History Main / HumanShield

* ''LightNovel/GoblinSlayer'': When the goblin horde are about to invade Cow Girl's village, the goblins use shields with their naked, raped, and tortured prisoners attached to them. However, Goblin Slayer already anticipated their strategy and with the help of the guild adventurers, they used sleep magic to make the frontline goblins fall asleep and bring the girls to safety (while they are still attached to the shields) before the battle can begin. This strategy seems to be very common among the goblins, considering that the Goblin Lord's entire plan was completely predicted by Goblin Slayer who has fought so many of them that he knows exactly what they are going to do, even without confirming beforehand that they would use meat shields.
** Hobgoblins have resorted to this trope more than once, but since they are not used to wielding shields at all, they are susceptible to {{Groin Attack}}s, which is pretty fatal for goblins.

* Ayano uses Ren as a human shield against Kazuma in episode 7 of ''LightNovel/KazeNoStigma''. However, the scene is largely played for laughs, and neither Ren nor Kazuma take her seriously.

* ''LightNovel/RebuildWorld'':
** In an incident when Sheryl’s base is being robbed, this is used twice. Akira kicks a robber in a CeilingSmash and then uses his unconscious body as this before attacking the other three in the first fire team. When Akira ambushes the other four robbers stacked up to breach a door, the leader Zelmo uses the other three as human shields who get turned to LudicrousGibs or BlownAcrossTheRoom despite their PoweredArmor. Zelmo criticizes Akira for the cruelty of using AntiArmor rounds on them like that, to which Akira calls him out for being a {{Hypocrite}} since he just used his own men as shields.

* ''Series/ThePunisher2017''. In "The Whirlwind", worried that Frank Castle has only a pistol against the MoreDakka she can hear Pilgrim is using, Amy goes to help with her shotgun only to be grabbed as a hostage by Pilgrim. There follows a hallway scene where Frank is trying to ShootTheHostageTaker while Pilgrim is maneuvering to keep her between them until Pilgrim is able to duck into an elevator with his hostage. [[spoiler:Ironically we later discover Pilgrim's gun was empty by that point.]]

* ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise''. In the SpaceWestern episode, the hostage situation ends when the hero shoots the hostage, distracting the baddie long enough to then shoot him too. This only works because of the setup; the heroes use phasers on stun, while the baddies use projectile weaponry and have never considered weapons that don't actually harm people. The cowboy is also shocked that Reed would shoot one of his own.
* ''Series/StarTrekPicard'': More like Romulan Shield in "Nepenthe"; Elnor places one of Narissa's underlings in front of him to discourage her from firing her disruptor pistol. The strategy works because she lowers her handgun and returns it to its holster.

* ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'': In "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang", a Blowfish tries to escape the Torchwood Three by fleeing into a house, where he shoots a resident and holds another hostage. Torchwood hesitates to act against the Blowfish until Jack Harkness [[DynamicEntry enters the scene]] and shoots the Blowfish dead without harming the hostage.

* In ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDead'':

->'''Dobson:''' ''[holds a gun to River's head and uses her as a shield]'' I'm not playing anymore. If anyone so much as moves-\\

* ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'':

** Same situation in ''Film/Another48Hours'', Jack shoots the bad guy through Reggie.

* Toad serves as one (apparently unwillingly) for Princess Peach in earlier installments of ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros''. In ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate Ultimate]]'', Toad instead willingly [[TakingTheBullet takes the bullet]] for her.

* In ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDead'' Brenda St.John did this to Katja in which Lee would have to slowly walk up to her and talk each time, until she finally got too close to Mark who is now a walker, from having his legs cut off and eaten who then proceeds to bite her and turn her into a walker.

* In ''VideoGame/AWayOut'', whichever player approaches Harvey in the big final confrontation with him will get used as a shield by him against the other; they will then have to figure out how to create an opening for their partner to shoot Harvey.

* A quest in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' sends you off to rescue some webbed-up friendly soldiers being used as "living shields" (not all of them being ''human'', you see.)
** It gets worse - the webbing they're trapped in is opaque and disguises silhouettes, and many of the "shields" are fakes, i.e., genuine hostiles. The only way to discover this is to open one up...

* Both heroes and villains use this tactic in ''Film/MadMaxFuryRoad''. The most notable occasion is when Splendid Angharad opens the War Rig's door and displays her pregnant body, knowing Immortan Joe won't risk shooting his unborn child. Max uses the opportunity to shoot Joe instead, [[BadBoss who pulls one of his own mooks]] in the [[BulletproofHumanShield path of the bullet]]. Another notable occasion is in the FinalBattle, where Max uses the People Eater as his human shield when Joe shoots at him.

** ''Literature/BlackFleetCrisis'': The Yevetha hold hostages from the colonists they attacked and have them broadcast to the New Republic ships, pleading for their lives because of the Yevethan ships were fired on they'll die too. It works, as enough New Republic ships hesitate or don't fire to give the Yevethan fleet an advantage.

* Subverted in ''Anime/CowboyBebop'', where one of Vicious' henchmen thinks he can convince Spike to surrender by using Faye as a human shield, without realizing Spike has no qualms about such things. [[KilledMidSentence He ends up with a bullet in his head mid-sentence]]. It happens again at the beginning of the movie.

* In the manga of ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' [[AntiHero Guts]] has used kids as a shield and/or hostage on at least two separate occasions, such as the Guardians of Desire arc when he used the Count's daughter Theresia to ward off an attack by her monstered-out father, as well as the Lost Children arc when he used a kid to lure a bunch of Apostle-spawn away from a village so he could kill them. Puck objects quite strongly to both instances.

* While not exactly a Human Shield, in ''Film/FortyEightHours'', Ganz gets Jack to drop his gun by threatening a wounded cop. Since Ganz kills the cop anyway, when he uses Reggie as a true Human Shield at the end of the movie, Jack just kills him.
** Same situation in ''Film/AnotherFortyEightHours'', Jack shoots the bad guy through Reggie.

* ''Series/TheDefenders2017''. Danny Rand confronts the executive board of Midland Circle Financial only to find they are all Hand operatives out to capture him. When a woman puts a silenced pistol to his head, Danny disarms her and holds her as a shield against the others. [[BigBad Alexandra]] informs him that it won't do any good as the others will "cut right through her to get to you." So Danny [[GrievousHarmWithABody throws her at the other mooks]] so his hands will be free for fighting. Shortly after this Luke Cage turns up to rescue Danny, and as he's a literal BulletproofHumanShield Danny ducks behind him when a couple of mooks open up with automatic weapons.

* ''Series/TheDefenders2017''. Danny Rand confronts the executive board of Midland Circle Financial only to find they are all Hand operatives out to capture him. When a woman puts a silenced pistol to his head, Danny disarms her and holds her as a shield against the others. [[BigBad Alexandra]] informs him that it won't do any good as the others will "cut right through her to get to you." So Danny [[GrievousHarmWithABody throws her at the other mooks]] so his hands will be free for fighting.

* ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'': In "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang", a Blowfish tries to escape the Torchwood Three by fleeing into a house, where he shoots a resident and holds another hostage. Torchwood hesitates to act against the Blowfish until jack enters the scene and shoots the Blowfish dead without harming the hostage.

* During the Kyoto Arc of ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'', Chigusa tries to use a kidnapped Konoka as a human shield. Unfortunately for her, it backfired in a rather spectacular fashion, as threatening Konoka just so happens to be [[BodyguardCrush Setsuna's]] BerserkButton.

* A FlashBack in ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikers'' shows a desperate knife-wielding thug using a little girl as a Human Shield to hold back the police. The police do the smart thing and let the sniper with ImprobableAimingSkills secretly take him out with a [[TheParalyzer bullet that does Magical Damage]]. [[spoiler: Unfortunately the guy turns at just the wrong moment and the sniper hits the little girl [[EyeScream in the eye]]. Worse, the hostage was the sniper's little sister, causing much emotional trauma.]]

* In ''Anime/LegendOfGalacticHeroes'' the Imperial flagships ''Ostmark'' and ''Berlin'' and the battleship ''Augsburb'' (serving as a flagship), all belonging to [[UpperClassTwit less-than-sympathetic admirals of noble origins]], are flanked by pairs of shield ships, vessels whose only purpose is to sacrifice themselves in case the enemy manages to flank the fleet and give them the time to turn and bring the heavier main guns to bear.

* ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry4'': Taken UpToEleven when it's more like "monster shield" actually. Nero can use a demon as a shield. Although since demon {{mook}}s are mindless, they don't care about the "hostage" and still attempt to attack him. ''The demon shield takes the damage instead.''

* In the climactic battle in Creator/AndreNorton's ''Star Man's Son'', the hero is used as this, tied to the barricade the mutant Beast Things have set up for their LastStand. He manages to get loose and crawls [[NoOneGetsLeftBehind to rescue another fellow in the same situation]], but finds the man already dead.

* In the final chapter of ''VideoGame/AWayOut'', Leo will use [[spoiler:Vincent]] as a shield to protect himself from a squad of police officers and gain passage to one of their cars.

* ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry4'': In a cutscene, Agnus hides behind Kyrie to stop Nero from attacking him.

* ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty4ModernWarfare'' has the last terrorist grab the anonymous [=VIP=] as a shield at the end of ''Mile High Club''. The player has a few seconds to shoot one of his exposed body parts as he jerks around, and if you're playing on the hardest difficulty, you have to go for the headshot.

* In ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'', a Merryweather soldier does this to Michael's daughter Tracey during the mission "Meltdown", which requires him to shoot the soldier in the head to free her.