Back for the Dead: Difference between revisions

== Film ==

* ''[[Planet of the Apes]]'': Charlton Heston agreed to be in the sequel only on the condition that his character dies at the beginning. He actually dies at the end.

** The third film, ''[[Transformers Dark of the Moon (Film)|Transformers Dark of the Moon]]'' has Barricade make a return appearance after disappearing inexplicably during the end of the first (although [[All There in the Manual|with tie-in comics explaining what happened to him]]). He appears rounding up the Autobots as prisoners, before executing Wheeljack/Que, and then angrily berating a few Decepticon troops after Bumblebee seizes an opportunity for freedom and kills Soundwave. His eyes are then shot out by human snipers before his legs are destroyed with boomsticks and is then finished off whilst crippled.

* [[The Kirk|Captain Kirk's]] appearance in ''[[Star Trek Generations]]'' actually [[Dropped a Bridge On Him|named another trope]], but it's an example of this one too. You can almost hear the plotlines straining as he is dragged from retirement and manoeuvred awkwardly towards a heroic on-screen death.

== Literature ==

* ''[[LA Confidential]]'' opens with a surviving character from one of the previous books facing a [[Bolivian Army Ending]], drawn through to its logical conclusion. Notable for giving [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] to both the character and the [[Big Bad]].

* In the [[Gaunts Ghosts]] novel ''Sabbat Martyr'', Agun Soric is taken by the Black Ships as an untrained psyker. Four books later, in ''Only in Death'', he returns as a sanctioned psyker. The man who turned him over to the inquisition in the first place is so horrified by what has happened to him in the intervening years that he administers a [[Mercy Kill]].

* In ''[[Stargate Universe (TV)|Stargate Universe]]'', everyone who was left behind on Eden suddenly showed up with bodies that had been "improved" by [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens]]. It turns out that the improvements were only temporary. One by one, each person reverted back to the state they were in when the aliens found them, i.e., dead.

* Charlie DiSalvo from ''[[Highlander (TV)|Highlander]]'' falls into this. Charlie gets sort of [[Put On a Bus]]: he falls in love with a revolutionary and leaves everything to fight for her cause. He returns for one episode, where he describes how they were set up by an immortal arms dealer who intentionally sold them defective weapons and killed his girl. Charlie comes hunting for revenge, but as he doesn't know about immortals and his opponent is one, he winds up dying.

** The return and subsequent death of Milo Pressman in Season 6 has oft been referenced as an example of this trope, though he did survive for almost the entire season.

** Additionally, the character of Tony Almeida was injured in an explosion that left him in a coma for the first half of season 5. He was brought out of it midway through only to get killed off an episode later. {{spoiler|Although eventually subverted in that he was later revealed to still be alive two seasons later, he was dead for all intents and purposes for the rest of the fifth season.}}

** Done with Emile Danko at the beginning of Season 4. As the [[Big Bad]] of Season 3, he survived that season only to be brought back for two episodes for a somewhat contrived reason during Season 4 only to be killed off immediately by the new villains.

* Chloe Richards returned to ''[[Home and Away]]'' in 2005 in the lead up to the show's 4000th episode after leaving in 1999. Meanwhile, promos for the 4000th episode promised that [[Tonight Someone Dies|a beloved character would die]] as a result of events happening in that episode. Who died as a result of that episode's car accident? It was Chloe of course.

** Blake's death was apparently a conditon for Gareth Thomas (Blake) to appear in the episode, his death included blood to make sure that he was [[Killed Off for Real|really dead]]. Seeing as it ended up being the final episode, it didn't really matter anyway, especially as just about everyone else [[Kill'Em All|ended up dead by the end of the episode anyway]].

*** The deaths of the other characters was left deliberately ambiguous so that they could return if the series was extended.

* Joyce Summers, in ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)|Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''.

{{quote| '''Kristine Sutherland''': I was not around much in the fourth season, which was my choice, and when I let them know that [[[Joss Whedon]]] said, "Please, you must be around for the fifth season because I need to kill you". }}

* Alicia in ''[[Smallville (TV)|Smallville]]'' is slightly different from the usual version because she was a one-shot character. In season 3 she was obsessed with Clark, but she was presented as having had a breakdown and being somewhat sympathetic, and some viewers liked her as a love interest for Clark. She was brought back in the next season just to be killed off, permanently ending the possibility of being a love interest.

** Whitney also qualifies: We see him die on-screen [[Not Himself|before the shapeshifter shows up]].

** Another example is Anna from season 4, an character who has a two part episode central around. Like the above, survives her return episode and than is killed off her next episode in season 5.

* ''[[NCIS Los Angeles]]'' does this when Dom is [[Not Quite Saved Enough]].

** Ultimately averted, as not very long after that, Lyta joined the main cast for the rest of the show.

* [[Parodied Trope|Parodied]] on ''[[Scrubs (TV)|Scrubs]]'' during one of J.D.'s daydreams: Turk and Carla have a son, but due to a mix-up they misplace him and end up with a pumpkin instead. They decide to [[Rule of Funny|raise the pumpkin as their child]], and we're treated to a lengthy growing-up [[Montages|Montage]]. Then, on the day the pumpkin is graduating from college, the son reappears. "Mom? ''Dad?''" "Son?" He starts to run towards them for an embrace... and is hit by a bus. Cue [[Big No]].

[[Category:Death Tropes]]

[[Category:Back For The Dead]]