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{{trope}}
[[File:gastondies-1.jpg|link=Beauty and
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It appears that villains in the [[Disney Animated Canon]] have an especially curious tendency to exit the film by falling off or out of things. Unfortunately for them, even though they ''are'' animated characters, [[Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress|they cannot defy gravity]].
The varied list of things to fall from includes cliffs, over [[Inevitable Waterfall|waterfalls]], out of trees, and off the tops of [[Clock Tower|buildings]]. There is at least one case of a Disney villain meeting his end by falling ''up'' ([[Treasure Planet|off a space ship and into space]]), once sideways ([[Mulan|off the Chinese Imperial Palace by aid of a rocket]]), and another where a villain falls "out" by [[The Princess and
Note that none of these cases have to involve a [[Climbing Climax]], though it may involve a [[One-Winged Angel]] transformation beforehand (which is by far the second-favorite trope of Disney villains).
Sometimes, a fatal wound will be inflicted upon the villain just before taking the plunge (whether caused by the hero or by [[Hoist
As with other [[Karmic Death|Karmic Deaths]], this is often invoked to [[Thou Shalt Not Kill|conveniently relieve the hero of dispatching the villain himself]]. Heck, they may even cry "[[Take My Hand]]!" as they fail to [[Save the Villain]]. Their hands left bloodless, the hero and heroine can get married and live happily ever after and whatnot.
This is usually invoked in order to dispatch the villain [[Gory Discretion Shot|without resorting to a messier and more visible end]] which might upset the kids (or the [[Moral Guardians]]). Please ignore the [[Fridge Logic|uncomfortable realization]] that having the villain meet his or her end as an unquestionably ghastly mess on the floor isn't any less violent than [[And I Must Scream|any]] [[Impaled
Keep in mind that this can also apply to characters ''other than'' villains, although it's fair to say that most heroes [[Soft Water|have ways]] [[Disney Death|to survive falls]].
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== Disney examples, in rough chronological order ==
* Here's an obscure early one. An old Sunday comic serial had a [http://disneycomics.free.fr/Mickey/show.php?num=9&loc=ZM004 giant] and his [http://disneycomics.free.fr/Mickey/show.php?num=4&loc=ZM004 vulture] get an early version of this!
* The Queen/Witch in ''[[Snow White
* Though it did not happen in ''[[Pinocchio (Disney film)|Pinocchio]]'', [[Karma Houdini|The Coachman]] gets kicked down a cliff by Pinocchio in the SNES game.
* Subverted in ''[[
* In ''Mickey and the Beanstalk'', Willy the Giant falls to his death, just like in the original story. However, in its theatrical release (As part of ''Fun and Fancy Free'') and at least one television rebroadcast, Willy is shown to have survived...and made it to Los Angeles somehow...
* A strange thing happens in ''[[Cinderella (Disney film)|Cinderella]]''. Lady Tremaine and Cinderella's step sisters [[Karma Houdini|don't really get punished at all]] ([[Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep
** It's best to take the sequel's word for it. Cats (a) can right themselves in midair, and (b) go limp upon reaching terminal velocity, at which point their legs splay out and their skin stretches into a makeshift parachute. This means that they can actually survive very long falls.
** The third movie has the Stepmother and Drizella both get turned into frogs after a spell they try to cast on Cinderella, the Prince, and Anastasia is reflected back onto them. When they are turned back, it is implied that they will be servants in the castle. Anastasia does dodge punishment, but then she actually is a lot nicer and decides to help Cinderella in the sequels.
* At the end of ''Lambert the Sheepish Lion'', the wolf actually ends up being bumped off a cliff by the titular lion. However, it's then revealed that the wolf actually survived the fall since he immediately grabbed onto a nearby branch with berries growing on it.
* Subverted in ''[[Peter Pan (Disney film)|Peter Pan]]''; Captain Hook does fall, directly into the jaws of a crocodile, but he bursts out and [[Walk On Water|runs]] [[Villain Exit Stage Left|away]] [[Exit, Pursued
* Maleficent in ''[[Sleeping Beauty (Disney film)|Sleeping Beauty]]'' pulls her [[One-Winged Angel]] act, is killed by Prince Philip with a [[Throwing Your Sword Always Works|thrown sword]] ([[What Measure Is a Non-Human?|but it's okay because she's a dragon]]), and falls off a cliff that also is burning at the bottom.
* ''[[101 Dalmatians
* At the end of ''[[The Jungle Book (Disney film)|The Jungle Book 2]]'', [[Knight of Cerebus|Shere Khan]] falls into a [[Convection, Schmonvection|volcanic crack]] below the entrance to an ancient temple, but lands on a small island. Then a giant stone tiger head falls directly on him, subverting this trope. {{spoiler|Seemingly subverting, that is. The stone head was hollow. And then the vultures show up to mock the inevitability of his doom ([[Fridge Horror|the rock was melting under his feet]]).}}
* A very cool variation happens to the Horned King in ''[[
* ''[[
** Paired with [[Karmic Death]], as what causes him to fall is the vibrations from the Big Ben bell striking the hour shaking him off the clock tower, whereas before he would sentence his mooks to death by ringing his bell to summon his cat.
** Also happens to his sidekick Fidget, who is ironically a bat (with a crippled wing, mind you). That didn't stop ''[[Disney Adventures]]'' from doing a comic story where he had apparently survived and also did a [[Heel Face Turn]], though.
* Exceptions to this in the Disney movies tend to be very extreme. In one year we got the [[Family-Unfriendly Death|Family Unfriendly Deaths]] of both Judge Doom in ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
* This is [[Impaled
* Played straight in ''[[
* Percival McLeach in ''[[The Rescuers (Disney film)|The Rescuers]] Down Under'' escapes a group of crocodiles only to meet the [[Inevitable Waterfall]]. This is followed immediately by a [[Disney Death|fakeout]] when the heroes face the ''exact same chain of events''. (It helps to have a [[Giant Flyer|whacking great eagle]] on your side).
* Beast initially goes out of his way to spare Gaston from this in ''[[Beauty and
** Forte, on the other hand, is smashed into bits in the midquel. And while he ''was'' a huge freaking organ at the time, he was also a transformed human. One shudders to think what he looked like when the curse was broken...
* An article titled "The ''[[
** The Captain and Hakon, in the Middle Ages part of "[[Five Episode Pilot|Awakening]]". Demona, at the end of "Awakening", though she turned out to have survived. The Archmage, in "Long Way to Morning", who also later turned out to be alive because David Warner is just ''that'' awesome. Subverted in "The Journey" with John Castaway, who had a helicopter ready.
** In the "City of Stone" arc: In part one, a villain killed the hero's father by falling off a castle. In part two, the villain ''himself'' was killed by falling off the same castle. That could be justified as poetic justice, but the creators didn't want to have to do it again in part three for the other villain. So, Macbeth gets a magical ball of... something that causes the villain to be electrocuted. And after he's burned through, his body... falls off a cliff. Oh, well.
** And the modern Hunter's vendetta against Demona specifically? A fight between their father and the Gargoyle led to the Hunter falling off Notre Dame cathedral. To his death.
* In ''[[The Hand That Rocks the Cradle]]'' (from Disney's Hollywood Pictures), evil revenge-obsessed babysitter Peyton is shoved out of the attic window by Claire, and lands on the house's picket fence which Solomon had built earlier.
* ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'':
** Jafar's defeat in plays with this a bit, since he technically ''does'' fall, sucked into his own lamp. Averted in the sequel, however, where he [[Family-Unfriendly Death|explodes]].
** Subverted with Saluk in ''The King of Thieves'', who seems to die after losing his footing and falling off a cliff, but [[Not Quite Dead|he's still alive]] (even taking out a friggin' ''shark'' in the process). Later he dies by [[Taken for Granite|being turned into solid gold]], because he inadvertently touched the Hand of Midas without any protection.
* Nastily subverted in ''[[
** Also inverted: The actual "death by falling" went to Mufasa, [[You Killed My Father|the hero's father]]...{{spoiler|[[Just Between You and Me|a secret Scar just couldn't resist telling Simba before it was too late...]]}}
** Zira in ''The Lion King: Simba's Pride'' falls off a cliff into rapids and drowns. Note that, in the original [[Darker and Edgier]] ending, she was intended to be seen ''letting go'' (Some argue that this is still the case in the release. It's a bit ambiguous), and laughing on the way down.
** Her son Nuka suffers a similar death, but it's [[Not the Fall That Kills You|not just the fall]] that kills him: the logs that fall after him are definitely a factor as well.
* Since he's one of the most downright evil Disney villains of all (although he wasn't too bad in the book), [[Sinister Minister|Judge]] [[Complete Monster|Claude]] [[Big Bad|Frollo]]'s demise in ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney film)|The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]'' is particularly spectacular. He stands atop a gargoyle and is about to kill Quasimodo and Esmeralda -- but the gargoyle's head cracks, causing him to lose his balance. As he grabs onto the gargoyle for dear life, it starts glowing and snarling at him, as if [[Satan]] himself was saying he deserved it. It finally breaks off and he plummets to his doom, landing in ''molten lead''. (Note that in the book, Quasimodo ''threw'' him off). Mere seconds before the gargoyle cracked, as he was about to slay Esmeralda and Quasimodo, Frollo gave some dramatic last words:
{{quote| '''Frollo:''' And [[God|He]] shall smite the wicked and [[Karmic Death|plunge them into the fiery pit!]]}}
** An article in the ''[[Disney Adventures]]'' issue on the movie mentions some of the previous Disney Villain Deaths. When it comes to Frollo, they mention that would spoil the movie.
* Hades' defeat in ''[[Hercules (Disney film)|Hercules]]'', sorta. As a god, he [[Fate Worse Than Death|can't]] [[And I Must Scream|die]], but he was defeated by being [[Megaton Punch|punched]] into the river Styx, where the souls of the dead dogpiled him. He couldn't fall to his death, so he fell ''into'' a bunch of other people's.
{{quote| '''Panic:''' He's not gonna be happy when he gets outta there...<br />
'''Pain:''' You mean ''"if"'' he gets outta there.<br />
'''Panic:''' "If". (grins) "If" is good. }}
* In ''[[Mulan]]'', the writers shot Shan Yu with a rocket launcher (in a kid-friendly way) specifically because they didn't want to have ''another'' falling death in a Disney movie. (And yet, similar to what happens in "City of Stone", we still see his body fall off the roof). Ironically, ''[[
* [[Brian Blessed|Clayton]]'s death in ''[[Tarzan (Disney film)|Tarzan]]'' [[Family-Unfriendly Death|may be the most violent of all Disney Villain Deaths.]] Falling out of a tree and accidentally hanging oneself with jungle vines. We even get to hear his neck snap...The storm makes it possible to see the shadow of his dangling body for a second, just to drive the point home that [[Never Found the Body|yes, he died and the corpse is there if they want to check]].
** An alternate ending averts the trope, but is arguably ''less'' gruesome than the one that made it to theaters. In this ending, Tarzan confronts Clayton on Clayton's junk. A small fire breaks out when Tarzan frees all the gorillas that the hunter had captured. Tarzan then pins Clayton's shirt sleeve to an oil barrel with a knife (after choosing not to simply cut out his heart) and leaves him there as the oil from the barrel seeps towards the flames. The last shot is of the ship exploding. (This ending was cut as the filmmakers felt it went against Tarzan telling Clayton "I'm not a man like you").
* Emperor Zurg falls down an elevator shaft in ''[[Toy Story]] 2'', yet somehow survives to play catch with his son. [[It Makes Sense in Context|It's a long story...]]
* Apparently part of its effort [[Cliché Storm|to cover every trope overused by Disney]], ''[[
* Yzma falls in ''[[The Emperor's New Groove
{{quote| '''Guard:''' For the last time, we did not order a giant trampoline!<br />
'''Delivery Man:''' You know, pal, you could have told me that before I set it up!<br />
* '''BOING!'''* }}
* The Evil Jack-In-The-Box from the "Steadfast Tin Soldier" segment of ''[[Fantasia 2000]]'' is a half-example. He charges the soldier, and is flipped over by him off the table falling into a hot stove.
* ''[[Atlantis:
{{quote| '''Whitmore:''' What happened to Helga?<br />
'''Cookie:''' Weeeeeell, we lost her after a flamin' zeppelin come down on her - * WHACK* Uh, missin'. }}
* Averted somewhat in ''[[Lilo and Stitch (Disney film)|Liloand Stitch]]''; Gantu does fall after being tossed out of his own ship by Stitch, but he just lands on another one.
* A neat variation occurs in ''[[
* Syndrome of ''[[The Incredibles]]'' subverts this by getting [[Turbine Blender|sucked into a jet engine]]. Note that Mr. Incredible ''meant'' to kill him as it was a result of ''chucking a car at him''... just not in that particular way. [[Brick Joke|This is actually made somewhat humorous when one remembers earlier in the movie when Edna Mode was giving her reasons for refusing to give Mr. Incredible's new outfit a cape--one super died when her cape got her pulled into a jet engine]].
* Subverted in ''[[
* And fitting an [[Affectionate Parody]] of other Disney movies. In ''[[Enchanted]]'', Queen Narissa falls off New York City's Woolworth Building... after, yes, going [[One-Winged Angel]]. She explodes into glitter on impact.
* In the ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' series, while there are a few falling villains (which [[Peter Pan (Disney film)|Captain Hook]] subverts by being thrown off into the ocean with the crocodile chasing him... only to survive the ordeal and return in the interquel ''[[Kingdom Hearts: 358 Days Over 2
* [[Anti-Villain|Sympathetic villain Davy Jones]] dies after his heart is stabbed, and he falls into the Maelstrom in ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]: At World's End''. Averted with Cutler Beckett, who is blown up with the ship, and has his remains on the water.
* In ''[[National Treasure]]'', Shaw gets the distinction of being the ''only'' character to die in the entire movie by plummeting through an ancient staircase.
* In ''[[The Three Musketeers (1993
** Averted with Rochefort's death; he is clearly stabbed and dies in full view of the audience.
** Cardinal Richelieu is only a partial example, as he could conceivably have survived falling into the waterway (and, indeed, must've if both history and the original story is taken into account).
* An early episode of ''[[
** Played straighter in "Phineas and Ferb Get Busted", when this happens to [[Vile Villain Saccharine Show|the Drill]] [[Drill Sergeant Nasty|Sergeant]]. However, {{spoiler|it was [[All Just a Dream]] ([[Dream Within a Dream|Within A Dream]]).}}
* GO-4 gets a messy one (for a machine) in ''[[WALL-E]]''.
* Charles Muntz in ''[[Up (
* Averted in ''[[The Princess and
* ''[[
* Averted in ''[[Tron
* In one album of the Italian [[Paperinik New Adventures]] comic series, Ethan dies this way by falling from the top of a dam. The man who is the closest thing he had to a father tries to extend his hand to him, but Ethan declines and says "Sorry pa, not this time."
* A blink-and-you'll-miss-it example actually happens during the first fight scene between Finn McMissile and the Lemons at the very beginning of ''[[Cars 2]]'': As McMissile is attempting to escape the Lemons' oil rig, a Gremlin can be seen being thrown off a balcony and into the ocean beneath.
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* In ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'', Presea Testarossa falls off a crumbling floor into the extradimensional void. It's left ambiguous whether she survived and managed to teleport somewhere else with the Jewel Seeds that fell with her.
* Though a more minor villain, Cytomander of ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'' gets rammed by the Dai-Gurren and ends up having not only his ship fall, but a large amount of his minions with him.
* Shion suffers this fate in the arcs of ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro
* Averted in ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' when Wrath is defeated in Episode 58 of Brotherhood. He manages to swim to safety, although he remains weak enough for Scar to quickly kill him a little while afterwards.
* Happens to the [[Big Bad]] in ''[[
* Captain Yellow from ''[[
** [[The Dragon]] from the second DBZ movie subverts this trope, as he falls from a great height but explodes on the way down.
* In ''[[Fist of the North Star]]'', some villains get this fate. The most famous was Amiba who was dropped from his tower after Kenshiro strikes his power points then blows up in midair.
* This was the fate of Professor Cobra in the original ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]]'', although in the dub he kind of...[[Special Effects Failure|exploded or something]].
** Prof. Satou/Stein also fell to his death. [[Deader Than Dead|While on fire]].
* [[Complete Monster|Grings Kodai]], the [[Big Bad]] of ''[[Pokémon: Zoroark: Master of Illusions]]'' falls from a great height in both the anime and manga, but it's subverted in the anime were he survives to endure a [[Humiliation Conga]]. In the manga, however, Zoroark chases him off the top of the stadium wall (a much greater height) with illusionary vines, sending him falling to his death.
** Subverted with [[Complete Monster|The Iron Masked Marauder]] from ''[[Pokémon
* In ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam]]'', [[Mook]] Crown gets this death by plummeting into Earth's gravity while piloting his Zaku. Ramba Ral also suffers this fate as he falls with a grenade in his hand onto the Gundam's hand.
* [[Averted]] in ''[[Life (
* Averted several times with [[Joker Immunity|Team Rocket]] in Pokemon. Some of their "blasting off" scenes involve them falling into a gorge, and at least two falls were ones that they themselves thought would kill them (once in ''Haunter Versus Kadabra'', and again in the second movie). But the one that takes the cake for inverting this trope in the name of [[Joker Immunity]] is in the episode ''Shell Shock'', in which a boulder (which would have killed Ash and the gang) is thrown off a cliff by the Machoke, sending James falling into the gorge [[Dropped a Bridge
* Naga in ''[[Monster Rancher]]'' is defeated by Mocchi, hanging onto the edge of his castle. Despite the Searchers' [[Save the Villain|attempt to save him]], he [[Self
* This troper remembers [[Monster of the Week|Yokozuna Demon Beast Blocky]] carelessly breaking off a piece of the cliff that Stone Kirby is standing on to trick him and use his weight against him, causing them both to plunge into the sea in the second episode of ''[[Kirby Right Back At Ya]]''. Kirby, of course, swims back up to the surface and everybody other than Dedede and Escargoon cheers for him. Blocky, on the other hand, is too heavy to swim and thus is stuck sinking to the bottom of the sea.
** Subverted with fellow Demon Beast Masher. In later episode ''"Monster Management"'', Masher walked off the ramparts and fell into the ground below. He survived the fall, of course, and got out of the pothole he made when he landed. He was still destroyed later by Fighter Kirby and Knuckle Joe later, of course.
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** In the ''Minions of the Moon'' text story in ''Century: 1910'', during a trip trough space Mina comes across his corpse, still clutching the cavorite.
* The [[Captain America]] villain Baron Zemo has gone this way about five times in his various incarnations. He is also known as "Gravity's Bitch".
* In ''[[
* In the early Batman comics, the Joker did this at least four times, but always survived.
** In "Mad Love", he even says, [[Lampshade Hanging|"Not agaaaaaain--!"]] as he falls in a smokestack [[Call Back|(a reference to his origin story falling in a vat of chemicals after a fight with Bats)]].
** Lampshaded in the [[Paul Dini]]-written issue of Detective Comics 826, where Robin kicks the Joker out of a moving car off of a bridge. Neither he nor Batman think it likely that he's dead, but at least he'll be out of commission for a good couple of weeks, which is really the best you could've hoped for.
* In the ''[[Hellboy (
* Used in the beginning of ''[[Watchmen]]'', when The Comedian falls to his death, and we see the body wrecked and the blood spilled. The [[Watchmen (
* Nicodemus West in ''[[Doctor Strange]]: The Oath'' slips and falls from the roof of a New York skyscraper. If he hadn't suspended Strange's ability to use magic three minutes earlier, he would have lived.
* ''[[Preacher (Comic Book)]]'' has two examples:
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* A weird subversion occurs to the ''hero'' of ''[[Virtuosity]]''. Russel Crowe's sadistic villain (who happens to be a video game villain who has come to life through the magic of [[Applied Phlebotinum]]) knocks Denzel Washington's hero off a roof. Denzel gets to have a very graphic Disney Villain Death ''and'' a [[Disney Death]] immediately afterward! Of course, both Russel and Denzel fall through a glass rooftop earlier. Russel gets to fall through a ''series'' of glass panels on the way down. The result [[Body Horror|is not pretty]].
* ''[[Batman]]'':
** Subverted in the 1989 ''[[Batman (
** In ''[[The Dark Knight Saga]]'' The Joker ''almost'' suffers this fate, but is saved by Batman.
** Two-Face has a similar demise in ''[[
** This is a very popular move in the Batman films. In Burton's ''Batman'', a mook got thrown over the side, while in ''Returns'', Catwoman falls more than once, though she survives each fall ([[Cats Have Nine Lives|due to having nine lives]]). The Penguin also falls through a window during his final fight with Batman. In ''Forever'', Edward Nygma throws his boss to his death. Finally, in ''[[Batman and Robin (
** The entire climax of Burton's first ''Batman'' movie is a big [[Homage]] to ''[[Metropolis]]'', where Freder Frederson chases [[Mad Scientist|Dr. Rotwang]] up into the cathedral and knocks him off the roof.
* In ''[[Superman II]]'', the Zod Gang gets this death. Superman throws General Zod into an icy abyss in a crevice, Lois punches Ursa into another crevice, and Non, while trying to fly, falls into another crevice, as the Zod Gang's powers have just been taken away. Although there is a deleted scene where they are arrested by Arctic police, it doesn't explain how they could have survived, so it could be taken as an alternate ending, similar to the Sylvia scenes in ''[[Ice Age]]''.
** In ''[[Superman IV]]'', after Superman neutralises Nuclear Man's powers, he drops Nuclear Man, where he falls to his doom into the core of a power plant.
* In [[Star Wars]] Episode VI, ''[[
** In the ''[[
*** Parodied in the ''[[Robot Chicken]]'' Star Wars special, which turns this trend into a [[Running Gag]].
**** Robot Chicken is also a subversion of the trope, in that we actually see the result of the fall (lets just say that it gets a janitor irritated at having to clean up)
* [[Alfred Hitchcock|Saboteur]] uses this.
{{quote| "KAAAAAAAAANE!"}}
* In ''[[
** This also happens to the equally sadistic torturer Sergeant Yushin in ''Rambo: First Blood Part 2''. Rambo throws him out of a helicopter.
* In the ''[[Casper (
* [[
{{quote| "Now, how many times have you seen this shot in a movie? TOO MANY FUCKING TIMES! This was one of the biggest cliches of the time. What happens at the end of ''[[Batman (
** What makes this death even worse is that when he hits the water, [[Special Effect Failure|there is no splash effect]]; he just "implodes".
*** Actually, he just sort of "disappears" before ever actually hitting the water. Apparently he fell into the blue screen instead....
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* Thankfully subverted for Tai Lung in ''[[Kung Fu Panda]]'': not only is he hurled upward, not down (courtesy of Po's massive belly), but his death ([[Never Found the Body|if it even happens]]) occurs due to the [[Finishing Move|Wuxi Finger Hold]], not a fall or any other type of very final, [[Deader Than Dead]] denouement. [[Sequel Hook|Of course you know what this means...]]
** The [[Word of God|director's commentary]] during this scene is particularly cagey: though they claim they had to 'get rid of' their villain and that he was 'wuxi-ed into oblivion', they also point out what happened to Tai Lung is never really explained and is 'one of the mysteries of the movie.' Covering their ass in case they want to bring him back, or just trying to be magical and mystical? You decide.
*** The holiday special opens with a dream sequence where a ''giant'' Tai Lung shows up, prompting Po to say "I thought you were d-" [[Never Say "Die"|before getting cut off]]. Of course, that only points to what Po ''thought'' was true...
* Several [[James Bond (
** The [[Big Bad]] of ''[[
** In ''[[
*** Scratch "lets", substitute "actually cuts the tie the mook is holding onto and." Who'd have thought the Roger Moore era would have one of the nastiest bits of cold-blooded murder committed by Bond in the series?
** In ''[[
** [[Rule of Three|In]] ''[[For Your Eyes Only (
*** Eric Kriegler is a better example as he falls down, and we ''DON'T'' see his body. He is a perfect example of this trope.
** ''[[
** ''[[A View to
* Happens to all three of the main villains in the ''[[Rush Hour]]'' series of movies, though usually with a bit more proof they didn't survive the impact than at Disney. [[Lampshaded]] during the blooper reel of ''Rush Hour 2''.
{{quote| '''Chris Tucker''' Damn! He ain't gonna be in ''Rush Hour 3''!}}
* Happens so much, to both heroes and villains, in the ''[[Star Wars]]'' films that ''[[Robot Chicken]]'' did a series of sketches spoofing it by showing a Janitor at the bottom of the shaft/ground/wherever that has to pick up the body and decides to take another job, right where the next person gets dropped.
** Particularly amusing, since the sketch repeatedly highlights the very image that the trope is designed to skirt around.
* In ''[[The Lord of the Rings (
** In ''Return of the King'', Denethor hurls himself off the top of Minas Tirith. [[Deader Than Dead|While on fire]].
** In the extended edition, Saruman is stabbed in the back and falls backwards off the top of Orthanc and is impaled on a spiked wheel. Then, the machine begins to turn, sliding the body of Saruman down into the watery depths.
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** Well... two different girls, actually.
*** [[It Was His Sled|Shhhh!]]
* ''[[
* The film adaptation of ''[[
** Also, a monk throws himself out of a high tower.
** Gui was tossed cliffside and impaled on spikes the same reason the girl was spared: the producers believed an American audience [[Viewers are Morons|couldn't handle a tragic ending]].
* Being a [[Cliché Storm]], this is how the villainess in ''Delgo'' meets her end.
* All four ''[[
** A car full of Nazi soldiers goes over a cliff in ''[[
** Mola Ram in ''[[Indiana Jones and
*** Slight subversion, we do see that he is eaten by crocodiles instead of just leaving it at the fall.
*** Technically, we saw his ''clothes'' being eaten by the crocodiles.
** Colonel Vogel goes over a cliff in a tank in ''[[Indiana Jones and
*** Amusingly, [[Bilingual Bonus|his name is the German word]] [[Meaningful Name|for "bird"]]. Which is also used as a term for "idiot."
** Dr. Elsa Schneider plummets into a smoky abyss when she tries reaching for the grail at the end of ''[[Indiana Jones and
** The Russians on the cliffs near the waterfalls in ''[[Indiana Jones and
*** The two non-mook examples at least show what happens when they hit bottom.
* The first ''[[
* In ''[[Star Trek III:
** The Reman Viceroy gets a similar death when he is kicked by Commander Riker in ''[[
** As does the Borg Queen in ''[[Star Trek: First Contact
*** Though this doesn’t kill her; Picard snapping her spine afterward does.
* Henry Evans from ''[[The Good Son]]''. It's made chilling when you take into account that the character was a ''kid'' played by Macaulay Culkin. Additionally, his mother deliberately dropped him rather than just falling off. She could only keep hold of one of them though, and Henry honestly [[Karmic Death|had it coming]].
* In ''[[
{{quote| "Oh, I hope that's not a hostage..."}}
** Also from the ''[[
* The villainess in ''[[Catwoman (
* Near the end of ''[[Judge Dredd (
* ''[[Total Recall]]''. While fighting Quaid, [[The Dragon]] Richter has his arms ripped off by an elevator and falls to his death. His fall might be considered a good thing, given your opinion on bleeding to death.
* ''[[Commando (
** Cindy: "What did you do with Sully?" Matrix: "I let him go!"
* The [[Big Bad]] Strack in ''[[Darkman]]'' died the same way as Sully from ''[[Commando (
* In the ending of ''[[
* At the end of ''[[Shanghai Noon]]'', the villain, Lo Fong, is killed when a bell falls from a tower and its rope gets wrapped around his neck. The pulley effect drags Fong upward, in a sort of inverse hanging.
** Also in ''Shanghai Knights'', the Big Bad of the movie lures the heroes into a clock tower, where he and Chon Wang engage in a spectacular sword fight. Close to defeat, Wang cuts the support of a catwalk, sending both combatants hurling out of the clock tower window. Wang is saved by Roy, but the villain falls to his death, complete with a Wile E. Coyote puff of smoke when he hits the ground. Damn.
* Speaking of [[Jackie Chan]], the two villains of ''[[The Forbidden Kingdom]]'' get taken out this way.
* In the Marvel film series, [[Doctor Doom]] sinks into the water in ''[[Fantastic Four (
** In ''[[Spider-Man (
** Also, [[X-Men (
*** Toad was electrocuted and ''then'' fell into the ocean.
** Bullseye was thrown out of the church window in ''[[Daredevil (
*** The [[Big Bad]] in ''[[Elektra (
** Stane fell into the reactor in ''[[Iron Man (
* ''[[
* In ''[[G.I. Joe:
* Though already dead, {{spoiler|Albus Dumbledore}} falls from the Astronomy Tower in ''[[Harry Potter (
** Horntail gets a similar treatment in ''Goblet of Fire''.
** In ''Deathly Hallows Part 2'', Scabior falls to his death when Neville destroys the wooden bridge, Greyback is blasted over a cliff by Hermione, and Goyle falls into the Fiendfyre while trying to climb away from it.
* Nero's [[The Dragon|dragon, Ayel]] is shot and falls to his death in the recent ''[[Star Trek (
* Bishop in ''Juice''.
* ''[[Sherlock Holmes (
** Falling is the most common way for villains in [[Sherlock Holmes]] films to go out, as Moriarty himself fell three different times in the Rathbone-Bruce films (thrown off a tower, fell 60 feet into the sewers, and plummeted off a high rise after the pipe he was hanging on to broke). However, in 1985's ''[[Young Sherlock Holmes]]'', Rathe falls into a frozen river only to survive, after which it was revealed that he was Moriarty the whole time.
** At the end of ''A Game of Shadows'' (the sequel to the 2009 film), {{spoiler|Moriarty is about to kill Holmes, who realizes that he can't take Moriarty in a fist fight. So he grabs Moriarty and throws himself off a ledge overlooking the Reichenbach Falls, taking Moriarty with him. Holmes is revealed to be [[Faking the Dead]]; Moriarty isn't.}}
* In ''[[Van Helsing]]'', this occurs all over the place, and it varies between who it's most effective against. The final villain to fall is Igor, who also has the longest and most dramatic plummet.
* In ''[[The Lovely Bones]]'' film, Harvey stumbles over a cliff to his death, possibly caused by the deceased protagonist.
* ''[[Wild Wild West (
* Averted in the movie version of ''[[Angels and Demons]]''. In [[Dan Brown|Dan Brown's]] book the Hassassin is thrown off a balcony in the Castel Sant'Angelo by being overpowered by [[Non-Action Guy|non-combat scholar hero]] Robert Langdon and [[Waif Fu|Yoga Fu empowered]] Vittoria Vetra. In the movie, the Hassassin (now "Mr. Gray") makes a "you're not armed, and I wasn't paid to kill you, but don't follow me" speech. Free to leave, he locates his getaway car and final payment and is promptly [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness|killed by a car bomb]].
* In ''[[The Scorpion King]]'' the villain Memnon gets his Disney Villain Death only after getting shot in the chest with an arrow, falling backwards off a really high building, THEN getting engulfed in the flames of an explosion, and then finally crashing into the ground. Interesting to note that he's still alive and screaming up until he splats on the ground. [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|Talk about overkill]].
* Imhotep gets this in ''[[The Mummy Trilogy|The Mummy Returns]]'' though he falls into the seemingly endless pit of Hell.
* In the sequel ''The Snow Queen's Revenge'', the Snow Queen falls into the lava. Her body is still intact afterwards, but is turned to stone and presumably doomed, but apparently not quite dead yet, as her eyes glow before the credits roll. If she survived but remained a statue for eternity, then this fits more under [[And I Must Scream]]. Also of note, her staff was turned to stone as well, and she is still holding it in her hand; her staff being in her hand released her from her imprisonment at the beginning of this movie, while all she can do while turned to stone is make her eyes glow (much like when she was frozen). The eyes might be also a hint at her return in a sequel, but none has yet been made, and after 14 years without a third film, it is unlikely it will be made.
* Subverted in ''[[Titan
* Bailey's fate in ''[[The Avengers (1998
* Happens to Dr. Caldicott in ''[[Disturbing Behavior]]'', when Steve kicks him off a cliff.
* This is how the Persian messenger bites it in ''[[
* ''[[Top Secret]]''. Played for laughs when Chocolate Mousse throws a soldier off the top of a tower and he ''shatters'' like stone.
* Happens to the insane nun Sister Ruth at the end of ''[[Black Narcissus]]'' when she tries to push Sister Clodagh off the cliff. Martin Scorsese even calls it a "Disney Death" in his DVD commentary appreciation of the film.
* In ''[[
* In ''[[Mystery Men]]'', the main villain, Casanova Frankenstein meets his end when Mr. Furious throws him off a ledge into his own Doomsdaydevice. {{spoiler|It's not the fall itself that kills him but the machine, and in a rather graphic way.}}
* In the beginning of the first ''[[Hellboy (
** Then again, this being [[Back From the Dead|Rasputin]] here...
* ''[[Our Man Flint]]''. While fighting two Galaxy security guards, Flint knocks them off a catwalk to their deaths on the ground below.
* ''[[Tremors]]''. Graboids are sensitive to loud noise and stampede away from them. Valentine detonates a bomb and sends the last Graboid over the edge of a cliff to its death.
* In the 2010 remake of ''[[True Grit]]'', Mattie {{spoiler|shoots Tom Chaney off the mountain campsite.}}
* In ''[[Dick Tracy (
* One scene from ''[[
* In the [[Kamen Rider Kabuto]] movie ''[[The Movie|God Speed Love]]'', Kamen Riders Ketaros gets a rather spectacular one. During his fight with Kabuto on a spacestation, they both fall off. While Kabuto survives, Ketaros falls all the way to earth, dying on impact.
* At the end of the first movie of ''[[
** The sequel has Quentin Hapsburg knocked out a window and he falls off the balcony but his fall is stopped by an awning, he gets up and brushes himself off only to get killed by a random lion that escaped from the zoo.
* In [[
* Duxton, the [[Big Bad]] of ''Mr. Accident'', ultimately meets his end when he falls over the railing of the top floor of Roger's apartment building. We actually do see him hit the ground and it's pretty dang messy.
* In ''[[The Three Musketeers (2011
* Subverted in ''[[Dead Silence]]''. As screaming in the presence of Mary Shaw's ghost results in a painful, gruesome death, it isn't the ''fall'' that kills [[Bad Cop, Incompetent Cop|Detective James Lipton]] - just the fact that he can't help but scream on the way down, resulting in him dying before he hits the ground.
* In the latest version of ''[[Brighton Rock]]'', Pinkie suffers death by gravity from the Seven Sisters cliffs. He stumbles over the edge after acid is splashed onto his face and eyes, causing horrific burns. All this is true to the book - although the entirely [[Subverted Trope|un-Disney-death-detail]] of a shot of his broken body and mutilated face lying in the wash at the bottom of the cliff is a new addition.
* As the leader of Future Villain Band in ''[[Sgt.
* [[Ice Age]] has a non-villainous, non-conflict related variation. One of the animals is asking where Fred (presumably a member of their herd) is, to which another states that he isn't coming along as he had an "evolutionary breakthrough." It then shows an animal of the same species (implied to be Fred) running full steam towards a cliff and he starts yelling "I'm FLYING!!" as he's falling before he lands and is implied to be killed, to which one of the herd says "Some breakthrough."
* An assassin in ''Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol'' is kicked through a window of the Burj Khalifa. For those not in the know, [[No One Could Survive That|that's the tallest known building in the entire world.]]
* Inverted in ''[[Snow White:
== Literature ==
* In ''[[The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle]]'', {{spoiler|Captain Jaggery falls to his death off of the bowsprit after cornering Charlotte up there in an attempt to kill her.}}
* Gollum falls to his death in ''[[
* In the [[Sherlock Holmes]] story ''[http://sherlock-holmes.classic-literature.co.uk/the-final-problem/ The Final Problem]'' (link goes to the E-book), Professor Moriarty falls off a cliff -- but he takes Sherlock Holmes down with him! Sir Arthur Conan Doyle intended for this to be the final Sherlock Holmes story until the fans pressured him to bring the detective back, inadvertently creating an early example of a [[Disney Death]] in the process.
* [[Older Than Radio]]: Magua dies this way at the end of ''[[The Last of the Mohicans
** Interestingly, in [[The Last of the Mohicans
* In [[Diana Wynne Jones]]' fantasy parody/[[Deconstruction]] ''[[Dark Lord of Derkholm]]'', the main character is ''hired'' to play a dark lord for groups of people from another world (possibly our world) who get to act out the typical [[High Fantasy]] story. However, he runs out of time to come up for a interesting "death" so simply creates a pit made to look bottomless and pretends to have a Disney Villain Death. Multiple times a day.
* In ''[[Groosham Grange]]'', a school inspector is tortured by Miss Windergast's black voodoo magic (namely a [[Voodoo Doll]]) in an attempt to [[These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know|prevent him from discovering the truth about the school]] and he ultimately falls off a cliff to his death. This example of the trope is a subvert as the school inspector was '''not''' a villain.
* ''[[Discworld]]'' examples:
** At the end of ''[[Discworld
** Near the end of ''[[Discworld
** In ''[[Discworld
* [[Redwall]] has a variation. So far, in 21 books, [[Ancestral Weapon|The Sword of Martin the Warrior]] has only been used ''twice'' to directly kill the [[Big Bad]], and once in the most recent book, ''The Sable Quean''. They still can get crushed under giant bells (Cluny, ''Redwall''), Drown (Tsarmina, ''Mossflower''), Fall down a hole (Slagar, ''Mattimeo''), etc.
* In ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'' Mat Cauthon kills off {{spoiler|the ''gholam''}} using a Skimming gateway and this tactic. Bonus points for the fact that the emptiness inside a Skimming gateway is believed to be infinite. The victim should starve to death, assuming it ''can'' starve to death.
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* In ''[[Splinter of the Minds Eye]]'', Luke and Leia hide in a great bottomless-seeming well from a monstrous wormlike wandrella, which finds them and tries to follow, but ends up falling down the well. At the end of the book, {{spoiler|Darth Vader}} ends up falling into another well, but Luke is immediately certain that while he's out of the fight, he's still alive.
* In [[John Le Carre]]'s first novel, ''A Call for the Dead'', George Smiley kills {{spoiler|Dieter}} by knocking {{spoiler|him}} off a bridge. A combination of [[My God, What Have I Done?]] and [[Heroic BSOD]] ensues.
* Subverted in ''[[
* In ''[[
* ''[[Abarat]]'': Mendelson Shape falls from a great height to his apparent death when he kidnaps [[Mismatched Eyes|Candy Quackenbush]] with a magically created giant moth and hostile hunters in air balloons fire at them. In the second book, {{spoiler|it is revealed that he survived his fall, and his true death happens when he is forced to enter the territory of the Sacbrood}}.
* In ''[[The Stoneheart Trilogy]]'', Edie's stepfather falls to his doom when he tries to kill Edie and she retaliates by hitting him hard with a pebble, knocking him into a chasm.
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** The earliest villain example (or at least [[The Dragon|Dragon]] example) comes in Season One's ''[[Doctor Who/Recap/S1 E6 The Aztecs|The Aztecs]]'', when Ixta gets kicked off the top of a temple whilst trying to kill Ian. First [[Big Bad|main villain]] example comes in Season Two's ''[[Doctor Who/Recap/S2 E3 The Rescue|The Rescue]]'', where Bennett is so shocked by the appearance of the people he thought he'd killed that he backs away over a cliff edge.
** The [[Big Bad|Sycorax Leader]] from ''[[Doctor Who/2005 CS the Christmas Invasion/Recap|The Christmas Invasion]]'' tries to underhandedly kill the Tenth Doctor but he [[Edible Ammunition|throws a satsuma]] at a button on the Sycorax ship, which causes a part of the ship to open up. This part of the ship just ''happened'' to be right underneath where the Leader was standing and so he falls to his epic fail death.
* On ''[[
* Lionel Luthor is taken out of the show this way in ''[[Smallville]]'', also an example of [[Klingon Promotion]] and [[Dying to Be Replaced]].
* Murdoc in ''[[MacGyver]]'' gets at least three of these: fell down a mountain, fell down a mine shaft, fell off a cliff. Naturally they [[Never Found the Body]], and he survived all three times.
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** Hell, technically, Buffy ''herself'' gets this treatment at the end of the episode, as her [[Disney Death]] doesn't take place until the following season.
* Also from [[Joss Whedon]], the torturer from the ''[[Firefly]]'' episode ''War Stories'' falls into the abyss after being shot to death.
* Another good guy ([[Heel Face Turn|technically]]) example: in the season five finale of ''[[
** In the [[Series Finale]], {{spoiler|this is how The Man in Black goes out, when he is shot by Kate and kicked off the cliff by Jack.}}
** You know, we can't bring up ''Lost'' without mentioning [[Destination Defenestration|what Locke's father did to him]] can we? Although it doesn't qualify as "Death", it broke his spine.
* On ''Las Vegas'', Monica Mancuso <ref> villain of a [[Tyrant Takes the Helm]] story arc</ref> stands on the rooftop of the Montecito in season three and rants about how, one day, she will own the entire Las Vegas strip. Then, in a bizarre twist, a huge gust of wind catches her ridiculous outfit and she flies off the roof and into a shoe store.
** And in the season five premiere, Sam's kidnapper falls out of his airplane to his death.
* In ''[[Alias (TV series)|Alias]]'', Sydney faces off against her mother, Irina Derevko in the series finale. After a rather brutal showdown, the fight ends on a rooftop, where Irina ends up falling through a skylight to her death. Mmmm, closure.
** In an earlier episode, Sydney throws a foe out a plane. He doesn't get to hit the ground, however, as he is sucked into the wing turbine.
* On ''[[Bones]]'', [[Serial Killer|Howard Epps]] hangs off a balcony and [[Save the Villain|Booth grabs his hand and tries to stop Epps from falling the 50 ft. to his death]]. It fails, however, and Bones and Booth watch Epps fall and hit the pavement, ridding them of a major antagonist.
* In ''[[
* The ''[[
* ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'' - Aredian the Witchfinder dies by falling out a window rather than being killed by Merlin like most of the villains.
* Happens to the White Witch in the BBC version of ''[[The Lion, the Witch
* On ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'', Nathan falls off a rooftop in his final appearance on the show.
** Kaito Nakamura is tossed to his death off of the Deveaux rooftop by {{spoiler|Adam Monroe.}}
* In season one of ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'', the Meg Masters demon is thrown out a seven story window. Being a demon, she survives. However, after the demon is purged from Meg's body, the girl dies from the wounds given to her from the fall that happened a few episodes ago.
* Doctor Shinigami/[[One-Winged Angel|Ikadevil]] in the original ''[[Kamen Rider (TV series)|Kamen Rider]]''. Gets tossed off a cliff by Rider 1 ([[Narm|all while EEEEEEIIIIIII'ing]]) then when he recovers from the fall, he immediately [[Made of Explodium|explodes]].
** Colonel Zol in his [[One-Winged Angel|Gold Werewolf]] form is punched off a cliff by Kamen Rider 2 and explodes on impact.
* In ''[[CSI New York]]'', Mac is chasing a serial killer across a rooftop. The killer feigns surrender, then attacks Mac, steals his handcuffs, cuffs himself, and tosses himself off the building onto a police car below. Disney Villain Suicide?
* ''[[Star Trek: Voyager
* In the finale of ''[[Maddigans Quest]]'', Ozul and Maska follow [[Circus Brat]] Garland out onto the high wire rather than waiting at either end to trap her there. The result is rather predictable.
* In ''[[Crossing Jordan]]'', the title character's half-brother threw himself from a third story window into the Charleston River when cornered by the police, taking all his secrets about their mother's murder with him. Though his body was never recovered, he never appeared on the show again, so it's a pretty safe assumption he's good and gone.
* In ''[[Justified (TV series)|Justified]]'', Raylan has to confront Coover in [[Growing the Beard|Brother's Keeper]], leading to Coover's plunge down the mine shaft.
* ''[[Third Watch]]'': Though drug kingpin Donald Mann (played by Gene Simmons) went down in a pool after being shot three times, right before the confrontation that leads to his death, he chucks a subordinate off the building roof, and we see the sod embedded into the roof of a car on the street below as Yokas and Cruz arrive on scene.
* ''[[Leverage]]'': {{spoiler|Ruthless investor Latimer and the team's first client/target fall off a ledge while fighting over a gun, which goes off before a splash is heard. Unlike the above they're bodies aren't seen but its highly unlikely they survived... probably.}}
* ''[[Pretty Little Liars (TV series)|Pretty Little Liars]]'': After being revealed as A, {{spoiler|Mona Vanderwaal}} falls off a ledge during a struggle with Spencer. Spencer even [[Take My Hand|reaches out to try and pull her back]], but isn't able to. In a [[Subversion]], {{spoiler|Mona}} lives through the fall and is eventually found criminally insane and confined to an insane asylum for treatment.
* In the second episode of ''[[Batman (TV series)|Batman]]'', "Smack In The Middle," the Riddler's moll and [[Girl of the Week]] Molly tries to shoot the Caped Crusader in the Batcave but winds up falling into the atomic reactor to her death ("What a way to go-go") - one of only two [[Killed Off for Real]] moments (and the ''only'' time a woman is killed) in the entire series.
* In the season 2 finale of ''[[Nikita (TV series)|Nikita]]'', {{spoiler|this is how Nikita and [[Big Bad|Percy's]] final confrontation ends. As Percy's about to make his grand escape, he attempts to kill Nikita, and in their struggle he falls over the edge of Division's missile silo. Nikita grabs him, but ultimately lets him drop. Ironically, when he hits the bottom he crashes into the glass prison cell he spent the first half of the season locked up in.}}
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* The [[Trace Memory]] series plays with this. The first game plays it straight with Bill falling into a large pit in a cavern, but the sequel subverts it by having Richard save Ryan from his suicide attempt.
* Disney's own [[Toontown Online]] has a boss fight that ends with the Cog VP being pushed off the roof of his HQ building.
* At the end of ''[[Banjo
* There are quite a few level-specific ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'' Fatalities which allow you to finish your opponent with one of these. Usually upon a whole mess of [[Spikes of Doom]].
* Let's not forget that the easiest way to defeat Bowser in ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]'' involves a bridge, a lake of lava, some carefully-timed jumps, and a switch you can press to defeat your opponent. Same for SMB3, you have to resort to avoiding his stomps and fireballs long enough to make him stomp a hole all the way through the floor without taking you with him.
** Avoided in ''Super Mario 64'': Trying to just push Bowser of the cliff makes him jump back up and create a shockwave in the process. You need to throw him into a bomb or three to actually defeat him. You can't defeat King Bob-Omb by throwing him of the mountain, either, or he will react pretty similarly to Bowser.
** The final level of the [[Donkey Kong]] Arcade uses this. Mario removes the rivets holding the platform Donkey Kong is on, causing him to fall down, and hit his head. Its Sequel, Donkey Kong Jr has a similar set up. After freeing [[Donkey Kong]], the floor disappears, both Donkey Kong and Mario end up falling, but the former is caught by Jr. In a subversion of the trope, Mario immediately recovers from the fall, and runs away. Also subverted in Game Boy [[Donkey Kong]], where DK falls off the tower after being defeated by Mario, only to return powered up as a giant for the definite final battle. A similar thing happens in Mario vs. Donkey Kong, but DK ends up crashing onto a truck full of Mini-Marios. He survives and steals the Mini-Marios, again. "[[Here We Go Again]]!"
** Happens again with Bowser in [[
** At the end of ''Super Mario 3D Land'', Mario breaks the bridge that Bowser is on and in a pretty awesome cutscene, he starts to fall towards a pit of boiling lava [[Slow Motion Fall|in slow-moton]]. Then a rock hits him and Bowser falls to his doom at regular speed. [[Unexplained Recovery|Bet you £1,000,000 he'll be back for the next Mario game, though]].
* In ''[[
** In ''[[
* ''[[True Crime: Streets of LA]]'': General Kim throws himself off of a skyscraper in the bad ending.
** Can also happen to Nick Kang, if you lose to Kim.
* Inverted in ''[[
** Given a [[Shout-Out]] in ''[[
* Played straight in ''[[
** {{spoiler|Ba'Gamnan}} in ''[[
* In the original ''[[Prince of Persia]]'', many of the [[Mooks]] can be forced off their platforms if you keep parrying their thrusts and advancing as they are knocked back. This will kill them if the drop at the platform's end is high enough or is over a [[Spikes of Doom|spiked pit]]. It's even possible to kill the [[Final Boss]] in this manner.
* An arcade shooter game ''Silent Scope 2'' does this, in a way; the last boss is fought atop the Palace of Westminster's Clock Tower, with a hostage handcuffed to him. After managing to shoot the boss (and not his hostage) enough times, he drops off the side, with the hostage barely hanging on at the top. Your last bullet has to hit the handcuff chain, thus saving the hostage's life. If you manage the shot, the game goes eerily silent as the [[Big Bad]] drops... and the last thing you hear before credits roll is a dull thud, and the scattering of birds.
* [[Ghost Squad]] also does this in the end of the second mission. Egregious since it is achieved by a headshot of all things. This, of course, being [[Bloodless Carnage|Sega]] game...
* This trope nearly happened to Rouge in ''[[
* At the end of GBA RPG ''[[
* ''[[Final Fight]]'' games have a tendency to end this way. In fact, the endboss' AI (at least in ''Final Fight II'', and the first, probably in the third as well) is set so that when he is at critically low health, he suddenly jumps to and stubbornly insists on staying on the side of the screen with the obvious window (complete with a [[Turns Red|special otherwise-unseen form of ass kicking]] [[Berserk Button|if you attempt to get behind him]]--you are ''not'' allowed to get between him and the window) ''specifically'' so that he can go flying through the window when you strike the final blow.
** ''[[Final Fight]] 3'''s last boss stubbonly stands next to a power switch on the roof of city hall. He is electrocuted when you land the final blow, and you character escapes off the roof as it explodes. But he doesn't fall.
* [[Fatal Fury|Geese Howard]] gets his at the end of ''Real Bout'', complete with a rejection of Terry's outstretched hand and evil laughter as he plummets toward the ground. Geese, of course, also gets this at the end of [[Fatal Fury]]. Assuming you beat him. Otherwise, he sends YOUR character to a Disney Villain Death.
* In ''[[
* In one ending of [[Clock Tower (
* In ''[[Ratchet and Clank Future Tools of Destruction]]'', Tachyon falls into a black hole after he is defeated in a boss battle.
** Also, in Crack in Time {{spoiler|Ratchet falls off a platform after being shot in the chest by Alistar.}}
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* Joker attempts to give HIMSELF a Disney Villain Death at the end of the ''[[Batman]]: Vengeance'' videogame. You, as Batman, [[Save the Villain|must save him]], or face a [[Nonstandard Game Over]] as the game informs you that death is not the same thing as justice.
* At the end of ''[[Def Jam Series|Def Jam: Fight For NY]]'', the easiest way to defeat the [[Big Bad]] Crow is to slam him against his [[Executive Suite Fight|office windows]] until they shatter and he goes flying through them. You get a [[Cosmetic Award|trophy]] for pulling it off. Of course, you also have to watch out because he'll try to do the same to you, and he's [[Fragile Speedster|one of the fastest fighters]] in the game and often beats you to the punch.
* In the video game of Spider-Man 3, Spider-Man and Venom have an aerial battle that ends after an [[Action Command]] sequence allows you to save yourself and allow Venom to plummet to the bottom of the construction site, getting [[Impaled
* Also through an [[Action Command]], [[God of War (
* ''[[Tales of Vesperia]]'' can use this trope for Symbolism, depending on whether or not you're into viewing it that way. Whoever Yuri kills appears to have the symbolic fall from power...Ragou and Cumore were both politically powerful, and both fell off of a bridge after Yuri killed them and into a dry sandpit (respectively), Barbos had a powerful blastia under his control and fell off of the gear tower, and Zagi had a powerful blastia fused onto his body and fell off of a tower.
** Alexei meanwhile...wasn't entirely killed by Yuri. ([[Faux Symbolism|His ambitions technically crushed him]]) And you'd assume that after ''four times'', that Duke would fall to his death or be crushed by his ambitions, right? Well...you wouldn't be further from the truth. He actually ''saves the day''.
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** Rahm Kota gets this honor but returns later on. Also, Starkiller throws Shaak Ti in the Sarlacc and thinks he is done but she back out very fast.
* TK from ''[[Dead Rising 2]]''.
* The fate of Cesare in ''[[
** Also, Ahmet in ''Revelations''.
* Shredder in ''[[
* Subverted with {{spoiler|Dutch van der Linde}} in [[Red Dead Redemption]]. {{spoiler|When you finally confront him, he gives a [[Hannibal Lecture]] to Marston and falls off a very large cliff. The next scene is Marston and Ross catching up with his corpse. Ross shoots him in the head - dispelling any notion that Dutch wasn't dead - and attributes it to John, saying "it looks better on paper".}}
* Skabb from ''[[The Legend of Spyro]]: The Eternal Night''. He staggers back after being defeated in the boss battle and falls over the side of the ship to his death.
* In the FMV adventure game ''Lost in Time'', the heroine's final confrontation with the [[Big Bad]] takes place on a log above a canyon. Do nothing, and he'll push you off. However, a [[Chekhov's Gun|profile you read much earlier in the game]] said that he was [[Weaksauce Weakness|allergic to flowers,]] and there's one in your inventory. Use it on him and he'll start sneezing, lose his balance and fall.
* Played with in ''[[Crysis (
* Subverted in ''[[Breath of Fire 2]]''. After [[Big Bad|Deathevan]] forces Ryu to watch as he {{spoiler|kills his friends}}, Ryu snaps, charges through a gauntlet of powerful explosive spells and disembowels the would-be god in a single slash. Deathevan [[This Cannot Be!|is stunned that a mortal could defeat him]] and falls into the abyss. {{spoiler|Seconds later, he ''rises up'' from said abyss [[One-Winged Angel|as an enormous demonic monstrosity]].}}
* Done deliberately with ''[[
* In the [[AGD Interactive]] version of ''[[King's Quest II Romancing the Throne]]'', Hagatha is blinded by sun in her eyes and plunges out the crystal tower's window. However [[Never Found the Body|Graham and Valanice never hear her land or see her corpse]].
* Happens to several villains in the ''[[Quest for Glory]]'' series.
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* Kirk Dierker falls of the Eiffel tower after being shot by Sean in ''[[The Saboteur]]''. The camera makes a point to show him hitting the first floor of the tower.
* ''[[Dragon Age]]'' has a rare heroic example: {{spoiler|Riordan, an Orlesian Grey Warden rescued by the heroes late in the game,}} falls to his death after {{spoiler|leaping from a tower onto the Archdemon's back to fight it in midair, then hanging onto nothing but his sword as he gouges its wing.}} It is, however, a [[Dying Moment of Awesome]].
** The ''[[
{{quote| '''Isabela:''' You see that? He bounced!<br />
'''Aveline:''' Well, I don't think he'll survive that.<br />
'''Carver:''' Drop a sword on him! }}
* Scervo meets its end this way in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
* Shows up from time to time in the ''[[Mass Effect]]'' trilogy.
** In ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'', an Eclipse mercenary can meet this fate on [[Hitman
** In ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'', this is how {{spoiler|Tarquin Victus}} dies at the end of his mission. {{spoiler|Tali dies this way, too, if you fail to establish peace between the geth and quarians, and side with the geth in the resulting battle - [[Curb Stomp Battle|the quarian fleet is wiped out]] and Tali commits suicide by throwing herself from a nearby cliff.}}
* ''[[Kirbys Return to Dream Land]]'' has this happen to the fourth boss of the game, Goriath, after he is defeated by Kirby and his party. Goriath attempts to strike a pose, but then looks down and realizes he's not on solid ground anymore thanks to Kirby and friends having knocked him off the platform, then he gets an [[Oh Crap]] and plummets to his doom below in a cartoony style, and as soon as he hits the ground, he explodes into many stars just like many other KRTDL bosses do after the end of their death animations.
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== Web Original ==
* In ''[[Homestar Runner]]'''s action movie parody ''Dangeresque'', the title character entertains this idea but fails to follow through on it. What happens to Perducci is actually kind of [[What Happened to
{{quote| '''Dangeresque:''' Once we get to the top of this high-scraper, we'll hopefully be able to throw some people off. Maybe even Perducci.}}
* Waclaw, from ''[[Water Human]]'', falls from a cliff while running from his [[Heel Face Turn|former partner]].
* After a long battle at the very end of [[Red vs. Blue|Red Vs. Blue: Revelations]], [[Big Bad|the Meta]] is dragged off a cliff by the Warthog's tow cable.
* Happens in an irregular fashion in ''[[
* Like in the original film, Gaston met his end in this manner in the Kingdom Hearts fangame. Unlike the original film, however, the fangame also makes it especially clear that he's dead by Sora, in a manner very similar to Darth Maul in ''[[The Phantom Menace]]'', [[Half the Man He Used To Be|cutting him in half]] before he fell.
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== Western Animation ==
* [[Don Bluth]] is fond of these. This isn't surprising, actually, given that he worked for Disney for a while and that classic Disney films had a ''huge'' influence on him:
** Jenner has a surprisingly violent one in ''[[
*** We DO see him land though, so it counts as on-screen.
** The Giant Mouse of Minsk chases Warren T. Rat's gang off a pier in ''[[
*** For anyone who hasn't gotten the problems with this, unless they could find a way to climb up the anchor onto the deck of the ship, they would have to resort to cannibalism to avoid starvation, and would very easily die of exposure. And that's assuming they don't have to drop anchor out at sea.
** Sharptooth's demise in ''[[
*** In the [[Sequelitis|MANY sequels]], tossing the film's resident sharpteeth (Sharthoots?) down cliffs or pushing something to fall on their head (sometimes both) is a common way to dispatch them. It's almost a once-a-movie thing.
** Subverted in the 1995 flop ''[[The Pebble and
*** Also subverted, repeatedly, in ''[[
** Happens to Ludmilla at the end of ''[[
{{quote| '''Bartok:''' [[Pre-Mortem One-Liner|See ya next fall!]]}}
* In the cult animated feature ''[[
* Happens to Frog Lip at the end of The Princess And The Goblin.
* One of the [[
* ''[[
** "Monster in the Monastery". Jonny bursts some bags of oil with a bow and arrows. A villain wearing a yeti costume slips on the oil, rolls down some stairs and then over the edge of a cliff to his death.
** "Dragons of Ashida". One of the dragons chases Race Bannon out of a cave mouth. Race jumps up and grabs a tree branch and the dragon falls to its death at the base of a cliff.
* Subversion in ''[[Jonny Quest:
** Another example. "Ndovu's Last Journey" had a fight in an elephant graveyard. A villain falls and we see (from his point of view, no less) him fall towards the business end of an elephant skeleton tusk. The view cuts away before impact, but we do hear a rather nasty sound effect and see other characters flinch.
** In the episode with the Philosopher's stone, the bad guy is attacked by a magical hawk (really) and is trapped inside the building with his two henchmen as his equipment is destroyed and the building explodes. Jonny, Jessie, and Hadji meanwhile escape just in time.
* In the new ''[[Wallace and Gromit]]'' short movie: ''A Matter of Loaf And Death'', the [[Ax Crazy|psychotic]], baker-hating serial killer Piella Bakewell, meets her end by trying to escape in a hot-air balloon only to find out too late she's too heavy, and ends up ''eaten alive by [[Family-Unfriendly Death|crocodiles offscreen]]''. Truly the [[Darker and Edgier|darkest short yet]]. And the show's first death within in a short, in terms of shock, certainly pulled no punches.
* Scorponok and Terrorsaur were removed from ''[[
** This may be a [[Shout-Out]] to the first season finale of ''Transformers'', where after the rest of the Decepticons fell into the magma, Megatron went out the same way. (For a minute, anyway).
** Speaking of which, this appears to happen to ''[[
* Played with in ''[[
** Azula looks like she is going to get one when she is knocked off her airship, complete with helpless rag doll flailing involved. So naturally, the Gaang is upset when she rockets to the nearby cliff by way of firebending, in a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] way no less.
*** The final battle against Ozai could count as an aversion as well, given that it takes place upon a series of massive pillars that seem perfectly designed for [[Big Bad|Ozai]] to fall to his doom after attempting to backstab Aang. He does indeed attempt to backstab Aang after Aang spares his life... but Aang [[Take a Third Option|finds another way to stop him]].
* The episode "Sneak Peek" in ''[[
* ''[[
** ''The Powerpuff Girls'' episode "Power-Noia" had Him battling the heroes in [[Dream Land]], where he was defeated and thrown over a ledge into a bottomless abyss by Buttercup. Of course, being a recurring villain who can exist [[As Long
** Also in "Insect Inside" after the girls destroy his cockroach army Roach Coach falls off a building into the streets below. The girl's are horrified and when they examine his body they are relieved to discover that he was a robot controlled by a super intelligent cockroach, which ''did'' survive.
* In the [[Grand Finale]] of ''[[Codename
* ''[[
* In the ''[[Batman: The Animated Series
** The Joker actually gets this a lot. He has fallen off trains, rooftops, roller coasters, and pretty much everything else that is more than ten feet off the ground. Besides him, most of the other Batman villains have suffered this fate at least once. Bane fell off a boat, Freeze fell in [[Batman and Mister Freeze Sub Zero|SubZero]], and Two-Face nearly fell off a building to save his coin (but was saved by Batman). However, these villains were shown to have survived every single time.
** Inverted in "Over the Edge". Scarecrow knocks [[Batgirl (Comic Book)|Batgirl]] off a building to her death, but we see her injuries and she has time to say her [[Final Speech]]. {{spoiler|Fortunately, it was [[All Just a Dream]].}}
* In ''[[Superman: Doomsday]]'', the Evil Superman drops Toyman to his death. In front of the whole city.
* In the ''[[
** In another episode, Michael Eisner is thrown to his death, parodying ''[[
** An android version of Hannah Montana is taken out in the same manner as ''[[King Kong]]''.
** Let's not forget {{spoiler|Diane Simmons}} in "And Then There Were Fewer". Just as {{spoiler|Lois is about to be shot, Diane is shot herself as she kneels, at first glance about to fall to the ground, but then falls off the cliff and screams, splashing into the waters below.}}
* Happens to the psychotic hitchhiker at the end of the ''[[
* In ''[[Ice Age]] 3'', Rudy is shoved off a cliff by Momma. Rudy survives to see the end credits, however.
* In the [[Direct to Video]] ''[[
* At the end of the fourth season of ''[[
* Double Subverted in the second season finale of ''[[Teen Titans (
* Ineptly used for the villain of ''[[The Adventures of the American Rabbit]]'' ...who's a bird. They do show that he's gotten very tired and his wings are covered with snow, but he falls/glides ''very slowly'' about twenty feet, lands in snow, and the sound effect when he hits is a gentle "puff". Um... I guess he's dead?
* The Mouse King in ''[[
* In ''[[Star Wars: Clone Wars
* Played with in ''[[
* In ''[[
* In ''[[
* In ''[[Arthur (
* [[Inverted]] and [[Subverted]] in the ''[[Thundercats 2011
* At the end of the season 2 finale of ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
== Real Life ==
* Peter Nguyen's [http://www.doheth.co.uk/funny/exam-answers/Essay_-_Jimmy_McPerson "essay"] on Jimmy McPerson's role in World War II culminates in this happening to Hitler by way of a [[Heroic Sacrifice]]. No word on what happened to President Japan.
* Cesare Borgia died this way during his siege on Viana. This was depicted in ''[[
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