History Main / MinorCrimeRevealsMajorPlot

** Part 2½: Bombing --> kidnapping an environmental scientist to prevent adoption of pro-environmental policies

* ''Film/VantagePoint'' tries to do this when the first warrant is for "Who shot the President?" Who infiltrated US Intelligence and tried to kidnap the President? is indeed somewhat weightier, //technically//.

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apalachin_Meeting A curious state trooper]] stumbles upon CriminalConvention on November 14, 1957 → The discovery of a secretive Italian-American criminal society called ''[[UsefulNotes/TheMafia Cosa Nostra]]'', or Our Thing in Italian. Vito Genovese, the organizer of the disastrous Apalachin Meeting, received a lot of flak from his peers and was imprisoned on presumably flimsy drug charges. Later on, a low-level mobster named Joe Valachi squeals on national TV in 1963, giving a good glimpse on the mob's inner workings and a who's who of the Mafia.

* The energy company Enron saw its luck sour in 2001, when many began to look into their finances when Enron's reported stock value was ''55 times larger'' than their earnings, along with numerous other opaque and bizarre accounting practices. This and other discrepancies forced the SEC to do its own investigation, and as it went on, more and more crimes were uncovered. What had essentially started into looking into the odd accounting practices of the company mushroomed into a laundry list of crimes committed by and with the knowledge of the majority of its executives that included embezzlement, insider trading and fraud, the last of which included a supervillain-level scheme of deliberately blacking out California to profit on hugely inflated energy prices. The end result saw several Enron executives going to prison (and the CEO dying of a heart attack before he could be sentenced), stronger penalties for "cooking the books", and Enron becoming the world's largest corporate bankruptcy in history until the collapse of [=WorldCom=] just about a year later. The fallout also destroyed the reputation of Arthur Andersen, one of the world's largest accounting firms, so thoroughly that they too soon folded.

* In ''Film/RoboCop1987'': Gas station robbery --> Robocop's own murder --> Partnership of OCP Vice-President and biggest crime lord in Detroit.

* ''Film/HighSchoolHigh'': High school proficiency tests being tampered with --> Organized crime

* ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'': The eponymous power company's scare floor being used after hours by Randall, resulting in Boo breaking loose and wreaking havoc in Monstropolis → a dangerous machine designed to extract screams from children as part of a scheme by Randall and Mr. Waternoose.

* ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} 3: The Frozen Throne'''s bonus campaign, "The Founding of Durotar": Something is riling up the thunder lizards --> [[RenegadeSplinterFaction Renegade humans]] trying to start another war with the Horde.

** Part 2 1/2: Bombing --> kidnapping an environmental scientist to prevent adoption of pro-environmental policies

* ''Film/TheNakedGun'': Drug smuggling at the docks → plot to assassinate the Queen of England.

* This is the standard structure for ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' Adventure Paths, to justify starting at level 1 (when [[Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick everything is kobolds and copper pieces, and you get excited over a potion of barkskin]]) and ending at 15-20 (when you can pick fights with legendary monsters and win): adventurers go to Town X at the behest of Patron Y, and whatever happens there starts them on a path to stopping the evil plan of Potentially Setting-Reshaping Threat Z. ''Iron Gods'' begins with someone sabotaging the purple "flame" that fuels most of the town of Torch's industry and ends with an unhinged AI launching a bid for godhood from within the confines of an ancient crashed spaceship. ''Carrion Crown'' starts with the apparently accidental death of a scholar, with the player characters being old friends attending his funeral, and winds its way through various horror tropes to an attempt to bring back an ancient lich. ''Legacy of Fire'' begins with a mysterious fire killing a merchant princess's personal astrologer, and the investigation ends with a crazed genie and his minions attempting to steal the power of an EldritchAbomination. There are others.

* ''Film/TheLoneRanger'': Escape of a dangerous outlaw --> Plot to steal the land of the Comanche which is rich in silver.