No One Gets Left Behind: Difference between revisions

* Parodied in ''[[Excel Saga (anime)|Excel Saga]]''. In two episodes, Menchi escapes and makes new friends. Every single friend she meets eventually tells her to go on without them and makes a heroic sacrifice to save Menchi. The final time this happens, the villain says, "What an out-of-character way to die." (Although it turns out that this ''one'' character is [[Not Quite Dead]].)

* Lampshaded and Played with in ''[[Vandread]]''. Dita tries pulling one of these when Gascogne gets stuck. Gasconge is more [[Genre Savvy]].

 

 

** 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 from Space]]''.

'''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.

** 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.

* [[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.

** 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.

** 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:

* 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.}}

* [[J. R. R. Tolkien|JRR Tolkien]]'s ''[[Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth|Unfinished Talesof Numenor and Middleearth]]'' includes the story of how Theoden's son had died, just before Gandalf and company's meeting with Theoden in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''. After he fell fighting orcs, his men fought to keep his body from them; having fought them off, they discovered he was still alive, but he lived only long enough to tell them to bury him there.

* In Nick Kyme's [[Warhammer 40000]] novel ''[[Salamanders|Salamander]]'', after Tsu'gan's [[Pride]] ensured his captain's death, Tsu'gan refuses to let anyone near his body

** After the fight, a comrade reassures him that his battle-brother will live -- having assumed he was protecting the still living Dak'ir.

* 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 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:

** Also, in the episode "Safe", when Simon asks Mal why he went back for him and River,

'''Simon''': "Yeah, but you don't even like me."<br />

'''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:

'''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-Unfriendly Aesop]], her efforts seemingly destroy Jack's opportunity to leave the island.

* Adam Savage has joked about ''[[Myth Busters]]'' having a "No Crash Test Dummy Left Behind" code at least twice. Of course, since the original Buster was theoretically a loaner ....

* 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:

'''Priest:''' I heard that! }}

* ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'' episode "The Galileo Seven". During an attack by aliens Spock is pinned by a boulder. He orders the other Enterprise crewmen to go back to the shuttlecraft and lift off. They refuse and manage to free him, getting everyone to the shuttle safely. While the delay means they have to use the shuttlecraft's boosters to escape, apparently dooming it to be destroyed in re-entry, Spock is the one who comes up with the lifesaving bright idea that enables them to be rescued.

** 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 ''[[Tales of Symphonia]]'': upon [[Storming the Castle|entering the Tower of Salvation]], [[The Messiah|Lloyd]] swears that no-one will be left behind, however, due to the rule of [[More Expendable Than You]], ''every single member of the group'' ends up performing a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] to let him go on. {{spoiler|[[Big Damn Heroes|They all get better.]]}}

* Played straight with ''[[Tales of Destiny]]'', in a pretty memorable scene. After fighting Mary's brainwashed ex-husband, mooks can be heard getting closer; Stahn and co. have to run away, but Mary wants to stay with her semi-dead man. Rutee then tells Mary that that's out of question, because no one gets left behind... including her husband. Rutee then piggybacks him.

* 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.

** 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:

* 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.]]}}

* 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]]''

** 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:

'''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 the Cat]]'' grudgingly remembered this rule when an obnoxious parody of [[Mr. T]] got dragged away by a carnivorous plant. Then one said, "But we don't have to hurry," and they smiled and moseyed.

* Parodied in ''[[Futurama]]'':

'''Zoidberg''': Go on without me faster! }}

* ''[[Star Trek: The Animated Series]]'' episode "The Jihad". While escaping a lava flow Spock is thrown from the vehicle and Captain Kirk goes back to save him. Spock tells him to leave him behind and Kirk says "Not without you."