terminate with extreme prejudice
Terminate with extreme prejudice is a euphemism (playing on the western expression "termination with prejudice" of an employment contract) used by Bernard Conners in his 1972 novel Don't Embarrass the Bureau[1]. In a military context it is generally understood as an order to assassinate. Since the novel, the term has been used in other literature in a similar context, particularly in the 1979 film Apocalypse Now, in which Martin Sheen's character, Captain Willard, is ordered to terminate "the command" of the insane Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando) with "extreme prejudice."
The extraction "extreme prejudice" is popularly thought to have originated in military circles and to mean a "take no prisoners" or "show no mercy" attitude by military forces. However, the U.S. Military denies using the term or supporting any actions as depicted in any of the literature.
According to Douglas Valentine in his book The Phoenix Program (1990), the Central Intelligence Agency routinely used the term during the Vietnam War when sacking its locally hired operatives. In cases of extreme misconduct, an assassination ("termination with extreme prejudice") was ordered.
Popular usage
"Terminate with extreme prejudice" was also used in the movie "The Amateur" 1982 starring John Savage. In context it was used as an order to assassinate him.
Dr Cruces, the head of the Assassin's Guild in the Terry Pratchett Discworld novel Men at Arms issues an order to his underlings to catch an alleged tresspasser and inhume him "with extreme impoliteness", a parody of the concept and a play on the general Discworld notion of organised, polite assassins.
The term is referenced in the video game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2. When HK-47 joins the players party, he will occasionally say (while fighting), "Prejudice set to maximum."
In the Xbox and PC videogame Star Wars: Republic Commando, when ordered into a sniping position a member of the squad will say, "with extreme prejudice."
This term is also used in the television animated series Beast Wars when Ravage, a Predacon, was ordered by the Tripredacus Council to destroy Megatron.
There is a reference in the Linux kernel. fault.c states in a comment: "Oops. The kernel tried to access some bad page. We'll have to terminate things with extreme prejudice." (It is also a popular way to describe 'kill -9'.)
In an episode of The Simpsons, Chief Wiggum said, upon getting into a squad car, "Drive, with extreme prejudice".
In the animated film Final Fantasy, one of the characters references her comrade's killing of the enemy as "negotiating with extreme prejudice."
In the PS2 videogame Ratchet: Deadlocked, Dallas the announcer will often state: "That lombax is terminating with extreme prejudice."
In the young adult novel Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer (2001), the phrase "terminate with extreme prejudice" is used near the end of Chapter 8 (Troll).
In the Video Game, Independence War, one of the missions is titled: With Extreme Prejudice
See also
References
- ^ Conners, Bernard (1972). Don't Embarrass the Bureau. ISBN 0-672-51688-8 (hardback), ISBN 0-380-00722-3 (paperback).
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