History Main / PriceOnTheirHead

* ''WesternAnimation/S'': A bounty is placed on Queen Aleena and her then-infant triplet children after she is deposed by Robotnik's takeover of Mobius in the first episode, "Beginnings".

This person is badly wanted by somebody. Wanted badly enough that they are willing to pay a large sum of money whoever brings in this person. They often don't care if this person arrives dead or alive. The bounty is usually offered by either The Law or a criminal. [[EvilOverlord Or both.]]

** [[spoiler: As of chapter 1053, there are now ''fourteen'' pirates known to have or have had bounties of one billion or higher. Kaido and Linlin's bounties have apparently been marked as "Inactive" following their defeats, and the bounties of those who defeated them -- Luffy, who defeated Kaido, and the duo of Eustass "Captain" Kid and "Surgeon of Death" Trafalgar D. Water Law, who worked together to defeat Linlin -- have increased to three billion each. As a consequence, Shanks is now the pirate with the highest known bounty, and the only one higher than Luffy, Kid and Law.]]

* In ''ComicBook/{{Maus}}'' the Nazis have put posters informing the population each delivered Jew would be worth one kilo of sugar.

* ''Film/JohnWick'': Viggo puts a $2,000,000 bounty on John to try and prevent him killing his son, being prepared to take it to twice that if an assassin is willing to breach the rules of The Continental and kill him on-premises.

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': The Hogfather had a bounty of $3,000,000 by the Assassins' Guild. Moist von Lipwig had a conditional $100,000 bounty on his head. Lord Vetinari and The Duke of Ankh, Sir Samuel Vimes had bounties, before being being taken off the lists.

* ''Literature/GrettirsSaga'': After Grettir is blamed for causing the fire in which the two sons of Thorir of Gard have perished, Thorir uses his influence to bring about Grettir being outlawed, and puts a price of three marks of silver on his head, to which Thorodd (whose brother Grettir killed in an unrelated feud) adds another three marks. This is considered exceptional because "no higher price than three marks had ever been put on a man's head before." Later again, after Grettir has already resisted several attempts to kill him, Thorir raises the offered bounty by another three marks. When, years later, Thorbjorn Hook finally succeeds in killing Grettir, he cuts off his head and brings it to Thorir preserved in salt to collect the reward; however, Thorir has heard that Thorbjorn could only defeat Grettir by use of abominable sorcery, and refuses to pay out the reward.
* ''Literature/{{Safehold}}'': Late in ''Through Fiery Trials'', the Grand Duke of Spring Flower announces to his soldiers that he will pay 5000 marks to the one who brings an opposing commander in alive, but only 1000 marks if said opponent is brought in dead. No one collects, because unknown to Spring Flower that opponent and his forces have been getting covert assistance from Charis.

** ''Literature/BerenAndLuthien'': After becoming an outlaw, Beren does such a good job at harassing the Morgoth's forces overruning his homeland that the Dark Lord sets a price upon his head no less than the price upon the head of the High King of the Noldor. Even so, the Orcs fled rather at the rumour of his approach than sought him out.

** In "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS2E11Gambit Gambit]]", Servalan negotiates with a crime boss to have a Federation fugitive captured dead or alive. She offers two million credits, but is forced to settle on eight million. However it's later revealed to be just a ploy to get the crime boss wondering what's so important about this man that Servalan wants dead.
* In the documentary ''Churchill's Bodyguard'', it's mentioned that Irish Nationalist leader Michael Collins complained bitterly about a 5000 pound price that the authorities had put on his head, dead or alive. Churchill responded by showing him his framed Wanted notice that had been put out after Churchill escaped from a Boer prisoner-of-war camp, offering only 25 pounds for him dead or alive. Collins found this ActuallyPrettyFunny.

* ''Series/Halo2022''. Kwan Ha and the SpacePirate Soren land on Madrigal to find its ruler has issued a massive reward for Kwan as he's eager to eliminate the last remaining potential resistance to his rule. Several episodes later after Soren and Kwan have had a falling out, Soren has written her off for dead, but is informed that the reward has tripled so she must still be alive. This guilt-trips him into going back and trying one more time to help her.

** Dunkelzahn's Will placed a standing 1 million nuyen bounty on any [[BloodMagic blood mage]] or toxic shaman captured alive and brought to the Dunkelzahn Institute of Magical Research for study.
** Dunkelzahn also willed that one Lars J. Matthews lose all legal status for a period of ten days, during which time anyone who killed him would be paid a million nuyen. (Never deal with a dragon).

* ''VideoGame/TheDivision'': When players kill non-hostile Division agents in Dark Zone areas, they turn into rogue agents that gives other players incentive to gain experience points/loot/money by killing them. The only way to get the rogue status to go away is to kill the other Division agents or hide and wait for the bounty time to end.

* This is played [[ExactWords literally straight]] in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', when NCR Major Dhatri puts out bounties on the heads of three notorious Fiends - Violet, Cook Cook and Driver Nephi. He needs their heads to verify their deaths, and the heads must not be mangled so bad their identity cannot be confirmed. To claim the bounty, you must not use energy weapons ( which turn entire bodies into ash or goo), explosive weapons (which mangle the entire body) or headshots which mangle the head. And it is best not to bring ED-E (who uses energy weapons) or Boon (who gets a lot of headshot kills).

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'': In [[CowboyEpisode Episode 88]], Stumpy, Quack Quack, and Mr. Cat, who are bandits in this episode, see {{Wanted Poster}}s with their names, pictures and rewards: 5000 dollars for Mr. Cat, 6500 dollars for Quack Quack and... [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking 33 cents for Stumpy.]]

* WesternAnimation/WanderOverYonder: [[BigBad Lord Hater]] posts bounties on Wander and Sylvia for his past defeats, even directly hiring some bounty hunters on occasion to collect. [[HoistByHisOwnPetard This ends up]] putting him at a disadvantage at one point, as due to being the number one fugitive in the galaxy solely because of Hater’s influence, it qualifies Wander to attend a normally villains only party, thus giving Hater additional competition.

* To stop desertion from the Foreign Legionnaries in Morocco, in 1921 Commander Maire announced to the locals that each deserter brought back alive would be worth 20 francs, and that each head would be worth 100 francs. It worked.
** When pro-Vichy elements of the Foreign Legion were tasked with running an internment camp for Allied personnel that was one step above being a concentration camp (it was located in the deep desert in Algeria, a technically neutral country but a colony of Vichy France, a puppet state of Nazi Germany), this system was resurrected to deter British, Commonwealth and American prisoners from attempting escape.
* The Gulag administration announced to the Siberian they could receive bounties for each head of escaped ''zek''.

* ''Film/JohnWickChapter2'': After John honours Santino D'Antonio's marker, Santino promptly puts a price on his head, and keeps increasing it as John cuts a bloody swathe through everyone who tries to collect. The consequences of this continue into [[Film/JohnWickChapter3Parabellum Chapter Three]] (and [[Film/JohnWickChapter4 beyond]]).

* WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}: [[spoiler:After toad tower falls on his watch,]] Captain Grime is declared a fugitive for his failure, with him and Sasha having to fight off [[FrontlineGeneral General Yunnan]] when she tries to eliminate him.

* WesternAnimation/WanderOverYonder: [[BigBad Lord Hater]] posts bounties on Wander and Sylvia for his past defeats, even directly hiring some [[BountyHunter bounty hunters]] on occasion to collect. [[HoistByHisOwnPetard This ends up]] putting him at a disadvantage at one point, as due to being the number one fugitive in the galaxy solely because of Hater’s influence, it qualifies Wander to attend a normally villains only party, thus giving Hater additional competition.

* WesternAnimation/WanderOverYonder: [[BigBad Lord Hater]] posts bounties on Wander and Sylvia for his past defeats, even directly hiring some [[BountyHunter bounty hunters]] on occasion to collect. [[HoistByHisOwnPetard This ends up]] putting him at a disadvantage in one point, as due to being the number one fugitive in the galaxy solely because of Hater’s influence, it qualifies Wander to attend a normally villains only party, thus giving Hater additional competition.

* WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse: Eda has a rather high price on her head, along with King, for refusing to join a coven. [[Cool [[spoiler:Luz, Lilith, and even Hooty end up with additional bounties as well, as [[VaguenessIsComing The Day of Unity]] approaches.]]

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': The Assassins' Guild lives and breathes this trope. The Hogfather had a bounty of $3,000,000. Moist von Lipwig had a conditional $100,000 bounty on his head. Lord Vetinari and The Duke of Ankh, Sir Samuel Vimes had bounties, before being being taken off the lists.

* ''Series/BlakesSeven''.

-->'''Tarvin:''' I wonder if there's a price on your head anywhere?
-->'''Sarkoff:''' No. But I imagine there is on yours, though.
-->'''Tarvin:''' [Laughs] I'd be ashamed if there weren't.

* ''Film/TheThreeMusketeers1993'': The Cardinal offers a bounty for the each of the Musketeers after they free D'Artagnan.

** [[spoiler: As of the Vivre Card datebook releases in September 2021, aside from Luffy, only eleven other people are known to have ever had bounties of one billion or higher -- in order, the top six are the late Pirate King Gol D. Roger (5,564,800,000, the highest known to have ever been given), Edward "Whitebeard" Newgate (5,046,000,000 before his death and the second highest ever issued), Kaido "of the Beasts" (4,611,100,000), "Big Mom" Charlotte Linlin (4,388,000,000), "Red-Haired" Shanks (4,048,900,000), and "Blackbeard" Marshall D. Teach (2,247,600,000), while the five below Luffy are all followers of three of the original Four Emperors -- King "The Conflagration" (top-ranked of Kaido's three "Lead Performers"; 1,390,000,000), Marco "The Phoenix" (former First Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates; 1,374,000,000), Queen "The Plague" (second-ranked of Kaido's three "Lead Performers"; 1,320,000,000), Charlotte Katakuri (son of Big Mom; 1,057,000,000) and Jack "The Drought" (lowest of Kaido's three "Lead Performers"; 1,000,000,000).]]

** [[spoiler: Chapter 1058 reveals that six more people have had their bounties raised to 1 billion or higher -- Zoro (1,111,000,000), Jimbei (1,100,000,000), Sanji (1,032,000,000), Buggy (3,189,000,000), Crocodile (1,965,000,000) and Mihawk (3,590,000,000).]]

** [[spoiler: Chapter 1058 reveals that six more people have had their bounties raised to 1 billion or higher -- Zoro (1,100,001,100), Jimbei (1,100,000,000), Sanji (1,032,000,000), Buggy (3,189,000,000), Crocodile (1,965,000,000) and Mihawk (3,590,000,000).]]

* ''VideoGame/LiveALive'': The Wild West chapter's protagonist, the Sundown Kid, has a bounty of $5,000 on his head, dead or alive, which serves as a source of his rivalry with the BountyHunter Mad Dog, who wants to claim the bounty and the glory for getting his head. [[spoiler:The chapter's ending reveals that, in truth, Sundown anonymously placed the bounty on his own head [[SurvivorsGuilt out of shame over losing his hometown]], to [[SuicideByCop give the bounty hunters an incentive to kill him]].]]

Compare DemandingTheirHead when someone ''literally'' puts a bounty on a severed head.

* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', a pirate's prestige is tied to the size of the bounty the World Government has placed on their head. Likewise, a pirate crew's prestige is indicated by the sum of bounties on all of its current members. The Straw Hat Pirates, for instance, started off with zero bounties, and eventually racked up a total of over three billion [[GlobalCurrency berries]]. Main character Luffy, all by himself, received a bounty of 1.5 billion berries after all of his antics of being a ChaoticGood hero. In general, pirates' bounties are treated similarly to PowerLevels, with a pirate's bounty being roughly correlated to how strong they are in a fight, although there are many exceptions.

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* ''Film/BringMeTheHeadOfAlfredoGarcia'': El Jefe puts a contract out on Garcia because he knocked up El Jefe's daughter. The protagonist finds out that Garcia is already dead and buried, so he decides to dig him up and remove his head to return for the reward.

* This is played [[LiteralWords literally straight]] in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', when NCR Major Dhatri puts out bounties on the heads of three notorious Fiends - Violet, Cook Cook and Driver Nephi. He needs their heads to verify their deaths, and the heads must not be mangled so bad their identity cannot be confirmed. To claim the bounty, you must not use energy weapons ( which turn entire bodies into ash or goo), explosive weapons (which mangle the entire body) or headshots which mangle the head. And it is best not to bring ED-E (who uses energy weapons) or Boon (who gets a lot of headshot kills).

* ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption2'': In the mission ''A Fisher of Men'', Arthur and Jack Marston are confronted by Agents Milton and Ross of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, who're on the hunt for the Van der Linde Gang. Milton mentions that Arthur's head alone is worth $5,000.
->'''Arthur''': Five thousand dollars? [[DeadpanSnarker Can I turn myself in?]]