History Main / GambitPileup

* In StarTrek:DeepSpaceNine, the double episode ''Improbable Cause/The Die is cast'' starts just like a normal episode with Garaks shop blowing up. Odo almost immediately finds out the power line was rigged to overload, identifies the detonator, and interrogates a suspect. The suspect is indeed an assassin, but works with poison instead of bombs. They plant a beacon in his ship and let him go, but he doesn't get very far as his ship explodes. As it was a romulan bomb, Odo calls the [[SecretPolice romulan Tal Shiar]], and they freely admit they assassinated him, but didn't know what he was doing on the station. Odo then meets with a cardassian spy who owes him and finds out that five of Garaks coworkers from his time at the cardassian Obsidian Order died at the day of the explosion from natural causes and accidents. He then confronts Garak with [[spoiler: having blown up his own shop, to get Odo into investigating the actual assassin. Garak admits and tries to call his old boss Tain, but he seems to have been kidnapped, so he wants to rescue him, even though Tain was responsible for his exile and most probably send the assassin after him. Odo and Garak fly to Cardassia, but on their way are captured by Romulans within cardassian space. The romulan ship is in fact commanded by Tain, who wasn't kidnapped at all. Tain left retirement and returned to the Obsidian Order, which works together with the Tal Shiar, but without either governments permission, to attack the home world of the Dominion leaders and destroy the entire Dominion in a single strike. But when the fleet arrives, it turns out the Dominion knew they were coming, and set an ambush that destroys the entire fleet, anhilating a sizeable part of both the Cardassian and Romulan forces, and significant portions of both races intelligence services. In fact, the romulan commander was a Dominion spy who and the entire opperation had the sole purpose of dealing a massive blow to the two forces that could pose a real threat to an invasion force.]]

** ''The Vor Game'' deserves mention, too, for the way [[spoiler:Cavilo]] gets into a Gambit Pileup...with [[spoiler:''her'']] ''own'' previous plans.

[[folder:VideoGames]]

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[[folder:WebOriginal]]

[[folder:WesternAnimation]]

%% Please do not even think about entering a "Real Life" example here. The wiki you are reading right now is about storytelling, not history.
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* ''DeathNote'', it's basically over 40 episodes of Gambit tropes [[ThisIsYourPremiseOnDrugs on crack]]. [[LogicBomb Despite being 37 episodes long.]] For instance, during the last few chapters/episodes: [[spoiler: Near replaces Mikami's Death Note with a fake copy. But wait, that copy was fake, and a real one was in a vault somewhere. However, Mello comes in and tricks Mikami into using his real note, letting Near replace the real one with the fake one. Your brain hurts? Good.]]

* ''LegendOfGalacticHeroes''. The whole damn thing. Yes, it's a bigger pile up than ''DeathNote''. [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters All the characters]] have their own individual unique agenda which ''does'' come to fruition and ''does'' affect the rest of the story. And it goes on for ''110 episodes''.

* ''TalesOfSymphonia''. At the start of the game, it's a simple BlackAndWhiteMorality story with the good guys (Church of Martel) versus the bad guys (Desians). The Church of Martel is [[spoiler:[[CorruptChurch corrupt]] on two levels: the Pope just wants to accumulate personal power, while the organisation as a whole is controlled by Cruxis, who also control the Desians]]. Yggdrassil is controlling Cruxis so he can pull off a GambitRoulette [[spoiler:that will revive his DeadLittleSister]]. Yuan is a member of Cruxis [[spoiler:but is also a double agent who started the Renegades to stop them]]. Kratos is [[spoiler:also a member of Cruxis]] but ''also'' [[spoiler:a DeathSeeker double agent working on his own agenda to engineer a SuicideByCop scenario]]. Zelos is [[spoiler:acting as a ''triple'' agent for the Renegades, Cruxis and the party so that he can join whichever side looks like they're going to win]]. Then there's the individual power plays by the Desian Grand Cardinals, [[spoiler:including one who is trying to overthrow the organisation itself]]. And finally, [[IdiotHero Lloyd]] just wants to protect Colette from everyone and everything that is trying to manipulate them, despite all of her best efforts to [[HeroicSacrifice become a martyr]].

* The plot of ''GetShorty'' rapidly escalates into a Gambit Pileup, and remains one until the final resolution; that's really the whole appeal of the movie.

* The plot of [[GetShorty Get Shorty]] rapidly escalates into a Gambit Pileup, and remains one until the final resolution; that's really the whole appeal of the movie.

* ''{{Maverick}}'' has a doozy. [[BigBad Angel]]'s order to keep Maverick away from the big poker tournament turns out to have been sent by [[spoiler:The Commodore]], but that entire plot is a RedHerring. The ''real'' conspiracy is is [[spoiler: between Cooper and The Commodore. The idea is that if anyone but The Commodore wins the tournament, Cooper will take off with the money and the two of them will split it. Of course, when this happens, The Commodore tries to pull YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness. What he ''doesn't'' know is that Cooper is Maverick's father, and the two of ''them'' manage to OutGambit The Commodore and get away with the money. Unfortunately, Maverick gets held up for his half of the take by the LoveInterest, but this is his plan because "it's gonna be a whole lot of fun getting that money back.]]

** [[spoiler:Prometheus and Pandora: Half-willingly cooperated with Master Albert, plotted behind his back to destroy him and everything he made. '''[[OutGambitted DESTROYED]]''' ([[NoOneCouldSurviveThat possibly]])]]
** [[spoiler:Enemy Mega Men: Attempted to gather Model Ws as per Albert's Game of Destiny, intended to backstab him and then each other to claim supreme power. Their game is up, but they're still around. There may be more up their sleeves...]]

** [[spoiler:[[ArtifactOfDoom Model W]]: Manipulating ''everyone'' aside from the Guardians in an attempt to become exultant, then intends to destroy everything once it has a body again. Still in play; may in fact be running the casino from behind the scenes.]]

*** A recent chapter has Snape commenting, "If I have learned anything in my tenure as Head of Slytherin, I have learned what ridiculous messes arise when there is more than one plotter and more than one plan."

A Gambit Pileup involves two or more people with completely separate agendas each hatching complicated plans. The storyline is thrown into chaos and even the most GenreSavvy fans can't predict how it will all end. Be prepared to make a flow diagram to keep up with everyone's scheme.

* ''WildArms3'' turns into this. Between [[spoiler:Beatrice who is manipulating almost all the good guys and later some of the bad guys, The Prophets, Janus, Seigfried, Werner and the Schrodingers as the spanner in all the works.]] it gets rather messy.

** James Clavell's entire Asian Saga is like this. Tai-Pan, Gai-Jin, Whirlwind... everyone has their own Xanatos going on. '''Everyone.'''

* ''ASongOfIceAndFire'' is nothing but one long GambitPileup, combining all of the characters' various {{Xanatos Gambit}}s and {{Gambit Roulette}}s with an AnyoneCanDie setting.

* They're slightly less Xanatosy than most examples here, but ''{{Babylon 5}}'' definitely tries. Every major character has at least one major scheme going on that the other races (hell, often the other members of their own race) don't know about.

* The first two ''MetalGear'' games were simply cases of complex [[XanatosGambit Xanatos Gambits]]. But starting from ''Metal Gear Solid'', it's easiest to say that Gambit Pileups are the entire concept of the series. Some things remain completely incomprehensible three games, ten years, and about 100 hours of gameplay later, and then there's also the Portable Ops/Peace Walker spinn offs which just add several more layers and Gabits to the whole mess. In several cases, later games manage to connect characters from earlier ones, that were completely unrelated when the games were written ''10 years before'', without even [[RetCon RetConning]] anything. For example [[spoiler:[=MGS4=] reveals that Medic from [=MGS3=] became a member of Patriots, which were introduced in [=MGS2=], and on their behalf created the Cyborg Ninja from [=MGS1=]. The Cyborg Ninja was actually a character that was thought to have died in the even earlier ''Metal Gear 2'', but that fact was already included when [=MGS=] was written.]]

* ''{{Achron}}'' is a game being developed with free-form time travel so this is the obvious result of two or more enemies (2 vs. 2 is a popular mode) trying to turn the tide of not only the same battle, but all battles in a 7-minute time frame around the "present". Add to that the option to avoid these battles by retreating, not even building your army or destroying your enemy's factories or even ressource gatherers (often leading to a massive ButterflyEffect), make Chronoclones (send a unit back in time to fight alongside the original) and to cause [[GrandfatherParadox Grandfather Paradoxes]], deliberately or not, to make whole armies phase in and out of existence and you've got a game which is perfect for the Xanatos in all of us.

* ''TheLastDaysOfFOXHOUND'' has a lot of these (understandable, considering [[MetalGearSolid its source]]), although given the ending most of them don't come to fruition. For extra fun, you could consider the author's plot having gotten into a pile-up with Kojima's as one of these. There was more than one occasion where the author introduced retroactive, massive [[GambitRoulette Xanatos Roulettes]] just to explain the gulf between how ''he'' wrote the story and the new elements Kojima introduced. And the result was so convoluted it actually fit ''perfectly'' with the MGS universe, hilariously so.

** Throwing in the comics, you add Magmatron, Ravage, again, a guy named Shokaract who unknowingly works for yet another Xanatos... I mean... holy hell, it's a wonder anyone's plan worked...

* The second season of ''WesternAnimation/{{WITCH}}'' ends with everybody trying to put the screws on everybody else. Nerissa is trying to get the Heart of Earth by killing Lillian's cat familiar Napoleon at the same time that the girls have [[spoiler:let Phobos out of prison to take ''her'' two hearts. Phobos]] decides to screw the girls over by using the power of Nerissa's hearts once he takes them, but the girls planned for this by [[spoiler:convincing Raythor to do a HeelFaceTurn. Raythor tricks Phobos]] into invading Kandrakar, which would cause him to relinquish control of the hearts he took, but just before [[spoiler:Phobos]] crosses the plane into Kandrakar, [[spoiler:Cedric eats him and gains his powers AND Nerissa's]]. Also, Raphael Sylla and the government, who watched the final battle, planned to discover the girls' secret identities by registering Sylla as a teacher at the girls' school, but [[ScrewedByTheNetwork we probably won't get to see that]]. Note that, while most of this Xanatos Gambits weren't there in the original comic, the started Sylla-Gambit was eventually pulled of in it and even worked - until the oracle pulls a literal DeusExMachina (it's even {{Lampshaded}}) and hits the reset button.

* In the first season finale of ''BeastWars'' Tarantulas, Megatron, Blackarachnia and the Maximals all had their own individual plans for dealing with the destruction of the planet by the alien Vok and almost all of their plans hinged on the different known factors of everyone else's plans. Tarantulas was originally planning on escaping the planet in a stasis pod, Blackarachnia secretly planned to steal his stasis pod for herself and use it to escape, Megatron purposefully allowed the two of them to go about stealing said pod with the plan of forcing that pod (with the escapee still inside) to become a makeshift bomb used to destroy the alien Planet Buster. Optimus and the Maximals planned to use the pod for the same purpose, but with the idea that Optimus would escape the pod at the last second (Megatron's version, which ultimately won out, involved Optimus not escaping and dying in the explosion.) Interestingly, after Optimus died in the explosion (which Megatron had originally meant for one or both of the spiders), Tarantulas's reaction was that of smug laughter, the kind he only ever does when he's just pulled something deceitful off. This leaves the implication that Tarantulas was well aware of Megatron's schemes too, and that his plan was to ready the pod and assume that either Blackarachnia, Inferno (on Megatron's orders) or Optimus would intercede (all tried to) and would die in Megatron's scheme, rather than him. Considering his ultimate scheme [[spoiler:is to destroy the Ark and both Autobots and Decepticons to negate the existence of ''all'' Cybertronians which, it turns out, Tarantulas is not one of]], it wouldn't have made sense for him to be willing to leave the planet anyway. Claims that he wanted to were likely for Blackarachnia and Waspinator's benefit, so that it would get back to Megatron. Thus, ultimately, it's Tarantulas pulling all the strings. When all but ''two'' Predacons, and several non-Predacons, try their hand at TheStarscream, this is to be expected.

* The club shootout in ''{{Collateral}}'' devolves into one, in which six different factions are involved, all with wildly varying interests. The Feds think Max is Vincent, and try to arrest him while escorting Lin (Vincent's target) safely out of the building. Ray Fanning knows something is up and that the Feds are acting prematurely, and tries to help Max. Max just wants to get through the whole thing alive, and also prevent Vincent from killing his mother if he fails. Vincent wants to kill Lin, while using Max as a decoy. Lin's security guards are just trying to protect their boss, are startled by the Feds rushing in with guns, and turn the thing into a shooting spree to start with. Felix's guards think Max is Vincent, and will kill him if things go wrong. [[spoiler:Vincent comes out on top. The Feds are rendered useless by Lin’s bodyguards, Felix's guards are scared off by Vincent, he kills both Lin and his bodyguards, he kills Ray, and forces Max to continue driving him to his next target]].

* The climax of ''CurseOfTheGoldenFlower'' after a couple [[TheReveal Reveal-bombs]] are dropped ends up being something like this, with several different plots (sometimes literally) crashing into each other, including some that seemingly come out of nowhere.

** [[spoiler:Yukari Yakumo plans to use Remilia Scarlet as decoy while she's infiltrating the moon from somewhere else]] for, probably, revenge. Or lulz. [[spoiler:The plan backfired spectacularly, ''which it was supposed to do.'']]
** Remilia Scarlet plans to conquer the Moon, and teams up with Reimu and Marisa. [[spoiler:She doesn't realize that ''everyone is using her''. Maybe. It's hinted that she might just be bored and playing along.]] Likewise, Reimu is coming along to try out her Shinto God powers to power the Rocket through faith and duct tape.

** The Watatsuki sisters apparently completely and utterly dominate Team Remilia (who was goofing off), Team Reimu (who was goofing off and guilty that she was the one who actually started an Incident on the moon), and Team Yukari. [[spoiler:This was all planned and didn't matter in the slightest.]]
** The Watatsuki sister's "use" Reimu to show that, no, they weren't the ones marshalling the powers of the Shinto Gods, it was some dumb hick Earthling who they're going to banish back to Earth - thus, clearing their names.
** And that's just from the manga, as there's also the parallel novel ''Cage in Lunatic Runagate''. In the end, [[spoiler:Yukari comes out on top, ''after'' being captured by the Watatsuki sisters, by sending Yuyuko to the moon, where she successfully steals a valuable treasure: 1000-year-old sake. The SDM crew, Reimu, and Marisa then have a pool party in the Scarlet Devil Mansion's library (this is in the middle of winter). Eirin is also completely and utterly successful in what she wanted to do; she has the Watatsuki sister's gratitude for "helping" quell the unrest she secretly created, thus giving Eientei more security than it had before the business.]] Despite them "winning", the Watatsuki sisters are the ones who lost.

* ''{{Naruto}}'' has slowly fallen into this: from Orochimaru, to Madara, to Danzo, to the villages it seems that backroom scheming is the ''only'' [[HighlyVisibleNinja ninja activity]] that the characters are good at. In short, Sasuke was being manipulated by Orochimaru who was being manipulated by Itachi (who himself manipulated Naruto) who was being manipulated by Danzo who was being manipulated by Madara. Then Kabuto come out of nowhere for his own scheme, but the readers are uncertain if he is Kabuto or Orochimaru (or ''[[FusionDance both]]''). Kabuto then manipulates Madara by threatening him with a mysterious sixth coffin [[spoiler:Which contained the real (dead) Madara, meaning the guy posing as Madara was an imposter.]] Which means that [[spoiler:Tobi, whoever he is, manipulated the whole ninja world into a war by using Madara's name.]] Yikes. Naruto's Spanner is getting larger and more dangerous by the moment, but who knows whose gears it will clog?

* ''TheMarriageOfFigaro'' is a stage comedy and a comic opera. The valet Figaro wants to marry the maid Susanna. Count Almaviva wants use his purported feudal right of a lord to bed a servant girl on her wedding night before her husband can sleep with her. Figaro schemes to prevent this. The play gets more and more confusing as more people join the conflict. Countess Almaviva desires her husband, who neglects her. Marcellina claims that Figaro promised to marry her. The page Cherubino is after every women and music master Basilio is gossiping around.

* An episode in the third season of ''{{Arrested Development}}'' has each of the characters in the family teaching each other lessons in the form of elaborate scenes they set up using Latino painters who moonlight as actors, sound effects [=CDs=], and two different amputees.

[[folder:Film]]

* WildThings, with reveal after reveal.
** Plot of first film: Denise Richards' character accuses Matt Dillon's character of raping her. Then Neve Campbell's character [[spoiler:does the same]], making the audience think that [[spoiler:Neve and Denise are working together to screw Matt]]. Matt [[spoiler:gets off the hook]], then successfully [[spoiler:sues Denise Richards' mother]]. Then it turns out that [[spoiler:they were both working with Matt to trick the mom into doing something stupid]] so that [[spoiler:he could sue her]] and they could [[spoiler:split the money three ways]]. Then Matt has to [[spoiler:kill Neve Campbell]] because she was acting like a total spazz and might have spilled the beans. Kevin Bacon's character, a cop who has been investigating this whole thing, [[spoiler:assaults Denise Richards]], who [[spoiler:shoots him in the shoulder]], forcing him to [[spoiler:shoot and kill her]]. He [[spoiler:concocts a BS story to his superiors]] and [[spoiler:gets fired]]. Then it turns out that [[spoiler:he and Matt Dillon]] were working together to [[spoiler:kill both girls, frame Denise for Neve's murder, and split the money two ways]]. Then it turns out that [[spoiler:Matt and Neve were working together to fake Neve's murder and betray Kevin]] because Kevin had [[spoiler:killed some other guy who Neve liked]] before the movie even started. Then it turns out that the whole thing was just an excuse to [[spoiler:film a movie with Denise Richards and Neve Campbell making out... twice]]