Contract on the Hitman: Difference between revisions
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A professional killer (most likely a [[Hitman with a Heart]]) suddenly finds himself being hunted by the very organization he works for. Cue a plot line involving him taking out other assassins as he works his way through the ranks trying to find out who wants him dead and why.
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 with the Mark]] being especially common). Sometimes it's revenge for a past loss or embarrassment at the assassin's hands, or because he or she wants something (or someone) that the assassin has and wants him or her out of the way. But most often, the reason for the
{{examples}}
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* 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 ''[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 Fistful of Dollars]]'') leaves the first family he hires himself out to because he overhears them plotting to kill him when the job is finished, to avoid paying him.
* 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 ''[[The American]]'' ends up with one of these after deciding he'll quit the business after his last job which is simply to build a gun for another female assassin. {{spoiler|The employer of both him and the woman decides to have him be the first person terminated by the woman after the gun is completed, but she can't find a safe time to do so. He rigs the gun to misfire in a moment of conscience, thus killing the other assassin after her attempt on his life. He is then wounded in a shootout with his former employer and his fate is left ambiguous.}}
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== [[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
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