Nightmare Fuel in A Bug's Life.
- The entire sequence from Flik accidentally destroying the food offering to when the grasshoppers finally leave. Flik's whimpering "Oh, no" upon seeing the food destroyed, his desperate screaming for Atta, the constant, droning buzz of the grasshoppers approaching, and Atta's panicked repeating of the "They come. They eat. They leave," mantra all add up into a scarily good job at building tension regarding just how terrifying Hopper's gang is. This continues to them breaking their way into the anthill, threatening to feed Dot to Thumper, Hopper intimidating Flik into backing down when he tries to defend Dot, and finally Hopper's threat that they have until the end of summer to double the standard food offering or else.
- "They come. They eat. They leave", referring to the much larger and more threatening grasshoppers terrifying the ants into giving them a huge portion of their food. This line could literally be the tagline for a zombie movie.
- Ironically, it also accurately describes what ants - fire, army, and driver ants in particular - regularly do to grasshoppers and anything else that just happens to be in their way/tries to mess with them.
- Thumper. Dear God, Thumper. This guy acts like a crazed attack dog and yet he's the same species as the grasshoppers, which also gives the interpretation of him being a mentally deranged psychopath. Nevertheless, he appears to be a grasshopper version of Danny the Dog. What makes him special is when he's first introduced when Hopper tries to take Dot to him, despite her cries of fear. Despite Hopper's ''reassurance'' to her, it was perfectly clear that he intended to let Thumper do something horrid to the scared girl, all just so he could keep the ants in line.Hopper: (holds a crying Dot up by her antennae) What's the matter? You scared of grasshoppers? You don't like Thumper?
- Hopper. He is one of the scariest family movie villains, period.
- Hopper's scene at the bar
. When he is told by his brother that the grasshoppers would rather stay there than go back to Ant Island, he plays along and says they should stay too, even if Flik stood up to him since, "it's just one ant". Hopper seems entertained by this, as he throws a few pieces of grain at three of his lackeys, while they all laugh it off. But then he breaks the grain dispenser and buries the three grasshoppers in grain, crushing them to death, all while their screams for help go on until they're silenced. And he merely stands there with the most bored/annoyed look on his face as he does nothing to save his trapped Mooks. This scene perfectly shows how Hopper is essentially the first genuinely evil character made by Pixar. Right at their second movie!Hopper: You let one ant stand up to us, then they all might stand up! Those "puny, little ants" outnumber us a hundred to one. And if they ever figure that out, there goes our way of life! It's not about food, it's about keeping those ants in line. That's why we're going back! Does anybody else want to stay?
(Cue the grasshoppers preparing to take off, all of which (justifiably) having horrified faces)
Molt: He's quite the motivational speaker! Isn't he? - In a deleted portion of that scene, we see one of the grasshoppers’ hands feebly reaching out from under the grain before going limp.
- The grasshoppers returning for the offering is scary enough, but Hopper makes it even scarier. Especially when he lacks mercy.Hopper: You little termites! I give you a second chance, AND THIS IS ALL I GET?! (furiously throws the offering at the ants)
Atta: But Hopper, we ran out of time!
Hopper: Have you been playing all summer? You think this is a game?!
Atta: (as the ants protest) No, no, no, please… !
Hopper: Well, guess what? You just lost. (sics Thumper onto them) NOT ONE ANT SLEEPS, UNTIL WE GET EVERY SCRAP OF FOOD ON THIS ISLAND!!!!!!!!!
Molt: Just do what he says. You don't want to make him mad, believe me! - Hopper menacingly approaching Flik, fire burning in the background, with the greatest murder-face on a family movie villain.
- In the scene after that Hopper uses Dim to launch himself out of the "cannon." The look on his face perfectly encapsulates a single phrase aimed right at Flik: "YOU'RE DEAD!!!!!!!!!!"
- During the entire chase scene Flik is terrified out of his mind, screaming desperately for his friends to help him. He knows exactly what will happen if Hopper gets away with him.
- Hopper when he lands right in front of Flik and slowly advances with the full intent of killing him. Flik begs for mercy, but Hopper grabs his throat and attempts to strangle him.
Flik: Hopper!
Hopper: You think it's over?
Flik: No, no, no! I-I can explain!
Hopper: All your little stunt did was buy them time!
Flik: No, please! Please, Hopper!
Hopper: (snatches Flik by the throat) I'll get more grasshoppers and be back next season, but you WON'T! - Hopper's scene at the bar
- The bar at the insect city has both human blood and Black Flag (an insecticide) on tap.
- Flik's No-Holds-Barred Beatdown at the hands of Thumper all while some suspenseful music plays.
- Grasshoppers trudging out of the mist with no music, only the howling wind.
- And before that, Atta knows the results won't be pretty when she looks at the offering.
Atta: That's it? But there's gotta be more food on the island.
Thorny: If we give up anymore, we'll starve.
Atta: Hopper won't accept this! - The entire sequence near the end of the movie, beginning with the rain. What is a normal and perfectly harmless occurrence for us humans is amplified into a nightmarish and regular disaster for all bug kind. Amidst the chaos, Hopper still manages to spot Flik, and with a furious roar, lunges at him, snatches him and flies off. Flik's friends from the circus try to come to the rescue, but their rescue attempts are all foiled. (Admittedly, the incident where Hopper lost one of his antennae is pretty funny.) Not even Princess Atta can keep Hopper away for too long, and his final death, albeit very karmic and well-deserved, in and of itself was very unsettling.
- On top of that, when Hopper loses one of his antennae to the Pill Bugs, he roars again before glaring at Flik dangling from his hand as if to say "I'll make sure you pay for this one too!"
- Not to mention the music as well. Once Hopper is picked up by the bird, the instruments you hear are the violins, combined with dramatic horns. The violins in particular produce the same “Psycho strings” that can be heard in the score for the climax of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
- The movie does a pretty good job of making an otherwise adorable little summer tanager and its chicks absolutely terrifying. While a bird feeding its young obviously isn't scary, quite the opposite in every other situation really, Hopper's Family-Unfriendly Death shows how horrifying it would be if you were a bug. Consider the sounds the bird makes; they did a convincing job of depicting what birdsong must sound like from a bug's perspective, because the deep and loud screeches it makes would be right at home in Jurassic Park. It's a harrowing reminder that despite the widespread belief (especially at the time of the movie's release), dinosaurs still walk strong among the living. Even more terrifying is the speed in which the bird jumps in front of Hopper, and then snaps him up to feed to the chicks. It's 100% clear that, from the moment that the bird saw him, there was no escape.
- Hopper was eaten alive by the birds. When the camera cuts away from the scene, he's still in the adult bird's beak, and note that it is NOT doing any attempt to snap his neck or whatever to give him a quick and painless death; on the contrary, it looks to be about to just drop him into (one of) the chicks' mouths. He'd still be fully conscious when given to the chicks as food.
- It’s so horrifying that even Flik and Atta, despite knowing how horrible Hopper has been to them, can’t bear to look and shy away just as the bird lowers Hopper down.
- A minor one occurs with P. T. Flea during his song when he is leaving the anthill with the circus bugs and a banished Flik. He sings the morbid line of "The streets will be paved with golden retrievers".
Video Game
- The Daddy Long Legs' you first encounter in "Riverbead Canyon" can be quite scary to little kid players, given their large sizes, ugly looks, and the Unintentional Uncanny Valley faces on their models.
- At the end of the game's credits, a rather frightening still of Hopper is used. It can serve as a Jump Scare to the uninitiated.
- The boss fight against Thumper can be a bit tense and scary for younger players the first time. It has very tense music, Thumper looks scary and moves fast while making animal noises, and he first appears in a Jump Scare, showing up out of nowhere and flying down at you at fast speed when you near the center of the room!
- The Game Over screen that plays when the player runs out of lives. It’s the clip from the movie when Hopper lays into the colony for apparently slacking off, and even though it gets a little meta since we are actually in a game, it’s no less terrifying.Hopper: Have you been playing all summer? You think this is a game?!?Ants: *cowering in terror*Atta: (simultaneously) No-no, please!Hopper: (directly facing the camera) Well, guess what? You just lost.
