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Sick Captive Scam

 Sick Captive Scam
type
FeatureClass
 Sick Captive Scam
label
Sick Captive Scam
 Sick Captive Scam
page
SickCaptiveScam
 Sick Captive Scam
comment
Everyone knows that The Guards Must Be Crazy, and one of the best examples of that is their reaction to faked illness. Convince your captors that you are unwell, and they'll throw all their common sense out the window, allowing you to take them out when they enter the cell to check on you. This works better if there's someone else in the cell who can do the talking ("Guys, I don't think he's breathing. You're not going to leave me in here with a dying man, are you?") and best of all if you can claim that the Big Bad would be unhappy with the guard if the prisoners died on his watch. Of course, if the guards have no reason to want you alive, this will probably fail. Accordingly, you'd better hope that yours are either semi-principled or that their boss gave them orders to keep you alive.
Compare Playing Sick (where illness is feigned for more mundane reasons) and Wounded Gazelle Gambit (where injury is feigned to get someone in trouble) and contrast You Don't Want to Catch This (where illness is feigned to keep people away). See also Faking Another Person's Illness.
 Sick Captive Scam
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2024-02-22T14:45:29Z
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2024-02-22T14:45:29Z
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 Sick Captive Scam
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DBTropes
 Sick Captive Scam / int_12381dc
type
Sick Captive Scam
 Sick Captive Scam / int_12381dc
comment
Divinity: Original Sin II: A ghost in the Driftwood jail cells admits that he tried to make himself sick to get released to the infirmary, but misjudged how much poison to take.
 Sick Captive Scam / int_12381dc
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1.0
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1.0
 Divinity: Original Sin II (Video Game)
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Sick Captive Scam / int_12381dc
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Sick Captive Scam
 Sick Captive Scam / int_1682583
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Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam: In Episode 33 of the series, Char rages at Haman for indoctrinating the only remaining Zabi family member, Mineva, with the same authoritarian philosophy of the defeated Zeon. As a result, him and his crew are thrown in a cell. To escape from the room, Char beats up Kamille and has him play along as Kamille pretends to be seriously wounded. The guard who has a level of Genre Savvy retorts "That's an old trick!" and refuses to open the door initially. However, when Kamille continues to groan in fake pain and say that Char has betrayed them by being a secret agent, the guard finally relents and opens the door, falling for the trick that he was right to be suspicious of. It works, and Kamille escapes from the room, which was the plan all along.
 Sick Captive Scam / int_1682583
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Sick Captive Scam / int_1682583
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Sick Captive Scam
 Sick Captive Scam / int_198091c2
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Logan's Run: In "Capture", Jessica is aware that Irene Borden is observing her through security cameras. She feigns collapsing so that Irene will come in and check on her. Jessica manages to escape when she does so.
 Sick Captive Scam / int_198091c2
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1.0
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 Logan's Run
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Sick Captive Scam / int_198091c2
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Sick Captive Scam
 Sick Captive Scam / int_1a8119af
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A variant occurs in Dragon Quest VIII. After being locked up with you, the Bishop will claim that he's having sudden stomach pains because he swallowed his gold rosary so it wouldn't get stolen. As soon as the guards unlock the cell, the heroes overpower them.
 Sick Captive Scam / int_1a8119af
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1.0
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 Dragon Quest VIII (Video Game)
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Sick Captive Scam / int_1a8119af
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Sick Captive Scam
 Sick Captive Scam / int_1aa793b6
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Let's Destroy the Metal Gear!: The Metal Gear Solid example on the Video Game folder is lampshaded more accurately (the actual game had the guard acting more surprised and in-line with the trope):
 Sick Captive Scam / int_1aa793b6
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 Hiimdaisy (Webcomic)
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Lupin III: The Italian Adventure episode "The End of Lupin III" has Lupin pretend to be sick in order to fool Zenigata into letting him out. As the episode continues, Zenigata refuses to fall for such a trick, even as Lupin stops eating and says he's going to die. Eventually, Lupin does die. Except it was all a ploy by Lupin; he's well-enough, having used the food that Inspector Zenigata was feeding him to paint a dead copy of himself on the floor of his cell.
 Sick Captive Scam / int_1c5bbe78
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 Lupin III: The Italian Adventure
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Sick Captive Scam / int_1c5bbe78
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Sick Captive Scam
 Sick Captive Scam / int_22d74b2e
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Done in Martin The Warrior, with a fake disease called "flurgy twinge".
 Sick Captive Scam / int_22d74b2e
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1.0
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 Redwall
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Sick Captive Scam / int_22d74b2e
 Sick Captive Scam / int_23529ef4
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Sick Captive Scam
 Sick Captive Scam / int_23529ef4
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Happens in the Motorcity episode "The Duke of Detroit" when the Burners are captured by the titular Duke of Detroit. Locked up in the Duke's mansion, Chuck is able to construct a lock pick, but they need someone to sneak out and disable the alarms before they can escape. They try to get Texas to feign illness, but he can't. They try to get Dutch to fake it, but he flat out refuses. Fed up with the bickering, Julie kicks Dutch in the shins, and his very real pained groans are enough to distract the guards and allow her to slip out with the lock pick.
 Sick Captive Scam / int_23529ef4
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 Motorcity
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Sick Captive Scam / int_23529ef4
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Sick Captive Scam
 Sick Captive Scam / int_2e3e7ac2
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Justice League: In "A Better World", when the League is kidnapped by an evil Mirror Universe League, the Flash manages to trick Earth-2 Batman into freeing him by speeding his heartbeat so much that the prison's sensors can't detect it, causing Earth-2 Batman to think Flash is going into cardiac arrest and unchain him. It's implied to work because of Earth-2 Batman's affection for the Earth-2 Flash.
 Sick Captive Scam / int_2e3e7ac2
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1.0
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 Justice League
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Sick Captive Scam / int_2e3e7ac2
 Sick Captive Scam / int_3e8c09b9
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Sick Captive Scam
 Sick Captive Scam / int_3e8c09b9
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Attack on Titan has Gabi do this to escape prison. She fakes a seizure then bashes her guard’s head in with a small bag of rocks when he comes to help.
 Sick Captive Scam / int_3e8c09b9
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1.0
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 Attack on Titan (Manga)
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Sick Captive Scam / int_3e8c09b9
 Sick Captive Scam / int_3fe0a130
type
Sick Captive Scam
 Sick Captive Scam / int_3fe0a130
comment
On Ugly Betty, Claire, Yoga, and two other inmates escape from a prison van by having one of them who's diabetic fake a blood sugar crisis, and then overpowering the guard.
 Sick Captive Scam / int_3fe0a130
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1.0
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 Ugly Betty
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Sick Captive Scam / int_3fe0a130
 Sick Captive Scam / int_420172c7
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Sick Captive Scam
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Catch Me If You Can: Double Subverted. When Hanratty arrives at the run-down French prison to extradite Frank to the United States, he assumes that Frank's uncontrollable coughing is just him acting in order to attempt another escape. He's legitimately ill and has to be taken to the infirmary after he collapses in front of Hanratty. He does attempt to escape while there, but he doesn't get any further than the end of the block before he collapses again. The cops don't even bother running to catch him; they walk up to him coolly and put a gun to his head.
 Sick Captive Scam / int_420172c7
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 Catch Me If You Can
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Sick Captive Scam / int_420172c7
 Sick Captive Scam / int_4499d6a0
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Sick Captive Scam
 Sick Captive Scam / int_4499d6a0
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Grandia1 sees the party get arrested by the Garlyle Forces for trespassing and held in a cell on one of their military bases. Justin pretends to be violently ill and Sue cries shouts at the guard to come help him, allowing Justin to sucker-punch him and escape with his key. And then Justin is promptly captured after leaving the room and thrown back in the cell, this time shackled, separated from Sue, and with less-trusting security guards, forcing him to find a different way out.
 Sick Captive Scam / int_4499d6a0
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 Grandia (Video Game)
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Sick Captive Scam / int_4499d6a0
 Sick Captive Scam / int_498b77e9
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Sick Captive Scam
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Skin Horse has what Marcie calls "a spin on the oldest trick in the book," where instead of feigning an unspecified illness, she pretends to have suddenly contracted Science-Related Memetic Disorder.
 Sick Captive Scam / int_498b77e9
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1.0
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 Skin Horse (Webcomic)
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Sick Captive Scam / int_498b77e9
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Sick Captive Scam
 Sick Captive Scam / int_4fa7b5f4
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Red Zone Cuba: Played absolutely straight, as Griffin tells a cellmate to ask for water as a ruse to take out the guard.
 Sick Captive Scam / int_4fa7b5f4
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1.0
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 Red Zone Cuba
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Sick Captive Scam / int_4fa7b5f4
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Sick Captive Scam
 Sick Captive Scam / int_51b6ba6c
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The in-game backstory file for Wolfenstein 3-D establishes that B.J. used this ploy to trick the guard into opening his cell. The pistol and knife you start with were taken from the hapless sucker's corpse.
 Sick Captive Scam / int_51b6ba6c
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1.0
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 Wolfenstein 3-D (Video Game)
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Sick Captive Scam / int_51b6ba6c
 Sick Captive Scam / int_5690420f
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Sick Captive Scam
 Sick Captive Scam / int_5690420f
comment
Discussed and performed in the DuckTales (1987) episode "Where No Duck Has Gone Before". The boys, Launchpad, and Courage are imprisoned on an alien spaceship and brainstorming ideas for getting out of their cell. Launchpad recommends playing sick, an idea which Courage likes enough to steal.
 Sick Captive Scam / int_5690420f
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 DuckTales (1987)
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Sick Captive Scam / int_5690420f
 Sick Captive Scam / int_58808436
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Sick Captive Scam
 Sick Captive Scam / int_58808436
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In the Himatsubushi arc of Higurashi: When They Cry, 11-year-old hostage Toshiki Inukai feigns stomach pains in the hopes of getting help from a doctor. His case is helped by an old surgical scar on his abdomen.
 Sick Captive Scam / int_58808436
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1.0
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 Higurashi: When They Cry (Visual Novel)
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Sick Captive Scam / int_58808436
 Sick Captive Scam / int_58af2679
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Sick Captive Scam
 Sick Captive Scam / int_58af2679
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In The Silence of the Lambs, an incident is mentioned where Hannibal Lecter faked having chest pains to get a prison nurse to untie him. As soon as he was free, he killed and started eating her.
 Sick Captive Scam / int_58af2679
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1.0
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 The Silence of the Lambs
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Sick Captive Scam / int_58af2679
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Sick Captive Scam
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Metal Gear:
In Metal Gear Solid, one possible way you can escape from your containment cell is to apply ketchup to the floor of the jail cell and lay in it as the guard passes by, fooling him into thinking you're seriously injured and open the door to inspect you.
In Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, you can make Snake vomit at will by spinning him around in the Survival Viewer. If you do this while inside the prison cell, the guard will assume you're sick and unlock the door to check on you.
 Sick Captive Scam / int_59151283
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1.0
 Sick Captive Scam / int_59151283
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1.0
 Metal Gear (Video Game)
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Sick Captive Scam / int_59151283
 Sick Captive Scam / int_5db577ba
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Sick Captive Scam
 Sick Captive Scam / int_5db577ba
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Subverted in The Dark Knight: One of the Joker's henchmen claims to have severe stomach pain. The guards initially ignore this, but it eventually becomes clear he has a real problem, to wit: the Joker sewed a bomb into him in order to create a distraction and escape.
 Sick Captive Scam / int_5db577ba
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 The Dark Knight
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Sick Captive Scam / int_5db577ba
 Sick Captive Scam / int_60156176
type
Sick Captive Scam
 Sick Captive Scam / int_60156176
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In the Vorkosigan Saga book Komarr, Ekaterin uses her aunt's not-completely-feigned infirmity to get them out of the lavatory being used as their cell, and then to make a break for the control room.
 Sick Captive Scam / int_60156176
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 Vorkosigan Saga
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Sick Captive Scam / int_60156176
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Sick Captive Scam
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Shadows over Meridian: In Chapter 31, the captive Vera Bexley pretends to have fallen unconscious so that the guard checking her cell will enter to examine her. This allows her to get the jump on the guard and escape.
 Sick Captive Scam / int_62164fb7
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1.0
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 Shadows over Meridian (Fanfic)
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Sick Captive Scam / int_62164fb7
 Sick Captive Scam / int_625e571
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Sick Captive Scam
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In Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Goren's incarcerated nephew Donny pulls this off to get his Uncle out of isolation in "Untethered" by faking appendicitis (Goren went undercover after being manipulated by Frank into thinking he needed assistance after being sent to prison on trumped up charges). He is then taken out of the prison and promptly escapes, never to be seen again, though it begs the question of why he never tried to attempt this before.
 Sick Captive Scam / int_625e571
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1.0
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 Law & Order: Criminal Intent
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Sick Captive Scam / int_625e571
 Sick Captive Scam / int_629cd094
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Sick Captive Scam
 Sick Captive Scam / int_629cd094
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Dragon Age: Origins if the Grey Warden and Alistair get captured rescuing Queen Anora, one of the options for escaping is to feign illness and overpower the guard when he comes into the cell. If the Grey Warden was captured while Alistair wasn't in the party, they can get the prisoner in the cell next to theirs to call out to the guards in Alistair's place.
 Sick Captive Scam / int_629cd094
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 Dragon Age: Origins (Video Game)
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Sick Captive Scam / int_629cd094
 Sick Captive Scam / int_67abe4e4
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Sick Captive Scam
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In the Eek! The Cat episode, "The Great Eekscape" after Eek and Sharko are sent to a dog pound, Eek ignores the very obvious dig out of prison plan and instead tries a half-baked sick prisoner plan, which doesn't work.
 Sick Captive Scam / int_67abe4e4
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 Eek! The Cat
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Sick Captive Scam / int_67abe4e4
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Sick Captive Scam
 Sick Captive Scam / int_6a7e6314
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Thor: Ragnarok has this in the form of Thor and Loki's "Get Help" routine, something they've apparently done before. When they do it on a group of guards as they're attempting to escape Sakaar, it works very well.
 Sick Captive Scam / int_6a7e6314
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 Thor: Ragnarok
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Sick Captive Scam
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Big Finish Doctor Who: In The Marian Conspiracy, Evelyn fakes being ill to lure the warder inside their cell and the Doctor hits him over the head with a chair: all the while complaining because he had already told Evelyn that this was precisely not the plan they were going to go with.
 Sick Captive Scam / int_6abf16c2
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 Big Finish Doctor Who (Audio Play)
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Sick Captive Scam
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The gnoll guarding the PC prisoners in the Dungeons & Dragons module Castle Caldwell and Beyond is not very bright and will fall for any reasonable trick, such as one of them pretending to be ill.
 Sick Captive Scam / int_6ac55ec7
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 Dungeons & Dragons (Tabletop Game)
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Sick Captive Scam
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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: While "guests" of the Breen, Ezri mentions she and Worf tried doing this, but the Breen being the Breen, it didn't work.
 Sick Captive Scam / int_73d7930f
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 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
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Sick Captive Scam / int_73d7930f
 Sick Captive Scam / int_760644e9
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Sick Captive Scam
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A variation is used in Eternity Road when the protagonists are held captive by a security robot, who will only hand them over to an authorized (and long vanished) law enforcement officer. One of the protagonists pretends to be a doctor and takes the 'wounded and possibly dying' prisoners for medical care, confusing the robot (who has been programmed only to capture, not kill) long enough for them to escape.
 Sick Captive Scam / int_760644e9
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 Eternity Road
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Sick Captive Scam
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In Ant-Man and the Wasp Pym fakes a heart attack while tied to a chair to trick his captors into opening an Altoids tin that his daughter helpfully claims contains his medication, instead of ants primed to grow to giant size.
 Sick Captive Scam / int_760edaae
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 Ant-Man and the Wasp
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Sick Captive Scam
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In Batman #163, Batman and Robin are captured by the Joker. While he heads off to commit another crime, Robin uses tomato soup to create fake pox marks, and comments that he already had chicken pox. The mooks guarding them jump to the conclusion that he has smallpox and run away, clearing the way for the Dynamic Duo to escape.
 Sick Captive Scam / int_7aaf9e41
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 Batman (Comic Book)
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Sick Captive Scam
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Done by Zell in Final Fantasy VIII, after the party are imprisoned by the Galbadians. He has his friends Selphie and Quisitis lie on the floor of the cell they're sharing, telling the guard that a snake bit them, then sucker-punches the guard that comes in to check on them.
 Sick Captive Scam / int_7e85ca16
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 Final Fantasy VIII (Video Game)
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Sick Captive Scam
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One level in GoldenEye (1997) starts out in a prison cell within the Supervillain Lair. If the player doesn't immediately use Bond's Gadget Watch to escape, he'll instead try to bluff the guard by lamely pretending to have a stomach ache. It doesn't sell, and Natalya makes a sarcastic quip about Bond's cleverness.
 Sick Captive Scam / int_802ca7b
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 GoldenEye (1997) (Video Game)
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Sick Captive Scam
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Girl Genius: Tarvek pretends that Mister Obsidian knocking him out lasts for far longer than it really did, only dropping the act of playing unconscious when his grandmother, who hired Obsidian to kidnap him, reveals she doesn't plan to kill him and calls him out on it.
 Sick Captive Scam / int_86c3beca
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 Girl Genius (Webcomic)
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Sick Captive Scam / int_86c3beca
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Bloodrayne uses the "the other prisoner escaped" version in one of the laziest deliveries of the trope on-screen.
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1.0
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 BloodRayne
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Sick Captive Scam / int_86db94a1
 Sick Captive Scam / int_90f1e8a2
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Sick Captive Scam
 Sick Captive Scam / int_90f1e8a2
comment
Referenced in Exiern here, where the guard has the key taken from him because he's already considering the necessity of opening the cell if the prisoner is sick.
 Sick Captive Scam / int_90f1e8a2
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1.0
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In Primal, Richard Loffler fakes a seizure in order to lure his guards into his cell. Justified in that his fake seizure is very convincing, and he is being Shipped in Shackles so they have no choice but to send at least one guard into the cell to ensure he does not injure himself.
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Treadstone. In "The Bentley Lament", a journalist needs information from an ex-boyfriend who's unfortunately serving time in a Ghanaian prison. So she pays a prisoner to stab him in the back so he'll be taken away in an ambulance. She assures him it's only a minor flesh wound.
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Mystery Science Theater 3000: In the first host segment of the Season 8 episode She Creature, the Observers are trying to dissect Professor Bobo while Pearl is kept trapped in Some Kind of Force Field. Mike and the bots distract the others, leaving only one Observer, future cast member Brain Guy, to guard Pearl. Pearl raps on the invisible bars with a mug and lures Brain Guy into the force field by telling him the other Observers "created an invisible man with their minds" and put him in with her, and that this man is now "looking reeeal sick." When Brain Guy gets close (because, of course, he can't see the sick, invisible, nonexistent man), Pearl takes his brain hostage and escapes with Bobo.
Pearl parodies the above mentioned Red Zone Cuba, saying she's sick — she needs moisturizer.
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Star Trek: The Original Series
In "I, Mudd", the crew sedate Harry and tell the androids that he's dying but could be saved if they could get to the Sickbay on board ship as part of a plan to get the upper hand. Played with in that this scheme is only part of a more complex one to outgambit the androids, who will expect them to make an escape attempt. Now that they've made an obvious one, they can continue with the real one.
In "By Any Other Name", after Kirk, Spock and Doctor McCoy are imprisoned by the Andromedans, Spock places himself in a trance in order to appear to be ill. McCoy tells the Andromedans that Spock needs to be taken to the Enterprise in order to be cured, and they fall for it. It helps that they definitely need Spock's expertise as the Science Officer to cross the galactic barrier. Besides, the trance slows his metabolism to a level that can definitely indicate near-death state. Even McCoy who knows exactly what is going on seems genuinely alarmed for a moment when he checks him.
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One particular moment from Malcolm in the Middle inverts the trope: when held captive along with several of his fellow soldiers during a bout of war games, Reese decides to force one cadet to eat enough dirt to make him vomit uncontrollably to the point of looking like he's dying. Naturally, this draws the attention of the guards, who are locked in the cage with said cadet after Reese and the others get the jump on them.
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Noein: Haruka is abducted and put in a cell. She notices her food has a red, blood-like sauce, so she smears it on her stomach and lies on the floor moaning that she's in pain. When the guards open the door to check on her, she quickly darts out and escapes.
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Defied in Shanghai Noon: Chon Wang suggests using it, and Roy responds "The sick prisoner routine? Does that still work in China? Here, it's kind of been done to death."
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In Metal Gear Solid, one possible way you can escape from your containment cell is to apply ketchup to the floor of the jail cell and lay in it as the guard passes by, fooling him into thinking you're seriously injured and open the door to inspect you.
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The Lone Ranger: The episode "Old Joe's Sister" has two prisoners escape using this while lampshading what an old trick it is. This episode aired in 1949.
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In Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, you can make Snake vomit at will by spinning him around in the Survival Viewer. If you do this while inside the prison cell, the guard will assume you're sick and unlock the door to check on you.
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In El Goonish Shive, Elliot practices this in front of Tedd as part of his plan to get them out of a holding cell. Tedd dismisses his plan due to Elliot's unconvincing acting. When they are let go for unrelated reasons immediately afterward, Tedd sarcastically commends him for successfully pulling it off.
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Sherlock Holmes pulls this in Sherlock: Case of Evil: pretending to be more incapacitated by Moriarty's drugs than he actually is so he can overpower the two henchmen when they come to inject him with his next dose.
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When the party is captured in Chrono Trigger, the third member of the party will use this trick on the guard. It can be very funny when the party member who plays sick is Robo, who pretends to crash and fails to reboot (for once, the guard's staggering gullibility can be explained by the fact that you're trying this trick in 12,000 B.C.).
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Doctor Who: Romana once escaped a Dalek slave-camp this way. More specifically, she put herself into suspended animation. They threw the "corpse" outside, and she got up and ran away once they were gone.
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Journey into Space: In The Red Planet, after they are captured by the flying doctor, Lemmy pretends to faint so that Jet, who is rapidly losing oxygen due to his helmet having been punctured, can escape.
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Criminal Minds: In the episode "Ominivore" The Boston Reaper aka George Foyet cuts his wrist on a sharp edge of the bed, sucks out some of his own blood, and pretends to vomit blood and have convulsions in order to escape.
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Yu Yu Hakusho (2023): Keiko pretends to be sick to trick a guard into entering her cell, then knocks him out so she and Yukina can escape.
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In an episode of Blue Heelers, a criminal swallows a handful of thumbtacks when he is caught: guaranteeing that the police will take him straight to the hospital, where it will be easier for his gang to break him out than if he was in jail.
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In DragonFable, you can get captured by the Rose in a military checkpoint between towns. If you try to get out by pretending to be dying, the guards celebrate your "death" and how they don't need to take care of you anymore.
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In the Henry Stickmin game Fleeing the Complex, one of the options when Henry is locked up in a cell is feigning illness. He gets tranquilized and thrown into a quarantine of really sick prisoners.
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In City of Thieves you can pull this to get your cell unlocked if you get arrested entering the city. The guards are apparently particularly gullible, even compared with most guards who fall for this trope - when they open your cell, you can claim to have the plague, which causes them to run off in a panic and leave the cell both unlocked and unguarded.
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Skyler from Breaking Bad pretends to go into labor after being detained by a jewelry store owner for returning stolen merchandise.
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In Full Metal Panic!, Mithril officer Andrei Kalinin cautions Special Response Team leader Gail McAllen that if Gauron should insist that he's ill, he's told to ignore it at all costs, even if it turns out be real. Due to Gauron's reputation as a dangerous mercenary terrorist, Kalinin doesn't want anyone to let their guard down.
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In The Fugitive, one of Richard Kimble's fellow passengers on the prison bus fakes a severe coughing fit in order to lure a guard into shanking range. The ensuing escape attempt goes completely sideways when another guard accidentally blows the bus driver's head off with his shotgun and the entire vehicle crashes into the woods.
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The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 Sick Captive Scam
processingCategory2
Escape Tropes
 Sick Captive Scam
processingCategory2
I Have Your Index
 Sick Captive Scam
processingCategory2
Index Failure
 Sick Captive Scam
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Indexitis
 Sick Captive Scam
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Truth and Lies
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Sick Captive Scam
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Sick Captive Scam
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Sick Captive Scam
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Sick Captive Scam
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Sick Captive Scam
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Sick Captive Scam
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Sick Captive Scam
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Sick Captive Scam
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