History Main / SavingTheOrphanage

* ''TheATeam'' have saved farms, small businesses, and everything inbetween.

* The entire plot of ''Home On The Range'' was to save the farm the animals lived on lest they be shipped off to a meat-packing plant. [[DidNotDoTheResearch Because apparently small farms don't raise livestock for their meat.]]

* The plot of ''TheGoonies'' was set into motion by the children trying to find a lost treasure in order to save their home from evil developers.

* In ''The Devil's Backbone'', an orphanage full of children is threatened by the Spanish Civil War. [[spoiler: They end up killing the bad guy with spears.]]
* A standard plot for Dudley Do-Right, though subverted several times when it's revealed that Snidely Whiplash is entirely within his legal rights to foreclose on nearly every property in town for non-payment (including the Mountie Fort), and indeed has been ordered by the Canadian government to do so (fortunately, Horse is able to win enough money at a casino to save the town... with the side effect that now ''Horse'' starts threatening to shut down the orphanage).

* ''Babe: Pig In The City'' had the titular character leaving on a plane to save his farm, though this didn't go over well.
* ''Arthur and the Invisibles'' (aka ''Arthur and the Minimoys'') involves a quest to save the family farm.

* Subverted by the light-hearted Jesse James film ''American Outlaws'', which opens with James ''failing'' to save the family farm and thus taking out revenge against the railroad barons.

* The plot of ''Breakin' 2: ElectricBoogaloo''.
* In the RomanticComedy ''Two Weeks Notice'', Sandra Bullock's GranolaGirl works for Hugh Grant's CorruptCorporateExecutive in order to stop his company from tearing down a community center.
* ''Castaways Of The Flying Dutchman'' involves Ben and Ned having to find the deeds to save a whole village before it's converted into a limestone quarry.
* ''Ali G Indahouse'' involves Ali G trying to save a leisure center.
* In ''Adventures In Oddyssey'', Whit's wife was trying to save an old rec center that children played at, which was going to be torn down for a strip mall. She fell ill during a townhall meeting while campaigning for it and later died, but Whit took up her cause and had the building declared a historical landmark. He then turned the building into a soda shop and hang-out place for children--and that's how Whit's End was created.

* ''The Country Bears'' ripped off ''TheBluesBrothers'' wholesale - except instead of needing to save an orphanage, they had to reunite the band to save Country Bear Hall in a [[strike: subtle]] {{Anvilicious}} bit of product placement. The only distinct part is that the developer (played by Christopher Walken) isn't bulldozing for any reason except that he hates the bears and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vEFFpOwEIo spends all of his free time destroying models of the building]].

* ''The Forbidden Dance'' involved a Brazilian jungle princess coming to America to save the rainforest by dancing the lambada on national television in the most bizarre version of this trope ever recorded to film.

* ''It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie'' focused on saving the Muppet Theater from a greedy developer that wants to bulldoze it and put up a club.
* The plot of ''The Absent Minded Professor'', as well as its remake ''Flubber'', was the Professor's attempts to create something of value in order to raise enough money to save Medfield College.

* In ''Amateur Ninja'', Megacorp buys out all the local hangouts, turning the skatepark into a panda bear hunting range and the orphanage into a child labor camp, but don't reap any consequences until they take the community center/ninja dojo. Naturally, the ninja students seek vengeance, but all of them are killed when they get to Megacorp HQ... except for new recruit Willow Stiletto, who was getting pizza at the time. Now it's up to her and her extremely basic ninja skills to succeed where true masters have failed and get the community center back in the hands of her master.

* In ''TheRomanMysteries'' book ''Dolphins of Laurentum'', bankers threaten to seize Flavia's house in because of her father's debts. This inspires the characters to try to recover treasure from a sunken ship.

* ''Sunday School Musical'', TheAslyum rip-off of ''HighSchoolMusical'', involves saving a church that's about to run out of operating funds unless they win a state choir competition.

[[Bong milk is good for the brain.:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/werewolf_9693_8856.jpg]]

But you can't tell your boyfriend about it! He'd freak out and leave you, or worse. But then, you can't keep it a secret forever, either. At some point, one of your supernatural incidents will inevitably happen exactly when you were having a romantic dinner. Or maybe your relationship has simply reached the next level, and you feel that you need to be completely honest with him.

So what now? How will he react? Well, it turns out he's perfectly okay (well, for the most part he's perfectly okay) and understanding with it! That's right, as a reward for your sacrifices, the PowersThatBe will make sure that you end up with a truly noble and loving soul who loves you for who you are and doesn't care what you are. So no worries!

This trope is a DoubleStandard, in that wives and girlfriends are pretty much automatically accepting of their ActionHero husband/boyfriend's actions, whereas the number of husbands/boyfriends who automatically accept that their significant other is an ActionGirl are pretty thin on the ground. For the guy who is a super and needs a girlfriend, his powers are often a plus for her (because AllGirlsWantBadBoys). For women, finding a guy who truly doesn't have a problem with dating someone with superpowers when he's a {{Muggle}} is the bigger issue, because, well, NoGuyWantsAnAmazon.

Compare ButYourWingsAreBeautiful, when a disguise forms part of the powers. Compare to ViolentlyProtectiveGirlfriend for the ActionGirl [[InvertedTrope variant.]] Compare and contrast BoyMeetsGhoul, for the guy/girl who is on the other end of this trope. See also TheMasqueradeWillKillYourDatingLife, which is an aversion of this trope.

[[AC:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]
* The central premise of ''[[NogizakaHarukaNoHimitsu The Secrets of Haruka Nogizaka]]''. The titular girl is an otaku.
* Ditto with ''[[OreImo My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute]]''. Except that the guy is not a boyfriend, but the big brother... [[{{Squick}} yeah]].
* Austria from ''AxisPowersHetalia'', in regards to his VictoriousChildhoodFriend Hungary. While he's concerned for her well-being, in the end he knows that if she wants to fight, he better lets her... since she will go [[OneManArmy One Woman Army]] and destroy the enemy. Considering their childhood, [[LoveAtFirstPunch he knows it beforehand]]!
* [[ShamanKing Keiko Asakura]] had been dumped by ''every'' single boyfriend she had when they learnt she was able to see spirits. Until the last JerkAss left her and a penniless musician with similar abilities comforted her. That guy was Mikihisa, and she would marry him.
* Horribly deconstructed with [[spoiler: Shiso and Ceres]] in ''AyashiNoCeres''. [[spoiler: Shiso started like this, but being left helpless when he and Ceres got attacked [[IJustWantToBeSpecial made him very frustrated]], so he asked Ceres to give him a part of her powers [[IWillProtectHer so he wouldn't be a burden on her.]] But then, [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity said powers turned out to be too much to handle]], and ItGotWorse...]]


[[AC:{{Comic Books}}]]
* [[NiceGuy Kong]] is this to [[XMen Kitty Pryde]] in UltimateMarvel, even going so far as to yell "You're welcome!" at AllOfTheOtherReindeer for not thanking her when she saves their lives.
* Back in the GoldenAge, Steve Trevor was this for WonderWoman (a remarkably progressive move for the times), and not at all threatened by the idea of getting rescued by or mooning over a woman who was twenty times stronger than him. The Silver and Bronze Age characterizations of him were...[[TooDumbToLive unfortunately]] [[JerkAss less so]], which probably led to him being deleted from continuity PostCrisis.
* In an old What If comic, Jimmy Olsen married Supergirl because of amnesia. Once she recovers and lets him know, he's totally fine with being married to Superman's cousin.

[[AC:{{Film}}]]
* In ''InnocentBlood'', FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire Marie has her understanding CopBoyfriend Joe.

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
* Elend in Brandon Sanderson's ''{{Mistborn}}''. At least [[spoiler:until he gets superpowers himself.]]
* Seth in ''WickedLovely''. When Aislinn tells him that she can see faeries, he has exactly one moment of "Is this a joke?" before accepting it and trying to help her with her faery situation.

[[AC:{{Live Action TV}}]]
* The ''GhostWhisperer'' features Jim the Understanding Husband.
* Both [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] and played straight in ''{{Bewitched}}''. The original Darrin (Dick York) was less than understanding, to the point of being downright hostile to Samantha when she used her magic. TheOtherDarrin (Dick Sargeant), on the other hand, tried his hardest to be understanding, the point that it was more the fault of Endora and the rest of Samantha's family that TheOtherDarrin didn't get along with witches.
* Played with in the ''SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'' TV series. Harvey ''does'' leave Sabrina when he finds out she's a witch, not out of intolerance but because she'd been using magic to mess with his life for years. He eventually does come back to her, though, and says he never had a problem with her being a witch per se.
* Zack was the "gay best friend" equivalent of this in ''Series/{{Heroes}}'', at least until ExecutiveMeddling got in the way.
* Unless she's dating one of the undead, Buffy never got this on ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' (even Riley, who was himself a demon fighting super-soldier, had an inferiority complex due to dating a genuine superhero). It's Willow who hit the boyfriend jackpot with Oz; upon being told the truth about the supernatural world she runs in, he replies, "Actually, it explains a lot," and just goes with the flow from there.
* Tyler Ford in ''TheMiddleman'''s unaired season finale (released as a comic)...[[spoiler:at least, until MM pushes the ResetButton]].
* Allison's husband Joe on ''{{Medium}}'' believes in her powers and is understanding and accepting of them.
* In ''{{Series/Merlin}}'', 2x09. Merlin discovers [[spoiler: Freya turns into a bastet at night, but he isn´t afraid and stills takes care of her. He even pets her cat´s head...]]
[[AC:{{Webcomics}}]]
* [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in [[http://wapsisquare.com/comic/understanding/ this]] ''WapsiSquare'' comic. Also the page quote.
* {{Subverted}} (although this may be a retrospective way of seeing it) in ''SluggyFreelance''. Leo seems to be accepting of all the weird things Zoë tells about happening to her - but it turns out that was only because he thought she was lying. In the words of another jerk he hangs out with, "You've got to respect a girl who realizes romantic relationships are based on lies and goes to town with it!" As soon as Leo finds out it was all true, he feels betrayed, and they eventually break off.

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* [[PhineasAndFerb Candace]] seems to have this with Jeremy. Despite all of Candace's attempts to put a stop to PhineasAndFerb's projects, the guy never, ever seems to lose his cool, and they're still an item.

[[quoteright:300:[[ChristopherWalken http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/country_bears_8655.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:300:He lives only to destroy their lives.]]

A heartless developer plans to buy out and then knock over the local OrphanageOfLove because they haven't paid their bills in ages. Despite the horrible fate awaiting the adorable ragamuffin orphans and their caretakers, it seems all hope is lost. Enter the hero, who will embark upon a quest to gather the necessary funds...or at least stop the developer from being able to knock the place down.

This trope serves a a popular stock plot for a number of reasons. It's a simple enough goal for the audience to grasp and support, plus it's a pretty easy way to establish a black and white good vs. evil theme. After all, who but a truly good person would devote their time and welfare to saving an orphanage that can't offer much in the way of reward but its gratitude? And who but a truly evil person would dump a bunch of orphans onto the street so they can build a parking lot over it?

Plus, since there's a number of ways to reach this goal, you can pretty much insert any kind of film into it. Want a funny Road Movie? Just have the Hero hop into his van with his quirky sidekick and drive cross-country to pay the rent. Need to sell a soundtrack or musical? Have the centerpiece of the film be a [[HeyLetsPutOnAShow fundraiser concert]]. Want a DownerEnding drama which explores the good and evil of mankind? Just have the heroes fail and watch the orphans cry their eyes out as their only chance at a loving home gets demolished before their eyes.

This plot doesn't ''have'' to center around an orphanage. Another popular variant is saving a family farm, followed closely by a youth or community center. Really though, as long as the building has someone's welfare tied up into it, there's probably an evil developer lurking in the shadows and planning its demise.

Furthermore, those wily developers also don't always need cash. Sometimes, saving the orphanage may require a fight to claim the deed to the building or land, or a battle over the will over a recently deceased building or landowner that determines who gets to keep the place.

Compare the ChildhoodMemoryDemolitionTeam where the structure being knocked down isn't necessarily going to result in catastrophic circumstances for anyone.

[[AC: Save The Orphanage]]
* There was probably a plot or three of this in ''{{MacGyver}}''.
* ''SouthPark'' made fun of this.
* The plot of ''SantaWithMuscles'', starring Hulk Hogan.
* King the First in ''{{Tekken}}'' is a masked wrestler who fights to raise money to save his orphanage.
* Gleefully abused in an episode of ''FullMetalAlchemist'', in which the saintly nurse Clara claims that she took on the role of master thief Psiren in order to obtain the funds to save the hospital where she works from being closed down and demolished. And then the hospital gets demolished anyhow... as do the church and the orphanage and probably a couple of other struggling establishments that follow it. This example may be considered a DoubleSubversion, since at the end of the episode it's revealed that the city in which it takes place is dying a slow death and Psiren's exploits are drawing in much-needed tourism. AlternativeCharacterInterpretation suggests that Psiren was just coming up with another lie. And it worked.
* The general plot of ''TheThreeStooges'' video game. The Stooges have 30 days to raise $5,000 demanded by an [[AllDevouringBlackHoleLoanSharks unscrupulous banker]] by doing several different menial jobs.
* Parodied on ''HomestarRunner''. In the game "Kid Speedy", if you beat all the tracks, Kid Speedy wins a two-dollar consolation prize for coming in "not dead last", and when he tells his mother the good news, she remarks "Now we have enough to get the orphanage its operation!"
* ''TheBluesBrothers'', of course! When Jake and Elwood Blues attend church service at a black church, Jake sees the light and gets his MissionFromGod: [[HeyLetsPutOnAShow get the band together]], and save the orphanage from getting closed. In this example, the orphanage supposedly has to pay "back taxes", which actually fails the logic test since orphanages, as non-profits, don't pay taxes.
* ''NightCourt'' pulls this off, with a rich stereotypically-Texan mogul offering to put up the money to save the orphanage, if Harry could beat him in an arm-wrestling match. Harry wins after Christine [[DistractedByTheSexy secretly flashes the Texan.]]
* In the appropriately-named film ''TheOrphanage'', Laura moves into her childhood home in the hope of turning it into an orphanage for handicapped children.
* In ''The Devil's Backbone'', an orphanage full of children is threatened by the Spanish Civil War. [[spoiler: They end up killing the bad guy with spears.]]
* A standard plot for Dudley Do-Right, though subverted several times when it's revealed that Snidely Whiplash is entirely within his legal rights to foreclose on nearly every property in town for non-payment (including the Mountie Fort), and indeed has been ordered by the Canadian government to do so (fortunately, Horse is able to win enough money at a casino to save the town... with the side effect that now ''Horse'' starts threatening to shut down the orphanage).
* The four-minute short film ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPlYc3z7eFM 80s Ending]]'' included this trope as one of ''many'' 80s tropes it lampooned.
* ''{{Leverage}}'': In "The Miracle Job", the team of former crooks tries to save a church from being bought by a real estate developer.
* A more direct attempt at destroying The Orphanage occurred in the videogame version of TheDarkness. It worked.
* This turned out to be the reason behind [[spoiler:Phantom Thief G, a.k.a. Timothy's crime spree]] in ''[=~D.Gray-Man~=]''. [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel/{{DGray-Man}} This being DGM]], of course, the obviously-supernatural methods attracted enough attention that ItGotWorse. In the end, the Black Order wound up paying to save the place anyway.
* The Belgium comic book series ''{{Orphanimo}}!'' has this as the main plot for the first half of the series, and as a subplot for the second half.

[[AC: Save The Farm]]

* The ''HannahMontana'' [[TheMovie movie]] has Hannah saving a farm in Tennessee from greedy land developers.
* An episode of ''HiHiPuffyAmiYumi'', literally entitled "Save The Farm", had the duo raising money to save a farm from evil developers.
* The [[TimeChasers David Giancola]] "classic" ''Woodhead Saves The Farm''.
* The entire plot of ''Home On The Range'' was to save the farm the animals lived on lest they be shipped off to a meat-packing plant. [[DidNotDoTheResearch Because apparently small farms don't raise livestock for their meat.]]
* ''Babe: Pig In The City'' had the titular character leaving on a plane to save his farm, though this didn't go over well.
* ''Arthur and the Invisibles'' (aka ''Arthur and the Minimoys'') involves a quest to save the family farm.
* ''TallTale'' used the plot of a boy in the 1800s trying to protect his family farm from an evil developer, leading him on a long quest across the country to protect the deed to the farm and meeting legendary heroes of American "tall tales" who join him.
* Subverted by the light-hearted Jesse James film ''American Outlaws'', which opens with James ''failing'' to save the family farm and thus taking out revenge against the railroad barons.

[[AC: Save the Community Center]]
* The plot of ''Breakin' 2: ElectricBoogaloo''.
* In the RomanticComedy ''Two Weeks Notice'', Sandra Bullock's GranolaGirl works for Hugh Grant's CorruptCorporateExecutive in order to stop his company from tearing down a community center.
* ''Castaways Of The Flying Dutchman'' involves Ben and Ned having to find the deeds to save a whole village before it's converted into a limestone quarry.
* ''Ali G Indahouse'' involves Ali G trying to save a leisure center.
* In ''Adventures In Oddyssey'', Whit's wife was trying to save an old rec center that children played at, which was going to be torn down for a strip mall. She fell ill during a townhall meeting while campaigning for it and later died, but Whit took up her cause and had the building declared a historical landmark. He then turned the building into a soda shop and hang-out place for children--and that's how Whit's End was created.


[[AC: Save Other Things]]
* If it's a summer camp, it will inevitably involve a [[http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28032 contest with someone rich]].
* The ''MorkAndMindy'' episode "Dueling Skates" involved saving a daycare from being turned into a roller rink.
* In a ''{{Wishbone}}'' episode, the kids save the town park from developers.
* Penny's motivation in ''DoctorHorriblesSingAlongBlog'' is to save/improve the homeless shelter.
* ''The Country Bears'' ripped off ''TheBluesBrothers'' wholesale - except instead of needing to save an orphanage, they had to reunite the band to save Country Bear Hall in a [[strike: subtle]] {{Anvilicious}} bit of product placement. The only distinct part is that the developer (played by Christopher Walken) isn't bulldozing for any reason except that he hates the bears and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vEFFpOwEIo spends all of his free time destroying models of the building]].
* Massacred in a two-part episode of ''TheGoldenGirls''. Rose is attempting to get an old lighthouse into the National Registry of Historic Places and ensure its preservation. She organizes a telethon to raise money, but none of her planned guest stars show up due to a hurricane [[spoiler: which completely destroys the lighthouse]].
* ''The Forbidden Dance'' involved a Brazilian jungle princess coming to America to save the rainforest by dancing the lambada on national television in the most bizarre version of this trope ever recorded to film.
* ''{{VR Troopers}}'', a ''{{Power Rangers}}''-esque Saban series in the mid-90s, featured an evil dimensional warlord disguised as an CorruptCorporateExecutive that was usually trying to take over and destroy things like forests and schools and such, thus making almost every episode of the show an action-show version of this trope.
* The plot of ''TheGoonies'' was set into motion by the children trying to find a lost treasure in order to save their home from evil developers.
* In ''{{Barbie}} [[InNameOnly Presents Thumbelina]]'', a skateboard factory is going to be built on an empty field that is actually the home of the [[{{Lilliputians}} Twillerbees]]. The Twillerbees use their [[GreenThumb nature magic]] to keep the construction crew at bay, while the main character befriends a girl whose parents just happen to be the owners of the company that's building the skateboard factory. In the end, the girl convinces her parents not to build the factory, and they build a nature preserve instead, keeping the Twillerbees (and more importantly, the Twiller''babies'') safe.
* The original ''{{Fable}}'' had a quest where the main character has to save a brothel that's been taken over by a particularly abusive owner by recovering a missing deed. Of course, this being ''Fable'', the hero can either give the deed to the Madam (who will convert the brothel into a women's shelter), or the hero can keep the deed and run the brothel himself.
** Played relatively straight in ''Fable III''. After you rise to power as king/queen of Albion, one of the royal decisions you have to make is to either re-open the Bowerstone Orphanage... [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential or let Reaver open a brothel instead]].
* An episode of ''SailorMoon'' featured a town park that was about to be bulldozed by a greedy developer, with an old caretaker as the only man willing to stand up for it. Ironically, the heroes have ''nothing'' to do with saving the park. The old man gets possessed by a youma, gains power over nature, and sics butterflies, birds, and ''squirrels'' on the developers, thus saving the park himself. The heroes have to save him when the youma steals his lifeforce, but by this point the developers have already abandoned the park and don't return.
* ''TheATeam'' have saved farms, small businesses, and everything inbetween.
* ''It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie'' focused on saving the Muppet Theater from a greedy developer that wants to bulldoze it and put up a club.
* The plot of ''The Absent Minded Professor'', as well as its remake ''Flubber'', was the Professor's attempts to create something of value in order to raise enough money to save Medfield College.
* ''SakuraTaisen V'' has a plot where an evil developer is trying to knock down Harlem and rebuild it - without the poor people in it, of course. Shinjiro goes through an ''AceAttorney'' style mock trial to try and save Harlem, as well as talking fellow party member Sagiita (Cheiron in the dub) out of helping them.
** The game's creators may have been running low on ideas, since a similar plot was previously used in the second ''SakuraWars'' OAV (wherein the Teikoku Kagekidan stopped an evil developer from knocking down a poor neighborhood of Tokyo).
* The main plot of the film ''Film/BatteriesNotIncluded''. The apartment block of the main characters is under threat of property development, but it's saved with the help of some living alien machines that take residence there.
* In ''Amateur Ninja'', Megacorp buys out all the local hangouts, turning the skatepark into a panda bear hunting range and the orphanage into a child labor camp, but don't reap any consequences until they take the community center/ninja dojo. Naturally, the ninja students seek vengeance, but all of them are killed when they get to Megacorp HQ... except for new recruit Willow Stiletto, who was getting pizza at the time. Now it's up to her and her extremely basic ninja skills to succeed where true masters have failed and get the community center back in the hands of her master.
* Subverted in ''{{Gremlins}} 2'': the movie starts off with a wealthy property developer offering a large reward to the {{Obi Wan}} for selling his antique store, since he is the only holdout for a big new construction project. However, he has an offscreen death, and the big new construction subplot is never heard of again.
* On ''ParksAndRecreation'', Leslie tried to stop a snobby GoldDigger from having a historically-significant gazebo demolished so that she could have her husband's birthday celebration at the nearby mansion without having to look at "that ugly thing". [[spoiler:In the end, the gazebo was destroyed.]]

[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/country_bears_8655.jpg]]

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/country_bears_8655.jpg
[[caption-width:300:He lives only to destroy their lives.]]

* The main plot of the film ''* batteries not included''. The apartment block of the main characters is under threat of property development, but it's saved with the help of some living alien machines that take residence there.

----
<<|{{Plots}}|>>

A heartless developer plans to buy out and then knock over the orphanage because they haven't paid their bills in ages. Despite the horrible fate awaiting the adorable ragamuffin orphans and their caretakers, it seems all hope is lost. Enter the hero, who will embark upon a quest to gather the necessary funds...or at least stop the developer from being able to knock the place down.

Plus, since there's a number of ways to reach this goal, you can pretty much insert any kind of film into it. Want a funny Road Movie? Just have the Hero hop into his van with his quirky sidekick and drive cross-country to pay the rent. Need to sell a [[HeyLetsPutOnAShow soundtrack or musical?]] Have the centerpiece of the film be a fundraiser concert. Want a DownerEnding drama which explores the good and evil of mankind? Just have the heroes fail and watch the orphans cry their eyes out as their only chance at a loving home gets demolished before their eyes.

Plus, since there's a number of ways to reach this goal, you can pretty much insert any kind of film into it. Want a funny Road Movie? Just have the Hero hop into his van with his quirky sidekick and drive cross-country to pay the rent. Need to sell a soundtrack or musical? Have the centerpiece of the film be a fundraiser concert. Want a DownerEnding drama which explores the good and evil of mankind? Just have the heroes fail and watch the orphans cry their eyes out as their only chance at a loving home gets demolished before their eyes.

** Actually there was going to be a law in Illinois that would get rid of the tax-exempt status from such organizations. It didn't pass but the movie acts as if it did.

* On ''ParksAndRecreation'', Leslie tried to stop a snobby GoldDigger from having a historically-significant gazebo demolished for her husband's birthday celebration. [[spoiler:Leslie failed and the gazebo was destroyed.]]

* On ''ParksAndRecreation'', Leslie tried to stop a snobby GoldDigger from having a historically-significant gazebo demolished for her husband's birthday celebration. [[spoiler:Leslie fails and the gazebo is destroyed.]]

* Subverted in {{Gremlins}} 2: the movie starts off with a wealthy property developer offering a large reward to the {{Obi Wan}} for selling his antique store, since he is the only holdout for a big new construction project. However, he has an offscreen death, and the big new construction subplot is never heard of again.

<<|{{Plots}}|>>

* ''Tall Tale'' used the plot of a boy in the 1800s trying to protect his family farm from an evil developer, leading him on a long quest across the country to protect the deed to the farm and meeting legendary heroes of American "tall tales" who join him.

* subverted in {{Gremlins}} 2: the movie starts off with a wealthy property developer offering a large reward to the {{Obi Wan}} for selling his antique store, since he is the only holdout for a big new construction project. However, he has an offscreen death, and the big new construction subplot is never heard of again.

* The plot of ''Santa With Muscles'', starring Hulk Hogan.

* ''VR Troopers'', a ''Power Rangers''-esque Saban series in the mid-90s, featured an evil dimensional warlord disguised as an CorruptCorporateExecutive that was usually trying to take over and destroy things like forests and schools and such, thus making almost every episode of the show an action-show version of this trope.