Neal Caffrey: Hey, keep your eye on the prize, okay? This is serious. Stanzler doesn't mess around. And remember, backup is ten seconds away, so—
Peter Burke: You don't give me the "be careful" speech. I invented the "be careful" speech.
Peter Burke: You don't give me the "be careful" speech. I invented the "be careful" speech.
— White Collar, "Power Play"
Our hero is about to go into a dangerous situation. Cue the hero's best friend or a mentor figure reminding the hero just how dangerous it's going to be and warning them to be cautious. If it is a friend or loved one without specialized knowledge of the threats, the message will be about being careful and coming home safe. If the message is from a mentor or commanding officer, they may give more detailed advice on how to deal with risks. In the latter case, there may be clues dropped about the challenges the hero will face.
See also Try Not to Die.
Examples
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Comic Books
- Tim Drake finds himself trying to remind his allies of the danger of the situation they're about to enter distressingly often, especially in the early days of Young Justice where he was the team leader and responsible for Superboy, who only had his tactile telekinesis at that point as his Kryptonian powers had yet to start coming in and was a boisterous Fun Personified "teen", and Impulse who was a dangerously impulsive Cloudcuckoolander speedster with no sense of danger whatsoever due to being raised in a virtual reality.
- Wonder Woman Vol 1: Darnell would sometimes remind Steve Trevor of the dangers inherent to the mission he was being sent on, usually reminding him to keep the Nazi agents he was gathering intel on from realizing what Steve is up to.
Films — Animation
- Cars: Sally tells Lightning McQueen this when he's about to compete in a race.
Films — Live-Action
- In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Hermione explicitly tells the title protagonist, "Do be careful."
- In Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, as Kirk and company are about to beam over to investigate the lack of response from Regula I:
Spock: Jim, be careful.
McCoy: We will!
Literature
- In "Aladdin", from The Arabian Nights, the wicked magician cautions Aladdin not to touch the walls of the enchanted cave he is about to enter, or he will die.
- Stacey's mother in The Baby-Sitters Club tells her to "Have fun, and be careful" every time she leaves home.
- In Felix Salten's Bambi, Bambi's mother warns him that "walking on the meadow is not so simple. It's a difficult and dangerous business." She instructs him to run if he sees her run, or "...even if something should happen... even if (you) should see me fall to the ground..." Which of course, eventually, he does.
- In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Willy Wonka regularly tells the group they need to be careful, not to touch anything, not to enter certain places, not to get overexcited, etc. as they travel from room to room. Of course, most of his charges easily forget his warnings or outright ignore them...
- In Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky", the hero's father warns,"Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch. Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun the frumious Bandersnatch!"
- In Erle Stanley Gardner's Perry Mason novels, Della Street (his secretary), Paul Drake (his private investigator), and Lt. Tragg (a homicide detective), all often advise him to be careful to avoid arrest or disbarment. He rarely listens.
- Lampshaded in Elizabeth Enright's The Saturdays, in which the Melendy children correctly predict what their father and housekeeper will caution them to do and not to do when they go into New York City independently.
- In Sensible Kate by Doris Gates, Vic and the other fisherman warn Vic's brother, Leo, not to go out fishing during a storm. Leo doesn't listen, and never comes back.
- Aunt Zelda gives this to Septimus Heap when he's about to fly the dragon boat for the second time. He ends up saying "Aunt Zelda, we'll be fine. Really."
- In Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers, one of Johnny's superiors warns him that he'd better not be trying to earn any medals as he goes into combat.
- In Linda O. Johnston's mystery Teacup Turbulence, it's almost a running gag how many people tell the heroine, Lauren Vancouver, to be careful.
- In Undertow by Michael Buckley, Lyric Walker's parents and other concerned adults are frequently cautioning her to be careful. She always intends to be, but usually can't.
- Many people tell Miles to be careful in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan novels. Occasionally, he even listens to them. In Mirror Dance, Kareen Koudelka tells Miles' clone/brother Mark to "be careful" (even though he hadn't mentioned that he was in fact about to go into harm's way). This deeply touches him: No girl had ever told him to be careful, as though she meant it.
- In Warrior Cats, this happens often before going into battle. Friends or kin tell each other to take care, a mentor might advise their apprentice not to fight anyone bigger than themselves, etc.
Live-Action TV
- The Trope Namer is the White Collar episode "Power Play". Neal and Peter have to switch identities, meaning Peter is the one who has to pull off a heist while working undercover for the Villain of the Week. Peter is usually giving these, which Neal cheerfully... creatively reinterprets.
- Doctor Who: The Doctor gives his companions (and just about everyone else he meets) this speech all the time. The companions also frequently feel the need to give the Doctor the same speech. It usually doesn't help much. Lampshaded when Yazmin Khan tells the Doctor this in "The Power of the Doctor", causing her to muse that she's normally the one to give this advice. Sure enough, the Doctor is then captured by the Daleks.
- Sergeant Phil Esterhaus in Hill Street Blues was famous for ending each briefing to the officers with these words: "Let's be careful out there."
- In the NUMB3RS episode "Uncertainty Principle", Charlie gives one of these to Don, when he's about to go after armed bank robbers.
- The Bionic Woman. In an episode in which Jamie must go undercover at the police academy, Oscar Goldman warns Jamie that the only job more dangerous than a secret agent is a cop.
- Star Trek: Voyager. In "The Omega Directive", Captain Janeway has to go on a classified solo mission but refuses to explain anything to her crew. She demands a hypospray of Fantastic Radiation Shielding and curtly overrules the Doctor when he objects that it's dangerous. However the Doctor earns Puppy-Dog Eyes when he gives this trope.
- Marvel Cinematic Universe
- Daredevil. In "The Path of the Righteous", Matt Murdock tells this to Karen Page after finding out she's been digging up the Dark and Troubled Past of Wilson Fisk. Given that Matt is covered in bruises which he refuses to explain, Karen replies that maybe he should follow his own advice. The trope is lampshaded in Season 3 when Karen admits she likes being treated as an innocent in need of protection, because with her own Dark and Troubled Past she feels anything but. After revealing to Matt that she killed James Wesley, Karen is not happy when she goes off to do something dangerous and doesn't get this trope from Matt, who only notes that she can clearly look after herself. Realising he's messed up, Matt gives a belated "Be careful" as she's walking out.
- In The Punisher Karen herself tells Frank Castle to "Be careful" right after she suggests he might not care about that. This is after the events of the The Defenders when Karen is still mourning Matt's apparent death.
- In the Australian cop show parody Funky Squad, Da Chief says this Once an Episode on handing the Squad their assignment. "Oh, and Funky Squad?... Be careful."
- Arrow. Although Thea is estranged from her supervillain father Malcolm Merlyn, she gives him a Pinky Swear in response to this trope.
Music
- "Billy, Don't Be a Hero." The title says it all. Not that Billy takes the advice.
Myths & Religion
- In Greek Mythology, Daedalus makes wings of feathers and wax so he and his son can escape from prison. He warns his son, Icarus, not to fly too close to the sun which would melt the wax. Icarus doesn't take the advice.
Web Comics
- Luero of Ears for Elves gives this to Tanna
after getting her out of the temple.
Luero: Be careful. Think things through. I won't always be able to protect you.
