History Main / BlofeldPloy

* This is how you're [[EstablishingCharacterMoment introduced]] to [[TheCaligula Mikhail]] in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV''.
-->'''Mikhail:''' You think it's okay to kill one of my employees?\\

''[Mikhail, who has been pointing a gun at Niko, suddenly turns and shoots an employee who has [[YouHaveFailedMe angered him]]]''\\
'''Mikhail:''' I agree!

[[caption-width-right:300:[-Artwork by Tropers/{{KoshaVinka}}-]]]

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[[caption-width-right:350:[-Artwork by Tropers/{{KoshaVinka}}-]]]

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[[quoteright:480:[[Film/FromRussiaWithLove https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/blofeld_ploy_1.jpg]]]]
[[quoteright:550:[[Film/FromRussiaWithLove https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/blofeld_ploy_2.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:550:'''Blofeld:''' I warned you: We do NOT tolerate failure, Number Three. You know the penalty.\\
'''Rosa Klebb:''' ''[numbly]'' Yes, Number One.\\
'''Blofeld:''' Our rules are very simple: if you fail...]]

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[[caption-width-right:550:some caption text]]

** In ''Film/TheWorldIsNotEnough'', Renard confronts Davidov, Elektra King's head of security, for Bond escaping the parahawk attack earlier that day. But when he says "Kill him", the gunman instead shoots Mikhail Arkov, a nuclear scientist, and Davidov is forced to take his place- [[PaperThinDisguise The two look nothing alike]], but Arkov had "failed his test of devotion" by saying the mission should be scrapped (mostly because, while it was presumably Davidov's men and / or plan, the parahawks were rented by Arkov- he feared he would be found out since they weren't returned, and was putting his own self-interest ahead of Renard's objective).
* In ''Film/ThePunisher2004'', Mickey takes [[BigBad Howard Saint's]] son to arms deal, where he's killed by the arms dealers. Saint later has his men beat Mickey, before taking a gun from a {{Mook}} saying "The man responsible for my son's death must die." He then promptly shoots the Mook (his late son's bodyguard), a move which surprises everyone but TheDragon, for failing to protect his son.

* Justified in ''Film/CrimsonTide''. Based on faulty information, the submarine commander is trying to get the key to the nuclear launch control and launch a nuclear strike, but the [[NumberTwo Executive Officer]] who is trying to stop the launch has convinced Weps, the officer with access to this key, not to open the safe or give the captain the key. When the captain shows up, he draws his sidearm and threatens to kill Weps if Weps doesn't give him the key. It then occurs to the captain that [[CantKillYouStillNeedYou he can't shoot Weps, he's the only one that knows the combination to the safe with the key]]. So the Captain [[IWillPunishYourFriendForYourFailure grabs a subordinate of Weps and threatens to kill him if Weps doesn't give him the key]]. Weps reluctantly gives in and opens the safe, but only after giving the Captain a look of such pure disgust that [[HeelRealization the Captain looks shaken and unsure of whether he's doing the right thing for the first time in the film]].
* Non-gun example from ''Film/TheButterflyEffect:'' The protagonist Evan is kissing his girlfriend in a movie theater and her overprotective, sadistic brother Tommy starts toward them, enraged. A bigger kid trips him before he gets there and he falls on his face. He slowly gets up, looking at Evan with an expression of fury, and then turns and brutally beats the kid who tripped him. As security escorts him out, he turns and smiles at Evan.

* A variation of this occurs in ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade''. Towards the end of the film when everyone has arrived at the temple, Donovan looks like he's about to shoot Indy, but instead shoots Indy's father Henry Jones Sr, in a bid to motivate Indy to get the Holy Grail for him.
* Skeletor does this in the [[TheMovie live-action]] ''Film/MastersOfTheUniverse'' film when his QuirkyMinibossSquad fails to get the Cosmic Key. Blade asks for a second chance, and Skeletor replies that he isn't feeling particularly forgiving... only to turn and vaporize Saurod, who'd been drawing his gun (although it's difficult to notice). It seems that Skeletor intended to kill Blade only to notice Saurod's potentially hostile move, and killed ''him'' instead because of this. Despite not vaporizing his original target, he still gets his point across.

* Two variations in ''Film/LordOfWar'' : the South American narco-guerilla, pointing Vitaly but shooting Yuri and the Liberia president, shooting one of his man for cruising around, after having virtually aimed nothing.

* In the ''Literature/JamesBond'' novel ''Literature/{{Thunderball}}'', the opening meeting between SPECTRE agents has Blofeld chewing out someone in charge of a kidnapping that went awry when the kidnap victim [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil was raped]] during captivity. He then kills another underling sitting nearby - the one who ''was'' responsible for the rape - revealing he was using the first agent as a distraction and let the real target get too comfortable sitting in his electrified chair.

* In the Literature/AlexRider book ''Eagle Strike'', Damian Cray orders Yassen Gregorovich to kill Alex and Sabina, but Yassen refuses, saying he "does not kill children". Flustered, Cray snatches away the gun and shoots Yassen instead of Alex and Sabina. In the fifth book ''Scorpia'', Alex gets caught by TheDragon Nile ''and'' a scientist on Scorpia's payroll, and Nile responds by [[ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks throwing his sword]]...at the ''scientist'' (who had [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness outlived his usefulness]] by then), not Alex. Cue the reveal that Scorpia is not trying to kill but ''recruit'' Alex.
* ''[[Literature/TheSwordOfTruth Faith of the Fallen]]'' has an example where a military commander orders a witch to show the people how ruthless the Imperial Order is, presumably by burning alive some children. She orders the soldiers to burn alive the ''commander'' - to demonstrate the Order won't hesitate to kill ''anyone''.
* In the Larry Collins and Dominique La Pierre thriller ''The Fifth Horseman'', a terrorist who has been informing is killed when he is called to execute a snitch himself, only to have the gun be unloaded, whereupon he himself is shot.

* ''Series/BetterCallSaul'': Gus has an earlier example of this at the end of "Breathe". As Nacho Varga and Arturo are walking back to their car after picking up drugs from Gus, they are ambushed, Gus hogties Arturo by binding his hands and legs with zip ties and suffocates him with a plastic bag. While this happens, Victor holds Nacho at gunpoint and makes him watch Arturo's life fade away to highlight three points: 1) No unwarranted alpha posture on the Cartel's part (Arturo demanded a bigger supply by gun force as a way of peacocking); 2) Nacho made a huge mistake by trying to off Hector Salamanca on his own and will step in line, even if he won't die today; 3) As punishment, Nacho will follow every single one of Gus' orders or else he'll serve him to the Salamancas as a gift. This way, Gus punishes Arturo for his cockiness and has Nacho under his thumb to act as a double agent within the Salamanca organization.
* Parodied in Season 4 of ''Series/TheKidsInTheHall'', in a skit called "Things To Do", where a bank robber ends up shooting all of his henchmen as examples.
-->Good morning everybody! This is a hold-up! I repeat, this is a hold-up! No funny business, or this will happen to you! [Shoots one of his own men] Get the money!
* In ''Series/ReillyAceOfSpies'', Reilly is lured to a crypt in London by Zaharov, a man running a private spy ring. A grave is being dug by Redgrave the man who earlier over-did an interrogation of Reilly's prostitute girlfriend and killed her. Zaharov is waiting with a loaded revolver, gets Reilly over to a corner and has him turn his back- then kills Redgrave.
* ''Series/TwentyFour'' Season 3 -- Nina puts a gun to the captive Jack's head and then shoots her bodyguard.
** This also nearly happens in Season 4: Dina Araz is told by her boss, Habib Marwan, to kill Jack, but she switches at the last second and shoots Marwan -- only to find the gun was empty and it was a test. They then take her away and kill her.
** And again in season 7, after Jack thinks he's been double-crossed and takes a {{Mook}} hostage. After being let go, the {{Mook}} demands that his boss kill Jack--and he kills the Mook instead.

** In the serial "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS16E2ThePiratePlanet The Pirate Planet]]", the Captain berates his main ButtMonkey of an underling for not having figured out the NegativeSpaceWedgie from earlier in the episode. "When someone fails me," he declares, "someone DIES!" With that, his mechanical bird thingy arises... and kills a different underling. He then assigns the same task to the same underling, violating the EvilOverlordList ''again.'' He reveals that he thought of the underling he chose to spare as his OnlyFriend when that underling dies later in the episode.

* In ''Series/TrueBlood'', after finding out that his werewolf {{mooks}} drank Bill Compton's blood, Russell Edgington, the vampire king of Mississippi, doesn't shoot his [[TheDragon dragon]], but one of said lesser mooks.

* A non-lethal version in ''Series/PeakyBlinders''. Tommy and Alfie Solomons are assembling a group of people for a business venture involving them pretending to be bakers when one of the men makes some smartass remark. Solomons locks eyes with the man, glares menacingly at him, and then punches out the guy standing next to him.

-->'''Mikhail''': You think it's okay to kill one of my employees?\\
'''Niko''': If he's an asshole, yes.\\
''(Mikhail, who has been pointing a gun at Niko, suddenly turns and shoots an employee who has [[YouHaveFailedMe angered him]].)''\\
'''Mikhail''': I agree!
* Something similar to this trope happens in the opening of ''VideoGame/BrutalLegend''. Eddie's blood has somehow just summoned a giant Metal (in both the musical and materials sense) demon, which appears about to impale him with one of its giant fingers. The game stops and asks if you want to show gore or not. It instead then turns and screams at three members of the Metal Boy Band he acts as the roadie for, causing their heads to fall off (unless you selected no gore, then they just faint), before turning on the one remaining member and killing him too. [[spoiler:Turns out the reason is that he's not a villain, but you don't find that out until later.]]
* Subverted in ''Franchise/StarWars: VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', when Admiral Karath tells Darth Malak that the assassin he sent after the player characters' party was defeated.
-->"The penalty for failure is death... but the failure was Calo's, not yours. You may rise."
* In ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', the first time you enter the Silver Rush, Gloria Van Graff is arguing with a customer who decided he wants to renegotiate a deal they made earlier; he received the weapons as agreed and they were in good condition as agreed, but now he wants to pay less after all. Gloria refuses and has one of her own goons disintegrated in front of the customer to prove a point.
** Although, given that said goon was tied up and blindfolded at the time, it's very likely he was being punished for some unrelated offense - cut dialogue states that he was Gloria's [[DeathByWomanScorned ex-lover, who cheated on her and paid the price]] - and Gloria was just killing two birds with one stone.

* Occurs with one of the villains in ''VideoGame/GoldenEyeWii'', who shoots a [[{{Mooks}} Mook]] for firing his gun at the wrong time.

* An EstablishingCharacterMoment for Admiral Kotch in ''VideoGame/InfiniteWarfare''. It looks like he's going to execute [[IntroOnlyPointOfView Wolf's]] team, only for him to randomly shoot one of his own men. It wasn't even a case of YouHaveFailedMe. It was done solely to show that he has the will to kill his own men, and therefore (in his mind) has the resolve to win. The fact that none of his men appear horrified by this says a great deal about them.

* A variation of this occurs in ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade''. Towards the end of the film when everyone has arrived at the temple, Donovan looks like he's about to shoot Indy, but instead shoots Indy's father Henry Jones Sr, in a bid to motivate him to get the Holy Grail for him.

* Played with in ''Series/BreakingBad'': Walt and Jesse conspired to have Gus Fring's meth cook Gale Boetticher killed so they will be indispensable to his operation. Gus can't afford for his supply line to dry up while finding another meth cook... but he also can't let Walt and Jesse think he's soft. Gus proceeds to get a box cutter leaving Walt and Jesse nervous and thinking that they are about to die, and then Gus cuts Victor's throat and drops the bloody corpse right in front of them as a warning not to defy him again. However, while Fring doesn't explain this to Walt or Jesse, he was probably going to have Victor killed anyway for being spotted at the scene of Gale's murder. Victor was also attempting to make Walt's meth to show that Walt was disposable despite having no chemistry knowledge, and Gus may have seen him as forgetting his place in the organization.

Named after Ernst Stavro Blofeld, who did this on multiple occasions in the ''Film/JamesBond'' films--though, in point of fact, Blofeld would scare the random mook or equivalent and then kill the ''actual'' guilty party, or at least the one who appeared to be. [[UnbuiltTrope So he either inverts his own trope, or just plays it intelligently.]]

* ''VideoGame/Yakuza0'': After [[SmugSnake Awano]]'s attempts to extort Kiryu into working for him fall flat and Kiryu turns to leave the dance club they are in, Awano executes his dancing partner in a desperate bid to show Kiryu that he's serious, telling him that there are armed gunmen waiting outside the club, ready to blow Kiryu away unless he agrees to work for him. Kiryu calls Awano's bluff and walks out into the empty street, leaving Awano to sit and stare at the dead girl's body, muttering that he should've known that the bluff wouldn't work.

* ''Year of the Gun'' (1991). Journalists David Raybourne and Alison King are taken out to be shot by the Red Brigades after they uncovered the plot to kidnap Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro (actually Raybourne was just writing a thriller novel that happened to be true). Instead the terrorists shoot a Red Brigade member whom they mistakenly assume told Raybourne about the plot, and tell the two journalists to photograph the body and print the story, so everyone will know what the Red Brigade do to traitors.

** In ''Film/{{Thunderball}}'', Blofeld electrocutes one of the henchmen sitting at his conference table for embezzling money from him, only after grilling another (and totally innocent) henchman for the reason why their drug trafficking ring had turned in such poor profits. Showing that it applies to things other than just failing to kill a "00" Agent.
** ''Film/FromRussiaWithLove''; Chess Grandmaster Kronsteen looks on smugly, confident that fellow underling Rosa Klebb is being held terminally accountable for their scheme's failure - only for the poison blade to change direction at the last moment. Klebb lives to scheme another day. Ironically Kronsteen was right -- his plan worked perfectly; it was the assassin picked by Rosa Klebb who stuffed it up. Of course only Bond was in a position to know that.

* Played with in ''Series/BreakingBad'': Walt and Jesse conspired to have Gus Fring's meth cook Gale Boetticher killed so they will be indispensable to his operation. Gus can't afford for his supply line to dry up while finding another meth cook... but he also can't let Walt and Jesse think he's soft. Gus proceeds to get a box cutter leaving Walt and Jesse nervous and thinking that they are about to die, and then Gus cuts Victor's throat and drops the bloody corpse right in front of them as a warning not to defy him again. However, while Fring doesn't explain this to Walt or Jesse, he was probably going to have Victor killed anyway for being spotted at the scene of Gale's murder.

[[/folder]]

* Played with in ''Series/BreakingBad'': Walt and Jesse conspired to have Gus Fring's meth cook Gale Boetticher killed so they will be indispensable to his operation. Gus can't afford for his supply line to dry up while finding another meth cook... but he also can't let Walt and Jesse think he's soft. Gus proceeds to get a box cutter leaving Walt and Jesse nervous and thinking that they are about to die, and then Gus cuts Victor's throat and drops the bloody corpse right in front of them as a warning not to defy him again. The thing is, while he doesn't explain this to Walt or Jesse, he was probably going to have Victor killed anyway for being spotted at the scene of Gale's murder.

** In the serial "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS16E2ThePiratePlanet The Pirate Planet]]", the Captain berates his main ButtMonkey of an underling for not having figured out the NegativeSpaceWedgie from earlier in the episode. "When someone fails me," he declares, "someone DIES!" With that, his mechanical bird thingy arises... and kills a different underling. He then assigns the same task to the same underling, violating the EvilOverlordList ''again.''

* Played with in ''Series/BreakingBad'': Walt and Jesse conspired to have Gus Fring's meth cook Gale Boetticher killed so they will be indispensable to his operation. Gus can't afford for his supply line to dry up while finding another meth cook...but he also can't let Walt and Jesse think he's soft. Gus proceeds to get a box cutter leaving Walt and Jesse nervous and thinking that they are about to die, and then Gus cuts Victor's throat and drops the bloody corpse right in front of them as a warning not to defy him again. The thing is, while he doesn't explain this to Walt or Jesse, he was probably going to have Victor killed anyway for being spotted at the scene of Gale's murder.