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troperville

In a moment of crisis, a hero or a villain might look back and declare: "I've come too far..." to stop now. This is a desperate kind of determination. A common variant on the phrase is, "We haven't come this far just to give up now!"

A frequent reason for why a villain may not do a Heel Face Turn and have an Ignored Epiphany instead. They may cross the Moral Event Horizon as a result. This is occasionally a case of the Sunk Cost Fallacy but not necessarily. If you've come so far that reaching your goal requires only a tiny push any more, it's "more economical", so to speak, to go through with it.

Examples

Anime

In Code Geass, Lelouch justifies his uncertainty about the Zero Requiem plan by claiming that too many people have been sacrificed for them to stop. This would ordinarily not fit the trope, except that he was responsible for many of those sacrifices.
- He's actually been using this excuse in one permutation or another since around the time one of his battle strategies worked a little too well and ended up killing dozens of civilians who had little to nothing to do with the nearby battle, including Shirley's father.
In Fullmetal Alchemist, Scar does one of these when his old teacher tries to get him to give up his alchemist-murdering ways. Interestingly, he later does have a Heel Face Turn of sorts and later is there to stop Mustang from passing the Moral Event Horizon and then having to do one of these himself.
Griffith of Berserk provides the page quote.
In Chrono Crusade, Aion reflects on how only six of the Sinners survived the first battle of their rebellion, and as the survivors, they were obliged to honor the sacrifice of the fallen by continuing to fight.
This is Johan's response to being forgiven by his sister in Monster.
Light Yagami of Death Note feels this way, especially when considering his options in the second arc.
- When L suggests a course of action that Soichiro refuses to brook, he argues, "It's just a bit further." Which might figure into the Tarot Motifs in the anime.
In Mirai Nikki, this is Yukiteru's justification for jumping off the slippery slope, starting wholesale slaughter of bystanders and eventually killing his closest friends in their quest to become Deus' successor, justifying it that once they become God, they can resurrect all the people they killed. Unfortunately, Death isn't Cheap in the Mirai Nikki universe, and while he may be able to restore their bodies, he cannot bring back their souls, and at best he would only have lifeless shells - a fact Yuno knows only too well, since she won the game in a previous timeline and traveled back in time after failing to resurrect Yuki.

Comics

Flintheart Glomgold expresses this sentiment the second time he tries to beat Scrooge McDuck in a contest of wealth, and resorts to trickery to win: "I've betrayed my dear old mother's fondest hopes! I've turned myself into a scoundrel — all to win the title of world's richest duck! I've got to win!"
In World War Hulk, the Earth-based heroes and the Warbound start swapping "too far!"s like trading cards.

Animated Films

"I didn't come three thousand miles and lose my best friend to lose to the likes of you!"

Film

In Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey Chance admonishes Shadow (who was admitting defeat after seeming to have broken one of his legs, saying he was too old to keep going after such an injury and survive)
Chance: [to Shadow] You pushed me this far, now I'm pushing you the rest of the way! You know, back in the woods, even when things looked really bad, I always thought we'd make it because I thought you were too stubborn to quit! Well, you're not going to quit, not now, not when we're this close! Now, try again!
Ben10: Secret of the Omnitrix
Ben as Cannonbolt: I've come too far! I've lost too much to be stopped now!
The Great Scout & Cathouse Thursday
Sam Longwood: I've survived two avalanches, three blizzards, five Indian uprisings and seven presidential elections, but I've never been owned by no woman nor dog...and I've come too far down the road to let it happen to me now.
In Downfall, Adolf Hitler uses these very words (or rather, the German equivalent) during his infamous rant. Also an example from Real Life.
Played for Laughs in Harold And Kumar Go To White Castle. The two leave their apartment and head to the elevator, stoned, on their titular quest. Kumar notices he forgot his cellphone. When Harold offers to run back and get it, he quickly declares, "No...we've gone too far already."
The Matrix Revolutions:
Morpheus: Can we make it?
Niobe: We ain't come this far...
Played for Laughs in Tromeo And Juliet. Upon discovering that they are brother and sister, Tromeo and Juliet declare "Fuck it, we've come this far," and move to the suburbs and raise a family of deformed children.
Sarah uses the phrase almost word for word in Labyrinth when she is in the Oubliette.
I'm not giving up now, I've come too far!
In Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings, this is Danny's reasoning for summoning Pumpkinhead, even though (as Spoony pointed out in his review) there was nothing stopping them from just walking away.
In Star Trek: First Contact, as Picard loses his temper with Lily when she suggests destroying the Enterprise rather than continue trying to fight the Borg.
Picard: I will not sacrifice the Enterprise. We've made too many compromises already. Too many retreats. They invade our space, and we fall back. They assimilate entire worlds, and we fall back. Not again. The line must be drawn here! This far, no further! And I will make them pay for what they've done!
In Return of the Jedi, Luke Skywalker tries to convince his father Darth Vader to make a Heel Face Turn. Vader says "It is...too late for me, son." He's already realized that what he's doing is wrong, but believes he's so far beyond the possibility of redemption that it would be pointless to try. Later in the movie, he changes his mind when Luke is about to be murdered by the Emperor. Redemption Equals Death ensues.

Live-Action TV

Alias episode "All the Time in the World"
Irina Derevko: I've come too far to let anything get in my way.
In Game Of Thrones, after Theon Greyjoy spends a whole season kicking dogs to better fit in with his brutal family, and the payoff is finally inevitable:
Maester Luwin: "I've known you many years, Theon Greyjoy. You're not the man you're pretending to be."
Theon: "You may be right... but I've gone too far to pretend to be anything else."
- In season 3, he acknowledges that the Starks were his real family, not the Greyjoys, but by that point he's done so much to hurt them that he knows they will never accept him again.
Theon: " My real father lost his head at King�s Landing. I made a choice, and I chose wrong. And now I�ve burned everything down."
In Season 4 Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the Villainous Maggie Walsh says 'I've come too far to let some little blonde stop me.' She then activates her supersoldier prototype ADAM, which promptly kills her.
Lilith invokes this trope on Sam in Supernatural, daring him to use his demon-fueled powers to kill her since it would be a waste for him to turn himself into a monster for the purpose of killing her and then get cold feet at the last second. This successfully goads Sam into killing her, therefore releasing Lucifer. All according to plan.

Theatre

Macbeth gets a speech about this: "I am in blood / Stepp'd in so far, that, should I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o'er."
In Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, just as Judge Turpin enters his establishment, allowing him to bring his revenge scheme to fruition, Sweeney is pestered again by the Beggar Woman. Declaring "I have no time!", he slits her throat and goes to meet with the judge. It's not that this was really more evil than his usual actions (he had been killing his customers for some time), but it still shows him being willing to sacrifice others to achieve his goals and it comes back to bite him, as the Beggar Woman turns out to be Sweeney's wife- the entire reason for his revenge plan.

Video Games

In one of the endings of Saya no Uta, where Kouji says that he's gone too far and all that he can see now in front of him is his own demise, since he has finally crossed that line of no return.
Trying and failing to redeem Aribeth in Neverwinter Nights will result in her spouting this trope at you.
The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning
I just find out that I'm this special dragon, and you tell me all is lost? That I have no home or family left? I've come way too far to give up now. I wanna see where I come from.
Seifer in Final Fantasy VIII has this as his motivation for the last part of the game.
General Azimuth pulls this in Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time, right before the final boss fight.
Azimuth: I'm sorry, Ratchet! I've come too far to fail now!
The intro video to Left 4 Dead 2 has "I have not...come this far...to die now!" from Nick.
- He will also say it randomly while critically wounded and limping around in game.
The Last Spartan in God Of War 2 says, "I have come too far to fail," right before you fight him.

Webcomics

In The Order of the Stick, Redcloak forces himself to believe that every goblin, including his brother, that has died in service to The Plan has been necessary, unlike his brother, who felt that years after they brought Xykon in, they should have eliminated him and tried something else. Redcloak mostly just keeps pretending to so that he doesn't have to take responsibility for the horrific things he has done in the name of the plan, and both Xykon and Righteye have pointed this out to him.

Real Life

One reason some criminal and extremist groups require new recruits to perform some heinous act as part of their initiation is to produce this effect, thus forcing the newcomer to make an irrevocable commitment.
Also the rationale behind the Just Following Orders mindset. If you refuse to follow an order, you agree that every act of atrocity that you had done before then was done because you, at some level, were willing to commit it (since you didn't put your foot down then).

It Wasn't Easy

Stock Phrases

I've Got an X And I'm Not Afraid to Use It

alternative title(s): I Have Come Too Far

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