Indy Ploy: Difference between revisions

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Maybe the [[Five -Man Band]] has lost [[The Smart Guy]], or maybe [[The Hero]] has the attention span of [[Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny|a distracted goldfish on caffeine]]. Maybe the [[The Plan|elaborate plan]] our heroes were relying on was [[Leeroy Jenkins|utterly trashed]] and they're forced to wing it. No matter the reason, they are now executing an [['''Indy Ploy]]'''.

Not all characters involved are necessarily aware of the leader's lack of forethought. When he finally utters those dreaded words, "I'm making it up as I go", [[Hilarity Ensues|hilarity is sure to ensue]]. If things don't go smoothly, expect exclamations of "[[What Were You Thinking?]]?!"

An [['''Indy Ploy]]''' is also a surefire way to invoke an [[Unspoken Plan Guarantee]]. Since Indy's course of action is unknown even to Indy himself, and therefore unknown to the audience, Indy is actually ''more'' likely to succeed than if he had spent time planning on-screen.

Named after [[Indiana Jones (Franchise)|Indiana Jones]], who has had to make more hasty exits than most of us [[Monty Python's Flying Circus|have had hot dinners]].

Contrast [[Xanatos Gambit]](a plan where all reasonable outcomes are benefical) and [[Batman Gambit]] (where the prefered outcome is the most likely one) Between them and this trope lies [[Xanatos Speed Chess]], where the grand plan, generally more complicated than "survive and don't get caught", is continually adapted to circumstances. This can lead to a [[Spanner in Thethe Works]] where they cannot be predicted ''because'' they don't do anything that makes tactical sense.

See also [[How Did You Know? I Didn't.]] and [[I Have No Idea What I'm Doing]]. May involve [[Holding the Floor]]. Unrelated, despite the name, to the [[Indy Escape]], which does involve a plan: RUN. Those who weaponize this employ [[Confusion Fu]].

* In the manga ''[[Battle Royale]]'', Shuuya has an admirable tendency to jump into a conflict to help the underdog. The problem is that he never thinks about what he'll do after he becomes part of it. He usually reveals his Indy Ploy after the conflict is already resolved and the other person asks what he was thinking.

* Use of the [[Indy Ploy]] is the totality of the Saotome School of Martial Art in ''[[Ranma One Half½]]''.

* Quant from ''[[Tower of God]]'' found himself in a very sticky situation: Ho was holding Rachel hostage and tried to kill her before, Parakewl and Mauchi were trying to profit from this and pierce him with their lances and Baam was blackmailed into fighting him. What to do? Hit the little genius with a paralyzing technique and tell him to copy it and use it on Ho, so that he'd have the courage to jump in to save Rachel, while Quant takes care of the others, of course. He never expected it to work, but who cares?

* ''[[Pokémon Special]]'' makes thorough use of the [[Indy Ploy]] - Gold in particular worships at its altar. His are so blatant that mental objections fill the panel when he acts like he planned it all along. It's hard to judge, given the nature of her intellect, whether some of Sapphire's more clever victories (Roxanne, Brawly, Ark @ Mt. Chimney) qualify as this or something between this and [[Xanatos Speed Chess]].

* As a leader, this is both Ichigo of ''[[Bleach]]''{{'}}s strength and weakness. On one hand, he can be so aggressive, and attempt such suicidal things with such limited preparation, that it astonishes and repeatedly catches more cautious foes off-guard. On the other hand, when the villains DO know what to expect from him, his impetuosity and lack of foresight makes him a real [[Unwitting Pawn]].

** In his fight with {{spoiler|Shukuro Tsukishima}} Byakuya of all people was forced to do this as his opponent's ability {{spoiler|allowed him to "incertinsert" himself in someone's past, and he used it to learn any move Byakuya ever trained}}, so Byakuya had to improvise something unexpected. Later he admitted he enjoyed it.

* Joseph Joestar, the second titular hero of ''[[Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure (Manga)|Jo JosJoJo's Bizarre Adventure]]'', is a seasoned practitioner of these, both as a young practitioner of Ripple-style martial arts and as an [[Older and Wiser|Older and kinda-sorta Wiser]] mentor to his grandson Jotaro. Fittingly, his characterization in Part 3 draws heavily from the [[Trope Namer]], right down to the [[Cool Hat]].

* These are the essence of how Yami Yugi wins all his duels in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]''. His present-day counterpart's plans have much more forethought, however. The protagonists of the [[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX|sequel]] [[Yu-Gi-Oh! 5 Ds5D's|series]], on the other hand, exhibit no planning whatsoever, making turnarounds on a single card more often than not.

* In "''[[Irresponsible Captain Tylor (Anime)|Irresponsible Captain Tylor]],"'' the titular characterprotagonist lives his life by this philosophy. Or he's a super genius that plans everything far in advance. [[Alternative Character Interpretation|It's hard to tell]].

* Yusuke Urameshi in ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'' uses random tactics in an effort to win, most notably during his fight with Hiei which, afterwards, Botan notes he "risked their lives on a maybe" as well as Yusuke's first fight against Sensei where he attempts to counter Sensui's ability to predict moves by doing things that are entirely random (such as going for a swim mid-battle).

** "Alright Yusuke, you're out of options, time to do something stupid!"

* Goku from ''[[DragonballDragon Ball]]'', especially during his assault on the main Red Ribbon Army base. His plan could be best described as "keep hitting anyone who attacks until you run out of targets". Meanwhile the rest of the cast were busily trying to put together a rescue team and trying to plan out how they'd save him.

* Judau Astar from ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ (Anime)|Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ]]'' and Uso Ebbing from ''[[Mobile Suit Victory Gundam (Anime)|Mobile Suit Victory Gundam]]'' are masters of this. They make up new plans as they go along, using strategies more experienced or more crazy pilots never think of.

* ''[[Ouran High School Host Club|Tamaki]]'': Tamaki is surprisingly good at them. Like, trump [[The Chessmaster|Kyoya]] good.

* Aboard ''[[Cowboy Bebop|The Bebop]]'': Aboard the ''Bebop'', Spike "I try not to think" Spiegel is a contrast to Jet, especially [[Lampshaded]] over a game of [[Shogi]] in [[Big Damn Movie|the movie]]. When he does make plans, they're simple and disposable; he expects them to fail, leaving him no choice but to improvise.

* Having a strong preference for the [[Indy Ploy]] seems to be a requirement to be a member of ''[[Fairy Tail]]''. Even many of the more sane characters tend to throw themselves into fights with little forethought (Erza fits this description well), notable exceptions may be Lucy, Levy, and Fried.

* In the old ''Snarfquest'' comic that ran in ''[[Dragon (magazine)|Dragon]]'' Magazinemagazine, Larry Elmore plotted out the next step for the characters to be, then threw it out and literally made up the craziest possible way to gereget there from the last stopping place. Best Exampleexample: ''"You Shot My Tower!!"'' Snarf DID''did''.

* Crazy''[[Deadpool]]'', comicbeing booka crazy [[Anti -Hero]] [[Deadpool]], has twice bested Taskmaster, a character capable of beating some of the very best superheroes (<ref>the low-to-mid-level ones, anyway -- little chance of him taking down Thor or Ms. Marvel, for example, except by planning)</ref> by being able to [[Awesomeness By Analysis|perfectly mimic and therefore predict]] their fighting styles. The reason he was defeated by Deadpool, it is revealed, is that Deadpool, being [[Ax Crazy|almost as crazy as The Joker]], literally makes up everything he does as he goes along, making him completely unpredictable.

** The instance where he took Taskmaster off guard by suddenly stopping in the middle of their fight and going into a breakdancing routine is a sterling example of [[Crazy Awesome|Deadpool's M.O]].

** The miniseries ''Dream War'', a [[Crisis Crossover]] between the [[Wildstorm Comics]] and [[DC Comics]] universes: In a conflict with DC villains, Midnighter of the Authority usually had an advantage, due to his ability to play out every variation of a fight in his head before the first blow lands. Until he ran into the Joker and could do nothing but stand completely still because he couldn't figure out what the Joker would do.

* ''[[Spider-Man]]'' does this every now and again, often against enemies that outclass him in terms of power. One notable instance involved him defeating Nitro (yes, [[Marvel Civil War|that Nitro]]) by luring him into a chemical warehouse full of tear gas and webbing a tank of it to Nitro's body. When Nitro exploded, he vaporized the tear gas, which then mixed with his gaseous form and left him too sick to stand up, much less explode again, when he reformed. It's even [[Lampshaded]] by Spider-Man when he realized he had all of five seconds to stop Nitro before the villain exploded again.

* In comparison to [[Captain America (comics)|Steve Rogers]]' [[Crazy Prepared]]-ness, [[Bucky Barnes]], after assuming the mantle of [[Captain America (comics)]] showed off his tactical sensibilities through his extensive reliance on plans made on the fly.

* Indiana Jones ([[Harrison Ford]]), obviously. He's called the "Patron Saint of [[Player Character|Player Characters]]s" for a reason.

** Notably, at one point in ''[[TheIndiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Film)|The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull]]'' it doesn't work, where Indy tries to jump onto a truck and misses.

{{quote| '''Indy:''' Damn, I thought that was closer.}}

*:* Lampshaded later in the film:

{{quote| '''Mutt Williams / {{spoiler|Henry Jones III}}''': What's he gonna do now?<br />

'''Mary Williams / {{spoiler|Marion Ravenwood}}''': I don't think he plans that far ahead.<br />

**:* Aaaaand then he pokes his head between them with a [[Ass Pull|goddamn]] '''''[http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/:RPG-7 |RPG-7!!!]]'''''

{{quote| "I'd cover my ears if I were you!"}}

*:* Hereditary. Witness Indy's dad in ''Last Crusade''. "I suddenly remembered my Charlemagne."

*:* Legacy. The line in question is a callback to Humphrey Bogart's line in [[Casablanca]]: [[Ironic Echo|"I don't plan that far ahead."]]

*:* In-universe, Indy seems to have picked up the "making this up as I go" line almost word for word from a group of older gentlemen while on a special mission during WWI (''Adventures of [[Young Indiana Jones]]'', Phantom Train of Doom).

*:* He even does this as a ''teenager'' - in ''[[Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade (Film)|Indiana Jones and Thethe Last Crusade]]'', when fellow scout Herman asks how he's going to get the Cross of Coronado away from Fedora and his men, he admits that he doesn't know, but he'll think of ''something''...

* Hell, just name any [[Harrison Ford]] movie, and there's bound to be a case of this. He seems quite adept at making an [[Indy Ploy]] work.

** This was particularly noteworthy in ''[[The Fugitive (Filmfilm)|The Fugitive]]'', where he plays not just a respected doctor but a brilliant surgeon. So of course he's going to be good at thinking quick and improvising. A character even notes this: that he's too smart for even the FBI to catch him, even though he's never been a criminal on the run before.

*** Watch the scene where he's "chased" by the derailing train. [[Raiders of the Lost Ark (Film)|Remind you of anything?]]

** There was a 90's movie, ''Presumed Innocent'' which had an "Indy plot" bordering on an [[Idiot Plot]] where the whole plot goes random and every character has to make shit up off the top of his/her head at the moment. [[It Gets Worse]] when all the best laid plans turn the plotters into [[Unwitting Pawn|Unwitting Pawns]]s. {{spoiler|The wife was the murderer, and she just wanted to get her husband's attention, who would cover it up. When he got on trial, she wanted to confess, but there was no evidence against him. He's struggling the whole movie to get the evidence, only for it to be right in front of his nose, in the desk of a cop friend of his. And the whammer? The judge was at the end of a [[Paranoia Fuel]] not-at-all-subtle attempt at blackmail ''by the defense attourney'', judge who despite all odds stoically refused to succumb to it. The accused only escaped not because he was innocent, but because ''he seemed innocent'' because there was no evidence. [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|Oh yeah]], and there was [[Red Herring|no conspiracy]] to frame him, as stated above, on the contrary.}}

{{quote| '''Max:''' So what's the plan?<br />

* ''[[Die Hard (Film)|Die Hard]]'': John McClane is also prone to this. Bungee-jumping with a fire hose, [[Eye Scream|killing someone with an icicle]], jumping on a subway train from a sidewalk hole, [[Car Fu|throwing cars into helicopters]] ("I was out of bullets")...

{{quote| '''John:''' I know what I'm doing.<br />

{{quote| '''John:''' [[This Is Gonna Suck|This is a bad idea!]]}}

* [[Disney Animated Canon|Disney's]] ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'':

{{quote| '''Genie:''' Al, I can't help you, I work for Señor Psychopath now. What are you gonna do?<br />

* In ''[[OceansOcean's Eleven|Ocean's Twelve]]'', half the crew is jailed and the remaining half tries an [[Indy Ploy]] to achieve the mission, including having {{spoiler|Julia Roberts try to pretend she's Julia Roberts}}. The plot fails, but anyway {{spoiler|everything was a [[Xanatos Roulette]] from the beginning.}}

{{quote| '''Venkman:''' "'Get her!' That was your whole plan, huh? 'Get her.' Very scientific."<br />

* ''[[Down Periscope]]''. Almost everything Lt. Cmdr. Dodge does amounts to winging it.

{{quote| '''Dodge:''' Men, we'll need to use a tactic that is somewhat bizarre and extremely risky.<br />

{{quote| '''Paul:''' So what's the plan?<br />

'''Frank:''' I'm going to go in and get them.<br />

'''Paul:''' You call that a plan?!<br />

{{quote| '''Mushu:''' "So what's the plan?"<br />

'''Mulan:''' "Um..."<br />

'''Mushu:''' "You don't have a plan?!"<br />

* Witness this exchange from the 2009 ''[[Star Trek (Filmfilm)|Star Trek]]'' movie:

{{quote| '''Chekov''': If Nero's ship detects us he will destroy us. But, if we drop out of warp near one of Saturn's moons... say... Titan. The magnetic distortion from Saturn's rings will shield us. (Note: at this point, Mr. Scott's weird beaming technology will enable them to beam from the Enterprise all the way to Nero's ship at Earth)<br />

{{quote| '''Roxanne''': What's the plan?<br />

'''Megamind''': Well, it mostly involves ''[[Try Not to Die|not dying]]''.<br />

* ''[[¡Three Amigos (Film)!|Three Amigos!]]''. The title characters do this because they aren't very bright.

{{quote| '''Dusty''': We have a plan.<br />

'''Carmen''': What is it?<br />

'''Dusty''': First, we break into El Guapo's fortress.<br />

'''Carmen''': And that you've done. Now what?<br />

* Similar to the Aladdin example above, Sam Flynn in ''[[Tron Legacy (Film)|Tron: Legacy]]'' gives us this exchange:

{{quote| '''Kevin Flynn:''' Wait, what's your plan?<br />

** In [[Tron]], his father was once just as bad. Trapped in a lightcycle arena? Well, let's [[Off the Rails|make a run for that glitch on the wall]] and hope it doesn't kill you. Lacking transport? Hot-wire a freaking Recognizer ([[Drives Like Crazy|and crash it in the middle of downtown]]). Running around in a huge city with only a vague idea on where your new [[Heterosexual Life Partners|best friend]] is heading? Mug a [[Mook]] and [[Dressing Asas the Enemy|change your]] [[Tron Lines]] to blend in. Then there's re-routing a massive amount of power using his own body as a conduit and having no plan whatsoever at the endgame other than "kiss your pal's girlfriend and jump into the monster."

{{quote| '''Tron:''' If you ''are'' a User, then everything you've done has been according to a plan?<br />

* Inverted with ''[[Thor (Filmfilm)|Thor]]'' in that it isn't the hero, but the villain. {{spoiler|Loki allowed a few Frost Giants in Asgard for "a bit of fun" while also "protecting Asgard" from [[Adult Child|Thor's]] rule; talks his brother into doing something stupid but the consequences were a lot bigger than he had hoped for; then he realizes he's adopted and decides that it's better for Thor to stay on Earth while [[Love Makes You Evil|he tries to earn their father's love]] by killing an entire race.}}

{{quote| '''Tigress''': What's your plan?<br />

'''Po''': Step 1, free the Five.<br />

'''Viper''': What's Step 2?<br />

* ''[[MillersMiller's Crossing]]'': "Do you always know what you're going to do before you do it?"

* Played with and Lampshaded in ''[[Harry Potter (Filmfilm)|Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2]]'': After Voldemort learns they're hunting horcruxes Hermione says they need a new plan. Harry's response? "Hermione, since when have any of our plans ever worked?"

* In the ''[[Mission: Impossible (Filmfilm)||Mission Impossible]]'' films, whenever something goes awry with plan, the improvision is usually high in the [[HSQ]].

* ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'' series. {{spoiler|Mat due to way his luck-tweaking ability works, he does poorly at games of planning than of chance. For this reason, most of his better plans by default fall under this category.}}

* The "wizzard" Rincewind from Terry Pratchett's ''[[Discworld (Literature)|Discworld]]'' novels is not as concerned about where he's running ''to'' as what he's running ''from''. He notes this on several occasions. "Run!" "Where to?!" "From! The key word is from!" Which invariably leads to more running. By ''[[Discworld (Literature)/The Last Hero|The Last Hero]]'', this is what he states as his religion (main tenet: whatever happens, you can run from it).

** However, when running away is not an option, Rincewind does come up with some clever plans, like in ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Interesting Times|Interesting Times]]'' having the local Dibbler clone spread a rumor that the rebel forces are NOT bolstered by [[Suspiciously Specific Denial|3,200,009 vampire ghosts]], nor by the vast and invincible Red Army. {{spoiler|The vampire ghosts part is false. The Red Army turns out to be true, though mostly by an accident on Rincewind's part.}} Rincewind spreads such a bizarre rumor upon realizing that while telling someone that an enormous army is coming ''does'' frighten them, it's even ''more'' effective to tell them what they ''won't'' be facing and have the ''rumors'' spiral out of proportion.

** A more heroic, for lack of a better term, [[Indy Ploy]] is the MO of Moist von Lipwig in the ''[[Discworld]]'' novel ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Going Postal (Discworld)|Going Postal]]''. Near the end, he makes a bet with the [[Magnificent Bastard]] [[Big Bad]] Reacher Gilt, and he has no idea how he'll win at first ... In his second appearance in ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Making Money|Making Money]]'', he outlines a grand if somewhat vague vision of the future of currency, and wonders if he should write it down so he can work out what he's talking about later. In both books the apparent confidence with which he enters such things lead everyone else to conclude he had it all planned out.

*** It is worth noting that not only does Moist NOT''not'' win his bet with Reacher, he very DELIBERATELY''deliberately'' doesn't win it. He's just using it as a ploy to get everyone heeded into the same room for his [[JaccuseJ'accuse!]] moment. {{spoiler|The best part being that the [[JaccuseJ'accuse!]] is the message he arranged to replace the real message with.}}

** Lord Vetinari of Ankh-Morpork seems to combine [[Indy Ploy|Indy Ploys]] and [[Xanatos Roulette|Xanatos Roulettes]]s to devastating effect. It was once stated that, since you can't plan for every eventuality, Vetinari doesn't.

*** When in doubt he will order Vimes '''NOTnot''' to get involved with it. Say what you will about Vetinari, he knows how Vimes will follow this trope for him. Vimes is too [[Buffy-Speak|vimesy]] to use a [[Xanatos Gambit]] . I guess you could call him Vetinari's laser-guided Vimes.

* Commissar [[Ciaphas Cain]], [[Fake Ultimate Hero|Hero of the Imperium]] in ''[[Warhammer 4000040,000]]'', often finds himself running headlong into situations he certainly shouldn't be running into in a universe as casually lethal as Warhammer 40K. He usually fights and flees his way out of these situations by simply making things up as he goes along, improvising weapons and tactics from his surroundings and from simple ingenuity. In one case, he halts a mob of bloodthirsty, rioting Imperial Guardsmen by jumping on a table, pointing at someone, and ordering them to get a mop, as the mess they had left was simply ''deplorable''.<br /><small>"Whatever they'd been expecting me to say or do, this certainly wasn't it."</small>

** But maybe he [[Action Mom|gets it from his mother]]. After all, Cordelia starts out captured by the enemy in ''Cordelia's Honor'' and ends up {{spoiler|married into the highest levels of aristocracy and Vicerene of two planets}} before it's all said and done. Of course this is ''after'' she {{spoiler|effects a daring escape from Aral Vorkosigan}} who is kind of a [[Four -Star Badass|Admiral Bad Ass]] and certainly an [[Officer and Aa Gentleman]] ([[In Space]]!).

* Most of [[Harry Potter (Literaturenovel)|Harry Potter]]'s plans fit into this trope, mostly due to a lack of time and/or information to plan ahead. Actually, things don't turn out much better when they do plan ahead.

{{quote| '''George:''' So what's the plan, Harry?<br />

'''Harry:''' There isn't one.<br />

* In the ''[[Honor Harrington (Literature)|Honor Harrington]]'' series, Victor Cachat is really good at this. He is [[The Chessmaster|good at planning too]], but no plan survives an encounter with the enemy, so he's often forced to make things up as they go. And [[The Determinator|does he make them]]...

** Consider what happened within the first seven pages of ''[[Star Wars (Franchise)/Allegiance|Allegiance]]''. Han and Luke in the Falcon lift off a planet, are attacked by pirates, do some tricky shooting and maneuvering, and a Star Destroyer glides into the system to take care of the rebel cell being smuggled out by the Falcon. Han powers down the Falcon's weapons and sends out a general emergency call, nominally to the planetary defenses below. The Star Destroyer tells him to state his intention and emergency, Han says that they're a medical mercy team sent out in response to a groundquake on the planet and were attacked by pirates. The Star Destroyer quickly and systematically destroys all of the pirates and tells Han that the planet is now under Imperial interdiction. Go home until the block has lifted. Han makes a show of reluctantly agreeing, and as they fly away he remarks to Luke that it's nice to obey Imperial orders now and again.

* Done many, many times in ''[[Animorphs (Literature)|Animorphs]]''. A notable example is #37 ''The Weakness'', where Rachel, the group's [[Ax Crazy]], takes over the [[Five -Man Band|Leader's]] role. Her 'plan' to get into the enemy's stronghold involves stealing a private jet and crashing it into a building.

* ''[[The Hollows]]'': Rachel Morgan tends to rely on these, while Ivy is [[Crazy Prepared|the polar opposite]].

{{quote| '''Rachel:''' "Jenks, plan B!"<br />

''Later, outside.''<br />

'''Jenks:''' "So what's plan B?"<br />

* ''[[Gentleman Bastard Sequence]]'': Locke Lamora tends to have his plans explode due to unforeseen complications, but he's very good at improvising. At one point he has lost access to his wardrobe and all of his disguises and needs to pass himself off as a wealthy merchant to his mark. Through a quick, complicated scam, he ends up walking into a bank and coming out half an hour later wearing the clothing of the wealthiest man in Camorr.

* ''[[Ender's Game]]'': The Dragon Army, anyone?

* David Weber writes in an [https://web.archive.org/web/20070706103046/http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/13-TheBalticWarCD/TheBalticWarCD/Interstellar%20Patrol/0743436008___1.htm introduction] to Christopher Anvil's ''[[Interstellar Patrol]]'' stories:

{{quote| An Anvil character triumphs by shooting the rapids, by caroming from one obstacle to another, adapting and overcoming as he goes. In many ways, his characters are science-fiction descendents of Odysseus, the scheming fast thinker who dazzles his opponents with his footwork. Of course, sometimes it's a little difficult to tell whether they're dazzling an opponent with their footwork, or skittering across a floor covered in ball bearings.}}

* ''[[The Dresden Files|]]'': Harry Dresden]] will often start out with a general plan, butwhich seeingusually asgoes to hell fast, seeing how the entire universe appears to hate him violently, this usually goes to hell fast. Thus we get a lot of plans that amount to "arrange for some backup, confront the villains, and wing it from there," and in one case even "get [[Melee a Trois|everyone]] in the same place and see what happens." It gets to the where it's a real surprise when, in ''Changes'', his elaborate scheme to break into a building and steal information goes off without a hitch. Some examples of his make-it-up-as-I-go-plans:

** Trapped in a vampire's mansion, stripped of my gear, girlfriend is being held hostage, facing dozens of vampires, the leader of whom can wield magic, and [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|I'm wearing undies with yellow duckies on them]]. Shit, what do I do? {{spoiler|Pour magic into the shades of the vampires' hundreds of victims, giving them enough strength to mob the vampires and rip them to pieces}}, that's what.

** Three powerful necromancers who outpower me and are backed up by armies of unstoppable undead minions. I'm hurt, tired, and in no shape to face them head on, but the ritual they're planning will kill thousands if I don't stop them. Well, good thing I'm in the Field Museum. {{spoiler|Let's raise that T-Rex skeleton and get to whupping some undead ass.}}

* ''[[Horatio Hornblower]]'' is guilty of both this and [[Xanatos Speed Chess]]. Although, being a Napoleonic Wars-era Naval officer, and the timing of military operations being dependant upon friction--windfriction—wind, rain, sea conditions, road conditions, partisan attacks, the idiot who got drunk last night, et cetera--hecetera—he has no way of predicting for certain the movements of his enemies, even if he knew what they intended to do. And he's generally brilliant at it, so we're not complaining.

{{quote| They debated long on what was to be done, but they could think of no way of getting rid of Smaug- which had always been a weak point in their plans, as Bilbo felt inclined to point out.}}

{{quote| '''Henry''': My son, the super sleuth, can't even get himself access into an old folks' home.<br />

* At the very end of the final episode of the TV run of ''[[Angel (TV)|Angel]]'', the title character, faced with an [[Bolivian Army Ending|approaching horde of monsters]] and asked by a teammate what he has "in terms of a plan?" [[Lampshade Hanging|sums up]] the team's strategy for the past five seasons:

{{quote| '''Angel:''' We fight.<br />

'''Spike:''' Bit more specific?<br />

{{quote| '''Wesley:''' That cannot possibly be his plan.<br />

{{quote| '''Spike:''' I had a plan! A good plan! ...but then I got bored!}}

* Hannibal "I love it when a plan comes together" Smith on ''[[The A-Team (TV)|The A-Team]]''.

** In "Chuck vs the Ring Part II'', this is played straight and verbalized when Morgan and Awesome arrive to rescue Chuck, Sarah, and Casey from Shaw.

{{quote| '''Morgan:''' "No plan? Never stopped me before."}}

* The Doctor in ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' has a tendency to play things by ear -- [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] several times in the series, in moments where he's been just as surprised as everyone else that a plan of his has actually worked, or worked for the wrong reason.

{{quote| '''Mickey Smith''': You're just making this up as you go!<br />

{{quote| '''The Doctor''': This is what I'm gonna do: I'm gonna rescue her. I'm gonna save Rose Tyler from the middle of the Dalek fleet, and then I'm gonna save the Earth. And then, just to finish you off, I'm gonna wipe every last stinking Dalek out of the sky!<br />

'''Daleks''': But you have no weapons! No defenses! No plan!<br />

** The Third Doctor certainly says something along those lines in "[[Doctor Who (TV)/Recap/20th AS the Five Doctors/Recap|The Five Doctors]]":

{{quote| '''Sarah Jane:''' Look, do you think this is wise, Doctor? I mean, well, whatever's in [[Evil Tower of Ominousness|that Tower]], it's got enormous powers and... well, what can we do against it?<br />

{{quote| '''The Doctor:''' I'm warning you: I'm very dangerous when I don't know what I'm doing...}}

{{quote| ‘I never have a plan. Plans can go wrong. That’s why the villain never wins – villains always have a plan.’}}

{{quote| ‘I’m not sure where we’re even going,’ Harris panted.<br />

‘The Deadstone memorial,’ Fitz answered confidently. ‘The Doctor’s going to sort all this out for good.’<br />

‘How’s he going to do that, then?’<br />

{{quote| '''The Doctor:''' River, you 'n me, we're gonna find the primary flight deck,[...] stabilze the wreckage, stop the angels and cure Amy.<br />

'''River:''' How?<br />

'''The Doctor:''' I'll do a thing.<br />

'''River:''' What thing?<br />

{{quote| '''The Doctor:''' Anyway, that's not the plan.<br />

'''River:''' There's a plan?<br />

{{quote| '''Amy:''' Please tell me you have a plan.<br />

{{quote| '''The Doctor:''' Need a proper look. Got to draw its fire. Give it a target.<br />

'''Amy:''' How? <br />

'''The Doctor:''' You know how sometimes I get these brilliant plans?<br />

'''Amy:''' Yeah?<br />

{{quote| '''Lily:''' What do we do?<br />

** Also inverted with the Daleks and the Movelans. They were both so good at the [[Xanatos Gambit]] that when they came up against each other they found themselves locked in a stalemate of [[Xanatos Speed Chess]], neither able to ever gain an advantage over the other. The Daleks realize that they need Davros to find them a way past this block, and the Movelans realize that the Dalek task force sent to the desolate Skaro must be there for some ancient, hidden thing of great importance to the current situation and set out to stop them. Upon learning what the Dalek's plan is, the Movelans want the Doctor to give them the ability to carry out an [[Indy Ploy]] just like the Daleks want Davros to do for them. Fortunately, the Doctor and the humans the Daleks brought as slave labor manage to not only destroy both of them, but capture Davros for trial.

* ''[[Farscape (TV)|Farscape]]'': John Crichton lives for the [[Indy Ploy]], which is fortunate, because the Uncharted Territories throw monkey wrenches into it every damn time. Near the end of the series, D'Argo wonders why things never go smoothly, to which John replies, "Murphy's Law."

{{quote| '''John''': Go on, keep movin'. I got a plan.<br />

'''Aeryn''': Don't tell me you have a plan.<br />

'''John''': What's wrong with them?<br />

'''Aeryn''': They never work.<br />

'''John''': Damn these doors. They always work.<br />

'''Aeryn''': Not the way you detail them.<br />

'''John''': Hey, look, I get results. You're hung up on details!<br />

{{quote| '''Aeryn''': "Would you like to learn how to do this, or are you content to continually display your ineptitude?<br />

{{quote| '''John''': I know you can see me. Bad guys can always see me. That's because my plans suck. }}

* Mal Reynolds from ''[[Firefly (TV)|Firefly]]'' also has to do this a lot, as his [[A Simple Plan|simple plans]] go wrong with such regularity you could set your watch to his cries of:

{{quote| '''Mal:''' It never goes smooth. Why don't it ever go smooth?}}

{{quote| '''Zoe''': Captain'll come up with a plan.<br />

'''Kaylee''': That's good, right?<br />

{{quote| '''Mal''': I don't plan on any shooting taking place during this job.<br />

{{quote| '''Mal''': This is all part of our new plan.<br />

'''Kaylee''': How exactly is--<br />

{{quote| '''Mal''': I start fighting a war, I guarantee you'll see something new.}}

* Dr. [[House (TV series)|House]]. As brilliant a doctor as he is, makes it up 98% of the time.

* This was [[MacGyver]]'s usual MO. It was also lampshaded several times:<br /><small>'''Murdoc:''' You know, [[MacGyver]], that's why you're so hard to beat. Nobody knows what you're going to do next. Including you.</small>

* The characters in ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' and ''[[Stargate Atlantis (TV)|Stargate Atlantis]]'' live by these. Sometimes even they're shocked their plans work...

** McKay is asked at least once per episode to find a way to fix the problems cause by someone's failed plan, oftentimes Sheppard's or his own.

{{quote| '''McKay:''' "I'm Dr. Rodney McKay, alright? Difficult takes a few seconds; impossible, a few minutes."}}

** In ''[[Stargate Universe (TV)|Stargate Universe]]'', this is O'Neill's expectation of Young, who is stuck with his people on a barely-functioning ship ''galaxies'' away from home. Guess it must be a requirement of all SGC personnel, given what they have to deal with.

* In the ''[[Star Trek: theThe Next Generation]]'' episode "Attached", Picard and Crusher are psychically linked and on the run from the aliens du jour, and so she's able to call him on pretending to know where they're going; he claims that it's important for [[The Good Captain]] to sometimes project the image of understanding and confidence in dangerous situations.

* The [[Big Bad|evil masterminds]] of ''[[Twenty Four|24]]'' constantly have their [[Xanatos Gambit|Xanatos Gambits]]s foiled by Jack Bauer's [[Indy Ploy|Indy Ploys]]. The man hitched a ride on the bottom of a garbage truck ... no, you're not going to beat a man like that with anything less than nuclear weapons. (And actually, not even then).

* ''[[Burn Notice]]'' knows how to play this one, too. Westen usually has multiple plans, yet they frequently resort to throwing them all away and improvising on the spot. For instance, :

{{quote| '''Max''': What's going on here? Do we have a plan?<br />

'''Michael Westen''': A plan, no, I... got some tactical goals, and a rough approach? <br />

'''Max''': A rough approach, well, that's terrific. Thank god we got that, because we don't have backup, video feeds or working coms. <br />

* ''[[Frasier]]'''s many convoluted [[Farce]]-structured episodes often involved ''extremely'' fast-paced [[Disaster Dominoes]], [[A Simple Plan|Simple Plans,]] or [[Fawlty Towers Plot|Fawlty Towers Plots]]s that required the characters to frantically come up with new ideas as they were swept along with the action to keep their plans from descending into havoc. Naturally, because it was a comedy where no one gets killed, this only made the hijinks and misunderstandings infinitely worse, as [[Too Many Cooks]] spoil the broth, and they had to inform everyone else about all their new schemes and lies in addition to the list of volatile situations they were juggling. One would expect they wished twitter existed in the '90s, but on the other hand, they could often be downright ingenious at improv...

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

* [[Truth in Television]] for every [[Tabletop RPG|GM]] who's ever [[SchrodingersSchrödinger's Gun|avoided]] [[Off the Rails|railroading]].

* ''[[Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney]]'': The titular Phoenix Wright is essentially the videogaming world's avatar of this trope. Both he and his successor Apollo Justice rely almost exclusively upon plans built upon the Indy Ploy; especially on the first day of court when they usually have no clue who the real culprit is. Repeatedly, the decision to have new information added to a testimony involves the player character thinking something to the effect of 'if only I knew where I was going with this'.

** And yet he's still a janitor, despite saving his homeplanet and the galaxy several times over. [[Never Live It Down|You blow up one garbage scow]]...

* ''[[Mass Effect (Video Game)|Mass Effect]]'': Most of Commander Shepard's adventures, due to the fact that s/he has no access to trustworthy intelligence on what is happening and is constantly thrown into situations with no idea what is going on or what s/he is going to do about it. The final mission of ''[[Mass Effect 2 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 2]]'' is inherently unplannable, as nobody has ever seen what is on the other side of the Omega-4 Relay and returned to tell the tale.

** And then there is this line taken from the E3 trailer for ''[[Mass Effect 3 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 3]]'':

{{quote| '''Unknown voice''': We need a plan to stop them.<br />

* Adell from ''[[Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories]]'' (with a little help from his family) opens the game with the truly ''brilliant'' plan of summoning Overlord Zenon, [[Omnicidal Maniac|god of all overlords]], into his family's back yard so he, being [[Overrated and Underleveled|the mighty level 1 character]] that he is, can beat him up. After the summoning screws up and summons Rozalin, Zenon's daughter instead, Adell is forced into improvising plan after plan for the next six or so chapters as he cluelessly tries to track down Zenon on his own.

* The main character of ''[[Fate Stay Night (Visual Novel)|Fate/stay night]]'', Shirou Emiya, relies on this quite often, which tends to cause discomfort among his [[True Companions]]. During several "strategy meetings", his allies reprimand him for his usual response of "let's just go and do it".

* In ''[[RunescapeRuneScape]]'', the only way to kill a Vyrewatch is to use a weapon designed for extreme unpredictability - therefore gaining in the sheer power of incompetently planned attacks against a monster who can see coming every competent attack there is. The weapon? ''A [[Epic Flail|flail made out of a composite of silver and mithril, with a silver sickle on the tip.]]'' Wow.

{{quote| '''Clank''': Ratchet, do you know where you are going?<br />

* From ''[[StarcraftStarCraft]]'', we have Commander Jim Raynor. Despite the fact that he's well respected by Terran and Protross alike for his sound tactical mind, he never really plans anything in advance: he just makes it up as he goes along.

{{quote| '''Elena''': I sure hope you know what you're doing.<br />

{{quote| '''Elena''': What are you going to do then?<br />

{{quote| '''Farah''': What are you doing?<br />

* Tidus from ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'' lives by this, and gets the entire party to go along with it near the end.

* Snow Villiers in ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]'' wholly embraces the make-it-up-as-you-go, [[When All You Have Is a Hammer]] style of heroism. It [[Big Damn Heroes|works]] [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|sometimes]]; sometimes [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|not so much]].

{{quote| '''Snow''': Heroes don't need plans!}}

* ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 3'' is full of double and triple agents (and a quadruple agent!), who are constantly deceiving each other and furthering their own [[Batman Gambit|Batman Gambits]]s. Of noticeable exception is {{spoiler|EVA}} who pulls off one of the greatest deceptions in the entire game. {{spoiler|While being on an undercover mission for the Chinese in Russia, she meets an American in the forest who ask her if she is ADAM. Thinking quick she just says that ADAM couldn't make it. The American tells her his name is Snake, so [[Adam and Oror Eve|she gambles and claims her name to be EVA]]. And he completely buys it, even though she didn't know the password.}}

* In ''[[Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (Video Game)|Assassin's Creed Brotherhood]]'', after Ezio arrives in Rome and Machiavelli explains the situation to him, he starts walking towards a [[Elite Mooks|Borgia captain]].

{{quote| '''MACHIAVELLI:''' Do you have some kind of plan?<br />

* Selphie Tilmitt in ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]'' pulls a mean [[Indy Ploy]], as she proves when she leads the mission to the Galbadian missile base. She has nothing but a stolen military vehicle and some spare uniforms she happened to find in it, and no plan at all beyond "go in, break everything we can, and blow the sucker sky-high" - and she does.

* The ''[[Team Fortress 2 (Video Game)|Team Fortress 2]]'' video "Meet the Medic" provides a rather spectacular one: The RED Medic invents the Ubercharge system by sticking a strange device onto a baboon heart and implanting it into Heavy (whose original heart ''exploded'' when it had said device attached to it). The two then rush off into battle, and just as Medic is about to pop his very first charge...

{{quote| '''Heavy:''' Doctor! Are you sure this will work?!<br />

'''Medic:''' HA HA! I HAVE ''NO'' IDEA!<br />

* ''[[Narbonic]]''{{'}}s Helen Narbon is an avowed fan of this approach: "It's times like these I almost question my usual strategy of doing whatever dumb thing pops into my head."

* This trope is precisely why Rumisiel gets [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Crowning Moments Of Awesome]] in ''[[Misfile]]''. Even when his schemes work there is still an element of [[What Were You Thinking?]].

* Gil [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20090223 claims to be doing this] in ''[[Girl Genius (Webcomic)|Girl Genius]]''. Apparently rendered plausible by past behavior.

{{quote| '''Sheriff Pony''': Topato has never lost a battle, and prefers to act without planning in order to create a "chaos factor" so that the battle's inevitable victory may also yield some unexpected, interesting side-results.}}

{{quote| '''Rocky''': ''Always'' be prepared to improvise, Freckle. That's rule number one for jazz players and vigilantes alike.}}

* In ''[[Schlock Mercenary (Webcomic)|Schlock Mercenary]]'', when amnesiac mini-Schlock [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20050529.html disposes of Pranger's materiel], Kevyn grabs the initiative and takes out an enemy tank. [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20050531.html His plans run out at that point].

{{quote| '''Quint:''' ''"Ha, Loser. A true tactician doesn't know WHAT the hell he's doing until he's halfway done with it."}}

* Meta example with ''[[Homestuck (Webcomic)|Homestuck]]'' - [[Andrew Hussie]] had a basic idea for the characters and plot when he began it, but most of what you see and read was made up along the way. ''[[Problem Sleuth]]'' takes this even further, having had only its setting and main character designed in advance, and the rest made up by Hussie and the readers.

{{quote| <code>'''span style{{=}}"color|:#e00707|T}}'''</code;font-family:monospace;font-weight:bold;"><brTG: the thing with time travel is</span>

* In ''[[Freefall (Webcomic)|Freefall]]'', this is Sam Starfall's stock in trade. After all, [http://freefall.purrsia.com/ "Improvise is one of the few battle plans that survives contact with the enemy."]

* [[Leeroy Jenkins Video (Web Video)|LEEEEROY JENKINS!!!]] is an example of the '[[What Were You Thinking?]]' variety. While the video was staged, along with Leeroy's blinding incompetence, the creators said it was based on a real (although presumably less over-the-top) event.

* Prince Zuko from ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'', on the other hand, [[What Were You Thinking?|never seems to think things through]] and frequently [[The Woobie|suffers]] for it.

* In early ''[[Ben 10 (Animation)|Ben 10]]'', the titular character expressed "Who needs a plans when you've got the watch!" thought process, often selecting the alien forms that possessed the most brute strength or coolest powers. In "Hunted", a fake bounty hunter calls Ben out on this primitive strategy, and since then, he has been more creative with the Ominitrix. Well, more or less.

** Also of note is that although Ben had access to numerous transformations with vast strategic value, such as a [[Implacable Man|resilliant]] [[Playing Withwith Fire|a pyrokinetic]] with [[Not Quite Flight|pseudo-flight capabilities]] and a [[Frickin' Laser Beams|laser-equipped]], [[Technopath|technopathictechnopath]]ic, [[Nanobots|nanobot]] construct with [[The Blob|blob]]-esque attributes, Ben's most-used form in the series by far is the [[Multi -Armed and Dangerous|four-armed]] [[Mighty Glacier]] whose selling point is [[Super Strength]] (despite half of his other forms having superhuman strength to begin with).

* Most of the time, ''[[The Fairly Odd ParentsOddParents]]'' plays this trope straight, with Timmy having to think on the fly to fix whatever he's just screwed up.

{{quote| '''Ron''': Rufus, this is a precision instrument, incredibly complex. [[[Beat]]] Better mess with everything.}}

* [[SpongebobSpongeBob SquarePants]]: Although Plankton is usually shown to have elaborate scheme, he does hang a lampshade on this concept on at least one occasion.

{{quote| '''Plankton''': Give me the secret formula OR ELSE!<br />

'''Krabs''': Or else what?<br />

* A common theme in early episodes of ''[[Re BootReBoot]]'' was that Bob never thought more than 6 nanoseconds ahead, and Dot never did anything without careful forethought. Naturally this led to friction as the two competed to prove which approach was best, while events provided a subtle Aesop that a balance between the two was really the best approach.

{{quote| '''Mira''': What now?<br />

'''Buzz''': Don't worry. I have a plan.<br />

* Used in the [[MASKM.A.S.K.]] racing episode ''Battle of the Giants'' for no particular reason.

{{quote| '''Trakker''': [The plan is] perfect in its simplicity, and the one plan [VENOM] will never guess. The No-Plan Plan!<br />

'''Lefleur''': No plan?<br />

* Finn lampshades this in an episode of ''[[Adventure Time (Animation)|Adventure Time]]'' when he manages to get through a door of the Ice King's fortress after mentioning having a plan: "Nah, that wasn't my plan. I just got lucky."

* The [[Young Justice (Animationanimation)|Young Justice]] team learn this as their first lesson from [[Batman]]: when the plan goes south, good heroes make do.

* Used and lampshaded in the [[Phineas and Ferb]] episode "Meapless in Seattle".

{{quote| '''Candace''': So, uh, do we have a plan, or are we just gonna go all willy-nilly and barge into the bad, scary place?<br />

'''Phineas''': You know, willy-nilly barging ''is'' a plan of sorts.<br />

* ''[[Bob and George]]'': the author freely admits that a large portion of the comic is done on a day-to-day basis, so the ''creation of the comic'' is more or less a [[Real Life]] [[Indy Ploy]].

** As well as the entire ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''. Tolkien had a vague idea of the ending, but he had no idea how to get there until he got there. Every big event, from beginning to end, was designed while it was being written. The only scene he even tried to write ahead of time was the climactic scene inside Mt. Doom, and the final one was still written only when the story got to it.

* A celebrated military mind of the 19th century, German Generalfelmarschall [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmuth_von_Moltke_the_Elder:Helmuth von Moltke the Elder|Hulmuth von Moltke the Elder]], said: "No plan of operations extends with certainty beyond the first encounter with the enemy's main strength." This is usually paraphrased as "no plan survives contact with the enemy." Even if you ''do'' have a plan, once things get started, it can only help so much.