History Main / VehicularKidnapping

* ''WebVideo/BackwardSongsWithLuke'': When captured by The Illuminati, Luke ends up in a dark van.

The kidnappers will throw a BagOfKidnapping over the target's head if they have no intention of speaking with them until they reach their destination, or else employ InstantSedation or a simple TapOnTheHead if they ''really'' don't want to talk. Alternatively, a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown or ColdBloodedTorture will sometimes ensue as soon as the door slams shut, possibly as a form of [[EnhancedInterrogationTechniques enhanced interrogation]], after which the ringleader, if present, usually follows up with a MotiveRant, an attempt to BreakThemByTalking, or just an offhand mention that it would be a ShameIfSomethingHappened to the the kidnappee and their loved ones should they fail to cooperate. After learning what they wanted to know or saying what they wanted to say, the victim's captors may simply dump them out in the middle of the road and speed away.

Part of the trope is a certain RefugeInAudacity -- people aren't expecting to be kidnapped in broad daylight in front of witnesses, the latter of which may be restrained, sedated, or even killed. The van provides the element of surprise and helps the kidnappers disappear after the attack, but during the abduction stealth tends to be a secondary concern to speed and taking the target and any protection they may have off guard.

-->'''Ayla:''' What I do know is that Dr. Hammond stepped out from behind a partition and drugged me again. This time I got a needle in the neck, and I was wobbly in a matter of seconds. Hammond and Uncle Theo and Andrews picked me up, while I just got more and more dazed. They whisked me out of the room while Dad's bodyguards restrained Gracie and Janet. Of course, Gracie and Janet were totally outnumbered, and didn't have a chance. The only one who had a chance was me, and I passed out before I was in the back of that black van they were moving me into...

* Wrestling/KurtAngle was framed Wrestling/JohnBradshawLayfield, whose gimmick at the time was riding to ringside in limousines, with such a kidnapping of Joy Giovanni, who was feuding with JBL's secretary Amy Webber, [[LetsYouAndHimFight in an attempt to direct]] Giovanni's self appointed bodyguard Wrestling/TheBigShow at JBL.
* Wrestling/SamoaJoe was the subject of a "kidnapped by ninjas" {{meme|ticmutation}} after failing to fight off a surprise attack in the parking lot by multiple masked, hooded assailants and shoved into the back of a white van that quickly sped away on a 2010 episode of Wrestling/{{TNA}} Impact. What ingrained this incident fan lore more than say, the VanInBlack angle running around the same time in Wrestling/{{CMLL}}, is that [[IncompetenceInc no one seemed to recognize]] the significance of a very public kidnapping captured on camera and broadcast nation wide. Joe's associate Wrestling/{{Tazz}} mentioned that Joe wasn't returning his calls but couldn't seem [[RefugeInAudacity to put two and two together]]. As far as Samoa Joe is concerned, [[CanonDiscontinuity the angle never happened]]. That goes for fans ''and'' fellow wrestlers.[[/folder]]

* PlayedForLaughs in ''Roleplay/DawnOfANewAgeOldportBlues''. Hyeon finds Benedict outside of the high school, and suspects that the police are looking for him since he didn't return home the previous night. Hyeon tries to get them away from the school, but then Benedict's hyper-intelligence power causes him to start [[MySkullRunnethOver freaking out]]. Nadine then comes across the duo, so Hyeon in a panic tells her to grab Benedict and help him get the boy to his car trunk. Benedict does recover his senses in time to go in the back seat instead, however.

-->'''Agent Haddad:''' You gotta love that move.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[BlatantLies Just your usual day in New Orleans.]]]]

* At the beginning of ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3'', ordinary schoolgirl Kaede Akamatsu wakes up in an odd classroom and recounts that she was walking to school as usual when someone shoved her in a van. She screamed for help, but everyone around her ignored her, reinforcing her beliefs about how rotten the world is.

* Poor Wrestling/SamoaJoe was the subject of a "kidnapped by ninjas" {{meme|ticmutation}} after failing to fight off a surprise attack in the parking lot by multiple masked, hooded assailants and shoved into the back of a white van that quickly sped away on a 2010 episode of Wrestling/{{TNA}} Impact. What ingrained this incident fan lore more than say, the VanInBlack angle running around the same time in Wrestling/{{CMLL}}, is that [[IncompetenceInc no one seemed to recognize]] the significance of a very public kidnapping captured on camera and broadcast nation wide. Joe's associate Wrestling/{{Tazz}} mentioned that Joe wasn't returning his calls but couldn't seem [[RefugeInAudacity to put two and two together]]. As far as Samoa Joe is concerned, [[CanonDiscontinuity the angle never happened]]. That goes for fans ''and'' fellow wrestlers.[[/folder]]

* Occurs at the beginning of ''Film/GetOut'' as a black man is stuffed into a car after getting lost in a surburban neighborhood. [[spoiler: He later appears as a brainwashed victim of Chris' prospective in-laws, having had his mind almost totally replaced with that of an old white woman's husband.]]

Common among HumanTraffickers. Compare and contrast VanInBlack for suspicious vans in general, SpiesInAVan for when the viewpoint is that of the police surveillance or espionage team inside the van, or PunkInTheTrunk for less spacious kidnapping accommodations. May sometimes occur when dealing with a [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/discussion.php?id=nk1abawclffo13osq5wcu94q Creepy Van]], though that typically involves a very different kind of kidnapper (usually a lone [[StalkerWithACrush stalker]] or SerialKiller) who generally prefers to take their victims quietly and drag them back to the van after the fact, or else [[StrangerDanger lure in kids with candy]].

Common among HumanTraffickers. Compare and contrast VanInBlack for suspicious vans in general or SpiesInAVan for when the viewpoint is that of the police surveillance or espionage team inside the van. May sometimes occur when dealing with a [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/discussion.php?id=nk1abawclffo13osq5wcu94q Creepy Van]], though that typically involves a very different kind of kidnapper (usually a lone [[StalkerWithACrush stalker]] or SerialKiller) who generally prefers to take their victims quietly and drag them back to the van after the fact, or else [[StrangerDanger lure in kids with candy]].

* In the film adaptation of ''Film/ThankYouForSmoking'', Nick Naylor is grabbed and stuffed in the back of a van by masked men who turn out to be [[spoiler:anti-tobacco lobbyists. They cover him in nicotine patches with the intent of inflicting a KarmicDeath by overdose -- which Nick miraculously survives through the tolerance built up during a lifetime of smoking.]]

* In ''Film/TheDarkTower2017'', while the [[BigBad Man in Black]] traps Roland in a standoff, his {{Mooks}} pull up in a van outside and drag Jake away as he tries to flee the scene.
* Occurs at the beginning of ''Film/GetOut'' as a black man is stuffed into a car after getting lost in a surburban neighborhood. [[spoiler: He later appears as a brainwashed victim of Chris' prospective in-laws, having had his mind almost totally replaced with that of an old white woman's husband.]]
* ''Film/ChildrenOfMen''. Due to the widespread apathy of a society facing the extinction of humanity, when Theo is kidnapped off the street in broad daylight by masked gunmen working for the radical Fishes, people don't even stop to look.

* The first episode of ''Series/Daredevil2015'' ends with a little boy being pulled from his father's car and dragged off by [[RuthlessForeignGangsters the Russians]]. Getting him back kicks off the plot of the second episode.

* On ''Series/Lucifer2016'', one BodyOfTheWeek is dragged into a van by kidnappers before his death. This horrifies the kidnappers, who turn out to be paid pranksters who make a business out of staging abductions and didn't know that their client had been killed afterwards. Lucifer himself pays to be "kidnapped" in this way so he can talk to the employees.

* On ''Series/HouseOfCardsUS'', political "[[TheFixer fixer]]" [[spoiler: Doug Stamper]] is assigned the task of cleaning up the Rachael Posner loose end. He resolves the issue by kidnapping her in a van, [[spoiler: driving her out into the middle of nowhere, and murdering her.]]

* In the ''Series/StarskyAndHutch'' episode "Bloodbath," Starsky is kidnapped by cultists in a black van with curtained windows, right when he's about to testify against their leader.

!!Examples

[[folder:Film]]
* Wyatt Frame from ''Film/JosieAndThePussycats'' discovers a cynical girl in the record store that seems immune to Mega Records' brainwashing. Wyatt none too subtly intones "[[Music/{{Nirvana}} Smells like]] [[ProductPlacement teen spirit]]" into his jacket sleeve. Moments later, an overhead door flies open, the cynical girl gets grabbed by nameless mooks and tossed into a waiting van, and is then driven away. She's [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse never seen or heard from again]] in the film.

The kidnappers will throw a BagOfKidnapping over the target's head if they have no intention of speaking them until they reach their destination, or employ InstantSedation or a simple TapOnTheHead if they ''really'' don't want to talk. Alternatively, a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown or ColdBloodedTorture will sometimes ensue as soon as the door slams shut, possibly as a form of [[EnhancedInterrogationTechniques enhanced interrogation]], after which the ringleader, if present, usually follows up with a MotiveRant, an attempt to BreakThemByTalking, or just an offhand mention that it would be a ShameIfSomethingHappened to the the kidnappee and their loved ones should they fail to cooperate. After learning what they wanted to know or saying what they wanted to say, the victim's captors may simply dump them out in the middle of the road and speed away.

* On ''Series/HouseOfCardsUS'', political "[[TheFixer fixer]]" [[spoiler: Doug Stamper]] is assigned the task of cleaning up the Rachael Posner loose end. He resolves the issue by kidnapping her in a van, [[spoiler: driving her out into the middle of nowhere and murdering her.]]

* On ''Series/Lucifer2016'', one BodyOfTheWeek is dragged into a van by kidnappers before his death. This horrifies the kidnappers, who turn out to be paid pranksters who make a business out of staging abductions and didn't know that their client had died afterwards. Lucifer himself pays to be "kidnapped" in this way so he can talk to the employees.

* PlayedForLaughs in the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnOHKecWTJY live-action trailer]] of ''Manga/PopTeamEpic'' anime, in which a foreign guy is interviewed about anime and his tastes on it, with giant corporeals of Popuko and Pipimi watches him inside a white van behind him, and later outside the van and behind him. In the end, when he's asked for the anime of the season he would like to watch, the guy answers "''Manga/{{Basilisk}}''". After that, both Popuko and Pipimi kidnaps the guy (while he asks for help) and put him into the van.