History KickTheDog / Film

** Also, the Red Queen having a talking frog 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.

* ''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.

* In ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'', Shredder's already delivering a CurbStompBattle towards the brothers when Raphael "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 and asks "Do I?", which sends Leo into a furious rage.

* ''Film/PointBreak'': 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/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.]]

** ''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''.\\\

* ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'': Judge Doom demonstrates The Dip by melting a tiny, adorable shoe toon in it.

* In ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'', Shredder's already delivering a CurbStompBattle towards the brothers when Leonardo coldly declares "Where's Splinter?" Shredder's reply? "So, it has a name... It ''had'' a name." When Leo shouts out that he's lying, Shredder just laughs and asks "Am I?", which sends Leo into a RoaringRampageOfRevenge.

* ''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. [[CaptainObvious Because he's a jerk]].

* ''Film/TheYoungVictoria'': After violently manhandling [[QueenVicky Princess Victoria]], Sir John Conroy ''actually'' kicks her dog, Dash, as she storms from the room.

* ''Film/ConAir'': Designated JerkAss Malloy has two of these in one scene, where he speeds up in his ridiculously expensive car (which of course, despite not being an act of maliciousness or cruelty or the like automatically makes him a JerkAss) and parks, you guessed it, in the handicap parking space.

* ''Film/InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers'' (''The Invasion''): 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/TheHungerGamesMockingjay The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1]]'': President Snow orders the District 8 hospital firebombed for associating with Katniss.

* ''Film/CampXRay'': Flawed protagonist Private Cole savagely kicks a detainee after he has been restrained by guards.

* 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 "hot box" for trying to escape.

** Agent Zero killing the elderly that housed Logan in ''Film/XMenOriginsWolverine''.

* ''{{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/HarryPotter and the Chamber of Secrets'': Near the end, [[MagnificentBastard Lucius Malfoy]] literally kicks the Dobby.

* ''InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers'' (''The Invasion''): 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]].

* ''ALittlePrincess'': In this 1995 film, both Miss Minchin and Lavinia are established as bad'uns when they independently bully the {{woobie}} Ermingarde.

* ''ThePokerHouse'': This 2008 indie drama has a pretty brutal one delivered to JenniferLawrence's character after [[spoiler:she is raped.]]

* ''Renegade Trail'': 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.

* ''Theatre/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.

* ''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.

* ''{{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.

* ''TheStranger'': This OrsonWelles film provides a literal example of this trope.

** There's a likely homage in Creator/WesCraven's original ''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.
* ''StTrinians (2007)'': Has the Minister of Education kick the dog. [[spoiler:Straight into a lawn mower.]]

* ''Film/BackToTheFuture Part II'': 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/DogSoldiers'': Early on, Captain Ryan, a Special Forces commander, ironically fulfils 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/CampXRay'': Flawed protagonist Private Cole savagely kicks a detainee after he has been restrained by guards.

* ''Film/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.

** Has a literal example. When the dog of the homeless man Patrick Bateman has just shot 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.

* ''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/Garfied}}: [[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.

* 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.