Shoot the Hostage: Difference between revisions

* In ''[[Sword of the Stranger]]'', when the Chinese learn that the daimyo has kidnapped one of their own to find out what they're up to, they kidnap the daimyo. When the daimyo's general and his samurai attack, the Chinese use the daimyo as a hostage, thinking this will dissuade the samurai army. However, the daimyo's general is a [[Dragon Ascendant]], who surprises the Chinese by ordering an archer to shoot the daimyo before opening battle.

* ''[[Gunslinger Girl]]''. [[Big Bad|Terrorist leader Dante]] is using Rico's handler Jean as a [[Human Shield]], knowing that the cyborgs are brainwashed to protect their handler at all costs. Earlier however Jean made it clear that both their lives were expandable in order to kill Dante (Dante had planted the car bomb that killed Jean's parents, little sister, and fiancee), so Rico fires a 20mm anti-material shell through her handler's chest after Jean orders her to fire regardless.

 

== Comic Books ==

* Seen in the comic book ''[[Green Arrow]]'', where it only helps the protagonist. Assassin Constantine Drakon had shown the ability to catch arrows midflight, no matter how many were shot at him at once. Then he took not-yet-superheroine Mia Dearden hostage. Green Arrow Connor Hawke just shot him through her shoulder.

* In an early issue of Marvel's ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' run, the Joes take Cobra Commander hostage to escape his hideout. Colonel Brekhov of the rival Oktober Guard shoots Cobra Commander to prevent the Joes from escaping. It turns out though {{spoiler|CC was a body-double}} and the heroes get to get away anyway.

 

== Fan Works ==

* In ''[[Aeon Entelechy Evangelion]]'' this is indoctrinated by the ''good guys''. A baddie got your medic hostage? Shoot through him.

* Done in ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20120430011358/http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3031673/1/A_Mission_For_Harper A Mission For Harper]'', after Harper gives a rather inspiring speech how he ''did'' always want to shoot the hostage.

 

== Films ==

 

== Literature ==

*** Though this was more because her Governess charges had imbued the poker with [[Clap Your Hands If You Believe|the power to defeat monsters]] - Death, despite being...well, [[Anthropomorphic Personification|Death]]... is seen as not being a monster, while [[Psycho for Hire|Teatime]] is.

* In [[James Swallow]]'s ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' novel ''Faith & Fire'', the [[Backstory]] tells of Saint Celestine and how a soldier serving her was once taken hostage. He shouted for her to kill the enemy anyway, and she threw her spear. He was mortally wounded—but didn't die, in the Miracle of the Wound. The religious ceremonies at the beginning of the novel are in honor of this miracle.

* In [[Heralds of Valdemar|Exile's Honor]], Alberich is training battle/bodyguards for then-Princess Selenay, and knows that she's more likely to be taken hostage than just killed. We don't get to ''see'' that session, but he fully intends to teach the guards to shoot Selenay in the leg if this happens, because it will slow down her captors. (Being an intelligent man, he plans to save that lesson for a time when Selenay is not present.)

* In [[The Han Solo Trilogy]] of the ''Star Wars'' EU, Han attracts the attention of local authorities on Coruscant when trying to access a bank account that had been flagged. He takes a bank manager hostage in order to escape. The Stormtroopers' response? Shoot the bank manager.

* In [[Dan Abnett]]'s [[Warhammer 40,000]] [[Gaunt's Ghosts]] novel ''Blood Pact'', Xomat [[Human Shield|takes Elodie hostage against Daur]]. Daur declares his indifference and that he just might shoot Xomat ''through'' Elodie—which distracts him enough for Daur to get off a head shoot. Elodie is muchly upset; Daur tries arguing before resorting to a [["Shut Up" Kiss]]—their [[First Kiss]].

* In the first novel of [[The Dark Tower]] series, ''[[The Gunslinger]]'', Sheb uses Roland's lover, Allie as a shield and hostage. Roland kills her out of pure instinct; his trained hands react quicker than his mind. [[The Dog Shot First|Changed]] in the revised edition.

* [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]]: In the first book of the [[Legacy of the Force]] series, a terrorist is holding a room full of people hostage. He wears an explosive belt, and has strapped one of the hostages to himself to act as an [[Human Shield]]. [[God Mode Sue|Jacen Solo]] arrives to the scene and pretends to negotiate with the terrorist. He then turns to the unfortunate [[Human Shield]], gently asks what his name is, appears to try calming the frightened man... then he says "I'm sorry" and ''activates the explosives himself.'' When [[What the Hell, Hero?|called out for it]], Jacen just replies that [[I Did What I Had to Do|the only way he could save the other hostages and neutralize the terrorist was to let that single man die]].

 

* In [[Fringe]] episode "Entrada" Peter shot hostage held by Fauxlivia. That's because he figured out (s)he was a shape-shifter.

* Variant: the ''[[Lost]]'' episode "Enter 77". Kate and Sayid are holding Mrs. Klugh, who responds by ''ordering Mikhail to shoot her dead'', which he does.

* Inverted in the ''[[Charmed]]'' episode "Which Prue Is It, Anyway?", when [[It Makes Sense in Context|Prue's duplicate]] tries to make the warlock of the week surrender his weapon by holding his ally hostage. He instead kills his ally before killing the Prue duplicate.

 

 

== Video Games ==

* Can be done optionally in the ''[[Modern Warfare]] 3'' mission "Stronghold"; one of Makarov's men grabs a Czech POW and tries to take him hostage, but there's absolutely no penalty if Yuri (the player) decides to simply shoot through the prisoner to kill the thug. Captain Price even quips, "He never would have made it anyway...".

 

* Darreon in [[Lucky Dawg]] tries to taunt the 4 Horsemen Of Alliance with a [[Sadistic Choice]] - he will kill a little girl, unless one of them will take her place. However, the 4 Horsemen, being [[Designated Hero|assholes]], just kill his hostage. Too bad for them, Darreon was looking for a hero to fight, not somebody like them, so he slaughters them in very brutal way.

* In Flip Side, when a knight Bernadette humiliated by kicking his ass in front of the knight council gets ahold of the magic crazy-making super-power-giving collar-outfit-thing and goes after her in a bar, and then tries to use her as a human shield when Maytag shows up, Maytag makes it very, very clear that she ''will'' kill Bernadette herself rather then allow Bernadette to be raped and murdered. And, despite the fact one of her main skills is bluffing, Maytag is perfectly serious. Luckily, she wins.

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

* In the [[Round Robin]] story ''Collisions'' (relevant hostage shooting scene [https://web.archive.org/web/20200122215240/https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/capowstory/conversations/topics/2338 here], the [[Ridiculously Human Robot]] with [[Improbable Aiming Skills]] is forced into a [[Mirror Match]] with her [[Trigger Happy]] future self, with her [[Love Interest]] stuck in the middle as the hostage. Of [[Boom! Headshot!|all]] [[Blasting It Out of Their Hands|the]] [[Take a Third Option|options]] she could have taken, she picks this one (it happens to be the s.o.p. of the organization that she works for)--but it ends up working in her favor because her future self flies into a murderous rage and charges at her guns blazing, the hostage forgotten.

 

== Western Animation ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:I Have Your Index]]

[[Category:Guns and Gunplay Tropes]]

[[Category:Friendly Fire Index]]