History Main / TwoPlusTortureMakesFive

* Antique trials were quite often this. For example, in witch trials, suspects would be subjected to horrific torture to make them "confess" to be witches and/or in a relationship with the devil. If they confessed, then BurnTheWitch If not...then keep on torturing them until they do.
** Giles Corey was one of the few that [[TortureIsIneffective withstood the torture till the end]]. If he had confessed, he would've been excommunicated from the church and his property would've been lost; if he'd denied the accusation, he'd have been persecuted anyway and his property would've still been lost. To ensure that his family would inherit his property, he remained DefiantToTheEnd as his interrogators slowly crushed his body under heavy weights. His FamousLastWords when asked if he'd confess? [[FaceDeathWithDignity "More weight."]]

** Giles Corey was one of the few that [[TortureIsIneffective withstood the torture till the end]]. If he had confessed, he would've been excommunicated from the church and his property would've been lost; if he'd denied the accusation, he'd have been persecuted anyway and his property would've still been lost. To ensure that his family would inherit his property, he remained DefiantToTheEnd as his interrogators slowly crushed his body under heavy weights. His FamousLastWords when asked if he'd confess? [[FaceDeathWithDignity "More weight.]]

* Antique trials were quite often this, most famously the witch trials during TheMiddleAges. The women would be subjected to horrific torture to make them "confess" to be witches and/or in a relationship with the devil. If they confess, they would be executed as a witch. If not...then more torture until they do.
** Giles Corey was one of the few that [[TortureIsIneffective withstood the torture till the end]]. If he'd confess, he would be expelled from church and his possessions would be lost; if he denies the accusation, he would be persecuted anyway and his possessions would be lost; so to ensure that his family would inherit his property [[FaceDeathWithDignity he stayed defiant till the end]] as his torturers slowly crushed his body with stone boulders. His [[FamouslastWords Famous Last Words]] when asked if he'd confess were [[DyingMomentOfAwesome "More weight"]].

** In the Brazilian version, the Scotland Yard finds the rabbit in two hours by using deduction, the CIA finds the rabbit in one hour by using surveillance and the Rio de Janeiro Police returns in 30 minutes with a beaten up fox drug addict claiming to be a rabbit.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' episode where Deputy Director Bullock (Creator/PatrickStewart, partial TropeNamer ''and'' big ''Series/RedDwarf'' fan) is sleeping with Hayley, Stan tries to make her ex-boyfriend Jeff more assertive by beating him up and getting him to say various fruit are something else. Though in this case Jeff will just agree that the orange is a banana because he's such a wimp. Stan was trying to get him to stand up and disagree with him.
* [[ParodiedTrope Spoofed]] in the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "Fishsticks" when Music/KanyeWest, [[ComicallyMissingThePoint denying that ]][[DontExplainTheJoke liking fish sticks makes him a gay fish]], tracks down CarlosMencia, believed at the time to be [[spoiler:the originator of the "fish sticks" joke]], and tortures him. When Mencia is [[IRejectYourReality unable to crack]] and [[ItMakesSenseInContext break from the "reality" of the joke]], Kanye [[LudicrousGibs decapitates him with a baseball bat]].
* Done to [[WesternAnimation/AvatartheLastAirbender Jet]] by the Dai Li, into thinking that there was no war between the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation. He snaps out of it, though.
* ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' does the EnhancedInterrogationTechniques version with the nerd, who's being [[ItMakesSenseInContext questioned as to the location of]] [[TheLordOfTheRings Mordor]]. He finally asks what they want him to say.[[note]] "Pakistan."[[/note]]

'''Note:''' [[IThoughtItMeant This trope has nothing to do with actual math or equations]]. All examples of 2 plus 2 ''actually'' equaling 5 should go [[Trivia/{{Math}} here]].

** Giles Corey was one of the few that [[TortureIsIneffective withstood the torture till the end]]. If he'd confess, he would be expelled from church and his possessions would be lost; if he denies the accusation, he would be persecuted anyway and his possessions would be lost; so to ensure that his family would inherit his property [[FaceDeathWithDignity he stayed defiant till the end]] as his torturers slowly crushed his body with stone boulders. His [[FamouslastWords Famous Last Words]] were [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome "More weight"]].

** Giles Corey was one of the few that [[TortureIsIneffective withstood the torture till the end]]. Knowing that with him confessing, not only would he be executed, but his family would lose all their possessions, [[FaceDeathWithDignity he stayed defiant till the end]] as his torturers slowly crushed his body with stone boulders. His [[FamouslastWords Famous Last Words]] were [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome "More weight"]].

** Giles Corey was one of the few that [[TortureIsIneffective withstood the torture till the end]]. Knowing that with him confessing, not only would he be executed, but his family would lose all their possessions, [[FaceDeathWithDignity he stayed defiant till the end]] as his torturers slowly crushed his body with stone boulders. His FamouslastWords were [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome "More weight"]].

* Michael Westen in Series/BurnNotice invokes this trope to state why he never uses torture. To get reliable information, Michael and his friends tend to rely on straight up disinformation, misinformation, deception and a [[GambitPileup repertoire of gambits]].

* George Orwell used this for ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour''. Winston Smith writes that freedom is the ability to say "two plus two is four," then later tries to make himself believe in Doublethink by changing it to five. During his torture, the torturer forces him to see [[HowManyFingers five fingers]] when there are only four. After Winston is released, he at one point subconsciously writes "2 + 2 = 5" on a coffee table's dust layer. Interestingly, several editions of the book list "2 + 2 = " instead, giving the impression of a HopeSpot. Alas, it's actually a typo: [[DownerEnding Winston really did write "2 + 2 = 5"]]

* The image source comes from the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "The Chain of Command, Part II." Picard is captured during a black op and taken to [[TortureTechnician Gul Madred]] (masterfully played by David Warner), who thinks that Picard knows Federation defense plans. Madred tries to force Picard to tell him that there are five lights on the wall when there are really only four. Every time Picard insists that there are four, Madred zaps him with an AgonyBeam. When Picard is finally released, he defiantly proclaims "[[PunctuatedForEmphasis THERE! ARE! FOUR! LIGHTS!]]" to Madred as he is leaving, but it's not as [[DefiantToTheEnd triumphant]] as it seems -- later, Picard admits to Troi that not only would he have ''said'' there were five lights to make the pain stop if he hadn't been released at that exact moment, he ''did'' actually see five lights.

* Hilarious -- and simultaneously terrifying -- is the ShoutOut to this trope in ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}''. Midway through the struggle with BigBad [[spoiler:GLaDOS, she]] angrily seethes, "You think you're doing some damage? Two plus two is... f-f-f-f- Ten. [[spoiler: [[SubvertedTrope ...In base FOUR!]] [[OhCrap I'm FINE!]]"]]

The AG said, "Bull. You guys never found the rabbit".\\

The NYPD detectives went into the woods. Fifteen minutes later a bear walked out, [[PoliceBrutality bruised, black eyed, and swollen]] holding his hands in the air and yelled, "Alright, I'm a rabbit, I'm a rabbit".

'''Note:''' This trope has nothing to do with actual math or equations. All examples of 2 plus 2 actually equaling 5 should go [[Trivia/{{Math}} here]].

[[ComicallyMissingThePoint …Torture = 3?]]

* Amnesty International Belgium ran a series of anti-torture ads in 2014 that played with this trope using famous celebrities Photoshopped into beaten, broken people admitting something very contrary to their known beliefs-- like Creator/IggyPop describing Creator/JustinBieber as [[http://cdn4.pitchfork.com/news/55689/56991da6.jpg "the future of rock 'n' roll".]] (Other posters showed the Dalai Lama praising yuppie-style consumerism and fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld extolling Hawaiian shirts and flip-flop sandals.)

* Part of what happened to Tycho Celchu between the comics and the books of the ''XWingSeries''. He was bent pretty terribly by Isard but didn't actually break. When she overlaid Rebel and Imperial insignia and tried to transfer his loyalty to one over to the other, the contradiction sent him into a catatonic state. She later tried it on [[spoiler:Corran Horn]] with even less success.

* The phrase "2+2=5" originally had (somewhat) less to do with torture; it came from Soviet propaganda to encourage completion of five-year plans in four years.

* [[ParodiedTrope Spoofed]] in the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "Fishsticks" when KanyeWest, [[ComicallyMissingThePoint denying that ]][[DontExplainTheJoke liking fish sticks makes him a gay fish]], tracks down CarlosMencia, believed at the time to be [[spoiler:the originator of the "fish sticks" joke]], and tortures him. When Mencia is [[IRejectYourReality unable to crack]] and [[ItMakesSenseInContext break from the "reality" of the joke]], Kanye [[LudicrousGibs decapitates him with a baseball bat]].

* Lampshaded by Nice Guy Eddie, in ReservoirDogs:

* Lampshaded, from all people, by Nice Guy Eddie, in ReservoirDogs: