History Main / BackFromTheDead

** In the first five seasons, Kenny dies in nearly every episode and appears again in the next as if nothing had ever happened. Kenny was KilledOffForReal at the end of Season 5 with the episode "[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Kenny Dies]]", in which he succumbs to muscular dystrophy. Season 6 focused on the other boys coping with Kenny's loss, finding replacements for him, and exorcising his spirit from Cartman. After a year long absence, Kenny [[UnexplainedRecovery returned alive and well]] at the end of "[[ChristmasEpisode Red Sleigh Down]]".

** Imperial Living Saints, the Emperor's rough equivalent of a greater daemon, are people canonized as Saints in the Imperial Church and have been resurrected when the Imperium needs them most. They even have a gameplay mechanic for coming back from the dead.

* Wrestling/TheUndertaker has been killed and brought back to life lord know how many times in the 20+ years he's been around.

* In one WebAnimation/{{YouTube Poop}}, [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]] [[BlackComedy crucifies]] [[VideoGame/HotelMario Luigi]]. [[DoesThisRemindYouofAnything However, he comes back to life a moment later]].

* In ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'' Palpatine confirms that he did die before, meaning that he was not faking his death and had to be resurrected through Sith practices. Rey is also resurrected by Kylo Ren with Force healing, at the cost of his life.

* The ''LetsPlay/DreamSMP'' contains several examples of characters being brought back to life after losing all three of their canon lives.

* ''Franchise/{{Halloween}}'s'' Michael Myers seems to die at the end of every movie, only to come back in the sequels. Whether he is [[Film/{{Halloween 1978}} shot multiple times]], [[Film/HalloweenII1981 set on fire]], [[Film/Halloween4TheReturnOfMichaelMyers thrown down a minehole]], etc. He just keeps coming back. Admittedly, this was intentional on the makers' behalf. Not counting the first film, they always made sure to "kill off" Michael just in case one of the movies bombed and didn't warrant a sequel. They didn't count on the franchise's popularity, which ended up spawning eight movies and two remakes.

** Really almost all Bionicle characters who die heroically do this somehow. Jaller and Takanuva both during ''Mask of Light.'' Mata-Nui coming back in the Mask of Life at the end of the series after his fight with Makuta. Ekimu being re-awakened from thousands of years of death like slumber in the [[Toys/BIONICLE2015 2015 reboot]]. The only major exception to this is Matoro, who is never revived after using the Mask of Life to save the Great Spirit Robot's life during the Ignition saga.

* ''Fanfic/ACrookedMan'': Johann resurrects the entire population of Genosha, the deceased members of the X-Men, Happy Hogan, Captain America, and MVP.

* In ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/26682751/chapters/65081434 Happy Accident]]'', after Felicity accidentally kills Black Siren, when Constantine helps Oliver find a Lazarus Pit to bring her back to life, he ends up resurrecting Earth-1 Laurel Lance in her counterpart's body, leaving Laurel feeling bemused to be in a body basically identical to her own but with such 'anomalies' as extra tattoos and a nose ring.

* ''Fanfic/MariaCampbellOfTheAstralClocktower'': Since the fic takes place in the distant future of ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'', this is possible. ''Rare'', but possible. Much is made of a knight's duty going beyond death, and with their loyalty they are the most likely to be able to keep their body and Dark Soul together and resurrect. Of course, they're also the most likely to be so horribly mutilated that there's no possibility of resurrection. Having a Light Mage on hand for healing greatly increases the likelihood of a resurrection, but they tend not to hang around battlefields. Either way, it's normal to hang onto a corpse for at least a few days in case it decides to get up eventually.

* ''Fanfic/TheOldLifeAliveAgain'': The entire premise of this fanfic is that all the Nobodies that die throughout the event of Days (Vexen, Lexaeus, Zexion, Marluxia, Larxene and especially Xion) are revived, courtesy of [[WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}} Genie]].

* In ''[[https://www.tthfanfic.org/Story-32661/SeaSpectre+Two+For+The+Price+Of+One.htm Two for the Price of One]]'', a chain of events lead to Willow Rosenberg visiting the Vanishing Point to bring Leonard Snart back to life; the timeless nature of Vanishing Point means that, even though his body was blown apart, Snart's cells are basically frozen in the moment before they actually ''died'', so Willow is able to use DNA samples from the ''Waverider'' medical system to basically summon Snart's cells and put his body back together.

* This is the ''entire freakin' point'' of ''FanFic/RiseOfTheGaleforces''. [[AllThereInTheManual To make a long story short,]] a '''LOT''' of the late Supers from the Golden Era are [[OurClonesAreIdentical cloned]] by [[VideoGame/{{Portal}} Aperture Science and Technology]] in PeopleJars, but a good number of them are broken out by the Parr family so they can start a new life in the current timeframe of the story.

** The one true way thus far to lastingly return from death with no strings attached is [[DeityOfHumanOrigin to ascend to demi-godhood]]. However, it should be noted that one mustn't become a death god, or else they're still tied to the afterlife and not quite alive again.

* Several times in ''Fanfic/YoungJusticeDarknessFalls''. Ra's Al Gul was mentioned to be resurrected, as well as Jason Todd, Superman and even Wally West (though technically he was never dead to begin with).

* ''[[Film/KamenRiderXSuperSentaiSuperHeroTaisen Kamen Rider x Super Sentai: Super Hero Taisen]]'', the first big theatrical crossover between the ''Franchise/KamenRider'' and ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' franchises, features the return of [[LegionOfDoom Dai-Shocker]] from ''Series/KamenRiderDecade'', an alliance of revived villains who fought the various Kamen Riders, as well as the introduction of Dai-[[Series/KaizokuSentaiGokaiger Zangyack]], Super Sentai's equivalent of Dai-Shocker consisting of baddies from across Sentai history (though admittedly Dai-Zangyack's range of villains is far less diverse than Dai-Shocker, while the latter indeed has many villains from both the Showa and Heisei eras, Dai-Zangyack mostly has villains from the past few years and only two Showa villains, though it helps that one of them ([[Series/ChoudenshiBioman Rider (nee Bio) Hunter Silva]]) becomes the top dog of Dai-Zangyack. Literally every single villain in this movie, whether they are from Dai-Shocker or Dai-Zangyack, has been brought back from the dead (with the exception of Dai-Shocker's [[Series/KamenRiderV3 Doktor G]], since he's actually [[Series/KamenRiderDecade Narutaki]] in disguise, also not counted is Kamen Rider Diend, who is just an AntiHero who decided to be a dick at the end).

* Parodied in ''Film/TheTrumanShow'', in which Truman's "father" -- who was long ago written out of Truman's "life" -- has become such a pest in trying to get himself back onto the show that he's even managed to get Truman questioning the nature of his reality, thus forcing the producers to write him back into the show. When questioned as to how the heck they intend to explain away the fact that he is now back, the director -- obviously winging it -- blurts out "[[EasyAmnesia Amnesia]]."

* The entire premise of the Schoolyard Heroes song "Cat Killer"

** In ''Book of Ezekiel'' 37:1-3, Ezekiel is shown a vision of an ''[[CavalryOfTheDead entire army]]'' brought back to life with just their [[DemBones scattered bones]] for a starting point.

* In the ''TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness'', [[TabletopGame/MummyTheResurrection mummies]] are pretty much guaranteed to come back to life no matter what, though they can be truly killed via extreme measures, such as nuking them.

** The Dark Eldar Haemonculi are so good at fleshcrafting they can bring themselves (and others, for a price) back from the dead. Unfortunately, it's not entirely guaranteed to work nor risk free. One notorious haemonculus has gotten so addicted to the experience that he is now completely batshit insane (not that anyone notices, in 40K it just makes them better).

** [[spoiler:The entire main cast of X-Tale, except [=XTale!Frisk=], are brought back in 0.4 thanks to the combined efforts of [=XGaster=] and [=XTale!Alphys=]. [=XTale!Frisk=] follows suit not long after.]]

* ''Webcomic/BobAndGeorge'' has Ran Cossack, who is pretty much a parody of this trope. He is made of ''really'' cheap Soviet parts, and could be killed by any kind of impact. However, his creator (Kalinka Cossack from ''VideoGame/MegaMan4''), realizing it would cost more to repair him than to build him again, built a machine that perpetually creates backup bodies for him; each time he is killed, a new Ran with a copy of his memories would appear. This leading to lots of "[[GrievousHarmWithABody Ran-Bombs]]".

** The entire party during Chapter 10.

** And even if both of characters bodies are dead, and even God Tier doesn't help, there's also the [[spoiler:Ring of Life]], which can bring ghosts back to life.

* ''Script/C0DA'', written by former ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series writer/designer Creator/MichaelKirkbride, takes place in the far distant future of ''TES'' universe. It features a number of characters who have died throughout the series, including [[PhysicalGod Almalexia, Sotha Sil, Dagoth Ur]], [[spoiler:[[GodIsDead Lorkhan]]]], [[HumongousMecha Numidium]]... Only Numidium gets an explanation as to how or why, and even then its a pretty big HandWave.

* The ''Screamsheet's'' [[https://web.archive.org/web/20111231091333/http://screamsheet.wordpress.com/fights/ Fights Section]] has the entire ''planet'' come back from the dead after its been destroyed in a previous battle. Multiple times, no less.

* A relatively common occurrence in ''WebVideo/CriticalRole''. [[spoiler: Every single member of Vox Machina]], as well as several members of the Mighty Nein have died and subsequently been resurrected -- not particularly surprising [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons given the setting]]. Of particular note however, is Mollymauk Tealeaf, who has this trope baked into his backstory: He crawled out of his own grave two years before the beginning of the campaign, with no memory from before. [[spoiler: Then he went and did it ''again'' after being [[DeadForReal killed by Lorenzo]] in episode 26, only to reveal that he is alive and traveling with his former companion almost 90 episodes later.]]

** In the episode "The Thief of Baghead", Calculon kills himself after ingesting food coloring (which is toxic to robots). He was reenacting the climax of Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet and tried to put on the best possible on-stage death by actually killing himself, meaning he basically hammed himself to death. The Planet Express crew bring him back to life in the late series episode "Calculon 2.0", only for him to die again at the end of the episode.

* In the two-part GrandFinale of ''WesternAnimation/HarveyBirdmanAttorneyAtLaw'', Phil Ken Sebben claws his way up from the grill of the bus that struck him dead the previous season, and says "Hah ha! Final episode stunt casting!" He then spends the entire episode driving the bus in reverse back to the city, just in time to arrive in the final scene and run Harvey over, killing him off for real. Odd thing is that in the episode where he is hit by the bus, he apparently gets cremated.

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': In [[Recap/StevenUniverseS5E3OffColors "Off Colors"]], Lars dies[[note]] Which was the only on-screen death in the entire show up to that point, making it that much more shocking[[/note]] after being caught in the center of an explosion, getting slammed into a wall and then falling thirty feet to the ground. Steven starts to cry over his body, and discovers his [[HealingHands healing powers]] include the ability to resurrect through his tears. [[CameBackStrong Side effects:]] Lars is now pink, his heartbeat is awfully slow, he doesn't need to eat anymore and his hair is a portal to Lion's PocketDimension. All of which implies Lion was a regular animal that died and Rose resurrected in similar fashion.

* ''Film/{{Spirited}}'': [[Literature/AChristmasCarol The Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future]] each have the option of a retirement package which includes a gold watch, a gift card, and a chance to be brought back to life. [[spoiler:Present takes his retirement package late in the movie.]]

* Just as Creator/DouglasAdams made the ultimate KillEmAll in ''Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'', a radio play pulled a very big Back from the Dead: the series' multiverse.

* WesternAnimation/SylvesterTheCat from ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' died 24 deaths in 16 different cartoons, one episode (''WesternAnimation/SatansWaitin'') features him slowly losing [[CatsHaveNineLives all nine of his lives]].

* Sylvester the Cat from ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' died 24 deaths in 16 different cartoons, one episode (''WesternAnimation/SatansWaitin'') features him slowly losing [[CatsHaveNineLives all nine of his lives]].

* Tom of ''Franchise/TomAndJerry'' had died 6 times in 6 cartoons, (one of them turned out to be a dream though).

** ''Webcomic/{{Shortpacked}}'': An early WhamShot in the comic was that Mike, who was last seen getting killed by aliens in ''WebComic/ItsWalky'', was somehow alive and working in the titular toy store. Later, Galasso was somehow revive both UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan and the historical Jesus Christ, also to work in the store. It's only during Mike's wedding to Amber that a hint about how he was revived was revealed: [[spoiler:Joyce, out of gratitude to him for saving her life, leaked the blueprints to the resurrection chamber and a shirt stained with Mike's blood to a non-government affiliated company (strongly implied to be Galasso himself).]]

** The resurrection chamber does have limits though: when Amber fielded the idea of bringing her hamster Snkrs back from the dead, Mike says the resurrection chamber revives someone at the same age they died, so bringing back a two year old hamster who died of old age would just delay the inevitable.

* A third of all the season finales of ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'' involve Agent Tex dying. It turns out that both she and Church are both AI programs created by Project Freelancer. In a similar way Church is seemingly destroyed by an EMP at the end of Season 6, but is resurrected as Epsilon during Season 7.

** Vivienne Graham is revealed to have been [[OnlyMostlyDead only temporarily dead]] after being devoured by Ghidorah. She's preserved and kept alive in a comatose state by San in his severed head, and he [[ForcefulTransformation transforms]] and [[BrainUpload fuses with]] her to make them a [[MultipleHeadCase two-headed]] [[TwoBeingsOneBody human-Ghidorah]] ArtificialHybrid {{Kaiju}}.

** Vivienne Graham is revealed to have been [[OnlyMostlyDead only temporarily dead]] after being devoured by Ghidorah. She's preserved and kept alive in a comatose state by San in his severed head, and he [[BalefulPolymorph transforms]] and [[BrainUpload fuses with]] her to make them a [[MultipleHeadCase two-headed]] [[TwoBeingsOneBody human-Ghidorah]] ArtificialHybrid {{Kaiju}}.

** It's also revealed that Ghidorah will always come back from death eventually so long as [[FromASingleCell some piece of it remains]] -- [[ArtifactOfDoom San's original Ghidorah-head]] hasn't been disposed of, and [[spoiler:Ghidorah's minds including San's EvilClone are already active]].