History Main / FallGuy

** Kaito serves as this in Chapter 5. [[spoiler:Miu's original plan was to frame Kaito for killing Kokichi, so she programmed the cell phone in the Virtual World to log out Kaito if ''anyone'' said his name (other people could only log out themselves), to make it seem as though he'd logged out to murder the victim in the real world. While Miu ultimately ends up as the murder victim, Kaito is the initial suspect for her murder]].

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%% * In ''Manga/OnePiece'', this is how Captain Kuro faked his death. %% Zero context example.

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** Toko is implicated in the fourth murder case by a message left in the victim's blood. [[spoiler:Hiro left it after he had attacked Sakura, but his attack -- and Toko/Genocider Syo's attack immediately after -- was non-fatal. Sakura committed suicide.]]
** The fifth murder case happens specifically to do this to [[spoiler:Kyoko, [[HeKnowsTooMuch who was coming too close to solving the mystery]]. The Mastermind takes a corpse they had murdered early in the game (Mukuro, who had been disguised as Junko), presents it as if it had just been murdered, uses a knife only Makoto had access to, and then destroys the face with a bomb to mask the body's identity. The entire thing is so convoluted that the fifth trial ends with either Kyoko or Makoto taking the blame, and it's not until the sixth trial that the whole thing is laid to rest]].

* In ''Series/{{Gotham}}'', petty criminal Mario Pepper was framed for the murder of Bruce Wayne's parents since the case was too high-profile to be left unsolved. With Pepper taking the fall, the police look like heroes, the mayor is seen as having a handle on the rising crime, and the mob doesn't have to deal with the extra police attention. It helps that Pepper is someone that no one, perhaps not even his own family, would miss.

* PlayedForLaughs in ''VideoGame/AlphaProtocol'' should you stay on good terms with [[CrazyAwesome Steven Heck]] (''[[BerserkButton never'' Steve) in Taipei - [[spoiler: he'll tip off authorities that [[ButtMonkey his assistant, Wen]], was the one to kill the Prime Minister]].

Sometimes the Fall Guy is an accomplice who [[TakingTheHeat takes on this scapegoat role willingly]]. Other times, when you have drawn up plans with the brilliant clockwork evil of TheChessmaster, you might choose a Fall Guy -- whether an accomplice of yours, or someone completely innocent -- by tricking this UnwittingPawn into taking the blame.

* ''Film/{{Nixon}}''. John Wesley Dean is GenreSavvy enough that he's being set up as one, which pushes him to whistleblowing. Based on RealLife.

* ''VisualNovel/{{DanganRonpa}}'':

** The fifth murder case happens specifically to do this to [[spoiler:Kyoko, [[SheKnowsTooMuch who was coming too close to solving the mystery]]. The Mastermind takes a corpse they had murdered early in the game (Mukuro, who had been disguised as Junko), presents it as if it had just been murdered, uses a knife only Makoto had access to, and then destroys the face with a bomb to mask the body's identity. The entire thing is so convoluted that the fifth trial ends with either Kyoko or Makoto taking the blame, and it's not until the sixth trial that the whole thing is laid to rest]].

* ''WesternAnimation/IvanhoeTheKingsKnight'': Prince John uses Front-de-Boeuf as one, to the latter's surprise, to prevent others from knowing he arranged his own kidnapping in "The four Black Knights."

--> '''Flavor text from the ''Fall Guy'' card in''' ''TabletopGame/{{Netrunner}}''

Sometimes the Fall Guy is an accomplice who [[TakingTheHeat takes on this scapegoat role willingly]]. Other times, when you have drawn up plans with the brilliant clockwork evil of TheChessmaster, you might choose a Fall Guy--whether an accomplice of yours, or someone completely innocent--by tricking this UnwittingPawn into taking the blame.

Maybe you choose the guy no one's going to believe. Better yet, you choose a well-meaning sap whose fears and goals you've been able to manipulate via FlawExploitation. Alternately, you could pull off a DeceasedFallGuyGambit, since a dead man can't defend himself.

* In ''ComicBook/SinCity'' Marv, Dwight and Hartigan take the fall for Goldie's murder, Damien Lord's murder, and Roark Junior's attempted molestation of Nancy respectively. Marv was an ideal fall guy because he was a well-known violent thug. Dwight actually ''did'' commit the murder but was manipulated into doing it by Ava Lord, and Hartigan accepted his fate in order to protect the victim. [[spoiler:Marv ended up successfully framed, tried and executed while Dwight faked his own death to sidestep the issue entirely. Hartigan killed himself as a final sacrifice]].
* In ''ComicBook/{{Persepolis}}'', in order to avoid being arrested by the [[CulturePolice Guardians of the Revolution]] for wearing makeup in public, Marjane focuses their attention elsewhere by accusing a man who happened to be nearby of saying "something indecent" to her. ([[WhatTheHellHero Later, Marjane's grandmother calls her out on this]].)

* ''ComicBook/TheTransformersIDW'': Daniel Klonowski from the Bumblebee miniseries. The Autobots are controlled by a rogue group of Skywatch agents under Colonel Gordon Horiuchi. After the whole operation fails due to Autobot ingenuity and Decepticon interference, Klonowski steps in to save Bumblebee and one of their scientists. Afterwards he mentions that he took the fall for all the staff who went rogue and was dishonorably discharged. He's perfectly happy with this, though, as Horiuchi and the other unidentified commanders were quite grateful and he was suitably compensated.

* ''Film/GangRelated'': At the center of the film is a fall guy scheme that goes horribly wrong. Two [[DirtyCop crooked LA cops]] murder an undercover DEA officer without knowing he was one, and to avoid their crimes being exposed pin it on a random homeless guy they picked up off the streets and get a prostitute who was working with them to identify him in a line-up. At first the subterfuge seems to work, as the man thinks he really did commit the murder and wants to take responsibility for his actions. However, he is later revealed to be the missing member of a very wealthy family who used to personally provide medical aid in Africa as part of Doctors Without Borders, but had fallen into alcoholism and depresssion after the untimely death of his wife and daughter. As Tupac's character put it, they picked a saint to pin a murder on. [[spoiler:It all ends up blowing up in their face, with the prostitute cracking on the witness stand and identifying her two accomplices after she's charged with perjury, the fall guy being acquitted when the DA drops the charges, the instigators turning on each other, and both of the two corrupt cops ending up dead for different reasons of their own doing.]]

* In ''Series/{{Gotham}}'', petty criminal Mario Pepper was framed for the murder of Bruce Wayne's parents since the case was too high profile to be left unsolved. With Pepper taking the fall, the police look like heroes, the mayor is seen as having a handle on the rising crime, and the mob doesn't have to deal with the extra police attention. It helps that Pepper is someone that no one, perhaps not even his own family, would miss.
* In the last season of ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'', it's revealed that Barney's job is to be this for the company he works for: he signs his name to a bunch of documents so that, if legal charges are brought against the company, Barney will take all the blame. [[spoiler:Subverted when it turns out Barney's been a government informant the entire time, and is one of the few people at the company ''not'' in legal trouble]].

** During the third trial [[spoiler: Celestia tries to set up a complicated series of events that let her get away with killing Yamada while pointing all the blame toward Yasuhiro, but the exacts of the case make it impossible for him to be the culprit[[note]]such as the robot costume he supposedly committed the crimes in being unable to bend at the knees, preventing him from moving the bodies around via cart like the students had established early on in the investigation[[/note]]]].
** Toko is implicated in the fourth murder case by a message left in the victim's blood. [[spoiler:Hiro left it after he had attacked Sakura, but his attack - and Toko/Genocider Syo's attack immediately after - was non-fatal. Sakura committed suicide]].
** The fifth murder case happens specifically to do this to [[spoiler:Kyoko, [[SheKnowsTooMuch who was coming too close to solving the mystery]]. The Mastermind takes a corpse they had murdered early in the game (Mukuro, who had been disguised as Junko), presents it as if it had just been murdered, uses a knife only Makoto had access to and then destroys the face with a bomb to mask the body's identity. The entire thing is so convoluted that the fifth trial ends with either Kyoko or Makoto taking the blame, and it's not until the sixth trial that the whole thing is laid to rest]].

Closely related to TheScapegoat.

* ''Film/{{Nixon}}''. Howard Dean is GenreSavvy enough that he's being set up as one, which pushes him to whistleblowing. Based on RealLife.

* In the third trial of ''VisualNovel/{{DanganRonpa}}'', [[spoiler: Celestia tries to set up a complicated series of events that let her get away with killing Yamada while pointing all the blame toward Yasuhiro, but the exacts of the case make it impossible for him to be the culprit[[note]]such as the robot costume he supposedly committed the crimes in being unable to bend at the knees, preventing him from moving the bodies around via cart like the students had established early on in the investigation[[/note]]]].

* ''VisualNovel/DanganRonpa'':
** Makoto becomes this during the first case, due to the first murder occurring in his room, on the one night he switched with Sayaka. [[spoiler:Sayaka had set up the room switch so she could kill someone and then pin it on Makoto, but died by her intended victim - Leon - instead. Setting Makoto up was unintentional on Leon's part (as he didn't know whose room he was actually in), but he played along with it when everyone else became suspicious of him]].
** During the third case, Hiro also becomes the culprit's fall guy, [[NiceJobBreakingItVillain but they do such a thorough job of it]] that Kyoko, Byakuya and Makoto all see through it immediately.
** And in the fourth case, [[DyingClue Toko's name is found written in blood at Sakura's crime scene]], but it was left by [[spoiler:Hiro - who, as it turns out, [[DrivenToSuicide wasn't even the actual killer]]]].
** The fifth case is a massive one, aimed at framing Kyoko. [[spoiler:The Mastermind took the corpse of Junko Enoshima - actually Mukuro Ikusaba disguised as Junko - and presented it as if it had been just killed recently. The entire thing is so convoluted that it takes two trials to solve, in the middle of which the Mastermind is forced to frame Makoto instead]].

* ''Film/GangRelated'': At the center of the film is a fall guy scheme that goes horribly wrong. Two [[DirtyCop crooked LA cops]] murder an undercover DEA officer without knowing he was one, and to avoid their crimes being exposed pin it on a random homeless guy they picked up off the streets and get a prostitute who was working with them to identify him in a line-up. At first the subterfuge seems to work, as the man thinks he really did commit the murder and wants to take responsibility for his actions. However, he is later revealed to be the missing member of a very wealthy family who used to personally provide medical aid in Africa as part of Doctors Without Borders, but had fallen into alcoholism and depresssion after the untimely death of his wife and daughter. As Tupac's character put it, they picked a saint to pin a murder on. [[spoiler:It all ends up blowing up in their face, with the prostitute cracking on the witness stand and identifying her two accomplices after she's charged with perjury, the fall guy being acquitted when the DA drops the charges, the two instigators turning on each other, and both of the two corrupt cops ending up dead for different reasons of their own doing.]]

* ''Film/GangRelated'': At the center of the film is a fall guy scheme that goes horribly wrong. Two [[DirtyCop crooked DEA cops]] murder an undercover officer without knowing he was one, and to avoid their crimes being exposed pin it on a random homeless guy they picked up off the streets and get a prostitute who was working with them to identify him in a line-up. At first the subterfuge seems to work, as the man thinks he really did commit the murder and wants to take responsibility for his actions. However, he is later revealed to be the missing member of a very wealthy family who used to personally provide medical aid in Africa as part of Doctors Without Borders, but had fallen into alcoholism and depresssion after the untimely death of his wife and daughter. As Tupac's character put it, they picked a saint to pin a murder on. [[spoiler:It all ends up blowing up in their face, with the prostitute cracking on the witness stand and identifying her two accomplices after she's charged with perjury, the fall guy being acquitted when the DA drops the charges, the two instigators turning on each other, and both of the two corrupt cops ending up dead for different reasons of their own doing.]]

* ''Film/GangRelated'': At the center of the film is a fall guy scheme that goes horribly wrong. Two [[DirtyCop crooked DEA cops]] murder an undercover officer without knowing he was one, and to avoid their crimes being exposed pin it on a random homeless guy they picked up off the streets and get a prostitute who was working with them to identify him in a line-up. At first the subterfuge seems to work, as the man thinks he really did commit the murder and wants to take responsibility for his actions. However, he is later revealed to be the missing member of a very wealthy family who used to personally provide medical aid in Africa as part of Doctors Without Borders, but had fallen into alcoholism and depresssion after the untimely death of his wife and daughter. As Tupac's character put it, they picked a saint to pin a murder on. [[spoiler:It all ends up blowing up in their face, with the prostitute cracking on the witness stand and identifying her two accomplices after she's charged with perjury, the fall guy being acquitted when the DA drops the charges, and both of the two corrupt cops ending up dead as a result of different circumstances.]]

* IvanhoeTheKingsKnight: Prince John uses Front-de-Boeuf as one, to the latter's surprise, to prevent others from knowing he arranged his own kidnapping in "The four Black Knights."

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* In ''SinCity'' Marv, Dwight and Hartigan take the fall for Goldie's murder, Damien Lord's murder, and Roark Junior's attempted molestation of Nancy respectively. Marv was an ideal fall guy because he was a well-known violent thug. Dwight actually ''did'' commit the murder but was manipulated into doing it by Ava Lord, and Hartigan accepted his fate in order to protect the victim. [[spoiler:Marv ended up successfully framed, tried and executed while Dwight faked his own death to sidestep the issue entirely. Hartigan killed himself as a final sacrifice]].