History Main / HeroTrackingFailure

* Taken to ridiculous extremes in the anime trilogy ''Anime/{{Memories}}'', or, more accurately, in its 2nd part entitled ''Stink Bomb'', where half the Japanese army (tanks, aircraft and all) is unable to kill a guy going over a highway overpass on a ''bicycle'' (even though everything immediately behind the target gets blown to smithereens).
** Parodied in that "Dead Carl" animation, where ''gunships'' open up on a dude on a bike, and he just keeps dodging.

* ''Anime/GhostInTheShell1995'': While Major Kusanagi is fighting the SpiderTank she runs along a wall and the tank fires its machine gun at her, but it can't keep up and just hits the wall behind her. It happens again when she does backflips going up a flight of stairs.
* In ''Anime/DragonBallZTheWorldsStrongest''. TheDragon [[RoboticReveal turns his arm into a]] [[GatlingGood minigun]] and fires at Krillin, who {{Wall Run}}s away from it, the villain's gunfire trailing him by a good couple inches all the way.

[[folder:Film - Live-Action]]

* Vah Medoh's laser turrets are pretty bad with this in VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild. They sometimes do this even if you're barely drifting along! Conspicuously averted with the octoroks, though. In other games they're a minor nuisance, spitting their rocks in a simple straight line that's easy to avoid. But in this one they can somehow manage to hit you from half a mile away even as you're trying to dodge.

* In one QuicktimeEvent in ''VideoGame/TombRaider Anniversary'', [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=9AK6FOl34M8#t=163s Lara breaks free of her captor]] and runs toward another baddie, a [[PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy wangsta]] with GunsAkimbo [=SMGs=]. He actually aims at her face, then aims down at her legs. Of course, if the player fails the QTE, he hits and kills her anyway. In a later cutscene, he misses her by inches as she runs away, though at least he aims at her center mass. And then ''again'' at her feet a few seconds later.

[[folder:Film]]

* ''Film/BigTroubleInLittleChina''. Occurs when Jack Burton is running near a wall with the bad guys shooting at him.

* In ''[[WebAnimation/StarWreck Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning]]'' [[GeneralFailure Pirk]] decides to personally fire the light balls at the ''Excavator'' without using the targeting computer, and miss with all the shots because he failed to lead the target. When his error is noted, he [[WhatAnIdiot complains that the computer he switched off should have done it for him]].

This is even worse if you're shooting a [[FrickinLaserBeams laser,]] whose beam should be [[SlowLaser (but on TV, often isn't)]] effectively instantaneous over any range less than astronomical. And it's ''really'' silly if you're using EyeBeams — how do you miss the target you're looking at when the beams are coming directly out of your eyes?

This is even worse if you're shooting a [[FrickinLaserBeams laser,]] whose beam should be [[SlowLaser (but on TV, often isn't)]] effectively instantaneous over any range less than astronomical. And it's ''really'' silly if you're using EyeBeams — how do you miss the target you're looking at when the beams is coming directly out of your eyes?

This is even worse if you're shooting a [[FrickinLaserBeams laser,]] whose beam should be [[SlowLaser (but on TV, often isn't)]] effectively instantaneous over any range less than astronomical. And it's really silly if you're using EyeBeams — how do you miss the target you're looking at when the beams is coming directly out of your eyes?

This is even worse if you're shooting a [[FrickinLaserBeams laser,]] whose beam should be effectively instantaneous over any range less than astronomical. And it's really silly if you're using EyeBeams — how do you miss the target you're looking at when the beams is coming directly out of your eyes?

* ''Film/{{Ultraviolet}}'' has several such scenes, but none is more blatant than when the heroine is on a gravity-defying motorcycle and running from two helicopter gunships armed with miniguns. Thousands of bullets are spewed in her direction, and they seemingly manage to hit everywhere - including ahead! - except from where she currently is.

* The original ''Anime/GhostInTheShell'' (1995) film. While Major Kusanagi is fighting the SpiderTank she runs along a wall and the tank fires its machine gun at her, but it can't keep up and just hits the wall behind her. It happens again when she does backflips going up a flight of stairs.

* In ''Anime/DragonBallZTheWorldsStrongest''. TheDragon [[RobotReveal turns his arm into a]] [[GatlingGood minigun]] and fires at Krillin, who {{Wall Run}}s away from it, the villain's gunfire trailing him by a good couple inches all the way.

* In ''Franchise/StarWars: Film/ANewHope'' as the good guys are running away from the Death Star in the Falcon they are chased by four TIE fighters. Han and Luke get in the turret guns, but the fighters are too fast and they keep missing them as they go past. Eventually, of course, they start understanding elementary-level geometry and blow the [=TIEs=] up.
** The Death Star's guns also do a very poor job of defending against the Rebel X-Wings and Y-Wings in the climactic battle. They're heavy guns designed to prevent attack by large warships, as the Empire didn't even contemplate that small fighters might present any threat to a station [[ThatsNoMoon the size of a small moon]].
** A rather odd example in ''Attack of the Clones'': Jango Fett fires continuous rapid shots at Obi-Wan's ship for nearly a minute and appears to be right on the bead, but somehow hundreds of bolts hit every spot around the ship without making a scratch.

* Other villain tracking example: in chapter 21 of ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsCloneWars'', during the GunshipRescue moment, the ARC troopers don't seem to land a single shot on grievous, despite the ridiculous amount of dakka they have.

* ''Film/DieAnotherDay'': Possibly the least-justifiable example of this in cinema history. The weapon is [[HitScan a laser]]. In space. And even though a few fractions of a degree are all that separate its firing angle from its target's location, it somehow can't catch him

* Vah Medoh's laser turrets are pretty bad with this in VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild. They sometimes do this even if you're barely drifting along!

* ''[[VideoGame/Doom2016 DOOM 2016]]'' is a great example of what happens when the devs try to avert this trope too hard. The game has lots of enemies that fire heavily damaging but slow projectiles, such as the Possessed Soldiers or the Revenants, and they'll try to track you geometrically - that is, they'll consider your current direction and speed and fire their [[PainfullySlowProjectile agonisingly slow attacks]] in the precise direction required to hit you ''if you continue on your exact same speed and heading'', which never happens to any player with any experience at all. This results in ridiculous things like sidestepping and watching enemies fire rockets at a good 45 degrees angle to you, to the point it can almost look like they're trying to target something else.

* Downright weird example in the first ''{{Mercenaries}}'' game. Hard to tell if the game has tracking AI, but the bullets move so slowly that you can dodge them pretty easily. Seriously, you can see the bullets coming for you, and a simple sidestep is all it takes.

* Examples of videogame AI design that fires projectiles toward the player's current position only (without regard for player movement) are too numerous to list. Partially, this is because it's hard to track an evasive target accurately: after all, the simplest method of tracking (firing at where the player will be) assumes the player to be going at a consistent rate and direction of movement, which would allow players to easily get the [=CPUs=] to fire hilariously off by juking left and right quickly. Partially, it's a matter of game design: if the enemies were too good at hitting the player, even when they're trying to dodge, it wouldn't be very fun, would it? Sometimes, games will include both variations (fire at player's position, and fire at where they would be assuming constant velocity), the former for weaker/simpler enemies the player is intended to (literally) run circles around, the latter for more advanced enemies, to force the player to actively scramble to avoid being hit.

** What made the least sense in this one is that the helicopter pilot decided to strafe rather than turn.

* Carmelita in ''Franchise/SlyCooper'', less because of any AI limitation and more to make her feel like an AdvancingBossOfDoom. Massively subverted when she's acting as an EliteMook instead, where she's scarily competent with her shock pistol.

* Examples of videogame AI design that fires projectiles toward the player's current position only (without regard for player movement) are too numerous to list. This is probably because it's hard to track an evasive target accurately, after all if they to target where you should be going at your consistent movement, you can easily get the [=CPUs=] to fire hilariously off by running left and right quickly.