History Main / BeatStillmyHeart

* ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom'', Mola Ram pulls the still-beating heart out of a {{human sacrifice}} (see page image). It even caught on fire when the victim was lowered into the LavaPit.

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/FireHeart.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[IncendiaryExponent And it's on fire]].]]

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': A werewolf is a creature trapped in animal form because of the sins the clan committed in life. To gain immeasurable power as well as NighInvulnerability, a werewolf can perform a special rite to regain their humanoid form by ripping out their heart and leaving it, still beating, in a safe place. [[spoiler: Komamura performs the ritual, leaving his heart with his great-grandfather while he goes off to fight the Quincies. The sight of Komamura taking a full hit to the chest that leaves a gaping hollow-style hole where his heart should be while he lectures Bambietta on the lengths to which he was willing to go in Yamamoto's name abruptly shifting to a scene where an [[CanisMajor enormous dog]] watches a still beating heart sitting on a plate with a dejected air is one of the most serenely creepy moments in the entire story.]]

* In ''Manga/InuYasha'', series villain Naraku controls one his subordinates, Kagura, by keeping her heart with him at all times. If she displeases him, he [[ColdBloodedTorture tortures]] her by squeezing it.

* Chapter 29 of ''Manga/MagicalRecordLyricalNanohaForce'' has Hades cutting out Veyron's still beating heart after the latter was just hit with [[DepletedPhlebotinumShells anti-EC bullets]] that stops his HealingFactor, leaving him in critical condition.
* In a {{filler}} episode of ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', a ninja disguised as Kabuto links his heart to Naruto's. Any damage to his heart also happens to Naruto's. The guy ''pulls his heart out of his chest, arteries intact'', and as such it is still beating. The scene (which was essentially impossible to tone down in a way that doesn't make the scene incomprehensible) is why they put a {{Content Warning|s}} at the beginning of the episode.

* In ''Manga/{{Toriko}}'', [[spoiler:[[BrainwashedAndCrazy "Taste changed"]] Teppei]] appears right behind [[spoiler:Komatsu]], punches through his chest and crushes his heart right before his eyes. To make a bad situation worse, [[WoundThatWillNotHeal he somehow rendered all means of healing such a wound useless]]. Even forbidden "Dark" techniques can't save him. The only thing that can possibly save him before the temporary replacement organs fail him is Acacia's Soup "PAIR".
* Also during one of the early episodes of ''LightNovel/TrinityBlood'', since a Methuselah can't be killed by just shooting it or cutting it, you have to do something to the heart. Abel Nightroad does it as a finishing move, and [[AndShowItToYou rips out the Methuselah's heart, holds it in his hand right in front of the Methuselah, and crushes it while the other watches.]]

* Appeared in an old ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' comic where Batman is fighting a vampire, but can't stake him because he transplanted his heart somewhere else. He has to find the heart by listening for a heartbeat when he gets the vampire excited. Batman notices that a clock is ticking louder. The vampire put his heart into the clock....

* In Book Two of Creator/SuehiroMaruo's ''The Laughing Vampire'', a female vampire uses the freshly-extracted heart of her victim for...self gratification.
* An issue of ''Nightmares & Fairy Tales'' tells the twisted tale of Snow White, in which the Evil Queen is told that beauty reflects the heart, so she has Snow White's heart cut out of her body and then procedes to rip her own heart out and replace it with Snow's, making herself beautiful and leaving Snow in a zombie-like state. [[spoiler:Snow later gets her revenge when she burns the Queen's original heart and rips out and reclaims her own.]]
* Somehow ''ComicBook/ScudTheDisposableAssassin'' manages to combine this trope with tearjerker and ChekhovsGun: In the end it turns out that Jeff's heart, [[spoiler:being forged by God himself, is completely indestructible. This means that Jeff will never die, and the now-suicidal Scud will never complete his original mission (meaning he won't ever self-destruct), meaning he can't finish the last job given him by the Seraphim: destroying Earth. Even as Jeff's body is ripped open and finally dies, the heart beats on. Of course, later Scud takes the heart with him into battle with the Seraphim, which in the end proves to save his life: by placing the heart in Sussudio's ribcage it reanimates her, and the first thing she does is greet Scud cheerfully. Of course, the second thing she does is PUNCH AN ANGEL IN THE BRAINS]]. WhoWantsToLiveForever indeed!

* ''Film/AngelHeart''. Twice. Once to Margaret, [[spoiler:the other time, before the events of the film when Johnny ate Harry's still beating heart to steal his soul.]]

* Done for romantic black comedy in ''Film/AlitaBattleAngel''. The eponymous cyborg to show her love for her human boyfriend Hugo offers him her heart. [[NotHyperbole Literally.]] She pulls down her shirt, opens her upper torso, and takes out her mechanical heart, still trailing blood vessels and pumping blood through her body. Hugo's rather understandable reaction is to just stare at her in complete befuddlement, horror and uncertainty; before telling her not to. Alita then apologizes for the fact that she can be rather "intense" sometimes, and he doesn't argue.

* Played for laughs in ''Film/DumbAndDumber''. During one of Lloyd's dream sequences, he imagines himself in a romantic dinner with Mary, when the waiter decides to get daring and Lloyd hands his ass to him, as well as many other people. So far, so good. Further down the scene, out comes a Chinese cook who outmatches Lloyd, until he jams his hand into the cook's chest, rips his heart out, puts it in a food bag and returns it to the cook - who only drops dead when he picks up the bag.

* In ''Film/TheLastWitchHunter'', the Witch Queen's heart continues to beat -- ''loudly'' -- even after the witch herself is dead, because as long as the heart isn't destroyed, she's still "alive" and can be brought BackFromTheDead.
* ''Film/MarsAttacks'': when we first see Donald's severed head, the camera trucks back to reveal his various dismembered body parts suspended around him including his still-beating heart.

* ''Film/{{Savaged}}'': During the showdown at the mine, Zoe kills [[spoiler:Wes]], and then emerges from behind cover nad extends his still beating heart towards [[spoiler:Trey]].

--> Why, one of those dolts was so mindless that he hid his heart inside the body of a lizard that was inside a cage that was on top of the head of a serpent what was on top of a tree that was guarded by lions, tigers, and scorpions! Another cretin, and may Buddha strike me if I lie, concealed his heart inside an egg that was inside a duck that was inside a basket that was inside a chest that was on an island that was in the middle of an uncharted ocean. Needless to say, both of those numbskulls were destroyed by the first half-witted heroes who came along.

* In ''Series/OnceUponATime'', the Queen does this so that she has power over them and keeps the hearts in a special vault and its revealed that this vault also exists in the real world. Her (far more evil) mother was also fond of this and also had a special vault for them [[spoiler: which apparently included her own]]. [[CruelAndUnusualDeath The most excruciating deaths seen on the shown is when someone's heart is crushed]] a move that not even Regina herself ''ever'' used...and was how her first TrueLove was killed by [[AbusiveParent Cora]].
** Its never elaborated on whether its the person's literal heart or something more magical in nature, but one theme is ColorCodedWizardry with the heart being some reflection of the person. All of the heroes hearts are shown as [[RedIsHeroic red like rubies from a distant]] while evil characters will have [[DarkIsEvil black hearts]]. Henry, [[spoiler: a [[TheChosenOne True Believer]] and an Author has a gold heart]] while his [[spoiler: grandfather Rumplestiltskin the Dark One had a faint purple glow but looked like a black stone from the corruption of the Darkness killing him.]]
** One key affect is that removing one's heart also removes their ability to feel emotions. Cora became TheSociopath after removing her heart noting her emotions would undermine her ambitions to be queen, turning her into the EvilSorceress AbusiveParent [[TheDreaded she was feared as]]. [[spoiler: Regina herself is tempted to due to to spare the grief of being separated from Henry across realms permanently but is talked out of it.]]

* OlderThanDirt: In the ancient Egyptian text called ''The Tale of Two Brothers'', the younger brother Bata removes his own heart and places it on top of a tree. He tells his older brother Anpu/Anubis that he will receive a sign if anything happens to the heart, and that if something ''does'' happen, he is to revive the heart by putting it in a bowl of water. Of course, the heart is eventually knocked down when the FemmeFatale cuts down the tree, and it dries up into something resembling a date. Anpu finds it and puts it in water, whereupon it grows to its original size and starts beating again, hence reviving Bata. This could be classified as Literature as well, but the story contains a number of mythological elements.

*** Another spell is Heartclutch. The caster just "holds forth his empty hand, and the still beating heart of the subject appears within it." The victim dies in 6-18 seconds.
** 3rd Edition ''Relics and Rituals'' supplement. The spell ''Sacrificial Heart'' rips the still-beating, living heart from the victim's chest and causes it to fly through the air to the the caster's hand.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Scion}}'', the Aztec Scions have the ability to, once an enemy is defeated, rip out their still beating heart and eat it to gain supernatural powers, that make them rip open their chests and expose their beating heart, which is on fire. No other internal organs are shown.

* [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] in the ''VideoGame/{{Bayonetta}}'' series with the [[KatanasAreJustBetter Shuraba Katana]], which is said to be fueled by the still beating heart of an Ashura demon. Interesting, DummiedOut content shows a special animation was supposed to play after Bayonetta used the sword that would have caused the hilt to open up and actually ''show'' the Ashura heart still beating.

* The initial framing device for ''VideoGame/CryptOfTheNecrodancer'' is that an inexperienced adventurer goes in search of her father, falls into the titular crypt... and has her heart removed before she can react, before the game even starts. The standout mechanic of the base game is that your heart (visibly beating on the HUD) is no longer under your control; it now beats in time with the crypt's music, and you have to synchronize all of your movements to your heartbeat or they'll fail... or in some circumstances kill you outright.

** In the ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'' quest "Mehrunes Razor," you find that the final test that must be passed to obtain the eponymous artifact is to devour the still-beating heart of Mehrunes' previous champion -- after you've torn it from his chest, that is. Doing so will turn you into a vampire, if you haven't already immunized yourself.

* In ''VideoGame/GrimFandango'', [[spoiler:Manny's driver, Glottis, in a fit of despair after losing his job, rips out his heart and throws it into the woods. This does not kill him, but puts him in a catatonic state instead. Manny must then retrieve his heart in order to revive him.]]

* [[VideoGame/NinjaGaiden Ninja Gaiden on Xbox]] had an upside down tower in what I'm assuming was Hell that had the walls of a floor covered with these. And they follow you closely.

** The demon in question is called a Ripper, and is so named because if it kills you, it will rip out ''your'' heart.

* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'': ''Meet the Medic'' features the Heavy having an operation to strengthen his heart in order to sustain an Übercharge. When the Medic exposes the Heavy's heart to the Quick Fix's beam, it starts beating rapidly once before exploding. He then replaces the heart with a Mega Baboon's, which starts to beat vigorously and continues beating even while the Medic holds in in his hand, detached from the Heavy.

** It's weird to say this, but one occurrence of this is actually the most beautiful and touching moments in the series.

* ''{{VideoGame/Which}}'': There is a still beating disembodied human heart in one of the rooms. It is one of the two bodyparts you can give the woman.

** The big {{McGuffin}} claimed by the BigBad of the ''Mists of Pandaria'' expansion was the still beating heart of a long dead [[EldritchAbomination Old God]].

* In ''VisualNovel/DiesIrae'''s first route, Father Trifa kills [[spoiler:Lisa by ripping her still beating heart clean out of her chest and then using it to open the [[GeometricMagic fourth Swastika]]]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'', [[TheJuggernaut Rampage's]] [[OurSoulsAreDifferent Spark]] is treated by [[MagnificentBastard Megatron]] this way. Since his Spark is said to have mutated (and supposedly indestructible) Megatron cuts it in half with an Energon knife, and keeps one half [[SoulJar in a spiked cage]] which he squeezes at will to keep Rampage under his control.

** Happens in an episode of the ''The Itchy and Scratchy Show'', of course. Scratchy gives Itchy a heart-shaped Valentine. Itchy responds by plunging his hand into Scratchy's chest and handing him his still-beating heart. The naively grateful Scratchy places it on a shelf at home, then picks up a newspaper with the [[WorstNewsJudgmentEver headline]] "[[CaptainObvious YOU NEED A HEART TO LIVE]]." In a panic, he reaches for his heart, only to keel over dead.

** An episode from Fat Albert uses a made up version (I think it "eats Cleveland"). But there really was a radio program about ''The Chicken Heart That Devoured the World'' so it's most likely a ShoutOut. Creator/StephenKing mentions the radio program in some detail in ''Danse Macabre''.

* While it's a [[IndulgentFantasySegue dream sequence]], ''Dumb And Dumber'' has Lloyd removing a heart (which beats), putting it in a doggy bag and returning it to the victim...

* At the end of ''Film/RamboLastBlood'', Rambo kills [[BigBad Hugo Martinez]] by disemboweling his chest and ripping out his still beating heart.

* One of the episodes of First Wave had an autopsy preformed on the body of Cade Foster. When coroner (who commented about the body being too fresh) pulled out his heart it started beating for a few seconds.

* ''Extremely fresh'' snake hearts are a delicacy in Vietnam, and swallowing them on camera is a popular stunt among tourists. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovwj0FYN0Qg Look if you dare.]] A great many amateur Website/YouTube videos document the same phenonemon.

* Somehow ''ComicBook/ScudTheDisposableAssassin'' manages to combine this trope with TearJerker and ChekhovsGun: In the end it turns out that Jeff's heart, [[spoiler:being forged by God himself, is completely indestructible. This means that Jeff will never die, and the now-suicidal Scud will never complete his original mission (meaning he won't ever self-destruct), meaning he can't finish the last job given him by the Seraphim: destroying Earth. Even as Jeff's body is ripped open and finally dies, the heart beats on. Of course, later Scud takes the heart with him into battle with the Seraphim, which in the end proves to save his life: by placing the heart in Sussudio's ribcage it reanimates her, and the first thing she does is greet Scud cheerfully. Of course, the second thing she does is [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome PUNCH AN ANGEL IN THE BRAINS]]]]. WhoWantsToLiveForever indeed!

* ''Webcomic/MonsterPulse'': Not only is [[AlliterativeName Bina Blum's]] heart still working outside of her body, it's also walking around as a monster twice her size.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''

* Red Falcon, a recurring ''Contra'' boss, is a giant beating heart that may or may not be attached to anything.

* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls''

* In ''Gothic'', the demon final boss is protected by five hearts that must be slain before he can be killed.

* In ''Grand Theft Auto IV'' the beating "heart of the city" can be found in the Statue of Happiness.

* Though not actually seen, one has made an appearance in ''WebComic/FoxTails'', kept in a case by the [[MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate Morally Ambiguous Doctor]], revealing how he is able to control one of the otherwise uncontrollable Kitsune. It's her heart, and apparently, squeezing it is quite painful to her. (Probably inspired by the Manga/InuYasha-example above.)

* ''WebComic/MonsterPulse'': Not only is [[AlliterativeName Bina Blum's]] heart still working outside of her body, it's also walking around as a monster twice her size.

** Especially notable in one [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrietta_Lacks particular case.]]

%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1605670580084147900
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[[quoteright:350:[[Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/FireHeart.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[IncendiaryExponent And it's on fire]].]]

* In ''Anime/HowlsMovingCastle'' Howl sells his heart to a demon in exchange for more magical power.
* In a {{filler}} episode of ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', a ninja disguised as Kabuto links his heart to Naruto's. Any damage to his heart also happens to Naruto's. The guy ''pulls his heart out of his chest, arteries intact'', and as such it is still beating. The scene (which was essentially impossible to tone down in a way that doesn't make the scene incomprehensible) is why they put a {{Content Warning|s}} at the beginning of the episode.
** Near the end of the episode, [[spoiler:the ninja in question is revealed to be a ''female'' - the same one that had tried killing Naruto and co. in the previous episode. From the context of said episode, she most likely ''died'' soon after using what her accomplices referred to as a dangerous technique, but considering that a later scene (if not the next one) shows that said accomplices had brought her to Orochimaru, known by fans to have some medical experience...]]
** In Shippuden, [[PsychoForHire Kakuzu]] tears the hearts out of his enemies and absorbs them into his own body to extend his life. In a modified GoryDiscretionShot one can see him holding a still-beating heart in his hand.
* In ''Manga/InuYasha'', series villain Naraku controls one his subordinates, Kagura, by keeping her heart with him at all times. If she displeases him, he [[ColdBloodedTorture tortures]] her by squeezing it.

* In volume five of ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure: Gold Experience'', Bruno Buccarati uses his Stand's ability to create zippers to remove his own heart and ''pick it apart'', just to stop it from beating and thereby alerting the enemy of his position. Earlier, during ''Stardust Crusaders'', Jotaro had his Stand grab his own heart and stop it for the very same reason.
* In Chapter 8 of ''Manga/JujutsuKaisen'', [[spoiler: the king of curses, Ryomen Sukuna, kills Yuuji by tearing his heart out while controlling his body, as payback for using him carelessly.]]

* Also during one of the early episodes of ''LightNovel/TrinityBlood'', since a Methuselah can't be killed by just shooting it or cutting it, you have to do something to the heart. Abel Nightroad does it as a finishing move, and [[AndShowItToYou rips out the Methuselah's heart, holds it in his hand right in front of the Methuselah, and crushes it while the other watches.]]
* In one strip of ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'', [[PsychopathicManchild Russia's]] heart somehow falls out and splats onto the meeting table, to the horror of the other Allies. Even more frighteningly, Russia himself [[MajorInjuryUnderreaction doesn't seem bothered at all]]; he only blushes and says that it just "pops out of [him], sometimes."
* Dark Schneider, the title character of ''Manga/{{Bastard}}'', is also known as 'The Immortal', for very good reasons. When he tears his own heart out to save his adopted daughter/lover, Arshes Nei, we are treated to a double-dip into this trope. Not only does his heart continue to beat for a while outside his body, splattering blood all over her, but later, when he regenerates, he couldn't just regrow his heart inside his body, nooo... instead, his heart reforms in the air over his gaping chest-wound, and starts BEATING, before tendrils shoot out of the hole to grasp the newly-formed heart...
* When Linna starts virtual reality training in ''Anime/BubblegumCrisis Tokyo 2040'', she is battling against a rogue robot/artificial intelligence. It's not exactly a heart, but she rips out something organ-like and squeezes it in her hand until brown liquid comes out, and then recoils in horror at what she just did.
* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', Trafalgar Law is able to do this to people using his Devil Fruit ability. Granted, due to the nature of the power, this doesn't kill the person unless you then destroy the heart. He can even switch people's hearts around to pull a FreakyFridayFlip.
* In ''Manga/{{Beelzebub}}'', [[spoiler: when Lucifer does this to Furuichi, she removes his soul with it, leaving him in a coma. If Furuichi's heart isn't returned by morning, then his soul ascends and he truly dies.]]

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': A werewolf is a creature trapped in animal form because of the sins the clan committed in life. To gain immeasurable power as well as NighInvulnerability, a werewolf can perform a special rite to regain their humanoid form by ripping out their heart and leaving it, still beating, in a safe place. [[spoiler: Komamura performs the ritual, leaving his heart with his great-grandfather while he goes off to fight the Quincies. The sight of Komamura taking a full hit to the chest that leaves a gaping hollow-style hole where his heart should be while he lectures Bambietta on the lengths to which he was willing to go in Yamamoto's name abruptly shifting to a scene where an [[CanisMajor enormous dog]] watches a still beating heart sitting on a plate with a dejected air is one of the most serenely creepy moments in the entire story.]]

* In ''Anime/KillLaKill'' Ragyo does this to Ryuko immediately after meeting her [[spoiler:and realizing Ryuko is actually her lost daughter]] but since Ryuko has [[AppliedPhlebotinum life fibers]] in her body it's not fatal. Later on [[ArtificialHuman Nui]] demonstrates that she and Ryuko are similar by casually ripping out her own heart and showing it to her.
* In ''Manga/{{Parasyte}}'', Shinichi sees a parasite [[spoiler:kill his friend Kana with a giant blade through the chest as she's running away from it]]. He performs this on the parasite before [[ExtremeMeleeRevenge throwing it through a concrete wall]].
* ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'' (the OVA): [[spoiler:How Alucard finishes Father Alexander Anderson off. Anderson used Helena's Nail on his own heart, turning him into a "Monster of God" made of vines to destroy Alucard. Victoria Seras prevents him from finishing off Alucard, which gives Alucard enough time to regenerate, charge and tear Anderson's heart out of his chest, taking the nail with it and making the vines disappear. The heart still beats for a second in Alucard's hand before he crushes it, and what's left of Anderson lives long enough to make a tear-jerking speech.]]
* In ''Anime/SevenMortalSins'', Lucifer enslaves Maria Totsuka by extracting her heart. [[SoulJar As long as nothing happens to it]], Maria is immortal and ageless, but Lucifer can torture her by squeezing it.

* A variation is found in an old ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' comic. In an attempt to live forever, a character is implanted with a pacemaker that is remotely tied to a device at the Earth's core. Too bad that every heart murmur he experiences now sends shockwaves throughout the planet, and vice-versa. Ouch.

* ''ComicBook/ShadeTheChangingMan'' discovers that his heart has been stolen by a squatter in his home after a battle. He embarks on a half-hearted rescue of it and when he finally catches up to it, has a heart-to-heart talk with it. [[spoiler:And then steps on it when he decides he's better off heartless]]. It appears from time to time, still beating, moving under its own power, and even has internal monologues.

* In Book Two of Creator/SuehiroMaruo's ''The Laughing Vampire'', a female vampire uses the freshly-extracted heart of her victim for...self gratitfication.
* In the ''ComicBook/BlackestNight'' ''ComicBook/{{Starman}}'' issue, [[spoiler:the Shade's heart gets ripped out by the zombie Black Lantern Starman... then the heart promptly engulfs the zombie, trapping it in the Shade's shadow void.]]

* In ''Literature/TheGiantWhoHadNoHeartInHisBody'', the heart has been removed to protect his life.

* Davy Jones uses the SoulJar variant in ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' (and [[spoiler:Will]], at the end of ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd At World's End]]'').
* ''Film/LastOfTheMohicans'': "When the grey-hair dies, Magua will eat his heart." And he does, cutting the still-beating heart from his body.
-->'''Magua:''' Grey-hair! [[PreMortemOneLiner Before you die]], [[JustBetweenYouAndMe know that I will]] put to the knife your children so that your seed is wiped from the earth forever.
* In ''Film/BrideOfReAnimator'', the main characters use [[spoiler:Meg]]'s preserved heart when creating the Bride. It's an indicator of Dan's inability to move on after [[spoiler:Meg]]'s death -- he wants to transfer a part of her life into the new body. In the final shot of the film, [[spoiler:the heart lies on a table beside the Bride's dismembered body, stops beating, and ''shrinks'' slightly before the FadeToBlack]]. Symbolic, baby.

* When the {{Mayincatec}} cut out the hearts of their sacrifical victims they will often be shown still beating.
* ''Film/FromDuskTillDawn'', people! Ripping a vampire's heart out from his own ribcage, and after seeing it still beating (and the vamp still kicking), staking it with a sharpened pencil, sure counts here.

* Although the heart is never technically ''removed'', the beating heart of Draco the dragon in ''Film/{{Dragonheart}}'' can be revealed by lifting up a flap on his chest so that Bowen can [[spoiler:destroy it.]]

* ''Film/{{Dreamscape}}''. After Tommy Ray kills a security guard by ripping his heart out of his chest, the heart continues beating.
* A variation in ''Film/IronMan1''. [[spoiler:Obadiah toys with Tony's new arc reactor right in front of him after yanking it out. It wasn't actually his heart, but the reactor kept his heart from failing.]]

* Played for laughs in ''Film/DumbAndDumber''. During one of Lloyd's dream sequences, he imagines himself in a romantic dinner with Mary, when the waiter decides to get daring and Lloyd hands his ass to him, as well as many other people. So far, so good. Further down the scene, out comes a Chinese cook who outmatches Lloyd, until he jams his hand into the cook's chest, rips his heart out, puts it in a food bag and returns it to the cook - who only drops dead when he picks up the bag.
* ''Nudo e selvaggio Massacre in Dinosaur Valley; Cannibal Ferox 2'': During the film, Betty follows John but gets caught in quicksand. John makes half-hearted efforts to rescue her until spears and blow-arrows start flying. He runs off screaming at what he perceives as "Gooks" until the natives bring him down and the native chief cuts out his heart and eats it.
* In the MedicalHorror film ''Film/{{Autopsy}}'', Dr. Benway harvests things like lungs and hearts to keep his wife alive, hanging them from a gory matrix of tubes and blood vessels to pump happily away outside a torso [[RuleOfScary for some reason]].
* In ''Film/TheLastWitchHunter'', the Witch Queen's heart continues to beat - ''loudly'' - even after the witch herself is dead, because as long as the heart isn't destroyed, she's still "alive" and can be brought BackFromTheDead.

* ''Film/MarsAttacks'': when we first see Donald's severed head, the camera trucks back to reveal his various dismembered body parts suspended around him including his still-beating heart.
* ''{{Film/Bit}}'': Vlad's heart is still alive and beating even when separated from his body (which has been destroyed, in fact).

* In Creator/EdgarAllanPoe's ''The Tell-Tale Heart'', the killer-protagonist imagines he [[TerribleTicking still hears]] the beating of his victim's heart.

* In ''The Knight of the Swords'' by Creator/MichaelMoorcock, Corum has to kill the Chaos God Arioch. To do this he must destroy Arioch's heart. Which he keeps locked in a tower, so it will be safe. Corum is running around with the Hand of Kwll and the Eye of Rhynn, two other disconnected god body parts, so there's a lot of this sort of thing going on.
* Inverted in Matthew Woodring Stover's ''[[Literature/TheActsOfCaine Blade of Tyshalle]]''. It would have been less nasty if he [[spoiler:took the heart out]]...
* In the Creator/StephenKing novel ''Literature/{{IT}}'', [[spoiler:Stuttering Bill kills the eponymous monster by tearing out Its heart and smashing it between his hands.]]
* The second of Barry Sadler's ''Literature/{{Casca|TheEternalMercenary}}'' series, ''God of Death'', had Casca sacrificed by pre-Aztecs who cut out his heart. But [[spoiler:Casca was cursed by Christ to live until the Second Coming. The priest cuts out his heart, and it keeps beating. And beating. And then Casca stands up, takes his heart out of the priest's hand, sticks it back into his chest, and announces, "No more human sacrifices."]] Nobody dares to argue very hard.
* In one of Gustav Meyrink's short stories, we can find [[spoiler:a very grotesque clock. In fact, it's composed of the severed internal organs of a guy, which were then stitched together by some crazy alchemist-like Moor and connected with wires and tubes in order to allow the head of the poor guy to go on living. The only thing he's able to say it's the time. Imagine the reaction of his two friends when they find him. His organs are all working, by the way.]]
* Elizabeth finds them tasty in ''Literature/PrideAndPrejudiceAndZombies'', but only if they belong to [[GratuitousNinja ninjas]].
* In the [[Literature/TheCulture Culture]] novel ''Matter'', the story begins with a king being killed by his EvilChancellor. The king was wounded in battle, and when the Chancellor visits him, he sticks his hand into the king's chest and squeezes on the king's heart until the king dies in agony.
* In Lawrence Watt-Evans's ''The Obsidian Chronicles'' there exists a form of magic that allows a person to remove their heart from their body in order to protect it from harm and thus their lives. This proves to be an effective method of purging the human body of [[BodyHorror dragon venom]].
** Similar magic is also used by Ethshar wizards in ''Night of Madness'' - the wizard removes and hides his heart. (We don't see the ritual or the removed heart, so whether the heart remains beating or not is a matter of speculation.) This magic is used as a protection against warlocks, who usually kill by telekinetically inducing a heart attack.
* In Robin Jarvis' ''Literature/{{Hagwood}}'' trilogy, the evil High Lady of Hollow Hill, Rhiannon, is literally heartless. That's because she used magic to remove it from her body and place it in a casket where it still beats. To open the casket and stab it is the only way to kill her.
* In ''Literature/BridgeOfBirds'' by Barry Hughart removing one's heart is a key to invulnerability. Alas, the ritual renders the person heartless both literally and [[ImmortalityImmorality figuratively]]. Also, the heartless tend to long for the "cold" things (treasure) above all else.
** Also the usual fairy-tale choice of hiding places for the removed heart is lampshaded:
--> Why, one of those dolts was so mindless that he hid his heart inside the body of a lizard that was inside a cage that was on top of the head of a serpent what was on top of a tree that was guarded by lions, tigers, and scorpions! Another cretin, and may Buddha strike me if I lie, concealed his heart inside an egg that was inside a duck that was inside a basket that was inside a chest that was on an island that was in the middle of an uncharted ocean. Needless to say, both of those numbskulls were destroyed by the first half-witted heroes who came along.
* In an alternate-organ variation, the first book of the ''Literature/HisDarkMaterials'' series mentions a variant of the RealLife Viking "blood eagle" torture, in which a victim's lungs are pulled out of slits in their back. In the universe of ''His Dark Materials'', where everyone has a daemon-spirit companion, ''this isn't immediately fatal'', as the victim's daemon is reputedly able to prolong life for a time by manually pumping the protruding lungs of its companion.
* Rare, not-done-to-be-creepy example: A short story by Michelle Lawrence, "[[http://www.identitytheory.com/fiction/lawrence_lividity.php Lividity]]", begins with the main character cutting out her heart and leaving it on the fence (still beating) for her married neighbor. It is a metaphor.
* In the Dramatic Audio version of the Literature/LeftBehind book ''Armageddon'', Nicolae Carpathia holds the still-beating heart of a Global Community loyalist that he personally murdered for [[DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu calling him "impotent"]].

* In ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'' and ''Series/KyoryuSentaiZyuranger'', the heroes deal with a monster called the Hatchasaurus/Dora Antaeus. Both were completely invincible in some manner and would grow stronger unless its heart (unnamed in ''Zyuranger'' and called Cardiatron in ''MMPR'') was taken out. Jason/Geki would be forced to hop inside the monster to fight its heart, using the former power of Tommy/Burai to defeat it and also save Dragonzord/Dragon Cesar.
* The ''Series/NinjaTurtlesTheNextMutation'' four-part episode "Unchain My Heart" had the Turtles fight a vampire named Vam Mi. She was sealed away without her heart and she spent the episodes trying to get it back into her body before she crumbled to dust.

* ''TabletopGame/HollowEarthExpedition'' supplement ''Mysteries of the Hollow Earth''. In the city of El Dorado, priests of the Sun God cut out the hearts of {{Human Sacrifice}}s and hold them up in the air for the Sun God (the Hollow Earth sun) to gaze down upon.

* ''Franchise/MortalKombat'', before becoming increasingly complicated with each passing game, originally had 7 characters and each had one fatality move. Kano's original fatality was to tear his opponent's heart out and hold it high in the air in one hand while it continued to beat, and the game would play the sound effect of a beating heart until the fade-out at the end of the fight. Tanya's first fatality in ''VideoGame/MortalKombatX'' adds this with extra entrails on her own body.
* 'The Heart of Darkness' from ''VideoGame/LegacyOfKain''. In the first game, it was nothing more than an [[OneUp extra life]]/healing-potion with creepy graphics and a nifty description: "Torn from the chest of the greatest vampire to have ever existed, Janos Audron, the Heart of Darkness restores vampiric un-life. Life is precious, Janos discovered, as it was torn - throbbing and bleeding - from his own body." In the later games, it becomes an important MacGuffin, since Janos Audron can be revived by putting the still-beating heart back into his chest. Raziel eventually [[spoiler:gets to watch his past self tear Janos' heart from his body, and later learns that Mortanius used the Heart of Darkness to resurrect Kain...by placing it inside him.]] Further hilariously touched on during the outtakes of the Soul Reaver 2 voice sessions for mook dialogue for the scene for Janos: "Look at his black heart! How still it beats!....How it STILL beats!"
* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'':
** Subverted in ''Wrath of the Lich King'', there's a questline where you find the eponymous Lich King's heart and there's a race to destroy it before he can get it back. Turns out [[spoiler:the Lich King destroys it himself anyway, since he sees it as his last shred of "human weakness"]], but it is not beating: It's frozen.
** The big {{McGuffin}} claimed by the BigBad of the ''Mists of Pandaria'' expansion was the still beating heart of a long dead [[EldritchAbomination Old God]].
* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'': ''Meet the Medic'' features the Heavy having an operation to strengthen his heart in order to sustain an Übercharge. When the Medic exposes the Heavy's heart to the Quick Fix's beam, it starts beating rapidly once before exploding. He then replaces the heart with a Mega Baboon's, which starts to beat vigorously and continues beating even while the Medic holds in in his hand, detached from the Heavy.
* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls''
** The still-beating heart of the [[GodIsDead dead creator god]], Lorkhan, was ripped from his chest by the other spirits who participated in creation for his perceived treachery and cast down into the world he helped to create. A CosmicKeystone of unimaginable divine power, the [[OurDwarvesAreDifferent Dwemer]] would discover it [[DugTooDeep beneath Red Mountain]] and devise a means to tap into its power. They constructed "Anumidum", a [[HumongousMecha colossal mechanical golem]], which they intended to use the Heart to power, transforming it into a new god. However, ''something'' happened when they attempted to tap into the Heart, [[RiddleForTheAges causing their entire race to disappear in an instant]]. The Heart would remain there for thousands of years, at least until the events of ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]''.
** In the ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'' quest "Mehrunes Razor," you find that the final test that must be passed to obtain the eponymous artifact is to devour the still-beating heart of Mehrunes' previous champion -- after you've torn it from his chest, that is. Doing so will turn you into a vampire, if you haven't already immunized yourself.
** In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'', the Forsworn Briarheart warriors are granted great strength and magical power through a ritual that involves replacing their heart with a Briar Heart. If you manage to sneak up on one, you can [[ImpossibleThief pickpocket]] the Briar Heart. [[DevelopersForesight Doing so successfully kills them instantly]].
* In ''Shadow Warrior'', one of the 'weapons' you could acquire -- the final one, in fact -- was the still-beating heart of a type of demon. By squeezing the heart, you could summon a demon to fight for you. Nifty.
** The demon in question is called a Ripper, and is so named because if it kills you, it will rip out ''your'' heart.
* In the ''[[VideoGame/ShadowWarrior2013 Shadow Warrior]]'' remake, you can use a Demon Heart, which you can get off dead demons, as a one-shot weapon that kills every lesser enemy in front of you.
-->'''Lo Wang:''' Now that's heartbreaking.

* One of the "decorations" in ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' ''1'' & ''2'' is a still-beating heart on a pedestal.

* Slightly subverted in the videogame adaptation of ''VideoGame/IHaveNoMouthAndIMustScream''. Gorrister's heart was removed prior to the events of the game, but as he's fond of pointing out, that old heart of his don't beat no more.
* In ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness'', dancing girl Ellia is given one of Mantorok's five hearts, which contains its essence. Since [[spoiler:Mantorok doesn't die until just after the end of the game]], the heart remains intact for over 1000 years so that Alex can use it in the final battle. Unfortunately, you don't see the heart beating in-game (presumably to match the other essences, which don't move in any way), so this trope is only partly adhered to.
** If you examine the heart you get to see it beating. And it's nightmarish.
* In ''VideoGame/ClockTower'' when Jennifer enters the trophy room, you can click on a jar on the shelf which she'll pass by and accidentally knock down. The game then cuts to a scene of a heart that was in the jar give a single beat.
* ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' (the original) has a heart separated from its owner, Tubba Blubba. The idea is that [[SoulJar he can't be defeated as long as his heart is hidden elsewhere]]. Like most things in the game, the heart has its own personality and has to be fought.
** And it has a lot more HP than its owner does.
* ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'', however they're the cartoonish variety but this is so common, we have TheHeartless.

* ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'' has a room just before the final boss fight with a giant, beating heart.

* ''VideoGame/GrandiaII'' has the Heart of Valmar, amongst other body parts. They're less soul jars, more bits of a god that possess people. [[spoiler:And all of them also mutate their human host into a representation of what they are. The Heart is about the closest to just being the organ it's named after. Complete with an attack where it gushes blood at you.]]
* Happens in ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry''. Twice.
** It's weird to say this, but one occurrence of this is actually the most beautiful and touching moments in the series.

* Jenova, in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', has a giant mutated heart outside of her body. It can't be seen in cutscenes since she stands on it.

* Toward the end of ''VideoGame/BioShock1'', one villain activates "Code Yellow", which [[spoiler:commands your heart to stop beating, little by little. This reduces your maximum health until you find an antidote, at which point the lost health returns.]]
** And in ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'', the Handyman is a human grafted into a crude cyborg body, including a glass case on the front containing his still-beating heart. Three guesses as to where its weak point is...
* You can collect these in ''VideoGame/{{Vexx}}''.
* [[VideoGame/NinjaGaiden Ninja Gaiden on Xbox]] had an upside down tower in what I'm assuming was Hell that had the walls of a floor covered with these. And they follow you closely.
* In ''[[VideoGame/MysteryCaseFiles Return To Ravenhearst]]'', a heart (implied to be [[spoiler:Charles Dalimar]]'s) sits inside a steampunk device which you have to deactivate. It can be seen beating behind a glass porthole, and it speeds up if you push the attached "Adrenaline" pump.
* In one of the most brutal scenes of the ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'' expansion ''Dragonborn'', the climax of the "Old Friends" quest has you killing [[spoiler:Ildari Sarothril]] by ripping out the Heart Stone that she's been using to keep herself alive.
* [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] in the ''VideoGame/{{Bayonetta}}'' series with the [[KatanasAreJustBetter Shuraba Katana]], which is said to be fueled by the still beating heart of an Ashura demon. Interesting, DummiedOut content shows a special animation was supposed to play after Bayonetta used the sword that would have caused the hilt to open up and actually ''show'' the Ashura heart still beating.
* The initial framing device for ''VideoGame/CryptOfTheNecrodancer'' is that an inexperienced adventurer goes in search of her father, falls into the titular crypt... and has her heart removed before she can react, before the game even starts. The standout mechanic of the base game is that your heart (visibly beating on the HUD) is no longer under your control; it now beats in time with the crypt's music, and you have to synchronize all of your movements to your heartbeat or they'll fail... or in some circumstances kill you outright.
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaCDIGames'': Hectan's heart continues to beat after his body melts away.
* ''{{VideoGame/Which}}'': There is a still beating disembodied human heart in one of the rooms. It is one of the two bodyparts you can give the woman.

* In ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'', [[TheJuggernaut Rampage's]] [[OurSoulsAreDifferent Spark]] is treated by [[MagnificentBastard Megatron]] this way. Since his Spark is said to have mutated (and supposedly indestructible) Megatron cuts it in half with an Energon knife, and keeps one half [[SoulJar in a spiked cage]] which he squeezes at will to keep Rampage under his control.
** And ''Anime/TransformersEnergon'' features Jetfire rescuing Inferno's spark after Inferno does a sun-dive. Good news for Inferno, but Jetfire holding Inferno's life essence casually in his hand is a bit weird.
** The ''Transformers'' series seems to be quite fond of the trope. The second movie used it on two separate occasions.
* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' revolved around "Ricardio, the Heart Guy", who as the name suggests was a guy who happened to be a living heart. Turns out [[spoiler:he used to be the heart of the Ice King, brought to life by a spell gone awry. He makes a second appearance much later on, setting up a WombLevel-like lair and replacing his limbs with muscular arms and legs...[[AttackItsWeakPoint but still leaving his body exposed.]]]]

* In the John Dilworth short ''WesternAnimation/TheDirdyBirdy'', the one time Purdy doesn't court Fergurina by {{mooning}} her is by removing his own heart and offering it to her.

* In ''Film/TomorrowNeverDies'', Film/JamesBond is threatened with this. "He should stay alive just long enough to see it stop beating."
* The bad guys in ''Film/TheLivingDaylights'' successfully transport diamonds across borders, mixed with ice in a medical cooler containing a beating (animal) heart - even in this clinical state, it gets hastily waved through by squicked-out officials.

* Sci Fi Channel movie ''Yeti''. The [[BigfootSasquatchAndYeti title monster]] rips the heart out of a victim's chest and it continues beating in his hand.

* ''Film/RatRace'' has a subplot about a courier transporting a donor heart for transplant, which gets lost by [[CaptainErsatz The Italian Mr. Bean]]. At one point a character is holding it when he touches an electric fence, which [[MagicalDefibrillator starts it right back up again]].
* ''WesternAnimation/CloudyWithAChanceOfMeatballs'' parodies this, when Steve the Monkey, [[spoiler:while fighting a semi-sentient Gummy Bear, shoves his hand into its "chest" tears out a glob shaped like a heart, and ''eats it''.]]
* A living heart-in-a-jar appears as a throwaway bit of weirdness early in ''Film/DoctorX''.

* ''Film/ProWrestlersVsZombies'' features it for both cases where Angus rips a heart out of someone's chest.
* At the end of ''Film/RamboLastBlood'', Rambo kills [[BigBad Hugo Martinez]] by disemboweling his chest and ripping out his still beating heart.

* In the web-novel ''Literature/{{Domina}}'', the Composer is fond of ripping out people's hearts bare-handed. And, on occasion, [[ImAHumanitarian eating them]].

** Its never elaborated on whether its the person's literal heart or something more magical in nature, but one theme is ColorCodedWizardry with the heart being some reflection of the person. All of the heroes hearts are shown as [[RedIsHeroic red like rubies from a distant]] while evil characters will have [[DarkIsEvil black hearts]]. Henry, [[spoiler: a [[TheChosenOne True Believer]] and an Author has a gold heart]] while his [[spoiler: grandfather Rumplestiltskin the Dark One had a faint purple glow but look like a black heart from the corruption of the Darkness killing him.]]

* In ''Series/OnceUponATime'', the Queen does this so that she has power over them and keeps the hearts in a special vault. It is revealed that [[spoiler:this vault also exists in the real world.]]
** Her (far more evil) mother was also fond of this, and also had a special vault for them.

* In the fifth ''LightNovel/KaraNoKyoukai'' movie, [[spoiler:Araya does this to Touko. Her heart keeps beating until he crushes it.]]

* In one strip of ''Manga/AxisPowersHetalia'', [[PsychopathicManchild Russia's]] heart somehow falls out and splats onto the meeting table, to the horror of the other Allies. Even more frighteningly, Russia himself [[MajorInjuryUnderreaction doesn't seem bothered at all]]; he only blushes and says that it just "pops out of [him], sometimes."

* In ''FanFic/NeonExodusEvangelion: Apotheosis Now'', [[spoiler:Lucifer does this to the ArtificialHuman Matthieu, but instead of a heart, he pulls out a sphere like an Angel's core. He continues to live until Lucifer crushes it.]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fanfic ''FanFic/StarlightOverDetrot'', Hardy finds the heart of Cosmo's brother, surrounded by Zebrican runes and still very much beating. The reaction is [[{{Squick}} exactly as you'd expect]], though it does get PlayedForLaughs later.

[[quoteright:250:[[Manga/TheVoynichHotel https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/heartbeat_7.png]]]]

[[folder:Fan Fic]]

* The Slave King's discarded heart in FanFic/TheGreatSlaveKing. While not strictly a SoulJar variant, it is implied that it would need to be destroyed before he could be killed.

* 'The Heart of Darkness' from ''VideoGame/LegacyOfKain''. In the first game, it was nothing more than an [[OneUp extra life]]/healing-potion with creepy graphics and a nifty description: "Torn from the chest of the greatest vampire to have ever existed, Janos Audron, the Heart of Darkness restores vampiric un-life. Life is precious, Janos discovered, as it was torn - throbbing and bleeding - from his own body." In the later games, it becomes an important MacGuffin, since Janos Audron can be revived by putting the still-beating heart back into his chest. Raziel eventually [[spoiler:gets to watch his past self tear Janos' heart from his body, and later learns that Mortanius used the Heart of Darkness to resurrect Kain...by placing it inside him.]]
** Hilariously touched on during the outtakes of the Soul Reaver 2 voice sessions for mook dialogue for the scene for Janos: "Look at his black heart! How still it beats!....How it STILL beats!"
* Subverted in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'''s expansion ''Wrath of the Lich King'', there's a questline where you find the eponymous Lich King's heart and there's a race to destroy it before he can get it back. Turns out [[spoiler:the Lich King destroys it himself anyway, since he sees it as his last shred of "human weakness"]], but it is not beating: It's frozen.
** The big {{McGuffin}} claimed by the BigBad of the ''Mists of Pandaria'' expansion was the still beating heart of a long dead [[EldritchAbomination Old God]].

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/FireHeart.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[IncendiaryExponent And it's on fire]].]]

** In Shippuden, [[PsychoForHire Kakuzu]] tears the hearts out of his enemies and absorbs them into his own body to extend his life. [[http://www.onemanga.com/Naruto/336/05/ In a modified]] GoryDiscretionShot one can see him holding a still-beating heart in his hand.

** PlayedForLaughs in one chapter when [[spoiler:Elena extracts her boyfriend Taizou's heart as she performs PsychicSurgery [[MundaneUtility to relieve his hangover.]] She's so giddy that she kisses and caresses it gently as the NightmareFetishist she is, then puts it back in him...a liiiiiiittle more to the right than intended.]]

* ''Manga/{{Gunnm}}'':
** At one point Gally pulls out her robot heart to use as stakes in an arm wrestling game - placing it directly on the table, on her right side. It's still attached and functional though.

* ''Franchise/MortalKombat'', before becoming increasingly complicated with each passing game, originally had 7 characters and each had one fatality move, and Kano's original fatality was to tear his opponent's heart out and hold it high in the air in one hand while it continued to beat, and the game would play the sound effect of a beating heart until the fade-out at the end of the fight. Tanya's first fatality in ''VideoGame/MortalKombatX'' adds this with extra entrails on her own body.

* ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'':
** [[spoiler:True Assassin]] has a Noble Phantasm that does this to people by exchanging their heart with a magical double and keeps the heart alive and beating while [[spoiler:Assassin]] destroys it at his leisure. This gets used on [[spoiler:Lancer and Kotomine -- unfortunately for Assassin, it doesn't work on the latter ''since he hasn't got a heart''.]]
** In the ''Unlimited Blade Works'' route, [[http://i.imgur.com/y1vK66r.png this]] is how [[spoiler: Gilgamesh]] kills [[spoiler: Ilya.]] In the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynHRFInVHuY movie version]], it gets "upgraded" to AndShowItToYou.

* ''VideoGame/SeriousSam 3 BFE'', when a beheaded rocketeer's heart is removed with a melee kill, it still beats a couple of times.