This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Riona: Oh, dear, questioning my edits already. I've just realised that, while the Life on Mars example I added is an 'I'm not leaving you behind' moment, it doesn't really fit the 'escaping danger' trope setup; they're pursuing a criminal when Sam buckles over, and from Gene's point of view it probably seems to be a sudden bout of illness. Should it be removed?
Jewelled Dragon: In order to keep the main page clean, I've moved several paragraphs of discussion that was on the main page to here:
(from the top) While small, elite military units may practice this trope in real life, and traditional war movies used to feature it routinely, this would usually be considered part of "John Wayne syndrome," which is characterized by green soldiers acting like movie characters and getting themselves and a lot of other people killed. The horrible truth of warfare in the early part of the 20th century has always been that everyone is meat for the grinder. Most soldiers, if their unit has any esprit d'corps at all, will do something to try to rescue buddies. However, 20th Century munitions kill and maim in such wholesale quantities that trying to collect all their wounded — let alone all the bodies and parts of bodies scattered across the mutilated landscape — would destroy a unit's ability to function within minutes after the start of battle. Modern movies — Saving Private Ryan is a good example — are more likely to try to show this harsh reality.
However, most current armed forces make it a point to always attempt to recover their dead and wounded; for example, in the Battle of Mogadishu, the United States Army Rangers held positions around downed Blackhawk helicopters to recover the corpses of their fallen comrades, sending wave after wave of Rangers until they finally sent tanks, artillery, and pretty much all the UN's firepower (note that this was less to try to get the bodies out, and more the commanding general's admitted stubbornness, as he didn't want to have American soldiers bodies abused and shown on TV for negative PR). This mentality is partially due to a shift in the way modern warfare is waged compared with how it was handled in World War I and II, with emphasis on smaller, mobile squads of highly-trained and well-supported troops who can more easily rescue and recover their dead and wounded during battle. Also, insurgents in many armed conflicts have made it a habit to carry away their dead and wounded after every battle, so as to hide their casualties and leave the enemy wondering exactly how much damage they dealt.
(discussing Starcraft ammo that is supposed to maim, not kill)
- In real life, this is the philosophy behind most anti-personnel landmines, most of them are designed to only blow out a soldier's leg (thereby requiring his fellow men to waste resources caring for him), not kill him. The same has been said for a variety of assault rifle rounds, but the accuracy of that story is somewhat questionable.
{discussing Black Hawk Down}
- The actual event, as relayed in the book by the same name, is actually far more complicated than the movie portrayal. However, towards the end of the battle, when the UN arrived in full force, there was an explicit refusal from the commanding officers in regards to leaving behind the dead pilots in the first downed helicopter. This resulted in the rescue operation taking about four hours longer than originally planned.
- It should be noted that they were not ignorant of the risks for the troops; in fact, this would lead to the controversial death of an Army Ranger who bled out.
- This is exactly why the first two Medal of Honor recipients for actions after Vietnam were so awarded; one of them volunteered three times to go to the second crashed Blackhawk (receiving the go-ahead on the third request), despite each only being armed with a rifle and a pistol. Both would be eventually overwhelmed and killed but may have taken as many twenty four Somalis with them and wounded many more, and both are credited with saving the Blackhawk pilot's life.
- The actual event, as relayed in the book by the same name, is actually far more complicated than the movie portrayal. However, towards the end of the battle, when the UN arrived in full force, there was an explicit refusal from the commanding officers in regards to leaving behind the dead pilots in the first downed helicopter. This resulted in the rescue operation taking about four hours longer than originally planned.
