Line #8 BatmanGambit/LiveActionFilms


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7	{{Batman Gambit}}s in LiveActionFilms.
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12	* Film/NineteenSeventeen: The Germans have allowed the British to believe that they have the German army on the run, knowing it will encourage the British to launch an all out attack. They have actually just moved back to a newly completed series of defensive fortifications from which they will slaughter the British forces. Despite the attack being called off, the strategy still worked to an extent as it resulted in Mackenzie losing many of his men by death or injury.
13	* In the ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' parody ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYQKDqjCEBQ Me and the Big Guy]]'', the end implies that the annoyingly happy-go-lucky Citizen 43275-B was trying to annoy Big Brother so much that he would kill the telescreen, allowing him to write his diary in peace.
14	* ''Film/{{Blitz}}'': Brant pulls a good one on [[spoiler: Weiss]] at the end. After [[spoiler: Weiss is released from prison, Brant knows that Weiss will come after him next because of the humiliation and persecution that Brant has put him through. Brant also knows that the best place for Weiss to do that would be right after Robert's funeral---and that Weiss still has the cop uniform that he stole in order to help in his crimes. So Brant leaves during the funeral, knowing that Weiss is watching and following him, before driving to the same parking garage where the evidence against Weiss was found. He then manages to momentarily shake off Weiss before pulling a bait-and-switch with Nash, who proceeds to the top of the garage, seemingly oblivious to Weiss' presence. Once Weiss corners Nash, Brant disarms him and beats him senseless before killing him with his own gun---or rather, the Blitz's gun, as Weiss was judged innocent. Brant manages to turn Weiss' desire for petty vengeance into the foolproof illusion that [[{{Irony}} Weiss is simply another one of the victims murdered by the very criminal identity that he created.]]]]
15	* The eponymous protagonist of ''Film/TheBourneSeries'' is a master at these, one of his favorite methods being to deliberately get himself red-flagged on the grid in order to facilitate a particular agenda. {{Lampshade\|Hanging}}d in ''Supremacy'' by Nicky Parsons when she corrects an overzealous agent that assumes Bourne is slipping when they detect him in Naples, asserting that operatives like himself ''always'' have an objective to their actions. Pamela Landy was able to deduce his intentions when he uses the same tactic again in the film's climax.
16	* ''Film/ButchCassidyAndTheSundanceKid''. [[spoiler:E.H. Harriman baits the Hole-in-the-Wall gang with another train, then sends the Posse From Hell after them.]]
17	* ''Film/TheCabinInTheWoods'', [[spoiler: The entire ritual sacrifice masterminded by the Director hinges on the victims playing up to actual horror movie tropes. They must ignore the warnings and must enter the spooky cellar and mess with an artifact unleashing some type of horror. If they don't, then the entire sacrifice fails and the world ends.]]
18	* ''Film/{{Casper}}'' and Kat pull this on Carrigan after she dies and comes back as a ghost to steal Casper's treasure and then use his father's Lazurus Machine to come back to life. [[spoiler: They reminded her about her supposed unfinished business, noting that all ghosts have unfinished business which is why they don't cross over. She promptly boasted that she had everything that she wanted, so she had no unfinished business. [[PuffOfLogic No sooner had she said that, than she crossed over.]]]]
19	* Similarly, at the end of the film version of ''Film/TheCatInTheHat'', it's revealed that the Cat had planned the whole day out in advance. This almost entirely hinged on Conrad removing the lock from the Things' dimensional crate, for no reason other than because the Cat had forbidden him from doing so. When Conrad and Sally express incredulity at this level of planning, the Cat notes that he'd deliberately made "don't open the crate" his one rule because he ''knew'' Conrad wouldn't be able to resist breaking it.
20	* In ''Film/{{Chicago}}'', Billy Flynn manages a rather ingenious BatmanGambit of his own. [[spoiler:He fabricates entries in Roxie's diary that state her guilt in an overly-blatant manner and sends it to Mama Morton, knowing that she'll give it to Velma. Knowing, thusly, that Velma will give it to D.A. Harrison, and that Harrison will be so eager to take Roxie and Billy down that he'll make a deal with Velma for the "evidence". And then Flynn builds up a massive mid-trial accusation of Harrison having fabricated the entries himself, since they're so obviously false. In one fell swoop, knowing exactly how everyone will react, Billy manages to get both Roxie and Velma off the hook while taking down his primary rival in the legal arena. Bruce Wayne would be proud... or furious.]]
21	* Mr. Boddy employs one of these in [[spoiler:the third ending of]] ''Film/{{Clue}}''. [[spoiler: TheButlerDidIt. Sort of. Wadsworth was Mr. Boddy the entire time; the one that was killed was actually his butler. His entire plan involved getting the houseguests he had been blackmailing to kill off his informants, now a liability, and destroy all of the evidence against him. Clearly his scheme would've backfired had one of the guests taken the fake Mr. Boddy's advice and killed him instead, or not killed anyone at all. In the end, he almost succeeded, if not for TheMole.]]
22	* The entire film, ''Film/Confessions2010'', is one against [[spoiler:the two students who killed their teacher's daughter.]]
23	* Rare nonhuman example: In ''Film/DeepBlueSea'', the intelligent sharks not only find a way to get loose in the part-flooded interior of the floating research station, but they [[spoiler: herd the humans in such a way that they keep flooding additional parts of the complex, causing it to sink so low that the sharks will be able to swim out of the fenced-in lagoon and into the ocean]].
24	* In ''Film/{{Deewaar}}'', Vijay counts on Samant's greed to gain his trust... which Vijay instantly takes advantage of. Specifically, Vijay delivers gold belonging to Samant's rival Daavar, promises to help Samant more in the future to get out of Samant's initial idea of getting a BallisticDiscount, and when he's been paid he immediately steals the gold back.
25	* Another master of plan B would be Tony Wendice from ''Film/DialMForMurder''. This trope is actually subverted a few times as Tony is never quite able to anticipate everything that will happen, despite his incredibly intricate schemes. The bulk of the film is set up by the failure of his first one: having blackmailed a classmate turned two bit crook into killing his cheating wife Margot and set up a perfect alibi for himself alongside Mark, the man who she was cheating on him with, Margot's will to live is a bit too strong and she ends up killing the man in their desperate struggle. Tony spends the rest of the film trying to make it look like she killed the man in cold blood rather than self defense, wildly improvising whenever someone is about to send it all crashing down again. This is all even {{lampshade\|Hanging}}d early on when Mark, a novelist who specializes in just this kind of story, notes that he would never try one in real life because there will always be just one little thing that no one can anticipate.
26	* The villains in the ''Franchise/DieHard'' movies are particularly fond of this:
27	** Hans Gruber's [[spoiler: planned theft]] in ''Film/DieHard'' is completely dependent on the [[spoiler: FBI cutting electrical power (per standard procedure), which disables the magnetic lock on the Nakatomi Plaza vault]]. The plan falls apart, however, thanks to a barefoot New York cop who just happened to be visiting his wife.
28	** In ''Film/DieHard2'', the Dulles airport police think they can easily retake the air traffic control system by going out to a particular terminal where they can access the system. Despite the terrorists having warned them not to try, the terrorists knew they would anyway ... because the SWAT team that goes out there [[spoiler:is killed in an ambush]][[note]]Lampshaded by [=McClane=], who notes beforehand how that area is ideal for exactly that[[/note]].
29	** Hans's brother Simon uses this in ''Film/DieHardWithAVengeance'', thus proving the Batman Gambit is hereditary. He leads the police on a wild goose chase, making them think he's setting off bombs to get revenge on John [=McClane=] for killing his brother, when the bombs are a mere distraction to keep the NYPD away from him while he puts his ''real'' plan into motion: robbing the Federal Reserve. He's only undone because he stupidly went back to the same truck stop where he bought aspirin for his migraines (which he then proceeded to give to [=McClane=] as a joke).
30	* In ''Film/{{Dogma}}'', Azrael's plan to destroy reality via LoopholeAbuse hinges on two major things: that Loki and Bartleby don't realize that performing said LoopholeAbuse would destroy reality, and that God is incapacitated long enough that He can't stop them. When Bartleby and Loki ''do'' realize what's going on, Bartleby is so far down the DespairEventHorizon that he's willing to pull a SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum, but the plan is barely stopped once Bethany finally realizes where God is.
31	** Bartleby also pulls off a stupidly simple one at the end of the movie. He needs his wings removed to become human so he can enter the church and have his sins purged, but he's just killed his companion Loki, who would have done it had he not have a HeelRealization much earlier. Enter Jay, who got a hold of a sub-machine gun and is ready to shoot him. Bartleby just ducks down and spreads out his wings, counting on Jay to ''not aim''. Indeed, Jay just shoots Bartleby's wings, and by the time Rufus and Serendipity stop him, it's too late: he's run out of bullets and Bartleby's wingless.
32	* ''Film/AFewGoodMen'':
33	** Knowing that the Dawson/Downey case is potentially embarrassing to a high ranking marine official and trying to make it go away quickly and quietly, they assign it to Lt. Kaffee, anticipating that he will follow his usual tactic of avoiding trial by making a plea-bargain for a reduced sentence.
34	** Despite repeated warnings from the judge, Kaffee keeps pushing Col. Jessup in court as to whether he ordered the "code red". He correctly assumes that [[spoiler: not only did Jessup order it, he doesn't think he did anything wrong and is dying to say it.]]
35	* In ''Film/GhostShip'', [[spoiler:Ferriman]]'s plan hinges on people falling for their greed to complete his mission to collect souls. His plan goes awry when one of his would-be-victims chooses self-sacrifice to destroy the ship once and for all over the promise of getting rich off the gold.
36	* In ''Film/GIJoeTheRiseOfCobra'', [=McCullen=]'s master plan is actually a pretty good one, to create global fear of terrorism so the entire world will seek unifying leadership from the most powerful man on the planet. Duke wrongly assumes that [=McCullen=] delusionally thinks he's that man. Nope, it's [[spoiler: the President of the United States]], who's really [=McCullen=]'s man Zartan.
37	* In ''Film/TheGodfather'', Carlo first antagonises his wife by having his mistress call just before he gets home, knowing that will drive her insane enough to give him the pretext to beat her, knowing that she will then call her family, so [[spoiler:Sonny]] will get wind of it, go into a rage and drive over to him for revenge, where he can be [[spoiler:murdered by Barzini's men]] at a toll booth between their homes.
38	* In the finale of ''Film/GranTorino'', [[spoiler:Walt Kowalski [[ThanatosGambit tricks the Hmong gang into]] [[TearJerker gunning down an unarmed elderly man (Walt himself)]] [[HeroicSacrifice in front of a neighborhood of witnesses]]]].
39	* In ''Film/{{Hardwired}}'', Hal gives Gibson enough information to pump up his rage and turn him into a weapon, a weapon that can be directed toward Hope Corp. Notably, he nearly fails due to Gibson getting ''too'' angry.
40	* In ''Film/{{Heat}}'', [=McCauley's=] crew meet up in a particular location seemingly to paint it as their next target, as well as to map out the viable escape routes, while Hanna's team surveys their activities secretly. When Hanna and his team later assemble on the same location to break down the gameplan of [=McCauley's=] crew, they quickly discover the worthlessness of the target location, as well as the absence of any effective escape routes. Hanna then realizes that [=McCauley's=] plan all along was to get his team out in the open so that the latter could get a good glimpse of the men pursuing them.
41	* In ''Film/HouseOfGames'', TheCon works out because the heroine is doing exactly what she is supposed to do.
42	* The interesting thing about the film version of ''Film/HowTheGrinchStoleChristmas'' is that the Grinch's titular plan to steal Christmas hinges on the fact that Whoville really ''is'' that materialistic that they'd plunge into the DespairEventHorizon when he stole everything. And if it [[NiceJobFixingItVillain wasn't for the Mayor humiliating Cindy Lou]], he would have won. Instead, he gets a HeelRealization that leads to a HeelFaceTurn.
43	* In ''Film/TheHungerGamesMockingjayPart2'', [[spoiler:the only reason that Haymitch and Katniss go along with Coin's proposition for the Capitol Games is so Katniss has an actual political justification to kill her during Snow's execution. Coin's death would be justified by the insidious plot she had planned]].
44	* The sci-fi film ''Film/HunterPrey'' features one on the part of the aforementioned prey.
45	* ''Film/{{Inception}}'' has a rather elaborate one; since the team trying to incept an idea into Fischer's mind stumbled across larger problems, [[spoiler:Cobb ends up tricking Fischer into participating in the inception by making him believe that his godfather is the one infiltrating his mind.]] It would increase the danger for all since Fischer is the subject, meaning that his subconscious would act up after having attention called to the fact that Fischer is in a dream.
46	* Film/JamesBond:
47	** ''Film/{{Octopussy}}'':
48	*** Bond forces [[BigBad Kamal Khan]] to bid even higher for the Faberge egg at the Sotheby's auction, suspecting a connection to his fellow agent's murder when a duplicate of said egg was recovered. Having successfully forced Kamal's hand, Bond then makes clear his intent to blackmail Kamal [[ReplacedWithReplica when he switches the real egg with the duplicate]]. Even M, who was shocked at Bond's actions, seems mildly impressed just as Bond departs for India.
49	*** [[RenegadeRussian General Orlov]] tries to sneak a nuclear warhead into a US Air Force base in West Germany and detonate it, [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident having it look like an accidental detonation of one of the base's own warheads]]. This would make Western Europe push for disarmament and leave them vulnerable for invasion by Orlov's forces.
50	** [[SmugSnake General Koskov]] in ''Film/TheLivingDaylights'' has a lot on his plate: a phony KGB defection, two fake assassination attempts (one carried out by his girlfriend), a couple of kidnappings, a few ''real'' assassinations, and a weapons-for-opium smuggling operation. All of which would have left [=MI6=] looking like idiots, his rival in the Soviet military dead and discredited, his girlfriend killed and himself very, very rich, if only Bond hadn't realized Koskov's girlfriend wasn't a professional assassin and refused to kill her...
51	** Raoul Silva's escape from [=MI6=] custody in ''Film/{{Skyfall}}'' [[GambitRoulette appears to succeed only because of several factors outside his control falling in his favour]], but at the same time he seems to have planned for things to happen this way well in advance. First he is held in the same facility where his laptop is handled, and it releases a virus which takes down the local computer network, allowing Silva to escape in the confusion. The virus wasn't even set to trigger at the first attempt at breaking into the files, but at a specific method of trying to open them. Fortunately for Silva, his cell and the area around it was also lightly guarded enough that he manages to escape into the old sewer systems under London. Bond chases after him, and catches up in a large cavern, where Silva already had a bomb set in the ceiling where the subway line passes over it. He blows it open, and soon a train comes crashing down, cutting Bond off. Good thing Silva wasn't forced to detonate it a few minutes earlier or later, which would have given the subway controllers enough time to be alerted about the broken track and halt traffic over it. Then Silva surfaces at a nearby subway station, where his henchmen knew to be waiting for him... somehow.
52	*** It is also implied that Silva getting captured in the first place was a Batman Gambit to allow him to approach M and cause serious damage to [=MI6=] while escaping, and it is quite possible that he had more Batman Gambits prepared for after his escape, which is why Bond upon realizing he and M are trapped in Silva's Batman Moebius Strip, [[SpannerintheWorks decides to do something he would never do in different circumstances]], [[spoiler: to "kidnap" M and to return to his childhood home in [[TitleDrop Skyfall Manor]] and set up a trap for Silva and his men there]]. Sadly this doesn't stop Silva from gradually succeeding in the end, since technically his objective was [[spoiler: to kill M and destroy [=MI6=] and he succeeded in the first part]].
53	* In ''Film/KamenRiderXSuperSentaiSuperHeroTaisen'', [[spoiler: [[Series/KaizokuSentaiGokaiger Captain Marvelous]] and [[Series/KamenRiderDecade Tsukasa]]]] perform one on DaiZangyack and DaiShocker. After learning that DaiZangyack and DaiShocker, via Doktor G and Rider Hunter Silva, seek to eliminate the Kamen Riders and Super Sentai and make the world their own via the powerful "Big Machine", [[spoiler:Marvelous and Tsukasa]] end up doing the job for them, [[spoiler:taking over the groups, then actually hiding everyone with the exception of Doc, the Series/TokumeiSentaiGobusters and Series/KamenRiderFourze in another dimension.]] And it works! Until [[spoiler:[[SpannerInTheWorks Daiki Kaito -- Kamen Rider Diend -- got angry at being used like that and created Big Machine on his own.]]]]
54	* Clyde Shelton's "[[{{Revenge}} justice]]" in ''Film/LawAbidingCitizen'' relies on a number of these. Of course, it's possible in some cases he did have a back-up plan, but at other times it seems highly unlikely.
55	** [[spoiler: Catch Darby by having him panic and helping him escape.]] Relied precisely on knowing how he would react. Specifically, [[spoiler: Darby, instead of forcing the "police officer" to drive using his own gun, may have gotten in the other side and pulled the "officer" out of the car instead. He also may have been carrying a second gun.]]
56	** [[spoiler: Murdering his cellmate to be put into solitary confinement. What if Rice or that other guy had paid attention when their informant told them it must have been a Batman Gambit (or just figured it out themselves, it wasn't that hard), and had taken him out of there and/or searched the cell thoroughly? The funny thing is that they ''did'' figure out Clyde had some sort of elaborate plot, but didn't think he'd be able to do anything from jail and he must've had an accomplice on the outside.]]
57	** [[spoiler: Murdering the judge with an explosive cell phone.]] Very likely to succeed, though, since who wouldn't take the call like that?
58	** [[spoiler: Let me go by six o'clock tomorrow or I'll kill everyone (with exploding cars). Failure conditions: If they ''had'' checked the gas tanks as well, or one of the people leaving would have got the same paranoid feeling as I did that the cars might explode or something, or if they ''had let him free''.]] The last might actually have crippled his ability to run the show, but he would've "won" by getting them to abandon the law. Of course... it wasn't very likely anyway.
59	* In ''Film/LeSamourai'', a hitman plants himself outside his (married) girlfriend's apartment, waiting for her husband to come home before leaving to perform a hit. The hitman is later brought in for questioning by the police and his girlfriend and her husband are brought in to identify him. The husband (suspicious of him sleeping with his wife) picks him out of a lineup, assuming he's fingering him for a crime, when in reality he's offering him an airtight alibi for the killing.
60	* In ''Film/TheLincolnLawyer'', [[AmoralAttorney Mick Haller]] leaks the existence of a jailhouse snitch named DJ Curliss, who was letting it be known he that Haller's current client, Louis Rolet, had confessed to the crime he was accused of to him. Haller knew the District Attorney would pounce on this damning evidence against his client. Haller was counting on his exuberance to make him not look too closely at Curliss' history: He's a known "snitch for hire" and has been nailed for lying under oath before. This completely derails the state's attempted rape/murder case against Rolet. This also causes the DA to take a closer look at a similar previous case, for which another client of Haller's had been convicted. [[spoiler: Rolet committed both crimes. Haller's gambit not only cleared his legal obligation for his current case, but helped him make right the previous one, the latter of which is what he really wanted all along.]]
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64	* ''Film/TheManWhoNeverWas'' tells a fictionalized version of Operation Mincemeat from the RealLife section.
65	* In ''Film/MaryPoppins'', the title character (apparently) pulls this on Mr. Banks. First, she puts the idea in his head that he should take his children on an outing to the bank. Then she tells the children all about the bird woman, whose hang out is conveniently on the way to the bank, and how nice it would be to give her their money. What ensues could only have been Mary's plan.
66	* ''Franchise/TheMatrix'': As described in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkMU1mKdwPI this Film Theory video]], the Oracle engineered the events of the entire series by claiming that Neo was the One while knowing that it was actually Agent Smith, banking on Smith becoming such a liability to the Matrix's stability that the machines would have to end the war to stop him. Had anyone figured out that Smith was the One, the machines would have assimilated him earlier, rebooted the Matrix, and had no reason not to wipe out the human rebellion.
67	* ''Film/MexicanHayride'': Overlapping with ParanoiaGambit, Dagmar pulls one off by making Bascom think Lambert may have already stolen the money he's earned, tricking him into checking the hiding place and spying on him as he does it, then swiping it from him while he's out of the room (in this case, so she can protect it herself).
68	* ''Film/MissionImpossibleFilmSeries'':
69	** Both villain and hero do this in the first ''Film/{{Mission Impossible\|1996}}'':
70	*** Ethan Hunt plays several people like a fiddle to clear his name after his team's mission goes horribly wrong, including [[spoiler:actually stealing the information he's accused of stealing]] and finally by staying on the phone much longer than he has to to make sure that IMF headquarters can trace the call and find out where he is. This also gets {{lampshade\|Hanging}}d: "He wanted us to know he was in London."
71	*** The villain's entire plan relied on Ethan [[spoiler:surviving the trap in Prague and everyone else dying]], the CIA assuming [[spoiler:that only the traitor would survive]], Ethan being able to [[spoiler:escape the CIA and be able to steal the information for Max]], and that Ethan [[spoiler:would trust Claire]]. If any of those things hadn't happened as predicted, the villain's plan would have fallen apart.
72	** ''Film/MissionImpossibleFallout'': Already suspecting that [[spoiler:Walker]] is John Lark, the team deliberately leaves him behind with Benji disguised as Lane so he'll [[EngineeredPublicConfession incriminate himself]].
73	* ''Film/MyFellowAmericans'': It turns out that [[spoiler:the events were all orchestrated by the vice-president to get the current president impeached so he could become president.]]
74	* ''{{Film/Mythica}}'': [[spoiler: Gojun Pye]] teleports Szorlok into another dimension devoid of life where he fights him to a standstill. Szorlok then can only draw life force from him when his power is depleted to teleport away. [[spoiler: Gojun]] then sends his soul into Szorlok during this, so later he can control Szorlok for just long enough to let Marek kill him.
75	* ''Film/NowYouSeeMe'': Most of their tricks, and magic in general, depend on being able to accurately predict how people will react and using that to their advantage. Merritt, the mentalist, in particular.
76	* ''Film/Oldboy2003'': Woo-jin's plans for Dae-su consist largely of one of these, as he manages to manipulate the man into doing everything exactly as he wants, although it's somewhat subverted in that [[spoiler:in order to kick off all these manipulations, Woo-jin had to hypnotize Dae-su and Mi-do into acting in specific ways]].
77	* In ''Film/OperationFinale,'' a film adaptation of the capture and trial of Adolf Eichmann, Eichmann's attention to detail means he has an ironclad fake backstory. However, the Mossad agents who captured him use that same attention to detail and obsession with precision to expose him; they continually get his SS ID number wrong, knowing that the finicky ObstructiveBureaucrat Eichmann won't be able to resist correcting them.
78	* In ''Film/{{PCU}}'', the school president slaps The Pit with money they owe the school. She anticipates that they would throw a wild party, thus causing the politically correct students to file enough complaints to throw out The Pit.
79	* ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' franchise:
80	** Captain Jack Sparrow is a master of this, but when it backfires on him it's a [[DidntSeeThatComing sight to behold]]. It's unclear whether he plans it all out ahead of time, or [[IndyPloy makes it up as he goes along,]] though. [[XanatosSpeedChess Probably both.]]
81	** ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanOnStrangerTides'':
82	*** Angelica has Philip apparently killed in front of Syrena in an attempt to make her cry. She knows Syrena's "too tough" to do so under those circumstances, but crying tears of joy when she later finds out that the man she's fallen in love with is still alive, however...
83	*** Barbossa's entire convoluted plan counts: In order to get his revenge on Blackbeard for sinking the ''Pearl'', he joins up with the King's navy as a privateer, uses his well-trained crew and the King's considerable resources to travel to the Fountain of Youth, then takes his revenge on Blackbeard, claims Blackbeard's ship and crew, and uses them to return to piracy.
84	* The end of noir film ''Film/TheRacket'' has one that hinges on a criminal ''really'' not wanting to be thrown under the bus, a corrupt judge being suggestible and venal, and a crooked cop wanting to cover his back. Summed up by a surprised [[UnwittingPawn participant]] afterwards:
85	--> "You mean you thought all this through?!"
86	* In ''Film/TheRecruit'', Colin Farrell's character knows that his girlfriend/fellow agent will report him to CIA, believing him to be TheMole. He consequently leaves his phone on, as [[ChekhovsGun it was established earlier in the movie]] they could use it to track him. The gambit is even lampshaded:
87	-->'''Slayne''': Forgot to turn your cell phone off. That's how we tracked you--your cell phone.
88	-->'''Clayton''': I didn't forget. I knew she'd do her job.
89	* The entire film, ''Film/ReindeerGames'', is one huge Batman Gambit -- [[spoiler: setup by Nick and Ashley. Nick also plays one on Ashley.]]
90	* In ''Film/RobinHood1991'', Marian's wedding is scheduled for All Fools' Day. The outlaws (except Robin, who sneaks in first) dress up in festive costumes and form a procession to get past the city gates, as merry-makers cannot be refused entry.
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94	* ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'': Every single one of Jigsaw's plans is this to varying degrees, some even predicting extremely convoluted and unexpected things.
95	* The core of Sophie's final plan in ''Film/TheSchoolForGoodAndEvil2022'': [[spoiler:trick the Evers into making a pre-emptive strike out of fear of her, by making veiled threats at their ball and then casting fire over their heads without directly harming them. Because Evil attacks and Good defends, and the Evers technically struck first and attacked a room of innocents, the Evers become Evil and the Nevers become Good, giving them the narrative upper hand]].
96	* Several fight scenes in the Creator/GuyRitchie's ''[[Film/SherlockHolmes2009 Sherlock Holmes]]'' films is a BatmanGambit in miniature; we are treated to Holmes' inner monologue as he determines exactly how his opponents will behave and how he can best counter them, immediately followed by the actual fight in which the opponent behaves exactly as Holmes deduced he would, and Holmes thus wins the fight. Subverted in the climax of ''[[Film/SherlockHolmesAGameOfShadows A Game of Shadows]]''; Holmes and Moriarty play this trick on each other, and both determine that there's no way for Holmes to win, [[spoiler:until Holmes does something neither one expected: sacrificing himself to kill Moriarty by grabbing him and jumping off the balcony into the Reichenbach Falls below.]]
97	** Somewhat subverted in that [[spoiler: neither Holmes nor Moriarty had counted on Watson arriving in time to intervene for Holmes, when in fact he shows up just as Holmes and Moriarty go plunging over the railing, which sort of makes Holmes' sacrifice look a little poorly thought out. Or at least, like Holmes wasn't willing to take the chance that Moriarty might win or escape.]]
98	** Subverted earlier as well when presented with an unseen attacker: [[spoiler:Holmes plans out his usual routine and would probably have been correct, but around three moves into his strategy, the person he was protecting simply throws a knife at the attacker, breaking the script but sparing them the time it would take for Holmes to finish on his own]].
99	* In ''Film/TheSilenceOfTheLambs'', Hannibal Lecter's [[spoiler:entire escape is one big Batman Gambit. His scheme, in short, was to escape from his handcuffs (using a homemade key he smuggled in) while his guards were in the cell delivering his dinner, handcuff one guard to the bars, take out the other one, kill the first one, cut the face off the other one, switch clothes with him, throw the body on top of the elevator (Lecter was on the top floor of the building), set the elevator to move down the floors, wear the cop's face over his own like a mask, lie down, lure the rest of the cops to him by firing his gun into the air, then get taken out of the building on a stretcher by paramedics while the SWAT team focuses on the body on the elevator. The possibility of things fucking up is endless, from the guards refusing to bring him dinner, the guard putting the tray down on the other side of his cell, to having his key discovered, to being found out impersonating the cop. And while he was preoccupied with this, he managed to disembowel the other cop and hang him ornamentally from the bars of his cage like a giant butterfly, since that's what Buffalo Bill is all about. For kicks.]]
100	* A minor one, at the beginning of ''Film/SkyHigh2005''. Will's parents defeat a giant robot terrorizing the city and the Commander takes a part of the robot (its eye) as a trophy. That robot eye is still functioning and being used by Royal Pain (who sent the robot to attack the city in the first place) to secretly spy on the heroes. Royal Pain knew he would do just this ("His ego's bigger than a giant robot") and the reporter says it's a habit but if he didn't then the plan falls flat, and that would derail the entire EvilPlan.
101	* ''Film/SmokinAces2AssassinsBall'': Weed put the hit out on ''himself''. He's actually a terrorist mastermind who used his mid level desk job to plot attacks and murders abroad, and used a number of lethal assassins to do it. The entire film is a ploy to get the assassins killed and fake his death to cover his own tracks.
102	* ''Film/{{Spotlight}}'': Garabedian explains to Rezendes that when the church's lawyers file a motion opposing his motion, he can then file an opposition brief with all the documents the reporter has been trying to get attached as exhibits, thus putting them into the public record.
103	* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
104	** ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan''. Kirk baits Khan into following him into the Mutara Nebula by "laughing" at his "superior intellect." It's implied that Khan's perfectly aware that he's being blinded by his own hatred, and simply doesn't care anymore, so long as Kirk suffers.
105	** ''Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry'' has several:
106	*** A failed Batman Gambit exists in the conspirators' original plan. They were banking on Kirk getting gun-happy after Chang got ''Kronos One'' back in fighting shape, shooting back and destroying ''Kronos One''. What happens instead? [[OutOfCharacterMoment Kirk surrenders in a hasty attempt to de-escalate the situation]]. Chang then has to engage in XanatosSpeedChess to compensate.
107	*** The assassins specifically kill ''Kronos One'''s chief surgeon, which leaves Chancellor Gorkon's fate in the hands of a physician who doesn't know much about Klingon physiology, Dr. [=McCoy=].
108	*** Kirk's plan to [[spoiler:draw out the mole (Valeris)]] by having a "court reporter" summoned to Sick Bay urgently to take statements from [[spoiler:the (actually already dead) assassins Burke and Samno]].
109	*** Sulu's strategy to draw fire from the ''Enterprise''. His ship, the ''Excelsior'', is no better equipped to detect the Klingon warship than Kirk's is, but he is able to buy enough time for Spock and [=McCoy=] to rig a cloak-seeking torpedo before the ''Enterprise'' is destroyed. Chang ''had'' to keep the ''Excelsior'' on guard and under fire too, or else they could have just continued on to Khitomer and beamed down to thwart the assassination themselves. Had Chang not taken the bait, he could have continued to dismantle the ''Enterprise'', leaving himself with only one ship to fight instead of two.
110	** ''[[Film/StarTrekFirstContact First Contact]]'': Data's attempts at lying earlier in the movie are really, really, REALLY poor. This turns out to be a ploy to trick the Borg Queen into thinking he's a terrible liar, so when he later lies convincingly about his change of allegiance, the Borg Queen fails to realize he's playing her.
111	** In ''Film/StarTrek2009'', [[spoiler:Spock Prime]] needs to get Kirk into the captain's chair, thus convinces Kirk to rile up Spock to prove that he's emotionally compromised following [[spoiler:Vulcan's destruction.]]
112	** In ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness'', Carol attempts to get her father to spare the ''Enterprise'' by trying to use herself as a shield, hoping he wouldn't fire on her. Her father's response? Teleport her away and ''keep firing''.
113	** The suicide bombing that Harrison orchestrates early on is a ploy to [[spoiler: get Starfleet's highest ranking officers to follow Federation protocol and hold an emergency meeting, whereupon he attacks the meeting room]].
114	* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
115	** The series includes a large one by Palpatine/Sidious to get revenge against the Jedi. In doing so, he manipulates virtually every character to make his plan work: first, he (as Sidious) gets the Trade Federation blockading his home planet, knowing the Republic bureaucracy would drag its heels getting the blockade lifted; he gets Padmé to call for a "vote of no-confidence" against the sitting supreme chancellor, to get himself elected. Next, he manipulates multiple commercial and nationalist interests into forming the Confederacy of Independent Systems. He goes back to Padmé, getting her to leave Coruscant "for her safety" after an assassination attempt; then her proxy, gullible Jar-Jar Binks, pushes the Senate to grant him the emergency powers to form the Grand Army, a massive clone army (conveniently ordered by Jedi master Sifo-Dyas on the suggestion of his friend Count Dooku/Darth Tyranus, Palpatine's apprentice). He manipulates Anakin: presenting himself as a fatherly figure, unlike the stern Jedi Order, he makes Anakin more likely to trust his advice; uses his fear of loss to bring him closer, and gets him to kill Tyranus, pushing him closer to TheDarkSide; when the Jedi are about to out him as a Sith, Palpatine turns it to his advantage: by not beating Windu, he plays on Anakin's sympathy and convinces him to "disarm" Windu, making it easier to turn Anakin to the Dark Side. With Anakin ready, Palpatine executes Order 66. He then uses his "new" appearance as evidence of a Jedi plot to take over the Republic, which would justify him ordering the Grand Army to turn on the Jedi.
116	** This extends into the original trilogy as well. When Sidious learns that "Skywalker" destroyed the Death Star, he concludes Anakin's child survived, a possibility he did not foresee. Seeing a way to turn this to his advantage, he orders Vader to find Luke so that he may turn him, potentially more powerful than Vader, into his new apprentice (unbeknownst to him, Vader already knew of Luke's existence and was planning to do the same thing to Palpatine). He also allowed the Rebel Alliance to learn the location of the new Death Star and its shield generator in order to trap them, knowing they would not pass up an opportunity to attack while he was personally inspecting it. The only flaw in his plan was underestimating Luke's resolve. Luke refuses to turn, forcing Palpatine to try to kill him, which ''accidentally'' manipulated Vader ''again'': [[ThickerThanWater his desire to protect his family triggered his fall, and now triggered his redemption.]] Oh, and he also did not take into account the possibility that the local race of {{Ridiculously Cute Critter}}s could [[RockBeatsLaser defeat his army]].
117	** Yoda and Obi-Wan were arguably pulling one of their own as a counterbalance. With the Sith still running on the Rule of Two, there was going to be no more than two Sith at any given time. So they take the twins, and put one with adoptive foster parents who would change her name, give her all the military, diplomatic, and political protocol training as well as the rigid duty and emotional control indoctrination (everything but the Force and lightsaber training). The other, dump him with Anakin's stepbrother on Anakin's home planet, don't bother changing his name, and basically leave him as a naive, untrained kid with massive Force potential. If Anakin made a grab for his boy, Palpatine would probably challenge it, which would lead to a lethal confrontation. If Palpatine made a grab for the boy, it would ''still'' lead to a lethal confrontation (because Anakin is very protective of what's ''his''). If Anakin ''didn't'' find out and was just too put off by Tatooine to search there, they could just train the boy as a {{Tykebomb}} and send him at the Sith for the same "divide and conquer" result. Either way, they'd be down one Sith with the other weakened and easier to finish off...while still keeping the ''real'' money on the carefully-hidden Leia.
118	** [[spoiler:Snoke]] is playing this throughout ''[[Film/StarWarsTheLastJedi The Last Jedi]]'' and possibly earlier as well. [[spoiler:Firstly, he taunts Kylo about his weakness, knowing it would stir up his anger and push him to kill Leia, destroying the Resistance leadership. Then, he links Kylo and Rey, knowing that Rey would appeal to Kylo's light side and would come to the Supremacy to help him. Then Kylo would kill Rey, which would purge any remnants of the Light Side left in him, which in turn would bring Skywalker back into the fray having lost his apprentice and sister, and Snoke would kill him too. However, he is completely wrong on all fronts about Kylo, who doesn't kill Leia (although his accompanying TIE Pilots come ''extremely'' close) and kills Snoke when he's so sure Kylo's with him that he doesn't notice Luke's lightsaber spinning round before it stabs him in the gut.]]
119	** Han pulls a rather good one in ''Film/{{Solo}}''. He has a shipment full of weapons-grade fuel, owes a nasty crime boss that his girlfriend at the time (Qi'ra) works for a lot of cash, said crime boss has been working with TheEmpire to oppress various indigenous populations, Han's mentor Beckett is a shady piece of trash who expects betrayal and wants the shipment for himself, but Han wants to give it to the nascent rebel group. [[spoiler:Okay, so Han and Qi'ra ''deliver'' the shipment to the crime boss, let the crime boss (who expects Han to double cross him) send his men into a trap set up by the rebels, let the mentor show up and grab the shipment (which is so heavy that Chewie needs to be the one carrying it). Crime boss goes ballistic, attacks Han and Qi'ra, and ends up dead. Han gets away and meets up with Chewie, Beckett, and the shipment. Then while Beckett is lecturing Han on being an idealistic idiot, Han [[MemeticMutation shoots first]] and delivers the shipment to the rebels]]. Han gets what he wants, and is paid just enough of a cut to go find Lando Calrissian and challenge him to a game of sabacc with a certain ship at stake. About the only part he didn't count on was [[spoiler: Qi'ra deciding to take over the organization instead of escape with Han.]]
120	* The entire plot of ''Film/StreetKings'' depends on [[spoiler: TheHero being a badass Killing Machine that will kill all the [[DirtyCop corrupt cops]] that he finds without being killed or [[BuyThemOff bought]], and he does.]] The gambiteer claims this was is foolproof but [[spoiler: it's clearly not as the UnwittingPawn is almost killed and buried]] in the process.]]
121	* The ending of ''Film/SupermanII'' hinges on ComicBook/LexLuthor selling out Superman and telling Zod about the "take away all super powers" device... which Superman, having seen this coming, had set to affect everyone ''outside'' the device.
122	* ''Film/SushiGirl'' features two gambits:
123	** The main crook has planned that [[spoiler:his former comrades would kill each other in the process of beating the location of their diamonds out of the fifth member. Unfortunately for him, they never get the diamonds before they all die]].
124	** The sushi girl [[spoiler:plans on all of the crooks at the meeting will kill each other or eat the poisoned fugu she had made, all without doing any harm to her in the process. This plan actually succeeds]].
125	* In the Belgian short film ''Tanghi Argentini'', Andre, the protagonist, in lieu of purchasing Christmas presents for his single coworkers, cruises dating sites for women whose interests correspond to his coworker's skills (i.e. tango, poetry). He then approaches the coworker and asks to be taught this particular skill in time for a blind date he has arranged with the woman. On the night of the date, he asks his coworker to accompany and discreetly coach him. He then deliberately fails at this skill, allowing the coworker to swoop in and "steal" the woman with his superior knowledge.
126	* In Creator/JohnCarpenter's ''Film/TheThing1982'', the alien puppet whose identity isn't discovered until near the end of the film is executing a Batman Gambit from early on. Given how paranoid and trigger happy everyone was, he could have been shot or [[spoiler: Mac could have let him go when he asked, although it could be argued that his insistence that he had calmed down was intentionally unconvincing]]
127	* Employed by Thor in ''Film/ThorRagnarok''. Knowing Loki's ChronicBackstabbingDisorder, he expected him to betray him at some point, and put Valkyrie's shock disk on his shoulder in the elevator. The thing Thor didn't expect was [[spoiler:Loki reflecting on the fact that he had become so predictable, and deciding to aid the gladiators in saving the surviving Asgardians]].
128	* Towards the end of ''Film/TradingPlaces'', [[spoiler:Winthorpe and Valentine give the Dukes a fake crop report, expecting that they'll use it to try to get an advantage on the commodities market. They plan their own investment scheme based on the real crop report and their predictions of how the Dukes will act on the fake one. By the end of the day, Winthorpe and Valentine have made a fortune and the Dukes are out $394 million.]]
129	* In the film, ''Film/TrainingDay'', part of Alonzo's master plan is to get Jake high on drugs and later use him for cover when he robbed and killed his long-time drug contact. If Jake would have refused to go along with Alonzo after being offered drugs, his entire plan to steal the money would have failed, and he would've at least needed to explain how Hoyt got killed. He also notices that Hoyt has a bad need to impress and uses it for all it's worth. It's possible Jake was just the first "trainee" who turned out to be a suitable patsy.
130	--> '''Jake Hoyt''': You've been planning this all day?
131	-->'''Alonzo Harris''': I've been planning this all ''week'', son.
132	** Smiley and his friends talk Jake into showing them his gun. After he takes out all the bullets, ''then'' they make their intention to kill him known. Also, at the beginning of the film Alonzo asks Jake if he carries a backup and speaks Spanish, Jake tells him he doesn't. Later in the film, Alonzo probably tells his buddies Jake is only carrying the one weapon, so they know they only have to get the one before they kill him, and he can't understand Alonzo's orders.
133	*** Jake happened to save a random girl from an alleyway rape earlier. And she happened to leave her wallet. And Jake happened to take it. And she happened to be Smiley's cousin. If Smiley's friend hadn't checked Jake's pockets before icing him, and they hadn't checked his story, and if the cousin had kept lying about skipping school when Smiley saw through her, Smiley would've disposed of Jake neatly for Alonzo.
134	* A likely one with Alan's scene in ''Film/TronLegacy'': Alan was paged the ''previous'' night from Flynn Sr.'s shuttered arcade, but he holds off on telling Sam until ''after'' the kid pulls his annual stunt. Now, the Encom board is in disarray, cleaning up after Sam leaked the "secure" OS all over the Internet. Sam is clearly going to have the topic of his DisappearedDad on his mind, and Alan chooses his words carefully to goad Sam into investigating, which leads to [[spoiler: Sam taking the company back from the execs, and Alan becoming the real power behind the throne, and both of them getting a measure of closure over what happened to Flynn.]]
135	** He likely pulled one in [[Film/{{Tron}} the first film]] which crossed over into XanatosGambit. Suspicious of Master Control and Ed Dillinger, he began work on an independently-running security program (the title character). He dutifully submitted all of the necessary memos and paperwork and kept his conduct impeccable while keeping on good terms with the company founder Walter Gibbs, probably using methods that would bypass Master Control's notice and knowing Dillinger wouldn't read them. When things finally came to a head and he lost access to Tron, he explained to Dillinger what Tron could do. If Dillinger fired Alan, Gibbs would stick up for him and start investigating. If Dillinger deleted Tron without firing Alan, Gibbs would also investigate. If Alan were allowed to finish his software (which is what happened), then Dillinger and Master Control were going to be shut down and exposed. It's made explicit in the {{Novelization}} that Dillinger considered Alan BeneathSuspicion until he and Master Control realize they got utterly ''played.''
136	* ''Film/TheVerdict'': Laura apparently realized that all she had to do to start a relationship with Galvin was to start showing up at his local watering hole and show a little resistance to his first advances.
137	* ''Film/{{Vertigo}}'''s biggest plot twist reveals that the whole plot is the result of such a gambit. [[spoiler:Gavin predicted Scottie would be too afraid of heights to ascend to the top of the church, so he wouldn't see Gavin killing his wife and testify it was a suicide.]]
138	* ''Film/WerewolvesWithin'': Part of the reason [[spoiler:Cecily]] picked to go after Beaverfield was because she guessed that the townspeople would be very eager to turn on each other due to resentment of each other's various quirks. [[spoiler:She's right. The townspeople do more killing than she does.]]
139	* After a baffling succession of double- and triple-crosses the big [[TheReveal reveal]] scene of the WWII movie ''Film/WhereEaglesDare'' shows that the whole film has been a massive BatmanGambit engineered by [=MI-6=]. [[spoiler:They fake the crash of an important general in Germany so they have an excuse to send a team of important agents in to rescue him. The rescue team gets itself captured, which means the three known German [[TheMole moles]] deliberately placed on the team will reveal themselves. The team leader then identifies himself as a German agent too (he is in fact a triple agent, TheMole pretending to be an ordinary Mole, but the Germans don't know that), and claims that the three real moles were discovered by the British (true) and have been replaced (not true). In attempting to prove they are the real moles, the German agents write a list of all the spies they recruited in their time in Britain. ''This'' is the real objective of the operation, and having got the list the team escapes back to Britain.]]. Brain hurting yet?
140	* ''Film/WhileTheCitySleeps'': How Ed concludes they will catch the killer. Set up an irresistible bait and wait for him to act like he normally would. [[spoiler: And he does, leading to his arrest.]]
141	* In ''Film/TheWickerMan1973'', Sgt. Howie arrives at [[TownWithADarkSecret the island of Summerisle]] to [[CallToAdventure solve the mystery]] of a missing child; [[SmallTownTyrant the suspicious nature of the citizens]] convinces him that they're going to [[VirginSacrifice sacrifice the girl]] to [[ReligionOfEvil appease the sun god]]. Unfortunately, TheChase to halt this event is actually [[BaitAndSwitch a trick]], causing him to unwittingly act out some archetypal ritual, and then [[AFeteWorseThanDeath burn him to death]] in the eponymous structure. Why? It turns out Howie was [[ChasteHero saving himself for marriage]], too. Luckily, the girl is saved. [[spoiler: Not that she was in any real danger.]]
142	* Heroes, anti-heroes, and villains alike make such plans in ''Film/TheWrongArmOfTheLaw''. One example is the underworld's 24-hour truce with the police in which no crimes would be committed during that period so that the police would have enough leg room to try to catch the Australian IPO gang themselves. At the end of the 24 hours, the crime rate spikes, with the underworld and the police hypothesizing that such a spike would lead the IPO mob to be more selective with their hits and only go after the bigger jobs. This leads up to the finale, where Pearly Gates, Inspector Nosy Parker, and foreign safecracker Siggy Schmoltz set up a phony job [[spoiler:that ends up getting the IPO mob captured]].
143	[[/folder]]

Context BatmanGambit / LiveActionFilms