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8->''"What the hell is the matter with you people? You've caused more damage than that goddamn thing did!"''
9-->-- '''Mayor Ebert''', ''Film/Godzilla1998''
10
11In some shows, when a country is attacked by some enemy (alien, monster, {{evil overlord}}), their armed forces, which are probably made specifically to defend said country, show themselves rather bad at defending it: they use HollywoodTactics instead of more efficient and logical ones, with a particular reliance on the FiveRoundsRapid, [[ArmiesAreEvil do evil stuff]] that just [[EvilWillFail undermine]] their side for no reason, and refuse to cooperate with TheHero.
12
13The aim is to make the Hero the only one who can defeat the villains: how can you save your world when it can defend itself with no problem thanks to its competent military? This is a staple of {{Superhero}} settings, and is quite frequent in stories about an AlienInvasion, a {{Kaiju}} attack, or a ZombieApocalypse, because a war consisting of large open {{Curb Stomp Battle}}s is a quicker way to show how the enemy won than the long and complex battles that would have occurred had the military been competent[[labelnote:note]]Well, a competent military would have ''won'', as noted above, but then [[AnthropicPrinciple how could the protagonists be protagonists]] ?[[/labelnote]].
14This tends to be averted when the story follows at least one character in the military, especially when they're the one(s) giving orders, as it's not very interesting to follow the story of someone making bad decision after bad decision, while having the army make good decisions without being an important part of the narrative can take the tension away from the actual characters. In some cases, a middle ground is reached: the military ''does'' help the characters, and thus aren't completely useless, but since they aren't the main part of the story they don't take actual initiatives, and let the protagonists do most of the job.
15
16Some genres are more prone to this trope than others, of course. A kickass war epic summer action film can have a thoroughly awesome army with the hero a part of it. A zombie film, almost by definition, has to begin with authority's complete failure to contain the situation. Can't have an AfterTheEnd story without, you know, the end.
17
18Note that this trope isn't about lots of soldiers dying: that's the RedShirtArmy. A military can achieve great victories by [[ZergRush swarming the enemy with disposable soldiers]], or lose everything while keeping a low casualty record. This trope comes when the military as an institution is of no use. Either the writer doesn't have them appear, or the situation is always such that the army in question isn't allowed to handle it so that the hero(es) can save the day.
19
20Often overlaps with ArtisticLicenseMilitary. Compare ArmedFarces, which is mainly military humor about bumbling incompetent military personnel, though tends to lack them failing at some specific objective. First cause of an EasilyConqueredWorld, though some countries in Fiction Land can have the worst possible army without being conquered. Can include PoliceAreUseless and NoFEMAResponse, where they don't even try to help. Don't expect anything from them when AdultsAreUseless, since ([[ChildSoldiers most]]) armies are made of adults. Often overlaps with ConservationOfNinjutsu, TheWorfEffect and TanksForNothing. Sister trope of ArmiesAreEvil.
21----
22!!Examples:
23
24[[foldercontrol]]
25
26[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
27* ''Anime/TheAnimatrix'': In "The Second Renaissance" Part I the humans had manpower strong enough to overwhelm the robots that they only had to use riot control, ordinary citizens were easily eliminating the droids and did not need to deploy their military. The machines then retreated to and founded the sanctuary nation Zero One where they built high-quality technology capable of economically and militarily subjugating the human race. In Part II, angered over the impending economic crisis, the human race shoots itself in the foot by blocking out the sun in hopes that the machines would wither from lack of solar energy then launch a large-scale ground invasion on Zero One but because the human armies were outnumbered and had slower, heavier and more outdated technology, guess how that turned out.
28* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}''. The Gotei 13 contains roughly 3,000 soldiers, yet its strength rests almost entirely with its thirteen Captains, thirteen Lieutenants and a couple of over-powered seated officers. As a result, these individuals are always sent to the front lines while the rest of their divisions stay behind. There is also an entire spy network ([[{{Ninja}} the Onmistukido]]) and a [[MagicKnight Kidou Corp]] which never get used.
29* In ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba'', the titular Corps' strenght definitely does not find itself in their numbers, which are in the hundreds, but only in the 9 elite superior members, the Hashira, the additional 4 main characters and 2 reliable side-characters. Only those exact 15 individuals get things done in killing demons stronger than {{Mook}} territory, and anyone else in the front lines is part of the RedShirtArmy. Two of the more brutally honest Hashira: Sanemi and Obanai, outright state the Corps are full of useless slayers, and they are only rebutted by the Hashira who vouch for the main characters, who just happened to show promising results after mere months in the force. The official supporting positions, however, like Kakushi the clean-up and transport brigade, and the physicians are useful at helping the main combatants.
30* In numerous ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' series, the military units are composed of weaker "grunt" mobile suits that are largely ineffective and are destroyed in large numbers by the much more powerful Gundams and other "hero mechs", which are always piloted by the main characters (protagonists and antagonists) of the narrative. The "grunt" mobile suits are always piloted by characters who don't have major narrative roles, assuming they are ever seen at all.
31* [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] in ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'': at the very beginning, [[TheHero Edward Elric]] confronts the Head of the local CorruptChurch without any help of the army. He later explains that, after dealing with the leader, he sent a report to his superiors in the military, who reacted by sending troops to deal with the trouble created by the collapsing of the church. [[spoiler:It's then revealed that those troops were sent to replace those of the General in charge of the region, because they were dealing ''too well'' with the population, while his superiors needed bloodshed]]. Defied with the soldiers from Fort Briggs, who are a BadassArmy that take part in aiding the protagonists in the final battle against the BigBad.
32* In ''Anime/BlueGender'', it is mentioned that humanity's militaries were defeated off screen, but we are [[TakeOurWordForIt never shown or told exactly]] ''how''. The humans show themselves capable of defeating the Blue without ''tremendous'' difficulty in the series, and if they were to use modern day military tactics, the humans should, by all accounts, have been able to win pretty handily.
33* ''Anime/{{Daimos}}'': Averted, as Earth does have a military. It's just a shame that it's led by a [[HumansAreBastards war-hungry, genocidal maniac]], General Sakamori Miwa, who's so incompetent he leads his innocent men to their deaths, as well as pissing off the antagonistic alien race who already have a low view of humans. Miwa is the in universe example of HumansAreBastards for [[AlienPrincess Princess Erika]] and [[WarriorPrince General-Admiral Richter]].
34* ''Anime/DigimonAdventureTri'': They try to fight Ordinemon in ''Our Future'', but conventional military forces against a fifty-foot tall thing?
35* Par for the course in ''Manga/DragonBall'', where by the ''Z'' era the weakest of the villains is a OneManArmy. In the Cell saga, after a botched attempt to take Cell down, they've apparently realized [[ConservationOfNinjutsu the relatively efficacy of lone martial artists versus modern militaries]] and send [[FakeUltimateHero Mr. Satan]] instead.
36* Played largely straight in ''Anime/AldnoahZero''. Outside of our main characters, the greater United Earth military is incompetent to the point of hilarity when they face Martian Kataphrakts. Most of the time, UE Kataphrakts just stand in one place [[ShootingSuperman shooting uselessly]] at their enemies and not even bothering to use even the most basic of evasive or flanking maneuvers.[[labelnote:*]]One particularly facepalming example is in episode 4 when an Earth soldier facing a Martian with a LaserBlade runs out of ammo. Instead of retreating or at least putting some distance between them, he ''stays still'' and allows the Martian a free kill![[/labelnote]] The story tries to justify this by claiming that everyone is a NewMeat to the war thanks to [[CataclysmBackstory Heaven's Fall]] killing off so many veterans.
37* Sir Penwood in ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'' is a good example of useless military, first sending the troops before calling the Hellsing Organisation after massive losses.
38* ''Manga/KaijuGirlCaramelise'': In typical {{Kaiju}} story fashion, [[UsefulNotes/KaijuDefenceForce JSDF]] helicopters attack Kuroe in her monster form with machines guns to no effect. Not only does she find them ticklish at most, the gunfire manages to hurt Arata by causing a chunk of concrete to slam into his arm.
39* {{Justified|Trope}} in ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'': military forces unleash all their firepower against the Angels. It is no use, since the Angels' AT fields are impervious to conventional weaponry.
40* Early in ''Manga/{{Toriko}}'', it's established that even a beast with single-digit [[PowerLevel capture levels]] can easily overturn an armored tank. When the Four Beasts invade the Human World, a massive military attack force, including a KillSat, are deployed, none of which manage to even scratch ''one'' of the Beasts.
41* In ''Anime/VividredOperation'', the military tries to fight the Alone with tanks, planes, and warships, but they only cause minor damage.
42* In ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'', this is justified. Only the heroines can see the witches. Homera finds the military useful, [[spoiler: she steals weapons from them.]]
43* ''Anime/{{Raideen}}'':Japan does have a military, but they use mere human artillery against a super-powered, millenia old galactic threat, so you can imagine how that turns out.
44* ''Anime/VoltesV'': Subverted. The military of Japan co-assists Voltes V into repelling the Boazanian Invasion and the daughter of the General is one of the CombiningMecha's five pilots. However, the [[SpaceElves Boazanians]] are a HigherTechSpecies and naturally have higher-quality weapons and elite militia in comparision.
45* The JSDF is helpless to contain the spread of the zombie outbreak in ''Manga/Zom100BucketListOfTheDead'', retreating and isolating itself in Toudou, leaving the few survivors in Tokyo to fend for themselves.
46[[/folder]]
47
48[[folder:Comic Books]]
49* ''ComicBook/LuckyLuke'' is an AffectionateParody of the Western genre, so of course the cavalry is always either critically late to the action, or completely useless despite anything they might attempt.
50* In ''ComicBook/TheTransformersAllHailMegatron'', this trope fits like a glove. The Decepticons conquer Manhattan in a matter of hours, then proceed to curb-stomp everything that gets thrown against them. Cybertronian technology ''is'' millions of years more advanced than anything Earth had, and the human militaries didn't know that the Decepticons had Soundwave, who could jam or redirect any sort of guided munition used against them while also breaking even the most complex encryption codes on human communications. Or that Megatron had hidden multiple Decepticons in the forces of the militaries disguised as ordinary tanks, aircraft, and other vehicles. The result was a very one-sided slaughter.
51* ''ComicBook/{{Crossed}}'':
52** All attempts of the military forces of the world to try to slow the infection ended in failure and even made things even worse mostly because of the plague spreading so quickly they didn't have to time to react, let alone prevent it. One of the best examples occurred in the Badlands arc. Here, it shows the initial outbreak in the city of San Diego, California and the attempts by the US military to restore order in the city, and, as the epidemic got out of hand, evacuate thousands of surviving civilians from the city to waiting cruise ships and extract them to a supposedly secure island off the California coastline. Everything went to hell when the U.S. Navy fleet sent from Pearl Harbor to protect the evacuation ships at San Diego harbor somehow falls victim to the infection and ultimately opens fire at the survivors, destroying the civilian evacuation vessels still residing on the port and massacring hundreds or possibly thousands. The British army trying to contain the infection in London didn't fare any better and also ended up with the military personal opening fire on everyone during the ill-fated operation.
53** The original arc discusses how the Canadian military attempted to close the US-Canadian border early on to keep the Crossed out. Unfortunately for them, it turned out the Crossed were already in Canada and by the time this mistake is realized, the Canadian forces are spread too thin and are quickly overrun.
54** The Thin Red Line arc downplays this a bit, as the military response Gordon Brown orders, while belated, ultimately does stave off the spread of the infection and manages to quarantine Nottingham successfully. [[spoiler: Unfortunately it's implied this all falls apart once Brown is killed.]]
55** The Quisling arc has two cases of this. First, a group of surviving National Guard personnel are deliberately approached by Oliver shortly after he [[DealWithTheDevil begins helping Smokey]] because he hopes they can beat his horde. This hope proves misplaced and the Guardsmen are massacred. Ultimately Oliver escalates to encouraging Smokey to besiege Cheyenne Mountain which he hopes will have enough manpower and firepower to ultimately take him down. [[DownerEnding They don't.]]
56* ''ComicBook/NotBrandEchh'': In "The Origin of Brucie Banter", the military briefly tries to take down the Bulk with a tank and two jets, but to no avail. Before they attack, a bystander notes the obvious outcome with irony.
57-->"Good grief! Here comes the army again! You'd think they'd learn after more than thirty ishes!"
58* In ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' storyline ''ComicBook/TheUnknownSupergirl'', an eldritch Abomination named the Infinite Monster slips through a dimensional rift and starts rampaging through America. It is so big that its body's upper half towers above the clouds, and it is surrounded by an impenetrable aura field. The USA army can do nothing other whan wasting bullets and missiles on it repeatedly.
59* ZigZagged in ''ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures'': the Evronians' technological advantage is large enough the alien invaders could quickly overwhelm Earth's defenses (in one occasion an outdated cruiser took on Earth's most advanced military and [[CurbStompBattle took out about half of it in seconds]] before being crippled by its own badly maintained antimatter alternator finally breaking down), but Earth's ingenuity is such that in a straight fight they could cause unacceptable losses, [[NuclearOption especially if nukes find their targets]].
60** Played completely straight against Moldrock and his generals, and {{Justified}} in that [[PhysicalGod Moldrock is immensely powerful and can create a forcefield capable of shrugging off a nuclear strike with ease]] and [[MadeOfIron he and his generals can survive headshots from a carronade]], so the US military decided to stand back and try to find another way to counter their takeover of Duckburg but didn't succeed before Paperinik and his allies managed to [[spoiler:convince Moldrock to stand down]].
61*** Later Moldrock by himself takes on the entirety of planet Corona's military while weakened from weeks of torture and not having the time to recharge his powers. The only thing that slows him down is that [[WeCanRuleTogether he wants them to join him in conquering the universe]] and so holds back to not kill anyone while repeatedly telling them to just surrender and casually disintegrating their wargear in the showiest fashion he can come up with.
62[[/folder]]
63
64[[folder:Fan Works]]
65* Deconstructed in ''Fanfic/FallOfStarfleetRebirthOfFriendship''. The lower grunts of Starfleet are made to lose, so that Lightning Dawn and his team can look like heroes. This has made it next to impossible to win against Dark Conquest, as well as why so many people lose their lives in each battle.
66* It does not take very long for the Titanic Empire to force Earth's militaries to lay down their arms and surrender in ''Fanfic/POWERRANGERSOwlForce''.
67* [[ZigZagged Zig-Zagged]] in ''Fanfic/TheNewAgeOfMonsters''. As usual for kaiju stories, most regular weapons are next to useless against the kaiju. But in the sixty-six years since Godzilla's first attack against Tokyo, earth's military forces have been reorganized and are now equipped with maser cannons and similar technology. And while more powerful kaiju can still easily smash through them, they are capable of driving of and even capturing weaker ones like Zilla or Gorosaurus.
68* ''Fanfic/MetalGearGreen'': The JSDF and various first nation armies have been shelved to the side due to their overreliance on heroes to such an extent that corruption and rampant gun trafficking occurs inside the armories. For one armory, the last inspection was ''sixty'' years ago, which combined with the MSF needing aircraft, naval ships and tanks, and the HPSC's desperation in getting rid of the MSF, means that the tracking of these weapons becomes immensely difficult, if not downright impossible. The Heroes brush off on the idea guns are more dangerous than Quirks, despite Ocelot warning that some of the weapons missing are ''anti-ship missiles'', capable of one-shotting a cruise ship or destroying a city block if a villain is creative enough.
69** {{Averted}} for the MSF, who is not only one of the leading armed forces across the globe, but also one of the most competent.
70[[/folder]]
71
72[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
73* At the end of ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles1'', when the [[spoiler:[[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever Giant Omnidroid]] attacks some random cities]], the army's response is basically "send some guys attack it with tanks [[FiveRoundsRapid and submachine-guns]], [[ScrewThisImOutOfHere then run]]!". Syndrome's {{Mook}}s don't pass up the opportunity to mock this and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAhbgIXd4Oo "take a shot everytime they run"]].
74* In ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe3'', Balthazar Bratt's fictional TV show "Evil Bratt" had him build a giant robotic duplicate of himself to wreak havoc on Hollywood making the U.S. Army open fire on him but to no avail and the army's commander shrieks at the sight of Bratt firing giant chewing gum bubbles and orders them to retreat. When Bratt does this for real, the army doesn't even show up but that would come to reason since the U.S. Army doesn't have troops stationed in Hollywood.
75* In ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph'', Mr. Litwak's arcade features the game "Hero's Duty" where the player controls a soldier in shooting down giant multiplying bugs called Cybugs. The soldiers are purposely made to be too weak to take on the Cybugs with sheer gunfire for the sake of entertainment to the player(s).
76* At the beginning of ''WesternAnimation/RecessSchoolsOut'', a military base containing a tractor beam is raided by the Anti-Recess Legion, led by the film's BigBad Dr. Phillium Benedict. Somehow the goons manage to decimate security both within and outside the base in just 30 seconds. Either Benedict had some well-trained mercenaries on his payroll, or [[IdiotBall the base was never well-protected to begin with]].
77* Near the end of ''WesternAnimation/SupermanDoomsday'', the military is sent to arrest Superman [[spoiler: (actually a clone created by Lex Luthor)]] after [[BewareTheSuperman he starts behaving like a sociopathic vigilante.]] [[CurbStompBattle Superman utterly decimates]] the forces sent against him, and is only stopped when [[spoiler: the real Superman arrives and uses a kryptonite bullet.]]
78-->'' * Right before the battle''
79--> '''Soldier 1:''' This is insane, we can't kill Superman
80--> '''Soldier 2:''' You're right, ''we'' can't kill Superman.
81--> '''Soldier 3:''' Dead men walking.
82
83[[/folder]]
84
85[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
86* This Trope is played straight so often in ZombieApocalypse (or other "science gone wrong") stories that it would probably be easier to find out the stories where this is subverted (if not flat-out averted). Sometimes it also overlaps with ArmiesAreEvil (with the military being brutally TriggerHappy on top of ineffective, to not mention being the ones ''responsible'' for the ZombieApocalypse).
87** To provide an example, on ''Film/{{Bats}}'' an entire military battalion sent to deal with the titular killer animals goes to their nest ''at night'' and is ''completely slaughtered'', leaving the main characters to do the job. The government operative that went with it is also perfectly aware of the project that made the bats omnivorous and homicidal, delivering in a matter-of-factly "yeah, we did it" when confronted about it.
88* A memorable aversion is ''Film/ShaunOfTheDead'', as part of its AffectionateParody of ZombieApocalypse films, where the military just comes in and mows down the zombies in less than a day, with complete ease and not so much as a single casualty. They rescue the protagonists and peace is quickly restored.
89* ''Film/DawnOfTheDead2004''. The military never appears directly other than a colonel promising on television to search for and rescue survivors, so the audience can assume they ran out of fuel and ammo or were all killed since the film's heroes were forced to fend for themselves against ''thousands'' of zombies. It's heavily implied that the reason the military fell apart was that almost every military unit accepted civilians who were bitten by zombies, and the military had no idea that bites were infectious so the civilians they took in died then reanimated as zombies thus their fortress and bases collapsed.
90* ''Film/TrainToBusan''. South Korea plunges into a zombie apocalypse that gets so bad, given that the country is highly densely populated, that in just one day the whole country is overrun, and surveillance shows that just about anyone not taking the movie's titular train is doomed. Martial law is declared, but in only a few hours, half to most of the ROK Armed Forces have become zombies themselves off-screen. The remainder of the ROK Armed Forces who survived successfully secured Busan, but they give up protecting the rest of the country altogether and send messages through radio for all citizens to come to them instead rather than vice versa, which they tried but that's supposedly how the rest of the ROK army got infected in the first place.
91* The army in pretty much any ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' movie (with the sole exception of [[Film/{{Godzilla1998}} the 1998 film]], which annoyed long time fans). The first time can be excused as they had no idea what they're dealing with, but in every sequel Godzilla shows up and [[ShootingSuperman the army attacks do nothing to him]] and actually cause just as much, if not more, collateral damage. Even the damage caused by Godzilla himself can be blamed largely on the army since shooting Godzilla just makes him angry and causes him to advance and attack, causing worse destruction than had the army did nothing about it.
92** Subverted in ''Film/GodzillaFinalWars'' where humans manage to trap and freeze Godzilla under Antarctic ice. However, without Godzilla around, hostile aliens unleashed giant Kaiju to lay waste to human cities dispatching human militaries even faster than Godzilla ever did. The BigBad explains near the end that the aliens are planning to [[PeopleFarms farm humans for their mitochondria]]. The humans realize removing Godzilla was a mistake, prompting them to [[GodzillaThreshold go thaw the King of Monsters out]] and restore his role in the ecosystem.
93** Also partially subverted in ''Film/GodzillaVsDestoroyah''. The military's cold-based weaponry, especially on the Super-X III, excel at freezing Godzilla to keep his temperature from rising for several precious hours and stopping the aggregate forms of Destoroyah. However, once Destoroyah goes into his three larger forms and Godzilla temperature passes a certain point the military becomes useless again until Godzilla's rage and temperature reach the point where Destoroyah is superheated by him and tries to flee only to be quick-frozen by the Super-X III and Freeze Masers and shattered by the plunge to the ground, then the weapons keep Godzilla from exploding or super-melting and only having a local meltdown.
94** ''Film/ShinGodzilla'' shows them not only to be useless, but rather stupid, too. While a true reboot, and hence the JSDF in this universe have no idea what they're dealing with at first, the USAF dropping bunker busters onto Godzilla [[NiceJobBreakingItHero made things worse]], as Godzila unleashes his Atomic Breath onto Tokyo, which evolves from black smoke, to a fire storm, into a purple LaserCutter. This results in half of Tokyo being destroyed, much of the city exposed to radiation, and [[spoiler:the deaths of the Prime Minister and much of the Cabinet.]]
95** ''Film/Godzilla2014''. As per usual for these films. However, they eventually [[CharacterDevelopment realize this]] and decide to just dismantle their plans to kill all of the kaiju (which might not have even worked at all) and just do their part to [[WeNeedADistraction distract the MUTOs]] so Godzilla can kill them. Though to his credit, Lieutenant Ford ''does'' succeed in taking out the [=MUTOs=] eggs which not only stopped the world from being overrun by the things, but also pissed and distracted the [=MUTO=] long enough for Godzilla to get his HeroicSecondWind.
96** In ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'', the United States military not only are useless, but they [[NiceJobBreakingItHero nearly very end up handing over Earth to King Ghidorah]] by using an Oxygen Destroyer to wipe out both Godzilla and King Ghidorah in the water (this only harms Godzilla, who is forced to retreat to his underwater kingdom for cardiac recovery) and without Godzilla to intervene, King Ghidorah is free to take over Washington D.C. as his new base of operations. Even so, the humans helped Ghidorah gain a soldier in Rodan by pitting Rodan against him only for Ghidorah to overpower the radioactive pterosaur into serving him. Fortunately, Dr. Serizawa and Mark Russell are able to revive Godzilla with a nuclear warhead. Even with this boost in strength courtesy of the humans in assisting him, Godzilla still struggled in taking down King Ghidorah though fortunate for him Mothra aided Godzilla by giving him a power boost from her own body's energy while Emma and Madison Russell distracted Ghidorah long enough for Godzilla to gain the strategic advantage. All in all, the US military can be blamed entirely for the destruction of Washington D.C. since had they not intervened, Godzilla could have dismembered Ghidorah in the oceans and ended it there.
97* In ''Film/SupermanII'', the United States Army aims to resist General Zod's takeover of Houston, Texas but fail miserably as the Kryptonian criminals are immune to anything thrown at them from bullets to bazooka rocket-propelled grenades. The Secret Service also fail to do anything to stop Zod from taking over the White House in Washington D.C. forcing the U.S. President to kneel before Zod (because Zod threatened to terminate innocent lives should he not). Thus, the U.S. President is forced to summon Superman.
98* The Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse zig-zags on this depending on the movie.
99** ''Film/ManOfSteel'' is a hardcore aversion. While the Kryptonians are well beyond the ability of the military to harm with what they have on hand in the film, the US Air Force is depicted as thoroughly competent and doing the best they can against the invaders. In fact, they save Superman's life a couple of times, and ultimately [[spoiler:it is them, and not Superman, who sends most of the Kryptonians back to the Phantom Zone.]]
100** ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'' plays it straight more or less, though it's justified case, as [[InvincibleVillain Doomsday]] simply absorbs or regenerates from ''everything'' short of Kryptonite. Unlike ''Man of Steel'', their intervention was more of a detriment than anything else- if they hadn't launched the nuke at Doomsday, nearly killing Superman in the process, Superman would've been able to simply punch him into space and end the whole thing there. In the extended cut of the film, the military also tries to drone strike a militia base in Kenya with civilians (including Americans) inside, forcing Superman to destroy the drone to stop them.
101** ''Film/{{Suicide Squad|2016}}'' plays with it. The military takes heavy casualties against Incubus, Enchantress, and their mooks, and is depicted as comically inept in certain situations, with the titular squad doing improbably better than them in most combat situations despite said squad being of very low quality themselves (the two metas on the squad are simply a guy with slightly-above-human strength and a guy with the ability to turn his hands into a short ranged flamethrower; the rest of them are just street thugs with gimmicks, with the exception of Deadshot, who is heavily armed, competent, and has skill bordering on [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower superhuman]]), and despite being recruited mainly ''because'' they're expendable. However, the RedShirt soldiers accompanying the squad are effective enough against the mooks, and ultimately, both Incubus and Enchantress are killed by regular US soldiers with conventional weapons.
102** ''Film/{{Wonder Woman|2017}}'' averts it. The film establishes early on that Wonder Woman is ''not'' ImmuneToBullets and neither are her superhuman Amazon sisters (who take grievous casualties fighting a tiny lightly armed German landing party), so she still has to be mindful when fighting regular human soldiers. She has a MultinationalTeam of BadassNormal soldiers from the various Allied nations of World War I accompanying her as sidekicks, and both they and the RedShirt troops seen in battle scenes prove their mettle as support. Most notably when they take advantage of the hole punched in the German lines by Wonder Woman near Veld to flank their trench line, and when they take out a machine gun that was pinning her down. Props go especially to Steve, who saves Wonder Woman from getting shot early on and later [[spoiler:is the one to stop the BigBad's super-weapon plot via his HeroicSacrifice. [[CollateralAngst This helps inspire Wonder Woman]] in her fight against Ares.]]
103** ''Film/{{Justice League|2017}}'' is a justifiable case. It's [[HandWave stated]] that Steppenwolf has been meticulously staying off the grid of any major military force on Earth by being careful and using teleporters (Boom Tubes), hence why he builds his base in the empty wilderness of northern Russia. Only the League responds to the threat he poses because they're the only ones who ''know'' about it enough to respond in a prompt time frame, thanks to Wonder Woman and Aquaman being informed by their respective peoples.
104*** The same goes for the Steppenwolf threat in ''Film/ZackSnydersJusticeLeague''. However, the army does provide an impromptu distraction that saves Barry Allen's life in the fight pitting the newly formed League against an angry resurrected Superman who hasn't fully regained his mind, by shooting at the Man of Steel with .50 cal [=M2=] Brownings mounted on Humvees. The Humvees quickly get destroyed by his EyeBeams, of course.
105** In ''Film/Aquaman2018'', the Brine (a people resembling giant crabs who descended from humans) resist the Atlantean invasion authorized by Orm (Ocean Master) upon their kingdom. The Brine are no match for the Atlanteans and within 55 seconds they are [[CurbStompBattle at the brink of losing the war]] with the Brine King himself forced to surrender his armies to Orm and accept a MercyKill to escape servitude to Orm before Aquaman arrives with the Kraken and repels the invasion, thus saving the Brine Kingdom from total assimilation. For the humans, however, this trope is averted by way of dialogue- the whole reason that Orm is trying to conquer the Brine and the rest of the ocean kingdoms is because he considers the surface-dwellers' armies to be a genuine threat that Atlantis couldn't beat on their own, despite their advanced technology and superhuman physical attributes. Given that (despite their weapons having good firepower) Atlantean armor can be pierced by shards of frozen wine and that their hovercraft can be ripped apart by sharks, he probably has a point. ''Aquaman'' also notably averts SuspiciouslySmallArmy; the host Orm brings to assault the Brine is ''huge''.
106* The U.S. Armed Forces in the ''Film/TransformersFilmSeries'' are frequently getting steamrolled by Decepticon invasions and every film in the series makes it out that the human military would have easily lost to the Decepticons within days had it not been for Optimus Prime, Bumblebee and the Autobots. Later films [[SubvertedTrope subvert]] it by having the human militaries upgrade their technology on hunting down Decepticons.
107** In the first movie, Major Lennox and the U.S. Air Force successfully take down Blackout and badly injure Megatron (without being able to kill him, only paralyzing Megatron and rendering him nearly immobile) but were no match for Starscream and Brawl. Starscream attempted but failed to stop a squadron of F-22 jets from firing on Megatron. Bumblebee had to take out Brawl, Optimus and Sam together eventually vanquish Megatron and Starscream simply retreated back to space when he realized all his teammates were defeated.
108** In the second movie, the U.S. Army has upgraded their technology and help clear most of the Decepticon mooks in the battle back in Egypt, taking out Devastator and have enough firepower to suppress even Megatron. However, they are still no match for The Fallen, whose telekinetic powers can wipe out even the best infantry units of the American military such as their missile defense systems, tanks and Air Force fighter jets. Though the US Army did indeed help divert the Fallen's attention and telekinetic powers long enough for Jet Optimus to strike him down and [[CurbStompBattle easily crack open the Fallen's face and crush his spark]].
109** The third movie has the U.S. military failing to create a counterattack upon the Decepticon invasion in Chicago due to both air and ground superiority. It's only when the Autobots arrive that the U.S. soldiers actually start gaining an advantage and ultimately play a crucial role in the final battle since by the time Optimus, Bumblebee and the Autobots emerged from having faked their deaths they helped take down the more powerful and larger Decepticons such as the Driller.
110** This trope ultimately is double subverted in ''Film/TransformersTheLastKnight'' where now the US Army has the technology to capture and kill even the biggest, most dangerous Decepticons out there. They set up the NBE Supermax in Ft. Collins that contains the most dangerous Decepticon prisoners on Earth. Even Megatron himself has to go into hiding from the humans to avoid getting put in that prison and [[DirtyCoward forces his scout]] Barricade to spy on human and Autobot activity to come up with strategies on how can they proceed. So you'd think this was finally an example of the military being effective, right? Wrong. They've completely inexplicably even branded the Autobots into the same category as Decepticons and started hunting them to extinction, and as if that weren't bad enough, the ObviouslyEvil villains are later able to convince the military to have an ''alliance with them against the Autobots.''
111* ''Film/DWar'', Buraki's armed forces, the Atrox Army which consists of [[SuperStrength super-strong]] [[HumanAliens humanoids]], slow-moving rhino-like reptiles that carry rocket launchers on their backs, and many dinosaur-like dragons, take down the local detachments of the U.S. Army, SWAT Team and LAPD, ostensibly due to better technology and the dragons being faster, bigger and stronger than humans. To the film's credit, the Atrox had the element of surprise, even the {{mook}} dragons are able to spit fireballs that explode like light artillery shells, and they do take heavy losses due to the humans' firepower. As things are actually presented, though, the U.S. Army only loses that battle due to some of the most egregious HollywoodTactics ever seen on film (e.g. gathering their infantry and armored vehicles in ''Napoleonic squares'' in the middle of city streets to [[FiveRoundsRapid shoot the enemy with machine guns]]) and would have had absolutely no trouble reducing the dragons to meaty chunks had they even applied the most basic tactics and used smart munitions (even the biggest beasts are ImmuneToBullets yet susceptible to relatively light air-to-air missiles; the vast majority aren't even that tough, with the dragons falling to pistol rounds). The Air Force's deployment is a good example as they only send in a squadron of helicopters which fly unusually close the ground, close enough for the dragons to ''latch on and ram them''. Deploying fighter-bomber jets (F-35, F-22, etc.) or even cheap missile drones like the Reaper would have rendered the Air Force effectively untouchable by comparison, and the Atrox plainly had absolutely no counter to weapons with BVR.[[note]]Beyond visual ranges.[[/note]] Website/SpaceBattles has turned "D Wars Humanity" into something of a collective MemeticLoser [[https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/d-wars-humanity-vs-world-war-z-humanity.290637/ as a result.]]
112** The U.S. Army detachment they fight is also [[SuspiciouslySmallArmy unusually tiny]], though this could be potentially justified as that small force simply being all that could be deployed in the hour-long time frame. Fridge Logic comes in when you remember that the magical army suffering grievous casualties against a roughly battalion-sized unit of the California National Guard, combined with their largest and strongest {{Kaiju}} nearly being killed by three Apache helicopters, suggests that they cannot possibly be as big a threat to the planet as the film otherwise implies.
113* ''Film/WarOfTheWorlds2005'': Despite the movie's name, it's not so much of a war as it is an invasion and given how powerful the Martians are in both defense and offense, fighting them is a stupid idea. The U.S. military score zero hits on the Tripods, who are well shielded by an energy barrier that can deflect all man-made missiles and bullets. The U.S. soldiers are more of an obstacle than assistance for the film's protagonists, as they block Ray and his children's path to the boat. On the other hand, they are at least "competent" in that they maintain active resistance all the way through the film, including large field battles and urban guerrilla warfare, so much so that people try to join the fight. In the end, it turns out the best military mankind had against the Tripods were [[spoiler:the earth's bacteria]].
114* In the comedic yet still excessively violent ''War of the Worlds'' pastiche ''Film/MarsAttacks'', when brain-headed Martians arrive to attack the Earth for either fun or an unexplained reason, naturally the U.S. Army attacks them with every strategy there is: air strikes, tanks, armed soldiers on the ground shooting at them. The Martians however have a technological advantage and their spaceships can deflect whatever's thrown at them, including nuclear weapons, rendering all human technology a NoSell. At most they're able to kill a handful of individual Martians, and even that's not a given due to their heavily-armored helmets and spacesuits. The humans still refuse to accept defeat and keep looking for an effective means of killing the Martians. They only manage to turn the tables when they learn that [[spoiler:the Martian's brains explode when they are forced to listen to bad country-western music.]]
115* In ''Film/{{Cloverfield}}'', a giant monster that possibly came from space invades New York City. The US Army fire tanks, guns, [=RPG=]s and even send a B2 Spirit Bomber to drop 80 bombs on the monster, whose tough skin renders their artillery inefficient except the viewer could interpret the monster is crying in pain from the firepower. And also the monster is riddled with parasitic lice that are hyper-aggressive and are man-sized which easily overwhelm the US Army. At the end, the US military drop a giant bomb on the monster and its impact remains unknown.
116** Not only is the military utterly useless at its job in killing the monster, but also they jeopardize the protagonists' chance of survival by opening fire on the streets of New York City even as the protagonists have not yet been cleared. They break up the group into evacuation helicopters and in that process one helicopter boarding three of them flies ''toward'' the action of the US Air Force bombing the monster. The monster knocks down the helicopter and eats one of them, and the remaining two are forced to take cover under a bridge embracing for the biggest bomb of all that the US army drops on the monster (and them as well).
117* ''Film/OlympusHasFallen''. The U.S. Air Force only give out verbal commands to the North Korean-hijacked AC-130 instead of shooting it down, allowing the AC-130 to fire back at the Air Force and proceed to cold-bloodedly kill hundreds of innocent civilians and security in Washington D.C. so that the North Korean invaders on the ground can infiltrate the White House with relative ease. The majority of Secret Service men stationed at the White House are shown to be rather incompetent on the battlefield getting bulldozed by snipers, bombers and machine gun operators. The U.S. Army arrive too late when the entire Secret Service is dispatched and Kang Yeonsak repels the Army's attempts to retake the White House using a (fictional) highly powerful defense system called HYDRA 6.
118* ''Film/JurassicWorld''. The Indominus Rex breaks out of its cage, and the Asset Containment Unit are sent to go capture it, but as Claire forbids them from using any lethal weapons or an M134-armed helicopter as Owen pleaded due to the Indominus having costed millions of dollars invested in her unveiling at the park, they get wiped out in seconds by the Indominus. Once the staff resorts to the M134 on a chopper, it became too late when the Indominus crashed into the Pterosaur Aviary, freeing the inhabitants there who save her from getting shot by taking down the chopper.
119* In ''Film/{{Aliens}}'', the SoleSurvivor of LV-426 predicts that the presence of the Colonial Marines "won't make any difference." When the aliens show up, the Marines get overpowered very quickly and become a DwindlingParty. This leaves Ripley -- a civilian -- doing most of the heavy lifting. James Cameron stated that he intentionally made them come off as unprofessional to evoke images of undisciplined troops in the waning days of the Vietnam War. To be fair to them, they were a platoon-sized light infantry element that had to take on an entire hive in the worst possible circumstances and were being actively sabotaged by Burke, yet still managed to kill hundreds of Xenomorphs.
120* ''Film/ThePeacemaker'' has an example of this trope set in UsefulNotes/TheNewRussia. The Russian Military of the 1990s is portrayed as utterly incompetent. They can't control their own border crosses, can't protect their own airspace and lose not one but ''ten'' nuclear warheads. [[spoiler:Granted, the nukes were stolen by a [[RenegadeRussian highly skilled Spetsnaz commander]], but that still can't explain such incompetence.]]
121* The Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse has this in spades:
122** In ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'', two police offers learn that the military is too far away to respond in time to the Chitauri invasion in New York City (the most we see is a single squad of soldiers around a Humvee firing blindly into the air). We otherwise see regular people cleave through their troops and vehicles pretty easily (two of the Avengers are [[BadassNormal a spy with pistols and a guy with a bow and]] [[TrickArrow trick arrows]], and one of them briefly pilots a lightly-armed VTOL that succeeds in shooting down many Chitauri aircraft). There's some TruthInTelevision here: there's no military presence close to New York City, and the NYPD are probably better equipped than the local National Guard. Also, Cap correctly notes the Chitauri are being led by [[ItsAllAboutMe an egomaniac]] who is thinking about vengeance, not thinking tactically. It should be noted that Cap's plan in the fighting is essentially; "Hold the enemy here until the military arrives to end it." He is ''counting'' on this trope being averted, until the World Council panics and tries to write off the whole city. This is averted in a deleted scene when the military finally arrives and they start picking off the Chitauri soldiers one by one.
123** No military shows up in ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' besides the [[SuspiciouslySmallArmy Wakandan]] [[HollywoodTactics one]], without even a HandWave as to why (note that one of their members is literally an American Air Force officer and the heroes had advance warning). It's implied that [[ObstructiveBureaucrat Defense Secretary Ross]] [[RevengeBeforeReason wouldn't have sent men to help the Avengers]] even had they asked, but that still doesn't explain why NO ONE else would have, since the planet was at stake. Rwanda and Ethiopia both border Wakanda and have reasonably modern militaries who are perpetually on high alert (given both countries' border conflicts) and have conducted blitzkrieg offensives before, and there's also a U.S. base in nearby Djibouti with a large number of drones that were conducting operations against al-Qaeda at the time the film takes place (a single USAF craft has enough firepower to level the entire Outrider force). Given that War Machine, Bucky, and Falcon alone [[BoringButPractical killed more aliens than the rest of the heroes combined]] ([[spoiler:prior to Thor's arrival]]) using only small arms and a handful of bombs, even a small unit from a modern army (e.g. a company) would have wiped Thanos's army out effortlessly. For ''Film/AvengersEndgame'', you could at least FanWank it and say that half of the Earth being wiped out caused the collapse of any real world military forces above the local level.
124** ''Series/TheFalconAndTheWinterSoldier'' takes this to comical levels while lacking the potential explanations of the above. As in most MCU productions, the main villains are carrying little to no weapons and armor and, despite their super-powers, are not bulletproof. However unlike most other villains, the Flag Smashers are both highly public and conduct their operations over a long period of time. Thus there is no reason that the entire conflict involving them wouldn't have been nullified if, at any point, a single competent infantryman with an assault rifle was present during any of their scenes. Inexplicably, no one thinks to send a heavily-equipped fighting force after them, least of all the US military. Instead they send two normal guys ''without weapons'' (bar Walker's sidearm and shield) to get into fist-fights with the super-powered terrorists (notably, the one time Walker ''does'' bother to pull a gun - a century-old pistol - he immediately downs a Flag-Smasher and has to be disarmed of it by circumstance lest the series end there). Moreover Walker and Hoskins seem to be operating without any kind of support team, and thus no reconnaissance, logistics, or oversight. They don't even have a guy in an earpiece telling them where to go. The two of them just move around Europe at random - they even hang out in food courts in costume while technically still on the mission while commiserating about how they have no intel. Moreover, when Walker actually does kill one of the terrorists, the next episode shows him running off into some industrial wasteland while flipping out with no one tracking him except Falcon and Bucky; there was no one around to pick him up for a debrief. The US military is literally just ''not tracking him or the Flag Smashers'', having apparently just given him the costume and the shield and told him to go get into fistfights with terrorists on another continent. If they had tried the same thing with the average street gang, much less al-Qaeda or ISIS, both Walker and Hoskins would've been dead within a day. Unsurprisingly, solving the conflict ultimately comes down to the titular protagonists.
125* An aversion of this trope (and its combination with TheCavalryArrivesLate) provides the punchline for the CruelTwistEnding of ''Film/TheMist''.
126* In both ''Film/EscapeFromNewYork'' and ''Film/EscapeFromLA'', the special forces of the United States are completely incapable of recovering either the President or the MacGuffin stolen by the President's daughter, forcing them to send BoxedCrook Snake Plissken in to do the job.[[note]]In New York it is justified when the search team arrives to the President's escape pod and encounter one of the Duke's goons, who present them [[FingerInTheMail with the President's recently-sliced off ring finger]] and the warning that if they are not in the air in the next thirty seconds and send any more teams, they will execute the President.[[/note]] This is [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in L.A.:
127-->'''Malloy:''' We sent in a five-man rescue team. Within a few hours of landing on the island all but one of them were dead.\
128'''Snake:''' [[SarcasmMode Hell of a team.]]
129* In ''Film/Rampage2018'', based on the video game series [[VideoGame/{{Rampage}} of the same name]], the military is sent to fight off genetically modified animals (George the gorilla, Ralph the wolf, Lizzie the crocodile) but their conventional weapons fail to even hurt the animals. At first when it was just George and Ralph the U.S. Army failed miserably to stop them with ground units and helicopters but were able to scare them into hiding and taking refuge by sending in even ''more'' ground units and a Warthog to shoot at them (which implies that human firepower can at the very least painfully sting George and Ralph). Lizzie at that moment pops up and she rescues George and Ralph by diverting the military's attention towards her. The U.S. Army give her the same treatment - but she proves a lot more resilient and quickly demolishes the U.S. Army within seconds. One soldier shoots an RPG at her tusk - and her tusk remains intact. The Army calls in a full retreat and the Colonel is convinced now's the time to bring in the [=MOAB=]s leading to the main cast arguing that will only kill even more people than the monsters. [[spoiler: And seeing that Lizzie can survive whatever bomb is thrown her way, it was doubtful the [=MOAB=]s could have had any effect on her]].
130* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
131** The New Republic military in the sequel trilogy. They utterly refuse to actually ''do'' anything about the nascent First Order as the First Order blatantly violates treaties and attacks neutral worlds, despite the New Republic starting with an overwhelming military advantage. This leaves an [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits extremely tiny group of privately-funded]] [[LaResistance Resistance]] members to pick up the slack. Then in ''Film/TheForceAwakens'' the entire New Republic navy gets knocked out in a surprise attack by Starkiller Base ([[TooDumbToLive because apparently]] [[SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale every single warship of a galactic-scale polity was focused in one system]]). ''Film/TheLastJedi'' further emphasizes their uselessness when Leia tries to get into contact with various military factions (presumably the Republic's remnants) to support the Resistance's war against the First Order; none of them even send responses, with ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'' revealing that they were too scared to fight the First Order after Starkiller Base destroyed the Hosnian system.
132** The Prequel Trilogy takes it a step further: the Republic doesn't even ''have'' a military until the end of the second movie. When the Trade Federation invades Naboo with their robot army in ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'', the galactic authorities are completely impotent to stop them until Queen Amidala calls for a Vote of No Confidence in Chanceller Valorum's leadership. ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' and other EU material clarifies that many planets in the Republic ''did'' have militaries, but they were independent rather than under the central authority of the Republic, and were not fit for expeditionary warfare, so nothing could be done. As a result, saving the day falls to [[OneRiotOneRanger two Jedi]] and the local gendarme. Further EU material reveals that (at least in the old ''Legends'' continuity) the Republic's military was completely disarmed following the New Sith Wars by the Ruusan Reformation. Then ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'' ends with an outright inversion: Palpatine commandeers the new Clone Army, successfully [[MugglesDoItBetter exterminates all the Jedi and enslaves most of the alien races]], puts down the remaining Separatists, and establishes TheEmpire.
133* ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'': the U.S. military's sole response to Bane taking over Gotham and holding it hostage with a nuclear bomb is to send a very small special forces team to infiltrate the city, ''Escape From New York'' style. Also like ''Escape From New York'', they quickly die without having accomplished anything. The U.S. government makes no effort after that. The paramilitary CIA operatives at the beginning of the film also get killed by Bane's thugs after being played for fools. Of course, Batman and the Gotham PD end up having to save the day.
134* In ''Film/SonicTheHedgehog2020'', the military is shown to be utterly incapable of their jobs, giving Dr. Robotnik maximum leeway in the operation and not caring about [[TakeOverTheWorld his true intentions]]. Even worse, poor Major Bennington isn't even able to introduce himself or complete a sentence when he confronts Robotnik, simply walking away when he takes over the operation without any challenge whatsoever.
135** In ''Film/SonicTheHedgehog22022'' the only thing G.U.N. is good for is [[InspectorJavert capture Sonic and Tails in an ambush]]. The moment that [[MamaBear Maddie]] and [[WomanScorned Rachel]] go on a rampage to rescue them with Tails' gear the G.U.N. agents get curb-stomped, and when Robotnik unleashes his Emerald powers and [[HumongousMecha the Death Egg Robot]] they are the very definition of a RedShirtArmy.
136* ''Film/BattleForThePlanetOfTheApes:'' A hundred or so villainous soldiers fail to kill or capture three intruders despite their superior numbers and home court advantage. Kolp angrily lampshades this, and TheDragon defends himself by saying his men are weak and sick from radiation poisoning. They don't do much better against Caesar's army in the climax.
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140* Played straight in most of ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'', due to the AdultsAreUseless setting. The military doesn't seem very worried about the Earth being invaded by aliens. [[spoiler:Even after losing an aircraft carrier (and everybody on it), the kid's hometown being quarantined, and the governor of California making an official speech about how the aliens are invading the world]], [[ExtraStrengthMasquerade they simply consider this as a hoax]] and don't bother investigate. Downplayed when they finally admit that aliens are indeed invading; they send some Redshirts to die in support of the main cast, and give them heavy weaponry to save the world with, but don't have a very important role in the end.
141* The aurors in ''Literature/HarryPotter'' may qualify, depending on whether you consider them as an army or not. In the sixth book, they fail to kill or capture any Death Eater, put innocents in jail ([[NiceJobBreakingItHero where they are captured]] and {{Brainwashed}} by said Death Eaters) instead, and do nothing to prevent the ministry from being infiltrated by Voldemort. Even after he (more or less publicly) takes over, none of them seems to resist him, even passively.[[note]]Even though the vast majority of Aurors would either qualify ''themselves'' for the camps, based on simple demographics, or have family that does[[/note]] The only known exceptions are three named characters who in addition to being Aurors have also been moonlighting as members of Dumbledore's secret anti-Voldemort militia for the past several books, and even they have virtually no effect on the plot. [[spoiler:And that's ''before'' two of them get killed.]]
142* In the first half of ''Literature/WorldWarZ'', every single armed force of the world (save for Israel and... that's all) holds the IdiotBall until the world gets really screwed. While the zombies are being protected by solid PlotArmor ([[RemovingTheHeadOrDestroyingTheBrain only headshots seem to affect them]], and things like napalm and high caliber explosives that should transform them into liquid bits of corpses are ineffectual) armies still make bad decision after bad decision that caused the apocalypse. They get somewhat better towards the end, but not before the situation becomes critical because of their errors, most damningly at the Battle of Yonkers. Interestingly, different armies fail for different reasons. In China, they employ ZergRush tactics, which backfires when each fallen soldier turns into an enemy. In the United States, the generals look for a decisive, "Shock-and-Awe" type victory, equipping the soldiers with a lot of AwesomeButImpractical equipment that isn't effective against Zombies.
143* Zigzagged in ''[[Creator/PermutedPress Day By Day Armageddon]]'' where the military was seemingly wiped out and accidentally unleashed ''radioactive zombies'' upon the world [[NiceJobBreakingItHero nuking major population zones]][[note]]While it wiped out ''millions'' of zombies, ones exposed to or survivors killed by the fallout were not only radioactive, but "preserved" against decomposition meaning they were faster and more intelligent, which ultimately did more harm than good[[/note]], their remnant is ultimately revealed to be going quite strong and actually putting up a good fight to save the world [[spoiler:which they ''actually succeed at'']].
144* In ''Literature/TheSouthernReachTrilogy'', the border guard from the army can't contain Area X [[spoiler:when it breaks through the old borders]]. Having no special training like the expedition members, [[spoiler:the members of the military either get killed off by what the biologist became or they go crazy and turn on themselves.]]
145* ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds1898'' features this, but too a far lesser extent than the film versions. The British military is able to score some hits on the tripods, but we only see a grand total for 3 or 4 get taken out by conventional arms in the book. This is due to the inaccuracy of the weaponry in use at the time, as the field guns in late 19th century militaries wouldn't be able to hit the fast-moving tripods without getting lucky, and would be vaporized as soon as they were sighted by the Martians. Within just 50 years of the novel's publication, military technology had advanced so much that the film adaptations had to give the Martians DeflectorShields just to keep them from being demolished by Earth's armies. It's [[FridgeHorror kind of worrying]] to think that the tripods -- the scariest weapons Creator/HGWells could envision at the time -- became obsolete to real life weapons in less than a century.
146* ''Literature/{{Worm}}'' manifests this in three ways, albeit all justified:
147** [[{{Kaiju}} Endbringers]] won't even notice anything less than a vehicle-mounted heavy weapon, so infantry are right out. Tanks don't have the maneuverability needed for the urban environs Endbringers usually target. Artillery has too much chance of UnfriendlyFire. Each of the three have their own ways to deal with aircraft and their pilots - Behemoth can zap them with lightning, Leviathan can just ground them by summoning storms and Simurgh... well, [[BrainwashedAndCrazy you'd be lucky if she]] ''[[BrainwashedAndCrazy only]]'' [[BrainwashedAndCrazy destroys them.]]. The only time they are ever mentioned directly combating an Endbringer (in Scarab 25.4) is so throwaway one can easily overlook it. Even nuclear weapons aren't powerful enough to kill the things [[note]]At one point, one of them is hit with a beam of light so powerful that it was actually capable of destroying ''all of India'', concentrated into a narrow corridor centered on it... and it kept on going after getting burned down to its skeleton.[[/note]] so the only viable strategy is to have hundreds of capes HoldTheLine until [[PhysicalGod Scion]] arrives.
148** For the roving bands of supervillains like the Slaughterhouse Nine, take the usual difficulty conventional militaries have with tracking down guerillas or insurgents, then add in the difficulty of taking them down. How do normal ground forces deal with a MadScientist like Bonesaw whose definition of dead man switch is "biological WMD", a pyrokinetic who teleports through fire like Burnscar, becoming ever more mobile the longer the fight goes on, or a silicakinetic like Shatterbird who has citywide ability to turn your sniper scope or phone screen into deadly shrapnel? Then there are the {{Nigh Invulnerab|ility}}le monsters like Crawler or Siberian who could tank an airstrike or cruise missile. That's just the current composition of the Nine; some late members with even more exotic powers would be even worse to handle.
149** Then some are just wild cards. The conventional military could, in theory, get rid of Nilbog, but no one knows how many aces he has hidden up his sleeves as contingency plans, and since he's content to stay in the area he's taken over, no one's bothering to go to the trouble of trying to uproot him.
150** In addition, many of the above threats are highly mobile and strike with little advance warning. It's easier to get a Mover capable of transporting a few hundred Capes to the site of an Endbringer attack on an hour's notice (and for decades, having that much lead time was actually considered a great success for the early warning systems) than it is to transport a brigade of soldiers and all their equipment in that same timeframe. The most powerful force in the world is useless if you can't get it to the battlefield on time - and with things like Endbringers, if you don't repel them in a matter of hours, there likely won't be anything left of whatever you're ostensibly trying to protect, whether you 'win' the fight or not.
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154* In ''Series/TheWalkingDead'', the U.S. Armed Forces were wiped out by the walkers so fast that they have already been long gone when Rick Grimes woke up from his coma, which lasted between 4 to 6 weeks. The series mainly shows their demise by scattering military equipment in cities. Ironically, the whole show's premise focuses on a group of survivors fighting for their lives even though they can't possibly be as powerful or large in numbers as the U.S. Armed Forces, although it's possible the reason why the main cast composed of Rick Grimes, Glenn Rhee and all others are surviving while the U.S. military didn't is that they learned how to sneak through the walkers using strategy, quick thinking and planning out how to evacuate as while the U.S. soldiers tried executing all walkers in the shortest amount of time possible, which was a fatally bad idea given there were too many walkers to be killed just by manpower, and weapon firing noises attract even more walkers.
155* In the second series of ''Series/DoctorWho'' during the episode [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E13Doomsday "Doomsday"]], the British military rush to repel the Cybermen invasion but their efforts only cut down small numbers. The soldiers' conventional firearms did nothing against the Cybermen, while their rocket-propelled grenades did prove effective though they only had a small supply of these large, heavy rockets and therefore the soldiers were either killed or taken prisoner and converted into Cybermen. Later on, during the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E7TheZygonInvasion "Zygon Invasion"]] arc, UNIT soldiers allow themselves to be ambushed and slaughtered ''twice'', even though the second time they had several seconds of Zygons just standing there menacingly, while the soldiers were armed to the teeth (and Zygons are ''not'' ImmuneToBullets), and the Zygons need to be within a few feet in order to use their flesh-disintegrating lightning bolts. Ironically, UNIT [[PutOnABus isn't disbanded]] by the time of the Creator/JodieWhittaker-era New Year's special ''Resolution'' because of their lack of effectiveness overall, but because [[ObstructiveBureaucrat some random bean-counting asshole]] noticed that there hadn't been alien attacks recently ([[FailedASpotCheck that he knew of]]) and declared the whole group a waste of money.
156** Usually, this trope is averted, with UNIT actually being capable of battling most aliens, often even without the Doctor's help.
157* Can either be played straight, subverted or averted in ''Franchise/KamenRider'', depending on the series. Series with an emphasis on technology, such as ''Series/KamenRiderKabuto'' and ''Series/KamenRiderBuild'' tend to have a more effective military presence compared to series with a supernatural setting, such as ''Series/KamenRiderHibiki'' and ''Series/KamenRiderWizard''. However, the military is only able to defeat {{Mooks}}, with stronger MonstersOfTheWeek and major villains being left to the Kamen Riders.
158* Any kind of military in ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' is rare to begin with. For whatever reason, the armed forces of the United States (or any other countries) never seem to help out whenever the Earth is in danger; it's always up to a bunch of teenagers with attitude. Some series avert this trope, though, as the Power Rangers are sometimes part of or backed by a governmental organization. Examples include ''Series/PowerRangersLightspeedRescue'', ''Series/PowerRangersRPM'' and ''Series/PowerRangersBeastMorphers''.
159* Most of the older series in the ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' franchise avert this trope, as the Sentai teams are usually elite squads of military organizations specifically created to combat the villains. Most of the later series play this trope straight, as the rangers either consist of a RagTagBunchOfMisfits or [[RecruitTeenagersWithAttitude Teenagers With Attittude]], depending on the setting, with their powers and HumongousMecha having a supernatural origin.
160[[/folder]]
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162[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
163* In ''TabletopGame/SentinelsOfTheMultiverse'', regular militaries are unable to do anything to stop the more powerful, overt villains like Baron Blade, Citizen Dawn, or Grand Warlord Voss, so it falls to the heroes to defeat them. In the case of Warlord Voss, if he has more than ten minions on the field by the start of his turn, he wins automatically as his armies overrun Earth.
164* While ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' doesn't feature this as a whole (after all, you ''are'' the army), it does in a hierarchical manner, where militaries considered inferior to that of the main character(s) have no effect on the story. In stories featuring [[SuperSoldier Space Marines]] the Imperial Guard are useless, while in stories featuring the Guard the local Planetary Defense Forces are useless. In the latter's case it's a minor {{meme|ticMutation}} in the fandom that the PDF is only mentioned in a footnote that's some variation of "The PDF responded but were killed to a man".
165[[/folder]]
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167[[folder:Video Games]]
168* ''VideoGame/CallOfCthulhuDarkCornersOfTheEarth'': the U.S. Marines, FBI, and Coast Guard put in a fairly lackluster performance overall. The Marine squad assigned to breach the Esoteric Order of Dagon temple gets killed in literally the first minute of their mission. The crew of the USCGC ''Urania'' all get killed by Deep Ones (albeit after taking many with them). The FBI agents get mostly murdered by the shoggoth in the factory. In each case, private investigator [[PlayerCharacter Jack Walters]] has to take over and [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu salvage]] [[OneManArmy the situation]] pretty much alone. To their credit, the Marines ''do'' manage to take Innsmouth from the Deep Ones and their armed cultists, but that [[OffscreenMomentOfAwesome all happens off-screen]]. A U.S. submarine also heavily damages the Deep Ones' city of Y'ha-nthlei, but unlike in the [[Literature/TheShadowOverInnsmouth original story]], even ''that'' is accomplished with the help of the protagonist (who, in this version, kills Mother Hydra to disable the shield she was casting, leaving the city vulnerable).
169* ''Franchise/DeadRising'' has a [[ZigZaggingTrope zig-zagged]] example.
170** The Special Forces in [[VideoGame/DeadRising the first game]] are an aversion. They are competent as expected for a special forces unit, they send in a company sized force, supported by Blackhawk helicopters to clear the area which they did it efficiently. Unfortunately they also happen to be there to [[LeaveNoWitnesses cover]] up the incident rather than rescue all survivors. [[spoiler:And they also happen to be responsible for razing Carlito and Isabella's hometown after a failed experiment involving genetically-engineered wasps.]]
171** The AZU (Anti-Zombie Unit) of the United States military from ''VideoGame/DeadRising2'' is a straight example. They send in a two ten-man operatives to clear out the ''entirety'' of the zombie infested Fortune City (which outnumber the 20 soldiers to the city's ten thousands worth of population) without additional backup (no helicopters, [=IFVs=], no fire support). It ends as expected; while they initially did well, its only when the gas begun to emit and the zombies began to mutate that they start to lose badly and their lack of additional support means that the only survivors left are the Dwight, and a couple of AZU soldiers who managed to held off the infected.
172* A single necromorph in ''VideoGame/DeadSpace'' is enough to take out the entire crew of the USM Valor.
173* ''VideoGame/DestroyAllHumans'': As the protagonist of the game is Crypto, an alien [[AlienInvasion bent on destroying humans]], the military arrive to oppose him but because their technology is much weaker and less advanced than Furon technology, Crypto manages to defeat the entire U.S. military within a few days and inaugurate himself as the new President of the United States. Even before and if Crypto never came to earth, the military was already doing a horribly bad job fighting for freedom because Majestic was mind-controlling American citizens with junk food, television, and a government-run by puppets (that includes putting in a puppet as the President) right under the military's noses.
174* In ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry5'', when the demonic Qlipoth tree breaks into human world and opens the path to demon invasion, the human military are powerless to stop even the weakest swarm of demons, with one soldier being the last one alive of his platoon when Nero and Nico bust into the scene to clean things up.
175* The ''Franchise/{{Doom}}'' series is known to downplay this trope.
176** The manuals for ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' and ''VideoGame/DoomII'' both explain that a unit of Space Marines were sent to fight the demons before being massacred, leaving Doomguy as the sole survivor. Of course, Doomguy then proceeds to [[OneManArmy bust a cap in Hell's collective ass alone]], with little more than a shotgun and a pistol-caliber machine gun. The only "living" troops you encounter in-game are zombies possessed by demons. The manual for ''Final Doom'' downplays this by noting that the United States Space Marines [[CurbStompBattle easily defeated]] the first demon incursions in that expansion with few losses... but were overwhelmed in the latest ones when the demons changed tactics, leaving Doomguy as the sole survivor yet again.
177** ''VideoGame/Doom3'' has the Marines getting easily overrun ten minutes into the demonic invasion. Those that weren't killed by demons were possessed by Lost Souls to become zombies. Furthermore, Bravo Team gets taken down by a ''single Imp'', the same low-ranking demon that the Doom Marine manages to easily kill hundreds of times. Despite being a BadassNormal with mostly modern weapons, the Doom Marine is able to cleave through Hell's armies, invade Hell itself, and end the invasion all on his own, while everyone else flails ineffectually in the background (though ''Resurrection of Evil'', ''Lost Mission'', and ''Resurrection'' indicate that a few other survivors did almost as well).
178** Doom 3's expansion pack, ''Resurrection of Evil'', has the same situation happening again, with twice as many marines. Apparently, they didn't learn from the previous incident.
179** ''VideoGame/Doom2016'' has [=NeoPhalanx=], the military organization that appears in the game, getting overrun (killed or turned into Possessed Soldiers) as usual, though they at least manage to put up a fight, as several dead Possessed (both soldiers and civilians) are found in "The Foundry".
180* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'': the closest thing that post-apocalyptic southern California has to an army (besides local CityGuards) is the Brotherhood of Steel, who are directly descended from pre-war U.S. Army special forces and act as defenders of the region against raiders and Super Mutant marauding parties. But they sure do go out of their way to avoid helping you. It's made clear that a full invasion of the Cathedral by the heavily armed Brotherhood would have led to a quick victory over the Master's defenses, as at the time they outnumber the Super Mutants and are borderline [[ImmuneToBullets immune]] to most of the enemy's weaponry due to their PoweredArmor (you can [[DiscOneNuke take advantage of this fact]] [[NoSell yourself]]). Despite this, the Elders of the Brotherhood are more than happy to just sit back and make you do all the work, not even allowing you access to their vast weapons stockpiles as they send you on your way to face the Super Mutant army. They claim that they can't take action until proof of the growing mutant army is provided, yet at the same time, [[InsaneTrollLogic they also refuse to send out scouts to confirm said information in the first place]]. They continue taking this approach ''[[HeadInTheSandManagement even after the mutants start actively massacring towns]]'', several of which [[ImplausibleDeniability regularly communicate and trade with the Brotherhood]]. Needless to say, ItsUpToYou to save the world.
181* Throughout the ''VideoGame/FreedomPlanet'' [[VideoGame/FreedomPlanet2 games]], do not expect the army of any nation to help you in the best case, and in the worst be outright antagonistic to you. In the first game, it's kind of justified in that two of the four protagonists are wanted criminals and another is an extraterrestrial [[spoiler:or rather, both of them are]], which isn't the kind of reputation to warrant their trust. The sequel is barely better despite one of the playable characters being a military figure of reasonably high rank, offset by the fact the only armies attacking you are explicitly employed or programmed by the enemy. Neera Li (aforementioned military figure) expresses her frustration early in the game as she marvels at her own navy's lack of ready response.
182* ''VideoGame/HalfLife'':
183** The soldiers sent to contain the Black Mesa incident in ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'' are pretty tough, and individually competent. However, they hardly stand a chance against the invading Xen aliens, especially when they start showing up in larger numbers and with stronger units, and their directive to kill all Black Mesa personnel makes them an active hinderance to Gordon and his colleagues, who actually have a plan to stop the invasion.
184** Taken even further in ''VideoGame/HalfLifeOpposingForce'', where the government decides that since the military's clean-up is going poorly, the best course of action is to send in another unit -- the Black Ops -- to clean ''them'' up along with the Black Mesa staff and invading Xenians. This doesn't make matters any better, [[spoiler:and the Black Mesa facility is ultimately [[NukeEm destroyed with a nuclear bomb]] as a last-ditch effort at containment.]]
185* ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'':
186** In the comic ''The Sacrifice'', the soldiers are quite bad at fighting zombies. If [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits a college dropout, an IT analyst, a biker, and a Vietnam veteran]] can kill hundreds of infected with hand-made weapons in the worst possible places (airport, hospital, church), do you think that trained soldiers in a base with twenty feet high walls, barbed wires, artillery, choke points and choppers can do the same ? Of course they can't, they're soldiers.
187** ''VideoGame/Left4Dead2'' is an aversion. While the CEDA is quickly overwhelmed by the zombie invasion, the military is both [[BadCopIncompetentCop far more ruthless and more efficient]] at dealing with it; the evacuation points of the army are still operational, and for what we know of it, they do manage to save people from the zombie invasion.
188* ''VideoGame/LittleTailBronx'':
189** [[LampshadeHanging Commented on]] in ''VideoGame/SolatoroboRedTheHunter'', where one character asks what the hell the army was doing when {{Kaiju}} were attacking the city.
190** The Gasco Army from the ''VideoGame/FugaMelodiesOfSteel'' saga are a completely {{justified|Trope}} example, as a result of circumstances beyond their control rather than any sort of incompetency. A possible explanation for why they seem ineffectual comes from a report in [[VideoGame/FugaMelodiesOfSteel2 the second game]]-- the many autonomous regions of Gasco had spent decades being constantly at war with one another, so their leaders came together to demilitarize and outlaw the use of force. The current Gasco Army-- which was once only meant to defend the ''de facto'' capital of Paresia-- is likely suffering from a shortage in manpower or resources as a holdover from this.
191*** It's shown in the first game that their tanks explicitly lack the technological advancements and aerial capabilities of the Berman Empire's, which leaves them at an appropriately heavy disadvantage. It's part of why the children riding the Taranis refuse to sit around and wait for the army to take action, especially as [[ItsPersonal their friends and family have been taken away]] by the Berman and they have no time to lose. Even so, the Gasco Army prepared for war in advance by putting many of their resources into fortifying Paresia and ensuring that it at the very least it was protected from the Berman invasion.
192*** Come the end of the first game, this ends up getting PlayedForDrama with a side of TheWorfEffect. [[spoiler:After the children of the Taranis finish their first encounter with [[BigBad General Hax]] and the newly-activated [[EvilKnockoff Tarascus]] in Chapter 10, Gasco Army reinforcements finally arrive to back up the Taranis… and then Hax fires the [[WaveMotionGun Managarm]], reducing ''the entire cavalry'' to shrapnel. Hax is then able to use the Tarascus' power to breach Paresia's defenses and use its energy core to reawaken [[MechanicalAbomination the Vanargand]] from its slumber. That said, even with the Vanargand being a {{Kaiju}} with the power to break Gasco itself apart, the Gasco Army takes the chance to slow it down with their attacks, giving the Taranis crew enough time to put down the monster.]]
193*** The Gasco Army gets more time to shine come [[VideoGame/FugaMelodiesOfSteel2 the second game]]. While the threats they're dealing with are generally out of their league ''again'', the introduction of airship technology to Gasco allows them to support the Tarascus[=/=]Exo-Taranis through supply drops, transportation or bombing enemy targets via air raids… albeit not for free. [[spoiler:Likewise, they [[BigDamnHeroes fight alongside the Exo-Taranis]] in the final battle against the resurrected Vanargand, and even manage to take its main BreathWeapon out of commission through [[ZergRush sheer combined firepower]] before it fires on the children and potentially obliterates Gasco.]]
194* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel'', the Provincial Armies see doing anything that would justify their employers (The four most powerful non-royal nobles in Erebonia) ''having'' a private army (including tanks) as beneath them, instead focusing on helping their masters maintain their political power [[spoiler:(something they do to the point of outright treason)]]. The few times they're seen even attempting to resolve issues in the first game, they [[spoiler:deliberately]] make things worse. The Imperial Army doesn't look much better in the first game, with the entire 1st Armored Division (which, as it was in charge of the capital's defense, was presumably an elite unit) getting wiped out by a surprise attack, only for a scratch defense force of nine army cadets, half a dozen academy instructors, and a '''maid''' [[spoiler:(granted, the instructors were a mix of elite veterans, an A-ranked Bracer and a Dominion of the Gralsritter, and the maid was secretly an off-duty Ouroboros Enforcer, but still)]] to do a better job of slowing down the force that wiped them out less than an hour later. In the second game, once the surprise of the sudden rebellion wears off and the surviving units get a feel for what the enemy's new weapons systems are capable of, the Imperial Army looks much more competent. There are two cases of useless militaries in the third game, but both times it was the fault of their civilian superiors: in one case the Imperial Army was ordered to stand down during a crisis because the Chancellor wanted the Provincial Army to try and fail to handle the situation first in order to make them look bad, and in the second the Provincial Army's sensible deployment plans kept getting overridden by the whims of the self-serving incompetent who was the acting Duke, allowing a crisis to form and escalate.
195* The Hyrulian army in ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' is pretty useless when they appear:
196** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'': The army refused to follow [[EvilSorceror Agahnim]] when he [[TheUsurper usurped]] the King, but get {{brainwashed}} for their resistance, and kidnap their own princess. The Hylian Soldiers are among the [[CannonFodder weakest]] enemies in the entire game, [[ArmorIsUseless their armor]] not helping their defense in the [[TheGoomba slightest]], and are easily defeated by Link.
197** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'': The soldiers get completely wiped out by Ganon's forces when trying to defend the castle and town. Beforehand, Link was able to sneak past them, and even a random villager noted he was able to as well, until he got stuck in a small crawlspace.
198** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaFourSwordsAdventures'' the Hylian Soldiers get brainwashed again, rely on ZergRush, and still fall in droves.
199** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'': The Hyrule Army get utterly massacred by Zant's shadow beasts ten minutes after they walk through the front door. Keep in mind that this is the entire batallion vs maybe two shadow monsters, the former of which are supposedly armed and the latter who aren't. The most you can say for them is they always at least bravely stood their ground. ''Twilight Princess'' goes far enough to actually [[LampshadeHanging make fun of this]] with several characters pointing out how useless and cowardly the army is, and with the way the soldiers tremble with fear and keep their distance (and don't impede you ''at all'') if you charge through the castle town in your wolf form. They'll even outright flee if you Wolf Link does a sudden movement.
200** Downplayed in ''VideoGame/HyruleWarriors'', at least as long as they have a skilled commander/warrior/mage in their midst. Still, the Hylian Captain is infamous for his cries of help over even the most simple foes.
201** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'': While the Hyrulean Army gets utterly annihilated in the backstory to an even greater extent than usual, the set-up takes pains to justify it this time around. The main culprits behind the total bloodbath were the [[DemonicPossession Ganon-possessed]] Guardians, an army of powerful {{Magitek}} robots that the Kingdom of Hyrule had originally dug up for the express purpose of fighting against Ganon. Not only were the soldiers woefully outgunned, they hadn't anticipated their own weapons being used against them. We never get to see whether or not the army was truly useless as usual under normal circumstances, but it's clear the odds were heavily stacked against them this time, and compared with previous games [=NPC=]s are far more likely to praise the strength and bravery of those doomed soldiers.
202** Sharply averted in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom''. Hyrule has started to rebuild after the destruction of Calamity Ganon, and the Hylians and Sheikah are actively taking the fight to the monsters - there are even some side quests where Link can help a monster-clearing force wipe out enemy camps, and they are capable of holding their own. Gerudo, Zora and even Rito soldiers are capable of fighting back as well, and lone soldiers do not take isolated attacks sitting down. Only the Gorons appear useless against the monsters at first[[spoiler:, and that's because they're addicted to marbled rock roast until the Marbled Gohma is pulverized]]. The only reason the interracial coalition fails to leave a lasting dent in the monsters is because [[ResurrectiveImmortality the blood moon keeps bringing them back]], but they soldier on regardless.
203* It's noted right at the start of ''VideoGame/LufiaAndTheFortressOfDoom'' that the Alekian army has grown soft and useless over nearly a century of peace, to the point that barely any soldiers even show up to drills anymore, and when a nearby town is suddenly annihilated by monsters, the army is too tied up in red tape to do anything despite fears that the same thing could happen to them. Similarly, though the leader of the Lorbenian army becomes a party member, the Lorbenian army itself apparently has no interest in thwarting a quartet of {{Physical God}}s that nearly destroyed the world almost a century ago.
204* The U.S military takes massive losses in ''VideoGame/ParasiteEve''. By the time the story is over, they've lost squadrons of helicopters, planes and most, if not all, of a Carrier Battle Group in their attempt to stop [[BigBad Eve]]. This gets very much averted in [[VideoGame/ParasiteEve2 the sequel]], where the military absolutely [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QptybD4UhJM rolls over the GOLEMs]], but then comes back in full force for ''VideoGame/The3rdBirthday''.
205* ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}'' is a rare zombie apocalypse story that takes place before things have fallen apart, and so is unable to simply skip over the part where the military somehow fails to hold back the zombies. The player can hop in a chopper or thermobaric tank and clear out every hive in about thirty minutes, yet in the hands of the Marines these weapons are insufficient for gaining, or holding, an inch of ground. Even when they develop a gas that kills infected and is harmless to humans they are somehow unable to capitalize on it. [[VideoGame/Prototype2 The sequel]] is much the same but at least attempts to justify it by having Blackwatch be plagued with corruption and their command structure infiltrated by [[OurZombiesAreDifferent Evolved]] who are actively sabotaging their efforts.
206* In the ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' series, the police, SWAT team, and even Umbrella's own anti-outbreak forces are swiftly and almost completely wiped out by the zombies in a matter of hours. However, as you find out over the course of [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil2 the second]] and [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil3Nemesis third]] games all three are fully justified: [[spoiler:the police and SWAT team were actively being sabotaged by both Umbrella and their own [[DirtyCop corrupt police chief]] who wanted to contain the virus and [[SerialKiller hunt the cops for sport]], respectively. Umbrella's own UBCS was intentionally sent in to serve as cannon fodder so a few select members of the teams could gather combat data and destroy the evidence.]] Conversely, the Delta Force soldiers found in [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil3Nemesis The Dead Factory]] actually [[SubvertedTrope faired quite well]], all things considered -- true they were slaughtered, but they took out ''five Tyrant T-103s'' armed only with [=MP5s=] in the process. Yeah, that [[ImplacableMan big invincible asshole]] who chased Leon and Claire all throughout the game, was only pissed off by being dropped in molten steel, and ultimately took a rocket launcher to bring down? Delta Force took out five of them with 9mm automatics.
207* The volunteer army in ''VideoGame/SinAndPunishment'' that was organized to fight the Ruffians are apparently so supremely bad at their job that the LaResistance movement that Saki belongs to was put together just to take ''both'' of them out. The game then starts with the resistance movement getting ''completely wiped out'' down to three people.
208* The Franchise/StarFox team is usually required to pull the Cornerian Army out of trouble, and usually arrives late for the Corneria Defense Force (especially in ''VideoGame/StarFoxAssault'', when [[spoiler:they end up having to kill most of the [[PuppeteerParasite Aparoidified]] CDF soldiers left alive on Corneria)]].
209* The Mushroom Kingdom's 'army' in ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' is pretty much beyond useless, consisting of a bunch of Toad guards who usually get incapacitated four minutes (maybe seconds?) after Bowser/the BigBad and their forces arrive and show as much knowledge of tactics as a rock. In the remakes of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'', the entire 'defense' for each of the world's kings is '''one''' Toad guard who charges LeeroyJenkins style at '''one''' Koopaling and immediately gets knocked out on contact. And that's the proactive ones. The others just run away scared the minute trouble shows up.
210* ''Warhammer VideoGame/TheEndTimesVermintide'' has the State Troops of Ubersreik (stated to consist of twelve units of halberdiers, eight units of crossbowmen, and three engineer units to fire and maintain the town's cannon batteries) being overwhelmed by the Skaven within hours. You come across a lot of their corpses, but never any living help - or dead Skaven for that matter. It's not fair to regard them too badly for losing, as they were swarmed by tens of thousands of enemies tunneling into the city itself, but they come off very poorly compared to the protagonists. Repelling the invasion is entirely in the hands of [[BadassCrew the Ubersreik Five]], who [[OneManArmy succeed]]. Later, despite having months to rebuild its defenses and the Skaven Clan Fester having incurred quintuple-digit casualties against the U5, the city then falls almost immediately when they're absent. Saltzpyre has a line lampshading this in the Horn of Magnus mission, when the team arrives to find their supposed reinforcements already dead.
211-->'''Saltzpyre:''' The garrison has been slaughtered! Doesn't anyone in this town put up a fight!?
212** This is mostly the case in ''VideoGame/VermintideII'' as well; Helmgart, Ussingen, Bogenhafen, and so on are littered with corpses of State Troops and stashes of arrows, bullets, and gunpowder they left behind, and the U5 still have to carry the fight largely alone. However, the garrison of Fort Brachsenbrucke puts up a stiff fight against the combined Skaven/Norscan offensive with their muskets and cannons and can be seen repulsing an assault in the background of the titular level; they still need to be bailed out by the U5 (who, as usual, proceed to kill over a thousand enemies and take several key tactical positions in about half an hour) but it's made clear that the battle was not going easy for Fester and the Rotbloods.
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215[[folder:Webcomics]]
216* ''Webcomic/Trevor2020'': Played with:
217** Private Young and Private Shelley don’t accomplish anything when fighting [[spoiler:Trevor]] except ''maybe'' [[CollateralDamage accidentally]] kill Dr. [[spoiler:Clay]], and [[spoiler:themselves]] killed about 30 seconds later, although it's {{justified|Trope}} given that it’s only two of them against ''[[spoiler:[[ImplacableMan Trevor]]]]''.
218** Enid and Dr. Stern have faith that once the military gets to the facility in force, the trope will be soundly {{Averted}}.
219[[/folder]]
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221[[folder:Web Original]]
222* ''Roleplay/WeAreAllPokemonTrainers'': The Pokepanese military in Kanto more or less held in Vermilion and let Lanius' forces run roughshod over Celadon and Saffron after they attacked, though this changed once Lt. Surge came back and rallied them into fighting back. They also proved mostly useless in the initial portion of the [=RtAU=] arc, though this was because the dragons were using LostTechnology they were ill prepared for, and monification created mass chaos.
223* When WebVideo/{{Hadriex}} finds the other peacekeepers he spends a good minute sarcastically mocking them for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIMWLSurr6g&list=UU3Q13RAmFVfDkYOWnnqFM2A#t=0h1m0s their complete and utter uselessness.]]
224* ''{{WebAnimation/RWBY}}'' heavily zigzags and [[{{Deconstruction}} deconstructs this with the Atlas Military led by General Ironwood.]] Their initial appearance in Volume 2 portrays them as a somewhat competent force who provides necessary aid to the huntsmen in training. However, it's also heavily implied to be a facade built on heavy doses of propaganda, General Ironwood's own incompetence as a leader and military figure, and [[NormalFishInATinyPond the lack of any actual standing military in Remnant's kingdoms to provide any genuine competition for.]] Their mass-produced Atlesian Knights are shown to be absolutely ''pitiful'' in a fight, needing half a dozen to take out the Grimm equivalent of a {{Mook}}, while being easily destroyed by a drunken Huntsman (Qrow Branwen) ''barehanded''. Their more advanced forces like the Paladins is much stronger, but are easily hacked into and turned against the heroes, leading to [[HeroWithBadPublicity Atlas developing a bad image in the aftermath of the Fall of Beacon.]] This only gets worse as the series progresses, with the military being heavily mismanaged and [[MightMakesRight resorting to mindless force and intimidation]] when it isn't necessary (or in many cases, actively detrimental), and Atlas being an authoritarian state that is so focused on trying to silence the citizens of Mantle that it leaves gaping holes in the city's defenses for Grimm to slip into. [[spoiler: And once they fight against a real opponent that they can't just overpower with raw military might in Salem's Grimm army in Volume 8, they're losing badly with the Grimm having overrun Atlas' streets prior to the Kingdom's final fall.]]
225[[/folder]]
226
227[[folder:Western Animation]]
228* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'':
229** Nobody expected the [[BodyguardingABadass Royal Guards]] to stand up against [[MadGod Nightmare Moon]], but even with warning of a potential attack and being fully mobilized and ready, they are subdued by the changeling army in about ten minutes. Contrast the six main characters, who, without [[VillainBeatingArtifact the Elements of Harmony]] or formal training, and being ''caught off guard'', take down hundreds before finally [[ZergRush being grossly outnumbered]] and surrendering. While it's largely PlayedForLaughs, they can't even handle [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking recovering Princess Celestia's pet bird]]. In the Season 4 premiere, where Princesses Celestia and Luna go missing, Princess Twilight Sparkle instructs the Guards to continue the search, only for Twilight and friends to find them themselves. In ''To Where And Back Again'' they were absolutely incapable of preventing Queen Chrysalis's changelings from invading and replacing every single key member of Equestria's government, despite it literally being the exact same tactic she used last time. In the Season 8 finale they finally succeeded at something, and it was capturing a now-powerless ''child'' who had already been defeated. [[SarcasmMode Someone give them a gold star]]. Even their captain Shining Armor, despite being an allegedly powerful good leader, spends every major threat incapacitated, once actually stood behind his infant daughter while ''she'' fought enemy soldiers ([[https://trixiebooru.org/images/2005487 no, really]]), and whose finest hour is ''throwing his exhausted-to-the-point-of-collapse wife at the threat so she could deal with it instead''. It's very telling that Queen Chrysalis recognized that taking him out would render the country defenseless, to the point that she ''didn't even bother having a plan to deal with the guards''. One wonders exactly [[ExpectationLowerer how bad]] Zephyr Breeze must have been at his job to not only get reprimanded, but actually fired from this organization...
230** The Wonderbolts have a similarly bad track record. Nobody expect them to stand a chance against Tirek, but getting defeated by flying straight into a water tower that is nonchalantly held in their flight path by Spike certainly doesn't win them any points, and failing to save a ''single falling pony'' as well as ultimately needing to be rescued themselves after the attempt is just ''sad''. Later episodes have apparently rolled with this, at least [[PlayedForLaughs acknowledging it for laughs]], such as having Spitfire do [[Series/SaturdayNightLive Matt Foley's]] (an abrasive loud-mouthed oaf who is ''terrible'' at his job) "Living in a van down by the river" bit nearly word-for-word.
231** The Season 5 finale, through alternate BadFuture scenarios, shows exactly how feeble both these groups are. Without Twilight and Co, every timeline ultimately fell to some villain. Their ''best'' showing is in Sombra's future, where all of Equestria has to devote itself entirely to the war effort either as front line soldiers (including Princess Celestia) or support to ''just barely hold Sombra's forces off'', who are composed entirely of regular (albeit brainwashed) untrained civilian ponies with no combat training whatsoever.
232** And to top it all off, while ''Sparkles Seven'' largely showed them in a rather positive light with them putting together a fairly competent plan to defend Canterlot that involved anti-flight and anti-magic defenses, they never-the-less made boneheaded mistakes like falling for very obvious distractions and not considering that their defenses would impair ''their own forces'' who also relied on flight and magic. The Legion of Doom even uses their anti-magic defense, made from pieces of Queen Chrysalis's throne no less, against them when they take and destroy Canterlot with absolutely no resistance.
233* ''WesternAnimation/TaleSpin'': Zigzagged. The first episode establishes that the Cape Suzette cliff guns are a credible defense capable of driving back Don Karnage. Karnage (and the Panda-La army) are able to get past them from time to time with significant trickery or a super-weapon of some kind but in general the cliff gunners are portrayed as brave in the middle of battle and savvy enough to see through a lot of Karnage's attempts to get past them (like by covering the Iron Vulture in a cloud of smoke). The pilots for the city's air defense are also no slouches fighting bravely in the face of danger (with one making a particularly good showing in the Panda-La episode until the heat-seeking rockets come out) but in the end they'll get overwhelmed and Baloo is the one who will save the day with a flying trick.
234* In ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'', the human military are unable to fight off the Decepticons. The episode "Megatron's Master Plan, Part 2" has a direct fight where only Decepticons remained on earth after the Autobots were expelled to space. Starscream and the Seekers wipe out the U.S. Air Force within seconds and Megatron gloats to the Witwicky family that the U.S. Armed Forces were the best warriors Earth had to offer.
235* One reason why the U.S. military scarcely appears in ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'' is that Agent Fowler clears them out of any potential Decepticon attack because Decepticons are too powerful and strong for humans to challenge as only Autobots can counteract Decepticon actions of war. The U.S. military's uselessness is visually demonstrated in the Season 3 premiere when Megatron uses his newfound fortress Darkmount to wipe them out immediately (since the Autobots were unavailable).
236* ''WesternAnimation/TurtlesForever'': When Utrom Shredder unleashes the Technodrome upon New York City, the U.S. Army and Air Force attempt a counter-offensive attack with tanks, fighter jets, and ground troops, but they get eliminated within seconds and Shredder laughs at their failure:
237-->'''Utrom Shredder:''' ({{evil laugh}}s) Did they really believe their military could stop this Technodrome? Fools!
238* In ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'', the US military folded almost immediately with the [[spoiler:Thanagarian invasion]], after offering only token resistance. It was implied, though not clearly stated, that the aliens' advanced technology disrupted human electronics and weapons, leaving it to the superheroes to save the day. Otherwise, they normally don't have issues fighting aliens, as ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'' has shown when they were dealing with Darkseid's forces.
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241[[folder:Real Life]]
242* The Danish Army in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII had not fought a war since 1864 (which it lost), and so was small and largely geared to ceremonial duties in Copenhagen. Denmark also had the misfortune of being situated in a strategic spot between Great Britain and UsefulNotes/NaziGermany as both countries scrambled to invade neutral Norway. When war came in 1940, the Danes were pragmatic enough not to resist, knowing this would be futile, and the Germans were in Copenhagen within twelve hours. Danish resistance to the Nazis took more creative - and telling - forms.
243* France got this reputation after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, where they were the first major power to capitulate to UsefulNotes/NaziGermany. The reality is a lot more complicated, of course (with internal political divisions contributing to defeat, among other things), but that didn't stop CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys from becoming a global reputation. It is worth noting that they ''did'' manage to inflict about 150,000 casualties on the Germans in the Battle of France (compared to, for example, about 1,000 Coalition dead and wounded from all causes in the First Gulf War), so while they were soundly defeated, they still didn't exactly go quietly.
244** Not to forget that the French (particularly the Free French and LaResistance) continued their struggle, often with insane valor. All in all, France's armies always had a pretty good track record of winning wars before that (as in: they won more than they lost).
245* The ''Legion Noire'' was a French-Irish invasion force that landed in Wales during [[UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars the Napoleonic Wars in 1797]]. It was supposed to help French war efforts on mainland Europe by drawing British units away from the actual fighting and demoralizing the British countryside, but instead the Legion just plundered a couple of vineyards, got drunk, and ended up surrendering to a bunch of local women whom they mistook for Grenadiers from afar (due to the slightly similar headgear).
246* The Australian Army was called in to cull an out of control Emu population in 1932. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emu_War The Emus won the first round]] and forced the army to withdraw.
247* The Afghan military was militarily defeated when the Taliban increased their attacks on them alongside the police and the National Directorate of Security in early 2021 after President Donald Trump signed the Doha Agreement with the Taliban and his successor President Joe Biden disagreed with some of the terms. The mixture of inconsistent withdrawal policy in the US and withdrawing Coalition forces did nothing to help an Afghan National Government, police, and military that had been geared towards relying on Western equipment, and soon after the revised withdrawal date the Taliban swept into Kabul. Most soldiers/officers chose to leave the battlefield due to lack of supplies, "persuasion" from village/tribal elders to leave instead of facing the Taliban head on, corruption/incompetence from military/political leaders and the assassination of various Afghan military personnel by Taliban fighters in order to cripple the organization. Those who resisted either joined with various anti-Taliban militia forces with others who left the Afghan National Police (And other law enforcement units) and the NDS after Kabul was captured by the Taliban or were allowed to leave Afghanistan alongside NATO forces.
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