History Main / BusFullOfInnocents

* ''Series/{{Supergirl|2015}}'' reveals herself to the public by saving a plane full of innocents.

%%* The second season of ''Series/VeronicaMars'' revolves around the Bus Full of Innocents crashing.

* In ''Series/WarpZoneProject'', a CardCarryingVillain that is being held up by a super-hero that supposed to let him go sooner or later asks if the emprisonment will last any longer because he's late to take a school bus hostage.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'': "[[Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsS1E3ShadowOfMalevolence Shadow of]] ''[[Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsS1E3ShadowOfMalevolence Malevolence]]''" centers around the Republic's efforts to keep a powerful Separatist warship from destroying an unarmed medical center holding only medical staff and badly injured soldiers.
* ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'': In "My Girl", Superman crashes a weapons deal by one of Lex Luthor's lackeys. Despite the guns being futuristic laser guns that cause things to explode, [[ShootingSuperman they prove to have the same effect on Superman as any other gun]]. The lackey then spots a train in the distance heading towards a bridge and uses the gun to blow that up instead, forcing Superman to save the train while the lackey gets away.
* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'': In the episode "Legends", a literal bus full of nuns is on a collision course with a truck full of dynamite. Rescuing the nuns distracts the Flash enough to get him captured by [[CaptainErsatz Dr. Blizzard]] after he had easily won their fight. However, given the reveal of the next episode, [[spoiler:the actual villain had likely warped reality to make it so Dr. Blizzard wouldn't lose before he was supposed to. Or the actual villain warped reality to prevent the Justice League from figuring out the truth.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/SWATKats'' did this twice.
** In "The Giant Bacteria", the titular monster actually eats the subway car full of passengers.
** In "The Deadly Pyramid", a giant {{mummy}} threatens a bus full of tourists.
* On one episode of ''WesternAnimation/CloneHigh'', Abe is so sleep-deprived that he almost crashes his car into a bus full of pandas.
* In a ''WesternAnimation/Ben10'' episode, Kevin (as Upgrade) cuts the brakes of a cable car with people and sends it to fall into the ocean. Ben saves them.
* In ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution'' episode "Growing Pains", a car hanging over the side of a bridge is about to fall on a school bus full of kids. Scott, Kitty and Kurt start arguing over whether or not to help, because they're afraid of revealing themselves. In the end they decide to help after seeing the car beginning to go over the edge. They end up saving the kids and the man in the car.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' Treehouse of Horror IX, one of Snake's three strikes is for blowing up a bus full of nuns (but he insists it was self-defense).

* ''WesternAnimation/KappaMikey'': The in-universe show ''[=LilyMu=]'' had an episode where Gonard [[SadisticChoice holds a bus full of schoolchildren and Lily hostage over the side of a bridge]], and Mikey is expected to save both while Mitsuki and Guano deal with Gonard from their airship. He fails to hold both up at once, even though the bus is a prop that even Guano can lift. After an adventure where Mikey tries to prove he's tough, the scene is reshot to a more logical solution where Mitsuki uses the airship to save the bus while Mikey saves Lily and deals with Gonard.

* ''Film/TheSiege'' plays this trope ''twice''. The first time, some Islamic terrorists detonate a paint bomb on an MTA bus, and no one gets hurt. This is a warning. The second time, a group of armed individuals take a different bus hostage with real explosives. Hubbard is able to negotiate the release of a group of children from the bus, but the terrorists proceed to blow up the bus just as a group of elderly passengers are being released.

* The main action of the movie ''Film/{{Speed}}'' has the main characters on a Bus Full of Innocents that can't go under [[UsefulNotes/AmericanCustomaryMeasurements 50 miles an hour]] without going kaboom.
* ''Film/CemeteryMan'' involves a bus full of Boy Scouts crashing. They all come back as [[ZombieApocalypse zombie]] [[RuleOfFunny Boy Scouts]].
* Used hilariously in ''Film/BatmanTheMovie''. Batman is trying to dispose of a CartoonBomb, but there are innocent bystanders ''everywhere'' he tries to throw it away.
** "Some days, you just can't get rid of a bomb!"
** There's a possible parody of this on ''WesternAnimation/WallaceAndGromit: WesternAnimation/AMatterOfLoafAndDeath''. First there's a pond full of ducklings, then a pair of the compulsory nuns giving away boxes of kittens, and finally: the [[UsefulNotes/WarsOfTheRoses Yorkshire]] [[AcceptableTargets border]].
* Used as a humorous LampshadeHanging in ''Film/ShortCircuit'':
-->'''Dr. Marner:''' What if (Number 5) decides to melt down a bus full of nuns? How would you write the headline on that?\\
'''Ben Jabituya:''' Nun soup?\\
'''Newton Crosby:''' ''horrified, covers Ben's mouth'' Ben!
* Played straight in ''Film/MightyJoeYoung'' to perfect effect and the added bonus of the title character saving himself from Death Row. [[JerkAss Who]] would want to shoot him after he saves more than a dozen orphans from a burning building?

* The opening scene of the movie ''Meltdown'' (also known as ''Film/HighRisk'') has the hero trying to disarm a bomb that's been attached to a bus not only filled with schoolkids, but also has his wife on board. [[spoiler: However, he cuts the wrong wire and the bus blows up, killing everyone inside. Yeah, it's not a very cheerful start.]]
* ''Film/DirtyHarry'' used a school bus full of children as the setting for the film's climax, in which Scorpio held them all hostage as our hero chose to disobey orders to pay him his ransom and simply leaps on the school bus himself.
* This trope nearly happens in ''Film/MyLifeInRuins'', but the bus is not yet hanging from the cliff, the driver manages to stop it just in time.
* The climax of ''Film/TheOxfordMurders'' involves a threat to an actual bus full of innocents.
* In ''Film/HoboWithAShotgun'', one of the {{BigBad}}s torches a bus full of elementry school children to [[MoralEventHorizon show that he means business]]. No, no one saves them, and yes, we do see a tiny charred corpse.
* In ''Film/{{Swordfish}}'', the VillainProtagonist has loaded all of his hostages, himself and his henchmen on a transit bus that the police have provided. The absurdity of this is [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by one of the police officers, who point out there's no where the bus can drive that the cops can't follow. At least, until [[spoiler:a helicopter shows up and picks up the bus, carrying it off into the air]].
* The plot of ''Film/DemolitionMan'' is kicked-off when the hero fails to save a bus full of innocents. [[spoiler: He regains his confidence when he learns saving the bus was impossible no matter what he did.]]
* In ''Film/ManOfSteel'', young Clark is aboard such a bus when he saves his classmates from drowning.
* In the {{Film/Apocalypse}} film series movie ''Revelation'', Thorold Stone investigates a bomb explosion that killed a bus full of school children, believing it to be the work of the Haters (the One Nation Earth's name for the group of underground Christians that emerged during the Tribulation), but it turns out to be an inside job by One Nation Earth agents.
* Unsurprisingly this appears in ''Film/InvasionUSA1985''. The evil communist-led terrorists plant a bomb on a school bus, but Creator/ChuckNorris tears it off the bus while driving past.
* ''Film/IndependenceDayResurgence''. Julius Levinson foolishly drives a schoolbus with children into Area 51, figuring it's the safest place to be (the aliens tried to destroy it in the last movie, so he should know better). [[spoiler:Instead the bus ends up being chased by a [[{{Kaiju}} giant queen alien]], who's rather pissed off after its spaceship got destroyed and is apparently intent on taking it out on the first humans it sees.]]

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* ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02'': During the first scuffle with the Daemon Corps, [=SkullSatamon=] lifts a bus full of schoolchildren and threatens to throw it. At this point he's pretty much already routed the heroes, so he's doing it for no reason other than shits and giggles.
* In the ''Anime/PokemonMewtwoReturns'' special, Mewtwo saves a bus full of travelers from falling off Mt. Quena during a storm. He states he was simply ensuring no meddling rescue parties would prod into his and his clones' lives had there been an accident.
* ''Anime/MarvelFutureAvengers'': After hijacking the Hulk Buster armor, the Green Goblin shows his callous disregard for innocent bystanders by using the armor to try and kill the people inside a bus.

* In an early issue of ''ComicBook/YoungJustice'', ComicBook/{{Robin}} found himself riding an out of control superbike towards "Nuns driving a station wagon full of high explosives!" next to the Great Wall of China.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Shadowpact}}'', Doctor Gotham's introduction has him levitating a bus full of school children as insurance against the heroes doing anything stupid.

* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'':
** During ''ComicBook/{{Knightfall}}'', ComicBook/{{Azrael}} has to let Abattoir free so he can save a bus full of children he hijacked. Az-Bats is ''not happy'' about it.
** ''ComicBook/BatmanBlackAndWhite'': In "Good Evening, Midnight", an escaped prison inmate hijacks a school bus, and the driver's attempt to fight back causes the bus to veer off the road and end up hanging precariously half off a bridge. Batman is called in to save the day.
* One issue ''ComicBook/GIJoeARealAmericanHeroMarvel'' had Major Bludd take one of these hostage. The timely intervention of Stalker and Grand Slam resolved the situation.
* In ''ComicBook/AstroCity'' story "Pastoral", Team Carnivore wants to flush the hero Roustabout out, so they arrive at the carnival and start to menace the crowds there, including threats of violence if he doesn't show up.
* In ''ComicBook/ShazamTheNewBeginning'', Black Adam hijacks a plane full of international delegates after being [[SealedEvilInACan released from hyperspace]], and it's up to [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]] to save them.

* During a chase sequence in the ShowWithinAShow in ''WesternAnimation/{{Bolt}}'', one of the Mooks placing a TickingTimeBomb on a fuel truck which is right alongside a school bus.

* In ''WesternAnimation/SupermanDoomsday'', the Toyman hijacks a school bus full of children and holds it over the edge of a building with his mechanical spider, threatening to dump it if the police don't back off. Lois Lane manages to sneak on board and get most of the children out, but ends up falling with the last child on the bus when the Toyman drops it, only to soon be rescued by Superman (who turns out to be a clone under Lex Luthor's control).
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Bling}}'' features an intense CableCarActionSequence, where the villain willfully damages a school bus full of children (and momentarily turned into a cable car) to get the heroes off his back. They have to struggle very hard to avoid the bus to plummet to the ground.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLEGONinjagoMovie'', one of the things Garmadon orders his generals to do is to make a school bus full of little children dangle precariously on a highway. Lloyd later deals with the general trying to push the vehicle into the water on the way to deal with Garmadon and he catches it with his dragon mech when it falls.

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%%[[folder:Webcomics]]
%%* [[http://eheroes.smackjeeves.com/comics/1891142/mighty-annoyed/ Parodied]] in ''Webcomic/EverydayHeroes''.
%%[[/folder]]

%% Image chosen via crowner in the Image Suggestions thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/crowner.php/ImagePickin/ImageSuggestions147

'''Flash:''' You've gotta be kidding.

* ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02'': During the first scuffle with the Daemon Corps, [=SkullSatamon=] lifts a bus full of schoolchildren and threatens to throw it. At this point he's pretty much already routed the heroes, so he's doing it for no reason other than [[ForTheEvulz shits and giggles]].

* In one of the funnier {{Filler}} episodes of ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', Goku and Piccolo save a schoolbus of children from falling off a cliff during their driving tests. Of course, they still fail the test.
** Another when Videl saves bus of senior citizens from a hijacking before "Great Saiyaman" arrives.

* ''ComicBook/{{Miracleman}}'' throws one at Johnny Bates during the infamous destruction of London. His narration notes that some apologists of his have said that the bus was ''empty'' when he threw it, but he himself admits it isn't true.
* In an early issue of ''ComicBook/YoungJustice'', Robin found himself riding an out of control superbike towards "Nuns driving a station wagon full of high explosives!" Next to the Great Wall of China.
* ''ComicBook/KingdomCome''. A tram full of innocents is in the crossfire of a brawl between [[AntiHero AntiHeroes]].
* In ''ComicBook/{{Shadowpact}}'' Doctor Gotham's introduction has him levitating a bus full of school children as insurance against the heroes doing anything stupid.
* ''[[ComicBook/TheUltraverse The Strangers]]'' from Malibu Comics. A tram car full of every day people gets zapped by alien energy and crashes into a sports car. Everyone gets super-powers, even the sports car driver (Night Man). Cue start to various series.
* During ''ComicBook/{{Knightfall}}'', the [[ComicBook/{{Azrael}} Jean-Paul Valley]] Franchise/{{Batman}} has to let Abattoir free so he can save a bus full of children he hijacked. Az-Bats is ''not happy'' about it.
* One issue of Marvel's ''[[ComicBook/GIJoeARealAmericanHeroMarvel G.I. Joe]]'' had Major Bludd take one of these hostage. The timely intervention of Stalker and Grand Slam resolved the situation.

* ''ComicBook/BatmanBlackAndWhite'': In "Good Evening, Midnight", an escaped prison inmate hijacks a school bus, and the driver's attempt to fight back causes the bus to veer off the road and end up hanging precariously half off a bridge. Batman is called in to save the day.

* ''Comicbook/{{Miracleman}}'' throws one at Johnny Bates during the infamous destruction of London. His narration notes that some apologists of his have said that the bus was ''empty'' when he threw it, but he himself admits it isn't true.

** During [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 "Judgment In Infinity"]] when a cop opens fire and causes a panic at the National Mall a car goes careening towards a school bus, and is only stopped from hitting it by Diana lassoing the car and pulling it back.

* ''ComicBook/{{Wonder Woman|1942}}'': Diana was once on the bus of innocents, and had to run up and pull the driver out of his seat when he fell asleep at the wheel due to Saturnian Lassitude Gas.

* ''Series/TheElectricCompany1971'': At least three segments of the series’ regular animated short “The Adventures Of Letterman” used this, where the evil Spellbinder put school children on a specific mode of transportation in grave harm. One of the segments was a school bus. (The others were a trainband a plane).

* [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Played quite literally]] in the ''Roleplay/GlobalGuardiansPBEMUniverse'', during a fight between the Supreme Six (a team of heroes generally considered second-tier) and the Fatal Four (a team of villains generally considered not second-tier at all), when Urania of the Fatal Four used her gravity control powers to hold a literal bus full of innocent bystanders hostage.

* During a chase sequence in the ShowWithinAShow in ''Disney/{{Bolt}}'', one of the Mooks placing a TickingTimeBomb on a fuel truck which is right alongside a school bus.

* ''Film/{{Superman}}'' (1978). After Lex Luthor triggers a major earthquake in California, Superman saves a bus full of schoolchildren from falling off a bridge.

-->-- ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'', "Legends"

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Bling}}'' features an intense CableCarActionSequence, where the villain willfully damage a school bus full of children (and momentarily turned into a cable car) to get the heroes off his back. They have to struggle very hard to avoid the bus to plummet to the ground.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* Possible TropeNamer -- an episode of ''Series/AllInTheFamily'' had Archie injured in a minor accident, which was as much his fault as the other person's. Thinking that the only person who would ''really'' be out would be a "giant insurance company," Archie rejects a settlement offer and instead contacts a lawyer, pushing a very skewed version of the incident. The lawyer later comes by the house to tell him the bad news: they're gonna have to drop the suit and take a much-reduced settlement. When asked why, the attorney notes that there were witnesses that dispute Archie's story. Archie still wants to try, but:

* In "[[Recap/AngelS01E11Somnambulist Somnabulist]]", ''Series/{{Angel}}'' encounters a vampire SerialKiller who's planning this. [[spoiler:It turns out he's taking advantage of this trope to send Angel off on a false trail while he attacks Angel's FriendOnTheForce. Angel realises this however.]]
* The second season of ''Series/VeronicaMars'' revolves around the Bus Full of Innocents crashing.
* Used as backstory to ''Series/TwentyFour'', where Jack Bauer capturing and torturing a terrorist who had hijacked a bus carrying innocents becomes a plot point in season seven, where the Department of Justice is filing charges against him for it.
* Subverted in an episode of ''Series/{{Smallville}}''. Metallo explains the reason that he hates Clark: Clark saved a bus from crashing, but later, one of its passengers murdered Metallo's sister.
* An episode of ''Series/KamenRiderFourze'' had the titular Rider try to save a bus full of cute high school girls from a Zodiart who was jealous that they all ignored him in his human form. Though Fourze stopped the monster, it was Shun with the Powerdizer who stopped the bus.

** Horrifyingly subverted in the episode "Midnight". The Doctor is trapped in a Bus Full of Innocents when an unseen alien ''thing'' invades. Since he's the only one with enough knowledge to deal with the alien, the passengers suspect him of being the cause of their trouble, and eventually nearly manage to murder him simply to save their own lives. They're all normal, good, innocent people, and none of them were prepared for WhatYouAreInTheDark.
** PlayedWith in the later episode "Planet of the Dead", in which the Doctor is (once again) trapped on a bus with innocent passengers while trying to get rid of dangerous aliens. He remembers "Midnight" and shudders for a bit, but quickly manages to convince everyone that he can be trusted and saves the day without too much effort.
* In Season 2 of ''Series/{{Luther}}'', a SerialKiller who plans to set himself up as a modern-day {{Bogeyman}} is found to have got hold of a bus via his underworld contacts. He uses it to kidnap some schoolchildren whom he plans to have disappear so no-one will ever know what happened to them.
* An episode of ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'' finds a bus full of schoolchildren buried in a muddy pit dug out of a field where not only will the kids die but clues to the bus's location will be erased.

* ''Series/MissionImpossible'': In "Banshee", an ArmsDealer blows up a bus full of old age pensioners in order to stir up TheTroubles and increase sales of his product. It is this heinous act that gets the IMF sent to shut him down.
* Series/Supergirl reveals herself to the public by saving a plane full of innocents.
* An episode of ''Series/CriminalMinds'' has the [=UnSubs=] hijacking a school bus and forcing some of the students into a live-action video game.

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* [[http://eheroes.smackjeeves.com/comics/1891142/mighty-annoyed/ Parodied]] in ''Webcomic/EverydayHeroes''.
[[/folder]]

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'': In the episode "Legends," a literal bus full of nuns is on a collision course with a truck full of dynamite. Rescuing the nuns distracts the Flash enough to get him captured by [[CaptainErsatz Dr. Blizzard]] after he had easily won their fight. However, given the reveal of the next episode, [[spoiler:the actual villain had likely warped reality to make it so Dr. Blizzard wouldn't lose before he was supposed to. Or the actual villain warped reality to prevent the Justice League from figuring out the truth.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' saved one of these in the episode "Forever Phantom."

** Also an example of TakeAThirdOption, leading to [[spoiler: a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome for the people of Gotham.]]

** [[Film/SpiderMan2 The second one]] too with a train, it leads to Spidey's SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome.

* In the 2008 movie ''Film/{{Traitor}}'', one of the main plots was [[spoiler: destroying several buses with suicide bombers. TheMole in the terrorist organization defeats this plot by [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome putting all the suicide bombers]] [[FlockOfWolves on one bus]].]]

* Played straight in ''Film/MightyJoeYoung'' to [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments perfect effect]] and the added bonus of the title character saving himself from Death Row. [[JerkAss Who]] would want to shoot him after he saves more than a dozen orphans from a burning building?