History KarmaHoudini / Film

'''Note:''' Before the end of UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode, it was far less common for movies to feature a KarmaHoudini as the first rule of the code was that "The villain must always get his comeuppance by the end of the movie." (This usually applied only to the BigBad, as it would take far too much time showing every single one of the {{Mooks}} getting punished.) This, of course, doesn't mean that [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar villainous Karma Houdinis didn't exist in movies from that time period]]. But they were much more of a rarity until the code was dissolved in TheSixties.

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* ''Film/TwentyOne'': Cole Williams, the brutal casino security chief is the primary antagonist, who not only makes things very difficult for the protagonists but brutally beats caught card counters and steals millions in winnings from one of the characters, and his only penalty is loss of his job due to being made obsolete by computers. At the end of the film he is shown on vacation in Caribbean with his stolen millions.
* ''Film/SeventyOne'': Captain Harris covers up Sergeant Lewis' attempt to murder Gary and their allegiance with the Protestant paramilitaries is not revealed.
** Quinn is a terrorist and he conspires to kill Boyle, the older and less violent IRA leader, and yet he is the only one of the "Provos" to survive the movie; despite Boyle asking Harris to kill him, the Captain allows Quinn to live and makes him an ally. He also lets him know that Boyle wants him dead.
* ''Film/FortyDaysAndFortyNights'': Matt Sullivan (Josh Hartnett's character) is abstaining from sex for Lent. His ex-girlfriend, discovering this, and that there is a bet on about how long he can manage it, goes to his house to attempt to seduce him. Finding him asleep, she [[BlackComedyRape rapes him]]. The ex-girlfriend collects her winnings and walks off into the sunset, leaving Matt having to beg his new girlfriend for forgiveness for 'cheating' on her. [[DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale There is no mention of the ex-girlfriend being punished in any way.]]
* ''Film/ThreeHundred'': The Ephors. We see Leonidas pay them a hefty sack of gold for their counsel against the Persian invasion and they claim their Oracle's prophecy prohibits Leonidas from fighting. This turns out to be a blatant lie as they told him this to sell out Sparta to the Persians for even more gold. As much as they deserve it, we never get to see the rotten old bastards be burned alive for this. Although, considering that what we see them do is part of a story told by Dilios, chances are that they were found out.
* ''Film/AlienResurrection'': Johner and Vriess were involved in the kidnapping of innocent people and delivering them to the military to be used as the hosts for the aliens. They both survive without consequence. Some of the scientists and soldiers themselves who carried out the project also escape.
* ''Film/AloneWithHer'': After some illegal surveillance, a dognapping, and two murders, the film ends with the VillainProtagonist in a new town, picking a new girl to stalk.
* ''Film/AmericanBeauty'': Colonel Fitts murders Lester at the end of the film, but gets no comeuppance.
* ''Film/AmericanDreamz'': Sally strings along her DumbIsGood war veteran boyfriend, William, for popularity in the game, then cheats on him with Martin, the host (who incidentally has been subtly fixing things on her behalf). [[spoiler:William and Martin both die]], but she doesn't seem very affected by this, and she winds up becoming the new host of ''[[ShowWithinAShow American Dreamz]]'' in the epilogue.
* ''Film/AnchormanTheLegendOfRonBurgundy'':
** The Public News Anchor never got punished for pushing Veronica into the bear pit.
** The motorcycle driver who punted Ron's dog Baxter over a bridge because Ron absentmindedly threw a burrito at him was never arrested for it.
** Veronica herself also got away with sabotaging the teleprompter, which caused Ron to say the f word on air and got him fired but she was never fired for sabotaging the teleprompter while Ron got full blame.
* ''Film/{{Annie|1982}}'': At the end of the 1982 version, Miss Hannigan is not punished for either her role in Annie's kidnapping, or the years she spent abusing the children at her orphanage. Instead of being arrested, she is EasilyForgiven and allowed to attend Annie's celebration party despite all the mean things she did to her. To be fair, Miss Hannigan does make a HeelFaceTurn and try to stop her brother Rooster from [[{{EvenEvilHasStandards}} killing]] Annie, and it is implied that she will now be much nicer to the children at her orphanage.
* ''Film/ArlingtonRoad'': Oliver Lang orchestrates the bombing of the FBI headquarters and frames his neighbour for it, the death of said neighbor and his girlfriend and the kidnapping of his neighbor's son and walks away unpunished to presumably repeat the process with another government building in a different city. It is also heavily implied he did something very similar before the start of the film's storyline.
* ''Theatre/ArsenicAndOldLace'': Dr. Einstein appears to get away scot free at the end of the movie, escaping in the confusion as his pal Jonathan gets arrested. He's an IneffectualSympatheticVillain so it's not as glaring as some of the other examples.
* ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'': [[spoiler:The movie ends with Thanos snapping his fingers, annihilating half of all life in the universe, and escaping to some unknown planet. GG, Thanos wins.]]
* ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'': It's debatable whether or not Needles was punished for "chicken-daring" Marty into submitting the illegal fax which got him fired in the future 2015.
* ''Film/BadTeacher'': [[spoiler: Elizabeth decides against getting a boob job in the end, but she still (presumably) keeps her job and gets away with her various crimes.]]
* ''Film/TheBadLieutenantPortOfCallNewOrleans'': Throughout the film, Terrence [=McDonagh=] steals drugs from his station's property room, bets money he doesn't have on college sports, robs people of their drugs, commits acts of PoliceBrutality against the elderly, extorts a young woman into having sex with him, extorts a college quarterback into going along with a point-shaving scheme, tips a drug kingpin off about a drug bust, and loses the key witness to a quintuple homicide. At the end of the film, he arranges for a group of gangsters who were trying to kill him to be killed by a different group of gangsters, gets the excessive force complaints against him dismissed, wins $10,000 betting on a single football game, gets his hands on a huge bag of uncut heroin, solves the quintuple homicide by FramingTheGuiltyParty, and is promoted to captain.
* ''Literature/TheBadSeed'': Averted in the film version, after being played straight in the book and play (and in the 1985 MadeForTVMovie), thanks to a [[UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode Hays Code]]-inspired coda in which she gets struck by a [[BoltOfDivineRetribution random bolt of lightning]].
* ''Film/TheBadlanders'': It's a Western remake of ''Film/TheAsphaltJungle'', in which the now-sympathetic heisters get away with it completely.
* ''Film/{{Barbarella}}'': The Black Queen is saved by the angel in the end, despite her actions as a tyrant and her repeated attempts to kill Barbarella and the angel both. Because, as Pygar explains, angels have no memories.
* The original ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' film series (1989-1997):
** Most of the arch-villains do get what's coming to them [[FateWorseThanDeath (which isn't always necessarily death)]], but the {{Mooks}} have a nasty habit of getting away. This started in the [[Film/Batman1989 1989 film]], when ComicBook/TheJoker's black-hatted, black-jacketed henchmen [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere get the heck out of there]] when the Batplane starts strafing what's left of the Joker's parade. We never see any of those guys again, except for the two or three who later show up in the Joker's getaway helicopter (and it can be implied those last ones just flew off after their boss fell off the ladder to his death). Sure, those goons were [[TheFamilyForTheWholeFamily pretty incompetent]] (throughout the entire film they manage to kill only one person, a cop who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time), but they did [[FriendToPsychos freely associate themselves with a mass-murderer]] and laugh along with him through all the atrocities, so it's definitely troubling news that they managed to escape. Commissioner Gordon does assure everyone in the final scene that "our police have rounded up all of the Joker's men", but... how would Gordon know exactly how many men the Joker employed?
** When the Batboat storms the Penguin's underground base in ''Film/BatmanReturns'', the Poodle Lady, the Thin Clown, and several other members of the Red Triangle Gang [[KnowWhenToFoldEm decide there's no point in fighting anymore, and quietly slip away]]. And it's very likely they made good their escape, since the police never showed up and Batman was too busy settling his scores with the Penguin and Catwoman to bother with anyone else. So apparently the gang members never faced justice for multiple counts of kidnapping, conspiracy to commit murder, arson, grand theft automotive, general bullying, and - as Bruce Wayne puts it - [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking "millions in property damage."]]
** In ''Film/BatmanForever'', [[GangOfHats those weird, neon-colored street toughs]] Dick Grayson picks a fight with in the alley immediately scatter when Batman shows up, and make good their escape because [[ItMakesSenseInContext Dick vents all his anger on Batman]] and the scene ends with Batman taking him home. The depressing implication is that those punks never got punished for gleefully attempting to rob [[MoralEventHorizon (and possibly rape)]] that teenaged girl.
** ''Film/BatmanAndRobin'' has Spike, who races Barbara Wilson on motorcycles for some prize money; he has his homeboys help him cheat to win and [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain casually directs some sexist remarks at Barbara]]. We never do learn what becomes of Spike... but since Dick Grayson had to drop out of the race to save Barbara from falling to her death from a bridge and all the other riders had wiped out earlier, it's almost certain that Spike not only never got his comeuppance for nearly causing two people to die due to his reckless antics, but won the race and pocketed the prize money.
* In ''Film/BetterLivingThroughChemistry'', Doug Varney gets away with stealing drugs from his pharmacy, and engineering Jack's murder, chiefly due to dumb luck and a better suspect dropping dead on his doorstep.
* The titular character of ''Film/TheBigLebowski'' doesn't get in any legal trouble for all of the suffering he causes. His plans to get [[MsFanservice his trophy wife Bunny]] killed, frame the Dude for botching a hand-off that was already fake, and make off with a ton of money all ultimately don't work, but the law is protecting him due to Lebowski being a VillainWithGoodPublicity.
* By the end of ''Film/BigGame'', [[GreaterScopeVillain the mastermind behind the terrorist plot]] gets off scot-free, with everyone who knew about his involvement dead and no-one suspecting him of anything.
* In ''Film/{{Bill}}'', most of the villains literally walk away at the end, despite having been responsible for several deaths. Although the film is a silly comedy, it is sticking to historical-accuracy enough not to kill off characters who weren't killed in real life and so the BigBad King Philip II of Spain obviously has to live. However his (fictional) henchmen, even his psychotic, torture-loving [[TheDragon dragon]] Lope, just walk away with him and they all go home to Spain.
* ''Film/BlackChristmas1974'': Billy, the killer from the original, gets away with murdering 7 people and driving Jess insane. [[Film/BlackChristmas2006 The remake]] however has him killed at the end.
* ''Film/BladeRunner2049'': Although Niander Wallace's plans do get foiled and he loses his right-hand woman at the end of the movie, he himself is left largely untouched, and nothing's stopping him from opposing Deckard and the rebelling Replicants again at a later date.
* ''Film/BlameItOnRio'': Valerie Harper's character. Granted, what her husband Michael Caine did was wrong, as were the actions of her sort-of-niece, Michelle Johnson. They shouldn't have been together, her age aside. But Harper started all this by cheating on Caine with Johnson's father, then keeping him at arm's length, always being angry with him. Yet she gets to glare, lecture, and sneer at everybody at the end. Caine screwed up by screwing the underage Johnson--given. But the film made it clear her sudden distance and anger based on her own wrong was what left him such a mess that he responded to the girl's seduction. Then again, Series/{{Rhoda}} was another KarmaHoudini.
* In ''Film/BloodyBirthday'' while two of the three killer kids Curtis and Steven are arrested for their parts in the murders, the third kid Debbie escapes with her mother pretending to have been innocent and assuming a new identity, we see before the end credits that she has killed a mechanic and will likely continue her murder spree.
* ''Theatre/BornYesterday'': Harry Brock, a CorruptCorporateExecutive, comes to Washington, D.C. to bribe some congressmen into passing a law that would give him and his cartel monopoly control of the international scrap iron market (quite a big deal so soon after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII). When his fiancee and her new reporter boyfriend scheme to expose him, he [[DomesticAbuse slaps her around]] and threatens to have them both killed, with the fiancee mentioning to the reporter that it wouldn't be the first time he'd done it, either. Although the fiancee does eventually manage to make him back off by holding for ransom the assets he's signed over to her over the years as part of a tax dodge, he is never brought to account for the bribery, the assault, the murder he apparently committed, or any of the other crimes he has committed and she could testify about.
* ''Film/CabinByTheLake'' and its sequel both end with the VillainProtagonist serial killer Stanley tracked down and stopped from completing his murder spree, but he stages his death and escapes in each film to continue doing it somewhere else. The sequel is especially bad about this: the FilmWithinAFilm based on his crimes has become a major success with a sequel on the way, and even though he hasn't profited from it financially his crimes have become renowned the world over.
* ''Film/{{Chinatown}}'': Noah Cross, the villain. Not only is he responsible for the murder of Hollis Mulwray, he also raped his own daughter, and at the end of the movie he's acquired custody of his daughter/granddaughter, and gets off completely scot-free. And Jake Gittes can do absolutely nothing about it.
* ''Film/ConAir'': Most of the convicts get their comeuppance, except for Garland Greene, a notorious serial killer who targets included children and is possibly the most depraved criminal on the plane.
* ''Film/{{Chicago}}'': Both Roxie and Velma get away with murder and become singing sensations. Billy lies to his client and abuses the justice system with no negative consequences to himself. And Mama Morton gets off scot-free for selling out both girls to each other. The whole point of the play/film is making a satire of a social system that allows such things to happen. On the DVD commentary, the director mentions some fans who theorize that the last scene of Roxie and Velma making a hit show together is just another one of Roxie's fantasies like most of the other musical numbers, and they're really condemned to lives of complete poverty and obscurity. He more or less gives it [[AscendedFanon approval]].
* ''Theatre/TheChildrensHour'': Nothing ever happens to Mary Tilford at the end for spreading lies that ended in her teachers losing their school, becoming nationally mocked, caused Karen's fiance to leave her, and resulted in Martha killing herself; as far as the audience knows, she doesn't even get the TV taken out of her room. At least her grandmother has the decency to develop what appears to be a guilt-induced, permanent half-swoon (and maybe even the vapors), but Mary seems to have no consequences at all.
* ''Film/{{Chronicle}}'': Richard Detmer, Andrew's alcoholic and abusive father. All we see from him throughout the film is nothing but [[AbusiveParents him berating and attacking]] [[KickTheDog his own son]]. Even the death of his wife doesn't cover the sheer volume of bad karma he had accumulated, ESPECIALLY during his final scene with him and Andrew in the hospital, where he blames his son for his wife's death. [[CaughtOnTape Not that it wasn't being recorded by a camera the police installed]], [[BullyingADragon or that Andrew]] [[SelfMadeOrphan didn't then try to kill him]] by having him fall from the hospital building (Matt caught him because he had just arrived and thought Andrew had simply lost his mind), he just disappears from the rest of the movie. There's actually enough evidence to imply that making it out alive [[KarmaHoudiniWarranty is the only thing he's really getting away with]].
* ''Film/CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind'': Though given there's not much anyone could have done about it, the aliens kidnap people, holding them for 40 years, returning them unaged. They incite a psychological issue in people, destroying families (if Roy Neary's is a standard example). They terrify Barry's mother, abducting her son right out of her arms. All this and they get to leave with nary a complaining word from us humans.
* ''Film/CrimesAndMisdemeanors'' is about a murderer who escapes any kind of punishment for his crime.
* ''Film/ElCrimenDelPadreAmaro'': Amaro, the eponymous character is a young Catholic priest who, upon arriving to a small town, first successfully blackmails the director of a local newspaper into withdrawing an article that exposed the friendship of the local priest with a notorious drug lord, provokes the firing of the author of said article and his girlfriend Amelia breaking up with him. He turns his father (who helped him in his investigation) into a pariah. It gets worse: Amaro then seduces Amelia (despite her being just a teenager) and impregnates her. Fearing for his career's future and his reputation among townspeople he takes Amelia to an illegal abortion clinic, where due to a malpractice she starts bleeding uncontrollably and dies in his arms. Despite this, with the help of a woman he convinces the ENTIRE town that it was Amelia's former boyfriend who knocked her up and he was there trying to save her. The final scene has Amaro presiding over Amelia's funeral.
* ''Film/TheDarkKnightSaga'':
** ''Film/TheDarkKnight'': Officer Anna Ramirez, who is revealed to be a dirty cop and is responsible for driving Rachel Dawes to the place of her death, is later confronted over this by Dawes's lover Harvey Dent a.k.a. Two-Face and forced to participate in the threatening of Commissioner Gordon's family. Following this, Two-Face flips his infamous coin to decide whether she lives or dies. She lives, gets a non-fatal but still brutal PistolWhipping from Two-Face, and [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse her fate is left unresolved for the rest of the movie]] leaving most viewers to think she got off scot free. It's heavily implied, however, that Anna's guilt for what she has done will haunt her for the rest of her life.
** ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'': Jonathan Crane, AKA Scarecrow is among the inmates Bane frees from Blackgate. He conducts several {{Kangaroo Court}}s and then vanishes. While it's possible the police caught him again or he was killed in the ensuing battle between the police and Bane's men, his ultimate fate is never revealed.
* ''Film/DearWhitePeople'': Kurt assaults Lionel in front of witnesses, but isn't expelled or prosecuted (the fact that [[{{Nepotism}} his father is the university president]] helps with the latter, but the former is left unexplained).
* ''Film/DeathWish'': The three punks whose actions send Paul Kersey into his RoaringRampageOfRevenge (referred to in the credits as "Freak #1", "Freak #2" and "Spraycan") are never brought to justice or killed. Kersey kills some street scum, but never those three. They're just street toughs; they'll probably end up dead by one of their own. This is averted in the four sequels where, if you're a villain, you're not leaving the movie alive.
* In ''Film/{{Deewaar}}'', a mine owner kidnaps the family of a union leader and threatens to kill them to force an end to a strike, and never gets any comeuppance.
* In "Devil Times Five (1974)" the five psychotic murderous children get away with murdering 8 people and it's implied that they will travel to different locations so they can kill more people.
* ''Film/DickieRobertsFormerChildStar'': The title character leaves work during his shift valet parking, takes one of his customers' cars, and pisses off another driver who threatens him and writes down the license plate (Dickie isn't worried, since it's not his car and the windows are tinted). It turns out the car belongs to Rob Reiner, who gets attacked by the driver and needs a new kidney. Dickie's agent ends up donating a kidney in exchange for giving Dickie an audition. And Dickie ends up getting the part. Rob Reiner never even finds out that Dickie was responsible for what happened to him.
* ''Film/DonnieDarko'': The last time we see Jim Cunningham, he is crying in his house alone, with nobody aware of the kind of person he is. Everything else that happened as a result of Donnie's actions at the end of the film was for the better. However, the film's website carries his obituary, stating that he shot himself on a golf course... after disposing of all of his illicit materials, leaving the world unaware of his secrets. Also, the two psychotic bullies(it's heavily implied they were about to rape Donnie's girlfriend.) suffer no repercussions whatsoever.
* In ''Film/DraculaUntold'', Caligula, who's implied to be a far greater evil than Vlad, escapes and runs free in the world.
* ''Film/EightLeggedFreaks'': Wade, the corrupt mayor of the town. Apart from his general sleaziness, he also locks most of the townspeople in the mall, resulting in several of them being killed when it is overrun by the giant spiders, but he survives the film, the only comeuppance he receives being the loss of his beloved mall.
* ''Film/{{Entrapment}}'': The master thieves played by Catherine Zeta-Jones and Creator/SeanConnery pulled off a grand heist and escaped justice with the help of a crooked FBI agent.
* ''Film/{{Fallen}}'': Azazel goes out of his way to kill innocents to torture Hobbes. After Hobbes finds a way to kill Azazel via noble sacrifice, Azazel escapes in the body of a cat.
* ''Film/TheFateOfTheFurious'': [[spoiler: Cipher escaped in the climax and was never seen since. Deckard and Owen, the main villains of the previous films, were spared from punishment for their past crimes after joining Dom's crew.]]
* ''Film/TheFlightOfThePhoenix1965'': Sgt. Watson twice cowardly avoids going with his superior on potentially dangerous missions (first by faking a leg injury, then by bluntly refusing). When he finds Cpt. Harris nearly dead from dehydration after returning from one of said missions, he keeps it secret from the others, apparently hoping Harris will die before the others notice him. Then he makes sneering, mocking remarks after Harris dies. All he gets for this is a punch to the face by Cpt. Towns.
* ''Film/{{Following}}'': "Cobb" from Creator/ChristopherNolan's early film. He kills, manipulates others into setting themselves up as his fall guys, and disappears. The police don't even know he exists.
* ''Film/AFoolThereWas'': TheVamp doesn't just break up her lover's marriage, she utterly destroys him, leaving him a hollow-eyed, alcoholic wreck. She even goes back, after she's bled him dry and left him for a new lover, and succeeds in ruining his reconciliation with his wife, ForTheEvulz. Not a goddamn thing happens to her.
* ''Film/FreeStateOfJones'': All of the Confederate officers and slave owners get off scot-free, having only to swear loyalty to the United States. Their former nemesis Lieutenant Barbour later becomes a judge, using this office to get former slaves into coerced "apprenticeships" that amount to slavery in all but name. Newt manages to buy Moses' son out of his.
* ''Film/FunnyGames'': It uses this trope deliberately to subvert your expectations of horror films. The film involves the psychological and physical torture of a husband, wife and son by two sadistic young men. The two young men kill every member of the family one by one and receive no comeuppance. In one scene, the wife actually kills one of the psychos, but the other prevents the death of his partner by taking a remote control and rewinding the film to a point before his death happens. In the end, the dominant killer smirks triumphantly at the camera as he prepares to kill again.
* ''Film/TheGarbagePailKidsMovie'': The kids go to a bar called [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin The Toughest Bar In The World]] where they punch out several guys [[ForTheEvulz for no apparent reason]]. And do they get punished for assaulting people? No. [[ItMakesSenseInContext A patron compliments them for having guts and offers free drinks for everyone at the bar.]]
* ''Franchise/GIJoe'':
** ''Film/GIJoeTheRiseOfCobra'': At the end, both Destro and Cobra Commander have been captured but Zartan, [[DragonTheirFeet who wasn't around for the final battle]] and who got away with [[KickTheDog killing Cover Girl]], slipped into the White House [[PresidentEvil and is now the President of the United States]]. [[SequelHook This will lead into]] [[Film/GIJoeRetaliation the sequel]].
** ''Film/GIJoeRetaliation'': Though his plan is foiled, Cobra Commander manages to escape justice. Also Storm Shado, since he aided the Joes in ruining Cobra Commander's schemes and helping avenge his and Snake Eyes' master's murder, is allowed to walk away by Snake Eyes even though he murdered several Joes and innocent people in the first movie.
* ''Film/{{Goodfellas}}'': Though he's one of the better (well, less worse) characters by far, Henry Hill is still a vicious criminal, yet one of the few characters in the movie not to get killed or go to jail in the end; instead he gets to live the rest of his days comfortably under witness protection.
* ''Film/GoodNeighbors'': Louise gets away with her murder seemingly with no one the wiser.
* ''Film/GroundhogDay'': Phil Connors initially appears to be one of these; the time loop enables him to do whatever he wants whenever he wants to whoever he wants without ever having to face the consequences. Unfortunately for him, it eventually becomes apparent that the time loop ''is'' his punishment. [[DespairEventHorizon Right around the point he starts repeatedly killing himself, in fact]]. The movie then becomes about him seeking redemption for his past behavior.
* ''Film/HalloweenNight'': The killer, Chris Vale, kills several people throughout the movie and afterward, tricks the female protagonist into shooting the main character (her boyfriend) by putting his mask and clothes on him while she was blindfolded and escapes. He's last seen hitchhiking and driving off into the sunset after being picked up by a hipster, who at the sight of his horribly burned body, only says that he must've had a good Halloween.
* ''Film/HappyGilmore'': The scene where Creator/BenStiller's [[DeletedScene sadistic orderly character gets thrown through a window by Happy was cut out of the final film for no apparent reason, leaving viewers who don't watch the special edition DVD with the impression that he gets to continue using his charges as slave labor.]] This is even more jarring when juxtaposed with the fate of the movie's BigBad, a JerkJock type who gets the crap beaten out of him by a mob of Happy's fans, led by the gargantuan Mr. Larson.
* ''Film/HenryPortraitOfASerialKiller'': The eponymous VillainProtagonist Henry. He commits multiple murders along with his partner Otis and gets away with his crimes. His partner Otis isn't so lucky; he is killed by Henry for trying to rape Becky. Later, Henry kills Becky while fleeing the city.
* ''Film/{{Hitch}}'': Sara commits straight-up libel by wrecking Hitch's business and publically humiliating his client just because she thinks he helped a jerk sleep with her best friend. The only comeupance she gets is Hitch yelling at her in front of a crowd at a speed-dating event, and he later takes her back. After she screwed him more and more and even made him beg.
* ''Film/TheHobbit'': Averted. In the theatrical version, Alfrid seemingly escapes with gold he stole and is never seen again. In the extended edition, it's revealed that he suffers a KarmicDeath which in turn saves Gandalf from being killed by a troll.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Home}}'': Captain Smek is arguably responsible for everything bad that happens in this film, but other than losing the captaincy, he's never punished.
* ''Film/HomeAlone3'': Subverted when three out of four of the terrorists are captured by the police at the end, but it seems like their leader got away. However, it turns out he was just hiding inside a mini-igloo in the backyard when the [[PollyWantsAMicrophone snarly parrot]] exposes him.
* ''Film/HorribleBosses'':
** Julia is the ''only one'' of the bosses who didn't lose her job and she also didn't get arrested for sexually harrassing Dale. She pretty much gets away with anything she does and nobody seems to judge her for it.
** Nick, Dale and Kurt themselves have acted as criminals as they broke into their bosses' houses wanting them killed and even arranged a FakedKidnapping to get their money back (which they initially planned to be a real kidnapping until Rex found out and decided to play along). They never actually get in trouble with the police and are somehow acknowledge as heroes despite being responsible for setting up the situation in the first place (although considering that the second movie ends with them becoming subordinates of Dave Harken...)
** [[spoiler:In the climax of the second film, Motherfucker Jones abandons Nick Dale and Kurt and steals the ransom money for himself. He got away scott free.]]
* ''Film/HouseOfGames'': The heroine gets away with murder.
* ''Film/TheIdesOfMarch'': Presidential candidate, Governor Mike Morris, presents himself to the world as an honest, family man who will clean up dirty politics. Instead, he's a ManipulativeBastard who had a sexual affair with an Intern, [[DrivenToSuicide driving her to commit suicide]] after he abandoned her. Not only does he not answer for this, he's able to [[EvilMentor convinces the one guy]] who could expose him that politics is dirty and he needs to be just as dirty to survive. The guy [[FaceHeelTurn continues to help]] Mike Morris become President.
* ''Film/InAWorld...'': Dani cheats on her husband Moe. It's unclear how far she got, but we do know that it involved a roughly twenty-minute makeout session and an attempt to "put the tip in." Her cuckolded husband leaves with as much dignity as he can muster, and she finds herself wracked with guilt for most of the movie. By the end of the movie he takes her back. She must have given him a heartfelt apology, a grand romantic gesture, or made a serious promise to work on their relationship issues so that this sort of philandering will never happen again, right? Wrong. She does exactly nothing but mope, her sister records some of the moping and plays it for Moe, and this is enough for him to not only take her back no-questions-asked, but ''he'' performs a grand romantic gesture for ''her.''
* ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom''. Lao Che tries to cheat and murder Indiana Jones but gets away scot free.
* ''Film/InspectorGadget'': Dr. Claw averts this when he's arrested for murdering Dr. Artemus Bradford and attempting twice to murder John Brown, and it's stated in one novelization that he was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment and (as mentioned in the sequel) served with a bill of attainder. He does play this straight in the second film, though; he tries to rob the entire Federal Reserve in Riverton, and what's the only punishment he gets? Gadget, G2, and Penny run him out of town at the climax of the film, with Claw swearing his usual threat: "I'll get you next time, Gadget... ''next time!''"
* ''Film/TheInternational'': Even though the [[CorruptCorporateExecutive CEO]] of the corrupt International Bank of Business and Credit is killed, the protagonists lose their only lead with his death and are unable to bring down the corrupt bank. In the credits, it's implied that the bank continues to run successfully despite the death of its CEO.
* ''Film/IntoTheWoods'':
** Cinderella's Stepmother never gets her comeuppance for abusing her stepdaughter. While this is an issue in the original Grimm fairy tale, [[Theatre/IntoTheWoods the original stage show]] rectifies this by implying the Royal family all starved to death in the woods. Here, their fate goes unmentioned.
** Jack ultimately stole from the Giantess after she took care of him and killed her husband.
* ''Film/{{Irreversible}}'': Le Tenia. After his vicious rape and assault of Alex, Marcus and Pierre track him down to Club Rectum but they get into a fight with another man whom they mistake for Le Tenia while the real Le Tenia looks on with a smile several feet away.
* ''Film/IShotJesseJames'': While [[UsefulNotes/JesseJames the eponymous outlaw]] certainly [[ForegoneConclusion doesn't escape punishment]], his older brother Frank James does. Despite being as big a criminal as his brother Jesse, Frank manages to [[spoiler: be acquitted of wrongdoing by a Colorado court and sets up the circumstances for Robert Ford's death]].
* ''Film/ItsAWonderfulLife'': Mr. Potter, despite going against the {{Media Watchdog}}s' [[UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode production code at the time]] (which stated that a villain ''must'' get his comeuppance, to make it clear that he should not be seen as a good role model for young, impressionable viewers). How it got through then is anyone's guess, but in case it didn't the makers had a scene ready where he has a heart attack after failing to ruin George.
* ''Film/JackRyanShadowRecruit'': The GreaterScopeVillain, Minister Sorokin, leaves the film unscathed while the BigBad Cherevin is executed by the former.
* ''Film/JamesBond'':
** ''Film/OnHerMajestysSecretService'': Irma Bunt, who kills Tracy, James Bond's wife. She and Blofeld provide the film with its DiabolusExMachina. And yet, she's never seen (or even mentioned) in any of the other films in the series. This is because the actress playing her, Isle Steppat, died mere months after the film was released.
** ''Film/QuantumOfSolace'': Mr. White escapes from custody after the attempt on M's life, evades Bond at the Quantum meeting in Austria, and thereafter simply disappears. Many people thought he would be dealt with in [[{{Film/Skyfall}} the next movie]], but he wasn't. However, this becomes a delayed form of comeuppance in ''Film/{{Spectre}}'', where James discovers him in a panic room, having hid from Blofeld's assassins, suffering from thallium poisoning and looking incredibly disheveled and distraught. He tells James how miserable he's become before telling him to protect his daughter and then taking his own life.
* ''Film/{{Jawbreaker}}'': Marcie Fox gets away with her involvement of killing Liz Purr, while her friend Courtney [[LaserGuidedKarma suffers the consequences at the hands of her schoolmates]].
* ''Film/JeepersCreepers2'': Jonny locks the other kids out of the bus, leaving them to fall prey to the Creeper, but ultimately ends up being one of only 5 confirmed survivors.
* ''Film/{{Jumanji}}'': Billy Jessup and his {{Gang Of Bullies}} were never punished for beating up Alan and giving him a bloody lip at the start of the film.
* ''Film/JupiterAscending'': Titus Abrasax faces no consequences for his actions in the movie other than some mild damage to his clipper, although Caine does try to assure Jupiter that he'll receive his comeuppance via bureaucracy.
* In ''Film/JurassicPark'', Dr. Lewis Dodgson, the Biosyn geneticist who paid Nedry to steal dinosaur embryos, thus making the park [[GoneHorriblyWrong go horribly wrong]] before it even opens, is never mentioned again after the single scene he's in. His only real punishment is not getting anything for the hefty initial fee he paid Nedry.
** John Hammond, as lovable as he is, was responsible for much of what happened in the films. His stubborn refusal to kill the raptors, even after they killed a guard, results in Arnold's and Muldoon's deaths. His refusal to give Nedry a raise causes Nedry's betrayal and the incident at the park. And it was he who sent a group to Isla Sorna to sabotage the hunting party, resulting in their deaths.
** Nick van Owen in ''Film/{{The Lost World|Jurassic Park}}'', who caused all the deaths in the movie (mostly innocent people) and wound up making [=InGen=] order the T-Rex and her kid to be brought to San Diego ([[AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever which goes as well as you'd expect]]). Doesn't get any comeuppance - he simply disappears from the film's final act.
** In ''Film/JurassicWorld'', while Hoskins gets ripped to shreds by one of the raptors he sought to weaponize, his colleague Henry Wu, who deliberately engineered the I. rex to be as dangerous as possible and cause a major incident, gets out of the island alive with his genetically enhanced dinosaur embryos.
* ''Film/LAConfidential'': Edmund Exley's father was murdered by a man whose identity was never discovered. Exley gave him the name Rollo Tomasi and subsequently applied the name to anyone who pulls a [[KarmaHoudini Karma Houdini]]. Jack Vincennes invokes the name in order to trick the film's antagonist into unknowingly tipping his hand to Exley.
* ''Film/LastActionHero'': {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d when the bad guy kills a random person in the street and realises that there are no police to stop him. For an actual example, the robber at the beginning, who admittedly lets Daniel free himself and leaves in exasperation when it turns out the house has almost nothing worth stealing.
* ''Film/TheLastHorrorMovie'': Max, the SerialKiller protagonist of the . Not only does he get away with his murders; within the reality of the story, he also follows you home and kills you after you finish watching the movie.
* ''Film/TheLastStarfighter'': The villain Xur ends up fleeing in an escape pod and is never seen again.
* ''Film/{{Limitless}}'': Eddie steals money and drugs from a dead guy, does drugs, encourages others to do drugs, directly causes the deaths of ''at least'' three people, cheats on his girlfriend, has sex with his landlord's wife, and in general does some somewhat shady business. And yet, Eddie's almost certainly going to be president one day.
* ''Film/LittleShopOfHorrors'': The Frank Oz version features Seymour, who ends up getting away with killing two people through inaction and gets a happy ending. The sympathetic nature of the character, and the fact that Seymour is not as directly responsible for the deaths as in [[Theatre/LittleShopOfHorrors the original play]], makes it much more acceptable than many of the examples on this page. The pre-ExecutiveMeddling ending used the play's TheBadGuyWins version of the trope, where Audrey II was the KarmaHoudini.
* ''Film/LittleSweetheart'': For a nine year old who tricked the police, blackmailed and robbed two people, got one killed by the police to shut him up, tried to kill her only friend and blackmailed her brother, Thelma gets ice cream.
* ''Film/LoveAndBullets'': Subverted with Joe Bomposa. When Detective Charlie Congers is taken off the case for leaving a trail of bodies in Switzerland and letting a key witness get killed, it looks as though Bomposa's going to get off scot free. Then Congers takes matters into his own hands, first by using a JackBauerInterrogationTechnique on his accountant, Louis Monk, while Monk's in the pool and then by dropping off a casket supposedly containing the remains of the key witness while disguised as a hearse driver. Unknown to Bomposa and his men, the casket is booby-trapped, and everyone within its immediate vicinity is blown to bits as Congers drives away.
* ''Film/{{Machete}}'':
** Vaughn Jackson's lieutenant manages to survive the raid on their compound to continue gunning down illegal Mexican immigrants. Albeit, this allows him to deliver a KarmicDeath to corrupt senator John [=McLaughlin=]. Hey, lesser of two evils, anyone?
** Osiris, the hitman responsible for Padre's death, gets away without a scratch as well. He reappears in Film/MacheteKills, having done a HeelFaceTurn, joining both the church and joining up with the hero's group. He gets a RedemptionEqualsDeath moment as well.
* ''Film/MacheteKills'': [[Creator/MelGibson Luther Voz]], despite being defeated in a sword fight by Machete and having his face badly burned and his plans foiled, [[VillainExitStageLeft manages to escape to space]], freezing Luz in carbonite in the process.
* ''Film/MadDogMorgan'': The HangingJudge Cobham is never punished for his abuse of power, and gets to dismember Morgan's corpse for macabre souvenirs.
* ''Film/{{Maleficent}}'': Unlike her [[Disney/SleepingBeauty Disney counterpart]] who had a {{Karmic Death}}, this version of Maleficent never got punished for cursing Aurora. Justified as she was {{Easily Forgiven}} by everyone except Stefan.
* ''Film/ManOfSteel'': Glen Woodburn, the {{Jerkass}} who sold Lois out to the military and declared that Superman should surrender to Zod because it is his fault the Kryptonians came to Earth, [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse disappears]] for the rest of the movie.
* ''Film/{{Marcus}}'': The eponymous character of the 2006 horror film gets away with his murders.
* ''Film/TheMask'': Peggy Brandt wins Stanley Ipkiss' trust, makes him open up to her - and then instantly betrays him to Dorian Tyrell for a reward. Her only justification was "I just can't afford to lose my condo - you know how hard it is to find a decent apartment in this city!" Dorian gets flushed later on, along with all his goons... but Peggy just walks out the door with a suitcase of money, and is never heard from again. The scene where Peggy got her comeuppance was [[DeletedScene cut from the final version]]. She was thrown into a printing press by Dorian and the audience sees her ground up and turned into newspaper print. The scene was actually cut because the test audience found it too violent and disturbing compared to the tone of the rest of the film. It was made available on the DVD release of the film.
** Stanley also got away with robbing the bank and many other things he did while he was The Mask because Dorian was blamed for all these things.
* ''Film/MatchPoint'': The protagonist had an affair and his wife never found out about it. When his mistress got in the way of his happiness, he murdered her, their unborn child, and her elderly neighbor (to make it look like a robbery gone bad) in cold blood and escaped justice. This ties into the main theme of the movie-luck is very, very important.
* ''Film/MaxPayne'': Nicole Horne seems to get away unscathed despite her part in the plot, and after abandoning B.B. to his fate. However, the bonus scene after the ending credits imply that Nicole is Max Payne and Mona Sax's next target.
* ''Film/MeanGirls'': Janis, who, despite influencing and encouraging Cady to join the Plastics specifically to damage Regina, gets zero comeuppance when she reveals it to the entire crowd of girls following the revelation of the Burn Book. In fact, she gets ''applauded'' for it! Cady, in the meantime, is treated as a bitch by everyone because of what she's done, even though Janis admitted that she was the mastermind behind all of it.
* ''Film/{{Mikey}}'': despite murdering 8 people (including a five year old girl) and torturing and killing several animals, the title character doesn't get his comeuppance at the end of the film. Instead he runs off and fakes his death so people won't come looking for him, and assumes a new identity and a new foster family. [[BannedInChina This is actually the reason why you won't be able to find this film in the UK.]]
* ''Film/MinisFirstTime'': Mini, the VillainProtagonist. She seduces her stepfather, manipulates him into helping her drive her mother insane and kill her, makes him think he's being blackmailed, tricks him into beating a neighbor into a coma, and gets him thrown in jail for it. Not only does she get away with everything looking like an innocent victim; in the end, she gets voted valedictorian by her high school class, despite being a C student.
* ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'': The French people taunt King Arthur and his knights with offensive insults and catapult animals (and a trojan bunny) at them. And they have reached the Holy Grail at the Castle of Aaaarrrggghhh (however you spell that) before King Arthur and Sir Bedevere do, and prevent them from entering, thus directly defying {{God}}, whom King Arthur made clear was the one who set them on their quest. If only King Arthur hadn't killed that famous historian and gotten arrested for it at the end, he and his knights could have brought justice upon them. The frustrating part is, if the grail does give eternal life as it does in Indiana Jones, these guys won't even burn in hell until [[Franchise/{{Terminator}} the machines take over the world.]] On the other hand, if they happened to have the ''wrong'' Grail (one of them did mention earlier that they already had ''one'') and the writer of the Grail's real location had a different castle in mind, they'd most likely age to dust faster than you can say "[[IronicEcho How do you like them apples, you silly French kniggets?]]".
* ''Film/TheMuppets'': Subverted by Tex Richman. He makes various uses of sabotage, acts like a complete jerk to The Muppets, causes property damage to The Muppet Theatre to win the deed... and then gets a bowling ball to the head just before the closing credits. It's implied following his subsequent HeelFaceTurn that the bowling ball managed to virtually lobotomize him to the point where he doesn't even remember ''that his head had previously been injured'', giving a new meaning to the sub-headline describing what explicitly ''isn't'' the motivation for his change of heart. It's also implied that being hit by the bowling ball fixed the problem he had with not being able to laugh. It was mostly cut, but that was largely behind his hatred of the Muppets, not being able to laugh at them as a youth and being mocked for it.
** The Muppets are karma houdinis for kidnapping Jack Black and forcing them to be their guest. The Muppets don't get arrested, as the audience thinks it's all part of the show, and Jack Black never even gets untied.
* Mac from ''Film/MrDeeds''. He humiliates Deeds on multiple occasions and blows Babe's cover just because he can. NEVER gets any sort of punishment.
* ''Film/MysticRiver'': Jimmy had previous murdered a person who got him in jail. He paid the man's family $500 per month in his stead and avoided justice for it. Later, he coerces his former friend Dave into confessing to the murder of his daughter. He promises to let Dave go if he confesses. Dave is innocent of the charge but confesses anyway to save his life. [[FalseReassurance Jimmy kills him anyway]]. For the rest of the movie, he does not get his comeuppance for the two murders. When he discovers that he killed an innocent man out of hastiness to get the culprit, he is deeply remorseful, but [[LadyMacBeth his wife convinces him that he did what he felt was right at the time]]. It is possible he may be brought to justice later, but it's never resolved in the story. Sean makes what appears to be a threatening gesture to Jimmy in the final scene, which implies that there is still plenty more conflict to come.
* ''Film/NaturalBornKillers'': The eponymous characters escape jail, kill a television personality (not that we mind...) on live TV, and walk off into the distance. Sure, an alternate ending showed that a fellow escapee kills them, but the ending of the movie as is implies that two infamous spree killers manage to live HappilyEverAfter.
* ''Film/{{Neighbors|2014}}'':
** Mac, egged on by Kelly, breaks the fraternity's water pipe, flooding their basement and causing thousands of dollars of property damage. The Radners would be looking at an extremely serious fine or even jail time, but luckily for them the cops never find out, likely because Delta Psi themselves don't want the police snooping around their house.
** Teddy would also be facing several serious charges for his air bag prank, including theft, breaking & entering and battery, but Mac never bothers to report it because PoliceAreUseless.
** Kelly, who launched a firework directly into a police cruiser.
* ''Film/NickOfTime'': At the end, the BigBad behind the assassination plot gets away.
* ''Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet'': Defied. If it wasn't for neglect of police procedure resulting in a guilty man going free, the career of one of the most notorious villains in slasher film history may stopped before it truly began. When Freddy Krueger was a ''human'' child murderer, police searched his home and found the bodies of several of his victims. Here's the thing: they had never obtained a warrant or any other document giving them a legal right to make the search, [[OffOnATechnicality so the charges were dropped, and he went free]]. This led to Freddy being [[VigilanteExecution killed by an angry lynch mob]] and him making a DealWithTheDevil, turning him into a demonic monster that would be responsible for countless more deaths, all of which would have been avoided if the police had done their jobs right.
** Or maybe, just maybe the judicial system should abort the OffOnATechnicality rule when the accussed is undeniably guilty of the rape and mass-murder of kids.
* ''Film/NoCountryForOldMen'': Anton Chigurh has gotten his money and murdered countless people, and just when he escapes... he gets blindsided, his arm so broken, the bone protrudes from the skin. But he still manages to escape.
* ''Film/OceansEleven'': The gang from this movie and its sequels, outside of a brief spot in jail in the second film, never see any real retribution for their crimes. However, that's more attributable to {{Rule of Cool}} than anything.
* ''Film/OddGirlOut'': Nikki. At the end Vanessa has a shouting match with Stacy and declares that she has "nothing that I want" which prompts the rest of the students to applaud her. Nikki however is the far worse of the bullies in the movie and started the bullying but by the end she never gets her comeuppance. It is implied that the bully clique disbands so that takes care of Tiffany's karma (she'll go back to being a wannabe) but Nikki appears to get away scot-free. She won't even have to see Vanessa again since they just graduated.
* ''Film/AnOfficerAndAGentleman'': Lynette [[TheBabyTrap fakes being pregnant]] in hopes of marrying Sid, a Navy Aviator in training. When Sid quits the program to marry her, she dumps him, leading him to commit suicide. Yet at the end of the movie, her worst fate is to cheer on her friend, who's being carried off in the arms of another aviator.
** The guilt of what she's done adds on to that too.
* ''Film/{{Oldboy 2003}}'': The villain, Lee Woo-Jin, kills himself at the end of the movie, but not out of guilt for having Oh Dae-Su kidnapped and imprisoned for 15 years, hypnotically manipulating Oh Dae-Su and his daughter Mi-Do into falling in love, killing Oh Dae-Su's wife and best friend (and framing Oh Dae-Su for his wife's death), and many more acts of bastardy--no, it's just that, having exacted revenge from Oh Dae-Su for spreading a rumor that Lee Woo-Jin had been having sex with his sister--which he had been, by the way]], he's got no real reason to live anymore. To say that his death isn't particularly satisfying is an understatement.
* ''Film/TheOtherGuys'': A rare comedic example (and [[AuthorTract political commentary)]]. BigBad Pamela Boardman (indirectly) drives the entire plot. In the end, she gets a federal bailout for being too big to fail, while her [[TheDragon Dragon]] and MiddleManagementMook both end up going to jail.
* ''Film/TheParentTrap'': In both versions of the film, the parents lied to their daughters for most of their lives, and had their friends and relatives lie to them too, about the existence of each other. Their father and mother moved to separate parts of the country (separate countries in the remake, as in the original novel) and selfishly hoarded the child they had custody of, all so they wouldn't have to see or hear from one another. For that matter, if the girls hadn't learned about each other on their own, it was made clear the parents would've gone on lying. Yet the parents don't receive any kind of punishment for the objectification of their children, and instead they remarry and the family is united.
* ''Film/{{Paulie}}'': The family comedy has the titular parrot getting abducted by a criminal named Benny and forced to commit crimes for him. When one robbery goes wrong, Paulie is caught while Benny abandons him and gets away clean.
* ''Film/PayItForward'': As far as we know the two bullies are not punished for murdering Trevor.
* ''Film/PerfectHarmony'': Paul's general assholery tips over into assaulting Marc and then Taylor while wearing a KKK outfit, beating the latter so badly that Taylor is confined to a bed. True, Paul doesn't get to take Taylor's place singing lead at graduation, but he receives no real punishment, and no one even finds out what he did.
** Shelby also took part in terrorizing Marc so badly he had to be sent home, and likewise gets no karmic justice for it.
* ''Film/PerfectStranger'': Halle Berry's character turns out to have murdered at least three people and successfully framed one of the murders on an innocent man, getting away with it all in the end. Whether this character gets her comeuppance later off screen is left open to interpretation.
* ''Film/ThePhantomOfTheOpera1962'': Lord Ambrose D'Arcy is a total {{Jerkass}} who stole the music of poor composer Professor Petrie (who later would become the Phantom) and claimed it as his own. D'Arcy never receives any punishment for his crimes. The closest thing to a comeuppance he gets is a fright when he takes the Phantom's mask off and sees his disfigured face.
* ''Film/PhoneBooth'': Stu survives the ordeal and reconnects with his wife, but the Caller himself escapes in the end after killing several people. He inconspicuously visits a medicated Stu just before leaving, threatening to kill him if he doesn't remain a newly upstanding man, and even tells him ''he doesn't have to thank him'' for everything he did for Stu. He takes his dissassembled sniper rifle with him, hinting he'll do all of it again somewhere else.
* ''Film/PickupOnSouthStreet'': Richard Widmark is a pickpocket who accidentally steals a wallet containing [[MacGuffin microfilm]] that a gang of DirtyCommunists are smuggling out of the country. When the cops pull him in, he tries to goad one into hitting him in order to get the man suspended. When they offer him immunity for the film, he decides to sell it back to the spies instead. When the girl from whom he stole the film (who turns out to be a MinionWithAnFInEvil) comes to get it back, he alternates between seducing her and [[ValuesDissonance slapping her around]]. Even when the commies murder his best friend in cold blood, he's still willing to sell the film to them, which would have gotten him killed, had the girl not knocked him out and taken it to the cops. And what's his comeuppance for being such an unrepentant louse? He gets the girl and rides off into the sunset scott-free...but not before dropping by the police station to rub the head cop's nose in it.
* ''Franchise/ThePinkPanther'': The [[Film/ThePinkPanther1963 original film]] ends with the good guy (Clouseau) stuck in prison after being falsely accused of stealing the eponymous diamond. The actual culprits - including [[TheUnfairSex Clouseau's adulterous wife]] - get to drive off into the sunset, laughing. The culprits- Sir Charles Lytton, his nephew, Clouseau's now ex-wife, and others- do turn up in some of the sequels...and get away every single time, the smug bastards. And the reason they get off scot-free? The princess who owns the Pink Panther knows that Lytton tried to steal it, but [[DracoInLeatherPants she doesn't want him to go to jail]], so ''she herself'' frames Clouseau at the last possible moment!
%%* ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'': Barbossa in the [[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanOnStrangerTides fourth movie]]. Not so much in the [[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl first]].
* ''Film/ThePlayer'': Hollywood studio executive Griffin Mill murders an unsuccessful screenwriter, then steals his girlfriend. He corrupts an artistic film into a simple, conformist, LowestCommonDenominator movie for the sake of profit. He abandons one of the few virtuous characters in the movie, a character who put her faith in Griffin, allowing her to be fired, and leaves her sobbing in the middle of the street (with a broken heel), because he'd rather be with his wife in his big house. Yes, the wife is the writer's girlfriend, now heavily pregnant with Griffin's child.
* Bodhi in ''Film/PointBreak1991''. While [[BolivianArmyEnding his final fate is left ambiguous]], Utah still lets him go anyway.
* ''Film/PresidentsDay2010'': Nothing happens to the teacher who sexually harassed Joanna and had her arrested when she fought back. He's a backstory character and never even shows up in the film proper.
* ''Presumed Innocent'': Sabitch's decision to not turn in his wife for Carolyn's murder means that she'll get away scot free. Subverted in the sequel novel ''Innocent'' which involves an investigation into her death.
* Another subversion with ''Film/PrimalFear'': The injustice of Aaron Stampler escaping the law for the things he's done is dealt with in the sequel novels. ''Show of Evil'' has him FakingTheDead while ''Reign in Hell'' gives him a pyrrhic death, though the book then ends with him getting a PyrrhicVictory.
* ''Film/TheProposition'': Nothing bad happens to Eden Fletcher, one of the most horrifying {{Smug Snake}}s in all of film. This is a man who had a mentally disabled 14-year old whipped to death. Made even worse considering the sympathetic Captain Stanley is the one who the Burns Gang takes revenge on for the death of Mike Burns.
* ''Film/ThePurge'': By the rules of The Purge, anyone who commits a crime during the 12 hours will become exactly this. Unless someone takes advantage of the Purge to commit a crime against ''them''.
* ''Film/RepoTheGeneticOpera'': The Largo kids, Luigi, Pavi, and Amber, despite being a SerialKiller, a rapist, and a general huge bitch respectively, actually end up coming out of the movie ''better off'' than they were before, as their father, the BigBad, dies, and they take control of his MegaCorp. This may be acceptable because, as vile as they are [[BlackComedy they're the comic relief]].
* ''Film/ReservoirDogs'': Subverted with Mr. Pink. Earlier, he shot a bunch of cops during the robbery and evades the violent fall-out between the other gangsters by hiding in a corner, then appears to escape the movie unharmed with the satchel of diamonds. Listen closely to the last scene - it's very faint, but according to [[WordOfGod Quentin Tarantino]], Pink is shouting at the cops who shot and arrested him. Averted in all of the endings of [[VideoGame/ReservoirDogs the video game]] (Psycho: Gets killed, Neutral: Gets arrested, Professional: Gets away but he accidentally spills the diamonds.)
* ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'': Riff-Raff and Magenta. Magenta makes meals out of ''[[ImAHumanitarian people]]'' and Riff-Raff kills three people, two of them completely innocent, and they end up being ''praised'' by TheMentor for it!
* In ''Film/{{ROTOR}}'', nearly everyone who directly contributed to the [[CrushKillDestroy killer robot]] going berserk escapes without repercussions. The only people who suffer are innocent bystanders and the two most competent and noble scientists.
* ''{{Franchise/Saw}}:''
** John Kramer A.K.A The Jigsaw Killer, had the goal of making his victims accountable for their misdeeds through putting them in life threatening situations that required them to mutilate themselves in order to survive the traps they get put in. Yes, the games Jigsaw makes have the purpose of preventing his victims (or subjects as he calls them) from becoming karma houdinis.
** Ironically, John Kramer become a karma houdini himself as he has murdered people and has crippled and traumatized others through his games and traps yet he is never brought to trial or convicted for his crimes. Justified as he is a very manipulative man who has baffled the police countless times and has figured out numerous ways to outsmart them and lire them into his games. The police did arrest him in Saw II but this was all part of his plan to get Eric Matthews to play his game and he does get beaten up very badly when Eric found out that Kramer had kidnapped Eric's teenage son, Daniel and placed him into a house filled with nerve gas. Saw III is the film where Karma finally gets Kramer as he was killed by Jeff Denlon but this was also a test that locked Denlon in the room he was in.
** Subverted with Mark Hoffman as he has murdered many innocent people include several police and FBI agents, made several games and traps that were similar to Kramer's but were more sinister and cruel,framed Peter Straham for the crimes, hosted a jigsaw game in public, and even murdered Kramer's wife Jill. The ending of the final film seemed as if Hoffman was going to get way with all of his crimes but in the end, Lawrence Gordon managed to outsmart Hoffman and lock Hoffman in the bathroom from the first film and leave him there to die.
* ''Film/{{Scarface 1983}}'': The EvilVersusEvil slant, with Tony Montana as ALighterShadeOfBlack, true. But the evil-er villain, Alejandro Sosa, has Tony and the rest of his allies killed with a bunch of hired thugs and an assassin (the latter from InTheBack), not even giving Tony the chance to lose in a climactic fight between the two of them. In the [[VideoGame/ScarfaceTheWorldIsYours video game remake]] Tony survives the assassination attempt, kills the assassin like a punk, and eventually makes his way to Bolivia to ice Sosa personally.
* ''Film/SecondhandLions'': This happens and is lampshaded in the flashback backstory. After being thwarted by Uncle Hubb for a second time, the evil Sheikh doesn't come after him again...because he gets distracted by finding oil and becoming one of the richest men in the world. As the lead character puts it: "The bad guy gets filthy rich? What the heck kind of story ends that way?"
* ''Film/SecretWindow'': The film version. After Mort murders his ex-wife and her new husband, he succesfully disposes of the bodies. He continues to live in the town while the locals are terrified of him and gets away with his crimes because the police can't prove anything without solid evidence, but the sherrif makes it pretty clear that he damn well knows what Mort did.
* ''Film/SerialMom'': Beverly Sutphin, the protagonist commits seven murders over the course of the movie. When she is arrested and put on trial, she wins the case and gets off scot-free! And then promptly murders again, for someone in the courtroom is wearing white after Labor Day!
* ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'': Double subverted in TheFilmOfTheBook. At first, Count Olaf brags to the audience how he was legally wedded to an unwilling teenage girl before their very eyes. Then, we see the paper burst into flames, then hear that he is being sent to trial and a "what if?" scenario presents him being forced to endure all he put the children through. All is happy, right? Sadly, Lemony Snickett then narrates that what ''really'' happened was that Olaf escaped and is still out there. In the book series, Count Olaf is eventually killed. But it took thirteen books....
* ''Film/SherlockHolmesAGameOfShadows'': Professor James Moriarty's [[TheDragon right hand man]] Former Colonel Sebastian Moran escapes after killing the assassin who failed to kill Germany's Prime Minister during a peace summit. He will probably come back in the next movie.
* ''Film/AShockToTheSystem'': During the course of the film, Creator/MichaelCaine's VillainProtagonist pushes a hobo in front of an oncoming train, coldbloodedly murders his wife, seduces and drugs a coworker to use her as an alibi, blows up his BadBoss (and an InnocentBystander), and has a jolly good time doing it. In the end, he seduces the same coworker again to get her to turn over the only evidence implicating him, [[PutOnABus puts her on a bus]], gets promoted to vice president of his company, and, in the final scene, murders a member of the board of directors for his job (and his corner office).
* ''Film/TheSilenceOfTheLambs'': Hannibal Lecter at the end of ''Hannibal'', what with getting away at the end of the movie and actually living happily ever after with Clarice in the book.
** In the movie version, he still escapes, even though he has to chop off his hand to do so. When Anthony Hopkins was asked where he believes the villain is, he thought likely some tropical island someplace that he had no intention of ever leaving.
* ''Film/SilentNightDeadlyNight'': The original film begins with a criminal in a Santa suit robbing a store, nonchalantly killing the clerk, and later attacking Billy's parents, killing them in front of him (shooting his father, and slitting his mother's throat after trying to rape her). This, coupled [[OrphanageOfFear with other factors]], leads to Billy and his brother, Ricky, both going insane, and as far as we know, the Santa killer was never caught.
* ''Film/SinCity'': Senator Roark escapes unharmed, although his legacy has been destroyed with Junior's death at Hartigan's hands. Subverted in the sequel when Nancy kills Roark.
* ''Film/TheSkeletonKey'': In New Orleans in the 1930s, a voodoo priest and his wife tired of being servants. They used their voodoo to [[BodySnatcher switch bodies]] with their masters' two young children, who, "caught" performing a strange ritual on their young masters, were promptly hanged. Approximately 60 years later they commit GrandTheftMe on their (Caucasian) caretaker and lawyer; at the end of the film their old bodies - with the young people now trapped inside - appear to be paralyzed and about to be taken to an institution while their new bodies get to inherit their "employers" property and assets. The kicker is that they used the caretaker's ignorance of voodoo to perform the soul-switching spell on herself (the lawyer was "turned" before they hired the caretaker). Their only punishment is that, once again, they fail to get proper black bodies because the local black population also practices voodoo and they'd quickly figure out what was going on.
* ''Film/{{Spotlight}}'': Cardinal Law covers up ninety different PedophilePriest cases, and gets promoted after the scandal is revealed.
* ''Film/StarTrekGenerations'': Its been pointed out that due to the way the Nexus works (time has no meaning inside of it thus allowing you to live perpetually in perfect bliss), the Soran that destroyed Veridian and killed hundreds of millions of people in order to get into it is actually still in there as we see with the afterimage of Guinan. All Picard and Kirk did was technically kill [[TimeyWimeyBall someone else named Soran.]] In other words, he got absolutely everything he wanted, and will do so for the rest of eternity.
* ''Film/SugarHill'': In the 1974 zombie film, the eponymous character had caused several horrifying deaths of a criminal ring with sadistic satisfaction using mostly voodoo dolls and zombies. To top it off, she pays off her DealWithTheDevil with a woman, implying the woman used as payment is taken to Hell and ''raped''. And all of this as "justice" for her lover being killed.
* ''Film/{{Super 8}}'': 'Cooper' never did much, just killed 3 people at the least and stole a bunch of other shit. After it becomes apparent that he's....technically the good guy in this situation, he's very easily forgiven.
* ''Film/{{Swordfish}}'': Covert operative Gabriel Sheer and his associate Ginger (or whatever their real names were) fake their own deaths and get away rich, evading justice. There is an alternate ending where they get away, only to discover that Stanley stole all of the money electronically, leaving them with nothing. They aren't really all that upset about it.
* ''Film/SwordOfTheAssassin'': The apparent BigBad, Empress Thai Hau, isn't killed despite several people being out to get her. In fact, at the end of the movie, the protagonist has killed most of the people plotting against her, and delivered to her a document that was the greatest threat to her rule. The only punishment she receives is a mild talking to, which considering she ordered the execution of both his family as well as his love interest's is incredibly mild.
* ''Film/TheTailorOfPanama'': The spy who manipulates the protagonist used the cover of starting a war to become an eccentric millionaire. In the novel, the habitually lying tailor whom he used as a 'source' to ignite said war between the US and much of Latin America, is unable to stop the war. Hollywood attempted to tone down the Karma Houdini-ness by lowering the amount of terrible consequences which happen due to the tailor's wild story spinning to secret agent Osnard, but still comes off as a [[MoralEventHorizon dog-raping]] SmugSnake. It takes awhile however, to realise just what he was doing to get his money, as both Osnard and Brosnan are so AffablyEvil you have to let it sink in that they've just started a war which will cause just as many deaths as the Drug War, all for $20 million and some additional assets. And he accomplished all this while blacklisted and without any resources! If there's ever a sequel, he has nowhere to go but up! (now there's an interesting dual role to fix the Houdini...Brosnan-Bond on the trail of Osnard.)
* ''Film/TheTalentedMrRipley'': VillainProtagonist Tom Ripley killed some people to assume a new identity and enrich himself thoroughly. In the sequels, he killed to protect his new life, and sometimes as favors for others. He never faced justice.
* ''Film/{{The Thomas Crown Affair|1968}}'': In both versions of the movie (1968 and [[Film/TheThomasCrownAffair1999 1999]]), the eponymous [[EccentricMillionaire Eccentric Billionaire]] gets away scot-free with his art thievery. In the remake, the woman assigned to tracking him down [[HighHeelFaceTurn runs off with him as well]].
* ''Film/ThorRagnarok'': Despite her HeelFaceTurn, Valkyrie never receives any real comeuppance for selling Thor (and no telling how many others) into slavery. And how many "Dougs" did the Hulk kill in the arena?
* ''Film/ATimeToKill'': The Ku Klux Klan commit kidnapping, murder, arson among other things, but only two of them get arrested at the end of the movie. The Grand Dragon does get killed during a public rally.
* ''Film/{{Titanic 1997}}'' Subverted. Cal survives the sinking of the titular ship and receives no justice for his abuse of Rose and attempted murder of Jack. However, Rose states in the epilogue that Cal committed suicide twenty years later when he is utterly ruined by the Great Depression, which could be seen as very-delayed justice if the Heart of the Ocean could've saved his fortune had Rose not accidentally stolen it.
* ''Film/TopGun'': Iceman was responsible for Goose's death, and yet it is Maverick who faces a board of inquiry instead of him. Thankfully, he's not an IdiotHoudini, as he at least recognizes how serious the fallout is and feels sorry for pushing Maverick dangerously close to the DespairEventHorizon.
* ''Film/TragedyGirls'': Not only do Sadie and [=McKayla=] get away with their killing spree, they get the fame and recognition they've been wanting the whole movie, with no one the wiser to their true nature.
* ''Film/{{Transcendence}}'': Bree has committed terrorist acts, orchestrated multiple murders, kidnaps Max and threatens to kill him if Will doesn't kill himself-she doesn't get so much as a wrist-slap as far as the movie tells us.
* ''Film/TrickRTreat'':
** [[HumanoidAbomination Sam]] is never stopped from [[DisproportionateRetribution tormenting and killing violators of Halloween tradition]].
** The [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent werewolf ladies]] get away with their ritualistic murder of a bunch of guys.
** The parents of the children of the Schoolbus Massacre never get their comeuppance, even though they paid a bus driver to kill their kids because the parents couldn't handle raising mentally unstable children. Only the bus driver gets attacked by the ghosts of the children.
* ''Film/TroubleInParadise'': The protagonists are crooks and don't get caught. At the time. this was a violation of UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode and caused the film to be withdrawn from circulation and was not seen again until 1968.
* ''Film/{{Troy}}'': While Prince Paris dies in the story of Troy he gets off scot free here. He steals King Menelaus' wife Helen starting a war that causes the death of thousands including his brother and the sack of Troy. He watches most of it from the sidelines and in the end gets away after killing Achilles.
* ''Film/TwelveAngryMen'': The real killer. Well, at least as far as we know, given that we never actually see him, and his fate isn't within the scope of the movie.
* ''Film/TheUsualSuspects'': Keyser Soze alias Verbal Kint simply walks away and drives off with Kobayashi.
* ''Film/{{Vertigo}}'': Gavin Elster. In some countries, a final scene was tacked on mentioning that he'd been arrested.
* ''Film/WallStreet'': Gordon Gekko, an outright villain in the original, ''did'' get his comeuppance at the end of the first movie. To the tune of over a decade in jail. In the second movie, he's released, and seems to be making amends for being such a {{Jerkass}}...until he abruptly betrays everyone who was trying to give him a second chance, mostly his neglected and jaded (thanks to him no less) daughter. So after putting the other main characters through emotional (and economic) hell, the last 5 minutes of the movie decide to see him get his family back and inexplicably end with everyone happy and content.
%%* ''Film/TheWorldsEnd'': Both the Network and Gary, in different ways.
* ''Film/XMenFilmSeries''
** ''Film/XMenTheLastStand'': Magneto is last seen, supposedly broken, sitting in a San Francisco park playing chess. Presumably during the confusion at the end of the battle of Alcatraz he managed to slip away, instead of going back to prison to pay for all the death and mayhem he caused. The end of the movie implies his depowering won't even be permanent, making this even more of an example. However, his elderly self in ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'' is shown to be a more heroic character, so something big enough must've happened to him or his ego that between that film and ''Film/TheWolverine'', he may have been seeking ways to make amends for his past sins.
** ''Film/XMenFirstClass'': About half of the Hellfire Club get off scot-free in the end. William Stryker Sr. also faces no consequences for unlawful actions (keeping Emma Frost in a secret prison) and the unethical and horribly unwise decision to have both the Soviets and the Americans bombard the Cuban shore to get rid of mutants despite one of their own human agents being located there (both actions are things that even John [=McCone=], who was a certified jerk, called him out on).
*** In the sequel, Emma, Azazel, Riptide, and Angel Salvadore all fall victim to a BusCrash.
** ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'': Nixon and his cabinet were perfectly happy for Trask to build an army of robots capable of genocide. The worst they get is a bit of a scare from Magneto's attack. Yes, they changed their mind, but they went along with a guy planning genocide right until their own lives were saved by mutants. (They don't even arrest Trask for torture and vivisection, just for selling military secrets.)
** ''Film/XMenApocalypse'':
*** Magneto again. Under Apocalypse's orders, he seizes what seems to be Earth's entire magnetic field, causing worldwide destruction and death. By the end of the movie, he's again on good terms with Charles and apparently his name is now being cleansed because [[HeelFaceTurn he helped fight Apocalypse]].
*** At the end of the FinalBattle, Psylocke sneaks away undetected by the X-Men.
*** William Stryker escapes after Wolverine's rampage.
* ''Film/UltramanGaiaBattleInHyperspace'': Already a bully to the main character, Tsutomu, Hiroshi actually wished for TWO monsters (Satan-Bizorm and King of Mons) to attack Japan in hopes of having them kill Gamu/Ultraman Gaia, but when you think about it, those two monsters (ESPECIALLY King of Mons) have probably killed thousands of innocent lives in his neighborhood, and the damage worth would cost over millions. Granted for King of Mons's case, this is partially [[{{Justified}} justified]], as [[ArtifactOfDoom a wish-granting orb]] was corrupting Hiroshi and making him act evil. But in the case of Satan-Bizorm, he was fully aware of his actions [[KidsAreCruel and he brought him to the real world purely to smite Tsutomu]]. To further rub salt in this trope, by the end of the movie, [[MookFaceTurn Hiroshi winds up becoming friends with Tsutomu]]!
* ''Film/UpstreamColor'': The thief who stole the life savings of a dozen victims under the effects of hypnosis, leaving them destitute and under the impression that they had a psychotic breakdown, never gets confronted and doesn't suffer any consequences save losing the means to hypnotize any more victims.
* ''Film/VonRyansExpress'' has two examples.
** Fascist Italian officer Major Battaglia is sadist and a SmugSnake who forces captive British and American prisoners live under horrific conditions and punishes dissent with time spent in a sweatbox, which has killed many P.O.W.s. When the camp is liberated Ryan talks Fincham out of murdering Battaglia in revenge. As "thanks," Battaglia sells the P.O.W.s and his own former second-in-command out to the SS later on, and never gets any comeuppance.
** At the end of the movie, SS officer Colonel Gortz shoots the fleeing Ryan in the back but like Battaglia survives the movie, his only comeuppance being slightly grumpy when the P.O.W.s get away.
* ''Film/{{Were The Millers}}'':
** The street gang that robbed Cassie [[spoiler:and David]] at the start of the film never faced any reprecussions.
** Possibly Rose's ex-boyfriend as Rose mentions that he abandoned her and maxed out her credit card which is the reason why she was evicted and broke.
* ''Film/WickedLittleThings'': [[GreaterScopeVillain Edmond]] [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Carlton]] is cleared of all charges related to the mining disaster he ordered, which led to the deaths of several children. Said children come back as [[UndeadChild vengeance zombies]], but Carlton skips town before they can kill him, and is long dead by the time the main story begins. His comeuppance is wrought upon one of his descendants.
* ''The Wicker Man''
** The whole island tribe in [[Film/TheWickerMan2006 the 2006 remake]] gets away with capturing, horribly torturing and eventually murdering the "Chosen Ones", and even indoctrinating the protagonist's own daughter into starting the sacrificial pyre. In TheStinger, we see them going about on their business as if nothing had happened.
** [[Film/TheWickerMan1973 The 1973 original]] seems like it has this on the surface... Howie points out to Lord Sumerisle that if the crops fail ''again,'' the villagers will turn on him and make him the next sacrifice. Sumerisle's expression seems to imply a comeuppance is just around the corner.
* ''Film/WizardsOfTheDemonSword'': The Slave Master gets away with participating in the SexSlave trade, barring a few moments of comedic humiliation.
* ''Film/WonderWoman2017'': Dr. Poison receives absolutely no comeuppance for her role in developing the superweapon and killing the entire German high command, and is the only one of the film's villains to survive.
%%* ''Film/WrongTurn4BloodyBeginnigns'', and especially ''Film/WrongTurn5Bloodlines''.
* ''Film/TommyBoy'': Tommy's stepmom Beverly, who is revealed to be not only a BlackWidow, but also a polygamist, gets off scot-free at the end and seems to snag Tommy's rival Ray Zalinsky as a possible new mark (even though Zalinsky already knows she's married). It's heavily implied that Beverly and her real husband Paul (who pretended to be her son) poisoned Tommy's father, and yet Paul goes to jail, while nothing happens to Beverly.
----

* ''Film/{{Maleficent}}'': Unlike her [[Disney/{{Sleepy Beauty}} Disney counterpart]] who had a {{Karmic Death}}, this version of Maleficent never got punished for cursing Aurora. Justified as she was {{Easily Forgiven}} by everyone except Stefan.

'''Note:''' Before the end of UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode, it was far less common for movies to feature a KarmaHoudini as the first rule of the code was that "The villain must always get his come-uppance by the end of the movie." (This usually applied only to the BigBad, as it would take far too much time showing every single one of the {{Mooks}} getting punished.) This, of course, doesn't mean that [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar villainous Karma Houdinis didn't exist in movies from that time period.]] But they were much more of a rarity until the code was dissolved in TheSixties.

* The original ''Film/{{Batman}}'' film series (1989-1997):
** Most of the arch-villains do get what's coming to them [[FateWorseThanDeath (which isn't always necessarily death)]], but the {{Mooks}} have a nasty habit of getting away. This started in the 1989 film, when ComicBook/TheJoker's black-hatted, black-jacketed henchmen [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere get the heck out of there]] when the Batplane starts strafing what's left of the Joker's parade. We never see any of those guys again, except for the two or three who later show up in the Joker's getaway helicopter (and it can be implied those last ones just flew off after their boss fell off the ladder to his death). Sure, those goons were [[TheFamilyForTheWholeFamily pretty incompetent]] (throughout the entire film they manage to kill only one person, a cop who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time), but they did [[FriendToPsychos freely associate themselves with a mass-murderer]] and laugh along with him through all the atrocities, so it's definitely troubling news that they managed to escape. Commissioner Gordon does assure everyone in the final scene that "our police have rounded up all of the Joker's men", but... how would Gordon know exactly how many men the Joker employed?

* ''Film/ThePhantomOfTheOpera1962'': Lord Ambrose D'Arcy is a total {{Jerkass}} who stole the music of poor composer Professor Petrie (who later would become the Phantom) and claimed it as his own. D'Arcy never receives any punishment for his crimes. The closest thing to a comeuppance he receives is a fright when he takes the Phantom's mask off and sees his disfigured face.