History Main / JustFollowingOrders

Often the de facto justification of those who believe in MyMasterRightOrWrong or MyCountryRightOrWrong, or "IDidWhatIHadToDo". If taken to extremes, it can result in BlindObedience. A LawfulNeutral may well end up saying this at some point depending on who he serves. If a person has no choice but to blindly obey orders, that's IDontPayYouToThink.

** {{Deconstructed|Trope}} in "The Enemy Below". One of Orm's followers tries to offer the "just following orders" excuse to Aquaman, but the latter doesn't accept it and has all of Orm's followers charged with high treason. Aquaman is still the rightful king of Atalantis and all the defectors violated their oath of service by conspiring with a usurper against him, so the justification ''does not hold at all''.

* In an episode from their 1975 TV series, WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry are in an aeroplane race where a German pilot and his flunkie resort to DickDastardlyStopsToCheat. The pilot secretly boards Tom and Jerry's plane in a sabotage attempt, but when Tom confronts him, he goes to his knees pleading "I vas chust following orders!"

* In an episode from their 1975 TV series, WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry are in an aeroplane race where a German pilot and his flunkie resort to DickDastardlyStopsToCheat. The pilot secretly boards Tom and Jerry's plane, but when Tom confronts him, he goes to his knees pleading "I vas chust following orders!"

* ''Series/AlexRider'': Wolf's explanation for him and his team [[spoiler: kidnapping and torturing Alex]]. Alex isn't impressed.

* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'':
** During the Sasuke Retrieval Arc, after Temari pulls a BigDamnHeroes moment and saves Shikamaru, somewhat bitterly expresses surprise that Temari's Hidden Sand Village, which betrayed and invaded Shikamaru's Hidden Leaf Village in the Chunin Exam arc, would come to their aid now. Temari says she didn't want to invade the Leaf Village, but was following orders back then, just like she is by helping Shikamaru. Shikamaru's thankful enough for her help that he doesn't press the issue.
** It initially appeared that Itachi, Sasuke's big brother, [[SelfMadeOrphan slaughtered their clan, including their parents]], simply to see [[ForTheEvulz if he could]]. However, after Sasuke finally takes his [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge long-awaited revenge]] on Itachi, it's revealed that the Uchiha were planning a coup against Konoha, and Itachi killed them to prevent it on the Konoha Elders' orders. Even then, he was so torn up and conflicted over it that his own parents, while at his mercy no less, [[FaceDeathWithDignity actually]] encouraged him to finish the job.

** In places where the business owners [[HorribleJudgeOfCharacter hire all sort of illiterate goons]] [[{{Bouncer}} as bouncers or security guards]], they quickly become textbook examples of this. Usually the patron or client is a guy or girl with money, schooling and appropriate appearance and knows he or she faces a semi-literate goon, so consciously or not [[UpperClassTwit will treat him with contempt]]. When the said bouncer or guard has reasons [[UnusualEuphemism to employ his power]], things get ugly.

* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': Invoked in ''Literature/SummerKnight''. Because Harry's crew was following his orders when he led them into [[spoiler:a Fae war, bringing iron into the battlefield, causing the deaths of several Sidhe, and the BigBad Sidhe, none of the crew will be the target of any repercussions. However, Harry, as the leader,]] will be bearing the full consequences of his orders.

* ''Literature/HorusHeresy''
** In ''Betrayed'', Argel Tal acknowledges that he is following this trope, but does not consider it a worthy excuse and believes that he is a coward, along with every other human in history who has ever used this excuse.
--->'''Argel Tal:''' I have never pretended to be anything but weak, Kharn. I don't enjoy war, yet I fight. I don't relish torture, yet I inflict it. I don't revere the gods, yet I serve their holy purpose. Humanity's weakest souls will always cling to the words "I was just following orders". They cower behind those words, making a virtue of their own weakness, lionising brutality over nobility. I know that when I die, I'll have lived my whole life shrouded by that same excuse.\\
'''Kharn:''' So will I. So will any Space Marine.
** In ''Betrayer'', Angron takes Leman Russ to task over this, arguing that Russ is willfully blind to the atrocities the Emperor's Legions are committing across the galaxy because he agrees with the Emperor's vision. Whereas the only thing keeping Angron on the task is the [[PsychoSerum Butcher's Nails permanently embedded his brain]] making him too bloodthirsty to care whom he kills: he says if it wasn't for those, he'd have rebelled against the Emperor already.

* ''Literature/HorusHeresy'' acknowledges that he is following this trope, but does not consider it a worthy excuse and believes that he is a coward, along with every other human in history who has ever used this excuse.
-->'''Argel Tal:''' I have never pretended to be anything but weak, Kharn. I don't enjoy war, yet I fight. I don't relish torture, yet I inflict it. I don't revere the gods, yet I serve their holy purpose. Humanity's weakest souls will always cling to the words "I was just following orders". They cower behind those words, making a virtue of their own weakness, lionising brutality over nobility. I know that when I die, I'll have lived my whole life shrouded by that same excuse.\\

* The page pic is taken from the first issue of the UsefulNotes/WorldWarII comic ''ComicBook/{{Blitzkrieg}}'', which was unusual in that it focused on the German forces instead of the Allies.

* Invoking this backfires spectacularly for one mook in ''ComicBook/{{Lucifer}}'', where Lucifer must somehow find the red stone at the bottom of a cauldron of molten lead guarded by a Big Nameless Shinto Monster:

* In ''ComicBook/{{Starman}}'', [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]] says this word for word to explain his hunt for Bulletman when the latter is being accused of treason by the press.

* ''ComicBook/XMen'': Mentioning this justification in front of Holocaust survivor Magneto is a bad idea. You'd be lucky enough just to have only your metal fillings removed.

* ''ComicBook/GIJoeARealAmericanHeroMarvel'': Played with in issue #109 when a group of Joes are captured in Trucial Abssyia by Xamot and Tomax. Cobra Commander orders the twins to "get rid of" the prisoners. However, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero thanks to Snake Eyes having just threatened him (by fighting his way through Cobra Commander's bodyguards and putting a blade to his throat), a shaken Cobra Commander is in such a hurry he doesn't bother clarifying even when asked and simply hangs up]]. Not wanting the Joes' blood on their hands, the Crimson Twins gather a number of Vipers and begin using euphemisms like "take care of", "see to" or "do what has to be done". The Vipers, on the other hand, see this trope coming from a mile away and either play dumb ("I don't understand."), request clarification as to what, exactly, the Twins want them to do ("You're going to have to be more specific."), or most notably ask that the orders be delivered in writing ("Uhhh, could we get this order in writing?"). [[note]]The Vipers are presumably well aware that the Twins usage of euphemisms is so they could claim their orders were misunderstood should any of them be brought up on war crimes.[[/note]]

** In "The Enemy Below", one of Orm's followers tried to offer the "just following orders" excuse to Aquaman. Unsurprisingly, Aquaman was not impressed.

*** When Commander Lastagee tries to seize and classify evidence from a wrecked Moab bird-of-prey, Eleya shuts him down by pointing out his refusal to provide her with the text of his orders means [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome she has no proof they actually exist, and since she outranks him that means she can tell him to pound sand]]. Later he returns claiming to have orders from Starfleet to take custody of materials, but she takes one look and points out that what he ''actually'' has is a request that should be delivered to Bajor's ministry of state, and in the same remark tells the Starfleet crewmen Lastagee brought with him to contact their line [=COs=] and request clarification of their orders. [[spoiler:It turns out Lastagee is actually a shapeshifted Undine, and after Eleya and the Moab kids capture him, she remarks that the ''real'' Lastagee had written a paper at Starfleet Academy on this very topic.]]

-->'''Captain Kathryn Janeway:''' I'm putting an end to your experiments, and you are hereby relieved of your command. You and your crew will be confined to quarters.\\

** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E74DeathsHeadRevisited Deaths-Head Revisited]]", Gunter Lütze claims that he simply functioned as he was told in abusing and torturing the prisoners at Dachau but his flashbacks indicate that he [[PsychoForHire revelled in carrying out his orders]]. Becker describes this defense as "the Nazi theme music at Nuremberg."
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E151TheEncounter The Encounter]]", Fenton tries to justifies killing a Japanese officer who had already surrendered on the grounds that he and his fellow soldiers were ordered to take no prisoners on Okinawa.
* ''Series/{{V|1983}}'': Used by some humans to justify working for the visitors. One female reporter is called out on this, being told that the same excuse was used at the Nuremberg Trials.

* A variation in ''Manga/GunslingerGirl'' when Claes, having been chosen as TheBait in an anti-terrorist operation, says she's just following orders rather than making a HeroicSacrifice. The other girls are [[MoreThanMindControl more than willing]] to die at their handler's command, but Claes has no handler and therefore takes a more detached view of her role.

** [[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff3000/fc02932.htm Subverted with Clippy]]; as a robot, his defense of "I was just following orders" is a perfectly valid one. Kornada was able to alter his entire mind by giving carefully worded orders.

* ''Anime/AceAttorney'': The culprit of the anime adaptation's exclusive "Northward, Turnabout Express" case uses this excuse. [[spoiler:He prosecuted Avery Richman, a foreign multimillionaire, on orders from his superior as part of a conspiracy to discredit Richmond and get him out of the country, specifically by ensuring that a key witness(who happened to be the real culprit) never took the stand. When the witness tried to blackmail Turnbull, Turnbull killed him.]] [[spoiler:The chief prosecutor of the U.S.]] tells him that's no excuse; in fact, [[spoiler:any prosecutor who would follow an illegal order to please his superior doesn't deserve his job.]]

* Attempted to be used by the leader of a secret [[SouthOfTheBorder Mexican]] fraternity of [[DirtyCop Dirty Cops]] in the movie ''Film/ManOnFire'' (being more specific, he says he's "just a professional" and that the [[spoiler: apparent]] death of [[TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth Lupita Ramos]] was just a snafu). [[BerserkButton To say that this pisses off]] [[PapaWolf John]] [[RetiredBadass Creasy]] (who says he's heard this excuse from everybody else he's [[JackBauerInterrogationTechnique interrogated so far]] and is thus sick and tired of it), is a ''massive'' {{Understatement}}.

* ''Film/AFewGoodMen'': Lt. Dan Kaffee (Creator/TomCruise) proposes using this as the basis for his court defense of the two Marines charged with murdering Willie Santiago; they were ordered by superior officers to discipline Santiago, and their "Code Red" just got out of hand. Kaffee's partner Lieutenant Weinberger retorts that that line of defense didn't work at Nuremberg and it didn't work at [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar My Lai]] and it's not going to work now. Kaffee fires back that the difference with the Marines is that they were just carrying out a routine order they didn't think would result in any physical harm. But of course, Code Reds ''are'' illegal, regardless of what harm might ensue, so their clients should properly have refused the order. [[spoiler:Kaffee and Weinberger ultimately get them acquitted of the most serious charges largely by tricking their CO into admitting on the stand that he had given said illegal orders, and showing that in the command environment he had created, that rank-and-file had lost their sense for whether the orders were illegal.]]

* Subverted in ''Cosmic Sin''. The character played by Creator/BruceWillis is despised for using a [[DoomsdayDevice Q-Bomb]] to end a planetary revolt, killing 70 million people. He claims he was just following orders, only for it to be pointed out that he actually gave the order himself. Fortunately the next time he uses a Q-Bomb on his own volition it's to stop an AlienInvasion, so the politicians pretend he was acting on their orders to share the credit.