History Main / HuntingTheRogue

This trope happens when a rogue agent from an organization is hunted by the party they used to belong to.

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* ''VideoGame/CrisisCoreFinalFantasyVII'': Due to a variety of circumstances, Angeal and Genesis, the top two [=SOLDIERs=] aside from Sepiroth himself, wind up going rogue. Zack, Angeal's protégé, winds up having to track him down and kill him, an event that leaves him physically and mentally scarred. Tracking down Genesis eventually leads Zack and Sephiroth to Nibelheim, where the DisasterDominoes that lead into the [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII original game]] occur.

* ''Film/MissionImpossible'': When a mole hunt operation GoesHorriblyWrong, the NSA brands Ethan Hunt as a rogue agent. Hunt uses his rogue status to ally himself with the villains, convincing them that he's willing to expose deep-cover agents to spite the NSA.

** In ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedRogue'', the Assassin Shay Patrick Cormac joins the Templar cause. As a result, he finds himself regularly ambushed by Assassins (who can take out most of his health bar if they manage to strike). He has a sixth sense/detector sense of sorts to spot them in advance.

* [[spoiler:Benjamin Church]] in ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII'' decides to sell out the Knights Templar by stealing supplies and selling them in the Caribbean to [[ItsAllAboutMe line his own pocket]]. The Templar Grandmaster is so incensed by this that he [[EnemyMine offers a truce to the Assassins (who have been feuding with the Templars for centuries) if they'll help him bring the traitor to justice.]]

* ''Film/LicenceToKill'': Film/JamesBond (Creator/TimothyDalton) goes rogue from [=MI6=] once it becomes clear no-one will do anything against Franz Sanchez for the maiming of Felix Leiter and the rape and murder of Leiter's freshly married wife Della. His RoaringRampageOfRevenge drives him to the Panama-like country Sanchez practically owns, Isthmus, and Hong Kong Police Narcotics who are infiltrating Sanchez's drug empire prevent Bond's AssassinationAttempt on Sanchez, capture him and bring him to a [=MI6=] operative who's travelled there to bring Bond back. Bond is then [[VillainousRescue saved by Heller and Sanchez's army]], who assault the British agents' hideout and find him unconscious.

* ''Film/LicenceToKill'': Film/JamesBond (Creator/TimothyDalton) goes rogue from [=MI6=] once it becomes clear no-one will do anything against Franz Sanchez for the maiming of Felix Leiter and the rape and murder of Leiter's freshly married wife Della. His RoaringRampageOfRevenge drives him to the Panama-like country Sanchez practically owns, Isthmus, and Hong Kong Police Narcotics who are infiltrating Sanchez's drug empire prevent Bond's AssassinationAttempt on Sanchez, capture him and bring him to a [=MI6=] operative who's travelled there. Bond is then [[SavedByTheVillain saved by Sanchez's army]], who assault the British agents' hideout.
* ''Film/{{Lionheart}}'': A soldier in the French Foreign Legion learns that his brother was attacked by drug thugs, and is in critical condition. When Lyon's request for a pass is declined, he deserts to visit his brother. Two legionnaire enforcers are sent to retrieve him by any means necessary. The two men hound Lyon "Lionheart" Gaultier through the seedy world of underground FightClubbing.

SisterTrope to CultDefector, which is this trope applied to {{Cult}}s as opposed to agents lawfully dispatched to apprehend a rogue member, very much like Military Police pursuing a criminal operative. A cult might do the same thing, but their agents aren't necessarily lawful, and their motives are often closer to HeKnowsTooMuch. Also compare ContractOnTheHitman, which is this trope applied to rogue assassins. Compare TheParagonAlwaysRebels, where the rogue agent is often the best of them, and ActionSurvivor if the rogue is an AlmightyJanitor rather than an operative.

As a war-themed long-running franchise, this has come up a few times, ranging from the DangerousDeserter to FrameUp to HeKnowsTooMuch.

!! Franchise and multi-media examples

!!Other examples

A rogue, by definition, is an operative or agent that acts against the best interests of the mission, or takes unauthorized action counter to mission parameters. There are Rules of War, and the armed forces are expected to adhere to them. A soldier who goes off on a killing spree of unarmed civilians would be a rogue agent, and his fellow soldiers would be obligated to capture, kill or otherwise thwart him.

The rogue may have quitted for many reasons. Either [[HeKnowsTooMuch they know/knew too much about the inner workings of the organization]] and were in the wrong place at the wrong time, they were [[FrameUp framed up]] for a third-party crime within (or even without) the organization, they were [[DefectorFromDecadence fed up with the organization's incompetence]] (or at least [[HeadInTheSandManagement those of the higher-ups]]), they may even have worked for [[BadBoss people who are not particularly nice (or at least the very paranoid)]], whatever the case, [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere they don't work for the organization anymore]]. But the organization has a ResignationsNotAccepted rule, so once you're in, you're in forever, not to mention that the rogue [[HeKnowsTooMuch may know too much about the organization's inner workings]] or they're the DangerousDeserter kind.

* ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'': This is one of the functions of [[InternalAffairs the Decepticon Justice Division]]. However, part of the reason the DJD are so feared and despised by most other Decepticons is because just what makes you a "rogue" seems completely random. Hunting Deathsaurus for deserting with his contingent of 500 troops due to dissatisfaction with Megatron's leadership is understandable, executing otherwise loyal Decepticon Blip for worshipping the legendary Sparkeaters (claiming worshipping anyone other than Megatron was heresy) far less so.

* ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind]]'': Bucciarati's group's goes rogue from the organization after finding out that the boss wanted to kill his daughter so no one would find his identity. For doing so, the boss sends his best assassins, who also happen to be Stand users, in order to take down Bucciarati's group.

** Played with during the Sasuke Retrieval Arc. By that point, Sasuke has become increasingly estranged with his comrades due to feeling they're holding him back from his ultimate goal of avenging his family by killing his older brother Itachi (who had left Sasuke the SoleSurvivor and witness after massacring the clan). Before this can fully come to a head, he's kidnapped by the Sound Four, and the resulting mission is described as a cross between a rescue mission and a retrieval mission: if he was taken unwillingly then then it's a rescue, but if it turns out he went willingly then he must be captured or killed.
** Jiraiya, Orochimaru and Tsunade, known as the Three Sages, were a ChildhoodFriend trio. However, Orochimaru's ForScience attitude eventually resulted in him going rogue (among other things, he was interested in developing techniques to revive the dead). Jiraiya would spend much of his time attempting to find and bring him in, partially because on some level he still sees Orochimaru as his friend.

* Subverted in ''Manga/VinlandSaga''. Floki, a high ranking member of [[EliteArmy the elite private army known as the Jomsvikings]], hires an outside mercenary group to kill Thors, a prominent member of the Jomsvikings who had deserted during battle years earlier and [[FakingTheDead faked his death]]. Floki claims he's just doing it because Thors is a rogue and to uphold the Jomsvikings laws against desertion, but the mercenary leader immediately suspects this is false, since if that was really the case, the Jomvikings would want to do it themselves and [[MakeAnExampleOfThem make a big show of hunting down the deserter]] instead of hiring outsiders. A later arc shows that the mercenary was right; the ambitious Floki wanted to make sure Thors was out of his way while he solidified his power within the Jomsvikings and also had a personal hatred for Thors.

* Zigzagged in ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'': HYDRA, protected by their infiltration of the World Security Council, tried to eliminate high level agents of SHIELD who might object to the launching of Project Insight. This included ComicBook/NickFury, [[ComicBook/CaptainAmerica Steve Rogers]], and [[ComicBook/BlackWidow Natasha Romanoff]]. After sending the Winter Soldier to eliminate Nick Fury, they grow suspicious that Fury may have had time to warn Rogers. STRIKE team members attempt to detain Steve when it becomes clear he's aware that something is amiss at SHIELD. This leads to an elevator fight, a chase sequence, and a highway brawl as they try to kill Rogers, Romanoff, and new ally Sam Wilson. When live news coverage prevents them from executing the trio on the spot, they are instead arrested. However, they manage to escape and begin to work to turn the tables, hunting for the rogue HYDRA agents who have infiltrated SHIELD. The cat and mouse chase continues until the climax of the movie.

* ''Film/MagnumForce'' has Detective Callahan deduce that three rookie cops have decided to become judge, jury and executioner to the various criminals they encounter. While Callahan is a CowboyCop not in the department's best graces, he's still LawfulGood, as opposed to the rogue cops who've taken to PlayingGod. "A man's got to know his limitations."
* ''Film/MaskedAvengers'': The film's SixthRanger is Gao Yi, formerly the second-in-command of the Masked Gang, who quit his organization after witnessing the gang's leader and the BigBad, Lin Yung-Chi, ordering a young woman who is the SoleSurvivor of a family massacre to be [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil gang-raped]]. For most of the film Gao-Yi is hiding from killers sent by the Masked Gang, his former allies, until he joins a band of warriors dedicated to overthrow the dreaded Masked Gang.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* In the premiere episode of season 6 of ''Series/{{Grimm}}'', police captain Sean Renard uses his power as mayor-elect and head of the local homicide unit to issue an APB and shoot-to-kill order on Nick Burkhardt, in an attempt to [[FrameUp legally blame Nick for a murder Renard himself committed]]. Forced to lie low, Nick hides with his small team of allies as they try to figure how to clear his name. However, as far as the local and state populace know, Nick and his partner Hank are killer cops gone rogue.

* [[spoiler:Benjamin Church]] in ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII'' decides to sell out the Knights Templar by stealing supplies and selling them in the caribbean to [[ItsAllAboutMe line his own pocket]]. The Templar Grandmaster is so incensed by this that he [[EnemyMine offers a truce to the Assassins (who have been feuding with the Templars for centuries) if they'll help him bring the traitor to justice.]]

** Athena was a former Crimson Lance Assassin who left after the higher-ups duped her into killing her sister and everyone on her village. She's one of the main story {{Quest Giver}}s of the DLC she appears on, and has as much of a bounty on her head as the Vault Hunters.

* ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'': The prologue of the game centers around Roxas, a boy living in Twilight Town who is suddenly assaulted by weird creatures and their masters -- who want him back at any cost. [[spoiler:He was originally part of their Organization until [[VideoGame/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2 a complicated chain of events]] caused him to simultaneously defect and get captured by an opposing faction that locked him into the Twilight Town simulation in the hopes of re-uniting him with his other half Sora]].

* A significant part of Haley's backstory in ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick''. Haley was once a member of the Greysky City Rogue's Guild, until she quit due to better employment opportunities as an adventurer and due to new leadership making the organization less of a home for {{Loveable Rogue}}s and more of a haven of scoundrels. Unfortunately, [[ResignationsNotAccepted you're not allowed to leave the Rogue's Guild]], and when she returned to her hometown in ''Don't Split the Party'' the whole guild ganged up to capture her, and, even after that arc, the leader sent [[spoiler:a golem version of her old rival Crystal]] to hunt her down.

[[folder:Films - Live-Action]]

* ''Series/KamenRiderSaber'': The second arc of the show involves operatives of the Southern Base implicating Touma as a traitor to the Sword Of Logos seeking out the same power Kamen Rider Calibur did, decreeing his capture. It's actually [[spoiler:a variation of the same FrameUp Master Logos [[TheScapegoat pulled on the previous Kamen Rider Calibur years ago]], done in this case to draw out Yuri the Sword of Light after a failed attempt to get Touma to join their side (itself an attempt to secure his sword)]]. The arc sees Touma's friends pursuing him whenever he fights enemy Megid; clashing blades with him while simultaneously doubting their benefactor's intent. One-by-one, his determination (and Reika's increasing inability to keep the Riders from questioning her) wins them over as they [[spoiler:[[HeelRealization realize the shady nature of the operation and defect]]]] - ending what had been a cycle of this trope in-play for fifteen years of in-universe time to distract from [[spoiler:Issac's plans to gather the Seikens to [[GodhoodSeeker achieve godhood]]]].

* ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'': The prologue of the game centers around Roxas, a boy living in Twilight Town who is suddenly assaulted by weird creatures and their masters - who want him back at any cost. [[spoiler:He was originally part of their Organization until [[VideoGame/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2 a complicated chain of events]] caused him to simultaneously defect and get captured by an opposing faction that locked him into the Twilight Town simulation in the hopes of re-uniting him with his other half Sora]].

** Liz's mother, Katerina Restova, was once a double agent for the KGB and the Cabal, both of whom are still hunting her to this day.

-> '''Widowmaker:''' Hello, Baptiste. Think you can hide from Talon forever?\\

-> '''Widowmaker:''' Hello, Baptiste. Think you can hide from Talon forever?

* In ''Series/PersonOfInterest'', Reese and Shaw are being hunted by various intelligence networks including the CIA and ISI due to working with Finch to stop various criminal and terrorist plots from taking place after they go rogue from their previous organizations and are assumed dead.

-> ''We're going to kill a friend, Yevgeni. We're going to kill Ramius.''
-->-- Capt. Tupelov, ''Film/TheHuntForRedOctober''

** ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space 9]]: In "Defiant", Thomas Riker impersonates Will Riker in order to get aboard the ''Defiant'' and hijack it for the Maquis. This forces Sisko to ally with the Cardassians to track him down.