History Main / MotivationalLie

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* In ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyDualDestinies'', the culture of Nine-Tails Vale is based upon a good vs. evil myth that- unbeknownst to most of the Vale's citizens- never actually happened. One of the Vale's previous leaders made it up to keep people from finding an AppleOfDiscord hidden nearby. The citizens eventually find out the story isn't true...[[SerendipityWritesThePlot but they decide to go on telling it anyway]], because it's cooler than what "really" happened and it's become a tradition in its own right at this point. (Also, it brings in a lot of tourism dollars.)

* In the ''[[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion End of Evangelion]]'', (26-year-old) Misato offers (14-year-old) Shinji this [[BlatantLies pearl]] after giving him a passionate kiss: "We'll do the rest when you get back." (Well, she doesn't.) [[spoiler: She then shoves him into an elevator, smiles as it closes, and immediately slumps to the floor as she bleeds to death.]] The kiss is a sexual stimulator for him, as Shinji's [[DudeShesLikeInAComa la]][[ADateWithRosiePalms ck]] of sexual confidence is what chains him to inaction for at least the first third of the film. Unfortunately, her shoving him into the elevator is the only tangible difference she makes for him plot-wise [[spoiler: as her lie tells on itself when Shinji tastes/sees her blood inside his mouth/on his hand]].

[[folder:Film]]

* ''Film/Titanic1997'' features this during the climactic scenes. Cal urges Rose to board a lifeboat. He assures her that both he and Jack will get off the ship safely due to Cal [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney bribing his way onto another lifeboat]]. Rose briefly buys it, seemingly having forgotten for a moment that Cal is [[BastardBoyfriend an abusive self-centered jerk]] who would never do such a thing for the sake of a [[LoveTriangle romantic rival]]. Interestingly, Jack believes right away that it's a lie, but misinterprets Cal's intention; Jack thinks that Cal ''doesn't'' actually have an arrangement set up and has no way off the ship, but said whatever he needed in order to save Rose. Cal quickly disabuses Jack of that notion.

* Done in ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' during the Dominion War arc, when [[TheCaptain Sisko]] and [[MagnificentBastard Garak]] form a plan to trick the Romulans (who are neutral in the war) into thinking that the [=Dominion/Cardassian=] alliance is about to betray and attack them instead of settling for the "I'll kill you last" version of YouWillBeSpared.

* ''Film/BlackCrab''. Caroline Edh is a soldier assigned to deliver a SecretWeapon that will win the war, by crossing a frozen sea at night through enemy territory. When she balks at what she describes as a SuicideMission, she's told her daughter--missing since the start of the war--has been discovered in a refugee camp and is waiting at her destination. After losing most of her fellow soldiers and crippling herself to get there, she's lauded as a hero but informed that the story about her daughter was just to give her the HeroicWillpower to succeed. Worse, if her daughter really is alive somewhere, the weapon she's delivered is a biological virus that kill most of the civilian population and ensure her death.

* ''Film/BlackCrab''. Caroline Edh is a soldier selected for a dangerous mission to cross enemy lines to deliver a SecretWeapon that will win the war, by crossing a frozen sea at night through enemy territory. When she balks at what she describes as a SuicideMission, she's told her daughter--missing since the start of the war--has been discovered in a refugee camp and is waiting at her destination. After losing most of her fellow soldiers and crippling herself to get there, she's lauded as a hero but informed that the story about her daughter was just to give her the HeroicWillpower to succeed. Worse, if her daughter really is alive somewhere, the weapon she's delivered is a biological virus that kill most of the civilian population and ensure her death.

* ''Film/Titanic1997'' features this during the climactic scenes. Cal urges Rose to board a lifeboat. He assures her that both he and Jack will get off the ship safely due to Cal [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney bribing his way onto another lifeboat]]. Rose briefly buys it, seemingly having forgotten for a moment that Cal is [[BastardBoyfriend an abusive self-centered jerk]] who would never do such a thing for the sake of a [[LoveTriangle romantic rival]]. Interestingly, Jack believes right away that it's a lie, but misinterprets Cal's intention; Jack thinks that Cal ''doesn't'' actually have an arrangement set up and has no way off the ship, but said whatever he needed in order to save Rose. Cal quickly disabuses Jack of that notion.[[/folder]]

* In Creator/RayBradbury's short story "The Toynbee Convector", Craig Bennett Stiles, a Bill Gates {{Expy}}, holds a press conference where he tells the world that he has succeeded in developing time travel. Although his time machine shorted out when he used it, he did manage to travel one century into the future, coming back with artifacts and video footage proving that in the future humanity will abolish war, poverty, disease and prejudice and create a true utopia. One hundred years later, the world has become the utopia Stiles had foreseen. Just before his death, the still-living Stiles tells a reporter that there was no time machine; he had hired a special effects crew to create the "artifacts" and faked video footage, because he saw a world descending into chaos toward the end of the 20th century, and wanted to give humanity a goal to strive for.[[/folder]]

->'''Neo:''' Morpheus. The Oracle... she told me I-\\

* ''Film/Titanic1997'' features this during the climactic scenes. Cal urges Rose to board a lifeboat. He assures her that both he and Jack will get off the ship safely due to an arrangement he set up and due to a sudden dearth of [[GenreSavvy certain qualities]] (Or having suddenly forgotten that her fiancé is of the [[{{Kichiku}} abusive self-centered jerk]] variety) she buys it... but not long.
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* In ''Webcomic/SneakyGoblins'', Dank [[http://www.tolcraft.com/comic/page-43/ does this]] to Bog to convince him to take on the wizard at the checkpoint.

* Two from the Literature/CiaphasCain novel ''Cain's Last Stand'', in which the beleaguered defenders of the planet Perlia are facing annihilation at the hands of a Black Crusade. First, the defenders are heartened when they receive an [[TelepathicSpacemen astropathic message]] that a fleet of reinforcements are en route - it's actually a psychic echo of a fleet deployment to the ''previous'' Siege of Perlia, but Cain doesn't correct the mistake for the sake of morale. Later Cain is trying to get the [[StateSec Inquisition]] and [[MachineWorship Adeptus Mechanicus]] to cooperate and defend a dangerous artifact, but the two sides are blaming each other for the lapse in security that led the Chaos forces to learn its location. Cain declares that it must be the fault of a renegade Inquisitor who died some books previous, which may or may not be accurate, but at least means that they can focus on fighting.
* In ''Literature/HarryPotter'', [[spoiler:Dumbledore letting Harry live in the belief that he could survive his hunt to destroy all of Voldemort's Horcruxes.]] While technically not a lie since it was never expressly stated, the spirit was there. [[spoiler:Averted in the end, though it's insinuated that Dumbledore wasn't sure what would or could happen.]]
* In Creator/RayBradbury's short story "The Toynbee Convector", Craig Bennett Stiles, a Bill Gates {{Expy}}, holds a press conference where he tells the world that he has succeeded in developing time travel. Although his time machine shorted out when he used it, he did manage to travel one century into the future, coming back with artifacts and video footage proving that in the future humanity will abolish war, poverty, disease and prejudice and create a true utopia. One hundred years later, the world has become the utopia Stiles had foreseen. Just before his death, the still-living Stiles tells a reporter that there was no time machine; he had hired a special effects crew to create the "artifacts" and faked video footage, because he saw a world descending into chaos toward the end of the 20th century, and wanted to give humanity a goal to strive for.
* ''Literature/TheJungleBook'': Bagheera and Baloo persuade Kaa to help rescue Mowgli from the Bandar-Log by claiming they insulted him, calling him an earthworm, among others. Kaa retaliates by hypnotizing them (and Bagheera and Baloo, unintentionally) and eating them all.
* ''Juggernaut'' by Desmond Bagley. Renegade army soldiers take everyone prisoner and lock them in an AbandonedWarehouse, but they're freed by their TokenEvilTeammate, who gets them moving by saying that the soldiers were about to set the warehouse on fire with them in it. Later the protagonist doesn't find any inflammable material stacked around the warehouse, but their rescuer just says they to be told ''something'' so they'd stop dithering and escape.
* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'':
** The White Court of vampires are emotion eaters. There are three clans inside and each favors a different emotion with the Raith Clan favoring lust. In the short story "Bigfoot on Campus" Strength of a River in His Shoulders, a bigfoot Harry is hired by, learns that the Raith clan also keeps from their children their vampire nature until after the child's vampire side develops around the age of 18 to 20 years old. River Shoulders quickly realizes this facade is maintained because of a motivational lie. [[spoiler:When a young Raith has sex for the first time, it will lead to the death of the sex partner involved except for very rare circumstances. The lie is that it is okay to kill humans. They are weaker than vampires and are just food. The parents hold to this lie because it is what they were raised to believe after killing their first sexual partner. And this is what the grandparents were told by their parents. And so on and so on. To reject the lie is to reject all the culture and supremacy based on it. To admit they are are wrong for following some falsehood that was held by some ancient bastard or bitch]].
** In ''Skin Game'' ancient evil warrior Nicodemus Archleone has had in his head a Fallen Angel for nearly two millennia. He has had his daughter at his side Deidre, and sometimes in bed, for the last fifteen hundred years with her own Fallen in her head. He must send her some place to keep her safe from a force he calls "the Enemy." Whether he means God or threats from beyond the boundaries of Creation, isn't said. [[spoiler:To that end, and needing her spirit to help him enter the private vault of the Greek God Hades, he kills her before the final gate: the Gate of Death. It requires a spirit of one who dies before it to willingly open the gate. The lies are many, as the Fallen are rarely keeping to their promises, but as Harry later tells Nicodemus his daughter is now condemned to a place that, unlike Hell which is more equal in its punishments to the damned the Greek Underworld, gets ''personal'' in its punishments. She will be far from safe for a very long time]].
* In ''Literature/{{Holes}}'', Stanley's fellow inmates assure him that the first hole he has to dig as part of his prison sentence will be the hardest. When he returns the next day with aching muscles, they admit that actually the second hole is the hardest, and keep MovingTheGoalposts from there. The narrative eventually concedes that, for various reasons, the next hole is always the hardest.
* In Creator/HBeamPiper's short story "Graveyard of Dreams" (later [[AdaptationExpansion expanded]] into the novel ''The Cosmic Computer''), Conn Maxwell's investigations into rumors of an abandoned [[MasterComputer supercomputer]] on his home planet lead him to the conclusion that the computer doesn't really exist. Instead of saying so, he tells people that he discovered evidence of its existence but not its location so that people will start searching for it, stimulating the planet's depressed economy and improving morale. [[spoiler:In the novel, the computer eventually turns up...]].
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* As pictured above, from the fifth ''ComicBook/ScottPilgrim'' book: Scott is on the receiving end of a CurbStompBattle while trying to rescue Kim from the Katayanagi Twins, when Kim's phone starts ringing. By this point it looks like Ramona's broken up with him, which the Twins proceed to [[BreakingSpeech mock him about]]. So Kim tells him it's Ramona calling to cheer him on and let him know she's waiting for him to come home so they can patch things up, which immediately boosts his morale enough to kick the Twins' asses. In reality, it's just Kim's phone dying.
* Near the end of ''ComicBook/TheBoys'', [[spoiler: Billy Butcher]] tries to get [[spoiler: Wee Hughie]] to give him a MercyKill. When he doesn't get one, he claims that he killed [[spoiler: Hughie]]'s parents, even providing a description of their house. [[spoiler: Hughie]] naturally kills [[spoiler: Butcher]], and then gets a phone call from his parents, who remark on how charming his friend was.

[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/ScottPilgrim https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/splie_4panel_2.png]]]]

* In the fifth ''ComicBook/ScottPilgrim'' book, Scott is on the receiving end of a CurbStompBattle while trying to rescue Kim from the Katayanagi Twins, when Kim's phone starts ringing. By this point it looks like Ramona's broken up with him, which the Twins proceed to [[BreakingSpeech mock him about]]. So Kim tells him it's Ramona calling to cheer him on and let him know she's waiting for him to come home so they can patch things up, which immediately boosts his morale enough to kick the Twins' asses. In reality, [[spoiler: it's just Kim's phone dying]].

** Considering the potential and ambiguous nature of the ''[[Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion Rebuild]]'' series, [[spoiler: it may have been an unintentional truth! Depending on the content of the fourth and final movie . . . .]]

[[folder:Comics]]

** The trope is further examined and ultimately subverted in ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises.'' Dent's "murder" by Batman was used to rally support for the passage of the Dent Act, which curtailed civil liberties but also led to the near-elimination of organized crime in Gotham. However, Gordon's wife left him for covering up Harvey Dent's actions. Bruce retires from being Batman and becomes a recluse out of grief over losing Rachel, due to being convinced she would have married him if she's lived. [[spoiler:And when Bane reveals the lie about Dent, the downtrodden citizens and prisoners join Bane's army as retribution. Bane's "revolution" also serves as a MotivationalLie, since it was only intended as a distraction before blowing up Gotham.]]

* In the fourth season of ''Series/The100'', with a Nuclear Apocalypse approaching, the leaders of Arcadia have to continually work to convince the civilian population on methods of the surviving apocalypse, with the hidden knowledge that, even if successful, no solution will save the ''all' Arcadians.

'''Adama:''' Because it's not enough to just live. You have to have something to live for. Let it be Earth.\\

** In early Season 3 episode "Faith, Hope and Trick", Giles needs to know the exact circumstances of [[spoiler: Angel]]'s death for a spell to prevent the return of Acathla. Buffy finally summons the courage to tell him that [[spoiler:Angel's soul returned, just before Buffy was forced to kill him]]. Once Buffy leaves, Giles reveals to Willow that there ''was'' no spell; it was a ruse, to get Buffy to open up to them and to accept what she'd done.

* The ''Westernanimation/OzzyAndDrix'' cartoon had Jones telling Drix about some sugar pills he knew that cured cancer in an effort to motivate him. This exchange happens a bit later:

* In ''WebComic/SanThreeKingdomsComic'', considering how much UsefulNotes/McDonalds is a RunningGag, the advertising example above gets used: Lu Bu manages to tank the accusation and slanders against Dong Zhuo about sharing Diaochan (which historically would've been his ultimate catalyst of betrayal), stating that they had consent on sharing her. So how did Wang Yun finally managed to convince Lu Bu to do his betrayal? Tell him that Dong Zhuo stole his [=McDonalds=] French Fries. As he left Lu Bu furious and preparing to kill Dong Zhuo for that, Wang Yun tells Diaochan, who was actually the one eating the aforementioned French Fries, that the plan worked.

* In ''WebComic/SanThreeKingdomsComic'', considering how much UsefulNotes/McDonalds is a RunningGag, the advertising example gets used: Lu Bu manages to tank the accusation and slanders against Dong Zhuo about sharing Diaochan (which historically would've been his ultimate catalyst of betrayal), stating that they had consent on sharing her. So how did Wang Yun finally managed to convince Lu Bu to do his betrayal? Tell him that Dong Zhuo stole his [=McDonalds=] French Fries. As he left Lu Bu furious and preparing to kill Dong Zhuo for that, Wang Yun tells Diaochan, who was actually the one eating the aforementioned French Fries, that the plan worked.

* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'': During the quirk assessment test, [[SternTeacher Aizawa]] threatens expulsion on the student who has the lowest scores. At the end, he admits he was lying to get his students to push past their limits.

* Done in ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' during the Dominion War arc, when [[TheCaptain Sisko]] and [[MagnificentBastard Garak]] form a plan to trick the Romulans, (who are neutral in the war) into thinking that the [=Dominion/Cardassian=] alliance is about to betray and attack them instead of settling for the "I'll kill you last" version of YouWillBeSpared.

* The Oracle from ''Film/TheMatrix'' does a long term version of this to Neo, and it's hinted that she does this regularly to help people unlock their potential and think differently. [[spoiler: In fact, that's exactly her motivation -- although it takes six Ones to make one of them see outside of the Matrix (and the Architect's version of the prophecy) to make Neo [[TakingAThirdOption take the needed third option]] to fix things.]]

* ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' does this to the city of Gotham and Batman himself during the ending. In order to prevent mass chaos from the fallout of Harvey Dent's actions as Two Face, Batman willingly framed himself for the murders Dent committed, so that Harvey Dent could remain an inspirational figure to the rest of Gotham. Alfred also burned Rachel's letter saying she would marry Harvey, to spare Bruce further pain from her death.
* The trope is further examined and ultimately subverted in ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises.'' Dent's "murder" by Batman was used to rally support for the passage of the Dent Act, which curtailed civil liberties but also led to the near-elimination of organized crime in Gotham. However, Gordon's wife left him for covering up Harvey Dent's actions. Bruce retires from being Batman and becomes a recluse out of grief over losing Rachel, due to being convinced she would have married him if she's lived. [[spoiler: And when Bane reveals the lie about Dent, the downtrodden citizens and prisoners join Bane's army as retribution. Bane's "revolution" also serves as a MotivationalLie, since it was only intended as a distraction before blowing up Gotham.]]

** A [[DarkerAndEdgier morbid example,]] culminating with Fletcher [[spoiler:fabricating the circumstances behind the death of a pupil to motivate his students and divert any suspicion from his detractors.]]