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Heroic Sacrifice/Live-Action TV: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
* Joss Whedon examples:
** Doyle in ''[[
** Darla on ''[[
** {{spoiler|Wesley}} in the grand finale of ''[[
** Spike's ultimate sacrifice in the ''[[Buffy]]'' series finale.
** Buffy in the season 5 finale.
** Simon Tam in ''[[
** Topher has stepped up to join the ranks by going out with a very literal bang to save the world in ''[[Dollhouse]]''.
* Londo Mollari, one of the most complex characters on ''[[
** Years later, in the future of the [[Time Travel]] sequence, Londo, under the control of the symbiote, has the heroes at his mercy. In a moment of lucidity, he lets them go, then asks G'Kar -- either his sworn enemy, his best friend, or both -- to kill him so the symbiote won't alert anybody to the escape. This G'Kar does, in a manner which Londo had foreseen decades earlier in a prophetic dream -- which at the time he took to mean G'Kar would eventually murder him in cold blood. Londo is therefore an example of [[Heroic Sacrifice]], [[Redemption Equals Death]] ''and'' [[Prophecy Twist]].
*** The symbiote then wakes up, kills G'kar, and fulfills the rest of the prophecy.
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** During the Battle at Coriana VI, the [[Abusive Precursors|Shadows]] attempt to destroy [[Chosen One|Sheridan]]'s ''White Star'' with two missiles. A Drazi ''Sun Hawk'' and a Minbari ''Sharlin'' interpose themselves between the ''White Star'' and the missiles, not only saving Sheridan but also showing the Shadows and the Vorlons that the younger races will no longer take their crap.
*** And to lure the Vorlons and Shadows into the battle, a shipfull of Rangers (led by Bryan Cranston!) have to die protecting a piece of misinformation, so it will be convincing enough.
* ''[[Star Trek:
** However, since Decker is a [[Four-Star Badass]], he still gets his Heroic Sacrifice. But in a roundabout fashion.
* Two different starships Enterprise get this in the ''[[Star Trek:
* Done rather problematically in a recent episode of ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'': after having her criminally shady past revealed, the pilot Kat voluntarily exposes herself to lethal levels of radiation while guiding a passenger ship through a star cluster. The episode was well-written and actually made sense, as well as providing an unexpected degree of depth to a heretofore slightly two-dimensional character, but... given that Kat had not only served quite adequately as CAG for the last year, but was one of maybe two or three pilots who'd never actually committed mutiny during the run of the series (and that one of the others was a ''Cylon''), would anyone other than [[Jerkass|Starbuck]] actually have cared ''that'' much?
** Might even count as [[Driven to Suicide]].
*** She's already taken too much radiation when she decides to fly the last mission. For her it's a choice between staying behind and probably dying anyway, or going out there, ''definitely'' dying, but making a difference, atoning not only for her past but for losing the other ship earlier in the episode.
*** People other than Starbuck would care because [[Stargate SG
** Also, in the BSG DVD movie Razor, {{spoiler|Kendra, who shot some civilians under direct order of her commanding officer, [[General Ripper|Helena Cain]], and was troubled with guilt over it ever since. This trope was invoked extremely obviously - someone had to stay behind and manually trigger a nuke, she forced the team at gunpoint to let her be the one to do it, and after her death, she was awarded a frakking medal. Also, the Cylon ship she died to destroy ''told'' her, specifically, that it knew what she had done and she was absolved, right before the nuke went off.}}
* The Fifth Doctor at the end of "The Caves of Androzani", which is seen as one of the best ''[[Doctor Who]]'' stories. Both he and Peri (a [[Damsel Scrappy]] if there ever was one) were suffering from fatal poisoning, and the Doctor gives the antidote to her. He then collapsed, and willed on by his past companions, regenerated into a new body in the best such sequence in the series.
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*** {{spoiler|He didn't fail completely -}} his actions prevented the entire population of the earth from being killed. Well, the human population, anyway.
** In "The Family of Blood", {{spoiler|John Smith -- a fake personality created by the Doctor while hiding from some villains -- sacrifices himself and dies}} so that the Doctor can save the day.
** Gleefully subverted, however, in a ''[[
** ''[[Doctor Who]]'' has developed a very specific sub-trope of its own in which an (often unwilling) agent of the Daleks betrays them and tells them off, only to get exterminated, of course.
** {{spoiler|[[Teen Genius|Luke]] [[Evil Genius|Rattigan]]}} in the New Season 4 episode "Poison Sky".
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*** ''[[Doctor Who]]'': {{spoiler|Adric}}, as mentioned above, and {{spoiler|Luke Rattigan}} in "The Poison Sky".
** In ''[[Doctor Who/Recap/S12 E5 Revenge of the Cybermen|Revenge Of The Cybermen]]'', one of the men carrying a boobie-trapped bomb deliberately sets it off as a weapon against the Cybermen.
* Eden, of ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'', who kills herself to prevent Sylar from gaining her influencing abilities.
** Then subverted. D.L. takes a bullet from Linderman to save Niki. Enter season two: he is dead, and we are lead to assume that that is how he died. But then a flashback to four months ago has him make a full recovery from the hospital, and is indeed well enough to go fight fires and stuff...only to [[Dropped a Bridge
* In the third season finale of ''[[Lost]]'', {{spoiler|Charlie [[You Can't Fight Fate|accepts his prophesized death]]}} and decides to go out doing something helpful. He manages to undo the jamming signal, but his real contribution is alerting Desmond to the fact that {{spoiler|the people who have arrived at the island claiming to be rescue aren't who they seem}}.
** In the fourth season finale, the helicopter flying from the island to a ship waiting offshore is rapidly leaking fuel. To reach the boat, it has to lose a lot of weight. {{spoiler|Sawyer jumps out and swims back to the island.}}
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{{quote| '''Vincent''': "Seriously, how do you plan on getting out of here?"<br />
'''Abby''': {{spoiler|[[Crowning Moment of Awesome|"I don't."]]}} }}
* On ''[[
** In Season 7, a chemical plant manager called John Brunner attempts to cut off supply, when terrorists attempt to release it into the atmosphere. He instead releases a large dose into the chamber he's in, to minimize damage. Subverted, slightly, in that the attack is stopped by events elsewhere, but still, pretty damn heroic.
** A moment of silence for {{spoiler|Bill Buchanan, who set off an explosion in a gas filled room with himself still inside it to save the President's life.}}
** Jack is a fan of this trope, too bad he [[Character Shield|never gets to pull it off]].
** And now we can add {{spoiler|President Omar Hassan to the list, who gives himself up to the terrorists to prevent a bomb detonating in New York. They torture him and eventually slit his throat before Jack can rescue him.}}
* ''[[
** A bit of a [[Subverted Trope|subversion]] in that the sacrifice, while incredibly [[Tear Jerker|moving and sniffle-worthy]], isn't purely selfless, and {{spoiler|Crais does take the opportunity to deliver a grand [[Just Between You and Me]] speech to Scorpius before he and Talyn self-destruct.}} Truly, he was a megalomaniac to the end. And we ''loved'' him for it.
** Don't forget when {{spoiler|Talyn!Cricthon exposes himself to radiation to save everyone, knowing that he will die for it.}}
** At the end of ''The Peacekeeper Wars'', Crichton arguably knew that both the universe and he might not make it if {{spoiler|he used wormhole weapons to stop the war. And he did it anyway. Granted, he came out fine, but he very well might not have.}}
* ''[[Captain Power and
* In ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'', [[Adventurer Archaeologist|Dr. Jackson]] exposes himself to a fatal dose of radiation to deactivate a nuclear device and dies. Of course, dying has never actually stopped anyone in the ''Stargate'' universe (and most especially not Daniel Jackson, to the extent that other characters joke about it while he's alive and wait expectantly for his return when he's not), so one year later, he was [[Back From the Dead]].
** This isn't the only time Daniel's sacrificed himself by far. He [[Taking the Bullet|took a staff blast]] for Jack in the original film, pulled a [[You Shall Not Pass]] at the end of the first season (but managed to make it back), entered the virtual reality where he keeps getting "killed" to save Teal'c in ''Avatar'', got killed by RepliCarter after stopping the Replicators long enough for the rest of the team to kill them all, prepares to send himself to the Ori galaxy with the Sangraal in order to destroy the Ori (although his friends intervene and beam him off the ship before it goes through the supergate, leaving the Sangraal onboard to activate after it gets through), and so on. This guy really likes his heroic sacrifices.
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** She also pulls one in the alternate reality episode ''The Last Man'' where the 'Phoenix' is critically damaged in a battle with 3 hive ships. With most of the systems offline, she beams the remaining crew down to the nearby planet, then rams the Phoenix into the nearest of the Hive ships, destroying both vessels, and with the blast destroying the other 2 hive ships.
** Dr. Janet Fraser in the series 7 episode "Heroes". She absolutely will not leave the side of a badly injured soldier on a battlefield. It saves his life, but she loses hers in the process.
* In the pilot of ''[[
** {{spoiler|Of course he was going to die anyway from either internal bleeding or a heart condition, so he was just [[Take a Third Option|choosing a third option]]}}.
* ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'': In the second season, John did this for his comatose son, Dean (who was surely about to die, or at least never wake up), causing the fandom to actually like him for once. Dean also did this for Sam, who died in the finale, [[Deal
** Beyond those two big ones, Sam and Dean offer themselves up as [[Heroic Sacrifices]] on multiple other occasions. One example is Dean with the djinn in season 2. He sacrificed the ability to stay in his "dream world" - one where he doesn't have to "be a hero" and can have a normal life, including having his mother alive and his kid brother happy and not demon tainted - after realizing that in that world, all the people who the Winchesters have saved over the years are instead dead. The means for "returning" to the real world? He had to die. (Which could very easily tie this one back into [[Driven to Suicide]], but this is * Dean* we're talking about; the two often aren't exactly far from each other when it comes to his motivations!)
** Not to mention Sam's season 4 [[Heroic Sacrifice]] which is averted when his own attempt to sacrifice his soul to save Dean is ''rejected''. His resulting decision to [[Driven to Suicide|damn himself slowly]] by [[This Is Your Brain
** No Gabriel?! {{spoiler|He decided that he was on humanity's side (eventually); went up against Lucifer and tried to kill him (even though he still loved all his brothers and left because he hated watching them fight); gave them a DVD which told them how to put Lucifer back in the cage and was killed by his brother. Particularly heroic as he told them before that he'd 'skipped ahead' and knew how it would all end, so it's very possible that he knew that he would be killed and still did it because his death would be the only way that Sam and Dean could save everyone.}}
** Sam in season five finale Swan Song: {{spoiler|Throwing himself [[Fighting From the Inside|(and Satan,]] who's [[Heroic Willpower|possessing him)]] into [[Sealed Evil in
* In ''[[Prison Break]]'', {{spoiler|Brad Bellick}}, who spent the first two seasons as a main antagonist and the third as a pain in the arse before joining the heroes in season 4, sacrificed himself to ensure the grand plan would be completed. They make a point to show the character's dead body by the time the episode is out, just to be clear.
** The series finale has {{spoiler|Michael Scofield}} sacrificing himself so the final prison break can succeed and {{spoiler|his wife and unborn child}} can be free.
* ''[[Sons of Anarchy]]'' has {{spoiler|Hale}} trying to stop a van with shooters at Half-Sack's funeral... But unfortunately, ''they run over his head''.
* [[Power Rangers in Space|Zordon]], who, after being held hostage and drained of energy for a year, begged the man that had finally arrived to rescue him to stab his [[Sealed Good in
* In ''[[Flash Forward]],'' FBI agent Al Gough learns from his flash forward that his actions at some point result in {{spoiler|the accidental death of Celia, a woman he has never even met.}} He also knows that fellow agent Demetri Noh had no flash forward and has been told he will be murdered. He chooses to sacrifice himself by {{spoiler|jumping from the roof of the L.A. FBI building to prevent Celia's death and to show Demetri and others that the flash forwards can be changed.}}
** {{spoiler|Sadly this proves to be pointless, she ends up dying anyway.}}
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** Jamie Bamber must love this trope, as his Matt Devlin of [[Law and Order UK]] was shot protecting his friend Alesha Philips (along with the young witness in their case) from a hail of gunfire.
* In the ''[[Sliders]]'' episode "The Exodus", Professor Arturo steps in front of Quinn Mallory and takes a bullet meant for him. Of course, at this point Arturo is already severely brain-damaged thanks to Colonel Rickman, but he still sacrifices himself so that Quinn can live to get the others home.
* In ''[[
* On ''[[Burn Notice]],'' {{spoiler|Ian}} sacrifices himself to stop a rogue diplomat.
** A few episodes later, {{spoiler|Fiona turns herself in}} to make Anson's leverage over Michael worthless.
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