History Main / UnhandThemVillain

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]

* ''Film/TheDarkKnight'': The Joker does this with Rachel. Luckily it wasn't a sheer drop he was holding her over, so Batman has time to save her.

[[folder: Radio]]

* On Creator/TheOceanGroup's dub of ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', after Dodoria pleads with Vegeta to let him go, he agrees to let him go[[DramaticPause ...]] ''to another dimension!'' Basically [[NeverSayDie saiyan slang]] for killing him.
** Also done in the [[Manga/DragonBall original series]], in a much more straightforward way. When Piccolo is confronting the king of East City on his airplane, he grabs the king's first mate and holds him over the edge. The king demands that Piccolo let him go, and Piccolo does just that, letting the man fall to his death.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* In Creator/TheBBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play ''Camberwell Green'', Marylin's husband is a security guard attempting to escape from robbers via the roof, but she gets a call from his phone which turns out to be the ringleader explaining that her friends found him dangerously close to the edge.
-->'''Marylin''': Let go of him.\\
'''Bianca''': If we do that, Marylin, he won't thank you.

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': Provides an example of the hero getting yelled at to let someone go, while she's grappling with ComicBook/PoisonIvy after tackling her out of a fourth story window. Ivy freezes up momentarily when she realizes she's just asked Diana to drop her from such a height, and Diana ''does'' as Ivy's meta-human abilities mean that Di doesn't have to worry about the fall killing her.

* Near the end of ''ComicBook/BatmanNoMansLand'', TheCommissionerGordon's wife orders SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker to drop the baby he's holding, with him at gunpoint. He does, so she has to drop her gun to catch the baby, giving him an opportunity to kill her with a BoomHeadshot.

* In ''Franchise/StarWars: Bounty Hunter'', Jango Fett is holding a senator over the edge of the balcony of his penthouse apartment. A police ship appears and orders Jango to release the senator. Jango complies.

So, the {{villain}} has taken a [[IHaveYourWife hostage]], and to make sure the hero understands that this is serious, the villain is holding the hostage off a roof, or over some other height. Usually, in this case, the villain just has one simple, quick request: they want the code, or the [[HostageForMacGuffin MacGuffin]], or the hero's [[PutDownYourGunAndStepAway surrender]]. The hero gives in to the demand. And then says something along the lines of "Now let him/her go!".

* ''Film/ForYourEyesOnly'': When Jame Bond uses his helicopter to snare Blofeld's wheelchair, Blofeld panics and screams, "Put me down!" Bond obliges by dropping him down a smokestack to his death.

* Referenced and defied in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12180569/1/Where-I-Reign Where I Reign]]''. [[Manga/{{Magi}} Hakuei]], who is currently [[GrandTheftMe possessed]] by Arba, is able to break through the possession enough to see what is happening outside her mind, and is horrified to see Arba holding her younger brother Hakuryuu over the ocean by his throat. She starts to invoke this trope, but then stops herself.

* This happens in the Disney/Walden Media movie version of ''Film/PrinceCaspian''. When some Telmarines are about to dump Trumpkin, BoundAndGagged, into the river, Susan [[TwangHello shoots an arrow]] and orders them to "drop him". They do so - unsurprisingly, into the river, and the boys jump in to save the dwarf while Susan dispatches the soldiers. Trumpkin is suitably unimpressed, and treats Susan to a bit of snark once they're all back on dry land.

* A variation in the film of ''Film/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'' occurs when Count Olaf has Sunny hanging in a cage. Violet tell him to let her go... that's the exact order he relays to his underling. Needless to say, the children had him hold that order in a hurry.
* In ''Film/Wishmaster2EvilNeverDies'', the Djinn traps Father Gregory in his hellish home, suffering at the cross like Jesus. When Morgana wishes for the Djinn to release him, the Djinn drops Gregory's tortured body to the floor. Morgana protests that he didn't fulfill the wish, and the Djinn responds by releasing Gregory from his life.

* A variation in ''[[Literature/ArtemisFowl The Arctic Incident]]''. When Briar Cudgeon has Artemis as a hostage, and is told to put Artemis down, he responds by cocking his gun and sneering 'I'll put him down all right.'

* Happens twice in the GrandFinale of ''WesternAnimation/ActionMan2000''. The first time this trope is played completely straight; Action Man demands Professor Gangrene lets Rikkie go while the former threatens to throw the later out of the airship. Gangrene is more than happy to comply with this request. The second time, when Quake threatens to throw Fidget into a lava pit, Action Man is more careful with his choice of words and specifically demands he puts her down safely on the ground. Not that it stops Quake from throwing her into the pit anyway.

-->'''Dr. Diminutive:''' Due to your request, Heinz, I've decide to let you all go... From 40 stories up!\\

->'''Batgirl:''' Let the kid go, Joker!
->'''Joker:''' (exasperated) I'm ''trying'' to!
-->-- ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'', as Joker tries to drop [[ItMakesSenseInContext his kid sidekick]] off a ledge.

So, the [[{{villain}} villain]] has taken a [[IHaveYourWife hostage]], and to make sure the hero understands that this is serious, the villain is holding the hostage off a roof, or over some other height. Usually, in this case, the villain just has one simple, quick request: they want the code, or the [[HostageForMacGuffin MacGuffin]], or the hero's [[PutDownYourGunAndStepAway surrender]]. The hero gives in to the demand. And then says something along the lines of "Now let him/her go!".

* In ''Film/BlackScorpion'', Breathtaker is holding on to Russo aloft on a catwalk in the chemical. Black Scorpion arrives and yells "Let him go!", to which Breathtaker replies "With pleasure" and immediately tosses him over the railing.

* ''Film/TheHotRock'': When Dortmunder is conducting a HighAltitudeInterrogation on Greeberg by having Chicken hold him over an elevator shaft, Abe says that Dortmunder doesn't have the guts to go through with it. Dortmunder tells Chicken to put him down, and Chicken probably drops Greenburg down the shaft.

* Whenever Stephanie is kidnapped by the Robbie Rotten in ''Series/LazyTown'', this command is used, one of which had Sportacus forcing Robbie to let her go.

* Whenever Stephanie is kidnapped by the Robbie Rotten in ''Series/LazyTown'', this command is used, one of which had Sportacus forcing the Robbie to let her go.

* Whenever Stephanie is kidnapped by the "evil dude" in ''Series/LazyTown'', this command is used, one of which had Hulk Hogan forcing the "evil dude" to let her go.

* "WesternAnimation/DangerMouse On The Orient Express" starts off with DM Penfold on holiday in Venice where the Grand Canal is disrupted with a highway construction in progress. Penfold is plucked from the ground by a crane hook operated by Baron Greenback's henchman Stiletto. As DM intervenes, he and Stiletto fight for control of the crane hook, which catapults Penfold out of the frying pan and into the fire--Baron Greenback's hideout.

'''Penfold:''' Oh, thanks ever so-- (''aerial shot; he is held over a pillar with concrete filling in the opening'')\\

'''Penfold:''' Oh, thanks ever so--\\ (''aerial shot; he is held over a pillar with concrete filling in the opening'')\\

'''Penfold:''' Oh, thanks ever so--\\ (''aerial shot; he is held over a pillar with concrete filling in the opening'')
'''Stiletto:''' Right in-a de cement!

* Done for laughs by ComicStrip/{{Popeye}} in a cartoon where Bluto crosses him with Olive using a Popeye marionette. Popeye gets wise, knocks out Bluto and uses ''him'' as a marionette. Bluto is mainuplated into threatening to slit Olive's throat with a knife when the sailor intervenes.
-->'''Popeye:''' [[{{Spoonerism}} Unhand that swine, you girl...]]I mean, unhand that girl, you swine!

-->'''Popeye:''' [[{{Spoonerism}} Unhand the swine, you girl...]]I mean, unhand that girl, you swine!