No One Gets Left Behind: Difference between revisions

*** 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}}.

* 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...).

* 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.

** 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 ''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 out—alive, although covered with frost.

*** 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!

* 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 [[Andre Norton]]'s [[Science Fiction]] novels, this trope is occasionally invoked as an ironclad rule of space travel: No One Gets Left Behind on a strange planet, no matter if he's your worst enemy. In ''[[Android At Arms]]'', this leads to the protagonist and some of his companions searching for an untrustworthy fellow traveller until they find his body.

* [[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.

{{quote|''maintaining a cordon of protection that no one could breach and live.''}}

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

{{quote|'''Mal''': Zoe, the ship is yours. If I'm not back in one hour, you take this ship and you come and you rescue me!}}

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

'''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:

** 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 the ''[[MASH|M* A* S* H]]'' series, following this trope, at least in regards to dead soldiers, is portrayed as bloody-minded stubbornness that increases overall causalities under the Incompetent General of the Week.

* 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|'''Elaine:''' Come on, father, you can make it.

 

== Tabletop RPG ==

** 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.

** 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.

 

 

== 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."

** 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.

'''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]]''.

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

{{quote|'''Zoidberg''': Go on without me!

[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]

[[Category:Index to The Rescue]]