History Main / PriceOnTheirHead

->"I'm going to put a price on your head that's so big, when you look in the mirror your reflection's gonna want to shoot you in the face."

* ''Series/BlakesSeven''. When SpacePirates seize the Liberator in "Bounty", their leader Tarvin says the Federation will offer him 13 million credits for the Liberator and its crew.

* ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands 2}}'': The four Vault Hunters from the vanilla game all have ludicrously high prices on their head for a variety of reasons. Axton is wanted for "war crimes" and has $5 000 000 000 as a reward, Zer0 is wanted for "Political Assassination" at $32 000 000 000, Salvador is wanted for [[LongList "manslaughter, theft, arson, destruction of property, trespassing, cannibalism]], [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking public indecency and profanity]] at $99 000 000 000.99, and Maya is wanted for [[TokenGoodTeammate being a Siren]] at $720 000 000 000.

* Creator/FrederickForsyth's ''Literature/TheDayOfTheJackal'' has disgruntled French Foreign Legionnaires, angry that President De Gaulle chose to accede Algeria to the insurrectionists, hire a British sniper to assassinate the French president. The sniper has a badass reputation as TheKingslayer, and commands a $500 000 fee, which the cabal scares up.

* ''Series/{{Galavant}}'': Madalena puts a price of 6 gold coins on Sid's head after he runs away. Which, as one peasant notes, is enough to buy a farm.
* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': Anyone who brings in The Hound's head will get 100 silver stags.

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* ''Anime/CowboyBebop'': Every one of the fugitives that Jet and Spike are chasing has this as an incentive for the heroes to catch them. [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption It rarely works out]].

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* ''Film/TheInformer'': The British are offering £20 for information leading to the capture of Frankie [=McPhillip=]. Gypo goes for it.

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* ''Series/{{Firefly}}'': Simon and River Tam have prices on their heads as a result of him rescuing her from the Academy. It's not specified how much the Alliance is offering for them, but it is enough to [[spoiler:get Jayne to rat them out on Ariel]] and is enough to get a sadistic BountyHunter after them. This causes no end of trouble for the rest of the crew.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': The Doctor has had various prices on his head over the years, ranging from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E6TheWomanWhoLived £20]] to [[Recap/DoctorWhoS15E4TheSunMakers an entire star system]].

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* The Music/BonJovi song ''Wanted Dead Or Alive'' is about a man wanted... well, you know. Interestingly, the song never comes out and says what it is he's wanted for.

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* ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'': Aku placed a price on Jack's head. In one episode, he had to deal with bounty hunter after bounty hunter. In another episode, he encounter another character who also had a price on his head placed by Aku and after their initial clash, they worked together to deal with the bounty hunters going after them in that episode.

* Creator/FrederickForsyth's ''Literature/TheDayOfTheJackal'' has disgruntled French Foreign Legionnaires, angry that President De Gaulle chose to accede Algeria to the insurrectionists, hire a British sniper to assassinate the French president. The sniper has a {{badass}} reputation as TheKingslayer, and commands a $500 000 fee, which the cabal scares up.

* ''Film/BringMeTheHeadOfAlfredoGarcia'': El Jefe puts a contract out on Garcia because he knocked up El Jefe's daughter. When the bounty hunters find him they discover that he's already dead and buried, so they dig him up and remove his head to return for the reward.

This person is badly wanted by somebody. Wanted badly enough that they are willing to pay a large sum of money whoever brings in this person. They often don't care if this person arrives dead or alive. The bounty is usually offered by either The Law or a criminal.

* ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankIntoTheNexus'': at one point Neftin Prog offers a bonus for whoever can kill Ratchet: 10 000 bolts (which isn't really a lot, honestly). Ratchet then says that it'd be nice to go a day without getting a price put on his head. Earlier in the same area Neftin says that he wants Ratchet's head on a stake [[AndYourLittleDogToo and his robot turned to scrap.]]

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* The Franchise/LooneyTunes episode ''Rebel Rabbit'': Bugs Bunny is infuriated upon learning that the Department of the Interior offers bounties up to $50 for large nuisance animals, but only two cents per rabbit. Bugs sets out to become the biggest nuisance ever, and vandalizes America in hilarious ways. The U.S. Army finally captures Bugs, and imprisons him in Alcatraz. "Meh, perhaps I've gone too far."
* ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'': Aku placed a price on Jack's head. In one episode, he had to deal with bounty hunter after bounty hunter. In another episode, he encounter another character who also had a price on his head placed by Aku and after their initial clash, they worked together to deal with the bounty hunters going after them in that episode.

* ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankIntoTheNexus'': at one point Neftin Prog offers a bonus for whoever can kill Ratchet: 10 000 bolts (which isn't really a lot, honestly). Ratchet then says that it'd be nice to go a day without getting a price put on his head. Earlier in the same area Neftin says that he wants Ratchet's head on a stake [[AndYourLittleDogToo and his robot turned to scrap.]]

* ''Manga/{{Trigun}}'': Vash has $$60 000 000 000 on his head for the destruction of a city. Up until the Bernadelli Insurance Corporation declares him a "human act of God".

Examples

-->Cardinal Richelieu: One thousand gold pieces on each of their heads, dead or alive!
-->[beat]
-->Cardinal Richelieu: I prefer dead!
* ''Film/{{Unforgiven}}'': After a prostitute is disfigured by two cowboys who get a SlapOnTheWrist by sheriff Little Bill, her coworker prostitutes put out that they'll pay $1 000 to whoever kills them. The Scofield Kid wants that money and eventually talks William Munny out of retirement to help him.

* ''Series/{{NYPDBlue}}'': When a Serial Killer murders a wealthy man's daughter, the man offers Simone $1 000 000 to kill him instead of arresting him. Simone doesn't do it but also doesn't report the illegal solicitation of a contract, giving the man some slack over his grief. Later, after the killer is arrested, it is all but stated that the wealthy man pays another man whose daughter was also murdered by the same serial killer (and who was an expert sniper during the Vietnam War) to murder him. The assassin confesses and is willing to pay the penalty but refuses to implicate the wealthy man, who is now paying for the murderer's wife's dialysis at a private clinic.
** In another episode a numbers runner has had a contract put out on him and Medevoy is assigned to his protection detail. While the numbers runner and his friends stay with Medevoy playing poker (thus giving them an airtight alibi) one of the numbers runner's employees goes out and kills the other man, thus "cancelling" the contract.

* ''The Quest for the Silver Empress'' adventure from Judges Guild ''Pegasus'' magazine: One of the NPCs is "Rabid" Grawulf Thornal. Thornal is a criminal who killed the son of a noble during a robbery, resulting in a 5 000 gold piece price on his head.

* ''Manga/OnePiece'': A pirate's prestige is tied to the size of the bounty the World Government has placed on his or her head. Likewise, a pirate crew's prestige is indicated by the sum of bounties on all of its current members. The main characters, for instance, started off with more or less zero bounties, and are currently rocking a total of over 1 500 000 000 GlobalCurrency--the most wanted crew in the series so far.
* ''Manga/{{Trigun}}'': Vash has $$60 000 000 000 on his head for the destruction of a city. Up until the Bernadelli Insurance Corporation declares him a "human act of God".

* ''Film/TheDarkKnight'': After the Joker angers the mob lord Gambol one too many times, Gambol declares that he'll pay $500 000 for the Joker brought to him dead, and $1 000 000 alive so Gambol can get revenge on Joker himself. However, the Joker uses this to his advantage by secretly hiring some of Gambol's goons and pretending to be dead while they bring him to Gambol, allowing him to get close enough to assassinate the mobster.
* ''Film/ForAFewDollarsMore'': TheManWithNoName and Colonel Mortimer team up to go after El Indio and his gang  worth $27 000 in total.
* ''Film/TheHatefulEight'': Daisy Domergue has $10 000 on her head. Major Marquis Warren had $30 000 during the war. [[spoiler:The rest of the Domergue gang also have bounties]].
* ''Film/{{Ransom}}'': Millionaire Tom Cullen receives a demand for $2 000 000 for the safe return of his son. When federal agents kill the only connection to the kidnappers, Mullen tries a new strategy: he broadcasts the $2 000 000 as a bounty to anyone who fingers the kidnappers. Anyone, no questions asked, no charges pressed.
* Film/Maleficent: The dying king promises the throne to the one who kills Maleficent.

* ''Film/{{Unforgiven}}'': After a prostitute is disfigured by two cowboys who get a SlapOnTheWrist by sheriff Little Bill, her coworker prostitutes put out that they'll pay $1 000 to whoever kills them. The Scofield Kid wants that money and eventually talks William Munny out of retirement to help him.

* Creator/FrederickForsyth's ''Literature/TheDayOfTheJackal'' has disgruntled French Foreign Legionnaires, angry that President De Gaulle chose to accede Algeria to the insurrectionists, hire a British sniper to assassinate the French president. The sniper has a {{badass}} reputation as TheKingslayer, and commands a $500 000 fee, which the cabal scares up.
* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': The Assassins' Guild lives and breathes this trope. The Hogfather had a bounty of $3 000 000. Moist von Lipwig had a conditional $100 000 bounty on his head. Lord Vetinari and The Duke of Ankh, Sir Samuel Vimes had bounties, before being being taken off the lists.
* Creator/MatthewReilly's ''Literature/{{Scarecrow}}'' series: Shane Schofield, and 14 others, get a $18 600 000 bounty for his literal head.

* ''Literature/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'': Han and Leia end up getting a price put on their heads by Han's villainous cousin Thrackan Sal-Solo after he declares himself leader of Corellia. He hires Boba Fett's daughter but she's killed and he then tries to hire Fett himself. Fett initially hoped to find his daughter by finding Han but later defected and helped kill Sal-Solo with his granddaughter and Han he learned of 1 000 000 credit price on Sal-Solo's head and that Sal-Solo sold out his (Fett's) daughter to the other side.

* Series/{NYPDBlue}: When a Serial Killer murders a wealthy man's daughter, the man offers Simone $1 000 000 to kill him instead of arresting him. Simone doesn't do it but also doesn't report the illegal solicitation of a contract, giving the man some slack over his grief. Later, after the killer is arrested, it is all but stated that the wealthy man pays another man whose daughter was also murdered by the same serial killer (and who was an expert sniper during the Vietnam War) to murder him. The assassin confesses and is willing to pay the penalty but refuses to implicate the wealthy man, who is now paying for the murderer's wife's dialysis at a private clinic.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'', 3rd edition supplement ''Loose Alliances'': Matthias Hesse, leader of the Neo-Nazi terror group Nationale Aktion, has a 50 000 Euro bounty on his head due to the group's attacks at the Munich Stadium.
* "''The Quest for the Silver Empress''" adventure from Judges Guild ''Pegasus'' magazine: One of the NPCs is "Rabid" Grawulf Thornal. Thornal is a criminal who killed the son of a noble during a robbery, resulting in a 5 000 gold piece price on his head.

* WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack: Aku placed a price on Jack's head. In one episode, he had to deal with bounty hunter after bounty hunter. In another episode, he encounter another character who also had a price on his head placed by Aku and after their initial clash, they worked together to deal with the bounty hunters going after them in that episode.

* ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands 2}}'': The four Vault Hunters from the vanilla game all have ludicrously high prices on their head for a variety of reasons. Axton is wanted for "war crimes" and has $5 000 000 000 as a reward, Zer0 is wanted for "Political Assassination" at $32 000 000 000, Salvador is wanted for [[LongList "manslaughter, theft, arson, destruction of property, trespassing, cannibalism]], [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking public indecency and profanity]] at $99 000 000 000.99, and Maya is wanted for [[TokenGoodTeammate being a Siren]] at $720 000 000 000.

* ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankIntoTheNexus'': at one point Neftin Prog offers a bonus for whoever can kill Ratchet: 10 000 bolts (which isn't really a lot, honestly). Ratchet then says that it'd be nice to go a day without getting a price put on his head. Earlier in the same area Neftin says that he wants Ratchet's head on a stake [[AndYourLittleDogToo and his robot turned to scrap.]]

* ''Manga/OnePiece'': A pirate's prestige is tied to the size of the bounty the World Government has placed on his or her head. Likewise, a pirate crew's prestige is indicated by the sum of bounties on all of its current members. The main characters, for instance, started off with more or less zero bounties, and are currently rocking a total of over 1.5 ''billion'' GlobalCurrency--the most wanted crew in the series so far.
* ''Manga/{{Trigun}}'': Vash has sixty billion double dollars on his head for the destruction of a city. Up until the Bernadelli Insurance Corporation declares him a "human act of God".

* ''Film/TheDarkKnight'': After the Joker angers the mob lord Gambol one too many times, Gambol declares that he'll pay $500 grand for the Joker brought to him dead, and 1 million alive so Gambol can get revenge on Joker himself. However, the Joker uses this to his advantage by secretly hiring some of Gambol's goons and pretending to be dead while they bring him to Gambol, allowing him to get close enough to assassinate the mobster.
* ''Film/ForAFewDollarsMore'': TheManWithNoName and Colonel Mortimer team up to go after El Indio and his gang, worth $27,000 in total.
* ''Film/TheHatefulEight'': Daisy Domergue has $10,000 on her head. Major Marquis Warren had $30,000 during the war. [[spoiler:The rest of the Domergue gang also have bounties]].
* ''Film/{{Ransom}}'': Millionaire Tom Cullen receives a demand for $2 million for the safe return of his son. When federal agents kill the only connection to the kidnappers, Mullen tries a new strategy: he broadcasts the $2 million as a bounty to anyone who fingers the kidnappers. Anyone, no questions asked, no charges pressed.

* ''Film/{{Unforgiven}}'': After a prostitute is disfigured by two cowboys who get a SlapOnTheWrist by sheriff Little Bill, her coworker prostitutes put out that they'll pay $1,000 to whoever kills them. The Scofield Kid wants that money and eventually talks William Munny out of retirement to help him.

* Creator/FrederickForsyth's ''Literature/TheDayOfTheJackal'' has disgruntled French Foreign Legionnaires, angry that President De Gaulle chose to accede Algeria to the insurrectionists, hire a British sniper to assassinate the French president. The sniper has a {{badass}} reputation as TheKingslayer, and commands a half-million dollar fee, which the cabal scares up.
* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': The Hogfather had a bounty of $3,000,000. Moist von Lipwig had a conditional $100,000 bounty on his head. Lord Vetinari and The Duke of Ankh, Sir Samuel Vimes had bounties, before being being taken off the lists.
* Creator/MatthewReilly's ''Literature/{{Scarecrow}}'' series: Shane Schofield, and 14 others, get a $18,600,000 bounty for his literal head.

* ''Literature/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'': Han and Leia end up getting a price put on their heads by Han's villainous cousin Thrackan Sal-Solo after he declares himself leader of Corellia. He hires Boba Fett's daughter but she's killed and he then tries to hire Fett himself. Fett initially hoped to find his daughter by finding Han but later defected and helped kill Sal-Solo with his granddaughter and Han he learned of a million credit price on Sal-Solo's head and that Sal-Solo sold out his (Fett's) daughter to the other side.

* Series/{NYPDBlue}: When a Serial Killer murders a wealthy man's daughter, the man offers Simone $1,000,000 to kill him instead of arresting him. Simone doesn't do it but also doesn't report the illegal solicitation of a contract, giving the man some slack over his grief. Later, after the killer is arrested, it is all but stated that the wealthy man pays another man whose daughter was also murdered by the same serial killer (and who was an expert sniper during the Vietnam War) to murder him. The assassin confesses and is willing to pay the penalty but refuses to implicate the wealthy man, who is now paying for the murderer's wife's dialysis at a private clinic.

* ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands 2}}'': The four Vault Hunters from the vanilla game all have ludicrously high prices on their head for a variety of reasons. Axton is wanted for "war crimes" and has $5 billion as a reward, Zer0 is wanted for "Political Assassination" at $32 billion, Salvador is wanted for [[LongList "manslaughter, theft, arson, destruction of property, trespassing, cannibalism]], [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking public indecency and profanity]] at $99 billion and 99 cents, and Maya is wanted for [[TokenGoodTeammate being a Siren]] at '''$720 billion'''.

* ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankIntoTheNexus'': at one point Neftin Prog offers a bonus for whoever can kill Ratchet: 10,000 bolts (which isn't really a lot, honestly). Ratchet then says that it'd be nice to go a day without getting a price put on his head. Earlier in the same area Neftin says that he wants Ratchet's head on a stake [[AndYourLittleDogToo and his robot turned to scrap.]]

* ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'', 3rd edition supplement ''Loose Alliances'': Matthias Hesse, leader of the Neo-Nazi terror group Nationale Aktion, has a 50‚000 Euro bounty on his head due to the group's attacks at the Munich Stadium.
* "''The Quest for the Silver Empress''" adventure from Judges Guild ''Pegasus'' magazine: One of the NPCs is "Rabid" Grawulf Thornal. Thornal is a criminal who killed the son of a noble during a robbery, resulting in a 5‚000 gold piece price on his head.

I'm surprised this isn't a trope yet (unless it is).

Administrivia/RollingUpdates: Launched.
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