No One Gets Left Behind: Difference between revisions

{{quote|[[Arc Words|Ohana.]] Ohana means family. Family means [[Heartwarming Moments|no one gets left behind or forgotten.]]|'''Stitch''', ''[[Lilo and Stitch]]''}}

 

 

Two characters are escaping from something. One of them falls down, breaks a leg and says "Leave me, [[I Will Only Slow You Down]]". The other one says, "[[More Hero Than Thou|Never]]!" and takes his wounded friend with him. Possibly even requiring, as soon as they reach some degree of safety, that [[Greater Need Than Mine|the wounded character gets evacuated first]].

 

 

This trope is often used to generate drama in a situation that calls for a [[Heroic Sacrifice]]. See [[Shoot the Dog]].

* 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.

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

{{quote| Gasconge: "This isn't a third rate soap opera! You go and you come back with help and get me!"}}

** Arrr, but the rules are more like... guidelines.

*** Well, when [[Character Alignment|"Any nonlawful alignment"]] is a prerequisite...

* 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.

* 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...).

{{quote| '''Kermit''': We will never leave one of our own behind!<br />

'''Fozzy''': Hey, we left Bunsen and Beaker back at the gas station!<br />

* 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.

* 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."

 

== Literature ==

* 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.)

* 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.)

** 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.

*** 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 40000]]'' novel ''[[Space Wolf]]'', when Ragnar and other Marines were sent to [[Bring News Back|bring news]] of a nest of Chaos Space Marines, one of them is wounded. Ragnar (who had just realized that he does not, and should not, want [[Revenge]] on the wounded man) orders the others on while he tends the wounded. When they are attacked again and he gains more injuries, Ragnar finally carries him to safety.

* 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]] 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: [[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.

{{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.

* 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.

* 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 [[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.

'''Elaine:''' All right, we can move faster without Father O'Gimpy.<br />

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

* [[Doctor Who|The Doctor]] to Amy in "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S31 E04 The Time of Angels|The Time of Angels]]". Admittedly, he knows that {{spoiler|there's not ''really'' anything slowing her down}}, but he's prepared to risk his life trying to convince ''her'' of that.

** In "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S6 E1 The Dominators|The Dominators]]", Jamie opts for this when Cully says [[I Will Only Slow You Down]] to Jamie after the Quark shots him.

 

== Video Games ==

** {{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.}}

* 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).

** 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.

** 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]."}}

{{quote| '''Lloyd:''' You don't want to sacrifice anyone, huh? What do you call this?! Dammit! Guys...I'm sorry...}}

* 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 do --right up to the moment when they decide it's not right, and run right back to help him.

== 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}}.

** 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>

* ''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.

 

 

''[Pan down to show Zoidberg is holding on tight to Leela's legs.]''<br />

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

* 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.