History Main / TrialByFriendlyFire

* ''{{Prototype}}: Blackwatch'' has no qualms against "burning" their own to stop the spread of TheVirus.

* ''WeWereSoldiers'' has this trope when the commander had to call in "Broken Arrow," massive emergency air support, to stop an enemy attack about to overrun their position. Unfortunately, one of the soldier calling in airstrikes has one that comes too close and some fellow soldiers are hit by the friendly fire. While the soldier is obviously distraught, the commander tells him not worry about that and keep going since the entire unit's survival is at stake.

* A variant appears in the ''BattlestarGalactica'' pilot:

* In one ''X-men'' comic, Cameron Hodge tried to goud Cable into shooting him through Psylocke. He failed and good that he did since he was literally MadeOfIron and Psylocke would have been the only fatality.

Sometimes the answer is "yes". While it's possible (and more common) for the hero to TakeAThirdOption, the hero actually going through (even accidentally) with it obviously has much more dramatic impact. An AntiHero will decide that saving the world is just too important to let collateral damage or personal concerns get in the way and tearfully pull the trigger. Sometimes there will be consent, explicit or inferred, on the part of the person in the firing line, that [[HeroicSacrifice getting the villain is more important than them surviving]]. Non-{{Anti Hero}}es put in this position might have sworn a mutual pact to take the villain down no mater what, up to and including a SuicidePact in dire circumstances, or the trapped character will give some sort of signal indicating to their comrade they're prepared to die for the cause. Or they may have some AppliedPhlebotinum or [[StockSuperpowers superpower]] stashed away that the villain (or even the hero) doesn't know about and may secure their survival.

* The Doctor of DoctorWho has occasionally found himself in this type of position. Most notably, it was revealed that in the Time War he locked all of the fighting in a inescapable loop, dooming everyone in it to eternally repeat the fighting. This included not only the Daleks and the Evil time-lords, but all his friends and family. In the [[spoiler: End of Time he was forced to repeat his choice.]]

->Note: "Rule 5" in [[BigBookOfWar The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates]] states "Close air support and friendly fire should be easier to tell apart." Should be, yes. But sometimes you need to call in an air strike on your own position, just to be sure.
->--''SchlockMercenary'', Author's note.

* In ''CodeGeass'', [[spoiler:after Suzaku is immobilized but has caught Zero, the Britannian military orders him to keep them both there so they can bomb the area and kill them both together. This result is only avoided by Lelouch using his Geass to force Suzaku to save them.]]

* The film Bat-21 has Gene Hackman's character calling down an air strike on a massing of enemy troops, despite the Reconnaissance pilot's warning that it's too close. [[spoiler: though it's probably more inexperience than bravado.]]

* "The Best of Both Worlds" in ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' -- Riker: "Mr. Worf... fire." [[spoiler:(Un)fortunately, the attack is completely ineffective.]]

* {{Discworld}}: In ''{{Discworld/Hogfather}}'', When Teatime, armed with Death's sword that can cut anything and in the presence of a dreamed-of chance to kill TheGrimReaper himself (not to mention the children Susan is responsable for), Susan, in desperation as much as anything, throws the poker (imbued with the children's belief that it can kill monsters), right through Death. It helps that Death is practically immortal, but as Susan admits, she was only "reasonably confident" that it would work.

* "The Best of Both Worlds" in ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' -- "Riker: Mr. Worf... fire." [[spoiler:(Un)fortunately, the attack is completely ineffective.]]

* In ''SoulCalibur III'' Maxi's ending has him telling Killic to stab him to destroy the [[EvilWeapon Soul Edge]] (and prevent him from falling under his influence). Whether he survives or not depends on a QuicktimeEvent.

KillUsBoth is a more specific case where the hero can restrain, but not defeat the villain on his own, and decides that he'd rather be killed than let the villain continue his reign of terror. This focuses more on the decision that CollateralDamage is acceptable and holding fire is not.

** Forgetting this is the reason why much is made of British troops being ordered to walk towards the German lines. It wasn't out of some stupid fanatical adherence to discipline; it's because the person mocking the British for this tactic has forgotten about or doesn't know about the wall of high explosive and steel (and later, sometimes several walls at once) being swept back and forth across the enemy lines in their support. Get the fire roller right, and the men can walk to their goal in perfect safety - get it wrong, and not all the running in the world will save them.

* In the CaiaphasCain short story "The Beguiling," Cain calls down an artillery barrage on a finishing school he'd just left. [[spoiler: The students are actually Slaaneshi cultists who'd created a daemonhost.]]

[[AC: Film]]

* In ''{{Heroes}}'', the puppetmaster Eric Doyle was defeated by having Claire's mother shoot her. Lucky for them, Doyle didn't know Claire has a Healing Factor.

* A much less extreme example, but in the {{Criminal Minds}} episode LDSK, Hotch does first verbally devastate and then physically kick the shit out of Reid in order to gain the trust of a sniper who's taken both of them hostage.

* {{Prototype}}: Blackwatch has no qualms against "burning" their own to stop the spread of TheVirus.

* A common maneuver in TeamFortress2 is the "spycheck" : shoot your flamethrower at a teammate. If he doesn't immediately turn into a burning ennemy spy, guess he was a friendly after all. (Fortunately, in this game you are FriendlyFireproof, so spychecking--or running at a supposed teammate to see if you no-clip through them--is highly recommended.)

* There were several episodes in World War II of observers calling down fire on their own positions. Several died doing this which would make it a HeroicSacrifice.

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* A common manoeuver in TeamFortress2 is the "spycheck" : shoot your flamethrower at a teammate. If he doesn't immediately turn into an ennemy spy, guess he was a friendly after all.