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  • In The Act of Killing, Anwar asks "Have I sinned?" after reenacting one of the executions he committed with himself in the role of the prisoner.
  • The Amazing Spider-Man: After being cured, Curt Connors realizes what he has done in his mission to spread his mutation around New York, including fatally wounding Captain Stacy.
  • American History X: Henry's reaction immediately after he shoots Danny, as he realizes that he just murdered someone and blew his own life away for something as minor as receiving a dirty look from a racist.
  • Hannigan upon hearing from Stacks that Annie (2014) was never being sarcastic about her singing, Annie really did like it and it did comfort her. Even more so upon finding out that Guy has no idea who the people he handed Annie off to are and that they'll keep her until after the election and then dump her back into the system.
  • In Armored, Palmer has this reaction when Ty manages to show him just how far he has strayed from his ideals. On realising that he had been about to murder Ty, he jumps off the roof to his death.
  • Avatar. The look on Selfridge's face as he watches the destruction of Hometree shows that he finally realizes what an asshole he is. Despite this, he still doesn't make a Heel–Face Turn.
  • In The Axe Murders Of Villisca, Reverend Kelly is possessed by an ancient evil in the house and he slaughters everyone in the house with an axe, sporting Black Eyes of Evil to go with it. When the evil releases control of him, Kelly begins to break down in tears and let's out a painful scream.
  • In The Baader Meinhof Complex, a film based on the Real Life German left-wing terrorist group, the Red Army Faction, the first generation and founders of the group begins to realize this after their capture and imprisonment by the West German government. In their goal of "liberating" West Germany which they believe was a fascist state, the founders realize their bombings not only made the group unpopular to the German people, made worse by the second generation's brutal attacks and killings of hostages, but all their actions are for naught, as they were no longer fighting for their beliefs but revenge for their comrades who got killed. The realization hits the founders hard which leads to most of the founders killing themselves.
  • The Bad Batch: Arlen kills Maria out of anger about her husband and his tribe's cannibalization of two of Arlen's limbs. She immediately feels horrible about it, especially since Maria's daughter witnesses her mother's death.
  • In the 2017 film Bad Match, Harris goes after his previous stalker Riley because he believes she is responsible for framing him for possession of child porn. It’s only after Harris abducts Riley and ends up beating her to death when she tries to escape that he learns that the person responsible for framing him was someone else entirely.
  • The Batman (2022): Realizing that The Riddler and his followers were inspired by his campaign of terror utterly shakes Batman to his core and forces him to completely reevaluate his methods, convincing him to focus less on terror and more on becoming a beacon of hope to the people of Gotham.
  • Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice: By the end of the titular fight, Batman has Superman at his mercy, about to kill him with a Kryptonite spear. However, Superman's request to save "Martha", followed by Lois' arrival and explaining that it is Clark's mother's name, leads Bruce to the realization that he almost became what he fought against during his twenty years as Batman.
  • In The Beasts Are on the Streets, Jim mutters, "Forgive me son, forgive me, I'm sorry," after shooting his son Hal in a hunting accident.
  • In The Big Country, Rufus Hannassey shoots his son Buck after the latter attempts to dishonorably kill his opponent McKay with a stolen gun, as Rufus had warned both men he would kill them himself if they attempted to breach the terms of the duel. As Buck dies, Rufus tearfully shouts at him, "I told you! I told you I'd do it! I told you, but you didn't believe me!" and embracing his son, making it clear that, despite having only done exactly what he said he would do, he is still absolutely shattered by it.
  • In The Big Short, Ben Rickert chews out his partners for celebrating their deals when he reminds them that they'll get rich when the world financial market collapses, and what that entails — people will lose everything. They are immediately chastised.
    Rickert: If we're right, people lose homes. People lose jobs. People lose retirement savings, people lose pensions. You know what I hate about fucking banking? It reduces people to numbers. Here's a number — every 1% unemployment goes up, 40,000 people die, did you know that?
  • Bit: Laurel is horrified when she's overcome by hunger and bites Mark, as she knows Duke will demand he be killed since he's male (she won't let men turn into vampires, which would happen otherwise).
  • Bloodthirsty: Grey is distraught when she accidentally kills a rabbit, being an ethical vegan. She's devastated to learn she killed her girlfriend Charlie in wolf shape later as well.
  • Blue Jean: Jean is wracked with guilt after going along with the lie that gets Lois suspended from her school, and apologizes to her afterward.
  • Boiler Room: Seth has this when he slowly realizes that not only the stock he was selling is fraudulent (as J. T. Marlin is a "pump and dump" scam — it's using its brokers to artificially inflate the price of stocks of expired or fake companies (as well as speculative penny stocks) through bogus or misleading statements, in order to sell the cheaply purchased stock at a higher price. Once the operators of the scheme "dump" (aka sell) their overvalued shares, the price falls and the investors lose their money., but J.T. Marlin has lined up other office space to use if/when they're busted by the feds. This eventually forces him to cooperate with the FBI in exchange for federal immunity.
  • In Braveheart, Robert the Bruce goes through this after he sees the look of despair on William Wallace's face when Wallace sees that the Bruce betrayed him at the Battle of Falkirk. It doesn't sit well with him, and he vows later never to be on the wrong side (meaning the English) again.
  • In the climactic scene of The Bridge on the River Kwai, Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness) realizes that he has been collaborating with the enemy to build a bridge out of sheer egotism, to the point that he draws attention to the Allied commando attempt to destroy it. His final words — before he is hit by mortar fire and dies, collapsing on the detonator and setting off the explosives — are "What have I done?" The fact that he says it in a shell-shocked murmur only makes it all the more poignant. The last line of the film, by the only surviving major character, answers the question: "Madness!!! Madness!!!"
  • A Christmas Story: Ralphie's parents are reduced to tears after finding out that the cause of Ralphie's blindness is from soap poisoning. (Earlier in the movie, Ralphie had been punished for swearing, and had his mouth washed out by Lifebuoy soap.) Of course, this is all Ralphie's daydream.
  • Cries and Whispers: Karin, in a bad mood after her chilly dinner with her husband, tells her maid Anna not to look at her. Karin slaps her when she fails to obey, but then immediately looks contrite and tries to apologize for the act. Later, she makes a hateful "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Maria, then turns around and begs for her forgiveness, which she gets... for a while.
  • The final scene of The Dam Busters (1955) has inventor Barnes Wallis (played by Sir Michael Redgrave) comprehend the full scale of loss sustained by the British Airforce in executing his brainchild, Operation Chastise. Wallis is shown on the verge of tears, his voice shaking, as he tries to hold it together in front of Squadron Leader Guy Gibson (Richard Todd):
    Wallis: Fifty-six men. If I had known it was going to be like this I would never have started.
    • This was Barnes Wallis's reaction in Real Life, too. He never fully got over the guilt of having initiated Operation Chastise.
  • Dennis the Menace: Mr. Wilson becomes filled with guilt when he learns that Dennis ran away because of his yelling at him earlier.
  • In Deadpool 2's mid-credits scene, Yukio and Negasonic Teenage Warhead express this when they realize they let Deadpool have Cable's time traveling device they just fixed.
    Yukio: Bye, Wade!
    Deadpool: Bye, Yukio!
    Yukio: That was probably a bad idea.
    Negasonic: What have we done?
    • Before this realization, Negasonic implies she's allowing Deadpool to use it on the expectation that Cable will kill him when he finds out he's using it.
  • Vitamin Flintheart experiences this in Dick Tracy's Dilemma when he realises that his highhanded dismissal of Sightless, and sending him away from Tracy's home, resulted in Sightless being murdered.
  • In Dogma, Bartleby breaks down in tears and sobbingly apologizes for Jumping Off the Slippery Slope and Crossing the Line Twice after coming face to face with God (who is effectively his parent, seeing as he is/was an angel) for the first time since his exile.
  • Hilariously subverted in A Dogs Breakfast. Patrick wants to kill his future brother-in-law, Ryan. Ryan offers to help him chop wood by holding the wood steady for him. Patrick lifts his axe up, clearly intending to render Ryan in two. We cut to a shot of the woods just as we hear a dull thunk, complete with blood curdling scream. We then cut back to Patrick's face who whispers: "What have I done?".....only to watch him collapse in pain as we realise that he's actually hit himself in the leg with the axe's handle by accident.
  • Eden Lake: Heartbreakingly, Jenny after accidentally killing Cooper, one of the more reluctant members of Brett's gang.
  • In Edward Scissorhands, this is Joyce's reaction upon hearing of Edward's demise.
  • In the made-for-TV Elvis Meets Nixon, it's 1970, and Elvis has snuck out of Graceland, out on his own for the first time in over a decade. He has fond memories of LA's Sunset Strip, but when he gets there he's appalled to find it overrun with hippies and head shops where his records are back in the 'golden oldies' section. A hippie recognizes Elvis and excitedly tells how he changed his life — in an irony worthy of The Twilight Zone (1959), he points out that Elvis's spirit of rebellion created the counterculture. Elvis is horrified.
  • Elysium: Delacourt refuses treatment from Frey after she's stabbed in the neck, murmuring 'no' in remorse for what she did.
  • Equilibrium: John Preston is a cleric who goes off his meds and becomes exposed to emotions. It also means he's able to now question when he once adhered to the system, enabling a horrific version of this when he discovers he was present at his wife's execution. The extreme guilt is noted when you realize he's watching a placated version of himself who chose to obey the system rather than do anything to prevent the forthcoming events.
  • Event Horizon: Baby Bear is released from his trance just as the airlock is about to open. His reaction upon realizing where he is is upsetting, to say the least.
  • Played for Laughs in Fanboys when Windows realizes Rogue Leader, his online girlfriend, is only a child.
  • Female Agents: Gaëlle reacts this way after giving up the other operatives under torture. Later she kills herself over it.
  • General Hein in Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, after letting the aggressive, nigh-invulnerable Phantoms into a large human population center. It doesn't make him join the heroes, though.
  • Fred in The Flintstones movie, when he realises he's laid off every last one of his friends.
  • In Fluke, after Fluke attacks Jeff whilst the latter is driving, causing them to crash, he finally recovers his memories, and realises that when he was alive as a man he'd been quite the Jerkass to Jeff, and it wasn't Jeff's fault that Fluke/Tom had died. This later fuels Fluke's I Want My Beloved to Be Happy stance.
  • In Footloose, Reverend Moore was forced come to this realization when the adults in his town takes his advice to destroy literature that led to the corruption of youth too far, even for him.
  • In The Fourth Protocol, Ian Richardson responds to this question with an epic "The Reason You Suck" Speech. He plays Sir Nigel Irvine, a British Intelligence spymaster who's uncovered a right-wing politician passing NATO secrets to South Africa. Sir Nigel reveals that this is actually a False Flag Operation with the information going to Moscow Centre.
    Politician: Oh my God... what have I done?
    Sir Nigel: You've betrayed your country. You've passed untold numbers of secrets to Moscow, and endangered the lives of British men and women. And I'd say you've weakened NATO, perhaps irretrievably. Just you, and your schoolboy politics, and your idiotically conceited faith in your own importance.
  • After his Batman Gambit is pulled off successfully, and the title character of Fresh ends up with what he wanted for himself and his sister, he goes to meet his father, and just starts crying uncontrollably. Understandable, since although most weren't nice people, he just got about 10 people killed as part of the gambit. And he is 12 years old...
  • Full Metal Jacket: Gunnery Sergeant Hartman's whole demeanor almost changes, one could argue; when he sees how much his methods of training the recruits have driven Private Leonard "Gomer Pyle" Lawrence over the edge.
  • Gifted:
    • Bonnie apologizes to Frank on hearing that the principal's inquiries have led to the custody battle. She tells him she didn't tell anyone what she found out about his family, and he believes her.
    • Frank when he finds out that Mary's foster family sent her cat away to be euthanized; he rescues Fred, goes back for her, and apologizes to her for going with the custody deal.
    • Evelyn breaks down into tears when she reads that while her daughter had solved the Navier-Stokes problem, she didn't want it to be published until after Evelyn's death. Diane grew to hate Evelyn, her own mother, so much that she refused to give her the satisfaction of having solved one of the world's greatest equation problems; a purpose Evelyn gave her as a child.
  • Unlike in the book, The Giver actually shows what happens when Jonas manages to return the memories to the Community; overcome by the implications of their actions, several of the characters start crying out in shock, this includes Jonas's father who realizes that he had been committing institutionalized murder with each Release all along.
  • Godzilla:
    • Dr. Serizawa spends all of Godzilla (1954) horrified that he created a weapon that could be worse than nuclear weapons with the Oxygen Destroyer and only relents in using it after seeing Godzilla destroy Tokyo and killing himself with the monster to take it to the grave with him.
    • In Godzilla (2014), the look on Joe’s face after his wife's death says it all. His obsession is also most likely fueled by guilt.
  • In The Goonies Chunk recounts mixing up a bunch of fake puke, taking it to a movie theater, going up to the balcony, then throwing it on the people below, all the people in the theater started to get sick and throw up all over each other. He had never felt so bad in his whole life.
  • The Hit List: This is Allan's reaction upon realising that Jonas was serious about murdering the five people on his 'hit list' and has started doing so.
  • The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug: The movie ends on a cliffhanger, as Thorin's efforts to take out Smaug fail and Smaug flies away to destroy Laketown. The very last scene is a horrified Bilbo whispering, "What have we done?"
    • In an earlier scene, Bilbo goes completely berserk and murders an infant Mirkwood spider just because, while it was fleeing, it accidentally grazed a fallen Ring. Bilbo, pacified, cheerfully picks up the Ring... and then his smile morphs into an expression of disgusted and nauseated horror for what he has done.
  • Home Alone: Kevin's mom, when she realizes she left Kevin at home while the family left for Paris.
    "What kind of a mother am I?"
  • How Funny (This Country Is): Muluk and Pipit are ashamed of themselves after seeing their fathers cry their eyes out and beg forgiveness from Allah for living off stolen money from them. This is enough to make them quit working with the pickpockets.
  • In The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2, Gale suffers this, upon realizing that he's one of those unwittingly involved in President Coin's bombing plan, which in turn killed Prim. And as far as Katniss is concerned, he's dead to her. Katniss suffers it as well when she realizes how many of her friends and comrades have died because they followed a mission that Katniss lied to them about. Katniss gets backed up by the remainder of her comrades when they tell Katniss that they all knew she lied to them but followed her anyways since they thought it's the right thing to do.
  • I Shot Jesse James: Robert Ford has this reaction when he shoots his best friend Jesse James In the Back to collect the reward money. The feeling never quite leaves him for the rest of the film.
  • Into the Storm (2009): Winston's face when he sees the sheer loss of life he brought upon speaks more than a thousand words.
  • In Jason's Lyric, the Jerkass younger brother, Joshua, is genuinely shocked when he realized to have just shot his brother, Jason's, girlfriend, Lyric, despite he initially attempted to do so to prevent Jason from leaving him. And to rub salt into his wound, this becomes his last straw that eventually makes Jason no longer cares about him but chooses to rather save his girlfriend instead and decides to walk out on him for good.
  • The Mayor in Jaws has one of these moments following the shark attack in the estuary when he realizes that it was his fault for insisting the beaches stay open.
  • Judgment at Nuremberg:
    • Janning is the only defendant who voices remorse, or admits his guilt. Only his final conversation with Judge Heywood seemed to really make this sink in. Even then Janning maintains he didn't know it would come to that, before Heywood says it had the moment he sentenced to death a man who he'd known really was innocent.
    • Lampe also seems to regret his acts, but doesn't say anything.
  • In Kingsman: The Secret Service, this is essentially Harry's reaction to his having slaughtered several dozen people while under the influence of Valentine's SIM cards.
  • A variation occurred in Kung Fu Hustle, where Sing tried to steal from the Cute Mute ice cream lady, only to realize that she was the little girl he tried to save when he was a kid. Then he ran away from her, ashamed at what he was trying to become.
  • Legend (1985). When Lili realizes her actions have caused a unicorn to die. It gets better.
  • Lockjaw: Rise of the Kulev Serpent: This is Alan's reaction when he wakes from his bender and sees the drawing of the teens in the monster truck, only to discover that one of the figures has no been coloured in red.
  • The Captain suffers two of them in The Lone Ranger. The first one is when he realizes he was duped into leading his men to killing innocent Native Americans. The second one comes after he stabs the Comanche Chief and sees his blood on his hands, calling back to the Big Bad claiming he had blood on his hands from the first incident.
  • Several in The Lord of the Rings.
    • Boromir in The Fellowship of the Ring has a massive one after he attacks Frodo to take the Ring.
    • Grí­ma in The Two Towers seems to believe that Saruman is biting off more than he can chew and that he might be able to play both sides against the middle — right up until Saruman shows him the magically frenzied 10,000+ superhumans in plate armor. The look on his face is priceless.
    • Frodo has a "What did I almost do?" moment in The Two Towers. Under heavy influence from the Ring, Frodo doesn't notice that the Witch-King of Angmar is swooping in to grab him. Sam pulls him out of the way, simultaneously trying to get the Ring off. In response, Frodo pins him and threatens him with Sting. Sam manages to talk him down, but you can clearly see the horrified expression on his face as he drops the sword.
  • M3GAN: By the final act, Gemma realizes how badly she has failed as a parent, not only to Cady but to M3GAN, and even agrees with M3GAN about her failings when she calls her out.
  • Maleficent:
    Maleficent (crying): I will not ask for your forgiveness! Because what I have done to you is unforgivable! I was so lost in hatred and revenge! Sweet Aurora...you stole what was left of my heart and now I've lost you forever! I swear no harm will come to you as long as I live and never a day shall pass that I don't miss your smile!
  • In what's likely the most controversial moment of Man of Steel, Superman snaps Zod's neck in order to stop him from vaporizing a family with Heat Vision and causing further death and destruction throughout Metropolis. What most critics ignore is that immediately afterwards, Clark falls to his knees and screams, on the verge of tears.
  • Marvel Cinematic Universe:
    • The Avengers:
      • Played with, when Loki uses his powers to enlighten several agents, including Dr. Selvig, who activates his master plan. Selvig builds a machine that allows the Chitauri to invade Earth. When he is free, Black Widow finds him at the edge of Stark tower, as if he's about to jump off. However, Selvig reveals that he knows exactly what he has done, and how to stop it, climbing to the edge to point out that Loki's staff is the means to stop the machine.
      • After Hawkeye is freed from his mind control, he begins to ask Natasha, "How many agents...", wanting to know what he did under Loki's power.
    • Captain America: The Winter Soldier: The eponymous Winter Soldier is beating Steve to death when suddenly, he remembers who he used to be — and what they used to be to each other. His expression goes from murderous rage to heartbreaking horror in a flash.
    • In Doctor Strange, Doctor Strange has a guilty look on his face when his self-pitying and destructive spiral after his car accident finally pushes his former lover and friend, Christine Palmer, away.
    • Thor: Ragnarok has Thor himself say this near the end as he and the rest of the Asgardians see their homeworld destroyed by Surtur, fulfilling the titular Ragnarök.
      Thor: What have I done?
      Heimdall: You saved us from extinction. Asgard is not a place, it's the people.
    • In Captain Marvel, upon seeing the Skrull refugees, including Talos's family, aboard Mar-Vell's cruiser, Carol momentarily breaks down and apologizes for how she hurt them on the Kree's orders. Talos makes it clear that he doesn't hold anything against her.
    • Spider-Man: No Way Home: Norman says this word-for-word (minus the "my god") after he's finally cured of the Green Goblin personality and realizes all the damage he's wrought in the MCU, especially killing that universe's Aunt May, who was kind to him and wanted to help him.
  • Me Before You: when Bernard Clarke (Lou's father) asks Will if he knew the person that asset-stripped the firm that owned the local factory before shutting it down, devastating the local economy, Will is forced to admit to a room full of people affected that in fact, he trained the person in question. Directly explains his Must Make Amends leap of faith in Lou's dad later in the film.
  • In Memphis Belle, tail gunner Clay Busby agrees to let co-pilot Luke Sinclair log some time on the gun so he can try and shoot down a German fighter of his own. Later during the approach to Bremen, Luke gets his chance and scores a kill. At first, he whoops with elation ... until the downed Me-109 crashes into the rookie-crewed bomber Mother and Country. All Luke can do is scream in horror, wide-eyed, as he watches the two halves of Mother and Country tumble earthward. He remains in a Heroic BSoD for some time after.
  • The Mist. The protagonist shoots his son, two elderly people and the heroine after realizing that they have nowhere left to run, but runs out of bullets before he can off himself. After getting out of the car to let the creatures kill him, the military then comes from behind and cleans out the mist, effectively ending the whole ordeal. Had they waited a minute longer, there would've been no need for them to die. Oops.
  • Mortuary (1983): Paul reacts this way after stabbing and killing his own father, saying he didn't mean to. It doesn't last beyond that particular scene, though.
  • In The Mummy, at the first sign of Imhotep's resurrection; a spontaneous plague of locusts; the Egyptologist says, "What have we done?" as he's covered with the damn things.
  • No Blade of Grass: By the end of the film, the protagonists have committed murder and robbery repeatedly to survive. One of John's last lines is praying that God will forgive them for it.
  • Not Okay: Danni really starts feeling guilty about faking being a survivor after seeing how much Rowan, a real survivor, was harmed by her experience (along with her older sister dying in the shooting which she survived), realizing her action was indeed "Not Okay".
  • Other Halves: Subverted. Jasmine thinks Elle is going through this after murdering someone under the influence of the app; in fact, she quite enjoyed it.
  • Passengers (2016): After waking up Aurora, Jim breathes heavily and is visibly ashamed at himself for dooming her into a life with him.
  • Permission To Kill ends with Curtis, after successfully completing the assassination of Diakim, breaking down in the middle of a recording of his eulogy for Diakim.
    Curtis: [through tears] What kind of people are we?
  • Philip in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, when he realizes that Syrena was pulling him to safety, not attacking him, when he captured her.
  • Planet of the Apes (1968) has a "What have you done?" moment: "So we finally, really did it. YOU MANIACS! YOU BLEW IT UP! AH, DAMN YOU! GOD DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!"
  • In Power of the Press, Da Editor Griff Thompson experiences this after an unsubstantiated story he runs at Rankin's urging results in a riot that burns down a warehouse full of essential war supplies, causes a public official to suffer a fatal heart attack, and provides important information to the Nazis. Following this, Griff realizes the extent of Rankin's corruption and joins Bradford in his fight to seek justice.
  • In Pumpkinhead, a man makes a deal with a witch to summon a demon to avenge his son; who was killed by careless teenagers. He feels the pain each of the demon's victims feels, and realizes the horror of what he did. He then sets out to try and stop the demon from murdering the rest of the teens.
  • Part of the plot of Punisher: War Zone is kicked off by the title character hiding behind a body of a mafia member he killed and, upon finding a wire, realizes that the man was really an undercover FBI agent.
  • In The Quiet Man, Sean Thornton was a boxer who accidentally killed another fighter during a match. A flashback shows him staring in anguish as the ring doctor examines the fallen fighter then places a towel over his face. Afterwards, Sean quit boxing and vowed never to fight again.
  • In Real Genius, eccentric genius Chris is goaded by Professor Hathaway, who plays on Chris' ego and need to graduate, to complete a powerful laser. Chris and his team manage to make it work and celebrate at a bar. Hermit genius Lazlo pops up and gets them to really consider what they've created: A beam of energy so powerful it can blast through solid steel, be used for 15 seconds tops, has unlimited range and thus could easily be used to, oh, say, vaporize a human target from space. The group race back to the lab to find the laser and all their research gone and Chris' arrogance falls apart as he realizes he just created a deadly weapon for the CIA.
  • In Repo! The Genetic Opera, Nathan says this twice after confessing that his daughter is not sick, rather he has been poisoning her in order to keep her from ever leaving him, once without the My God, and the last time with the My God.
  • Robin Hood - czwarta strzała has Robin bang his head on a tree upon realising he makes people poor (by robbing them when they're rich).
  • Verbatim in The Rock after Goodspeed and Mason pull General Hummel out of the mess with Frye and Darrow. Hummel relents using the trope word for word before telling Goodspeed the location of the last rocket ("Lower lighthouse!").
  • According to Saw director Darren Lynn Bousman, Saw III was intended to have Big Bad/Well-Intentioned Extremist Jigsaw have one of these moments after seeing the results of his legacy:
    "For the first time, we actually see him break down and cry. Imagine your entire life's work. You're on your deathbed. You know there's nothing else you can do and here's how you'll be remembered: as a killer, as a murderer. Not as someone who helped people. Not as someone who changed lives. Someone who took away lives. The one thing he didn't want to be and, as he's on his deathbed, he's realizing this."
    • He actually does have one of these in another film, as we see during The Reveal of Jigsaw that all the scenes in the barn actually took place ten years ago, while John was beginning to implement his games and traps upon people. Logan was the person in first room who didn't wake up in time to avoid being sliced by the saw blades; John realized too late that Logan, who was only in the game because of a genuinely unintentional mistake (mislabeling John's brain scans so his cancer was diagnosed too late to nip it in the bud) shouldn't be tested for something that he didn't even mean to do, let alone the fact that he had only woken up too late because John screwed up the sedative dosage, and ran into the room after everyone had been dragged out to release him. He stitched up the gashes on his back, and recognizing that Logan himself was suffering mentally from wartime PTSD and grief from his wife's murder, took him under his wing, thus making Logan the first apprentice.
  • Scanners III: The Takeover. When the Psycho Serum she's been using wears off momentarily, Helena realizes what she's done and is distraught, but takes the drug again. She's also like this just before she commits suicide at the end.
  • In Schindler's List, Oskar Schindler, having turned down a request by a Jew to accept two of her relatives for not being skilled manufacturers and yelling to Itzhak Stern about how popular his factory is becoming as a "haven", calms down, reaches into his pocket, and pulls out a slip reading "Perlman" — the very same name attached to those he had just turned down. He reads the name, realizing his mistake, and has Stern make sure the two are brought to the factory, presumably to start training in manufacturing before becoming full-fledged workers.
  • The Operative at the end of Serenity. Throughout the whole movie he's made it clear that he believes that the small evils such as killing a few people for the greater good of the Alliance are worth it, and that he considers himself a monster building something greater than himself. After Mal incapacitates him and forces him to watch the Miranda recording, which shows him just what kind of world the Alliance were trying to build and the horrific consequences that would result, he has a breakdown and orders his soldiers to stand down when they're moments from opening fire on Mal's crew.
  • A Series of Unfortunate Events: Justice Straus is cast as a judge for the wedding scene in Olaf's play in the climax of the film. Being painfully naive and gullible for a judge, she doesn't realize that she's only there to officiate a wedding between Violet and Olaf, making it legally binding and granting Olaf control over Violet's inheritance when she turns 18. When Olaf reveals that the marriage was made legal entirely through Straus's involvement, she invokes this trope verbatim before tearfully running off stage, apologizing to Violet for not knowing better.
  • In the film version of Silent Hill Daliha, played as a much more sympathetic character than in the games, says this word for word. minus the "my god" part, when she gives up Alessa to her psycho sister, Christabella to be "cleansed."
  • The Sisterhood of Night: After Lavinia kills herself once she is coerced to confess, Emily admits the accusations were fake out of guilt and begs for forgiveness.
  • In Sodom and Gomorrah, it isn't until Lot kills Astaroth in a murderous rage after discovering the latter has seduced his daughters, Shuah and Maleb, that he realises how much Sodom is corrupting him and his fellow Hebrews: he is now a murderer. He is so horrified at what he has become that he asks to be taken to jail to await trial, saying this is what he would order in his capacity as a judge if a murderer were brought before him.
  • Somebody I Used to Know: Ally might be subtly trying to sabotage Sean and Cassidy's wedding, but even she's horrified when she invites Cassidy's parents to the wedding against her wishes and witnesses their resulting blowout. She even tells Benny she's "done"
  • Played for Laughs in Spaceballs by Dark Helmet when he realizes how much of a bad idea it was to have Spaceball One go to Ludicrous Speed trying to catch up to Lone Starr and Barf.
    Dark Helmet: What have I done?!? My brains are going into my feet!
  • Spawn: Spawn pretty much says this when seeing the locket with the picture of him and Wanda.
  • Spider-Man Trilogy:
    • In Spider-Man, Norman has this reaction when he realizes that the experiment and accident at his own laboratory created a malicious, superhuman personality within him that goes by the Green Goblin. However, Goblin is able to manipulate Norman into indulging his darkest whims by targeting Spider-Man.
    • Spider-Man 2:
      • Otto briefly shows remorse for how his failed experiment caused the death of his beloved wife, Rosie, and his tentacles murdering the surgeons at the hospital who were trying to remove them and save him.
      • Harry has a guilty look on his face when he realizes that he sicced Doctor Octopus on his own best friend, after he finds out that Peter and Spider-Man are the same person. He also gets this reaction when he finds out through Peter that Mary Jane is in danger and Doctor Octopus has captured her.
    • Spider-Man 3:
      • Peter has this reaction after he hits Mary Jane in his symbiote-induced rage, which makes him realize what the black suit is turning him into. Towards the end, he also has a wide-eyed look of regret when he sees Harry's disfigured face from when Peter caught one of his pumpkin bombs and threw it back at him.
      • In a flashback, Sandman was immediately horrified when he accidentally shot Ben Parker after his partner startled him. He even called an ambulance and stayed at Ben's side until the police arrived in a vain attempt to save him.
  • Star Trek III: The Search for Spock plays with the trope with James T. Kirk saying the words after ordering the original Enterprise to self-destruct, and watching it burn up in the Genesis Planet's atmosphere.
    Kirk: My god, Bones. What have I done?
    Bones: What you had to do. What you always do. Turn death into a fighting chance to live.
    • Given what his ship means to just about everyone in Starfleet, and especially to Kirk himself, it's easy to argue yes; he destroyed the one thing apart from his immediate crew and his son that he actually loves. Didn't help that he performed the act as part of a Roaring Rampage of Revenge over David's murder.
    • Hilariously twisted around here by combining Kirk's lament with Too Dumb to Live.
  • Star Trek: First Contact:
    Lily: You broke your little ships.
    Picard: "And he piled upon the whale's white hump... the sum of all the rage and hate of his whole race. If his chest had been a cannon, he would have shot his heart upon it."; Moby-Dick.
    Lily: I never read it.note 
  • Star Wars
    • Revenge of the Sith:
      • This page is not complete without reference to Darth Vader's Big "NO!" note  upon thinking he killed his wife. Which, From a Certain Point of View, he did...
      • He also says "What have I done?" right after saving Darth Sidious and killing Mace Windu. In both cases, it is followed not by any effort to Make Amends but instead by Jumping Off the Slippery Slope.
      • He's also rather shaken after killing an unarmed Count Dooku on Palpatine's orders.
      • Matt Stover's novelization wisely leaves out the Big "NO!", adds a fleeting moment of Never My Fault, and rather than throwing a tantrum has him immediately try to kill Sidious — but he's lost so much of his power that he can only destroy droids and equipment, he can't even touch Sidious — and in the end he doesn't want to, because now this is all he has left. The only person who will understand, and forgive, and gather him up.
    • Attack of the Clones: Anakin after slaughtering dozens of sandpeople. He's clearly horrified that he did it.
    • Vader also seems to have an unspoken moment before he finally decides he Must Make Amends and intervenes to prevent the Emperor from killing his son in Return of the Jedi, redeeming himself in the process.
  • In Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Sweeney gets one of these — in musical form — after he discovers that the beggar woman he killed was his wife Lucy.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990): As April's home is burning to the ground, Danny Pennington is seen watching the building from afar, and the look of horror on his face leads him to realize that he caused this by informing Shredder of the Turtles' location.
  • Terminator 2: Judgment Day:
    • Done (but doesn't say it) to Sarah Connor. After spending the majority of the movie as a fundamentally screwed-up person, she tries to murder a man, not because of anything he's done, but based on what he will do in the future. Everything from her attitude during the "hunt" to the weapon she uses is eerily terrifyingly similar to how the T-800 in the original film tracked her. It's only when she's holding the gun to his head, in front of his terrified, sobbing wife and son, that she starts to realize exactly what her fear of the future has done to her.
    • Miles Dyson has a preemptive one when he is told about Judgement Day and the Machine War.
      "I think I'm gonna throw up."
  • Terminator: Dark Fate has Carl, the T-800 series Terminator who killed John Connor over two decades ago, expressing great remorse over what he's done and deciding to aid Sarah and the others. It's notable that unlike every other Terminator in the films that's aided humans he wasn't reprogrammed in any way but evolved on his own.
  • The Theatre Bizarre: In "Vision Strains", The Writer suffers a Villainous Breakdown in which a voice in her head forces her to recognise that she is a Serial Killer; that she does not have the right to determine whose life has worth and whose does not; and that the stories she is writing are just her plagiarising the lives of those she has killed. When the truth about herself finally dawns, she gouges her own eyes out.
  • Theresa & Allison: Theresa broke down in tears and regret about killing the first woman she bit after becoming a vampire, trying to make her into one too so she'd live. It didn't work since she'd already died. The other people she killed also filled her with guilt.
  • It is revealed late into Vertigo that Judy regrets her role in the murder plot and gets cold feet by the time she reaches the top of the bell tower. She attempts to stop Elster’s plan by screaming, but it’s too late.
  • V for Vendetta: This phrase is written in the diary of Dr. Diana Stanton, aka Delia Surridge, who had tested the effects of experimental biological weapons on cultural minorities in a post-apocalyptic Britain. She realizes the error of her ways when confronted with an escaped test subject and the destruction of her work. For his part, V knows she feels this way and gives her some mercy by killing her with a painless poison compared the gruesome Karmic Deaths he arranged for others.
    Delia Surridge: [V gives her a rose] Are you going to kill me now?
    V: I killed you 10 minutes ago. [shows her a hypodermic needle] While you slept.
    Delia Surridge: Is there any pain?
    V: No.
    Delia Surridge: Thank you. Is it meaningless to apologize?
    V: Never.
    Delia Surridge: I'm so sorry. [dies]
  • Wall Street: Bud Fox's father is the union manager for an airport which Gordon Gekko intends to buy, using Bud's help to seal the deal. Bud has one of these moments after realizing that Gekko is in fact going to fire the workers he said he would let stay.
  • Waves: After Tyler knocks Alexis to the floor in a fit of rage, he is horrified when he realizes she's unconscious and bleeding out.
  • Lifeway's short film The Wild Life: Kate has this reaction when she accidentally took a picture of her foot with a special poland camera that only takes one photo, which causes her to be into the observation deck with Anatoly and Rosalyn (not for long).
  • Wolves: Cayden's first transformation badly injures his girlfriend, who runs away screaming that he's a monster. That's already bad enough, but then he wakes up at his home, covered in blood and next to the butchered bodies of his parents. He barely has time to throw some clothes in a bag and run away before the cops — called by his girlfriend — arrive, but then he has what is implied to be at least a couple of years to brood during his Fugitive Arc.
  • This happens on two different occasions in What's Eating Gilbert Grape. At the beginning of the movie, Arnie — the mentally challenged young man — kills a grasshopper by beheading it, and then cries to Gilbert about it. Later on in the movie, Gilbert loses his cool — leading him to slap Arnie around, after being so protective of him.
  • X-Men: The Last Stand features Magneto saying the line, when he finds himself on the other side of the Mutants Vs. Humans war he's been pushing for and Phoenix finally goes crazy and starts killing people.
  • X-Men: Apocalypse has all the Polish policemen doing shocked faces once one of them accidentally killed Magneto's wife and daughter, followed by the captain saying "What have you done!?" With reason, as the deaths served as an excuse for Magneto to kill the squad.
  • Gene Wilder gets one in Young Frankenstein. On the DVD commentary, Brooks says this was to keep the film in the structure of classic Yiddish theater, where act two always ends with either "What have I done?" or "She's pregnant!"
  • Young Guns II Billy begins to regret his actions after Tommy dies. It becomes much more apparent after Chavez is killed, to the point where Garret finds him depressed and alone, and not willing to fight back.
  • The Young Rebel: The titular rebel is a brute with violent tendencies, but have no intentions of killing. So after accepting a job as a delivery boy for a mob boss, only to unintentionally beat two rival mobsters to death in an Accidental Murder moment, his reaction is somewhere along the lines of this trope. But the mob boss only sees this as an advantage, congratulates the rebel over a "job well done", and sends him off on another assassination assignment.
  • Zathura features the stranded Astronaut, who turns out to be a former player of the game who went through it with his own brother fifteen years ago. Since they were already in a tense relationship, further exacerbated with each turn, he wasn't in the right frame of mind once he landed on a shooting star space. He had been so angry at the time that he wished his brother had never been born. He had instantly felt terrible after the game granted it, and tried taking another turn to land on another shooting star in the hopes of wishing him back. But the game wouldn't let him since it wasn't his turn.


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