History Main / ScaredOfWhatsBehindYou

** "Treehouse Of Horror XIII" begins with the Simpsons family and Ned Flanders having a seance to contact Ned's late wife Maude. Bart shows up in drag pretending to be Maude, which he thinks surprises everyone before realizing that Maude's ghost actually appeared.

* ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'' did this in a filler episode when Yahiko is trying to protect his love interest from some thugs and leads them into a narrow space to attack them one at a time. The lead thug gets wise and starts to order his group to attack en masse only them to notice Kenshin and Sano standing on the roof above him threatening to come even the odds if they try it. Everyone save the leader get intimidated and wisely runs off without Yahiko knowing (least till the end of the fight).

* ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice''. While in Gotham, Clark Kent sees a cartoon showing a criminal apparently cringing in fear before a cop wielding a night-stick, [[CopsNeedTheVigilante when he's actually reacting to the]] BatSignal.

* In the Ewoks animated series,Wicket and Kneesa go out into the woods to search for Kneesa's long lost sister,Asha,who is discovered to still be alive after so many years. Along with an Ewok woodcutter,the two are threatened by some wild animals which end up running away thanks to Asha's arrival on the scene. The woodcutter believes he has scared the animals away with his axe until Asha drops down from the cliff she was standing on.

Related to and often overlaps with AlwaysABiggerFish, but not always. May also overlap with EnemyRisingBehind in some cases. Compare and contrast RightBehindMe. May involve FailedASpotCheck on TheHero's part if he ''really'' should have noticed something sooner than he did. Compare FramedForHeroism, CorrelationCausationGag.

* In ''Disney/TheLionKing'', Simba and Nala get trapped by the hyenas while exploring the elephant graveyard. Simba tries to roar at them to scare them off, but only a little wimpy roar comes out, him being a cub and all. Amused, the hyenas encourage him to try again, and this time there's a [[MightyRoar huge, scary roar]]. The hyenas, Simba and the audience all have a moment to be shocked before [[PapaWolf Mufasa]] (obviously the real source of the second roar) jumps in [[BigDamnHeroes to save the day]].

* In ''Disney/TheRescuersDownUnder'', the BigBad, [=McLeach=], starts bragging about having "whooped" a bunch of crocodiles...only to turn around and see that they were really trying to avoid the InevitableWaterfall. He tries to escape, but the current's too strong and he [[DisneyVillainDeath plunges down the waterfall to his watery grave]].

* During their trek through Moria in the ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRings Fellowship of the Rings]]'' movie, the fellowship gets surrounded by every orc in Moria and prepares to make a LastStand. Suddenly the Balrog is heard growling from out of sight, which causes the orcs to panic and flee. [[BoisterousBruiser Gimli]] jeers at them as if the orcs were running from the party, but everyone else is [[FromBadToWorse much more concerned about the new threat]].

* The page image is the last two panels of a ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'' strip where Garfield goes to a zoo and starts imagining and acting out what it would be like if he were a wild animal. At the end he takes a swipe at the patrons and thinks that he's intimidating them when they react, unaware of the huge lion that has come out and is sitting right behind him.

** In his first appearance, Henery Hawk sneaks out in the night to try and get his first chicken, but runs into trouble with a rooster who is less than impressed with the tiny hawkling. In the end, the rooster runs away, and Henery thinks he finally scared him off. But then he turns around to find his mother, who's come looking for him.

[[quoteright:350:[[ComicStrip/{{Garfield}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Garfield_zoo_crop_6013.jpg]]]]

* In a ''Series/{{Hornblower}}'' episode, Hornblower and a landing party are cornered by the French on the beach, they decide to do a LastStand, the marine complement of the landing party lines up and fire... And the French ''explode''. The landing party is shocked for a while before noticing that the ''[[CoolShip Renown]]'' [[BigDamnHeroes has just shot a grenade at the French]].

* At least two of''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime'' sequels involve this trope.

Related to and often overlaps with AlwaysABiggerFish, but not always. May also overlap with EnemyRisingBehind in some cases. Compare and contrast RightBehindMe. May involve FailedASpotCheck on TheHero's part if he ''really'' should have noticed something sooner than he did. Compare FramedForHeroism, CorrelationCausationGag.

* In the fifth ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime'' movie, Littlefoot gets angry because he believes someone ate a treestar he was saving for later. When he confronts them about it, Cera gasps "Oh no!", seemingly scared of Littlefoot. But it's actually the Sharptooth sneaking up on them that they were cowering from.
** In the movie after that, Cera starts snapping at Ducky and Petrie. They wince, and Cera doesn't notice the Sharptooth right behind her...at least until [[DroolHello it drools on her]].

* In ''Disney/TheRescuersDownUnder'', the BigBad, [=McLeach=], starts bragging about having "whooped" a bunch of crocodiles...only to turn around and see that they were really trying to avoid the InevitableWaterfall.

[[folder:ComicBooks]]
* In ''[[Franchise/{{Tintin}} Tintin]]'' book "[[Recap/TintinTheCrabWithTheGoldenClaws The Crab with the Golden Claws]]", Captain Haddock is pinned down behind a sand dune by enemy troops. When [[BerserkButton they shoot his bottle of whisky]], he charges their position screaming at the top of his lungs and spinning his rifle around his head like a club. The enemy flees. Haddock calms down, turns around, and discovers that they were fleeing because TheCavalry have finally arrived, not because they were afraid of him.

-->'''Ord''': Let's finish this.
-->'''Wolverine''' ''stunned'': Yeah. Okay. Let's do that.
-->'''Ord''': [[ThisIsGonnaSuck Oh, no.]] [[TemptingFate Is that dragon thing behind me again?]]
* In a truly bizarre {{Punisher}} story by Garth Ennis, Frank is being pursued by a low-level mobster and amateur cryptozoological oceanographer who's being coerced into revenge by the ghosts of all his friends Punisher killed (that [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane might just be hallucinations resulting from a brain injury]]). He finally corners Punisher on a dock, and Frank looks uncharacteristically scared, but not of the mobster. It turns out he finally found a living [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossal_squid Colossal Squid]].

-->'''Yuriko:''' Behind you!
-->'''Daredevil:''' I know, a guard. Where there's a prisoner, there's usually -
-->''(Spins and kicks the mook)''
-->'''Daredevil:''' '''A GUARD!''' And when there's ''one'' guard, there's usually more, so let's go!

* Happens to HaroldLloyd in ''Film/TheKidBrother'', when he threatens a bully with a stick, not noticing until the bully runs off that it was a snake curled in the branches that scared him away.