And I Must Scream/Live-Action TV: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

** {{spoiler|The Wolfram and Hart building collapses in the series finale, meaning that he likely died when that occurred anyway.}}

*** But then again {{spoiler|Wolfram & Heart (along with the rest of L.A.) gets cast into hell immediately afterwords: so he ends up there anyway.}}

** The season seven episode, "Same Time, Same Place." Willow is trapped and paralyzed in a cave with the demon Knarl, who paralyzes his victims and then proceeds to ''eat their skin''. '''One strip at a time.'''

* ''[[Doctor Who]]'' has a disturbingly large number of examples.

** The serial "Mawdryn Undead" features a group of scientists who attempted to steal the secret of regeneration from the Time Lords. Caught by the Time Lords, the scientists were condemned to perpetual regeneration while also being trapped on a ship that is almost completely isolated from the universe.

** In the serial "The Five Doctors," anyone who claims Rassilon's Gift is granted true immortality, as an unmoving (but still aware) stone carving on Rassilon's tomb.

** The Doctor himself in "Midnight" falls under [[Mind Rape|the control of a malicious alien]] and can't move... except for being forced to repeat everything she says, leading the others to think ''he's'' the malicious alien and try to kill him.

** In "The Pandorica Opens," the Doctor is contained inside a super-prison built exactly to his specifications, unable to move at all and preserved for eternity. He's even screaming as it closes- this trope to a T.

** When he wakes up, he is mildly annoyed (guess you can get used to Fates Worse Than Death).

** Attempted by the government villains in Day Two of ''Children of Earth'', as they try to contain Jack by {{spoiler|''encasing him in concrete''. Fortunately, he gets rescued by Gwen, Rhys and Ianto pretty quickly.}}

** The premise of season four of Torchwood, "Miracle Day," is that no-one dies or heals after what would have killed them, making this trope apply to everyone who had a particularly violent almost-death in that season. {{spoiler|Ellis Hartley Monroe}}'s fate at the end of episode four of 'Miracle Day' is merely one of the most extreme examples {{spoiler|(her car was crushed into a cube... while she was tied up in the back. The last shot of that episode is an extreme close up of her eye frantically looking around from inside the car cube...)}}, see also the 'survivor' of the explosion in the first episode {{spoiler|(who was still living after being at the centre of an explosion and having his head removed to see what would happen)}} and everyone who {{spoiler|was burned to ashes for being as good as dead in the overflow camps}}...

* ''[[CSI]]'' featured a serial killer that would pose his victims as they were dying so that rigor mortis would freeze them into "whimsical" poses. They found the last victim trapped in a complicated rig, just barely alive.

** Presumably, the "iron maiden" also provided full life support, possibly including muscle-toning since he can move easily even right out of the box. He's not even hungry or thirsty. It may be some form of stasis that does not shut down mental function. [[A Wizard Did It]].

*** See the "Literature" section - Wyatt's "predecessor" Nick Chopper (the original one), really didn't fare any better. The 1939 movie [[Bowdlerized]] things big time.

* The low-budget horror anthology series ''TerrorVision'' has a 15-minute episode ([http://www.p-synd.com/trv.htm referenced here]) in which a pair of elderly clothing store proprietors lure young women inside on the pretext of giving them modeling auditions, then use their "special camera" to turn them into mannequins. The [[Special Effects Failure|special effects are very bad]], but at least the concept is still scary.

** And in season three, Angela is temporarily {{spoiler|rendered unable to move except for her eyes by her husband}}.

** And later in Volume 5, when Sylar asks Matt Parkman to remove his abilities so he can live normally, [[Disproportionate Retribution|what he does instead is read his mind to discover his worst nightmare, which is being completely alone, and then trapping him in a telepathic illusion where one hour in the real world equals a year in the nightmare.]] Sylar is immortal, and there're a lot of hours in eternity. Matt even says "Enjoy Hell" to Sylar before vanishing into thin air.

** Yet another was locked in an [[Bedlam House|insane asylum]] for seventy years. No wonder these guys hate MacLeod.

*** In the Flash Animations staring Methos, we learn that prior to taking his first head, Methos did this to the pharaoh that had been mentoring him after learning that the pharaoh had been the one that had ordered the death of Methos' wife and her family. The pharaoh was mummified alive and buried until his tomb was discovered under water 5000+ years later.

** Lore is burdened with this sort of fate after his first appearance. In order to get rid of him, Data beams his evil brother into outer space, where the [[Nigh Invulnerable]] android will be cursed to drift around aimlessly in the endless vacuum, completely helpless. It's [[Downplayed Trope|downplayed]], since he's rescued after a "mere" few years when the crew of an alien ship discover his body floating around in space at a thousand-to-one odds.

** In the episode "Skin of Evil", the creature called Armus fits the trope. The result of an alien race's attempt to transcend evil, Armus is a self-loathing creature with no redeemable qualities, filled with emptiness, and living on a dead planet with no way off or any company. Picard even rubs this in, making a speech to Armus where he informs him that he's arranged to have Armus trapped on his empty planet "forever, alone and immortal". Although it's hard to feel pity for a literal pool of evil who kills for fun and really does have no redeeming qualities. The only thing one can feel pity for is that Armus had no choice in the matter of his creation.

** To say nothing of those that the Borg assimilate. As Picard implied shortly after being removed from the Collective in "The Best of Both Worlds", they're privvy to ''everything'' the Borg-them is doing, but are helpless to do anything about it. That Picard was able to break through his "Locutus of Borg" personality and tell Data how to defeat the Borg was nothing short of a miracle.

** Moriarty -- the self-aware hologram intended to outsmart Data -- is still conscious when he is deactivated, and speaks of "Brief, terrifying periods of consciousness . . . disembodied, without substance." In a subversion (?) of this trope, he is eventually trapped in a small device running a permanent simulation in which he thinks he has escaped into the real world. Geordi couldn't get him into the real world, but this is still an ignominious and condescending end.

** Sam and Dean bury Doc Benton (who's immortal) alive, chained up in a refrigerator. Another thing to consider: although he can't die, his body parts wear out, so eventually he'll rot away into a sentient and forever conscious pile of dirt.

** The episode "The Rapture", in a slight subversion, has the good guys bestow this kind of fate upon another good person. Jimmy, the vessel for angel Castiel, begs Castiel to [[Take Me Instead!|possess him to save his daughter from having a similar fate]]. It's essentially the fate for every human possessed by an angel or demon. Even the "good guy" angels like Castiel, Anna and Gabriel have been pulling this stunt for countless millennia.

** And the vampire council threaten Bill with this punishment in the first series.

* Early in ''[[Stargate Atlantis]],'' a [[Living Shadow]] that was trapped in the lower levels of the city for thousands of years starts stalking the expedition. As Sheppard said, "I know ''I'd'' be pissed."

** Marduk, an ancient Goa'uld was, after a revolt by his people, locked in his sarcophagus (which can heal anything up to and including apparent death) with a carnivorous beast. The sarcophagus kept both him and the beast alive for decades, if not centuries, with the beast eating him alive the whole time until the body finally died (as even the sarcophagus has its limits), with the symbiote jumping into the beast.

{{quote| ''Jack O'Neill'': Okay, it's official; this is the 'worst way'.}}

** Played horrifyingly straight in "Eat Me." Crichton, D'Argo, Chiana and Jool dock at a barren Leviathan in search of replacement parts for their transport ship. The ship is infested with zombie-like creatures (actually Peacekeepers whose mental capacities have been rendered primitive thanks to the episode's main villain). Their only source of food is this Leviathan's Pilot, who gets his arms ripped off. Unfortunately, his species has a [[Healing Factor]], so the trapped creature has his arms repeatedly re-grown and ripped off. By the time Crichton finds him, this Pilot is understandably border-line insane.

** In the second season finale, Crichton is undergoing surgery to remove {{spoiler|the neuro-chip that Scorpius implanted in his brain.}} Unfortunately, halfway through the episode, the doctor reports that the offending object is dangerously close to Crichton's speech centres; removing it will mean that he will be [[The Unintelligible|unable to speak coherently]] until a suitable donor can be found. Crichton wearily agrees. No sooner has the operation been completed, when [[Big Bad|Scorpius]] strolls in, kills the doctor, and retrieves {{spoiler|the extracted neuro-chip}}; seeing Crichton strapped to the operating table, unable to speak and with no help arriving for quite some time, Scorpius provides ''this'' little speech:

{{quote| You've cost me much, and I do not suffer disappointment well. I condemn you, John Crichton... [[Cruel Mercy|to live]]. So that your thirst for unfulfilled revenge... will ''consume'' you. ( [[Beat]] ) Goodbye. (He exits, leaving Crichton screaming in impotent rage.) }}

* ''[[Juken Sentai Gekiranger]]'': At the end, {{spoiler|Long, an immortal god of evil, is forever imprisoned in a metal ball (which is then put through a [[Humiliation Conga]]}}.

** In the same vein, the episode "Soft Light" has the [[Mot W]] trapped in a government test lab because he's "lightning in a bottle".

* In season three of ''[[Desperate Housewives]]'', the question of how to punish the season's [[Big Bad]] when doing so would lead to a main character going to jail was solved when she stroked out and ended up with Locked-In Syndrome. Her son then twists the knife a little further: "I'm going to turn your head now so you can watch me walk away. It's the last time you'll ever see me."

** Lana Lang suffered a temporary case of this when Brainiac placed her in an "anasthesia awareness" state during the last few episodes of Season 7. According to what Brainiac told Clark, Lana was fully aware of her surroundings and in a constant state of excrutiating pain, but she was also fully paralyzed so that she could do nothing to try to ease her pain or communicate with anybody else in any way. She was left in this condition for over a month until Clark finally defeated Brainiac and freed her. Brainiac could have been claiming this just to emotionally torture Clark as Lana did not seem to be suffering any psychological aftereffects from the experience when she returned as a guest star the following season.

* An episode of ''[[ER]]'' featured Cynthia Nixon as a stroke victim who could perceive what was happening to her but not communicate with anyone.

** The Soul Hunters themselves view it as the highest compliment, as they believe souls die with the body without their attentions.

** For much of season 4, {{spoiler|Garibaldi was under the influence of [[Brainwashed and Crazy|mental programming]] courtesy of [[Smug Snake|Mr. Bester]] that causes repeated conflicts with his comrades, eventually drives him to resign and ultimately causes him to betray Sheridan. When Bester gives him [[The Reveal]], he off-handedly says, "I can feel you you know, the real you. Beating at the inside of your skull...screaming to get out." }}

** There's an episode featuring a patient with Locked-In Syndrome. Most of the episode was shown [[POV Cam|from his perspective.]]

** In another episode of ''House'', one scene shows the patient of the week rendered unconscious by her ailment. House enters, frowns, and approaches her, putting his ear near her mouth to better hear the nearly inaudible, whispery gasps she is making. It is then that he leaps into action, revealing to the rest of the team that ''she has been screaming in agony the entire time'', only she was too weak to make much noise.

* A particularly dark example was in ''[[Crossing Jordan]]'', which, for those of you who didn't know, is a show about a coroner's office. The victim is shot and spends the most of the episode paralyzed. He used to be a prosecutor and Macy's friend, but underwent a [[Face Heel Turn]] to [[Amoral Attorney]] when Macy refused to falsify evidence to put away a serial killer. He keeps pleading with Jordan and Macy not to autopsy him, promising he'll change. He's only saved when Macy digs the bullet out and realizes he's still bleeding. Turns out he and his two guests (who were killed) had improperly prepared [[wikipedia:Fugu|Fugu]], and his secretary shot him. On his way out of the hospital, Macy gives him a bell, and tells him that people used to be buried with strings attached to bells in case they were buried alive. The lawyer points out that Macy just effectively admitted the coroner's office is at fault, and he'll both be suing and representing to woman who shot him. [[Laser-Guided Karma|Then he walks outside and gets hit by a bus]]. The last shots of the episode is the team looking down into his body bag, and their evaluator asking if they're ''sure'' he's dead. The bag is closed up, using the same POV shot from the lawyer's perspective as earlier, and then we hear a bell tinkling.

* In part seven of ''Nightmares and Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King'', "Autopsy room four", the protagonist is bitten by a venomous snake and falls into a paralytic state extremely similar to death, except ''he's fully aware''. When he's taken to the hospital, the doctors prepare for an autopsy...

* In ''[[Lost]]'', {{spoiler|Nikki and Paulo}} get bitten by Medusa spiders, which paralyzed them into a death-like state where they were fully aware, but pale, cold, and unable to move. This culminates in them being buried alive by the rest of the Lostaways (who think they're dead), and slowly suffocating to death underground. The dog is the only one who realizes something is wrong.

* In "Stiff", a season-ten episode of ''[[Law and Order]]'', a woman is found comatose because her husband has been injecting her with near-overdoses of insulin (with her consent) in their sex games to render her immobile but conscious. It turns out that {{spoiler|she's not comatose at all: her daughter has replaced the insulin with a drug that permanently puts her into a locked-in state. ''Permanently.''}}

* On ''[[Fringe]]'', areas exposed to rips in space-time are isolated by quarantining them in amber, even with people still inside. It's revealed that quarantine amber causes a state of semi-aware suspended animation for those encased inside, rather than death, as had been previously thought.

* On ''[[Dead Like Me]]'', George, the main character is a Reaper who must take people's souls out of their bodies at specific times. On an early episode, she decides to not show up to take a soul. It then shows the person trapped in their dead body receiving an autopsy and screaming in horror.

* An ''[[Alfred Hitchcock Presents]]'' episode, "Breakdown", involves a man getting paralyzed in a car wreck and mistaken for dead.

** At the end of "The Super Specs", the protagonists from the "normal" universe are trapped in a crystal ball.

* The pilot episode for the ''[[Swamp Thing]]'' TV series showed the title hero fusing the still-living body of one of the bad guys into a tree, leaving him a half-man, half-tree hybrid, in very much the same fashion as the ''Doctor Who'' example above - although in this case the effect is even more disturbing, as the bad guy's face is left frozen in a way that very much brings Munch's ''[[The Scream]]'' to mind.

* This is what "bronzing" is implied to do to people kept in ''[[Warehouse 13]]''. According to {{spoiler|H.G. Wells}}, they're fully aware, but immobile. {{spoiler|She}} seems to have come out of it fairly well, if more than a little angry.

** In the second season finale, {{spoiler|H.G. Wells is captured after attempting to destroy the world and is taken away by government agents. Her fate is unspecified, but it is said that it will be even worse than "bronzing."}}. The actual reveal in season three is debatable on whether it is worse as {{spoiler|it is her entire persona is downloaded into a coin whilst her body is given a new personality. It's not stated if her normal personality is aware of being in the coin.}}

* [[Misfits]] - Season 2, episode 6. {{spoiler|Nathan}}

* Season 5 episode "Déjà Vu" from the 1995 version of ''[[The Outer Limits]]'' deals with a failed teleportation experiment that traps the main character in a shrinking time loop. While he manages to break free in the end, the antagonist isn't as lucky. He gets caught in another time loop that forces him to relive the last few seconds preceding a nuclear explosion at point blank range, most likely for all eternity.

* ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'': There are a few examples. A monster called Pineoctopus (who could disguise himself as a [[Monster Clown|clown]]) had the ability turn people into cardboard cutouts, the Rangers were turned into pachinko balls on one occasion and bricks on another...