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Human Shield: Difference between revisions
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** It happens again much later in the manga when Tsukiyomi {{spoiler|Attacks the crew on Haru's airship, but is stopped by Negi, fresh from his training to complete Magia Erebia. She escapes Negi's grip by trying to cut his arm off, which he dodges by turning into lightning. She then tries to use Nodoka as a [[Human Shield]], but before the can follow through is [[Rocket Punch|punched in the gut]] by the arm she just tried to sever.}}
* In the manga of ''[[Berserk]]'' [[Anti-Hero|Guts]] has used a child as a shield and/or hostage in at least 2 seperate occasions, such as when he was fighting with The Count and used the apostle's daughter to ward off an attack.
* An interesting twist in City Hunter. Ryo Saeba gets the drop on a bad guy in a resturant with his 357 Magnum. The Mook opens the curtains behind him, pointing out the crowded tokyo street and taunts Saeba with the fact that if he opens fire, the bullet will cut through the mook and undoubtedly hit a passer by. Ryo proves how badass he is by {{spoiler|shooting THROUGH his own hand, slowing the bullet down just enough to kill the bad guy and still not hurt any bystanders}}
* The first episode of ''[[Black Lagoon]]'' has Revy using some mook as a shield, then killing him as they flee. Judging by the fact he was apparently uninjured until that point, the slightly-more-bad guys were probably reluctant to shoot him, or had poor aim.
* During the [[Final Battle]] of ''[[Code Geass]]'' Lelouch uses a large group of world leaders he had kidnapped during a peace meeting (including women and children) as human shields to prevent Schneizel from using his super weapon on him right from the start of the battle. The twist is that while Schneizel couldn't care less about the hostages, his new allies, The Black Knights, do. In the end, The Black Knights get Schneizel to refrain from using his super-weapon in favor of more conventional tactics, while Lelouch is sitting on the bridge of his flagship sneering with glee.
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** When Dante uses Jean as a shield, {{spoiler|Jean orders Rico to kill him so she can get her shot at killing the most wanted man in Italy as well in the process.}}
* Played for laughs in [[Bobobobo Bobobo]], Bobobo usually uses his ''own'' allies as the human shields, and the villains, more often than not, aim directly for their faces or completely ignore them and punch bobobo (Usually the former, since the two he uses are the [[Butt Monkey|butt monkeys]]).
* Luffy from ''[[One Piece]]'' is a rare example of a protagonist who has done this on occasion. But then again, he IS a pirate. Even one of his attacks is called Gomu Gomu no Human Shield, where he grabs someone by random to block an attack.
* Ayano uses Ren as a human shield against Kazuma in episode 7 of ''[[Kaze no Stigma]]''. However, the scene is largely played for laughs, and neither Ren nor Kazuma take her seriously.
* In the ''[[Dragon Ball]]'' anime, Goku once went to rescue the leader of a village. At some point, the villain used the leader as a human shield. Said leader then delivered a "Don't mind me" speech but changed his mind upon seeing Goku's reaction.
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== Film ==
* Played with ''[[The Naked Gun]]'' movies. In one scene, the villain grabs the hero's girlfriend and places a gun to her head prompting Leslie Nielsen (the hero) to grab a random woman and place a gun to ''her'' head, as if such an act would stop the villain. In another scene, the heroes interrupt a formal banquet and announce their intention to capture the villain. This prompts about a half a dozen suited men in the audience to stand up and grab the women closest to them to use as human shields. When the suited men finally realize the heroes aren't talking about ''them'' they release the women and sheepishly sit back down.
* Inverted in ''[[The Incredibles]]'', where Mr. Incredible takes Syndrome's right hand woman hostage in retribution for the "death" of his family. Syndrome, being a narcissistic and sociopathic villain [[Kick the Dog|showed his true colours]] and called his bluff, [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness|saying she meant nothing to him.]] Of course being a hero Mr. Incredible didn't kill her, and she went on to betray Syndrome for total lack of caring by helping Mr. Incredible and his family escape.
* In the ''[[RoboCop]]'' series, the titular hero has a great targeting system to deal with this kind of situation. For instance in the first film when a male assailant is using a woman as human shield, Robocop carefully shoots the crook between the hostages' legs in a successful gamble to [[Groin Attack|hit his groin]] with just enough clearance with female human anatomy to miss her. The second film has him dealing with the similar situation by arranging a ricochet shot to hit the assailant from behind.
* In ''[[Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade]]'', Indy's love interest (Dr Elsa Schneider) is used as a human shield by one of the Nazis, prompting Indy to drop his gun and surrender. She is immediately revealed to be a 'Nazi Stooge'.
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* Used in ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'' where Will Turner takes himself hostage. Since his blood is needed to break the Aztec curse, if he dies the curse will be permanent.
** Played with in the beginning of the third movie. Sao Feng grabs a spy and threatens to kill him if Barbossa and crew don't stand down. His response: "Go ahead, he's not our man."
** And in the first. Jack takes Elizabeth hostage.
* Subverted in ''[[Iron Man (film)|Iron Man]]''; when Tony starts laying into the terrorists attacking Gulmira, a bunch of them grab some nearby unarmed women and children and hold them at gunpoint. Unfortunately for them, Tony designed his armour with such a situation in mind, and, in one of the movie's many [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Crowning Moments of Awesome]], promptly uses his targeting system to shoot them all without touching the hostages at all.
* What about Lieutenant Sheckil, using Princess Leia as a shield during ''[[Star Wars|The Empire Strikes Back]]'', while she screamed, "Luke, don't, it's a trap!"
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* In [[Stephen King]]'s novel, ''The Dead Zone'', the protagonist tries to assassinate an evil politican, Greg Stillson. He fails, because Stillson uses [[Children Are Innocent|a child]] as a human shield; however, a photographer makes a picture of this, and publishes it, ending Stillson's career.
** In ''[[The Green Mile]]'', psychopathic prisoner William Wharton plays drugged during an interprison transfer until his new guards fail to pay attention. At which point he jumps up and starts beating the crap out of them. The guard captain draws his service pistol, so Wharton uses a guard as a human shield while continuing to wreak havoc. The stalemate is broken when {{spoiler|an additional guard appears on the scene and ambushes Wharton from behind with a baton to the head. Extra balls points to Brutal Howell for advancing into his boss's gun.}}
* In ''[[Outbound Flight]]', Commander Thrawn is coldly angry to see that his newest enemy likes to station captives in clear bubbles on the outsides of their ships; despite the pleas of the [[Wide-Eyed Idealist]] who likes him, he [[Shoot the Dog|fires anyway]].
{{quote|"Understand the reality of the situation. The Vagaari have killed them, all of them, if not in this battle then in battles to come. There's nothing we can do to help them. All we can do is focus our resources toward the Vagaari's ultimate destruction, so that others may live."}}
** Notably, he despised having to go through with it - so in his rematch with the Vagaari, he arranges for an entire swarm of Trade Federation droid starfighters to close to point-blank and ''[[Crowning Moment of Awesome|shoot between the cells]]''.
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* In [[Dan Abnett]]'s [[Warhammer 40000]] [[Gaunt's Ghosts]] novel ''Blood Pact'', Xomat takes Elodie hostage against Daur. Daur declares his indifference and that he just might [[Shoot the Hostage|shoot Xomat]] ''[[Shoot the Hostage|through]]'' [[Shoot the Hostage|Elodie]] -- which distracts him enough for Daur to get off a head shot. Elodie is muchly upset; Daur tries arguing before resorting to a [["Shut Up" Kiss]] -- their [[First Kiss]].
* A captured enemy officer tries to pull this one on Sergeant Jackrum in ''[[Discworld/Monstrous Regiment|Monstrous Regiment]]'' after he tricks Blouse into making Polly untie him. Using Blouse as his human shield, he tries to force them to let him go ... However, he underestimates Jackrum, and the sergeant puts an arrow into him--barely even wounding Blouse in the process.
* In the climax of ''[[Gone (novel)]]'', Caine realizes he is losing the fight, so he uses his telekinetic powers to move Astrid between himself and Sam. He tells Sam to kill him, but he'll have to kill Astrid, too, because she is in the line of fire. Litterally, the line of fire, considering his powers.
* In their final fight against the mercenary unit Avanti's Angels in the ''[[BattleTech]]'' novel ''Double Blind'', the antagonists' leader and two of his underlings chain captive members of said unit to the outsides of their BattleMechs, gambling that the mercenaries won't fire on them for fear of killing their comrades. The tactic works painfully well, too, until the mercs' native allies show up and manage to swarm and climb the 'Mechs (at considerable cost to themselves, but that's a price they're already used to paying for a shot at capturing new war machines for their own tribes) and free the hostages.
* In the climactic battle in ''[[Andre Norton|Star Man's Son]]'', the hero is used as this, tied to the barricade the mutant Beast Things have set up for their [[Last Stand]]. He manages to get loose and crawls [[No One Gets Left Behind|to rescue another fellow in the same situation]], but finds the man already dead.
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'''Dreadmoon''': I'm a Decepticon! It was reflex! }}
* Subverted in ''[[The Last Days of Foxhound]]''. Liquid Snake is taken hostage by a random Mook, in the hope that it will stop Revolver Ocelot. Ocelot, being the [[Magnificent Bastard]] he is, simply shoots through Liquid ''without actually hitting him!'' Liquid is of course perplexed by the ballistics of this.
* In ''[[Juathuur]]'', Rowasu does this with Juinn. He still insists he's not a hostage.
* In ''[[Homestuck]]'', Dave uses Jade for this purpose at one point, since {{spoiler|Bec Noir is psychologically incapable of hurting her directly}}. AUTO-HARLEY!
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* Occurs early on in ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'' v4, where Gracie Wainright attempts to rob Anna Chase (who is [[Blind Without'Em|not wearing her glasses]]) and Kitty Gittschall, and after being threatened by Kitty and hit by Kyle Portman, Gracie is just distracted enough for Anna to attempt to run away. However, she is quickly caught and held by the hair by Gracie, as an attempt to get Kitty and Kyle to stop attacking her and to rob Anna in peace.
* Used as a stalling tactic in the [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|appropriately named]] "[[Fight Scene]]" chapter of ''[[Fine Structure]]''.
* "PUT THE GUN DOWN OR I WILL KILL THE GIRL I WILL KIL-"BOOM "Don't worry, the blood will wash out."
== Real Life ==
* Countless [[Truth in Television]] examples during bank hold-ups and various hostage situations. Also, unfortunately, used by terrorist groups, who will occasionally launch attacks from civilian areas in the hope that the attacked nation will withhold retaliation.
** Or just as often in the hope that they ''will'' retaliate; the deaths of civilians gaining them sympathy and recruits for their cause.
*** Or [[Xanatos Gambit|hoping for either situation]].
** Also a favored tactic of dictators facing superior air power and/or artillery. They grow fond of parades and refugee camps, trusting the other nation to become enough of a [[Slave to PR]] to not simply bomb them.
*** There is also a more sympathetic version of just keeping your troops so close to enemy forces (especially while engaging) that the enemy can't risk the use of air strikes or artillery as it'll get just as many friendlies as hostiles. This has led to the occasional subversion of [[Shoot the Hostage]] where the "hostage", about to be overrun, requests an artillery strike of his own position, knowing that he can take a great deal of attackers down with him.
** Probably the weirdest example was various American and British anti-war activists volunteering as human shields during the Iraq war. They gave up on the idea when it became clear Saddam Hussein was only prepared to let them shield military and government facilities rather than civilians, almost as if he was some kind of evil dictator.
* [[Osama Bin Laden]] allegedly tried this with one of his wives before he was killed. [[Shoot the Hostage|It didn't work]].
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