History WhatMeasureIsAMook / Film

** In ''Film/BlackPanther'', the behind-the-scenes GadgeteerGenius, Shuri gets in on a conflict operating a remotely-controlled van, but is visibly alarmed ("Hey, what was that?!-") when the vehicle bumps over one of Klaue's henchmen. Her brother, on site, says not to worry and the question's left there.

* ''Film/HeadInTheClouds'': Guy shoots a Nationalist enemy soldier during an ambush in the Spanish Civil War, getting the locket he was carrying afterward with a photo of a pretty young woman. He muses on who she is to him, and thinks she'll miss his coming home, poignantly realizing that even a random enemy is still a human being with loves ones.

* ''Film/AustinPowers''
** Parodied with great relish in the deleted scenes from the [[Film/AustinPowersInternationalManOfMystery first film]]. All the henchmen Austin kills have families and friends, who are shown receiving the news of their deaths. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hD3w_VdTG30 One had a wedding coming up,]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag_AFraxj-4 the other was happily married with a stepson]]. The scenes were major MoodWhiplash, especially given the silly ways they died, which is probably why they didn't make the final cut. (For America, that is. They were in the UK/EU cut.)
** In ''[[Film/AustinPowersInGoldmember Goldmember]]'', Nigel is able to defeat a {{mook|s}} by reminding him of how many anonymous henchmen he's indiscriminately killed over the years. The fact that he's [[NominalImportance not even wearing a name tag]] is not improving his chances. Nigel just decides the guy is too pathetic to kill and orders him to lie down and play dead.

* In ''Film/OnDeadlyGround'', Creator/StevenSeagal's character brutally massacres dozens of guards on an oil rig, some of whom aren't even posing a real threat to him, ostensibly for the horrific crime of being ''accessories'' to pollution. After killing all these people, he finally gets the BigBad right where he wants him, and ''then'' decides he's not worth killing (though TheChick then takes the initiative to off the BigBad herself). He more or less ''kills one for smoking'' (OK, smoking on an oil rig is not very smart, but blowing one up isn't either).

** Lampshaded in ''Film/GoldenEye'', when Trevelyan asks bitterly if "[[TheAlcoholic all the]] [[TrademarkFavouriteFood vodka martinis]] silence the screams of all the men you've killed", implying that for Bond's AntiHero tendencies, [[ShellShockedVeteran all the mooks he has killed over the years really have got to him]].

* ''Film/RoadHouse'': When Creator/PatrickSwayze's character breaks into the BigBad's mansion, he beats the tar out of him, but then can't bring himself to kill him... despite having killed nearly all the villain's henchmen on the way in.

* ''Franchise/TheMatrix'' films, particularly the [Film/TheMatrix first film]], has this happening in spades to the human security guards and law-enforcement officers.

* ''Film/TheMatrix'' films, particularly the first film, has this happening in spades to the human security guards and law-enforcement officers.

** Website/PointlessWasteOfTime pointed this out in a critique of the Matrix, painting a mental picture of an aging, underpaid security guard who can barely afford his wife's arthritis medication, suddenly gunned down by a group of leather-clad murderers with whom he had no quarrel.

* While ''Merantau'' does not explicitly confirm the mooks' deaths, the protagonist uses a number of techniques that would almost unquestionably kill, notably kicking a man in the head in the middle of a running long jump such that his body is sent flipping backward and whips his skull into the corner of a steel shipping container. However, seeing as how said mooks were all willingly participating in human trafficking and slavery, it's somewhat difficult to feel sorry for them; also, it's not like their bosses got any preferential treatment either.

* {{Discussed|Trope}} in ''Film/{{Clerks}}'', when Dante and Randall are talking about the thousands of innocent contractors that [[FridgeHorror must have been]] blown up when [[Film/ReturnOfTheJedi the second Death Star]] was destroyed. They are then interrupted by a man who works putting up drywall who tells them about how he was offered a substantial amount of money to work on a gangster's house. He refused, but let one of his friends know, and he took the job. Later, a rival gang pulled up to the house and murdered his friend and everyone on his team trying to whack the gangster - ''who wasn't even home''.

** ''Film/{{Moonraker}}'': Although Bond does kill the main villain, the film's secondary bad guy, Jaws, changes sides at the last minute and receives redemption. Meanwhile it is strongly implied (yet pointedly never directly shown on screen) that Drax's "master race" specimens, whose only crime it seems was to be genetically perfect and be on his payroll, are either slaughtered by the US troops who invade the station or are left to die as it breaks up. Keep in mind that this would have also likely included Dolly, Jaws' cute and kind girlfriend (but technically a mook - she even wears the "yellow suit of death") had he not changed sides. Well they ''were'' willing participants in his conspiracy to ''kill everyone on Earth''.
* The Theater Director and The Bowery King from ''Film/JohnWickChapter3Parabellum'' are both given harsh - but nonfatal - punishments from The Table, equivalent to how much they helped the fugitive John Wick. The men in their respective hideouts are not so lucky, and mostly get their throats slit from the shadows for the crime of having followed their bosses' orders.

*** Perhaps made even darker when you consider that said invincible Agents, when their circumstances are less dire, make a point of protecting human agents of authority-if only because [[AuthorityInNameOnly they work for them]], and law and order is fundamentally important to keeping the populace from dying in inconveniently large numbers.

* The Operative in ''Film/{{Serenity}}'' is a subversion-he respects all human lives including those he takes, which is any he deems necessary for his cause, be it his own mooks or even children. The only time in the film he is ever angry is after Mal pulls a stunt that gets hundreds of Alliance mooks killed. When the Operative tells Mal that a lot of innocent people died because of what he did, he shows a similar respect for anonymous combatants, replying "you have no idea how true that is" in reference to [[spoiler:the Reavers, who were innocent people themselves before the Alliance made them what they were]].

---> '''Henchman:''' [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments No it wasn't!]]

* While ''Merantau'' does not explicitly confirm the mooks' deaths, the protagonist uses a number of techniques that would almost unquestionably kill, notably kicking a man in the head in the middle of a running long jump such that his body is sent flipping backward and whips his skull into the corner of a steel shipping container. However, seeing as how said mooks were all willingly participating in human trafficking and slavery, it's somewhat difficult to feel sorry for them.

** ''Film/{{Moonraker}}''. Although Bond does kill the main villain, the film's secondary bad guy, Jaws, changes sides at the last minute and receives redemption. Meanwhile it is strongly implied (yet pointedly never directly shown on screen) that Drax's "master race" specimens, whose only crime it seems was to be genetically perfect and be on his payroll, are either slaughtered by the US troops who invade the station or are left to die as it breaks up. Keep in mind that this would have also likely included Dolly, Jaws' cute and kind girlfriend (but technically a mook - she even wears the "yellow suit of death") had he not changed sides. Well they ''were'' willing participants in his conspiracy to ''kill everyone on Earth''.

* ''Film/{{Moonraker}}''. Although Bond does kill the main villain, the film's secondary bad guy, Jaws, changes sides at the last minute and receives redemption. Meanwhile it is strongly implied (yet pointedly never directly shown on screen) that Drax's "master race" specimens, whose only crime it seems was to be genetically perfect and be on his payroll, are either slaughtered by the US troops who invade the station or are left to die as it breaks up. Keep in mind that this would have also likely included Dolly, Jaws' cute and kind girlfriend (but technically a mook - she even wears the "yellow suit of death") had he not changed sides. Well they ''were'' willing participants in his conspiracy to ''kill everyone on Earth''.

* In ''Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheTwoTowers'', Aragorn prevents King Theoden from killing Grima Wormtongue, a willing traitor to the King, saying "Enough blood has been spilled on his account", allowing Grima to leave freely with no punishment. Yet in the following battle, the narration is explicit, not even one orc is taken prisoners by the heroes, something that is consistent throughout the series, despite orcs showing sentience and having humanlike personalities. This is [[https://www.cracked.com/article_237_6-lord-rings-characters-who-totally-dropped-ball.html pointed out by]] ''Website/{{Cracked}}'' and spoofed in the ''Magazine/{{Mad}}'' parody of ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheReturnOfTheKing The Return of the King]]''; in the latter the Aragorn lets Grima go only so [[BloodKnight he can fight]] more Dorcs (orcs). This incident does not occur in [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings the book]], where Grima is released on Gandalf's suggestion as a form of trial: his actions will show whether he is or is not a traitor.

** Subsequent sequel films zig-zagged the issue of the value of stormtroopers' lives. ''Film/TheLastJedi'' had a deleted scene in which several troopers appear to question their loyalties moments before [[HeelFaceDoorSlam Phasma kills them all.]] ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'' introduces a clan of ex-stormtroopers led by Jannah, though the implication is that ones like her and Finn only broke away because of their Force sensitivity. Additionally [[WhatCouldHaveBeen a discarded plot for Episode IX]] before the change in directors and scripts included Finn leading a rebellion on Coruscant, which included defecting stormtroopers.

** Generally played straight in ''Film/AntMan'', wherein plenty of suit-wearing {{Mooks}} get knocked out and left behind to die in Cross' building when it implodes (along with any civilians, cops, etc. who might have been in there). However, in one aversion, Luis makes a point of going back for the guy whose clothes he stole. He gets him out of the building in time, risking his own life to do so, and even ensures he gets medical attention. (To be fair, that mook never tried to attack Luis.)

* Subverted in ''Film/CityOfGod''. One of the guards shot dead in a montage sequence has an [[spoiler: adolescent son who witnesses his death at the hands of the heroic gang leader. The son joins the gang to take revenge and kills Ned at the end]].
* Discussed in ''Film/{{Clerks}}'', when Dante and Randall are talking about the thousands of innocent contractors that [[FridgeHorror must have been]] blown up when the Death Star was destroyed. They are then interrupted by a man who works putting up drywall who tells them about how he was offered a substantial amount of money to work on a gangster's house. He refused, but let one of his friends know, and he took the job. Later, a rival gang pulled up to the house and murdered his friend and everyone on his team trying to whack the gangster - ''who wasn't even home''.

* Parodied with great relish in the deleted scenes from the first ''Film/AustinPowers'' film. All the henchmen Austin kills have families and friends, who are shown receiving the news of their deaths. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hD3w_VdTG30 One had a wedding coming up,]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag_AFraxj-4 the other was happily married with a stepson]]. The scenes were major MoodWhiplash, especially given the silly ways they died, which is probably why they didn't make the final cut. (For America, that is. They were in the UK/EU cut.)
** In Part III, Nigel is able to defeat a {{mook|s}} by reminding him of how many anonymous henchmen he's indiscriminately killed over the years. The fact that he's [[NominalImportance not even wearing a name tag]] is not improving his chances. Nigel just decides the guy is too pathetic to kill and orders him to lie down and play dead.

* In ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' Aragorn prevents King Theoden from killing Grima Wormtongue, a willing traitor to the King, saying "Enough blood has been spilled on his account", allowing Grima to leave freely with no punishment. Yet in the following battle, the narration is explicit, not even one orc is taken prisoners by the heroes, something that is consistent throughout the series, despite orcs showing sentience and having humanlike personalities. This is [[https://www.cracked.com/article_237_6-lord-rings-characters-who-totally-dropped-ball.html pointed out by]] ''Website/{{Cracked}}'' and spoofed in the ''Magazine/{{Mad}}'' parody of ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheReturnOfTheKing Return of the King]]''; in the latter the Aragorn lets Grima go only so [[BloodKnight he can fight]] more Dorcs(orcs). This incident does not occur in [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings the book]], where Grima is released on Gandalf's suggestion as a form of trial: his actions will show whether he is or is not a traitor.