History BatmanGambit / LiveActionFilms

* All of Loki's plans in ''Film/TheAvengers2012''. '''All''' of them.
** He counts on the Avengers' [[DysfunctionJunction instability as a team]] and [[spoiler:the Hulk]] losing control to help his master plan along.
** Finally, Loki's [[spoiler:eventual defeat and return to Asgard]]: He knows that the Avengers would want him to take responsibility for his actions, and Thor would of course want to keep Loki as close as possible.
** There's also an [[{{AlternateCharacterInterpretation}} alternative theory]]. It's a possibility that the Chitauri picked up Loki from the void and coerced him into stealing the Tesseract for them, and then using it to transport their army to Earth -- and that Loki, who didn't like being coerced, played both sides against one another instead. By that idea, his actions in the film would have been calculated to unify the Avengers to the point that he could use them as his own personal wrecking ball against the Chitauri. It would also make the spectacle he put on in Germany much less stupid, and more plausible, and explain why he seemed to be afraid of the leader of the Chitauri, which he probably wouldn't have been if he'd was in a position of power with them.

* Ironically enough, the Joker pulls off one of these after another in ''Film/TheDarkKnight''. The bank heist at the beginning requires every one of his henchman dispatching each other at just the right time, with no slip-ups... even including the last henchman figuring it out at exactly the right time to be standing in just the right spot when the school bus comes crashing through the wall. The escape relies on another example: the school bus joins a line of other school buses, which the Joker knows the police will ignore.
** His escape from prison is a masterful example of this. The Joker pushes Batman's buttons and taunts him until Batman gets angry enough to smash the Joker's head against the one-way glass. He then does the EXACT SAME THING to the guard watching him, causing him to lower his guard and allow the Joker to take him hostage using one of the glass shards from the broken mirror. And then of course he uses his leverage to get the other cops to give him access to a phone. Had Batman not smashed the Joker into the window, or had the glass not splintered in just the right way, or had the guard just left and locked the door, none of that would have worked.
** He has one fail on him, though. His last plot hinges on the civilian ferry seeing the prison ferry as an acceptable sacrifice and/or the prison ferry being ruthless enough to sacrifice the civilian ferry. In the end, the civilian ferry couldn't bring itself to blow up the prisoners, and the prison ferry decided that EvenEvilHasStandards.
* In ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'', Bane's plan hinges on Bruce Wayne and a few other people responding exactly the way he predicts they will every step along the way.
** Perhaps the most audacious example of this is that the inmates of the prison won't tell Bruce that the child who escaped was Talia -- they leave it up to him and he assumes it was Bane. Justified by the fact that the person telling the story thought it was just a legend of the prison, and didn't fully believe it himself.

* ComicBook/ThePunisher manages one in [[Film/ThePunisher2004 his second film]], manipulating the crime lord who had his family killed, taking advantage of main villain's intolerance to lack of loyalty and his unwillingness to accept explanations. [[spoiler:Frankie planted evidence that the crime lord's wife and secretly gay right-hand man were having an affair, leading to the crime boss directly killing the right-hand man and hurling his wife onto a railway track.]]

* In ''Film/{{Watchmen}}'', [[spoiler:Ozymandias]]'s plan could only work assuming that the rest of the Watchmen, especially Jon, were able to be manipulated.

** Somewhat subverted in that [[spoiler: neither Holmes nor Moriarty had counted on Watson arriving in time to intervene for Holmes, when in fact he shows up just as Holmes and Moriarty go plunging over the railing, which sort of makes Holmes' sacrifice look a little poorly thought out.]]

** Alonzo posssibly baits Hoyt into grabbing the shotgun used to kill Roger, and threatening Alonzo. This has the result of getting Jake's prints on the shotgun, in a firing position. Maybe even GSR. All it took was the slight risk of Jake splattering Alonzo's head all over Roger's sofa, but Alonzo is pretty confident in his ability to talk his way out of trouble.
** Smiley and his friends talk Jake into showing them his gun. After he takes out all the bullets, ''then'' they make their intention to kill him known. Also, at the beginning of the film Alonzo asks Jake if he carries a backup, Jake tells him he doesn't. Later in the film, Alonzo probably tells his buddies Jake is only carrying the one weapon, so they know they only have to get the one before they kill him.

* In the film, ''Film/TrainingDay'', part of Alonzo's master plan is to get Jake high on drugs and later use him for cover when he robbed and killed his long-time drug contact. If Jake would have refused to go along with Alonzo after being offered drugs, his entire plan to steal the money would have failed, and he would've at least needed to explain how Hoyt got killed. He also notices that Hoyt has a bad need to impress and uses it for all it's worth.

* In the film, ''Film/TrainingDay'', part of Alonzo's master plan is to get Jake high on drugs and later use him for cover when he robbed and killed his long-time drug contact. If Jake would have refused to go along with Alonzo after being offered drugs, his entire plan to steal the money would have failed. He also notices that Hoyt has a bad need to impress and uses it for all it's worth.

*** Jake happened to save a random girl from an alleyway rape earlier. And she happened to leave her wallet. And Jake happened to take it. And she happened to be Smiley's cousin. If Smiley's friend hadn't checked Jake's pockets before icing him, and they hadn't checked his story, and if the cousin had kept lying about skipping school when Smiley saw through her...

* In the film, ''Film/TrainingDay'', part of Alonzo's master plan [[spoiler: is to get Jake high on drugs and later use him for cover when he robbed and killed his long-time drug contact. If Jake would have refused to go along with Alonzo after being offered drugs, his entire plan to steal the money would have failed.]]

*** Sulu's strategy to draw fire from the ''Enterprise''. His ship is no better equipped to detect the Klingon warship than Kirk's is, but he is able to buy enough time for Spock and [=McCoy=] to rig a cloak-seeking torpedo. Had Chang not taken the bait, he could have continued to dismantle the ''Enterprise'', leaving himself with only one ship to fight instead of two.

* ComicBook/ThePunisher manages one in [[Film/ThePunisher2004 his second film]], manipulating the crime lord who had his family killed. [[spoiler:Frankie planted evidence that the crime lord's wife and secretly gay right-hand man were having an affair, leading to the crime boss directly killing the right-hand man and hurling his wife onto a railway track.]]

* The entire film, ''Film/{{Confessions}}'', is one against [[spoiler:the two students who killed their teacher's daughter.]]

** The series includes a large one by Palpatine/Sidious to get revenge against the Jedi. In doing so, he manipulates virtually every character to make his plan work: first, he (as Sidious) gets the Trade Federation blockading his home planet, knowing the Republic bureaucracy would drag its heels getting the blockade lifted; he gets Padmé to call for a "vote of no-confidence" against the sitting supreme chancellor, to get himself elected. Next, he manipulates multiple commercial and nationalist interests into forming the Confederacy of Independent Systems. He goes back to Padmé, getting her to leave Coruscant "for her safety" after an assassination attempt; then her proxy, gullible Jar-Jar Binks, pushes the Senate to grant him the emergency powers to form the Grand Army, a massive clone army (conveniently ordered by Jedi master Sifo-Dyas on the suggestion of his friend Count Dooku/Darth Tyranus, Palpatine's apprentice). He manipulates Anakin: presenting himself as a fatherly figure, unlike the stern Jedi Order, he makes Anakin likelier to trust his advice; uses his fear of loss to bring him closer, and gets him to kill Tyranus, pushing him closer to TheDarkSide; when the Jedi are about to out him as a Sith, Palpatine turns it to his advantage: by not beating Windu, he plays on Anakin's sympathy and convinces him to "disarm" Windu, making it easier to turn Anakin to the Dark Side. With Anakin ready, Palpatine executes Order 66. He then uses his "new" appearance as evidence of a Jedi plot to take over the Republic, which would justify him ordering the Grand Army to turn on the Jedi.

* ''Film/{{Blitz}}'': Brant pulls a good one on [[spoiler: Weiss]] at the end. After [[spoiler: Weiss is released from prison, Brant knows that Weiss will come after him next because of the [[KicktheSonOfABitch humiliation and persecution that Brant has put him through.]] Brant also knows that the best place for Weiss to do that would be right after Robert's funeral---and that Weiss still has the cop uniform that he stole in order to help in his crimes. So Brant leaves during the funeral, knowing that Weiss is watching and following him, before driving to the same parking garage where the evidence against Weiss was found. He then manages to momentarily shake off Weiss before pulling a bait-and-switch with Nash, who proceeds to the top of the garage, seemingly oblivious to Weiss' presence. Once Weiss corners Nash, Brant disarms him and beats him senseless before killing him with his own gun---or rather, the Blitz's gun, as Weiss was judged innocent. Brant manages to turn Weiss' desire for petty vengeance into the foolproof illusion that [[{{Irony}} Weiss is simply another one of the victims murdered by the very criminal identity that he created.]]]]

** In ''Film/{{Octopussy}}'', Bond forces [[BigBad Kamal Khan]] to bid even higher for the Faberge egg at the Sotheby's auction, suspecting a connection to his fellow agent's murder when a duplicate of said egg was recovered. Having successfully forced Kamal's hand, Bond then makes clear his intent to blackmail Kamal [[ReplacedWithReplica when he switches the real egg with the duplicate]]. Even M, who was shocked at Bond's actions, seems mildly impressed just as Bond departs for India.
*** From the same movie, [[RenegadeRussian General Orlov]] tries to sneak a nuclear warhead into a US Air Force base in West Germany and detonate it, [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident having it look like an accidental detonation of one of the base's own warheads]]. This would make Western Europe push for disarmament and leave them vulnerable for invasion by Orlov's forces.

*** A failed Batman Gambit exists in the conspirators' original plan. They were banking on Kirk getting gun-happy after Chang got Kronos One back in fighting shape, shooting back and destroying Kronos One. What happens instead? [[OutOfCharacterMoment Kirk surrenders in a hasty attempt to de-escalate the situation]]. Chang then has to engage in XanatosSpeedChess to compensate.

** ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'': Data's attempts at lying earlier in the movie are really, really, REALLY poor. This turns out to be a ploy to trick the Borg Queen into thinking he's a terrible liar, so when he later lies convincingly about his change of allegiance, the Borg Queen fails to realize he's playing her.

* ''Franchise/StarWars''

* In ''Film/TheWickerMan1973'', Sgt. Howie arrives at [[TownWithADarkSecret the island of Summerisle]] to [[CallToAdventure solve the mystery]] of a missing child; [[CorruptHick the suspicious nature of the citizens]] convinces him that they're going to [[VirginSacrifice sacrifice the girl]] to [[ReligionOfEvil appease the sun god]]. Unfortunately, TheChase to halt this event is actually [[BaitAndSwitch a trick]], causing him to unwittingly act out some archetypal ritual, and then [[AFeteWorseThanDeath burn him to death]] in the eponymous structure. Why? It turns out Howie was [[ChasteHero saving himself for marriage]], too. Luckily, the girl is saved. [[spoiler: Not that she was in any real danger.]]

Examples of {{Batman Gambit}}s in live-action films.

* Both villain and hero do this in the first ''Film/MissionImpossible'':
** Ethan Hunt does something similar to the Bourne example to clear his name after his team's mission goes horribly wrong, including [[spoiler:actually stealing the information he's accused of stealing]] and finally by staying on the phone much longer than he has to to make sure that IMF headquarters can trace the call and find out where he is. This also gets {{lampshade|Hanging}}d: "He wanted us to know he was in London."
** The villain's entire plan relied on specific people [[spoiler:surviving the trap in Prague and everyone else dying]], the CIA assuming [[spoiler:that only the traitor would survive]], Ethan being able to [[spoiler:escape the CIA and be able to steal the information for Max]], and that Ethan [[spoiler:would trust Claire]]. If any of those things hadn't happened as predicted, the villain's plan would have fallen apart.

Live Action Film examples of BatmanGambit:

* In ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'', every single one of Jigsaw's plans is this, even predicting extremely convoluted and unexpected things.

* ''Film/{{Vertigo}}'''s biggest plot twist reveals that the whole plot is the result of such a gambit. [[spoiler:Gavin predicted Scottie wouldn't be too afraid of heights to ascend to the top of the church, so he wouldn't see Gavin killing his wife and testify it was a suicide.]]

** [[SmugSnake General Koskov]] in ''Film/TheLivingDaylights'' has a lot on his plate: a phony KGB defection, two fake assassination attempts (one carried out by his girlfriend), a couple of kidnappings, a few ''real'' assassinations, and a weapons-for-opium smuggling operation. All of which would have left [=MI6=] looking like idiots, his rival in the Soviet military dead and discredited, his girlfriend StuffedIntoTheFridge and himself very, very rich, if only Bond hadn't realized Koskov's girlfriend wasn't a professional assassin and refused to kill her...

* The entire main plot of ''Film/TheSting'' is this. Had Doyle gotten suspicious at any point, the entire con would have fallen apart. But the lure of potentially gaining millions of dollars through rigged horse betting is too much of a temptation and so he falls for it completely.