History Main / ColdEquation

* In the first episode of ''WesternAnimation/MightyDucksTheAnimatedSeries'', the Ducks' ship is traveling through dimensional limbo. Unfortunately, the ship will fall apart unless some weight is jettisoned, and everything onboard is bolted down. Team leader Canard decides to jettison ''himself''. Wildwing tries to stop him, but only manages to save the mask of Drake Dukane.

** The season four finale sees Archer, Lana, Cyril and Ray trapped in a room quickly filling with water and only three sets of scuba gear to swim out and to the surface. The dying station captain they're with tells them that one one them will have to drown and die, hopefully temporarily, while the other three took the scuba suits and tried to get themselves to safety and resuscitate the volunteer. [[HeroicSuicide Archer immediately volunteers after Lana reveals she's pregnant.]]

* Averted in a season 5 episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}''. When Ray, while piloting the plane he, Archer, and Cyril were on, realizes they won't make it to the runway because there was only enough fuel for 2 people to be on the flight, Archer attempts to convince Cyril to jump out, until Cyril begins [[EmergencyCargoDump dumping the shipment of guns aboard the plane.]]

* ''Film/BirdBox''. Melanie has to row a boat down the river with herself and the children blindfolded so they won't be driven insane by the {{Brown Note Being}}s. But to get past the rapids, [[AdultFear one of the children]] has to remove their blindfold and guide her. Her son volunteers, but it's implied Melanie will force the Girl to do it instead. [[spoiler:In the end Melanie can't bring herself to do it and tries to row unguided, causing the boat to capsize--fortunately they all make it to shore.]]

* ''Film/DoomsdayMachine'' features an absolutely bonkers [[ZigZaggedTrope zig-zagged version of the trope]]. The Earth has been destroyed, and the only survivors of humanity are the seven astronauts aboard the spaceship ''Astra'', en route to Venus to establish a colony there. The oldest astronaut notices an increase in radiation, and calculates that it's fatal--but at their current speed, it'll sterilize them all by the time they reach Venus. He also calculates that they can avoid this fate if they jettison part of the ''Astra'', most of their equipment... and four of the crew members. He uses the ship's computer to calculate which of them should die, but before he can announce the results, two other astronauts get killed in an accident with the airlock. Sick of all this dying, the ''Astra'''s captain decides to disregard the calculations: they'll jettison everything except the crew, accelerate as much as possible, and hope for the best. But part of the ship gets stuck as they're jettisoning it, so Daniel and Georgiana (who had been marked for death in the original equation anyway) go to manually un-stick it, [[HeroicSacrifice knowing they'll be left behind in the process]]. And then in one final, bizarre twist, Daniel and Georgiana ''survive'' by finding an abandoned but still functioning spacecraft from a prior mission to Venus, while the three designated survivors aboard the ''Astra'' [[KilledOffscreen all die when the ship is destroyed off-screen.]] [[note]]The final twist appears to be the result of the filmmakers [[TroubledProduction having to cobble together an ending]] five years after the rest of the movie was filmed, without access to the original actors or sets. Daniel and Georgiana wear face-concealing spacesuits and barely talk for this entire sequence, to obscure the fact they're suddenly different actors.[[/note]]

* [[ComicBook/StarLord Star-Lord]] once blew up a moon inhabited by 35,000 people in order to generate enough energy to defeat the Fallen One, a former herald of Galactus who had been serially destroying planets. He promptly turned himself over to the Nova Corps and stopped using the title of Star-Lord for a time.
* ''ComicBook/RobinSeries'': When Tim is stuck in the back of an armored truck that's been buried in cement with the Cluemaster one of his first thoughts is that he'd live longer if he killed Brown to prevent him from using up any more of their limited oxygen. He's immediately ashamed he was thinking about it and feels Bruce would be disappointed in him. Luckily Spoiler saves them before it becomes too much of an issue.

* In ''Series/SquidGame'', Sang-woo takes a calculated approach to the games, being willing to do whatever necessary to increase his chances of winning, including cold-blooded murder.

* PlayedForLaughs in ''Anime/FullMetalPanicFumoffu''. A viral agent is released in the school resulting in CrowdPanic until Kaname dresses down the class. Everyone starts hugging each other, determined to FaceDeathWithDignity... [[WhatAnIdiot until Sousake reveals he has enough vaccine for one person]]. HilarityEnsues with send-ups of the requisite LotteryOfDoom, HeroicSacrifice and MustNotDieAVirgin tropes. And ''then'' they discover that the virus only [[TheNudifier eats clothing]].

* ''Film/{{Apollo 13}}'', as in the RealLife incident, runs up against the Equation a few times.

* ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'': In the backstory to the movie, Thanos originally came up with a radical version of this idea to save his entire home planet during an OverpopulationCrisis -- kill half the population completely randomly, so that those who remain will be able to have full access to their resources. His idea was rejected and he was banished from his world, which soon became extinct. Vowing to never let the tragedy of Titan happen anywhere else, Thanos traveled the galaxy with an army of loyal followers who traveled from world to world to halve populations. In the film itself, Thanos seeks to complete the Infinity Gauntlet in order to do this to the entire Universe in one fell swoop... And he succeeds, with ''Film/AvengersEndgame'' exploring the fallout of his actions and how they are ultimately undone.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekTheAnimatedSeries'' faces this in the episode ''One Of Our Planets Is Missing.''The AlienOfTheWeek is a literal planet eater who has already demonstrated its capacity, and it is heading straight for a populated planet. There aren't enough ships (or time, for that matter) to evacuate everyone, so the planet's leader opts for saving the children.[[RousseauWasRight The population of the planet cooperates readily with the decision once they know what is happening.]]

See also TheNeedsOfTheMany, EmergencyCargoDump (the non-lethal version), NoPartyLikeADonnerParty, CutTheSafetyRope, TrialByFriendlyFire and RestrictedRescueOperation. See SomeoneHasToDie for the voluntary variant of this trope.

** In the Norse Lostbelt, humanity is barely surviving. Due to lack of resources, people are exiled from villages when they turn 15 (25 if they managed to bare a child), where they will surely be killed by the giants roaming outside.

->''"Yesterday afternoon, they gave me the order to send more than 20,000 Jews out of the ghetto, and if not - "We will do it!” [...] I must perform this difficult and bloody operation - I must cut off limbs in order to save the body itself. I must take children because, if not, others may be taken as well - God forbid."''

* ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'': Mephistopheles puts Jeanne d'Arc in an illusion where she is on a ship that is fleeing a disaster. They run into her mother and Pierre Cauchon, the bishop who had her burned at the stake, but the ship only has room for one more person. Mephistopheles clearly expected her to leave Pierre to die, and this would prove she has darkness in her heart out of a need for revenge. Instead, Jeanne gives up her seat so that both her mother and Pierre can live. [[UngratefulBastard Pierre refuses to thank her and calls her a witch]]. Jeanne merely comments she expected that, and Mephistopheles comments that the real one would react the same way.

Note: Please '''do not include''' discussions on the short story ''Literature/TheColdEquations'' or for the novel trilogy ''Literature/StarTrekColdEquations'' here. Post them on the discussion page for those stories.

* ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'': When Austin O'Brien was a child, his parents were knocked out when their van crashed in the jungle and caught fire. Austin was struck with indecision on who to save, but ultimately decided to save his father, reasoning that since his father was an expert mercenary that they would have a higher chance of survival in the wilderness together. Fortunately, his father woke up and was able to save his mother before the van exploded. Afterwards, Austin was filled with self-loathing over the fact that if it wasn't for that stroke of luck, he basically condemned his mother to death. When Austin duels Trueman, Trueman reads his mind and taunts him about his past decision. Trueman forces him to relive his trauma by playing a card called The Unchosen One, which forces the opponent to pick one Monster and the others get destroyed, then Trueman will get to revive one of the destroyed Monsters on his side of the field. At the time, Austin controlled Volcanic Doomfire, which represents his father, and Volcanic Queen, which represents his mother. Though it tears him up inside, he choses to save Volcanic Doomfire, reasoning that if he saved Volcanic Queen, then Trueman would attack it with the stronger Volcanic Doomfire. Trueman mocks him for chosing to save his father again and ultimately defeats him. Right before Trueman erases him, Austin hits the DespairEventHorizon and says he should have just let all three of them die.

-->'''Marco''': I want you to listen to me without getting angry. You're not strong, Jean. That's why you understand how the weak feel. And you're adept at properly assessing a situation, so you know exactly what has to be done at any given time.

* ''LightNovel/FateZero'': Towards the end of the Fourth Grail War, Kiritsugu Emiya -- a cynical and pragmatic assassin -- is [[spoiler:doused in Grail Mud and comes into contact with [[GreaterScopeVillain Aŋra Mainiiu]], who asks him a series of philosophical questions wherein Kiritsugu must choose between two groups of people, one of which is slightly larger than the other, and the group he chooses to save is divided before the experiment repeats. Kiritsugu consistently chooses the larger number of people in accordance with his "[[WellIntentionedExtremist ends justify the means]]" philosophy, only for Aŋra Mainiiu to point out that in the end he's killed far more people than he saved]].

* ''Series/{{The 100}}'':