History Main / InTheBack

* The first mission in Mass Effect starts with the Citadel Council Spectre, Nihlus, getting shot in the back by a friend.

* The first mission in Mass Effect starts with the Spector Nihlus getting shot in the back by a friend.

->''[[ContracturalGenreBlindness You know he's gonna shoot you]] InTheBack, hey!"''

->''to live by rules''

->''You know he's gonna shoot you InTheBack, hey!"''

* This is how [[spoiler:Brainiac 5]] kills Imperiex in the ''{{Legion of Super Heroes}}'' cartoon.

* In ''GangsOfNewYork'', Bill the Butcher throws a meat cleaver into Monk's back after he is elected sheriff, before beating Monk to death wih his own shaleileigh.

** A slightly earlier and weird example is what happens with Starrk and Wonderweiss. Wonderweiss puts his ''hand'' through Ukitake's back, causing Kyoraku to go for ''him'' by flash-stepping behind the 'kid'. But before Wonderweiss gets hit, Starrk takes the opportunity of the distraction to shoot Kyoraku in the back.

* In a famous scene in TheFrenchConnection Popeye Doyle shoots a man in the back. The real Popeye objected to this portrayal at first but eventually learned to accept it under the RuleOfCool.
* What, no WhiteHeat? When Arthur Cody Jarret [[spoiler:learns that his mother was dispatched through being shot in the back, it's strongly implied that his plans for vengeance against the backshooter in question became all the more imminent and brutal]]

* In RobertEHoward's "Red Nails", ConanTheBarbarian repeatedly tells Olmec that he has to go before Conan.

->-- '''OscarWilde'''

* Inquisitor Eisenhorn has the courtesy to wait until the enemy is facing him. Though he still shoves his pistol in Eyeclone's mouth and fires while the renegade isn't expecting to spot him. Just imagine the OhCrap look on Eyeclone's face!

* Famed gunslinger and killer [[WildWest John Wesley Hardin]] was shot in the back. His killer got off by claiming self-defense on the grounds that Hardin could see him reflected in the barroom mirror Hardin was looking at. Hardin's reputation was so [[Badass fearsome]] that they believed him.

* In Bleach, Soifon, Hitsugaya, and Shunshui team up on Aizen, and Hitsugaya successfully stabs in the back. Sadly, [[spoiler: that wasn't really Aizen, but Hinamori, his best friend, placed under an illusion.]]

* In ''TheGodfather'' game, you will occasionally have enemy mobsters attacking you from behind [[TeleportingKeycardSquad even if you cleared the path beforehand.]]

* Elan gets stabbed in the back by his EvilTwin brother [[SdrawkcabWord Nale]], serving as Nale's reveal to the rest of the characters as...well, evil.

* What, no WhiteHeat? When Arthur Cody Jarret [[spoiler:]]learns that his mother was dispatched through being shot in the back, it's strongly implied that his plans for vengeance against the backshooter in question became all the more imminent and brutal[[/spoiler]]

* Garak on ''StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' had no qualms about doing this.
-->'''[[TheJudge Odo]]:''' ''You'd shoot a man in the back, Garak?''

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* One of GeorgeWBush's last acts as President was to pardon two vigilantes who had killed a fleeing illegal immigrant. Part of the rationale was that they had gotten an unjustly large sentence due to shooting the man in the back.