History Main / ContractOnTheHitman

* In the remake of ''Film/BangkokDangerous'', Joe's most recent employer is already paranoid from hiring an international assassin in the first place, never mind his somewhat odd requests. But when Joe grows a conscience and refuses to kill an altruistic political figure, his employer immediately sets every gun at his disposal out to hunt him.

* In ''Manga/AngelHeart'', Glass Heart's final job from the Organization that trained her was to kill a hitman, and once she goes missing, there's a contract out on her. Several cases in later volumes have to do with this theme as well.

* From the ''Literature/JohnRain'' series by Creator/BarryEisler:
** In ''Redemption Games'' Rain and FriendlySniper Dox find themselves on Mossad's hit list after they bungle an assignment, killing two American bodyguards who are thought to be CIA agents.

* In the Literature/{{Keller}} series by Creator/LawrenceBlock, he realises a rival hitman is going around eliminating the competition and suggests using this trope to lure him out, as the hitman couldn't resist being paid for something he's already doing for free.

* ''Film/LaFemmeNikita'', including the American version ''Film/PointOfNoReturn'' (a.k.a. ''The Assassin'') and the Hong Kong version ''Black Cat''.

* Handled more subtly in ''Film/MrAndMrsSmith2005''; the two assassin organizations found out their best employees were married to someone on the other side, decided this was bad for business, and set them on a collision course so that they'd have to kill each other. The result is alternately tense (as a straight up action thriller) and wryly amusing (as a metaphor for a troubled marriage). After they end up refusing due to a mutual InLoveWithTheMark (only after much drama, naturally), both organizations try a more traditional way of getting rid of them. [[spoiler:[[BattleCouple They fail.]]]]

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%% * Played for laughs in ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0CdnUKGmMA The Hitman.]]''
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* In ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'', Ice King sends a hitman, Scorcher, to go after Finn and Jake, without knowing full well what "hitman" actually means (he thinks it just means ''hitting'', like punching them on the shoulder or something). Having realized his mistake, Ice King tries to get Scorcher to stop, and when nothing else works, he hires a second hitman to kill him. Scorcher quickly dispatches the other hitman, leaving Ice King back to square one.

* From the ''John Rain'' series by Creator/BarryEisler:

* In the Keller series by Creator/LawrenceBlock, he realises a rival hitman is going around eliminating the competition and suggests using this trope to lure him out, as the hitman couldn't resist being paid for something he's already doing for free.
* Max Allan Collins's ''Quarry'' novels are an inversion of this; the main character is a hitman, who after fatally breaking with his handler, keeps tabs on fellow hitmen, alerting their targets that they are in the crosshairs and offering to remove both the assassins and those who hired them.

* In the short story "The Photographer and the Sailor" by James Holding, an assassin (the Photographer) turns down a contract on a high profile victim. His employers hire another assassin (the Sailor) to do the job. After the Sailor attracts the attention of the police, they hire the Photographer to eliminate the Sailor.
** Holding also wrote "The Photographer and the Undertaker". The Photographer is hired to kill a mortician, but realizes that the mortician is also stalking him. He determines that his target is the Undertaker, another assassin, and that their mutual employers wanted to downsize staff, by setting their best hitmen to eliminate one another and retaining the services of the best one.

* Jeff Costello from ''Film/LeSamourai'', the French movie that inspired ''Film/TheKiller''. He is seen leaving the scene of his latest hit, picked up by the police and questioned. His clients decide to kill him before he can implicate them.

* The titular character of John Woo's ''Film/TheKiller'' has to deal with his syndicate trying to kill him after pulling off the hit that he hoped would earn him the money to have a singer he accidentally blinded be able to see again, due to the boss, Wong Hoi/Johnny Weng, wanting to keep the money for himself and clear the table for his ambitions. [[spoiler:[[TheHeroDies He doesn't survive]], though to his credit, it takes the mob boss himself to finally end him]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Hitman}}'', naturally, has this a ''lot.''

* In ''Film/GhostDogTheWayOfTheSamurai'' the main character is an assassin who work for a mid-level mobster because [[IOweYouMyLife said mobster saved his life years ago]]. After his latest job TheDon marks him for cleanup as well.

[[caption-width-right:350:Not pictured: the person on the balcony aiming at the third person.]]

* Several of the employers of ''Manga/{{Golgo 13}}'' have tried this. He's killed every last one of them for it. His first rule: "I will not accept a client's betrayal."

* In the ''Anime/WeissKreuz'' OVA, Ken and Omi refuse to kill a sympathetic target, so their teammates are ordered to kill them. Turns out to be part of a plot, though.

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** ''VideoGame/Hitman2016'': The ICA attempts to sniff out a mysterious mercenary they've named "The Shadow Client", for manipulating the ICA into doing his dirty work by way of contracting 47. 47 himself isn't sympathetic to the Shadow Client's cause (at that point because he doesn't care for Politics behind assassinations) and is more than willing to use The Shadow Client to hunt down Providence. As revealed in the Colorado end cutscene, The Shadow Client has spared 47 multiple times for reasons unknown. Those reasons reveal themselves in [[VideoGame/Hitman2 the sequel]] where it's revealed that The Shadow Client is actually [[spoiler:another clone of Ort-meyer; Subject 6, and intended to team up with 47 and Diana to take Providence down one head at a time.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:There's AlwaysABiggerFish.]]

A professional killer (most likely a HitmanWithAHeart) suddenly finds himself being hunted by the very organization he works for. Cue a plot line involving him taking out other assassins as he works his way through the ranks trying to find out who wants him dead and why.

* In ''Film/JohnWick'' the BigBad puts out a two million dollar bounty on the eponymous back-from-retirement assassin when the latter seeks vengeance on the BigBad's son for wrongs done to him. It happens again in [[Film/JohnWickChapter2 the sequel]]. [[spoiler:By the end of that movie, because John broke the rule of killing in the Continental, even if the bastard deserved it, his membership is now revoked and he has an open $14 miliion dollar bounty on him.]]

** This also happened a few times in ''Manga/CityHunter'', the manga of which ''Angel Heart'' is a spin off of, as the title character had assassins sent to kill him in multiple occasions.
* Train Heartnet in ''Manga/BlackCat''.

* [[spoiler:During and after the end of the first season, Hei]] in ''Anime/DarkerThanBlack''.

* The ''Film/{{Hitman}}'' movie. See also the VideoGame examples below.

* ''Film/{{Machete}}'', uses this as it's premise, deleted scenes also show the CarnivalOfKillers.

* Wesley Gibson [[spoiler:and his father, Cross]] in ''Film/{{Wanted}}'' [[spoiler:but that was an EvilPlan by his shady employer.]]

* Though Serge doesn't exactly have a heart of gold, this is the plot of Fracture, the first story from ''Webcomic/ZokushoComics''.

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* Played for laughs in ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0CdnUKGmMA The Hitman.]]''
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** As an example, in addition to JurisdictionFriction between Section Nine and the police (with Section Nine more than once taking over a case the cops couldn't handle), and the corrupt Ministry of Health SWATTeam, the climax of season one sees them hunted by [[spoiler: the Umibozu, the Japanese Navy's version of SEAL Team Six]]. In 2nd Gig, they get hunted down by [[spoiler: Army Rangers]].

** Lupin once pays a hitman to [[HiredToHuntYourself take a contract out on himself, literally]]. [[spoiler: Turns out the hitman has split personality issues.]]

* In ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/14997911/chapters/34760702 The Horsewomen Of Las Vegas]]'', Wrestling/CharlotteFlair and the assassination organzation the Wrestling/BulletClub went to war after one of the BC got arrested and Charlotte refused to use her contacts [[DirtyCop in the LVPD]] to get him out, as it would have blown back on her. They launched a decapitation strike on her [[spoiler: resulting in the deaths of Charlotte's top security people]] and she responded by tasking her new associate, Wrestling/BeckyLynch, to kill the entire group [[spoiler: which she does]].

* George Clooney's character in ''Film/TheAmerican'' ends up with one of these after deciding he'll quit the business after his last job which is simply to build a gun for another female assassin. [[spoiler: The employer of both him and the woman decides to have him be the first person terminated by the woman after the gun is completed, but she can't find a safe time to do so. He rigs the gun to misfire in a moment of conscience, thus killing the other assassin after her attempt on his life. He is then wounded in a shootout with his former employer and his fate is left ambiguous.]]

* In ''Film/{{Crank}}'', Jason Statham's hitman character is targeted after [[spoiler: his Columbian employers hire him to assassinate a Chinese mob boss, and they want to use him as the scapegoat. The twist is that he didn't kill the Chinese guy, who is [[BigDamnHeroes appropriately grateful.]]]] At least until the sequel.

* In ''Film/JohnWick'' the BigBad puts out a two million dollar bounty on the eponymous back-from-retirement assassin when the latter seeks vengeance on the BigBad's son for wrongs done to him. It happens again in [[Film/JohnWickChapter2 the sequel]]. [[spoiler: By the end of that movie, because John broke the rule of killing in the Continental, even if the bastard deserved it, his membership is now revoked and he has an open $14 miliion dollar bounty on him.]]

* Handled more subtly in ''Film/MrAndMrsSmith2005''; the two assassin organizations found out their best employees were married to someone on the other side, decided this was bad for business, and set them on a collision course so that they'd have to kill each other. The result is alternately tense (as a straight up action thriller) and wryly amusing (as a metaphor for a troubled marriage). After they end up refusing due to a mutual InLoveWithTheMark (only after much drama, naturally), both organizations try a more traditional way of getting rid of them. [[spoiler: [[BattleCouple They fail.]]]]

* ''Film/RoadToPerdition'' saw a hitman for an Irish gang hunted by the Mob after his ex-partner and boss's son [[spoiler: kills his wife and son]]; of course this causes him to go on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge against the Mob.

* In ''Film/ThisGunForHire'' - employers of hitman Raven pay him with recorded bills and report him as a violent robber, telling the police to shoot to kill. [[spoiler: Overall it's a stupid plan.]]

* Done in ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'' during the Dark Brotherhood questline, when first Arnbjorn, and then the player character are sent after [[spoiler: Cicero.]] Depending on whether you agree with the reasons for this or not, you can either do the deed, or just lie about the hit.

** In one mission of ''[[VideoGame/Hitman2SilentAssassin Silent Assassin]]'', which has you revisiting the site of a previous mission, [[spoiler: turns out to be a setup from your current employers, who are trying to 'terminate' 47 - using another Hitman, codenamed 17. 47 was both surprised - since he thought he'd killed all of his 'brothers' already - and somewhat insulted that they'd think an inferior model had any chance of taking him out]].
** Somewhat related is the plot for ''[[VideoGame/HitmanBloodMoney Blood Money]]'', in which a major part of the plot involves a rival contract agency called "The Franchise", who is killing off all the ICA's agents. Towards the end, [[spoiler: only 47 and his handler, Diana, are still alive. They split the remaining money and part their separate ways. However, Diana seems to be a turncoat for the Franchise, and "kills" 47 to fulfill the contract on the guy's head by the Franchise's CorruptCorporateExecutive (he wanted 47's clone DNA as a starting point for his own super-assassin cloning scheme). This turns out to be a ploy by her to weed out the one behind the Agency's liquidation, and she revives 47 just in time to finish the bloke off.]]

** ''VideoGame/Hitman2016'': The ICA attempts to sniff out a mysterious mercenary they've named "The Shadow Client", for manipulating the ICA into doing his dirty work by way of contracting 47. 47 himself isn't sympathetic to the Shadow Client's cause (at that point because he doesn't care for Politics behind assassinations) and is more than willing to use The Shadow Client to hunt down Providence. As revealed in the Colorado end cutscene, The Shadow Client has spared 47 multiple times for reasons unknown. Those reasons reveal themselves in [[VideoGame/Hitman2 the sequel]] where it's revealed that The Shadow Client is actually [[spoiler: another clone of Ort-meyer; Subject 6, and intended to team up with 47 and Diana to take Providence down one head at a time.]]

* Played for laughs in ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0CdnUKGmMA The Hitman]]''.

* In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'', Curare is targeted by the League of Assassins for failing to carry out a contract (due to Batman's interference). She then turns the trope around on the League and hunts all of ''them'' down, causing the last surviving member to come to Gotham and blackmail Batman for help by hiding a bomb somewhere in the city and [[DeadMansSwitch rigging it to explode if he fails to regularly input a code remotely]]. [[spoiler: He doesn't survive. Curare is luckier, but still ends up in jail.]]

* Inverted in the ''Literature/{{Burke}}'' novels by Andrew Vachss. Sociopathic hitman Wesley is given a contract by TheMafia to kill a martial arts expert, but Burke kills the target first. The mob then decide there's no point in paying Wesley, so he decides to KillThemAll.

* Non-lethal variant: in the pilot to ''Series/{{Werewolf}}'', a bounty hunter breaks off contact with his boss to [[SternChase track Eric across the country]]. His frustrated employer grouses that he's going to have to hire a bounty hunter to locate his bounty hunter.

%%* ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes'': A version of this trope is pretty much the plotline in both games.