Truth Serums: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:truthserum 1503.jpg|link=Gunslinger Girl|
{{quote|''"Wait, what the hell? This was supposed to be a truth serum, not a VOLUNTEER INFORMATION serum!"''
|'''T-Rex''', ''[http://www.qwantz.com/archive/000416.html Dinosaur Comics]''}}
The common term "truth serum" refers to any number of sedative/hypnotic drugs which are used to induce honesty in a subject. In fact, truthfulness is not guaranteed by the use of such drugs; while a person under the influence of a truth serum may become talkative, or may experience reduced inhibitions or even hallucinogenic fantasies, they are still quite capable of lying. For this reason, and the obvious human and civil rights issues (which are similar to those regarding torture), any statements obtained in this manner are inadmissible in court. Or, they're really disgusting concoctions used in [[Initiation Ceremony|crossing the line ceremonies]]. The best that modern pharmacology can come up with is amobarbital (better known as sodium amytal) and is not all that useful at all.
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In movies and television, truth serums of all forms (be they actual drugs, spells or whatever) behave quite predictably, and will invariably have one or more of the following effects on the subject:
# A person becomes incapable of lying, though still fully conscious and otherwise able.
# In many cases, the subject seems compelled to not only tell the truth, but to talk, period. Simply shutting up and not speaking, which isn't a lie, never occurs to them—or, if they do try to shut up, they are physically unable to do so.
# As well, they have a tendency to go into far more detail than is necessary, when short, curt responses that aren't lies could still keep the secret. Compare [[I'll Never Tell You What I'm Telling You]].
# Occasionally, they will be unable to lie, but quite able to be creative in telling the truth [[From a Certain Point of View]].
# A victim of fictional [[Truth Serum]] almost always gives complete and accurate information, even though in [[Real Life]], people who think they're telling the truth are often wrong.
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While the body of this entry deals mainly with traditional truth serums, in fiction there are actually many methods of getting the truth out of someone besides drugs. These, due to being [[Applied Phlebotinum]], can be [[Justified Trope|excused]] for behaving as described herein. Sometimes. Maybe.
For the more historically tried and true method of extracting information by getting the victim completely sloshed on cheap booze, see [[In Vino Veritas]].
May overlap with [[I'll Never Tell You What I'm Telling You]]
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* In Peorth's introductory arc in ''[[Ah! My Goddess]]'', Urd gives her sisters a drug that will make them confess to any misdeeds they have ever committed in order to find out about an incident that made Peorth hate Belldandy. When Skuld takes it, she [[Ocular Gushers|tearfully]] confesses to a variety of minor misdeeds such as eating all the ice cream. When Belldandy takes it, ''[[Incorruptible Pure Pureness|nothing happens]]''.
* In ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'', in one of the later chapters, as Negi {{spoiler|was running away from his cute students who want to know the name of the girl he likes using every means necessary}}, He got an injection of "truth serum" up his... "back side". It still didn't work.
* In ''Amagi Brilliant Park'', there's a scene where one of the more perverted characters has got hold of some "Heartsleeve Fruit" and secretly doses [[The Stoic|Sento Isuzu]] with it. He intends to ask her lewd questions, such as, it's implied, how often she [[A Date with Rosie Palms|masturbates]]. It causes her, for some hours afterward, to babble very detailed answers to even the most casual questions, although once she realizes what's happened, she '''can''' cover her mouth and [[Head Desk|bang her head against something]] to try and shut up.
{{quote|(In response to "You seem pretty down today. What's wrong?" from a fellow high school girl):
"You're right, I'm pretty depressed today. I had a nightmare, ate disgusting curry and even got lectured by my colleagues. Furthermore, my workplace isn't doing very well and the staff has not been up to standard lately. I can't help but worry about meeting this year's minimum visitor count. ... And, for better or for worse, my manager, Kanie-kun is also way too capable. Of course, I'm not exactly jealous of him, I'm just afraid I'm not meeting up to his expectations as his assistant, and—"}}
** Making it even worse, she recently realized she's developing feelings for Kanie (the nightmare she mentioned was about him hooking up with other girls) ... so whenever '''he''' asks what's bugging her, there's that need to clamp her hands over her mouth again....
== [[Comic Books]] ==
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== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[Liar Liar]]'' has a lawyer compelled to tell the truth (almost nonstop) for 24 hours by his son's [[Be Careful What You Wish For|birthday wish]].
* In ''[[True Lies]]'', Arnold Schwarzenegger's character is injected with a truth serum by terrorists, which also allows his wife, who has also been captured, to question him about his double life as a secret agent. When the interrogator comes back, Arnie tells him all about the plan he had for escaping and killing him, reveals that he picked his handcuffs, then proceeds to do exactly what he said he would.
** ''[[True Lies]]'' is a comedy, so this scene is deliberately a bit over the top.
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* In ''[[Valiant]]'', a British homing pigeon is given a truth serum by the German hawks who have captured him. While he tells the truth, he still refuses to actually tell them what they want to know, and instead babbles on and on, annoying them until he accidentally gives them information they wanted to know in the first place.
* In the film adaptation of ''[[Red Dragon]]'', Agent Graham mentions that hospital staff tried Sodium Amytal on Hannibal Lecter to find out where he hid one of his victims. Lecter gave them a recipe for dip.
** Although considering his... ''[[I'm a Humanitarian|tastes]]'', that might have been his way of telling them without giving them anything useful.
* Parodied in ''[[Johnny English]]'', when the titular inept super-spy gets two gadget rings mixed up. Instead of a strong sedative, he accidentally injects a [[Mook]] with sodium pentothal. The [[Mook]] becomes not only truthful but extremely helpful, happily obeying Johnny's request for safe directions out of the heavily guarded building before realising in horror what he's just done.
* In ''[[Meet the Parents|Meet the Fockers]]'', Pam's father Jack, suspicious of Greg, injects him with sodium pentothal. Greg forgets after five seconds that he'd had a syringe jammed into his neck, and proceeds to get on the mic and spill his guts to the whole family reunion about his lust for Pam's [[Hot Mom|mom]], {{spoiler|his (supposedly) illegitimate son}}, and Pam's pregnancy.
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== [[Literature]] ==
* The ''[[Harry Potter]]'' books feature a magical truth serum called Veritaserum. It's mentioned quite a lot, but the only time it's actually used was on an unconscious {{spoiler|Barty Crouch Jr., disguised as Mad-Eye Moody}}.
** However, [[Word of God|according to J. K. Rowling,]] all magical truth serums are fallible when used on a victim who is prepared for it, and its effects can be counteracted. Thus it's not useful in wizard courts of law.
* Parodied in ''[[The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy (novel)|Life, the Universe, and Everything]]'' with a character named Prak, who was injected with too strong a dose of truth serum when asked to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth in court. People had to flee his [[Mad Oracle|illuminated ramblings]] or [[Go Mad
* Spider Robinson wrote a short story "Satan's Children" about the unexpected positive effects of a drug that made people permanently incapable of lying. It wreaked particular havoc among politicians and prominent religious leaders (although it didn't break *all* of them).
* [[Lois McMaster Bujold|Lois McMaster Bujold's]] [[Vorkosigan Saga]] has a truth drug called fast-penta, which when it works properly fulfills this trope perfectly. Inducing honesty is not actually its primary effect, though: what it does is make the subject ''want to be helpful'', allowing the interrogator to suggest that it would be helpful if they would answer a few questions. The distinction is illustrated in ''Ethan of Athos'', in a sequence where fast-penta is used to interrogate a character who is actually entirely ignorant of the subject at issue; instead of explaining that he can't understand the questions, let alone answer them, he attempts to help out by tacitly translating them into questions he ''can'' answer and answering those instead, to the confusion of his captors.
** However, as fast-penta is a drug, not everyone reacts the same way. Most exceptions are fatal allergies. People whose work involves sensitive or classified information can have the allergy artificially induced, unless their lives are deemed more important than the secrets they know. Bujold often uses artificial allergies to keep the characters from learning too much too soon. Another exception to the norm is Miles Vorkosigan. Due to his screwed up body chemistry, fast-penta induces a temporary mania in addition to the typical long-windedness. He uses this to his advantage, forcing himself to be discursive and bouncing off the walls reciting ''[[Shakespeare|Richard III]]'' until his interrogators give up and put him back in his cell.
** Fast-penta also removes its subject's inhibitions, making them voice whatever is on their mind. So when Ekaterin is under fast-penta, she talks about her sexual curiosity about Miles, to his embarrassment.
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* ''[[Phoenix Force]]'' uses scopalomine, administered by its [[The Medic|team medic]] Calvin James due to the risk of possible heart failure.
* No one can tell lies in close proximity to the one of griffins in [[Tamora Pierce]]'s [[Tortall Universe|Tortall]] books.
** However, truth ''spells'' can be fooled fairly easily, even when you don't have magic.
* Combined with a [[Brown Note]] in the ''[[Star Trek: New Frontier]]'' novel "The Quiet Place". The Redeemer Overlord, along with a killing word, has a truth-telling word, that compels a person to spill his guts. Almost literally. In fact, it makes the victim tell every truth he's ever known, and then kills him. And then it's subverted in the fact that the victim was trying to get them to stop torturing another victim for information...but they keep going anyway because, even though he did tell the truth, the other victim still could be hiding something.
* The titular drug of Kallocain by Swedish author Karin Boye made people respond truthfully to all questions. Problem for the [[The Empire|Universal State]]: {{spoiler|It turns out everybody hates the system of government.}}
* In ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'' books, the Aes Sedai have an artifact called the Oath Rod, which binds the will of one who makes an oath while grasping it. Each Aes Sedai before becoming a full sister must swear three oaths using the Oath Rod, one of which is never to speak a lie. However, they tend to become skilled at (and widely distrusted for) making misleading statements while never saying anything technically untrue.
* In Henry Seslar's short story "Examination Day", when a child reaches the age of 12, they are made to take a Government Intelligence Test. To prevent ''cheating'' the child
** The
* Played fairly straight in the first book of the ''Blood of Kerensky'' trilogy set in the ''[[BattleTech]]'' universe during Phelan's interrogation by the Clans. Of course, the procedure (complete with IV drip for the truth drugs and sensors to monitor the subject's vital signs) was still involved enough to suggest that even ([[Zeerust|presumably]]) 31st-century medical science might be able to make this kind of thing ''effective'', but not exactly ''safe''.
* In ''[[Bored of the Rings]],'' a parody of ''[[The Lord of the Rings]],'' Goodgulf the Wizard used "one of his secret potions<ref>Probably Sodium Pentothal.</ref>" to get the truth about how he obtained the Ring out of Dildo Bugger.
* In the ''[[X Wing Series]]'', it is mentioned that CorSec officers undergo a chemical interrogation as part of their training. When it was done to Corran Horn, he ended up confessing to every childhood misdeed committed in his entire life, which would have been amusing had the interrogator not provided a transcript to his father (A fellow officer).
* [[Simon R. Green]]'s ''[[Hawk And Fisher]]'' series contains a scene in which murder suspects are interrogated under a truth spell. The spell doesn't prevent them from withholding information or answering in a deceptive way, though, so all of them get away with saying "no" when asked if they committed the murders. {{spoiler|Turns out there are two murderers, each of whom committed a different murder; when Hawk asks each of them if they killed Blackstone ''and'' Bowman, both murderers were able to truthfully answer no.}}
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** Short story "Methuselah's Children". The government uses a truth drug on members of the Howard Families to try to find out the secret of the Families' longevity. It works, but the investigators don't believe what the members tell them and assume they just know the truth.
** ''[[Friday]]''. When Friday is captured by Boss' enemies, they use a truth drug on her to make her tell them about Boss' operations. It apparently doesn't work on her, as she says that she was able to tell them what she wanted to instead simply blurting out the truth. This may be because of her genetically enhanced body.
* [[Roger Zelazny]] included a drug-enhanced interrogation scene in the first of the ''My Name is Legion'' stories. The protagonist is able to beat it through a psychological technique he describes as "drug-consciousness" -- rephrasing questions in his mind into versions he can answer truthfully without giving away the information he wants to conceal.
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* Long before ''[[Liar Liar]]'', ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'' had an episode in which a used car salesman buys a car its previous owner claims is haunted, and finds himself supernaturally being forced to tell the truth, which is of course especially inconvenient in his line of work. Eventually, a local politician (who for obvious reasons doesn't want the car for himself either) helps him fob the car off as an all-American souvenir to a foreign politician who happens to be in town for a visit: {{spoiler|Nikita Kruschev}}.
* In ''[[V (TV series)|V]]: The Final Battle'', the hero Donovan is injected with an alien truth serum and fulfills this trope completely. Of course, this is an ''alien'' formula, so...
* From a Steven Wright comedy routine:
{{quote|"Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?"\}}
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* [[Inverted Trope|Inverted]] in ''[[Get Smart]]'' where Maxwell Smart is given ''lying pills'' to foil any possible interrogation. Of course, he takes it at an inappropriate time and suddenly lies about every slightest fact, including his own name.
** In another episode, he is drugged and ordered to tell his interrogators "everything you know". Naturally, this results in a seemingly endless stream of trivia, including multiplication tables.
* The ''[[Charmed]]'' episode "The Truth Is Out There And It Hurts" has one of the sisters casting a 24-hour "Truth Spell" which results in anyone who is asked a direct question having to answer with the truth. Unfortunately it also meant if anyone asked one of the sisters a question, ''they'' would have to answer with the truth.
* ''[[The Middleman]]'': The Middleman sets off a truth bomb to get Pip to confess he copied Wendy's paintings. Everyone else in the vicinity starts spontaneously confessing embarrassing truths. Wendy tries to take advantage of the truth bomb to [[No Name Given|find out the Middleman's name]], but he manages to dodge the question by giving her an honest answer that says nothing.
* Subverted in ''[[Star Trek]]:[[Deep Space Nine]]'' where they inject Quark with 6 doses of sodium pentathol, with no effect. But that's a Ferengi's metabolism for ya.
** Quark ironically is only too willing to talk, to stop these mad humans from jabbing him with sharp needles.
* ''[[UFO]]''. The 'GL-7 serum' is used on a captured alien, but it either kills him or he somehow commits suicide to prevent himself from talking.
* Humorously used on ''[[Married... with Children]]'' after Kelly gets bitten by a swarm of poisonous Samoan beetles during a commercial she's filming for an extermination company. Bud discovers that the Samoan people use the bugs' venom to create a truth serum, and Kelly ends up repeatedly telling the truth at the worst possible times.
* Played straight on ''[[Lost]]'' when Sayid is restrained and given an unnamed drug by {{spoiler|members of the Dharma Initiative, who believe him to be a hostile spy}}, and informed that he will have no choice but to answer their questions truthfully. When he does so, {{spoiler|eventually revealing that he is from the future,}} the interrogator concludes that he used too high a dose.
* ''[[24]]'' has occasionally used "hyoscine pentothal" in the past (a fictional substance whose name is taken from the names of two real substances).
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'''Aeryn:''' [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Yes, of course I'd lie to you, you]] ''[[Crowning Moment of Awesome|stupid]]'' [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|bitch!]] }}
* An interesting example cropped up on ''[[Chuck]]''. In the episode "Chuck Versus The Truth," the villain of the week uses a poison that has the side effect of inducing truth-telling tendencies in its victims. Of course, Chuck, Casey, and Sarah are all ultimately administered the drug. Since this is a comedy, it's mostly played for laughs, as when Casey admits Sarah is better at picking locks than he is. But at the end of the episode, Chuck asks Sarah if she has any real feelings for him. Her answer: {{spoiler|No.}}
** Of course, at the very end of the episode, it's revealed Sarah has built up an immunity to truth serums.
* ''[[NCIS]]'' ("Truth or Consequences"). A terrorist leader injects DiNozzo with a conconction of his own design consisting of sodium pentathol [[And Some Other Stuff]], causing DiNozzo to give an [[As You Know]] recap of the events leading up to his capture.
* In one episode of ''[[The Greatest American Hero]]'', Maxwell is given a truth serum by the [[General Ripper]] villain of the story. The resultant babblings about [[Clothes Make the Superman|Ralph's supersuit]] are dismissed as crazy talk.
* In the ''[[Quantum Leap]]'' episode "Star Light, Star Bright", Sam leaps into an old man obsessed with UFOs who is dosed with sodium pentothal by government [[The Men in Black|Men in Black]]. Instead of telling them what his host knows about UFOs, he starts revealing top-secret information about himself and the Quantum Leap project. [[The Men in Black]] just assume it's gibberish and that they've given him too high a dosage.
* In the ''[[The Man from U.N.C.L.E.]]'' episode "The Foxes and Hounds Affair
* In an episode of ''[[Human Target]]'', the plan is for Ilsa to give the villain of the episode wine dosed with such a chemical so he'll tell them his password. Played with, in that to convince him that it isn't poisoned, she also drinks it herself, after which she tells him the whole plan.
== [[Music]] ==
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== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* ''[[Dungeons
** The spell ''Zone of Truth'' prevented anyone in it from knowingly lying. However, they are not compelled to answer, and can be evasive if they wish.
** For more fun, the 3rd Edition of Oriental Adventures (based heavily upon ''[[Legend of the Five Rings]]'') has an improved version called "Truth is a Scourge" that also forces the victim to answer any question asked. Considering this is set in a land where honor is extremely important, it's rather common for victims to say something that insults themselves or their lord and be forced to commit ''seppuku'' to save face - which is pretty much the whole point of the spell.
** Both 2nd and 3rd Edition had a Potion of Truth that forced anyone who drank it to speak the truth. The 3rd Edition version allowed the drinker to make a saving throw to refuse to answer a question. Also, the Ring of Truth forces its wearer to speak truth and allows to detect lies told by others.
* White Wolf's ''Vampire: The Requiem'' has several methods of forcing somebody to tell the truth, from the gentle to the awesome. On the gentle side, "Majesty" can compel somebody to want to confess their innermost secrets to you. On the awesome side, the "Liar's Plague" causes bugs to swarm out of a subject's mouth when they lie.
** ''[[Changeling: The Lost]]'' likewise has a low-level [[Dangerous Forbidden Technique|Goblin Contract]] named Sight of Truth and Lies that lets you automatically tell when somebody is telling a lie. The downside is, if ''you'' lie while using it, you'll automatically believe anything ''but'' utter bullshit is true when coming from the speaker's mouth.
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** There's also the standard "Compel Truth" spell, and an equivalent psychic ability. Again, despite the name it only prevents victims from lying (if it works...) It does not force them to say anything.
* The ''[[Traveller]]'' universe has Truth Drug. The recipient answers questions truthfully for two minutes, then falls unconscious for an hour and takes moderate damage.
* ''[[Paranoia (game)|Paranoia]]'' supplement ''Acute Paranoia'', section "Better Living Through Chemistry". The drug Telescopalomine actually works realistically. Clones under its effect answer questions reflexively (not necessarily truthfully) and will be agreeable to anything told them. Internal Security uses it for interrogations.
== [[Theatre]] ==
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== [[Web Comics]] ==
* ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'': [[Word of God]] tells us that Antimony's [[Kid with the Leash|contract of ownership]] over Reynardine means that he can't intentionally deceive Annie. He can, however, withhold information and refuse to answer questions.
* In ''[[Girl Genius]]'', the Sturmovarus family slips a truth serum into Agatha's soup. She had previously been hiding the fact that she was a Spark or a Heterodyne; the truth serum causes her to lose all inhibition and blurt out her entire backstory in one continuous spiel over three pages, then fall face forward into her dessert before declaring "You're very cute!" to Tarvek as he cleans her up and his father wryly admits that perhaps a bit too much serum had been put in her food.
* In ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'', Zone of Truth works exactly like this.
** Taking insipiration from Burlew's work, Zone of Truth has the same effect in ''[[Murphy's Law (webcomic)|Murphy's Law]]''.
* A variation; a tomb-robber in ''[[Ballerina Mafia]]'' is cursed to have an illusion of the mummy following him around, constantly announcing what he's thinking to all in earshot.
* In ''[[Magick Chicks]]'' ninja girl Tandy can do this via acupuncture [https://pixietrixcomix.com/magick-chicks/magic-hands while giving someone massage].
** In ''Dangerously Chloe'' Gabrielle (the victim of the previous example) slipped some into Naomi's food. And then tried "[https://pixietrixcomix.com/dangerously-chloe/volume-1-page-197 Getteeng ze truth]" from Prudence, but as an angel the latter… began to compulsively spout [[Talkative Loon|wildly random]] ''lies'' instead. The human girls thought she just somehow defeated it.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Applied Phlebotinum]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Truth and Lies]]
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