History Main / BettertoDiethanBeKilled

* In the Music/{{Macabre}} song "The Sweet Tendor Meat Vendor" ends with the Meat Vendor killing himself to avoid suffering for his crimes.

* In ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse'', a Garou that gets Embraced by a Kindred gets a chance to make a none-too-difficult roll to die rather than be reborn as a creature of the night. Those that refuse become {{Hybrid Monster}}s called Abominations, and are not looked on kindly at best.

A situation where a character commits suicide rather than face capture, imminent death, [[MadeASlave enslavement]], [[ComeToGawk public humiliation]] followed by (possibly [[CruelAndUnusualDeath grisly]]) execution, or [[FateWorseThanDeath something even worse]]. If there is no way to avoid death, characters will often prefer to go on their own terms rather than let their enemy decide their fate. Sometimes it's just to deny the enemy the ''satisfaction'' of killing them.

[[quoteright:350:[[Webcomic/CyanideAndHappiness https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lastmeal.png]]]]

!!Examples:

Compare IDieFree. Contrast FaceDeathWithDignity, MercyKill, ICannotSelfTerminate. In video games and some other media, this could be considered a case of [[KillSteal self-kill-stealing]], especially [[DefiantToTheEnd to stop]] experience or a reward being gained by the kill. Has nothing to do with [[VisualNovel/FateStayNight the fact that]] "[[MemeticMutation People die if they are killed]]".

* The [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Sylvester the Cat]] cartoon "Life With Feathers" starred a lovebird who tries to get Sylvester to eat him due marital troubles, but Sylvester thinks the bird is poisoned (the bird never thinking to say ''why'' he wants to be eaten). The bird taunts Sylvester with a radio cooking show and pictures in a cookbook to the point where Sylvester, now skin and bones, finally caves in:

* The [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Sylvester the Cat]] cartoon "Life With Feathers" starred alovebird who tries to get Sylvester to eat him due marital troubles, but Sylvester thinks the bird is poisoned (the bird never thinking to say ''why'' he wants to be eaten). The bird taunts Sylvester with a radio cooking show and pictures in a cookbook to the point where Sylvester, now skin and bones, finally caves in:

* In issue 10 of ''Webcomic/{{Sonichu}}'', AuthorAvatar Chris and his "band" the Hedgehog Boys (which are pretty much some of the various Sonichus around in his series) use a song to destroy the [[Website/FourChan 4-cent Garbage]] building, two [[{{Troll}} "villains"]] who are left behind, Clyde Cash and Jack Thaddeus, opt to leap down an elevator shaft holding hands (they were apparently lovers) than let Chris kill them. [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments It was actually pretty touching]].

A situation where a character commits suicide rather than face capture, imminent death, [[MadeASlave enslavement]], [[ComeToGawk public humiliation]] followed by (possibly [[CruelAndUnusualDeath grisly]]) execution, or [[FateWorseThanDeath something even worse]]. If there is no way to avoid death, characters will often prefer to go on their own terms rather than let their enemy decide their fate. Sometimes it's just to deny the enemy the ''right'' to kill them.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

[[folder:Theater]]

* In issue 10 of ''Webcomic/{{Sonichu}}'', AuthorAvatar Chris and his "band" the Hedgehog Boys (which are pretty much some of the various Sonichus around in his series) use a song to destroy the 4-cent Garbage building, two villains who are left behind, Clyde Cash and Jack Thaddeus, opt to leap down an elevator shaft holding hands (they were apparently lovers) than let Chris kill them. [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments It was actually pretty touching]].

* In issue 10 of ''Webcomic/{{Sonichu}}'', AuthorAvatar Chris and his "band" the Hedgehog Boys (which are pretty much some of the various Sonichus around in his series) use a song to destroy the 4-cent Garbage building, two villains who are left behind, Clyde Cash and Jack Thaddeus, opt to leap down an elevator shaft holding hands (they were apparently lovers) than let Chris kill them. [[HeartwarmingMoment It was actually pretty touching]].

* ''Webcomic/StandStillStaySilent'': One of the book salvaging spots contains a corpse in a HazmatSuit holding a gun, with a small hole its visor.

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* In the wolf arc of ''Manga/GingaNagareboshiGin'', Shuga skewers himself on a bamboo to avoid losing to Akame.
* Several examples in ''Manga/OnePiece'':
** Dr. Hiruluk in ''Manga/OnePiece'' chooses to do this for a number of reasons: First, he was [[IncurableCoughofDeath dying of an unknown disease]]. Chopper, in an attempt to cure him, accidentally poisons him. Finally, he had walked into an [[SchmuckBait obvious trap]] laid by King Wapol to catch the only remaining free doctors on his island. Rather than be captured, and to avoid letting Chopper live with the guilt of killing his father, [[TearJerker he chose to kill himself.]]
** The people of Fishman Island invoke this when Hody Jones is moments away from killing King Neptune. They beg for Straw Hat Luffy to hurry up and destroy Fishman Island as Madame Shyarly predicted since they would rather let their home be destroyed than see it twisted under Hody's reign.
* Subverted at the end of the Nazi arc in ''Manga/BlackLagoon.'' [[BaldBlackLeaderGuy Dutch]] gives the leader of the Brown-shirt group one of [[ActionGirl Revy's]] guns to shoot himself with. He almost does it, until he points the gun at Dutch, and pulls the trigger, [[ItWorksBetterWithBullets only to find the gun to be empty]]. Revy and Dutch then turn him into Swiss cheese. What makes this scene truly hilarious (in a RefugeInAudacity kind of way) is how they have a ''bet'' on what he's going to do beforehand, their comments implying they've done this sort of thing before. (Both of them went for "black"; Dutch himself noting that "white" isn't much of a bet in this case).
* ''Manga/OutlawStar'': Before dying by falling into a star, Hilda bites on a capsule that explodes.
* Happens in the third volume and OVA of ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'', where Alucard does what he does best. The last man standing turns his gun on himself rather than face him. Alucard looks disgusted afterward. Indeed, Alucard holds human life in such high regard that he feels that for someone to kill themself rather than die in combat makes them more of a dog than a human ([[{{Hypocrite}} though considering]] [[AndIMustScream the fate that awaits those who get killed by him]] [[{{Hypocrite}} he's really not one to talk]])The fact that Seras (while still human) kept fighting against a vampire in spite of the insurmountable odds is what made Alucard consider her worthy of immortality in the first place.
* Rika Furude from ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'' chooses to stab herself repeatedly in the head rather than be tortured to death by Shion, whom she stares in the face the whole way through. She gets better. Note that she only did this in ''Meakashi-hen''. In ''Watanagashi-hen'', Shion tortured and killed her like she did to Satoko; Rika knew Shion would torture her and chose the 'easy' way out.
* ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar''
** Shin hurls himself off of a building rather than succumb to Kenshiro's attack after their final battle. In the first ''Raoh Den'' movie, Souther follows suit. In the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 FightingGame, Shin actually has this as a self-inflicted [[FinishingMove Fatal KO]] that can be used if he's losing, complete with the same dialogue. Considering though that [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8zx9qxCSvM it has the same musical accompaniment as a regular Fatal KO]]...
** In the Raoh Den OVA, Souther does this for pretty much the same reasons as Shin.
** Raoh himself also choses to commit suicide by striking his own vital-points in an impressive pyrotechnics display after being defeated by Ken in the final battle. "I am RAOH! I need no assistance to return to the heavens!"
* Akagi Shigeru in ''Anime/{{Ten}}'' (the series to which ''Anime/{{Akagi}}'' is a prequel) chooses to go through medically-assisted suicide rather than have his mind deteriorate due to Alzheimer's. The fact that he was never afraid to face death makes it easier to digest... the fact that his mind was the greatest weapon he ever had and the fact that he was only in his early fifties doesn't.
* ''Manga/DetectiveConan''
** TeenGenius Shiho Miyano attempts this when locked up for betraying the bad guys after they kill her sister. Rather than facing execution, she took a poisonous drug she created to suicide. Instead of dying she suffered its ''other'' effect, [[FountainOfYouth which shrank her to the size of a six-year old little girl]]. Because of that, she was able to escape and eventually assume the identity of Ai Haibara.
** Also used by Black Organization member Calvados, who chose to kill himself rather than be captured. Then again, [[YouHaveFailedMe it was better than being executed by the Organization for his failure.]]
* This is what [[LadyOfWar Haman Kahn]] from Neo Zeon does in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamZZ'' after losing her last battle against the hero [[HotBlooded Judau Ashta]].
* In ''Manga/GetterRobo Armageddon'' The truth about Michiru Saotome's death was that she deliberately messed up the test to kill herself after discovering she was infected by in Invader.
* This is the ultimate fate of Envy in the manga of ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist''. He kills himself to avoid being killed by lowly humans, and also because [[TalkingTheMonsterToDeath he can't cope with being pitied by them]].
* In ''Manga/{{X 1999}}'', Seishiro kills himself by deliberately [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice thrusting his hand through Subaru's chest]], aware that Subaru's twin sister Hokuto (who he previously killed by the same method) had cast a spell on him that would instantly reverse their positions if he ever tried to kill Subaru (who is unaware of the spell and ''wants'' to die at Seishro's hand). Kamui explains later that he would rather die be killed by the one he loved than by an enemy, and that Seishiro had the luxury of being able to choose how to die, whereas the rest of the world would not have that choice.
* In ''Anime/LegendOfGalacticHeroes'', Ansbach bites a [[CyanidePill poison capsule]] rather than be taken alive after attempting to assassinate Reinhard, and succeeding in killing Kircheis, during his fake surrender.
** Also earlier in the story, two nobles are given the option to commit suicide by poison rather than be officially executed. Both refuse, and ultimately have the poison forced down.
* Played with in ''Manga/AngelDensetsu''. Kuroda and his flunkies got so freaked out about what Kitano might do to them for letting Takehisa get hurt that they rushed headlong to fight the guys who hurt Takehisa, and they won.
* Kisame in ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' kills himself via his own summoned shark to keep from being interrogated any more than he already was.
* ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'': Shishio's aidé Houji Sadoshima killed himself when it became clear that he wasn't going to get his day in the limelight to speechify about his ideals.
* In ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'''s third timeline, upon realizing the AwfulTruth after fighting Sayaka's witch form, Mami suffers a mental breakdown and resolves that it's better if she and the other girls all die before they can turn into witches. She shoots Kyoko and is about to kill Homura when Madoka kills her.
* Late in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing'', the people of [[ArrogantKungFuGuy Chang Wufei's]] home colony decide it would be better to self-destruct their decrepit colony than to give in to the rapidly-expanding Alliance. This has a massive impact on Wufei, being the origin of the idealized concept of justice that became his own personal NeverLiveItDown, as well as setting up his FaceHeelTurn in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWingEndlessWaltz''. [[spoiler: and also the reason he switches back; Heero's pleas during their final duel causes him to realize that by helping the antagonists will lead to a repeat of the same tragedies.]]
* In ''Anime/MaiOtome'', when faced with an angry mob out for revenge against Queen Mashiro for losing their kingdom, Aoi, one of her aides, chooses to throw herself off the face of a cliff to avoid risking Mashiro's life by revealing her location. Aoi manages to survive the fall, but not without suffering severe injuries.
* One soldier in ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'' resorts to [[AteHisGun eating his gun]] when his unit's compound is surrounded by Titans. Considering the [[EatenAlive horrible fate]] awaiting humans in situations like this, this is very understandable.
* ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'', of course, uses the rape variant, with Casca prepared to bite off her own tongue when she is cornered by some Tudor mercenaries.
* ''Anime/TigerAndBunny'': {{Downplayed|Trope}} as the BigBad doesn't actually actually kill himself when captured and he was to be taken to prison rather than killed. He uses [[MindRape his powers]] to warp his mind so he's basically in a vegetative state and [[FateWorseThanDeath may as well be dead]]; and when he is killed [[VigilanteMan by]] [[KnightTemplar Lunatic]], he's completely unaware of it.
* Subverted in ''LightNovel/{{Campione}}''. Duke Voban has Mariya kidnapped to be his slave. Having once been his slave four years ago, she says she refuses to go through that again and threatens to kill herself. Voban comments it would be pointless, because he can just bring her back as a zombie like he does to his defeated foes, so she quickly aborts that plan. She is rescued by the heroes.
* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' uses this on occasion, but most notably in the second part: Straizo is hanging from Joseph's hand and being interrogated about Mexico. Straizo, a Hamon user who became a vampire, begins to breathe in the pattern that generates Hamon. Since Hamon is fatal to vampires, this is suicide for him, but he'd rather die of his own volition than grow old (why he became a vampire to start with) or be killed by Joseph.
* Subverted and played straight in ''Anime/DragonBallZ''.
** After Goku goes Super Saiyan, Freeza claims that he'd rather die by his own hands than a Saiyan's -- and then fires at the planet, gloating that he can survive in a vacuum. As it turns out, he holds back too much power for fear of killing himself, [[MagicCountdown delaying]] the final explosion.
** Cell, after Gohan [[CurbStompBattle utterly wrecks his shit]] as a Super Saiyan 2, hits the SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum button and decides he'd rather kill himself and blow up the planet than let Gohan kill him. It fails due to [[HeroicSacrifice Goku teleporting himself and Cell away to blow up on King Kai's planet]]...but even Cell's surprised when he not only survives but CameBackStrong.
* ''Anime/KillLaKill'': After Ryuko defeats BigBad Ragyo Kiryuin in the ultimate battle above Earth, she asks her to come back to Honnouji as a daughter would (since, [[ItWasHisSled you know]], she's actually her mother). In response, Ragyo [[IncrediblyLamePun kill-la-kills]] herself by ''tearing her own heart out'' and ''crushing it'' in order to negate her defeat and also to spread the remaining Life Fiber spores into the void of space.
* In both the manga and anime of ''Manga/AkameGaKill'', [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking General]] [[SocialDarwinist Esdeath]], after being fatally injured by Akame's [[PoisonedWeapons Murasame]], chooses to [[LiterallyShatteredLives freeze herself solid and shatter her body into nothing]] rather than let the poison finish her off, as she would rather die by her own terms. The only difference between the two media is that [[TogetherInDeath she froze Tatsumi's corpse alongside herself]] in the anime while in the manga he was still alive, a failure she bemoaned as her only regret before finishing herself off.

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* Happens several times in the ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'' comics released by Dark Horse Comics as most humans would rather die than be torn apart by the Xenomorphs or be impregnated by a facehugger.
* It happens twice in ''ComicBook/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns''. First, an army general caps himself when Batman discovers about his illegal arms dealing, and then the Joker [[NeckSnap twists his own neck and kills himself]] (thereby making everyone think that Batman finished him off) when Batman paralyzes him but can't bring himself to go all the way.
* Subverted in ''Comicbook/{{WITCH}}'': [[BigBad Phobos]] decides to jump off Kandrakar, apparently meaning he's going to fall in infinity forever instead of being captured, but he simply needed to avoid being captured to activate his plan B.
* ''ComicBook/{{Maus}}'': Vladek's sister-in-law learns that the Jews in her town are being rounded up and shipped out to the camps, so she kills herself with poison... and takes the children in her care, including Vladek's first son, with her, insisting that her children will not die in the camps. Also functions as a RealLife example.
* ''Comicbook/TopTen'' has robot cop Joe Pi talk the disgraced superhero Atoman into killing himself rather than losing his powers and going to prison as a pedophile, where the villains he'd jailed would undoubtedly show him a very bad time. "[[CrowningMomentOfAwesome It turns out I am not suited to be a negotiator]]."
* Happens to a mook who attempts to assassinate Ozymandias in ''Comicbook/{{Watchmen}}''. Turns out the guy wasn't actually willing to die for the cause, but Ozymandias ordered the hit upon himself and then forced the capsule into the mook's mouth during the struggle.
* Comicbook/{{Wolverine}} offers this option to Mystique out in the desert at the end of the post-''[=Messiah CompleX=]'' comic ''Get Mystique''--either take the gun with one bullet he leaves next to her and put herself out of her misery, or slowly bleed out to death from getting stabbed in the side by his claws before she can reach medical help.
* In ''ComicBook/AllFallDown'', Siphon chooses this when she realizes she can't stop AIQ Squared from killing the Pantheon from inside its deathtrap.
* In the ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'' book ''Recap/TintinLandOfBlackGold'', Dr. Muller attempts to shoot himself in the head to avoid being captured... but his gun (which was given to him by [[RoyalBrat Abdullah]]) turns out to only squirt ink.
* In ''ComicBook/SerenityLeavesOnTheWind'', the Operative surrenders rather than fight another Parliamentary operative, Kalista. She asks him how he prefers to die, and he says, "Honorably." She allows him to take up his sword so he may fall on it. [[spoiler:Which is when ''Serenity'' shows up with [[BigDamnHeroes a small army of New Resistance browncoats.]]]]
* A ''ComicBook/WerewolfByNight'' story set in TheDeepSouth features a group of people with anti-werewolf beliefs, who have harassed a local werewolf girl for years. They do so again when [[PunnyName Jack Russell]] is there to witness it, not knowing he is a werewolf too -- one can change at will, no less. Jack transforms, and one of the men is so terrified he turns his shotgun on himself.
* ''ComicBook/{{Aquila}}'': Nero takes advantage of Aquila fighting a guard to give himself a painless poison that will also salvage his soul from Ammit's clutches. Aquila, however, gets to him before the poison finishes its work and kills him quite painfully.
* During Orion Asante's reign in ''ComicBook/{{Grendel}}'', "Death before undeath" was part of the creed of his elite warriors. Battling vampires, they were conditioned and obligated to kill themselves immediately if infected.

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* In the end of [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/109581/1/i-did-not-want-to-die/i-did-not-want-to-die I Did Not Want To Die]], the main character is already mortally wounded, but [[TakingYouWithMe he has one last grenade]].
* In ''FanFic/TiberiumWars'', it is a common belief among Nod soldiers and officers that their prisoners of war will be tortured and raped by GDI troops -- which leads to a Black Hand officer executing his own immobilized wounded to keep them from falling into enemy hands. GDI, meanwhile, views this as appalling and as a fanatical enemy denying them intelligence sources.
* In the "Brotherhood of Shadow" ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' Mod, a Czerka mining chief does this when his crew suddenly go animalistic and berserk due to an insane Jedi trying to lure your new party member out of hiding.
* In the ''Franchise/GIJoe'' / ''Franchise/AlienVsPredator'' crossover fic [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6397285/1/Corazones_y_Cazadores Corazones y Cazadores]], the Joe team thinks Beachhead has chosen this when he's attacked by a facehugger and grabs for his handgun.
* In the ''Franchise/HarryPotter'' and ''Manga/DeathNote'' crossover ''FanFic/LittleBlackDeathNote'' Raito is well aware he's playing a dangerous game and considers that in the unlikely event that the wizards figure out what he's up to he might just get one of his Shinigami to write his own name in the notebook rather than hang around and wait for the many nasty [[FateWorseThanDeath Fates Worse Than Death]] the wizards would inflict on him.
* In the ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' fanfic ''FanFic/AHistoryOfMagic'', Cleopatra chose to crush her own Soul Gem rather than wait for Augustus's troops to kill her or for her to become a witch. Many years later, Sarah attempted to do this, but the Jewish laws saying suicides don't get to heaven kept her from going through with it. [[Literature/TheDiaryOfAYoungGirl Anne Frank]] had to MercyKill her.
* In ''Fanfic/QueenOfAllOni'', it's eventually shown that this is how Tarakudo's mortal life (before becoming an Oni) ended — surrounded by his enemies in war and deciding they didn't deserve the honor of taking his life, he stabbed himself.
* In the ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' fanfic ''Victory at Ostagar'', the Empress of Orlais takes poison rather than be dragged to a FateWorseThanDeath by the darkspawn invading Val Royeaux.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fanfic ''Fanfic/EarthAndSky'', [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Proud Warrior Race Griffon]] Baron Redtail is trapped in a burning prison, and tries to convince his lackey Gunther to kill him rather than wait for the fire to kill them. Fortunately, he's rescued by the other prisoners.
* In the [[TearJerker infamous]] ''Webcomic/AxisPowersHetalia'' fic Gutters, Denmark saves two bullets specifically for this reason.
* ''Anime/{{Gankutsuou}}'': Based on ''The Count of Monte Cristo''. Interestingly, given its alternation in SympatheticPOV from the novel, Fernand has a more admirable death, choosing to save his son's life and redeem himself through a HeroicSacrifice, rather than shooting himself after his sordid past is exposed.
* Some stories in ''Fanfic/TheConversionBureau'' subgenre have this with the humans who refuse to be converted. ''Fanfic/TheConversionBureauTheOtherSideOfTheSpectrum'', being a DeconstructionFic bordering on DeconstructorFleet, has several instances of this. The hero, Marcus, tries to slash his throat when he thinks he's about to be ponified only for Canon!Twilight to successfully stop him. It's also revealed that the Japanese Prime Minister and Queen Elizabeth II chose to kill themselves than be converted (in the latter's case, pull a TakingYouWithMe by blowing herself up in Balmoral Castle with her assailants inside). The Europe and Asia side stories also have the main characters promising each other that they would shoot the other if they got hit with the ponification potion so they can [[DyingAsYourself die as themselves]].
* ''Fanfic/PaganVengeance'': Without an army left to defend itself, the citizens of [[spoiler:Palanga]] commit mass suicide before the army at their gates. Juvage and his troops are so baffled at this they start treating the survivors and leave the city untouched with a big pile of plunder contributed from each man. This is also the point where Juvage starts questioning himself, since they didn't even need to take out the city.
* In ''Fanfic/TheWrongReflection'' Dal Kanril Eleya of the MirrorUniverse Cardassian Guard keeps a SuicidePill in a false back molar for use in the event of capture by Terran Empire forces.
-->"Despite my brave face to Damar, I know what the Terrans do to female prisoners."
* At the start of ''Fanfic/{{ARTICLE 2}}'', Major Shane Doran has just woken up and is confusedly trying to escape Canterlot Castle. When he sees himself totally surrounded by what he presumes are hostiles with no hope of escaping, he puts his pistol to his chin. [[InterruptedSuicide Luna manages to neutralize him before he can fire]].
* Similarly, in ''Fanfic/{{Misunderstandings}}'', early on Peter finds himself in [[FreakOut a magic-addled sense of fight-or-flight]], running from ponies in Canterlot. At a point, he ends up in a back alley, with [[TheDreaded Princess Celestia]] standing in his way. He figures he's screwed anyway, so he might as well have the final defiance of choosing how he wants to die, so he puts his handgun to his temple and fires... except the gun jams. Later on, this episode leads ponies to have hushed conversations about his mental stability and humans' behavior, and Peter gets so disturbed at how easily he could go suicidal, he hands the pistol over to Sveti, the only living being he trusts and is able to use it[[labelnote:*]]she's a griffon, who unlike ponies, have fingers[[/labelnote]] by that point.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{WITCH}}'' fanfic ''Stirred'' (the sequel to ''Fanfic/{{Ripples}}''), Caleb makes it clear in his internal narration that he'd take this route if facing the possibility of being captured by either of [[CoDragons Phobos' Hands]], due to their [[BloodKnight various]] [[PlayingWithSyringes reputations]] among the rebels.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''Film/ButchCassidyAndTheSundanceKid''. There's a reason this film is the {{Trope Namer|s}} for BolivianArmyEnding. It is unclear, however, if they realize what they're up against and choose to go out in a blaze of glory, or if they really think they have a chance to break out.
* In ''Film/StarshipTroopers'', Lt. Rasczak shoots an unfortunate soldier before he gets mauled by a giant bug. He then requests for the same to be done to him if he were to get in a similar situation. Which happens.
* In ''Film/{{The Birth of a Nation|1915}}'', white girl Flora Cameron throws herself off a cliff to escape being raped by a former slave. Yes, [[UnfortunateImplications it's racist as all get-out]]. Yes, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_a_Nation it's a film sponsored by the Klan]]. But it's considered a classic because it was one of the first films to incorporate major dramatic themes with cinematographic style, which tend to be taken for granted today. Pity about the ValuesDissonance.
* General Yen, in ''Film/TheBitterTeaOfGeneralYen'', poisons himself, not because his military has abandoned him or that he no longer has control over his province, but because the woman he loves, Megan Davis, doesn't accept her love towards him.
* Su Lin, Bruce Lee's sister from ''Film/EnterTheDragon'', did this with a piece of glass when Oharra and his men cornered her at the warehouse, choosing to go out with honor rather than be raped and killed by them. It is this that would drive Lee to seek vengeance on Oharra in Han's tournament.
* Crops up four times in the ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' movie ''Film/{{Serenity}}'', where it is enforced, played with, and averted.
** The Operative forces this on Dr. Mathias in the opening for [[YouHaveFailedMe his abysmal failure]] in allowing River to escape with probable knowledge of the government's secrets. The Operative says it's much more noble to throw yourself down on your sword than to be killed in your sleep. He then paralyzes Mathias with a [[TheParalyzer nerve strike]], kills his guards, and puts his own sword down, blade up, right where Mathias is going to fall. When he inevitably does fall, [[WellIntentionedExtremist the Operative assures him that his death isn't meaningless]].
** Later, Mal also does this for someone. He spares a man from the hands of the Reavers by shooting him dead as soon as he's grabbed. It's called a "[[MercyKill piece of mercy]]" by Zoe.
** And a little after that, as the Reavers are giving chase, Jayne gets shot through the leg with a harpoon. He shouts to Mal "You shoot me if they take me!" whereupon Mal cocks his pistol and aims, prompting Jayne to add "Well, don't shoot me ''first''!" Mal then starts shooting at his actual target, [[ShootTheRope the harpoon line]].
** Near the end, the crew views a video log of a female scientist telling about what happened on Miranda as the [[spoiler:newly-created]] Reavers break down the door offscreen. As it becomes clear that there are too many of them, she stops firing at them and turns the gun on herself, but can't quite get the shot off before they bear her down. [[GoryDiscretionShot Much horrificness ensues off-screen]] before Mal mercifully has the recording switched off.
* George A. Romero's ''Film/LivingDeadSeries'':
** ''Film/DawnOfTheDead1978'': Subverted by Peter at the end when he decides to face the zombie horde rather than escape and ensures that he has a gun he can use on himself when they storm his room. However, at the last second he decides to make a break for it and escapes the overrun mall with Francine (this was changed from the original ending, where he really did kill himself).
** ''Film/DayOfTheDead1985'': When [[spoiler:Steele]] is cornered by the zombies, he crosses himself before [[AteHisGun putting the gun in his mouth]] so he won't be eaten alive.
* ''Film/DawnOfTheDead2004'': CJ does end up blowing himself up in the remake rather than letting himself turn into a zombie (he's been bitten) or eaten.
* In the 1993 ''Film/BodySnatchers'', an Army officer commits suicide by gunshot rather than allow the aliens to convert him.
--->"[[DefiantToTheEnd You're not taking my soul]]."
* ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'':
** Subverted in ''Film/ResidentEvilApocalypse'', where the CorruptCorporateExecutive villain is cornered by zombies -- he tries to shoot his way out, and when that fails, he puts his gun to his head... to find that it's empty. Cue ghastliness.
** First ''Film/ResidentEvil'' movie:
*** Also subverted when one of the soldiers is trapped by the zombies and considers killing himself to avoid becoming a zombie. However, he instead decides to keep fighting, escapes, and eventually saves the rest of the group.
*** Played straight near the end when Rain Ocampo asks Alice to kill her rather than let her turn into a zombie.
* The "Disgraced Officer" version was done in ''Film/EnemyAtTheGates''. Khruschev is brought into Stalingrad to replace the General who had commanded Soviet forces in their initial disastrous counter-attack against the Germans. Khruschev hands him a pistol and says, "Perhaps you would prefer to spare me the paperwork." He leaves the office, you hear a gunshot, and then Khruschev introduces himself as the new commander.
* Notably subverted in the 2002 version of ''Film/TheCountOfMonteCristo'', Prosecutor Villefort has been arrested and is put in an armored carriage. A guard gestures at a pistol on the seat and says, "A courtesy for a gentleman". Villefort puts the gun to his head, pulls the trigger, [[ItWorksBetterWithBullets nothing happens]], and The Count appears at the window and says, "You didn't really think I'd make it that easy for you?" MagnificentBastard.
* In ''Film/TheShadow'', one of Shiwan Khan's henchman deliberately allows himself to fall to his death, rather than allow himself to be captured by the Shadow.
* ''Film/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'' starts with an enemy {{Mook|s}} taking a CyanidePill.
* In ''Film/TheMist'', after the main character and his party run out of gas while attempting to escape. He kills everyone with him (including his son), but runs out of bullets. He exits the car to let the monsters kill him... and the [[spoiler:military arrive, killing all the monsters and saving him from his desired death. Cue anguished screaming and roll credits]].
* Mentioned a couple of times in the ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'' series:
** ''Film/{{Aliens}}'': [[spoiler:Lt. Gorman and Private Vasquez]] are trapped by the aliens and detonate a grenade to kill themselves rather than allow themselves to be captured and impregnated by a facehugger. Ripley and Hicks promise each other that they will "take care of each other" if they were hopelessly cornered by the Aliens. [[spoiler:It doesn't come to that, and they live through the entire film.]]
** In ''Film/{{Alien 3}}'', Ripley tells Dillon to kill her. He agrees, "quick and painless"... but he doesn't go through with it. Then later he has his own HeroicSacrifice.
* This was expected of Film/JamesBond after his capture in the opening credits of ''Film/DieAnotherDay''; M admonishes him for not dying for his country quite yet when he's recovered.
* In ''Film/ThirtyDaysOfNight'' Billy kills his wife and children rather than have the vampires kill them, he attempts to shoot himself but the gun jams, so he sits in the darkness for 28 days... yeah.
* In ''Film/TheBourneIdentity'' Castel commits suicide by jumping out of the window.
* Two examples show up in ''Film/DeepRising'':
** When one of the mercenaries is grabbed by a sea monster that will slowly and painfully digest him alive, he detonates one of his explosives before it can eat him.
** Subverted when another is grabbed by one of the monsters. One of the heroes hands him a weapon as an act of mercy, only for the guy to start shooting ''him''. The hero escapes, the merc tries to take his own life, and discovers he doesn't have any bullets left.
* In ''Film/SpaceMutiny'', Lt. Steve Codell prefers to jump off [[RailingKill a railing]] than be shot by Kalgan. They compromise: Kalgan pushes him [[RailingKill over the railing.]]
* Happens in ''Literature/TheRing'' Zero. One of Sadako's last victims decides to shoot herself and fellow terrified victim before the StringyHairedGhostGirl kills her in a much more vaguely horrifying way.
* Played with in ''Film/ShaunOfTheDead''. Shaun, Ed and Liz are trapped beneath a burning pub filled with zombies, and Liz suggests they shoot themselves. They find that there are only two bullets, but Ed says he doesn't mind being eaten. Shaun and Liz then spend a few minutes discussing how to go about it, with Liz saying Shaun should shoot her since she would only mess it up, and Shaun saying he's not sure if he has it in him to shoot his girlfriend, his mum, and his flatmate, all in the same night. Ed then reveals that he's already been bitten, and will be zombified soon. Liz and Shaun then realise that they can get out through the keg hatch, and leave Ed with the gun. He kills a few zombies and winds up as one himself. Shaun then keeps him in the shed to play videogames with.
* In ''Film/TheKiller'', Ah Jong is an assassin that always saves the last bullet in his gun, either for himself or for his enemy. This is a code all assassins in this film stick to, including his handler Fung Sei (who unfortunately didn't keep the last bullet for himself and ultimately has to have the title character end his life for him).
* In ''Film/FinalDestination1'', one of the people who were supposed to die (Carter) tries this - for the exact reason that he won't let the "Evil Force"[=/=]"Death" decide when he should die and not have any say in it. [[YouCantFightFate Of course, he fails]].
* General Ripper does this in the black comedy ''Film/DrStrangelove'', which is all the more hilariously ironic given that the threat is all in his own demented mind.
* Kobayashi from ''Film/TheUsualSuspects'' said that whatever Keaton could do to him would be ludicrous compared to what Keyser Soze will do to him if his orders are not carried out.
* Alejandro's brother Joaquim from ''Film/TheMaskOfZorro'' shot himself rather than get caught.
* Taken literally in ''Film/TheAbyss'', where the heroine demands that the hero let her drown, rather than share his breathing apparatus. This leaves him conscious and able to carry her drowned body to safety, where [[OnlyMostlyDead she is revived]].
* In the 1992 film version of ''Film/LastOfTheMohicans'', at the end Alice throws herself off a cliff rather than go with Magua after he's killed Uncas.
* A captured program in ''Film/TRONLegacy'' throws himself off a building rather than participate in the games.
* ''Film/{{Unknown 2011}}'': Herr Jürgen takes cyanide to avoid being interrogated and betraying the hero, noting that as he's elderly, he has no chance of fighting his way out.
* In ''Film/SleepyHollow'', Notary Hardenbrook hangs himself when he thinks the Horseman will be coming after him next. Hardenbrook had earlier expressed the belief that the Horseman took his victims' heads to take back to Hell.
* ''Film/ReturnOfTheLivingDead'':
** In ''Film/TheReturnOfTheLivingDead'', Frank, knowing that he's about to become a zombie, decides to end it all before the transformation is complete. After offering a final prayer of forgiveness for what he's about to do, he immolates himself by climbing into a burning oven (the same one that had been used for the entire film to destroy the zombies), thus ensuring he will never become one of the living dead.
** In ''Film/ReturnOfTheLivingDead3'', the main character and his zombie girlfriend immolate themselves as lovers rather than let the latter be used as an undead superweapon.
* Samuel pulls this off in ''Film/DiaryOfTheDead'': After a zombie starts chomping on his neck, he brings the scythe he's carrying right through his head and into the zombie's (Also counts as TakingYouWithMe).
* ''Film/{{Downfall}}'': The cast have to try and find ways to deal with the downfall of the Third Reich. Their options are: 1) throwing themselves at the mercy of the advancing Red Army, 2) trying to run the gauntlet to seek out some isolated Nazi-friendly corner of the world where they can hide, or 3) taking their own lives. Seeing as Option #3 at least gives them the choice of method, many people settle on that one.
* An unique variation happens in the remake of ''Film/ISpitOnYourGrave''. Sarah throws herself off a bridge, ''after'' she's been gang-raped. Whether this was a final attempt to escape (which is what it ended up being), or to deny them chance of killing her as well is unclear.
* Subverted in ''Film/TheBlob1988''. After a failed attempt to blow up the Blob by dropping some bombs down the sewer, the scientists' second-in-command is about to be crushed and consumed by the Blob. He pulls the pins from his grenades, but the Blob eats him anyway. To add insult to injury, we briefly see two flashes inside of the Blob that don't do any lasting damage.
* In ''Film/WorldWarZ'', the commander of a US military outpost in South Korea (where the zombie outbreak began) fights off the hordes for a month. When he finally gets bitten, a sniper offers to finish him off, but he says "No, I got this" and shoots himself in the head.
* In the [[TheFilmOfTheBook film adaptation]] of ''Literature/TheHost'', [[spoiler:Melanie's father shot himself in the head for this reason when the Seekers showed up at their house. Later, two of the human resistance's redshirts drive their truck into a wall after the Souls have them cornered]]. Also there's Melanie, who's FightingFromTheInside and tries to kill herself when she manages to momentarily regain control of her body.
* In ''Film/{{Machete}}'' when [[BigBad Steven Seagal's]] character realizes he has been defeated by the titular character, he impales himself with his own katana.
* Towards the beginning of ''Film/MenInBlack'', NYPD cop James Edwards, the future agent J, is pursuing a criminal who's actually an alien. After he finally corners him on the roof of the Guggenheim Museum, the alien reveals he's going to be killed by another alien [[YouHaveFailedMe because he failed his mission]], so rather than get arrested, he calmly backs off the roof, falling onto the street.
* In a deleted scene of ''Film/TheThing2011'', Colin uses a razor to slit his own wrist and throat upon realising there was a thing in the same room as him and with no means of escape due to the fire outside of his room. The deleted scene can be found [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kj_57s-8y9w here.]]
* In the original ''Film/TheThing1982'', several of the camp members find the charred body of Fuchs along with a spent flare. They speculate that Fuchs knew he was about to be consumed by the Thing and so instead burned himself alive. Of course, considering this is [[ItCanThink the Thing]], it may have actually killed Fuchs itself as a RedHerring. Nothing is ever confirmed either way.
* The evil warden in the movie shoots himself once he's exposed in ''Film/TheShawshankRedemption''.
* Uniquely subverted ''after the fact'' in ''Film/DeadHeat'', in which the BigBad eats his gun rather than be arrested for unleashing a horde of zombie criminals. Because ItsPersonal, the heroes get even by running '''him''' through his own resurrection machine so they can kill him themselves.
* In ''Robot Ninja'', Leonard Miller, after killing the last of the gang members goes to his apartment and shoots himself. Right before a cop arrives at his place, having finally put two and two together concerning all the recent vigilante killings.
* In ''Film/{{Anaconda}}'', Danny Trejo's nameless poacher in the opening is attacked by an Anaconda intent on eating him. When it corners him at the top of the boat's mast, he shoots himself to prevent it from digesting him alive.
* Subverted in ''Film/TheWolfman2010''. During one of Lawrence's rampages, he chases one of his hunters into a bog. Trapped, the hunter fires his revolver at Lawrence. It doesn't work, and the hunter attempts to shoot himself. Turns out that he spent his six on the beast, and gets graphically decapitated instead.
* In ''Film/{{Hardwired}}'', when the Hope Corp commandos burst in, Hal commits SuicideByCop. pulling out Keyboard's ventilation tube in his death throes.
* In ''Film/BansheeChapter'', Thomas Blackburn blows his brains out rather than allow himself to be killed (or worse) by the otherworldly beings that have him and Anne cornered.
* ''Film/TheHungerGames'': [[spoiler: Due to letting two tributes win in the 74th Hunger Games, Seneca is given the option to commit suicide by eating some nightlock berries, whereas he was tortured and killed in the book]]. Which, given the context, is an example of DeathByIrony.
** The decision by [[spoiler: Peeta and Katniss to commit to a suicide pact rather than forcing one or the other to kill]] also qualifies.
* ''Film/FullMetalJacket'': Private Leonard "Gomer Pyle" Lawrence shoots Sgt. Hartman, his drill instructor to death before he turns the gun on himself and literally blows his brains out. Had he survived, he would have been court-martialed, sent away to a psychiatric hospital, or dishonorably discharged.
* Inverted in ''Film/{{Flash Gordon|1980}}'' when Thun, Prince of Ardentia attempts to assassinate Ming the Merciless:
-->'''Klytus:''' Now the tributes from Ardentia.\\
'''Prince Thun:''' Your Majesty, we, the people of Ardentia, we have suffered since you blasted our kingdom. I can offer you nothing this year, except my loyalty. \\
'''Klytus:''' Prince Thun, we prize nothing more highly. And tell us, how great is this loyalty to your emperor?\\
'''Prince Thun:''' Without measure.\\
'''Ming the Merciless:''' We are delighted to hear it; fall on your sword. ''[[[{{Beat}} dramatic pause]]]'' Show us this loyalty, throw yourself onto your sword.\\
''[Prince Thun approaches Ming's throne, draws his sword]''\\
'''Prince Thun:''' May this deed of Prince Thun be an example to all the kingdoms of Mongo. Death to Ming!\\
''[Ming's floating droid assistant freezes Prince Thun, Ming seizes the Prince's sword, disembowels and executes him on the spot]''
* During the hostage exchange in ''Film/LethalWeapon'', Roger Murtaugh takes a grenade from his pocket and says he'll blow them all up if his daughter isn't released first.
-->'''Joshua:''' He's bluffing! He'd never risk harming his own daughter.
-->'''Murtaugh:''' If she's going to die, [[TogetherInDeath she's going to die with me!]] My way, not yours!
* Two examples in ''Film/TheHandmaiden'':
** Hideko fears "the basement" so totally that she will not do anything to defy Uncle Kouzuki. Fujiwara offers her a vial of concentrated opium to persuade her to assist him, [[CyanidePill which will kill her painlessly and quickly if drunk all at once.]]
** Fujiwara has [[CyanidePill mercury-impregnated cigarettes prepared in the event that things do not go according to plan]]. [[spoiler:When Uncle Kouzuki catches him, Fujiwara waits until he is in "the basement" with him before lighting them, [[TakingYouWithMe allowing him to kill Kouzuki as well.]]]]
* In the prologue of ''Film/TheMummy1999'', Anck-Su-Namun defiantly and fatally stabs herself rather than be apprehended by the Medjai for her part in the Pharaoh's murder. Given the horrific punishment (live entombment in a sarcophagus full of flesh-eating scarabs) which her accomplice Imhotep suffered, hers was the easier option.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* Averted in the Creator/LoisMcMasterBujold book ''Literature/{{Memory}}'', where the villain is denied the opportunity for suicide after he's caught.
* In the Creator/RobertEHoward poem "The Gold and the Grey," the Cimbri women kill themselves with daggers in order to avoid being enslaved by the Romans ("The Cimbri yield no virgin-slaves to glut the lords of Rome!"). One of them kills her rapist and then kills herself.
* Fernand shoots himself in the head in ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo'', having had his treacherous past exposed.
* Subverted in the Creator/EvelynWaugh novel ''Decline and Fall'' where one character, Grimes, who is an example of TheBarnum tells of "landing in the soup" (an UnusualEuphemism for being caught engaged in homosexual conduct) during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI and being placed in a room and given a loaded revolver and some whiskey to settle his nerves, so that a court martial could be avoided and the official story would be that he [[TheCoronerDothProtestTooMuch died in combat]]. After debating this course of action, he decides he would rather live and is found roaring drunk when his fellow soldiers re-enter the room.
* Generally averted with ''Literature/SpaceMarineBattles'', as Space Marines believe that going down fighting is the only fate worthy a Space Marine. However, one example plays it straight, as one character realizes that FateWorseThanDeath awaits him and commits suicide by taking rebreather off in the middle of poisonous fog.
* Various variations from ''Literature/TheBible'':
** In the ''Literature/BookOfJudges'': "King" Abimalech, after having a millstone dropped on his skull by a woman, manages to survive long enough to ask an attendant to finish him off, to avoid the humiliation of having been killed by a woman. So, OlderThanFeudalism.
** In the ''Literature/BooksOfSamuel'': In 1 Samuel 31, a wounded King Saul tried to get his armorbearer to kill him so he wouldn't fall into the hands of the Philistines, who he feared would "thrust me through, and abuse me." When the armorbearer refused, Saul killed himself.
** Later, in 2 Samuel, a man ''claimed'' to have killed Saul on his request, though this was a ploy to ingratiate himself to David. In fact Saul's armorbearer had committed suicide along with his king. The attempt to gain bonus points [[RewardedAsATraitorDeserves backfired]].
* ''Literature/HerculePoirot'':
** ''Literature/TheMurderOfRogerAckroyd'' by Creator/AgathaChristie: Poirot ''offers'' the revealed murderer a day before he contacts the authorities, in order to kill himself and prevent family disgrace.
** He also allows the suicide of the murderer in ''Literature/DeathOnTheNile''
** He prevents the suicide in ''Literature/TheABCMurders''.
** And in ''Literature/PerilAtEndHouse'', he casually mentions to Hastings that the culprit took their secret stash of coke with them when arrested, likely to commit suicide by overdose.
* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'':
** ''The Eye of the World'', Perrin, Egwene, and Elyas are being pursued by an immense flock of demonically-possessed ravens, and suspect they can't reach safety in time. When they do escape, Elyas finds Perrin about to throw his axe into a pond, as he was considering killing himself and Egwene with it rather than allow them to be eaten alive. He asks Perrin which death he really thinks she'd have preferred, and Perrin decides to keep the axe.
** Also, in ''[[Literature/TheWheelOfTime The Gathering Storm]]'' some inhabitants of Hinderstap town try to commit a suicide in order not to become mindless monsters set to kill each other at every sunset. This doesn't work, anyway.
* In ''Literature/WorldWarZ'', there are many of these stories because the book takes place during a ZombieApocalypse. Most notably, a Russian chaplain decides that he and the other religious figures should be the ones "sending them to God" and the resultant religious fervor turns the postwar Russia into a theocracy.
* The last Stanza of Creator/RudyardKipling's "A Young British Soldier".
-->''When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,\\
And the women come out to cut up what remains,\\
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains\\
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.''
* [[KillEmAll Every single surviving human being on Earth]] in ''Literature/OnTheBeach''.
* ''Literature/NewJediOrder: Star by Star'':
** Viqi Shesh walks off the top of a Coruscant skyscraper rather than surrender herself to those who she betrayed.
** In the same book, [[SmugSnake President Fey'lya]] goes from SleazyPolitician to DoomedMoralVictor by [[TakingYouWithMe suicide-nuking]] a couple of divisions of the ScaryDogmaticAliens who're coming to arrest, and/or torture-maim-kill him. [[DyingMomentOfAwesome While receiving their colonel behind his own desk in his own office, no less.]]
* In Creator/DanAbnett's ''Literature/GauntsGhosts'' novel ''The Guns of Tanith'', cornered in the control room with no way to work it, Jagdea takes out poison pills to avoid capture. Bonin doesn't let her, and someone who does know how to work arrives in time.
* In ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'', an unnamed controller scientist decided that he would rather die of Kandrona Starvation than be killed by Visser Three.
* Happens in ''Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms''. When Guan Yu is captured and executed, his two surviving subordinates, Zhou Cang and Wang Fu, both commit suicide before Maicheng finally falls.
* In the ''Literature/{{Westmark}}'' trilogy, Zara combines this with SuicideByCop. Injured and helpless, facing arrest and interrogation, she deliberately taunts the soldiers arresting her and Theo until one of them kills her.
* In Creator/ArthurCClarke's short story "The Transit of Earth", after his mission is completed the main character faces a slow death marooned on Mars, but ultimately elects to travel to a part of the planet where life has been detected, and allow himself to be consumed by those organisms so his body will remain part of a natural ecosystem.
* In ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', Denethor, insane and sure of defeat in the long run, burns himself to death (and tried to take his son with him) rather than let himself be killed or his corpse fall into the hands of Sauron's forces.
* Father Callahan from ''Literature/TheDarkTower''. Justified in that he was fighting vampires that would turn him if they got to kill him.
* ''[[Literature/CircleOfMagic Street Magic]]'' has the villain poison herself in her room rather than be arrested and humiliated for killing the local police's undercover agents, as well as countless commoners, since there's no chance in hell that her aristocratic family is going to protect her.
* Dayna Jurgens in ''Literature/TheStand''. It comes close for her: she attempted to jump through some glass, but Flagg caught her before she could fall to her death. Thinking quickly, she whipped her head around and sliced her throat on some of the broken glass before he could pull her all the way back in. That he could not foresee or prevent this ''really'' rattles him.
* At the beginning of ''[[Literature/DuelOfSorcery Moongather]]'', Serroi panics and bolts, leaving a severely injured Tayyan behind. It's later revealed that Tayyan cut her own throat rather than be captured.
* In the fourth ''Literature/{{Safehold}}'' book, ''A Mighty Fortress'', Hauwerd Wylsynn decides it's better to be killed than horribly tortured to death by the Inquisition. When the Inquisition finally makes its move, Wylsynn murders his brother (who ''was'' going to face his punishment honorably) and then takes on the Church Guardsmen sent to arrest him. [[DyingMomentOfAwesome He takes down four armed and armored men before finally being cut down.]]
* In ''[[Literature/LegacyOfTheAldenata Gust Front]]'', Tommy Sunday, Jr, and his future girlfriend make a promise that if one is unable to kill themself, the other will do it for them, instead of leaving them alive for the [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Posleen]] to find and [[ImAHumanitarian invite for dinner]].
* In ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed: Renaissance'', Archbishop Salviati chooses suicide to letting Ezio get information on the other conspirators from him.
* The Creator/ChristopherPike novel ''Chain Letter 2'' has an unusual twist on this. Alison decides to shoot herself when she realizes that her boyfriend Tony was going to kill her under the influence of the Caretaker demon. The twist is that Alison's actions were meant to protect ''Tony'': if Tony obeyed the Caretaker and killed her, the Caretaker would be able to take his soul. If Alison was the one who pulled the trigger, however, the Caretaker would be unable to drag Tony off to Hell. Alison's actions triggered a MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment for Tony. And Alison got better.
* Jendara's SuicideByCop at the end of ''Literature/GreenRider''. Justifiably: Her way, she gets run through, and dies quickly and relatively painlessly. If she'd been taken alive, her death would have been hideously painful and drawn out over the course of a month.
* In Esther Hautzig's ''The Endless Steppe: A Girl in Exile'', Esther's 85-year-old grandmother Reisa hears that the Nazis are coming to take her to a concentration camp and decides that if it's time for her to die, she wants to die in her own home. Esther says, "It was not suicide; by a supreme act of will, this old woman cheated the Nazis of her death."
* In a ''Franchise/StarTrekExpandedUniverse'' novel, Praetor Tal'aura (the senator from ''Film/StarTrekNemesis'') finds out that a member of an important Romulan family has been plotting behind her back. When captured, he requests to take poison in lieu of a public execution, knowing that the latter will bring great shame to his family. She denies the coward. Later on, she allows a political rival, who was attempting to incite a revolt against her, to drink poison, having respect for the man. Given that Romulans are, essentially, The Roman Empire RecycledInSPACE, this makes sense.
* In ''Literature/{{Krabat}}'', Merten tries to kill himself, after his cousin Michal dies. (It doesn't work.)
* At the end of the book of ''Double Indemnity'' (not the movie), Walter and Phyllis are spotted on board the ship, and rather than face arrest and execution, they commit [[TogetherInDeath mutual suicide]] by jumping overboard.
* At the end of the Creator/DaleBrown novel ''Sky Masters'', the BigBad Admiral Yin, seeing that his plan is foiled, chooses to blow his brains out rather than return to China in defeat, where he will be humiliated and dishonourably executed.
* One group of human survivors in ''Literature/TheKillingStar'' who are being actively chased by the alien invaders ultimately choose to destroy themselves along with a fair portion of the Sun rather than risk what might happen to them when they're captured.
* In the ''[[Literature/TheQueensThief Queen's Thief]]'' series, Eugenides is unable to kill himself, but he asks his father to strangle him rather than survive in the Queen of Attolia's prison; Justified, as she cut off his hand the last time he was prisoner there. The attempt is prevented. On another occasion, he refuses to jump off a cliff because he's chained to two innocent men, both of whom are willing to die with him, who will be able to survive and see their families again.
* Invoked in ''Literature/TheBelgariad'' when Silk is captured by Taur Urgas, facing torture and execution come sunrise. Yarblek mentions having attempted to get close enough to slip him a dagger so he can open a vein.
* ''Literature/TheHungerGames'': during ''Mockingjay'' all characters in the rebel army are fitted with a "Nightlock" capsule and expected to kill themselves before they are captured and taken in for torture/questioning.
* In ''Literature/EnchantressFromTheStars'' Elana, a 14 years old girl from TheFederation, is captured by colonists from TheEmpire. The colonists intend to bring her to their home planet, where she will be dissected and interrogated (and thanks to their tech, TheEmpire can extract any information they want). Not wanting to end like this, Elana runs towards the imperial rock-chever, intent on being crushed by falling debris. She is rescued JustInTime, and the imperials are so ... [[SuperweaponSurprise amazed]] by the way she is rescued that they withdraw and leave her behind.
* In ''Franchise/HarryPotter'', [[BigGood Albus Dumbledore]] has Severus Snape kill him to prevent Draco Malfoy from doing so and to ingratiate himself (Snape) with [[BigBad Voldemort]]. When Snape protests to this plan, Dumbledore points out that he would rather die quickly and painlessly than to fall into the hands of Fenrir Greyback or Bellatrix Lestrange, who [[ColdBloodedTorture like to play with their food]].
* ''Literature/TheSagaOfTheJomsvikings'': When the Jomsviking captain Bui is wounded beyond recovery in the naval Battle of Hjorunga Bay, he jumps overboard to his death.
* One terrorist kills himself in the Literature/PaladinOfShadows book ''A Deeper Blue'' than be taken alive.
* In the Literature/NUMASeries book ''Sahara'', when it looks like the Malians are about to overrun Fort Foreau, Dirk prepares to kill Eva and the rescued women so the enemy doesn't get to rape them. Fortunately, TheCavalry arrives just in time.
* In ''Literature/TheHost'' Melanie and a few other people attempt suicide to prevent being captured and taken over.
* Xanatos does this in the eighth ''Literature/JediApprentice'' book when his crimes are exposed and he's cornered by Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan. He jumps into one of the acid pools his company created on Telos.
* In ''Literature/TheLostFleet: Beyond the Frontier'' follow-up trilogy, the bear-cows are {{Absolute Xenophobe}}s who view any predator as a natural threat that must be eliminated at all costs and any other fellow herbivore as competition for the same resources who must also be eliminated. Protecting the herd is more important to them than any individual life. During the attempt by TheAlliance SpaceMarines to take the crippled bear-cow superbattleship, thousands of bear-cow crewmembers hurl themselves at the marines without regard. Any of them who are wounded are finished off by their own comrades in order to spare them from being eaten alive by the predators (they assume any predator, including humans, wants to eat them). For the same reason, any bear-cow taken alive will kill itself through a naturally-developed method of stopping higher brain functions rather than be eaten alive. They don't bother talking to anyone to find out ''if'' they will be actually eaten.
* Invoked multiple times in ''Literature/FrostflowerAndThorn''. The death penalty in this world tends to be ''very'' harsh, involving basically being slowly tortured to death, so the main characters are almost as preoccupied with not being captured alive in case of failure as with achieving their goals.
* Appears on a massive scale in [[Creator/RichardMatheson Richard Matheson's]] short story "The Creeping Terror." The city of Los Angeles is [[GeniusLoci revealed to be sentient]], and, as the title implies, slowly grows to take over the entire United States. As it does, it brainwashes everyone it comes into contact with, making them lose their past identities and become shallow, Hollywood-obsessed bimbos. When Los Angeles reaches Boston, the ''entire population of the city'' decides to commit mass suicide rather than surrender their free will.
* In the ''Literature/{{Newsflesh}}'' world, most whose job involves facing zombies make it a rule to save a bullet for themselves, rather than be killed or converted by a zombie mob.
* In the ''Literature/ParadoxTrilogy'', when Devi is besieged by xith'cal aboard one of their tribe ships, she counts her ammunition so that she can save her last bullet for herself, as the xith'cal are known practitioners of ToServeMan and shooting herself would be preferable to being eaten. Fortunately, a rescuer arrives to help just as she presses her gun to her head.
* In ''Literature/AwakeInTheNightLand'', people who adventure to the titular Night Land have a CyanidePill in their arms so they can bite it in a hopeless situation, which is to prevent the lovecraftian monsters of the setting from '''[[CapitalLettersAreMagic D]]'''estroying their souls.
* ''Literature/CiaphasCain: The Greater Good'' sees Tau Water Caste and Imperial Navy vessels self-destructing rather than have the biomass of their crews consumed by a tyranid hive fleet. In the latter case it's mentioned there's a recording of a Navy ship's chief engineer triggering the reactor overload sequence moments before being torn apart by tyranid boarders.
* In ''Literature/{{Firefight}}'' [[spoiler: Megan]] shoots herself in the head with a remote trigger mechanism rather than be burned alive. In addition to being over a lot faster, [[spoiler: fire is her weakness; burning would negate her ResurrectiveImmortality and actually kill her.]]
* In ''Literature/HorusHeresy: The Flight of the Eisenstein'' When [[spoiler:Horus bombs Istvaan III]] with the life eater virus, both the dreadnought Huron-Fal and Ullis Temeter, one of the captains of the Death Guard gets infected by the virus. While they both agonize due to the extremely painful effects of the virus, Huron-Fal detonates the core of the giant dreadnought armor, causing an explosion that kills them both.
-->''"This death...This death is ours. We choose it. We deny you your victory."''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* In ''Series/TheAdventuresOfSuperman'' episode "[[Recap/TheAdventuresOfSupermanS1E15DoubleTrouble Double Trouble]]", the German doctor says that "they'll never take me alive". Superman tells him that "if you don't drop that gun, you're going to eat those words."
* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': In "Blackwater", Cersei procures a vial of nightshade for herself and Tommen if the Red Keep should be breached. She also adds a touch of TakingYouWithMe by having Ser Ilyn Payne present to kill Sansa and the other highborn women holed up in the castle as well.
* ''Series/LoisAndClark'' has Lex Luthor jump from a building rather than face jail. It seems to be a point with him, because later he tries to electrocute himself but Superman stops him. This might be the only time where a villain is effectively killed by being captured.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E9TheSatanPit The Satan Pit]]" features a variant that can probably be considered [[ICannotSelfTerminate assisted suicide]], when a character requests that the air be sucked from the chamber he is in before the enemy gets him.
** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E1DeepBreath Deep Breath]]", when it looks like the droids are about to slaughter the Doctor's friends, [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Strax]] turns his gun on himself, clearly intending to go out on his own terms. Fortunately, Vastra stops him, and a few moments later the Doctor defeats the Half-Face Man, [[KeystoneArmy deactivating the other droids]].
** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E5TimeHeist Time Heist]]", the theory behind the Shredders is to die quickly rather than having one's mind devoured by the Teller, [[spoiler:before they're revealed to be teleporters]].
* Eden in ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' chose to shoot herself in the head rather than let Sylar take her brain (and her mind-control powers).
* Subverted in the pilot episode for ''Series/TerminatorTheSarahConnorChronicles''; Sarah is jumped by the Terminator Cromartie, who is attempting to use her to get to John. She tries to commit suicide rather than be used as a tool to assassinate her son, but Cromartie grabs her gun at the last second and knocks her out.
* A few ''Franchise/StarTrek'' entries...
** The 'die rather than let the heroes find any information' variant occurs in the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' season 3 episode 'Elaan of Troyius'. A saboteur phasers himself to death rather than let Kirk and company find out exactly what he's done to the ship. He sabotaged the warp drive so it would blow up as soon as it was engaged.
** And in the TOS episode "The Doomsday Machine" in which Commodore Decker pilots a shuttlecraft into The Machine as atonement for the loss of his crew -- which gives Kirk and Spock the hint they need to destroy it.
** In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' "I, Borg," the Borg seem genuinely surprised that Geordi and other humans would rather die than be assimilated. (Makes you wonder why they thought humans were fighting to the death to oppose them.
** In the ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' episode "Countdown," [[CunningLinguist Hoshi]] decides "Better to die than be {{Brainwashed}} into helping the [[ReptilesAreAbhorrent Xindi-Reptilians]] [[EarthShatteringKaboom destroy Earth]]." Her suicide attempt fails.
* In ''{{Sharpe}}'', the title character discovers that another character is a (coerced) spy and on his request, allows him to die in a glorious suicide charge rather than being executed for treachery.
* In a particularly dark episode of ''Series/FoylesWar'', DCI Foyle reminds the episode's Big Bad of everything he's lost, including son, fortune, and power. Foyle walks out of the house, and when a gunshot is heard and he doesn't pause, the viewer realizes that that was his intention.
* Played for laughs on ''Series/ThirtyRock,'' when the writers are continuously killing their own video game characters rather than let others kill them... dragging the game out forever.
* [[PresidentEvil President Clark]] in ''Series/BabylonFive'' puts a PPG to his head at the end of the Earth Alliance Civil War. But not before he programs the planetary defense grid to open fire on Earth, in the hopes of taking ''[[OmnicidalManiac everyone]]'' with him.
* Lampshaded in ''Series/{{Dexter}}'': "A badass like Doakes... he'd rather burn than get burned."
** And subverted in Season 1. The Ice Truck Killer is found dead in an apparent suicide, and the police comment that he must have considered it his final victory, because now he can never be caught. In fact, the suicide is a fake; he was killed by Dexter.
** The same thing happens in Season 3 with the Skinner. Dexter kills him with a NeckSnap just as the cops are arriving. He throws the body under the front cop car, and the cops immediately assume he chose the SuicideByCop option.
** As of episode 3, this has happened twice in season 7. The first was faked to make it look that way, and the second is when a serial killer spending life in prison "confesses" to where he buried another body, but it turned out he just wanted a few days of sun and ice cream before he jumped in front of a truck.
* John Cavil's [[GoryDiscretionShot blink-and-you'll-miss-it]] death in the ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'' finale.
** The Season Two Finale has also one of those. Pinned down by Centurions and realising the Cylons want the Colonials alive, Starbuck asks Anders to kill her rather than [[FateWorseThanDeath being sent to a Farm]]. It never comes to that though.
*** Subverted by Sharon who listens to the Starbuck/Anders SuicidePact with a helpless look on her face; as a Cylon, killing herself would just mean she's brought back on a Cylon resurrection ship.
* Chloe in ''Series/HarpersIsland'' chooses to throw herself in a river and die over being gutted by [[AxCrazy John Wakefield]]. A choice that gives us the [[Awesome/HarpersIsland Crowning Moment of Awesome]] of the series.
* A ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' MonsterOfTheWeek pulled this... but it turns out he was using a hologram to fake his own death, and had actually escaped.
* ''Series/{{CSI}}''
** A serial killer suffocated himself soon after he was arrested. He even worked in a suicide note into the drawing he was working on.
** Another episode of the franchise had a murderer on the eve of his execution order a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for his last meal, having deliberately failed to tell the authorities he was deathly allergic to nuts.
* HBO's ''Series/{{Rome}}'' has several of these, being based in Roman history as it was.
* In the ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' "YPRES 1914" skit, five UsefulNotes/WorldWarI soldiers are trapped behind enemy lines, but there are only enough rations for 4 people to survive the trip back. One of them must take...The Other Way Out (rather than, say, surrendering to the Germans).
* Shane, in the series finale of ''Series/TheShield'', turns his gun on himself when the cops break down his door. Before that, though, he already poisoned his wife and son with fatal doses of painkillers; the former because she would have ended up in prison for life as well, the latter to "spare" him from going into the foster care system.
* The elderly patient of the ''Series/{{House}}'' episode "Informed Consent" doesn't want to die the tortuous way described by House. He asks the doctors to help kill him painlessly, or at least discharge him so he can die on his own terms. Chase and House seem willing to honor his request (although House, as usual, needs to solve the puzzle), but in a surprising move it's Cameron who assists him after giving a terminal diagnosis.
* In the sixth season of ''Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'', when Detective Kellerman's dirty shooting of drug lord Luther Mahoney is exposed, and he is given the option of resigning in disgrace but going free or staying on the force but potentially going to jail (and taking some of his friends with him), he asks his ex-partner Lewis for one last favor: to give him his service weapon and leave the room for a few minutes. Lewis refuses.
* "A Question of Fear", an episode of ''Series/NightGallery'' has an interesting variation of this. A man seeks revenge on another, and informs the other man that he has injected a serum into him that will turn him into a slug-like creature. The victim shoots himself, rather to die like a man than live like a spineless slug. The joke's on him; there was no serum, the whole thing was a scam to get the man to kill himself.
* ''Series/{{NCIS}}'':
** Inverted a bit when Gibbs' mentor Mike Franks apparently thought it was better to be killed (in a suicidal fight with a deranged SuperSoldier-turned-SerialKiller) than die of lung cancer.
** Director Jenny Shepard previously made the same choice and went out fighting rather than expire more slowly of her unspecified terminal illness.
* Played straight in ''Series/NCISLosAngeles'', when an old colleague of Sam's [[spoiler:swallows a coded list of Soviet sleeper agents]] and hangs himself. This was all part of a ThanatosGambit to prevent arms dealer Sidorov from capturing him and torturing him for the names (many of whom had viable nuclear bombs).
* ''Series/{{JAG}}'': After Mustafa Atef, the in-universe Al-Qaeda number 3, is sentenced to death by the military tribunal in "Tribunal", he commits suicide in his cell without uttering a sound.
* ''Series/TheShadowLine'' has Commander Penney, who kills himself rather than wait for Gatehouse to find and kill him.
* In ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'' episode "The Human Factor", a robot rigs a reactor to blow in order to KillAllHumans. The protagonist is trapped in a room with the robot. He begs the robot to snap his neck. When it asks him why, he answers that he would rather die that way than get blown up. It refuses.
* In the first season finale of ''Series/{{Andromeda}}'' when the Magog, an alien race who eat other sentients alive or implant their eggs in their stomachs, are closing in on Harper and Tyr, Harper requests to be shot before they get him. But at the last minute he changes his mind and decides to chance taking them on in hand-to-hand, more in line with Tyr's [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Nietzschean]] philosophy.
* ''Series/TwentyFour'':
** A variation is featured in Day 5: Jack has [[TheDragon Christopher Henderson]] cornered and tells him it's over only for him to smugly inform Jack that he has men in a helicopter following Secretary James Heller's car and that if he's not released, they will kill him. Jack calls Heller to check if this is a bluff but it isn't: Heller can see the chopper. Jack apparently has no choice but to let Henderson go... until Heller informs him that he will not be used to hurt the country, tells Jack to tell his daughter he loves her and ''drives his car off a cliff'', allowing Jack to go to town on Henderson. Luckily, Heller survives.
** One season before this, Heller and Audrey are being held hostage by terrorists who are planning on staging a mock trail and executing Heller by the end of it. Realizing that they'll be dead by the end of it and with rescue looking slim, the two break open a gas main and attempt to asphyxiate themselves before this can occur. This fails and the terrorists are able to successfully resuscitate them moments later, but Jack is able to save them in the next hour.
** Jack attempts this in the Day 7 finale. He's been captured by the BigBad's group, he's been infected with a lethal biotoxin that will kill him in a number of hours, the terrorists want to copy the biotoxin in his bloodstream to mass produce it to threaten countless other lives, and his escape attempt from their compound has just become a bust. With no other options, he isolates himself in a room, makes used of a ruptured fuel line and attempts to use a flare to set himself ablaze. He's stopped by [[spoiler: Tony]] seconds before he can ignite it, although the FBI managed to save him in the following minutes.
* In ''Series/ElChavoDelOcho'', the protagonist says this exact phrase in an episode where he's playing duel with his friend Kiko. In the Brazilian Portuguese dub: ''"Prefiro morrer do que perder a vida!"''
* ''Series/{{Masada}}'', naturally. However, unlike in real life, there are no survivors among the besieged Jews.
* In ''Series/{{Wiseguy}}'', when [[spoiler: Sonny Steelgrave]] realizes that Vinny has incontrovertible evidence that'll get him executed by lethal injection, he grabs a high-voltage power cable to electrocute himself rather than face the indignity of execution.
* In the ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' episode [[Recap/SupernaturalS02E20WhatIsAndWhatShouldNeverBe "What Is And What Should Never Be"]], Dean almost kills himself by stabbing a knife into his stomach to wake up from the dream world created by the djinn.
* In ''Series/StargateSG1'', Stargate Command incorporated a SelfDestructMechanism (a nuclear bomb) into its design from the very beginning, as did their offworld bases. This serves the dual purpose of denying information to the enemy and burying the Stargate to cut off invasion attempts. In at least one AlternateTimeline ("[[Recap/StargateSG1S1E19ThereButForTheGraceOfGod There but for the Grace of God]]") the SGC self-destruct is actually detonated, while the original Alpha Site blows theirs in "[[Recap/StargateSG1S7E16DeathKnell Death Knell]]" while under attack by two of Anubis's [[SuperSoldier Kull warriors]].
* Subverted on ''Series/AgentCarter''; when Chief Dooley tries to get information out of a convicted Nazi officer, he offers him a "cynanide pill" to save the guy the hanging he was sentenced with at the Nuremberg trials. After he gets the information, Dooley leaves and on the way out, offers one of his breath mints to the guard walking with him.
* In ''Series/NightAndDay'', this is possibly the motivation for Steph [=McKenzie=] setting fire to the Halfway House – either to avoid being killed by Danny Dexter, or by her brain tumor.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'':
** Suicide is an acceptable end for disgraced officers of the Imperial Guard, as well as an acceptable option for individuals who are [[TouchedByVorlons touched by the Warp]].
** Defied by Space Marines, who live to fight and are only content dying on the field of battle. The only time they'll consider playing this trope straight is if it involves [[TakingYouWithMe strapping grenades to themselves and charging forward]].
** In an amusing subversion, the Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer expressly orders Guardsmen to ''not'' commit suicide, at least without authorization and ''certainly'' not wasting valuable ammunition to do so without authorization. The penalty for ''attempting'' to commit suicide is death. The penalty of committing suicide without authorization is having your body incinerated and the ashes shot into space, and then sending the bill to your next of kin.
** The IG also have a "For Their Own Good" rule that basically means that if a sanctioned psyker suffers a Perils of the Warp attack within range of a Commissar, they are immediately shot and killed.
** It's also a much-preferred alternative to being [[FateWorseThanDeath taken alive by the Dark Eldar or the Emperor's Children]].
** Arguably the rationale behind Exterminatus -- basically assisted suicide on a planetary scale. It is typically performed on worlds that have been, or are in danger of being, overwhelmed by Chaos, Tyranids, or Necrons; through this, the resources (human and otherwise) are kept from the enemy, and the people are spared further suffering.
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'', there is a spell called Unconquerable Self - it burns the person casting it, their possessions, and any artifacts attuned to them to ash. It requires no words, gestures or components to cast, making it useful if one were taken prisoner, for example. It also directly sends your soul to Heaven, preventing any form of [[SoulJar soul trapping]] or other mystical enslavement.
* Every single Infernoid in the ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh TCG'' share an effect that allows you to Tribute an Infernoid during either player's turn to some effect, mainly disrupting the Graveyard. This includes the effect's user himself, which means they can suicide at any time, dodging many nasty effects from your opponent.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theater]]
* Several variations in the plays of Creator/WilliamShakespeare:
** Discussed, but averted in ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'' - "Why should I play the Roman fool, and die on mine own sword? Whiles I see lives, the gashes do better upon them."
** Played straight in ''Theatre/AntonyAndCleopatra'', where both title characters commit suicide to avoid humiliation and death after their armies are defeated.
** ''Four times'' in ''Theatre/JuliusCaesar''. The last one was done by Brutus, who ran himself upon a sword held by his comrade because Brutus' Stoic philosophy expressly forbade him to commit suicide but he could see no other way out.
** Invoked by Gratiano in ''Theatre/TheMerchantOfVenice'', when Portia tells Shylock to "beg mercy of the Duke": "Beg that thou mayst have leave to hang thyself!"
* Puccini's ''Theatre/{{Tosca}}''. After killing the villain, the heroine is cornered by the villain's lackeys; she jumps off a high balcony to her death, rather than let the lackeys execute her.
* Another Puccini example: Liu's death in ''Theatre/{{Turandot}}''. Rather than be tortured and possibly killed by Turandot's guards, she grabs one of their daggers and does herself in.
* In ''Freud's Last Session'' UsefulNotes/SigmundFreud tells Creator/CSLewis that he plans to kill himself because he has a horrific case of oral cancer, forcing him to wear an ill-fitting prosthesis; the disease is causing him great pain and is slowly killing him.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* In ''[=MOBAS=]'', killing yourself means that the enemy team will not get XP and Gold. However, only certain characters are capable of doing it (such as Pudge using Rot away from the enemies to kill himself on ''VideoGame/DOTA2'') and there are some items that can give you an option to suicide (Bloodstone, on ''VideoGame/DOTA2'').
* In ''VideoGame/AceCombat'', after being defeated, the Belkan government turns its nuclear stockpile on themselves, wiping out ''the entire country in a suicidal blaze.''
* In ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty 4'', at the end of the mission "The Sins of the Father", Zakhaev's son commits suicide once he realizes the SAS, Russians, and United States Marines are trying to capture him to locate his father.
* In ''VideoGame/{{BioShock|1}}'', Andrew Ryan opts to commit an interesting form of suicide both to deny Atlas the pleasure of killing him and to humiliate you: turns out you've been {{Brainwashed}} this entire time, and he uses your code words to make you kill him, while he taunts you for being a "slave."
** In the Multiplayer, it is better to commit suicide then let the opponent kill you in team matches, as the match ends depending on how many kills the team got.
** In ''VideoGame/BioshockInfinite'' Cornelius Slate asks that you help him commit suicide rather than be captured by Comstock's men. You can choose whether or not to. He thanks you if you do saying "they haven't changed you, Booker." If you don't he curses you calling you a "tin man", you later find him tortured and unconscious in the Good Time Club.
* In ''VideoGame/MortalKombatDeception'', if your opponent manages to win against you, and the message "FINISH HIM!" plays, you can perform a Hara-kiri. Hara-kiris are virtually suicides, and they are performed just like fatalities. Kenshi's Hara-kiri imitates a real life Hara-kiri. He takes a sword and cuts his chest open. By many, this is usually considered the correct way to do a Hara-kiri in real life. Also, a GoodBadBug happens when both a fatality and a Hara-kiri move are entered simultaneously: The winner will perform the fatality on himself.
* At the end of ''[[VideoGame/StarCraftI StarCraft: Brood War]]'', Admiral [=DuGalle=] writes a message to his wife, Helena, about the failures of the UED in the Koprulu sector before he kills himself out of shame, because he ordered the execution of his best friend, unknowingly cooperated with the BigBad to kill her enemy, practically handed said BigBad her new army, then failed to kill the BigBad. A lot to be ashamed of. The ending text then notes that the Zerg caught up with them and not a single ship managed to leave Koprulu.
* The enemy commander commits suicide in the secret ending of Cybernator. [[{{Macekre}} Well, in the Japanese version, anyway.]]
* At the end of the ''VideoGame/HouseOfTheDead 2'' video game (and of ''TypingOfTheDead''), there are three possible endings. Two involve the main villain taking a swan dive off of the side of a highrise. One of those endings involves bungee cords and the villain bouncing back onto the top of the building and burping at you. ItMakesSenseInContext.
* ''VideoGame/WingCommander IV''. In the good ending, Admiral Tolwyn is found guilty of treason. In a chilling finale to his tale, audio from a news report announces that all appeals have been denied as his corpse is shown in his cell, dangling lazily. He has crudely hung himself rather than face execution.
** Likely a subversion, intended to show Tolwyn's moral failure in refusing to meet the consequences for his actions, as in the losing endgame Blair [[FaceDeathWithDignity faces down the firing squad, stoic to the bitter end]], declining a blindfold.
* Muddokons in the ''VideoGame/{{Oddworld}}'' series have this mentality if Abe starts killing a group of them (accidentally or otherwise) or Sligs open fire on them.
* At least one farmer in ''VideoGame/{{Exmortis}} 2'' killed his family and then himself rather than endure a long and agonising death at the hands of the Exmortis. The brother-in-law wasn't so lucky, and the PC doesn't get the option.
* ''VideoGame/SystemShock 2'': At least one of the people on the Von Braun opted to hang himself rather than be assimilated by [[TheVirus the Many]], and you get a ghost-replay of another's last moments as he says his final words and blows his brains out. [[spoiler:Your alleged 'guide' is revealed to have killed herself long before, too.]] There's also Captain William Diego, who had a med-robot cut the infection from his body in full knowledge that he would quickly succumb to blood-loss, which he did.
* This way out is taken by five separate characters in ''VideoGame/DeadSpace''; a number of [=NPCs=] (frequently right in front of Isaac), and Nicole, via lethal injection before the game even began. Points go out to one particular crewman of the Ishimura in an audio log; he knew that dying would just make another Necromorph, so he saws his own legs off (this is recorded in the audio log). Shortly after you find this log, you discover a legless Necromorph...
* In some areas of ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'' there are a disturbing number of bodies which are obviously suicides (single pistol lying around, blood around the head). Given the alternative...
-->'''Bill:''' We've been immune so far, but, well, if I start to turn, promise you'll shoot me.\\
'''Francis:''' What if just your beard starts to turn, can I shoot that?
* Likewise, ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' has its fair share of similar cases in isolated areas. Usually, they're in places infested with Xen creatures or Headcrabs, but there were some that presumably just wanted to escape the tyranny of the Combine.
* ''VideoGame/SamuraiShodown IV'' has a special move that "kills" the player (for some characters it's a suicide, for others is something less interesting). Since it doesn't necessarily end the fights (it's worth only one KO) it can be used strategically, as in the next round the player starts with a full rage meter.
* In ''VideoGame/WarCraftIII'', upon death, Demon Hunter heroes will stab themselves with their own blades as they die, provided they are still in Night Elf form.
** This is also Arthas' reasoning behind purging the people of Stratholme who were doomed to become undead.
** ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' has the Vanessa Vancleef fight, upon hitting her last hit point, she pulls out a barrel of gunpowder, yells, "My destiny is my own!" and detonates it (This can also be a TakingYouWithMe attack, as the explosion can and most likely will kill an unsuspecting player). [[spoiler: Rogue players [[SubvertedTrope find out in Legion ]] that [[FakingTheDead she merely faked her death]], which was easy to do when the PC party was still reeling from the aftereffects of hallucinogenic neurotoxin.]]
* After you defeat Colonel Radec in ''[[VideoGame/{{Killzone}} Killzone 2]]'', he and his men commit suicide, preferring death to being prisoners of the ISA.
* In ''VideoGame/WildArms5'', after Kartikeya is defeated by Greg, he opts to finish himself off by using his ARM to blow a giant hole in his gut so as to deny Greg the joy of revenge. Greg then declares that he no longer cares about his revenge anymore, leaving Kartikeya with a dumbfounded look on his face as he dies.
* Outside of storylines, sometimes suicide is not as bad for your (team's) score as losing to an enemy. For example, in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' In time battles, by default, a self-destruct takes a point off your score, but getting [=KO'd=] takes a point off your score ''and'' awards one to whoever got the finishing blow. Either way, your damage is reset. In battles with only two fighters/teams, it's particularly clear; if Fighter A [=KOs=] Fighter B 3 times, and fighter A self-destructs 5 times (resetting their damage each time), Fighter A will win. The way around this is to set the self-destruct penalty to 2 points instead of 1, although that makes accidental [=SDs=] more annoying. Unfortunately in most games like this there's rarely a way to ''not'' reset a player's damage when they self-destruct, so either suicides are exploitable, or punished too severely for innocent mistakes. That's why you play Stock matches instead so the winner isn't "highest KO count" but "last man standing".
* Many FPS games will have strategic advantages for a player to self destruct rather than be killed, especially in team matches with close scores. A suicide subtracts one point, but if the other team would get their final point, it gives your team a chance to catch up. Especially in instances where you're in a close-range firefight with an enemy, killing yourself with explosives can often result in the death of the enemy, denying the enemy the point while giving you a kill to counterbalance your suicide. Extra amusing in ''Halo'': when an enemy stickies you, you simply run up to them and explode all over them.
* In the second level of the Alien campaign in the 2010 ''Franchise/AlienVsPredator'' game, a civilian will commit suicide as soon you enter the room he is in. Just before this, you hear him saying to a marine that he would rather do this than be killed by the xenomorph. Several human targets choose to kill themselves rather than face the alternative, mostly because the alternative is being held down and [[FaceFullOfAlienWingWong intimately introduced to a facehugger]]. There is an achievement for catching them all, as if sadism alone wasn't incentive enough.
* At the end of ''VideoGame/TheSaboteur'' you are facing off with the man who [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking cheated to beat you in a race]] (oh, and he killed your friend) and, after a speech about how killing him won't change the damage that has been caused, you are given a gun to aim at the Nazi (who's gun is out of ammo). If you decide to not pull the trigger he'll keep backing up, turn, and leap off the edge of the building. Did I mention you're near the top of the Eiffel Tower?
* Trilby, Trilby's Notes of the ''VideoGame/ChzoMythos'', lays mortally wounded and paralyzed but actually WILLS himself to death than face a FateWorseThanDeath. He gets better.
* When faced with the imminent Charr invasion in ''VideoGame/GuildWars'', the Vizier of Orr decided on this approach. Well, unless blowing up your entire country and sinking most of it beneath the waves is considered a valid military tactic. I quote:
-->'''Pyre Fierceshot:''' "The Vizier destroyed his own country rather than fight us. That...is a compliment."
* In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'', Vamp ended his life with his own hands before Otacon could.
* Subverted in ''VideoGame/BeyondTwoSouls''; when cornered by an angry mob in Africa, Jodie decides to shoot herself rather than let said mob get her, but her [[{{Poltergeist}} ghostly]] [[NonHumanSidekick sidekick]] Aiden knocks the gun out of her hands before she can pull the trigger.
* Happens in [[TearJerker particularly heartbreaking]] fashion during the [[HopelessWar Elder Wars]] in ''{{VideoGame/Lusternia}}''. {{Justified|Trope}} in that, by dying, the Elder Gods gave life to the mortal races - if they'd fought to the last, they would've been [[CannibalismSuperpower devoured]] by The Soulless Gods instead.
* In the opening scene of ''VisualNovel/TearsToTiara'', Rhiannon (who has seen glimpses of her own future) decides that her death by suicide is a better alternative than being made a living sacrifice to revive a demon lord.
* At the end of ''VideoGame/SyphonFilterLogansShadow'', Shen Rei commits suicide to prevent his capture and interrogation.
* ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}'' has one when Director of Research [=McMullen=] committed suicide via bullet to the brain, so that Alex Mercer couldn't absorb him to get information about the AwfulTruth.
* ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}'' plays this for BlackComedy. The folks at Aperture Science were so obsessed with contingency plans for everything (except, apparently, their own deaths at the hands of the neurotoxin they empowered their AI to release) that, should the countdown displaying the ExactTimeToFailure of the facility's nuclear reactor itself fail, the supervisory programming will activate a SelfDestructMechanism to remove the uncertainty.
--> '''Announcer:''' "Reactor explosion timer destroyed. [[ExpospeakGag Reactor Explosion Uncertainty Emergency Preemption Protocol]] activated. This facility will self-destruct in two minutes."
** PlayedForLaughs by the villain near the end, who offers you a chance to fall victim to some very obvious {{Death Trap}}s rather than a final showdown in the lair. They also have some rather amusing things to say if you in fact take the offer, and you are rewarded with an [[ViolationOfCommonSense achievement]] for one of them.
--> '''[[spoiler:Wheatley]]:''' "Less a death trap, more a death option for you."
* Used as a gameplay mechanic in multiplayer for the upcoming ''[[VideoGame/NinjaGaiden Ninja Gaiden 3]]'': players near death can opt to [[http://www.gamespot.com/ninja-gaiden-iii/videos/ninja-gaiden-3-multiplayer-seppuku-gameplay-video-6347295 commit suicide]] to prevent opponents from scoring from killing them.
* There are many moves in the ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' series that revolve around this, with most of them falling under TakingYouWithMe. The main exceptions are Memento, which will lower the target's Attack & Special Attack while making the user faint, and Lunar Dance & Healing Wish, which make the user faint while fully restoring the next Pokémon that the player sends out.
* In the backstory of the Dead Money expansion to ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', security came online and trapped the guests during the Sierra Madre's grand opening. Some of the guests shot themselves or overdosed on chems, rather than wait for a less humane death at the guards' hands.
** In the quest "I Put a Spell on You" from the main game, if you don't kill [[TheMole Curtis]] yourself, he commits suicide after you report him to Hsu. If you sell Arcade Gannon into slavery as Caesar's personal doctor, he eventually commits {{seppuku}} with a scalpel.
* A frequent player behavior in ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' for several reasons:
** There are weapons which give a positive effect to the wielder on a kill. If a player commits suicide before being killed by one of these weapons the attacker will not receive the positive effect from the weapon. Especially effective with the Half-Zatoichi which gives 86-110HP, depending on the user's max HP on kill but deals 50HP of damage to the wielder if he tries to put it away before getting a kill.
** It isn't unusual for players on the losing team to jump into a BottomlessPit or some kind of environmental hazard. This is because players on the losing team are essentially free points and target practice to the winners, who have about 10-15 seconds of time after the end of a round to hunt down the survivors with guns that deal infinite {{Critical Hit}}s. For the same reason, some soldier players will also use the [[ActionBomb suicide taunt]] available to their pickax melee weapons to simply blow themselves up after a lost round.
* ''VideoGame/DustFiveOneFour'' has suicide as an option in combat. It counts towards your death count but not towards the enemy's points total.
* After Guillaume has been defeated by Albert and Michel in ''VideoGame/VampireNight'', he refuses to accept this term so he just let himself fall off a cliff while laughing manically.
* ''VideoGame/DeadIsland'' is quite possibly the most horrific portrayal of a ZombieApocalypse or TheVirus ever, and has in their logo and promotion an image of someone hanging themselves rather than become infected, kill other humans and eat them all while they are self aware. A couple in the trailer for ''Riptide'' blow themselves up when they are shipwrecked on the infected island before the zombies can get to them.
* ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIV'': Isabeau understands it's more than likely she will come to understand what you hope to achieve if she talks to you for a while in the Law or Chaos paths. [[TearJerker She, however, refuses to understand.]]
* In the ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'' DLC "Enemy Within", stunning an [[AncientConspiracy EXALT]] soldier with the Arc Thrower results in him taking poison to prevent capture and interrogation.
* In the "Genkibowl VII" DLC of ''VideoGame/SaintsRowTheThird'', during the Sad Panda Skyblazing activity the announcers mention that some Mascots are choosing to jump off rooftops rather than face your {{Chainsaw| Good}}.
* Subverted in ''VideoGame/ResonanceOfFate''. When Leanne discovers that she was part of an experiment, the results of which doom her to die on her twentieth birthday, she decides to jump off of a building, preferring to die on her own terms. However, Zephyr ends up saving her life, and in the process, midnight rolls around... and Leanne is still alive.
* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'': The mysterious and ninja-like Garou, when beaten, will give Link advice about the area he's currently in before saying "We never leave bodies, this is the way of the Garou" and setting themselves on fire with their specialized cloaks. The Garo Master miniboss in the area's temple takes in a step further by pulling out a bomb and blowing himself up.
* In ''VideoGame/DeadRising2'', when Brandon Whittaker realizes he's been bitten by a zombie, he slits his throat with a piece of broken glass. Dwight Boykin goes crazy and mistakes the hero for a zombie. When he's defeated, he defiantly declares that he will not become a zombie and pulls the pin on a grenade he's wearing.
* Part of the CreationMyth in ''VideoGame/BrutalLegend''. Ormagöden, the Great Firebeast, chose to die by self-detonation rather than being drowned in mud by the First Ones, but his death destroyed the First Ones and gave the world the [[FourElementEnsemble Elements which became the foundation of the Age of Metal; Fire, Noise, Blood and Metal.]]
* In the climactic final act of ''VisualNovel/{{Policenauts}}'', [[spoiler: after Jonathan manages to defeat Redwood in combat, Redwood [[DisneyVillainDeath jumps off the stairway and falls to his death]] while [[DieLaughing laughing madly]], mostly to deny Jonathan the satisfaction of taking him in.]]
* ''Franchise/MassEffect'':
** Several [[MoreThanMindControl indoctrinated]] characters, if Shepard helps them realize their indoctrination, will commit suicide with their last ounce of free will rather than continue to be a tool for the Reapers. This can even include [[spoiler:Saren and The Illusive Man, who are major antagonists but who would never have sided with the Reapers had they been in their right minds.]]
** ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' has a background conversation between Liara and Glyph wherein the former discovers, to her utter horror, that in order to combat the invading [[CosmicHorror Reapers]], all the major cities on a colony detonated nuclear weapons inside them when the invasion arrived...with the population still present. Apparently this was not simply a case of a government imposing this on unsuspecting citizens, [[HeroicSacrifice but rather a democratic decision made by the entire population.]] Given the [[MindRape nature of]] [[BodyHorror the Reapers,]] this also counts as a global-scale IDieFree.
* ''VideoGame/MechWarrior 4'' plays this on two levels. The original game actually had a suicide-weapon you could mount on your 'Mech in multiplayer, allowing you to blow up near the enemy. In the single-player campaign when you face an enemy pilot who is notorious for killing his ejected opponents and beat him, your MissionControl asks if he ejected. The player character responds "No. I think he was afraid to."; having never offered mercy, the enemy pilot expected none.
* Whenever Wild Dog is defeated in the ''VideoGame/TimeCrisis'' series, he blows himself up with a detonator.
* After you beat the FinalBoss of ''VideoGame/HotlineMiami'', he chooses to blow his brains out rather than let Jacket kill him. Which, considering how Jacket tends to execute people, is probably the less painful option.
* Something of a notorious habit among ''VideoGame/WorldOfTanks'' players who are faced with some kind of losing proposition, usually by being on the wrong end of a CurbStompBattle. Rather than go down fighting, these players drive off cliffs, into water, or (in the case of artillery) fire their giant high-explosive shells into the nearest adjacent wall to kill themselves via splash damage. This behavior is usually frowned upon as the choice of the cowardly and the spiteful, and is the reason that petulant artillery players of this sort have earned the nickname "scumbag" from BigNameFan Creator/TheMightyJingles. Eventually, [[ObviousRulePatch a patch was added]] that changed the game so that any time someone suicided, the XP and silver value of their vehicle would be divided up among all enemy players who were still living at the time.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* One ''Webcomic/CyanideAndHappiness'' [[http://i.imgur.com/z9JR7Tm.png comic]] has a prisoner about to be executed. He gets out of it by requesting a peanut butter and jelly sandwich as his last meal due to his peanut allergies.
* In ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'', destroying the Gates - dimensional barriers keeping [[EldritchAbomination the Snarl]] from destroying all that exists - is actually regarded as a superior alternative to allowing them to fall into the hands of Xykon, but is only halfway this trope: the reasoning behind that if the gate is destroyed, the Snarl will not come out immediately and in full force and said gate can be rebuilt later. While if it is knowingly summoned through one of them, the end of the world will be imminent.
* Averted in [[http://danielscreations.com/ola/comics/ep0215.html this comic]] of ''Webcomic/OurLittleAdventure''.
* In issue 10 of ''Webcomic/{{Sonichu}}'', AuthorAvatar Chris and his "band" the Hedgehog Boys (which are pretty much some of the various Sonichus around in his series) use a song to destroy the 4-cent Garbage building, two villains who are left behind, Clyde Cash and Jack Thaddeus, opt to leap down an elevator shaft holding hands (they were apparently lovers) than let Chris kill them. [[HeartwarmingMoment It was actually pretty touching]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* The ''Website/{{Snopes}}'' [[http://www.snopes.com/military/flagball.asp version]] of the "Flagpole ball has a pistol for suicide" {{Urban Legend|s}}.
* Towards the end of ''Roleplay/SurvivalOfTheFittest V1'', two characters are involved in a car chase across the island. At the culmination of this chase, one has been killed, and the other - Jeremy Torres has crashed his car into the side of a warehouse, which at the time, is a dangerzone. Rather than allowing himself to be killed up by his collar, the barely living character shoots himself as a final act of defiance. [[EveryCarIsAPinto His car then blows up]], igniting chemicals in the warehouse and resulting in a massive explosion.
** And near the end of V3, Quincy Archer takes one look at his sword, remembers that most of the remaining students have guns now, and promptly slits his own throat.
* In ''WebVideo/ThereWillBeBrawl'', Bowser chose to blow himself up with a Bob-Omb and take out as many Game and Watches as possible rather than be killed and mutilated like the rest of the victims.
* In the fifth episode of ''Franchise/DragonAge: WebVideo/WardensFall'', Cyril — who was working for [[HumanoidAbomination the Mother]] and had led numerous refugees to their deaths — opts to leap off a roof rather than be interrogated by Kristoff, the main character. His terror at meeting one of The Mother's servants in an earlier episode suggests he was afraid of what the Mother would do to him.
* ''Roleplay/MSFHighForum'': Apostate's also got a healthy dose of this from her Start of Darkness.
* Believe it or not, in the French MP3 saga ''Les Aventuriers du Survivaure'', the Captain actually says "Better to die than to die!". Lampshaded would be an understatement: he can NeverLiveItDown. Actually, the OnlySaneMan lampshades it just in time to prevent the captain from saying it ''again''.
* Almost played straight, then averted completely in ''ShadowhunterPeril'': When Umbra's physical form is destroyed by Lilith, he is sent back to Hell in the presence of all his demon brothers and sister, who, unlike him, are completely evil. Asmodeus, Umbra's eldest half-brother and the King of Hell, offers Umbra the chance to give them information about the Resistance before Umbra gets his punishment (which is likely to be a long, torturous death). Umbra responds with this:
--> ''"God? You think I'm doing this for God? I don't even know if God exists, but if He does... ever since He can remember, people have died in His good name. Long before that September. Long before hijacking planes. He's lost the will, He can't decide. He doesn't know who's right or wrong, but there's one thing that He's sure of: This has been going on too long. I do this for my friends. And yes, I HAVE FRIENDS. Good people, who were thrust into this mortal conflict you demons have interfered with. I do this for them. And I will not betray my friends."''
** He ends up being tortured by demons, only to be rescued by Arthur, a fallen angel.
*** His speech is also a ShoutOut to Music/LilyAllen, for some reason.
* WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic is very suicidal in WebVideo/ToBoldlyFlee, but refuses to hand himself over to be tortured and killed by Turrell and Zod, preferring instead to drive into the PlotHole and be at peace that way. Seeing how pathetic Turrell is, it's not hard to see where he's coming from.
* This is a common way for [[Franchise/TheSlenderManMythos the Slender Man's]] victims to die, and [[FateWorseThanDeath very,]] ''[[AndIMustScream very]]'' much preferable to being taken. It has been demonstrated [[WebVideo/TribeTwelve several]] [[WebOriginal/HikingFiend times]] that this doesn't always work [[spoiler:and, more chillingly, ''[[BackFromTheDead it's completely pointless.]]'']]
* In Creator/TomSka's short film ''WebVideo/HitIt'', John states that he only attempted suicide because [[spoiler:he was being threatened with someone who had resources to kill him and his girlfriend]].
* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'', [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1341 SCP-1341 ("JUNGLE IN A JAR")]]. During an experiment with SCP-1341, the jungle it creates takes over the testing facility and traps the experimenters, killing most of them. The last survivor says [[ThatWasTheLastEntry in the last entry in his experimental log]] that he's going to commit suicide rather than let an enemy kill him.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales'': Played with in "[[Recap/DuckTalesS1E53HeroForHire Hero for Hire]]". Launchpad yells to the cops that "you'll never take me alive!", but he's really setting up FakingTheDead.
* Double subverted in the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "Night of the Living Homeless" -- When a scientist tries to kill himself before the homeless break down the door to his lab, he ends up non-fatally shooting himself in the head several times before finally hitting the mark.
* At the end of season 3 of the ''Comicbook/{{Spawn}}'' animated series, Sam and Twitch give Chief Banks the choice of either killing himself or be disgraced once his link with Jason Wynn is exposed to the public and having his family dragged into such a dirty mess. Chief Banks chooses to kill himself.
* In a NeverSayDie version, Melody, the only one who knows the key to [[WesternAnimation/BarbieAndTheDiamondCastle the Diamond Castle]] and who happens to be trapped in a mirror, shatters the mirror rather than let the castle fall into the [[VainSorceress villain's]] hands, in essence trapping herself in the mirror forever. She gets better.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' episode "Unmasked", after Batman defeats all his mooks, the leader of Kobra throws himself into his own [[SharkPool cobra pit]].
* Played for laughs in the [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Warner Bros. cartoon]] "Life With Feathers." Sylvester refuses to eat a suicidal bird because he thinks the bird is poisoned. The bird cajoles Sylvester with a cooking radio show and a cookbook until Sylvester, virtually skin and bones, gives in.
-->'''Sylvester:''' All right... I'll do it. I'd rather die than starve to death!
* Princess Bubblebum from ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' keeps cyanide-laced gum under the table in her meeting room, and advises another character to eat it if raiders break in. Yes, ''[[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer really]]''.
* In the first season finale of ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'', The Inquisitor, after being defeated by Kanan, accepts his death calmly and falls to his demise, rather than facing the wrath of Darth Vader.
-->'''Inquisitor:''' You have no idea what you've unleashed here today. There are some things far more frightening than death.
* In Episode 77 of ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'', Stumpy decides to hang himself when he finds out that the planet is going to be destroyed. Of course, [[BungledSuicide he fails]] [[RunningGag as usual]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Cato the Younger (not the one who constantly said "[[ChewbaccaDefense Carthago Delenda Est]]"; that was Cato the Elder), who was well-known for his moral rectitude, committed suicide after being defeated by Caesar. He and another prominent Optimate had broken away from Pompey after he was defeated at Pharsalus and fled to Africa. Cato didn't command this army; he left it to his Optimate ally. When he learned of Caesar's victory, he committed suicide not only because he didn't want to live in a world with Caesar in power but he also ''refused to give Caesar the power to pardon him''.
* Germany, World War II:
** Being a radical/reactionary ideology and party that gained total control of an industrialized state, launched the Western half of a World War, then lost, the ''Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei'' provides a number of examples. Most of the higher-level Nazis had a cyanide pill in their possession. If they saw capture as imminent, they would bite into their cheek and open the pill, thus killing themselves.
** For his cognizance in the 20 July plot, Erwin Rommel was given the choice from Fieldmarshall Keitel to either face the People's Court, a death sentence and potential persecution of his family, or to commit suicide quietly, with the prospect of the government hushing up his implication, granting a state funeral and paying a pension to his family. He took cyanide.
** Hitler killed himself while Soviet troops closed in on Berlin.
** Joseph Goebbels' two last acts on Earth were to murder his own unwilling children -- at least one fought back -- then to kill himself.
** Heinrich Himmler used his poison pill after his capture by the British army. A British doctor doing a check-up on him noticed a suspicious lump in the cheek of their unidentified captive, whereupon he bit the capsule.
** Robert Ley hung himself with his bedsheets in Nuremberg before the trial began.
** Hermann Göring convinced a friendly guard to bring him his cyanide capsule before he was executed. He ended his life two hours before he would have gone to the gallows.
** Hans Frank attempted suicide twice before being caught, but failed, was sentenced to death at Nuremberg, and hanged.
* Decebalus of Dacia, to avoid being captured and humiliated by the Romans.
* Likewise, [[UsefulNotes/PunicWars Hannibal Barca]]. His [[FamousLastWords last words]] were particularly pointed at the Romans.
-->"Let us relieve the Romans from the anxiety they have so long experienced, since they think it tries their patience too much to wait for an old man's death."
* During the reign of the Roman emperor Nero, people on his hit list often got notified that they probably wanted to commit suicide or he'd make them wish they had. Given how sadistically Nero had some people executed, it should be no surprise that many who received such notes took their advice. Among those that did were his former tutor the philosopher Seneca and Petronius, author of the ''Satyricon.''
** Nero committed suicide when he was declared as an enemy of state after the burning of Rome. Sure, it was completely normal back then, but nonetheless it's a great example of poetic justice.
* The Roman religion did not see suicide as a sin, and in fact held up suicide as a noble form of death second only to death in battle. Free men and women who had been convicted or who were likely to be convicted of capital crimes were allowed to kill themselves before they could be executed; under Roman law before Nero, this meant their heirs would then be allowed to inherit their property rather than having it confiscated by the state. Nero's main innovation was that if the accused committed suicide, Nero would take his property but let the accused's family live. If he refused to commit suicide, Nero would order the execution of the entire family, including children. Even worse, because the law prohibited execution of a female virgin, any daughters in the family (even infants) would be raped by the executioner before being strangled and thrown off the Tarpeian Rock. Nero also executed men solely to get their estates, manufacturing charges that no jury would disagree with lest they become his next victims.
* Cassius and Brutus, the leaders of the conspiracy against UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar, committed suicide after losing the Battle of Philippi (there were actually two clashes-Cassius ordered his freedman to kill him after the first, Brutus killed himself after the second).
* Subverted by J.K. Paasikivi, President of Finland: ''Kuoleman pelosta ei kannata tehdä itsemurhaa'' (it is no use committing suicide because of fear of death.)
* ''{{Seppuku}}'' could be used by samurai to avoid falling into enemy hands. ''Jigai'' was a less messy version that women could use to the same ends.
* During UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, Japanese propaganda was used to convince Japanese soldiers and the natives of the islands they occupied that the Americans were savages who would rape and torture them if they ever captured them. This often led to mass suicides among Japanese soldiers and native civilians whenever the Americans landed on an island. Perhaps the most notable instance of this occurred on the island of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Saipan Saipan]] in July 1944. Some 10,000 Japanese civilians took their own lives rather than be captured by the Americans, many doing so by jumping off cliffs now nicknamed "Banzai Cliff" and "Suicide Cliff."
* Serial killer/torturer/rapist Leonard Lake got arrested for illegal possession of a firearm. When it was clear that the police wouldn't let him go without some investigation, which would undoubtedly lead the police to discover his crimes, he left a note to his wife and ingested a cyanide capsule that killed him in order to avoid having to face legal proceedings and a certain death sentence.
* Mathematician and father of the modern computer Alan Turing was convicted of homosexuality and offered the choice between a series of chemical injections that would amount to chemical castration, or a long stay in prison, where he was unlikely to get the best of treatment. He chose the injections, but about a year later, he was found dead of cyanide poisoning, presumably from an apple impregnated with cyanide. It is disputed whether he deliberately poisoned himself with the apple, or accidentally inhaled it while working with potassium cyanide.
* Mathematician Felix Hausdorff committed suicide with his wife and wife's sister in order to avoid going to a concentration camp.
-->"By the time you receive these lines, we three will have solved the problem in another way - in the way which you have continually attempted to dissuade us."
* In 73 CE, after the failure of the Jewish Rebellion against the Roman Empire, virtually the ''entire population'' that had taken refuge in the fortress of Masada, soldiers and civilians alike, committed mass suicide rather than face slavery or crucifixion at the hands of the Romans. Two women and their five children were the only ones not to take their own lives. The survivors were, in fact, treated with honor by the Romans.
* Twelve centuries later the Jews of York who had taken shelter in the castle during a pogrom followed their ancestors' example and committed mass suicide.
* Also happened in Numantia, Spain (then, Hispania), in 143 BD. After the long siege from the Romans and its chief Scipius Emilianus, lots of Numantians chose to die rather than surrender.
* The Roman general Varus and many other Roman officers did this in the final moments of the Battle of Teutoburg Forest, both out of shame (three Roman legions were completely annihilated), and out of fear for what the Germanic tribesmen would do to them (many of the captured Roman soldiers were tortured, then had their head nailed to a tree while they were still alive; other Romans were burned alive in wicker cages as sacrifices to the German gods).
* This was the motivation behind the Peoples Temple mass suicide at Jonestown in 1978, though in this case only a small fraction of those dead would have faced criminal charges. It's also unclear how many people were actually willing participants in the suicide and how many were tricked/forced into it.
* World War I:
** Gavrilo Princip, the man who killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand and set off World War I, attempted to do this, but the cyanide was too old and his gun was wrenched out of his hands.
** The same went for another of his co-conspirators, Nedeljko Čabrinović. The man behind the first assassination attempt, a grenade tossed at Franz Ferdinand's car, swallowed a cyanide pill from the same batch as Princip, and jumped in the nearby river to ensure he died. Unfortunately, his cyanide also failed to kill him, and the water was only five inches deep. He was then dragged out and beat almost to death by an angry mob.
* Dr. Bruce Ivins, the prime suspect in the 2002 anthrax poisonings in the U.S., committed suicide in 2008, shortly ahead of being indicted for murder in the attacks.
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Heemeyer Marvin Heemeyer]], otherwise known as Captain Killdozer, built a tank and then proceeded to wreck numerous buildings and vehicles in his town causing over $7 million in damages, before getting his tank stuck in a basement - at which point he shot himself in the head. It's suspected he had intended for his rampage to be a final act, as once sealed from within the Killdozer had no way for the occupant to get out of it - or for others to enter - without demolishing parts of it.
* An entire French military unit (possibly company-sized) was imprisoned during the Haitian Revolution for suspected treason. They committed mass suicide by strangulation rather than face torture or, more likely, starvation.
* King Mithridates VI of Pontus attempted this when about to be killed by the Romans. Unfortunately, the attempt was done using a poison [[AcquiredPoisonImmunity he had built up an immunity to]]. Accounts vary on whether he got a lackey to run him through with a sword or whether the Romans got at him first.
* The Norwegian warrior king Olaf Tryggvason ([[GentlemanAdventurer GENTLEMAN ADVEN...]] [[Webcomic/GirlGenius oh, sorry]]), after losing a [[CrowningMomentofAwesome last stand at sea against all contemporary Scandinavian powers]], ultimately losing only when engaged by other Norwegians. The king then threw himself into the sea without bothering to take off his mail, which most likely pulled him to the bottom of the Baltic sea. However, he did sometimes do this for sport prior to the battle, and therefore some believed he managed to save himself after all. The event is most famously told in Creator/SnorriSturluson's ''Literature/{{Heimskringla}}''.
* During the purges of the 1930s, several Soviet politicians committed suicide rather than go to the gulag.
* Xiang Yu, a Chinese general who ended up losing out to his ally-turned-rival Liu Bang, attempted to escape to friendly territory when Bang put a price on his head. However, his would-be assassins caught up and, after losing all the men who were still loyal to him, Yu slit his own throat. According to some accounts, he saw an old friend among the group hunting him, and offered his head (and the reward) to the man.
* R. Budd Dwyer, treasurer of Pennsylvania, AteHisGun during a televised news conference rather than face sentencing the next day for charges stemming from a bribe scandal. This inspired the song "Hey Man Nice Shot" by Music/{{Filter}}.
* Ancient British rebel leader Boudica, Queen of the Iceni tribe, took this option when her host was routed by the Romans.
* The Austrian author Egon Friedell jumped out of his window while the SA was arguing with his maid downstairs. Considering that he was a highly educated, outspoken Jew in Nazi Germany this probably saved him from a FateWorseThanDeath.
* During the September 11th attacks of 2001:
** The people above where the planes hit the World Trade Center were unable to evacuate unlike those below, leading to a number of them deciding to throw themselves out of the towers to their deaths below. This was discussed in the documentary ''Film/NineEleven'':
-->'''Firefighter Joe Casaliggi''': How bad is it up there that jumping is the better option?
** The passengers of one of the hijacked planes [[Awesome/RealLife attacked the hijackers]] to regain control of the cockpit. They stopped the terrorists from reaching their (probable) destination of Washington D.C., instead causing it to crash near Shankville, Pennsylvania.
* There is some speculation that Columbian drug lord Pablo Escobar committed suicide before the police could shoot him. Since he was shot multiple times and from far range, there is no way to prove or disprove this. However, Escobar's brothers Roberto Escobar and Fernando Sánchez Arellano believe he shot himself. "He committed suicide, he did not get killed. During all the years they went after him, he would say to me every day that if he was really cornered without a way out, he would shoot himself through the ears."
* Eric Harris of the Columbine High shooting, when realizing that none of his and Dylan Klebold's bombs had gone off, that they couldn't bring themselves to kill some people they were close to, and that a police sniper had already found them and was ready to shoot, shot himself to make sure that he'd never be brought in for questioning. Klebold doesn't quite match this trope, as he had been fantasizing about and wanting to commit suicide for months and the shooting was primarily a vehicle to make him do it finally, as he regretted killing other people (this can be seen in the way he ascends the cafeteria stairs one last time in the security footage).
* Mark O. Barton killed his wife, children and eight people at his workplace, triggering a manhunt for him. Police eventually tracked him to a gas station. Surrounded with no place to escape, Barton ducked behind his van and shot himself dead to avoid going to jail.
* At least one suicide has been linked to the supposed [[MayanDoomsday 2012 apocalypse]].
* Ex-LAPD officer and psychotic spree killer/civil rights vigilante ([[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation depending on who you ask]]) Christopher Dorner shot himself in the head to spare himself the agony of burning alive when his former comrades set his hideout on fire (whether accidentally or on purpose is unclear).
* Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII famously killed themselves rather than be taken alive by Octavian. If they had been, he would taken them back to Rome to parade before the people before dying humiliating deaths.
* Under US law, when a prisoner is sentenced to death he or she must die in the time, place and manner described in the execution order. This is why death row inmates, particularly those on or coming up to their last day are very closely monitored, because a desperate prisoner with nothing to lose and a life expectancy literally measured in hours may decide to simply kill themselves and keep the state from getting the satisfaction.
* Larry Phillips Jr, one of the perpetrators of the North Hollywood shootout, killed himself to avoid capture by police after being cornered and wounded.
* Sueng Hi Cho, the 2007 Virginia Tech mass murderer killed himself after his killing of 32 people. He did so when police closed in on the building in which most of the shooting had taken place.
* There was a MASSIVE discussion on whether Chilean President Salvador Allende Gossens took his life or was murdered during the bloody Chilean coup that would kickstart Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship. It was finally determined through autopsies that he had shot himself in order to not fall into the hands of the military; considering the "forced disappearances", repression and torture that took place against the opposition to Pinochet, he had quite the point. Similarly, some of his aidés also killed themselves before the military could take hold of them.
* Reportedly, a few people attempted suicide on the night of October 30, 1938 (the night of the Mercury Theatre's ''Radio/TheWarOfTheWorlds'' broadcast), rather than be killed by the Martians' death machines. However, these reports remain unsubstantiated, and the consensus among historians is that the "mass panic" supposedly caused by the broadcast never happened.
* In jurisdictions where the death sentence is in force, criminals who commit murder may commit suicide afterwards to prevent arrest and sentencing. Likewise, if a criminal committing a crime punishable by death is about to be arrested and has no means of escape, they may take their own lives to also prevent arrest and a trip to death row.
* An odd take on this trope is present for those that support "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_die Right to die]]" laws, which permit those with terminal ailments to commit physician-assisted suicide rather than succumb to the ailment that afflicts them. Suffice to say, it's a rather contentious topic.
[[/folder]]

A small number of actual criminals would rather die than be taken to prison ("You'll never take me alive, copper!") -- for the most part, people tend to treat these cases a lot less sympathetically than other examples of this trope, as it's seen as a cowardly way to escape justice. The criminal may even make one last shot at a BlastOut, meaning either a bloody escape or, more likely, SuicideByCop. If there's a ledge nearby, you can bank on a HighDiveEscape.

* MechWarrior 4 plays this on two levels. The original game actually had a suicide-weapon you could mount on your 'Mech in multiplayer, allowing you to blow up near the enemy. In the single-player campaign when you face an enemy pilot who is notorious for killing his ejected opponents and beat him, your MissionControl asks if he ejected. The player character responds "No. I think he was afraid to."; having never offered mercy, the enemy pilot expected none.