, the scene playing like an unlikely PetTheDog (or kitty) moment... until the ATM screen reads "FEED ME A STRAY CAT," and Bateman (almost) obliges.
** The book has Patrick being cruel to many more animals-- and then there's [[NauseaFuel that unfilmable scene with the starved rat, a Habitrail tube, and one of his female victims...]]
* ''Film/AnchormanTheLegendOfRonBurgundy'':
** Not actually an example, but we have to mention that it ''literally'' happens, after the title character accidentally throws a burrito at a BadassBiker. In retribution, the biker threw away something that Ron loves: his puppy Baxter. [[spoiler:Baxter returns at the end, wet but unharmed.]]
** More specifically, he ''punts the dog off an overpass''.
*** "THE MAN PUNTED BAXTERRRR!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAHHH AAAAH AAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!"
* ''Film/AnimalHouse'': [[DeanBitterman Dean Wormer]], driven to his limits, expels the entire Delta House, which he is entirely justified in doing as they are collectively and individually a degenerate menace. He goes over the line by also informing the Delta's local draft boards that they are now eligible for military service, for no reason other than malice; mind you, this is during the VietnamWar, where being drafted meant at the very least being sent to a war zone.
* ''Film/AsGoodAsItGets'': The very first scene shows JackNicholson's character putting a small dog into a laundry chute because it peed on the floor.
* ''Film/AssaultOnPrecinct131976'': One of the gang members shoots an ice cream truck driver, and then a little girl who went back to complain that the man gave her the wrong flavor of ice cream.
* ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'': There's a scene in 1955 where Biff gets a hold of a ball belonging to a bunch of kids, and while listening to them plead to have it back, mocks them and then throws it onto a second story balcony. Not that it wasn't already obvious that Biff was a {{jerkass}}, but it was over the top.
* ''Film/{{Batman}}'':
** The Joker in the first Creator/TimBurton film had a number of examples of this, such as terrorizing Vicki Vale, disposing of his last girlfriend Alicia offscreen so he could be with her, and gassing a museum and a parade full of innocent people (though the last one was foiled by the Batman), but the worst was probably cold-bloodedly executing his unquestioningly loyal BattleButler Bob after asking him for his gun following said foiling.
** One of the two muggers from the first sequence gets one when he turns his gun on the little boy of a tourist family the two are in the middle of robbing: "Hey lady, do the kid a favor: don't scream." The partner of the mugger in question even brings it up after telling him about "the bat," shortly before both of them get their asses kicked.
* ''Film/BatmanReturns'': Penguin gets several of these:
** When the Fat Clown objects to Penguin's plan to kidnap and kill the first-born children of Gotham as revenge for his own ParentalAbandonment (a crossing of the MoralEventHorizon if there ever was one), Penguin simply takes out a revolver and shoots him.
--->'''Fat Clown:''' I mean, killing sleeping children. Isn't that a little... err...?
--->'''Penguin:''' (BANG!) No, it's a lot!
** He also tries to run down a little old lady while going on a rampage with the remotely-hijacked Batmobile. Batman takes back control and hits the brakes just in time to keep her from being splatted.
--->'''Penguin:''' Helpless old lady at twelve o'clock high!
* ''Film/BatmanBegins'': Just to make good and sure that the audience is set against Detective Flass, a corrupt cop, he cheats a street vendor out of his money before Batman interrogates him. It also shows how uncontrollable his behaviour is.
* ''Film/{{Benji}}'': To show how really nasty the kidnappers are, one of them viciously kicks a small white poodle. (This is a G-rated film, so we never actually see the dog directly being kicked, but the action is clearly obvious.)
* Film/BeyondTheLights: Noni goes to see Kaz after they come back from Mexico and break up just to confirm that it's really over. Before she leaves however, she asks him hopefully to confirm that regardless of what followed, their relationship was perfect when it was good. His response? "We started out on a lie. It was never going to be perfect." Ouch.
* In ''Film/BigGame'', Hazar makes the tour guide run for his amusement before shooting him ''with a missile launcher'', even though they are in the middle of wilderness and there would be no way the man would manage to alert anyone before Hazar and his men were long gone.
* ''Film/BillAndTedsBogusJourney'': The Robot Bill and Ted: "Aim for the cat, dude! Aim for the cat!"
* ''Birth'': When her fiancée beats up (ish) the kid. Though this isn't just a pointless act, it still sets up the fiancée for a fall.
* ''Film/BlazingSaddles'': This trope is kind of spoofed when baddie Mongo punches a horse.
* Villains in action [[BMovie B-Movies]] routinely do unspeakable things like this to family, friends, and property of the hero to set him on the path to violent revenge. One of the most flagrant abuses of the trope was in the Creator/ChuckNorris film ''Film/LoneWolfMcQuade''. The villain (David Carradine) goes through all the usual atrocities, including killing or maiming the hero's entire family, until -- with the most dramatic music of the movie welling up -- he kills [=McQuade=]'s border collie and leaves him lying in the dirt. At that point, Norris's wooden features almost show real emotion as he sets his jaw and goes forth seeking vengeance.
* ''Film/{{Bloodsport}}'': Reigning champ Chong Li has several kick-the-dog moments, but one particularly stands out: after [[CurbStompBattle clearly winning a match]], he decides to go the extra mile and break the guy's neck. Even the judges are horrified, but they still allow him to continue in the tournament.
* UsefulNotes/{{Bollywood}}: This happens in many, many films of this kind, such as the Captain beating his servant in ''Lagaan''.
* ''Film/{{Braveheart}}'': Edward Longshanks. His treatment of the Scots, his tactics (TropeCodifier for WeHaveReserves), him casually throwing his son's best friend out to his death. The list goes on.
* ''Film/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': In TheMovie, when we're first introduced to the Vampire BigBad Lothos (and see his face), he ends a conversation with his henchman by announcing he wants a snack, picks up a kitten, and walks off. Evil.
* ''Film/{{Buried}}'': Paul was kidnapped by terrorists and BuriedAlive. While in the coffin, his boss calls him and says he's been fired and his family will not receive any benefits.
* ''Film/TheButterflyEffect'', Evan's enemy Tommy [[spoiler: burns his dog alive after seeing Evan kiss Kayleigh, Tommy's sister]] when they're 13 years old. It's an even more impacting scene than when Tommy's violence is first established by [[spoiler: beating a boy in the movie theater with the metal queue pole, and then smiling at Evan as security drags him out]]. The movie throws us a curve ball at the same time, by giving Tommy a FreudianExcuse.
* ''The Calling'': In this 2000 horror thriller, one of the signs that the sweet US girl's cute little son is evil incarnate is that he kicks away his dog. In case that other hints [[spoiler: like not missing his mom one bit, trying to psychically murder a little girl for hogging the swing and impaling a guinea pig]] didn't work.
* ''Film/CharlieWilsonsWar'': The title character tells his assistant about his first foray into politics: When he was a kid, he had a dog that always dug up a neighbor's flowerbeds. The neighbor solved the problem by feeding it dog food with broken glass mixed in. The neighbor was running for city council, so Charlie (after burning up his flowerbeds) went to the poor black neighborhoods in town, where most of the people had never bothered voting in a local election, told them that this candidate had purposely killed his dog, and offered them a ride to the polls. It was enough to lose him the election.
* ''Film/{{Chronicle}}'': Andrew shoves a car off the road with his telekinesis, starts video recording Steve's funeral and ignores everyone telling him to cut that out, and picks up a spider with his telekinesis and sadistically tears it apart.
** He has been taught well as he has been on the receiving end of this for all his life from his father and his social environment namely school bullies and hoodlums.
* ''Film/LaCiteDeLaPeur'' (''City Of Fear''): In this French cult movie, a random cat gets kicked twice by the [[DirtyCommunists hammer and sickle wielding serial-killer]]. This is also a RunningJoke, since Les Nuls, who produced the movie, are well known for their hatred towards cats (''Le Chat Machine'' and ''CCC'', anyone?)
* ''Film/CloudAtlas'': ProfessionalKiller and minor villain of one of the numerous plots, [[MisterStrangenoun Mr. Smoke]] actually ''shoots'' a small dog that was yapping at him, right in front of the [[InnocentBystander innocent old lady]] who owned it (which is still this trope and not ShootTheDog). [[spoiler:The [[ChekhovsGunman old lady]] gets back at him later by [[BadassBystander beating him to death with a wrench]] [[ConvenientlyTimedAttackFromBehind before he can kill the protagonists]] ]].
* ''Film/ColdTurkey'': Used in a very interesting way. A town is trying to give up smoking for 30 days, so we know they aren't really "bad" people, just highly frustrated. That said, someway into the movie, a man literally ''kicks a dog'' and it hilariously goes flying.
* ''Film/ConAir'': Designated JerkAss Malloy makes his entrance by speeding up in his "fucking spectacular" flashy Corvette and parks, you guessed it, in the handicap parking space.
* ''Film/{{Creed}}'' has Conlan repeatedly interrupt and insult Donnie during their pre-fight press conference, then for good measure, during the fight he makes sure to hit Donnie after the bell ending the first round has rung already just to be a dick. Earlier he broke Danny Wheeler's jaw outside the ring and landed himself jail time for illegal firearm possession, but those actually drove the plot. Him antagonizing Donnie is just to make sure the audience ''really'' wants to see him get knocked out.
* ''Film/DemolitionMan'': Wesley Snipes plays a criminal who is not only a maniacal killer/terrorist but also a compulsive casual racist who cannot look at a Chinese suit of armour without giggling and saying "ching chong ching chong".
* ''Film/TheDescent'': Juno gets a few of these, such as [[spoiler:cowardly leaving her friend who she accidentally stabbed to die slowly and painfully.]] It is also revealed that [[spoiler:she was having an affair with the main character's deceased husband.]] This was before she becomes a fairly heroic uber-badass.
* ''Film/DieHard'': Agents Johnson and Johnson in the first film have an exchange in which they determine that their {{plan}} to stop the terrorists (which was actually a vital part of Hans Gruber's EvilPlan) could end up with 25% of the hostages dead, but they dismiss it as being an acceptable casualty. Presumably this is to obliterate any sympathy one might have for the fact that they get blown up by Gruber five minutes later. But that poor helicopter pilot....
* The villains of ''Film/DjangoUnchained'' do this quite frequently, even by the standards of {{Politically Incorrect Villain}}s, from having a poor slave whipped for accidentally breaking eggs to having slaves fight to the death and having a slave ripped apart by dogs for not having it in him to fight anymore, as well as having Django's wife Broomhilda thrown into a torturous "[[PunishmentBox hot box]]" naked for trying to escape.
* ''Film/DogSoldiers'': Early on, Captain Ryan, a Special Forces commander, ironically fulfills this trope by literally shooting a dog. Not ''that'' kind of ShootTheDog, just killing it for no real reason. Later on in the movie, he attempts to shoot ''another'' dog to get it to stop barking, but he is thwarted when another character vomits on his head.
* ''Film/{{Dogville}}'': The whole movie would have to be recited to number the times. The movie '''vividly''' demonstrates the [[TheDogBitesBack dangers of Dog Kicking]]. Ironically, an actual dog doesn't suffer at all.
* ''Film/DragMeToHell'':
** The protagonist [[spoiler: sacrifices her kitten]] in an attempt at placating the demon set upon her by a GypsyCurse. [[spoiler: It doesn't work when all is said and done.]]
** As for Sylvia Ganush, the lady responsible for the curse to begin with, the fact that she condemned a young boy just for stealing her necklace (which got returned as soon as the parents discovered it, mind you) [[TooDumbToLive should have been the first indicator to the protagonist that she should never have taken up Ganush's overdue loan case in the first place when a 3rd extension was requested.]]
* ''Film/TheDrop'' Literally. Eric Deeds beat and then put Rocco into Nadia's garbage can.
* ''Film/{{Dune}}'': Baron Vladimir Harkonnen when he pulls the heart plug from one of his slaves and then does something [[{{Squick}} too gruesome to describe here]].
* ''Film/EdwardScissorhands'': A quick, literal example occurs. As she walks out to offer Edward some lemonade (and flirt with him), Joyce continuously tells her excited dog to stop yipping. And finally kicks it to make it stop cramping her style.
* ''Film/{{Equilibrium}}'': The entire Librian society has a Kick the Dog moment by proxy when a squad of anti-emotion cops begin exterminating a kennel of dogs as though they were vermin - after already executing the women and children protecting them as "sense offenders." Preston (who's gone off his emotion-suppressing medication) flinches with each gunshot, and finally [[PetTheDog steps in to save the last puppy]] with the excuse that at least one should be kept and tested for infectious disease.
* ''Film/ErnestGoesToJail'': Ernest's EvilTwin throws Ernest's small dog into the garbage can to stop it from barking. The dog was physically uninjured, but it apparently had no way of getting out before the real Ernest came along and rescued it, a day or so later.
* ''Film/FatalAttraction'': Glenn Close's character, in full psycho {{Yandere}} mode, [[spoiler: killing and cooking the pet rabbit of the protagonist's daughter]]. And she kidnaps the little girl a few days later. Although she returns her unharmed, it seems likely that she wanted to terrify Dan with the notion that she *could* have harmed the child if she wanted to.
* ''Film/FearAndLoathingInLasVegas'':
** Hunter "Raoul Duke" Thompson has one of these when he [[spoiler:suggests selling Lucy into prostitution.]] Although it's really hard to tell whether or not he was serious or sober.
** There's one even earlier in the movie when he throws a tip onto the patio floor of the restaurant he's in, forcing the midget employee to get on hands and knees to collect it.
** Ironically, the Lucy suggestion is ''less'' a Dog Kick in the movie, where Johnny Depp plays it so over-the-top as to make clear to the audience (if not the extremely drug addled Dr. Gonzo) he's not seriously suggesting this, but rather [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone forcing Gonzo to realize]] what he'd have to become to keep Lucy around. In the book, this is much more ambiguous. On the other hand, HST objected to the tip-tossing, as he felt that such motiveless and pointless cruelty was out of character for Duke, at least while he was (comparatively) sober.
** The arguable worst instance arises later. The pair have committed some crimes already at this point but manage to stay somewhat likable. That is until Dr. Gonzo terrorizes a waitress with his knife so badly she is left in tears. While arguments can be made as to how intoxicated he was, this was easily the darkest point of the book. It symbolizes things TRULY taking a turn for the worse.
* ''The Ferryman'': Features a literal KickTheDog moment. Well, actually it's more a of a Snap The Dog's Spine And Toss It Overboard moment. The movie gets worse from there.
* ''Forbidden Games'' (''Jeux Interdits''): In this French film, it's not enough that the Nazis kill Paulette's parents. They have to kill her dog, too!
* ''Film/FreddyVsJason'':
** Freddy Krueger refers to a black girl as "dark meat." Not only is he a dream-invading serial child-murdering pedophile, he's also [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain a casual racist]].
** Strangely, Freddy is also given one of these with the dog being ''Jason''. In his nightmare, Jason reverts into a scared disfigured child, how he was before he became an undead killing machine. Freddy then tears off his hockey mask, calls him an "ugly little shit", and shows Jason the decapitated head of his mother.
* Freddy is rather fond of this in [[Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet his own films]] as well; simply killing someone is no fun, he'll bring their greatest fears to life, mock them with visions of their already murdered loved ones, and let them live for a while so that others think they are crazy when they try to warn them. To some degree this is justified, as he feeds on fear and wants to cause as much of it as possible before going in for the kill, but the sheer sadistic glee he takes in mockery and desecration is this trope.
* ''Franchise/FridayThe13th'':
** As far as Creator/KaneHodder was concerned, [[EvenEvilHasStandards kicking dogs is too evil]] even for Jason Voorhees: "Jason can [[GrievousHarmWithABody pull people's limbs off and beat them to death with their own arms]], things like that, but he's not gonna be kicking any dog. You know, you gotta draw the line somewhere."
** He ''does'' kick a poor boombox in ''[[Film/FridayThe13thPartVIIIJasonTakesManhattan Jason Takes Manhattan]]'', though.
** The trope gets played straight in ''[[Film/FridayThe13thPartVIIIJasonTakesManhattan Jason Takes Manhattan]]''. The main characters get mugged, and when FinalGirl's dog starts barking at the the thugs, the lead mugger, with no hesitation whatsoever, tries shooting it.
* Michael Myers from the ''Franchise/{{Halloween}}'' series apparently doesn't share the same sentiment, having killed several dogs over the course of his many rampages. And eating one of them, apparently. "He got hungry..."
* ''{{Film/Garfield}}'': [[BigBad Happy Chapman]] wants a dog to star in his show so he can overshadow his more successful news anchor brother Walter in fame. So he steals Odie for his own gain and then uses a dreaded shock collar on him, and even laughs at the dog's pain from the powerful jolts. [[EveryoneHasStandards This disgusts even Garfield, who hates Odie]].
-->'''Garfield''': [[HypocriticalHeartwarming Hey, no one gets to mistreat that dog like that except me!]]
* ''Film/GateOfHell'': While angrily pacing around outside of a mansion, waiting to speak to the married woman he's enthralled with, the main character literally kicks the dog that came up to him.
* ''Film/GIJoeTheRiseOfCobra'': [[spoiler: Zartan's murder of Cover Girl]].
** In its sequel, ''Film/GIJoeRetaliation'', [[spoiler: the movie reveals that Zartan murdered Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow's master, the Hard Master, and ''framed'' Storm Shadow for it.]]
* ''Film/GodzillaVsDestoroyah'': Occurs in this film when [[spoiler:Destoroyah not only kills Junior right in front of Godzilla, but then grabs the heartbroken Godzilla by the throat and proceeds to drag him around]] while ''laughing''.
* ''Film/GodzillaVsMothra'': Rowdy college students try to drown a dog that never harmed them. Until [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Mothra drowns them and traps them in her own silk]].
* ''Film/{{Goemon}}'': This 2009 Japanese film probably has one of the most evil examples of this thus far. Saizo tries to assassinate the (mostly corrupt) ruler of Japan, Hideyoshi. Naturally, he fails, and is captured. After Goemon breaks him out, Hideyoshi and his men attack Saizo's home, kill his wife, and abduct his baby son. Being told that his son's life will be spared if he turns himself in, he gladly allows himself to be boiled alive in a giant vat of oil, in front of the entire city. Hideyoshi kicks him into the oil, and this is where the moment comes: when Hideyoshi throws his baby son into the vat 10 seconds later, alive. Literally every other character, be it good, evil, or in between, were disgusted by this act at best. ''At best.''
* ''Film/{{Gozu}}'': ExaggeratedTrope in an extremely violent moment. Well, not so much kick the dog, as pick it up by its leash and bash it to a bloody pulp on the nearest wall. Both figuratively and literally. The moment where Ozaki clearly goes from annoyingly unstable, to dangerously insane.
* ''Film/TheGrandBudapestHotel'': After Deputy Kovacs proves incorruptible, Jopling throws his cat out the window, to its death several stories below.
* ''Film/GranTorino'': Walt's family insult his dead wife and do not give a crap during her funeral,''their grandmother's funeral'' and his granddaughter expresses her desire to him to leave her his car when he croaks. Needless to say he doesn't respond well.
* ''Film/{{Gremlins}}'': Not only does Mrs. Deagle neatly follow the AndYourLittleDogToo trope, but she attempts to kick a poor family out of their home shortly before the holidays because they are unable to pay their rent. She is established as a sort of Mr. Potter figure early in the film. None of this has anything to do with the rest of the movie and she is not really the film's villain. (That would be the Gremlins, of course!) It would seem that she is made to be so hateful for no other reason than to justify her truly tasteless death by the hands of the monsters.
** The Gremlins themselves also fall under this trope, tying up the family dog with Christmas lights and, in the original script, actually killing him.
* ''Film/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets'': Near the end, [[MagnificentBastard Lucius Malfoy]] literally kicks Dobby.
* ''Hassan and Naima'': This Egyptian film has a textbook case. In the first scene with the villain he starts by harasses the protagonist for going to her cousin's wedding in an explicitly sexist way. When she storms off, he kicks a tiny dog, sending him rolling five feet or so, then insults a beggar. Because he's a jerk.
* ''Film/HeartOfAmerica'': When Daniel confronts a bully with a gun in a bathroom at the beginning of the massacre:
** '''Daniel''': You know what happens when you kick a dog one too many times? Go ahead, you can answer that one. What happens when you kick a dog long enough.
** '''Paul''': I don't know.
** '''Daniel''': They bite. ''[shoots Paul]''
* In ''Film/HighlanderIIITheSorcerer'', the villain Kane's entire arc is basically one long line of atrocities to cement his evil. For instance, he slaughters a village in the opening when they don't immediately tell him where Nakano is, endangers the life of a small boy for kicks and ''rapes a prostitute''.
* ''Film/HitlerTheRiseOfEvil'': Done literally in this film to make absolutely certain that the viewer would understand that [[CaptainObvious Hitler is not to be liked at all]]. It's kind of amusing when it's been said that he loved dogs in real life. The dog led Hitler out of a tent instead of sitting down like Hitler commanded him to. When Hitler kicked the dog a bomb went of in the tent and Hitler got away with only a few scratches. It is implied that this made him love animals as he spoke fondly of the dog in the hospital and was sad that he couldn´t find the dog after the explosion.
* ''Film/HollowMan'': Using his invisibility to his advantage Sebastian rapes a woman. When he discovers that Linda is sleeping with Matt, he becomes enraged and kills an invisible dog barking at him, and it is shown in infrared.
* ''Film/{{Hondo}}'': Apache warrior Silva kills the title character's dog out of spite. Suffice to say that killing Creator/JohnWayne's canine companion is not a good idea.
* ''Film/HotRod'': The romantic rival pulls the rarer "run over a racoon" variant, then chuckles to himself and comments that he can't wait to tell his bro who will love it.
* ''Film/TheHungerGamesMockingjayPart1'': President Snow orders the District 8 hospital firebombed for associating with Katniss.
* ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom'':
** There are several examples:
** The Thuggee Cult is the most notable example, as they enslave small children to mine for Sankara Stones under very poor conditions.
** Another Kick The Dog Moment occurs after Indy is under the influence of [[MindControlDevice Kali Blood]], when he smacks Short Round in the face.
* ''Film/InglouriousBasterds'': Zoller, the subject of Goebbels' propaganda film, is portrayed through most of the movie as a kind, generous, patriotic, somewhat lovesick suitor. The guy is even a film buff. And in one of his last scenes, he shudders at watching Goebbels' glorification of his bloody war heroism. In his ''last'' scene, he takes joy in accidentally hurting Shoshanna after she turned him down one more time, barks commands and threats at her and generally gives off a rape vibe. This is the scene that makes it OK to kill him.
* ''Film/TheInvasion': It's not clear what would be so bad about the new world order that's taking shape, until [[spoiler:it's made clear that anyone not affected by the change would be executed, rather than simply kept out of positions of influence and allowed to live out their lives]].
* ''Film/JohnWick'' is all about how this can backfire. Iosef Tarasov, son of a Russian mob boss, decides he wants John's [[CoolCar 1969 Mustang]], but John isn't selling. Iosef breaks into John's house that night to steal the keys and, in the process, kills John's dog Daisy because she was annoying him. Problem is, John's a former mob hitman (a [[OneManArmy damn]] [[TheDreaded good one]], too), and Daisy was a last gift from his dead wife. [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge Extensive payback ensues.]]
* ''Film/TheJungleBook2016'':
** After [[spoiler:killing Akela]], Shere Khan makes himself at home in the wolf pack territory, talking to Raksha's pups at one point. But during this, Raksha tells the pups to come inside, and Shere Khan blocks one pup's path just to show that he can, looking like he's going to do away with him. But then the tiger lets the pup go, letting Raksha know that he can kill her and her pups anytime, and there's nothing she or any wolf can do about it.
** King Louie later corners Mowgli, asking him where he would go without him. Mowgli retorts that he'll go back to the wolf pack and to Akela. Louie's response? "Oh, you didn't hear? [[spoiler:Shere Khan killed him]]. Must've been on account of you." Technically, it is true, considering [[spoiler:Shere Khan killed him for sheltering Mowgli]], but the way he worded it... ouch.
* ''Film/KickAss2'': Averted by Motherfucker. "Kill the dog? Jesus Christ, I'm not THAT evil!"
* In ''Film/ToKillADragon'', the Dragon does this all the time. In the very opening, he attacks the protagonist Lancelot just to have a little fun. He then proceeds to do so in almost every scene he is in, which includes several [[GroinAttack Groin Attacks]].
* ''Film/KingKongEscapes'': In this Toho film, the villain [[NamesTheSame Doctor Who]] shoots the old man on Kong's island when he comes to take the ape, just responding to his warnings not to take the ape with "Yes. Kong's mine now." before killing him.
* ''Film/TheKingsSpeech'': The scene at Balmoral Castle was this for Edward. First he showed how lightly he takes his duties as king, more interested in pleasing his girlfriend. Then he was apathetic to Hitler's march through Europe before he finally topped it off with mocking his brother Albert's speech impairment.
* ''Film/KissOfTheDragon'': This JetLi movie has a scene where the main bad guy forcibly injects the female lead, a woman he had tricked into prostitution, with her "fix" of heroin and sends her back to work on the street after she begs him to let her daughter go so that she can get out of the business. Apart from the earlier nasty things he did (such as framing Li for killing the diplomat), this scene marks him as a huge bastard worthy of the [[ToThePain very nasty death]] that Li gave him. He does have a [[RightHandCat pet turtle]].
* In ''Film/TheLastWitchHunter'', Belial kills Miranda, who was no threat to him and had no way of being a threat, simply to taunt Kaulder over her corpse.
* ''Literature/ALittlePrincess'': In this 1995 film, both Miss Minchin and Lavinia are established as bad'uns when they independently bully the {{woobie}} Ermingarde.
* ''Film/LittleShopOfHorrors'': In the [[RecursiveAdaptation musical film version]], Audrey II, after a blatantly evil [[spoiler: phone call]], reaches into the change slot of a pay phone to see of there are any coins. AndThatsTerrible.
* ''Film/LittleSweetheart'': Thelma, the sociopathic, psychotic, greedy 9-year-old does it, we're just not sure when the first is, seeing as she's practically kicking the dog back and forth.
* ''Film/LiveAndLetDie'': Occurs when Kananga slaps Solitaire in the face after she sleeps with Bond and loses her psychic powers.
* ''Film/LocalHero'': SubvertedTrope due to ValuesDissonance. After Mac has adopted a rabbit he accidentally hit with his car and takes it to the village, the villagers cook and eat it. They turn out to be good people anyway.
* ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings''
** There are a few instances of these:
** In ''The Fellowship of the Ring'' the Ringwraiths decide to chop off a hobbit watchman's head and [[ImprovisedWeapon drop a door]] on the gatekeeper in Bree.
** In ''The Return Of The King'' they don't so much kick the dog as much as throw the heads of the dog's friends at him.
* ''Film/TheLostWorldJurassicPark'':
** One of the hunters zaps a little chicken-size dinosaur with a cattle prod.
** TheDogBitesBack later on, along with about a [[KarmicDeath hundred]] [[DeathOfAThousandCuts of its friends.]]
** And the ''T. rex'' actually eats a dog while on the rampage in San Diego.
* ''Film/{{Magnolia}}'': In this Paul Thomas Anderson 1999 film, Frank T.J. Mackey warns Phil Parma that he'll "dropkick those fucking dogs if they come near me."
* ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'' has several examples:
** ''Film/TheIncredibleHulk'': Blonsky arrives at Bruce's apartment with his tranquilizer gun only to find he's already run for it; he shoots Bruce's dog instead (complete with comedy yelp noise). In the DVD commentary, the director actually says that there's no better way to establish a villain than by having him shoot a dog.
** ''Film/IronMan2'': Justin Hammer pulls off two separate dog kicks. First, when Vanko asks Hammer to retrieve his beloved cockatoo from his former home in Russia, and Hammer tries to fob off a random pet store cockatoo on him -- as if any devoted pet owner wouldn't recognize their own. The second incident occurs shortly thereafter, when Hammer is displeased with Vanko's apparent lack of progress on Hammer's line of battle suits; he has one of his thugs stuff the poor bird in a bag and take it away along with many of Vanko's other comforts. [[BullyingADragon The two thugs Hammer tasked with this don't last long after that]].
** ''Film/{{Thor}}'': In an example of KickThemWhileTheyAreDown (at least emotionally), Loki visited the recently-[[BroughtDownToNormal depowered]] Thor [[HeroicBlueScreenOfDeath who'd just realized that he was truly powerless after failing to lift Mjölnir]] and lied to him, telling him that Odin was dead because of the stress brought on by the war that Thor instigated and that their mother, Frigga, [[IHaveNoSon never wanted to see Thor again]]. [[DramaticIrony The kicker]] was that Thor ''[[GracefulLoser thanked Loki!]]''
** ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'': Loki does it again--this time he [[EyeScream screws out some poor guy's eye]] (it happens off camera) (and appears to enjoy it) for the purpose of [[spoiler: getting an eyescan to steal iridium]]. Most of his actions are meant to cause as much mayhem and distress as possible. He attempts a BreakingSpeech against the Black Widow with an archaic form of the CountryMatters trope, as well. But probably his ultimate Kick The Dog moment was when he killed Coulson.
** ''Film/IronMan3'': The Mandarin [[DoNotAdjustYourSet broadcasts himself on all [=TVs=] across the nation]] and shows a hostage on the floor. He declares that if the President of the United States doesn't call him within 30 seconds, he will shoot the man in the head. The president calls him, but The Mandarin shoots the poor guy anyway. [[spoiler:Not really, as The Mandarin was actually just an actor named Trevor, and the gun wasn't real, as revealed later when Tony infiltrated the mansion it was broadcast from.]]
*** Played straight later in the movie when [[spoiler: the true Mandarin himself, Aldrich Killian, murders Maya Hansen in front of Tony (who was zip-tied to a bed frame), for no purpose than to put even more misery on Tony]].
** ''Film/ThorTheDarkWorld'': [[spoiler: Malekith murdering Frigga]].
** ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'': Everything about how the BigBad treats [[spoiler:the Winter Soldier, aka a brainwashed Bucky Barnes]] during the scene in the bank vault.
** ''Film/AntMan'': Darren chooses to experiment with his unstable ShrinkRay on baby lambs instead of mice like Hope and the scientists requested. He doesn't bat an eye when the failed experiments [[BodyHorror horrifically kill them]], while everybody else is sickened and saddened. Later, when a lamb is successfully shrunken, Darren knocks it down by flicking it with his finger for no reason.
* ''Film/TheMaskOfZorro'': Does this with resident baddie Captain Harrison Love. For the first fourth or so of the picture, Captain Love seems less like an evil villain and more like a lawman who is only an antagonist because the hero of the movie is an outlaw. Well, we can't have that sort of thing in our summer blockbusters. In order to avoid actually having to deal with moral complexity, we're treated to an {{Anvilicious}} scene where Zorro is conversing with the Captain and he randomly takes Zorro's brother's head out of his desk drawer, where it had been "marinating" in something presumably alcoholic, and Captain Love nonchalantly drinks a cupful of it. Drawn straight from the jar. To drive the point home, he tells our hero that he keeps the heads of everyone he kills, because he just loves killing people so very much.
* ''Film/TheMeteorMan'': The BigBad doesn't kick the dog, he ''throws a dumpster on the dog!'' [[spoiler: The dog got better]].
* ''Film/{{Metropolis}}'': Early on, Joh Fredersen fires one of his overworked assistants for failing to report an accident at the [[FauxSymbolism Moloch]] Machine, effectively dooming him to working in the deplorable conditions underground.
* In ''Film/{{Mickey}}'', the dickhead general store owner literally does this when Mickey comes into the store with her dog.
* ''Film/TheMonsterSquad'':
** Dracula all but cements the fact that he is an utter bastard right near the end of the movie when he confronts Phoebe, a little girl who is five years old and has the amulet that he wants to destroy so that the creatures of the night can rule the world, with these words: "Give me the amulet, you bitch!" If calling a five-year-old a bitch isn't Kicking The Dog, we don't know what is.
** This scene was so bad that Duncan Regehr (Dracula) actually refused to do the scene in more than one take, and little Ashley Bank (Phoebe) was genuinely terrified when she saw his "evil" contact lenses.
** Also, there was the scene where Drac blew up the treehouse belonging to the title group with a stick of dynamite. The kids weren't there, but Drac seemed to think they were, judging by his cold "Meeting adjourned" just before the kaboom.
* Shang Tsung gets several during the ''Film/MortalKombat'' movie, first delivering a vicious FinishingStomp on poor Chan (while he was down, no less!), and [[YourSoulIsMine taking Art Lean's soul]] after he is killed by Goro.
* ''Film/NachoLibre'': The wrestler who had originally won the battle royal for the opportunity to fight Ramses, Silencio, is fighting against a child beggar over a loaf of bread.
* ''Film/NoCountryForOldMen'':
** Used almost to the point of gratuity; [[PsychoForHire Chigurh]] arbitrarily murders random innocents several times, based solely on whim and the outcome of a coin toss. He even takes a potshot at a pigeon he passes while crossing a bridge. Ironically (the irony being that he's the [[ScarilyCompetentTracker most terrifyingly competent]] and [[ImplacableMan relentless assassin]] in film history), he misses. Utterly lampshaded early on by Deputy Wendell, who, upon surveying the scene of the drug dealers' massacre in the desert, remarks: "Aw, they even shot the dog." As if the pile of dead bodies and truckload of heroin weren't big enough clues that ''these are bad people''.
** The pigeon potshot is actually a sly InJoke to an earlier Coen Brothers' Dog Kicker, the [[GenericDoomsdayVillain Lone Biker of the Apocalypse]], Leonard Smalls from ''RaisingArizona''. When first he is shown onscreen, he shoots a lizard with a shotgun and [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill lobs a grenade at a bunny rabbit]].
* ''Film/NoHoldsBarred'': The main bad guys really get their kicks from being assholes. Hell, one of them tried to commit rape.
* ''Film/OBrotherWhereArtThou'': The one-eyed "bible salesman" beats two of the protagonist senseless with a branch to steal whatever it was that they were keeping in that shoe box they were guarding so closely. When he finds out it's a frog (which they thought was a [[BalefulPolymorph cursed]] friend), he squeezes the thing dead on his palm, and violently throws it against a tree, making one of the heroes cry. [[spoiler:He later gets what's coming for him when a burning cross drops on him.]]
* ''Film/OnceUponATimeInChina2'': In the opening scene, the White Lotus Sect burns a dog because [[OccupiersOutOfOurCountry it's a foreign breed]].
* ''Film/OneCrazySummer'': Aquila Beckersted gloats over his victory over the protagonists and punctuates his villainy by literally kicking a little girl's dog and putting it in an animal hospital.
* ''Film/PansLabyrinth'': [[BigBad Captain Vidal]] is woken up so he can deal with some possible rebels; an old man and his teenage son. They insist that they were hunting rabbits, but he beats the kid's face in [[GrievousBottleyHarm with a bottle]] before even letting him finish his sentence, then shoots them both. He reaches into their pack, and pulls out... a pair of rabbits. He snarls at his men that they should search these assholes before bothering him with them, and goes back to bed. Later, he asks the cooks to make him something from the rabbits. "Perhaps a stew."
* ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'':
** This is Cutler Beckett's job description in the sequels. Once he gets Davy Jones's SoulJar, he repeals little things like "right to due process" and "habeas corpus" and orders mass executions of anyone even suspected of sheltering a pirate, including children. This is the first scene of the third movie. He's so good at this he manages to Kick the ''Kraken'' by having it beach itself just to prove a point about magic being obsolete. Even Jack, who got eaten by the thing, feels sorry for it and considers it a [[EndOfAnAge sign of the times]].
** Barbosa gets one in the [[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl first film]], when he maroons Jack and Elizabeth, but refuses to give them a second loaded pistol - he expects Jack to do the honorable thing and shoot Elizabeth, and then starve to death himself.
** Davy Jones kills dozens of innocent people in attempting to track down Will and Jack, though which one hits as most insidious - the innocent foreigners who merely chance upon Jack's hat or the trading crew with the stern captain we actually come to know somewhat - remains to be seen.
*** For specific moments, there is also him ordering the defiant crewman who spurned his offer of crewmanship killed immediately and, in a rage, having the survivors of the aforementioned trading ship slaughtered wholesale without even offering them the chance to take his wretched bargain.
** Blackbeard. Gleefully so. {{Subverted}} when he appears to kill Philip, but only uses poison to knock him out. Said subversion is the a JustifiedTrope by his using Philip to get Syrena's tear.
** Barbossa in the [[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanOnStrangerTides fourth film]]. When his ship and crew are being swarmed by mermaids, he refuses to help or even ''recognize'' their plight, passing it off as "seagulls nesting" when the officers point out their crew's screams of terror. Admittedly, it's not like he could have actually saved them, but it was still pretty cold.
** "Someone make a note of that man's bravery."
* ''Film/PlanetOfTheApes2001'': In this 2001 Creator/TimBurton remake, the evil General Thade knocks the chimp Pericles against a wall, breaking his leg; thus cowed, Pericles then crawls back into the relative safety of his cage (much like a kicked dog might do).
* ''Film/PointBreak1991'': InvertedTrope: During a chase scene Bodhi (the bad guy) throws a dog at Johnny (the hero) to slow him down. Johnny kicks the dog out of his way.
* ''Film/ThePokerHouse'': This 2008 indie drama has a pretty brutal one delivered to JenniferLawrence's character after [[spoiler:she is raped.]]
* ''Film/ThePrincessBride'':
** For the first 45 minutes, it appears that Prince Humperdinck, if somewhat a hunting-loving milquetoast that Buttercup doesn't love, is more aloof and uncaring than out-and-out evil...until he tortures Westley to death (well, [[OnlyMostlyDead mostly]]) on Count Rugen's crazy sucking machine, and lies to Buttercup to make her think Westley abandoned her.
** The book is much more to the point on the subject -- the first time we see Humperdinck, he's in his Zoo of Death, where he keeps wild animals for the express purpose of killing them when he's bored.
* ''Film/TheProfessional'': One of Normal Stansfield's men shoots 12 year-old Mathilda's much younger brother. Later, Stansfield threatens to kill an entire room full of children; if his demand hadn't been met, he definitely would have followed through.
* ''Film/{{Purgatory}}'': Throwing knives at the church, and the bandit who tramples Lefty's garden just to be an asshole.
* ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'': Having finally lost track of Indy after an extended truck chase, Colonel Dietrich throws a melon at an off-screen dog. The dog gives up its barking with a yelp. Nazis, eh?
* ''Film/RamboIV'': The Burmese military are shown forcing innocent civilians to walk through mine-infested marshes, raping women, burning down villages, forcing and drafting children in the military, and their leader, [[BigBad Major Tint]], is a [[DepravedHomosexual pedophile]] who rapes a boy off-screen for his own amusement.
* ''Film/RedDog'': Another example with a literal dog occurs in this film: the caretaker's wife shoots Red Dog in an attempt to kill him, but not in a ShootTheDog kind of way.
* ''Film/RedDawn1984'': The first target of the invading Russian Army is a high school with no strategic military significance whatsoever. They also murder a few teachers and students in the process even though they face no resistance from anyone at the time.
* ''Film/RenegadeTrail'': A [[{{Outlaw}} cattle thief]] named Stiff-Hat Bailey does a literal one of these in this 1939 movie, one of the [[{{Cowboy}} Hopalong Cassidy]] series, much to the fury of the dog's young owner.
* ''Film/ReturnToOz'': The Nome King enjoys a long sequence of kick the dog moments as he becomes [[HumansAreBastards steadily more human]]: to begin with, he reveals that his supposedly innocent contest is actually a death trap for Dorothy's friends, and forces Dorothy and the others to keep playing by threatening to incinerate them; then he sends the childlike Jack Pumpkinhead to participate, clearly enjoying Jack's terror; finally, he reveals that he now owns the Ruby Slippers and mockingly congratulates Dorothy for [[NiceJobBreakingItHero letting them fall into his hands.]]
* ''Film/{{Revolution 1985}}'': Using men in place of foxes in a fox hunt is a pointlessly cruel action. It also shows that this is why the British are considered the villains of the story.
* ''Film/RichardIII'': The 1995 film version (the WWII-esque one) has Richard talking to Tyrell while the latter is feeding apples to the military unit's mascot (appropriately, a boar). He hands an apple to Richard, who throws it ''at'' the boar hard enough to make it squeal.
* ''Film/RobinHoodPrinceOfThieves'': The Sheriff of Nottingham: "Cancel the kitchen scraps for lepers and orphans. No more merciful beheadings... and call off Christmas!"
* ''Film/RoboCop1987'': Clarence Boddicker and his gang get one of these near the beginning of the movie, and it's a ''doozy'' -- the sheer brutality with which they murder the protagonist before he is [[WeCanRebuildHim rebuilt]] is enough to catapult these bastards straight across the MoralEventHorizon.
* ''Film/{{Scarface 1983}}'': Sosa's evil is made clear by his lack of qualms about the children that will be caught in a hit's collateral damage.
* ''Film/TheSearchers'': In this classic John Ford western, Creator/JohnWayne is frequently compared to the antagonist -- a Comanche chief named Scar -- but is differentiated in that while Wayne [[PetTheDog pets the dog]] before Indians raid his family's home early in the film, when we later see Scar at his camp before the cavalry raids them, Scar throws a rock off screen at a yapping dog, and we hear a pathetic whimper a second later.
* ''Film/SecretWindow'': One of the first ways in which the protagonist's stalker demonstrates his overall high level of dangerous creepiness is by killing the protagonist's dog...by stabbing him with a screwdriver. Of course, [[spoiler:it turns out it was actually the protagonist ''himself'' who did all that, but the point stands.]]
* ''Film/SevenYearsInTibet'': Chinese officers kicks and smear a sand mandala that the Tibetan monks have been painstakingly working on.
* ''Severed: Forest of the Dead'': In this [[OurZombiesAreDifferent not-quite-zombies zombie movie]], one of the characters, fearful of the violent (and slightly [[AxCrazy unbalanced]]) lumberjacks in the well-defended camp, leaves in the dead of night...and leaves the gate open behind him. He's been kind of a whiny jerk and a pansy up to that point, but that action (leaving the sleeping camp vulnerable to the zombies) ensures his KarmicDeath not too long afterward.
* ''Film/{{Shaft}}'': In this 1970s {{Blaxploitation}} film, the title character grabs one of the BigBad's {{Mooks}} and uses him as a human shield to try and escape. The villain shoots and kills his own henchman. He lets Shaft live only because he has to report back to his employer Bumpy that the BigBad hasn't killed Bumpy's daughter, that he has taken hostage.
* ''Film/TheShawshankRedemption'':
** A number of examples from the Warden. "Give him another month to think about it."
** [[spoiler:Heywood]] did this earlier in the movie, as he taunted an emotionally-overwhelmed prisoner by reeling him in with what starts out sounding reassuring, only to go on to something that is practically the opposite of reassuring.
--->"''Don't you listen to these nitwits, you hear me? This place ain't so bad. Tell you what, I'll introduce you around, make you feel right at home. I know a couple of big old bull queers that'd just [[PrisonRape love to make your acquaintance. Especially that big, white, mushy butt of yours.]]''"
*** That emotionally-overwhelmed prisoner then broke down in tears, and [[spoiler:Heywood]] laughed at this out loud.
* ''Film/{{Shooter}}'': The protagonist sniper reveals that he would have just hid in the wilderness if only the bad guys hadn't [[BerserkButton shot his dog]] first.
* ''Theatre/ShowBoat'': The 1950s version whittles Pete's role down to one of these scenes, taking a slave's necklace on the grounds that she probably stole it, then actually performing his role and mucking things up before being fired.
* ''Film/ShowdownInLittleTokyo'': Yoshida's early murder of Angel after she tries to bribe her way out of being killed for warning one of his victims by screwing him in front of his own men. The coroner later notes that they already got her so high on methamphetamines that she would have been dead in 20 minutes anyway, [[OffWithHisHead decapitating her mid-coitus]] was redundant and done purely out of cruelty (and possibly as a warning). And that's even ''before'' what he puts Minako through...
* ''Film/SingleWhiteFemale'': Done literally, to establish how much of a {{Yandere}} Hedy is for Allie. When the puppy Hedy brought home eats some of Allie's food, Hedy kicks the puppy across the floor, mainly because she's upset that Allie isn't there to eat it.
* ''Animation/SkyBlue'': At the beginning, Locke orders a decaying rig to be jettisoned. When one of the Diggers protests that they need time to evacuate, Locke shoots him and threatens to kill the other if he doesn't comply, thus resulting in the deaths of numerous other Diggers. He also kicks several more dogs ''hard'' at the end, but telling would be spoileriffic.
* ''Film/SnakesOnAPlane'': Has a businessman who grabs another passenger's pet chihuahua and throws it to the snakes in an attempt to buy himself some time. [[AssholeVictim Everyone in the audience likely cheers when,]] [[LaserGuidedKarma a few seconds later,]] [[DeathByPragmatism a snake eats him]].
* ''Film/TheSocialNetwork'': After [[spoiler: Eduardo was kicked out of the company]], Sean decides to rub salt to the wounds by [[spoiler: handing Eduardo his paltry check.]] Even ''[[LackOfEmpathy Mark]]'' felt [[EvenEvilHasStandards that was going too far.]]
* ''Film/SoldierOfOrange'': A bunch of local collaborators bully an old Jewish man by throwing his bicyle into the canal. When Jan sees this he punches them both in the face and throws them into the water too.
* ''Sorry, Haters'': Done literally, as Phoebe, after she [[spoiler:detonates a bomb in a subway station]], throws her pet dog in front of a moving truck on a New York City street.
* ''Film/{{Spawn}}'': Clown literally applies this trope when he attempts to eat Spawn's dog Spaz to get one back at him.
* ''Film/SpiderMan3'': InvokedTrope: Thoman Hayden Church, who played [[NecessarilyEvil the Sandman]], asked the director if he could be shown punching a police dog while fleeing from the cops, so it would be clear that he wasn't an IneffectualSympatheticVillain. (It was only a puppet, but it gets the point across well enough.)
* ''Film/TheSpirit'': The Octopus (the Spirit's nemesis) dons a Nazi uniform and gleefully melts a white fluffy kitten, seemingly just for kicks.
* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
** ''Film/StarTrekNemesis'': Shinzon's MindRape of Troi, seemingly put in the film only to point out that he's a villain to the audience members who hadn't caught on to the fact yet.
** In ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness'', Harrison[[spoiler: /Khan]] has absolutely no reason to [[spoiler: [[WouldHitAGirl crush Carol Marcus's leg]]]], since she was already on the ground and knew damn well she wouldn't be able to do a thing to stop him. [[SickeningCrunch He does it anyway.]]
** In ''Film/StarTrekBeyond'', the BigBad Krall attempts to drain Sulu's life in front of the captured ''Enterprise'' crew to coerce them into surrendering the MacGuffin. [[spoiler: A female crewmember finally relents and gives him what he wanted, only for him to use it to kill her later anyway for no reason other than to demonstrate the MacGuffin's power.]]
* ''Franchise/StarWars''
** The destruction of Alderaan by TheEmpire's Death Star in ''Film/ANewHope''. This one's heinous enough to be MoralEventHorizon material, considering that it was an ''entire planet'' and that Tarkin did it as a YouSaidYouWouldLetThemGo on Leia, who he had moments before given a SadisticChoice.
** In ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'', Jabba the Hutt [[FedToTheBeast feeds Oola, a defiant Twi'lek slave dancer, to his pet rancor]]. While it does set up for Luke's battle with the beast later on, it has little point other than to show how cruel he is.
*** Plus, it means we don't feel so bad when [[spoiler:Bib Fortuna puts poison in the sithspawn's drink (reducing his life expectancy to days), and then Leia garrotes him (reducing his life expectancy to minutes, if not seconds)]].
* ''Film/TheStranger'': This Creator/OrsonWelles film provides a literal example of this trope.
* ''Film/StrangersOnATrain'':
** In this Creator/AlfredHitchcock film, MagnificentBastard Bruno Anthony uses his cigarette to casually puncture a little boy's balloon. Just for the pleasure of being a total dick.
** There's a likely homage in Creator/WesCraven's original ''Film/TheLastHouseOnTheLeft'', wherein we see David Hess as Krug do the exact same before his band of socially and sexually deviant weirdos get down to the more serious business at hand.
* ''Film/StTrinians (2007)'': Has the Minister of Education kick the dog. [[spoiler:Straight into a lawn mower.]]
* ''Film/SuddenImpact'': A literal example: Mick and Kruger's brothers-in-law injure Harry's dog after killing his buddy Horace (it's unclear exactly what they do to the dog, but we see the poor thing limping).
* ''Sunnyside'': Done literally in this Creator/CharlieChaplin silent short when the villain kicks a dog belonging to a young boy. The antagonist repeatedly kicks Charlie himself in the rear throughout the entire film as well.
* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}''
* ''Film/SupermanII'': A boy in a small town taken over by the Phantom Zone criminals makes a break for it on horseback for help. Seeing this disobedience, General Zod almost casually signals Non to stop him, which is done by taking a police car flasher light and throwing it hard and accurately enough to apparently kill both kid and horse with one blow. When a woman wails he was just a boy, Ursa purrs sadistically, "And he will never become a man."
** Let's not forget "evil" Superman in ''Film/SupermanIII'', in which he straightens the Leaning Tower of Pisa and blows out the Olympic Torch, out of ''boredom''. Or is that just {{Superdickery}}?
** [[PokeThePoodle We have another trope for that.]]
* ''Film/SuperMarioBros'': Koopa kicks his pet dinosaur Yoshi.
* ''Film/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet'':
** In order to make the SerialKiller protagonist sympathetic, Christopher Bond and Stephen Sondheim pitted him against Judge Turpin, who is pretty much a dog-kicking machine throughout the play. Among his nastier KickTheDog moments are: having Benjamin Barker, the man who would become Sweeney, transported to Botany Bay for life just so he could get at his wife Lucy, who he wanted for himself (and then raping her at a masked ball that he has the Beadle lure her to, in a crossing of the MoralEventHorizon), the sentencing of an eight-year-old boy to death by hanging, the entire WifeHusbandry plan he has for his teenage ward Johanna, and subsequently throwing her into a madhouse after learning she wants to marry the sailor Anthony Hope instead of him.
** The Beadle, in addition to helping the Judge carry out his MoralEventHorizon, also gets some KickTheDog moments of his own. In the film, he savagely whips Anthony with his cane after he is thrown out on Judge Turpin's orders for "gandering" at Johanna. And in the play, he's even crueler -- he snaps the neck of the poor little bird that was Anthony's gift to Johanna before threatening him with the same if he ever steps foot on their street again.
* In ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1990'', Shredder's already delivering a CurbStompBattle towards the brothers when Raphael asks "Where's Splinter?". Shredder's reply? "Ah, the rat. So, it has a name... It ''had'' a name." When Leo shouts out that [[ThatLiarLies he's lying]], Shredder just smiles evilly and asks "Do I?", which sends Leo into a furious rage.
* ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'':
** Early in ''Film/TheTerminator'', the titular character ''had'' to run over some children's toys to establish that he is evil. Never mind that he'd already killed (at least) two people in exceptionally ruthless fashion. There's also a very literal example, as the humanoid Terminator in Kyle's future flashback uses his machine gun to mow down the guard dogs who detected him, although there's a GoryDiscretionShot.
** In ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'', the T-1000 actually kills John's dog.
** A dumb racist in ''Film/TerminatorSalvation'' self-righteously screams at a frightened Chinese woman to "Speak English!!" on the prisoner transport. He deservingly [[DeathByRacism dies for his arrogance]] later, shot to bloody little pieces by a T600.
* ''Film/TimeBandits'': Evil himself [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXCvyrtVHOc shows us how it is done]], by [[spoiler:not just kicking, but incinerating, Benson the dog.]]
* ''Film/TheToxicAvenger'': In this Troma film, the antagonists take dog-kicking to the extreme with their hobby of running people over in their car for fun and taking pictures of the gore that ensues. The most gruesome/hilarious example is provided in the scene where [[spoiler: the main characters run over a small child riding his bicycle after taunting him and, upon realizing he is not fully dead, reverse the car over his head]]. Furthermore, the attractive females of the crew of villains seem to get sexually aroused by the carnage, so...you know. All pretty much standard fare for a Troma film.
* ''Film/{{Transformers}}'': In the 2007 film, Megatron gets to Kick The ''Human'': while he and Prime recover from a fall during their climactic battle, Megatron casually flicks a fleeing passerby in disgust. It's made somewhat funny that [[BitingTheHandHumor this passerby was in fact the director]], Creator/MichaelBay.
* ''Film/{{U571}}'': In this movie, the captain of the Nazi U-boat orders his men to slaughter survivors from an Allied cargo ship over his crew's protests. On the other hand, [[WarIsHell a more merciful act]] than leaving the survivors to drown or die of thirst.
* ''Film/UnderworldRiseOfTheLycans'': Viktor captures Lucian and sentences him to 30 lashes for betraying his trust. During the lashing scene, when even one lash is brutal enough to Lucian, after 21 of them Viktor remains stiff-necked about how much he ''wants'' Lucian to suffer: "By my count, that's 21. Continue." He even forbids his own daughter to intervene on pain of severe punishment.
* ''Film/UrbanLegend'': The villain ''[[MicrowaveTheDog microwaved]]'' a dog in order to draw one of the victims out to kill him.
* ''WesternAnimation/WalkingWithDinosaurs'' has [[BigBrotherBully Scowler]] attacking Patchi when all the latter did was lead the herd across the frozen lake. Which Scowler lead them across in the first place. But after Scowler mauls Patchi during their fight and shoves him into a ditch, he kicks him out of the herd and leaves him to die. And when Juniper wants to help, he refuses to let her help Patchi and [[IHaveNoSon declares that he doesn't have a brother]].
** Thus, Scowler later gets [[LaserGuidedKarma mauled to near death by Gorgon]] minutes later.
* ''Film/{{Warrior}}'': In this 2011 film: Mad Dog kicks several dogs so that we don't sympathize with him when Tommy humiliates and crushes him in the ring. He's a cocky asshole when he knocks out his first sparring partner, and also dyes his mohawk a camouflage color to mock Tommy's past as a Marine.
* ''Film/WhatEverHappenedToBabyJane'': If you weren't convinced yet that Jane is a little off her rocker, by the time Blanche's pet bird goes missing, you'll be quite assured to know Jane's mental status when [[spoiler: she kills the bird and puts it on a dinner plate to horrify her disabled sister]].
* ''What Just Happened'': This movie has a ShowWithinAShow that everyone hates because the dog gets shot at the end. It shows the jaded audience, desensitized to all forms of human-on-human violence, bored in a movie theater. The antagonist shoots the protagonist and the audience couldn't care less. And then the antagonist shoots the protagonist's ''dog'' and everyone is mortified and scarred for life.
* ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'': Judge Doom demonstrates what The Dip does to Toons (and his general attitude toward them) by melting a tiny, adorable shoe toon that had cuddled up next to his foot in it.
* ''Film/TheWildBunch'': Angel, the only Mexican in the title band, has been handed over to Mapache after he uses one of the crates of guns meant for the General to arm his people and give them a chance against the General due to being ratted out by the mother of his former girlfriend, whom Angel had gunned down in a fit of jealousy upon finding her with Mapache. When the other members visit Mapache's village, they come across a sickening scene in which Angel is being tortured by [[WhatADrag being dragged along the ground from a rope tied to the fender of Mapache's new car]] to the joyous laughter of the villagers. Pike and Dutch are both utterly appalled by this despicable act:
-->'''Pike:''' God I hate to see that!
-->'''Dutch:''' No more than I do.
* ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'': It was clear from the first second the Wicked Witch of the West appeared that she was ... well, ''wicked'', particularly when she threatened Dorothy's poor dog in the TropeNamer for AndYourLittleDogToo. However, for most of the movie, she's more of a DesignatedVillain, since all she wants is to get her sister's shoes back. When she really gets solidified as evil comes at one of three points:
** When she orders one of her {{Mooks}} to drown Toto anyway, even after Dorothy agreed to do whatever the Witch said, a KickTheDog moment that involved an actual dog. Or ...
** When she locks Dorothy in the room with the evil hourglass (the one that would kill her once it ran out) and the crystal ball, makes Aunt Em appear in the latter, and then sadistically mocks her once she's completely broken down. Or...
** When she finally has Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion cornered, she tells Dorothy she will be ForcedToWatch. She gloats: "The last to go will see the first three go before her." Even the most generous AlternateCharacterInterpretation can't make that anything but pure sadism.
* ''Film/XMen'':
** ''Film/XMenTheLastStand'': While Magneto may have been a complex AntiVillain with sympathetic goals, his slide toward the MoralEventHorizon is punctuated with increasingly cruel kick-the-dog moments. In particular is when Mystique [[spoiler: is hit with a "cure dart" and turns suddenly into a beautiful, stricken, and supremely vulnerable human woman. And then he promptly abandons her without a second thought.]] Not to mention the fact that she had just ''saved him''.
*** He also gets major dog-kicking points in the scene where his forces fight against the government. He uses ChessMotifs, telling his protege, Pyro for them to wait until the pawns (his other followers) exhaust themselves. In this moment, like the above scene, Magneto violates his own standards of decency, since if nothing else, [[WellIntentionedExtremist he supposedly cares about mutants.]]
** Agent Zero killing the elderly couple who housed Logan in ''Film/XMenOriginsWolverine''.
** In ''Film/TheWolverine'', Shingen contemptuously tells Yukio, who has been friends with Shingen's daughter Mariko since childhood, that she's nothing more than a "plaything" that Mariko has now outgrown.
* ''Film/TheYoungVictoria'': After violently manhandling [[UsefulNotes/QueenVictoria Princess Victoria]], Sir John Conroy ''actually'' kicks her dog, Dash, as she storms from the room.
----
-->(Throws ball on house's roof)\\
'''''GO GET IT!''''' Hahahaha!

* ''Film/TheDescent'': Juno gets a few of these, such as [[spoiler:cowardly leaving her friend who she accidentally stabbed to die slowly and painfully.]] It is also revealed that [[spoiler:she was having an affair with the main character's deceased husband.]] This was before she becomes a fairly heroic uber-BadAss.

** In ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'', Jabba the Hutt [[FedToTheBeast feeds Oola, a defiant Twi'lek slave dancer, to his pet rancor]]. While it does set up for Luke's battle with the beast later on, it has little point other then to show how cruel he is.

* ''Film/TheSearchers'': In this classic John Ford western, JohnWayne is frequently compared to the antagonist -- a Comanche chief named Scar -- but is differentiated in that while Wayne [[PetTheDog pets the dog]] before Indians raid his family's home early in the film, when we later see Scar at his camp before the cavalry raids them, Scar throws a rock off screen at a yapping dog, and we hear a pathetic whimper a second later.

* ''Film/{{Hondo}}'': Apache warrior Silva kills the title character's dog out of spite. Suffice to say that killing JohnWayne's canine companion is not a good idea.

* ''Film/AliceInWonderland'':

** Barbosa gets one in the first film, when he maroons Jack and Elizabeth, but refuses to give them a second loaded pistol - he expects Jack to do the honorable thing and shoot Elizabeth, and then starve to death himself.

** Barbossa in the fourth film. When his ship and crew are being swarmed by mermaids, he refuses to help or even ''recognize'' their plight, passing it off as "seagulls nesting" when the officers point out their crew's screams of terror. Admittedly, it's not like he could have actually saved them, but it was still pretty cold.