
Though the majority of the film is colorful and lighthearted, and most of the darker moments still contain a good amount of comedy, a few moments stand out as particularly unsettling.
- The vision Emmet receives after touching the Piece of Resistance can be unsettling enough with some of its imagery, but in the following scene, Bad Cop plays a surveillance video showing Emmet's very physical reaction during the episode; it comes off looking like an electrocution or a violent seizure.
- Almost everything Lord Business does in this movie:
- Just his pure ruthlessness in his plan to permanently freeze everyone in the entire world with the Kragle, just because they don’t all follow instructions.Lord Business: On TAKO Tuesday I’m going to Kragalize the entire Universe, SO THAT EVERYONE WILL STOP MESSING WITH MY STUFF!
- When Bad Cop is unable to follow through with Kraglizing his own mom and dad, Lord Business erases his Good Cop face, and effectively a part of his personality, thinking it is making him “soft”.
- After Vitrivius beats his robot army to a pulp, Lord Business decapitates the wizard from behind with a penny! Since Vitruvius is a minifigure, his head pops off with no gore. But still, he is the only human character to die.
- Based off her attitude and mannerisms, it’s easy to tell Unikitty’s a kid; It’s even canonically established she is 11 years old, yet ruler of an entire realm And considering she’s in the Think Tank about to get electrocuted to death with the rest of the master builders, Lord Business has no problem hurting children.
- Just his pure ruthlessness in his plan to permanently freeze everyone in the entire world with the Kragle, just because they don’t all follow instructions.
- Cloud Cuckoo Land’s destruction. First, the once colorful and peaceful world’s friendly environment is transformed into an apocalyptic fire tinted atmosphere. The skies are surrounded by swarms of super-secret police ships firing lasers everywhere, capturing Master Builders without mercy. Two robots actually try to pull Emmet’s torso off! In the end, Cloud Cuckoo Land becomes so damaged to the point it falls into the sea. Emmet and his friends in their submarine observe its smoldering remains drifting to the endless depths.
- The Think Tank; A dark room where the Master Builders are chained up and tortured to use their creativity to create instructions for Lord Business. Near the climax when Lord Business releases the Kraggle, the Master builders are chained up and forced to watch a live broadcast as people are frozen with the Kraggle as the self-destruct mechanism is nearing its count down to electrocute them. Given the Master Builder’s faces as they’re bracing for the impact at the last second before Emmet's sacrifice, it was going to be a very painful death.
- Mixed with Tear Jerker, the scene with Emmet’s Sacrifice counts. Emmet throws himself into a bottomless and terrifying looking abyss along with the self-destruct mechanism’s power supply.Emmet: Am I just gonna keep falling... forever...?!
- The dystopian vibe of the Micro Managers overrunning the city’s atmosphere like some apocalyptic swarm.
- One for the heroes: After spending the entire movie trying to suppress her negative emotions, when Unikitty sees countless Micro Managers swarming Emmet's mech, she shouts "Oh, forget it!" and unleashes it all at once, sending her into a berserk state that does, not, stop. Bear in mind this is the same brick-bashed Pollyanna cat-horse that was arguably the most innocent member of Emmet's group, and in this moment, she becomes an enraged berserker who not only clears away the Micro Managers around Emmet in about two seconds, but ultimately manages to destroy more Micro Managers in the span of a minute than the entire rest of the cast combined over the entire movie. It's a wonder she returns to her normal self by the next time she's seen.
- Just how close Lord Business comes to defeating the Master Builders and ending the world. Emmet is frozen in place at the foot with the Piece of Resistance in hand after defeating some robots in front of Lord Business. Emmet's friends are being overwhelmed by Micro-Managers, with Wyldstyle about to be Kraggled on the spot. Had Emmet not given his heartfelt speech and cause Lord Business to have his eventual Heel-Face Turn, that would have been IT.
