Prisoner Exchange: Difference between revisions

However, it just so happens that one of the opposition has been spotted wandering around outside Camp Good Guy, and was conveniently dumb enough to get caught. Now there are two captives, one in each camp.

 

 

Usually the captured member of the other team is no ordinary [[Mook]]. He may be someone who is important to the villain in some way, someone he [[Morality Pet|cares about]] or [[MacGuffin Girl|needs]] in order to fulfill his [[Evil Plan]], otherwise the other side would not bother with trying to get him back. Heroes usually don't need this kind of motivation to rescue a captive comrade, as they generally need less of a reason to save people. [[The Messiah]] may risk both his life and the chance of giving up whatever advantage he may have had, coupled with letting a villain go free, in order to save a total stranger, although it's just as likely that the captive will be someone close to the hero in order to facilitate drama.

[[Genre Savvy]] good guys or [[Anti-Hero|Anti Heroes]] may realize this and never intend to make a trade with the villain in the first place, or both sides may have the intention of screwing each other over, in which case the hostages themselves rarely have any say in the matter and may end up on the worse end of the deal.

 

 

{{examples}}

* In ''[[Full Metal Panic!]]'', Sousuke has to make the decision of trading his hostage for either [[Love Interest|Kaname]] or Tessa. He picks Tessa, knowing that Kaname can protect herself just fine, and her [[Action Girl]] instincts means that she'll [[Spanner in the Works|mess up]] the bad guys plans by reacting in a way they [[Didn't See That Coming|don't expect]].

* In ''[[Read or Die]]'', Yomiko trades Joker for Nenene... only to learn that Wendy hadn't captured Nenene at all. She had just asked the British Library's resident [[Master of Disguise]] to impersonate Nenene for the exchange so that they could get Joker back.

 

* [[James Bond (film)|James Bond]] is exchanged for Zhao in ''[[Die Another Day]]''.

* Sergio Leone's ''A Fistful Of Dollars''.

* In the [[John Woo]] movie ''A Better Tomorrow'', an exchange between [[Big Bad]] Ah Shing (who the first protagonist, Sung Tse Ho, has captured) and Ho's little brother Sung Tse Kit (the other protagonist, who Shing's [[Mooks]] have at gunpoint) sets off the final battle of the movie.

 

* In ''[[Redwall|Mattimeo]]'', the Redwallers capture General Ironbeak's three magpies, who are his only way of getting supplies, and trade them for the three Redwall hostages. Unfortunately, Ironbeak is smart enough to use the Prisoner Exchange as a cover while he sends his troops to invade Redwall.

* In ''[[Les Misérables]]'', Enjolras and Combeferre were about to suggest exchanging Javert for Jehan Prouvaire (who had been captured by the National Guard), but experienced something of a timing failure.

* When the Havenites and Manticorans discuss prisoner-of-war exchanges in the later ''[[Honor Harrington]]'' books, at least one character muses on what a fair exchange rate on prisoners would be, given that most battles had been stacked heavily in favor of the Manticorans' superior training and technology versus the Havenites' massive quantity of ships and troops.

 

* Once on ''[[Get Smart]]'' KAOS kidnapped the Chief, so Control captured one of KAOS's agents to try to make a deal. KAOS captured another - back and forth until the only non-prisoners were Max and Sigfried, who arranged an exchange. KAOS got the last laugh when, during the exchange which was two big busses full of prisoners, KAOS captured the Control bus driver.

* One of these takes place in ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' Volume 2. Bob, the head of [[The Men in Black|The Company]], kidnaps Claire. Claire's father, HRG, kidnaps Bob's daughter [[Psycho Electro|Elle]], and attempts to trade her to get ''his'' daughter back.

* Happens without incident in the mini-series ''[[V (TV series)|V]]: The Final Battle'', when the [[Big Bad]] Diana exchanges Donovan's son for one of her own men. Of course, Diana has no reason to stop the exchange because she's "[[Brainwashed|converted]]" Donovan's son into becoming her spy.

* Sark is swapped in this way early in the third season of ''[[Alias (TV series)|Alias]]''. A third party messes it up, a gunfight breaks out, and the bad guys make off with both hostages.

* In the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' episode "Time and the Rani" the Doctor trades the Rani for his companion Mel in this way.

* Seen at least once on ''[[24]]'', probably more.

 

 

* Sometimes happened during the [[Cold War]] between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. with captured spies, most famously across the Glienicke Bridge.

** In 1962, KGB agent Rudolf Abel was swapped for American pilot Gary Powers Jr. (who had been captured after his U-2 spy plane was shot down over the USSR.

* The 2010 swap of ten [[Deep-Cover Agent|Russian agents]] captured in the US for four people held in Russia.

 

 

{{reflist}}