Faking the Dead: Difference between revisions

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* In [[Zero no Tsukaima]], {{spoiler|Colbert dies onscreen in season 2. There is no hint that he might be alive until he shows up in season 3, saving the day at the last minute. It turns out his death was faked with magic.}}

* 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]].

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* 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]]}} 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.}}

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* 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 (film)|James Bond]] does it to himself in ''[[You Only Live Twice]]'' (hence the title.)

** {{spoiler|Alec Trevelyan}} in ''[[Goldeneye]]''.

** And {{spoiler|Tan-Sun Moon}} In ''[[Die Another Day]]''

** Bond dies this ''twice'' in ''[[Tomorrow Never Dies]]''

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* ''[[Animorphs]]'' did this more than once. When Marco's father is targeted by the Yeerks for nearly discovering Zero-space, Marco has Erek and Mr. King, two of their android friends, use their holograms to impersonate him and his dad for when the Yeerks come to shoot them with their Dracon beams.

** 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]].

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== [[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]].

* Jack shooting {{spoiler|Nina}} in season 1 of ''[[24]]'' on the demands of the terrorists, and {{spoiler|Jack himself}} at the end of season 4.

** 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]].

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{{quote|'''Echo:''' I thought we lost you in Reno.

'''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 with Subtitles|subtitle]] is "Undead Spy".

* 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.

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* A ''[[M*A*S*H|Mash]]'' episode has Hawkeye mistakenly listed as dead. Frustrated with his lack of success in getting the Army bureaucracy to rectify the error and unable to get in touch with his father (who he learns received a letter informing him of his son's "demise"), he decides to allow himself to be transported home as a "cadaver"...before wounded arrive and he feels duty-bound to remain.

* [[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 ''[[It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia]]'' Charlie and Mac fakes their deaths in an outrageously sloppy manner that seemingly couldn't fool anyone. It does anyway, {{spoiler|or so it seems. Turns out the others just pretend to be sad and throws a fake funeral to make fun of them.}}

* In ''[[Get Smart]]'', Max overhears a KAOS plot and is shot by two KAOS agents, but they believe he is dead. CONTROL allows everyone to believe he is dead so that they can stop the plot. But not every agent is told about the plan so that KAOS will be convinced that Max is dead. In fact 2 agents, besides Max know he's not really dead, The Chief and Agent 13. When Max figures out how to stop the evil plot, he is unable to contact the Chief or Agent 13 and when he tries to tell another agent, he disregards his comments because Maxwell Smart couldn't possibly be talking to him because he's dead.

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* 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]]'' "Willows In The Wind", when a squad of hit men was after them.

* 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.

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== [[Video Games]] ==

* ''World of Warcraft'' has Feign Death as an ability of the Hunter class.

** Moreover, in classic ''[[Ever Quest]]'', the Feign Death skill was the hallmark of the Monk class (though some other classes eventually received weaker versions of it) and was the most effective countermeasure for a number of the game's more tedious and frustrating [[Scrappy Mechanic|mechanics]].

* 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 war -- she's tired of all the fighting and wants to leave the war behind, but knows that he'd never leave her alone if he knew she was still alive. All this only happens in the [[Multiple Endings|good ending]], however -- if you make even the slightest misstep, before ''or'' after her apparent "death", she was actually [[Killed Off for Real]].

* In [[Bioshock]] {{spoiler|Atlas is actually mobster Frank Fontaine who supposedly died in a shootout with Rapture police forces 2 years before the game is set.}}

* 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 and Conquer]]'', goading the Brotherhood of Nod into going on the offensive. Even the player gets suckered into it.

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== Webcomics ==

* Veithel of ''[[Juathuur]]'', before the beginning of the story.

* {{spoiler|Agatha}} in ''[[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 ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'', as he phrased it himself, "[http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=107 had the perfect disguise]". Whether [http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=57 this happened] mostly by coincidence or was planned by the mythological trickster himself is perhaps the biggest [[Flame War|point of disagreement]] in the fandom.

* 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 them--convincing all onlookers that they and the money went up in smoke.

* In ''[[Spacetrawler]]'', Dmitri uses holograms to make his attempted assassin (and the government that hired her) believe the assassination was successful.

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* 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 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|'''[[The Smart Guy|Sokka]]''': Yep, the whole world thinks you're dead! (''stands up and raises his arms triumphantly'') Isn't that great?!}}

** There's also Zuko at the end of the first season--he survives an assassination attempt in which his ship is completely destroyed, but he and Iroh pretend that he did die so that he can stow away on one of the ships to the North Pole and catch the Avatar there.

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** Also the [[wikipedia:John Darwin disappearance case|John Darwin case]]. Found out after a Google search.

** A woman in [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.

* [[Christopher Marlowe]], sometimes theorized to be the "real" Shakespeare, is also sometimes theorized to have faked his own death. Even though a coroner confirmed the ''knife in his skull.''

* 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.)

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[[Category:Faking the Dead]]

[[Category:Identity]]

[[Category:Resurrection Tropes]]