History Main / CondemnedContestant

* In ''Film/TheJurassicGames'', death row inmates are hooked up to a LotusEaterMachine that puts them on an island with dinosaurs on them, and the rules are that the last person left alive can go home with a full pardon. However, anyone who gets eaten by a dinosaur, or killed by a fellow contestant in the simulation, will have their real body die in the rel world.

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* Most of the contestants in ''VideoGame/TwistedMetal'': ''Black'' are mental patients recruited from [[BedlamHouse Blackfield Asylum]] and most of their mental disorders makes them very violent and psychotic. The contest is very much illegal, however, and how exactly they were freed is unknown.

** Well, the volunteers have their own justifications: Jason wants to kill one of the other cons, Daisy; Adharia is looking to prove herself as a warrior; Xanatos [[spoiler: was a Star Org Mole]]; and Jigsaw [[spoiler: thought she'd killed her sire and wanted to help Daisy earn her freedom]].

* ''Series/TheILand'': The people chosen to be part of the experiment are all death row inmates, responsible for murder and/or rape. Except for [[spoiler:Chase, who was framed for murder by her husband.]]

** Due to the wiki's NegativeContinuity the trope doesn't ''always'' apply. Some articles refer to D-Class who are ''[[NotAEuphemism actually released]]'', while other articles have D-Class scooped up by the dozen for HumanSacrifice. One article even mentions multiple D-Class given (posthumous) medals for distinguished service. Remember, ''there is no canon.''

The chance of dying in a gladiator game was actually quite low (much less than it is shown in fiction since a trained gladiator was a large investment which their owners wouldn't want to just throw away) unless the gladiator has shown unusual cowardice or got too hurt to recover. \\
It was much worse for the condemned criminals sent to the arena who often didn't have the same luxury of training, armour or even weapons; they were there to die.
** There were also a few examples of gladiators who reached super-stardom, much like modern-day athletes, and gained wealth and fame fighting men and beasts for (their and other people's) fun and profit. For those reasons, even if they won back their freedom, some still chose to remain gladiators. Definitely not the norm, but not unheard of either. Which is why there are examples of men actually '''choosing''' this career.
** This is also why showmanship could be just as important as the killing. The more popular you were, the better chance you had to be spared when you were eventually defeated by someone. Emperors like Caligula actually lost popularity when they refused to spare the people's favorites. It's also worth remembering that the training of a gladiator was expensive and it didn't make sense to send them out to be slaughtered first time out if you could help it. Of course, the same did not apply to the criminals condemned to the arena, who were expected to die and very much fall within this trope.

* The gladiator games in AncientRome. The gladiators were mostly slaves or enslaved prisoners of war who have been put through rigorous training. Very few were actual willing contestants or Romans, though the gladiators were really good at fighting if they lived long enough, given that they were training all year even when not actually fighting.
The chance of dying in a gladiator game was actually quite low (much less than it is shown in fiction since a trained gladiator was a large investment which their owners wouldn't want to just throw away) unless the gladiator has shown unusual cowardice or got too hurt to recover.

* The gladiator games in AncientRome. Unlike in fiction, the Gladiators were [=POWs=], slaves, or criminals. Very few were actual willing contestants or Romans, though the Gladiators were probably really good at fighting if they lived long enough, given that they were training all year even when not actually fighting. Fiction got that part right.
** There were also a few examples of gladiators who reached super-stardom, much like modern day athletes, and gained wealth and fame fighting men and beasts for (other people's) fun and profit. Definitely not the norm, but not unheard of either. Which is why, incredibly enough, there are examples of men actually '''choosing''' this career.

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* The [[RedShirt D-class personnel]] at the ''Wiki/SCPFoundation''. Tested, experimented on, used as cannon fodder in as many ways as there are in the book (and making up a few new ones as it goes along), and (ex)terminated after a month. That is, until they run out of crooks and start bringing in fresh RedShirts from ''[[ParanoiaFuel the average populace]]''.
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* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', [[spoiler: Blackbeard is looking for strong crewmates, so he breaks into maximum security prison Impel Down's deepest areas where the worst criminals are located, and has all of them fight to the death. He picks out the four inmates who survived and leaves with them.]]

* In ''Film/TheCondemned'', 10 condemned criminals from prisons around the world are pitted against another in a DeadlyGame on an island.

* ''Literature/The Hunger Games'' are held as a punishment for a rebellion against the Capitol more than seventy years in the past, so could be considered a particularly unfair example of this trope, especially since those forced to compete weren't even born when the rebellion took place.

* ''The Hunger Games'' are held as a punishment for a rebellion against the Capitol many years in the past, so could be considered a particularly unfair example of this trope.

* In [[VideoGame/DeadRising2 Dead Rising 2: Case West,]] Chuck Green and Frank West discover that [[MegaCorp Phenotrans]] [[spoiler: orchestrated the Fortune City, and the earlier Las Vegas outbreaks ]] because they were running low on the [[spoiler: queens needed to make [[BlatantLies "syntetic"]] Zombrex, their anti-zombification medicine.]] Queens that they harvested from [[spoiler: [[DisposableVagrant anonymous runaways, missing persons,]] and convicted felons.]]

Being found guilty of a crime grave enough to merit imprisonment, a life sentence or death row tends to make people less sympathetic to your situation in life, such as is left. This is why convicts are on a ''very'' short list of AcceptableTargets for a whole slew of not nice things; and in fiction, there are ''plenty'' of these not nice things. Military conscription, medical experiments, {{Blood Sport}}s, {{Deadly Game}}s, HumanSacrifice, the list goes on and on.