History Main / SedgwickSpeech

->''"I'm ashamed of you, dodging that way for single bullets. They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance!"''

* Near the end of ''Film/ThreeAmigos'', a bunch of El Guapo's men run off. As El Guapo yells at them for being cowards, Jefe says, "Cheer up, El Guapo... you still have me!" Guess who gets shot immediately thereafter.

** Another Union major general, Philip Kearny, was looking to investigate a gap in the Union line following a retreat at the Battle of Chantilly. When warned by his men, he said "The rebel bullet that can kill me has not yet been molded." Soon after, he was engaged by Confederate soldiers, and chose to attempt to escape rather than surrender, being shot and killed in the attempt.

** Another Union major general, Philip Kearny, was looking to investigate a gap in the Union line following a retreat at the Battle of Chantilly. When warned by his men, he said "The rebel bullet that can kill me has not yet been molded." Soon after, he was engaged by Confederate soldiers, and chose to attempt to escape rather than surrender, being shot and killed in the attempt.

* The trope is named for John Sedgwick, a United States Army general in UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar who, during the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, said "I'm ashamed of you, dodging that way for single bullets. They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance!" seconds before being fatally [[BoomHeadshot shot in the head]] by a sniper.
** Sedgwick's words are sometimes recorded as being "They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist--", implying that he was KilledMidSentence. This is [[BeamMeUpScotty not accurate]]. It is, however, [[RuleOfFunny much]] [[BlackComedy funnier]].

** ''Discworld/GuardsGuards'': After Ankh-Morpork gets taken over by a dragon, a group of citizens starts complaining about the new ruler, and Sergeant Colon tries to rally them. When the dragon shows up in person, one inspired citizen stands defiantly in front of the beast and starts to make an impassioned speech. The dragon burns him to cinders in mid-sentence. So much for "The people united can never be ignited!". Although this is unusual in that the momentum wasn't lost when the dragon incinerated the man. People were already starting to question what, precisely, was being proposed to stop the dragon from just killing them all and moving to a different city if they didn't cooperate.
** ''Night Watch'': Reg Shoe says, "They can take our lives, but they can never take our freedom!" At which point he's shot about seventeen times. Subverted in that Reg keeps going anyway, but his body quits before his mind makes itself up to be a zombie (that happens later). It's specifically noted that [[Film/{{Braveheart}} it was]] possibly [[TakeThat the most stupid battle cry]] ever spoken.

* In a bit of MoralDissonance, ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRings Return of the King]]'' had Aragorn cheerfully kill the Mouth of Sauron while the latter was discussing the terms of peace. Though knowing Sauron, they were probably more like "terms of unconditional surrender".[[note]]The book lets the Mouth finish; in that, it would probably be fairer to describe it as terms of conditional surrender. It should also be noted that technically, [[LoopholeAbuse no one was actually carrying a parley banner or calling for it]].[[/note]]

* ''Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsMovie'': 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.

* ''VideoGame/{{Skyrim}}'': During the quest "With Friends Like These...", you're tasked to kill one of three captives, purportedly because there's a bounty involved. One of them is Vasha, an extremely corrupt khajiit who boasts about his crimes and sins, and makes it clear that getting bagged and dragged into the wilderness to have some lily-livered goon make impotent threats at him is a common occurrence that he's stopped caring about long ago, and snidely promises you a relatively painless death if you let him go. Since you can end the conversation while he's still talking, it's perfectly possible to cut short his grandstanding with a swift blade. Or arrow. Or fireball. (And no, no retribution will come from killing him. Maybe he wasn't as important as he thought.)

-->-- '''[[TropeNamers General John Sedgwick]]''''s FamousLastWords before being [[TemptingFate shot in the head by a sniper]]

** Also, the 'Elephant' quote was actually his penultimate sentence. His ''last'' last words were, "All right, my man; go to your place", in response to a soldier saying ducking was generally a good idea. The quote is sometimes misattributed to General Custer or Stonewall Jackson.

* Pretty much exactly the same thing happens in the movie ''Film/{{Outlander}}''.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Star Wars|TheCloneWars}}[[Recap/StarWars TheCloneWarsMovie: The Clone Wars]]'': 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.

* Although he is neither {{Mook|s}} nor RedShirt, this trope could probably apply to Theon's speech to his ironborn raiding party in ''Series/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 run for it[[note]]although they don't get far[[/note]]]].

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 [[WideEyedIdealist 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....

* A non-deadly example in ''WebComic/AxisPowersHetalia''. "I'm Russian, I know everything about snow!" Russia says before he jumps from a plane without a parachute, figuring the soft snow will cushion his fall. The result is not outright seen, but apparently he broke his back.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Star Wars|TheCloneWars}}[[Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsMovie : The Clone Wars]]'': 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.

* ''Film/TropicThunder'': While they weren't going to a war, but to film a movie about one, the director Damien Cockburn died this way. He stepped into a mine after giving a speech about filming the best war movie of all time.

--> (Turns around to reveal large hole in the back of his head)

** ''Discworld/GuardsGuards'': After Ankh-Morpork gets taken over by a dragon, a group of citizens start complaining about the new ruler, and Sergeant Colon tries to rally them. When the dragon shows up in person, one inspired citizen stands defiantly in front of the beast and starts to make an impassioned speech. The dragon burns him to cinders in mid-sentence. So much for "The people united can never be ignited!". Although this is unusual in that the momentum wasn't lost when the dragon incinerated the man. People were already starting to question what, precisely, was being proposed to stop the dragon from just killing them all and moving to a different city if they didn't cooperate.

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

* ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'': The final quest before the Battle of Hoover Dam inolves either protecting (for NCR, Independent, or House aligned Couriers) or assassinating (for Legion aligned Couriers) President Kimball of the New California Republic while he gives a rallying speech to the troops gathered there. If you're trying to assassinate him, you must do so before he leaves via Vertibird, so sniping him in the middle of the speech is easiest. If you're trying to protect him, any number of things could kill him before he's done speaking.

* ''VideoGame/{{Skyrim}}'': During the quest "With Friends Like These...", you're tasked to kill one of three captives, purportedly because there's a bounty involved. One of them is Vasha, an extremely corrupt khajiit who boasts about his crimes and sins, and makes it clear that getting bagged and dragged into the wilderness to have some lily-livered goon make impotent threats at him is a common occurence that he's stopped caring about long ago, and snidely promises you a relatively painless death if you let him go. Since you can end the conversation while he's still talking, it's perfectly possible to cut short his grandstanding with a swift blade. Or arrow. Or fireball. (And no, no retribution will come from killing him. Maybe he wasn't as important as he thought.)

->''"I'm ashamed of you, dodging that way for simple bullets. They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance!"''

* The trope is named for John Sedgwick, a United States Army general in UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar 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 [[BoomHeadshot shot in the head]] by a sniper.

!!Examples

[[folder: Comic Books]]

[[folder:Film]]

* In the CG movie pilot to ''WesternAnimation/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.

* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E5EvolutionOfTheDaleks "Evolution of the Daleks"]], the leader of Hooverville attempts to show the Daleks that they're NotSoDifferent than him, and gets XRaySparks through his body for the trouble. It's also played with, in that, since he's talking to [[AxCrazy the Daleks]], it doesn't matter if he were as eloquent as his namesake-the audience knows that he'll still get murdered.
-->'''Solomon:''' Whadda you say, Daleks?\\
'''Dalek:''' [[AC:Exterminate!]]

* In ''[[Literature/{{Sharpe}} Sharpe's Peril]]'', a priest tries to convince the villainous leader not to fight because it's the Sabbath. The villain replies that "you of all people should know that God does not work on a Sunday" and shoots him.
* In the series finale of ''Series/TheWire'', during a meeting of the remaining high-ranking drug dealers after the Stanfield Organization collapses, Cheese Wagstaff (the sole high-ranking member of the Stanfield group left standing) goes into an impassioned tirade about how "there ain't no back in the day" and how it's now ''their'' time to shine, inadvertently implying that he was in on the coup that led to the death of his uncle, the former kingpin of the Baltimore drug trade. He never gets to finish the speech, as his uncle's right-hand man shoots him in the head point blank mid-sentence.
-->'''Cheese:''' "When it was my uncle, I was with my uncle. When it was Marlo, I was with him. But ''now,'' nigga --"
* In the second episode of ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' , Crow makes such a speech promising revenge to the crew for refusing to finish a job (in response to Mal's offer to refund the employer's money). He then gets kicked by Mal straight into Serenity's engine and the offer gets repeated to the next mook, who wisely accepts.

* By proxy in ''Series/{{Angel}}''. After Knox has been responsible for Fred's death, Angel gives a speech to him about how every human is worth saving and redeemable. Wesley interrupts it by shooting Knox dead.
-->'''Angel''': You're about as low as it gets, Knox, but you're a part of humanity. That isn't always pretty, but it's a hell of a lot better than what came before. And if it comes down to a choice between you and him, then yes, I would fight for his life, just like any other human's. Because that's what people do. That's what makes us—\\
[''Wesley shoots Knox'']\\
'''Angel''': Were you even ''listening''?

[[folder:VideoGames]]

** General Oliver also gets one if you're Independent, although he's allowed to finish talking. After taking the Dam along with the NCR, you tell them to get off your territory. He'll deliver a harangue ending with "If our roles were reversed, I'd see you hang." Possible response? "Yes Man, throw the General off the dam."
** ''VideoGame/{{Skyrim}}'': During the quest "With Friends Like These...", you're tasked to kill one of three captives, purportedly because there's a bounty involved. One of them is Vasha, an extremely corrupt khajiit who boasts about his crimes and sins, and makes it clear that getting bagged and dragged into the wilderness to have some lily-livered goon make impotent threats at him is a common occurence that he's stopped caring about long ago, and snidely promises you a relatively painless death if you let him go. Since you can end the conversation while he's still talking, it's perfectly possible to cut short his grandstanding with a swift blade. Or arrow. Or fireball. (And no, no retribution will come from killing him. Maybe he wasn't as important as he thought.)

* ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'': The final quest before the Battle of Hoover Dam inolves either protecting (for [=NCR=]-aligned Couriers) or assassinating (for Legion, Independent, or House-aligned Couriers) President Kimball of the New California Republic while he gives a rallying speech to the troops gathered there. If you're trying to assassinate him, you must do so before he leaves via Vertibird, so sniping him in the middle of the speech is easiest. If you're trying to protect him, any number of things could kill him before he's done speaking.

* In a bit of MoralDissonance, ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRings Return of the King]]'' had Aragorn cheerfully kill the Mouth of Sauron while the latter was discussing the terms of peace. Though knowing Sauron, they were probably more like "terms of unconditional surrender".[[note]]The book lets the Mouth finish. It would probably be fairer to describe it as terms of conditional surrender.[[/note]]

* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'': "It's not like they have tanks." Cue [[spoiler:the Briggs brigade]] deploying TankGoodness for one ''hell'' of a CrowningMomentOfAwesome.

%% This version of the quote is the correct one. There's a funny alternate version around
%% where he is KilledMidSentence but that's not accurate, so we won't use that puppy.

* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E5EvolutionOfTheDaleks "Evolution of the Daleks"]], the leader of Hooverville attempts to show the Daleks that they're NotSoDifferent than him, and gets XRaySparks through his body for the trouble.

** The Literature/HorribleHistories book about the era includes a cartoon which depicts two soldiers looking at Sedgwick's corpse, one saying "Pity he wasn't an elephant."

* ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'' features one of these. Willy Tybur, [[spoiler:the secret ruler of the Kingdom of Marley]] is giving a speech at a festival in Liberio where many [[TemptingFate politicians, nobles and military officials]] (including [[spoiler:the next generation of potential Titan shifters]]) about how [[spoiler:Eren Yeager]] is a betrayer of peace and the enemy of humanity. He riles the crowd up by [[spoiler:saying that all the different countries need to work together to wipe out the Eldians and Paradis Island once and for all]]. Right as he declares war against [[spoiler:Paradis Island]], he's [[spoiler:killed after Eren, who was hiding underground, transforms into his Titan and slices Willy in half with his hands]].

* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist''. "It's not like they have tanks." Cue [[spoiler:the Briggs brigade]] deploying TankGoodness for one ''hell'' of a CrowningMomentOfAwesome.

* In a bit of MoralDissonance, ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRings Return of the King]]'' 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"[[note]]The book lets the spokesperson finish. It would probably be fairer to describe it as terms of conditional surrender.[[/note]].

* In ''Kogaratsu'''s The Torn-up Summer, as the first big battle begins, a samurai rides forward to issue a DuelToTheDeath to which the opposite army answers by [[ShutupKirk gunning him there and then]]. To prevent his army routing, another samurai rides forward and deliberatly invokes this trope by putting himself in the line of fire to give a speech on courage and duty in the face of death. [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim The result is fairly predictable.]]

** In ''Film/TheBourneSupremacy'', [[spoiler: Marie]]'s last words: "You have a choice". Subverted because [[spoiler: Bourne does, in fact, take them to heart, and refrains thereafter from killing in cold blood]].

--> '''Toren''': "Okay, that was a desperate tactic, heh. [[spoiler:Destroying the beams holding the ceiling up in the hopes of crushing the both of us? But it won't be that difficult for me to keep this place from caving in long enough to finish you off and get that damn book I was sent here f- URRK!"]]

* The trope is named for John Sedgwick, a United States Army general in UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar 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.

** The HorribleHistories book about the era includes a cartoon which depicts two soldiers looking at Sedgwick's corpse, one saying "Pity he wasn't an elephant."