History Main / AFistfulOfRehashes

* ''Film/CopOrHood'' has a maverick cop engineering a MobWar between two Southern France gangs to rid the city of Nice of them.

* ''Film/OmegaDoom'', a cult-classic 1996 American science fiction action film directed by Albert Pyun and starring Rutger Hauer, is almost entirely based on this premise, set in a distant future after a RobotWar where humanity lost and older and newer robots are going at it, with Rutger Hauer as a cyborg leftover from the war and caught in the middle.

* ''LightNovel/DirtyPair'' visits this trope in the TV episode "Hire Us! Beautiful Bodyguards are a Better Deal", where the Lovely Angels each infiltrate one of the two gangs dominating a planet specializing in GreenRocks, disguised as rival gunwomen. Both gangs eventually get a tip who they are, and [[IfYoureSoEvilEatThisKitten try to force them to duel to smoke them out]], but [[VitriolicBestBuds the impromptu catfight they stage to buy time actually convinces them]] for long enough to get rescued by the {{Team Pet}}s. [[spoiler:The planet explodes while they're escaping the scene. [[MikeNelsonDestroyerOfWorlds It's not the Pair's fault]], as usual.]]

Also a subtrope of WholePlotReference, in this case to ''Film/AFistfulOfDollars''. [[OlderThanTheyThink Although this plot actually predates the film,]][[labelnote:*]]Director Sergio Leone took it from ''Film/{{Yojimbo}}'', which was itself inspired by older sources. See its example below.[[/labelnote]] [[TropeCodifier it's the one that's most directly imitated and referenced by later works.]] See TheExpyWithNoName, when it's the protagonist of ''A Fistful of Dollars'' that is copied by another work.

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* ''[[Film/SupportYourLocalSheriff Support Your Local Gunfighter]]'', starring James Garner, is a parody about a gambler named Latigo who wanders into a jerkwater mining town led by, you guessed it, two mining bosses looking for gold. He pretends to be an enforcer for both sides. HilarityEnsues.

* ComicBook/ThePunisher has been known to do this when his [[KillEmAll usual methods]] are too direct. Although at least once he did the opposite and secretly facilitated a massive peace conglomeration among mob families so the leaders would all eventually meet to negotiate and he could get them all at once in the same room.

* The Creator/JeanClaudeVanDamme movie ''Film/DesertHeat'', with two feuding criminal CorruptHick families (one rocking the AllBikersAreHellsAngels look and one which looks more like a CrazySurvivalist gang) and occurring deep in the New Mexico desert. JCVD's character is robbed of his CoolBike (an Indian) and LeftForDead, and he goes OneManArmy on both sides-with some help of the local townsfolk on the final battle.

* RecycledInSpace with the ParodyFic ''A Fistful of Mammary Gland''. Seven of Nine aka the Woman with No Name (just a number) arrives on [[Series/StarTrekVoyager Voyager]] to find the crew split into Maquis and Starfleet factions.

* ''Film/TheWarriorAndTheSorceress'', which is more or less ''Yojimbo'' [[RecycledInSpace in space]]. Its star, Creator/DavidCarradine, went into a discussion with executive producer Creator/RogerCorman over this.

* ''Anime/PokemonTheOriginalSeries'': "Showdown at Dark City" is pretty much ''Yojimbo''... [[RecycledInSpace with Pokémon!]] And two rival gyms going too far with the SeriousBusiness! [[LighterAndSofter And rated TV-Y7!]]

* One killer in ''Series/{{NUMB3RS}}'' started doing this to try and eliminate gangs after his young son was murdered by gangsters; he would kill a member of one gang and make it look like the rival gang did it, so the victim's gang would retaliate against said rival, who retaliates back, and so on, often with 5 or 6 shootings at least stemming from that one murder. By the time the crew catches up with him, his actions have resulted in the deaths of about 150 people and he very clearly has gone insane from the guilt and grief [[spoiler:and winds up [[DrivenToSuicide killing himself with his handgun]]]].

* Franchise/{{Batman}} had an emergency plan to start a GangWar as Matches Malone and secretly manipulate it so as few people died as possible. Unfortunately, [[Comicbook/RobinSeries Stephanie Brown]] didn't realize Matches' key role in the plan when she set it in motion.
* Comicbook/ThePunisher has been known to do this when his [[KillEmAll usual methods]] are too direct. Although at least once he did the opposite and secretly facilitated a massive peace conglomeration among mob families so the leaders would all eventually meet to negotiate and he could get them all at once in the same room.
* ''{{ComicBook/Torpedo}}'' once had Torpedo's BumblingSidekick be mistaken for a (competent) assassin and hired by a Jewish shopkeeper to kill his competitor. Rascal goes to see the guy, who offers him more money, goes to see the first, who offers him more... In the end, he drags them both out into the street to make up their minds. They have a fast-paced discussion in Yiddish, shake hands... and beat the crap out of Rascal.

* The Creator/JeanClaudeVanDamme movie ''Film/DesertHeat'', with two feuding criminal CorruptHick families (one rocking the AllBikersAreHellsAngels look and one which looks more like a CrazySurvivalist gang) and occurring deep in the New Mexico desert. JCVD's character is robbed of his CoolBike (an Indian) and LeftForDead, and he goes OneManArmy on both sides-with some help of the local townfolk on the final battle.

* This is the plot of the Creator/MarvelComics [[DarkerAndEdgier MAX]] ComicBook/{{Luke Cage|HeroForHire}} series.

* ''Literature/JackReacher:'' In ''Blue Moon'', Reacher goes to a city divided between rival Albanian and Ukrainian gangs and inadvertently escalates a gang war when he takes out two Albanian loan sharks harassing his new friends. The Albanians assume the Ukrainians did it and retaliate, leading to an escalating chain of retaliatory killings. Reacher is initially oblivious about to the mob war but sets out to decapitate the leadership of both gangs by the second half of the book.

* ''VideoGame/WayOfTheSamurai'' has this as one of its plot routes, which is unsurprising given that Film/{{Yojimbo}} is a major influence on the game.

* Subverted in ''Anime/SamuraiChamploo'' and ''Anime/KazemakaseTsukikageRan''. Both have a basically JidaiGeki setting, and both also have episodes that seem to be shout outs, having the ronin protagonists come to a town occupied by rival gangs. ''However'', in both works, one of the gangs is clearly the good guys (probably owing to the fact that in ''Yojimbo'' one was ALighterShadeOfBlack), and the protagonist(s) takes their side.

* ''Film/CoprOrHood'' has a maverick cop engineering a MobWar between two Southern France gangs to rid the city of Nice of them.

* One killer in ''Series/{{NUMB3RS}}'', accidentally triggered one of these situations through domino-effect killings (he shoots at Gang A, who retaliates against Gang B, who retaliates back, people get caught in the crossfire... repeat until about 150 people are dead) after his young son was murdered by gangsters. By the time the crew catches up with him, he has been very clearly driven insane from the guilt [[spoiler: and winds up [[DrivenToSuicide killing himself with his handgun]]]].

* In the first issue of ComicBook/{{Wolfskin}}, Wolfskin comes to a Noi village, split between two feuding brothers who both want him to destroy the other. Wolfskin ends up [[spoiler: killing '''everyone''' in the village.]]

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Also a subtrope of WholePlotReference, in this case to ''Film/AFistfulOfDollars''. [[OlderThanTheyThink Although this plot actually predates the film,]][[labelnote:*]]Director Sergio Leone took it from ''Film/{{Yojimbo}}'', which was itself inspired by older sources. See its example below.[[/labelnote]] [[TropeCodifier it's the one that's most directly imitated and referenced by later works.]] See TheExpyWithNoName, when it's the protagonist that is copied by another work.

Also a subtrope of WholePlotReference, in this case to ''Film/AFistfulOfDollars''. [[OlderThanTheyThink Although this plot actually predates the film,]][[labelnote:*]]Director Sergio Leone took it from ''Film/{{Yojimbo}}'', which was itself inspired by older sources. See its example below.[[/labelnote]] [[TropeCodifier it's the one that's most directly imitated and referenced by later works.]]