History Main / RunForTheBorder

* ''Film/TheWayBack2010'' Several escapees from TheGulag flee, hoping to escape from Russia and seek refuge in Mongolia. When they finally reach the border, they discover that Mongolia and Russia are now allies. Since the country on the other side of Mongolia also has communist ties, they are forced to cross ''three' borders before the survivors of the group are safe.

* During the [[RedChina Cultural Revolution]], many Chinese fled to wherever they could, even other Communist countries that weren't so bad, including UsefulNotes/{{Vietnam}} (mired in [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar a frigging civil war]]) and UsefulNotes/NorthKorea (which is, well, [[TheDictatorship North Korea]]). UsefulNotes/HongKong was a great option, but it was closely guarded. Some tried to swim all the way across the Fujian Strait to UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}. It was that bad.

* In Marvel's ''ComicBook/{{Civil War|2006}}'', [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Ben Grimm]] took off for France when the government passed a SuperRegistrationAct, forcing him to take up sides against friends and colleagues. He [[TakeAThirdOption took a third option]].
* The ''ComicBook/LuckyLuke'' album ''Canyon Apache'' revolves around a feud between a tribe of apaches and a garrison of cavalry troops, or more specifically, the blood feud between their leaders. The Apaches flee into Mexico after attacking the cavalry supply trains, leaving the cavalry with no recourse other than burning down their empty camp, with the Apaches burning down their empty fort while they're gone, and they've been going back and forth like that for several months by the time Luke shows up.

* The ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' comics [[ComicBook/StarWarsTales "The Duty"]], "[[ComicBook/CloneWarsAdventures Salvaged]]," and [[ComicBook/DarkTimes "Parallels"]], along with the final ''Literature/RepublicCommando'' novel, feature Jedi fleeing toward the Outer Rim (where the Empire has no presence) in the months after Order 66. All of the groups contain Younglings. Sympathetic scavengers and freight haulers smuggle all of the groups (save the one in "Parallels") past Imperial patrols. The three latter groups make it, but the group in "The Duty" is wiped out by Vader.
* ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'': In ''Recap/TintinKingOttokarsSceptre'', the sceptre's thieves try to make it over the Bordurian border. Tintin recovers the sceptre JustInTime before it passes out of Syldavia... Before [[ThirdActStupidity succumbing to his hunger and crossing the border while carrying the sceptre anyway]].
* ''ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan'': When the Bugle released the content of the tapes that proved Fisk's murder of Mr. Big, Fisk left the country. In the epilogue we saw him in a tropical location.

* In ''Literature/BootCamp'', three teens escape from an abusive boot camp in upstate New York and travel towards Canada, where they'll be safe. [[spoiler:Sarah and Pauly make it. Garrett is captured and returned to the camp.]]

** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS21E22TheBobNextDoor The Bob Next Door]": Sideshow Bob tries to kill Bart at Five Corners, a point where five states meet, intent on carrying out the murder in pieces across the different state lines so that he hasn't committed a murder in any specific jurisdiction and cannot be tried for it.[[note]]In the United States, murders committed across state borders fall under federal jurisdiction, so this wouldn't work.[[/note]] When the cops show up, Bob tries to use the border to escape from Chief Wiggum, only to find police officers from the other four states have him surrounded.

* In ''WesternAnimation/AlfredJKwak'', Alfred and his friends flee to neighbouring Broad Reedland when their home Great Waterland is turned into a fascist dictatorship by Dolf and his [[ANaziByAnyOtherName National Crows Party]].

* On ''WesternAnimation/RicochetRabbitAndDroopALongCoyote'', Sheriff Ricochet Rabbit pursued a criminal named El Loco Lobo until Lobo crossed the border [[spoiler:and was arrested by Ricochet's Mexican cousin counterpart, Ricochet Chavez]].
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Robotomy}}'': Mr. Dreadnot attempts this when he learns that he'll be teaching puberty to his class after draining his bank account, burning his apartment, disguising himself in drag, and changing his name. He ends up chained to two robots and escorted to school.

** In "The Bob Next Door", Sideshow Bob tries to kill Bart at Five Corners, a point where five states meet, intent on carrying out the murder in pieces across the different state lines so that he hasn't committed a murder in any specific jurisdiction and cannot be tried for it.[[note]]In the United States, murders committed across state borders fall under federal jurisdiction, so this wouldn't work.[[/note]] When the cops show up, Bob tries to use the border to escape from Chief Wiggum, only to find police officers from the other four states have him surrounded.
** In "My Big Fat Geek Wedding", Groundskeeper Willie flees for the border in the mistaken belief he ran over a student at Springfield Elementary with his tractor.
-->'''Groundskeeper Willie''': Oh my God, I've shredded a child! '''''[[NoodleIncident AGAIN!]]''''' Venezuela, here I come!
** In "Whacking Day", when Principal Skinner worries that the bullies he has left locked up may have died, he suggests he and Willie flee to Mexico. Willie mutters that he'll turn Skinner in at the first toll booth.

** Amusingly inverted in [[Recap/SouthParkS15E9TheLastOfTheMeheecans "The Last of the Meheecans"]]. Butters inspires a resurgence of nostalgia, homesickness, and nationalism that causes Mexican emigrants to the United States to cross the border ''back'' into Mexico. Border patrol guards eventually have to guard the border on the U.S. side instead to prevent the loss of menial labourers to the American economy.
** In [[Recap/SouthParkS4E2CartmansSillyHateCrime2000 "Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000"]], Cartman is tried as an adult for committing a hate crime against Token by throwing a rock at his head (it had nothing to do with Token being black, they were arguing because Token kept calling him fat, this was before Cartman had become openly racist and was mostly portrayed as a FatIdiot). He's sentenced to imprisonment in juvenile hall until he's 21, but makes a break for it, and makes Kenny drive him to Mexico in his Go-Go Action Bronco, a small battery-powered car. Despite how comically slow the Bronco is, it's treated like a high-speed police chase, and they even manage to smash through a ''police blockade'', before the Bronco runs out of juice a few feet from the border.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekProdigy'' episode "Crossroads", the ''Protostar'' is being chased by the ''Dauntless'' thanks to a series of terrible luck on the part of the ''Protostar''[='s=] crew. At Okona's suggestion, the crew remodulate their shields to disguise themselves, then slip into the Romulan Neutral Zone, forcing the ''Dauntless'' to back off.

* ''On Wings of Eagles'' by Ken Follett dramatizes the true story of Electronic Data Systems employees escaping from Iran after the revolution. The 1986 television adaptation adapts the story even more for RuleOfDrama (in truth, the trip was tense but in the end rather uneventful).
* ''[[http://www.literaturecollection.com/a/o_henry/3/ The Ransom of Red Chief]]'': After the kidnappers return the kid they'd abducted to his father and pay him the ransom ([[ItMakesSenseInContext yes]], [[PityTheKidnapper that is correct]]), the kid "started up a howl like a calliope and fastened himself as tight as a leech to Bill's [one of the kidnappers'] leg. His father peeled him away gradually, like a porous plaster" and promised the kidnappers to hold him for some ten minutes tops. Bill decides that's quite enough to get to the Canadian border and bolts.

* ''Film/heRaid1954'' starts with a group of Confederate prisoners escaping from a POWCamp in Plattsburgh, New York and fleeing across the Canadian border. The film ends with them escaping St. Albans after the raid, just ahead of an arriving Union force. Burning a bridge behind them, they barely elude the Union forces and make a successful getaway to nearby Canada.