Every Man Has His Price: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

This occurs when a character or group of characters in a narrative are repeatedly able to use their money as "persuasion" for anyone in their way, with little to no resistance from those being bribed. Whether it's getting past the guards at the [[Supervillain Lair]] or retrieving vital information from the local townsfolk, these characters always find that money is the universal negotiator. This act of shameless coercion is obviously based on the [[Stock Phrase]] and heroes and villains alike, it seems, are never shy about finding out what "every man's" price is.

Compare [[Buy Them Off]], where a character attempts to use a form of bribery to atone for evil actions, and [[Villain with Good Publicity]], for characters who take bribery, coercion, and fraud to a whole different level. Contrast [[Bribe Backfire]], which is what happens when the briber underestimates the [[Comically Small Bribe|price]] and/or [[Screw the Money, I Have Rules|integrity]] of his/her target.

 

{{examples}}

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* ''[[Excel Saga (manga)|Excel Saga]]'': Kapabu's control of Fukuoka City is founded entirely on bribery and blackmail.

 

 

== [[Film]] ==

** ''[[Licence to Kill]]'' specifically features a villain known for his "million dollar bribes". {{spoiler|His [[The Dragon|Dragon]] [[Kick the Dog|betrays Felix Leiter]] to help him escape at the begining of the film for 2 million. [[It's Personal|Bond]] [[Screw the Money, I Have Rules|is not]] [[Karmic Death|Amused]].}}

** ''[[Casino Royale]]'' has a very minor but well-placed villain whose price [[Averted Trope|happens to be more than MI6 can afford]]. So [[Magnificent Bastard|Mathis]] instead [[Take a Third Option|forges evidence that they had successfully bribed him]] and leaked the evidence to the villain's [[The Starscream|second-in-command]].

* ''Les Invasions Barbares'': The frequency and relative ease with which the protagonist bribes the people around him to make his father's last weeks the best he can is both funny and rather depressing.

* The corporate executive in ''[[Small Soldiers]]'' solves all problems by throwing money at them. At the end of the film, he passes out cheques to everybody involved to get them to keep quiet about what happened. One of them protests that you can't just buy people's silence like that, then reads the amount of the cheque and decides that actually you can.

{{quote|'''Jack''': So, we've established my proposal as sound in principle. Now, we're just haggling over price.}}

* In ''[[Film/SWAT|SWAT]]'' a South American drug lord is arrested in Los Angeles and announces on national TV that he is offering a multi-million dollar reward to anyone who can free him from police custody. Chaos erupts as multiple gangs and other lowlifes try to break him out. The titular SWAT team is tasked with delivering the prisoner to a federal prison and he offers them the money to help him escape. {{spoiler|One of SWAT members finds the money to be too much of a temptation and betrays the team.}}

 

== Jokes ==

* Locke Lamora and his opponent Sabetha in ''[[The Republic of Thieves]]'' together bribe a good portion of the more influential people in the city state of Karthain in the name of winning an election.

 

** "The Pawn": Phelps offers an indirect bribe to the KGB officer who is guarding the nuclear scientist Phelps has been assigned to extract. He is threatened with deportation by the KGB officer who sees through his [[Obfuscating Stupidity]] and orders more surveillance. However, Phelps knew the KGB officer could not be bribed and used the conversation to manipulate the officer’s emotions.

*** Later Phelps uses fake evidence to convince the [[The Political Officer|commissar]] that the KGB officer is about to defect. This evidence includes [[United States]] currency. The commissar believes this evidence since the KGB officer resembled Patton in their behavior and personality. In addition, at the beginning of the episode Phelps says that if they are successful the KGB officer will be sent to a prison camp for failure. Therefore, it can be assumed that the officer was already under suspicion, the fake evidence simply proved the disloyalty.

* ''[[Star Trek]]'': The Ferengi have this trope name as their 98th rule of acquisition.

** As stated above, this trope is the 98th Rule of Acquisition, listed in a book that Quark lives (and almost died) by.

* ''[[The Suite Life of Zack and Cody]]'': London Tipton exhibits this and also appears in spin-off [[The Suite Life On Deck]].

* ''[[Burn Notice]]'' explains that is possible to bribe even the most upstanding officials. To do so, convince them you think the bribe is a standard fee and make yourself as thoroughly unlikeable as possible so that they don't feel bad for ripping you off and making themselves a few bucks richer.

 

* Used by Roger Waters in "Three Wishes", following [[Record Producer]] Bob Ezrin's decision to return to producing the now Waters-less [[Pink Floyd]].

 

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

* ''[[Traveller]]'': In section "Zilan Wine", the [[Player Characters|PCs]] can bribe every single government official on the planet Zila, no exceptions.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* ''[[Beyond Castle Wolfenstein]]'': The player can bribe any of the elite troops guarding Hitler's bunker with a few Marks if you don't have a legitimate pass.

** Does this really fit? Vending machines (both items and health) are ''designed'' to give you their items for money. The drone station does fit, especially in the supercapitalist setting.

*** It does fit, because you're ''hacking'' the machines ''with'' cash. As long as you have enough, nothing is un-hackable.

* ''[[Civilization]]'': The Diplomat unit in the original game could buy off enemy units. When the government type is Democracy, it is a quite efficient way to weaken the enemies' resistance.

* ''[[Disgaea]]'': Getting approval from the demon assembly is '''far''' easier with bribes (and helpfully tells you when a senator wants or doesn't want an item for a bribe). Of course, considering you're in the Netherworld, this has nothing to do with corruption: if a senator doesn't want to support you and you don't want to bribe them, you can ''beat the crap out of them'' too. It's just a normal way of doing business.

* Humorously played by [[Player Character|Renegade!Shepard]] in a sidequest in ''[[Mass Effect 2]]''.

{{quote|'''Shepard:''' "I just went all the way up to the Presidium for this. Why should I give it to a random Krogan?"

'''Shepard:''' "Oh, well, that's different." }}

* ''[[The Elder Scrolls Four]]'': The player can bypass the "conversation" mini game (to make someone like you with the speech skill) by paying them off (this seems to literally buy you their friendship). Not that they need it after you've created a 100 charm spell.

* ''[[The Witcher]]'': Subverted. Geralt needs to get past an unfriendly guard and pulls out a bag of gold, stating that "money can open every door". When the guard contradicts him, Geralt proves his statement by using the bag to knock him unconscious.

* ''[[Boiling Point: Road to Hell]]'' allows the protagonist t bribe ''any'' enemy before they turn hostile. It always works, but it's quite expensive, specially for a large group of enemies.

* In ''[[Superhero League of Hoboken]]'', all monsters have a "Greed" trait. If it's above 0, you can bribe them, but the higher their greed is, the more you'll need to spend. This still counts as defeating them for experience points. Creatures with 0 Greed, on the other hand, can never be bribed.

* ''[[X-COM]] Apocalypse'' allows you to "make reparations" to the various organizations that make up Mega-City. You can give them money to change their attitude from openly hostile to neutral, or from neutral to allied (which costs a lot more). Even the Cult of Sirius, who are all but allied with the ''aliens'' can be made neutral for a short time (they'll become hostile the second you attack the aliens).

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* ''[[Justice League]]'': When [[Lex Luthor]] assembles an 'Injustice League' of various criminals, they succeed in capturing [[Batman]], who then proceeds to, among other things, bribe Ultra-Humanite with an [[Briefcase Full of Money|outrageous sum]]. It works. Humanite takes the bribe...[[Anti-Villain|and donates it to public broadcasting]]. [[Batman]], meanwhile, brings down the whole league from the inside. So even [[Big Bad|supervillains]] have their price...

{{quote|'''Inspector''': Burns, if I didn't know better, I'd think you were trying to bribe me.

'''Burns:''' Is there some confusion about this? ''thrusting the money into the inspector's pockets'' Take it! Take it! Take it, you poor schmo! }}

* From the pilot of ''[[Gargoyles]]'':

 

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

* Many defectors have used bribe money to escape [[North Korea]] and/or convince North Korean officials to ignore black market deals. Bribery became very common after North Korea's economy started to fail when the [[Cold War]] ended. North Korea depended on foreign aid to keep it's economy intact. When Russia and China began to charge higher prices for petroleum and other supplies; the infrastructure suffered a breakdown that became worse after the famine. However, the [[Bribe Backfire]] can instantly apply if the bribe threatens the North Korean official with public exposure.

** This also has applied to [[China]]. Bribes are paid so black market operations will be ignored.

* This is common practice in many countries, especially poorer ones. There are many places around the world where the difference between success and failure is dependent on giving the right corrupt official a small cash payout. Where foreigners from richer countries are involved, such a bribes can easily amount to more then said official's paycheck.

** Often though, it is customary to have a small face-saving device by paying the bribe in something that looks less crass then money. An art object or rare wine bottle might do for example.

[[Category:Money Tropes]]

[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]