| 1 | %%% |
| 2 | %% |
| 3 | %% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Take care to put your example in its proper place in accordance with Administrivia/HowToAlphabetizeThings! |
| 4 | %% |
| 5 | %%% |
| 6 | |
| 7 | %% Image moved here from TooKinkyToTorture per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1511968309087182900 |
| 8 | %% Please do not replace or remove without starting a new thread. |
| 9 | %% |
| 10 | [[quoteright:263:[[Webcomic/LookingForGroup https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/LFGtorture.jpg]]]] |
| 11 | [[caption-width-right:263:...what? He's only trying to help.]] |
| 12 | |
| 13 | ->''"A lot of people's first instinct when they need information out of a captive is to grab a baseball bat or a gun. The fact is, torture is for sadists and thugs. It's like getting groceries with a flamethrower: it doesn't work, and it makes a mess."'' |
| 14 | -->-- '''Michael Westen''', ''Series/BurnNotice'', "[[Recap/BurnNoticeS2E4Comrades Comrades]]" |
| 15 | |
| 16 | Torture is shown or said to be ineffective. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | In some media works, torture is [[TortureAlwaysWorks effective]] in obtaining information or extracting truthful confessions. In others, it isn't. This may be because the creators want to deliver AnAesop about the wrongness or evils of torture. Or it may simply be that the plot requires that torture not work this time around. Others may simply feel this is a more realistic portrayal of torture. |
| 19 | |
| 20 | If it's meant to be an Aesop, the ineffectiveness of torture will generally be directly stated by TheHero or other "good guy" character. (If an antagonistic character says it, they're usually a StrawCharacter and this trope will not be in effect.) |
| 21 | |
| 22 | Plot-related reasons why torture might not be effective include: |
| 23 | |
| 24 | * The character being tortured is so badass or pain-resistant that they're able to hold out until rescued, the torturer gives up, or the CyanidePill kicks in. |
| 25 | * The torturee is TooKinkyToTorture (all examples of this go on that page). |
| 26 | * The character being tortured has a prepared lie that will take just enough time to check out that the real plan can go ahead while the torturer is distracted. One variation on this is for the "victim" to have gotten captured on purpose in order to use the expected interrogation to plant false information. |
| 27 | * The torturer is inept and asks the wrong questions, allows ExactWords to mask the truth, or accidentally kills the victim before they give up any information. |
| 28 | * The victim can't tell anything about their accomplices because the latter deliberately kept them in the dark (specifically to avoid this), no matter how much they want to, but the torturer refuses to believe it. |
| 29 | * The victim has to hold on and refuse to talk because the punishment for ''talking'' is many magnitudes worse than anything the torturer can cook up. This includes refusing to give up information that would harm someone else they hold dear, especially if they are being held hostage. |
| 30 | * [[InterrogatedForNothing The victim of the torture is an innocent person who doesn't know anything]] (or maybe isn't entirely innocent but the information they're being interrogated for is above their pay grade), and only tells the torturer what they want to hear to make the pain stop. Note that this is not an instance of ineffective torture if the torturers simply want ''[[FallGuy someone]]'' to confess. |
| 31 | * The victim ''does'' give in and tell the truth, but the torturer refuses to believe him because it doesn't fit in with the torturer's preconceptions. |
| 32 | * The victim tells the truth (or enough of it), but the torturer is [[YouAreTooLate too late to stop the plan]]. |
| 33 | * The victim has the ability to FeelNoPain, and/or doesn’t process pain as anything more than an odd sensation. The torturer can do their worst, but the victim won't yield to the torture. Or the torturer tries invoking CoolAndUnusualPunishment but it backfires because for whatever reason the victim isn't bothered by it. |
| 34 | |
| 35 | This may lead to a GoodCopBadCop moment where another interrogator takes over from the first one, tries asking nicely, and succeeds where torture failed. |
| 36 | |
| 37 | Contrast TortureAlwaysWorks, where the techniques are effective, JackBauerInterrogationTechnique, where torture is effective ''enough'' and justified by time pressures, TortureFirstAskQuestionsLater where the ineffectiveness of the torture is down to an overeager torturer rather than the methodology, and TortureForFunAndInformation where the effectiveness of the torture is secondary to the torturer's enjoyment of the procedure. This trope can be considered TruthInTelevision as pointed out by the Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture (not linked) as torture is unreliable and can produce false positives except when extracting confessions and confirming already known information (although wording is a serious consideration as those undergoing torture will often say what their torturers want to hear in addition to simply picking the wrong person to torture). |
| 38 | |
| 39 | ---- |
| 40 | !!Examples: |
| 41 | |
| 42 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 43 | |
| 44 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 45 | * ''Manga/BladeOfTheImmortal'': Hyakurin is captured by members of Ittou-ryuu and tortured severely for information, including repeated rapes that [[ChildByRape lead to her becoming pregnant]]. She refuses to give up any information and is eventually rescued by her comrade Giichi. |
| 46 | * In ''Manga/DeathNote'', it's implied that L tortures Misa for information. She refuses to rat out Light, attempting suicide and even erasing her own memory to keep from saying anything incriminating. L releases her (though keeping her under surveillance) when he realizes that she won't talk, though her odd behavior makes him suspicious. |
| 47 | * Killua in ''Manga/HunterXHunter'' is locked up in a dungeon for many days as punishment for his rebellion with Milluki acting as his torturer. He's not really bothered by the pain since he's used to it and even sleeps through a severe whipping, not even flinching even after Milluki harshly whips and burns his skin, and easily destroys his shackles when Zeno lets him go. |
| 48 | * In ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', [[spoiler:Rin Nohara]] was captured ''and'' tortured with ''genjutsu'' to force her to give up vital info that she possessed. [[SilkHidingSteel She did NOT give in]], only breaking down later when [[spoiler: she and Kakashi had to leave a wounded Obito behind.]] |
| 49 | * Played both ways in ''Manga/TisTimeForTorturePrincess'': the Princess ''[[TortureAlwaysWorks always]]'' talks, but one of two things happens — either the information she gives is completely useless, or the Hell-Lord finds some excuse not to use the information anyway. As the series goes on, it becomes less common for the reader to find out what information was even given up, as the torture becomes less of an interrogation technique and more of a formality before giving the Princess something fun. (Did we forget to mention the torture includes such things as fluffy toast, video games, and the chance to feed a bunny a carrot?) |
| 50 | * Played for laughs in ''Anime/PantyAndStockingWithGarterbelt''. During their trial, the angels are found guilty and sentenced to death by electrocution. They're then immediately placed in iron-maiden like chambers that show only their faces. While Panty is clearly not enjoying the experience, Stocking is orgasming over it and then ''thanks'' the audience (after she gets free) for finding her guilty so she could enjoy the "Feel Good Chair". |
| 51 | * In ''Manga/VinlandSaga'', during the first major arc Danish mercenary leader Askeladd captures an English spy and tortures the guy, demanding to know what kind of reinforcements the English have. The spy has lost his wife and daughter to the Danish, however, so he's more than happy to resist Askeladd's torture out of sheer spite. He holds out until his reinforcements are about to attack Askeladd's force before he tells them anything, and then dies laughing at the panic among Askeladd's men when he finally tells them that his reinforcements are led by none other than [[TheDreaded Thorkell the Tall]], who is basically the WorldsStrongestMan and leads a private army that could easily wipe out Askeladd's mercenaries. |
| 52 | * In ''Manga/WorldTrigger'', Border has a discussion on the pointlessness of torturing a single prisoner because, without means to compare or verify the information provided, the prisoner can just lie and say whatever the one torturing him wants. Furthermore, having a [[LivingLieDetector living lie detector]] is useless if the prisoner is stubborn enough to stay mum. |
| 53 | [[/folder]] |
| 54 | |
| 55 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 56 | * ''ComicBook/AnnihilationConquest'': Blastaar is captured by the Phalanx and tortured for information regarding the insurgency. However, Blastaar doesn't know anything because the insurgency diverge as little information as possible to their members as a way to avoid the enemy knowing too much. Blastaar doesn't even know who his superiors are. |
| 57 | * In a ''ComicBook/BatmanConfidential'' arc set very early in Batman's career, two mooks capture the man who could become ComicBook/TheJoker, tie him to a chair, and work him for several hours. At the end, he sneers in contempt, telling them they have no idea of how to properly torture someone. They haven't been working for pain, since they've been hitting the same spots for hours, long after they had become desensitized, and they weren't working for deformation, since they were using the wrong tools. As such, he dismisses both as talentless amateurs. |
| 58 | * ComicBook/{{Diabolik}} knows perfectly that torture is unreliable, as some will confess ''anything'' to have it stop and others will die before talking (him being one such individual, who once faked breaking under torture just to drag his capturers into a trap), and on top of that, he sometimes finds people whose bodies are simply too weak to take it (one of his victims flat-out told him that to his face). That is why he prefers to rely on TruthSerum and [[TheDreaded his terrifying reputation]], [[PragmaticVillain only resorting to it when his usual methods are ineffective or would take too much time]] — or just lock them away if the victim is resilient or cannot be tortured (such as the one mentioned above, an old woman who knew had a heart too weak to take either torture or truth serum and thus didn't fear Diabolik as she knew he wouldn't harm her for no reason). |
| 59 | * In the noir comic ''ComicBook/TheGoodAsian'', a [[TheFixer fixer]] tries beating the location of a blackmailer out of a woman, knowing she's connected to him, but not knowing that the blackmailer is in fact her half-brother and thus it's going to take a ''lot'' to get her to turn on him. She remains stubbornly defiant and then is accidentally killed when she futilely attempts to attack one of her captors. Worse, the thoughtless treatment of her and her unfortunate death results in the blackmailer going on a bloody revenge spree. |
| 60 | * ''ComicBook/MyLittlePonyNightmareKnights'': When Tempest Shadow is captured by Eris and Daybreaker and she [[DefiantCaptive refuses to tell what she knows]], Eris decides to torture Tempest via MindRape, forcing her to relive the day she lost her horn, repeatedly, until she breaks. But this causes Tempest to have a panic attack, leaving her unable to say anything useful. Daybreaker grows impatient and tries to torture Tempest directly, but this breaks the spell and [[spoiler:damages Daybreaker's ShockCollar]]. |
| 61 | * ''ComicBook/ThePunisherMAX'': |
| 62 | ** Played straight when the completely sociopathic villain Barracuda successfully captured Frank and had him tied to a chair. He discusses what he wants to do to Frank and mentions how he considered torturing him, but dismissed it because "hardcore motherfuckah like you, you just gonna disconnect all that pain. So what's the point?" |
| 63 | ** [[TortureAlwaysWorks Later subverted in the very same arc]] once Frank hooks Barracuda's scrotum to a car battery for an hour (despite Barracuda being ready to talk a quarter of the way in). It works but it still isn't enough to keep Barracuda down. |
| 64 | -->'''Frank:''' When he had no lies left in him- that's when I'd ask where he'd left my daughter. |
| 65 | * {{Discussed|Trope}} in ''ComicBook/SerenityLeavesOnTheWind''. The Alliance officer who captures Zoe doesn't even bother interrogating her, never mind torture, because his SherlockScan determined that she was too principled and too stubborn to ever crack. Instead he has her sent to a PenalColony and [[KickTheDog tells her she's never going to see her daughter again]], "because you are stubborn." |
| 66 | * In ''ComicBook/TheSimpingDetective'', Jack is captured by local MookLieutenant Muggro Keevish and set upon by his uplifted apes. Jack's narration notes that attempting to beat information out of someone only works when that person has a chance to speak. |
| 67 | [[/folder]] |
| 68 | |
| 69 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 70 | * ''Fanfic/BaitAndSwitchSTO'': |
| 71 | ** "Fanfic/{{Frostbite}}": Dalsh Ruul, a Breen captain, tries to get Commander Tess Phohl to talk by first threatening to kill one of her noncoms, then by using a [[AgonyBeam painstick]]. Neither has any effect whatsoever: The only thing of substance Tess says the whole time apart from name, rank, and serial number is that if Dalsh Ruul kills said noncom, [[MamaBear Tess' captain]] will personally [[CutHisHeartOutWithASpoon strangle him with his own intestines]]. None of the other captured members of the away team say anything, either, apart from Specialist Atti calling [[YourMom the Breen's mother]] [[SonOfAWhore a whore]]. |
| 72 | ** ''Fanfic/TwoSidesOfACoin'': {{Downplayed}}. Eleya interrogates a wounded Romulan soldier without success in part II but doesn't escalate any further than a PoweredArmor-assisted slap due to time constraints. |
| 73 | --->''“Dhroi ehlrh!”''[[note]]Romulan for "Answer the question!"[[/note]] But she just glares sullenly at me and I know I’m wasting my breath. Maybe if I had two months and a hole to dump her in until she started howling at the moons, but she’s too stubborn and too principled to get anything useful here, so I just zip-cuff her hands to her legs. |
| 74 | ** ''Fanfic/EmaelMosekhesailho'' presents an interesting variant where the torture (drugs, waterboarding, and ElectricTorture) fails at getting information out of the prisoner because the prisoner is ''already'' telling the truth: Sahuel, a Romulan Imperial Fleet analyst, didn't break into classified files to spy for the Federation or Klingons, she was just investigating her mother's death in [[Film/StarTrekNemesis Shinzon's coup]]. [[spoiler:Her torturer decides to believe her and recruits her into the Tal'Shiar.]] |
| 75 | * In Chapter 62 of ''Fanfic/BlazBlueAlternativeRemnant'', Ironwood suggests the idea of torturing the then-captured Roman Torchwick for information regarding what his superiors (among which includes Terumi) are planning for Vale. Both Glynda and Ozpin shoot the idea down, pointing out that Roman would say anything to avoid the threat of violence, making whatever they could gain from him using such methods unreliable. |
| 76 | * Happens in the ''Franchise/StarWars'' fic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2696712/1/Important-Information Important Information.]]'' Han Solo gets beaten, burned, whipped, attacked with bugs called blood parasites, and sustains numerous broken bones and internal injuries. There's also pain and pleasure-enhancing drugs and repeated rape. He's almost dead when the cavalry rescues him and actually does die in Leia's arms albeit temporarily. But although he later tells Leia that he came close to breaking, he never actually did. He also stayed mentally strong enough to prevent too much information (other than the planet the imperials were looking for)from being extracted by some sort of Force mind-probe attempt. Probably justified, considering he's a badass in canon and wouldn't want to betray his lover, either. It almost crosses into MadeOfIron territory, except that part of what keeps him going in the end, along with adrenaline, is Luke supporting him by giving him life essence through the force. |
| 77 | * In ''Fanfic/{{Origins}}'', a ''Franchise/MassEffect''[=/=]''Franchise/StarWars''[[spoiler:[=/=]''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}''[=/=]''Franchise/{{Halo}}'']] MassiveMultiplayerCrossover, Sarah uses her wide variety of abilities to pummel Thalia Tediore. It doesn't work in the slightest, due to Tediore both being an IdleRich UpperClassTwit and having the mental backing of a far stronger being [[spoiler:a Flood "Overmind"]]. |
| 78 | * In ''Fanfic/AYoungGirlsGameOfThrones'', Cersei has Loras tortured to try to break him and make him swear fealty to Joffrey, thinking this would make House Tyrell follow suit. [[spoiler:This fails spectacularly when Loras shows his maiming to an open court, denounces Joffrey and declares for Stannis. Joffrey kills him in a rage, along with any chance for peace with the Reach.]] |
| 79 | [[/folder]] |
| 80 | |
| 81 | [[folder:Films -- Animated]] |
| 82 | * After Syndrome captures Mr. Incredible in ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'', he uses ElectricTorture to interrogate Mr. Incredible about who his homing beacon contacted, as Syndrome thought. However, Bob genuinely had no idea his suit even had a homing beacon to begin with, and it didn't send out any contact signal (it sent out his location at Helen's external prompting). Bob answers honestly every time, but Syndrome doesn't believe him and keeps upping the voltage. |
| 83 | [[/folder]] |
| 84 | |
| 85 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 86 | * ''Film/AvatarTheWayOfWater'': After Spider is taken prisoner by Colonel Quaritch, General Ardmore hooks him up to a machine that very painfully reads his brainwaves while she tries to get him to tell her the route to the hideout of the [[LaResistance Na'vi resistance]] led by Jake Sully. She doesn't get anything from Spider but a lot of cursing, and Quaritch finally hits the shutoff on the machine lest Ardmore accidentally kill him. Quaritch later acts as the {{good cop|BadCop}}, and while Spider still refuses to give up the resistance directly, Quaritch is able to talk him into acting as a native guide for his hunter unit. |
| 87 | * The MadScientist Duran Duran tries to wrangle the secrets from the titular ''Film/{{Barbarella}}'' using a machine called the Orgasmotron. After banging off the equivalent of a Beethoven piano concerto on the machine's controls, it falls apart from overuse. The madman is astonished that a woman can endure multiple orgasms. Surprise, surprise. |
| 88 | * In ''Film/BlondeSavage'', Berger delivers [[JackBauerInterrogationTechnique a savage beating]] to Blake who refuses to divulge any details of the native village. |
| 89 | * ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'': Zemo captures a HYDRA {{mook}} and hangs him upside down with his head in [[WaterTorture a sink that's slowly filling with water, telling him to talk or drown]]. [[DefiantToTheEnd The mook defiantly yells "Hail HYDRA!" and drowns on purpose.]] |
| 90 | * In ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' Batman pummels the Joker in the police interrogation room, but Joker laughs it off because torture would never make him talk. He only tells Batman what Batman wants to hear because it ''amuses'' him to. [[spoiler:And even then, part of what he tells Batman is wrong. The Joker tells Batman where Harvey Dent and Rachel are, but intentionally switches their locations.]] |
| 91 | * ''Film/{{Deewaar}}'': When Samant and his men torture [[spoiler:Anita]], they don't get the information they want. |
| 92 | * ''Film/AFistfulOfDollars'': Despite Ramon's brutal attempts to extract information from both Joe and Silvanito, he ends up with exactly zero in the way of useful information. |
| 93 | * Played with in the TV movie ''Film/{{Gulag}}'' (1985). An American journalist is framed by the KGB as a spy, then subjected to interrogation in filthy cells, but this only makes him more angry and defiant. His interrogator states that he will be allowed visitors, so he's allowed to shower, shave, and dress himself in clean clothes. Then a guard enters holding his previous filthy clothes and demands he put them back on as he's going back to his cell. The journalist suffers an immediate mental breakdown and provides the fake confession. So torture was effective, but sometimes you have to be clever about it. And in this case, confessing to something the accused didn't do was the idea. |
| 94 | * In ''Film/HaloNightfall'', Randall Aiken [[JackBauerInterrogationTechnique tries to beat information out]] of an alien prisoner who supplied a radiological weapon (something like a highly selective dirty bomb) to a Sangheili terrorist. (It's worth noting Aiken's daughter was one of the victims, so he may not have been thinking too clearly here.) This doesn't work, and Jameson Locke quickly gets the information they need by [[GoodCopBadCop playing the good cop to Aiken's bad cop]] and [[CunningLinguist talking to the prisoner in his own language]]. |
| 95 | * ''Film/TheHitmansBodyguard'': Bryce is captured by Dukhovitch's goons in the third part of the movie, who start torturing him to find out where Kincaid is. At this point, Bryce himself has given up trying to predict [[IndyPloy what Kincaid is going to do next]] and was just following behind him to cover his six. He tells the TortureTechnician, "If I knew, I would tell you," and [[LampshadeHanging suggests that they'd have better luck trying to establish a bond with him]]. [[spoiler:Then he tells them that Kincaid is [[RightBehindMe right behind them]]. They still don't believe him. [[CassandraTruth Cue Kincaid busting in and killing all of Bryce's captors in about thirty seconds.]]]] |
| 96 | * Torturing Film/JamesBond generally results only in him snarking at his captors. |
| 97 | ** ''Film/DrNo'': No has Bond beaten by his guards and leaves, planning to interrogate him further later. He doesn't get the chance, as Bond makes an AirVentPassageway escape between sessions. |
| 98 | ** ''Film/DieAnotherDay'': Bond is taken prisoner by the North Korean Army at the end of the prologue and tortured for months before finally being traded back to the UK. M assumes the North Koreans only traded him because he cracked; Bond assures her he never did. |
| 99 | ** ''Film/CasinoRoyale2006'': Le Chiffre starts hitting him in the groin with a flail while he's tied naked to a chair. |
| 100 | --->'''Bond:''' I got a little itch, down there. ''(whack)'' No, to the left! To the left!\ |
| 101 | '''Le Chiffre:''' You are an amusing man, Mr. Bond. ''(whack)''\ |
| 102 | '''Bond:''' ''(crying and laughing)'' Yes! Yes! Now the whole world's going to know that you died ''scratching my balls''.\ |
| 103 | '''Le Chiffre:''' ''I'' died?\ |
| 104 | '''Bond:''' Yes. Because no matter what you do, I'm not gonna give you the password. Which means your clients will hunt you down, and cut you into pieces of meat while you're still breathing. |
| 105 | ** ''Film/{{Spectre}}'': Blofeld tortures Bond by repeatedly driving a small drill into his neck, threatening him that he's going to erase parts of Bond's memory this way, such as his memory of the current Bond girl. Bond withstands the torture and breaks loose immediately after. The threatened memory loss appears not to have worked. |
| 106 | * ''Film/MissionImpossibleIII'': Played two different ways. |
| 107 | ** First, Ethan interrogates TheHeavy his team has abducted on the nature of the film's MacGuffin (a canister of Plot-oleum called "the Rabbit's Foot"). When talking doesn't work and the arms dealer threatens Ethan's relatives (successfully guessing that Ethan is now married), Ethan tries a HighAltitudeInterrogation by hanging him out the bottom of their transport plane and slowly cutting the cable ties holding him to his seat. He still doesn't talk, and worse, learns Ethan's identity from his teammates shouting WhatTheHellHero. |
| 108 | ** Second, after the dealer captures Ethan, he holds his previously kidnapped wife at gunpoint, telling Ethan he didn't bring him the real MacGuffin [[HostageForMacGuffin in exchange for wifey's release]] and demanding to know what happened to the real one. Ethan truthfully insists he ''did'' bring them the real one but the dealer counts to ten and shoots the wife in the head anyway. [[spoiler:Then Ethan's handler, a traitor, walks in the room and rips a latex mask off the dead woman, who turns out to be the arms dealer's former security chief. The arms dealer was just killing two birds with one stone, assuring himself that Ethan had upheld his end and administering a YouHaveFailedMe in the bargain.]] |
| 109 | * ''Film/{{Momentum|2015}}'': Multiple examples played different ways. Most involve the heroine Alex and antagonist Mr. Washington. |
| 110 | ** Subverted with the bank manager in the opening heist sequence, who initially refuses to cooperate with thieves but eventually tires of being a human punching bag. |
| 111 | ** Played straight with Alex's partner. Despite Mr. Washington's best efforts, he refuses to give up the location of a valuable data drive. This could be considered a HeroicSacrifice as doing so would have given away Alex as well. |
| 112 | ** Later Alex herself, who holds out under electroshock treatment and her leg being squeezed in a vice. |
| 113 | ** Apparently subverted when Alex succumbs to Mr. Washington's mind games. She appears to crack when he brings up her failed CIA mission that resulted in the deaths of several innocent civilians. [[spoiler: In reality a double subversion, since Alex ''only pretends'' to break as part of a larger strategy to outsmart him.]] |
| 114 | * ''Film/ThePunisher2004'': In an early scene, Frank threatens a low-level {{mook}} with a cutting torch, but then ''simulates'' actually burning him by using the torch on a steak (for the smell) while jabbing him in the back with a popsicle (for numbing the nerves). This proves more effective than actual torture in the movie, as shown when Dave refuses to give up Frank's location to TheDragon even when Quentin begins ripping his piercings out one by one. |
| 115 | * ''Film/RedSparrow'': Multiple sequences of brutal torture (beatings and an extended scene of the subject being skinned alive with a tool used in skin graft surgery) completely fail to get useful information. [[spoiler:Dominika and Nate are just that tough, while Volontov is innocent and doesn't know anything.]] |
| 116 | * ''Film/TheReport'': The movie makes the point that not only does torture ''[[InterrogatedForNothing not]]'' work, it also makes it harder to prosecute the suspects who are submitted to torture due to the illegality of the practice, along with damaging the US's global position (as someone points out, captured American personnel are at greater risk for being tortured themselves if captured when their government is known to do the same). |
| 117 | * Played straight and driven home with brutal effect by Nice Guy Eddie in ''Film/ReservoirDogs''. He walks into a warehouse where three of his criminal associates, eager to find out who betrayed them, are beating the hell out of a cop they captured. He puts a stop to it and explains: "If you fucking beat this prick long enough, he'll tell you he started the goddamn Chicago fire, now that don't necessarily make it fucking so!" What really sells the scene is the contempt dripping from his voice as he's saying this; he obviously can't believe he has to explain something so simple to three people who are supposed to be experienced crooks. Ironically, it later turns out that the cop ''did'' know about the set-up, but he never cracked under pressure, not even when Mr. Blonde threatens to burn him alive. Of course, Blonde did say beforehand that he didn't give a shit what the cop knows or doesn't know, so it wouldn't be a useful bargaining chip anyway. |
| 118 | * In a deleted scene from ''Film/SleepyHollow'', an inventor is hawking a "foolproof" interrogation device that resembles an iron maiden without spikes, claiming that a suspect placed inside it will suffer no permanent injury, but have no choice but to confess the truth. Constable Ichabod Crane traps him in the device, and refuses to release him unless he signs a confession to the murder of a body discovered the previous night in the river. Of course the inventor does so immediately, and Crane facetiously holds up the confession as "irrefutable proof" of the man's guilt. Considering that [[spoiler:Crane's own mother was murdered with an iron maiden]], he was keeping his reaction to the inventor's sales pitch remarkably under control. |
| 119 | * ''Franchise/StarWars'': |
| 120 | ** In ''Film/ANewHope'', Lieutenant Jir warns Darth Vader that Princess Leia will die before telling him anything. Offscreen, Leia withstands both a session with a torture droid and a MindProbe with the Force without cracking. Even when Grand Moff Tarkin threatens to destroy her homeworld with the Death Star if she won't give up the Rebels' headquarters, she instead gives him information on a base they'd already abandoned. |
| 121 | ** {{Zigzagged}} in ''Film/TheForceAwakens''. Mundane torture by a First Order interrogator fails to make Poe Dameron talk, but Kylo Ren uses a Force MindProbe and succeeds. Then he later fails at the same technique with [[spoiler:Force-sensitive]] Rey, who turns it back on him and [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech takes him apart]]. |
| 122 | [[/folder]] |
| 123 | |
| 124 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 125 | * ''Literature/BekaCooper'': It's mentioned that the Guard don't like having to resort to torture as, in addition to ethical concerns, it's far less effective than truthspells. Unfortunately, there is too much cost and too much red tape required for reliable access to truthspells, so the Guard ends up using torture far more than they want. |
| 126 | * In ''Literature/TheBookOfEve'', the [[SoulsavingCrusader fanatical priest]] Abramo tries to torture the mother superior of the local convent into confessing to sinful behaviour, including corrupting the women under her care and worshipping a false god. Unfortunately for him, Mother Chiara used to be a famed ascetic who would mortify her own flesh and has consequently developed a high pain tolerance. As she tells her would-be rescuers, he can't do anything to her that's worse than what she did to herself. [[spoiler: Until he finally snaps and murders her.]] |
| 127 | * In ''Literature/TheCrownerJohnMysteries'', although torture is permitted by law, John's personal belief is that a confession extracted by torture has no veracity and prefers to find proof. However, he is not above using the JackBauerInterrogationTechnique if time is short and the situation is dire. |
| 128 | * ''Literature/TheDeedOfPaksenarrion'': In the third book, Paks surrenders to a cult of Liart (the setting's GodOfEvil) in exchange for them freeing [[spoiler:Duke Kieri Phelan, whom she's discovered is heir to the throne of Lyonya]]. She's tortured physically and psychologically for days, including [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil repeated rapes]] and [[ForcedToWatch forcing her to watch other innocents be tortured]], in hopes of breaking her or getting her to swear loyalty to Liart. She endures all and is finally freed by the local ThievesGuild (with a side of divine intervention by her patron deity the High Lord, the setting's equivalent to the Abrahamic God). |
| 129 | * In Creator/TerryPratchett's ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': |
| 130 | ** ''Literature/{{Night Watch|Discworld}}'', Sam Vimes, a man pathologically opposed to actual physical torture, gets results by subjecting captured members of the SecretPolice to psychological warfare: he plays on their imagination, their knowledge, and their guilty consciences about torture to terrify them into confessing. (They are led to believe by sound and play-acting that one of their number is being tortured, unseen but definitely heard, in a cell round the corner.) |
| 131 | ** With physical torture, the book plays this trope straight. Captain Swing decides someone is guilty, and then he is [[TwoPlusTortureEqualsFive miraculously]] proven right by his torturers. |
| 132 | * Played straight in one of the ''Literature/DocSavage'' pulp fiction novels from the 1930s. A character has been tortured for information, and Doc asks if he revealed anything. The man simply shrugged, saying that it was torture and therefore he just told his tormentors what they wanted to hear. |
| 133 | * Beating up a time traveler mistaken for a spy in ''Literature/DriftlessWormhole'' fails because he isn't actually a spy and doesn't understand what he's being asked. It also results in him stubbornly clamming up and refusing to speak to anyone. |
| 134 | * In ''Literature/HaloTheColeProtocol'', ONI agent Akio Watanabe, despite working for a ''very'' shady StateSec organization, makes it very clear that he believes this trope is true, in large part because he's been tortured himself. |
| 135 | * ''Literature/HarryPotter'': |
| 136 | ** The [[AgonyBeam Cruciatus Curse]] is, well, excruciating, but its effectiveness at getting information is extremely variable. For example, after [[BigBad Voldemort]]'s first "[[OnlyMostlyDead death]]," four of his followers tortured Frank and Alice Longbottom to find out what had happened to him. Problem was, neither of the Longbottoms had any relevant information, so all that happened was that the Longbottoms were rendered permanently catatonic and the torturers ended up in [[TheAlcatraz Azkaban]]. |
| 137 | ** Harry himself attempts to use Cruciatus on Bellatrix Lestrange in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'' during the Department of Mysteries battle. It's not very effective and Bellatrix comments that righteous anger (over [[spoiler:Bellatrix killing Sirius Black]] in this case) is a poor fuel for the curse: you have to ''really'' want to hurt somebody to make it work. |
| 138 | ** Happens again in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows''. Bellatrix discovers that the trio has the sword of Gryffindor, which she believes to be in her vault at Gringotts. She tries to torture the truth out of Hermione, who convinces her that they haven't been anywhere near Gringotts (true) and that their sword is a fake (a lie). |
| 139 | * This is discussed in Creator/RobertAntonWilson's ''Historical Illuminatus Chronicles'', where a victim of the Inquisition confesses information that seems to be at least partially true, but it's clear that it's impossible to tell which parts of his confession are genuine and which are fabrications made to please his tormentors, blurring the line between reality and lie in the eyes of the witnesses. |
| 140 | * In his book ''Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets", author David Simon mentions that cops have beaten up suspects in days past, and sometimes do now, but the competent ones don't. Good information comes from a mix of incentivizing the suspect with hypothetical rewards or punishments and tricking them into playing themselves. Sometimes the tricks get quite elaborate, but they work. |
| 141 | * Discussed in the ''Literature/{{Hurog}}'' duology. A torturer states that torture is ineffective if done by amateurs. It needs a professional torturer like him to really get that much-needed information out of a prisoner. [[spoiler:Shortly after giving this speech, he is stabbed by his victim. Seems he wasn't ''that'' good at his job.]] In other instances, torture is shown to be ineffective because the victim just doesn't ''know'' anything — or because the torturers ask the wrong questions. |
| 142 | * In the first book of ''Literature/TheInheritanceCycle'', Durza tortures Arya for information over a period of roughly six months. He nearly drives her mad but does not obtain any useful information. |
| 143 | * [[TheFairFolk The Dark Ones]] in ''Literature/{{Murderess}}'' fail to get any information from their prisoner Aucasis about her brother Hallwad’s whereabouts. While it’s likely she has no idea herself, she doesn’t even give them false information to get them to leave her alone. |
| 144 | * In ''Literature/TheNameOfTheRose'', the trope is discussed by William who used to be an inquisitor but avoided using torture. He explains that people under torture say not only what the inquisitor wants to hear, but also what they imagine might please him. Later, when another inquisitor, Bernardo Gui interrogates a man, the threat of torture is enough for him to make a false confession. |
| 145 | * In ''Raiders of Literature/{{Gor}}'', the city-state of Port Kar is attacked. They capture some of the attackers and torture them for information, as is common on Gor. After interviewing one captive, who "confesses" that a whole series of other city-states are in on it, it's explicitly stated by the protagonist that the torturees will say anything the torturers want in order for the torture to stop. |
| 146 | * ''Literature/SecondApocalypse'': While most torture in the series is [[TortureAlwaysWorks disturbingly effective]], the Mandate sorcerers are the sole exception. They command the most powerful magics in the world, and so other schools capture them whenever possible to try to force them to give their secrets, but in hundreds of years, not one has ever broken. This is because the Mandate sorcerers relive the memories of their founder, Seswatha, every night; when they are tortured, his personality rises to the fore. Since he has been tortured by sex-crazed aliens, insane elves, and angry gods, there is absolutely nothing anyone can throw at him to make him so much as blink. Even torturing the friends of Mandate sorcerers doesn't work, since they're just strangers to Seswatha. |
| 147 | * In the Creator/TomClancy novel ''Literature/TheSumOfAllFears'', the terrorists who nuked the Super Bowl are captured by Clark and Chavez. Clark uses some {{Fingore}} on them to get information on their backer, and after holding out for a while, the terrorists finger the nation of Iran. The catch is that they had planned this as an attempted XanatosGambit: if the US does retaliate against Iran, they will have "made an enemy out of all Islam". |
| 148 | * ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': |
| 149 | ** ''The Essential Guide to Alien Species'' presents a variant. A passage from Darth Vader's personal journal reveals that he once interrogated a Toydarian and, [[Film/ThePhantomMenace like Qui-Gon Jinn before him]], found that the species has an innate resistance to mental manipulation with the Force. However, he successfully broke the subject with mundane torture. |
| 150 | ** ''Literature/XWingSeries'': |
| 151 | *** In ''Rogue Squadron'', Kirtan Loor finds he cannot use his preferred interrogation technique on Corran Horn's friend Gil Bastra because Bastra has been taking a drug that [[DangerousPhlebotinumInteraction reacts with one used for torture in such a way that the subject could suffer anything from amnesia to death]]. Loor uses a different technique and then puts him in bacta to heal between sessions, but Bastra dies due to an allergic reaction. |
| 152 | *** In ''The Krytos Trap'', Corran Horn is tortured and subjected to {{brainwashing}} techniques by Ysanne Isard in her Lusankya prison in hopes of turning him into a ManchurianAgent. She fails and puts him into gen pop. [[spoiler:That doesn't work either; he figures out TheAlcatraz's secret and escapes.]] However, Corran comments in his InternalMonologue that she probably did get whatever useful intelligence he knew. |
| 153 | ** {{Discussed}} in ''Literature/TatooineGhost''. An incognito Grand Admiral Thrawn criticizes a stormtrooper commander for torturing civilians for information. When the stormie talks back, Thrawn punches him in the face and then asks him if that made him like him any better. The Empire's new doctrine, according to Thrawn, isn't brutality, it's ''efficiency''. |
| 154 | ** In ''Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy: Dark Force Rising'', Grand Admiral Thrawn captures smuggler Talon Karrde in hopes of finding the lost ''Katana'' fleet and adding its ships to his navy (Karrde had found it purely by accident during a blind hyperspace jump to escape the cops), but was still in the early stages of the torture (sleep and food deprivation) when Luke and Mara Jade break him out and doesn't get anything. [[spoiler:Thrawn later simply ''buys'' the information from Karrde's ex-partner so he could get to it before the New Republic.]] |
| 155 | * PlayedForLaughs in Creator/TimDorsey's novel ''The Stingray Shuffle'', starring his recurring AntiHero Serge A. Storms: the cast of characters include a quintet of former Russian KGB or GRU operatives who were all [[ReassignedToAntarctica reassigned]] to the torture squad because each of them had screwed up in some spectacularly memorable way and were deemed too stupid for any work involving actual intelligence. |
| 156 | * ''Literature/{{Temeraire}}'': Played for BlackComedy when Laurence is arrested by the Japanese in ''Blood of Tyrants''. One Japanese official points out that the Japanese are known to be made of sterner stuff than foreigners, so an interrogation that would [[TortureAlwaysWorks extract the truth]] from one of them would only kill a member of a weaker race. Everyone then studiously ignores that Laurence is by far the most powerfully built person in the room. |
| 157 | * In Creator/IainBanks' ''Literature/{{Transition}}'', a torturer/narrator explains that the worst torture of all is just describing what will happen. Later in the same book, torture fails to work, but only because the character being tortured [[ItMakesSenseInContext teleports out of his body]] first. |
| 158 | * ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': |
| 159 | ** In ''Literature/CiaphasCain: The Traitor's Hand'', [[TheRival Cain's rival]] Commissar Tomas Beije attempts to torture information out of a Slaanashi cultist, only to get [[HumiliationConga spontaneously kissed]] for his trouble. Cain comments in his InternalMonologue that trying to torture information out of Slaaneshi is [[TooKinkyToTorture about as ineffective as torture gets]], and he's able to get a captured smuggler to talk with a simple GoodCopBadCop routine. |
| 160 | ** Played with in ''[[Literature/HorusHeresy Konrad Curze: The Night Haunter]]''. Curze spends nearly a year torturing Vulkan, the GentleGiant of the Primarchs, in an attempt to [[BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil turn him into a sociopathic, brutal murderer]] like him, trying to prove that every man is evil at heart. It fails, but he succeeds in making Vulkan go completely insane. |
| 161 | * In ''Literature/WolfHall'', the narrative comes down on the "no" side as to whether or not Thomas Cromwell got Mark Smeaton to confess adultery with Anne Boleyn by torturing him.[[note]]It's alleged he had "knotted cords" pressed into Smeaton's eyes, but the source of this story is not very reliable.[[/note]] It's not because of moral objections, but because it wouldn't work--Cromwell wants words he can transcribe, not screams. Instead, he threatens to leave Smeaton alone with his PsychoSidekick, then makes him spend the night in a dark closet next to a huge, multi-pointed metal object. (It's really the giant gilded star he hangs up for Christmas.) |
| 162 | * In the short story "A Thousand Deaths" by Creator/OrsonScottCard, the main character rather quickly ends up willing to cooperate with his torturers, who want him to read a speech on live television confessing to his crime and praising the government that arrested him. Unfortunately for everyone involved, the main character is a terrible liar and no matter how hard he tries, he just can't make the speech sound convincing... |
| 163 | [[/folder]] |
| 164 | |
| 165 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 166 | * On ''Series/The100'', torture done to extract information never works. Lincoln just badasses their way through the torture, keeping so quiet that the 100 are convinced Lincoln can't speak English and doesn't even understand their questions. When Finn tries it on another Grounder in Season 2, the Grounder initially protests they don't know anything, before eventually telling Finn the village where Clarke is being held prisoner. Turns out, that Grounder really ''didn't'' know anything, and just pointed Finn at a village they had a grudge against. |
| 167 | ** However, torture works quite well for ALIE, as they're not looking for information, they just need people's consent to implant a computer chip in their brain. That the consent is given under duress doesn't matter; just keep torturing them until give in and say "yes", then ALIE can implant the chip and MindControl them. Only difficulty they have is that some people hold out long enough, the torture kills them before they can give in. |
| 168 | * ''Series/TwentyFour'' had some cases of the JackBauerInterrogationTechnique failing Jack Bauer later in the series. {{Enforced}} after [[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-military-tells-jack-bauer-cut-out-the-torture-scenes-or-else-436143.html a general who teaches at West Point complained to the writers]] that the Army didn't like the ideas their cadets were getting from the show. |
| 169 | * ''Series/BabylonFive'': |
| 170 | ** Near the end of the Shadow War the Centauri capture G'Kar, and [[TheCaligula Emperor Cartagia]] starts [[TortureForFunAndInformation torturing him for fun]]. G'Kar does his damnedest to ruin the Emperor's fun by remaining unbowed and even refusing to scream, [[spoiler:except when Londo convinces him to do so to keep Cartagia from killing him and screwing up their BatmanGambit to assassinate him and free Narn]]. |
| 171 | ** After Sheridan is captured by President Clark's forces, he's tortured psychologically and {{electric|Torture}}ally in order to get him to confess to being a traitor to Earth. This was shown to work on other prisoners--ISN at one point broadcasts propaganda videos of several people blearily and unconvincingly confessing and naming others--but Sheridan holds out long enough for [[spoiler:Garibaldi and the Mars Resistance to rescue him]]. He is in pretty rough shape by that point, however. |
| 172 | * The ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'' episode "[[Recap/BattlestarGalactica2003S01E08FleshAndBone Flesh and Bone]]" has Starbuck attempt to get the location of a nuke planted in the Fleet out of a captured Cylon infiltrator, Leoben, with beatings and WaterTorture. Neither is successful. [[spoiler:[[GoodCopBadCop President Roslin apologizes for his treatment and simply asks Leoben where the bomb is]], and he admits he made it all up to stall for time since he's too far from any Cylon ship to download and {{reincarnat|ion}}e when the humans kill him.]] |
| 173 | * An early episode of ''Series/BetterCallSaul'' has Jimmy being kidnapped by gangster head Tuco who thinks he might know something about their operation. As it turns out, he doesn't, but when he tells them the truth (he's just an unsuccessful lawyer who was in the wrong place at the wrong time pulling a low-level scam), Tuco just keeps up the torture. However, when he starts making up a story on the spot about being an FBI agent investigating them as part of a special operation, Tuco totally believes him. One of Tuco's subordinates wisely points out that Jimmy isn't telling the truth, he's just saying whatever might make Tuco stop trying to cut his finger off. |
| 174 | * In an episode of ''{{Series/Bones}}'' the VictimOfTheWeek was a SalaryMan paper-pusher at the CIA who investigates a diamond smuggling operation on his own after his superiors didn't think there was anything to it. He is killed by torture but never gives up the info they were after. CIA agents point out that even most well-trained field agents would crack under what he was subjected to. After the crime is solved, he is given a star on the CIA "Killed in Action" wall even though his position didn't qualify for that honor. |
| 175 | * Torture doesn't work often in ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. Spike endures torture for hours without giving up any information. When Angelus tortures Giles he won't break either, until Drusilla uses her psychic powers on him to impersonate Jenny Calendar. |
| 176 | * ''Series/BurnNotice'': Series protagonist Michael Westen narrates on the futility of torture or enhanced interrogation very frequently. He has even gone so far as to let himself be tortured as a means of feeding false information to his adversary. Other successful techniques have been a HighAltitudeInterrogation (dropping a guy out of a window with a cable to arrest his fall, in order to get the ''other'' prisoner to talk from the screams), and Madeline Westen, Michael's mom, very calmly and sweetly ''talking'' the information out of a prisoner over a cigarette (with a veiled threat that if he doesn't talk, Sam and Fiona will simply kill him on the spot) after a beating from Fiona doesn't work. |
| 177 | ** Lampshaded in the first season episode "Wanted Man", when Michael offers to trade valuable information to a Libyan operative: |
| 178 | --->'''Anwar''': Why don't I just make you tell me and then kill you?\ |
| 179 | '''Michael''': ''(casually)'' You could do that. The information might or might not check out, torture is unreliable - as you know - and then you'd have to deal with Fiona, who put you in touch with me in the first place. More trouble than it's worth, ''trust me''. |
| 180 | ** {{Defied}} in the same vein in "Friends Like These" when money-launderer Barry Burkowski suggests using ElectricTorture on one of the people who they think stole his records. |
| 181 | --->'''Barry:''' I heard you can attach them to a car battery, spark it up, and get--\ |
| 182 | '''Michael:''' Torture just gets you the fastest lie to make the pain stop. |
| 183 | ** A first-season episode uses a "subject knows nothing" version when Michael poisons a peanut-allergic assassin with crushed peanuts in his dinner and then holds his Epi-pen just out of reach. The assassin ''does'' talk (and Michael administers the antidote and has Sam call the FBI to arrest the assassin) but Mike doesn't learn anything critically plot-important: he just gets confirmation that the CIA is no longer protecting his identity or keeping his enemies at bay, which he already suspected. |
| 184 | ** In a season five episode, Michael tortures a kidnapped {{yakuza}} human trafficker... because Michael is pretending to be a gangster from a rival group, and is trying to set up a variation of the GoodCopBadCop scenario, as he has Madeline pretending to be a nurse that Michael has abducted in order to keep the yakuza alive until Michael can get information from the man. Michael doesn't expect the yakuza to talk to ''him'' (and indeed the guy shows no sign of breaking throughout the ordeal), but he does hope that Madeline can either get the guy to say something in confidence or for her to otherwise manipulate him. Sure enough, eventually the yakuza "convinces" poor frightened nurse Madeline to help him escape when he offers to have his friends protect her from Michael the scary gangster. They then "escape" together and Madeline drives them both to the yakuza's hideout, with Michael and the rest of Team Westen following close behind them. |
| 185 | * ''Series/{{Castle|2009}}'': |
| 186 | ** Played for laughs in "[[Recap/CastleS3E13Knockdown Knockdown]]". Ryan and Esposito are captured by an ex-Special Forces EliteMook and tortured by [[WaterTorture being ducked in ice-cold water]]. Ryan snarks to his torturer that he went to Catholic school and they used to do that to him for talking in class. Meanwhile, Esposito, himself a retired Green Beret, goes: |
| 187 | --->"Listen to me. You're too late. The cops already know everything about... me and {{your mom}}." ''(he and Ryan bust out laughing)'' |
| 188 | ** Beckett is similarly tortured by [[spoiler:Vulcan Simmons]] in a later episode when an undercover operation goes south but passes out before revealing any information. |
| 189 | * {{Downplayed}} early in the [[Creator/{{Syfy}} Sci-Fi Channel]] ''Series/{{Earthsea}}'' miniseries. King Tygath has his men torture information about a prophecy out of a captured wizard but they're only partially successful because the prisoner dies in the middle of it. [[YouHaveFailedMe Tygath beheads the torturer for incompetence since all he got on the prophesied wizard's identity was a riddle.]] |
| 190 | * In the ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' episode "[[Recap/FireflyE10WarStories War Stories]]", Adelai Niska captures Mal and Wash and tortures them continuously for several hours (as punishment for breaking off a deal in "[[Recap/FireflyE02TheTrainJob The Train Job]]" and [[TurbineBlender throwing his top enforcer into their engine]]) before ''Serenity'''s crew buys Wash free [[spoiler:and then storms Niska's SpaceStation to break Mal out]]. Mal more or less laughs off Niska's torture because he's TheDeterminator, and also distracts Wash by arguing with him about Zoe to keep him from breaking. |
| 191 | * In an episode of ''Series/GetSmart'' a retired spy living at an Old Spy Home is tortured for the whereabouts of his diary, in which he has written down many secret things, but he successfully resists. |
| 192 | * In ''Series/TheGreat'' Peter tries to find out who's trying to kill him by having the ''entire court'' tortured. While the conspirators are included, they know in advance that he has no idea who it really is and will be stopping after a few minutes (unless they confess, in case it would probably go on a lot longer), so obviously none of them give up anything. |
| 193 | * In ''Series/{{Heroes}}'', Sylar captures a soldier, nails him into a chair, beats him bloody, and eventually threatens to torture civilians in front of him. Sylar had gained LivingLieDetector powers, so at least the soldier couldn't lie his way out of it; however, the guy still never gives Sylar the information he wants and probably didn't have it anyway. |
| 194 | * ''Series/{{Intergalactic}}'': Emma Grieves was tortured for ''seventeen years'' but she never gave up information. |
| 195 | * Subverted in ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'', when Frank waterboards Dee into confessing to being a terrorist. She's absolutely not, and is openly admittedly she's just saying whatever will make Frank stop...but Frank is just trying to get a confession and doesn't care if its ''true'', so he sees this as a sign of how effective torturing people is. |
| 196 | * ''Series/Jericho2006'': When an interrogation gets a bit too intense for Jake, Hawkins reveals he was bluffing about the extent to which he was willing to go because he knows from personal experience that real torture only works in movies. |
| 197 | -->'''Jake:''' What were you gonna do?\ |
| 198 | '''Hawkins:''' To get the truth? Less than you would have. You see, I've done--I've done enough, Jake, to know better. It's the fear of torture that gets results. Actual torture...only works in the movies. |
| 199 | * An episode of ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' has a judge asking Elliot Stabler, off the books, to get a dying inmate to reveal where he buried the judge's son, who he had confessed to murdering decades earlier. Stabler coerces the inmate to talk by cutting off his supplementary oxygen supply, but the information the man gives up turns out to be false, leading the judge to comment that "One should always be wary of information obtained by force." It's [[TwistEnding later revealed]] that in reality [[spoiler: he couldn't give them what they wanted, because he didn't actually kill the victim; he was a serial killer who had already racked up enough charges on the things he actually did that adding one more wouldn't make any practical difference, so he falsely claimed the judge's son as one of his victims just to torment the parents. The judge had in fact started to suspect the "confession" might not be legitimate and asked Elliot to investigate in hopes that, if the man hadn't done it, he might finally admit as much under pressure, but instead the guy just gave Elliot a location to get him to leave him alone.]] |
| 200 | * ''Series/{{Lost}}'' featured many torture scenes, most of which featured ex-torturer Sayid as [[LaserGuidedKarma the victim]]. In a few cases, the victim knew nothing. In others, the victim simply didn't break down. In one, Sayid eventually broke down, but he responded to the interrogator's attempts to attract sympathy rather than the torture. |
| 201 | * ''Series/MadamSecretary'': |
| 202 | ** {{Discussed}} in the season 1 finale. In a flashback of Liz [=McCord=]'s CIA days, she's trying to halt the use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" on terrorism suspects, and authors a memo intended to appeal to the EnlightenedSelfInterest of the Bush Administration by focusing on torture's inefficiency rather than its immorality. |
| 203 | ** In "The Rusalka", Henry [=McCord=] has his own mole in the Russian Army kidnapped and put through the JackBauerInterrogationTechnique as a SecretTestOfCharacter. Dmitri Petrov holds up despite having been very drunk when they grabbed him. |
| 204 | * In one episode of ''Series/{{Nikita}}'', Nikita needs the name of a terrorist from a captured former agent of Amanda's, and her first instinct is to beat him until he gives her the name. However, he remains stubborn, not giving her the information until she figures out what he wants and trades it for the information. |
| 205 | * ''Series/Numb3rs'': It's almost a throwaway moment, but in the episode "Thirteen", Megan experiences a flashback in which a man is screaming and she's yelling "That's enough! He'll say anything you want!"[[note]]with the implied meaning being "he'll say whatever he thinks you want to hear, whether or not it's true", not "he'll tell you what you want to know"[[/note]]. A later conversation with Colby indicates that she was forced to be involved in the torture of detainees suspected of terrorism, suggesting that the memory she was reliving was from that assignment. |
| 206 | * ''Series/OnePiece2023''; When intimidation doesn't work, Buggy decides to torture Luffy into giving up the location of the Grand Line map the Straw Hats stole from Axe Hand Morgan. His torture methods are fairly inefficient- Luffy's RubberMan body means stretching him on a rack just makes him laugh, and he holds out in the DrowningPit long enough for Nami and Zoro to recover their weapons and break him out. |
| 207 | * ''Series/{{Reaper}}'': The Devil, of all people, discovers this. One damned soul has been escaping hell with [[CardboardPrison even more ease than normal]], so the Devil starts torturing demons to find the culprit. He finds the culprit, the leak is plugged, he starts celebrating... and Sam points out that he saw the soul in question less than an hour ago. The Devil muses that maybe pulling out someone's fingernails isn't the best way to obtain information since they'll tell you whatever you want to hear to make you stop. |
| 208 | * In ''Series/{{Revolution}}'', Rachel has been a prisoner of the Monroe Republic for years already at the start of the series, and her torture is alluded to multiple times but conversations between her and Monroe show that she has never given up any information. |
| 209 | * An episode of ''Series/{{Scorpion}}'' has an Air Force pilot crash in the Balkans and be taken prisoner by Serbian gangsters who want the password to his plane's computer. Despite beatings and ElectricTorture he does nothing but repeat name, rank, and serial number to the point where the leader starts complaining that he's memorized it. [[spoiler:The torture is briefly equally ineffective on the Navy SEAL sent with the Scorpion crew to rescue the flyboy. Then Walter convinces the gangster that he can hack the computer open without the password, and promptly reformats the drive to get rid of the data for good.]] |
| 210 | * Played with in the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS6E10ChainOfCommand Chain of Command]]". Picard tells his Cardassian captor Gul Madred that torture has historically been an ineffective way of obtaining information, and in this case, it also helped that Picard didn't know the specific information they wanted (Federation defense plans for a disputed planet). However, in this particular case, the interrogation instead becomes about Madred's pride in his craft as a TortureTechnician, and he quickly stops caring about what Picard knows or doesn't know, instead becoming obsessed with proving that he can break the strong-willed Picard mentally. At the end of the episode, Picard confesses to Troi that he had indeed been broken by the end of his imprisonment: only being informed of his freedom at the last second brought him back to his senses long enough to shout defiance at his captor. |
| 211 | * ''Series/StargateSG1'': |
| 212 | ** In "[[Recap/StargateSG1S3E13TheDevilYouKnow The Devil You Know]]", Apophis uses drug-induced hallucinations to try and get information out of SG-1 and Martouf. SG-1 doesn't talk, while Martouf gives false information to stop Apophis from killing Carter to get him to talk. |
| 213 | ** In "[[Recap/StargateSG1S10E17Talion Talion]]", Teal'c tortures a man involved in several bombings against the Free Jaffa Nation but gets little useful information. In prior episodes, his technique of sitting across the table from the prisoner and simply [[DeathGlare glaring at them until they talk]] was a hell of a lot more effective. |
| 214 | * ''Series/StrangerThings'': |
| 215 | ** The Soviets have Hopper for a year, and their torture of him doesn't get them any of the information they're trying to get him to divulge. It helps that their questions are based on their own misinformation, thinking Joyce is an American agent of some type rather than a concerned mother. |
| 216 | ** The agent Sullivan is torturing has still not given up any information, despite days of non-stop torture. It's not that he doesn't know anything, his partner knew of the Nina Project so surely he does too, nor is it because he's too tough to crack as he's clearly a broken mess from it. But the experience is so traumatic it's caused him to clam up and be unable to answer any basic questions, let alone a complex one like where Eleven is. |
| 217 | * In a ''Series/TekWar'' episode, the police use a modified lie detector as a torture device. It works on the first criminal but the mastermind gave him unreliable information. The second person it was used on didn't give out information because she feared for her life, and entered a panic attack before needing medical treatment. |
| 218 | * ''Series/{{Warehouse 13}}'': When Mrs. Frederick resorts to "Enhanced Interrogation" to get information out of Sally on how to prevent the destruction of a building the Regents are trapped within, Agent Jinks pauses to remind Mrs. F that is has been statistically proven that torture never yields viable information. Jinks apparently forgot the fact that the only reason Sally is in that situation to begin is that she successfully tortured one Regent until said Regent revealed the location of the others. Or he said that deliberately as part of a plan to infiltrate the enemy group. Also, torture might well be effective if Jinks is involved in the process since he has the ability to tell when people are lying. |
| 219 | * PlayedWith In ''Series/TheWire'', Butchie refuses to talk when Chris Partlow and Snoop torture him to find out Omar's whereabouts. Chris and Snoop offer to let him go without harm if he gives up Omar. Butchie says no, even when Chris explicitly tells him that it will get messy if he doesn't talk. Chris and Snoop end up shooting Butchie in the kneecap, then in the groin, and then in the head when they figure they're attracting too much attention with Butchie's screaming. In the end, all Chris and Snoop got was blood on their hands and no useful information, although they ''do'' succeed in luring Omar out of retirement ultimately leading to the latter's death at the hands of Kenard. |
| 220 | [[/folder]] |
| 221 | |
| 222 | [[folder:Newspaper Comics]] |
| 223 | * ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'': In one Spaceman Spiff ImagineSpot, Spiff is captured by {{Muck Monster}}s who take him to their dungeon to extract information from their uncooperative captive. Spiff boasts that he is [[FeelsNoPain impervious to pain]], [[SubvertedTrope but it turns out]] they have something much worse in mind for him than ''physical'' torture... |
| 224 | -->''' Spaceman Spiff:''' Hey, what kind of dungeon is this?! Aren't you going to torture me?\ |
| 225 | '''Yukbarf Alien:''' Oh yes! Have a seat and let's see how you withstand a calm discussion of wholesome principles!\ |
| 226 | ''(CuttingBackToReality)''\ |
| 227 | '''Calvin:''' [[AnythingButThat AAAUGH]]!\ |
| 228 | '''Calvin's Dad:''' Yes, life is tough and suffering builds character. Nothing worth having ever comes easy. Virtue is its own reward. And when I was your age... |
| 229 | [[/folder]] |
| 230 | |
| 231 | [[folder:Radio]] |
| 232 | * In the ''Radio/StarWarsRadioDramas'' version of ''Film/ANewHope'', we're actually shown the torture scene [[GoryDiscretionShot left out of the film]]. Vader uses drugs and the Force to torture Leia, first trying to make her think he's her adoptive father Bail Organa and that she succeeded in her mission to bring the Death Star plans to Alderaan, then just inflicting pain. He nearly kills her but she doesn't crack. |
| 233 | [[/folder]] |
| 234 | |
| 235 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 236 | * ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsThirdEdition'': ''The Book of Vile Darkness'' included rules for torture that increased one's susceptibility to Bluff checks by how successful the torture was. In other words, the better you are at getting the subject to say ''anything at all'', the more likely you are to fall for them lying. |
| 237 | * ZigZaggedTrope in ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}''. Using threats or torture gives a bonus to Interrogation checks. Interrogation checks are opposed by the victim's will, allowing a badass enough character to withstand it. Then there's the possibility of interrogating someone who genuinely doesn't know anything, and if he critically fails his will roll, he believes his own lies, so magical lie detection and the like won't prevent the interrogator from getting a false result. |
| 238 | * Zigzagged in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'', where the mere mention of the Inquisition is often enough to get criminals to confess. One of their methods of getting information is [[ToThePain going over the list of planned tortures with the prisoner]], before moving on to its actual implementation. Problem is, torturing prisoners fails if they're part of a Nurglite (who don't feel pain) or Slaaneshi (who get off on pain) cult, while genestealer hybrids are part of a HiveMind which ensures they'll never talk. |
| 239 | [[/folder]] |
| 240 | |
| 241 | [[folder:Theater]] |
| 242 | * In Lope de Vega's play ''Theatre/{{Fuenteovejuna}}'', ''everyone'' in the Fuenteovejuna village is tortured by orders of the magistrate to make them reveal [[spoiler: who killed the cruel and abusive Commander.]] No one gives in, and instead they say [[IAmSpartacus "Fuenteovejuna did it"]]. [[spoiler: They're pardoned by the ''Reye Católicos'' themselves.]] |
| 243 | [[/folder]] |
| 244 | |
| 245 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 246 | * Revolutionaries torturing [[spoiler: Severin Cocorico]] in ''VideoGame/AviaryAttorney'' don't even get his name out of him, he's [[TheStoic that stoic under pressure]]. |
| 247 | * Done {{anvilicious}}ly in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV''. The person is not only perfectly willing to talk, but he is also completely innocent of any crime save happening to know a suspected terrorist. Trevor, the torturer himself, even tells his victim later on that he's aware that torture is typically ineffective and the only thing he gets out of it is [[ForTheEvulz a good time]]. |
| 248 | * ''Franchise/MassEffect'': |
| 249 | ** ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'': |
| 250 | *** Given a nod on the PrisonShip Purgatory. When they find a prisoner being beaten, Shepard's entire squad -- almost all of whom are willing to engage in DirtyBusiness -- write it off as immoral, petty, or just pointless. The guards aren't even trying to get information - the prisoner killed someone the warden could have sold for a lot of money. Even TokenEvilTeammate Zaeed objects to it, though more [[PragmaticVillainy out of pragmatism than anything else]] since he says that torturing someone will just make them say what you want to hear, and that it's just a waste of time. Shepard is able to convince them to cut it out with minimal convincing and the guards admit that they find the process tiring. |
| 251 | ---->'''Garrus:''' You don't even get good information that way. After a point, victims admit to anything to make the pain stop.\ |
| 252 | '''Legion:''' The subject will invent fiction it believes the interrogator desires. Data acquired will be invalid. |
| 253 | *** In Thane's loyalty mission, there's a series of Renegade Interrupts to try to beat information out of a crime boss. Beating on him doesn't produce any information: the subject almost ''encourages'' it, believing that it'll just get Shepard in more trouble (having not realized that [[EliteAgentsAboveTheLaw Shepard is a Spectre and therefore above the law]]. [[https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/944907-mass-effect-2/58859576 The options that work all involve talking the information out of him:]] Paragon Shepard playing "bad cop" is a GuileHero and tricks him into giving up the goods, a high-level Renegade can scare him into it with a BreakingSpeech on the first interrupt, or Shepard can wait for his lawyer to arrive and point out that, as a Council Spectre, Shepard can legally kill everyone in the room without consequence, [[KnowWhenToFoldEm at which point the lawyer advises his client to tell Shepard what they want to know.]] |
| 254 | ** ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'': |
| 255 | *** A sidequest on Voeld has Ryder discover an angara torturing a [[{{Mook}} Kett Chosen]] for information but not getting anything (it's implied that the kett, aside from just plain not ''knowing'' the information she wants, is either too tough to torture or, given how long she's apparently been at it, too far gone to give any coherent response). Ryder has the option to MercyKill the kett and put an end to it. |
| 256 | *** Logs found on [[spoiler:the Kett Archon's flagship]] reveal that when the Archon tortured Moshae Sjefa to find information about a [[{{Precursors}} Remnant]] artifact, it didn't work [[InterrogatedForNothing because she didn't know anything about it.]] |
| 257 | * It's somewhat of a motif that sooner or later your character is going to get caught and have to undergo ElectricTorture for information in the ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' franchise. To date, none of the badass protagonists have given up information in any of the three games. [[spoiler:Even Sokolov, who has a family, refused to talk]]. You'd think Ocelot would have learned the old "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." adage, but alas. [[spoiler: Of course, given that this is [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder Ocelot]] we're talking about here, it's possibly deliberate; He intentionally kills Donald Anderson this way to preserve his own cover.]] |
| 258 | ** Volgin in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'' is undoubtedly the worst interrogator ever. His only method seems to be beating the prisoner to death in under 15 seconds while telling ''them'' all of ''his'' information. Ocelot actually applauds Snake for surviving just one session, [[spoiler:and the Philosopher's Legacy Volgin was trying to protect winds up in the hands of America thanks to him telling everyone in the room, ''all of whom were spies for another country'', exactly where it was]]. |
| 259 | * ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': |
| 260 | ** ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'': |
| 261 | *** When the ''Ebon Hawk'' is captured by Sith Admiral Saul Karath's flagship after the acquisition of the third PlotCoupon, the PlayerCharacter, Carth Onasi, and Bastila Shan are [[ElectricTorture tortured by electrocution]]. It's only as effective as the player wants it to be, since the PC is the only one being questioned (it's a "talk and I'll stop hurting your friends, too" thing), and the scene is formatted mechanically as a conversation with options to say nothing, lie, or tell the truth. |
| 262 | *** Subverted when Darth Malak takes Bastila prisoner. In a cutscene, he tortures her with Force Lightning not to get information, but to [[BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil break her spirit and allow him to turn her to the Dark Side]]. [[spoiler:He succeeds, and Bastila becomes your opponent in a MiniBoss battle in TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon.]] |
| 263 | ** ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'': |
| 264 | *** Imperial players of any class can express this view during the Taris storyline while observing a bit-part Sith Lord who has fitted a prisoner with a ShockCollar. |
| 265 | ---->'''Player Character:''' Pain twists the truth. He'd say anything to avoid your torment. |
| 266 | *** In the Imperial Agent storyline, [[PlayerCharacter Cipher Nine]] once intentionally gets themself captured and tortured in order to plant falsified intelligence to which the AncientConspiracy will be forced to react. |
| 267 | *** In the Sith Warrior storyline, Darth Baras tries to torture information out of a captured Republic spy to no avail, then sends his apprentice (the PlayerCharacter) on a quest to hunt down some LostTechnology he thinks may make the spy crack. |
| 268 | *** Played for BlackComedy in the Smuggler storyline. When told about [[spoiler:Nok Drayen]]'s terminal illness, the Smuggler can comment that they've heard Jedi can heal almost anything. [[spoiler:Drayen]] replies that [[ComicallyMissingThePoint the three he captured and tortured to death]] were not forthcoming on that front. |
| 269 | * In ''VideoGame/SpycraftTheGreatGame'' the player is given the option of using an old Soviet torture device to get information out of a suspect. The suspect's file warns that her history of painful abuse could make torture ineffective and sure enough, it is. The best option with her is psychological manipulation. |
| 270 | * In ''Videogame/Yakuza0'', [[spoiler:Tetsu Tachibana]] eventually ends up captured by the Dojima Family and undergoes severe torture that he manages to resist; even after his torturer finishes [[AgonyOfTheFeet pulverizing his toes]] (which are filled with nerve bundles) with a sledgehammer, he still manages to taunt them that they won't get anything out of him. His torturer Kuze is at least experienced enough to know when to stop and try something else (as well as knowing that you need to give the victim some time to recover), but his lackey [[DumbMuscle Yoneda]] ends up getting riled up and [[spoiler:smashes Tachibana's head with the hammer, thus killing him, while denying the Dojima Family the information they sought. Kuze is ''[[FacePalmOfDoom not]]'' happy]]. |
| 271 | [[/folder]] |
| 272 | |
| 273 | [[folder:Web Animation]] |
| 274 | * ''WebAnimation/HelluvaBoss'': During their interrogation by [[TheMenInBlack DHORKS]] in "Truth Seekers", Moxxie tries to head off any torture attempts by pointing out that they might just say something to make it stop with no real way of determining whether it's true. While Blitzo suggests they might actually [[TooKinkyToTorture enjoy it.]] They resort to flooding the room with TruthSerum, which only causes the imps to experience intense hallucinations, and the agents get no useful information before Millie and Loona arrive to rescue them. |
| 275 | [[/folder]] |
| 276 | |
| 277 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 278 | * Called out in ''WebComic/{{Fans}}'' where Rumy yells at her berserk subordinate that "Contrary to what you see on '24,' pain is not a Lasso of Truth." |
| 279 | * ''Webcomic/LookingForGroup'': Richard is a [[OurLichesAreDifferent lich]], so he pretty much can't feel pain. When he's tortured at one point, the torturer racks him and sticks him full of blades. Richard's response is to helpfully tell the baffled TortureTechnician, "There's some room by my calf." |
| 280 | * Parodied [[http://nonadventures.com/2012/11/17/war-on-error/ here]] in ''Webcomic/TheNonAdventuresOfWonderella''. The torturee essentially points out the flaws in a JackBauerInterrogationTechnique, even [[LampshadeHanging referencing]] the show ''[[Series/TwentyFour 24]]''. |
| 281 | * ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': |
| 282 | ** Redcloak and Xykon torture the captured Azure City paladin O'Chul for weeks to try and get information on the Snarl from him. O'Chul sincerely doesn't know squat, and despite the torture, he retains the presence of mind to memorize Xykon's entire spell list, which he passes on to the Order of the Stick after he's freed (He is also able to befriend the Monster in the Darkness). Redcloak eventually realizes he's telling the truth, but deliberately neglects to tell Xykon this so he can stay in Azure City long enough to solidify the goblin stronghold. Xykon really just wants to [[TortureForFunAndInformation have fun placing O'Chul in death traps]] more than actually get useful information about the Snarl. |
| 283 | ** {{Invoked}} by Serini Toormuck [[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1258.html here]]: she refuses to explain the security measures on Kraagor's Gate to the Order, on the grounds that if they attack Xykon and lose, they won't be able to reveal the information if interrogated. |
| 284 | * ''WebComic/SluggyFreelance'': In "Torg Goes to Hell", the initial round of torture by the demons of the Dimension of Pain only makes Torg angry, instead of bending him to their will. The joke is that he's used to it because he's got the evilest "pet" bunny ever, who regularly beats him up. |
| 285 | [[/folder]] |
| 286 | |
| 287 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 288 | * After the main character of ''Literature/NothingLikeTheSun'' finds out that [[spoiler:her whole life was a lie and she was created just as a joke by two writers with delusions of godhood]], she [[FreakOut snaps]] and starts torturing the people responsible, in an attempt to force them to undo everything they have done. However, [[spoiler:her authors are unable to alter her world while they are in it, and refuse to get rid of her BlessedWithSuck glowing eyes even when they are returned to their own world]], so she eventually realizes that it would be pointless to continue, and stops. [[SweetAndSourGrapes She gets what she wants in the end]], because [[spoiler:she bribes one of the authors]]. |
| 289 | [[/folder]] |
| 290 | |
| 291 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 292 | * When Bill Cosby tries using electroshock to break Black Dynamite of his Blaxsploitation edge in ''WesternAnimation/BlackDynamite'', Black Dynamite doesn't react in the slightest. When Bill Cosby demands that he smile, he simply answers "I am smiling," even though he is wearing [[PerpetualFrowner the same scowl he always does]]. |
| 293 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks'': "[[Recap/TheBoondocksS1E5ADateWithTheHealthInspector A Date With the Health Inspector]]" has the Freeman brothers enlist the help of [[AxCrazy Gin Rummy and Ed Wuncler III]] to track down a killer whose crime Tom has been framed for. The four go to the street where the murder took place. Gin and Ed try to get answers by ambushing and beating up the residents but gain no information. Huey and Riley, on the other hand, are able to learn of the killer's residence simply by interviewing witnesses. |
| 294 | * One early season cutaway gag on ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' shows the Griffins locked up inside a torture chamber with Peter having his back whipped by the dungeon master. Peter's completely unfazed, quipping it feels like he's been bitten by a mosquito before telling Lois "If you happen to see the Dungeon Master, can you tell him his grandma was trying to work me over?" |
| 295 | * In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Metalocalypse}}'', the Metal Masked Assassin is seen torturing a Klokateer for information, only for said Klokateer to begin laughing. When asked about the reason for the laughter, he explains that he just took a CyanidePill. |
| 296 | * One ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' sketch has the nerd accidentally hacking into the nuclear launch system and get waterboarded by CIA agents who are convinced he's working for a foreign power, which leads to the USA declaring war on Mordor. |
| 297 | * There's a Treehouse of Horror episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' where Homer is taken to Hell where he's given the "ironic" torture of being forced to eat a roomful of donuts, which doesn't bother him one bit. |
| 298 | * ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'': In the episode "[[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS4E08JediNight Jedi Night]]", Governor Pryce tortures Hera to try and get the location of the rest of the rebel cell, despite the electroshock sessions and the "truth serum" injections, Hera gives her nothing. |
| 299 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBros'': On several occasions, Dr. Thaddeus Venture is captured by villains who decide to torture him for information or simply ForTheEvulz. They reasonably assume that, because Venture is a cowardly weakling, he will break at the slightest touch. They are proven wrong: thanks to Old Rusty's HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood as a KidSidekick, [[TooBrokenToBreak he's unfazed by their attempts to hurt him]]. In a few cases, he almost pities his torturers since compared to what he's been through, their best efforts are a joke. |
| 300 | [[/folder]] |
| 301 | |
| 302 | [[folder:Real Life]] |
| 303 | %% Keep it purely factual, people. Remember the Rule of Cautious Editing Judgement. |
| 304 | * Website/TheOtherWiki has an entire article on the effectiveness, or lack thereof, of torture [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effectiveness_of_torture_for_interrogation here]]. Basically, it boils down to this: The torture doesn't necessarily stop when the person being tortured tells the truth. The torture stops when the person being tortured tells the person torturing them ''what they want to hear.'' It's actually common for someone being tortured to knowingly lie and say what the torturer wants to hear after getting broken to the point that they just want the torture to stop at any cost. |
| 305 | * Even the actual, medieval Inquisition knew that torture was unreliable, which is why the confessions extracted under torture weren't admissible in their trials unless the accused had confirmed them later while not being tortured. Of course, failure to confirm would result in another round of torture, so the system wasn't exactly humane or sensible. Still, compared to the (much worse [[note]] The Church courts weren't allowed to draw blood during torture and had to hand the prisoner over to secular authorities for the execution.[[/note]]) torture that was habitually used by all secular courts across Europe throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance (where a confession normally wasn't legal UNLESS it had been given after/under torture, and people generally couldn't be convicted of witnessless crimes without a confession, so torture was part of the standard procedure), the Inquisition was at least trying to be reasonable. There's a reason why all Church employees and all university students had the privilege of being tried by special Church courts for any crime they might commit, even if it was just the students being drunken and disorderly: far less risk of physical punishment than under the jurisdiction of whatever petty local ruler tried to keep order with an iron fist. In England, it led to the "benefit of clergy" which exempted them from capital punishment too. This evolved into a legal fiction whereby any first-time offender could plead that they were a clergy member and then receive lesser sentences for some offenses. |
| 306 | * [[https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/we-rsquo-ve-known-for-400-years-that-torture-doesn-rsquo-t-work/ During a 1620s witch hunt]] in the UsefulNotes/HolyRomanEmpire, the Duke of Brunswick, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Ulrich,_Duke_of_Brunswick-Luneburg Frederick Ulrich]], became skeptical of the use of torture to elicit confessions and tested his hypothesis by inviting two Jesuits overseeing the Inquisition who defended the practice to him to witness a woman being racked. He told the prisoner he suspected the two men of being warlocks, and the woman promptly accused the Jesuits of witchcraft. [[OriginalPositionFallacy The Duke then facetiously suggested the baffled Jesuits in turn be tortured for confessions.]] One of these men, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Spee Friedrich Spee]], published a book titled ''Cautio Criminalis'' in 1631 that helped end the witch scares and influenced the abolition of torture in Europe and the Americas, including the passage of the Eighth Amendment to the US Constitution. |
| 307 | * During the Salem witch trials in American history, Giles Corey was accused of witchcraft. He refused to plead guilty or not guilty, and according to the laws of the time, someone who did not plead could not be tried. The solution was to torture the accused until they would plead, and the authorities began to place heavy boulders on Giles Corey, slowly crushing him to death. According to legend, he was in great pain for hours under the weight of several boulders, but the only words he would utter were "More weight!" In the end, he died, but his refusal to plead meant the state could not take possession of Corey's property, allowing his children to inherit his estate. Dramatized in Creator/ArthurMiller's 1953 play ''Theatre/TheCrucible''. |
| 308 | * During UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, German interrogator Hanns Scharff was well known for getting extremely accurate information out of prisoners, simply by treating them decently. Scharff firmly believed torture was useless and had no love for the Nazis. One of his most effective techniques was simply telling the truth: if the prisoner did not give him any useful information, [[GoodCopBadCop then the Gestapo or the SS would take over]]. Scharff was so good that after the war he traveled to the United States to work with the Department of Defense on honing interrogation techniques for use by American forces. |
| 309 | * Lieutenant Marcus [=McDilda=] was a USAF fighter pilot who was shot down over Osaka shortly after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. The Japanese tortured him in an attempt to discover how many more nukes America had and didn't believe him when he said he didn't know anything. So, not only did he say there were a ''[[RefugeInAudacity hundred]]'' more that would be dropped on Tokyo and Kyoto (the only Japanese cities he knew), he gave a completely nonsensical {{technobabble}} explanation of how the bomb worked to make his story more convincing. [[ScaryScienceWords They believed every word he said]], and considered him a VIP as they transferred him to Tokyo to verify his claims. [[LifesavingMisfortune This saved his life]], as the [=POWs=] in Osaka were executed after the announcement of Japan's surrender. |
| 310 | * In December 2014 the United States Senate published part of a report on the CIA's use of [[DeadlyEuphemism "enhanced interrogation techniques"]] under the UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush administration, which UsefulNotes/BarackObama promptly banned after taking office in 2009. They came to the conclusion that the CIA drastically overstated how effective the techniques were at getting information out of prisoners. The CIA disagreed. More from Creator/{{NPR}} [[http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/12/09/369562383/live-blog-senate-expected-to-release-long-held-cia-torture-report here]]. Later Creator/DonaldTrump said on the 2016 campaign trail that he wanted to bring back the use of torture, but after winning the election was reportedly dissuaded by his Defense Secretary pick, retired Marine Corps General James Mattis. Trump quoted Mattis as telling him, "Give me two beers and a pack of cigarettes and I'll do better." One interrogator advised utilizing Stockholm Syndrome when it came to interrogating terrorists. Because the suspect had been informed of all the evils that would be perpetrated if they were captured, kindness would make them question their worldview, rather than reinforcing it through torture. |
| 311 | [[/folder]] |
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/context.php
FollowingContext Main / TortureIsIneffective
Go To
- Show Spoilers
- Night Vision
- Sticky Header
- Wide Load
