39,327
edits
Death By Pragmatism: Difference between revisions
update links
m (clean up) |
(update links) |
||
Line 22:
** Well, the real reason he died is because after throwing the dog to the boa, instead of GETTING THE HELL AWAY FROM IT he kept [[Too Dumb to Live|sitting down and screaming at the rest of the passengers as to why it was smart to throw the dog to the boa]]. Then, it got him.
** The novelization makes it clear that he didn't do it to slow the snakes down, he did it just because he wanted to kill the dog. Any mockery of the existence of such a novel is beyond the scope of this page.
* In the new ''[[Dawn of the Dead (2004 film)|Dawn of the Dead]],'' the security guard who wanted to barricade themselves in the mall, rather than letting others in at risk of also letting zombies in, died near the end, after having been [[Redemption Equals Death|"redeemed."]] Tellingly, he was a [[Crazy Survivalist]] who prioritized the survival of himself and the three guards over the other refugees, even making them sleep in a separate and locked store for the trio's protection. Granted, he was a huge dick, but one of them ''was'' a latent [[Zombie Infectee]].
** This example - and much of this trope - possibly has much basis in the 'original' [[Zombie Apocalypse]] movie ''[[Night of the Living Dead]]'', in which much tension comes from the argument between charismatic, heroic Ben and cowardly, selfish Harry, about what is the best way to save everyone's lives; Ben wants to barricade the house, whilst Harry wants to take everyone down into the cellar, despite the fact that Ben believes that to be a death trap. Throughout the movie, Harry is portrayed in a cowardly and venal fashion, quite happy to lock people out of the house to save his own skin... and he's also ultimately shown to be right. Ben's plan results in the deaths of pretty much everyone but himself, and Ben himself only survives the night by, wait for it, locking himself in the cellar.
* [[Zig-Zagging Trope|Zig-zagged]] in ''[[Feast]]''. One of the characters decides to save herself and steals the last remaining car, leaving the others stranded to be eaten by the monsters, and manages to survive. However, it returns with a vengeance in parts two and three, where we watch the same character almost make it out of the nearby town (now overrun with monsters), only to take a serious hit to the back of her head and fall, apparently dying. The credits roll while we watch her bleeding out. Then she snaps awake, screaming, and the movie cuts to black. The third movie picks up right there, and she's killed almost immediately by a monster.
* In ''[[Return of the Living Dead]]'' the characters are finally killed because they decide they can't deal with the zombies themselves, and decide to risk prosecution by calling the military. The military nukes the whole town...take that as you will.
* Debatably the case with Bridget von Hammersmark in ''[[Inglourious Basterds]]'' after she shoots the unarmed Wilhelm in cold blood. Killing him is clearly the only sensible thing to do to protect the mission, but the audience has reason to like him and it comes across as a bit chilling. She then almost at once makes the murder pointless by [[What an Idiot!|leaving behind obvious evidence]] that incriminates her and leads directly to her own death.
** The colonel of the SS, Hans Landa, gets a Swastika Forehead Carving By Pragmatism.
* Subverted by the new ''[[Friday the 13th (film)|Friday the 13 th]]'' movie. Clay is the only person in the film who isn't either stupid or trigger-happy (probably because he's [[Supernatural (TV series)|Sam Winchester]]). While Jason is still attacking at the end, he is clearly going after the sister, not Clay, and the two of them are the only ones left alive. If anyone makes it out, it will be Clay. If he fails to make it out, it will be because he couldn't bear to leave his sister and run like hell.
* ''[[Final Destination]]''. We have all the characters dying in an order that was predicted by the main guy's powers. The [[Jerk Jock]] who started a huge fight with him when he got him thrown out of the plane {{spoiler|survives until the very end, his death being skipped to that of the [[Death by Genre Savviness|genre savvy guy]]. But, in the near end, a billboard or something falls on him.}}
* ''[[Piranha 3D]]'' had a particularly cold example of this. The pragmatist was determined to get to shore, so he used his motorboat to plow through people being attack by Piranhas, almost certainly killing some of them. Then his propeller got caught in a girls hair, and in the process of trying to start it up again he ripped off her face. It did no good, he was dead in the water, his boat was overturned by people trying to get away from the piranhas, and he was promptly eaten.
* Averted in ''[[Alien]]''. When Dallas and Lambert return to the ship with Kane and the facehugger, Ripley demands that they remain in quarantine, rather than give Kane medical attention. Her sensible (if cold-hearted) order is ignored by Ash, much to the relief of the rest of the team. But look who ends up as [[Sole Survivor]]...
* Justified in ''[[The Gingerdead Man]].'' The [[Rich Bitch]] comes up with the entirely sensible option of leaving the bakery where the [[Attack of the Killer Whatever|homicidal gingerbread man]] is hiding. Unfortunately, the monster is clever enough to have trapped all the exits, and she is paid for her pragmatism with a knife to the face.
* In ''[[The Thing]]'', Blair is probably one of the very first members of the team to realize just how bad the situation is. This causes him to completely flip his lid. He begins destroying vital equipment such as the radio, then kills all of the base's dogs then nearly kills several people. Over the course of the film, it becomes clear that these were entirely valid decisions. He destroyed the radio (and possibly sabotaged the vehicles) to prevent a breach of quarantine, killed the dogs as they were the most likely to be infected, and tried to kill the others when they moved to stop him. By the end of the film, he not only dies, but we discover he is now the last and most intelligent of the infected, basically becoming the movie's [[Big Bad]].
Line 37:
== Literature ==
* {{spoiler|Jeff}}, in Scott Smith's ''[[The Ruins]]''. From the beginning, he is painted as something of a Jerkass due to his cold and calculating nature. In retrospect, this makes him seem like the ideal hero of the situation after the horror kicks in at the second act. {{spoiler|Turns out he embodies this trope as well as [[Decoy Protagonist]]}}. He is certainly pragmatic, what with being a medical student and all, and when one of the protagonists (the non-English speaking Woobie of the cast), {{spoiler|becomes horribly injured, it is he who suggests an improvised amputation of ''both'' that character's legs, in order to prevent infection. Naturally, given their limited resources, his friends reject this idea. He is also the one later on who makes the discovery that this is the ''least'' of their worries, namely the [[Man-Eating Plant]] covering the hill they are trapped on. After a few more deaths, he ''additionally'' suggests cooking and eating the bodies of their fallen friends, in light of the fact they have next to no food or water. The remaining survivors are not thrilled with the idea, and neither is the audience, despite him simply demonstrating the need to survive. One could label Jeff as a [[Crazy Survivalist]], but when you compare him the other heros, he seems to be the only one with a brain. Naturally, he is not rewarded for it; despite attempting the only logical solution of trying to sneak past their Mayan captors at nightfall. True to the trope, it doesn't work, and he takes 3 fatal arrows for his troubles, as well as being finished off by the sinister vines.}}
Line 44:
** This is, of course, because their [[Deal with the Devil]] meant they assassinated people looking into them, experimented on innocents, and generally had their own set of evil plots. Still, they were [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|Well Intentioned Extremists]] rather than irredeemably evil.
* On ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'', the heroes frequently [[Shoot the Dog]] as needed (although it sometimes seems they do it [[Designated Hero|even when a perfectly workable and non-morally compromising solution is available]]). Doing so also [[What the Hell, Hero?|frequently comes back to bite them in the ass]] a season or so later. Oddly, the otherwise highly [[Genre Savvy]] characters don't seem to have picked up on this pattern yet.
** This turned up in ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' as well, although not as often.
* The ''[[Masters of Horror]]'' episode "Dance of the Dead" did this, although the victim's pragmatic decision was unquestionably one of the coldest things on this list. {{spoiler|A mother of two sold her older daughter, who was a strung-out junkie in the process of overdosing to a man who would reanimate her lifeless body to dance in his freak show, so that she could support her younger daughter.}} In the end {{spoiler|she was killed and the surviving daughter traded the mother's body for the sister's so that the sister could be buried}}.
Line 50:
== Videogames ==
* In ''[[Fate/stay night]]'' choosing the options that don't involve being a [[Martyr Without a Cause]] will often cause you to [[It's a Wonderful Failure|die violently]] for reasons [[Dropped a Bridge on Him|you couldn't have predicted]].
* In ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'', a fairly important plot point is the Crusaders setting up a huge trap to lure [[Eldritch Abomination|Sin]] into a bay and bombard it with forbidden Al-Bhed Machina(in this case, a bunch of cannons and a giant laser). And the outcome of attempting to use an ambush and superior firepower to stop a giant monster? ...Sin [[
Line 60:
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Death Tropes]]
[[Category:
| |||