History Main / IHaveYourWife

In real life, however, most kidnappings end peacefully, whether or not the victim sees the kidnapper's face. Media usually ignores this because of the RuleOfDrama, acting like the victim will be killed the second the ransom is paid.

* On ''Series/BurnNotice'', this is Brennen's M.O. He does it in every episode he appears in, including one episode where he actually [[MoralEventHorizon strapped a bomb to a child]] to prevent anyone from rescuing him before he'd gotten the MacGuffin he wanted.

* In the ''{{Robocop}}'' series, a villain kidnaps Robo's wife from his old life, i.e. Mrs. Alex Murphy. The item he is to steal is a ray gun that causes heart attacks, called the Heartbreaker. Initially, his built-in RestrainingBolt stops him, using ObstructiveCodeOfConduct three, "uphold the law". As soon as Robo pictures his wife in danger, directive two -- "protect the innocent" -- overrides this.

* Spoofed in a ''MadTV'' skit, were the bad guys keep doing this to the hero, ending with "I have your ''goldfish!''"
* ''{{NCIS}}'' does this in "See No Evil", until [[spoiler:it turns out the officer pulled it on himself to get $2m from the Pentagon]].

* A favourite tactic of [[TheConspiracy The Network]] in ''Series/{{Utopia}}'' for blackmailing people. "[[AffablyEvil Jen's great, really great]]. [[FauxAffablyEvil It'd be such a shame to see her raped]]".

-->-- ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity'', "Exploder" commercial on ''[[GTARadio V-Rock]]''.

* In the ''MassEffect'' fanfic ''Fanfic/{{Interstitium}}'', Wrex and Shephard have to set this up in order to convince the other krogan to let Mordin take care of some personal business on their planet. Since Mordin doesn't ''have'' a wife, however, they have to fake it. With [[spoiler:Miranda]] playing the part, and Mordin [[LargeHam hamming it up]] for all it's worth.

* ''[[HarryPotter Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix]]'': Voldemort fools Harry into believing that he has taken Sirius, to lure Harry into the Department of Mysteries.
** In ''The Deathly Hallows'', Luna is taken prisoner to force her father to rat out the trio.

A common variant used with lone heroes (in which case 6 on the list is not exactly an option) has the hero reluctantly doing what the villain orders him to do, only to be screwed over when the villain [[TheCakeIsALie reneges on his promise]] [[YouSaidYouWouldLetThemGo to let the loved one go]], usually before killing the loved one in question in a nasty KickTheDog moment. The result, for many action heroes, is often a RoaringRampageOfRevenge that usually culminates in StormingTheCastle and handing the villain the mother of all asskickings for daring to mess with the loved one in the first place. Alternatively, a RoaringRampageOfRescue ending in the rescue of the loved one may also take place.

* The film version of ''TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'' has a variation that might be called I Have Your [[spoiler:You. The BigBad steals DorianGray's portrait -- yes, that one -- and uses it as leverage for his cooperation]]. Interestingly for a villain, he actually honors their agreement once his victim holds up his end of it.

* Gary Oldman ups this trope's usual ante in ''Film/AirForceOne'': "When you talk to the President, you might remind him that I am holding his wife, his daughter, his chief of staff, his national security advisor, his classified papers - ''[[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and his baseball glove]]''!"

* ''Series/{{Firefly}}'': "Objects in Space". The bounty hunter Jubal Early tries to force Simon at gun point to either reveal where River is or help him capture her. When it becomes clear that Simon would rather die than betray his sister, Jubal points out that Simon's smart enough to play along with him in the hope of finding a moment when Jubal slips up to take advantage of. When he spots that still hasn't moved Simon, he then tells Simon that he has captured Kaylee (Simon's UnresolvedSexualTension LoveInterest) and will rape her to death if Simon doesn't comply. Simon takes the "seeking advantage" option at that point.

* A variation occurs in the season finale of ''{{Firefly}}'', when bounty hunter Jubal Early sneaks aboard ''Serenity'', corners Simon, and promises to rape Kaylee (Simon’s ShipTease counterpart, whom Early has tied up in the engine room) if Simon does not help Early find and capture River.

* In ''VideoGame/TalesOfDestiny'', the reason why Leon Magnus betrays Stahn is because his foster father Hugo Gilchrist took hostage of Leon's favorite maid/mother figure Marian; [[spoiler: forcing him to fight Stahn off and the surrounding circumstances ended up killed him.]]

* Seems to happen a few times in ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', though it's more like [[DistressedDude "I have your brother."]]

* Variation in ''TheZetaProject'': Agent Lee gets held hostage by a sadistic mercenary threatening to kill her unless Zeta surrenders. Zeta, who she has been chasing, hunting down and treating like he's less than a sentient being, intervenes immediately anyway because that's just the kind of person he is. Setting aside their relationship, though, the rest of the trope is played like this, right down to the mercenary calling Lee Zeta's 'girlfriend' in several dubs.

* The ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'' manga is in love with this trope, at least metaphorically. When Ed and Roy step out of line in the middling chapters, the BigBad crew hold [[spoiler: Winry and The Mustang Team hostage, respectively. Riza is most literally taken hostage, as she now works in close proximity with the BigBad crew, but the others are all in danger]]. Dr. Marcoh is constantly forced to do the BigBad crew's bidding due to their hostage-taking. It gets so bad that he expresses the desire for death over having to work within the constraints any longer. Clearly Roy Mustang didn't like it so now he has his own hostage. [[spoiler:King Bradley I have your wife]]. Which is later subverted when [[spoiler:it turns out that taking Mrs. Bradley hostage was part of a BatmanGambit designed to make her realize that her husband and his top generals considered her as expendable as any member of Mustang's crew, followed by a promise from Mustang to keep her safe.]]

* ''ComicBook/{{X-Men}}'' foe Nimrod, a Sentinel from the future, forced an alternate timeline Forge to repair him by literally holding his daughter hostage. This is after he murdered Forge's wife -- Storm in this timeline -- right in front of the kid.

* Played with in ''AustinPowers''. When Austin is about to capture Dr. Evil, Alotta appears holding Vanessa at gunpoint, telling Austin to let him go. At this point Scott walks in, so Austin grabs and holds ''him'' at gunpoint in exchange for Vanessa. Dr. Evil is, of course, [[ParentalAbandonment completely indifferent]].

* Just about every post-''Franchise/IndianaJones'' Harrison Ford movie features this plot, such as 2006's ''{{Firewall}}''.

* DocSavage gives this as the reason why he doesn't form relationships. Of course that hasn't stopped people from speculating that the 1930's hero has [[HoYay other reasons...]].

* This is why Wellington Yueh betrays the Atreides in ''{{Dune}}'', with a twist: the Harkonnens have Yueh's wife Wanna (of course), and they are torturing her. Constantly. Yueh's deal with the Baron is that the Baron will ''kill'' Wanna, putting an end to her miserable existence. [[spoiler:This is why Yueh also sacrifices his life to assassinate the Baron; the plan fails, but it's kind of sweet.]]

* The third ''Soldiers of Barrabas'' (a HeroesRUs series by Jack Hild) novel had enemies of Nile Barrabas from his Vietnam days kidnapping his girlfriend and basically saying "You've got 48 hours before we kill her. Come and get her." The BigBad thinks his jungle fortress surrounded by booby traps and ambushes will take care of Barrabas and his men, but they kill an ambush squad and infiltrate up their hidden retreat path, which of course is free of booby traps.

* After playing it straight multiple times, there is a spot of LampshadeHanging on ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. Harmony claims to have the perfect plan to defeat Buffy, but when Spike outlines the above plan as a guess, she steals the idea. Of course, it fails miserably.

* In the ''{{Robocop}}'' series, a villain kidnaps Robo's wife from his old life, i.e. Mrs. Alex Murphy. The item he is to steal is a ray gun that causes heart attacks, called the Heartbreaker. Initially, his built-in RestrainingBolt stops him, using ObstructiveCodeOfConduct three, "uphold the law". Of course, as soon as Robo pictures his wife in danger, directive two -- "protect the innocent" -- overrides this.

* Toyed with on ''TheWire'': Brother Mouzone kidnapped and tortured Omar's boyfriend Dante for information, and then held him hostage, agreeing to release him to Omar on the condition that Omar work with him to take out [[spoiler:Stringer Bell]]. Of course, Omar and Dante were on the outs anyway, Omar was unimpressed by the fact that Dante had given up information on him, and Omar had been looking for a chance ever since [[spoiler:Stringer]] had his previous boyfriend tortured and killed two years prior; Dante is released to Omar, but they then part ways.
* On ''TheXFiles'', Mulder makes it very clear very early on in the series that the only way to hurt him is to hurt Scully, and that he'll [[AlwaysSaveTheGirl go to great lengths to get her back.]] So, Scully falls victim to this quite a lot. But as the bad guys quickly figure out, this never has the desired effect. If anything, it makes Mulder even more resistant to dealing with them and he [[TookaThirdOption gets her back his way.]] Not to mention the RoaringRampageOfRevenge that goes along with this. This trope makes up about half of the 1998 movie ''Fight the Future.''
** It totally works the other way around, too. And if anything, Scully is even ''more'' frightening when Mulder is taken. In season 8, Mulder is missing and she unleashes hell on whoever gets in her way. Never mind that she's pregnant. It takes Skinner pointing out that Mulder wouldn't want her to risk her life and the baby's to get her even take a breath.

* Pretty much the whole point of the video game ''Kane and Lynch: Dead Men''. Kane is forced into finding his mercenary friends' lost fortune when they take his wife and daughter hostage.

* Used in, of all things, ''ProfessorLaytonAndTheUnwoundFuture'', where the BigBad [[spoiler:kidnaps Layton's adopted daughter]] in order to make absolutely sure that Layton will pursue him. The irony is that Layton, being Layton, would have gone after him anyway -- all this trick did was [[PapaWolf make him]] ''[[BerserkButton mad]]''.

* Nastily subverted in the "April Moon" episode of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond''. A gang kidnaps a cybernetic doctor's wife and holds her for ransom in exchange for him performing cybernetic upgrades on them. Only it turns out [[spoiler: they didn't kidnap her, she's cheating on her husband with the gang leader and ran off with them of her own free will]]! He got his back, though; while he eventually discovered the ruse, they never found out that he did, and the leader ended up coming back still thinking the wife was leverage. The episode lets you imagine how things played out from there.

* At some battle during the [[AncientChina Chu-Han War]] after the collapse of the [[DynastiesFromShangToQing Qin Dynasty]], the King of Chu, [[HotBlooded Xiang Yu]] eventually captured the father of his rival, [[BoisterousBruiser Liu Bang]]. At one battle (I forget which), Xiang Yu and Liu Bang faced one another across a ravine. Xiang Yu yells (more or less), "Just give up! I have your father, and I'm going to boil him alive!" Liu Bang famously responded, "[[IShallTauntYou Send me a cup of the soup]]!"

If the villain is attracted to the hero, he/she may give them the [[TheScarpiaUltimatum Scarpia Ultimatum]].