Blofeld Ploy: Difference between revisions
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== Film ==
* ''[[James Bond (film)|James Bond]]''
** Blofeld does this twice in ''[[You Only Live Twice]]'', and the second one is pretty funny, in a gallows humour kind-of-way. {{spoiler|He points a gun at Bond, and when it looks like he's going to shoot him, he shoots Mr. Osato first, for failing so much. Before he can shoot Bond, Blofeld gets a Ninja star to the wrist. This is particularly ironic, as Mr. Osato had been threatened in turn by Blofeld, only for Number 11 to be the one executed. Blofeld held them ''both'' responsible for failing to kill Bond, and he was arguably right.}}
** In ''[[Thunderball]]'', Blofeld electrocutes one of the henchmen sitting at his conference table for embezzling money from him, only after grilling another (and totally innocent) henchman for the reason why their drug trafficking ring had turned in such poor profits. Showing that it applies to things other than just failing to kill a "00" Agent.
*** Subverted in that in this case it's a setup; the innocent henchman has been ordered by Blofeld ahead of time to let himself be used as a decoy, so that the guilty one (who already knows he's under suspicion) won't think ''he's'' about to be killed until it's too late, and thus not attempt to shoot his way out or dodge the booby-trap or anything.
** ''[[From Russia with Love]]''; Chess Grandmaster Kronsteen looks on smugly, confident that fellow underling Rosa Klebb is being held terminally accountable for their scheme's failure - only for the poison blade to change direction at the last moment. Klebb lives to scheme another day. Ironically Kronsteen was right—his plan worked perfectly; it was the assassin picked by Rosa Klebb who stuffed it up. Of course only Bond was in a position to know that.
** And then there's ''[[Licence to Kill]]''. Sanchez guns down his financial advisor, Truman-Lodge, after ''Bond'' destroyed three of their four gasoline/crack cocaine tankers. Also part of a [[Villainous Breakdown]]. Then again, Lodge should have known better than to have pushed the [[Berserk Button]] of a murderous drug kingpin who was ''holding an Uzi'' at the time.
{{quote|'''Sanchez:''' [[Pre-Mortem One-Liner|I guess it's time to start cutting overhead.]]}}
** In ''[[The World Is Not Enough]]'', Renard confronts Davidov, Elektra King's head of security, for Bond escaping the parahawk attack earlier that day. But when he says "Kill him", the gunman instead shoots Mikhail Arkov, a nuclear scientist, and Davidov is forced to take his place. ([[Paper-Thin Disguise|The two look nothing alike, however.]])
* In ''[[The Punisher (film)|The Punisher]]'' film, John Travolta's character executes this very trope.{{context}}
* Subverted in the movie ''[[Mission: Impossible (film)||Mission Impossible]] 2'', where Sean Ambrose, the villain, has his gun against what seems to be Ethan Hunt's head (Hunt is the hero). It is expected that he will kill McCloy, whom he is talking to. However, he instead shoots and kills Hunt. {{spoiler|Minutes later, the [[Double Subversion|subversion is subverted]] when it is revealed that the Hunt that was killed was actually Ambrose's chief lieutenant (courtesy of [[Latex Perfection]]).}}
** In ''Mission Impossible 3'', {{spoiler|the film opens with Davian appearing to kill Ethan Hunt's wife. It is revealed that, again courtesy of [[Latex Perfection]], the woman he shot was his translator who failed him earlier in the film. It turned out she was also his security chief, so the fact that he was kidnapped when she was right there with him obviously made him rather...upset with her.}}
* Justified in ''[[Crimson Tide]]'', where the submarine commander is trying to get the key to the nuclear launch control, but the Executive Officer has convinced Weps not to open the safe or give the captain the key. When the captain shows up, he puts his sidearm against Weps head, and tells him he will shoot him if he doesn't give him the key. It then occurs to the captain that he can't shoot Weps, he's the only one that knows the combination to the safe with the key. So he picks another sailor on the boat, puts his sidearm to the head of the sailor, and tells Weps that if he doesn't open the safe and give him the key in three seconds, he will shoot and kill the sailor.
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* A variant of the variant on this trope occurred in the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] novel ''Darksaber''. Durga the Hutt, former Vigo of Black Sun, has his henchmen's chairs wired so that they can be electrocuted at any time. After accidentally punishing the wrong underling, he decides that it serves just as well as a warning as it would have been if the one who had actually been at fault had died.
** We also learn in this book that Palpatine had a particularly sadistic variant of his own. When the first Death Star blew up, he had the chief engineer brought before him and had him brutally killed for the design flaw Luke exploited. But because he was too valuable to [[The Empire]], he then had him resurrected as a clone (complete with memories of the death) and put him in charge of finishing the new Death Star....and everytime something went wrong with the construction process, regardless of whether he was really at fault or not, Palpatine would do it all over again, each time using a new method of slow and painful execution just to spice things up. The guy remembers Palpatine [[Evil Laugh|cackling like the madman he was every time he did it too.]]
** In the first book of [[The Thrawn Trilogy]], the Grand Admiral pulls a very interesting [[You Have Failed Me...]]. A tractor beam operator was unable to capture Luke Skywalker, and tries to make excuses, blaming his immediate superior (both of which were [[Contest Winner Cameo]]s). Thrawn turns and questions the ensign who trained him, and everyone knows ''someone's'' going to die. While reprimanding the ensign he has the tractor beam operator killed, then explains that the operator was executed for borderline insubordination, failure to adapt, and as a lesson in the difference between mere errors and worse mistakes.
*** There's then a [[Call Back]] to this in the third book, where a very similar situation happens, but this time - because the tractor beam operator took full responsibility, used his imagination, and tried an innovative solution, even though it didn't work - Thrawn instead promotes him and orders him to keep working on a way around the method Luke used to escape the tractor beam. ''Finally'', in the ''[[Hand of Thrawn]]'' (set a decade later) another character indeed uses that method...and the Empire has a way to stop it.
* In the [[Alex Rider]] book ''Eagle Strike'', Damian Cray orders Yassen Gregorovich to kill Alex and Sabina, but Yassen refuses, saying he "does not kill children". Flustered, Cray snatches away the gun and shoots Yassen instead of Alex and Sabina.
* ''[[The Sword of Truth|Faith of the Fallen]]'' has an example where a military commander orders a witch to show the people how ruthless the Imperial Order is, presumably by burning alive some children. She orders the soldiers to burn alive the ''commander'' - to demonstrate the Order won't hesitate to kill ''anyone''.
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== Live-Action TV ==
* Pretty much what happens with Gus and Victor on ''[[Breaking Bad]]''. Walt and Jesse conspired to have Gus's meth cook Gale killed so they will be indispensable to his operation. Gus can't afford for his supply line to dry up while finding another meth cook...but he also can't let Walt and Jesse think he's soft. Gus proceeds to get a box cutter leaving Walt and Jesse nervous they were about to die but Gus but slits his henchman Victor's throat and drops the bloody corpse right in front of them as a warning not to defy him again.
* Parodied in Season 4 of ''[[The Kids in The Hall]]'', in a skit called "Things To Do", where a bank robber ends up shooting all of his henchmen as examples.
{{quote|Good morning everybody! This is a hold-up! I repeat, this is a hold-up! No funny business, or this will happen to you! [Shoots one of his own men] Get the money!}}
* In ''[[Reilly, Ace of Spies]]'', Reilly is lured to a crypt in London by Zaharov, a man running a private spy ring. A grave is being dug by Redgrave the man who earlier over-did an interrogation of Reilly's prostitute girlfriend and killed her. Zaharov is waiting with a loaded revolver, gets Reilly over to a corner and has him turn his back- then kills Redgrave.
**
* ''[[24]]'' Series 3 -- Nina puts a gun to the captive Jack's head and then shoots her bodyguard.
** And again in season 7, after Jack thinks he's been double-crossed and takes a [[Mook]] hostage. After being let go, the [[Mook]] demands that his boss kill Jack—and he kills the Mook instead.
* An unusual twist on this in ''[[Angel]]'', where it happens to a villain, {{spoiler|Lindsey,}} on one of the few occasions he works with Angel.
* In the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' serial "The Pirate Planet", the Captain berates his main [[Butt Monkey]] of an underling for not having figured out the [[Negative Space Wedgie]] from earlier in the episode. "When someone fails me," he declares, "someone DIES!" With that, his mechanical bird thingy arises... and kills a different underling. He then assigns the same task to the same underling, violating the [[Evil Overlord List]] ''again.''
** Possibly a subversion, because it is later revealed that {{spoiler|the Captain is only [[Obfuscating Stupidity|pretending to be incompetent]] so he can unseat the evil queen.}}
*** Also, the Captain actually likes Mister Fibully (the first underling, and general dogsbody and whipping boy), he is furious when Mister Fibully is killed and vows to avenge him, long set plans be damned.
* In ''[[True Blood]]'', after finding out that his werewolf [[Mooks]] drank Bill Compton's blood, the vampire king of Mississippi doesn't shoot
== Videogames ==
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{{quote|'''Mikhail''': You think it's okay to kill one of my employees?
'''Niko''': If he's an asshole, yes.
''(Mikhail, who has been pointing a gun at Niko, suddenly turns and shoots an employee who has [[You Have Failed Me...|angered him]].)''
'''Mikhail''': I agree! }}
* Something similar to this trope happens in the opening of ''[[Brutal Legend]]''. Eddie's blood has somehow just summoned a giant Metal (in both the musical and materials sense) demon, which appears about to impale him with one of its giant fingers. The game stops and asks if you want to show gore or not. It instead then turns and screams at three members of the Metal Boy Band he acts as the roadie for, causing their heads to fall off (unless you selected no gore, then they just faint), before turning on the one remaining member and killing him too. {{spoiler|Turns out the reason is that he's not a villain, but you don't find that out until later.}}
* Subverted in ''[[Star Wars]]'': ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'', when Admiral Kareth tells Darth Malak that the assassin he sent after the player characters' party was defeated.
{{quote|"The penalty for failure is death... but the failure was Calo's, not yours. You may rise."}}
* In ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'', the first time you enter the Silver Rush, Gloria Van Graff is arguing with a customer who decided he wants to renegotiate a deal they made earlier; he received the weapons as agreed and they were in good condition as agreed, but now he wants to pay less after all. Gloria refuses and has one of her own goons to prove a point. Cut content (which has been restored by fans) reveals the goon in question was Gloria's lover who cheated on her and stole money from the Van Graffs.
== Web Originals ==
* Lampshaded in ''[[Dragon Ball Abridged|Dragon Ball Z Abridged]]'' by Frieza while scolding Zarbon.
{{quote|'''Freeza''': Minion 43, would you come in here for a second? I need an example.
'''Minion 43''': Private Namol reporting! [[Too Dumb to Live|An example of what]], Lord Freez''AAAH!''
'''Freeza''': You see that, Zarbon? That's ''you'' if Vegeta is not in front of me in the next 10 minutes. Bye. }}
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