Enemy Mine - Television Tropes & Idioms

In the first two Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha seasons, Nanoha's determination finally pays off, and her rivals turn on their creator and help her and the Time-Space Admin crew.
- It's a mixed bag in StrikerS. On the one hand, most of the Numbers were headed in the right direction as of the epilogue and eventually joined either the Saint Church or the TSAB afterwards, Lutecia has her mom back, and Agito had performed a full-fledged Heel Face Turn and joined up with Signum to defend the city from Jail's drones. On the other hand, Jail and his most loyal cyborgs are cooling their ~~heads~~ heels in prison instead of making friends with the Aces.
In Pokémon, the heroes were forced to work with Team Rocket on more than one occasion, most often in the movies where the whole world is in danger. To the point the trio performs a Lampshade Hanging on it in Movie 8:
James: Looks like everything's back to normal.
Jessie: Which means we're losers again.
- A more traditional example is in the Tag Battle Tournament mini-arc, the finale of the first Diamond and Pearl season. Ash and Paul were randomly picked to compete as a team for a pair of Soothe Bells as the prize (Paul just wanted to get some experience for his team, none of the happiness evolution crap for him). The results were not pretty, even though they managed to win.
- Happens fairly often in the Pokemon Special manga. Sabrina, Koga, and Lt. Surge of Team Rocket aid the protagonists against the Elite Four in the Yellow chapter, while Lorelei of the Elite Four helps the protagonists when Team Rocket invades her hometown.
- Near the end of the Diamond and Pearl Adventure! manga, Cyrus and his three top officers team up with the heroes to stop Charon from taking over Sinnoh. Bear in mind that when he was last in power, Cyrus had attempted to destroy the universe.
In Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yugi and Kaiba are frequently forced to team up against a bigger threat, and it almost always ends with Kaiba walking away muttering about how he is destined to beat Yugi someday.
- Also, Malik and Bakura's alliance, specifically in the duel against Yami no Malik.
- Similarly during the formation of the same team in Yu-Gi-Oh The Abridged Series, Marik proclaims, "And the enemy of my friend is also my enemy!" Bakura informs him that's not how it goes.
Gundam 00 has the alliance between the Big Three (Union, HRL, AEU) which was formed to defeat the rogue paramilitary organization Celestial Being.
- In Episode 17, all five sides (Celestial Being, Katharon, the coup d'etat forces, the regular Earth Federation military, and A-Laws) temporarily dispose of their hatreds in a Crowning Moment Of Awesome for all sides that involves literally stopping a potential Ice Age and the slaughter of tens of millions of lives by shooting down the countless falling pieces of the destroyed Africa Orbital Elevator.
- Later in season 2, the Federation army reluctantly allies itself with bitter enemies Celestial Being and Katharon against the A-Laws and the Innovators.
In Death Note, Near and Mello are bona fide enemies, despite being Worthy Opponents. Of course, when Kira manages to be a bigger fish to fry than they had expected, they do end up de facto needing to work together, using the only female on their of their teams as a liaison, and pretending viciously that they want literally nothing to do with each other.
- Near's pretty clear that he'd have no problem working with Mello, to the point that it could be argued he does want to. Mello's the one who wants nothing to do with Near (besides win against him) and tries to verbally pretend he's not helping. "Near, I have no intention of working with you. However, it wouldn't be right to just take my picture and leave. So, I'll settle my debt." Afterwards, he still maintains contact with Lidner but pointedly doesn't dwell on the fact that he knows that Near knows about the contact.
- Also, at one point the investigation team is forced to temporarily ally with Kira himself, as one of the Death Notes ends up in the hands of the Mafia, something that both sides consider the worst possible scenario.
Happened at least thrice in the first season of Corrector Yui, where Yui and War Wolf had to teamwork to save either themselves or others. Also happened in the second season of the anime, with Yui and Dark Magical Girl Corrector Ai.
Former enemy Viral in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann teams up with his rival and the good guys in general after the Time Skip.
- Not to mention former Big Bad Lordgenome.
Inspector Zenigata is more than willing to team up with Lupin III whenever it involves taking down a more clearly evil criminal (which is surprisingly often). This is implied to be main reason why he hasn't been fired yet.
In Dragon Ball Z, Goku and Vegeta's alliance initially starts when they both team up to fight Frieza, the former to save the Universe, the latter because he wants the Namek Dragon Balls to achieve immortality. He ends up redeeming himself and forming a family with Bulma, though he maintains his rivalry against Goku.
- And before that, Piccolo joined Goku, and later the rest of the human cannon fo... cast to fight against the Saiyans.
  - For a while, Dragon Ball had a pattern where the main antagonist of the previous arc would team up with Goku against the villain of the current one, earning good guy status in the process. This started with Yamcha (who tries to rob Goku in his first appearance) and continues all the way to Freeza, when Toriyama finally gave us a villain too evil to ever join Goku. Here is a list of some of the former villains who joined Goku: Yamcha, Tien, Chouitzu, Piccolo, Vegeta, Android #16, Android #18, and Majin Buu.
Every time Gun for Hire Katana joins the rest of the Techode pilots in Gad Guard to stop a rogue Gad from destroying everything it touches. Interesting in that half the team (both girls, who met him under different circumstances) don't consider him an enemy. His adorable Morality Pet helps.
The Impel Down arc in One Piece has been one big Enemy Mine. Luffy has infiltrated the Impel Down prison in order to free his older brother who's being held on the lowest level. During the infiltration he ended up "teaming up" with two former enemies (Buggy the Clown and Mr. 3) who are constantly trying to go up and out, only seeing Luffy as a means to distract the guards. But, through various mishaps they end up falling down to the lower levels anyway and find themselves forced to co-operate in order to stay alive.
- You can also add Mr. 2 Bon Clay to the list of former enemies Luffy has teamed up with in Impel Down (though its debatable whether Bon Clay still counts as a bad guy).
  - In Level Six of the prison: Luffy teamed up with Crocodile. Let me say that again: Luffy teamed up with Crocodile.
  - This is another one-sided Enemy Mine situation. Crocodile's willing to work with Luffy, but he's evil enough that Luffy is highly reluctant to take him along. Mr. 1 also joins them, but Luffy never met him before, and doesn't know who he is.
- Earlier on, Luffy's crew, the Galley-La company, and the Franky Family, despite having fought in a three-way battle before, team up when they realize that they're facing the same enemy, albeit for different reasons (rescuing Robin, dealing with Iceberg's assassins and preventing Pluton's revival, and saving Franky, respectively). Then again, the Galley-La crew had been fighting the Straw Hats under the mistaken belief that they were responsible for the attempt on Iceberg's life, which they just realized.
In Ranma ½, several Enemy Mine alliances emerge among the various members of the Love Dodecahedron. Shampoo, Ukyo and Kodachi regularly team up against any external threat to Ranma (or a new potential suitor). Ranma himself teams with Ryoga and Mousse against Prince Herb. Ranma and Ryoga do this often enough that they inch into Friendly Enemy territory by the end of the series.
- And inverted with Ryoga and Mousse in the anime: although they aren't enemies when they initially team up against their common enemy Ranma, by the end of the episode, they work so poorly together that they can't stand each other. The fact that Mousse is far more ruthless than Ryoga, and also has no qualms whatsoever about hurting others to get rid of Ranma — even Akane Tendo, Ryoga's oblivious crush — does not help matters.
In the Three-Tails filler arc of Naruto, Naruto ends up working with Guren to escape the inside of the Three-tailed beast. The fact that they both have an interest in Yukimaru's welfare and neither wants to see the Akatsuki get the beast helps, too.
In one of the Suzumiya Haruhi ~~light novels~~ short stories, the SOS Brigade has to team up with their percieved rival club the Computer Society, in order to stop the plans of the nefarious Student Council President from evicting the Brigade from their clubroom.
Occurs twice in Kenichi The Mightiest Disciple, in Kenichi's last battles against Hermit (AKA Natsu Tanimoto) and Boris Ivankov. Both times, a problem occurred to interrupt the battle, and Kenichi would team up with the person he had been fighting moments ago to resolve it, mostly because one party (Hermit in the first, Kenichi himself in the second) didn't want their opponent to get injured and thus be unable to finish the battle. Naturally, the instant the problem is resolved, both cases have Kenichi and his enemy resume the battle, but Hermit at least would later become a full-time ally (Boris may do so as well in the future, but for now, he's been Put On A Bus).
Sara and the Space Squadron make amends with Mariette and her Gambee pilot brigade (sorry, but it doesn't have a name and both common fan nicknames exceed this wiki's age rating) to defend the Libertad in the end of Soukou No Strain.
In the finale of Night Wizard, after spending the entire show chasing the heroes, Bell Zephyr ends up fighting alongside them to defeat the true Big Bad.
Pixie Misa does this twice in Mahou Shoujo Pretty Sammy. In the same episode.
- Misa and Sammy also team up briefly in the second and third OVAs.
All the non-Shinryuuji Naga players on Team Japan and Agon in Eyeshield 21. And to a lesser degree, all the non-Hakushuu Dinosaurs players and Gaoh (especially Kid, Hiruma and Banba).
At one point in Eureka Seven, Renton and Dominic are forced to work together to save Eureka and Anemone.
Two examples from Soul Eater:
- In order to further her plans, Medusa joins forces with Shibusen and leads a team to infiltrate Baba Yaga castle, the Arachnaphobia base.
- Werewolf Free and shinigami Death the Kid fight Mosquito together. Neither are happy about the idea.
During a match in the individual tournament in Saki, everyone in the table gangs up on Saki, despite one of them being her own team mate. It doesn't work.

X-Men: Magneto, always referred to as the Big Bad, is the first person the heroes team up with when someone worse comes along.
- Particularly in the 90s cartoon, most notably in a season-long storyline in which he and Professor Xavier are stranded together in the Savage Land.
- The brilliant X-Men graphic novel God Loves, Man Kills was the basis for X2, and thus follows basically the same plot except that, since the comics have been going on long enough that they didn't feel the need to hammer home his villainy, Magneto doesn't really have a Snap Back the way he does in the movie.
- And in God Loves, Man Kills II, released to tie in with X2, the X-Men find themselves teaming up with the villain from the original.
- Magneto has worked with the X-men in multiple storylines, even becoming the leader in one story arc. This is because, for most writers, Magneto isn't as much a bad guy as he is a Well Intentioned Extremist.
Spider-Man's enemies Venom and Carnage hate each other more than they hate him. Just about any time Carnage pops up, Venom will call a truce with Spider-Man to go wail on Carnage. This most famously occurred in the storyline Maximum Carnage, which was adapted into a Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo game.
- In the oddly named "Venom vs Carnage" comic, after Carnage produces a new symbiote, he and Venom decide that, in the end, they hate the new symbiote even more than they hate each other (it's implied in Carnage's case that this is part of symbiote biology). The result? Their only teamup. Venom calls it "Temporary. VERY temporary."
Spidey and Doc Ock ended up working together at one point, in order to deal with a new villain (Carlyle) who used Ock's arm technology to build a bank-robbing powersuit. While simply being robbed wouldn't have been enough to put Ock on the side of his mortal enemy, there was also the fact that Carlyle was threatening Ock's former fiancée, known to Spider-Man fans as "Aunt May".
- Actually, Aunt May being endangered wasn't really a factor in the fight. It didn't do anything except surprise Doc Ock for a moment and lead to a very funny Rocky Horror Picture Show joke. Spidey came into the fight late as Doc Ock was already going after Caryle for stealing his tech and trying to kill him.
  - To Doc's credit, he DID stop a building from collapsing just long enough to allow the innocent civilians to escape at Spidey's prompting. Of course that did nothing to STOP him from letting the building collapse on Spidey, noting "you are not a civilian".
- Doc Ock also wasn't happy about the inadvertent team-up, later noting (as he told Spidey the weakness in Caryle's armor), "I am not helping you — I am hurting him." World of difference.
In Marvel's "Secret Invasion" mega-event, the villain mastermind The Hood sends his forces into battle to save the Earth from the Skrulls.
Cassie and Chucky in Hack Slash Vs. Chucky.
This was the driving force behind Watchmen's original ending.
* In the comic book series ElfQuest, when two elf tribes — the Wolfriders and the newly-introduced Go-Backs — join forces to wage war against the trolls of King Guttlekraw, the elves form a grudging alliance with the trolls formerly led by the late King Greymung, who have been enslaved by Guttlekraw, even though Greymung's trolls have been the hated enemies of the Wolfriders ever since betraying them back at the start of the storyline. The Go-Backs, meanwhile, would never have thought of teaming up with trolls of any kind, period... But it's probably only because of this uneasy alliance that Guttlekraw's trolls are defeated.
In the 1970s, two issues of The Brave and the Bold featured Batman teaming up with the Joker to solve a crime. In the first case, they worked together to solve the mass murder of an upstanding local family, which someone had sloppily tried to pin on the Joker. In the end, it turned out that the whole thing was an elaborate plot between the Joker and the killer to lure Batman into a Deathtrap. In the second case, the Penguin is murdered and it looks like the Joker did it. When Batman catches up to him, he proves that he couldn't have done it. It is eventually revealed that the whole thing was a Faking The Dead by the Penguin, who used it to kidnap a local Cardinal.

The Sci-Fi movie Enemy Mine (1985) (directed by Wolfgang Petersen), starring Dennis Quaid as a human space marine and Louis Gossett Jr. as an alien soldier, who in the midst of an interstellar war between their species both crash-landed their vessels on a desolate planet and must work together to survive. Years later, after the alien soldier gave birth to a baby alien and died from complications, Dennis Quaid's character raises his adoptive alien son and must protect him and himself from human scavengers who use captured aliens as slaves, until they're both finally found and rescued. It is implied that this event helps to end the war.
- While there is no huge gun battle in the novella, it's still an incredibly faithful adaptation.
Hell in the Pacific, about an American and a Japanese soldier trapped on an island together, and which inspired the film in the previous entry, natch.
In the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, every character views the others as either enemies or incredibly stupid pawns, but will readily concede to work together when their priorities mesh. These unholy alliances tend to confuse the hell out of casual viewers, who are convinced (très incorrectly) that the adversarial role Barbossa plays in the first film completely contradicts the compatriot role he plays in the third.
Battra and Mothra, mortal enemies of one another, joined forces in order to stop Godzilla in Godzilla VS Mothra: Battle For The Earth.
- Don't forget the original example of this trope in the Godzilla franchise in which Mothra convinces her enemy Godzilla and even Rodan to stop Ghidorah in Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster
In Dick Tracy, Tracy considers this trope when deciding whether to accept The Blank's help in defeating Big Boy. Instead, he finally realizes "The enemy of my enemy is my enemy."
This trope is the whole point of Monsters Vs Aliens, though the monsters are pretty good-natured.
In the first Alien Vs Predator film, the humans end up helping the preds kill xenomorphs by bringing them their ancient weapons.
The main premise of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
In Shrek: the ogre teams up with the dragon he was sent to slay to save the Distressed Damsel from the Knight In Shining Armor, because Humans Are Bastards.
- Actually, slaying the dragon was never part of the bargain, he just had to recover the princess (normally he'd have to slay the dragon, but this time he just outwits her).
In a Played For Laughs moment in The Rocketeer, it's gangsters vs. Nazis. They may be crooks, but they're American crooks. And, yes, there's a jetpack involved.
This is what prompts the partnership between Wikus and Christopher in District 9. Christopher has spent 20 years collecting enough fluid to power the aliens' buried shuttle so he can take the mothership and get help, but just as he gets the last of it, his shack is searched by Wikus, who accidentally inhales some of the fluid and starts transforming into an alien. On the run from his own company, Wikus teams up with Christopher to get the fluid back from MNU, on the condition that Christopher change Wikus back into a human. It doesn't really work out that way, but by then Wikus has had enough Character Development to be okay with it.
The Matrix Revolutions. Neo and the Machines must work together to destroy Smith before he takes over both the Matrix and the Machine World. After Neo allows Smith to possess him, the Machines use their power through Neo's body to destroy all of the Smith clones.
The entire point of X2: X-Men United.
Kind of lampshaded in Ocean's Thirteen, when they decide to include Benedict in their plan:
Linus: We've shaken every tree...
Rusty: I really wanted to avoid it this time...
Mal uses this one to good effect in the Serenity movie by pissing off a massive horde of Reavers who them chase him headlong into the waiting Alliance fleet.
- "Target the Reavers. Target everyone. SOMEBODY FIRE!"
Will Smith's character in Enemy of the State pulls an on-the-fly Batman Gambit which ties up two troublesome loose ends by getting them to deal with each other. Through some fast talking and well chosen ambiguous language, he sets up a Mexican stand off between a rogue NSA team that has taken him hostage and a gang of trigger happy goodfellas who are looking for a fight. It does not end well for any of them.
In Blade II, Blade teams up with the vampires to fight a subspecies of super-vampires that prey on everyone.

Enemy Mine by Barry B. Longyear, the basis for the movie mentioned above.
In William King's Warhammer 40000 novel Space Wolf, the Marines chose Ragnar and Strybjorn for Marines when they were fighting each other to the death, and both were mortally wounded. Ragnar's desire for Revenge is kept at bay by the knowledge that the Marines will not let him. Finally, when they are fighting Chaos Space Marines, Strybjorn saves Ragnar's life, and shortly thereafter goes down. Ragnar realizes that he neither should nor does want Strybjorn to die; he sends the others on and stays to treat and bring Strybjorn with them.
And in the Warchild Series, Captain Azarcon, a Space Marine, and Niko, human sympathizer of the alien resistance work together to rescue hostages and capture gunrunners. This collaboration leads to the end of the war... for a time, anyway.
E.E. "Doc" Smith's Skylark series. In The Skylark of Space, the villain DuQuesne agrees to act as one of the party until they return safely to Earth, even though he wants the hero Richard Seaton dead. Ultimately Seaton makes his best friend hand BOTH his guns over to DuQuesne because DuQuesne is the better shot, and then Seaton and DuQuesne stand side by side and mow down their common enemies until all four guns are empty. In Skylark DuQuesne, DuQuesne enlists Seaton's help in fighting an otherwise unstoppable alien menace and ends up winning the war and saving Seaton's life in the process, though by this time his reasons for wanting Seaton dead no longer apply.
- The fact that each man at least respects the other's abilities helps.
Worldwar, by Harry Turtledove. Aliens invade in 1942. The Axis are working with the Allies.
- Another one occurs between the Jews in Europe and the Race. Aliens who never figured out discrimination or Nazi Germany. Played with in the sense that they aren't quite sure who'd be worse for mankind.
  - Actually, the Jews play it both ways, working with the Race or the Germans depending on who's a bigger threat at the the time.
In Book 7 of Harry Potter, Narcissa Malfoy helps Harry continue faking his death to Lord Voldemort in order to save her family.
- She was fed up.
The Thrawn Trilogy: Mara Jade sees her having to constantly work with Luke as this trope, especially with that not-so-covert wish to kill him. He doesn't see it the same way, though. At the end of the trilogy, they've become Fire Forged Friends, and by the New Jedi Order series, they're a married Battle Couple.
In A Darkness at Sethanon, the Heroic Prince teams up with the former Evil Chancellor to defend a city against the Evil Army. Subverted in that they not only fail to defend the city, but manage to blow it up.
- That isn't really a failure though. They were outnumbered about fifteen to one, and their enemy was using magic. The destruction of the city was to prevent the enemy from taking it and destroy a lot of the enemy along with it. Given the odds, it was a resounding success and achieved its goal perfectly.
- In Honored Enemy, a band of Kingdom raiders allies with a Tsurani patrol in order to survive pursuit from a Moredhel company. The story plays during the war between the Kingdom and the Tsurani and revolves around the tension this causes.
The Animorphs only teamed up with their main enemy, Visser Three, twice: to defeat a race of annoying, psycho, tiny-tiny-tiny aliens with a shrink ray and a mass Napoleon Complex, and to escape from a bunch of mutated blue fish-people that want to kill and stuff them for their Derelict Graveyard. On the other hand, Visser One freed them from Visser Three's prison in her very first appearance. Since the Animorphs are basically guerrilla fighters and Visser One is the main advocate for a stealth invasion (and her host is Marco's mom), they're not unwilling to accommodate her if it hurts Visser Three's credibility — but they're not unwilling to use it as an excuse to double-cross her, either...
In The Other Wind, the last (so far) in Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea series, representatives of four cultures normally at loggerheads - if not outright enmity - have to pool their respective mythological knowledge in order to figure out the truth about an ancient evil.
In the Crown of Slaves sub-series of the Honorverse, Victor Cachat and Anton Zilwicki are two intelligence operatives from the warring Star ~~Kingdom~~ Empire of Manticore and the Republic of Haven (Formerly Peoples Republic of Haven). They team up to investigate Mesan intrigue and how it impacts the war. It's implied this sub series may lead to a Grand Alliance...
- Really, by now it's evident that The Climactic Conflict will be between the Andermani/Havenites/Manticore/Maya/Beowulf/Torch/others versus the frikkin huge Solarian League (minus bits like Maya)/Mesa/whatever else we haven't seen yet. It promises to be awesome.
Tad Williams' Otherland Cyber Punk novel series has a prominent example of this in the fourth book. After Psycho For Hire John Dread usurps control of the Otherland network, Corrupt Corporate Executive Felix Jongleur, who up until now has regarded the heroes as an annoyance (if he was aware of them at all), finds himself on equal footing with them: trapped in the network and unable to use his godlike powers.
This is a major part of the plot of all three novels in CS Friedman's Coldfire trilogy: an immortal vampire and a priest team up to fight mutual enemies. By the end of the novels, the priest has been thrown out of his church and the vampire's patron Dark God has rescinded his immortality and cast him into Hell for being insufficiently evil. Turns out saving the world isn't compatible with maintaining that black-as-a-moonless-night karma, who knew?
The Hobbit. The dwarves are about to fight a battle with the Lake-men and Wood-elves to determine who will gain Smaug's treasure. Gandalf appears and warns them that an army of goblins and wargs is approaching, and they must join together to fight the evil attackers.
In Dragonlance, black robed mages ally themselves with the good guys every now and then, for example to drive off the Dark Queen in Legend of Huma and during the War of the Lance. An entire book Dragons of Summer Flame was based around this trope. Also Fistandantilus and the Kingpriest used each other for their own goals.
It is briefly mentioned in the Warhammer 40000 novel Grey Knights that the underhive gangs of Volcanis Ultor "buried their enmities for one long night" to do battle with a powerful gang of Chaos followers.
Twilight: The Cullens (Vegetarian Vampires) and the Quilettes (Werewolves born to kill vampires), had to work together to destroy an army of newborn vampires that were killing people in general and wanted to kill Bella Swan in particular.

The X-Files episode "En Ami".
- And "Tunguska"/"Terma" as well, although that turned out to be a set-up.
This is the entire plot of Star Trek Voyager, although by the third season the rival crew factions have been pretty much forgotten.
- In a later season of Voyager, in the episode where the Delta Flyer is introduced, B'Elanna Torres learns that the Maquis lost back home. She turns depressed and does dangerous things in the Holodeck with the safety off, and because most of the ship has all but forgotten their initial division between Starfleet and Maquis, they don't know what's wrong with her.
- Star Trek in general is all over this trope. The Klingons team up with the Enterprise crew in "Day of the Dove", the Klingons allying with the Romulans against the Federation and then later with the Federation against the Romulans, Voyager teaming with the Borg in "Scorpion", The Alliance of the Alpha Quadrant (and the poor, forgotten Beta Quadrant!) against the Dominion, etc., etc.
Star Trek Enterprise, "Dawn".
Star Trek The Next Generation, "Darmok". In the midst of the plot, Picard retells similar parts of The Epic of Gilgamesh, highlighting this as Older Than Dirt.
- Rather famously, the Tamarian for this trope is "Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra."
- TNG also did it in "The Enemy", where Geordi and a Romulan had to work together.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Spike. Most notably in "Becoming", and throughout most of Season Four. (Or do we mean Season Five?)
24 Season 2 as well.
Doctor Who, "Logopolis". Of course, the Master turns on the Doctor, tries to destroy the Universe rather than being unable to rule it, and then kills the Doctor by shaking him off a radio telescope into a parking lot. It isn't the end though, as the moment has been prepared for. Considering how the Master is just about the closest thing the Doctor has to a rival, they've certainly been forced to team up on any number of occasions throughout their history — usually to stop a catastrophic evil that the Master himself unleashed, and invariably with the Master turning on the Doctor shortly before or after the problem is solved. Of course, the Doctor has been anticipating betrayal all along, and has almost certainly done something clever to come out ahead regardless.
- Happened again recently in "The End of Time", where the Master saved the Doctor from being disintegrated by Rassilon.
Babylon 5, "Dust to Dust". Bester teams up with Garibaldi to catch drug smugglers. JMS explicitly stated this was to prevent Villain Decay.
- Another episode has a scene deliberately written as a subversion of the trope, which Straczynski hates. Mortal enemies Londo and G'Kar are trapped in an elevator with a fire outside draining their oxygen. Londo declares that they'll have to work together to escape but G'Kar refuses: he's perfectly fine with dying as long as he gets to see Londo die, too.
  Londo: This is insane! We must work together!
  G'Kar: ... No. As the humans say: "Up yours, die." (continues laughing)
  - The irony of this is that, if the Narn surrender treaty didn't include such harsh penalties for G'Kar just killing Londo, he might happily have helped. However, thanks to the excessive measures taken to prevent narns attacking centauri, this was the only way G'Kar would ever get to see Londo die.
Galactica 1980, episode "The Return of Starbuck". Often the only episode of the series that some fans of the original Battlestar Galactica will accept as continuity.
The new Battlestar Galactica has this quite a few times as well, usually involving Cylons and humans co-operating, such as Athena's Heel Face Turn and the rebel Cylon faction seeking Galactica's help against Brother Cavil. However the "enemy of my enemy is my friend" quote is actually used by President Roslin when she teams up with terrorist-turned-radical politician Tom Zarek, after Commander Adama tries to force her resignation.
In Stargate SG-1, Ba'al has had to join forces with SG-1 to defeat his master Anubis and the greater threat of the Replicators during the "Reckoning" two-parter. This is not the last time they'd work with him. Initially subverted, as Ba'al asked SG-1 for an alliance and was flat-out rejected by Jack O'Neill.
O'Neill: I've got a better idea, instead of helping you, why don't we sit around and watch you get your ass kicked? That way you'll be dead, and we'll be glad.
- Special mention just has to go to the two-parter "The Quest", where SG-1, Ba'al, and Ori messiah Adria team up to solve Morgan le Fay's puzzles.
- There is also an SG-1 episode entitled "Enemy Mine", but it is unrelated to this trope.
  - The conclusion is somewhat an example of this trope, as the Colonel overseeing the mine and the Unas definitely considered each other enemies until the compromise where they agreed to work the mine themselves so long as it contributed to killing some Goa'uld. Plus they look a little Enemy Mine Lou Gossetty, what with the scaly skin and labored manner of speaking.
In Stargate Atlantis, Sheppard and a wraith cooperated to escape custody of Kolya in the episode "Common Ground". This included the wraith feeding on Sheppard to have the strength to fight off their enemies, giving it the opportunity to double-cross our hero. However, he returned all the Life Energy he took (and possibly made up for a few months Sheppard spent in a time-dilation field) and Sheppard made good on his promise to let it go free. The wraith in question, later dubbed "Todd", would become a recurring character, and is notable for being unusually sociable for a Wraith, even joking with the heroes.
- Taken Up To Eleven in the final battle against the Asurans, where the Earth, Traveller, and Wraith ships fight side by side against the Asuran warships in what is hands down the single most awesome space battle any of the three series has managed (Stargate Universe, being set on a Cool Starship'', at least has a chance to top it).
  - This is even more impressive given the distinctly quarrelsome nature of the Wraith, thus the battle is a meld of nine factions (7 Hives, Atlantis and the Travellers) rather than 3 as some may think.
Certain incarnations of Power Rangers have done this, particularly Power Rangers Zeo. The Big Bad of the moment has brainwashed The Hero and the Sixth Ranger's attempt to save him has failed. It turns out that last year's villains have the technology to send the rest of the team over. They do, just to screw around with the new villains.
- Likewise, a villain variant of this was completely subverted in Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie. Newly anointed Big Bad Divatox calls decayed villain Rita Repulsa for help, and gets laughed at. Rita's Captain Obvious response is that if she knew how to defeat the Rangers, she would have done it already.
Airwolf, "Condemned". String and Caitlin have to work together with some Reds With Rockets to acquire the antidote for a lethal virus. Then stop three nuclear warhead-equipped cruise missiles from hitting the island. Soviets attempt to acquire Airwolf, but don't get very far and stop this before things get hairy between them. The parties depart friends.
Firefly does this in the episode "Trash", where the crew joins up on a heist with Saffron, the psychotic seductress who tried to steal their ship a few episodes back. Rather amusingly subverted: Saffron unsurprisingly double-crosses the crew, and the crew in turn whips out a Xanatos Gambit on her in return, having fully expected her sudden but inevitable betrayal.
Even Scrubs features this trope when Dr. Cox and Dr. Kelso team up to break the spirit of an overly cheery coworker. However, she outsmarts them and they are back to mutual hate by the end of the episode.
Buck, Dr. Crower, Gail, and Ben are all forced to work together in the American Gothic episode "The Beast Within", when Ben's deranged brother takes them all hostage: Dr. Matt's hand is hurt so he has to coach Ben in performing an emergency surgery, while Buck and Gail have to work together to find the lost key to the handcuffs holding them and Caleb prisoner. (The fact this all turns out to be a Xanatos Gambit orchestrated by Buck rather subverts the trope.)
- And at the very end of the series, Merlyn is forced to go to Dr. Peele, Selena, and Ben for aid in digging up Buck's 'corpse' so that the two of them can then work together to save Gail and stop Caleb's rampage.
An unusual example occurs in The 4400 where Jordan Collier and Tom Baldwin must work together to escape a dream sequence (whose actual purpose is to get people to work together). It's an odd example in that neither character is a villain: as Tom is a government official doing its best to deal with bizarre circumstances (and sometimes engaging a some morally-questionable methods of dealing with problems) and Jordan Collier is trying to avert the end of civilization, but supports anarchy and believes everyone should take Promicin (a drug that has a 50% chance of death or super-powers).
In Season 3 of Heroes, Noah Bennet makes a surprising team-up with Sylar to stop the escaped Level 5 villains. The two even seem to have bonded by the end of the 3rd episode, at least until Sylar starts up with the brain-stealing again, causing Bennett to vow to kill him eventually.
- What Noah Bennet meant could very likely refer to taming Sylar. In Season 3, Episode 4, "I am Become Death", Peter is taken to a future timeline by his future self. In this timeline, Peter discovers a calm and collected Sylar, living in the Bennet household with a son named Noah.
- Also, in the Season 3 season finale, Bennet frees all the Level 5 supervillains so they can help fight Sylar, who's on the downswing of his Heel Face Revolving Door trend. They all last maybe 3 minutes, tops.
Subverted in Angel during the fourth season, when Angel comes to Lilah for information on the Beast and suggests they work together:
Angel: You're afraid of what's coming. Maybe we can help each other. The enemy of my enemy—
Lilah: Can kiss my ass too.
Lost has done this twice, both in regards to the survivors and the Others:
- First in Season 3, when Kate and Juliet are handcuffed together and forced to work together to escape the smoke monster's repeated attacks. Of course, it turns out Juliet herself handcuffed them together to try and gain Kate's trust.
- The second time occurs at the end of Season 4, when Kate and Sayid must team up with Richard and his army of Others to rescue Ben from the freighter mercenaries.
Happens regularly in soap operas. For example, on All My Children, lifetime enemies Adam and Palmer teamed up to kill a rapist.
In the first season of the BBC's Robin Hood Robin and the sheriff temporarily fight side-by-side in order to defeat a group of Saladin's assassins. In the third season Robin and Guy team up in order to save their half-brother Archer from execution.
In The Man From UNCLE episode "The Deadly Dagger Affair", UNCLE and THRUSH operatives work together to stop DAGGER, a new organization armed with advanced science. In the end a THRUSH-controlled fighter jet kamikazes the DAGGER base, using sheer momentum to overwhelm its force field. There's a poignant moment where the leader of THRUSH reminds the leader of UNCLE of their former friendship and gives him a copy of 1984. Then, of course, he ends the truce ahead of the agreed time, not that anyone expected anything else. We also discover that the full name of THRUSH is the somewhat unwieldy "The Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirable Sub-Humans", which would make it a racist organization, rather than a leftist world-domination ploy, as was usually implied.
- This was actually a book, The Dagger Affair by David McDaniel, not a series episode. The true meaning of THRUSH is "Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity".
  - Also, The Man From UNCLE had this trope as part of its central premise, as THRUSH forces the titular American spy to cooperate with Russian intelligence.
M*A*S*H: Charles Winchester, ordinarily a foil to Hawkeye and B.J., will occasionally join forces with one of them against the other, or with both of them against a common target. Moments which are effectively crowning moments of heartwarming and/or awesome for Winchester, given that the people he targets are always bullies themselves, such as a racist colonel or a man bigoted against people with learning disabilities.
- One good example is the episode where Hot Lips is being accused of being a communist by a congressional aide. Without even being asked, Winchester takes a stand against the aide and takes up for Margaret.
In The Wire, Shotgun-toting Badass Longcoat stick-up boy Omar Little and Harper's Magazine-reading Uber-Badass Bookworm assassin Brother Mouzone team up to take on Stringer Bell after a failed Lets You And Him Fight. And it is awesome.
While not as big of enemies as most of the other examples, Naturally Sadie uses this a lot to get characters who dislike one of the main cast to work alongside them, usually for a school project. One memorable incident has almost the entire teenage cast working together in detention while the remaining member teams up with Mallcop — two examples in one episode, there are many more.
Happens all the time in the prison drama Oz as the various factions struggle for control of the drug trade, or seek to murder a rival.

A Pro Wrestling tag-team championship can also serve as an Enemy Mine, as a face and a heel are thrust into a match with the titles on the line, and despite their bickering and contempt for each other, manage to win. They're then obligated to continue teaming to defend the championship, arguing and taking potshots at each other all the while, until one of them finally decides being a champion isn't worth the headache and turns on the other. The most recent example is the team of Matt Hardy and M.V.P. on WWE Friday Night Smackdown.
- Slightly subverted in an even more recent example with John Cena and Batista, who won the tag titles but were bitter enemies facing each other, and couldn't co-exist, and lost the tag titles back on their first defense the next week.
- Hilariously lampshaded in a backstage segment with Team Triple H in Survivor Series 2007. Kane, Jeff Hardy, and Rey Mysterio call out Triple H on his numerous past offenses against them, which The Game sheepishly apologizes for. However, the team acknowledges that while they don't necessarily like one another, they like the other team even less.

Mage: The Awakening generally sees the Pentacle Orders locked in battle against the Seers of the Throne. However, when a Left-Handed Legacy (servants of the Abyss) makes itself known, both sides will declare a truce and stamp it out as best they can.
Warhammer 40000 very, very occasionally has instances where the more reasonable factions will hold off on killing each other to deal with a mutual threat. For a few minutes, anyway.
- This most commonly occurs between forces of the Imperium, Eldar, and Tau against Tyranids, Necrons, or Chaos, and matching temporary alliances may occur between Chaos, Orks, and Dark Eldar, as prominently seen during Dawn of War: Winter Assault. Standard operating procedure in Warhammer 40k (the above-mentioned game is no exception) is for each race to immediately turn on their 'allies' the instant the alliance is no longer necessary. Or, for extra Villain Ball goodness, somewhat before said instant. However, the Enemy Mine dynamic is also common between different branches of the same race, most often the Imperium of Man, usually between some combination of the Imperial Guard, Space Marines, Inquisition, Sisters of Battle, and Adeptus Mechanicus.
- Of course the Eldar, being the trope they are, will often manipulate any alliance they do make so that their allies take the brunt of the fighting (and thus causalities), in essence back-stabbing their allies during the alliance, as well as overtly so 5 minutes ~~after~~ before it's usefulness ends.
- Dawn of War II has a new mode which exemplifies this, known as "The Last Stand", where a Space Marine Captain, an Ork Mekboy and an Eldar Farseer cooperate to Hold The Line against a swarm of enemies.

In Final Fantasy X-2, the Leblanc Syndicate, who are enemies originally, become allies of the Gullwings in Chapter 3. This is different, however, in that they remain allies for the rest of the game, even helping in the fight against Vegnagun.
In City of Heroes, in the Valentine's Day 2006 and 2007 events, the missions to unlock special prizes required mixed hero-villain teams to complete. As well, the issue 10 update included a whole hero-villain co-op zone, the Rikti War Zone.
- Issue 12 added Cimerora, another co-op zone.
  - Finally, the annual "Rescue Baby New Year" event allows heroes and villains to team up, explicitly because the kidnapping of said baby/personification of time would be really really bad for all concerned.
Happens quite often in Metal Slug. Twice, the Rebellion teams up with you to fight the Mars People: in Metal Slug 2 when the Mars People betray them and kidnap their leader, and again in Metal Slug 3 when their leader turns out to be a Martian impostor. In Metal Slug 6, both groups team up with you to fight a group of Martian-eating aliens.
In the Super Mario RPGs, Bowser will often team up with Mario against other villains, wanting to be the only villain around. He's particularly enraged when other villains inevitably kidnap Princess Peach in the course of their plans.
- In Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, he does this completely unknowingly. He doesn't know that the bros are in his gut. All he knows is that Fawful has his castle, and is trying to kidnap his princess and take over his Mushroom Kingdom. Mario and Luigi do their part pretty much behind the scenes.
Halo does this twice. First, at the beginning of the game, the human UNSC and the Elites, who were previously mortal enemies, join forces to fight the Prophet of Truth, who is planning to exterminate the former and betray the latter. Later on, right before confronting the Prophet himself, the Master Chief and the Arbiter join forces with the Flood to stop Truth from killing everyone in the galaxy.
- Granted, this latter alliance lasts only five minutes, and then you curse their sudden yet inevitable betrayal. Although they did at least have the minimal grace to wait until Truth was dead first.
  - Like you could really trust the Gravemind.
  - The full extent of the human/Elite alliance is explored in the ending of Halo 3. The human general says that he can never forgive the Elites for what they did as part of the Covenant, and also as part of alliance (razing most of Africa to stop the Flood), but implies that they just might be able to ignore each other until some time in the future when the pain of the war isn't as fresh. They're not really enemies anymore, but they're definitely not friends.
  - Likewise, some of the Elites will grudgingly admit to actually having some respect for humanity now. Humanity might be inferior to the Elites on a physical level, massively outnumbered and hopelessly outgunned, but if you look at some of the things the UNSC have done... then even some of the most stubborn of the Elites have admitted that they just got their asses kicked into the stone age by a bunch of bloody monkeys, and actually respect humanity for it's stubbornness, resourcefulness and bloody-minded persistence in the face of overwhelming odds. It helps that the Elites are a bunch of Proud Warrior Race Guys and respect for honorable and skilled fighters how their culture works.
In Devil May Cry 3, hero Dante teams up with his brother and enemy Vergil to fight the penultimate boss. It's barely cold when Vergil challenges Dante for ownership of the Force Edge.
Star Craft is full of those, especially in the Expansion Pack. It starts with Raynor being forced to team up with the Sons of Korhal to evacuate his Doomed Homeplanet and ends up with a three-way alliance between the Terrans, Protoss and Zerg against the Earth Directorate and immature Overmind they were trying to control.
- Which is soon followed by a three-way alliance of the Protoss, Dominion and UED against Kerrigan. it doesn't quite work though.
War Craft, borrowing some plot elements from Star Craft, also has quite a few such moments, the ultimate being the battle at Mt. Hyjal where the Alliance, the Horde and the previously hostile to both Nightelves put their differences aside to stop the demons. Only to have the Alliance (now including the Nightelves) and the Horde break apart in about 4 years in time for the next game in the setting, World of Warcraft.
- Which got its own moments of temporal alliances, such as the War of the Shifting Sands, the Opening of the Dark Portal (where the Horde and Alliance came to the aid of a neutral faction holding back demonic forces coming through the portal), and most recently, the Shattered Sun Offensive. At the same time though, both sides keep fighting in arenas, battlegrounds and the open world.
- In Burning Crusade, there are Aldor and Scryers factions in Shattrath City which are rivals of each other on the borders of open hostilities. Players have to pick between them and befriending one means you are hostile to the other. However, near the conclusion of Burning Crusade during the Sunwell event, they finally put aside their differences and band together to form the Shattered Sun Offensive against Kael'thas Sunstrider and Kil'jaeden.
Occurs in Might and Magic VII, with reformed Magnificent Bastard Archibald Ironfist assisting the party in rescuing his brother King Roland and taking on the Kreegans.
- And ripped apart in the sequel, in which the Big Bad, Escaton - disgusted by his own actions but forced to carry them out by the Ancients - willingly allows you to unravel his plot.
With the Star Fox team mostly disbanded at the beginning of Star Fox Command and Fox unable (or unwilling) to get his friends back together, one of the paths you can take has Fox hiring long time rival Wolf O'Donnel to help him defeat the Big Bad.
- And going back to Star Fox Assault, Wolf helps Fox rid the menace of the Aparoids in the last four missions.
Plenty in Super Smash Bros Brawl:
- Marth and Meta Kight fighting, then suddenly teaming up to defeat the Primids around them. This happens again when Meta Knight fights Lucario then immediately after the fierce battle that manages to turn one of them into a trophy, the team up to board the Halbard. This almost happens again when they find Solid Snake, but Lucario stops Meta Knight. Meta Knight has an interesting way to make new friends...
- Ancient Minister helping Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Captain Falcon, Pikachu, Samus, and Captain Olimar.
- King Dedede (by Ness and Luigi), Bowser (by King Dedede, who pointed out that there's a bigger enemy called Tabuu), Ganondorf (by Link and Zelda) and Wario (who kicks King Dedede, which King Dedede, Luigi, and Ness respond to by pointing out Tabuu to Wario, who looks totally uninterested. When they decide move on without him, he decides to hop on his bike and beat them to the Big Bad's final dungeon).
A comedic example is shown in Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 where the three factions (represented by their respective tanks) call a truce in the tutorial in order to teach the player not to send their units to their meaningless deaths, though are still prone to firing at each other. Usually at the Soviet Hammer tank.
- A more serious example is also to be found in the Allied campaign when the Empire of the Rising Sun attacks-the Allies and Soviets call a ceasefire to destroy the Empire, and proceed to betray each other at about the same time.
- This also occurs in the Tiberium series. In the expansion pack Tiberian Sun: Firestorm, the remnants of Nod and GDI have to work together to stop the renegade Nod AI, CABAL. In Tiberium Wars, Nod general Kilian Qatar allies with GDI to face off against the Scrin, until Kane reveals himself to be not quite dead, flips out, and orders GDI nuked.
- Happens in the Yuri's Revenge expansion to Red Alert 2 as well, when the Soviets and Allies team up to fight Yuri.
This occurs in Kingdom Hearts II when Maleficent teams up with Sora against Organization XIII.
- Interestingly, you never really see Maleficent and Pete helping, just getting ready in a Bolivian Army Ending kind of way. Sora mentions that they've found something worth fighting for, and then we never see them again.
  - Sequel Hook?
- And also briefly when Axel fights alongside Sora to defeat a load of Nobodies.
Super Robot Wars Destiny is an interesting example. While the game includes antagonists from Gundam ZZ, Chars Counterattack, and Gundam Wing, the situation at hand causes them to have the competence to ally with you all at the start since things are bad enough. Due to the Zanscare Empire attacking Earth, along with the Invaders, and the Protodevlin, and the united alien forces of the villains from Daltanius, Godmars, and Grendizer, your heroes quickly realize pretty much the only organizations out there that still have the sheer manpower to defend humanity are the Principality of Zeon and the Order of the Zodiac. Roger Smith takes care of the negotiations. This results in the first heroic roles for longstanding villains like Haman Karn and Treize Kushinada.
- Super Robot Wars likes to play with this in smaller ways as well. For instance, Super Robot Wars W has a stage where Tekkaman Evil is forced to (briefly) work with the heroes because of the takeover of Tokyo by the Zonder. On the Selena route of Super Robot Wars Alpha 3, not only does Selena herself spend some time assisting the Cruscet team, Andrew Waltfeld and his adjutant Martin Dacosta assist the Alpha Numbers in holding off an attack by the Barota in a later stage.
  - One OG example is when Sanger and Elzam storm the Tesla Liecht Institute to retrieve the Dynamic General Guardians being kept there from the Inspectors. When Sanger's Grungust Type-3 gets damaged, the Inspector Vigagi is about to land a fatal blow when Wodan Ymir appears and intervenes, claiming that he is the only one allowed to kill Sanger. Wodan buys enough time for Sanger to activate the Dygenguard, and even goes so far as to be the one who helps Sanger retrieve his Type-3 Zankantou (a job that was given to Elzam in Alpha 2) to continue fighting when Dygenguard's original weapons malfunction.
Grovyle and Dusknoir in a bonus episode of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon 3 - it's actually rather touching, considering what's going to happen if they succeed... Dusknoir also pulls a Heel Face Turn about 3/4ths of the way through.
Pyron is the Big Bad of the first two Darkstalkers games, despite many of the other characters being less than savory themselves.
If Kid Dracula and Castlevania Judgment are any indication, Galamoth's presence is all it takes for Dracula and his minions to become Anti Heroes.
In Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, Spider-Man decides to break the evil mad scientist known as the Tinkerer out of Ryker's Island to get him to build a device capable of decimating Venom's symbiote army... if only because Reed Richards Is Useless by being absent when he tried to phone him, Tony Stark and Hank McCoy are also absent, and he doesn't feel like dealing with Hank Pym. The mission where you do so also involves another enemy mine —- namely, freeing the Rhino and riding him to break through the island prison's walls. Some time later, when the Tinkerer requests that he be transferred over to the Kingpin's facilities to complete the device, Spidey and SHIELD end up forming one with the crime boss as well.
- Notable in that Spider-Man fully acknowledges that breaking out the Tinkerer is a bad idea, and he doesn't like it (unless you're evil), but that the threat of the symbiote army is so great that he really can't wait for anyone else to show up and help him solve the problem. This and other questionable actions get him in a lot of trouble when Wolverine shows up and calls him out.
- In the DS version, you can also choose the Dark path by helping the Green Goblin.
The plot of the Kim Possible Licensed Game "What's the Switch?", featuring a reluctant team-up by Shego and Kim.
- The plot of the Grand Finale is about a team-up between Kim, Ron, Dr Drakken and Shego.
Hilariously played with in Mana Khemia Alchemists Of Alrevis. The nakama goes into the depths of a monster-infested dungeon, trying to find the cure for an ailing friend, and found themselves mobbed by monsters. Then comes the game's Gold Fish Poop Gang (doubtful of the status as real enemies). The nakama thinks they're going to cause trouble again, only to find that the latter group, under orders, are there to help them. Made even funnier by the following dialogue...
- During their arrival:
  "Not now..."
  "We don't have time to play with you!"
- The second dialogue is that after they reveal their plans, and persuades the nakama to make their escape with the medicine:
  Renee: ... Umm, maybe you shoulda been honest and let them help.
  Tony: Don't be stupid! Coming to their rescue to ask for help? That's just uncool.
In The World Ends With You, at one point, Neku and his partner see two Jerk Ass Reapers getting attacked by Taboo Noise. At this point you have the choice of helping the Reapers or letting them fight it off on their own. Hilariously, if you choose to help, Neku justifies it by saying it'll really annoy them, since Reapers are supposed to be killing Players, not being helped by them, and if you choose to leave them to their fate, Neku justifies by saying, "Just for you, Jerk face!"
In Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic teamed up with Eggman and the rest of the Dark Story characters to stop the Space Colony ARK's automated "apocalpyse" function, which is mainly the station de-orbiting to crash into the planet, presumably blowing up both if it had hit.
- Sonic and Eggman teamed up again in Sonic Advance 3 to stop the out-of-control Gemerl.
In the intro to Mortal Kombat Deception, Raiden, Shang Tsung and Quan Chi attempt to fight that game's Big Bad, the Dragon King Onaga. Unfortunately, when Raiden realizes that they aren't doing any damage... he causes an explosion that appears to kill himself and the sorcerers while obliterating the palace they were in. And Onaga was unscathed.
- Additionally, this will occur in both sides of the Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe Story Mode.
In Tales of Symphonia Lloyd's group joins up with Sheena, their enemy in order to save a village from the Desians.
- Not to mention Kratos after his betrayal, when you invade Forcystus' human ranch
X-Men Legends II had the X-Men and their old enemies the Brotherhood teaming up to fight the forces of Apocalypse, who had abducted members of both teams.
- Of course some are more happy about it than others. Scarlet Witch and Toad get along great with the X-Men and become quite friendly, while Magneto simply tolerates them, and Sabretooth and Juggernaut are constantly taking verbal potshots at the X-Men all game.
- As for its successor series, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 does it as well: this is how the game segues from an adaptation of the Civil War to Vicarious Visions' original storyline, as the Negative Zone brawl is interrupted by SHIELD's nanites gaining sentience and beginning an Assimilation Plot, forcing the pro- and anti-registration heroes to put their political squabble aside. And it kinda does not snapback, for when is all said and done, the Civil War is settled peacefully, the winning side being the one you chose at the beginning of it.
The Turks, Punchclock Villains from Final Fantasy VII, find themselves briefly fighting alongside the heroes in an effort to save kidnapped Optional Members of both teams.
- The Turks attempt to help in Advent Children... attempt being the main word here. Lucky they've got Rufus Shinra.
In the first Thief game, there's actually a mission named Strange Bedfellows, in which the main character agrees to help the Knight Templar faction in exchange for their help against the Big Bad. In the second game, the main character teams up with the survivors of the faction he defeated in the first against The Cult that split of the first game's Knight Templar faction.
Fire Emblem uses this and does not Snap Back. The phrase is even used to describe Marth in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
In Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney, the fifth case practically loses the prosecution as both Phoenix and Edgeworth fight to reveal the true killer, Damon Gant.
- Then in Justice For All a similar arrangement is made where both Phoenix and Edgeworth attempt to prolong the trial as long as possible in order so the police might discover where the kidnapped Maya has been brought.
- In Trials and Tribulations, Edgeworth actually takes over the defense for the case since Phoenix was stupid enough to run across a burning bridge a hundred feet over a freezing river and is incapacitated. To make it even more interesting, he gets Franziska to serve as the prosecution, as she's the only one who wouldn't point out to the (new) judge that Edgeworth is actually a prosecutor and not a defense attorney.
Halfway through Advance Wars: Days of Ruin (after Captain Brenner is killed), Tasha, Gage and the surviving Lazurians temporarily set aside their differences with Will and the 12th Battalion to help him stop Admiral Greyfield's New Rubinelle Army from launching missile strikes against them.
Nicktoons: Globs of Doom has SpongeBob SquarePants, Danny Phantom, Jimmy Neutron and Tak joining forces with an evil syndicate (hired by Jimmy), Zim and Dib to defeat an invasion of cyclops slimes from outer space. At the same time, Zim (a Villain Protagonist and seeing only himself as worthy of conquering Earth) abuses the situation to his advantage by lying his way to the heroes' side, leaving Dib stuck with the villains, much to his dismay. Even after they Snap Back, as he's still complaining but to no avail.
At the end of Bomberman 64, halfway through the final battle against Sirius - the Magnificent Bastard who used the hero throughout most of the game - Regulus, who was presumed dead earlier appears and saves Bomberman's life at the last second. After some dialogue, Regulus forms a temporary alliance with Bomberman to take down Sirius. He even helps Bomberman escape the collapsing fortress before reminding him that they aren't friends and they will fight again.
Shirou and Kotomine in Heavens Feel route of Fate Stay Night. They're both very clear on the fact that they're doing it for entirely different reasons and that after cooperating, they're enemies again. Still, it leads Shirou to realize that he actually likes Kotomine and that's why he avoids him. They're not actually that different apart from the whole, you know, evil for the fun of it factor.
- And in Unlimited Blade Works, Lancer joins forces with Shirou and Rin against Caster and Archer on the orders of his master, which would be Kotomine again. He even sticks around to save Rin from Archer just because he feels like it afterwards, despite technically being their enemy.
In one of the path branches in Devil Survivor, Midori teams up with Kaido to keep Keisuke from pulling a Karma Houdini and getting away with his Knight Templar stint without a fight. She does so hoping she can restrain Kaido from killing him, but wonders about her ability to do so a tad too late.
The freeware game Sonny has Sonny and Veradux team up with the head of the ZPCI to fight Baron Brixius. Once that's done, however...
- Are you certain the Paladin is the head of the ZPCI? I rather tend to thik he's more of their "super elite warrior".
Baten Kaitos has Aimee and Folon helping the main party to infiltrate the The Very Definite Final Dungeon despite having fought the group multiple times over the course of the game.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has the appropriately named level "The Enemy of My Enemy":

Price: Makarov, you ever heard the old saying "the enemy of my enemy is my friend"?
Makarov: Price, one day you're going to find that cuts both ways.

In The Godfather game, in the cutscene of Sonny's death you can clearly see mobsters from the Tattaglia, Stracci and Cuneo families working together against the victim.
Overlord II has the Evil Overlord offered an alliance by the Big Good Queen Fay, ruler of Light Magic to take down the magic-destroying Glorious Empire. She helps by reconstructing the Tower Heart of the first game and sacrifices her temples to power it up. When that proves to be insufficient, she decides that she'll have to sacrifice her own magical energy and allows the Overlord to drain her. However due to his evil influence seeping through her body she is eventually driven insane, becoming the Fallen Hero Dark Fay who joins the Overlord as his mistress.
In Chrono Trigger, you can choose to add Magus to your team.

Red Vs Blue, as mentioned above, in which the red and blue teams often join up to battle O'Malley.

Schlock Mercenary lampshades this with Rule 29 from The Seven Habits for Highly Effective Pirates being "The enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy. No more. No less."
During the "Dangerous Days" arc of Sluggy Freelance, the gang's (first) trump card against Hereti Corp is Oasis, who had kidnapped or tried to kill most of them in the past. Only her devotion to Torg and mind control programming kept her somewhat on their side.
- Also, due to his Heroic Sociopath nature, almost any time Bun-Bun is persuaded to help the other characters has shades of this.
In The Order of the Stick's prequel, the appropriately-named Start of Darkness (also the Trope Namer}, Right-Eye attempts (unsuccessfully) to ally with human wizard Eugene Greenhilt, despite hating humans, in order to eliminate the threat Big Bad Xykon poses to his own goblin minions.

In Survival of the Fittest, Shameeca Mitchell and Heath Trennoby enlist the aid of Anti Villain Bobby Jacks in order to mount a rescue from all around asshole Lenny Priestly. Admittedly Shameeca hadn't met Bobby before this point, but she was well aware that he was a killer.

In Transformers it's not unusual to see the Autobots and Decepticons (or expies of them) joining forces to take on a greater threat. It just takes one HELL of a greater threat to make them do it. Usually Unicron, but not always.
- In Transformers Animated, during the second season finale, the Autobots and Decepticons' latest battle is interrupted by Starscream and his clones. The Autobots and Decepticons end up fighting the same enemy, and at one point Optimus and Megatron have a Back To Back Badasses moment... only for Megatron to grab Optimus and use him as a living shield. The clones eventually turn on Starscream later, join Megatron, and everyone is back to square one.
- In the G1 episode The Insecticon Syndrome, Megatron and Optimus Prime fight together against the out-of-control Insecticons. Watching Optimus grab up Megatron's semi-conscious body and force-fold him into gun mode is interesting.
- In the G1 episode Countdown to Extinction it's Megatron and Optimus Prime cooperating again to stop Starscream's Doomsday Device. Watching Optimus worry over the damage Megatron is taking to unbolt the device is fascinating.
- In Beast Machines, the Maximals join forces with the surviving Vehicons to survive when Savage appears.
Justice League, "The Return". Lex Luthor is forced to work with the League to stop AMAZO, an android he himself had loosed on them in an earlier episode, from destroying the Earth.
- Actually, this applies to the League more in this case; AMAZO isn't out to destroy the world (if it was in his way, he'd simply move it to another dimension), but he IS after Luthor, who deceived and manipulated him. The League figures that the android will kill Luthor (at this moment in the series, in a Heel Face Turn), so THEY decide to help HIM.
- Lex Luthor and the entire Legion of Doom were forced to help the Justice League defend Earth from invasion by Apokolips. Luthor was the one who did Darkseid in.
In Code Lyoko episode "Marabounta", Jérémie's newest attempt to destroy XANA goes haywire and threatens to destroy Lyoko itself. XANA sends monsters to help the good guys destroy the threat. When the combined team is victorious, the heroes expect the monsters to immediately turn on them. Instead, the monsters bow and then leave without incident.
- In the following episode, "Common Interest", Jérémie and XANA team up to save Lyoko and Aelita when the uranium battery that powers the Supercomputer starts dying.
In the old animated TV show of The Neverending Story, the main character teams up with the evil female character, who even saves him at one point.
Avatar: The Last Airbender, in the episode "The Blue Spirit", when Zuko (in disguise) rescues Aang from Zhao because Zuko needs to be the one to capture him.
- This happens again in "The Chase", when the gaang inadvertently work with Zuko and Iroh to corner Azula. Of course, this gets broken when Azula attacks Iroh while he's distracted.
- And again when Zuko has a Heel Face Turn and joins the Gaang. Included here because, while Zuko truly wants to switch sides, the Gaang (especially Katara) still views him as an enemy for some time, and are only joining up with him because Aang needs a firebending teacher.
Darkwing Duck once teamed up with electrical supervillain Megavolt against an enemy that threatened to destroy St. Canard. When Gosalyn asks Megavolt why he's helping out, he explains that if the Big Bad destroyed the city, there'd be nothing left for him to rob.
- And Megavolt did so again, along with Fearsome Five teammates Bushroot, Liquidator, and Quacker Jack, when team leader Negaduck steals their powers with a magical gem. (Of course, Quacker Jack had no power to steal, other than his wackiness. That's your cue, fellow tropers!)
- And Megavolt teamed up with Darkwing again in order to stop the Gosalyn-shaped representations of radio, light, and heat waves from wreaking havoc upon the city. His excuse for the team up this time? The physical representations of the electromagnetic spectrum hurt his feelings.
- Also, Darkwing Duck teamed up with Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain Bushroot a few times, most notably against an invasion of evil cabbages from outer space. "Hey, I may be a mutant plant-duck, sure, but I'm an Earth mutant plant-duck!"
Robin must reluctantly team up with Slade to save Raven in Teen Titans. Slade uses this time trying to annoy Robin as much as possible, naturally. Later Slade helps them out with Trigon with his extremely bad-ass antler cutting fiery ax.
- Also the Titans team up with Gizmo to rescue Cyborg. Actually, Gizmo is pretty much has no choice in the matter as Raven pretty much threatens to turn into some demon-monster and devour him if he doesn't.
- Robin also teams up with Red X in "X" to stop the theft of a dangerous substance.
  - Which is really confusing, since the last time we saw Red X, he was Robin in disguise. This confusion is never cleared up.
  - It was stated that the Red X suit was stolen by an unknown person.
- A similar plotline occurred in The Batman, when the villainous residents of Arkham Asylum, freed by an alien invasion, join the fight against the aliens, with the Joker angrily stating that causing mayhem in Gotham is his job. He goes so far as to gleefully proclaim that the whole world has gone mad after seeing Gordon and Freeze protect each other's backs.
Despite his declaration of "just this once" (quote at top of page), Zim and Dib of Invader Zim have teamed up at least three times against various crises.
- Notable episodes: "Bolognius Maximus", "Hamstergeddon", "Halloween Spectacular of Spooky Doom", and "Tak: The Hideous New Girl".
- Subverted in "Planet Jackers": Zim reluctantly tries to form an alliance with Dib, as he requires Dib's telescope (Zim's has been broken). Dib refuses to believe Zim has (somewhat) good intentions and kicks Zim out of his house without allowing time for an explanation.
- Lampshaded in "Walk for Your Lives": Zim forces an alliance on Dib, who is the only way to stop a massive slow-motion explosion. Dib (who's also in slow-motion) gets fired out of a cannon into an explosion, causing it to speed back up and finish already. But it's still an alliance.
  - Not really. If being captured counts as being an ally, was Dib helping Zim destroy the world in "Future Dib"? He vehemently objected to the plan, and it's not like Zim flung him at the explosion for anyone's benefit but his own.
- There's another subversion in "Gaz: Taster of Pork," when Dib, evidently at the end of his rope, winds up going to Zim for help. He cites their partnership in "Bolognous Maximus" (which is an odd Continuity Nod to an episode that ended on a Snap Back), but Zim just laughs at him.
Danny Phantom had Danny and his ghost hunting rival/enemy Valerie working together to outdo Skulker once they stop trying to torment one another. Being handcuffed together didn't help matters.
- Don't forget the first movie, "Reign Storm", where Danny, Vlad, and Valerie had to team up to try and take down the much greater threat that was Pariah Dark. In fact every enemy ghost came to help out during the final battle.
- Danny teamed up with the rest of his foes to break out of Walker's prison in "Prisoners of Love."
- Danny and just about every single ghost in existence teaming up to turn the Earth intangible in "Phantom Planet." Wow, he does do this a lot!
  - Probably because most of his villains aren't actually "evil", they're just selfish or jackasses...with the exception of Dark Danny.
The Raccoons episode "The Intruders" has the bad guy Cyril Sneer working together with the titular raccoons and their friends in order to save his own son and one of the raccoons who got trapped in his supersafe vault.
In the Pirates of Dark Water episode "The Game Players of Undar", frog-like creatures effortlessly capture both the main hero and the main villain, handcuff them together, and force them to work together to win a dangerous game on an island for their own amusement.
In the Batman The Brave And The Bold episode "Game Over For Owlman", Batman is forced to team up with his arch nemesis, The Joker after the rest of the heroes of the series become convinced he is become a bad guy thanks to the machinations of his Evil Twin Owlman.
- And again with Two-Face in the beginning of "The Fate of Equinox", after his hired henchmen go against his decision to spare Batman.
Commander X-2 did this with Duck Dodgers and his Cadet on occasion — especially when his Queen was in direct danger. Awwwww.
An episode of The Powerpuff Girls had them needing Mojo Jojo's help to beat this huge alien thing that was so evil even Mojo considered it his superior.
In an episode of Gummi Bears, Toadie's cousin Tadpole takes over Castle Drekmore, kicks Duke Igthorn out, and orders the ogres to destroy all the gummiberry bushes. Neither Igthorn nor the Gummis want the bushes destroyed, so they reluctantly team up to get rid of Tadpole.
- In another episode, Duke Igthorn hires a bounty hunter to catch a Gummi Bear. When the hunter returns with Cubbi Gummi but Igthorn refuses to pay, he and Cubbi are tossed into a dungeon cell, and have to work together to escape.
  - That episode was a Chained Heat, as well.
In The Fairly Oddparents "Wishology" trilogy, all of Timmy's friends and allies except for Mark are captured. Needing help, he recruits Vicky, Crocker, and Dark Laser to battle the Darkness. Of course, he needs to offer them something: twenty dollars, a look at his fairies, and an opportunity to destroy him when it's over, respectively.
Happened several times on Gargoyles. Of course David Xanatos is such a Magnificent Bastard of a Chess Master and the master of Xanatos Roulette, that the Manhattan Clan always suspected they were being used. Occasionally they were wrong.
Bart and Lisa from The Simpsons teamed up with Sideshow Bob in the episode Brother From Another Series to stop Bob's brother, Cecil, from blowing up the Springfield Dam to destroy the evidence that he cut back on construction to embezzle funds.

The example from Wild Mass Guessing for The X Files, suggesting that as soon as the aliens arrive on Earth, they'll promptly be beaten back by every single Monster Of The Week, who tend to favor continuing to live on their planet.

During World War II, Mao's Communist forces and Jiang's Kuomintang forces called time out and fought the occupying Japanese together. Of course, both sides were frantically trying to ensure the other side was going to take the majority of casualties.
- Also during WWII, the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union worked side by side to defeat Germany and Japan.
  - Before that, you had the Soviets and Nazis declaring a cease fire, until of course, Germany broke the treaty and attacked.
- Along the same lines, Churchill once said, "If Hitler invaded Hell I would make at least a favorable reference to the devil in the House of Commons."
This tendency was also repeated again in the African countries of Chad and Somalia, when the warring forces teamed up to kick out the foreign invaders. In Chad's case, the government and rebel forces united to fight the invading forces of Libya, while the Somalis temporarily put their civil war on hold to kick out the United Nations force sent to restore order after the collapse of the dictatorship, before they returned to fighting among themselves.
During the fifth century BC, the Spartans and Athenians teamed up to fight the Persians.
Can probably be applied to the vast majority of wars, including the alliances against Napoleon.
- During the Cold War, this was practically official policy for both sides.
The "Robbers' Cave" experiment. Two groups of boys at a summer camp were first isolated form each other and encouraged to form a group mentality. After a few days they were introduced to the other group in a competitive environment in order to produce inter-group friction. This stage was ended early when the hostile rivalry reached potentially dangerous levels. The groups were then given mutual "superordinate goals" forcing them to work together, and the hostility evaporated as quickly as it had appeared.
~~Feminists~~ Straw Feminists and conservative Christians disagree on almost every issue, with the exception of one: they are both opposed to pornography. Many feminists feel that it's exploitative of women, while many Christians feel that it's immoral and sinful.
- And also exploitative of women. Or men, for that matter!
- In addition, there's considerable debate in the feminist camp as to whether sex work is exploitative, though pornography is more agreed-upon-as-bad than prostitution.
- The odd alliance between the religious right and militant feminism on the subjects of porn and prostitution has been frequently lampshaded and criticized by more moderate "sex-positive" feminists.
Islamic and Christian fundamentalists are generally opposed to each other, with the subscribing to opposing religions and all. Creationist works and arguments critical of Darwinism tend to pass between both groups, as do tracts critical of gay marriage.
On occasion, Neo-Nazi's openly join Pro-Palestinia demonstration, having apparently decided that they hate Jews slightly more than the Muslim immigrants.

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