History Main / TrickAndFollowPloy

[[folder: Web Animation]]

* 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 Matrix. 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.

* ''Series/BreakingBad'': In [[Recap/BreakingBadS5E13Tohajiilee Tohajiilee]], [[spoilers:Hank and Jesse devise one to find the location of Walt's money. First, they get a description of the container the money is stored in, and make a replica with fake money. Then, Jesse, pretending to act alone, taunts Walt with footage of him burning it. Walt, thinking Jesse found his money, drives to the site where he hid it to rescue it.]]

* The protagonist of ''Literature/BlackMan'' does this as a standard tactic.
* Likewise ''Literature/TheExecutioner'', wiping out a small-time criminal operation and then following a lone survivor to find out where the next chain in the organisation is.

* In the anime of ''Anime/Golgo13'', Duke Togo is sent to kill a DoubleAgent in a Canadian winter. He captures a female agent guarding the man, drugs her, and [[GoGoEnslavement strips her naked so she can't run away]]. She's only [[PlayingPossum feigning unconsciousness]], and once Togo leaves she knocks out a staff member at the hotel where they're staying and takes her clothing, including a [[LittleDeadRidingHood bright red overcoat]]. She then runs to the agent to warm him that Togo is on the way. As they flee on a snowmobile, [[OhCrap she realises that her red jacket makes her stand out in the snow]]. [[BatmanGambit Togo set the whole thing up]] so he could pick out his target at a distance.

* 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 Gypsies' hideout at dawn, which causes Quasimodo and Phoebus to find the Court of Miracles thanks to [[ChekhovsGun a necklace Esmerelda gave Quasimodo earlier]]]].
* 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 proceeds to race off to the nest, unintentionally leading [=McLeach=] to it]].

* In ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' Volume 7, Cinder, wanting to find the location of the Winter Maiden, leaves a glass black queen chess piece (the calling card she used in Volumes 2 & 3) in General Ironwood's office. This trigger's Ironwood's PTSD, and in a paranoid fit sends his soldier Winter Schnee to claim the Maiden's power. Naturally, Cinder follows Winter to where the elderly Maiden is kept.

* The protagonist of ''Literature/BlackMan'' does this as a standard tactic, wiping out a small-time operation and then [[SpareAMessenger following a survivor]] to find out where the BigBad lives.

* The protagonist of ''Literature/BlackMan'' does this as a standard tactic, wiping out a small-time operation and then [[SpareTheMessenger following a survivor]] to find out where the BigBad lives.

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

* 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 finds it.

* It's also a favored tactic of ComicBook/Batman, who will often intimidate thugs and send them running back to their bosses, following them right to them to deal with them personally.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{The Fairly Odd Parents}}'': Cosmo stupidly leads Vicky to the radio studio in the Turners' treehouse where Timmy using a magic voice-changing microphone is impersonating a radio artist "Double T in The Morning" to convince parents to spend more time with their children during the summer, thus allowing Vicky to catch Timmy in the act and expose him using the same microphone.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpaceGhost'' episode "Space Birds". When Space Ghost is attacked by one of the title robot birds, he frightens it with his energy beams in the hope that it will flee and lead him to whoever is responsible for the birds. The trick works — the bird leads him to the enemy base.

* An example from ''ComicBook/SinCity'': While Hartigan is in solitary, he keeps getting letters from Nancy, but she never reveals who she is. One day Hartigan gets a chopped off finger in the mail; thinking it's Nancy's, he agrees to be framed for Roark Jr's crimes just to be let out on parole. First thing he does is go to Nancy -- only to find out that Roark had been bluffing... and following him after he left prison.

* 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 Gypsies' hideout at dawn, which causes Quasimodo and Phoebus to find the Court of Miracles thanks to [[ChekhovsGun a necklace Esmerelda gave Quasimodo earlier]].]]
* 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 proceeds to race off to the nest, unintentionally leading [=McLeach=] to it.]]

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

* ''Franchise/StarWars'': In ''Film/ANewHope'', Darth vader'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 their escape was too easy and says that the Imperials are probably tracking the ship, but takes no steps to find any tracking device[[note]]likely because it was planted on the outside of the ship[[/note]]. Though she was planning to blow up the Death Star at that point, so in a way she was inverting the trap.

* ''The Stone Killer'' (1973). The police know there's a mercenary training camp out in the Mojave desert somewhere, so release one of the mercenaries they arrested earlier (ostensibly he's bailed out by the public defender thanks to the CowboyCop beating him up) and follow him via helicopter. DaChief mutters, "There goes my pension" after the CowboyCop talks him into it, as ''his'' superior makes it clear they'll both take the blame if it doesn't pan out.

* [[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 "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 led her to a lesser prize instead.]]
** 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.]]

* One of the favourite tactics of Dark Eldar in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' is to attack a patrol, leave a single survivor, silently follow him back to his base to launch an attack just as he thinks he is about to be saved and slaughter 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]].

* ''Toys/{{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?"

* In ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'', Batman finds Penguin's numerous hideouts by attacking his goons, then following them when they fall back to said to said hideouts.

* 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.

* 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.]]

** 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 (though the fact that the Master Sword also served as a lock on the portal to the Sacred Realm was also a factor)]].

* 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''.\\

* 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.

* Happens in ''VideoGame/SoulNomadAndTheWorldEaters'', when TheDitz isn't careful about who's following him [[spoiler:Except it's actually part of a villain'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.]]

* 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 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.

** Later, Tarquin pulls this on Elan -- the carpet he gave him has a tracking rune.

* Subverted in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/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!"

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'': In [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsTheSiegeOfLothal "The Siege of Lothal"]], [[spoiler:Darth Vader has a tracking device planted on a shuttle he lets the ''Ghost'' crew steal, in order to track them back to the rebel fleet.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/SpaceGhost'' episode "Space Birds". When Space Ghost is attacked by one of the title robot birds, he frightens it with his energy beams in the hope that it will flee and lead him to whoever is responsible for the birds. The trick works - the bird leads him to the enemy base.

* 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'': In ''Film/ANewHope'', Darth vader'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 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.

* ''Film/JamesBond'':
** In ''Film/YouOnlyLiveTwice'', the villains give Bond the proof he needs that their secret base is nearby by attacking him.

* ''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 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.

** Subverted in a later episode where Aku pretends to be a hermit to trick Jack into helping him resurrect a legebdary god named Cronus to kill Jack. However, it is revealed at the end of the episode that Jack knew it was Aku all along (mainly due to Aku's hermit disguise being a {{Paper Thin Disguise}}) and only traveled with him to stop him from resurrecting Cronus.

* In the anime of ''Series/{{Golgo 13}}'', Duke Togo is sent to kill a DoubleAgent in a Canadian winter. He captures a female agent guarding the man, drugs her, and [[GoGoEnslavement strips her naked so she can't run away]]. She's only [[PlayingPossum feigning unconsciousness]], and once Togo leaves she knocks out a staff member at the hotel where they're staying and takes her clothing, including a [[LittleDeadRidingHood bright red overcoat]]. She then runs to the agent to warm him that Togo is on the way. As they flee on a snowmobile, [[OhCrap she realises that her red jacket makes her stand out in the snow]]. [[BatmanGambit Togo set the whole thing up]] so he could pick out his target at a distance.

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[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]

* Franchise/{{DCAU}}:

* ''Franchise/{{Fallout}}'':