Greetings, tropers. It may shock you to know that I Have Your Index. How I came to obtain it is not important at this particular point in time. All that is important is that I'm willing to give it back... for a price. If you want your precious index back, I request... the sum of forty-three dollars and seventy cents.
...
I appreciate your cooperation. Here is your index, safe and sound.
Contrast Index to the Rescue.
Tropes:
Also see:
- Abduction Is Love: Kidnapping other people out of romantic or sexual attraction to them.
- Accidental Kidnapping: The wrong target was kidnapped by mistake.
- Alien Abductees Fight Back: When the captured human resists and tells the ETs to go screw themselves.
- Alien Abduction: Humans get kidnapped by extraterrestrial beings.
- All Webbed Up
- And Now You Must Marry Me
- And Your Little Dog, Too!: The villain threatens one of the hero's loved ones just because they can.
- Authentication by Newspaper: A hostage is photographed alongside a current newspaper to show that they're still alive.
- Badass in Distress: A badass character who would normally be able to defend themselves still gets captured by the enemy anyways.
- Bag of Kidnapping: Abducting someone by wrapping them inside a big sack.
- Bathe Her and Bring Her to Me: The villain orders his minions to groom a woman held prisoner so he can rape her.
- Baby Be Mine: A baby or child is kidnapped by someone who wants to raise them as their own, usually as a replacement for a child they lost.
- Bound and Gagged: A captured person is tied up so they can't get away and gagged so they can't cry for help.
- Breeding Slave: The captive victim is forced to have sex with their abductor in order to produce children.
- Bring Him to Me
- Bruce Wayne Held Hostage: The hero's civilian identity gets held hostage in a misguided attempt to draw the hero out from hiding.
- Bulletproof Human Shield: Grabbing someone as a living meat shield to force them to take the brunt of enemy attacks for you.
- Bus Full of Innocents: A whole group of hostages are put at risk by the villain.
- Captive Audience: People are captured and forced to be spectators to an event.
- Captive Date
- Captive Push: Walking the dog with the captives as it.
- The Captivity Narrative: Tales of European settlers (usually white women) being abducted by Native American warriors.
- Captured by Cannibals
- Captured Super-Entity: An all-powerful entity is held in captivity by less powerful beings for some nefarious purpose.
- Carousel Kidnapping: As soon as a child is out of line-of-sight, they're taken.
- Caught in a Snare
- Changeling Tale: Fairy creatures abduct human babies and replace them with disguised impostors.
- Code Emergency
- Creepy Stalker Van
- Damsel in Distress: A female character whose main purpose is to get taken hostage so that the hero must save her.
- Damsel out of Distress: When she decides to escape on her own without waiting for a hero to rescue her.
- Damsel Scrappy: A character who is disliked by audiences for always needing to be rescued.
- Decoy Damsel: When the "distressed" damsel is actually just trying to lure the hero into a trap.
- Defiant Captive
- Deliberately Distressed Damsel: When she intentionally gets herself captured or into trouble.
- Designated Victim: This character will always get in trouble whenever the plot demands it.
- Disguised Hostage Gambit
- Distress Ball
- Distress Call
- Distressed Dude: A male character is taken hostage.
- Dragons Prefer Princesses: A dragon has captured a princess, requiring a brave hero to save her.
- Faked Kidnapping: Pretending to abduct someone.
- Finger in the Mail
- Go-Go Enslavement: A female hostage is forced to serve as eye-candy for their captor (possibly overlapping with Sex Slave).
- Going for the Big Scoop
- Hand Gagging
- "Help! Help! Trapped in Title Factory!"
- Hostage for MacGuffin
- Hostage-Handler Huddle: Villains have captured the hero and argue what to do with him.
- Hostage Situation: The bad guys take people as hostages to use them as bargaining chips for whatever goals they have.
- Hostage Spirit-Link
- Hostage Video: Kidnappers produce a video featuring their hostage to make threats and ransom demands about them.
- Human Shield: Someone grabs a hostage to be placed in front of them in order to dissuade enemies from attacking.
- Human Traffickers: These criminals often take live people in captivity, usually to sell them off as slaves.
- Hypnotize the Captive
- I Have a Family
- I Have You Now, My Pretty: The kidnapper makes it no secret that they want to do something sexual to their captive.
- I Have Your Wife: Someone is manipulated into doing what the villain says because the villain captured this person's loved one.
- I'm Taking Her Home with Me!: When something/someone is just so cute that someone wants to take them home... whether they have consent or not.
- Invasion of the Baby Snatchers: When (non-human) beings kidnap infants.
- I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure
- Innocent Bystander
- Just Between You and Me
- Kidnapped by an Ally
- Kidnapped by the Call: The call to adventure will take you on an adventure, whether you like it or not.
- Kidnapped Doctor: A physician or other medical professional is kidnapped so they can be forced to treat someone's health problems.
- Kidnapped for Experimentation: A character is abducted to be a scientific test subject.
- Kidnapped from Behind
- Kidnapped Scientist: A scientist, engineer, or similar professional is abducted and forced to use their expertise in service of their abductor's goals.
- Kidnapped While Sleeping
- Kidnapper's KFC: A kidnapper buys his hostage fast food while running from the cops.
- Kidnapping Bird of Prey
- The Kindnapper
- Knotty Tentacles: Tying up an opponent with their own tentacles/long stretchy limbs/snake-like features.
- Lima Syndrome: When the captor starts to sympathize with their captive.
- Living Doll Collector: A character collects people like they were dolls.
- Locked Up and Left Behind: When the kidnapper locks up the hostage and leaves them to die alone.
- Locking MacGyver in the Store Cupboard: When the kidnappers are dumb enough to hand their hostage the means to escape or cause trouble.
- Made a Slave: Someone is abducted with the sole intention of being forced to work, unwillingly and likely with the threat of violence, for their kidnapper.
- Making the Choice for You
- A Match Made in Stockholm: When both sides of the kidnapping develop Stockholm/Lima syndrome to the point that they fall in love with each other.
- Missing Mission Control
- Not My Driver: When someone gets in a vehicle and does not realize that there is something evil driving.
- Over-the-Shoulder Carry
- Parents in Distress: When it's on the offspring to do the springing out.
- Pity the Kidnapper: When the hostage turns out to be too annoying or otherwise unbearable for their captors to handle.
- Poisonous Captive
- Political Hostage: The Empire wants to keep a vassal state in line, so they hold someone important to them as a guest.
- Pregnant Hostage: An expectant mom-to-be gets captured.
- Prisoner Exchange: In some sort of war or conflict, two enemy/rival factions make an agreement to release some of both sides' members whom they were respectively holding captive.
- Protector Behind Bars: When the captors are the police and/or guards to the captives.
- Put Down Your Gun and Step Away
- Ransom Drop: A discreet way to deliver a ransom to the criminals.
- Rescue Romance
- Roguish Romani
- Sadistic Choice: The hero only has time to rescue one captured loved one and has to make the difficult decision of which person he'll save and which one he'll leave to die.
- Save the Princess
- Scarpia Ultimatum: Blackmailing someone into having sex with you by threatening to hurt their loved ones if they say no.
- Sex Slave: The abductee is captured for the purpose of being forced to have sex with their kidnapper, or to be sold into involuntary prostitution.
- Shackle Seat Trap
- She Will Come for Me
- Shoot the Hostage
- Shoot the Hostage Taker
- Sick Captive Scam: A captive fakes illness or injury to get the drop on his captor.
- Standard Female Grab Area: Grabbing a woman by her arm will stop her cold.
- Stockholm Syndrome: When a captive person starts to sympathize with their captor.
- Stop, or I Shoot Myself!: Taking yourself hostage.
- Take Me Instead
- Taken During the Ending: A character/object is taken away at the end of the story for a purpose, leaving it ambiguous on what's going to happen next.
- Tentacle Rope: Tied up with tentacles
- Tribal Carry
- Unhand Them, Villain!
- Usurping Santa: A villain plots to depose Santa Claus or another holiday figure to gain their power and fame.
- Vehicular Kidnapping
- Vertical Kidnapping: An unanticipated pickup from above.
- The Villain Knows Where You Live: As a prelude to a kidnapping.
- Villainous Face Hold
- You Can Keep Her!
- You Said You Would Let Them Go
