Stern Chase: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''Well, I've got to run to keep from hidin',<br />

''And I'm bound to keep on ridin'.<br />

''And I've got one more silver dollar,<br />

''But I'm not gonna let 'em catch me, no,<br />

''Not gonna let 'em catch the Midnight Rider.''|'''[[The Allman Brothers Band]]''', "Midnight Rider"}}

A [['''Stern Chase]]''' makes a good reason why those [[Walking the Earth]] choose not to just settle down. It is also commonly associated with [[Clear My Name]] plots. If the pursuer is a well-intentioned, sympathetic character, he is an [[Inspector Javert]] or a [[Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist]].

* ''[[Gundam Seed]]'' has a new type of ship Archangel running from chasing ZAFT who want to destroy it because it's somehow supposed to change the course of war if it went into production. It goes on for most part of series. What this troper finds staggering is that Archangel is supposedly a superior ship, however it's never even able to take out a single opposing ship on it's own. One would wonder why ZAFT is so determined to destroy it if that ship is so incompetent in battle.

** Not the Archangel as much as the all-important [[Super Prototype|Strike]] aboard it: the Archangel itself is an amazing ship nonetheless, capable of dealing with entire fleets single-handedly, but the mobile suit (far superior to anything ZAFT could field at the time) very nearly changed the course of the war for the Earth Alliance (and could have, if they had used their production resources to speed up the Strike Daggers and the Three Ships Alliance hadn't intervened).

== Fanfiction[[Film]] ==

* The [[Larry Niven]] short story "The Ethics of Madness" has Bussard-ramjet-powered starships in a literal [[Stern Chase]] into intergalactic space. They keep at it for [[Time Abyss|quite a while.]]

* Similar to the Niven example above, [[Alastair Reynolds]] has another literal [[Stern Chase]] in his novel ''[[Redemption Ark]]''. It lasts several chapters of the book, with increasingly inventive attempts to kill the pursuing ship being deployed. In the next book in the series, it is revealed that the positions have reversed, although this time we come in at the point where the pursuer catches up, so the stern chase is only inferred rather than being shown.

* A Stern Chase of the classical type occurs in the 5thfifth Book in the ''[[Aubrey-Maturin]]'' series, ''Desolation Island''. Aubrey and Maturin, in an old, outgunned 4th Ratefourth-rate Ship of the Line, are chased by a new Dutch 3rd Ratethird-rate Ship of the Line, whilst on their way to Australia, with an implication the reason is that [[It's Personal]] for the Dutch Captain. {{spoiler|Jack's master-gunner gets a lucky shot on the Dutch ship's line and rigging, it turns sideways, is hit by a giant wave, capsizes and sinks with the loss of all 600 crewmen within minutes. Damage sustained by Aubrey's ship drives the rest of the plot for the novel}}.

* And of course, it comes up a few times in the ''[[Horatio Hornblower]]'' series of books, most notably in the first published book, "The Happy Return", where Hornblower's ship, a smallish frigate named HMS ''Lydia'', is forced to pursue and sink a much larger enemy ship, with the enemy ship's longer-ranged guns allowing them to plink at the pursuing British warship for several hours before they can fire back. To keep his wits about him, he passes the time playing cards with his junior officers. {{spoiler|To keep the morale of his men up, he orders a [[Refuge in Audacity|dance contest]] even as the enemy's shots periodically hit the ship, wounding or killing crewmembers.}}

* ''[[Maximum Ride|Max]]'': Max and the rest of her Flock are on the run due to the threat of capture, experimentation, ''torture'', being used as weapons or simply '''''imminent death''''' at the hands of anyone connected to the School, the Institute, Itexicon or Itex.

* Louisa May Alcott's thriller novel (!!) ''A Long Fatal Love Chase''.

* The second half of [[Jerry Pournelle]] &and [[Larry Niven]]'s ''[[The Mote in God's Eye|The Gripping Hand]]'' consists of a series of trips in various directions by the protagonists, to escape being killed or to buy time until the cavalry can arrive.

{{quote| "If someone tells me that 'a stern chase is a long chase' one more time." Joyce said, "I'll scream."}}

* ''[[The Fugitive (TV series)|The Fugitive]]'' is the classic [[Stern Chase]].

* ''[[Run, Buddy, Run]]'': a sitcom variant, about a man on the run from mobsters.

* ''[[Run, Joe, Run]]'': basically ''The Fugitive'' only with a dog as protagonist.

* ''Terminator:[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles|Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]''.

* "Runners" in ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'', though they are exceedingly rare and most of them don't last very long.

* ''[[Luigi's Mansion|Luigis Mansion]]'' pulls this as you start the final section in the game: lightning strikes the mansion and causes a black out, which naturally makes the ghosts pop up all over the place. In order to stop the infestation, Luigi must hunt down a ghost using a [[Guide Dang It|somewhat obscure hint]] from E. Gadd to get a key to open the [[Fridge Logic|previously-accessible]] [[Locked Door|basement]] and switch the power back on.

* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'': Season 1, and obviously the second-season episode ''"The Chase''".

* The third season of ''[[The Secret Saturdays]]'' starts with this due to the [[Tomato in the Mirror]] reveal ({{spoiler|Zak Saturday is Kur, who is believed to be the ultimate evil}}) of the previous season.