Murder by Mistake: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

 

In [[Real Life]], this is common enough for the rule of "transferred intent": intent follows the bullet, so that the intent to kill someone makes your killing anyone intentional. The [[Other Wiki]] has [[wikipedia:Transferred intent|more here]]

 

 

{{deathtrope}}

 

{{examples}}

* In ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'', Kenshin kills Tomoe when she gets between him and his assassin.

* In ''[[Last Exile]]'', Sofia's orders an attack on Maestro Delphine's flagship. Just as the ship is destroyed, she learns that her [[Love Interest]] Alex Rowe was on board and had just moments before killed Delphine himself.

* A character of ''[[Ai no Kusabi]]'' intended to [[Murder the Hypotenuse]] but while he succeeded, he also unintentionally got the beloved person he was trying to free killed as well.

 

== Comic Books ==

* In one issue of ''[[Jonah Hex]]'', a killer tries to shoot Jonah through a curtained saloon window. He instead shoots the [[Soiled Dove]] who is prancing about the room in Jonah's hat.

 

* In [[The Movie|the film version]] of ''[[The Firm]]'', DeVasher shoots and kills the Nordic Man thinking that he was Mitch McDeere, through a closed door after seeing a silhouette of the Nordic Man carrying McDeere's briefcase.

* From the movie [[Clue (film)|Clue]]:

Professor Plum: [[Witch with a Capital B|"Oh, shucks."]] }}

* The surviving characters in ''[[Lighthouse (film)|Lighthouse]]'' devise a trap involving molotov cocktails to kill the psychotic Rook. They manage to torch a guy from earlier part of the film, who chose the wrongest possible moment to return to the lighthouse.

 

* In the [[Nero Wolfe]] novel ''Please Pass The Guilt'' by Rex Stout, a person is killed by a trap bomb, but it isn't clear for whom the bomb was intended.

* In ''The Hollow Needle'' by Maurice Leblanc, the thinly veiled [[Expy]] of Sherlock Holmes pursues Lupin to his hideout and goes for a debilitating shot... unfortunately, it's the perfect height to [[Tear Jerker|murder the only wife that Lupin had been willing to fake his death for]]. Cue, instead of a [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]], a [[Heroic BSOD]] and [[There Are No Therapists|a lifetime of commitment issues for Lupin, despite still sleeping around with one identity a known cad]].

** Played with in ''[[The ABC Murders]]''. The final murder does not fit the killer's pattern, making it appear that the murderer made a mistake. In reality, the final murder was unimportant to the pattern, and the killer merely chose his victim randomly.

* [[Agatha Christie]] also played this one straight at least once. In ''Sparkling Cyanide'', the killers poisoned their intended victim's glass of wine at a restaurant, but then everyone at the table got up to dance and returned to the wrong chairs, so someone else got the poisoned glass.

* The [[Inspector Morse]] novel ''Death Is Now My Neighbour''. The first victim dies because the killer meant to bump off the guy next door, but entered the wrong house.

* In the [[Isaac Asimov]] sci-fi mystery novel ''[[The Caves of Steel]]'', the murderer was initially cleared from suspicion due to a mental scan that revealed that he was [[Thou Shalt Not Kill|psychologically incapable of killing]]. However, he ''was'' perfectly willing to destroy a robot... which is what he ''thought'' he was doing when he pulled the trigger and killed the roboticist who had [[Robot Me|created R. Daneel in his own image]].

* In ''[[Point Of Impact]]'', which was the basis for the Mark Wahlberg film ''Shooter'', the assassination is aimed for the President and, due to prevailing cross-winds, simply missed and hit the wrong target. {{spoiler|Or so everyone believes, but the bullet hit who it was supposed to.}}

 

* In the ''[[Queen of Swords]]'' episode "Vengeance," a local noble is killed, causing everyone to think that an ongoing feud is escalating. The assassin was actually aiming at the doctor standing next to the nobleman, and missed.

* In Season 6 of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', Warren shoots Tara accidentally while trying to kill Buffy. This launches Willow into a double plus [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]].

** What, are we forgetting about what caused Faith to turn evil (even though it was at least half Buffy's fault)?

* In the fifth season finale of ''[[Highlander the Series]]'', Duncan MacLeod is hunting around an abandoned racetrack in the dark, looking for a demon who is taunting him by prancing around wearing the faces of student [[Like a Son to Me|Richie Ryan]] and conquered enemies [[Horsemen of the Apocalypse|Kronos]] and [[Complete Monster|James Horton]], who all appear at the same time and trap him between them. They all disappear, Duncan whips around...and in his confusion beheads the ''real'' Richie, who was there [[Idiot Ball|even though everyone told him not to go.]]

* The third episode of the French series ''[[Empreintes Criminelles]]'' starts with a scientist being shot in a brothel, from an unknown source. It turns out an [[Asshole Victim]] was being killed next room, and one of the bullets overpenetrated through the guy and the wall.

* ''[[Rizzoli and Isles]]'': The first victim in "Rebel Without a Pause" was hit by a ricochet of a shot intended for someone else.

 

 

* In ''[[Hamlet]]'', the title Prince stabs Polonius through a curtain, thinking him to be his [[Evil Uncle]], Claudius, who he has sworn vengeance again.

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

* [[Magic: The Gathering]] has a card called Goblin Assassin which may cause any player (including its owner) to sacrifice a creature any time a Goblin comes into play. It's flavour text strongly hints at the reason for this.

 

* ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' involves this as well. Acro wanted to kill Regina for not realizing how she was responisble for his brother's coma. He has a plan to drop a heavy weight once she arrived a certain spot. However, he could not see who arrived at the spot due to his condition and placement, and ended up killing Regina's father, a man who he looked up to very much.

* In the ''[[Star Fox (series)|Star Fox]]'' series, the Nintendo Power comics had Andross, the main [[Big Bad]] of the series, plan to get rid of James McCloud, father of Fox McCloud as he was in love with Vixy Reinard McCloud, Fox's mother and James' wife. However, she didn't love him back... at all (it was implied he was more of a [[Stalker with a Crush]]). So, he decided to kill James with a car bomb. Unfortunately, on the day he planted it, James let Vixy use his car to get to work, as hers was broken down, and she was killed in the following explosion.

* In one of the endings to ''[[Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors]]'' {{spoiler|it is revealed that Ace's prosopagnosia results in him murdering Nijisaki, the decoy, instead of Snake. Granted, judging by the murder of the 9th man partly being motivated by him knowing too much, he would have murdered Nijisaki, an accomplice in the Nonary Project, anyway.}}

 

 

== Web Original ==

* Both Dr Horrible and Captain Hammer of ''[[Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog]]''. Horrible brought his Death Ray to kill Hammer but backed off at the last minute. Hammer took advantage of this stole his now broken gun and shot it at Horrible. The subsequent explosion send schrapnels flying at Penny Hammer's girlfriend and Billy's crush.

 

** The Archduke's wife, Duchess Sophie, was shot by mistake as well. She was sitting next to her husband in the back seat of their open touring car, across from General Potoriek, the military governor of Bosnia, another intended target of the assassination conspiracy. Gavrilo Princip testified that he was so shocked by the presence of the lady right in the path of his intended victims that he didn't even take aim when he fired, but shot with his eyes closed. He expressed great remorse over Sophie's death, stating that he had never intended to deprive the Archduke and Duchess' children of their mother. (Additionally, some accounts of the murder have Princip's arm being grabbed by a plainclothes police officer who was standing next to him, thus deflecting the bullet that was meant for General Potoriek so that it hit the Duchess instead.)

* One of the seemingly infinite theories about the Kennedy Assassination is that Lee Harvey Oswald was actually trying to kill someone else who was in the car with the president.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Death Tropes]]

[[Category:Murder Tropes]]