History DisproportionateRetribution / Film

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{MonstersInc}}'', Randall, the main antagonist of the movie, antagonizes Sulley and is also a jerk to his former friend, Mike. The reason? The former bested him in their college years enough for him to pull a [[FaceHeelTurn]] and the latter hangs out with Sulley.

* In ''Film/{{Dogma}}'', Loki has just finished killing the {{corrupt corporate executive}}s (finks, to him) that he spent a good 5 minutes ranting at, for nearly unspeakable sins. He offers Ms. Price gum, and tells her she has nothing to fear. He then ''points a gun at her face'', and reminds her that she didn't say "God bless you" when he sneezed. He gets called off, but reminds her twice that she got off lucky.

* In ''Film/ScoobyDoo'', Scooby punches Fred just for flicking him on the nose to get him to stop barking at a cat during the flight to Spooky Island.

** ''Film/{{Scream 1996}}'': There's a woman who sleeps around town with men. This breaks up a marriage and makes a woman abandon her son. The son decides to kill the sleeping-around woman, gets away with it, then decides to kill a whole bunch of OTHER people, half of which seemingly for the hell of it, and then cap off his murder spree by killing his girlfriend, the daughter of the woman sleeping around despite her having absolutely NOTHING to do with her mother's actions.[[note]]This gets even darker and bleaker when plot events in the third film heavily suggest the woman was sleeping around because of unresolved issues from being raped.[[/note]]

** ''Film/{{Scream 4}}'': The main killer wants to replace the survivor out of jealousy and wants to be famous for surviving too. So she kills a bunch of people along with a partner in the same way it happened in the first film, with little differences in order to represent what happens in most movie remakes. Then she planned to kill the original survivor and replace her as the FinalGirl. Out of of all the previous killers, [[NearVillainVictory she almost gets away with it]].

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* ''Film/{{Brazil}}'': Most of the villains are apathetic bureaucrats and {{Punch Clock Villain}}s. The only outright vindictive people are two plumbers who become furious when the hero uses a paperwork loophole to prevent them from entering his home to fix his ducts. The plumbers eventually return with the proper forms and then utterly destroy his home in the process of their "repairs." Of course, the government if after Harry Buttle (...or is it Tuttle?) because the guy fixes air conditioning without caring about the paperwork. As a result, they have unleashed a full-blown campaign to arrest him that includes ''labeling him a terrorist'', surveillance, sting operations '''[[JackBauerInterrogationTechnique and torturing people to death]]'''.

** ''Film/{{Scream 4}}'': Taken UpToEleven when the main killer wants to replace the survivor out of jealousy and wants to be famous for surviving too. So she kills a bunch of people along with a partner in the same way it happened in the first film, with little differences in order to represent what happens in most movie remakes. Then she planned to kill the original survivor and replace her as the FinalGirl. Out of of all the previous killers, [[NearVillainVictory she almost gets away with it]].

[[folder: Film - Animated]]

[[folder: Film - Live Action]]

* While most of the victims of Dawn's [[spoiler:VaginaDentata]] in ''Film/Teeth'' totally deserve what happened to them, Ryan just [[spoiler: lied about his feelings for her in order to get in her pants. A jackass move, yes, but not something worthy of literal castration.]]

* In "Film/LetMeIn" after the main character Owen stands up to his bullies for the first time ever, their response is to torture and attempt to drown him.

* ''Film/TheUninvited2009'': [[spoiler: The ending reveals that Anna, the protagonist, caught her father cheating on her cancer stricken mother with the young caretaker. In a fit of rage, she decides to kill both her father and the caretaker by burning down the house, but causes the deaths of her mother and older sister by accident. It doesn't end there. Anna fools the psychiatrist into thinking that she's cured. Just so she can go back home and "finish what she started." She kills the caretaker and happily goes back to the nut farm, knowing her father is forever broken. And this is all done under the guise of a typical horror film with a {{redherring}}.]]

* ''Film/ChipNDaleRescueRangers2022'': [[WesternAnimation/PeterPan Sweet Pete]] decided to get revenge on being let go from Hollywood by getting other toons in his debt, kidnapping them when they fell behind on payments, then altering them to force them to star in his mockbusters for all time.

-->'''Thor:''' So you take the world I love as recompense for your imagined slights?

-->'''Grand Master:''' He ''interrupted'' me, that's not punishable by death!

* Dr. Sivana's father and brother from ''Film/Shazam2019'' were complete jerks to him for sure, but their jerkishness falls flat of Sivana ''murdering'' them via [[SiblingMurder throwing his brother out a glass window]] and [[{{Patricide}} having his father disemboweled by Greed]]. He even had no problem having the Sins [[BoardToDeath kill the others in the room]], [[MisplacedRetribution even though none of them had wronged him in any way]].

* The department store Santa in ''Film/{{Elf}}'' attempts to kill Buddy for exposing him.
** Miles Finch ''also'' attempts to murder him for mistaking for an ''elf''.

* In ''Film/LifeAt40'', a grown woman threatens a 13-year-old boy with physical violence. The reason? [[spoiler: The worst thing the boy did (and no other examples are given) was that he said the woman's daughter was on his "not hot" list on Facebook. ]]

* ''Film/RobinHood1991'': Mutch is about to have his eyes put out for his second offense of poaching (nobody aside from the king and nobles could hunt deer). Robert Hode (future Robin Hood) steps in to stop this, which ends up getting him outlawed for it.
* In ''Film/RobinHoodMenInTights'', a boy is sentenced to death. The crime?
-->'''Sheriff of Rottingham''': He ''deered'' to kill a king's dare!
** A historically accurate point, as poaching ''was'' a serious crime in the 12th century. After all, the nature of the crime is more than just poaching. By hunting a deer, he was encroaching on the privileges of the nobility. In effect, he was pretending to be a nobleman. For similar reasons, people could be executed for wearing the clothes of a nobleman. Its a matter of social power.

** Bill has the Bride's fiance and family-in-law slaughtered and the pregnant Bride beaten to within an inch of her life by his assassins before trying to finish her off with a bullet to the head. And all this because she "broke his heart" by running off on him upon learning that she was pregnant.

* In ''Film/{{Gunless}}'', Sean claims that all of the eleven killings he committed were justified, and lists the reasons for all of them. However, one of them was his shooting a man he saw beating his dog: although he is at pains to point out that it was really savage beating. However, when his relationship with Jane causes him to question his life choices, this is the first killing that he questions the justness of.

** The cheating is a specific instance, however, it seems that what the killer is punishing him for in general is hubris, which the ancient Greeks at least [[ValuesDissonance considered to be a]] [[Literature/TheOdyssey very grave sin indeed.]]

* The ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'' saga is ''full'' of these. Jigsaw's modus operandi is to kidnap AssholeVictims and put them in death traps that will at best mutilate them if they escape, but most likely kill them in horrible ways. His victims range for murderers and rapists to sleazy photographers and heroin addicts. He's even kidnapped family members of the victims and put them in harm as well, even if they had nothing to do with the victim's asshole behavior. The retribution aimed at Cary Elwes' character in the first movie seems especially extreme: his "crime" was informing terminal patients that they were going to die. [[spoiler: The fact that one of those terminal patients was Jigsaw himself was probably a contributing factor, however.]]

** ''Film/{{Scream 4}}'': Taken UpToEleven when the main killer wants to replace the survivor out of jealousy and wants to be famous for surviving too. So she kills a bunch of people along with a partner in the same way it happened in the first film, with little differences in order to represent what happens in most movie remakes. Then she planned to kill the original survivor and replace her as the FinalGirl. Out of of all the previous killers, [[NearVillainVictory she almost gets away with it.]]