Karma Houdini/Film: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

* The last time we see {{spoiler|Jim Cunningham}} in ''[[Donnie Darko]]'', he is crying in his house alone, with nobody aware of the kind of person he is. Everything else that happened as a result of Donnie's actions at the end of the film was for the better.

** Originally, Potter was to [[Karmic Death|die of a heart attack]], but director [[Frank Capra]] felt Clarence's commentary while watching this event made his character seem too macabre.

** Arguably, the whole point of the movie is the importance of friends etc., and Potter never had any friends to begin with, so really he was suffering negative karma ''the whole time''.

* The other finest example is {{spoiler|Noah Cross}}, the villain in ''[[Chinatown]]''. Not only is he responsible for the murder of Hollis Mulwray, he also {{spoiler|raped his own daughter, and at the end of the movie he's acquired custody of his daughter/granddaughter, who can expect some severe raping}}, and gets off completely scot-free. And Jake Gittes can do absolutely nothing about it. Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown.

* In ''[[A Time to Kill]]'', The Ku Klux Klan commit kidnapping, murder, arson among other things, but only two of them get arrested at the end of the movie.

* Linda Fiorentino's [[Femme Fatale]] in ''[[The Last Seduction]]'' takes this to a whole other level, and she's the ''heroine'' ([[Villain Protagonist|sort of]]).

** If we're talking femmes fatales, Kathleen Turner in ''[[Body Heat]]'' has to be the gold standard.

* In ''[[The Proposition]]'', nothing bad happens to Eden Fletcher, one of the most horrifying [[Smug Snake|Smug Snakes]] in all of film. This is a man who had a retarded 14-year old whipped to death.

** Made even worse considering the sympathetic Captain Stanley is the one who the Burns Gang takes revenge on for the death of Mike Burns.

* [[The Silence of the Lambs|Hannibal Lecter]], what with {{spoiler|getting away at the end of the movie}} and {{spoiler|actually living happily ever after with Clarice in the book}}. This was definitely an example of an author growing overly enamored of their character, and thus many file it under [[Fanon Discontinuity]].

* The Frank Oz version of ''[[Little Shop of Horrors]]'' features Seymour, who ends up getting away with killing two people through inaction and gets a happy ending. The sympathetic nature of the character, and the fact that Seymour is not as directly responsible for the deaths as in the original play, makes it much more acceptable than many of the examples on this page. The pre-[[Executive Meddling]] ending used the play's [[The Bad Guy Wins]] version of the trope. Audrey II was a [[Karma Houdini]] in the original ending, but this was fully intentional (as part of [[The Bad Guy Wins]]) so it does not share the problems of the final product.

* {{spoiler|Mr. Pink}} in ''[[Reservoir Dogs]]''...almost. Listen closely to the last scene - it's very faint, but according to [[Word of God|Quentin Tarantino]], {{spoiler|Pink is shouting at the cops who shot and arrested him.}}

** Subverted in all of the endings of the ''[[Reservoir Dogs]]'' video game {{spoiler|(Psycho: Gets killed, Neutral: Gets arrested, Professional: Gets away but he accidentally spills the diamonds.)}}

* The scene in ''[[Happy Gilmore]]'' where [[Ben Stiller]]'s sadistic orderly character gets thrown through a window by Happy (and then presumably has the authorities sicced on him) was cut out of the final film for no apparent reason, leaving viewers who don't watch the special edition DVD with the impression that he gets to continue using his charges as slave labor. This is even more jarring when juxtaposed with the fate of the movie's [[Big Bad]], a [[Jerk Jock]] type who's certainly mean, but whose comeuppance is rather harsh by anyone's standards (he gets the crap beaten out of him by a mob of Happy's fans, led by the gargantuan Mr. Larson).

* Fagin and the Artful Dodger in Lionel Bart's musical ''Oliver!''

** Like with ''[[Happy Gilmore]]'', her comeuppance --getting tossed into a printing press by Tyrell-- was cut from the movie but can be seen on the DVD.

* The 2000 remake of ''[[Carrie]]'' sees Carrie survive and get smuggled out of the jurisdiction by a sympathetic Susan after killing hundreds of people. The film makes it clear that she doesn't remember her massacre but jarringly she doesn't exactly seem too remorseful.

* ''[[Funny Games]]'' uses this trope deliberately to subvert your expectations of horror films. The film involves the psychological and physical torture of a husband, wife and son by two sadistic young men. {{spoiler|The two young men kill every member of the family one by one and receive no comeuppance. In one scene, the wife actually kills one of the psychos, but the other prevents the death of his partner by taking a remote control and literally rewinding the film to a point before his death happens. In the end, the dominant killer smirks triumphantly at the camera as he prepares to kill again.}}

* This trope is the very essence of the Mexican film ''El Crimen del Padre Amaro'', Amaro, the eponymous character is a young Catholic priest who upon arriving to a small town {{spoiler|first he successfully blackmails the director of a local newspaper into withdrawing an article that exposed the friendship of the local priest with a notorious drug lord}} this provokes {{spoiler|the firing of the author of said article, his girlfriend Amelia breaking up with him, and turning his father (who helped him in his investigation) into a pariah}}, it gets worse: {{spoiler|Amaro then seduces Amelia (despite her being just a teenager) and impregnates her, fearing for his career's future and his reputation among townspeople he takes Amelia to an illegal abortion clinic where due to a malpractice she starts bleeding uncontrollably and dies in his arms,}} despite this {{spoiler|with the help of a woman he convinces the ENTIRE town that it was Amelia's former boyfriend the one who knocked her up and he was there trying to save her. The final scene has Amaro presiding over Amelia's funeral.}}

** On the DVD commentary, the director mentions some fans who theorize that the last scene of Roxie and Velma making a hit show together is just another one of Roxie's fantasies like most of the other musical numbers, and they're really condemned to lives of complete poverty and obscurity. He more or less gives it [[Ascended Fanon|approval]].

* ''[[The Thomas Crown Affair]]''. In both versions of the movie (1968 and 1999), the eponymous [[Eccentric Millionaire|Billionaire]] gets away scot-free with his art thievery. In the remake, the woman assigned to tracking him down [[High Heel Face Turn|runs off with him as well]].

* In ''[[Serial Mom]]'', Beverly Sutphin, the protagonist commits seven murders over the course of the movie. When she is arrested and put on trial, she wins the case and gets off scot-free!

** And then promptly murders again, for someone in the courtroom is wearing white after Labor Day!

* This happens and is lampshaded in the flashback backstory in ''[[Secondhand Lions]]''. After being thwarted by Uncle Hubb for a second time, the evil Sheikh doesn't come after him again...because he gets distracted by finding oil and becoming one of the richest men in the world. As the lead character puts it: "The bad guy gets filthy rich? What the heck kind of story ends that way?"

* ''[[Scarface]]'' is of the [[Black and Gray Morality]] slant (Although [[Evil vs. Evil]] might fit here), true. But the evil-er villain, Alejandro Sosa, has Tony and the rest of his allies killed with a bunch of hired thugs and an assassin (the latter from [[In the Back]]), not even giving Tony the chance to lose in a climactic fight between the two of them.

** It should be noted that they are children after all, and it is also implied that they served Oogie Boogie out of fear rather than out of a desire to do evil. Furthermore, this is Halloween Town, morals, values, and cultural norms are focused around scaring people and causing chaos, so they're just following the standard.

*** Though it's implied that [[Halloweentown]] doesn't like people getting ''hurt'', and Lock, Shock and Barrel seem to be overly joyful at the idea of torturing Santa in their star number...

*** Plus he thinks that having LS&B enjoy Santa and Sally being tortured and killed by Oogie puts them beyond "mischievious pranksters" to "little bastards". [[Sarcasm Mode|Because expressing delight about torturing SANTA doesn't do that already.]]

** At some point they leave Ooogie Boogie's lair and bring back help to rescue Jack and Sally.

* In ''[[Mystic River]]'' Sean Penn's character had previous murdered a person who got him in jail. He paid the man's family $500 per month in his stead and avoided justice for it. Later, he coerces a former friend Dave into confessing to the murder of his daughter. He promises to let Dave go if he confesses. Dave is innocent of the charge but confesses anyway to save his life. Penn's character kills him anyway. For the rest of the movie, he does not get his comeuppance for the two murders. It is possible he may be brought to justice later, but it's never resolved in the story.

** Of course, Kevin Bacon's character {{spoiler|makes what appears to be a threatening gesture to Penn's character in the final scene, which implies that there is still plenty more conflict to come.}}

* In ''[[Perfect Stranger]]'', [[Halle Berry]]'s character turns out to have murdered at least three people and successfully framed one of the murders on an innocent man, getting away with it all in the end. Whether this character gets their comeuppance later off screen is left open to interpretation.

* In ''[[The International]]'', even though the [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|CEO]] of the corrupt International Bank of Business and Credit is killed, the protagonists lose their only lead with his death and are unable to bring down the corrupt bank. In the credits, it's implied that the bank continues to run successfully despite the death of its CEO.

* ''[[The Player]]'': Hollywood studio executive Griffin Mill murders an unsuccessful screenwriter, then steals his girlfriend. He corrupts an artistic film into a simple, conformist, [[Lowest Common Denominator]] movie for the sake of profit. He abandons one of the few virtuous characters in the movie, a character who put her faith in Griffin, allowing her to be fired, and leaves her sobbing in the middle of the street (with a broken heel), because he'd rather be with his wife in his big house. Yes, the wife is the writer's girlfriend, now heavily pregnant with Griffin's child.

* Doubly subverted in the film version of ''[[A Series of Unfortunate Events]]''. At first, Count Olaf brags to the entire audience about the fact that he was legally wedded to an unwilling teenage girl before their very eyes. Then, we see the paper burst into flames, then hear that he is being sent to trial and a "what if?" scenario presents him being forced to endure all he put the children through. All is happy, right? Sadly, Lemony Snickett then narrates that what ''really'' happened was that Olaf escaped and is still out there.

** In the book series, Count Olaf {{spoiler|is eventually killed.}}

* {{spoiler|"Cobb"}} from [[Christopher Nolan]]'s early film ''[[Following]]''. He kills, manipulates others into setting themselves up as his fall guys, and disappears. The police don't even know he exists.

* At the end of ''Nick of Time'' the [[Big Bad]] behind the assassination plot gets away.

* The killer in {{spoiler|and narrator of}} ''The Last Broadcast''.

* A rare comedic example (and [[Author Tract|political commentary)]] in ''[[The Other Guys]]''. [[Big Bad]] Pamela Boardman (indirectly) drives the entire plot. In the end, she gets a federal bailout for being too big to fail, while her [[The Dragon|Dragon]] and [[Middle Management Mook]] both end up going to jail.

** Although, considering that what we see them do is part of a story told by Dilios, chances are that they were found out.

* The killer, Chris Vale, from the movie ''Halloween Night'' kills several people throughout the movie and afterward, tricks the female protagonist into shooting the main character (her boyfriend) by putting his mask and clothes on him while she was blindfolded and escapes. He's last seen hitchhiking and driving off into the sunset after being picked up by a hipster, who at the sight of his horribly burned body, only says that he must've had a good Halloween.

* Most of the villains in [[Disney]]'s adaptation of [[Pinocchio]]; Stromboli, the Coachman, and Foulfellow and Gideon simply walk offscreen and are never seen again (for the latter two, it helps that they really didn't like what Coachman was insinuating when he mentioned that the boys will never return home... '''''[[Large Ham|AS BOYS!!!!!!!!!]]'''''--not that they were unwilling to tempt fate, but you gotta give them credit for their doubts at that moment). The only ones who get any sort of consequences for their behaviour are Monstro and Lampwick, both of which are cases of [[Disproportionate Retribution]]. Lampwick gets turned into a donkey for encouraging Pinocchio in delinquent behaviour, and Monstro can't really be said to be a "villain" anyway as he's a whale and thus couldn't be expected to know any better.

* Andy from The Devil Wears Prada. She cheats on her boyfriend in France with a man she's been flirting with in France, then immediately goes back home to him and gets her dream job.

Actually not as simple as that, since she broke up with her boyfriend before going to France, and their relationship had been strained for a while even before that

* Benny, Gnomeo's friend in ''[[Gnomeo and Juliet]]'' manages to get away scot-free despite committing credit card fraud to buy a $20,000 lawnmower, destroying two entire gardens and {{spoiler|nearly inadvertently killing the main characters of the film}}. He even gets a love interest during the [[Dance Party Ending]].

* In ''[[Born Yesterday]]'', Harry Brock, a [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]], comes to Washington, D.C. to bribe some congressmen into passing a law that would give him and his cartel monopoly control of the international scrap iron market (quite a big deal so soon after [[World War II]]). When his fiancee and her new reporter boyfriend scheme to expose him, he [[Domestic Abuse|slaps her around]] and threatens to have them both killed, with the fiancee mentioning to the reporter that it wouldn't be the first time he'd done it, either. Although the fiancee does eventually manage to make him back off by holding for ransom the assets he's signed over to her over the years as part of a tax dodge, he is never brought to account for the bribery, the assault, the murder he apparently committed, or any of the other crimes he has committed and she could testify about.

* ''X-Men: The Last Stand''- Magneto not only manages to escape any legal action for his many crimes against humanity, {{spoiler|it's also implied that the mutant cure isn't permanent and he'll eventually get his powers back.}}

* Greg in ''[[Mystery Team]]''.

** Even if he survived Dobbi's attack, it's hard to imagine Voldemort would have forgiven his negligence.

* Gordon Gekko, an outright [[Villain Protagonist]] in [[Wall Street]], ''did'' get his comeuppance at the end of the first movie. To the tune of over a decade in jail. In the second movie, he's released, and seems to be making amends for being such a [[Jerkass]]...until he abruptly betrays everyone who was trying to give him a second chance, mostly his neglected and jaded (thanks to him no less) daughter. So after putting the other main characters through emotional (and economic) hell, the last five minutes of the movie decide to see him get his family back and inexplicably end with everyone happy and content.

* [[Complete Monster|Sylvia Ganush]] in [[Drag Me to Hell]] dies before she can receive any comeuppance for effectively murdering somebody over a bank loan. This is subverted when you realize how evil she established herself as earlier in her handling of a case involving a stolen gypsy necklace and a 10-year-old boy, which will remind you that even if she did succeed at murdering the protagonist {{spoiler|(which she did)}}, she'd definitely find herself in a lower circle (most likely Judecca, that icy spot in Level IX that's reserved for traitors to benefactors, and failing that, ''definitely'' Level VII, outer ring, ''at the very least'') than the protagonist would.

* [[The Shawshank Redemption]]: Andy Dufrense gets out of Shawshank prison, getting back at Warden Norton and Capt. Byron Hadley for their mistreatment, and Red gets released from Shawshank too, but Elmo Blatch, the man who really murdered Andy's wife and her adulterous partner, has nothing happen to him, as far as we know.

* The cab driver from [[Rat Race]], who maroons Cuba Gooding Jr.'s character in the desert, [[Complete Monster|probably to die]], just because [[Disproportionate Retribution|he made a highly unpopular call in a football game]].

* Joseph Mason a.k.a. Machine Gun Joe, from the 2008 Death Race remake.

* Riff-Raff and Magenta from ''[[The Rocky Horror Picture Show]]''. Magenta makes meals out of ''[[I'm a Humanitarian|people]]'' and Riff-Raff kills three people, two of them completely innocent, and they end up being ''praised'' by [[The Mentor]] for it!

* The family comedy ''[[Paulie]]'' has the titular parrot getting abducted by a criminal named Benny and forced to commit crimes for him. When one robbery goes wrong, Paulie is caught while Benny abandons him and gets away clean.

{{reflist}}