Hostage Situation: Difference between revisions

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{{examples|...Exceptions, subversions, and parodies}}

* ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'': Faye is taken hostage by some of the [[Big Bad]]'s goons. One puts a gun to her head and begins the standard [[Put Down Your Gun and Step Away|"Put down your gun"]] speech, but promptly gets one between the eyes from Spike. Cue the [[Blast Out]]. Something similar happens at the beginning of the movie where a convenience store robbery goes sour and some random thug, previously unseen, takes an old lady hostage. Spike shoots the hostage taker, after somewhat cynically remarking that he's not a cop.

** Also subverted when Faye is taken hostage and sends a message to the guys assuming they will naturally ride to her rescue. Spike tells her to talk her own way out of it and shuts off the communicator.

 

 

* One of [[Quantum and Woody]]'s first cases as a superhero team was against a crazed gunman holding a woman hostage. After a brief shouting match, [[Cowboy Cop]] Woody ''[[Cutting the Knot|shoots the hostage in the chest]]'' while Quantum tackles the gunman. Woody then helps the hostage to her feet, demonstrates his usage of paint pellets [[Vitriolic Best Buds|by shooting a few more at Quantum]], [[Casanova Wannabe|and asks her what she's doing Friday night]].

* An issue of ''[[Archie Comics Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' had Princess Sally Acorn kidnapped and held for ransom; at one point, she manages to trick her captors into lowering their guard and knocks them all unconscious.

 

 

* Similarly subverted for comic effect in [[Mel Brooks]]' movie ''[[Blazing Saddles]]'': When the entire town of Rock Ridge draws its guns on Bart, he draws his own gun, holds it to his head, and plays both the hostage and the hostage-taker using two different voices. As the townspeople immediately fall for this trick, he drags himself off to the town jail, where, in an inspired bit of mime, he yanks himself inside by the neck just as he's making another plea for help.

{{quote|"Oh baby, you're so talented. And they're so ''dumb!''"}}

 

 

* Subverted in [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[Discworld]]'' ''City Watch'' novels, where Angua is taken hostage on at least two occasions, neither of which are taken seriously by the rest of the Watch (one constable actually laughed during the first one). And with good reason: [[Mugging the Monster|taking a werewolf hostage]] is a classic example of a Very Bad Idea™.

* In [[Dan Abnett]]'s ''[[Gaunt's Ghosts]]'' novel ''First & Only'', Flense captures Gaunt's [[The Medic|medic]], Dorden, and a wounded trooper to get Gaunt to where he could kill him. (Getting him there worked. Killing him didn't. Indeed, at one point, when Flense threatens to shoot Dorden if Gaunt mocks him, Dorden urges Gaunt to mock him, so [[Get It Over With|Flense will shoot him and he won't have to listen]].)

 

 

* Subverted in ''[[Firefly]]'': When Agent Dobson takes River hostage in the pilot episode, {{spoiler|Mal simply shoots him in the head as he boards the ship, without even breaking stride}}.

* The ''[[Doctor Who]]'' [[Made for TV Movie]], in a way that showed the main character's role as [[The Messiah]]. Stopped by a cop, the Doctor manages to [[Kleptomaniac Hero|get his gun away]] and point it at... himself, and says, "Now, would you stand aside before I shoot myself?"

 

 

* At the end of the Bring Down the Sky DLC for ''[[Mass Effect]]'', the leader of the Batarian terrorist group tells you he'll kill the hostages he's captured unless you let him go unharmed. Since this is ''[[Mass Effect]]'', you have the option of [[Anti-Hero|sacrificing the hostages and capturing/killing him anyways]].

** In the Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC, a character you're chasing takes a hostage and tells you to back off. In a [[Call Back]] moment, both Renegade or Paragon players can throw their rep in her face to intimidate her.

 

 

* ''[[Girl Genius]]'': Gil tries to protect Agatha by putting himself in Heterodyne Castle, so his father will not attack. She [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20090209 rejects this] as holding him hostage.

* ''[[The Dragon Doctors]]'': A shapeshifting thief impersonating one of the main characters takes said character's girlfriend hostage at gunpoint. She even says she's holding a special gun modified to go off if she's disabled in any way. Sarin blasts the both of them with an [[Clothing Damage|"Equiment Failure"]] spell that disintegrates the gun (and [[The Nudifier|all their clothing]]).

 

 

* ''[[American Dad]]'' parodies this in "A Jones For A Smith" with everyone ''but'' the negotiator [[Genre Savvy|being realistic]]:

{{quote|''[Stan has hostages, a negotiator turns up and immediately phones him]''