History Main / CrowdPanic

* ''Film/BattleOfBritain'': Berlin, when the lights go out and the [[RedAlert air raid sirens start up]], announcing that the [[BritsWithBattleships Royal Air Force]] has decided to [[CycleOfRevenge return the favor]] after the Luftwaffe ([[NiceJobBreakingItHero accidentally]]) bombed London. The Berliners understandably freak out and flee in search of shelter.

* Invoked in ''ConspiracyTheory'' Mel Gibson's character is followed into a movie theater by bad guys and shouts that there's a bomb under his seat in order to escape in the resulting panic.

* ''Anime/FullMetalPanicFumoffu''. Sousake finds his bottle of biowarfare agent has been opened, so puts on an NBC suit and puts the class into LockDown. Naturally his classmates FreakOut, and when Sousake tries to calm them down say it's all right for him as he's the only one wearing a HazmatSuit. Sousake then takes off his suit in a gesture of solidarity, which is immediately subverted when everyone beats him up for bringing a deadly virus into the classroom in the first place. They then try to break down the sealed door, forcing Kaname to use a (more effective) RousingSpeech (plus NailsOnABlackboard).

* ''Anime/FullMetalPanicFumoffu''. Sousake finds his bottle of biowarfare agent has been opened, so puts on an NBC suit and puts the class into LockDown. Naturally his classmates FreakOut, and when Sousake tries to calm them down say it's all right for him as he's the only one wearing a HazmatSuit. Sousake then takes off his suit in a gesture of solidarity, which is immediately subverted when everyone beats him up for bringing a deadly virus into the classroom in the first place.

* ''Anime/FullMetalPanicFumoffu''. Sousake finds his bottle of biowarfare agent has been opened, so puts on an NBC suit and puts the class into LockDown. Naturally everyone freaks out, and when Sousake tries to calm them down say it's all right for him to talk as he's the only one wearing a HazmatSuit. Sousake then takes off his suit in a gesture of solidarity, which is immediately subverted when everyone beats him up for bringing a deadly virus into the classroom in the first place.

* ''Film/KingKong'' (1933). When Kong attacks the native village while searching for Fay Wray, the natives leave in a justifiable hurry.

* The ending of the Twelfth book of ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents implies this. [[spoiler: Almost all the major characters throughout the entire series are trapped in a burning building, and other than the Baudelaires and Count Olaf, whether or not they survive is ultimately left up to the reader.]]

* In ''FanFic/BreakingBoundaries'' most people in the town panic over the tiniest things. Only a select few don't join in. Usually caused by Water who is a very anxious character herself.

* ''{{Dogma}}'': After Bartleby breaks Officer [=McGee=]'s neck.
* ''{{Damnatus}}'': Complete with bell-ringing doom prophet.

* In VideoGame/TheMatrixPathOfNeo during the 'Get me an Exit' mission, when the Agents fire at Neo the crowd freaks and some people start running around.

-->'''Random crowd member''': Where's the smoke, then?

--> '''Schlock''': The building's on fire! You need to evacuate!

* When the reporter on the airplane manages to get the fact that terrorists have seized control of the air traffic control systems of the airport in ''DieHard2'' on the evening news, everyone in the airport panics. This mainly serves to ensure that the cops can't get through the crowds to attempt to do anything about it.

* ''Series/{{Batman}}'', the movie of the 1960s series. "Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb."
** Specifically: Batman runs with into a restaurant with a CartoonBomb and urges everyone to flee for their lives. The crowd promptly panics and escapes [[RuleOfFunny (except for two ladies who ignore Batman and keep eating their lunch as if nothing had happened)]].

* When the reporter on the airplane manages to get the fact that terrorists have seized control of the air traffic control systems of the airport in ''Film/DieHard 2'' on the evening news, everyone in the airport panics. This mainly serves to ensure that the cops can't get through the crowds to attempt to do anything about it.

* In the entire ''{{Hitman}}'' series, the civilian [=NPCs=] panic and flee at anything vaguely violent or seeing someone with a gun in a non-military context. They'll also run if they find evidence of your handiwork, i.e. corpses or in some cases bloodstains.

* ''[[{{DEBS}} D.E.B.S.]]'' When Lucy Diamond is spotted at the Endgame celebration, the crowd panics and flees.