I Surrender, Suckers

""I know when I'm beaten. You got me. A princess surrenders with honor.""

- Azula, Avatar: The Last Airbender, "The Chase"

This trope is used by both villains and Badass heroes or Anti-heroes, particularly the loner action-hero kind.

They're cornered. They know it. They surrender.

Except, when the offer is accepted -- surprise! They launch an attack when the opposition drops their guard. This move may let them completely blow away the opposition, or it may only provide enough confusion to allow a timely escape, depending on just how badly taken in the opposition was.

One variation involves the one surrendering intentionally allowing himself to be captured in order to undermine the enemy from within. Often he must rely on The Mole to break him out of his prison, though sometimes he can manage this on his own.

This is the exact opposite of the Graceful Loser.

Note that in Real Life, this is a genuine war crime since the Hague Convention (signed before World War One); fake surrenders are "perfidy" because they discourage the opposition from accepting genuine surrenders. The flag of truce is a protected symbol and its misuse in war is against international law. This, however, isn't absolute: after someone surrenders and is taken into custody, attempts to escape and generally cause problems are expected and not illegal, the understanding being that if the captors can't keep control of their prisoners, that's their own damn fault.

Compare Defensive Feint Trap and Aggressive Negotiations. Wounded Gazelle Gambit is similar, but even more cowardly. See also Playing Possum.

Anime and Manga

 * Subverted with Matt from Death Note. Everyone knows who he is, and that's probably why.
 * Except in the manga, where the point was that nobody there knows who he is... or really cares what he's done... or thinks he might try to escape. He's simply trying bluffing or reason (it's ambiguous) on the wrong people.
 * In the anime Full Metal Panic, Big Bad Gauron surrenders and intentionally allows himself to be captured as part of a Plan to infiltrate and take control of the Tuatha De Danaan. Notably, the De Danaan's captain and crew are aware of the risk and take precautions, but even in spite of that Gauron manages to cause a whole lot of trouble with his ploy.
 * In the first Fullmetal Alchemist anime, the Lior plot has Ed willingly surrender to Cornello, knowing that Cornello was clueless enough to underestimate him and Al, leaving open many opportunities to escape and defeat the false prophet.
 * Also, in the second version of the anime, the Ice-Alchemist surrenders to the military - and then he transmutes steam and escapes.
 * Taikoubou from Houshin Engi does exactly this when fighting Oukijn. TWICE. In the same battle. The first time, he pretends to give up fighting, saying that she's too strong for him, and laments about how he should have been loyal to Dakki. He then requests that Oukijn allow him to do a wood fortune reading for Dakki's future, which turns out to be a trick so that he can set fire to her Hagoromo. The second time is when she tries to do the same trick to him, "surrendering" - to which he pretends to "accept", only to once again suckerpunch her.
 * In Dragonball, Tao Pai Pai (Mercenary/General Tao) does this when he's losing his rematch against Goku - following up his "surrender" by throwing a grenade. Unfortunately for Tao, Goku deflects it right back at him...
 * Raditz pulls this off at the very beginning of Dragonball Z (and, conversely, in Dragon Ball Kai as well), when Goku gets a hold of his tail. Since doing this weakens a Saiyan, Raditz tries to convince Goku to let go by saying that, if he does, he'll leave Earth without causing any damage to it. Despite Piccolo's warning, Goku believes him... and just as soon as he lets Raditz go, he is struck in the stomach.
 * This is Played for Laughs in Dragonball Z Abridged as Goku is Too Dumb to Live.
 * Frieza tries the same after losing to Goku. Goku gives him enough energy to get away from the soon-to-be-exploding planet (since he can breathe in space), but Frieza uses it to attack as soon as Goku's back is turned. Subverted as this time Goku just turns around and blows him away.
 * Even the Z-Fighters, or at least Piccolo, aren't innocent of this. When Cell managed to drain Piccolo's arm, Piccolo apparently seemed resigned to his fate of being absorbed by Cell and instead asks that Cell at least explain to him what he is, what his plans are, and how he came to be. Turns out, this was a gambit thought up by Piccolo (or rather, the Kami half of him) to not only get Cell to tell him everything, but also buy enough time to recharge his Ki energy so he could remove his arm and regenerate without weakening himself even further.
 * Eis Shenron pulled this off when defeated by Nuova Shenron and Goku, successfully blinding Goku as well. Unfortunately, he didn't dullen Goku's other senses.
 * Rokudo Mukuro from Katekyo Hitman Reborn does this during his fight with Tsuna. He pretends that he has given up and been defeated, asking Tsuna to kill him. After Tsuna refuses and turns his back on him, Mukuro attacks him.
 * Also done in one of the final episodes of D.N.Angel, when.
 * And in Fantastic Children; Tohma makes it look like he is allowing Dumas.
 * In Gundam 00  Nice try though.
 * Sailors Uranus and Neptune in Sailor Moon Stars pretended to do a Face Heel Turn, submitting to Galaxia's will and even killing Saturn and Pluto, and then, when the going got good and they did enough damage, made an attempt on her life. Subverted in that Galaxia is seemingly immortal, and both Sailor Senshi are instantly destroyed upon the revelation of her immortality.
 * In an episode of Outlaw Star, Suzuka fights a foe who prostrates himself before her...then opens fire with two automatic weapons. She calmly deflects every shot.
 * Gunslinger Girl: In a rather clever move, Henrietta pretends to be a little girl who is running away from "the scary men downstairs". The two Mooks, who had her pinned behind a corner, figure they can take her hostage. Once she's next to them she kills both of them. Justified because she is a little girl and one wouldn't expect a little girl to be a killing machine. Too Dumb to Live because their organization knew that little girls were being used as assassins.
 * Done by  in Axis Powers Hetalia. He's cornered by   in the Battle Of Tannenburg, so it looks like he's just gonna let himself die...
 * In One Piece, one of the many things "Fowl Play" Don Krieg has been said to do is to fly a Navy flag, or a white flag of surrender, and then open fire without warning.
 * Played with during the Crocodile arc: Vivi attempted to quell a rebellion by having the Royal Army surrender. Crocodile turned this against her by having his agents open fire, leading the rebellion to think that the army's surrender was a trap, which in turn lead to an even fiercer battle.
 * Serial killer Benoit "Lady Killer" Depardieu in Tiger and Bunny tries pulling this one on Lunatic. Unfortunately for Depardieu, it seems he didn't get the memo on Lunatic's standard operating procedure.
 * The first episode of Tenchi Universe has Ryoko pull this stunt. After being confronted by Tenchi, she decides to hand herself over to Mihoshi of the Galaxy Police, only for Ryoko to torch the portable computer Mihoshi was using to read her (Ryoko) the Intergalactic equivalent of the Miranda Rights. Since Mihoshi isn't exactly the brightest bulb on the tree, she can't remember the rest, thus making any attempts to take Ryoko prisoner risks violating her rights, leaving Ryoko free to crash at Tenchi's place without fear of arrest.

Comicbooks

 * In the first Firefly sequel comic, Mal is held up and told to drop his gun. He does, but before it hits the ground he kicks it into the face of his attacker, and it turns into a shoot-out.
 * Just when Green Lantern is about to pummel the living daylights out of Sinestro, Sinestro surrenders and even gives Green Lantern his ring. He poofs away a second later, along with his ring, which Green Lantern can't even remember if he really held.
 * Something similar happened in Kyle Rayner's guest spot on Superman the Animated Series, only in reverse. Kyle surrenders, apparently depowering and giving Sinestro his ring... which promptly explodes in his face, as it was a fake.
 * Used to glorious effect by The Foreigner in an issue of Spider-Man. Forced into an Enemy Mine, The Foreigner promises Spidey that he'll hand himself in if Spidey helps him out. Spidey does, Foreigner survives... and then really does hand himself in. Of course, since he's not on any records anywhere and there's zero evidence to link him to any of his assassinations, the cops assume he's a lunatic and promptly turn him loose.
 * The honorable version of this trope was perhaps the Golden Age Wonder Woman's favorite stratagem. Typically, she would intentionally allow herself to be captured by foes she could easily defeat, in order to learn the villains' plans and/or be led to their hideout. After being Bound and Gagged and taken to the appropriate location, she would get free and kick everyone's ass. (Unless she messed up and let herself get tied up with her own lasso, or have her bracelets welded together by a man, in which case complications would ensue.)
 * In Marvel Comics, Belasco pulls something like this a couple of times. Trying to kill a surrendered enemy puts a black mark on your soul that puts you in his power. Stopping when he surrenders lets him get you again. Being good enough to boot him elsewhere lacks something in the way of permanence. (Of course, given the nature of Limbo, killing him might too.)
 * The Thunderbolts arc "Caged Angels" had four psychics intentionally surrender themselves to the Thunderbolts so that they could get locked up in Thunderbolts Mountain. Once there, they used their psychic abilities to caused havoc (read: Green Goblin crucifying Swordsman).
 * Played with in the opening sequence of DC Comics' famous 1971 Sergeant Rock story "Head Count", which follows Easy Company as they're fighting the Nazis from town to town in rural France. As the story begins they are charging a German pillbox, which quickly gets taken out with the help of a grenade. Two wounded German soldiers then emerge from the pillbox, staggering about aimlessly and holding up their arms. Sgt. Rock orders his men to take them captive, but just then someone opens fire and kills the two would-be prisoners in cold blood. Sarge angrily demands to know who fired, and is confronted with the same soldier who had hurled the grenade: Private "Johnny Doe", an orphaned child who had been drafted into the Army when he turned 18 and soon discovered he had a talent for ruthlessly butchering Nazis. Sarge accuses Johnny of murdering surrendering men, but Johnny points out that they never threw down their guns, so they didn't officially surrender. He further argues that the Germans could have just been faking surrender and that if he hadn't cut them down, they could have wiped out all of Easy Company. Sarge lets the matter drop after that, but things get worse as Johnny Doe grows bolder and bolder in his vigilantism.
 * A "deliberately allowed oneself to be caught" variation occurred in the Batman short story "Cracks." The Penguin kidnaps Commissioner Gordon's wife Sarah and locks her in a gas chamber, into which he will release poisonous gas at midnight. He then has himself deliberately arrested so that he will be taken to Gotham Police Headquarters and can taunt James Gordon about his inability to save his wife and generally gloat about how inferior Gordon is. (The Penguin has recently been all but ignored by Batman and the police, and he's desperate to prove to the city how much of a "tough guy" he thinks he still is.) The scheme backfires: Gordon becomes so enraged by the Penguin's taunts and his refusal to reveal Sarah's location that he delivers a No Holds Barred Beatdown on the bird-man, even scorching his face with his own trademark cigarette holder. He then drags the Penguin by the collar up to the roof of the police building and threatens to throw him to his death, while the Penguin begs and blubbers. But before anything else can happen, Batman shows up with the rescued Sarah and persuades James to get a hold of himself.
 * Played for Laughs in Asterix; according to the comics, Vercingetorix surrendered to Julius Caesar by dropping his weaponry on Caesar's toes.

Film
""Anyone else wanna negotiate?""
 * Double subversion in The Chronicles of Riddick. Riddick surrenders to the mercs and allows them to take him to the prison although he could easily slip from his bonds and gut the whole crew. But he doesn't need to as his capture is just a part of his plan.
 * In the original Die Hard, John McClane pretends to surrender to the thieves, but the audience can see that he has a gun taped between his shoulder blades. Sure enough, as soon as the thieves relax because McClane has his hands up and empty, McClane grabs the gun and opens fire.
 * In his another role as Korben Dallas, Bruce Willis enters a room full of Proud Warrior Race Guys claiming he's going to negotiate, and shooting the leader on the spot.

"M: In the old days if an agent did something that embarrassing he'd have a good sense to defect. Christ, I miss the Cold War."
 * The President is clearly showing disapproval with this tactic when he stares at the general who trained Dallas. Of course, the Mangalores are terrorists in this case and are holding civilians (including a priest) hostage.
 * And Willis does it again in Sin City where he acts as if he is too weak to stand, falling to his knees so that the Big Bad will hover over him, giving him an opportunity to get stabbed.
 * In Blazing Saddles, main villain Hedley Lamarr refuses to duel hero Bart, claiming "but I'm unarmed!" Then when Bart throws down his gun and puts up his fists, Hedley says "Sorry, I just remembered-- I AM armed!" and goes for his Derringer.
 * In Above the Law, Steven Seagal "surrenders" to a CIA torture specialist, who has Seagal strapped to a chair and injects some horrible brain-destroying drug directly into Seagal's corroded carotid artery-- then has him released. But naturally, Seagal is too high on his own ego to be affected by any puny drug; and so Seagal is able to take out the whole army just by girly-fighting them.
 * In Casino Royale, James Bond is surrounded by Embassy troops. After the ambassador tells him to drop his gun, Bond drops the gun he'd taken earlier from the hostage throws his hostage (and target) at them - and then pulls out his own gun from behind his back and shoots the hostage and then some convenient fuel-tanks. He escapes in the confusion.
 * Given the fact that he is caught on camera doing it and is identified as a British agent, his superiors are not happy.

"Hector: Hal, I Lied! (tries to blast him, but the blast stops inches from Hal's face)
 * In 3 Ninjas Kick Back, the old mentor kneels before his enemy before striking him low. This editor can't remember if it was a Groin Attack, though.
 * Similarly in Karate Kid 2, Daniel lets Big Bad take his money, then throw Daniel's wallet down on the ground; Daniel picks up the wallet, and then nails Bigbad with a Groin Attack (a trick which, coincidentally, Mr. Miyagi had taught him earlier that day), causing Bigbad to drop the money so Daniel can grab it and run.
 * Leonidas at the end of 300.
 * Early in Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull, when the Soviets (with thanks to their mole ) point their guns at Indy after his first attempt to escape, during his surrender and "last words", Indy simply says "I like Ike!" and proceeds to drop his rifle, the impact shooting a mook in the process and allowing Indy to escape.
 * Though this may have been entirely by accident.
 * This happened to Danny in Hot Fuzz.
 * For those who don't live in the United States (or slept through history class), "I like Ike" was General Eisenhower's presidential campaign slogan.
 * In the first Spider-Man movie, the Green Goblin "surrenders" to a few cops. They lower their guns and approach him, and he immediately beats them up. Spidey himself isn't fooled for an instant, but is too far away to do anything.
 * In the Stardust movie, Lamia pulls a variant off. After seeing her sisters dead, she pretends to let Tristan and Yvaine go... then catches them just as they're about to leave, and explains that she was just giving them space for a joyful reunion because if she'd killed Tristan outright while Yvaine was still broken-hearted, Yvaine would have been no use for the ritual. (And her sisters? Eh. More for me!)
 * In Braveheart, William Wallace begins his Roaring Rampage of Revenge by doing this to the local English garrison.
 * Played straight and then subverted in Last Man Standing. Midway through the film, Hickey asks another gangster if they'd kill an unarmed man, then pulls a hidden gun and shoots the other guy. He does the exact same thing again at the end of the movie,.
 * In Private Benjamin, the Red and the Blue side are holding simulated war games. So Judy and her teammates in the Blue team go over in a truck to the Red team and tells them that the Blue team has surrendered, and they can get in the truck to go back to base. Amidst the cheering and applause, they get in, at which point they are disarmed at gunpoint; they've been tricked into allowing themselves to be captured!
 * Megatron resorts to this in Transformers the Movie when, facing imminent death at the hands of Optimus Prime, he buys enough time to retrieve his pistol and attempt a sucker shot. Prime doesn't fall for it, and instead chastizes Megatron for resorting to an act that he feels is beneath him. Unfortunately, Hot Rod plays hero and tries to stop Megatron, only to get turned into a Human Shield while Megatron blasts the hapless Prime full of holes.
 * In Star Wars the Clone Wars, Obi-Wan of all people does this in the first battle scene in the pilot movie.
 * Morals don't apply to Good Guys in the Star Wars universe: cf. C-3P0's "surrender" to the Storm Troopers near the end of RotJ.
 * C3PO and R2D2 surrendered. Nobody said anything about the Ewoks.
 * And Obi-Wan was negotiating terms. He hadn't surrendered yet.
 * American Flyers offers a rare example of this trope that doesn't involve fighting. Near the end of the final stage of the Hell of the West bicycle race, hero David Summers and antagonist Barry Muzzin are the two leading riders when they see that Sergei Bellov, their only serious threat, can't keep up with them because of the thin Rocky Mountain air. Muzzin says to Summers, "Okay, we got him. Just sit back, and you've got second place locked up, okay?" Summers agrees, but when Muzzin is busy drinking from his water bottle a few seconds later, Summers charges ahead, providing the dramatic tension necessary for the race's ending.
 * The second Omega Code movie has this trick being pulled against (against, mind you) the Antichrist, Alexander Stone. The final battle starts off as a fight between the forces Stone has on hand and those of the United States (who were supposedly there to finally give in and join the One World Order), backed by China (who have been waiting for the right moment to strike back after being forced under) and Italy (uh, Vatican power?).
 * In Kung Fu Hustle, the Beast, a villainous Retired Badass employed this tactic twice in the film.
 * Used by Magneto to terrifying effect in the first X-Men movie.
 * Undercover Brother. Undercover Brother puts his hands up and pretends to surrender to the golf course guards, then throws metal hair combs to pin them to the wall.
 * At the end of Disney's Beauty and The Beast, the Beast spares Gaston after Gaston begged for his life and Belle showed up. As Belle and Beast are about to embrace, Gaston stabs Beast in the back, leading immediately to Gaston's Karmic Death.
 * Used twice in The Bourne Series - in Supremacy, when Bourne intentionally lets himself be caught in USA consulate in Naples, and in Ultimatum, surrendering to the NY police in order to hijack their car
 * The title character of Hook attempts this on Peter Pan after Peter simply doesn't bother to kill him after their battle.
 * Wild Wild West. After realizing he can't defeat Dr. Loveless's cyber Mook, Jim West pretends to surrender and then turns the tables on him.
 * Actually, he realizes he's been pushed to the edge and gives up. The mook just happens to short out just then and falls over. West didn't plan on this happening.
 * In Green Lantern, Hal Jordan gives his ring to Hector Hammond in exchange for Carol Ferris' life. After playing around with the ring for a bit, this happens:

Hal: I Lied, too. (sends the blast back at Hector)"


 * A variation occurs at the climax of Se7en..
 * In Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning, Capt. Sherrypie surrenders to lure Emperor Pirk onto the space station Babel 13 where he intends to kill him.
 * This happens three frickin' times in The Outlaw Josey Wales. It's played straight twice by The Hero and inverted by the Union troops at the beginning of the film,
 * In End of Days, Jericho is dangling from a window. Satan offers to save him in exchange for his soul. Jericho appears to agree, but when Satan reaches over to pull him up, Jericho screams, "Fuck you!" and yanks Satan out the window, where he falls into the street.

Literature

 * The novel version of The Man With the Golden Gun has a wounded Scaramanga do this. He pleads with Bond to let him have his last prayers, which Bond does. Once he finishes, he pulls out a Derringer and shoots Bond with it. Bond wastes Scaramanga with his shot, but has to be hospitalized.
 * In the book-in-a-book in the novel The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl, the Outlaw surrenders to Rangergirl so that (under her own code), she couldn't gun him down. The next day, he busts out of jail, slaughtering the many Texas Rangers assigned to keep him under wraps. (This is double-subverted when the fictional Outlaw tries it on his book's author.)
 * One of the Khaavren Romances in the Dragaera series has an occasion of this. "Paarfi" tells of a battle wherein the fearsome Sethra Lavode surrendered a crown to the opposing army without any effort to fight them. She then ordered her now puzzled and angry troops to fight until they had gotten the crown back, and they proceeded to completely wipe out their opponents.
 * In the Dirk Pitt novel Flood Tide, our hero Pitt and his sidekick face the enemy with their hands up....
 * After Sauron had been running around causing trouble for the elves for a while, the mighty Númenórians get wind of this and gather up an enormous force to utterly annihilate him. When they form up to attack, Sauron's forces are so overwhelmed by the mere sight that they break ranks and desert him. Sauron, being both a shapeshifter and a silver-tongued snake, surrenders and persuades them to take him prisoner. Taken back to Nûmenor in chains, he eventually ingratiates himself to the point where Númenor is converted to Melkorism and convinced to mount a conquest of Valinor. Which leads to the Valar destroying Númenor and most everybody who lived there.
 * In Sandy Mitchell's Ciaphas Cain novel Cain's Last Stand, Cain uses this on the Warmaster. Well, technically, he suggested they meet to discuss surrender terms, and only at the meeting said it was for the Warmaster's surrender, but given the relative condition of their forces. . ..
 * This is one of Firestar's favorite tactics in Warrior Cats. Even he is surprised that his enemies keep falling for it after a while. Other warriors throughout the series use it on occasion, though it's usually subverted when their opponent doesn't fall for it and dodges the surprise attack.
 * In The Dresden Files, one of the Denarii removes his coin and surrenders right before the righteous heroes were going to kill him, knowing that the good guys won't kill him if he's no longer being demonically possessed. Harry, good Anti-Hero that he is, . Of course, even Michael didn't exactly object. The bastard deserved it.
 * This act of "mercy" backfires when
 * Happens a couple of times in Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
 * The Lost Fleet, The Syndics are fond of this tactic.
 * In Lois McMaster Bujold's Paladin of Souls, the protagonist Ista surrenders to a besieging army of sorcerers. Once they bring her before their leader, Ista proceeds to send the demons possessing her captors back to the Bastard's Hell, removing her captors' sorcerous powers.
 * And also killing her, but that was more or less incidental.
 * In the first Kingdom Keepers book, the plan for defeating Maleficent was essentially saying "We give up," then stabbing her with Disney's Pen.
 * In Dirge by Alan Dean Foster, when describing the final events of the Humanx-Pitar War, the narration notes that the Pitar resisted to the last- many, when confronted by attackers, pretended to surrender, then attacked their 'captors' or committed suicide.
 * In the Wilbur Smith novel Warlock,
 * In the Star Wars EU novel, Dark Rendezvous, Scout sort of pulls this to win a match in an apprentice competition. "Sort of" because she didn't give the actual surrender signal, which would of course have automatically ended the match. Her opponent, being a friend and a gracious type, took this as a useful lesson in paying attention.
 * Shortly after the events of Revenge of the Sith, Darth Vader is lured to Kessel by rumors of Obi-Wan's presence. Instead, he finds nine Jedi Knights and Masters. He kills three of them before being disarmed (literally as well as figuratively), and while the others are closing in for the finishing blow he pulls this trick. Naturally, because they're Jedi, they fall for it.
 * Seen in the French novel Malevil. An Evil Poacher attacks the heroes from hiding, forces his son to surrender to them as their "lone" attacker, and lead them into an ambush. His son is too afraid to lie effectively and is quickly revealed to be too incompetent to have been the unseen archer. He gives up his father's plans.
 * Animorphs: in book 18 Ax is surrounded by Controllers and asks to surrender. When he's taken to a smaller room he immediately attacks the Controllers, pushing them back in order to dive out a window.
 * T. H. White's The Once and Future King has a comical jousting match between Sir Pellinore and Sir Grummore early in the novel. Grummore quickly knocks Pellinore from his horse and strikes his armored head repeatedly with his sword until Pellinore agrees to cry "Pax!" ("Peace!"); Pellinore finally realizes he's beaten and says "Pax"...but then quickly adds "Non!" ("Not!") under his breath and overpowers the unsuspecting Grummore. He soon has Grummore lying helplessly on his back and is trying to decide whether he should slay him. Grummore angrily orders Pellinore to kill him, since he refuses to live with the shame of having been bested by a cheater. Pellinore considers it, but then spares Grummore's life.
 * In the Wing Commander novel Fleet Action, the Kilrathi propose a peace treaty in order to buy time for them to finish building their Hakaga fleet and to lure the Terran Confederation into a false sense of security. The treaty is granted, and would have worked if not for
 * In This Rough Magic, Caesare pulls this on Giuliano. However, the ordinary soldiers he brought with him are also fooled, and drop their weapons. Once Caesare breaks his word, the enemy massacres his now unarmed soldiers.

Live-Action TV
"Frasier: Niles, stop! What are we doing? We're psychiatrists, not pugilists!
 * The alternate version of Carter in the Stargate SG-1 episode "There But For The Grace of God" surrendered to a squad of Goa'uld Jaffa so she could get close to them to suicide-bomb them.
 * Used by the good side in the Series 3 finale of Doctor Who, in which Martha is apparently forced to surrender to the Master after her location is betrayed. Once she is taken back to the Master's base, she briefly submits to his order to kneel before telling him that it was part of the plan all along and just a way of distracting him while the plan was being put into motion.
 * Subverted previously in the second series: the Doctor surrenders to the Cybermen, under the pretence of being willing to undergo cyber-conversion. However, these Cybermen aren't the ones he's used to, and are programmed to 'delete' anyone who didn't immediately surrender.
 * Used against the Family in "The Family of Blood". The Doctor surrenders the fob-watch that had previously contained his Time Lord form while he lay disguised as a human, and while surrendering it, trips and switches a whole bunch of switches, which cause the ship to explode soon afterwards.
 * In the Babylon 5 prequel "In the Beginning", Sheridan uses a false distress signal to lure a Minbari ship into a mined killzone. Subverted in that the Minbari were not accepting surrenders in any case, and the "distress signal" was simply a lure to come and destroy a supposedly defenseless enemy.
 * Slightly subverted in that Sheridan's ship was in fact in distress, having suffered severe damage and lost its Hyperspace capability. The fact that they dropped mines behind them in case the Black Star came to kill them was a sound tactical choice.
 * Yes, okay, it was underhanded. It worked though.
 * The Minbari remember Sheridan's actions as cowardly and still hold a grudge years later. This is despite the fact that they themselves didn't abide by the rules of war by not allowing anyone to surrender.
 * In one episode of Frasier, Frasier and Niles' Sibling Rivalry has finally spilled over into physical violence, and Niles has Frasier in a headlock:

[Niles lets up]

Frasier: I can't believe you fell for that! [Frasier gets Niles in a headlock]"


 * Dylan does this in an episode of Andromeda. He even throws away his weapon. Towards the enemy. Set on overload...
 * In Power Rangers ZEO, the power draining robot Main Drain is battling the Power Rangers after draining all the electricity in the city. During the zord battle, he vastly overpowers the Zeo Megazord, even being mostly unfazed by getting hit a few times with the sabre. After the Rangers finally get in a punch and push him back, rather than immediately resume attacking like most monsters of the week would do, he gets on his knees and begs for mercy, King Mondo is also seen begging for his robot to be spared. The Rangers fall for it even though the monster was winning and would have no reason to surender when monsters who were actually losing would continue fighting. Of course, Main Drain takes care of their stupidity and burrows his tentacles underground to attach to the Zeo Megazord, suck out all its power and temporarily break the sabre in half. Later, Main Drain tries the same thing with the new Red Battlezord but Tommy doesn't fall for it and finishes him off.
 * In the series finale of Star Trek Enterprise, the Villains of the Week board Enterprise and manage to get Trip Tucker and Capt. Archer at gunpoint.


 * This example raises a bit of Fridge Logic, unfortunately. Why did do this when Enterprise had troops aboard that were searching for the pirate boarding party? Was he trying to avoid a hostage situation or something?

Professional Wrestling

 * A fairly common trick of the heels, and most famously used by Ric Flair (in the form of his sinking to his knees, letting out a Big No, and then a Three Stooges-style eye-poke!).

Tabletop RPG

 * Champions adventure The Great Super Villain Contest. Villains in the Contest may use the "Oh My I'm Caught" scenario. They allow themselves to be captured by the authorities so they can engineer a massive breakout from jail, freeing other prisoners and scoring a large number of points.

Videogames
"Boss: I'm no match for you! I admit defeat.
 * In Resident Evil Code Veronica, Claire is confronted by Umbrella troops standing in front of a wall full of Exploding Barrels. So she drops her gun in "surrender"... then sweeps down, grabs it, and opens up on the barrels, blowing the troops away. She ends up being captured, though.
 * Notable not only for this reason, but because Claire shows Neo-like speed-- she ducks so fast she catches the gun before it hits the ground.
 * The same maneuver is pulled by Alice in Resident Evil: Apocalypse but without the barrels.
 * One boss in Star Fox 64 says he "admits defeat" halfway through the battle... then promptly turns his Humongous Mecha around, revealing that the back of it is a Wave Motion Gun.
 * Not like he's fooling anyone unless 2 members of the squad are absent: Slippy, who provides the shield bar for bosses, and Falco, who doesn't trust him.

Falco: Are you gonna listen to that monkey?

Boss: Haah! You're not as stupid as you look!"

"If this does not work!"
 * Alternatively, if Falco's not there:

"Dr. Nefarious: (melodramatically) * gasp* I am defeated! I have no choice but to throw myself at your mercy!
 * Emperor Gestahl pulls one of these with his entire empire in Final Fantasy VI.
 * One quest in World of Warcraft has you do this with a group of murlocs so you can more easily get at their leader to kill him.
 * Another quest in Cataclysm asks you to subdue rather than kill an ogre mage, who pretends to surrender but then suddenly grabs you and dangles you from a high place until he's surprised in turn from behind.
 * Speaking of War Craft, in Warcraft II Ogrim Doomhammer pretended to surrender to Anduin Lothar. When Lothar arrived to talk terms, Doomhammer and his Orcs ambushed and killed him. Doomhammer believed this would break the Alliance's will to fight, but its effect was exactly the opposite: After Lothar's death, his most trusted general, Turalyon, took up his shield and sword and led the armies of the Alliance to victory over Doomhammer and his Orcs. In Warcraft III, this was retconned to Doomhammer defeating Lothar in single combat in order to make the former seem more honorable and sympathetic.
 * In the penultimate level of Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, Face Heel Turn  lowers his weapon after delivering a Motive Rant, claiming that "I know you wouldn't shoot an old friend." At this point, you're meant to prove him wrong; if, however, you lower your own gun in turn, he pulls a gun on you and meets his Karmic Death. The protagonist then says: "You're right   I wouldn't shoot an old friend." Which either means he doesn't consider him as a friend anymore or he doesn't literally shoot him (he knifes him).
 * At the end of Splinter Cell: Conviction,.
 * Used in the first quarter of the final battle against Dr Nefarious in Ratchet and Clank Up Your Arsenal:

Ratchet: (surprised) Really? I mean... (sternly) That's right, Dr. Nefarious! Your evildoing has come to an en--

Dr. Nefarious: (running away) SUCKERS! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Ratchet: (furious) Grrrrrrr..."

""I suppose I misjudged!"
 * Jon Irenicus' "surrender" to the Cowled Wizards in Baldurs Gate 2--though he waited much longer than the standard I Surrender, Suckers; specifically, until he was brought into prison. Then he broke out and slaughtered every Cowled Wizard he could find.
 * Heroic examples in Knights of the Old Republic on the Leviathan mission.
 * Used in God of War 2 by, you guessed it, Kratos. It starts with attempt to deliver a Coup De Grace on him, leads into an Action Commands sequence and ends with him pinned against a rock with Kratos' blades and being repeatedly stabbed through the stomach with Blade of Olympus. Kratos had fully intended to allow himself to be killed, but  made the mistake of vocally refusing Kratos's "surrender terms" before striking.
 * Used in Gunstar Heroes, after defeating Black.  It's caught at least one newbie totally off-guard.
 * The Punisher for the X Box system. Various enemies, beaten into submission or just scared silly by overwhelming firepower, will surrender or even seemingly turn against their own side. Don't be fooled. About half of these will grab a weapon as soon as the Punisher's back is turned. Canon-wise, this makes sense as the Punisher is rarely willing to leave a mook alive.
 * A better example from the same game: all but the final mission is a flashback of Frank's rampage through New York City (and an island in the South Pacific). At the end of the second last mission, after killing a lot of Yakuza, he uncharacteristically unloads his guns and walks out to face the police, who arrest him.
 * One of the missions in Guild Wars: Nightfall has you surrendering to an enemy force in order to pull off a rescue/jailbreak.
 * The fight against Destroyman in No More Heroes ends this way: after Travis stabs him through the chest, he weakly cries for help, causing Travis to pull out his sword and turn away in disgust. Destroyman promptly whirls around and opens fire with dual chest-mounted machine guns, only to get sliced in half.
 * In the cutscene that plays after defeating Bad Girl, she throws a tantrum and has Travis Pinned, bashing him with her bat in the same way she does in her Nonstandard Game Over. Travis tells her he admits defeat and that she won, which causes her to stop beating him long enough to die of bloodloss. Travis admits after that it was close.
 * Gilgamesh crosses this with NOT in Final Fantasy V after getting badly beaten:

Casts Haste on self

"Fighting all four of you..."

Casts Protect on self

"...is just too tough for me..."

Casts Shell on self

"NOT! Ha, I lied! Like a rug! Oh, I kill myself!"

Attacks heroes with Jump"


 * A legitimate and rather useful if dangerous tactics in Desperados (Think Commandos on the Wild West). Unlike it's predecessor here enemies who spot an unarmed and motionless PC sometimes will not shoot right away but will instead draw a bead on him and slowly approach in order to knock the hero down. Naturally their approach route will just happen to pass an ambush with your knife-thrower at the ready. Can be played even straighter with your Action Girl as a bait as she is fast enough to kick an approaching croon right in the forbidden zone.
 * Many of the mooks will do this in the game God Hand. The men will kneel and beg for mercy, and the girls will sit down and cry. This is a variant though, since Gene can't actually arrest them or anything, his only option in this scenario is either ignore them until they stand up again, use the opportunity to perform a running attack on them, or somehow approach them and perform Gene's finishing move (suplex or spanking). Beware that getting too close to them will cause them to sucker punch Gene.
 * The Joker, master of this trope in Batman Arkham Asylum. Joker lets Batman capture him after a failed hostage scenario with the Mayor, just so he can get back into the Asylum. When he gets to where he needs to be, Joker easily defeats his armed guards and releases his minions from prisons. The only character who wasn't carrying an Idiot Ball in letting Joker get that far was Batman, of course.
 * Not to mention the final scene where he claims his plans were for naught and
 * Batman Arkham City invokes the trope a few times as well: First is when Penguin begs for Batman to not hurt him, but then detonates the iceberg monument while Batman was still on it (although in this case, given that Batman implies that he might end up hurting him, its probably more closer to responding in kind), and the Joker/ also arranges for his mooks to arrive after claiming that Batman won.
 * Also a useful but dangerous tactic in Army of Two: The 40th Day. One player pretends to surrender, while the other gets into position. When they're ready, either the surrendering player quickdraws, or the other player opens fire. Or both players surrender at once, and the team gets a few seconds of Bullet Time to kill all the forces approaching them.
 * The first boss in Tenchu 2 will sometimes pretend to beg for mercy before attacking.
 * The Japanese do this in Call of Duty: World at War near the end of the campaign,
 * As a subversion, the Red Army (Sgt. Reznov in particular) have become wise to this kind of behavior from the Nazis, and just kill them anyways.
 * In Donkey Kong Country, King K. Rool pulls this. Just after you defeat him, fake credits start to roll across the screen. They're pretty obviously fake, but seconds after they finish, K. Rool gets back up and continues to fight. Subsequent tries have him just fall over and then get back up, though the first time it happens is likely to catch a player off-guard.
 * In Jet Force Gemini, there were Yellow Drones, who, immediately after seeing you, would surrender. Usually, they would just stand there, being an open invitation to the Video Game Cruelty Potential, but on occasion, when you turned your back, they'd lob a grenade at you... which would then blow up in their face because you were right next to them, damaging you, but blowing them to Ludicrous Gibs. Regular Blue Drones would do this too if caught completely off-guard.
 * In the classic Mega Man games, Dr. Wily used to do this a lot. By the 7th game, Mega Man gets so tired of it that he stops Wily's "I surrender" routine and prepares himself to blast his head off.
 * A possible subversion occurred in Mega Man 8, where Mega Man tells Wily that he's pulled this trick on him multiple times beforehand before Mega Man ends up infected by the Evil Energy. Its unknown what exactly Wily intended to do, but his reaction when Mega Man was being infected with Evil Energy implies that his surrender was genuine, or at the very least that if he was planning to pull off the trope, he certainly didn't intend for it to happen that way. Also averted outright in regards to 10, where after Wily was beaten by Mega Man, he ends up genuinely needing to surrender in such a way that even Mega Man seems to see it as genuine now (Wily caught a cold).
 * And at the end of 9, this is actually lampshaded in one of the most humourous moments in the game.
 * In Spider-Man Shattered Dimensions, after the first battle with Hammerhead, he says that he "gives" when Noir Spidey has him pinned. However, the moment he lets his guard down Hammerhead shows us one of three reasons why he got his name.
 * A very common tactic in Civilization, regardless of whether you're on the winning or losing side of a war, is to declare peace for between 10-30 turns (depending on the game) and then re-declaring war the moment the peace treaty expires. If you're winning, it lets you extort resources from your opponent that would be lost if you annihilated them right away, and it gives you time to scout out any key cities that you haven't located already. If you're losing, it gives you time to build a tech advantage and retaliate with a stronger army, or set up a diplomatic alliance against your opponent that will bog them down with other wars while you prepare to attack them yourself.
 * In later games, the AI-controlled civilizations will remember your actions and be more wary in their dealings with you.
 * Eggman does this in Sonic the Hedgehog quite a few times, pleading that he'll reform provided Sonic doesn't beat him to a bloody pulp, just before activating a new machine. Most notable is that in Sonic Unleashed he does this at the end of the Cold Opening, right at the beginning of the game. Sonic doesn't really buy it but he's willing to stand around joking about it because he's currently high on God Mode as Super Sonic and theoretically nothing can hurt him. Sadly that was an important requirement of the trap.
 * Hostile NPCs in The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim will occasionally beg for mercy when they're down to their last bit of health, but even if you stop attacking them, it usually doesn't take more than ten seconds before they're back on their feet trying to kill you again. Naturally, the Genre Savvy course of action is to always go for the kill.
 * This is sometimes averted in outdoors fights. A bandit or what-have-you that begs for mercy might just keep on running.
 * In Star Warsthe Old Republic, this is an actual Ability of the 'Smuggler' class -- they can use a 'Fake Surrender' to greatly reduce their Aggro, essentially drawing fire away from them and onto their (presumably more robust) teammates. With the right skills, it can also free them from any movement-restricting effects. Combine it with their 'Dirty Kick' and another skill that lets them move much faster for a short while after using THAT, and you've got the recipy for the picture-perfect 'I Surrender, Suckers'.
 * In one of the Campaign scenarios from Age of Mythology, the opposing army gives Arkantos the option of surrendering in exchange of a quick death. Ajax responds by shooting one of their soldiers with a ballista and then saying "We surrender, move a little closer!".

Webcomics

 * The Bloodrage family inside Looking for Group do something like this--they surrender...to their bloodlust.
 * Pulled in the Order of the Stick prequel book Start of Darkness, when Eugene Greenhilt tells his son Roy about why he seeks to destroy the Big Bad of the series, Xykon.
 * In Erfworld, Parson uses a fake surrender to lure Ansom into a trap.

Web Original

 * Associated Space has Fatebane pull this trick on the Volsian battlecruiser IVS Measured Amount of Vengeance.
 * The Evil Overlord list has a particularly thoughtful one: pretending to morally reform so the hero will leave him alone for a few months.

Western Animation
"Sokka: First, we get him to offer himself as our prisoner... And then we jump him, and then we really make him our prisoner!"
 * In Avatar: The Last Airbender, Azula's "surrender" is immediately followed by her attacking one of her opponents and making a successful getaway in the ensuing confusion. To be completely fair to the opposition, none of them actually dropped their guard because they were expecting something like this, but Azula was able to take advantage of someone being distracted for a different reason to make her strike.
 * Namely, Iroh gives Toph a brief sideways glance. That is all the opening she needs.
 * Also, the Gaang thinks Zuko's doing this when he tries to let them take him prisoner if they won't let him join.
 * Humorously inverted in the same episode: After Zuko (accidentally) burns Toph, the rest of the Gaang decides it would probably be safer to take Zuko prisoner. Sokka, however, thinks that this is some sort of trap... for Zuko.

"Bronze Tiger: You remember Wong Fei's most important lesson? What to do when you're outmatched? Cheat."
 * Aang did it himself in the second episode, allowing himself to be briefly captured by Zuko just to take the fight away from noncombatants.
 * Hudson pulls one of these off in the Gargoyles animated series, when he needs to get into an underground base to get the MacGuffin.
 * In Batman the Brave And The Bold, Bronze Tiger does this to turn the tables on a trio of mystically empowered martial artists in command of an undead army.

"Zapp Brannigan: Fly the white flag of war!"
 * Jonny Quest episode "Terror Island". Race Bannon holds up his hands and pretends to surrender to a jeep full of Mook guards. He then tosses a grenade into the jeep and dodges behind a building as the grenade explodes, killing them.
 * Scar, in the climax of The Lion King, begs Simba for mercy, calls himself family, and promises to do anything to make it up to him (run away), only to fling hot ashes in his face.
 * In Transformers Animated Megatron does this to Omega Supreme (who he was inside of); who had disarmed him, restrained him and identified him as justifiable to use lethal force on. Megatron then pretends to surrender in order to trick Omega Supreme to take him back to Cybertron. He then manages to take almost complete control of him.
 * The Liar Starscream clone (aka Ramjet), who had seemingly been captured by Lockdown to be handed over to Sentinel Prime, deliberately let slip that he wasn't really restrained by saying; "And here I am. Completely disarmed and helpless"- which Prowl caught on to, based on the fact that every word out of his mouth is a lie.
 * Also used in Transformers the Movie, where Megatron begs for mercy from Optimus as a ruse. Optimus isn't falling for it and shows every sign of being about to finish it, but Hod Rod doesn't realize this, and attempts to save Optimus. Megatron promptly takes Hot Rod as a hostage, and the battle ends up killing Optimus.
 * Beast Wars brings this up before the first season finale. Megatron finds an alien artifact and needs time to plan for an alien invasion, so he seeks a truce with the Maximals so that he isn't wasting time and resources fighting them. Optimus Primal calls him out on it, saying that when a Predacon wants a truce, it means he needs time to reload. Megatron admits that is normally true.
 * Futurama: A bit oblique, but:

"Cop: Freeze!
 * Frozone uses this during a scene in The Incredibles: he and Mr. Incredible are rescuing civilians from a burning building, and they

Lucius: I'm thirsty.

Cop: I said freeze!

Lucius: I'm just getting a drink.

[takes the cup to his lips and drinks]

Cop: Okay, you had your drink. Now, I want you to...

Lucius: I know, I know. Freeze.

[freezes the cop]"


 * In the first episode of Duck Tales, the lead Beagle Boy takes Huey hostage and demands Scrooge hand over the map they're trying to steal. Scrooge does so, but once Huey's safe, he has Louie and Dewey let loose a vat of hot chocolate on the Beagles.
 * The Wizards of the Black Circle pull one of these near the end of the fourth season of Winx Club. They claim that they no longer want to fight the Earth fairies and that they would even like to give up their powers, however, they are actually planning creating a dark abyss which will eventually destroy all the Earth fairies.
 * Pulled off, much to Valmont's dread, in the second season of Jackie Chan Adventures.
 * The Herculoids episode "The Mutoids". After the Herculoids defeat a number of the title creatures, the Mutoid leader Mutak pretends to surrender to lure Zandor into a trap.
 * Employed ingeniously on an episode of MTV's Celebrity Deathmatch by model and actress Rebecca Romijn, not that it did her much good in the long run. (Oddly, she was playing the good guy at the outset of the feud, but in the course of the match underwent a Face Heel Turn, cheating early and often even as her villainous opponent fought fairly.) She and fellow model Naomi Campbell were scheduled to settle a grudge match in the ring, but had to fight in their underwear after commentator Nick Diamond accidentally splattered their clothes with Cheez Whiz. During the fight, someone threw a riding crop and a pair of handcuffs into the ring, which Naomi used to cuff Rebecca and whip her on her upper thighs as she lay prone on the mat. Rebecca begged for mercy, promising Naomi that she would get a gift if she let her go. Naomi liked this idea and uncuffed Rebecca, who kept her word by giving Naomi a wrapped package; Naomi opened it and pulled out a beautiful new fur coat. Rebecca urged Naomi to try on the coat, which she did - and then, just as Rebecca had predicted, a gang of deranged anti-fur protesters appeared out of nowhere to beat Naomi to a bloody pulp. Rebecca then stepped forward to kill the gravely injured Naomi, but Naomi managed to work up enough strength to vomit up her own stomach and squeeze it in her foe's direction, spraying Rebecca with lethal gastric acid that caused her to melt down into a puddle of flesh-colored liquid with her blue bra and panties floating on the top.

Other

 * Borderline "historical" example: The Trojan Horse ploy is a variation, in that the Greeks didn't actually "surrender" (i.e. give up their weapons and put themselves in their enemies' power). The Trojans turned out to be Made of Plasticine.
 * A rare real life example is to be found in the animal world. Apparently, one species of ants uses a similar trick to gain slaves for their colony. After an attack on a neighbour anthill, a young queen remains on the battlefield, playing dead. Once the enemy carry her into their hive's food storage chambers, she 'gets better', kills and eats their queen and copies her pheromone makeup, causing the entire hive to treat her as the queen. The ants are doomed to die out (for lack of a genuine queen) but until they do, they work in the fake queen's home colony as if it was their own.
 * A variant occurs in Roald Dahl's autobiography, Going Solo. When confronting a group of German colonists intent on returning to Germany (to fight in World War II against Britain), Dahl raises his hands... as the signal for every gun under his command to fire a single shot over the Germans' heads.
 * One of the interviewees in Studs Terkel's "The Good War" relates that this was a common SS tactic. They eventually stopped accepting surrender of SS troops (which in turn may have had bearing on the Malmedy massacre.)
 * The Japanese were absolutely notorious for this. So much so that many American soldiers decided that taking Japanese prisoners was not worth the risk, and shot them instead.
 * On the other hand, many Japanese were incredulous that the Americans would actually take them prisoner and treat them decently. Once taken prisoner they were extremely cooperative, as they had no real model for how prisoners were supposed to behave.
 * A standard ploy by Heel Professonal Wrestlers, so much so that it has become a Discredited Trope.
 * During the invasion of Iraq, there were reported instances of Iraqi soldiers who pretended to surrender and attacked the American soldiers when they came close.
 * In Rush's song "The Necromancer" a group is on an adventure to find and stop said necromancer. When they find him they immediately surrender in awe of his power only for to attack while he isn't paying attention.
 * At the battle of Kilmichael during the Irish war of Independence.A group of british soldiers fake surrendered before commencing fire again causing the deaths of three IRA men.The IRA commander then ordered that they be wiped out to the last man.
 * The Battle of The Waxhaws in The American Revolution . Usually seen as a brutal slaughter of helpless Americans by the nasty British, a recent theory suggests that the British thought they were victims of this trope - Their leader's (Banastre Tarleton) horse was shot down, just as a flag of truce was going up, a flag not all the Americans noticed at first. It got ugly.
 * It is not known with 100% certianty that the Japanese were pulling this trope when they practically wiped out the Goettge Patrol during the Battle of Guadelcanal, but to the few surviving Americans, it sure seemed like it.
 * Considering that it's Imperial Japan, it's not all that surprising nowadays. Although, isn't lying dishonorable too?
 * They probably believed that dishonoring themselves by lying is not as bad as dishonoring themselves by being taken prisoner, humiliating their empire.
 * A bit more like "We'll talk cease-fire, suckers," but not hours after reports of the Libyan government accepting a cease fire plan, pro-Gaddafi forces launched a surprise attack on a rebel-held town.
 * This has led to the Libyan rebels becoming Genre Savvy concerning Gaddafi's government's tendencies, particularly those that edge into Chronic Backstabbing Disorder.
 * During the American Civil War, Nathan Bedford Forrest did this a lot.
 * This is actually against the Hague Convention because it makes acceptance of genuine surrender impossible, thus ensuring a perpetual state of warfare.
 * A Nerf gun called the "Secret Shot" had a second barrel in the handle, so you could shoot your opponent as you pretended to surrender.