Cosmic Close Call

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A character experiences or ends up in proximity to a disaster that can seriously injure or even kill them - and it would have if they hadn't been in the right place at the right (wrong?) time. Such disastrous events can be considered Cosmic Close Calls - the victim could only survive these through what amounts to a bizarre coincidence, a stroke of luck, or the intervention of a third party (if not literal Divine Intervention). These tend to result in tons of Collateral Damage around them, however.

Another variation is the (un?)lucky victim making a choice that would've likely put them in the path of someone else's misfortune that would've befallen them had they chosen differently, with the 'lucky' victim usually not realizing it up until that set of Disaster Dominoes finally topples proper.

Cosmic Close Calls are often the work of a Bad Luck Charm or a Butterfly of Doom, and likely the regular circumstances of a Walking Disaster Area, Doom Magnet, The Jinx, or someone who's just Born Unlucky in the extreme. Also tends to happen to the Cosmic Plaything. A sufficiently harsh one may cause the victim to declare "Screw Destiny!", and possibly even Rage Against the Heavens - Cosmic Close Calls can even result if destiny is screwed hard enough.

If the survivor's time was due to come anyway, expect the universe to finish the job - if it was a Karma Houdini that survived one of these previously, their warranty will suddenly expire. If the universe is especially out to get our victim, expect the resulting chaos to look like look like something out of a sadistically-designed Rube Goldberg Device.

Supertrope to Hitler's Time Travel Exemption Act, which all but requires this to occur. Not to be confused with Dodge the Bullet, which is literal rather than metaphorical (though it can occur in tandem).

Examples of Cosmic Close Call include:

Anime and Manga

• Puella Magi Madoka Magica has Homura try to create these to save close friends, only for something far worse to take its place, and ends up going mad in the process.

Film

• The main premise of the Final Destination film franchise mixes this with Balancing Death's Books - one or more people among a group of friends manages to survive such an unfortunate event that was supposed to claim their lives, and Death is out to correct that mistake as the survivors try their best to fight fate.

Live-Action TV

• In Supernatural, the Winchesters' encounters with the goddess Atropos - who, as one of the Fates, is in charge of arranging how mortals die - in the sixth season can be considered this. After Castiel interferes in and alters the past to save several thousand lives, Atropos begins hunting the survivors' descendants; this draws the brothers' attention, but they only narrowly avoid death at her hands twice with the help of Castiel.

Oral Tradition, Folklore, Myths and Legends

• An ancient Babylonian myth recorded in the Talmud and transcribed by W. Somerset Maugham tells of a merchant in Baghdad who sent his servant to the marketplace for provisions, only for the servant to come home white and trembling. The servant was jostled by a woman whom he recognized as Death, and fled to Samarra to hide from her after she makes a threatening gesture. The merchant later finds Death at the market place to inquire about the threatening gesture, and she replies:

“That was not a threatening gesture, it was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him in Baghdad, for I have an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.”

Video Games

• Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective has you play as a ghost trying to solve the mystery of his death and saving people by turning what would be ridiculously complex deaths into these.

Web Original

• Spinnerette has Benjamin Franklin sent through time after lightning strikes his kite, and he accidentally stops a time traveler's assassination attempt, creating this for the "lucky" would-be victim. He ends up obtaining superpowers as a result - since one of his inventions was responsible for Time Travel existing to begin with, he becomes the luckiest man alive and cannot die.

Western Animation

• A short on the What a Cartoon Show, "Awfully Lucky", has a sleazy guy trying to get a rare gem to a museum offering a huge reward for it. The gem was cursed to give whoever owns it alternating extremely good and extremely bad luck, with the thief suffering all sorts of increasingly ludicrous calamities and just barely living through them, even as he tried to return the gem to the museum.