History Main / SedgwickSpeech

* ''Film/DeepBlueSea'': One of the defining moments is [[spoiler: when SamuelLJackson's RousingSpeech to the other survivors is cut short. [[ThreateningShark By a shark.]] [[ItMakesSenseInContext While indoors.]]]]

* In the second episode of ''{{Firefly}}'' , Crow makes such a speech promising revenge to the crew for refusing to finish a job in response to them giving his employers money back. He then gets kicked by Mal straight into Serenity's engine and the offer gets repeated to the next mook who wisely accepts.

* In ''TheDayOfTheJackal'', Bastien-Thiry, failed assassin of Charles De Gaulle is shown remarking that he is a patriot and no firing squad will dare shoot him. The next [[IncrediblyLamePun shot]] is immediately after his execution.

--> '''Lt. Cmdr Sam Beattie, VC''':''"I was interrogated by a German, who spoke very good English. He discovered that I'd been in ''Campbeltown'', and he was remarking that it was no good ramming a stout caisson like that with a flimsy ship... At that moment, there was a bang."''\\

* "Daddy flight, save your auxiliary fuel tanks". Last words of major Thomas B. McGuire, the second high scoring USAAF AcePilot in WorldWarTwo. He [[TooDumbToLive attempted to dogfight a Japanese Ki-43 Hayabusa at 300 ft with twin-engine P-38 Lightning, fully laden with fuel and auxiliary tanks on]]. He expected the lone Japanese plane to be an easy kill. Unbeknowst to him, the Japanese plane was piloted by SSgt Akira Sugimoto, a [[OhCrap flight instructor with 3000+ flight hours on Hayabusa alone...]]

* In a bit of MoralDissonance, the movie of ''Film/ReturnOfTheKing'' had Aragorn cheerfully kill Sauron's spokesperson while the latter was discussing the terms of peace. Though knowing Sauron, they were probably more like "terms of unconditional surrender".

* In the second episode of ''{{Firefly}}'' , Crow makes such a speech. Also inverted in the first episode, when Mal gives a short speech to one of the last members of his platoon about how they're "too pretty to die!" and then they both stand up...and the other guy gets shot down.
** Mal dies inwardly. His spirit is broken when he realizes that he's been betrayed. He doesn't even flinch when the soldier standing right next him to takes a violent shot to the chest.

--> '''Lt. Cmdr Sam Beattie, VC''':''I was interrogated by a German, who spoke very good English. He discovered that I'd been in ''Campbeltown'', and he was remarking that it was no good ramming a stout caisson like that with a flimsy ship... At that moment, there was a bang.''\\

* A UsefulNotes/WorldWarII example, although the guy wasn't killed, comes from Operation Chariot, the St. Nazaire Raid--the CrowningMomentOfAwesome for commando operations. The destroyer that was supposed to blow up and destroy the dock gate hadn't blown up on schedule. A German wonders aloud to the vessel's captain why they'd decided to ram the gate with the destroyer, when it wouldn't work. As he's making this speech- there's a bang... 250 German soldiers and civilians die and bits of body are found 400 yards away. The destruction of the dry dock prevents the battleship ''Tirpitz'' from putting to sea at all (lack of a safe haven on the Atlantic) until it is sunk in 1944, removing the biggest threat to Atlantic convoys.

* The trope is named for John Sedgwick, a Union general in the American Civil War, who, during the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, said "I'm ashamed of you, dodging that way for simple bullets. They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance!" seconds before being fatally shot by a sniper.

** Part of the reason for Sedgwick's overconfidence came from the fact that, up until the Civil War, most troops were armed with smoothbore muskets that were wildly inacurate beyond 50 yards or so. He simply wasn't aware of the recent technological innovation by a Brit named Joseph Whitworth, who had drastically improved Britain's Royal Enfield rifle with a single modification (which as a bonus let him exploit vendor lock-in on the ammo). The British Army didn't buy Whitworth's rifle but the confederacy recognized them as what we today would call a "game changer", as Jeremy Clarkson explains [[http://youtu.be/g_mFA_isCdc?t=21m53s here]]. (He wasn't alone in that regard; part of the reason Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg was such a slaughter was because General Lee [[OhCrap vastly underestimated what a line of men with rifles could do to an advancing army]].)

* A WorldWarTwo example, although the guy wasn't killed, comes from Operation Chariot, the St. Nazaire Raid--the CrowningMomentOfAwesome for commando operations. The destroyer that was supposed to blow up and destroy the dock gate hadn't blown up on schedule. A German wonders aloud to the vessel's captain why they'd decided to ram the gate with the destroyer, when it wouldn't work. As he's making this speech- there's a bang... 250 German soldiers and civilians die and bits of body are found 400 yards away. The destruction of the dry dock prevents the battleship ''Tirpitz'' from putting to sea at all (lack of a safe haven on the Atlantic) until it is sunk in 1944, removing the biggest threat to Atlantic convoys.
* The British writer Creator/{{Saki}} (H.H. Munro) had the last words of "Put that damned cigarette out!" (because lighting a cigarette would allow enemy snipers to see you). Munro jumping up to scold another soldier had the same effect.

* JamesDean's final words before his fatal car crash? [[DeathByIrony "That guy's gonna see us.]] [[TemptingFate He's gonna stop."]]

* In the CG movie pilot to StarWarsTheCloneWars a clone trooper jumps up on the makeshift barrier the Republic troops have erected to keep the droids out of their base perimeter. His rallying cry is abruptly cut off when he is hit by a blaster bolt and killed. The clones still charge, anyway.

A fierce battle is about to ensue. One brave RedShirt will step forward and give an uplifting speech, only to be paid for his efforts by getting brutally killed. [[KilledMidSentence Bonus points if he is killed before he finishes the speech]].

* One episode of Series/DadsArmy has Jones comparing Mainwaring to an officer he had in World War One who didn't like crouching in the trenches and one night decided to walk on the parapet to show the Germans he was not afraid and to set an example to his men. [[spoiler: He got shot. In a very awkward place. Did a lot of crouching after that.]]
* Although he is neither mook nor redshirt, this trope could probably apply to Theon's speech to his ironborn raiding party in ''GameOfThrones'' season two [[spoiler:after the supposed deaths of Bran and Rickon]]. He vows to fight for Winterfell - but [[spoiler:is immediately KO'd by his men, tied up, dispensed with ''somewhere''. Winterfell is left a smoking ruin and the ironborn return home]].

** "Whadda you, Daleks?"

The speech in question will either be an idealistic plea for peace to an implacable enemy, or an attempt to boost morale by emphasizing how the heroes will [[RousingSpeech never give up, never surrender]], with bonus points if the character in question actually apes Churchill's manner of speech. This can be a chilling KickTheDog moment to show just how inhuman the enemy is, a comedic moment to show how ineffective wide-eyed idealism is against violence, or, disturbingly, [[BlackComedy both]]. Or it could simply be a moment of overconfident gloating on the part of a [[GenreBlindness genre blind]] villain who hasn't read the EvilOverlordList....

This is often a result of the [[TemptingFate Temptation of Fate]].

* ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'': While Indy, Harry and Sallah are spying on the Nazi column from a hillside, Harry tells Indy to get down out of sight, to which Indy replies, "Dad, we're well out of range." Cue the tank firing and the car exploding behind them.

* A WorldWarTwo example, although the guy wasn't killed, comes from Operation Chariot, the St. Nazaire Raid--the CrowningMomentOfAwesome for commando operations. The destroyer that was supposed to blow up and destroy the dock gate hadn't blown up on schedule. A German wonders aloud to the vessel's captain why they'd decided to ram the gate with the destroyer, when it wouldn't work. As he's making this speech- there's a bang... 250 Germans and civilians die and bits of body are found 400 yards away. The destruction of the dry dock prevents the battleship ''Tirpitz'' from putting to sea at all (lack of a safe haven on the Atlantic) until it is sunk in 1944, removing the biggest threat to Atlantic convoys.

* [[JamesDean James Dean's]] final words before his fatal car crash? [[DeathbyIrony "That guy’s gonna see us.]] [[TemptingFate He’s gonna stop."]]

** [[JamesDean James Dean's]] final words before his fatal car crash? [[DeathbyIrony "That guy’s gonna see us. He’s gonna stop."]]

* Russia in ''AxisPowersHetalia'' doesn't actually die, but comes close when he jumps from a plane with no parachute. Beforehand, he claims he'll be fine because the snow on the ground is soft enough to break his fall. China asks if he's sure, and Russia says "I'm Russian, I know everything about snow!" Too bad he knows nothing about parachuting.