History Main / HostageSituation

* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* Hilarously subverted in an otherwise serious situation in ''Series/BoomTown''. After being outed, a corrupt cop takes an [[TheScrappy internal affairs investigator]] hostage. One of the detectives quips that "If Thumper (the IA investigator) gets shot during the firefight, the saddest thing to be heard will be 'Oops!'"

* ''Film/KillingZoe'' is about a group of bank robbers who are forced to fend off the police using the bank employees and customers as hostages while they attempt to crack the safe.

* ''Series/{{Deputy}}'': "10-8 Do No Harm" centers on one which occurs at a jail infirmary when a male prisoner and his female accomplice [[ImpersonatingAnOfficer disguised]] as a deputy take hostages to have him transferred so he can get the surgery needed for saving his life, which the authorities hadn't approved.

* ''Series/{{Taken}}'': In "God's Equation", Ray Morrison takes Charlie, Lisa, Dr. Harriet Penzler and the other members of the AlienAbduction therapy group (Dale Watson, Wilson Adams, Cynthia, Dorothy, Nora and Ben) hostage in the Department of Psychology building of Seattle Pacific University. He demands that whoever runs the UsefulNotes/{{FBI}}'s secret extraterrestrial project call Creator/{{CNN}} and go public with everything that they know about aliens so that people won't think that he's crazy anymore. If they don't do so, he threatens to begin killing the hostages. Complications arise for the UFO project when Allie arrives, putting her life in danger and threatening their plans.

* In ''Film/LasttrainFromGunHill'', Morgan holds a shotgun under Rick's chin and uses him as a hostage when he finally takes him from the hotel to the train station.

The situation for the bad guys has gone so far sideways that the only way out is to trade hostages for transportation. This may be the true gauge of desperation, in that no degree of GenreBlindness can excuse the bad guys from knowing that their demands are never, ever met. Ever.

In spite of this, most municipal police forces on TV employ a negotiator specializing in these situations who has the job of convincing the bad guys that this time it could all turn out differently, if they are only judicious and fair in the way they release hostages. The negotiator's [[GoodCopBadCop primary assistance]] in perpetrating this lie will be a wild-eyed SWAT team leader who is panting for a chance to [[NukeEm nuke the building]] [[ColonyDrop from orbit.]]

In some instances, the crisis could be used as a smokescreen for other plans in mind. Or (one of) the hostage is secretly working with the bad guys.

Also see DieHardOnAnX and CaughtUpInARobbery. Frequently involves PutDownYourGunAndStepAway. An ... ''unorthodox'' solution to this is to ShootTheHostage, while only someone with ImprobableAimingSkills could try to ShootTheHostageTaker. Contrast BabyAsPayment, which is when a baby is taken '''permanently''' to pay for something else and PoliticalHostage which is the "polite" version of this used by polities throughout history as a form of alliance, subjugation and suzerainty.

* Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse:
** ''Series/{{Daredevil|2015}}'':

** ''Series/{{Jessica Jones|2015}}'': Kilgrave often takes large groups of people hostage and threatens to [[PsychicAssistedSuicide make them kill themselves]] en masse to get Jessica's cooperation.
** ''Series/{{Luke Cage|2016}}'': In the season 1 episode "[[Recap/LukeCage2016S1E11NowYoureMine Now You're Mine]]", an attempt by Diamondback to shoot at Misty Knight and Luke inside Harlem's Paradise ends up leaving several people trapped inside Harlem's Paradise with Diamondback's men holding them captive until they find and kill Luke.

* ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' has them every few episodes, usually with [[TheCaptain Captain Archer]] as one of the hostages. This gets {{lampshaded}} when Trip gets captured with a [[RoyalBrat stuck-up alien princess]] who doesn't want to listen to his advice, and he tells her that he's been in enough such situations to know that things won't turn out the way she expects them to.

** 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 ''Anime/CowboyBebopKnockinOnHeavensDoor'' when 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.

* In the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "Resurrection", the mirror universe counterpart of Kira's deceased lover shows up on the station and takes Kira hostage with a [[WeaponForIntimidation nonfunctional disruptor pistol]]. She goes all the way from ops to the landing pad with him before pointing it out and kicking his ass.

* ''Series/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.

*** In the season 1 episode "[[Recap/Daredevil2015S1E6Condemned]]", Officer Sullivan, a rookie police officer on foot patrol in Hell's Kitchen, hears screams coming from an abandoned building. Entering, he finds a masked Matt Murdock trying to get information on Wilson Fisk out of a wounded Vladimir Ranskahov. Matt overpowers Sullivan, and after determining that he's not working for Fisk, tells him to call in a false alarm. Sullivan instead screams for help when Matt gives him the radio, forcing Matt to knock him out and tie him up. Matt has to hurry to get information out of Vladimir because the cops that respond to the call ''do'' work for Fisk, and are going to kill Vladimir when they raid the building. Detectives Christian Blake and Carl Hoffman assume command of the scene, the former of whom has become a liability for Fisk after Matt beat him up earlier in the evening and stole his phone. Thus, when the Emergency Service Unit team arrives, one of them goes up to a rooftop, takes out a sniper rifle, and on orders from James Wesley, opens fire on the crowd, critically wounding Blake and killing two uniformed cops[[note]]Fisk later sends Hoffman to the hospital to finish Blake off[[/note]]. The rest of the ESU team storms the building and kills Officer Sullivan by cutting his throat, and then kills Vladimir as he engages them to buy time for Matt to escape.

** In "Final Exam", an engineering grad student named Seth Todtman, who has invented a cold fusion device with a yield of 50 megatons, takes a group of students and Dean Irwin hostage in a lecture theatre. He threatens to detonate the bomb and destroy the city, killing five million people, if the five people on his list are not killed in front of him within three hours.
** In "Small Friends", Marlon has his brother Walter hold Professor Gene Morton's daughter Becky and grandson Phillip hostage in their house in order to force Gene to use his Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) to break Marlon out of his prison.
** In "Criminal Nature", the Genetic Rejection Syndrome sufferer Dylan Venable holds his mother Marie and younger brother Jesse hostage at their old house in order to lure his father Ray into a confrontation.
** In "Final Appeal", Ezekiel holds the five US Supreme Court justices, the appellant Dr. Theresa Givens, her attorney Nicole Whitley and the Solicitor General Wallace Gannon hostage in the Supreme Court Building using a cold fusion device powerful enough to destroy not only UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC but half the Eastern Seaboard.

* Several real life ones were recounted on ''Series/{{Rescue 911}}''.

** 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.

** In [[Anime/FullMetalAlchemist the first anime series]], Winry and a very depressed Edward who's still reeling from [[spoiler: the horrible incident with Tucker and Chimera!Nina]] are kidnapped by the still human Barry the Chopper, who takes Ed's automail away ''and'' gets him bound while also having Winry chained in UnwillingSuspension. Edward has to fight for both his ''and'' Winry's lives to get the two away from Barry more or less safely.

* ''LightNovel/TheAsteriskWar'': In volume 5, Dirk Eberwein takes Julis's maid and childhood friend Flora Klemm hostage against Ayato having his EmpathicWeapon Ser Veresta sealed (meaning he can never use it again). The group instead fakes having it sealed in order to buy time to rescue Flora.

* ''Series/TheDefenders2017'':
** ''Series/Daredevil2015'':
*** Officer Sullivan, a rookie police officer on foot patrol in Hell's Kitchen, hears screams coming from an abandoned building. Entering, he finds a masked Matt Murdock trying to get information on Wilson Fisk out of a wounded Vladimir Ranskahov. Matt overpowers Sullivan, and after determining that he's not working for Fisk, tells him to call in a false alarm. Sullivan instead screams for help when Matt gives him the radio, forcing Matt to knock him out and tie him up. Matt has to hurry to get information out of Vladimir because the cops that respond to the call work for Fisk, and are going to kill Vladimir when they raid the building. In charge of hostage negotiations on the scene is Detective Christian Blake, a dirty cop who has become a liability for Fisk after Matt beat him up earlier in the evening and stole his phone. Thus, when the Emergency Service Unit team arrives, one of them goes up to a rooftop, takes out a sniper rifle, and on orders from James Wesley, opens fire on the crowd, critically wounding Blake and killing two uniformed cops[[note]]Fisk later sends Hoffman to the hospital to finish Blake off[[/note]]. The rest of the ESU team storms the building and kills Officer Sullivan by cutting his throat, and then kills Vladimir in a shootout.
*** In the season 2 finale, Karen Page, Turk Barrett, and several other people Matt has rescued as Daredevil are taken hostage by The Hand as part of a trap. Karen manages to activate Turk's parole bracelet to summon assistance. The Hand's lookouts gun down the first two responding officers, but not before one of them is able to call for help. Matt and Elektra race to the scene and rescue Karen and the hostages before facing off against Nobu and his men in a showdown on the roof. Elektra is killed when Nobu impales her. Matt is left outnumbered until Frank Castle shoots down several of the ninjas from a nearby rooftop with a sniper rifle, allowing Matt to throw Nobu off the roof, where he is decapitated by Stick.
** ''Series/JessicaJones2015'': Kilgrave often takes large groups of people hostage and threatens to [[PsychicAssistedSuicide make them kill themselves]] en masse to get Jessica's cooperation.
** ''Series/LukeCage2016'': In "[[Recap/LukeCage2016S1E11NowYoureMine Now You're Mine]]", an attempt by Diamondback to shoot at Misty Knight and Luke inside Harlem's Paradise ends up leaving several people trapped inside Harlem's Paradise with Diamondback's men holding them captive until they find and kill Luke.