Make Sure He's Dead: Difference between revisions

 

One of many calling cards for the [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]]. Related to [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill]] and [[Rasputinian Death]] (if it's only the subsequent attempts that work). Failure to do this causes a response similar to [[Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him]] (in this case, ''Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him Again?''). See also: [[Double Tap]]

 

{{deathtrope}}

* When ''[[Naruto]]'' attacked Kakuzu with an attack that quite literally tore him apart at the cellular level, Kakashi moved in afterward to ensure he was dead. Which was needed, because Kakuzu actually ''was'' still alive.

* The bad guys in ''[[Ninja Scroll]]'' blow up nearly an entire ''river'' trying to kill the protagonists. They're pretty sure they probably killed the heroes, but the leader of the evil ninjas says "it's better to err on the side of caution" and the comb the river for bodies.

 

== Comic Books ==

* In one of Toyfare's "Big Shots" strips, an assassin justifies cutting a mark's head off to his partner as making absolutely sure the job is done. He then chalks his shooting of the body multiple times after decapitating it up to spite.

 

* ''[[Scream (film)|Scream]]'', where the [[Final Girl]] Sydney, cold as ice, puts a bullet right between the eyes of the killer when he wakes up. "Not in my movie."

* Rule #2 of surviving in ''[[Zombieland]]'': [[Double Tap]].

* In ''[[The Godfather]]'', Sonny is killed by a small squad of mafia hitmen. One of these hitmen showers his corpse with bullets, spraying his body from top to bottom to make sure he died, then kicks him in the head.

* In the movie adaptation of ''[[BloodRayne]]'', the protagonists decapitate fallen vampires to make sure they're really dead.

 

== Literature ==

* One of the students in ''[[Battle Royale]]'' took advantage of being issued a bulletproof vest and getting a motorcycle helmet to trick opponents by pretending to have been shot and then taking them when their guard was down. Unfortunately, this trick failed when Kazuo Kiriyama made sure to put a bullet in his brain to be certain.

* In ''[[Mage: The Ascension]]'' novel "The Road To Hell", the Technocracy soldiers sent after Seventeen are ordered to make sure he's dead. He's not, but with all the magi-tech modifications they did to Seventeen he probably could have survived a few dozen rounds to the brain anyway.

{{quote|'''[[Psycho for Hire|Teatime]]:''' I checked his breathing with a mirror, just like you said.

'''Lord Downey:''' Yes, I understand his head was [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|several feet from his body at that point.]] }}

* The [[World War Two]] novels by [[Sven Hassel]] frequently mention that veterans never pass an enemy corpse without putting a bullet through it.

* Subverted in the ''[[Knight and Rogue Series]]''. After Michael is tossed of a cliff the mooks are ordered to go down and make that he didn't break his fall with anything on the way down. Not wanting to treck down a cliff and back up again, they pretend to go down and return saying he died.

 

== Live-Action TV ==

Jack: Shoot him again. }}

* The comedy show Whose Line is it Anyway? says this: "He tried to murder me. When you kill someone by chopping off their head, wrapping the body in a carpet and lighting it on fire, you better make sure they're dead."

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* In the crime noir RPG ''Dog Town'', player criminals are urged to put three bullets, called "to-be-sures," into the heads of those they kill.

 

* Either bleed people out (ground headshot) in ''[[MAG]]'' or risk an enemy medic getting them back up again.

* At the end of ''[[Mass Effect]]'', Shepard orders this on {{spoiler|Saren}} after the latter {{spoiler|either falls in battle with your squad or commits suicide}}. {{spoiler|Subverted when Sovereign reanimates Saren's corpse as a husk, even after one of your party members plugs him in the head one more time.}}

* In EP6 of ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro ni]]'', {{spoiler|Erika, unable to invoke detective's authority to determine that the "corpses" she investigated were dead or alive, decided to guarantee their death in a different way: by beheading them}}.

 

* [[Evil Overlord List]] Rule 13:

{{quote|''All slain enemies will be cremated, or at least have several rounds of ammunition emptied into them, not left for dead at the bottom of the cliff. The announcement of their deaths, as well as any accompanying celebration, will be deferred until after the aforementioned disposal.''}}

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Death Tropes]]