Parades are joyous occasions. The whole cast can get together, throw a party, and celebrate whatever special occasion has been saved for this particular denouement. There will be loud noises, perfect for drowning out screams for help, and a general air of ironic celebration as somebody fights for their life (and, generally, loses). Alternatively, it could just be a way to collect as many Red Shirts as possible to give the attackers something to mow through. It may be Thanksgiving, Pride, a Tickertape Parade, or something else. Often a subtrope to Attack of the Town Festival, where a parade is part of whatever festival is ongoing. In enforced examples where the parade is made part of whatever occurs, that will overlap with A FĂŞte Worse than Death.
Sometimes more downplayed examples will take advantage of the stalking potential of being in a crowd of hundreds or even thousands. The parade will be deployed for the tension and the anxiety of being Alone in a Crowd, rather than necessarily being the setting for any explicit violence.
Compare Black-Tie Infiltration and Prom Wrecker, which are supposedly happy "public" occasions that descend into violence, and All Part of the Show, which is generally set at a theater or some other performance rather than a parade.
As this is often but not always a spoiler trope, no spoilers will be marked.
Examples:
- Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory: The Earth Federation, dealing with an upsurge in anti-Federation sentiment thanks to heavy-handed actions since the end of the One Year War, holds a naval review under the command of Green Wyatt, a high-ranking general officer. He intends for this impressive show of military force to cow any dissent into submission, and he does not intend for the Delaz Fleet's theft of the GP02A to stop him. He even holds the review at Konpeito Island, formerly the Zeon space fortress of Solomon, to drive home how pointless opposition to the Federation is. Unhappily for Wyatt, he completely forgets that the GP02A is armed with a nuclear missile (the A stands for "Atomic"), and he's just provided an irresistible target. Over 2/3s of the Federation fleet is destroyed, including Wyatt aboard his new state-of-the-art battleship the Birmingham. Wyatt briefly has a moment to go Oh, Crap! before he is atomised.
- Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door: Vincent intends to release his nanomachine virus on the citizens of Alba City during the Halloween Parade. Thankfully for them, the crew of the Bebop are able to draft up countermeasures to neutralize the virus in case the parade balloons are blown up and start dispersing the virus. Meanwhile, Spike confronts Vincent in an empty building overlooking the parade to make sure he isn't able to activate the dispersal.
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Walpurgisnacht, the witch of stagecraft, is a super-powerful witch whose arrival is generally treated like the coming of a natural disaster. She is accompanied by a parade of familiars, such as eldritch green elephants, "blue-noses" riding pink llama monsters, and red and black imps, all of which wreak devastation wherever she appears.
- The Amazing Spider-Man (1963): In issue #374, which is appropriately titled "Murder on Parade", Venom goes to kidnap Peter Parker's parents to "protect" them from Spider-Man, and ends up fighting Spider-Man during the annual "Winterfest" parade. Venom pops a giant balloon with a parking meter, webs up a police officer's head (risking him of dying of suffocation), and whaps a clown he mistook for frightening a little girl.
- Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees: In a variant, the killer takes advantage of the parade preparations rather than the parade itself to claim their first victim. They opted to crucify the body on the mast of a ship-shaped parade float, hiding it with the ship's sails — which fall off during the parade and reveal the body, traumatizing all of the parade-goers.
- Spider-Boy: The back-up story in issues #1-2 involves Spider-Boy attending the New York City Thanksgiving Day Parade. However, Spider-Boy's villain Balloon Man uses his powers to command the helium-filled balloons to attack the attendees.
- Mulan: A big parade is thrown during the celebration in honor of the soldiers who defeated the Huns. Mulan tries to warn people, including Shang, that the city is still in danger and that some of the Huns survived the avalanche, but no one listens. As Shang is presenting Shan Yu's sword to the Emperor, Shan Yu's falcon flies up, snatches it out of his hands, and returns it to his master on the roof. At that moment, the surviving Huns burst out of a nearby Chinese parade dragon and kidnap the Emperor.
- Paprika: In the animated adaptation, people who have been hacked with the stolen DC Mini are driven insane in the real world, while in the dream world, they're incorporated into a grotesque parade of anthropomorphic animals and Animate Inanimate Objects slowly conquering the dreamscape... and as joyous as it seems, the parade is the Big Bad's means of taking over the subconscious landscape, and any dreamer caught up in it risks being driven insane. In the finale, Chairman Inui's dabbling with the DC Mini results in the dreamworld merging with reality, unleashing the parade on downtown Tokyo: newscasters start talking gibberish, businessmen throw themselves to their deaths like synchronized swimmers, pedestrians are transformed into musical instruments and Maneki Neko, and characters that only existed in fiction — like Paprika herself — suddenly become real and try to stop the carnage as best as they can.
- Animal House: Played for Laughs when the denizens of Delta House cause chaos at the Faber College parade in retaliation for getting expelled.
- Batman (1989): The Joker hosts a parade for Gotham City's anniversary, only for it to be revealed that the balloons are filled with his lethal Smilex Gas, which will cause the victims to pass with the same permanent grin on their faces as The Joker himself has. Vicki Vale realizes the truth and attempts to warn the crowd, but Batman has to use his Batwing to seize and transport the balloons to a place where they'll release their toxic gas harmlessly.
- Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999): After Becky wins the beauty pageant, likely thanks to the influence of her mother, Gladys, she gets to ride in a float shaped like a swan, which she says smells like gasoline. As the parade gets underway, Becky's float goes up in flames and explodes, killing her, causing Gladys to go off, saying that Amber, not Becky, should've been the one that died.
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011): As in the book, Lisbeth and Mikael figure out that Harriet saw her killer at the Children's Day parade, as she is seen looking terrified there before she disappears for over thirty years, presumably murdered. They are right and wrong — both of them figure out that Harriet looked terrified at the parade because she saw her brother, Martin, standing on the other side of the street. He is a Serial Killer who had sexually extorted Harriet into letting him rape her with the knowledge that she killed their abusive father.
- Holland: Nancy believes that Dave scared off her husband, Fred, who is also a brutal Serial Killer of women. At the Tulip Time parade, though, Nancy sees Fred — which terrifies them both, as Nancy is there with her and Fred's young son, Harry. In Dave's case, it's particularly frightening as, as far as he knows, he killed Fred after discovering him at his most recent murder scene. Dave insists that Nancy couldn't have seen Fred, which also scares Nancy and stops her from trusting Dave.
- I Know What You Did Last Summer: Twice.
- Helen and Barry participate in the Fourth of July parade, where Helen sees the hook-handed fisherman watching them. She alerts Barry, but despite jumping off the float, he's unable to identify the man.
- Later, Helen sees Barry get killed while she is participating in the pageant. Though she gets sent home, the killer murders her police escort and her sister. Helen then tries to flee through the street and almost reaches the parade — but is drowned out by the marching band and loud fireworks and killed mere moments from safety.
- Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny: Pursued by assassins, Indiana Jones has to flee through the tickertape parade dedicated to the Apollo 11 astronauts.
- Jingle All the Way: Near the end of the film, there is a parade with many famous cartoon characters and mascots. When Howard tries to catch up with his family after his many failed attempts to get his son Jamie a Turbo Man action figure as a Christmas present, he gets mistaken for the actor playing Turbo Man and roped into the eponymous parade float, where he gets to choose which lucky kid will get a Turbo Man action figure. Howard chooses Jamie, and as Jamie comes onto the float to claim his prize, Myron Larabee, who had been trying to get a Turbo Man action figure for his own son, disguises himself as Dementor, the villain from Turbo Man TV show in an attempt to get the action figure from Jamie. Now Howard has to defeat Myron and save Jamie, with the help of his Turbo Man costume, which even has real turbo discs and a working jet pack.
- Killer Klowns from Outer Space: The Klowns main attack on the town has them all converge around parade floats rumbling through main street. They serve the purpose of large portable storage devices for their victims, including some being equipped with vacuums and having open tops to throw victims right in from their houses.
- Pokémon Detective Pikachu: At the climax, the Big Bad Howard Clifford holds a parade with giant Pokémon-shaped balloons, which burst and flood the streets of Ryme City with the purple gas known as R. It fuses all humans and their Pokémon partners together.
- Spider-Man 1: Norman Osborn, driven mad and accepting a new identity as the Green Goblin, makes his first public appearance at a parade. Understandably, a bomb-throwing maniac on a flying sled causes the event to descend into chaos.
- Thanksgiving (2023), a whodunit slasher influenced by films like I Know What You Did Last Summer, also features a deadly parade scene. The protagonists try to use the Thanksgiving parade to lure out the killer, who wears a mask of the town's Thanksgiving icon John Carver. The audience is full of people wearing similar masks, but the killer isn't among them — he's dressed up as a clown to avoid suspicion, and makes his presence known by decapitating one of the marchers with an axe. In the chaos, a float shaped like the Mayflower comes loose, and its prow impales the driver through the head. The scene ends with the killer using the opportunity to tranquilize and kidnap the protagonists.
- Trick 'r Treat homages Helen's death from I Know What You Did Last Summer in featuring a huge Halloween parade that is the centre of the festivities. Wilkins picks one girl up on a date, but after he tries to attack her, she manages to run away and come close to reaching the parade — only to be drowned out, ignored, and ultimately killed by Wilkins.
- The Wicker Man (1973): Late in the film, Howie joins a parade in disguise that is led by Lord Summarisle, there in Creepy Crossdresser ware. Now knowing that the islanders he thinks kidnapped and plan to sacrifice Rowan, Howie watches in horror as the group start a game where they mime chopping each other's heads off with very realistic-looking blades. Ultimately played with — the parade is important as a way to get Howie to the Wicker Man, but none of the other locals were in danger, and they all knew that.
- The Daevabad Trilogy: The Navasatem festival at the climax of The Kingdom of Copper devolves into a deadly Gambit Pileup when the parade is attacked by the persecuted shafit underclass. The king's brutal retaliation causes his own son to rebel against him, just in time for a third faction to launch a surprise assault on the city.
- Eisenhorn: In the first act of Malleus, a celebratory parade that Eisenhorn and his entourage are participants in is attacked by renegades. In addition to kicking off the plot, this is the event that turns Ravenor from an athletic and handsome interrogator to a cripple in a life-support chair.
- The Grace of Kings begins when The Emperor's victory parade in a conquered city is interrupted by a Kite Riding bomber. Although the bomber fails to kill the emperor, his audacity inspires one of the witnesses, the boy who grows up to become the protagonist and conquer the Empire himself.
- Millennium Series: In The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Mikael figures out that everyone has got Harriet's last sighting wrong; among her real last sightings was at the Children's Day parade, after which she tried urgently to speak to Henrik and then disappeared, presumably murdered. Lisbeth and Mikael go through an arduous journey looking for another camera that caught Harriet at the parade, and when they finally find it, they realize that it was Martin that Harriet saw. They unearth that Harriet and her brother Martin were both victims of their abusive father, but Harriet murdered him, and then Martin used it to blackmail her.
- Mystic River: Both the book and the film set their downer endings at the Buckingham Day parade:
- In the book, Celeste makes Sean promise to prove that Jimmy killed Dave in an act of pointless vengeance for Dave's apparent role in Kate's death (he wasn't responsible), and, at the parade, Jimmy decides to come out of retirement to seize back his place in the Boston underworld.
- Annabeth tells Jimmy that she approves of his (ultimately pointless) vigilantism around Katie's death at the parade. The film ends with Jimmy and Sean smiling at each other as Sean signals through finger guns his intention to make Jimmy pay for Dave's death, suggesting that the cycle of vengeance will go on and on without even any hope of true justice.
- Something Wicked This Way Comes: The Cooger & Dark Pandemonium Carnival holds a parade through Green Town as a covert way to search for and silence Will and Jim. The boys hide in a storm drain while the parade passes by overhead, assisted by Will's father Charles covering for them. During the parade, Charles and the boys also see the horrible fates that have befallen the townspeople who gave into the carnival's temptations and are now trapped in it forever.
- Sunrise on the Reaping: The tributes' parade, part of the opening ceremony for the Second Quarter Quell. The Capitol apparently didn't think of the implications of mixing horses and fireworks. As a result, some of the horses get spooked, carriages crash during the parade, and Louella is killed.
- Monk: In "Mr. Monk Is on the Run: Part 2", Monk discovers that Dale "The Whale" is targeting the California governor so he can put his puppet, the lieutenant governor, in charge. They track the Governor to the Riverton Centennial Parade, where he is riding in a car with his wife. Monk and Natalie realize that Dale has rigged a car bomb in the Governor's car that is set to go off via a remote trigger when he passes under a parade banner. The police attempt to stop the parade, but in all the chaos are unable to, forcing Monk to climb into the car and turn it off just before it reaches the banner.
- "Vox", the penultimate episode of Star Trek: Picard, depicts all of Starfleet gathered at Earth to celebrate Frontier Day. This is when the Borg execute their long-running plan to assimilate Starfleet and attack Earth directly.
- Parade (1998): Downplayed; Based on a True Story, the murder of Mary Phagan that kicks off the plot occurs during the Confederate Memorial Day parade, when Mary goes back to her workplace at the pencil factory managed by Leo Frank to get her weekly pay. Mary's body is found in the factory basement that evening, and Frank being the last known person to see her alive makes him a suspect.
- Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Vizier has a discussed example. The Captain tells Ja'far about an unauthorized parade in the marketplace led by "some fool atop an elephant" (Aladdin, naturally), who is "throwing gold pieces to the starving masses — and they're trampling each other to get to it." At least thirteen people are killed.
- Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown: During the "Million Relief Plan" mission, Torres plans on killing at least one million people in Osea's capital with a low yield, one kilo-ton tactical nuclear warhead. When Osean intelligence wonders how he could kill so many people, as such a relatively small nuclear weapon would only kill a few thousand even he launched it at a large city like the capital, David figures out that Torres intends to launch his strike during the independence day parade, which means huge crowds will line the city streets along the parade route, which would then culminate in a massive political rally.
- This is how the China campaign begins in Command & Conquer: Generals: the GLA set off a series of suicide bombs and car bombs during a parade in Beijing.
- Cyberpunk 2077: During the back-to-back main quest missions "Gimme Danger" and "Play It Safe", V and Takemura use the parade to celebrate the life and death of Saburo Arasaka as a cover to get close to Saburo's daughter, Hanako. V has to run ahead, taking out the security snipers and netrunner, so that Takemura can get aboard her hacked float to speak to her. She isn't willing to listen, forcing Takemura to shoot her with a Tranquilizer Dart and abscond with her to an abandoned building while V flees the security forces.
- Final Fantasy VIII: At the end of Disc 1, Squall and his party are instructed to assassinate Sorceress Edea during her parade in Deling City by closing a gate at the right time and shooting her with a sniper rifle. After Irvine misses the shot, they're forced to attack her in a 3-vs-1 battle up close, ending with Squall getting hit with ice magic and them getting locked up in the Galbadia D-District Prison in Disc 2.
- Limbus Company: In La Manchaland, a massive vampiric theme park and the focal location of Canto VII, Area 3 is dedicated to the Eternal Parade. It has dozens of Bloodfiends joyfully singing about their miserable, long lives while carting around dried corpses on poles, and trying to forcibly convert any visitors into mindless new Bloodbag dancers in the parade.
- The premise of Nancy Drew: The Phantom of Venice is that a string of notorious thefts is taking place during Carnevale
. All the city's native police are busy taking care of the crowds, so various international detectives — including Nancy — are commissioned to hunt down the thief. This also justifies Nancy's personal confrontation of the villain at the end; it will take time for the actual police to reach them, so only Nancy is close enough to stop them before they get away. (That said, no hint of Carnevale is ever shown on-screen — probably because the animators were working with a tight budget.)
- Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask: The game begins with Layton and Luke attending a parade in the city of Monte d'Or, only for the giant clown balloon to deflate and chaos to erupt as many of those attending are mysteriously turned to stone by a fellow calling himself the Masked Gentleman, who reveals his plans to destroy the city. It's later revealed that the "victims" were accomplices, and they were swapped out for statues hidden in the balloon.
- Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart: The game starts with Dr. Nefarious attacking a parade in Ratchet and Clank's honor.
- StarCraft 2: Raynor's Raiders successfully hijack the powerful new war mech known as the Odin, which is the centrepiece of a parade due to take place on the Dominion's throneworld of Korhal. This is a key part of their plan, as the expected fireworks and other pyrotechnics help mask the initial attack and buy Raynor's forces time to establish a beach head and land more troops to secure their objective. Throughout the mission, enemy chatter shows that there is confusion on whether everything is part of the parade until they realise the deception and muster a proper response.
- The Night Parade arc of Erma, meant to be a night where the Youkai spirits of Japan march in celebration through the countryside and towns as a symbol of their glory and power, becomes a place of destruction and chaotic disaster, after an attempt is made to kill the onryi-child Erma Williams. All her attackers succeed in doing is to push her into unlocking a previously unsuspected reservoir of power, which results in massive unrestrained destruction and has repercussions that are felt throughout the whole world.
- Dimension 20: In The Unsleeping City: Chapter 2, several "true clowns" attempt to abduct Santa Claus (who is the real deal) at the Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York, grabbing him and jumping onto several balloons which swiftly escape from the crowd, necessitating the Dream Team do the same to get Santa back. The battle map even takes place atop the balloons in question.
- American Dad!: In "Home Adrone", Steve ends up losing Stan's high tech military drone to a local triad who operate in Langley's Little China district. Stan confronts the triad members on a slow-moving parade float. He channels all of his CIA training that specifically focuses on a Groin Attack against every last member, but they pull guns on him. The drone ends up being hidden away inside a dragon on that float, and Steve activates it just in time to help Stan get away, with much of the dragon decorations still attached. Two onlookers take notice.
Chinese grandfather: The prophecy has been fulfilled. The great dragon awakens!Chinese granddaughter: Oh, with a white guy riding him. Awesome.
- Amphibia: The climax of "Froggy Little Christmas" takes place during the town's Christmas parade, as King Andrias has one of his drones hijack a parade float shaped like Santa Claus and convert it into a heavily-armed Humongous Mecha with the intent of finally killing Anne and the Plantars. They just barely manage to defeat it and save the townsfolk.
- The Mask: Animated Series: In "Power of Suggestion", the supervillain, Kablamus, is bitter that he wasn’t made the grand marshal of Edge City’s Fluff Parade, so he attacks the parade and tries to blow up Edge City with dynamite out of spite.
- Megas XLR: "Thanksgiving Throwdown" sees an alien fungus known as Gynok assimilates multiple Thanksgiving Parade balloons and attacks Megas, which it acknowledges as a threat to its existence. None of Megas' conventional attacks are working, as Gynok's plantlike body gives it an elastic surface that absorbs most kinetic damage, and it can repair any cuts it receives from bladed weapons. Kiva's analysis shows it is trying to feed on heat, and Coop, all too familiar with overeating, uses Megas' flamethrower to overfeed Gynok until it bursts and perishes. The episode actually makes a Shout-Out to the parade scene from Batman (1989) with Jamie imagining himself on a parade float as The Joker with two Harley Quinn lookalikes on either arm.
- Miraculous Ladybug: In "Catalyst", Volpina crashes the Heroes' Day parade and creates an illusion of Ladybug murdering Cat Noir on top of one of the parade balloons, knowing that almost everyone in Paris will be watching. The sight horrifies everyone, creating the ideal conditions for a mass Akumatization.
- The Real Ghostbusters: In "Revenge of Murray The Mantis", a parade balloon is inflated in a building that had, at one point, been a city morgue. The residual spectral energy concentrates in one balloon, the titular Murray the Mantis (star of a popular kids show), turning it into a gigantic spectral mantis which then goes on a rampage. The Ghostbusters find it too large and powerful for their conventional equipment, so they have to retrieve one particularly powerful ghost from their containment unit, The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, to help defeat Murray.
- The Simpsons:
- Played for Laughs in "Cape Feare". As he's stalking Bart in the local town, Bob claims there is no harm in sitting in the middle of a public street. Cue the arrival of a parade celebrating Hannibal crossing the Swiss Alps that tramples over Bob—including a full marching band and six elephants—all the while ignoring his screams of pain and breaking of bones.
- In "The Great Louse Detective", an unknown assassin arranges for Homer to play king in the Springfield Mardi Gras parade. During the parade, Bob notes the float isn't making a sound, and after Wiggum reveals a mechanic fixed it earlier, Bob realizes the mechanic cut its engine just as the float starts to descend down the street to the museum of swordfish. Bob shoots himself out of a pirate float cannon to grab Homer out of the way. Then, a Mardi Gras goer tries to shoot Homer down, giving himself away and runs off while Homer and Bob catch up to him. They corner the mechanic, where he is revealed to be Frank Grimes Jr. and the son of Homer's nemesis, and is taken away by the police.
- The Spectacular Spider-Man: In "Nature vs. Nurture", Venom goes to the Thanksgiving Parade where Spider-Man’s love interest, Gwen Stacy, is going to be in the marching band. Venom tries to kill Gwen to get revenge on Spider-Man, and he fights Spider-Man to try and keep him from saving Gwen.
- Anwar Sadat, the third president of Egypt, was assassinated
on live television during a victory parade on 6 October 1981. The assassins were radical Islamist jihadists who had hidden themselves inside one of the parading vehicles, using it to get close to Sadat (who presumably believed them to be a part of the show until the last moment) and to shoot him (and ten bystanders) at close range.
