History Main / StartsStealthilyEndsLoudly

* Most of the story assasinations in ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedI'' end this way. You're highly encouraged to approach your targets stealthily, but once they die, bells start ringing, the guards swarm you, and all hell breaks loose. {{Lampshaded}} after the first mission when Altair reports that his target has been killed:

* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', Luffy enters the Corrida Colosseum battles undercover and in disguise so as not to alert the attention of the BigBad of the arc, who runs the country. In addition, some of the other fighters have a grudge against him, and he'll become a target. Eventually, some of said adversaries who bear a grudge see right through his disguise, forcing Luffy to stop holding back. By the time the tournament ends, there is a gaping hole where the arena used to be, [[spoiler:though that was Luffy's brother Sabo doing that, who substituted in for Luffy, putting on the disguise and picking up where he left off.]]

* Quite common in ''VideoGame/PhantomDoctrine'', a turn based strategy game in the vein of ''XCOM'' with Cold war spies. Most missions begin in infiltration mode where enemies have limited range of vision and will not react unless the player's team is seen doing something suspicious. If an alarm is triggered the mission becomes a more standard combat based affair with realistic line of sight.[[note]]While many missions can be completed without breaking stealth, some story missions occasionally have an unavoidable alarm triggered as part of the plot, forcing to turn to combat anyway.[[/note]]

* In the mission "Demons of Razgriz" of ''VideoGame/AceCombat5TheUnsungWar'', the Wardog Squadron must approach the giant enemy submarine under the radar to avoid detection. However, [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption even if you do everything right]], you get spotted while still a few kilometers away and must go loud from there on.

** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid5'': Enforced, as the last mission of the game is [[spoiler: the first mission of the game, with a big dose of OnceMoreWithClarity. Just like the first mission, you'll be as stealthy as you ''can'' be until the Man on Fire appears in the lobby, at which point the cutscene takes over.]]

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' During volume 2 Blake and Sun manage to infiltrate a White Fang rally to gather information easily enough but a spotted by Torchwick during their attempted exit leading to the pair being chased from the building by Torchwick piloting a stolen Paladin mech

* [[SoMuchForStealth The heroes were compromised]] and the guards have been placed on RedAlert, forcing a more direct approach to their target or the exit.

* In ''Film/ANewHope'', our heroes manage to infiltrate the Death Star (this was itself Plan B, [[ThatsNoMoon they didn't expect to end up aboard the space station to begin with]]), and end up having to fight their way out once they've found Princess Leia. After an initial shootout in her cellblock, they try to go stealthy again, but Han [[BlatantLies fails his bluff check]] when someone calls to find out what the gunfire was about.
-->'''Han Solo''': It was a boring conversation anyways. ''[[RedAlert Luke! We're about to have company!]]''

* ''VideoGame/MegaManZero 4'': Around 1/3 into the story, you'll have to go save the kidnapped Neige. Zero enters the prison site from the air ducts, without many mooks in his way, before you finally reach Neige and teleport her to your home base. But just as Zero is about to go out as well, the security system [[RedAlert goes on alert]] and jams all outside frequencies, as well as summoning lots of mooks to hound you. You have to cut your way through the enemies and obstacles before you find yourself outside the building so you can teleport away.

* In ''Franchise/WallaceAndGromit: WesternAnimation/TheWrongTrousers'', [=Feathers McGraw=]'s diamond heist goes this way. He successfully sneaks a [[ItMakesSenseInContext sleeping Wallace]] and the techno-trousers into the museum, dodges the [[LaserHallway laser security sensors]], and grabs the diamond. Then a loose ceiling panel triggers the museum's security alarm anyway, so Feathers and a now awake and very confused Wallace have to book it out of there.

* ''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar'': At the beginning of ''The Black Gryphon'', Skandranon is sneaking into an enemy encampment. When he's discovered by accident, he blows up the magical weapons he was investigating and starts a one-against-many fight scene (plus slipping in a MercyKill spell for a captured gryphon, which would have revealed his presence if cast earlier).
* Literature/{{Animorphs}} has this as a standard tactic: morph something small and innocuous (usually flies), get to the target, go to battle morph (tiger, wolf, gorilla, grizzly...) and escape once their objective is completed.

* In the third book of the ''[[Literature/TortallUniverse Immortals Quartet]]'', Daine is secretly rescued by allies, who intend for everyone to then secretly escape back and go warn the King and Queen Tortall of the coming War. Daine insists that they first rescue another friend, and is informed that he was caught and killed, at which point Daine decided the best course of action is to destroy everything. With Zombie Dinosaurs. And she does.

* RuleOfDrama dictates a ConvenientlyTimedGuard to appear in order for an action sequence to take place, usually preceeded by an OhCrap moment.

* Quite common in ''VideoGame/PhantomDoctrine'', a turn based strategy game in the vein of ''XCOM'' with Cold war spies. Most missions begin in infiltration mode where enemies have limited range of vision and will not react unless the player's team is seen doing something suspicious. If an alarm is triggered the mission becomes a more standard combat based affair with realistic line of sight.

* ''VideoGame/XCOM2'' missions tend to go this way, as for most of them the players' squad starts off in a "Concealment" state (indicating that they are undetected by the enemy), and most of the time when one soldier is detected (or completes an objective) the entire squad will lose Concealment, with no way to re-enter it.
** There are exceptions, though. Certain events in the game can allow a soldier (or the entire squad) to re-enter Concealment, and there is a soldier ability that prevents them from losing Concealment if another team member gets detected. One of the [[EleventhHourSuperpower second-to-last mission exclusive perks]] is Individual Concealment, which means that when a soldier on that mission is detected, only ''they'' lose Concealment.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'': ''Retribution'' event depicts a Blackwatch mission that fits this trope. After stealthily reaching their objective, Reyes proceeds to execute the target (instead of apprehending them as ordered). This causes the targets' guards to become alerted, resulting in the team having to escape the area while under significant fire (which is the playable section.)

* In ''Franchise/WallaceAndGromit: WesternAnimation/TheWrongTrousers'', [=Feathers McGraw=]'s diamond heist goes this way. He successfully sneaks Wallace and the techno-trousers into the museum, dodges the [[LaserHallway laser security sensors]], and grabs the diamond. Then a loose ceiling panel triggers the museum's security alarm anyway, so Feathers and Wallace have to book it out of there.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'': ''Retribution'' event depicts a Blackwatch mission that fits this trope. After stealthily reaching their target, Reyes proceeds to execute the target (instead of apprehending them as ordered). The particulars of the execution causes the targets' guards to become alerted, resulting in the team having to escape the area while under significant fire (which is the playable section.)

* In ''VideoGame/Battlefield3'''s co-op level "Drop 'Em Like Liquid", Snake 6-6 infiltrates a section of Paris to get the drop on PLR patrols. However, the other PLR forces after another patrol spots them taking out a couple of sentries, even if it's done via knife takedown/suppressed weapons as part of the game.