History Main / EscortDistraction

* ''WebVideo/DoubleLifeSMP'': Cleo gets Tango and Jimmy to leave their base on Day 2 by telling them that Scar's made something cool. They buy it and run off, allowing Scott to enter the base through a secret tunnel and steal away all of their goats.

* In ''Fanfic/JonathanJoestarTheFirstJoJo,'' Giorno decides to go stargaze with Jonathan, so that the others can repair his house as a surprise.
* Invoked in "[[https://archiveofourown.org/series/2397916 Detective Annabeth Chase of the 99th Precinct]]", when [[Literature/TheCampHalfBloodSeries Annabeth Chase]] joins [[Series/BrooklynNineNine the 99th precinct]]. After Annabeth won her first Halloween heist before her new team learned about her demi-god status, for Annabeth's second heist the team declare a new rule that magic is not allowed (apart from Annabeth herself), but it's noted that everyone is still keeping a close eye on Annabeth as they're aware of her heightened intellect. [[spoiler:Ultimately Boyle wins the heist because Annabeth was discreetly working with him; every time Boyle had to do something to get the current heist target, Annabeth walked off in the other direction, confident that people would be so focused on her that they'd basically ignore Boyle until the end]].
* ''WebVideo/SwordArtOnlineAbridged:'' Heathcliff sends the recently-married Kirito and Asuna off to an isolated floor while he's conducting negotiations with the King of Ashes for safe passage to the final boss, out of fear that Kirito will pull an AssInAmbassador and rekindle hostilities, [[WithFriendsLikeThese a sentiment Asuna agrees with]] (he tells them to think of it as a honeymoon). It's all for naught anyway, as Kirito manages to piss off the King offscreen.

'''Heathcliff:''' Hmm, how do I put this delicately... ''[smacks lips]'' Ah. I'm afraid you'll piss someone off and kill thousands.\\

* ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'': In "The Retired Colorman", Holmes takes on a retired painter's case, who wants to know where his wife has gone. A telegram comes from a tiny village in the middle of nowhere, so Holmes dispatches Watson and the painter there. However, when they arrive it turns out the message was faked, forcing them to stay the night before returning to London. At the denouement it turns out Holmes was the one who sent the telegram, so as to ensure the painter wouldn't be at home for a full day, allowing Holmes to discover [[spoiler:the painter had murdered his wife and her lover by locking them inside a gas chamber.]]

* ''Series/SchittsCreek'': David takes his mother out to dinner at the cafe so she won't know that Patrick and Stevie are getting private dance lessons for Moira's production of ''Theatre/{{Cabaret}}''. Moira starts to worry that David's boyfriend and best friend are avoiding him, and she insists on stopping by city hall only to witness Patrick and Stevie performing ''The Money Song''. She is thrilled, and she never realizes David was in on the distraction.

* Invoked in "[[https://archiveofourown.org/series/2397916 Detective Annabeth Chase of the 99th Precinct]]", when [[Franchise/{{Riordanverse}} Annabeth Chase]] joins [[Series/BrooklynNineNine the 99th precinct]]. After Annabeth won her first Halloween heist before her new team learned about her demi-god status, for Annabeth's second heist the team declare a new rule that magic is not allowed (apart from Annabeth herself), but it's noted that everyone is still keeping a close eye on Annabeth as they're aware of her heightened intellect. [[spoiler:Ultimately Boyle wins the heist because Annabeth was discreetly working with him; every time Boyle had to do something to get the current heist target, Annabeth walked off in the other direction, confident that people would be so focused on her that they'd basically ignore Boyle until the end]].

* There has been a legend during the Time of Troubles in UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia about a peasant named Ivan Susanin. According to the tale, a Polish army has invaded Susanin's village with the intent to assassinate Tsar Mikhail Romanov. Ivan Susanin offered them to lead the army to the Tsar's hiding place, but Susanin actually mislead them into a forest, with neither him nor the army to be seen again, so the Tsar could escape. The tale gained enough traction for Ivan Susanin to be regarded as a national hero, with the tale adapted into poems and operas like Mikhail Glinka's ''A Life for the Tsar''.

* In the opening of ''ComicBook/IdentityCrisis'', Sue Dibney sends Ralph off on patrol with Firehawk so that she can wrap up his anniversary present without him seeing.

* WebVideo/SwordArtOnlineAbridged: Heathcliff sends the recently-married Kirito and Asuna off to an isolated floor while he's conducting negotiations with the King of Ashes for safe passage to the final boss, out of fear that Kirito will pull an AssInAmbassador and rekindle hostilities, [[WithFriendsLikeThese a sentiment Asuna agrees with]] (he tells them to think of it as a honeymoon). It's all for naught anyway, as Kirito manages to piss off the King offscreen.

Compare and contrast GoLookAtTheDistraction, in which a character gets sent away without an escort.

* ''Franchise/starTrek'':

* ''Film/TheItalianJob2003''. Stella performs a reconnaissance on Steve's house [[DeliveryGuyInfiltration disguised as a cable technician]]. Steve does some smooth flirting with her, so she eventually agrees to meet him for a date on the day they're going to make their break-in, so that way Steve will be out of the house at the time.

[[AC: AnimeAndManga]]

* In the ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex'' episode "Jungle Cruise", Section 9 is trying to break into the [=CIA=]'s online archives regarding an American Imperial Navy op in South America during World War III known as "Project Sunset". The problem is that a CIA liaison officer was present in their net dive room, so the Major gets him out of the room by informing him that Niihama Prefectural Police were able to find evidence of a murder and they need to watch it. This gives Ishikawa enough time to break into the CIA archives and determine if Project Sunset is connected to Batou's time as a [=JGSDF=] Ranger.

[[AC:ComicBooks]]

[[AC:[[AnimatedFilms Film – Animated]]]]
* ''[[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTheMovie2017 My Little Pony: The Movie]]'': A slight variation occurs when Twilight, believing friendship won't save the day this time, tasks her friends with taking Queen Novo out and showing her "the best time ever" so she can steal her pearl without ''either'' party knowing. Ironically, the gang's friendly actions were about to convince the Queen to help them save Equestria until she caught Twilight in the act.

[[AC:[[{{Film}} Film – Live-Action]]]]
* ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' has a weird variation where the escortee is the distraction, rather than the escorter. Harvey Dent pretends to unmask himself as the Batman and is taken into custody, knowing that the Joker will try to kill him during the transport. This allows the real Batman to go after the Joker and protect Dent long enough for a disguised Lieutenant Gordon to capture the clown before the Batman can be unmasked for real.

[[AC: {{Literature}}]]
* ''SherlockHolmes'': In "The Retired Colorman", Holmes takes on a retired painter's case, who wants to know where his wife has gone. A telegram comes from a tiny village in the middle of nowhere, so Holmes dispatches Watson and the painter there. However, when they arrive it turns out the message was faked, forcing them to stay the night before returning to London. At the denouement it turns out Holmes was the one who sent the telegram, so as to ensure the painter wouldn't be at home for a full day, allowing Holmes to discover [[spoiler:the painter had murdered his wife and her lover by locking them inside a gas chamber.]]

[[AC: LiveActionTV]]
* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'': In "The Peanut Reaction", Howard has to take Leonard out so the others can plan a birthday party for him. To do this, Howard fakes an allergic reaction so they have to go to the hospital, and when he can't hold Leonard away any longer, he incurs an actual allergic reaction by eating a candy bar with peanuts.
* Lieutenant Uhura from ''[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Star Trek]]'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E4MirrorMirror Mirror, Mirror]]" gets slinky-minky with Mirror!Sulu on the bridge so that Mirror!Sulu won't notice a warning light on his com panel. Engineer Scott is disabling the ship's phasers and bypassing transporter protocols in an effort to return the away team to their correct universe. Once the tampering alert stops flashing, Uhura curtails the snugglies.
* ''Series/SchittsCreek'': David takes his mother out to dinner at the cafe so she won't know that Patrick and Stevie are getting private dance lessons for Moira's production of ''Theatre/{{Cabaret}}''. Moira starts to worry that David's boyfriend and best friend are avoiding him, and she insists on stopping by city hall only to witness Patrick and Stevie performing ''The Money Song''. She is thrilled, and she never realizes David was in on the distraction.
* Minuet from ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "11001001" is a chanteuse created by the Bynars to keep both Captain Picard and Commander Riker captivated on the holodeck while the Bynars hijack the ''Enterprise'' for their own purposes. She succeeds long enough for the starship to attain the Bynar homeworld.

[[AC: VideoGames]]
* In ''VideoGame/YandereSimulator'', making friends or having a high seduction stat allows you to ask this of other students. Asking a student to "Distract" another character causes the student to pull the other character into a conversation about romance, clearing the way for whatever illegal activities Yandere-chan might need to perform in that area.

[[AC: WebVideo]]

[[AC: WesternAnimation]]

[[AC: RealLife]]
* There has been a legend during the Time of Troubles in UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia about a peasant named Ivan Susanin. According to the tale, a Polish army has invaded Susanin's village with the intent to assassinate Tsar Mikhail Romanov. Ivan Susanin offered them to lead the army to the Tsar's hiding place, but Susanin actually mislead them into a forest, with neither him nor the army to be seen again, so the Tsar could escape. The tale gained enough traction for Ivan Susanin to be regarded as a national hero, with the tale adapted into poems and operas like Mikhail Glinka's ''A Life for the Tsar''.

* ''Series/SchittsCreek'': David takes his mother out to dinner at the cafe so she won't know that Patrick and Stevie are getting private dance lessons for Moira's production of ''Theatre/{{Cabaret}}''. Moira starts to worry that David's boyfriend and best are avoiding him, and she insists on stopping by city hall only to witness Patrick and Stevie performing ''The Money Song''. She is thrilled, and she never realizes David was in on the distraction.

This isn't about using multiple escorts to distract potential assaulters - that's DecoyConvoy. This isn't about distracting the escort ''from'' the escortee either (unless it's by means of having them escort another person). [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant This is also not about]] ''[[HoneyTrap that]]'' kind of [[HighClassCallGirl "Escort"]] Distraction either, GetYourMindOutOfTheGutter!

This isn't about using multiple escorts to distract potential assaulters - that's DecoyConvoy. [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant This is also not about]] ''[[HoneyTrap that]]'' kind of [[HighClassCallGirl "Escort"]] Distraction either, GetYourMindOutOfTheGutter!

* Minuet from ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "11001001" is a chanteuse created by the Binars to keep both Captain Picard and First Officer Riker captivated on the holodeck while the Binars hijack the Enterprise for their own purposes. She succeeds long enough for the starship to attain the Binar homeworld.

This isn't about using multiple escorts to distract potential assaulters - that's DecoyConvoy. [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant This is also not about]] ''[[HoneyTrap that]]'' kind of [[HighClassCallGirl "Escort"]] Distraction, GetYourMindOutOfTheGutter!

[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant This is not about]] ''[[HoneyTrap that]]'' kind of [[HighClassCallGirl "Escort"]] Distraction, GetYourMindOutOfTheGutter!

[[AC:[[AnimatedFilms Film -- Animated]]]]

[[AC:[[{{Film}} Film -- Live-Action]]]]

-->'''Kirito:''' Ohhh, I see, so you need me at the table, cracking jokes and breaking the ice. I gotcha.//
'''Heathcliff:''' HaHaHaNo!! ''God'' no! I need to hide you under the biggest rock I can find!//
'''Kirito:''' Excuse me?//
'''Heathcliff:''' Hmm, how do I put this delicately... ''[smacks lips]'' Ah. I'm afraid you'll piss someone off and kill thousands.//
'''Asuna:''' Yeah, I could see that.//
'''Kirito:''' ''Asuna?!''//
'''Asuna:''' I'm sorry, honey. If it means avoiding the deaths of innocent players, I think the least you can do is sit this one out.//
'''Heathcliff:''' I'm also going to need you to stay behind and guard him, Asuna.//

-->'''Kirito:''' Ohhh, I see, so you need me at the table, cracking jokes and breaking the ice. I gotcha.
-->'''Heathcliff:''' HaHaHaNo!! ''God'' no! I need to hide you under the biggest rock I can find!
-->'''Kirito:''' Excuse me?
-->'''Heathcliff:''' Hmm, how do I put this delicately... ''[smacks lips]'' Ah. I'm afraid you'll piss someone off and kill thousands.
-->'''Asuna:''' Yeah, I could see that.
-->'''Kirito:''' ''Asuna?!''
-->'''Asuna:''' I'm sorry, honey. If it means avoiding the deaths of innocent players, I think the least you can do is sit this one out.
-->'''Heathcliff:''' I'm also going to need you to stay behind and guard him, Asuna.
-->'''Asuna:''' Oh, screw that noise! I'm coming too!

MAY (possibly) LAUNCH SOON, [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/discussion.php?id=1lvvrav6jdfb3myfmy01c4zm#comment-gj5c7ea1414242d details down below]].

[[Administrivia/NeedsMoreExamples May need more examples]]. [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/crowner.php/AlternativeTitles/EscortDistractionTLPRunoff Has a crowner page for alternate titles (RUNOFF CROWNER)]].
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