You Said You Would Let Them Go / Live-Action Films

"You Said You Would Let Them Go!" moments in Live-Action Films.

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• In the first Austin Powers movie, Dr. Evil threatens to the UN that he will use a stolen warhead to make every volcano on the planet erupt unless they pay him a ransom. Later on, he reveals to Austin that he's gonna go through with the plan, money or no money.
  Austin Powers: Dr. Evil, do you really expect them to pay?
  Dr. Evil: No, Mr. Powers. I expect them to die! Even after they pay me the money, I'm still gonna melt every city on the planet with liquid hot magma!
• In Air Force One, Ivan Korshunov doesn't release the First Lady and First Daughter as promised. He replies with the Exact Words, "Forgive me, I Lied".
• In Batman films:
  • From Batman Returns, after The Penguin has just sent the Ice Princess off the edge of a building to her death by means of a swarm of bats and framed Batman for it:
    Catwoman: You said you were just going to scare the Ice Princess.
    Penguin: She looked pretty scared to me!

  It wasn't so much that Catwoman feared for the girl's safety; she just wasn't willing to commit murder, at least not when the victim hadn't done anything to deserve it. She even seems to be unrepentant for her role in the murder at first, taunting Batman for his failure at a rescue attempt ("Seems like every woman you try to save ends up dead. Or deeply resentful. Maybe you should retire."). It is only when she looks down at the chaos that has erupted in Gotham Plaza that she experiences any remorse - and then, the Penguin makes it worse by congratulating her on her help.

  • Batman Forever:
    Security Guard: But you said you'd let me live!
    Two-Face: Too true! And so you shall: nothing like live bait to trap a bat!

  Appropriately for Two-Face, he had told a half-truth. When he said that he'd let the guard live, he really did mean he'd let him live - for the moment. Harvey Dent always lives in the moment, with his Two-Headed Coin determining every course of action he takes. He'd always planned to kill the guard one way or another; the coin toss was simply to establish whether the guard would die right then and there or would burned to death by acid in the bank vault with Batman.

  • From The Dark Knight When Harvey Dent/Two-Face encounters Maroni, and learns that Ramirez second Mole in the police department (he already killed the first), he decides to flip his coin. When Maroni protests, Dent points out that he only said that telling him wouldn't hurt his chances of him surviving, he never said that it meant he actually could go free yet. He then decides that Maroni is spared, but then kills the driver when the coin declares him not nearly as lucky.
• Inverted in the John Wayne movie Big Jake. The title character's grandson is kidnapped by ruthless desperadoes; Big Jake and two of his sons travel down to Mexico in order to pay the ransom. What the kidnappers don't know, however, is that Jake McCandles has no intention of paying a ransom to them, and the strongbox that supposedly holds one million dollars actually holds nothing but newspaper clippings. When they get to the exchange, Jake uses the fake ransom to buy himself enough time to get his grandson to safety and slaughter all of the kidnappers.
• In Commando, John Matrix (Arnold Schwarzenegger) tells the Head Mook Sully, that he'd kill Sully last. Later, when Matrix dangles him over a cliff, Sully reminds him of the promise. Matrix drops him, saying, "I lied." Later, when asked what he did with Sully, Matrix simply says, "I let him go."
• Johann Schmidt (aka "Red Skull") also did this trope in the beginning of Captain America: The First Avenger to locate the Tesseract.
• In the film Darkman.
  Rick: Oh, god! Don't! I've told you everything!
  Darkman: I know, Rick. I know you did. But let's pretend you didn't!
• The exact "You said you'd let them go!" "I lied" exchange appears between Ridley and Damodar in the first Dungeons & Dragons (2000) movie. Considering what kind of movie this is, Ridley is the only person surprised.
• In Hangmen Also Die!, General Votruba has the following to say when his name is called for execution:
  "My name shouldn't be counted in. That was the arrangement when I spoke for you on the radio."
• From Hellboy II: The Golden Army: Abe gives up the crown piece allowing elf prince Nuada to activate the genocidal Golden Army to free princess Nuala. Nuada's first command:
  Abe: You'd do the exact same for Liz.
  Nuada: Kill them!
  Abe: But... he lied to us!
  Hellboy: Abe old buddy... if we ever get out of this, you and me gotta talk.
  • Despite Abe's reaction, the Big Bad never actually said that. Add to that the Synchronization the Big Bad had with the hostage, and we must conclude that Abe was hugging the Idiot Ball tightly on this one.
• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug: The elf-king Thranduil offers a captive Ork Mook his freedom in exchange for information, then decapitates him as soon as he gives it. Thranduil's own son gives him a What the Hell, Hero? for the deception.
  Legolas: Why would you do that? You promised to set him free!
  Thranduil: And I did: I freed his wretched head from his miserable shoulders.
• In Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Mr Chairman teleports the gang back to ACME Headquarters and shows D.J on the live screen his father tied to the tracks of "The ACME Train of Death" and orders D.J to hand over the Blue Monkey if he wants to keep his family "together". D.J grudgingly obliges, but when he asks about his father the Chairman's simple response is "He's waiting for a train".
• The Mask: "You said you wouldn't hurt him!" followed by the obligatory smug "I Lied".
  • In a previous draft of the screenplay, the collaborator is then thrown into an active printing press for her troubles. Though that scene didn't make it into the final release, we never see or hear from Peggy again.
  • In context it's obvious that they will hurt him, and that she's cooperating merely for personal gain, making the line in question much more macabre.
  • She may have thought they were just going to steal the mask from him, which wouldn't necessarily have hurt him.
    • Ultimately, though, they don't hurt him. Well, they do frame him and he gets sent to jail, but he's unharmed.
• Played straight in the live-action Masters of the Universe adaptation starring Dolph Lundgren. Granted, He-Man's friends followed them back to the Castle, but had Skeletor made some pretext of "Hey, I'm trying to follow my part of the bargain", it seems He-Man would have let himself be tortured to death and let Skeletor become a god.
• In Midnight Run, Robert De Niro's character has taken custody of Charles Grodin and is taking him back to jail. They run into various mishaps along the way, and at one point, De Niro is knocked into a raging river. Grodin can rescue him, but only does so after De Niro promises to let him go. As soon as he's on dry land, he slaps handcuffs on Grodin, saying he'll let him go once he's back in jail.
• Miller's Crossing. The Dane captures one of Leo's minions and threatens to kill him if he doesn't reveal where his boss is hiding.
  Minion: How do I know you won't kill me anyway?
  The Dane: Because if you told me, and I killed you, and you were lying, then I wouldn't get to kill you then. Where's Leo?
  (after minion talks)
  The Dane: You know something? I believe you. (shoots him)
• Subverted in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. The villain holds the family of a Russian scientist hostage until he authenticates the nuclear launch codes he's buying on the black market. Once the deal is done, the scientist pleads for his family to be let go. The villain makes a phone call and orders them released, then immediately shoots dead the scientist so he can't tell the authorities about what happened.
• In The Outlaw Josey Wales:
  Fletcher: Damn you, Senator. You promised me those men would be decently treated!
  Senator Lane: They were decently treated. They were decently fed and then they were decently shot. Those men are common outlaws, nothing more.
• The Patriot (2000) has a particularly cruel rendition of the "You said you'd let me go" variation, when a man gives up the location of the militia to Colonel Tavington, right before he has the man and everyone else in his town locked in a church and burned to death.
  Mr. Hardwick: But... You said we'd be forgiven!
  Col. Tavington: And indeed you may! ...But that's between you and God.
• Subverted in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Will makes a deal with Barbossa in that Elizabeth goes free. When Will calls him out for dumping her on a desert island, rather than state that he lied, Barbossa points out a loophole: Will never said when or where Elizabeth would go free.
  • Re-imagined in Kingdom Hearts II. Will orders Barbossa to, among other things, "leave". Barbossa and his men comply and leave the ship, but "The Heartless stay."
• Quantum of Solace has a Type 3: James Bond promises to let the Big Bad go in exchange for information about the Quantum crime syndicate; to his dismay, that means getting "let go" in the middle of the Bolivian desert with only a can of engine oil to drink. Karmic, given his plan to monopolize the country's water supply, but exceptionally cruel of a protagonist all the same.
• RoboCop 2. Cain orders that a corrupt cop who betrayed him be killed by torture. His henchwoman Angie objects.
  Angie: You said you were just gonna scare him!
  Cain: Doesn't he look scared?
• Subverted in Romancing the Stone. Ira promises to let Joan's sister go if she and Jack bring him the McGuffin. When he received it:
  Ira: (menacingly) You and your sister… (suddenly cheerful) are free to go!
• Runaway: The villain Luther kidnaps Ramsey's son Bobbie and sets up the exchange on top of an unfinished high rise to play to Ramsay's acrophobia. He releases Bobbie, only to inform Ramsay that his robots are waiting to kill the first person who exits the building.
• From Sneakers:
  Bishop: "You gave your word."
  Cosmo: "I cannot kill my friend. [to henchman] Kill my friend."
• In the film Spacehunter, the cyborg villain promises the plucky young heroine (played by a 14-year old Molly Ringwald) that she would go free if she could escape from his death maze. She does so, but he reneges on the deal. The two characters exchange the trope word for word, complete with Michael Ironside's gleeful "I Lied."
• Inverted in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock:
  Maltz: Wait. You said you would kill me.
  Kirk: I Lied.
• Played with in Star Trek Into Darkness. Harrison keeps his word to release Kirk and the other prisoners in exchange for his men, but once they've beamed back announces that he's going to destroy Enterprise, saying mockingly, "No ship should go down without her captain."
• Both versions crop up in Star Wars:
  • In A New Hope, Leia gives the (false) location of the Rebel base to Grand Moff Tarkin; Alderaan is not spared. The entire conversation, however, is filled with hidden meanings; Tarkin merely asked Leia if she had a preferred target, he never said he would destroy it instead of Alderaan. He's then hypocritically outraged when it turns out she lied.
    Tarkin: You see, Lord Vader, she can be reasonable.
    (to his men)
    Tarkin: Continue with the operation. You may fire when ready.
    Leia: WHAT?!
    Tarkin: You're far too trusting. Dantooine is too remote to make an effective demonstration, but don't worry — we'll deal with your rebel friends soon enough!
  • In The Empire Strikes Back, Lando is a textbook example of the former type, betraying his friends to the Empire but getting screwed over when Vader "alters the deal." Lando - who only agreed to betray them because doing otherwise would mean his city's destruction - rescues the heroes and joins their cause once it becomes clear that Vader has no intention of sticking to the original deal. This later came back to bite the Imperials in the next movie, because guess who is the pilot of the ship that destroyed the second Death Star?
• Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines has the titular cyborg becoming able to lie:
  Terminator: Where's John Connor?
  Kate Brewster: If I tell you, do you promise to let me go?
  Terminator: Yes.
  Kate Brewster: He's, he's in the kennel. In a cage.
  [the Terminator goes to close the trunk]
  Kate Brewster: Hey. You said you'd let me go.
  Terminator: I Lied.
  • It's also a homage to a line he had in Commando, but in that one, he actually did let the guy go...
• In These Are the Damned the Big Bad does let the protagonists go, but explains to his mistress afterwards that it makes no difference as they have absorbed a fatal dose of radiation.
• In Wall Street, Bud Fox says to Gordon Gekko: "You told me you were going to turn Bluestar around, not upside down. You used me." Or, to put it another way (since the sale of Bluestar will cause Bud's father's union workers to be fired), "You said you would let them stay!"

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