History SadisticChoice / Film

* In ''Film/SelfLess'', [[spoiler:Damien]] is faced with one of these once he [[spoiler:learns that the medicine he's been taking is all that stands between his continued existence and Mark Bitwell, the original owner of the body Damien's in, returning. If Damien continues to take the medicine, he'll live but Mark will fade away forever. If he stops taking the medicine, he'll fade away but Mark can return to his family. In the end, Damien chooses the latter.]]

* In ''Film/{{Spectre}}'', Blofeld forces Bond into this when he lures him into the ruined Vauxhall Cross building and informs him that he's abducted the BondGirl and imprisoned her somewhere inside. He can escape the detonation that is to happen in 3 minutes (and presumably easily catch and arrest/kill him), but live forever with the guilt and pain of the fact that he chose to leave the girl to die, or he can try to rescue her and risk dying in the explosion.

* In ''Film/TwoDaysOneNight'', a factory offers its employees a 1,000-Euro bonus... if they agree to fire a co-worker who's fallen behind on productivity due to struggling with depression. Said co-worker is thus forced to go around to all of her co-workers and beg them to vote against firing her, with it being made very clear that most of them desperately need the money.

** In ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'', Jonathan Crane presides over a KangarooCourt that judges and condemns Gotham's elite. The condemned are offered a choice between "death and exile". If they choose "exile", they are sent to walk away from Gotham over its frozen river--they invariably fall through the ice and die. If they choose "death", [[MortonsFork they are condemned to "death by exile" (precisely the same punishment)]].

* A rare example of a villain finding himself having to make a SadisticChoice happens in ''MinorityReport'': [[spoiler:Anderton confronts Burgess, the inventor of Pre-Crime, about his role in the movie's events (including several murders) the day before Pre-Crime is scheduled to go nationwide, prompting him to pull a gun on Anderton. Anderton points out that the Pre-Cogs must have predicted his murder by now (they did) and that Burgess is now faced with a choice: if he kills Anderton, he gets [[AndIMustScream halo'd]] for life but Pre-Crime goes national as planned. If he ''doesn't'' kill Anderton, he remains free but Pre-Crime is revealed as a fraud and Burgess' life's work is thus destroyed. Burgess takes a [[TakeAThirdOption third option]] and shoots himself.]]

* ''Film/GiveEmHellMalone'': The gunmen who [[DeathByOriginStory killed Malone's family]] forced him to decide if his wife or his son would die. On top of that, once he chose his wife, they killed both of them anyway. [[spoiler: Then again, his family never died.]]

* ''Film/PitchBlack'': As part of Riddick's attempt to [[CorruptTheCutie corrupt Fry and win her over]], he presents her with an impossible choice. She can only convince him to go with her willingly to rescue the two others she left behind. Riddick however offers her to leave them to die and take off with him in the skiff instead. She can either die along with them, knowing that she's a good person but save no one or come with Riddick and live with the guilt for the rest of her life. What makes this worse is that as Riddick points out, [[WhatYouAreInTheDark there is no one to blame Fry for choosing self-preservation]]. She eventually does make a moral stand and convinces Riddick to help her, as [[SympathyForTheHero her moral actions intrigue him]].

* ''Film/PitchBlack'': As part of Riddick's attempt to [[CorruptTheCutie corrupt Fry and win her over]], he presents her with an impossible choice. She can only convince him to go with her willingly to rescue the two others she left behind. Riddick however offers her to leave them to die and take off with him in the skiff instead. She can either die along with them, knowing that she's a good person but save no one or come with Riddick and live with the guilt for the rest of her life. What makes this worse is that as Riddick points out, [[WhatYouAreInTheDark there is no one to blame Fry for choosing self-preservation]]. She eventually does make a moral stand and convinces Riddick to help her, as [[SympathyForTheHero her moral actions intrigue him]].
* ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger'' subverts this one. A Nazi spy throws a child into a river and runs away. Cap is torn whether to save the boy or go after the spy, but the boy assures him that "I can swim," and tells him to go after the spy.
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* Although no kidnapping was involved, the choice faced by Princess Leia in ''StarWars'' of giving up the location of the Rebel base or watching her home planet of Alderaan be destroyed by the Death Star was a perfect example. Especially since, in a notorious KickTheDog moment that kicked Grand Moff Tarkin across the MoralEventHorizon, he ordered the planet destroyed anyway after Leia gave a false location in hopes of keeping the Rebellion alive. Tarkin's reasoning? "Dantooine is too remote to give an effective demonstration." Alderaan, on the other hand, was a core world.

* The ''Film/{{Saw}}'' series is full with them, especially the sixth movie, where William is forced to make these ''twice''. The first time, he has to choose between a diabetic, middle aged mother and a healthy loner. [[spoiler:He chooses the mother.]] The second time, he has to choose which two of his six junior associates will get off a deadly carousel and live. [[spoiler:He saves a single mother and, [[MenAreTheExpendableGender inexplicably]], [[DoubleStandard another woman]]]].

* ''Film/CaptainAmerica'' subverts this one. A Nazi spy throws a child into a river and runs away. Cap is torn whether to save the boy or go after the spy, but the boy assures him that "I can swim," and tells him to go after the spy.

* ''SophiesChoice'', both film and novel. Upon arrival at Auschwitz, Sophie is told to choose which of her two children will go to the gas chamber immediately, and which will live for some time longer in the camp. Since the story is realistic, TakeAThirdOption doesn't come up. The movie was popular enough that the term "Sophie's Choice" is occasionally used to describe similar sadistic choices. This sort of thing did happen there, too, and before it, as described in the nonfiction book ''Treblinka''. On leaving the ghetto, parents had to choose which road to send their children down, the left or the right. One of them led to another ghetto and hard labor; the other to the titular death camp. They were not told which was which. To make this even more awful, the first female and first Jewish Mayor of Pittsburgh, Sophie Masloff, spent money on trash cans with the words: "Sophie's Choice -- A Clean City" on them. Seriously.
* The 1993 film ''TheGoodSon'', starring young [[HomeAlone Macaulay Culkin]] and [[Film/TheLordOfTheRings Elijah Wood]], ends in a scene with both boys dangling over the edge of a cliff. The mom must pick between saving her evil son (played by Culkin) or kindhearted nephew (played by Elijah Wood.) [[spoiler:She saves Frodo.]]

* ''TheProposition'' is based entirely around this principle. In order to convince TheSheriff to spare the life of his younger, mentally handicapped brother, the protagonist must seek out and kill his older, violently insane brother. [[spoiler: He tries to TakeAThirdOption by getting his older brother to help rescue the younger one, but it doesn't work, and by the end, he's the only one left.]]
* The ''{{Saw}}'' series is full with them, especially the sixth movie, where William is forced to make these ''twice''. The first time, he has to choose between a diabetic, middle aged mother and a healthy loner. [[spoiler:He chooses the mother.]] The second time, he has to choose which two of his six junior associates will get off a deadly carousel and live. [[spoiler:He saves a single mother and, [[MenAreTheExpendableGender inexplicably]], [[DoubleStandard another woman]]]].

* In the end of MadMax, one of the people who [[spoiler:killed Max's wife]] is trapped under a burning car. [[spoiler:Max gives him a choice - sever his leg to escape, or die in the explosion]]. The choice is made off-camera.
* The end of ''TheBox''. [[spoiler:James Marsden's character can either shoot and kill his wife, or let their son live the rest of his life deaf and blind.]]

* ''FunnyGames'' is made of these, including making a wife decide if the antagonists kill her husband quickly by gunshot, or slowly by knife.

* In ThePinkPanther 2, the real BigBad tries to escape by threatening to destroy the Pink Panther Diamond unless Clousteau lets her escape. Unlike most examples, however, he didn't need to TakeAThirdOption, as [[spoiler: the "Pink Panther diamond" she was threatening to destroy, and thus had stolen earlier, was actually a decoy, something she didn't know.]]

* In the first ''Film/{{Spider-Man}}'' movie referenced in the above quote, [[{{Norman Osborn}} the Green Goblin]] offers Spidey this choice between perennial love interest Mary Jane and a cable car full of innocents. (He rescues both, but is forced to [[ItsNotYouItsMyEnemies reject Mary Jane out of fear of his harsh superhero life]]. It all works out by the second one.) Although in this case, the only real challenge was the cable car's ''weight.''
** A similar situation happened with Gwen Stacy in the comics, but Spidey's attempt to TakeAThirdOption didn't go as well as it did in the movie.
*** Spider-Man loves this trope. The [[{{Spider-Man The Animated Series}} 1990s animated series]] has Green Goblin do a similar trick with pre-Black Cat Felicia Hardy and her mother. Here though Spidey saves Felicia and lets Mrs. Hardy fall, assuming Goblin himself would save her instead because he needed her for his scheme. He's right and both live, although Goblin gets away with her.

** This also appears to happen over and over again and appears to serve to show that HumansAreBastards. When [[spoiler:CameronDiaz's character presses the button, another women is shot by her husband for the exact same reason as above. When ''she'' dies, yet another woman is shown pressing the button]]. Strangely, it always appears to be [[spoiler:women who are willing to kill a random person to get money]]. UnfortunateImplications.

*** Spiderman loves this trope. The [[{{Spider-Man The Animated Series}} 1990s animated series]] has Green Goblin do a similar trick with pre-Black Cat Felicia Hardy and her mother. Here though Spidey saves Felicia and lets Mrs. Hardy fall, assuming Goblin himself would save her instead because he needed her for his scheme. He's right and both live, although Goblin gets away with her.

* ''Film/PitchBlack'': As part of Riddick's attempt to [[CorruptTheCutie corrupt Fry and win her over]], he presents her with an impossible choice. She can only convince him to go with her willingly to rescue the two others she left behind. Riddick however offers her to leave them to die and take off with him in the skiff instead. She can either die along with them and save no one or come with Riddick and live with the guilt for the rest of her life. What makes this worse is that as Riddick points, [[WhatYouAreInTheDark there is no one to blame her for her choosing self-preservation]]. She eventually does make a moral stand and convinces Riddick to help her, as [[SympathyForTheHero her moral actions intrigue him]].

* In ''[[ThePunisher Punisher: War Zone]]'', Jigsaw and his AxCrazy brother Loony Bin Jim give the eponymous protagonist a literal SadisticChoice in the form of a ShootTheDog scenario: [[spoiler:if Frank chooses between killing either the Donatellis or Micro, the brothers release the ones who were spared, otherwise they just kill all three hostages. Although [[HeroicSacrifice Micro offers himself to Frank to spare the Donatellis]], the latter instead elects to TakeAThirdOption. He kills Loony Bin Jim instead, and Jigsaw retaliates by killing Micro. Although given Frank's last words to Micro ("You won't feel a thing, Micro") coupled with Micro's nod to Frank, it seems as if they both understood that no matter who Frank choose, all of the hostages would have been killed anyway; by eliminating Jim, it gave Frank a brief window of time to save the Donatellis. Once they are out of harms way, he then [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown brutally]] makes sure that Jigsaw pays for Micro's death]].

*** Spiderman loves this trope. The [[{{Spider-Man The Animated Series}} 1990s animated series]] has Green Goblin do a similar trick with Felicia Hardy and her mother. Here though Spidey saves Felicia and lets Mrs. Hardy fall, assuming Goblin himself would save her instead because he needed her for his scheme. He's right and both live, although Goblin gets away with her.

* ''{{Batman}}'' films seem to like this.

* In the first ''Film/{{Spider-Man}}'' movie referenced in the above quote, [[{{Norman Osborn}} the Green Goblin]] offers Spidey this choice between perennial love interest Mary Jane and a cable car full of innocents. (He rescues both, but is forced to [[ItsNotYouItsMyEnemies reject Mary Jane out of fear of his harsh superhero life]]. It all works out by the second one.)

* An interesting case occurs during TheCabinInTheWoods. The two main characters have to end up deciding between [[spoiler: obeying an organization which sends dozens of people to their violent, miserable deaths every year via a cache of inhuman monsters]], or [[spoiler: disobeying the organization and bringing about TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt via the ''real'' villains of the movie, [[JerkassGods The]] [[EldritchAbomination Ancient Ones]]]]. The characters end up choosing oblivion.

* An interesting case occurs during TheCabinInTheWoods. The two main characters have to end up deciding between [[spoiler: Obeying an organization which sends dozens of people to their violent, miserable deaths every year via a cache of inhuman monsters]], or [[spoiler: Disobeying the organization and bringing about TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt via the ''real'' villains of the movie, [[JerkassGods The]] [[EldritchAbomination Ancient Ones]]]]. The characters end up choosing oblivion.