History Main / ShootTheBuilder

* In ''Manga/ShamanKing'', a daimyo ordered the samurai Amidamaru to kill his best friend Mosuke, so that he would never forge a blade greater than the one he presented to the daimyo. The two of them decided to rebel against the Daimyo, and Mosuke set about on creating the greatest sword of his life, but he was unable to get the blade to Amidamaru in time and he was overwhelmed by the sheer number of the daimyo's men and killed, with Mosuke being executed shortly after.

So you've created your ultimate weapon of terror/fortress of doom/super-secret thing. One problem: somebody had to build/design this thing. What happens if s/he talks or grows a conscience? Simple solution: have them all killed! Your secrets will be safe and s/he [[DisposableSuperheroMaker can't build another one]] for any rivals, and if done to a particularly naive engineer, you just acquired their services for free!

* ''Film/TheMckenzieBreak:'' A naval engineer who helps several other Nazi [=POW=]s construct their tunnel (but doesn't plan to escape himself) is beaten to death by the leader of the plot once the tunnel is completed so he won't reveal details about the escape under questioning.

* Averted in ''ComicBook/{{Batman}} Streets of Gotham''. Jenna Duffy, a.k.a. The Carpenter is a minor recurring villain whose specialty is renovating supervillain lairs. She is hired to renovate and booby trap a theater by a mad film buff calling himself The Director, who intends to sell video footage of the traps killing Batman--The Carpenter wholly intends to finish her job and leave before Batman inevitably foils The Director, but finds out he plans to kill her too. She goes off-script, tips of Batman, and uses her handiwork to incapacitate members of The Director's gang, even managing to convince Batman she had been kidnapped and strongarmed into working for him.

* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', King Maegor [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast the Cruel]], who organized the completion of the royal palace and King's Landing, had the architects, masons, etc. murdered so that he would be the only one who knew the location of all of the secret passages. [[spoiler: Despite this, Varys the Spider has access to most of the passageways. In fact when we finally see it's all one network; once you've got inside one you can find all the other entrances from the back.]]

:: This gets particularly funny in context: there was not a single technology or design Imperial Japan had by that time in the war that was better than what the United States already had in the field. The Yamato, and her sister ship Musashi, were less effective in ''any'' role than the contemporary US battleships of ''Iowa'' class entering service about the same time, let alone the monster ''Montana'' class that were projected but never built; in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, old UsefulNotes/WorldWarI era US battleships at the Pearl Harbor and a series a torpedo boats completely decimated the Japanese Southern Force.)

* In ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil'', this was the fate of George Trevor, who designed the mansion ([[spoiler:he escaped, only to find that they were just messing with him anyway ,and gave up and starved to death after learning of his family's fate]]). However, compared to his wife and daughter, he got off lightly; unbeknown to him, they were [[spoiler:used as test subjects while he was working on the mansion. The latter became a TragicMonster, while the former fought off her infection, only to be killed by Umbrella when she failed as a test subject]].

* Not as literal as these other examples but right at the end of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, the Japanese destroyed everything they could about their Yamato-class "super" battleships, apparently so they couldn't be copied ([[AwesomeButImpractical not that anyone wanted to]]). Most of the information about them comes from a report a visiting German officer compiled. This gets particularly funny in context: there was not a single technology or design Imperial Japan had by that time in the war that was better than what the United States already had in the field. The Yamato, and her sister ship Musashi, were less effective in ''any'' role than the contemporary US battleships of ''Iowa'' class entering service about the same time, let alone the monster ''Montana'' class that were projected but never built; in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, old UsefulNotes/WorldWarI era US battleships at the Pearl Harbor and a series a torpedo boats completely decimated the Japanese Southern Force.) Even as a battleship, the Yamato class wasn't very awesome (aside from being the biggest battleship ever), because the only real advantage it had over the Iowa-class was its huge 18.1-inch guns (giving it a marginally greater range than other battleships--but their penetrative power comparison to the modernized US 16-inch guns of Iowa and Montana classes was not greater.), but Imperial Japan's fire control systems weren't advanced/accurate enough to make that extra range worth anything. The Musashi was wrecked unceremoniously by a series of carrier strikes, and the Yamato was rendered ''irrelevant'' shortly after, when Japan had no carrier forces whatsoever or enough of a surface fleet to be a threat, and the Yamato was obliterated with minimal casualties by a single carrier strike later in the war. In other words, Imperial Japan tried to invoke this trope for its Yamato-class battleships that were not as good as the average American battleship (not to mention carriers...), performed extremely poorly during the entire war, and the Japanese Empire ''knew this full well, but did it anyway.'' [[SanityHasAdvantages Sanity has its advantages, apparently.]]
** Done in a slightly round about way with Imperial Japan's [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-400-class_submarine i-400 class]] [[MilitaryMashupMachine submarine aircraft carriers]]. Except they were sunk by ''American'' forces to keep them out of Soviet hands after Japan's surrender... ''after'' they'd made very thorough inspections of the captured boats. While submarine aircraft carriers were something of a dead-end technology, the techniques used in making the hanger airtight later proved to be very useful in constructing the earliest ballistic missile submarines.

** In "The Experts," the Gestapo sets out to murder two radio experts stationed at Stalag 13 on false charges of organizing a black market operation. One of the men is shot while supposedly resisting arrest, but Hogan warns the other one. The surviving German eventually reveals that (along with another man who was shot during an alleged desertion attempt) the two of them helped install the communications facility at a secret bunker for the German high command. The efforts to keep that facility secret become directly responsible for its exposure.

* In ''Film/MacheteKills'', Mendez tells Machete that there is a DeadMansSwitch hooked up to his heart. If his heart stops beating, the stolen missile will be launched at Washington. He says that only two people know how to disarm the device. Doctor Villachez, his chief scientist, confirms this. Mendez then shoots Villachez and tells Machete there is no only person who knows how to disarm it, and they are in the US.

* {{Subverted}} by King Minos and Daedalus from Myth/ClassicalMythology. Minos only locked the famous architect away, because he still wanted to use his talent. Even when Daedalus advised Ariadne the best way to help Theseus, Minos didn't kill him, but imprisoned in the labyrinth. Some versions of this myth suggest that Minos spared Daedalus' life, not only because of his talent, but also the friendship they shared.
** Almost inverted, when Daedalus escaped and hid in another kingdom, where Minos eventually tracked him down. However, before the King could capture the architect, Daedalus boiled Minos alive.

** In the ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' Tomb King army book, it's mentioned that it was expected of Necrotects to be buried with their pharaoh in the grandiose pyramid they designed. Refusing was not exactly illegal, but [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident accident-prone]]. Ramhotep the Visionary made a career out of disguising himself as lesser builders and then swapping out when the time came for the builder to go into the pyramid. He only followed tradition when he was close to dying, and was none too happy upon waking up in undeath to find none of his other projects survived.

* The Creator/TomClancy book ''Against All Enemies'' features Pedro Romero, a construction engineer who reluctantly makes a tunnel under the Mexican border in order to afford a medical operation for one of his children. A group of Islamic terrorists who pay Romero's boss to use the tunnel kill Romero once they see how uncomfortable he is about the idea of what they'll do in America. Romero briefly gains the upper hand by threatening the terrorists with a detonator that can trigger explosives rigged to collapse the tunnel if the authorities find it, but ultimately he's stabbed InTheBack.
* The nuclear engineer in ''Literature/TheSumOfAllFears'' was killed by the terrorists as soon as they believed the bomb was finished. They probably should have let him triple check everything first.

** Goldeneyes Silverhand Dactylos from ''Literature/TheColourOfMagic'', who was lavishly rewarded and then maimed by various employers to stop him creating anything more beautiful. He earned his name by crafting replacement eyes and a silver prosthetic hand, until his last employer simply had him shot (by that time his only wish is to forgo payment and be allowed to leave without the loss of any more body parts). Dactylos is a parody of several RealLife myths: 1. the unnamed architect who created the Moscow Kremlin who was ordered to be blinded by tsar Ivan The Terrible; 2. Ruze who created the Astrological Clock of Prague, who was also blinded so that he could never build a clock that would rival it; 3. Greek inventor Daedalus, kept imprisoned by his patron the king of Crete, so that nobody else could benefit from his genius (Daedalus escaped by building himself a set of wings and flying away).

* ''Literature/{{Cryptonomicon}}:'' The final step in the WW-II Japanese plan to build a super-secret underground vault for their plundered wealth was to flood it with water, with all of their slave labor sealed up inside along with all the gold. Fortunately for some of the workers, one of their leaders knew what was coming, and designed in a back-door escape route.
* In one of the ''Literature/PreludeToDune'' prequels, the Baron Harkonnen and some flunkies go to his secret resort, [[DeadGuyOnDisplay decorated with display cases containing the decaying corpses of the architects]], who died with resigned looks on their faces.
** Rabban also kills the Richese scientist who invents the [[InvisibilityCloak no-field]] and builds the Baron's no-chamber and a small no-ship. The Baron later berates Rabban for his rash actions when the no-ship ends up being destroyed (in fairness to Rabban, he was under the impression that the Harkonnen had enough information to copy the inventor's works. Unfortunately for the Harkonnen and the inventor, the inventor had taken counter-measures to keep the Harkonnen from replicating his work without his further aid, but did not get the opportunity to explain this to anyone before being killed). It's not until millennia later that the technology is rediscovered.
* ''AlexRider:''
** The second entry in the series, ''Point Blanc'', had this as part of the backstory for the eponymous location. But it wasn't to keep secrets, nor to ensure that the building would remain unique: the architect did such a poor job that his contracter had him shot.
** Later in ''Point Blanc,'' the plastic surgeon responsible for [[spoiler:altering Dr. Grief's clones to resemble the heirs to vast fortunes]] is killed once his work is complete (albeit partially because he asks for more money).
** In the fifth book, ''Scorpia,'' pharmaceutical executive Harold Lieberman invents [[spoiler:a nanobot weapon that [[OrganizationOfEvil SCORPIA]] plans to use to kill all of the schoolchildren in England]] and ends up ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice. His employers do consider letting him live, but only briefly.
--> '''Mrs. Rothman:''' We'll probably have to kill him too. He may have invented Invisible Sword, but he has no idea how we plan to use it. I expect he'll object. So he'll have to go.

* In ''Literature/SeptimusHeap'', builders avoid working for alchemists for this reason.
* ''Literature/JackReacher'': In ''Die Trying,'' Beau Borken commissions an underground bunker to hold the president's goddaughter prisoner, then kills five of the contractors and locks the sixth inside, promising to dismember him alive unless he gets out by the morning. There is no way out, although the worker breaks off his fingernails trying to find one. Beau then dismembers the worker, satisfied that his secret is safe, and that if one of the men who built the room couldn't get out, then his prisoner won't be able to either.
* ''The Master Sniper'' by Stephen Hunter. A German engineer during World War 2 designs the primitive solar-powered infra-red sight on a modified [=StG44=] rifle intended for an assassination mission. The SS then kill him and the other weapon designers, unfortunately just before he was going to reveal a [[NiceJobFixingItVillain crucial flaw with the weapon that he had discovered]].
* A variation appears in Creator/ArthurCClarke's ''The Fountains of Paradise'': The architect of the Fountains of Kalidasa commits suicide because someone had warned him that he would be blinded when his work was done. Kalidasa is quite outraged at being accused of such a thing:
-->He never discovered the source of the rumor, and quite a few men died slowly before they proved their innocence. It saddened him that the Persian had believed such a lie; surely he should have known that a fellow artist would never have robbed him of the gift of sight....\\
He would never have needed to use his hands again, and after a while, he would not have missed them.
* Discussed and Defied in the ''Literature/DresdenFiles'' novel ''Literature/SmallFavor''. Gard, a thousand-year-old valkyrie and "security contractor", complains that after building a supernatural panic room, her employer refused her suggestion to simply execute all the workers who'd been part of the job in order to keep it secret.
* Averted in ''Literature/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea'': due to its highly advanced nature, every piece of the Nautilus was built separately in shipyards around the world, and then assembled by him and his crew (like him, they'd survived a British crushing a revolt, so they never wanted to leave or reveal its secrets) on their IslandBase.
* The protagonist in ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Iron_Shroud The Iron Shroud]]'' finds a final message written by the engineer of the DeathTrap he's imprisoned him, written on the walls [[TheWallsAreClosingIn which are closing in around him]].
* ''Literature/{{Parker}}'':
** In ''The Man With the Getaway Face'', a criminal on the run returns to the underworld plastic surgeon who changed his face and murders him, as the surgeon was the only one to know what his new face looks like. This causes problems for Parker, who is another client of the surgeon, as the surgeon's staff start hunting down past clients for revenge.
** In ''Flashfire,'' Julius Norte, the man Parker is buying a fake ID from, is attacked by a hitman sent by a previous client (implied to be a former drug dealer) out to eliminate anyone who knows his new identity. Parker speculates that the client also got plastic surgery and then probably killed the doctor. The guy even sends hitmen after ''Parker'' in case Norte told him anything. This turns out to be a RevealingCoverUp and gets the client caught by the FBI after the police capture one of his hitmen.

--> '''Palpatine:''' And if I ever need your services again, I will not hesitate to clone you.

--> '''Fa'ale Lah:''' You know, they killed the engineers, the mechanics, just about everyone who worked on that craft. But I knew. I made the delivery, grabbed what was due me, and I was away. Not far enough, though. They tracked me to Ryloth, Nar Shaada, half the starforsaken worlds in the Tingel Arm. I had my share of close calls.

* The second entry in the ''Literature/AlexRider'' series, ''Point Blanc'', had this as part of the backstory for the eponymous location. But it wasn't to keep secrets, nor to ensure that the building would remain unique: the architect did such a poor job that his contracter had him shot.

** In "The Experts," the Gestapo set out to murder two radio experts stationed at Stalag 13 on false charges of organizing a black market operation. One of the men is shot while supposedly resisting arrest, but Hogan warns the other one. The surviving German eventually reveals that (along with another man who was shot during an alleged desertion attempt) the two of them helped install the communications facility at a secret bunker for the German high command. The efforts to keep that facility secret become directly responsible for its exposure.

** In ''Hot Money,'' Hogan uses the fear of being murdered to get a printing technician to sabotage a Nazi counterfeiting operation. Some ManipulativeEditing of a recording is used to make the technician (who is in no real danger) think that he'll be shot for security reasons once the counterfeiting operation is complete. This gives the printer a vested interest in sabotaging the printing plates and sending the operation back to the starting line.
** In ''The Experts,'' the Gestapo set out to murder two radio experts stationed at Stalag 13 on false charges of organizing a black market operation. One of the men is shot while supposedly resisting arrest, but Hogan warns the other one. The surviving German eventually reveals that (along with another man who was shot during an alleged desertion attempt) the two of them helped install the communications facility at a secret bunker for the German high command. The efforts to keep that facility secret become directly responsible for its exposure.

* ''Series/MissionImpossible'': In "The Legacy", when the IMF discover the underground chamber containing Hitler's gold, they also find the bodies of the workmen who dug the chamber; killed so they could not tell anyone its location.

** Zigzagged in ''Lost City'' from the sequel series. The scientists hired by the Racine Fauchard to recreate the ElixirOfLife are initially paid off and sent home unharmed. However, Racine accidentally leaves evidence of her crimes on one scientist's computer, causing the research team to threaten to go to the authorities. Racine murders nearly all of them within a week. Then she discovers there are flaws in the potion that she can't fix on her own, and spares at least one scientist so that he can fix the formula. Instead, he sabotages the potion to kill her.

* In the ''Literature/DirkPittAdventures'' book ''Sahara,'' Yves Massarde sends the engineers who designed his nuclear waste disposal facility to be worked to death as slave laborers (along with their families) after they become suspicious that he's CuttingCorners and start snooping around.