Leave No Survivors: Difference between revisions

 

Compare, contrast with [[Kill'Em All]], [[Shoot Everything That Moves]], and [[Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies]]. If you have to kill everyone because they saw too much, that's [[Leave No Witnesses]].

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* The stock phrase 一人残らず ("hitori nokorazu," lit. "Don't leave even one (alive)"), is used very commonly in manga, anime, and movies.

* In ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion|End Of Evangelion]]'', the [[Kaiju Defense Force|JSDF]] raid adopts this policy as they attempt a violent takeover of NERV.

* The first episode of ''[[Code Geass]] R2'' demonstrates the cruelly brutal efficiency of Britannian special forces by having them burn the bodies of the people they slaughtered (both Japanese and fellow Britannians)... even as some of the "bodies" are screaming, as they are not quite dead.

 

* Ildomir the [[Evil Sorcerer]] from ''[[Nodwick]]'' makes a note to himself to have this phrase tattooed on the back on his hand after being foiled by our heroes shortly after leaving them alive in a bad situation.

 

== Film ==

** The guys they weren't taking any prisoners of did just slaughter a village, so it's not entirely an out-of-nowhere [[What the Hell, Hero?]] moment.

* ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia|The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe]]''

* In the film version of ''[[The Lord of the Rings (film)|The Lord of the Rings]]'', this happens twice. Saruman orders his Uruk-hai in the second film to '''"leave ''none'' alive!"''' in the battle of Helm's Deep, and the Witch-king orders his minions to slay everyone in Minas Tirith.

** Also, Aragorn himself tells the men to show no mercy, "because the enemy will show none"

* From the ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'' films:

** In the first film, of course, the cursed crew of the ''Black Pearl'' is famous for leaving no survivors.

** ''Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest''

** Also in ''At World's End'':

* ''[[The Princess Bride (film)|The Princess Bride]]'': The standing order of the Dread Pirate Roberts, though with a condition: Only those who attempt to fight back are killed.

** Not to mention the threat the heroes use to clear out the men guarding the castle gate on their way to rescue Buttercup.

* In ''[[Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan|Star Trek II the Wrath of Khan]]'', after Saavik goes through the Kobayashi Maru test, Kirk tells her that the Klingons don't take prisoners. Since they ''do'' take prisoners in several [[Star Trek: The Original Series]] episodes as well as several TOS era movies, this is probably based on a faulty memory of the "Romulans don't take captives" quote from TOS.

** Although the earlier instances are contradicted by the later and more consistent representation of Klingons as [[Proud Warrior Race]] guys who consider being taken prisoner a fate worse than death. Death in combat is a notably DESIRABLE thing for a Klingon Warrior, such that any who do not fall IN BATTLE must have a victory won in their name in order to enter the Klingon Heaven (<s>Valhalla</s> Sto-Vo-Kor). Given all that, it seems unlikely they would engage in such "dishonorable" conduct as TAKING prisoners.

** Or Kirk was just being dramatic.

* ''[[Red Dawn]]''. The protagonists are seen shooting Soviet prisoners and wounded, because they're fighting a guerrilla campaign and can't take prisoners even if they were so inclined.

* ''[[It Happened Here]]'' ends with [[La Résistance]] massacring captured members of the British SS, as part of its [[The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized|deconstruction of heroic resistance tropes]].

* In ''[[Judge Dredd (film)|Judge Dredd]]'', Judge Griffin says this in so many words to his people who are investigating the shuttle crash.

* In ''[[Red Tails]]'', "Pretty Boy", the German fighter ace, typically opens the fight with some order or another. By the final battle, he has lost all pretense of gentlemanly chivalry and simply orders his men to show no mercy.

 

== Literature ==

* In ''[[The Hunt for Red October]]'', the US wonders what to do with the crew of ''Red October'', who don't want to defect- rejecting the option of killing them all as morally wrong. The reason the sub's destruction is faked is in order to allow the crew to go back to the USSR and claim the sub sunk.

 

== Live-Action TV ==

* ''[[Babylon 5]]'':

** Minbari policy during the Earth-Minbari War was to destroy any and all combatants, regardless of their ability to fight back or if they surrender.

*** They did leave many core colonies untouched as they made a beeline for Earth. However, it's likely they would've gone back to mop up every surviving human after Earth was no more.

* Comedic version: In one episode of ''[[Red Dwarf]]'', a shuttle crashes and most of the gear on board is wrecked. While trying to find something worth salvaging:

'''Kryten:''' Not even Mr. Lister's guitar survived intact! }}

* In ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'', the Romulans are noted to not take captives in the 2nd season episode "The Deadly Years". However, they try to do exactly that in the 3rd season episode "The Enterprise Incident".

** Possibly they do take prisoners but they don't ransom them, they keep them and refuse to acknowledge that they do. Certainly Saaviks Vulcan parent was a prisoner as was Tasha Yar.

* There's a heroic version in ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]''. After repeatedly failing to kill Michael, and now dealing with his latest scheme which has taken control of the city, Sheppard orders the soldiers to give no quarter.

 

== Music ==

 

 

* Every game that requires the player to eliminate all enemies to advance to the next level/unlock a new area/complete a mission falls into this trope. (Aversions fall under [[Instant Win Condition]].)

* In ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'', [[Monster Clown|Kefka]] gives an order to this effect in one of Terra's flashbacks during a ''training exercise'' (for [[Tyke Bomb|her]], not the helpless [[Red Shirt|troops]] being cut down, but it still comes off as unnecessarily callous).

* The player character in the ''[[Free Space]]'' expansion pack ''Silent Threat'' gets to do this in the first two missions, in order to protect a fragile alliance with an alien race after a friendly fire incident (the second mission: one ship was scripted to escape the first mission, so you went to its destination and killed everything there).

* ''[[Skies of Arcadia]]'''s [[Big Bad]] would have done this when he [[Doomed Hometown|doomed Vyse and Aika's hometown]] if the Air Pirates had resisted capture. Luckily, they didn't, so the non-combatants were spared and you got to rescue everyone else later.

** And in World at War's single player, [[Gary Oldman]]'s character encourages you to kill a group of surrendering Germans. If you don't do it yourself, he'll just kill them anyway.

* ''[[Dawn of War]] 2'' has "NO MERCY!" amongst the random battle dialogue of the Space Marines. Naturally, there are no mechanics for taking prisoners in the game.

* While not specifically mentioned in the ''[[Total War]]'' series, starting with ''Empire: Total War'', it is no longer possible to take prisoners in battle. In ''Medieval'', ''Rome'', and ''Medieval 2'', any enemy struck from behind was knocked out instead of killed and taken prisoner if you win the battle. You could then free, execute, or attempt to ransom (execution as backup) them back.

** This is probably an aversion, however, since it was about this time that rules about taking prisoners started to be enforced. The likelihood is that the winner ''is'' taking prisoners, but since you have no legal choice about whether to kill them or not it's just being quietly taken care of behind the scenes.

* This is a favorite habit of ''[[Suikoden II]]'''s resident [[Complete Monster]] Prince Luca Blight when ransacking random towns throughout the game. If fact, he takes it a step further by personally and gleefully butchering all of the inhabitants individually while they beg for their lives.

 

* ''[[Knights of the Dinner Table]]'': [[The Smart Guy|Brian]] has a tendency to do this, especially in the espionage campaigns.

* In ''[[Nip and Tuck]]'', the [[Show Within a Show]] ''Rebel Cry'' features a "scorched earth" order to ensure our hero does not escape

* In ''[[American Barbarian]]'' [http://www.ambarb.com/?p=82 he is told the attackers take no prisoners.]

 

== Web Originals ==

* Said by Jax and Sonya to <s>Hanzo Hasashi</s> Scorpion in ''[[Mortal Kombat Rebirth]]'' regarding the underground tournament. Apparently, even the cops are too fed up with the crime spree to bother arresting people.

 

== Western Animation ==

* [[SpongeBob SquarePants]]: According to Plankton, the "N" in [[Fun with Acronyms|"FUN"]] stands for "No Survivors".

 

== Other ==

* Rule #22 of [[The Thirty-Six Stratagems]] advises at least completely capturing the enemy, if not killing them all.

 

== Real Life ==

* Since ancient times, there was a bit of an unspoken rule that if a city's defenders surrendered early and averted a siege, they would be treated relatively nicely. The alternative was that once the attackers broke the siege, they pretty had the right to completely destroy the city in order to "encourage" the surrounding cities to surrender.

* The Massacre of Glencoe was ordered by King William of Orange with the line:

** The part about leaving those over 70 was not mercy; in those days it was rare to find anyone much over 50 and the understanding was that anyone 70 or over would probably die on their own without someone to provide care for them.

* Famously happened during the Albigensian Crusade against Catharism in southern France. Asked by a soldier how to tell the difference between Cathar heretics and good Catholics, the [[Church Militant|Papal legate]] [[Knight Templar|Arnaud Amalric]] replied:

** Though it's debatable [[Beam Me Up, Scotty|if he said]] any such a thing, as there doesn't seem to be any record of him saying those words until about 50 years afterwards.

* Arguably the result of any protracted siege in history. The soldiers, after watching their mates getting killed in various horrific fashions over a period of weeks or months, work out their frustrations on the defenders and civilians inside.

** The city of Carthage was completely destroyed by the Romans at the climax of the Third Carthaginian War. The Carthaginian citizens were either slaughtered or captured as slaves; none were spared.

** Roman deserters were always killed if captured by Rome. There were accounts of ex-Roman soldiers at Carthage building a great bonfire in the Basilica before it fell, and leaping into the flames to avoid mandatory crucifixion for their desertion.

* The Battle of Little Bighorn.

* Most of [[World War II]] in the Pacific Theater was this, especially after the tide turned and the Americans began their slow advance towards Japan. The Japanese refused to surrender in any significant numbers, preferring one [[Last Stand]] after another, while at the same time refusing to take any prisoners when one of their counterattacks was successful.

** In the European Theater, during particular battles, both Allied and German troops were sometimes ordered or "encouraged" not to take any prisoners. However, often times these orders had practical motivations. During Operation Neptune, Allied paratroopers obviously had no rear echelon or base of operations to send prisoners of war to since they were operating behind enemy lines. During the Battle of the Bulge, taking prisoners would slow down the German advance, which was on a time critical mission. Naturally, since the Allies won the war, the Germans that were caught doing this were tried for war crimes.

* This is the '''modus operandi''' of the Mexican drug cartels.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Military and Warfare Tropes]]

[[Category:Stock Phrases]]