Dig Your Own Grave: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

When a character must literally dig a hole for their body, usually being forced to as the last thing they do before being killed or even [[Buried Alive]].

* Happens to all the (former) deputies at the hands of the wanted mass murderer, {{spoiler|former District Attorney Mike Powers}}, in ''[[Reno 911|Reno 911!]]''. They try to make the best of it, although it takes a really long time (Junior suggests they go back into town and rent a backhoe).

* The Nazi prisoner who uses the opportunity to try to endear himself to his captives in ''[[Saving Private Ryan]]''.

* In ''[[Creepshow]]'', a man forces the guy who committed adultery with his wife to dig a hole in the sand on the beach, then jump in and be buried up to his neck. When the tide comes in...

* The Soviets did this to the Polish officer corps in ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUhBB3FgslI Katyn]''.

 

 

== Live Action TV ==

* ''[[The Sopranos]]'' episode "Pine Barrens". Christopher and Paulie try to force Russian mob member Valery to dig his own grave. Valery attacks them with the shovel and escapes. They later discover that Valery was a former special forces soldier.

** I though he was a Interior Decorater...

* In ''[[Brass Eye|Brass Eye's]]'' episode "Crime," a fake news report on juvenile delinquency told the story of a kid who dressed up as an angel, broke into an old man's house, convinced him he was dead, and then forced him to bury himself outside.

* In ''[[Life]]'', there was a two-partner called "Dig A Hole" and "Fill It Up." In the first episode, Crews and Reese solve a murder case where the [[Sympathetic Murderer]] forced his victim to "dig a hole" and then "fill it up." In the second episode, when Crews finds the real killer of the crime he was falsely imprisoned for, he forces him to dig a hole...{{spoiler|but doesn't kill him}}.

== Literature ==

* Witches in the ''[[Discworld]]'' series know exactly when they're going to die, so some of them will dig their own graves and lay down in them when the time comes, to make everything nice and tidy. Wizards also know when they're going to die, but they tend to use that knowledge to have death parties.

* In ''Pale Horse Coming'' by Stephen Hunter, corrupt cops arrest the protagonist, and one orders him to dig his own grave. However, the police chief, recognizing the protagonist's [[Badass]] potential, says it's a stupid idea and has him thrown in jail instead.