Protect the environment, or I'll FUCKING KILL YOU!
—Ted Turner as Captain Planet, Robot Chicken
Join me, Link! And I will make your face the grrreatest in Koridai! Or else you will DIE!
—Gannon, Link: The Faces of Evil
Long time ago me and my brother Kyle here, we were hitchhiking down a long and a lonesome road. All of a sudden, there shines the shiny demon in the middle of the road. AND HE SAID "Play the best song in the world, or I'll eat your soul!" Well, me and Kyle, we looked at each other. AND WE EACH SAID... "OK."
—Tenacious D, Tribute
Helix: Suppose I don't want to compromise?
Florence: Then I rip you into tiny pieces and take my pick of the herd.
Helix: Roadkill it is. [thinking] I like dealing with Florence. She makes it so easy to make a decision.
Florence: Then I rip you into tiny pieces and take my pick of the herd.
Helix: Roadkill it is. [thinking] I like dealing with Florence. She makes it so easy to make a decision.
Crowley: I gather this is not a negotiation.
Castiel: No.
Crowley: Then I graciously accept...boss.
Castiel: No.
Crowley: Then I graciously accept...boss.
— Supernatural, "Meet the New Boss"
Shaw: Maybe you'd care to make me an offer I can't refuse.
Chan: I would, but I'm afraid you would never get to enjoy the rewards.
— The Art of War (2000)
Our plan will be beneficial to both of us...or one of us.
A special offer for today, I'll tell you what I'll do
All those who sign without delay will get a free tattoo
For it's like money in the bank
Come on, join up, and I'll be frank
Unless you do, you'll WALK THE PLANK
The choice is up to you
—Peter Pan, "The Elegant Captain Hook"
"I made him an offer you can't...well, you know the line."
— Lucifer Morningstar, Lucifer (2016)
Leylan: I hope Mr. Raiker's made it clear to you that you can refuse to do this.
Blake: Oh yes. He's also made it clear that summary execution's one of our options. We chose the other.
— Blake's 7, "Space Fall"
"Do I not have any say in what is to become of me?"
"Of course you get a say," the King stated rather too merrily, and his smile exposed the perfect pearly teeth for which he'd earned the name Owain Ddantgwyn - 'white tooth'. "Would you, Gwion Bach, like to serve me, your king, and the Goddess who protects our land... or would you prefer your life to end in the dungeons of Viroco or Degannwy?"
"Or Castell Tegid?" Keridwen suggested.
"We could take turns."
—This Present Past, by Traci Harding
So the choices are "let the Darkspawn either eat us or turn us into Broodmothers," or "carry this thing where we're already going." Oh boy. The idea of having twelve tits and tentacles is really appealing, but... I dunno, I kind of like the idea of delivering something instead.
—SF Debris reviews Dragon Age II
CEO: I'd like to make you an offer, to acquire this fine establishment...
Rival CEO: (without looking up from his papers) Get out of my office, you clodhopping peasant. And tell the concierge that led you in that they are fired.
CEO: WOAH, WOAH! You haven't even heard my offer... (produces rocket launcher from Hammerspace) THIS, is my offer!
Rival CEO: (yelps in horror)
CEO: That's right... Sign it! Right there!
Rival CEO: (without looking up from his papers) Get out of my office, you clodhopping peasant. And tell the concierge that led you in that they are fired.
CEO: WOAH, WOAH! You haven't even heard my offer... (produces rocket launcher from Hammerspace) THIS, is my offer!
Rival CEO: (yelps in horror)
CEO: That's right... Sign it! Right there!
Unicron: You belong to me now.
Megatron: I belong to nobody!
Unicron: Perhaps I misjudged you. (opens up his maw and a red beam of light comes out) Proceed, on your way to oblivion.
Megatron: Ahhhh! No! No! I accept your terms! I accept! Nooooooo! (the beam of light turns green and Megatron stops panicking)
Unicron: Excellent.
Megatron: I belong to nobody!
Unicron: Perhaps I misjudged you. (opens up his maw and a red beam of light comes out) Proceed, on your way to oblivion.
Megatron: Ahhhh! No! No! I accept your terms! I accept! Nooooooo! (the beam of light turns green and Megatron stops panicking)
Unicron: Excellent.
The message was a choice: I could leave the dinery that moment, go Outside, and repay my Investment in a new way; or I could remain in Papa Song's wait for Aide Cho to discover Seer Rhee, summon enforcers and their DNA sniffers; and wait for my ascension to be brought to lite and suffer its consequences.
—Sonmi-451, Cloud Atlas
Plushtrap: Oh really? maybe I don’t want to listen to your offer! Maybe I want what I want! And nothing else!
Puppet: Well that’s too bad, because, if you don’t listen to our counter-offer, we’ll have to bring in an old friend.
Plushtrap: An old friend, huh? Oh I’m so scared.
Nightmare: PLUSHTRAP!
Plushtrap: AH! Nightmare! What are you doing here!?
Nightmare: THESE GUYS TOLD ME THAT YOU WERE DOING EVIL PLANS IN MY NIGHTMARE HOUSE WITHOUT MY PERMISSION! AND YOU HAVE BEEN STEALING SOME OF MY NIGHTMARE MINIONS! YOU ARE GOING TO PAY FOR THIS!
Plushtrap: Nononono! I didn’t mean any harm, Nightmare. I just! I just!-
Golden Freddy: Plushtrap, if you don’t listen to our offer, we’ll let Nightmare rip into you!
— An uncommon heroic version of this trope in Ethgoesboom’s “How will Scraptrap, Scrap Baby, Rockstar Freddy, and The Trash Gang work in Ultimate Custom Night?” Video
"You remember that I don't need to ask you. I do so out of respect. And that respect needs to be reciprocated."
— Dr. Emil Harting, Bloodshot (2020).
Michael: I will acquire Pramuk's ruby at the Buy/Sell. To complete "The Crimson Heart".
Fujiko: Pramuk is practically a billionaire. He will never sell the ruby. You must know that.
Michael: I'm not going to give him a choice. It'll be an offer he won't be able to refuse.
Fujiko: Pramuk is practically a billionaire. He will never sell the ruby. You must know that.
Michael: I'm not going to give him a choice. It'll be an offer he won't be able to refuse.
I won’t say you’ve nothing I want, Ellis, even now. But what I really want — what I’ve always wanted — is to be the seller, for once, and not the sold. To be the only one who has what you want desperately, and to set my price wherever I think it fair — or know it to be unfair. I’ve arranged for a meal. The menu consists of a single dish, one with which I believe we’re both equally familiar. The name of that dish is The Emperor’s Old Bones, and my staff will begin to cook it whenever I give the word. Now, you and I may share this meal, or we may not. We may regain our youth, and double our lives, and be together for at least as long as we’ve been apart — or we may not. But I promise you this, Ellis: No matter what I eventually end up doing, the extent of your participation in the matter will be exactly defined by how much you are willing to pay me for the privilege. So here’s the deal, then: If you promise to be very, very nice to me — and never, ever leave me again — for the rest of our extremely long partnership — then you can eat first.
—Timothy Darbersmere, The Emperor's Old Bones, by Gemma Files
"You can get much farther with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone."
"Cashman was a minimum-security prison far up north in Aroostook County. The inmates pick a lot of potatoes, and that’s hard work, but they are paid a decent wage for their labor and they can attend classes at CVI, a pretty decent vocational-technical institute, if they so desire. More important to a fellow like Tommy, a fellow with a young wife and a child, Cashman had a furlough program...which meant a chance to live like a normal man, at least on the weekends. A chance to build a model plane with his kid, have sex with his wife, maybe go on a picnic. Norton had almost surely dangled all of that under Tommy’s nose with only one string attached: not one more word about Elwood Blatch, not now, not ever. Or you’ll end up doing hard time in Thomaston down there on scenic Route 1 with the real hard guys, and instead of having sex with your wife you’ll be having it with some old bull queer."
Kakyoin had functionally laid out an ultimatum for him. Work for us.
An opportunity to learn. To see and meet other Stand users. To experiment with his Stand.
It's generous. A bit too generous. Rohan peaks an eyebrow, probably more imperious than he's allowed for the circumstances. And if I refuse?
Kakyoin had simply smiled his sharp fox smile. Kujo tilts his head, gaze flinty, patient, quiet. We will watch you.
Everywhere you live.
Everywhere you go.
Everything you do.
Everyone you know.
If you prove too dangerous, then we will cage you.
If you lash out, then we will kill you.
Kishibe Rohan has never more hated his circumstances than in this moment.
"Well I suppose I don't have a choice, do I? " he grits out past his teeth.
— Demolition Man, chapter 7
"I have recommended your services to my, eh-eh-eh-eh-eh, employers and they have authorized me to offer you a job they agree with me that you have limitlessssss... potential. You've proved yourself a decisive man so I don't expect you'll have any trouble deciding what to do. If you're interested, just step into the portal and I will take that, as a 'yes'. Otherwise, well... I can offer you a battle you have no chance of winning. Rather an anticlimax after what you've just survived. (the portal appears outside the floating tram's open door) Time to choose.
— G-man, Half-Life
Princess Ezel: Searina... would you like to join me on my journey to devour a new universe?
Searina: Are you going to eat me if I refuse?
Princess Ezel: I could do that... or leave you alone in this dying world. The decision is yours.
Searina: Living in a dead world... that makes it sound like I might as well be dead, too. I choose survival!
Princess Ezel: You're smart, for something without a soul. We'll go far together. Hmhmhm...
Searina: Are you going to eat me if I refuse?
Princess Ezel: I could do that... or leave you alone in this dying world. The decision is yours.
Searina: Living in a dead world... that makes it sound like I might as well be dead, too. I choose survival!
Princess Ezel: You're smart, for something without a soul. We'll go far together. Hmhmhm...
—Kaima, Bad Ending
