Live-Action Films / Armor Piercing Question

Armor-Piercing Question in Films.

In The 24th, while being dressed down for his barbaric corporal punishment that he gave to Corporal Boston, Captain Abner openly voices his distaste for his superior's approval of the black soldiers and calls them inferior. Colonel Norton responds with this:
"I'm curious about something Abner. Is it his education that makes you feel inferior?"
In Accepted, Bartleby gives a series of these to school officials thinking of shutting down the South Harmon Institute of Technology.
Bartleby: Well, what about you parents? Did — did the system really work out for you? Did it teach you to follow your heart, or to just play it safe, roll over? What about you guys? Did you always want to be school administrators? Dr. Alexander, was that your dream?
- After S.H.I.T. is given probationary status, Dr. Alexander privately admits that he'd always wanted to be a Jazz musician.
  Bartleby: It's never too late sir
The film's climax is based around an armor-piecing question in The 39 Steps (1935). Hannay asks Mr. Memory what the 39 Steps are and that reveals the big espionage secret that they are trying to kill him over.
The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother. Sigerson does the "repeatedly ask a question" bit with Jenny Hill twice: "What was in the letter, Miss Hill?" and "What does your father do, Miss Hill?".
After the Dark: At the end of the film, Petra and Zimit, her teacher, have a conversation after all the other students have left the final class of the semester that reveals that the two of them have been in a secret relationship, both having attracted to the other for their intelligence. Zimit tries to dissuade her from leaving Jakarta to attend college in America with her classmate and boyfriend James, whose entrance essays she wrote so they could go to the same prestigious school. When he's baffled that she would choose to be with someone who is intellectually inferior to her, she asks him this:
Petra: Being smart isn't everything. Has it done for you just what you hoped?
American History X: "Has anything you've done made your life better?"
In the seldom-watched sequel to Arthur (1981), Arthur, followed around by the ghost of Hobson, goes to his nemesis Susan Johnson to admit defeat and marry her so that he can get his fortune back. The doorman asks "is she a friend of yours?" Hobson comments: "It's a very perceptive question, isn't it? Cuts right to the heart of the matter."
Mustapha in Austin Powers was especially vulnerable to the trope. He has to answer any question that's asked three times. Also, at the end of the second movie, Felicity Shagwell asks Fat Bastard "Are you happy?"
In Bad Day at Black Rock, Macreedy knows that something is wrong at Black Rock, and that Smith is near the heart of it.
Smith: I swear, you're beginning to make me mad.
Macreedy: All strangers do.
Smith: No they don't. Not all of 'em. Some do when they come around snooping.
Macreedy: Snooping for what?
Smith: I don't know. Outsiders coming in looking for something.
Macreedy: Looking for what?
Smith: I don't know. Somebody's always looking for something in this part of the West. To the historians, it's the "Old West." To the book writers, it's the "Wild West." To the businessman, it's the "Undeveloped West." They say we're all poor and backward and I guess we are. We don't even have enough water. But to us, this place is our West. And I wish they'd leave us alone.
Macreedy: Leave you alone to do what?
Smith: I don't know what you mean.
Macreedy: What happened to Komoko?
Black Lightning (2009): When the news show a scientist begging on a rooftop, Dima notices Nastya is waiting for Maxim to save him, being wrong about him being the Black Lightning. When Dima makes a bet that nobody will come, Nastya asks him if he wants to see a man die to prove himself right. Dima promptly leaves to rescue him himself.
Body Snatchers: Upon realizing that aliens have been replacing people in town, the main character Steve tells his wife Carol "We have to go!" She replies "Go where?" The main character initially thinks she doesn't understand the situation but, when she elaborates, he realizes she had already been replaced
Carol: Steve, this is important. Go where? That's right, go where? What happened in your room... Are you listening? What happened in your room is not an isolated incident. It is something that is happening everywhere. So, where you gonna go? Where you gonna run? Where you gonna hide? Nowhere, 'cause there's no one like you left.
Boiler Room: Seth's father, a federal judge, gives one to him after finding out that the brokerage firm he's working for is actually a boiler room.
Marty: How many people have you fucked over? Tell me, how many? All that bullshit about them wanting you to know how the business works. The great training program, remember? All the profits you made for your customers? Did you do anything for them, Seth? Tell me, did you make them any money at all? [Seth doesn't respond and looks down in shame]
Clerks: Randall manages to cut through all of Dante's whining by asking "If we're so fucking advanced, what are we doing working here?"
Coach Carter is disturbed that the system his school has expects the students to fail. He tries to inspire the players on his team to rise above the system. The principal disagrees has it out with Carter.
Principal: Your intentions are good, Mr. Carter, but your methods are a bit extreme. [locking the gym until every player gets at least a 2.8 GPA]
Carter: You painted an extreme picture.
Principal: No one expects them to graduate, no one expects them to go to college. So you take away basketball. The one area of their lives where they have some success.
Carter: Yes, ma'am.
Principal: And you challenge them academically?
Carter: Yes, ma'am.
Principal: And what if they fail?
Carter: Then we've failed.
Principal: Unfortunately, Mr. Carter, both you and I know that for some of these kids, this basketball season will be the highlight of their lives.
Carter: Well, I think that's the problem. Don't you?
Constantine. Constantine tries to get Angela Dodson to figure out where her twin sister left a message.
"What did she do, Angela? You know what she did. What did she do, Angela? You know what she did. What are you afraid of? What did she do? What did she do? What are you afraid of?!?
At the end of Disclosure, Tom (Michael Douglas) and Meredith's (Demi Moore) final verbal match ends with him asking her, "Did it ever occur to you, Meredith, that maybe I set you up?" Meredith looks down at the floor, with nothing more to say.
Doom, the live-action adaptation of the iconic Doom games, also had one when Reaper, the lead marine, realises the origins of the "demons" they were fighting.
Reaper: What was in the files? What were you sent to protect?
Sam: The research data!
Reaper: Research into what?
In Ever After, Danielle cuts through Henry's snobbish elitism during their first meeting where she is pretending to be a courtier, kick-starting his Character Development.
"Nicole": Excuse me, sire, but there is nothing natural about [snubbing peasants]. A country's character is defined by its "everyday rustics" as you call them. They are the legs you stand on, and that position demands respect, not...
Henry: (somewhat amused) Am I to understand that you find me arrogant?
"Nicole": Well, you gave one man back his life, but did you even glance at the others?
In Dracula 2000, Mary is losing the fight to Dracula, after discovering that he's actually Judas. Halfway through the fight Dracula snarls at her as they stare at a cross: "He won't have me," (referring to his immortality) to which she replies: "did you ever ask?" The question clearly hasn't occurred to him before, and it's enough to give her the upper hand.^note
Fast Five: After Dom catches Vince trying to retrieve a computer chip for the Big Bad and refuses to listen to Vince's pleas that handing over the chip is the right thing to do, Vince calls him out for never listening to him and when Dom tries to argue:
Vince: Where's Letty, Dom?
Fences: Cory asks his dad if he likes him, to which Troy gives the biggest soliloquy of the film about the difference between responsibility and like.
A Few Good Men:
- The JAG lawyer, Kaffee, asks Col. Jessup that "If you ordered that Santiago wasn't to be touched, and your orders are always followed, then why would Santiago be in danger? Why would it be necessary to transfer him off the base?" It's this question that instantly puts Jessup on the defensive, leading to a Villainous Breakdown where Jessup argues that he did what he had to do to "save lives."
- The end of the Villainous Breakdown comes at the end of that interrogation with another Armor-Piercing Question:
  Kaffee: Did you order the Code Red?
  Col. Jessup: I did the job you sent me to do—
  Kaffee: Did you order the Code Red!?!
  Col. Jessup: YOU'RE GODDAMNED RIGHT I DID!
Subverted for humor in Field of Dreams. After all but kidnapping one of his heroes, the author Terence Mann, to take him to a baseball game, Ray asks Terence, who's in the middle of a rant about why he's all but in hiding from the world, what he wants. As one might expect from a writer, Terence has his answer ready. A recluse from all the hippies he inspired in the sixties, he snaps that he wants people to stop asking him for answers, start thinking for themselves, and give him his privacy. Ray says, somewhat nonplussed, "No, I mean... whaddaya want?" and gestures. Terence follows the gesture... and sees an impatient looking concession stand worker. "Oh. Dog and a beer."'
Florence Foster Jenkins: St. Clair convinces Cosme to play for the Giftedly Bad Florence's recital by reminding him that he was short on prospects before they hired him.
Cosme: I have my reputation to think of!
St. Clair: Oh, really? What reputation is that?
Gandhi: During the Hunter Commission, where General Reginald Dyer was grilled over his actions in carrying out the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, he is asked what provisions he made for the wounded in the aftermath. Dyer claims that he "was ready to help any who applied." Dyer is then asked (by a visibly disgusted advocate) "how does a child shot with a 303 Lee-Enfield 'apply' for help?" He doesn't even attempt to answer that one.
Ghosts of War: While all the soldiers are relaxing on the chateau porch/balcony, Eugene tells them a story about how he found Tappert in a building full of dead Hitler Youth kids. He was playing Cat's Cradle amongst them and, according to Tappert, managed to get very far without needing outside help (which is required as early in as the fifth move). It leads Eugene to ask this...
Eugene: How did he get to move five, in a room full of corpses?
Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019): When things escalate out of control after King Ghidorah takes control of the other Titans and commands them to begin slaughtering the whole planet indiscriminately, Emma tries to claim to a distraught Madison that this can still be fixed. An unimpressed Madison responds with this query:
Madison: You said we were doing this for Andrew. [tearfully] Do you really think he would've wanted this?
Emma: [beat; slightly shakes her head]
Madison: Exactly.
Subverted in Good Will Hunting: The simple question "What do you want?" cuts Will off in the middle of a speech and causes him to just stare blankly at his therapist. The therapist notes that Will can spin bullshit stories and justifications for anything... but he can't answer the simple question.
In Grumpy Old Men, John and Max have been feuding for years after falling out over a woman when they were young, and a new love interest has only made things worse. However, when John has a heart attack and Max goes to see him in the hospital, the nurse asks him "Are you friend or family, sir?". A shaken Max pauses for a long time before concluding "...friend."
In Happy Gilmore just as Happy was about to quit golfing so that he could get his grandmother his house back:
Virginia: What do you think Grandma wants more? To get her house back, or to see her grandson succeed?
Actually averted in the movie Harvey, notable because the character asking was clearly trying to invoke this trope. It ends up being funny instead.
Dr. Sanderson: Mr. Elwood... what was your father's name? (Expecting it to be Harvey, the name of Elwood's 'imaginary' rabbit friend)
Elwood: ...John.
In The Highwaymen, a reporter asks Texas Governor "Ma" Ferguson about people comparing Bonnie and Clyde to Robin Hood. She gives the reporter a Death Glare and asks: "Did Robin Hood ever shoot down a gas station attendant for four dollars and a tank of gas?"
In Ice Princess, after Tina sabotages Casey by giving her new skates so she'll injure herself and not be able to advance to the Sectionals, Tina's daughter Gen is horrified. Gen later confronts her mother, and tells her that she's quitting ice skating because she's sick of being constantly pushed to do skating when she doesn't want to anymore and the fact that it's making her fall behind in her grades at school. Tina tries to placate her, saying that she understands that she's been going overboard a bit, but when Gen brings up her sabotaging of Casey, she's struck speechless.
Tina: Alright, alright, I can see that maybe we've overdone it...
Gen: "Overdone it"? Just a little. Casey's skates, Mom?
I ♡ Huckabees: "How am I not myself?" Notable in that it is an Armor-Piercing Question to the person who asked it in the first place, completely unintentionally unhinging his entire life.
The Judge: When Robert Downey Jr's character puts his dad on the stand, that's when deeper relevations happen.
One of filmdom's most famous examples comes from Marathon Man: "Is it safe?" Three words which comprise Sir Laurence Olivier's first eight lines of dialogue. It's also an interesting subversion of the trope, since Levy dearly wishes he could answer Szell's question, but he genuinely does not know the answer. Not that Szell believes him. Ouch.
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World: Melville and Monica Crump are locked in the hardware store basement and the husband has been trying, ahem, creative ways to escape. When he sets upon a faulty burglar alarm in a rage:
Monica: Melville. Melville! (finally getting his attention) Even if you do get the bell to ring and somebody comes, what about about the damage?
Jesus Christ Superstar. The camera freezes on Jesus' face during "Hosanna" when he is asked "Won't you die for me?"
Man of Steel: After teenage Clark has used his superhuman strength to save everyone on a school bus from drowning witnessed by at the very least two kids, Jonathan Kent scolds Clark for using his powers in public. Clark responds with "What was I supposed to do, just let them die?" Jonathan is clearly heartbroken that he doesn't have a simple answer for his son, practically croaking out "...Maybe." but then tries to impress on Clark the potentially disastrous worldwide consequences of revealing himself. He also eventually lets a tornado take him rather than risk these consequences, even though Clark is by then older.
- Jor-El uses an Armour Piercing question of Zod at the start of the film. Notably, it's one of the only times that we see Zod pause, even if it's only for a moment.
  Zod: Help me save our race. We'll start anew. We'll sever the degenerative bloodlines that led us to this state.
  Jor-El: And who will decide which bloodlines survive, Zod?... You?
Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- Iron Man 3: In the middle of a panic attack, Tony's kid sidekick says "if you're a mechanic, why don't you build something?" Tony instantly calms down. What's interesting is that we actually see him testing Tony's PTSD earlier, pushing the limits of acceptable behavior a lot like Tony does.
- In Avengers: Age of Ultron, there's a sweet little exchange between Bruce Banner and Vision:
  Bruce: If we're wrong about you... If you're the monster Ultron made you to be...
  Vision: What will you do? [The team stands in silence for a while]
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2:
  - Kraglin's response to Taserface's plans for mutiny.
    Kraglin: If [Yondu's] so soft, what are you whispering for?
  - During the final confrontation with the Big Bad:
    Ego: You are a god. If you kill me, you'll be just like everybody else!
    Peter: What's so wrong with that?
- In Avengers: Endgame, the Ancient One in 2012 refuses to relinquish the Time Stone to Banner, declaring that it is the duty of the Sorcerer Supreme to keep it safe at any cost. She quickly changes her tune when Banner asks her why the Stephen Strange of his timeline gave it to Thanos willingly if that's the case, which clues her in to the fact that Strange had a plan and giving up the Stone is part of it. After a few seconds of consideration, she opens the Eye of Agamotto and entrusts the Time Stone to Banner.
The Matrix
- The first film has the Dare to Be Badass variety.
  Neo: You're too fast!
  Morpheus: Do you believe my being faster or stronger has anything to do with my muscles in this place?
  [Neo shakes his head no, while breathing heavily]
  Morpheus: You think that's air you're breathing now?
- The Matrix Revolutions combines this with Break Them by Talking but it gradually becomes closer to a inversion as he slids into a Villainous Breakdown:
  Smith: Why, Mr. Anderson, why? Why, why do you do it? Why, why get up? Why keep fighting? Do you believe you're fighting for something, for more than your survival? Can you tell me what it is, do you even know? Is it freedom or truth, perhaps peace - could it be for love? Illusions, Mr. Anderson, vagaries of perception. Temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose. And all of them as artificial as the Matrix itself. Although, only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love. You must be able to see it, Mr. Anderson, you must know it by now! You can't win, it's pointless to keep fighting! Why, Mr. Anderson, why, why do you persist?
  Neo: Because I choose to.
The Messenger (2017): When the Messenger bitterly complains at a bar about not being allowed to say anything to those he gives the envelopes to, a young man whose been pestering him asks him this:
Kid: If you don't mind me asking, what would you say?
Messenger: What would I say? Well, I would... I'd say... shut up, that's not the point.
Miracle: "Who do you play for?" "The United States of America!"
In the 2000 film adaptation of The Miracle Worker, when Annie Sullivan tries to convince Helen's parents to give her complete charge of her, Helen's father asks, "Miss Sullivan… Do you like this child?" After a moment's pause, Annie pointedly asks, "Do you?" He has nothing to say.
My Cousin Vinny. Vinny is questioning a witness during the trial about how long it took him to cook some grits. The witness originally says five minutes, but Vinny needs to prove that it took longer. After showing how it should have taken longer, Vinny says "Are you sure about that five minutes?" to the witness and gets a weak response. He repeats the question two more times and finally gets the witness to admit that he was mistaken.^note
The Lifetime film The Neighbor in the Window features Karen Morgan being accused of abusing and neglecting her son by her new neighbour Lisa Beasley. When Karen’s husband Mark talks with Lisa’s husband Dan about this, Dan notes that Lisa has said that other women get jealous of her in the past, but Mark gets Dan thinking when he asks Dan how often this kind of thing has happened before, leaving Dan considering how his wife may be the provocateur of these conflicts rather than the victim (even if Lisa is able to talk him out of it at the time).
Nuremberg has Robert Jackson considering quitting, and his assistant asking him "does Hermann Göring actually believe in his ideals more than you believe in yours?"
This exchange in The Music Man:
Harold: What's the matter? You wanted the truth, didn't you? Now I'm bigger'n you and you're going to stand here and get it all so you might as well quit wiggling. There's two things you're entitled to know. One, you're a wonderful kid. I thought so from the first. That's why I wanted you in the band, just so you'd quit mopin' around feeling sorry for yourself.
Winthrop: What band?
Harold: ...I always think there's a band, kid.
Asked by one of the characters in Oldboy (2003) to himself: "Now, what joy will I have to live for?"
Plan B: Bruno is finally forced to confront the fact that he's fallen in love with another man when his friend Victor asks him, "All of a sudden you like guys?" after hearing about his interactions with Pablo. He's so startled by this question that he has to throw back up the food he was eating at that time and then have a honest discussion about his confused feelings for the first time with Victor.
Point of Origin: Lang, fire investigator John Orr's former partner, refuses to believe Orr is the arsonist. Finally ATF agent Matassa asks Lang: "Did you ever wonder why John was so good at finding these time-delayed devices?" Afterwards, Lang goes on to spy on Orr.
The Prestige: "What knot did you tie, Borden?"
The Prophecy: Thomas asks fallen angel Gabriel why he just doesn't ask God about His actions. This is the one time Gabriel isn't snarky or hostile.
Gabriel: Because He doesn't talk to me anymore.
Pulp Fiction has a non-serious example when Jules gives a speech on how a foot massage has no sexual implications whatsoever, to which Vincent replies: "Would you give a guy a foot massage?"
Promising Young Woman: Near the end of the film, when Cassandra is confronting the man who raped her best friend.
Al: There were consequences for me too, all right! It's every guy's worst nightmare, getting accused like that!
Cassandra: Can you guess what every woman's worst nightmare is?
The film of The Reader:
Hanna: We couldn't keep everyone. There wasn't room.
Judge: No, but what I'm saying — let me rephrase — to make room, you were picking women out and saying "You you and you have to be sent back to be killed."
Hanna: Well, what would you have done?
In The Rock a soldier under Hummel's command who and his unit were left to die after countless reassurances that they would be extracted from their secret black-ops mission.
Soldier: They're not coming for us are they sir?
In The Rocketeer, when Cliff Secord confronts mobster Eddie Valentine, who's working for Neville Sinclair.
Cliff: What's it like working for a Nazi, Eddie? Does he pay you in dollars or reichsmarks?
[...]
Neville: C'mon, Eddie. I'm paying you well. Does it really matter where the money comes from?
Eddie: It matters to me. I may not make an honest buck, but I'm 100% American, and I don't work for no two-bit Nazi.
In Say Anything..., John Cusack's lovelorn character drops one on the guys he's been taking romantic advice from:
Lloyd Dobler: If you guys know so much about women, how come you're here at like the Gas 'n' Sip on a Saturday night completely alone drinking beers with no women anywhere?
- They try to assert that they're there by choice, but neither the characters nor the audience believes them.
In Secrets & Lies, Cynthia unwittingly hits a nerve when she casually quizzes Maurice about his plans for the future.
"You're never going to make me an auntie, then?"
In Selma, Coretta Scott King asks Martin Luther King, Jr., to tell her honestly if he loves her. He replies that he does. She stares him down, and asks the follow-up: "Do you love any of the others?"
In Serenity, as Mal queries River's readiness for a heist they're preparing to perform, River bounces Mal's question back at him, but with somewhat more layered meaning, causing him to reflect on the circumstances that have driven him to crime:
Mal: Hey, little one — understand your part in all this?
River: Do you?
Mal: It's what I do, darlin'.
[River walks away]
Mal: It's what I do.
- Mal actually faces quite a few of them. Kaylee's "Tell that to Inara" shuts him right up; Jayne's more malicious "Besides Zoe here, how many... men in your platoon came out of there alive?" requires an answer from Zoe, as Mal is beyond words.
In The Shawshank Redemption:
Red: Let me tell you something my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane. It's got no use on the inside, you better get used to that idea.
Andy: Like Brooks did?
In Shattered Glass, Stephen Glass, who's been exposed as someone responsible for making fake news stories, tries to get sympathy from his former boss Michael Kelly, only for the latter to shut him down with the following question.
"Steve, I have to ask you something. Um... did you ever cook a piece when I was your boss? Did you ever lie to me? The Young Conservatives piece... the mini-bottles? Was that true?"
In The Silence of the Lambs, Clarice handily shuts down Dr. Lecter's Hannibal Lecture dissecting her personal history by asking him "Are you strong enough to point that high-powered perception at yourself ... Or maybe you're afraid to?"
Another occurs in Spider-Man:
Green Goblin: If there's one thing [people] love more than a hero, it's to see a hero fall, fail, die trying. Despite everything you've done for them, eventually they will hate you. So why bother?
Spider-Man: Because it's right.
Star Trek:
- Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home: "How do you feel?.....How do you feel?.....How do you feel?"
  - Leads to later moments like, "Tell Mother... I feel fine."
  - Another from this movie is Sarek's "You have the right to commit murder?" which kills the Klingon Ambassador's claim that they were defending themselves in the previous movie (they were in fact the aggressors).
- Star Trek V: The Final Frontier: "What does God need with a starship?"
- In Star Trek: Insurrection, Picard's line about relocating the Ba'ku, "How many does it take, Admiral, before it becomes wrong?".
- In Star Trek (2009), a possible Call-Back (callforward?) to this line...
  Amanda Grayson: There's no need to be anxious. You'll do fine.
  Spock: I am hardly anxious, Mother. And "fine" has variable definitions. "Fine" is unacceptable.
  - ...turns heartbreaking after the death of Spock's mother Amanda, thus ensuring that Spock will never get the chance to speak those words for her.
  - There’s also this Armor Shattering Question: "What's it like not to feel love or heartbreak? Or the limitless need to avenge the death of the woman who gave birth to you?"
Late in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Padme is knocked out of the heroes' gunship by enemy fire, and Anakin becomes bent on abandoning the mission to capture Count Dooku to help her. Obi-Wan spends a moment fruitlessly arguing with him before finally getting through with the question "What do you think Padme would do were she in your position?" Anakin visibly deflates before responding, "She would do her duty."
Steal The Sky managed to do one with one word: "How?" Iraqi fighter pilot Munir Redfa has been lured to Rome by "Helen Mason" for what he thinks is a romantic getaway, only for her to reveal that she is actually an Israeli intelligence officer who wants to recruit him to steal an Iraqi MiG-21; he of course becomes outraged and storms out. He is then approached on the street by "Mason's" supervisor, who asks him what he's going to do now, to which he replies that he is going to go home. The problem is that he left Iraq illegally, and in fact had to be smuggled out of the country by what "Helen" told him were her friends, who were of course actually Israeli intelligence assets. At this point, "Mason's" boss simply asks "How?" and Redfa realizes that he is already in too deep.
Tales from the Hood: Crazy K keeps holding to his gangbanger tough guy persona during his imprisonment and punches a creepy Neo Nazi for calling him a nigger. A moment later Crazy K is genuinely shaken when asked "Those people you killed, what color were they?"
Tetris (2023): One delivered by Henk Rogers directly to Robert Maxwell, near the end of the movie.
Henk: You don't have any money, do you?
Thank You for Smoking: Senator Finisterre was certainly hoping to invoke this when he asked Nick during the hearing if, once Nick's son turns 18, Nick would let him smoke, clearly hoping to get Nick in a 'gotcha' moment that would discredit him. He's left speechless when Nick's answer is yes, he would, if that's what Joey really wanted, once again emphasizing the moral of personal choice.
"If he really wants a cigarette, I'll buy him his first pack."
Three O'Clock High. Jerry Mitchell (Casey Sziemasko) offends the new student, Buddy Revell (Richard Tyson), who now wants to beat Jerry up. Jerry will do anything and everything to avoid the fight, and ultimately offers Buddy $350 to leave him alone. Buddy takes it, but says to Jerry, "You're the biggest pussy I ever met in my life. You didn't even try. How's that feel?" The question makes Jerry decide to go through with the fight, even though he knows he'll probably get hurt, to prove he's no coward.
Titanic (1997): After Jack saves Rose, she meets him the next day for a formal thank-you. She blames it on the stress she felt over her upcoming wedding, when Jack stops her in her tracks by asking "Do you love him?" She finds five different ways to avoid the question.
In Tomorrowland Casey resorts to this after hearing one too many teachers tell her how the world was doomed. She simply asks, "What's the solution?" That stops her teacher in his tracks.
Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen
Galloway: So let me ask, if we ultimately conclude that our national security is best served by denying you further asylum on our planet, will you leave peacefully?
Optimus Prime: Freedom is your right. If you make that request, we will honor it. But before your president decides, please ask him this: What if we leave and you're wrong?
Lennox: (to Galloway) That's a good question.
- In Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Carly asks Megatron about if he'll really rule the world, going as far as saying he'll be "Sentinel Prime's bitch". He considers killing her, but realizes she's right.
In Umma, courtesy of protagonist Amanda's uncle: "What kind of daughter abandons her mother?" (Answer: One who has been abused to the point of trauma).
In Upgrade, a recently quadriplegic Grey is unsure about an operation to have a chip called STEM inserted to him, prompting its inventor to ask what his late wife would have wanted. Grey is taken aback, and shown to have agreed with the operation in the next scene. Later on, this trope is revealed to have been invoked: STEM was engineering the conversation, and specifically instructed the No Social Skills Eron into asking such a question.
Van Helsing (the 2004 movie with Hugh Jackman) asks this of Frankenstein's Monster, which surprises him so much he stops mid tirade and stares at the questioner.
Anna: What do you want?
Frankenstein's Monster: ...To exist.
From Wanted - "Why did you come here?".
- It almost literally becomes an Armor Piercing Question, when Fox asks Wesley this by beating the crap out of him. Made even more explicit because when his formerly aimless, smug demeanor is broken, he finally answers the question. And when he finally answers the question we begin to see him actually master the skills he's being forced to learn and become the badass he was meant to be.
In The World's End, when asked if he ever regrets not finishing The Golden Mile as a teen, Gary says "no", but you can tell it's a "Eureka!" Moment for him.
- Also: "Can I just ask, how many people did you have to replace in Newton Haven?" For context: the film's Big Bad is The Network, a Hive Mind that hopes to assimilate all sentient beings across the galaxy into a single utopia. Those who don't willingly agree to join have to be killed and replaced with android replicants. The Network initially brags about how every race it's found has happily entered its fold—but when Andy asks the above question, it reluctantly admits that it's had to replace nearly everyone in Newton Haven with androids, meaning that a single small town on Earth is giving it more trouble than any other planet ever has. It's an odd mix of Humans Are Flawed and Humans Are Special—ultimately, Andy and Gary are arguing that humans are special because they're so flawed.
X-Men Film Series
- In X-Men: Days of Future Past, when Erik confronts Charles about his withdrawal from the world and abandonment of his former friends after the events of X-Men: First Class.
  Erik: Angel. Azazel. Emma. Banshee. Mutant brothers and sisters, all dead! Countless others experimented on, butchered! Where were you, Charles?! We were supposed to protect them! Where were you when your own people needed you?! Hiding! You and Hank, pretending to be something you're not! You abandoned us all!
- In X-Men: The Last Stand, what kicks Jean's already emerging Split Personality-induced Sanity Slippage into high gear, to the point that just before the Phoenix takes over, she begs Logan to kill her, is him asking her one question;
  Logan: Where's Scott?

Armor Piercing Question / Live-Action Films

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