Tempting Fate / Live-Action Films

aka: Film

Examples of Tempting Fate in live-action films.

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A-M

• Abbott and Costello in Hollywood: In the bar, after removing his disguise, Abercrombie says "I hope I trusted the right guy." Cue the other man removing his own disguise to reveal Gregory LeMaise, the man framed for Abercrombie's murder, and Abercrombie fleeing while LeMaise chases after him.
• Airplane!: A disc-jockey triumphantly announces that his station is "WZAZ in Chicago, where DISCO LIVES FOREVER!".. seconds before the eponymous plane knocks over the station's transmission tower.
• The Alamo (2004): When leaving Lt. Col Travis in command of the Alamo while he leaves for business elsewhere, Colonel Neill remarks that the Mexican Army would have to cover 300 miles mid-winter to reach Bexar before he returned. Take a guess what happens.
• Babylon A.D.. The High Priestess of the Noelite sect is on the phone with Russian mob boss Gorsky.
  High Priestess: Mr Gorsky, when I kill, I kill for good.
  Gorsky: Are you threatening me?
  High Priestess: Bless your soul.
  Gorsky: You'll need a nuke to kill me!
  (Gorsky's security system detects an incoming missile)
  Gorsky: Bitch...
• Back to the Future Part II: The future has been saved, and Doc is trying to land the DeLorean during a very heavy lightning storm. Marty warns him to be careful: "You don't want to get struck by lighting!" Guess what happens next.
• Batman:
  • A crooked police lieutenant to Jack Napier near Batman's beginning: "The future? You mean when you run the show? You ain't got no future, Jack!" (This culminates in an Ironic Echo at the factory, when Napier kills the lieutenant with a single shot.)
  • Mayor Jenkins in Batman Returns is particularly prone to these.
    • "Last night's violence will never happen again!"
    • "Our police have the situation well in hand!"
  • The Dark Knight:
    • The Joker is shooting at an armored truck using handguns and a shotgun when someone on the inside remarks that he's going to need something a lot bigger to get through it. Cue the rocket launcher.
    • Later in that same scene, the Joker's semi and the Batpod are playing chicken when Batman fires something. The Joker says, "He missed!" — except what Batman fired was a cable, which he uses to pull a snowspeeder and jackknife the truck into the air.
    • Both Batman and the mob consistently treat The Joker like more of a nuisance than a true threat. This REALLY comes back to bite them in the ass later.
      Batman: One man or the entire mob? He can wait.
      Maroni: Some two-bit whackjob, wears a cheap purple suit and makeup. He's nobody, he's not our problem....
    • There's also the early scene where Harvey Dent makes the statement that "you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain." Any viewer who's familiar with the Batman franchise already knows which of those two possibilities awaits in Dent's own future.
  • The Batman (2022): When chasing Oswald Cobblepot, Batman and his Batmobile get caught in a gas truck explosion. Thinking his pursuer had perished, Oz starts his Evil Gloating, until Bruce springs out of the flames and flips the gangster's car, reminding him of his place:
    Penguin: Hahaha! I got you! I GOT YOU! I GOT YOU! I GOT YOU!
    [Batmobile drives out of the flames and sends Penguin's car flying]
• A pretty blatant example occurs in Battlefield Baseball. The Gedo coach wonders out loud, while looking around, if there is a Worthy Opponent that was brave enough to assault his headquarters. Cue Jubeh, arriving at the scene with an explosion, followed by The Cavalry to do exactly that.
• Oskari in Big Game: "We're safe here, right?" It takes less than a second before Hazar bursts in through the ceiling, kicking the movie's finale into motion.
• In Bridge of Spies, lawyer James Donovan convinces the judge sentencing a convicted spy to give him 30 years imprisonment instead of the death penalty because he might be useful if the Soviets ever capture an American spy and the two countries want to do an exchange. The judge dismisses it as lunacy. No points for guessing what happens next.
• Bullshot (1983). Absent-Minded Professor Fenton: "Oh you Scotland Yard chaps see spies behind every bush. What could possibly happen out here in the English countryside?" Cue dramatic music and Otto von Bruno and Fraulein Lenya smirking evilly behind the bushes. After they've successfully kidnapped the Professor, von Bruno boasts: "No-one can stop us now!" Cue dramatic music and the hero "Bullshot" Crummond, his Lantern Jaw of Justice defiantly out-thrust.
• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
  • While Butch and Sundance are acting as payroll guards, their employer tries to reassure them about the threat from bandits.
    Percy Garris: About a half hour more, and we can start to worry, as soon as we get to that pass up there. We'll be all right till then. [snip] You got to relax, you fellas. You got to get used to Bolivian ways. You got to go easy. [snip] [shots ring out and he falls dead].
  • Early in the movie, Butch and Sundance are pursued by a posse led by the lawman Joe LeFors. After traveling to Bolivia, at the end of the film they are trapped in a room by some police officers. Little do they know that a Bolivian Army detachment has arrived outside and is ready to riddle them with bullets.
    Butch: Hey, wait a minute.
    Sundance: What?
    
    
    Butch: You didn't see LeFors out there, did you?
    Sundance: LeFors? No.
    Butch: Oh, good. For a moment there, I thought we were in trouble. [they charge outside]
    Bolivian Army officer: Fuego! (Fire!) [gunfire] Fuego! [gunfire] Fuego! [gunfire]
• Caddyshack:
  • During his Bizarre and Improbable Golf Game in the middle of a rainstorm, Bishop Pickering says to his caddy, Carl, "The Good Lord would never disrupt the best game of my life. I'm infallible, young fella!"
  • Also, from the mouth of Judge Smails: "Gambling is illegal at Bushwood, sir, and I never slice!" Well, there's a first time for everything...
• In the opening of Camp Rock 2, the protagonist sings about how much she's anticipating the holidays. The words 'drama-free' are tossed around. And then the plot kicks in...
• The Chronicles of Riddick: "So you're gonna kill us with your soup cup?"
• In The Film of the Book of A Clockwork Orange, Alex is being interviewed while being fed by the widower of the woman he raped in front of him. During the interview, he says, "I get the feeling something bad is going to happen." Two seconds later, he's out like a light.
• This exchange in Critters, conducted in subtitled "Critterese":
  Critter #1: They have weapons.
  Critter #2: So what?
  [BLAM! A shotgun blast smears Critter #2 across the landscape.]
  Critter #1: Fuck! [runs off]
• Dad's Army (1971):
  • When Captain Mainwaring tells him that his anti-vehicle device is leaking oil, Private Frazer remarks that a wee drop won't hurt anybody. Right after this, Lance Corporal Jones moves over to the rest of the men to await General Fullard's staff car, only to slip on the oil and set off the machine, which sprays oil all over the road and nearly causes General Fullard to have a nasty accident.
  • General Fullard tells all the Home Guard platoons that equipment is in short supply, so he wants everyone to take great care of it. Whatever should happen next but for Captain Mainwaring and Lance Corporal Jones to flatten 100 sets laid out with a steamroller.
• Danny the Dog:
  • Bob Hoskins delivers the line "I tell you: this is gonna be one lovely day," just before his car gets T-boned by a garbage truck and then riddled with bullets.
  • And at the end of the movie, he gives us the second instance of this trope when he has his nice car parked in an alley during the final battle, saying "This will keep her out of harm's way." Guess what happens.
• D.E.B.S.. While the protagonists are investigating a bank vault, Amy says "See? That wasn't so hard." Then a Trap Door opens under her, sending her down a secret underground slide.
• The Descent:
  • Though the rest of the cast are hardly innocent of this, Juno tempts fate at least five times in :
    Juno: Everything's going to be fine. Better — it's going to be great!
    Juno: You want adventure Holly, when have I ever let you down? Tomorrow's going to be awesome.
    Juno: Relax, I've never been lost in my life!
    Juno: We'll be fine.
    Juno: It's about us. Getting back to what we used to be.
  • After Sarah becomes stuck in a tight cave tunnel, Beth tries to calm her down by essentially telling her that this is the worst thing that will happen to her, and everything will be alright after she calms down and works herself free. Things get MUCH worse. Particularly cruel of fate in this instance, as when Beth says "the worst thing that could've happened to you has already happened" it seems like she's referring to the brutal deaths of her husband and daughter. Fate looks at this poor woman and says "Nope. Better kill all of her friends too."
• Die Hard 2: The first person to be killed is the church custodian. Baker and Thompson, two of Colonel Stuart's men (disguised as airport maintenance workers) trick him into letting them into the church, and he starts musing about the current proposals to shutter the church. He says, "Yeah, I kinda feel like a piece of me is dying along with this church." Baker immediately says, "Well, you're right about that," then pulls out a pistol and shoots the custodian.
• Two in the same scene of Doctor in Clover; just after Dr. Grimsdyke complains about being seen as a liability, he ends up accidentally making a mess when he slips and sets off a fire extinguisher. Then, when Miles tells him to let him have it in an attempt to stop him, he gets a face full of foam.
• Dogma:
  • Bethany gives up after Jay destroys her car's transmission and plans to walk back home. As Jay's yelling at her, he shouts out "Guys like us don't fall out of the fucking sky, y'know?!". A few seconds later, Rufus makes his entrance... falling out of the sky. Jay tries for two for two ("Beautiful, big-tittied women don't fall out of the sky!") but it doesn't work.
  • Azrael and his Quirky Mini Boss Squad has cornered Bethany, Jay, Silent Bob, Rufus and Serendipity in a bar and are planning to kill them. Silent Bob has the golf club he swiped from the bishop of the church they were at and, not thinking of it, Azrael tempts Silent Bob into hitting him with it, telling everyone "Please! I'm a fucking demon.". Silent Bob shrugs, winds up... and smashes in Azrael's chest in. Looking down at the gaping hole in his chest, he can only croak out "But...I'm a fucking demon..." before dying. Turns out the bishop blessed the driver so he can have a better golf game.
• Taslima in Escape from L.A. remarks that L.A. is "not so bad once you figure it out." She is fatally shot as she finishes the sentence.
• Fantastic Four gives Reed Richards the line, "A few days in space, what's the worst that could happen?", sarcastically echoed by Ben after turning into The Thing.
• The Fifth Element has this once Cornelius spots a suspicious-looking device on the wall:
  Cornelius: It's a — it's a — it's a — it's a — it's a — it's a...
  Ruby Rhod: No no no no no no. 'Cuz if it was a bomb, the alarms would go off 'cuz all these hotels have bomb detectors, right?
  [the alarms go off]
• The Fighting Seabees: One of Donovan's men is shot by a Japanese sniper right after saying "There aren't any Japs here."
• Forklift Driver Klaus:
  • A coworker wants Klaus to use his forklift to lift him up to a consignment he needs access to. When Klaus objects the coworker puts a pallet on top of the forks and says nothing can be safer. Klaus then agrees to lift really stupid coworker up to the consignment. Of course, when this guy is lifted to the consignment he loses his balance and falls the equivalent of a couple stories to the ground.
  • In this short film one of Klaus's coworkers offers to repair the forklift Klaus was driving, informing Klaus that not only did he know what he was doing, but also asked what he needed two hands for. Well since it was Klaus operating the forklift, there soon is an unfortunate accident.
• Forrest Gump:
  Lt. Dan: Where's this god of yours now?
  Forrest: [narrating] It's funny Lt. Dan said that, 'cause right then, God showed up.
• Happens subtly in Full Metal Jacket. "I am fucking bored to death, man!" Not for long, you aren't.
• G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra offers a classic example of an enemy who appears to be retreating, but is actually just getting out of the way of something worse. At the climax of the rather lengthy Paris chase scene, Snake Eyes abruptly lets go of the Cobra operatives' car after hanging on to it for the entire chase.
  Baroness: He gave up!
  Storm Shadow: He never gives up.
  WHAM! [their car gets brutally T-boned by an oncoming train]
• Godzilla:
  • American version of Godzilla:
    Nick: That's it, only three of them?
    Roache: No, there's more. [showing more eggs in vicinity]
    Nick: Only 20? I think it's much more than this.
    [soldiers light the stadium]
    Roache: Start counting.
  • In Godzilla (2014), Ford Brody comes home after months of military service but quickly has to leave when he learns his father in Japan has been arrested. He's annoyed with having to leave his family so soon, but Elle assures him the trip will just be a few days. "It's not the end of the world." What subtle foreshadowing.
• The Golden Child. When Jarrell is taking the test to obtain the Dagger he says, "This is a piece of cake!" Not long after that he almost falls to his death and a rope bridge explodes.
• A bullied Spider in GoodFellas tells Tommy to "go fuck yourself", despite knowing what Tommy could do for such a nasty insult.
• The Great Race. While Max and Professor Fate are on a small iceberg, Max thinks there may be a storm.
  Professor Fate: You thimble-headed gherkin, do you realize the odds against a storm in this part of the ocean at this time of year? 100-to-1.
  (thunder, immediately starts to rain)
• Harry Potter:
  • From the first movie: Harry's abusive uncle claims that, because it's Sunday, they're not going to have to deal with any letters. Cue several owls swarming the house and filling it with letters.
  • Also doubles as a Brick Joke in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, when Tina and Newt argue about Jacob being Obliviated and Tina says "Who's gonna marry him?" to Newt's comment on how American laws about marrying Muggles are backward. Meet your new brother-in-law, Tina.
• Two perfect examples played straight in Hellboy:
  Hellboy: We'll be OK so long as we don't separate.
  [cue huge spiked walls rising from the ground separating the group into teams]
  
  Hellboy: I'll be fine. Hey, how big could it be?
  [cue corridor-sized tentacles reaching around to grab Hellboy and pull him into the fray]
• In Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves, Wayne and Gordon land in a bowl of dip and Gordon worries about getting eaten during a party going on in the house. Wayne assures him that "They're teenage girls, how much can they eat?". Guess what happens next.
• Taken to ridiculous heights in Hot Shots!. One character, appropriately named "Dead Meat" Thompson receives a visit from his wife as he's preparing to fly a training mission, and what follows is an enormous list of things he has to live for, including his beautiful wife, that he's carrying his (unsigned) life insurance papers with him, and that he's figured out how to solve the problem with global warming and the real culprits in the Kennedy assassination but hasn't told anyone and has the evidence on him. No, he doesn't make it back home... He also breaks a mirror, walks under a ladder, and has a black cat cross his path. Also, his kids are scraping asbestos off the pipes back home, so it's apparently hereditary.
• The Hunger Games:
  • "It's all right Prim, your name's only in there once. You're not going to get picked." No points for guessing whose name gets drawn.
  • In The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Coin gives a speech at Snow's execution, exhorting Katniss to strike down the dictator and bring freedom. Naturally, Katniss shoots Coin, having realized that she wasn't any better than Snow was.
• Indiana Jones:
  • Played with in the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark, when Indy and his Peruvian guide are at a temple chamber containing an ancient idol.
    Satipo: There is nothing to fear here.
    Indy: That's what scares me.
  • Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade:
    • Indy and his father are spying on the Nazi villains from a nearby ridge. After they notice that the Nazis have recently acquired a tank, Indy's father warns him to get behind cover before the Nazis spot him. Indy's response: "Dad, we're well out of range." Seconds later, a shot from the tank blows up the Jones's car parked a few feet away.
    • Dr. Elsa Schneider's exclamation of "We have got it, come on! It's ours Indy, yours and mine!" as she obliviously crossed the Great Seal with the Holy Grail definitely counts as Tempting Fate. Surprisingly, she received a second chance when Indiana caught her before she fell into one of the cracks in the earth from the earthquake she started up. However, she pushed her luck too far when she tried reaching for the grail instead, causing her hand to slip from Indiana's grip.
• James Bond villains do it sometimes.
  • GoldenEye
    • The opening of the movie with the Dam infiltration:
      Alec Trevelyan: Half of everything is luck, James.
      James Bond: And the other half?
      [alarm goes off]
      Alec Trevelyan: Fate.
    • One of the best examples is evil hacker Boris Grishenko who, after surviving the destruction of the Janus Base and his boss's demise, delivers his Catchphrase "I am invincible!" — scant seconds before huge vats of liquid nitrogen decide to disgorge their contents in his direction, flash-freezing him to death on the spot.
  • Goldfinger. While talking to the gangsters Goldfinger boasts that "My plan is foolproof!" Not with Bond around it isn't.
• In Jennifer, Alpha Bitch Sandra Tremayne attempts to murder the titular character while shouting to her clique, "Let's show her what happens to cat-killers!" Sandra herself killed the cat in question, and sure enough, she gets her wish... at the fangs of a giant snake.
• In Juan of the Dead, the protagonist and his band of freelance zombie-killers find themselves backed into a room by a swarm of the dead. Someone is stupid enough to ask "How can this be worse!?" which of course causes the lights to go out. Juan is understandably annoyed with the speaker.
• In the film Juice, Big Bad Bishop chases Q into a building while shooting at him. Q is able to go to an elevator filled with people. Bishop enters the elevator just before the door closes. Q looks around at the people with him, smiles and says: "What are you going to do, shot me in an elevator?" Cue Bishop pulling out his gun and shooting. Good thing he was a lousy shot and hit no one inside the elevator before the door opened on the next floor.
• Jurassic Park (1993):
  • Says Nedry to the Dilophosaurus, "You're not so bad." Also, figuring that she's hungry, "I have no food on me." Um, about that...
  • The raptors are contained, right? "Unless they figure out how to open doors." One cut later...
• King Kong (2005): "Don't be alarmed, ladies and gentlemen. Those chains are made of chrome steel!"
• Labyrinth:
  • Sarah tells the Goblin King that his Labyrinth is "a piece of cake." The results are unfortunate.
  • "It's not fair!" also means something has gone awry. Jareth even lampshades it at one point: "You say that so often. I wonder what your basis for comparison is."
  • While passing through the goblin city Sarah says "I think we're gonna make it" and Hoggle replies "Piece of cake". The goblins immediately appear and attack.
• In the 1994 adaptation of The Little Rascals:
  Alfalfa: [while running around in his underwear] Things can't possibly get any worse!
  [turns around and runs straight into Butch and Woim]
  Alfalfa: Then the clouds opened up and God said, "I hate you, Alfalfa!"
• The Lord of the Rings:
  • In The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Bofur remarks that their harrowing chase through Goblin Town could have been worse. Then the giant corpse of the Goblin King falls on top of them. They survive, though.
    Dwalin: You've got to be joking!
  • The Two Towers:
    • The Battle of Helm's Deep is going well, initially, and King Théoden asks, "Is this it? Is this all you can conjure, Saruman?" The Uruk-Hai then suicide-bomb the Deeping Wall (in a world which has never seen explosives before), and Théoden gets an Oh, Crap! moment.
    • Théoden also did this before the battle when he said, "No army has ever breached the deeping wall or set foot inside the Hornburg."
    • Right before that, from Grí­ma Wormtongue, after Saruman acknowledged that they need tens of thousands of Uruk-Hais : "But my Lord, there is no such force !". Cue the CGI force.
  • The Return of the King, Aragorn asks the Pirates to turn back. Their response: "Ha! and whose army?" Cue the Undead Army's arrival.
    • "No man can kill the Nazgûl" Sorry dude, that's a woman and a hobbit.
    • "Not by the hand of man shall he fall." Oh, that makes him sooo much safer. They only left out, let's see, women, children, hobbits, elves, wizards, An ear infection, giant eagles, Ents, Sauron, other Nazgûl, dragons...in short, many, many things that are more likely to kill him than a puny man and a few that aren't.
    • As Grond is about to breach the gates of Minas Tirith, Gandalf attempts to rally the troops by ordering them to stand their ground, no matter what comes through. The doors bust open and cue armored attack trolls charging in to lay waste to the defenders.
• Lampshaded in The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra (2004). Ranger Brad gets killed moments after warning everyone about the horribly mutilated farmer that had been found earlier.
  Ranger Brad: Say, I must be crazy walking around in these woods at night with a horrible mutilation practically around the corner. Oh well.
• Occurs in the climax of Maleficent. Stefan taunts Maleficent for being a fairy without wings. Just then, her wings return after Aurora freed them.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • In Iron Man Pepper comments that she expected Obadiah's suit (actually Tony's recovered MK I) to be bigger. Oh, how right she was.
  • In Guardians of the Galaxy, Rocket Raccoon makes the offhand comment, "I don't got that long a lifespan anyway." By the end of Avengers: Infinity War, he is the only Guardian left, having managed to outlive the rest of them.
  • Thor: The Warriors Three and Sif discussing what to do after Loki takes the throne. Hogun suggests they go and find Thor, Volstagg gets very nervous because that would be a betrayal.
    Volstagg: Sssh! Heimdall might be watching!
    Guard: [enters the room] Heimdall demands your presence! [leaves the room]
    Volstagg: ...We're doomed.
  • Thor: Ragnarok: Villainous example with Hela after she has Thor pinned down and believes him beaten.
    Hela: What was it that you were the god of, again?
    [thunder rumbles]
• One of the best exchanges from Men in Black: a bad-tempered farmer named Edgar is investigating the flying saucer that just crash-landed on his pickup truck. As he peers into the smoking crater where the truck used to be, shotgun in hand, the unseen (by the audience) alien orders:
  Alien: Place... projectile weapon ... on the ground.
  Edgar: You can have my gun [racks shotgun] when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers.
  Alien: Your proposal... is... acceptable. [eats him]
• Ministry of Fear (1944), the Film Noir spy movie by Fritz Lang. The Nazi spy says "You wouldn't shoot your own brother" to his sister as he escapes out the door. There's the crack of a shot and a hole appears in the door; moments later his dead body tumbles through.
• After a failed assassination attempt on the Austrian Chancellor in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, he tells his wife that nothing is going to happen to him, just before an aide notices a bomb about to explode, as insurance in case the original plan — killing him at a performance of Turandot — failed.
• Moneyball: Oakland GM Billy Beane superstitiously does not attend games, but with the A's about to set a record winning streak and already up by eleven runs, he is persuaded by his daughter to show up to the arena and celebrate his accomplishment. "You won't jinx it," his daughter promises. The opposing team has an eleven-run rally after he arrives.
• In MouseHunt, after the auction ends disastrously, Nathan Lane tries to reassure the auction goers by saying "This house will last forever!" Just after he says that, the house collapses indignantly.
• The Mummy Trilogy:
  • The Mummy (1999): "It's just a book. No harm ever came from reading a book." Oh, yes it can, Evey. Up to and including The End of the World as We Know It.
  • The Mummy Returns: Lampshaded.
    Evelyn: It's just a box. No harm ever came from opening a box.
    Rick: Yeah, right, and no harm ever came from reading a book. You remember how that one went?
• In Murder by Decree, a prostitute tries to prove her worth to Dr. Watson by showing she is still in possession of all her teeth. Suddenly, she breaks a tooth.

N-Z

• No Kidding: When Cook warns Matron not to call her "woman", she begins saying the word over and over again. Cook, fed up with this, chases her from the kitchen and gives her a Pie in the Face.
• Ocean's Twelve: Tess has to bail out most of the cast by impersonating her own actress. Matt Damon's character tries to reassure her that no-one she's going to run into actually knows Julia Roberts, and the last thing anyone will be is personal. In walks Bruce Willis, As Himself. Their reactions are priceless.
• In Odd Squad: The Movie, Weird Tom tries to blow off an attempt to get into the closet where a self-multiplying and very dangerous creature is being stored as an attempt to take back headquarters when suddenly, the counter behind him goes from 4096 to 0. The situation only gets worse from there.
• On the Buses: Before trying to remove bits of melted saucepan from the canteen's stovetop, Blakey berates Stan that he needs to do it properly and carefully, just before causing the fuse box to explode.
• Our Man Flint
  Lloyd Cramden: We've just had our first break. According to this dispatch I just received, our team of agents has them cornered! At any second... (gets another message) It was a trap. We just lost another team of agents.
• Pacific Rim: One of the videos on the Pan Pacific Defense Corps page is a news report on a Kaiju attack ending with the reporter saying, "I can only pray that this is the end of it."
• In Paul, the statement "I doubt we'll ever see those guys again!" just ensures that 'those guys' show up at a random bar to delay our heroes as the feds are closing in. They also give one of the agents final confirmation that they're really chasing an alien.
• Pearl Harbor. A Japanese bomb lands next to a sailor and doesn't go off. Not realising the tiny spinning propeller at the back of the bomb is the fuse, he shouts "It's a dud... IT'S A DUD!" KA-BOOOOM!
• Pinocchio (2022, Disney):
  • After Jiminy keeps Pinocchio from being led astray by Honest John and Gideon and gets him to school, he brags to the audience about leading the boy to the right place, just before Pinoke gets kicked out for not being a "real" boy.
    Jiminy: I bet you were thinking I dropped the ball. But old Jiminy picked up the fumble, and it's smooth sailing from here.
    Teacher: OUT! GET OUT!
  • After escaping from Stromboli's wagon, Pinocchio starts talking to Jiminy about the people he met in the caravan, leading Jiminy to start lecturing him on peer pressure before he's suddenly picked up by a coach full of unruly kids bound for Pleasure Island.
    Pinocchio: I've met some really nice people, Jiminy. They helped me, and they didn't even have to.
    Jiminy: Well, that's what friends do.
    Pinocchio: One of them was a puppet like me. Her name was Sabina.
    Jiminy: I see, a puppet friend! Sort of a peer.
    Pinocchio: So, peers are friends?
    Jiminy: Well, not all the time, Pinokes. You gotta be careful, 'cause sometimes when peers get in a group, they like to pressure—
    (the coach races past, and Pinocchio gets snatched right up)
  • And, of course, this iconic moment:
    Lampwick: To hear you talk, you'd think something terrible was gonna happen to us. (starts turning into a donkey)
• Pirates of the Caribbean:
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest:
    • "Actually, you don't need everyone. About six of us will do. (Beat) Ohhh, dear..."
    • "The bright side is, you're back and made it off free and clear!" (cue the Flying Dutchman bursting out of the sea literally right behind them)
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End: "How soon can we have the ship ready to pursue?" (cue one of the masts of said ship falling over)
• Pitch (2009): After Gene puts down the gun and walks away, Jim tells him, "You won't regret this. We won! Hot damn, we won!" Then Cheryl shoots him with the gun.
• Poltergeist. After the Freelings rescue Carol Anne from the other side, the spiritual medium Tangina says "This house is clean". A short time later the ghosts re-appear and try to grab Carol Anne again.
• In The Princess Bride, Westley and Buttercup are discussing the final dangers of the fire swamp. To be fair, Wesley had already seen the R.O.U.S.'s, he was just trying to make sure Buttercup didn't freak out.
  Buttercup: [while in the Fire Swamp] Westley, what about the R.O.U.S.s?
  Westley: Rodents of Unusual Size? I don't think they exist... [Westley is attacked by a R.O.U.S.]
• In the Cold War Alternate History movie Red Dawn, Soviet paratroopers have just landed in an American town. We see a bumper sticker saying "THEY CAN HAVE MY GUN WHEN THEY PRY IT FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS!" The camera then moves down to the owner of the car lying dead with a Colt .45 in his hands, which is then souvenired by an enemy paratrooper.
• Resident Evil: Right after entering the code to open a door, J.D. says "See how easy that was?" Seconds later he's dragged to his death by zombies behind the door.
• The Return of the Living Dead:
  Freddy: Hey, these things don't leak, do they?
  Frank: Leak? Hell no! These things were made by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers!
  [slaps tank, which instantly leaks]
  Freddy: Oh, fuck!
• The Rocky Horror Picture Show:
  • "It's all right, Janet. Everything's going to be all right." Then, things get worse.
  • "I'm here! There's nothing to worry about!" Cue Tim Curry.
• Robin Hood (2010): Lady Marion Loxley does this when she tries to free a ram stuck in the quicksand-like mud on her own without help or safety measures, but she falls in mud and only manages to herself stuck along with ram. Marion assures Robin and rest of the peasants near the bog that she is fine and that she does not need help to be rescued from being stuck in the mud. But she quickly realizes she is stuck and that she now needs help to be rescued from being stuck in the mud as she is now helpless to do anything on her own. It turns out Lady Marion Loxley is not fine after all, and that she does need help to be rescued from being stuck in mud, leading to Robin going to rescue both Marion and ram. Fortunately, Marion is not in any danger of sinking deeper into mud to her death while being stuck in mud, she's just too stuck to free herself and has a hard time getting out. And after Robin rescues ram from mud, he also rescues Marion from mud as well.
  Marion: "Stop! You'll break its neck." (Marion swings off her horse, she quickly gathers her hair and tucks it down the back of her shirt and also gathers and hikes up her skirt to that her legs are bare to the thighs. She takes a hoe staff one of the peasants gives her and starts walking carefully forward into the bog, while testing the ground of the bog ahead of her for it's firmness before each step with a hoe while keeping her eyes mostly on the tricky grounds)
  Robin: "Marion." (Marion ignores him and keeps trying to make forward progress, Robin then also swings off his horse. Marion starts to slowly wade and sink into the muddy water with the hoe she is holding as her boots are stepping into the mud)
  Marion: "Easy." (And as Marion is slowly approaching ram that is stuck in the mud and testing the bottom in front of her, she suddenly gasps as the hoe staff she was holding suddenly plunges all the way in the mud, taking Marion with it. Marion loses her footing and starts falling into the mud. Marion pinwheels her arms to keep herself away from falling further and deeper into the mud. Eventually, Marion falls into the mud, getting herself stuck up to her shoulders in mud. Marion makes a rather big and loud splash of muddy water that gets her tucked dark-brown hair and hiked up clothes all wet and drenched up in muddy water after she falls and gets herself stuck in mud. Marion manages to right herself with her arms from which drops of muddy water start falling, keeping one hand above and near the mud while briefly raising her other hand from the mud, while her skirt starts trailing in the mud. But all Marion manages to do is to get herself stuck in mud along with ram)
  Marion:' "I'm alright." (Marion holds one hand near the mud while raising one hand in the air to try to regain her balance and wave away peasants's concern for her. Robin then pulls the garment off and slungs it across his saddle, where it would stay clean and goes to rescue Marion and ram who are now both stuck in mud. When Marion tries to stand back up, the quicksand-like bottom grabs her for her legs and now holds her tight, causing Marion to sink low to her shoulders and to realize that she can't move her legs and how she now needs help to be rescued from being stuck in the mud as she is now helpless to do anything on her own at all) "Uh, I can’t move me legs." (Marion is rather embarrased and annoyed about how she got herself stuck in mud, then she turns towards the shore to tell Robin and peasants that she is stuck in mud and needs help to be rescued from mud). "I can’t move me legs!" (Marion looks at Robin at shore who is placing a rope on his shoulders and going to rescue her and ram)
• Saw:
  • Saw VI: Aaron, the first victim of the Shotgun Carousel to be put in front of the trap's shotgun, begs William Easton to save him by pressing the button that would deactivate the shotgun for only two times (out of the six victims), since he's healthy enough and thus should receive insurance based on William's longtime policy regarding the health conditions of clients. From a combination of him being the initial victim to be killed and William questioning the policy, William predictably doesn't use the button for Aaron, who ends up getting shot in the chest.
    Aaron: Listen to me. Mr. Easton, I am the one who should live, okay? (is immediately stopped before the shotgun first) Fuck. (shotgun primes itself to fire) Jesus Christ! Please, Mr. Easton! Mr. Easton! Please! Follow the policy, Mr. Easton. Do it! Please! Mr. Easton, follow the policy! FOLLOW THE POLICY! (bam)
  • Saw 3D: Gibson returns to the Horsepower Trap's scene when Rogers tells him over the phone that an explosion just happened there. The moment he enters, Gibson asks if anyone got hurt, to which another explosion comes off almost immediately. Downplayed in that the cops at the scene dodge both explosions in time to avoid any injuries.
• Lampshaded, like so many other horror movie tropes, in Scream.
  Randy: Never, ever, ever, under any circumstances, say "I'll be right back." 'Cause you won't be back.
  Stu: I'm gettin' another beer, you want one?
  Randy: Yeah, sure.
  Stu: I'll be right back!
  Randy: You see, you push the laws, and you end up dead, okay? I'll see you in the kitchen with a knife.
• Secrets In The Hot Spring: While looking for the ghost, Qie, Hsu, and Lu all carry a candle for protection. At one point, Hsu points out the candles' scents (they were scented candles), Lu reminds him the important thing is to keep the candles lit... and Lu's candle promptly goes out. He looks up, and sees that the ceiling is leaking.
• This trope is featured prominently in the short film from the Nestle Philippines Anthology entitled Sign Seeker, where the protagonist spends the entire morning tempting fate, looking for specific "Signs" from the universe to signal to him if today is the day he will ask the girl he likes if she would like to go on a date with him. This is one of the rare, positive examples of this trope: it plays the trope straight and is still funny while NOT making the person who is tempting fate miserable in the process.
• Snatch.: Avi and Tony have just discovered that the one behind the theft of the diamond is Boris, an ex-KGB spy. Tony points out that Boris is highly trained and would be impossible to find. Que Boris entering the jewellery store downstairs of the discussion, looking to sell the diamond.
• Star Trek:
  • Star Trek: Scotty says he's going to beam Kirk and Spock into what he thinks is a cargo hold "where there shouldn't be anyone around". It's no surprise at all when they materialize in the midst of a control room full of armed Romulans.
  • Star Trek Into Darkness:
    • In the opening, when Spock starts to chew Kirk out for saving him at the expense of violating the Prime Directive and showing themselves to the natives, Kirk brushes him off with a flippant, "What's the worst that could happen?" Cut to the natives, who were earlier praying to the erupting volcano, bowing before an abstracted sketch of the Enterprise — their new God. Made even more amusing by the sacred scroll depicting the volcano that Kirk stole simply getting dropped to the ground and ignored by the native who was holding it.
    • Harrison taunts Spock by noting "You wouldn't break a rule, how could you break a bone?" This comes back to bite Harrison in the climactic fight, when a grief-stricken Spock breaks Harrison's arm.
    • Lampshaded at one point.
      Scotty: Not to tempt fate or anything, but where is everybody? [cue several mooks]
• Star Wars:
  • A New Hope:
    • Vader saying "There'll be no one to stop us this time!" The subsequent cut to two pathetic droids trekking through the desert hardly seems to contradict this, but...
    • Even within the movies, "ultimate power in the universe" is exactly how Motti describes the Death Star. As in, before it was blown up. Shouldn't imperial Admirals have acknowledged that as an important lesson in humility after that?
    • An iconic example, inside the Death Star's trash compactor:
      Leia: It could be worse.
      [ominous roar]
      Han: It's worse.
    • And:
      Tarkin: Evacuate? In our moment of triumph? I think you overestimate their chances.
  • A bit of EU information on The Empire Strikes Back has it that Admiral Ozzel, that mustached guy in the beginning, says to an aide that with the control of the Executor, he has become the ultimate power in the universe. Moments later, Vader contacts him to deliver his "letter of termination".
  • The Sarlacc's description in Return of the Jedi, when Han finds out he will be terminated immediately:
    Han: Good. I hate long waits.
    [...]
    C-3PO: *translating for Jabba* In his belly, you will find a new definition of pain and suffering, as you are slowly digested over a thousand years.
  • In Attack of the Clones, Captain Typho says "I guess I was wrong. There was no danger at all!" right before Padmé's ship blows up and kills her Body Double.
  • Just before the mine heist in Solo, Tobias Beckett tells everyone to stick to the plan. "No improvising." This, of course, guarantees that The Plan goes Off the Rails.
  • Of course, anytime anyone in the franchise says, "I have a bad feeling about this", he or she is Tempting Fate; rest assured, those words mean something bad will happen soon. To wit (in chronological order):
    • Upon learning the ambassadors are Jedi, Nute Gunray launches a full-scale attack on them, starting by blowing up their craft as they're drinking at the Trade Federation control ship's bar, followed by, in that order, the deployment of lethal gas, a squadron of battle droids, and a smaller yet more potent squadron of droidekas (spoken by Obi-Wan as "I have a bad feeling about this.");
    • The execution beasts are let into the arena (spoken by Anakin as "I've got a bad feeling about this.");
    • Obi-Wan's fighter is attacked by spider-drones as he approaches General Grievous' ship (spoken by Obi-Wan as "I have a bad feeling about this.");
    • The Millennium Falcon is attacked in the Akkadese Maelstrom's Maw Cluster by a summa-verminoth (inverse spoken by Han as "I have a really good feeling about this.");
    • The bulk of Rogue One is killed in an onslaught, and what's left is eradicated by the Death Star, but thankfully not before the Death Star plans are successfully stolen and conveyed to the owners of the Tantive IV on board (spoken by K-2SO as "I have a bad feeling about this;" apparently Cassian interrupting only made things worse.);
    • The Millennium Falcon is drawn by a tractor beam into the Death Star (spoken by Luke as "I have a very bad feeling about this.");
    • The trash compactor starts to close in on the heroes (spoken by Han as "I've got a bad feeling about this.");
    • The tunnel the Millennium Falcon is using to evade the Imperial forces turns out to be a space slug (spoken by Leia as "I have a bad feeling about this.");
    • Jabba rejects Luke's message and has 3PO and R2 enslaved (spoken by C-3PO as "I have a bad feeling about this.");
    • Luke and Han are almost offered by the Ewoks as sacrifices (spoken by Han as "I have a really bad feeling about this.");
    • Finn and Rey accidentally unleash three rathtars while trying to close the blast doors on the mercenaries confronting Han (spoken by Han as "I've got a bad feeling about this.");
    • Poe gets hit by a TIE Fighter while trying to neutralize a Dreadnaught, causing a weapons malfunction that BB-8 can only fix by using his head (spoken by BB-8 in binary); and
    • Rey, BB-8, Finn, Poe, and C-3PO are sucked into a quicksand pit on Pasaana (spoken by Lando as "I got a bad feeling about this.").
• Terminator:
  • The Terminator: At the police station, Lt. Traxler tells Sarah "You'll be perfectly safe. We've got 30 cops in this building." Shortly thereafter, the Terminator shows up to the station and effortlessly attacks them, with Traxler dying during the assault.
  • Cyberdyne in the original universe (before the T-800, Sarah, John, and an employee of the company terminated the company with extreme prejudice in a well-intentioned yet failed attempt at preventing The End of the World as We Know It) found out the hard way that naming your supercomputer "Skynet" is just as taboo as naming your ship "Titanic".
• In Time Bandits, they're on the ship when Randall says, "Nothing can go wrong." Cue a giant walking off with the ship as a hat.
• In the rather bad action movie Titanic II someone had the brilliant idea to name a ship Titanic and set it on the same route as the original. Things get worse not too long after.
• Top Gun: Maverick has the title character being on opposite sides of this trope:
  • Maverick just flew an experimental plane past Mach 10! He could be satisfied at proving it could be done, but the Thrill Seeker just had to go faster, leading to a catastrophic structural failure.
  • One of the TOPGUN graduates jokingly makes a bet whoever gets shot down first during their dogfighting exercise should do 200 push-ups, with the unspoken expectation that Maverick will the one doing PT once they land. Cue everyone on the team except for Maverick doing that very same thing by the next scene, and some of them even doing it multiple times in a day.
• Tremors:
  • Earl and Valentine have resisted temptation (free beer) and left Perfection, Nevada for a new life. As they're driving along Valentine says, "Now there's nothing, and I mean nothing, between us and Bixby!" Seconds later, they see Edgar Deems high up on a power pylon. They stop to help him, and later events force them into a battle to the death against the Graboids.
  • At one point the town residents say that eventually someone will notice the road's blocked and the phone lines are down and come check up on them. It then cuts to show someone did show up to check up on them... but was eaten by the Graboids.
  • Tremors 5: Bloodlines: A secondary character shouts "You can't kill me! I'm African!" seconds before an Assblaster crashes on top of him.
• During the climax of Under Siege 2: Dark Territory, criminal mastermind Dane brags to Ryback that there is nothing he can do to shut down his satellite weapon. Ryback responds by shooting the laptop controlling the weapon, with the bullets going through the laptop and hitting Dane as well. Dane's last words: "I didn't think of that."
• Up the Front: Once Lurk finishes peeling his potatoes, he claims that now he can go win the war. Not a second after this, a mountain of more potatoes comes pouring down from behind a curtain.
• Vamps: Vadim and Ivan’s opinion of a club girl whose blood they want having the word “juicy” on her clothes.
• Lampshaded thoroughly in the first few minutes of Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. The machete fight was after they played catch with live snakes and jousted on tractors.
  Nate: There's nothing I won't do with this long, long life of mine... That's what's great about being young. So much time to do great things.
  [later]
  Dewey: You know how mad Pa gets when we play with his machetes.
  Nate: Come on. There's nothing wrong with a little machete-fighting.
• Water. British government mouthpiece Sir Malcolm Leveridge is giving a TV interview.
  Sir Malcolm: This is a localized incident that you people are blowing out of all proportion. Under British rule this island has always been a model of civility, common sense, and tranquility. (RPG-7 rocket blows up a building behind him)
• What a Way to Go!: Workaholic Edgar Hopper announces over the phone to his wife that "..a little hard work never killed anybody!" And promptly keels over dead.
• Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory: Grandpa Joe and Charlie are in the Fizzy Lifting Drink room. Grandpa Joe says "A swallow won't hurt us!" After they each take a swallow, they float into the air — and almost get chopped to pieces by a huge exhaust fan in the ceiling, barely managing to escape. Laser-Guided Karma kicks in when it's revealed at the end that the only reason they get a happy ending is because even after he learns he's been disqualified from a promised prize for rule-breaking (as the other kids were in addition to suffering strange fates for such), since he stole the drinks, Charlie still refuses to give Arthur Slugworth, ostensibly a rival confectioner, a sample of the Everlasting Gobstopper. As it turns out, Slugworth is actually a Wonka employee used for this Secret Test Of Character.
• At the end of Wishmaster 2: Evil Never Dies, the casino owner can't believe that hundreds of people just dropped dead in his establishment (the Djinn claimed their souls), causing him to say "What's next?! Frogs and locusts?!". Guess what the Djinn conjures up when the owner inadvertently makes a wish.
• The Witch Files: While flying to Hag's Rock on a broomstick, MJ says "I've got this", immediately before losing control and crashing.
• X-Men Film Series:
  • X-Men: The Last Stand: The Juggernaut gave his Badass Boast towards Kitty Pryde, only to get knocked out cold.
  • X-Men: First Class:
    • Before they go to Russia, Erik Lehnsherr says that the young mutants are not ready to face Sebastian Shaw, but Charles Xavier insists that they will surprise him and that they are an exceptional bunch of young people. A second later, as they're approaching the recreation room, they can see Raven Darkholme dancing on a chair while Angel Salvadore flies around her, Alex and Sean are breaking chairs on Armando Muñoz (who keeps yelling "Harder!"), and Hank McCoy is hanging off a light fixture.
    • "Gentlemen, this is why the CIA is no place for a woman." Cue huge crash as Emma Frost is busted out of her cell.
  • Deadpool: Wade bets Francis that things can't get worse from "round-the-clock torture." Oh, how wrong he is.
  • X-Men: Apocalypse: After Cyclops, Jean and Nightcrawler free Wolverine from the Weapon X facility, Scott Summers states that he hopes to never see Logan again.
• Young Frankenstein:
  [Froederick and Igor are exhuming a dead criminal]
  Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: What a filthy job.
  Igor: Could be worse.
  Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: How?
  Igor: Could be raining.
  [it starts to pour]
• Zombi 3D has the Genre Blind General Morton, with the help of Coleman and Cheney, burn a corpse infected with the Death One virus despite the environmental hazard warnings of Dr. Holder and his assistant, brushing off their concerns with the cheesy one-liner "That's ridiculous, pure Science Fiction!" Actually, he is a character in a Science Fiction movie, and yet, he consistently denies it a total of three times within the movie.

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