Have You Told Anyone Else? - Television Tropes & Idioms

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alt title(s): Have You Told Anyone Else; Does Anyone Else Know

This would qualify as Too Dumb To Live

Something's bothering you. You did some poking around, and you discovered a clue that just doesn't match up with what you know about the situation at large. It's almost as if someone is trying to pull a Xanatos Gambit on your team. So you decide to run this information past your ally, Nialliv. He listens, perhaps admits that this does indeed sound suspicious, and then casually asks: "Have you told anyone else?"

What's that phrase mean? Well, several things:

The information you've discovered is enough to at least screw up the Big Bad's plans if not bring him down entirely.
Unfortunately, the first (and now, likely, the only) person you revealed this information to is the Treacherous Advisor or some other variety of The Mole, and possibly the Big Bad himself.
As soon as you innocently tell him that no, he's the first person you've mentioned this to, he's likely going to make sure that information dies with you. Check your shirt color.
Occasionally there is another step: Why yes, there was one person you told, Mr. Dead-Meat. By amazing coincidence, Mr. Dead-Meat accidentally shoots himself in the back of the head twice the next day. You are still alive because you're too dumb to connect the dots and there's probably some part of the Xanatos Gambit you need to fulfill.

It's rare to find someone Genre Savvy enough to lie and say something like, "Why yes, I told Bob, Joe, and Susan, and they're passing the word along to the rest of the team as we speak, as well as hiding copies of the evidence in several locations. But they sent me to tell you directly. And I called and told them I was here right before I rang the doorbell." Rather, they proudly(!) admit that they told Nialliv first. For the one who noticed the hole in his Evil Plan, they aren't too bright, are they? (If they do say they told someone else, it's obvious that they just now realized their error, and are badly lying about it. Nialliv sees right through this.) Actually, this has is starting to get subverted more these days. Especially if it's the hero doing it, they probably already have sent the information to all the major publishers, or have some backup plan. But then, that's usually only if they suspect the person.

This moment is usually The Reveal for the audience that Nialliv is playing for the other team.

Sometimes phrased as "Does anyone else know about this?" or "Have you discussed this with anyone else?" The key words are always "anyone else". Occasionally one gets "Have you told [specific other person] yet?", where the other person is someone with the power to do something about it — the boss, the Slayer, whatever. Of course, anyone else they told could tell the specific other person, but it may be phrased this way as an opening for the doomed conversationalist to dutifully respond, "No, I haven't told anybody..."

Examples:

Anime

Naomi Misora almost averts this in Death Note, but almost doesn't cut it when your opponent is a Xanatos Speed Chessmaster who can kill you by writing your name on a scrap of paper.
Played with in Detective Conan episode 36. The villain, after being confronted by Conan alone, asks Conan if he told anyone about this, to which Conan responds that he didn't—and also volunteers the information that nobody knows where Conan is, either. She doesn't kill him and Conan later speculates she wanted to be caught by a child; it's not explained what Conan would have done if that guess was wrong.
- Used straight a couple episodes later, in a really stupid move on Conan's part (since it almost gets him killed).
During the Greenback Jane arc of Black Lagoon, Eda is holding a minor antagonist at gunpoint, apparently planning to let him go - until he suddenly blurts out, "Hey, I recognize you! You're that woman I saw dining with a senator in Washington DC!" Eda denies this, saying she's just a nun, but "I'll tell you one thing: I'm not really from Alabama. I'm from Langley, Virginia." "You're CI—" (He doesn't get to finish the sentence, much less tell anyone.)

Comic Books

In Sin City, after the escape from the Farm, Marv and Lucille are cornered by cops sent to the Farm. Marv wants to take them out, but Lucille knocks him out, telling him he's not going to get either of them killed. She then talks to the officers present about what is going on and finishes with "...so there's no reason to kill him." The head cop's response? "Yes there is, ma'am...once he's told us who else he's spoken to." Lucille is blown away moments later.
Happens in James Robinson's Starman series, during the climactic "Grand Guignol" arc.

Film

In The Bourne Supremacy when Danny Zorn (Abbott's assistant) reveals to Abbott that he realizes the crime scene is sham, and gets a dagger in the ribs for it.
In LA Confidential when Detective Jack Vincennes, while investigating a suspicious murder in co-operation with Detective Ed Exley, finds evidence of corruption within the police department. Instead of informing Exley, he makes a beeline to the chief of police's house, at night, without telling anyone. Jack is not alarmed when the chief casually asks, "What does Exley make of all this?" Half a second after giving his answer, there's a bullet in his chest.
In the movie Minority Report, Danny Witwer gets to carry the Idiot Ball for revealing his suspicions to the wrong person. Admittedly he's in a world where it's supposedly impossible to commit murder, but as the killer points out, due to recent events that's just changed.
Monsters Inc: After Mr. Waternoose hears the full story of the incident from Mike, he asks, "Does anyone else know about this?"
- That's a terrific moment, due to the business headaches Waternoose has been dealing with since the opening of the movie. The line seems innocuous enough right up until the Banishment Door shows up and Waternoose shoves Mike and Sully through.
In the remake of Planet Of The Apes two Mooks bring General Thade out into the forest and recount a story of seeing something crash down, burning the trees as it went and they point out the destruction it caused. Trying to protect the secret that humans were once in charge, Thade names this trope and when they say no he does an interesting ~~monkey~~ ape flip backwards to stab them both.
The opening of the film Red Dragon. Late at night, FBI Agent Will Graham goes to meet with Dr. Hannibal Lecter, who had been assisting him in developing a psychological profile of a serial killer. Agent Graham tells Dr. Lecter that he suddenly realized that the killer was eating parts of his victims. Lecter replies, "Have you shared this information with the Bureau?"
In The Ring, Rachel confronts Samara's father about the Cursed Video:
Mr. Morgan: Who have you told this to?
Rachel: No one.
Mr. Morgan: (brandishes an iron hook) Is that the only one?
Rachel: I... made a copy.
(Implying that he knows about the Tape and what it does, and was willing to kill Rachel either to spare her a gruesome death or stop the curse from spreading right then and there. But since she made a copy (and is thus saved, albeit unknowingly), killing her would be pointless.)
The Ten Commandments: Memnet comes to Nefertiri with the story of how Bithia drew Moses from the Nile. Nefertiri quickly asks, "Were you alone with Bithia?" before she kills Memnet.
In Witness, when Book finds out that the perpetrator of a recent cop murder is a narcotics detective, and upon further investigation realizes said detective was involved in the theft of confiscated drugs, he goes to Police Chief Schaeffer and, upon telling everything he knows, is asked whether he has told anyone else. When Book says no, Schaeffer tells him to keep it quiet. Justified by the fact that Book trusts Schaeffer and, as a police corruption case, it would make sense to keep as few officers in the loop as possible.
Double Indemnity contains a rare example in which the villain (in this case also the protagonist) is not actually evil enough to kill the one person who has evidence against his partner-in-crime: instead, once he is assured that she has told no one else, he just convinces her to keep quiet about it.
Batman Returns features Selena Kyle (Michelle Pfeiffer) going through these exact motions with her boss Max Schreck (Christopher Walken) about his plan to drain Gotham City of electricity. There's a bit of Genre Savvy there when Schreck acts aggressive towards her, grabbing her with a menacing look - and then he laughs it off, with a wink and a smile. Soon Selena is laughing, too, and then ....

Literature

In Dan Abnett's Warhammer 40000 Horus Heresy novel Legion, when Bronzi discovers a Chaos-tainted soldiers, he reports it, is asked who knows, and is warned that they need to keep it close to the chest. In this case, telling them that others know ensures that they get massacred, too.
In Frederick Forsyth's novel The Day of the Jackal, the forger providing the Jackal's false papers tries to blackmail him, fatally assuming the assassin is merely an upper class dilettante dabbling in the drug trade. The Jackal skillfully asks a number of questions (disguised as an attempt to wriggle out of the situation, or ensure that he won't have to pay another bribe to an associate) which establish that the forger hasn't given his photographs to anyone else and that no-one will come to this location and find his body for some time…
CS Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: When Edmund, under the influence of evil Turkish Delight, tells the White Witch his sister has also been to Narnia and met a faun, she quickly asks him who else knows about this, but he's in no condition, and for that matter has no reason, at this point to be suspicious.
Comically subverted in the Discworld novel Jingo; upon being informed of Vimes's departure to Klatch before Ankh-Morpork's invasion fleet has fully assembled, Rust asks the informer if anyone else knew of it (presumably, hoping to keep the news under wraps so Klatch doesn't attack before Ankh-Morpork launches their fleet), the beggar tells him that nobody else saw it... just several other beggars, who also constitute the city's information network.
In James Swallow's Warhammer 40000 Blood Angels novel Deus Encarmine, Inquistor Stele asks an astropath whether he has told anyone else about a message. When it countermands his orders, he tells the astropath that he had not come to give a message but to kill him, and murders him.
In Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep, Scriber, a somewhat flaky inventor and self-proclaimed spy, comes up with a method of locating enemy spies in Woodcarver's city. He tells it to spymaster Vendacious, not realizing he's a double-agent and that Scriber's method would expose him. Vendacious congratulates Scriber and asks who else knows about this because "we'll need to swear them to secrecy also". Needless to say, after Scriber's earnest assurance that no-one else knows, death follows rapidly.
Slightly subverted in David Weber's Safehold novel, Off Armageddon Reef. The villain is confronted about accusations of treason by his father-in-law (who, in his defense, was drunk at the time). The slight subversion comes from the fact that the antagonist had no desire to kill his father-in-law, and was trying to convince the man to support him even as he plotted killing everyone else who suspected him.
A slight variation in Anansi Boys. Spider Nancy, filling in at work for his brother Fat Charlie, pokes around and discovers some odd accounts in offshore banks. He innocently mentions it to Fat Charlie's boss and suggests that it might be rather inefficient (his life up until this point has done little to prepare him for the idea that other people might be in any way deceitful). Said boss does not ask who else knows; he merely thanks Spider, who he thinks is actually Fat Charlie, and quietly rearranges things to make it appear that it was Fat Charlie who was running the money-laundering scheme. Unfortunately, his policy of not keeping on employees for much longer than a year (the better to hide his crime) bites him in the ass; Fat Charlie has been employed there longer than anyone, but a client attempting to collect on an account knows full well that the boss has been doing this for far longer than Fat Charlie's two years. This isn't even the worst of the trouble Spider causes Fat Charlie.

Live Action TV

Averted in Battlestar Galactica. Gaeta notices there's something wrong with the presidential votes and tells Saul, THE MAN RUNNING THE SCHEME.(Not the man who thought of the idea, but still.) Fortunately, that man is not a villain, so when Gaeta suspects something's off, he freely tells Admiral Adama and the whole thing is solved.
On Charmed, Cole, in his role as a Big Bad, asks this of one of his Mooks who reported some information to Cole that was incriminating to Cole's reputation. When the mook answers no, Cole vanquishes him to keep him from telling anyone else.
The Doctor Who episode "Boom Town" starts with an unfortunate scientist telling the mayor that her upcoming nuclear power station project is terribly unsafe, almost as if it was intended to go wrong... Needless to say, he doesn't survive the conversation. Subverted in that the scientist had told someone else.
- There was a bit of a sarcastic Lampshade Hanging in "Boom Town". When the scientist says he hasn't told anyone else, the Mayor says "Wise move."
- Similarly a journalist to Mister Saxon in "The Sound of Drums", complete with identical subversion.
- There's dozens upon dozens of examples in the original series, of course, way too many to list.
In the Farscape episode "That Old Black Magic," Crais receives a direct order from Peacekeeper High Command to end his pursuit of John Crichton and return to base. His second-in-command Lt. Teeg destroys the message and assures him that no-one else knows about it. Crais repays this loyalty by breaking her neck.
In one episode of Robocop, a scientist has a Eureka Moment, and chooses to drive across town to bounce his idea off of an older scientist mentioned earlier in the episode. Said idea is that someone framed Robocop using the prototype of his signature gun. Trope applies per usual, then the older man promptly pulls said prototype out of a drawer. No, don't wonder why the scientist didn't just Google, why he wouldn't know in the first place, or why he wouldn't just call on one of the videophones frequently used in the series. In a minor subversion, he hadn't told anyone his idea, but he had mentioned where he was going, allowing Robocop to save him.
In the seventh season of 24, a minor character effectively tells the Big Bad of the first half of the show "I know you aren't who you say you are. I did not tell anyone. Please come and kill me". Also invoked in the pre-season "Redemption" movie.
Subverted in The X Files when AD Skinner wishes to make a deal with the cigarette smoking man about a tape containing classified information. CSM tells Skinner his deal has one problem (namely that CSM is holding Skinner at gun point and can be easily killed and searched) at which point Skinner reveals his trump. He has had a Navajo translator read and memorize all the information on the tape and orally tell it to twenty other tribal leaders throughout the United States who are all ordered to testify said information should any one of the people in the group die. CSM, who does not wish to have all the info revealed or to kill all the people necessary to keep them silent, agrees to the deal. Further subverted in that it is implied that the original translator had no idea why Skinner asked him to come and help make the deal.
Used in the pilot of Eureka when Beverley questions the wife of a deceased scientist whom her shady organization had been working with. The woman has heard too much and intends to start talking, but hasn't done so yet. Beverley overdoses her on some sort of medication hidden in her tea and plays it as a suicide.
Frequently subverted in MurderSheWrote, of all places. When Jessica merely has a hunch and no concrete evidence of someone's guilt, she often sets things up so that the perpetrator believes it's such a situation (but she in fact has the cops waiting). Played for drama.

Newspaper Comics

Subverted in Sovisa. Aleksei reports to his captain about a strange signal that was sent from their ship. When the captain asks if he's told the rest of the crew yet, Aleksei simply shoots him point blank in the chest and ejects his body out an airlock.

Stand Up Comedy

Daniel Tosh has this act on his CD "True Stories I Made Up":
"My biggest fear is that my neighbor will knock on my door: 'Daniel, get out here! I just won the lottery! I'm out of here for good!' '...Have you told anybody yet?' 'No, you're the first one!' ...I don't know if you can cremate someone in a gas fireplace, but I'll find out. Feet first, I reckon."

Western Animation

In the third season premiere of Transformers Animated Shockwave/Longarm Prime asked this of Blurr after he managed to "run" his way from Saturn to Cybertron. Blurr answers yes. Needless to say, he's dead in under a minute. He puts up a better fight than most who fall to this trope, though: when Shockwave starts shooting at Blurr, Blurr uses his Super Speed to avoid and escape... but he doesn't realize the corridors have been booby-trapped with Smashing Hallway Traps Of Doom until it's too late to avoid being crushed into a small cube. Still worried that TFA is going to be too kiddy?
- The real kicker? Word Of God has said that Blurr was supposed to have been animated with his spark still glowing because he was still alive. A ray of hope...until Cliffjumper follows orders and throws him down the incinerator.
In Freakazoid!, Roddy Mac Stew tells the board of his company that the Pinnacle Chip is flawed and will create the Freakazoid if a certain combination of keys is pressed, followed by delete. The Big Bad running the company asks him if anyone else knows about the flaw, before throwing Roddy out the (very high off the ground) window.

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