With or Without You
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I'm going with or without you, Jerry. What's it gonna be?
—Samantha, The Mexican
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Bob is looking over Alice's plan to infiltrate the enemy base and notices that it will cause a lot of casualties. He feels uncomfortable about this and talks to her about it. She starts with how it will be worth it in the long run, and may let something slip about a later plan.
As Bob gets more and more worried, and Alice gets more and more defensive, she finally reaches her tipping point and declares:
"Too bad! I'm doing this With Or Without You!"
A Stock Phrase cementing that Alice is done with Bob's opinion, because she believes she doesn't need him. This rarely ends well. Can also be "We're doing this with or without you," in which case some of the 'we' may walk off with Bob, or be clearly staying only out of terror. It needn't be this dramatic.
Alice can also be heroic, in which case Bob is probably just scared and may come back at an appropriate moment. This also makes it much more likely Bob will stay, happily or not.
Please be careful with examples. A character saying something like "Can't Live with Them, Can't Live Without Them" may sound very similar to this trope if the phrase is out of context.
Film
- Once Upon a Time in America. Max plans to pull a Bank Robbery.
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Carol: All he thinks about is this job: tear gas, hostages... Now he's gonna do this, and he's gonna do it with or without you! |
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- The Insider. Lowell Bergman has refused to edit the film of an interview.
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Lawyer: We're doing this with or without you, Lowell. If you like, I can sign another producer to edit your show. |
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- The Mexican. Samantha wants Jerry to go to Las Vegas but he doesn't want to.
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Samantha: I'm going with or without you, Jerry. What's it gonna be? |
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- The Stepford Wives (2004). Joanna has realized that something is rotten in Stepford.
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Joanna Eberhart: It's... It's not our world. It's not us. And I'm picking up our kids from camp right now, and we're getting out of here. With or without you. |
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- The Brave Little Toaster. After their master leaves them, a group of appliances must decide what to do.
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Toaster: Well, I'm going, with or without you. |
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- Up: "Now whether you assist me or not, I am going to Paradise Falls, if it kills me!"
Live-Action TV
- Prison Break episode "Under & Out"
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Michael Scofield: As soon as the lights go out, I'm gone. With or without you. |
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- Angel episode "Redefinition"
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Wesley Wyndam-Pryce: I thought you'd like to know that we're keeping the agency open. With or without you. |
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- The Outcasts episode "The Outcasts"
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Jemal: With or without you, I'm going down there tonight. |
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- The line is never explicitly used, but is strongly implied during the conversation about the family relocating. Christine is against it, but Kody says that he has decided they have to do it and the other wives note that Christine has a choice about whether or not to join them.
Music
- Avril Lavigne's 'Nobody's Fool' is all about how the person being sung to is trying to hold the singer back. It gives us this line:
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If it's with or without you, I don't need you doubtin' me. |
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- The A-Teens With Or Without You
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With or without you, |
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- U2's "With or Without You" uses the phrase and inverts the message.
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Western Animation
- In an episode of The Simpsons, Homer says that he is going to try to get a celebrity couple back together with or without Marge. (From memory)
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