Come with Me If You Want to Live

""Come with me if you want to live!""

- Random badasses in pretty much every Terminator film (or TV show)

Alice has found herself in a sticky situation. Maybe the Mooks are closing in, or even worse, the Big Bad himself. She's on the wrong end of a Run or Die battle, and running isn't working out too well. Enter Bob—whom Alice may have never met before—with a speedy getaway at the ready. Bob could be a guy on a horse, in a car, on a motorcycle, a wilderness expert, or even a made-of-iron cyborg Meat Shield.

This is distinguished from The Cavalry because the unexpected rescuer is (a) mostly introduced in this fashion, having only been briefly seen or mentioned before; (b) helping the hero escape, not reinforcing the hero; (c) often introduced in this fashion in order to leave it open ended whether he's a good guy, bad guy or something in between. All of these factors mean that it's likely to occur much earlier in the plot than the arrival of The Cavalry.

Subtrope of Herald.

Comic Books

 * Booster Gold and Blue Beetle (Ted Kord) once pull this while rescuing someone; Ted says the line and Booster protests: "Hey! You said I could say it!"
 * Also done in Ultimate Spider-Man during the "Ultimatum" event by Kitty Pryde.
 * Occurs in Ultimates 3 #4.
 * In the IDW Comics Transformers series, Ratchet introduces himself to the traditional MacGuffin-carrying human sidekick with "If you want to live, come with me."
 * In Guardians of the Galaxy, Kang the Conqueror of all people pulls this on the title characters.

Fan Works

 * Rei's first line in Nobody Dies. If the whole "shooting an Angel with a bazooka" wasn't a clue that this is a very different take on Rei or Eva in general, this should convince you.
 * Xander discusses this trope when meeting a pre-Slayer Faith for the first time in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer fic I Am What I Am, then deliberately invokes it for humor value after he kills a pair of vampires in front of her.

Films -- Animation

 * Finding Nemo has the variant "Get in my mouth if you want to live". (It Makes Sense in Context)

Films -- Live-Action
"Dom: You had me tracked too? Saito: Protecting my investment."
 * "Come with me if you want to live", said in this context, is one of the iconic lines from the Terminator franchise, occurring once in every movie as well as in the pilot of The Sarah Connor Chronicles. At one point it's implied that John Connor established this as a codephrase for "I'm from the future and I'm on your side".
 * However people in the past are supposed to guess that. ..
 * Happens in many James Bond films.
 * Tron: Legacy, involving a light-cycl-um, 4-wheel-drive, fits the trope to a tee when Flynn Jr. is rescued from the game grid.
 * The Mask. As Stanley Ipkiss is fleeing the police, Peggy Brandt pulls up in her car and tells him to get in.
 * Saito in Inception pulls up in car in Kenya and rescues Dom from the absurdly vindictive assassins from a rival corporation. Saito is also a former victim of Dom's mind-hacking who turned the tables on Dom and hired him, so this is a "friend or foe" example.

""We're movin' outta here, fast. Unless you all's'd rather wait for the next Huron war party to come along.""
 * Knowing. The  are actually the only ones who survive the  . Unless some Mind Control is at work here, from the way the children , it can be assumed that they were told what is about to happen, and offered this choice beforehand.
 * Rath does this to Electra in Assassins.
 * Subverted in Marathon Man, in a rescue attempt.
 * Slight variation in Snakes on a Plane: "Do as I say, and you live."
 * Aragorn's introduction in The Lord of the Rings is a particularly slow-moving version of this trope (since his method of escape is "be a wilderness expert" rather than something like "drive a fast car"). This is more true in the film, where they leave Bree right away; although it's heavily implied in the book that the hobbits wouldn't survive the night without him.
 * Another "wilderness expert" example is the Mohican rescue in Last of the Mohicans (1992 film version).


 * In Casper the 1995 movie, Casper puffs out his chest Arnold-style and says this to Kat before he flies her away.

Literature
"Headlights suddenly flew around the corner, the car almost hitting the stocky one, forcing him to jump back toward the sidewalk. I dove into the road -- this car was going to stop, or have to hit me. But the silver car unexpectedly fishtailed around, skidding to a stop with the passenger door open just a few feet from me. "Get in," a furious voice commanded."
 * Achmed does this to Rhapsody in the book Rhapsody.
 * The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy is a partial example, since Arthur Dent knows Ford Prefect quite well, but doesn't know he's an alien with the only means of escaping earth until he shows up with a towel and a signaling device.
 * Wizard's First Rule, the first book of the Sword of Truth series, has a variation. It's the main protagonist who introduces himself to the newly-introduced character in this manner rather than the other way around. And he's also a wilderness expert.
 * In Twilight, Edward rescuing Bella from the would-be-rapists in Port Angeles:

Live-Action TV

 * Spoofed on Community, during the paintball war episode. "Come with me if you don't want paint on your clothes."
 * In the Due South episode "Spy vs. Spy", one-off character Pike does this twice, rescuing both Fraser and Kowalski on separate occasions.
 * The Middleman has an example complete with Terminator Shout-Out in its Mirror Universe episode—mirror-Pip makes his first appearance rescuing Wendy from the mirrored version of her apartment in his car, saying the iconic line.
 * In Doctor Who, the Doctor tends to do this a lot.
 * The Ninth Doctor meets Rose this way, saying only "Run!" before dragging her off through a series of basement corridors and an elevator that can be conveniently sealed via sonic screwdriver.
 * He gives this speech to a minor character in "Bad Wolf", after escaping from a Deadly Game of "Big Brother", promising that if she came with him he'd protect her.
 * "The Fires of Pompeii":
 * Eureka's Fargo uses the line as a Terminator Shout-Out in the episode "Momstrosity".
 * Glenn's introduction in The Walking Dead is this. It's the same way in the comic, too.
 * Nikita uses this a fair bit when foiling assassinations. Her mole in Division is not able to find out about these operations until the last minute so Nikita gets there just barely ahead of the assassins (sometimes she is late).
 * Chuck: Chuck's mom says this line to him, fittingly, since she is played by Linda Hamilton, who originally played Sarah Connor in the Terminator films.
 * Subverted in the Stargate SG-1 season 5 episode "Desperate Measures", with a completely villainous variant. Colonel Frank Simmons says this basically word-for-word to the Goa'uld possessing Adrian Conrad—after having put a couple of bullets from behind into the protagonist, Colonel O'Neill.
 * Parodied in the Supernatural episode "Party On, Garth", nerdy hunter Garth yells this while trying to rescue a Victim of the Week, however said victim can't see the invisible Shojo that's coming after him and just thinks Garth is crazy.

Tabletop Games

 * Shadowrun adventure Harlequin. The PCs are on a mission when things go haywire, with corporate police closing in from all directions. A van pulls up beside them and the driver says "So, are you guys going my way or would you rather stick around and wait for your new friends to catch up with us?"
 * Hollow Earth Expedition supplement Secrets of the Surface World. Used by Erich Reinhardt in the adventure "Prisoner of the Reich" to get the PCs to go with him when they're attacked by Nazis.

Video Games

 * Your introduction to Elanee in Neverwinter Nights 2.
 * Every ending of the various Origin chapter versions in Dragon Age: Origins. The player character is rescued by Duncan out of a threatening situation and more or less reluctantly joins the Grey Wardens. With the possible exception of the Mage origin (if the player ), all of them will result in the death of the player character without agreeing to join Duncan.
 * Perfect Dark spins a dark twist on the Terminator mythos when . The overall effect is heightened by some remarkably Terminator-esque music, sans the hopeful tone in the original piece.
 * Inverted in Borderlands. One of the taunts for the Bandit-Traps is "Come with me if you want to die."
 * The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
 * Hadvar, a legionnaire and born-and-raised Nord is the hand-holder through the starter dungeon. Helps compensate for the fact that the Legion just (mistakenly) almost executed you, as he tried (although failed) to convince the others to let you go... before all hell breaks loose when a dragon shows up on the scene.
 * You get two characters that fit this trope in the opening quest; Hadvar and Ralof, a Stormcloak rebel who you shared a wagon with on the way to your execution. When the dragon attacks, you first run off with Ralof, then with Hadvar after you get separated, and moments later you and Hadvar run into Ralof again, and you have the choice of following either one. Interestingly enough, both credit you with saving their lives during the starter dungeon; while they're this trope up until you're freed of your binds, once you're free to fight you're more than pulling your weight.
 * In Team Fortress 2, Soldier gets a new line with his robot costume: "Come with me if you want to live... with me... in my apartment... I need a roommate."
 * In Resident Evil 2, Leon tries persuading Ben, who is in jail, with, "Look, if you wanna live, then you're gonna have to leave with me," when Ben thinks he's safe from monsters, unaware that Leon is "the only cop left alive" in the police department.
 * Tron 2.0: Like the Tron: Legacy example above (and probably inspired it, despite being Alternate Continuity), Jet is able to escape the Game Grid when his opponent Mercury blasts her way out and orders him to follow.

Web Comics

 * Schlock Mercenary parodied this. "Discreet."

Western Animation

 * The Fairly OddParents: said by Jorgen von Strangle in the Wishology Trilogy.
 * The Disney animated series of |Hercules does this as a Shout-Out to Terminator. Hercules is on the run from his Stalker with a Crush Yandere shapeshifting, clay golem girlfriend (It Makes Sense in Context; the episode's plot is based on Pygmalion) who has more than a passing resemblance to the T-1000. Cassandra turns up in a chariot and utters this trope.
 * Arcee tries not to do this in the first episode of Transformers Prime with Jack, but is forced to anyways when her pursuers split up and one goes after him.