History Main / ThwartedEscape

->''"Keep going, just a few minutes more and we'll be safe."\\
(Bad guy steps out from behind a tree)\\
"That's what ''you'' think."''

** Happens in [[WesternAnimation/ToyStory1 the first film]], when Woody and Buzz attempt to escape Sid, to the point of being a OverlyLongGag.

-->"Keep going, just a few minutes more and we'll be safe."\\

"That's what ''you'' think."

Any escape attempt -- be it from from a kidnapper, unjust imprisonment, or the like -- that is shown getting within sight of a point beyond which the escapees will be undeniably and irrefutably safe will ''always'' be interrupted, sometimes fatally. ''Commenting'' on how close you are to safety is just TemptingFate and provides a cue for the interruption.

* In ''Film/SuperMarioBros'', Daisy is able to escape her cell with help from Yoshi, but is recaptured when Koopa uses his tower's surveillance cameras and microphones to find her location.

* ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory'':
** Happens in ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory1'', when Woody and Buzz attempt to escape Sid, to the point of being a OverlyLongGag.
** Happens again in ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory3''. The GreatEscape from the Sunnyside daycare center comes to an abrupt end when BigBad Lotso steps in, right before Andy's toys are in safe territory.

"Keep going, just a few minutes more and we'll be safe."\\

* Happens in Pixar's ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory'', when Woody and Buzz attempt to escape Sid, to the point of being a OverlyLongGag.

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* In ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3'', Kirumi was driven to kill Ryoma after her Motive Video revealed she was the Prime Minister of Japan and her people are in danger. When she's voted the Blackened, she decides to make a break for it while the others cheer, only to discover Monokuma ''planned'' for this and Kirumi winds up literally running right into her Execution.

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* In Literature/TheBible, Jonah wants to go anywhere that isn't [[WretchedHive Nineveh]]. His escape is thwarted by God himself.

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* In ''Film/AllTheMoneyInTheWorld'', Paul manages to set fire to a field to distract his captors, break out of his cell, hitch a ride to the nearest town, reach a police station, and call his mother – only for his kidnappers to re-capture him at the station.

* Used to Heartbreaking effect in ''Film/TheGreatEscape''. Hilts was inches away from safety when he got caught, and out of 76 escapees only 3 make it out of German-controlled territory - and 50 out of the other 73 are murdered in cold blood after being recaptured. Worse, this actually happened, and the Nazis had a knack for ''deliberately'' setting up this trope (see RealLife below).
* Played with in ''Gulag'' (1985). The escapees from a Soviet prison camp see a border fence and stagger through the snow towards it, only for an armoured personnel carrier to race up and hold them at gunpoint. Just as they despair at having been stopped just before reaching their goal, they discover they've been captured by ''Norwegian'' soldiers, as they've crossed the border without realising it.
* At the beginning of ''Film/{{Solo}}'', [[ChildhoodFriendRomance Qi'ra and Han Solo]] make a daring escape across Coronet City with a stolen vial of coaxium, hoping to bribe their way past an Imperial checkpoint and start a new life away from the crime and corruption of [[WretchedHive Corellia]]. Unfortunately, just as she's about to step through the gateway after her boyfriend, [[TheFagin Lady Proxima's]] {{Mook}}s snatch Qi'ra and the Imperial officer sounds the alarm, leaving Han [[SeparatedByTheWall trapped on the other side of the gate]] and unable to reach Qi'ra. He's forced to leave her behind, though he swears [[IWillFindYou he'll come back for her.]]

* Moist Von Lipwig digs himself out of prison in ''Discworld/GoingPostal'' only to find his tunnel blocked by a rock. Vetinari placed that rock there on purpose, to give the prisoners something to focus on without letting them escape, and even left Lipwig a new spoon to try to remove the well-mortared stone with (Lipwig having destroyed the old one removing the old mortar from the stone he had removed to start the tunnel).

A SubTrope of the HopeSpot. Due to the nature of the trope, expect some '''unmarked spoilers'''.

A SubTrope of the HopeSpot.

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* Used to Heartbreaking effect in ''TheGreatEscape''. Hilts was inches away from safety when he got caught, and out of 76 escapees only 3 make it out of German-controlled territory - and 50 out of the other 73 are murdered in cold blood after being recaptured. Worse, this actually happened, and the Nazis had a knack for ''deliberately'' setting up this trope (see RealLife below).

* Used to Heartbreaking effect in ''TheGreatEscape''. Hilts was inches away from safety when he got caught, and out of 76 escapees only 3 make it out of German-controlled territory - and 50 out of the other 73 are murdered in cold blood after being recaptured. Worse, this actually happened.

* The short story "[[http://gaslight.mtroyal.ca/tortshil.htm A Torture by Hope]]" by Villiers de L'Isle-Adam is this trope meets YankTheDogsChain

[[AC:TruthInTelevision]]:
* This was a common strategy of the Nazis, when they found out that the prisoners were attempting to escape, they would show no signs of this knowledge, while secretly stationing guards at the escape point, thus luring the escapees into a false sense of security, right at the most dangerous part of the escape.