He Went That Way!

Of course I didn't just shapeshift; he went that way.

Alex is either chasing or looking for Bob and comes across Chuck. Chuck points and says something along the lines of "He went that way." Inevitably, Chuck either is in cahoots with Bob, who went the other way, or is actually Bob in disguise.

Related to Look Over There.

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Examples of He Went That Way! include:

Anime and Manga

• In Digimon Adventure, Yamato does this to a teenager who was angrily chasing Pumpmon and Gotsumon after they'd pulled on one of her facial piercings.
• Done in the bonus OVA for the third season of Full Metal Panic! when Kurtz is running from Clouseau and asks Tessa to help him out in this way. It works but gets averted when he sticks around to explain why he was running in the first place. He replaced a kissing scene from one of Clouseau's anime with footage of two pigs kissing. Clouseau was not pleased.
  • Also done in the second season. Sousuke steals a Bonta-kun costume to fight off Yakuza thugs threatening Kaname because he was following her on a date and didn't want to her to find out. He is chased by security trying to get it back and Kaname helps him out by way of this trope.
• In School Rumble this is said to distract Hanai from where Yakumo is.
• Oolong does this the first time he appears in his true form in Dragon Ball.

Comic Books

• Master of Disguise Mortadelo often pulls this off in Mortadelo Y Filemon. Once, he sent a pursuer straight up a wall...
• Asterix
• A variant: In one Iznogoud story, the evil vizier tries to use the cursed water of a swamp djinn to becom Caliph instead of the Caliph; anyone who touches the water disappears into it. Of course, while trying to get the water to the Caliph, more and more people (and a camel) touch or even drink the water, and Iznogoud keeps repeating the name of this trope when people wonder where they went. Finally, the Caliph's goldfish keeper tries putting his charge in the water, and when he wonders where the goldfish went...
  • Actually, both Iznogoud and his henchman say this. While pointing in the opposite directions. Of course, this being Iznogoud, no one notices.

Film

• D.E.B.S.
• Vampire in Brooklyn
• Played with in Ladyhawke

Soldier #1: Where is Navarre?
Phillipe: Navarre? Navarre? Ah, yes. Big man, black horse. I thought I saw him ride south, toward Aquila
Soldier #2: Ha, then we ride north.
Phillipe: It isn't polite to assume that someone is a liar when you've only just met them.
Soldier #1: And yet you knew we would. We ride south.
Phillipe: [talking to God] I told the truth, Lord. How can I learn any moral lessons when you keep confusing me this way?

• The Three Stooges would often pull this gag when being chased by someone.
• Invoked by the bad guy as part of a trap in El Dorado: he leads Cole and Mississippi on a chase through the town saloon, with two Mooks waiting to point our heroes out the back door and into an ambush. It almost works, too, except Mississippi recognizes one of them from an earlier encounter.
• Gavroche and Javert in the 1978 adaptation of Les Misérables.

Literature

• Cao Cao, of all people, pulls off a straight version while on the run from Lu Bu in Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Live Action TV

• In the Doctor Who serial Revelation of the Daleks, the Doctor rounds a corner and comes face to face with two Daleks. Not missing a beat, he says "Ah. There you are. They went that way." and points. It doesn't work.

Theater

• West Side Story
• The Troper saw a production of Les Misérables and in one scene, Marius begs Eponine to tell him where Cosette went. Naturally, the Marius-besotted Eppy points...

Web Comics

• In DDG a reluctant reapee tells Zip "Some dead guy just went out the window". Needless to say it doesn't work. Asking Zip for a kiss as a last request is more successful though.
• In Murphy's law Tinder's sister attempted this. It did not work.
• Freefall has an unusual variation from Sam and Helix.

Web Original

• Referenced, along with many tropes pertaining to villains, in the Evil Overlord List. Specifically, it's number 155 in Evil Overlord List Cellblock A:

I will instruct my Legions of Terror in proper search techniques. In particular, if they are searching for escapees and someone shouts, "Quick! They went that way!", they must first ascertain the identity of this helpful informant before dashing off in hot pursuit.

Western Animation

• Looney Tunes, particularly as a response to the question "Which way did he go, George, which way did he go?" One particularly noteworthy instance is when The Gremlin did this to a dazed Bugs Bunny—by pointing both hands in opposite directions.
• Tom and Jerry has used this a lot. Tom doesn't seem to recognize Jerry when wearing a fake beard, and he seems less likely to attack a female mouse.
• Happens a lot in Scooby Doo, where it's usually Shaggy and Scooby in suits of armour doing the misdirection.
  • I remember a similar instance where the gang was redirected by a talking skull. >"He went...Thataway. Hyahahahahaha"
• Perhaps the most Egregious example from The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog is Sonic saying "I'm over there." to a robot, WITHOUT A COSTUME, after just walking up to him. It works.
• In the Arabian Knights segment of The Banana Splits show, Princess Nida often disguised herself (once even as the Big Bad and imitating his voice!) and used this trick to send guards the wrong way.
• When Aang and company break into the Fire Lord's bunker during the Day of Black Sun, they interrogate a passerby for Ozai's location and are told

War Minister Qin: The Firelord’s chamber is that way down the hall to the left and up the stairs. You can’t miss it.

• • Needless to say, that chamber contains Azula rather than Ozai, and she's happy to waste the heroes' time.

Video Games

• According to the intro of Soulcalibur II this is how Raphael first met Amy, which led to him adopting her as his daughter.
• In Baldur's Gate II while transformed into a drow you come across a group of drow chasing a slave and are given the option to point them in the right or wrong direction.
• You can hilariously do this in Venetica after you blow up one of the Doge's ships, and then watch it burn. When a guard comes up to you and asks what happened you can respond with this, they buy it completely.
• In Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines if you are playing as a malkavian you can suggest avoiding werewolves by dressing as one and using this trope.