History Main / RunTheGauntlet

* ''ComicBook/JonahHex'': Hex was once captured by a Native American tribe that formed a line to club him as he ran to determine his fate.

* ''Literature/{{Andersonville}}'' After the leaders of the Raiders are hanged, there goons have to run a gauntlet of the other prisoners hitting them with clubs. Several men die or are badly hurt.
* ''Literature/DaysOfInfamy'': After Hawaii is liberated the citizens of one island give [[TheQuisling everyone who collaborated with the Japanese]] a choice between being turned over to the army and executed as traitors or running the gauntlet down Main Street being hit with clubs and fists. Interpreter [[AntiVillain Yoshi Nakamura]] is allowed to pass through almost unscathed. Informant [[HonestJohnsDealership Smiling Sammy Little]] is badly battered but crawls to the end. Annabelle Chong (who oversaw women kept as SexSlave's) is knocked down halfway across and beaten to death.

** ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'',' 'WesternAnimation/TheBatman'', and ''WesternAnimation/BewareTheBatman'' had The Bat fight all of his villains one after the other. Deadly threats from previous episodes were reduced to petty {{Mooks}}, EliteMooks at best.

** ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'',''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'', and ''WesternAnimation/BewareTheBatman'' had The Bat fight all of his villains one after the other. Deadly threats from previous episodes were reduced to petty {{Mooks}}, EliteMooks at best.

* [[ComicBook/WonderWoman2023 The Dawn Of DC Wonder Woman series]] has two examples early on by two unaffiliated parties. Both are simply meant to stop, not kill her, but the assailants making up [[BigBad The Sovereign's gauntlet]] largely don't know or don't care about this and prove too blood thirty to wait for their "turns" to attack Wonder Woman. Only the first and final foe of his gauntlet stick to the "rules".

** ''Ending Battle'' saw Manchester Black pit Superman against not only his own Rogues, but even send lesser villains after other people in Clark Kent's life, [[spoiler:purely to make a point by keeping Superman so busy with the villains that Black can kill Lois... and even ''that'' is a faked death so that Black can push Superman to breaking point]].

* This trope is often {{invoked|trope}} by wrestlers who vow to run through the local PowerStable one by one, such as Wrestling/SamoaJoe's targeting of Wrestling/{{TNA}}'s Main Event Mafia. This almost never works though because stables usually do send more than one person to meet the lone opposition or employ some equally ignoble tactic(the mafia convinced Joe to join them with money).

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' BirthdayEpisode features such a scenario, where several of the girls foes send deadly gifts to their birthday party. Mojo Jojo sends a KillerRobot, Princess Morbucks sends a target for a missile, and Him sends a monstrous Piñata that the girls each defeat one after the other. The Amoeba Boys send a gift too, specifically [[VoodooDoll Voodoo Dolls]] of the girls, but that goes [[HarmlessVillain about as well as you’d expect for them]].

* In an anime where [[MagicMusic singing]] is the (pretty much) only method of battle, ''Anime/MermaidMelodyPichiPichiPitch'' had a gauntlet run. And it was PlayedForLaughs. Why? In the first level of the tower the bad guys made as part of some ridiculous plan or other, the first 'boss', [[{{Kawaiiko}} Alala]], was merely bypassed and ignored. In the second level was [[DragonLady Lanhua]], who was BowledOver by a bowling ball (don't ask how it go there, they don't know either). The third was [[CreepyCrossdresser Lady Bat]], who was 'repelled' when his [[ViewerGenderConfusion (yes, his)]] breath [[ItMakesSenseInContext reeked of curry]]. The fourth level had [[MonsterOfTheWeek the 'planner' Napoleon]], who let them by after the heroines threatened him with a beating (he was rather short). It was at the fifth and final level where the singing ensued. But not before a SugarWiki/{{Funny M|oments}}usic [[ItMakesSenseInContext from the hostage the heroines were trying to rescue]].
* In ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'', after Ichigo defeats Grimmjow, he is immediately pitted against Nnoitra Jilga, who was a full rank above Grimmjow. This trope gets inverted on Nnoitra when [[spoiler: Nel is revealed to be the former third Espada]], who then proceeds to mercilessly beat the crap out of Nnoitra. However, [[spoiler: Nel's]] release deactivates at the worst possible time. After Nnoitra's KickTheDog moment, he sends his Fraccion Tesla to finish off Ichigo, but [[spoiler: Kenpachi]] appears to not only defeat Tesla, but almost immediately goes to fight Nnoitra.

* When the Seven Devils kidnap Meat (More specifically, they ''break him into pieces and keep each part''), they force ''Manga/{{Kinnikuman}}'' to fight each of them one at a time. After defeating Stecase King and Black Hole, Kin has become too injured to fight and the other Justice Choujin have to step in and take out a few Devil Choujin on their own. However, only Terryman and Brocken Jr (With aid from Mongolman) prevail, leaving Atlantis to Kin, Springman to Mongolman, and finally Buffaloman to Kin. Something similar happens when the Devil Knights steal the Gold Mask and force Kin to fight them for it.

* Inverted in ''Anime/TransformersCybertron,'' when Starscream decides he's getting the Omega Lock, ''dammit,'' and fights his way through ''eleven Autobots in a row'', successfully distracts Optimus Prime, and gets away with the Lock, free and clear.
* ''Literature/{{Katanagatari}}'' features a variant in which Shichika runs a gauntlet against all of the weapons that he spent the series collecting but this time in the hands of different wielders. The subversion is [[spoiler: in how he utterly destroys the first 11 of the 12 in mere minutes as 1) they are in the hands of fighters who are far less experienced with them than the masters he had already taken them from and 2) this time he isn't under orders not to damage the weapons and is therefore no longer holding back his true strength. As he already knows their weaknesses many are destroyed in a single strike.]]

[[folder:Fanfic]]
* In WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents fanfic [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2973937/1/Discovery Discovery]], Timmy Turner Runs the Gauntlet of all his magical enemies and his ImaginaryFriend.
* Issue #50 of ''[[FanFic/UltimateSleepwalker Ultimate Sleepwalker: The New Dreams]]'' forces Sleepwalker to take on all six of the Nasty Boys by himself. A few issues later, he goes through this trope ''again'' when [[spoiler:the Green Goblin puts a $1 million prize on his head.]] He's forced to fight several villains trying to claim the prize one after another, and they each do a number on him. By the time he fights the last villain, Sleepwalker is so exhausted that [[spoiler:he would have been killed without the help of a HeroicBystander]].
* Happens twice in ''FanFic/MyLittleMagesTheNightmaresReturn'':

* When Wrestling/KellyKelly returned from her TenMinuteRetirement in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10340937/29/The-Return-Remixed The Return-Remixed]], [[Wrestling/CarleneMoore Jazz]] made her face all the other members of the Diva Army, with each one playing the part of a member of DEAR. This marked the beginning of where Kelly TookALevelInBadass
* Happens in Chapter 60 of ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'' with the forces of HYDRA gunning for [[spoiler: Bobby Drake]] and having to go through [[PlotRelevantAgeUp Harry and his aged up friends]] to get him. Justified because their first attack is geared for a quick snatch and they quickly find themselves monstrously outgunned. After that, Lucius responds by chucking the kitchen sink at them (in the form of a proto Destroyer controlled by Baron Zemo and an army of [[HumanoidAbomination Slendermen]] because [[spoiler: Bobby]] is a young Omega Class mutant and with Xavier out of commission and Magneto distracted, this is possibly their only chance to 'recruit' him and because he recognises Harry's singular talent for being a SpannerInTheWorks, having been on the receiving end of it before, and is intent on making sure that it doesn't happen again. And unlike most examples, but for an appropriately timed BigDamnHeroes and [[spoiler: a HeelFaceTurn by the Winter Soldier]], it would would have worked.

[[folder:Film]]

* The final book of the ''Spy High'' series, ''Agent Orange'', has this. The heroes fight through virtual recreations of every major villain (and some minor ones) from the previous 11 books in order to finally reach the [[BigBad Big Bad]]'s lair.

* Season 12 of ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' is entitled "The Gauntlet", in which Kinga Forrester and Max make Jonah and the Bots binge watch six movies back-to-back-to-back.

* RunTheGauntlet: Ghost Challenge is a secret arena where Dongtae faces his memories for a chance of a bonus upgrade, which he can opt to do up to four in a row. These are [[spoiler:Byungchul (Regret), all bullies at once (Fear), his past self (Doubt), and would be Eunju if he didn't leave early]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans''

* In the final episodes of ''WesternAnimation/ActionMan2000'', Dr. X and his League of Doom kidnap Alex's team and put them in death traps in different parts of the world. Alex has to race from one place to the other to save his friends, fighting different members of the League along the way. This was also a XanatosGambit on the BigBad's part, who ensured that Alex would be forced to overuse his AwesomeByAnalysis superpower so that he could copy it.
* The two part finale of ''WesternAnimation/MegaManFullyCharged'' centers around Sgt. Night ordering all the Robot Masters under his command to challenge Mega Man to a final battle that is one of these. Notably, since they weren’t affiliated with him, Ice Man, Wood Man, and Hypno Woman don’t appear, and though she is working with him, Chaotique doesn’t show up either. Also, Fire Man was too injured and doesn’t show up. The episode is even titled "The Gauntlet" as well.
* The ''WesternAnimation/CoolMcCool'' finale "College of Crooks" pits [=McCool=] against his five series foes--the Owl, the Rattler, Hurricane Harry, Dr. Madcap and Greta Ghoul--at a disused college.
* Used in the "bring on the bad guys" arc of ''WesternAnimation/MarvelsSpiderMan''. [[spoiler: While Spidey fights them all off, doing so leaves him tired enough for Doc Ock to body jack him, which was his real plan all along]]

* ''Literature/SinisterSixTrilogy'': In ''Spider-Man: Revenge of the Sinister Six'', Spider-Man lampshades the fact that [[ConservationOfNinjutsu whenever the Six get together, he always takes them down faster than when they fight him one at a time,]] and it's because [[BewareTheNiceOnes when they overwhelm him, he's no longer able to hold back so much.]] To punctuate the point, while he's doing this, he's also dodging Doctor Octopus' robotic arms...before crushing his real ones.