All The Tropes

His Name Is--: Difference between revisions

Page Discussion

His Name Is-- (view source)

Revision as of 17:59, 25 January 2014

43 bytes removed ,  10 years ago
m
Mass update links
VisualWikitext
m (Mass update links)
m (Mass update links)
Line 7:
The informer, about to give the hero a key piece of information, [[Killed Mid-Sentence|is killed before he can tell who is th--]]
 
Frequently, the scene is stretched out by the informer [[Almost -Dead Guy|being excessively verbose before dying]] without actually getting to the important information. Sometimes, he's dying and ''goes on at length about how he doesn't have the strength left to provide the necessary information''; this is, naturally, [[Played for Laughs]].
 
In many cases where the informant is killed by an unknown assassin, the hero is just as easy a target, [[Plot Hole|prompting viewers to wonder]] [[Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?|why the assassin doesn't just kill the hero instead]] and end the story right there. A well-made story will arrange the scene so that the hero isn't a viable target (behind an obstacle, on the other end of a phone call, etc.), and in rare cases, the [[Big Bad]] [[Evil Plan|has a reason to let the hero live... for now]].
 
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]].
{{examples}}
 
Line 117:
* In the series finale of ''[[Remington Steele (TV)|Remington Steele]]'', Steele discovers that {{spoiler|his longtime mentor, Daniel Chalmers, is also his father. Chalmers dies just as Steele is asking him, "What is my real name?"}}
* Happens on ''[[Dinosaurs]]'' when the Sinclairs take their baby to the chief elder for naming. Their son gets stuck with "Augh Ugh I'm Dying You Idiot".
* In an episode of ''[[Babylon 5 (TV)|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 ''[[Twenty Four24 (TV)|Twenty Four]]'', generally prompting Jack Bauer to scream "[[Catch Phrase|DAMMIT!]]"
* Inverted on ''[[Lost (TV)|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.
Line 205:
[[Category:Last Words]]
[[Category:His Name Is]]
[[Category:Trope]]
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/584511"