So Much for Stealth in Live-Action Films.
- 7 Men from Now: When Stride is wounded in an ambush, he hides in the rock formations. One of the outlaws follows him in but knocks a rock off a boulder and gives his position away.
- Above Suspicion (1995) is about a police officer, played by Christopher Reeve, no less, who's paralysed in a shootout after his partner forgets to turn off his pager just before a raid.
- Ace Ventura: Ace sneaks into the mental hospital's storage room and accidentally steps on bubble wrap (but doesn't get caught).
- In The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, as the team is sneaking into the Red Lectroid nest, one of the guys watch alarm starts chiming, alerting the Lectroids that they're there.
- In All Through the Night, Gloves and Sunshine sneak into a toy factory, which happens to be a front for the bad guys, when Sunshine, trying to walk quietly, steps on a roller skate, slips, and falls loudly into a bunch of boxes.Sunshine: (sheepish) Guess I must've slipped.
Gloves: You must've slipped. - In Avengers: Infinity War, Peter Quill, Gamora, Drax, and Mantis are trying to sneak up on Thanos, but Drax wants to attack him right away. Right before he can charge and give away their position, Mantis makes him fall asleep. Just as the others are feeling relieved, Drax falls forward with a load thud, giving them away.
- In the 1930 film The Big House some convicts preparing for a Great Escape are passing guns and ammunition to each other while intoning the Lord's Prayer in the prison chapel. As the prayer comes to an end, one of them drops a bullet on the stone floor, causing them all to tense up.
- Blood Debts: An attempted infiltration from protagonist Mark and his partner Liza into a mobster's hideout in a construction site is botched when Liza steps on a plank. They end up shooting their way out.
- In The Day After Tomorrow, when Sam tries to sneak behind the wolves on the Ghost Ship, he steps on a piece of glass. The noise makes his plan go out of the window.
- Dick Tracy vs. Cueball: While keeping The Dripping Dagger under surveillance, Pat knocks over some garbage cans; making a loud clatter and alerting Cueball to the police presence.
- Happens three times in Dick Tracy's Dilemma:
- Sightless is spying on the Claw, Ryan and Taylor through the window of the Blinking Skull when his sleeve snags on the the spike fence. As he tries to free it, he drops his peddler's trays and all of the wares spill out with a loud clatter, alerting the crooks inside to his presence.
- Later Vitamin is hiding from the Claw in a broom closet, but accidentally kicks over a mop bucket.
- When the Claw is attempting to sneak away from Tracy in the junkyard, he climbs into a derelict railway car, but the step gives way under his foot, revealing his location to Tracy.
- The Dirty Dozen. During the mission, insane serial killer Maggot goes off mission and kills a prostitute with his knife. Fortunately her dying scream is mistaken for The Immodest Orgasm by the Nazi officers partying below. When Maggot starts shooting however...
- In Django Unchained, Django reaches for his gun a couple times during his time at Candyland, but leaves it be as events unfold. When his cover is finally blown, Candie already has the upper-hand so he's not able to grab his gun. Then the trope is played straight when Schultz decides to kill Candie, and Django, out of options, starts rampaging.
- In Evil Breed: The Legend of Samhain, Steve attempts to sneak past the Shape while he's busy gutting Pandora, but knocks over a pile of cans, alerting the Shape to his presence.
- The Flash (2023)
- On discovering that he has superpowers, Barry's Alternate Self races off to try them before Prime Universe Barry can warn him about a) the need for discretion, and b) Super-Speed can set his clothes on fire. He ends up standing naked in a flaming circle in the middle of an intersection during a power blackout.
- Our heroes sneak down into the underground lab where Supergirl is imprisoned. Then Alternate Barry knocks over a shovel leaning against the wall, causing all the scientists in the lab to turn and stare at them before one of them hits the Big Red Button to summon lots of guards with Kalashnikovs.
- In Frankenstein Created Woman, Anton, Johann and Karl break into the cafe to continue drinking. When Kleve returns for his keys, the trio hide. They might have escaped notice, except the one hiding behind the bar knocks over a bottle and alerts Kleve to their presence.
- Played for laughs in Freaked, where everything under the roof makes some sort of loud noise, but it all goes unnoticed... right until someone knocks over a plastic cup.
- In the Action Prologue of From Russia with Love, Professional Killer Red Grant picks up a stick and breaks it, to get the man he's stalking (who's also trying to kill him) moving in the right direction.
- High Plains Invaders: When the heroes are stealthily planting the dynamite in the Bug holes, The Sheriff knocks a clod of dirt down one of the holes, alerting the Bug to their presence.
- A Running Gag in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug — it's clear no-one quite gets the whole "burglar" business.
- Bilbo has to tell the dwarves to shut up while he's busting them out of their cells.
- When the dwarves are robbing Laketown's armory, Kíli insists on being fine about carrying a huge pile of clangy weapons despite being weakened by the poison arrow, causing him to end up falling down the stairs with an appropriate racket. This brings the guards down on them right quick.
- Gandalf is sneaking across the bridge into the Necromancer's lair when Radagast the Brown shouts that it might be a trap.
- Bilbo ends up starting a gold slide that exposes Smaug's eye. Then he tries sneaking away as quietly as possible, but given what he's walking through, the noise ends up waking Smaug anyway.
- When Bilbo is searching for the Arkenstone, he finds a large stone and then tosses it aside into the gold, and then shushes it.
- Hot Shots! Part Deux.
- Attempts to retrieve a key ring with a broom handle results in loud grinding of fan blades, knocking pepper into a sleeping guard's face, poking the broom handle up the guard's nose, and a radio switching on to loud music. The loud thump of the keys hitting the floor didn't wake the guard either. What did? A mouse, sneezing from the pepper, rouses him instantly.
- American commandos in scuba gear are trying to covertly swim underneath an Iraqi guard boat when suddenly, "it happened!" (e.g. one of the swimmers gives off a huge fart). Fortunately when this bubble of fartillery reaches the surface and bursts, the Iraqi sailors pass out from this Deadly Gas attack!
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978). Donald Sutherland's character grabs a fire axe to protect himself. This automatically sets off the fire alarm, bringing every pod-person in the building down on him. Also whenever a pod-person realizes a normal human is among them and gives their Nightmare Fuel screech to signal the others.
- In Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, the thieves manage to get past the various anti-theft devices protecting a priceless jewel... until one of them lets out a gut-busting fart and triggers a noise-alarm.
- Kate. Seeking to escape after a bungled assassination, Kate steals a muscle car. The moment she starts the engine however, loud rock music blares and the interior lights up with neon strip lighting, revealing her face to bystanders and bringing the police down on her.
- Mocked in the "Fistful Of Yen" sketch of The Kentucky Fried Movie when the protagonist is sneaking in a dark room around the guard while knocking over various shelves, glass objects, and so on. The guard barely notices, sometimes looking as if he might have heard a curious sound.
- King of the Zombies: When Bill and Jeff are secretly observing the voodoo ritual in the cellar, Bill accidentally knocks some debris off the altar they are hiding behind. Momba hears the noise and immediately spots them.
- In the film version of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, when the group stops at Balin's tomb, Pippin goes to investigate a dessicated, cobweb-covered corpse that happens to be perched on the rim of a well. This causes the corpse's head to break of, and go clattering and banging down the well. This is followed shortly thereafter by the entire rest of the body, making much more noise. Just to put the icing on the cake, the body gets hung in the chain for the well's bucket on the way down, dragging both chain and bucket down with it to add to the ruckus. Gandalf's reaction is lifted directly from the book.Gandalf: Fool of a Took! Throw yourself in next time and rid us of your stupidity!
- Parodied in The Mask. The Mask makes a big, big show of "sneaking" past Mrs. Peenman's apartment on tiptoe, but that pesky alarm clock jumps out of his pocket and starts ringing like mad. Hilarity Ensues.
- The Matrix series:
- In The Matrix, as the team is attempting to escape from the building by climbing down the wet-wall, one member accidentally kicks dust into Cypher's face, which causes him to sneeze, attracting the attention of a SWAT guy in the adjacent room. As Cypher is The Mole he then sneezes deliberately a second time, confirming the SWAT guys' suspicions.
- The Matrix Revolutions. The Zion ship Hammer tries to sneak past the army of Sentinels by reducing its power output. Unfortunately this causes the ship to drop dangerously low in the tunnel and it scrapes against some wreckage, alerting the Sentinels and sending them in pursuit.
- The Mechanic. The two Professional Killers infiltrate the penthouse of a cult leader and Make It Look Like an Accident. Unfortunately someone enters the room and finds the body before they've had time to resecure the mirror they unscrewed to crawl through – a nut drops to the floor, rolls along (they have their hands full holding up the mirror) and drops out a vent. A bodyguard goes to investigate and things get violent very quickly.
- Mission: Impossible (1996). The famous "Mission: Impossible" Cable Drop is completed successfully only for Franz Krieger to drop his knife — it miraculously misses the alarmed floor and jams in the desk, dumbfounding the computer clerk when he returns to the room.
- The titular character in Mitchell is attempting to break into the house of a suspect. Other than how completely conspicuous he looks trying to haul his large frame over the fence, the producers obviously didn't block the surrounding streets off, and car noises and headlights can be seen going by in the shot. The Mystery Science Theater 3000 version gleefully points this out.
- Mr. and Mrs. Smith:
- John Smith (Brad Pitt) knocks over a stack of cans in the department store, almost immediately drawing fire from his enemies, and a dirty look from his wife.
- Similarly, where both of them are trying to bomb each other out in their house, John accidentally knocks over a China pot, catching the pot but not on the end with the lid, which falls to the ground (cue John's Oh, Crap! face) and reveals where he is to his wife.
- Mrs. Doubtfire: Daniel tries to sneak through the hall behind the caseworker when he loses his face mask for his Mrs Doubtfire persona. One step made a floorboard noise and he immediately enters the kitchen and makes tea for her.
- MonsterVerse:
- Kong: Skull Island: The cast try to sneak their way through a misty graveyard despite the presence of a Skullcrawler, but stealth goes right out the window once John Goodman's camera flashing draws the creature in.
- Godzilla vs. Kong: This trope occurs on a big scale with the naval journey to transport Kong across the planet: the naval escort carrying Kong actively steers clear of Godzilla's territorial routes to avoid a confrontation which could spell theirs and Kong's doom, but Godzilla finds them anyway and attacks. The fallout is so bad that the humans have to airlift Kong the rest of the way to Antarctica, knowing that Godzilla will attack again the moment the remaining naval ships start moving.
- The Naked Witch: While spying on the witch bathing, the student steps on a twig and it snaps, alerting the witch to his presence.
- Quicksand: When Dan sneaks into the penny arcade to steal Nick's cash, he bumps into a musical automaton that starts up and plays blaring band music.
- In Play Dirty, the British commandos are using a pulley to haul three jeeps up a cliff deep into German territory when the rope snaps and one of the jeeps crashes to the ground, alerting the Germans to their presence. Fortunately for them, they were supposed to be the decoys for a much larger strike force - who end up driving straight into the now-alert Germans while the irregulars go unnoticed.
- Later the commandos are sneaking into a German base when one of them sets off a flare trap. This goes much, much worse for them.
- Predator 2. The government special forces team seeking to capture the Predator wear thermal Hazmat Suits to shield their bodies from his infra-red vision. Unfortunately there's nothing wrong with the Predator's hearing and a creaky staircase gives the game away. The Predator then cycles through several vision modes until he sees the ultraviolet searchlights used by the team, giving away their position.
- In [REC], when the reporter and her cameraman try to evade the creepy girl in the dark... BANG... they knock something over give and their location away.
- Red Heat. Ivan Danko is trying to sneak up behind Viktor Rosta when his watch alarm (set to tell him when to feed his pet bird back in Moscow) goes off.
- Star Trek: First Contact: Once the Enterprise E's crew realize the Borg have beamed onto the ship and have started assimilating it deck by deck, Captain Picard hatches a plan to enter Engineering and puncture the plasma coolant tanks, which will disintegrate any organic matter in the surrounding area, basically frying all the Borg at once. The plan relies on walking past the Borg as quietly as possible (the Borg ignore anything they don't consider a threat), which actually goes well... until Data breaks the manual lock to the Engineering door, immediately calling the Borg's attention and leading to a firefight that goes haywire and leads to several crew members being assimilated and Data getting captured. Luckily, Data is sent to the Borg's main hub in Engineering... right next to the tanks.
- Return of the Jedi:
- Han Solo steps on a stick when he tries sneaking up on a Scout trooper in the Endor Moon forest.
- Later in the movie, Han invokes this trope when the Rebels' plan to sneak into the shield generator bunker is apparently ruined by an Ewok who has decided to jump the gun. Subverted seconds later, however, when said Ewok steals a speeder-bike, leading all but one of the scout trooper guards on a merry chase away from the bunker, and allowing the Rebels to enter with ease.
- Played wonderfully straight in the opening scene of Sleepy Hollow (1999), where we see the Hessian who later becomes the Headless Horseman escaping through the woods from Revolutionary War soldiers. He encounters two children gathering firewood and cautions them to silence with a finger to his lips. Without changing expression one of the girls deliberately snaps the stick she's holding, drawing the soldiers in their direction.
- In Super Mario Bros. (1993), Mario tries to sneak into the room the Brooklyn girls are being held in to rescue them. Daniella spots him, but he puts a finger to his lips and she gets the hint. Then another girl spots him and calls out to him. He sighs in annoyance before jumping down and taking out the guard.
- In The Terminator, Sarah and Kyle are trying to escape the Terminator in a factory as Sarah accidentally presses a button activating a hydraulic press, attracting the Terminator's attention. Subverted in that the button is also a Chekhov's Gun.
- Underwater. Norah and Emily are trying to sneak past the hibernating Fish People when a low-oxygen alert goes off in Norah's diving suit. It doesn't wake them up right away, but one of them starts groping at her helmet...
- A Walk Among the Tombstones. After the cemetery shootout, Scudder realises his Tagalong Kid is missing and calls his mobile, not realising he's hiding in the back of the serial killers' van. Fortunately they've arrived at their destination by the time the call is made; one hears the ringtone, but dismisses it as coming from a nearby house. The other man later sees the kid peering through a window at them, but it only serves as a fatal distraction as he's murdered by his partner.
- We Were Soldiers: North Vietnamese troops are trying to find the American Platoon that they pinned down in the jungle, and don't realize they are standing in the middle of the American troops' hiding place. Then Sergeant Savage flips his fire selector from "Safe" to "Auto", which tips the NVA troops off just before the shooting starts.
- Several instances in World War Z, as the zombies are dormant until they hear a sound, then they swarm towards it. In South Korea, the protagonists use bicycles to ride onto the tarmac to their aircraft, but then a satellite phone goes off. Later they're trying to sneak into a ward with over 80 dormant zombies, but keep making inadvertent sounds (kicking a soda can, stepping on broken glass, and a very creaky door) before one of them finally bumps into a filing cabinet with a loud clang! That brings 'em.
- The X-Men are sneaking into the lobby of the Statue of Liberty when Wolverine walks through the Metal Detector Checkpoint, setting off the alarm. Wolverine responds by destroying it, then Flipping the Bird to Cyclops in response to his silent snarking.
