History Main / TheMostWanted

** The [[SuperpowerLottery Ope-Ope Fruit]] is stated several times to be the "ultimate Devil Fruit" thanks to its [[SwissArmySuperpower extreme versatility]], [[SuperDoc miraculous medical applications]], and [[ImmortalityInducer ability to grant eternal youth]] ([[EquivalentExchange at the cost of its user's life]]). When it was last up for sale thirteen years ago by the Barrels Pirates, it's estimated worth was at least 5 billion berries to the Marines and other potential buyers. When combined with his own personal bounty (500 million) as of the Wano arc, this makes the current Ope-Ope holder, Trafalgar Law, as valuable and sought after as '''Gol D. Roger himself'''. It's implied that though Corazon's death defined Law's future, Law himself had already lost any chance he had of living a normal life the moment he ate the Fruit.

* Dutch van der Linde, a central character in both ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption'' and ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption2''. In 1899, Dutch was essentially in the subject of a tug of war between [[RailroadBaron Leviticus Cornwall]], [[PinkertonDetective the Pinkertons]], [[TheIrishMob the O'Driscrolls]], [[FeudingFamilies the Grays, the Braithwraites]], TheMafia, [[RightWingMilitiaFanatic the Lemoyne Raiders]], and the local law enforcement, especially Saint Denis's and Blackwater's. They don't even care that much about the rest of the gang, they just want Dutch, with the Pinkertons at one time tried to make a deal with the gang's second in command, [[TheProtagonist Arthur Morgan]] to hand him over in exchange for the latter's freedom. Then later on he has the whole [[FBIAgent BOI]] (FBI's predecessor) on his ass once it's formed in 1903. It's almost like [[UpToEleven the BOI was formed]] ''[[UpToEleven just for Dutch]]''.

* Dutch van der Linde, a central character in both ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption'' and ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption2''. In 1899, Dutch was essentially in the subject of a tug of war between [[Main/RailroadBaron Leviticus Cornwall]], [[Main/PinkertonDetective the Pinkertons]], [[Main/TheIrishMob the O'Driscrolls]], [[Main/FeudingFamilies the Grays, the Braithwraites]], TheMafia, [[Main/RightWingMilitiaFanatic the Lemoyne Raiders]], and the local law enforcement, especially Saint Denis's and Blackwater's. They don't even care that much about the rest of the gang, they just want Dutch, with the Pinkertons at one time tried to make a deal with the gang's second in command, [[TheProtagonist Arthur Morgan]] to hand him over in exchange for the latter's freedom. Then later on he has the whole [[Main/FBIAgent BOI]] (FBI's predecessor) on his ass once it's formed in 1903. It's almost like [[Main/UpToEleven the BOI was formed]] ''[[Main/UpToEleven just for Dutch]]''.

* The ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short "Fresh Hare" has a "Wanted: Dead or Alive![[note]] Preferably dead![[/note]]" poster of Bugs Bunny that somebody[[note]] most likely Bugs himself[[/note]] drew a bunch of graffiti on.

There's a story about a character who's chased by numerous people without success. Usually is about a bad guy who commited some atrocious crime, or a dangerous thug/serial killer/drug dealer that escaped from jail and is now a fugitive, maybe some terrorist or simply a rapist or murderer that recently was discovered. Other times it's a good guy that was [[FrameUp accused of a crime he/she didn't commit]], was obligated to do something horrible (in both cases he/she fights to [[ClearMyName clear his/her name]]) and/or did something that angered the mob and/or gangs.

* In the first ''ComicBook/CivilWar'', when the govenment stated that metahumans should be registered or else being rogue and chased by the justice, ComicBook/CaptainAmerica decides to stand against what he considers a violation to superhuman laws and becomes the most wanted, overcoming almost all ComicBook/{{SHIELD}} and escaping, later becoming the leader of the superheroes that are against the law.

* ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'': Ragna the Bloodedge, the AntiHero of the story, is an SS rank criminal with the highest recorded bounty in the world. At least in the first game, this makes a number of vigilantes and military officials to look for him. In the fourth game, Kokonoe (high member of Sector Seven) reveals that she was ''once'' the criminal with the SS rank before she hacked into the government's database to delete the infos about her.

* The visual novel ''VisualNovel/MostWanted''. Different from the other entires, the protagonists are a LAPD Detective and a Texas Sheriff going for the BigBad, a notorious hitman wanted for the justice.

[[quoteright:350:[[UsefulNotes/JohnDillinger https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/most_wanted.png]]]]

* Vash the Stampede from ''Anime/{{Trigun}}'' is the Most Wanted Man in his planet Gunsmoke, known as "[[RedBaron The Humanoid Typhoon]]" for making great havok and destruction everytime he goes to a city, at the point of getting a PriceOnTheirHead with the ridiculous price of $$60,000,000,000.

* The ComicBook/IncredibleHulk usually becomes the most wanted, especially in his beginnings when he was an uncontrollable monster that only made havok and before he converted into a superhero by joining ComicBook/TheAvengers and other hero groups.

* In ''Film/ANewHope'', dr. Evazan brags to Luke about having the death sentence in 12 systems. ExpandedUniverse (both Legends and Canon) explains that he's a MadScientist who has committed a truly impressive and equally horrifying list of atrocities.
** The ''Legends'' handbook "The Bounty Hunter Code" explains that the Empire maintains an official Most Wanted list, which consists of a few hundred individuals who's bounties exceed 200,000 credits and have done a good enough job of avoiding capture that the Empire enlists bounty hunters. It's mostly rebel officers, but some have just managed to piss of the wrong people. There is also the Blacklist, which consists of similarily valuable bounties that were issued by private or criminal sources, rather than the Empire. Vader has been known to employ the blacklist for his side projects.

* ''Series/{{Justified}}'': Despite being a lawman himself, Raylan finds himself in this position in the season 3 episode "Watching the Detectives." After the criminals he's pursuing turn the tables and make it look like Raylan murdered his ex-wife's new husband, Raylan finds himself benched by the US Marshals Office of Internal Affairs, wanted by the FBI for corruption charges, being investigated by the US District Attorney for possible unjustified shootings in the line of duty, wanted for questioning about the murder by the local police, and also targeted by the very criminals he was pursuing when this whole thing kicked off. This is all while he's trying to clear his name despite orders to stay out of it.
* In season 5 of ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', Sam and Dean Winchester are wanted men from every angle. The angels are after them, wanting them to fulfill their destiny in the apocalypse. The demons and monsters want to kill them for being hunters. The FBI wants them for their suspected role in the death of an FBI agent and in connection with many crimes where their heroism looks like criminality. And their fellow hunters want to kill them for accidentally freeing the devil.
* As the title says, ''Series/{{Profugos}}'' (lit. Fugitives) is about a group of men who are involved in a failed drug operation that forcing them to escape from police and the rival drug sellers.

* Dutch van der Linde, a central character in both ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption'' and ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption2''. In 1899, Dutch was essentially in the subject of a tug of war between [[Main/RailroadBaron Leviticus Cornwall]], [[Main/PinkertonDetective the Pinkertons]], [[Main/TheIrishMob the O'Driscrolls]], [[Main/FeudingFamilies the Grays, the Braithwraites]], TheMafia, [[Main/RightWingMilitiaFanatic the Lemoyne Raiders]], and the local law enforcement, especially Saint Denis's and Blackwater's. They don't even care that much about the rest of the gang, they just want Dutch, with the Pinkertons at one time tried to make a deal with the gang's second in command, [[TheProtagonist Arthur Morgan]] to hand him over in exchange for the latter's freedom. Then later on he has the whole [[Main/FBIAgent BOI]] (FBI's predecessor) on his ass once it's formed in 1903. It's almost like [[Main/UpToEleven the BOI was formed]] ''[[Main/UpToEleven just for Dutch]]''.

** The Ope-Ope Fruit is stated several times to be the "ultimate Devil Fruit" thanks to its extreme versatility, miraculous medical applications, and [[ImmortalityInducer ability to grant eternal youth]] ([[EquivalentExchange at the cost of its user's life]]). When it was last up for sale thirteen years ago by the Barrels Pirates, it's estimated worth was at least 5 billion berries to the Marines. When combined with his own personal bounty (500 million) as of the Wano arc, this makes the current Ope-Ope holder, Trafalgar Law, as valuable and sought after as ''Gol D. Roger himself''. It's implied that though Corazon's death defined Law's future, Law himself had already lost any chance he had of living a normal life the moment he ate the Fruit.

** It's assumed the first "World's Most Wanted" went for Gol D. Roger, a dreadful pirate that stoled all the treasures of the world, revealed after his capture and before his execution that all the treasures were in one place, the "One Piece" and the location will die with him, starting the "pirate fever" that launches the story. Though Gol D. Roger may have been ''once'' the most wanted, being "Pirate King" and all, he's a PosthumousCharacter. Late in the series, Roger's bounty is revealed to have been the highest of any pirate in the world (5.5 billion), followed by the recently-deceased Whitebeard. Kaido holds the distinction of having the highest active bounty (4.6 billion) and thus the top of the World Government's hitlist.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/most_wanted.png]]

* UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror is basically the actual setup of present day. It all started with the World Trade Center's attack on September 11, 2001 with UsefulNotes/OsamaBinLaden as the World's Most Wanted Man, this has precedents in previous decades, like in TheNineties with the UsefulNotes/GulfWar and having UsefulNotes/SaddamHussein as the World's Most Wanted Man. After 9/11, all perpretors of crimes against US, like the same Bin Laden and later Hussein, were captured and executed, this was replicated to other dictators in Middle East in later years.

[[quoteright:300:[[Film/MuppetsMostWanted https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/iflorist_1.jpg]]]]

** It's assumed the first "World's Most Wanted" went for Gol D. Roger, a dreadful pirate that stoled all the treasures of the world, revealed after his capture and before his execution that all the treasures were in one place, the "One Piece" and the location will die with him, starting the "pirate fever" that launches the story. Though Gol D. Roger may have been ''once'' the most wanted, being "Pirate King" and all, he's a PosthumousCharacter so it's not touched upon much.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/most_wanted.png]]

''Wanted man in Baton Rouge''\\\

* ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}'' has the Enemy disadvantage. The highest level of Enemy has an entire nation come after you, which makes you more or less this trope.

->''Wanted man in Albuquerque''
->''Wanted man in Syracuse''
->''Wanted man in Tallahassee''
->''Wanted man in Baton Rouge''

->''There's somebody set to grab me''
->''Anywhere that I might be''
->''And wherever you might look tonight''
->''You might get a glimpse of me''

* ''WesternAnimation/SonicSatAM'': How Sonic is regarded by Robotnik's forces is is wrapped up in one line: ''Alert! Priority One: Hedgehog''. Any nearby bots drop whatever they're doing to pursue.

* TheWarOnTerror is basically the actual setup of present day. It all started with the World Trade Center's attack on September 11, 2001 with UsefulNotes/OsamaBinLaden as the World's Most Wanted Man, this has precedents in previous decades, like in TheNineties with the UsefulNotes/GulfWar and having UsefulNotes/SaddamHussein as the World's Most Wanted Man. After 9/11, all perpretors of crimes against US, like the same Bin Laden and later Hussein, were captured and executed, this was replicated to other dictators in Middle East in later years.

* TheWarOnTerror is basically the actual setup of present day. If well started with the World Trade Center's attack on September 11, 2001 with UsefulNotes/OsamaBinLaden as the World's Most Wanted Man, this has precedents in previous decades, like in TheNineties with the UsefulNotes/GulfWar and having UsefulNotes/SaddamHussein as the World's Most Wanted Man. After 9/11, all perpretors of crimes against US, like the same Bin Laden and later Hussein, were captured and executed, this was replicated to other dictators in Middle East in later years.

* The first arc of ''ComicBook/New52'' version of ''ComicBook/{{Grifter}}'' is about Cole Cash becoming the World's Most Wanted, this because his recent connections with the [[HumanDisguise Daemonites]] that can hear and see them in their true forms, making crash a plane full of Daemonites disguised as humans ready for an invasion. This was televised, showing him as a terrorist that killed everyone on the plane, being wanted by the cops, the army and even [[ComicBook/GreenArrow some]] [[ComicBook/{{Midnighter}} heroes]].

* ''Fanfic/ADiplomaticVisit'': The border station between Equestria and the Packlands maintains a board with a list of such beings, though for Twilight's visit, it's been cleared off so as not to offend her sensibilities. Twilight, on learning this, is more offended by the fact that they felt the need to do so, seeing as she's seen other such lists (including that maintained by the Royal Guard) before and wouldn't be upset by them.

* Dutch van der Linde, a central character in both ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption'' and ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption2''. In 1899, Dutch was essentially in the subject of a tug of war between [[Main/RailroadBaron Leviticus Cornwall]], [[Main/PinkertonDetective the Pinkertons]], [[Main/TheIrishMob the O'Driscrolls]], [[Main/FeudingFamilies the Grays, the Braithwraites]], TheMafia, [[Main/RightWingMilitiaFanatic the Lemoyne Raiders]], and the local law enforcement, especially Saint Denis's and Blackwater's. They don't even care that much about the rest of the gang, they just want Dutch, with the Pinkertons at one time tried to make a deal with the gang's second in command, [[TheProtagonist Arthur Morgan]] to hand him over in exchange for his freedom. Then later on he has the whole [[Main/FBIAgent BOI]] (FBI's predecessor) on his ass once it's formed in 1903. It's almost like [[Main/UpToEleven the BOI was formed]] ''[[Main/UpToEleven just for Dutch]]''.

* Dutch van der Linde, a central character in both ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption'' and ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption2''. In 1899, Dutch was essentially in the subject of a tug of war between [[Main/RailroadBaron Leviticus Cornwall]], [[Main/PinkertonDetective the Pinkertons]], [[Main/TheIrishMob the O'Driscrolls]], [[Main/FeudingFamilies the Grays, the Braithwraites]], TheMafia, [[Main/RightWingMilitiaFanatic the Lemoyne Raiders]], and the local law enforcement, especially Saint Denis's and Blackwater's. They don't even care that much about the rest of the gang, they just want Dutch, with the Pinkertons tried to make a deal with the gang's second in command, [[TheProtagonist Arthur Morgan]] to hand him over in exchange for his freedom. Then later on he has the whole [[Main/FBIAgent BOI]] (FBI's predecessor) on his ass once it's formed in 1903. It's almost like [[Main/UpToEleven the BOI was formed]] ''[[Main/UpToEleven just for Dutch]]''.