Who Dunnit to Me?: Difference between revisions

A common science-fictional version involves characters who have the ability to back themselves up, through [[Brain Uploading]] or some similar technology. This is often used as a way to get around the issue that most victims know who murdered them: the version of the character that's trying to solve the murder is only as up-to-date as their most recent backup, which means they naturally have no memory of the murder or anything immediately before it.

{{examples|Examples:}}

== Already Dead ==

* Lia in ''[[Le Chevalier d'Eon (Anime)|Le Chevalier d'Eon]]'', who possesses her living younger brother to find out who murdered her.

* The ''[[Shade the Changing Man]]'' story arc 'The Road' becomes an inverse murder mystery.

* This was the whole idea behind the DC Comics character [[Deadman (Comic Book)|Deadman]], who died in his first story - and became a superhero as a result, fighting crime in spirit-form while investigating his own death. At one point, it looked like his killer was the same thug who had murdered Batman's parents.

* This was part of the title character's original motivation in ''Ghost'' from [[Dark Horse Comics]].

* ''[[Ghost (Film)|Ghost]]''

* ''[[The Crow]]''

* The movie ''[[Film/Oh Heavenly Dog|Oh Heavenly Dog]]'' reverses this, sending back a murdered human in dog form to investigate his death.

* ''Remember Me'', a novel by [[Christopher Pike]]. Shari begins the novel already dead. She was killed at a party, and being a ghost she must figure out which one of her friends killed her.

* The novel ''Never Trust A Dead Man'' pairs this with [[Clear My Name]] and [[Enemy Mine]]: the protagonist, Selwyn, is forced to cooperate with his murdered [[The Rival|rival]] (who has been brought back from the dead in the form of a bat) to find the real murderer and clear Selwyn's name.

* ''Ghost Story'', Book 13 of ''[[The Dresden Files (Literature)|The Dresden Files]]'', has this as its plot, with a {{spoiler|ghostly Harry trying to find out who killed him, and the more important question of who ordered it done. As it turns out, the answer is...[[Memory Gambit|himself]]. Also, he's still alive.}}

* James Herbert's ''Nobody True'' is told from the POV of a ghost seeking his killer ... who can astrally project to oppose him.

* ''[[Torchwood (TV)|Torchwood]]'': "Random Shoes". Eugene's ghost follows the Torchwood crew around as they investigate his death. He manages to appear briefly to his family before [[Ascend to A Higher Plane of Existence|Ascending to a Higher Plane of Existence]].

* One episode of ''[[CSI (TV)|CSI]]'' has the corpses of murder victims talking about their murders (as the CSIs solve the cases).

* The first episode of ''[[Randall and Hopkirk Deceased (TV)|Randall and Hopkirk Deceased]]'' - original and remake.

* Edith, in Season 6 of ''[[Old Harrys Game (Radio)|Old Harrys Game]]'' agrees to write Satan's biography in exchange for Satan investigating her murder.

* Ratik Ubel, an NPC revenant from ''[[Ravenloft (Tabletop Game)|Ravenloft]]'', has been acting out this trope for years. Normally a D&D revenant exists just long enough to eliminate its killer, but Ubel never saw his murderer's face and has been relentlessly pursuing one lead after another, seeking whichever of his (many) old enemies was responsible.

* ''[[Shadow of Destiny]]'', although he's trying to reverse his death as well.

* The Flash adventure game ''[http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/173654 The Dead Case]''

* Sonny, from the flash game series of the same name, died prior to first game's start. He cannot remember what happened to him or anything about his life prior death, and wonders who resurrected him and why.

* ''[[Slightly Damned (Webcomic)|Slightly Damned]]'' begins with Rhea already in purgatory, ready to be judged, with no idea how she got there. [[Unexplained Recovery|She got better]], and there's only so many places that her killer can be...

* {...} in ''[[Hanna Is Not a Boys Name (Webcomic)|Hanna Is Not a Boys Name]]'' has been dead for a while now, and recently been shown that he was murdered. He doesn't actively pursue his killer [[Laser Guided Amnesia|(he doesn't like to dwell on the past)]], but the point stands that {...} died, he came back and his killer is still presumably at large. He may not care [[Who Dunnit to Me|whodunnit]], but the readers and other cast members seem to.

== Not Dead Yet ==

* ''[[DOA (Film)|DOA]]'', both the 1950 original and the 1988 "remake".

* ''[[Crank (Film)|Crank]]'': Chelios doesn't need to figure out ''who'' poisoned him, as the culprit leaves him a gloating video that admits and even shows the act. Rather, he needs to track him down for revenge.

* A story in ''[[Alfred Hitchcock]]'s Mystery Magazine'' involving a man who is shot, and has a near death experience. While still in the hospital, he tries to figure out who did it, and does. There's one more dangerous surgery to be done to get the bullet out, and the story ends with him saying "[[Bolivian Army Ending|I'm ready.]]"

* Partially subverted in [[GK Chesterton]]'s short story ''The Resurrection of [[Father Brown]]''. The titular priestly detective is supposedly murdered and is just about to be buried before he wakes up in his coffin. It turns out he was fed a poison which caused him to go into a coma almost resembling death. The remainder of the short story concerns Father Brown's efforts to discover who did this to him.

* According to ''[[More Information Than You Require]]'', ninth US president [[William Henry Harrison]] was given a slow-acting poison at his inauguration that would kill him in thirty days, and told he would be given the antidote if he could figure out who poisoned him. As the book puts it, "Harrison was a great Indian-killer, but not much of a sleuth".

* ''[[NCIS (TV)|NCIS]]'':

** "Dead Man Walking". [[Genre Savvy]] Tony makes a comparison by name to ''DOA''.

* ''[[The Mentalist (TV)|The Mentalist]]'': Code Red.

* The Flash game ''[http://armorgames.com/play/4966/sixty-seconds-to-live Sixty Seconds To Live]''. The title is fairly self-explanatory here.

== Restored From Backup ==

* ''[[Who Censored Roger Rabbit]]''. Unlike ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Film)|Who Framed Roger Rabbit]]'', Roger is dead, and his doppelganger (a temporary copy of himself) goes to Eddie to find out who iced the original.

* ''[[Down and Out In The Magic Kingdom]]''

* ''[[The Takeshi Kovacs Series|Altered Carbon]]'' by [[Richard K Morgan]] is a [[Film Noir]] style thriller, with an investigator hired by the restored backup of an apparent suicide. The victim does not believe that he could have possibly wanted to kill himself; indeed it would be futile given that he was backed up and brought back to life in under 48 hours and instead believes he was murdered and demands justice.

* ''[[Pushing Daisies]]'', in the pilot

* In the ''[[Dollhouse (TV)|Dollhouse]]'' episode "Haunted", Echo gets the personality of a recently dead woman who wants to solve her own murder.

* Pextel in ''[[Stationery Voyagers]]'' wants justice on the drug runner who ran him off the road and required that he be mechanized. Laura Herrante, under the Crimson Owl protection, [[Attending Your Own Funeral|has buried herself on occasions]]. Fortunately for her, it's usually no mystery who killed her.

* The ''[[Transhuman Space (Tabletop Game)|Transhuman Space]]'' scenario "In The Walls", in the ''Cities on the Edge'' supplement, is about a "ghost" ([[Brain Uploading|uploaded intelligence]]) who was murdered but restored from backup. He's annoyed about that, but livid that the backup has been tampered with, meaning he has no memories of the past six months.