Terrorists Without a Cause: Difference between revisions

{{quote|'''Ocelot:''' That's how terrorism works. You hold a country hostage and make demands. Not much of a point to it otherwise. I mean, what were you going to do? Call up the White House and say 'We've got [[Humongous Mecha|Metal Gear]], neener neener'?<br />

They are related to, and might occasionally be the literary descendant of [[Bomb -Throwing Anarchists]], who were the main type of terrorism in late 19th century and early 20th century literature, especially short stories. [[Anarchy Is Chaos|Violent anarchism]] was, in real life, mainly commited by Frenchmen, such as Ravachol, possibly explaining why anarchists seem to have mainly been used as villains by British writers. Compare with [[Psycho for Hire]].

** Should be noted that some fascist philosophers actually made that as a serious case. ([[War Is Glorious]] being the essence of fascism) They also quite deliberately avoided making programs or statements that could be taken as such, seeing it as a sign of decadence and that action itself was the mark of the true fascist... Incidentally, this is one of the main reason why the word is so hard to define: They did it on purpose.

* [[Mobile Suit Gundam 00|Ali Al-Saachez]] used radical Islamist rhetoric to recruit child soldiers in the Middle East. He told his followers that they fought to glorify God, but he was really a [[Blood Knight]] and [[Psycho for Hire]].

** DebateableDebatable as Ali does have a cause: his pocketbook. He was paid to create a child army, so he did it, using whatever methods worked and had a lot of fun in the process. [[Psycho for Hire]] yes. Terrorist Without A Cause, maybe not.

** He makes it pretty clear that he does what he does simply because he enjoys war. He's shown killing people even when it brings no real advantage to him, just [[For the Evulz]]. He's making money while at it, but it's pretty clear that he'd never retire, no matter how much he'd make.

* ''[[Black Lagoon]]'' actually gives this trope [[Deconstructed Trope|something of a serious treatment]] with Masahiro Takenaka, a villain in one of the arcs who's an ex-member of the Japanese Red Army. Having [[Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids|long since outgrown any notion that he'll ever get to incite a worldwide revolution through his actions]], Takenaka keeps fighting as part of terrorist organizations that have absolutely nothing to do with his original goals because being an enemy of the state is the only thing he finds meaning in doing. What with the series' usage of [[Black and Grey Morality]], he is [[Sympathy for Thethe Devil|actually presented sympathetically for it]].

* In ''[[Fifty Two52]]'', Black Adam's wedding is attacked by a suicide bomber -- fortunatelybomber—fortunately killed by a private detective before she blows up -- sentup—sent by ''<s>an international crime syndicate</s>'' a [[Cult]] ''worshiping crime''.

* Not so much [[Terrorists Without a Cause]] as Terrorists With Flexible Causes: The ''Empty Quarter'' story arc of ''[[The Punisher]]'' had Frank Castle and a Mossad agent crashing a meeting of every major terrorist group in the world. The purpose of the meeting: terrorist groups with radically different agendas would basically trade targets, so the authorities wouldn't see them coming. This included plans for blowing up the Vatican, with no mention of how, say, the IRA members in the room felt about that.

* The [[Marvel Universe]] has A.I.M. and Hydra, [[The DCU]] has Kobra.

** Hydra's deal is now 'Big Business has taken over everything. Now it's time to defeat them. And take over everything outselves'.

* A major hallmark of the ''[[Die Hard (Film)|Die Hard]]'' series of movies is that the [[Big Bad]] is usually a thief disguising his actions by acting like a terrorist.

* The (possibly) Afghan terrorist organization "Ten Rings" in the 2008 ''[[Iron Man (Filmfilm)|Iron Man]]'' film (they operate out of Afghanistan but speak a wide variety of languages) have no discernible cause beyond conquest and power. The novelization and script note that the sequel is supposed to reveal that they're {{spoiler|in the employ of [[Yellow Peril|The Mandarin]], Iron Man's magic ring-wielding arch enemy, not that his [[Take Over the World]] motivations are much more complex}}.

* [[Older Than They Think|Predating]] the ''[[Die Hard (Film)|Die Hard]]'' example, in Eric Ambler's novel ''The Light of Day'' (filmed as ''Topkapi''), the Turkish [[Secret Police]] believes a group of individuals to be terrorists, since they captured the [[Anti-Hero]] protagonist driving a car stocked with weapons. Eventually, they figure out that the group are actually [[Gentleman Thief|international criminals]] and are ''overjoyed''.

*** No, they had definite motives--researchmotives—research anarchism. The strategy was propaganda by the deed, bringing attention to anarchism by committing terrorist acts in revenge for wrongs done by the establishment. Not a good strategy, because it caused massive backlash, painting all anarchists as crazy with belief in nothing when they had a definite plan and did not use those methods.

* More than one ''[[James Bond (film)|James Bond]]'' villain have fit this mold.

* So does the ''[[Fight Club (film)|Fight Club]]''. Their members simply go nuts.

{{quote| "Reject the basic assumptions of civilization! Especially the importance material possessions!"}}

* ''[[Twelve12 Monkeys]]'': {{spoiler|It's eventually discovered that the ''Twelve Monkeys'' were only an Animal Rights Group that wanted to release the animals from the zoo. But who was that red-haired guy with a ponytail? And why did he want to [[Kill All Humans]]?}}

** {{spoiler|Doctor Red Hair does in fact talk about his motivation early in the movie, but the character he's talking to isn't really listening, and the audience haven't been given any real reason to pay close attention to him either - he's just another weird guy in a movie full of them. He's basically a radical environmentalist who believes that humans are destroying the planet through pollution, consumption and overpopulation. In truth, a lot of people [[Humans Are Bastardsthe Real Monsters|claim similar beliefs]], but he was actually willing to act on them.}}

* In the new Travolta film ''[[From Paris Withwith Love]]'', the terrorist {{spoiler|[[Jonathan Rhys Meyers]]' fiance}} never gives a reason for the plot to {{spoiler|suicide bomb an African aid summit}} other than {{spoiler|saying she was looking for a purpose and a man she met six years ago explained things to her}}. Arguably parodied because the Travolta character explains a bit during the early part of the film, but Meyers' character (and, since we're viewing the scene through his eyes, the audience) is too {{spoiler|high on cocaine}} to understand it.

* ''[[The Baader Meinhof Complex (Film)|The Baader Meinhof Complex]]'' portrays the [http[wikipedia://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_army_factionRed army faction|RAF]] very much in this way. Much violence is committed, and many people are killed, but there is no system of motivations or goals; insofar as they exist, they are lost along the way. The only thing apparently uniting the members of the Faction is a love of violence and bohemian living.

{{quote| "Losers don't get their names written down in the medical books!"}}

* The terrorist in ''[[DejaDéjà Vu (Filmfilm)|Deja Vu]]'' never really talks about his reasons. He's obviously unbalanced, and his only apparent gripe against society is that he wasn't allowed in the army.

* One Villain Of The Week in ''[[Criminal Minds]]'' was a Unabomber-esque anti-technology terrorist, but was revealed to {{spoiler|just be doing it because he thought a sci-fi author that wrote a book about a war between humans and robots he based his idea on [[Freudian Excuse|was his mother who abandoned him, but turns out not to be]]}}.

* Sark from ''[[Alias (TV series)|Alias]]''. He routinely changes his alliances, and his true allegiance seems to be only to himself.

* Subverted in the MTV series ''Super Adventure Team''; a group of Middle-Eastern terrorists kidnap some Americans, and Team America wants to know their demands. The terrorists were taken aback; they didn't know that they could ''make'' demands. After a few moments huddling together, the lead terrorists give their demand: "We want to see ''[[KissKISS]]''!

* The United People's Resistance from ''[[The A-Team (TV)|The A-Team]]'' episode ''The Beast from the Belly of a Boeing''. They consisted of Americans, hijacking an airliner with the aim to extort money.

* The IRA are featured in the show ''[[Sons of Anarchy]]'', with the deconstruction of how the IRA have essentially went from terrorists to a glorified crime syndicate that focuses on selling guns to whoever will buy them. This leads to the main character Jax (and fellow biker Chibs, an exiled IRA member who fell victim to the ambition of the leader of the organized crime wing of the organization) being forced to help expose and kill the pro-crime leader of the IRA when a high ranking member of the political wing of the IRA gets his hands upon Jax's son.

* ''[[Counter-Strike (Video Game)|Counter-Strike]]''. Well, since it's multiplayer only and has no plot. The terrorists have some [[Backstory]], but the fighting going on has no plot other than special forces and terrorists blasting each other. It doesn't need one. Subverted and played straight in ''Condition: Zero'' - the single player has you completing non-plot objects [e.g.: kill five terrorists in a row within so-and-so time], but ''Deleted Scenes'' has actual stories behind it. Although, a few episodes don't explain why the terrorists got the hostages or why there's a bunch of homicidal jihadi trying to kill you.

** Ironically, ''[[Team Fortress 2 (Video Game)|Team Fortress 2]]'', which deliberately sought to abandon the whole "need for a believable premise" thing, averts this. The two organizations secretly control every government on Earth, and each is constantly trying to take over the other's half one resource at a time. In some maps it's unclear exactly what kind of resources are being fought over, but in any case the eventual goal hovering over everyone's heads is to [[Take Over the World]].

* The Heaven Smiles in ''[[Killer 7Killer7]]'' are, as the game goes on, manipulated to various ends, but their original purpose is, to quote the game, "terrorism for the sole purpose of causing terror". Kun Lan, their creator, is a [[Hidden Agenda Villain]] who (as the game is a [[Mind Screw]]) never ''quite'' reveals what that agenda is.

* The ''[[Mass Effect]]'' DLC module ''Bring Down the Sky'' averts this by giving the Batarians a very [[Disproportionate Retribution]] sort of reason for their terrorist attack. Given how much of an [[Always ChaoticExclusively Evil]] culture the Batarians are portrayed as having and just how psychotic [[Complete Monster|Balak]] is, it actually makes a disturbing amount of sense.

* Quite a few video game and anime villains are [[Nietzsche Wannabe|Nietzsche Wannabes]]s that are dedicated to destroying the old order. However, their New Order is neither Social Darwinism, nor Fascism, and not even [[Might Makes Right]] - it's just a vaguely defined "make humanity stronger through fighting" idea. Oddly enough, not only do the villains themselves consider it a comprehensive socio-political ideology, but so do the heroes, who often act as though the villains are just [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|Well Intentioned Extremists]] whose motives come from genuinely well-thought-out ideals.

* Most of the ''[[Metal Gear]]'' antagonists play this trope straight, but the primary antagonists avert it. Big Boss, his cloned sons Liquid Snake and Solidus Snake, and Ocelot all had the same objective: to free the world from the control of the Patriots, the organization controlling the United States government and, by extension, the entire world.

** A few other villains do generally seem in it [[For the Evulz]], though. Mantis expressly states he wants to kill as many people as he could. {{spoiler|Sniper Wolf}} really only waits for [[Suicide Byby Cop|someone to kill her]].

* The terrorist group in ''[[Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six (video game)|Rainbow Six]] : Vegas'' is rather odd. They waste [[NGO Superpower|an enormous amount of manpower and resources]] {{spoiler|including a state of the art WMD, which they try to use inside Vegas for no good reason.}} in their attack on Vegas. {{spoiler|1=It turns out the whole point of the attack was just to distract the army so they could break into the research facility where those very same WMDs were being build. So... they went through all of that just to get weapons they already had, but lost because they were using them to steal more? And it's not very well explained what they want to do with them anyway, or how they got the first one.}}

** May have been subverted by the sequel, though; contrary to what Shepherd said, ''Modern Warfare 3'' shows Makarov to have a very clearly defined goal of establishing Russian dominance over the world, with himself at the top.

* The PLR from ''[[Battlefield 3 (Video Game)|Battlefield 3]]'' seem to have rather nebulous motivations, though it's at least clear that they're not jihadists of any sort. Analysing some of Al-Bashir's dialogue suggests that they may simply be radical Iranian nationalists who want to oppose the West, but that's about as far as it gets, and [[True Final Boss|Solomon's]] own motivations are a mystery.

* The protagonist of ''[[Hitman (video game series)|Hitman]]'' is nominally killing for money. But while in some games there was a given reason he needed the money, in ''Blood Money'' it was only used to buy upgrades so he could do more assasinationsassassinations. Meanwhile, 47 was living in derelict warehouses. There is an overarching conspiracy going on, but 47 didn't care for it. He could've probably done the first 2, 3 hits without buying upgrades and live of the proceeds for the rest of his life, is all I'm saying.

* The motives of the terrorist group in ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'' are, as of yet, unclear. It's not entirely certain if they even ''have'' a motive beyond trying to cripple the US with fear through targetting its children. For some reason, "ratings" are important to them; that's about all we get. Originally, they were from a country at war with the United States, and one of Danya's demands in v1 is that the American military completely demobilise, but given various [[Retcon|retconsretcon]]s to the setting, it isn't clear how much is still canon; at the least, them being at war with the US isn't.

** Um, there was this ''war'' going on in the 1940s ...

* In ''[[Batman: theThe Animated Series]]'', Catwoman's premiere in "The Cat and the Claw" involves a plot by terrorist Red Claw. At best, the prominent color red and the leader's accent rather obliquely suggest [[Red Scare]]-style revolutionaries.

** The Eco-Villains did have bizarre and psychotic reasons for doing what they did, however insane they seem to normal people. Three of them (Looten Plunder, Sly Sludge and Hoggish Greedly) were just greedy international corporate raiders, especially Greedly and Plunder. All they wanted was money, making them slightly better than your average [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|Gordon Gecko-like corporate nutjob]]. They're pretty much the personification of rampant capitalism, with Greedly spiking into the realm of what the faux-intellectual call "anarcho-capitalism", that is, literally capitalism without boundriesboundaries, either moral or ethical (or ''logical'' for that matter).

* There are some terrorists that the ''[[Gargoyles (Animation)|Gargoyles]]'' stop at the very beginning of one episode. They claim to have a cause, and maybe they do, but since they're such minor characters we never find out what it is.

* In the pilot episode of ''[[Superman: The Animated Series (Animation)|Superman: The Animated Series]]'', John Corben and his men are repeatedly referred to as "terrorists," despite being just mercenaries hired to kill people by the dictator of some [[Ruritania]] or other.

* The Dark Kat of ''[[Swat Kats (Animation)|Swat Kats]]'' really seems to apply here, simply wanting to destroy the city for the sake of allowing a criminal wasteland to take its place.

* ''[[Transformers Prime]]'' has [[Fun Withwith Acronyms|MECH]], a cyberterrorist group whose goals aren't very clearly stated.

* Some experts, such as Max Abrahms, have seriously argued that this may be [[Truth in Television]] for most or all terrorists. It's remarkably common for a terrorist group's policy demands to contradict each other, or to change suddenly for no apparent reason - in particular, if the group's demands are actually met, they almost never disband, but instead switch to a new issue that may be completely unrelated. In several cases, leaders of major terrorist organizations have been unable to explain exactly what they're fighting for when directly asked. So why do people join terrorist groups, if it's not really about the cause? Apparently because they're looking to make friends. No, really.

** One could argue that the reason these groups are so wildly self-contradictory is because the leaders recruit people using little more than cultural prejudices and peer pressure to ensure that they'll be too fanatical to bother questioning their orders or listen to an outsider. End result: a handful of men can raise an army of servants ready to do whatever they're asked simply to fit in. It's like a grand, horrifying version of high school cliques.

* Many ideologically-motivated guerillaguerrilla or terrorist organisations devolve into this over time; the Peruvian Shining Path, for example, were originally a Marxist insurgency, but after a factional breakdown in the early 90s devolved into a string of loosely connected gangs with a thin ideological veneer. Other examples include some of the surviving [[The Troubles|Northern Irish paramilitary organisations]], the pre-Taliban Mujahideen in Afghanistan and some nationalist militias in the Warlord Era of the Republic of China. It even gets to the point where [[Even Evil Has Standards|their nominal allies move to take them out]], cutting through the usual red tape; in Northern Ireland, for example, the Provisional IRA purged several factions of the Irish People's Liberation Organisation, an Irish National Liberation Army splinter group, which had begun to engage in organised crime.

* [[Useful Notes/Columbine|Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold]] arguably qualify as this. They intended to use terrorist tactics (blowing up their school cafeteria and then shooting the survivors) in a suicidal attack that would "out-do" the Oklahoma City Bombing, solely to make themselves infamous. However, [[Where's the Kaboom?|the failure of their bombs]], coupled with the initial media coverage that tried to fit them into existing models of disgruntled students, has resulted in the incident being mostly remembered as just a particularly bloody school shooting.

* In 2011, some acts of sabotage were commitedcommitted against railway and subway lines in Berlin. Though gasoline bombs were used, damage was only limited and nobody got hurt, and many bombs were found days later without having exploded at all. A statement released on the internet is generally considered as genuine, but can be summarized as "Fighting for Freedom! And Equality! Against world hunger and stuff... We guess...". Even genuine far left activists thought the whole thing was laughable.