Something dangerous is going down. Maybe your arch-nemesis has gotten the upper hand on your group of True Companions. Maybe the dead have decided to rise. Maybe a disaster like a fire or a Super-Persistent Predator is coming your way. Whatever the reason, you need to beat a retreat posthaste. But there's a problem — your traveling companion. Perhaps they're too furious at the threat to run. Perhaps they're too petrified to move. Maybe they would run, but they're smaller or more injured and couldn't keep up with you. They may even be unconscious. So you do the only thing you can — you grab them and carry them with you.
This can happen with any number of different characters — a pair of Heterosexual or Platonic Life-Partners, a hero and their Love Interest, an adult hero and a Kid Hero — and involve any method of carrying. In cases where the "rescuee" wants to stay and fight, this might involve Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like. If the rescuee is simply asking too many questions, it might overlap with Don't Ask, Just Run. This is a good way to make sure No One Gets Left Behind. If the "danger" is the upcoming ground, it's probably Catch a Falling Star.
Contrast with Relocating the Explosion, in which the hero moves the crisis rather than the victim.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Appleseed. Deunan Knute's cyborg partner Briareos will grab her and run when they need to outrun or leap away from an explosion.
- Bleach:
- Anime episode #43. Uryu Ishida and Orihime Inoue meet the Soul Reaper Makizo Aramaki, who realizes that they are intruders in the Soul Society. When Captain Mayuri Kurotsuchi arrives and threatens Uryu and Orihime, Uryu orders Aramaki to get Orihime to safety or be shot by one of Uryu's arrows. Orihime refuses and wants to stay and fight, but Aramaki grabs her and takes her away.
- Anime episode #54. After rescuing Rukia Kuchiki from execution, Ichigo Kurosaki throws her to Renji Abarai and tells him to protect her. Renji turns and runs away from the assembled Soul Reaper captains, carrying Rukia with him.
- Sword Art Online: Sinon gets ambushed and paralysed by Death Gun who is about to shoot her dead. Kirito then throws a smoke screen grenade to get rid of Death Gun, before he swoops in and carries Sinon away and escaping on a quadbike.
- Sk8 the Infinity: As Reki and Langa are being chased by a monster-looking assailant on a skateboard while riding for their lives away from it and its companions on their skateboards, the assailant suddenly starts stabbing at Reki's leg, causing him to start tripping and falling to his death as he's still skating at Langa's side at high speed - but right before Reki dies, Langa catches him. As he pulls Reki back up toward him, Reki exclaims, "Langa, you saved me!" and Langa smiles gently in response.
- In one episode of Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V, Masumi falls from a bridge and is caught then carried safely to the ground by Yuzu's monster.
Comic Books
- DuckTales: In more than one comic, Launchpad picks Scrooge up and runs away with him when the situation gets too dangerous, often when his boss would be too stubborn to do so.
- Robin (1993): Tim Drake swings by and grabs Officer Harper to carry her away from an eminent explosion. He ends up badly burned and is horrified when Harper yells "What about the kids?" as he realizes there are kids in the car right next to the bomb that he couldn't see and now has no time to try and save. Both children die.
- In crossover storyline "Escape from the Phantom Zone", Supergirl and Batgirl must sneak out of a prison before being spotted by security. However, Kara is unable to stand upright after getting struck by a psychic attack, so Barbara grabs her and takes her away to safety.
- Supergirl storyline "Supergirl's Big Brother": When Supergirl is lying unconscious on the ocean floor due to Kryptonite poisoning, Biff Rigger carries her in his arms back to the surface.
Films — Animation
- In The Lion King (1994), Mufasa picks up Simba and carries him to an outcropping above the stampede. Unfortunately, then he's rushed away by the wildebeest, and then things get worse.
- Mulan: When she and the others arrive to stop the Huns, Mulan yells to Chien Po to take the Emperor to safety. Chien Po apologizes to the Emperor for what he'll have to do, picks him up under one arm, and uses a lantern line to get both of them safely out of Shan Yu's reach.
- Robin Hood (1973): While he and Little John are breaking everyone out of jail and trying to make a getaway for Sherwood Forest, Robin notices a rabbit child trying to catch up to them with guards close behind. He runs back to get her, but the gate is lowered before he can get out, so he slips her to Little John through the bars before attempting to escape.
- In Toy Story 3, Spanish Buzz swings Jessie into his arms and runs with her during the conveyor belt scene. It's just one of the many instances of Ship Tease they receive in the movie.
- In the climax of Wreck-It Ralph, Ralph grabs Vanellope and carries her with him as he tries to escape Sugar Rush. The problem is, Vanellope is glitched and she can't leave the game, so as hard as Ralph tries, he can't take her to safety.
- Monsters vs. Aliens. Played for laughs when the girl carries the boy to safety when fleeing the invading alien, in a gender inversion of the Bridal Carry.
- The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh: Christopher Robin quickly turns back to grab Pooh, who's gotten stuck on the other side of a log during a bee attack.
Films — Live-Action
- A Quiet Place: When the grief-stricken old man starts screaming (which will attract the monsters), Lee snatches his son and runs off with him in his arms.
- Interstellar. A Giant Wall of Watery Doom is bearing down on the protagonists, and Amelia Brand is trapped under some wreckage. As it's a heavy gravity planet and they can't move fast through water while wearing spacesuits, the robot CASE is told to get her. Despite looking like an ungainly slab, CASE suddenly splits into multiple arms and legs so it can cartwheel towards Amelia, pick her up and carry her to the shuttle.
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers: A case where the danger is a little slower and much less obvious; when he fails to raise Elizabeth on the phone after discovering Jack's pod body, Matthew breaks into her room and bridal carries her to his car to get her away from the pod trying to Kill and Replace her.
- Jaws: On the Fourth of July, Chief Brody's son Michael and his friends are boating in the estuary when the shark attacks. Michael goes into shock and his friends have to pull him out of the water.
- Space Jam: A New Legacy: When Al-G arrives on Toon World and begins transforming it to 3-D, Tweety freezes from shock, even as a mailbox falls towards him. Speedy Gonzales races towards him and grabs him out of the way just in time.
Literature
- In The Hobbit, while escaping through the Goblin tunnels, Bilbo has trouble keeping up, so each of the dwarves take turns on carrying him.
- In the Bill Peet book Zella Zack And Zodiac, Zella's colt Zodiac has oversized hooves that keep him from moving fast. His adoptive brother Zack keeps a guard over him and is ready to snatch him up by whatever body part he can reach and carry him away from a predator if necessary.
Live-Action TV
- Doctor Who: The Fifth Doctor carries Peri in his arms to escape to the TARDIS when the caves of Androzani was about to blow up.
- In the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The Apple", Kirk picks up Spock after he's been struck by lightning and carries him on his shoulders until he finds Dr. McCoy to take a look at the second-degree burns Spock received.
- Voyagers!: In the opening and at the end of the first episode, Bogg picks up Jeff and runs away with him when the situation in the part of the time stream they jump into gets very dangerous very fast.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Buffy carries her little sister Dawn to safety this way when confronted by Glory, a Physical God she isn't strong enough to fight.
Video Games
- Sonic the Hedgehog CD: Sonic carries Amy through Robotnik/Eggman's exploding fortress during the beginning of both endings.
- In XCOM 2 you can evacuate unconscious or critically injured soldiers by having a healthy soldier carry them to the Skyranger.
Web Animation
- My Little Pony: Equestria Girls Digital Series: When Micro Chips is threatened by his rogue robot in "Cheer You On", he is Bridal Carried to safety by, of all people, the usually nonathletic Fluttershy.
Web Comics
- Batman: Wayne Family Adventures: In "Mask Off", the Bat-Family is trying to evacuate a building under bomb threat. All of the Bat-kids escort one of the hostages to make sure they get out safely. Signal takes the direct approach and just picks up the little old lady he's assigned.
- Josh And Imp: What precisely happened remains a mystery, but Imp meeting Josh somehow involved him using a fire device to knock out two guys, untying her, and running her away from the scene.
- Stand Still, Stay Silent: In Chapter 9, the initial plan to keep a noise and motion sensitive Plague Zombie from attacking a non-immune member of the group is to escort him to the group's vehicle while moving slowly and making as little noise as possible. When this turns out to not be enough to prevent an attack, the plan switches to simply getting the escortee to safety as fast a possible. The escortee ends up getting more or less dragged to the safe spot by one of his guards due to being distracted by the fact that he dropped the Team Pet he was holding during the attack.
- Unsounded: When Murkoph attacks Duane and Sette in the khert Duane picks Sette up and runs, though his mind isn't clear and he's not sure which kid he's protecting from which danger.
Web Videos
- Critical Role (Campaign 1) has one battle end with Kima and Tiberius turned to stone and Vax unconscious and inches from death after being caught in lava. Getting the three out of the collapsing fortress (now quickly filling with molten rock) is a battle in and of itself.
Western Animation
- Captain Planet and the Planeteers: Played with in the episode "Hate Canal"; when Ma-Ti collapses after being bitten by a mutated rat, Wheeler picks him up to carry him to the hospital, which is when Skumm chooses to sic a horde of rats on them. Wheeler continues carrying Ma-Ti throughout the escape, up until they reach the relative safety of the catacombs and he needs to use his ring to light up the passages. He hands his "little buddy" off to Kwame, who proceeds to carry Ma-Ti the rest of the way.
- Code Lyoko's heroes do this to each other in a fashion, mostly to Aelita. In "Uncharted Territory," after they get her out of the Scyphozoa's clutches and she starts to fall, Ulrich Super Sprints and grabs her, carrying her back to where their friends are.
- DuckTales:
- "Hero for Hire": The Beagle Boys, while attempting to keep Launchpad and Doofus from getting away, stun themselves with one of their own weapons. Launchpad quickly picks up Doofus and bolts to the car.
- "Super DuckTales": Gizmoduck tells Scrooge and Launchpad to get back to the ship and take off; he'll fight the robot aliens and meet up with them later with Scrooge's Money Bin. Scrooge refuses to leave without his money, so Launchpad grabs him and runs.
- In the Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes episode "Out of Time", Susan sees Dr. Doom retgone Reed and charges him furiously. Ben is forced to pick her up under his arm and retreat.
- Bender does this in Futurama when Fry refuses to be rescued from a burning building.
Bender: I don't have time for this shazbot! (tosses Fry over his shoulder)
- House of Mouse: In the short "Donald's Halloween Scare", Donald does a Wild Take in which his ghost flies out of him and runs away. Donald is too scared to move, so his ghost grabs him.
- Pinky and the Brain: In "This Old Mouse", Pinky arrives to warn Brain he saw a vision of him being killed by an avalanche, but Brain refuses to try to escape, claiming the future can't be changed. Eventually, Pinky just slings him over his shoulder and climbs a tree.
- Scooby-Doo:
- In an episode of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, Scooby and Shaggy race away upon seeing the Monster of the Week, However, Scooby then returns to pick up the chick that's been following them around.
- A Running Gag involving Scrappy Doo: he would always try to fight the Monster of the Week only for Scooby or Shaggy to pick him up in the midst of their escape.
- In the What's New, Scooby-Doo? episode "Block Long Hong Kong Terror", when the dragon bursts through a warehouse wall while they're investigating, Fred slings Daphne over one shoulder and Velma under the opposite arm and runs for it.
- The Simpsons: In "Last Exit To Springfield" Burns and Smithers, who are running the plant themselves due to a worker strike, decide to employ "100% loyal" robot workers to help them. Instead, they turn on them immediately and Smithers is seen carrying a frightened Burns to safety.
- Star Wars Rebels: Kanan slings a weakened Ezra (who had just exhausted himself tapping into the Dark Side to summon a huge monster) over his shoulder and books it for their ship as the Grand Inquisitor closes in.
- In the Superman: The Animated Series episode "Feeding Time", after momentarily distracting Parasite, Superman picks up the partially drained Jimmy Olsen and runs him out to other people nearby. He tells them to get out while he stays to confront Parasite.
- Occasionally in Trollhunters, massive troll Aaarrgghh will grab his human friends and put them on his back while fleeing from danger.
