History Main / TrickAndFollowPloy

* Parodied in ''DraculaDeadAndLovingIt''. The heroes have Reinfield released so that they may follow him to his masters lair. Fortunately he isn't smart enough to allow what little suspicions he has stop him from going to Dracula and naturally leads them straight to him.

* In ''RobinHoodPrinceOfThieves'' the bad guys specifically let old, blind servant Duncan escape so he can lead them back to good guy's encampment.

** The humans never do lead the Covenant to Earth. However, the Covenant stumble upon Earth while searching for something else. [[spoiler: Because the humans had been spending the last decade or two fortifying their homeworld, they caught the Covenant unprepared. However, once the Covenant realized what they had found, [[ItGotWorse it went badly for the humans.]]]]

* The movie ''Film/{{Commando}}'' has this as well, the only way they found Matrix was that the Colonel actually leads them to him because he thought they already knew where he was and he was going to protect him.

* There's a variation in the Isaac Asimov short story ''Each an Explorer''. A pair of astronauts visit a series of planets. Each planet has a different alien species farming the same alien plant. All of the alien farmers show very little personality and the astronauts slowly realize that the plants are in charge, mind-controlling the aliens to cultivate them. Panicked, they return to earth, not realizing they are bearing spores from the mind-controlling plants.
* ''The Berlin Memorandum'' by AdamHall and its film adaptation, ''The Quiller Memorandum''. The neo-Nazis [[JustBetweenYouAndMe explain their master plan]] to {{Quiller}}, then release him in the hope that he'll rush back to his base to warn his superiors. When Quiller finds himself unable to break out of their surveillance, he sets off a bomb they left in his car, faking his death.

* ''Bionicle'': In the 2008 story, a BrainwashedAndCrazy Matoran is captured and "overhears" the Toa planning to attack the [[BigBad Makuta's]] lair. He "escapes" and flies off to warn them. He is so focused on the praise he will get that he does not notice the Toa following him. When he tells one of them, the Makuta replied, "The Toa Nuva? You mean ''those'' Toa Nuva? The ones you lead here?"

Can be part of a BatmanGambit or a XanatosGambit. See also MacGuffinDeliveryService and RevealingCoverup.

* Happens in ''SoulNomadAndTheWorldEaters'', when TheDitz isn't careful about who's following him [[spoiler:Except its actually part of a villan's XanatosGambit who was merely using ObfuscatingStupidity, eliminating your village, wiping out rival cultists, and drawing the village leader out of hiding all in one stroke.]]

* ElHazard: This is how [[LaughablyEvil Jinnai]] uncovers the location of the Forbidden Isle, which was known to only the three priestesses of Mt. Moldune. Solution: get them to show him where it was.

* In CaptainAmerica Vol. 6 #1, ''"American Dreamers, part one"'', Cap, Sharon, NickFury and Dum-Dum Dugan go to visit Jimmy Jupiter, a WW2 metahuman who's just woken from a coma he's been in since the war. Unfortunatly, HYDRA are after Jupiter too, and they follow the heroes straight to him, allowing them to kidnap the old man.

** VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas has one guy who begs you to save his girlfriend from mutant Geckos. Turns out, the geckos are keeping him from looting a camp at the top of a hill.

* [[DarkForcesSaga Jedi Outcast]] has [[BigBad Desann]] needing the Valley of the Jedi for his plans. The only thing is, only one person alive in the entire galaxy knows where it is, Kyle Katarn,[[RetiredBadass a former Jedi who cut himself off from the Force]]. Desann [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown beats Kyle within an inch of his life]] and makes him think his LoveInterest is dead so Kyle will go to the Valley to reconnect himself to the Force. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero It works, and Desann now has an army of Force-users at his disposal.]]

* ''Bionicle'': In the 2008 story, a BrainwashedAndCrazy Matoran is captured and "overhears" the Toa planning to attack the [[BigBad Makuta]]'s lair. He "escapes" and flies off to warn them. He is so focused on the praise he will get that he does not notice the Toa following him. When he tells one of them, the Makuta replied, "The Toa Nuva? You mean ''those'' Toa Nuva? The ones you lead here?"

* One of the favourite tactics of dark eldar in ''{{Warhammer 40000}}'' is to attack a patrol, leaving a single survivor, silently following him back to his base to launch an attack just as he thinks he is about to be saved and slaughtering the entire base. Since their scanners are superior to human onces, they could easily do without it. But being artists in causing pain, they do it all [[ForTheEvulz for the look on]] [[OhCrap the poor guy's face]].

* In an episode of ''TheCloser'', a killer has been using marked money stolen from a murdered FBI informant. Brenda has enough evidence to arrest him, but she want to know where the money is being kept. So she blackmails the killer, and when he goes to his stash to get the money to pay her off the FBI follows him and seizes the money.

* After overcoming all the temples in ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time]]'' it's revealed that Ganondorf allowed Link to move around freely so that [[spoiler: he would eventually discover Zelda's location. When the princess reveals herself to the hero, he swiftly captures her.]]

* In ''OrderOfTheStick'', Xykon and Redcloak arrange for paladin Miko Miyazaki to escape from a brief captivity in order to act as their mole in Azure City via scrying. Using this trick, they are able to determine the precise location of the Gate they are trying to capture. Later, Tarquin pulls this on Elan - the carpet he gave him has a tracking rune.

Very much a SelfFulfillingProphecy if the character heads back to the base to deliver a warning that the base is about to be attacked. NiceJobBreakingItHero indeed. Bonus points if you usher the hero with thanks for leading you there and deviously imply that he intentionally helped you, thus shattering his friends' faith in them.

Very much a SelfFulfillingProphecy if the character heads back to the base to deliver a warning that the base is about to be attacked. NiceJobBreakingItHero indeed.

* After overcoming all the temples in ''[[OcarinaOfTime The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time]]'' it's revealed that Ganondorf allowed Link to move around freely so that [[spoiler: he would eventually discover Zelda's location. When the princess reveals herself to the hero, he swiftly captures her.]]

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* In ''YouOnlyLiveTwice'', the villains give JamesBond the proof he needs that their secret base is nearby by attacking him.
** Likewise, had the mooks in ''DrNo'' not confirmed they were on Crab Key by firing at Bond from a search boat and later unleashing the "Dragon," they might have been able to go through with their plans.
** [[RuleOfThree Also happens]] in GoldenEye. Bond's search for Janus' lair gets nowhere, and just as he's preparing to leave the area, the villain fires a surface-to-air missile at his plane, revealing the base's location.

* In ''StarWars'': ''ANewHope'', Grand Moff Tarkin's plan to find the Rebel base is to let the heroes escape the Death Star with token resistance, and then follow the homing beacon planted on their ship. It works perfectly. What happens afterwards, not so much.

* The movie ''{{Commando}}'' has this as well, the only way they found Matrix was that the Colonel actually leads them to him because he thought they already knew where he was and he was going to protect him.

* In ''OrderOfTheStick'', Xykon and Redcloak arrange for paladin Miko Miyazaki to escape from a brief captivity in order to act as their mole in Azure City via scrying. Using this trick, they are able to determine the precise location of the Gate they are trying to capture.

* In ''[[{{Fallout}} Fallout 3]]'' this happens to Herbert "Daring" Dashwood, leading the slavers to Rockopolis. Earlier in the series, this happens to Vault 13 if the Vault-dweller decides to buy water from merchants in the Hub: Their tracks lead the Super Mutant army to the Vault.
** NewVegas has one guy who begs you to save his girlfriend from mutant Geckos. Turns out, the geckos are keeping him from looting a camp at the top of a hill.

** To elaborate: he spread word that he and his Buggrom forces had already discovered the island's location and were en route to unseal the Demon God; knowing full well they couldn't take the chance of him getting to her first. Which is why he had his communication network spy on Roshtaria and report back to him regularly. When they informed him that Makoto and entourege had departed for the island "as well", he knew they'd [[SchmuckBait taken the bait.]] All he had to do, was follow them there.

** Jinnai spread word that he and his Buggrom forces had already discovered the island's location and were en route to unseal the Demon God: Ifurita; knowing full well they couldn't take the chance of him getting to her first. Which is why he had his communication network spy on Roshtaria and report back to him regularly. When they informed him that Makoto and entourage had departed for the island "as well", he knew they'd taken the bait. All he had to do, was follow them there.

** Jinnai employs a gambit, wherein, he spreads word that he and his Buggrom forces had already discovered the island's location and were en route to unsealing the Demon God: Ifurita; knowing full well they couldn't take the chance of him getting to her first. Which is why he had his communication network spy on Roshtaria and report back to him regularly. When they informed him that Makoto and entourage had departed for the island "as well", he knew they'd taken the bait. All he had to do, was follow them there.

* In ''ElHazardTheMagnificentWorld'', this is how Katsuhiko is able to find out the location of the sealed superweapon, which the Bugrom would not know about but the priestesses would.

* In ''BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'', Batman sets up a {{Mook}} into thinking that he killed Batman through dumb luck. It turns out, by the end of the episode, that the whole thing was an BatmanGambit on Batman's part to find Rupert Thorne's current hideout. He figured, correctly, that "the crook who killed Batman" would eventually become infamous enough that Thorne would grant him an audience.

* Subverted in an episode of ''SheRaPrincessOfPower'' where Hordak and She-Ra are literally trudging between realities, in that they are both lost as lost gets. Hordak snarks to that effect, saying it reminds him of his stint in the Horde Scouts--"We didn't know where we ''were'', where we were ''going'', of what we were supposed to ''do'' when we got there ''then'', either!"