"Cut to the chase."
— Hal Roach Sr, and many other directors who wanted to get to the dramatic part of silent films
A plot, or part of one, centered around characters pursuing one another.
A drawn out chase which forms an underlying theme for a series is a Stern Chase.
They Have the Scent! is common in short chases.
See also the subtrope Hunting the Most Dangerous Game.
Not to be confused with the game show of the same name, the game show with the same name and the $ in it, the film of the same name, or the fanfic of the same name, which features ponies.
Examples:
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Animation
- Lamput: Besides the overall plot of Lamput being chased by a pair of docs, the episode "Alien" has an alien take over the docs' car when the the three main characters enter its spaceship uninvited. The docs keep triggering buttons in the ship by accident, causing the UFO to shoot at the alien as it's driving.
Anime & Manga
- One happens in episode 2 of A Place Further than the Universe, when Shirase tries to run away with Kimari and Hinata from some older women going on the Antarctic expedition who have tried to tell her not to go before. At first Kimari isn't quite sure why they're running, but later admits that she had fun running around evading the two older ladies.
- The bulk of Eiga Tamagotchi: Himitsu no Otodoke Dai Sakusen!, the Tamagotchi series' Short Film meant to celebrate the franchise's 20th anniversary, is about Mametchi and co. being greeted by a vehicle with a claw arm that wants to steal a package they need to deliver to the Gotchi King, with Mametchi's group doing all they can to protect the package they are assigned to deliver and get the strange car off their tail.
Comic Books
- Cossacks: After deserting, 17th century protagonist Karlis (a Lithuanian Hussar) is chased by his commander Sigismond and former comrades who want to kill him for doing this. Once they're exhausted of chasing him and camp for the night, Karlis sneaks in and releases their horses to give himself a chance of significantly outdistance them. Then he bumps into a Ukrainian Cossack settlement and goes native.
Comic Strips
- Dick Tracy has this as a major element in his stories as the police detective relentlessly chases a particular villain who gets more and more desperate as he realizes to his terror that this cop will not stop.
Fan Works
- Hetalia: Axis Powers fanfic Gankona, Unnachgiebig, Unità
: An...interesting...one occurs because Italy did not want to tell who he liked to Germany and Japan and only would give details once he was caught. Let's just say he did not make it easy.
Italy: "Oh come on!" The interrogated groaned, frustrated. Once again, how uncharacteristic. He finally gave in. "Fine." Two faces brightened. "I'll give you a hint as to who they are..." He suddenly turned, dust flying as he ran off. "You'll have to catch me first!" As he disappeared into the horizon, a second shout rang out. "Oh yeah! You can't use nets, ropes, snares, whips, other people, motor vehicles, drones, robots, traps, animals, plants, mythical creatures, and anything besides just catching me in your arms! You only have an hour!" Did he have to list that many things? On second thought... probably.
Films — Animation
- Most of the Wallace & Gromit features end with a particularly spectacular chase. "The Wrong Trousers" is notable for having a chase sequence which occurs entirely indoors.
Films — Live-Action
- Raising Arizona has a chase scene that starts in a store, on foot, moves outside, goes though an unsuspecting bystander's house, outside again, and finally in a car. Also, there are dogs involved.
- The Terminator has a spectacular chase with both the victim and the Terminator breaking both of their legs and crawling the last stretch of it.
- Mad Max: Fury Road is basically a two-hour long chase scene with a few breaks here and there, set off by Furiosa rescuing Immortan Joe's Wives, and Joe going out with his entire army and two allies to get them back.
- Beware the Woods: When Josh manages to free June from the old lady, she chases them through the woods.
- Main Street Meats: Neddy kills his third victim after chasing him through the woods, which happened because he saw him kill the Granola Girl he was helping find a burial plot for her pet.
- Playing With Dolls: The movie has a chase scene at the start, where the killer is chasing a woman through a snowy field.
Literature
- Honored Enemy of The Riftwar Cycle in which soldiers on the opposing sides of a war band together to escape the dark elves chasing after them to kill them for a variety of reasons.
- In Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian story "Black Colossus", after his defeat, Natohk abducts Yasmela. Conan chases after them.
- In "The Gods Of The North", an obviously magical woman lures Conan into a chase that brings him to her giant brothers. When he kills them, he chases her again — this time, she is seriously frightened.
- In Poul Anderson's A Midsummer Tempest, chasing the escaped Rupert is half the book.
- The Time Scout series is full of these, starting with the second book. Mostly they involve Skeeter Jackson.
- In Andre Norton's Ice Crown, Imfray's rescuers have duocorns waiting — which then charge off without them, because Imfray is too weak to move; the false trail leads them off.
- The Lion of Farside is mostly about one character chasing after his kidnapped wife, though the story follows the wife herself for quite a bit of time as well.
Live-Action TV
- The William Hartnell Doctor Who episode "The Chase", in which the Daleks first develop time travel and chase him and his companions all through time and space.
- The vast majority of episodes of Running Man will have games where the main cast and special guests chase or be chased (sometimes both), usually within a building but sometimes even across Seoul. The ones being chased will frequently be trying to accomplish some other objective before they get caught.
- The entire plot line of The Fugitive centred around the protagonist pursuing the 'one-armed man' who framed him for his wife's murder, as well as the police detective determined to bring the protagonist to justice.
Theme Parks
- At Universal Studios:
- The main plot of both Back to the Future: The Ride and Jimmy Neutron's Nicktoon Blast involve chasing after the villain through different locations after they just stole an important invention from the main protagonist.
- The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera has Yogi Bear and Boo-Boo pursuing Dick Dastardly and Muttley through various worlds in order to rescue Elroy Jetson.
Video Games
- Blood Breed: One section of the game has you being chased down a hallway lined with Spikes of Doom and gigantic exposed circular saw blades by a killer.
- Bram The Toymaker: At the end of the game, you get chased throughout the basement by the titular toymaker as the walls shift around. You need to collect the key to the front door while you're there.
- Burger & Frights has two examples.
- The first one has you being chased down a bridge by a monster version of the car you see on the road sometimes.
- The second has you being chased through a tunnel by a giant version of the bloody girl while having to avoid other cyclists, and afterwards, you enter a narrower tunnel and are chased by the car again. Only this time, there's arms reaching out of the tunnel walls towards you. They will slow you down if you touch them.
- Slide in the Woods: After lowering the large sack into the pit at the top of the pyramid, you're chased through a long, cramped tunnel by some humanoid monster.
Web Comics
- Snuggleninja is always chasing the butterfly.
- In Sinfest, after Death realizes the zombie's a fugitive, the chase is on.
- Also, annually, Death has to chase down the year, who always tries to make a break for it.
- In Red's Planet, after Red gives some food to an alien, it brings a whole stampede of friends. Red and her companion ''run''.
- Tower of God: Bam really just wants to see Rachel again.
- Champions of Far'aus: In story chapter #1, Daryl and Skye need to get a mystery item from members of Sarengals cult, and this eventually turns into a carriage chase through a rocky mountain pass.
Western Animation
- The entire plot of the Danny Phantom episode "Reality Trip". The Guys in White constantly pursue Danny and friends after Danny accidentally exposed his half ghost power to the public.
- The episode "The Chase" of Avatar: The Last Airbender stands out among numerous episodes dealing with the Fire Nation's pursuit of the heroes.
- SpongeBob SquarePants: The plot of "Dream Hoppers" involves SpongeBob (and later Patrick) chasing a Krabby Patty that SpongeBob was attempting to deliver through other people's dreams.
- There is an obscure animation named (approximately) "The Little and the Big" which consists out of nothing but the Big chasing the Little, encountering every painful mishap ever invented for the Big, plus some creative new ones (Escher geometry is not your friend). The film finally ends with two rockets (Little enters and escapes...Big enters and closes the door which has a big "H" painted on, as in "Hydrogen nuke"...Kaboom.
