History Main / ShootTheBuilder

* Part of Franky's backstory in ''Manga/OnePiece''. His mentor Tom built the ship used by Gold Roger, the Pirate King, and was killed by the World Government in part due to GuiltByAssociation, and in part due to hoping that his talent wouldn't be used by pirates ever again. Tom managed to survive long enough due to him wanting to build The Puffing Tom: a water-based train network to run throughout Water 7 that could help bring prosperity to the City of Shipwrights once again and the World Government allowing this; [[HopeSpot eventually leading to the World Government acquitting Tom after the train network was considered a complete success]], only for Spandam; a Marine who wanted to steal the plans for [[LostSuperweapon Pluton]] that Tom possessed, decided to steal one of the Battleships that Toms' apprentice Franky built to fight against Sea Kings, [[FrameUp and use them against Marine ships to have Tom take the blame for their destruction.]] Tom passed on the Pluton plans to Franky who was spared the same fate, and who would eventually become the Straw Hat Pirates' Shipwright.

* Part of Franky's backstory in ''Manga/OnePiece''. His mentor Tom built the ship used by Gold Roger, the Pirate King, and was killed by the World Government in part due to GuiltByAssociation, and in part due to hoping that his talent wouldn't be used by pirates ever again. Tom managed to survive long enough due to him wanting to build The Puffing Tom: a water-based train network to run throughout Water 7 that could help bring prosperity to the City of Shipwrights once again and the World Government allowing this; [[HopeSpot eventually leading to the World Government acquitting Tom after the train network was considered a complete success]], only for Spandam; a Marine who wanted to steal the plans for [[AncientWeapon Pluton]] that Tom possessed, decided to steal one of the Battleships that Toms' apprentice Franky built to fight against Sea Kings, [[FrampeUp and use them against Marine ships to have Tom take the blame for their destruction.]] Tom passed on the Pluton plans to Franky who was spared the same fate, and who would eventually become the Straw Hat Pirates' Shipwright.

* Part of Franky's backstory in ''Manga/OnePiece''. His mentor Tom built the ship used by the Pirate King, and was killed in part due to guilt by association, and in part due to hoping that talent wouldn't be used by pirates again. Franky survived the same fate, and eventually became a pirate.

* In ''The Master Sniper'' by Stephen Hunter, a German engineer during World War II 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]].

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 they talk or grow 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!

** Attempted but 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 off 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.
** ComicBook/TheJoker had an entire roomful of deadly toys built for Franchise/{{Batman}} in the story "The Joker's Rumpus Room." Once they were finished the first thing he did was kill elderly toymaker Pepetto for knowing too much.
* Comicbook/GreenArrow's StalkerWithACrush Cupid murdered her hairdresser after she got a really good haircut so that no one else could have hair that good.
* Recurring ComicBook/IronMan villain Killer Shrike attempts to do this to GadgeteerGenius and villain arms maker The Tinkerer after he upgrades Shrike's suit. Tinkerer, being used to dealing with the worst scum Marvel has to offer, is too savvy to fall for it, and has built-in failsafes that let him disable any weapon he has made, in case anyone would be stupid enough to try this trope on him.

** In ''ComicBook/ThePunisherTheEnd'', the [[CorruptCorporateExecutive executives]] who caused WorldWarThree had the engineer who built their survival bunker falsely incarcerated [[BondVillainStupidity instead of just killing him.]] Evidently, they never expected him to tell his cellmate, and never anticipated that his cellmate would be [[spoiler:The Punisher]].

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* {{Downplayed}} example in ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' -- the craftsman who [[spoiler:made a perfect duplicate of Xykon's phylactery]] for Redcloak is actually killed by someone else as collateral damage. However, after Redcloak sincerely pays his respects to the dead hobgoblin for doing such a masterful job, he... [[DisposingOfABody disintegrates the corpse]] rather than raising him from the dead as he easily could. It's left ambiguous whether he would have kept the guy alive if he'd found him that way -- he would be [[HaveYouToldAnyoneElse the only other person to know]] about an ''extremely'' delicate and dangerous secret, after all.

* ''Film/TheMckenzieBreak:'' A naval engineer who helps several other Nazi POWs construct their tunnel (but doesn't plan to escape himself) [[spoiler:is beaten to death by the leader of the plot once the tunnel is completed. It's unclear whether Schluter intended to kill Unger from the start or [[HeKnowsTooMuch only kills him because Unger witnesses Schluter causing the deaths of several other German prisoners to provide a distraction for the escape.]] The latter is implied, though.]]

** 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.

* Downplayed in ''Film/{{Firefox}}'' and the novel it's based on. The scientists building the CoolPlane are destined for a [[TheGulag gulag]] once it's finished, partially because they're dissidents being forced to build it in the first place.

** 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. [[{{Irony}} The efforts to keep that facility secret]] [[HoistByTheirOwnPetard become directly responsible]] [[SelfFulfillingProphecy for its exposure]].

* ComicBook/{{Batman}} enemy [=KGBeast=] uses his new ArmCannon to kill the ArmsDealer who built it. This seems to be motivated by [=KGBeast=] not wanting to pay the guy rather than out of a desire for secrecy, given how the murder alerts the police about the ArmCannon ''faster.''
* Attempted but 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 off 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.
* The comic version of ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' has the [[spoiler:experts who made the fake alien]] killed via a bomb on their boat. And then, the EvilPlan involved a ''deadly pyramid of killers that will kill the previous killers'' so no one could connect the deaths.

* ComicBook/TheJoker had an entire roomful of deadly toys built for Franchise/{{Batman}} in the story "The Joker's Rumpus Room." Once they were finished the first thing he did was kill elderly toymaker Pepetto for knowing too much.
* Recurring ComicBook/IronMan villain Killer Shrike attempts to do this to gadgeteer genius and villain arms maker The Tinkerer after he upgrades Shrike's suit. Tinkerer, being used to dealing with the worst scum Marvel has to offer, is too savvy to fall for it, and has built-in failsafes that let him disable any weapon he has made, in case anyone would be stupid enough to try this trope on him.
* Downplayed cruelly in ''ComicBook/NikolaiDante''. The Tsar has a massive monument of his own visage built in New Moscow, which was paid for by a raise in the tribute from all of the other dynasties. He has the architects who designed it [[EyeScream blinded]] so that they may never top this achievement.

[[folder:Film]]
* ''Film/TheAdventuresOfPlutoNash:'' Rex Crater kills the doctor who cloned him. Her assistant was left alive, but doesn't know that much.
* Downplayed in ''Film/{{Firefox}}'' and the novel it's based on. The scientists building the CoolPlane are destined for a [[TheGulag gulag]] once it's finished, partially because they're dissidents being forced to build it in the first place.

* In the film of ''Film/{{Watchmen}}'', all the scientists involved in the reactor/energy weapon are killed and then vaporized.

* In ''Film/XXx'', the BigBad kills all the scientists with his bioweapon, after they finished building his submarine. While it serves as a pretty good KickTheDog moment, it also raises FridgeLogic questions since he's planning to bomb ''every'' major city but they've only built one for him.

* The BigBad of ''Film/LiveFreeOrDieHard'' kills the hackers who help him build the tools he needs to create a national emergency.
* In ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'', Bane kidnaps Dr. Leonid Pavel and forces him to modify the fusion reactor which he built for Wayne Enterprises into a bomb. Bane presents his plan to the people of Gotham in the city stadium and breaks the Doctor's neck after he confirms that he's the only one with the knowledge to defuse it.
* After Galen's engineers complete the construction of the Death Star in ''Film/RogueOne'', Krennic has them all killed, both to keep them silent and to spite Galen for leaking information to the Rebel Alliance. [[spoiler: Galen left a design flaw for the Rebels to exploit and as a middle finger to the Empire.]]
* Played with in ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar''. Thanos forces King Eitri and his dwarves to make the Infinity Gauntlet for him, then kills them all leaving Eitri the SoleSurvivor. But first he makes Eitri put his hands in molten metal so he can't forge weapons against him. ''"Your life is yours," he said. "But your hands... Your hands are mine alone."'' [[spoiler:Thor points out that it's his knowledge that's important, and so helps him forge another weapon to take down Thanos.]]
* ''Film/TheGoonies:'' In the {{Backstory}}, One-Eyed Willy's treasure-filled pirate ship was trapped inside a grotto after a naval battle. Willy and his crew found several tunnels leading out, but filled them with booby traps so no one could get at their treasure. Willy then proceeded to kill all of his men to ensure that they couldn't circumvent the booby traps (although one man escaped with a map).
* ''Film/TheJackal:'' A gunsmith builds a mechanical control mount for the eponymous assassin’s {{BFG}}. Then he tries to blackmail the Jackal for extra money, and the killer tests the gun by killing him with it.
* ''Film/LethalWeapon4:'' The Triads counterfeit millions in Chinese currency to buy the release of their imprisoned leaders and murder the printer (who almost backs out of the job until they kill the eldest member of his family and then threaten the others) once the job is done. It's unclear whether they intended to kill him from the start or only did so due to the pressure of the police investigation or out of anger at his earlier resistance.
* 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 now only one person who knows how to disarm it, and they are in the US.
* ''Film/TheMckenzieBreak:'' A naval engineer who helps several other Nazi POWs construct their tunnel (but doesn't plan to escape himself) [[spoiler:is beaten to death by the leader of the plot once the tunnel is completed. It's unclear whether Schluter intended to kill Unger from the start or [[HeKnowsTooMuch only kills him because Unger witnesses Schluter causing the deaths of several other German prisoners to provide a distraction for the escape.]] The latter is implied, though.]]
* ''Film/SherlockHolmes:'' TheSummation reveals that Luke Reardon created the various chemical solutions that the villain uses to fake having supernatural powers throughout the movie, and [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness was then killed.]]
* ''Film/{{Tenet}}''. The Algorithm, the device that can [[ApocalypseHow temporally-invert the entire planet]], is the only one of its kind, invented by a scientist who [[NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup destroyed all records of its creation]], inverted the pieces, then killed herself so no one would be able to force her to recreate it.

* In ''Temple'' (by Creator/MatthewReilly), after the heroes kill all of his guards, the omnicidal BigBad kills the scientist who built his doomsday device so no one can disarm it.

* ''Series/FatherBrown'': "The Alchemist's Secret" opens with the alchemist murdering the architect and leaving his body sealed in the secret room in the university (along with the box containing the eponymous secret), after having been assured that the builder have been 'dealt with'.
* ''Series/HogansHeroes'':
** 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 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. [[{{Irony}} The efforts to keep that facility secret]] [[HoistByTheirOwnPetard become directly responsible]] [[SelfFulfillingProphecy for its exposure]].

* ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'': The description for Calo Nord's battle armour says that he killed the craftsman who made it for him in order to appease his ego, ensuring the armour would always be unique.
* ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'': The Practical Incarnation commissioned the construction of an elaborate crypt. Then he of course murdered the architect and builder to hide its secret. [[spoiler:It's not a tomb, it's a trap.]]
** The Paranoid Incarnation tried to safeguard his diary by writing it in an ancient language no one but him knew. He accomplished this by finding a linguist who was the only one alive who knew the language, convinced him to teach it, then killed the man.

* ''VideoGame/PathOfExile'': {{Implied|Trope}} by the Lord's Labyrinth, a DeathCourse that had originally been created by the late Emperor Izaro to test would-be successors. One type of enemy you can run across there are "Undead Engineers", suggesting that a good number of the people involved in building the labyrinth ultimately met this fate once their work was finished.
* In ''VideoGame/TheFeebleFiles'', the guy who devised the security systems on Cygnus Alpha (a max security prison colony) gets sent there as a prisoner shortly after. When Feeble asks him why, he says it's because the information on those systems became classified and he still had them in his brain.
* The Shrine Carpenters who built the Kuze Shrine/Manor of Sleep in ''VideoGame/FatalFrameIII'' were made into sacrificial pillars after they were done to protect the building's secrets.

* [[http://villainsource.com/ Villain Source]] (formerly Villain Supply) advises this in the header for [[http://villainsource.com/lairs.html Lairs and Bases]].
* The EvilOverlordListCellblockB mentions this in item #212. Presumably, there is another entry elsewhere on avoiding the problems of NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup that would eventually come up. At least one version says that instead of this trope, make sure they are well paid and live on site until your plans are finished. You need someone to repair and maintain the place, and you will waste valuable time training the new guys.

Subtrope of YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness. See AlwaysNeedWhatYouGaveUp for the aforementioned 'no backup' problem, which is also similar to MookDepletion.

Subtrope of YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness. Similar to MookDepletion for the aforementioned 'no backup' problem.

* Zigzagged in ''Series/BetterCallSaul'': Gus goes through a lot of trouble so he can keep his underground drug lab secret ''without'' killing the team that built it, hiring a foreign team that work an sleep not knowing their exact location. He still ends up having the lead engineer Werner murdered, but only because Werner [[CabinFever got sick of living indoors for months]], [[LooseLips blabbed about the project]] to strangers, and eventually ran off trying to visit his wife. The rest of the workers are given their money and spared.

* Zigzagged in ''Series/BetterCallSaul.'' The engineer in charge of building Gus's underground drug lab ''is'' killed, but only because he blabbed about it to Gus's rivals. The rest of the workers are given their money and spared.

* [[http://www.cracked.com/article_18968_5-reasons-there-must-be-corpses-buried-under-batcave.html This]] Website/{{Cracked}} article theorises that Franchise/{{Batman}} would have had to kill the workers who helped to build the Batcave.

''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' CListFodder rogue The Fly does a spur-of-the-moment version of this when he opportunistically seizes the builder's work. He gets his powers when he's on the run from the police and finds a scientist named Stillwell working on a chemical formula that will create a meta human with animal characteristics. The Fly forces Stillwell to use it on him, then kills the scientist.

** Well he's an [[CIAEvilFBIGood evil CIA agent]], and [[EstablishingCharacterMoment it's implied by this action]] that his job is to stop Mexico from becoming too good.

* 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 off 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.