History Main / UnintentionalBackupPlan

* ''Film/TommyBoy'': Paul and Beverly Barrish are a husband and wife pair of con artists who deceived auto magnate Big Tom Callahan by Beverly marrying him with Paul posing as her son. They expected to simply bleed Big Tom dry for about a year before Beverly divorced him and got a big payday. Then, he immediately died at the wedding and they were put in a situation where they could make more money by selling the company. However, Big Tom's son, Tommy, thwarts their plans by selling enough brake pads to show that Callahan Auto was still viable after Big Tom's death and exposing them.

** ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'': Doc does not intend for Marty to cause Griff and his gang to wreck the Town Hall clocktower, but they get arrested for it before they can get Marty Jr. into trouble. So, mission accomplished, but not in the way Doc had in mind.

Where, although the original plan didn't work out, something else that may or may not be completely unrelated accomplishes the same goal. When played for laughs, expect the person who made the original plan to still say, "[[IMeantToDoThat Just as planned.]]" May also involve MacGyvering if the unplanned event simply gives the hero what is necessary to recover from the failed plan. Might also turn a FunnyBackgroundEvent into a ChekhovsGun.

* In ''Manga/DeathNote'', Light [[OutGambitted Out-Gambits]] Near by [[spoiler:fooling him into stealing a fake Death Note]]. However, because of Mello's own unrelated failed IndyPloy to kidnap Takada, [[spoiler:Near realizes the note is fake and is alerted to the location of the real Death Note, which he also steals and replaces with his own fake, allowing him to outwit Light]].
* Just before he dies, Uchiha Itachi plants a mysterious crow inside of Manga/{{Naruto}} with the message, "I hope you never have to use it." Jump to the 4th Ninja War where Itachi has been revived as a zombie under the enemy's control. He and Naruto fight, that crow appears, and suddenly Itachi is on the good guys' side. Itachi explains that the crow contained a pre-prepared genjutsu that would hypnotize whoever saw it to protect Konoha, programmed to only respond to the presence of Itachi's eyes. The plan was that if [[RivalTurnedEvil Sasuke]] decided to turn on the Leaf and use Itachi's eyes to power himself up, the genjutsu would turn him good. However, now in control of himself, Itachi can work to undo the resurrections ''and'' talk some sense into Sasuke personally.
* The climax of ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureBattleTendency'' plays this to ridiculous extremes. Confronted by Kars, who has managed to become the UltimateLifeform, Joseph decides to grab the [[MacGuffin Red Stone of Aja]] and run. Eventually Joseph manages to dump Kars into a volcano, but he survives thanks to his AdaptiveAbility. Kars then proceeds to cut off one of Joseph's hands and decides to kill him using the Ripple to invoke IronicDeath, but Joseph ends up blocking it with the Red Stone of Aja, triggering the volcano to erupt, sending both of them on a rock high into the sky. Kars tries to escape by growing wings, but Joseph's severed hand ends up distracting him long enough for a stray volcanic rock to hit him and launch him even higher, outside of the Earth's atmosphere. Joseph comments to himself that he planned none of this out, but his reputation for cunning schemes allows him to claim that he planned everything from the start, [[TheGadfly knowing that Kars would be pissed off thinking that.]]
** In the next [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Part]], After Jotaro punched Dio so hard he flew into the air, Dio landed near a staircase that had a car driving across it. Dio claims that escaping via car was his plan all along, but Jotaro calls him out on his bullshit.

* Creator/BillCosby talks about a plan for revenge in the album, "Revenge." In the routine, he recalls a childhood acquaintance named Junior Barnes hitting him in the side of the face with a slush-ball one snowy day. Cosby makes a perfect snowball to hit Junior Barnes with, but when he is unable to find Junior Barnes, he puts the snowball in the freezer, and waits until summer. In the time that passes, he's befriended Junior Barnes, and when he least suspects it, Cosby goes to get the snowball from the freezer, only to realize his mother has since thrown the snowball away. With this turn of events, Cosby goes back outside and simply spits on Junior Barnes.

* In the climax of ''Film/PacificRim'', Stryker Eureka is carrying a nuclear bomb that will close the Breach and prevent further kaiju from coming to Earth. [[spoiler: But Stryker Eureka is critically injured by the Category 5 kaiju, and cannot make it to the Breach.]] So instead, [[spoiler: they decide to set Gipsy Danger's [[ChekhovsGun nuclear reactor]] to overload in the Breach instead.]]
* In ''Film/{{Predator}}'', Dutch's plan to lure the titular menace into a deadly knife-trap fails when the Predator spots what he's up to and simply goes around it. Just as it's about to kill him, Dutch notices it's standing right under the trap's counterweight... a giant log.
* In ''Film/LicenceToKill'', Film/JamesBond is trying to assassinate Franz Sanchez [[ItsPersonal to avenge his friend Felix Leiter and his wife Della]]. However, he gets stopped midway through his attempt by Hong Kong narcotics moles who were infiltrating Sanchez's syndicate. [[VillainousRescue After Sanchez saves him]], Bond gets him to believe one of his associates was behind the attempt instead. Sanchez has Krest [[YourHeadAsplode brutally executed]] and he gives Bond a place in his inner circle.
* "{{Film/BackToTheFuture|1}} Part I": Marty's plan to take advantage of his mother, and for his father to come to her rescue, was going to fail epically and embarrassingly. However, [[NiceJobFixingItVillain Biff came to the plan's rescue]] and let George genuinely rescue Lorraine from an attacker.
* ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'': Doc does not intend for Marty to cause Griff and his gang to wreck the Town Hall clocktower, but they get arrested for it before they can get Marty Jr. into trouble. So, mission accomplished, but not in the way Doc had in mind.
* A villainous version happens in ''Film/TheFugitive'': [[spoiler:Dr. Charles Nichols]]'s plan was apparently to [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident kill both Richard and Helen Kimble in what would appear to be a botched robbery]]. But when Richard was able to fight Sykes off and only Helen was killed, it now looked as though ''Richard'' was the killer, leaving him to be convicted and sent to death row, effectively getting rid of him anyway.

** In a rare villainous example, Voldemort is unaware that [[spoiler:Harry is his final (de facto) Horcrux.]] As a result, he gave himself a way to win even after the other sources of his power were destroyed. [[spoiler:[[NiceJobFixingItVillain He ruins it, though, by using the Killing Curse on Harry again]].]]

* ''Literature/FoundationAndEmpire'': [[spoiler:Devers constructs an elaborate plan to defeat Bel Riose and TheEmpire, only for it to do nothing. Instead, political infighting on Trantor wins the war for them.]] This is taken as a sign of the inevitability of the Seldon Plan's success.

* In the Creator/IsaacAsimov short story ''Waterclap'', an engineer from a moon colony tries to sabotage an UnderwaterCity via a suicidal "accident", believing that space colonization resources are about to be cut in favour of ocean colonization. The ocean city administrator's wife bluffs that she's part of the science budget council, and that the ocean city is prototyping technology intended for colonising Jupiter, which convinces him that his sabotage would backfire. When the engineer stands down and entire thing is over, it is revealed that [[spoiler:while the wife was bluffing, the husband ''is'' a member of the council, and while they might not have been thinking in that direction before, his wife made a very good argument for why they should consider colonizing Jupiter...]]

* ''VideoGame/MarySkelter 2'': [[spoiler: Otsuu's plan was to go back in time to save Little Mermaid from [[DeathByOriginStory going berserk and getting killed by Red Riding Hood in self-defense]]. However, the resulting timeline [[ButterflyOfDoom screws over the rest of the heroes]], so Otsuu and Little Mermaid decide to reset things back to how they were in ''Mary Skelter: Nightmares''. The backup plan is Little Mermaid's microphone, which carries a recording of her: it somehow makes its way into the ''Nightmares'' timeline, restores Jack's memory of the ''Mary Skelter 2'' timeline after the recording is played back, Jack then stops Nightmare Otsuu from using the Jail Core to reset time, and everyone works together to bring Little Mermaid back from the dead in the ''Nightmares'' timeline instead.]]
* In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' you are given two options to escape the prison cell after getting captured. Once the guard [[PottyEmergency runs to the bathroom]] you can either fake your death with ketchup or hide under the bed to lure him into the cell thinking you've either committed suicide or escaped. What you choose is up to you and they both work the same, but each one OnlyWorksOnce. Bungle them both, however, and you're apparently now at Ocelot's mercy and put on the torture rack a couple more times. Thankfully, the [[WildCard Cyborg Ninja]] unexpectedly shows up to smash open the door for you after this.

--> '''Qrow''': I [[LampshadeHanging don't know how]], but we did it, Oz.

* At the end of the two-part ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "Princess Twilight Sparkle", it is revealed that [[spoiler:before he was turned to stone over a thousand years ago, Discord planted magic seeds meant to steal magic from the Tree of Harmony, capture Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, and spread across Equestria. However, the tree's magic prevented the seeds from flourishing. After over a thousand years, the tree weakens just enough for the plants to resume Discord's original intent. By this time, though, Discord had undergone a HeelFaceTurn, though [[ItAmusedMe it still amused him]] to sit back and see how it played out as an [[TricksterMentor impromptu test]] for Twilight]].

* In the ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' episode "Gem Drill", [[spoiler: Peridot and Steven drill into the depths of the Earth to reach the Cluster, an enormous conglomeration of shattered Gem shards left beneath the surface by Homeworld, and destroy it before it awakens and destroys the Earth. Peridot's drill is unable to damage the Cluster, but Steven is able to use his empathetic powers to communicate with the Cluster and convince its components to bubble each other and save the Earth.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'': In "Epilogue", the FullyAbsorbedFinale of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'', it's revealed that Terry [=McGinnis=] is [[spoiler:Bruce Wayne's biological son]], as Amanda Waller secretly [[spoiler:overrode Warren [=McGinnis=]'s DNA with Bruce's]], and also contracted [[WesternAnimation/BatmanMaskOfThePhantasm Andrea Beaumont/The Phantasm]] to murder Terry's parents so as to spark a similar turn to vigilantism as Bruce. However, at the last minute, Beaumont opted not to do it, [[EveryoneHasStandards because she wasn't willing to kill an innocent boy's parents who have done no wrong to anyone just to make him the next Batman]]; after all, she’s a vigilante who always did prefer to PayEvilUntoEvil, and she points out that the entire reason Bruce became Batman was ''to prevent this exact tragedy from happening to anyone else'', and that it would go against everything he stood for. But years later, [[HeKnowsTooMuch Warren McGinnis was murdered under Derek Powers's orders]], which led Terry to Bruce and then becoming the new Batman, after all. [[DeconstructedTrope Terry is rightfully furious finding out about all this]].

* "{{Film/BackToTheFuture|1}} Part I": Marty's plan to take advantage of his mother, and for his father to come to her rescue, was going to fail epically and embarrassingly. However, [[NiceJobFixingItVillain Biff came to the plan's rescue]] and provided George to genuinely rescue Lorraine from an attacker.

* Played straight over the course of the ''Franchise/StarWars'' saga. Qui-Gon Jinn's original plan was for Anakin to bring balance to the Force. However, he ends up falling to the Dark Side and it seems that he won't. In ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'', however, he does bring balance to the Force by ensuring that the last of the evil aspect of the Dark Side of the Force dies with him.

* In ''Film/{{Predator}}'', Dutch's plan to lure the titular menace into a deadly knife-trap fails when the Predator spots what he's up to and simply goes around it. Just as its about to kill him, Dutch notices it's standing right under the trap's counterweight... a giant log.

* In the climax of ''Film/PacificRim'', Stryker Eureka is carrying a nuclear bomb that will close the Breach and prevent further kaiju from coming to Earth. [[spoiler: But Stryker Eureka is critically injured by the Category 5 kaiju, and cannot make it to the Breach.]] So instead, [[spoiler: they decide to set Gipsy Danger's [[ChekovsGun nuclear reactor]] to overload in the Breach instead.]]