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{{trope}}
{{quote|'''Sevarius:''' I was particularly proud of my death scene.
'''Xanatos:''' Frankly, Sevarius, I thought you overplayed the part.
|''[[Gargoyles]]''}}
A character's death is faked, for one or more of the following purposes:
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A play on the common turn of phrase "waking the dead." Contrast [[He's Just Hiding]]. Not to be confused with [[Fake Weakness]].
{{examples}}▼
{{deathtrope}}
▲{{examples}}
== [[Anime]]
* In ''[[
* ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro
** Also happens in {{spoiler|Matsuribayashi-hen, when the [[True Companions]] decide to fake Rika's death so as to make Takano think that her research was wrong and give up on it, thereby saving Rika.}}
* Happens in ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'', where Enishi is forced to {{spoiler|kidnap Kaoru and fake her death, because Enishi can't bring himself to harm or kill any young woman, due to being traumatized by his beloved sister Tomoe's death.}} Enishi was ''very'' [[Genre Savvy]], though, so [[The Plan|he hatched a plan]] in base to this... and it worked ''horrifyingly well'' on Kenshin. {{spoiler|By making his [[Mad Artist]] henchman build a flesh mannequin looking ''exactly'' like Kaoru beforehand, kidnapping Kaoru, replacing her with said doll * and* impaling the mannequin to a wall with Enishi's sword before he leaves it for Kenshin to find, he pretty much [[Heroic BSOD|destroys Kenshin's will to live]] for quite a while.}}
* In the ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (
* Occurs in ''[[Black Butler|Kuroshitsuji]]'', in which {{spoiler|Sebastian}} appeared to be deceased. {{spoiler|It was false, and Ciel, although aware the whole time, was dang convincing in his seeming grief}}.
* In ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'', {{spoiler|Toguro faked killing Kuwabara by stabbing him just around the heart, barely missing it, in order to give Yusuke the motivation to defeat him.}} Kuwabara played along for the same reason, only revealing himself to have been faking after the fight was finished.
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* {{spoiler|Aizen Sousuke}} of ''[[Bleach]]''. Notable in that {{spoiler|he later reveals himself to be not just alive, but the [[Big Bad]] as well, and that [[My Death Is Just the Beginning|the death was merely one part]] of his elaborate [[Gambit Roulette]].}}
** He did this again in the Fake Karakura Town arc.
* {{spoiler|Matsuda}} in ''[[
** Not to mention {{spoiler|L Lawlliet}} in the live-action movie.
* Done hilariously in ''[[One Piece]]''. Nami faked killing Usopp to get him away from Arlong. When he returned to Zoro and Sanji, they were having their first fight, and accidentally Double-KO'ed the arriving Usopp.
{{quote|
'''Zoro''': Nope, I think he's dead now. }}
* Rokudo Mukuro from ''[[Katekyo Hitman Reborn]]'' pretended to have suicided by shooting himself in the head. Turns out he shot himself with a special bullet that allows him possess others, and tries to surprise attack Tsuna using other people's bodies.
** {{spoiler|Future Tsuna}} also does the same thing, as part of the gigantic [[Xanatos Gambit]] that is the future arc.
* Once he learns that the Queen of Midland and her nobles want him dead, Griffith of ''[[Berserk]]'' blackmails Foss, the head of the conspiracy, into helping him set up a [[Batman Gambit]] involving
* Briefly in ''[[Darker
* Inverted in ''[[Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade]]'' where a witness to a government scandal is [[Killed Off for Real]] to guarantee she'll never be found by the opposition. As long as they believe she's still out there somewhere, they can't move against the protagonist's unit.
* In the [[Backstory]] of ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'', Ala Rubra faked {{spoiler|High Queen Arika's}} execution. It's unknown whether or not she's still alive when the main story begins, though.
* There was a really elaborate one in ''[[
* In chapter 487 of ''[[
** The most important use of this trope is in case of {{spoiler|Uchiha Madara. Decades ago he barely escaped his battle with the Shodai Hokage alive and was assumed dead. This allowed him to move about as he pleased and manipulate events as needed to suit his [[Evil Plan]]. Or at least that's what was thought until the most recent reveal that he WAS dead. The true question now is who the hell is Tobi}}.
* Quite the [[Sailor Moon
* In ''[[
* In the two-part ''[[Weiss Kreuz]]'' OVA ''Verbrechen ~ Strafe,'' {{spoiler|Aya and Yoji receive orders to kill Ken and Omi for refusing to complete a mission. Tipped off that the orders are fraudulent, the four stage a vicious battle which apparently ends with the deaths of Omi, Yoji, and Aya, and use it as an opportunity to get the jump on the source of the fake orders.}}
* Part of the backstory of ''[[Code Geass]]'': Lelouch and Nunnally Lamperouge are in fact disgraced royalty who faked their own deaths in order to hide in exile in Area 11 (formerly Japan). It gets used a few more times in the series, with {{spoiler|Zero declared dead at the start of R2, Nunnally, Sayoko and Guilford presumed dead after FLEIJA detonated, [[Broken Pedestal|Marianne]] revealed to have hidden in another character's body, and Suzaku "dying" in the final battle to take up the mantle of Zero}}. Your guess is as good as mine regarding {{spoiler|whether or not Lelouch is faking it}}.
* The ''[[Code Geass]]'' example is actually one of the many inspirations the show takes from the ''[[Gundam]]'' franchise. In the [[Mobile Suit Gundam|original show]], Char and his sister fake they're own deaths to go into hiding, taking on fake identities that lead them right back into the War. This formula is repeated for several other Char clones, such as [[Gundam Wing|Zechs and his sister Relena]].
== Comics ==▼
* In the ''What Ever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?'', [[Superman]] fakes his death by exposure by gold kryptonite (removing his powers), and walking to his death into the frozen Antarctic. In reality, {{spoiler|he only removed his powers, and became Jordan Elliot, a regular working class guy}}.
* In the DCU, the Outsiders led by Nightwing fake their death to be able to work undercover. The stratagem is blown in the One Year Later storyline, and the team then [[Hero
* In an issue of ''[[Batman|Batgirl]]'', Batgirl once fakes the dead to get the villain to trust Robin, who's supposedly taken her down. That includes ''[[Crowning Moment of Awesome|staying still]]'' when Robin [[Shoot Your Mate|shoots her]] on the villain's orders, who's [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]].
* Occasionally pulled by [[Batman]] when he needs to lure a villain into a [[Genre Blind|false sense of security]].
* [[Tintin
* [[Iron Man]] once faked his death when he was suffering from nerve disintegration. It was a ploy to get healed. Unfortunately, Rhodey didn't know about it and was pissed off.
* Professor Xavier faked his death so as to counter an alien invasion. A [[Your Days Are Numbered|dying]] shape-shifter named Changeling replaced him as [[Redemption Equals Death|atonement]]. Only Jean, of all his students, knew the truth.
** In ''X-Men Noir'', {{spoiler|Jean Grey}} fakes her death by killing {{spoiler|Anne-Marie Rankin}}, cutting off/out any distinguishing facial features, and dyeing her hair. She them assumes {{spoiler|Rankin}}'s identity by dyeing her own hair. Why? She wanted out of the X-Men, essentially - and to collect {{spoiler|Rankin}}'s trust fund, of course.
* In ''[[Fear Itself (Comic Book)|Fear Itself]]'', {{spoiler|[[Bucky Barnes]], the current [[Captain America (comics)]]}} had apparently been killed off while fighting Sin, the Red Skull's daughter. However, as revealed in a post-series epilogue....{{spoiler|Bucky did survive the brutal attack and his death was faked by both [[Black Widow]] and [[Nick Fury]] in order to convince Steve Rogers to become Captain America once more, as well as to allow Bucky to deal with remaining Winter Soldier-esque sleeper agents without any trouble. How? A well-placed Life Model Decoy and the Infinity Formula did the trick.}}
== [[Film
* This is the setup for ''[[Double Jeopardy]]''. A husband frames his wife for his murder so that he can run off with his wife's friend and the life insurance money while evading his creditors. When confronted, the husband has the audacity to claim that he intended to fake his suicide. That may have been believable, except for the blood and knife and the radio message claiming his wife was trying to kill him.
* Happens in ''[[Dark Knight Trilogy|The Dark Knight]]'' with {{spoiler|Jim Gordon; the Joker also pulls this off at one point, but the audience knows it's clearly a trick from the beginning.}}
** Also near the end when {{spoiler|Two-Face was about to shoot Gordon's son, Batman convinces him to shoot him instead. Which Two-Face does. And just when he was going to turn the gun back on Gordon's son, Batman tackles him.}}
* [[James Bond (
** {{spoiler|Alec Trevelyan}} in ''[[
** And {{spoiler|Tan-Sun Moon}} In ''[[
** Bond dies this ''twice'' in ''[[
* The movie ''[[
* In ''[[The Silence of the Lambs|Red Dragon]]'', {{spoiler|Dolarhyde fakes his own death using the body of a man he shot to make his blind girlfriend think he shot himself}}.
* ''The Lady From Shanghai'' (1947) has a faked death that {{spoiler|turns out to be real}}.
* {{spoiler|Balin Mundson (Gilda's husband)}} in ''[[Gilda]]''.
* {{spoiler|Both Robert Redford ''and'' Paul Newman}} in ''[[The Sting]]''.
* ''[[
* Jackie Chan playing the villain in ''Killer Meteors'' fakes his own death early on, and then later reveals to the hero (played by Jimmy Wang Yu) "You didn't see me die, you only saw me fall over". Makes perfect sense.
* The villain's master plan in Bruceploitation film ''Game of Death 2''.
* {{spoiler|Jigsaw}} does this in the entirety of the {{spoiler|bathroom trap}} in [[Saw]].
** {{spoiler|And Agent Perez in Saw VI, who faked her death two movies before}}
* ''The Soldier'' (1982). A [[Good
* ''[[X Men Origins: Wolverine
* In ''Revenge of [[The Pink Panther]]'', Inspector Clouseau is targeted for assassination. After one of the (unsuccessful) attempts leads to the public mistakenly thinking he's been killed, Clouseau decides to maintain the ruse in order to find out who's behind the plot.
* In [[The Negotiator]], {{spoiler|Roman, the hostage negotiator-turned-taker, pretends to shoot one of the hostages in order to convince the police to take him seriously so that he can figure out who framed him via computer files.}} It's also used {{spoiler|at the end, when Saban shoots Roman and he falls to the ground, motionless and with blood pooling on the gloor. He convinces Frost he wants a cut of the money at stake in order to get him to spill the beans about setting Roman up.}}
* It's part of the profession of the titular pair in ''[[The Brothers Bloom]]''. They're con-men.
* Such an incident leads to most of the plot of ''[[Megamind]]''.
* Laurie Strode [[Continuity Reboot|fakes her death]] after ''[[Halloween (
* In ''[[Bullitt]]'', the police investigation ultimately uncovers a mobster's plot to fake his own death and escape scot-free. {{spoiler|Johnny Ross embezzles money from [[The Mafia]], then cuts a deal with a senator to [[The Stool Pigeon|testify against the Mafia]] in exchange for a pardon and witness protection. Ross then tricks an innocent man into going to San Fransisco in his place, where he's killed by the mob hitmen sent to silence Ross.}}
* ''Extreme Prejudice'' (1987). A govt black ops team is made up of people who supposedly died in action or training accidents. Unfortunately they go up against a sheriff in the United States who can access military
* In ''[[Easy Money]]'', {{spoiler|Rodney Dangerfield's mother-in-law fakes her own death to trick him into changing his lifestyle in compliance with the terms of her will}}.
* In ''[[The Quick and
* In ''[[The Usual Suspects]]'', it's part of [[Dirty Cop|Dean Keaton's]] [[Backstory]] (and one of the reasons Agent Kujan [[Inspector Javert|has such a hard on for him]]). He was [[Never Found the Body|presumed dead long enough]] to dodge a murder rap. And while he was dead, every witness against him [[Make It Look Like an Accident|died under suspicious circumstances]].
* ''[[Transformers
* In ''[[Cars 2]]'', secret agent Finn McMissile uses a set of decoy tires to pretend that he's been torpedoed by the enemy.
* ''[[The Incredibles]]:'' Mr. Incredible hides behind the skeleton of Gazerbeam to escape Syndrome's seeker robot - the robot scans the skeleton, assumes it's him, and flies off to report his demise.
* ''[[Finding Nemo]]'': Nemo pretends to be dead in order to get flushed down the toilet and back to sea. {{spoiler|Not only does it almost not work, it happens just as Marlin arrives, leading him to think his son really is dead.}}
== [[Literature]] ==▼
* {{spoiler|The Judge}} in [[
▲== Literature ==
▲* {{spoiler|The Judge}} in [[Agatha Christie (Creator)|Agatha Christie]]'s ''[[And Then There Were None]]''
* This is how Arthur Conan Doyle brought [[Sherlock Holmes]] back in "The Adventure of the Empty House" (1903) after previously attempting to permanently kill him off in "The Final Problem" (1893).
* David Gerrold's ''[[The War Against the Chtorr]]''. Colonel Ira Wallachstein, head of the covert Uncle Ira Group, is reportedly killed by an escaping Chtorran worm in the first novel of this sci-fi series. However he comes back "apparently suffering only a ''mild'' case of death" in the fourth book. It turns out his death was faked. [[The Plan|Given the way the Uncle Ira Group operates]] this is not particularly surprising.
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* Happens in the [[X Wing Series]] time and time again. Mostly, it's the Rogues managing to escape death and taking advantage of everyone's assumptions until they can come back triumphant, but {{spoiler|Asyr Sei'lar instead goes back to her homeworld to fight her species' [[Planet of Hats|Hat]] of political treachery}}, and then there's {{spoiler|Isard}}. The survival of the Rogues is believed by one minor Imperial character to be a fake - he believes that they really have died each time, and were replaced by clones.
** Another book in the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] has a birdman who really wants to quit the criminal business and return to his homeworld, but he's fairly high up in the criminal syndicate Black Sun, and [[Resignations Not Accepted]] something like that. His underlord even hints that if he tries, his world will suffer. In the same book, Darth Vader gives a character the terrible choice of betraying his friend, one of the last surviving Jedi, or having the plateau where his people live bombed from orbit. Both of them are eventually thought to have been caught in a nuclear blast, and both of them take advantage of being thought dead.
* In ''[[Harry Potter and
** {{spoiler|''Not completely...'' It actually killed one of Voldemort's last horcruxes, which was in Harry, permitting his final defeat.}}
** Janus Thickey disappeared leaving only a hasty [[Oh Crap]] A Lethifold's Killing Me note. His family went into mourning until he was found living with the landlady of a local inn. It may be related that the hospital's ward for long term spell damage is named for him.
** Rowling is fond of this trope. As early as ''[[Harry Potter and
* In ''The Leper of St. Giles'' by [[Ellis Peters]], [[
* A tactic employed in self-defense by {{spoiler|the Count}} in ''[[A Night in
* In ''[[Les Misérables]]'', Jean Valjean fakes drowning in order to escape prison without being searched for.
* Cao Cao spreads rumours of his death in ''[[Romance of the Three Kingdoms]]'' in order to set up an ambush for Lu Bu. Invoked/subverted by Zhuge Liang, {{spoiler|who uses the fear of this (and a rather lifelike carving of himself) to keep Sima Yi from pursuing the Shu army when it retreats [[Thanatos Gambit|upon his death.]] }}
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* ''[[The Westing Game]]'': {{spoiler|Sam Westing}}
* In the [[Foundation]] series, the {{spoiler|entire Second Foundation}} pulls this off.
* ''[[
** Earlier than that, one was pulled on David: He killed a red-tailed hawk that stumbled into his path, but believed he had killed Tobias, who is [[Shapeshifter Mode Lock|trapped in red-tail hawk morph.]] Even though this wasn't intentional on the heroes' part, they're quick to play it up and take advantage of it.
** A major plot twist early in the series is Marco discovering that his mother was actually the host of Visser One, who faked her death when she left Earth to pursue other missions.
* ''Untold Story'' by Monica Ali focuses on a fictional princess, based on Princess Diana, who fakes her own death and escapes abroad because she is convinced she's about to be assassinated by the Secret Service.
* One of the alternative endings for ''The Dandee Diamond Mystery'' features the benefactor of the [[Will]] alive and telling the reader/protagonist he just faked his death so he could see how far his relatives would go to find [[MacGuffin|the Dandee Diamond]].
* In ''[[Detectives in Togas]]'', his family fakes Caius' burial. [[Artistic License History|(But the Romans cremated their dead...)]]
* In the ''[[Knight and Rogue Series]]'' Michael gets {{spoiler|Rosamund}} listed as officially dead so his father won't interfere with her love life.
* In the ''[[Sword of Truth]]'' setting, this is called a "Death Spell". It's used to make people think someone is dead. Go figure.
* In the sequel to ''[[Ishmael]]'', it's revealed that the titular teacher faked his own death so that his pupil would apply what he had learned.
* Happens as an inadvertent result of technology in ''[[The Moon Maze Game]]'', in which Darla is "killed out" of the scenario just before armed kidnappers interrupt the proceedings to take the Gamers hostage. As she's in the process of crawling out of the play area on her belly, remaining unseen while her slain NPC persona's holographic "corpse" is left behind, she's already undercover when the thugs arrive and they don't realize her faux-body had previously been a living actress.
* ''[[Biggles]]'': In ''Biggles Hunts Big Game'' Lord Bertie Lissie, the title character's coworker, is sent into the African jungle, ostensibly to shoot game, with a 'guide' who is in pay of the antagonists and has orders to murder him and make it look like a hunting accident. There is a little trouble with a buffalo which ends in the guide being killed by said buffalo and the buffalo being killed by Bertie. Another coworker of Biggles', Ginger, appears on the scene and tells him he'd better fake his death so the antagonists will be satisfied when they come to look, and points out the pool of buffalo blood as a perfect stage prop. Bertie refuses to lie in the stuff ... and slips in it, getting much messier than if he'd just lain down in it to begin with. The antagonists come by to see Bertie lying twisted in a pool of blood, and are satisfied.
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
* Numerous people in ''[[Alias (TV series)|Alias]]'', so much that fans are suspicious of those who ''are'' supposedly [[Killed Off for Real]].▼
▲== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* Jack shooting {{spoiler|Nina}} in season 1 of ''[[
▲* Numerous people in ''[[Alias (TV)|Alias]]'', so much that fans are suspicious of those who ''are'' supposedly [[Killed Off for Real]].
** His fake killing of {{spoiler|Nina is especially a nice touch, as she had no clue what was going on; and it was not revealed to the audience, or ''her'' for that matter, that Jack managed to slip a flack-jacket onto her. Surprisingly, she gets over it pretty quick.}}
▲* Jack shooting {{spoiler|Nina}} in season 1 of ''[[Twenty Four|24]]'' on the demands of the terrorists, and {{spoiler|Jack himself}} at the end of season 4.
* Alex in ''[[Law
▲** His fake killing of {{spoiler|Nina is especially a nice touch, as she had no clue what was going on; and it was not revealed to the audience, or ''her'' for that matter, that Jack managed to slip a flack-jacket onto her. Surprisingly, she gets over it pretty quick.}}
▲* Alex in ''[[Law and Order Special Victims Unit|Law And Order: Special Victims Unit]]''. (This was a slight variation, in that the bad guys really did shoot her, but the Feds let everyone think it killed her.)
** And she was then whisked away into WitSec, not to be seen again for five seasons. [[Les Yay|Olivia's]] expression: made of pure [[Tear Jerker]].
** The franchise has also used this ruse while [[Lying to
* In ''[[The X-Files]]'', Mulder fakes his own suicide at the end of season four, only to return several episodes into the next season.
* Captain Kirk on ''[[Star Trek:
** In ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'', Quark's life is put in danger twice because of other people doing this. Grand Nagus Zek named Quark his successor, and "died", to see if his son would use business smarts to undermine Quark and take the title, but instead he just tries to assassinate Quark. And Morn once faked his death and left 1000 bars of gold pressed latinum to Quark, but the latinum was from a heist, and his partners were coming for their share.
* ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' uses this to throw a demon off the trail, so an ex-demon and his girlfriend can go into the High Council's witness protection program and live happily ever after.
** This particular death-fakery is done for all the reasons listed above, as Harry manages to get the demon in question arrested to boot.
* Done by George Senior on ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]''.
* ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' does this when {{spoiler|he hires a hooker to die as a patient Kutner was advising under House's name. We figure this out at the end of the episode when House pretends to resuscitate her and she wakes up in an [[Oh Crap]] moment.}}
** {{spoiler|House does this to ''himself'' in the series finale by switching dental records with a terminal patient.}}
* ''[[Hustle]]'' did this several times, referring to the practice as 'pulling a cacklebladder'. Mickey pulled one in the premiere, and a later episode had [[Celebrity Guest]] Richard Chamberlain pulling {{spoiler|a double-bluff cacklebladder, actually killing himself. It was ''then'' revealed to be a double double-bluff cacklebladder, and he really ''was'' alive. Damn.)}}
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* Stroker and his son do this in an episode of ''[[Stroker and Hoop]]'' to throw ninjas off their trail.
* This was done at least twice on ''[[Monk]]'', the first in Mr. Monk Meets the Psychic, where Monk and the police pretend that the suspect killed his old girlfriend in order to get him to admit that he really killed his wife. More notably, in the Season 6 finale, {{spoiler|After Monk has been accused of murder, Stottlemeyer pretends to shoot Monk to death in order to keep him under the radar while he looks for the real murderer.}}
* {{spoiler|Tracy}} in ''[[Firefly (TV series)|Firefly]]''
** Along with Kaylee in the pilot, as part of a mean-spirited joke played by Mal on Simon.
** Simon and River do this in order to get into the hospital for the episode "Ariel."
* This has been done in a final episode of a season of ''[[Smallville]]'' a couple of times. In season 3 witness protection faked Chloe's death by blowing up her house and burying her coffin. Lana Lang fakes her death in season 6 by substituting the body of one of her clones in place of herself.
* On ''[[
* ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'': When {{spoiler|Angela Petrelli}} poisoned {{spoiler|her husband Arthur}} in an attempt to kill him, {{spoiler|Arthur}} survived, though in a paralyzed state, where he telepathically gave commands out to his minions and planned his revenge.
** Later used by Sylar, with the unwilling help of of a shapeshifter, supposedly to throw Noah Bennet off of his scent. However, Noah pulls it apart in record time... and runs headlong into a sadistic [[The Plan]].
* Jimmy's girlfriend in ''[[Doctors]]'', who was an undercover cop had to fake her own death at the hands of another undercover agent to make it seem like her partner was willing to kill cops and thus get closer to the heart of a drug smuggling ring.
* On character in ''[[Eastenders]]'' faked his death to find out how his girlfriend really felt about him.
* Despereaux the "master thief," in an episode of ''[[
{{quote|
* ''[[Kyle XY]]'', of all shows, recently used this: as part of a [[Batman Gambit]] to get Kyle into Cassidy's trust, {{spoiler|after having Kyle pretend to kill Jessi in self-defense for trying to kill Cassidy (it's complicated), Jessi slows her heartbeat down to two beats a minute. This is enough to fool Cassidy, who checks her pulse and declares her dead. She wakes up a few minutes after Kyle and Cassidy leave, completely unharmed.}}
* ''[[
* A ''[[Three's
* The title character, in the first series of ''The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin''.
* ''[[Happy Days]]'': A two-part episode has Fonzie running afoul of a bunch of [[The Family for
* Done by Lytton in ''[[Doctor Who]]''. His unit comes under fire (with weapons that kill you outright without any obvious damage) and everyone falls down. After the attackers move on, he gets back up, uninjured, and leaves.
** In the series six finale, {{spoiler|the Doctor himself pulls this off with the assistance of his time machine and a shapeshifting robot.}}
* Being immortal, Captain Jack pulls this off a few times in ''[[
* In ''[[
* Happened in ''[[
** Agent Fornell {{spoiler|faked his own suicide to find a mole in the FBI, and clear his own name.}}
** Agent Gibbs {{spoiler|faked being shot, as part of a sting against a crooked ATF agent.}}
* In ''[[Malcolm in
* In ''[[Babylon 5]]'', an entire ship of people was captured by the Shadows. The ones who agreed to serve them got this (the others suffered a [[Fate Worse Than Death]]).
* The [[Korean Series]] ''[[Shining Inheritance]]'' has the father, Go Pyung Joong, hiding after after a body found in a gas explosion is thought to be him. He did this to give his family the insurance money.
* Played straight and offscreen in [[Dollhouse|Epitaph Two: The Return]] with this exchange:
{{quote|
'''Alpha''' I kinda wanted you to think that. }}
** In another episode, Echo tried to smuggle a woman out of prison by injecting her with something that would slow her heart rate enough to make her appear dead. Unfortunately it wore off before she could get out.
* This crops up from time to time in ''[[Burn Notice]]''. [[Evil Mentor|Larry Sizemore]] in particular may [[Never Live It Down]]; just about every time he shows up, someone ''[[Running Gag|will]]'' say "What, dead Larry?" and his [[Fun
* In ''[[Chuck]]'', {{spoiler|Orion}} did this to throw off those who were after him. Complete with explosion so the lack of a body wouldn't be too unusual.
** And {{spoiler|the Ring director (and some Mooks)}} did it to hide the fact that {{spoiler|Shaw}} had turned traitor, and also to gain some unwitting help from their enemy. This one used squibs, and they were quickly revealed to be alive.
** In the fourth season, one episode has Chuck figuring out the best way to draw out Casey's old team in order to find out more about his missing mother. {{spoiler|The plan in question? To have Casey pretend to be dead, complete with the guy in a catatonic state to add authenticity to the "funeral".}}
* A ''[[M*A*S*H (
* [[Played for Laughs]] in ''[[My Name Is Earl]]''. Earl had been in a relationship with a [[Naive Everygirl]] after a hookup at a Halloween party. But, when things began to get too serious too fast, Earl faked his own death to avoid hurting her feelings. (Her current boyfriend got the idea from Earl and did it, too.) Later that episode, the woman in question faked her own death to get back at Earl for yelling at her about being an [[Extreme Doormat]]. (Thus marking the point where she becomes more assertive than ever before.)
* Lois of ''[[Lois and Clark]]'' had [[Superman]] freeze her using his superbreath as a ploy to get a villian.
* In one episode of ''[[
* In ''[[
* Taken to a bizarre extreme on ''[[Benson]]''. A businessman tries to have his way with Denise in exchange for a deal with the state. After the date, the gang pretends she's been murdered to get him to confess. Benson plays a British detective (dressed as [[Sherlock Holmes]]), Pete plays Denise's biker brother, Katie plays a starry-eyed witness, and Miss Kraus plays a psychic. Oddly, it works.
* Jim Rockford of ''[[The Rockford Files]]'' uses this several times throughout the series. Usually it is the "part of a con" variety, but he uses "one little mistake" once or twice as well.
* Being a show about running cons, the ''[[Leverage]]'' team uses this every so often to convince their mark of the seriousness of the situation - in one notable instance, Parker was run over by a car, with the mark standing right there. In another, someone tried to assassinate a team-member, so they pretended the attempt succeeded - complete with funeral - to figure out who it was.
* Halfway through Season Six of ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'', {{spoiler|Crowley}} is seemingly [[Killed Off for Real]], but a few episodes before the season finale, it's revealed that he faked his death with help from {{spoiler|Castiel}} so that he could continue his plans under the Winchesters' noses.
* Happens a few times in ''[[Airwolf]]'' Both Moffett and Hawke use a trick that involves firing the ADF missiles at just the right time to make it appear that Airwolf has been blown up. Then they activate the "whisper mode" and ambush the opposition.
* Both Catherine Willows and DB Russell in ''[[CSI:
* Frequently happened on ''[[Highlander (TV series)|Highlander]]'' as a result of the immortal nature of many characters.
** They get killed and their killer drops his guard, not knowing his victim will resurrect.
** They also fake their own death, or pretend their previous persona died of old age, in order to assume a new identity elsewhere.
* Fraser on ''[[Due South]]'' in the episode 'Dead Men Don't Throw Rice".
* Arthur did it on ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'' to get his father to cry tears of true remorse, the only thing that would break the troll magic used on him (Uther).
* In accordance with the original Doyle canon (see Literature above), this trope appears in the ''[[Sherlock]]'' episode "The Reichenbach Fall".
* For the last half of season six of ''[[
* A favorite trope of [[Soap Opera]]
* So ends ''[[House]]'', with the doctor allowing the world to think he died in a burning building to avoid going back to prison, and instead spend time with a dying Wilson.
== [[Theatre]] ==
* [[Older Than Feudalism]]: In ''[[
▲* [[Older Than Feudalism]]: In ''[[Electra (Theatre)|Electra]]'', Orestes' plot to murder his mother and step-father relies on lulling them into a false sense of security by sending a messenger stating Orestes died in a chariot race. Electra is devastated by the loss until the moment her brother reveals himself.
* [[Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'', ''[[Henry The Fourth Part 1]]'' and ''[[Much Ado About Nothing]]''.
* ''A Winter's Tale'' in which Hermione apparently fakes her own death for ''sixteen years'' just so she can pose as her own statue (voluntarily or [[Taken for Granite|otherwise]]) and come back to life in front of her husband and now grown-up daughter.
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** Note that this is not what happens in the book version of ''Wicked''. In the book, Elphaba {{spoiler|meets exactly the same end as in the original ''Wizard of Oz'' movie -- Dorothy flings a bucket of water at her, and she dies.}}
* In ''[[Angels in America]]'', Roy Cohn pulls this trick on the ghost/hallucination/whatever of Ethel Rosenberg, who happily pushes the nurse's call button?only to have Roy spring back to life and gloat at her about falling for it. Subverted {{spoiler|almost immediately, when the monitors Roy's hooked up to flatline, and he [[Killed Off for Real|dies for real]].}}
== [[Video Games]] ==
* ''World of Warcraft'' has Feign Death as an ability of the Hunter class.
** Moreover, in classic ''[[
* In ''[[Suikoden II]]'', the main character's not-quite-biological sister fakes her own death in order to avoid distracting him from his important task of ending a
* In [[
* Solid Snake fakes his own death in ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 2'', in order to escape being witch-hunted as a terrorist. Interestingly enough, he does this by dressing up the corpse of his [[Evil Twin|identical twin]] and presenting him to the authorities. Thus, later in the game, when the body is exhumed for a DNA test, it passes as genuine.
* In ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 3'', Snake carries a [[Cyanide Pill]] he can use to fake his death in front of enemies. "Dying" will fool every enemy and boss ''once'', and popping back to life in front of them will scare them enough that you can get a cheap hit in; the only boss this doesn't work on is the one that taught you this trick.
* In ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 4'', there is the corpse camo and the Big Boss mask to complete it that allows Snake to play dead which can fool even the machines.
* Pulled by {{spoiler|the entire Global Defense Initiative}} in the first ''[[Command
** {{spoiler|[[Magnificent Bastard|Kane]]}} also pulls this off in [[Command
* In ''[[Fire Emblem]]: Path of Radiance'', {{spoiler|Oliver}} is presumed dead after battle. In ''Radiant Dawn'', he turns out to have been hiding for three years.
** Ditto {{spoiler|the Black Knight}}, although to be fair, they [[Never Found the Body]]. Still, they [[Dropped a Bridge
** Actually {{spoiler|Oliver}} really did die. Recruit him then talk to him with Ike and he mentions visiting Death's villa. Somehow he was brought back then hid.
** Earlier in the series, {{spoiler|Prince Zephiel}} is poisoned in an assassination attempt by {{spoiler|his father, King Desmond}}, but survives. He arranges a fake funeral and stabs his would-be murderer to death when {{spoiler|Desmond}} approached the coffin to view the body. The exact details of this incident are revealed in ''[[Fire Emblem Elibe|Fuuin no Tsurugi,]]'' but they are mentioned in the epilogue of ''[[Prequel|Rekka no Ken]]'' suggesting that they happened around that time (15 years after the events of ''Rekka no Ken''; five years before ''Fūin no Tsurugi'').
* In ''[[
* This trope is a major gameplay element in the mediocre shooter ''[[Haze]]'': Mantel Corporation mercenaries have a drug called Nectar injected into their bodies which gives them superhuman abilities and alters their brain chemistry to make them more useful for Mantel. One way they do this is trying to avoid PTSD by making Mantel troops incapable of seeing dead bodies. Once a soldier, friendly or enemy, dies, they become incapable of perceiving them. This is extremely easy to abuse once you make the inevitable switch to the anti-Mantel rebels; with the push of a button your character pretends to die, and the bad guys literally forget that you're there.
* The original ''[[
* ''[[
** Played straight in ''[[
* ''[[Army of Two]]'' allows you to use the "Feign Death" command if your mercenary is getting hammered with a lot of incoming fire. This generally causes the enemy to direct their fire at your partner, giving you either time to (slowly) heal or a chance to spring up and go for cover. Naturally, the enemy will only fall for this once per encounter, and keep shooting you if you try it again.
* In Halo, The Flood will try to pull this on you. Dropping dead to the ground only to jump to their feet moments later. It can be difficult to tell when they are genuinely dead due to this, and the only real way to ensure they are is to watch them for a moment or punch/pump them full of lead.
* The starting novice class of [[Ragnarok Online]] can learn a Play Dead skill that renders all monsters non-aggressive by making the player out to be dead. They lose this skill when changing to a first class or supernovice, however.
* Similar to the above ''Hitman'' example, one of the Dark Brotherhood missions in ''The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion'' has the player "kill" an NPC with a special poison and revive him later to throw other assassins off his trail.
* The [[Nancy Drew (
* This plays a key role in [[
* In ''[[Hitman]] Blood Money'', {{spoiler|the Agency sets up a false death for 47 so that he can get close to the mastermind of the [[Contract
** This also happens to Smith earlier on in the game, in order to sneak him out of rehab.
* In ''[[Mafia II]]'', Henry has to kill Leo Galante to get into the Falcone crime family. Vito tries to get Leo out before Henry can whack him, but when Henry catches them and learns the facts, Leo offers to take the bullet. Vito leaves the kitchen, there's a gunshot, and Henry walks out, telling him "You owe me big for this one." Vito then drives Leo to the train station so he can leave Empire Bay.
▲== [[Web Comics]] ==
* {{spoiler|Agatha}} in ''[[
▲* Veithel of ''[[Juathuur]]'', before the beginning of the story.
▲* {{spoiler|Agatha}} in ''[[Girl Genius (Webcomic)|Girl Genius]]''. The unusual part is that given both circumstances and the [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20050131 habits during lifetime], it may double as a bizarre form of the funeral honours to the unfortunate who became their substitute corpse. {{spoiler|Scamming the overlord of Europe into thinking she's the Heterodyne heir would be really hard to top.}}
** In Zeetha's opinion, however, this "perfect plan" [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20050207 had a flaw].
* Renard/Reynardine in ''[[
* In ''[[Beyond the Canopy]]'', Greliz and Jojo plan to do this as part of a confidence scheme. They organize a prize fight and serve as bookkeepers for the gambling. Their plan is to fake a fire before the fight ends, escape to the caves underground with all the gambled money, and then blow up the building after
* In ''[[Spacetrawler]]'', Dmitri uses holograms to make his attempted assassin (and the government that hired her) believe the assassination was successful.
* In ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'' one shady trader did this. Then {{spoiler|Petey}}, sort of. And 3.161 billion of years before that, the "[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2017-07-28 All-Star]".
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* [[Bugs Bunny/Characters|Bugs Bunny]] does this on a regular basis. Usually this causes his pursuer to feel remorse and go into a crying fit, only to have Bugs "come to life" and give him a kiss on the nose or something equally impudent.
** The most unique form of faking death was in "[[What's Opera, Doc?]]", with Elmer Fudd using a Magic Helmet to strike the rabbit with massive lightning. Elmer Fudd felt remorse for killing the rabbit, but Bugs showed he was alive by [[No Fourth Wall|breaking the fourth wall]].
* [[Pepe Le Pew]] did this in one of his skits. Penelope the Cat that he regularly chases decides to lock herself in a reinforced glass safe that he can't get into, and being his usual self he acts as if she is playing hard to get and jokingly asks why she won't come out. Her response is that Pepe stinks, in despair he pulls out a gun, smiles, and then waves goodbye to Penelope as he walks behind the safe and a gunshot is heard. Penelope in despair rushes out of the safe to see if he really went through with it, and to her surprise Pepe is waiting for her, "I missed... Fortunately for you."
* ''[[Gargoyles]]'' has Sevarius faking his own death as part of Xanatos' plan to turn Talon into an [[Unwitting Pawn]].
* In one episode of ''[[Family Guy]]'', Quagmire marries a woman he barely knows, realizes he made a terrible mistake, and tries to break it off. When she reveals herself to be unstable, the guys help him fake his death so as not to end up with a Fatal Attraction case on their hands.
* ''[[Justice League (animation)|Justice League Unlimited]]'' did this as well with Green Arrow taking a nerve relaxant so that he appeared to have been killed in the illegal Metabrawl at Wildcat's hands, to show the aging fighter what he could unintentionally do if he continued fighting in it.
* The second season of ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' ends with [[Healing Hands|Katara]] pulling [[Kid Hero|Aang]] back from the ragged edge of death after the latter was struck down by Azula. Come the third season premiere (three weeks of unconsciousness later)...
{{quote|
** There's also Zuko at the end of the first
* In ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'', Homer has a dummy of himself made and tosses it off a cliff into a river where it falls over a waterfall, has its limbs crushed by rocks, is attacked by beavers, and ultimately is sucked into a turbine while his coworkers watch in horror... in order to get out of an afternoon of community service. "Best 600 bucks I ever spent!"
** What makes the scene hilarious is the [[Comedic Sociopathy]] of it all: rather than thinking to ''help'' Homer, all his co-workers think that all they have to do is say "Oh no! He's hit the rocks!" "Don't worry, those beavers will save him." "Oh no! The beavers are taking his clothes!" No one thinks to, you know, move and ''help'' him.
** Bart ''tried'' something like this, as well, but the [[Blind Without'Em]] Milhouse unintentionally shoves the real Bart off of the cliff instead of the dummy. He, of course, didn't suffer the fate of the Homer dummy.
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*** In fact, he faked his death twice in that episode. First to escape his IRS debts and start a new life as "Rory B Bellows" and second to escape his ''new'' life, commenting as he does so that "The life of Rory B Bellows is insured for a surprisingly large amount".
* The boys force Butters to do this in the ''[[South Park]]'' episode "Marjorine".
* In ''[[The Spectacular Spider
* It was just revealed in ''[[Metalocalypse]]'' that {{spoiler|Charles Ofdensen}} did this, for reasons currently unknown.
* Mr Herriman does this in ''[[
* When the [[Teen Titans (
** And at the end of season two, [[The Dragon|Terra]] seemingly killed the Titans, only for them all to somehow survive and later attack her when her guard is down. Needless to say, [[Big Bad|Slade]] was ''not'' [[No-Holds-Barred Beatdown|pleased]] with her.
* In ''[[Johnny Test]]'', Johnny and Dookie get overworked as their alter egos, Johnny X and Super Pooch. Ultimately, the only way to get out of the mess is to convince the town they're dead. They try once on their own, only to fail, so they get Susan and Mary to help them, disguising themselves as alien supervillains and making it look like they've vaporized the two. Susan and Mary actually seem to enjoy this...
* ''[[Top Cat]] and the Beverly Hills Cats'': When it seemed [[Big Bad|Mrs. Vandergelt's butler]] would finally get her fortune, it was revealed she had faked her death.
* In the [[Pilot Movie]] for ''[[Justice League (animation)|Justice League]]'', J'onn J'onnz telepathically prevents everyone from noticing Batman, leading to the villains (and heroes) not realizing he was there until it was time for him to attack. Of course, being Batman, this was a plot he was used to; see the episode in [[Batman:
* {{spoiler|Rhinox/Tankor}} does this for a while in ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest]]'': Dr. Zin faked his death to see if his daughters [[Secret Test of Character|were ready to take over his criminal empire]]. {{spoiler|They failed}}.
* In the second season opener of the 90s ''[[Iron Man]]'' cartoon, Tony Stark fakes his death by allowing the Mandarin's flunkies to blow up his private jet.
* Philomena, the Phoenix pet of Princess Celestia does this in an episode of [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
== [[Other Media]] ==▼
▲== Other ==
* Martin Gardner (renowned recreational mathematician - yes, it's a real job) did this to the character Dr. Matrix in his column in Scientific American. Dr. Matrix, an agent for the CIA, was disguised as an Arab named Abdul Abulbul Amir in order to assassinate a KGB agent named Ivan Skavinsky Skavar. They dueled on the shores of the Black Sea, and fired simultaneously; Ivan died instantly, but "Abdul" was only knocked out, and the CIA paid two natives to confirm his death.
*
* Parodied in ''[[The Spider Cliff Mysteries]]''. After surviving an explosion, Barlow suggests doing this. Crystal tells him it's a stupid idea.
* Pulled with appropriate magnificence by Dr. Blackgaard in the ''[[Adventures in Odyssey]]'' episode "A Name, Not a Number". The scene where he reveals himself to his unwitting accomplice is priceless.
{{quote|
*
*
== [[
* This is an actual crime, called "pseudocide" (literally 'pretend murder').
** Though not usually a crime, [https://web.archive.org/web/20121205074503/http://wiki.fandomwank.com/index.php/Pseuicide the same term is used when someone on the Internet pretends to die]. They used to arouse suspicion by their ability to still post from the hospital, but nowadays it is possible to get wireless Internet access and not just blog, but make video logs from the hospital, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoCzo9BPlrI&feature=channel_video_title as CTFxC demonstrates]. Depending on the blogging software, it is entirely possible for someone to queue up [[Dead Man Writing|a post to be made automatically in the event they die]].
* [http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/update_suicide_really_is_painl.php Reported by Talking Points Memo].
** Also the [[wikipedia:John Darwin disappearance case|John Darwin case]]. Found out after a Google search.
** A woman in [https://web.archive.org/web/20120120162155/http://www.kcci.com/news/7541510/detail.html Des Moines] faked her own death to avoid paying traffic tickets. Her scheme fell apart when she got pulled over for yet another traffic offense.
* The police sometimes use this tactic to nab suspects. In one case, a woman hired a contract killer (actually an undercover cop) to kill her husband. The police then faked his death, providing photos and "evidence" in order to fool the wife into incriminating herself.
** In Russia where political and business-related assassinations are unpleasantly common, this is a very common tactic for the local police.
* In matters of national security, or if the person's life will be in ongoing danger because of their testimony, the FBI may go as far as staging a closed-casket funeral for someone who is going into the Witness Relocation Program.
* [[
* People have been claiming since April 3, 1882, that Jesse James and Bob Ford faked James' murder. There was a two hour special on History International about this, albeit with very shaky reasoning on the "he didn't die" side. (At one point, a photo of a 20-something James is compared to the official post-mortem photo. The two photos have different hairlines, which "proves" they are of two different men. Because no male ''ever'' suffers from receding hairline.)
** These theories were largely put to rest after after an exhumation proved that the man in Jesse James' grave was a descendant of Jesse James' mother.
* [[
* Many kinds of animals fake their own death as a last resort to protect themselves from predators. For some reason, many hunters won't eat what is already dead.
* There had been a myth saying that [[Everything Is Worse With Bears|if cornered by a Brown Bear]], a human should play dead to escape it, for bears would not eat corpses. [[Right for
* At one time the British system of [[Double Agent|phony contacts]] with the Germans in [[World War II]] was so elaborate that it included the agents "recruiting" subagents (with no existence outside the dossiers prepared by British counterintelligence). At one time time a major operation was scheduled right where one of these nonexistent agents could not fail to miss it (and of course the Germans would not because it was intended to have results uncomfortable to them). So the British solved the problem by killing the agent off and having a funeral. In other words not only was the agent's death false [[Magnificent Bastard|he had never even been alive.]]
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Death Tropes]]
[[Category:Identity (Film)]]▼
[[Category:Trying to Catch Me Fighting Dirty]]
[[Category:Just for Pun]]
[[Category:Infauxmation Desk]]
[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]
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