History Main / ASimplePlan

* The plan in VideoGame/NeverwinterNights is incredibly simple. Retrieve the four reagents so that the clerics can assemble a cure for the plague, everyone lives HappilyEverAfter. [[WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong Easy, right?]]

* ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'', in the episode “Mo Mommy, Mo Problems” Linda wants to go to rich Kingshead Island and [[OnlyHereForTheFreeSnacks eat the food set up for the open houses on Mothers Day]], but the family winds up entangled in a real estate plot when she gets too personally involved with one realtor.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'', Mei's explains her plan to secretly attend Tyler's birthday party: "We'll meet at Tyler's, I'll do my thing, and then we'll bounce. Easy-peasy." It starts falling apart when Mei leaves her bedroom window open, prompting her mother to enter to close it, leading to her finding out everything Mei has been doing and showing up at the party just in time to see Mei attacking Tyler.

** ''Film/TheLadykillers2004'': Attempt to rob a casino, and silencing the only witness.

** ''Film/OBrotherWhereArtThou'' (2000): Ulysses Everett [=McGill=]'s CatchPhrase is ''"I got a plan"'' or some variant thereof. By the end of the film, his two companions have been through enough to dread hearing those words.

** ''Film/TheManWhoWasntThere2001'' (2001): A blackmailing scheme gone wrong.

** ''Film/TheLadykillers2004'' (2004): Attempt to rob a casino, and silencing the only witness.

** ''Film/TheLadykillers2004'': Attempt to rob a casino, and silencing the only witness.
** ''Film/IntolerableCruelty'': Some GoldDigger seeks revenge on a lawyer who prevented her from making a killing.
** ''Film/TheBigLebowski'' ("The beauty of my plan is... its simplicity"). The meat of the movie comes from the fact that several groups of people have simple plans, [[GambitPileup and they all run afoul of each other]].
** ''Film/TheHudsuckerProxy'': A bunch of [[CorruptCorporateExecutive shady executives']] plot to take over a company after their boss abruptly commits suicide: hire some dope whose bad ideas will lower the company's stock, allowing them to buy it up. [[SpringtimeForHitler But their dope had a pretty good idea]].
** ''Film/TheManWhoWasntThere2001'': A blackmailing scheme gone wrong.
** ''Film/BloodSimple'': Hiring a private detective to kill your philandering wife isn't as easy as they say.
** ''Film/{{Fargo}}'' is probably their best example: Hire two crooks to kidnap your wife, and get your rich, tight-fisted father-in-law to pay the ransom. WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong

* In ''Literature/{{Tolivers Secret}}'', the plan is for Ellen--on her mission in disguise as a boy to deliver her grandfather's message within a loaf of bread for the revolutionaries--is to pay an oysterman or farmer at the docks to take her across the bay in his boat to Elizabethtown, where she can simply walk into the Jolly Fox Tavern and deliver the message in the bread to the owner, Mr. Shannon. Said plan is thrown off the rails when two boys steal Ellen's bread, setting off a series of mishaps for Ellen as she's forced to take a boat with redcoat soldiers, walk for two miles through the woods alone at night, hitch a ride with a stranger, and [[spoiler:fight a wild boar to get the bread out of its mouth.]]

* In ''Literature/{{Tolivers Secret}}'', the plan is for Ellen--on her mission in disguise as a boy to deliver her grandfather's message for the revolutionaries--is to pay an oysterman or farmer at the docks to take her across the bay in his boat to Elizabethtown, where she can simply walk into the Jolly Fox Tavern and deliver the message in the bread to the owner, Mr. Shannon. Said plan is thrown off the rails when two boys steal Ellen's bread, setting off a series of mishaps for Ellen as she's forced to take a boat with redcoat soldiers, walk for two miles through the woods alone at night, hitch a ride with a stranger, and [[spoiler:fight a wild boar to get the bread out of its mouth.]]

** De Guiche plans to [[ArrangedMarriage marry]] Roxane to [[TheBeard De Valvert]] to bully her into being TheMistress.

* Being written by the same author as ''Webcomic/{{Marilith}}'' above, it's really no surprise that this shows up in ''Webcomic/{{Spinnerette}}''. [[spoiler:With all of their powers swapped]], [[MadScientist Dr. Universe]], [[GravityMaster Greta Gravity]], and [[spoiler:[[TheHero Spinnerette]]]] need to steal one of the CK mines responsible, to study how to reverse the process. Simple enough: last time [[GeneralRipper General Evescroft]] used one on you for protesting, so protest again, and when he tries to use another one on you grab it and run. It's barely even illegal. Except he quickly realizes [[SpotTheThread something is up]], captures all three of them without using a CK mine, and decides it's time to make Universe AnOfferYouCantRefuse.

* This makes up the premise of the ''Best. Worst. Weekend. Ever.'' miniseries. Zed, Argo and Treece's plan is to attend Comic con behind their parents' backs and show their favourite author a homemade closing issue to the comic series he left on a cliffhanger. The involvement of Treece's stepsister, getting blacklisted, a WildTeenParty, Argo's dog getting lost, and Zed's cybercriminal brother breaking out of juvie leads to one misadventure after another.

* Neatly done in ''Film/QuickChange''; the complex, intricate bank robbery that the protagonist and his friends have planned goes off without a hitch. However, what ''should'' be the incredibly simple matter of driving to the airport to make the getaway turns into a convoluted, mishap-ridden nightmare.

** He suffers this to the point where it's made into a character trait ("Things Don't Go Smooth") in the ''Film/{{Serenity}}'' RPG. Mal has the severe version of this trait. Player-made characters can take this drawback as well, giving the GameMaster an excuse to ensure that HilarityEnsues no matter how well the players plan their various hijinks.

* ''Series/OurMissBrooks'': "The Birthday Bag" sees Miss Brooks' friends try to throw her a surprise birthday party and buy her an alligator skin purse as a gift. HilarityEnsues.

* This sort of nonsense is de rigueur in ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'', but occasionally, you can get a [[http://www.paranoia-live.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6166 subversion]].

* In the original Ealing studios ''[[Film/TheLadykillers1955 The Ladykillers]]'', the mastermind of a plan to rob a bank shipment gets the idea to involve a [[CloudCuckoolander rather spacey old lady]] as an UnwittingPawn. The robbery itself goes fairly smoothly. Getting the money out of London ''after'' is where [[PlethoraOfMistakes things fall apart]].