Contract on the Hitman: Difference between revisions
Rescuing 1 sources and tagging 0 as dead. #IABot (v2.0beta9)
(Import from TV Tropes TVT:Main.ContractOnTheHitman 2012-07-01, editor history TVTH:Main.ContractOnTheHitman, CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported license) |
(Rescuing 1 sources and tagging 0 as dead. #IABot (v2.0beta9)) |
||
| (13 intermediate revisions by 6 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
{{quote|''The first rule of assassination: kill the assassins.''|''[[Star Trek VI:
A professional killer (most likely a [[Hitman
Sometimes it's because the assassin wants to quit their profession, leading to [[The Syndicate]] (or [[The Government]], or [[Murder, Inc.|whatever other employers he's working for]]) reminding him, in deadly fashion, that [[Resignations Not Accepted|there's only one way to leave]]. Sometimes it's because his employers don't want to pay him for a crucial job or consider him to have [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness|outlived his usefulness]] or [[You Have Failed Me...|failed them in some manner]], particularly if he refused to do a hit for them that the assassin considered to be [[Even Evil Has Standards|against his principles]] (women and kids are an all time favorite, falling [[In Love
{{examples
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* In ''[[Noir (
* Several of the employers of ''[[Golgo 13]]'' have tried this. He's killed every last one of them for it. His first rule: "I will not accept a client's betrayal."
* Train Heartnet in ''[[Black Cat (
* Teresa in ''[[Claymore]]''. She isn't quite a hitman per se, since her assignments are only hits on Youma, but that's basically the same thing.
* In ''[[Angel Heart (
* In the ''[[Weiss Kreuz]]'' OVA, Ken and Omi refuse to kill a sympathetic target, so their teammates are ordered to kill them. Turns out to be part of a plot, though.
* {{spoiler|During and after the end of the first season, Hei}} in ''[[Darker
* ''[[Lupin
* Pretty much the premise of ''[[Lone Wolf and Cub]]'' is disgraced government executioner Lone Wolf evading the many, many, many people out to kill him.
* Section 9 in ''[[Ghost in
Line 26:
* In ''[[From Hell]]'', the conspirators contemplate having William Gull killed when his mental illness reveals him as a liability. Ultimately they {{spoiler|throw him into an asylum under a false name.}}
* Jackie Estacado, mafioso hitman, of ''[[The Darkness]]'' finds himself on the receiving end of this once his powers manifest.
== [[Film]] ==
* The ''[[Hitman]]'' movie. See also the [[Video Game]] examples below.
* [[The Bourne Series]]
* The titular character of John Woo's ''[[The Killer]]'' has to deal with his syndicate trying to kill him after pulling off the hit that he hoped would earn him the money to have a singer he accidentally blinded be able to see again, due to the boss, Johnny Weng, wanting to keep the money for himself and clear the table for his ambitions. {{spoiler|[[Shoot the Shaggy Dog|He doesn't survive]], though to his credit, it takes the [[Big Bad]] himself to finally end him}}.
** Chow Yun-Fat's character in ''[[The Replacement Killers]]'' also has to deal with a syndicate who wants him dead after he refuses to kill a cop's eight-year-old son for a Triad boss with a [[Revenge
* The Sylvester Stallone movie ''[[Assassins (
* ''[[Fulltime Killer]]'' apes the film ''Assassins'', in that the wild hitman Tok has modeled himself after action films and intentionally imitates the Stallone film in his rivalry with number one assassin O.
* In ''[[Ghost Dog]]'' the titular character gets marked for cleanup by the bosses.
* The main character in ''[[Grosse Pointe Blank]]'' is targeted by fellow hitmen after he refuses to join their labor union.
* ''[[The Mechanic]]'' (1972) movie with Charles Bronson as a mob hitman. Bronson's character trains the son of a Mafia boss in his art without getting permission from his employers, so they set them both up to be killed. {{spoiler|Ironically after escaping the trap, the mobster's son then murders Bronson for his own personal reasons, and is himself killed by a bomb left by Bronson in his car.}}
Line 41:
* In ''[[Kill Bill]]'', the Bride's [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]] begins when the other members of her hit squad try to take her out at her wedding rehearsal.
* ''[[Machete]]'', uses this as it's premise, deleted scenes also show the [[Carnival of Killers]].
* Handled more subtly in ''[[Mr. and Mrs. Smith]]''; the two assassin organizations found out their best employees were married to someone on the other side, decided this was bad for business, and set them on a collision course so that they'd have to kill each other. The result is alternatively tense (as a straight up action thriller) and wryly amusing (as a metaphor for a troubled marriage).
** After they end up refusing due to a mutual [[In Love
* In ''[[
** At least until the sequel.
* The Grammaton cleric John Preston in the movie ''[[Equilibrium]]'' is a highly-trained police officer/executioner for the Fascist theocratic government of a mid-21st century police state. Once he [[Hitman
{{quote|
* Belgian [[Film]] ''[[The Alzheimers Case]],'' also known as ''De Zaak Alzheimer'' and ''Memory of a Killer'' features this after the main character refuses to kill a child prostitute.
* The short film ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20100722003238/http://www.spike.com/video/talking-dessert/434948 Talking Dessert]''.
* ''Telefon'' (1977). Charles Bronson plays a KGB agent sent to stop a [[Renegade Russian]] who has stolen a list of [[Manchurian Agent
* ''[[In Bruges]]'' is an example where the assassin is targeted because [[Even Evil Has Standards]]: he accidentally killed a child with a stray bullet.
* ''[[Road to Perdition]]'' saw a hitman for an Irish gang hunted by the Mob after his ex-partner and boss's son {{spoiler|kills his wife and son}}; of course this causes him to go on a [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]] against the Mob.
* ''Gomorra'' (2008). Two teenage hoodlums have been running out of control in the local Camorra clan's territory, despite warnings from the mob boss to behave themselves or die. They ignore this warning, stealing a cache of weapons hidden by the Camorra. An older mobster points out they'll have trouble with the police if two youngsters are killed publicly, so he approaches them with a
* Wesley Gibson {{spoiler|and his father, Cross}} in ''[[Wanted]]'' {{spoiler|but that was all one big [[Xanatos Gambit]] by his shady employer.}}
* The nameless protagonist in ''[[Yojimbo]]'' (and the remake, ''[[A
* Jeff Costello from ''[[Le Samourai]]'', the French movie that inspired ''[[The Killer]]''. He is seen leaving the scene of his latest hit, picked up by the police and questioned. His clients decide to kill him before he can implicate them.
* Partially subverted in the 1969 film ''The Assassination Bureau'' in that the head of the titular agency willingly accepts a contract on his own head as a challenge to weed out the unworthy elements within his organization.
* ''[[The International]]'' features a [[Mega Corp]] that's rather [[Bad Boss|too fond]] of [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness]]. The fact that their
* George Clooney's character in ''[[
== [[Literature]] ==
* Vlad Taltos in Steven Brust's ''[[Taltos]]'' series finds himself in this situation after a few books in the series.
* The David Morrell (creator of Rambo) novels ''The Brotherhood of the Rose'' and ''Fraternity of the Stone'', both involving US government hitmen. In the first novel the assassin kills a friend of the President in what he assumes is a CIA-sanctioned killing, but it turns out his controller is meddling in
* Rachel Morgan of ''[[The Hollows]]'' novels isn't technically a assassin but a runner, a combination bounty hunter, private detective and law enforcement agent. When she tries to quit her job at Inderlander Security and go independent they put a death mark on her to make an example to other employees who may be thinking of quitting.
* Inverted in the ''[[Burke]]'' novels by Andrew Vachss. Sociopathic hitman Wesley is given a contract by [[The Mafia]] to kill a martial arts expert, but Burke kills him first. The mob then decide there's no point in paying Wesley, so he decides to [[Kill Them All]].
* This method of dealing with unneeded hitmen is used by the [[Big Bad]] of the novel ''Quite Ugly One Morning'' by Christopher Brookmyre, and the protagonist [[Genre Savvy|uses his knowledge of this trope]] to his benefit later in the story.
* In ''The Assassination Bureau, Ltd.'', as in the movie (above), the Bureau's head willingly accepted a contract to have his group hunt him down and kill him. In the book, however, it wasn't to weed out unworthy members, but because the Bureau targeted people who harmed humanity and society as a whole. He'd been persuaded that by founding the Bureau, '''he''' had done harm—since society wouldn't formalize true justice as long as there was already an unofficial means (the Bureau) of destroying evildoers.
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* Done memorably on ''[[
{{quote|
** Specifically, Wolfram and Hart hired Faith to kill Angel. She then made a [[Heel Face Turn]] and Angel gave her sanctuary in his apartment. Wolfram and Hart then hire a demon to kill Faith, but Faith kills it instead.
* Parodied in a ''[[Kids in The Hall]]'' sketch, where a hitman is contracted to take himself out.
* Non-lethal variant: in the pilot to ''[[Werewolf]]'', a bounty hunter breaks off contact with his boss to [[Stern Chase|track Eric across the country]]. His frustrated employer grouses that he's going to have to hire a bounty hunter to locate his bounty hunter.
* In the ''[[
* In ''[[Kidnapped]]'', the ruthless conspiracy that employs the Accountant gets ticked off and decides to have him killed after he botches a couple of hits. The cops scoop him up first, though, so they only manage to kill his wife instead. [[That Makes Me Feel Angry|This somewhat upsets him.]]
* The beginning of the series ''[[Matrix (TV series)|Matrix]]'' (no relation to [[The Matrix]], despite also co-starring Carrie-Anne Moss) has its protagonist, mob hitman Steven Matrix, nearly being killed by another hitperson who had been hired to take him out.
* The episode "Under Covers" of ''[[
Line 97 ⟶ 98:
== [[Video Games]] ==
* In the game ''[[Hitman]]: Silent Assassin'', one mission, which has you revisiting the site of a previous mission, {{spoiler|turns out to be a setup from your current employers, who are trying to 'terminate' 47 - using another Hitman, codenamed 17. 47 was both surprised - since he thought he'd killed all of his 'brothers' already - and somewhat insulted that they'd think an inferior model had any chance of taking him out}}.
** Somewhat related is the plot for ''[[Hitman]]: Blood Money'', in which a major part of the plot involves a rival contract agency called "The Franchise", who is killing off all of the agents from 47's agency. Towards the end, {{spoiler|only 47 and his contract informer, Diana, are still alive. They split the remaining money and part their separate ways. However, Diana seems to be a turncoat for the Franchise, and "kills" 47 to fulfill the contract on the guy's head by the Franchise's [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] (he wanted 47's clone DNA as a starting point for his own super-assassin cloning scheme). This turns out to be a ploy by her to weed out the one behind the Agency's liquidation, and she revives 47 just in time to finish the bloke off.}}
* In the [[Fighting Game]] ''[[Eternal Champions]]'', this is how the character Shadow died - her organization realized she wanted to turn against them, and thus "gave" her a trip off the 100th floor of their headquarters.
* This is the premise of the game ''[[Bushido Blade]]''; your character is trying to escape from the clan of assassins he or she belongs to, and the rest of the cast wants you dead.
* In ''[[Dead or Alive]]'', Ayane is required to kill her half-sister Kasumi as desertion from a ninja clan is punishable by death.
* The game ''[[Shadow Warrior]]'' has Lo Wang, the title character, being targeted by his former employer Zilla when he quit his corporation after learning of Zilla's plan to rule Japan with creatures summoned from the dark side. Being a martial arts style [[First
* After [[Tsukihime|Kiri Nanaya]], the head of the [[Badass Family|Nanaya clan]] of demon/demon-hybrid assassins, retires and leaves the protection of the organization he belonged to, Makihisa Tohno and Kouma Kishima lead an attack on them. After a prolonged battle, Kiri is killed by Kouma, who goes on to slaughter everyone else except Shiki. Both were motivated by personal vendetta: Kouma was attacked and had one of his eyes blinded by Kiri when he was younger during one of his missions, and Makihisa is implied to have been the client for that hit, who Kiri tried and failed to kill out of impulse.
* Depending on who you ally with at the end, or allying with no one at all, the final missions of ''[[Vampire Bloodlines]]'' turns into this. The Ventrue Prince, after sending you on dirty jobs, will have a Blood Hunt called on you, and you'll be under attack from vampires. Unless you go out of your way to get in his good graces, you'll have to fight your way from ground floor rent-a-mooks all the way up to his [[Big Bad]] lieutenant.
Line 108 ⟶ 109:
* Outerlight's games ''[[The Ship]]'' and ''[[Bloody Good Time]]'' are based around this trope. Kill a specific target while avoiding your killer...which is harder than it sounds for a game without very many NPCs that share player appearance, because of the needs system. Don't fulfill your character's needs? You lose control and present your killer with a very vulnerable target.
* The Wanted mode of ''[[Assassin's Creed]]: Brotherhood'' Multiplayer is all about this. Each player is given the goal of assassinating specific players within an area filled with similar-looking NPCs. The player then must find and kill their target while avoiding assassination themselves.
* In ''[[
* ''[[Frontier: First Encounters]]'' has two missions involving a civil war on an independent planet - "Assassinate Dentara Rast" and later "Assassinate the Assassin of Dentara Rast" (whether [[Player Character]] took and completed the first mission or not). After some time interested parties will claim (they want to have this issue closed) that the assassin is dead - even if you, ah, happen to have first-hand knowledge that it's not true - but meanwhile a lot of people WILL try to get the reward. As the author of one walkthrough put it, "In case you ''are'' the Assassin of Dentara Rast, and are trying to work out the logistics of killing yourself while still being in a position to receive your reward, you should note that the authorities are not stupid. They ''do'' notice what you do."
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* Occurred in one story arc of ''[[
* Though Serge doesn't exactly have a heart of gold, this is the plot of Fracture, the first story from ''[[Zokusho Comics]]''.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* In ''[[
* In ''[[
Line 130 ⟶ 131:
[[Category:Crime and Punishment Tropes]]
[[Category:Plots]]
[[Category:
| |||