Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
213,510
edits
His Name Is--: Difference between revisions
→Live-Action TV
m (update links) |
|||
| (22 intermediate revisions by 6 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"See? It happens every time! Just as they're about to tell you who the murderer is... they get killt!"''
|''[[Mad Magazine|MAD]]'', "Kane Keen, Private Eye"}}
The informer, about to give the hero a key piece of information, [[Killed Mid-Sentence|is killed before he can tell who is th--]]
Line 11 ⟶ 12:
Compare the [[Almost-Dead Guy]], who gets hurt and ''then'' gives the information. [[Sister Trope]] of [[Conveniently Interrupted Document]]. Subtrope of [[Lost in Transmission]]. See also [[Dying Clue]].
{{deathtrope}}
{{examples}}
== [[Advertising]] ==▼
* Spoofed in an advertisement for Call Waiting: ([[Miss Marple]] is yakking to [[Hercule Poirot]] on the phone and doesn't realise the witness is trying to ring through (''...and so nine out of the ten ate the pumpkin soup!'').▼
▲== Advertising ==
▲* Spoofed in an advertisement for Call Waiting ([[Miss Marple]] is yakking to [[Hercule Poirot]] on the phone and doesn't realise the witness is trying to ring through (''...and so nine out of the ten ate the pumpkin soup!'').
▲{{quote| '''Witness''': "The killer is...''ggarrghh!''"<br />
'''Miss Marple''': "Is that with two G's or three?" }}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' did this to an absurd extent in order to keep Shinji from learning {{spoiler|that his friend Touji is the pilot of the possessed Eva Unit-03 until after he'd nearly been killed.}}
** Apart from the fact that nobody actually dies in the process, [[
* {{spoiler|South Burning}} in ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory]]'', about halfway through the series, manages to get his hands on a briefcase detailing the enemy's forces and plans, taking some apparently minor hits to his [[Humongous Mecha|mobile suit]] in the process. As the heroes fly back to their ship, he opens the briefcase and starts reading through it, discovering the enemy plans are much more far-reaching than anyone imagined. Just as he starts to tell {{spoiler|his protege, Kou Uraki}} what he's discovered, {{spoiler|Burning}}'s mecha explodes. Which would've been far more shocking if we hadn't been shown constant cuts to that seemingly minor damage throughout the second half of the episode.
** Said character got loads upon loads of [[Retirony]] in the first half of the episode, making the death even easier to see coming.
Line 30:
** [[Disconnected by Death|"The military...trouble!"]] {{spoiler|[[Tear Jerker|"...Hughes? Hughes... Hey! Hughes! HUGHES!]]}}
* In ''[[Death Note]]'', Light is ''just'' about to get L's real name off Misa when L saves himself by having her arrested. And by stealing her phone.
* In ''[[Darker
* In ''[[Naruto]]'' just when {{spoiler|Aoba is about to see Tobi/Madara's true face by delving into the memories of an unconscious Kisame, the latter forces himself to wake up by biting through his own tongue and then commits suicide using his summoned sharks.}}
* While not totally played straight, in ''[[Detective Conan]]'', during one of the mysteries, [[Butt Monkey|Takagi]] is going to reveal the man who killed [[Fair Cop|Detective]] [[Action Girl|Sato's]] father on his cell phone. As he's about to tell her the culprits name, a dark shadow appears behind him and slams a rock upon his head, instantly knocking him out as we later learn.
Line 36:
* [[Played for Laughs]] in ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'', when mind-controlled Negi is about to say who he likes most, but Yue and Nodoka stun everyone and drag him away.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* Lampshaded in, of all things, an issue of the classic Stan Lee-Steve Ditko ''Amazing [[Spider-Man]]''. The Crime Master is mortally wounded in a gunfight, and then declares that if he's going down, the Green Goblin will go down with him. He attempts to reveal the Goblin's secret identity (which was not known at the time). "The Goblin is..." and then he dies. The lampshading comes when one of the police officers at the scene comments "If I saw that happen in a mystery movie, I'd laugh at how corny it was."
* One day, [[Batman]] discovers that his parent's killer, Joe Chill is still alive and kicking and a rising gang leader, and after tormenting him for a while, reveals his [[Secret Identity]] to Chill. Chill freaks out and goes and tells his mob (without revealing the name). His irate mob, realising that Chill essentially ''created'' Batman, shoot him to the point of near-death. [[What an Idiot!|It's only then that they realize that they didn't know who exactly Batman was]]. Chill nearly is able to croak it out, but Batman barges in at that moment.
** Also happens in the Hush arc, where {{spoiler|Batman's mechanic, Harold}} is about to reveal the identity of the person who {{spoiler|bribed him into betraying Batman}}, when he is shot in the head by the villian in question.
* Parodied in, of all places, a ''Disney'' comic book storyline, namely one by Italian writer/artist Silvia Ziche, known for having a thing for either single-panel jokes or ''[[Arc Fatigue|lo]][[Ending Fatigue|ng]]'' [[Story Arc|story arcs]]. During said storyline, ''Il Papero Del Mistero'',<ref>
* Done in [[Tintin]] to great effect. The first one is played pretty much straight (before the victim is shot with something to make him go insane) in ''Cigars of the Pharaoh'' and the second one is played straight in ''The Secret of the Unicorn'' {{spoiler|but is ultimately subverted as the victim recovers}}.
== [[Fan
* Subverted in the terrible, terrible [[Troll Fic]] ''[[Light and Dark - The Adventures of Dark Yagami]]''. Someone is about to reveal to L that Light Yagami is Kira. He manages to say "Kira is Light Yaga..." before he dies, but the world's greatest detective has no idea what he means to say.
* The very poorly-formatted but otherwise bearable ''Batman'' fan-fiction screenplay [http://www.slideshare.net/artintelligence/batman-masked-soulsdocdoc ''Batman: Masked Souls'']{{Dead link}} ends with Bane trying to tell a coast guard officer that Bruce Wayne really is Batman, before Bane falls dead (or unconscious?)
== Film ==▼
▲== [[Film]] ==
* An assassin working with Boba Fett's father, Jango Fett, fails to reveal Fett's name thanks to some kind of poison dart he shoots at her in ''[[Star Wars]]'' Episode II.
** The dart was ordered by Palpatine; [[The Plan|he wanted the Jedi to go to Kamino]].
* R.K. Maroon is shot before he can finish telling Eddie the truth about the Acme murder in ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit?]]''.
* In the ''[[Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)|Battlestar Galactica]]'' movie, "Razor," {{spoiler|Kendra Shaw's radio cuts out (and then she gets blown up) before she can reveal that, according to the Hybrid, Kara Thrace will lead the humans to their end}}. It takes until halfway through season 4 before anyone else manages to get this information again.
* Brilliantly parodied in ''[[The Naked Gun|The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear]]'', where Lieutenant Frank Drebin fails to retrieve the information from a dying thug, and starts looking for another informant.
{{quote|
[dying thug #2 raises his hand]
'''Lt. Frank Drebin:''' OK, now. Talk.
'''Dying Thug #2:''' You're too late.
'''Lt. Frank Drebin:''' He already said that.
'''Dying Thug #2:''' Where'd he leave off?
'''Lt. Frank Drebin:''' Er, "Hapsburg has plan B in..."
'''Dying Thug #2:''' Oh, yeah. Hapsburg has Plan B in... in...
'''Lt. Frank Drebin:''' Where? Where?! Talk, you low-life scum!
'''Dying Thug #2:''' Gee, if that's your attitude, forget it. [dies] }}
* ''[[Monty Python and
{{quote|
'''Brother Maynard''': It reads, "Here may be found the last words of Joseph of Arimathea. He who is valiant and pure of spirit may find the holy grail in the Castle of... Aaaarrrggghhhh."
'''King Arthur''': What?
'''Brother Maynard''': "The Castle of Aaaarrrggghhhh".
'''Sir Bedevere''': What is ''that?''
'''Brother Maynard''': He must have died while carving it.
'''King Arthur''': Oh, ''come'' on!
'''Brother Maynard''': Well, that's what it says.
'''King Arthur''': Look, if he was dying, he wouldn't have bothered to ''carve'' 'Aaaarrrggghhhh'. He'd just ''say'' it.
'''Sir Galahad''': Perhaps he was dictating...
'''King Arthur''': Oh, shut up. -- Well, does it say anything else?
'''Brother Maynard''': No. Just "Aaaarrrggghhhh" }}
* Variation in ''[[Star Trek
{{quote|
'''Chekov:''' You want to go back?
'''McCoy:''' Absolutely not!
'''Kirk:''' [whispering] It's ''cold.'' }}
* Similar variation in ''[[Attack of the Killer Tomatoes]]''. The [[Big Bad]] has the hero at gunpoint, and is just about to tell him the secret of how he controls the killer tomatoes before shooting
* Subverted in ''[[Shrek|Shrek the Third]]'' when the king is dying. He cuts off mid-sentence and seems to die ''twice'' before he finally dies for real; the second time ends with "His name is--", but he manages to finish his sentence when before he actually dies.
* ''[[
* Happens in ''[[The Good, the Bad and the Ugly]]''. Tuco manages to find out the name of the graveyard where the money is buried, but the soldier dies before he learns the name of the grave it's buried in. Blondie on the other hand did...
* ''[[Carry On|Carry On Spying]]''.
{{quote|
"Would you mind repeating that?"
''The spy repeats his groans exactly.''
"Sounds like the Chinese are involved." }}
* The film version of ''[[Death on the Nile]]'' (see Literature) has someone aggravatingly slowly telling that she witnessed a murder. Her last words are "and I saw that it was - " before being shot in the head.
== [[Literature]] ==
* Happens in [[Agatha Christie]]'s ''[[Death on the Nile]]'': a nosy female witness is shot in the head mere seconds before she names the culprit. One of the detectives races to the door and finds a smoking gun lying on the floor outside, and nobody who could have fired the shot is to be seen anywhere.
** In an another Christie novel, ''After the Funeral'', a character is talking on the phone; just before she could reveal a clue, she's struck on the head (but doesn't die).
** Christie is fond of these. It happens again in ''[[A Murder Is Announced]]'', when Miss Murgatroyd is trying to tell someone who wasn't in the room, and therefore was the killer. Not a strict example, since the person she's talking to, leaves, not realizing the importance of what Miss Murgatroyd is saying, and Miss Murgatroys is killed shortly afterwards.
* Subverted in ''[[Harry Potter and
* Done by a robot in [[Isaac Asimov]]'s ''[[Robots and Empire]]''. The robot has accidentally risked shooting a human and is breaking down as a result; it attempts to tell its interrogators that its masters are hiding out on {{spoiler|Three Mile Island}} but only manages to get out the word "mile", along with a couple of mouth motions.
** In Asimov's ''[[Foundation]] and Empire'', when Ebling Mis offers to tell where the Second Foundation secretly resides, Bayta blasts him dead because she knew the Mule was listening.
* A [[Real Life]] version of this trope is mentioned in ''Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets'' by [[David Simon]], where a victim on being asked by police who shot him replied, "I'll tell you in a minute." Thirty seconds later he died.
* Happens in ''[[X Wing Series|The Krytos Trap]]''. Kirtan Loor, aware that [[Manipulative Bastard|Isard]] will have him killed soon, goes to the New Republic and offers to trade information about Isard's machinations in exchange for his life. They accept, Loor takes a speeder with a New Republic agent, and when they arrive, that agent's husband, who had unwittingly been one of Isard's [[Manchurian Agent
* John Dickson Carr's ''Dark of the Moon'' has one suspect go through this. Subverted in that she survives (though obviously she doesn't recover enough to say anything until after the killer's already caught) and {{spoiler|the fact that she was about to accuse someone of multiple crimes - including incest - that the accused ''didn't do''.}}
* In ''[[Warrior Cats]]'', it's zigzagged. Runningwind is dead and Fireheart sees Whitethroat, who he assumes to be the killer. Whitethroat is hit by a car after Fireheart realizes it wasn't him. Fireheart asks who killed Runningwind, and Whitethroat says who it was but Fireheart can't hear him over the noise of a passing car. Fireheart asks again, but Whitethroat dies just as he's about to say it, however he has a look of horror in his eyes. Then Fireheart turns around and sees the killer right there.
== [[Live
* The title comes from the pilot episode of ''[[Get Smart]]''. The informant blurts out the villain's name right away, and gloats that he escaped the death that always happens to the guy about to say the name. However, Smart forgets the name and asks the informant to repeat it. The informant isn't so lucky the second time.
** This scene definitely was in the episode 4.2 "Ironhand".
Line 118 ⟶ 113:
* In an episode of ''[[Babylon 5]]'', a severely wounded man manages to spit out "They're going to kill him! They're going to kill --" before dying. During the investigation, {{spoiler|Security Chief Michael Garibaldi}} is severely wounded; he makes a visible point of finishing the sentence before the medical staff cart him away. {{spoiler|It's "they're going to kill the President", and they do.}}
* Parodied in ''[[Fat Guy Stuck In The Internet]]'', when Watcher-Teacher dies very slowly, rambling on and on about how he wishes he had the time to tell Ken Gemberling of his destiny, prompting Gemberling to yell, "Just replace ''the words that you're saying'' with the ones about my destiny!"
* Happens constantly on ''[[24
* Inverted on ''[[Lost]]''. Although wounded and dying, Libby ''is'' able to say the name of her and Ana Lucia's murderer... but since the murderer in question is one of them and was also wounded (as part of a trick to make them think the killer was the man they'd been holding prisoner), they think she's asking about his well-being, not noticing the frightened look on her face.
** Played straight with "I need you to go there and find my mother. Her name is..." before Daniel travels throught time.
* Becomes a [[Running Gag]] in the ''[[Wayne and Shuster]]'' sketch "Rinse the Blood Off My Toga".
{{quote|
:* From a different ''W&S'' sketch, which did not have a character named MacDonald:
* In ''[[Castle]]'', Detective John Raglan -- the lead investigator into the unsolved murder of Beckett's mother -- calls her up and asks for a meet, as he has important information to deliver. He instead rambles nervously for a bit about coffee and Jacob Marley from ''[[A Christmas Carol]]'', this giving the sinister conspiracy he's on the verge of exposing enough time to ensure that he never, ever tells anyone anything again just as he's about to spit it out.▼
{{quote|"The killer is... eee...aii...eee...aii...ooh..." ''(dies)''
** Happens again in "Dial M for Mayor". The suspect, who is working for the [[Big Bad]] of the entire series, is pressed for a name. And then cracks. After an agonizing series of pauses and false starts and more pauses and significant looks, the suspect says, "His... name... is...", and suddenly a mysterious lawyer shows up, declares that he's been retained to represent the suspect, and that he's advising his client to exercise his right to remain silent. ▼
"'E I E I O'? ''Old MacDonald!"''}}
▲* In ''[[Castle]]'', Detective John
▲** Happens again in "Dial M for Mayor". The suspect, who is working for the [[Big Bad]] of the entire series, is pressed for a name. And then cracks. After an agonizing series of pauses and false starts and more pauses and significant looks, the suspect says, "His... name... is...", and suddenly a mysterious lawyer shows up, declares that he's been retained to represent the suspect, and that he's advising his client to exercise his right to remain silent.
* Happened every second or third episode of the ''[[Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?]]'' game show, with [[They Killed Kenny|a recurring character known as The Dying Witness]].
* It happened several times in one episode of former Brazilian comedy show "Tv Pirata". A network was suffering several acts of sabotage. Everyone who tried to tell the culprit's name before the climax was killed at the exact point, prompting people to ask who that "Ooooohhhh" was. One of the trope's victims was even stabbed to death with a spoon because the killer ran out of knives.
==
* ''[[Red vs. Blue]]'' mocked this. After Captain Flowers was revived from death (eight hundred years in the future. [[Bellisario's Maxim|Don't think about it too hard]]), he's about to tell Tucker the secret to beating the Red Team, but keeps delaying it until he's shot in the head.▼
{{quote| '''Tucker:''' Hey, I could use some help.<br />▼
'''Cpt. Flowers:''' You bet. And I have some information about the Reds that will guarantee our victory.<br />▼
'''Tucker:''' You do?<br />▼
'''Cpt. Flowers:''' I certainly do! Would you like to hear it?<br />▼
'''Tucker:''' Yeah, I wanna hear it!<br />▼
'''Cpt. Flowers:''' Great! Because I'm just about to tell you!<br />▼
''[[[Beat]]]''<br />▼
'''Tucker:''' Okay... Why aren't you telling me?<br />▼
'''Cpt. Flowers:''' Good question. [[Lampshade Hanging|I seem to be dramatically pausing for some-]]<br />▼
''[Flowers gets shot by an off-screen sniper]''<br />▼
'''Cpt. Flowers:''' [[Running Gag|Hrrg! Blah...]]<br />▼
'''Tucker:''' Well, good riddance. I wasn't giving this armour back, anyway. }}▼
** Happens again when Caboose is distracting Sheila the Tank so the others can shut her down (they think the Omega AI is controlling her)▼
{{quote| '''Sheila:''' I am not host to the Omega AI, however, I know who is.<br />▼
'''Caboose:''' Really? Who?<br />▼
'''Sheila:''' It is-<br />▼
''[Sheila gets shut down]''<br />▼
'''Shiela:''' Blllluuuuuurrrgh...<br />▼
'''Caboose:''' Who is Bllllaaaaarrrrggggh? }}▼
* In ''[[A Very Potter Musical]]'', {{spoiler|Snape}} is fatally poisoned by a snake bite to the wiener, reveals that {{spoiler|Harry is the final horcrux and needs to sacrifice himself}}, and claims to know another way to fix everything:
{{quote|
Malfoy: [[
* In the number "I Love a Film Cliche" from ''[[A Day in Hollywood, A Night in the Ukraine]]'', one of the eponymous cliches is the [[Almost-Dead Guy]] announcing "The killer's name, Inspector, is-- argh!"
== Video Games ==▼
▲== [[Video Games]] ==
* In ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'''s "Meet The Spy", the Blu Spy is explaining that anybody in the room could be the Red Spy. His long, dramatic speech ends with "It could be you! It could be me! It could even be-" He is then [[Your Head Asplode|shot in the face by the Soldier's shotgun]], who thought the Blu Spy was obviously the Red Spy in disguise. He wasn't.
* {{spoiler|Aldaris}} is killed just before he can reveal a critical piece of information in ''[[
* This happens in the 1998 videogame version of ''[[Mission: Impossible]]'', when an informant dies in the middle of giving information, Ethan Hunt says "I just ''knew'' he wasn't going to finish that sentence..."
* ''[[Half Life]]'': Once the player makes it to the surface, he's greeted by a guard. The guard starts to relay a message to you, telling you to "watch out for-" before taking a bullet in the back and collapsing at your feet.
* ''[[Half Life]] 2'' episode 2: {{spoiler|Eli Vance starts to tell Gordon (and by extension the anxious player) about the mysterious G-Man, only to be interrupted before he can get to any of the juicy stuff. He doesn't survive long enough to resume the conversation.}} The by now rather jaded player is not surprised.
Line 181 ⟶ 155:
*** Subverted in the Super NES version, in which they reveal Mr. Karate to be {{spoiler|[[Luke, I Am Your Father|Takuma Sakazaki]]}}. He would go on to explain how he ended up in the situation he was in.
==
* Parodied in ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'', during the X-Files story arc. The ''waitress'' is shot while reciting the daily specials. One of the FBI agents dramatically demands to know what she was going to say, but she dies right before she can finish.
** Another time, it momentarily appears that this happens to Bun-bun's informant, but then it's revealed to have been a cut to where the bad guys who were supposed to kill that informant are killing the wrong guy who was just about to reveal someone the location of a rave.
* Parodied in ''[[Irregular Webcomic]]'' [http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/443.html number 443]
* Played almost straight in [https://web.archive.org/web/20120918033250/http://www.scarygoround.com/sgr/ar.php?date=20020920 this] ''[[Scary Go Round]]'' strip.
== [[Web Original]] ==
* Played for laughs in ''[[I'm a Marvel...
▲* ''[[Red vs. Blue]]'' mocked this. After Captain Flowers was revived from death (eight hundred years in the future. [[Bellisario's Maxim|Don't think about it too hard]]), he's about to tell Tucker the secret to beating the Red Team, but keeps delaying it until he's shot in the head.
▲* Played for laughs in ''[[I'm a Marvel And I'm a DC|Rorschach and Deadpool]]''. The pair finds four different informants<ref>As well as a pizza boy and a random passerby, hell, even Rorschach</ref>, and Deadpool shoots every one of them as they finish saying the name of the trope. Purely because he finds their voices irritating.
▲'''Cpt. Flowers:''' You bet. And I have some information about the Reds that will guarantee our victory.
== Western Animation ==▼
▲'''Cpt. Flowers:''' Good question. [[Lampshade Hanging|I seem to be dramatically pausing for some-]]
▲'''Tucker:''' Well, good riddance. I wasn't giving this armour back, anyway. }}
▲** Happens again when Caboose is distracting Sheila the Tank so the others can shut her down (they think the Omega AI is controlling her)
▲'''Caboose:''' Who is Bllllaaaaarrrrggggh? }}
▲== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' parody of ''[[24]]''. Bart has to tell Lisa the name of the traitor to the Counter Truancy Unit (CTU). "Now I don't have much time so I'm just gonna come out and say his name. So get ready to know his name. His name is the following. M-" ... and Martin knocks Bart unconscious.
* An episode of ''[[Doug]]'' featuring one of the Quail-Man adventures had Quail-Man asking Silver Skeeter, who had been half-frozen in a block of something like carbonite, who froze him. He replies saying he doesn't have the strength to say the name and is too worried he'll get halfway through telling him before he's completely frozen. When Quailman demands that he try, this is exactly what happens.
* Used in the ''[[Adventure Time]]'' episode "Mystery Train" where Colonel Candycorn was about to reveal who his enemy was.
{{quote|
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Death Tropes]]
[[Category:Last Words]]
▲[[Category:His Name Is]]
| |||