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Oh, Crap!

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And Simba gets an even bigger one because of what happens next...

"It's that moment of dawning comprehension I live for."
Hobbes, Calvin and Hobbes

The moment at which a character realizes that something really, REALLY bad is about to happen. Either that, or it already has and they are in big trouble because of it. They may not always say anything in particular when they do, but even if they do not, the look on their face clearly conveys to the audience their realization. This moment often features stronger language, and is when they truly realize that things are about to royally hit the fan. Sometimes the first few notes of Fryderyk Chopin's Funeral March are used as background music to highlight how grim the situation is.

There are lots of ways to react to moments like this. Characters may often exclaim stuff along the lines of "You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!", "I Want My Mommy!" or sometimes even "This Cannot Be!". Other characters might emit a Loud Gulp instead. A few might say their catchphrase but in an uncertain voice. Some might even freeze in fear completely. On the other hand, other characters may react more with despair rather than full-on fear. A few others may look to their equipment for a solution. And finally, for some, it is the crowning moment of despair.

The effectiveness of this moment can be affected by the difference between their usual competence and confidence levels and how completely they are boned. Characters with low self-esteem or who are constantly crying out in terror are difficult (but not impossible) to make this trope work with, and may react more along the lines of This Is Gonna Suck. But that arrogant, so far unbeatable supervillain suddenly realizing they're about to have his or her ass royally kicked? Now we're talking!

Can occur if one protagonist has been luring the other one into a trap, or if they just have some shiny new skill. Or they may simply be a lower-level villain who's just had the very bad luck to be confronted with a hero impossibly out of his or her league and is about to be on the wrong end of a Curb-Stomp Battle.

On occasion, they will be discussing the situation when they realize either the full import of it, or worse, that it's about to happen to them. Can also occur if a character speaks ill of another in a language they think the latter won't understand, only to find out, much to their horror, that the latter also speaks it.

This is the polar opposite of Obi-Wan Moment, when despite the bad situation someone still manages to look composed. May result in a Heroic BSoD for a heroic character, or even a Villainous Breakdown for a villainous character. Nine times out of ten, this will immediately follow "What Does This Button Do?". The remaining tenth follow some other temptation of fate. Also a very common reaction when a villain, normally The Chessmaster, Villain with Good Publicity, or Manipulative Bastard, realizes they've just been the victim of an Engineered Public Confession. A "The Villain Knows" Moment may lead to this

When this trope becomes literal, that's Bring My Brown Pants—as Bill Cosby once said, "first you say it, then you do it!"

When most of the cast available in the scene does this expression, it's a Mass "Oh, Crap!" moment. If someone tries to explain the situation to someone else, and realizes half-way through their own explanation they're in real trouble, it's Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!. If the person making the realization doesn't try to explain and says nothing but "Run," it's time to Run or Die. If you realize you're in trouble after your explanation, or if someone tells you something really bad is about to happen and "Oh, Crap!" isn’t your first reaction, it's a Delayed "Oh, Crap!". When you try to save some face by putting on a happy face, you make an "Oh, Crap!" Smile. When you pretend to realize you are in trouble only to mess with your opponent, it's an "Oh, Crap!" Fakeout. When your primary reaction is resigned acceptance of the situation, it's This Is Gonna Suck.

See also Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises. Say Your Prayers may be involved as part of this reaction.

Contrast "Hell, Yes!" Moment, the exact inverse.

Warning: High risk of spoilers.

No Real Life Examples, Please!


Examples subpages:

Other examples:

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    Advertising 
  • AT&T:
    • A commercial entitled "Sisters" has one woman finally meeting her newborn niece, but slow upload speeds freeze her screen at the wrong time it appears she's giving a dirty look, accidentally snubbing her sister's daughter.
    • Another commercial titled "Super Fan" has a super fan's video call lose connection, causing him to lose out on his chance to ask Elijah Wood a question.
  • GEICO:
    • A commercial has the gecko and an executive talking about the trust that Geico represents. The executive proposes one of those corporate trust-building exercises, in which he will fall backwards and the gecko will catch him. The gecko, being about 8 inches high, attempts to talk him down to no avail. The last shot is the gecko, as the executive begins to lean back, looking up: "oh dear ..."
    • Another commercial where the Gecko is eating a bag of chips. The CEO commented he wanted to show him the first dollar he ever made. Cue the look on the gecko's face when he realized the dollar he used to buy the chips was said dollar.
  • A Dutch insurance company has a long line of TV ads with the slogan "Even Apeldoorn bellen" (pragmatically translated to "Just call us") after someone has realized he has a problem (or in some cases, when only the viewer has realized it). Some of these ads require knowledge of Dutch language or culture, but some don't. While it's doubtfull any insurance could help those people out of it, they do tend to make a wonderful Funny Moment.
  • The commercials for Raid pest killers have been doing this for years, with whatever Talking Pest in the commercial shouting "RAAAAAAAAAAID!" before dying.
  • The GameStop bunny has one of these.
  • The Chips Ahoy commercial where the human-sized talking cookie is at a little girl's birthday, having fun with the kids, but then asks:
    Cookie: Where's the cake?
    Birthday girl: We're not having cake...
    Cookie: Uh-oh...
  • An Energizer Bunny commercial featuring Dracula resulted in the Count invoke this trope in a rather Deadpan Snarker fashion after locking himself out of his castle chasing the Bunny...at daybreak.
    Dracula: Oh, great. *POOF*
  • In the campaign "Never Say No to Panda" (Panda being a make of Arab cheese) almost everybody realises they've made a mistake once they say no to Panda Cheese and a giant Panda is standing over them.
    • Special mention goes to the dad in the grocery store the second time around.
  • Two M&M's commercials come to mind:
  • In France, many commercials for a brand of candies called Kiss Cool had these moments. In one of them, a man in a bunny suit who has to entertain children gets stage fright before he can perform. After eating the candy, he gains confidence and goes to see the kids chanting for him, only to realize said children were replaced by hunters. Cue Oh, Crap! face from the guy, who slowly walks away.
  • John Jameson, when he comes face-to-face with a giant octopus while saving a lost barrel of his whiskey, and after chopping open a dam to flood Dublin.
  • A very dark instance of this occurs in the 2002 commercial for Universal's Halloween Horror Nights. It starts off with "The Caretaker" deciding which tool he will use to dissect his victim alive with, via "eenie meenie minie moe". When he gets to the final "moe", the victim silently does this reaction.
  • In a 2014 Walgreens Christmas commercial, a mother and father are eating the cookies they left out for Santa, when they glance out the window and see the big man on the roof of a neighbor's house. They get this trope and then race out to replace the cookies they ate, making it just in time.
  • Glock. Somebody ''really'' picked the wrong diner...
  • If you're not playing Sega Saturn, then the moment Segata Sanshiro blocks your path is your cue to utilize this trope. Because afterwards, you're not going to leave without bruises of him beating the crap out of your for not playing the console. (Don't worry, he'll leave a Sega Saturn next to your body so you stop being in his hit list)

    Comedy 
Master: Have you learned nothing from the lesson of Ed Gruberman?
Student: Yes Master, I have learned two things. First, that anger is a weapon only to one's opponent.
Master: Very good.
Student: And secondly — get in the first shot. Boot to the head! [whoosh]
Master: You missed.
Student: Um.. yeah.

    Comic Strips 
  • Calvin and Hobbes:
    • Pretty much every time Hobbes pounces on Calvin coming home, Calvin makes an Oh Crap face just before impact. One strip doesn't even show the impact, jumping directly from Calvin's deer-in-the-headlights "Oh no" to the aftermath.
    • Also happens when Hobbes is hiding on a tree limb and drops a single snowball in front of Calvin to get him to look up — so he can see the full payload of snowballs Hobbes is about to dump on him from above. The last panel supplies the page quote.
    • When he seceded from his family to go live in the Yukon, Hobbes wrestles command from him. As Calvin leaves him, announcing that he's going home, Hobbes reminds him that he no longer has a home, since he seceded from his family. His reaction is priceless
      Calvin: My life needs a rewind/erase button...
  • The Far Side has two doctors looking with alarm out of the window of a "Center for the Study of Viral Pathology" at a jar broken on the crowded sidewalk below and oozing liquid. The caption: "Uh-oh."
  • Garfield: Jon is having a delayed reaction.
  • In Spy vs. Spy, the losing Spy occasionally displays this expression when he realizes he's been out-schemed and is about to die in some humorous fashion.

    Eastern European Animation 
  • In Masha and the Bear, Masha causes no shortage of heart attack-worthy reactions from the poor Bear whenever she puts herself in harm's way.

    Gamebooks 
  • Many, many endings in Choose Your Own Adventure books result in your death or worse. A good portion of these are accompanied by a detailed drawing of your Oh, Crap! moment, the actual moment you leave the planet, or both. Any book in the series illustrated by Judith Mitchell is guaranteed to invoke this multiple times, even when you're not necessarily at a "death ending". These occur so often that entire websites have been established to showcase the worst ones. Another fair sample can be found here.
  • In the Fighting Fantasy book The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, the eponymous Final Boss will have one if you use the Eye of the Cyclops against him.
  • Lone Wolf:
    • While many of Lone Wolf's enemies give an Oh Crap reaction when the hero inevitably derails their schemes, the Darklords you face in Book 12 are great examples. After spending the entire series struggling to stop their forces from destroying everything, seeing these ancient incarnations of evil voiding themselves in fear when they realize Lone Wolf can actually kill them is extremely satisfying. The best one out of all of them is Archlord Gnaag's expression of "panic blazing madly in his eyes" moments before being atomized by the Sommerswerd if Lone Wolf brought it with him.
    • Big Bad Ixiataaga in Book 17 has a similar reaction when he realizes Lone Wolf has a weapon that can kill him. His panic causes him to use nearly all of the power of the Deathstaff in a HUGE energy blast in the hopes of killing Lone Wolf instantly. Provided Lone Wolf survives the attack, Ixiataaga is then stuck trying to fight him with an uncharged Deathstaff. Still pretty strong, however.
    • A good one from Vonotar the Traitor in Book 3, The Caverns of Kalte:
      "Who Dares? disturb me?" he hisses, rising from the Brumalmarc throne, his eyes searching for an intruder. Upon seeing you, he emits a horrified gasp and fumbles for his black staff. He has the look of a criminal who has been discovered in the act of some dreadful crime.
    • Lone Wolf himself throughout the series reacts with fear every time he encounters the horrifying Crypt Spawn. It really doesn't help that they are a favorite summoned minion of the major villains. He also reacts badly to the Mech-Wulf in Book 19 — the sight of an enemy devoid of any actual life or even un-life scares the hell out of him.
  • Appears in the Nintendo Adventure Books on occasion as well. The Crystal Trap, where Zelda must go on a Fetch Quest to find the elements to free Link from the titular Crystal Prison, is probably the best example. Several of the endings have Zelda awaiting a terrible fate (sinking in quicksand or becoming a sitting duck for enemies) for failure to have the correct item.

    Jokes 
  • The shortest unit of time is the Ohnosecond. This is the period that elapses between causing a major disaster and realising what one has done.

    Music 
  • In a general live performance sense, this is fairly common, for obvious reasons. Just a few of the things that can invoke it:
    • You're the singer, and you've just forgot your lines or you've came in at the wrong place or you've fallen to Vocal Range Exceeded. Or, alternately, you're one of the other members of the band and you notice the singer is in trouble. Similar for guitarists making major errors (or having lied about their skill level beforehand), and really a problem if the drummer or rhythm guitarist is the person having issues keeping the beat - that often induces a small version of Mass "Oh, Crap!" with all the other band members realizing just how bad the song's going to sound and how bad the gig is likely going to be.
    • Someone has gotten sick or injured onstage or in the audience. This one easily turns into Mass "Oh, Crap!" as well, for obvious reasons.
    • One of the band members' sound output is failing somehow. Worst is if it's one of the guitars (including the bassist), or the keyboardist, because that carries the possibility that the instrument itself failed (though it's usually only a loose connection) - and while most venues do carry extra mics for a singer to use in a pinch (or can patch him/her directly into the PA system with a lapel mic or a smartphone if set up for it and all else fails, though this is often avoided because it will make the singer much louder than the band), most don't have a stray electric guitar or bass or keys lying around, and even if the person has a backup, the show has to stop to set up his/her gear again for the new instrument.
    • For a Visual Kei band or other act that uses a lot of stage makeup, special effects, and the like, a Special Effects Failure. If said Special Effects Failure involves pyro, Oh, Crap! and Mass "Oh, Crap!" are the best outcomes.
  • Gakupo's reaction in Madness of Duke Venomania when he realizes just who the "girl" in his arms really is, just before being stabinated by Karchess, who dressed himself up as a woman to save Yufina, one of the Duke's harem, and take revenge on him.
  • When German pop act Milli Vanilli performed live on MTV in 1989, everything was going well until their hit song "Girl You Know It's True" started skipping during the chorus (unfortunately, there don't seem to be any videos on Youtube that aren't either dubbed over or butchered), revealing that it was prerecorded and that Milli Vanilli were lip-syncing all along. The two continued dancing and "singing" along before That Syncing Feeling set in and they realized that the gig was up. This was the beginning of the end for the band.
  • From "The Coward of the County" when some rapists get confronted by the boyfriend of their victim and think that they have him cowed, only to end up trapped in a room with him right before getting a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown. "But you could have heard a pin drop - when Tommy stopped and locked the door..."
  • In "Dinosaurchestra Part 3" by Lemon Demon, the time machine which the narrator used to go back to the late Cretaceous period and start a rock band with dinosaurs can't make the return trip, and then..."What's that rock way up in the sky?"
  • Gorillaz:
  • In the beginning of "Welcome to the Jungle," a singer briefly and subtly says "Oh my...god," before any of the intro gets through.
  • In the song "Get My Gun" by D12, Eminem angrily threatens a fan with a gun:
    Wassup, bitch?! (cocks gun) Autograph this! (gun jams) ...Oh, shit.
    • Speaking of Eminem, the title character of "Stan" is recording the latest letter he's sending to his hero on an audio tape while his pregnant girlfriend is locked in the boot of his car and he's about to drive them all off a bridge to their deaths. He has a massive Oh, Crap! when he realises just before the car goes over the edge that he's overlooked one fairly important point...
      Well gotta go, I'm almost at the bridge now/Oh shit! I forgot! How am I supposed to send this shit out-
    • Followed by Eminem getting one himself as he responds to Stan's previous letter, telling him that he needs to calm down before he does something crazy, like this one psycho on the news who locked his girlfriend in the trunk of his car and drove off a bridge:
      And in the car they found a tape, but they never said who it was to/Come to think about it, his name was... it was you... damn...
  • In "Der Erlkönig", the boy is increasingly terrified (and justly so) each time he tries to get it through to his father that the Erlking is after him [the boy].
  • OH NO! NOOO! PLEASE GOD HELP ME!
    • More or less mankind's reaction in the final verse of "Iron Man" when the titular time traveler, after being sealed away for centuries, is reawakened and proceeds to kill everyone.
  • If you are or were a teenaged boy, you probably cringe when you hear the lyrics to the Everly Brothers’ “Wake Up Little Susie”.
  • The final verse of Nickelback's "Animals" has the main characters getting busy in the protagonist's car by the tracks. Everything's going well until the girl notices that her dad is right outside the car and has caught them in the act. And worse, the keys aren't in the ignition because they fell on the floor in the middle of it. Oh crap indeed.
  • The narrator in "One" by Metallica has this when he realizes that he lost his sight, speech, hearing, and limbs due to a landmine, but his mind functions perfectly so he is a prisoner inside his own body.
  • "The Mariner's Revenge Song" by The Decemberists tells the story of a little boy whose widower mother was conned out of house and home by a traveling vagrant who eventually left them so destitute that she developed a fatal case of tuberculosis, but not before begging her son to one day exact justice on the man: "Find him, bind him, tie him to a pole and break his fingers to splinters, drag him to a hole until he wakes up, naked, clawing at the ceiling of his grave." The boy spends fifteen years as a street orphan until he's taken in by a friary, but never loses his desire to exact revenge upon the conman, until one night he discovers that the man has become a ship captain. He joins a crew and sets sail in the hopes of finding him. One night their two ships finally cross paths, but before the narrator can do anything, both crews are devoured by a giant whale, leaving only the narrator and the conman alive. It's only right when the narrator is about to finally fulfill his mission that the conman realizes just what kind of death he's in for.
    "It gives my heart great joy to see your eyes fill with fear
    So lean in close and I will whisper the last words you'll hear..."
  • In the Ice-T song "Midnight" Ice-T, Evil-E, D, and Hen had just stopped two people from carjacking them. Ice then turns to see that the jackers had brought along a bunch of their friends.
    Looked to my left
    There were two more carloads
    Niggas in hats and hoods
    In an attack mode
    And they hadn't yet begun to fight
    E hit the gas
    It was one past midnight!
  • The Pharcyde's "Oh Shit" sees each member of the group describe situations they were in that led to these moments. all of them Played for Laughs.
  • "Hey You", by Pink Floyd. Here, the protagonist realizes what a large mistake he made after completing his mental wall, and in the process, isolating himself from society. The rest of the song details his attempts to reconnect with society, but to no avail.
    But it was only fantasy. The wall was too high, as you can see. No matter how he tried he could not break free. And the worms ate into his brain.
  • The Swedish folksong Hårgalåten has a mysterious player arrives at a feast and start playing a strange tune no one can stop dancing to. At the end of the first verse someone notices his feet and exclaims: "God saves us, he has the foot of goat!"
  • The Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island song "It's Terror Time Again" by Skycycle is about running and being chased by real monsters. As the title indicates, the characters have a lot more to be terrified about than usual, as conveyed in both the movie stills and the song lyrics.
    Here comes the really scary part.

    Myths & Religion 
  • All the way back in The Bible. Specifically, the Book of Esther. More specifically, when Haman realizes he's inadvertently ordered the death of the Queen, whom her husband the King values enough to have been willing to offer up to half his own kingdom at her request.
  • An even older example occurs in the 18th book of The Odyssey: Odysseus, posing as an old beggar, is challenged to a fist-fight by an actual beggar, Iros, who is big, but neither strong for his size nor really a fighter. After vainly trying to dissuade Iros from this, Odysseus finally agrees to the fight and girds his loins for the fight. And then the watching suitors and Iros see the muscles on Odysseus' legs, chest and arms...
  • When the title character of Oedipus Rex finally figures it out, making this Older Than Feudalism.

    Pinball 
  • Mousin' Around!: Both the playfield and the backglass show one of the three mice panicking at the sight of a man looming in front of them threateningly.
  • Q gets one in Star Trek: The Next Generation if you do well in the "Q's Challenge" mission.
    Q: Okay, that's enough!

    Podcasts 
  • Cool Kids Table:
    • In the Firefly game. As soon as Mickey gets the coordinates to the stranded Alliance ship, he realizes they lead right into Reaver territory and immediately reports it to Caleb and Roc.
    • When Alan asks the party to roll deception to act natural in episode 16, the first things out of Shannon and Jake's mouths after rolling are "oh no".
  • Worst Foot Forward played Glaze of Blory, a game about squires contriving to get knights killed, to commemorate episode 200. At one point Barry McStay gets a little bit carried away and has the rather arrogant knight he's temporarily controlling tell the King of Bloria, who has already killed two members of his entourage, that she hopes seeding the river with fake fish was pleasing to his Majesty, before adding "I certainly think it should be." Then there's a moment of stunned horror from the players, broken only by GM Johnny Chiodini going, "Ooh shit."

    Tabletop Games 
  • Exalted: It's been made explicit that this is going to be the general Yozi reaction to Heresy charms. When an Infernal creates "Swallowing the Scorpion" and snaps the tethers linking his shard to Lillun, the Phylactery-Womb will scream in pain - and it's around that point that Malfeas, the Demon City, literally shits bricks.
    • In the second-edition core book, in the section on Limit Breaks, there's a picture of a female thug, having just knifed a guy, looking very surprised to see a hulking man entering the Red Rage of Compassion.
  • From Warhammer 40,000:
    • The reaction of an in-universe soldier to seeing a Chaos Champion being possessed by a Greater Daemon. Described in a few places in the background. One text box sidebar in either the Chaos Marines or Chaos Daemons Codex describes an Eldar autarch's reaction to seeing a Slaaneshi Champion being possessed by a Greater Daemon; his initial reaction is to resign himself to die fighting, but then its magic takes over and he stands there staring at it as it eviscerates him.
    • When the Imperium tacticians were trying to figure out how the Tyranid fleet was appearing at random locations far too quickly, and then realized that the tyranid fleet was not coming at the galaxy from the edge, but from below the galaxy. You can see one single fleet's attack movements here (remember that this is one fleet, the Tyranids likely have thousands).
    • The Eldar, who are an entire race of smug (but very competent) snakes, get one just about whenever they realize that the "Monkeys" or the barbarians are going to go down hard or win. Notable was at the Siege of Orar's Sepulchre, when they deployed the Avatar of Khaine, a shard of the soul of their god, and the most powerful fighter in a craftworld...then Marneus Calgar beat it to death.To be honest, it was written by Matt Ward, who is terrible at writing good fluff) They retreated.
    • Probably this was the mental reaction of the Imperial forces after they found out that Legienstrasse (a woman who had been genetically modified with xenos DNA to absorb biomass through her skin and morph any natural weapon she needs and had consequently gone rogue, i.e a female Alex Mercer) had singlehandedly wiped out an Assault Marine squad, the 1st Company Veterans of the Imperial Fists, the Culexus Temple Grandmaster, and nearly killed Captain Lysander.
    • Generally this is the result of a squad having to take a leadership test. Sometimes it's psychic attacks or things like Aeldari hallucinogen grenades, but most of the time, it's watching something very scary barrelling at them with murder in its eyes, or half the squad dying horribly and/or in quick succession and reasonably figuring that they are next if they don't get out of there!
  • The Warhammer Fantasy Wood Elves army book has a picture of Naestra, Arahan, and their dragon staring down a Dwarven Slayer, who has a priceless "Holy S***!" look on his face (although to be fair, he probably isn't complaining... or maybe he is reconsidering the choices that led him to this point).
  • World of Darkness: Every supernatural's reaction to the awakening of the Ravnos Antediluvian, a vampire- no, a monster that existed and ruled over mankind before the Flood, to consume all of his descendants. He dies after fighting with three equally godlike opponents, and surviving three spirit nukes to the face. It is this event, dubbed the "Week of Nightmares", that puts the final nail in the coffin, signifying that the The End of the World as We Know It is finally here. Four years later, other Antediluvians start to awaken...

    Theatre 
  • In The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, this is Barfee's reaction when he discovers that the sticky floor won't allow him to use his "magic foot" to spell the word.
  • In 1776, Franklin and then Jefferson realize that they're in serious trouble when Edward Rutledge asks for clarification about the anti-slavery clause in the Declaration. Franklin mutters "look out" when Rutledge first speaks, and Jefferson abruptly stands up when Rutledge starts to read it.
  • Angels in America: Roy Cohn is halfway through gloating over finally managing to get Ethel Rosenberg to sing, when his heartrate monitor flatlines. He has just enough time to mutter "oh fuck," before collapsing.
  • In The Book of Mormon, the two missionaries exiled to Uganda are painfully realising that evangelisation strategies tailored to affluent First World countries are not likely to work here. As Elder Cunningham is explaining Mormon theology to the local Ugandans, he comes to the foundation myth of how the Lamite people fell from sin and became accursed in the sight of God. As he tells a story which is perfectly acceptable in Utah and which was born in nineteenth century North America prior to the Civil War, it suddenly dawns on him. He is not evangelising to white people. The tale of how the first black people were born - given the mark of Cain because of their sinful state, and made lesser beings in all their generations - is not going to get him a round of applause and a handshake. Hastily, he rescues the situation by substituting Chinese for black, which his congregation whole-heartedly agrees with. note 
  • In La Cage aux folles, Albin habitually takes off his "Zaza" wig after performing "The Best of Times", and, suddenly realizing he's unmasked himself to the Dindons, says: "Oh, merde!"
  • In The Cat and the Canary, lawyer Roger Crosby has one of these moments as his last line.
    • As does Charlie, when he is unmasked by Annabelle.
  • If he's not being a literal Death Seeker, Rudolf from Elisabeth initially reacts like this when Death and his Angels shows up for the Mayerling Waltz.
  • Hamilton: "That was my wife you decided to-" "Fuuuuuu..."
  • The last scene of Hamlet has a couple of these. Hamlet has one when Laertes informs him that he's been poisoned by the foil and he's got less than a half hour to live (a lot less, as it turns out). Claudius gets the next one when it becomes clear that the jig is up, Hamlet is finally sufficiently motivated to kill him, and no one's about to prevent it.
  • Cinderella from Into the Woods has her Oh, Crap! moment when she realizes that the current trouble they're in is due to her throwing away the bean the Baker's Wife gave her.
  • In what might be a "Crowning Moment of Oh, Crap!", Macbeth has two of these when it dawns on him he might've taken the witch's truths a bit too literally...
  • Margin for Error has Horst's panicked reaction as it dawns on him that the Consul wasn't joking about having him "rubbed out by a Jew" on his next mission:
    Horst (His uncritical belief in his heroic destiny is suffering a terrible strain): You're trying to murder me! I won't have it! If Berlin's so hard up for a martyr, let them send one over! And they'd better send someone to kill him—
    Consul: Is the American Fuehrer not prepared to die for his Nazi principles?
    Horst (Incoherent with fear): No!!! I mean—yes—I—I mean, I haven't finished my memoirs yet, I—
    Consul: The Fuehrer asks nobody to do what he wouldn't do himself.
  • Enjolras in Les Misérables gets one when he realizes that Les Amis are about to get obliterated by the French Army because no one has come to their aid.
    The people have not stirred
    We are abandoned by those who still live in fear
    Let us not waste lives
    Let all women and fathers of children go from here
  • The Phantom of the Opera pretty much boils down to the title character causing a series of these reactions in everyone else. Falling Chandelier of Doom, anyone?
  • Sir Ruthven Murgatroyd from Ruddigore has three: When Richard unmasks him (forcing the title and its Be A Punch-Clock Villain Or Die Horribly curse onto him), one when he realizes his misdemeanors won't cut it and he has to cross the Moral Event Horizon or die, and again when Dame Hannah, the maiden Gideon Crawle has kidnapped on his orders, appropriates a BFS and challenges Ruthven.
  • Six: The Musical has both of the beheaded Queens realize the trouble they're in:
    • Anne Boleyn: OH MY GOD GUYS, [Henry]'S REALLY GONNA CHOP MY HEAD OFF!!
    • Howard has one as Thomas Culpepper reveals he too wants her sexually:
    Howard: ''He says we have a... connection..."
  • In The Taming of the Shrew, Lucentio has switched places with his servant Tranio for the purposes of a Zany Scheme. Eventually, Tranio is told to produce his father and gets a pedant to impersonate Lucentio's dad. Everything's going well until Lucentio's real father shows up, at which point Tranio, the pedant and Lucentio's other servant Biondello frantically deny knowing him and try to get him thrown in jail. Just when it looks as if this might actually work, Lucentio arrives on the scene:
    Biondello: O! we are spoiled and—yonder he is: deny him, forswear him, or else we are all undone.
    Lucentio: [Kneeling] Pardon, sweet father.
    Vincentio: Lives my sweet son?
    [Exeunt BIONDELLO, TRANIO, and Pedant, as fast as may be]

    Toys 
  • In BIONICLE: Web of Shadows, King Sidorak and his Queen-to-be Roodaka are in battle with the beast Keetongu. As they go in for the kill, Roodaka suddenly bails out, and Sidorak realizes she didn't wound the Keetongu, she pissed it off. Congratulations, Sidorak, your second-in-command is The Starscream, and she's going to rule your armies without you. Buh-bye.

    Visual Novels 
  • Ace Attorney has plenty of these, both heroic and villainous.
    • A villainous one is in Apollo Justice case four, when Kristoph Gavin gets told that the murder he all but just admitted to committing is being tried by a jury... that just saw his huge streak of gloating. Then there's Ace Attorney Investigations where Edgeworth gets one when Calisto Yew pulls a gun on him after he does the usual "corner-the-murderer" thing.
    • Matt Engarde in the final case of the second game, when he realizes he's a dead man either way. The look combined with their Villainous Breakdown is one of the best moments in the series. It was also funny before when Shelly De Killer does an Oh Crap through a radio. Complete with it falling apart multiple times and sweating oil.
    • Not that it tops the others, but in the 5th case of the first game, Damon Gant. He gloats for about 10 minutes about how horribly he's going to punish Phoenix, Edgeworth, Lana, Ema, Gumshoe, and every single person who tried to turn the tables on him using a very critical item as evidence. A minute later, Phoenix reveals one contradiction in the evidence that results in an Oh Crap moment where Gant literally screams at the very moment of realization that said evidence suddenly makes the situation even worse for him.
    • Another spectacular one is at the very end of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice, when Ga'ran is trying (and failing) to prove she has the spiritual powers needed to rule the land (she doesn't), and looks behind her to see her Praetorian Guard has just realized she's a fake, and thus an usurper, and are aiming her rifles at her, ready to execute her for her deception. As brief as it is in the middle of the breakdown, it's spectacular.
  • In the Danganronpa series:
    • In general, most culprits have one when they're caught.
    • In Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, the second culprit has one when the body is discovered and they realize the scene was tampered with after they left.
    • In Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, Shuichi has a subtle one in the first trial right after he deduces that the culprit must have gotten the murder weapon, a shot put ball, from the warehouse. He is remembering that Kaede had a shot put ball when they left the warehouse.
  • Double Homework has a couple of these moments:
    • The protagonist has one when he realizes that his counter-blackmail conspiracy with Dr. Mosely/Zeta against Dennis won’t work.
    • Dennis also has one when he realizes that the clean-up crew wiped his storage devices, nixed all of his online accounts, and destroyed all his possessions.
  • Fate/stay night:
    • Gilgamesh vs Shirou at the end of UBW route. To his credit, a lot of the fear is more irritation at the fact that some no name brat just cut his arm off before he could even try using his Wave Motion Sword. The "oh crap" factor of the realization he is losing is still partially deflected by how gigantic his ego is.
    • From the first route, both Kirei and Gilgamesh get a moment of this in their duels with Shirou and Saber respectively. Kirei gets his when Shirou survives two curses containing ALL the evils of the world, ever; Past, Present and Future. (To be fair, Shirou did use Avalon to survive the second one), before Shirou runs up and puches his chest out via an explosive magical dagger. Gilgamesh gets his when Saber uses Avalon to block Ea, his World Breaking Wave Motion Sword, before she charges and cuts him in half with an Excaliblast. Gilgamesh gets quite a few of these, mostly when he realises that yes, there are people who can beat him.
    • From Heaven's Feel, there is the moment when True Assassin discovers that Rider's chain-dagger is lodged in his shoulder. Wall-slamming ensues.
  • Hatoful Boyfriend gives you two options when Yuuya is confronted by Doctor Shuu and he lies about having been with you a few moments beforehand. You can choose to go along with Yuuya's lie. But if you choose to tell Shuu that he's lying, Yuuya has just one thing to say...
    Yuuya: ...Shit.
  • In Katawa Shoujo, Rin has this when she realizes that on Friday night, she only has one more day to complete her mural before the festival on Sunday.
  • Several in Melody:
    • The protagonist's reaction when Bethany shows up at the door of his new apartment.
    • Hank’s reaction when he realizes that Bethany tricked him into giving her backstage access to one of Melody’s concerts also qualifies.
    • Generally, any response from the protagonist that leads to a bad ending falls under this heading.
  • In Sickness, this is said aloud by Suoh right before he almost passes out after his first day of training.
  • Umineko: When They Cry:
    • Episode 6: From "USHIROMIYA KYRIE CANNOT SAVE BATTLER" to "You told me I could make the detective proclamation whenever I wanted, right? ......Well, unfortunately, ...I am no longer capable of making that proclamation."
    • In Episode 3, this is Eva-Beatrice's reaction to Beatrice deciding to deny the existence of all witches, after which she panics but is held down by Ronove until Beato's denial burns her away.

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The Baby Monitor

Bonnie overhears that Joe cheated on her via their baby monitor.

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