History Main / UnintentionalBackupPlan

->'''Doc Brown:''' Marty, what in the name of Sir Isaac H. Newton happened here?
->'''Marty [=McFly=]:''' Oh, yeah, Doc, listen, my kid showed up. All hell broke loose.
->'''Doc:''' Your kid? Great Scott, the sleep inducer! I was afraid of this. Because I used it on Jennifer, there wasn't enough power left to knock your son out for a full hour. Damn!
->'''Marty:''' (''holding up newspaper'') Doc, Doc, Doc, look at this! It's changing.
->(''the newspaper headline and photo changes from "Youth Jailed" to "Gang Jailed", Doc takes a hand-held viewer out and looks at Griff Tannen getting arrested'')
->'''Griff Tannen:''' I was framed!
->'''Doc:''' Why, yes! Yes, of course! Because this hoverboard incident has now occurred, Griff now goes to jail. Therefore, your son won't go with him tonight, and that robbery will never take place. Thus, history, ''future'' history, has now been altered, and this is the proof! Marty, we've succeeded, not exactly as I planned, but no matter. Let's go get Jennifer and go home!
-->-- ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII''

* Freqently on ''Series/TheATeam'', prompting Hannibal to spout his CatchPhrase, "I love it when a plan comes together."

** To keep the [[EvilMask Mask of Darth Nihilus]] from falling into Darth Vader's hands, [[Machinima/RedVsBlue Alpha]] dumps the mask on a remote world far from the Empire's reach. Church picked Remnant because its civilization hadn't discovered spaceflight. He had no way of knowing that Remnant's Dust technology doesn't work outside the planet's atmosphere. This means that even after Remnant undergoes an industrial revolution centuries later, they still don't have a space program, leaving Nihilus's spirit trapped there with no means of returning to the greater galaxy.

Often used to invoke an IMeantToDoThat. Might also involve the plan going horribly wrong and then what caused it to go wrong yielding the intended result. Contrast NiceJobBreakingItHero and NiceJobFixingItVillain, for when they unintentionally rescue their enemies' plans. Compare and contrast XanatosSpeedChess and GambitRoulette, which involve planning for things that could ruin your plans or adjusting your plans when they might fail. Inverse of SpannerInTheWorks, where someone or something causes what would have been a perfect plan to not accomplish its goal.

** [[BigBad Blackbeard]] planned to capture series protagonist Monkey D. Luffy and hand him over to the World Government in order to get appointed as a [[{{Privateer}} Warlord.]] But then Luffy and his crew got [[ItMakesSenseInContext shot up into the sky]] right when he approached them and, sometime later, Luffy's brother Ace (who's an even more notable pirate than Luffy) showed up to confront Blackbeard over unrelated matters. Blackbeard captures Ace instead and his plans go even ''better'' because of it, as a series of crazy events ultimately leads to Blackbeard getting himself a NextTierPowerUp.

* 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 triggering mechanism... a giant log.

** 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.

* ''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 Wayne'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 Wayne. 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 Wayne and subsequently became the new Batman, after all. [[DeconstructedTrope Terry is rightfully furious finding out about all this]].

* ''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 Wayne'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 Wayne. 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 pointed 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 Wayne and subsequently became the new Batman, after all. [[DeconstructedTrope Terry is rightfully furious realizing finding out about all this]].

* Played straight over the course of the ''Franchise/StarWars'' saga. Qui-Gon Jinn's original plan was for Anakin to bring balance to TheForce. 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.

!!Examples

[[folder: Anime & Manga ]]

[[folder: Fan Works]]
* ''Fanfic/JauneArcLordOfHunger'':
** To keep the [[EvilMask Mask of Darth Nihilus]] from falling into Darth Vader's hands, [[Machinima/RedVsBlue Alpha]] dumps the mask on a remote world far from the Empire's reach. Church picked Remnant because its civilization hadn't discovered spaceflight. He had no way of knowing that Remnant's Dust technology doesn't work outside the planet's atmosphere. This means that even after Remnant undergoes an industrial revolution centuries later, they still don't have a space program, leaving Nihilus's spirit trapped there with no means of returning to the greater galaxy.
** After recognizing Jaune as an unstable sociopath, Cinder decides to use him as a RedHerring in order to distract Ozpin while she targets the Fall Maiden. She has no idea that [[spoiler:Nihilus's soul would perform a DemonicPossession on Jaune's body and go on a rampage the next day]], so she didn't even need to set Jaune up for anything.

[[folder: Film]]
* Played straight over the course of the ''Franchise/StarWars'' saga. Qui-Gon Jinn's original plan was for Anakin to bring balance to TheForce. 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 triggering mechanism... 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/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.

[[folder: Literature]]
* ''Literature/HarryPotter'':
** 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]].]]
** The heroes had one in place as well. Dumbledore originally planned [[spoiler:to depower the Elder Wand by having Snape kill him by consent. This was ruined when Draco Malfoy Disarmed him during their encounter, and Dumbledore never got a chance to reclaim it. Later, Harry Disarmed Draco of his usual hawthorn wand, taking it for his own--and by doing this, ''Harry'' (by pure luck) became the master of the Elder Wand, essentially preventing Voldemort from ever becoming its master. This is eventually what allows Harry to win against Voldemort.]]
* In ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', Gandalf and Aragorn's BatmanGambit pays off in getting the One Ring to Mount Doom, but the One Ring itself [[SpannerInTheWorks spans]] their plans by finally corrupting Frodo at the last crucial moment. Fortunately, Gollum shows up to take the ring for himself before accidentally falling into the volcano and destroying it.
* ''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.
* When the heroes of ''Literature/{{Relativity}}'' encounter a powerful telepath named August Moon, they find it nearly impossible to fight him because he can read their minds and know what their attacks will be before they make them. At one point, however, Ravenswood sadly recalls how he and August used to be friends before he became a villain. The memory distracts August long enough for him to be defeated.
* 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 conisder colonizing Jupiter...]]

[[folder: Live Action TV]]
* Freqently on ''Series/TheATeam'', prompting Hannibal to spout his CatchPhrase, "I love it when a plan comes together."
* In episode 27 of ''Series/MimpiMetropolitan'', Melani's plan for Reno's proposal is Reno will rescue Dita from "kidnappers" (Bambang and Alan) and bring her to the proposal location. What ends up happening is Dita beats up Bambang and Alan and they decide to run away from her to the proposal location, so the proposal succeeds anyway.

[[folder: Stand-up Comedy]]
* 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.

[[folder: Video Game]]
* 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.

[[folder: Web Animation]]
* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': While [[BigGood Ozpin]] makes it clear that he doesn't think the teenaged heroes are anywhere near ready take on [[BigBad Salem's]] forces, he and [[CoolUncle Qrow]] try anyway because they have no alternative plan for protecting either [[ExtranormalInstitute Haven Academy]] or the [[ArtifactOfPower Relic of Knowledge]]. During the confrontation, the group unsurprisingly does not do well against the villains. What Ozpin doesn't know is that there are two other plans in play at the same time: Blake rallying the [[LittleBitBeastly Faunus]] of [[FantasticGhetto Menagerie]] is what stops the [[WesternTerrorists White Fang]] assault on the school [[spoiler:and [[ByronicHeroine Raven]] playing [[TheHeavy Cinder]] like a fiddle is what prevents Cinder from obtaining the Relic. While the heroes all learn about Blake's plan, only Yang [[SecretKeeper knows the role]] that Raven played.]]
--> '''Qrow''': I [[LampshadeHanging don't know how]], but we did it, Oz.

[[folder: Web Original ]]
* In ''Film/NoobLeConseilDesTroisFactions'', Gaea's TheScrooge attitude in ''Series/{{Noob}}'' turns out to have had ulterior motives. Besides a bunch of money, the plan needed one of the game's larger guilds as a target. When she excecutes it on Roxxor, the biggest guild of the Coalition, she admits that her initial target was Justice from the Empire, her former faction. What happened between the two? Mid-way through ''Series/{{Noob}}'', a FrameUp made her hated in the Empire and she got a literal fan club whose members were convinced that she was a DoubleAgent faithful to the Coalition. She spent some time basically giving the SureLetsGoWithThat treatment to the fan club while staying in the Empire, but a moment of disappointment with her Empire guild made her change factions, which was made easier by her fan club welcoming her with open arms. With the new faction came a new large guild to target.

[[folder: Western Animation]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' it seems like the [[spoiler:[[TheMole Aqualad double agent]]]] plan is doomed to failure thanks to Miss Martian [[spoiler:inflicting a MindRape on him to "avenge" Artemis who wasn't really dead. Artemis manages to bring her onto Black Manta's sub via a staged kidnapping to fix the damage, but now Miss Martian can't escape without exposing the scheme.]] Cue Sportsmaster and Chesire raiding Manta's sub [[spoiler:also trying to avenge Artemis]] and inadvertantly breaking her out, allowing her to escape and cover her tracks.

[[folder:Other]]
* [[Advertising/TheManYourManCouldSmellLike The Old Spice commercials]] fit this trope pretty well. It was supposed to advertise a body wash, but no-one seemed to buy that particular product. However, the Old Spice brand as a whole has become far more popular.
* Go Fish. A house rule (so common that most people don't know it's not a base rule) is that if you ask for the wrong card and your normally turn-ending penalty draw either completes a pair or it's what you asked for, it doesn't end your turn.
[[/folder]]

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 ''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 its standing right under the trap's triggering mechanism... a giant log.

** After recognizing Jaune as an unstable sociopath, Cinder decides to use him as a RedHerring in order to distract Ozpin while she targets the Fall Maiden. She has no idea that [[spoiler:Nihilus's soul would perform a GrandTheftMe on Jaune's body and go on a rampage the next day]], so she didn't even need to set Jaune up for anything.

** In order to keep the [[EvilMask Mask of Darth Nihilus]] from falling into Darth Vader's hands, [[Machinima/RedVsBlue Alpha]] dumps the mask on a remote world far from the Empire's reach. Church picked Remnant because its civilization was primitive and hadn't discovered spaceflight. He had no way of knowing that Remnant's Dust technology doesn't work outside the planet's atmosphere. This means that even after Remnant undergoes an industrial revolution centuries later, they still don't have a space program, leaving Nihilus's soul trapped there with no means of returning to the greater galaxy.

* ''Fanfic/JauneArcLordOfHunger'': In order to keep the [[EvilMask Mask of Darth Nihilus]] from falling into Darth Vader's hands, [[Machinima/RedVsBlue Alpha]] dumps the mask on a remote world far from the Empire's reach. Church picked Remnant because its civilization was primitive and hadn't discovered spaceflight. He had no way of knowing that Remnant's Dust technology doesn't work outside the planet's atmosphere. This means that even after Remnant undergoes an industrial revolution centuries later, they still don't have a space program, leaving Nihilus's soul trapped there with no means of returning to the greater galaxy.

* ''Fanfic/JauneArcLordOfHunger'': In order to keep the [[EvilMask Mask of Darth Nihilus]] from falling into Darth Vader's hands, a team of droids dump the mask on a secluded planet far from the Empire's reach. At the time, the droids picked Remnant because its civilization was primitive and hadn't discovered spaceflight. The droids had no way of knowing that Remnant's Dust technology doesn't work outside the planet's atmosphere. This means that even centuries later, when Remnant has experienced an industrial revolution, Nihilus is still trapped there and has no means of returning to the greater galaxy.

* ''Fanfic/JauneArcLordOfHunger'': In order to keep the [[EvilMask Mask of Darth Nihilus]] from falling into Darth Vader's hands, a team of droid adventurers decide to dump the mask on a secluded planet far from the Empire's reach. At the time, the droids picked Remnant because its civilization was considered primitive (by ''Star Wars'' standards) and weren't capable of spaceflight. The droids had no way of knowing that Remnant's Dust technology doesn't work outside the planet's atmosphere. This means that almost two centuries later, when Remnant has experienced an industrial revolution, Nihilus is still trapped on the planet and has no means of returning to the greater galaxy.

* In ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' it seems like the [[spoiler:[[ReverseMole Aqualad double agent]]]] plan is doomed to failure thanks to Miss Martian [[spoiler:inflicting a MindRape on him to "avenge" Artemis who wasn't really dead. Artemis manages to bring her onto Black Manta's sub via a staged kidnapping to fix the damage, but now Miss Martian can't escape without exposing the scheme.]] Cue Sportsmaster and Chesire raiding Manta's sub [[spoiler:also trying to avenge Artemis]] and inadvertantly breaking her out, allowing her to escape and cover her tracks.

* Played straight over the course of the ''Franchise/StarWars'' saga. Qui-Gon's original plan was for Anakin to bring balance to TheForce. 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/LicenceToKill'', Film/JamesBond is trying to assassinate Franz Sanchez [[ItsPersonal to avenge his friend Felix Leiter and his wife Della]]. However, he gets stopped 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 the associate brutally executed and he gives Bond a place in his inner circle.
* ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'': Doc did 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.

* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', [[BigBad Blackbeard]] planned to capture series protagonist Monkey D. Luffy and hand him over to the World Government in order to get appointed as a [[{{Privateer}} Warlord.]] But then Luffy and his crew got [[ItMakesSenseInContext shot up into the sky]] right when he approached them and, sometime later, Luffy's brother Ace (who's an even more notable pirate than Luffy) showed up to confront Blackbeard over unrelated matters. Blackbeard captures Ace instead and his plans go even ''better'' because of it, as a series of crazy events ultimately leads to Blackbeard getting himself a NextTierPowerUp.

* 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 by Hong Kong narcotics moles who were infiltrating Sanchez's syndicate. However, he gets Sanchez to believe one of his associates was behind the attempt instead. Sanchez has the associate brutally executed and he gives Bond a place in his inner circle.

[[folder: Video Game]]
* 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.

* 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 by Hong Kong narcotics moles who were infiltrating Sanchez's syndicate. Later, he gets Sanchez to believe one of his associates was behind the attempt instead. Sanchez has the associate brutally executed and he gives Bond a place in his inner circle.