| 1 | [[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/i_have_a_family.jpg]]]] |
| 2 | [[caption-width-right:350:You have kids. They have [[AmbitionIsEvil ambition]] and an EvilPlan.]] |
| 3 | |
| 4 | ->'''Guard:''' P-please, man. Let me go. Take what you want. I won't stop you... Please. I've got a wife and two kids...\ |
| 5 | '''Riddler:''' Question: Why do people think that being part of the nuclear family gives them a greater right to live? Me, I'm doing my best to ease the burden of overpopulation. |
| 6 | -->-- ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'' #452 |
| 7 | |
| 8 | Someone is caught by the villain. That someone is being (or is about to be) tortured, or killed. For some reason, while begging/negotiating, said captive may feel the need to inform their tormentor that they have a family. No one really knows why, since this revelation never leads to release or sympathy. The idea seems to be that the victim hopes that their captor is not too dark of an AntiHero -- or at least a NobleDemon -- to hurt the innocent and helpless. Even by proxy. It is common for the villain then to respond that [[LackOfEmpathy they don't care]], or a BigShutUp, or that [[AndYourLittleDogToo they'll even kill their family next]] just because said victim brought them up. |
| 9 | |
| 10 | In reality, this serves only to [[KickTheDog demonstrate]] how big and bad the torturer is. |
| 11 | |
| 12 | Other variation of this is that the bad guy or {{Mook}}s use this card when defeated in the battle and pleading for their lives. This can be either a trick [[CombatPragmatist to have a cheap attack when the Hero lets their guard down]] or it can lead to HeelFaceTurn if TheHero spares the poor mook's life, since EvenEvilHasLovedOnes. Also may be a reason why the hero ends up SparingTheFinalMook. |
| 13 | |
| 14 | Should you be dealing with a BadassFamily or TheMafia, you may consider this a threat rather than pleading. If they say this so that they can offer them up first, they're just playing the DirtyCoward. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | Often written as "I have a wife/kids." |
| 17 | |
| 18 | ---- |
| 19 | !!Examples: |
| 20 | |
| 21 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 22 | |
| 23 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 24 | * In the first chapter of ''Manga/DanceInTheVampireBund 2: Scarlet Order'' one of the terrorists that had, at ''best'', proved perfectly willing to hold 100,000 humans hostage with poison gas to capture [[VampireMonarch Mina Tepes]][[note]](he made no protest when the ringleader elected to unleash the Sarin in the hopes of starting another human / vampire war)[[/note]] invoked his wife and kids when he found out that the stadium instead contained nothing but vampires. Mina's response? |
| 25 | -->"I see... then to ensure that those children have a positive future as well-adjusted adults, it would be best to remove you as an influence on their lives." |
| 26 | * A sort of variation on this can be seen in ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', when Maes Hughes uses the line after he thinks he's killed one of the bad guys(first anime) or is about to attack the bad guy(manga and second anime). He's not using it to beg for his life so much as to say why he can't afford to die. [[spoiler:He dies anyway since one of the villains, a shapeshifter, takes the form of his wife (from a photograph Maes carried on him) to stun him long enough to kill him]]. |
| 27 | * Subverted in the ''Anime/Golgo13: Queen Bee'' OVA. Antonia gives his life in a HeroicSacrifice so Queen Bee and her men can escape an FBI ambush. Later she's presented with the informer who betrayed them. |
| 28 | -->'''Queen Bee:''' You have any kids?\ |
| 29 | '''Informant:''' I got a boy almost four, and a new baby girl.\ |
| 30 | '''Queen Bee:''' Do you love them?\ |
| 31 | '''Informant:''' Yes, of course I do!\ |
| 32 | '''Queen Bee:''' I don't think Antonia loved his. ''[shoots him]'' |
| 33 | * ''Manga/OnePiece'': |
| 34 | ** During the Marineford War arc, a [[{{Mooks}} Marine]] was trying to desert the battlefield (which by the way was involving forces so ridiculous that in no way he could've done anything other than getting killed) and was stopped by [[GeneralRipper Admiral Akainu]] who told him to return to the battlefield. The Marine then invokes this trope, [[spoiler: which made the Admiral ''even angrier'', yelling that his "cowardice" was casting dishonor on his family, and [[DisproportionateRetribution he melted him to death right on the spot]].]] |
| 35 | ** Also a slave of one of the World Nobles attempts to flee the island while saying this. |
| 36 | * A rare ''{{inver|tedTrope}}sion'' occurs in the first episode of the ''Manga/{{Trigun}}'' anime. Vash the Stampede [[ClickHello gets the drop on a bounty hunter mook]] and [[PutDownYourGunAndStepAway orders him to surrender]]... but [[MartialPacifist finds himself stymied]] when said mook immediately calls his bluff. |
| 37 | -->'''Mook:''' I FOUND 'IM, BOSS, OVER HERE!!\ |
| 38 | '''Vash:''' What are you doing?! You don't like pain, do you?\ |
| 39 | '''Mook:''' I'm used to it.\ |
| 40 | '''Vash:''' I feel sorry for your wife and kids, then, you'll make them cry...\ |
| 41 | '''Mook:''' I hate kids, and most women find me pretty offensive, so I'm single.\ |
| 42 | '''Vash:''' ''[{{sweatdrop}}]'' Sounds like a pretty lonely life... |
| 43 | [[/folder]] |
| 44 | |
| 45 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 46 | * ''ComicBook/TwoThousandAD'': |
| 47 | ** ''ComicBook/AndersonPsiDivision'': Parodied when the Dark Judges rampage through a health resort. The obese patrons protest with "I have a family and three appetites to feed!" |
| 48 | ** ''ComicBook/ButtonMan'': One Button Woman, Jackie, tries to use this excuse with Harry by showing him a picture of her children. It doesn't work. |
| 49 | * ''ComicBook/AmalgamUniverse'': Parodied in ''Lobo the Duck'', where a RedShirt with MediumAwareness pleads that he ''might'' have a wife and kids just before he gets a flamethrower to his face. |
| 50 | * In ''ComicBook/TheAuthority'', a guy pleads with Midnighter that he has kids, "somewhere." The implication is, as secret mutant soldier, that he's lead a promiscuous and nomadic life, probably leaving litters of illegitimate children behind. Midnighter responds by ''punching his head off'' and stating that they're better off without him. |
| 51 | * The page quote comes from an eighties ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'' storyline entitled "Dark Knight, Dark City," where The Riddler (turned AxCrazy via DemonicPossession) lampshades this line. |
| 52 | * The eighth issue of the 1999 ''ComicBook/BatmanBeyond'' ongoing comic has a worker Vendetta intimidates beg that she not harm him because he has children. |
| 53 | * ''ComicBook/BatmanVSBigbyAWolfInGotham'': When Mr. Salinger is getting ready to kill Mr. Ostergard, the latter begs for his life, stating he has a family. When Mr. Salinger asks him if he has a will, Mr. Ostergard says yes. Mr. Salinger then assures him his family will be alright without him, and gets right back to work. |
| 54 | * In an ''ComicBook/{{Exiles}}'' comic taking place in an alternate universe, a woman runs into a [[BatOutOfHell more monstrous]] version of ComicBook/{{Morbius}} on the street and pleads with him, saying she has a son. Morbius replies the child is very likely dead, and before he bites into her tells her she should have been at home spawning her next brat. |
| 55 | * In ''ComicBook/TheFlash'', when his plea for help from fellow former Rogue (turned FBI agent) Trickster goes south, Piper forces the two back-up-agents to hold their guns to one another's heads. James immediately shouts their names and the fact that both have families in effort to get Piper to let them go. Unnecessary, really. |
| 56 | * ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'': The first victim of the titular antagonists in "Rise of the Third Army" pleads that he has children before he is assimilated. |
| 57 | * ''ComicBook/{{Henchmen}}'': During [[TheProtagonist Gary]]'s first job (a bank robbery under the Head Pin of Crime), he finds a man BoundAndGagged on the floor. Gary removes the gag and the men says "Please, I got kids!". |
| 58 | * ''ComicBook/Hitman1993'': During the arc "The Old Dog", Benito Gallo threatens to stab one of his men as incentive to go out into the fight. The guy pleads that he has a wife and kids, to which Benito replies that they'll be next. |
| 59 | * ''ComicBook/PrinceOfPersiaTheGraphicNovel'': |
| 60 | -->'''Shirin's mother:''' Please, let him go. He's a father. We have a daughter.\ |
| 61 | '''Shirin:''' ''[not letting go of the garrote]'' Yes, I know, Mother.\ |
| 62 | ''[her mother faints]'' |
| 63 | * In ''ComicBook/SecretSix'', Jeanette has caught [[Characters/TeenTitansCheshire Cheshire]] poisoning the title characters, and dangles her off the roof of a building by her hair while chiding her about "manners." Cheshire tries to get out by talking about her baby, but Jeanette doesn't give two shits, and while she doesn't drop her, doesn't let her off easy. It's unlikely [[TheSociopath Cheshire]] cares either, except as leverage in situations like this. |
| 64 | * Black Fox, an old cat burglar in ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' stories, is an admittant abject coward and will plead for mercy the instant he is threatened. This trope is then PlayedForLaughs as he will claim to have sixteen kids, or two wives and eight kids with each, the details growing more ridiculous and changing all the time, and that they all depend on him. |
| 65 | * In ''ComicBook/SpiderManIndia2004'', when Spider-Man confronts the robber who killed Uncle Bhim, the man stutters. "Please ... I have a family to feed." Pavitr replies "So did he." |
| 66 | * Parodied mercilessly in ''ComicBook/{{Sturmtruppen}}'': when the Sergeant decides to punish a soldier who fell asleep during his sentinel shift by burying him alive in an anthill, the soldier in question tries to object with this argument: |
| 67 | -->'''Private:''' "Zis is inhuman! Have you forgot I have a wife and four children? Four children!"\ |
| 68 | '''Sergeant''': "So wat? Even if you had just one, just how many anthills do you zink I have to bury people in?"\ |
| 69 | '''Private''': ".... zat was not my point..." |
| 70 | * ''ComicBook/TheSupermanAdventures'': Parodied in issue 35, where Vito Mannheim pleads that Toyman not kill him because he has three ex-wives and lots of children somewhere. |
| 71 | * In volume 2, issue 31 of ''ComicBook/{{Titans|2010}}'', one of Osiris' victims begs to be spared because he has a family. Osiris kills him anyway due to refusing to yield from his belief that he can resurrect his sister by killing enough people. |
| 72 | * Used quite brutally in ''ComicBook/UltimateXMen''. The X-Men had been captured by Weapon X and were being forced to work for them to take out some foreign guys who had captured Nick Fury and were in the middle of illegal genetic experiments. When confronting the lead scientist, Jean is ordered to kill him or watch Scott's head explode. As she agonizes over the decision, the lead scientist starts describing his family in an attempt to bargain for his life. [[spoiler:Jean kills him.]] |
| 73 | * ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'' issue 297 has a hostage plead that he has six children, only to [[KilledMidSentence get shot before he could finish his sentence]]. |
| 74 | [[/folder]] |
| 75 | |
| 76 | [[folder:Comic Strips]] |
| 77 | * In one ''ComicStrip/{{BC}}'' Thanksgiving strip, a turkey pleads to BC that he has a wife and six children ... and therefore [[AwfulWeddedLife wants to be eaten]]. |
| 78 | * In one ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'' strip, a man is about to step on an insect when the insect responds with this. It begs him to spare its life because "I have a wife and a thousand eggs laid in the jelly!" The man is eating a peanut butter and ''jelly'' sandwich. |
| 79 | * ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'': |
| 80 | ** Subverted. A spider tells Garfield that he has thousands of kids, "all teenagers." Garfield smashes him and the spider proceeds to thank Garfield for putting him out of his misery. |
| 81 | ** A similar example has a mouse walking in front of him and telling him, "Okay, you caught me. Go ahead and eat, never mind that I have seven kids at home." When Garfield tells the mouse to go home, the mouse says, "To seven screaming kids? What kind of monster are you!?" |
| 82 | ** In the January 9, 2000 strip, Garfield is about to eat a goldfish: |
| 83 | --->'''Fish:''' Please, spare me, Mr Cat! I've got a wife and six kids!\ |
| 84 | ''[Garfield stares at the fish who's alone in his bowl]''\ |
| 85 | '''Fish:''' [[BlatantLies Who... uh... are away visiting my mother for an indefinite period of time?]] |
| 86 | ** In the November 12th 2007 strip, Garfield saw a snake filling in as a temp for a dog on his day-off. The snake becomes irritated with Garfield's condescending pleading, "I have a wife and [[ExplosiveBreeder 35 kids]] to support!" |
| 87 | [[/folder]] |
| 88 | |
| 89 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 90 | * Attempted on '''[[WebVideo/BerserkAbridged Berserk the Abridged Movie]]'' |
| 91 | -->'''Mike the Murderer:''' I have a wife and kids.\ |
| 92 | '''Guts:''' Why? Is there a bounty on them too? |
| 93 | [[/folder]] |
| 94 | |
| 95 | [[folder:Films -- Animation]] |
| 96 | * In ''WesternAnimation/AladdinTheReturnOfJafar'', Iago tries to convince Abu to open his cage by yelling, "I have a wife and three eggs! Imagine them hatching... never knowing their daddy..." He doesn't, really. Abu opens the cage to introduce Iago to Rajah the tiger. ([[AttackAttackRetreatRetreat "CLOSE THE CAGE! Close it! Close it! CLOSE IT!!!"]]) |
| 97 | * One of the Imperial officers says this word for word in the ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'' parody, ''[[WesternAnimation/FamilyGuyPresentsLaughItUpFuzzball It's A Trap!]]'', when Han orders the officers in the shield bunker to use their helmets to dig their own graves. |
| 98 | * A pig police officer in ''WesternAnimation/FritzTheCat'' tries this on an angry mob of crows pulling out a picture of his kids. They do ''not'' give a fuck. |
| 99 | * In Max Fleischer's ''WesternAnimation/GulliversTravels'' (1939), Gabby begs this to Gulliver when he picks him up. The line would pop up again in one of Gabby's own shorts subjects, "King for a Day". |
| 100 | -->'''Gabby:''' You can't do this me, I have a wife and kids, millions of kids! |
| 101 | * [[spoiler:Mr. Bumblypants, a white rabbit puppet]] tries this line in ''Film/TheHappytimeMurders'' pleading that he has 48 kids. |
| 102 | * Parodied in the film version of ''WesternAnimation/OverTheHedge''. |
| 103 | -->'''RJ:''' Please, I'm just a desperate guy trying to feed his family!\ |
| 104 | '''Vincent:''' You don't have a family.\ |
| 105 | '''RJ:''' I meant a family of one. |
| 106 | * A villainish mook to the other mooks example arises in ''WesternAnimation/QuestForCamelot'': |
| 107 | -->'''Bladebeak:''' ''[about the forest]'' We're not going in there are we?\ |
| 108 | '''Mechanical Mook:''' ''[looks at him, holding him by the feet]'' Chicken.\ |
| 109 | '''Bladebeak:''' But I got a wife and three eggs at home. |
| 110 | * Said in ''WesternAnimation/SausageParty'' as an Italian tomato is about to get sliced in half.-->'''Tomato:''' PLEASE-A, NO! I'VE GOT A [[GratuitousItalian FAMIGLIA]]! ''[gets sliced]'' |
| 111 | * Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/SharkTale'', when Lenny the vegetarian shark is pressured by his father, Don Lino, to eat a shrimp. The shrimp starts by crying that he has a family, then goes on to describe each and every one of his kids in excruciating detail as Lenny and Don Lino argue. |
| 112 | -->'''Shrimp:''' It's true, it's true! And the other thing is, my sister had a baby and I took it over after she passed away and the baby lost all its legs and arms and now it's just a stump but I take care of it with my wife and... and it's growing and it's fairly happy... and it's difficult because I'm working a second shift at the factory to put food on the table but all the love that I see in that little guy's face it makes it worth it in the end. True story. |
| 113 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek 2}}'': Puss in Boots plays this card when he is defeated after trying to assassinate Shrek. According to his own spin off film though, he's lying. |
| 114 | -->'''Puss:''' Oh no ''por favor''. Please, I implore you. It was nothing personal ''Señor''. I was doing only for my family. My mother, she is sick and my father lives off the garbage. The King offered me much in gold and I have a litter of brothers... |
| 115 | [[/folder]] |
| 116 | |
| 117 | [[folder:Films -- Live Action]] |
| 118 | * In the climatic scene of ''Film/{{Seven}}'', John Doe actually brings this up for his WouldYouLikeToHearHowTheyDied taunt. [[spoiler:Detective Mills had no idea that his wife was pregnant, so it's this news that finally causes him to kill John Doe.]] |
| 119 | * This is a plot-point in ''[[Film/TheAccountant2016 The Accountant]]''. When treasury agent Raymond King rushes to the scene of an earlier mass shooting by the title character, [[ClickHello he finds a gun to his head]]. Wolff asks if he's a good agent, and King admits that he isn't. Wolff asks, "Is that all?" and King quickly adds that he's a father with two sons. Wolff asks if he's a good father. When King says that's the one thing he didn't screw up, Wolff lets him live and later uses him as his FriendOnTheForce (Wolff and his brother were raised by an [[DaddyIssues abusive though not uncaring father]]). |
| 120 | * Inverted in ''Film/Alien3''. At a moment of breakdown, Ripley [[spoiler:actually seeks the Alien and calls it out to kill her. The beast approaches, examines Ripley closely and then withdraws, not willing to hurt the "baby" Alien queen maturing inside Ripley.]] |
| 121 | * In ''Film/AllThePresidentsMen'', one character pleads with Ben Bradlee not to reveal that he had an affair with a ''Washington Post'' journalist, using the line, "I have a wife and two children and a dog and a cat!" A befuddled Bradlee explains that he doesn't care about the affair and they're not going to mention that -- they want him to comment on a scoop that he revealed to the journalist (while having an affair with her). Bob Woodward noted in the book that the line was lifted word-for-word from RealLife. |
| 122 | * In ''Film/TheBigHeat'', when Bannion is threatening Atkins, the owner of the garage where [[spoiler:the bomb that killed Bannion's wife was planted]], Atkins insists he won't talk because he has a wife he cares for (combining this with TheMobBossIsScarier). |
| 123 | * In ''Film/BloodyMama'', Herman asks their prisoner Sam if he's scared at all. Sam replies, "I have a wife, two sons, and a daughter, all of whom I love very much, so I'm not entirely without fear, no. More to the point, they need me." Unmoved, Herman replies, "Yeah, they'd better need you. $300,000 worth." |
| 124 | * ''Film/{{Circle}}'': The Rich Guy tries to earn sympathy from the other characters by informing the group he has seven children. Many of the other characters accuse him of lying to buy himself time and mockingly claim to have even more children. [[spoiler:We don't find out whether the Rich Guy was telling the truth, but the eagerness with which he attempts to kill the Little Girl suggests that he was lying. It also turns out that another man and woman pretended to be husband and wife to buy some sympathy. But it does work to a certain extent--up until the two sides are established, people with children managed to last a bit longer than those who said they didn't have any.]] |
| 125 | * Amusingly played in ''Film/CitySlickers'', when Mitch is forced to ride off with the menacing Curly. |
| 126 | -->'''Mitch:''' Curly, did I ever show you pictures of my wife and kids? I'm their sole support, you know. |
| 127 | * In ''Film/TheCompanyYouKeep'', Nick brings up the fact he has a daughter as a way [[spoiler:to convince Mimi to turn herself in and clear him of any involvement in the robbery.]] |
| 128 | * In ''Film/{{Defiance}}'', the Jewish partisans capture a terrified Nazi soldier, who tells them he has a wife and two kids. One of the partisans yells out, "So did I!" They beat the Nazi to death while yelling about their lost relatives. |
| 129 | * ''Film/DieHard''. Hans Gruber doesn't have to be told this because he already knows about his intended victim before he's even met him. |
| 130 | -->'''Gruber:''' Now... where is Mr Takagi?\ |
| 131 | ''[no-one responds -- Gruber starts moving among the crowd of hostages, peering at each Japanese businessman]''\ |
| 132 | '''Gruber:''' [[PunctuatedForEmphasis Joseph Yashinobo Takagi]]. Born Kyoto, 1937... Family emigrated to San Pedro, California, 1939... Interned at Manzanar, 1942 to '43... Scholarship student, University of California..1955. Law degree, Stanford, 1962. MBA, Harvard, 1970. President, Nakatomi Trading. Vice Chairman, Nakatomi Investment Group--\ |
| 133 | '''Takagi:''' ''[stepping forward]'' Enough!\ |
| 134 | '''Gruber:''' And father... of five. |
| 135 | * ''Film/DoctorZhivago''. The title character is kidnapped by Red partisans who have need of a doctor. Zhivago protests that he has a wife and child in Varykino. TheCommissar scoffs back, "And a mistress in Yuriatin!" having captured Zhivago on the way from one to the other. |
| 136 | * ''Film/ErnestScaredStupid'' does this when Ernest imitates a doll voice and wrestles with the dilemma of using a doll to stop the gears of a garbage masher. |
| 137 | -->'''Ernest:''' ''[as the doll]'' No, no, don't stick my head in those gears!\ |
| 138 | '''Ernest:''' ''[as himself]'' But it's either me or you.\ |
| 139 | '''Ernest:''' ''[as the doll]'' But I have a family in a doll house.\ |
| 140 | '''Ernest:''' ''[as himself; {{beat}}]'' I'll send them a nice photo.\ |
| 141 | '''Ernest:''' ''[as the doll]'' You can't get away with this, Ernest, [[TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive I know where you live!]] |
| 142 | * Annie in ''Film/GameNight'' tries to avoid being shot by claiming she has kids: |
| 143 | -->'''Henchman:''' Not with that ass you don't.\ |
| 144 | '''Annie:''' Oh. Well... thank you. |
| 145 | * ''Film/HardcoreHenry''. When Akan is rampaging through the brothel, one of the customers begs for mercy, saying he has a family. Akan glances over at the prostitute he was with, mockingly asks, "Is that your wife?", and then kills the man on the spot. |
| 146 | * ''Film/HorribleBosses'': |
| 147 | -->'''Harken''': "Please protect me from them! I have a wife! .. And a cat!" |
| 148 | * Used in ''Film/TheHurtLocker'', when a man who's had a bomb strapped to him against his will asks for help from the American military to disarm it. They can't. |
| 149 | * ''Film/InAValleyOfViolence'' (2016). The protagonist is holding another man (Harris) at gunpoint. |
| 150 | -->'''Harris:''' I know there's [[AintTooProudToBeg not a lot of dignity in this]], but I have a daughter I'd like to see again. ''[no response]'' But I don't suppose that I will. ''[[[SoundOnlyDeath gunshot]]]'' |
| 151 | * Played with in ''Film/InglouriousBasterds''. It's actually a Nazi soldier, Wilhelm, who survives a bloody shoot-out and makes a deal with the Basterds. He begs them to make a deal with him and end the bloodshed as his wife just had their first child. [[spoiler:It doesn't work.]] |
| 152 | * In ''Film/TheInnocent1994'', Barlow shoves an orderly who he mistakenly thinks is a killer against a wall. The orderly protests, "I have a wife! And kids!" |
| 153 | * ''Film/{{Justice League|2017}}'': At least two of Steppenwolf's kidnapped scientists try this line. No luck; he kills the first one to use it and is just irritated by the second. |
| 154 | -->'''Scientist:''' Please, we have families!\ |
| 155 | '''Steppenwolf:''' ''[[EvilCannotComprehendGood [genuinely confused[=]=]]]'' Why does everyone keep telling me that? |
| 156 | * ''Film/{{Juncture}}'': Shaver begs to be spared by Anna when he's cornered, showing her photos of his kids in his wallet. It works-due to this, she can't kill him. |
| 157 | * Vernita Green tries to use this in the first part of ''Film/KillBill'' to dissuade The Bride from killing her. This was the worst possible strategy Vernita could have tried on The Bride, seeing as how she had tried to kill her while she was ''pregnant''. The Bride calls her on this, and states that if she ''really'' wanted to get even, she would kill Nikki and Vernita's husband, Dr. Lawrence Bell, as well. |
| 158 | * Subverted in ''Film/LawAbidingCitizen''. Darby, who murdered the family of the VigilanteMan protagonist, escapes arrest with the help of a mysterious voice on the phone, who guides him to a knocked-out policeman in his squad car which he uses to escape the dragnet. He pulls up at an abandoned factory and is about to shoot the cop with his own gun. |
| 159 | -->'''Officer:''' What about my wife, my little girl? I'll never see them again!\ |
| 160 | '''Darby:''' That's fucked up, ain't it. ''[gets phone call]'' You don't mind if I take this, do ya? ''[into phone]'' My guardian angel, I am impressed.\ |
| 161 | '''Officer:''' ''[speaking into his phone]'' You know why I won't see my wife and little girl again? ''[takes off disguise to reveal himself as the vigilante]'' Because you took them from me.\ |
| 162 | ''[Darby pulls the trigger and is stunned by the BackwardsFiringGun]'' |
| 163 | * An inverted version in ''Film/TheLongKissGoodnight'': BigBad Timoth is about to leave Charly and her daughter, Caitlin LockedInAFreezer. Charly tries to get him to spare [[spoiler:Caitlin by revealing that [[LukeYouAreMyFather he's her biological father]]. He takes a close look at Caitlin's face, shrugs and leaves anyway]]. |
| 164 | * ''Film/TheMagnificentSeven2016''. When an outlaw wanted for rape and murder tries this trope on Sam Chisolm, he retorts that his family are better off without him. |
| 165 | * In ''Film/{{Monster}}'', one of Aileen's victims tearfully and desperately tries this as she holds him at gunpoint. It doesn't work. |
| 166 | * Spoofed in ''Film/TheMummy1999'', when Rick threatens Beni: |
| 167 | -->'''Beni:''' Think of my children!\ |
| 168 | '''Rick:''' You don't ''have'' any children.\ |
| 169 | '''Beni:''' ... Someday I might. |
| 170 | * When Craig points a gun at Pinky in ''[[Film/{{Friday}} Next Friday]]'', Pinky begs him not to kill him, saying he has "a girlfriend" and "a wife on the side". |
| 171 | * ''Film/NineDead'': Subverted. Kelly pleads with the captor to let her go because she has a young son. The captor angrily retorts that he knows quite well that she's a pretty neglectful parent because he had been spying on all of them, so he finds it insulting that she would try to use this as an excuse. [[spoiler:This is another clue that his grievance for capturing the nine people is a family matter.]] |
| 172 | * A variation in ''Film/NorthByNorthwest'', in that Roger Thornhill was not pleading for his life so much as expressing his disgust at being used as a chess piece by the Professor, and is thus more [[DeadpanSnarker snarky]] than scared: |
| 173 | -->''"Now you listen to me, [[ImADoctorNotAPlaceholder I'm an advertising man, not a red herring.]] I've got a job, a secretary, a mother, two ex-wives, and several bartenders that depend upon me, and I don't intend to disappoint them all by getting myself ''slightly'' killed"'' |
| 174 | * ''Film/NurseBetty'': When Charlie holds him at gunpoint, [[spoiler:Sheriff Ballard]] says that he has two kids and a dog. Charlie is unimpressed. |
| 175 | * Subverted in ''Film/{{Predators}}'', when [[spoiler: the Russian]] affectionately shows [[spoiler: the doctor]] a photo of his kids, just before all hell breaks loose, and they're all forced to flee while the latter still has the photo. When [[spoiler: the doctor]] is crippled and the other characters consider leaving him behind, he says "I've got kids" and shows the photo. While it's a lie, this looks like an understandable case of a terrified, desperate man trying anything to not be left behind, [[spoiler: but the discovery that he's actually a psychopathic serial killer makes it less surprising that he was able to think up this sort of lie on the spot and without any hint of unease.]] |
| 176 | * ''Film/{{Rampage|2009}}'': |
| 177 | ** In the beauty salon scene, one of the employees tries to reason with Bill by mentioning that she's got a husband and two kids at home. It doesn't faze Bill for a second, and he does end up killing her. |
| 178 | ** In the second film, Chip begs for mercy to Bill to forgive him for accidentally breaking the CD that contained Bill's message. When Bill lashes out, Chip pleads he has a wife and children to which Bill replies "I don't give a fuck!" before [[spoiler: handing him a back-up CD]]. |
| 179 | * In ''Film/ReservoirDogs'', while Mr. Blonde is torturing the cop, the officer screams out, "Please! I got a little kid at home man, now please!" This line was actually ad-libbed by the actor, and the shock it brought to Michael Madsen (who played Mr. Blonde), who had just had a son, made him walk off the set. You can actually hear Madsen break character and say "Oh, no no no..." after this line. |
| 180 | * ''Film/RoboCop2014''. When [=RoboCop=] brutally interrogates one of Vallon's street thugs, the later begs for mercy, stating he has a wife and kids. Unfortunately for the thug, [=RoboCop=] has access to the police database and a quick search reveals that not only did the guy's wife leave him for domestic abuse, he also has no children. |
| 181 | * To be spared from being shot to death on the [[RussianRoulette Carousel Trap]] in ''Film/SawVI'', both Emily and Shelby try this. Quite an inversion as the guy they're pleading for their lives to is not a villain and that one of them (Shelby) is blatantly lying, and unmasked by a fellow captive. Unfortunately a very nasty case of MenAreTheExpendableGender occurs and she survives ''anyway''. |
| 182 | * Near the start of the film adaptation of ''Film/TheShadow'', the scientist who the Gangsters tried the CementShoes routine on tries this line. As expected, the boss scoffs and replies, "They'll get over it." |
| 183 | * Becomes a SayingTooMuch moment in ''Film/SinnersAndSaints'' (2010). A detective is about to be burnt alive if he doesn't talk (and undoubtedly if he does as well). When he gives this trope, the BigBad says to his henchman, "He has a family -- you didn't think that was important?" and [[IHaveYourWife orders they be brought to him as well]]. Cue BigNo from the detective. |
| 184 | * In ''Film/SophieSchollTheFinalDays'' a German film about the [[LaResistance White Rose antifascist group]], one of the arrested students, Christoph Probst, pleads for mercy from the court as he has three small children and an ill, pregnant wife. The Nazis don't care, and they have him guillotined the very same day. |
| 185 | * In ''Film/TheStrawberryStatement'', a professor who supports the protesters pretends they're taking him hostage so he won't lose his job. He tells them, "I have kids!" |
| 186 | * In a Film/TheThreeStooges short, a detective threatens to have them arrested for allowing a bank robber to escape. |
| 187 | -->'''Shemp:''' Please officer, I got six wives and two kids! |
| 188 | * In ''Film/{{Timeline}}'', one of the protagonists pleads with De Kere (another time-traveler permanently stranded in the past) to spare him, bringing up his family that De Kere has even met 'back' in the future. This only drives De Kere to fury, as it only reminds De Kere of his own family that he's been forcibly separated from. |
| 189 | -->'''Gordon:''' I've got a family.\ |
| 190 | '''De Kere:''' Yeah?\ |
| 191 | '''Gordon:''' You've met my family.\ |
| 192 | '''De Kere:''' You've got a family?\ |
| 193 | '''Gordon:''' You've been to my house...\ |
| 194 | '''De Kere:''' You have a family?\ |
| 195 | '''Gordon:''' I've got a family.\ |
| 196 | '''De Kere:''' SO DID I! ''(kills Gordon)'' |
| 197 | * Subverted in the original ''Film/{{Total Recall|1990}}'' with Benny the cab driver, who keeps talking of his five children until he's revealed to be an agent of the BigBad. |
| 198 | -->'''Benny:''' I needed the money. I got four kids to feed.\ |
| 199 | '''Quaid:''' What happened to number five?\ |
| 200 | '''Benny:''' Aw, shit, man! You got me. I ain't even married. Now put your fuckin' hands in the air! |
| 201 | * In ''Film/TrainingDay'', when Jake is about to be murdered by drug dealers, he shouts in panic that he has a little girl. It doesn't work by itself, but it does motivate them to check out whether he's telling the truth about his ChekhovsGun. |
| 202 | * ''Film/{{Troy}}'': At the end, when the TrojanHorse ploy allows the Greeks to invade Troy, Achilles knocks down a random Trojan soldier. The soldier pleads for his life and says he has a son. Achilles lets him go and says, "Then get him out of Troy." |
| 203 | * ''Film/VenomLetThereBeCarnage'': When [[SerialKiller Cletus]] first transforms into Carnage and tears his way out of San Quentin prison, one of the guards he grabs tries to beg for his life. Carnage actually pauses, but when the guard says "I have a family!" -- Cletus's family being his FreudianExcuse -- Carnage kills him especially slowly. |
| 204 | * "My wife is having a baby...!" is a last, desperate attempt by the titular [[DirtyCoward Withnail]] of ''Film/WithnailAndI'' to avoid a beating after he had run afoul of an Irishman. He was lying. |
| 205 | * Towards the end of ''Film/WouldYouRather'', [[spoiler:there are two contestants left: Lucas and Iris. Iris's choice is either they both walk out empty-handed, or she shoots Lucas and wins the game. Lucas starts to invoke the trope, but Iris still shoots him dead because she ''needs'' to win.]] |
| 206 | [[/folder]] |
| 207 | |
| 208 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 209 | * Spoofed in ''Literature/TheAmazingMauriceAndHisEducatedRodents'': |
| 210 | -->'''[[spoiler:Rat Catcher 2]]:''' Have mercy! If not for me, please think of my dear wife and my four lovely children who'll be without their daddy!\ |
| 211 | '''[[spoiler:Malicia]]:''' You're not married. You don't have any children!\ |
| 212 | '''[[spoiler:Rat Catcher 2]]:''' I might want some one day! |
| 213 | * ''Literature/TheBoyFromAleppoWhoPaintedTheWar'': While Adam and his surviving family members are traveling by bus to Damascus after their home in Aleppo is destroyed, soldiers come aboard to ask for everyone's ID, and find that one man doesn't have one. The man pleads, "Please don't take me, I have a family, please," but the soldiers drag him outside the bus and shoot him. |
| 214 | * In Jim Butcher's ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' novel ''Literature/DeadBeat'', after [[spoiler:Phil]] dies, [[spoiler:Butters]] tells Harry that he didn't have a family -- and they agree that no, it doesn't make it better. |
| 215 | * ''Literature/DungeonCrawlerCarl'': In the Hunting Grounds, a captured hunter begs for his life this way. Unfortunately, he specifically says "I'm not an NPC or a crawler, I'm a real person with a family!" While captured by a crawler. Turns out that calling your captor "not a real person" does not incline them towards not murdering you. |
| 216 | * ''Literature/TheExecutioner''. Mack Bolan (who's already lost his own family thanks to TheMafia) thinks his little brother Johnny has also been murdered (an ambitious mob boss actually faked his death in the hope that Bolan will run wild and kill his rivals). When another mob boss is confronted by Bolan, he starts rambling on about his family so Mack says, "For them, then" and lets him live. |
| 217 | * ''Literature/GirlsDontHit'': Joss' first seen victim attempts to sway her using this. He thinks it's worked after she asks about his daughter. It's only to get tips about what her own daughter, also a teenager, might like for her birthday. She kills him remorselessly after getting this. |
| 218 | * A variant happens in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows''. Harry and Hermione watch the corrupt Ministry of Magic brutally interrogate a Muggle-born woman who they [[KangarooCourt accused of "stealing" magic from "real" witches and wizards]]. When they ask her to confirm the names of her husband and children, she cries and tells them that her children are afraid that she'll never come home to them. The officials (actually Death Eaters) coldly respond that they don't care about the "brats" of Mudbloods. [[spoiler:When Harry, Hermione, and Ron release all the prisoners at the Ministry, one of the things they say is for them to find their families and escape the country.]] |
| 219 | * An inadvertent version in ''Hit List'' by Creator/LawrenceBlock. [[ProfessionalKiller Keller]] isn't pleased to be handed a photograph of his target only to find it's a posed family photo, which even includes the dog. It puts him off his game slightly, but not enough to save the target. |
| 220 | * An inversion appears in ''Brisingr'', the third book of the "Literature/InheritanceCycle." A soldier fighting for TheEmpire begs Eragon to spare his life, as he is too young to die - he has yet to marry and father a child. Unfortunately, Eragon cannot spare him, as the soldier has sworn a magical oath in service of Galbatorix that would force him to betray Eragon. |
| 221 | * In Creator/JulieKagawa's ''Literature/TheIronKnight'', the catfish uses this on Puck. It works. |
| 222 | %% * Literature/JohnRain: [[BondOneLiner "I'll send flowers."]] |
| 223 | * In one of Creator/ChristopherPike's [[Literature/TheLastVampire Last Vampire]] books, a guy tries a line similar to this on the Vampire MC, Sita, telling her "I have a girlfriend!" She replies with, "The line is 'I have a wife and two kids'" and adds that sometimes that line works and sometimes it doesn't. [[spoiler: It works for this guy.]] |
| 224 | * Subverted in ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'', one of the prisoners at the Ministry Of Love is being dragged off for torture in Room 101, and begs that he has a wife and family... and then begs his captors to kill THEM instead, rather than having to face the horror of {{Room 101}}. The idea is not to punish you, but to break you to the point where you will betray anyone you once cared about to make the torture stop. It is ''their'' fault your torture continues, when you break your loyalty to them, The Party is a merciful, loving figure that takes away all the pain. |
| 225 | * In ''Literature/{{Pact}}'', Blake Thorburn attempts to use this to guilt-trip a [[MageKiller witch hunter]] that is likely going to try to kill him in the future, using it as a way of humanizing himself, preventing the witch hunter from mentally dehumanizing him by talking about his estranged family, his friends, and how he feels about the situation. The witch hunter admits that he'll still kill Blake if he's ordered to do so, but now he'll feel like shit afterwards. |
| 226 | * At the end of the third book of ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', Merrett Frey is captured by outlaws who intend to hang him and invokes this trope. The outlaw Lem retorts, "That [[spoiler: Young Wolf]] never will." Merrett having been part of the conspiracy that killed him. |
| 227 | ** In the backstory of the setting, Ser Lucamore of the Kingsguard (who are meant to be celibate) was discovered to have married three women and sired sixteen children during his service. When he was brought to answer for breaking his vows, he asked for mercy on account of his wives and children. The king and queen were not amused. |
| 228 | [[/folder]] |
| 229 | |
| 230 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 231 | * ''Series/TwentyFour'': |
| 232 | ** Jason Pillar used this on Jack Bauer on and Jack spared him. He ended up getting his comeuppance in the final hour. |
| 233 | ** This is done in season 1 with Ted Cofell, but it doesn't work as well. |
| 234 | * As ''Series/AnotherWorld'' heroine Frankie Frame was attacked by a local SerialKiller, she intoned, "Please, I have a child!", as a last ditch attempt at getting him to spare her life. It didn't work. |
| 235 | * ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' |
| 236 | ** Used for DramaticIrony when the Arrow bursts in on Moira Queen declaring that she has failed this city. Moira holds up a picture of her daughter and son--not knowing the latter is actually the hooded vigilante holding her at arrowpoint--and begs him not to leave them without a mother. Oliver Queen lowers his bow...and gets shot when his mother throws down the picture and grabs a pistol. |
| 237 | ** A bleeding security guard is shown crawling away from Black Siren. |
| 238 | --->'''Security guard:''' I have a wife...and two little girls... |
| 239 | --->'''Black Siren:''' ''([[FauxAffablyEvil caressing his head]])'' Shhhh, I know. [[FreudianExcuse I had a family once.]] ''({{Neck Snap}}s guard)'' |
| 240 | * ''Series/BoardwalkEmpire:'' [[spoiler:Angela]] tries this when [[spoiler:Manny]] has a gun on her, having just killed [[spoiler:her lover Louise, albeit accidentally. It seems to work, until she offers money.]] |
| 241 | * ''Series/BreakingBad'': Done via BilingualBonus in "Half Measure", when Mike is taking out the cartel {{mook}}s that have taken over one of Gus's warehouses. The poor secretary, who apparently had no clue the place was being used as a criminal front to begin with, or if Mike is here to help, begs for her life, saying she has three kids to take care of (but only in Mandarin, and without subtitles). After Mike dispatches all of the cartel thugs, she can be heard yelling at her boss about the danger he's putting them in, and how she has a family to take care of. |
| 242 | * Trey attempts this in the ''Series/BroadCity'' episode "Kirk Steele": |
| 243 | -->'''Trey''': Please, Abbi, I have a kid.\ |
| 244 | '''Abbi''': What? You do?\ |
| 245 | '''Trey''': Probably! I mean, a paternity suit could pop up at any time. |
| 246 | * ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. |
| 247 | ** A nameless factory worker makes this plea of the hell goddess Glory in Season 5. He makes a reappearance a few episodes later after Glory has MindRaped him. Turns out he wasn't lying, as his family is visiting him in the psych ward in hospital. |
| 248 | ** A flashback scene in "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E10Amends Amends]]" shows evil vampire Angelus about to feed on a female servant. When he shows his GameFace the servant pleads that she has a son. Angelus replies, "He'll make a fine dessert." |
| 249 | * ''Series/{{Chuck}}'': At the end of "[[Recap/ChuckS4E01ChuckVsTheAnniversary Chuck Vs The Anniversary]]", we first see [[ActionMom Chuck's mom]] held captive by a Volkoff agent who taunts her [[AndYourLittleDogToo that he'll go after Chuck next.]] She eventually breaks free and overpowers him at gunpoint, and he cites this trope word-for-word [[VillainsWantMercy as a plea for mercy.]] She responds, "So do I!" before killing him anyway. |
| 250 | * The cast of ''Series/ComeBackMrsNoah'' is faced with a ColdEquation where someone has to be left behind on the space station, so they start arguing who has the most worth to society. |
| 251 | -->'''Fanshaw:''' I have a wife and family!\ |
| 252 | '''Cunliffe:''' Well then you're done your bit to perpetuate the human race. |
| 253 | * A rare protagonist example in Episode 9 of ''Series/DarkMatter2015''. When Four has one of the bandits who attacked the crew at his mercy, the man pleads that he has a wife and children. Four retorts that they can do better than him before shooting him. |
| 254 | * ''Series/GetSmart'': PlayedForLaughs in "Closely Watched Planes". Several CONTROL couriers have disappeared. Not fancying his chances with the IdiotHero guarding him, the latest courier pleads with Max to change roles, as he's got a wife and kids while Max is still single. Max protests that he's about to get married to Agent 99. |
| 255 | * PlayedForLaughs on ''Series/TheGoodPlace''. Janet, the humanoid AI who runs the neighborhood, is programmed to beg for her life if someone approaches the BigRedButton that reboots her. She'll also cheerfully remind the person doing so that all her pleas are fake and designed to make the person reconsider the reboot. When Eleanor tries to approach the button Janet produces a photograph of "her" children and asks who will take care of them if she's gone. The second Eleanor steps away from the button Janet calms down and admits the photograph is of random children at an awards ceremony. |
| 256 | * In the ''Series/{{Grimm}}'' episode "Double Date", a guy who picked up a woman at a bar and now believed he was being threatened by her husband with a gun (he was actually the mark in a [[TheCon con trick]]) pleads that he has a wife and kids. In the circumstances, [[AssholeVictim this doesn't make him any more sympathetic]]. |
| 257 | * Played straight in the first episode of ''Series/{{Heroes}}'', where Nikki reminds her creditors that she has a son. Jessica gets better results a few episodes later by telling a goon [[MamaBear what exactly she'll do to him if he threatens her son again.]] |
| 258 | * Played with on ''Series/{{House}}'', where one patient tries to get the medical proxy of another patient to sign off on a brain biopsy with it. It doesn't work, and it's revealed that she actually ''doesn't'' have the husband and daughter she said she did. |
| 259 | * ''Series/InspectorMorse''. Sgt Lewis is taken out into the woods and forced to [[DigYourOwnGrave dig his own grave]] by the Murderer-Of-The-Week. At one stage he turns to the killer and yells angrily, "For God's sake, I've got a wife and kids!" but the killer just tells him to keep digging. Fortunately Morse turns up at that moment. |
| 260 | * ''Series/{{Intergalactic}}'': A Commonworld soldier being robbed by Ash, Echo and Verona begs them to spare him, saying he has a daughter. [[spoiler:Verona later shoots him when he breaks free, but feels guilty about it, gently putting his daughter's photo upright afterward.]] |
| 261 | * Frank attempts to pull this on Villanelle in ''Series/KillingEve''. She mistakes it for a ''bribe''. |
| 262 | -->'''Frank:''' I have children... |
| 263 | -->'''Villanelle:''' I don't want your children. |
| 264 | -->'''Frank:''' No. I have children to take care of. |
| 265 | -->'''Villanelle:''' Oh! This will give them something to bond over. |
| 266 | * A heartrending version in an episode of ''Series/LawAndOrder'': The victim of the week (a teacher carjacked and murdered by a former student) manages to leave behind a recording of herself pleading with her murderer to let her go free, eventually trying to show him pictures of her kids. The defense manages to get the tape excluded from trial (exposure to the elements had degraded the tape past where they could get a conclusive match), but it was admissible during the penalty phase (since they'd proved he was the killer, he must be the one on the tape). [[TearJerker Cue a shot of her husband and two daughters, hugging each other in tears]] as their wife/mother's last words were played. |
| 267 | * ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'' has a rare example where this actually works. A judge is murdered; her husband is shot but survives. He tells the detectives that the shooter was about to finish him off, but he pleaded for his life because his kids still needed him. To his astonishment, the shooter pulls the gun up and walks away. This ends up being a major clue to the identity of the suspect, as it turns out they have a particular respect for family ties and fatherhood. |
| 268 | * In an episode of ''Series/Nurses1991'' , two employees slacking off come across a construction worker in trouble. They're reluctant to help, as it will reveal that they've been playing hooky. |
| 269 | -->'''First Employee:''' But what if he has a family?\ |
| 270 | '''Second Employee:''' Oh, come on. What are the odds of that?\ |
| 271 | '''Construction Worker:''' I have a family! |
| 272 | * In ''Series/{{Oz}}'', an illegal immigrant being held in the prison is about to be murdered by Guerra with a nail gun. He begs, pleading "My wife and son?" Guerra cruelly responds "They will mourn you forever." |
| 273 | * ''Series/PersonOfInterest''. |
| 274 | ** In "God Mode" a SmugSnake DirtyCop threatens to kill Detective Carter's son if she doesn't stop investigating HR. When he's later attacked by a masked vigilante (Carter) he pleads, "Please, I have a family!" Carter takes pleasure in cracking a Glock across his face. |
| 275 | ** Subverted when Control is interrogating a schoolteacher whom she suspects is TheHandler for several spies in her organisation. The teacher pleads ignorance and begs to be released, saying she has a daughter. However as Control [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes also has a daughter]], she realises the teacher is saying this to create empathy and manipulate her. |
| 276 | ** Played for laughs when a terrorist tries this line on [[TokenEvilTeammate Sameen Shaw]]. Shaw replies that the fact that he has loved ones [[AndYourLittleDogToo means that Shaw can go after them]]. And the fact that he would allow that to happen [[HypocriticalHumor makes her really angry]]. |
| 277 | * ''Series/TheProfessionals'': In "Slush Fund", Bodie uses this successfully as a sob story while posing as an unemployed man who's turned to burglary (he was searching a house but the wife returned early and caught him). Bodie goes to reach for a non-existent family photo to show her, but she quickly stops him and tells him to GetOut instead of calling the police. Afterwards Doyle scoffs that anyone would fall for this line. "It's not her heart that's soft." |
| 278 | * ''Series/ThePunisher2017'': |
| 279 | ** In the pilot episode a gangster tries this line with Frank Castle, whose response is to point out that ''he'' no longer has one, hence his RoaringRampageOfRevenge. |
| 280 | --->'''Gangster:''' I get it, an eye for an eye and all that. I've got a family of my own.\ |
| 281 | '''Punisher:''' I don't. |
| 282 | ** In the flashbacks of the torture of Ahmed Zubair he gives this trope, and his interrogator (speaking Farsi so Frank Castle can't understand him) proceeds to threaten said family if he reveals he's actually a police officer and not the terrorist Frank thinks he is. |
| 283 | ** However in Season 2 this actually does work on Frank, who is about to use a SawnOffShotgun on Russian oligarch Nikolai Poloznev, whose LastRequest is not to be shot in the face so his wife and daughter will be able to view him in his coffin. Frank knows Poloznev has a daughter, and has been thinking of his own dead daughter recently, so spares his life. Ironically Poloznev is killed by a less scrupulous assassin shortly afterwards. |
| 284 | * ''Series/SonOfZorn'': Played for DarkHumor during a cut away scene back to Zephyria. As [[BigBad Vulturzon]] is slaughtering members of Zorn's old crew, one pleads that he has a family, and if the villains spare him, he'll lead them to it so they can be killed instead. |
| 285 | * In the sixth episode of ''Series/SquidGame'', Sang-woo tries to invoke this to his partner in that episode's game [[spoiler: because the players have just learned that only one person from a pair can win and that the loser gets executed]]. His partner [[spoiler: Ali]], sobbing, responds that he ''also'' has a family. |
| 286 | * ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': Played for laughs in "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS03E01TheSearchPartI The Search, Part I]]". Quark refuses to go on a dangerous mission and volunteers his brother Rom instead. "He only has a son. I have a business!" |
| 287 | * In "The High Ground" on ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', Dr. Beverly Crusher tells a terrorist that has kidnapped that she has a son (Wesley Crusher). As it turns out, he isn't interested in killing her because he needs her medical services, though he does later launch an assault on the ''Enterprise'' that could have led to the death of Wesley. |
| 288 | * A rare example of it working occurs in ''Series/TerminatorTheSarahConnorChronicles''. Because she's a hero and a mom, she lets him go. Subverted in that [[spoiler:he is actually a bad guy and shoots her. Later, she kills him. Also, she finds out that while he doesn't have a son, he does have a wife.]] |
| 289 | [[/folder]] |
| 290 | |
| 291 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 292 | * This even occurs in music, in the song "Stagger Lee." |
| 293 | * Better Than Ezra's "One More Murder" contains the lyric "Saturday night, comin' out/Parking lot a figure come about/Feel a piece click against your head/Pleading to his sympathy/'Take the car, I got a family'/Hear a laugh, 'don't mean shit to me.' |
| 294 | [[/folder]] |
| 295 | |
| 296 | [[folder:Pro Wrestling]] |
| 297 | * Wrestling/JimRoss, commentator for ''WWE'' Raw, frequently exclaims "That man has a family!" when a wrestler is on the receiving end of a beat down. |
| 298 | * On July 20, 2015, when Wrestling/TheUndertaker confronted Wrestling/PaulHeyman who had been bad-mouthing him, Paul begged for mercy, screaming that he had children. Undertaker was still about to attack him when Wrestling/BrockLesnar intercepted him. |
| 299 | * Wrestling/HeathSlater's [[CharacterCatchphrase catchphrase]] was "I got kids! I need this job!" He once used this when he challenged Wrestling/BrockLesnar, who... seemed sympathetic, as he also has kids. But then, when Heath got in the ring with him, Lesnar told him, [[LackOfEmpathy "I don't give a ]][[PrecisionFStrike shit]] [[LackOfEmpathy about your kids."]] |
| 300 | [[/folder]] |
| 301 | |
| 302 | [[folder:Radio]] |
| 303 | * When [[Radio/TheJackBennyProgram Jack Benny]] threatened to fire his announcer, Don Wilson, Wilson pleaded, "But Jack, I have a wife and two chins to support!" |
| 304 | [[/folder]] |
| 305 | |
| 306 | [[folder:Roleplay]] |
| 307 | * In ''Roleplay/DinoAttackRPG'', Bartholomew Enderson used this line when he was confronted by Silencia Venomosa. He later confessed that it was the greatest mistake he ever made, since Venomosa used it as leverage against him: if he did not comply, then she would kill his family. |
| 308 | [[/folder]] |
| 309 | |
| 310 | [[folder:Theater]] |
| 311 | * There is a variation in ''Theatre/SweeneyTodd'', where Todd is about to slash the throat of a customer in his typical manner, but then spares him when he sees he has a child. |
| 312 | ** The movie puts the wife and child in the room at the time, which makes it unclear whether he's being spared out of kindness or because there are witnesses present. |
| 313 | *** Considering the entire scheme began as a method of silencing witnesses, more likely the former. |
| 314 | * An [[FountainOfMemes immensely popular]] Israel skit parodies this, similarly to ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'''s example below. A man gives a lengthly ridiculous account he [[WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants makes up on the spot]] about how he me aliens and says that when he met their leader, he begged to be spared, saying, 'I have a wife and kids! Eat ''them''!' (Though he later mentions off-handedly that [[PlotHole he doesn’t believe in the institution of marriage]].) |
| 315 | * In ''Theatre/MarginForError'', when Moe realizes that the Consul wants him fired, he tries pleading with him: |
| 316 | -->"Listen, I got a ''mother''. I got Momma's family. Listen, I'm in a jam like everybody else--" |
| 317 | [[/folder]] |
| 318 | |
| 319 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 320 | * In the opening of Sweet Tooth's story in ''[[VideoGame/TwistedMetal Twisted Metal Black]]'', a voice is heard saying this. The response from Sweet Tooth: "Shut up and ''bleed'', you mother--," interrupted by the sound of a knife striking home. |
| 321 | * In the 2005 ''VideoGame/{{The Punisher|THQ}}'' game, this crops up as one of the special flashbacks. A random mook, upon being "interrogated," may respond "I have a family!" giving Punisher a flashback to his own, dead, family. |
| 322 | -->'''Punisher:''' ''[Kill]'' [[PreMortemOneLiner Everybody does]]. ''[BANG]''\ |
| 323 | '''Punisher:''' ''[Mercy]'' Then go back to them. |
| 324 | * Played with in ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'': |
| 325 | -->'''Guard:''' You wouldn't kill a man with a wife and ten children, would you?\ |
| 326 | '''Protagonist:''' No way, you've got a fate worse than death already. |
| 327 | * Occasionally, the innocent civilians in ''VideoGame/{{Oni}}'' will say this if a fight starts near them. One specifically begs Konoko not to kill him ("I have a wife and kids!") after divulging information. |
| 328 | * Spoofed occasionally during kidnapping missions in ''VideoGame/CityOfVillains''. |
| 329 | ** "Please don't do this, I have kids! Well not now, but I'd like to someday." |
| 330 | * ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'': A few [[NonPlayerCharacter NPCs]] in the "Death Knight" starting zone shout this when you attack them. Just in case the mere fact of being a Death Knight [[YouBastard wasn't enough]]. |
| 331 | ** [[http://threepanelsoul.com/2008/09/16/on-old-wounds/ It wasn't always just humanoid NPCs.]] |
| 332 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Fable|I}}'', when you are offered a chance to spare a merchant after raiding his trading post, you get to hear him beg for his life. For some reason, he feels the need to inform you that he has a ''shop'' in the same breath that he tells you about his family. |
| 333 | * In the genocide run of ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'', [[spoiler: the shopkeeper in Snowdin flees before you even arrive, leaving a note that begs you not to hurt her family]] |
| 334 | * If Batman continues interrogating mob mooks after getting the information he wants in the ''Batman Begins'' video game, they'll start pleading that they have families. |
| 335 | * ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' pulled a subversion. With the Mandalorian raiders on Dantooine, they have a farmer at gunpoint. The farmer begs for his life, asking for his family to be taken ''instead'' of him. The Mandalorian shoots him anyway. |
| 336 | * ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords'' has seemingly dozens of these, often just when you're talking nicely to them on the street. Almost everyone you catch double-crossing you will try it as soon as you find out. This happens if you're good or evil. |
| 337 | * ''VideoGame/{{Mafia}}'': "You should have thought of you wife before." |
| 338 | * ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'': |
| 339 | ** [[spoiler:rogue Spectre Tela Vasir]] take a hostage, a waitress named Mariana, in order to stop Shepard from killing her in the game's ''Lair of the Shadow Broker'' DLC. The hostage tries one of these, saying she has a son, but [[spoiler:Vasir]] uses this as more reason for Shepard and the squad to drop their thermal clips, also delivering a KickTheDog to Liara and possibly Shepard if s/he has the right background, about how it might scar the child for life. Shepard can either [[spoiler:distract Vasir while Liara hits her from behind, non-fatally wound the hostage and hit Vasir or drop their thermal clips]]. Either way results in the hostage getting away relatively unscathed and [[ThatOneBoss one of the toughest fights in the game]]. |
| 340 | --->'''Mariana:''' Please. I have a son.\ |
| 341 | '''[[spoiler:Vasir]]:''' A ''son''? Well, I hope he gets to see you again. I've heard losing a parent is just ''horrific'' for children. Scars them for ''life''.\ |
| 342 | '''[[spoiler:Liara]]:''' [[CloseToHome I'm going to *end* you,]] [[spoiler:[[CloseToHome Vasir]].]]\ |
| 343 | '''Shepard:''' It's alright, [[spoiler:Liara]]. We'll handle this the usual way.\ |
| 344 | '''[[spoiler:Vasir]]:''' You want Mariana's little boy to grow up without a mommy, Shepard? Thermal clips on the ground, now. Power cells, too. |
| 345 | ** In general, playing a heavily-renegade Shepard will get you to hear this a lot. Immediately followed by "pew pew". |
| 346 | * Wounded enemies in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'' will often scream something to this effect. |
| 347 | * ''VideoGame/HeavyRain'' has a rare dramatic non-villainous use of it. One of the trials protagonist Ethan Mars has to endure to [[spoiler:find his kidnapped son]] is to [[spoiler:kill a specific man and take a photo]]. Should you choose to go through with it, he will espouse that he's a father and show a photo to you to prove it. Ethan answers that [[spoiler:he's a father too, and has no choice]]. |
| 348 | * ''VideoGame/TheSecretOfMonkeyIsland'': |
| 349 | ** In the finale confrontation between Guybrush and [=LeChuck=] in the church in the special edition, the player can make Guybrush say this |
| 350 | --->'''Guybrush:''' Please don't kill me. (Player's choice)\ |
| 351 | '''[=LeChuck=]:''' Give me a reason why I shouldn't!\ |
| 352 | '''Guybrush:''' I have a wife and three kids! (Player's choice)\ |
| 353 | '''Elaine:''' I hear that! |
| 354 | ** Bob ([=LeChuck=]'s right hand man) also uses this line when Guybrush attempts to kill him with voodoo root beer (which Guybrush can succeed at, depending on how many times he tries to kill him). However, none of Bob's family is seen on [=LeChuck's=] ghost ship. |
| 355 | * A guard in ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum'' tries this line on [[spoiler:traitorous fellow guard Frank Boles]] just before being gunned down. |
| 356 | * In ''VideoGame/ScarfaceTheWorldIsYours'', after Tony finishes slaughtering his way through Sosa's mansion, a random mook appears and begs for mercy using this. Tony offers him a job. |
| 357 | * In ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsII'', BigBad Raul Menendez, after having orchestrated the assassination of [[spoiler:Alex Mason, at the hands of his best friend, Frank Woods]], he then says that one more has to die, [[spoiler: Hudson, [[TheMole his spy in the CIA]], [[WouldHurtAChild David Mason, Alex's son,]] or Woods. Hudson says he can't offer himself because he has two kids. But as Raul cocks his shotgun, [[HeroicSacrifice Hudson changes his tone and tells Menendez to kill him so Woods and David don't have to die.]]]] |
| 358 | * An interesting example in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'', [[spoiler: Trevor finds himself unable to kill Michael in spite of his betrayal because of the latter's own family which Trevor also [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes loves dearly]].]] |
| 359 | * In ''VideoGame/FairyFencerF: Advent Dark Force'', in the [[spoiler:Evil Goddess timeline]], Paiga begs [[spoiler:Noie]] not to kill him after he hast just [[spoiler:killed Hanagata]], saying that he has a family: a wife and kids, and he hasn't finished paying off his mortgage. He prepares to off him anyway, but [[spoiler:Junown offers to let him join the Septerion Club instead.]] After a fashion he accepts the offer. |
| 360 | * Subverted in ''VideoGame/OctopathTraveler''. One villain lies to Alfyn, claiming to have three children who's depending on him to earn money as a mercenary. Later, when Alfyn confronts the villain after he's taken a child hostage, the villain claims to have ''four'' mouths to feed. Alfyn points out how the villain contradicted himself, and the villain nonchalantly says he should have kept his stories straight. |
| 361 | [[/folder]] |
| 362 | |
| 363 | [[folder:Web Animation]] |
| 364 | * Parodied in ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue'' when "Phil" is being threatened by Wyoming and says he's a single parent. |
| 365 | * ''WebAnimation/MyLittlePonyMeets'': Spoofed in "Sailor Moon Meets My Little Pony". Discord pleads for mercy from Tirek and says he has a wife and daughter. Tirek points out he knows he doesn't, so Discord says he does in alternate universes. He opens a portal to ''Fanfic/BrideOfDiscord'' and pulls out his daughter for a few seconds before that version of Discord arrives and takes her back. Nonetheless, Tirek is not moved and keeps attacking him. |
| 366 | * Parodied in ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable'' ''WebAnimation/ButReallyReallyFast'', with SerialKiller Angelo Katagiri about to be beaten up by Josuke: |
| 367 | -->'''Angelo:''' Please, I can explain, I've got a wife and kids to murder. |
| 368 | [[/folder]] |
| 369 | |
| 370 | [[folder:Web Comics]] |
| 371 | * ''Webcomic/KillingStalking'': [[spoiler: the gay man Sangwoo kidnaps and murders in Chapter 10 uses this excuse. It doesn't work.]] |
| 372 | * The [[WickedWitch witch]] in ''Webcomic/NoRestForTheWicked'' pleads with the heroes to spare her because [[http://www.forthewicked.net/archive/03-68.html "I have children! There's no one else to care for them!"]]. [[spoiler:She doesn't, not anymore. She wanted to keep them [[MyBelovedSmother so safe]] that she killed and ate them, so they would be safe inside. Then she proceeded to kidnap, kill, and eat other children on the delusion that they were her own, who somehow sneaked off]]. |
| 373 | * ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'', as Schlock is threatening to eat the guard from whom he is trying to get information [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20001006.html here]]: |
| 374 | -->'''Guard:''' I've got a wife and three kids!\ |
| 375 | '''Schlock:''' Yum, are you pleading for your ''life'' or offering me ''dessert?'' |
| 376 | * ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': |
| 377 | ** In [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0589.html strip #589]], we have the evil minion vs PregnantBadass version: |
| 378 | --->'''Ninja:''' Please, don't hurt me! I have children, too!\ |
| 379 | '''Kazumi:''' Yeah? Did you go through half a year of hemorrhoids to get them? Turn around and I'll show you exactly what that feels like. |
| 380 | ** In the prequel book ''[[Recap/TheOrderOfTheStickStartOfDarkness Start of Darkness]]'', BigBad Xykon tells this to a random heroic RedShirt: |
| 381 | --->'''Xykon:''' Hey, fun fact: If you beg for mercy, I'll let you live.\ |
| 382 | '''Paladin:''' Please, sir, I have a wife and child back home! Have mercy!\ |
| 383 | '''Xykon:''' Even more fun fact: [[ILied I'm a total liar]].\ |
| 384 | '''Paladin:''' AARRGH!! |
| 385 | * Black Hat Guy in ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' [[http://xkcd.com/360/ gets fed up]] with the [[UsefulNotes/TVStrikes Writers' Strike]] and kidnaps [[Series/TheDailyShow Jon Stewart]]. |
| 386 | -->'''Black Hat Guy:''' Jon! Obama's leading in Iowa! Gimme a wry, witty comment on the situation!\ |
| 387 | '''Jon Stewart:''' Please let me go. I have a family. |
| 388 | * Celesto Morgan does this to ''himself'' by accident in ''Webcomic/DominicDeegan''. After killing a {{Jerkass}} athlete, he asks the stripper he was with to give her a reason not to kill her... and (as he's a seer) sees a vision of her with her young daughter. Knocked for a loop, he makes a decision: |
| 389 | -->'''Celesto:''' Go home, hold your daughter close, and thank her for that good-luck pinch. It just saved your ''life''. |
| 390 | * In [[http://www.the-whiteboard.com/autowb644.html this]] ''Webcomic/TheWhiteboard'' strip, after watching an awful movie Doc threatens a janitor with violence over it. The janitor pleads for pity on account of having three mouths to feed. [[SubvertedTrope Two goldfish and a gerbil,]] which is sufficient to get the janitor off the hook. |
| 391 | * Also occurs in ''[[Webcomic/{{Hiimdaisy}} Let's Destroy]] [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater The Shagohod!]]'' where Naked Snake tried interrogating a scientist who utters this trope... only for Snake to accidentally kill him. |
| 392 | * WebComic/ElGoonishShive uses this for BlackComedy in [[http://egscomics.com/comic/2016-07-22 one of Grace's nightmares]] about how her pacifist nature could affect those around her negatively. |
| 393 | -->'''Sensei Greg:''' I'm being attacked by a fire goo griffin right now, Grace. What are you going to do about it?\ |
| 394 | '''Grace:''' Please stop, fire goo griffin! Let's work this out! WHAT ARE YOUR HOPES AND DREAMS?\ |
| 395 | '''Greg:''' [[MajorInjuryUnderreaction The fire goo griffin has literally eaten my arm and is absorbing its power to make itself five times as deadly dangerous, Grace.]]\ |
| 396 | '''Grace:''' AH! NO! I'LL STOP IT! I'LL --\ |
| 397 | '''Fire Goo Griffin:''' [[PuppyDogEyes I have a wife and three dozen fire goo griffin babies.]] |
| 398 | * Used by Sienna in ''Webcomic/TheNightBelongsToUs'': when threatened by Ada and Hanks to spill the beans about Murphy, she begs for her live and tells them she has a child (which she never mentions before or after, and which is never seen, so it might just be her fibbing to get out of being held by the jugular by a vampire). |
| 399 | [[/folder]] |
| 400 | |
| 401 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 402 | * ''Rec.Humor.Funny'' has a joke titled [[http://www.netfunny.com/rhf/jokes/87/7433.12.html Discipline]]. The US soldier won't jump off a cliff because he has a wife and family. He receives no sympathy, and is escorted for court martial. The Russian soldier jumps because he has a wife and family. |
| 403 | [[/folder]] |
| 404 | |
| 405 | [[folder:Web Videos]] |
| 406 | * ''WebVideo/TheLegendOfNeil'' features an annoying Octorok in the second episode who nearly kicks the crap out of Neil, before Neil grows a pair and decides try out his new wooden sword. After the mook fails to intimidate him ("You FOOL! Ganon will SWALLOW your SOUL!"), he resorts to this as Neil turns the tables on him. Since he's a just another enemy monster, he says "No! I have a Family of MILLIONS...!" This becomes a running joke in Episode 4 of Season 2, as he appears on a "Have you seen me?" type of poster. |
| 407 | * The victim of FridayNightCrank's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDRxzraZOv8 in-person prank]] said this as Jared and Kristin were attempting to calm her down at the end. |
| 408 | * WebVideo/{{Kitboga}} is a scambaiter popular on Website/YouTube and Website/{{Twitch}}. This is a fairly common (and disgusting) scammer tactic seen in his videos and one of the ways in which they try to draw sympathy from the intended victim. This often goes along with the whole "I'm going to lose my job if you don't give me back this money" tactic that is part of many of the refund scams. In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcvWYOqlfiA this video]], around the 1:44 mark, the scammer starts with this (even before first part of the scam has been completed) and Kitboga picks it apart for all its worth. When the scammer claims he can't feed his family, Kitboga starts offering to connect him with local charities, only for the scammer to refuse. He then asks the scammer if the children go to school. The scammer claims that he can't afford it and Kitboga points out that it's both free, as well as illegal for them not to be in school if they're school age. |
| 409 | [[/folder]] |
| 410 | |
| 411 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 412 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episode "Squilliam Returns", when [=SpongeBob=]'s many metaphorical representations of his mind at work are dumping files, the boss of them threatens to fire one of his employees if he talks back at him again. That employee works up and begs, "No, please! I have 3 kids!" |
| 413 | ** [=SpongeBob=] sometimes uses his pet snail Gary as an excuse for his need to get out of sticky situations. |
| 414 | * Spoofed in ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim''. In "Gir Goes Crazy And Stuff," Zim is about to erase a police officer's memories. The man pulls out his wallet to show Zim the photos therein, lamenting "Please! I have a house and children and pets and a toilet... and [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs toilet children]]." His wallet indeed contains photos of his children, a dog, and a toilet. |
| 415 | * Also spoofed on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''. Homer, confronted by aliens Kang and Kodos, shouts, "Don't eat me! I have a wife and kids! Eat ''[[DirtyCoward them]]''!" They simply yell "[[BigShutUp Silence]]!" |
| 416 | ** And a bullfighting commentator in another episode: "No! I have a wife and three girlfriends!" |
| 417 | * {{Deconstructed|Trope}} in the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "The Joker's Favor." The episode's main character says this as he tries to convince the Joker not to hurt him after he cussed out the Joker for cutting him off in traffic. It doesn't work and just gives the Joker more potential targets. |
| 418 | * WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes: |
| 419 | ** WesternAnimation/BugsBunny does this in ''WesternAnimation/HaredevilHare'': "I have a wife and kids, ''[[ExplosiveBreeder millions]]'' of kids!" |
| 420 | ** WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck also did it. Having actually been cornered by Porky Pig and moments away from being killed, he called his wife and kids out to say goodbye. Porky changes his mind, after which the "wife and kids" reveal themselves to be Daffy's drinking buddies in disguise. |
| 421 | ** In another cartoon, Daffy is a vagrant sleeping inside a department store display, and he's about to be thrown out by police officer Porky when he passes off two wind-up ducks as his kids. Porky takes pity on them and lets then stay, and at the end is seen with his own two wind-up kids. |
| 422 | ** In "WesternAnimation/PorkysHareHunt", the prototype rabbit that would later evolve into Bugs pleads to Porky that he has a wife and kids. He even shows Porky a photo of him with his wife and hundreds of kids. Porky dismisses it. |
| 423 | ** In "One Meat Brawl", Grover Groundhog pulls this on Porky and his hunting dog. "Wife and seventy-two children...no polo ponies...has to roll his own cigarettes...wife has no nylons..." |
| 424 | --->'''Grover''': Dogs are suckers for sob stories. |
| 425 | ** In the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunesCartoons'' episode "Poolside Pest" with Daffy the cabana boy begging Elmer not to get him fired. |
| 426 | --->'''Daffy:''' I need the job sir, I've got a wife. I've got a (what's the word?)..children! Oh and uh.. mortgages or something. |
| 427 | * Parodied in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TinyToons'' called "Drawn and Buttered" where Hamton is trying to boil a lobster. |
| 428 | -->'''Lobster:''' Please have mercy. I have a wife and children! ''[flips open a wallet full of pictures of humans]''\ |
| 429 | '''Hampton:''' I have the same family. ''[flips open an identical wallet]'' They came with the wallet! |
| 430 | ** Played straight, and surprisingly it works, in another episode, where Hamton spares the life of a mosquito after finding out that the mosquito has a family (again by wallet full of pictures). Since this is [[ButtMonkey Hamton]], NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished. |
| 431 | * It actually works for a random civvie in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', and he doesn't even have to say anything. A visibly starved Zuko rides by while he's cooking and is ready to rob the poor guy blind -- until seeing his pregnant wife. Cue swords sheathing, because [[EvenEvilHasStandards Zuko's]] not ''that kind'' of villain[=/=]AntiHero. Incidentally, said random civvie and his pregnant wife play an important role in the plot of a later episode. |
| 432 | * ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'': In "Three's a Crowd", Bulkhead has to pretend to berate Professor Sumdac so [[TheNapoleon Dirt Boss]] won't do something worse. The Professor, being a GeniusDitz who was only just rescued from Megatron, takes him seriously and begs Bulkhead not to hurt him. "I am a father!" |
| 433 | * Played with in ''WesternAnimation/UglyAmericans'', when Randall has joined an evil zombie cult and his initiation requires him to kill and eat a man. His intended target is a bit of a jerk, and when begs for his life, he mentions that he has a wife and ''mistress.'' |
| 434 | * In WesternAnimation/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice a store clerk begs "Please! I have an ex-wife and two kids!" |
| 435 | * ''WesternAnimation/ToddMcFarlanesSpawn'': In the first episode, when some poor schmuck about to be set on fire by trio of mobsters, tries to plea for his life. Goes ignored, if not even backfires. |
| 436 | -->'''Poor Schmuck:''' Please I have a family, kids. |
| 437 | -->'''Mobster:''' And for their sakes, I hope decent life insurance. |
| 438 | * ''WesternAnimation/ProblemChild'': Mayor Healy and Principal Peabody failed to keep their end of a bargain with mobsters. Healy played straight with the trope by stating he had a family. Peabody, on the other hand, said he didn't have one but could get one. |
| 439 | * In ''WesternAnimation/TazMania'', Taz falls for this with Willie Wombat. Yosemite Sam later berates him over the phone for falling for the old "sympathy routine". |
| 440 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Popeye}}'' episode "Olive's Boithday Presink", the bear that Popeye is hunting is visited by his family as Popeye is just about to shoot him, who tearfully hug the bear and say their farewells. After this Popeye doesn't have the heart to shoot him. |
| 441 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'' episode "Is Mystery", Buff Frog tries to get Ludo to spare him by pointing out he is a father. Ludo doesn't care, and points out he gave Buff Frog his adopted babies in the first place. He only spares him when his sentient magic wand points out Buff Frog may still be useful. |
| 442 | * In ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldInTheRough'', Garfield thinks he's being approached by a predator when he encounters Billy Rabbit. One of the things he says in hopes that it will convince the predator to spare him is lying that he has a wife and nine kids. |
| 443 | * ''WesternAnimation/XMenTheAnimatedSeries'': In "The Final Decision", Magneto threatens to kill Senator Robert Kelly. Kelly pleads for his life and says he has a family and children. Magneto is enraged and tells him to shut up as he had a family too, but they were killed by racists, racists like Kelly. |
| 444 | * ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'': "Count Lasagna" has a lasagna delivery man plead that he has a wife and children when he is sent out to deliver lasagna while Count Lasagna is on the prowl. |
| 445 | * In the [[WesternAnimation/ScreenSongs Screen Song]] "You Try Somebody Else" when a cat sneaks into [[WesternAnimation/BettyBoop Betty Boop's]] house and raids the fridge, he selects a fish on a plate and brings him to the table; the fish pleads "I have a wife and two kids inside", so the cat goes back to the fridge and brings out said wife and kids and adds them to the meal. |
| 446 | [[/folder]] |
| 447 | |
| 448 | [[folder:Real Life]] |
| 449 | * When Maximilian Kolbe, sainted Franciscan priest, was imprisoned in Auschwitz, the Nazis were about to execute ten randomly chosen prisoners after another group managed to sneak out. One of them was a Polish soldier/woodworker, who pleaded for his life arguing he had family. While the guards were unmoved, the trope ended up working in another way: Father Maximilian heard this and [[TakeMeInstead offered to take the man's place]], and the guards accepted Father Maximilian as a substitute. He was executed, while the other man survived. Kolbe was made a saint for his selfless sacrifice, and the man he saved was still alive and attended his canonization. |
| 450 | * If anyone in this case is a "villain", it's the person saying the line: in 2004, NBA player Latrell Spreewell turned down a 3-year contract worth between 21 and 30 ''million'' dollars, saying he had a family to feed as reason that wasn't enough money. So continued his decline out of the league. To say the least, he was never offered that much money again. |
| 451 | * In the case of Michael Drejka who was incarcerated for shooting Markeis [=McGlockton=] (using a Glock pistol) who was unarmed although he did physically assault Drejka, Drejka's (unnamed, unseen) wife was a crucial subject in his immunity hearing. Drejka's defense attorney John Trevena issued an appeal for Drejka's bond to be significantly lowered on the grounds that Drejka and his wife were evicted from their house by the landlord and facing homelessness. The prosecutors reprimanded that Drejka is responsible for his own financial issues, arguing that he took advantage of his wife forcing her to work full-time, living off her income while he retired from working at age 37 (Drejka used to be a tree trimmer) and stayed unemployed for approximately a decade. The appeal was denied when the Judge ruled Drejka did not have a sufficient reason to kill [=McGlockton=]. Drejka was found guilty in 2019 and sentenced to 9 years. |
| 452 | [[/folder]] |
| 453 | ---- |
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