History Main / BluffingTheMurderer

[[folder:Videogames]]

** Something like this happens in the first case of ''Apollo Justice'', where [[spoiler: Phoenix gets to the real killer, Kristoph Gavin, by showing him a piece of doctored evidence. Kristoph accidentally implicates himself by shouting out that it's a fake... which means he ''knows'' where the real evidence is, in this case because he took it.]]
* ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors'': [[spoiler: Junpei learns that Guy X's killer has prosopagnosia, and needs to prove that Ace has prosopagnosia. So, he calls them all up to the hospital area where he claims to be Santa dressed in Junpei's clothing. Ace ends up confused, and falls for it. Furthermore, Junpei correctly deduces that Ace stole the Ninth Man's bracelet and used it to kill Guy X, so he tricks Ace into believing ''he'' has the bracelet, causing Ace to slip up once more.]]
* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' games have an in-game short story, [[http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:A_Game_at_Dinner ''A Game at Dinner'']], which uses a variant of this: Helseth implies to his assembled dinner guests that he put poison on the cutlery of someone spying against him, then invites any spies present to take a dose of the antidote, kept in a tureen at the centre of the table. One of the spies loses his nerve and drinks, only for Helseth to reveal that no-one's cutlery was poisoned. [[spoiler:The poison was, in fact, the 'antidote' the spy was just bluffed into drinking.]]
* ''VisualNovel/DanganRonpa'' has this trope appear frequently during trial scenes. Since all of the characters are there, getting the murderer to admit evidence is often necessary to solve the cases.
* In ''VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward'', Sigma uses this technique against [[spoiler: Dio, by pretending to be someone sent by "Brother", the leader of the terrorist group he suspects Dio is a member of. While trying to deny it, Dio says that he doesn't know some "old fuck" called Brother. Sigma then points out that he never mentioned Brother's age.]]

** In case 3-1 of ''Trials and Tribulations'', Mia Fey (the attorney the player controls in that case) proposes the theory that the real killer [[spoiler:put poison into Phoenix's cold medicine in order to kill him. Said "real killer" dismisses these claims. Mia then dares her to take some of the cold medicine, stating that she should have nothing to worry about if the theory is not true.]] The killer then breaks down and refuses, therefore proving Mia's theory.

** In case 3-3 of ''Trials and Tribulations'', [[spoiler:Furio Tigre]] nearly manages to escape until Phoenix Wright pulls this. [[spoiler:Phoenix presents irrelevant evidence containing Tigre's fingerprints, claiming that it is the poison that took Elg's life. This gamble pays off when Tigre laughs it off, mentioning that it was the ''brown'' bottle; realizing too late that it would be [[INeverSaidItWasPoison something only the killer would say]]]].

** In case 3-3 of ''Trials and Tribulations'', [[spoiler:Furio Tigre]] nearly manages to escape until Phoenix Wright pulls this. [[spoiler:Phoenix presents irrelevant evidence containing Tigre's fingerprints, claiming that it is the poison that took Elg's life. This gamble pays off when Tigre laughs it off, mentioning that it was the ''brown'' bottle; realizing too late that it would be [[INeverSaidItWasPoison something only the killer would say]].

** In case 3-3 of ''Trials and Tribulations'', Furio Tigre, the [[spoiler: murderer of the crime]], manages to secure his innocence and nearly got away until Phoenix Wright pull this off. [[spoiler:What Phoenix Wright does is present a fake evidence that this is the bottle that contains the poison that has his fingerprints on it. This gamble pays off when Furio laughs and mention it was the ''brown'' bottle; not realizing that he says [[INeverSaidItWasPoison something only the killer would say]] (since Furio was disguised as Phoenix Wright).]]

** Castle gets his own in a CrowningMomentOfAwesome: a stuck-up rich kid has killed his girlfriend's ex-boyfriend, framed his friends for the murder, and is convinced that Beckett has no proof (he's almost correct -- it's slim). Castle launches into an extended, sinister-sounding "he had it coming" routine on behalf of the killer, who responds with "Exactly."

Our Hero is certain he knows who committed the crime. Unfortunately, he doesn't have much evidence, so he maneuvers the criminal into panicking in a way that's likely to be self-incriminating.

* ''Series/TheWire'':
** Played straight many, many times, as the cops will use every possible means of tricking, lying to, or fooling suspects into talking.
** Bunk and [=McNulty=] try to break D'Angelo Barksdale by [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6sP6ZiNjbU claiming that a witness recently killed on Avon's orders left behind multiple children]] who'll now be orphans (using a photo of Bunk's kids).

Compare EngineeredPublicConfession (which plays off the villain's overconfidence rather than their panic), PerpSweating, FramingTheGuiltyParty. Will occasionally result in INeverSaidItWasPoison. Often a supertrope of YouJustToldMe.

* Done accidentally on an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' when the local Mensa group goes to complain to the mayor about a gazebo they'd reserved being used by someone else. However, they phrase their complaints in very vague, accusing ways, insisting that the document they're carrying (gazebo reservation bylaws) will "blow things wide open". Mayor Quimby, thinking they're referring to [[CorruptPolitician one of his countless other, more serious crimes]], freaks out and immediately flees the city.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgrO_rAaiq0 In the opening to season 5]], two bluffs are used on a perp named [=DeShawn=]. First, Bunk makes claims that they took [=DeShawn=]'s accomplice to McDonalds as a reward for cooperating (when he in fact refused to talk), and then has Detective Crutchfield escort said accomplice past the interrogation room with a bag of McDonalds food in hand, which scares [=DeShawn=] accordingly. Then Bunk and Jay Landsman trick him into thinking a photocopier is a lie detector. In reality the copier has several pages preloaded, some of which say true, and one that says false. The cops ask harmless questions until they run out of "trues", then ask about the crime, and when the kid tries to lie about it, "false" comes out.

** Beckett/Castle and Esposito/Ryan are investigating different murders, which they determine are related in a [[StrangersOnATrainPlotMurder Strangers on a Train]] scenario. While interrogating the suspects separately, Beckett/Castle rush into Esposito/Ryan's interrogation room to announce that their suspect confessed first, prompting the second suspect to immediately confess everything and blame the first guy (who hadn't confessed to anything.)

* ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors'': [[spoiler: Junpei learns that Guy X's killer has prosopagnosia, and needs to prove that Ace has prosopagnosia. So, he calls them all up to the hospital area where he claims to be Santa dressed in Junpei's clothing. Ace ends up confused, and falls for it. Furthermore, Junpei correctly deduces that Ace was responsible for the Ninth Man's death so that he could steal his bracelet, so he tricks Ace into believing ''he'' has the bracelet, causing Ace to slip up once more.]]

* ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors'': [[spoiler: Junpei learns that Guy X's killer has prosopagnosia, and needs to prove that Ace has prosopagnosia. So, he calls them all up to the hospital area where he claims to be Santa dressed in Junpei's clothing. Ace ends up confused, and falls for it.]]

** Another variant came when they realized that their initial suspect was being framed by her husband. Since both were lawyers, they couldn't inform the ADA without both the wife and the culprit finding out. This results in the detectives lying to the wife, the real suspect, ''and'' the Assistant District Attorney in charge of the case in order to obtain a confession. They've done that last bit twice, and on at least one occasion he wasn't too happy about it.

** In ''Literature/MurderAtTheVicarage'', Literature/MissMarple suggests a trap to make the killer believe someone overheard a telephone conversation.

* In the LordPeterWimsey novel ''Strong Poison'', Lord Peter eventually gets the murderer to confess in part by pretending to feed him arsenic-laced food; the murderer had committed the crime by becoming immune to arsenic and sharing a poisoned meal with the victim.

* In ''Series/{{MASH}}'', Hawkeye unveils a thief by tricking him with this sort of ploy. He tells a group of people that the last object stolen had been treated with a substance that would turn the thief's fingers green. When one of the people tried to hide his hands, Hawkeye knew he was the thief.

* The ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'' novel ''Han Solo at Star's End'' has Han using this tactic. While ferrying a group of people to find the top-secret prison called Star's End, Han discovers the leader of the mission dead and the data pad containing the prison's secret location destroyed. After he locks up the others while he tries to sort things out he discovers that the dead leader had scratched the location into the table he was found dead on. Han then tells everyone to calculate a hyperspace jump to the correct star system but he deliberately gives everyone the wrong planet. He then outs the killer as the one who corrected his caculations by using the right planet. After a brief struggle, the killer ends up taking a long walk out the airlock.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgrO_rAaiq0 In the opening to season 5]], two bluffs are used on a perp named [=DeShawn=]. First, Bunk makes claims that they took [=DeShawn=]'s accomplice to McDonalds as a reward for cooperating (when he in fact refused to talk), and then has Crutchfield escort said accomplice past the interrogation room, which scares [=DeShawn=] accordingly. Then Bunk and Jay Landsman trick him into thinking a photocopier is a lie detector.
** Subverted in one case, where Bodie had to dispose of a whole group of guns from a shootout [[UnintentionallyNotoriousCrime because a stray bullet]] killed [[InnocentBystander a young boy nearby]]. Unfortunately when he tries to throw them off a bridge into the water below, the bag instead lands on a passing barge. When the cops bring him in, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RstJ8jzlCCo Cole and Norris show him the bag]], lay out all the guns, and try to bluff that they found his fingerprints on one of the guns. Bodie cleaned all of the guns very meticulously, and thus knows there weren't any fingerprints left on them, so he challenges Cole to point to which one of the guns supposedly had his prints on it. When Cole picks the wrong one, Bodie just smiles as if to say "What was that you were saying about, 'Nobody ever thinks they're stupid. It's part of the stupididty!'?"

* In ''VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward'', Sigma uses this technique against [[spoiler: Dio, by pretending to be someone sent by "Brother", the lead of the terrorist group he he suspects Dio is a member of. In his rant denying it, Dio says that he doesn't know some "old fuck" called Brother. Sigma then points out he never told Dio Brother's age.]]

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgrO_rAaiq0 In the opening to season 5]], two bluffs are used on a perp named [=DeShawn=]. First, Bunk makes claims that they took [=DeShawn]'s accomplice to McDonalds as a reward for cooperating (when he in fact refused to talk), and then has Crutchfield escort said accomplice past the interrogation room, which scares [=DeShawn=] accordingly. Then Bunk and Jay Landsman trick him into thinking a photocopier is a lie detector.

** Played straight many, many times, as the cops will use every possible means of tricking, lying to, or fooling suspects into talking. Just a few examples include lying to a new father about how a man that was killed left behind multiple children who'll no be orphans, staging a scene to look like a dealer's partner had confessed despite the fact that he refused to talk, convincing another that a large copy machine was actually a new type of lie detector, etc.
** Subverted in one case, where Bodie had to dispose of a whole group of guns from a shootout [[UnintentionallyNotoriousCrime because a stray bullet caused the death]] of [[InnocentBystander a young boy nearby]]. Unfortunately when he tries to throw them off a bridge into the water below, the bag instead lands on a passing barge. When the cops bring him in, they show him the bag, lay out all the guns, and try to bluff that they found his fingerprints on one of the guns. Bodie cleaned all of the guns very meticulously, and thus knows there weren't any fingerprints left on them, so he challenges the cop to point to which one of the guns supposedly had his prints on it. When the cop picks the wrong one, Bodie just smiles as if to say "You're [[CluelessDetective a really stupid cop]]."

* Done accidentally on an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' when the local Mensa group goes to complain to the mayor about a gazebo they'd reserved being used by someone else. However, they phrase their complaints in very vague, accusing ways, insisting that the document they're carrying (gazebo reservation bylaws) will "blow things wide open". Mayor Quimby, thinking they're referring to some unspecified crime of his freaks out and immediately flees the city.

** Mark announces his plan to re-create a magic trick which killed the last magician who attempted it, with a woman the killer is in love with standing in for the victim. The killer panics and tries to halt the trick early.

* In ''[[Literature/VorkosiganSaga Memory]]'' by LoisMcMasterBujold, Miles bluffs [[spoiler: Haroche]] into trying to swap out an incriminating air filter.