History Main / SendInTheSearchTeam

** A quest in ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'' has you looking for a science team that has gone missing. Turns out [[spoiler:they've been converted to husks and are for all intents and purposes dead. Shepard, naturally, kills them all.]]

* ''VideoGame/Area51FPS'' has HazTeam Bravo being sent in to recover the ''previous'' search team, HazTeam Delta.

[[folder:Videogames]]

* On the 8th of March 2014, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia_Airlines_Flight_370 a Boeing 777 airliner]] disappeared over the South China Sea. What followed is thought to be the largest Search-And-Rescue effort ever. The aircraft still has not been found, the most evidence recovered being a couple small pieces of the plane being found washed ashore on the east coast of Africa three to five years later.

* On the 8th of March 2014, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia_Airlines_Flight_370 a Boeing 777 airliner]] disappeared over the South China Sea. What followed is thought to be the largest Search-And-Rescue effort ever. And nothing's been found. Yet.

* ''Literature/AuroraCycle'': [[spoiler:The climax of the first book comes because Squad 312 decides to investigate mysterious quarantine planet Octavia III to find out what could have happened there that resulted in the colony there being {{unperson}}ed and, even more strangely, long-dead colonists turning up as [[StateSec GIA]] personnel, with their bodies overgrown by mysterious plant life.]]

[[folder:Comicbooks]]
* 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.

[[folder:Film]]

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

* Creator/KimNewman's AlternateHistory novella ''Literature/TeddyBearsPicnic'', which is essentially a retelling of ''Film/ApocalypseNow'' with British characters and a few nasty surprises.
* In [[Creator/DaveDuncan Dave Duncan's]] ''Seventh Sword'' original trilogy, Wally Smith must find out what happened with his predecessor Shonsu so he doesn't repeat the same mistakes Sonshu made. Although his assignment isn't specifically to find out what happened, it's central to the plot. Wearing the same body that once belonged to Shonsu, but having none of Shonsu's memories doesn't help.
** In the recent sequel ''The Death of Nnanji'' the whole mess starts with groups of warriors (essentially well-armed cartographers) disappearing and Nnanji and then Shonsu leading armies to investigate. [[spoiler:Nnanji dies of old age decades after the last chapter, by the way.]]
* ''Literature/HeartOfDarkness'', by Creator/JosephConrad.

* Heinlein's ''Literature/StrangerInAStrangeLand'' starts out with an expedition to Mars to find out what happened to the last expedition. They find Michael, an earthling brought up by Martians, setting up the rest of the novel. Grok?
* In ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth'' (and its film adaptation ''Film/TheEagle2011''), two spies are despatched beyond TheGreatWall to investigate rumours that the standard of a LostRomanLegion has fallen into the hands of a hostile tribe, and if possible find out exactly what happened to the legion in question.

* In ''Literature/TheEagleOfTheNinth'' (and its film adaptation ''Film/TheEagle''), two spies are despatched beyond TheGreatWall to investigate rumours that the standard of a LostRomanLegion has fallen into the hands of a hostile tribe, and if possible find out exactly what happened to the legion in question.

* ''Film/{{Predator}}', though those participating don't actually know it. Their mission -- supposedly to rescue a cabinet minister shot down by guerillas -- is actually to find a special forces team that had been sent in to stop a guerilla offensive.

* In Creator/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.

** ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'', "Terra Nova". A Vulcan ship is sent into the Expanse to find the ''Seleya'', and ends up suffering the same fate before the NX-01 Enterprise stumbles across them.

* This is the plot of ''Literature/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.

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

* Creator/KimNewman's AlternateHistory novella ''Teddy Bear's Picnic'', which essentially a retelling of ''Film/ApocalypseNow'' with British characters and a few nasty surprises.

* ''Series/StargateSG1'', "The First Commandment". SG-1 is sent to find SG-9, who have failed to report in from their offworld mission. [[spoiler:The leader of SG-9 has gone mad and set himself up as the god of the native people, having discovered a piece of [[LostTechnology abandoned Goa'uld technology]] that will shield them from the extra=strength sun of their world]].

* 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 are now mentally degenerate due to toxins in the food.]]

** This is part of a Sole Survivor Shepard's background. Some years before ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'' Shepard's unit was sent to find out why the settlement on Akuze had suddenly gone dark.

* ''ForbiddenPlanet''.

** It's worth noting that the guy in charge of the expedition suffers from double vision. Given that his brother was running the previous expedition, it mus run in the family.

* 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]]".
** What ''actually'' happened to the people on the ship is detailed in {{Apocalyptic Log}}s both in-game and an ExpansionPackPast comic and animated movie released alongside it.
* [[VideoGame/SystemShock System Shock 2]] does this, sort of. The story begins as the maiden voyage of the newly-minted FTL-drive ''Von Braun'', but when they get to Tau Ceti, it turns out that [[spoiler: SHODAN escaped with her mutant progeny at the end of the first System Shock, and traveled in an escape pod at sublight speeds to Tau Ceti, where the mutants evolved into The Many.]]

* ''BlackSnow'' takes control of an IT four-man team sent to investigate a scientific research station somewhere in Greenland. It's suspicious from the start - one of the group notes that gas masks and protective gear aren't standard repair equipment. It, of course, goes to hell as ''something'' kills all but one of the team - you.

* ''PhantasyStarIV'' has this as Hahn's primary motivation for joining the party-- he wants to join Alys and Chaz, professional monster hunters, and bring them with him to search for the missing Professor Holt. Unlike most other examples, though, several search parties have ''already'' been sent and come back with nothing; Alys and Chaz are recruited because it's assumed (by everyone but Hahn) that the Professor and his crew were killed by dangerous monsters.

* The third ''{{Avernum}}'' game has your party assigned to take over the mission of the first surface exploration team. While your primary goal is to deal with problems on the surface, you're also asked to figure out what happened to the earlier team if you can.

* ''{{Patlabor}}'' parodies this ''twice''.

* ''Film/EventHorizon''.

* ''Film/ApocalypseNow'' is loosely based on ''Literature/HeartOfDarkness''. It differs from most of the examples here in that the protagonist is sent on an assassination mission rather than to find out what happened.
** And it was revealed later in the film that he was the second person they sent after the first one stopped reporting in.

* ''Film/{{Sunshine}}'', sort of. The crew of ''Icarus II'' passes ''Icarus I'' in space, and initially decides ''not'' to stop. However, [[spoiler:they are forced into a SendInTheSearchTeam situation after their own ship suffers catastrophic damage and they are unsure of whether their payload is still functional.]]
** ''Film/{{Sunshine}}'' is really only a partial example, though, since [[spoiler:the primary goal of the mission was not to rescue ''Icarus I'' and [[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.

* The first ''Film/ResidentEvil'' film featured a team of commandos searching an underground laboratory to find out why the AI in control of the facility killed everyone.
** The sequel saw Umbrella send in a ''second'' team to find out what happened to the first team. That went so badly it kicked off a zombie apocalypse within five minutes.
* The first ''Film/{{Predator}}'' movie, though those participating don't actually know it. Their mission -- supposedly to rescue a cabinet minister shot down by guerillas -- is actually to find a special forces team that had been sent in to stop a guerilla offensive.

* In the ''[[Series/TheOuterLimits Outer Limits]]'' TOS episode "The Invisible Enemy", astronauts are sent to Mars to learn why the members of the previous expedition vanished. [[spoiler:They were eaten by "sand sharks", who go on to menace the current expedition.]]

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

* ''Series/StargateSG1'', "The First Commandment".