History Main / SendInTheSearchTeam

* A few of RayBradbury's ''TheMartianChronicles'' follow plots of this type.

* In MichaelCrichton's ''{{Congo}}'', the protagonists are sent on a follow-up expedition to Africa after the original team was mysteriously killed by apes in the heart of the Congo.

* In ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth'' (and its film adaptation ''Film/TheEagle''), two spies are despatched beyond TheGreatWall to retrieve the standard of a LostRomanLegion and discover whether it deserted or was destroyed.

* This is the basic plot of several {{Tintin}} stories, particularly ''Recap/TintinInTibet'', in which Tintin forms a search team to find his friend Chang in the Himalayas, although he's not even sure Chang is alive. Chang turns out to have been cared for by the [[BigfootSasquatchAndYeti Yeti]]. In some other stories, Professor Calculus has the habit of being kidnapped, so Tintin and Captain Haddock, possibly accompanied by others, have to set off to find him.

* This is the basic plot of several {{Tintin}} stories, particularly ''Recap/TintinTintinInTibet'', in which Tintin forms a search team to find his friend Chang in the Himalayas, although he's not even sure Chang is alive. Chang turns out to have been cared for by the [[BigfootSasquatchAndYeti Yeti]]. In some other stories, Professor Calculus has the habit of being kidnapped, so Tintin and Captain Haddock, possibly accompanied by others, have to set off to find him.

* Any number of missions in StarWars: TheOldRepublic.

* A hardly heroic version occurs in ''Film/BlackDeath'', where a local bishop sends a group of violent inquisitors to find a previous group of inquisitors he had previously sent to a village rumoured to practice paganism.

* ''ConquestFrontierWars'': In the intro, a ship was lost shortly after going through a wormhole. After that, a small search team sent through the wormhole was also lost. They then decide to send in the protagonist commander.

* In Dave Duncan's ''Seventh Sword'' trilogy, Wally Smith must find out what happened with his predecessor (Sonshu) so he doesn't repeat the same mistakes Sonshu made. Although his assingment isn't specifically to find out what happened, it's central to the plot.

* One part of ''{{FEAR}}'' has you searching for a missing SFOD-D team. In the end, [[LateToTheTragedy you only find]] [[StrippedToTheBone their skeletonized remains]].

[[quoteright:230:[[Film/Sunshine http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rescue32_8616.jpg]]]]

[[quoteright:267:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rescue1_515.jpg]]

** ''Film/{{Sunshine}}'' is really only a partial example, though, since [[spoiler:the primary goal of the mission was not to rescue ''Icarus I'' and thanks to [[NiceJobBreakingItHero thanks to the mathematician's forgetfulness]] the lives were in danger before the rescue mission was undertaken]], this trope still is quite the driving force behind the plot.

* This is the plot of ''TheVoyageOfTheDawnTreader'', fifth novel of ''TheChroniclesOfNarnia'' by C.S. Lewis. When the usurping King Miraz was killing off his various political rivals and potential rebels, he got rid of seven noblemen by convincing them to go sailing off into the blue (an uncharted ocean), and as he hoped they were never seen again. After overthrowing Miraz, one of King Caspian's two goals in his eastward voyage is to find the seven lords, or at least learn their fates.

* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', Jacob's loyalty mission has you tracking down his long lost father to a planet where he crash landed a decade ago. [[spoiler:There, he's set himself up as a god ruling over the remnants of the crew, who thanks to toxic food on the planet are now mentally degenerate.]]

* In the video game ''VideoGame/DeadSpace'', you're a mechanic sent out after receiving a distress call from a mining vessel. When you arrive, you discover a GhostShip...[[{{Metaphorgotten}} only the "Ghost" is actually a]] "[[RecycledInSpace Space]] [[NotUsingTheZedWord Zombie]] [[TheVirus Virus]]"

* How ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine'' starts out. A three man Delta Force team is send in the catastrophe-striken Dubai to figure out what happened to the 33rd battalion and their commander, John Konrad, after an especially fierce sandstorm cut off their contact with the rest of the Military. Their orders are simple; Locate any survivors, then get back into radio range, and call for reinforcements. Since the plot is mainly inspired by ''Heart of Darkness'' the whole thing quickly becomes more complicated...

* Sir Henry Morton Stanley's search for the Africa explorer David Livingstone (the famous words "Dr Livingstone I presume...?" are also often referenced).