History Main / RedshirtArmy

TheCavalry has arrived! Unfortunately, they're all wearing [[RedShirt red shirts]]... and they all graduated from the ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy.

Happens all the time in action shows. TheHero, who may or may not have any special training or powers, is to be escorted into a "hot zone" by a team of Navy [=SEALs=], [[ElitesAreMoreGlamorous Army Rangers]], {{Space Marine}}s, a SWATTeam, or some other heavily-armed and, one would assume, well-trained unit. Invariably, mere minutes into the mission, they've all been ambushed and killed off by the platoon-load, leaving [[OnlyOne only the hero alive]] [[ItsUpToYou to finish the job]].

It happens so frequently that it makes one wonder how these guys ever passed muster (heck, even survived long enough) for assignment to an elite military or security force if they drop like mayflies in any tactical situation.

This is sometimes [[JustifiedTrope justified]] by the idea that the doomed Red Shirts really ''are'' competent, [[MenOfSherwood and survived other missions]], but they've never had any formal training in how to fight [[OutsideContextVillain beings that can kill them simply if you look at them funny.]] In other words, take TheWorfEffect and apply it to an entire military.

'''Note for Tropers''': RedshirtArmy specifically deals with easily-killed ''good guys''. If you're looking for easily-killed ''bad guys'', go to {{Mooks}}.

* ''Series/{{Revolution}}'': As the first season goes on, the Rebels and the Georgian Federation join forces to form an army of 300 men. In the episode "The Longest Day", [[spoiler: one Monroe Republic drone strike reduces the number from 300 to 30. President Foster states that this is half of her army wiped out, and she assigned 200 Georgian troops to Miles Matheson]].

Happens all the time in action shows. The hero, who may or may not have any special training or powers, is to be escorted into a "hot zone" by a team of Navy [=SEALs=], [[ElitesAreMoreGlamorous Army Rangers]], {{Space Marine}}s, a SWATTeam, or some other heavily-armed and one would assume well-trained unit. Invariably, mere minutes into the mission, they've all been ambushed and killed off by the platoon-load, leaving [[OnlyOne only the hero alive]] [[ItsUpToYou to finish the job]].

This is sometimes [[JustifiedTrope justified]] by the idea that the doomed Red Shirts really ''are'' competent, [[MenOfSherwood and survived other missions just fine]], but they've never had any training in how to fight [[OutsideContextVillain beings that can kill them simply if you look at them funny.]] In other words, take TheWorfEffect and apply it to an entire military.

This Trope is actually ''very'' inaccurate [[RealityIsUnrealistic when you compare it to]] RealLife. If you were to watch ''every'' episode of ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'', count the number of casualties that the ''Enterprise'' had, and then compare that to an actual miliary, you'd see that Kirk's record as a leader in this regard is ''excellent'', far better than any general in U.S. history. Even war heroes like GeorgeWashington and DwightEisenhower had proportionately more casualties among their troops.

*** Also, they were literally only following orders, so there was no malice for the Jedi to detect.

This is sometimes [[JustifiedTrope justified]] by the idea that the doomed Red Shirts really ''are'' competent, [[MenOfSherwood and survived other missions just fine]], but they've never had any training in how to fight [[OutsideContextVillain beings that can kill them simply if you look at them funny.]]

* The TropeNamer is ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'', where the Enterprise's security personnel wore red shirts and were, to say the very least, [[RedShirt expendable]].
** This was a frontier-mission that was so dangerous, that of 12 starships-- each identical, the most powerful class in Earth's fleet-- only Kirk's ship and crew even ''survived.'' As Kirk put it, "risk, is our ''business.''"
** This is false. Only ''Constellation'', ''Intrepid'', ''Excalibur'', ''Exeter'' and ''Defiant'' (the latter 3 crew only) were lost. The ''Excalibur'' was presumably salvageable, and the ''Defiant'' was transported to the MirrorUniverse. That's still a high casualty rate but the ''Enterprise'' was not the only survivor.
** Ironically, throughout [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries the original series]] the security officers tended ''not'' to be picked off as quickly as were their more [[RedShirt unfortunate shipmates]]. In the first season and second seasons, especially, it was the men and women wearing the ''blue'' uniforms who seemed far more susceptible to...well, death.
** The ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration TNG]]'' two-parter "The Best of Both Worlds" saw a single Borg cube wipe out 39 Starfleet ships, [[spoiler:only to be defeated by some HollywoodHacking on the part of Data]].
* UNIT on ''Series/DoctorWho'' has a tendency to fall into this category, although in some of their more recent appearances they've shown the ability to learn from their past mistakes.

* The Initiative soldiers in Season Four of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', who took a little under an hour to catch up to the Slayer, and took her 17 seconds to disable the lot of them. This was in training, they lasted less time in actual combat.
** Appears throughout Season 7 with the Potentials. When the army of Potentials storms both the winery and the Hellmouth in the series finale, they take massive losses. Justified by their lack of Buffy-level superpowers and training. ''Season 8'' has newly activated slayers taking up this role.
* Notably used in ''TheSarahConnorChronicles''; in the last episode of Season 1, Agent James Ellison takes a fully tooled-out FBI Hostage Rescue Team in to storm a terminator's motel room. The HRT is some 20 or so members strong, fully tooled for bear with bulletproof vests, assault rifles, and helmets, and is merrily dispatched in the space of about two minutes to the beautiful crooning of Johnny Cash.
* In ''Series/{{Jericho}}'', the fictional company Ravenwood (a loose allusion to Blackwater), who is supposed to be full of ex [=SEALs=] and other Special Ops guys, gets their ass handed to them by guys with no military experience, including a deaf mute girl with a shotgun.
* In the ''Series/BabylonFive'' WhamEpisode, "Severed Dreams", this trope is tweaked with Security Chief Garibaldi arranging sensible defensive tactical positioning for his troops for expected invaders. However, the [[LeeroyJenkins Narn troopers]] under his command insist on [[AttackAttackAttack charging headlong into the fray]] and the regular guards have no choice but to follow them.
* Every major battle on ''Series/{{Lost}}'' involves one group of redshirts attacking another group of redshirts with the main characters from both sides escaping unscathed:

*** Subverted if one subscribes to the theory that [[spoiler:Claire was killed when a redshirt mercenary with a rocket launcher blew up her house]].

* CTU field teams on ''[[Series/TwentyFour 24]]'' will succeed in their mission only if either Jack Bauer, Curtis Manning, or both are present. If they appear to be completing their mission without a main character, that probably means [[spoiler: they're about to be vaporized by a nuclear bomb]]. This rule also applies to any other armed detail mentioned, including the LAPD, Secret Service, and the freaking Delta Force, all of whom have completely bought the farm at one point or another (for some, repeatedly) while "setting up a perimeter," (a common 24 portent of doom), guarding something or somebody important, or intercepting a fugitive, [[spoiler: respectively]].
** The Season Seven finale actually ''subverts'' audience expectations with the airport security guards when they attempt to rescue Kim Bauer. While most of them ''are'' killed, they actually do manage to kill both of her captors, a pair of extremely well-trained agents.
* Any team that accompanies ''[[Series/StargateSG1 SG-1]]'' through the Stargate. [[BadAssArmy At the same time though...]]

* In just about every ''LawAndOrder'' iteration, cops who take over from the detectives will invariably fail in their duties at the most plot-relevant/dramatic times.
* In ''Series/{{Heroes}}'', if Sylar is under attack from Company Agents (excluding HRG and The Haitian), those agents are probably going to die.
* The Knights of Camelot in ''{{Series/Merlin}}'', apart from the named ones...and even many of them got it eventually. Or in the case of Sir Leon, a couple times.

* VideoGame/MassEffect2: We get to see the quarian flotilla's marines on four seperate occasions. In the first occasion, we see them get [[CurbStompBattle unceremoniously slaughtered]] by a heavy mech after [[LeeroyJenkins disobeying their commander and rushing at it.]] In the second, we see them get overrun by a huge geth force and slaughtered (except [[Creator/AdamBaldwin Kal Reegar]], who's more like a MauveShirt). In the third occasion, a group of what's explicitly stated to be their "best marines", get massacred by minor enemies off-screen... This is actually a plot point, because the flotilla's politicians want to go to war with the geth. Kal Reegar says that the only way for them to win, would be to fight from orbit, taking full advantage of quarian tech expertise, because a front-line conflict would be such a slaughter. On the fourth occasion (in an optional side mission), a squad crash lands on an uncharted planet, and all but one of them (who Shepared rescues) get slaughtered by ''varren'' (wolves [[RecycledInSpace IN SPACE]]).

** In ''MassEffect3'', ''every army in the galaxy'' effectively becomes one of these…which is only to be expected, since they're fighting endless swarms of [[EldritchAbomination Reapers]]. To put this in perspective, the BigBad of the original ''MassEffect'' was a ''single individual Reaper''.

* Invoked and hilariously Averted in ''WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut''; a US GeneralRipper intends to use all of the black men as a massive HumanShield to save them from the Canadians' gunfire. Chef, the leader of the group, is ''very'' against this plan and, when the time comes, orders his men to ''duck''.

!!Examples

[[folder:Films]]
* In Film/AustinPowers, specifically International Man of Mystery; the Ministry of Defense's assault team is adorned with red getup as they charge Dr.Evil's layer.
* The armed forces in any monster movie.
** A good example is the National Guard from AlienVsPredator Requime who don't even last five minutes before being wiped out, although that left the heroes with weapons and equipment, most notable a Stryker APC.
** Although the army in ''{{D-War}}: Dragon Wars'' did a good job of killing Buraki's forces, the problem was there were too many of them to deal with.

* The soldiers accompanying the scientists in 1988 remake of ''TheBlob'' are useless. Though their poorer performance compared to the main characters when fighting TheBlob might be attributed to the heavy NBC gear they are wearing.

* The direct-to-video release ''SupermanDoomsday'' had members of said RedshirtArmy [[LampshadeHanging lampshading]] this before they fight Superman[[spoiler:'s evil clone.]]
-->'''Soldier 1:''' What are we doing? We can't fight Superman.\\
'''Soldier 2:''' You're right. We ''can't'' fight Superman.\\
'''Soldier 3:''' Dead men walkin'.

* Invoked and hilariously Averted in ''WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut''; a US GeneralRipper intends to use all of the black men as a massive HumanShield to save them from the Canadians' gunfire. Chef, the leader of the group, is ''very'' against this plan and, when the time comes, orders his men to ''duck''.

* The Cleaners in ''UnderworldEvolution'' are a group of well-trained {{Badass Normal}}s from special forces all over the world. They get quickly slaughtered by Marcus Corvinus. By the end of the film, the remaining few are mauled by his brother William and turned into first-gen Lycans. Then again, their primary job wasn't to fight vampires or Lycans but to hide any evidence of their existence from {{Muggle}}s. Additionally, when going after William, they reveal that all they packed is UV ammunition, which is mostly harmless to Lycans.

* ''Film/{{Olympus Has Fallen}}'': All of the secret service agents and Capitol Police guarding the White House get slaughtered by the bad guys, and the rescue attempt by the military fails spectacularly with the deaths of most of soldiers, forcing Gerard Butler to save the day himself.

** {{SHIELD}} from the MarvelUniverse is a very good example. Until they got reformatted as [[DarkerAndEdgier HAMMER]], which threw a pint and a half of {{mook|s}} into the mix, along with a dash of VillainWithGoodPublicity. They are supposed to be the best agents, operatives, commandos and so on in the world. However, agents would be massacred both individually and ''en masse'' by both {{super villain}}s and normal Mooks. In the UltimateMarvel universe you just wonder how they recruit. Some 30,000 agents and commandos are killed during the first strike of an AlienInvasion, and later get outmatched by superhumans on multiple occasions, usually while pulling guard duty on super-villains. And one time, their HQ was blown up, they were crippled, and then they got hammered by an army of super powered terrorists led by the Liberators.

Happens all the time in action shows. The hero, who may or may not have any special training or powers, is to be escorted into a "hot zone" by a team of Navy [=SEALs=], [[ElitesAreMoreGlamorous Army Rangers]], {{Space Marine}}s, a SWATTeam, or some other heavily-armed and one would assume well-trained unit. Invariably, mere minutes into the mission, they've all been ambushed and killed off by the platoon-load, leaving [[OnlyOne only the hero alive to finish the job]].

* Most of the characters from ShingekiNoKyojin are in one. Military training is essentially designed to weed out the weaker, less skilled, and less determined of the bunch by being [[TrainingFromHell physically and psychologically grueling]], but even the hardy recruits who manage to graduate can easily die in battle against the Titans. The manga has LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters mostly because it's quick to kill them off and introduce others.

* In VideoGame/TransformersWarForCybertron and its sequel VideoGame/TransformersFallOfCybertron, both the Autobot and Decepticon factions have endless waves of generic unnamed members whose sole purpose seems to be to get slaughtered by the dozens by the named (usually playable) characters on the other faction. There are several times in both games where you are accompanied by whole squads of redshirts from the faction you're currently playing who almost invariably fail to survive until the end of that level.

* In Eric Flint's ''{{Belisarius|Series}}'' series Rana Sanga comments on the battle described in the ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagavad_Gita Bhagavad Gita]]'', how it is the most famous battle in all of Indian history and how no one remembers even one of the names of the mere mortals who did all the dying.

** In the first mission of ''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance'', the two unnamed suit-clad Maverick cyborgs do quite well against Desperado mooks but get their arses handed to them quite easily by Sundowner. Jetstream Sam mops the floor with the rest.

* Creator/PeterJackson's ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' film trilogy uses this ''a lot''. There's Haldir's Elves at Helm's Deep; Faramir's company in both the defeats at Osgiliath; most of Minas Tirith's guard; and most of the Rohirrim when going up against the Mumakil.

** Subverted in early episodes of ''[[Anime/KotetsuJeeg Kotetsushin Jeeg]]'', however. The JSDF display competent tactics in their battle against Himika's Claw Phantoms, and although Jeeg spearheads their attacks, he can't do it alone.

* ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}:

* The whole of the Earth Sphere Federation forces in ''Film/Gundam00AWakeningOfTheTrailblazer''. In their defense, they ''were'' outnumbered 10,000-to-1. Nobody's going to do particularly well with those odds.
* The rebel group Katharon of ''{{Gundam 00}}'' looks like the AEUG to the A-Laws Titans, except that the AEUG had great mechas and pilots while the Katharon go into battle with mechas that where useless in the previous season that takes place four years ago. Their only purpose is to momentarily distract the A-Laws while Celestial Beings does all the actual fighting. You have to wonder why they even bother if all they do is die.
** Briefly subverted when A-Laws brings out anti-beam smoke. Even the mighty [[{{Gamebreaker}} 00]] is hampered by [[CripplingOverspecialization its reliance on beam weapons]] and it falls to Katharon and their obsolete solid guns to pull CB out of a tight spot. Fortunately for them A-Laws relied heavily on beam weapons too.
* In the first season of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'', anyone who ever pilots an AEU-MS are automatically members of the Redshirt Army. During the battle in Moralia, there were more than 200 Hellions and several brand-new Enacts. The survivors ran away when the Gundam Meisters had slain about 200 soldiers in minutes.

** And in ''Anime/{{Bokurano}}'' the JSDF are essential in many of the fights between the HumongousMecha.

* TheFederation forces in the original ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'' had the [=GMs=], mass-produced mecha whose sole purpose was to die in droves against [[TheRival Char's]] [[LawOfChromaticSuperiority Gelgoog]], [[EleventhHourSuperpower Zeong]], or [[AntiVillain Dozle's]] Big Zam ([[MemeticMutation which weren't mass produced]]).
* The whole of the Earth Sphere Federation forces in Film/Gundam00AWakeningOfTheTrailblazer. In their defense, they ''were'' outnumbered 10,000-to-1. Nobody's going to do particularly well with those odds.
* The regular UN forces in ''{{Macross 7}}'' and later ''MacrossFrontier'' (who were, in both cases, mostly flying outdated HumongousMecha, and had limited, if any, combat experience; this is even a plot point in ''Frontier'' and is used to explain the existence of the PrivateMilitaryContractors).

* Any friendly force in a HumongousMecha series that isn't equipped with HumongousMecha. (The AD Police in the ''BubbleGumCrisis'' {{OVA}}s count here, despite the fact that they ''had'' mecha -- the mecha they had were the mass-produced tin-can-death-trap variety.)

** Subverted in early episodes of ''Kotetsushin Jeeg'', however. The JSDF display competent tactics in their battle against Himika's Claw Phantoms, and although Jeeg spearheads their attacks, he can't do it alone.
** And in {{Bokurano}} the JSDF are essential in many of the fights between the HumongousMecha.
** {{Gasaraki}} also subverts this with the JSDF having a unit of mechs with the protagonist piloting the same suit as his squad mates. Even though he is a little more skilled at it none of them are pushovers.

* The rebel group Katharon of ''{{Gundam 00}}'' looks like the AEUG to the A-Laws Titans, except that the AEUG had great mechas and pilots while the Katharon go into battle with mechas that where useless in the previous season that takes place four years ago. Their only purpose is to momentarily distract the A-Laws while Celestial Beings does all the actual fighting. You have to wonder why they even bother if all they do is die.
** Briefly subverted when A-Laws brings out anti-beam smoke. Even the mighty [[{{Gamebreaker}} 00]] is hampered by [[CripplingOverspecialization its reliance on beam weapons]] and it falls to Katharon and their obsolete solid guns to pull CB out of a tight spot. Fortunately for them A-Laws relied heavily on beam weapons too.
* In the first season of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'', anyone who ever pilots an AEU-MS are automatically members of the Redshirt Army. During the battle in Moralia, there were more than 200 Hellions and several brand-new Enacts. The survivors ran away when the Gundam Meisters had slain about 200 soldiers in minutes.
* In Manga/{{Bleach}} the shinigami are completely useless against ANY threat which comes to them and have to be bailed out by the main heroes. Only the Lieutenants and Captains manage to be useful and avoid this, even though they are subject to TheWorfEffect at the same time.

* Hibiki from {{Vandread}} runs into a SpaceNavy version in episode 11. They share their backstory with him just long enough to be wiped out by the bad guys and cause him to suffer some SurvivorsGuilt.
* The AD Police of the BubblegumCrisis universes. Slightly lampshaded in the non-canon Bubblegum Crisis Gran-Mal comic where an AD Police grunt stands in front of a wall memorial of fallen officers and retorts against a comment on how overarmed and overpowered the AD Police are.

* Whenever a bunch of NPC allies appear in a VideoGame/SuperRobotWars game, ''they will die before the cut scene is over''. The non-OG games usually use [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam GMs]] or other weak {{Real Robot}}s, but the OriginalGeneration games give this duty to the Gespensts. Ironic thing is, BadassNormal and one-man-army Kai Kitamura pilots one of those Gespensts, and just will ''not'' be shot down easily.

Makes one wonder, how did these guys ever pass muster (heck, even survive long enough) for assignment to an elite military or security force if they drop like mayflies in any tactical situation?