The movies are full of characters who have only small roles that help keep the plot moving forward but are themselves abandoned by the story, leaving us to wonder what ever happened to them. Here are six non-leading movie characters whose lives were probably ruined because the plot needed them to suffer.
The Person Who Ate the Pie with Shaving Cream in Jurassic Park (1993)
As a billionaire prepares to open the first live dinosaur park in the history of everything, a corrupt computer engineer is making a deal to steal samples of dino-DNA and sell them to a rival company. On the Costa Rican mainland before heading to Isla Nubar where the park is nearing completion and ready for a dry run, Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight) is at an outdoor cafe accepting money for the job. During the conversation, he is given the method of transportation of the valuable DNA vials, an altered can of men’s shaving cream that actually works. The dab of cream he sprays into his hand resembles whipped topping and so he disposes of it by carefully dolloping it on top of a cherry pie on a nearby desert cart. From there, it surely ends up in the hands of an innocent cafe patron who ate what they thought was some odd tasting pie, only to find out later how odd it really was.
Why it (Probably) Ruined Their Life
So there you are in a beautiful outdoor Costa Rican cafe on a well-earned vacation with your significant other, enjoying the pleasures of a proper time away from home. Feeling good about some indulgence, you order the pie with the cream. A bit later, things go south fast. While that volume of shaving cream is certainly not deadly, the ingredients consisting of anionic and nonionic surfactants (soaps), without proper medical care, could lead to a very bad day and a nasty visit to the emergency room where an always fun gastric lavage is performed. Scarred by the experience, the person swears off desert and is traumatized by the site of cream forever.
The Cop Who Can’t Catch Kevin in Home Alone (1990)
Home Alone tells the story of a bratty kid named Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) who wishes his family would disappear, and when they leave far a Christmas vacation to France, accidentally leaving him behind, his dream comes true but now he has to fend for himself and fight off a pair of criminals looking to rob his house. Early in the story, he goes to the market to buy a toothbrush and while he’s in the store, the dreaded Old Man Marley (Roberts Blossom) strolls in, the source of a legend that claims he is a shovel murderer. He runs out of the store without paying for the toothbrush, prompting a nearby cop to give chase. The bulky policeman runs after him out onto the town’s park where a group of people are skating on the pond. Kevin, who is significantly smaller easily outpaces the portly cop and by sliding on his knees, distances himself as the police officer slips and tumbles, losing the kid in the crowd.
Why it (Probably) Ruined His Life
While he was bumped, still, in front of the very people he is meant to protect and serve, this cop lets an eight-year-old child make him a fool. Surely questions will be brought up by the public, but the real issue is the ridicule he’ll get from his colleagues, who will see this as the funniest thing to happen in the history of the force. He will from this day forward be known and recognized by this single incident, no matter what heroics he might perform later. Humiliated by a kid, wherever he goes, he will be remembered as the worst police officer on the job. Lucky there wasn’t YouTube in those days or he’d be a meme.
The Owners of the Bridal Shop in Bridesmaids (2011)
When Lillian (Maya Rudolph) begins planing a wedding, the maid of honor and the first bridesmaid compete to find out who is really Lillian’s best friend. At one point, Lillian, Annie (Kristen Wiig), Helen (Rose Byrne) and the others are at a high end, lavish bridal store where the bride to be is trying on expensive gowns. The group has just come from a Brazilian Steak house having eaten some very questionable chicken and lamb, which causes everyone but Helen (who didn’t eat) to become violently sick. As they rush to the bathroom, where not only the toilet is sprayed with vomit, the sink is used for something that it was never designed for and Lillian, still wearing an extravagant dress, waddles outside and squats right in the middle of the street, letting nature do its thing.
Why it (Probably) Ruined Their Lives
The shop is famous for its quality and regal gowns, the large store front a splash of golden luxury. The women running the store are renowned for their service and prestige. That instantly and forever changes the moment Lillian does her duty in an all white puffy wedding dress outside the storefront. In an age when smartphones can snap pics and spread them instantly around the world, this image and the hazard happening inside will make this store a laughing stock. That shop is closed and the owners bankrupt.
Neil’s Girlfriend Eady in Heat (1995)
A group of highly-skilled criminals pull off a dangerous but unexpectedly deadly armored truck heist, putting police on their tracks. As the two teams try to outsmart each other, personal relationships on both sides begin to strain as the weight of the run and chase wears on the thieves and the cops. In the meantime, Neil (Robert De Niro), the criminal’s leader, gets involved with a girl named Eady (Amy Brenneman) who isn’t aware of who he is but suspects it after they’ve already fallen in love. On the night they are meant to run away, with Neil leaving his underworld life behind, he makes one last stop to get revenge on a partner who betrayed them, not realizing the cops are right on his trail. As he tries to escape, just a few feet from the car where Eady is waiting, he gets spotted by police detective Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino) and realizes he has to run and walks right past Eady, leaving her out of suspect and out of the final showdown, which, spoilers, leaves him dead.
Why it (Probably) Ruined Her Life
Eady is clean, never so involved that police can find her but the incident will traumatize her. Giving up everything in her life to run away to another country and live where her lover can’t be extradited, she was prepared to abandon it all. It suddenly and dramatically over, she must try to get back to the world she nearly left behind. It won’t be easy, as the thrill of the danger and adventure has created a new plateau she will spend the rest of her life trying to regain. She will face perhaps years of therapy as she attempts to cope with the jarring shift and loss.
Reggie the Standup Comic in The Nutty Professor (1996)
When university professor Sherman Klump (Eddie Murphy) discovers a remarkable formula that genetically rearranges his DNA to make him thin, the side effects also alter his personality from jovial and pleasant to obnoxious and hyper-confident. This new persona, whom he calls Buddy Love, is a wrecking ball but nonetheless, thin, so Klump is happy for the change. One evening, Klump takes out a woman named Carla Purty (Jada Pinkett-Smith), escorting her to a comedy show at a local club. On stage is an insult comic named Reggie Warrington (Dave Chappelle) who notices Klump’s enormous size and makes horrific jokes at his expense. Angered and traumatized the event, after he discovers the formula, he transforms into Buddy Love and asks Carla out on a date back to the club. This time, Reggie becomes the target as Buddy hijacks the performance, winning over the crowd with better jokes while verbally destroying Reggie. By the time it’s over, Reggie is unconscious on the inside of a piano.
Why it (Probably) Ruined His Life
Reggie could pack a club full of patrons. That was clear. The two times we see him on stage, the house was full and the people laughing. He had a unique, abrasive style that had the crowd eating it up. He was surely on the brink of getting discovered for something big. That all changed in only a few minutes as Buddy Love trounced the brash comedian, literally knocking him out and stuffing him in a piano. This will end his career and with his showbiz days over, with no other discernible skills, Reggie will be lost on the skids.
Sid from Toy Story (1995)
In the Toy Story universe, toys are sentient beings who are alive while not in the presence of humans. In Andy’s (John Morris) bedroom, the toys are led by Woody (Tom Hanks) a stuffed cowboy doll with a pull string. Along with his friends, they must contend with the newest toy in the collection, a space ranger named Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) who doesn’t know he is a toy. Next door is a vicious kid named Sid (Erik von Detten) who spends his free time mutilating and destroying any toy he can find. Part of the story sees Woody and Buzz trapped in Sid’s home and to escape, Woody is forced to break the single most important rule in the toy rulebook: don’t let the humans know they are alive.
Why it (Definitely) Ruined His Life
The realization that, even as a child, toys are alive, will have profound, life-long effect. Woody didn’t just wriggle his limbs, he spoke. This would cause immeasurable mental instability even in the most steady of people, who would for the remainder of their lives, try to prove what they saw was real. It’s said that Sid grows up to be a garbage man and appears in the the third installment wearing his trademark skull t-shirt, but we also see he is wearing a hooded top and has massive headphones over his ears, no doubt trying to drown out the haunting echoes of a sinister cowboy doll voice reminding him that the toys are watching.