I Have Your Wife: Difference between revisions

# Villain tells hero that he is being watched. If he doesn't obey orders and/or informs the authorities, then he will kill the significant other.

# The hero will then have to a) steal something, b) deliver something, or c) kill someone.

# Eventually, the significant other will be released, either by completion of mission or [[Big Damn Heroes|rescue]] by the hero (in a [[Roaring Rampage of Rescue]]) or [[The Cavalry]]. A [[Reverse Mole]] is sometimes involved.

 

* ''[[Transmetropolitan]]'' makes use of this with Spider Jerusalem's wife's cryogenically preserved head. Mostly subverted in that Spider does not actually ''care'' about his ''ex''-wife, much to the consternation of those who have her. Spider then completely subverts this by {{spoiler|throwing his wife's cryogenically preserved head into the river. Since she was the one who had angered the kidnappers in the first place, they then calm down and leave.}}

* Bungled by Fink and Mean Machine Angel in ''[[Judge Dredd]]'' when they abduct Dredd's landlady assuming she is his wife.

 

 

** The fourth movie has the villains capturing his daughter instead. Instead of even feigning that he'll cooperate, he just tells them he's going to kill them all and take her back.

*** And when they try to emotionally manipulate him by putting her on the line with him? [[Little Miss Badass|She tells her dad exactly how many bad guys are left.]]

* In ''[[Clockstoppers]]'', the [[Big Bad]] kidnaps Zak's father to ransom back Zak's hypertime watch.

* In ''[[Despicable Me]],'' {{spoiler|up-and-coming supervillain Vector kidnaps Gru's adopted daughters}} and demands {{spoiler|the moon, which Gru has shrunk and removed from its orbit,}} in exchange. {{spoiler|Gru complies, but when Vector goes back on the deal, he finds himself dealing with an enraged [[Papa Wolf]].}}

* The ''[[Firewall]]''-esque [[Lifetime Movie of the Week]] ''[[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|The Kidnapping]]'' has Judd Nelson kidnap a bank employee's daughter (and her babysitter, who they promptly kill when she tries to escape with the kid) to get her to give them access to a specific safe-deposit box.

* The movie ''[[Hostage]]'': Bad guy kidnaps Bruce Willis' family to force Bruce to get a DVD that incriminates him from a hostage situation going on elsewhere. After resolving the hostage situation and getting the DVD, he manages to kill the bad guy and save his family.

* Just about every post-''[[Indiana Jones]]'' Harrison Ford movie features this plot, most recently 2006's ''[[Firewall]]''.

* ''[[NCIS]]'' does this in "See No Evil", until {{spoiler|it turns out the officer pulled it on himself to get $2m from the Pentagon}}.

** Also, the Mexican drug cartel's have Gibbs' {{spoiler|heterosexual life partner, Franks}}.

* This is subverted in an episode of ''[[Sharpe]]'', when a villainous Frenchman tells his more noble countryman he won't plead for the release of his English wife. Sharpe promptly walks over and helps the English wife mount a horse behind her husband.

* In the first season finale of ''[[Los Simuladores]]'', their leader Santos is kidnapped in exchange for helping a mob boss being set free.

== [[Video Games]] ==

* In ''[[Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood|Assassin's Creed Brotherhood]]'', Baron de Valois captures Bartolomeo's wife and tries to make him surrender.

* In the most recent development of ''[[Blaz Blue]]'', {{spoiler|this eventually happens to Litchi Faye-Ling when the game's second [[Complete Monster]], Relius Clover, took hostage of her boyfriend-turned-freaky... thing Arakune and told her to join NOL, or she'll never get the cure which NOL has, or even see him alive again. This plays up Litchi's [[Love Martyr]] qualities and by the end of the series, she pulls a [[Face Heel Turn]] and hampers Ragna's quest to destroy NOL. It's not known how she'll end up since her [[Face Heel Turn]] shows at the [[Cliff Hanger]] ending.}}

* In ''[[Clash at Demonhead]]'', Bang is told that his girlfriend has been kidnapped and instructed to meet one of the bad guys at a specific location. {{spoiler|It's a lie; she was never kidnapped.}}

* ''[[Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney]]'' did this in the last case of the second game, only with the hero's beloved assistant Maya rather than his significant other.

** Whether Maya happens to be Phoenix's significant other or not is up for debate, as the ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' fandom happens to be one of the fiercest with its absurd amount of pairings for the [[Loads and Loads of Characters]] that show up in the series. A majority of the heterosexual [[Shipping|shippers]] tend to go with Maya being Phoenix's girlfriend, so the trope would be perfectly valid here.

** Appears again in ''[[Professor Layton and the Last Specter]]''. The [[Big Bad]] held {{spoiler|Clark}}'s wife hostage to force him to cooperate.

* The freeware RPG Game ''Quintessence - The Blighted Venom'': Lunair kidnapped Reivier's wife Serai to Aeria under orders of the Duke, but after finding out that her own family betrayed her, struck a deal with Reivier that she would bring Serai back if he gets her the cure to the Quintessence's aftermath.

** For the curious, Liu Bang defeated Xiang Yu (founding the Han Dynasty in the process), and Liu's father didn't get the least bit boiled.

* Another historical example, this time from 12th century England, concerns King Stephen threatening to hang the small son of one John Marshal if he doesn't surrender his castle. John replies, rather crudely, that he still has the hammer and anvil to make even better sons. In justice to John, King Stephen was a marshmallow (sweet and soft) and everybody knew it. Little William Marshal was ''not'' hanged and grew up to be the most famous knight in England and France.

 

{{reflist}}