History DyingMomentOfAwesome / LiveActionTV

* Bodie's death in season four of ''TheWire''.

* In ''TheSarahConnorChronicles'', Riley's last act before being killed was to brutally and viciously assault Jessie, who had betrayed her and manipulated her all along. She lost the struggle, but for an untrained, terrified teenage girl, it was pretty damned impressive. Derek on the other hand gets shot in the head before he's even has a chance to be awesome by a foe who didn't even stop his stride. Both of these enforced a point the series was trying to make about the Terminators.
* In RobinOfSherwood Adam Bell does a HeelFaceTurn (having done the [[FaceHeelTurn the opposite]] years before) and saves Robin with a [[RedemptionEqualsDeath berserk, suicidal charge into a mass of soldiers]].

* John Basilone at [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo Iwo Jima]] in ThePacific. Everything he did leading up to the death was surperbly badass and his actions saved many lives in what bloodbath.

* ''SpartacusBloodAndSand'' is a ForegoneConclusion tale about {{Doomed Moral Victor}}s in AncientRome. As such, ''many'' of the characters go out this way.

* First Officer York's clone in ''{{Hyperdrive}}''. Squadron Leader Mason has locked his crew out of the bridge and is flying the ''Pride of Glenrothes'' straight at the ''Camden Lock''. The clone takes Shuttle 3 and flies it into the ''Pride of Glenrothes''' ramscoop, gutting the engines and forcing the ship to crash on the Lunar surface.

* ''OrangeIsTheNewBlack''. [[spoiler:Miss Rosa]]. ''Don't Fear The Reaper''. "Always so rude, that one."
* "FallingSkies" has two in season 4. First the 2nd Mass is pinned down by Espheni led by an overlord with a personal vendetta against Tom Mason. While the others hide, [[spoiler: Tector]] takes a long-range shot at the overlord's head and misses by an inch. Skitters swarm him. He opens his coat, says, "Tick, tick, boom!" and all of them up.

* In one fourth-season episode of Sixties ''Franchise/{{Dragnet}}'', a cop is mortally wounded while saving bystanders from a gunman.

* Jo and Ellen Harvelle in ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': Jo is injured too badly to escape, so she and Ellen stay behind to blow up a building full of hellhounds and give the Winchesters a shot at Lucifer. Even if the Colt didn't work, that was still pretty badass.

* Spike in ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. He is burning up from in the inside, and dies laughing as he turns to dust in a big explosion of light. Doing this closes a freakin' hellmouth and saves the world.

* Happens offscreen in a BadFuture episode of ''{{Sanctuary}}''. Helen somehow ends up a few years in the future during a ZombieApocalypse, and Will tells her how [[UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper Druitt]] died. He teleported with a nuke into a city infested with zombies and detonated it.

* In ''{{Primeval}}'', Cutter calmly mocks Helen's time- changing scheme: "You know what, Helen? You're not as smart as I thought you were." That she shoots him immediately after just seems to prove him right.

* ''Series/Alias'':Jack Bristow. After to the show main villain and recently immortal Arvin Sloane, says to a dying jack : "I think you've overestimated your position, Jack. You can't hurt me anymore. "
** "True. But I can keep you down here with me.[Jack opens up his jacket to reveal the C4 and a detonator] You beat death Arvin. But you couldn't beat me." he then Detonates the bomb trapping Arvin, forever.

* ''PrisonBreak'': Amazingly enough, [[ButtMonkey Brad Bellick]] gets one by sacrificing himself and facing his death down so the rest can finish stealing Scylla.

** In the GrandFinale, Tess wipes all of LexLuthor's memories as she lies dying from his DeadlyHug stab.

* Felix Gaeta's death from ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Reimagined}}''. You can see that for the first time since New Caprica, he is at peace, even though he is staring down the guns of an execution squad.

** Apollo's death in the [[Series/BattlestarGalacticaClassic original series]] at the hand of Count Iblis was treated with great dignity. The fact that he went down defending someone else was very awesome. He recovered later, but still.

* Series/BurnNotice'': Just before Nate dies, he is the one to capture Anson.

** Another example would be in the episode "Deadlock", the ship had been duplicated by some NegativeSpaceWedgie, one of the duplicates has been overrun by aliens harvesting organs, and that ship's Janeway sets the auto destruct (on silent mode). When the bad guys show up on the bridge, Janeway has just time enough for a smile and a PreMortemOneLiner (''"Welcome to the bridge"'') before one of them sees the destruct countdown ([[ShoutOut just like the Klingons on the original]] ''[[StarTrekIIITheSearchForSpock Enterprise]]'') and [[OhCrap they realize they are going to lose]].

** Fewsham from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E5TheSeedsOfDeath "The Seeds of Death"]], who is shot down after the Ice Warriors discover he is broadcasting their activities to an Earth station.

** The Controller from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS9E1DayOfTheDaleks "Day of the Daleks"]], who helps the Doctor and Jo return to the past to try and stop the Daleks' world domination scheme, but stays behind to confront his masters.

** In the season finale, [[spoiler: Lexie]] scores one when [[spoiler: she]] manually flies an Espheni ship into the moon base's power core, destroying it.

* Happens offscreen in a BadFuture episode of ''{{Sanctuary}}''. Helen somehow ends up a few years in the future during a ZombieApocalypse, and Will tells her how [[JackTheRipper Druitt]] died. He teleported with a nuke into a city infested with zombies and detonated it.

* In ''ChinesePaladin'', Yue'Ru's HeroicSacrifice: she pulls a PercussivePrevention on two characters--both stronger combatants than her ''and'' who were both expecting it--and hurls them out of harm's way. She then has just enough time to smile reassuringly before being crushed by the CollapsingLair.

** The captain and crew of the Enterprise-C (TNG Yesterday's Enterprise) took on a Romulan task force attacking a lightly-defended Klingon colony. This act was the single reason that the Federation and Klingons avoided a full-scale war and became allies.

** Another example would be in the episode "Deadlock", the ship had been duplicated by some NegativeSpaceWedgie, one of the duplicates has been overrun by aliens harvesting organs, and that ship's Janeway sets the auto destruct (on silent mode), when the bad guys show up on the bridge, Janeway has just time enough for a PreMortemOneLiner (''"Welcome to the bridge"'') before the bad guy sees the destruct countdown ([[ShoutOut just as the klingons on the enterprise in star trek III]]) and [[OhCrap realized the ship was going to blow up only moments prior to it happening]]... KA-BOOM!

* ''OrangeIsTheNewBlack''. [[spoiler:Miss Rosa]]. ''Don't Fear The Reaper''. "Always so rude, that one."

** The Battlestar ''Pegasus''. When it's lost, Lee sends it rocketing towards a baseship. It not only destroys the baseship but its hanger deck flies into another baseship destroying it as well.

** [[spoiler: Sebastian Blood]] has one in "Streets of Fire". His last act is giving Oliver the Mirakuru cure cementing his HeelFaceTurn, when confronted by Isabel, he tells her she's lost before she stabs him twice

* ''Series/{{Arrow}}'': The Season 2 episode "Seeing Red" gives one of these to Moira Queen. When [[spoiler: [[BigBad Slade]]]] abducts Oliver and his family, he tries to make Oliver [[SadisticChoice choose whether Moira or Thea will die]], in an intentional CallBack to the situation on the island that resulted in [[spoiler: Shado]]'s death. However, Moira, [[MamaBear being who she is]], refuses to let Oliver have to make that choice and live with the guilt. So, while still tied up, she calmly gets to her feet, tells her children she loves them one last time, then looks [[spoiler: Slade]] in the eye and tells him to kill her. [[spoiler: Slade]] even admits he [[SympathyForTheHero admires her courage]], before whipping out a sword and stabbing her in the chest, letting her gracefully fall to the ground.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': "Harriet Jones, ''[[CatchPhrase former]]'' [[CatchPhrase Prime Minister!]]"[[note]][[PhraseCatcher Yes, we know who you are]][[/note]] is a deliberate attempt to give someone this, after Creator/RussellTDavies' fellow showrunners Phil Collinson and Julie Gardner complained that she wasn't given a proper send-off. And it works.
** The classic series is riddled with these. Some notorious examples include:
*** Fewsham from ''The Seeds of Death'', who is shot down after the Ice Warriors discover he is broadcasting their activities to an Earth station.
---->"Every word has been heard on Earth."
*** The Controller from 'Day of the Daleks'', who helps the Doctor and Jo return to the past to try and stop the Daleks' world domination scheme, but stays behind to confront his masters.
---->"Who knows? I may have helped to exterminate you."
*** Galloway from ''Death to the Daleks'', who, after acting like a treacherous coward, stows away into the escaping Dalek ship and blows it up.
** [[AlasPoorScrappy Adric's death]] in ''Earthshock'' probably counts as one of these. Considering the [[TheScrappy overall opinion of the character]], many would also argue that it's his ''only'' Moment Of Awesome, period.
** The Master in ''The End of Time''. 'You did this to me! You. Made. Me! One! Two! Three! FOUR!
--->"Get out of the way."
** Also Luke Rattigan in "The Poison Sky." Sure, the HeroicSacrifice is a horrible cliché (especially for ''Series/DoctorWho''), but even that utter stupidity is not enough to ruin the sheer awesomeness of that final "You Sontarans are so screwed" sneer and that defiant "[[IronicEcho Sontar-Ha]]!"
** Much of the fandom considers the Fifth Doctor's regeneration story "The Caves of Androzani" as Creator/PeterDavison's best story and it was recently voted by Magazine/DoctorWhoMagazine as the best story in the ''entire run of the series.''

** 'I did my duty for Queen and Country! (Repeats) Oh God!' Yvonne Hartman just before she walks into a conversion unit. She then does it AGAIN as a Cyberman becoming the first person to resist having their will overridden by the programming, holding off a small army of Cybermen as they try to escape through the rift in a YouShallNotPass moment.
** When River Song finds out the Doctor [[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS4E9ForestOfTheDead is planning to sacrifice himself to save thousands,]] she punches him out, handcuffs him to a wall and wires herself in instead, thus saving all the people and the man she loves. It's a major {{Tearjerker}}, not least because at the time, he hasn't got any idea who she is or why she's willing to die for him.
** Captain Jack's first death. After trying to stop the Daleks with weapons he knows won't work very well, empties his assault rifle, then he warns the Doctor that time is running out, telling him how long he has left to complete the DIY Superweapon, whilst emptying his totally ineffective revolver into the first Dalek. Afterwards, it says, 'Exterminate' and he sets himself and says this:
---> I kind of figured that.
** Amy and Rory in "The Angels Take Manhattan". [[TimeyWimeyBall They get better]], though, only to be allowed a slightly more peaceful future death at the end.
** The Eleventh Doctor uses his regeneration energy to take out an ''entire'' Dalek crusade!

---> Janeway: Time's...'''''up.'''''

* In the first season finale of ''Series/{{Intelligence|2014}}'', CIA Director Tetazoo is ambushed and shot twice in the chest before he can send some crucial information to Lillian. He manages to draw his sidearm and shoot his own killer, then sends the information before expiring.

* Hawkman in ''{{Smallville}}''. With his wings on fire and a sword in his stomach he flies to the rescue one last time, saves Lois from falling, and has a last conversation with Clark before he dies. {{Badass}}.

* Mike Franks in ''Series/{{NCIS}}'', already dying from some unknown illness, decides he'd rather go out on his own terms when he confronts Jonas Cobb, the Port-to-Port Killer, just outside Gibbs' house. He manages to wound Cobb before getting knifed in the chest.
--> "My name is Mike Franks. I figure I got one last fight left in me. You want it?"
** Similarly, Jenny Sheppard. Knew there were assassins on her tail (and that she was already dying of a terminal illness), so lured them out to an abandoned diner in the middle of the desert and managed to take four of the assassins with her.* In
* In the final episode of ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' Trip kills himself and the party of invading aliens by rigging a plasma relay to explode. His final words are "One more thing. You can all go straight to hell!"
** According to the StarTrekExpandedUniverse, his death was faked by Section 31.

* ''Series/{{Revolution}}'': After spending most of the series thus far [[JamesBondage in captivity]], in the episode "[[Recap/RevolutionS1E11TheStand The Stand]]", Danny decides that he needs to start pulling his weight and refuses to run and hide. Soon afterwards, Rachel and Miles return with the anti-air weaponry, but Miles is non-fatally wounded by the enemy fire before he can take out the chopper carrying the amplifier. Danny runs out, grabs the missile launcher, and blows up the chopper, immediately causing the other chopper to lose power...and then as said chopper is falling, its guns discharge multiple rounds clear through his body. (Which sort of also makes it a dying moment of awesome for the [[TheRepublic Monroe Republic]] {{Mook}}s, who knew that they were dead as soon as their chopper hit the ground and still managed to [[TakingYouWithMe take out their killer]] on the way down.)