Blatant Lies / Live-Action Films

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• 13 Minutes: Elser's interrogators keep insisting that he reveal his confederates, and Elser denies having any. So finally he says Churchill called him up and asked that he kill Hitler.
• Abducted in Plain Sight: The documentary portrays a sociopathic sexual predator who told a series of over-the-top lies to the family of his victim, which they believed.
• Airplane! — in one scene, Dr. Rumack lies so blatantly that his nose grows Pinocchio-style.
• Analyze This has a scene where Dr. Sobel runs into Paul Vitti's right hand man, Jelly, who was "previously incarcerated".
  Dr. Sobel: I thought you were in prison?
  Jelly: It would appear not.
  Dr. Sobel: How'd you get out?
  Jelly: I had a new trial. Turns out that the evidence in the first trial was tainted.
  Dr. Sobel: Oh, I see.
  Jelly: Anyway, two of the witnesses decided not to testify and the third guy, well, he committed suicide.
  Dr. Sobel: How?
  Jelly: He stabbed himself in the back four times and threw himself off a bridge.
• The Big Bad gangster from Angels with Dirty Faces calls the cops with a dire warning about a kidnapping and ransom demand committed by another famous gangster he's publicly associated with. Two days later, he calls them to call the whole thing off with no better explanation than that he had a misunderstanding. Everyone in the movie knows that's nonsense and acts accordingly.
• Back to School:
  • Thorton Melon (Rodney Dangerfield) is wandering around a sorority house looking for his son, and pulls a shower open with a particularly lovely young woman in there, prompting him to say, "Take it easy, honey. I didn't see a thing. [pulls the shower open again, leans in] You're perfect."
  • After slacking off all semester and hiring a small army of ringers to write his reports, Thorton is asked point-blank by the dean whether his work was his own. Thorton looks him soberly in the eye and says, "I can't lie to you, Dean Martin. [Beat] Yes, it is."
• Batman (1989): The Joker overrides the Mayor's television broadcast, his "clown face" covered by peach-colored paint, and tells the people of Gotham City: "I can be theatrical, and maybe even a little rough - but one thing I am not, is a killer." This after he has assassinated a gangster in front of the reporting staff of the Gotham Globe, as well as taking very public credit for at least half a dozen other murders (which, given the way the victims died, could have been caused only by him anyway). Most of the Gothamites laugh at his claim, but then are all ears when he says he'll give them free money.
• In Bedazzled (1967), George tells Stanley the girl he loves has died. When Stanley, shocked, asks 'Really?' George breezily replies not really, that he lied. Off Stanley's anger, he explains he's compelled to lie, and that everything he's told him is a lie — including that everything he's told him is a lie. Of course, George is the Devil, so...
• Big Business (1988): Sadie Shelton assures her sister and the board of her company that the residents of Jupiter Hollow want to close down the furniture company right before a Gilligan Cut to the fair which is raising money to protest the closure.
• Blonde Crazy: To get the money for a counterfeit bill scheme, Bert uses his own cash, but also needs Anne’s. Not too keen on this scheme, Anne refuses to give her $5000, until Bert pretends it’s for something else. He ends up losing it all, and to make sure Anne doesn’t find out, he actual steals a diamond bracelet in order to pawn it for money to return it back.
• The Blues Brothers features the Apology of Jake Blues.
  Mystery Woman: You miserable slug! You think you can talk your way out of this? You betrayed me!
  Jake Blues: No I didn't! Honest...I ran out of gas. I...I had a flat tire. I didn't have enough money for cab fare. My tux didn't come back from the cleaners. An old friend came in from out of town. Someone stole my car. There was an earthquake. A terrible flood. Locusts! IT WASN'T MY FAULT, I SWEAR TO GOD!!!
• The assertion of Gov. Fairchild that there's been a diphtheria outbreak at Ft. Humbolt in Breakheart Pass.
• Cabin Fever is set in the midst of a deadly flesh-eating disease outbreak. About halfway through the movie a woman wants some hot "we're all gonna die anyway" sex and enlists a stunned male acquaintance to give her one last ride. When the guy gets antsy about the risk of disease exposure, she half-assedly tries to convince him that she's perfectly healthy. Either played straight or subverted — it isn't clear which. She may not have been aware that she had the disease, but observant watchers have noted that you can see some signs of her illness before the sex scene, so she might've been aware of her own condition. At the very least, she can't possibly be certain that she's healthy, as she pretends to be.
  • She pulls a similar stunt a few minutes later, too. While they're having sex, painful red rashes appear on her back — the first symptom of the disease. When she spies these marks in a mirror, the girl seems to realize that they are a sign of the infection. However, that doesn't prevent her from blaming her lover for being a little too rough with her in bed.
• In Casablanca:
  • Renault is cheerfully and unashamedly corrupt.
  Captain Renault: By the way, last night you evinced an interest in Señor Ugarte.
  Victor Laszlo: Yes.
  Captain Renault: I believe you have a message for him?
  Victor Laszlo: Nothing important, but may I speak to him now?
  Major Strasser: You would find the conversation a trifle one-sided. Señor Ugarte is dead.
  Captain Renault: I am making out the report now. We haven't quite decided yet whether he committed suicide or died trying to escape.
  • Also:
  Rick: How can you close me up? On what grounds?
  Captain Renault: I am shocked - shocked - to find that gambling is going on in here.
  Croupier: Your winnings, sir.
  Captain Renault: Oh, thank you very much.
• Charlie's Angels (2000): Alex and her actor boyfriend are rehearsing a "bomb defusing" scene, and Alex lets slip some technobabble. To cover it up she says, "Isn't it amazing what you can learn on the Internet?"
• Clown Kill: After an altercation with the recently-fired janitor, Nigel is asked about his bloodied face by Colin and George. While relating what happened, Nigel starts playing himself up to sound more awesome than what had actually happened.
• In Clue, Mrs. White uses this to explain away what happened to her first husband.
  Wadsworth: Your first husband also disappeared.
  Mrs. White: But that was his job. He was an illusionist.
  Wadsworth: But he never reappeared!
  Mrs. White: He wasn't a very good illusionist.
• From Con Air:
  Vincent: Where are you taking my plane, Cyrus?
  Cyrus: We're going to Disneyland.
  Vincent: You're lying, Cyrus.
  Cyrus: So are you, Vince.
• Pretty much everything said by Alan Conway in Color Me Kubrick - based on the true story of a con man who went around London claiming to be Stanley Kubrick, in spite of knowing absolutely nothing about Kubrick's films or film making in general.
• Coneheads: "We're from France."
• Batman Begins: When Bruce wakes up from being gassed by Scarecrow's fear toxin, Fox shows up and reveals that he created the antidote for him.
  Bruce: How fast can you make more of that antidote?
  Fox: You planning on gassing yourself again, Mister Wayne?
  Bruce: You know how it is, Fox. You're out at night, looking for kicks, someone's passing around the weaponized hallucinogens...
• The Dark Knight:
  • When Harvey Dent wants in on Gordon's alliance with Batman:
    Harvey Dent: [thumbing a wad of money from the Joker's latest hit] Lightly irradiated bills. Fancy stuff for a city cop. Have help?
    Lt. James Gordon: We liaise with various agencies.
    Harvey Dent: Save it, Gordon. I wanna meet him.
    Lt. James Gordon: Official policy is to arrest the vigilante known as "Batman" on sight.
    Harvey Dent: Mm-hm. And what about that floodlight on top of MCU?
    Lt. James Gordon: If you've got problems with malfunctioning equipment, I suggest you take them up with maintenance, counselor.
  • After Lau flees to China with the Mob's money and is then dumped on the MCU's doorstep, tied up and gagged, the official story is that he just decided to return, and was arrested.
    Dent: [at a press conference] Well, I don't know anything about Mister Lau's travel plans. I'm just glad he's back.
  • Also:
    The Joker: Do I look like a guy with a plan?
• In The Dark Knight Rises:
  • All of those thousands of police officers heading down into the sewers apparently as part of some manhunt? Just a training exercise.
  • Blake and Gordon are in their car listening to the President's address on the radio, when he says "people of Gotham, we will not abandon you."
    Blake: What does that mean?
    Gordon: [sighs] It means we're on our own.
  • The proclamation is later shown to have contained at least a modicum of truth as the government slips a team in with the supplies in an attempt to get information in order to save the city.
• Deadpool (2016) is somewhere between this and not even giving a shit whether people believe him when he's lying or not.
  Deadpool: No one's getting hurt!
  [a corpse falls to the ground from a billboard]
  Deadpool: ... That guy was up there when I got here.
• Played for Drama in Denial. Holocaust denier and historian David Irving sues fellow historian Deborah Lipstadt for calling him a bigot and a Holocaust denier, despite very much being one. Even when confronted about making blatantly racist statements, he continues to insist he's not prejudiced in any way.
  Richard Rampton: [reading from David Irving's diary] "Jessica is growing into a fine little lady. She sits very upright in an ordinary chair, a product of our walks to the bank, I am sure. On those walks, we sing the Binkety-Bankety-Bong Song. She stars in a poem when half-breed children wheel past." And then you go into italics. "I am a baby Aryan/Not Jewish or Sectarian/I have no plans to marry/An ape or Rastafarian." Racist, Mr. Irving? Anti-Semitic, Mr. Irving?
  Davis Irving: I do not think so.
  Rampton: Teaching your little child this kind of poison?
  Irving: Do you think a nine-month old can understand words spoken in English, or any other sort of language?
  Rampton: This poor little child has been taught a racist ditty by her racist and perverted father!
  Irving: [smirks] Have you ever read Edward Lear? Hilaire Belloc?
  Rampton: They haven't brought a libel action, Mr. Irving, you have! You sued because you said we had called you a racist and an extremist.
  Irving: Yes. But I am not a racist.
  Rampton: Mr. Irving, look at the words on the page.
• The Devil and Miss Jones has a funny scene where an employee is being berated by a secret shopper for having gum.
  Secret Shopper: Are you chewing gum?
  John: No, ma'am.
  Secret Shopper: I'm a store shopper. Open your mouth. [John visibly swallows his gum and sticks out his tongue] Did you swallow that gum?
  John: No, ma'am, I wasn't chewing any gum.
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules:
  Frank/Dad: Would you please explain what you're doing in this picture?
  Rodrick: That's not me.
  Frank/Dad: That's not you?
  [Beat]
  Rodrick: ... Nope.
• In Doctor in Love, when Sir Lancelot asks Dr. Burke if he's glad to hear that he's leaving St. Swithin's, Dr. Burke can only feebly stammer out a no (after nearly saying yes) which Sir Lancelot naturally doesn't believe.
• In Eat Local, when Sebastian discovers a fridge full of human body-parts in the farm basement, house owner Mr Thatcher tries to claim that everything in the fridge was there when he and his wife moved in.
• In Eighth Grade protagonist Kayla, having been caught by her father about to practice fellatio on a banana, tries to sell the idea that she was planning to eat it, a pretense she cannot keep up because her dislike of bananas is legendary.
• The villagers in The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain have to keep two English cartographers in town so they can add to their local mountain in order to prevent it being reclassified as a "hill." They start by taking down the town flagpole to use as a measuring post. When the cartographers notice it missing, they get this answer—and this is only the start.
  Morgan: Dry rot.
  Garrad: Dry rot. In Wales.
• Everybody's Fine is full of these. The kid desperately attempt to cover up the lies they have been feeding their father over the years. It doesn't help.
• Father & Soldier: Bakary Diallo claims to be 30 (the actor is 44) in order to join the army. The recruiter seems happy to believe that.
• Feeding Frenzy: Mr. Plinkett claims that the trail of blood in his hardware store and the bloody mess around his table saw are the results of two unrelated accidents involving tomato sauce. His dim-witted clerk doesn't question it.
• The Fugitive: "I don't care!" Gerard may have meant it the first time, but each subsequent time he says it while, in fact, visibly caring. Lampshaded in the closing dialogue of the film.
  Richard Kimble: I thought you didn't care.
  Sam Gerard: I don't. (laughs) Don't tell anybody, okay?
• The Godfather:
  • "Is it true?" "No." And she believes it.
  • "I do reject Satan." (at a baptism Michael is attending while his hitmen assassinate all the family's rivals)
• The Green Mile has one of the most gruesome offenders of this:
  Percy: I didn't know the sponge had to be wet.
• Guesthouse Paradiso. Eddie is in the reception area welcoming new guest Gina Carbonara. There is a massive explosion from the kitchen. Eddie: "Mice." (pause) "Basque Separatist mice."
• A Guide For The Married Man from 1967 has Walter Matthau thinking of infidelity; his friend coaches him on what to do. One vignette has a wife walk in while her husband and mistress are in bed (afterglow time) and he simply repeatedly denies that the mistress is even there. The wife walks away, disbelieving her own eyes.
• Guyana: Crime of the Century: When O'Brien asks Johnson about the allegations of abuse and violence the former received from the families and friends of the people living in Johnsontown, Johnson assures him that he hates violence and no such incidents have ever happened; he also disregards the reports of a woman being whipped as punishment, saying that physical punishment was dropped two months ("maybe a year [ago]", he later says) prior to O'Brien's arrival to Guyana. By this point, the movie has made clear that Johnson's claims are all false.
• Heaven Knows What: Harley, a teenage street urchin, listens to her fellow street denizen Mike tell an anecdote about a financial dispute he had with a third party. Mike says that the money was insignificant to him because he makes $900,000 a day.
• The many explanations to which the local police in Hot Fuzz chalk up the horrific murders in the town of Sandford are blatant lies. This is underlined when Nicholas Angel has to go along with the stock explanation for a local woman's brutal murder (which took place in front of him): "She tripped and fell on her own shears." The lies are actually perpetrated by the conspiracy that surrounds the village, but most of the cops have had their instincts so dulled by both the conspiracy and the peaceful life it produces that they instinctively buy into these lies, regardless of how nakedly absurd they are.
• In the Line of Duty 4: Witness: After Officer Donnie handcuffs a suspect to his partner Rachel while posing as the suspect's friend in his house, the suspect's mother suddenly comes in. When she noticed the handcuffs, Donnie tries making an excuse that "It's not a handcuff, it's a love knot." It doesn't work.
• The plot of The Invention of Lying. In a world where everyone always tells the truth, a man figures out how to lie. Everyone believes everything he says without question, leading to the exchange:
  Mark: [to a random hot girl on the street] If you don't have sex with me right now, the world will end!
  Girl: Oh my goodness! Do we need to do it right here, or do we have time to get a hotel room?!
• I, Robot. A robot tries to murder Detective Spooner by leaping onto the hood of his car, smashing the windscreen, and grabbing the steering wheel to send his car off the road.
  Robot: You are experiencing a car accident.
  Spooner: The HELL I am!
• James Bond:
  • In From Russia with Love, while flirting with Moneypenny, Bond tells her, "Oh my darling Moneypenny, you know I'd never even look at another woman." It's absolutely no secret that this guy Really Gets Around.
  • GoldenEye: Bond introduces Natalya to his CIA ally Jack Wade as the "Russian Minister of Transportation".
  • No Time to Die: Madeleine tells Bond "She's [her daughter Mathilde] not yours." But given that she clearly IS, this is meant to be taken symbolically, not literally.
• Juan of the Dead: The news reports in Cuban television keep claiming that the Flesh Eating Zombies are dissidents being paid by the U.S. government and that the military has the whole situation under control, so people should go about their daily lives. Never mind that random buildings are blowing up and hordes of undead are flooding the streets.
• Juggernaut: When the passengers have to Abandon Ship in very bad weather, a member of the crew assures them they'll soon be picked up. An American politician (being a Consummate Liar) tells him he's full of it.
• The Jungle Book (2016)
  • Baloo has Mowgli climb up to get honey from a hive.
    Mowgli: Lotta bees up here!
    Baloo: Yeah, but these ones don't sting! ... (later) Oh, those must have been females!
  • He also tricks Mowgli into believing that he hibernates, at least until Bagheera shows up.
    Bagheera: Bears don't hibernate in the jungle! What are you teaching him?
    Baloo: Not full hibernation, but I nap, a lot.
• Justice League: When Bruce Wayne first confronts Barry Allen:
  Bruce Wayne: [sees the Flash suit] Silica-based quartz sand fabric. Abrasion resistant. Heat resistant.
  Barry Allen: Uh...yeah, I do...competitive ice dancing.
  Bruce Wayne: It's what they use on the Space Shuttle to prevent it from burning up on re-entry.
  Barry Allen: I do...very competitive ice dancing.
• Terry Silver's speech about what he's got from karate in The Karate Kid Part III. He's a borderline-psychotic sadist who says that he's got discipline, health, inner-peace and self-confidence from karate, and he's about to open some dojos to teach karate full of honesty, compassion and fair play. The crowd love it, but we see several shots that show us that Daniel and Mr Miyagi are clearly not buying it.
• Kick-Ass: With gunfire clearly audible in the background:
  Bodyguard: Everything's under control.
  Chris: Under control? You're getting a fucking BAZOOKA!
• In A Knight's Tale, Prince Edward justifies knighting William by announcing that he's discovered Will is descended from nobility. Though quite obviously a lie, no one dares call him out on it because he's royalty. "This is my word, and as such is beyond contestation." Earlier, there's the scene where William tells Chaucer that he is "Sir Ulrich Von Lichtenstein". Chaucer doesn't buy it for an instant, but goes along with it when William threatens him much in the way a noble would react to a smart-mouthed peasant. He even offers to make letters patent of nobility and serve as Will's herald in exchange for food and clothing.
• Made: When an Irish gangster recognizes Rickie's Weapon for Intimidation as a harmless starter pistol with a red cap in the barrel, Rickie lamely protests, "I made my gun look like this... because I am smart!"
• Mars Attacks!: Towards the end of the film the Martians start carrying around the Translation Machine the humans put together and broadcasting a message declaring "Don't run! We are your friends!" while they vaporize everyone in sight.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • In Ant-Man, when Hank Pym catches his daughter Hope and Scott Lang kissing, Scott tries to claim that Hope came on to him, and that he'd had nothing to do with the kissing. Unusually for this trope, Hank doesn't buy it for a minute, and Scott cheerfully admits that he was lying quite shamelessly as he scampers down the stairs.
    Hank: Scott!
    Scott: Yeah.
    Hank: You're full of shit.
    Scott: Oh yeah.
  • Iron Man:
    "I'm just driving with the top down."
    "Nothing to worry about, just a training exercise."
    "This isn't about me!"
  • Thor: The Dark World: When Frigga asks her adopted son, "Am I not your mother?", Loki hesitates for a full five seconds before he unconvincingly replies, "You're not." The sad expression on his face and his reaching out for her hand afterwards prove that he doesn't mean it.
  • Thor: Ragnarok:
    • The Grandmaster asks Loki who Thor is.
    Thor: Tell him.
    Loki: ...I've never seen him before in my life.
    Thor: He's my brother.
    Loki: Adopted.
    • After Thor fights Hulk in the arena, he has to bring Bruce Banner up to speed.
    Thor: You and I had a fight recently.
    Banner: Did I win?
    (clip of Hulk backhanding Thor and breaking the arena wall on impact)
    Thor: No. I won. Easily.
    Banner: That doesn't sound right...
    Thor: Well, it's true.
• The Man from Snowy River: Spur serves Jessica beef from a cow stolen from Harrison's ranch. When she asks about the "H" brand on the cowhide, he says it stands for "homeless."
• In The Matrix Reloaded, when Smith comes to the building where the captains of the ships are meeting, looking for Neo, the guy guarding the door says "Never heard of him." Smith doesn't believe him, and gives him a package for Neo. Neo shows up moments after Smith departs, at which point the door guard hands him the package.
• Mean Girls
  Karen: I can't come out. [fake coughing] I'm sick.
• The whole point of the Neuralizer in Men in Black II.
  Agent J: Thank you for participating in our drill. Had this been an actual emergency, y'all woulda been eaten. 'Cause you don't listen. How's a man gonna come bustin' through the back of a subway — it's the same with all y'all New Yorkers! You think you've seen it all, "ooh, another six-hundred-foot worm, save us mister black man!" I ask y'all nicely to move forward to the next car, but you just sit there like... [flash] Thank you for participating in our drill. We hope you have enjoyed our shorter, more energy-efficient subway cars. Watch your step; you will have a nice evening.
• The Muppets (2011): "Change of heart. Nothing to do with head injury."
• And for Muppets Most Wanted, Dominic Badguy says that his last name is "Bad-gee", which is French for "Good guy".
• In Mystery Men, The Bowler's father supposedly died when he "fell down an elevator shaft... onto some bullets".
• In Never Rarely Sometimes Always, 17-year-old Autumn seeks out support at a crisis pregnancy center when she finds out she’s pregnant. The crisis center tells Autumn she is 10 weeks along and tries to steer her towards the possibility of adoption. Later in the film, Autumn visits a Planned Parenthood clinic where it is revealed she is actually 18 weeks along.
• In The New Daughter, Talking to his agent over the phone, John says that he's progressing nicely on his latest novel, but the screen shows that he hasn't even written the entire phrase "chapter one."
• Pirates of the Caribbean:
  • The third movie:
    Jack: Hector! It's been too long! ...Hasn't it?
    Barbossa: Aye. Isla de Muerta. Remember? You shot me.
    Jack: [Beat] No, I didn't.
  • Subverted in the fourth movie. Jack asks how Angelica managed to get Blackbeard to trust her, and she sarcastically tells him how she's his long lost daughter, and they've been looking for each other her entire life, and she's so glad she finally found him...turns out, she really is his daughter. She was just trying to make Jack think she was conning him so that he'd tell if he had any cons of his own.
    Jack: You lied to me by telling me the truth? That's...brilliant.
• Plan B: To convince Pablo to kiss him, Bruno comes up with a transparently false story about having to practice for an acting gig that requires him to kiss another man. He even forgets about his lie mere minutes after saying it, responding to Pablo's remark on how he'll still have to kiss another guy after their kiss with a confused "Why another?"
• Please Turn Over: When Janet catches Jo awake early and reading the paper, she asks what she's doing. Jo very obviously hides the newspaper and claims to be laying the table, before dashing out of the hall.
• Prospect: When locals insist on playing music before talking about a trade, Ezra and Cee are forced to endure a long, dreary performance on a concertina. They glance awkwardly around the tent while they wait for the song to end. Afterwards, Ezra says very earnestly, "That was beautiful!"
• Python: Agent Parker and his men tell the local police that the murders are being committed by an escaped, Rambo-like military prisoner. It gets lampshaded
  Sheriff Griff: Do you expect me to believe this load of horseshit?
  Agent Parker: Let me put it this way, sheriff. It would be highly expedient if you would believe this horseshit.
• In The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Frank N. Furter's line to mega-squares Brad and Janet: "You look like you're both.. pretty groovy."
• In Sahara when Dirk Pitt and friends are waylaid by Malian troops (Dirk's just buying time):
  Dirk: I'm sorry, I don't speak English.
  Malian soldier: [laughs] You are speaking English now!
  Dirk: No, I only know how to say, "I don't speak English" in English.
• In Serendipity, When Sara learns from the janitor cleaning the room where Johnathan's wedding was supposed to be that's it has been called off, she is so relieved that she wasn't too late and smiles. She then covers it with tears and says that it's unfortunate.
• Shaolin Soccer: Team Rebellion's captain has wrenches and hammers falling out of his soccer shorts before the game begins. Each time, he delivers a protracted explanation that, as a mechanic, he has a valid excuse for tools to be in his shorts.
• This is actually the plot of Shattered Glass. It's revealed that nearly all of the articles Steven Glass wrote were almost completely made up. We say "almost" because a fact checker in the film does discover "there is apparently a state in the union named "Nevada"."
• The Shop Around the Corner has a Running Gag where Matuschek, who has bought a bunch of music boxes that he's convinced will sell, asks various employees and customers what they think of the boxes, always starting out, "Now, I want your honest opinion..." Pirovitch, more Genre Savvy than the others, always manages to flee the scene whenever Matuschek asks the question of others.
• Slaughter High: Marty attempts to play it cool as Carol leads him to the girls change room for what he expects to be sex:
  Carol: You have done it before, haven't you?
  Marty: Who do you think you got here, some little virgin? Me, I'm a sex machine!
• In Smiles of a Summer Night, the Countess denies being a gossipmonger after telling Anne about Fredrik being seen leaving Desirée's place at night wearing a nightshirt and claiming that she's heard that Desirée has full-blown orgies at her home.
• Space Jam: after Michael Jordan is sucked down the magical portal in a golf hole, his assistant tries to dig him out. Naturally, someone finds him standing waist-deep in a huge hole in the middle of the course and asks what he's doing. "Um ... I'm fixing a divot." The guy buys it.
• In Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Kirk claims that Spock's odd behavior is due to him doing a lot of "LDS" during the sixties. Of course, all of them are wearing at best a Paper-Thin Disguise.
• In Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, after Praxis is destroyed, a Klingon representative tells the Excelsior that there’s been an incident and they do not need help. Captain Sulu scoffs at this.
• Starship Troopers does this often, but the satire is played with such a straight face that sometimes it's hard to catch. Pay particular note to the casualty numbers for the disastrous Battle of Klendathu on the newsreel, and then the numbers displayed in the hospital where Rico is being treated for his wounds. The state media is blatantly underreporting the number of deaths by a factor of ten. And then there's "This led to massive peace protests where 127 students and peace protesters died."
• Star Wars:
  • Han's unsuccessful Bavarian Fire Drill:
    Han: Everything is under control. Situation normal.
    Intercom Officer: What happened?
    Han: Uh...had a slight weapons malfunction. But, uh, everything's perfectly all right now. We're fine. We're all fine here, now, thank you. How are you?
    Intercom Officer: We're sending a squad up.
    Han: Uh, uh, negative. We had a reactor leak here now. Give us a few minutes to lock it down. Large leak...very dangerous.
    Intercom Officer: Who is this? What's your operating number?
    Han: Uh... [blasts commlink] Boring conversation anyway.
  • "These aren't the droids you're looking for."
  • Part of the Great Jedi Purge was Palpatine using these in order to discredit the Jedi further after Order 66 was issued. Due to almost no Jedi being around to refute the story, the fact that they're rather insular and strange to the common person, and that Palpatine is the ruler of the Republic/Empire, a lot of people readily believe that Jedi were doing things like mind-controlling districts filled with people, stealing babies to "indoctrinate" in Jedi ways, and other such "crimes".
  • And after Rogue One, everything Princess Leia says to Vader in A New Hope about being on a diplomatic mission counts as this. Leia claimed to be on a diplomatic mission that had nothing to do with the Rebellion, which seems plausible until this film revealed that he had just followed her ship from a space battle against the Rebellion, which her ship had explicitly taken part in.
  • Palpatine's speech to the Senate in Attack of the Clones is such a boldfaced lie it's laughable:
    Palpatine: It is with great reluctance that I have agreed to this calling. I love democracy. I love the Republic. The power you give me I will lay down when this crisis has abated.
• Sweetwater: Josiah says he only has one wife, but it's well known he really has two, with Sarah as the third that he wants to add.
• In Swing High, Swing Low, Skid keeps promising that he'll get Maggie's travel ticket any day now, but he never does.
• They/Them (2022): Sarah and Zane claim to both be "cured" of being gay. It's shown they engage in frottage together while staring at pictures of attractive people from the opposite sex, so unsurprisingly it's false.
• In Thirteen Days Kenneth O'Donnell has told a group of Navy recon pilots that regardless of what happens, they were not fired at, as admitting this would inevitably lead to an escalation. When they land, after the wings of their planes have been riddled with holes, the squadron commander claims that they hit a flock of sparrows. His crew chief immediately asks if they were 20mm or 30mm sparrows.
• 3:10 to Yuma (1957): "I don't go around shooting people down," claims Wade the bandit leader, not more than a couple of hours after he shot two people in cold blood, one being his own man.
• True Stories goes the completely unsubtle route with Lying Woman.
• John from Twice Round the Daffodils insists he's only at Lenton Sanatorium for observation, even though all other patients and staff alike know he is suffering from tuberculosis.
• The main part of Watch It is about a group of housemates who play practical jokes on each other. After John, a newcomer, has fallen victim to one of Rick's jokes, their housemate Danny sympathizes with John and says the jokes have gotten juvenile, and he, Danny, doesn't play the game any more. Of course, later that night, when John comes home to what he thinks is an empty house and decides to fix himself a late-night snack, Danny is waiting in a cabinet to grab John's leg and scare the shit out of him.
• Wedding Season: Lines from Asha's online dating profile are juxtaposed over scenes that make it clear they're total lies. For example, she claims that she lives a quiet life at night (partying at a nightclub) and is a great chef (making a mess in the kitchen).
• In Weekend at Bernie's, an unhinged mob hitman bursts into a scene and shoots the titular corpse several times. Unfortunately, the protagonists are standing right there. This leads to:
  Larry: I didn't see anything! I was looking at my watch!
  Richard: I'm blind!
• The Woman in Red: Teddy telling the stable keeper that he'd been riding horses since he was a boy.
  • Also, Teddy not telling Charlotte that he's married.
• X-Men Film Series:
  • X2: X-Men United: Bobby Drake presents Wolverine to his parents (who think he has been attending a normal prep school) as "Professor Logan." This in itself is borderline, but when the Drakes ask Wolverine what he teaches, he replies tersely, "Art." The trailers for the film played this to maximum effect by intercutting the question and the response with a shot of Logan, claws extended, screaming and leaping towards the camera.
  • X-Men: First Class: Raven Darkholme claims that her eye colour change at the pub was an accident, but Charles Xavier knows that she did it on purpose, and the audience understands that Raven's motivation for the "slip-up" was jealousy towards Amy.
  • X-Men: Days of Future Past:
    • When Past Xavier (who is drunk and looks like he just got out of bed) is initially unwilling to hear Logan's plea for help, his excuse is:
      Charles: Well, tell whoever it was who sent you that I'm... busy.
    • When confronted by guards in the Pentagon kitchen, Charles attempts to reassure them that he and Logan are important personnel, but one part of his speech is especially unconvincing.
      Charles: We are special operations C-B-F-E-C-I-C.
    • There's a glitch in Wolverine's Mental Time Travel, resulting in his past self waking up at the worst possible time, in the middle of a botched assassination, surrounded by strange people (some of whom are blue), days after he last remembers anything. Xavier briefly tries to explain the situation to him truthfully, before giving up.
      Charles: ...You're on acid. Someone gave you really bad acid.
  • X-Men: Apocalypse:
    • The flamboyant East Berlin cage match announcer exclaims, "Sorry, mutants!" after Nightcrawler is electrocuted, but the former's ecstatic giggle afterwards makes it plain that it's just part of his act; he's not the least bit apologetic for any of the abuse inflicted upon the mutants.
    • Professor X telling Jean Grey that her "nightmare" was just a dream is a necessary fib to prevent her from running away, as Bryan Singer points out in his commentary.
      Singer: He lies to her. Because he knows, because he's such a powerful psychic, [...] the power of Phoenix is growing inside her, and it's going to become out of control. And she's terrified of it, but doesn't understand it. And he does understand it. And he can't let on to her that he understands it because it would be too frightening, and she would run away.
    • Xavier claims that he has Level 5 clearance when Moira asks him how he got into her office, which is obviously not true — he gave everyone at the CIA building a "break" with his psychic abilities.
    • Stryker says "I'll be right back" to his subordinates during Logan's rampage. In his next scene, he escapes by helicopter.

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