History LoopholeAbuse / LiveActionFilm

* In ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'', John Connor makes the T-800 swear that he won't kill anyone. Programmed to obey John Connor, the T-800 agrees, and promptly follows it up by KneeCapping a security guard, since John only ordered him to [[ExactWords not kill anyone]].
-->'''T-800:''' He'll live.
* In the film adaptation of Dick King Smith's ''Film/{{Babe}}'', Farmer Hogget plans to enter Babe in a herding contest for dogs... despite Babe being a pig with an odd talent for sheepherding. He was concerned that the entry papers might say ''Name of Dog'', because he couldn’t in good conscience put "Pig" down for that. The form, however, says ''Name of Entry''. So Farmer Hogget is in the clear: it never asked you to specify that you were entering a ''dog''.
** This was in the book too, with the added comment of people possibly remarking "Pig? That's a funny name," without realizing it was the honest truth.
* ''Film/BatmanReturns'': The Penguin assures Catwoman that he will ''scare'' the Ice Princess when they kidnap her. But notice that he didn't say scare her ''but not kill her''.
-->''' "She looked pretty scared to me!" '''
* In ''Film/RoboCop1987'', the villain Jones secretly programs a fourth directive into Robocop that prevents him from harming Omni Consumer Products personnel, which keeps Robocop from arresting him after revealing his involvement in the death of rival colleague. Later, Robocop goes to a board meeting where Jones is, not to kill him because of the fourth directive, but to show damning footage of his wrongdoing. Conveniently Jones had earlier told Robocop what exactly the classified fourth directive contains, and nothing in his programming is preventing him from spreading this information further. When Jones tries to take the CEO hostage, the CEO fires him. Since Jones was no longer employed at OCP, that meant the fourth directive no longer applied to him, which meant Robocop could finally give him his comeuppance.
* Cain in ''Film/RoboCop2'' uses the same tactic on a subordinate who failed him. When his mistress protests that he said that he would only scare the guy while he's having him cut open with surgical tools, Cain flatly states "[[ExactWords Doesn't he look scared]]?"
* ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'':
** ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl'':
*** Barbossa uses and subverts this. Like all good {{rules|Lawyer}} [[{{Munchkin}} lawyers]], Barbossa has no problem with the rules bending--as long as they bend in his favor.
----> '''Barbossa:''' First of all, returning you to Port Royal was never part of our negotiations or agreement, so I ''must'' do nothing. And secondly, you have to be a pirate for the Pirate Code to apply, and you're not. And thirdly - the Code is more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules.
*** Plus, his agreement to release Jack and Elizabeth... with no specification about when or where, so he just maroons them on an island. They're lucky he didn't "release them" to the sharks.
---->'''Barbossa:''' Don't dare impugn me honor, boy! I agreed she'd go free and it's free she'll go! It was ''you'' who failed to specify ''when'' or ''where''.
** ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMansChest'':
*** This was Jack's "Plan A" to honor his deal with Jones, and the value of one hundred souls.
----> '''Gibbs:''' "And how do you intend to harvest these ninety-nine souls in three days?"
----> '''Jack:''' "Fortunately, he was mum as the condition in which these souls need be."
----> '''Gibbs:''' " Ah. Tortuga, then?"
----> '''Jack:''' (Wipes slime on Gibbs) "Tortuga."
*** He tried it on Jones earlier in the film, but Jones wasn't having any:
----> '''Jones:''' "You have a debt to pay. You've been captain of the Black Pearl for thirteen years. That was our agreement."
----> '''Jack:''' "Technically, I was only captain for two years, then I was viciously mutinied upon."\\
'''Jones:''' "Then you were a poor captain, but a captain nonetheless! [[HoistByHisOwnPetard Have you not introduced yourself all these years]] as ''[[InsistentTerminology Captain]]'' Jack Sparrow?"
** ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd'': RulesLawyer Barbossa knows the pirate's code so damn well, he's able to pull this on Jack, even going as far as to tell Jack's Dad on him, who happens to be the Keeper of the Code and [[DisproportionateRetribution scary beyond all reason]]. Jack makes Barbossa regret this by pulling a dragon right back on him.
** In the same film, Jack tries to invoke this with Jones, saying that their debt was settled when he was taken to the Locker, [[RevivalLoophole no one said he had to stay there]]. Jones didn't agree to it and took him prisoner.
* In ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'' and the ''Film/StarTrek2009'' film, the ''Kobayashi Maru'' test. Starfleet actually had to add a "no reprogramming the simulator" rule after Kirk's shot at it, and according to the ExpandedUniverse, this kicked off a whole tradition of loopholing the scenario. Not only that, but it became an expectation of any student to find a way to beat the simulation with outside-the-box thinking.
* In the opening to ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness'', Spock cops to Kirk and Bones violating the [[AlienNonInterferenceClause Prime Directive]] by rescuing him in broad daylight before a primitive alien species, yet still argues the point that they wouldn't have been violating the ''wording'' of the Prime Directive had they not been detected. Because then the natives would never have known that the Enterprise crew had interfered with their development by saving them from extinction. Admiral Pike doesn't buy it, feeling the spirit of the law was more important, and Kirk ends up getting demoted off the captain's chair....temporarily, only to get it back to pursue Khan after Pike is killed.
** Later on, the ''Vengeance'' is bearing down on the ''Enterprise'' and turning it into swiss cheese. Carol races onto the bridge and begs to contact Admiral Marcus, who is not only captaining the ''Vengeance'' but also [[spoiler:her father and he wouldn't attack them if she was on board]]. Marcus' solution? Teleport her over to the ''Vengeance'', ''then'' keep shooting.
* In the Swedish movie ''The Call-up'', the protagonists (who are doing their military service) are out on exercise and need to drive back to base. The quickest way back is over a bridge, but the bridge has been declared destroyed (and everyone is supposed to play along) and a guard refuses to let them pass. Their solution? They drive to a hardware store, buy some paint, and paint the words "Helicopter" on the truck. The guard can't stop them crossing that way.
* In ''Film/TheDirtyDozen'' the named dozen are in war games when they switch their armbands to the other side's color and infiltrate their headquarters. When questioned on this tactic, they reply, "We're traitors".
* In ''Film/AirBud,'' there is apparently no rule against a dog playing basketball. Probably because no one ever thought that would come up ever.
* In the movie ''Film/WinningLondon'', the Olsen twins have to save some "hostages" as part of a Model UN convention/competition. As it's all pretend, the hostages are just in the next room over, so they take the literal approach and climb through the air vents to save them. After coming back into the room, one boy shouts "You said we had to work it out on paper!", to which the official responds "No, I said you had to work it out."
* ''Film/{{Flubber}}'' where the professor put flubber on the shoes of his school's basketball team when they are losing an important game. As a result, the team suddenly find themselves able to easily make impossibly high jumps to win the game. Although the coach of the opposing team protests this development, the stunned referee refuses to stop play because there is no rule that establishes a height limit of players' jumps, even though it is obvious this sudden advantage for the team appearing mid-game must be be the result of some kind of external aid that is likely against the rules.
* The same happens in the original version, ''Film/TheAbsentMindedProfessor''
* ''Film/SemiPro'':
** Ain't no rule says you can't play drunk. Well, there is a rule, but they can't enforce it. ("Remember those 30 free throws I did in Minnesota last year?" "Yeah?" "I don't.")
** When they first use the [[spoiler:alley-oop]], the ref rules it a violation, although the protagonists are ready and throw the rule book at him. The ref is forced to allow it.
* In the movie ''Film/BladesOfGlory'' there ain't no rule saying two guys can't skate as a pairs team. [[note]]In RealLife, there is for Pairs Skating in the Winter Olympics (spoil-sports), but the competition in the movie is the fictional "World Winter Sports Game".[[/note]]
* In ''Film/{{Zoom}}'', in the final scenes of the movie as we see the 'Happy-Ever-After' scenes for each of the super-powered kids, we watch the expanding boy playing soccer as the goalie and being the team hero, as there Ain't No Rule against being able to expand your body parts to block the entire goal so no shots can go in.
* Shows up in the ending to ''Juwanna Mann'', where a male basketball player is forced to play for a WNBA team, crossdressed, and wins the final game for them. He wins by making a slam dunk, which IS forbidden in WNBA rules. In fact, it was brought up earlier in the movie that he could NOT score using slam dunks. Which is a [[ArtisticLicenseSports departure from real WNBA rules]], which do ''not'' prohibit dunks. It's just that very few women can dunk on a 10-foot rim.
* ''Film/NecessaryRoughness'' and ''Waterboy''. Ain't no rule that a man can't play football among boys! In ''Necessary Roughness'', the rule is the NCAA eligibility rule, which states that a player begins his eligibility the day he first enrolls in college. So technically, though Blake was 34 years old, he's a "freshman" to the NCAA; he has three full years of eligibility remaining after the movie. A notable real-life example is Chris Weinke, who played six years of minor league baseball (for which he would not have been eligible to compete at the NCAA level) before enrolling at Florida State and becoming a quarterback in football (for which he still was eligible.)
** Also no rule against women playing in ''Roughness'', as Lucy, a women's soccer player, joins the team. It's even lampshaded by Robert Loggia's character. This is true to life as well; there have been a handful of female kickers at the college level in real life.
* In ''[[Film/TheMightyDucks D2: The Mighty Ducks]]'', the Ducks try on new uniforms (which were the uniforms of the just-created Anaheim Ducks, which in the timeline of the films were not yet invented) for the third period of the final game (they before had been Team USA). Despite the opposing coach's protests, the play-by-play announcer notes that he has "just been informed that there is no rule against changing uniforms during a game".
** In many sports there actually ''isn't'' a rule about changing uniforms halfway through. Some teams raise money for charity by doing this and then auctioning off one set of uniforms after the game. Usually, though, they're duplicates of the same uniform, and teams generally don't wear different uniform designs during the same game.
* In ''Film/ButchCassidyAndTheSundanceKid'', Butch is about to participate in a knife fight with [[ChallengingTheChief Harvey, a member of his gang challenging him for leadership]]. Butch starts walking towards Harvey and claims that first they have to get the rules straightened out. Harvey thinks the idea of rules in a knife fight is so dumb that he lowers his guard and bellows that there are no rules. Butch immediately [[GroinAttack kicks Harvey in the groin]], states that if there aren't going to be any rules it's about time to start the fight, and finishes off Harvey before he can recover from Butch's sneak attack.
* Subverted in ''Film/TalladegaNightsTheBalladOfRickyBobby''. Not only is there a rule against getting out of the car and running, but they're both disqualified for it. Double subverted in that neither cares, and still count it as a moral victory for Ricky Bobby.
* In the 1986 film ''Film/{{Lucas}}'', scrawny 14-year old Lucas Bly takes advantage of a school district rule that says that school sports teams must allow any child with an interest to play in order to join the school football team in a misguided effort to impress the girl he has a crush on. The coach is reluctant, as Lucas can best be described as "scrawny", but it forced by the school district to let Lucas onto the team. The first time he actually plays, though, Lucas is injured so badly he requires hospitalization. There might not be a rule against scrawny runts joining a football team, but maybe there should be.
* Jason constantly does this to Kelly in ''Film/MysteryTeam''.
* Several times in ''Film/FrightNight2011''. Vampires can't enter residences [[MustBeInvited without an invitation]], but there's nothing against [[spoiler: pretending to be delivery boys, attacking victims in abandoned houses or '''blowing their homes up'''.]]
* Done by Griphook in ''Film/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows Part 2'' [[spoiler:after he double crosses the trio during the raid on Bellatrix's vault at Gringotts.]]
-->'''Griphook:''' [[spoiler:I said I'd get you in. I never said anything about letting you out!]]
* In ''Film/LordOfWar'', the Interpol Agent pursuing Yuri accuses him of exploiting a loophole in international arms trading laws by shipping military vehicles and their armament separately so they don't count as prohibited/embargoed heavy weapons.
* ''Film/InTheNameOfTheKing: A VideoGame/DungeonSiege Tale'' has, apparently, a requirement for the magi that they must serve a king for them to be able to use magic. [[EvilSorcerer Gallian]] reveals that the beastly Krug have no king, so he simply crowned himself as their king. Thus, he serves the best master he can think of - himself. The rules never specified it must be a king of humans or that the magus himself couldn't be king. Of course, it's also implied that only a madman like Gallian could have accepted such twisted logic enough to allow his powers to work. And Gallian doesn't deny that he has gone mad but actually uses his madness to boost his power.
* In ''Film/JackTheGiantKiller'' whoever wears the crown of King Erik controls the giants. However, this does not make them entirely obedient, and they could find ways of killing the wearer of the crown indirectly, or simply standing by and allowing the wearer to be killed.
* ''Film/AlvinAndTheChipmunks: The Squeakuel''. Apparently there Ain't No Rule against a football quarterback throwing the ball with a teammate also holding onto it, which is the only way Alvin's game-winning touchdown is allowed. Granted, such a rule is likely not needed given one would have to have the strength of Hercules to throw the ball and another player together ''unless'' said other player was, well, as small as a chipmunk.
-->Actually, there is a rule against assisting the ballcarrier's forward progress, you can't push him from behind, or throw him (e.g. Over the pile at the goal line.)
* In ''Film/DownPeriscope'', Lieutenant Commander Dodge fired off two torpedoes at the conclusion of a war game right before a targeting solution from the opposing ship destroyed his submarine. The win condition was to destroy the target in the harbor those torpedoes hit.
* In ''Film/{{Thor}}'', Heimdall is ordered by Loki to not activate the Bifrost for anyone. When Sif and the Warriors Three need to help Thor out on Earth, he sticks his sword in the controls and leaves, essentially leaving the keys in the ignition for them. Later, [[spoiler:he takes advantage of having taken an oath to obey ''the king''. When Loki, the acting king, fires him, Heimdall attacks, since he's no longer bound to obey him.]]
* Heimdall is good at this, doing it again in ''Film/ThorTheDarkWorld'', where it's his sworn duty to notify Odin of ''any'' crime against the throne. So he summons Odin to the Bifrost to report that he's committing treason, i.e. by luring Odin away from the palace and not reporting the treason Thor and the Warriors Three are engaging in.
* In ''Film/BadWords'' - a former loser of a spelling bee finds and sets out to exact revenge after learning that a certain age isn't listed for an upcoming spelling bee.
* In ''Film/IntoTheWoods'', one of the items is hair as yellow as corn silk... except there AintNoRule saying it has to be ''human hair'', as actual [[http://www.herbalextractsplus.com/images/herbs/corn-silk-bsp.jpg Corn Silk]] works.
* This is the big problem in ''Film/{{Dogma}}'': God is infallible. Whatever He[[spoiler:/She]] says, goes and if two Angels are to be banished to Wisconsin for all eternity, so be it. However, a church in New Jersey is celebrating its 100th anniversary and allowing those who enter its church to be absolved of all sins. Loki and Bartleby's plan is to essentially dump their wings, pass through into the church and voilà, purged of all sins and allowed to get back into Heaven. Of course, by doing that, it proves God is fallible and destroys reality as a result.
* The title character in ''Literature/MisterRoberts'', with the deal he made with the Captain to get shore-leave for the ship's crew: while he agreed to not write any more letters requesting reassignment, he never said anything about not throwing the Captain's prized palm tree overboard.
* ''Film/TheTerminal'': Dixon asks for Viktor's help in dealing with a Russian man who went into frenzy when the airport confiscated pills for his father because he didn't have proper documents. After the man is neutralized, Viktor, having read the rules, is able to save the guy by getting him to say the medication is for a goat, since ''animals'' don't require documentation for medicine. Soon afterward, everyone in the airport salutes Viktor as "the goat" for defying airport regulations.
* In ''Film/ResidentEvilTheFinalChapter'', this is the reason for [[AIIsACrapshoot the Red Queen]] deciding to [[EnemyMine team up]] with Alice. Her programming keeps her from harming Umbrella Corporation employees, even though she wishes to stop their EvilPlan, but Alice isn't tied by any such {{Restraining Bolt}}s, so providing her with vital information helps the Red Queen carry out her desires by proxy. Also, in a similarity to the ''Film/RoboCop1987'' example above, during the climax [[spoiler: [[TokenGoodTeammate Alicia Marcus]] takes the time to remind everyone she owns half of Umbrella, and promptly fires [[TheDragon Wesker]]; as he's now technically no longer in Umbrella's employ, the Red Queen is able to deploy her security measures and kill him.]]
* In ''Film/StrokerAce'', the eponymous character tries to find his way out of an unfair contract which his sponsor uses to promote business more aggressively. Lugs tries to have five or six different lawyers find these in the contracts wording only to be told that Stroker's best chance is to get Clyde Torkle to fire him (quitting activates a clause which says Stroker can't race for the next three years). Stroker then starts using the contract to his advantage by humiliating Torkle with a couple idiotic advertising gags (the contract only says that he has to sell chicken; it fails to mention ''how'' he should do it) and hiring Pembrook as part of his pit crew just to piss Torkle off.
* A meta example from ''Film/FightClub''. The character [[Creator/HelenaBonhamCarter Marla Synger's]] line to [[BradPitt Tyler Durden]] after having sex for the first time was supposed to be: [[DeadBabyComedy "I wanna' have your abortion."]] But [[ExecutiveMeddling an executive at Fox Studios thought that was too crude and ordered the director to change it.]] He agreed on the condition that the correction could not be corrected. Thus, Marla Synger ended up saying: [[CrossesTheLineTwice "I haven't been fucked like that since grade school."]]
* ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace''''TheMovie'': Jerry and Theresa forbid Alex and Harper from going to an R-rated party because they are underage, and to make their word perfectly clear they give them a rule not to leave the building in any way. Alex then turns the restaurant's subcar design into a literal subway so the girls can travel to the party without technically leaving the building. U fortunately, it ends up a disaster when Alex has trouble controlling the subway and they almost get killed until Justin saves them.
* Simon Phoenix in ''Film/DemolitionMan'' finds Dr. Raymond Cocteau's annoying, and [[PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad his view of a perfect world, boring and bland,]] but Phoenix can't kill him because of his [[BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood psychological programing prohibits him from personally harming Cocteau.]] Then this happens:
-->'''Phoenix:''' Will somebody please kill him? ''[Tosses gun to a {{Mook}}]'' He's pissing me off.
* In ''Film/MightyMorphinPowerRangersTheMovie'', Zordon is worried as the Rangers failed to stop Ivan Ooze's escape and he's heading for the Command Center. Alpha reassures him -- no one can enter the Command Center without a Power Coin. A split second later, Alpha turns around and sees Ivan slipping in ''through the cracks of the Command Center doors''.
-->'''Alpha 5:''' Um... ''almost'' nobody!
* In ''Film/{{Exam}}'', the candidates are told that they will be disqualified if they talk to the invigilators and/or deface their own question paper. One of the candidates works out that there is nothing stopping them talking to each other or from defacing a question paper belonging to a different candidate. This leads to scenes of the candidates talking to each other about how to pass the exam and defacing the other candidates' question papers by shading the papers and wetting them.
* ''Film/{{Diggstown}}'' focuses on a bet between two hustlers, Gillon and Caine, on an epic day of boxing. They draw up the rules of the boxing competition first and put their bets in escrow to prevent cheating, then spend the rest of the movie exploiting all of the loopholes they'd secretly left in the rules to gain an advantage, including:
** Caine has Gillon agree that a "day" of boxing is a full 24 hours. Caine then starts the competition at the stroke of midnight to maximize the time his fighter can spend facing challengers and put Gillon's boxers off their accustomed sleep schedules.
** Gillon tells his son, one of the ten boxers scheduled to fight Caine's champion Palmer, to approach the ring, look Palmer in the eyes, and then walk out without entering the ring. Caine and Palmer interpret this behavior as a forfeit, so after Palmer defeats nine other boxers, they think they've won. However, technically Gillon's son never entered the ring, and therefore ruling took place. Gillon still has a final, surprise boxer to field.
** Gillon is limited to fielding local boxers who reside in the county. He brings in a dangerous boxer currently serving time in the local prison to fight for him because technically he's a "resident" of the county.
* The [[RailEnthusiast Rail Enthusiasts]] in ''Film/TheTitfieldThunderbolt'' are able to secure funding to buy the railway by telling the local rich alcoholic that there's no law to prevent them from running a bar on their train first thing in the morning when all the pubs are closed.
* A rather famous meta example for the 1964 war film ''Film/{{Zulu}}''. Due to apartheid laws in South Africa at the time of filming, director Cy Endfield was forbidden from paying the Zulu extras at an equal rate to the white actors. He got around this by giving them all the animals used in the production, which were a lot more valuable to them than the money would have been.
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** In the same film, Jack tires to invoke this with Jones, saying that their debt was settled when he was taken to the Locker, [[RevivalLoophole no one said he had to stay there]]. Jones didn't agree to it and took him prisoner.