History Main / OneDimensionalThinking

* ''Series/MidsomerMurders'': In "Shot at Dawn", a woman being chased by a hay baler attempts to flee directly away from it. Granted that turning may not have helped as the baler was being steered, but she could have at least tried, as it would have taken time for the baler to turn.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Dinosaur}}'': He insists on doing things his way and whenever a more practical alternative is given, he unhesitantly shoots it down. This ends up costing his life when after his former herd drive back a Carnataur, he ends up making himself the predator's next target.

See also TwoDSpace, NoPeripheralVision and BlindAlley. SlowerThanASpeedingBullet is a common subtrope of this. Can easily come off asDarthWiki/WhatAnIdiot, or TooDumbToLive in especially JustForFun/{{egregious}} cases.

* Parodied in [[Film/AustinPowers Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery]]. As the protagonists escape on a very slow Road Roller, a lone security guard screams in terror as the roller approaches and proceeds to scream "STOOOOOP!!" multiple times as it approaches, making no attempt to move to the left or right, or you know, ''get the hell out of there'' until finally being run over. As he's about 50 feet in front of it when he starts, this takes more than a few seconds.

%%*ZeroContentExample

See also TwoDSpace, NoPeripheralVision and BlindAlley. SlowerThanASpeedingBullet is a common subtrope of this. Can easily come off as "DarthWiki/WhatAnIdiot", or TooDumbToLive in especially JustForFun/{{egregious}} cases.

* In ''Film/MaximumOverdrive'', Camp Loman finds himself in the path of a big rig. Instead of ducking to the left or right, he simply runs forward, which naturally gets him bowled over by the truck.

** An unusual vertical example from ''Film/JurassicPark'': when Alan is rescuing Tim from the park jeep caught up a tree, and the jeep starts to break through the branches above them and fall, how do they escape? By rapidly climbing down the tree. Not, say, ''around'' to the side of the tree trunk where there ''isn't'' a falling car.

Naturally, it also doesn't always apply when the danger is something sentient either, which is why this trope can be TruthInTelevision. In nature, most threats coming towards you would be a predator of some sort, so simply leaping to the side would be of little help because predators are living things that are capable of thought. Ergo, they would take note and redirect their path — in fact, you might actually be ''worse'' off, since said predator is now able to cut a corner, traverse the shorter diagonal, and gain distance on you. Savvy military conquerors have exploited this fact for centuries to herd panicked civilian crowds to where they want them, although they need to keep the crowd in a state of panic so that no-one has a chance to consider the tactical advantages of veering off to the side.

* In ''Film/{{Sharknado}}'', no-one being chased by the rolling dismounted Ferris wheel thinks to run sideways.

** In ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'', [[spoiler: after Thanos collects all six Infinity Stones, Thor throws Stormbreaker, his recently forged axe to kill Thanos. Thanos tries to blast Stormbreaker away with the Infinity Gauntlet and gets stabbed in the chest, even though he could have sidestepped the axe's path and avoided it entirely.]]

* In episode 7 of ''Anime/DiGiCharat1999'', Gema drinks up an entire river that Dejiko kicks him into, grows huge, and proceeds to chase Dejiko and Puchiko down. Puchiko realizes halfway through that he has no reason to chase her, and steps out of the way while he continues pursuing Dejiko. It makes enough sense that he traps her at the end of an alleyway, until one notices that there's a narrow opening on each side that she could have easily escaped into.

* In episode 7 of ''Anime/DiGiCharat1999'', Gema drinks up an entire river that Dejiko kicks him into, and proceeds to chase Dejiko and Puchiko down. Puchiko realizes halfway through that he has no reason to chase her, and steps out of the way while he continues pursuing Dejiko. It makes enough sense that he traps her at the end of an alleyway, until one notices that there's a narrow opening on each side that she could have easily escaped into.