Lethally Expensive

""Many Bothans died to bring us this information.""

- Mon Mothma, Return of the Jedi

The importance of a piece of new information is underscored by relating the loss of life incurred to bring it to light.

Comic Books

 * In DC Special #29, the origin of the Justice Society of America, a British agent tells the President: "We have received information--very reliable information, obtained at the cost of many lives--and it is now clear that Hitler plans to invade England--within weeks!"

Film: Live Action
"White House Staffer #1: This footage was assembled from souces operating under cover at great risk. White House Staffer #2: Very great. White House Staffer #1: We're fortunate this material didn't perish... with a couple of men."
 * The page quote comes from Return of the Jedi, when Rebel leader Mon Mothma points out many Bothan spies had died to bring the information during the briefing for the Battle of Endor.
 * In The Rocketeer, when Howard Hughes shows Cliff the Nazi propaganda film, he says "Keep watching, kid. It cost a man's life to get this out of Germany."
 * Happens in The Right Stuff, while the two White House staffers are showing the film of the Soviet space program.


 * Christopher Walken's butt-smuggled wristwatch from Pulp Fiction.

Live Action TV
"Sheridan: "...willing to fight for it, willing to..." (he can't bring himself to say "die" in front of the very man he is ordering to his death.)"
 * Invoked in Babylon 5: Sheridan orders the rangers to leak some information to the shadows. However he is concerned that they won't believe it unless someone was:

Video Games
"Tali: That damn data had better be worth it."
 * Shepard recruits Tali in Mass Effect 2 after rescuing her from an important surveying mission gone south. Tali's entire squad (aside from herself and possibly one other soldier) is lost getting the data, which concerns a star destabilizing much faster than it ought to be.