In Finding Nemo, Marlin tells Dory, "Look! Something shiny!" Somewhat of a subversion in that he wanted her to come with him, but it effectively distracted her from her insistence that they should go through the big scary crevasse instead of over it and through the clear blue water over the top with all the jellyfish.
In Igor, when Igor's newly created monster disappears:
Brain: Uh, Igor, where did the monster go?
Igor: (looking around worriedly) I don't know, Brain.
Scamper: Might I suggest... (dramatic music)looking behind you!!
(Igor and Brain look, see nothing there, and look back at Scamper.)
Buzz: You're mocking me, aren't you? Woody: Oh, no, no, no no... (points) Buzz, look, an alien! Buzz:(spins) Where?! (Woody proceeds to laugh at Buzz)
Disney Adventuresdid something very similar in one of the April Fools' Day editions. Woody basically shouts to Buzz "Buzz, look! It's the evil Emperor Zurg!", Buzz turns around and shouts "Where?!", and Woody says "April Fools!"
In Bolt, Mittens tries to threaten Bolt into letting her go with a Styrofoam packing peanut (Bolt has become convinced Styrofoam is what made him lose his "powers"). Bolt distracts Mittens long enough to disarm her by looking over her shoulder and saying "...That's a weird place to put a piano."
Up had Russell shouting "Squirrel" when about to be gunned down by several dogs, exploiting the dog's weaknesses about squirrels earlier. The dogs easily fall for the trick. Not only does Russell escape unharmed, but the dogs are so focused on trying to attack the squirrel they ended up smashing into each other and taking themselves out.
In A Bug's Life Francis flies up to P.T. Flea and shouts, "Hey, P.T.! Look! Money!" P.T. instantly turns, and is webbed up by Rosie. This was a little redundant, as it wasn't really much use as a distraction; the trick could have been pulled without the line. But it was damn funny.
Lorax: Did you chop down this tree? Once-ler: Uh, no... Who did it? (gasps) What's that? (The Lorax looks away. The Once-ler drops his axe on Pipsqueak.) I think he did it.
Oliver & Company: Dodger pulls this on Tito so he can pounce on him, starting a fight.
"Hey, Tito, look!"
In Disney's Tarzan, a baby baboon steals some pages from Jane's sketchbook, and she gets the last one back by distracting him with "Oh look, bananas!"
Jane: I can't believe you fell for that one!
In Zootopia, Judy confronts Nick about tricking her into supporting one of his cons, and Nick uses this to distract her.
Judy: I stood up for you, and you lied to me! You liar! Nick: It's called a hustle, sweetheart. And I'm not a liar, he is. (points, runs when Judy turns to look)
In Kung Fu Panda 3. Shifu does this as part of his demonstrating the Dramatic Exit. He points behind Po, who looks behind himself, while Shifu hippy-toesen out of the room, in plain-view of the Furious Five. When Po looks back to see a now-gone Shifu, he is floored at Shifu's capabilities. This becomes a Chekhov's Gun when Po uses the same trick against Kai during the Final Battle.
In An Extremely Goofy Movie, part of the Gammas' plan to cheat during the College X-Games is having Tank distract the spectators from seeing them set it up by shouting "Isn't that Mickey Mouse over there?"
Teen Titans Go! To the Movieszig-zaggs this trope. Slade uses this when he and the Titans first meet, tricking them into looking so he can make his getaway. When they meet again, he tries the trick again. It doesn't work because the Titans actually focus on his mind tricks. Before revealing her true identity, Jade pulls this trick to trap Robin before revealing "her" true intentions for Robin's movie.
The Jungle Book: During the climactic battle with Shere Khan, Mowgli learns that fire is Khan's biggest fear when a tree is struck by lightning and set on fire due to an impending thunderstorm. While the vultures distract Khan by flying around him, Mowgli ties a branch from the burning tree to the tiger's tail. Dizzy, one of the vultures comments "Look behind you, chum", and Khan spins around to see the fire, flips out and tries to put it out, but is unable to, and then flees.
Brother Bear: While travelling through a blasted waste, Koda starts teasing Kenai with thinking that monsters are popping up behind him. The last time, though, Kenai blows off Koda's warning to look behind him right until Denahi's spear nearly impales him.
Films — Live-Action
Top Secret! has a subversion of the second variant: During a train-top battle one of the combatants ends up ducking for a bridge... Only for the east-german soldier to hit the bridge and raze it completely while remaining unfazed.
Hillary tries this on Sergeant Kruger but he's too fast for her.
Marty McFly used this against several generations of Tannens throughout the Back to the Future trilogy. It only failed once, with Griff in 2015. He did turn and look, but his bionic implants automatically block Marty's punch.
For example, in Back to the Future Part II, just as Biff was about to kill Marty, Marty says, "Well, Biff, you're forgetting one thing. WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?" Biff falls for it.
Whenever Marty is required to distract anyone in 2010's Back to the Future: The Game by Telltale, he'll always use this phrase.
In Godmothered, Mackenzie says "Look, there's a unicorn!" to distract Eleanor so that she can stab her with an Epi-Pen.
Jijii from Ichi the Killer manages to disarm and kill Takayama after the latter proclaims "Ichi isn't here to help you, now." and Jijii nonchalantly replies "What do you mean? He's right behind you," then swiftly takes advantage of Takayama nervously looking over his shoulder.
Like pretty much everything else, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure took this to ludicrous extremes: Bill shouted "Look, it's the Goodyear Blimp!" in a Wild West town. They fall for it, of course, but the funnier part is that the heroes are dense enough to try it in the first place.
And in the sequel they're able to fool the Grim Reaper himself by telling him his shoelace is untied, which distracts him long enough for them to "Melvin" him and run for it.
In Hudson Hawk, George Kaplan tried to use this on Eddie (HH's real name). Kaplan: "Good God! What's that?" Hawk: "You don't expect me to fall for that old gag." Kaplan: "Shucks, I guess not." Eddie is then knocked unconscious.
In the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the character of Pike escapes from some none-too-bright vampires by pointing and saying "Look! Air!"
James Bond pulls this off in Casino Royale (2006): While struggling over a knife with one of the bad guys, Bond glances over his shoulder, and the distraction is enough for him to wrest control of the knife and kill the bad guy.
Speed plays a similar beat, with Traven and Payne on top of a speeding subway train. Traven ducks, Payne gets his head knocked off.
Fletch: The title character stumbles on an Angry Guard Dog while snooping around a construction site at night. He distracts the beast by shouting, "Look, defenseless babies!"
Land of the Dead: Thinking that Cholo is about to destroy Fiddler's Green, Kaufman tries to get himself (and millions of dollars in duffel bags) to safety. On his way out a high ranking associate runs into him and starts asking questions about the bags. Kaufman suddenly acts like he's seen a zombie or something, shouts "get down" and when the poor guy ducks, Kaufman shoves him down to the floor and shoots him in the head. And what happens just as Kaufman goes to holster the gun? Why, Riley calls and tells him that Cholo's been captured.
Associate: What's in the bags? Kaufman: Money. Associate: Whose money? Kaufman: Watch out! Get down, quick! [Guy ducks, Kaufman shoves him to the floor and shoots him in the back of the head] Kaufman: Our money.
Used in Dogma where the anti-abortion protesters are distracted, "Holy shit, it's the Pope!".
Total Recall (1990) has a variation where Quaid uses a hologram projector to throw off his enemies. At one point they run into him facing the wrong way and assume they're looking at another hologram. While they look around expecting to find him hiding somewhere else, Quaid turns to face them and gets them by surprise.
Quaid: HAHAHAHA! You think this is the real Quaid? It is! (mows them down)
Done several times in Midnight Run (1988) as a distraction. The last time it doesn't work, only there really is someone behind him.
They Call Me Bruce (1982) parodies the When You Snatch the Pebble scene in Kung Fu (1972) with this. Bruce, challenged to do the same trick by his father, replies that there's a bird hovering over him. His father laughs at the idea that he could fooled by such a simple trick, whereupon said bird promptly poops on his head, enabling Bruce to snatch away the stone. This is a flashback scene, so we then cut to the present where Bruce then pretends to look up in alarm above the man he's facing off with. Despite them being inside a building, it actually works!
During Rebecca's job interview with Luke in Confessions of a Shopaholic, she shouts "What's that behind you?!" to distract him from asking further questions about her knowing Finnish (which, of course, she lied about on her resume).
Beetlejuice: While sitting in the afterlife waiting room with a witch doctor, Betelgeuse says "There goes Elvis! Yo, King!" When the witch doctor turns to look, Betelgeuse snatches his number so he can go next. What makes the gag even funnier is that there are literally millions of dead souls in the waiting room, and Betelgeuse's number that he wants to switch has an absurd number of digits in it.
Just before starting the fight with the Nazi Giant Mook mechanic by the plane, Indy suddenly looks down at the ground and acts as though he's distracted by something he sees there. When the mechanic looks down too, Indy launches a surprise attack, but the mechanic does a No-Sell.
Then the unvoiced variant comes into play when Indy frantically scrambles to get away from the spinning plane propeller. The mook doesn't get the hint and turn around to see what's happening until it's already too late.
The Guns of Navarone: When Brown confronts a German sailor on the small boat, the sailor tries this on him. It only works for a moment, then Brown knifes him.
Up the Creek: After Bob McGraw (Tim Matheson) is caught in a girl's hotel room by her (ex)boyfriend & the boyfriend's sidekick, he uses this. "Look the Goodyear Blimp." They look. "Smart, real smart"
In Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey, Chance managed to retrieve some fish from some bear cubs. However while bragging about his victory, Sassy and Shadow are getting very worried and then Shadow shouts for Chance to look behind him before fleeing. A subversion, because she was actually trying to warn him, as there was a mother bear approaching Chance and was not too happy with Chance for the latter scaring her cubs up a tree. Luckily, Chance managed to escape, although just barely.
The main character of The Invention of Lying, being literally the only person in the world capable of telling a lie, uses this to cheat at roulette in a casino. Specifically, he shouts "Look at that unusual thing!" and everyone in the casino does.
In Murder Ahoy, the villain has disarmed Miss Marple while her friend Mr. Stringer has gone off on an errand. Just as the villain is about to kill her, she suddenly looks past him and she speaks to Mr. Stringer as if he is standing right behind the villain. This is the cue for the villain to turn around and look, but instead of doing so he smugly tells Mrs. Marple that he isn't going to fall for THAT old trick ... whereupon he gets hit over the head by Mr. Stringer, who really IS standing behind him.
Wayne's World. When the camera tries to get a comment from Garth, he says, "I don't really have anything to say right now." He then points to a place behind the camera, saying "What's that?!" The camera swings around, revealing nothing, and then swings back to where Garth is scooting away.
Roger attempts to trick the crazy Saul in The Old Dark House (1932) by pointing at nothing and telling him that Morgan, his supposed guardian, has come to get him. Saul quickly retorts by throwing his knife at him and beating him up with a chair.
During the Traintop Battle in The Wolverine, Logan and a mook have to keep dodging arches using each other as visual cues when to duck or jump. Wolverine eventually tricks the mook into doing the wrong one. Splat.
Mad Max: Fury Road. When told by Furiosa to look behind him, Max pulls one of the Five Wives close and puts a gun to her head before turning to look. It turns out there really is another gang approaching them.
In the short 2014 comedy The Gunfighter, the Narrator gives away everything that's going to happen, including that the Gunfighter's opponent was about to try the old "look behind you" trick.
Tommy Henderson: Come on, Johnny, again with the "look behind you?" What were you going to say was behind him this time?
Johnny Henderson: Errr...nothing.
Narrator: ...Johnny lied. He was going to say "a bear".
Tommy Henderson: A bear, Johnny? In a saloon?
In Canyon Passage, Bragg tries this against Logan just before their fight in the bar starts. Bragg directs a question to the bartender, who is standing behind Logan, expecting Logan to turn so he can hear the reply. Logan starts to turn and, as he does so, Bragg attempts to blindside him with a punch. However, Logan was expecting this and counters with some Grievous Bottley Harm.
Subverted in A Fish Called Wanda. As Otto prepares to shoot Archie, Archie shouts at him to look behind him, which he does—but it isn't a bluff, as Ken is driving a bulldozer straight toward Otto.
Billion Dollar Brain. Harry Palmer joins La Résistance in Latvia when they run a Soviet military truck off the road and loot it. Their leader then pulls a gun and cheerfully explains that he has orders to kill Harry. Harry shouts, "Look out!" Naturally the man laughs at this old trick until the Soviet driver, who has just regained consciousness, shoots him in the back with an automatic rifle.
John Smith: "Look behind you!"? What are you three for three with that? The Girl Next Door: Four for four. But to be fair, three of the four times, there was actually someone behind them.
