History Main / MustMakeAmends

* Creator/JohnWoo's ''Film/TheKiller'' is about the Ah Jong, the title character, and his attempt to fix a tragic mistake that he made, which resulted in Jenny, the singer at the night club, being blinded by the muzzle-flash of his gun. The last hit that he goes on is an attempt to raise the money to have her eyes fixed, but unfortunately for him, [[ContractOnTheHitman Wong Hoi, his boss, has other ideas]]. [[spoiler:It does not end well for him in the end, though then again, it takes the triad boss himself to finally kill him]].

** Hohenheim is also like this about his role in the destruction of Xerxes and the birth of the BigBad. Also survivor's guilt and IAmAMonster. (this is his ''CatchPhrase'' for a while.) This is why he left the family -- he had to deal with [[spoiler:his eldest son]].

* Franchise/MonsterVerse: The movie {{novelization}}s have a couple cases. In the ''[[Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019 Godzilla: King of the Monsters]]'' novelization, [[Characters/MonsterVerseFamilies Madison]] wants to make up for her own part in helping the [[EcoTerrorist eco-terrorists]] to unleash a [[OmnicidalManiac King Ghidorah]]-led army of {{Kaiju}} on the world when she takes matters into her own hands [[spoiler:by stealing the ORCA and risking her life to help the heroes put an extra dent in Ghidorah's plans]]. In the ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'' novelization, Dr. [[Characters/MonsterVerseMonarch Ilene Andrews]] admits during the mission to find Kong a new home that she feels guilty about Monarch's role in Skull Island's destruction by Camazotz.

* In ''Film/AceInTheHole'', Tatum, an unethical reporter, forces the crew rescuing a trapped man in a cave to use a slower rescue technique of drilling through the mountain, which will take a week, rather than entering via the side, which will take less than a day -- all in order to increase the dramatic tension and sell more newspapers. Once he realizes that this puts the crew in danger of reaching the man too late to save him, he orders them to use the original, faster technique [[spoiler: but it turns out that they no longer can, because the drilling has weakened the mountain's structural integrity too much, and the man dies. To further twist the knife, Tatum then attempts to confess his role in the death, but dies before getting the chance.]]

Compare TheAtoner, who is usually making up for a whole set of bad deeds following a HeelFaceTurn or KickTheMoralityPet, whereas Must Make Amends is usually about a specific bad deed that can come from any type of tragic mistake. MyGodWhatHaveIDone is typically the lead-in to this situation, with RedemptionQuest being a sister trope. If making amends involves TimeTravel, this becomes SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong. Contrast BuyThemOff and IRegretNothing.

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'': In the episode "Pokémon Scent-sation!", Ash, after being banned from the Celadon Gym for [[FelonyMisdemeanor insulting the perfume they make there]], forms an EnemyMine with Team Rocket to get in to compete with Erika for the Rainbow Badge. As it turns out, the Rockets were just using him as part of a plan to break into the gym and steal the ingredients for said perfume, taking it a step further by planting bombs that set the building ablaze. Ash immediately realizes that it's all his fault for helping Team Rocket inside in the first place, and makes up for his blunder by helping manage the fire and risking his life to save Erika's Gloom. Taking responsibility for his actions convinces Erika to hand over the Rainbow Badge to Ash despite their battle being interrupted.

* ''LightNovel/RebuildWorld'':

* Franchise/GreenLantern: Hal Jordan completely loses his sanity and decides to fix his failure to save Coast City... by killing the Green Lantern Corps, killing Sinestro, and then killing the universe... so he could remake reality "right". Fittingly, after all this nonsense, He went on to try and make all of ''that'' right and ended up sacrificing himself to save the world (of course, he got better). Then a few years later, Creator/GeoffJohns {{retcon}}ned the whole thing to Jordan being possessed by a killer space bug made out of fear...
* In Franchise/{{Superman}} story ''Comicbook/WarWorld'', Mongul blackmails Superman into retrieving a device guarded by Comicbook/MartianManhunter which would allow him to control a super-weapon. Superman's plan -playing along with Mongul's plan and waiting for a chance to defeat him- fails, so Supes sets out to bring Mongul down to atone for his failure and earn Comicbook/MartianManhunter's forgiveness.

* The plot of ''Film/{{Labyrinth}}'' follows this.
** Specifically, Sara makes a very dumb wish which is then granted and spends the rest of the movie trying to undo the mistake by winning her (half) brother back, since Jareth doesn't allow takebacks on wishing.

* Creator/JohnWoo's ''Film/TheKiller'' is about the Ah Jong, the title character, and his attempt to fix a tragic mistake that he made, which resulted in Jenny, the singer at the night club, being blinded by the muzzle-flash of his gun. The last hit that he goes on is an attempt to raise the money to have her eyes fixed, but unfortunately for him, [[ContractOnTheHitman Wong Hoi, his boss, has other ideas]]. [[spoiler:It does not end well for him in the end, though then again, it takes the triad boss himself to finally kill him]].
* This is also the plot to the classic film ''Film/MagnificentObsession''. The life of wealthy asshole Merrick is saved at the expense of a brilliant, beloved, and selfless elderly doctor's. The doctor's widow blames Merrick, he responds by stalking her and ends up causing a car wreck that blinds her. Merrick becomes a doctor himself so he can operate on the widow and fix her eyes.

* In ''Film/IronMan1'', Tony Stark realizes what enormous damage his company's hyper-effective, super-powerful weapons (which he designed himself) are doing to the world, and is subsequently so horrified he shuts down the weapons department of Stark Industries and becomes a superhero to do damage control, also becoming TheAtoner in the process.
* In ''Film/SpiderMan3'', after freeing himself of the black suit, Peter sits alone in his apartment depressed after all his crimes he did while under the black suit. Aunt May comes in and checks on her nephew to see how he's doing and if he proposed to Mary Jane. Peter tells his Aunt that he's not ready for marriage because he had hurt Mary Jane and feels he is now lost on what to do. Aunt May then tells her nephew that he needs to forgive himself and that she believes that Peter will make things right again and that he is a good person, despite how Peter feels at the moment.
--> '''Aunt May:''' Well, you start by doing the hardest thing: You forgive yourself. I believe in you, Peter. You're a good person. And I know you'll find a way to put it right.
* Frankie in ''Film/{{Daybreakers}}'' betrays his brother, but then comes to his senses and redeems himself with a YouShallNotPass.
* ''Film/HomeAlone1'': Kate, after realizing that her son Kevin had been left behind at home, and feeling terribly guilty for how she and the rest of her family treated him the previous night, makes it her mission to make it back to him and apologize to him.
* ''Film/MeBeforeYou'': Will is forced to admit, in front of Louisa's entire family, that he trained the person responsible for shutting the local factory in an asset-stripping raid. He later secures Bernard, Lou's father, a job as Head of Maintenance at the local castle, with the dual purpose of freeing Lou from her breadwinner role.
* In ''Film/AceInTheHole'', Tatum, an unethical reporter, forces the crew rescuing a trapped man in a cave to use a slower rescue technique of drilling through the mountain, which will take a week, rather than entering via the side, which will take less than a day -- all in order to increase the dramatic tension and sell more newspapers. Once he realizes that this puts the crew in danger of reaching the man too late to save him, he orders them to use the original, faster technique [[spoiler: but it turns out that they no longer can, because the drilling has weakened the mountain's structural integrity too much, and the man dies. To further twist the knife, Tatum then attempts to confess his role in the death, but dies before getting the chance.]]
* ''Film/HaroldAndKumarGoToWhiteCastle'': While driving to White Castle, Harold and Kumar pick up a hitchhiking Creator/NeilPatrickHarris. However, after they stop at a gas station, Neil steals their car. Later, when Harold and Kumar finally make it to White Castle, Harold discovers he'd been robbed by a racist policeman they encountered earlier, and when it looks like the trip's AllForNothing, Neil comes in, [[ContrivedCoincidence having also arrived at that White Castle]], and agrees to pay for their meal.
-->'''Kumar:''' Do you know what the hell we had to go through after you took the car?
-->'''Neil:''' Yeah, it was a dick move on my part. That's why I'm paying for your meal. (''muttering to self'') Prick. (''pulling out money'') Here's $50 for the meal, and $200 for the car.
-->'''Harold:''' (''confused'') What happened to my car?
-->'''Neil:''' [[NoodleIncident I made some love stains in the back]]. (''awkward silence'') You'll see.

* After Jon Snow disappeared to the world of Skyrim in ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/31993921/chapters/79747603#workskin A Thank You Gift From Madness Himself]]'', Catelyn Stark felt immense guilt for treating him so horribly that When Sheogorath sent Jon back home as a thank you to House Stark sheltering him, she sincerely apologizes to Jon for being a WickedStepmother. Luckily for her, Jon accepted her apology and the two are now on more amiable terms

* ''Film/HomeAlone'': Kate, after realizing that her son Kevin had been left behind at home, and feeling terribly guilty for how she and the rest of her family treated him the previous night, makes it her mission to make it back to him and apologize to him.

* The events of ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'' all get their start when Ed and Al try to bring their dead mother back to life and pay a terrible price for trying. Then they begin their quest to find the philosopher's stone, set things right and get their bodies back, not knowing that [[spoiler:[[PoweredByAForsakenChild the philosopher's stone is souls of human beings]]]].

** There's also the fact that, [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist in the 2003 anime version]], their attempt to bring Mom back created the homunculus Sloth.

* WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls affect this in their movie when while they serve a self-imposed exile on an asteroid, they hear the Professor being threatened.

** It probably also makes the single weirdest case of MoralDissonance in film history.

** The protagonist Akira believes in something akin to a KarmaMeter, and that he must do good deeds to restore is luck, despite often being an UnscrupulousHero. So this is going on all the time with him. Some notable examples:

*** After having saved Elena and Sara in what was an act motivated by hatred for their attackers rather than altruism, feeling guilty and that he must helping them for genuine reasons in the future after seeing how grateful and kind they are to him over it.

* ''LightNovel/RebuildWorld'': When Akira and Katsuya get into a fierce argument that nearly breaks out into violence, to stop them from being arrested, the two’s mutual friends Elena and Sara run over to stop them. Then Akira’s ManipulativeBitch VirtualSidekick Alpha tells Akira to flee in hopes of souring his relations with the two women. Thanks to this, Elena and Sara take Katsuya’s side, severely damaging TheParanoiac Akira’s trust in them, making him show them the cold side of his SugarAndIcePersonality. This starts a CharacterArc of them trying to get things back to normal with Akira.

* After Jon Snow disappeared in ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/31993921/chapters/79747603#workskin A Thank You Gift From Madness Himself]]'', Catelyn Stark felt immense guilt for treating him so horribly that When Sheogorath sent Jon back home (he was in Skyrim, another world) as a repayment for House Stark sheltering him, she sincerely apologizes to Jon for being a WickedStepmother. Luckily for her, Jon accepts her apology and the two are now on more amiable terms