Examples of Bystander Syndrome depicted in Live-Action Films.
- In Airplane!, fully a third of the gags are set up by contrasting the terrible things happening and the passengers' complete indifference to them. Examples include the unconscious bodies of the pilots being dragged through the aisle, a little girl nearly dying after her IV gets knocked out, and the Offscreen Crash near the end.
- The passengers in Airplane II: The Sequel react with utter stoicism to being told that the lunar shuttle they're on is off course and being hit by asteroids. Being told they are out of coffee induces a full scale riot.
- At the climax of All the Money in the World, Paul asks several strangers in a small Italian town for help, only to be refused every time. One baker tells him they “can’t get involved.”
- How Bedevilled opens. A young, injured woman runs out an alleyway and into a busy street screaming for help as a few vandals chase after her. Nobody helps her, not even when the woman bangs on a driver's window, who immediately rolls up the window and continues driving. We find out later that the vandals beat her to death.
- Big Jake: "I haven't interfered in anyone else's business since I was eighteen years old... and it damn near got me killed!" He changes his mind when he witnesses a Kick the Dog moment on the part of one of the goons.
- Blind Chance plays it for laughs, but comes also with a subtle political undertone. The protagonist, Witek, ends up betrayed by a high-ranking Party official, Adam. In a fit of rage, he storms the office of the big-wig and starts to beat the man, right in a middle of a conversation with other Party members. Everyone present is just staring in confusion, because who would even dare to do such a thing. Eventually Adam, also confused by their stupor, shouts for help.
- In The Boondock Saints, a priest's sermon denouncing this attitude (with reference to the infamous Kitty Genovese murder
), combined with them witnessing the Russian mob shake down the owner of their preferred watering hole, motivates Connor and Murphy MacManus to become vigilantes. - Seems to be a prominent theme in Brazil, notably at the beginning; when the wrong man is arrested and dies under torture, all any of the departments care about is that the problem doesn't trace back to them.
- Rick Blaine in Casablanca appears this way for a while ("I stick my neck out for nobody"), especially when he seems willing to turn over a resistance leader to the Nazis because he is married to Rick's former lover. Eventually, however, we see that Rick isn't nearly as selfish as he lets on.
- Several times in the German film Der letzte Zug, which depicts the six-day journey of the last Berlin Jews to Auschwitz, the eponymous train stops at stations and the imprisoned passengers beg passersby on platforms and other trains for water and food, but are ignored. It comes as a welcome surprise when trope is eventually averted by a group of Wehrmacht soldiers.
- The Emperor and the Assassin. The entire royal court stands by while Jing Ke tries to kill Ying Zheng (someone shouts uselessly, "Draw your sword!" but only one court official actually helps him do so). After the assassin fails, the Emperor is understandably pissed and roars at everyone to Get Out!.
- The Garbage Pail Kids Movie: Dodger gets bullied by Juice and his goons more than once in public, and no one outside of the Garbage Pail Kids or Manzini helps him out. This is particularly egregious during their introduction, where Juice is bullying Dodger in a playground in broad daylight, yet no one else seems to notice or care about it.
- Ghosts of War: As it turns out, this is why the chateau in the computer simulation is being haunted by the Helwig family. The soldiers were supposed to be protecting the Helwigs from ISIS in the real world, but simply hid in the wall when they showed up at their house. They also ultimately did nothing when the Helwigs were tortured to death by ISIS for helping the Americans. The soldiers were then cursed by a dying survivor (who tried to kill them in a suicide bombing) to be haunted by what they didn't, or rather, what they didn't do in that moment by the angry ghosts of the Helwig family.
- The Godfather: Exploited when Michael shoots two rivals in the middle of a restaurant, drops the gun, and leaves without the customers or staff doing anything to stop him. When being instructed on how to commit the murder, he's told to drop the gun out of sight so everyone will think he's still armed and therefore be reluctant to take him on.
- In God Told Me To, a man walks past a door behind which a murder is being committed. He hears the victim gasp, looks over his shoulder for a moment, then continues walking.
- The Great Waldo Pepper: After Ezra crashes, the spectators all rush out to look at the wreckage, but none of them move to help as Waldo tries to pull him from the wreck, even when it catches fire.
- In Hardcore Henry, Jimmy and Henry are walking over to Jimmy's laboratory when they spot three corrupt cops attempting to rape a woman. Jimmy says to move along because they have more important things to do. Henry can't bring himself to ignore it and marches over to kick their asses. Extremely annoyed, Jimmy shoots the beaten up cops and orders Henry to stop wasting time.
- A man on the street frantically screaming "They're here!" only to be ignored / assumed mad in most if not all versions of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
- Irréversible has a woman brutally raped in an underpass. While the camera focus is on the action, the background shows someone enter the underpass, take a look at what's happening, turn around and walk away without even calling the cops.
- Kenny & Company:
- Kenny and Doug leave a dummy lying in the road to prank drivers. A car screeches to a halt in front of the dummy, and a male voice says, "Holy Christ, Martha, it's a dummy!" A female voice says, "George, don't run over his head!" The car then maneuvers around the dummy and goes on its way, with neither person making any effort to get help.
- Later, Kenny and Sherman witness a car crash in which a man is badly injured and possibly killed. Instead of calling for help or waiting for the police, they flee in terror.
- The King of Marvin Gardens opens with David telling a (completely made up) story about his grandfather, who used to choke on fish bones during dinner. His mother would send him or his brother Jason into the kitchen for a heel of bread, which would help their grandfather swallow the bone and breathe again. One day, the brothers were eating alone with their grandfather when he started to choke. Without anyone to give them orders, David and Jason sat in silence while he turned red. Eventually David went into the kitchen for a heel of pumpernickel, but instead of giving it to their grandfather, he and Jason passed it back and forth until their grandfather died.
- Kiss of the Tarantula: A VW Beetle full of teens in full screaming panic mode — one of whom smashes her head through the (non-safety glass) window and another ends up strangled by the door frame — in the middle of a drive-in movie, and no-one notices until the night watchman comes to shoo them off?Bill Corbett: So everyone at the drive-in movie just ignored the car full of dead teens?
Kevin Murphy: Yep!
Bill: Cool town! - Similarly, Last Action Hero has the villain, after he's transported to the real world, shoot a man in an alley to test a theory.Benedict: [shouting in the street] Hello! I have just shot a man and I did it on purpose! [silence] I said, I have just murdered a man, and I wish to confess!
Citizen: Hey, shut up down there! - Leo the Last: While Leo is out walking, he sees Salambo's father have a heart attack in the street while his son screams for help. Leo watches, frozen, until some neighbours run over to help him inside. Leo's guilt over the incident is part of what motivates him to start actively helping other people.
- Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- Black Panther: N'Jobu and Killmonger accuse Wakanda of being this due to the country's isolationism. According to Killmonger, by refusing to aid its neighbors for the sake of preserving its secrecy, Wakanda has allowed its fellow Africans to suffer from colonialism, slavery, poverty, and racial segregation. This sentiment was similarly evoked by his father N'Jobu who tried to arm African Americans with vibranium weapons.
- Thor: Ragnarok:
- Loki, despite knowing that Hela has been unleashed on Asgard, adopts this attitude as he begins to forge a new life for himself on Sakaar. When Thor arrives later, Loki attempts to convince his brother to take a similar stance. However, Thor, as the hero, completely rejects this option.
- Valkyrie (aka Scrapper-142) only survived Hela's massacre of her fellow women warriors because a loved one sacrificed herself to save her. This tragedy left Valkyrie embracing this attitude and retiring to Sakaar to drink herself to death. Similar to Loki, she tells Thor to forget about the Asgardians, but he refuses to do so.
- Spider-Man: Far From Home: When he's initially recruited to help stop the Elementals, Spidey asks if stronger heroes he can think of like Thor or Doctor Strange or Captain Marvel can deal with it instead. Nick Fury dismisses each of those options. "Nick Fury" is actually Talos, who doesn't actually have any way of contacting those heroes.
- Mothra vs. Godzilla: Originally, when the protagonists go to Infant Island to beg Mothra and the fairies to intervene, the natives aren't willing to help. After all, they point out, the people of Japan just refused to aid them in their hour of need. However, Junko's speech at the top of the page shames them into giving aid, and ultimately both sides get what they want: a restrained Godzilla, and a saved egg whose children are back where they belong.
- In The Mummy, O'Connell tries to convince Evy that the end of the world is somebody else's problem, with little success.
- Pearl Harbor: President Roosevelt expresses the view to his staff that this is America's attitude to the fighting in Europe and Asia.President Roosevelt: I'm afraid I'm in a bad mood. Churchill and Stalin are asking me what I'm asking you: how long is America going to pretend the world is not at war?
Chief of Staff: We've increased food and oil supply shipments to them, Mr. President-
President Roosevelt: What they really need are tanks, planes, bullets, bombs and men to fight. But our people think Hitler and his Nazi thugs are Europe's problem. - The Purge: A man is running through the suburbs begging for help because a gang is after him. Mary Sandin isn't bothered by it, while James Sandin looks like he wishes he could help but he can't. The minute one of their kids lets him in is the minute it becomes the Sandin's problem.
- In Se7en, Somerset tells Mills, "The first thing they teach women in rape prevention is never cry for help. Always yell 'Fire!' Nobody answers to 'Help!' You holler 'Fire!', they come running." After all, "In any major city, minding your own business is a science." Presumably fire is less subject to this syndrome than rape because it can quickly become everyone's problem.note This is portrayed directly in the scene where John Doe turns himself in. The guy is literally covered in blood with bandages all over his hands, and he has to yell for the detectives three times before anyone actually notices him.
- Silverado: Paden agrees to stay out of it when Cobb tells him he's going after Emmett. When the guys Cobb works for kidnap Emmett's nephew, Paden can't sit by.
- In Star Wars Han Solo refuses to help rescue Princess Leia until lured into it by the promise of a reward. And later he refuses to help the rebels in their attack on the Death Star, but has a change of heart at the last minute.Leia: Your friend is quite the mercenary. I wonder if he really cares about anything. Or anybody.
- Trapped: The Alex Cooper Story: Alex tries telling multiple people about being held against her will and abused. However, none does anything, or possibly even believes her.
- The World of Kanako: Two characters are bullied throughout the film (Ogata and the narrator) and none of the other students come to help them. Neither do any teachers or officials.
- The Woman: Brian's first scene has him witness some bullies beating up a little girl. After staring for a few seconds, he walks away to practice shooting a basketball into a hoop.
