History Main / TerroristsWithoutACause

-->--''Webcomic/TheLastDaysOfFoxhound''

* Joe Seluchi in ''AirplaneIITheSequel''. He tries to blow up the flight so his family can get his flight insurance money.

*** And ''IronMan3'' reveals [[spoiler: that the Mandarin, and potentially by extension, the Ten Rings, was just a front for AIM to control terrorism]], so who knows ''how'' many levels dead this one goes.

* Not so much TerroristsWithoutACause as Terrorists With Flexible Causes: The ''Empty Quarter'' story arc of ''ThePunisher'' had Frank Castle and a Mossad agent crashing a meeting of every major terrorist group in the world. The purpose of the meeting: terrorist groups with radically different agendas would basically trade targets, so the authorities wouldn't see them coming. This included plans for blowing up the Vatican, with no mention of how, say, the IRA members in the room felt about that.

** Many terrorists commit robberies, mostly for financial ends (terrorism is not cheap), but often for ideological ones (the [[KnightTemplar Phineas]] [[ChurchMilitant Prieshood]], when not killing the associates of Midianites, robbed banks because they felt they were counterfeiting).

* Possibly OlderThanFeudalism. Herostratus burned down the most famous of Artemis's temples in order to become famous. [[UnPerson His sentence included his name being stricken from record and made even speaking it illegal to try and prevent this]], although a later historian still passed it it on.

In order not to insult anybody's religion or politics (or earn the ire of people with a known tendency to blow up people they don't like), the terrorists in action movies are not only mostly white guys, they represent no organisation, movement, religious sect or political tendency known to the real world. Even if they are identified with a real organisation (the IRA, the Russian Mafia, Basque separatists, somebody white but terroristic), they will be described as a "Rogue Faction", not the parent organisation. In many cases, they actually represent no identifiable cause at all, beyond making things go ''BOOM''.

** Averted in ''Die Hard 2'', where the terrorists are ex-army officers trying to free a BananaRepublic dictator whom they see as an anti-communist stalwart. Probably this was a NoCelebritiesWereHarmed version of Ollie North and Noriega.

* This characterization gets used on a group of {{Mooks}} that are former IRA gone mercenary in the ''SinCity'' movie. They KickTheDog early by casually mentioning that their current job "Sure beats the hell out of blowing up airports and churches without shite to show for it", but their MadBomber Brian who talks about not being fond of guns because a little "bang-bang" will never match the sight of roofs coming off buildings with people parts flying out is an {{egregious}} example.
** Point of order: What part of ''SinCity'' is ''not'' {{egregious}} in some way?

* Joe Seluchi in ''{{Airplane}} II: The Sequel''. He tries to blow up the flight so his family can get his flight insurance money.

* The Red Triangle Circus Gang, who work for The Penguin in ''BatmanReturns'', could be classified as terrorists. They are never seen stealing, robbing, or doing anything else that is normally associated with ordinary criminals. Moreover, they seem to delight in random bombing, machine-gunning, hostage-taking, and general scaring of people, all with apparently no endgame in mind. As it turns out, the Penguin is using them as a political weapon to embarrass Gotham City's mayor so that he can run against him - and the members of the Red Triangle Gang themselves obey Penguin only because [[BadBoss he'll shoot them dead]] [[DisproportionateRetribution if they even think about defying him]].

** General Orlov from ''Film/Octopussy'' and Colonel Moon/Gustav Graves from ''Die Another Day'' are both communists bent on military conquest (but "rogue" communists acting without orders).
* ''TwelveMonkeys'': [[spoiler:It's eventually discovered that the ''Twelve Monkeys'' were only an Animal Rights Group that wanted to release the animals from the zoo. But who was that red-haired guy with a ponytail? And why did he want to KillAllHumans?]]

* Although the film ''VantagePoint'' tries to be TheRashomon for a terrorist bombing, showing the same event from the perspective of the news media, the terrorists, the US Secret Service and an innocent bystander, we never really learn what the terrorists' goals were other than they are vaguely Islamist. It's never explained where their sophisticated equipment came from, [[spoiler:how a respected 20-year-veteran of the Secret Service could be in league with them]], or what the purpose of their secret plot was. [[spoiler:They assassinate the US President, only it's actually a body double, but they know this, and manage to kidnap the actual President. Which gets them what? They've already convinced the world the President is dead, what does having him prisoner accomplish?]] For a movie about different points of view, they sure didn't bother explaining any.
* In the new Travolta film ''FromParisWithLove'', the terrorist [[spoiler:JonathanRhysMeyers' fiance]] never gives a reason for the plot to [[spoiler:suicide bomb an African aid summit]] other than [[spoiler:saying she was looking for a purpose and a man she met six years ago explained things to her]]. Arguably parodied because the Travolta character explains a bit during the early part of the film, but Meyers' character (and, since we're viewing the scene through his eyes, the audience) is too [[spoiler:high on cocaine]] to understand it.
* The group (that appears to be largely white and British) in ''{{Passenger 57}}'' doesn't appear to have any real motivation for their acts, beyond a suggestion that they may be terrorists for hire and that the two leaders just really enjoy killing people.

* Thrax in ''OsmosisJones'' is a rookie virus who wants to kill Frank (portrayed as a city-state of cells in the movie). His sole reason is recognition.

* Lampshaded by Tony Stark in IronMan3 while trying to analyze a new terrorist mastermind's incomprehensible background: "Named for an old Chinese war moniker... South American insurgency tactics... Talks like a Baptist preacher..." [[spoiler:Then justified in that the terrorist turns out to have been a fiction, created by a CorruptCorporateExecutive trying to create a threat to national security so that he could sell weapons.]]

* Happens to the Divine Crusaders in ''SuperRobotWarsOG'' eventually. At first they have a clear goal for their terrorism. Sabotage and kill any corrupt politicians trying to make deals with alien invaders (which would essentially sell most of humanity into slavery so a few guys at the top could live cushy lives) and fight the Earth forces army in order to get them into fighting shape for the real force arrives, with the intention to graciously surrender or die when that is accomplish to let the EFA defend the planet. However quite a few guys only signed on for selfish or personal reasons (grudges against the EFA, geninue desire to conquer the world or just the desire for wanton violence and destruction they couldn't get with a lawful organization) and keep the organziation going after most of the good people either died or left it. As a result in later games they come off as this, simply rebelling against the EFA for the sake of rebelling and blowing stuff up. Finally this all comes to a head in the 4th game where the Earth Forces are taken over by a ruthless violent faction dedicated to turning the planet into a police state....and most of the remaining Divine Crusaders sign on with them, showing that all they really want is to work for essentially "the bad guys" and cause violence and destruction without really caring about the cause.

** Ironically, ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'', which deliberately sought to abandon the whole "need for a believable premise" thing, averts this. The two organizations secretly control every government on Earth, and each is constantly trying to take over the other's half one resource at a time. In some maps it's unclear exactly what kind of resources are being fought over, but in any case the eventual goal hovering over everyone's heads is to TakeOverTheWorld.
*** Gravel. No, really.
**** Maybe the [[RedVsBlue Reds want the gravel because the Blues want the gravel, and the Blues want the gravel because the Reds have the gravel.]]
*** Backstory elaborates on the conflict: two brothers were given by their dying father equal parts of a very large, useless piece of land that the two of them convinced him to purchase. Being brothers, they'd naturally fight over it. One hundred years later, the brothers are still feuding, not merely over the gravel pits, but over absolutely everything that wasn't already owned by Australia. Their most recent gambit in the war involved an immortality machine... which obviously results it the whole thing lasting all those 100 years and probably far into the future.

* The MassEffect DLC module Bring Down the Sky averts this by giving the Batarians a very DisproportionateRetribution sort of reason for their terrorist attack. Given how much of an AlwaysChaoticEvil culture the Batarians are portrayed as having and just how psychotic Balak is, it actually makes a disturbing amount of sense.

** He explicitly refers to his profession as "terrorism-for-hire", which suggests that he's a mercenary hired by organizations which actually do have causes.

* Lampshaded by Tony Stark in IronMan3 while trying to analyze a new terrorist mastermind's incomprehensible background: "Named for an old Chinese war moniker... South American insurgency tactics... Talks like a Baptist preacher..." [[spoiler:Then justified in that the terrorist turns out to have been a fiction, created by a CorruptCorporateExecutive/MerchantOfDeath trying to create a threat to national security so that he could sell weapons.]]

* Possibly OlderThanFeudalism. Herostratus burned down the most famous of Artemis's temples in order to become famous. His sentence included his name being stricken from record and made even speaking it illegal to try and prevent this, although a later historian still passed it it on.

** May have been subverted by the sequel, though; contrary to what Shepherd said, ''Modern Warfare 3'' shows Makarov to have a very clearly defined goal of establishing Russian dominance over the world, with himself at the top.

* More of Riots without A Cause, the 2011 Enlgand riots started because of a police shooting, but involved burning shops and houses down and looting, which has nothing to do with a police shooting. This was lampshaded by a woman giving a speech on the streets when she said that a protest was supposed to be about a police shooting, not about robbing Shoe Locker and other shops.

* More than one ''Film/JamesBond'' villain have fit this mold.
** Actually, almost none of them do. Bond villains tend to use terrrorist actions as a cover for a brilliant criminal scheme. Its about some kind of profit (or sometimes, some kind of insane [[VisionaryVillain vision]], not the violence.
*** Stromberg, from ''Film/TheSpyWhoLovedMe'' qualifies. For some reason his desire to live under the ocean by himself required starting a nuclear war and wiping out the surface population.
*** Also Drax from ''Film/Moonraker'' who was basically a 2.0 version of Stromberg. And then there's General Orlov from ''Film/Octopussy'' and Colonel Moon/Gustav Graves from ''Die Another Day'' who are both communists bent on military conquest (but "rogue" communists acting without orders). Most of the other Bond villains are in it for the money, but I think those four qualify.

* Happens to the Divine Crusaders in ''SuperRobotWarsOG'' eventually. At first they have a clear goal for their terrorism. Sabotage and kill any corrupt politicians trying to make deals with alien invaders (which would essentially sell most of humanity into slavery so a few guys at the top could live cushy lives) and fight the Earth forces army in order to get them into fighting shape for the real force arrives, with the intention to graciously surrender or die when that is accomplish to let the EFA defend the planet. However quite a few guys only signed on for selfish or personal reasons (grudges against the EFA, geninue desire to conquer the world or just the desire for wanton violence and destruction they couldn't get with a lawful organization) and keep the organziation going after most of the good people either died or left it. As a result in later games they come off as this, simply rebelling against the EFA for the sake of rebelling and blowing stuff up. Finally this all comes to a head in the 4th game where the Earth Forces are taken over by a ruthless violent faction dedicated to turning the planet into a police state....and most of the remaining Divine Crusaders sign on with them, showing that all they really want is to work for essentially "the bad guys" and cause violence and destruction without really caring about the cause.

* Happens to the Divine Crusaders in Super Robot Wars OG eventually. At first they have a clear goal for their terrorism. Sabotage and kill any corrupt politicians trying to make deals with alien invaders (which would essentially sell most of humanity into slavery so a few guys at the top could live cushy lives) and fight the Earth forces army in order to get them into fighting shape for the real force arrives, with the intention to graciously surrender or die when that is accomplish to let the EFA defend the planet. However quite a few guys only signed on for selfish or personal reasons (grudges against the EFA, geninue desire to conquer the world or just the desire for wanton violence and destruction they couldn't get with a lawful organization) and keep the organziation going after most of the good people either died or left it. As a result in later games they come off as this, simply rebelling against the EFA for the sake of rebelling and blowing stuff up. Finally this all comes to a head in the 4th game where the Earth Forces are taken over by a ruthless violent faction dedicated to turning the planet into a police state....and most of the remaining Divine Crusaders sign on with them, showing that all they really want is to work for essentially "the bad guys" and cause violence and destruction without really caring about the cause.

* The terrorist group in ''RainbowSix : Vegas'' is rather odd. They waste [[NGOSuperpower an enormous amount of manpower and resources]] [[spoiler: including a state of the art WMD, which they try to use inside Vegas for no good reason.]] in their attack on Vegas. [[spoiler: It turns out the whole point of the attack was just to distract the army so they could break into the research facility where those very same [=WMD=]s were being build. So... they went through all of that just to get weapons they already had, but lost because they were using them to steal more? And it's not very well explained what they want to do with them anyway, or how they got the first one.]]

** He may be closer to the 19th century Anarchist archetype, though.
*** No, they had definite motives--research anarchism. The strategy was propaganda by the deed, bringing attention to anarchism by committing terrorist acts in revenge for wrongs done by the establishment. Not a good strategy, because it caused massive backlash, painting all anarchists as crazy with belief in nothing when they had a definite plan and did not use those methods.
**** Or he might just be AxCrazy.

* The (possibly) Afghan terrorist organization "Ten Rings" in the 2008 ''Film/IronMan'' film (they operate out of Afghanistan but speak a wide variety of languages) have no discernible cause beyond conquest and power. The novelization and script note that the sequel is supposed to reveal that they're [[spoiler:in the employ of [[YellowPeril The Mandarin]], Iron Man's magic ring-wielding arch enemy, not that his TakeOverTheWorld motivations are much more complex]].

* Pretty much inverted in ''StationeryVoyagers'', where ''everyone'' has an agenda and the stories see no problem at all with incorporating [[TheWarOnStraw scantily-clad analogues of real groups]]. The closest thing to "no cause" is the Yehtzig Pirate League, and their goal is [[AGodAmI to have Astrabolo overthrow God himself]]. The Drismabons come close, wanting the eternal damnation of the entire universe ''[[ForTheEvulz just because]]''. The Muhmmaldian terrorists, however, are blatant knock-offs of real-life groups like Hamas. The Crooked Rainbow, of course, are ''gay'' terrorists. Pretty much every bad guy faction on Mantith is guaranteed to be a strawman (though how "straw" it is [[RippedFromTheHeadlines may vary]]) for some Far Left cause or another. RefugeInAudacity seems to be the rule rather than the exception.