History Main / PoisonAndCureGambit

* The Joker does this in ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity'', poisoning Batman with the same disease that's slowly killing him and making the Dark Knight find a cure. Batman merely responds that he's fine with both of them dying, but the Joker anticipated that and managed to poison people all over Gotham with it, so now Batman ''really'' has to find a cure. Ultimately, [[spoiler:Batman cures himself, and WordOfGod is that he manages to save Gotham, but the Joker's actions lead to him not getting the cure and, so he dies]].

* ComicBook/TheJoker does this in ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity'', poisoning Franchise/{{Batman}} with the same disease that's slowly killing him and making the Dark Knight find a cure. Batman merely responds that he's fine with both of them dying, but the Joker anticipated that and managed to poison people all over Gotham with it, so now Batman ''really'' has to find a cure. Ultimately, [[spoiler:Batman cures himself, and WordOfGod is that he manages to save Gotham, but the Joker's actions lead to him not getting the cure and, so he dies]].

* In Nugget's and Ms. Applegate's routes of ''VideoGame/{{Kindergarten|2017}}'', Nugget has the protagonist eat a chicken nugget to prove he wants to be his friend. He later reveals that the nugget was poisoned and that the protagonist will die at the end of lunch if he doesn't get the antidote, which Nugget will only give him if he can get [[BarbaricBully Buggs]] to eat another, more potent poison nugget.

* ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'': In the episode "[[Recap/DannyPhantomS2E16MastersOfAllTime Masters of All Time]]", [[BigBad Vlad]], suffering from another outbreak of the Ecto-Acne disease that afflicted him after he first became half-ghost, approaches Danny for help in curing it, and infects Sam and Tucker with the disease as well to ensure Danny's cooperation.

[[folder:Films--Live-Action]]

* ''WebVideo/StampysLovelyWorld'': The plot of Episode 760, "Impossible Choice", revolves around this. In Episode 749, "[[MilestoneCelebration Ten Years Later...]]", Stampy's oldest dog Barnaby is poisoned, and the BigBad uses the antidote to save Barnaby's life as leverage for the eponymous Lovely World, forcing Stampy into the titular SadisticChoice between his beloved dog's life and being able to set foot in the community he's been building for over a decade. [[spoiler:Stampy manages to haggle it down to just the Funland, though, and later episodes have him engaging in PassiveAggressiveKombat against the villains to get his minigame paradise back.]]

* ''Fanfic/AmeliaSmithNinthGradeKunoichi'': Mac Antfee poisons Kunoichi, then {{Blackmail}}s Ninja, presenting him with a SadisticChoice of saving either her or Howard.

* In the ''[[Comicbook/ThePunisherMAX Punisher MAX]]'' storyline "6 Hours to Kill", Frank is blackmailed with a cure to assassinate someone. He instead decides to take down as many criminals as possible before dying.
* In ''Comicbook/RedSonja'' the thought-to-be-deceased King of Zamora is revealed to have created a "plague" (actually a poison) that he gave to his enemies in order to trick Sonja's former companion Annisia into massacring entire cities, believing them to be infected, while he holds the antidote.

* ''Comicbook/TeenTitans'': Beast Boy gets the drop on a villain this way. [[BewareTheSillyOnes He's such a goofy]] [[BewareTheNiceOnes and friendly guy]] that it's easy to forget just how nasty his animal-shifting ability can be; like turning into a highly-toxic spider, stinging a villain, and giving him a choice - either he cures the city's kids and turns himself in, or he dies from the venom. The villain wisely chooses the former.
* In one ''Comicbook/XForce'' story, Elixir uses his powers to give Vanisher an inoperable brain tumor in the shape of the ''X-Men'' logo to force him to cooperate with them.

* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' has a non-poison version. Mystia Lorelei uses her blindness-inducing MagicMusic to sell grilled lamprey to humans as a blindness cure, with the intent of getting them so used to fish [[CarnivoreConfusion they stop eating poultry]] (she's a bird youkai).

* ''WesternAnimation/DragonsTheNineRealms'': The [[{{AxCrazy}} local lunatic with a hatchet]] Buzzsaw pulls one in the sixth episode of season 6 in order to get his hands on the Book of Dragons. [[spoiler:Only, ThereIsNoCure.]]

* In Nugget's and Ms. Applegate's routes of ''VideoGame/{{Kindergarten}}'', Nugget has the protagonist eat a chicken nugget to prove he wants to be his friend. He later reveals that the nugget was poisoned and that the protagonist will die at the end of lunch if he doesn't get the antidote, which Nugget will only give him if he can get [[BarbaricBully Buggs]] to eat another, more potent poison nugget.

* One of Creator/{{Chris Rock}}'s bits on "Bigger And Blacker" accuses essentially the entirety of Western medicine of this, citing the fact that few diseases have been fully cured (as opposed to "patching it up" so that you can live long enough for them to "get more of your money") in recent years. One hopes that the InsaneTrollLogic involved is merely RuleOfFunny and that Mr. Rock is aware of the real reason (that the easy-to-cure diseases have already been cured, and what remains is more challenging). After all, if his reasoning was correct, [[IgnoredEpiphany "they" would never have invented or implemented the polio vaccine in the first place]].

* ''WesternAnimation/DragonsTheNineRealms'': The [[{{AxCrazy}} the local lunatic with a hatchet]] Buzzsaw pulls one in the sixth episode of season 6 in order to get his hands on the Book of Dragons. [[spoiler:Only, ThereIsNoCure.]]

* ''Film/VForVendetta'': The Norsefire group get their position by spreading a plague through several areas, and blaming it on supposed captured terrorists. Its leader Sulter wins the election by a landslide, and the party then distributes a cure through a medical company they control.

* A variant regarding BribingYourWayToVictory -- A game can have a really difficult challenge that stonewalls progress, needing a lot of ForcedLevelGrinding to get past... but the cash shop may sell an item/ability that is tailor-made to trivialize it. Bonus points if it's also a limited-time deal.

* In ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' episode "[[Recap/AdventureTimeS3E16JakeVsMeMow Jake vs. Me-Mow]]", Me-Mow uses this to blackmail Jake into assassinating the Wildberry Princess. It doesn't take, however, when Me-Mow [[ExplainingYourPowerToTheEnemy reveals that the toxin is enough to kill 50 dogs]], leading [[{{Sizeshifter}} Jake]] to realize [[TakeAThirdOption he can just supersize his liver by 51]] and absorb said toxin.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''WebVideo/StampysLovelyWorld'': The plot of Episode 760, "Impossible Choice", revolves around this. In Episode 749, "[[MilestoneCelebration Ten Years Later...]]", Stampy's oldest dog Barnaby is poisoned, and the BigBad uses the antidote to save Barnaby's life as leverage for the eponymous Lovely World, forcing Stampy into the titular SadisticChoice between his beloved dog's life and being able to set foot in the community he's been building for over a decade. [[spoiler:Stampy manages to haggle it down to just the Funland, though, and later episodes have him engaging in PassiveAggressiveKombat against the villains to get his minigame paradise back.]]
[[/folder]]

* The basis of {{ComicBook/Spider-Man 2099}}'s backstory; when he tried to resign from [[MegaCorp Alchemex]], his boss gave him a drink spiked with a drug so powerful, the withdrawal symptoms were lethal, meaning that he'd have to keep working for them in order to keep a steady supply and not die.

* The basis of {{ComicBook/SpiderMan2099}}'s backstory; when he tried to resign from [[MegaCorp Alchemex]], his boss gave him a drink spiked with a drug so powerful, the withdrawal symptoms were lethal, meaning that he'd have to keep working for them in order to keep a steady supply and not die.