Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse / Film

Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse in Films and Animated Films.

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Films — Animation

• All Dogs Go to Heaven: It's revealed in the Christmas Special that when Carface was a puppy, he was thrown out of his owner's house on Christmas because his owner didn't watch him and blamed everything on him. The scene is surprisingly heartbreaking because he still dreams his owner stood up for him instead of what really happened. Even Itchy (who was playing Ghost of Christmas Past) is left feeling bad for him afterwards. Charlie admits that what happened to him was horrible, but points out that a lot of dogs had a bad childhood and they didn't all turn out nasty.
• Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas: The reason why Daffy despises the holidays so much is because he grew up in an orphanage (which is also where he got the name for his store) and was consistently ignored by potential parents and spent every Christmas alone. Granny and Tweety cry upon seeing the poor childhood Daffy had, but they both angrily call him out on his actions, saying it's still no excuse for being a Bad Boss to his employees.
• Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker: Terry McGinnis, the protege of the original Batman, relentlessly taunts the Joker and mocks his childish obsession with Batman, pointing out how his decision to become a supervillain after falling into a vat of chemicals has made him insane. This causes the Joker to drop his usual sense of humor and explode in anger. When the Joker flat-out yells, "YOU'RE NOT BATMAN!", it's a sign Terry's gotten under his skin in a way Bruce himself never managed.
• Downplayed in Coco. While Miguel didn't say it out loudly, he is disappointed that Imelda allows the ban of music to continue for generations because of her past and not supporting his dreams at all, something a family should do.
  Imelda: I am trying to save your life!
  Miguel: You're ruining my life!
  Imelda: What?!
  Miguel: Music's the only thing that makes me happy! And... and you wanna take that away! You'll never understand!
  (...)
  Imelda: I used to love [music]. I remember that feeling, when my husband would play, and I would sing, but nothing else mattered. But when we had Coco, suddenly, there was something in my life that mattered more than music. (...) And now you must make a choice.
  Miguel: But I don't wanna... pick sides. Why can't you be on my side? That's what family's supposed to do — support you. But you never will.
• How to Train Your Dragon 2: When Hiccup and Drago finally meet, the latter explains how, when he was young, a dragon attack robbed him of his home and his arm, and that his efforts to build a dragon army are to ensure a world where man need never fear dragons again. Hiccup is quick to call bull, claiming that what Drago's doing is just an attempt to control everyone. In a slight twist, Drago himself acknowledges this.
• Meet the Robinsons: Once the Bowler Hat Guy reveals his true identity as Goob, he rants about how he blames Lewis for making him miss the winning ball for his team, which got him beaten up. The loss took such a toll on him that he never got adopted and stayed in the orphanage until he hit his thirties. Lewis points out that Goob chose to only think about the bad stuff that happened in his life and blame someone else for his choices while he could've easily let go of his pathetic grudges and learned from his setbacks. Goob eventually realizes Lewis was right when he sees what Doris does to the future because of his petty vendetta.
• Megamind: Hal Stewart being a lifelong loser who gets turned down by the one he has feelings for, coupled with being strung along into a role he's clearly not fit for under promises Megamind couldn't deliver, leaves him understandably furious and bitter. Of course, Megamind very quickly points out that Hal chose to use his powers for selfish, destructive reasons rather than to turn his life in a more positive direction.
  Hal/Tighten: This is the last time you make a fool out of me!
  Megamind: I made you a hero. You did the fool thing all by yourself!
• Maui, in Moana, reveals that his own parents rejected him as a baby, and he became desperate for approval and acceptance, so he performed mighty feats for humanity, hoping to earn their love. He ultimately stole the Heart of Te Fiti, trying to impress humanity with the Power of Creation. When he's finally brought before Te Fiti, he admits that there's no excuse for what he did to her and humbly apologizes. This may be why Te Fiti returns his magic fishhook to him as a token of forgiveness.
• ParaNorman: Norman calls the witch out on her behavior when they confront each other. She excuses her own actions by remembering that the zombies wrongfully sentenced her to death for the crime of witchcraft in life, but Norman says that her behavior has turned her from a victim to a bully.
  The Witch: They hurt me!
  Norman: So you hurt them back?!
  The Witch: I wanted everyone to see how rotten they were!
  Norman: You're just like them, Agatha!
  The Witch: No, I'm not!
  Norman: You're a bully!
  The Witch: No I'm NOT!
• Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension: Parodied. The main antagonist of the film, the Dr Doofenshmirtz of the titular 2nd Dimension, explains his evil backstory: he lost his toy train. The Dr Doofenshmirtz from the 1st Dimension, who has more tragic backstories and is nowhere near as evil as Doof-2, reacts accordingly by pointing out how completely ridiculous Doof-2's backstory is, but Doof-2 is unperturbed by this.
• The Prophet: As the Baker and other adults comment on how troublesome Almitra's stealing is, her mother Kamila states she's acting out because of her father's death. They retort that he's been dead for over a year and the excuse is getting old.
• Toy Story 3: Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear was accidentally lost and replaced by his original owner with an identical Lotso, causing him to believe toys are just "trash meant to be thrown away." But as Woody points out, it doesn't excuse him of his crimes, especially as he kept lying to Big Baby about this, and Woody calls Lotso out for believing if he couldn’t have Daisy, then neither could Big Baby or anyone else. His owner didn't abandon him so much as he abandoned her, and the fact that she replaced him actually shows how much she cared for him, since she didn't know he was alive.
• Turning Red: During the climactic fight, Mei calls out her mother, saying that just because she had to be the perfect daughter herself doesn't mean that it was right for her to treat Mei like an ideal, not as a person.
  Ming: I never went to concerts! I put my family first! I tried to be a good daughter!
  Mei: Well, sorry I'm not "perfect"! Sorry... I'm not good enough! And sorry... I'll never be like YOU!!!

Films — Live-Action

0-L

• 28 Days protagonist Gwen is a barely-functional alcoholic who ends up in rehab after she crashed the limo of her sister's wedding into a house. Upon finally visiting her on family day after initially refusing, her sister Lily confronts Gwen on how she ruined her wedding day and that their awful childhood—where they were abandoned by their father, their alcoholic mother died of her disease and they were left to be raised by a generally unloving aunt—gave her no excuse for her troubling actions since Lily was able to make something of herself and was living a good life with a loving husband.
• Andersonville: Josiah firmly rejects the notion that the Raiders' actions are excused by the conditions of the camp, pointing out how many others have maintained honor and discipline while helping each other. And because he does so during their trial, he turns this into a Rousing Speech which helps ensure their conviction.
• The Batman (2022): When Edward Nashton/The Riddler tells his tragic backstory to Batman, he expects Batman to sympathize with him, since in his delusional mind they're working together and are on the same side. Batman responds that the Riddler is just a pathetic psychopath, which causes the Riddler to lose his composure. And this is before Batman realizes that Riddler's ultimate plan is flooding the city and assassinating the new mayor and innocent civilians who fled to high ground.
• Beast (2017): While being questioned by Detective Kelly, Moll brings up that she was bullied in school, to which Kelly replies "So was I. So were a lot of people. But you tried to kill a girl." Moll insists she was defending herself, but Kelly wonders if she continues to defend Pascal because she's got a violent streak herself.
• Blood Widow: While she's the killer's prisoner, Laurie tells her that, as tragic as her time at the boarding school was, that doesn't give her the right to kill people.
• The Carmilla Movie: Elle Sheridan is initially thought of a tragic romantic figure; someone who betrayed Carmilla to her mother, before being sacrificed to a Deep One, and trapped in a nightmare realm. As a ghost, Elle has become hateful and vindictive towards Carmilla, and plans to steal her life, and trap the other innocent ghosts back in that realm. However, Elle is repeatedly called out that she wasn't the only victim, and she's knowingly condemning the others for her selfish gain. Elle admits she doesn't care about the others as long as she gets what she wants.
• Catch Me If You Can: After Frank Abagnale is arrested for fraud, the judge tells him he may have been a minor who came from a broken family, but he showed disregard for the law while dealing with his pain. In the original book, the real-life Abagnale says he had a hard time when his parents divorced, but he also says more than once that it's no excuse for his crimes, and most other children from "broken homes" don't become con artists (including Frank's own siblings, who were Adapted Out in the film).
• DC Extended Universe:
  • Implied in Aquaman (2018). After Orm tells Arthur his Freudian Excuse for his plans and offers him a chance to leave Atlantis, Arthur simply tells him that he could not let his plans happen at any cost.
  • SHAZAM! (2019): Billy's mother, Marilyn, turns out to not be the loving parent that he remembered. As it turns out, she willingly abandoned him when she lost him and saw the police with him looking for her. Instead of coming for him, she chose to let him be with the police and take him to the foster system, claiming it was better for him. Her reasoning for giving up being a mother was because her own parents abandoned her for getting pregnant as a teenager, then her boyfriend, Billy's father, left them and was arrested. While Billy doesn't outright call her out, the look on his face when he leaves shows how disappointed with her for thinking that being abandoned by her parents for being irresponsible as a teenager justifies abandoning a toddler for being a minor inconvenience.
  • Blue Beetle (2023): Jaime and Jenny agree that Jenny's aunt Victoria Kord got a raw deal, especially as there's no indication her father gave Ted the company for any reason other than sexism (as Ted was the Black Sheep of the family). However, she is such a loathsome human being that despite empathizing with her for being overlooked, Jenny affirms that she's dedicated her life to stopping Victoria and preserving her father's legacy instead.
• Dead Presidents: At Anthony's sentencing, his lawyer tries to argue for clemency based on his client's experiences in the Vietnam War. The judge (himself a veteran [of World War II]) has none of it, bluntly says that the crimes Anthony committed only prove he forgot some very important things he should have learned there and made himself a disgrace to the uniform, and says he will not allow Anthony or his lawyer to use Vietnam as a cop-out.
• Played for Laughs as a Brick Joke in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves: When Holga calls the movie's villain Forge a "son of a bitch", the Literal-Minded Proud Warrior Race Guy Xenk asks if that means she thinks his mother is responsible for his evil ways, which she confused denies. In the end of the movie, Forge actually brings up his mother as an Freudian Excuse for his villainy when in trial for being pardoned, which the judges are annoyed by. They refuse his pardon.
• Falling Down: William Foster has been fired from his job, is divorced from his wife due to his Hair-Trigger Temper, and is stuck in traffic with no AC on the hottest day of the year in Los Angeles. Foster's ensuing destructive journey to attend his daughter's birthday party initially portrays him as a type of Anti-Hero, especially since most of his victims are asking for it. In the end, however, Detective Prendergast makes it clear to Foster that none of the bad things that have happened in his life justify his going on a rampage, to the point that Prendergast is Disappointed by the Motive that the entire rampage was started for such petty nonsense.
  Foster: I'm... the bad guy? [Beat] How did that happen? I did everything they told me to. Did you know I build missiles? I help to protect America. You should be rewarded for that. Instead, they give it to the plastic surgeon. They lied to me.
  Sergeant Prendergast: Is that what this is about? You're angry because you got lied to? Is that why my chicken dinner is drying out in the oven? Listen, pal, they lie to everyone. They lie to the fish. But that doesn't give you any special right to do what you did today.
• Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019): Mark directly calls Emma out that she thinks she can dictate the fate of the world by releasing the Titans, telling her that it won't bring back Andrew, whose death still motivates her. Madison also asks her whether Andrew would want his mother doing this.
• Hot Fuzz: While most of the culprits of the murders did it for the petty reason of making sure their village wins the 'Village of the Year' award by killing off anyone who might undermine its reputation, the only one who at least has a Freudian Excuse is Frank Butterman. His wife killed herself after Sandford lost the 'Village of the Year' award she worked so hard to win because of travellers setting up. This doesn't justify his actions and his own son actually calls him out on it.
  Danny: (in tears) Mum is dead, Dad! For the first time in my life, you know, I'm glad! If she could see what you've become, I think she'd probably... kill herself all over again!
• I See You: Played to an almost comical degree when in the final part of the movie, Greg, who turns out to be the child kidnapper and killer is held at gunpoint by Alec. He starts saying "You don't understand, when I was a little boy...", but Alec's immediate reaction is to say "I don't give a fuck" and shoot him before he can finish his sentence.
• I'm Thinking of Ending Things: When they are driving back home, Jake and the Young Woman discuss this. When she makes an accidental comment about his mother, they end up discussing how society has a tendency to blame mothers for the failings of their children and Jake argues he sees the appeal in finding one single person in your life you can blame for your problems, but the Young Woman dismisses this as misogynistic, Freudian bullshit. When it's clear in the movie that the whole thing is an elderly Jake looking back in his life, imagining the life he could have had, and the Young Woman is the idealized woman he dreamed of meeting, it's easy to read the scene as Jake telling this to himself: he doesn't get to blame his own mother for his failure to have a fulfilling life.
• James Bond:
  • GoldenEye: Janus/Alec Trevelyan/006 wants revenge against Britain for the betrayal of the Lienz Cossacks, who were executed by Stalin for supporting the Nazis. Out of Survivor's Guilt, Alec's parents killed themselves. But 007 rebukes him, stating that his "mad little" scheme of causing economic chaos in revenge is petty and believes he's Only in It for the Money with his excuse as a lame cover. Which does make sense: 006 faithfully served MI6 for years before faking his death. Also, while Bond lost his own parents in a climbing accident, he did not make a big deal of it unlike 006. That most of the people Janus plans to ruin have nothing to do with his miseries and those involved in the repatriations are either dead or too old negates his argument.
    Bond: A worldwide financial meltdown. And all so mad little Alec can settle a score with the world, 50 years on.
  • Spectre: Franz Oberhauser/Ernst Stavro Blofeld made his life's mission to screw Bond at every turn because his father paid more attention to an orphaned Bond than him when they were young, causing him to commit patricide out of envy. He even mockingly calls Bond a "cuckoo." However, Oberhauser did it in pure malice and it doesn't change the fact that he chose this path on his own volition. His attempts to torment Bond just because he felt slighted shows that he hasn't moved on from this mindset. Bond calls him out on it and even asks if he knows any other bird calls besides those of "cuckoos."
  • No Time to Die: Safin's grudge against Franz Oberhauser/Blofeld stems from the latter being responsible for his family's death by Mr. White. In retaliation, Safin kills off Madeleine's mother. He gets his revenge against Blofeld by proxy by tricking 007 into infecting the man with nanobots. He also gives a "Not So Different" Remark to Bond, but while 007 admits that they do have something in common: knowing the pain of loss (as Bond lost his own parents in a climbing accident), Bond makes it clear that their ways of handling it is what separates them.
• Joker (2019): Arthur Fleck gets called out by Murray on the latter’s show about how he tries to throw a pity party about how people treat him to justify his inhumane crimes. The cast and crew have repeatedly stated that none of Arthur's actions are remotely justified. (Then again, emphasizing this allows some degree of moral clarity to one of the film's clear messages: when there is no hope for improvement in people's situation, one should not be surprised when the abused becomes the abuser in turn; but at the same time, this does not justify the new "abuser".)
• Lone Wolf and Cub: Ogami Ito is fundamentally sympathetic to Oyuki from Baby Cart In Peril and her desire to avenge her rape, but he points out that her method of achieving it has resulted in whole families' worth of collateral damage, innocent victims who are now fully justified in seeking vengeance on her. Her reaction makes it clear that she had never considered this.

M-W

• Madea Goes to Jail
  • It's one of the major themes of the film. Because of her past, Candace became emotionally damaged, dropping out of school and eventually becoming a prostitute and drug addict. It takes going to jail, help from a minister named Ellen, and ultimately meeting Madea for her to change. Specifically, one scene depicts Candy with several inmates in a class about forgiveness. One of the inmates tried to play the victim and blame her imprisonment on her father. In an inspirational moment, Madea reprimands the inmate and tells her and everyone else that they’re just avoiding responsibility, and that a tragic past does not excuse whatever they did to get arrested.
  • Discusses this at different times throughout the film, namely with the protagonist Josh's old friend Candy, a drug-addicted prostitute. Josh feels guilt for her current situation. His fiancee, Linda, and her best friend, on the other hand, don't have any sympathy for Candy. They both point out how they, Josh, and Candy all came from the same rough type of neighborhood and how it's Candy's own fault that she wasn't able to change her life for the better. While they were professionals who worked for the district attorney's office, Candy, in addition to her problems, made the decision on her own to become a prostitute. She was also unwilling to be helped by Josh (and anyone else) and blamed everyone else for her situation.
• Madea's Big Happy Family: Kimberly is a massive Jerkass to everyone and resents her family because she had been raped and impregnated by her uncle at 13, but her mother refused to take legal action against him and her family preferred to act as one big happy family instead of addressing their issues. Near the end of the film, she's called out on it; while Madea is very sympathetic towards Kimberly's past, she still states it doesn't give Kimberly an excuse to lash out at everyone, and urges her to get professional help. Madea also urges her to patch things up with her husband, who Kimberly has been arguing non-stop while he did his best to love her, and they both take this to heart.
• Manhunter: During his "Eureka!" Moment, Graham acknowledges that Dolarhyde must have been abused and states that he pities the child Dolarhyde used to be. However, in the same monologue, Graham states that he feels absolutely no sympathy for Dolarhyde as an adult and states that Dolarhyde is a selfish, utterly-disgusting human being who deserves to die violently.
  Crawford: You feel sorry for him.
  Graham: This started from an abused kid, a battered infant... My heart bleeds for him, as a child. Someone took a kid and manufactured a monster. At the same time, as an adult, he's irredeemable. He butchers whole families to pursue trivial fantasies. As an adult, someone should blow the sick fuck out of his socks.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • The Avengers: When Loki is talking about living in his brother's shadow, Thor points out that sorting out family issues and seeking recompense for imagined slights is a slim excuse for conquering a planet.
  • Guardians of the Galaxy (2014): After Drax's reckless attempt to get revenge on Ronan for the death of his wife and daughter results in a lot of people getting hurt or killed, Rocket chews him out on it, citing that a lot of people have lost loved ones and Drax's reason is no excuse to get more people killed.
  • Captain America: Civil War: Zemo explains his motivations to T'Challa, that his plans is all for revenge for his family who died in the Sokovian conflict. He apologizes for the death of his father in the his plans, even tries to shoot himself in the head. T'Challa acknowledges that they have both consumed by revenge for their dead families. However, he stops him from committing suicide and tells him that he still needs to be alive to pay for his crimes.
  • Spider-Man: Homecoming: When Spider-Man confronts the Vulture after the two of them discover each other's Secret Identity, Vulture defends his actions by telling Spidey he had to start his illegal weapons business to support his family. Spidey responds that, regardless of his reasons, selling illegal weapons to criminals is still wrong.
  • Black Panther: Despite his tragic background, T'Challa points out Killmonger has allowed his hatred for the people that have wronged him to consume him to the point his actions are no different from theirs and will only bring about more suffering, including for the people he wants to help.
  • Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings: Shang-Chi says this to Wenwu. For all that Wenwu claims to care about his family, it doesn't change the fact that he abandoned them when his and Xialing's mother Ying Li died and went back to his criminal empire, especially when they need him the most.
  • Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch is repeatedly called out on her actions to find a version of her children again and finally get to live a happy life after all of her trauma, largely because they vary from merely unethical to murderously insane. Eventually, she realises it herself.
  • Thor: Love and Thunder: Valkyrie briefly notes that Gorr's victims, Jerkass Gods as they might be, are entirely innocent of what happened to Gorr. He got his revenge and then kept on killing.
  • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3: While the Big Bad High Evolutionary is just an evil bastard with a God complex, Peter Quill lampshades the trope by mockingly trying to guess that he's yet another villain with a Freudian Excuse, quipping: "I don't need another speech by some impotent whack-job whose mother didn't love him rationalizing why he needs to conquer the Universe!"
• Monster: When Aileen Wuornos is put on trial for murdering several people, she tries to justify it by revealing her first victim raped her. Nobody is moved since she killed several innocent people, including a man who tried to help her.
• A Nightmare on Elm Street: Freddy Krueger is established as having had a horrifically awful childhood in Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare. His mother (who was a nun) gave birth to him only after being raped repeatedly by one hundred patients at a mental asylum she worked at. His adopted father was a sleazy pimp who beat him up daily (and who Freddy later murdered with a razor blade). He was bullied by kids at school, and gave signs of being a textbook sociopath by killing the classroom hamster, which he never was punished for or got help with. Then he shuffled through life as an adult from one low-paying job to another, until he decided to express his rage at life by killing the kids of his former bullies. That being said, it's made clear that it does not justify the fact that he's a sadistic psychopath who gleefully kills people For the Evulz. When he attempts to use his Freudian Excuse as an attempt to explain that he wasn't evil and circumstances made him a monster, Maggie doesn't go for it.
• The Road Warrior: Papagallo's "The Reason You Suck" Speech zeros in on Max's self-pity.
  Papagallo: What is it with you, huh? What are ya looking for? C'mon, Max, everyone's lookin' for something. You happy out there, are you? Eh? Wandering, one day blurring into another? You're a scavenger, Max. You're a maggot. Do you know that? You're livin' off the corpse of the old world. Tell me your story, Max. C'mon. Tell me your story. What burned you out, huh? Kill one man too many? See too many people die? Lose some family? (Max flashes a Death Glare) Oh, so that's it. You lost some family. That make you something special, does it? Hey? Listen to me. (Max punches him) Do you think you're the only one that's suffered? We've all been through it in here, but we haven't given up. We're still human beings, with dignity. But you, you're out there with the garbage. You're NOTHING!
• Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019): The Big Bad, Sarah Bellows, was locked in the basement of her home by her own family and treated like she didn't exist for her entire life, all because she was born albino. When she discovered pollution from her family's paper mill was poisoning the water supply and killing people, she tried to escape and warn everybody but was caught. Her family had her institutionalized where the attending doctor, her own brother Ephraim Bellows, subjected her to electroshock therapy and isolation therapy in an attempt to get her to assume blame for the deaths of the town's children. She killed herself and died alone and miserable. To top it off, history remembers her as the one who killed the children, as her family told the town. Sarah later became a vengeful ghost who slaughtered her family and haunted the town for a hundred years for hurting her. However, while Sarah's life was undoubtedly tragic - Stella even promises to reveal the truth about her case - Stella points out to her that what she did is inexcusable and that she's no better than her family for hurting innocent people with her stories and letting her rage consume her. Surprisingly, Sarah listens and stops her rampage.
• Scream 3: The Ghostface Killer gives his past rejection by his mother and the rest of the world as the reason for his murderous rampage during his Motive Rant to Sidney. However, Sidney has heard this story too many times from previous killers to care and calls Ghostface out by pointing out that it's just an excuse for their own sadism.
• Sleepy Hollow: Mary Archer/Lady Van Tassel, the true villain of the movie wanted revenge on the Van Tassels and the Van Garretts for seizing her family's land and leaving her and her sister without a home, so she's actually not entirely wrong to be so angry. However, it doesn't justify murdering her own sister, or the servant girl out of pure spite, or the midwife who knew Widow Winship had been pregnant, nor does it excuse her greed, which makes her just as bad as the families she was seeking revenge against, and probably even worse.
• Star Wars: The sequel trilogy bounces around on this a little bit with Kylo Ren. While his Start of Darkness was sympathetic (Luke sensed the darkness growing in his nephew and almost tried to kill him; Luke changed his mind in a second, but it was too late and it drove Kylo to the Dark Side), he spends the rest of the trilogy aggressively denying any attempt at reconciliation. This culminates in the moment in The Last Jedi when he and Rey join forces to defeat Snoke and his guards. After the battle is won, Rey asks him to call off the First Order fleet that is fighting the Resistance. Kylo instead takes command and has them continue doing exactly what they were doing before. At the very end of the movie, Kylo reaches out to Rey telepathically once again, but she cuts the connection, metaphorically slamming the door in his face. By the final episode, he has to find redemption more or less by himself, and even then Redemption Equals Death.
• Surrounded: Mo is sympathetic to Tommy saying he lost many relatives in the past, but points out that didn't justify becoming a criminal and having hurt people.
• The Michael Richards comedy Trial and Error has Richards' character, Richard Rjetti, defending a man for fraud: the defendant was selling "commemorative medals"... which were actually pennies. While most of the film is a silly courtroom comedy, the ending is more serious. Rjetti gives his closing argument, stating that the defendant's life was such that he couldn't not be a con man. His background all but guaranteed that he would not know how to do anything but run scams like this. Rjetti's final lines in his summations: "Does that excuse what he did?" He looks at the jury and says calmly, "That one's up to you." The jury convicts, and Rjetti is perfectly fine with seeing the scumbag defendant go to jail.
• Tucker & Dale vs. Evil: When Dale meets Chad, he is told his tragic backstory: Chad's parents were at the same campsite 20 years ago when killer hillbillies attacked and killed everyone but his mother, who they tortured to insanity, and then he grew up hearing the story from his grandmother. Dale sheepishly admits that while what he went through was awful, Dale and everybody else had nothing to do with his horrendous actions. And it gets worse from there.
  Dale: Okay, first of all. I just wanna say, that I am sorry that your family got massacred. That is awful. Secondly, I didn't have anything to do with that. Okay? I was like six years old at the time.
• Umma: Umma's hard life as an immigrant single mother did not justify her abusing her daughter.
• In Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Cletus justifies his history as a serial killer by telling Eddie about his abusive childhood. By the end of the movie, Cletus confesses that he just wanted Eddie to understand him and be his friend. While Eddie does appear to be sympathetic, Venom on the other hand isn't buying it at all:
  Venom: FUCK THIS GUY!
  [Venom bites off Cletus's head]
• Towards the beginning of A Wrinkle in Time (2018), Meg loses her temper and throws a ball at her arch-nemesis' face. When called out on her behavior, she tries to invoke the fact that her father is still missing as an excuse for her acting out. Her principal tells her that having a missing dad only buys her so much sympathy, especially when he's been gone for four years.

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