History Main / MandatoryUnretirement

* ''Fanfic/WhatYouKneadNaruto'': When Kakashi decides to get out of ANBU and [[ForWantOfANail start running a bakery]], Hiruzen makes clear that he's only letting him enter the reserves, and that he can be reactivated if that's deemed necessary for a mission. Kakashi is rather nonplussed when he's reactivated a few years later in order to become a Jonin Instructor for Team Seven.

** In fact, this is a case of AllThereInTheManual. The enlistment papers that you sign to join indicate that there is a period of time where you agree to be called back into duty according to the needs of the service. Usually your total commitment comes out to something like eight years total, including Active Duty, the Reserves, and the "Inactive Reserves" (the guys who get rudely yoinked back into duty.)

* In the four-part culmination of the Cadmus Arc in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'', Cadmus uses this to get Captain Atom on their side by reactivating his commission to the U.S Army, under General Eiling.

* The President of Italy, Sergio Mattarella, was re-elected against his own will in 2022.[[labelnote:How does it work?]]Italian Presidential elections are conducted by the Italian Parliament, and the ballot isn't a "tick the pre-printed name of a candidate" one - so all the votes are write-in.[[/labelnote]] [[/folder]]

* Imran Khan was called out of retirement to play for Pakistan in the 1992 UsefulNotes/{{Cricket}} world cup - Pakistan's president even compared it to [[InternationalShowdownByProxy a soldier being called on to fight for his country]].

* ''Film/TheFifthElement'': Korbin Dallas is a special forces soldier who gets called back into service for a mission after retiring and working as a cab driver. As per the trope he has no interest in the mission and only ends up agreeing to it because of a case of AlwaysSaveTheGirl.

** In ''Film/ANewHope'', Obi-Wan Kenobi has been living in self-exile on Tatooine, until Luke Skywalker stumbles upon him while trying to recover a lost droid carrying the stolen plans to the Death Star. As it happens, said droid, R2-D2, also carries a recorded message from Princess Leia begging Obi-Wan to help in her mission. While Obi-Wan doesn't put up much of an argument, it's worth noting that he'd been hiding out from the Empire for nearly twenty years at this point.
*** Although the Prequel trilogy implies that not only has Obi-Wan been hiding there to watch over Luke in the first but also that he's been waiting for the right moment to strike back against the Empire all along. So it's less being forced out of retirement and more the next phase of what he'd been hoping for from the start.

* In fourth entry of the ''{{VideoGame/Uncharted}}'' series, ''VideoGame/Uncharted4AThiefsEnd'', Nathan Drake is forced to return from his normal life as a retired treasure hunter when his brother Sam Drake came asking for his help to find the lost treasure of Captain Henry Avery to pay off a drug lord's debt. Of course, it was later revealed that the reason that forced Nathan to come back [[LiarRevealed was all a lie]].

* In the four part culmination of the Cadmus Arc in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'', Cadmus uses this to get Captain Atom on their side by reactivating his commission to the U.S Army, under General Eiling.

* ''Fanfic/BetweenThreeRogues'': When Galcian forms his Eternal Empire, Ramirez personally requests that Doc be reenlisted in their army. Doc wants nothing to do with this; Maria and [[spoiler:Piastol]] also protest him being forced back into service, with the latter getting violent about it.

* ''[[Fanfic/ThinkBeforeYouSpeakMHA Think Before You Speak]]'': After Tensei publicly blames Izuku for Tenya being injured during a training accident, he's put on probation while the HPSC investigates. This forces his father to come back out of retirement, as none of Ingenium's sidekicks are qualified to run the Iidaten Agency.
* ''[[Fanfic/WhatYouKneadNaruto What You Knead]]'': When Kakashi decides to get out of ANBU and [[ForWantOfANail start running a bakery]], Hiruzen makes clear that he's only letting him enter the reserves, and that he can be reactivated if that's deemed necessary for a mission. Kakashi is rather nonplussed when he's reactivated a few years later in order to become a Jonin Instructor for Team Seven.

* ''Lightnovel/FullMetalPanic'': In the side story "Golden Days with Captain Amigo," Sousuke and Kurz both find million dollar treasure. And both are shown to be in agreement that, once they get rich from this, they would both hightail it out of Mithril and retire, doing what they want. However, after they accidentally destroy an M6 AS, the higher-ups from Mithril take all the treasure from them as payment. Incidentally, it's revealed that the executives estimated the cost of damages to be ''higher'', thereby taking all the treasure and destroying both of their plans for retirement. Even more suspiciously, it's revealed that Kalinin had a hand in the expenses... and of course, Kalinin had showed numerous times his desire to keep Sousuke with him.

* ''ComicBook/{{Robin|Series}}'': While Tim didn't really want to retire from being Robin he was okay with it and had moved on. Then Gotham fell into a bloody city-wide gang war that left him trying to save classmates at school in his civilian wear with no armor or gear. He was pulled back into the Batfamily permanently when he showed up to help after he noticed the newest Robin (who was also his girlfriend) was missing, especially since his father was killed within a week.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* In the four part culmination of the Cadmus Arc in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'', Cadmus uses this to get Captain Atom on their side by reactivating his commission to the U.S Army, under General Eiling.

[[folder:Film]]

->'''Kirk:''' Well, for a man who swore he'd never return to Starfleet...
->'''[=McCoy=]:''' Just a moment, Captain, sir. I'll explain what happened. Your revered Admiral Nogura invoked a little-known, seldom-used "reserve activation clause." In simpler language, Captain, they ''drafted'' me!

[[folder:Fanfiction]]

* In the [[Literature/TheNightAngelTrilogy Night Angel books]], Kylar tries to retire to a new city with his love interest, but since this happens in book two of a three part series, it obviously doesn't work. Both his friends and his enemies go to some considerable effort to pull him back in.

* Creator/JohnLeCarre's George Smiley has retired at least three times and been brought back, albeit in an informal or advisory capacity, to clean up various messses made by his former colleagues in the security services. He does it enough that one character at the begining of ''Literature/TinkerTailorSoldierSpy'' insists, much to Smiley's chagrin, that his retirement (Smiley's second at that point) is merely cover.
* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince'': Horace Slughorn, former Potions professor, is called back to his old job so its current holder can take up the Defense Against the Dark Arts position (and because Dumbledore wants him at Hogwarts due to certain information he holds). Later, he resumes the Head of Slytherin position as well.
* In ''Literature/InFuryBorn'', retired members of the Imperial Cadre are technically only put on Inactive Reserve, meaning that the government can reactivate them if they want to.
* A variation of this is used in ''[[Literature/HonorHarrington Mission of Honor]]'', where following Oyster Bay both Admiral Givens and Admiral Caparelli offer their resignations and are told by royal edict that they will ''not'' be scapegoated and their badly needed arses are going nowhere.
* Crosses over with EmergencyImpersonation in the ''Literature/{{Relativity}}'' story "Caffeine Headache": Most of the people in the city begin acting weird due to something in the coffee. The superheroes struggle to maintain order, but the Black Torrent is in South America investigating the farms where the coffee originated. His father -- the ''original'' Black Torrent -- dons the superhero costume and goes out in his place.

* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1963'' episode "The Chameleon''. When aliens land on Earth, government agents hunt down former secret agent Louis Mace because he's the best man for the job of infiltrating them.

* Happens several times to Thomas Magnum in ''Series/MagnumPI'' with the US Navy.
** In "Mad Dogs and Englishmen", [=MI6=] calls Higgins back up for a FakeDefector job.
* Tommy Oliver in ''Series/PowerRangersDinoThunder'', back in the spandex after seven years off-duty, when all he wants to do now is be a science teacher. Notably, the only reason he has to unretire is because "science teacher" was his ''second'' idea of how to have a peaceful post-Ranger career; his first was "mad scientist", and was such a disaster he had to become a Ranger again just to clean up after himself. He re-retires after that.
* ''Series/{{Hannibal}}'': Will Graham has retired from criminal profiling in the three year TimeSkip, but Jack brings him back into it to catch the Tooth Fairy.
* Averted in an episode of ''Series/KeyAndPeele'' with a sketch about a military officer visiting a retired veteran living in a shack in a remote location. The veteran ''thinks'' it's this trope, and keeps ranting about how he's not going to come back, no matter how they beg, even though he's "just as good as [he] ever was." The officer keeps protesting that they only want to ask him if he knows of anyone else with a comparable skill set, but the veteran just won't hear it and keeps both protesting and setting up challenges ("Try to hit me!") to prove he's the only person for the job (all of which he fails ''miserably'').

* ''VideoGame/{{Descent}} II'' opens with Dravis informing the player character, Material Defender, that the contract he signed with PTMC allows them to retain his services for more missions; if he declines, he won't get paid for the work he's already done.
** And as anyone who has seen the intro for Descent III knows, he can't get a break even after Dravis tries to kill him, as his rescuers (who are the ''good guys'') use his desire for revenge to override his desire to just settle down somewhere nice and quiet.

* Garcia the warrior in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones''. Garcia gave up being a warrior to raise his son after his wife died, but Ross makes him realize that the battlefield is where he belongs after the two help Eirika and her crew drive off some bandits.
* Happens to both Maverick and Vagabond in ''VideoGame/WingCommander IV: The Price of Freedom''.

* In fourth entry of the ''{{VideoGame/Uncharted}}'' series, ''VideoGame/Uncharted4AThiefsEnd'', Nathan Drake is forced to return from his normal life as a retired treasure hunter when his brother Sam Drake came asking for his help to find the lost treasure of Captain Henry Avery to pay off a drug lord's debt. Of course, it was later revealed that the reason that forced Nathan to come back [[LiarRevealed was all a lie.]]
* ''VideoGame/{{X2}}'' is an old-school arcade shooter where the protagonist, Commander miner, is called out of retirement to deal with an AlienInvasion.
* The protagonist of ''VideoGame/GearsTactics'' used to be a Colonel, but has switched to being a simple mechanic. He is adamant that his days leading soldiers are behind him...but we wouldn't have a game if [=COG=] leadership and circumstance didn't conspire to see him leading troops again, would we?

* ''ComicBook/Red2004'': They should have left him alone.

* ''ComicBook/{{Red}}'': They should have left him alone.