History Main / SalvagePirates

* In an episode of ''StarTrekVoyager'', Voyager gets caught in a NegativeSpaceWedgie that has dozens of ships trapped inside it, which raid each other for supplies and parts to keep running.

** In another episode, Voyager becomes trapped in an area of space which has dozens of ships trapped inside it, which raid each other for supplies and parts to keep running.

* In the comedy ''TopSecret'', Nigel was shipwrecked on a desert island. One day while fishing he was picked up by a passing freighter and [[DoubleStandardRapeMaleOnMale gang raped by the male crew, but it turned out that he liked it]].

* ''AirAmerica'': When the pilots played by Mel Gibson and Robert Downey Jr. crash-land on an abandoned air strip in the middle of the jungle, rescue is swift in coming. Except that said "rescue" simply claims their cargo (which turned out to contain smuggled heroin) and leaves them to their fate.
* Averted: In the opening scenes of ''{{Aliens}}'', a deep-space salvage crew is disappointed to find Ripley still alive in stasis, because "there goes our salvage, boys". However, they resist the temptation to just kill her and salvage the shuttle anyways.

* Both iterations of ''TheFlightOfThePhoenix'' feature a fight between the crew of the downed aircraft and an appropriate group of hostile local scavengers.

* The first installment of PiersAnthony's ''Bio of a Space Tyrant'' revolves around this happening [[ItGotWorse again and again]] to the refugee ship carrying hero Hope Hubris and his ever-dwindling family.

* The first installment of PiersAnthony's ''Literature/BioOfASpaceTyrant'' revolves around this happening [[ItGotWorse again and again]] to the refugee ship carrying hero Hope Hubris and his ever-dwindling family.

* When Artoo and Threepio crash-land on Tatooine in the original ''StarWars'' movie, they are "rescued" by Jawas that sell them to Luke.

* Both iterations of ''TheFlightOfThePhoenix'' feature a fight between the crew of the downed aircraft and an appropriate group of hostile local scavengers.

* ''AirAmerica'': When the pilots played by Mel Gibson and Robert Downey Jr. crash-land on an abandoned air strip in the middle of the jungle, rescue is swift in coming. Except that said "rescue" simply claims their cargo (which turned out to contain smuggled heroin) and leaves them to their fate.

* ''{{Andromeda}}'' (this is what the Eureka Maru is originally trying to do.)

* In ''SnowCrash'', Hiro and the Mafia [[{{Mook}}s goons]] get a boat sunk out from under them by an ex-Soviet missile submarine, and have to turn the tables on a shipload of pirates that comes to steal their liferaft and kidnap them and sell them into slavery.

* ''StarTrekEnterprise'' had an episode where the Xindi brutally attack and leave the ''Enterprise'' without warp travel, making their mission hopeless. Subverted here because fortunately for them a warp ship from an explorer minor race comes by. They try to negotiate a trade for engine parts, but when the other ship's refuse, they steal engine parts by force, so it's the minor race against what should be the good guys. Even though they try to lessen the blow by giving them supplies so they can get back home, [[WhatTheHellHero the aliens tell them they're still assholes]].

* Georgi [=LaForge=] ran into a crew of Pakled pirates once in ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration''. ("We are far from home.")

* In the movie ''TheLandThatTimeForgot'' (and presumably in the EdgarRiceBurroughs novel it's based on), the survivors of a passenger liner torpedoed by a first-world-war German sub drift for a while in a lifeboat... until they come across the sub that sank them in a fog, and pre-emptively turn the tables on the sub's crew, taking it over.

* Both iterations of ''{{The Flight of the Phoenix}}'' feature a fight between the crew of the downed aircraft and an appropriate group of hostile local scavengers.

* In two Robinson-esque novels by JulesVerne, ''TheMysteriousIsland'' and ''TwoYearsVacation'', again the first ships to arrive to the islands are pirate ships.

* The first installment of {{Piers Anthony}}'s ''Literature/{{Bio of a Space Tyrant}}'' revolves around this happening [[ItGotWorse again and again]] to the refugee ship carrying hero Hope Hubris and his ever-dwindling family.
* Used no less than three times in Michael Reaves' ''{{The Shattered World}}'', every time a main character goes adrift in the Void between fragments. When Beorn falls into the Void naked, he is menaced by a winged vampire; he lures it in, claiming to prefer a quick death, then gets it in a stranglehold and forces it to fly him to land. When Beorn and Amber are struggling to cross the sea on a tiring gryphon, their steed is netted by a shipload of dragon-hunters, who demand the gryphon and Beorn's manual labor if they're to carry the pair to safety, not dump them overboard. Finally, flashbacks reveal that when Amber and her husband Tahrynyar are cast up on Darkhaven in a storm, Pandrogas the sorcerer saves them both, but ends up stealing Tahrynyar's one remaining possession of value: Amber herself, with whom the sorcerer has an affair.
** Used again in the sequal, ''{{The Burning Realm}}''. When Mirrim the werewolf is left stranded alone on Stonebrow's vacated isle, the first others to arrive are pirates, whom she fools into thinking ''she's'' the resident sorceress. When an assassin is trapped in a cavern on the rim of a fragment, the being that "rescues" her is a cacodaemon, which carries her off to slavery. Reaves sure likes this trope.

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* In two Robinson-esque novels by JulesVerne, ''{{The Mysterious Island}}'' and ''[=~Two Years' Vacation~=]'', again the first ships to arrive to the islands are pirate ships.

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* ''StarTrekEnterprise'' had an episode where the Xindi brutally attack and leave the ''Enterprise'' without warp travel, making their mission hopeless. Subverted here because fortunately for them a warp ship from an explorer minor race comes by which the humans take their warp core by force, so it's the minor race against what should be the good guys. Even though they try to lessen the blow by giving them supplies so they can get back home, [[WhatTheHellHero the aliens tell them they're still assholes]].

* In the comedy ''[=~Top Secret!~=]'', Nigel was shipwrecked on a desert island. One day while fishing he was picked up by a passing freighter and [[RapeIsFunnyWhenItIsMaleOnMale gang raped by the male crew, but it turned out that he liked it]].

* OlderThanRadio: In the original ''RobinsonCrusoe'', the first European ship to arrive to the island (eventually rescuing Robinson) is one where the crew has mutinied, and they are described as "pirates" in the LongTitle of the novel.

* A variation in ''MobileSuitGundamSEEDAstray'''s Junk Guild. They aren't likely to harm you and will probably send you wherever you need to go - minus, of course, any fancy toys you might have with you when they find you.

* In the original ''RobinsonCrusoe'', the first European ship to arrive to the island (eventually rescuing Robinson) is one where the crew has mutinied, and they are described as "pirates" in the LongTitle of the novel. Which makes the trope OlderThanRadio.

* In the original ''RobinsonCrusoe'', the first European ship to arrive to the island (eventually rescuing Robinson) is one where the crew has mutinied, and they are described as "pirates" in the LongTitle of the novel.

* The first installment of {{Piers Anthony}}'s ''{{Bio of a Space Tyrant}}'' revolves around this happening [[ItGotWorse again and again]] to the refugee ship carrying hero Hope Hubris and his ever-dwindling family.

And [[BedouinRescueService rescue arrives]]! [[OrIsIt Or so it seems]]. Actually, the first people to show up are more interested in stealing their stuff and looting their bodies than they are in actually rescuing anyone. Survivors just jeopardize the salvage value of whatever bits of {{Phlebotinum}} are left over. Our heroes either have to fight them, or escape from them, or turn the tables and steal THEIR ship instead.

Very much a part of many RobbingTheCrusoe plots. Probably the reason is that the "surviving with ingenuity on a desert island" part of the story eventually gets boring, and to have a dramatic climax before the final rescuing there is nothing better than to throw in a fight with {{Pirates}} for no other reason than the RuleOfCool. See also SpacePirates and BedouinRescueService.

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* When Artoo and Threepio crash-land on Tatooine in the original ''StarWars'' movie, they are "rescued" by Jawas that sell them to Luke.

* The Harrison Ford/Anne Heche movie ''SixDaysSevenNights''.

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* In the original novel ''SwissFamilyRobinson'' by Johann Wyss, the same pirates who forced the ship onto the rocks in the first place (stranding the titular family on the island) come back, and have to be scared off by the ingenious use of a quarantine flag.

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** In a couple of other episodes, the crew of Serenity themselves are accused of trying to pull a similar trick, such as in "Bushwhacked".

* The first episode of the TV series ''{{Crusoe}}'' features the titular castaway being threatened by pirates/escaped convicts, as well as the corrupt Spanish jailers who are after them.

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* ''AssociatedSpace'' notably averts this trope when Fatebane and David Urquart crash-land on the Free Realm of Sarmatia, and are promptly surrounded by fierce-looking horse-warrior nomads...who promptly get them medical attention and help them on their way.
* In ''SluggyFreelance'', pretty much anyone lost in Timeless Space is guaranteed to be "rescued" by space pirates.

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* In the movie ''The Land That Time Forgot'' (and presumably in the EdgarRiceBurroughs novel it's based on), the survivors of a passenger liner torpedoed by a first-world-war German sub drift for a while in a lifeboat...until they come across the sub that sank them in a fog, and pre-emptively turn the tables on the sub's crew, taking it over.

* The Disney live-action movie version of ''Swiss Family Robinson'' features pirates who must be fought to free a [[SweetPollyOliver female captive]], if only to provide a LoveInterest for the two oldest sons to bicker over.

* A version of this from TheThrawnTrilogy. Luke messed up his X-Wing's systems while escaping a TractorBeam and is stranded light-years from anything, unable to contact anyone. Within a few hours Talon Karrde, head of a smuggling/intelligence organization, arrives on the scene claiming coincidence, and offers not only to take Luke but also his ship, for a fee. Luke is wary, thinking of exactly this trope, but if he refuses he'll just be either blasted or left to hang in the void again. Soon, though, he finds that they found him using a Force-Sensitive woman who hates him, and Grand Admiral Thrawn has put out word that he's stranded in the area and could be worth something. Normally Karrde, being both a businessman and pretty decent, would be happy to save random drifters with or without a fee, but Luke complicates a lot of things, and he considers handing him over to Thrawn. [[spoiler: He doesn't.]]
* A non-illegal version is in Issac Asimov's story The Martian Way. Its a professional job where people salvage space junk and scraps of metal, rock, ect and sell them later. They do consider stealing water, but only because a politican called [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything Hilder]] litmits water trade, (water is scarce on Mars.)

* A variation in ''GundamSEED Astray'''s Junk Guild. They aren't likely to harm you and will probably send you wherever you need to go - minus, of course, any fancy toys you might have with you when they find you.

* A variation in ''GundamSEED Astray'''s Junk Guild. They aren't likely to harm you and will probably send you wherever you need to go - minus, of course, any fancy toys you might have with you when they find you.