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{{trope}}
{{quote|[[Arc Words|Ohana.]] Ohana means family. Family means [[Heartwarming Moments|no one gets left behind or forgotten.]]
|'''Stitch''', ''[[Lilo and Stitch]]''}}
{{quote|There are three things to remember about being a starship [[The Captain|captain]]: keep your shirt tucked in, [[Going Down
|'''Captain Janeway''', ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]''}}
Two characters are escaping from something. One of them falls down, breaks a leg and says "Leave me, [[I Will Only Slow
In more hard-pressed situations, the character must stand over the fallen friend and fight off enemies, all the way up to the grim [[Last Stand]]. In case of close comrades, such as [[Blood Brothers]], or [[A Father to His Men|beloved commanders]], this may be done [[Due to
This trope is often used to generate drama in a situation that calls for a [[Heroic Sacrifice]]. See [[Shoot the Dog]].
Can lead to [[Fire
[[Genre Savvy]] villains will exploit this rule to great effect by wounding their enemies, thereby pinning or slowing down their comrades.
If it really is impossible, the wounded soldier may [[I Cannot Self
On the other hand, if the wounded soldier can prevent the enemies from chasing his comrades, [[You Shall Not Pass]] may justify leaving him. The soldier will probably [[More Hero Than Thou|insist on volunteering despite his comrades' protests]].
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When they must [[Bring News Back]], the characters who stay behind often do it to buy the others time to get away. Those who must go on may find it [[Dirty Business|hard to flee]] while [[More Hero Than Thou|others fight]], but generally their sense of duty is up to it.
In many ways this is [[Truth in Television]], although without the dramatic clichés. Many armed forces units, especially the U.S. Navy SEALs and U.S. Army Rangers, pride themselves on never abandoning a wounded or dead soldier. Others, like the SAS, make a rule to leave wounded men for [[The Medic
See also [[Honor Before Reason]], which this is usually a subtrope of.
Has nothing to do with [[George W. Bush|No Child Left Behind.]]
{{examples|Examples:}}▼
== Anime and Manga ==
* In ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', people do extreme things to take their comrades off the field with them. Ling carries his wounded servant Ran Fan out of a battle, and has a fight while carrying her - allowing a pretty heinous villain to mock him relentlessly. Roy cauterizes (his own as well as) Havoc's wounds to help Havoc get safely out of the battle and to enable himself to go and rescue Al and Hawkeye.
** This is lampshaded later on, when Roy tells two of his men to leave him behind if he gets hurt. They instantly agree. Surprised by their response, tells them that the ''correct'' answer is for them to reply "Never! I'd follow you to the depths of hell!" One of the men responds, "Screw that. I've got a family!" While the other says it's stupid to "commit double suicide like that." Roy answers with a knowing smile.
* Averted like ''hell'' in every staircase sequence in ''[[Saint Seiya]]''
* ''[[Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle]]'', so much - Kurogane {{spoiler|''cuts off his own arm'' to keep Fai from being left behind in the closing world of Celes}}.
* This gets averted in the first ''[[Ranma
* In the ''[[Pokémon]] Special'' manga, Blue and Sabrina are handcuffed together and fighting Lorelei. Blue is knocked out and Sabrina is hanging on the edge of a cliff. Lorelei suggests that Sabrina save herself by cutting off Blue's cuffed hand and letting her drop. Sabrina responds that, even though she and Blue were once enemies, they are allies now and that she never abandons an ally.
* In ''[[Naruto]]'' this is exemplified by the father of Hatake Kakashi, Hatake Sakumo. While on a critical mission for Konoha during the Third Ninja War, Sakumo given the choice of rescuing his teammates or completing the mission, Sakumo chose to save his team. Unfortunately the failure of the mission was not well recieved. While Sakumo prior was respected on the same level or even above the Sannin, the mission's failure caused such catastrophic losses, that he became reviled afterwards. {{spoiler|The stress was so extreme that he committed suicide in front of Kakashi.}} Kakashi from this experience became an ultra strict rule follower and general jerkass who would also put the mission first. Later Uchiha Obito would naturally adopt this attitude and pass it on to Kakashi. After Obito's death Kakashi would adopt this to the extreme adopting the directive that he wouldn't let anyone on his team die.
** Naruto of course has taken this to the extreme doing everything in his power in the second part of the story to bring back Sasuke and save him from himself and his revenge.
* Parodied in ''[[Excel Saga (
* Lampshaded and Played with in ''[[Vandread]]''. Dita tries pulling one of these when Gascogne gets stuck. Gasconge is more [[Genre Savvy]].
{{quote|
== Comic Books ==
* During the Marvel Comics run of ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' there was a particularly tragic example where Dusty flashes back to meeting a fellow Joe's family and promising to keep an eye on him. He ends up carrying his friend's dead body for miles through a desert because "he promised."
== Film ==
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** Arrr, but the rules are more like... guidelines.
*** Well, when [[Character Alignment|"Any nonlawful alignment"]] is a prerequisite...
* The main character of ''[[
* Parodied in ''[[Little Miss Sunshine]]'': Frank says this line after Olive is left at a gas station.
* In ''[[Forrest Gump]]'', Gump earns the Medal of Honor for rescuing his fellow soldiers in Vietnam. At times, Lieutenant Dan wishes that he had lost his life instead of his lower legs.
** Ironically, the one soldier that Forrest failed to save the life of was the one he originally went back to help. He kept stumbling on other wounded comrades and brought every one of them back because he felt he "couldn't just leave them there, frightened and hurt."
* Used and [[Lampshade
** The villain version of this trope is used as well. A German sniper purposely shoots and incapacitates an American soldier, hoping that it will draw out other soldiers into the open in an attempt to help the downed man.
*** A [[Truth in Television]], this is a real sniper tactic.
*** ''[[The Unit]]'' has a variation where {{spoiler|the sniper kills a Unit operator and then ties a wire to the operator's hand to simulate movement, thus making the survivor and rescuers think that he's alive; it's only when the rescuers take out the sniper that they find that all the tension and emphasis on rescuing the "wounded" operator were for nothing}}.
* Subversion: In ''[[Canadian Bacon]]'', the [[The Spartan Way|Omega Force]] sent to locate the protagonist is running along the Canadian wilderness when one of them falls down and clutches his foot. Another one approaches, and the guy on the ground says "It's just my toe." [[You Have Failed Me...|Boom]].
* This is basically the plot of ''[[Black Hawk Down]]'', based on the Battle of Mogadishu.
** Heavily, ''heavily'' [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in the book as [[Honor Before Reason]], where in the After Action Report, the general in charge of the mission admitted that taking the time to make sure all the soldiers or their bodies were out of the battlefield exponentially increased the number of casualties (because they had to stay in combat longer). He even outright admits that it wasn't for some sort of honorable reason or heroic mandate, but because he didn't want to have a PR disaster from American bodies being dragged through the streets, as had happened before (though, that was also because he didn't want to dishonor any soldiers whose bodies would be dragged like that, so...).
* Subverted and [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshade hung]] in ''[[Muppets
{{quote|
'''Fozzy''': Hey, we left Bunsen and Beaker back at the gas station!
'''Kermit''': ''* pause* '' From this point on, we will not leave anyone behind! }}
* Averted with dastardly repercussions in the [[Backstory]] of ''[[The Rock]]''. [[The Brigadier|General Hummell]]'s request to send in troops to extract at least 15 marines on a Black Operation from the combat zone are denied by his superiors, forcing him to leave them to die.
{{quote|
** The last straw is when the government refuses to pay the families of the dead soldiers due to plausible deniability, which drives Hummell to go rogue.
* In ''[[Full Metal Jacket]]'' the VC sniper uses their knowledge of this to sucker the U.S. troops to try to rescue their wounded comrades.
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* Averted in ''[[Resident Evil]]''. When Kaplan is trapped by zombies he tells the rest of the party to leave him behind. Alice refuses, but Kaplan insists, and they do so.
* ''[[The Guns of Navarone]]''. Both played straight and [[Subverted]] with Major Franklin: first Captain Mallory refuses to leave him behind, then does leave him behind with the Germans after feeding him false information about the nature of their mission in the hope the Germans will use [[Truth Serums]] to get it out of him.
* Notably averted in ''[[
* In ''[[The Smurfs (
* Happens in ''[[The Matrix]]''. After nearly being caught by Agents, Morpheus attempts both a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] and [[You Shall Not Pass]] in order to allow Neo and the others time to escape. Afterwards, the surviving crew members contemplate pulling the connection from Morpheus, which would kill him but also prevent the Agents from learning access codes to Zion, the last human city. Neo invokes this trope and instead [[Big Damn Heroes|attempts]] to [[Gunship Rescue|rescue]] Morpheus.
* The firefighters in ''[[Backdraft]]'' have this as part of their code of honor. "You go, we go."
* In ''[[Aliens]]'', after the Colonial Marines learn that some of the ones left behind in the escape are still alive, Vasquez says "Then we go back in there and get them. We don't leave our people behind." They end up not trying to do so after Corporal Hicks points out "You can't help them! You can't. Right now they're being cocooned just like the others."
== Literature ==
* [[Older Than Feudalism]]: A frequent occurrence in ''[[
* Subverted by {{spoiler|Sheriff Bell}} in the book ''[[No Country for Old Men]]''. After the rest of his squad was hit from a mortar shell annihilating the farmhouse they were monitoring radio signals in, he manages to ready up the squad's 30. cal machine gun to attack Germans advancing in his direction. He shoots at them and pins them down, but all the while, he is said to have heard groans from his squad, indicated at least some were alive. He then chooses to abandon the position and flee after the day goes dark, and remains [[Survivors Guilt|haunted on how he was the only survivor]], getting a Bronze Star he didn't want to accept (he assumes the brass wanted to scrap something out of how their position was lost.)
* A brutal example of this being used against a character occurs in a story from [[George
* Featured prominently in [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s ''[[Starship Troopers]]'', and realistically gets a lot of characters killed, as observed - and justified - by the characters. "Men are not potatoes."
** Indeed, one of Rico's instructors at OCS claims that it's "mathematically provable" that they should invade an enemy planet in full force to recover one lost infantryman. According to Heinlein, soldiers cannot fully commit themselves to the service of their society if they don't know that the society is equally committed to them. Said math is not shown, of course, so we have to take his [[Author Avatar]]'s word for it.
* Subverted in the ''[[
** In fact, the Lieutenant of the main's group points out that their standard ammunition is designed to cripple, not kill, saying that "if you maim an enemy on the field it takes four of his friends to haul him back from the battle and even more of his friends to patch him up and care for him. Kill an enemy and you decrease the force against you by one. Maim an enemy and you decrease the force against you by ten." Pity the [[Hive Mind|hive-minded]] Zerg never try to recover the wounded.
*** Or that the super advanced Protoss are hardcore and will fight to the bitter end. (And if they get crippled, they will become Dragoons and Stalkers so that their crippled BODIES can fight to the bitter end.)
* In [[Dan Abnett]]'s ''[[
** When Domor is wounded and blinded in ''First & Only'', although his wounds will prove fatal without adequate medical attention, Gaunt tells him he's coming if he has to carry him himself.
** In ''Traitor General'', inability to bring Feygor with them because of his illness strikes all the Ghosts very bitterly.
** In ''His Last Command'', when Maggs is thrown [[Cool Gate|through a Chaos warp gate]], Mkoll cites this and jumps after him. Although the scene is both [[Evil Is Deathly Cold|bitterly cold]] and [[Alien Geometries|impossible]], and breaks down Maggs, he gets them both to another gate and
*** That's it? That's all you say about Mkoll's [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|insane]] dive into a pocket warp dimension, full of thousand of gigantic, man-tank stalkers and multiple ARMIES of cultists and armor support, armed only with a plasma pistol and a knife? Hell, Mkoll even admits later that he lost count of how many he killed!
* In William King's ''[[Warhammer
* In [[Graham McNeill]]'s [[Warhammer
* The villain reaction is used in Robert Asprin's ''[[Myth Adventures|M.Y.T.H. Inc. In Action]]''. Guido and Nunzio, two Mob bodyguards, join the Army and are not impressed with the training or equipment. During target practice, Guido puts three crossbow bolts into a dummy's shoulder, and the drill sergeant asks, "If you can shoot that well, why not shoot him in the head?!" Guido, forgetting he's not in the Mob anymore, replies, "ANY idiot can kill somebody, but it takes SKILL to leave 'em in a condition where they can still give information, OR pay protection, OR..." Nunzio tries to avert disaster by explaining that what he MEANT was that wounding an opponent takes three men out of the action, since two have to carry the wounded one.
* [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]]'s [[John Carter of Mars]]/Barsoom novels.
** In ''[[John Carter of Mars|Chessmen of Mars]]'', Gahan briefly convinces himself that Tara hates him when he is left prisoner.
{{quote|
** In ''[[John Carter of Mars|The Gods of Mars]]'', John Carter is frantic when the [[Mobile Maze]] cuts him off from Tars Tarkas. A prisoner asks him when he is trying to get back to where the monster is.
{{quote|
** In ''[[John Carter of Mars|Thuvia, Maid of Mars]]'', a [[Master of Illusion]] convinced Carthoris to go on with an illusion of Thuvia, and Thuvia that Carthoris had asked her to stay behind, but Thuvia rejects the charges that he fled without her because:
{{quote|
* Subverted in [[Jack Campbell]]'s ''[[The Lost Fleet]]'' where Captain Geary tries to make good on this only to realize that several of his ships are clearly not going to make the escape from the enemy until another ship (commanded by his grandnephew) performs a [[Heroic Sacrifice]].
** However in the rest of the series they try their damnest to save any escape pods and liberate any POW camps. {{spoiler|This attitude leads to them saving an Syndic colony that was left to die. This leads to a Syndic CEO have a [[Heel Face Turn]] because her brother was on that colony and she helps the Fleet get home.}}
** In ''Invicible'', Geary orders Tulev to sweep the human wreckage from
* In the ''[[X Wing Series]]'' novel ''Iron Fist'', {{spoiler|Phanan}} is shot down over an Imperial-held planet. Face followed even though he was squadron leader at the time, telling the others to regroup without him. He found {{spoiler|Phanan}} badly wounded and tried to take him to the nearest settlement, but it was pretty obvious that they wouldn't make it. Face was about to call the Imperial forces out looking for them, because even though they'd be imprisoned by their enemies this would mean medical treatment, but {{spoiler|Phanan}} talked him out of it before dying. Then Face went back to his starfighter, destroyed his friend's body, and returned to the Wraiths guilt-ridden. Wraiths and Rogues in general try very hard to avoid their teammates [[Dying Alone]].
* In [[Andre Norton]] and A.C. Crispin's ''[[Witch World]]'' novel ''Gryphon's Eyrie'', Joisan stands over her fallen husband to keep him from [[Evil Is Deathly Cold|shadow creatures]], but when she, being pregnant, realizes that the creatures are after her baby, she is afraid that it will mean she must leave him.
* In [[Andre Norton]]'s [[Science Fiction]] novels, this trope is occasionally invoked as an ironclad rule of space travel:
* [[
* In Nick Kyme's [[Warhammer
{{quote|
** After the fight, a comrade reassures him that his battle-brother will
* Subverted in one of Mack Reynolds' ''Section G.'' [[In Space|spy stories]]. Section G's top operative, Ronny Bronston, takes a new agent on a training mission to an enemy planet. Ronny is wounded and tells the newbie to kill him so the enemy won't capture him. The rookie instead helps Ronny to their escape vehicle. The subversion comes because Ronny wasn't ''that'' badly wounded; it was an impromptu [[Secret Test]], and by not being ruthless enough to kill his comrade, the new guy ''failed'' and gets washed out of field agent training. Ronny's boss points out that the rookie was trying to save Ronny's life. Ronny replies flatly that saving his life wasn't the mission.
* In C.S. Goto's ''[[Blood Ravens]]'' trilogy, having discovered reason to believe {{spoiler|Rhamah}} was still alive, the Blood Ravens engage in a deeply risky maneuver in warp, as the only way to retrieve him.
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* Subverted in the [[Dale Brown]] novel ''Warrior Class'', where Patrick McLanahan decides to go against orders to rescue two of his downed crewmen, and while he succeeds, gets into serious trouble with the high command for it.
* [[Lois McMaster Bujold]]'s [[Vorkosigan Saga]] novel ''Diplomatic Immunity''. Admiral Vorpatril has this attitude, which was one of the factors leading to the escalation of the diplomatic incident that Miles has to sort out, after having been left behind himself by Miles' father when Vorpatril was a junior officer during the failed Escobar invasion.
* [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[Discworld]]'' novel ''[[
* Subverted in ''[[Night]]''. During the march from Birkenau to Auschwitz, anyone who moves too slowly is shot. Rabbi Eliahou can no longer manage to run, and loses his son in the crowd, but is determined to find him. Eliezer declines to tell him that said son abandoned him after seeing him limping, and prays to God for the spiritual strength never to abandon his own father. {{spoiler|He doesn't get it, and is ultimately too cowardly to help his dying father.}}
* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s [[Conan the Barbarian]] story "The Devil in Iron", Octavia starts to explain not leaving Conan as this, and then switches to she had nowhere to go.
* In [[Jasper Fforde]]'s ''[[Thursday Next|The Eyre Affair]]'', Thursday went back to get the wounded against orders. If the press hadn't gotten wind of it, she would have been courtmartialed.
* The [[Left Behind]] book series averts this trope with the Rapture of faithful Christians at the beginning of the series. However, those who are left behind to face the Tribulation and become Christians do get supernatural help from God. Also, by the end of the seven-year Tribulation period, the raptured Christians come back with Jesus Christ in time for the [[Curb Stomp Battle]] of Him versus Nicolae Carpathia and the Global Community army.
* ''[[Harry Potter and
* In the Loic Henry's [[Military Science Fiction]] book ''Loar'', this his how [[City of Spies|planet Bihan]] keeps or buys the loyalty of its spies: If one spy's cover is blown, they'll order as many spies as necessary to blow their own cover and escape with the first spy (they'll still have a few dozen spies left in the place afterwards anyway).
== Live Action TV ==
* This is practically the motto of the SGC personnel from ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'', where Jack O'Neill always insists that "we never leave our people behind".
** Most notable was the 2-parter episode "Heroes" which featured a [[Deconstruction]] of this trope when they show the cost of the rescue attempt of a single [[Red Shirt]]: numerous wounded, a small fortune of monetary expenses and most severely {{spoiler|Dr. Fraiser is [[Killed Off for Real]]. She does get a good sendoff though, with a [[Dead Guy, Junior]] (well, dead girl junior) and the second episode ending with a eulogy listing the names of people she's saved during the series}}.
** The above quote is from the episode "[[Those Two Guys|The Other Guys]]" where two scientists witness SG-1 getting captured. With this motto in heart, they attempt a more or less successful rescue {{spoiler|Only to be told by O'Neil that the capture was part of a [[Batman Gambit]], so SG-1 could meet up with [[The Mole]] in the enemy's ranks.}}
** Averted in the finale of season one, when {{spoiler|Daniel was left behind on Apophis' soon-to-be-destroyed ship.}} The implication, however, was that {{spoiler|he}} wasn't going to survive anyway (being severely injured), and the other characters probably wouldn't, either, if they didn't avert this trope. The irony was that {{spoiler|if Daniel ''hadn't'' been left behind, he probably ''would'' have died anyway: he used the sarcophagus and the Gate to heal himself and get home (respectively). It's implied that they wouldn't have been able to save him on Earth.}}
* ''[[Life On Mars]]''. Gene goes back for Sam after he is knocked down by the man they are chasing torturing him in the future. No, really.
* ''[[Firefly]]'' had at least two episodes explicitly dealing with this: "War Stories" (where Zoe and the crew rescue Wash and Mal from Niska) and "The Message" (where Mal and Zoe are shown in flashbacks saving Tracey's life).
** In the Big Damn Movie, this is brought up in a [[What the Hell, Hero?]] moment after Mal kicks a local off the mule when he tries to hitch a ride with them and escape the Reavers. Zoe mentions that in the war they'd never leave a man behind, and Mal replies, "Maybe that's why we lost."
*** Parodied later on:
{{quote|
** Also, in the episode "Safe", when Simon asks Mal why he went back for him and River,
{{quote|
'''Simon''': "Yeah, but you don't even like me."
'''Mal''': "You're '''on my crew'''. Why are we still talking about this?" }}
* Subverted in ''[[The Adventures of Lano and Woodley]]''. Col and Frank are fleeing their psychotic ex-boss who is trying to kill them. Frank trips, and this exchange ensues:
{{quote|
'''Col:''' OK! ''(makes to leave)''
'''Frank:''' No, hang on! That's not how it goes! You're supposed to say "No, I cannot possibly, for you are my friend."
'''Col:''' OK, let's try again.
'''Frank:''' You'll have to go on without me!
'''Col:''' No, I cannot possibly, for you are my friend.
'''Frank:''' I insist!
'''Col:''' Alrighty. }}
* In season 3 of ''[[Lost]]'', Kate insists on going back to the Barracks for Jack after escaping the Others with his help. In something of a [[Family
** Then in season 5, Robert says this to Jin when going into the smoke monster's lair after Montand. This does not turn out well, either.
* In an episode of
* Adam Savage has joked about ''[[
* Parodied in the ''[[Seinfeld]]'' episode "The Puerto Rican Day", where a parade is obstructing the traffic, and Elaine tries to go through underneath a viewing stand, leading a group of people. An elderly priest can't keep up:
{{quote|
'''Priest:''' No, I can't. I've got a bad hip. Go on without me.
'''Elaine:''' No! I won't!
'''Priest:''' Leave me! You must.
'''Elaine:''' All right. Take it easy.
''(catches up with the others)''
'''Elaine:''' All right, we can move faster without Father O'Gimpy.
'''Priest:''' I heard that! }}
* ''[[Star Trek:
* In their first few appearances on ''[[Star Trek:
* [[Doctor Who
** In "[[Doctor Who
* Thoroughly averted, and possibly subverted, in ''[[Warhammer
▲== Tabletop RPG ==
▲* Thoroughly averted, and possibly subverted, in ''[[Warhammer 40000]]''. The Tau and Eldar are about the only ones who ever try, and the Eldar consider recovering the waystones of the dead good enough consolation for being unable to save the bodies of the living (the fact that Eldar wear them to prevent their souls [[Fate Worse Than Death|from being devoured]] by [[Cosmic Horror|evil Chaos God of lust]] may also have something to it).
** Similarly, although the Marines consider it the highest honour to die in battle, they'll fight hard to recover the two progenoid glands from the still-cooling bodies of their battle brothers, as they are necessary to convert new Space Marines. (The way the Chaos forces can use them lends a certain amount of urgency to this.)
*** The Grey Knights, however, will fight as hard as possible to recover their comrades' bodies, not just the glands, so they can lay them to rest on Titan.
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** The Tyranids do this too, in a sense. When they gather up the biological material from a planet they've conquered, they make sure to get '''all''' of it, which includes every single 'Nid that got killed in the attack.
*** Actually they also collect the biomass from most of the survivors too. The greater part of their assault troops are creatures that have no digestive system: they are MEANT to die, should they survive the invasion, and they'll be reprocessed into biomass for later use.
* Thoroughly justified in ''[[Dungeons
== Video Games ==
* Given how the '''Nonary Game''' is played out, It's only natural for it to occur in ''[[Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors]]'':
** {{spoiler|Ace offers to stay behind to let the group continue. The group flat-out refused, but to secure him to stay behind, he took a relaxent to ensure he was unable to continue.}}
** {{spoiler|Lotus offered to stay behind in the Chapel. They refuse, [[Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other|specifically Seven.]]}}
** {{spoiler|Seven and Snake both do this (with the same reactions as the above) in the Chapel. Seven is forced to stay behind, but has a trump card anyway.}}
* ''[[Betrayal
* Double H's motto in ''[[Beyond Good
* In ''[[Call of Duty]] 4'', Lt. Vasquez's squad (to which the player character Sgt. Jackson belongs) takes a detour to save a grounded Super Cobra pilot from a hostile city for this reason. [[It Got Worse]], since {{spoiler|they do not make it out of the city in time before a [[Mnogo Nukes|Russian warhead]] goes off, killing them (almost) instantly. The pilot can be found dead outside the helicopter wreck ''after'' the detonation, which just rubbed salt in the wound with the futility of it all. In fairness, considering the blast radius as shown in both the immediate detonation and the subsequent loading screen, it's questionable whether any of the Marines ever had a chance even had they not taken the detour.}}
** An earlier mission for the SAS side has you on a rescue mission for a captured informant. "We take care of our friends." Fortunately, {{spoiler|when the group is forced to continue on foot}}, the informant has the same [[Gameplay Ally Immortality]] as the other important NPCs and is both armed and competent, making him not a liability but a one-time asset (pun intended).
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** The next mission 'Heat', Gaz will yell that you're going to be left behind if you [[Take Your Time]] to reach the farm. [[Gameplay and Story Segregation|He's just trying to motivate you, however.]] It's played straight for Mac, however, who is shot and dies off-screen two minutes into the mission (though there were some [[Dummied Out]] dialogue files suggesting the player would have had the option of rescuing him).
* Subverted hard in the sequel, ''[[Modern Warfare]] 2'', particularly in the mission entitled "Of Their Own Accord". Radio chatter repeatedly makes it clear that there are ''not'' enough transports to evacuate everyone, and that people ''are'' being left behind. At one point - right after the player boards the evac chopper - a fellow soldier will shoot down an attacking enemy helicopter and saves the player's life. But the evac chopper immediately departs afterwards, leaving the lone soldier behind to face the onrushing Russian troops.
* Subverted on Virmire in ''[[Mass Effect
** Wholly embraced in ''[[
** Also, in the intro of ''ME2'', [[Heroic Sacrifice|Shepard saves Joker at the expense of his/her own life when everyone else is either already dead or evacuated]].
** If Shepard {{spoiler|goes after his/her crew immediately after they're abducted, when you rescue them}}, if you choose the neutral dialogue option ("I'd never abandon my crew"), Shepard quotes the trope word-for-word.
* In ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'', Meryl [[Foreshadowing|foreshadows]] what will happen when she blithely comment that Snake can simply shoot her if she became [[The Millstone]], with Snake sharply telling her he 'doesn't waste ammo'. {{spoiler|Meryl gets shot by Sniper Wolf, she begged for Snake to ditch her, but he flat out refuses to and ends up eventually getting captured for his troubles, uncertain if she was still alive at this point}}.
** The same happens in ''Snake Eater'' with EVA: {{spoiler|she gets skewered on a tree branch after a motorcycle crash and begs Snake to go on and [[Leave Behind a Pistol|give her a gun]], but Snake ignores all of this, because "[he] can't fly the [[Wi G]] by [himself]."}}
* Averted in ''[[
{{quote|
* Played straight with ''[[
* Subverted in ''[[Fire Emblem]]''. During the last part of the prologue, Marth is told by his advisor that he has to sacrifice one of his soldiers as a decoy to allow him to escape. Marth insists that everyone sticks together, but if you decide not to send a unit to the southern fort, you'll soon be overrun by an army of Knights who are capable of killing any and all of your party members with one hit (two or three, in [[Crutch Character|Jeigan's]] case). Leaving a unit behind is the only way you can proceed to the end of the chapter, as the second gate won't open unless you do.
* Played straight in ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'': while fleeing from Bevelle, the party is beset by Seymour. Kimahri urges them to run on ahead while he holds Seymour back, and they
* Depending on the player, ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]''. With the [[Floating Continent]] crumbling away from beneath their feet, and Shadow holding Kefka back with the Three Statues, the party must make it to the airship and [[Timed Mission|escape before it's too late]]. Typically, [[Guide Dang It|one would jump onto the airship at the first opportunity]], but by waiting until the last possible second, Shadow will catch up and join the party.
** The game helpfully gives a countdown so the rest of the party knows when "the last possible second" is, and the options given when you reach the jump point not-so-subtly implies that you ought to wait for Shadow.
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** If a survivor is incapacitated outside the safe room at the end of a level, the other survivors will usually say that they can't leave anyone behind. Though on occasion Francis will say he's fine with leaving a teammate behind if everyone else is.
* This is Brenner's motto in ''[[Nintendo Wars|Advance Wars: Days of Ruin]]''. It's even the in-game justification for how his CO Power heals his units:
{{quote|
* Played straight in ''[[Star Wars]]: [[Republic Commando]]'' in the Prosecutor mission, and then {{spoiler|viciously averted with Sev at the end of the game. The gunship arrives, and you aren't going back.}}
* Played with in the initial quest in ''[[Dragon Age II]]'', where Aveline's husband Ser Wesley is injured and begins to succumb to the darkspawn taint. Aveline promises that she will get her husband out any way possible, but in the end {{spoiler|either she or Hawke [[Mercy Kill|is forced to kill him.]]}}
* [[Uncharted]] has a particularly cool example: escaping an ancient temple into a rainy evening only to find out that Elena's cameraman Jeff has been shot and that they're surrounded, Nathan Drake grabs him and carries him through the streets, covered by Elena and Chloe. {{spoiler|Then you get to a building, where you take a moment to sit Jeff down, only for Lazarevich to come in and perform his ultimate [[Kick the Dog]] moment - executing Jeff on the spot.}}
* In the final playable sequence of [[Bastion]], the Kid can either {{spoiler|abandon the wounded Zulf and continue fighting the Ura, or drop his weapons and carry Zulf to safety.}} If you choose the latter, the Ura will persist in attacking you... {{spoiler|but the Kid keeps going, and they respect his determination so much that an Ura soldier who takes another potshot at the Kid ends up skewered by his own commander.}}
== Web Comics ==
* [[Lampshaded]] in [http://goblins.keenspot.com/d/20090817.html this] ''[[Goblins]]'' strip where {{spoiler|Ears thinks Names is asking him to leave him behind, and refuses, when Names is only looking for a way for Ears to carry him}}.
* Near the end of the Azure City siege arc in ''[[The Order of the Stick
** Justified in that retrieving {{spoiler|Roy's}} body makes it significantly easier to resurrect him. Plus Belkar at the time couldn't be more than a set distance away from it.
* ''[[Spacetrawler]]'': Captain Nogg has no qualms about abandoning a crew member if that's what it takes to get the rest of his ship away safely. On the other hand, his crew has no qualms about ignoring Nogg when he tells them to abandon their mates.<ref>They ''did'' abandon Dustin, but only because Dustin was a jerk who got captured because of his own stupidity.</ref>
* In ''[[Galactic Maximum]]'', [https://web.archive.org/web/20170114033226/http://maximumcomic.com/?strip_id=2 taking a wounded man away with you.]
* ''21st Century Fox'', subverted in the Hurricane Liska story, but played straight in the John Walker Bambi arc.
* ''[[Girl Genius]]'': [[Super Soldier|Jagerkin]] do NOT leave their own, or those they consider as good as, behind.
* In ''[[No Rest for The Wicked (
== Web Original ==
* Played with in ''[[Open Blue]]'''s [[Backstory]], where [[Four
== Western Animation ==
* ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' did this a lot. In [[The Movie]], Sgt. Slaughter explicitly lines it out: "It's time you learned we're a team, Red Dog. We all go home or nobody goes home."
* ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]]'': "A good soldier never leaves a man behind!" And whatever the movie he might be in, what is R. Lee Ermey if not a good soldier?
** Later, when Woody and Buzz are making their escape from Sid's house, the rocket strapped to his back keeps Buzz from being able to fit under the fence. Though Buzz says "Go on, I'll catch up," Woody jumps down off of the van (where Andy is) and runs back to help Buzz.
* Parodied in ''[[South Park]]'', "Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000." Cartman and his cellmate have escaped from prison. As they flee the guards, the cellmate is injured, and says to go on without him. Cartman says "okay" and begins to go. The cellmate indignantly points out that Cartman was supposed to say that he couldn't leave his friend behind.
* Also parodied in ''[[The Simpsons]]''
{{quote|
** Also, Homer quotes this trope when he saves a toy soldier using a toy helicopter from Marge's hair.
* As the page quote says, the line is "Nobody gets left behind or forgotten" in [[Disney]]'s ''[[Lilo and Stitch]]'', but the titular alien learns the lesson and goes to rather dramatic extremes to make sure that Gantu does not leave Earth with Lilo.
* In the children's cartoon ''[[Rescue Heroes]]'', Billy Blazes, the chief of his rescue team often states that nobody gets left behind in spite of what disaster they may face. This is attributed to when he was a kid when a fire broke out and he was the only one left in the building, one of the firemen saved him and told him how no one would be left behind no matter how dangerous the situation is save them.
* ''[[Ozzy and Drix]]'' has this:
{{quote|
'''Drix''': You mean that?
'''Ozzy''': NO! SAVE ME! SAVE ME RIGHT NOW! }}
* Parodied in British comedy show ''[[Monkey Dust]]'' in "They All Come Home", a parody of ''[[Black Hawk Down]]''.
* The Thunder Lizards of ''[[Eek!
* Parodied in ''[[Futurama]]'':
{{quote|
'''Leela''': I'm trying!
''[Pan down to show Zoidberg is holding on tight to Leela's legs.]''
'''Zoidberg''': Go on without me faster! }}
* ''[[Star Trek:
* Notably in one episode of ''[[The Smurfs]]'', Lazy and a bunch of other Smurfs get trapped in a volcano and work to rebuild a windmill into a helicopter so they could escape. Lazy feels entirely at fault for letting the Smurfs down and trapping them in the volcano, but Smurfette refuses to let him stay behind to perish.
== Real Life ==
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* The Spartans last stand at Thermopylae concluded its last few moments with a handful of soldiers clustered round the body of their dead commander, Leonidus, before an arrow storm finally finished them off.
* The Battle of Mogadishu ([[Black Hawk Down]]) is a famous example. It is also a famous example of when this policy can result in a massive amount of casualties.
** Massive? More like worth it. It may sound macabre to most, but to a fighting man of the US Army Infantry knowing that not even your corpse will be left behind, but in fact fought for to be returned to your family is a serious morale booster. We do not leave anyone, not even our dead.<ref>
*** Heinlein's Starship Troopers emphasises this on more than one occassion - that for one to be truly committed to the society, they must also know that the society is committed to them. And that it's "poor arithmatic, but very human. It runs through all our folklore, all human religions, all our literature", finishing off with "when one human needs rescue, others should not count the price". Understand that this happens in most other professional militaries, for more than one reason.
*** There's also the thing about avoiding letting technology like miniguns, night vision equipment, communications gear and mission data fall into enemy hands at the crash sites... This might not be of ''primary''' concern, but it adds to the need to secure these sites as fast as possible.
* The 1953 American attempt to summit K2, the second highest mountain and arguably the most difficult in the world, was frustrated by weather and mountain sickness. The eight man team attempted to carry one of their number off the mountain, a nearly impossible feat at that altitude. Then a near disastrous accident left everybody shaken and/or injured. The team decided to camp to recover and consider their options leaving their injured companion, Art Gilkey, secured in his litter to the mountain face but when they came to fetch him he had been swept away, litter and all, by an avalanch he might well have deliberately called down upon himself in a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] to save his comrades.
* Hideaki Akaiwa was at work on March
* Medal of Honor recipient Roy P. Benavidez rescued thirteen men from a ''battalion'' of North Vietnamese soldiers, including running over to a downed Huey helicopter and physically carrying the crew to another helicopter, and directing airstrikes while his eyes were ''blinded with the blood pouring into them.'' Did I mention he was only carrying a knife? He received thirty-seven wounds from bullets, bayonets and grenade blasts in the process, his guts were hanging out, and was placed in a body bag after the battle, and had the strength to spit in the doctor's face when declared a goner. '''He lived.''' Here is a condensed summary of the story: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lHkrqlT62o video], and here is the Medal of Honor [
* During the Winter War and Continuation War, the Finnish army made a point of this. Turns out it worked really well to scare your opponents. The Finns usually collected their dead during the night. Thus when morning came and the Russians surveyed the battlefield all they found were their own dead soldiers. Not knowing whether you actually killed any of your enemies plays merry hell on ther morale.
** Of course, the alternative to the Russian not hitting any [[F Inns]] is that they simply return to life when it got cold enough... Knife-wielding sniper-zombies? Count me out.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Military and Warfare Tropes]]
[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]
[[Category:Index to The Rescue]]
▲[[Category:Trope]]
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