History HopeSpot / LiveActionTV

** A similar situation occurred with ASA Flight 529. After the engine blew apart, the pilots couldn't get to an airport, and were forced to put the plane down in a field. The plane was ripped apart by the impact, but amazingly, everyone survived the crash. Then leaking fuel ignited the wreck, starting a raging fire. Four people died at the scene, and another five would later succumb to their injuries; a tenth passenger died shortly thereafter of a heart attack thought to be induced by the stress of the incident. Of the 19 survivors, ten were significantly injured, and many also suffered with severe emotional trauma.

** A similar situation occurred with ASA Flight 529. After the engine blew apart, the pilots couldn't get to an airport, and were forced to put the plane down in a field. The plane was ripped apart by the impact, but amazingly, everyone survived the crash. Then leaking fuel ignited the wreck, starting a raging fire. Four people died at the scene, and another five would later succumb to their injuries; a tenth passenger died shortly thereafter of a heart attack thought to be induced by the stress of the incident. Of the 19 survivors, 11 were significantly injured, and many also suffered with severe emotional trauma.

** Happens to a few of the victims as well; they get offered a huge chance or accomplish something incredibly significant to them right before they're killed. The fact that in most cases [[ForegoneConclusion their ultimate fate has already been established]] does nothing to diminish the emotional impact of these moments.

--->'''Jesse''': I got an idea... ''(The camera pans to him, pale skinned and vamped face)''...you can die.

* ''Series/TheYoungOnes'': The final episode contains a two-fer; the boys have escaped their confining, limited lifestyles and have their whole lives ahead of them, full of freedom and hope... only for them to accidentally drive through a billboard of Cliff Richard and over a massive cliff. Then, at the very bottom of the cliff, from within the battered, smashed-up bus we hear them say "Phew! That was close!"... and the bus explodes in a massive fireball from which nothing could survive.

** A particularly nasty and heart-wrenching example from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E5TheAngelsTakeManhattan The Angels Take Manhattan]]"... [[spoiler:Rory and Amy have jumped to their supposed deaths]] to create a temporal paradox to poison the Weeping Angels' food supply. The paradox puts them back where they started the adventure, ready to head out with The Doctor and River on a family voyage, until [[spoiler:Rory is distracted by his own gravestone and is sent back in time by a weeping angel and Amy goes with him. And thanks to the paradox, the TARDIS can't go their time/place, so the Doctor and River will never see them again.]]

** Happens to a few of the victims as well; they have a moment where it looks like everything's going to be okay, only for things to go horribly wrong shortly thereafter. The fact that in most cases [[ForegoneConclusion their ultimate fate has already been established]] does nothing to diminish the emotional impact of these moments.

* ''Series/AirCrashInvestigation'': Air Canada Flight 797 managed to safely land after a severe on-board fire, and it seemed that the passengers would all make it off the plane... [[spoiler:until the plane's doors were opened and a flashover occurred, which incinerated the interior and killed 23 people]].

** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E10FaceTheRaven Face the Raven]]"'s climax has several of these when it's revealed that Clara [[spoiler:MUST die by quantum shade in the next few minutes]] thanks to her too-confident efforts to save Rigsy. She's still confident that the Doctor can fix this situation by finding another way to [[spoiler:remove the chronolock]]... but he can't. He angrily threatens the mayor responsible for Rigsy's situation with a RoaringRampageOfRevenge against them ''and'' all the trap street residents if this isn't fixed immediately...but Clara talks him out of it (because he would cross the MoralEventHorizon if he did) '''and''' asks if there's ''anything'' that can be done in the first place — there isn't. Thus, [[spoiler:Clara dies a painful death]] while the Doctor is delivered to what turns out to be a torture chamber and begins a ProtagonistJourneyToVillain that unfolds over the next two episodes, culminating in the events of...

* ''Series/{{Revolution}}'': In [[Recap/RevolutionS1E11TheStand episode 11]], [[spoiler:Danny dies taking out Monroe's only power amplifier with him. By doing this, he effectively brought Monroe back to square one. Randall shows up on Monroe's doorstep not too long after, and not only offers him ''more'' power amplifiers but soldiers, weapons, and a full team of scientists]].

** Just about every time the tide seems to be turning during the Ori arc... it turns out it's not, something happens to make it all worse, and now we're ''really'' screwed.

** Another occurs a few episodes earlier, in "One Wrong Move". When Spike first arrives on the scene where his best friend Lew is standing on a land mine, though he's understandably worried, he's fairly confident he can disarm the mechanism by re-pinning the mine. Sure enough, as he unearths the bomb, he locates the hole...only to find that the bomber has anticipated this and glued the hole shut so the mine can't be re-pinned. From that point on, Spike's suggestions become increasingly less rational and more desperate and risky until Lew ultimately [[CutTheSafetyRope chooses to sacrifice himself rather than risk both of them being killed]].

** Another occurs a few episodes earlier, in "One Wrong Move". When Spike first arrives on the scene where his best friend Lew is standing on a land mine, though he's understandably worried, he's fairly confident he can disarm the mechanism by re-pinning the mine. Sure enough, as he unearths the bomb, he locates the hole...only to find that the bomber has anticipated this and glued the hole shut so the mine can't be re-pinned. From that point on, Spike's suggestions become increasingly less rational and more desperate and risky until Lew [[CutTheSafetyRope chooses to end it rather than risk Spike's life]].

** Happens to a few of the victims as well, specifically in cases where the crime was planned and not just a momentary outburst of rage. In several episodes, a victim has a moment where they think they just might be out of danger, only for their killer to emerge. The fact that in most cases [[ForegoneConclusion their ultimate fate has already been established]] does nothing to diminish the emotional impact of these moments.

* ''Series/ColdCase'': The backstory of the serial killer in "The Road" is that he ''was'' the HopeSpot for a woman who had fallen into a well, as she believed he would get her help. When he made it clear he wouldn't, she lost the will to continue fighting for survival and succumbed to exhaustion, causing her to drown.
** In "A Perfect Day", it looks for a moment as though DomesticAbuse victim Cindy and her children will have a chance at a better life with Cindy's loving, non-abusive boyfriend. Then her husband tracks them down and [[IfICantHaveYou kills one of the children]]. The surviving child is left in a church to be put up for adoption (so that her father can't find her) and Cindy herself spends decades in hiding, terrified that her husband will find her.

* ''Series/{{Dune}}'': The 2000 miniseries has a beautifully dark and very justified one near the end of the final chapter, where Rabban, a brutal and savage oppresor of the people of Arrakis, find himself surrounded by the very people he had been oppresing. The Hope Spot kicks in when he sees Stilgar, the leader of the Fremen rebellion, bearing a rifle, and seeming to offer Rabban the hope of a quick clean death by gunshot... only for him to walk away, leaving him to the knives of a few hundred people who have no interest whatsoever in giving him a quick clean death.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E1TheWomanWhoFellToEarth "The Woman Who Fell to Earth"]]: The Doctor talks crane operator Karl into jumping from one crane to another to escape the alien headhunter pursuing him... only for Tzim-Sha to catch up and grab him mid-leap. The Doctor is then forced to jump between the cranes herself, which is a problem as the crane she's on is positioned lower than Karl's.

* In the Series/AgentsOfSHIELD episode [[Recap/AgentsOfSHIELDS2E3MakingFriendsAndInfluencingPeople "Making Friends and Influencing People"]], Whitehall has former SHIELD agent Agent 33 imprisoned in a machine, [[{{Brainwashed}} brainwashing]] her into serving HYDRA. While Whitehall is giving a [[BreakThemByTalking speech]], Agent 33 manages to get a hand loose... only for Whitehall to spot it, and causually resecure her, without even breaking his speech. Given that the brainwashing is meant to break the prisoner so they can be reprogrammed, it's likely this Hope Spot was a deliberate part of the process.

-->'''Cory:''' You just ''love'' dangling that little string of hope in front of us and yanking it away, don't you?
-->'''Mr. Feeny:''' I had a cat.

-->'''Jesse''': I got an idea... ''(The camera pans to him, pale skinned and vamped face)''...you can die.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd The series 4 finale]], the Daleks are defeated yet again, and the Doctor finds himself surrounded by all of his companions and friends from the start of the new series including Rose, who he thought he would never see again. Everything is shiny and full of laughs for the next few minutes until [[spoiler:half of them go home, Rose is left in a parallel dimension with the Doctor's clone, and Donna gets brain-wiped.]] The last few scenes show the Doctor cold and wet, staring ahead blankly in the TARDIS, completely alone again.

** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E11FearHer Fear Her]]", all the drawings have returned to life - except the Doctor. [[spoiler:Then the other drawing comes to life, and it's an OhCrap moment.]]
** A particularly nasty and heart-wrenching example from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E5TheAngelsTakeManhattan The Angels Take Manhattan]]"... [[spoiler:Rory and Amy have jumped to their supposed deaths]] to create a temporal paradox to poison the Weeping Angels' food supply. The paradox puts them back where they started the adventure, ready to head out with The Doctor and River on a family voyage, until [[spoiler:Rory is distracted by his own gravestone and is sent back in time by a weeping angel and Amy goes with him. And thanks to the paradox, the TARDIS can't go their time/place, so the Doctor and River will never see them again.]]

** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E10FaceTheRaven Face the Raven]]"'s climax has several of these when it's revealed that Clara [[spoiler:MUST die by quantum shade in the next few minutes]] thanks to her too-confident efforts to save Rigsy. She's still confident that the Doctor can fix this situation by finding another way to [[spoiler:remove the chronolock]]... but he can't. He angrily threatens the mayor responsible for Rigsy's situation with a RoaringRampageOfRevenge against them ''and'' all the trap street residents if this isn't fixed immediately...but Clara talks him out of it (because he would cross the MoralEventHorizon if he did) '''and''' asks if there's ''anything'' that can be done in the first place -- there isn't. Thus, [[spoiler:Clara dies a painful death]] while the Doctor is delivered to what turns out to be a torture chamber and begins a ProtagonistJourneyToVillain that unfolds over the next two episodes, culminating in the events of...

* ''Series/{{Friends}}'': In "The One Where The Stripper Cries," Joey appears on the game show Pyramid and, naturally, is terrible at it. His intial partner is a man who desperately needs the prize money. In the final round, Joey starts answering questions correctly, coming within one answer of winning. Unfortunately, he doesn't get it and they lose.

** Viserys has a villainous one in "A Golden Crown." He threatens Drogo, demanding that the man helps him secure his claim to the throne. Drogo responds that he will give Viserys a golden crown "that men will tremble to behold", and Viserys is pleased until Drogo's bloodrider Qotho breaks his arm, making him drop the sword, and kicks him to the floor. Drogo melts his golden belt in a pot, while Viserys begs Daenerys to help him. Ser Jorah tells her to look away but she won't. She watches as Khal Drogo "crowns" Viserys by pouring molten gold over his head, causing Viserys to cry out in pure agony.

* ''WesternAnimation/StargateInfinity'':
** The show's villains, on these: "It's very gratifying to give people hope, and then snatch it away."
** Speaking of ''Stargate'', just about every time the tide seems to be turning during the Ori arc...it turns out it's not, something happens to make it all worse, and now we're ''really'' screwed.

* ''Series/AirCrashInvestigation'': Air Canada Flight 797 managed to safely land after a severe on-board fire, and it seemed that the passengers would all make it off the plane... [[spoiler:until the plane's doors were opened and a flashover occurred, which incinerated the interior and killed 23 people]]
* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'':
** In arguably the TropeCodifier for the cliffhanger season finale, "[[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E26S4E1TheBestOfBothWorlds}} The Best of Both Worlds]]". After the Borg abduct and assimilate Picard, Riker gives the order to fire the superweapon improvised from the main deflector dish. The music swells and ''Enterprise'' opens fire. Only for Part 2 to reveal the Borg have already adapted for that weakness, because they learned of it from Picard. The Borg NoSell the attack, ''Enterprise'' is temporarily disabled, and the cube heads to [[CurbStompBattle Wolf 359]].
** Two seasons earlier, Picard had one in "[[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E24Conspiracy}} Conspiracy]]" when he was trying to escape from a room of possessed admirals and ran into Riker, only to discover that ''he'' was possessed, too. [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]], though, when Riker revealed that he was only ''acting'' possessed so he could get close enough to shoot the admirals.
* The first season finale of ''Series/{{Timeless}}'' looks almost like a series finale. Mason reveals he was playing a long game to take Rittenhouse down, operatives arrested, Flynn captured and Lucy is offered to take the time machine on one last trip to restore her sister to life. But then Lucy goes to her mother Carol, to confess what she's been up to and her plan to bring back Amy...and Carol reveals ''she'' is from "Rittenhouse stock" and has known all along what Lucy has been doing. And she doesn't care about bringing back another daughter as Rittenhouse is going to continue on their plans as Emma is shown stealing the time machine.
** In an earlier episode, Wyatt tries to prevent his wife's death at the hands of a serial killer by preventing the killer's parents from meeting in 1983. It all goes horribly as he ends up accidentally killing the man who was to be the killer's father. While haunted by this, Wyatt tells Rufus he can live with it and even being arrested for stealing the machine because his wife will be waiting alive in the present. He gets off the machine, calling out for his wife...only to find she's still dead. It turns out the other two women that man killed were alive but he never killed Wyatt's wife, someone else did and Wyatt realizes he caused an innocent man's death for nothing.
** Season 2 finale as well. Jiya has been having visions of Rufus being stabbed in a saloon. When the time comes, they manage to avert this. Happy, the leave the saloon... and Rufus is gunned down by Emma. The episode does, however, end on a slightly hopeful note in that another Lifeboat shows up from the future (it was originally thought that there was no way around NeverTheSelvesShallMeet) with another Lucy and Wyatt, who declare their intention to save Rufus.

* In ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', the crew makes contact with a Romulan commander through a tiny wormhole. They manage to successfully receive the Romulan, who transports through the wormhole. They are excited about the possibility of sending everyone through the wormhole to the Romulan ship, so they can be taken to the Federation. Then Tuvok reveals that the wormhole is also temporal in nature, and the Romulan commander is from over a century in the past. Instead, they give the commander a message to deliver after the ''Voyager'' disappears in the Badlands. While the commander offers to alter history by warning Starfleet of the ''Voyager''[='s=] disappearance, the crew agrees that it would undo many of the good things they've done. As soon as the commander teleports back, Tuvok reveals that he checked the historical records, and the Romulan died decades before they departed on their ill-fated trip, likely failing to pass the message along.

** [[Recap/BuffyTheVampreSlayerS1E2TheHarvest The second episode]] had Buffy and Xander go into the sewers in the hopes of finding Xander's friend Jesse who was taken by Darla in the previous episode. Helped along by the fact that we earlier saw that The Master intended to use Jesse as bait and leave him alive for now. Sure enough, Buffy and Xander find him seemingly unharmed and the vampires come to attack them. The three run and reach a dead end. When Xander asks what do they do now...

** Wesley's final battle in the finale might be another example; the demon has him beaten with magic, so Wes resorts to a knife. The demon then blocks him, grabs a bigger knife, and proceeds to fatally wound Wes.

** And let's not forgot Wesley's ''hilarious'' "I think we're ''winning!''" in ''Over the Rainbow''. Cut to shot of the good guys tied up.

* ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'': In the ''Blackadder Goes Forth'' finale, there's a Hope Spot when they're in the trench ready to go over the top and the guns go silent. Then:

* ''Series/BlakesSeven'': The ''entire'' final episode. After two seasons of searching, the loss of virtually all the original crew, the ''Liberator,'' and most everything else, the crew ''finally'' locate Blake on Gauda Prime. But put Blake and Avon in the same room, and all goes to hell in short order.

** For Hank, Jesse and Gomez and perhaps even Walt himself in the events of "Tohaijilee" and "Ozymandias". After [[spoiler: successfully baiting Walt to get to his money, the trio corner him and arrest him, and Hank even personally calls Marie to inform they got Walt. 5 minutes later, Walt's 'backup' arrives, armed to the teeth, and corner Hank and Gomez. The resulting shootout leaves [[KilledOffscreen Gomez dead]], Hank seriously injured, and Jesse hiding below Walt's car. Walt negotiates in vain to save Hank, [[BoomHeadshot who is killed by Jack soon after]], and Jesse is captured beneath Walt's car and MadeASlave to Jack's gang. Oh, and it is at this point, Walt, livid with Jesse's role in snitching against him, which led to the shootout in the first place, [[KickTheSonOfABitch decides to break the truth about Jane's death]]. The trio went [[MoodWhiplash from utterly victorious to dead and ruined]].]] ''And after that...''

** In "Granite State", [[spoiler: Jesse nearly escapes the Aryan compound, after fooling Todd, not noticing the camera on the boundary. During his moment of escape, he is captured again. Todd and Jack drive Jesse to Andrea's house, where Todd lures her out on pretext of Jesse's information. When Andrea is in clear view of Jesse, he panics as he tries ''desperately'' to save her. Todd shoots her quickly, with Jack warning Jesse another such attempt will lead to Brock's death. [[ForcedToWatch Jesse's breakdown]] [[TearJerker really seals the deal.]] ]]

** The second episode had Buffy and Xander go into the sewers in the hopes of finding Xander's friend Jesse who was taken by Darla in the previous episode. Helped along by the fact that we earlier saw that The Master intended to use Jesse as bait and leave him alive for now. Sure enough, Buffy and Xander find him seemingly unharmed and the vampires come to attack them. The three run and reach a dead end. When Xander asks what do they do now...

** The episode "Help", where [[MeaningfulName Cassie]] (teenage girl who has had a premonition of her own untimely death) is saved by Buffy from being killed by a demon... but then a lethal trap goes off... and Buffy saves her just in time for a heart attack to kill Cassie.

** The series 4 finale, the Daleks are defeated yet again, and the Doctor finds himself surrounded by all of his companions and friends from the start of the new series including Rose, who he thought he would never see again. Everything is shiny and full of laughs for the next few minutes until [[spoiler:half of them go home, Rose is left in a parallel dimension with the Doctor's clone, and Donna gets brain-wiped.]] The last few scenes show the Doctor cold and wet, staring ahead blankly in the TARDIS, completely alone again.
** "Voyage of the Damned" has another powerful one. Astrid has driven herself off a precipice into the ship's reactor in order to off the BigBad. As the Doctor returns to the other survivors, he is reminded that she was wearing a teleport bracelet with a system for rescuing passengers who run into trouble with it on. [[spoiler:So he attempts to recall her... only to find that the system does not have enough power, and all that's left of her is constituent particles in her image, which he has to disperse. Hell of a TearJerker.]]
** "The End of Time" is ''very'' mean about its Hope Spots. The Doctor has just saved the Earth and possibly the universe from the opening of the sealed time bubble and the return of Gallifrey, and he's still alive, despite thinking that The Master's return was what was supposed to have killed him. Then [[spoiler:he hears a sound... four knocks, from Wilfred, on the inside of the flood chamber for the radiation, which The Doctor will activate if he lets Wilfred out, spilling the radiation on him... the entire rest of the special is a class one TearJerker through and through.]]
** In "Fear Her", all the drawings have returned to life - except the Doctor. [[spoiler:Then the other drawing comes to life, and it's an OhCrap moment.]]
** A particularly nasty and heart-wrenching example from "The Angels Take Manhattan"... [[spoiler:Rory and Amy have jumped to their supposed deaths]] to create a temporal paradox to poison the Weeping Angels' food supply. The paradox puts them back where they started the adventure, ready to head out with The Doctor and River on a family voyage, until [[spoiler:Rory is distracted by his own gravestone and is sent back in time by a weeping angel and Amy goes with him. And thanks to the paradox, the TARDIS can't go their time/place, so the Doctor and River will never see them again.]]
** In "A Good Man Goes to War", Rory saves his and Amy's daughter from being kidnapped. Amy takes the baby and hides, while Rory, the Doctor, and the various aliens he recruited to help out form a line of defense to stop the last of the troops coming to get little Melody Pond. [[spoiler:It turns out that the baby Amy was holding was just a "Flesh" replica, and the real baby had been kidnapped long ago. [[TearJerker Yeah...]]]]
** "Face the Raven"'s climax has several of these when it's revealed that Clara [[spoiler:MUST die by quantum shade in the next few minutes]] thanks to her too-confident efforts to save Rigsy. She's still confident that the Doctor can fix this situation by finding another way to [[spoiler:remove the chronolock]]... but he can't. He angrily threatens the mayor responsible for Rigsy's situation with a RoaringRampageOfRevenge against them ''and'' all the trap street residents if this isn't fixed immediately...but Clara talks him out of it (because he would cross the MoralEventHorizon if he did) '''and''' asks if there's ''anything'' that can be done in the first place -- there isn't. Thus, [[spoiler:Clara dies a painful death]] while the Doctor is delivered to what turns out to be a torture chamber and begins a ProtagonistJourneyToVillain that unfolds over the next two episodes, culminating in the events of...
** "Hell Bent". The Doctor has become a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds thanks to this TraumaCongaLine and via BatmanGambit manages to [[spoiler:pull Clara out of time at the moment of her death, violating a fixed moment in time]]. He's overjoyed at the prospect of new adventures, brainstorming wacky new ideas like "cocktails with Moses" and inventing a flying submarine -- but then he learns that [[spoiler:she isn't fully returning to life]]... and the universe may well start falling apart soon, and it will be all his fault. He doesn't give up his quest just yet, but several conversations later he has a HeelRealization and accepts that his desire to [[spoiler:staying with her forever]] is just a TragicDream that he must give up. Ultimately, [[spoiler:Clara is able to continue "living" in her not-quite-dead state for as long as she likes, but this is technically not a hope spot as she is well aware that some day she will have to voluntarily return to the point of her death.]]

* ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures'': In "The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith" we see present day London in ruins and Sarah Jane and Luke stuck in the past with no idea how to defeat the Trickster without... bad things happening to Sarah Jane's parents. Cut to the image of a Blue Police Box as the Doctor's music plays. [[spoiler:It turns out to be just a policeman]].

** In arguably the TropeCodifier for the cliffhanger season finale, "Best of Both Worlds Part 1." After the Borg abduct and assimilate Picard, Riker gives the order to fire the superweapon improvised from the main deflector dish. The music swells and ''Enterprise'' opens fire. Only for Part 2 to reveal the Borg have already adapted for that weakness, because they learned of it from Picard. The Borg NoSell the attack, ''Enterprise'' is temporarily disabled, and the cube heads to [[CurbStompBattle Wolf 359]].
** Two seasons earlier, Picard had one in "Conspiracy" when he was trying to escape from a room of possessed admirals and ran into Riker, only to discover that ''he'' was possessed, too. [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]], though, when Riker revealed that he was only ''acting'' possessed so he could get close enough to shoot the admirals.

* ''Series;{{Flashpoint}}'': In "Behind the Blue Line", Sam believes he's talked the subject (a former soldier he strongly identifies with) into surrendering peacefully, and it seems to be working out as the "subject" walks towards the team at the agreed-upon meeting spot. But then it turns out the "subject" is actually a staff member who had been captured by the subject, and the real subject proceeds to commit SuicideByCop.