Flatline: Difference between revisions

[[File:flatline_8205flatline 8205.jpg|frame|Where's that damn [[Magical Defibrillator]]?!]]

{{quote| ''[[Hell Is That Noise|Beep... beep... beep...beep...]]''<br />

You've [[Seen It a Million Times]]. An injured or sickly character will go into the hospital, and while there will be hooked up to [[Monty PythonsPython's theThe Meaning of Life|a machine that goes PING!]]. As long as the electrocardiogram machine is beeping, and as long as the line on the screen that indicates the character's heart is still beating is going up and down like a metronome, everything's fine. But then suddenly, the beeping becomes erratic and the lines on the screen will start jumping up and down until finally, the lines flatten out and the machine lets out one long sustained beep! The medical personnel scramble about, someone in the background is calling a Code Blue over the intercom, and inevitably a [[Magical Defibrillator|defibrillator]] will be wheeled in. Sometimes, the character will be revived and the beeping and regular jagged lines on the machine's screen restart.

Regardless of what they were hospitalized for, if a character is hooked up to a cardiac monitor, they will almost always flatline at some point. Additionally it will either be an instant thing from a regular heartbeat to a line, or a very sudden series of erratic bleeps suggesting the patient is having a heart-attack, often from stress, just before the flatline itself. If the scene is being played for comedy, the "flatline" may be the result of the patient playing with the monitor leads, getting up for a bathroom trip, a guest accidentally tripping over the monitor, or other such mundane causes.

A sub-trope of [[He's Dead, Jim]]. See also [[Hell Is That Noise]].

{{examples|Examples:}}

* In ''[[Full Metal Panic!]]: The Second Raid'', Gauron flatlines after Sousuke shoots him [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|repeatedly]]. However, the beeping actually ''starts up again'' (which lead to many people believing that [[Memetic Badass|he had officially achieved immortality]]). Of course, the beeping turns out to be a bomb.

* In ''[[Death Note (Manga)|Death Note]]'', Soichiro was lying in the hospital bed and his death was shown by the long beep.

* In ''[[ETE.T. the Extraterrestrial (Film)Extra-Terrestrial|ET the Extraterrestrial]]'', the fact that the life forces of ET and Elliot have been linked is indicated by electrocardiograms. As ET slowly dies, Elliot's own life signs get weaker and weaker. In the end, they both get better.

* [[Played for Laughs]] in ''[[Silent Movie (Filmfilm)|Silent Movie]]''.

** Happens with Mouse's death, along with [[Blood From the Mouth]]. [[He's Dead Jim|He's dead, Jim]].

* In ''[[Robo CopRoboCop]] 2''. When Dr. Faxx shuts off Cain's life support system so his brain can be harvested.

*** Done in a very odd way during the credits of the last [[St. Elsewhere]] episode. The MTM cat was shown lying still, flanked by a beeping heart monitor and IV bag. As the theme music ended, the monitor went to flatline instead of the kitty's traditional "Meow!" Yes, the autistic kid killed a kitty...

* ''[[Dallas]]'': The seventh-season ending, where Bobby Ewing dies; this is ''not'' the "shower scene" cliffhanger that aired a year later, but the episode where Bobby was struck by a car and mortally injured. As usually seems to be the case for "he's gonna die" episodes, the entire cast gathers at the victim's bedside (in this case, Bobby's) as the soon-to-be-deceased mumbles a few last words to family and loved ones; in this case, Bobby's last muttered words are, "I love you" before the flatline. Unintentionally comes off as being [[Played for Laughs]] because of the cheesy setup, the lack of emotion shown by a fake teary-eyed Larry Hagman, and the foregone conclusion that Bobby was going to die (due to Patrick Duffy leaving the show due to conflicts with the show's producers and writers -- untilwriters—until he got them resolved a year later ... ).

* Subverted in an episode of ''[[One Foot in Thethe Grave]]''. Margaret is hooked up to life support as Victor stays with her, holding her hand. The heart monitor does the standard "beep.. beep.. beep.. beep.. beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep", and prompts a [[Really Dead Montage]] from Victor, and then a nurse wanders by, complains that the heart monitor had been faulty all week, [[Percussive Maintenance|bashes it]], and apologises, as it starts beeping regularly again.

* Daphne's death in ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]].''

* This happens in the final episode of the 3rd season of ''[[Charmed (TV)|Charmed]]'', All Hell Breaks Loose. Piper is shot and dies in the hospital. Later that episode, time is reset and [[Death Is Cheap|Piper is alive again]].

{{quote| '''Computer monitor:''' SUBJECT: INACTIVE<br />

* ''[[The Good Guys (TV)|The Good Guys]]'' subverts this in the pilot episode. A plastic surgeon is operating on a criminal when a flatline occurs. The surgeon tells the guy's goons that it is probably just a loose wire but they do not believe him and pull out their guns. The doctor panics and the goons open fire, hit some oxygen bottles and blow themselves up. It really was just a loose wire.

* Subverted on on ''[[Chuck]]''. In a season four episode, an attacker assaults someone who is gravely wounded in the hospital, and smiles when he sees the monitor flatline. Of course, the "victim" had merely unplugged his fingertip pulse-oximeter.

* Used for comedy in one episode of [[Home Improvement (TV series)|Home Improvement]], Tim Allen takes applies 2 nodes to his chest, beep.....beep.....beep. He starts breathing heavily and tries again, beep..beep..beep..beep. He then puts the nodes on his head to which it flat-lines.

* {{spoiler|Gentaro}} at the end of episode 31 of ''[[Kamen Rider Fourze (TV)|Kamen Rider Fourze]]''. He wasn't hooked to any machine, but there was a line on the screen meant to invoke this.

* [[Subverted Trope|Mocked]] in the video for [["Weird Al" Yankovic]]'s "Like a Surgeon", where a patient has flatlined just as Al (dressed as a doctor) walks in. Al attempts to give the machine [[Percussive Maintenance]], but then realizes that the machine isn't the problem. He promptly pounds the patient in the chest... and his heart starts beating regularly again.

* "My Child" by [[Disturbed (Music)|Disturbed]] ends with this sound, being that it's about the lead singer's miscarried baby. Yes, [[Tear Jerker (/Music)|he really wanted to be a father]].

* Xorcist's [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FH7zbjX14hw "Crack"] opens with a flatlining EKG; by the dialogue, a drug user apparently is having a [[Near -Death Experience]] after doing it the first time. "I didn't do that much stuff, it's only the first time! Oh God please, I wanna go back! "Oh please God, I wanna live!"

* The long, sustained G note during the song "My Iron Lung" by Radiohead sounds like a (take wild guess) a flat EKG. Considering the sardonic tone of the song, it's open to interpretation whether it means a person has died, or Radiohead is comparing their success as "dead"

* Tazz's entrance theme in [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]] started with the sound of a heartbeat... which then fades into the beep of an ECG... which promptly flatlined.

{{quote| "I'm sorry, Ma'am, we've lost the broccoli."}}

* Combine soldiers in ''[[Half-Life 2 (Video Game)|Half-Life 2]]'' emit a long beep every time you kill one.

* The ancient PC game ''[[Weird Dreams]]'' used this trope. The premise of the game was that the weird scenarios were literally a dying dream. The player character was actually in Intensive Care. If the player lost the game, he died. Highlighted by a graphic of a heart monitor's beep stuttering while it briefly flatlined if the player lost a life. Lose the last life and it stayed flatlined.

* Part of the sound effects in the ''[[Dance Dance Revolution]]'' track "Healing Vision", the "plot" being that the person is having a near death experience. The flatline is much more obvious in "Healing Vision: Angelic Mix"; in that version, the EKG's even rhythm devolves into chaotic fibrillation for about three or four measures before flatlining. The arrow targets stop momentarily to highlight the steady sound, which persists through the rest of the song until the final two beats (inverting [[Last -Note Nightmare]] nicely).

* In ''[[Dead Space (Franchiseseries)|Dead Space]]'', this occurs when the wearer of a RIG dies, including [[NPC|NPCs]]s as well as the player character.

* In ''[[Illbleed (Video Game)|Illbleed]]'', an electrocardiogram represents the player character's heartrate. Hit a scare trap and it goes up. If it gets too high, the character's heart ''explodes'', and it flatlines. (It can also get too ''low'' if they bleed out, which also leads to death and a flatline.)

* In ''[[Jackie Chan Adventures (Animation)|Jackie Chan Adventures]]'', Captain Black had been attacked by Valmont wielding the Dragon talisman. The end of the episode featured the long beep, only to reveal that Captain Black had just took off the sensors and tried to get out of the hospital.

* In the ''[[Invader Zim]]'' episode "Bad, Bad Rubber Piggy," Zim is keeping track of Dib's vital signs as he sends objects into the past to try and kill him -- afterhim—after sustaining multiple injuries, he finally flatlines after Zim replaces the paramedic's defilibrator with rubber pigs. [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge|Unfortunately for Zim]], he gets better.

* In an episode of [[King of the Hill]], Hank's father Cotton is able to cause a flatline at will using a trick he learned in the military. He does this several times in the episode, so when he actually does die everyone's a little unsure.

* Subverted in ''[[Action League NowNOW]]'': "Danger for a Dignitary". After The Flesh accidentally gets an ambassador injured, Bill the Lab Guy is forced to do a delicate procedure to fix him:

{{quote| '''Bill the Lab Guy:''' Nurse Thunder, I need more glue. (*flatline*) Oh no, I've lost him! I was afraid of this!<br />

* In [[Transformers: theThe Movie]], Optimus Prime's vitals flatline towards the end of [[Tear Jerker|That Scene]]. Ouch.

* In a rather serious episode of ''[[Adventure Time (Animation)|Adventure Time]]'', this happens to [[EverythingsEverything's Better Withwith Princesses|Princess]] [[Anthropomorphic Food|Bubblegum]], but then she turns out alright.

* Unless it is a medical procedural like ''[[ER]]'', the progression from a normal heartbeat--throughheartbeat—through various dysrhythmias and arrhythmias--toarrhythmias—to a flatline is usually depicted in fiction as unnaturally quick. Unless the patient suffered a catastrophic brain injury, decapitation, or a very high severing of the spinal cord, it usually takes several minutes for a patient to flatline as arrhythmias disrupt the flow of oxygenated blood to the brain. Except in rare cases, such as suppression by poisoning, extreme intoxication or extreme hypothermia, it is an extremely rare case that a patient who reaches asystole will be revived.

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