History MoralEventHorizon / Film

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[[quoteright:350:[[Film/ANewHope http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Alderaan-Frame02_6011.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror, [[EarthShatteringKaboom and were suddenly silenced]]. I fear something terrible has happened."'']]
->''"There's a line you cross, you don't never come back from. Point of no return. Dave crossed it. I'm here with him. That means I'm going along for the ride, the whole ride. All the way to the end of the line, wherever that is."''
-->-- '''Carlito Brigante''', ''Film/CarlitosWay''

----
[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Directors / Film in general]]
* In Creator/SergioLeone's films:
** ''Film/AFistfulOfDollars'': Ramon Rojo (the BigBad) is unquestionably evil. He forces a woman to live with him and threatens to kill her young son if she does not comply with his wishes. His most monstrous moment is massacring the entire Baxter family, including the matriarch, and ''laughing'' while he does it all. What makes it so monstrous? In doing so, [[EvenEvilHasStandards he even frightens the living hell out of one of his own brothers]].
** ''Film/ForAFewDollarsMore'': El Indio crosses it when he forces the man who betrayed him to listen to his family being massacred.
** ''Film/TheGoodTheBadAndTheUgly'': If Angel Eyes didn't cross it by then, he definitely crosses it when he has Tuco tortured by Corporal Wallace for the name of the cemetery where the money is buried. This after he had been specifically instructed not to torture any of the [=POWs=] on the ailing camp warden's watch.
** ''Film/OnceUponATimeInTheWest'': Frank crosses this in his first (and more famous) scene, killing a family and saving their youngest son for last.
** ''Film/AFistfulOfDynamite'': Colonel Reza and the Mexican army cross it with the murder of Juan's children.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:A]]
* Ivan Korshunov is the terrorist leader in ''Film/AirForceOne''. While taking over the titular plane, [[RedShirtArmy some Secret Service agents are killed]]. That's bad, but easily predicted. Korshunov then shoots the National Security Advisor Jack Doherty. That's worse, but to be fair, Doherty was an important government official. However, when Korshunov brutally executes Melanie the press secretary ''while broadcasting her pleas for mercy throughout the plane'', he's crossed the line hard, and the audience is now getting impatient for this villain to get his.
* ''Film/AlexanderNevsky'': When the Teutonic Knights throw ''babies'' into a huge bonfire.
* In the Australian film [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandra%27s_Project Alexandra's Project]], the titular woman's revenge on her husband for years of sexual objectification and financial control is [[DisproportionateRetribution completely and utterly out of proportion]] with the mistreatment she received, especially since she apparently didn't complain much about it beforehand, and that her "project" is far too elaborate and long-running to be the work of an irrational mind.
* The ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'' series:
** In ''Film/{{Alien}}'' there's "Special Order 937", the company's plan to bring aliens to Earth, at the expense of the crew's lives. Ash - [[TheMole who was in on this]] - crosses the horizon himself when he gives Ripley a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown after she finds out about this secret.
** Burke in ''Film/{{Aliens}}'', when he tries to impregnate Ripley and Newt with alien embryos, so he can smuggle them through quarantine, and ultimately use them for bioweapons research. Even before that, he did the same thing with the colonists themselves. When being interviewed on ''The Tonight Show'', Paul Reiser (who played Burke) revealed that he took his parents to see the film - and when the scene came where his character was killed... his parents ''simply nodded their silent approval.'' Damn - if your ''parents'' want the character you're playing dead, you know he's passed the MoralEventHorizon.
* The ''Theatre/KingLear'' reimagining ''A Thousand Acres'' jumps in with abandon, as does its source novel. In the play, we feel bad for Lear, who loses everything to his conniving daughters and ends up alone in the wilderness. We then feel justification when they meet a wicked end later on. But in the movie, how can you feel bad for Larry for losing everything he loves and truck when he raped his two oldest daughters till they were too old to interest him? You just can't. (Creator/RogerEbert's review suggests that he succumbed to DarknessInducedAudienceApathy watching this film, finding no one to root or even care for in it.)
* In ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan2'', Donald Menken crosses it when he removes Harry Osborn from Oscorp simply for trying to get details on Max Dillon–details that Harry needed to stay alive, if not Spider-Man's blood. This sets off a chain reaction that causes Harry to become the Green Goblin. Not that it makes [[spoiler:Harry setting off the chain reaction that ends in Gwen Stacy's death]] OK by any stretch, of course.
* ''Film/AmericanJustice'': Sheriff Payden shoots Boyd in the face for complaining about finding no money.
* ''Film/{{Apocalypto}}'': TheDragon Middle Eye's sadistic behavior becomes unforgivable within a very short period of time, after the deliberate murder of [[spoiler:Jaguar Paw's father]] and the (thankfully offscreen) rape of several of the villager's women.
* Lyla's father from ''Film/AugustRush.'' Taking the StageMom and MeddlingParents tropes to the max, he tries to keep his daughter on a path that she doesn't want to pursue. After she gets pregnant from her boyfriend, she gets into an argument with her father regarding the baby and her career as a cellist. As she's about to rush out the door, she gets hit by a car and goes into a coma. So what does her father do? [[spoiler: He sent the baby to an orphanage after it was born ('''while his daughter was in a coma''') and said that the baby died.]] Granted he does eventually confess his sins to his daughter, but he better know that there is '''no coming back from that one.'''
* It's hard to tell when Quaritch in ''Film/{{Avatar}}'' crosses this, but the most likely candidate is when he murders Grace while our heroes are trying to escape from him.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:B]]
* This trope caused a scene to be removed from ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartIII''. Originally, the movie was to have contained a scene where Buford Tannen, ancestor of Biff, shoots and kills Marshall Strickland in front of the lawman's son. According to screenwriter Bob Gale, the scene was removed because it was felt that after Buford is seen committing such a deed, it doesn't seem right that he not die (and he ''can't'' die, seeing as he will need to live long enough to extend the family line).
** The scene made it into the novelization of the movie, however. And the Marshall's son grew up with a strong sense of discipline, and made sure it got instilled in all his kids. So Buford just made life hell for all his descendants in general, and Biff in particular.
** It's also referenced and possibly canonised in the Creator/TelltaleGames sequel.
** Biff himself definitely crosses it in Part II when he [[spoiler: kills George and becomes Lorraine's abusive rapist husband]] after becoming rich through the [[TimelineAlteringMacGuffin Gray's Sports Almanac]]. Even though this is an alternate timeline that is later rectified, knowing that he even had the potential for it is enough. Thankfully, in the actual timeline he ''doesn't'' stoop to such lows.
* As with his [[Film/TheDarkKnight just-as-famous-if-not-moreso counterpart]], it's not a question of whether SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker from Creator/TimBurton's ''Film/{{Batman}}'' crosses it, but when. Perhaps the most likely crossing point is [[spoiler:killing Thomas and Martha Wayne when he was younger]]. As for the first crossing point to be shown? Tougher to pinpoint; there's killing off countless Gothamites with his Smilex gas, or [[spoiler: killing EnsembleDarkHorse Bob]] if you liked him.
** In ''Film/BatmanReturns'', the Penguin crossed the line after he had to ditch the mayoral campaign and decided to kidnap all of Gotham's firstborn children, including the babies, with the intention of drowning them in a deep puddle of Shreck's industrial byproducts.
*** The brilliance of Penguin's character in ''Returns'' is that he was already on the other side of the line from the start of the movie. His reemergence into society, his attempts to gather census data on the populace of Gotham, all done from the start so he could identify and kill the first born children of every wealthy family in the city. It is even implied that he's already murdered children back when he was the "bird boy" at the Red Triangle Circus's freak show.
** ''Film/BatmanForever'' has an InUniverse example. Fred Stickley decides Edward Nygma went over by using him as a guinea pig for his [[BuffySpeak brain manipulation device thing]]. Despite being an overall awesome and funny villain, Nygma really went over later in the same scene by pushing Stickley out the window for firing him and trying to report him to the proper authorities. He cements it when he tampers with the security log to make it look like a suicide, without caring one whistle about the repercussions it would have for Stickley's loved ones.
** In ''Film/BatmanAndRobin'', Poison Ivy crosses it with [[spoiler:attempted murder]] out of pure jealousy. To further rub salt into the wound, she then lies to Mr. Freeze about Nora's fate. [[spoiler:When Mr. Freeze finds out who really pulled the plug, to say he's not very happy would be putting it mildly]].
--->'''Poison Ivy:''' I never was too good with competition. Who needs a frigid wife anyway?
* In ''Film/BenHur1959'', Messala crosses it when, knowing that Judah Ben-Hur wasn't responsible for the death of the governor, he arrests him anyway, [[SinsOfOurFathers along with his family]], on trumped-up charges ''simply to [[MakeAnExampleOfThem make an example of him]] and crush any potential rebellion by the Jews''. To make things worse, one of his chief motivations was that Ben-Hur's ideals clashed with his. He even bans Ben-Hur from drinking with the rest of the slaves, with full intent to murder him by proxy before he even made it to the galleys--and yes, Ben-Hur would've died then and there if Christ Jesus hadn't shown up to give him some water. And all to subjugate the Jews.
* In the ''Film/BladeTrilogy'':
** ''Film/{{Blade}}'': Frost crosses this when he [[spoiler:attacks Blade's mentor and father-figure Whistler and leaves him to die in agony. Whistler gets better though, but through becoming a vampire.]]
** ''Film/BladeTrinity'': Dracula crosses this when he [[spoiler:tortures and crucifies one of the Nightstalkers and leaves her mutilated body for the heroes to find. Notable not just for the wanton cruelty of it, but also the fact that the Nightstalker in question was ''blind'' and so obviously had no way from defending herself.]]
* The men of Ward 3, in ''Film/{{Blindness}}'', have theirs when they [[spoiler:demand that the other wards send the women to them in exchange for food. Their rape even kills one woman.]]
* ''Film/BridgeToTerabithia'': Scott and Gary cross it when they up their bullying of Jess following [[spoiler:Leslies's death]], Scott going as far as to taunt Jess about it in class, complete with a smug smile the whole time.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:C]]
* ''Film/CarlitosWay'': Carlito Brigante (as narrator) provides the quote at the top of the page in reference to his lawyer, David Kleinfeld.
* ''Film/{{Cinderella 2015}}'' has the expected moment when Tremaine and her daughters wreak Cinderella's dress (more so for Tremaine than her daughters since here, ''she'' actually initiates the action.) Made especially strong given how it was her ''mothers's'', and how it's the turning point when Tremaine's subtle pettiness turns into more severe cruelty. And then there's the scene later where [[spoiler:Tremaine breaks Ella's glass slipper at the end of her MotiveRant.]] Ella by that point [[LampshadeHanging can't help but ask]] why Tremaine is as cruel as she's been.
* ''Film/ChildrenOfTheNight'': Czakyr crossed the line in the 1980's when he killed a bunch of kids to make his FakingTheDead more believable. [[spoiler:Or, in actuality, trapping then alive and conscious with him in his prison so that he can feed while he's in.]]
* [[AbusiveParent Richard]] [[TheAlcoholic Detmer]] from ''Film/{{Chronicle}}'', constantly takes his anger and stress on his son Andrew by berating him and accusing him of being selfish. Even though [[TheHypocrite Richard himself]] constantly spends money on alcohol instead of looking after his [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes sick wife]] (Which he claims to love but spends time getting drunk). If there ever existed any shred of decency of Richard, it was long gone when he blames Andrew, (who's comatose mind you!) for his wife's death and tries ''punching him on the hospital bed'', [[BullyingADragon but Andrew suddenly catches his arm, followed by an explosion]].
* In ''Film/{{Cleopatra}}'', BigBad [[UsefulNotes/{{Augustus}} Octavian]] crosses this line when he has the title character's young son Caesarion murdered to secure his claim to the throne of Rome. This was [[HistoricalVillainUpgrade a significant departure from history done to make Octavian seem eviler]]; the RealLife Caesarion was in his late teens at the time of his death (well into adulthood by the standards of the day) rather than the ten or twelve the film portrays him, and was killed ''after'' his mother's suicide, meaning the TearJerker scene where she realizes he is dead did not happen in reality, nor could it have.
* In the film ''Film/{{Cracks}}'' Miss G crosses this when she molests a drunken Fiamma. She definitely crosses it when she [[spoiler: refuses to give Fiamma her inhaler, allowing her to die]]
* ''Film/TheCraft'' has [[WickedWitch Nancy Downs]] and her CoDragons Bonnie and Rochelle trying to drive the protagonist Sarah to suicide, going as far as to make her hallucinate snakes, bugs and rats everywhere she looks.
** In that same movie, after going on a date with Sarah, [[JerkJock Chris Hooker]] spreads rumors that she puts out at school the next day.
* In ''Film/{{Cube}}'', Quentin grows steadily more hostile over the course of the film, but he doesn't make the full transition into becoming a genuine threat to the group until he [[spoiler:kills Holloway by letting her fall to her death]]. It's not very surprising that our protagonists eventually try to get rid of him afterwards.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:D]]
* ''Film/TheDarkKnightSaga'':
** In ''Film/BatmanBegins'', the League of Shadows seems earlier on like a group that's dedicated to justice, [[KnightTemplar even if their notion of what qualifies as justice seems rather warped]]. [[spoiler:When they talk about how Gotham needs to be destroyed, that does not confirm that they mean it, given the nature of their training. Then you get to hear a bit more detail on how they plan to do it, but that still doesn't rule out that the option of talking them out of it before it's too late. Then you see Ducard switch on a microwave emitter, vapourizing the water supply that he apparently knew had been laced with Crane's drug, as a means of drugging the people of Gotham, including the innocent children, into mass panic. Not exactly justice...]]
*** He also does it in an incredibly callous way, accompanying the switch on (accomplished with a dainty flick of the wrist), with a fucking one-liner:
--->'''Ra's Al Ghul''': Gentlemen, it's time to spread the word... (*flick*) and the word is ''panic''.
*** Carmine Falcone crosses it by hiring a hitwoman disguised as a reporter to [[KickTheSonOfABitch ice Joe Chill]], and when Bruce confronts him about it, he casually taunts him before eighty-sixing him.
--->'''Carmine Falcone''': Yeah, you got spirit, kid. I'll give you that. More than your old man, anyway. In the joint, Chill told me, uh, told me about the night he killed your parents. ''He said your father begged for mercy. '''[[BlatantLies Begged. Like a dog.]]'''''
** In Film/TheDarkKnight, the Joker's likely crossed the line well before the movie began (if he didn't, he crossed it when he killed Rachel and followed it up by driving Harvey to madness). It's {{implied}} most of the mobsters (with the exceptions of Sal Maroni and Gambol) crossed it when they [[spoiler:hired the Joker in the first place]].
*** Bruce sums it up pretty neatly after Judge Surrillo and [[spoiler:Commissioner Loeb]] are killed: "Targeting me won't get them their money back. I knew the mob wouldn't go down without a fight, but this is different. They crossed a line." Alfred then tells him, "You crossed the line first, sir; you squeezed them, you hammered them to the point of desperation, and in their desperation they turned to [[SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker a man they didn't fully understand.]]" That line highlights Maroni's dilemma; he only let the Chechen hire the Joker because he ''thought'' it was the best way to keep the mob afloat; Maroni hates the Joker as much as the good guys, and he admits to Batman that the Joker was not the kind of guy you'd want to get in touch with when you want to get something done, to put it lightly.
---->'''Sal Maroni''': Friends? Have you ''met'' [[SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker this guy]]?
*** In the novelization, Maroni decides the Joker went over when the informant he had hired to find out whatever he could about the Joker dies after drinking poisoned coffee. The Joker is so secretive, there's no line he ''won't'' cross to make sure nobody finds out who he really is.
** In Film/TheDarkKnightRises, if Bane doesn't cross it by [[spoiler:''snapping Batman's spine'' and leaving him in a prison pit, broken and helpless]], then he crosses it shortly thereafter when he [[spoiler:seals off Gotham City, turning it into an anarchist hell]].
*** If you're to believe [[AllThereInTheManual the novelization of the first film]], [[spoiler:Talia's plan to subject Gotham to nuclear holocaust in ''Rises'' goes beyond the pale even by her father's standards, as he would never have resorted to nuclear weapons (since he considers nukes to be powerful enough to make most of the Earth uninhabitable for most life forms, and since his goal was to ''save'' humanity from itself...); the fact that [[DaddysLittleVillain she's doing it in her father's name]] only makes it worse]].
* ''Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse''
** Zod has a number of possible crossing points in ''Film/ManOfSteel:''
*** Faora gives a breather to Lois, because humans can't breathe the Kryptonian atmosphere. When Superman starts coughing up blood and passes out, Zod explains that Superman can't quite breathe the Kryptonian atmosphere either after living on Earth for so long, and they were counting on it to de-power him. Meaning Zod was perfectly willing to kill Superman from the beginning.
*** He tries to threaten Superman's adoptive mother, almost killing her ... [[BerserkButton not really a smart move on Zod's part.]]
*** Not hesitating to destroy the human population just so the Kryptonians can thrive again - [[spoiler: even though they already had the means to repopulate their race, possibly on another planet. They could repopulate on Earth without killing the native inhabitants in the terraforming process, it would just take some adaptation time, which is relatively simple to achieve as demonstrated by the few minutes it takes Zod himself to adapt, and maybe moreso since these new Kryptonians would've been born into the environment.]] So they were really just killing people for no reason, or for no reason [[FantasticRacism greater than prejudice against "inferior bloodlines."]]
*** In-universe: the leaders of Krypton view Zod's failed rebellion as this trope, and sentence him and his followers to the Phantom Zone.
** ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice:''
*** Anatoli Khanyzev crosses it in the warehouse fight scene; where he openly threatens to kill Martha Kent with a flamethrower in front of Batman. [[spoiler: Batman then [[BatmanGrabsAGun shoots his propane tank with a mobster's discarded gun]] and [[BigDamnHeroes rescues Martha in the nick of time as the tank explodes.]]]]
*** SelfDemonstrating/LexLuthor has several possible crossing points:
*** [[spoiler: Orchestrating a coup in Africa, paying Khanyzev to destroy the evidence and killing CIA operative Jimmy Olsen in attempt to implicate Superman in the process]].
*** [[spoiler: Exploiting a man's FantasticRacism to assassinate Senator Finch during Superman's trial with a bomb at the US capitol.]]
*** Kidnapping Martha Kent and forcing a SadisticChoice against Superman to fight Batman in exchange for her life. [[spoiler: Bruce is mortified at Clark's mention of "Martha" triggering the memory of his parents being murdered; and is convinced to rescue her instead.]]
*** [[spoiler: Creating [[ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman Doomsday]] and killing Superman. Also qualifies as one in-universe, as Lex is incarcerated for his crimes, further compounded by the Ultimate Edition revealing him to be in league with Steppenwolf.]]
* ''Film/DarkHarvest'': Elijah killing his pregnant wife to cover up his previous murders.
* Invoked by Frank Talby in ''Film/DayOfAnger'' with a 10th lesson in gunfighting after [[spoiler:the protagonist shoots and mortally wounds him in a gunfight]].
-->'''Frank Talby''': Your last lesson, Scotty: when you start killing, you can't stop it.
* ''Death Wish'' series:
** ''Film/DeathWish'': The three [[NoNameGiven unnamed]] thugs from the beginning rape Jersey's wife and daughter, killing the former.
** ''Film/DeathWishII'': Nirvana and his gang rape and murder Jersey's daughter and maid.
* Hans Gruber of ''Film/DieHard'' crosses this when he kills Mr. Takagi simply because he refuses to tell him the password to the vault.
** The sequel ramps it up with Colonel Stuart, [[spoiler:who guides a plane full of innocent passengers into crashing into the runway. All because [=McClane=] had the ''audacity'' to kill the men they had stationed at the annex skywalk.]]
** And then subverted in the third film. [[spoiler:The bomb planted in an elementary school turns out to be a dud.]]
-->'''Simon:''' [[EvenEvilHasStandards I'm a soldier, not a monster.]] Though I sometimes work for monsters.
* ''Film/TheDevilsAdvocate'': John Milton is initially presented as this charming, charismatic if [[AmoralAttorney shady lawyer]]. He defends a lot of unpleasant people, and drags Kevin into Machiavellian ways, but he is doing his job. [[spoiler: Then he viciously rapes Mary Ann, all so Kevin can create the Anti-Christ and unleash Armageddon on the world]].
* ''Film/DeadLands'': While it was not unusual for pre-colonial Maori to massacre entire tribes, the villain Wirepa crosses the moral event horizon by betraying and murdering his former allies.
* ''Film/DirtyHarry'':
** [[SerialKiller Scorpio]] from the first movie starts out sniping out his victims [[ForTheEvulz for fun]], which is already pretty nasty stuff, but it gets worse when he [[spoiler:kidnaps a 14-year-old girl, hides her in a well with limited oxygen supply and sends the police a message (Along with [[FridgeHorror her bra]], [[FingerInTheMail a lock of hair, and a bloody tooth pulled out with pliers]] for additional depravity.) that if the ransom money doesn't drop in time, the girl will die. Scorpio then proceeds to tell Harry Callahan that he changed his mind and is going to let the girl die anyway. When the girl is found, she's dead- [[PaedoHunt and it's strongly implied Scorpio repeatedly raped her]]]]. Owing to a technicality because of the way Harry handled the arrest and interrogation, he would've been a KarmaHoudini had Harry not proceeded to go after his blood for the effort with full intent to spill it.
** In the second movie ''Magnum Force,'' [[spoiler:[[VigilanteMan Brigg's death squad]]]] cross the horizon when they [[spoiler: kill Charlie [=McCoy=] when fleeing the scene of their most recent vigilante killing.]]
* ''Film/{{District 9}}'': It hard to list the main characters who ''don't'' do this.
** Wikus, who is ostensibly the "hero", goes over the horizon in the eyes of many when he [[spoiler:kills unhatched prawns by burning them, while jokingly comparing the sounds to popping popcorn.]] It is ultimately subverted, as he grows to sympathize with prawns [[spoiler:due to his gradual transformation into one]] and grows more and more horrified by MNU's policies.
** Koobus Venter is a [[PsychoForHire psychotic mercenary]] who claims "I like watching you prawns die", so it is hard to know when he's already crossed the line, but during the movie, it's somewhere between his casual murder of Christopher's already neutralized friend, and his torture and beating of Christopher. [[spoiler:It's hard not to feel joy seeing the prawns give him his due.]]
** Obesandjo is a crazed gangster who is notorious for his exploitation of the aliens, from gouging them on the price of [[AlienCatnip cat food]], to whoring them out, but it's his murder of a prawn he sold cat food to so he could eat him that is truly disgusting.
** Of course, the true monster of the film could very well be Piet Smit, an [[CorruptCorporateExecutive MNU executive]] and Wikus' father-in-law. As an executive of MNU, he's probably responsible for the abuse the aliens endure, or he doesn't feel like changing the status quo. But he certainly crosses the line [[spoiler:when he allows a mutuated Wikus to be dissected ''live'', even after the poor guy begs him for help, and then ''remorselessly lies to his own daughter'' about what is happening to Wikus. You really hope that the exposure of MNU's crimes will the bring the heat on him.]]
* ''Film/{{Django}}'':
** [[TheKlan Major Jckson]] [[spoiler:killing Django's wife]].
** [[{{Bandito}} Hugo Rodriguez]] cutting off a man's ear, ForceFeeding it [[{{Autocannibalism}} to him]], then shooting him InTheBack.
* Bartleby of ''Film/{{Dogma}}'' hits this early when, upon entering the DespairEventHorizon, he realizes God would never love the Angels the same way he did the humans and decides to wipe them all out. Just to drive the point home, when he finally reaches the church that can allow him and Loki to go home, he decides to have a little fun and ''slaughter everyone there''. Loki certainly wasn't kidding when he decided to live the rest of eternity in exile rather than assist Bartleby in his mad scheme.
* ''[[Film/DontBreathe Don't Breathe]]'', if the blind man did not lose all sympathy when he shot and killed Money despite the fact that he did not even come close to pulling the trigger when he pulled a gun on him, had already been disarmed, and was pleading for his life (which goes from self defense to manslaughter ''at least''), he definitely lost it with the reveal that [[spoiler: he kidnapped and forcefully impregnated a young woman to produce another child and intends to do the same to Rocky.]]
* In ''Film/{{Doom}}'', [[spoiler: Sarge]] crosses it when he orders [[spoiler: The Kid]] to [[spoiler: kill the uninfected UAC personnel]], and then shoots him when he refuses.
* Sylvia Ganush in ''Film/DragMeToHell'' establishes how evil she is when she [[DisproportionateRetribution condemns someone to eternal torment for stealing a necklace that was quickly returned to her]]. Bad enough that she did something like that, but what makes this a MEH is that ''[[WouldHurtAChild she did it to a 10-year-old]]''.
** Christine crosses it by sacrificing her pet cat, [[MoralityPet the only living creature for whom she had any respect]], in an attempt to placate Ganush. [[KarmicDeath It doesn't work.]]
** Of course, Christine would never have even considered it had Ganush not [[SadisticChoice put her in that position in the first place]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:E]]
* ''Film/EdenLake''
** At first, Brett and his gang seem like the typical bunch of bullies, but suddenly their actions begin to be a lot more excessive as the movie goes on. But ït's just after [[spoiler: Steve kills Brett's dog]] that make the teenagers go too far in their decisions.
* ''Film/EdwardScissorhands'':
** Jim starts off as a normal JerkJock. Then, in the climax, he [[spoiler:tries to gun Edward down and hits Kim when she tries to stop him]].
** Joyce [[AttemptedRape tries to seduce Edward even though he clearly has no clue what's going on]]. If this wasn't bad enough, after he gets away from her, she proceeds to accuse him of trying to rape her.
* In ''Film/EightMM'', it's bad enough that [[TheSociopath The Machine]] did it simply [[ForTheEvulz because he wanted to]], but let's not let the other villains off the hook either:
** Mr. Christian crossed it by having the snuff film made simply because [[ForTheEvulz he has the]] [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney money to do so.]]
** Eddie Poole crossed it by attracting the victim to her death.
** Dino Velvet for creating the film.
** [[spoiler:Daniel Longdale crossed by accepting the money to have the snuff film made.]]
* ''[[Film/ElfieHopkinsCannibalHunter Elfie Hopkins: Cannibal Hunter]]'': [[CannibalClan The Gammons]] killing [[spoiler:Elfie's parents.]]
* ''Film/{{Elysium}}'':
** Delacourt ordering Agent Kruger to shoot down three stolen shuttles, each containing elderly and sick immigrants from Earth. [[EveryoneHasStandards The council in Elysium wastes no time in condemning her for this.]] And she knows she's over the line, because [[spoiler:after Kruger slits her throat, she refuses medical attention from Frey, because she knows she deserves to die for what she had done]].
** To say nothing of Kruger. It's not a question of if he crosses this, but ''when.'' Here are a few highlights:
*** He makes it crystal clear to Max that he's not a nice person [[spoiler:by killing Max's best friend Julio in front of his eyes. Though Julio had just been shooting at him.]]
*** Him [[spoiler:sexually harassing Frey, stating how [[IHaveYouNowMyPretty she would be the perfect excuse for him to "settle down."]] It's no wonder why Max blew his stack upon the shuttle's arrival in Elysium.]]
*** In any case, he's undoubtedly over the line when he decides not to have Matilda cured anyway after he loses what little is left of his sanity.
* In the Schwarzenegger action/horror film ''Film/EndOfDays'', Satan crosses the line in his ''very first scene'' to [[EstablishingCharacterMoment establish what a monstrous piece of work he is]]. He [[DemonicPossession possesses a New York banker]] while the man is having dinner with some friends, then makes out with a woman in front of her husband and threatens him to shut up with a DeathGlare. He doesn't stop there, as he promptly leaves the crowded restaurant and blows up the whole place for no reason at all, killing everyone inside.
* The Warden from ''Film/EscapeFromAlcatraz'' is bent on systematically forcing his prisoners to walk the plank ''very slowly'' -- and then jump into the DespairEventHorizon. He actually succeeds in doing so to Doc by inflicting DisproportionateRetribution ''over a simple painting of him''. The poor guy then deliberately severs his own fingers afterward. That may have been cruel even by the Warden's standards, but he doesn't cross the MEH until he crushes one of Doc's chrysanthemums ''in front of the rest of the inmates'', thus directly resulting in Litmus dying when he overexerts himself trying to retaliate on the spot. And ''then'' he adds insult to injury by reminding Frank Morris after Litmus's death that ''Alcatraz will very likely be his final resting place''. Yep, we're talking [[Literature/HarryPotter Umbridge-level]] evil here. And what makes it all the worse is that unlike Umbridge, [[KarmaHoudini he only gets away with three unaccounted-for prisoners]] (including Morris), who he quickly decides had drowned in their escape attempt, never knowing what may have really happened that night.
* In ''Film/ExecutiveDecision'', Hassan decides to continue the original plan and deploy a whole lot of DeadlyGas over the Eastern Seaboard (killing everybody on the plane and Heaven only knows how many people on the ground) even after the Americans release the terrorists' leader, in order to "teach the infidels a lesson". If ''that'' doesn't cross it, his immediate retaliation against [[EvenEvilHasStandards another member of the terrorist crew that points out that the mission has been accomplished and there's no need to perform that action]] (which is to toss him against the plane's staircase and machine-gun him dead) ''definitely'' does.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:F]]
* In ''Film/FaceOff'', Castor Troy takes Archer's face, destroys the evidence that proves Archer's real identity, and [[FieryCoverup burns everyone who know about it alive]].
* Alex Forrest of ''Film/FatalAttraction'' loses all sympathy when she takes Dan's daughter's pet rabbit and boils it alive in the family's pressure cooker in a scene of pure horror that coined the term "bunny boiler" for {{Yandere}} types in the West, and has since become a staple usage of bunnies in horror lit (for example, R.L. Stine's books). And as if this wasn't enough, she then kidnaps the daughter in question and takes her on a joyride, terrifying her parents - and the viewer - with the very real possibility that she could have harmed her if she wanted to, and indirectly leading to Dan's wife being injured in a car accident. It's not hard to see why this is the last straw for Dan.
* Peter Friedkin crosses it in ''Film/FinalDestination5'' when he takes [[ScaryBlackMan Bludworth's]] warning to "kill or be killed" seriously by [[spoiler:going after Molly; however, we only lose all sympathy for him when he kills Agent Block and goes after Molly anyway as a witness to the murder of a federal agent ''even though he doesn't need what was left of her own life anymore'']].
** Unique in that the film essentially revolves around this trope for a side character who is only sporadically followed after the initial bridge accident. His crawl into the MoralEventHorizon is [[spoiler:extremely slow and gradual due to his traumatized and panicked state, and is essentially the climax of the film until the TwistEnding.]] He is an obvious side-protagonist to begin with, good-natured and only wanting to help everyone survive. But throughout the film, he begins to slowly snap after the violent death of his girlfriend, which causes him a strikingly slow gravitation toward the DespairEventHorizon and a feeling of injustice that he is utterly confused about what to do, feels hopeless and helpless without being able to picture a future for himself now, and he's the only person in the group willing to take the advice of Bludworth. As his turn to die comes closer, he [[spoiler:reasons that since Death itself is impartial, then he can be, too, and so anything he does is completely justified because it's not for him to determine who dies next. Throughout the film he gradually loses his status as protagonist, and crawls slowly into the MoralEventHorizon as the events in the movie unfold.]]
* Film/FlashGordon: Ming the Merciless leaving his daughter to be tortured by Klytus and Kala.
* Film/TheFlintstones: Cliff Vandercave was secretly planning to embezzle money and frame Fred Flintstone for it the entire time, but he ultimately crosses the line when he decides to have Bamm-Bamm and Pebbles murdered after Wilma and Betty agree to let him have the Dictabird so that he can cover his tracks.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:G]]
* ''Film/TheGalaxyInvader'': Joe Montague chases his daughter down and shoots at her [[DisproportionateRetribution for slapping him]].
* [[spoiler: The Cobras '''destroying London''']] in ''Film/GIJoeRetaliation''. [[spoiler:While in [[Film/GIJoeTheRiseOfCobra the previous movie]] an attempt to wreck Paris only destroyed the Eiffel Tower, this time a whole city goes away - and [[PresidentEvil with government backing since Zartan was the acting US President]].]]
* ''Film/{{Gandhi}}'': Reginald Dyer mowing down innocent people in The Amritsar Massacre. Before this point, Gandhi and his followers were protesting for Indian rights in the British Empire. After this point, Gandhi starts demanding full independence.
* In ''Film/GingerSnaps2Unleashed'', it turns out that [[spoiler:Brigitte's new friend [[CreepyChild Ghost]] had attempted to burn her grandmother alive, but failed to kill her. It also turns out Ghost plans on using Brigitte's lycanthropy to finish the job for her, so she locks Brigitte in the basement. That is just overkill and no good reason was given for her attempt on her grandmother's life.]]
* Subverted by Asher in ''Film/TheGiver'' when he's sent to kill Jonas mid-flight and he accepts the task [[spoiler:only to merely pretend to do so by dropping him into a river, with the deception allowing Jonas to continue down to Elsewhere]].
* Carlo Rizzi in ''Film/TheGodfather'' crosses the MoralEventHorizon when he [[spoiler:cheats on Connie Corleone, only to physically and verbally abuse her when she calls him out on it, knowing that it will send Sonny into a furious rage and get him killed on orders from Barzini, who Carlo is secretly working for]]. ''[[Film/TheGodfather Part II]]'', meanwhile, was built around [[spoiler:Michael Corleone]]'s descent past the Horizon. He bottoms out when he [[spoiler:has his brother Fredo killed]]. Interestingly, Tom Hagen averts this -- he [[spoiler:tells Frankie Pentageli to kill himself]], but assures him that his family will be protected.
** Michael at least makes an ultra-serious effort to redeem himself in ''Part III'', but his past soon comes back to haunt him in the form of Vincent Mancini...
* Destoroyah crosses the MEH in ''Film/GodzillaVsDestoroyah'' when he [[WouldHurtAChild kills Godzilla Junior.]] [[PapaWolf Godzilla did not take this too lightly]].
* ''Film/{{Goodfellas}}'' plays with the idea of the MEH with the character of Tommy [=DeVito=]. While Tommy is unquestionably evil, he doesn't quite seem to cross the Horizon when he kills Billy Batts. While clearly an over the top move, Batts declared he was a rapist in prison, and was looking to take over Jimmy's businesses, which is why Jimmy helped kill him, plus him going out of his way to insult Tommy to boot. Tommy does, however, launch himself miles over the MEH when he shoots Spider, a young associate, to death. Over a "Go Fuck Yourself", no less!
[[/folder]]

[[folder:H]]
* In Rob Zombie's ''Film/{{Halloween|2007}}'', Michael is made more sympathetic. However, Rob made sure to have him prove that he was still evil by killing Ismael Cruz, the one guard that actually showed him kindness. Up until that point, all of Michael's kills had been an AssholeVictim, here is where he proves that he is beyond redemption. Many others working on the film tried to have the scene cut due to how cruel it was, but Rob Zombie kept it in specificly to invoke this trope.
* Alan's status as a ComedicSociopath is cemented at least as far as''Film/TheHangover Part II'' is concerned, as [[spoiler:whereas in the first film, he drugs everybody only because he just didn't know any better, in this film, he does the same thing because he wants to cause malice to one of the characters. That character, by the way, ''[[{{Fingore}} loses a finger]]'' because of him.]] That said, the events of the third film are enough to [[spoiler:convince him to turn his life around. Then TheStinger comes along, the Wolfpack is drugged yet again (along with his new wife, Cassie)... and this time, he's not responsible. How could he have known what Chow laced the wedding cake with?]]
** One of the things that caused Alan to reform in the third film? [[spoiler:Chow selling them out and stealing some more of Marshall's gold. That was so heinous, Alan only saved Chow's life at the end so he could dissolve their friendship in person.]]
* Johnny Wong of ''Film/HardBoiled''. He tops Creator/JohnWoo's other villains in terms of sheer nastiness with his conduct in the hospital sequence in the second half of the movie, with his willingness to gun down innocent patients that try to escape the hospital. His most despicable act was the massacre of a group of patients standing between him and Alan, which is only stopped when Mad Dog, his [[TheDragon Dragon]], [[BlastingItOutOfTheirHands blasts the Mini-Uzi right out of his hands]] and [[NobleTopEnforcer calls him on this psychotic move]], which ultimately [[RedemptionEqualsDeath gets Mad Dog killed]].
* In ''Film/HellboyIITheGoldenArmy'', Prince Nuada starts off by unleashing a swarm of ravenous tooth fairies in a room full of people; the tooth fairies ate every last bit of everyone in that room till there was nothing left of them. There is absolutely no purpose to this either, as he already has what he came for. He does it to fuel his own sadism.
* In ''Film/HomeAlone2LostInNewYork'', despite being comedy villains, Harry and Marv cross the line when they knowingly attempt to steal from a children's charity and later try to shoot Kevin in the face and kill him. When the pigeon lady intervenes, they try to shoot her. Worst of all, they tried to do this on Christmas Eve of all times.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:I]]
* AffablyEvil gangster Sam in the ''Film/TheInfernalAffairsTrilogy'' has his MEH moment towards the end of the second ([[{{Prequel}} first in internal chronology]]) film, when he lets his Thai buddies massacre the non-active-gangster members of the Ngai family, including an old woman and a small child.
* In the dark comedy, ''Film/InTheCompanyOfMen'', VillainProtagonist Chad ruins the lives of Howard and Christine by having the former betrayed and demoted and the latter was tricked into sleeping with him simply because [[ForTheEvulz it was fun to him.]] The worst part is that he did it despite having a decent-paying job and [[spoiler:a girlfriend who never left him.]] This was ''still not enough'' for him and he does horrible things out of boredom.
* In ''Film/IpMan'', Colonel Sato loses any chance of being sympathetic when he [[spoiler:coldly guns down Master Liu]]. [[EvenEvilHasStandards Even his superior,]] [[FourStarBadass General Miura]], doesn't take it well.
** In the sequel, the Twister started off as a {{Jerkass}} already, but became irredeemable after [[spoiler:pummeling Master Hung to death in a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown]], and then in the single most honest and realistic portrayal of western contempt for Chinese warrior culture ever committed to film, happily loudly mouths off how he is going to murder '''every''' Chinese warrior in Hong Kong in the upcoming match held to clear his name.
* Mr. Potter from ''Film/ItsAWonderfulLife'' does this by threatening to have George Bailey arrested for committing bank fraud, being short eight thousand dollars. This comes right after Mr. Potter accidentally comes into possession of this money, so he knows darn well what he's doing. Then, minutes later, George Bailey contemplates jumping [[DespairEventHorizon off a bridge]]... If you think Mr. Potter has any chance of redemption after this, you've got some issues.
-->"Why George... You're worth more dead than alive."
** There was a scene filmed in which Potter dies, presumably from a sudden heart attack, just in case UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode censors invoked the anti-KarmaHoudini clause.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:J]]
* ''Film/JamesBond'':
** In ''Film/{{Octopussy}}'', Kamal Khan and General Orlov cross it with their plan: to bomb a US Air Force base in Germany in order to trick the nations of Europe into instituting universal disarmament so that Russia can invade. While there's a circus going on. With civilians and ''children'' on the base. And General Orlov doesn't give a crap as long as Russia retains its advantage.
** ''Film/AViewToAKill'' has probably the most famous crossing of the Horizon in the Bond canon, where, to [[HeKnowsTooMuch make absolutely sure their plan to induce an artificial earthquake to destroy Silicon Valley is kept quiet]], [[BigBad Max Zorin]] and [[TheDragon Scarpine]] machine-gun all the lesser henchmen, several of whom (such as [[MinionWithAnFInEvil Bob Conley]], [[ThoseTwoBadGuys Jenny Flex, and Pan Ho]]) we'd gotten to know somewhat throughout the film, while cackling like hyenas all the while.
** In ''Film/TomorrowNeverDies'', [[BigBad Elliot Carver]] crosses when he "[[DeadlyEuphemism schedules an appointment for his wife with the doctor]]" after she leaks info to Bons.
** In ''Film/{{Skyfall}}'', before we even knew who [[BigBad Raoul Silva]] was, he already crossed it when he blows up MI6 headquarters.
** Franz Oberhauser/[[spoiler:Ernst Stavro Blofeld]] was revealed to have crossed it twenty years before the events of ''Film/{{Spectre}}'' when he killed his own father because [[TheResenter he]] was [[DrivenByEnvy jealous of the attention]] that Bond received after Franz's father took him in.
* Dewey from ''Film/JasonBourne'' crosses this when he ordered the death of Jason's father because he intended to blab. He just got worse from there.
* In ''Film/JoeDirt'', when it was revealed that Joe's Parents left him on the Grand Canyon, [[spoiler:[[ParentalAbandonment and they knew,]] but never bothered to pick him up. The only reason they wanted to see their son again was because he got famous!]] While it's true that most of the people in the film were [[JerkAss typical assholes]] towards [[ThePollyanna Joe]], this was the first time that he fell [[DespairEventHorizon into despair.]]
* ''Film/JugFace'':
** [[AbusiveParents Loriss]] burning Ada's thigh with a cigarette [[DisproportionateRetribution for refusing to submit to a virginity test]].
** [[spoiler:Sustin whipping Ada so badly that she miscarries.]]
* ''Film/TheJungleBook2016'' has Shere Khan confront Akela and the wolf pack about why Mowgli was not handed over to him. Akela says that Mowgli is going back to the man village, so there will be peace for the boy and the wolves. In response, Shere Khan...[[spoiler:just goes ahead and kills him]], all for Akela apparently denying him his prize. Whatever sympathy Shere Khan had for what humans did to him, it's cost him a lot of that.
* ''Franchise/JurassicPark'':
** ''Film/TheLostWorldJurassicPark'': In one of the rare variants where a good guy crosses this, unintentionally from the writers. Nick Van Owen, to some of the fans, crosses this by unloading the bullets from Roland's gun. This guy just doomed many people, ''who helped him out'', by the way, to die simply because of his displeasure with hunting. The worst part is that [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality since he's a good guy]], this isn't viewed as such in the movie, furthering the DesignatedHero aspect.
** ''Jurassic World'': The ''Indominus Rex'' crosses this when [[spoiler:she slaughters an entire herd of ''[[GentleGiant Apatosaurus]]''. As Owen notes, the bodies are mutilated but largely intact - she didn't eat them, ''[[ForTheEvulz she killed them for sport]]'']]. After this scene, to many audience members, the ''Indominus Rex'' turned from a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds into an awful thing that ''really'' needed to be stopped.
*** Notably, before this moment, Owen had referred to ''Indominus'' and the other dinosaurs by the correct gender pronoun of "she," in contrast to Claire who (also until this moment) only saw them as assets rather than animals. Once he saw what ''Indominus'' did to those poor apatosaurs, [[ItIsDehumanizing he stopped referring to her as "she."]]
---> '''Owen:''' It didn't eat them. It's killing for sport.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:K]]
* In ''Film/{{Kazaam}}'', Malik crosses it by Malik pushing Max down the elevator shaft, killing him.
* In ''Film/KickAss'', D'Amico is most firmly established as a complete psycho-ass when he murders both some guy unfortunate enough to be wearing a Kick-Ass costume and an innocent witness to said murder. He ''did'' believe it was the real Kick-Ass and that he'd been killing D'Amico's men. He really crosses the line when he finds out Kick-Ass had nothing to do with it but still insisted on him being [[spoiler:beaten and executed on a live webcast]]. The sheer look of sadistic pleasure on his face and the disgusted look Chris gives him when they're both watching it said volumes about what a bastard he was.
** Actually, there was a brutal logic to Frank ordering Kick-Ass' death. As he explained to Chris, no one knew who Big Daddy was, while everyone knew Kick-Ass. Hence, killing Kick-Ass alongside BD would send [[MakeAnExampleOfThem a far more powerful message]] to any would-be costumed vigilantes. Still doesn't take away the fact that it was also ForTheEvulz.
** In ''Film/KickAss2'', Ralph D'Amico crosses it when [[spoiler:kills Javier, who was Chris's MoralityPet and ParentalSubstitute]], causing him to JumpOffTheSlipperySlope.
* ''Film/{{Kickboxer}}'''s Tong Po, no matter how much of a badass he may be, definitively crosses this line with his physical and sexual brutalization of Mylee, Kurt Sloane's LoveInterest, his way of reminding the viewers how much of a bastard he is and why one should root for Kurt to win the upcoming match with him.
** They would actually use Tong Po's MEH to write off Jean Claude Van-Damme's character in the sequel. Tong Po kills him differently after losing the tournament, setting up the revenge story for the last remaining brother.
* Sam from ''Kidulthood''. He bullies the lonely Katie and instigates the "tough" girls into brutally beating her in front of the class (in the sequel ''Adulthood'', it's stated that the bullying has gone on for years). After Sam harasses the broken Katie and promises to kill her the next day, Katie goes home and commits suicide. In the end of the film, he takes a baseball bat to a party and kills the protagonist Trife in front of his pregnant girlfriend.
* Wong Hoi from ''Film/TheKiller'' crosses this when he betrays Ah Jong, just because the latter is spotted by the police during the hit against his nephew. And if that wasn't enough, later on in the film, [[spoiler:he savagely beats Fung Sei, Ah Jong's handler]], and [[spoiler:takes Jenny hostage in the ending after killing the priest trying to bring her out of the church]].
* Near the end of ''Film/{{Killshot}}'', Richie and Blackbird are about to leave Richie's {{Woobie}}ish girlfriend Donna's home to settle the score with Carmen and Wayne, the husband and wife they were pursuing for most of the movie. Donna fell in love with the [[AffablyEvil dangerous but kind Blackbird]] while the violent [[BastardBoyfriend Richie just used and abused her]]. Realizing this, Richie stops the car and walks back inside to murder Donna in a jealous rage as Blackbird stares blankly ahead with a broken expression on his face. It's so pointlessly cruel that the filmmakers were clearly trying to make Richie irredeemable in the audience's eyes compared to the more sympathetic Blackbird, [[spoiler:who's so pissed off that he finally murders Richie himself later on]].
* The bullies (especially the male ones, particulary their leader Anders, Paul, and a few others) and, by extension, almost ''the entire class'' from the Estonian film ''Klass''. They were protrayed as good-for-nothing [[{{Jerkass}} assholes]] who bullied Joseph and Kaspar to no end. But putting the blame on Joesph in spite of the fact that they started the bullying in the first place and [[spoiler:forcing Kaspar to fellate Joseph at the beach while being held at knife point and photographing said sexual act without showing the knife]] might catapult them over the line. The only one who stays out of this line is is the goth girl Kerli, who is disgusted with the class' treatment of them. In a LaserGuidedKarma fashion, Joseph and Kaspar [[spoiler:go to Joesph's house to steal the guns from Joseph's father and take them into the school with them. They allow Kerli to leave the cafeteria before killing the bullies to avenge themselves]]. While the ending is terrifying, [[spoiler:the class can be seen as having their deaths coming because of choosing to treat the main characters like they did for no apparent reason, and those who escape the shooting will still have to deal with the fact that the people they cruelly bullied almost killed them]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:L]]
* ''Film/LawAbidingCitizen'': Clarence Darby crosses this in the the '''first two minutes''' of the movie, raping Clyde's wife and killing both her and their daughter.
** Initially, we can sympathize with Clyde Shelton's [[AssholeVictim desire to kill Clarence as vengeance for killing his wife and daughter.]] But then there's how he goes about it: paralyzing his body, taking him to his lab, and chopping of his limbs with a chainsaw, making a video of this, and sending the video to Nick Rice.
*** He definitely crosses it when he murders his cellmate for no other reason then to advance ThePlan. Although there are many different views, this is the most widely cited.
* ''Film/{{Limitless}}'': NZT is a drug that gives you SuperIntelligence. Another secondary effect of NZT is to let the user ignore the MoralEventHorizon:
** When Lindy takes NZT to escape from an assassin, she uses a little girl as an ImprovisedWeapon. When she is free of the effects, she doesn’t want anything to do with NZT or Eddie.
** Any other user hooked on NZT is willing enough to torture or kill for another dose of the stuff.
* ''Film/LockUp'':
** Warden Drumgoole crosses it by transferring Frank Leone into his prison and trying to keep him locked up beyond his sentence for the sole purpose of getting back at him for humiliating him all those years ago. Drumgoole is only motivated by petty revenge, and if that motivation alone isn't enough for you, then wait until you see what methods he uses to try to provoke and abjectly humiliate Leone...
** Chink Weber crosses it after many petty torments of Frank Leone when he murders [[spoiler:First Base]] on the Warden's orders. Until that point Leone had been avoiding active resistance, but this pushes him over the edge to personally fight Weber in the prison yard.
* From ''[[TheMovie The]] Series/LizzieMcGuire [[TheMovie Movie]]'' [[spoiler:[[BigBad Paolo]] [[RomanticFalseLead Valisari]] crosses it by manipulating Lizzie into posing as his look alike ex-girlfriend Isabella, and lip sync as Isabella at the International Music Video Awards, to ruin Isabella's career.]]
* ''Film/TheLoneRanger'': Butch Cavendish [[spoiler:and Latham Cole]] starting a ''war'', all for [[{{Greed}} silver.]]
** Butch crosses it even earlier when he [[spoiler:guts Reid's brother and eats his heart.]]
** The cavalry captain has one. Whereas he is just with the bad guys because [[IveComeTooFar he realized too late that he had been tricked into committing genocide]], trying to gun down a kid was just superfluous ''at best''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:M]]
* ''Film/TheMadMagician'':
** Ross Ormond crosses it in his first scene when he disrupts Don Gallico's premiere performance, using a previous contract as his excuse. As Gallico and Lieutenant Bruce try to fight the C&D in a court of law, Ormond cements it when he marries Gallico's wife, triggering Gallico's StartOfDarkness.
** Gallico is a subversion, as he's only committing murders because he's compelled to by a variety of circumstances; however, it becomes clear by the end of the film (and Lieutenant Bruce even admits as much) that he's losing his mind. As for the four murder attempts he makes (three of which are successful):
*** He beheads Ormond with his buzzsaw illusion after the whole "wife theft" thing is revealed to him. It would've ended there, except:
*** His wife starts to figure out the truth about what had happened to Ormond, having started to become as much of a bitch as he was in life, so Gallico, disguised as Ormond, asphyxiates her and pins it on Ormond.
*** Then his archrival, the Great Rinaldi, puts two and two together, using what he knew about his employer, and blackmails Gallico into letting him use his new illusion, which involves a fiery furnace, for his own show. [[AssholeVictim It works just as well for the conceited bastard as you would expect.]]
*** The closest Gallico gets to the MEH is when he tries to burn Bruce alive in the furnace. At this point, he admits that [[IveComeTooFar he just can't stop killing]] and that he would rather be electrocuted for his crimes than locked up in an insane asylum. This is especially shocking because Bruce is his only intended victim who hasn't wronged him in any way, except by trying to get his fingerprints.
* The People Eater from ''Film/MadMaxFuryRoad'' has one in the FinalBattle [[spoiler: when he runs over [[ActionGirl Valkyrie]] while chuckling to himself]]. In quite a few theatres, [[spoiler:Max killing him by using him as a BulletproofHumanShield and blowing up his truck]] led to deafening cheers.
** Good luck guessing which of Immortan Joe's many evil deeds helps him cross it.
* Stefan crosses it in ''Film/{{Maleficent}}'' when he betrays and mutilates the woman who loved him so he could take the throne.
* Discussed at length in ''ManOfTaiChi'', with [[BigBad Donaka Mark]] (KeanuReeves) selling his audience on the chance to watch a fundamentally good person (protagonist Tiger Chen), descend into immorality, with the execution of defeated fighter Uri Romanoff serving as the MEH. Tiger refuses to kill Uri, so Donaka tries again, forcing Tiger into a battle first with an Indonesian martial artist, and finally himself, in the hopes of making Tiger kill and thus ruining him. In the end [[spoiler:Donaka forces Tiger to kill him]], but fails to actually destroy the other man's life. As for Donaka himself, he crosses the MEH when he knifes one of his other fighters to death over his refusal to kill.
* '''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'':
** In ''Film/IronMan1'', [[spoiler:Stane pushing the board to file the injunction against Tony.]] Weirdly, this is ''completely'' innocuous in the world of business (not exactly nice, but sometimes it's a very necessary move). However, the reason it is the MoralEventHorizon is because [[spoiler:we learn that he did such a thing right after Tony confronts him about dealing on the black market. Yep, pettier than Apple.]]
** In ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'', an in-universe example happens in the midst of Loki's attempt to take over the Earth: attempted genocide of the human race. It's so bad, he starts ''Film/ThorTheDarkWorld'' serving a life sentence in the dungeon; he's only broken out [[EnemyMine because Thor comes to need him]], leading Loki to receive three death threats and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking a slap in the face]].
* In Creator/LucioFulci's ''Film/MassacreTime'', Scott Jr. crosses it when he [[spoiler:kills his father after Scott Sr. gave everything to the protagonist, [[LukeIAmYourFather his long-lost son]], and denounced Junior as crazy]].
* The VillainProtagonist from Creator/WoodyAllen's ''Film/MatchPoint'', [[spoiler:who has an affair with his friend's (soon-to-be-ex) lover while being engaged to the friend's sister and continues the affair well into the marriage. After he gets his mistress pregnant and she confronts him about it, he murders her ''and'' her unborn child in cold blood and in an elaborate scheme that makes it seem like a robbery gone wrong.]]
** ''Match Point'' recycles its plot point from ''Crimes and Misdemeanors'', with Judah (Martin Landau). His evilness is so cleverly hidden it takes you a while to realize what he is, sometimes requiring a second viewing.
* [[spoiler:Cypher]] steps over the line in ''Film/TheMatrix'' with [[spoiler:his betrayal of the Resistance]]. In exchange for [[spoiler:permanent re-insertion into the Matrix]], he [[spoiler:tips off the Agents to the group's location and, after Morpheus is beaten up and captured by Smith, he [[DeathRay fries]] Dozer and Tank]]. Following ''that'', he [[spoiler:pulls the plug on Switch and Apoc, killing them right before Trinity and Neo's eyes. The worst part is how much he visibly relishes it, gloating and taunting Trinity over the phone as he does it.]] He's finally taken down when [[spoiler:Tank, who is NotQuiteDead, fries Cypher just as he's about to pull Neo's plug as well]].
* ''Film/{{The Maze Runner|2014}}'': Gally wanting Thomas to answer for his actions? Acceptable. [[spoiler:Gally wanting to feed him to the Grievers with no way to defend himself? Not so much]].
* In ''Film/MightyMorphinPowerRangersTheMovie'', Ivan Ooze crosses it by sending the parents to commit suicide.
* In ''Film/MissingInAction2TheBeginning'', Colonel Yin loses virtually all respect when he reveals with a headshot to one prisoner that he only used empty guns in previous "executions" to bluff the others into thinking he's bluffing when he tells a prisoner he'll kill him for crimes against Vietnam. The worst part about it is, by the time that poor guy's head gets blown off, ''all'' the prisoners were completely fooled. He loses what little respect he has left some time later when he betrays Braddock's trust by convincing him to confess his guilt against Vietnam so he can administer some medicine to Franklin [[YankTheDogsChain only to poison him]], and when Franklin's all ''but'' dead Yin burns him alive on a funeral pyre as Braddock watches helplessly and yells for him to stop it.
* The BigBad of ''Film/BraddockMissingInActionIII'', General Quoc, immediately crosses it when he shoots and kills Braddock's wife.
* ''Film/TheMonsterSquad'': Dracula crosses the line by either throwing a stick of dynamite into a treehouse in order to try and kill a group of children or by threatening to snap a 6-year-old girl's neck.
* ''Film/MysteryMen'' subverts this trope by having the protagonists accidentally commit the act that would solidify Casanova Frankenstein's status as evil by frying Captain Amazing with the psychofrakulator. Casanova still indirectly crosses the horizon when you understand that he plans to unleash the terrible device on all of Champion City.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:N]]
* In ''Film/NewJackCity'', Drug Lord Nino Brown was already a bastard, but during a hit on his life at a wedding, he used a little girl as a human shield.
* In ''Film/TheNightOfTheHunter'', Harry Powell, a serial killer and self-appointed preacher, gets out of prison and marries a bank robber's widow, believing her children know where the stolen money is hidden. [[spoiler:When she overhears him asking the children about the money, he slits her throat as she lies in bed.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:O]]
* ''Film/{{Oblivion 1994}}'': Redeye killing Butou's family and tying him down to be eaten by [[ScaryScorpions nightscorps]].
* Willy Bank of ''Film/OceansThirteen'' was bad enough when he conned Reuben into using his connections to benefit the hotel/casino, and worse when he threatened to have Reuben tossed off a roof if he didn't sign his partnership away. But when Reuben tells him "We've been around long enough, we both shook [[Music/FrankSinatra Sinatra]]'s hand!" and Bank replies "Screw Sinatra's hand!", we know he deserves everything Danny and his crew are going to do to him for violating the code of honor among men that shook Sinatra's hand.
* In "Series/OddGirlOut", Nikki and Tiffany cross it when they laugh at a video of Vanessa being hospitalized as a result of her suicide attempt, calling her a "druggie" and a "pathetic loser".
* In ''Film/OnDeadlyGround'', BigBad [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Jennings]] crosses when he has an elderly employee, Hugh, tortured to death for whistleblowing on him. And yet, the [[DisproportionateRetribution sheer]] [[TheresNoKillLikeOverkill lengths]] [[DesignatedHero the protagonist]] goes to in order to get revenge means some viewers still [[RootingForTheEmpire root for the guy]].
* ''Film/OzTheGreatAndPowerful'': Evanora crosses it by [[spoiler:turning her sister into the Wicked Witch of The West]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:P]]
* In ''Film/{{Paddington}}'', Millicent crosses it right off the bat with her desire to kill and stuff an obviously sentient animal. She takes it even further right at the end when she is completely willing [[spoiler: to kill the entire Brown family in order to get to Paddington, commenting that she "never stuffed a human before."]]
* It's obvious from his first appearance that Captain Vidal of ''Film/PansLabyrinth'' is a very unpleasant man. At first, it almost seems a little ''too'' [[KickTheDog obvious]]. But there might have been a softer side lurking there somewhere. But after he crushed the skull of an innocent boy with a bottle and shot both him and his father with a mixture of boredom and vague pleasure, it was made clear how evil he was. Though they ''were'' brought to him as suspected rebels, but shortly after killing them, Vidal himself verifies their innocence when he searches through their stuff; his only reaction is tell his men to "search these assholes properly before you come bothering me." And this is just when he ''crossed'' the horizon. He kept right on going.
* ''Film/ThePatriot'': If Col. Tavington didn't cross it already by killing Benjamin's son in front of him and his other children, he certainly did with three words: [[spoiler:"Burn the church."]]
* Sean Miller from ''Film/PatriotGames'' crosses the Horizon when he [[spoiler:shoots up the car Ryan's wife and daughter are in while on the freeway and causes them to crash, injuring and hospitalizing them. His response? [[LackOfEmpathy "They're gone."]]]]
* In ''Film/{{The Phantom|1996}}'', the BigBad, Xander Drax, seems to be AffablyEvil at first (being played by Treat Williams helps), but slides into FauxAffablyEvil territory in the scene where he punishes a librarian who unwittingly leaked the research he was doing for Drax to a reporter. Drax has the hapless man examine something under a microscope...which has [[EyeScream retractable blades hidden in the eyepieces]]. As the victim screams piteously in agony, Drax ''laughs'', snaps his glasses in half, and says, "Well, won't be needing ''these'' anymore!"
* There are two potential crossing points for Johns in ''Film/PitchBlack'', although which one is the true MEH is up for debate. The first is when he steals the morphine from the crashed spaceship -- he's a junkie -- so Fry's friend has to die in screaming agony. The second is when he suggests Riddick kill Jack and drag her behind to put the creatures off them -- he offers to keep the others off Riddick's back in exchange.
* ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'':
** While Captain Barbossa of [[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl the first movie]] was still a bad guy, he was AffablyEvil and he and his crew had enough interesting personality quirks to be likeable in their own way -- even his biggest attempt at crossing the MEH with the brutal opening attack on the town doesn't keep him from [[spoiler:being allowed to come back in later movies as an AntiHero]]. By contrast, Cutler Beckett, the new villain of the next two films, was an outright bastard and crossed the MEH around the time that he had a ten-year-old boy hanged for piracy or even just associating with pirates.
** ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanOnStrangerTides'': Blackbeard crossed this when he had Syrena tied up half in the water for a slow, painful death to extract a tear from her. Phillip, who before stated that everyone had some good in them, admits he was wrong and there is no chance of redemption for Blackbeard.
* General Chase crosses this mere minutes into ''Film/PlunkettAndMacleane''. Likely to remove all sympathy for a man hunting outlaws, he proceeds to torture a dying man. Complete with EyeScream.
* In ''Film/ThePrincessBride'', [[EvilPrince Prince Humperdinck]] crosses when he cranks the LifeDrain machine [[UpToEleven up to 50]] to [[MurderTheHypotenuse torture his romantic rival Westley to death]]. Even [[TheDragon Count Rugen]], who invented the machine in the first place, [[EvenEvilHasStandards thought that was a bit much]].
--> '''Humperdinck:''' You truly love each other, and so you might have been truly happy. Not one couple in a century has that chance, no matter what the storybooks say... And so I think no man in a century will suffer as greatly as you will.
* ''Film/TheProfessional'': [[CorruptCop Norman Stansfield]] and his goons kill Mathilda's entire family.
* In ''Film/TheProposition''
** It's bad enough that Arthur murdered the Hopkins family (although deleted scenes show that Patrick survived), but when we learn that he committed double murder and child murder at the same time by raping a pregnant woman, we accept that yes, he's got to die, AffablyEvil or not:
-->'''[[RayWinstone Cpt. Morris Stanley:]]''' ''"Arthur Burns is a monster. An abomination. You were right to break company with him; what happened at the Hopkins' place was unforgivable. Did you know that that poor woman had a child in her belly?"''
** Similarly, Eden Fletcher decides to flog young Mikey to death. For the record, Mikey is a retarded 14-year old who is barely aware of his crime.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:R]]
* Major Pa Pee Tint and the Burmese military from ''Film/RamboIV'' were ruthless already, when they were shown forcing civilians to walk through mine-infested marshes as part of a sick betting game, but the biggest atrocity they committed was when they burn down an entire village, slaughtering many men, women, and children in the process, and kidnapping the missionaries, including Sarah. [[FromBadToWorse They get worse from there]].
* Griffin from ''Film/RedZoneCuba'' crosses it when he [[spoiler: rapes a blind girl after throwing her father down a well and killing him]].
* Bad Rain crosses it in ''Film/ResidentEvilRetribution'' when she [[spoiler:kills Luther West]]. This is after [[spoiler:Alice breaks Jill free from her [[HeelFaceBrainwashing Face Heel Brainwashing]] at the hands of the Red Queen and [[HeelFaceTurn Jill starts to remember whose side she's supposed to be on]]]], so Bad Rain [[NotBrainwashed has no excuse for her actions]], unlike Jill. Then again, she ''is'' the Rain clone who serves the Red Queen, and given how willingly she does so, she really lives up to her moniker.
* Film/RoadHouse: [[CorruptHick Brad Wesley]] crosses the line by killing [[spoiler:Wade Garrett]].
* In ''Film/TheRock'', [[BigBad Frye]] and [[TheDragon Darrow]] were bad enough [[PsychoForHire Psychos for Hire]] already, but [[EstablishingCharacterMoment their moment was defined]] when they [[spoiler:provoke a gunfight with the Navy [=SEALs=] in the shower room and kill all of them.]] And in case you thought they did it by accident (although they enjoyed it), there is the scene later on when they decide to carry on with the missile attack after Hummel decides to call it off (revealing that he was bluffing all along). As put by Darrow, they are mercenaries now, so if they want to get paid, they need to make sure the government sees that they weren't weak.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:S]]
* If Detective Hoffman didn't cross this by making one of Jigsaw's games a public display in ''Film/Saw3D'', he did so when he [[spoiler:killed Jill Tuck in cold blood]].
* Tony Montana from ''Film/{{Scarface 1983}}'' may have crossed either this or the DespairEventHorizon when he gunned down [[spoiler:Manny Ribera]] for [[spoiler:getting too friendly with Tony's sister Gina]], though he does subliminally regret the action toward the end of the film. Sosa's hitman, however, ''does'' cross the line unambiguously by insisting on blowing up Gutierrez's wife and kids with him when they get into the same car he's driving. [[EvenEvilHasStandards Tony takes offense and]] [[PetTheDog Pets The Dog]] [[AssholeVictim in a spectacularly gory fashion]] ''at the last second.''
* In ''Film/{{Scream 4}}'', [[spoiler:Jill]] (one of two Ghostfaces on this occasion) soars gazelle-like over the MEH either when [[spoiler:she ''kills her own mother'' (played by Creator/MaryMcDonnell, compounding the offense for some viewers) as part of the latest Woodsboro massacre just so she can be [[FifteenMinutesOfFame famous]] a la Sidney Prescott]], or when [[spoiler:she gleefully stabs her own partner in crime, [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds Charlie]] (who himself may have crossed it with his attempt to kill Kirby[[note]]played by Creator/HaydenPanettiere, compounding the offense for some viewers[[/note]]), in the heart just as he realized too late that he was in way over his head]].
* Averted in ''Film/TheSearchers''. Even though Ethan Edwards is a general bastard, he never crosses the MEH even though he has every right to, seeing as the Comanches utterly massacred his brother and sister-in-law, scalped them, RAPED HIS OLDEST NIECE TO DEATH, and then press-ganged his youngest niece into their tribe. But when it comes to the point where he's about to [[spoiler:put a bullet between his niece's eyes]], he doesn't, showing that he wasn't wholly irredeemable.
* Warden Norton in ''Film/TheShawshankRedemption'' is cold and corrupt, but not generally unreasonable. He even becomes somewhat chummy with hero Andy Dufresne after he begins doing financial work for the prison. But when he [[spoiler:orders the [[DeathByAdaptation death of Tommy]] to ensure that Andy will never have his name cleared -- even in the original novella, he settled for having Tommy transferred to another, less strict prison --]] he crosses the point of no return.
* At first, Professor Moriarty from ''Film/SherlockHolmesAGameOfShadows'' comes across as an AffablyEvil WorthyOpponent to Holmes, but any possible claim to playing fair is utterly destroyed when he announces his intent to make Watson collateral damage for no other reason than to hurt Holmes, and in the same breath reveals that he has already [[spoiler:poisoned Irene Adler because [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness she outlived her usefulness]]]]. And that's just the beginning; he speeds joyfully deeper throughout the course of the movie. Disturbingly brutal torture is involved.
* If he hadn't crossed it already, Paul Giamatti's character in ''Film/ShootEmUp'' running over what he believes to be the baby that Smith (Clive Owen) is protecting.
* ''Film/SleepyHollow'':
** [[spoiler:Ichabod's father killing his mother for witchcraft.]]
** [[spoiler:Lady van Tassel]] sending the Horseman to kill the Killian family, including [[WouldHurtAChild their young son]].
* ''Film/{{Smiley}}'' has [[spoiler:the reveal that "Smiley" was a prank being held by a group of students to spread the urban legend. They spend the film terrorizing the protagonist, Ashley, until they think they drove her to suicide, and ''celebrate'' it.]]
* Brick Top in ''{{Film/Snatch}}'' torments the main characters throughout the entire film, but crosses the horizon when he decides to [[spoiler:burn the caravan belonging to Mickey's mother with her in it.]]
* This happens in ''Film/TheSoundOfMusic'' when Liesl's boyfriend Rolfe [[FaceHeelTurn joins the Third Reich]]. He threatens to shoot the von Trapps when he catches them trying to escape, but the Captain confiscates the gun and then says:
-->'''Captain von Trapp''': [[TemptingFate You'll never be one of them.]]\\
''(beat)''\\
'''Rolfe''': ''(yelling out)'' LIEUTENANT! LIEUTENANT, THEY'RE HERE! THEY'RE HERE, LIEUTENANT! ''(blows whistle)''
* The ''Film/SpiderManTrilogy'' have various villains cross this.
** The robber from the first movie crosses it when he [[spoiler:[[UngratefulBastard tries to shoot Peter Parker]], the same guy who, earlier on, deliberately got out of the way to let him get to the elevator to run from the cops.]]
** Green Goblin crosses it when he [[spoiler:[[SadisticChoice drops Spidey's girlfriend and a cable car full of children from over a bridge, trying to make Spidey choose to save one or the other]]. And he knows he crossed it, so in his last moments he asks Peter not to tell Harry about his double life. Peter obliges, but Harry's butler finds out and tells him anyway later on, which brings Harry back to his senses just as he himself is standing close to the edge.]]
** Venom crosses it when he [[spoiler:mortally wounds Harry Osborn]].
* In ''Film/TheSpirit'', [[Creator/SamuelLJackson The Octopus]] crosses the line with [[spoiler:what he does to that kitten.]]
* In ''Film/TheStarChamber'', the secret court reaches this point when they won't stop the hit, even after it's made clear the targeted criminals are innocent.
* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
** Well, by the time he shows up in ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'', we know Khan Noonien Singh is a bastard, if a magnificent one, especially if you've seen ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries''. But when he starts putting worms in people's ears, you realize that perhaps he's kicked it up a notch on the Evulz scale; but you say to yourself that he's intelligent and charming and surely he can be reasoned with. But...when he listens to a minion kill himself and doesn't so much as ''blink'', merely ordering the surviving minion to hurry up and carry out his orders, you realize this guy ain't coming back from the horizon. Khan also certainly reminded the audience that he was evil when he activated the Genesis device instead of surrendering to the Enterprise. He knew that he would take down at least one of the Enterprise's own, if not the entire freaking ship. He would have wiped out many people just to satisfy a longtime desire for revenge. It wound up that [[spoiler:Spock, Kirk's closest friend, sacrificed himself to save the Enterprise.]]
** ''Film/StarTrekNemesis'': Shinzon went from "Attempt to make a TNG version of [[Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan Khan]]" to "complete and utter [[JerkAss dickwad]]" when he mind raped Troi as she was having sex with Riker. He does this just to get rid of his sexual frustration and to scare Troi, and the writers use this to try and prove that he still is capable of evil. This just went too freaking far.
** The destruction of the planet [[spoiler:Vulcan]] and most of its 6 billion inhabitants at the hands of the Romulan villain Nero and his crew avenging the death of their own planet in J.J. Abrams' ''Film/StarTrek''. The death of [[spoiler:Spock's mother Amanda]] as he helplessly reaches out for her just heightens the tragedy. What makes it worse is that he's getting revenge for something that 1) hasn't actually happened in this timeline and 2) wasn't Spock's fault in the first place: future-Spock did nothing to harm Romulus and simply arrived too late to save it, and worse yet, past-Spock has done ''nothing'' pertaining to the incident at all. Nero's pretty clearly off the deep end.
** ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness'':
*** [[spoiler:If his plot to start a war with the Klingons didn't do it, Admiral Marcus definitely crosses the line with the revelation that he ''never'' intended to spare the ''Enterprise'' or her crew, no matter what Kirk said or did.]]
*** John Harrison[[spoiler:/Khan]] has several possible MEH's:
*** [[spoiler:Manipulating Thomas Harewood into blowing up a Starfleet institution by curing his daughter's condition.]]
*** [[spoiler:Attacking a gathering of Starfleet officers, killing Admiral Pike in the process.]]
*** [[spoiler:Betraying Kirk, then attempting to murder the ''Enterprise'' crew after his people were returned to him ([[OutGambitted or so he thought]]), at a point where none of the crew posed any threat to him.]]
*** [[spoiler:Setting the fatally damaged ''Vengeance'' on a collision course with San Francisco after believing that his crew had been killed.]]
* ''Franchise/StarWars''
** One of the most famous crossings of the Horizon: [[EarthShatteringKaboom the destruction of Alderaan]] (a planet implied to have millions of innocent civilians living there -- in fact, according to the [[StarWarsExpandedUniverse Expanded Universe]], it had nearly 2 billion) by the Death Star in ''Franchise/StarWars: ANewHope''. [[TheDragon Vader]] is considered [[EvilIsCool darkly awesome]], but not as many people feel that way about Grand Moff Tarkin, the one who ordered the whole thing, and doesn't seem to have a second thought about it. In case Leia's reaction didn't convince you that there were millions of people on that planet, Obi Wan's reaction confirmed it. The ExpandedUniverse tries to humanize Tarkin occasionally. It generally fails -- even when he's having an affair with his EvilRedhead protege (who is, incidentally, the only person who can make him laugh...yes, Tarkin has a sense of humor), he still comes across as having no redeeming qualities. This was a chilling example of the "Banality of Evil." Vader and Palpatine are just insane, but Tarkin [[PunchClockVillain is an ordinary guy, no different from you or me, who is just doing his job. His job happens to be killing billions of innocent people.]]
** Similarly, while Palpatine was unabashedly evil beforehand, he crosses the MoralEventHorizon in RevengeOfTheSith, with "Order 66", which involves having his troops massacre the Jedi. You see various Jedi working WITH the troops, only for their trust to be betrayed when said troops take out their guns and begin blasting the Jedi away.
** During the same movie, Anakin comes VERY close to the horizon by [[spoiler:massacring the children of the Jedi Temple]]. However, by ReturnOfTheJedi, Anakin Skywalker (or Darth Vader) is a subversion of this trope. He had done many atrocities, killing millions of people. In fact, everyone (with the exception of Luke) thought that Vader was beyond redemption. Even Obi-Wan [[IveComeTooFar and himself]]. RedemptionEqualsDeath in this case though, and the expanded universe material is clear that he's only been redeemed in Luke's eyes (and Leia's, albeit only after she reads diaries made by her paternal grandmother that describe her father). However, at the end of ''Jedi'', his Force ghost is standing with Obi-Wan and Yoda as they watch the Ewok celebration, and they seem to be all smiles, as if there were no hard feelings among the three of them.
** [[spoiler: Kylo Ren killed all of Luke Skywalker's Jedi students when he turned to the Dark Side of the Force. He crossed it even further when he killed Han Solo, his own father. He even worried, before killing Han, that he might not be completely irredeemable, and that the pull of the light side would eventually win him over, and so he apparently killed his father because he felt it would put him over the horizon.]]
** [[spoiler: The First Order crosses it with Starkiller Base destroying the Hosnian System; killing all the inhabitants and destroying the Resistance Fleet in the process. It qualifies as an In-Universe one as well; as Leia feels the pain of all the deaths in the New Republic and convinces Finn to officially join the Resistance forces after leaving the First Order.]]
* ''Film/{{Stitches 2001}}'': Albright disguises herself as a housemate and hits on another housemate, tricking him into an AttemptedRape of the housemate she disguised herself as.
* ''Film/{{Stitches 2012}}'': Most of Stitches' actions can be justified, or at least made understandable by his RoaringRampageOfRevenge against the people who accidentally killed him, he crosses the line when he beats a cat to death [[DisproportionateRetribution for playing with his nose]].
* ''Film/SuckerPunch'':
** After Babydoll's mother dies, her wicked stepfather tries to rape her, and when she resists, he attempts to do the same to her sister [[spoiler:who accidentally gets killed by Babydoll]], and then has Babydoll institutionalized... in a BedlamHouse run by a crooked orderly who has a lobotomist coming in five days from the date of committal. Oh, and he forges signatures.
** Other than Blue agreeing to arrange a lobotomy for a patient who he knows shouldn't be in the asylum and does not need a lobotomy in exchange for a lengthy amount of bribed cash, he [[spoiler:shoots Amber and Blondie, and then tries to rape Babydoll twice.]]
*** To be fair, the [[spoiler:shooting and first rape attempt]] happened in the bordello reality, so we don't know how much of it actually happened.
* ''Film/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet'':
** Judge Turpin, who is established as a [[KickTheDog dog-kicking machine]] after he has Benjamin Barker, who would become Sweeney Todd, SentencedToDownUnder on a false charge so that he could have Lucy for himself, crosses the MoralEventHorizon during the "Poor Thing" sequence where he has the Beadle take Lucy to the Judge's place, where he has a masked ball in progress, and then proceeds to rape her once she's cornered and at his mercy. Then, as if that wasn't enough to make us hate him, we get a scene later on in the movie that has Turpin sentencing a little boy to death -- which was actually a stand-in for a much {{squick}}ier scene that involves him getting...rather worked up over his sixteen-year-old ward Johanna, who he eventually [[WifeHusbandry decides to marry]]. And then, when Johanna won't go along with this and wants to marry Anthony? He has her thrown into a madhouse to [[GoAmongMadPeople spend some time among mad people]].
** Unbelievably, it's even worse than what's described above. The scene where the Judge sentences a child to death IS NOT A STAND-IN. Yes, you did hear that right. The original play has both that ''and'' the {{squick}}tacular "Mea Culpa" scene. The Judge really is very democratic -- he kicks dogs of all descriptions.
** Mrs. Lovett gets hers when she [[spoiler:locks poor Toby into the evil basement where she and Sweeney have been conducting the uglier parts of her business prior to joining Sweeney in trying to kill him for suspecting too much, as well as a retroactive crossing when it turns out that she lied to Sweeney about his wife being dead, which meant that Sweeney didn't recognize her as the Beggar Woman until it was too late]].
** Sweeney himself reaches the point of no return, both morally and mentally, during ''Epiphany'' when he decides that revenge against the Beadle and Judge (whom he failed to kill moments earlier) is not enough and decides to kill practically everyone who comes in for a shave. He can hardly be blamed, however, since the Judge's actions against him had an impact on his life.
* Gabriel Shear in ''Film/{{Swordfish}}'' crosses when he murders Ginger, despite [[ILied having promised to spare her earlier]]. [[spoiler: Subverted in the film's final scene, when it turns out Ginger was Gabriel's partner and her death was faked]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:T]]
* ''Film/{{Taken 2}}'': [[BigBad Murad]] threw away any sympathy audiences might have had for him as an [[AvengingTheVillain avenging]] PapaWolf when he tried to [[spoiler:make Bryan's wife bleed out]] and promised to complete his son's attempt to sell Kim into sex slavery.
* In ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2014'', [[spoiler:Eric Sacks]] is revealed to have crossed it years ago when [[spoiler:he killed April's father, who had set fire to the Project Renaissance lab to prevent the Shredder from using it towards his own means]].
* ''Film/TeenagersFromOuterSpace'': [[AxCrazy Thor]] starts off the movie by disintegrating a puppy, seemingly ForTheEvulz.
* In ''Film/ThereWillBeBlood'', Daniel is never portrayed as a particularly good guy, coming off even to his financial backers as being cold and brutal, to the point that when his son is deafened by an oil rig explosion, Daniel has him [[PutOnABus sent away]] in the most ParentalAbandonment-tacular way possible, so as not to interfere with business. We later learn that H.W. was sent to a school for the deaf, which is fine, but did Daniel really need to be so heartless about it? It's not until the end of the film that he crosses the line, when -- [[spoiler:as his son tries to make amends so their family isn't irrevocably split, Daniel brutally and cruelly tells him IHaveNoSon -- for no other reason than to spitefully make the split irrevocable]].
* In ''Film/TheThirdMan'', there's [[spoiler:Harry Lime's sale of watered-down (and therefore, highly damaging) penicillin to sick and dying Austrian children.]]
* In ''Film/{{Titanic 1997}}'', Cal Hockley crosses it when he decides to frame Jack for stealing the Heart of the Ocean. This was around the time the ''Titanic'' hit the iceberg too, and so Jack would have drowned in the brig if it weren't for Rose saving him. When Cal tries to redeem himself (in Rose's eye's at least), it is still shown he wishes to leave Jack to die. When Rose ultimately refuses to leave the boat without Jack, Cal attempts to shoot them both, in '''public''' no less. NotGoodWithRejection much?
* In ''Film/{{Tombstone}}'', Sherman [=McMasters=], a member of "The Cowboys" outlaw group [[EvenEvilHasStandards quits in disgust]], enlisting the aid of Texas Jack Vermilion and Turkey Creek Jack Johnson, and tells Wyatt Earp that if he needs help, they're on his side. [=McMasters=] decided that [[spoiler:Curly Bill and Johnny Ringo]], the leaders of the Cowboys, have crossed the MoralEventHorizon by ordering a (failed) hit on the Earps' wives.
* The BigBad of ''Film/TotalRecall1990'' crosses it when Quaid desperately begs him to turn the oxygen fans of the Mars colony back on as the hundreds of innocent people are suffocating. "Fuck them."
* ''Film/TradingPlaces'': The bathroom conversation is one for the Duke Brothers. For the whole movie, we've seen them pretty much destroy Winthorpe- a loyal and competent employee and elevating Valentine's life to solve the NatureVersusNurture question and a [[spoiler:''one dollar'']] bet. [[spoiler:Not only are they going to leave Winthorpe in the poor house, they are going to take away everything they gave to Valentine because [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain he's black]], meaning they ''don't even believe'' in "nurture over nature". After this point, you're hoping that the main characters will destroy them. [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome And they do]].]]
* ''Film/{{Trancers}}'': Whistler ordering his goons to open fire on a hobo camp after they gave him what he wanted.
* [[spoiler:Sentinel Prime]] brutally killing [[spoiler:Ironhide]] in ''Film/TransformersDarkofTheMoon''. Also, [[spoiler:the Decepticons' genocidal attack on Chicago]] in the same movie might have finally driven home the point that yes, the Decepticons really ARE evil.
** In at least the novel, [[spoiler:Megatron [[HeelFaceTurn redeems himself]] in the end when [[TheDogBitesBack he helps Optimus do Sentinel in]] and then announces his intention to sue for peace. Unlike in the film, [[SparedByTheAdaptation he actually lives to see the end of the novel]] as a direct result.]]
** Laserbeak: [[spoiler:"Is your daddy home?", said right before ''killing the poor girl's parents right in front of her'']].
** When Soundwave brutally executed [[spoiler:Wheeljack]] after the Autobot had surrendered and was begging for mercy, you knew he deserved everything that happened next.
** Any sympathy for [[spoiler:Dylan]] leaves when one sees the lengths he's willing to go to ensure that [[spoiler:he isn't harmed by the coming AlienInvasion. Like when he reassures himself that he's safe... while watching ''hundreds of innocent civilians be slaughtered by the Decepticons.'']]
* ''Film/TronLegacy'': [[MagnificentBastard Clu]] is a [[KickTheDog dog-kicking program]] who takes pleasure in viewing and participating in games to derezz citizens in Tron City. It's not a question of if CLU crosses the line, but ''when.'' Here are some milestones:
** [[spoiler:Stealing Tron's light jet and leaving Tron to die in the Sea of Simulation after Tron refuses to shoot down the Flynns and crashed his jet into Clu's.]]
** [[spoiler:Clu kicking Kevin Flynn to the ground after Flynn apologizes for [[GodIsFlawed giving a flawed and impossible task]].]] Yes, Clu might've just been doing his job, but taking out all of that anger and confusion on his creator like that?! It's no wonder Sam lost himself in rage and [[DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu ran up to punch Clu's face twice afterwards.]]
** And even before all of that, [[spoiler:the genocide of the [=ISOs=].]] Since he viewed the [=ISOs=] as an imperfection (as well as threatening his ability to create a perfect system, which is '''exactly''' what he was made to do), [[spoiler:he purposely reprograms an ISO into a virus to infect and derezz [=ISOs=] in ''Evolution''. This was not just used as a distraction for Flynn while he takes over the Grid, it was also used as an excuse to turn the Basics against the [=ISO=] population.]]
** Turning the Games ''lethal,'' when Flynn explicitly made the Games non-lethal, which just seemed to be a dick move to punish Programs that annoyed him (and/or piss off Tron).
** And [[MindRape "rectification"]]...Taking and twisting sentient Programs into attack drones. And then, when you try factoring in how much work must have gone into [[ReforgedIntoAMinion Rinzler]] and the twisted ''delight'' he likely got out of it.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:U]]
* Jon in ''Film/{{Ulvesommer}}'' reaches this after being a PoisonousFriend to two other farmers through out most of the movie in his RevengeBeforeReason hunt of wolves, he starts tracks [[LittleMissBadass Kim]] whith a GPS chip in her shoe to hunt the wolves she befriended. He reaches this when he [[spoiler: throws a grenade down into the wolf lair Kim and the wolves are hiding in, [[BuriedAlive burying them alive]], she survives but he takes her hostage when the border police arrives and tries to kill her. And, no, this is not an teen or older movie with a KidHero, it is a [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids family movie]], even though he gets really terrifying]].
* Viktor in ''Film/UnderworldRiseOfTheLycans'' shows just how firm his [[FantasticRacism anti-Lycan]] [[TheFundamentalist fundamentalism]] is when [[spoiler:he votes "aye" to his ''own daughter's'' execution, thus sealing the unanimous vote against her.]] Though he does it remorsefully, he cements it by blaming it all on [[spoiler:Lucian for impregnating her]], rather than himself for dealing out the punishment. Is it any wonder that you'd be polarized concerning the vampires and Lycans if you saw this installment in addition to one of the first two?
[[/folder]]

[[folder:W]]
* ''Film/TheWeddingSinger'': Glenn reveals that he plans to [[spoiler: cheat on Julia when they're married.]]
* ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'': Judge Doom demonstrates the Dip by dipping the cute little shoe affectionately rubbing his boots. What makes this even scarier is that as the shoe goes into the Dip, smoke not unlike that which comes out of the smokestack of an incinerator starts coming out of the Dip as if Judge Doom was using the thing to burn that poor shoe alive.
* ''Film/WhenDarknessFalls'': Because they think that she had contact with boys, [[spoiler: Nina is murdered by her family making it look like suicice. Later, they even try to kill Nina's sister Leyla because she reported her family to the police.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:X]]
* ''Film/XMen'':
** ''Film/TheWolverine'': If Mariko's comments are anything to go by, [[spoiler:Yashida crosses it by faking his death and working with Viper to further the plot of the film through such means as forcefully removing Logan's Wolverine powers (at one point, he even goes so far as to cause chaos at his own funeral!)]].
** In ''Film/XMenFirstClass'', any semblance of sympathy you had for Klaus Schmidt (alias Sebastian Shaw) was gassed and incinerated when [[EstablishingCharacterMoment he killed Magneto's mother before his first scene was over]].
** ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'': The deaths of [[spoiler:the original Emma Frost, Angel, Azazel, and especially [[WouldHarmAChild Banshee]]]] end up pushing Trask over the MEH when it's revealed that [[spoiler:he murdered them and studied their remains to further his research on the Sentinels]].
[[/folder]]
----

** While Captain Barbossa of [[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl the first movie]] was still a bad guy, he was AffablyEvil and he and his crew had enough interesting personality quirks to be likeable in their own way -- even crossing the MEH with the brutal opening attack on the town doesn't keep him from [[spoiler:being allowed to come back in later movies as an AntiHero]]. By contrast, Cutler Beckett, the new villain of the next two films, was an outright bastard and crossed the MEH around the time that he had a ten-year-old boy hanged for piracy or even just associating with pirates.

** While Captain Barbossa of [[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl the first movie]] was still a bad guy, he was AffablyEvil and he and his crew had enough interesting personality quirks to be likeable in their own way -- even the brutal opening attack on the town doesn't keep him from [[spoiler:being allowed to come back in later movies as an AntiHero]]. By contrast, Cutler Beckett, the new villain of the next two films, was an outright bastard and crossed the MEH around the time that he had a ten-year-old boy hanged for piracy or even just associating with pirates.

* ''Film/{{Kickboxer}}'''s Tong Po, no matter how much of a {{Badass}} he may be, definitively crosses this line with his physical and sexual brutalization of Mylee, Kurt Sloane's LoveInterest, his way of reminding the viewers how much of a bastard he is and why one should root for Kurt to win the upcoming match with him.

* In ''Film/Kazaam Kazaam'', Malik crosses it by Malik pushing Max down the elevator shaft, killing him.

* In ''Film/Kazaam'', Malik crosses it by Malik pushing Max down the elevator shaft, killing him.

* ''[[Film/DontBreathe Don't Breathe]], if the blind man did not lose all sympathy when he shot and killed Money despite the fact that he did not even come close to pulling the trigger when he pulled a gun on him, had already been disarmed, and was pleading for his life (which goes from self defense to manslaughter ''at least''), he definitely lost it with the reveal that [[spoiler: he kidnapped and forcefully impregnated a young woman to produce another child and intends to do the same to Rocky.]]

*** Bribing a congressman to gain access to stolen Kryptonian technology.

*** [[spoiler: Creating [[ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman Doomsday]] and killing Superman. Also qualifies as one in-universe, as Lex is incarcerated for his crimes, further compounded by the Ultimate Edition revealing him to be in league with [[BiggerBad Steppenwolf.]]]]

*** Anton Zhanyev crosses it in the warehouse fight scene; where he openly threatens to kill Martha Kent with a flamethrower in front of Batman. [[spoiler: Batman then [[BatmanGrabsAGun shoots his propane tank with a mobster's discarded gun]] and [[BigDamnHeroes rescues Martha in the nick of time as the tank explodes.]]]]
*** SelfDemonstrating/LexLuthor has several possible MEHs:

*** [[spoiler: Orchestrating a coup in Africa, paying Zhanyev to destroy the evidence and killing CIA operative Jimmy Olsen in attempt to implicate Superman in the process]].

*** Kidnapping Martha Kent and forcing a SadisticChoice against him to fight Batman in exchange for her life. [[spoiler: Bruce is mortified at Clark's mention of "Martha" triggering the memory of his parents being murdered; and is convinced to rescue her instead.]]

* Zod has a number of possible crossing points in ''Film/ManOfSteel'':
** Faora gives a breather to Lois, because humans can't breathe the Kryptonian atmosphere. When Superman starts coughing up blood and passes out, Zod explains that Superman can't quite breathe the Kryptonian atmosphere either after living on Earth for so long, and they were counting on it to de-power him. Meaning Zod was perfectly willing to kill Superman from the beginning.
** He tries to threaten Superman's adoptive mother, almost killing her ... [[BerserkButton not really a smart move on Zod's part]].
** Not hesitating to destroy the human population just so the Kryptonians can thrive again - even though they already had the means to repopulate their race, possibly on another planet. [[spoiler:They could repopulate on Earth without killing the native inhabitants in the terraforming process, it would just take some adaptation time, which is relatively simple to achieve as demonstrated by the few minutes it takes Zod himself to adapt, and maybe moreso since these new Kryptonians would've been ''born'' into the environment.]] So they were really just killing people for no reason, or for no reason greater than [[FantasticRacism prejudice against "inferior bloodlines."]]
** In-universe: the leaders of Krypton view Zod's failed rebellion as this trope, and sentence him and his followers to the Phantom Zone.

*** Notably, before this moment, Owen Grady (one of the characters observing the scene) had referred to ''Indominus'' and the other dinosaurs by the correct gender pronoun of "she," in contrast to Claire Dearing who (also until this moment) only saw them as assets rather than animals. Once he saw what ''Indominus'' did to those poor apatosaurs, [[ItIsDehumanizing he stopped referring to her as "she."]]

* In ''Film/BenHur'', Messala crosses it when, knowing that Judah Ben-Hur wasn't responsible for the death of the governor, he arrests him anyway, [[SinsOfOurFathers along with his family]], on trumped-up charges ''simply to [[MakeAnExampleOfThem make an example of him]] and crush any potential rebellion by the Jews''. To make things worse, one of his chief motivations was that Ben-Hur's ideals clashed with his. He even bans Ben-Hur from drinking with the rest of the slaves, with full intent to murder him by proxy before he even made it to the galleys--and yes, Ben-Hur would've died then and there if Christ Jesus hadn't shown up to give him some water. And all to subjugate the Jews.

* BridgeToTerabithia: Scott and Gary cross it when they up their bullying of Jess following [[spoiler:Leslies's death]], Scott going as far as to taunt Jess about it in class, complete with a smug smile the whole time.

* Viktor in ''[[Film/{{Underworld}} Underworld: Rise Of The Lycans]]'' shows just how firm his [[FantasticRacism anti-Lycan]] [[TheFundamentalist fundamentalism]] is when [[spoiler:he votes "aye" to his ''own daughter's'' execution, thus sealing the unanimous vote against her.]] Though he does it remorsefully, he cements it by blaming it all on [[spoiler:Lucian for impregnating her]], rather than himself for dealing out the punishment. Is it any wonder that you'd be polarized concerning the vampires and Lycans if you saw this installment in addition to one of the first two?