History TakeAThirdOption / LiveActionFilms

* In ''Film/Serenity}}'' main character Malcolm Reynolds asks the villain if he's after a member of Mal's crew out of duty or for the reward. The villain calls bullshit, correctly pointing out that Mal's a cranky bastard who'll pretend to be noble and outraged by his greed if he answers money, and ruthless and disgusted with his principles if he answers duty.

* ''Film/{{Interstate 60}}'' has many examples of this trope, which is the subtext of the movie, until the point in which, iconically, the hero drives his car off the road instead of choosing one of two roads he doesn't want to go down.

* In ''Film/ChariotsOfFire'' Eric Liddell has to either give up his Olympic race, or run on Sunday (which he is opposed to do so because to him it would violate the Sabbath). So, he decides to withdraw and enter a different race instead.

* In ''Film/{{Titanic 1997}}'', Rose is unable to get her beloved Jack since he died in a HeroicSacrifice, but she neither wishes to marry her arranged fiancé Cal who is almost surely looking for her. She assumes a false name on RMS Carpathia after having been rescued, thus distracting Cal; she reaffirms it by looking away when Cal himself is nearby, managing to dodge him.

* In the first ''Film/SpiderMan1'' film, The Green Goblin [[SadisticChoice forces the hero to decide]] whether to save Mary Jane or a Roosevelt Island Tramway cabin filled with young children. With great personal effort, and some help from the public, Spider-Man saves both.
* Parodied in ''Film/TheCatInTheHat''. As the crate containing the Cat's dimension is starting to leak, Conrad and Sally argue over whether they should pursue Nevins (their dog, who's run off with the crate's lock), or stay and call their mother for help. The Cat dramatically proclaims that there's a third option - "''[[MurderIsTheBestSolution Murder]]''" - before admitting he just made that up because the kids both had options and he wanted one as well. They then go with Option A, and leave to pursue Nevins while weighing down the crate's lid with [[ItMakesSenseInContext their sleeping babysitter]].

* In ''[[Film/{{Superman}} Superman: The Movie]]'', Lex Luthor launches two nuclear missiles headed for opposite ends of the country so that Superman can't stop them both. By reversing the flow of time, he manages to do so anyway. This was perhaps [[http://youtu.be/yavK0mnE3wI not the fastest option, though]].
* In ''Film/WhoAmI1998'', Creator/JackieChan's character is confronted by two thugs on the roof of a building, who give him two choices: "Give us the disk and jump off," the disk being the MacGuffin of the movie, or "We take the disk and throw you off." Instead, Jackie says, "I like the third choice: I keep the disk and throw you both off." ([[spoiler:During the ensuing fight scene, nobody actually gets thrown off.]])

* In ''Film/FourteenOhEight'', John Cusack's character is given the option of [[FateWorseThanDeath reliving the past hour forever]] (an hour he described as "the deepest level of hell"), or "taking advantage of our express check-out service" (read: [[DrivenToSuicide killing himself]].) He ultimately decides to [[spoiler: [[TakingYouWithMe burn down the haunted hotel room with him in it]] ]].

* Spoofed somewhat at the end of the Creator/PeterSellers comedy ''Film/ILoveYouAliceBToklas'' Faced with the choice of confining-but-stable upper-middle-class marriage or free-spirited-but-superficial hippie life, Sellers' middle-aged hero runs away from his second attempt at marrying his fiance from the former group. When asked by a passerby where he's going, he admits he doesn't know, and he doesn't care. He is determined to ''find'' a third option - the one that will bring him happiness.
* In ''Film/{{Star Trek II|The Wrath of Khan}}'', it's not entirely clear whether Kirk is using this or the DungeonBypass tactic when he reprograms [[UnwinnableTrainingSimulation The Kobayashi Maru]] into a winnable scenario. This flows into a central theme of the film: Kirk has made a career on taking the third option, so when situations finally arise where there definitely is ''no'' third option, he's completely unprepared. However, it's ultimately played straight in the climax when Kirk [[TwoDSpace Takes A Third Dimension]] to defeat Khan.
* In ''Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome'', the Federation has a tiny problem at the end: they need to punish the crew of the ''Enterprise'' for their actions in [[Film/StarTrekIIITheSearchForSpock the last film]], but they can't just out and out punish them after they got through saving the Earth. The third option? Drop all charges except for one, which ends up demoting Kirk down to captain. Then, give him a new ''Enterprise''.

* In ''Film/{{Snatch}}'', [[UsefulNotes/IrishTravellers Irish Traveller]] character Mickey is given two choices: perform in a fixed ForcedPrizeFight that he has to lose by knockout in the fourth round, or watch as the gangsters forcing him to do this murder his entire clan. ([[spoiler:And just to prove they will, they set fire to his mother's caravan -- [[MoralEventHorizon with her inside]].]]) Instead, they decide on a third option. [[spoiler:Mickey and the entire clan bet a shitload of money on Mickey knocking out his opponent, which he does, and before the gangsters can do anything about it the clan kills all the gangsters assassins and the head of the mob as well. Moral of the story: don't fuck with Irish Travellers.]]
* In the first ''Film/IronMan'' film, Tony Stark is given a choice of building a Jericho missile or getting his head blown off. Stark instead [[LockingMacgyverInTheStoreCupboard uses the parts]] to build a suit of PowerArmor and fight his way out of the base.

* Subverted in ''Film/PunisherWarZone'': [[spoiler: the villains trap Frank in a SadisticChoice that forces him to [[ShootTheDog kill one hostage to save another]]. Frank instead elects to take a third option, killing one hostage taker to release his captives, consequently sacrificing the other captive to the other hostage taker. However, since the hostage had already offered his life to Frank beforehand to save the others, Frank essentially made a choice that accomplished the same result, but without the hostage's blood in his hands.]]
* Franchise/StarWars:

--->If you can't fight back, there ''are'' other options.
** In ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', Lando Calrissian is [[SadisticChoice forced]] into a [[DealWithTheDevil deal with Vader]] - he betrays his old friend so Han will be bait for a trap, and afterwards the crew will [[YouSaidYouWouldLetThemGo be safe on Cloud City]], and the city itself will then be ignored by the Empire, which will kindly not destroy it. But the deal [[ILied gets altered repeatedly]]. So Lando made plans to free the crew of the Falcon and get the citizens to flee, though he could only execute them after Han had been frozen in carbonite. The third option was only partially successful, but things turned out all right in the end. Even Cloud City apparently escaped harm - the Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse tells us that it fell under Imperial control, but never got destroyed (perhaps the gas mines were too profitable), and eventually the New Republic got it back.

* In the 1999 movie ''Film/WingCommander'', Maniac offers Hunter the option of either kicking his ass, or drinking the booze that Maniac brought. Rosie suggests a third option: kicking Maniac's ass, ''then'' taking his scotch.
* In ''Film/NationalTreasure'', Nicolas Cage's character is given a choice by the feds; [[spoiler:do nothing and go to prison, or help the feds rescue the stolen Declaration of Independence from [[EvilBrit Ian]] and [[MortonsFork still go to prison]] ("But [[GoodFeelsGood you'll feel better on the inside]]").]] Initially, Cage accepts the second option but when the plan goes south, [[spoiler:he declares, "Sadusky, I'm still not against you. But I found door #3, and I'm taking it." He then makes his escape via diving in the Hudson river.]]
* Occurs in the film ''Film/TheRedShoes1948''. The main character Vicky is forced to choose between Julian, the man she loves, and dancing ballet, which she considers as important as living. At one point, she has a relationship with him, but keeps it a secret. When they are discovered, things get more complicated and in the end [[spoiler: she decides to commit suicide by throwing herself in front of a moving train]].
* In ''Film/ThePrincessBride'', the third option was planned ahead of time: "They were both poisoned. [[AcquiredPoisonImmunity I spent the last few years building up an immunity to iocaine powder.]]"
* Played with in ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd'', when Will is trying to decide between [[spoiler: killing Jones in order to save his Dad, which would mean he would become the new undead captain of the Flying Dutchman]] or [[spoiler:remaining alive and marrying Elizabeth]], Jack proposes that he "avoid the choice entirely. Change the facts" by [[spoiler:letting someone else kill Jones]]. In the end, this doesn't work out, because [[spoiler:Jones stabs Will, and in order to save his life, Jack helps Will stab Jones' heart]].
* In the ''Film/JamesBond'' film ''Film/ForYourEyesOnly'', [[spoiler:Bond and General Gogol confront each other over possession of the ATAC nuclear weapons transmitter, after killing the BigBad, Kristatos. Bond then destroys the ATAC by throwing it over a cliff, then comments, "That's détente, comrade. You don't have it, I dont have it."]]

* Referenced in ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}''. [[ComicBook/CaptainAmerica Steve]] lectures [[ComicBook/IronMan Tony]] that [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech he isn't a real hero because he would not be willing to lay on a wire to help his fellow soldier over it]]. Tony counters that he'd prefer to [[CuttingTheKnot just cut the wire]]. This exchange becomes somewhat ironic as [[spoiler:Tony later proved willing to sacrifice himself for the team and the city of New York, without trying to Take a Third Option.]]
* In ''Film/{{Wargames}}'', Joshua, a.k.a. WOPR, realizes the futility of playing "Global Thermo-Nuclear War" after utilizing every scenario and gambit in the book without altering the game's outcome. In the end, it says "A strange game. The only winning move is not to play." Amen.

* ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness'':
** When Carol tells [[spoiler:Admiral Marcus]] he can't destroy the ''Enterprise'' with her on-board, he simply beams her onto his ship, then prepares to re-open fire.
** Khan threatens to attack the disabled ''Enterprise'' unless he gets his crew back. When Spock points out destroying the ship will also kill Khan's crew, Khan replies that he'll just destroy the life support and cut the oxygen. Since his crew are in cryosleep, they'll remain unharmed as the ''Enterprise'' crew suffocates.
* In ''Film/KingsmanTheSecretService'', Valentine's plot is this - rather than let humanity be wiped out by global warming or allowing global warming to rise to such an extent that Earth's ecosystem is destroyed and humanity dies anyway Valentine tries to wipe out nearly the entire population allowing humanity to survive and global warming to stop.

* ''Film/TheHungerGames'': At the end, Katniss and Peeta are the only tributes left. If one of them doesn't kill the other, then the game-makers will keep sending out predators and disasters until one of them dies. Instead, they [[spoiler:decide to both take poison berries, depriving the Games of their victor. Fortunately, the game-makers capitulate before they do.]]
* ''Film/TheHungerGamesCatchingFire'': After most tributes have died during the 75th Hunger Games, Katniss and Peeta are among the few still alive. They both know one of them would have to kill the other if they survive to end like in the previous Hunger Games. [[spoiler: Katniss chooses to destroy the force field of the arena, thus enabling both of them to leave the arena alive.]]
* ''Film/TheHungerGamesMockingjay'' part 2: After the war is over, Katniss and the other victors get offered to send some of the [[spoiler:Capitol's children into a Hunger Games]] in lieu of executing hundreds or thousands of torturers, game makers and Peacekeepers of the Capitol. [[spoiler: Katniss chooses to kill president Coin instead, thereby preventing any further violent deaths afterwards.]]

** ''[[Film/XMen1 X-Men]]'': Magneto is using Rogue as a LivingBattery for his machine (which will kill her) in his plan to turn humans into mutants (except the machine accidentally kills humans instead). Cyclops states that just shooting the machine would likely also kill Rogue, so Wolverine tries to manually tear it apart to pull Rogue out, only to be stopped by Magneto. When it looks like their only options are to sacrifice Rogue to save the city or let the machine run its course, Cyclops takes a third option [[spoiler:and shoots Magneto]].
-->'''Cyclops:''' I have a shot. I'm taking it. ''(fires)''

--> '''Snake:''' Shut down the third world, you win, they lose. Shut down America, they win, you lose. [[CycleOfRevenge The more things change, the more they stay the same.]]
--> '''President:''' So what are you going to do?
--> '''Snake:''' Disappear. (proceeds to shut off the entire world's electricity)

* In the climax of ''Film/HocusPocus'', with only a few minutes to go before sunrise, which will kill her, Winifred Sanderson has taken Max Dennison's younger sister Dani captive and tries to force-feed her a potion that will allow Winifred to suck out Dani's life to retain Winifred's youth and thus prevent her from dying. But Binx the cat intervenes against Winifred, causing her to drop the potion, which Max catches in his hand. He demands that Winifred let Dani go or he will smash the potion, but Winifred threatens to outright kill Dani if he does. What does Max do? [[HeroicSacrifice He downs the potion himself, effectively forcing Winifred to try and claim his life instead of Dani's.]]

** And though Winifred tries to suck out his life, it proves too little too late, as the sun rises, turning her to dust.

* ''Film/CaptainFantastic'' has protagonist Ben Cash initially want nothing more than to just help his late wife Leslie's posthumous wishes for cremation come true and subsequently have himself and his children return to their hippy lifestyle completely isolated from American society as a whole and utterly refuses to consider doing otherwise despite his sister and in-laws, and later two of his own sons, rightly claiming that his way of doing things is severely stunting the kids' social development and ability to survive and interact with society outside their immediate family bubble. But after [[BreakTheHaughty undergoing a brutal series of events]] that culminates in him very nearly getting one of his daughters killed in an ill advised attempt at forcing one of the sons to leave their maternal grandparents and return home to the wilderness despite said son having chosen to voluntarily live with said grandparents and want nothing more to do with the family, he tearfully considers (and temporarily goes through with) leaving his children with the grandparents and living alone under the feat that he's starting to cause more harm than good for them. Ultimately, after the kids (including the aforementioned one who'd previously no longer wanted anything to do with him) decide to reunite with him and successfully get Leslie's remains cremated, Ben manages to end up implicitly striking a compromise at the end of the film by having himself and his family settle down on a farm relatively isolated from the rest of society the way he likes to be, but lets eldest son Bodevan head out into the world to follow his own path while also enrolling the rest of the kids into school and allowing them the ability to leave the farm and interact with larger American society as a whole whenever they wish.

-->'''Cyclops:''' I have shot. I'm taking it. ''(fires)''

* In ''Film/MiracleOnThirtyFourthStreet'' (1947 version), Fred's CourtroomAntic of claiming Kris is sane because he is the one true Santa Claus initially puts the prosecutor in the position of admitting before an open court and ''his own son'' that there is no Santa Claus or dismissing the charges and letting Kris off. Instead, the prosecutor puts Fred on the defensive by conceding the point that Santa Claus is real, but pointing out that that doesn't necessarily mean Kris is Santa Claus.

* In ''Who Am I?'', Creator/JackieChan's character is confronted by two thugs on the roof of a building, who give him two choices: "Give us the disk and jump off," the disk being the MacGuffin of the movie, or "We take the disk and throw you off." Instead, Jackie says, "I like the third choice: I keep the disk and throw you both off." ([[spoiler:During the ensuing fight scene, nobody actually gets thrown off.]])

* In ''Film/EscapeFromLA'', Snake Plissken (who has revealed that he has the real Sword of Damocles arming device) is faced with the choice of either allowing the U.S. to destroy the Shining Path (thus ensuring that the CrapsackWorld quota is maintained stateside) or wiping out the U.S. infrastructure grid and validating Cuervo Jones' plan to invade and take over the country.

* Towards the end of ''The Bank'', Wayne, who blames the bank's CEO Simon for his son's death, bursts into Simon's office with a shotgun with the intention of killing him. Simon tells Wayne that while his son's death was tragic, he doesn't consider himself responsible, but to go ahead and do what he thinks he has to do. As Wayne contemplates whether to go through with it and spend the rest of his life in prison or forgo his revenge and possibly still do some time, [[spoiler:the phone rings. Simon insists on answering it. Wayne realises Simon would rather die than miss the call, so he shoots the phone, then goes outside and shoots the fuse box.]]

* Spoofed somewhat at the end of the Creator/PeterSellers comedy ''I Love You, Alice B. Toklas!'' Faced with the choice of confining-but-stable upper-middle-class marriage or free-spirited-but-superficial hippie life, Sellers' middle-aged hero runs away from his second attempt at marrying his fiance from the former group. When asked by a passerby where he's going, he admits he doesn't know, and he doesn't care. He is determined to ''find'' a third option - the one that will bring him happiness.

* ''Film/TheCommuter'': A hypothetical example. After Michael drops hints about how he's been tried to identify someone on the train for a fairly nebulous purpose and is unsure whether or not to keep it up, Jackson says that if he were the guy, he'd take the money and keep looking but warn the person to get off at the next stop and pretend he'd come up empty.

* In ''Film/{{Star Trek II|The Wrath of Khan}}'', it's not entirely clear whether Kirk is using this or the DungeonBypass tactic when he reprograms [[UnwinnableTrainingSimulation The Kobayashi Maru]] into a winnable scenario. This flows into a central theme of the film: Kirk has made a career on taking the third option, so when situations finally arise where there and definitely is ''no'' third option, he's completely unprepared. However, it's ultimately played straight in the climax when Kirk [[TwoDSpace Takes A Third Dimension]] to defeat Khan.

* In the 1985 version of ''Literature/BrewstersMillions'' Brewster's "None of the Above" political campaign results in neither of the two candidates wining thus forcing another election.

* In ''Who Am I?'', Creator/JackieChan's character is confronted by two thugs on the roof of a building, who give him two choices: "Give us the disk and jump off," said disk being the MacGuffin of the movie, or "We take the disk and throw you off." Instead, Jackie says, "I like the third choice: I keep the disk and throw you both off." ([[spoiler:During the ensuing fight scene, nobody actually gets thrown off.]])

* Subverted in ''Film/PunisherWarZone'': [[spoiler: the villains trap Frank in a SadisticChoice that forces him to [[ShootTheDog kill one hostage to save another]]. Frank instead elects to take a third option, killing one hostage taker to release his captives, consequently sacrificing the other captive to the other hostage taker. However, since said hostage had already offered his life to Frank beforehand to save the others, Frank essentially made a choice that accomplished the same result, but without the hostage's blood in his hands.]]

** And as Beck attempts to leave the bar with an angry, handcuffed Travis in tow, in walks [[Creator/ChristopherWalken Cornelius Hatcher]], who refuses to let Beck leave with Travis.
-->'''Travis''': Allow me to introduce you to Option C...
** By the end of the movie, a true Option C presents itself: [[spoiler: Beck takes Travis to LA, but helps him escape his father's wrath.]]

* In ''Film/{{Star Trek II|The Wrath of Khan}}'', it's not entirely clear whether Kirk is using this or the DungeonBypass tactic when he reprograms [[UnwinnableTrainingSimulation The Kobayashi Maru]] into a winnable scenario.
** The film is a heavy deconstruction of Take a Third Option: Kirk has made a career on taking the third option, so when situations finally arise where there and definitely is ''no'' third option, he's completely unprepared.
*** Played straight in the climax when Kirk [[TwoDSpace Takes A Third Dimension]] to defeat Khan.

** Later, Ben uses the Declaration as a bargaining chip with Sadusky. When he caps it off with a request to not go to prison, Sadusky tells him, "Someone's got to go to prison, Ben." Ben tells him, "Well, if you have a helicopter, I think I can help with that." [[spoiler:[[GilliganCut Cue Ian trying to break into the Old North Church in Boston only to be busted by an army of feds who were led there by Ben himself.]]]]

** According to ''WebAnimation/HowItShouldHaveEnded'', there was a ''fourth'' option that Holmes hadn't considered - calling Watson to even the odds. Moriarty may be a former Cambridge boxing champion, but Watson was a soldier and is also much younger. Of course, Watson was busy trying to find Moriarty's agent, and Holmes couldn't know when he would be finished or free him up. Since we know Holmes' only goal was "keep Watson safe", involving him in a fight would not feasible.

** In ''Film/TheDarkKnight'', [[spoiler: this is both subverted and played straight. Batman saves Harvey Dent's life at the cost of Rachel's, since Commissioner Gordon would never make it in time to save her, with the added twist that the Joker purposely gave them the wrong addresses. Later on in the film, the civilians and the prisoners decide against sacrificing the other group in exchange for their lives like the Joker had originally planned.]]

* In ''Film/SherlockHolmesAGameOfShadows'', Holmes' final confrontation with Professor Moriarty [[ItWasHisSled over the Reichenbach Falls]] is something of a variant in that Holmes isn't strictly being forced into a making a ''choice'' so much as he believes he's locked into a scenario that has one inevitable outcome. As they stare each other down, he and Moriarty start mentally mapping out their tactics and counter-moves in their imminent fight, and as the scenario plays out in their minds, they both conclude that it could only end one way: with Holmes dying at Moriarty's hands. Thus in the name of protecting Watson and his wife, Sherlock applies some quick, outside-the-box thinking and [[spoiler:subverts the fight entirely; he clamps his arms around Moriarty and [[TakingYouWithMe throws them both over the ledge]].]]

* StarWars:

* In ''Film/SherlockHolmesAGameOfShadows'', Holmes' final confrontation with Professor Moriarty [[ItWasHisSled over the Reichenbach Falls]] is something of a variant in that Holmes isn't strictly being forced into a making a ''choice'' so much as he believes he's locked into a scenario that has one inevitable outcome. As they stare each other down, he and Moriarty start mentally mapping out their tactics and counter-moves in their imminent fight, and as the scenario plays out in their minds, they both conclude that it could only end one way: with Holmes dying at Moriarty's hands. Thus in the name of protecting Watson and his wife, Sherlock applies some quick, outside-the-box thinking and [[spoiler:subverts the fight entirely: he clamps his arms around Moriarty and [[TakingYouWithMe throw them ''both'' over the ledge]].]]

* In ''Film/SherlockHolmesAGameOfShadows'', Holmes' final confrontation with Professor Moriarty [[ItWasHisSled over the Reichenbach Falls]] boils down to a choice between letting Moriarty go, knowing that Moriarty will take revenge by killing Dr. Watson and his new wife, or trying to fight the former Cambridge boxing champion while suffering from a serious shoulder injury, which he deduces will result in his own death ''and'' Moriarty going after the Watsons anyway. Holmes' third option is [[spoiler:to grab Moriarty and [[TakingYouWithMe throw them both over the Falls]].]]