Tropescilloscope: The Hero Dies

A protagonist's ultimate sacrifice. (read more at tvtropes.org)

Film Frequency (%) Film Frequency (#)

More Tropes The Hero Bi the Way Celebrity Paradox Get Out! Mood Whiplash Gone Horribly Right Villain with Good Publicity Adaptational Badass Eagleland Arc Words Evil Is Hammy Historical-Domain Character Darker and Edgier Hope Spot Henpecked Husband Depraved Bisexual Fire-Forged Friends May–December Romance timeperiod Race Against the Clock Mighty Whitey I Did What I Had to Do Narrator Continuity Nod Ambiguous Disorder Disney Death Unspoken Plan Guarantee Danny Peary Cult Movies List Soft Glass Our Zombies Are Different Hate Sink It's All About Me Air-Vent Passageway Funny Foreigner Casting Gag Exact Words Dogged Nice Guy Motor Mouth Non-Indicative Name The Faceless After the End Wrong Genre Savvy Sassy Black Woman Up to Eleven Horror Comedy Nice Guy Military and Warfare Films Adorkable Sinister Minister Police are Useless Heroic BSoD Bitch in Sheep's Clothing Even Evil Has Standards Knight Templar Loads and Loads of Characters My God, What Have I Done? Knife Nut Ship Tease Eye Scream You Have Got to Be Kidding Me! Artistic License – Geography The Alcoholic What the Hell, Hero? I Want My Beloved to Be Happy Laughing Mad Serious Business Every Car Is a Pinto Hair-Trigger Temper Martial Arts Movie Running Gag Lampshade Hanging Foregone Conclusion Never Trust a Trailer aka: Trailers Always Lie Determinator aka: The Determinator Wham Shot Double-Meaning Title Bloodless Carnage Blackmail Christmas Movies Index Killed Mid-Sentence Homage Word of God Genre Savvy Actor Allusion Big "NO!" Taking You with Me True Companions The Chick Throwing Your Sword Always Works Daddy's Girl Super Strength Card-Carrying Villain Documentary The '90s Would Hit a Girl Madness Mantra Defiant to the End Parental Abandonment Cool Old Lady Never Found the Body Captain Obvious Anyone Can Die Have a Gay Old Time The Stinger Well-Intentioned Extremist Drugs Are Bad Wham Line Posthumous Character Kill It with Fire Hidden Depths The Oner Ambiguously Gay Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene Dramedy Demonic Possession Undying Loyalty "Awesome McCool" Name Rich Bitch Ominous Latin Chanting Training Montage Back from the Dead Girl-on-Girl Is Hot In Medias Res Bond One-Liner Politically Incorrect Villain Chekhov's Gunman Establishing Character Moment Evil Cannot Comprehend Good Crucified Hero Shot Slasher Movie Drowning My Sorrows Honor Before Reason Unwitting Instigator of Doom Big Eater Corrupt Corporate Executive Didn't Think This Through Small Name, Big Ego Straight Gay The Atoner Ugly Guy, Hot Wife Rousing Speech Early-Bird Cameo Naïve Newcomer An Aesop Toilet Humour aka: Toilet Humor Antagonist Title Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane Love Triangle Faux Affably Evil Leaning on the Fourth Wall Punny Name Evil Is Petty Bittersweet Ending Put on a Bus Would Hurt a Child Dual Wielding Happily Married Index of Film Westerns Developing Doomed Characters Star-Crossed Lovers N-Word Privileges Romantic Comedy Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday This Is Gonna Suck B-Movie Mooks Not So Stoic Deadpan Snarker Interrupted Suicide Artistic License – History Hero of Another Story Dark and Troubled Past Only Sane Man Guile Hero Overly Long Gag Woman in White Grey and Gray Morality Disappeared Dad Curb-Stomp Battle Sealed Evil in a Can Alliterative Name Defrosting Ice Queen Science Fiction Films Good Is Not Nice Shout-Out Eiffel Tower Effect Composite Character Silent Movie The '70s Roger Ebert: Great Movies List Police Brutality Video Credits The End... Or Is It? Dissonant Serenity Rape as Drama The Lost Lenore Award-Bait Song Heel–Face Turn Spiteful Spit Flipping the Bird Works Set in World War II Flashback Slashed Throat Deus ex Machina Dropped a Bridge on Him Stock Footage Unusually Uninteresting Sight Ambiguous Ending Ragtag Bunch of Misfits Expy The Dog Bites Back Self-Deprecation Costume Porn Evil vs. Evil Wounded Gazelle Gambit Big Fancy House The Hero Dies Improbable Weapon User Extremely Short Timespan Break the Haughty Never My Fault Death by Irony Malevolent Masked Men Rule of Symbolism Reckless Gun Usage Nothing Is Scarier Laser-Guided Karma The Chessmaster Leave the Camera Running Combat Pragmatist Friend to All Children Spell My Name with an "S" Scenery Gorn Big Applesauce Action Survivor Pre-Asskicking One-Liner Mystery and Detective Films Needs Wiki Magic Love Abusive Parents Badass Boast Cool Old Guy Darkest Hour For the Evulz Corpsing Stylistic Suck Attempted Rape Evil Brit Evil-Detecting Dog Tempting Fate It's Personal Pragmatic Adaptation Evil Laugh A God Am I Handicapped Badass Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold Vitriolic Best Buds Unresolved Sexual Tension Death Seeker Everyone Has Standards Light Is Not Good Pimped-Out Dress Closed Circle Epic Fail Obfuscating Stupidity Overprotective Dad Italian Films Shipper on Deck Department of Redundancy Department Vomit Indiscretion Shot All There in the Script La Résistance Heroes Want Redheads Make It Look Like an Accident Bad Boss Outrun the Fireball Music Stories Parental Neglect Only a Flesh Wound No Name Given Soundtrack Dissonance Papa Wolf Imagine Spot Dying Moment of Awesome Mugging the Monster Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism I'm a Humanitarian Blatant Lies Villain Opening Scene Bolivian Army Ending Curse Cut Short Pet the Dog Daylight Horror Body Horror Mind Screw Screw This, I'm Outta Here! No Good Deed Goes Unpunished Offscreen Teleportation Cool Guns Large Ham Sequel Hook The Mafia Agony of the Feet Villain Protagonist The Un-Reveal Screw the Rules, I Have Money! Roaring Rampage of Revenge Amoral Attorney Dutch Angle Author Avatar He Knows Too Much The Quiet One Did Not Get the Girl Cat Scare Together in Death Fat Bastard Manchild NO INDOOR VOICE Cain and Abel Spared by the Adaptation Fate Worse than Death Captain Ersatz Dark Reprise '80s Hair Dirty Coward Be Careful What You Wish For Epic Movie Dirty Old Man Sacrificial Lion The Ace Framing Device Groin Attack Mythology Gag Major Injury Underreaction Call-Forward Bloody Hilarious Grievous Bottley Harm 20 Minutes into the Future Tap on the Head Kick the Dog The Lancer The Dragon Bound and Gagged From Nobody to Nightmare Jerk Jock Psychological Thriller French Films The Musical From Bad to Worse My Greatest Failure Monumental Damage Villain Ball Enemy Mine Conspicuous CG Break the Cutie One Steve Limit Evil Counterpart Bare Your Midriff Suspiciously Similar Substitute Extreme Doormat I Just Shot Marvin in the Face Bland-Name Product Animal Title Index Chekhov's Gun Fan Disservice Blood Knight Man on Fire Demoted to Extra Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique Screw the Money, I Have Rules! Sci-Fi Horror Fake Shemp O.O.C. Is Serious Business Dark Is Not Evil Authority Equals Asskicking folderlabel Gory Discretion Shot Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil Beta Couple Broken Aesop Lighter and Softer Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds Adaptation Name Change Driven to Suicide Room Full of Crazy Disproportionate Retribution Bait-and-Switch Femme Fatale Not What It Looks Like Belligerent Sexual Tension Title Drop Biopic Black and Gray Morality I Need a Freaking Drink A Father to His Men She's Got Legs Oh, Crap! Stealth Pun Heel Realization Slasher Smile The Mole The Cavalry Alas, Poor Villain The Starscream Death Glare Your Head A-Splode Abhorrent Admirer Bilingual Bonus Redemption Equals Death Bloodier and Gorier Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass Adapted Out Fatal Family Photo No Antagonist Truth in Television Beard of Evil Playing Gertrude Once More, with Clarity! The Un-Favourite aka: The Un Favorite I Have Your Wife Famous Last Words Earn Your Happy Ending Based on a True Story Half the Man He Used to Be Canon Foreigner Death by Sex Rewatch Bonus Ghost Fiction Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep" Big Bad Duumvirate Fiery Redhead Older Than They Look Gorn Ms. Fanservice Domestic Abuse Downer Ending Male Frontal Nudity Blonde, Brunette, Redhead Improbable Aiming Skills Bring My Brown Pants Artistic License – Biology Adult Fear Riddle for the Ages The Alleged Car Face Death with Dignity Shirtless Scene Not Quite Dead Cluster F-Bomb Australian Movies Took a Level in Badass Recycled IN SPACE! Arranged Marriage The Brute Last-Name Basis Hooker with a Heart of Gold Insane Troll Logic Visual Pun Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy BFG Damsel in Distress Token Minority Dumb Blonde Jerkass Psycho for Hire Heterosexual Life-Partners Gender Flip A Date with Rosie Palms Intrepid Reporter It Can Think Babies Ever After Retcon No-Holds-Barred Beatdown Bond Villain Stupidity Kubrick Stare Punctuated! For! Emphasis! Informed Ability Leitmotif Yandere The Sociopath Ass Shove Too Dumb to Live Ripped from the Headlines "Shaggy Dog" Story British Films Faking the Dead Genre Throwback All There in the Manual Better to Die than Be Killed Canadian Movies Real Life Writes the Plot Boom, Headshot! Badass Normal Skewed Priorities Ascended Extra "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue Deliberate Values Dissonance Mr. Exposition Humiliation Conga Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas Dramatic Gun Cock Pyrrhic Victory Disguised in Drag The Dreaded Never Trust a Trailer Race Lift Cold-Blooded Torture Drives Like Crazy Becoming the Mask Real Life A Minor Kidroduction Aww, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other No OSHA Compliance Fainting Action Girl Camera Abuse Dwindling Party Big Brother Instinct Brick Joke Paper-Thin Disguise The Smurfette Principle The Remake Bullying a Dragon Crazy-Prepared Auto Erotica The Film of the Book Let's Get Dangerous! Brother–Sister Incest Adults Are Useless Wretched Hive One-Word Title Impaled with Extreme Prejudice Parental Substitute The Ditz Television Movie Index Coming-of-Age Story Animated Credits Opening Punch-Clock Villain The Stoic Scary Black Man MacGuffin Crazy Jealous Guy Fantasy Films All Men Are Perverts Rated M for Manly Book-Ends Bury Your Gays Gilligan Cut Only in It for the Money Guns Akimbo Russian Films Noodle Incident You Have Failed Me Affably Evil Novelization Sequel Escalation Why Did It Have to Be Snakes? Manly Tears Twist Ending Cool Shades Asshole Victim Cat Fight Married to the Job Tagline Protagonist Title Character Development Off-into-the-Distance Ending Only One Name Children Are Innocent Take That! Suspiciously Specific Denial Fanservice Extra Fun with Acronyms Left the Background Music On Superhero Anti-Villain Obstructive Bureaucrat Serial Killer Parental Incest Amusing Injuries Chuck Cunningham Syndrome Adaptational Villainy Zombie Stories Naked People Are Funny Pragmatic Villainy Fatal Flaw Fourth Date Marriage Moment Killer Decoy Protagonist Hollywood Law Death by Adaptation No Celebrities Were Harmed Obviously Evil Cruel and Unusual Death In the Back Unusual Euphemism Big Bad Random Events Plot Brainless Beauty Foil And Starring Neck Snap Jerkass Has a Point Does Not Like Shoes Cowboy Cop Mr. Fanservice Credits Gag Pun aka: Incredibly Lame Pun Insult Backfire Jerk with a Heart of Gold Red Right Hand Black Dude Dies First Film Series Early Installment Weirdness Why Don't You Just Shoot Him? Artistic License – Law What You Are in the Dark Author Appeal You Have Outlived Your Usefulness Here We Go Again! Creator Cameo In Name Only Rasputinian Death Shoot the Shaggy Dog Even Evil Has Loved Ones Dramatic Irony Instant Death Bullet Reality Has No Subtitles Final Girl Reasonable Authority Figure Apocalypse How Mad Scientist Armor-Piercing Question Redshirt Army Adaptation Dye-Job Crapsack World Anti-Hero Names to Run Away from Really Fast Not So Different Romantic False Lead Bavarian Fire Drill Fantastic Racism No-Sell Dark Action Girl Beauty Is Never Tarnished Match Cut Vacation Films Drill Sergeant Nasty Chase Scene Broken Pedestal Bowdlerise Made of Iron Green-Eyed Monster Four-Temperament Ensemble It Will Never Catch On Love at First Sight Precision F-Strike Insistent Terminology Silence Is Golden Very Loosely Based on a True Story Broken Bird The Smart Guy Not Even Bothering with the Accent Manic Pixie Dream Girl The Vamp Sadistic Choice She Cleans Up Nicely Retirony Blood from the Mouth Evil Plan Affectionate Parody Calling the Old Man Out Whole Plot Reference Adaptation Expansion Japanese Films Made of Explodium Car Fu Plot Hole Time Skip Greater-Scope Villain Took a Level in Jerkass Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer Double Entendre Anachronic Order Age Lift Totally Radical Catch-Phrase Eureka Moment Film Noir Index Nice Hat Breaking the Fourth Wall Those Two Guys Artistic License – Physics Plucky Comic Relief Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome Hypocritical Humor Stepford Smiler Translation Convention Poor Communication Kills Mundane Made Awesome Sole Survivor Unreliable Narrator Hell Is That Noise Deliberately Monochrome Film Noir The Voiceless Aluminum Christmas Trees All Girls Want Bad Boys Jitter Cam Smug Snake Genre Shift Betty and Veronica Same Language Dub Woman Scorned Five-Man Band Determinator Villain Song Death of a Child Those Two Bad Guys Badass Longcoat Freeze-Frame Bonus Mistaken for Gay And the Adventure Continues Dull Surprise Evil Sounds Deep Tranquil Fury Those Wacky Nazis The Power of Love Central Theme Refuge in Audacity Action Genre Dies Wide Open Chekhov's Skill Heroic Sacrifice Karmic Death Your Cheating Heart Bar Brawl Sexy Discretion Shot Brutal Honesty Really Gets Around Thriller My Beloved Smother Cloudcuckoolander Hollywood Darkness Awesome, but Impractical The Place Contrived Coincidence Lock and Load Montage The Great Depression Historical In-Joke Bunny-Ears Lawyer Manipulative Bastard Meet Cute Colour-Coded for Your Convenience aka: Color Coded For Your Convenience Neck Lift Deal with the Devil Ungrateful Bastard Market-Based Title Big-Bad Ensemble Arch-Enemy Distracted by the Sexy Chiaroscuro Red Herring Kids Are Cruel Deconstruction Despair Event Horizon Meaningful Background Event Expository Hairstyle Change How We Got Here Badass in a Nice Suit Adaptational Attractiveness Sports Stories Black Best Friend Meaningful Name Ironic Echo Reality Is Unrealistic Accidental Misnaming Missing Mom Important Haircut Foreshadowing All Just a Dream Bald of Evil Vampire Fiction Shell-Shocked Veteran Not Using the "Z" Word As Himself Male Gaze Only Known by Their Nickname Black Comedy Logo Joke German Films The Casanova Recap / RiffTrax aka: Riff Trax Movies Vomit Discretion Shot Badass Grandpa The '50s Stalker with a Crush Bad "Bad Acting" Mama Bear Show Within a Show More Dakka Aside Glance Batman Gambit No Ending Call-Back Revenge For Want of a Nail Irony Implacable Man Badass Bookworm Cool Car World of Ham Kill 'em All Offscreen Moment of Awesome As Long as It Sounds Foreign Dressing as the Enemy Mexican Standoff Meaningful Echo Loophole Abuse An Axe to Grind Slap-Slap-Kiss Adaptation Distillation Bottomless Magazines Red Shirt Pretty Little Headshots Scare Chord Wicked Cultured The Cameo Stuff Blowing Up Toplessness from the Back The Bad Guy Wins The Load Scenery Porn Alpha Bitch Almost Kiss Hoist by His Own Petard Suddenly SHOUTING! Big Damn Heroes Artistic License – Military Red Oni, Blue Oni Not So Above It All Humans Are Bastards An Arm and a Leg Hero Antagonist The '60s Red Eyes, Take Warning Comically Missing the Point You Killed My Father Properly Paranoid Gratuitous English Peek-a-Boo Corpse Does This Remind You of Anything? The Reveal Psychopathic Manchild Shut Up, Hannibal! The Big Guy Morality Pet Camp Gay The Ghost Nice Job Breaking It, Hero! Pre-Mortem One-Liner Empathic Environment Sir Swears-a-Lot Rule of Three Historical Villain Upgrade Fingore As You Know Spiritual Successor Rule of Cool War Is Hell The Bully Spanner in the Works Easily Forgiven Action Prologue Off with His Head! Stealth Hi/Bye One-Man Army Retired Badass Victoria's Secret Compartment The X of Y "Well Done, Son!" Guy Villainous Breakdown Horror Films There Is No Kill Like Overkill Taking the Bullet Cassandra Truth All for Nothing Nice Job Fixing It, Villain! Berserk Button Disney Villain Death Public Domain Feature Films Advertised Extra Mercy Kill Line-of-Sight Name Improbable Infant Survival aka: Infant Immortality Rule of Funny Due to the Dead Gold Digger Shown Their Work Destination Defenestration What Happened to the Mouse? He Who Fights Monsters Karma Houdini Creepy Child Funny Background Event Reality Ensues The '80s Say My Name Hong Kong Films Pay Evil unto Evil Take a Third Option A.I. Is a Crapshoot As the Good Book Says... Pretty in Mink Idiot Ball The Stoner Creative Closing Credits Worthy Opponent Kick the Son of a Bitch Face–Heel Turn Eldritch Abomination Our Vampires Are Different Catapult Nightmare Dirty Cop Covers Always Lie Ax-Crazy Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! Failed a Spot Check Frame-Up Improvised Weapon Shower Scene Anguished Declaration of Love Adaptational Heroism Chewing the Scenery Black Comedy Rape Men Are the Expendable Gender Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking Annoying Younger Sibling Immune to Bullets Smoking Is Cool Re-Cut Facial Horror And I Must Scream Accidental Murder Actually Pretty Funny Exactly What It Says on the Tin Hypocrite Butt-Monkey Historical Hero Upgrade Jump Scare Gainax Ending Intergenerational Friendship Country Matters Getting Crap Past the Radar Setting Update Diabolus ex Machina Eyepatch of Power "The Reason You Suck" Speech Fanservice Maybe Ever After Anachronism Stew Product Placement Beware the Nice Ones Storming the Castle Fish out of Water Freudian Excuse Trailers Always Spoil Animal Motifs Artistic License – Gun Safety Sanity Slippage Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping