Almost-Dead Guy: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

Sometimes, they have survived without serious injury, but are still in the middle of danger. They reach the heroes, they deliver the message, and ''then'' they get struck down. Sometimes after escaping injury for hours or days. This can be a case of [[Truth in Television]], because in [[Real Life]], human beings are often much tougher and harder to kill than people think, and in some cases have held on for ''months'' before finally expiring from their injuries.

 

 

When the story follows the character who has learned something that must be told, it's [[Bring News Back]]. (Where the survival rate is somewhat higher.) Compare also [[Pursued Protagonist]], where the messenger is in mortal peril but stands a better chance of becoming a significant supporting character

 

 

[[Truth in Television]], of course. Much of the drama of this situation comes from the fact that in most common law jurisdictions (e.g. England, Canada, the US, etc.) one of the few times hearsay is allowed in sworn testimony is when repeating a dying person's last words.

 

{{examples}}

* Villain Lordgenome in ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'', after being beaten, managed to stand up and give an ominous warning of the dangers that the heroes were getting themselves into to. The amazing part of this is that he speaks for a good fifty seconds after getting most of his torso blown out with visible pieces of him floating off into the wind for the entire speech. And even that isn't enough to kill him. Later in the series, [[Beyond the Impossible|after getting obliterated on the atomic level, he overtakes the power of a]] '''[[Beyond the Impossible|big bang]]''' [[Beyond the Impossible|and converts it into Spiral Energy, giving it (with verbal cues) to the titular mecha.]]

* Used several times in ''[[X 1999]]'', where despite gaping holes in chests through the heart characters are able to deliver important last words often critical to the plot (though till the end one guy just [[Cannot Spit It Out]]). At least in the flipped American manga it was a little more plausible since the victims were punched through the lung, not the heart as in the original Japanese.

* Adolf Junkers in ''[[Monster (manga)|Monster]]'', who has the honor of reuniting his murderer with the good doctor who saved him.

* Several dogs from ''[[Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin]]'' and ''[[Ginga Densetsu Weed]].'' Riki and John are examples.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* The unfortunate Jason in the "Land of Lost Toys" story in ''[[Hack Slash]]''.

* In the early ''[[Batman]]'' comics, this trope was used many times with background characters who would provide vital information before shoving off.

* [[Mad Magazine|Don Martin]] once did a [[Film Noir]] parody, "The Letter", starring Fester Bestertester as a [[Sam Spade|tough private eye]], and featuring "Frankie The Kid", who staggers into a scene to gasp out some vital information before dying. Frankie then appears '''again''' at the climax of the story, to deliver the titular [[MacGuffin]] into Fester's hands, before dying [[Running Gag|a second time]].

* A non-lethal example is in [[Tintin]] where a messenger from China is giving the titular character a message but before he got to tell it, he was shot a [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|"crazy serum"]] which [[Driven to Madness|turns him crazy]]. Before he become completely insane, he managed to blurt out "Shanghai" to Tintin.

* Marvel's Onslaught storyline began with [[The Juggernaut]] getting [[The Worf Effect|Worfed]] within an inch of his life, able to convey only the villain's name before he passed out. He didn't die, but this is a guy who can consistently take on the whole X-Men; just the fact that he'd ''lost'' was shocking.

 

== [[Film]] ==

* Humorously subverted and parodied by Zucker, Abrams and Zucker in ''[[The Naked Gun]] 2 1/2'' ("Who else here is almost dead?" and "Well if that's your attitude, forget it") and in ''[[Top Secret]]'', where the character Latrine only ever runs into shot and gasps something while injured.

* In the original ''[[Godzilla]]'' movie, some shipwrecked mariners are found. They say that they were attacked by a monster, and then die almost immediately after of radiation burns.

** Though the way it's said, it might be a case of the guy doing the ''voiceover'' dying just before he could say the name of the castle. Not too hard to believe in a movie where a monster can be defeated by the animator for it suffering a fatal heart attack.

** Another case from ''Holy Grail'':

*** Subverted, because he didn't actually die. He made a point of repeatedly telling Lancelot that he was going to be okay.

* Parodied in ''[[Last Action Hero]]'', where Art Carney lives just long enough to give Arnold Schwarzenegger the key piece of information, then says, "I'm outta here!" and dies.

** Also happens in ''[[Attack of the Clones]]'', where Anakin's mom survives a long period of time enslaved by Sand People, only to die in Anakin's arms once rescued. Given Padme, it is clear prequel women have a strange sense of deciding when to die.

* Captain Jacobi in ''[[The Maltese Falcon]]''.

{{quote|'''Master Tang''': Just because a guy goes "eeeeeaaaahhh..." doesn't mean he is dead.}}

* Played almost to the point of ridicule in ''[[Dead On Arrival]]''. The main character, fatally poisoned, staggers into a police station and tells his story to the policemen, narrating the whole movie before dying.

* Parodied in ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film)|Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''.

* Parodied (possibly a shout out to Monty Python) in ''[[Sin City]]'': The Big Fat Kill.

 

== [[Literature]] ==

{{quote|"Oh, for heaven's sake," said Prak, and died testily.}}

* From ''[[His Dark Materials]]'': the angel Baruch manages to get to Lord Asriel's tower and deliver his message - only semi-coherently, amid distracted rambling that reveal his origins and his once-blood relationship with the Metatron - before a ''gust of wind'' dissolves him into Dust.

** In ''The Traitor's Hand'', a praetor is fleeing Chaos insurgents when he meets Cain's forces. He fills Cain in and is shot. Unusually, the medic pronounces his injuries not serious, and later, Cain is told that he is recovering well.

** Back to ''Cain's Last Stand'', would Donal count? He fills pretty much the same expository purpose, it's just rather unusual in nature, both [[Brainwashed and Crazy|the danger]] and [[Driven to Suicide|cause of death]].

* In [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]]'s ''[[John Carter of Mars|A Fighting Man of Mars]]'', men are found, broken, on the ground; one lives just long enough to tell how of their ship disintegrated under them.

* Subverted in ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'' by Pedron Niall, Lord Captain Commander of the Children of the Light. Niall has just gotten a message of tremendous importance from his real spymaster when his decoy spymaster assassinates him. His last thought is that if he can die clutching the message in his hand, or even just reaching for it, it'll be noticed and acted on. But it's fallen into a puddle of wine and is unreadable.

* In ''[[The Lord of the Rings|The Two Towers]]'', Boromir hangs on long enough to apologize to Aragorn for having tried to steal the Ring from Frodo, and to tell him that the Orcs got Merry and Pippin. Unfortunately, by the time Aragorn gets around to asking the most salient question (i.e., did the Orcs have Frodo too?) Boromir has died.

** And in ''[[The Silmarillion]]'', Morwen stays alive long enough to reunite with her husband, tell him she's dying, and then die.

* In Les Miserables, both Eponine and Jean Valjean take their sweet time dying.

 

* The [[Game Show]] ''Where In The World Is [[Carmen Sandiego]]?'' sometimes posed a question by having "The Dying Informant" come in and gasp out clues as to where Carmen's henchman of the day had taken the [[MacGuffin]] du Jour.

* Similarly, in an episode of ''[[CSI]]'' a girl is killed by having her neck snapped. She stays conscious long enough to begin a text message with the killer's license plate number.

* Repeatedly parodied on ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]''. "The money's... in the... ''urrrrrgghhh''."

* Lampshaded in an episode of ''[[Get Smart]]'': The guy who reveals the name starts by simply stating it. He then says "I did it! You know, usually when someone is revealing a name, they'll say 'his name is...' and then get shot!" Max retorts with "So what was his name again?" "His name is--" BANG. Dead.

** Also parodied with the "What did he say?"/"He told me to get my knee off his chest" joke.

** Also in ''[[The Film of the Series|The Nude Bomb]]'', when a murder-attempt victim keeps springing back to life, leaving the heroes vacillating between calling for a hearse or an ambulance. They finally settle on the latter.

* Somewhat subverted in the final episode of ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'': Actor Casey Biggs didn't want Damar to go out without some last words, so Damar says "Keep..." just before he dies. Biggs later admitted he had no idea what would have come after "keep."

* The Face of Boe in the third season of ''[[Doctor Who]]'' sacrifices himself to free the inhabitants from the perpetual motorway, but survives just long enough to drop his [[Wham! Episode|bombshell]]

** In "Blink", Billy Shipton is attacked and killed by the Weeping Angels - well, not quite. He gets sent back to 1969, where he manages to live ''38 years'' [[The Slow Path|back to the present]] just to deliver a message to Sally Sparrow. On his deathbed.

* The first episode of the ''[[V-2009|V]]'' remake has a textbook example.

* ''[[Burn Notice]]'' plays with this a bit. One guy gets shot and manages to share some information. However, it's just a few lines about his wife, and the only reason he managed to hold on is because he had ''just'' been shot as part of a ridiculously precise and elaborate frame job.

* One episode of ''[[Mr. Show]]'' contained a series of characters afflicted with Imminent Death Syndrome, a disease which puts them at the verge of death for "fifty or sixty years"; rather than giving them time to give out crucial information, IDS allows its sufferers to be the ceaseless benefactor of everyone else's sympathy for the rest of their lives.

 

== [[Music]] ==

* [[Johnny Cash]]'s "Give My Love To Rose" is about this.

 

== [[Multiple Media]] ==

* An unnamed Ta-Matoran serves this role for the Toa Inika in ''[[Bionicle]]'', as he briefly tells them about Mahri Nui before dying.

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

 

== [[Theater]] ==

* So does Mercutio in ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'', who uses [[Large Ham|every last minute]] to tell the Capulets and Montagues [[A Plague on Both Your Houses|what he really thinks of them]].

** That and make puns.

 

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

** In [[Metal Gear Solid|the first game]], the very first character Snake meets is right in the middle of giving him important information when he suddenly dies of a heart attack. Not much later, he rescues a second man who can explain to him what's going on, when things start to seem fishy, when he also dies of a heart attack five minutes later. None of the bosses he defeats die instantly once the fight is over, but usually stay alive for a few more minutes before they are dead and provide Snake with more information. It's particularly bad with Sniper Wolf, who slowly bleeds to death explaining her story, before requesting a mercy kill. Later in the game it is revealed that Snake was injected with a bio-engineered virus and was just supposed to get close enough to all the targets so the virus would kill them by causing a heart attack, to make sure nobody would survive and be able to talk.

** In the [[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty|second game]], Emma stays conscious just long enough to disable the main computer, after being stabbed in the stomach.

** There's quite a number again in [[Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots|the fourth game]]. It is revealed that Vamp got his apparent immortality from nanomachines that instantly regenerated all damage to his body. Naomi had terminal cancer for years and was also be kept alive by the very same nanomachines. After having achieved all her goals, she commits suicide by shutting them down and dies just minutes later. And finally, Zero is an incredibly old man by the time the game ends and just too stubborn to die even though he's completely paralyzed by age and barely has any consciousness left. He dies only when Big Boss cuts off his oxygen supply.

** It appears to happen to EVA after she is impaled by a rod from an iron grate after she crashes her bike in a [[Shout-Out]] to the third game where she suffers exactly the same injury. Though it would most likely be lethal within minutes, she was able to walk it off in 15 minutes and is then able to skip at an easy jog and prepare a plane for takeoff without any signs of pain. Being 50 years older now, she seems not to be able to take it that well, but still manages to wait 20 minutes for Snake to kill their attacker, climb into the sewers and travel underground to the river, where they are captured again with a 30 minute conversation taking place without anyone attending to her injuries. Then the boat that transported her gets sunk in a massive firefight and she gets pulled out of the river. And after 3 more minutes talking with Snake, she suddenly dies just as ambulances are arriving. However while it's never mentioned in the game, it's assumed that it was the Foxdie virus that was injected into Snake 10 years ago and specifically engineered to kill the leaders of the Patriots enemies.

* ''[[Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door]]'' has the rare example of an Almost Dead Computer. He survives being erased somehow, long enough for you to travel the entire world (That's not an exaggeration; the quest to get to him involves visiting every city on the map), travel to the moon, and fight your way through an enemy fortress (including a [[Humongous Mecha]] boss). Then he dies, taking the fortress with him. Almost... he hangs on long enough for you to get to the teleporter and safely off the moon. At the end of the game, he's brought back to life with the factory intact without any explanation.

** Well, there's no real explanation, but he tells you, that he "heard Peach's voice and suddenly woke up", so we can assume it was done by [[The Power of Love]].

* Lotz's sole purpose of existence in ''[[Fire Emblem|Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance]]''. Poor Lotz.

** Greil and Rajaion also lived long enough to say goodbye to Ike and Ena, respectively.

** ''[[Majoras Mask|Majora's Mask]]'' has Mikau, the Zora, encountered moments before his death. Whether you meet him in the first, or last hour in the game's 3-day repeating [[Groundhog Day Loop]], he always has just enough time to perform a song before he dies.

* The dying villager at the entrance to the Church that begins the "Butcher" quest in ''[[Diablo]]''. Since he'll hang on forever as long as you don't speak to him, and you don't actually need to speak with him to deal with the Butcher, some players simply ignore him in order to save his life.

* In ''[[Final Fantasy IX]]'' a wounded Burmecian soldier dies telling the party about the attack on Burmecia. One wonders how he managed to make it from his country, on the other side of a mountain range, all the way up to the top floor of another country's castle, and none of the guards thought to help him or relay his message for him.

* In ''[[The World Ends With You]]'' Villainess Konishi mockingly tells Beat that Rhyme's memories were his entry fee, not hers, and therefore Rhyme didn't hold him in the same esteem that he holds her before succumbing to erasure.

** In ''[[Fallout 2]]'' Hakunin the shaman [[Psychic Dreams for Everyone|sends you a dream]] urging you to return to Arroyo. When you do so, you find him dying, and he dies as soon as he explains what's happened to you. Of course, it does not matter how long did it take for you to get to him.

* In ''[[God of War (series)|God of War]] 2'', the Spartan soldier plays this role, showing up, giving a stack of exposition, and dying horribly. It's played with a little bit in that he wasn't almost dead until he showed up and ran into a certain homicidal deity in a dark room.

** This seemed to be parodied when Everdred is "dying." He gives a long speech, asks for confirmation then... stands up and leaves.

*** Actually, [[Battalion Wars|he's had it, commander]]. Don't believe me? Just sleep at the Fourside Hotel after going through Moonside.....

* In ''[[Clock Tower (series)|Clock Tower]]'' - ''First Fear'', if Lotte is found at the altar in the caves, she relays {{spoiler|information essential in killing Scissorman}}, before dying (presumably of blood loss) shortly afterwards.

 

* In ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro ni]]'', the fake Kanon poses as this until Shannon tries to expose him. His message? "The murderer is... Rosa...". Unfortunately, he wasn't real, and neither was his message.

* Colonel Sebastian Moran in ''[[Shikkoku no Sharnoth]]'' lives just long enough to tell Mary where Charlie is before finally dying.

 

* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in ''[http://sluggy.com/daily.php?date=010302 Sluggy]'' where Hereti-Corp issues a '''memo''' instructing employees to die in someone's arms just before revealing vital information.

* Parodied in ''[[Framed]]!'': Derek has some vital information to pass on to Frank, but he's been lethally wounded and is [[Genre Savvy]] enough to know that he'll die once he's said his piece. He opts to keep his mouth shut instead, just to survive.

* Poked at in ''[[The Order of the Stick]]''. [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0472.html Apparently, having a name ''does'' increase your chances of survival...]

 

== Web Original ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Death Tropes]]

[[Category:Characters As Device]]

[[Category:Herald]]

[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]