History Main / SpreeKiller

* ''Literature/{{Worm}}'': The Slaughterhouse Nine are a particularly horrifying, superpowered version of this trope. Actively travelling around the United States, the collective group has a body count well into the thousands, killing multiple victims in each rampage, most prominently [[WouldHitAGirl women]], [[WouldHurtAChild children and babies]]. This has come to bite them in the ass at points, as they have lost a fair number of past members they've had to replace, the government [[KillOnSight does not cares about taking them alive any longer]], and [[EnemyMine less evil supervillains will team up with the capes]] to take them down out of [[EvenEvilHasStandards sheer disgust]].

-->--'''[[https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/125933-the-purest-surrealist-act-is-walking-into-a-crowd-with Andre Breton]]'''

* The ''other'' chief influences, especially in more modern works, are the [[UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}} Columbine High School killers]] Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. A pair of juvenile {{delinquents}} and computer geeks, Harris was an FauxAffablyEvil [[TheSociopath sociopath]] and MisanthropeSupreme while Klebold was known to be very shy and reserved, though the both of them were also known to have {{Hair Trigger Temper}}s. Their friendship was a co-dependent one; Klebold's lack of self-esteem caused him to be easily drawn into Harris' plan to shoot up the school, and Harris in turn sought validation from the more popular Klebold. Before their massacre, in which they killed twelve students and a teacher and injured twenty-four others, Harris and Klebold left behind a treasure trove of diaries, videotapes, webpages, and other documents that afforded investigators and media an in-depth look at their private lives. When it comes to school shooters in particular, fictional depictions will often base their characters on Harris and/or Klebold, from their fashion sense ([[BadassLongcoat their trench coats]] in particular became an enduring symbol of mass murder) to their relationship (one killer holding a dominant position over the other) to their nihilism to even some of the UrbanLegends that proliferated after the shooting (such as them targeting Christians and jocks, them being gay lovers, or them having been [[MurderSimulators influenced by violent video games]]), while numerous other mass shooters have cited the two as an inspiration.

* The ''other'' chief influences, especially in more modern works, are the [[UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}} Columbine High School killers]] Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. A pair of juvenile {{delinquents}} and computer geeks, Harris was an AffablyEvil [[TheSociopath sociopath]] and MisanthropeSupreme while Klebold was known to be very shy and reserved, though the both of them were also known to have {{Hair Trigger Temper}}s. Their friendship was a co-dependent one; Klebold's lack of self-esteem caused him to be easily drawn into Harris' plan to shoot up the school, and Harris in turn sought validation from the more popular Klebold. Before their massacre, in which they killed twelve students and a teacher and injured twenty-four others, Harris and Klebold left behind a treasure trove of diaries, videotapes, webpages, and other documents that afforded investigators and media an in-depth look at their private lives. When it comes to school shooters in particular, fictional depictions will often base their characters on Harris and/or Klebold, from their fashion sense ([[BadassLongcoat their trench coats]] in particular became an enduring symbol of mass murder) to their relationship (one killer holding a dominant position over the other) to their nihilism to even some of the UrbanLegends that proliferated after the shooting (such as them targeting Christians and jocks, them being gay lovers, or them having been [[MurderSimulators influenced by violent video games]]), while numerous other mass shooters have cited the two as an inspiration.

* In ''Film/{{Savageland}}'', Francisco Salazar (the [[spoiler:SoleSurvivor of a ZombieApocalypse that massacred a Texas frontier town]]) is [[FallGuy accused of being one]] by the PersecutingProsecutor [[spoiler:put in place by the GovernmentConspiracy trying to cover it up]]. Sheer RefugeInAudacity is what allows him to succeed when the other TalkingHeads in the [[{{Mockumentary}} documentary]] point out that the man is accusing Salazar of successfully killing 57 people with nothing but [[MacheteMayhem a machete]] and a pickax and was so damned frightening in his spree that [[spoiler:a dozen of them climbed up to the town's water tower [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled and jumped off so he wouldn't get them]].]]

*** [[spoiler:Dale Stuckey]] from season 10 was an annoying and overly enthusiastic CSU technician, who, due to his frequent screw-ups. quickly became the subject of mockery and bullying by the entire SVU. [[Recap/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnitS10E22Zebras Following an error of his causing the murder weapon in particular case to be declared inadmissible in court and the killer Peter Harrison to be get away]], he was publicly humiliated and snapped, vowing to ensure the killing was re-implicated. He murdered a woman and framed Harrison, then killed Harrison's lawyer with a gas trap (mimicking one Harrison himself had used to try to kill the detectives) and set up another trap to kill Judge Donnelly for criticizing him in court (Donnelly managed to get to the hospital on time). When his boss managed to find evidence linking him to the murders, [[spoiler:Dale]] stabbed him through the heart and then kidnaped Detective Stabler, planning to torture him to death [[WhosLaughingNow for all his former bullying]].

* The original theatrical version of ''Film/TwoMinuteWarning'' is one of the first realistic depictions of this trope in fiction. At the time (Main/TheSeventies), it was so unsettling that to have the film released on television the producers had to add additional scenes showing that there was a rational motive for the rampage.

Thus any breaks between the killings often amount to hours, occasionally days and rarely weeks (such as if time is required to plan a big attack) but to qualify, at no point do they return to normal during their spree, only after it is over (assuming that they have an end point and aren't going to simply carry on until they are stopped).

Often their killing spree will initially appear to be completely random, but as events unfold a clear pattern will emerge as more is discovered about the individual. But it is equally likely (especially in cases were the killer is clearly out of their mind) for it to be truly random. Sometimes this amounts to them just killing the nearest person to hand.

* ''ComicBook/JohnnyTheHomicidalManiac'': Whilst more commonly depicted as a SerialKiller and a [[AxCrazy Mass Murderer]], the titular [[VillainProtagonist Johnny or Nny]] has gone on several successful killing spree's, with the heavy implication that he has done more offscreen.

* ''ComicBook/{{Reborn}}'': The [[ColdSniper Minnesota shooter]] was a vicious spree killer who starts the series going on a final murder spree that kills eleven people including Bonnie Black's husband Harry. His one regret before he commits suicide is that he didn't manage to [[AxCrazy kill more people]]. Seemingly an inconsequential character in the narrative its eventually revealed [[spoiler: he was the human form of [[EvilOverlord Lord Golotha]], his soul black enough to conquer the Dark Lands and rule over the damned]].
* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'': [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain Alexander Trent]], the second Bloodsport, was a bitter, racist, hate filled sociopath. Approached by [[DemonLordsAndArchDevils Bloodthirst]] with the offer of getting revenge on the minorities Trent irrationally hated, he happily agreed to become an agent of chaos. He went on a rampage throughout Hob's Heights, his only goal being to kill as many blacks, Hispanics, Jews, aliens and "race traitors" as possible, his rampage slaughtered thirty people before Superman arrived. As such Bloodsport set fire to the heights and distracted Superman by launching two missiles one at Jimmy Olson, one at Ron Troupe. Seeming killing himself in an explosion, Trent survived and returned after most of Metropolis was destroyed to go on another spree killing, killing dozens more before being defeated.
* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: In issue #204 an unnamed man sets himself up in a tall building and starts shooting the people down below, his highest profile kill being I-Ching, and he only stops killing when he falls out of his perch and dies trying to kill Diana.

* ''Film/AmericanPsycho'': [[VillainProtagonist Patrick Bateman]] is a mentally disturbed SerialKiller. When an ATM flashes a message asking him to feed it a stray cat, he starts to comply and a woman tries to intervene. Bateman shoots her dead and flees, with police officers on his tail. He gets into a gunfight with the cops and becomes a CopKiller, [[EveryCarIsAPinto blowing their cars up]] in a fiery explosion with his handgun. He then mistakenly enters the office building next to the one where he works and casually murders the nighttime security guard at the desk and a janitor before signing into the correct office. Because the story is told ThroughTheEyesOfMadness this entire sequence might be a [[AllJustADream hallucination]].
* ''Film/AssaultOnWallStreet'': [[VigilanteMan Jim Baxford]] goes on a rampage after losing his savings due to the bad investments of [[MorallyBankruptBanker crooked financial advisers]] causing him to lose his job, his home and [[spoiler:his wife]]. Using his military training he targets professionals in the financial industry and caps it off with a shooting spree inside the bank that screwed him over.

* The 2006 version of ''[[Film/BlackChristmas2006 Black Christmas]]'' contains a scene in which a character describes infamous cannibal killer Billy Lenz as a serial killer, only for another character to correct them by saying, "No, you see, serial killers murder repeatedly for sexual thrill. Billy Lenz was a spree killer. [[SophisticatedAsHell Dude just fucking lost it]]."

* ''Film/TheHidden'': The villain is an [[PuppeteerParasite alien parasite who uses human hosts]] to engage in a general crime spree, including numerous murders through methods varying from shooting, bludgeoning, stabbing, and vehicular homicide (having no compunctions with murdering children or the infirm) all committed in a short timespan. Its ability to BodySurf allows it to extend its rampage even longer, going through a half-dozen hosts throughout the film, all of which are killed in the process as well.
* ''Film/JackReacher'': Subverted. Following the massacre that opens the film, suspicion falls upon a former Marine sniper who Jack Reacher knows executed a mass shooting whilst he was serving in Afghanistan just to scratch [[SociopathicSoldier his itch for killing someone (which is why he enlisted to begin with)]], something he only got away with because it turned out that the people he killed were a bunch of PrivateMilitaryContractors who were out on the town on a "[[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil rape party]]" and Reacher's superiors ordered him to stop investigating because they didn't wanted that to come to light. Reacher suspects that he has become a Spree Killer. However, it turns out he is being framed and specifically asked for Reacher to investigate because he knows Reacher will realize it's not him. [[spoiler:It turns out to be a case of [[SerialKillingsSpecificTarget Spree Killing, Specific Target]]. The real villains, RuthlessForeignGangsters who used a construction firm as [[LegitimateBusinessmansSocialClub their cover]], were carrying out a hit on the owner of a local rival construction company, and did it as a mass shooting with multiple fatalities in order to make it look like a random bloodbath.]]

* Thana in ''Film/Ms45'' becomes when she goes completely off the deep end, gunning down any man she encounters. In particular, she guns down five WhiteGangBangers in the park, and the later murders the sheik and his driver in his limo on the same night.

* ''Film/{{Office}}'': Kim Byeong-gook is a frustrated, resentful section chief at a big bureau-building who possesses nothing but hatred for his co-workers. After being fired from his job, Kim went home and [[PaterFamilicide brutally murdered his family]], bludgeoning his wife, son and mother-in-law to death with a hammer. Afterwards he returns to the office and seemingly goes on a rampage killing four of his colleagues, by methods such as hanging one from the ceiling and throwing another from a window. [[spoiler: Or so it would seem, in reality Kim committed suicide whilst hiding at the bottom of the elevator shaft. The actual killer is Lee Mi-rye, an introverted intern who is always being bullied by her superiors, except Kim. The film leaves it [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundanee ambiguous if Kim's spirit is possessing Lee or if she simply snapped from all the pressure and abuse she was under.]] Surviving after their last co-worker is shot by a detective who mistakes them for the killer, Lee is taken to hospital with the ending suggesting she's going to work at another office and repeat the killing spree.]]

* In ''Film/{{Savageland}}'', Francisco Salazar (the [[spoiler:SoleSurvivor of a ZombieApocalypse that massacred a Texas frontier town]]) is [[FallGuy accused of being one]] by the PersecutingProsecutor [[spoiler:put in place by the GovernmentConspiracy trying to cover it up]]. Sheer RefugeInAudacity is what allows him to succeed, when the other TalkingHeads in the [[{{Mockumentary}} documentary]] point out that the man is accusing Salazar of successfully killing 57 people with nothing but [[MacheteMayhem a machete]] and a pickax and was so damned frightening in his spree that [[spoiler:a dozen of them climbed up to the town's water tower [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled and jumped off so he wouldn't get them]].]]

* ''Film/{{Targets}}'': Bobby Thompson, a recently returned Vietnam Vet who finally snaps one day and goes on rampage. He starts by killing his wife, his mother and a delivery boy in his suburban home. That afternoon, Thompson continues the killing spree, shooting people in passing cars from atop an oil storage tank that sits alongside a heavily traveled freeway. When the police respond and start to close in on Thompson, he flees to drive-in theatre where he murders the projectionist and starts shooting at the patrons.

* The original theatrical version of ''Film/TwoMinuteWarning'' is one of the first realistic depiction of this trope in fiction. At the time (Main/TheSeventies) it was so unsettling that to have the film released on television the producers had to add additional scenes showing that there was a rational motive for the rampage.

* ''Literature/CHERUBSeries'': The novel "Maximum Security" features a fourteen-year-old boy named [[TeensAreMonsters Curtis Key]]. Mentally unwell and suicidal, Curtis is the son of the novel's main villain [[BigBad Jane Oxford]], an ArmsDealer whose number #2 on the FBI's most wanted list. After escaping from an abusive Arizona military boarding school, he went to a nearby liquor store and requested vodka from the clerk behind the counter. When the clerk asked for proof of age, Curtis shot the clerk dead with a handgun and heavily drank the vodka. On the way out, Curtis spotted a man with a Jaguar car. He then killed both the driver and his girlfriend and took the Jaguar and drove more than twenty miles at a dangerous high speed while slugging down a mix of vodka and coke at the same time before his arrest. Following revealing what he had been through to his lawyers, they managed to arrange for him to be sent a mental health facility.

* ''Literature/MercyThompson'': [[EvilSorcerer Cory Littleton]] of the novel "Blood Bound", is an unconventional supernatural version. Starting off as an evil and psychopathic killer in Chicago, he gains powers and is accidentally freed from the control of his vampiric Sire. Littleton then massacres all of the inhabitants of a motel (4 people in all) and had one tortured to death as well -- then he spreads a HatePlague across the entire Tri cities, Washington which induces rage in the hope of causing people to fight each other to the death which rackets up his body count into the dozens.

* ''Literature/WeNeedToTalkAboutKevin'': The titular [[TeensAreMonsters Kevin]] is a budding sociopath, with a contempt for everyone else in existence and a twisted relationship with his mother. Prompted by the discovery his parents are planning to divorce and she'll lose custody of him, depriving him of his victory over her, Kevin [[spoiler: kills his father and little sister]]. Then he proceeds to his school, where he locks all the doors to the gymnasium and goes on a rampage killing nine classmates, a teacher and a cafeteria worker with his bow (choosing it to avoid any political discussions [[AttentionWhore taking the focus off him]]), his timing specifically so that he can't be sentenced as an adult, and will avoid life in prison.

* ''Series/{{Blindspot}}'': Following solving a tattoo in "In the Comet of Us", the investigation leads the team to Read's Alma Mater, Hudson University. Only for two shooters to suddenly start a rampage through the campus, seemingly randomly killing people. Its finally revealed that they're both former football stars, who were sexually abused by Coach Mike Jones. However, as the Football program made the university a fortune, the corrupt school board covered up Jones' crimes. Now years later the two of them finally snapped and wanted revenge on those who ruined their lives.

** Cameron Coulter and Neal Hanlon, from season 4's "Rampage", best friends who were frequently mocked and bullied by their peers, the two were also unstable and psychotic (Cameron writing "I am The Destroyer, The Apocalypse, The Widowmaker. I am a rifle, I am a gun. Look down the barrel of my hate - we're going to have some fun" in his journal, and Neal drawing a lot of disturbing art). Following months of planning and boasting (to which no one took them seriously) the two committed the Woodland Valley Mall Massacre, Cameron using a shotgun whilst Neal had a pistol. Together they rampaged through the mall, killing fifteen people and wounding many others, before finally turning their guns on themselves and committing suicide.

* ''Series/{{Coroner}}'': The two-parter "Scattered" and "Quick and Dead" see's Jenny Cooper facing [[FaceOfAnAngelMindOfADemon Dylan Lee]] and [[TheSociopath Randal "Storm" Jeffries]], a pair of psychos unified by a shared obsession with death and the fantasy of murder. Having already killed three people previously (including Lee [[{{Matricide}} killing his mother]]), following the police getting close the two embrace their fantasy and go on a killing spree with [[MacheteMayhem machetes]], starting with them killing Storm's parents, then murdering an electrical engineer for not moving his van out of there way in time, then a mechanic and finally trying to kill Lee's girlfriend Amanda. Dylan secretly plans to kill Storm at the end and be the only survivor.
* ''Series/Cracked2013'': [[EvilDuo The shooters]] from "Voices" are a pair of reclusive, video game obsessed shut-ins, who randomly decide to become spree killers out of the belief it will make them famous and prove their masculinity. They start off killing their property manager Herman Strunk, and over the next few days proceed to kill more people, planning to wipe out the entire apartment building. Of the duo it's clear the older member with the beard is in change, dragging the younger member along for the ride.
* ''Series/CriminalMinds'': The BAU has faced and investigated a number of Spree Killers over the years, often facing at least one each season. It is likewise not uncommon for other types of killer to descend into this when the BAU's investigations close in on them forcing them to change tactics. Some notable examples include: [[IAmAHumanitarian Eddie Mayes]] from season 1's "[[Recap/CriminalMindsS1E11BloodHungry Blood Hungry]]". [[KnightTemplar Ronald Weems]] from season 2's "[[Recap/CriminalMindsS2E11SexBirthDeath Sex, Birth, Death,]]". [[TragicVillain Owen Savage]] from season 3's "[[Recap/CriminalMindsS3E16ElephantsMemory Elephant's Memory]]". [[CombatPragmatist Animal]] and [[SympatheticMurderer Norman Hill]] from season 4's "[[Recap/CriminalMindsS4E10BrothersInArms Brothers In Arms]]" and "[[Recap/CriminalMindsS4E11Normal Normal]]" respectively. [[TeensAreMonsters Jeremy Sawyer]] from Season 6's "[[Recap/CriminalMindsS6E5SafeHaven Safe Haven]]". [[PsychoExGirlfriend Chloe Donaghy]] from season 7's "[[Recap/CriminalMindsS7E1ItTakesAVillage It Takes Village]]" and [[AntiVillain Frank Crosgrove]] from season 10's "[[Recap/CriminalMindsS10E12Anonymous Anonymous]]".

** ''Series/{{CSI}}'': William Cutler from season 6's "Bang Bang", having been passed over for a promotion, lost all his money gambling trying to win back what he spent celebrating before finding out, and coming home to find his wife cheating on him, William snapped and went on a rampage killing the people he believed betrayed him -- first his unfaithful wife, then his boss, then finally the co-worker who got the promotion he believed was his. Framing his dead brother for the spree, William stabbed himself to fool the police into thinking he was also a victim. Later when a Cop tried to break up a fight he was in, William started a second spree, shooting the cop, a croupier and taking a woman hostage. He shot Jim Bass before being killed by the police.

*** [[CriminalMindGames Shane Casey]], Danny Messer's {{Archenemy}}, whilst originally an [[SerialKiller avenging killer]] trying to prove his that his older brother Ian was innocent of the robbery that got him arrested and subsequently committed suicide over, and kill those he blamed for it. Following Danny proving that Ian really did commit the robbery and arresting him, Shane developed an obsessive hatred for Danny. Masterminding a breakout years later right before he was executed Shane went on a killing spree, first poisoning his would be executioner and shooting his accomplice. Several days later after being arrested, Shane strangled a guard with his handcuffs and escaping killed his former cell-mate and accomplice, before trying to kill Danny.

* ''Series/{{FBI}}'': "Crossfire" see's Bell and Zidan dealing with Cole Cooper, a former decorated Army Ranger who had a mental breakdown following his girlfriends death. With the assistance of his ward Kofi, Cooper went on a killing spree attacking area's associated with his old life. Killing three people in Park Avenue shooting, then six more at his old apartment building, then a police officer, with his final target being a church planning on massacring the Parishioners. Despite Bell's efforts to talk him down, he was shot by a police sniper.

** In "[[Recap/FBIMostWantedS01E05 Invisible]]", ShellShockedVeteran Lt. Weitzen snaps shoots and kills five people at the shooting range.

*** [[AntiVillain Justin Laufferty]], from season 13's "Sheltered", who was kidnapped at a young age and raised in an environment of near total co-dependence by former sniper Herman Capshaw. Upon discovering that Capshaw's boss, Charlie Rodriguez, planned to fire him, Justin decided the only answer was to kill him, and with Herman's rifle he went on a shooting spree, [[SerialKillingsSpecificTarget killing Rodriguez and three other people to disguise the intent]].
*** [[WouldHurtAChild Leon Vorgitch]], from season 17's "[[Recap/LawAndOrderS17E9Deadlock Deadlock]]", is a vicious sociopath. Imprisoned for randomly murdering five people a burger join in 1997, whilst being transferred he escaped custody by stabbing two guards to death, then murdered a gun dealer and stole a pistol. Taking a classroom full of elementary school children hostage after killing their teacher, he shoots four children when he mistakes a truck backfiring for the police shooting at him.

*** [[BigBrotherBully Charlie Baker]] from season 4's "[[Recap/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnitS4E20Dominance Dominance]]" is an especially twisted example. A monstrous psychopath, he spent years abusing (including once raping) his little brother Billy. In adulthood he forces Billy to go on a rampage, where he would [[RapeByProxy make couples rape each other at gun point]] before Billy shot them, killing seven people in the span of two days. Then he personally killed four more people to frame his brother, and kidnapped two women and left them for dead.
*** [[spoiler: Dale Stuckey]] from season 10 was an annoying and overly enthusiastic CSU technician, who due his frequent screw ups quickly became the subject of mockery and bullying by the entire SVU. [[Recap/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnitS10E22Zebras Following an error of his causing the murder weapon in particular case to be declared inadmissible in court and the killer Peter Harrison to be get away]], he was publicly humiliated and snapped, vowing to ensure the killing was re-implicated. He murdered a woman and framed Harrison, then killed Harrison's lawyer with a gas trap (mimicking one Harrison himself had used to try to kill the detectives) and set up another trap to kill Judge Donnelly for criticizing him in court (Donnelly managed to get to the hospital on time). When his boss managed to find evidence linking him to the murders, [[spoiler:Dale]] stabbed him through the heart and then kidnaped Detective Stabler, planning to torture him to death [[WhosLaughingNow for all his former bullying]].
*** Craig Rasmussen, from season 14's "Dreams Deferred", a former bus driver whose life had gone down the drain, Craig went on a shooting spree throughout New York that lasted 48 hours. First he murdered his mother-in-law, then going to his wife's office, murdered her and two of her colleagues. He then carried on his rampage throughout the city, shooting up an inn and a maintenance yard, as well as several random people he met, before finally being shot by the police.
*** Gloria Montero, from season 14's "Poisoned Motive", the daughter of Fin's old partner Luis who was injured during a drug bust, that ended with him losing his job and disability check, and Gloria's mother to die of breast cancer due to not being able to pay for her treatment. After being rejected by both the army and the police due to failing the psychological profile, Gloria goes on a shooting spree to get revenge on those she blames for what happened to her father by targeting their loved ones: first Fin's new partner, then the son of the lieutenant who fired Luis, then the drug baron's girlfriend. Descending she killed a traffic warden who put a ticket on her father's car, a security officer at the abandoned hospital were her mother died and finally took the family that moved into their old house hostage.
** ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'': [[TheFundamentalist Paul Devildis]], from season 8's "Family Values", is an conservative Christian. Following being fired from his job, which threatened to bankrupt his family and destroyed his self-image as a provider, over a period of five months he descended into insanity, his beliefs extending into dangerous fanaticism with him going on a killing spree, lashing out at anything that offended it. He bludgeoned his sister-in-law, who he saw as immoral, to death with a hammer, then killed his daughter's teacher for being a lesbian and organizing on a Creator/TennesseeWilliams play. He killed his former boss with a pipe bomb, and after being questioned panicked, killing his wife, their dog and kidnapping his daughter, planning to kill her to send her to heaven. Goran managed to talk him down; by arguing he himself had sinned and needed to repent.
* ''Series/{{Luther}}'': "Episode 2" has John Luther face Owen Lynch, a former Royal Marine recently returned from Afghanistan, who goes on a rampage murdering [[CopKiller police officers]]. Setting up traps to lure officers out, he would them snipe them, killing six officers over two days. When a {{SWAT Team}} raided his supposed hideout he killed four more with a bomb. Luther managed to figure out that Owen's [[AbusiveParents abusive father]] Terry was behind the rampage. Sentenced to life without parole for murdering a police officer whilst his son was away on tour, Terry forced Owen to go on a killing spree ordering him not to stop until the authorities agreed to release him.

** Season 13's "Shadows", features [[spoiler: Scott Weston]] an sociopathic university student, fond of nihilistic and murderous rhetoric. He formed a partnership with two other students, the troubled [[spoiler: Neil Corrigan]] and the bullied Jason Renfrew, and convincing them of mind set, planned a killing spree managing to get his hands on two guns. He murdered Jason, who had gotten cold feet, by slitting his wrists and staged it as a suicide. Then the next day dressed all in [[MalevolentMaskedMan leather with a full face mask]] he went on a rampage with a machine pistol, slaughtering everyone he encountered including the detective investigating Jason's death. Wanting to destroy the entire campus, he planted numerous chemical bombs all over, planning to blow the entire place to kingdom come. [[spoiler: Scott was shot by Neil, after goading him and revealing he killed Jason, who Neil had a crush on, but survived. As Neil had taken his gun and was wearing the same outfit, he was mistaken for the shooter and shot dead by the police. Evidence like an outright video manifesto leads to Scott's imprisonment by the end of the episode, still bald-facedly trying to pin the blame on Neil as the real mastermind.]] Nikki even brings up Charles Whitman's infamous rampage, including the fact they found a large tumor in his brain during the autopsy afterwards.
** Season 18's "Snipers Nest", see's them facing a [[ColdSniper long range sniper]], who [[spoiler: along with his teenage accomplice]], seemingly randomly murders eight people in five attacks over the span of two day's to [[SerialKillingsSpecificTarget hide the real targets of his murder spree]], including his [[spoiler: accomplice's abusive father]]. He even phones Nikki to boast that he's invincible and she will never capture him.
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': In "Slash Fiction", deciding that Sam and Dean are a potential threat to the [[EldritchAbomination Leviathan's]] plans [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Dick Roman]] has two take Sam and Dean's forms, then go on a cross country murder spree. Their MO is enter a populated areas such as banks or diners in towns that Sam and Dean have already been to, then slaughter everyone ensuring their always caught on Camera. This causes the actual Sam and Dean to skyrocket to the top of the FBI's most wanted list and have a country wide manhunt after them. Following the real Sam and Dean being caught up the local police whilst trying to stop their Doppelgangers, the two attack the sheriff's station killing and eating everyone before being defeated.
* ''Series/{{SWAT|2017}}'': "Patrol" involves Chris and Mumford dealing with Zack Larabe's rampage. Suffering from both Bipolar and Borderline personality disorder after a long history of violent behavior, following the woman he was dating Brianna refusing him a third date, he snapped and became a Spree Killer. Zack attempted to murder his court mandated therapist, killing another patient and only failing because his gun jammed. He then got it upgraded to a fully automatic machine gun, and killed his ArmsDealer. Storming Brianna's workplace he tried to kill her. His final plan was to board a bus, at the same bus stop he ran away to as a child to escape his abusive mother only to be ignored by everyone, then upon it filling up kill everyone on board.
* ''Series/WhitechapelTVSeries'': The last two episodes of season three see the team facing a masked [[PoeticSerialKiller Poetic spree-killer]] who targets teenage delinquents whilst dressed up as the [[MalevolentMaskedMan Boogieman]]. He kills a woman who had a history of making crank calls by forcing her mobile phone down her throat, sets up a delinquent who threated people with a gun to be shot by the police, and drains the blood of a graffiti artist and then uses it to paint over their graffiti. Finally, for a woman who committed vandalism, including breaking a council flat's elevator, he overpowers then drags her up the stairs specifically so that her head hits each step. [[spoiler: It's revealed he is the son of a local helpful resident, who died of a heart attack whilst climbing said stairs which he blames on the delinquents for causing him so much stress.]]

** "O'Malley's Bar" is a 14 minute song in which the VillainProtagonist describes in loving detail how he slaughters all of the occupants of the eponymous tavern.

* ''VideoGame/Persona2'': This is how the JOKER curse works in ''Eternal Punishment''. At first, it was a one-man MurderInc, as anyone could ask the JOKER to murder someone and he would do it. However, after his death the curse turned into a HatePlague, as literally anyone could now turn into a JOKER and go on a spree murdering everyone around them.
* ''VideoGame/{{Postal}}'': [[HisNameReallyIsBarkeep The Postal Dude]] is an mentally ill man who deludedly thinks he is the OnlySaneMan in a world gone mad. Becoming a spree killer, he murders his way across his town killing everyone he encounters to destroy the local Air Force base, followed by an elementary school.

* ''VideoGame/MorimiyaMiddleSchoolShooting'': As the title indicates, the game is centered around [[AxesAtSchool a massacre at a school]]. [[VillainProtagonist The unnamed female protagonist]] decides to shoot up her school, with the player able to determine their weaponry and buy upgrades earned through playthroughs. There are several overt and subtle references to real life spree killers sprinkled throughout the game.

* The ''other'' chief influences, especially in more modern works, are the [[UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}} Columbine High School killers]], Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. A pair of juvenile {{delinquents}} and computer geeks, Harris was an AffablyEvil [[TheSociopath sociopath]] and MisanthropeSupreme while Klebold was known to be very shy and reserved, though the both of them were also known to have {{Hair Trigger Temper}}s. Their friendship was a co-dependent one; Klebold's lack of self-esteem caused him to be easily drawn into Harris' plan to shoot up the school, and Harris in turn sought validation from the more popular Klebold. Before their massacre, in which they killed twelve students and a teacher and injured twenty-four others, Harris and Klebold left behind a treasure trove of diaries, videotapes, webpages, and other documents that afforded investigators and media an in-depth look at their private lives. When it comes to school shooters in particular, fictional depictions will often base their characters on Harris and/or Klebold, from their fashion sense ([[BadassLongcoat their trench coats]] in particular became an enduring symbol of mass murder) to their relationship (one killer holding a dominant position over the other) to their nihilism to even some of the UrbanLegends that proliferated after the shooting (such as them targeting Christians and jocks, them being gay lovers, or them having been [[MurderSimulators influenced by violent video games]]), while numerous other mass shooters have cited the two as an inspiration.

* Radical islamic terrorism attacks in Western Europe in TheNewTens, with most of the perpetrators having undergone radicalization and training either with branches of Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. France has been hit the hardest:
** Mohammed Merah's rampage between March 11 and March 22, 2012 in South-Western France that killed seven people, including children and a teacher at a Jewish private school and military personel.
** The attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris by the Kouachi brothers that killed 12 people between January 7 and January 8, 2015 and extended into a kosher supermarket.

* In ''Film/{{Savageland}}'', Francisco Salazar (the [[spoiler:SoleSurvivor of a ZombieApocalypse that massacred a Texas frontier town]]) is [[FallGuy accused of being one]] by the PersecutingProsecutor [[spoiler:put in place by the GovernmentConspiracy trying to cover it up]]. Sheer RefugeInAudacity is what allows him to succeed, when the other TalkingHeads in the [[{{Mockumentary}} documentary]] point out that the man is accusing Salazar of successfully killing 57 people with nothing but [[MacheteMayhem a machete]] and a pickax and was so damned frightening in his spree that [[spoiler:a dozen of them climbed up to the town's water tower [[BetterToDieThanGetKilled and jumped off so he wouldn't get them]].]]

* ''Literature/{{Worm}}'': The Slaughterhouse Nine are a particularly horrifying, superpowered version of this trope. Actively travelling around the United States, the collective group has a body count well into the thousands, killing multiple victims in each rampage, most prominently [[WouldHitAGirl women]], [[WouldHurtAChild children and babies]]. This has come to bite them in the ass at points, as they have lost a fair number of past members they've had to replace, and [[EnemyMine less evil supervillains will team up with the capes]] to take them down out of [[EvenEvilHasStandards sheer disgust]].

* ''Series/{{Whitechapel}}'': The last two episodes of season three see the team facing a masked [[PoeticSerialKiller Poetic spree-killer]] who targets teenage delinquents whilst dressed up as the [[MalevolentMaskedMan Boogieman]]. He kills a woman who had a history of making crank calls by forcing her mobile phone down her throat, sets up a delinquent who threated people with a gun to be shot by the police, and drains the blood of a graffiti artist and then uses it to paint over their graffiti. Finally, for a woman who committed vandalism, including breaking a council flat's elevator, he overpowers then drags her up the stairs specifically so that her head hits each step. [[spoiler: It's revealed he is the son of a local helpful resident, who died of a heart attack whilst climbing said stairs which he blames on the delinquents for causing him so much stress.]]

* The [[InvisibleJerkass invisible]] Sammy Hoffman from Richard Laymon's ''Beware!'' is one of these. When he returns to his hometown after becoming invisible, he stalks and kills his mother and one of her friends before abducting and raping the protagonist Lacey. When she escapes, he hunts her down to a motel, where he sets the building ablaze and attacks random guests with a fire ax, killing at least six people before Lacey and her allies capture him. It later comes out that this rampage is only the tip of the iceberg - Hoffman had previously been a roving SerialKiller, then an assassin for the cult that ultimately turned him invisible, and then a SerialKiller ''again'' when he defected from the cult and killed people to live in their homes while on the run.
* In Richard Laymon's ''Cuts'', the teenage Albert Price combines this trope with the motives of a SerialKiller. Driven purely by a sexual fetish for stabbing, Albert tortures and kills women in their homes after first finishing off any men with them, spends a couple days living in their house, then drives off to a new state to find a new set of victims. Since he's on the run and lives solely off what he steals, he spends nearly all his time hunting and killing, at one point killing a man solely to stay in his house for a couple days. He intends to keep this up forever - he makes it about two weeks, from Illinois to California, killing eleven people and leaving four injured survivors.

* J. A. Konrath's ''Jack Daniels'' series of crime thrillers has multiple cases:

* Edward Lee's ''Messenger'' has a supernatural version in the titular demon, Aldezhor the Messenger. Aldezhor possesses people and induces them to go on these sorts of rampages, killing indiscriminately to spread the Devil's message of "atrocity and abomination." One of his hosts shoots 26 people dead at a post office after killing her husband and son, while another murders eight people with a hammer at a Catholic girls' school. After the massacres, Aldezhor [[PsychicAssistedSuicide makes his hosts commit suicide]] and continues to the next host. Using a succession of hosts, he ultimately murders about fifty people within a week before being stopped.
* Robert Kelly's novel ''Twelve Gauge'' follows the people of Cedar Bluffs, Tennessee as they deal with ''two'' of these, fourteen years apart:

** ''Duck! The Carbine High Massacre'', the first movie made about the massacre, was the ExploitationFilm version, a violent BlackComedy about a pair of neo-Nazi teenagers who buy guns at a heavy metal concert and plot to kill everyone at their school.

* ''Daniel Isn't Real'' opens with a man walking into a coffee shop with a shotgun and murdering several people before killing himself. [[spoiler:It turns out that he was possessed or otherwise influenced by Daniel, the FauxAffablyEvil [[TheCorrupter demonic force]] that later attaches itself to Luke.]]

* ''Music/NinjaSexParty'': In "First Date", Danny, in an effort to invoke EvilIsSexy, decides to take his date on a murder spree that night, killing five people in rapid succession for no other reason than to have fun killing people.

* ''Literature/TheFinalGirlSupportGroup'' discusses this trope. The villains believe that the {{slasher movie}}s of TheEighties, which in this universe were all [[BasedOnATrueStory based on real-life murder sprees]], [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny come off as weak today]] in the modern era of mass shootings, and that the titular {{Final Girl}}s don't deserve their fame for this reason. [[spoiler:As such, when they stage their own modern-day horror movie killing spree during the climax, they swap the old machetes and pitchforks for an AR-15 and a shotgun.]]
* ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'', of all things, had examples in the form of siblings Martin and Oswald Manse from the ''Series 2000'' book ''Attack of the Graveyard Ghouls.'' In life, the two were preteen psychopaths who killed dozens when they burnt down over half of their hometown of Highgrave. They were hanged for this, but all this did was turn them into [[OurGhoulsAreCreepier Graveyard Ghouls]]. In the present, the pair manage to possess the story's protagonist, Spencer, and his friend, Audra, and proceed to use their bodies to go on another rampage through Highgrave, setting fires and attacking people and property with axes, at one point nearly killing Spencer's family before being vanquished by him and Audra.

* ''VideoGame/MorimiyaMiddleSchoolShooting'': As the title indicates, the game is centered around a massacre at a school. [[VillainProtagonist The unnamed female protagonist]] decides to shoot up their school, with the player able to determine their weaponry and buy upgrades earned through plsythroughs. There are several overt and subtle references to real life spree killers sprinkled throughout the game.

* ''Film/{{Unhinged}}'': The Man kills his ex-wife and her new boyfriend in the prologue, a few hours before the rest of the film takes place. After targeting Rachel, he primarily attacks people she knows, but he also remorselessly mows down anyone who gets in his way, even by accident. In total, he kills at ''least'' six people in the span of a single morning.

Whilst most killing sprees are in at least some part premeditated, this is not a necessity. Its entirely possible (particularly in more sympathetic depictions) for the killer to have never even intended to go on a rampage and events simply spired out of their control.

It is also quite common both in real life and in fiction for the Spree Killer to end their rampage with one massive attack where they try to take out as many people as they can and will carry on until they either killed or captured.

Compare GoingPostal, which is about the circumstances that lead up to a killing spree. Contrast SerialKiller, the more popular archetype for committing multiple murders, who unlike Spree Killers have a clear cooling off period between kills (although it is possible for one to transition into the other). TerroristWithoutACause, who can use similar tactics but goal is random chaos and destruction over an killing spree, SerialKillingsSpecificTarget where the killing spree is used for covering up a specific target (although they can still count as spree killers). May overlap with a RoaringRampageOfRevenge if vengeance is their number-one motivation, or an OutlawCouple, if killing people is part of their crime spree.

''Note: As a rule, when the killer in a SlasherMovie isn't a SerialKiller then they will be a Spree Killer (and of the two, Spree Killers are more common to the point the genre is often described as about maniacs on a killing rampage) making the genre a subtrope of this one. Thus whilst most Slashers count there is no point including them as examples unless they are specifically described as a Spree Killer InUniverse.''