"Get Out of Jail Free" Card: Difference between revisions

* Subverted in ''[[Marvel Comics|Thunderbolts]]'', about villains becoming heroes. MACH-1, previously the Beetle, learns that for the Thunderbolts to be allowed to continue functioning, he must go to jail for a murder he committed. He does so willingly, and even sabotages a break-out attempt that would have included him. {{spoiler|He's eventually given expedited parole for helping save the world multiple times.}}

* Averted in the first run of [[Marvel Comics]] ''[[New Warriors]]''. After Vance Astrovik, AKA Marvel Boy, is convicted of {{spoiler|negligent homicide}}, he [[Self-Restraint|refuses to go along]] when his teammates try to break him out.

* ''Gloriously'' used {{spoiler|and subverted}} at the end of the [[Buck Godot]] Gallimaufry Cycle. Buck returns home and meets with someone to negotiate his 'tax duty', a type of community service (and, to make sure people are prompt, the longer you wait to check in, the ''exponentially'' worse the duty gets... and Buck's been gone a ''while''.) Buck offers up a 'note', which turns out to be a message from the Prime Mover, the most powerful being in the galaxy. The note explains what Buck had been up to all this time - from {{spoiler|finding a religious artifact}} to {{spoiler|preventing multiple intergalactic jihads}} to {{spoiler|stopping a civil war in the seat of galactic government}} to '' {{spoiler|saving humanity itself from extinction}}'', and would he please let Buck off the hook, thank you very much. {{spoiler|Too bad it doesn't work.}}

* In ''[[All Fall Down]]'', {{spoiler|Siphon}} gets one of these in the form of a Presidential Pardon.

* In the ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'' sequels, there is never any suggestion that the "undead pirates" who have joined the heroes should be held accountable for any past crimes. This is despite the fact that the first movie suggested that Barbossa and his crew had made a habit of butchering and razing entire towns in order to find the Aztec coins to break their curse. Of course, the heroes who took them in aren't exactly law-abiding citizens either.

** The suggestion was also almost immediately subverted ''in the sentence after it was made''. While they'd obviously been doing some raiding and pillaging... well, they're ''pirates''. These things fall under "being defined as a pirate". Not doing so would put them in a [[The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything|different category altogether]].

'''Jack''': No survivors, eh? [[Undead Author|Then where do the stories come from, I wonder]]? }}

** Also, let's not forget the the "heroes" don't have time, couldn't care less, see the bigger picture, -- as more important stuff is going on at any given moment -- and, if they always enforced the law in these movies, everyone would've been put to death but Cutler Beckett.

** Spike after he was chipped counts as this. I know he couldn't physically hurt humans, but time and again he proved he was still dangerous. [[It Got Worse]] when he and Buffy got in a relationship, as stated above.

** Everyone in ''Buffy'' gets a pass from all the others, because there is really no one to cast the first stone. They've all done it. This is pointed out in ''First Date'', when The First, as Jonathan, is trying to get Andrew to turn back against Buffy:

'''Andrew''': Confidentially, a lot of her people are murderers. Uh, Anya and Willow and Spike.... }}

** In fact, every Scooby except for Dawn is a murderer. Before you state that Buffy isn't, we all know that legally (and truthfully) Buffy was as guilty for the Deputy Mayor's death as Faith was. She threw him to the ground to be killed. She and Faith would both get manslaughter charges in a court. Giles killed Ben and perhaps others back when he was Ripper, Willow killed Warren and committed 6 billion counts of attempted murder and one of attempted suicide, Faith killed multiple people, Spike and Angel were part of the Scourge of Europe, Anya was a Vengeance Demon for 1000 years, and Xander was responsible for the musical demon. Basically, being against someone for murder while part of the Scoobies is hypocritical.

* A ''[[Law & Order|Law and Order]]'' episode has Lenny Briscoe bribe a reluctant informant with his business card - saying that he should show the cop that card the next time he gets pulled over for speeding.

* Mentioned in the very first episode of [[Law and Order Special Victims Unit|Law & order SVU]], when Benson and Stabler let the murderer go without any sentence at all.

* Lex Luthor from ''[[Smallville]]'' practically walks around with this plastered on his forehead, since [[Faux Affably Evil|everyone can tell that he's up to something]] yet they rarely make the effort to stop him.

* In the Canadian crime series [[Intelligence]] no one would ever get arrested even when they fully expected to be. Usually Vancouver's Organized Crime Unit would beat the police in identifying and locating serious criminals, all who would typically ask, once cornered, to call their lawyers. "Well, that's one option," they would invariably be told. Of course, the other option was to activate the get out of jail free card by becoming a Confidential Informant. And not only would they escape jail, they were allowed to continue their criminal enterprise and even expand it.

* Averted hard in an episode of ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]'', in which Rainbow the Clown is accidentally bleached and becomes a mime who steals all the color and sound from the world. When the girls restore Townsville and convert him back to his happy self with a combination of [[The Power of Rock]] and [[Rule of Cool]], they ''still'' take him down violently and ship him to prison. The episode left a bad taste in the mouths of many fans.

** Averted in another episode where the Powerpuff Girls were arrested for crimes committed by crooks wearing Powerpuff Girls disguises. They break out of prison and beat up the criminals, then get congratulations from the Mayor - right before he says that they're going back to prison for breaking out of prison.

* ''[[Wish Kid]]'': Nick literally used that card to get out of jail. He used the card to reach a lock so he could open a door.

* ''[[Dumb and Dumber]]'': Harry and Lloyd were about to be thrown at a volcano when Harry produced a "Get Out of Being Thrown At a Volcano Free" card. He was allowed to leave but Lloyd still needed rescuing.