History Main / CutTheSafetyRope

* A variation almost happens toward the end of ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', when Wrath and Greed/Ling are both hanging off the edge of the Briggs fortress. Ling's devoted vassal Lan Fan is holding onto her lord, whom Wrath is trying to pull down with him. Lan Fan recently had an automail arm attached to her body and the weight is tearing it off, so Ling tries to order her to let go, but she refuses. Luckily, a Briggs soldier shoots Wrath and causes him to fall alone, enabling them to pull Ling back up before Lan Fan loses her arm entirely.

* ''Series/{{Flashpoint}}'': In "One Wrong Move", bomb tech Spike proposes a desperate and risky plan to save his best friend Lew from a land mine. Realizing that Spike's plan is likely to fail and that such a failure would kill not only Lew but Spike as well, Lew chooses to trigger the mine intentionally rather than risk his best friend's life.

* This is actually the backstory of how Series/UltraSeven became Dan Moroboshi. When Stationary Post Observer #340 came down to Earth, he witnessed a mountaineer named Jiro Satsuma perform such a sacrifice to save his friend that he decided to rescue the selfless man. Moved by the deed, Agent #340 took on a human form exactly resembling Jiro afterwards, and soon joined Ultra Garrison and became known as Ultraseven.

* A non-rope variant in ''Film/RushHour3''. Kenji and Lee's duel ends with them both hanging over the net of the Eiffel Tower. Kenji orders to release him since they'll both die, Lee refuses insisting he can save him. So in an act of RedemptionEqualsDeath, Kenji lets go of Lee's and falls to his death.

* A non-rope variant in ''Film/RushHour3''. Kenji and Lee's duel ends with them both hanging over the net of the Eiffel Tower. Kenji orders to release him since they'll both die, Lee refuses insisting he can save him. So in an act of RedemptionEqualsDeath, Kenji forcibly untangles his hand from Lee's and falls to his death.

* This is used in TheReveal of an episode of ''Series/MacGyver'': a rock star is revealed to be her [[MySiblingWillLiveThroughMe twin sister impersonating her]] after the latter died during a climbing accident and she cut the rope. This caused the surviving twin to have a FreakOut and start switching between the two identities to "keep her sister alive".

** It happened to Murdoc once, too- though in this case, MacGyver managed to make him cut his own rope. But it happens that Murdoc keeps surviving impossibly over the top deaths.

* ''Film/VerticalLimit'': Happens to the main character's father in the prologue, causing the friction between him and his sister. All the more heartbreaking as it was the son who cut the rope at his father's insistence just moments before the sister was able to attach additional securing that might have saved them. Repeated with an IronicEcho at the end of the film when TheMentor sacrifices both himself and the SmugSnake (unwillingly) to save the others.

* Attempted by Seiya in SaintSeiya. When he and Shun are attacked by [[EvilTwin Dark Andromeda]] right next to a cliff, Shun is stuck between protecting the very weakened Seiya, whose survival hangs solely on how half of Shun's Armor chains are wrapped around his arm, and defending himself from [[BloodKnight Dark Andromeda's]] [[AttackAttackattack attacks.]] When Seiya realises this, [[TakeAThirdOption he decides]] to [[HeroicSacrifice cut the the chains and let himself plummet to what's surely his death]] so Shun can survive; between the [[BreakTheCutie shock of almost surely losing his friend]] and [[KickTheDog Dark Andromeda mocking them]], [[SilkhidingSteel Shun]] [[BewareTheNiceOnes snaps MASSIVELY on Dark Andromeda]] [[TheDogBitesBack and bloodily kills him]]. [[SubvertedTrope Seiya ultimately survives, but barely]].

* The version of this where [[http://lawcomic.net/guide/?p=759 the OTHER person cuts the rope is deconstructed]] in ''The Illustrated Guide to Law'' in their section on murder. Namely? If you cut the rope on someone else... it's murder. (The law doesn't consider this self-defense.) If they cut the rope themselves, it's gonna be VERY hard to prove you didn't do it.

* The version of this where the OTHER person pulls the rope is deconstruced in LawComic.net in their section on murder. Namely? If you cut the rope on someone else...it's murder. (The law doesn't consider this self-defense.) If they cut the rope themselves, it's gonna be VERY hard to prove you didn't do it.

* Inverted in ''Literature/{{Heroes of Olympus}}'', where instead of letting Annabeth fall by herself, Percy lets go of the ledge he was holding onto, sending them both into Tartarus.

* Inverted in ''The Eiger Sanction''. Creator/ClintEastwood's character is hung up on his own safety rope, and the only way to survive is to cut it so his friend can haul him to safety using another rope. The dilemma is [[spoiler:Eastwood has just found out his friend is TheMole. Is he planning to save him, or kill him?]]

* Averted in ''High Citadel'' by Desmond Bagley. The DirtyCoward of the team starts cutting through the rope to save himself, only for the lead man to throw a climbing axe into his head. That was a case of someone panicking rather than a ColdEquation type-decision though.

* Although it's not a literal rope, this is basically how ''TransformersArmada'' ends, in a rare case of it happening between enemies: Optimus Prime and Galvatron are about to be devoured by Unicron, and Optimus is the one clinging to a ledge with one and and holding Galvatron up with the other. Galvatron stabs Optimus' hand, forcing it to let go and plunging himself into Unicron; then, evidently, without Galvatron around, Unicron doesn't have enough evil to feed off of, so he disappears as well. Yes, ''Galvatron saved the universe.''

* ''Recap/TintinTintinInTibet'': Captain Haddock attempts this, but drops his pocket knife. Tharkey, who has walked out, catches up to them and makes his presence known, before saving them off-page.

* Disney/BigHero6 includes a climatic moment that messes with this trope in an interesting way. After his suit is destroyed after passing through the warp hole, Baymax sacrifices himself for Hiro by shooting Hiro back to earth through the warp hole. By effectively cutting his safety cord, Baymax sends both himself and Hiro into a fall--one to safety and one to death.

A common version of this is to have the characters holding hands, so that the faller must simply relax their hand to sacrifice themselves. If a character does fall in such a manner and doesn't appear onscreen as dead, they probably aren't.