I've Come Too Far...

If I apologize or feel regret, everything will be over. I'll never... be able to reach this place.

—Griffith, Berserk

In a moment of crisis, a hero or a villain might look back and declare: "I've come too far..." to stop now. This is a desperate kind of determination. A common variant on the phrase is, "We haven't come this far just to give up now!"

A frequent reason for why a villain may not do a Heel Face Turn and have an Ignored Epiphany instead. They may cross the Moral Event Horizon as a result. This is occasionally a case of the Sunk Cost Fallacy but not necessarily. If you've come so far that reaching your goal requires only a tiny push any more, it's "more economical", so to speak, to go through with it.

Examples of I've Come Too Far... include:

Anime

• In Code Geass, Lelouch justifies his uncertainty about the Zero Requiem plan by claiming that too many people have been sacrificed for them to stop. This would ordinarily not fit the trope, except that he was responsible for many of those sacrifices.
  • He's actually been using this excuse in one permutation or another since around the time one of his battle strategies worked a little too well and ended up killing hundreds of civilians who had little to nothing to do with the nearby battle, including Shirley's father.
• In Fullmetal Alchemist, Scar does one of these when his old teacher tries to get him to give up his alchemist-murdering ways. Interestingly, he later does have a Heel Face Turn of sorts and later is there to stop Mustang from passing the Moral Event Horizon and then having to do one of these himself.
• Griffith of Berserk provides the page quote.
• In Chrono Crusade, Aion reflects on how only six of the Sinners survived the first battle of their rebellion, and as the survivors, they were obliged to honor the sacrifice of the fallen by continuing to fight.
• This is Johan's response to being forgiven by his sister in Monster.
• Light Yagami of Death Note feels this way, especially when considering his options in the second arc.
  • When L suggests a course of action that Soichiro refuses to brook, he argues, "It's just a bit further." Which might figure into the Tarot Motifs in the anime.
• In Mirai Nikki, this is Yukiteru's justification for jumping off the slippery slope, starting wholesale slaughter of bystanders and eventually killing his closest friends in their quest to become Deus' successor, justifying it that once they become God, they can resurrect all the people they killed. Unfortunately, Death isn't Cheap in the Mirai Nikki universe, and while he may be able to restore their bodies, he cannot bring back their souls, and at best he would only have lifeless shells - a fact Yuno knows only too well, since she won the game in a previous timeline and traveled back in time after failing to resurrect Yuki.

Comics

• Flintheart Glomgold expresses this sentiment the second time he tries to beat Scrooge McDuck in a contest of wealth, and resorts to trickery to win: "I've betrayed my dear old mother's fondest hopes! I've turned myself into a scoundrel -- all to win the title of world's richest duck! I've got to win!"
• In World War Hulk, the Earth-based heroes and the Warbound start swapping "too far!"s like trading cards.

Film

• Ben 10: Secret of the Omnitrix

Ben as Cannonbolt: I've come too far! I've lost too much to be stopped now!

• The Great Scout & Cathouse Thursday

Sam Longwood: I've survived two avalanches, three blizzards, five Indian uprisings and seven presidential elections, but I've never been owned by no woman nor dog...and I've come too far down the road to let it happen to me now.

• In Downfall, Adolf Hitler uses these very words (or rather, the German equivalent) during his infamous rant. Also an example from Real Life.
• Played for Laughs in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle Go to White Castle. The two leave their apartment and head to the elevator, stoned, on their titular quest. Kumar notices he forgot his Cell Phone. When Harold offers to run back and get it, he quickly declares, "No...we've gone too far already."
• The Matrix Revolutions:

Morpheus: Can we make it?
Niobe: We ain't come this far...

• Played for Laughs in Tromeo and Juliet. Upon discovering that they are brother and sister, Tromeo and Juliet declare "Fuck it, we've come this far," and move to the suburbs and raise a family of deformed children.
• Sarah uses the phrase almost word for word in Labyrinth when she is in the oubliette.

I'm not giving up now, I've come too far!

• In Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings, this is Danny's reasoning for summoning Pumpkinhead, even though (as Spoony pointed out in his review) there was nothing stopping them from just walking away.

Live Action TV

• Alias episode "All the Time in the World"

Irina Derevko: I've come too far to let anything get in my way.

Theater

• Macbeth gets a speech about this: "I am in blood / Stepp'd in so far, that, should I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o'er."
• In Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, just as Judge Turpin enters his establishment, allowing him to bring his revenge scheme to fruition, Sweeney is pestered again by the Beggar Woman. Declaring "I have no time!", he slits her throat and goes to meet with the judge. It's not that this was really more evil than his usual actions (he had been killing his customers for some time), but it still shows him being willing to sacrifice others to achieve his goals and it comes back to bite him, as the Beggar Woman turns out to be Sweeney's wife- the entire reason for his revenge plan.

Video Games

• In one of the endings of Saya no Uta, where Kouji says that he's gone too far and all that he can see now in front of him is his own demise, since he has finally crossed that line of no return.
• Trying and failing to redeem Aribeth in Neverwinter Nights will result in her spouting this trope at you.
• The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning

I just find out that I'm this special dragon, and you tell me all is lost? That I have no home or family left? I've come way too far to give up now. I wanna see where I come from.

• Seifer in Final Fantasy VIII has this as his motivation for the last part of the game.
• General Azimuth pulls this in Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time, right before the final boss fight.

Azimuth: I'm sorry, Ratchet! I've come too far to fail now!

• The intro video to Left 4 Dead 2 has "I have not...come this far...to die now!" from Nick.
  • He will also say it randomly after being helped up from an incapacitation.
• The Last Spartan in God of War 2 says, "I have come too far to fail," right before you fight him.

Web Comics

• In The Order of the Stick, Redcloak forces himself to believe that every goblin, including his brother, that has died in service to The Plan has been necessary, unlike his brother, who felt that years after they brought Xykon in, they should have eliminated him and tried something else. Redcloak mostly just keeps pretending to so that he doesn't have to take responsibility for the horrific things he has done in the name of the plan, and both Xykon and Righteye have pointed this out to him.

Real Life

• One reason some criminal and extremist groups require new recruits to perform some heinous act as part of their initiation is to produce this effect, thus forcing the newcomer to make an irrevocable commitment.
• Also the rationale behind the Just Following Orders mindset. If you refuse to follow an order, you agree that every act of atrocity that you had done before then was done because you, at some level, were willing to commit it (since you didn't put your foot down then).