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{{trope}}
[[File:family-photo-
[[Retirony]]'s equally devious brother, [[Genre Savvy|not that either of them have photos of the other]]. Whenever a character shows the others a picture of their family and/or loved ones, they're shot to the top of the [[Sorting Algorithm of Mortality]].
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See also [[Retirony]] and [[If We Get Through This]].
{{examples}}▼
{{deathtrope}}
== Anime & Manga ==▼
* {{spoiler|Physica}} from ''Macross 7'', has to be the master of this trope. Not only does he show us a picture of his wife and daughter before he's killed in combat, but {{spoiler|he's about to be re-united with his family a day late for his Daughters Birthday}}, and the photo he shows us is in a {{spoiler|handmade music box for the daughters Birthday}}. He tugs more at our heart strings by telling us {{spoiler|that his daughter doesn't recognize his face}}... what's more after he dies a senseless death and his team mate (one of the [[Love Triangle]], goes to deliver the {{spoiler|birthday gift/family photo}} to his wife and child, it's implied that his wife was cheating on him. This series doesn't kill very often so they make sure to get their millage. The only other death of note is the [[Heroic Sacrifice]].▼
▲{{examples}}
▲* {{spoiler|Physica}} from ''[[Macross 7]]'', has to be the master of this trope. Not only does he show us a picture of his wife and daughter before he's killed in combat, but {{spoiler|he's about to be re-united with his family a day late for his Daughters Birthday}}, and the photo he shows us is in a {{spoiler|handmade music box for the daughters Birthday}}. He tugs more at our heart strings by telling us {{spoiler|that his daughter doesn't recognize his face}}... what's more after he dies a senseless death and his team mate (one of the [[Love Triangle]], goes to deliver the {{spoiler|birthday gift/family photo}} to his wife and child, it's implied that his wife was cheating on him. This series doesn't kill very often so they make sure to get their millage. The only other death of note is the [[Heroic Sacrifice]].
* In the ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' manga, {{spoiler|Lt. Colonel Hughes}} carries a photo of his fiancée with him during the Ishbalan war. [[Genre Savvy]] Colonel Mustang then points out that [[Discussed Trope|if they were in a war story]], carrying a photo of her around and showing it off so proudly would be a sure-fire way to die ironically on the battlefield. Its subverted as this is a flashback and the audience knows that he ''does'' make it back to his girlfriend and marries her and has a kid. Of course, this is a reference to the fact that all through the series, he's showing off pictures of his daughter and occasionally of his wife... {{spoiler|[[Double Subverted]] as he is the first important character to die.}}
** Plus, the family picture partially ''causes'' {{spoiler|Hughes's death: he drops it in the phone booth, Envy sees it and is able to transform into his wife, and poor Hughes can't stab him to save his own life.}}
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** This doesn't really count as ''[[Kill'Em All|everyone]]'' in ''[[Saikano]]'' dies horribly. {{spoiler|Except Shuuji and, depending on your interpretation and whether you're watching the anime or reading the manga, Chise.}}
* The first episode of ''[[The Tower of Druaga (anime)|The Tower of Druaga]]: The Aegis of Uruk'' lampoons this trope heavily.
* Happens picture-perfectly in the second volume of ''[[
* Miaka takes a happy picture with her [[True Companions]] in the middle of ''[[Fushigi Yuugi]]''. {{spoiler|Four episodes later, Nuriko dies and triggers the death domino.}}
* Subverted in ''[[Zipang]]''. The American pilot of the Dauntless divebomber keeps looking at the picture of his wife just as it looks like he's about to [[Ramming Always Works|ram his plane]] into the ''Mirai''. However, he jumps off and parachutes to safety just before impact, carefully keeping his wife's photo before he does.
* Played with on ''[[Digimon Tamers]]''. During the final arc, we see a scene where one of the computer programmers none-too-subtly looks at a framed picture of him and his son and granddaughter, {{spoiler|which is actually used to cement the implication that his ''granddaughter,'' who appeared a few episodes earlier, was really [[Dead All Along]]. Nothing happens to the programmer in question.}}
* Done ridiculously fast in ''[[Legend of Galactic Heroes]]'''s early episode, where you literally can't count to six before the two Alliance gunners die after one shows the
* The manga of ''[[Black Cat (manga)|Black Cat]]'' has an accountant for the mafia show off a picture of his family to Train and Sven. Being, well, a runaway from the mafia, he gets killed by an assassin shortly after.
* ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'': While he doesn't have a photo to show off, Tomoe's fiance begins talking to his comrades about how the two of them were childhood sweethearts and that he was going to marry her once the war was over (a war he got himself involved in in order to impress her).... right when Battousai shows up.
** Later on, the events that took place would turn into a {{spoiler|[[Personal Effects Reveal]] for Kenshin, since he overheard Akira saying Tomoe's name - who would end up marrying Kenshin and later die for him - right before he killed him, though he never thought anything of it at the time.}}
* Happen in early episode of ''[[Tekkaman Blade]]'', a professor is killed after he shows D-Boy his families photo before his [[Heroic Sacrifice]]. While D-Boy's anger against the millitary because of said events is normal for well... Normal person, it feels REALLY out of character if we considers how D-Boy acts up to this point, and the fact that his rage is against the millitary member. {{spoiler|That is until you see what happen to D-Boy's later on the series.}}
== Comic Books ==
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* Leads to a death in the film ''Sum of All Fears'', where an Israeli pilot's picture of his wife and kids falls off his plane's control panel, his brief distraction of quickly picking the photo back up and placing it into it's original place leads to him now seeing too late the surface to air missile that's flying towards him and he explodes.
** Tom Clancy himself states that this is the reason why various Air Forces do not allow pilots to bring up family photos, Making this the first in a series of [[Did Not Do the Research]]
* Parodied and [[Lampshaded]] in ''[[Hot Shots]]!'' One of the pilots shows everyone pictures of his perfect family, and his beautiful, perky wife even shows up at the base to tell him how things are going with the house they just bought. He also puts off putting the single last signature needed onto the insurance on his life until after this flight, and takes some crucial evidence to the JFK assassination and a winning lottery ticket along with him; his call sign? Dead Meat.
** He also walks under a ladder, has a black cat cross his path, and accidentally breaks his wife's mirror.
* One of the cops at the beginning of [[The Last House on the Left]] remake is talking to his colleague about his daughters and their pictures are shown. Is done in such a hammy way it hurts.
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* ''[[Independence Day]]''. As Russell Casse is flying underneath the invader's ship, he looks at a picture of his three children in the cockpit just before he performs a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] by flying his jet into the ship's primary weapon and destroying it.
* During the Joe Don Baker stinker ''[[Final Justice]]'' (as presented on [[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]), Joe Don Baker's Texas lawman is looking at family photos with his partner, moments before the partner is gunned down:
{{quote|
'''Crow''': [[Genre Savvy|Uh oh]]. }}
* Used as foreboding in ''[[Deep Impact]]''. When Jenny's estranged father returns and gives her several family photos, it begins a series of events where Jenny gives up the chance to escape the mega-tsunami created by the smaller half of the comet and spends her last moments with her father.
* Subverted in ''[[Transformers (film)|Transformers]]'', at least partially. Jorge Figuerosa talks about going back to his mother's house and eating alligator stew, while Captain Lennox actually talks ''to'' his wife via webcam and sees his baby. Neither of them die in the movie (although Fig died in a cut scene).
* We see a brief shot of Dryden's picture of his wife and kids on a table when [[James Bond (film)|James Bond]] kills him in the opening of ''[[Casino Royale]]''.
* ''[[Top Gun]]'':
** Subverted
** Played straight with {{spoiler|Goose}}. The moment he tells Maverick that he just wants to graduate from TOPGUN without incident because he has a family to go home to, the savvy viewer will start to get a bad feeling. When we actually meet them, you know he isn't long for this world, and you'd be right.
* {{spoiler|Nikolai}} from ''[[Predators]]'' shows a photo of his two children and becomes the next to die. {{spoiler|Edwin steals the photo and uses it to gain sympathy from Royce and Isabel. He too dies shortly afterwards.}}
* In Anthony Mann's ''Men in war'', American soldiers find the family photo on the corpse of a North Korean. So those [[Dirty Commies]] are simply ''men'' ?!
* Subverted in ''[[Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever]]''.
* Played straight ''and'' subverted in ''[[Das Boot]]''. Lieutenant Werner looks at family photos from Cadet Ullman, Navigator Kriechbaum and the Chief Engineer. At the end, {{spoiler|Ullman gets killed in an air raid, Kriechbaum gets wounded and is rushed into an ambulance that leaves just before the air raid, and the Chief survives.}}
* [[Hostel|Oli]] makes the mistake of showing off pictures of his daughter, and to an Elite Hunting ''customer'', no less. Of course, given that this is ''Hostel'', keeping the photo hidden probably wouldn't have helped.
* Agent Fielding pulls one out in ''[[Time Cop]]''.
* In [[Apocalypse Now]] it is not a photograph but a {{spoiler|tape recording of the family back home. And the character is dead before it finishes playing back.}}
* Played with and
* [[Saving Private Ryan]] has an interesting variation in that technically it was {{spoiler|a letter that Caparzo reveals after getting shot by an enemy sniper. Said letter gets taken by [[The Medic]], Irwin Wade, with the presumed intention of mailing it after the mission. Wade dies about half-way through the film, and the letter is taken by Captain Miller, who gets shot during the final battle}}.
** It is even clever lampshaded when {{spoiler|Reiben is seen removing the letter from Miller's coat as he is dying, with an extremely uneasy look on his face}}.
== Literature ==
* Referenced in [[Terry Pratchett]]'s [[Discworld]] novel ''[[
* ''[[Harry Potter]].'' {{spoiler|Lupin! How could you have taken out that photograph of your newborn son! And you, Fleur, giving him reason, too! You fools!}}
** {{spoiler|I have to say I'm impressed with the rapidity with which this trope took effect, there. One minute he's stupidly playing show and tell practically in the middle of a battle, and no more than ten pages later...}}
** The weirdest part is that he only took out the picture and started blabbing about it to relieve the tension from the uncomfortable moment {{spoiler|Percy's sudden return}} had created.
*** As if to add insult to injury(or death), his wife dies as well. Good job, {{spoiler|Lupin}}
** Tangential example: {{spoiler|In the film version of ''[[Harry Potter and
* Played with in [[Dan Abnett]]'s [[Gaunt's Ghosts]] novel ''Straight Silver''. {{spoiler|Gutes}} laments that he has no photographs of his dead daughter and granddaughter; they had intended to send him some after, but then Chaos destroyed their planet. Then he dies.
* Inverted in ''The Things They Carried''. In one section, Tim O'Brien is showing Kiowa a picture of his girlfriend when an attack on the camp begins. O'Brien survives, but Kiowa doesn't.
* In [[Graham McNeill]]'s [[Warhammer
* {{spoiler|Beckendorf}} from ''[[Percy Jackson and The Olympians]]''. Before moving out on their mission to {{spoiler|blow up the ''Princess Andromeda,'' Beckendorf}} pulls out a picture of his girlfriend, {{spoiler|Silena.}} A mere fifteen pages later, he is dead. The worst part? {{spoiler|''Silena was a spy,'' and because of the spy, teh mission was expected, which lead directly to him getting killed.}}
* Appears somewhat differently in ''[[All Quiet on the Western Front]]'': after Paul kills a French soldier, he founds pictures of his wife and daughter.
** Don't forget the boots ! The uncle of the schoolmate of Paul give his boots to his nephew when he enlist, needless to say, he die and then one another take the boots... and die too...and so on.
* In the ''[[Halo]]'' [[Expanded Universe]] novels, some of the otherwise nameless soldiers and personnel have families back home, but are still just as expendable in the novels as they are in the games. To name an example, the first guy you see die from the first game dies while clutching a picture of his family.
* Referenced in [[Tanya Huff]]'s ''[[Confederation of Valor]]'' series. The first book has one of the soldiers offering to show another one a video of his four-year-old doing a silly dance - until a more [[Genre Savvy]] soldier stops the both of them.
* In ''Laura and the Silver Wolf'', the father of an [[Ill Girl]] Laura brings her their photo from earlier days. {{spoiler|This is the [[Tear Jerker|last time she is awake]] in the real world.}}
* In ''The Naked and the Dead'', [[Sociopathic Soldier]] Croft captures a Japanese man. Croft first treats him so nicely, that he ends up showing him a picture of his family. Croft then shoots him in the head.
▲== Live Action TV ==
* Parodied and [[Lampshaded]] in an episode of ''[[The Goodies]]''. When one Nazi sentry starts showing his partner a photo of his girlfriend in Dusseldorf, the other starts telling him to put it away and ends up screaming at the top of the lungs to the British commandos he is certain are about to leap and murder them that he is not with this guy.
* Played straight several times in ''[[24]]'', but subverted in season 7. Jack & Tony go to a dock to intercept a weapons shipment, where we see a security guard working the night shift and getting off the phone with his wife, who is pregnant with twins. Jack & Tony inform him of the dangerous shipment and convince him to go undercover for them. After the guard leaves the room, Jack feels bad for him and Tony tells Jack that "we both knew he was dead as soon as he walked out that door." But Jack defies tradition and saves the guard's life when he's about to get killed for "knowing too much", even though it jeopardizes the mission.
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* On ''[[Babylon 5]]'', Captain Jack insists on showing off a picture of his daughter to a heavily disinterested [[The Medic|Doctor Franklin]] and [[Badass Longcoat|Marcus Cole]]. {{spoiler|1=Turns out to be a tragic subversion. Captain Jack was acting under the influence of an [[Puppeteer Parasite|alien parasite]] that was trying to get him to root out the Mars Resistance hideout so they could be wiped out by EarthForce. He [[Heroic Sacrifice|committed suicide]] before this could happen and the picture of his daughter had her contact information on it so the heroes could tell her what happened.}}
* Averted in ''[[Space: Above and Beyond]]'', Lieutenant West carries a picture of his girlfriend on his dogtag chain and lives through the entire series. His quest to find her and rescue her after her colony is attacked by the Chigs in the series pilot is his primary character arc on the show.
* ''[[Lost]]'': Early in "The Candidate
* Mocked in ''[[Generation Kill]]''. Evan Wright shows off his girl back home picture, and the Marines tease him about it. But it's the picture that suffers the most, as they steal it and use it for "recreation" for the entire tour.
* The opening of [[Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)|the new ''
* Averted in ''[[Jericho]]'' with Major Beck. His family is mentioned soon after his first appearance but the photo he keeps on the inside of his helmet isn't shown until the final episode. Instead of being killed, he finally completes his [[Heel Face Turn]]. (Also a potential inversion, as it's very likely his family has already been killed.)
* Invoked/Lampshaded in a sketch of ''[[That Mitchell and Webb Look]]'', when they decide they need to [[Tonight Someone Dies|kill someone off]] to [[Drama Bomb Finale|boost their ratings]]. Who should turn up but a minor player mooning over his lovely girlfriend's Facebook page..?
* Played completely straight in ''[[Doctor Who]]'', in
* A variant in ''[[Burn Notice]]'': {{spoiler|Victor}} directs the heroes to a picture of his ''dead'' family, serving to humanize him- in, of course, the very same episode in which he's fatally shot.
* On ''[[The Amazing Race]]'', generally when a team talks about how much they miss their family back at home, especially early in the race, you can expect them to get eliminated that episode.
* On an episode of ''[[Cold Case]]'': As the victim of the week is pushed to the floor by her soon-to-be killer, the [[Rape Discretion Shot|camera pans away]] to a picture of her and her parents stuck to the refrigerator door. What makes this especially wrenching is that the girl's mother had died recently and she and her father had moved to a new town for a fresh start. The picture is the last one taken of them as a happy family. [[Fridge Horror]] kicks in full force when you realize that the father will now have to contend with the loss of his wife and daughter within one year.
* [[Zig Zagged]] on ''[[M*A*S*H (television)|
* Given a twist in ''[[Angel]]''. After Jasmine's spell over LA is broken, Connor talks a depressed cop out of killing himself. He then takes out a picture of his wife and daughter which sends Connor (who has some issues with his parents) into a rage.
{{quote|
'''Cop:''' I don't know.
'''Connor:''' ''You don't know?'' }}
* Averted in ''[[The Winds of War and War and Remembrance|The Winds of War/War and Remembrance]]''. Pretty much [[Anyone Can Die]] and [[War Is Hell|several do]] but whether or not they have a family photo does not seem to make much difference in that regard.
== Music ==
*
{{quote|
''[[Tear Jerker|And her lover's gone into a white squall]]. }}
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogLwHEPyXBE The official music video] of "Achtung Panzer" by Raubtier has one soldier looking at a photo of a woman with baby at 0:47. No prize for guessing what we'll see torn and splattered with blood in a [[Dead Hand Shot]] at 1:38.
== New Media ==
* A [[Discussed Trope]] in the ''Battlefield: Bad Company'' blog by Sweetwater (We're dead, 6/16/2008), calling [[Southern-Fried Private|Haggard]] and Bobby Sanford stupid for discussing home, and for Sanford showing a photo of his wife and daughter, calling that particular action 'like signing your own death warrant!'. [[As You Know]], his proof for it is war movies. Also played straight as the Sanford guy does die (apparently, by a tank while trying to defecate).
* There was something similar to this in a web game that used to be on [[My Chemical Romance]]'s website during ''The Black Parade'' era, only the trope is averted if you shot down enough enemies.
== Video Games ==
* Inverted in ''[[Gears of War]] 2'', where Dominic shows everyone a picture of Maria, his wife who had gone missing in the war. It turns out that {{spoiler|She was captured by the Locusts, put into a Work Camp and gets a [[Fate Worse Than Death]]. So Dom has to kill her.}}
** The first [[Gears of War]] plays it straight with Rojas. The first mention of him is when you see an unidentified corpse from a bridge, and one of your squadmates says something along the lines of 'I hope that's not Rojas. His little boy turned two last week". The corpse you saw WASN'T Rojas, but you do find his mutilated body later.
* ''[[Ace Combat]]'':
** ''
** Inverted with Jaeger in ''7''. Despite regularly talking about telling his son about what happened during the war, he makes it through the whole game even though [[Anyone Can Die]] is in effect.
* In the introduction sequence of ''[[Xenogears]]'' we see the Captain open up and look at a photo locket before he sets off the [[Self-Destruct Mechanism]]. As the scene plays out the camera focus pulls back to show us that it's a photo of his (presumed) wife and child. On a second play through of the game you {{spoiler|realise that they bear a remarkable resemblance to some of the characters in the game that follows}}.
* Barry Burton of ''[[Resident Evil]]''. The guy's a nut for his family and keeps a photo of them in his pocket. Later in the game, If the player decided, Barry will be knocked off a cliff to his death, leaving the photo of his family behind. In a reverse example, in Jill Valentine's ending (if Barry survives, and if the player dosen't rescue Chris Redfield) Barry will show the same picture to Jill and talk a bit about his family
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* Defied in ''[[Grand Theft Auto IV]]'': there's a mission where the characters are ambushed by the Feds and have to run. You're riding with the guy who was supposed to watch for them, who says it's because he was distracted thinking about his wife, who he just got married to. He offers to show Niko a picture [[Too Dumb to Live|in the middle of the chase]]. Niko's response: "I don't want to see a fucking picture!" He actually ''can'' die, but you pretty much have to shoot him yourself to make it happen.
* Done more than once in the ''[[Metal Gear]]'' franchise:
** In ''[[Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake]]'', Snake and Natasha/[[Retcon|Gustava]] take cover in a sewer and she tells him about her mother and ex-fiance. As soon as she leaves the sewer, she gets blown up.
** In the ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' radio drama, Snake teams up with an original character named Allen Iishiba to save Meryl after she and a crew of UN Peacekeepers crash lands on a hostile territory. While resting, Allen talks about his childhood girlfriend waiting for him at home. Needless to say, Allen doesn't get to see his girlfriend again.
** In ''[[Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater]]'', Sokolov shows Snake a picture of his wife and daughter. He gets tortured to death in the very next cutscene.
*** Also in ''MGS3'', [[Recurring Character|Johnny Sasaki]] shows Snake a photo of his family if you trigger the cutscene. [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|If you feel like being a complete asshole]], you're free to kill him as soon as you escape afterwards. [[Video Game Caring Potential|Otherwise]], feel free to subvert it.
* One of the items you can get from the Cola Wars battlefield in ''[[Kingdom of Loathing]]'' is the "picture of a dead guy's girlfriend", found in the backpack of a dying soldier.
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* In ''[[Civilization]]'', The idle animation of the infantry unit will show him looking a wallet photo, hold it close to him with a warm bubbly feeling being putting the photo back in.
== Web Comics ==
* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2010-10-27 this] ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'' comic.
* As well as [http://www.drunkduck.com/The_Dragon_Doctors/index.php?p=772097 this page]{{Dead link}} of ''[[The Dragon Doctors]]''. Well, more a lampshading of a subversion, since it's a [[Foregone Conclusion]] that she survives.
== Web Original ==
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* It happens to {{spoiler|''[[Big Bad|Danya]]''}} of all people in V4 of ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]''. In one scene he's shown looking at a photograph of his wife and children. {{spoiler|Moments later, he's held hostage by [[Big Damn Heroes|STAR]], and then shot and killed by [[The Dog Bites Back|his subordinate Dorian]]}}.
* Steff [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] it in chapter 495 of [[Tales of MU]] when Mack mentions that she prefers the stories of individuals in history to the stories of big battles, in reference to the games of [[Tabletop Games|Stone]] [[Turn-Based Strategy|Soldiers]] Steff, Ian, Shiel, and Dee are playing.
{{quote|
== Western Animation ==
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** One episode had a flashback to Skinner and his buddy in Vietnam. IIRC his buddy got killed showing Skinner his pictures of his girlfriend, because the photo album was brightly-colored and broke his camouflage.
** McBain's partner Skowie is shot soon after showing a picture of him with his wife.
{{quote|
'''McBain''': Oh, stop talking crazy! }}
* Averted in ''[[Robotech]]: New Generation'' and ''Shadow Chronicles'', where Scott and Marcus carry the locket showing Marlene around - {{spoiler|and survive, often just as one of few}}.
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** During the Klendathu campaign a scorched photo and half-written letter were found in a trench, presumably belonging to some nameless [[Red Shirt]].
* A police officer begs [[Invader Zim]] for his life:
{{quote|
'''Zim''': *Cuts the officer's brain out and replaces it with a squid's.* }}
== Real Life ==
* Major Dale Buis is reported as "showing his new friends pictures of his three young sons" shortly before being attacked and gunned down by six [[Vietnam War|Viet Cong guerrilla fighters]].
* Let's be honest: [[Truth in Television|this happens to almost every soldier who doesn't make it home.]]
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