Do You Trust Me?
A Stock Phrase usually used by characters believing in The Power of Trust or The Power of Friendship to save the day.
This usually goes down one of two ways. In the first, Bob and Alice are in danger. Bob has a plan, but needs Alice to trust him in order for it to work. Perhaps she needs to jump a ravine and trust that he will catch her. Or perhaps he needs her to act as a distraction for the Big Bad and trust that he will take the Big Bad down before she's in serious trouble. He will ask, "Do you trust me?" and if she says yes she will immediately need to prove her trust.
The second scenario is usually romantic with little to no real danger involved. Alice may be a little nervous of something, and Bob uses the question to reassure her. She may be wary of stepping out on a high balcony to look at the view or dancing in front of other people. The question may also be asked before Their First Time. Be careful though, if the question is "Don't you trust me?" it may be a sign that the person is at the best Not Himself and at the worst The Casanova or The Vamp.
Common subversions will often either have Bob miss or Alice say that, no, she doesn't trust him.
This trope is about the truster confirming their faith in the trusted. Compare Remember That You Trust Me where the trusted reaffirms the faith of the truster.
Film
- Used repeatedly in Disney's 1992 version of Aladdin, first in the face of danger, and later romantically. The latter is what tips Jasmine off that Prince Ali is really Aladdin.
- National Treasure includes Nicholas Cage saying this to his love interest.
- Comes up in Twilight.
- Jack asks this of Rose in Titanic in the scene on the bow of the ship.
- The Titanic example is lampshaded and subverted in Love Actually.
- In Head Over Heels, Freddie Prinze Jr.'s character doesn't ask the question, but simply says, "Trust me."
- Blade Runner: Deckard must help the replicant Rachel escape or she'll be killed.
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Deckard: Do you love me? |
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- The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising
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Maggie Barnes: You need to give me the Signs before it's too late. You need to trust me. Do you trust me? |
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- Inverted in Casino where Robert De Niro as Ace Rothstein asks his wife, Ginger, several times in one scene: "Can I trust you?" He can't.
- Done in Despicable Me with Gru and the orphan girls. Margo trusts him enough to have Edith and Agnes jump over the gap to Gru, but Vector catches her before she can jump herself.
Literature
- In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Hermione asks Harry, "Do you trust me?" before pulling off a risky escape from Death Eaters at the Lovegoods' house.
- An unspoken variation occurs in The Princess Bride when Buttercup is afraid to go into the Fire Swamp.
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Buttercup was searching somewhere for a suffiency of courage. Evidently, she found it in his eyes. |
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- A slightly darker version of the question is given in the first book of The Unicorn Chronicles. Cara's grandmother asks, "Do you think I'm crazy?" before telling Cara she must jump from a church roof to escape a pursuer.
- In High Deryni, after Denis Arilan reveals his Deryni aura to his brother bishop Thomas Cardiel, Cardiel recalls looking for him in a chapel (and failing to find him) a few nights earlier and asks Arilan where he went. Arilan tells his friend he may not answer, and Cardiel probes, asking if there is some organized hierarchy of mages with authority over him. Arilan asks for patience and when Cardiel asks again, he replies, "Trust me, Thomas? I swear I'll not betray that trust."
Live-Action TV
- Repeatedly and hilariously subverted in an episode of The IT Crowd:
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Roy: Do you trust me? |
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- Scully and Mulder say that to each other regularly on The X-Files, though it became less and less frequent as the series progressed.
- Subverted in the Two and A Half Men episode "Walnuts and Demerol".
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Evelyn: Do you trust me? |
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- The Chuck episode "Chuck vs. the First Kill"
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Chuck Bartowski: How do I know I can trust them? The government wants to keep the Intersect in my head. My father's the only one who can get it out. It's not rocket science. |
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- In the Smallville episode "Doomsday", Clark has just admitted to Jimmy that he's the Red-Blue Blur.
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Clark Kent: Jimmy, do you trust me? |
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- And the episode "Reckoning"
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Clark: [Places the key into the pedestal and they are both surrounded by beams of light] It's okay. |
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- The Dollhouse episode "The Target".
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Boyd Langton: You can't go after this guy. You don't have the right imprint. You don't have the right training. [snip] |
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- And "Vows"
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Paul Ballard: Do you trust me? |
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- In the Doctor Who episode "The Time of Angels", the Doctor and associates are surrounded by Weeping Angels, who are prevented from attacking only because someone can see them.
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Doctor: Do you trust me? |
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- And from "Flesh and Stone":
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The Doctor: Amy, I need you to trust me. It's never been more important. |
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- Francis Urquhart is fond of the phrase "You do trust me, don't you?". If he ever asks you it, run.
- Sara asks Grissom this before starting to shave him in CSI.
- Angel asks Buffy in "Lie to Me", "Do you love me?" before agreeing to reveal the truth about how he turned Drusilla into a vampire. Buffy replies, "I love you. I don't know if I trust you." (Angel replies, "Maybe you shouldn't.") In Season 6 "Dead Things" Buffy is having a relationship with another vampire, Spike, but keeps insisting their relationship is purely sexual with no love involved. In response Spike offers her a pair of handcuffs and asks, "Do you trust me?" Buffy replies "Never" but the next day is seen rubbing her wrists in a telling manner.
- Angel asks potential Love Interest Detective Kate Lockley if she trusts him before handing over information on a Serial Killer without revealing the source. She says she does without hesitation, but later in the episode Kate discovers Angel is a vampire and she never fully trusts him again.
Web Comics
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Katlyn: Do you trust me? |
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