Oh Crap/Live-Action TV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Examples of Oh Crap in Live-Action TV include:

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Other Examples

  • 77 Sunset Strip: On the episode “Secret Island”, Stu Bailey and some other survivors of a plane crash arrive on a small tropical island. Finding a tower, he climbs to the top to survey the surroundings. The first thing he sees is a giant bulls-eye painted on the beach. (This was before the nuclear test-ban treaty)
    • They later find a boat that looks sea-worthy enough to get them to safety, but when they shove it in the water, all they can do is watch as it quickly fills with water and sinks.
  • The classic Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, "The Best of Both Worlds". The Borg kidnapped Captain Picard and are ready to conquer the galaxy. Riker steels himself and orders the Enterprise to fire its main deflector dish, a Wave Motion Gun capable of vaporizing a small continent. -- "Mr. Worf... FIRE." The ship cuts loose with its Doomsday weapon... which does precisely jack shit against the Borg. The Borg don't suffer a single scratch. The moment is beyond words as it slowly dawns on the crew that they've come up against the one enemy they will not defeat.
    • It's easy to deflect the ultimate weapon when you've just committed Mind Rape on one of the people responsible for its conception, as Locutus reminds Riker just after the failure.
  • In the equally brilliant Deep Space Nine episode In the Pale Moonlight Captain Sisko gets a man out of a Klingon prison to create for him a forgery of a holographic record. When he learns that Garak will explain to him what is expected of him, his reaction speaks volumes:

Tolar: "Garak is here?!"
Sisko: "That's right."
Tolar: "Oh... OH... Well... that's different."

  • And in the Original Series episode Arena Kirk has just crept up on the Gorn and with some difficulty lobs a rock the size of his own head at it. The Gorn is too slow to dodge, and the rock scores a direct hit, with no visible effect whatsoever. Then the Gorn responds by picking up a four-foot diameter boulder of his own...
    • The episode "Mirror, Mirror" had the mirror universe Spock warning his Sulu that if he "disappeared," his associates would avenge him, punctuated with "And some of them are Vulcans." Seeing Sulu's eyes go wide in the reaction shot with a musical sting is all you need to know that is one serious threat!
  • In the Firefly episode "War Stories", the look on Niska's face when Mal shows just how much of a tough bastard he is by getting up while the guard's back is turned and sticking him with the same nasty torture device that had briefly killed him, and then proceeding to show Niska "the real me now".
    • Not to forget Mal himself, at Serenity Valley.
    • Also, the look on Jayne's face when River offhandedly reminds him that "I can kill you with my brain."
    • Also also, the legendary line from Jubal Early, and that priceless look on his face:

"You're not in my gorram mind! You're on my gorram ship!"

      • Memorably averted by the same character when he is floating away in his spacesuit to probably die.

"Well, here I am..."

  • Happens a fair amount in Chuck, mostly to the Bad Guy du Jour when they realize they're beaten. When Chuck solved the slide puzzle on top of the box thought to contain a deadly chemical weapon which actually contained a knock-off Kool-Aid flavor, he and Sarah had a great Oh, Crap moment. And a similar one when Dr. Wheelwright, played by Freddy Krueger himself --- Robert Englund --- set off his fear toxin on himself and Chuck. And a big one when Chuck realized that Shaw really was working for the Ring. Almost too many to count, really.
  • Mission: Impossible usually had more than one of these moments in each episode. The first two or three were generally phony - the viewer didn't know if Jim Phelps' convoluted plan was about to blow up or not. The last one was when the villain finally realized that he had been played like a kazoo.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
    • At least twice in the fifth season -- once when a building collapses on her, and right after being teleported high into the sky by Willow -- Glory realizes what's about to happen to her and manages to get out "Oh, sh..." before the camera cuts away from her.
    • In the episode "Innocence", Drusilla and Angelus are standing in a mall near the recently resurrected Judge, a demon who "Cannot be killed by a weapon forged". Buffy shoots him with a crossbow, which catches the Judge's attention. He delivers the "Cannot be killed" line (again), and Buffy pulls out a rocket launcher. "Oh Crap!" covers Angelus and Drusilla's faces, and they run for cover. The Judge, however, looks at the launcher curiously, and asks "What does that do?" Buffy demonstrates: *BOOM*
    • In Checkpoint, at the very end of the episode, after Buffy's speech of awesome against the Watcher's Council, she demands to know what Glory is.

Buffy: Just tell me. What kind of demon am I fighting?
Travers: (brief pause) Well, that's the thing. She's not a demon... She's a god.
Buffy: (eyes widening, lips quivering) Oh. (cut to credits)

    • Faith has one in "Enemies" when she realizes how thoroughly Buffy and Angel have played her.
    • Warren when he learns that Buffy survived being shot.
      • For that matter, earlier, when Xander sees Warren show up.
    • The Mayor: Well, gosh!
    • Let's not forget "The I In Team" (S4x13), when Professor Walsh realizes how thoroughly screwed she is when Buffy reveals that she's survived the little assassination attempt. Not to mention the fact that Riley, her best agent and Buffy's boyfriend, also sees it after she blatantly lied to him.
    • Adam gets one in "Primeval" after Buffy gains the combined powers of the Scooby Gang, and he discovers that his weapons are useless against her.
      • Buffy gets one herself not long before that, when Adam turns his arm into a machine gun.
    • Caleb in "End of Days":

Caleb: So, you found it. Not impressed. 'Cos the question now, girly-girl, is can you pry it from solid rock before I come over there and--
(Buffy pulls it out easily)
Caleb: Darn.

    • Buffy herself has one in Chosen, when she leads the potentials into the Hellmouth.

Buffy: I'm not worried. As long as Willow can work her spell before they--
The Turok-Han collectively snap their attention towards the girls
Buffy: -- see us.

      • From the same episode, as Spike so eloquently puts it before a pillar of lethal sunlight burts through the ceiling onto his head-

Spike: Oh, bollocks.

Giles: Oh (as usual) dear.

    • Andrew gets one in the season seven episode "Never Leave Me" when he runs into Willow in the butcher shop. His subsequent reaction indicates that she's probably had a recurring role in his nightmares.
  • George in the first episode of Dead Like Me. "They say your entire life flashes in front of your eyes the moment before you die? That might be true if you're terminally ill, or your parachute doesn't open... but if death sneaks up on you, the only thing you have time to think is: Aw, shit!"
  • "Oh Crap" is the exact line spoken by three Monster of the Week demons on Charmed when they find themselves suddenly minaturized, trapped in a dollhouse, and about to be blown up by the Charmed Ones. Seconds earlier they had planned to do the same to the Charmed Ones.
    • Piper has a moment in "The Courtship of Wyatt's Father" that is an example of a mental "oh crap" when she finds out that she's pregnant with Chris.

Piper: No, I'm not [pregnant], I mean how could that happen, I mean, I know how that could happen, but, it... (Oh Crap look of realization) What am I gonna do?

  • At the end of the Two and A Half Men episode #40, titled "Can You Eat Human Flesh with Wooden Teeth?", Alan Harper says "Oh Crap" when he forgets to pick up his ex-wife Judith at the airport. To make matters worse, it was raining outside.
  • On The Office (USA), Jim gives a phenomenal "Oh Crap" face when he realizes that Michael has tricked him into attending his dinner party. Dwight has another when he sees Michael about to eat wild mushrooms.
    • Even more so in the episode 'The Lover'. Michael tells him that he's sleeping with Pam's mom. Initially Jim thinks he's joking but when Michael tells him which car she drives, he goes 'Oh Shit!'.
      • And when Michael tells Pam that he's seeing someone, Pam asks who it is - Jim, who's stood next to Pam, immediately looks into the camera like he's frightened for his life.
    • "I sent it to you at packer@dundermifflin.com. Wait... packaging@dundermiffin- Uh oh."
  • The Invisible Man. This starts as the Hero's catchphrase, although later it is used by almost all of the characters in the same intonation.
    • Especially funny when subverted by the Bad Guy Arnaud, when he shows up suddenly, sees the look on Darien's face and beats him to the line. "Yes, Yes, I know...Oh Crap."
  • In the 2000 Dune miniseries, the Fremen have a four-part opening to their assault on Arrakeen. First, they blow up the Shield Wall with a nuke. This is followed by a massive sandstorm, a squadron of ornithopters, and four sandworms carrying Fremen warriors. In between each part, we shift back to the Imperial Palace to see the Oh Crap reactions on everyone's faces.
    • Also satisfying is the expression on Rabban's face when he sees that he is surrounded by an immense, eerily silent mob of the very people he had enjoyed brutally oppressing. The fact that he just drops his knife and lets out a cry of abject despair as the mob swarms in and guts him is icing on the cake.
    • And the expression on the Baron's face when he realizes that a little girl had just poisoned him. Him, the Baron of Geidi Prime, brought low by a four-years-old girl. Oh Crap indeed.
  • This is a frequent reaction to Angel vamping out.
    • A memorably well-done example (in puppet form) in "Smile Time"; when Angel gains the upper hand fighting Polo, the leader of the puppet demons, Polo comments that Angel must have a bit of demon in him. Angel responds he's got a LOT of demon in him and turns, for the first time in the episode, into a vampire puppet. Polo's face expressed the oh crap-ness of the situation remarkably well.
    • Another wonderfully humourous moment in "Redefinition" from season two has Drusilla, fresh off a series of her long-winded and insane ramblings, regarding a seriously ticked off Angel who had just killed all ten of the 'elite' warriors that Darla was trying to raise to cause a little havoc. Her reaction? "Shit." And then he lights them both on fire, using the cigarette dangling from his mouth and a as-yet unnoticed trail of gasoline. Darla has another Oh Crap moment when she DOES notice, too late.
    • Played well with Cordelia when she finds herself transported to Pylea, a hell dimension. Looking around at the primeval forest, she loudly enunciates "Oh. Crap."
        • Also occurs after the rest of the gang arrives,when the mooks show up while Lorne is singing.

Lorne: Stop! In the name of love,/before you break my heart/think it ooh sh--

    • A particularly good example has Wolfram & Hart, the evil corporation that has been trying to make Angel's life Hell and profits on people's misery, being trapped by Darla and Drusilla. Angel enters in an expected Big Damn Heroes moment, only to subvert it by saying he won't save them. The look on Holland Manners' face is brilliant. He pleads "People are going to die!", only for Angel to echo his earlier comments: "And yet, somehow, I just can't seem to care." It's the first major sign of Angel's descent, but it's hard not to cheer for the Laser-Guided Karma the lawyers received.
  • In the Battlestar Galactica episode "Six of One", Cavil experiences this when newfound rebel leader Natalie reveals she's given some Centurions free will -- and they're not pleased about what Cavil is doing.

Cavil: Say WHAT!?

    • After seeing The Mutiny spiral out of hand, with corridor to corridor fighting for its entirety, Gaeta and Zarek both experience this moment, one behind the other, when the jump drive is broken. Gaeta in particular practically goes into a fugue state for a few seconds while Zarek gets very worried and angry until both become resigned to the fact they have lost.
  • Parker, from Leverage, has one while rescuing a bunch of Serbian orphans and opens the door to one of the bad guys who specifically recognizes her.
    • Her grasp of Serbian isn't too good though and her Oh Crap becomes "Oh shiny tomato!"
    • In "The First David Job", Eliot has this reaction upon discovering the woman he's been hitting on all evening - fairly successfully - is his boss's ex-wife.
  • Rodney from Stargate Atlantis is very fond of voicing "Oh Crap" word for word, though he usually quickly comes up with some technobabble solution to the problem he's just spotted with the earlier planned idea. His "Oh Crap" expression is hilarious too. Here's a truly epic scene from the second season where it's being delivered by, of all people, Hermiod.
    • The phrase is also said by Sheppard right in the second episode when he sees a big flight of Darts blockading the spacegate who are perfectly capable and willing to blow him out of the sky (or rather, space) if he so much as sneezes near the gate.
  • Stargate SG-1 has one of these on the part of Anubis (which is impressive, since he has no face) when SG-1 blows up his fleet at the end of season 7.
  • Sierra's rapist handler Joe Hearn in the Dollhouse episode "Man on the Street," when -- on the verge of assassinating Mellie -- he hears Adelle's voice on the answering machine: "There are three flowers in a vase. The third flower is green." It's the last thing Hearn ever hears, as the sentence triggers Mellie's fighting imprint; she kills her would-be killer within 15 seconds.
    • Also, Adelle's reaction in "The Hollow Men" when Boyd plays a recording of the trigger phrase on an intercom, causing Mellie to shoot at Paul.
  • In Heroes, Mohinder disables Ax Crazy villain Sylar's superpowers in order to torture, taunt, and eventually kill him. But when he pulls the trigger, the bullet stops in mid-air, and Sylar unstraps himself from the chair and stands up, having mysteriously gotten his powers back. Mohinder freezes in place, and the look on his face when he realizes he's now at the mercy of an incredibly powerful Ax Crazy serial killer he's just spent the last hour torturing, belongs in the Oh Crap hall of fame.
    • Sylar gets one of these too on Kirby Plaza after getting several super-powered punches to the face looks up just in time to see Hiro teleport in ready to stab him.
    • In Volume 3, The look on Bennet's face after he realizes that Peter is no longer possessing Jesse.
    • Similarly, in the end of Volume 4, Sylar makes it clear he's no longer interested in humoring Big Bad Danko's orders. Danko casually stabs him in his weak spot, seemingly killing him. When Danko turns to walk away, Sylar rises up from the ground and looms over Danko, clearly very, very much annoyed. The look on Danko's face is priceless.

"That hurt. "

    • And "again" in said finale, when it looks like Sylar's plan to get close to the President so that he can shapeshift into him is about to succeed, we find out that he can't because it's actually Peter, who stole his ability earlier and in turn stabs Sylar with a tranquilizer. The look on Sylar's face shows that he's finally been owned after 3 seasons of fighting him with no clear winner, followed by a Badass quote from Peter:

"You didn't think I took that one from you, did you?"

    • Sylar gets another one, when he realizes that Peter took the Haitians power, meaning that hes going to have a fist fight with the guy who wants to kill him the most.
      • After Sylar is brainwashed and shapeshifted into a copy of Nathan Petrelli, we see a scene where Nathan's mom Angela (the whole thing was her idea) meeting up with him at his office to take him to lunch. On their way out, Sylar/Nathan spots a clock ticking one second off-time and it annoys him (this was always one of Sylar's known quirks. He stops to fix the clock. In the background, Angela Petrelli watches, and as she realizes that her "perfect" creation is starting to show signs of his true self again, her expression can truly only be described as Oh Crap.
  • In Life, the rapist who thinks he's badass because he's forced Reese to drink a bottle of vodka has a magnificent 'Oh Crap' moment when he realizes he's underestimated her. Just a little bit.
  • Although he quickly recovers, Ben Linus' initial reaction when he sees John Locke alive on the Island after Ben killed him is a definite Oh Crap moment.
    • There are probably about a million on Lost, since the show is just like that, but the most iconic are probably:
      • "He wasn't on the manifest!"
      • "Only the thing is, we're gonna have to take the boy."
      • Desmond's face at "NOT PENNYS BOAT" and Charlie drowning
      • "I was wrong!"
      • "I'm seein' in, but I'm not believin' it."
  • In Noah's Arc there are several throughout the series, but Eddie has a particularly epic one when Chance catches him with another guy via Car Meets House.
  • Power Rangers RPM. Tenaya 7's reaction when she realizes that she's about to get her ass kicked by a Mad Scientist with a violin is truly a thing of beauty.
    • Mighty Morphin Power Rangers also gives us a few good ones. Rita's shocked "Huh?!" after the Mega Dragonzord vaporizes Mutitus, and a few "Uh-oh"s on some occasions when she sees her monster is about to die. In the third season her skeletal brother Rito Revolto also delivers a priceless "Uh-oh" when he sees the Ninja Mega Falconzord about to pound him. Then in Power Rangers Zeo Rita and Zedd both have an Oh Crap moment when they see the Machine Empire arriving, and flee in Serpentera.
  • In the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Future's End, Part II," Henry Starling has one just before the Voyager crew stop him from jumping to the future. His ship warns him of an incoming torpedo, he manages one "Uh-oh!" before he explodes.
    • "Scorpion Part I" has two in quick succession. First, Voyager encounters FIFTEEN Borg cubes. Just one of them managed to destroy 39 ships and kill 11,000 people, and here Voyager comes across a fleet of them. And they pass by without bothering to assimilate or destroy Voyager. A little later, Voyager runs across those same fifteen cubes... as a debris field. Oh Crap really doesn't begin to cover it.
  • At the end of the season 5 finale of House when House realises the hallucinations have not gone away, but gotten worse as imaginary Amber and Kutner show up to mock him, followed by what he thought was a lipstick tube in his hand being revealed as a vicodin bottle, meaning he'd gone from merely seeing people who he knew weren't there to full-blown losing track of reality, no words are said but the look is one of the strongest examples of this trope ever. He still has it as he's being driven to the rehab/asylum at the end.
    • In "The Itch," House uses a gigantic tank of aerosol pesticide to a single mosquito in his apartment. He turns on the spray, spots the mosquito, which he chases to his gas range. He swats at the mosquito, misses, and accidentally lights the stove. When House realizes that the flammable pesticide is still filling his apartment, he simply mutters an interested "Oh," before his apartment explodes. It turns out all right.
  • The simulation in the Deadliest Warrior Season 1 finale had two beautiful Oh Crap moments made by the Taliban insurgent when he noticed that he was about to be a casualty of friendly fire via RPG, and the last Taliban insurgent when he realized that the IRA insrugent had trapped him in a bus with a Nail Bomb in it.
  • In the Season 3 finale of Primeval Helen's face as a raptor interrupts her "The Reason You Suck" Speech and Motive Rant to give her a Karmic Death is a joy to behold. It's like the universe itself got to give her a Shut UP, Hannibal.
  • This happens in the various Law and Order series quite often, considering how many Smug Snakes swear they can beat the rap, and are then proven incorrect. The best was the closing statement scene in the episode "Life Choice" in which a fundamentalist nutjub got served by ADA Ben Stone rather magnificently.
    • ADA Casey Novak gets her CMOA in "Svengali", where a serial killer who thrives on his many fans has a fan who has been copying his work. He brokers a deal with Casey that if he testifies, she'll transfer him to a federal prison, which have much better accomodations than state prisons. After he testifies and his fan goes down, he's smirking at Casey, clearly thinking he's got the best of her, when she whips out this gem of a line:

Casey: You're gonna love Florence Super Max: 23-hour lockdown, no visitors, no mail, no phone calls... no human contact for the rest of your life.... How do you like my work?

  • There are times when it seems the Torchwood team has perfected these. A great example is the penultimate season two episode "Fragments" when All the team members except Gwen all encounter bombs set to go off in mere moments. Cue facials.
    • Owen Harper's response tops all the others, though:

Owen: Oh, snap.

    • In the series 1 finale almost every character has visions of lost loved-ones telling them to open the Rift. Jack is unconvinced, but the rest of the team overpower him. They go outside and find the oh-so-helpful Bilis, who informs them that they have released Abaddon, son of the Beast. They slowly turn around to see this towering over the city. Oh Crap indeed.
  • In an early episode of Farscape, Aeryn accidentally detonates a weaponized black hole on board Moya. Crichton, who was trying to stop her, just has enough time to whimper "Oh God!" before Moya implodes. Thankfully, it's not permanent.
    • Crichton, upon seeing Rygel's homemade bomb rolling towards him.
      • Durka, upon seeing Crichton's homemade bomb rolling towards him.
    • "Harvey knew... HARVEY KNEW! Scorpius knew! How...? HOW?!"
    • "Docking Bay 2 recently performed an atmosphere replenish, as if it'd been opened... but we landed the pod in Bay 1... TALYN, SEAL ALL HATCHES!"
  • Red Dwarf: The climax of the episode Bodyswap featured Rimmer hijacking Lister's body and making a getaway in Starbug. Pursuing Rimmer across the rocky terrain of a barren planet, Lister tells the others to back off and let him go because it's too dangerous. Victoriously taunting the others as they retreat, Rimmer fails to notice that his vessel is about to crash into a cliff-face. As he turns his head, his grin then gives way to our favourite expression.
    • Kryten gets off an amusing variation in the episode DNA:

"Wait a minute. No. My brain is part organic and therefore it is entirely possible for the machine to transmogrify my physical condition. Engage panic circuits. Panic circuits engaged. BWAAAHAAA!!"

    • Rimmer has this reaction in the "Inquisitor" episode. Rimmer thinks he's found a way out of being judged by the Inquisitor because of the legitimate point that he might not get a fair hearing. The Inquisitor then explains that to make the hearing as fair as possible, every person's judge will be...

[The Inquisitor opens his helmet, revealing Rimmer's face underneath]
Rimmer!Inquisitor: ...Yourself!
Rimmer: Oh, smeg!
Rimmer!Inquisitor: "Oh smeg!" indeed, matey.

  • The seventh season premiere of NCIS has a beautiful one.

Tony: Remember when I told you my boss was a sniper?

  • Season 2 of Veronica Mars has one, when Keith tells Woody: "Most adults keep their hands off other people's children." Steven Guttenberg makes the BEST "Oh crap" face.
  • Scrubs: Doctor Cox in the Season 8 finale. He delivers a long speech on how not only is J.D. the best doctor to ever come through Sacred Heart, but is also Doctor Cox's personal friend. This is the moment J.D. reveals he has been standing behind him the whole time. The look on his face is utterly priceless.
  • Dexter gets one of these moments at the beginning of season 2, when he watches the news and sees that divers discovered the bodies dumped by him.
  • Hogan's Heroes: Major Hochstetter gets one in "War Takes a Holiday" when he realizes that the war is not as over as he'd been led to believe, and that he will have to answer to his SS comrades for letting those Underground leaders go.
    • Colonel Hogan gets one when he realizes that the fake bomb he's pretending to disarm is actually a real, live bomb--and that since it's right on top of Carter's portion of the tunnel, he has to go ahead and really disarm it.
  • In the Quantum Leap episode "A Leap for Lisa", Sam leaps into a young Al, who's been charged with a capital crime. After the witness who cleared him in the original timeline gets killed...

Al: Now there's a 96 percent chance I'm convicted. 97 percent! Geez, 98! 99!
Sam: For God's sake, stop it.
Edward St. John V: 100.

Sam: (turns)

Edward: Yes, there is a 100 percent certainty that Ensign Calavicci will be found guilty and executed in the gas chamber.

    • A more mild version is Sam's Once an Episode catchphrase: Whenever he Leaps, he tends to find himself in a not-so-nice position and wondering how he'll deal with it this time. Cue catchphrase: Oh Boy.
  • In the sixth Babylon 5 episode, Ivanova goes off and chases after a raider scout ship. She blows it up and smiles...only to have her viewscreen light up with at least a dozen more raider ships.
    • Later in the series, Londo is trying to convince Lord Refa to join him against the Big Bad. Refa smirks disdainfully as Londo lists some high-minded reasons ... and then comes:

Londo ...and because I have poisoned your drink.

    • Sheridan gets more than a few. In fact, the entire third act of the second season finale is one Oh Crap topped by another in five minute intervals.
  • MythBusters usually avoids this, since they very carefully plan out their dangerous testing to ensure that nothing goes wrong. However, there are a few particularly spectacular results that they didn't expect, leading to genuine Oh Crap expressions on the crew.
    • While testing the myth about driving a sedan under a semi truck, turning it into a convertable, they're wildly succesful at ripping off the top of the car...which then speeds past the semi, crashes into the sand berm behind it, and flips over the berm. This provokes an a positively gleeful reaction from the build team... until they realize that they don't know what's behind the berm.
    • The Build Team also has this reaction on the rare occasion when they realize they're not standing quite as far away from a massive fireball as they probably should be.
    • From the Compact Compact re-visit, when their semis start to go out of control. You can hear the Oh Crap in Jamie's voice when he says "It's gonna go into the wah-ter!"
    • The looks on Jamie and Adam's faces during the "Border Slingshot" is an example of this, and also implies a brown trouser moment. The narrator goes on to say "Terror. It's hilarious!"
    • Another memorable one was during the "Bottle Rocket Blast-off". Memorable because Grant actually yelled "HOLY CRAP! RUN!" as the 2kg weight went way higher than expected.
  • In the Tales from the Crypt episode "Yellow", the cowardly WWI officer who's condemned for deserting his men stands in front of the firing squad, and boldly utters his last words, confident that his C.O. father has replaced the bullets with blanks. Then he notices his father looking away just before the command to fire, and realizes he'd only been told that so he wouldn't disgrace himself by cringing...
  • The usual look of contestents who have picked the Wrong Answer on 101 Ways to Leave a Game Show. This is then followed by said contestant being throuwn off an 80ft tower into a swimming pool in one of 101 amusing ways
  • The Closer has one in the episode "Time Bomb". Quote Brenda: "The school's not the target. We're in the target."
    • Tao's terrified scream of "Hooooly CRAP!" when he stopped a tank full of sarin gas rolling towards him with his foot.
  • The episode of Only Fools and Horses called "Tea For Three" gives Del an epic one when he realises that Rodney has set him up in front of the handgliders.
  • Major Zod doesn't say anything when he is defeated in Smallville, but the look on his face as he realises that Clark, who he has just stabbed with a Blue Kryptonite dagger and pushed off a building has outsmarted him and won the fight, is priceless. Instant teleporation ensues.
    • Another one for Zod before the fight even starts, as he realizes that, oh yeah, Kryptonians possess SUPER HEARING.
    • Lionel gets one in the episode "Transferrence." It's bad enough that a riot has broken out in the prison he's at, but he's horrified to see Clark calmly coming for him while everyone's distracted. Clark and Lionel have switched bodies, so Lionel-in-Clark is coming to kill his "old" body so that he can remain in Clark's forever.
  • JAG: In the Season 8 episode, Empty Quiver, Cmdr. Turner is looking for a missing nuclear warhead with the submarine's loading crew. They end up realizing that the warhead is missing because one of them put a little note on wrong, making it seem like the torpedo tube it was in was empty. It ended up getting shoot out while they were shooting water slugs back at the Navy dock. The look on their faces, that they lost a 10-ton nuclear warhead, caused a major panic attack for everyone involved, and killed their Navy careers because of one small friggin mistake, is this trope all over. On a similar note, though not shown on screen, the Navy probably had this when the warhead was declared missing to begin with.
  • On upcoming Spanish TV Series El Barco, on the bridge of the titular ship, the captain comments on the noise the RADAR screen is making, saying that each dot on it represents a ship and the sounds mean those ships are emmitting an SOS signal. When the RADAR device turns completely silent and no ship appears anymore on the screen, those on the bridge (and those that are seeing it) are obviously thinking "Oh, crap."
  • Plenty in Supernatural what with the traveling the nation fighting monsters and pagan gods and such, and often barely winning.
    • We get a pretty epic one at the end of season four, because it doesn't get much worse than finding out that you've just accidentally unleashed Lucifer when you were trying to prevent exactly that.
    • In season five, the gang has gone to considerable effort to get the Colt, which was the Applied Phlebotinum of the first two seasons and will kill anything. They sacrifice two of their own to get into a position to use it on Lucifer. Dean shoots the Devil in the head. Aaaaand...he gets back up. Whoops.
    • But in the final episode of season five, when Archangel Lucifer tells Sam and Dean he knows they have the one thing that can trap him, in such a confident way as to explain that's not a problem, Dean can't even try to mask this face.
    • Oh Crap reactions all around at the end of season six. Raphael gets a quiet and terrified one when she realizes that Castiel has absorbed the souls of Purgatory, becoming a new god. Ditto for the brothers and Bobby, who saw the entire thing, and were then told to bow down or be killed.

Castiel: I'm your new God, a better one. So you will bow down, and profess your love, unto me your Lord, or I shall destroy you.

  • Niles Crane gives off an Oh Crap expression when, while driving home from work, is hearing Frasier having sex with Kate on the radio (due to Kate accidentally switching on the the microphone).
  • Bones has several Oh Crap moments:
    • When Booth gets the phone call in Aliens in a Spaceship that Bones and Hodgins have been abducted by the Grave Digger.
    • When Hodgins blows Angela's secret that she thought she was pregnant to Wendell.
  • In Sherlock, an Oh Crap moment occurred for Sherlock at the end of The Great Game when Moriarty is revealed to have John Watson as a hostage. Don't worry, he gets better. Sort of.
    • Spoofed by Moriarty when Sherlock has a gun pointed a few inches from his face.
  • The second episode of the 1981 BBC mini-series adaptation of The Day of the Triffids, the hero John witnesses a number of these reactions when he meets individuals who realize that 99% of the population has gone blind, and they start thinking through the consequences. A medical doctor eventually jumps to his death rather than deal with the aftermath. John himself has a similar expression on his face as the father of a young, working-class family walks him through the implications.
  • On second to last episode of Becker, the scene at 8 minutes we see Becker's biggest 'Oh Crap' as he listens to a Tear Jerker [1].
  • In Community episode Modern Warfare Abed's realization at the men's room urinal when he sees fresh green paint roll down, highlighting the paintball outline of the previous users who got trapped there.
  • In Threads, we get the scene where the air-raid sirens begin blaring. We get plenty of "Oh Crap" faces here. Then people see the mushroom cloud...
  • In Criminal Minds episode "Ashes to Dust", the Monster of the Week has this expression just as he realizes that his "accomplice" didn't intend to leave the building alive and planned to kill them both in the fire.
    • Compulsion: Three college students are stuck in an elevator with fire alarms going off all around them. The doors are levered partly open and their friend Clara appears. They beg her to help them, and then one of them asks if the building's on fire. Her response, terrifyingly calmly, is "Not yet", bringing this response even before she starts pouring accelerant...
  • Alan Wilson has an "Oh Crap" look about him at the conclusion of Season Seven of 24 when he realises he is about to be tortured by Renee Walker
  • On Income Property", Scott Mac Gillivray has actually turned white on camera when opening walls to find dangerously poor construction; on one occasion he found a chunk taken out of the main support beam for the entire building and on another he found an illegal electrical system that got worse the more wall he opened. Then there was the severe mold he uncovered, leading to an evacuation.
  • The Muppets have perfected the art of the Oh Crap face from their beginnings on The Muppet Show. Kermit shows a lot of fear squashing his face up and Becker's face was even made so he's in a perpetual look of shock.
  • Given just how profoundly luckless the characters are, Misfits features quite a few of these:
    • The entire team suffers one of these moments upon realising that their probation worker has gone insane, hacked Gary to death with a fire axe, and is now coming after them.
    • Nathan, trying to activate his dormant superpowers, decides to sit in a shopping trolley at the top of a very steep embankment in an attempt to see if he can phase through solid objects at high speed. Since he's only stopping himself from rolling down the hill by holding onto a nearby railing, he's naturally a little hesistant, so he decides to turn around and check the back of the trolley for brakes- and accidentally lets go of the wall. He has just enough time to shout "Oh, SHIT!" before the trolley starts moving.
    • Simon has a very subdued version of this when he discovers a construction crew working on the site where the corpses of Tony and Gary were buried.
    • Two episodes later, Simon gets another moment when he realises that Sally the probation worker has stolen his mobile phone- the mobile phone with the evidence of Tony's death on it. Cue open-mouthed gape of horror.
  • Burn Notice likes to sprinkle these throughout an episode, usually when the Villain of the Week realizes they've just been played, and/or see something explode.
    • Michael, being The Stoic, hides it pretty well, but when old enemies like Larry (yes, "dead" Larry) or Tyler Brennan show up, it tends to trigger this kind of reaction from him.
    • Michael has a less subdued one in one episode when fighting a huge bounty hunter, who ignores Michael's strikes, staring up at him and letting out an "Ohhh damn."
  • In Once Upon a Time, Regina and Mr Gold plan to frame Mary Margaret However, Kathryn is found alive. When Regina confronts Mr Gold, she realizes he has made it all lead back to her. Her facial expression says it all!
    • In that same episode, August pretends to be Mr Gold's estranged son, Baelfire, who disappeared after being drawn int a portal. He and Rumplestitlskin were to go together, but Rumple chickened out. However, when Mr Gold figures it out confronts August and turns the tables on August. August knows he's messed up. Gold's face when August tried to control him clearly said "What an Idiot!, this dagger doesn't work here!" because August is really Pinocchio he knows who Mr Gold really is and what happens to those who anger! Mr Gold tells him "The chances of you surviving this encounter are pretty slim" and tells him he has to work for him if he wants to live. August clearly looks like "I've done it now!" at the end.
  • Game of Thrones
    • The season 2 finale has a doozy at the end. Two words: THREE Blasts.

Edd: Three blasts... RUN!!!!

    • The slave master in the season 3 episode "Breaking the Chains", once he realizes Daenerys can speak and understand his language fluently, meaning she's been listening very closely to his misogynistic insults, also meaning that he has been Bullying a Dragon in more ways than one.
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