History GoneHorriblyRight / LiveActionFilms

* In ''Film/CurseOfThePinkPanther'', Chief Dreyfus, dreading the possibility that his order to get the world's best detective to find Jacques Clouseau will actually lead to the man he hates most in the world being found, hacks the Interpol computer database so it will select that absolute worst detective in the world: Clifton Sleigh, a man who for all means and purposes is Clouseau's American counterpart. The part that went "wrong" is that [[spoiler:Sleigh finds Clouseau -- who made a FaceHeelTurn and got MagicPlasticSurgery to change his face (to a cameo by Creator/RogerMoore) -- but never figures it out.]] The part that went "horribly right" is that Sleigh is an equally destructive bumbler and within five seconds of meeting him, Sleigh accidentally pushes Dreyfus out a window into a fountain three stories below and puts him in the hospital with two broken legs and nearly killed by choking on a goldfish.

* The ''Film/EventHorizon'' was a spaceship created with an [[FasterThanLightTravel experimental FTL drive]] that ''was'' meant to either breach the boundaries of ordinary space-time or just cheat like crazy by turning it into a pretzel. [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace It did exactly that]]: it effectively opened a gateway to what is can best be described as Hell! (Which incidentally made its premise far closer to the game ''Doom'' than the actual movie ''Doom''.) From that point on, things went [[GoneHorriblyWrong very, VERY badly wrong]], instead: good luck actually using it to get to any specific point in normal space-time as-when-where predicted. Or in one piece.

* ''Film/{{Serenity}}'':

* ''Film/TalesFromTheHood2'': In "The Medium", the gangbangers want PhonyPsychic John Lloyd to contact the spirit of dead pimp Cliff Bettis. John succeeds, but perhaps the gangbangers should have pondered the wisdom of contacting the spirit of a man they murdered...

* ''Film/TheWave2008'' is about a popular teacher being assigned a subject (autocracy) that he was not enthusiastic about teaching to students that only chose the subject because he was the teacher. To get his students interested and to show the allure of fascism he stages an elaborate experiment where his class will be a dictatorship with him as its leader. It does not take long before everyone including himself gets much too enthusiastic about the idea.

* ''Film/HereComeTheGirls'': Stanley Snodgrass is one of the most awfully atrocious, accident-prone performers in show business history [[GeorgeJetsonJobSecurity and has been fired from every play he's ever been in and is now utterly unhirable]]. The people who produce the titular ShowWithinAShow (and the police) decide to hire him so he will be the bait for the SerialKiller AtrociousAdmirer of the show's lead actress, who has threatened to kill any actors that get near her. Stanley agrees to be hired, but only if he gets [[UltimateJobSecurity a run-of-the-play contract]] and the killer ([[SpringtimeForHitler as much as the producers hoped he would succeed]]) fails to murder Stanley.

** In ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'', Zemo pits the Avengers against one another to avenge the deaths of his family. [[spoiler:He succeeded, but his actions end up having serious repercussions due to the Avengers no longer being united by the time of [[Film/AvengersInfinityWar Thanos' arrival]], resulting in the heroes losing badly and half of the universe being wiped from existence. Even after [[Film/AvengersEndgame all is undone]], the impact of [[SmallRoleBigImpact that one vendetta]] will still be felt for years to come.]]

** The Death Star was to terrify the galaxy into submission by ''existing'', with Tarkin using it on the politically and culturally important planet of Alderaan times to demonstrate the Empire now had the ability to [[EarthShatteringKaboom destroy a planet]] through its planetary shield and the ''willingness'' to do so on anyone. He succeeds... But when the first Death Star is unexpectedly destroyed, everyone who opposes the Empire is now aware that the Empire will stop at ''nothing'' to subjugate them, motivating them to fight to the death and go directly after the ''second'' Death Star while it's still being built, in the latter case overriding [[BigGood Mon Mothma]]'s moral objections over the Emperor and Darth Vader's presence making it too close to an assassination.

--->''Scientists attempted to combine human and alien DNA. There was only one problem with the experiment.... '''It worked.'''''

* ''Film/TheDarkKnight:'' The Mob gets so scared of Batman, Commissioner Gordon, and Harvey Dent that they hire ComicBook/TheJoker to take Batman down. However, the Joker decides that just killing Batman isn't enough and plots to destroy Gotham City from the inside out and corrupt Dent into a psychotic murderer like himself [[ForTheEvulz for the hell of it]].