Fiendish Doctor Wu: (over radio) O'Leary? O'Leary, where are you?
Black Dynamite: O'Leary's dead. Who's this?
Fiendish Doctor Wu: (over radio, in Chinese) You know who this is. Fuck you, Black Dynamite!
Black Dynamite: O'Leary's dead. Who's this?
Fiendish Doctor Wu: (over radio, in Chinese) You know who this is. Fuck you, Black Dynamite!
Alice is some sort of field operative, spy, or soldier who is on a mission in enemy territory. She periodically reports back to Bob at the base through a cell phone or radio, or Bob frequently calls her to keep track of the mission. Then something goes wrong and there's unexpected silence from Alice's radio or communicator, leading to concern and repeated "do you copy?" from Bob, until the silence is broken by the voice of an enemy gloating or threatening them, implying that Alice has been killed or captured. An Oh, Crap! moment usually ensues for Bob and anyone else on the receiving end of the transmission, especially if they were meant to be running a covert mission.
The situation doesn't have to be one of espionage or battle; it must simply involve someone trying to reach an ally using a long-range communicator, only for someone who opposes them to answer instead, making it clear to the listener that something bad must have befallen the ally they tried to reach.
Can be Truth in Television, especially if police radios are stolen, and the thief broadcasts rude messages, until the radio's battery runs out. Also, while villains are more prone to doing this, heroes are not above it themselves; the Big Bad can try to contact his mooks, only for the hero to answer the phone and let the Big Bad know he just defeated the mooks and will come for him next. Or it can happen before that, if the hero takes a mook's radio while he's offing them one by one, and answers a call from the rest as the next step in a Mook Horror Show.
Note that this trope only applies if the opponent answering the phone never makes any attempt to hide from the listener on the other end who they are, as they want the listener to know what happened. If they make a serious attempt to pass themselves off as the person the caller actually wanted to talk to, even for a moment, in order to not arouse suspicion or to trick their enemies, it's not this trope.
May overlap with Disconnected by Death if the antagonist eliminates the person the caller is conversing with and then takes over the call. Compare Death by Transceiver, and contrast Suspicious Missed Messages.
Examples
open/close all folders
Anime & Manga
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable: During the final battle with Big Bad Yoshikage Kira, the protagonist Josuke hides inside a house, only for the air bombs of Yoshikage's Stand Killer Queen to continue tracking him down, despite the man having no line of sight to Josuke or any other obvious means of observing him. In typical Joestar fashion, Josuke uses a lighter on his companion Hayato's jacket to reveal Yoshikage's father, Yoshihiro Kira, with a phone stowed away. He then snatches said phone and uses a raspy voice to fool Yoshikage into killing his own father with Killer Queen's bomb, before revealing the ruse to the now shocked villain just in time for Josuke's pre-prepared cunning attack to hit him.
Yoshikage: Tell me, did that vaporize Josuke, is he dead?
Josuke: [now talking in his regular voice] Yeah, you splattered the room with him...
[Yoshikage's face goes Oh, Crap! when he realizes who's talking.]
Josuke: Now, he's floating in the Great Beyond... but he was already a ghost, so it's more like you shipped him off to the big nursing home in the sky. - Maho Girls Pretty Cure!! ~MIRAI DAYS~: In Episode 3, Mirai calls Liko and is shocked when Ire picks up. It turns out Liko simply went out to buy strawberry melon bread and left her stuff on a bench, while Ire felt courteous enough to wait for Liko and distressed Mirai to arrive so he can fight them.
Comic Books
- X-Men: One story features the supervillain Arcade targeting the X-Men. After Spider-Man (who'd previously clashed with Arcade and was consequently familiar with his methods) witnessed Wolverine get captured on the street, he uses a nearby pay phone to call the Xavier Mansion to try and warn them. Arcade himself answers the phone, having already broken in and captured Banshee and Storm.
Fan Works
- The Weaver's Web: Kaiser calls Purity in an attempt to get her assistance against Orb Weaver, only for Orb Weaver to answer the phone and explain he had already recruited Purity for a different job.
Films — Live-Action
- Black Dynamite: After killing O'Leary, Black Dynamite notices O'Leary's radio going off and answers it, where he gets into an argument with his old archnemesis Fiendish Doctor Wu.
- The Bourne Series: Jason Bourne regularly does this to stay one step ahead of the government agents who are after him.
- Die Hard 1: John McClane answers the radio when Hans tries to contact some of his people that he hasn't heard from in a while. John answers, telling Hans that his cohorts are now dead. Hans instructs Karl to check on the others and to not use the radios to do so.
- Die Hard with a Vengeance: After John McClane kills Nils and hijacks his truck, Simon radios to him. John answers instead of Nils.
John McClane: Attention! Attention! Nils is dead! I repeat, Nils is dead, fuckhead. So's his pal, and those four guys from the East German All-Stars, your boys down at the bank? They're gonna be a little late.
- Elektra: The Action Prologue features a mobster who knows Elektra is coming to kill him. The head of his bodyguards orders a roll-call over the radio, only for Elektra to answer instead of one of them and tell the bodyguard that the guy who didn't answer is dead, just like his boss will soon be, but it's not too late for him to pull out.
- Eraser: After John kills Agents Schiff and Calderon, DeGuerin tries to contact them for a status update. John picks up one of their earpieces and tells him “They missed.”
- Face/Off: When Archer escapes from prison, he calls his old boss Victor to report Castor Troy has assumed his identity. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to Archer, Troy has murdered Victor, leading to this exchange.
Troy: Sean Archer.
Archer: Well, if you're Sean Archer, I guess that must make me Castor Troy. - In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Peter hails Nebula on their intercom but to his surprise it's the High Evolutionary answering who has just incapacitated Nebula.
- Hannibal: When Chief Inspector Rinaldo Pazzi decides to claim the bounty on Hannibal Lecter instead of just having him arrested, Clarice Starling quickly figures it out and begins calling him with increasing urgency to dissuade him, pointing out what a suicidal idea this is. However, on Clarice's third try, it's Hannibal who answers Pazzi's cell phone; not only did he easily overpower the inspector, but he's already gearing up to hang and disembowel him.
- John Wick 1, following the nightclub shootout, Iosef Tarasov tries to get hold of Victor, but John has his phone, sending him even further into Oh, Crap! mode:
John Wick: Victor's dead. Everything has a price.
- No Country for Old Men: Moss calls Wells in order to accept an earlier offer of protection from the latter, only for the call to be answered by Chigurh (the man Moss needs protection from), who killed Wells only moments earlier.
- Played for Laughs in The Punisher (2004). As Frank infiltrates Howard Saint's nightclub, Saint is hosting a private party. One of his underlings sends the drink elevator down for more champagne, and Frank sends up more bottles...rigged to an antipersonnel mine.
Goon: Hey Eddie, more champagne on the double!Frank: Coming right up.
- Rambo III: Rambo cleans out a cave full of Russians, and hears the chopper pilot trying to raise one of them on a fallen walkie-talkie. Rambo picks it up:
Pilot: Who are you?!Rambo: Your worst nightmare.
- Run Hide Fight, a school shooter kills a lunch lady while she still has an active call open with her husband. The shooter then picks up the phone to brag about the murder to him.
- snatch.: In the finale, Brick Top sends a hit squad to the Irish Traveller campsite to have the place massacred if Mickey doesn't take a dive at the required time in the final boxing match. Once again, Mickey goes Off the Rails and KOs his opponent, so Brick Top calls the hit squad to begin the slaughter... only for one of the Travellers to answer instead, revealing that the entire squad has been ambushed.
Brick Top: Pete, talk to me.
Traveller: If you want yer friend to hear ye, ye'll have to talk a lot louder than that. [kills Pete with a shotgun] - Soldier: Todd does this twice when he massacres more of the genetically-engineered soldiers. The first time he just growls into the microphone (which unnerves Colonel Mekum), and the second time he gives the man an Ironic Echo of his dismissal of Todd’s fellow soldiers by saying "your men are obsolete".
- Inverted in Speed: A bomber has rigged a bus to explode and is holding the passengers for ransom. The last Jack heard from his friend Harry, he had identified the bomber as Howard Payne and went to his home to arrest him, unaware that Howard wasn't there and the house was rigged to explode. When Jack next receives a call on the bus, he assumes it is Harry, leading to this exchange:
Jack: Harry! Tell me good news, man!Howard: Oh, I'm sorry Jack. He didn't make it.
- Spider-Man 1: When Peter is in the hospital to see his aunt May, who is there because the Green Goblin attacked her at her house, they end up talking about Peter’s love for Mary Jane. May remarks that everybody knows Peter loves her, which makes Peter realize the Green Goblin might also know and go after Mary Jane next. He calls her to make sure she is okay, only for the Goblin to pick up the phone and ask, "Can Spider-Man come out and play?".
- Star Trek Into Darkness: after killing Admiral Marcus and capturing Kirk, the main villain Khan contacts the crew of the Enterprise from the bridge of the Starfleet ship Vengeance which he has commandeered, showing them his captive to try to bargain for his frozen crewmates in the 72 torpedoes.
- Inverted in Taken. When Bryan's daughter Kim and her friend Amanda are attacked by sex traffickers, Kim phones Bryan, who gives them advice on how to try and evade them. When the line goes silent, Bryan realises the traffickers got them and took Kim's phone, and launches into the iconic "I will find you, and I will kill you" speech. The trafficker with Kim's phone simply replies "Good luck" before hanging up.
- X-Men Origins: Wolverine: After Logan brings down the Huey that carried Agent-Zero, he hears Stryker on the radio asking for a mission update. When Logan answers, he tells Stryker that the mission to kill him failed, and won't rest until Stryker's dead. As he walks away, a critically injured Agent-Zero mocks Logan for getting an innocent couple killed in the crossfire, so Logan uses his adamantium claws to create sparks and sets fire to the chopper's fuel, leaving Agent-Zero to die in the blaze/explosion.
Literature
- Ciaphas Cain: One short story is basically Die Hard on a spaceship where a thief organizes a terrorist attack on the planetary governor's ship, planning to rob the ship in the chaos before fleeing on an escape pod. Cain kills several of the terrorists, taking one of their commbeads, and proceeds to taunt and misdirect the terrorists until he runs into the mastermind, leaving her to die on the ship when it's targeted by the system defenses while he gets away in the escape pods.
- The Statement of Randolph Carter: Randolph recounts how he assisted his friend Harley Warren with an expedition to an old, disused graveyard, where Warren wanted to explore a mausoleum that extended deep underground. Randolph would wait on the surface, keeping contact through a telephone line. Suddenly, Warren talks about having found something terrible and begging Randolph to not come down after him, telling him instead to seal up the tomb. Then there were suddenly sounds of fighting, and Warren screaming for Randolph to run away, and a long period of silence, Randolph's cries for his friend were met with an unearthly and inhuman voice:
You fool, Warren is DEAD!
Live-Action TV
- 24 has a heroic version in its first season. After Kim is kidnapped, Jack goes searching for her. He kills some men working for the kidnappers and their boss calls over the radio. After Jack talks to him, he asks who Jack is. Jack replies "I'm the last thing you'll ever see if anything happens to my daughter."
- Arrow: In "Honor Thy Father," Martin Somers is pulling an Irish goodbye after his dealings with the Triad go south. His security guard radios another member of his detail to get their transportation in order, only for Oliver to pick up.
Security guard: Wallace...Wallace, do you copy? Wallace!Oliver: Wallace isn't here. But I am.
- Breaking Bad: During the finale, after Walt's managed to gun down the Neo-Nazi gang (with Jesse finishing off Todd), a phone rings in the carnage, Todd's to be exact, with Lydia calling him from bed to know if they've finally dealt with Walter. Walt picks up instead with a darkly cordial greeting, taking the chance to let her know he's poisoned her with ricin and that "flu" she thought she had is a sign she's already dead, before throwing the phone aside like so much trash.
- Dexter: The Doomsday Killer answers a policeman's walkie-talkie, saying "all clear" to distract the cops from his evil plan.
- Doctor Who: A variation; in "The Time of Angels", when the Doctor realizes the planet is inhabited by Weeping Angels who are slowly being awakened by the Byzantium's radiation, Octavian radios Bob to warn him about the Angels, only to be informed by Bob that he is on his way and that the Angels already found the others and broke their necks. The Doctor asks Bob how he escaped, only for Bob to reveal he didn't escape — the Angels killed him too. What sounds like Bob is actually a Weeping Angel who reanimated Bob's consciousness in order to speak to the Clerics since they cannot speak human language. It's the Angels, not Bob, who are on their way.
- Grimm: Played With in "Headache". Nick calls Renard, only for the phone to be answered by someone who makes worrying statements like, "I'm afraid he can't come to the phone right now. He's... resting. We had a bit of a rough night," in a strong Cockney accent. This makes Nick and the others think that Renard has been attacked by the Villain of the Week, an apparent Jack the Ripper copycat, and the killer just answered the phone to toy with them. When they get to his house and find Renard fine and confused about why they're there, this leads to the realisation that Renard is the killer, while possessed by the actual Jack the Ripper.
- Leverage: Downplayed in "The Rashomon Job" has Eliot recall a moment when a group of Mooks go after him and he incapacitates them all. One of their phones rings, and Eliot answers. The person on the other end is a former employer of Eliot's who is angry at him for failing to retrieve an item, but he also knows his skill level, and calmly says "I expected you to be the one who picked up."
- Reacher: Season 2 has a Running Gag where the Big Bad sends people to kill Reacher and his friends, then calls to find out how it went, only for Reacher himself to answer the phone to tell him his people are dead.
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: "The Sound of Her Voice": Subverted and Played for Laughs. Captain Cusack has been radioing back and forth with the crew of the Defiant while they're en route to rescue her. At one point she suddenly starts panicking, having seen some kind of creature approaching, and then goes silent. Dr. Bashir calls out to her, and a raspy feminine voice replies, "She's gone. I have eaten her." Bashir quickly realizes Cusack is pranking him for not paying attention.
- Torchwood: Downplayed, as his evil actions come from being forced to do so under Gray, but in "Exit Wounds", John Hart shoots Jack dead and chains him over the ground. Then, he removes Jack's comms, which are normally used to communicate with his team on Torchwood missions, and tells the team to get a good vantage point so that they can watch as he blows up pieces of Cardiff.
Video Games
- Baldur's Gate III has a non-phone variant. Early in the adventure, you can come across some bandits attempting to loot a dungeon; after either talking the ones outside into leaving or just killing them, you approach the door. Another bandit is on the other side and calls through the door to his boss, trying to ask what's going on. Your potential responses include lying to lower his guard, imitating his boss's voice, or just straight-up telling him that he's next.
- Batman: Arkham Origins: After realising that Bane's figured out his Secret Identity, Batman gets in the Batwing and beelines back to the Batcave. He then radios back to Alfred, but he doesn't pick up, and Batman's only met with Bane's voice telling him "I am in your house, Bruce". Sure enough, Batman comes back to a ransacked Batcave and Alfred seconds from death.
- Fallout: New Vegas: When The Courier confronts Benny at The Tops Casino, one of the ways for the encounter to play out is for Benny to offer to meet them in his hotel room, then send 4 hitmen in to ambush them instead. Once all 4 hitmen are dead, Benny calls the room through an intercom:
Benny: The cleaner will knock twice. Make sure they're thorough.
Courier: It's a real mess up here, Benny... there's 4 bodies.
Benny: ...What the fuck!? - Grand Theft Auto: Vice City: After "Back Alley Brawl", where Tommy kills Leo, the chef who was involved in his and Lance's deal going south, he picks up his cell phone and uses it for the rest of the game. Soon afterwards, he gets a call from an unknown number saying that they have found a buyer for Ricardo Diaz's merchandise, putting him on the kingpin's tail.
Caller: Hey Leo, I think we found a buyer for Diaz's merchandise. You gotta give him a ring, man, set up the deal, you know?
Tommy: Where are you now?
Caller: You ok Leo? You sound kinda different.
Tommy: Just tell me where you are.
Caller: Who the hell is this? Put Leo on, man!
Tommy: Leo's gone away for a while, he left me in charge.
Caller: Screw you, man! - Hitman:
- Hitman 2: Silent Assassin: In "St. Petersburg Revisited", after thwarting the ambush attempt of his clone named 17 and killing him, 47 picks up his earpiece with Big Bad Sergei Zavorotko asking if 47 is dead. 47 threatens him, and Sergei makes it known he's back to Sicily with Father Vittorio as hostage.
- Hitman: Absolution: After taking out the Saints hired to assassinate him, 47 picks up one of their phones on a call to Benjamin Travis.
47: Mission failed.
- In Act II of Max Payne (2001), Max takes back a ship full of weapons at the behest of Vladimir Lem, who had offered him payment via letting him take whatever weapons he could carry off of it — the ship had been taken from Vlad by Boris Dime, whom mob boss Angelo Punchinello had bought off from Vlad and whom Max is gunning for for framing him for the murder of Alex Balder. Just as Max returns to the bridge following the showdown with Dime Punchinello calls the bridge's phone asking for a status update, which Max picks up and lets him know what he's done in order to anger Punchinello and get him to not think clearly and make a strategic mistake.
- Mega Man X4: When X begins his assault on the Final Weapon, Double reveals his nature as a Double Agent for the Mavericks. The Maverick Hunters, who are understandably horrified by Double's betrayal, call for help, but by the time X responds to the radio, Double has already killed the Hunter who placed the call. However, he decides to simply lie, stating that nothing is wrong instead of intimidating X on the other end.
- Poppy Playtime: In Chapter 4 at the end of it, The Prototype responds to Poppy and reveals that he was passing as "Ollie" all the time.
- Road 96: Some hitchhikers will phone home and find the new tenant on the other end, gloating that their parents have been arrested, and suggesting that they turn themselves in to get them out; or a police officer threatening the same unless they return home.
- Sniper Elite 5: In Mission 7 "Secret Weapons", following The Reveal of Operation Kraken's true nature, targets, and base of operations, Lt. Karl Fairburne hears a base telephone ringing. As it turns out, the call is from none other than the Big Bad, Obbergruppenfuhrer Abelard Moller. Karl ends up taunting and assuring the Nazi General that his subordinates are "unavailable", his test base is in shambles, Operation Kraken will fail, and that Moller himself will die at the Lieutenant's hands.
- Star Wars: The Old Republic: In the Imperial planetary questline on Belsavis, the Player Character defeats a Republic marshal named Ellis Ruger, who then receives a call from a prison warden named Graal. The PC answers the call for him—optionally using a Brief Accent Imitation to make fun of him—and can either kill him while Graal is listening (Dark Side) or trade Ruger's life for Graal withdrawing (Light Side).
Warden Graal: Ruger! Come in, Ellis Ruger! This is Warden Graal! We're taking fire and can't reach your position! What's your status?
Imperial Player Character: Roger that, this is Ellis Ruger. Wish I could help, but I'm busy dying for a worthless cause. Over.
Graal: You're not Ruger! What's going on?
Web Comics
- Schlock Mercenary:
- In book 2
, some borders try to capture Captain Tagon and Commander Andreyasn but underestimate just how combat ready they are. By the time the Admiral in charge has asked what the noise is, Tagon has already taken the comm.
- Late in book 8, after Kevyn's blood-nannies restore his memory of what's been going on (and give him some impressive combat boosts), he mocks Commodore Shufgar over comms he's taken from the latest of Shufgar's troops to die at his hands.
Mook: Understood. Geaff ouAAARGH--
Kevyn: Hello again, Commodore. I have a tank now. It's very shiny, but there's an ugly stain on the upholstery.
- In book 2
Web Original
- Played for laughs in this joke text message exchange.
Dad there's a moth on the outside of the bathroom door can you get rid of it?
Pls hurry because I'm going to cry
Dad
Dad
Reply: Dad is dead. You're next. Love, Moth
Western Animation
- Batman Beyond: "Meltdown" starting with Terry thwarting an illegal trade, and when he sees the leader has a phone, he hits redial and gets Derek Powers, who doesn't take this well.
Terry: Amazing, the numbers people put on their speed dial. Just want you to know, tonight boat ride's been canceled. Though your goons are still going up the river. Wish you could join them.
- Jackie Chan Adventures: In "Enter The Viper", Jackie and Ratso get into a fight, and Ratso gets away by taking his jacket off, but Jackie sees that Ratso left his phone behind, which suddenly gets a call from Valmont, reminding "Ratso" to steal the snake talisman from the Metropolitan Museum of Art at midnight. Learning about this leads Jackie to plan his own break-in to beat them to it.
Real Life
- This was a thing in WW2. In Anthony Beevor's account of the last months of the war in Europe, he expands on stories first collated in Cornelius Ryan's earlier war histories. A German radio operator at the Wehrmacht's headquarters at Zossen (near Berlin) took the very last radio reports from an Army headquarters in a city under Russian attack. After a burst of gunfire and an ominous silence, a new voice took up the radio set and identified himself as a sergeant of the Red Army, telling OKH Zossen to be patient, we'll be with you sooner than you think.