History Main / MissingStepsPlan

* ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'': In the wake of [[Characters/MonsterVerseKingGhidorah King Ghidorah]]'s global takeover of the other [[Characters/MonsterVerseKaiju Titans]], and [[Characters/MonsterVerseMonarch Monarch]] establishing that nothing can stop him now with[[Characters/MonsterVerseGodzilla Godzilla]] apparently gone, [[Characters/MonsterVerseRussellFamily Mark Russell]] intends to depart Monarch's company to look for Madison before the world ends. This in spite of how Madison and the [[Characters/MonsterVerseEcoTerrorists eco-terrorists]] could be holed up literally ''anywhere in the entire world'' and Mark hasn't got the first idea where to start looking (as Sam Coleman points out), not to mention that Mark's efforts will likely be further hampered by the fact that ''the world is currently ending'' at Ghidorah's call, and nevermind the question of how he'll avoid getting shot by Jonah's goons if he '''does''' find them without Monarch's military aid.

** In the original series, several of Zuko's schemes to capture Aang fall into this, to the point that Iroh directly calls him out on this. For instance, in the first season finale, he infiltrates the North Pole to kidnap Aang while he's communing with the Spirit World. This works--except now Zuko is alone with a hostage and no transport in hostile territory, which also happens to be the coldest place on Earth. If not for the fact that Team Avatar found him, he would likely have succumbed to frostbite inside of a few hours. Later on, he manages to track down Appa, the group transport who's been captured by the Earth Kingdom, but as Iroh points out, there's nothing Zuko can actually ''do'' with Appa now that he's got him: killing him won't really make a difference, and trying to hold him for ransom won't work when Zuko has no way to contain or control him (Zuko is currently living in a city tea shop, Appa is a creature the size of an elephant that can fly). Iroh argues that this is because Zuko has succumbed to HonorBeforeReason, with his obsession with capturing Aang having long passed any kind of actual sense or logic--doing things to hurt or capture Aang even when there's no possible way it could pay off for him.
** [[BombThrowingAnarchist The Red Lotus]], ArcVillain of ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'''s third season, have a major problem with this trope. They have two major plans: topple the world's governments to [[WellIntentionedExtremist allow a better world to rise from the ashes]], and permanently kill the Avatar by forcing Korra into the [[SuperMode Avatar State]], and then killing her. Both plans ultimately lack a necessary middle step, and [[DidntThinkThisThrough it comes back to bite the group in the ass, big time]] - Korra's power boost from the Avatar State leads to her getting free, and setting off a fight where two of the three remaining Red Lotus members die and the SoleSurvivor is imprisoned, and their assassination of the Earth Queen ultimately paved the way for an even WORSE tyrant to take her place. Zaheer when he reappears in Season 4 while in prison admits this plan worked out badly.

* In ''WesternAnimation/HazbinHotel'', Charlie clearly has no idea how she's going to get her plan to redeem sinners to work, even though she's pouring her heart into it. A FreezeFrameBonus of her notes during the pilot episode shows that what plan she has is [[CloudCuckooLander weird, to say the least]] -- she thinks "unicorn kisses" and "singing show tunes" will somehow result in a happy ending. It's shown again during her song "Inside of Every Demon is a Rainbow", where she seems to just think getting rid of bad temptations is all you have to do to redeem someone. For example, she starts by throwing an addict's drugs into a fire in front of him, but all that does is just get the addict mad at her.

* The classic ''Series/DiagnosisMurder'' episode "Till Death Do Us Part" has newlyweds Cindy and Phillip conspire to kill Cindy's dad, frame her stepmother for it and they inherit everything. An extended ImagineSpot has the pair going through their plan, which appears very well done, taking into account eventualities and even using resident doctor/sleuth Mark Sloan to find the evidence they've planted to implicate Denise. Then comes the actual murder...where ''nothing'' goes to plan. It's soon clear that it never occurred to the pair that it might have been a good idea to practice a run-through just in case, say, Phillip has more trouble than expected getting the cap off the vial of poison or Cindy finding that running from one room to the other in her wedding dress isn't so easy or they can't even get out of bed on time. Just one "rehearsal" and the pair would have gotten away with it.