History Main / TrickAndFollowPloy

** One episode of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' comes to mind, where Batman taunts Harley Quinn about how she's commanding the Royal Flush Gang in the field while Joker's just hanging out with Ace. Amusingly, right after clearing things up with Harley on how he really isn't cheating on her with Ace, he immediately blows up on her in anger for leading Batman straight to the hideout.

* The opening of ''Film/{{Commando}}'' shows several former member's of Matrix's unit being murdered. The general who used to command Matrix thinks he's next on the list, so he goes to warn him bringing a couple of bodyguards. Turns out the villains had no idea where Matrix was, and used the previous killings to make the general panic and lead them to him.

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

* ''The Berlin Memorandum'' by [[Creator/EllestonTrevor Adam Hall]] and its film adaptation, ''The Quiller Memorandum''. The neo-Nazis [[JustBetweenYouAndMe explain their master plan]] to Literature/{{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 (in case he tried to drive out, which would increase the risk of losing him), faking his death.

* ''Franchise/CommandAndConquer'':

* After overcoming all the temples in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'' 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 ''ComicBook/CaptainAmerica'' Vol. 6 #1, ''"American Dreamers, part one"'', Cap, Sharon, ComicBook/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.

* ''Literature/{{Chronicle of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe}}'': Maugrim, the captain of the White Witch's secret police, ambushes Susan and Lucy in Aslan's campus with the help of his partner Vardan. After Peter kills Maugrim, Aslan tricks Vardan into his leading his troop to the Witch's hideout to rescue Edmund.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{The Fairly Odd Parents}}'': Cosmo stupidly leads Vicky to a radio studio in the Turners' treehouse where Timmy is impersonating a radio artist "Double T in The Morning" thus allowing her catch Timmy in the act and expose him.

** It's not the first time that Ganondorf did this either -- it's how he [[spoiler:was able to enter the Sacred Realm in the first place and bring about the CrapsackWorld of the second part of the game]].

** In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' this happens to Herbert "Daring" Dashwood, leading the slavers to Rockopolis.
** In the original game, 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. By doing so, you get more time to find the Water Chip, but less time to deal with the Super Mutants (the former is a significantly shorter time limit than the latter), so it's a double-edged sword.

* In ''ComicBook/CaptainAmerica'' Vol. 6 #1, ''"American Dreamers, part one"'', Cap, Sharon, ComicBook/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.

'''Princess Leia:''' [[GenreSavvy They're tracking us.]]

* ''Franchise/StarWars'': In ''Film/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. Which is strange, because Leia '''says''' that [[GenreSavvy their escape was too easy]] and says that the Imperials are probably tracking the ship, but takes no steps to find any tracking device. Though she was planning to blow up the Death Star at that point, so in a way she was inverting the trap.

* {{Literature/Sherlock Holmes}} uses a version of the ploy in his first story, "A Scandal in Bohemia". By getting himself brought into Irene Adler's rooms in disguise and setting an apparent fire, he discovers where she hid the blackmail photo. However, [[GenreSavvy she realizes what happened]] and gets away with the photo before he can take it.

* In one episode of the campy '60's ''Series/{{Batman}}'' series, Batman lets the villain's PerkyFemaleMinion go after planting a "bug" in her purse. Amazingly, in this case, the villain is GenreSavvy enough to find it.

* High-tech variation in ''VideoGame/WatchDogs''. Aiden tracks a hitman by locating his niece and calling her phone for information about him. After the girl feigns ignorance about her uncle's whereabouts, she hangs up then ''immediately'' calls him to warn him about the strange caller looking for him. The GenreSavvy uncle realizes this is happening and tells her to hang up, but by that point it's too late; Aiden has already traced her call and knows his exact location.

* Done several times in ''LetsPlay/AScotsmanInEgypt'', when the Scots break an enemy army, they'll allow the survivors to run to their army, following them closely to destroy them just before they can regroup. A variant is to chase them to the walls of a city, where the defenders refusing to open the gates to let the survivors in (and teir subsequent slaughter) does horrible things to enemy morale.

* The Disney version of ''Disney/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame'' has [[spoiler:Quasimodo and Phoebus leading Frollo's forces to the Court of Miracles due to this. Frollo says he'll attack the gypsy's hideout at dawn, which causes Quasimodo and Phoebus to find the Court of Miracles thanks to [[ChekhovsGun a necklace Esmerelda gave Quasimodo earlier]].]]

* Parodied in ''Film/DraculaDeadAndLovingIt''. The heroes have Reinfield released so that they may follow him to his master's lair. Fortunately, while he's smart enough to realize that his release is a trap, he isn't smart enough to throw them off his trail. He attempts a few moves... within the space of about ten square feet, before declaring that he lost them and heading straight for Dracula.

* One of the favourite tactics of dark eldar in ''TabletopGame/{{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 ones, 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 ''Theatre/{{Tosca}}'', Scarpia shows Tosca a painted fan and gets her to believe her lover Cavaradossi may have another woman. As she departs, Scarpia orders his men to track her so they can find Cavaradossi and arrest him. This plan is used to set up Scarpia's [[ScarpiaUltimatum real plan]].

** ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' has one guy near Goodsprings 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.

* In ''Theatre/{{Tosca}}'', Scarpia shows Tosca a painted fan and gets her to believe her lover Cavaradossi may have another woman. As she departs, Scarpia orders his men to track her so they can find Cavaradossi and arrest him.

** To elaborate: 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 entourege had departed for the island "as well", to stop him, he knew they'd [[SchmuckBait taken the bait.]] All he had to do, was follow them there.
* This is exactly how the Blue Guardians found the Resistance's hideout in ''Manga/RaveMaster.''

* In ''ComicBook/CaptainAmerica'' Vol. 6 #1, ''"American Dreamers, part one"'', Cap, Sharon, ComicBook/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.
* In the French comic ''ComicBook/BarbeRouge'', a villain claims to have buried the title character (a pirate captain) alive with his treasure. Barbe Rouge's son Eric, the only other one to know where the treasure is, goes straight to the secret cache, with the villain following him.

[[folder:Film -- Animation]]

* In ''Franchise/StarWars'': ''Film/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. Which is strange, because Leia '''says''' that [[GenreSavvy their escape was too easy]] and says that the Imperials are probably tracking the ship, but takes no steps to find any tracking device. Though she was planning to blow up the Death Star at that point, so in a way she was inverting the trap.

* The protagonist of ''Literature/BlackMan'' does this as a standard tactic.

** In "6,741," [[spoiler:Samaritan lets Shaw go in order for her to lead them to the heroes' hideout. It's all virtual, so when she realizes she's playing into Samaritan's hands and kills herself, they can just reset the simulation and try again.]]

* Happens in ''VideoGame/SoulNomadAndTheWorldEaters'', when TheDitz isn't careful about who's following him [[spoiler:Except its actually part of a villan's EvilPlan who was merely using ObfuscatingStupidity, eliminating your village, wiping out rival cultists, and drawing the village leader out of hiding all in one stroke.]]
* This is kinda what happens in the end of ''VideoGame/DreamfallTheLongestJourney'': Kian is on the mission to find and assassinate April, so it's only natural that he'd look for the rebel camp she is staying in. However, it turns out that on the way, [[spoiler:he decided to join the rebels]], so when he finally finds April, [[spoiler:he is on her side]]. Unfortunately for them, Kian's superior suspected something like that and had Kian followed, so his troops ''also'' find the camp... It doesn't end well.
* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', Shepard discovers the location of the Illusive Man's main Cerberus base because of the tracker Miranda managed to plant on Kai Leng after he attacked her.

* In ''VideoGame/MetalArmsGlitchInTheSystem'' when [[spoiler: Glitch brings Dr. Exavolt to the safety of the rebel base he revels himself to be evil and signals the enemy forces to his location.]]
-->[[spoiler:'''Dr. Exavolt:''']] Our plan has worked to utter perfection. Not only have I located the droid rebel command center, I am standing in the middle of it! ''You may initiate the invasion''.\\
'''Alloy:''' [[OhCrap Ahhh dammit]], we've been had!

* ''VideoGame/JediOutcast'' 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.]]

* In ''VideoGame/MySimsAgents'', Morcubus uses the heroes -- and a [[spoiler:tracking device hidden in Dr. Gray's journal]] -- to find the Nightmare Crown. He admits that they were doing such a good job of finding clues to its location that he decided to let them do the work.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Desperados}}'' in order to locate the hidden lair of the gang lord Sanches, the heroes infiltrate his outpost and steal all the horses but one from it. One of the thugs goes back to the HQ for more, with the Desperados hot on his trail.
* ''Franchise/CommandAndConquer'':
** In ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert'', Soviet forces capture Albert Einstein and spread the rumor that they're about to execute him, so the Allies will rescue him and they'll follow with a hidden bug.
** In ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianSun'', when Umagon escapes, Slavik keeps Oxanna from attempting to pursue her, explaining she's bugged and will lead them right to the mutant headout.

* A BountyHunter does this with Film/{{Riddick}}'s alien-dog, shooting it with a tracker round so it will run to familiar ground, e.g. Riddick's cave lair. Turns out Riddick has anticipated this and is using the dog as a distraction so he can infiltrate their base while most of the bounty hunters are away.

* There's a variation in the Creator/IsaacAsimov 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.

* In ''Literature/TheHobbit,'' Bilbo tricks Gollum into thinking that he's escaped the dark underground tunnels. Gollum goes to "chase" Bilbo, and Bilbo simply follows Gollum out of the caves.
* [[Literature/TheDresdenFiles Harry Dresden]] once did this routine - starting with a bad cop / worse cop veering into torture, the appearance of a somewhat subtle attempt to magically follow the perp ... culminating in ''subcontracting'' a muggle PI. It was completely successful, much to everyone else's disbelief.

* In the '90s live-action ''Franchise/{{Zorro}}'', a poisoned Zorro tricks his poisoner into thinking that he had been subjected to the same poison so that he could follow the poisoner to the nearest source of the antidote.

* In one episode of the campy '60's ''Series/{{Batman}}'' series, Batman lets the villain's PerkyFemaleMinion go after planting a "bug" in her purse. Amazingly, in this case, the villain is GenreSavvy enough to find it.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' comes to mind, where Batman taunts Harley Quinn about how she's commanding the Royal Flush Gang in the field while Joker's just hanging out with Ace. Amusingly, right after clearing things up with Harley on how he really isn't cheating on her with Ace, he immediately blows up on her in anger for leading Batman straight to the hideout.
* In ''WesternAnimation/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 is 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. [[spoiler:A good example of how to properly do a gambit, as Batman had to go through a LOT of effort to keep this mook alive!]]

* A common ploy used by the NKVD and then by other Eastern European secret services was to pull in a suspect, give them basic interrogation, then after a short period release them with an apology for having got the wrong person. The suspect would then be followed to see where they went and who else they spoke to, the reasoning being that any friend they spoke to would also be involved in anti-Soviet activity and the initial suspect was warning them. Quite a few arrests would then follow. A nasty variant was to "accidentally" leave the prisoner unattended and their means of leaving the detention centre open and unguarded. If the detainee took the bait, this was then taken as their having escaped from custody - not only proof of guilt but an arrestable offense in itself.

-->-- ''Franchise/StarWars Episode IV: Film/ANewHope''

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

* The Disney version of ''Disney/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame'' has [[spoiler:Quasimodo and Phoebus leading Frollo's forces to the Court of Miracles due to this. Frollo says he'll attack the gypsy's hideout at dawn, which causes Quasimodo and Phoebus to find the Court of Miracles thanks to [[ChekhovsGun a necklace Esmerelda gave Quasimodo earlier]].]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* Parodied in ''Film/DraculaDeadAndLovingIt''. The heroes have Reinfield released so that they may follow him to his master's lair. Fortunately, while he's smart enough to realize that his release is a trap, he isn't smart enough to throw them off his trail. He attempts a few moves... within the space of about ten square feet, before declaring that he lost them and heading straight for Dracula.
-->'''Van Helsing:''' Gentlemen, we are in luck.\\
'''Steward:''' How so?\\
'''Van Helsing:''' He's an ''imbecile''.

* A common ploy used by the NKVD and then by other Eastern European secret services was to pull in a suspect, give them basic interrogation, then after a short period release them with an apology for having got the wrong person. The suspect would then be followed to see where they went and who else they spoke to, the reasoning being that any friend they spoke to would also be involved an anti-Soviet activity and the initial suspect was warning them. Quite a few arrests would then follow. A nasty variant was to "accidentally" leave the prisoner unattended and their means of leaving the detention centre open and unguarded. If the detainee took the bait, this was then taken as their having escaped from custody - not only proof of guilt but an arrestable offense in itself.

* In ''Disney/TheRescuersDownUnder'', after repeatedly trying to get the location of Marahute's nest out of Cody, [=McLeach=] [[spoiler:lets Cody go with the misinformation that someone else has shot Marahute]], and then proceeds to casually wonder aloud to Joanna what'll become of Marahute's eggs. [[spoiler:Cody then procceds to race off to the nest, unintentionally leading [=McLeach=] to it.]]

** In "Brotherhood", Shaw captures a GiantMook whom she allows to escape in the hope he'll lead her to Dominic, the unseen leader of the Brotherhood. Instead he leads her to a stash of heroin that she uses to bargain for the release of Reese. [[spoiler:It's revealed at the end of the episode that the mook ''is'' Dominic. He couldn't shake off Shaw's tail, so he lead her to a lesser prize instead.]]

** In ''VideoGame/{{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.
** ''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.

* A common ploy used by the NKVD and then by other Eastern European secret services was to pull in a suspect, give them basic interrogation, then after a short period release them with an apology for having got the wrong person. The suspect would then be followed to see where they went and who else they spoke to, the reasoning being that any friend they spoke to would also be involved an anti-Soviet activity and the initial suspect was warning them. Quite a few arrests would then follow. A nasty variant was to "accidently" leave the prisoner unattended and their means of leaving the detention centre open and unguarded. If the detainee took the bait, this was then taken as their having escaped from custody - not only proof of guilt but an arrestable offence in itself.