Even batman villain Bane could think of something creative like a terror attack against a stock market to capitalise on it (his client shorted first, presumably). Of course, this doesn't work IRL because terrorists attacks even on the exchange tends to have a rather innocuous short-lived effect, with exceptions like 911. However, an attack on a particular company might be very different.

Also worth pointing out is that the feds investigated everyone who shorted airline stocks before 9/11. (See here; they all turned out to be innocuous.)