History Main / TruthSerums

* ''Series/TheTimeTunnel''. In "The Day the Sky Fell In", Doug and Tony reveal that they are time travelers after being given truth serum, leading their captors to believe [[TimeTravelersAreSpies they must be professional spies]] who have been conditioned to [[CassandraTruth spout nonsense]] when drugged.

* ''Series/TropicalHeat'': Nick is injected with one in the episode “Double Switch” and questioned.
* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' had an episode ("The Whole Truth") in which a used car salesman buys a car its previous owner claims is haunted and finds himself supernaturally being forced to tell the truth, which is especially inconvenient in his line of work. Eventually, a local politician (who for obvious reasons doesn't want the car for himself either) helps him fob the car off as an all-American souvenir to a foreign politician who happens to be in town for a visit: [[spoiler:Nikita Khrushchev]].
* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'': In "Examination Day", Dickie Jordan is given a truth serum to ensure that he answers all of the questions on the government intelligence test as truthfully as possible.

* In Creator/MercedesLackey's ''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar'' series, the Heralds have a two-stage truth spell. Stage one functions as a LieDetector; stage two compels the bespelled person to answer any question truthfully.
** Unknown to Heralds in most time periods, the spell works by attracting a (previously bound to Heralds) non-sentient air elemental to the subject and then inducing it to possess him or her. Based on the more detailed description, stage one is actually a slightly more focused polygraph, and there's nothing to prove it lacks the same weaknesses. We tend to see the truth spell used against people lying to hide powerful and violent feelings, and the spell tends not to show up in time periods where people who can resist possession are present.

* ''Literature/{{Worldwar}}'':
** During ''Worldwar: In the Balance'' the aliens try their truth drug on one of the protagonists, but all it does is make him rather giggly. With some difficulty, he manages to keep his cover story straight. The aliens don't know this, so they believe his story that he's an innocent civilian and let him go.
** This may be an illustration of what happens when you try to use truth drugs in real life -- they work by lowering inhibitions (which sometimes helps), not by creating some kind of magical compulsive honesty.
** The fact that it was originally designed for use on aliens with reptilian/dinosaurian physiology (the Race, Rabotev, and Hallesi) instead of mammalian probably didn't help. The Race has had over 50,000 Earth years to work on it so it may work perfectly on themselves and subject species. The alien Fleetlord and Senior Shiplord are later seen discussing that the drug has not been working as well as it should be.

---> "I was going to tell you... no, I wasn't."
* ''Series/{{Counterpart}}'': Howard Alpha is interrogated by Ian using a machine that can detect lies. As he honestly doesn't know the answers (they think he's Howard Prime), Ian concludes he's gotten better with deceiving it.

The common term "truth serum" refers to any number of sedative/hypnotic drugs which are used to induce honesty in a subject. In fact, truthfulness is not guaranteed by the use of such drugs; while a person under the influence of a truth serum may become talkative, or may experience reduced inhibitions or even hallucinogenic fantasies, they are still quite capable of lying.[[note]]The idea is to hopefully get them to run their mouth and blurt out what you want to know before their brain catches up again.[[/note]] For this reason, and the obvious human and civil rights issues (which are similar to those regarding torture), any statements obtained in this manner are inadmissible in court. Or, they're really disgusting concoctions used in [[InitiationCeremony crossing the line ceremonies]]. The best that modern pharmacology can come up with is amobarbital (better known as sodium amytal) and is not all that useful at all.

* Creator/BruceCoville's ''Literature/TheSkullOfTruth'' has the main character come into possession of a talking skull that forces him to speak only the truth. He finds out, though, that there are different levels of truth (apparently jesters and poets are better at [[SarcasticConfession telling the truth more obtusely]] than others), and ultimately comes face-to-face with Truth him/her/itself, who describes itself as both destroyer and healer. At the end, the protagonist is gifted with the ability to compel people to tell the truth, whether they want to or not.

* Subverted during the first ''VideoGame/SplinterCell'' game; at the end of a mission, you are required to knock out a security guard between your extraction vehicle. Two of your allies keep him occupied by talking about interrogation techniques, the one mentioned involves a 'truth serum' that leaves them too drugged out to actually give up anything useful when they talk... but also too drugged out to remember what they actually said. You then convince them they already told you what you wanted to know, and thereby manipulate them into actually telling you.

* ''Series/AlexRider'': When Dr Greif finds out Alex isn't who he says he is, he [[StrappedToAnOperatingTable Straps Him To An Operating Table]] and drugs him. Alex is able to resist, partly by confusing the experience with the ''previous'' kidnapping and shouting gibberish related to that.

* ''Series/TheTimeTunnel''. In "The Day the Sky Fell In", Doug and Tony reveal that they are time travellers after being given truth serum, leading their captors to believe [[TimeTravelersAreSpies they must be professional spies]] who have been conditioned to [[CassandraTruth spout nonsense]] when drugged.

-->"What the hell did you inject her with?"

* ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'': WordOfGod tells us that Antimony's [[KidWithTheLeash contract of ownership]] over Reynardine means that he can't intentionally deceive Annie. He can, however, withhold information and refuse to answer questions.

* ''Webcomic/StringTheory2009'': A shady prison psychiatrist forcibly injects Dr. Schtein with sodium thiopental and LSD to make him more "chatty" in his sessions. Instead it takes him from disjointed rambling to a [[http://www.stringtheorycomic.com/comics/chapter-three/page-thirtytwo hallucinatory breakdown]] in minutes.

* In episode 6 of ''WebAnimation/HelluvaBoss'' Blitzo and Moxxie get captured by demon-hunting government agents, and after annoying the heck out of them during a "regular" interrogation the agents instead flood the room with a gas that causes them to blurt out secrets they've been keeping from one another, and then they start [[DisneyAcidSequence hallucinating]].

* ''Film/{{Wonder Woman|2017}}'': The lasso of truth naturally functions as one. Steve does his best to resist it, but can't. Interestingly, since it compels its wearer to tell the truth, in the absence of questions, they'll start talking about whatever's on their mind; Steve wraps himself with it to convince Diana he really is taking her to the front line after lying about it to his superiors, then starts rambling about what a terrible idea it is.

* ''Series/{{Emergency}}'': John Gage is given truth serum in ''[[http://www.tbillingsemergencyfanfic.com/internationaincidentpart1.htm International Incident]]'' as a foreign diplomat tries to torture him into revealing where his daughter has gone. As is common in these fics, John has a negative reaction to the high dose and is only saved because Roy and the cavalry arrive to free him.

* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'': Dr. Doofenshmirtz plans to force the people to tell the truth with his Tell-The-Truth-inator which he built in the image of UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln. It works as intended, but what he does learn from the afflicted isn't interesting at all. He does hit Suzy with it during a scuffle with Perry by accident, who then flat-out blurts her attempts to make Candace look bad all morning.

* Dr. Auditore, the prison psychiatrist in ''Webcomic/StringTheory2009'', tries it on Dr. Schtein. It [[http://www.stringtheorycomic.com/comics/chapter-three/page-thirtytwo backfires.]]
* In ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' drugs with an [[https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2001-04-02 amnesiac effect]] are a standard part of interrogations. If that doesn't work they can try [[MindProbe mind-ripping.]]

* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'':

** Subverted another time when ComicBook/TheJoker's henchmen gave him some truth serum in order to get him to tell them where he kept his money. Unfortunately for them, the Joker's state of mind isn't exactly normal at the best of times, let alone under hallucinogenic drugs. The henchmen didn't get anything for their efforts other than mad ramblings.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Marvel 1602}}: [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Fantastick Four]]'', Sir Richard Reed used sodium thiopental (in gaseous form, which the victim inhales), which he's discovered over 300 years early because he's Richard Reed.

** In issue #12, Loki puts Asgardian truth elixir in the punch at the Valentine's Day ball. He doesn't target it or anything, just counts on that, if everybody says what they really think, he will be able to find if someone has ''other'' than relationship troubles. HilarityEnsues, and by this we mean chaos. Which the local superheroine kind of takes issue with.
** In the 50th issue, Kamala teams up with [[ComicBook/MilesMorales Spider-Man]] when he finds a weird purple rock. When it's activated, Miles suddenly confesses his crush on her.

* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}''
** Played with in ''ComicBook/FiftyTwo'' when Comicbook/LexLuthor kidnaps a [[BroughtDownToNormal depowered]] Clark Kent and gives him an experimental truth serum which his scientists explain is a synthetic recreation of Wonder Woman's magic lasso (See above). He then asks Clark, who broke the story about new hero Supernova, why it is that Superman [[ItsAllAboutMe is toying with Luthor by pretending to be someone else]]. Clark, {{laughing mad}}ly, informs Lex that he does not know who is under the Supernova mask, but he is absolutely certain of one thing, [[ClarkKenting that it is not Superman]]. Creator commentary in the trade-paperbacks points out that this scene, and perhaps the entire future path of DC comics, could have gone so differently if Luthor had simply known to ask ''the right question''.

* In the ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'' story ''Flight 714'', Laszlo Carreidas is injected with a truth serum to try and pry the number of his SwissBankAccount from him. He, however, [[MistakenConfession starts confessing to every misdeed he has ever done in his life]]. When BigBad Rastapopoulos is accidentally injected with the same serum, he and Carreidas [[HamToHamCombat get into an argument]] about [[EvilerThanThou who is the evilest]]. (While no one bothers to call the winner, [[spoiler:Rastapopoulos wins handily since he [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness plans to murder everyone involved]] except ''maybe'' [[TheDragon Allan]]]].)
* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'':

* Franchise/XMen: Most mutants with PsychicPowers can mentally compel others to only speak the truth. During the ''X-Men: Schism'' event, Quentin Quire barged into a gathering of U.N representatives and telepathically gave them the urge to reveal their darkest secrets. These secrets ranged from despicable ("I beat my children because I enjoy it" and "I once shot a man just to watch him die!") to amusing ("I married a Doombot!" and "I actually '''love''' America!").

* ''Manga/UQHolder'': Touta accidentally eats a truth serum-laced chocolate off of Yukihime's desk, which causes some chaos around the headquarters as he begins declaring to all his friends [[LoveYouAndEverybody that he loves them]]. Karin initially thought that she had taken the same stuff, only to be informed later that she'd eaten an ordinary chocolate.