Come Alone

"They always want you to go alone when you're walking into a trap. Have you noticed that?"

— The Doctor, Doctor Who, "The Androids of Tara"

A line used on messages summoning someone to a meeting between two people on opposing sides, and it's frequently a sign that one side is being Lured into a Trap. If they are bad guys they will also likely specify "no police". A variant is one trusted bodyguard for each side.

Almost inevitably, one side or the other will break the agreement and sneak extra henchmen into the area. They may be disguised and acting like pedestrians, but they are packing heat. This side is to be treated as the betraying scum they are, and it doesn't matter anyway, since they will gain no advantage when the other side wipes the floor with them anyway. If both sides break the agreement, then whoever the audience first learns cheated are the scum; it's not fair, but it's true. Alternatively, the Good Guy will indeed come alone, but the rest of the team will try to follow discreetly and instead be discovered, thus ruining the Good Guy's efforts.

In modern works, the good guys will almost certainly know it's a trap and set a plan to counter the trap, but even if they don't, the worst that will likely happen will be that they are captured.

Often used alongside a Ransom Drop.

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Examples

Advertising

• Spoofed in a commercial for Verizon Wireless, stressing the reliability of their network: a man shows up to a meeting with black-clad criminals, who angrily insist that he was to come to the meeting alone. We pan back to find the entire cell-phone network, which includes thousands of people and a couple of helicopters, standing directly behind him. The head bad guy seems more intrigued than angry and wants to know if they work down at the docks too.

Anime & Manga

• Subverted in Baccano!. Jacuzzi comes alone. Then the rest of his gang comes alone. But they bust in together. And then Claire comes alone with them.
  Graham Specter: I don't know how I can argue with that logic.
• In Code Geass Suzaku tells Lelouch to come alone to the Kururugi Temple. Both sides honor the agreement, but Suzaku is secretly followed by Schneizel's men and Lelouch is arrested. Lelouch screams bloody murder and Suzaku is left feeling miserable. Lelouch rightly stops trusting Suzaku after this point, but Suzaku curiously goes right back to antagonizing Lelouch.
• In Death Note, the finale takes place when Light and Near agree to meet with each other in a warehouse, each bringing only the few people working with them on the official investigation. However, Near knows that Light will have Teru sneak in as well, and Light knows that Near knows this (as well as that Near knows he knows this), and...
• This happens all the time in GTO: The Early Years. Villains demand Eikichi or Ryuji meet them in single (or occasionally double) combat. Of course, they always bring their own gangs, but the Onibaku win most of the time, due to Conservation of Ninjutsu and the fact that they're just that good.
• The Gun Grave anime uses this trope when Blood Knight Bloodwar invites Brandon Heat into abandoned warehouse for duel. Played straight as Bloodwar didn't come alone.
• Ino-Head Gargoyle: Shizuka orders Rin to meet her alone, or she'll blow up a Briefcase Full of Money.

Comic Books

• In an issue of Thorgal ("Aaricia"), Thorgal, as a young boy, is challenged by the chieftain's son to a solitary duel on a remote island. Both sides of the trope come in effect, with the evil chieftainling sneaking a pair of goons into the area, and Aaricia sneaking herself in secretly to aid Thorgal.

Fan Works

• In the 26th chapter of Old West, Sheriff Rango is called this way to a meeting with Dufayel. In this instance, Rango is not lured into a trap, with Dufayel being a Lawful Evil businessman, and both parties leave without bloodshed after their futile bargaining.
• In chapter 12 of Queen of All Oni, Finn was apparently expecting this of Jackie during the Hostage for MacGuffin exchange. However, he didn't actually say it, so the whole J-Team shows up.
  Finn: I told you to come alone!
  Jackie: ...No you didn't.
  Right: He's right, you were rather vague.

Films — Animated

• Son of Batman. Deathstroke dares Damian Wayne to come and rescue his mother, telling him to "leave the Glorified Sperm Donor" (Batman) out of this. He's smart enough to play on Damian's ego to ensure that he will come alone, but fortunately Batman and Nightwing work out where he's gone.

Films — Live-Action

• In The Big Lebowski, when The Dude is dropping off the ransom money, the Nihilists demand he comes alone. This prompts Walter to describe them as "fuckin' amateurs."
• Played straight in The Bourne Identity, where the CIA at least have the sense to disguise their man's backup as innocent bystanders. Unfortunately they underestimated Jason Bourne; it was actually a Batman Gambit, as Bourne knows backup was coming and disappears, but not before placing a tracker on one of the CIA's transport vehicles.
• Captain America: Civil War. Sam Wilson only agrees to tell Tony Stark where Steve Rogers is going if he agrees to "come alone and as a friend". Stark plays the trope straight but ends up fighting Steve anyway, when bringing others might have averted the conflict.
• Cold Pursuit. When Nels kidnaps Viking's son, he calls the gangster and tells him to come alone, causing Viking to snap: "Yeah, yeah, I know how it's done." He doesn't, of course.
• In Dirty Harry, Scorpio makes Inspector Callahan—who's delivering the ransom—rush from one public telephone to another so he can see if other detectives are following him.
  Scorpio: If I even think you're being followed, the girl dies. If you talk to anyone—I don't care if it's a Pekinese pissing against a lamppost—the girl dies. [snip] No car. I give you a certain amount of time to go from phone booth to phone booth. I ring four times. You don't answer by the fourth ring, I hang up and that's the end of the game. The girl dies.
• Farewell, My Lovely. A man on the phone tells the Private Detective protagonist to come alone and unarmed. He takes a gun out of the drawer, and informs us that when someone tells you that, it's time to bring a gun that works.
• Guyana: Crime of the Century: After a lot of hesitation (attributed to his paranoia and distrust towards the US and its politicians), Johnson allows O'Brien to visit Johnsontown, but without the company of anybody else except a couple reporters (one of the barred others in particular, Drassler, is explicitly banned due to his ties with CIA).
• King Of The Rocket Men. Dr. Vulcan has captured Burt Winslow, and demands Jeff King come alone to discuss terms of handing him over. King tries to get there earlier than expected by using his Jet Pack, but the villains have already set up a Booby Trap.
• Mad Max: Fury Road. This is the deal that Furiosa made with the Rock Riders who are supposed to blow the pass behind her. Not only is she breaking that deal by smuggling the Five Wives with her, she also has Max as an uninvited guest and three war parties—the combined military force of Immortan Joe, the Bullet Farmer and the People Eater—in pursuit. Their Chief is not happy and the moment he realises there's someone else in the War Rig, he opens fire.
• Ransom. When Tom Mullen has to deliver the eponymous ransom, the kidnapper makes him jump into a swimming pool to deactivate any Hidden Wire or Tracking Device, then follow various other instructions to throw off any attempt to follow him. The police are able to follow him to the ransom drop-off anyway.
• Runaway. Sergeant Ramsay agrees because the villain's extensive use of electronic surveillance would mean he'd know if someone came with Ramsay. His partner decides to show up anyway, which is just as well because the villain has no intention of keeping his word.
• In Séance on a Wet Afternoon, Charles Clayton is told by his daughters' kidnappers, Phony Psychic Myra Savage and her husband Billy, to come alone for the Ransom Drop in the centre of London. As the police are listening in during the ransom call, two plainclothes officers accompany Clayton for the drop, but Billy is able to elude them by blending into the crowds in Piccadilly Circus Underground station.
• Se7en. John Doe says he will plead guilty to all crimes if detectives Mills and Somerset (and only these two) will accompany him to where he's left the bodies of his victims. Knowing he's planning to kill two more to make seven, the detectives take every precaution against a trap—having John Doe Shipped in Shackles and a helicopter SWAT Team following at a distance—only to find John Doe has something else planned.

Literature

• Subverted in The Bourne Identity, where Jason Bourne requests it before meeting the head of the CIA. When the guy brings hidden snipers and such, Bourne calls off the meeting. Turns out Bourne was expecting the guy to bring backup, and the real purpose was to get him to a known location so he could plant a tracker on his car.
• David Morrell
  • Brotherhood of the Rose has a willing version when Chris has his surrogate brother Saul go through a Ransom Drop routine to make sure he's not being followed by The Mole that their boss Elliot claims is plotting against them. When Saul is followed to his destination and an attempt made to kill both brothers, Chris uses this to prove to Saul that there is no mole, as only Elliot using the full resources of the CIA could have followed him.
  • In Fraternity of the Stone, Drew MacLane uses the Ransom Drop method to make sure the priest he wants to talk to isn't being followed, only to feel guilty on realising the priest's health has gotten worse since their last meeting and he has trouble making it from one contact point to the other.
• In J.R.R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion, when Morgoth offers to discuss the return of the Silmarils with the sons of Fëanor, both sides come with more strength than agreed upon.
  • But Morgoth brought the more, and there were Balrogs.
• In The Godfather Michael Corleone is summoned to such a meeting after the Don has been shot.
• Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code starts with Artemis meeting Jon Spiro in a restaurant. Butler is twitchy about the place being unsecured, and Artemis quips that the little old lady over there probably isn't a trained assassin. She is. And so is everyone else there.
  • Done again by Opal Koboi in "The Opal Deception. She (posing as goblin criminal Scalene) insists that Holly Short and Julius Root (the LEP fairies most directly responsible for Opal's downfall) come alone when they are attempting to capture him. They follow his instructions. It does not end well.
• Double subverted in Discworld, when Vimes is asked to come alone to a meeting with Chrysophrase the Troll. He doesn't come alone, and neither does Chrysophrase. They trade some snide remarks, order their followers outside, and proceed to have as civil a conversation a chief of police and a known Breccia boss can have.
• Defied in Dorothy L. Sayer's Gaudy Night; heroine gets such a message and remembers hero's remark that characters in books that fall for that are idiots, so she takes precautions.
• A Song of Ice and Fire.
  • In "A Dance With Dragons" Quentyn Martell sets up a high-risk meeting with the Tattered Prince, agreeing that each will bring two men as security. On arrival it's revealed the Tattered Prince has used Loophole Abuse by bringing a third guard, female sellsword Pretty Meris. Although no violence occurs, if it did happen the Prince points out that the odds are now slightly in his favour.
  • In the same novel, Brienne of Tarth turns up at Jaime Lannister's camp, telling him the Hound has Sansa Stark and he needs to come alone to free her or the Hound will kill her. Jaime doesn't suspect anything as Brienne is one of the most honorable people he knows, but it appears he's being Lured into a Trap, as Brienne has been ordered by Lady Stoneheart to kill Jaime.
  • In "A Game of Thrones", Queen Cersei agrees to meet Lord Eddard Stark alone in the godswood, because he's uncovered evidence of her treason and she can't afford to have witnesses. The fact that Stark called for the meeting instead of going straight to the King suggests he's open for negotiation (he's not, but offers her a chance to take her children and flee).
• In "Pearls Are a Nuisance" by Raymond Chandler, the protagonist is instructed to come to a remote location with the ransom money, alone. His friend insists on coming along, hidden in the back of the car, in case there's trouble. The other side don't show up, but then they were never going to anyway, because the friend was behind the whole thing and it was a set-up to get the protagonist somewhere quiet and rob him of the ransom money.
• Watership Down. Hazel decides to go alone to negotiate with General Woundwort because he can't be trusted, and bringing other rabbits would do no good against the superior numbers of the Efrafan rabbits anyway. However this ends up saving his life — not realizing Hazel is the Chief Rabbit of his warren, Woundwort lets Hazel go so he can deliver his terms of surrender.
• A variation in a Nancy Drew book, when she is told to "come on foot". She drives, not because she suspects it's a trap, (her sleuthing skills inexplicably fail her) but because the distance is too far to walk. Sure enough, she's kidnapped and her abductors spend several minutes discussing what do about her car, as indeed, it being abandoned will tip someone off to her disappearance.
• A subversion in The Sign of the Four, where Mary Morstan receives a message telling her to come to a secluded location, bringing two friends if she wants but no police. Holmes and Watson readily agree, but it turns out it wasn't a criminal: it was the man who'd inherited an ill-gotten fortune which belonged at least in part to Miss Morstan and was determined that she have her share (and had been sending her precious pearls for several years as discreetly as he could).

Live-Action TV

• Babylon 5: Subverted. Dr. Franklin informs Captain Sheridan that he has been contacted by the Telepath Underground Railroad, an organization that helps telepaths escape from the Psi Corps. They want to meet with Sheridan, but Sheridan must arrive alone. Sheridan obeys, and comes to the meeting place to find Dr. Franklin waiting for him. Franklin wanted to be sure Sheridan could be trusted before revealing his part in the whole thing.
• On Charmed, the Halliwell Sisters found themselves in the position of arranging a supposedly peaceful meeting with some demons, and it seemed like it would be safe to arrange it in a crowded restaurant. However, the demons' cheated on their agreement to come alone, and in fact they replaced every single person in the restaurant with a demon.
• In a first-season episode of Law & Order: SVU, Olivia is being stalked by a killer. He calls and requests a meeting, telling her to come alone. Not being an idiot, she takes substantial backup and they catch the killer. Two seasons later, she's again being stalked, and again is told to come alone. Having apparently lost brain cells since season 1, she goes alone, and ends up having to shoot the bastard.
• On one NCIS episode, Gibbs arrests a mob boss's son, and goes with an FBI agent to learn who the mob's mole is. The mob boss, of course, shows up with backup. Gibbs, of course, expected this, so he brought insurance of his own: a length of primer cord ^note a.k.a. "det cord"; a kind of explosive packed into a long flexible tube, which he wraps around the kid's neck and tells the mob boss that he's holding a dead-man switch. So if Gibbs is shot, the primer cord will detonate and kill them all. The mole, is, of course, the FBI agent, who is shot by the boss's bodyguard when he tries to shoot Gibbs. Hilariously, the mob boss abandons his son to a few years in the pen, claiming it's good for developing character.
  • The mob boss does actually ask Gibbs to come alone at first, but Gibbs breaks out in hysterical (for him) laughter and tells him that he's not that stupid.
• On Burn Notice, Mike's ex-fiance's son is kidnapped. He sends Sam with her to meet with the kidnappers, since he knows the kidnapper won't blow the deal over just one bodyguard.
• In The 10th Kingdom, the Evil Queen meets with Relish the Troll King, telling him to "come alone and unarmed" or she would slit his children's throats. Of course he doesn't, instead coming an hour early and hiding his men among the trees of the apple orchard. Not to be outdone, the solitary Queen was there two hours early and poisoned all the apples.
• Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon has a slightly smart, if somewhat stupid good, Usagi subvert the usual outcome of this trope. Receiving a "come alone" message from Dark Mercury, she realizes her friends would follow her anyway, and so lies to them about the meeting's location. In another subversion, Dark Mercury actually does show up alone too, but that doesn't keep Usagi from nearly getting killed.
• In the first season of 24, Victor Drazen warned Jack Bauer to come alone for the final showdown at the docks if he wanted to get Kimberly back. Jack did come alone, though CTU got word of what he was doing and sent a team, only to find that Jack had already taken everyone out. There are probably other instances throughout the series as well.
• Occurs frequently in The Rockford Files. However, it is notable for having the hero cheat every time as well as the villains.
• Happens in the final episode of Kamen Rider Decade, as Tsukasa is summoned by Apollo Geist. Of course, neither side ends up fighting alone, and what results is a free-for-all between various monsters and riders.
• Discussed in Nowhere Man. Thomas Veil is an Unperson who is being called by a Mysterious Informant with information about why his life was taken away. He schedules a time and place for them to meet. A suspicious Tom tells him he forgot to say come alone. The informant didn't say it because he knows in Tom's situation he has no friends or anyone he can trust so he felt no need to mention it.
• Played for Laughs as always in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Buffy receives a phone call from Spike as sinister music plays.
  Spike: (talking in a low voice) Slayer...
  Buffy: Spike?
  Spike: Meet me at the cemetery. Twenty minutes. Come alone.
  Buffy: Spike?
  Spike: Bloody hell (music cuts off and Spike talks normally) Yes, it's me.
  • And played straight in the second season premiere, "When She Was Bad". Xander immediately points out the unwritten next line in the message: "P.S.: It's a trap!" He's right, for the wrong reasons. Once Buffy departs to confront The Annointed One, vampires attack the library and kidnap Willow and Giles.
• Angel. After Wesley is expelled from Team Angel, Lilah Morgan sends him an anonymous email asking for a meeting with "Come Alone". When Wesley turns up she taunts him that of course he was going to come alone, as he no longer has any friends.
• Person of Interest.
  • Played straight in several episodes, but the villains in "Liberty" go extra-far to make sure this trope is respected. Knowing John Reese will turn up anyway, they chain a hostage to a bomb and a camera, then order his friend to get into a taxi to the real meeting place. If Reese tries to follow, they'll blow up the bomb.
  • In the pilot episode, a young woman's willingness to do this foreshadows The Reveal that she's the leader of the criminals, not a potential Victim of the Week as Reese initially supposed.
  • In "Number Crunch", the POI is told to "leave the muscle at home" when making a Hostage for MacGuffin exchange. Reese of course comes anyway. Unfortunately the villain isn't alone either, as an innocuous female bystander turns out to be a member of the gang and nearly kills Reese.
  • Reese is told to come alone when meeting with Elias in "Pretenders". Given that Reese is a One-Man Army and Elias a Friendly Enemy, he does come alone. Elias however does not, as Reese discovers when he threatens the mob boss.
  Reese: Give me one good reason why I shouldn't take you out right now.
  Elias: I'll give you three. [Guns cocking] All pointed at your head.
• Doctor Who. Inverted in "The Magician's Apprentice" when Missy insists that UNIT bring eight snipers ("Three for each heart, and two for my brain stem") to her meeting with Clara Oswald, because Clara might not risk it otherwise. She's not worried about being shot because Missy knows UNIT can't afford to kill her; in fact she disintegrates a couple of them just to drive the point home.
• Lucifer. Malcolm kidnaps the daughter of Detective Chloe Decker and insists she come alone for a Hostage for MacGuffin trade. Just as she's about to be killed, Lucifer turns up for a Big Damn Heroes.
  Chloe: You promised you'd let me go alone.
  Lucifer: True, but...didn't say anything about following.
• Supernatural. In "The Rapture", Sam notes that when they ask you to Come Alone, then Trap Is the Only Option. Dean however has a plan. They get caught anyway.
• Game of Thrones. In "The Gift", Olenna Tyrell meets Littlefinger alone but makes it clear that if anything happens to her, House Tyrell will ensure "they'll never even find what's left of you."
• Jessica Jones (2015): The fake Dr. Leslie Hansen calls to meet with Trish, and insists Trish come alone. This is because she's actually Jessica's mom, and she doesn't want to run the risk of hurting her daughter. Trish insists on going to the meeting, but Jessica, feeling that she has the upper hand being the one going in with powers, instead sidelines Trish by calling the paparazzi on her, claiming that Trish and her boyfriend Griffin are on the outs, and even sends Malcolm over to Trish's apartment to keep an eye on her.
  Jessica Jones: "So meet me tonight and come alone." Could this be any more cloak-and-dagger?
• Star Trek: The Original Series. In "What Are Little Girls Made Of?", Captain Kirk is told to beam down alone to see the legendary and long-lost Dr. Korby, ostensibly because he has discovered something that The World Is Not Ready for. However Kirk reveals that Korby's wife (Nurse Chapel) is on the Enterprise, so Korby gladly asks that she accompany him. However when Korby isn't there to greet them, Kirk is suspicious and orders two Red Shirts sent down. They quickly suffer the fate of all Red Shirts, revealing that Kirk does have reason to be concerned. Turns out Korby plans to replace Kirk (and all of humanity) with robot duplicates.
• Blake's 7. In "Terminal", Anti-Hero Avon is Lured into a Trap with a fake message from the long-lost Blake who claims to have found an all-powerful weapon. On capturing Avon, Servalan muses over whether he decided to come alone in case it was a trap, or because he wanted to keep the weapon for himself.
• The Boys: Happens twice in "The Self-Preservation Society".
  • A-Train takes Hughie Campbell's father hostage and demands that Hughie come alone. When Hughie does turn up alone, he races round with his Super-Speed and confirms that no-one else is there, then muses that, given that Hughie knows A-Train intends to kill him, he should have had a couple of cards up his sleeve. Turns out Hughie does: a sample of the Compound V that A-Train is addicted to, and Kimiko hiding in the ceiling. While A-Train is distracted, she comes up behind him and breaks his right leg with a crowbar as payback for his earlier attack on her in the subway.
    Hughie: [smugly] You know, you're right. It would have been stupid to come alone.
  • At the end of the episode, Starlight calls Hughie (who she's just found out was using her to gather information) to demand that he meet her in person to explain himself. Unhappy with his explanations Starlight tries to arrest him, whereupon William Butcher—who has secretly followed Hughie—knocks her down with a couple of .50 bullets and they go on the run.
• Forever Knight. In "Hunters", a Cop Killer is out to get Don Schanke. He moves his family to his cottage up north and goes into hiding, but then sees a message in the personal column of the newspaper from the killer setting up a meeting. The last part of the message tells him to come alone "or I'm going hunting at your cottage up north."
• Titans (2018)
  • In "Hank & Dove", Red Hood invites Hank to a meeting. To ensure the other Titans aren't with him, he has Hank drive around in a cab, destroy his phone and pick up another he's left in a lunch bag. He then forces Hank to strip to "prove" he's not wired, then makes him swim naked across a filthy pool in an abandoned gym. Hank is not happy about it one bit, though the audience might have been. It turns out not to be a smart idea going alone, as Red Hood kidnaps Hank and inserts a bomb in his chest.
  • In "Home", Red Hood wants a meet with Dick Grayson in the tunnels under Gotham that Bruce Wayne rigged up with cameras, so he can be sure he's coming alone. Fortunately, his intentions are more benevolent than they were towards Hank.

Video Games

• Advance Wars: Days of Ruin (Dark Conflict): There is a scene like this, in which the Big Bad and the hero agree to meet alone. They're accompanied by The Lancer and The Dragon, and while the Lancer is revealed first, it's established that she came without the hero's knowledge. On the other hand, the Big Bad probably brought the Dragon along on purpose.
• In Daemon X Machina, one late-game mission has you meet with the Big Bad to discuss his ultimate plan in private, for which he asks you not only to come alone but also unarmed (i.e. no Arsenal and no on-foot weapons). It turns out that Grief's offer was sincere because he genuinely wants you on his side. If you comply, he'll let you leave unharmed after hearing him out. Mission Complete. On the other hand, if you suspect a trap and come armed, Grief will call you out for it and bring in the rest of Terrors for a 3-on-1.
• Grand Theft Auto IV: You are told to come alone to be paid by Dimitri, but Little Jacob insists on coming. Naturally, it's a double-cross and the two of you have to blast through tons of Mooks.
• Guild Wars 2:
  • As a couple of lower-caste charr bargain with you to join them alone in the woods to assist them with a job. Even your party is smart enough to warn you that it's a horrible idea. But in the end, the trope is subverted when they completely fulfill their end of the bargain with no shenanigans. One of them lampshades the trope in response to your character's surprise of their trustworthiness.
  • At the beginning of End of Dragons, one of Gorrik's old friends asks him to meet her to trade dragon research, and to come alone.This one is played straight, as Ankka's real plan was to kidnap Gorrik. Luckily for him, Taimi begged the Commander to crash the meeting.
• Heroes of Might and Magic IV: In the final mission of the Light Campaign, where you storm the villain's capital, you only find a note saying: "Come to the nearby cave, alone, and we will duel to the death." You are forced to accept the ridiculous demand only to find out the villain has hired a host of thieves to his aid. The battle is, nonetheless, easy.
• Knights of the Old Republic: Hulas will not talk about the Genoharadan while you had other characters in your party and encouraged you not to take anyone along on your missions for him. It also subverts it since you can bring your party members on the missions. At the end of the quest line, if you challenge Hulas to a duel he tells you to come alone. He comes to the duel with a small army regardless of whether you bring anyone and mocks your gullibility.
• Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords: Lampshaded after the crime boss Visquis invites the Jedi Exile to meet him at a Bad Guy Bar and insists that she come alone:
  Atton Rand: [sarcastic] Well, good thing it's not a trap.
  Mical: No, Atton, I think it may be a trap!

Visual Novels

• Melody gives an unusual example. Steve and Bethany, without revealing their identities, tell Melody and the protagonist to meet them at night to retrieve Melody’s stolen guitar. They threaten to destroy it unless the protagonist stops managing Melody’s career and leaves town with Bethany.

Web Animation

• RWBY has a highly-conflicted Ilia Amitola request a meeting alone with her former friend Blake. Sure enough, the meeting is a White Fang trap to capture her. Blake, however, is finally trusting enough to have Sun follow her, and the two of them easily overpower the would-be kidnappers.

Western Animation

• In The Spectacular Spider-Man, the Green Goblin gives this warning when baiting Spider-Man and Tombstone into a Death Course. All three of them are fully aware it's a trap. Subverted when Goblin bluffed about having the "bait" in the first place.
• Star Wars Rebels. Grand Admiral Thrawn uses this trope after springing his trap in "Family Reunion — and Farewell", demanding the Rebel Leader surrender unconditionally or watch Lothal City be destroyed by Orbital Bombardment.
  Ezra : Enough! I surrender!
  Thrawn: I await your arrival, and...make no mistake...come alone. If you attempt any heroics, I will resume the bombardment and destroy your city, and then your friends.

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