History Main / TrickAndFollowPloy

-->-- ''Franchise/StarWars: Episode IV -- Film/ANewHope''

* ''Anime/ElHazardTheMagnificentWorld'': This is how [[LaughablyEvil Jinnai]] uncovers the location of the Forbidden Isle, which was known to only the three priestesses of Mt. Moldune. Solution: get them to show him where it was.
** To elaborate: Jinnai spread word that he and his Buggrom forces had already discovered the island's location and were en route to unseal the Demon God: Ifurita; knowing full well they couldn't take the chance of him getting to her first. Which is why he had his communication network spy on Roshtaria and report back to him regularly. When they informed him that Makoto and entourege had departed for the island "as well", to stop him, he knew they'd [[SchmuckBait taken the bait.]] All he had to do was follow them there.

* This is exactly how the Blue Guardians found the Resistance's hideout in ''Manga/RaveMaster''.
* ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'': in an early episode, when the group is having trouble finding the Beastmen's home base, they get into a skirmish with some Beastmen, but one gets away. Kamina wants to go shoot it down, but Yoko points out that if it's retreating, they can follow it back to its base. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, it leads them into a trap instead.]]

* An example from ''ComicBook/SinCity'': While Hartigan is in solitary, he keeps getting letters from Nancy, but she never reveals who she is. One day, Hartigan gets a chopped off finger in the mail; thinking it's Nancy's, he agrees to be framed for Roark Jr's crimes just to be let out on parole. First thing he does is go to Nancy -- only to find out that Roark had been bluffing... and following him after he left prison.

* A BountyHunter does this with Film/{{Riddick}}'s alien-dog, shooting it with a tracker round so it will run to familiar ground, e.g. Riddick's cave lair. Turns out Riddick has anticipated this and is using the dog as a distraction so he can infiltrate their base while most of the bounty hunters are away.

* ''Film/TheStoneKiller'' (1973). The police know there's a mercenary training camp out in the Mojave desert somewhere, so they release one of the mercenaries they arrested earlier (ostensibly he's bailed out by the public defender thanks to the CowboyCop beating him up) and follow him via helicopter. DaChief mutters, "There goes my pension" after the CowboyCop talks him into it, as ''his'' superior makes it clear they'll both take the blame if it doesn't pan out.
* ''Film/BatmanTheMovie''. While carrying the Penguin in the Batmobile, Batman has car trouble and stops. The Penguin then gasses the Caped Crusaders and escapes in the Batmobile. Batman and Robin jump up (they had earlier taken Anti-Penguin Gas pills) and Batman reveals that [[TrickedIntoEscaping the whole situation had been a cunning plan to get the Penguin to escape]] and lead them to the United Underworld headquarters.
* Employed in ''Film/OnceUponATimeInTheWest'', where Jill tells Wobbles, a known lackey of resident thug leader Frank, to tell his boss that she "knows everything". She's deliberately vague about "everything" because, of course, she doesn't actually know the whole plan. That only comes after Wobbles runs to Frank, allowing Harmonica (and then Cheyenne) to follow him and discover his alliance with wealthy industrialist Morton.

* {{Literature/Sherlock Holmes}} uses a version of the ploy in his first story, "A Scandal in Bohemia". By getting himself brought into Irene Adler's rooms in disguise and setting an apparent fire, he discovers where she hid the blackmail photo. However, she realizes what happened and gets away with the photo before he can take it.

* ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'': In [[Recap/ArrestedDevelopmentS1E2TopBanana "Top Banana"]], Michael needs to find where George Sr. has hidden the company jet's flight records. Lucille says that the records are probably in a storage unit, but she denies knowing where the unit is. Michael later tells Lucille that auditors are coming to her penthouse to check for any luxury items bought with company money, then he follows Lucille's housekeeper when she's sent to hide Lucille's fur coats in the storage unit. Unfortunately, George Sr. already hired an arsonist to [[DestroyTheEvidence burn everything in the unit]] before Michael gets there.

* ''Series/BreakingBad'': In [[Recap/BreakingBadS5E13Tohajiilee Tohajiilee]], [[spoiler:Hank and Jesse devise one to find the location of Walt's money. First, they get a description of the container the money is stored in, and make a replica with fake money. Then, Jesse, pretending to act alone, taunts Walt with footage of him burning it. Walt, thinking Jesse found his money, drives to the site where he hid it to rescue it.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'':
** In the ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 1}}'', the Vault-dweller can buy water from merchants in the Hub for Vault 13, giving you 100 more days to find the Water Chip. However, their tracks lead the Super Mutant army there faster, giving you 100 fewer days to stop them. The former is a significantly shorter time limit (150 days) than the latter (500 days in the original release, ''13 years'' in version 1.1), [[TrapIsTheOnlyOption so you may want to do it anyway]].
** In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', Herbert "Daring" Dashwood ends up leading the slavers he escape from to Rockopolis.

* After overcoming all the temples in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'', it's revealed that Ganondorf allowed Link to move around freely so that [[spoiler:he would eventually discover Zelda's location. When the princess reveals herself to the hero, he swiftly captures her]].

* A rare heroic instance happens in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 5}}''. Ordering Joker of the Phantom Thieves to keep the phone going, and to record his call, Makoto Niijima approaches two goons suspected of working the yakuza drug trade and demands an audience with their boss. She gets it, with the Phantom Thieves showing up not long after[[spoiler:, and succeeds in landing them a three million yen debt via photographed blackmail; that said, given the Phantom Thieves' supernatural method of crimefighting, the boss lands himself in jail as a result of this sting. Junya Kaneshiro]] recognizes exactly what happened not long after the Thieves arrive.
--->[[spoiler:'''Kaneshiro''']]: Oh... I get it. ''You got followed, you dumb shits!''

* Franchise/DCAnimatedUniverse:

** In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'', Batman sets up a {{Mook}} into thinking that he killed Batman through dumb luck. It turns out, by the end of the episode, that the whole thing is an BatmanGambit on Batman's part to find Rupert Thorne's current hideout. He figured, correctly, that "the crook who killed Batman" would eventually become infamous enough that Thorne would grant him an audience. [[spoiler:A good example of how to properly do a gambit, as Batman had to go through a LOT of effort to keep this mook alive!]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Samurai Jack}}'': Aku disguises himself as a mysterious woman to trick Jack into leading him to a jewel across the desert that could send him back in time, so as to destroy it.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'': In [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsTheSiegeOfLothal "The Siege of Lothal"]], [[spoiler:Darth Vader has a tracking device planted on a shuttle he lets the ''Ghost'' crew steal, in order to track them back to the rebel fleet]].

** Likewise, had the mooks in ''Film/DrNo'' not confirmed they were on Crab Key by firing at Bond from a search boat and later unleashing the "Dragon," they might have been able to go through with their plans.

** This also [[FanWank excuses]] the [[ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy infamously lousy aim by stormtroopers]]. They were ordered to miss so that the Rebels would escape.

* In the [[AllThereInTheManual backstory]] of ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'', the UNSC has a specific protocol designed to avert this so no alien ship can find Earth. For instance, a badly battered ship could not go to Earth for safe haven without making a number of random Slipspace jumps in other directions first to throw any pursuers off the track, and if capture and boarding by the Covenant is imminent, then they are to self-destruct, saving only the shipboard AI if at all possible. In fact, the humans never do lead the Covenant to Earth. However, the Covenant stumble upon Earth anyways while searching for something else. [[spoiler:Because the humans had been spending the last decade or two fortifying their homeworld while the Covenant had come with a relatively minor force that expected a regular mining operation, they caught the Covenant unprepared. However, once the Covenant realized what they had found, it went badly for the humans.]]

* ''Literature/ChroniclesOfNarnia: Literature/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe'': Maugrim, the captain of the White Witch's secret police, ambushes Susan and Lucy in Aslan's campus with the help of his partner Vardan. After Peter kills Maugrim, Aslan tricks Vardan into his leading his troop to the Witch's hideout to rescue Edmund.
* In the Literature/ModestyBlaise story "The Giggle-Wrecker", the villains turn out to have been attempting this, setting up a situation where they figured Sir Gerald would have no choice but to activate one of his sleeper agents and in the process reveal their identity to Soviet intelligence. Sir Gerald, without knowing of the plan but instinctively reluctant to expose his sleeper agents if another way exists, puts a spoke in the plan by giving the job to Modesty and Willie instead.

* It's also a favored tactic of ComicBook/{{Batman}}, who will often intimidate thugs and send them running back to their bosses, following them right to them to deal with them personally.

'''Steward:''' Why?\\

-->'''Van Helsing:''' Gentlemen, we are in luck.\\
'''Steward:''' How so?\\

* In ''VideoGame/{{Desperados}}'', in order to locate the hidden lair of the gang lord Sanches, the heroes infiltrate his outpost and steal all the horses but one from it. One of the thugs goes back to the HQ for more, with the Desperados hot on his trail.

* In the [[AllThereInTheManual backstory]] of ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'', the UNSC has a specific protocol designed to avert this so no alien ship can find Earth. For instance, a badly battered ship could not go to Earth for safe haven without making a number of random Slipspace jumps in other directions first to throw any pursuers off the track. In fact, the humans never do lead the Covenant to Earth. However, the Covenant stumble upon Earth anyways while searching for something else. [[spoiler:Because the humans had been spending the last decade or two fortifying their homeworld, they caught the Covenant unprepared. However, once the Covenant realized what they had found, it went badly for the humans.]]

--> '''Ganondorf''': "[[spoiler:Princess Zelda]]...you foolish traitor! I commend you for avoiding my pursuit for seven long years. But you let your guard down...I knew you would appear if I let this kid wander around!"

* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'':
** ''VideoGame/JediOutcast'' has [[BigBad Desann]] needing the Valley of the Jedi for his plans. The only thing is, only one person alive in the entire galaxy knows where it is, Kyle Katarn, [[RetiredBadass a former Jedi who cut himself off from the Force]]. Desann [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown beats Kyle within an inch of his life]] and makes him think his LoveInterest is dead so Kyle will go to the Valley to reconnect himself to the Force. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero It works, and Desann now has an army of Force-users at his disposal.]]

* A rare heroic instance happens in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 5}}''. Ordering Joker of the Phantom Thieves to keep the phone going, and to record his call, Makoto Niijima approaches two goons suspected with working the yakuza drug trade and demands an audience with their boss. She gets it, with the Phantom Thieves showing up not long after[[spoiler:, and succeeds in landing them a three million yen debt via photographed blackmail; that said, given the Phantom Thieves' supernatural method of crimefighting, the boss lands himself in jail as a result of this sting]]. [[spoiler:Junya Kaneshiro]] recognizes exactly what happened not long after the Thieves arrive.

** In "Not A Very Civil Civil Servant", Bodie fights a couple of goons who've found a package of papers that implicate a CorruptCorporateExecutive in corruption. One of them grabs the package, jumps in his car and drives off past the car driven by Doyle who doesn't even try to block him off. Turns out it's AllAccordingToPlan because Cowley wants to follow the papers (which have been already been swapped for a decoy package) back to the executive as further evidence against him.

** In "Not A Very Civil Civil Servant", Bodie fights a couple of goons who've found a package of papers that implicate a CorruptCorporateExecutive in corruption. One of them grabs the package, jumps in his car and drives off past the car drive by Doyle who doesn't even try to block him off. Turns out it's AllAccordingToPlan because Cowley wants to follow the papers (which have been already been swapped) back to the executive to prove he's connected to them.

* ''Series/TheProfessionals''. In "Kickback", a ProfessionalKiller captured by [=CI5=] is being taken to prison, only to be freed by masked gunmen who give him the keys to a fast car and tell him to get the hell out of there. He turns up at the broker who hired him, full of praise for arranging his escape...only he knows nothing about it and [=CI5=] are about to kick down the door to arrest the next link in the chain.

** In "Brotherhood", Shaw captures a GiantMook whom she allows to escape in the hope he'll lead her to Dominic, the unseen leader of the Brotherhood. Instead, he leads her to a stash of heroin that she uses to bargain for the release of Reese. [[spoiler:It's revealed at the end of the episode that the mook ''is'' Dominic. He couldn't shake off Shaw's tail, so he led her to a lesser prize instead.]]
** In "6,741", [[spoiler:Samaritan lets Shaw go in order for her to lead them to the heroes' hideout. It's all virtual, so when she realizes she's playing into Samaritan's hands and kills herself, they can just reset the simulation and try again]].

* The Disney version of ''WesternAnimation/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame'' has [[spoiler:Quasimodo and Phoebus leading Frollo's forces to the Court of Miracles due to this. Frollo says he'll attack the Gypsies' hideout at dawn, which causes Quasimodo and Phoebus to find the Court of Miracles thanks to [[ChekhovsGun a necklace Esmerelda gave Quasimodo earlier]]]].

* A common ploy used by the NKVD and then by other Eastern European secret services was to pull in a suspect, give them basic interrogation, then after a short period, release them with an apology for having got the wrong person. The suspect would then be followed to see where they went and who else they spoke to, the reasoning being that any friend they spoke to would also be involved in anti-Soviet activity and the initial suspect was warning them. Quite a few arrests would then follow. A nasty variant was to "accidentally" leave the prisoner unattended and their means of leaving the detention centre open and unguarded. If the detainee took the bait, this was then taken as their having escaped from custody — not only proof of guilt, but an arrestable offense in itself.

*

* ''The Stone Killer'' (1973). The police know there's a mercenary training camp out in the Mojave desert somewhere, so they release one of the mercenaries they arrested earlier (ostensibly he's bailed out by the public defender thanks to the CowboyCop beating him up) and follow him via helicopter. DaChief mutters, "There goes my pension" after the CowboyCop talks him into it, as ''his'' superior makes it clear they'll both take the blame if it doesn't pan out.

* Employed in ''Film/OnceUponATimeInTheWest'', where Jill tells Waddles, a known lackey of resident thug leader Frank, to tell his boss that she "knows everything". She's deliberately vague about "everything" because, of course, she doesn't actually know the whole plan. That only comes after Waddles runs to Frank, allowing Harmonica (and then Cheyenne) to follow him and discover his alliance with wealthy industrialist Morton.