Torture Always Works: Difference between revisions

 

Compare [[Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique]].

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* ''[[Vinland Saga]]''. After catching an English spy, Askeladd takes a pair of shears to his fingers. Eventually the guy tells him what they want to know, in a way that leaves them all shitting their pants. The torture victim laughs in their faces as Askeladd cuts off his head.

* From ''[[Darker than Black]]'':

{{quote|'''Havoc:''' [Talking to Hei] If you've ''really'' established a Contract, you'd know better than anyone else. A Contractor's greatest priorities don't lie within the syndicate, nor in its priorities. It lies with himself. There's no merit in being tortured and remaining silent. '''You''', for some reason, just can't seem to understand that.}}

 

== Film ==

* In ''[[The Matrix]]'', Smith tortures Morpheus for the codes to Zion's mainframe.

** The fact that they've given him a digital truth serum that is [[Mind Probe|hacking his mind]] does help.

* Subverted in ''The Passion of Joan of Arc''. They drag Joan to the torture room but she simply explains to them the logic listed in the description above.

* In the movie ''[[Payback]]'', Mel Gibson's character willingly submits to being tortured just so he could feed his torturers false information. (They wouldn't believe him if he just told them before the torture)

 

== Gamebooks ==

* ''[[Lone Wolf]]'' features a rare example of a ''hero'' torturing information out of a villain in Book 18 ''Dawn of the Dragons''. In the beginning of the adventure Lone Wolf has the opportunity to interrogate a man who had been caught plotting to assassinate him. The gaoler offers Lone Wolf his torture tools (including ''hot coals'') but Lone Wolf declines. Lone Wolf then proceeds to either [[Mind Control]] or ''[[Mind Rape]]'' the prisoner into telling him who wanted Lone Wolf dead. It works {{spoiler|but then the prisoner uses the last of his willpower to bite into a trick tooth containing deadly poisonous gas.}}

 

== Literature ==

** The grimmest part of the whole scenario is that Mord-Sith start out as kind, gentle girls and are systematically [[Break the Cutie|tortured and broken]] until they are [[Being Tortured Makes You Evil|ready, willing, and able]] to do it to others. It's explicitly said that the sweetest girls available are the ones chosen to become Mord-Sith. And part of their training is forcing them to break ''their parents'', one at a time.

* In ''[[The Riftwar Cycle|Flight of the Nighthawks]]'' the protagonists torture an assassin for information about his organization's base. However, they only need him to think about it, as they have a mind reader among the interrogators. It still takes days.

* Subverted in [[Chester Anderson]]'s [[The Butterfly Kid]]. First, the protagonist is asked by his alien captors "What do you do?", and finds his vocal system, without his own intervention, telling them what he does, starting with a detailed account of his digestive processes. Then he is strapped into the alien torture machine, but their ideas of torture are... alien; and he finds them easy to withstand, with the possible exception of being forced to watch hallucinations of [[Donald Duck]] playing Brahms.

* A running theme in the [[Vince Flynn|Mitch Rapp]] books is that, contrary to the protestations of [[Strawman Political|politically correct liberals]], torture works consistantly and gives reliable information. On the rare occasions there's someone who doesn't break easily, there will be a weaker compatriot around for the interrogator to exploit instead. Not coincidentally, the author has worked on [[24]], below.

 

== Live Action TV ==

* Subverted in [[Jericho]] when [[Genre Savvy]] Hawkins says torture is great for getting answers, but the fear of torture is better for getting the truth. He even lampshades this trope, saying actual torture only works in the movies.

* One episode of ''[[The Avengers (TV series)]]'' twisted this: there was a set-up that pretended to be a training program for British agents, "Test of Human Endurance." They would subject an agent to a certain degree of torture, the agent would hold out, after a while he'd be congratulated on his determination ... and then, in the bar, he'd chatter with fellow agents about the information he'd successfully kept from the torturers. The torture wasn't intended to '''force''' the answers from agents, but to bring the info to the forefront of their minds, so it'd be what they talked about while relaxing. And the bar where they relaxed was bugged. So, in a roundabout way, the torture '''did''' work.

 

== Theater ==

* The basic trope is [[Older Than Feudalism]], since in classical legal systems slaves could only testify under torture, and a stock gambit by the accused was to defy the court to torture his slaves. However, it is subverted in [[Aristophanes]] [[The Frogs]], where Dionysus' slave, impersonating Dionysus, tells the underworld guards to torture Dionysus, impersonating the slave. They end up BOTH getting tortured to see which is the real god, and hilariously trying to pretend that it doesn't hurt a bit, no, sir.

* In ''[[Oedipus the King]]'', the shepherd who found the abandoned infant Oedipus and gave him to Polybus is brought to Oedipus refuses to talk, Oedipus orders his guards to twist his arm behind his back until he does. Later, he threatens to have the man killed when he hesitates again. Only then does Oedipus become the last in the play to deduce the [[Awful Truth]] that he indeed did, as prophesied, kill his father and marry his mother.

 

== Video Games ==

* The "Interrogation" missions in ''[[Assassin's Creed]]'' consist of Altair stalking people into dark alleys and beating them until they give up general information. He's also using more intimidation than actual pain; beating them up is just to subdue them so he can start asking questions, and he doesn't actively torture the victim.

* In the video game adaptation of ''[[Spider-Man]]'', Spidey dangles a gang member over the edge of an apartment building. He talks.

** In the quest line which precedes your entry into The Nexus, you're required by the Kirin Tor to [http://www.wowwiki.com/Quest%3AThe_Art_of_Persuasion torture an imprisoned sorcerer] until he talks. And when he finally does, all the information turns out to be completely accurate.

** Subverted in one quest, in which torturing a quillboar gets him to reveal the name of his leader, but only because [[I'll Never Tell You What I'm Telling You|he's too stupid to avoid unintentionally blurting it out]], and offering him food or tickling him will also get him to give the information.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* In ''[[Erfworld]]'', Parson's understanding of the enemy plan (after Wanda reports that their prisoner has given it up) matches what we know of Ansom's actual plans. However, it's an open question how much this owes to torture and how much to [[More Than Mind Control|other psychological pressures]] and ''regular'' mind control, using magic.

* In [[Girl Genius]], Othar Tryggvassen (Gentleman Adventurer!) assumes this is what Baron Wulfenbach intends, but the Baron is simply interested in taking him apart to see what makes [[Mad Scientist|the spark]] tick. "[[Large Ham|No matter what you do to me, I'll never talk!]]" "[[Deadpan Snarker|Ah, if only that were so.]]"

** Veled admits later that she didn't need to torture Daisy for the information—just the ''audio confession'' thereof, since Veled can extract whatever somebody knows just by touching them (and thus confirm the truth of Daisy's statements). In other words, Daisy had to be tortured into compliance, not into supplying new information.

* Called out in "Faans!" where Rumy yells at her berserk subordinate that "Contrary to what you see on '24,' pain is not a Lasso of Truth."

 

== Web Original ==

* The ''[[Web Original]]\[[Hitherby Dragons]]'' story "[http://imago.hitherby.com/?p=668 An Oracle For NP]" [[Deconstruction|deconstructs]] this. It starts with a torturing that reveals the location of a bomb from someone who has ''no way of knowing where it was from or how''. As soon as this possibility is found, they begin torturing individuals to further science in any way possible.