Mugging the Monster/Film

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Examples of Mugging the Monster in Film include:

• Crocodile Dundee has the scene referenced in the trope's page quote. The second film has a similar sequence with a would-be hit man.

Dundee: You know, for a guy who supposedly makes a living killing people you ain't very good at it.

• The Beverly Hillbillies movie has a Shout-Out to the above Crocodile Dundee knife scene.

Goons point handgun at Jed for cutting them off on the freeway. Jed draws down on them with double barrel shotgun: "That's nice son... This here's what I carry!" Goons panic and drive off.

• Collateral has a scene where a couple of thugs steal a briefcase from a ziptied-up Max. Vincent confronts the two, one of whom brandishes a pistol right at him. A few double-taps to the chest and one in the head later, Vincent has his briefcase back.
• In a throwaway scene in Jim Jarmusch's Ghost Dog, a hoodlum tries to mug an elderly Asian man carrying two grocery bags. It doesn't end well. Later, two poachers threaten the main character for asking too much questions. It ends worse.
• In Blade: Trinity, a gang of vampires attack a woman pushing a baby carriage in a subway station. The "helpless" victim turns out to be Jessica Biel, resident Action Girl, and the baby turns out to be a booby-trapped doll. Unusually for this trope, she was deliberately trying to get attacked.
• In Blade 2, vampires running a blood bank attempt to strap down a homeless man for a generous and involuntary donation, but the homeless man turns out to be a far greater monster than they are.
• The Book of Eli does this very frequently. It becomes much more hilarious/embarrassing when you realize that Eli might have been, in fact, a blind man all along.
• At one point in Friday the 13 th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, a bunch of punks threaten Jason Voorhees after he kicks their stereo. He turns around and lifts his mask. They take off at top speed.
• A classic example occurs in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen film, when a mook tries to take a vampire hostage. It ends about as well as can be expected for him.
• An elaborated one in The Godfather II: Senator Geary tries to extort and bully Michael Corleone for a gambling license. A nonchalant Michael bides his time and turns the tables with a cold frame-up.
• A History of Violence: Two small-time criminals try to rob an Indiana town coffee shop with the intent to rob/murder/rape everyone inside it. The restaurant owner, Tom Stall, is an ex-Philadelphia Mafia hitman/enforcer, who, in the words of one his former associates, "Is very good at killing people."
• In Men in Black II, the alien Big Bad takes the form of an underwear model. "She" is then immediately attacked by a rapist, who ends up as the prop in a Throwaway Gag about bulimia.
• As Near Dark proves, trying to carjack a couple of vampires is a really bad idea.
• In the Jackie Chan movie Shanghai Knights, Jack the Ripper tries to attack Chon Wang's younger sister. Now we know why the killings stopped so suddenly.
• In Streets of Fire, a gang member pulls a knife on Tom Cody, who takes it away from him—and then returns it, lets the mook try to attack him, and takes it away again. Then he throws him through a plate glass window.
• In The Terminator, a trio of hoodlums decides that it's a good idea to pick on a Herculean naked man walking around at night. While it's generally not a good idea to start fights with crazed weightlifters, the punks probably would have been at an advantage had their intended victim not been a killbot from the future.
• In Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead, the contract killer Mr. Shh (played by Steve Buscemi) stumbles upon a mugging in progress. When the muggers turn their attention to the weasely guy in the fedora, they end up on the receiving end of some Kung Foley.
• In Undercover Blues, a nasty knife-wielding punk insists on one more score, who turns out to be Jeff Blue (Dennis Quaid), who beats the would-be assailant into submission while holding his baby in one arm.
• In the Wayne and Shuster, "Dr. Jekyll and Mrs' Hyde", Jekyll is on the comical rampage as the clownish villain Mrs. Hyde and is about to be attacked by Jack the Ripper. Hyde easily beats him up and robs him, followed by a headline, "Jack the Ripper Ripped Off!"
• Happens a lot to the Djinn in Wishmaster 2: Evil Never Dies where he's in prison. Everybody is just screaming verbal abuse and threats at him, and he just smiles through all of it before doing his thing. He's disappointed when they eventually stop.
• Seen in a deleted scene from Young Frankenstein, where a highwayman calling himself "Jack Spratt" (he tells this straight to the camera. There's a reason it's a deleted scene) tries to mug young Frankenstein's monster. Bad move.
• In Pulp Fiction, when Pumpkin and Honey Bunny try to rob the diner, Pumpkin goes to get the wallet of a dorkily dressed guy with a briefcase, demanding that the guy hand over his briefcase and threatening to shoot him when he refuses. Unfortunately for Pumpkin, said dorkily dressed guy with briefcase is Jules, badass hitman, who quickly gets the drop on Pumpkin, resulting in a Mexican Standoff. Unusually, however, this example ends without bloodshed, Jules having tired of his life as a professional killer.
• In one of the RoboCop films, a guy attempts to rob a doughnut shop. He gets lit up by twenty laser-sighted police firearms, from all the uniformed officers sitting in the shop at the time. The clerk turns to the robber and says "How does it feel to be a rocket scientist?"
• Towards the end of The Alibi, one of the bad guys is trying to elude the cops in a hotel, so in the corridor he grabs a woman coming out of her room in the corridor, stucks his gun in the small of her back and forces her back in the room to take her hostage. He locks the door, turns around... and discovers about fifteen cops pointing their guns at him. Turns out the woman's a detective, on a loosely related stakeout in the hotel. Whoops.
• Carrie. Though at least, not even the eponymous character knows she's a Person of Mass Destruction until too late.
• Damien: Omen II: A bully attempts to pick a fight with Damien Thorn. Not a good idea, as Damien is the Antichrist (although he didn't know it at the time).
• Near the beginning of House of 1000 Corpses, armed robbers makes the mistake of targeting the Monster Clown Captain Spalding and his truck stop of horrors. It doesn't end well for them, but does result in Crowning Moments of Awesome and Funny.
• Transporter 2 opens with a violent gang of carjackers attempting to steal Badass courier Frank Martin's car. When they try to beat him into giving them the code to start the car, Frank opens a can of whoopass that leaves the four men on the ground and their female accomplice fleeing in terror.
• Happens repeatedly in Trick 'r Treat. One kid steals candy from the house of a Serial Killer, and get killed. The Serial Killer is himself a victim of this when a young woman he's stalking turns out to be a werewolf.
• In the 2009 Sherlock Holmes movie, two thugs try to rob Irene Adler. Bad move.
• In the French movie Didier, some skinheads harass a mixed-race couple (nicknaming them "John and Yoko", as they look like the famous couple) driving a van. Only to find out the van is carrying a bunch of martial artists from the local "Tae Kwon Fu" [sic] club. Cue Neo-Nazis whomping.
• A comedic version occurs in The Mask, when a street gang makes the mistake of targeting protagonist Stanley just after he puts on the eponymous artifact for the first time. ("And last but not least, my favorite: a tommy gun!")
• Kill Bill: a drunken salaryman solicits the serafuku-clad assassin Go-Go Yubari. He ends up the one being "penetrated."
• In Love at First Bite, Dracula's coffin has been misdirected while being shipped to New York City, and he has to walk the night streets to get to his hotel. Some muggers see this rich-looking white guy and think he's an easy target...
• This also happens in the David Niven movie Old Dracula. In that one, Dracula doesn't even need to use his powers; he has a swordcane that is quite well up to the job.
• A humorous example occurs in Secondhand Lions that also serves to illustrate Uncle Hub's Retired Badass / Badass Grandpa status. Four teenagers start harassing Hub in a diner, whereupon he decides to teach them a lesson in respecting their elders.

Hood: Hey, who do you think you are, huh? Garth: Just a dumb kid, Hub. Don't kill him. Hub: (to Garth) Right. (grabs Hood by the throat) Hub: I'm Hub McCann. I've fought in two World Wars and countless smaller ones on three continents. I led thousands of men into battle with everything from horses and swords to artillery and tanks. I've seen the headwaters of the Nile, and tribes of natives no white man had ever seen before. I've won and lost a dozen fortunes, KILLED MANY MEN and loved only one woman with a passion a FLEA like you could never begin to understand. That's who I am. NOW, GO HOME, BOY!

• A fantastic version in Snatch when Bullet-Tooth Tony is threatened by two robbers carrying replica pistols. While he is carrying a Desert Eagle. Point. Five. Oh.
• A man steals Miss Piggy's purse in The Muppets Take Manhattan. She screams after his retreating form, and then, very politely, walks up to a gentleman sitting on a bench and asks to borrow his roller skates. Hilarity ensues as the thief frantically tries to get away from Miss Piggy, who, of course, has her trademark psychotic look on her face. Later, when she gets him, and a cop takes him away, he makes a valiant effort at revisionist history:

Thief: She stole my purse! Miss Piggy: What?! Cop: Nice try, buddy.

• In The Lady Killers, two robbers try to shake down a convenience store owner. It turns out the man is an ex-Vietnamese General Ripper. The General and his no-nonsense wife quickly dispatch the muggers with two fingers to the nose and a pot of scalding coffee.
• Played for surprise in Observe and Report when the seemingly clueless Ronnie is abandoned on an inner-city street corner, far from his familiar suburban mall. He's soon accosted by a group of tough drug dealers. After some cowering and pleading, he suddenly unleashes the fury with a telescoping baton.
• In the first Christopher Reeve Superman movie, a mugger points a gun at Lois Lane and... Clark Kent. (Since Lois was around, however, ol' Kal El couldn't open his special Kryptonian brand of whoop-ass on the crook for fear Lois would notice—although he did snatch the mugger's bullet out of midair when it otherwise would have hit her.)
• A deleted scene from Ghostbusters (never filmed, but the storyboards appear on the DVD) has Lewis, possessed by the Keymaster, warding off some muggers with fire breath.
• In Bourne Identity, Swiss police wake a man who is sleeping on a park bench. Instead of a bum, it's Jason Bourne, who takes down both cops in seconds. Bonus points for the fact that as an amnesiac he had no idea he was capable of doing that. This trope actually happens quite a few times in The Bourne Series as people either do not know what Bourne is capable of or underestimate his abilities.
• In Rambo: First Blood, the local small-town cops see Rambo as just a disreputable-looking drifter and start pushing him out of town. This turns out to be the last straw. (In the original novel, it's more a case of mutual misunderstanding than a real example of this trope.)
• Death Wish: When Charles Bronson's character Paul Kersey becomes a mysterious vigilante, anybody who approaches him armed will get shot.
• Big Trouble has the film's hitman making a call from a pay phone. When gangstas approach him, he drops a napkin and, while bending down to pick it up, he produces a revolver from his ankle holster, points in their direction and says: Not right now. Okay?
• Gone in 60 Seconds had some car thieves with their recent steal. A carjacker attempts to steal the car at gun-point. The car thief slammed the driver's door into the carjacker, then berates him for his lack of skill at stealing cars.
• Speaking of car-jacking, this is how Terrance meets depressed Nick Beam in Nothing to Lose. Boy did you pick the wrong guy on the wrong day.
• Almost happens in Vampires Suck, when the trio menaces a fisherman. He knows Tae-Bo and punches one of them in the face repeatedly. Unfortunately for the fisherman, the vampires kill him anyway.
• The climactic burglary scene in Home Alone can definitely qualify for this.
• A classic example occurs in the film Wolf, starring Jack Nicholson. Jack's character, Will Randall, is taking a nighttime stroll through Central Park (as a Werewolf), a trio of hooligans attempt to mug him. Needless to say, Will found a finger in his pocket the following day.

Mugger: Hey buddy, can we borrow some cash? Will: All of ya? Well I've got about a thousand dollars on me, how much would you like to borrow? Five? Ten? (carnage ensues)

• Pirates of the Caribbean: Jack Sparrow flees to the blacksmith shop to get his shackles removed... only to find out that the blacksmith is Will Turner, who is not only the best swordsman in Port Royal but also the true love of the woman Jack just used as a human shield. It's only by "cheating" that Jack manages to escape intact.
• Played with in Pee-wee's Big Adventure. While Pee-Wee is wandering the streets at night looking for his lost bicycle, he's attacked by a street gang. He quickly opens his mouth and hisses like a vampire. They run off in terror.
• In the original Thai version of Bangkok Dangerous, two random street thugs make the mistake of targeting an unarmed deaf mute while on a date with a woman, not realizing he is a skilled hitman.
• A lot of direct-to-video martial arts and action films will feature an early Establishing Character Moment where some bikers or rednecks in a bar harass the hero or a waitress or local girl and he teaches them the error of their ways.
• In Rob Zombie's Halloween II a redneck duo decide to pick a fight with Michael Myers when they find him crossing their property on his way to Haddonfield. It doesn't end well for them.
• In Home Sweet Home, a character tries to steal gasoline and the battery from the killer's seemingly abandoned car, only for the killer to hop out and slam the hood down on his head while he's trying to get the latter.
• In The Fifth Element, some lunatic tries to rob Korben Dallas at his door. He is quite calmly convinced otherwise, and even hands over his gun.
• in Falling Down, D-Fens is having sort of a bad day, and he doesn't take getting mugged by two gangsters too kindly. Revenge ensues and they get what they asked for a second time.
• Two inner-city high school students decide to pick a fight with the new substitute teacher during his first day on the job. The "teacher" is actually a Vietnam veteran and mercenary who is undercover to investigate the conspiracy leading to his girlfriend's attack in The Substitute.
• A gang of thugs attempt to rob a subway passenger in the second Predator film, leading him to pull a gun on them. While this fails to disuade them, every passenger in the entire subway car proceeds to pull guns to back him up.
• In the Jeff Speakman vehicle The Perfect Weapon, a group of thugs attempt to mug Speakman's character, not realizing that: 1) he is a kenpo karate master; and 2) he had just been chasing down the man who killed his sensei and failed to catch him. What happens next is pretty much what you'd expect to happen to a bunch of thugs who catch a martial arts master in the worst of all possible moods.
• In Supergirl, Kara is accosted by two truckers seemingly intent on raping her. Attacking a Kryptonian goes about as well as you'd think.
• In Killer Klowns From Outer Space, the misanthropic Officer Mooney performs an act of Police Brutality on a klown, thinking it's a prankster in a costume. The klown, which had been playing along with Mooney's attempt to arrest it, instantly bashes his head against the cell bars hard enough to kill him.
• In Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze is arrested for the destruction he inadvertantly caused the first time he transformed into the Ghost Rider. Despite Johhny's insistence that he should kept far away from other people, the cops toss him into a large cell with about two dozen extremely rowdy criminals who immediately turn their attention on their newest cellmate. When it's all over, the only survivor is the one kid sitting in the corner minding his own business, who Ghost Rider claimed was an innocent, with his newly ruined jeans and a classic Oh Crap expression permanently frozen on his face.
• In Killshot, a fancy-talking hoodlum and wannabe Badass decides to steal the cadillac of a middle-aged man who looks dressed like a modern-day cowboy after the man grabbed a bite at a cheap diner. After driving around for a while at gunpoint they park the car somewhere, and the hoodlum peruses through his wallet. Then the man shoves a gun in his face and reveals that he's a contract killer. Interestingly he doesn't kill the punk, but hangs around with him for the remainder of the film.
• The first Dirty Harry movie has a group of muggers making the mistake of setting upon Callahan while he's running around with Scorpio's ransom money.
• In the Hellboy movies, the backstory for Liz Sherman has her as a young girl running from a group of attacking kids who throw rocks as she tries to escape over a fence. It ends badly. She accidentally burns down the fence. And the kids. And the entire city block. Then again, since they were deriding her as a freak, they may have known about her powers and thus deserved to die.
• In Kick Ass, two bullies try to shake down Hit-Girl for lunch money when she's out of costume. Cue Hit-Girl cracking her knuckles. The bullies no doubt had a hard time living the result down.
• This is the premise of The Perfect Host: An attempted bank robber on the run threatens a random guy with a knife. Throughout the rest of the film, the thief learns why he would have been better off messing with someone else.
• Star Wars a New Hope. In the famous Mos Eisley Cantina scene, Ponda Baba and Dr. Evanzan attempt to pick a fight with Obi-Wan Kenobi, a Jedi Knight with a lightsaber, who to his credit, warns them to back off. They don't listen, and Baba loses an arm as a result.
• The Chuck Norris movie Code of Silence has a sequence where two lowlife thugs enter a nondescript Chicago bar full of middle-aged white guys who don't look like much of anything, and some younger friends, sitting there quietly drinking their beers. After an epically failed attempt to appear casual, the two lowlifes draw their guns and loudly announce that this is a stickup. They aren't even halfway through their opening move before they notice, to their horror, that every single customer in the room has pulled a handgun on them. Moral of the story: Don't try to stick up the local cop bar.
• Back to the future: Biff's pals threaten Reginald, with a racial slur no less; Reginald's tough-looking friend Martin shows up with his three tough-looking friends. Oh Crap...
• Police Academy: trying to intimidate a police officer would usually fall into Bullying a Dragon territory, but in the 6th movie, the officer in question is sweet, shy, and meek-looking Officer Hook. At the beginning of the movie, she's writing a citation for a car parked in a red zone, when the owner — a bigwig in an overstuffed suit — tries to scare her out of ticketing him (claiming his brother-in-law is on the city council), threatening to have her demoted, and then tearing up the citation. He regrets it; she comes back quickly with additional citations (for parking too far from the curb, blocking a hydrant, having no license plate, having an expired tag, littering, attempting to extort an officer, and destroying the first citation, along with the original one for parking in a red zone) and then tells a tow truck to impound the car. She breaks her sweet attitude to punctuate what she tells him so he won't forget it.
• Willy's Wonderland asks the question, "What would Five Nights at Freddy's be like if it were an Action Adventure game with an Action Hero protagonist, rather than a Strategy Game with a Guile Hero." Like the game, the protagonist ("The Janitor") hired by a Suck E. Cheese's where the animatronics are monsters, and like the game, he is the latest in a long line of employees who all met gruesome, untimely deaths. But to answer the question, no contest, the killer animatronics get their asses handed to them. They really should have thought twice about messing with this Janitor.

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