History Main / BusFullOfInnocents

* ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody'': Implied at the end of "[[Recap/TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCodyS3E4SuperTwins Super Twins]]" (part of Creator/DisneyChannel's "[[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor Wish Gone Amiss]]" weekend) after the two defeat the Meanager (Mr. Moseby's supervillain persona):

-->'''Carey:''' Let's see, there's a bus on a broken suspension bridge... Ooh, I think I'd start with the giant spider that's climbing city hall.

* The ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'' episode "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS5E010Cyclone Cyclone]]" finds a bus full of schoolchildren, as well as CD and Alex, buried in a muddy pit dug out of a field where not only will the kids, CD and Alex die but clues to the bus's location will be erased. [[EvenEvilHasStandards One of the bad guys was quite disturbed about doing it, angrily protesting he is no murderer]] before being shot in cold blood, but he luckily lives long enough to disclose the bus's location to Walker and Trivette with his last breath.

* 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.

* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'': There's a RunningGag of sorts where a school bus full of kids driven by the exact same guy is constantly in danger of crashing into something or falling off a bridge in numerous episodes. [[spoiler: Season 4 eventually reveals that this running gag is the result of Klarion possessing the bus and traveling through time and space trying to find Zatanna after he was "killed" by Child, a Lord of Chaos like Klarion, sent to remove him for not being chaotic enough.]]

** 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]].

* 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.

* ''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/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.

* Played for BlackComedy in ''Film/TheFlash2023'' which has the title character doing a ridiculously over-the-top version of this trope when a hospital wing collapses and Flash has to rescue a half-dozen babies, a nurse and a rescue dog who are falling to their deaths while at the same time being imperilled mid-air by various lethal objects. While this is going on, Batman is chasing a carload of villains with [[DestructiveSaviour neither side caring much about]] CollateralDamage. Further down the street children start filing out of a schoolbus, so Batman shots a device towards them that deploys a spike strip across the road, causing the villains to swerve off down a side street to avoid it. The watching kids of course are more thrilled than terrified.

* During the first live-action ''Film/{{Transformers}}'' movie, Bonecrusher actually rams into a bus, ''breaking it in half in a fireball of death'', and emerges uncathed, Terminator-style.
** A popular joke is that he actually ran through a literal bus full of nuns.
** [[MemeticMutation "Bonecrusher hate Catholic School!"]]

* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'', several items on Bob's wall of memorabilia are notes from innocents he personally saved. A bus is involved. (Earlier in the film, we see him save a train full of commuters about to speed off a broken elevated track destroyed indirectly by Bomb Voyage.)

* ''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.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' had to save a school bus they were currently riding in from crashing when Mr. Mime (Not [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} that one]]) removed the color from the traffic lights. In "Him Diddle Diddle," they had to save another school bus from falling off a cliff.

Sometimes, saving an InnocentBystander from [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Doctor Demonica]] just won't cut it: you need more impact to showcase just how dire the threat is and make the scene exciting. Enter the Bus Full Of Innocents.

* ''[[Series/TheElectricCompany1971 The Electric Company]]'': 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 involved Spellbinder turning a school bus into an octopus. (The others were a train and a plane).

* Deliberately exploited by Light in ''Manga/DeathNote'', when he arranges for a criminal to hijack the bus he's riding on, as part of a scheme to get the name of the FBI agent who's tailing him.

** Another when Videl saves a bus of senior citizens from a hijacking before "Great Saiyaman" arrives.

* An early episode of ''Anime/SailorMoon'' turns this UpToEleven by requiring the Senshi to save half a dozen busloads of victims from a PocketDimension.

Kru-El, Va-Kox and Jax-Ur steal Hal Jordan's Power Battery. When ComicBook/GreenLantern gives chase, they knock over a transport truck driving down the freeway. Hal rushes to save the cars surrounding the truck, and Jax-Ur exploits his distraction by slamming Hal into the road.

* 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.

* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'': There's a RunningGag of sorts where a school bus full of kids driven by the exact same guy is constantly in danger of crashing into something or falling off a bridge in numerous episodes.

* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010'': There's a RunningGag of sorts where a school bus full of kids driven by the exact same guy is constantly in danger of crashing into something or falling off a bridge in numerous episodes.

* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'': There's a RunningGag of sorts where a school bus full of kids driven by the exact same guy is constantly in danger of crashing into something or falling off a bridge in numerous episodes.