History Main / BountyHunter

* In ''Film/JonahHex'', the U.S. military makes a scarred bounty hunter with warrants on his own head an offer he cannot refuse: in exchange for his freedom, he must stop a terrorist who is ready to unleash Hell on Earth.

* ''VideoGame/Hitman3'' dabbles in this slightly in Freelancer mode of the World of Assassination trilogy. With no more International Contract Agency to turn to for eliminating dangerous criminals, clients looking for justice against crime syndicates resort to placing open contracts or bounties on the dark web for anyone to take up and either kill or apprehend the syndicate leaders. Agent 47, newly unemployed and now a freelance assassin looking for work, accepts the contracts and pursues the bounties on the heads of the leaders, and with his background as a hitman, he just goes straight to killing the criminals and collecting the money.

* The ''VideoGame/Hitman3'' dabbles in this slightly in Freelancer mode of the World of Assassination trilogy. With no more International Contract Agency to turn to for eliminating dangerous criminals, clients looking for justice against crime syndicates resort to placing open contracts or bounties on the dark web for anyone to take up and either kill or apprehend the syndicate leaders. Agent 47, newly unemployed and now a freelance assassin looking for work, accepts the contracts and pursues the bounties on the heads of the leaders, and with his background as a hitman, he just goes straight to killing the criminals and collecting the money.

* ''Manga/OutlawStar'' deconstructs several aspects of the trope. Gene Starwind and his kid partner Jim are technically odd-job men rather than bounty hunters, not least because [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome bounties occur far too infrequently for them to make a living on hunting alone]]. And in the rare case where a bounty is put out, the reward they get is usually far less than the trouble they spent on it. In the end, most of their time is spent on unrelated activities like treasure-hunting and squaring off against the pirate clans.

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'': [[LoveInterest Beckett's]] former mentor and flame returns as a bounty hunter. He tries to get her to work for him to catch crooks, get better pay, and avoid the red tape. Beckett refuses. [[spoiler:He is later killed, causing Beckett to go on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSpongeBobSquarePantsMovie'' introduced Dennis the bounty hunter, who was out to kill [=SpongeBob=] on Plankton's orders. Although his method of murder was stomping people with a cartoony spiked boot, Dennis was a surprisingly menacing villain.
** He states he has other ways he could do it, but his employer specifically told him to kill them in that fashion. Makes sense considering the employer was Plankton, who gets stepped on... a lot.

* ''Series/{{Psych}}'' has an episode called "Bounty Hunters!" where Shawn and Gus try their hands at the job. HilarityEnsues. Though the incompetent [[spoiler:and crooked]] "Dog" parody who kept spooking the fugitive before Shawn and Gus could get him didn't help.

* ''Webcomic/{{Banished}}'': Luger, who wants to claim the bounty on Rak's head.

* In the short story [[http://www.ac-mag.com/story.php?issue_id=5&story_id=25 "A Good Boy"]] by Desmond Warzel, Stitsky is a Bounty Hunter of the contemporary sort who makes his living retrieving bail-jumpers; as the story commences, however, he's overstepped his jurisdiction, having accepted a couple's commission to locate and retrieve their runaway son.

* Although ''[[VideoGame/WingCommander Privateer]]'' has AI pilots referred to as bounty hunters (and the PlayerCharacter occasionally takes on jobs with the label), the actual task is never to actually capture them, just shoot them down.[[note]]On the rare occasions a bounty mission target ejects, they only show up as generic pilots, and once you land, they're just regular slaves to sell.[[/note]]

In RealLife, when in the company of actual bounty hunters, you will speak of them as [[InsistentTerminology "bail enforcement officers"]]. Except for [[ComicBook/DeathsHead that one robot]] who prefers the term "freelance peace-keeping agent, [[VerbalTic yes?]]" There's overlap in RealLife with the job of skip tracer, a person who tracks down people on the lam from creditors.

* ComicBook/DeathsHead, though [[BerserkButton he insists]] on being called a "[[InsistentTerminology Freelance Peacekeeping Agent]]". People don't make the mistake twice.

Many {{MMORPG}}s have a large proportion of their {{Side Quest}}s involve collecting bounties on named monsters or [=NPCs=]

* The various Hunter organizations of ''VideoGame/{{Solatorobo}}'' are this in all but name. Though most of the jobs the guild offers are along the lines of {{Fetch Quest}}s or TwentyBearAsses.

* In post-UDI Rhodesia, faced with attack from guerrilas against cattle, the government took at giving to mercenaries a daily wage of R$7, with a bounty of R$ 750 for each caught rustler.

* ''Series/{{Lucifer}}'': After leaving her job at Lux nightclub, Mazikeen becomes a bounty hunter with the LAPD.

* ComicBook/{{Deadpool}} was employed to hunt down unregistered superheroes, for about an hour, during ComicBook/CivilWar. Then he was sacked, mainly thanks to Cable. It didn't help that the first heroes he went after were the ComicBook/GreatLakesAvengers, who were '''registered'''.

*** There's also ''VideoGame/MetroidIIReturnOfSamus'' / ''VideoGame/MetroidSamusReturns'' for the UsefulNotes/GameBoy / UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS, where her whole mission is to kill lots and ''lots'' of dangerous wildlife, namely the entire Metroid species, along with any creatures that get in the way.

* Bounty fishing is sometimes used as a way of encouraging fishermen to help control the population of an invasive species that threatens to overwhelm the local ecosystem. Pike minnows (in the Pacific Northwest's Columbia River) and lionfish (in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean) have both been subjected to this in the United States.
* Today, civilian bounty hunting is legally practiced only in the United States, and its former colony, the Philippines. Though it should be noted that modern bounty hunting is a very different practice than in the old days. In the United States a bounty hunter is usually under contract with a bail bondsman and can't work without their sanction. The US and the Philippines are the only countries which allow for corporations to make bail on behalf of criminals, which means that a) many more people in America can make bail, and thus b) more people in America skip bail than the police can handle on their own; also bail in America can get ludicrously expensive, which makes bounty hunting a lucrative career. Most states also require strict licensing and training for bounty hunters, and a few states ban bounty hunting entirely. And of course, "dead or alive" bounties are completely illegal. A bounty hunter who killed their quarry would have to face a lot of questions from the police and could easily find themselves blacklisted in the bail bondsman industry for it (especially since killing the bounty would mean the bail bondsmen wouldn't be getting their money back). As it is, unlike law enforcement they don't have quasi-immunity and can be much more easily sued or prosecuted for any excessive force against fugitives.
** Speaking of the Philippines, bounty hunting is starting to make a comeback in the middle of TheNewTens, especially after the election of President Rodrigo Duterte in 2016, and [[https://www.sunstar.com.ph/article/74740/Business/Osmea-to-give-P50000-for-every-drug-lord-killed it looks a lot more]] like the classic [[WantedPoster "dead or alive"]] style.

* ''Series/StarTrek'':

[[folder:Films - Animation]]

** The Wolf, from ''WesternAnimation/PussInBootsTheLastWish'', is a bounty hunter after Puss himself. He shows up with Puss' "Dead or Alive" wanted poster, his weapons of choice are a pair of sickles, and the reward he's after [[spoiler:is Puss' soul. Since he's not ''actually'' a bounty hunter - he's the Grim Reaper - he doesn't need anything as earthly as money.]]

[[folder:Films - Live-Action]]

* In Creator/MichaelCrichton's ''Literature/{{Next}}'', a bounty hunter is trying to grab a relative of a man from whom they had obtained the right to own his gene sequence, but when it was lost, they are of the impression they can obtain a DNA sample from one of his relatives by suing her, then filing for a writ to have her brought into the court where they were located.

Many {{MMORPG}}s have a large proportion of their {{Side Quest}}s involve collecting bounties on named monsters or [=NPCs=].

The bounty hunter is one of the most diverse roles and depending on their choices (and their employers) they can be have many types of character and appearance. Sometimes the Bounty Hunter is a villain, a sadist who profits off the death and suffering of others and who couldn't care less about justice. In that case, the best they can possibly be is a NominalHero who may hunt villains and do the right thing for all the wrong reasons. If that's the case then it is almost guaranteed that they will come in conflict with the heroes either because their head promises the biggest paycheck or because they want to be the one to capture the criminal and won't hesitate to kill and become a criminal over it themself. Sometimes they’re a GlorySeeker who wants to bring down the toughest targets. More often, though, they are just a working stiff who tries to do the right thing - or something close to it. Buried deep within their grizzled, world-weary exterior is still an idealist with a heart of gold. Because there is nothing that prevents a Bounty Hunter from taking both legal and shady bounties, this character is usually a LawfulNeutral.

When in the company of actual bounty hunters, you will speak of them as [[InsistentTerminology "bail enforcement officers"]]. Except for [[ComicBook/DeathsHead that one robot]] who prefers the term "freelance peace-keeping agent, [[VerbalTic yes?]]"

Born of the [[TheWestern Old West]] but found in many other genres since, the bounty hunter makes a living pursuing criminals for the price on their heads. His line of work often makes him gruff and cynical, if he lives long enough, and in the eyes of some citizens, he may be only slightly better (or worse) than the criminals he hunts.

Sometimes, the bounty hunter captures criminals and brings them back to face trial (which is how real bounty hunters operate nowadays). But other times, especially in Westerns, the bounty hunter's reward is of the "Dead or Alive" variety, and many bounty hunters of the latter type kill their bounties rather than let them RunForTheBorder. These kinds of bounty hunters are often called "bounty killers" or, more pejoratively, [[ProfessionalKiller "assassins" or "headhunters"]]. This has almost never been TruthInTelevision, though that problem can be {{Hand Wave}}d if the bounty in question is exceptionally dangerous, put out by a criminal, or wanted by a corrupt, tyrannical, or failed state. Or if this occurs in a fictional setting, obviously.

The bounty hunter is one of the most diverse roles and depending on their choices (and their employers) they can be ''anything''. Sometimes the Bounty Hunter is a villain, a sadist who profits off the death and suffering of others and who couldn't care less about justice. In that case, the best they can possibly be is a NominalHero who may hunt villains and do the right thing for all the wrong reasons. If that's the case then it is almost guaranteed that they will come in conflict with the heroes either because their head promises the biggest paycheck or because they want to be the one to capture the criminal and won't hesitate to kill and become a criminal over it themself. Sometimes they’re a GlorySeeker who wants to bring down the toughest targets. More often, though, they are just a working stiff who tries to do the right thing - or something close to it. Buried deep within their grizzled, world-weary exterior is still an idealist with a heart of gold. Because there is nothing that prevents a Bounty Hunter from taking both legal and shady bounties, this character is usually a LawfulNeutral.

* ''Film/Emperor2020'': Luke [=McCabe=] hunts down anyone with a price on their head, whether they're white outlaws or escaped slaves. His first scene shows him lassoing an unnamed man who's running through a field, then shooting him while he's down and getting into a gunfight with the man's brothers when they try to take his body back. He's next seen negotiating a fee to kill Shields and crush the LivingLegend surrounding him.* In ''Film/GangOfRoses'', Zhang Li became a bounty hunter after the gang split up. She agrees to join with Rachel to collect the bounties on Left Eye and his gang.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'':