History Main / ColdBloodedTorture

** In ''Literature/ShadowsInTheMoonlight'', Olivia [[DreamingOfTimesGoneBy dreams]] of a [[HalfHumanHybrid demigod]] being tortured to death. [[PhysicalGod His father]] arrives only after his son [[CallOnMe calls on him]] and is murdered. He opts for TakenForGranite, with the victims coming alive now and again.

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': When Romulans discover that Bashir cannot be mind-probed, they torture him for information.

* ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'' has a particularly horrifying example in the ''BioShockInfinite/BurialAtSea'' Episode 2 DLC when [[spoiler:Atlas]] tries to get Elizabeth to tell him where the "ace in the hole" is. His method? Sliding an ice pick just above her eye and tapping it with a hammer over and over, all the while describing how a transorbital {{lobotomy}} can wreak havoc on the pre-frontal lobe of the brain. [[NightmareFuel Through a first-person point of view!]] [[spoiler:When Elizabeth [[NervesOfSteel refuses to talk, and even invites him to go ahead and give her the kind of brain damage that will make her stop caring about what's going on around her]], he wheels in Sally, the little girl Elizabeth came back to Rapture to save, and [[WouldHurtAChild threatens to do it to her instead]].]]

* Done in chilling fashion in ''[[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/119688/1/you-obey/the-interrogation You Obey.]]'' The story is a deconstruction of second person, as well as a horrifying SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome look at how interrogation is actually done and what its effects are, from the point of the interrogator.

* ''Film/SpiderMan1'': During Spider-Man's final fight against Green Goblin, when Goblin decides to take a moment to gloat in Spidey's face about how he was gonna finish off MJ '''nice''' and '''slow''', he most likely meant he was gonna subject her to this. This is thankfully {{averted}} when this causes Spidey to gain his HeroicSecondWind and [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown absolutely destroy Goblin.]]

* In ''Literature/TheClericQuintet'', it's the main character, Cadderly, who engages in this, first deliberately crushing and mangling the hands of a mage to keep her from casting spells [[StockholmSyndrome who later has an internal monologue about how much she loves Cadderly and wants him to be happy]], and then as a means of "killing" a demon to send it back to the Abyss (instead of simply making a quick, clean kill). [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality And Cadderly's the good guy]].

** In the 2nd film, the heroine Athalia (again played by Lana Clarkson) is stripped topless and tortured on the rack. The villain, gloating after having captured her, makes it clear he is more interested in torturing her for punishment rather than information (as revenge for an earlier humiliation at Athelia’s hands). A secondary villain, the heroine's bratty niece, makes an appearance to observe the torture and can barely contain her excitement as she watches Athalia writhe and scream in agony. She cheerfully announces that she will enjoy likewise torturing her subjects when she is queen. Sometime later, Athalia somehow manages to escape, but in a surprising twist is recaptured. When we next see her, she is again stretched out on the torture rack, this time completely naked. While in the earlier torture scene she appeared somewhat defiant, here she appears defeated and exhausted, implying that this torture session has been going on for quite a long time. As Athalia moans in pain, the villain gleefully tells her that she is being slowly tortured to death, and she will die knowing that the rebels she leads will soon be destroyed by his hand. Athalia gasps that someday someone will come and avenge her.

* ''Literature/{{Neverwhere}}'' has [[spoiler:the Marquis de Carabas]] tortured to death by [[ProfessionalKiller Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar]], who make sure to "wring every last drop of life out of him" with various small, sharp medical implements (and a poker), pretty much ForTheEvulz. [[spoiler:[[ResurrectionGambit He gets better]].]]

* In Creator/AndreNorton's ''Literature/{{Catseye|1961}}'', [[spoiler:Dragur]] observes that only the unimaginative resort to this, since a man will say anything to stop the pain.

* In ''Listerature/TheClericQuintet'', it's the main character, Cadderly, who engages in this, first deliberately crushing and mangling the hands of a mage to keep her from casting spells [[StockholmSyndrome who later has an internal monologue about how much she loves Cadderly and wants him to be happy]], and then as a means of "killing" a demon to send it back to the Abyss (instead of simply making a quick, clean kill). [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality And Cadderly's the good guy]].

** Harry, upon a CIA agent discovering his knowledge of future events, gets this in his fourth life and in a later life is given the full treatment by a TortureTechnician hired by [[spoiler:Vincent]]. The second torturer subjects Harry to a more nuanced method, involving car battery, sleep deprivation, extreme heat, nail-pulling and a "creative" use of surround sounds, featuring violent noises, yelling in different languages, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking techno beats]]. Harry even gets to compare the CIA's crew of five to the one professional. The crew breaks him first.
** Victor Hoeness, a kalachakra who, by speaking to others who would see the technologies of his future, brought advanced tech to the court of a 17th century French king. This began a cataclysm which changed history enough for many kalachakras to simply cease existing. Once the remaining Cronus Club (a group of surviving kalachakra) got their hands on Hoeness in his next life, they began torturing him as punishment for his action and in order to discover his point of origin (date and place of birth). When he finally broke and told them, they cut off his tongue, ears, hands and feet, gouged out his eyes and bound him in a metal straitjacket. When he died, the Club simply abducted him and repeated the proces until he died a second time. However, after two lives and about two decades of torture, baby Victor wasn't able to use his hands, eyes, tongue or ears. The Club, upon discovering that they had essentially broken Victor, decided to kill him and abort his mother in the next life, thus removing Victor from existence.
* ''[[Literature/{{Dragaera}} The Baron of Magister Valley]]'': Our narrator Paarfi tells us that he's sparing the reader's sensibilities by not describing the torture that our hero endures. He goes on to note that, in these more englightened times, such barbarity is no longer inflicted on anyone except the peasant Teckla, who do not feel pain as gentlemen do.

** There is a vivid description of Hawk's eye [[spoiler:being burned out with a hot poker]].

** Harry undergoes a milder version himself in ''Literature/DeadBeat'' at the hands of [[spoiler:Cassius, who wanted revenge for Harry's JackBauerInterrogationTechnique last time they met]]. It's mentioned three books later that he still has scars from having his stomach beaten with a chain for who knows how long.

** This trope barely covers what Mab did to the traitorous Winter Knight, from ''Literature/SummerKnight'' until [[spoiler:Harry kills him in ''Literature/{{Changes}}'', which is roughly 6 years later]].
** Harry himself does this in ''Literature/WhiteNight'' to one of a group of ghouls who killed and partially ate two teenage Wardens-in-training. He blasts a hole in the desert sand, dumps the ghoul in, melts the sand around it, then leaves a trail of orange juice from the ghoul to a nest of fire ants. He does MercyKill the ghoul eventually at the behest of Ramirez, but still, DAMN.

** The dendric striker is used once on a {{mook}} who had failed his mission and once on a prisoner who the Shuhr had no more need for and wanted to make a point with.
-->''"It causes all the central motor neurons to fire. Every muscle contracts, every synapse sparks as if it were insane. It will tear your muscles from the bones, and eventually stop your breathing . . . but it leaves sensory nerves intact to the very end."''
** The worst of the Netaian execution methods fall under this, too. There's the D-wave rifles, which disrupt and then destroy nerve cells, crazing the victim with pain. Firebird's sister intended to execute her using it under vigilante "justice." And then there's lustration, which is when super-heated plates are set at the end of the prisoner's extremities and very slowly moved inwards, vaporizing flesh and bone but leaving the victim alive until the plates reach the torso. Firebird was sentenced to die via this method.
* ''Literature/TheFirstLaw'' trilogy features DeadpanSnarker Sand dan Glokta, an Inquisitor who does his job frequently and well. Since he was tortured horrifically for two years before taking up his current job and lives in constant pain, he really doesn't care about the agony he inflicts on others. He chops off, smashes and burns sensitive body parts several times in each book. Generally, this is done for information, but at other times he gets innocents to confess to crimes they never committed, after being ordered explicitly to do so. He also ends up torturing [[spoiler:Arch Lector Sult]] for the amusement of both himself and [[spoiler:Salem Rews]], though the man certainly deserved it.
* In Creator/GeneStrattonPorter's ''Literature/{{Freckles}}'', Black Jack agreed that Wessner can kill Freckles however he pleases, but object to watching.
-->''We agreed to take out these trees and leave him for you to dispose of whatever way you please, provided you shut him up eternally on this deal. But I'll not see a tied man tormented by a fellow that he can lick up the ground with, loose, and that's flat. It raises my gorge to think what he'll get when we're gone, but you needn't think you're free to begin before. ''

* The death penalty in ''Literature/FrostflowerAndThorn'' is a form of this, and [[spoiler:Frostflower herself experiences liberal amounts of torture when questioned about the identity of her "stolen" child's parents. While the priestly family stand singing hymns around the altar she is being tortured on.]]
* In Creator/AaronAllston's ''Literature/GalateaIn2D'', after the villain sends [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman magically animated paintings]] after him to kill him, the hero tracks them down and tortures one in the front of the other to get information. Produces [[WhatHaveIDone ghastly guilt]]; after defeating the villain, the hero tells them they can leave safely if they don't bother him again.

** Harry suffers this at the end of Book 4 when Voldemort ties him a gravestone and tortures him repeatedly while the Death Eaters watch.
*** The Cruciatus Curse, a supreme form of torture such that no character has ever been shown withstanding it, seems to be definitively cold-blooded; it works best when the caster is in control, or who delights in the pain caused, whereas casting it out of spite or righteous anger is far less effective. This is demonstrated in Book 5 when Harry himself tries to use the curse against Bellatrix in revenge for killing Sirius. Although, that said, it works just fine for Harry in Book 7 on Carrow because he "really means it".
** In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'', [[SmugSnake Dolores]] Umbridge magically forces Harry to carve the words "I must not tell lies" onto the back of his hand through writing the line with a magic quill that cuts the line into his skin as he writes, pulling his blood out through the wounds and depositing it on the paper. By the end of the book, he's had to write "I must not tell lies" so many times that his hand is permanently scarred with it.
** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'' has Bellatrix torturing Hermione with a combination of the Cruciatus Curse and a knife for information. She seems rather fond of this--as Dumbledore says, she "plays with her food before she eats it". The film managed to make this even worse by having Bellatrix carve the word "mudblood" into Hermione's arm with her knife.
* Derry is tortured by Wencit and Rhydon in ''High Literature/{{Deryni}}''. In ''The King's Justice'', after [[spoiler:Duncan]] is captured at Dorna, Loris and Gorony keep him drugged with ''[[FantasticDrug merasha]]'' (the side effects are themselves very unpleasant) and torture him for hours, including [[ATasteOfTheLash multiple whippings]] and pulling out all his nails.

* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' villain Roman Sionis -- better known as Black Mask. It seems to be his hobby. Two infamous incidents involve torturing Stephanie Brown to the point that Leslie Thompkins could feasibly fake her death from the injuries, and torturing Maggie Kyle (Catwoman's sister) and her husband, which included ''forcing Maggie to eat her husband's eyeballs''. Maggie's husband was killed and she was rendered catatonic from the ordeal.

* ''ComicBook/Calico2020'': [[TheProtagonist Calico]] does this to a rich family as punishment for murdering a lioness and orphaning her cubs while hunting in the Serengheti. After [[OffWithHisHead decapitating the teenage daughter and presenting her severed head to the parents,]] [[AnArmAndALeg he chops off the husband's arms]] and ties him to a chair backwards. He also ties the wife to another chair and [[ForcedToWatch makes her watch as he tortures the husband]] by (presumably) hammering a pipe into his hands. The torture ends up killing them both.

** The title character started out using this for interrogation. He currently uses realistic [[TruthSerum Truth Serums]], but if you're either immune or allergic to it he'll first [[JackBauerInterrogationTechnique threaten you with torture]]... And then do it if you're stupid enough to not talk: [[PragmaticVillainy torture may be unreliable, but if he has no choice and you're healthy enough to live and confess]]...
** Attempted on Ginko by some criminals, and failed miserably. After all, if the guy's HeroicWillpower makes him immune to TruthSerum, mere pain has no chance to break him.
** Attempted once on Diabolik himself. Diabolik resisted for a while, then 'broke'... And lured most of his captors in a deadly trap before returning to their base and kill them all. That's what happens when you deal with someone nicknamed [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast King of Terror]]...
* ''ComicBook/FrankMillersRoboCop'' sees Margaret Love, the proto-version of [[Film/RoboCop2 Juliette Faxx]] frequently engage in this, twice to Murphy (once after he's just repaired after he shows no remorse for siding with people OCP screwed over, and again after forcing Murphy to say goodbye to his ex-wife and mocking him) and a third time to a regular cop (having him be awake during painful surgery under the pretext of "reality therapy").
* An unspeakably horrible example occurs in ''ComicBook/AHistoryOfViolence''. Tom, the main character, and a friend robbed and murdered a group of New York gangsters when they were teenagers, partly as payback for the murder of the friend's brother. The friend is [[LooseLips found out later]], though, and we see him in a room with a [[ProfessionalKiller hitman]] holding a hatchet. Tom has to make a run for it and change his name. Twenty years later, they catch up to him...and he learns that his friend ''is still alive''. When you see [[https://comiconlinefree.com/a-history-of-violence/issue-Full/281 what he looks like]] (link possibly NSFW), [[BodyHorror you'll wish]] you hadn't; among other things his body, or what's left of it, is covered in scars, [[AnArmAndALeg he has no arms or legs]], [[EyeScream he's missing an eye]], and from the look of his mouth and how he talks, [[TheToothHurts he's either missing teeth or probably had some drilled into, maybe both]]. In a subversion of standard hero practice, when the friend begs for a MercyKill from Tom, he complies.

* Even Ray Palmer (Yes, ComicBook/TheAtom) gets in on the action in ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueCryForJustice''. See the quote in that page for the details of how he tortured one villain.
* In ''ComicBook/KickAss'', Kick-Ass is tortured through testicular electrocution, with his balls hooked up to a car battery, mainly for [[JerkAss Red Mist's]] pleasure, because he knew Kick-Ass knew nothing.
* After monster hunter Robert Hellsgaard has taken out ComicBook/{{Morbius}} [[OurVampiresAreDifferent the Living Vampire]] with a burst of pure sunlight, he tells his henchmen, "Bring the good doctor. I will like to torture him."

* ''ComicBook/BatmanAndTheOutsiders'': Chang Tzu tortured Captain Boomerang to force him to move at superspeed and let him get a reading (leaving him unable to stand) and started to vivisect the Black Queen (without, needless to say, anesthesia.)
* The Reaver Cleaver from ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}'' liked to chop off bits of his victims and send them to loved ones before killing them. His last victim survived, albeit without a face. Or a scrotum.
** Oh, he still had a face, it was just [[{{squick}} upside down]].
* Comicbook/ThePunisher commonly uses this to extract information he needs, though he recognizes that it doesn't always take. He also tries not to drag it out, since he prefers his revenge cold.

** In the ComicBook/UltimateMarvel universe, he's very fond of it. Nick managed to get him to join the [[ComicBook/TheUltimates Ultimate Avengers]] a second time by offering to grant him free reign to torture and kill prisoners in the prison he was contained in along with a shopping list of torture tools.
* The ComicBook/RedSkull from the Marvel Universe loves torturing people. His second-in-command Crossbones probably enjoys torturing people even more.

* It seems that to be a practitioner of TheDarkSide in the Franchise/StarWars universe, you have to love torture. (Indeed, according to at least one [=RPG=] sourcebook, to become a Sith Lord you had to have ''endured'' unimaginable pains.) Palpatine, Count Dooku, Aleema and Satal Keto, and Asajj Ventress are some of the most sadistic examples. Sometimes it was done for information, sometimes for punishment, and often for pleasure.

* The Crime Doctor in Franchise/TheDCU ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'' miniseries ''ComicBook/VillainsUnited''.

* ComicBook/{{X 23}}:

* ''ComicBook/BackToBrooklyn'':

* ''Literature/{{Neverwhere}}'' has [[spoiler:the Marquis de Carabas]] tortured to death by [[ProfessionalKiller Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar]], who make sure to "wring every last drop of life out of him" with various small, sharp medical implements (and a poker), pretty much ForTheEvulzs. [[spoiler:[[ResurrectionGambit He gets better]].]]

* ''Literature/{{Neverwhere}}'' has the Marquis de Carabas tortured to death by [[ProfessionalKiller Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar]], who make sure to "wring every last drop of life out of him" with various small, sharp medical implements (and a poker), pretty much ForTheEvulzs. [[spoiler:[[ResurrectionGambit He gets better]].]]

* ''Series/BabylonFive''
** In "Ceremonies of Light and Dark", the Special-Operations-turned-Nightwatch guy recollects taking seven days to kill a Minbari. He cut his victim to pieces, starting from the digits and extremities and tying off the body part to be removed next, so as to avoid his victim dying from blood loss. He ends his story with "It was beautiful, you should have seen it." And ''then'' he starts singing ''Dem Bones'' in CreepyMonotone...
** [[TheCaligula Emperor Cartagia]] of the Centauri tortured G'Kar to the brink of death several times, mostly as an amusing diversion.
** The episode where Sheridan is imprisoned. Made even more chilling by the fact that it uses a methodology ''based on real torture techniques''.

** Played straight when Bowser confronts Princess Peach and Toad and attempts to "propose" to Peach. When Peach understandably rejects his proposal, Bowser orders Kamek to torture Toad by using an AgonyBeam on him which slowly crushes the poor mushroom fellow in order to force Peach to accept his proposal. Unlike the Luigi interrogation scene above which was still somewhat comedic, this scene is taken ''dead'' seriously.

* In the dark ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' fanfic ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/27853170/chapters/68194306 Pulse and Void]]'', Yamada Hizashi aka Present Mic is captured by a villain with an energy siphoning quirk. The more Hizashi screams, the more power the villain gets, and it’s not hard to guess how he’s made to scream so much. It takes a week for Aizawa and some of class 1-A to defeat the villain and get to him and by the time they do, it isn’t pretty. He’s been beaten, covered in deliberate slices, welts and bite and scratch marks, his back is flayed raw and covered with salt, he’s repeatedly raped, and to stop his SuperScream when it isn’t wanted, he was gagged with a muzzle and fitted with a ShockCollar that are both welded on and leave even more injuries on nis face and neck. (Warning the fic has art that’s not pretty either in places)

* ''{{Series/Firefly}}'' writers seem to love it:

* In the dark ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' fanfic ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/27853170/chapters/68194306 Pulse and Void]]'', Yamada Hizashi aka Present Mic is captured by a villain with an energy siphoning quirk. The more Hizashi screams, the more power the villain gets, and it’s not hard to guess how he’s made to scream so much. It takes a week for Aizawa and some of class 1-A to defeat the villain and get to him and by the time they do, it isn’t pretty. He’s been beaten, covered in deliberate slices, welts and bite and scratch marks, his back is flayed raw and covered with salt, he’s repeatedly raped, and because of his SuperScream, he was gagged with a muzzle and fitted with a ShockCollar that are both welded on and leave even more injuries on nis face and neck. (Warning the fic has art that’s not pretty either in places)

* ''{{Series/Firefly}}'' writers seem to love it:

* In the dark ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' fanfic ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/27853170/chapters/68194306 Pulse and Void]]'', Yamada Hizashi aka Present Mic is captured by a villain with an energy siphoning quirk. The more Hizashi screams, the more power the villain gets, and it’s not hard to guess how he’s made to scream so much. It takes a week for Aizawa and some of class 1-A to defeat the villain and get to him and by the time they do, it isn’t pretty. He’s been beaten, covered in deliberate slices, welts and bite and scratch marks, his back is flayed raw and covered with salt, he’s repeatedly raped, and because of his SuperScream, he was gagged with a muzzle and fitted with a ShockCollar that are both welded on and leave even more injuries on nis face and neck.

* In the dark ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' fanfic ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/27853170/chapters/68194306 Pulse and Void]]'', Yamada Hizashi aka Present Mic is captured by a villain with an energy siphoning quirk. The more Hizashi screams, the more power the villain gets, and it’s not hard to guess how he’s made to scream so much. It takes a week for Aizawa and some of class 1-A to defeat the villain and get to him and by the time they do, it isn’t pretty. He’s covered in cuts, welts and bruises and one eye is swollen shut. He was kept muzzled to stop him using his voice quirk and his mouth and throat are dotted with cuts and abrasions from the thing being shoved in. Plus, it’s ''welded'' on as is the shock collar that left his neck and upper chest severely burned,charred,and blistered. There are hickeys and bites that, along with his nakedness, tip off Aizawa that he was raped. Numerous cuts on his face and chest appear deliberate and symmetrical. There’s ample evidence of beatings with kicks or a blunt object and numerous lash or claw marks on his belly. And his back is a raw, gouge-covered piece of raw meat from severe flogging and it’s covered with a congealed white mess the doctor realizes is salt. He’s also emaciated between being starved the whole time and the siphon quirk pushing his metabolism into fat-consuming overdrive. (Warning that the fic has artwork that isn’t always easy viewing.)