"If you were not my father, O ever-living Tisroc", said Rabadash, grinding his teeth, "I should say that was the word of a coward."
"And if you were not my son, O most inflammable Rabadash", replied his father, "your life would be short and your death slow when you had said it."
"And if you were not my son, O most inflammable Rabadash", replied his father, "your life would be short and your death slow when you had said it."
"Now's not the time for 'why'. I like this void. This evil, simple world. Just pain. Over and over again. No reason, no end, no in-between. You can't even pass out. We shut down everything that stands between you and blinding, searing pain."
— Bennett, Dollhouse
There were times when it went on and on until the cruel, wicked, unforgivable thing seemed to him not that the guards continued to beat him but that he could not force himself into losing consciousness. There were times his nerve so forsook him that he began shouting for mercy even before the beating began, when the mere sight of a fist drawn back for a blow was enough to make him pour forth a confession of real and imaginary crimes... Sometimes he was beaten till he could hardly stand, then flung like a sack of potatoes onto the stone floor of a cell, left to recuperate for a few hours, and then taken out and beaten again.
— George Orwell, describing Winston Smith being put through hell at the Ministry of Love, Nineteen Eighty-Four
What secrets are you plotting? Pain? Is that it? Is that all you have to offer me? Well, yes, it does open secrets. Some secrets, some mouths. What have you planned for me? Ah, I see. Well, if you must. I won't welcome it. What will it be? Eyes? Genitals? The gaps between my toes and fingers? First, you should know-
Nnnhhhhh!
Oh. Merciful-
Mhh. Quite the expert, your little man. Quite the expert. He's done this before, hasn't he? No, wait, I-Nhhhhghhh!
Beloved Terra! Ahh. Shit. Nhh. That little bastard. Let me finish, please! Let me finish what I was saying. Please? Yes?
All right, then. This won't work. This simply won't work. Because I'm telling you it won't.
I will not tell you anything. It doesn't matter what you do to me, really it doesn't. Burn me all you like, my mouth is shut.
Because that's all he asks of us. The only thing. I can tell you who I am, and who I was, but I can't — I won't — betray his confidence.
Gnnhhhhhhh!
Oh shit! Holy fire! Bastard!
Mhhhh...
What? What? Ask what you like. Burn me again, if you must.
My name is Hurtado Bronzi. That's all you're getting.
Nnnhhhhh!
Oh. Merciful-
Mhh. Quite the expert, your little man. Quite the expert. He's done this before, hasn't he? No, wait, I-Nhhhhghhh!
Beloved Terra! Ahh. Shit. Nhh. That little bastard. Let me finish, please! Let me finish what I was saying. Please? Yes?
All right, then. This won't work. This simply won't work. Because I'm telling you it won't.
I will not tell you anything. It doesn't matter what you do to me, really it doesn't. Burn me all you like, my mouth is shut.
Because that's all he asks of us. The only thing. I can tell you who I am, and who I was, but I can't — I won't — betray his confidence.
Gnnhhhhhhh!
Oh shit! Holy fire! Bastard!
Mhhhh...
What? What? Ask what you like. Burn me again, if you must.
My name is Hurtado Bronzi. That's all you're getting.
"I am somewhat proud of this. To be sure, the White Christ never suffered so long or so terribly as did this traitor. Three days on a tree, hardly enough time for a prelude. When it came to visiting agony, the Romans were hobbyists."
— Mab, referring to her work in The Dresden Files.
Cardinal Roark: Will that bring you satisfaction, my son? Killing a helpless, old, fart?
Marv: Killing? No. No satisfaction. Everything up until the killing will be a gas.
— Sin City
First Legionary: Ce qu'ils [deserteurs] meritent, c'est quoi? (What they [deserters] deserve, that's what?)
Second Legionary: La croix. (The cross)
Second Legionary: La croix. (The cross)
I need details, captain. Tell me everything about him. Shhhh. This will help you... remember.
— Hugo Strange, Batman: Arkham City
I'm sorry, Cowboy. They broke me.
— Chatter Telephone, Toy Story 3
"That night, I called him (read: Terashima) deliberately... like with all the persons who had a relationship with Oniisama... It's so interesting! Just by punishing them for one night and taking pictures, all of them got scared and became strange..."
— Sakurako Saiki, Sakura Gari.
"Torture has never been a reliable means of extracting information. It is ultimately self-defeating as a means of control, and so one wonders why it is still practiced. The only possible reason must be... pleasure."
— Capt. Jean-Luc Picard, Star Trek: The Next Generation, "Chain of Command, Part 2"
I have seen men butchered in battle, falling to their knees in a sea of corpses, screaming and clawing at red stumps. The sight of this dark place is worse.
— The Barbarian on the Halls of Agony, Mad King Leoric's torture chambers, Diablo III
"Listen, kid, I'm not gonna bullshit you, all right? I don't give a good fuck what you know, or don't know, but I'm gonna torture you anyway regardless. Not to get information. It's amusing to me, to torture a cop. You can say anything you want, 'cause I've heard it all before. All you can do is pray for a quick death... which you ain't gonna get."
— Mr. Blonde, Reservoir Dogs
"Now, let's play a game... Which body part do you need the least?"
"You're not going to die today. You're not going to die for quite a while."
— Cersei Lannister, Game of Thrones
"What now? Let me tell you what now. I'ma call a couple of hard, pipe-hittin' niggers who'll go to work on the homes here with a pair of pliers and a blowtorch. You hear me talking, hillbilly boy? I ain't through with you by a damn sight. I'ma get medieval on your ass."
— Marcellus Wallace, Pulp Fiction, about to punish his rapist Zed.
Reese: Can't hurt to ask him a few questions.
Stanton: Can't hurt us, anyway.
Stanton: Can't hurt us, anyway.
— Person of Interest, "RAM"
Torture angels by summoning various devices from the underworld, which were once used to hunt the witches. These devices are infested with curses of slain witches that will magnify the power to terminate the angels.
—Description of Torture Attacks from Bayonetta
I'M GONNA LOVE YOU TO BITS!!!!
— Moge-ko, Mogeko Castle
"Oh, I'm not gonna kill you. I'm just gonna hurt you really, really bad."
"They will tear you apart. Literally. They will torture you and they will enjoy it because of the pain and trouble you caused them. And because they are evil men."
— Bucket, Evolve companion story
"If your answers are slow, so will be your death."
— Vigoury, The Executioner #50: Brothers in Blood
"Torture is easy, on a superficial level. A man can watch himself being disemboweled and derive great horror from the experience, but it's still going on at a distance. It isn't taking place where he is. As you know all too well, dear Madeleine, a man lives inside his head; that's where the seed of his soul is. James and I were both present recently when a man was deprived of his eyes and the most astonishing thing happened, didn't you notice? He wasn't there anymore. He had gone even though he was still alive, so this brief moment between life and death, there was nobody inside his skull. Most odd."
— Franz Oberhauser/Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Spectre
That had led Desaad down the right track. For tortures of the mind can be even worse than tortures of the body, and Apokolips has mind-probers aplenty.
Pariah could not rise from his chair, held as he was by a stasis beam that paralyzed his lower body. Whatever he faced, he could not get up and walk away from it. Perhaps it would not have helped.
Desaad had clamped a helmet over his head. It transmitted images from his brain to a receiver, which the master torturer of Apokolips manipulated like an orchestra conductor. He picked and chose among the scenes of Pariah's life, helped along by a gauge which glowed more redly when it registered a pattern of fear in a certain remembrance.
The images were recorded and stored in the device's memory bank. Then Desaad began to fiddle with them, for he was an artist, and artists always reshape reality to their best intent. Some of the images were made more subtly frightening. Others were enlarged so as to knock down the viewer's mind with fear coming at him like a diesel train.
Pariah could not rise from his chair, held as he was by a stasis beam that paralyzed his lower body. Whatever he faced, he could not get up and walk away from it. Perhaps it would not have helped.
Desaad had clamped a helmet over his head. It transmitted images from his brain to a receiver, which the master torturer of Apokolips manipulated like an orchestra conductor. He picked and chose among the scenes of Pariah's life, helped along by a gauge which glowed more redly when it registered a pattern of fear in a certain remembrance.
The images were recorded and stored in the device's memory bank. Then Desaad began to fiddle with them, for he was an artist, and artists always reshape reality to their best intent. Some of the images were made more subtly frightening. Others were enlarged so as to knock down the viewer's mind with fear coming at him like a diesel train.
Cassie: Please, Reggie, I don't know anything!
Reggie Mead: You know, back in the trenches, we caught ourselves one of the Kaiser's boys. And would you believe it, the stupid little Hun didn't fancy talking. Strange thing was that once we started to put fags out on his back, we couldn't shut him up! Then we moved onto his eyes. Times change, and so do the tools... but the principles stay the same.
Reggie Mead: You know, back in the trenches, we caught ourselves one of the Kaiser's boys. And would you believe it, the stupid little Hun didn't fancy talking. Strange thing was that once we started to put fags out on his back, we couldn't shut him up! Then we moved onto his eyes. Times change, and so do the tools... but the principles stay the same.
"Maybe it would be faster if we increased the physical torture on her? Let's start off with electrocution. And then decrease the oxygen concentration in the room, and observe her reaction. Maybe we can also try changing the air pressure. If those fail, then let's chip her nails away, and her fingers... ah, right, maybe we can grind out her teeth too. The pain felt by the nervous system will be unbearable by then. A Spirit's body is much more resilient than a human... try feeding her poison. Ah, in that case, we should also give her tranquilizers. And then, yes, you're a virgin? How do you feel about your own chastity? The pain you will feel when we completely destroy and defile your dignity you have as a woman. In the long time you've spent in this world, have you had any friends or loved ones? If we were to kill a loved one in front of you, how would you feel? I would love to see one of them dying before your eyes to see the results."
— Isaac Westcott detailing some ugly plans for Touka, Date A Live
Once the target has been secured, the recruiting team goes to work with tools both physical and magickal. According to those rare escapees of this sort of recruiting, the techniques used are nothing short of abominable: fingers are chewed off and then forcibly regrown though perverse Life magick, only to be removed again; scuttling parasites are inserted into screaming victims, who are then forced to watch the creatures' progress. In one memorable case, a mage was immobilized as his own fingernails were made to grow at as a visible pace toward his eyes. Eventually, even the most hardened soul arrives at one of two states: he cracks and joins the Nephandi in order to make the torture end, or he dies.
— Mage: The Ascension - Storyteller's Handbook
Good. You're awake. It would be boorish to inquire how you obtained the late Bogeyman's invitation to our gathering. Let's talk about something else. You say you came to us to learn. Very well. We'll teach you. Teach you that it isn't the sex, isn't the power, isn't the cruelty. We are soldiers of darkness, Phillip, gladiators, warriors and gods. And we'll teach you. The Good Doctor likes to skin people alive. Nimrod is a hunter; he can bone, gut and joint any animal in minutes. For myself, I have a penchant for eyes. And you know what we're going to do now, Phillip? We're going to take turns.
— The Corinthian, The Sandman (1989), "Collectors"
Now, there's something I'd like you to do for me. I've a prisoner downstairs. I want you to find out who he is, who his benefactors are, and I want you to beat him until he can't stand up. I'll send Sam with you... I'll keep my eye on the camera feed. I so rarely get to watch another professional at work. Go now. Hey! Don't disappoint me.
— Hoyt Volker, Far Cry 3. That prisoner, by the way? Jason's younger brother, Riley. Hoyt's giving Jason a Sadistic Choice.
Abby Anderson: (having just blasted Joel's leg off with a shotgun) Joel Miller.
Joel Miller: Who are you?
Abby: Guess.
Joel: (beat) Why don't you say whatever speech you got rehearsed and get this over with.
Abby: (turning to Mel) Tourniquet his leg.
Mel: What!?
Abby: Do it.
Joel: (while Mel is applying a touniquet to his leg stump, in pain) GODDAMMIT!
Abby: (now brandishing a golf club) You stupid old man! You don't get to rush this. (hits Joel on the head with the golf club)
Joel Miller: Who are you?
Abby: Guess.
Joel: (beat) Why don't you say whatever speech you got rehearsed and get this over with.
Abby: (turning to Mel) Tourniquet his leg.
Mel: What!?
Abby: Do it.
Joel: (while Mel is applying a touniquet to his leg stump, in pain) GODDAMMIT!
Abby: (now brandishing a golf club) You stupid old man! You don't get to rush this. (hits Joel on the head with the golf club)
Majid Sadiq: Go to work on the other hand.
Secretary of Defense Lester Gollancz: Please! Please, STOP!
Sadiq: He will stop...when you want him to. Or, he will take those fingers. He will take your toes. HE WILL TAKE YOUR TEETH!
Gollancz: I'll give you what you want...!
Sadiq: ...You could have saved yourself a hand!
Secretary of Defense Lester Gollancz: Please! Please, STOP!
Sadiq: He will stop...when you want him to. Or, he will take those fingers. He will take your toes. HE WILL TAKE YOUR TEETH!
Gollancz: I'll give you what you want...!
Sadiq: ...You could have saved yourself a hand!
"Hoohoo... Feeling hopeless? I know all about QUILL's wittle scheme now! But, this is no interrogation... I just wanted to torment a cutie pie like you... It's kinda my hobby!! Ready, boy?! Scream lots and lots for me pleeease!"
— Romeo, Azure Striker Gunvolt
"It's so easy to create a victim, young lady, so easy. You lock someone in a dark room. They begin to suffer. You feed that suffering. Methodically, systematically and coldly. And make it last. Your subject goes through a number of states. After a while, their trauma, that small, easily opened crack, makes them see things that don't exist."
—The Mademoiselle, Martyrs
"You'd do better to tell us everything. But to make sure it happens, I brought along a few tools. Just things you pick up along the way. At first I won't be able to trust you, but after I use this, you'll own up to a few things. When we get to these we'll have developed a... how can I put this? A closer bond, much like brothers. You'll see. And when we get to this one, I'll believe anything you tell me."
— Captain Vidal, Pan's Labyrinth
Oliver Queen: You want me to torture this guy to find out where the bomb is?
Amanda Waller: I want you to find out where the bomb is. How you do so is of little interest to me.
Amanda Waller: I want you to find out where the bomb is. How you do so is of little interest to me.
— Arrow
"Thought I'd make it the whole way without screaming. Hacked my way through the sandboarding. Even bit my tongue when they brought out the knives. But the fire...dammit...I screamed like you wouldn't believe. I'm disappointed, but at least now I understand the breaking. Once my flesh started melting, I'd have thrown my own mother under a bus to make it stop. Every insurgent brought before me will know the same pain. And when they break, we will be like brothers. Having stared down death...and flinched."
— 33rd Battalion Soldier, Spec Ops: The Line
"My grounds: Where screams are flowers and pain their fragrance..."
— Grumenael, Dawn of War
Kay Brown: We woke up in that decrepit building. The rest of it is kinda hazy... I just remember he would set these like... really weird traps.
Mason Camdenburg: Hm? Elaborate if you could.
Kay: Well... I dunno. Like, he would set things up to taunt us. And they felt really personal too... Like my friend was scared of rats and, I guess he knew that somehow. Because in the beginning, he would feed us by leaving food around the building every few days. But he'd only put it in rooms with rats' nests.
Mason: That's...
Kay: Oh, and this one time, he put some key at the end of a hall filled with mouse traps. We got it eventually, but it didn't do anything... I don't know, it was... so strange.
Mason Camdenburg: Hm? Elaborate if you could.
Kay: Well... I dunno. Like, he would set things up to taunt us. And they felt really personal too... Like my friend was scared of rats and, I guess he knew that somehow. Because in the beginning, he would feed us by leaving food around the building every few days. But he'd only put it in rooms with rats' nests.
Mason: That's...
Kay: Oh, and this one time, he put some key at the end of a hall filled with mouse traps. We got it eventually, but it didn't do anything... I don't know, it was... so strange.
— Turtle Head: Unmasked
He knew what was going to be in the dark arches of the cell tunnels, but that didn't make it any better. Some people could walk, or maybe hop. One or two had just been beaten up, but not so badly that they couldn't hear what was going on just out of sight, and dwell on it. They cringed when the gates were opened, and whimpered when he touched them. No wonder Swing got his confessions.
And some were dead. Others were... Well, if they weren't dead, if they'd just gone somewhere in their heads, it was as sure as hell that there was nothing for them to come back to. The chair had broken them again and again. They were beyond the help of any man.
And some were dead. Others were... Well, if they weren't dead, if they'd just gone somewhere in their heads, it was as sure as hell that there was nothing for them to come back to. The chair had broken them again and again. They were beyond the help of any man.
V.V.: There is nothing you can do that will make me betray my brother.
Megatron: I wouldn't be so certain. Shockwave is quite adept at extracting information from his "patients"
Shockwave: Lord Megatron, the Cortical Psychic Patch was designed to be used for Cybertronians. It has never been tested on an organic specimen. It is highly unlikely he will survive the process.
Megatron: (to V.V.) Then it's a good thing he is immortal, wouldn't you agree, Victor? (turns to Shockwave) Feel free to use whatever methods you wish. Test as many times as you need to, Shockwave, and take as much time as you require. Kill him repeatedly if you have to, we'll at least learn the limits of his immortality.
Shockwave: As you wish, Lord Megatron.
— Code Prime, Island of Gods and Monsters
"Before I kill you, you must know... Triss Merigold is being dragged to the laboratories as we speak. Torture will follow. Everyone breaks sooner or later. It's merely a question of time. What say you, witcher? Still the indifferent tough guy?"
—Azar Javed, The Witcher
"You've spun your last web, Spider-Man! Had you not been so selfish, your little girlfriend's death would have been quick and painless, but now that you've really pissed me off, I'm gonna finish her...nice and slow. MJ and I, we're gonna have a hell of a time!"
—Green Goblin, Spider-Man
