History Main / SternChase

->''"Well, I've got to run to keep from hidin',\\

Not gonna let 'em catch the Midnight Rider."''

[[folder:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]

* ''{{Anime/Monster}}''; Tenma hunts for Johan, and is chased by Lunge and the police.

[[folder:Fanfiction]]
* The ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' fanfic ''FanFic/TheRenegades'' is about the former residents of Castle Oblivion being chased through the worlds by the other members of the Organization.

[[folder:Film]]

* Most of ''Film/{{Sheena}}'' is this.
* ''Film/TheNakedPrey''.

* ''Film/TheLastJedi'': The First Order spends the majority of the film chasing the remaining rebels, who can't flee to hyperspace because the FO have hyperspace tracking. They know that the Rebels have limited fuel, and so are simply playing the waiting game for the rebel ships to run out of power and fall into range for them to destroy.
* In ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', after the Rebels base on Hoth is discovered by Imperial forces, Han, Leia, Chewie and C-3PO spend half of the movie eluding Imperial Star Destroyers on board the Millenium Falcon while dealing with a malfunctioning hyperdrive, eventually reaching Cloud City on Bespin... only for Han to be frozen in carbonite and handed over to bounty hunter Boba Fett, which prompts Leia, Chewie, Lando and Threepio to rescue Luke and seek Han's whereabouts.

[[folder:{{Literature}}]]

[[folder:LiveActionTV]]

* [[Series/BattlestarGalactica1978 Both]] [[Series/BattlestarGalactica2003 versions]] of ''Battlestar Galactica''.
* The Doctor in ''Series/DoctorWho'' is always on the move anyway, but on a couple of occasions someone has been chasing him, the most prominent example being the Black Guardian.
** The episode ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E11HeavenSent Heaven Sent]]'' has a SternChase within a single building. The Veil doesn't move fast, but it never stops coming after the Doctor. Even if he runs to the far end of the castle he is imprisoned in, the Veil always catches up with him within an hour or so.

* ''[[RunJoeRun Run, Joe, Run]]''. Basically ''The Fugitive'' only with a dog as protagonist.

[[folder:Theater]]

[[folder:VideoGames]]
* In the aptly named ''Videogame/RailChase'', the respective antagonists of a chapter chases the protagonist couple and act as a healthbar where taking hits slow down your cart, allowing the antagonist to catch up and finish you off. At the end of each chapter you have to fight them one by one though.

* Essentially inverted for the majority of disc 1 of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' as the player's party pursues [[spoiler: [[BigBad Sephiroth]] ]] across continents and around the world even as he is hunting for the [[spoiler: Black Materia]]
* Anyone that's played sailing games like ''Sea Dogs'' or ''Pirates of the Caribbean'' (aka ''Sea Dogs II'') will probably have experienced the literal version. Needless to say, they can get pretty boring.

* ''[[VideoGame/{{Battlefield}} Battlefield2142]]'': Another example that echoes the original military scenario: a running battlewalker has the same speed as a tank moving in reverse. At a distance, the walker's rockets do not fly true, and the tank's shells can easily be dodged. Unless the tank driver gets stuck on an obstacle, the walker giving chase has a long fight ahead.

[[folder:WebComic]]

%%[[folder:WebOriginal]]

%%* ''WebVideo/{{lonelygirl15}}'', especially season 1.

[[folder:WesternAnimation]]

* ''Series/LogansRun''. Logan and Jessica are pursued by Francis, who seeks to return them to the City of Domes and wipe their memories.

* ''Series/ThePretender'': Jarod, the protagonist, is a genius who was held captive and used by an evil organization as a child, until one day he escaped. Throughout the series he is constantly on the run from agents of the organization trying to recapture him.
* ''[[Series/RunBuddyRun Run, Buddy, Run]]'': a sitcom variant, about a man on the run from mobsters.

* ''[[RunJoeRun Run, Joe, Run]]'': basically ''The Fugitive'' only with a dog as protagonist.

* ''Series/TheImmortal'': the protagonist has a special type of blood that makes him resistant to disease and aging, and thus finds himself pursued by the henchman of an elderly billionaire who wants to capture him and make him his personal blood bank.

* ''Series/ThePretender''. Jarod, the protagonist, is a genius who was held captive and used by an evil organization as a child, until one day he escaped. Throughout the series he is constantly on the run from agents of the organization trying to recapture him.

[[folder: {{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]

[[folder: Fanfiction]]

[[folder: Film]]

[[folder: {{Literature}}]]

[[folder: LiveActionTV]]

[[folder: Music]]

[[folder: Theater]]

[[folder: VideoGames]]

[[folder: WebComic]]

%%[[folder: WebOriginal]]

[[folder: WesternAnimation]]

* Inverted in ''Manga/InuYasha'', where the protagonists are chasing the villain ''forever''.

* Inverted in the third ''Literature/ProvostsDog'' book by Creator/TamoraPierce. The whole novel has Beka and her group as the pursuers against the people who kidnapped four-year-old Prince Gareth.

** ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilRegenerations'' has the mutated Rachel, a RedShirt the players watch get killed infected a few minutes into the game. After defeating her as the second boss, she pulls a vanishing act and appears sporadically throughout the main campaign. It is actually mentioned she uses the AirVentPassageways on the ship to keep appearing and disappearing.

** ''Videogame/ResidentEvilOutbreak'' has the Leech Man and in the first game's Hive Scenario. The second game has Titan (a zombified elephant) and the Axe Man in the Wild Things and Flashback scenarios, respectively.

** VideoGame/ResidentEvil3Nemesis'' has the [[Antagonisttitle eponymous]] SuperPersistentPredator Nemesis, one of the most iconic monsters in the franchise. Like the upgraded Mr. X in the above remake, it can follow you anywhere, and while X can walk, Nemesis ''runs''.

** ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2'' has Mr. X, who shows up as one of two {{Recurring Boss}}es alongside "G". The ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2Remake'' amplifies Mr. X.'s ability to stalk its targets by a large margin.

* The reason Anime/LupinIII is always moving is that if he stops Zenigata ''will'' arrest him, as ''nothing'' can stop him. Not even being in Israel when Lupin is in Egypt during the UsefulNotes/ArabIsraeliConflict and getting mistaken for an enemy spy and arrested, a day later Zenigata was in Egypt and ''leading Cairo's police in the chase''.

* ''OnePiece'': Smoker and Tashigi. In the first half of the story, they didn't get much screen time (mainly because Luffy couldn't hit Smoker and didn't stand a chance of beating him), but now that Luffy is stronger and can actually fight Smoker on even ground, they're bound to have their roles expanded.

* In the XY arc of ''Manga/PokemonSpecial'', Team Flare is after X's Mega Ring and is clearly willing to use lethal force against him and his friends. Adding to that is that they have plenty of members disguised as ordinary citizens, so the kids are especially wary of every stranger they meet and staying too long in any area. As such, despite the fact that Y is clearly loaded, the kids have been camping out at night in remote areas and subsisting on convenience food. Likewise, Korinna and her grandfather are ''also'' being chased by Team Flare for similar reasons. To protect the secrets of Mega Evolution, the two were forced to [[spoiler: destroy the Tower of Mastery]] before making a run for it.

* Used in the ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeon'' series twice. In ''Red/Blue Rescue Team'', the hero and their partner must flee [[spoiler: the other rescue teams out for their blood due to [[YouFailLogicForever a critical logic failure]]]]; in ''Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky'', the pair [[spoiler: are trapped in the BadFuture and searching for a way back]]. Both sequences include an understandable difficulty bump, given the circumstances.

* The KingdomHearts fanfic ''FanFic/TheRenegades'' is about the former residents of Castle Oblivion being chased through the worlds by the other members of the Organization.

** Stephen, who [[TheWatson often requires nautical terms to be explained to him,]] mistakes the definition of "stern" and asks if it is [[CrowningMomentOfFunny "a very stern chase indeed."]]

* And of course, it comes up a few times in the ''HoratioHornblower'' series of books, most notably in the first published book, "The Happy Return", where Hornblower's ship, a smallish frigate named HMS ''Lydia'', is forced to pursue and sink a much larger enemy ship, with the enemy ship's longer-ranged guns allowing them to plink at the pursuing British warship for several hours before they can fire back. To keep his wits about him, he passes the time playing cards with his junior officers. [[spoiler:To keep the morale of his men up, he orders a [[RefugeInAudacity dance contest]] even as the enemy's shots periodically hit the ship, wounding or killing crewmembers.]]

* ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeed'' has a new type of ship Archangel running from chasing ZAFT who want to destroy it because it's somehow supposed to change the course of war if it went into production. It goes on for most part of series. What's staggering is that Archangel is supposedly a superior ship, however it's never even able to take out a single opposing ship on its own. One would wonder why ZAFT is so determined to destroy it if that ship is so incompetent in battle.
** Not the Archangel as much as the all-important [[SuperPrototype Strike]] aboard it: the Archangel itself is an amazing ship nonetheless, capable of dealing with entire fleets single-handedly, but the mobile suit (far superior to anything ZAFT could field at the time) very nearly changed the course of the war for the Earth Alliance (and could have, if they had used their production resources to speed up the Strike Daggers and the Three Ships Alliance hadn't intervened).

* ''Series/NowhereMan'' featured a hero constantly fleeing a [[TheConspiracy conspiratorial organization]] that was out to get him. Every episode had him visit new locations, learn a little more about the conspiracy, and then continue his journey.

%%* ''Series/NowhereMan''.