Have You Told Anyone Else?: Difference between revisions

[[File:hijinks-fox.jpg|link=Hijinks Ensue|frame|This would qualify as [[Too Dumb to Live]] ]]

 

 

Something's bothering you. You did some poking around, and you discovered a clue that just doesn't match up with what you know about the situation at large. It's almost as if your team has stumbled upon some sort of [[Evil Plan]]. So you decide to run this information past your trusted ally, [[Sdrawkcab Name|Nialliv]]. He listens, perhaps admits that this does indeed sound suspicious, and then casually asks: "Have you told anyone else?"

This moment is usually [[The Reveal]] for the audience that Nialliv is playing for the other team.

 

 

Compare [[Exposition Victim]].

 

{{examples}}

* In ''20th Century Boys'' detective Chou has made a startling discovery about the the leader of an enigmatic cult named 'Friend'. Turns out the leader is actually {{spoiler|a childhood classmate of our peppy main character Kenji.}} Unfortunately he decided to discuss the matter with his assistant Yama first. Needless to say Yama turns out to be a member of said cult and "purified him." Making it even more tragic is the fact that Chou was [[Retirony|just one week away from retirement]].

* {{spoiler|Naomi Misora}} ''almost'' averts this in ''[[Death Note]]'', but almost doesn't cut it when your opponent is a [[Xanatos Speed Chess|Xanatos Speed]] [[The Chessmaster|Chessmaster]] who can kill you by writing your name on a scrap of paper.

* Subverted in [[Batman]] comics - Lucius Fox tells Lex Luthor that he knows about Luthor buying large amounts of Gotham City for a fraction of the price, and informs him that yes, people know where he is and yes, he has made copies of the data. He still would have been killed by Mercy Graves if Batman hadn't been watching his back though.

* In ''[[Sin City]]'', after the escape from the Farm, Marv and Lucille are cornered by cops sent to the Farm. Marv wants to take them out, but Lucille [[Percussive Prevention|knocks him out]], telling him he's not going to get either of them killed. She then talks to the officers present about what is going on and finishes with "...so there's no reason to kill him." The head cop's response? "Yes there is, ma'am...once he's told us who ''else'' he's spoken to." Lucille is blown away moments later.

* A dreamwalker tries to avert this in [[Rising Stars]] when he finds out who'd been killing the other Specials. The killer, a Superman proxy, beats the tar out of the much weaker man and asks who else knows. The dreamwalker lies and says that he's told everyone... and is killed for his trouble. Luckily, a Special who could hear the recently deceased was able to get this information to another Special who had been investigating the murders as well.

* A while ago in the Superman books, a specialist for the CIA, using recently acquired alien language translation technology, was able to find out that the markings of a small craft that crash-landed in Kansas 30 years ago were Kryptonian. The man, being without friends or family, reported this to his direct superior, the President of the United States: Lex Luthor. One cut-away later, Lex nonchalantly tells his chauffeur to have maintenance clean up a "spill" on the carpet: a small red glob one can only assume is the man's remains.

* From [[Ex Machina]] [[Grand Finale|#50]]: {{spoiler|[[Parental Substitute|Kremlin]], drunk and holding a gun to his own head, threatens to expose the fact that Hundred [[Utopia Justifies the Means|used his powers to get elected as Mayor of New York]], thus killing his Presidential campaign. At first, Hundred tries to get him to put the gun down, then asks if he's shown the evidence to anyone. When Kremlin reveals he hasn't, Mitchell [[Moral Event Horizon|tells the gun to fire.]] }}

 

== Film ==

* In ''[[The Bourne Series (film)|The Bourne Supremacy]]'' when {{spoiler|Danny Zorn (Abbott's assistant) reveals to Abbott that he realizes the crime scene is a sham, and gets a dagger in the ribs for it.}}

* Very well justified to shocking effect in ''[[L.A. Confidential]]'' when Detective Jack Vincennes, while investigating a suspicious murder in co-operation with Detective Ed Exley, finds evidence of corruption within the police department. He can't tell other cops because of the corruption and so he goes to someone he has know for a while and can trust to be out of it {{spoiler|it is the Chief after all}}. Then they ask the question in a way that assumes that he has already told someone so both he and the audience isn't alarmed when casually asked "What does Exley make of all this?"

* The opening of the film ''[[Red Dragon]]''. Late at night, FBI Agent Will Graham goes to meet with Dr. Hannibal Lecter, who had been assisting him in developing a psychological profile of a serial killer. Agent Graham tells Dr. Lecter that he suddenly realized that the killer was ''eating'' parts of his victims. Lecter replies, "Have you shared this information with the Bureau?"

* In ''[[The Ring]]'', [[Intrepid Reporter|Rachel]] confronts Samara's father about the [[Artifact of Death|Cursed Video]]:

(Implying that he knows about the Tape and what it does, and was willing to kill Rachel either to spare her a gruesome death or stop the curse from spreading right then and there. But since she made a copy ({{spoiler|and is thus saved, albeit unknowingly}}), killing her would be pointless.) }}

* In [[Beerfest]],

'''Wolfgang von Wolfhausen''': Dispose of him! }}

* ''[[The Ten Commandments]]'': Memnet comes to Nefertiri with the story of how Bithia drew Moses from the Nile. Nefertiri quickly asks, "Were you alone with Bithia?" before she kills Memnet.

* ''[[Double Indemnity]]'' contains a rare example in which the villain ([[Villain Protagonist|in this case also the protagonist]]) is not actually evil enough to kill the one person who has evidence against his partner-in-crime: instead, once he is assured that she has told no one else, he just convinces her to keep quiet about it.

* ''[[Batman Returns]]'' features Selina Kyle (Michelle Pfeiffer) going through these exact motions with her boss Max Shreck (Christopher Walken) about his plan to drain Gotham City of electricity. There's a bit of [[Genre Savvy]] there when Shreck approaches her with a menacing look, scaring her - and then he laughs, pretending it was all a joke. Soon Selina is laughing too.

''(Max whips around and shoves her out of the window)'' }}

* [[Played With]] to great effect in ''[[The Dark Knight]]'': Bruce Wayne's accountant has figured out Bruce's secret identity, and the first person he tells is Wayne Enterprises CEO Lucius Fox, in an attempt to blackmail Bruce. Fox puts the situation in perspective:

* ''[[The Illusionist (film)|The Illusionist]]'', subverted.

* Averted in ''[[V for Vendetta]]'', when Sutler asks Finch if anyone else has read Delia's diary. Finch answers no, but Sutler just tells him he'd better forget about it.

* In the 1997 adaptation of [[Ivanhoe]], a random message-bearing mook tries (unsuccessfully) to avert this:

'''Mook''': "None but my master...who expects my safe return!" }}

* In the 1987 thriller ''[[No Way Out]]'', a technician that the protagonist took into his confidence in an attempt to delay the [[Big Bad]]'s plan has an attack of conscience and tells... the [[Big Bad]], after which this trope is played out verbatim.

* In ''[[The Island]]'', Gandu Three Echo tells Dr. Merrick he suspects there's something wrong with the place and heard some rumours. Dr. Merrick asks "Have you told anyone else about this?". After the predictable answer, Dr. Merrick wraps up the conversation and kills Gandu.

 

== Literature ==

* In Frederick Forsyth's novel ''[[The Day of the Jackal]]'', the forger providing the Jackal's false papers tries to blackmail him, fatally assuming the assassin is merely an upper class dilettante dabbling in the drug trade. The Jackal skillfully asks a number of questions (disguised as an attempt to wriggle out of the situation, or ensure that he won't have to pay another bribe to an associate) which establish that the forger hasn't given his photographs to anyone else and that no-one will come to this location and find his body for some time.

* In [[Vernor Vinge]]'s ''[[Zones of Thought|A Fire Upon the Deep]]'', Scriber, a somewhat flaky inventor and self-proclaimed spy, comes up with a method of locating enemy spies in Woodcarver's city. He tells it to spymaster Vendacious, not realizing he's a double-agent and that Scriber's method would expose him. Vendacious congratulates Scriber and asks who else knows about this because "we'll need to swear them to secrecy also". Needless to say, after Scriber's earnest assurance that no-one else knows, death follows rapidly.

* A variation is used in [[David Weber]]'s ''[[Safehold]]'' novel, ''Off Armageddon Reef.'' The villain is confronted about accusations of treason by his father-in-law (who, in his defense, was drunk at the time). The antagonist had no desire to kill his father-in-law, and was trying to convince the man to support him even as he plotted killing everyone ''else'' who suspected him.

** In ''How Firm a Foundation'', Urvyn Mahndrayn takes a detour from a business trip to inform {{spoiler|his cousin Trai Sahlavahn, who runs the powder-mill}} about some discrepancies in the shipping manifests for kegs of gunpowder delivered for the mill. Unfortunately {{spoiler|Sahlavan}} is the traitor who was diverting the gunpowder shipments. He asks Mahndrayn who else he's told, and Mahndrayn says that he wanted to check with {{spoiler|Sahlavan}} before alerting anyone else. It doesn't end well.

* A slight variation in ''[[Anansi Boys]]''. Spider, filling in at work for his brother Fat Charlie, pokes around and discovers some odd accounts in offshore banks. He innocently mentions it to Fat Charlie's boss and suggests that it might be rather inefficient (his life up until this point has done little to prepare him for the idea that other people might be in any way deceitful). Said boss does not ask who else knows; he merely thanks Spider, who he thinks is actually Fat Charlie, and quietly rearranges things to make it appear that it was Fat Charlie who was running the money-laundering scheme. Unfortunately, his policy of not keeping on employees for much longer than a year (the better to hide his crime) bites him in the ass; Fat Charlie has been employed there longer than anyone, but a client attempting to collect on an account knows full well that the boss has been doing this for far longer than Fat Charlie's two years. This isn't even the worst of the trouble Spider causes Fat Charlie.

* [[The Chessmaster]] in the last ''[[Empire From the Ashes]]'' book pulls this off; it helps that the victim is a complete ''idiot'' about it. "I need to ''urgently'' tell the governor about the mole I placed in the terrorist organization, even though nothing's happening right now. This is on a strictly need-to-know basis, so don't tell anyone. Why no, no I ''haven't'' told anyone else. Leave a message? Sure! Here's the datachip with all the information, as well as the codes to decrypt it." (To be fair about this, the bad guy in question is {{spoiler|the governor's immediate deputy}}, and in fact the victim reports directly to him. Lack of suspicion is unsurprising.)

* Deeba falls for this in [[Un Lun Dun]].

* ''[[The Windup Girl]]'' by Paolo Bacigalupi. When a thirteen year-old girl discovers that two workers have become sick with a possible pandemic, the factory owner contemplates killing her to maintain the secret after asking this question. Instead he packs all three off to the hospital.

* Invoked in a short story written by Brecht. A young boy cries in the street after being mugged. A man finds him there, and asks him why he hadn't called for help. The boy says he screamed as loudly as he could, but nobody heard him. The man then proceeds to rob the boy as well.

** [[Fridge Logic|Why?]] Did the second mugger [[Idiot Ball|expect the first mugger to have left the boy with anything valuable?]]

 

* On ''[[Charmed]]'', Cole, in his role as a [[Big Bad]], asks this of one of his [[Mooks]] who reported some information to Cole that was incriminating to Cole's reputation. When the mook answers no, Cole [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness|vanquishes him to keep him from telling anyone else.]]

** Note that this mook told him the information with plenty of other people in the room...so Cole kills them all.

* In the ''[[Farscape]]'' episode "That Old Black Magic," Crais receives a direct order from Peacekeeper High Command to end his pursuit of John Crichton and return to base. His second-in-command Lt. Teeg destroys the message and assures him that no-one else knows about it. Crais [[Kick the Dog|repays this loyalty]] by [[Neck Snap|breaking her neck]].

* Invoked in the ''[[Bones]]'' episode "Judas on a Pull"

* In one episode of ''[[RoboCop]]'', a scientist has a [[Eureka Moment]], and chooses to drive across town to bounce his idea off of an older scientist mentioned earlier in the episode. Said idea is that someone framed Robocop using the prototype of his signature gun. Trope applies per usual, then the older man promptly pulls said prototype out of a drawer. No, don't [[Fridge Logic|wonder why the scientist didn't just Google, why he wouldn't know in the first place, or why he wouldn't just call on one of the videophones frequently used in the series]]. In a minor subversion, he hadn't told anyone his idea, but he had mentioned where he was going, allowing Robocop to save him.

* In the seventh season of ''[[24|Twenty Four]]'', a minor character effectively tells the [[Big Bad]] of the first half of the show "I know you aren't who you say you are. I did not tell anyone. Please come and kill me". Also invoked in the pre-season "Redemption" movie.

* Subverted in ''[[The X-Files|The X Files]]'' when AD Skinner wishes to make a deal with the cigarette smoking man about a tape containing classified information. CSM tells Skinner his deal has one problem (namely that CSM is holding Skinner at gun point and can be easily killed and searched) at which point Skinner reveals his trump. He has had a Navajo translator read and memorize all the information on the tape and orally tell it to twenty other tribal leaders throughout the United States who are all ordered to testify said information should any one of the people in the group die. CSM, who does not wish to have all the info revealed or to kill all the people necessary to keep them silent, agrees to the deal. Further subverted in that it is implied that the original translator had no idea why Skinner asked him to come and help make the deal.

** One of Hyeok's underlings at American intelligence agency DIS reports to [[The Heavy|Hyeok]] that the terrorist organization Athena has infiltrated DIS and that he thinks Hyeok's [[Puss in Boots|right hand, Andy]], is [[The Mole]].

** The audience knows from the start that Hyeok is currently head of Athena's operations in South Korea (and Andy is [[Number Two]]).

* The villain attempts this in ''[[Foyle's War]]'' questioning Sam about a conversation she overheard, and threateningly asking her if she had told anyone about it. She tells him that, in fact, she had dismissed the conversation, but now that he seems to find it so important, she is going to tell everyone that she can think of, including that police superintendent she is friends with.

* ''[[Community]]''

* A [[Monster of the Week|Villian of The Week]] attempts to invoke this with Sam on ''[[Burn Notice]]''. Sam, [[Genre Savvy]] as he is, and posing as an undercover dirty cop, immediately says that his "supervisior" knows that Sam is interviewing him. Should something happen to Sam, then the supervisor knows who to come looking for. Nice save, Sam.

* Played with in the ''[[Due South]]'' episode, "A Hawk and a Handsaw". Fraser is undercover as a patient in a mental hospital and comes across evidence that the staff are illegally testing an anti-depressant that causes some of the subjects to commit suicide. When his partner, Ray, visits him, they're led to an empty room where they then begin to exchange all the information they've discovered before Fraser clicks in and asks Ray who he told regarding his whereabouts leading to this response, "Nobody, why? [he is grabbed by a thug with a gun] I misunderstood the question, I told everybody I know! I told the State's Attorney, I told the Sheriff, I even told my mother!" Different in that it's not the villain who asks this but one of the good guys realizing they're being spied on.

 

== Newspaper Comics ==

* Subverted in ''[[Sovisa]]''. Aleksei reports to his captain about a strange signal that was sent from their ship. When the captain asks if he's told the rest of the crew yet, [[Dangerously Genre Savvy|Aleksei simply shoots him point blank in the chest]] and [[Thrown Out the Airlock|ejects his body out an airlock]].

 

* Daniel Tosh has this act on his CD "True Stories I Made Up":

 

== Video Games ==

* In the first [[Rainbow Six]] game, this happened to a medical expert you already rescued once. When she realizes the origins of the virus a [[Animal Wrongs Group|terrorist group]] plans to release, she calls one of your other advisors, who asked her this. After she says no, several terrorists come knocking on her doorstep.

* At the end of chapter 6 in [[Super Paper Mario]], Dimentio appears before Mr. L (a [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] Luigi) and asks him how his fight against the heroes went (knowing full well he lost). When Luigi tells him, he basically says "So the Count doesn't know what happened to you?" and blows him up.

 

== Web Original ==

* Played straight [http://qntm.org/socks this] [[Things of Interest]] fiction, where the person being told the info is mind-controlled by the evil aliens.

 

 

== Western Animation ==

* In the third season premiere of ''[[Transformers Animated]]'' {{spoiler|[[The Mole|Shockwave/Longarm Prime]] asked this of Blurr after he managed to [[It Makes Sense in Context|"run" his way from Saturn to Cybertron]]. Blurr answers yes. Needless to say, he's dead in under a minute. He puts up a better fight than most who fall to this trope, though: when Shockwave starts shooting at Blurr, Blurr uses his [[Super Speed]] to avoid and escape... but he doesn't realize the corridors have been booby-trapped with [[Smashing Hallway Traps of Doom]] until it's too late to avoid being crushed into a small cube}}. ''Still'' worried that TFA is going to be too kiddy?

** The real kicker? {{spoiler|[[Word of God]] has said that Blurr was supposed to have been animated with his spark still glowing because he was still alive. A ray of hope...until Cliffjumper follows orders and [[And I Must Scream|throws him down the incinerator]].}}

* Played with in the third episode of ''[[Exo Squad]]'', Phaeton's Finance Minister asks for a secret meeting at a factory to inform him that the Martian treasury has been looted. Phaeton cheerfully admits to having diverted the funds himself in order to secretly build weapons. The Finance Minister plays along and later hacks Phaeton's files so he can expose the full extent of Phaeton's crimes. The line is only used after this attempt fails.

* Used rather shockingly in the [[Grand Finale]] move for [[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy]]. After spending the whole movie trying to get to his brother following a rather badly done scam, Eddy finally arrives. And this bit of [[Foreshadowing]] occurs.

'''Eddy''' : Only these chumps who chased us here. }}

** While at first, this seems like a thing any big brother may ask, {{spoiler|this becomes ''very'' creepy a few seconds later when we find out just [[The Sociopath|what Eddy's Brother]] is [[Complete Monster|really like.]]}}

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Stock Phrases]]

[[Category:Contrived Stupidity Tropes]]

[[Category:Stupidity Tropes]]