History Main / OutGambitted

** ''Wrestling/SurvivorSeries 99'', November 14, 1999. HHH was supposed to defend the [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wwe/wwe-h.html WWE World Heavyweight Title]] against Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin and [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson The Rock]]. Austin got hit by a van in the parking lot. So, fresh off of having {{Squash|Match}}ed [[Wrestling/BigBossman The Big Bossman]]'s team in record time[[note]]It was supposed to have been Big Show, Wrestling/TheBlueMeanie and Kaientai (Wrestling/TakaMichinoku and Shoichi Funaki) vs. Bossman, [[Characters/WWENewGeneration Mideon, Viscera]] and [[Wrestling/MattBloom Prince Albert]], but Big Show beat up his partners backstage and went to the ring alone. He Chokeslammed and pinned Mideon at the 19-second mark, then the same to Albert at the 30-second mark, punched, bodyslammed, chokeslammed and pinned the 500 lbs. Viscera at the 55-second mark, and Bossman took the hint and got counted out at the 1:24 mark.[[/note]] earlier that night, '''[[Wrestling/BigShow THE BIG SHOW]]''' took Austin's place and won the match and the title.

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]

[[folder:Film -- Animated]]

[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]

** In ''[[ComicBook/XWingSeries Isard's Revenge]]'', Ysanne Isard neatly out-gambits both the New Republic and her clone, who is aligned with a former Imperial warlord the New Republic is campaigning against. She builds a secret lab near one of the warlord's bases she knows the New Republic will attack, researching yet another Imperial superweapon. The New Republic instantly seizes on it as justification for their invasion, while the warlord protests that he had never heard of the lab until the New Republic "found" it, making both sides look worse due to the GoldenMeanFallacy. This leaves both sides nice and distracted so Isard can launch her real plan, [[spoiler: stealing the newly-repaired Super Star Destroyer ''Lusankya'' from under the collective nose of the New Republic fleet. Unfortunately for her, two astromech droids managed to escape her clutches, allowing some pro-Republic smugglers and a New Republic Intelligence agent to set a trap for Isard to stroll right into]].

[[folder: Professional Wrestling]]

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' had Obi-Wan and Anakin negotiate for a captured Count Dooku. The negotiations concluded, they celebrate by having a party. Our heroes are wise to the fact their drinks are spiked, and use TheForce to switch theirs with some nearby partiers. [[spoiler:Not to be outdone, the VillainOfTheWeek poisons ''all the air in the room''.]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', Long Feng and Azula are savvy enough to know they are BOTH attempting this, but [[spoiler: Azula's HannibalLecture is just too good and he concedes]].
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': Scott Tenorman. He thought he was getting around Cartman's BatmanGambit, thanks to some sabotage by Stan and Kyle. Instead, Cartman caused all three of them to run straight into another one that [[DisproportionateRetribution was far]], [[MoralEventHorizon far worse]] and ended with Scott crying the [[EvilTastesGood delicious]] tears of [[HarsherInHindsight unfathomable sadness]].
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'': David Xanatos in episode 12, "Her Brother's Keeper". No, seriously. His plan is to woo Elisa's brother to his side, first taking advantage of the fact that she can't tell him about the gargoyles (and hence why she thinks Xanatos is an evil mastermind) and then tell him his own version to make sure not even their testimony will help anymore. He even orders Fox to tell Elisa this outright, because with her brother no longer believing her, it will do her no good. [[spoiler: Except that it does, because she brought a tape recorder. Duh.]] This plan is hardly Xanatos's best anyway, since it involves setting hypercompetent killers on himself with serious lethal intent and real weapons.
* In one ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' episode, Steve's mildly retarded friend Barry turns out to be a criminal mastermind kept in check only by powerful anti-psychotic "vitamins". After he goes off them and causes havoc, Steve challenges him to a game involving two cups, one of which contains his medication. The scene that follows is a parody of the one from ''Film/ThePrincessBride'', and naturally Steve put Barry's meds in both cups. Unlike Westley, however, Steve has no immunity to the meds.
* In ''WesternAnimation/BeastMachines'', [[spoiler: Tankor/Rhinox]] is Out-Gambitted by [[BigBad Megatron]] when he reveals that [[spoiler: Tankor/Rhinox can't actually hurt Megatron thanks to the RestrainingBolt Megatron hardwired into him when he first implanted Rhinox's Spark into the Tankor body]].
* In ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'', Robin creates the identity of Red X so he can finally meet with [[BigBad Slade]]. Slade figures this out and not only does Robin only meet with a Sladebot, but this causes tension between him and his friends.

* In ''WesternAnimation/GeneratorRex'', all of the villains who spent the entire series scheming to obtain the Meta-Nanites, the keys to godhood, [[spoiler:were outmaneuvered before the series even began. The Salazars -- Cesar and his parents -- had programmed the Meta-Nanites in such a way that only Rex could tap into their full power]].

* In one ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' episode, Rick is kidnapped and put in a simulation of his life by alien scammers who are, once again, trying to steal his formula for concentrated dark matter (a powerful spaceship fuel). Rick knows he's in a simulation, [[spoiler:but this time the aliens are prepared for this, and allow Rick to think that he's escaped the simulation and is returning home, and then enter the code to his safe filled with scientific secrets... before revealing that he was still in the simulation, they always had his formula, but now they have the code to his safe too. Rick tries countering this by escaping and attempting to fly home to change the safe code, but while being chased in the flight back to earth he needs to mix up some more of his special high-power fuel to escape. But as soon as he instructs Morty on which ingredients to mix, it's revealed that - once again - he's still in the simulation, and now the aliens have his formula. The aliens, flush with pride and having finally gotten what they wanted, let Rick leave. As Rick flies back to Earth, the aliens throw a party for their success and prepare the first batch of concentrated dark matter, only for the formula to result in a volatile compound that [[ExplosionsInSpace instantly destroys their entire ship]]]].
* In the SeriesFinale of ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'', an outgambit gets defeated by another outgambit. [[spoiler:The rebels take the main dome and make preparations to launch it into space with all hands on board, essentially wiping out the entire occupying force of Lothal in one swoop. Thrawn arrives and puts his own destroyer right above the dome to prevent the launch, while secretly sending his own team to disable the city shields, and then fires upon the city until Ezra agrees to surrender himself. However, Ezra realized that Thrawn might arrive and made a contingency plan: summon a gigantic pod of [[SpaceWhale purrgil]] that he'd previously befriended and use the Force to direct them to disable the Star Destroyers' hyperdrives, then use the purrgil's own natural abilities to hyperspace the entire fleet to somewhere they can't return from.]]

* In ''Film/BatmanAndRobin'' Ivy spends most of the film seducing the title duo, turning them against each other and trying to kill them with her kiss. She eventually gets Robin alone and reveals what Freeze's plan is, in exchange for a kiss from 'her lover for luck'. Robin keeps the deal and kisses her [[spoiler:but doesn't die thanks to wearing a rubber lip, stopping her poison. Unfortunately, he didn't expect her to shove him from her throne into her pond and try to have her plants drown him instead.]]

* Lord Vetinari every Discworld book, to the point where he has prepared his own deepest dungeon for when he will be thrown in when he is overthrown.

** Every fight in ''Jojo'', considering that it's a series where intelligence goes far beyond strength, results in one of the fighters being Out-Gambitted, such as Joseph vs. Eisidisi in part 2.

** Every fight in ''Jojo'', considering that it's a series where intelligence goes far beyond strength, results in one of the fighters being Out-Gambitted.

* At ''IWA Mid-South No Retreat...No Surrender'', January 21, 2006, Wrestling/ChrisHero faced GarbageWrestler Wrestling/NecroButcher in a "European Rules" match, with the stipulation that if Necro survived both rounds Hero would have to face him in a Barroom Brawl. Hero imposed tons of rules on the premise that there would be no way for Necro to keep up with them. Instead, Necro managed to fight Hero to a 1:1 draw (Hero won Round 4, Necro won Round 5), meaning that Hero found himself in the situation he did ''not'' want to be in, a Barroom Brawl against ''Necro Butcher''. Butcher won, of course.

* At ''IWA Mid-South No Retreat...No Surrender'', January 21, 2006, Wrestling/ChrisHero faced [[GarbageWrestler Necro Butcher]] in a "European Rules" match, with the stipulation that if Necro survived both rounds Hero would have to face him in a Barroom Brawl. Hero imposed tons of rules on the premise that there would be no way for Necro to keep up with them. Instead, Necro managed to fight Hero to a 1:1 draw (Hero won Round 4, Necro won Round 5), meaning that Hero found himself in the situation he did ''not'' want to be in, a Barroom Brawl against ''Necro Butcher''. Butcher won, of course.

* Happens quite often in ''Film/DrunkenMaster''. In one instance, Jackie Chan's character has to scoop water from a bucket with teacups to fill another bucket while hanging upside down. When he notices his mentor is taking nap, he quietly gets down and fills the quickly fills the bucket with a much larger pan and then splashes waster on himself to make it as he's sweaty and tired. However, the napping teacher is one step ahead and when Jackie's character announces he's finished, the teacher hands him two extremely tiny teacups and tells him to do everything in reverse.

** During the hunter exams, Gon had a choice between two candles that he had to keep burning in a windy room longer than the villain's candle; he picks the long one (both are rigged to burn quickly), but because it burns so strong, he is able to leave it unattended to run over and blow out the villain's candle.
** Another test involves the room where they must leave two people behind or take the long road. The team loses 50 hours in a gambling match just after the above example, so they have about 2 hours left, one route which only 3 of the five can travel down takes 5 minutes, the other route takes about 12 hours. The [[TakeAThirdOption solution]] Gon sees is to chose the long route, then [[CuttingTheKnot break down the wall]] to the short route, then sled down the hill on a door -- they make it to the finish with less than a second to spare).

** Any time that someone tries to play the Daleks or Cybermen for personal gain. In those cases they usually forget that the races in question have very straight-forward goals (exterminate everything and assimilate everything, respectively), and so are not as vulnerable to convoluted maneuvering from anyone who isn't The Doctor.

*** The Master summons Rassilon, Lord President of the Time Lords, in a gambit to resurrect the Time Lords and turn them all into copies of himself. One hand motion by Rassilon and the smile is wiped off of the Master's face (Not that Rassilon was ready for the Doctor ''and'' the Master's combined opposition).

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E13LastOfTheTimeLords "Last of the Time Lords"]]: [[spoiler:The Master]] is subjected to this by the Doctor and Martha, especially Martha. The gun in four parts was never the crux of her plan, only a smokescreen. She was spreading the Doctor's legend, and then let herself be captured in time for the inevitable countdown.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* ''Film/{{Maverick}}''. Bret and Zane out-gambit everyone who is trying to out-gambit ''them'', and are topped themselves by [[spoiler: Annabelle]]. They don't mind - they think it's all a game and the fun will be in getting the money back from her.

* ''Film/{{Circle}}'': When the cast is whittled down to less than ten people, Eric manages to outmaneuver Bearded Man twice in a row First, by observing that the Quiet Man never votes, he agrees to a deal to trade the Fake Wife for the Little Girl, voting in an order he knows would default to a majority for Fake Wife. Then, he makes up a story about the Quiet Man being untouchable and suggests voting for him, so that Bearded Man will waste his vote on Quiet Man and get eliminated himself.

* In the [[WebAnimation/HomestarRunner Strong Bad e-mail]] [[http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail98.html stupid stuff]], Strong Bad makes a bet with e-mailer Kevin Grumbles ([[InsistentTerminology Pronounced Kevin ]]''[[InsistentTerminology *grumbling noises*]]'') that he can get Homestar to say something smart in order to win some "grumblecakes." Turns out that Homestar had made a bet with Kevin ''*grumbling noises*'' that he could make Strong Bad say something stupid (which he does in an attempt to make Homestar sound smarter) and claims the grumblecakes for himself.
--> '''Strong Bad''': '''I'LL GET YOU, KEVIN ''*GRUMBLING NOISES*''!!!!!'''

* In one ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' episode, Rick is kidnapped and put in a simulation of his life by alien scammers who are, once again, trying to steal his formula for concentrated dark matter (a powerful spaceship fuel). Rick knows he's in a simulation, [[spoiler:but this time the aliens are prepared for this, and allow Rick to escape the simulation, return home, and enter the code to his safe filled with scientific secrets...where they reveal that he was still in the simulation, they always had his formula, but now they have the code to his safe too. Rick counters this by escaping and attempting to fly home to change the safe code, but while being chased in the flight back to earth he needs to mix up some more of his special high-power fuel to escape. But as soon as he instructs Morty on which ingredients to mix, it's revealed that - once again - he's still in the simulation, and now the aliens have his formula. The aliens, flush with pride and having finally gotten what they wanted, let Rick leave. As Rick flies back to Earth, the aliens throw a party for their success and prepare the first batch of concentrated dark matter, only for the formula to result in a volatile compound that [[ExplosionsInSpace instantly destroys their entire ship]]]].

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': Scott Tenorman. He thought he was getting around Cartman's BatmanGambit, only to run straight into one that [[DisproportionateRetribution was far]], [[MoralEventHorizon far worse]] and cry the [[EvilTastesGood delicious]] tears of [[HarsherInHindsight unfathomable sadness]].

* The "Kanna's Dad" arc of Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid involves this. [[spoiler: Azad, a wizard that plots to [[FantasticRacism exterminate dragons]] by [[PlayingBothSides manipulating rival factions to killing each other]], attempts to get his hands on the Dragon Stone, an item which would allow him to force dragons to do his will (thus allowing him to [[BrainwashedAndCrazy make dragons kill each other just through brainwashing]]) by becoming a human colleague to Chaos-faction dragon Kimun Kamui, who possess a Dragon Stone and then take advantage of how [[ParentalNeglect Kimun's daughter, Kanna, is seeking his attention]] first by tricking her into destroying the stone absorbing its power and then by creating a conflict where she is needed to make a new Dragon Stone. However, Kanna would not only become suspicious of him after the destruction of the Dragon Stone, but also [[TheExile her exile due to the incident]] resulted in her heading to Earth to find Tohru, which led to her becoming used to modern technology and finding a ParentalSubstitute in Kobayashi (whose [[WorkplaceAcquiredAbilities computer programming skills would make her a powerful magic user in the Dragon World]] ). Thus, as she agrees to make a new Dragon Stone for her father, Kanna sets up a plan to have Kobayashi and Tohru enter the Dragon World and, via Kobayashi being able to use magic in this world and a cell phone and tape recorder that Kanna brought with her, aide in exposing Azad's true nature and eventually defeating him.]]

--> '''Luthor:''' Goodbye, Grodd. It could have gone the other way.\\

-->'''Batman''': She almost had me, you know. Arms and legs shackled, dizzy from the blood rushing to my brain... I had no way out other than convincing her to call you. I knew [[TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou your massive ego would never allow anyone else the honor of killing me]], though I have to admit she came a lot closer than you ever did... ''[[IShallTauntYou Puddin]]'.''

** [[spoiler: The Illusive Man himself gets [[EvilIsNotAToy outwitted]] by the [[EldritchAbomination Reapers.]] Although he came ''really'' close to fulfilling his plans to control them and use them to take over the galaxy, he ultimately ends up [[BrainwashedAndCrazy indoctrinated]] from prolonged contact with Reaper technology.]]

** in ''Ahriman: Sorcerer'', Sanakht and Ignis begin conspiring to overthrow Ahriman and take control of his Chaos Space Marine warband. While Ignis sets about recruiting people to their cause, Sanakht brainwashes Hemellion into becoming a ManchurianAgent. When the time is right Hemellion will assassinate Carmenta, leaving Ahriman's flagship ''Sycorax'' dead in the void and allowing the forces loyal to Sanakht to destroy those loyal to Ahriman. At the same time, Sanakht will accompany Ahriman down to the surface of Apollonia to retrieve the Athenaeum of Kallimakus; since Sanakht knows that the Athenaeum is guarded by [[AntiMagic blanks]], Ahriman won’t be able to defend himself with his psychic powers and thus Sanakht—being the superior swordsman—will have a chance to kill him. Unfortunately for Sanakht, [[spoiler:Ignis is actually loyal to Ahriman, and is using this opportunity to identify the disloyal elements of the Prodigal Sons so that they can be purged later. Ahriman and Ignis’s plan also ''requires'' Carmenta to die and the ''Sycorax'' to be destroyed, as their sacrifice will tear open a Warp rift and allow the Prodigal Sons to escape from the Inquisitorial fleet that is pursuing them. Finally, Ahriman brought Sanakht with him to go get the Athenaeum because it can only be removed by allowing it to [[DemonicPossession possess]] someone, and by offering up Sanakht he’s killing two birds with one stone]].