History Main / FalseFalseAlarm

* In ''Film/BadBoysII'', the heroes toss dozens of cats and lizards into the bad guys' bungalo, until they decide turn off the alarms.

* ''Film/{{Sneakers}}''. During the bank break-in at the beginning the team deliberately sets off a fire alarm so the doors will unlock. When the guard calls for help, Whistler (who has taken over the phone system) cons him into thinking it's a false alarm so the rest of the team can carry out the mission.

* In the ''ComicBook/WhatIf'' story "The Day I Killed Spider Man" (vol. 2 #58), ComicBook/ThePunisher sets a trap for ComicBook/SpiderMan by hiding a bomb in a dummy made up to look like Doctor Octopus. When Spidey closes in, he assumes that his SpiderSense is going off for the obvious reason (he's about to tangle with a dangerous supervillain) and doesn't really pay attention to it.

* ''Film/StarWarsANewHope''. When attacking the prison section of the Death Star to recuse Leia one of the guards trips the alarm. Solo tries to play it off as a false alarm but fails completely.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* In the ''ComicBook/WhatIf'' story "The Day I Killed Spider Man" (vol. 2 #58), ComicBook/ThePunisher sets a trap for ComicBook/SpiderMan by hiding a bomb in a dummy made up to look like Doctor Octopus. When Spidey closes in, he assumes that his SpiderSense is going off for the obvious reason (he's about to tangle with a dangerous supervillain) and doesn't really pay attention to it.
* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'': In "The Malay Penguin", the Penguin rents the theatre next door to gallery he intends rob and hires a troupe of dancers to rehearse a huge dance number. The constant vibration from the dancing keeps tripping the vibration and motion sensors in the gallery, forcing them to turn them off.

[[folder:Film]]
* In ''Film/HowToStealAMillion'', quite possibly the TropeCodifier, the protagonists carry out an art theft by hiding in a museum during the night and repeatedly triggering the alarm. Eventually (and just as anticipated) the museum officials are tired of being woken up by false alarms and order the alarm system shut off.
* ''Film/{{Sneakers}}''. During the bank break-in at the beginning the team deliberately sets off a fire alarm so the doors will unlock. When the guard calls for help, Whistler (who has taken over the phone system) cons him into thinking it's a false alarm so the rest of the team can carry out the mission.

* ''Film/ANewHope''. When attacking the prison section of the Death Star to recuse Leia one of the guards trips the alarm. Solo tries to play it off as a false alarm but fails completely.
* In ''Film/BadBoysII'', the heroes toss dozens of cats and lizards into the bad guys' bungalo, until they decide turn off the alarms.
* A possibly unintentional example in ''Bibi & Tina: Bewildered and Bewitched'', Falko von Falkenstein decides to install an alarm system in his castle after he is burgled. However, his utter incompetence in programming the alarms leads to constant false alarms. Finally, on the night the burglars return, the alarm is triggered by the simultaneous arrival of his date, leading him to assume it was another false alarm.
* This is a major plot point in the 2019 Argentine caper film ''Heroic Losers'', where the protagonists attempt to get their own back at an [[AmoralAttorney unscrupulous lawyer]] [[spoiler:by convincing him that the alarm system to his vault carrying their money is repeatedly faulty. They get the idea by watching ''How to Steal a Million'']].

* ''Series/BurnNotice''
** In one episode Michael and his accomplice, disguised as janitors, set off the metal detector with an industrial vacuum cleaner (hiding the guns) and the bomb-sniffing dog with fertilizer (hiding the bomb).
** In "[[Recap/BurnNoticeS3E3EndRun End Run]]", Michael has to steal something from a secure office with limited resources. So, disguised as a janitor, he steals a bottle of whiskey out of one of the desks to make it look like he's drunk, then breaks the alarmed office window and steals the MacGuffin, then cuts himself to make it look to the guards like he was drunk on duty and fell into the window. He then gets them not to call the police by spinning a sob story about how if he loses his job he can't make child support and [[TakingTheKids his ex is going to take the kids to the other side of the country]].
* ''Series/{{Angel}}''. Angel wants to infiltrate Wolfram & Hart, but they have a vampire-detecting alarm. Solution: Angel's street friend Gunn tosses a captured vampire through the front door of W&H at the exact same moment that Angel sneaks in under the sub-basement. The detector goes off, but security assumes it's because of the vampire they can see instead of suspecting a vampire they don't see.

* The very first thing seen on the short-lived series ''Series/{{Heist|2006}}'' was the leader of the crew and his partner intentionally setting off the alarm at a jewelry store repeatedly. After a while, they note that the police response time has tripled since their first intrusion. Having sufficiently "cried wolf", they perform the robbery for real.

* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'': In "The Malay Penguin", the Penguin the theatre next door to gallery he intends rob and hires a troupe of dancers to rehearse a huge dance number. The constant vibration from the dancing keeps tripping the vibration and motion sensors in the gallery, forcing them to turn them off.

* In ''Foolproof'', the heroes know that they cannot break into a ultra-secure safe. Only one person outside the security company knows the combination and if they enter the wrong combination too many times the safe will go into lockdown. They use dry ice to trigger the safe's lockdown procedure and quickly leave the premises. By the time the security company arrives, the dry ice has melted and there is no sign of anyone tampering with the safe. Convinced that it was just a false alarm, the security company resets the safe's combination which is exactly what the heroes were hopping for. They use a hidden camera to record the new numbers and when they break into the building the next night, they open the safe by simply entering the combination.
* In ''The Real [=McCoy=]'' the thieves cannot disable a bank's security system and the police response time is too fast for them to break in, steal the loot and get away. Instead they incorporate the security alarms into their plan. They break down the bank's security one layer at a time, hide their actions and leave before the police arrive. (eg. they cut away the locks on a side door and replace them with identical looking locks that they have keys for). The police see nothing out of the ordinary and leave. With each alarm, the response is slower and less thorough until finally the security company turns off the alarms completely and leaves two rent-a-cops to guard the bank till morning. The thieves then have free reign to break into the bank's vault.

* The very first thing seen on the short-lived series ''Series/{{Heist}}'' was the leader of the crew and his partner intentionally setting off the alarm at a jewelry store repeatedly. After a while, they note that the police response time has tripled since their first intrusion. Having sufficiently "cried wolf", they perform the robbery for real.

* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV:'' In the Paleto Score. Whilst casing the bank Michael, Lester and Trevor trigger the bank alarm to test the response time and scope of the police. Somewhat inverted as they decide that the banks defenses are too great, skip any hint at subtlety and just out and out go to war to get away with the cash.

* This is a major plot point in the 2019 Argentine caper film ''Heroic Losers'', where the protagonists attempt to get their own back at an [[AmoralAttorney unscrupulous lawyer]] [[spoiler:by convincing him that the alarm system to his vault carrying their money is repeatedly faulty]].

* This is a major plot point in the 2019 Argentine caper film ''Heroic Losers''.

* In ''Film/HowToStealAMillion'', the protagonists carry out an art theft by hiding in a museum during the night and repeatedly triggering the alarm. Eventually (and just as anticipated) the museum officials are tired of being woken up by false alarms and order the alarm system shut off.

* Variant in ''Franchise/{{Naruto}}''. Pain (with his 6 bodies) and Konan are about to infiltrate Konoha village, when they detected a dome of chakra sensors that covers the whole village that will alert the guards whenever someone enters it. Then Pain devises a tactic: Using his bigger body, he throws another body specializing in SummonMagic to the air, through Konoha's borders, to fool the guards about their number, and after that, the summoner will summon other bodies of Pain as well as Konan as surprise.

* ''GrandTheftAutoV:'' In the Paleto Score. Whilst casing the bank Michael, Lester and Trevor trigger the bank alarm to test the response time and scope of the police. Somewhat inverted as they decide that the banks defenses are too great, skip any hint at subtlety and just out and out go to war to get away with the cash.
* In ''HitmanBloodMoney'', 47 can plant his gun in a tourist's bag which sets off the metal detector. The tourist is arrested, 47's guns are now in the White House and he can pick them up without setting off an alarm.

* One of the first things Detective John [=McClane=] does in ''Film/DieHard'' to thwart the terrorists that have seized control of the Nakatomi Tower is set off a fire alarm, knowing it will bring both firemen and police to the scene. Villainous mastermind Hans Gruber simply phones the [=LAFD=] to report a false alarm at the site. It disheartens [=McClane=] to see the approaching fire trucks suddenly kill their lights and sirens before turning back.

* ''Film/{{Sneakers}}''. During the bank break-in at the beginning the team deliberately sets off a fire alarm. When the guard calls for help, Whistler (who has taken over the phone system) cons him into thinking it's a false alarm so the rest of the team can carry out the mission.

* ''StarWarsANewHope''. When attacking the prison section of the Death Star to recuse Leia one of the guards trips the alarm. Solo tries to play it off as a false alarm but fails completely.
* In ''BadBoys2'', the heroes toss dozens of cats and lizards into the bad guys' bungalo, until they decide turn off the alarms.

While on TheInfiltration, planning for TheCaper (or playing XanatosSpeedChess), TheCrew is unable to avoid setting off an alarm. So what do they do? Set it off but convince the guards it's nothing!

* This is one of the tropes that are defied on the ''WebOriginal/EvilOverlordList'': Explicitly, ''any'' type of alarm, no matter if it appears false, is to be answered with full force and maximum effectiveness.

* This is one of the tropes that are defied on EvilOverlordList: Explicitly, ''any'' type of alarm, no matter if it appears false, is to be answered to with full force and maximum effectiveness.