History Main / HoldTheLine

* In ''Film/{{Predator}}'' Billy Sole decides he’s tired of being hunted and makes a stand, machete in hand, giving his comrades times to escape to the chopper. May also be a case of {{Better to die than be killed}}.

** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword Skyward Sword]]'' has a villanous example, as [[spoiler:Ghirahim]] sends an horde of Bokoblins to try to hold the line against '''you''', as he [[spoiler:finishes casting a spell to suck Zelda's spirit out of her body and give it to his master]].

* VideoGame/GunstarHeroes has a variation of this where you must fight a ship called "Timeron". The timer counts up instead of down and you are encouraged to try and dodge its bullets for as long as possible. Timeron can be easily destroyed but the longer you wait before doing so, the more points you get.

* GunstarHeroes has a variation of this where you must fight a ship called "Timeron". The timer counts up instead of down and you are encouraged to try and dodge its bullets for as long as possible. Timeron can be easily destroyed but the longer you wait before doing so, the more points you get.

* The game ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty4ModernWarfare'' includes a mission called "One Shot, One Kill." You and a wounded partner attempt to defend a landing zone next to the famous Ferris wheel near Chernobyl.
** Another example immediately follows in the same game as the player's squad running a small retreat action to hold a landing zone for extraction, hitting the seemingly infinite enemy forces as they fall back. After taking out ''four'' tanks (not bad for a special ops squad of six), they are then told that the LZ has been moved... to the area they've just let the enemy overrun, forcing the squad to go from Hold The Line to Attack The Line, breaking through the enemy's heavy defenses to make it to the LZ. [[TheLancer Gaz]] was pissed. Widely considered the ScrappyLevel, more so than "One Shot".
** In fact, there isn't a game in the ''Call of Duty'' series without at least a couple spots where you have to stop advancing and defend a position. Many of these follow a pattern: Get to the place you're defending, survive the infantry attacks until the enemies deploy armor and/or heavy weapons, then destroy the heavies to win the battle.
*** Or, in the case of levels like [[VideoGame/ModernWarfare2 Loose Ends]], get the hell out.
** ''Call of Duty 2'', in addition to a level actually ''called'' "Hold The Line", includes "Comrade Sniper", the second half of "The Silo", and "The Battle For Hill 400" (the [[Awesome/VideoGameLevels crowning level of awesome]]).
*** Call of Duty 1, had two shining examples of these, but they were both pretty hard. One was Pegasus Day, holding the bridge you'd taken the night before, using a fixed gun emplacement to rout enemy tanks. The second was the ever frustrating Pavlov's House mission.
*** Before that is Dawnville, where you repel the Nazis from the village, only for them to retake the area a minute later, forcing you to "break through the line", complete with additional Tiger tanks.
** ''2'' had so many of these the ''Franchise/MedalOfHonor'' series is loaded with these kinds of objectives, such as defending the house in MOHAA's "Battle in the Bocage"(which is [[CallBack called back to]] in Brecourt Manor and Pointe du Hoc from ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty 1'' and ''2'', respectively), "The Bridge", which is also a SnipingMission and EscortMission, and the penultimate battle of ''[=MoHAA=]: Spearhead''. In some levels you have to "Break the Line".
** The new ''VideoGame/MedalOfHonor'' game has a fairly epic one where you and three other rangers defend a "house" (loosely used, since its more of a shell) that gradually gets more and more destroyed as time goes on until you are sitting in the open with mooks coming at you from all sides.

** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask Majora's Mask]]'' has an optional mission that requires you to protect a barn against a bunch of otherworldly creatures until the sun rises. You cannot use your sword to defeat them, so you have to be skilled with your bow to succeed. A mission that occurs after that requires you to protect milk jars from a pair of muggers while riding on a covered wagon. If you manage to complete both missions, you are rewarded with Romani's Mask.

* ''Videogame/AIWarFleetCommand:'' Going for the Spire Transceiver victory condition in this game and the sequel. Once you begin, a transmission to let the scattered [[BenevolentPrecursors Spire]] fleets regroup into a coherent fighting force in your area of the galaxy is initiated... one the AI is perfectly aware of. And it reacts appropriately by sending an utterly ''cataclysmic'' fleet pouring out of every nearby Warp Gate in order to crush you as fast as possible before they can arrive. Thus, before you begin, you must fortify every route, and the whole path to your homeworld, so that you can hold these tens and hundreds of thousands of ships at bay (with some giant Extragalactic War ships thrown in for flavor). This is naturally not easy; even at low Response Intensity the attack is bigger than anything you usually face in normal gameplay, and at high Intensity you can easily get 50+ thousand Strength pouring out into individual planets, with more trailing behind. You ''will'' lose multiple planets to this onslaught, and will very likely need to fend them off at the gates of your Homeworld. But if you hold out, the Imperial Spire will arrive with an even ''bigger'' fleet full of some of the strongest vessels in the game, and start stomping on everything the AI has at last.

* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'':
** In the final stage of the game ''Perfect Cherry Blossom'', you have to survive the true spirit of [[OurGhostsAreDifferent Yuyuko]], who is indestructible. This is repeated when you fight [[CombinationAttack Kaguya and Eirin]], or just Kaguya, in ''Imperishable Night''. If you faced Kaguya, then once you reach this stage, you've already won. Many extra stage bosses have similar attacks as either their penultimate or finishing spell cards.
** There are a lot of these; the fandom likes to call them Survival Cards. EX-bosses and final bosses tend to have them the most often, although Stage 4 bosses Aya (Mountain of Faith) and Murasa (Undefined Fantastic Object) have one each to compensate for the fact that they have a fixed spell lineup rather than a variable one, which was customary until then.

* Every single ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'' has the protagonist have to survive against increasingly aggressive homicidal robots out to get them from 12 AM to 6 AM for at least five days. They are never able to fight back, and are only given a few varying measures to temporarily keep them at bay like doors that can be closed for short periods, a flashlight that can be shone to confuse them, or a mask to fool them.

* ''Videogame/IntoTheBreach'' doesn't ''strictly'' require that you kill any enemies. All you have to do is make sure at least one unit stays alive and that your power grid doesn't get wiped completely until the turn counter runs out.

* ''Videogame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'' has two variants of this mission type in the ''Enemy Within'' expansion. The first is a standard covert operative extraction where you have to protect transmitter and encoder from the EXALT organization. You basically end up fighting a running battle as EXALT troops swarm the objective area and try to hack the encoder and destroy the transmitter. The second mission is a one-off Base Defense mission where an XCOM squad, supplemented by [[RedShirt Base Defense troops]], must fight off half a dozen waves of increasingly angrier and more powerful aliens as they try to overwhelm XCOM's headquarters.

*** One of the artifact missions in ''Wings of Liberty'' is "The Dig". You have to defend the Drakken Laser Drill until it destroys the gates of a Xel'Naga temple. The drill can actually help you destroy the strongest Protoss units if you desire... but doing so will make the mission last longer. After all, if the drill is destroying enemy units it isn't breaching the temple gates. You can also go on the offensive and completely destroy the Protoss force (using the drill helps) which actually automatically wins the mission. Presumably, the in-universe explanation is that with the threat over, the Raiders could use the drill open the temple at their leisure. Waiting for the mission to end with nothing to do however would be ''very'' boring, so the missions then just ends.

*** ''Wings of Liberty'''s campaign mode closes with "All In". You have to defend an artifact for 30 minutes against endless Zerg forces (And [[OneManArmy Kerrigan]] that comes up from time to time). The artifact actually helps in that once in some minutes it can wipe out almost all Zerg units near you, but an achievement needs you to not use it more than once. Attacking the enemy bases is impractical at best (you're better off keeping your forces for defense), and even if you wipe the bases out, you get neither an achievement nor instant win.

*** The epilogue campaign has its Terran mission, "Essence of Eternity", as one. You have to [[RunningGag protect Kerrigan]] until she ascends to a Xel'naga in a similar way to "The Dig", except with much stronger attacks, and just like in "Salvation", you have allies that simply cannot set up an effective defense.

* ''[[VideoGame/{{Contra}} Neo Contra]]'''s final stage, [[TrueFinalBoss which is accessible on better ranks]], has you fighting Master Contra in his true final form, a huge head. You can attack him using lock-on weapons, or simply dodge/evade all his attacks, [[TakeAThirdOption or wiping the bullets out]] (if you have [[KatanasAreJustBetter Katana]] or [[KillItWithFire Fire Whip]], depending on weapon sets), until he decays and burns up in the atmosphere.

** The final mission of the main campaign, "Last Stand", has you defending the control room from everything the Banished have. All of your units are fully upgraded for this mission.

** The mission "From The Deep" has you defending your base from large numbers of Banished troops.
** The mission "Hold The Line" has you doing exactly that for more than 30 minutes, as increasingly strong groups of Banished units attack you. This time, you are protecting an objective, the particle cannon.

** ''VideoGame/UnrealIITheAwakening'' has several missions where the objective is to hold off Skaarj invasions with the help of forcefields, turrets, and in some cases, AI fighters:
*** In "Swamp", your objective is to help your TCA teammates fend off the Skaarj until an evacuation ship comes to your aid.
*** In "Kalydon", your ship is undergoing repairs, and the Liandri has targeted it. You need to hold off five waves of Liandri assassins.
*** The last level set on Janus requires you and four Izanagi soldiers to protect a (very annoying) scientist from (again) Liandri assassins.
*** In the "Avalon" level set [[spoiler:once you collect all the Artifact pieces]], you're required to protect a TCA engineer from Skaarj assassins while [[spoiler:he restores the power station]], the consequence for letting him die being a NonStandardGameOver. You're given a Widowmaker Sniper Rifle to help him from a distance.

** The end of the Whole Cake Island Arc involves Germa 66 (who owe the Straw Hats a debt) and the Sun Pirates holding back the Big Mom Pirates' massive fleet long enough for the Straw Hats to escape Big Mom's territory. Jinbe stays behind to assist his former subordinates in fighting back the nigh endless waves of enemy ships, but later regroups with the Straw Hats in Wano once he's assured their safety.

* In ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', this was the whole point of the Battle Of Hoth from the Rebel's perspective: they knew it was a battle they had no hope of winning, and were just trying to keep the Empire busy long enough to get as many transports away as possible.

* There's a new show in the UK called ''Cleverdicks'' (yes, that's really the name of the show). The final money round requires the contestant to answer questions quickly enough to prevent the stack of questions from reaching the top of the game board (questions fall in from the top every few seconds, and you can have 8 questions queued up and still be in the game) for two full minutes. Oh, by the way, you can only ever answer the question that's currently at the bottom of the stack. Good thing you can [[{{Lifelines}} drop two questions off the bottom]] along the way.

A Hold the Line mission is a type of TimedMission, where instead of completing an objective in a set time, you have to prevent the enemy from completing their objective until the time runs out. Usually their objective is "seize control of the area", so you are defending your base (or a certain character) until reinforcements arrive, the foe gives up, or vital repairs are carried out. [[MyDefenseNeedNotProtectMeForever Your Defense Need Not Protect You Forever]]. Sometimes the enemy is an overwhelming force, so actually defeating them, or even surviving much beyond the time limit, would be impossible. Fortunately for you, victory will usually occur [[InstantWinCondition instantly and automatically as soon as the time runs out]], even if you were moments away from defeat.

This is common in RealTimeStrategy, where success usually requires a balance between creating defensive structures and units to protect one's objective, and scouting out and eliminating enemy bases to reduce their number. It also crops up in FirstPersonShooter games, most commonly as an objective-based multiplayer game mode, though stopping to defend against waves of enemies (most often by way of using mounted turrets with [[BottomlessMagazines limitless ammo]] but [[{{Overheating}} poor heat management]]) is also a common occurrence.

Sometimes it might be linked to an EscortMission, where the player has to escort someone to a location, and then protect them while they, for example, hack into the enemy's computer system.

In multiplayer, this mode of gameplay also exists, usually with the teams switching after the attackers win or the timer runs out. In many cases, there are several lines, and the criteria for winning (if neither team manages to break through them all) are usually which team got further or which team got to the same line first. Strategy games of all kinds love this trope -- there are very few that do ''not'' have an example of a Hold The Line mission.

TowerDefense has this trope as its central gameplay element. ProtectionMission is this combined with defending a stationary object. Sometimes leads to a VictoryByEndurance. Compare TheSiege and MultiMookMelee. It is similar to and yet quite different from HoldingTheFloor; talking for a long period of time without pause instead of fighting. Not to be confused with waiting for someone else on the phone.

*** There is a DLC mission where you take on a virtual simulation of a mission one of your commanders once did, which involves you waiting for 5 minutes fighting off wave after wave of enemies.

*** There's also a mission on the minor planet Nepmos where your squad has to hold off several waves of BrainwashedAndCrazy [[spoiler:rachni]] in conjunction with a fireteam of Alliance Marines. You can do it either on foot or in your AwesomePersonnelCarrier.

*** While trying to save the town on Horizon, you must Hold the Communications Tower so your friendly AI has time to fix the automated defenses.

*** The DownloadableContent ''Arrival'' has this as a sort of OptionalBoss: Holding the line against five large waves of [[ArtificialBrilliance exceptionally intelligent attackers]] and one MiniBoss. If you 'die', [[FissionMailed the mission continues to the next area]]. But if you succeed, you'll get an achievement, plus [[TheDreaded the attacker's fearful cries]] of [[MookHorrorShow how unstoppable you are]]. ([[FailureIsTheOnlyOption But then you get knocked out by an energy blast and things continue anyways.]])

*** The second time occurs on the salarian homeworld Sur'Kesh. [[spoiler:Your goal here is to guard the female krogan against several Cerberus enemy soldiers.]]
*** The last ever Hold The Line mission of the trilogy is a particularly difficult mission, that has you holding firm against waves of [[TheBrute Brutes]], [[BossInMookClothing Banshees]], assorted Reaper husk forces and a [[HumongousMecha Reaper destroyer]] targeting you with its [[WaveMotionGun Thannix cannon]] (even a glancing blow is a one-hit kill), while EDI upgrades a pair of missiles to strike a killing blow on that destroyer. Fortunately, if you're clever, you can manipulate the Reaper into firing on its own forces, annihilating them and sparing you some grief.

* ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights: Hordes of the Underdark'' features two hold the line scenes played back to back as the invading army attacks on multiple fronts (though not at the same time), requiring you to move about the battlefield.

* ''[[Creator/BlizzardEntertainment Blizzard]]'' has invoked this trope so many times in the ''Franchise/WarCraft'' and ''VideoGame/StarCraft'' series and grown wiser so many times that most missions of this kind fall into ThatOneLevel in harder difficulties.