History Main / LeaveNoWitnesses

* ''Literature/TheGreatZooOfChina'': When disaster inevitably strikes, management takes anyone who witnesses it out to the “emergency evacuation area”, where they are FedToTheBeast.

* A typical ArbitraryMissionRestriction for a run in ''TabletopGames/{{Shadowrun}}'' is leaving no witnesses to your run. Normally, the run's [[MysteriousEmployer Johnson]] intends for this to be 'bypass or destroy all recording devices and wipe all logs of you hacking into their internal network', but sometimes this will include killing any guard or office drone that chances upon you. Some partiucarly callous ones may even be sending you into a well-patrolled facility with the intention of causing a two-digit body count to their target, though the ones who are smart and callous will usually let the Shadowrunners know about this beforehand.

-->'''Nash:''' It's a fish! It's a goddamn fish! FISH! You know? Can't breathe air? Short-term memory of about five minutes? No vocal chords? In short, '''how the fuck can a fish testisfy against you, you unreconstructed moron?!'''

* Also from the Bible: In 1st Samuel, when David and his men temporarily sold their services to a Philistine lord, they would make raids upon the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites. They would make a point to leave no survivors in those raids because they didn't want any witnesses testifying in Gath to what David had done to those people, to maintain the illusion of being a true defector.

* ''Videogame/HalfLife''. The Marines aren't there to ''rescue'' the scientists. [[VideoGame/HalfLifeOpposingForce Then they find out]] ''they're'' [[NukeEm not high clearance enough]] [[ItsTheOnlyWayToBeSure to be left alive either...]], courtesy of the [[ArmiesAreEvil Black Operations]].

* During the Novaria mission in ''VideoGame/MassEffect'', Saren tries to cover up what he's been doing there by having everyone who was involved with the project killed. You arrive just in time to save the last surviving scientist, who asks if he'll get a [[HeKnowsTooMuch "you know too much"]] speech. Indeed this is Saren's ''modus operandi'', as your teammate Wrex can tell you -- he was once hired by Saren, along with a bunch of other mercenaries, to help raid a ship. Something about Saren gave him a bad feeling, so he left without waiting to be paid. In the following months, every other mercenary involved wound up dead.

Similar to ShootEverythingThatMoves, but that trope is more about the situation where everything you see is a threat. In ''this'' case, people would be more than happy to leave you alone, but that just doesn't seem to be an option anymore.

** In the prologue of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2'', Sergei and his men install Semtex throughout the Discovery, intending to sink it with all hands onboard once they've boosted RAY. Ocelot beats Sergei to the punch and activates the bombs before he can get away.

* In ''Film/KillBill'', Bill and his squad kill ''everyone'' at The Bride's wedding, even "the colored fella playing the piano".

* In ''Film/MacheteKills'', this is taken UpToEleven with the assassin El Chameleon, who kills ''anyone'' who sees him, even when he's just taking a walk down the street. This is even though he has the ability to change his face and body to look like anyone.

* In ''Film/{{Morgan}}'', [[spoiler:the scientists that aren't killed by Morgan are killed by Lee Weathers as damage control.]]

** Quite possibly taken UpToEleven in ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigations 2'', where it's revealed that the BigBad was chased by [[spoiler:Blaise Debeste's men]] for '''12 years''' because he was a witness to [[spoiler:the SS-5 Incident]].

* ''Series/CowboyBebop2021''. A WholeEpisodeFlashback to Spike Spiegel's time as a hitman for TheSyndicate shows him letting a female witness leave a crime scene because she has her child with her, and a Syndicate rule is that [[EvenEvilHasStandards you don't kill children]]. After massacring the Neptune gang (including several female gang members) Spike encounters a female InnocentBystander as he's leaving the building. Spike tells her she didn't see anything and tells her to flee, only to change his mind and kill her as she's running away.

* In ''Film/Twins1988'', Webster the professional corporate mercenary/[[PsychoForHire hitman]] has a rule of eliminating anybody who has ever seen his face. Anybody. [[StupidEvil Even his own employers]].

** Averted when Titus Pullo becomes a hired killer for Erastes Fulman. An old lady sees him and runs after his shouting, "Murderer!" Pullo goes to stab her but can't go through with it, suffering a VillainousBreakdown where hallucinations of old women condemn him for his crime. Next time we see him, he's been captured and put on trial.

* [[SerialKiller Kira Yoshikage]] in part 4 of ''Anime/JojosBizarreAdventure'' will use his powers to kill anyone who could potentially contribute to exposing his crimes, down to the owner of the store where he'd left a jacket to be repaired. Part 5's villain, the mafia boss Diavolo, manages to take it even further; he's so paranoid about anyone knowing ''anything'' about him that he not only kills everyone he's ever met in-person, but also spends the bulk of the story trying to assassinate his estranged daughter over the miniscule chance that someone could discover his identity through her. (Unsurprisingly, this results in a RevealingCoverUp for both of them, contributing to their defeats by the heroes.)

* In ''VideoGame/GhostTrick'', the murderous motive of [[spoiler:the blue foreigners]] is to [[spoiler:kill everyone connected to Temsik, so they are the only ones who know about the meteorite's powers]].

* ''[[VideoGame/GoldenEyeWii GoldenEye Reloaded]]'' mirrors the film in the Bunker part of the Severnaya mission where Ourumov tells his men to "''leave no survivors''" for the same reason as in the film. Boris Grishenko is absent entirely, but Natalya is instead saved by Bond in this version of the story.

* Naked Snake gets told this early on in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater''. Actually doing so is ill-advised, as it makes a later boss fight harder. (It's actually more of a directive to remain unseen, rather than kill everyone)
** The actual ''Snake Eater'' mission goes out of its way to subvert this: if you leave ''no'' witness or evidence of US involvement in the mission, then Russia won't be able to prove that the US cleaned up the mess it created. So you ''have'' to leave some people alive (though [[GameplayAndStorySegregation nothing really comes of it if you ''do'' kill everyone]], mostly because of the way the story is ultimately framed).
** Later in the series we learn that Operation Snake Eater had a cleaner following Snake, who dealt with any loose ends after Snake infiltrated and compromised the area. From what we know about Skull Face, he didn't leave much to chance. Or anything, for that matter.

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* ''Literature/EgilsSaga'': Living out his life in the house of Grim, the aged Egil rides out at evening, accompanied by two slaves and carrying his two chests of silver with him. He does not return for a whole night, and in the morning returns without the silver and without the slaves, revealing that he has hidden the treasure and that he has killed the slaves to keep the secret.

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A specific case — often invoked by otherwise-heroic characters who need to eliminate individuals who might jeopardize their mission — would be KilledToUpholdTheMasquerade. People who are TriggerHappy may jump to this solution a bit more readily. See also NeverOneMurder. Contrast with LeaveNoSurvivors, where you're killing everyone just out of general bloody-mindedness (or [[FinalSolution hatred]]). Opposed to SpareAMessenger, when you specifically leave someone alive to relate what they've just seen.

* [[TheOphelia Ophelia]], from ''Manga/{{Claymore}}'' is big on this. Claymores aren't allowed to kill humans, but Ophelia is more than a little AxCrazy, so she tends to get carried away when she fights. Solution: Murder everyone who saw her.
* In ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'', Guts instinctively did this when he heard a witness after he assassinated Duke Julius on Griffith's orders. [[spoiler:He realized too late that it was the Duke's young son, whom Guts empathized with earlier. It's implied that Griffith hoped this would happen, since the boy was being groomed to marry Princess Charlotte, who Griffith had designs on.]]

* This happens twice in ''Manga/MotherKeeper'' when [[spoiler: Graham steals the identity of Graham Gregson, he kills Graham and his entire family, as well as any possible witnesses]] then later [[spoiler: he kills Silas and everyone in Silas's house]].
* ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing'': Referenced directly in dialog in an early episode.
-->"Those who have laid eyes on a Gundam shall not live to tell about it."
* In ''Manga/Brave10'', the ninjas chasing Isanami made a fatal mistake when they chose to follow this order while pursuing Isanami. Saizo wasn't too interested in saving a DamselInDistress, but telling him they'll kill him because he's seen too much is just an invitation to prove his ninja cred with their blood.
* [[SerialKiller Kira Yoshikage]] in part 4 of ''Anime/JojosBizarreAdventure'' will use his powers to kill anyone who could potentially contribute to exposing his crimes, down to the owner of the store where he'd left a jacket to be repaired. Part 5's villain, the mafia boss Diavolo, manages to take it even further; he's so paranoid about anyone knowing ''anything'' about him that he not only kills everyone he's ever met in-person, but also spends the bulk of the story trying to assassinate his estranged daughter over the miniscule chance that someone could discover his identity through her. (Unsurprisingly, this results in a RevealingCoverUp for both of them, contributing to their defeats by the heroes.)

* In ''ComicBook/TopTen'', [[spoiler:Comissioner Ultima]] will have to destroy Neopolis to prevent word of [[spoiler:her Xenite addiction]] getting out.
* The Rourke family in ''ComicBook/SinCity'' usually ensure this when covering up the trail of bodies left by the two different {{Serial Killer}}s connected to them; even going so far as to try to kill children or lowlifes like Marv. Both of these targets end up being their own undoing, however.

* In ''Terra Obscura'', the Grim Reaper puts his costume on in a cab, having hailed it in street clothes to avoid suspicion, as he tails someone targeted for a hit. The first thing he does when he's got the target in his sights is kill the cabbie, who saw his unmasked face.
* In ''Comicbook/TheSpirit'', two bank robbers take this approach to cover their crime. They don't realize they missed a little girl down the block, who fell down out of fear. The police are a bit peeved.
* ''ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse'': In Creator/CarlBarks story "The Horseradish Story", [=Scrooge McDuck's=] ancestor failed to deliver a case of horseradish to Jamaica. Chisel [=McSue=], as the last heir of the person who hired Scrooge's ancestor to make the delivery, takes advantage of this fact to claim Scrooge's fortune. To keep his money, Scrooge must recover the horseradish from the bottom of the ocean and deliver it to Jamaica within 30 days. When it seems Scrooge will triumph where his ancestor failed, Chisel and a thug named Joe assault his ship. When it seems Scrooge and the horseradish will be lost forever, Chisel tries to get rid of Joe as well to be sure that nobody will testify against him. Joe escapes and Chisel joins Scrooge and his family into [[spoiler:waiting for a rescue team. Scrooge delivers the horseradish on time.]]
* Played for BlackHumor in ''ComicBook/LesInnommables'', after Colonel Lychee and the Dog-Man take member of the Dog-Man's crew ashore to see if a buried treasure exists. Lychee shoots the man once they find it, and tells the disgruntled-looking Dog-Man that he could have told someone else about it. The Dog-Man then points out [[BadBoss they could just as easily killed him onboard the ship]], now Lychee is going to have to row them back.

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'':
** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': A trio of gangsters decide to kill someone who just happened to overhear their insurance fraud plans, as the timing led them to believe the witness knew even more. Unfortunately for them the witness was [[BoisterousBruiser Etta Candy]], and she'd been in a hurry an willing to just ignore them and instead ends up beating them all unconscious and handing them over to the cops.
** After burying his treasure with four of his men Capt. Storm kills everyone involved and who saw them to ensure its location remains secret.
* ''ComicBook/{{Dinocorps}}'': When Jarek orders his team to look for the Annihilation Trigger as stealthily as possible, a police car shows up. He doesn't hesitate to kill the cops inside to conceal his identity from the humans.

** In ''ComicBook/TheStrangeRevengeOfLenaLuthor'', Blackrock promises to deal with a mobster who is hounding Linda Danvers' co-worker Greg Gilbert if Greg steals some blueprints from the GBS research labs...fully planning to kill Greg in order to cover his tracks.
* ''ComicBook/Clue2017'': At the end of the story, [[spoiler: Dr. Black]] orders Upton to clean every loose end from the plot. He proceeds to do so with brutal efficiency, including [[spoiler: [[NoFourthWall wiping out the people making the comic]]]].

* ''Film/JudgeDredd'', in the page quote. After a shuttle carrying prisoners to Aspen Penal colony crashes, a rescue/capture team is sent to locate Dredd, a convict on the flight. The Capture Team Leader reports to Judge Griffin; Judge Griffin spells it all out.
* In Creator/{{Universal}}'s ''Film/TheMummy1932'', when the renegade priest Imhotep is buried alive with the [[MacGuffin Scroll of Thoth]], the slaves who dug the tomb are killed -- then the spearmen who killed them are killed, so there will be no witnesses. (This sequence was [[StockFootage incorporated wholesale]] into the 1940 ContinuityReboot, ''Film/TheMummysHand''.)
* In ''Film/KillBill'', Bill and his squad kill ''everyone'' at The Bride's wedding, even "the colored fella playing the piano".

* When it's planned that the mine is to be blown up in ''Film/TheMaskOfZorro'', its peasant workers (including ''children'') were also trapped to prevent witnesses.
* In ''Film/RoboCop2'', the {{Corrupt Corporate Executive}}s who are trying to bankrupt the city discover the Mayor is going to [[DealWithTheDevil cut a deal with a drug lord]] to get the necessary funding. They send their cyborg killing machine to kill the Mayor and the criminals, specifically stating that there must be no witnesses. Ironically the Mayor is the only one to escape the subsequent massacre, but can't afford to admit what he was up to anyway.

* In ''Film/TheWorldIsNotEnough'', the BigBad[[spoiler:'s [[TheDragon Dragon]]]] Renard gets himself a Russian nuclear submarine. He brings along "some refreshments" for the crew. By the time Bond gets on the sub, the crew are all dead from the poison.
* After Kirk and [=McCoy=] escape from the Rura Penthe penal colony in ''Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry'', they find out that their guide was paid to do that, so that the escapees could be shot by the guards without any questions raised by TheFederation. When the guards catch up to them, the guide is shot by the warden, uttering this trope name. He's about to kill the two humans (after telling them who ordered the hit), when they are beamed up.
* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
** This is ''probably'' why the Stormtroopers slaughter the Jawas and kill Luke's aunt and uncle in ''Film/ANewHope'', seeing as they are trying to leave evidence that Tusken Raiders did it.
** Likewise, after Darth Vader attacks Leia's ship (a ship containing an emissary of the Galactic Senate), he orders a subordinate, "Send a distress signal, and inform the Senate that all on board were killed." Presumably he wants to make it look like the ship was destroyed by random piracy, and left nobody alive who could contradict that story.
** In ''Film/TheForceAwakens'', Kylo Ren has the First Order stormtroopers wipe out a whole Jakku village. [[HeelRealization Seeing how heartless it is]], Finn refuses to follow along, and this soon leads to his MookFaceTurn.
* The pirates in ''Film/TheBlackPirate'' leave no witnesses by blowing up the ships they have pillaged.
* ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness'':
** [[spoiler:Admiral Marcus]] has no intention of letting any of the ''Enterprise'' crew live even after Kirk pleads that [[TakeMeInstead he alone should be punished]] for his command decisions.
** Every Klingon who witnesses Harrison ends up dead.
* In ''Film/MacheteKills'', this is taken UpToEleven with the assassin El Chameleon, who kills ''anyone'' who sees him, even when he's just taking a walk down the street. This is even though he has the ability to change his face and body to look like anyone.

* An assassin in ''Film/{{Barracuda}}'' is tasked to kill employees of a smalltown newspaper to make sure that the GovernmentConspiracy stays hidden. He kills the people who know too much, and tries to quietly get out the room when an another person discovers the corpses. Unfortunately, she turns around and he has to kill her too.
* In the opening of ''Film/TheAmerican'', Creator/GeorgeClooney's character is out walking with a girlfriend when he's targeted by an assassin. Clooney kills the assassin - to the shock of the woman, who's surprised that he even carries a gun - but he just yells at her to go and call the police. As she turns to leave, he shoots her in the back of the head. The kill weighs on his mind and fuels his eventual desire to make this OneLastJob.

* ''Film/TheIceman''. After Kuklinski kills a pornographer, he finds a seventeen-year old girl hiding in his closet. He hauls her out onto the street and it's at that point he meets fellow hitman "Mr Freezy" Pronge for the first time, who tries to run her down with his [[BadHumorTruck ice cream truck]]. Kuklinski makes Pronge cease his pursuit at gunpoint, but when the two hitmen team up later on, the first thing Pronge shows him is the girl's body, which he has kept frozen for later disposal.

* Defied in ''Film/BestSeller'' (1987). James Woods' character goes to a policeman-turned-novelist (Brian Dennehy), asking him to write his story as a professional hitman for a CorruptCorporateExecutive. To prove his claim, he brings the writer to the maid who let him into the house where he killed a senator. When Dennehy's character asks why this witness is still alive, the hitman replies, "[[CantKillYouStillNeedYou Because I knew I'd need her some day]]."
* In the 1982 Australian/Taiwanese movie ''Attack Force Z'', a UsefulNotes/WorldWarII commando force encounter a villager and ask for directions to their objective, then shoot him with a silenced submachine gun so he won't tell anyone of their presence on the Japanese-occupied island.
* In ''Film/{{Morgan}}'', [[spoiler:the scientists that aren't killed by Morgan are killed by Lee Weathers as damage control.]]
* The intro of ''Film/MuppetTreasureIsland'' shows Captain Flint and a band of pirates lugging several treasure chests up on Treasure Island to bury them. When they chests are in the pit and the pirates start to cover them, Flint draws his guns on his crew and fires. The intro song ends simultaneously on the fitting line "Dead men tell no tales!"
* ''Film/{{Heat}}''. In the opening robbery, a psychopathic member of the gang kills a security guard for not following his instructions. Another guard draws a pistol and is also shot. The last guard doesn't resist, but the gang exchange a MeaningfulLook and kill him too. As they've already committed multiple homicide, there's no incentive to leave a potential witness alive.

* ''Film/{{Hellbound}}'': The reason why Prosatanos kills the prostitute: he might have let her go otherwise, but she walks in on him after he just finished murdering someone else, with [[AndShowItToYou the bloody evidence still in his hands]].
-->'''Prosatanos:''' Time for you to ''[[DestinationDefenestration leave]]''.
* ''The Battleship Island:'' During World War 2, the Japanese island of Hashima contains a coal mine staffed by Korean conscripts. Realising that Japan is about to lose the war and that war crime charges are a possibility, the Japanese managers decide to kill all of the Koreans.
* There's a RunningGag in ''Film/BurntByTheSun'' of a truck driver who is lost and keeps driving around the place asking for directions. After Colonel Kotov is arrested by the NKVD they encounter this man, who recognises Kotov and is shocked to see him savagely beaten when he tries to exit the car to speak to him. The truck driver is then shot and thrown into the back of his truck.
* In ''Film/{{Blastfighter}}'', Wally and his cronies assault Tiger's friends in an attempt to scare him into leaving the poaching ring alone. However, when they attempt to rape Connie, Pete tries to intervene and Wally shoots him. Realising that he has killed him, Wally orders his men to kill everyone so there are no witnesses.
* ''Film/TheCassandraCrossing'' is about an express train that is de-routed from its way from Geneva to Stockholm because there is a terrorist on the train who is infected with a virus. The passengers shall instead be quarantined in a former Nazi concentration camp. The way there leads over the namesake bridge which has been closed since 1948 and is absolutely unsafe to cross. Even though the virus can easily be healed with [[HealingWinds oxygen]], a U.S. military intelligence Colonel insists in sending the train into its doom. The reason is because the virus was an [[SyntheticPlague American bio-weapon]] illegally parked outside the NATO, and he has to kill everyone who may know about it.
* In the stagecoach robbery at the start of ''Film/CoronerCreek'', Miles Younger kills the driver, guard and all of the male passengers. He little kills all of the Indians who aided him in the robbery.

* In ''Literature/TreasureIsland'', Captain Flint killed the sailors who helped him bury the treasure. This is Standard Operating Procedure in pirate tales.

* Two "men's adventure" novel series by Joseph Rosenberger, ''The Death Merchant'' and ''COBRA'' feature characters with a very extreme moral compass who often follow the "leave no witnesses" rule to protect their identity. The lead character in ''Death Merchant'' has a policy of killing people who learn his real identity, friend or foe, and in ''COBRA'' the "heroes" even go so far as to kill local law enforcement to protect their mission.

* The villains of ''Literature/ABrothersPrice'' are fond of hiring 'river trash' for transportation and dirty work, then killing them when it's done. [[HypercompetentSidekick Captain Tern]] actually sets out to track them by looking into records of ship crews who've all been killed.
* In the third Literature/{{Safehold}} book, Merlin is forced to kill a bunch of wounded Temple Loyalists [[spoiler: after foiling an assassination attempt against Sharleyan]] because he can't afford to let people realize he was even there.

* An attempt at this kicks off the plot of ''Literature/ArcticRising''. Anika and her partner get a radiation signature off a tramp freighter and approach, assuming it's illegal waste dumping. Then the crew shoots them down with an RPG, killing her partner, and assassins are crawling out of the woodwork to try to kill her.
* ''Literature/HonorHarrington'':
** In the short story "A Grand Tour" by Creator/DavidDrake, during the brittle pre-war peace between Manticore and the People's Republic of Haven, a Havenite cruiser manned by the figurative scrapings of the Dolist masses engages and destroys a Manticoran destroyer in a back-world sector of the Solarian League. In order to keep word from getting out of their action they attempt to slaughter the crew that escaped the destroyer's destruction, missing a shuttle of survivors in the debris from the destroyed ship.
** In ''Echoes of Honor'', when the combined Grayson-Manticore fleet with the new [[MacrossMissileMassacre podnoughts]] rides to the rescue [[spoiler:in the defence of Basilisk]], Earl White Haven nearly has a heart attack when he thinks Admiral Yanakov ordered [[SinkTheLifeboats no quarter]]. Fortunately, [[SubvertedTrope the latter only called for]] no ''mercy'', which is a powerful emotional statement but is thankfully not [[UsefulNotes/TheLawsAndCustomsOfWar a massive war crime]].[[note]]For the uninitiated, "no mercy" means the attacking force will not be picking up survivors. "No ''quarter''" means they will not be ''allowing'' any.[[/note]]
* The German spy in ''Literature/EyeOfTheNeedle'' by Ken Follett murders several people for this, always saying, "You saw my face". Later he discovers that British Intelligence has gotten hold of a photograph of him when he lived in Germany, causing him to freak out because now they really do know his face.
* In the novelization of ''Literature/RevengeOfTheSith'', when Bail Organa witnesses the clone troopers kill a Padawan on the Jedi Temple landing deck, they try to kill him too, and he barely escapes. This is in contrast to the film, where they let him go without much of a fuss.
* In ''The Golden Rendezvous'' by Alistair Maclean, the villains stealing gold from a vessel in mid-ocean plan to obliterate all evidence and witnesses with a [[NukeEm tactical nuclear weapon]] (which they've also stolen), the justification being that it would take too long to kill the passengers and crew individually, while ordinary explosive (which they do have as a back-up in case the bomb doesn't go off) is [[NoOneCouldSurviveThat too uncertain]]. Though they could have saved themselves the trouble [[CutLexLuthorACheck if they'd just sold the nuke instead.]]
* ''Literature/EgilsSaga'': Living out his life in the house of Grim, the aged Egil rides out at evening, accompanied by two slaves and carrying his two chests of silver with him. He does not return for a whole night, and in the morning returns without the silver and without the slaves, revealing that he has hidden the treasure and that he has killed the slaves to keep the secret.
* In "The Gold-Bug" by Creator/EdgarAllanPoe, the narrator and his fellow treasure hunters succeed in finding the treasure of Captain Kidd. They dig up two human skeletons immediately above the treasure chest, and infer that the dead men were Kidd's companions who helped him bury the chest, and that Kidd murdered them so he would be the only one to know the location of the treasure.
* In ''Literature/TheBridgeKingdomArchives'' king Silas of Maridrina has everyone in the training complex killed (apart from his spymaster Serin), even mute servants and his faithful weapons master Erik, because he cannot allow anyone to learn that he's been training his daughters as warriors and spies--as this would undermine his AltarDiplomacy schemes.
* The quadruple murder of the Clutter family that ''Literature/InColdBlood'' is centered around comes about because Smith and Hickock aimed to rob the Clutters and kill anyone who saw them.
* ''Literature/ChocoholicMysteries'': Several of the victims throughout the series are murdered because they found out what the culprit was up to, or at least part of it.

* The first episode of ''Series/GameOfThrones'' concludes with ten year-old Bran Stark climbing a tower where he witnesses Queen Cersei having sex with her own brother (this is not only incest but treason, as the true parentage of the future king is an important plot point). When he's spotted, Cersei just keeps saying, "He saw us!" until her brother [[WouldHurtAChild shoves Bran out the window]]. Bran survives this fall, but loses the use of his legs and his memory of the event, which is not discovered by the Starks until much later.

* From a mission in ''VideoGame/TheForceUnleashed'': "The Emperor must not discover your presence. Kill everyone aboard, Imperials and Kota's men alike."
** Given that you don't really have an option (they all shoot at you), it's not that difficult. In fact, many of them can be killed by standing still. Your character will automatically redirect their blaster shots back at them.

* In VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft: Cataclysm, the Goblins fleeing Kezan wind up in a firefight. The humans don't want witnesses, so they blow up the Goblin ship, leaving them shipwrecked on the Lost Isles.

* ''[[VideoGame/GoldenEyeWii GoldenEye Reloaded]]'' mirrors the film in the Bunker part of the Severnaya mission where Ourumov tells his men to "''leave no survivors''" for the same reason as in the film. Boris Grishenko is absent entirely, but Natalya is instead saved by Bond in this version of the story.
* Committing a crime in ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'' gets you a bounty. Killing everyone who saw said crime erases it.
* In ''VideoGame/TheGodfather 2'' there may be witnesses to your crimes. You can run away, intimidate them into silence... or just kill them.

* During the Novaria mission in ''VideoGame/MassEffect'', Saren tries to cover up what he's been doing there by having everyone who was involved with the project killed. You arrive just in time to save the last surviving scientist, who asks if he'll get a [[HeKnowsTooMuch "you know too much"]] speech. Indeed this is Saren's ''modus operandi'', as your teammate Wrex can tell you -- he was once hired by Saren, along with a bunch of other mercenaries, to help raid a ship. Something about Saren gave him a bad feeling, so he left without waiting to be paid. In the following months, every other mercenary involved wound up dead.
* ''VideoGame/SplinterCell''s are explicitly told that "a choice between leaving a witness or a corpse is no choice at all", with the implication that the Cells must remain completely unknown in order to retain their deniability. In-game, there's never a situation in which killing a civilian is acceptable, however.
* In ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine'' CIA agent Riggs believes that if word got out of how [[spoiler: the Damned 33rd, a U.S. Army Battalion, went rogue and set up a military dictatorship after [[GoneHorriblyWrong their rescue mission in Dubai ended in failure,]] the rest of the Middle-East would declare war on the U.S., a war the U.S. would lose.]] To prevent that from happening, Riggs decides to [[spoiler: recruit the protagonist into stealing and destroying the city's remaining water supply to ensure that anyone still in Dubai will have died of thirst long before any other rescue attempts into the city would be made.]]

* In ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', the magi try to hide their abilities from normal people in order to avoid persecution. It's generally accepted as a fact of life among magi that any non-magus who sees them using their powers must die to maintain TheMasquerade. Even a battle to the death between magi and their Servants can be interrupted by the need to eliminate a witness.

* ''Webcomic/DarthsAndDroids'' handles this well in [[http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0686.html this strip]].

* In ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}} and the Secret Weapon'', Caesar demands that no witnesses be left of the titular secret weapon (since it would not only be seen in Rome as dishonorable but also ridiculous). When pirates threaten the secret ship, the leader announces "Caesar said no witnesses, so NoQuarter!" and just charges through the pirate ship, ripping it [[IncrediblyLamePun in half]] (which conveniently allows the pirates to survive in their rowboat since they didn't see anyone).