Prisoner Exchange

One of the heroes has been captured by the bad guys. His friends know where he's being kept, but the dungeon lies deep within the villain's impenetrable fortress, surrounded by guards, and a good old-fashioned prison break simply won't do.

However, it just so happens that one of the opposition has been spotted wandering around outside Camp Good Guy, and was conveniently dumb enough to get caught. Now there are two captives, one in each camp.

So what do the two opposing sides do in this situation? Each has something the other wants, and neither is willing to let up unless they can find a way to use the situation to their advantage. So they agree to trade hostages. They meet up at a certain location where the exchange will take place, both prisoners get to go free, and everyone's happy. Right?

Usually the captured member of the other team is no ordinary Mook. He may be someone who is important to the villain in some way, someone he cares about or needs in order to fulfill his Evil Plan, otherwise the other side would not bother with trying to get him back. Heroes usually don't need this kind of motivation to rescue a captive comrade, as they generally need less of a reason to save people. The Messiah may risk both his life and the chance of giving up whatever advantage he may have had, coupled with letting a villain go free, in order to save a total stranger, although it's just as likely that the captive will be someone close to the hero in order to facilitate drama.

The exchange often involve both sides facing each other across a wide open area. Each captive walks toward the other, they pass by each other in the center and proceed on to their own group. Often takes place on a bridge, since it marks the only crossing point of a natural barrier, such as a river or chasm, where two territories would typically be divided. It also gives both sides a clear view of each other as well as of the hostages in case anyone tries anything funny (providing there is no dramatic fog), and can be symbolic for the hostages making their journey home.

Note that the downside of this agreement is, because Evil Is Petty, villains rarely make fair trades. While a hero will be bound to keep his word and make sure that the hostage is returned to the villain unharmed, the villain will often take the first opportunity to kill his hostage as soon as he gets what he wants, or to cause the heroes to walk into a trap, or find some other way to go back on his promise.

Genre Savvy good guys or Anti Heroes may realize this and never intend to make a trade with the villain in the first place, or both sides may have the intention of screwing each other over, in which case the hostages themselves rarely have any say in the matter and may end up on the worse end of the deal.

If the hero decides to trade him/herself for the hostage, it's Take Me Instead. See also Hostage Situation.

Anime and Manga

 * In Full Metal Panic, Sousuke has to make the decision of trading his hostage for either Kaname or Tessa. He picks Tessa, knowing that Kaname can protect herself just fine, and her Action Girl instincts means that she'll mess up the bad guys plans by reacting in a way they don't expect.
 * In Read or Die, Yomiko trades Joker for Nenene... only to learn that Wendy hadn't captured Nenene at all. She had just asked the British Library's resident Master of Disguise to impersonate Nenene for the exchange so that they could get Joker back.

Film

 * James Bond is exchanged for Zhao in Die Another Day.
 * Sergio Leone's A Fistful Of Dollars.
 * In the John Woo movie A Better Tomorrow, an exchange between Big Bad Ah Shing (who the first protagonist, Sung Tse Ho, has captured) and Ho's little brother Sung Tse Kit (the other protagonist, who Shing's Mooks have at gunpoint) sets off the final battle of the movie.

Literature

 * In Mattimeo, the Redwallers capture General Ironbeak's three magpies, who are his only way of getting supplies, and trade them for the three Redwall hostages. Unfortunately, Ironbeak is smart enough to use the Prisoner Exchange as a cover while he sends his troops to invade Redwall.
 * In Les Misérables, Enjolras and Combeferre were about to suggest exchanging Javert for Jehan Prouvaire (who had been captured by the National Guard), but experienced something of a timing failure.
 * in a more hostage for macguffin girl way, Farworld sees the dark circle kidnap Dew in order to trade her for Kyja, who is a 'guest' of the water elementals.
 * There's a form of this in the X Wing Series book Wedge's Gamble. There is an Imperial prison which Rogue Squadron can access, and a corrupt warden who will make deals. The prison has Rebels and scum of the galaxy, the latter group being the one that gives the warden more trouble. Said warden will let the Rogues retrieve some Rebels, but only if they also take some of that scum, too; namely members of Black Sun, a criminal empire which has dissolved. Little does he know that the Rogues are there for the scum so said scum can be recruited in a labyrinthine plot - the Rebels are just a nice bonus.
 * The third Skulduggery Pleasant book has a scene on Dublin's Liffey Bridge, where the heroes have to trade Fletcher, the only person in the world who can open the gate for the Faceless Ones, to the Diablerie in exchange for Grand Mage Thurid Guild. Naturally, they all double-cross each other multiple times.
 * When the Havenites and Manticorans discuss prisoner-of-war exchanges in the later Honor Harrington books, at least one character muses on what a fair exchange rate on prisoners would be, given that most battles had been stacked heavily in favor of the Manticorans' superior training and technology versus the Havenites' massive quantity of ships and troops.

Live-Action TV

 * Once on Get Smart KAOS kidnapped the Chief, so Control captured one of KAOS's agents to try to make a deal. KAOS captured another - back and forth until the only non-prisoners were Max and Sigfried, who arranged an exchange. KAOS got the last laugh when, during the exchange which was two big busses full of prisoners, KAOS captured the Control bus driver.
 * One of these takes place in Heroes Volume 2. Bob, the head of The Company, kidnaps Claire. Claire's father, HRG, kidnaps Bob's daughter Elle, and attempts to trade her to get his daughter back.
 * On Lost, Jack suggests offering the captive "Henry" in exchange for Walt, who has been kidnapped by the Others. Unfortunately, the Others had a different plan.
 * Happens in Raumschiff Gamestar, with Darth Mopp being exchanged for Communications Officer Mikkl. Naturally, while both sides are negotiating the conditions, the prisoners escape on their own...
 * Happens without incident in the mini-series V: The Final Battle, when the Big Bad Diana exchanges Donovan's son for one of her own men. Of course, Diana has no reason to stop the exchange because she's "converted" Donovan's son into becoming her spy.
 * Sark is swapped in this way early in the third season of Alias. A third party messes it up, a gunfight breaks out, and the bad guys make off with both hostages.
 * In The X-Files Mulder performs such a trade between Scully and  his sister Samantha. In this case, though, it's the good guys who aren't playing fair and have a sniper standing by to shoot the kidnapper once both hostages are clear.
 * In the Doctor Who episode "Time and the Rani" the Doctor trades the Rani for his companion Mel in this way.
 * Subverted hard in an early episode of The Sandbaggers. The hero's girlfriend has been captured in East Germany and everyone agrees to a trade.
 * Seen at least once on Twenty Four, probably more.

Truth In Television

 * Sometimes happened during the Cold War between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. with captured spies, most famously across the Glienicke Bridge.
 * In 1962, KGB agent Rudolf Abel was swapped for American pilot Gary Powers Jr. (who had been captured after his U-2 spy plane was shot down over the USSR.
 * The 2010 swap of ten Russian agents captured in the US for four people held in Russia.

Western Animation

 * An episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender featured the attempt to make a trade of King Bumi for the Fire Nation governor's infant son. It did not go well.
 * An episode of Codename Kids Next Door had the main group exchange the Toilenator for a fellow operative. Said operative is a complete idiot and contributes nothing to the episode's mission, but is unintentionally recaptured by the adults at the end of the episode.