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{{trope}}
{{quote|'''Agent 99:''' It will kill in nine seconds.
'''Maxwell Smart:''' But how do I get them to take it?
|''[[Get Smart (film)|Get Smart]]'' (2008 movie)}}
It takes a heroic level of dedication to be willing to die for a cause... but it takes an altogether higher (some would say crazy) level of dedication to be willing to kill yourself for the cause. Sometimes, a particularly devoted henchman will not only be willing to kill themselves, but will carry around a mechanism to do this cleanly and quickly should the need ever arise. The classic example is the Cyanide Pill carried in a hollow fake
It should be noted that this takes an altogether far higher level of devotion than that possessed by the standard [[Mook]]-for-hire. [[Knight Templar|Absolute belief in the rightness of the cause]] is necessary for someone to take this step. Therefore, it's usually employed by [[
This one has some basis in real
Use of the cyanide pill by villainous characters may be due to the historical use of such devices by many of the high Nazi leadership at the end of WWII who chose suicide over capture and punishment by the Allied forces. (See [[Real Life]] section below for more details) Hitler himself, due to paranoia that it would not be effective, took one but [[No Kill Like Overkill|opted to also shoot himself.]]
{{deathtrope}}
▲Compare [[Self Destruct Mechanism]]. See also [[Driven to Suicide]].
▲{{examples|Examples}}
== Advertising ==
* This was used for humor in a commercial for Dockers pants. The commercial showed a shifty looking fellow grabbing some papers and quickly walking his way through the corridors of a building, shadowy men in sunglasses following him all the while, just behind him. One slips into the elevator with him just as the door closes, prompting him to pop something into his mouth and audibly gulp it down. The shadowy figure leans over and says, "Nice pants." Cut to dumbfounded spy's face and the commercial ends.
* In a chapter of ''[[
▲== Anime & Manga ==
* [[Night of the Living Mooks|The Mariages]] from ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]] StrikerS'' [[All There in the Manual|Sound Stage X]] will
▲* In a chapter of ''[[Black Jack (Manga)|Black Jack]]'', Pinoko swallows a cyanide pill that she found in the surgeon's bag, thinking it was ordinary medeicine. Black Jack then has to desperately operate on Pinoko to get the pill out before its outer shell melts.
▲* [[Night of the Living Mooks|The Mariages]] from ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]] StrikerS'' [[All There in the Manual|Sound Stage X]] will liquify its body into a combustible liquid and immolate themselves ([[Taking You With Me|and hopefully all nearby enemies]]) when unable to complete a mission.
* In a ''[[Legend of Galactic Heroes]]'' example of [[Better to Die Than Be Killed]], Ansbach bites a poison capsule he was carrying in his mouth rather than be taken alive after attempting to assassinate Reinhard, and succeeding in killing Kircheis, during his fake surrender.
* In ''[[Outlaw Star]]'', Hilda seemed to use a variant of this when she (and a [[Space Pirate]]) were falling into a star. It was a very miniaturized ''bomb''.
* Played with in ''[[Full Metal Panic!]]: The Second Raid'', where Sōsuke is shown to be surrounded by large forces from the enemy on both sides and no ammo left, with no escape possible. AL suggests that the rational conclusion and solution is for him to activate the [[Self
* In ''[[
* The title character of ''[[
* In the [[Yu-Gi-Oh!]] manga, Marik hypnotises Anzu and forces her to take a pill, presumably a
== Comic Books ==
* In ''[[Watchmen (
== Comics ==▼
* A ''[[
▲* In ''[[Watchmen (Comic Book)|Watchmen]]'', the hitman that tries to kill Adrian Veidt takes one of these after his attack fails. {{spoiler|Except not really, as Veidt had secretly hired him (trusting in his own skills to keep him alive). In order to silence the unfortunate [[Mook]], Veidt forces a cyanide pill into the his mouth while pretending he is trying to stop him committing suicide.}}
* ''[[
▲* A ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures (Comic Book)|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures]]'' (the Archie comics) story features [[Mook|Mooks]] taking suicide pills that set their heads on fire, burning the flesh off. No reason not to do it with style...
* Played with in ''[[The Tick (animation)]]'', where a secret agent tells Big Blue that his tooth is filled with deadly poison... only he's forgotten ''which'' tooth. "I try to avoid crunchy foods."▼
▲* ''[[Usagi Yojimbo (Comic Book)|Usagi Yojimbo]]'': The Neko Ninja swallow their own tongues if captured. The [[In Space|futuristic]] versions have [[Self Destruct Mechanism|instant]] [[Kill It With Fire|immolation suits]].
▲* Played with in ''[[The Tick]]'', where a secret agent tells Big Blue that his tooth is filled with deadly poison... only he's forgotten ''which'' tooth. "I try to avoid crunchy foods."
* Parodied in ''[[Sturmtruppen]]'' where the is revealed that the "Oldest Spy in the Army" attained such a title by taking mints instead of Cyanide pills.
== Fan Works ==
* In ''[http://randomactsofshark.blogspot.com/2008/01/barack-obama-and-thunder-zeppelin.html Barack Obama and the Thunder Zeppelin]'', the Ronpaul's ''Sturmfrunten'' take a slow-acting poison before battle.
* In ''[[Contact (
* ''[[The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]]'', film version: in the very beginning, one of the enemy [[Mook
▲* In ''[[Contact (Film)|Contact]]'', Jodie Foster's character is given a cyanide pill to use on herself in case anything goes wrong with her spacecraft -- according to the film, every NASA astronaut and test pilot is given one of these, for emergencies where dying quickly would be a mercy. In his book ''[[Apollo 13|Lost Moon]]'', Apollo 13 astronaut Jim Lovell mentioned that this had been a rumor for some time, and that it was not true -- it would be much easier simply to open the main hatch and depressurize the spacecraft.
* Spoofed in the movie ''[[Team America
▲* ''[[The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]]'', film version: in the very beginning, one of the enemy [[Mook|Mooks]] kills himself this way after being caught by Alan Quartermain.
* ''[[James Bond (
▲* Spoofed in the movie ''[[Team America]]: World Police''. When Gary is being briefed for his first mission, Spottswoode prepares him for the fact that, if he is captured, he might want to take his own life. To that end, he supplies him with... a hammer.
** In the first of the films, ''[[
▲* ''[[James Bond (Film)|James Bond]]'' is supplied with a cyanide pill hidden in his briefcase o' tricks in the book ''[[From Russia With Love]]''. He flushes it down the toilet.
** In ''[[Licence to Kill]]'', a Hong Kong narcotics agent bites down on one when confronted by the [[Big Bad]] for questioning.
▲** In the first of the films, ''[[Dr. No (Film)|Dr. No]]'', the enemy driver kills himself with a cyanide cigarette.
** In ''[[
** ''[[Thunderball]]''. [[Bond Girl]] Paula Kaplan takes cyanide rather than face interrogation by SPECTRE thugs. In a cruel irony, James Bond would have arrived in time to save her if she hadn't.
** In ''[[
* An especially chilling film variant in the German film ''[[Downfall (
▲* An especially chilling film variant in the German film ''[[Downfall (Film)|Downfall]]'' has Mrs. Goebbels drugging her six children to sleep and then crushing a cyanide pill between their teeth as they're asleep, killing them all: she knows that Adolf Hitler's reign is coming to an end, and believes that a world without the Nazis is not worth it for her children. The fact that the scene displays a historical fact arguably makes it all that much worse.
** On the other side, Jewish families often did this during the war. Many parents poisoned their children and then themselves rather than allow them to be subjected to the horrors of the concentration camps. Arguably, the most famous example is that of famed cartoonist (of ''[[Maus]]'' fame) Art Speigleman's older brother Richieu, who died this way while in the care of an aunt.
* The Predators of ''[[Predator]]'' and its sequels carry a suicide [[Self
* Used twice in ''[[Telefon]]'' (1977), the first time by a [[Manchurian Agent]] (leading to much puzzlement among the CIA as to how a typical American housewife got hold of an obsolete Soviet suicide pill) and the second time by the KGB protagonist to kill a [[Renegade Russian]] (first he throttles him, them to make sure he places a pill between the man's teeth and slams his hand against the jaw to crush it).
* ''[[Lust, Caution]]'': Wong Chia-chi is given one when she joins a Chinese Nationalist cell in occupied Shanghai. When she is about to face capture by the Japanese, she reaches for it but decides to allow herself to be captured alive.
* ''Remo Williams'', the film of ''[[The Destroyer]]'' series; Harold W. Smith of CURE keeps a pill in his pocket at all times. If CURE becomes compromised, he takes the pill to cause a "massive coronary" (heart attack).
* In ''[[Fallen]]'', Denzel Washington lures Azazel (possessing his partner) out to a distant cabin in order to kill him. As the partner dies, Azazel laughs because he can easily take over Denzel Washington once his host body passes. But Denzel is smoking poison-laced cigarettes...
* Inverted in ''[[Watchmen (
* One of the Mongol Warriors in ''[[The Shadow]]'' deliberately falls to his death rather than betray Shiwan Kahn.
* One of ''[[Salt]]'''s alternate endings has Salt using fake teeth filled with cyanide... {{spoiler|which turned out to be fake - it's easier to escape an emergency room than a captivity room.}}
* [[Elite Mooks|Neo-Vipers]] in ''[[G.I. Joe:
* In ''[[Captain America:
* In the film version of ''[[Diabolik]]'', the protagonist [[Faking the Dead|fakes his death]] by taking a pill that puts him in [[Faux Death|suspended animation]] for 12 hours; the police assume he did this trope and take him to the morgue, where his [[Girl Friday]] administers the antidote.
== Gamebooks ==▼
* In the ''[[Lone Wolf]]'' book ''Dawn of the Dragons'', an assassin questioned by Lone Wolf uses a poison pellet hidden in a tooth to kill himself -- but also to liberate a [[Deadly Gas]] in the cell, trying to [[Taking You With Me|take the hero with him]]. Lone Wolf can shrug off the effects thanks to his Nexus power.▼
== Literature ==
* In [[Honor Harrington|''At All Costs'']] Havenite (the enemy) secret agent Victor Cachet visits Honor's ship for a parley. Honor is an empath and can tell he is carrying a suicide pill in his pocket and insists that he disarm the injector. She lets him go after the truce, because that is the honorable way to treat an enemy. She just wants him to know that she knows. It is not specified that he is using cyanide, only that it is a suicide device.
** And in the ''Discworld'' novel ''[[Monstrous Regiment]]'', a captured enemy spy does his best to eat the military secrets he's been entrusted with, conveniently written on rice paper. A few moments later the spy dies, and the good guys realize the manual was poisoned. His orders to eat the papers were not only intended to protect the manual, but also to execute the hapless spy.
* ''[[Dune]]'': Duke Leto is betrayed by Dr. Yueh, but the doctor gives him a poison-gas tooth so he can kill Baron Harkonnen, the Duke's enemy. This makes Leto something of a
* ''[[I Am Legend]]''. The novel, not the movie.
* In the ''[[Destroyer]]'' series of novels, Dr. Smith has a Cyanide pill in a false tooth. He would swallow it if C.U.R.E.'s security is ever breached.
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* The protagonist of the ''[[Quiller]]'' spy novels refuses to carry a suicide pill because he's Suffix 9 (Reliable Under Torture), though he changes his mind in the later novels.
* ''[[On the Beach]]'': In the [[After the End|aftermath]] of an apocalyptic nuclear war, with fallout having killed most of the globe and spreading southward, the Australian government provides cyanide pills to its citizens so that they need not die slowly of radiation poisoning.
* In William King's ''[[Warhammer
* In Peter F. Hamilton's ''[[Nights Dawn|Night's Dawn Trilogy]]'', a protagonist is surrounded by hordes of [[The Virus|possessed]] whose modus operandi is to torture people until they lose the will to live and allow themselves to be possessed. To avoid that fate and pull a [[Taking You
* Some cultists in David Eddings's ''[[Malloreon]]'' series come with an automatic, magical one preinstalled; upon being asked a certain question, the one who gets interrogated goes mad and throws himself off a cliff, laughing maniacally all the way.
** A similar magical method, called "death-triggers" is used in the Deryni novels.
* [[L. Ron Hubbard]]'s ''[[Battlefield Earth]]'' (the book, not the movie) has this with high-ranking Psychlos. Anyone who knows their classified, encrypted math system gets some brainwashing and an implant in his brain. If he attempts to teach the secret to any other race, a fuse blows and his mind is fried.
** but specific Psychlos-upper-crust males who have been taught Psychlo mathematics (an absurdly complex system which is, itself, encoded in such a way that you ''have'' to be taught the key in order to make any sense of it) are also implanted with what one character later recognizes as roughly equivalent to a fuse. If the Psychlo even considers ''teaching'' mathematics to someone else, the fuse blows and their minds are fried.
* In ''[[
* In ''[[Small Change
* In ''[[Honor Harrington
* Subverted a little in the novel ''
* In ''[[
* In A.C. Crispin's [[Star Wars Expanded Universe|Han Solo novels]], it's once mentioned that Rebel agents carry suicide pills. One of them has hers put on the collar of her armor, in case she ends up too badly hurt to put it into her mouth.
** Noghri commandos in [[The Thrawn Trilogy]] have some kind of suicide mechanism.
{{quote|
Leia frowned. Something about the way he'd said that... and abruptly, she knew what it was. For a captured commando facing interrogation, there could be only one order left to follow. }}
* In the ''[[Tortall Universe]]'', suicide spells are sometimes used to avoid truthspells or torture
* In the third ''Hunger '' novel, ''Mockingjay'', Katniss has one of these and attempts to use it, but is stopped.
* ''A Piece of Resistance'', a novel by Clive Egleton set in a [[Alternate History|Soviet-occupied Britain]]. Two members of [[La Résistance]] are caught by a counter-intelligence agent. The woman bites down on her cigarette and suddenly falls to the ground. It turns out there is no suicide pill; she was simply [[We Need a Distraction|creating a distraction]] so her partner could attack the agent. Ironically at the end of the novel the same woman is stopped by police and bites down on a suicide pill she's carrying in her
* The title character of ''Firebird'' was sent to war ''under orders'' to kill herself in the line of duty (Members of the royal family more than four places from the throne traditionally suicide so as to prevent succession disputes. With the recent birth of her niece, she was now fifth in line for the throne). After failing to get shot down, and failing to kamikaze into a mountain, she takes poison as she is tractored into an enemy warship so that she cannot be interrogated. Her captors realize that she'd taken poison almost immediately and manage to keep her alive.
* In ''[[Path of the Fury]]'', all members of the Imperial Cadre have suicide devices built into their cybernetic implants that trigger automatically if they are captured. The system is so sensitive that a friendly medic accidentally sets off Alicia's when trying to get basic diagnostic data. Fortunately, the suicide device shut off after the doctor stopped examining the hardware (but not before she nearly killed one of the other surgeons on reflex).
* An assassin in [[Watchmen]] pulls this to keep Viedt from knowing who sent him. {{spoiler|It was Viedt himself}}.
* In the ''[[
▲== Live Action TV ==
** Weng-Chiang forces another Tong member [[You Have Failed Me...|to commit suicide after he makes a mistake]], laughing maniacally as the man dies in agony.▼
▲* In the ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' serial ''The Talons of Weng-Chiang'', a member of the Black Scorpion Tong, after being captured by the police, commits suicide with a poison pill to avoid revealing anything under interrogation.
* ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]''. The Orion spy uses one of these in "Journey to Babel," right after his comrades blow up their ship with their [[Self-Destruct Mechanism]].
▲** Weng-Chiang forces another Tong member [[You Have Failed Me|to commit suicide after he makes a mistake]], laughing maniacally as the man dies in agony.
* ''[[Star Trek:
* In the ''[[Deep Space Nine]]'' episode "Extreme Measures", Sloan, an agent of the very secretive Section 31, triggers a "neuro-depolarizing device" when he's captured by Dr. Bashir. This not only kills him but starts destroying his brain and all the secrets within; Bashir has to delay this process long enough to get some crucial information from Sloan's mind. This is the third appearance of a cyanide pill in Deep Space Nine; earlier episodes featured the termination implant, which Vorta are expected to activate if captured by the Dominion's enemies, and a literal pill of Cardassian origin, which not only kills someone but causes their body to crumble into dust within a few hours, leaving no trace.
* In ''[[
▲* In the ''[[Deep Space Nine]]'' episode "Extreme Measures", Sloan, an agent of the very secretive Section 31, triggers a "neuro-depolarizing device" when he's captured by Dr. Bashir. This not only kills him but starts destroying his brain and all the secrets within; Bashir has to delay this process long enough to get some crucial information from Sloan's mind. This is the third appearance of a cyanide pill in Deep Space Nine; earlier episodes featured the termination implant, which Vorta are expected to activate if captured by the Dominion's enemies, and a literal pill of Cardassian origin, which not only kills someone but causes their body to crumble into dust within a few hours, leaving no trace.
▲* In ''[[Babylon Five|Babylon 5]]'', the captain of a renegade Minbari warship, which broke from its government when they called for surrender at the Battle of the Line, turns himself in to B5 authorities, then takes a poison pill hidden in a tooth. His crew had planned to use his death, ostensibly at Human hands, to provoke a war. When another, loyal Minbari warship arrives and disables the rogue vessel (without killing, as Minbari do not kill other Minbari), the crew of the renegade activate a self-destruct.
** Psi Corps operatives do this too, with a with a nice little rant about "the future".
* The TV series ''[[Martial Law]]'' does this in a particularly disturbing way. A few episodes deal with a cult whose [[Mook
** It doesn't take long before we see this used as a nonstandard [[Pressure Point]], by both the good guys (after establishing [[What Measure Is a Mook?|how hard it is to take them alive]]) and other [[Klingon Promotion|members]].
* An episode of ''[[
** Of course, the film also provided the page quote, which was taken from an early episode of the TV show.
* Parodied in an episode of ''[['Allo 'Allo
** An episode near the show's finale (when the Nazis are becoming increasingly worried at the possibility of an Allied invasion) had General Von Klinkenhoffen provide Gruber and the Colonel with "suicide teeth", ridiculous looking dentures that served the same function when bitten down hard. Those didn't work either.
* ''[[
* The heroine in the 1979 mini-series ''[[A Man Called Intrepid]]'' had one of these hidden inside a hollow tooth. When she's caught by German soldiers in the woods they make sure to knock her out so she doesn't have time to use it.
* An episode of ''[[
* In the ''[[The Closer]]'' episode "Time Bomb", when the police arrive to arrest one of a group of [[Nietzsche Wannabe]]s planning a massacre, he takes several antidepressants before they cuff him. At the station, they let him get a chocolate bar from a vending machine, not knowing that the chocolate, combined with the antidepressant overdose, will kill him mid-interrogation.
* In the ''[[Life]]'' episode "Hit Me Baby", an assassin pretends she's about to swallow a suicide pill, so that when an officer rushes over to stop her, she spits the pill right down his throat.
* The UnSub in the aptly-titled ''[[
* In ''[[The Inside]]'' episode "Point of Origin", a serial arsonist being interrogated sets himself on fire by pouring the interrogator's pitcher of water on himself (before turning himself in to the FBI, he had doused himself with a chemical that ignites when combined with water).
* In ''[[
* In a [[Ripped
* ''[[
* In one episode of ''[[The Man
* In the new ''[[V (TV series)|V]]'' series, all Visitors living among humans carry a pill that not only kills them but also incinerates their bodies within seconds in order to hide that they're [[Lizard Folk]].
* In the popular Soviet series ''[[Seventeen Moments of Spring]]'', a man is recruited as an informant by Stirlits (Soviet spy in Nazi Germany) and given a suicide pill hidden in a cigarette, an obvious [[
== Newspaper Comics ==
* ''[[FoxTrot]]'' referenced this in one strip where Jason and Marcus are (as usual) going to harass Paige. In the throwaway panels Jason gives Marcus a stick of vanilla chewing gum, saying "It's the closest thing to poison I could find."
== Tabletop Games ==
▲== Gamebooks ==
* Subverted in the ''[[Warhammer 40000]]: [[Eisenhorn]]'' trilogy, where a captured [[Mook]] commits ''unintentional'' suicide when Eisenhorn tries to interrogate him, thanks to an implanted bomb in his head set to go off if the bearer even ''thinks'' of revealing a certain piece of information.▼
▲* In the ''[[Lone Wolf]]'' book ''Dawn of the Dragons'', an assassin questioned by Lone Wolf uses a poison pellet hidden in a tooth to kill
=== Tabletop RPGs ===
* In the [[Pathfinder]] adventure path ''Curse of the Crimson Throne'', Red Mantis Assassins can choose to disintegrate themselves when killed, making them [[Death Is Cheap|harder to resurrect]] or interrogate posthumously (which is the important bit, since only the willing can be resurrected).
=== War Games ===
▲* Subverted in the ''[[Warhammer
== Video Games ==
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* In ''[[Perfect Dark]]'', there is a counter-ops mode that uses the same levels as in the one player mode but gives the other player control over one of the mooks. When the mook dies, the player gets control of the next mook. If the current mook is too far from the action, they can use a suicide pill to switch to the next.
* In ''[[Grim Fandango]]'', revolutionary leader Salvador Limones has a suicide pill implanted in a fake tooth that kills not only himself, but anyone else too close to him when he uses it.
* A minor boss early in ''[[Fire Emblem]]: The Blazing Blade'', Beyard, takes poison after he's defeated. Granted, it's made explicit that if he failed and ''wasn't'' killed in battle, his superiors would [[You Have Failed Me...|kill him]]. The Black Fang's just [[Bad Boss|nasty like that]].
* In ''[[
** It turns out in the third game that Cerberus was listening to that particular conversation.
* In the ''[[Kingdom of Loathing]]'' <s> Christmas</s> Crimbo 2009 event, members of the Elvish Resistance dropped suicide pills made of ''sugar''. A small pill containing ''enough sugar to kill one of Santa's elves''. Even the narrator is astonished.
* In the "bad" ending of ''[[Wing Commander (
* In ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]: [[The Elder Scrolls Four|Oblivion]]'', the Blackwood Ring of Silence is a magical version; a ring that deals massive amounts of fire damage. To the ''wearer''.
* Type "[[Critical Existence Failure|kill]]" or "[[Ludicrous Gibs|explode]]" into the client log of [[
* In ''[[Penumbra (
== Web Comics ==
* [[Ansem Retort|Zexion]] used to carry a stash of these for impromptu [[Mercy Kill
* In ''[[
** Given all the [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20031126 stuff] [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20031128 that] [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20090216 von Zinzer drinks] I have to wonder if the poison actually would kill him... or even if he's already tried to take it.
* In an early ''[[
** The captive actually added "suicide pill" into his request for otherwise ordinary (for humans) refreshments, knowing that Tagon would notice and refuse it but possibly allow the rest of them. That makes the move a [[Censor Decoy]] in the form of a [[Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick]].
* Parodied in ''[[Sam and Fuzzy]]''. Fuzzy is sent in alone to perform a burglary and finds something resembling a
* In the ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'' comic ''[[Team Fortress 2/Supplemental Material |Old Wounds]]'', Spy says he intends to kill himself to avoid torture and offers to spit some of the poison from in his mouth into Miss Pauling's.
* ''[[Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal]]'' points out [//www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2009-11-14 "a bit too macabre"] part of the "Super-realistic spy gear" toy set.
== Web Original ==
* In the review of ''[[Batman and Robin (
{{quote|
'''Batman:''' This is why Superman works alone...
'''Critic:''' ''(pauses, tries to pop the bill)'' }}
== Western Animation ==
* In the ''[[Batman:
* [[Faceless Goons|Thanors]] in ''[[Chris Colorado]]'' have literal kill switches installed behind their ears and are seen using them in some episodes.
** Similarly when he fights agents from the Council of Shadows, they would rather inhale "coma gas" than surrender.
Line 188 ⟶ 180:
* Parodied in ''[[The Simpsons]]'': Homer is caught by Mr. Burns trying to sneak into his mansion. He almost takes a cyanide pill, but Burns mistakes Homer for a magazine editor and allows him inside, stopping him from doing so. (He then tries to take it again when Burns says they'll be doing "a little walking".)
* Parodied in ''[[Drawn Together]]'' when an assassin, who's also [[Cereal Vice Reward|a genericized breakfast cereal leprechaun]], takes one of his "cyanide marshmallows". There's one in every box!
* Parodied in ''[[Family Guy]]'' as [[Adolf Hitler]] and Eva Braun do a [[No, You Hang Up First]] routine ([[Don't Explain the Joke|only instead of hanging up a phone, it's taking a]]
* ''[[Invader Zim]]'' has a [[Self
** Also this Troper remember's in the episode [[Lotus Eater Machine|Dib's Wonderful life of Doom]] that after Zim gives up WAY too easily he commands Gir to self destruct, possibly to keep any humans FILTHY hands off whatever secrets Gir may have known.
Line 198 ⟶ 190:
** It is suggested that Göring chose to commit suicide as a protest against being executed at the gallows instead of by firing squad, as he saw the former as suitable only for criminals and not military men.
*** Göring wasn't the only Nazi to do this. As [[World War II]] ended, a captured Heinrich Himmler committed suicide in this manner before the British could question him.
*** [[Adolf Hitler]] resorted to a combination of
*** Joseph and Magda Goebbels slipped their ''children'' cyanide pills in their dinner, and actually ''force-fed one'' to their eldest daughter because she knew what was going on. This was all because they didn't want to live in a world without Nazism.
*** Robert Ritter von Greim, the Luftwaffe's last commander, also took cyanide while in U.S. custody after learning he was about to be [[Fate Worse Than Death|handed over to the Soviet Union]] in an exchange of prisoners.
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** When a number of Danish resistance fighters were captured by the Gestapo, the resistance appealed to Britain to help them, as the resistance was unable to get cyanide pills to them. In one of the most daring missions of the war, the British sent in bombers to bomb the Danish Gestapo headquarters, freeing them from the basement prison.
*** Although the mission was successful, in a tragic error, during the mission the bombers also accidentally bombed a nearby children's school. After the war, some of the bomber pilots visited the families and found the families were comforting ''them''. The families understood how necessary the mission was and that the children's deaths were an accident.
* Not necessarily cyanide but certainly by poison; Cleopatra is said to have died this way. A Roman biographer commented that it was customary for royalty to have a supply of poison "just in case". Given that she might have been tortured, and possibly gang-raped if her regime fell, one can see the logic.
* To avoid being a POW, Spetsnaz would have some way to kill themselves, either a pill or a spare grenade.
* L-pills, as the slang went were regular issue in both the [[SOE]] and the [[OSS]] for reasons that are not to hard [[It Makes Sense In Context|to figure out]]. They would have been considered [[The Laws and Customs of War|illegal combatants]] even by the [[Everyone Has Standards|more-or-less]] [[Officer and a Gentleman|gentlemanly]] regimes that ruled [[Imperial Germany]] and [[Imperial Japan]] in the past, and in [[World War II]] the enemy had no problem with applying the [[Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique]]. Aside from [[Captain Obvious|not desiring]] that for themselves, no one wanted to blurt out information about comrades.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Toxic Tropes]]
[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]
[[Category:Choosing Death]]
▲[[Category:Cyanide Pill]]
|