Suicide Mission: Difference between revisions

The Suicide Mission is an assignment, task, or quest where it's expected that everyone (or nearly everyone) involved will die in the attempt. They're popular in works involving war and action, providing a convenient way to raise the dramatic tension [[Up to Eleven]].

 

 

 

The members of the mission will usually be [[Red Shirt|expendables,]] [[Boxed Crook|criminals,]] [[Death Seeker]]s, or [[Heroic Sacrifice|selfless heroes for the greater good.]] Expect [[Anyone Can Die]] to be invoked throughout the mission, [[Dwindling Party]], and [[Sole Survivor]] for anyone who manages to survive. If the characters repeatedly survive these missions, they might be [[Surprisingly Elite Cannon Fodder]].

Contrast with [[Suicide Attack]]. Also see [[Kill'Em All]].

 

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* In ''[[Claymore]]'', the organization in charge of Claymores sends them on suicide missions whenever they become too dangerous. Possibly justified to avoid [[Superpower Meltdown|Super Power Meltdowns]].

** ...except that they also do it to anyone [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness|too weak to be useful]], [[Rebellious Spirit|too rebellious to be controllable]], or [[He Knows Too Much|too suspicious]] [[The Masquerade|to be kept in the dark]].

* [[The Hero|Saito]], from ''[[Zero no Tsukaima]]''. Originally assigned to [[Love Interest|Louise]], Saito steals the mission from her by drugging the wine they used in their wedding, and then handing her sleeping body off to an ally. The Suicide Mission involved [[You Shall Not Pass|taking on]] the entire, 60,000 strong Albion army. [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|He holds]] [[Dying Moment of Awesome|them up]] [[One-Man Army|for four hours.]]

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* The mission of the ''[[13 Assassins]]'' to kill [[The Caligula|Lord]] [[Complete Monster|Naritsugu]] definitely counts as this, with many of them seeing it as their last chance to die an honorable death in an age of peace.

* Implied in [[Disney]]'s ''[[Hercules]]'' when a de-powered Herc goes to take on the rampaging Titans by himself. Megara tells him he'll be killed; his despondent reply is to tell her: "There are worse things."

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* ''[[Battlefield: Bad Company]]'' centers around B Company, an army company where the most troublesome members of the Army are sent in the hopes that they get killed in their assigned suicide missions.

* The final plot mission of ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' is named "Suicide Mission" because no ship (except the bad guys) has ever returned after trying to use the Omega-4 Mass Relay. Whether it actually results in anyone dying or not is dependent on how you played the game up to that point and your choices during the mission.

* In ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', Thassarian, one of the Knights of the Ebon Blade, gets sent on a Suicide Mission because the Alliance is [[Reformed but Rejected|unwilling to accept him as a Death Knight.]] However, you later find out that Thassarian's superior had been brainwashed by a Scourge agent, so it may have been his doing rather than the general's own decision.

* Occurs throughout the ''[[Halo]]'' series, to the point where this is the only reason the Covenant rank of Arbiter even exists; at moments of extraordinary crisis, the Prophets will pick a disgraced Elite with a distinguished combat record to become the Arbiter, and send him on suicide missions of great importance so that he can regain his honor upon death. Unusually for this trope, the Arbiters are generally held in high regard by the rest of the Covenant.

** Humanity had its own suicide troops in the form of the SPARTAN-III super soldiers, war orphans who were expected to die by the time they turned ''10-12 years old''. Even those transferred to more elite units, like [[Halo Evolutions|Headhunters]] and [[Halo: Reach|Noble Team]], weren't expected to live too long.

* Prince LaCroix in ''[[Vampire Bloodlines]]'' keeps sending the [[Player Character]] on Suicide Missions to get rid of you without sparking a civil war with the Anarchs (who have been rooting for you).

* The six Warriors of Cosmos in ''[[Dissidia Final Fantasy|Dissidia 012 Duodecim]]'' who didn't appear in the 13th cycle of the conflict (being [[Final Fantasy IV|Kain]], [[Final Fantasy VII|Tifa]], [[Final Fantasy VIII|Laguna]], [[Final Fantasy X|Yuna]], [[Final Fantasy XII|Vaan]] and [[Final Fantasy XIII|Lightning]]) give themselves to cut off the source of Chaos' [[Uncanny Valley|Manikins]] that had been overwhelming their side, so that the remaining ten would stand a fighting chance in the next cycle. Whether they actually ''died'' or were simply freed from the cycle of conflict isn't totally clear, but they all acknowledge that, in doing this, they wouldn't be part of the next cycle, for better or worse.

 

* ''[[Exterminatus Now]]'' is centered on two mercenaries who are repeatedly sent on suicide missions.

* In ''[[Digger]]'', the statue of Ganesh sends Digger and Ed underground to deal with an undead god. He doesn't expect either of them to survive the task.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

** Similar to Chernobyl, a recent example would the Fukashima power plant in Japan. After an Earthquake and a Tsusami, the Fukashima Nuclear Plant unexpectedly began spewing smoke and was in danger of going critical while leaking lethal amounts of radiation. The Fukashima 50, a group of maintainance and repair/support crews stayed behind to try and fix the Nuclear Plant.

* Happens from time to time in warfare:

** Any number of battles during [[World War I]] were similar to Cold Harbor in this respect, with men going over the top with little or no expectation of survival.

* Special Operations units occasionally are used in this fashion. The St. Nazaire Raid is an excellent example with the British Commandos and Royal Navy losing 72% of their personnel either killed or captured. However in the process, they also prevented the Germans from using the dock as St. Nazaire to house the battleship Tirptiz that could make in into the Atlantic and cause havoc with their convoys.

**The point of the Kamikazes was that they were ''out'' of trained men; Japan had done it's senseless sacrificing before and the idea was less absurd then others they had come up with given that they had enough impressionable young men(as everyone had)and leaders callous enough to exploit them rather then endure the humiliation of surrender. Tactically they are best thought of as missiles which happen to have an expensively educated college kid who didn't have time to learn more then basic flying skills serving as guidance. In a brutally callous sense they are not the ''worst'' idea the Japanese came up with. But they would have been been better off giving up by this time as everything was a [[Senseless Sacrifice]].

* The Forlorn Hope during Napoleonic sieges. Breaching fortifications took weeks, so everyone on both sides knew where the attack would be made. The Hope was the first squad the attackers sent into the breach. Casualties were astronomical, and Hopes were usually made up of men who desperately craved advancement or atonement. (Men who survived the Hope could expect automatic promotion and a removal of any negative marks from their records.)

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