T-Rex: Wow! The plants are nice and the birds are singing and the sun is almost down from the top of the sky. What a beautiful day!
Dromiceiomimus: But T-Rex, what if beauty is nothing but an illusion? What if we're all nothing but dreams within dreams that, for an instant, imagine themselves to be real?
All: OH SHIIIIIIII-
Dromiceiomimus: But T-Rex, what if beauty is nothing but an illusion? What if we're all nothing but dreams within dreams that, for an instant, imagine themselves to be real?
All: OH SHIIIIIIII-
Sometimes serious, but often a comedy trope. When faced with something, most or all cast members in the scene panic. Related to Crowd Panic, and Panic Attack, except it's not about the Living Prop characters. Expect The Stoic or Only Sane Man to get everyone to shut up for long enough to deal with the problem, if they don't and panic just like everyone else, the scenario is definitely treated seriously.
This trope name doesn't mean an actual mass of fecal matter, but it's not necessarily unrelated to Bring My Brown Pants. Compare Reactive Continuous Scream.
Example subpages:
Other examples:
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Advertising
- This McDonald's advert
from Hong Kong, where a guy snacking on some fries realized he can control a school of fishes by way of hand gestures, even making them form the Golden Arches symbol via Synchronized Swarming. But when the guy takes out a Fillet-O-Fish, cue the entire school collectively panicking and fleeing the scene.
Asian Animation
- In the Lamput episode "Bank Robbery", seeing Specs Doc with a gun in his hand pointed at the bank teller causes a mass shocked reaction from the teller and everyone else in the bank besides Lamput himself (who is pretending to be said gun).
Comic Books
- Aggretsuko (Oni):
- When Karen finally stands up to Ton in issue 3, nearly everyone else in the office is visibly shocked.
- Played for Laughs in Aggretsuko Meet Her World #2. When Tsunoda bluntly asks Tsubone why she gave up a successful career in painting for her current accounting gig, every other employee in attendance panics.
- Asterix: Often in the series, the pirates are getting set to take a vessel—uh-oh, guess who are on board!
- Batman:
- In Death of the Family, this reaction is shared by pretty much every one in Gotham when the Joker comes back, including the villains: Penguin, Poison Ivy and even Harley aren't exactly overjoyed to see him back.
- In Batman (Tom King), all of the Robins provide a humorous example when Alfred announces that Bruce has proposed to Selina Kyle and she's accepted.
Damian:...What the HELL did you just say?!
- Cerebus the Aardvark: In Church & State, Cerebus has become (a very cranky) pope. His every word is therefore divinely true. At one point, a bunch of his followers are cheering him as he walks into his HQ. Cerebus interrupts them with, "ANYONE WHO MOVES BEFORE MOST HOLY COMES BACK OUT WILL SPEND ETERNITY SIPPING LAVA THROUGH AN IRON STRAW!" The next panel is a hundred frozen followers, and a hundred separate "Oh crap" thought bubbles.
- Daredevil: Early in Ed Brubaker's run, everyone in Ryker's, even a guard and an inmate having a savage brawl, dropped what they were doing when they heard the news: "Bullseye has come to Ryker's."
- DC: The New Frontier: Superman rallies and unites the heroes, gives a Rousing Speech, and then charges the Center...only to be instantly and casually knocked aside. The horrified, shocked expressions from everyone else is almost comical.
- The Defenders: In issue #19, the Defenders and the Wrecking Crew collectively look horrified when Thunderball reveals that the gamma bomb the two teams were fighting over isn't in its protective casing, meaning it could be anywhere and could go off at any moment.
- Gotham by Gaslight: A League for Justice: The League has two successive moments of collective panic when 1) Constantine and the Martain Manhunter abandon them in the Phantom Zone and 2) they realize the rocky landscape they are standing on is Darkseid's hand and that he is looking down at them.
- Green Lantern:
- In Sinestro Corps War, Sinestro Corpsmen react in fright realizing that the Greens are now allowed to use lethal force against them.
- In Lights Out, the whole Green Lantern Corps' reaction when Relic destroys the central green power battery. Salaak is shocked in particular because he knows that the central battery was linked to the caverns beneath the surface of Oa and without it, the planet will crumble.
- JLA/Avengers: Both sides freeze in horror when Darkseid reveals he's wearing the complete Infinity Gauntlet.
- Knights of the Old Republic: In issue 46, Zayne, Gryph, and Slyssk are all horrified to realize that "Rohlan Dyre", the person they've been traveling alongside for months and with whom they just left their friend Jarael, is really the infamous Mandalorian Mad Scientist Demagol, who has been impersonating Rohlan for all that time.
- The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck: Soapy Slick and his goons give a frightened reaction upon realizing they've pushed Scrooge too far.
Soapy: Oops!
- Scooby-Doo! Team-Up: In "Truth, Justice, and Scooby Snacks", the the gang and the core Daily Planet staff all react with horror when they see Superman beginning to transform into a monster.
- Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics): In issue #224, the last few panels are everyone in New Mobotropolis staring in fear up at the rebuilt Death Egg.
- Star Wars: War of the Bounty Hunters: Vader's arrival at the Crimson Dawn auction is seen from multiple angles in War of the Bounty Hunters #2, Doctor Aphra #12 and Darth Vader #14, showing virtually every protagonist in each series freaking out on realizing he's there; Lando's reduced to a Rapid-Fire "No!" as he and the other Rebel heroes watch in horror, Aphra has a full-on panic attack, and Sly Moore realizes precisely how hard Vader has set her up to fail. The only one not rattled by him seems to be Qi'ra.
- Supergirl:
- In Red Daughter of Krypton, when Supergirl gets a Red Lantern Ring and becomes a dangerous, then-mindless Kryptonian berserker armed with the most powerful weapon in the universe, everyone stares at her with "Oh, GOD, She's going to kill us all NOW!" horrified expressions.
- In Demon Spawn a group of random bystanders has this reaction after seeing villain Nightflame blowing a street up and striding towards them.
- In Supergirl (1982), two crooks assault a lonely woman at night before noticing two things: she wears a Supergirl costume; and she seems pissed off. They shriek.
- In Supergirl (2005) issue #20, Supergirl a bunch of bystanders have this reaction when they see a giant, rampaging Cyclops. Then a bunch of preschool children and her caretaker do this when the Cyclops is moving on them.
- In Power Girl (2009) issue #11, all of Satanna's minions stare terrified when Power Girl blasts Satanna's arm off, realizing that Miss Kryptonian Powerhouse is pissed.
- In The Hunt for Reactron, Supergirl, Flamebird, and Nightwing get horrified stares when they realize that they have been framed by murder and acts of terrorism.
- In "Supergirl's Greatest Challenge", the Chameleon Men's become horrified when Supergirl is pulled out of the Phantom Zone where they had previously thrown her into.
- Superman:
- In Superman: Brainiac, everyone on Metropolis stare up in fright when Brainiac's Skullship appears floating above the city.
- In Who Took the Super out of Superman?, an alien group carry out a decades-long, behind-of-the-scenes gambit to turn Superman into a ticking bomb which destroys Earth via a Super-Power Meltdown. When their scheme fails and their agent is exposed they collectively freak out, realizing that Superman will learn about their existence, and he'll eventually track them down.
- In Superman: Phantoms, the Superman Family has a moment of collective panic when, after taking most of Phantom Zoners down, they are told that the worst of the lot have left Earth, are pillaging across the galaxy, and they have no way to track them down.
- In Reign of Doomsday, all members of the Superman Family -including Superman- become wide-eyed and scared when they see an army of Doomsdays rushing towards them.
- Wolverine: After House of M, Logan regained his memories. All of them. He did not take it well. After he attacks the Prime Minister of Japan out of the blue, everyone is confused by his sudden hostility, until Emma Frost tells the Avengers and the various national governments in a conference call that Logan regained all of his memories. Everyone panics, but especially the aforementioned governments, and every government who had even an iota of involvement in the Weapon X project and/or with Wolverine himself specifically immediately starts purging any information they have on them. It goes so far that even a British Royal Air Force commander, after setting fire to a bunker, is Driven to Suicide.
- Ultimate Vision:
- A group of scientists saw the Gah Lak Tus aliens outside the window.
- Vision and Sam see a growing forcefield coming from the Gah Lak Tus module. They escape from there.
- Watchmen: The finale of Issue #11 sees everyone in the vicinity of the Institute for Extraspacial Studies get this reaction as they are about to die because of the psionic shockwave unleashed by the death of Ozymandias's teleported "alien" in the culmination of his Evil Plan.
- X-Men: In The Dark Phoenix Saga, the X-Men stare horrified when they notice that the Hellfire Club's manipulations have set Jean Grey's dark side free.
Films — Animation
- Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas has this reaction from everybody in the final battle — Belle, the Beast, the enchanted objects, and even Fife — when they see the castle collapsing from Forte's music.
- Blue Mountain Mystery: The first time Thomas gets a good look at Luke, the other narrow-gauge engines panic and try to clear the way, but end up surrounding Luke in the process. Rheneas even shouts that he's sorry.
- A Bug's Life: This happens after Flik sees a feather on the ground. Flik stares for a second, has his personal Oh, Crap! moment, and runs off screaming. The other bugs watch him go, and the bird lands right behind them, chirps, and the circus bugs all run after Flik, screaming as well.
- In the climax of Cats Don't Dance, the whole audience is shocked when Darla accidentally reveals her true nature over the mic for everyone to hear.
- Chicken Run:
- The other chickens have one when Ginger is taken to the pie machine.
- The chickens have one earlier, when the attempt to escape using the Mrs. Tweedy dummy fails.
- Hercules (1997) provides several examples:
- Pain and Panic are horrified when Hercules turns up alive after they were ordered to kill him (and told Hades they'd done so).
Meg: Hercules. (Hades snarls; Meg continues without noticing Hades' rage) He comes on with this big, innocent farm boy routine, but I could see through that in a Peloponnesian minute.
Pain: Wait a minute! Wasn't Hercules the name of that kid we were supposed to…
Pain & Panic: OH MY GODS! - During the fight with the Hydra, Hercules, Phil, and Pegasus all react in shock when the Hydra revives and grows two new heads to replace the one Herc just cut off.
- A few moments later, the Hydra provides one all by itself when the cliff starts collapsing and all its heads get the same expression of raw terror.
- Pain and Panic are horrified when Hercules turns up alive after they were ordered to kill him (and told Hades they'd done so).
- In Ice Age: The Meltdown, the mini-sloths have one when their statue of Sid collapses onto them. "BAD JUJU!"
- A brief one in The Incredibles 1. During the Parr family's dinner fight, they hear the doorbell ring and proceed to put themselves into order to make sure their super identity remains hidden. Thankfully for them, it just turns out to be Lucius Best, who is a super friend of the family's who is in on the secret.
- In Incredibles 2, while the Parrs praise each other in the Underminer's tank, the police arrive, shining lights down upon them as well as guns.
- Mickey's House of Villains: Starting from the moment the lights go out, followed by Jafar announcing to Mickey his time is up and the House of Mouse is usurped by the Disney Villains during their Villain Song, Mickey, the Sensational Six, the entire House crew, and all the non-villain Disney characters, watch with complete horror.
- Mulan (1998): Played for drama when the soldiers' happy-go-lucky song "A Girl Worth Fighting For" is brutally ended mid-verse by the sight of a destroyed village. Cue horrified reactions and non-comical Jaw Drops from everyone present.
- Piglet's Big Movie:
- Pooh, Tigger, Rabbit, and Eeyore when the bees are about to break out of their makeshift hive.
- Everyone on the expotition team minus Christopher Robin when they see Roo floating down the river.
- The whole search party when Tigger and Rabbit's argument causes them to lose the scrapbook.
- In the climax of The Simpsons Movie, after Homer and Bart throw the nuke that was about to blow Springfield up out of the dome, the whole town cheers. Then the nuke falls back down and bounces around the hole, and everyone goes Oh, Crap!. Then it lands safely on the side of the dome, and everyone sighs in relief.
- Oliver & Company: Sykes kidnapping Jenny elicits this reaction from Fagin and his dogs.
- Prince Vladimir: For a moment, one of the festival's dancers shows his butt to Prince Vladimir, with everyone gasping since it could be taken as a rude gesture. Vladimir takes it as part of the fun instead.
- In Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, Eris makes a rather dramatic entrance, which left nearly everyone (particularly the Council) freaking out, and stunned for several minutes after her departure.
- Smurfs: The Lost Village has many moments:
- When Team Smurf enters into the Forbidden Forest, Smurfette gets attacked by a Smurf-eating plant which makes Hefty, Clumsy and Brainy frighten as they get attacked by them too.
- During the river chase, Team Smurf, Gargamel and his pets saw huge waves coming to them.
- Team Smurf we're ambushed by the mystery smurfs which turns out they're girls.
- Team Smurf, Papa Smurf and the Girl Smurfs from Smurfy Grove have this when Gargamel, Azreal and Monty attacked and captured them all except for Smurfette.
- Near the end of Teen Titans Go! vs. Teen Titans, both the 2003 and 2013 teams of Teen Titanses collectively reacts in shock at 2013!Trigon devouring his 2003 counterpart and turning into Hexagon.
- In Turning Red, Mei and her friends discover to their horror that Abby misread the schedule and 4*Town is actually going to be in Toledo the weekend before the red moon, and they will be in Toronto on the night of the red moon putting attending their concert in conflict with going through the red moon ritual Mei has committed to.
- In We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story, the citizens at the parade have this trope when they realize that there are real dinosaurs.
Literature
- The Chronicles of Narnia:
- Prince Caspian, Aslan's roar:
"Aslan, who seemed larger than before, lifted his head, shook his mane, and roared. The sound, deep and throbbing at first like an organ beginning on a low note, rose and became louder, and then far louder again, till the earth and air were shaking with it. It rose up from that hill and floated across all Narnia. Down in Miraz’s camp men woke, stared palely in one another’s faces, and grasped their weapons. Down below that in the Great River, now at its coldest hour, the heads and shoulders of the nymphs, and the great weedy-bearded head of the river-god, rose from the water. Beyond it, in every field and wood, the alert ears of rabbits rose from their holes, the sleepy heads of birds came out from under wings, owls hooted, vixens barked, hedgehogs grunted, the trees stirred. In towns and villages mothers pressed babies close to their breasts, staring with wild eyes, dogs whimpered, and men leaped up groping for lights. Far away on the northern frontier the mountain giants peered from the dark gateways of their castles."
- The Last Battle: It happens when every thinking being in the world sees Aslan standing in a doorway. Good goes past him through the door to Heaven, and evil does not go through the door. Most approaching the door are completely terrified of him.
- In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the sailors react this way when they realize the implications of landing on the island where dreams come true. It sounds like an absolutely fantastic place...until you remember that nightmares are also dreams.
There was about half a minute's silence and then, with a great clatter of armor, the whole crew were tumbling down the main hatch as quick as they could and flinging themselves on the oars to row as they had never rowed before...
- Prince Caspian, Aslan's roar:
- Discworld: In Making Money, this is the reaction of the clerks at the Royal Bank of Ankh-Morpork on realizing that Neat Freak head clerk Mr. Bent has just made a mistake.
- The Dauntless army from Divergent when Tobias breaks the brainwashing on them, stopping them in the middle of an Abnegation massacre. To say that they are angry, horrified, and traumatized is an understatement.
- Left Behind: In Glorious Appearing, during the 'sheep and goats' judgement, this is the reactions of the unsaved and those who had taken the Mark of the Beast when Jesus condemns them to the Lake of Fire for never caring for poor, destitute and starving people.
Jesus Christ: "Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty, and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger, and you did not take Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick and in prison, and you did not visit Me. Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me. You will go away into everlasting punishment."
- In the New Deal Coalition Retained timeline, this is the reaction of pretty much everyone in the West following the December Coup, which sees hardline Stalinists seizing control of the USSR and most of the Warsaw Pact back from the reformers who were in power.
- The Philosophical Strangler: Everybody in Sign of the Trough when Greyboar expresses his displeasure at their failing to properly defend his girlfriend The Cat against the swarm of police dispatched to arrest her. The event goes down in history as The One Day The Trough Emptied Out.
- In The Spirit Thief, everyone present when the Daughter of the Dead Mountain reemerges has some form of this reaction, ranging from horrified "oh no" to nervous breakdowns.
- Warhammer 40,000: In Black Legion the usually stoic Chaos Astartes with Seen It All mentality actually freak out when they realized that Fabius succeeded in cloning Horus...and that the clone, adult and armed, is coming to get them.
- Whateley Universe story Ayla and the Great Shoulder Angel Conspiracy, when Elite League finds out just how horrific their simulation battle is going to be, and just how badly boned they all are.
Gunnery Sergeant Bardue: Okay Elite League, welcome to a little simulation that I like to call DARK TENNYO!
Entire team: Oh fuck. - In The Wheel of Time, the tenth book, Crossroads of Twilight could be essentially summed up as 800+ pages of every channeler on the planet going through an epic freak out. Granted, it's because they're sensing enough of the One Power to "crack the world like an egg," and they don't know whether it's being used by the good guys or the bad guys. Though, eventually, several characters get tired of freaking out, and basically state that if the beacon of power was going to destroy the world, it would have done so already.
- In Worm, this is the reaction to the realization that the Slaughterhouse Nine have arrived in the city by any teams that have found out before they announce their presence. Aftewards, it is the reaction of the rest of the city.
- Teen Power Inc.: In Danger in Rhyme, the villain is a Mad Bomber who blows up places that rhyme with the lyrics in the song "This Old Man", and once it's time for the tenth bomb, everyone is afraid that the Raven Hill Pen (where the main cast and Mr. Zimmer are gathered) is next. Everyone is left petrified when their prime suspect (who Elmo has just suggested may be suicidal) comes right up to them while carrying a bag big enough to hold a bomb.
- Tolkien's Legendarium:
- The Silmarillion: The collective reaction of Morgoth's army to seeing what they think is a Vala riding towards Angband. It's actually Fingolfin enraged and distraught by the devastation of the battle, including the deaths of his bannerman and nephews.
- The Lord of the Rings:
- Everyone at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields gets two of these back-to-back. First when the Corsair ships show up in Osgiliath, since even their allies are scared of them with good reason. Then second when Halbarad unrolls the banner of Gondor, showing that Aragorn has defeated the Corsairs.
- The Dunlendings at Helm's Deep, when Gandalf arrives with reinforcements behind their position. The only person who knew anything about this was Aragorn: and even he only knew Gandalf had some kind of plan, but not what it was.
- The inhabitants of the Shire when they realize who "Sharkey" is. Luckily, Wormtongue chooses that moment to literally stab him in the back.
- In The Fall of Gondolin, the people of the city are holding a night festival to celebrate the coming of the spring when they notice a faint red glow crowning the northern mountains. As the glow intensifies, the partygoers' amazement and marvel devolves into terror when they realize Morgoth has found their hidden city and has sent his army to kill all of them.
Live-Action TV
- One episode of Angel had the scene where Marcus Hamilton punches a hole through a guy's torso and Harmony, Lorne, and Eve all freak out Macaulay Culkin-style.
- Boomer of Battlestar Galactica (2003) in "Exodus, Part 2" is able to do this to a room full of Cylons on Colonial One with two simple words: "Adama's back."
- The whole Jeffersonian team on Bones has one when the evidence seems to be pointing to disgraced former intern Zack being a serial killer. Zack knows it, too, and kidnaps Brennan to convince her he’s innocent.
- After all the characters of Buffy the Vampire Slayer suffer magic-induced memory loss, they collectively freak out (all in the same shot at once) at seeing two lowly vampires at the door, because they have forgotten they're superheroes, providing us with this hilarious image◊.
- Charmed (1998): Piper managed to get this reaction from the entire underworld the first time they threatened her son after he was born. When two demons tried to kidnap Wyatt and ended up getting Paige instead, Piper marched into the demonic black market and started blowing up everyone and everything in sight. In the aftermath, underworld leadership passed a law forbidding anyone from messing with Wyatt again just so Piper wouldn't go on another rampage.
- Doctor Who:
- "Bad Wolf": The Doctor engenders this in the Daleks (see here) when he refuses to surrender to the Daleks in spite of them holding Rose Tyler hostage, and makes a Badass Boast about how he's going to rescue her from the middle of the Dalek fleet, he's going to save the Earth, and just to finish off, he's going to wipe every last stinking Dalek out of the sky. When they point out that he has no weapons, no defences, and no plan, his response is to say, "Yeah. And doesn't that scare you to death?"
- "Last of the Time Lords": All six billion Toclafane panic when they realise the Paradox Machine that let them return to ravage the present day is in danger.
- "The Fires of Pompeii": The natural reaction of Pompeii's residents when Vesuvius erupts.
- "Forest of the Dead":
- Everyone, when the Doctor corrects River that there are not five people in the room, but six, because the Vashta Nerada-possessed spacesuit of Proper Dave has caught up to them.
- The Doctor, River and Lux when the Library's Self-Destruct Mechanism is activated, to detonate in 20 minutes.
- "The Stolen Earth": The entire world goes into a panic when "EXTERMINATE" is broadcast over and over on the public airwaves.
- "The Time of Angels": When the Doctor and company realise that every one of the statues in a 6-storey maze full of them is an Angel, and they're waking up.
- "The Day of the Doctor": The War Doctor, Ten, and Eleven have this when Clara says Kate is in the "Black Archive". The Zygons have one when Kate Stewart tells them whose daughter she is. The General's assistant notes that the Daleks are increasing their firepower when thirteen incarnations of the Doctor show up at the same time with the same goal.
- EMERGENCY EMERGENCY THE DOCTOR IS REGENERATING!
- "Bad Wolf": The Doctor engenders this in the Daleks (see here
- Eerie, Indiana: At the end of "Who's Who" the feckless father and brothers of the departing Sarah Bob meet the caretaker she has conjured up to replace her: a muscular apron-wearing man who loudly announces that "NOBODY EATS UNTIL THE PLACE IS SPOTLESS!" A very frantic cleaning session immediately ensues.
- In Farscape The Peacekeeper Wars, Crichton finally gives the warring Skarrans and Peacekeepers exactly what they'd wanted from him for years: a wormhole weapon. Then when they realize that what they got was a self-feeding black hole that was now rapidly closing on them and not about to stop until it ate the whole galaxy, the guns fall silent...because they couldn't help but stare at this huge and still growing nightmare and seem insignificant and mortal by comparison.
- Game of Thrones:
- In the first season episode "The Pointy End" when Barristan Selmy, known colloquially as "Ser Barristan the Bold" is forcibly retired from the Kingsguard by Cersei despite them holding their position for life, he strips off his armor and declares he will "die a knight" to which Littlefinger jokes, "A naked knight" eliciting a laugh from the assembled court. Barristan then draws his sword in anger and everyone stops laughing at once. More to the point, they stop laughing and all look positively terrified. It's only when Barristan throws his sword at Joffrey's feet and storms out that everyone finally starts breathing again.
- In the episode "Baelor", the majority of the nobles and counselors attending the judgement of Ned Stark suffer one when Joffrey decides to execute him, something that wasn't in the plan. Also, you can notice one person who isn't surprised, and who is actually smiling: Littlefinger.
- Occurs again in the season 3 episode "Mhysa" in a more subdued way after King Joffrey mouths off to his grandfather Tywin and tries to assert his authority. The entire Small Council, the Queen, and even Joffrey himself have a different variation of an "oh shit" expression. The only one who doesn't is Tywin himself, whose response is basically to tell Joffrey to go to bed.
- When Jon Snow tells the senior leadership of the Night's Watch that they will be facing giants and mammoths everyone goes very quiet and the older members turn visibly pale.
- The White Walker attack in the episode "Hardhome" is basically a chain of these for the human characters.
- In the Siege of Mereen, the Wise Masters and their slaves show one when Drogon appears over their heads and lands at Daenerys side. Followed with one by the Sons of the Harpy when they see a Dothraki's army charge against them. It ends with one by the slaves from the ships when Drogon, Rhaegal and Viserion fly over said ships and began to incinerate one of them.
- In the Battle of Blackwater Rush, Jaime, Bronn, Dickon and the entire Lannister-Tarly army get two massive ones in quick succession. The first is when they see the thousands of Dothraki cavalry racing across the plains towards their line. After forming up to meet them, they immediately get a much bigger second one when they hear a Mighty Roar, and for the first time in over 150 years, a dragon enters a battle in Westeros.
- House of the Dragon:
- The whole Green faction has one in Season 1 when the dragon Meleys bursts out of the ground with Rhaenys on her back at Aegon's coronation in the dragonpit. Luckily for them, they only get a contemptuous Mighty Roar in their faces and Rhaenys flies off.
- In Season 2, the Dragonseeds summoned by Rhaenyra already probably all browned their pants when the gigantic and fearsome dragon Vermithor showed up, but then when he refuses to bond and starts breathing fire and going after them all hell breaks loose and they desperately try to flee.
- The Great British Bake Off: The infamous 'Bingate' disaster. Due to Diana accidentally leaving Ian's ice cream out of the freezer, it melted dramatically with only fifteen minutes left. The other contestants watched with concern as Ian tried to figure out what to do...and eventually just tossed it into the garbage and stormed off. Everyone, contestants and crew, were wide-eyed and distressed. It's one of the most dramatic moments in the series.
- Interview with the Vampire (2022): In the climax of the Season 1 finale, when Lestat de Lioncourt slaughters Tom Anderson to feed on his blood, the other human guests at the after-party all panic because they realize that they're going to become meals for the vampire family.
- Kingdom (2019): A particularly good use of this trope comes at the end of Season 1, when they learn the hard way that the zombies are not affected by daylight, but heat. Right as a horde of them bears down upon Sangju.
- The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: The entire raft group has one when they realize the ship-like silhouette approaching them is neither what was left of their ship, nor any corsairs, but the very wyrm that wrecked their ship.
- In the Planet Ajay episode "Make Me Laugh", Ajay makes a bet that he can get Mr. Killjoy, his palace's fun-hating security guard, to laugh before his 30-minute visit on the planet is overwith, and that if he fails Killjoy gets to shut down the planet. Cue a quick succession of shots of the other characters gasping in shock at him saying this.
- Odd Squad:
- At the end of "Life of O'Brian", Olive assures Olive and Otto that the laser chicken egg that she used to bribe O'Brian with isn't close to hatching. Not a second later and absolute fear settles on the faces of all three agents as the egg begins to hatch, and they immediately take off running just as the blasts from the baby chick start destroying the Tube Lobby.
- Oscar, Olive and Otto get another moment in "Invasion of the Body Switchers" when they realize that Oprah (in Oscar's body) also managed to hit Professor O and the Friggle Frog in addition to Oscar (in Oprah's body) with the Switch-inator gadget.
- The end of the Season 1 episode "Rise of the Hydraclops" has Olive, Otto, Oprah and Olaf getting this reaction to Oscar telling them that the Hydraclops will return in one hundred years with his siblings.
- "Training Day" has Oprah having an Oh, Crap! moment upon finding out that Odd Todd is back, then Oscar gets one when he gets wind of the news, then the entire precinct has one that results in absolute mayhem, including a piano being dropped, That Poor Cat, and a boat horn going off, among others.
- In "The O Games", Otto decides to make an All or Nothing move in the "rings around a robot princess" competition and throws all ten of his rings behind him and over the wall. The reactions of some of the people in the crowd, as well as Dr. O and Oprah, are ones of horror...that is, until he manages to score all ten rings and move on to the next competition.
- The tube operators get many moments of these in "Trials and Tubulations", especially upon hearing that Olive and Otto are stranded in Sector 21, of all places.
- Happens in the Power Rangers Samurai episode "The Master Returns". When Xandred actually gets pissed enough to leave the Netherworld to kick someone's ass, despite the fact that he'll die from dehydration within minutes in the human world, this is the reaction from everyone nearby, and oh boy, is it justified.
- Power Rangers Beast Morphers has a huge reveal — the Big Bad of the season, Evox, is actually the rebirth of Venjix. When the Rangers learn this (and that, if unknowingly, it was a young Nate's fault), the fear is palpable.
- Red Dwarf: In "The Promised Land", the crew finds Holly's backup disk, allowing them to restore the computer to life.. leading to his reset personality dispassionately detailing the qualifications for anyone to be allowed to remain on board the vessel as crew. (Not to mention keeping the ship from being set to self-destruct.)
Lister, Rimmer, The Cat, Kryton: Oh, god..
- In Runaways (2017) episode "Doomsday", the teens are finally confronted by their parents about the latter's dealings in PRIDE. When the parents urge their children to come back with them, the teens refuse. Molly then exclaims that they'll fight them if they have to. Cue the parents slightly backing away as they witness Molly's glowing eyes. As a bonus, Karolina takes off her Power Nullifier bracelet and her entire body begins to glow. Dumbfounded by this sight, the Yorkeses sum it up pretty well.
- In the Series Finale of Seinfeld the private plane the Main Characters are on looks like it's gonna crash and they're all freaking out... except Kramer, who shouts, "Oh, I'm ready! GLORY HALLELUJAH!!"
- The main characters of Sherlock do this at the end of "His Last Vow" from four simple words:
Moriarty: Did you miss me?
- In the first episode of Squid Game, after the first player in a Deadly Game of Red Light, Green Light gets shot for not standing still on "Red Light", the guy behind him thinks he's just playing a joke. Then the first guy, lying on the ground, starts coughing up blood, causing the second guy to panic and start running...and get shot as well, his blood splattering all over the woman behind him, who screams in terror. Cue over half the contestants freaking out and running for the doors of the arena, all of them getting shot as well. Out of 456 contestants, only 201 survived the first game.
- Star Trek:
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:
- In "The Die Is Cast", all inhabitants of the Warbird bridge (including Garak) get this when they realize that they were set up - the Founders are no longer on their planet, but the Jem'Hadar are there in full force.
Garak: It's a trap. They were waiting for us all along...
- In "Valiant", the Red Squad cadets are full of bravado and arrogance as they prepare to launch a solo attack on a Dominion warship...right up until their stupid plan completely and utterly fails, at which point all that confidence immediately disappears, leaving behind a ship full of scared, very much out of their depth children.
- In "The Die Is Cast", all inhabitants of the Warbird bridge (including Garak) get this when they realize that they were set up - the Founders are no longer on their planet, but the Jem'Hadar are there in full force.
- Star Trek: Voyager: In "Collective", Chakotay, Tom, Harry, and Neelix are playing poker during a Delta Flyer mission when they suddenly see a Borg cube approaching them.
- Star Trek: Strange New Worlds:
- The entire population of Kiley 279 when a large, mysterious vessel hovers over their capitol city in the episode "Strange New Worlds."
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:
- Torchwood: Children of Earth: The politicians have a couple. Torchwood Three joins in with them when they see the child from 1965 hooked up to the 456 ambassador. Later, when the politicians realize that the 456 want the children and are hooking them up to their bodies because the kids are an inter-galactic narcotic supply.
- The Untamed: When Wei Wuxian threatens to use Chenqing in one of the banquets hosted by the Jin Clan, all the cultivators present immediately stand up with half of them brandishing their swords.
- V: The Final Battle: When Robin gives birth via cesarean section - a normal baby girl emerges...with a forked tongue. Then the twin comes out...
- Yellowjackets: At the end of "Thanksgiving (Canada)", this is the look on the survivors’ faces upon seeing strangers approach their camp, either out of fear over being caught in the middle of a cannibalistic feast (Coach's decapitated head on a display), or because their presence makes the survivors come to their senses somewhat.
Music Videos
- Miserable: This happens near the end of the video. After the giant woman eats bassist Kevin Baldes alive the surviving members of the band do this shortly before running for their lives. Jeremy even appears to be mouthing the F-word when it happens.
Pro Wrestling
- During the 2009 Royal Rumble, those in the ring had this reaction when they heard a *Gong*. As the men inside of the ring lined up, Jerry Lawler knew what was bound to happen.
- Kevin Nash also created this, both Sheamus and Kofi Kingston knew it wasn't going to end well.
- Ground Zero: In Your House… when the match between Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker got out of hand, the entire locker room ran to stop the fight...this was the reaction to everyone who saw it, especially when Taker jumped into the crowd.
- After being slammed emotionally by Daniel Bryan, AJ Lee vented out her rage on the next unfortunate available person, which generated this.
- At the CHIKARA 2010 Season Finale Reality Is Relative on December 12,, Sinn Bodhi revealed himself as the leader behind Obariyon, Kodama and the masked man who would come to be known as Kobaldnote , and that he had asked UltraMantis Black to train them to be his Dark Army. In exchange, Sinn said that he wanted the Eye of Tyr as payment.note This prompted a big "Ooooh" reaction from the crowd.
Religion
- The Bible: Revelation 1:7 says this regarding Jesus' Second Coming:
Look! He is coming with clouds,and every eye will see Him,even those who pierced Him.And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him.Even so, Amen.
Theatre
- The famous "silent scene" at the end of The Inspector General by Nikolai Gogol is an epic, several minute long Mass "Oh, Crap!" moment, described in great detail, when the officials learn the guy they were buttering up was a phony, and the real Inspector General wants to have a talk with the Mayor.
Video Games
- Angry Birds 2: The pigs collectively give a faint "Uh-oh!" when you use the Golden Duck and Mighty Eagle spells.
- In BoxxyQuest: The Gathering Storm, this tends to be the party’s reaction whenever STORM shows up, and for very good reason.
- Doom (2016): In the backstory, Samuel Hayden and the expedition exploring Hell first became interested in the temple holding the Doom Slayer's Sarcophagus because the demons started panicking when they approached the place. They figured if something was in there that could scare the Legions of Hell half to death, they wanted it.
- In Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening, you can induce this in a bunch of kidnappers if you imported a character from the original game by pointing out that you are the Hero of Ferelden. Some of them apparently jump off a cliff rather than face you.
- Anytime World's Strongest Man Lu Bu appears in the Dynasty Warriors games, expect every Mook and even some generals to react this way.
- In the Fallout 4 Nuka-World DLC, there is the optional-quest "Open Season." In it, The Sole Survivor decides to kill all the Raiders & their Bosses in Nuka-World and free all their captives. The moment that the Survivor kills the first Raider Boss, every single raider in the park, even those of the different raider-factions, realizes what is happening and desperately try to kill the Sole Survivor, but since they know s/he is hunting them all down they all realize they are now completely screwed.
- In fact, the situation is so bad that the Nuka-World Disc-Jockey announces while on the air that he is getting the hell out of the park, and takes his radio show off the air permanently then-&-there.
- In Fantasy Life, everyone in the royal court of Castele reacts this way to Yuelia showing off her human form in public for the first time. They do it again immediately afterward, but with Confused Question Marks appearing over their heads instead of exclamation marks when she tells them she's an angel, and one of the daughters of God.
- Final Fantasy VI has this when a message is brought to the Elder of Narshe about the Empire attack. Everyone present (the Elder, his men and all the player characters so far) take on their shocked face.
- Final Fantasy XIII has an excellent instance of this, with looks of abject horror from the entire party when Primarch Galenth Dysley reveals his true form as the fal'Cie Barthandelus.
- Jitsu Squad has quite a few instances of this trope happening in cutscenes, usually in an exeggerated manner due to the game being quite comedic. For instance, when the squad realize their train is about to crash into an erupting volcano and everyone goes wide-eyed...
- In I Miss the Sunrise, this is the crew's reaction to encountering a jamming pulse for the first time. Justified, considering that it disables the safeguards that make Non-Lethal Warfare nonlethal.
- In Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope, everyone in the party (including Bowser and Edge and excluding Rabbid Rosalina) freaks out upon seeing a giant Wiggler chasing them.
- From Mass Effect 2's Arrival DLC, the entire Systems Alliance team at Project Base begins to panic when Shepard breaks through the sedatives and wakes up, and s/he is PISSED! Cue Curb-Stomp Battle.
- In the final mission of Mass Effect 3, Hammer Task Force is preparing to storm the Conduit, when Harbinger lands on the far side. The entire force panics, and makes a desperate charge. It almost works.
- Earlier on Mars, all of the Cerberus troops had this reaction upon realizing who the Alliance had sent.
Cerberus Trooper: Holy shit, that's Shepard!- The Reapers actually appear to do a double take upon noticing the utterly enormous fleet pouring through the Mass Relay, hellbent on retaking Earth and the Citadel from their control. How big is the fleet? Potentially, it's all of them. All the turians, all the krogan, all the quarians, all the Geth, etc.
- From the tie-in Twitter feeds, the Reapers are implied to be having a collective Mass "Oh, Crap!" upon realizing that none of their forces during the invasion of Earth have managed to confirm the whereabouts of "Hostile Target Shepard". Because that means Shepard is still out there!
- Pizza Tower: The residents of Pig City's reaction to their Pillar John getting destroyed, seemingly because they know this means that Pizzaface is on his way.
- When Giratina comes out of the Distortion World because of Cyrus' actions at Spear Pillar in Pokemon Platinum, not only do Dialga and Palkia (Giratina's siblings) each take a step back, but the Lake Trio (Legendaries in their own right) visibly panic.
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: The reveal trailer for Sephiroth shows him illiciting shocked gasps and looks of utter horror from the playable cast (especially Cloud) after Worfing Galeem.
- The Trials of Mana remake has all of the characters in your group give this expression when they witness the power of the Black Rabite.
- In Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, the party's encounter with a Word Bearer Chaos Space Marine inspires a range of reactions ranging from It Has Been an Honor to outright horror at the thing's gruesome psionic presence. The subsequent battle justifies it.
- Wild ARMs 1 had the Quarter Knights pull this off when Mother tells them about her true objectives. It was even worse in the remake.
- This trope was the result of the original Leeroy Jenkins' charge into the Upper Blackrock Spire Rookery in World of Warcraft. It's also the reaction of the entire raid when a main tank dies unexpectedly or the boss hits his enrage timer. A smaller version happens during dungeon groups composed mostly of DPS (e.g. three rogues and a priest or shaman) with no main tank when the healer/heal tank dies.
Web Animation
- Final Fantasy VII: Machinabridged:
- A (semi-) serious example in Episode 25, when a brainwashed Cloud prepares to bring his Buster Sword down upon Aerith. The rest of his friends are understandably horrified.
- Happens again in the Finale Movie when Sephiroth goes One-Winged Angel, although strictly speaking, that instance is more of a Mass "This Is Gonna Suck".
- Googol GLaDOS: All of the talking computers react this way in the second short, after GLaDOS ejects Macintosh's operating system disk successfully, rendering him inoperable.
- Organ Story: When Lloyd gets a Hollywood Heart Attack and his heart stops beating, his lungs, stomach, brain, kidneys, liver and testicles all scream in panic.
- RWBY:
- In Volume 2's "No Brakes", the Vale populace is bewildered when the White Fang's train bursts from the underground, with Team RWBY still dazzled from the impact. Then the Grimm emerge from the breach, causing a mass panic.
- Volume 3's "PvP" outdoes the previous entry by having two such instances, and on an even larger scale. First, the world witnesses Pyrrha's accidental murder of her opponent, Penny, with nobody able to control the broadcast. Second, the Grimm invade the kingdom of Vale en masse, with one giant Nevermore making its way to the stadium and the White Fang carrying more on board of their ships.
- Super-Hero-Bowl! had this in the third installment, Super Showdown Bowl! when every single character, may it be heroes or villains, realize that Oscar the Big Bad had access to all their powers.
- Super Mario Bros. Z: Episode 6, when Mecha Sonic shows up, and again, when he does this. Luigi's Oh, Crap! expression is particularly epic.
Webcomics
- In 8-Bit Theater, the entire universe goes Oh, Crap! when Black Mage becomes the ruler of Hell.
- Darths & Droids generally follows most of Jim's more unhinged plans with pictures of the other characters looking worried, concerned or pensive.
Jim: (as Han) I'm out of my usual good ideas. I gotta try something crazy.
Ben: (as Chewie) :|
Annie: (as Leia) :|
Sally: (as C-3PO): I'm gonna sing the Doom Song now! - Aecast: Itzel, Aytan, and Hannah's faces when Valens is ambushed and killed in Chapter 2.
- Inverted in DM of the Rings. When a massive troll attacks the group, they gleefully rush to finally kill something besides orcs.
- Dragon Ball Multiverse: Pretty much everyone except Broly and Vegetto during their fight is freaking the fuck out. Well, everyone except those two and Zen Buu — while he freely admits that the fight was impressive, he doesn't appear shocked, or even worried. That's after he saw Vegetto go Super Saiyan 3.
- '"Erma'': The Yōkai kids are paralyzed with terror when they see the Eldritch Abomination that Erma has turned into, partly because they're kids and they're scared of pretty much anything stronger than they are, but mainly because they helped put her in that position.
- This was the general reaction to Gilgamesh Wulfenbach of Girl Genius incinerates a colossal war machine by calling lightning down from the sky. It wasn't a harbinger of doom for most of the characters who had their reactions depicted, but it certainly caused a city-wide double take and hanging jaw.
- Guilded Age: After a highly explosive item ends up in an active volcano by accident, four of the five heroes present display some rather impressive Oh, Crap! expressions. The fifth, Gravedust, sticks with one that seems to say You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!...
- My Impossible Soulmate: A group of thieves robbing Golem Hall, already on edge from hearing somebody coughing, panic and hide upon realising somebody's about to enter:
Rhys: Shit! Everyone, hide!
- The Order of the Stick:
- In one of the strips (warning: spoilers!) we have the resistance scouting party's reaction when they return to base and find that not only have the villains overrun it, but Redcloak himself is there.
- Another example: The remaining members of the Order, having just been through a lot are at a door a the end of a hallway when Xykon opens it from the other side.
- In one of the strips
- Scandinavia and the World: World War 3, here I come!
- Erfworld: At one point, a war council shares a satisfied chuckle when their prediction - that an ally will soon betray them - is magically confirmed to be very likely. Then the implications set in.
Web Videos
- In Achievement Hunter's "Let's Play Minecraft" episode one, we get this. Gavin, who had been playing the PC version of Minecraft before they went to the 360 version, disappeared to make a bucket and get some lava. He returns to find the house the others built...and dumps the lava on top of it. At that point, we have this reaction:
Ray: Hey, guys? There may, or may not, be lava engulfing the house right now.
Others: [FREAK OUT]. - In Counter Monkey Spoony describes this reaction from the party when they realize that the person they just threw a bottle of acid into the face of is not, as they thought, an evil cultist, but their current employer: Tempus Thales, the brutal, unkillable avatar of a war god. At their next session they're feeling optimistic that he'll get over it if they just stay out of his way, only to encounter this again when he reveals his hideously burned face to the city and declares a ten thousand gold bounty on the party member who threw the acid.
- Almost everybody gets this reaction at the end of the SuperMarioLogan episode "The Golden Egg!" after Jeffy wishes for the titular golden egg, which rendered it useless since he already had it at the time.
- Scott the Woz has a subdued instance of this trope in "Borderline Forever". After Team F*cked's efforts to convince people the blue border is real fail, Jeb points out the error in judgement they just made:
Jeb: I mean, we only started seeing the blue border after you (Scott) brought it up to us.
Team F*cked: ...Huh.
(cue an emergency news bulletin informing everyone that people all across the state of Ohio are seeing a blue border surrounding their vision) - Critical Role
- Early in the Vox Machina campaign, the heroes meet the Fomorian. Grog offers a sip from his cask of ale as a gesture of goodwill, only for the Fomorian to drink the entire cask and crush it in his hand.
- During the "Mighty Nein" campaign, the team encounter an old crone who cursed one of the Nein into a goblin form, and requests an 'exchange' of misery from one team member to another. Jester, the cheeriest of all the players has a rather unusual play...
"Jester": ''That cupcake was sprinkled with the Dust of Deliciousness, which makes any food taste far better... and also gives you disadvantage on Wisdom and Wisdom saving rolls. I then cast... Modify Memory...(the entire table): (silently losing their collective shit)- The cherry on top is that the crone is a trickster who delights in others misery, while Jester is a Trickster Cleric who wields a lollipop warhammer. And she got the better of the old crone, with an enchanted cake. No wonder the table had this reaction.
Western Animation
- Amphibia:
- The residents of Amphibia have this reaction in "True Colors" when they see Andrias' castle rise into the sky.
- The Plantars and Anne's parents in "Anne-sterminator" when the Cloak-Bot has ten seconds left before self-destruct.
- Everybody in "Froggy Little Christmas" — Anne herself, her parents, the Plantars, Ally and Jess, and the spectators at the parade when Andrias hijacks an inflatable Santa.
- Back to the Future: The Animated Series: In "Gone Fishin'", Jules, Verne, and Marty all become jaw-droppingly horrified when they overhear the currently four-year-old Doc Brown's Uncle Oliver planning one final stunt for his nephew before "Daredevil Brown" retires from the business: going over a waterfall in a barrel.
- Big City Greens:
- In "Hiya Henry", the whole audience at the Big Coffee open mic has this reaction when they see Cricket destroy Henry onstage, in the middle of Tilly's act; Tilly has the biggest one of all, as a symbolization of Cricket ruining her fun anyway without even telling her he was afraid of Henry in the first place. Even Remy looks outright horrified at what his best friend is doing.
- Season 2's "Chipocalypse Now" has several instances:
- One by Cricket and his family when they see Chip demolish Big Coffee and the apartment complex to make room for the Wholesome Foods Mega-Store.
- They get another at the end of the Hostile Show Takeover when they see the Mega-Store built around their house.
- The biggest Mass Oh Crap of all occurs in the climax, from Cricket, the Greens (Bill especially), and everyone who stuck up for them, when he is about to face death in the hands of Chip's helicopter. After he safely escapes, the whole team of heroes gets an even huger one when Chip is about to kill all of them at once, just before Cricket sees a Fatal Flaw in Chip's execution and leads to a Pre-Asskicking One-Liner.
- All of the Greens at the beginning of "Greens Underground", when Remy tells them that Chip Whistler is Not Quite Dead and back for revenge.
- "Chip's Revenge" has a total of six reactions from the Greens — one when they see the produce-cano, another when they get framed for it, a third with Remy and Vasquez joining when the helicopter gets attacked, a fourth when the leader of the angry mob sees through their disguises, a fifth when Chip reveals himself, and the last one is when they are looking up at Chip's impenetrable evil fortress with Mayor Hansock and Officer Keys joining. A final ENORMOUS one is given by everybody in Big City when Chip announces their beloved home is rigged with enough explosives to detonate the whole city and kill everybody living there.
- In The Boondocks episode "Stinkmeaner 3: The Hateocracy", Huey, Riley, and Robert react with a simultaneous "OH SHIT!" upon seeing Bushido Brown's death while he was fighting the Hateocracy.
- Codename: Kids Next Door:
- In "Operation: P.A.R.T.Y.", the Teenz throw a Wild Teen Party at the Delightful Children's mansion while Father is away. When someone spots Father's car coming down the street, the Teenz panic and flee the mansion.
- Happens twice in "Operation: I.T.". First when Numbuh 362 initiates the eponymous game to decide the new Soopreme Leader of the KND, the entire stadium of operatives instantly empties itself and get as far away from the It as possible. Later, when Numbuh 13 gets tagged, everyone immediately dogpiles him because they don't want him to be Soopreme Leader.
- Operation: Z.E.R.O.: After Grandfather announces his plans to turn "anyone who has ever been a kid" into Senior Citizombies, the villains in attendance at first cheer. It's not until Knightbrace and Mr. Boss realize that this includes them that everyone stops cheering and starts panicking. Cue Grandfather starting the Zombie Apocalypse.
- Cyberchase: The Cybersquad all get a humongous one in "The Snelfu Snafu" when Morherboard turns into Hackerboard from the corrupted Encryptor Chip.
- Fanboy and Chum Chum: In "Refill Madness", just as Boog's car flies into the Frosty Mart, everyone on board (as in, almost every character in the show) is shown screaming in terror.
- Final Space: The Team Squad has this reaction to Lord Commander turning into a Titan and immediately killing Bolo by stabbing him and ripping his head off. When Gary and Quinn - who are in the loading bay - get back to the others, they are all looking shocked at Bolo's head floats by.
Sheryl: Bolo...
Little Cato: HE KILLED BOLO!!!
Avocato: This... this can't be happening
Bizkit: Believe it. It's happening
Gary: We need to go GO GO GO!!!
Little Cato: HE KILLED BOLO!!! - In the Fireman Sam episode "All in a Good Cause", Sam phones Bella to ask if she's seen the missing briefcase containing the money they raised for the children's hospital. When Bella says that she put a bunch of old junk into a bonfire, the entire fire service rushes out to stop the bonfire before it's too late.
- The final episode of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, "Goodbye to Bloo", ends with Mac stating that while he was going to move, he's only moving next door (rather than to another city, like the others first assumed), taking his former neighbor Louise's old apartment. Unfortunately, the new place where Louise herself is moving to doesn't allow imaginary friends, so she has to leave her friend, the much-maligned Cheese, at Foster's.
- In the Gravity Falls episode "Not What He Seems", Dipper, Mabel and Soos get this reaction after Dipper reads aloud The Author's notes about a mysterious machine that was referred to earlier as "doomsday device" by The Men in Black. The notes conclude with "If the clock ever reaches zero, our universe is doomed!" The clock in question is only a minute and a half from zero.
Soos: [panicked] It's the final countdown! Just like they always sung about!
- Justice League
- A smaller one in "Flashpoint" when Lex Luthor hijacks the League's space cannon, courtesy of Superman, Supergirl, Green Arrow, The Flash and even the Martian Manhunter, plus a bunch of Red Shirts.
- Another one in "Grudge Match" shows Black Canary, Vixen, Hawkgirl, and Huntress in a cage match to the death...against Wonder Woman. They are all, rather appropriately, pants-wettingly terrified.
- In the episode "Alive!", the look of triumph on Luthor's face becomes one of sheer horror shared by the rest of the Legion of Doom when they realize that they have inadvertently resurrected Darkseid.
- Kaeloo: The main four do this at the end of Episode 76 when they find out that their interference with the past has somehow prevented the extinction of the dinosaurs.
- The entirety of the Red Lotus gets one in The Legend of Korra when they realize that even if you tie her up before and poison her, trying to fight Avatar Korra is a bad, bad idea. Only Zaheer manages to remain calm.
- Legends of Chima: the tribes' response to finding that Mt. Cavora has suddenly stopped flowing after they push back the Bat tribe swarm that was circling around it.
- Metalocalypse, in the episode Dethtroll, the band is in Finland to give a public apology after almost destroying the country last tour. Rather then give an apology the band writes a new song to be Finland's national anthem, Pickles then says that the lyrics are from a book of ancient Finnish magic and prompts this reaction from the crowd with a Big "NO!". When Dethklok plays the song they accidentally summon Mustakrakish the Lake Troll, a giant blood-thirsty monster that begins destroying everything in sight.
- Metalocalypse: The Doomstar Requiem has one in song:
Pickles: Oh my god! Our old manager!
Skwisgaar: Oh my gods! My old guitar teacher!
Nathan: Oh my god! Our old groupies!
Murderface: Oh my god! A douchebag nightmare! - On Moral Orel the main Running Gag is that some adult in Moralton will give Orel a piece of advice which he'll misinterpret, leading to him doing extremely bad things while trying to do good. When Reverend Putty finally realizes this root cause of so much havoc, he addresses the whole town, telling them, "The next person that inadvertently sends Orel Puppington down the wrong path could be responsible for damning all our souls". Everyone in town gulps simultaneously.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
- In part 1 of the series premiere "Friendship is Magic", everypony in the town hall gets one when Rarity reveals Princess Celestia is missing. And they have an even bigger one when Nightmare Moon reveals herself and announces her endless night.
- Part 2 of "A Canterlot Wedding" has the Mane Six having a big one when they see a huge amount of changelings swarming the chamber where the Elements of Harmony are kept, followed by even more closing in on them and having no choice but to surrender.
- In "Just for Sidekicks", Spike, the Cutie Mark Crusaders and the pets of the Mane Six embark on a train bound for Ponyville. They all get one when the Mane Six step inside the same car and duck underneath some seats to avoid getting caught.
- "Games Ponies Play":
- The entire Mane Six have one when they realize they only have fifteen minutes until the inspector's train pulls in.
- They all get another when they realize they've been tending to a common tourist than the actual inspector.
- The very last scene has Spike, the Crusaders and the pets of the Mane Six getting one when Spike's Growling Gut threatens to expose them to the Mane Six.
- The ending to "Princess Spike" has Twilight, Cadance, Fancy Pants, and all the summit delegates recoiling upon seeing Spike gearing up to sneeze after his Dragon Sneeze allergies are triggered again by unintentional accident. The view cuts right to black before the outcome.
- At the end of Part 1 of the Season 6 premiere, "The Crystalling", when baby Flurry Heart unleashes a sonic cry that shatters the Crystal Heart, the reaction from the Mane Six and the Royal Family is one of absolute horror and shock, especially the looks on Celestia and Luna's faces as they've all just been put in mortal danger.
- In "The Times They Are a Changeling", Spike comes into the Crystal Castle with Thorax, the Token Good Teammate of the Changelings, and announces he is his friend. Cue everypony in the throne room — Twilight, Cadance, Shining Armor, the guards, and even Starlight — recoiling in utter horror, just prior to Spike's armor-piercing song "A Changeling Can Change".
- Part 1 of the final season opener, "The Beginning of the End", ends with King Sombra, who was thought to be defeated, destroying the Tree of Harmony with his crystals, and the Elements fall and break on the ground, leaving the Mane Six in complete horror.
- Pac-Man (1982): the Ghost Monsters did this Once per Episode whenever Pac-Man and/or another of the good guys eat the Power Pellets— they all turn purple, scream "P-P-P-P-PAC-POWER!!!" and then made a run for it. (But rarely ever got far enough to avoid getting chomped by the empowered Pac-Man.)
- Ready Jet Go!: Near the end of "What Goes Up...", Jet and the gang flip out when Mindy reveals to them that Mitchell is spying on them.
- In the Season 2 finale of Rick and Morty, the entire wedding congregation gets this reaction when the bride, Tammy, reveals that she's a Deep Cover Agent for the Galactic Federation, is aware that (almost) everyone in that room is a wanted criminal, and that the entire building is surrounded by Federation forces waiting to kill or capture them. The reaction is lampshaded by a series of rapid-fire responses to this news.
- Shadow Raiders: The Alliance leaders experience this at the end of Ragnarok (Part 1) as they watch the dead planet Remora jettison its crust in an apocalyptic fireball, revealing a planet-sized battle station that the Beast Generals built within Remora’s husk.
- Then after they end that threat with liberal use of the Battle Moons main cannons, the heroes get a second one when the Beast Planet itself comes out of the sun and fires a single shot that obliterates a Battle Moon. From halfway across the system!
- Parodied in The Simpsons with Troy McClure's DNA video:
Troy: Hi, I'm Troy McClure!
[alarm proceeds to go off as every single worker in the room retreats into a sealed room] - Sofia the First: In "The Floating Palace", the royal family all have this reaction when they see Queen Emmaline's storm rolling in.
- SpongeBob SquarePants:
- In "Valentine's Day", SpongeBob and all the carnival patrons get this when an Ax-Crazy Patrick rounds on them, forcing them to scream and run for it.
- Everyone in the Krusty Krab gets this in "Scaredy Pants" when the Flying Dutchman makes his entrance.
- A comical one done by Squidward and the beachgoers in "Bubble Buddy" when Bubble Buddy is revealed to be sentient.
- In "Rodeo Daze", SpongeBob, Patrick, Squidward, Mr. Krabs, and the Bikini Bottomites all scream and freak out when they see Texas, and again when the bullfrog lunges at their bubble.
- Star Wars Resistance: In "No Escape, Part II", this is the reaction of the Colossus' defenders when they realize that a Star Destroyer has arrived, and the Colossus isn't yet high enough up to escape into hyperspace.
- Steven Universe: The Crystal Gems have this reaction when they realize that the Homeworld Gems are now aware of their surviving presence on Earth.
Pearl: They're coming back! I can't do this! Not again!
Amethyst: We're dead! We are so dead! - Hip, Hop and King Koopa have one in Super Mario World (1991) just before a giant Piranha Plant swallows them whole.
- During the Total Drama "Celebrity Manhunt" special, Courtney loses control of DJ's bus which is headed towards a cliff. The camera then cuts to everyone in the bus either making Oh, Crap! faces or screaming in terror. Except Izzy and DJ's mama that is.
- What If…? (2021): Played for Laughs in episode 7 when Thor announces to all the party-goers that his mother is coming down, they all have this reaction. Doubly funny when said party-goers include the grandmaster and Surtur.
- What's New, Scooby-Doo?: In "Fright House of a Lighthouse", the girls have just gotten Fred untangled from the trap when all three of them freeze, open-mouthed, and then run as they see the incoming Shaggy and Scooby, hotly pursued by the Monster of the Week.
- Wander Over Yonder: Crossed with Stunned Silence, the entire clan of villains has this reaction in "The Battle Royale" after it was revealed to them that Lord Dominator is a woman.
- Winx Club:
- The Winx and Taboc have a huge collective one in Episode 13 of Season 3 when Tecna gets sucked down the Omega Portal.
- In the 17th episode of Season 4, the Winx and Roxy have an epic one when they realize Morgana, Nebula, and the Earth Fairies are not the nice creatures they thought of and declare war on all of Earth for being sealed up and forgotten by them.