History Main / MinorCrimeRevealsMajorPlot

* Happens very often in the ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' series.
** In the second case of the first game, trying to solve the murder of your mentor leads to you discovering a massive blackmail chain. It gets better too: the investigation reveals a reference to the "DL-6" incident, which becomes prominent later on.
** Investigating the murder of a lawyer in the middle of a lake (case 1-4) quickly reveals a connection to the assassination of another lawyer 15 years ago which has been unsolved all this time. Turns out this was just the result of a fifteen-year-long revenge scheme against Miles Edgeworth, ace prosecutor.
** A police detective was murdered in "Rise from the Ashes" so [[HeKnowsTooMuch he wouldn't leak the truth]] about the assassination of Prosecutor Neil Marshall 2 years ago, the constant extortion of the current Chief Prosecutor, and an evidence forgery to convict a serial killer for Marshall's murder (which he didn't commit). Unfortunately for the mastermind behind this incident, Phoenix exposed everything in court, so in the end it was AllForNothing.
** The theft of a priceless (in the ''worst'' sense of the word; it's worth nothing) historical treasure in Case 3-2 → a series of blackmails and thefts of 100,000-dollar items and the murder of a security company's CEO.
** The poisoning of a genius programmer in a restaurant → a million-dollar debt with the mafia's don (not on behalf of the programmer, but his killer) and the infection of the entire precinct's computer network with a virus the programmer created.
** In the last case of the third game, the murder of a children's book author is ultimately tied into a gigantic revenge scheme.
** In ''Investigations'', the seemingly disconnected murders of a police officer, a plane flight passenger, a prosecutor and a defendant over the course of a few days → All of them were involved in an international smuggling ring. One that had a politician/ambassador of a country on the edge of war as the ringleader, incidentally.
** ''Every'' case in the fourth game ''VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney'' has this:
*** The murder of an unknown guy in a restaurant, which spans the entire game - The victim is actually the protagonist's step-father and the defendant's old client, and the real murderer's motive is tied to the events of seven years ago.
*** A non-fatal hit-and-run, a panty-snatching and the theft of a noodle stand led to a murder where the defendant is the son of the city's biggest crime boss, who's unaware that he's on the verge of death thanks to a turf war that caused him to get shot in the heart.
*** The murder of a singer's manager during a concert is pretty big, but when that manager turns out to be an Undercover Interpol Agent who was killed by a smuggler, who was funneling a controlled substance that is on the top of Interpol's list of illicit contraband into the country, it gets even bigger.
*** An isolated painter is found dead in his home. Oh, and he happens to have drawings depicting all the cases that the titular character has worked on up to that point. And as if that wasn't enough, he turns out to be a forger who was apparently responsible for making the evidence that got Phoenix disbarred seven years ago. And to top it all off, it turns out that his murder was actually ''supposed to happen'' seven years ago during those events, but the "time bomb" that the killer set for him got delayed thanks to some luck, that happens to tie into Apollo's sister's family being a group of famous magicians... Quite a complex web for a case that starts out as your run-of-the-mill murder. [[LampshadeHanging Even Phoenix himself notes this throughout the case.]]
** The bombing of Courtroom No. 4 in ''[[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyDualDestinies Dual Destinies]]'' → an international spy destroying evidence that would reveal his identity ''and'' his guilt in a seven-year-old murder, ''and'' the murder and impersonation of a police detective, ''and'' two consecutive terrorist attacks on the Space Center.
** The theft of Khura'in's national treasure and the murder of the guard looking after it in ''[[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneySpiritOfJustice Spirit of Justice]]'' → A coup d'état plotted by the very Justice Minister of the kingdom and a popular revolution involving basically every known character up to Case 5. The plot is so big, its influence encompasses Japanifornia, thousands of miles away. But wait, there's more: in investigating the coup d'état, the truth about the queen's assassination 23 years ago comes to light, which further shakes the kingdom as ''the current queen'' was responsible for that arson and the law that killed off all lawyers in the land.
** In Case 3 of ''VisualNovel/TheGreatAceAttorney 2: Resolve'', a death during a public experiment at London's Great Exhibition uncovers a conspiracy within the British government that faked the execution of a notorious SerialKiller a decade prior. Scotland Yard's chief coroner took part in the murder plot due to being blackmailed about her false autopsy report of the convict.

* A common trope in the ''Film/JamesBond'' series:
** ''Film/DrNo''. Murder of a British agent → Dr. No's SPECTRE operation to destroy American missiles.
** ''Film/FromRussiaWithLove''. Rosa Klebb coerces Tatiana Romanova to defect to [=MI6=] → Elaborate scheme hatched by SPECTRE to steal Lektor decoding machine from the Russians and selling it back to them while exacting revenge on Bond for killing their agent Dr. No.
** ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}''. Cheating at Gin Rummy, murder of Jill Masterson and gold smuggling → A plot to nuke Fort Knox.
** ''Film/{{Thunderball}}''. Attempted murder of Bond → A plot to hold the world ransom with two stolen nuclear warheads.
** ''Film/YouOnlyLiveTwice''. American and Russian spacecraft are stolen → Elaborate plan by SPECTRE to start a nuclear war between the U.S. and U.S.S.R.
** ''Film/OnHerMajestysSecretService''. Ernst Stavro Blofeld claims title of 'Comte Balthazar de Bleuchamp' → Plan by SPECTRE to abduct women from around the world and use them as pawns to spread a dangerous virus that is capable of destroying crops and livestock unless he gets a pardon for his past crimes.
** ''Film/DiamondsAreForever''. Diamond smuggling → Plot to hold the world for ransom with a [[EnergyWeapon laser-armed]] KillSat.
** ''Film/LiveAndLetDie''. Deaths of three British agents → Massive heroin smuggling operation.
** ''Film/TheManWithTheGoldenGun''. [[MarkedToDie 007 receives gold-plated bullet]] → Theft of device used for controlling solar energy.
** ''Film/TheSpyWhoLovedMe''. Disappearing nuclear submarines → A plot to start a nuclear war between the U.S. and U.S.S.R.
** ''Film/{{Moonraker}}''. Disappearance of a space shuttle → A plot to kill all humans on Earth.
** ''Film/ForYourEyesOnly''. British spy ship containing Automatic Targeting Attack Communicator (ATAC), which controls nuclear subs gets sunk → A plot to steal ATAC for the Soviets.
** ''Film/{{Octopussy}}''. Smuggling stolen Faberge Eggs and murdering a British agent → Nuclear sabotage, wiping out an American military base along with nearby cities and WorldWarIII.
** ''Film/AViewToAKill''. A scheme by Max Zorin of systematic doping in thoroughbred horse racing → A scheme by Max Zorin aimed at destroying Silicon Valley (though these two plot points don't directly connect)
** ''Film/TheLivingDaylights''. Faked sniping attack on a fleeing general → Attacks on British agents and an illegal weapons smuggling network in the middle of the war between U.S.S.R. and Afghanistan. The movie, however, also counts as an inversion. The villains are pitting British and Russian spies against each other by trying to convince the former that the latter are targeting them all for elimination - hoping that they will respond by eliminating the KGB director supposedly responsible for the operation. This is being done to protect their scheme of misusing KGB resources to turn a huge profit smuggling drugs and weapons, which the director is on the verge of exposing. It's a serious crime, but nowhere near as potentially destructive as inciting a war of assassins between the KGB and its Western counterparts (which as Koskov said, in the worst case scenario, could conceivably even lead to nuclear war).
** ''Film/LicenceToKill''. Felix Leiter gets injured while his wife gets killed → A plot to smuggle cocaine dissolved in petrol into Asia and sell it disguised as fuel to drug lords.
** ''Film/GoldenEye''. Theft of a prototype helicopter → A revenge scheme by a traitorous [=MI6=] agent aimed at crippling London with an EMP-based KillSat to cover up a massive electronic bank robbery.
** ''Film/TomorrowNeverDies''. An unusually fast newspaper article on a ship sinking → A scheme aimed at starting a war to gain exclusive media rights in China.
** ''Film/TheWorldIsNotEnough''. Murder of a prominent businessman → A plot to force a nuclear sub into meltdown, nuke Istanbul, and contaminate 90% of the world's oil supply.
** ''Film/DieAnotherDay''. Rogue North Korean colonel trades in smuggled diamonds for weapons and is presumably killed for it → Plot by said rogue colonel, who is revealed to have been FakingTheDead all along, to use a solar-powered KillSat to cut a path through the Korean DMZ, allowing North Korea to launch an invasion of South Korea.
** Creator/DanielCraig's Bond gets one that spans ''[[Film/CasinoRoyale2006 two]] [[Film/QuantumOfSolace movies]]'': elimination of a bomber-for-hire → the shut down of a banker to terrorist cells around the world → TheReveal of an NGOSuperpower.
** ''Film/{{Skyfall}}'': Attempt to recover an [[MacGuffin encrypted hard drive]] containing the identities of every active undercover NATO agent goes wrong → [=MI6=] comes under [[HauledBeforeASenateSubCommittee intense government scrutiny]] for the mishap → An attempt a by rogue agent turned cyber-criminal to destroy [=MI6=] and get his revenge against M for selling him out to the Chinese.
** ''Film/{{Spectre}}'': Unauthorized mission by 007 to foil terrorist plot in Mexico City → A campaign to shut down the 00-agent section and replace it with an intelligence-sharing program called "Nine Eyes" → TheReveal that said NGOSuperpower whom Bond fought against in ''Film/CasinoRoyale2006'' and ''Film/QuantumOfSolace'' was also behind events of ''Film/{{Skyfall}}'', hopes to use the "Nine Eyes" program to stop any investigation into their operations, and its leader Ernst Stavro Blofeld is revealed to be Bond's estranged step-brother, [[GreaterScopeVillain who masterminded the tragedies 007 faced]] since ''Film/CasinoRoyale2006''.
** ''Film/NoTimeToDie'': Russian Scientist gets kidnapped → Stopping an assassin's attempt to destroy the world by wiping out half of the world's population with [[{{nanomachines}} Nanobots]].

* In a few ''Series/{{Monk}}'' episodes:
** In "Mr. Monk and the Class Reunion", the murder of a retired college nurse leads Monk to discover a murder plot involving Trudy's freshman roommate.
** In "Mr. Monk Is On the Run" (both parts), Monk is framed for a shooting by a dirty county sheriff. Once Monk escapes, he finds the shooting tied to a plot to assassinate the governor.
** In "Mr. Monk Buys a House", the death of a wheelchair-handicapped man [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident who fell down a flight of stairs in his own house]] is tied to money from an unsolved robbery.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Magician", Monk's upstairs neighbor Kevin is killed by Karl Torini the night he debuts as an amateur magician → discrepancies in Torini's airline receipts that were evidence of Torini's involvement in a drug trafficking ring.
** In the TieInNovel ''Mr. Monk In Outer Space'', the heart-attack death of a fast-food company CEO that is dressed up as a shooting → exposure of an embezzlement scam.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Paperboy", the investigation on who killed the paperboy who delivered Monk's paper led him to find out the plan of a girl to play BlackWidow to a multi-million-dollar lottery winner who lived in the same building (and who didn't even knew he ''had'' won, because the plan included keeping him ignorant of this fact).
*** A somewhat unusual case, as the initial crime leads Monk to coincidentally solve two completely unrelated crimes while operating under the assumption the killer was trying to prevent ''him'' from seeing the newspaper.
** In "Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine", the investigation of a drive-by shooting in which Stottlemeyer gets shot in the shoulder turns out to be tied to an upcoming armored car robbery.
** In "Mr. Monk, Private Eye", a dent car case leads Monk to a murder of a woman caused by the person who dented the car.
** "Mr. Monk and the Election": attempted assassination on Natalie --> domestic terrorism

* Not a few ''Franchise/LawAndOrder'' episodes start with some minor problem, such investigating a noise in an alley, lead to a dead body (or two), and often then into something much, much worse, often involving murder, prostitution, and/or financial skulduggery. Fairly common on ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'', but turns up on the other variations as well.
** An early episode involves the murder of an off-duty officer who was a childhood friend of Logan's. As the cops investigate, they find that the dead cop was on the trail of a former priest who was a serial child abuser, and that said former priest lives only a few blocks from where the victim's body was found. The detectives eventually determine that the cop's death was [[SuicideNotMurder actually a suicide]] and the responding officers staged it as a murder so his family could get his pension, but by then, [[FramingTheGuiltyParty the case against the priest is starting to take shape.]]
** One episode opened with a dispatching error sending Briscoe and Curtis to what they think is a murder, but turns out to be the discovery of a dead horse instead. Much to their frustration, their Lieutenant tells them to look into it anyway (there being no other pressing cases at the time) and their investigation eventually leads to a con artist who may have murdered his millionaire patron.
** In another episode, a jogger had a heart attack in the park. When one of the officers on scene stepped into the bushes to, ah, [[NatureTinkling take care of some business]], he found a murder victim. (Of course, it turns out the jogger was actually murdered too, it just takes them awhile to figure that part out.)
** In another, the burglary of a safety-box depository uncovers wads of cash being stored there that date to an armed robbery/homicide from the 1960s.
** In one episode, a man receives an email from his uncle where the uncle confesses to killing his wife. That investigation is fairly straightforward, but then they learn the email was sent as part of a program designed to send out messages in the event of the Rapture; the system was inadvertently activated when one of the men behind the scheme was murdered, and ''that'' case isn't so simple.
** A pair of cops are asked by a couple to find their missing dog. They think it's just a waste of time only to find the dog among others being used for an illegal dog fighting club by some rich guys who the cops immediately arrest. The detectives are then called in as one of the dead dogs has a human finger in their stomach, leading to a murder committed to cover up how a multi-millionaire has been selling "rare" wine that's actually quite cheap.
** This can sometimes be done to a ridiculously huge degree. One episode involves finding the body of what looks like a hobo in a stairwell and ends up with a UN trial involving the Russian mafia.
** In one ''SVU'' episode, a schizophrenic man [[AccidentalKidnapping kidnaps a child]] after mistaking the boy for his own estranged son and kills the man who tries to stop him. The detectives ultimately determine that the group home he had been living at was corrupt and their negligence had led to the death of another resident, which they attempted to pass off as a suicide; the man had witnessed this, so the group home had intentonally [[MedicationTampering messed with the man's treatment]] so that his symptoms would return and he wouldn't be taken seriously if he tried to report what he saw.
** The 14th season finale of ''SVU'' involves the arrest of a man for indecent exposure; he eventually turns out to have perpetrated multiple sex crimes, up to and including sexual torture and murder, in several different states, but has managed to [[KarmaHoudini escape conviction]] in every case.
** The 18th season opening starts with a unattended child in Central Park whose supervising adult got run over by a bike and whose bag contained a gun. This eventually builds up to a reveal of his parents being terrorists and a mass shooting event.
** Doubled in ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'', when the motive for the VictimOfTheWeek's murder almost always turned out to be ''far'' more complicated than implied in the opening sequence.
** In the mothership episode "Birthright", the murder of local vendor leads Fontana and Green to a dimwitted negligent mother, who suddenly dies in custody, which in turn leads them to a secret plot to sterilize scores of poor black and Hispanic women.

* ''Series/ColdCase'':
** "Late Returns". A homicide victim has a shrine to a woman who died years earlier. It leads the cold case team to a politician who was molested by his sister.
** "The Sleepover". Mentally challenged man kills someone → parental abuse and murder of a child.
** "The Red & The Blue". Wife shoots her cheating husband → murder of someone they both knew.
** "Lonely Hearts". Conman commits suicide → conman and his lover took advantage of and killed women.
** "The Road". Minor traffic incident → serial killer.
** "Bad Reputation". A raid into a drug den leads to a discovery that an infamous criminal was murdered a long time ago.
** "Breaking News". Wrongful employment termination → massive coverup by a plastics company whose employees are dying from asbestos exposure → murder of the investigating reporter.
** "That Woman": Discovery of victim's underwear in the van of the school janitor --> improper sexual relations between one a student and teacher --> murder to prevent the scandal from getting out

* ''VideoGame/{{Tenchu}} 2'': Kidnapping of peasants --> Renegade ninja have built a warship to bring down the samurai government.

** 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.