History Main / HostageSituation

* Averted in the fifth ''Literature/HonorHarrington'' novel where the titular protagonist hands herself over to be the hostage. [[spoiler:However much to the hostage-takers eventual surprise she has not one but three {{plant}}s in the works and kills all but one of the hostage-takers in the process.]]

* The first scenario of GodsWillBeWatching, where the Xenolifers, a group of revolutionaries, hijack a ship containing data about a virus.

* In ''Comicbook/AstroCity'' "Confession", a villain breaks into a nightclub frequented by heroes out of costume, and takes a busboy hostage. Keeping a wary eye on the heroes gives him no time to look at his hostage, who single-handedly takes him out.

* In ''TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'', after the shoot out/brawl in [[Literature/ThePictureOfDorianGray Dorian's]] house, the last remaining {{Mook}} tries to take [[{{Dracula}} Mina Murray]] hostage, [[OurVampiresAreDifferent bad idea]].

* TabletopGame/SentinelsOfTheMultiverse has this vibe when the heroes battle The Dreamer. The twist is that the Dreamer is both the hostage and captor, as her psychic powers went into overdrive during a nightmare of hers. Gameplay wise, if the Dreamer hits 0 HP, the heroes kill her and lose. In order to win, the heroes must [[ShootTheHostageTaker destroy enough projections to get her to flip from her "The Dreamer Dreams" side to her "Roused From Slumber" side, then destroy more projections to calm her down and wake her up]]. Since attacks that hit all villain targets will also hit the Dreamer, whom only has 6 HP, the team must deside if [[ShootTheHostage shooting the hostage]] is worth it.

* TheDreamlandChronicles: [[http://www.thedreamlandchronicles.com/the-dreamland-chronicles/todays-dreamland-chronicles-520/ Joey mentions he's related to Alex and things turn bad.]]

* In ''[[Literature/TheColorOfDistance Through Alien Eyes]] a desperate father grabs Juna and threatens to slit her throat if Unkatonen doesn't heal his gravely ill daughter. It's a very ''sudden'' hostage situation, and the father knows this will put him in jail until after his daughter is grown.

* The ''Series/DoctorWho'' MadeForTVMovie, in a way that showed the main character's role as TheMessiah. Stopped by a cop, the Doctor manages to [[KleptomaniacHero get his gun away]] and point it at... himself, and says, "Now, would you stand aside before I shoot myself?"

* [[TheXFiles Mulder]] exchanges himself for hostages while pretending to be an EMT to get close to Duane Barry, who Mulder thinks is an alien abductee. This episode (aptly named "Duane Barry") kicks off the Scully Abduction arc.

* TabletopGame/SentinelsOfTheMultiverse has this vibe when the heroes battle The Dreamer. The twist is that the Dreamer is both the hostage and captor, as her psychic powers went into overdrive during a nightmare of hers. Gameplay wise, if the Dreamer hits 0 HP, the heroes kill her and lose. In order to win, the heroes must [[ShootTheHostageTaker destroy enough projections to get her to flip from her "The Dreamer Dreams side" to her "Roused From Slumber" side, then destroy more projections to calm her down and wake her up]]. Since attacks that hit all villain targets will also hit the Dreamer, whom only has 6 HP, the team must deside if [[ShootTheHostage shooting the hostage]] is worth it.

* ''CowboyBebop'': Faye is taken hostage by some of the BigBad's goons. One puts a gun to her head and begins the standard [[PutDownYourGunAndStepAway "Put down your gun"]] speech, but promptly gets one between the eyes from Spike. Cue the BlastOut. Something similar happens at the beginning of the movie where a convenience store robbery goes sour and some random thug, previously unseen, takes an old lady hostage. Spike shoots the hostage taker, after somewhat cynically remarking that he's not a cop.

* ''CromartieHighSchool'': a couple of hijackers give up on jacking a plane due to the students of Cromartie being all menacing-looking. Yutaka Takenouchi, who gets motion sickness, accidentally persuades the hijackers to get everyone else off the plane and ''then'' carry out the hijacking, resulting in him being stranded in America and one of the hijackers impersonating him back at Cromartie.

* Happens several times in ''MahouSenseiNegima'', most obviously when Chigusa uses Konoka as a hostage and when Fate threatens to wipe out a crowd of people if Negi doesn't listen to him. The former backfires horribly, as hurting Konoka is [[BodyguardCrush Setsuna's]] berserk button, and in the latter, Negi ultimately decides to attack Fate anyway, relying on his partners to prevent collateral damage.
* Scaled up in ''GundamWing'' episode 10, where [[SergeantRock Lady Une]] threatens to attack the space colonies with self-defense missile satellites unless the Gundam Pilots surrender. [[TheStoic Heero]] [[TakeAThirdOption takes a third option]] and [[SelfDestructMechanism self-destructs his Gundam]], which is what really kicks off the main plot by sparking the ideological divide within [[TheFederation OZ]] between the [[AntiVillain noble soldiers]] and [[ColonelKillgore the ruthless]] and [[CorruptCorporateExecutive corrupt]].
* In Manga/AirGear, [[spoiler: MagnificentBastard Sora brainwashes his RetiredBadass girlfriend, Rika Noyamano, into fighting Kilik and the Sleeping Forest team, which Rika used to be a member of.]] The kicker, and what makes this specially mean? [[spoiler: ''[[MoralEventHorizon Rika is pregnant, and HE is the baby's father]]''.]] The subversion comes when [[spoiler: Kilik manages to deploy a BatmanGambit to get Rika restrained without actually landing a hit on her, then unleashing his and the Sleeping Forest's Air Regalia.]] And then it's further suverted when [[spoiler: Sora actually ''counterattacks'' with his own gambit and shoots back at ''them''.]]

* In a season four episode of ''{{Castle}}'', Castle and Martha are taken hostage during a bank robbery by a crew of robbers disguised as TV doctors. Beckett was on the outside negotiating. Of course it turned out to be a distraction from something much bigger.
* In a season three episode of ''{{Psych}}'', Gus is taken hostage during a bank robbery. Shawn tricks the hostage taker into letting him in. As it turns out, [[spoiler:the guy was being forced to rob the bank to get back his wife, who had been kidnapped.]]

* ''FamilyMatters'': In at least two episodes:

* You have to resolve one in ''VideoGame/DeusEx''. Given it is RPG game, there is almost no penalty if you mess up (well, only some cash bonus and good feeling). Only advice you get is "Do what you can but show them, that human shields won't protect them". [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential Yeah]]
** If you manage to skip it entirely, you will get scolded for it, but nothing more

This trope is so ubiquitous that it would be far more convenient simply to list its...

!!Exceptions, subversions, and parodies:

-->--'''BurnNotice''', "Bad Breaks"

* ''{{Robocop}}'' manages to get around this, with all the supercomputer targeting skills that one might expect in an awesome cyborg police officer. In the first movie, a man was holding a woman as a meat shield, but Robocop targeted him through the woman's dress, which happens to hit the testicles. In the second, a hostage-taker holding a baby gets it in the head when Robocop points his gun away from the guy, but calculates a ricochet shot off a metal wall.

* "Interiors" of ''ComicBook/TransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'' features Fortress Maximus pulling one of these with, demanding that the ship be returned to Cybertron so that he can confront Prowl. He is ultimately stopped when shown footage of his own torture and comforted by his one of his captives. Then an incompetent sniper shoots said captive in the head.

* In ''AstroCity'' "Confession", a villain breaks into a nightclub frequented by heroes out of costume, and takes a busboy hostage. Keeping a wary eye on the heroes gives him no time to look at his hostage, who single-handedly takes him out.