Get It Over With

"Inigo Montoya: Kill me quickly.

Man in Black: I would as soon destroy a stained glass window as an artist like yourself. However, since I can't have you following me either...

[ knocks him out]"

- The Princess Bride

You face certain death. Perhaps you're gravely wounded, perhaps you have no reinforcements, perhaps you face overwhelming force. Except that the killer is just standing there, waiting for his moment. Waiting for an unreasonably long time.

Defiant to the End, you shout at him to Get It Over With. You tell him to be done with it. You demand to know what he is waiting for. You accuse him of having Come to Gawk. Etc.

Rather frequently, here is where you learn that you will live -- because of your enemy's honor, because you are needed, because you were mistaken about who was your enemy, because of the way you were lied to about this character. (Or perhaps they know that you'd rather die than suffer the humiliation of having to live with the loss.) On other occasions, Famous Last Words, but at least you died game. (In which case, it is an unusual subtrope of Last Request.)

Can be a form of Shut UP, Hannibal. In which case, it may give the hero an opening to reverse tables -- partly because it's commonly the most egoistical villains that inspire it. Compare Sword Over Head. Contrast You Will Be Spared.

May overlap with Kill Me Now or Forever Stay Your Hand. If someone else asks, it's Kill Him Already; if someone else orders, Finish Him!. See also Get On With It Already and Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him. Contrast Face Death with Dignity, Scheherezade Gambit, Strike Me Down with All of Your Hatred.

Anime & Manga
"If you're so tough get it over with. Stop wasting my time."
 * Just kill us if you're going to. Just spare us the sound of your voice. Oh, Hiei...
 * In Naruto, during the preliminary fights of the Chunin exams, Shikamaru say this to Kin:

"I lost to you again! This is a shame I cannot endure. End my life... please."
 * In Robotech, Miriya, after Max knocks away her knife with a rock:


 * In Mobile Suit Gundam The 08th MS Team, Capt. Packard manages to fry Shiro's cameras, blinding him in the middle of combat. As Shiro fumbles around for a spare circuit to repair the camera, his Gundam shakes violently. When nothing actually happens, he screams "Just finish me already!", believing that Packard is playing with him before killing him. He's not, he's actually using Shiro's Gundam as a shield against the rest of the 08th Team, who have just arrived to help.

Comic Books
"What are you waiting for? Do it. DO IT!"
 * Watchmen: does die after it, although in this case, he actually had to convince his killer that he couldn't be reasoned with.


 * Elf Quest #1, spoken by Redlance when he's about to be sacrificed by humans.
 * In Deathstroke, a young assassin named Janissary came after Deathstroke. The fight ended with Janissary's hanging by one hand from a bridge with Deathstroke standing over him and telling Deathstroke to end it. Deathstroke retorts that if J wants him to kill him, J will have to hire him.
 * Marv from Sin City, as described below in film.
 * Rose Walker from The Sandman; to make a long story short she is a vortex of the Dreaming and it is within Morpheus' obligations to kill her, and after apologizing for the nth time she just tells him to shut up and do it. Played straight in that her grandmother, the original vortex, appears to take her place.
 * Exeter says this to Ethan in Scion after one fight of theirs goes badly for him, but Ethan spares his life.
 * SS officer Hoepper in 30 Days of Night: Red Snow. In a Crowning Moment of Awesome,
 * The titular character in Lobster Random does this. On the first panel he appears in.

Film
"Groucho: (to a gangster who has just walked in on Groucho making googly-eyes at his girl) Well, if you're going to kill me, hurry up; I have to take my tonic at 2."
 * At the end of Zulu, after a full day of desperate fighting, the Zulu have gathered on the surrounding hills, chanting. Whats-his-name gets sick of their apparent taunting and shouts for them to just attack already, what are they waiting for? Whereupon their Boer guide explains that that is actually a salute, for their courage... and everyone breaks down laughing with relief.
 * Variation in Predator. After being tracked down by the Predator, Dutch repeatedly says "Come on!", "Do it!", "I'm here!" and "Kill me!" to it in an attempt to get it to walk into a Booby Trap.
 * Marv in Sin City, at his own execution: "Would you hurry it up? I haven't got all night."
 * The Princess Bride, Inigo. See page quote. The villains are slightly less eager to die.
 * Played for comedy in the Marx Brothers movie Monkey Business.

"Pike: You boys want to move on or stay here and give him a... decent burial?
 * During the so-called "climax" of Shrek 3, Shrek asks Charming to kill him first and then sing, much to the amusement of Charming's captive audience.
 * Variation in Darkman: "If you're not going to kill me I have things to do."
 * In The Wild Bunch, they are riding away, and one of the wounded Bunch (who was shot in the face) pleads with Pike to "Please...just ki--" (Pike shoots him before he even says it.) Which cues the following exchange:

Tector: He was a good man, and I think we oughta bury him.

Pike: He's dead! And he's got a lot of good men back there to keep him company!

Lyle: Too damn many!

Dutch: [removes his hat] I think the boys are right. I'd like to say a few words for the dear, dead departed. And maybe a few hymns'd be in order. Followed by a church supper. With a choir!

Lyle: You crazy bastards! Both of ya!"

"Joe:Shoot, Rico, get it over with."
 * In Little Caesar, when Rico attempts to force Joe to return:

"Max Winters: If you're going to kill me, could you make it quick? I have a shareholders' meeting in ten minutes that I'd really rather miss."
 * Probably the best moment in the 2007 TMNT movie, when Karai and The Foot Clan sneak into the office of a big businessman, Winters, voiced by Patrick Stewart.

"Guard: "Get on with it and be on your way.""
 * In Terminator Salvation, when it seems the T-800 is about to kill John Connor, he defiantly yells at it, "Do it! You son of a bitch!"
 * Downplayed in the original The Last House on the Left, due to the victim in question saying it only once whilst actively trying to put obstacles and distance between himself and his attacker.
 * In the film Patriot Games, as the Irish terrorists rescue their leader and prepare to execute the guards who were escorting him to prison, the leader asks one of the guards if he has anything to say.

Literature
"Johnnie found that tears were streaming down his face and that he could not stop them. "Go ahead!" he cried, his voice misbehaving. "Get it over with! He never meant any harm! So kill him quickly. . don't play cat-and-mouse with him." He broke down and sobbed, covering his face with his hands. [snip]
 * In Graham McNeill's Warhammer 40000 Ultramarines novel The Killing Ground, in their third ordeal, Leodegarius defeats Uriel and Pasanius, knocking Pasanius unconscious and leaving Uriel unable to rise. Uriel, angry that this man, who should have fought beside them, is going to kill them, tells him to get it over with.
 * Robert Heinlein's The Star Beast. Johnny's alien pet Lummox has been sentenced to death. Johnny helps Lummox escape, but they're hunted down and trapped. One of the pursuers approaches them.

The officer looked distressed. "What are you talking about, son? We aren't here to hurt him. We have orders to bring him in without a scratch on him - even if we lost men in the process. Craziest orders I ever had to carry out.""

""Do you mean to make me beg, bitch? Do it!""
 * In Rick Riordan's The Last Olympian, Percy interrupts a (divine!) quarrel to tell them that if they mean to kill him, they should get on with it.
 * In Dan Abnett's Warhammer 40000 novel Titanicus, when cornered by a skitarii, one of Cally Samstag's soldiers says to Get It Over With. The skitarii, startled, says it had just sent for help -- and then asks whether they took it for an enemy.
 * In Simon Spurrier's Night Lords novel Lord of the Night, when the Inquisitor summons Mita -- for execution or mind-wipe, she assumes -- she tells him during the meeting to do it and get it over with.
 * In the Backstory, when the Night Haunter's assassin hesitated, he told her "Now do your job and be done with it."
 * A famous quote from Polish novel The Deluge, when Anti-Hero Andrzej Kmicic faces Knight in Shining Armor Michal Wolodyjowski - the "small knight" and a master fencer. The latter easily hits the first a couple of times, and Kmicic asks to end this and spare him the humiliation.
 * In Jim Butcher's Dresden Files novel Small Favor, when Harry defeats the gruff at, it tells him to finish it. Twice. Whereupon Harry says he does not kill unless necessary, much to the shock of the gruff, who had assumed he was actually in Winter Court.
 * In Turn Coat, Harry pulls this on the skin-walker, shocking it.
 * In Stephen Hunt's The Kingdom Beyond the Waves, says this not about death but being assimilated into the Daggish.
 * In George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire novel A Clash of Kings, Jon Snow prepares to kill the captured wildling Ygritte, which he is reluctant to do both on account of her gender and that she had surrendered. For her part, she faces death with equanimity, although it's plain she'd rather not die. Finally she tells him to hurry because she "can't stay brave forever." That's when he tells her to go.
 * Another examples occurs in A Storm of Swords:

""Let the pain stop... let him kill us... end it, Dumbledore... death is nothing compared to this...""
 * From Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix, when Harry is being possessed by Voldemort, it is described as pain beyond pain:

""What am I to do?" said John.
 * In Dan Abnett's Gaunt's Ghosts novel First & Only, Flense threatens to shoot Dorden, whom he is holding hostage, if Gaunt mocks him. Dorden tells Gaunt to mock on, so he can be shot rather than listen to Flense's "garbage."
 * Death isn't involved, but in Dark Force Rising, after they meet with Senator Garm Bel Iblis, a man Lando Calrissian is suspicious of and Han Solo admires, Lando asks "You want to go ahead and and get it over with?" "Get what over with?" "Chewing me out for not bowing and scraping in front of your pal the Senator. Do it and get it over with, because we have to talk."
 * In the Star Wars: Tales of the Bounty Hunters Anthology, there's a story about how Boba Fett escaped the Sarlacc. The Sarlacc, as the story reveals, is more or less sentient, sort of having the mind of its first victim, and preserves its victims for millennia, getting it to tell them their life stories and forcing them to relive the memories of others while being kept immobile and dissolving; it keeps them even after death. Fett, hearing this, demands to know why it doesn't just kill these people, is told/shown an old joke. It's about a farmer with a meat animal that has one leg missing, that apparently can sing and speak and take care of the farmer's children. Asked why it has a missing leg, the farmer says "A barve like that, you don't eat it all at once." Much later, after escaping and healing, Fett hovers in his ship with the weapons pointed at the Sarlacc, and it tells him You liberate me from the long Cycle. But he doesn't shoot it, and when it wants to know why, he repeats that joke's punchline.
 * When Bevel Lemelisk, the designer of the Death Star - who Emperor Palpatine had painfully killed and cloned back to life again and again for missing the flaw that got the Death Star destroyed - is finally executed by the New Republic, his last words are "Do it right this time."
 * In CS Lewis's The Great Divorce, when an angel tells a damned soul that he can only be free of the lizard if he gives the angel permission to kill it, the soul argues the point for a time, then says the angel can -- and to do it -- before collapsing and whimpering "God help me" -- without rescinding the permission.
 * In his allegorical novel The Pilgrim's Regress, John meets Death in a mountain pass on a stormy night. John realizes that it has been the fear of death that has motivated him his entire life. Death hammers home that he only has two choices:

"Which you choose," said the Voice. "Jump, or be thrown. Shut your eyes, or have them bandaged by force. Give in or struggle."

"I would sooner do the first, if I could."

"Then I am your servant and no more your master. The cure of death is dying. He who lays down his liberty in that act receives it back.""

"Bartimaeus: So go on then. Get it over with.
 * Humourously averted in The Bartimaeus Trilogy:

Faquarl:You want me to kill you already?

Bartimaeus: Not that. The rubbish joke you're thinking up. About it being good of me to hang around, or something like that. Go on, you know you want to. Get it out of your system."


 * In The Dark Elf Trilogy when Dinin is surrounded by enemy soldiers he fully expects to be killed and being an Always Chaotic Evil drow himself, isn't even angry about it. However, he asks to be killed quickly and without pain. When the answer is "No." he is ready to fight to death. Then he learns it's "No, I won't kill you at all." Despite his unrepentant evil, this calm, absolutely sober way he faces his death as a consequence of his life style is a CMoA for Dinin.
 * In Colleen Mc Cullough's Antony and Cleopatra, Caesarion says to Octavian, "Get on with it already, Octavianus!"
 * In Andy Hoare's White Scars novel Hunt for Voldorius, when Voldorius reveals he knows that Malya sent information to his foes, she tells him to kill her. He reveals worse plans.
 * In Robert E. Howard's "The Scarlet Citadel", Conan the Barbarian, facing a giant snake, stands still out of instinct; reason would have told him to get it over with by provoking the snake into an attack.

Live-Action TV
"Dr. McCoy: Well, either choke me or cut my throat. Make up your mind.
 * In the miniseries Merlin, when Mab, Frik begs Mab to kill him quickly. Instead . When Mordred asks why she didn't kill Frik, Mab says "It's because he wanted me to."
 * Dr. McCoy has a version of this when he is attacked by Khan in Sickbay in an episode of Star Trek: The Original Series.

Khan: English... I thought I'd dreamed hearing it. Where am I?

Dr. McCoy: You're in bed, holding a knife at your doctor's throat.

Khan: Answer my question.

Dr. McCoy: It would be most effective if you would cut the carotid artery, just under the left ear."

"Lal: Doctor, please understand that if there was any other way to accomplish our purpose--
 * He also said it right out in "The Empath", after having chosen himself for torture that had an 87% chance of killing him.

McCoy: Get on with it."

"Jack Bauer: I just want you to know, I didn't want you to feel like I had turned my back on you, that I turned my back on the family. I just had to go in my own way, to do things for myself, and I... was never good enough for you. I'm sorry. Anyway... I'm ready. What are you waiting for...? DO IT! DAMN YOU!"
 * 24

"Lee Adama: No. Unless... The clean slate. The fresh start. Maybe they are illusions like you said. But at a certain point, faith in ourselves, in our right to survive as a species, as a people, that's not a given, that's a choice. Well, I've made mine. And if you can't stomach that, then you had damn well better squeeze that trigger right now. Go on. What are you waiting for?"
 * Renee Walker does it in Season 8 too.
 * Battlestar Galactica Reimagined:


 * Also  about to be Thrown Out the Airlock: "What are you waiting for, Apollo? Do it!"
 * Stargate Atlantis: The third-season episode 'Common Ground', where the Wraith Todd is first introduced. After repeatedly feeding on Sheppard to the point that he's almost become a desiccated corpse, Sheppard intones him to do this.

"Rose Tyler: Go on, then, kill me."
 * Rose, when confronted by a Dalek on Doctor Who.

""You never would, you coward. [pause] Go on then. Do it!""
 * Jo also told the Master to get it over with.
 * In "Evolution of the Daleks", the Doctor ends up screaming "Do it!" at one of the Daleks, who is only prevented from doing so by the human-hybrid Dalek Sec.
 * The Master confronted by the Doctor:

"Spike: Just do it quick, okay?"
 * Season Three of The Wire,  and , discover   plan to have them murder each other and team up to track him down. They have him cornered at gunpoint, when   says "Get on with it, motherf-".
 * Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "Sleeper."

"Joyce: Were you planning to slit my throat any time soon?"
 * Also, in "This Year's Girl":

": Promise me you're gonna kill me soon.
 * "Finish it, Highlander!!" says Slan Quince in the very first episode of the Highlander TV series.
 * In the season 5 episode of Supernatural, "Dark Side of the Moon," Dean is sitting in his hotel room at gunpoint as Roy and Walt argue over whether or not to kill him. He finally growls, "Go ahead, Roy, do it. But I'm gonna warn ya--when I come back, I'm gonna be pissed." This can be viewed as a variation on the trope because Dean knew Zachariah would just resurrect him anyway.
 * In season 4, Dean is given an ultimatum - to hand another character over to die, or  He initially doesn't think they'll do it, but once convinced they will, still tells them to go ahead. They switch to threatening Sam instead, and he complies
 * in the Firefly episode Our Mrs. Reynolds. By asking for this she is also reacting to the hero's equivalent of a Reason You Suck Speech with the villain's form of a Shut UP, Hannibal. Of course, Mal Wouldn't Shoot A Girl, or at least not an unarmed one.

Mal: Oh, you already know I ain't gonna."

": Light it."
 * A variation from the same show, from the episode Safe.

"Alien: Think about human death, Avon, irrevocable...
 * Avon cuts through the crap when an alien intelligence offers him submission or death.

Avon: I have thought about it, what's keeping you?

Alien: What did you say?

Avon: You claim you can kill me. You'd better get on with it. Make me die. There's nothing else you can make me do."


 * Subtle double subversion in the first season finale of Terriers. After, he starts yelling at them to get it over with and kill him right there in the police car. Doubly subverted in that
 * Timon of Maddigan's Quest . Boomer approves of the idea, but Garland ultimately says no.
 * An episode of Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman had the sheriff preparing to hang a man convicted of rape and murder. When the minister ask if he as any last words, the man simply snarls, "Get it done."
 * In the first season episode of Angel "Eternity," actress Rebecca Lowell tries to persuade Angel to turn her into a vampiress so that she won't have to worry about aging; needless to say he refuses. In an effort to change his mind, she drugs him, thinking just to render him more pliable, not realizing that this will turn him evil instead. He stalks her through his office complex, toying with his prey, deliberately putting off the murder so as to enjoy her fear; she is clearly terrified, but finally gets fed up with this, stops running, and turns to face him, saying "Whatever you're going to do, do it." Of course, that's when Wesley and Cordelia show up to save the day, but it was a pretty awesome moment for Rebecca, and it did somewhat redeem her from her earlier behavior.

Theater
"Christ: Hurry, you fool, hurry and go, save me your speeches, I don't want to know! GO!"
 * In Act III of Thornton Wilder's play The Skin of Our Teeth,.
 * Jesus Christ Superstar, in the midst of Judas and Jesus's row, Jesus asks Judas "Why don't you go do it?", that is, go on and turn me in:

"Jesus: God, thy will is hard, but you hold every card [...] Take me now, before I change my mind!"
 * Later, Jesus urges God to get his arrest and execution over with quickly.

Videogames
"Tavion: Finish it! Kill me.
 * In The World Ends With You, 777 fails to defeat Beat, and asks him to finish him. Beat declines, letting him live.
 * At the beginning of Skyrim, your character and several others are about to be executed. The commandant orders the priest to read your last rites, but another prisoner interrupts with, "I haven't got all morning!"
 * The Witcher: This is Geralt's repeated response to the BigBads' and Dragon's extended endless Boss Banter.
 * Done without messing about in Jedi Academy:

Dark Side Jaden Korr: [kills her]"

"Aeka: (what she said) Get It Over With.
 * Both in Neverwinter Nights and  in Knights of the Old Republic insist you kill them, as they have come too far to turn back to the good side if you persist in trying. However, both works being rather on the idealistic side, they both relent and come back if you previously completed their Romance Sidequest or roll a really high Persuade check.
 * However, even if you convince to surrender, later events establish she didn't live long after anyway.
 * Subverted brutally by The Boss, aka  in Saints Row 2. After outright cheating in a sword duel, the Boss catches Akuji with no weapons, with a gun pointed to his head. Akuji utters this trope. Instead of finishing him, or leaving him alive, the Boss goes to his back, picks another sword, stabs through Akuji's defenseless body, calls his friend Mr. Wong, and purposefully aggravates the wound to make Akuji scream in pain to the phone. Then he leaves him alive, in a burning, soon-to-explode ship.
 * After her Traumatic Haircut, Yume Miru Kusuri's Aeka tells Kyoka to get it over with, although it's played with.

Aeka: (what she meant)"

"... I'm not surprised. We both know exactly what it is that you're here to terminate. Get on with it."
 * in Starcraft: Brood War:


 * Quickly followed by a Final Speech, a My God, What Have I Done?, and a Race Against the Clock, in quick succession.
 * Teyrn Loghain asks you for a quick death after you defeat him in a Combat by Champion at the Landsmeet. You can either grant his wish, have Alistair finish him off, or.

Webcomics
"Mother Brain: Guess it's time for me to die then...
 * Planet Zebeth:

Samus: No! It's time for you to LIIIIIIIVE! [Evil Laugh]"

"Boris: All right fine. If you're going to kill me, just do it quick
 * Girl Genius: When Wooster left Boris in the Jagers' room, having exposed his secrets.

General: Perhaps. But first -- tell us about Meez Agatha and de Other. Ve is listening."


 * Bob and George where he's not believed
 * where he's lying
 * The Dreamland Chronicles Finish me
 * Pibgorn For heaven's sake, murder me, don't torture me!
 * That was a plea for mercy
 * Just incinerate me!
 * In American Barbarian, Gunthor asks for death once Rick gets his sword back.

Web Originals

 * In Kate Modern: The Last Work, the dying starts taunting the heroes, telling them to finish him off. Charlie replies that they don't need his murder on their conscience, to which he retorts, "What are you talking about? You've already killed me!" They walk off, leaving him to bleed to death.
 * Dracula in A Day in Dracula's Life

Western Animation
"Sternum: What are you waiting for? Finish me!
 * Shadow Raiders

Graveheart: I would...but you're not my enemy."

"Rhinox: If you're going to kill me, then shut up and get on with it."
 * The Chuck Jones Hubie and Bertie short, Cheese Chasers.
 * There was a Beast Wars episode where Rhinox was captured by Megatron. If he had died there, he would have gone out in a pretty badass way (Not the fact that he was chained down with no way of moving, but his last words helped make up for it)


 * During Silverbolt's brief tenure as a Predacon, the Maximals take him down and he tells them to get on with destroying him. Dinobot, admittedly, is happy to take him up on it, but Rattrap and Cheetor firmly refuse; this is what convinces Silverbolt he's on the wrong side.
 * Zhao towards Zuko in the third episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Zuko does not comply.
 * A variation occurs in the second season with Zuko. He isn't looking to be killed directly, just for some lightning to strike him (so he can try to redirect it), but the tone is very much in line with this trope as he rails at the heavens not to hold back.
 * Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: Clarice does a variant of this. "Oh, why doesn't he get it over with?"

Real Life
"More weight!"
 * Convicted murderer Gary Gilmore's last words before his execution were: "Let's do it." He actually wanted to be executed.
 * Serial killer Carl Panzram's last words (to the hangman, who was double-checking the noose and knot placement): "Hurry it up, you Hoosier bastard! I could hang ten men while you're fooling around!"
 * Sir Walter Raleigh, famous for somewhat incompetently settling North Carolina, was executed by beheading back in England. Last words : "What dost thou fear? Strike man, strike!"
 * The Australian soldier 'Breaker' Morant was court-martialed by the British for murdering prisoners of war during the Boer War. His last words were reportedly "Shoot straight, you bastards! Don't make a mess of it!"
 * The Nazi war criminal Irma Grese was sentenced to be hanged. At her hanging, she made no speech: she simply said "Schnell!" ("Quickly!")
 * Marshal Michel Ney, ally of Napoleon during his 100-day long return was arrested and sentenced to death. The man gave the order to fire himself.
 * Benito Mussolini was executed by Communist partisans. His last words were "Shoot me in the chest!"
 * The Roman statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero, upon being caught by his political enemies assassin, is recorded as saying "There is nothing proper about what you are doing, soldier, but do try to kill me properly."
 * Che Guevara's last words were supposedly "I know you've come to kill me. Shoot, coward, you are only going to kill a man!"
 * The last words of Giles Corey, pressed to death over two days during the Salem witch trials:


 * The man was being savvy: he knew at that point that he was in a no win situation. The inquisitors wanted him to confess to witchcraft, hence the torture. The result of the confession would be a long trial in which his confession is hung on him several times, the ruin of his family, and of course, his execution. Naturally, not confessing would not gain his freedom: he'd remain in the press until he confessed or died. The Salem inquisitors had the art of the Catch-22 down. He forced them to perform the trope name, robbing them of the show trial and confiscation of goods that the inquisitors would have gained otherwise.
 * Actually, during the Salem trials, confession would save you from execution. That's why some did confess: it meant pardon, absolution, and redemption. It also meant condemning every other innocent who refused to confess. Not to mention the perpetual shame on yourself and your family and the knowledge that you had lied.
 * However, there was a rule back that if you did not plead anything, they could not try you. So he refused to plead innocent or guilty. By doing this, his family was allowed to retain their land since land of a criminal is taken by the government, or something like that. The inquisitors tried to get him to plead something so they could try him, but he chose to die instead under torture. Thus charges were never officially brought to him.
 * Actually, his property could not have been confiscated, but he might have believed that it could. He had earlier expressed suspicion that his wife was a witch although he changed his mind. The idea of a victim of pressing saying "more weight" was a traditional trope (which doesn't make Corey less heroic).