History Main / RuthlessModernPirates

* ''ComicBook/KidColt, Outlaw'': Possibly stretching the definition of 'modern', but in 109 Kid Colt fought a pirate called the Barracuda and his crew who were preying on coastal settlements along the Gulf of Mexico. Set in the latter half of the 19th century, the Barracuda and his men sail a modern ship, dress in modern seafarers clothes, use modern weapons, and invoke none of the tropes of APirate400YearsTooLate (apart from attempting to make the Kid WalkThePlank).

* The Hong Kong campaign of ''VideoGame/ShadowrunReturns'' has Frederick, a troll who wants to become a pirate based on an erroneous belief that his father was a legend in a local pirate group. Getting the true story from his father, who was a simple sailor who encountered the grisly aftermath of a pirate attack, makes it very clear what a terrible idea it is for Frederick to try and have anything to do with such groups.

* The Hong Kong campaign of ''VideoGame/ShadowrunReturns'' has Frederick, a troll who wants to become a pirate based on an erroneous belief that his father was a legend in a local pirate group. Getting the true story from his father, who was a simple sailor who encountered the aftermath of a pirate attack, makes it very clear what a terrible idea it is for Frederick to try and have anything to do with such groups.

* The Hong Kong campaign of ''VideoGame/ShadowrunReturns'' has Frederick, a troll who wants to become a pirate based on an erroneous belief that his father was a legend in a local pirate group. Getting the true story from his father makes it very clear what a terrible idea it is for Frederick to try and have anything to do with the local pirates.

** Members of ComicBook/GIJoe along with their Soviet counterparts, the Oktober Guard, are captured by river pirates in ''[[ComicBook/GIJoeARealAmericanHeroMarvel G.I. Joe Special Missions]]'' #4.

Unlike their [[{{Pirate}} conventional counterparts]], there is nothing romantic about these modern-day pirates. They tend to be completely ruthless, cold-blooded killers, devoid of honor and willing to stoop to any crime: [[TheSociopath sociopaths]] on the high seas. Bonus points if characters express disappointment at these pirates' failure to shiver timbers. Yet, this characterization of being honorless, psychopathic killers is ''exactly'' how pirates were viewed during the Golden Age of Piracy. Many of them lived up (or down) to this reputation [[labelnote:Caveat]]Many golden-age pirates were defectors from British naval press-gangs, making them essentially escaped slaves and thus occasionally sympathetic in colonial and even British literature.[[/labelnote]]. [[NostalgiaFilter Perhaps another four hundred years from now, Somalian pirates will be viewed as romantic rogues]].

Unlike their [[{{Pirate}} conventional counterparts]], there is nothing romantic about these modern-day pirates. They tend to be completely ruthless, cold-blooded killers, devoid of honor and willing to stoop to any crime: [[TheSociopath sociopaths]] on the high seas. Bonus points if characters express disappointment at these pirates' failure to shiver timbers. Yet, this characterization of being honorless, psychopathic killers is ''exactly'' how pirates were viewed during the Golden Age of Piracy. Many of them lived up (or down) to this reputation [[labelnote:Caveat]] Many golden-age pirates were defectors from British naval press-gangs, making them essentially escaped slaves and thus occasionally sympathetic in colonial and even British literature) [[/labelnote]]. [[NostalgiaFilter Perhaps another four hundred years from now, Somalian pirates will be viewed as romantic rogues]].

Related to RuthlessForeignGangsters. Not related to DigitalPiracyIsEvil.

Unlike their [[{{Pirate}} conventional counterparts]], there is nothing romantic about these modern-day pirates. They tend to be completely ruthless, cold-blooded killers, devoid of honor and willing to stoop to any crime: [[TheSociopath sociopaths]] on the high seas. Bonus points if characters express disappointment at these pirates' failure to shiver timbers. Yet, this characterization of being honorless, psychopathic killers is ''exactly'' how pirates were viewed during the Golden Age of Piracy. Many of them lived up (or down) to this reputation (caveat: Many golden-age pirates were defectors from British naval press-gangs, making them essentially escaped slaves and thus occasionally sympathetic in colonial and even British literature). [[NostalgiaFilter Perhaps another four hundred years from now, Somalian pirates will be viewed as romantic rogues]].

* The Creator/PeterBenchley [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Island_(1979_novel) novel]] ([[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Island_(1980_film) and later film]]) ''The Island''. In the novel, an anthropologist still defends and romanticizes them, proclaiming them to be one of the few remaining societies undiscovered and untouched by the modern world... even though they're almost entirely dependent on preying on the latter, and particularly prize cans of bug spray. [[spoiler:Near the end of the book, the pirate leader kills him without blinking an eye.]]

& ''Film/ChinaSeas'': Modern for 1935, anyway, and definitely ruthless, as [=McArdle=] and the Malay pirates he's smuggled onto the ship seize it in an attempt to steal the gold.

* One of 47's targets in episode 5 of ''VideoGame/Hitman2016'' is a former Tamil Tiger who turned to piracy after they were disbanded. She continued with that for a while until she lost her arm during a raid, for which her captain unceremoniously cut her loose and she eventually got her current gig as a trainer for the Shadow Client's private militia.

* The PG-rated modern pirates Captain Barnibus Crab, Kim and Simon are the main bad guys in the third series of the ''WesternAnimation/FlipperAndLopaka'' animated series.

** Members of GIJoe along with their Soviet counterparts, the Oktober Guard, are captured by river pirates in ''[[ComicBook/GIJoeARealAmericanHeroMarvel G.I. Joe Special Missions]]'' #4.

* Gavin gets rescued and then promptly BoundAndGagged by these in ''Series/TheBrittasEmpire'', after being lost at sea on a potato-powered lilo. [[ItMakesJustAsMuchSenseInContect I'd ''like'' to say it makes sense in context.]]

** In ''ComicBook/AdventureComics #409: "Fight with Fire Drake"'', a pirate band called the "Fire Drakes" assault yatchs belonging to the rich. Their name comes from their dragon-looking diving suits and their flame-throwing gear.

* Lirh Sarkhan, of ''FanFic/KingdomHeartsNewEpicTheFirst'' - despite sailing around in the classic old pirate ship, even previously owned by Captain Hook himself, Lirh is a ruthless young man who leads his forces through a healthy dose of respect and fear. His plunders are most often accompanied by massive casualty numbers, and he's one of the Most Wanted Pirates in the Worlds.

* [[http://www.weebls-stuff.com/songs/Somalia/ Where can you find pirates? Off the coast of Somalia!]]

* [[Administrivia/RenamedTropes The former trope name]] was "A Disgrace to Blackbeard", coming from Cartman's assessment of piracy in Somalia in the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "Fatbeard". However, the Somalian pirates are shown sympathetically to a degree, having resorted to piracy only because a CrapsackWorld forced them into it, while the military that hunts them down is depicted as racist and fond of overkill. And the Somalis ''do'' turn into the more romanticized brand of pirate for a time (complete with sea chantey sing-alongs), if only because (as Cartman points out) it's just much more fun that way. (TruthInTelevision to a surprising degree; Somali pirates are often well-loved in their home communities, both for chasing off foreign fishermen and waste dumpers and for bringing back large quantities of money to struggling towns.)

* The PG-rated modern pirates Captain Barnibus Crab, Kim and Simon are the main bad guys in the third series of the ''WesternAnimation/FlipperAndLopaka'' animated series.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'' was captured for ransom by modern Malay pirates in "Heart of Archness"; he thought that pirates didn't exist anymore and many pirate stereotype jokes are made. Then Archer becomes the Pirate King by KlingonPromotion, but proves pretty bad at maritime hijacking (he lets his victim keep his ship out of sympathy for small-business owners).
* Franchise/{{Batman}} and Comicbook/{{Aquaman}} clash with modern day pirates during TheTeaser of the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'' episode "Clash of the Metal Men".
* One of the ''WesternAnimation/{{Rupert}}'' cartoons featured river pirates, who show up in a later episode as members of a pirate retirement home, which had previously been inhabited solely by more [[APirate400YearsTooLate traditional]] pirates.
* ''WesternAnimation/PAWPatrol'' has Sid Swashbuckle along with his first mate Arrby. At their debut episode Sid steals the [[spoiler: Clam of Puplantis]] which causes the castle to crumble into rubble until the Paw Patrol managed to recover them. Sid is also kleptomaniac since he stole everything ranging from toys to TV's, and Arrby supports him as well too. Even kidnapped [[spoiler: Marshall and Robo-dog]] and later Karma bite them back forcing a rowboat in defeat.

* The Creator/PeterBenchley [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Island_(1979_novel) novel]] ([[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Island_(1980_film) and later film]]) ''The Island''. In the novel, an anthropologist still defends and romanticizes them, proclaiming them to be one of the few remaining societies undiscovered and untouched by the modern world... even though they're almost entirely dependent on preying on the latter, and particularly prize cans of bug spray. [[spoiler:Near the end of the book, the pirate leader kills him without blinking an eye.]]

* In ''Literature/AtlasShrugged'', Ragnar Danneskjöld is a Norwegian 20th Century ideological pirate, completely dedicated to promoting the ideology of Capitalism and unrestrained Free Market by seizing government ships (he never attacks private vessels), selling the loot, and returning the money to those he believes the government has stolen it from. Of course, Creator/AynRand [[AuthorTract portrays him as a hero]].

* Lin Chung is abducted by South China Sea pirates and held for ransom in the Literature/PhryneFisher novel ''Away With the Fairies''.
* Soviet novel ''Adventures Of Captain Vrungel'' written in late 1930s, during UsefulNotes/SpanishCivilWar, mentions pirates off the Spanish coast. Vrungel's yacht "Rage", [[WalkingDisasterArea a sailing disaster area]], passes there and gets attacked. Fortunately, Vrungel is inventive as [[TheMunchausen Baron Munchausen]] and manages to scare them off by making his ship look like a submarine. The animated series set in 1970s [[SettingUpdate replaced]] pirate attack with accidentally sailing into a war games area.
* The Alistair [=MacLean=] novels ''When Eight Bells Toll'', ''Fear is the Key'' and ''The Golden Rendezvous'' (all adapted to film) involve the hijacking of bullion shipments by organized gangs of criminals.
* ''Literature/JamesBond''
** Pirates attempt to rob the wealthy passengers of a cruiser in the opening chapter of ''Literature/SeaFire'', but find out that Bond, thanks to his experience as an intelligence agent, is more ruthless.
** Zoltan the Magyar and his crew from the ''Literature/YoungBond'' novel ''Literature/BloodFever'' are smugglers who also deal in piracy to gather valuables for Count Ugo Carnifex, who collects art.
* In "Masks of Madness" in ''Literature/DominoLady: Sex as a Weapon'', the Domino Lady teams up with ComicStrip/ThePhantom to take down a gang of modern pirates.
* ''Franchise/DocSavage'': The mysterious Lord London and his ruthless pirates (mostly made up of Chinese recruited from the pirates of the South China Sea who had been displaced by the Japanese navy) inflict a reign of terror through the South Seas in ''Pirate Isle''.

* The ''Series/MacGyver1985'' episode "Pirates" had Mac clash with modern day pirates.
* Gavin gets rescued and then promptly BoundAndGagged by these in ''Series/TheBrittasEmpire'', after being lost at sea on a potato-powered lilo. I'd ''like'' to say it makes sense in context.

* ''Series/BurnNotice'' episode "Rough Seas" [[NotUsingTheZedWord never included the word "pirates"]], perhaps to avoid invoking this, but the bad guys ''were'' thieves operating on the water.

* ''Series/TheATeam'' takes on river pirates in TheAmazon in the two-part episode "The Bend in the River".
* On ''Series/ThirtyRock'' Cerie's wedding is delayed by several months because her fiancée is captured by Somali pirates. Due to StockholmSyndrome, some of them end up as groomsmen at the wedding.
* The ''Series/{{Covert Affairs}}'' episode, "The Last Thing You Should Do", is all about Auggie getting captured and held for ransom by Somali pirates, and trying to escape without blowing his CIA cover.
* In ''Series/TheHardyBoysNancyDrewMysteries'', the third season episode ''Dangerous Waters'' features modern day pirates who lure in victims by pretending to be a boat in trouble, then either killing or kidnapping the people who stop to help. The plot kicks off with the Hardys trying to find a woman grabbed by the pirates, as she inadvertently stumbles over clues to the pirates' identity. The pirates state they not only intend to sell the woman into sex-slavery in China, but will kill Joe, as well.
* ''Series/YoureSkittingMe'': Tatiana once tried to pretend that her boat had been boarded by Somali pirates (although Tats kept calling them "Salami pirates"). However, her friend Em had no idea what a Somali pirate actually was, and instead dressed as APirate400YearsTooLate.
* ''Series/HawaiiFive0'': The first season episode "Powa Maka Moana" dealt with a Spring Break Cruise being attacked and the kids kidnapped.
* In ''Series/YoungIndianaJones and the Treasure of the Peacock's Eye'', while {{Franchise/Ind|ianaJones}}y and his friend Remy are traveling on a cruise ship through Southeast Asia in 1919, the ship gets attacked and robbed by Chinese pirates. The pirates' leader is a [[PirateGirl woman]] who was disguised as a singer, entertaining the passengers until her men boarded the ship.

* Modern pirates often appeared in ''Radio/BoldVenture''.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Deadlands}}: Hell on Earth'', the River Rats are band of ruthless river pirates who prey on survivor settlements on the western banks of the Mississippi.

* B. Jenet is the female leader of the Lilian Knights (a band of modern pirates) in the ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters'' universe. They use a nuclear-powered submarine rather than a galleon.
* The first mission of the computer game ''VideoGame/{{Comanche}} 4'' deals with the US army fighting the pirates of Indonesia.
* And ''VideoGame/DangerousWaters'' often has rogue, "pirate" elements in speedboats. Fortunately, they go down to gunfire quickly. Unfortunately, they tend to be mixed in with civilian fishermen and other vessels, making it difficult to identify them.
* ''VideoGame/{{Anno 2070}}'' features modern pirates.
* ''VideoGame/FarCry3'' probably has the most realistic, dark and brutal depiction of modern piracy in video games. The operation the player must fight against controls a small archipelago, where it deals in kidnapping, human trafficking, and of course the drug trade
* In ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'' one of the main baddies is Captain Mako, a mutant who looks like an anthropomorphic shark and was a former modern pirate, a first-mate. Was so ruthless in-fact that he killed his captain, [[KlingonPromotion hence the title]], was recruited as a mercenary to put down a rebellion for the king-of-all-super-villains and upon doing so, in the most bloody way possible, was given position as one of said super-villain's right hands... and he is currently looking at his new boss with the same hungry eyes he was looking at his old one.
* One of 47's targets in episode 5 of ''VideoGame/Hitman2016'' is a former Tamil Tiger who turned to piracy after they were disbanded. She continued with that for a while until she lost her arm during a raid, for which her captain unceremoniously cut her loose and she eventually got her current gig as a trainer for the Shadow Client's private militia.

* Referenced in [[http://nonadventures.com/2009/04/18/all-for-nautical/ this]] ''Webcomic/TheNonAdventuresOfWonderella''.
* ''Webcomic/FullFrontalNerdity'': "[[http://ffn.nodwick.com/?p=451 Somali Pirates of the Caribbean]]"

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* ''Anime/GargantiaOnTheVerdurousPlanet'': Subverted. What's more dangerous than a band of slaver pirates on a post-apocalypse sea planet? A neo-Nazi piloting a flying mech that has been improved over the course of a forever war to utterly and ruthlessly murder everything around it. And then dumped on a backwater planet, all systems intact. The main character ends up becoming the most ruthless pirate of all, convinced that he's a dutiful soldier and a bug exterminator, when his war protocols projected on a peaceful planet turn into pillage and slaughter.
* ''Anime/AfterWarGundamX'' takes place in a ScavengerWorld, so this is inevitable. Many of the "Vultures" who roam around in landships are just buy-and-sell scavengers (the protagonists are these sort), but there are plenty others who terrorize and plunder the ordinary people who are trying to rebuild some semblance of civilization. And at sea, there's a subset who are so brutal they've been dubbed "Orcs".

* ComicBook/GreenArrow's origin (at least in some versions) involves modern-day pirates hijacking Oliver Queen's yacht and throwing him overboard.
* One of the many kinds of criminals that ComicBook/ThePunisher has fought. The River Rats from ''Comicbook/ThePunisherMAX'' series is a recent example.
* ''Franchise/GIJoe'':
** Members of GIJoe along with their Soviet counterparts, the Oktober Guard, are captured by river pirates in ''[[ComicBook/GIJoeARealAmericanHeroMarvel G.I. Joe Special Missions]]'' #4.
** ''ComicBook/GIJoeIDW'' #6 tells Cover Girl's origin story, which involves her taking out a gang of ruthless modern pirates while a contestant on a celebrity reality show.

* Fathom clashes with modern day pirates off the coast of Florida in ''ComicBook/{{Fathom}}'' vol. 4, #1.
* Mojo and his crew from "How Daphne lost her Mojo (and got it back!)" in the graphic novel ''Sex Ed 101'' by Enrique Villagran.

* ''ComicBook/TheEyeSees'': The villains of Detective Eye #2 are a gang of river pirates raiding a small town.

* The ''ComicStrip/TerryAndThePirates'' comic strip dealt with the pirates of the China Seas in the 1930s (modern day for the strip), the beginnings of modern day piracy.

* A major plot point in ''Film/SixDaysSevenNights''.
* In ''Film/ClearAndPresentDanger'', an act of piracy leads to an attempt by the U.S. government to systematically assassinate the leaders of drug cartels in revenge.
* ''Film/CaptainRon'' features some real life ''Ride/PiratesOfTheCaribbean''. This is [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by Martin Short's incredulous, "Pirates? Of the Caribbean? Really?"

* The 1976 ExploitationFilm ''The Muthers'' features a band of female pirates who go undercover at a prison camp on a coffee plantation to rescue their leader's sister.

* ''Pirates of the [=XXth=] Century'' is a 1979 Soviet action film about modern piracy. It's possibly the most financially successful movie made in the Soviet Union.
* A group of modern day pirates run afoul of Tina in her introduction in ''Film/DOADeadOrAlive'' -- and then have the misfortune to encounter the heroines when they are stranded at sea at the movie's end.
** And the head pirate is [[Film/MortalKombat Liu Kang]].

* Somalian pirates get ass-whupped at the beginning of ''Film/TheExpendables''.
* The mercenaries assaulting the cruise ship in ''Film/DeepRising''.
* The modern pirates serve as the central conflict in the 2001 Creator/DisneyChannel original movie ''Jumping Ship''.
* The pirate cats in ''Animation/CatCity''. Other than having a Jolly Roger flag on their [[SubmarinePirates submarine]], there's nothing romantic about them.
* ''Film/CaptainPhillips'', based on a Somali incident in 2009. It doesn't end well for the pirates.
* [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2216240/ Kapringen]] (''A Hijacking''), a Danish film about a ship crew that's been taken hostage by Somali pirates. Unlike ''Film/CaptainPhillips'', here there are no Navy Seals coming to the rescue; instead, the shipping company and the Danish authorities are forced to accept the tense cat-and-mouse negotiations with the hijackers.
* Lou Kramer (Anthony Perkins) and his gang who commandeer an oil platform in ''Film/NorthSeaHijack'' are essentially pirates, and very ruthless.
* Jesse Kane and his son David in ''Film/Aquaman2018'' are described as modern-day SubmarinePirates.
* ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'' makes Georges Batroc, known as Batroc the Leaper in the comics, into a French-Algerian pirate who takes control of a S.H.I.E.L.D. vessel, setting the plot in motion.