History Main / DIsneyDeath

* ''ComicBook/{{Hound|2014}}'': Emer seemingly dies by the shock of King Connor's bull running into her when one of Maeve's soldiers attempts to capture it away from her father's farm. A grieving Cú Cullan fights Maeve's soldiers in her name but she eventually awakens in the middle of her funeral.

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/TwentyFour'':
** Season 2 has Jack captured by terrorists and brutally tortured to death. Yup, his heart actually stops and he's actually pronounced dead at the end of the episode. However, they manage to get a doctor to resuscitate him time at the very beginning of the following episode.
** Additionally, late in its fourth season Tony Almeida is take hostage by the assassin Mandy and when CTU corners the two of them she seemingly blows them both up. Everyone is in shock and Tony's wife Michelle grieves, but Jack is eventually able to figure out that Mandy faked their deaths and he and Curtis are able to truly save Tony in time.
** Two-thirds through Day 9, the cliffhanger for one episode has [[spoiler:President Heller]] apparently get blown up by a missile. The following episode opens with everyone mourning his death, only for it to turn out that it was faked by Jack and Chloe to buy everyone some time.
* Death seems cheap in the series ''Series/AceLightning'', at least for the "video game" characters. Also subverted in one episode when Ace is surprised to learn from Mark that when humans die they ''can't'' come back in a similar fashion. This does not make Sparx's "death" any less traumatic...
* ''Series/{{Angel}}'': A good Creator/MutantEnemy example is Lorne's head asking for the praising and extolling of his virtues. For whatever reason, his particular variety of demon can survive decapitation--the body needs to be mutilated. The bad guys didn't forget to, though--the Groosalugg, knowing Lorne was Cordelia's friend, switched his body with a soldier.
* ''Series/AshesToAshes2008'' has one in the episode "Charity Begins At Home", [[spoiler:with Shaz]] via {{CPR|CleanPrettyReliable}} though it is actually a pretty well done and relatively believable. It's also quite violent as it leads to [[spoiler:a very brutal beating of the "murderer"]].
* Partially subverted in ''Series/BabylonFive''. After calling down a nuclear bomb on his own position and jumping down a huge hole, Captain Sheridan really is dead. However, he's frozen at the moment of death by Lorien, the first living being ever to come into existence, who tells him he can "breathe on the remaining embers" of Sheridan's life. This means he gets to live for the remaining two years of the series, but Lorien's action only bought him twenty more years, so that he'll die at age 66.
* In the series finale of ''Series/TheAuntyJackShow'', she died of a heart attack. However in the specials and on her Twitter account, she was revived.
* In the series finale of ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'' of all places. [[spoiler:During the battle in the first half of the episode, Helo is shot and severely wounded while rescuing his daughter Hera from the Cylons. His wife Athena tearfully leaves him behind to save Hera (and at that point she wasn't the only one shedding tears), at which point he doesn't appear for the rest of most of the episode...only to turn up alive on Earth at the end of the episode, living happily with his family. He even had the standard Disney Death walking stick to at least acknowledge that he was injured earlier. Strange to see this trope in such a dark AnyoneCanDie CrapsackWorld, but if any couple deserved a happy ending on that show it was them.]]
* Used twice (well, almost) in the season finale of ''[[Series/{{Blackadder}} Blackadder the Third]]''. First, The Duke of Wellington fires a cannon at Edmund, but it is revealed a moment later that the cannonball was [[PocketProtector stopped by a cigarillo case]]. Several minutes later, (though this is actually a subversion) Wellington shoots the Prince Regent and, while Baldrick mourns him, the Prince gets up and reveals that he, too, had a cigarillo case, searches for it in his coat, realizes he left it on the dresser at home, and dies for real.
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'':
** In "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS5E16TheBody The Body]]", Buffy comes to find her mother unresponsive on the couch, not breathing. She calls 911, she performs CPR, her mother gasps. Cut to the ambulance taking them to the scene in the hospital where Buffy's mom is so glad that Buffy came home when she did, or else--wait, why are we cutting back to the CPR? Oh. Well, the paramedics have arrived, and so we get to see them bring her back to the... They call the coroner. Harshest subversion of Disney Death ever.
** Creator/JossWhedon LOVES those teeth-kicking subversions.
** This one was fairly obvious in advance, though; we'd already learned that the body was cold, so the (very short) back-to-life sequence was confusing but obviously not "real".
** It's actually played straight in "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS1E12ProphecyGirl Prophecy Girl]]", when Buffy drowns... only to be brought back to life by Xander's {{CPR|CleanPrettyReliable}}.
%%** In "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS7E22Chosen Chosen]]", this happens to Robin Wood.
%%** Also played straight with Cordelia in the season 3 episode "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E8LoversWalk Lover's Walk]]".
* In the fourth season finale of ''Series/{{Chuck}}'' Sarah apparently succumbs to being poisoned with Chuck even pulling a PleaseWakeUp. It cuts to sometime later, with the scene being a church implying that it's her funeral... and then seconds later pulls down to reveal that Sarah is fine and that she and Chuck are actually at their wedding.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** Technically, whenever the Doctor is about to [[TheNthDoctor regenerate]] in front of a companion who doesn't know what they're about to do counts, as they have no idea they're going to be alright, if a bit different.
*** The same applies to Jack Harkness, who gained ResurrectiveImmortality after [[CameBackWrong Coming Back Wrong]]. [[spoiler:And Rex Matheson from ''Series/TorchwoodMiracleDay''.]]
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E3TheIceWarriors "The Ice Warriors"]]: Victoria witnesses Jamie's apparent death at the hands of an Ice Warrior. However, while the man with Jamie was killed, Jamie himself survived.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E4PlanetOfTheDaleks "Planet of the Daleks"]]: The Third Doctor believes Jo has been killed when the Daleks blow up the Thal spaceship in which she was hiding. In fact, she was rescued at the last minute by a Spiridon named Wester.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E4GenesisOfTheDaleks "Genesis of the Daleks"]]: Following the Thals' missile strike against the Kaled City, the Fourth Doctor believes Harry and Sarah Jane (whom he had sent to warn the Kaled leaders) died in the attack. In fact, they were waylaid by Mutos and never even reached the Kaled City.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS23E2Mindwarp "Mindwarp"]]: The Sixth Doctor is shown a scene in which Peri, her mind hijacked by an alien, was apparently killed. However, it later emerges that the scene in question had been fabricated and Peri is "alive and well and living as a queen".
** [[Recap/DoctorWhos26E4Survival "Survival"]]: [[spoiler:The Seventh Doctor]] has a head-on collision on a motorbike with the enemy, resulting in a huge explosion which we see nobody escape from. Ace begins to mourn his death after she finds [[spoiler:his hat]] and [[spoiler:his umbrella]] laying on the ground. We soon after find out he's somehow just ended up face-first in a pile of rubbish with his backside in the air.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E3SchoolReunion "School Reunion"]] has the robot version happen to K9, although it is unclear if this is the same robot rebuilt (with the same personality and memories) or just another robot of the same model.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E6TheDoctorsDaughter "The Doctor's Daughter"]]: Jenny [[TakingTheBullet takes a bullet]] for the Doctor near the end of the episode. After the Doctor has accepted that she won't regenerate, he leaves her body with her fellow soldiers and goes off in the TARDIS. Suddenly she pops back to life, apparently none the worse for wear (seemingly due to the {{Terraforming}} process that was still ongoing), and takes off in a stolen spaceship ([[LikeFatherLikeSon like father like daughter, apparently]]). The Doctor, however, is unaware that she came back to life.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E12TheStolenEarth "The Stolen Earth"]] ends on a {{cliffhanger}} wherein [[spoiler:the Doctor has started to [[TheNthDoctor regenerate]] after being shot by a Dalek]]. [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd "Journey's End"]] resolves this by [[spoiler:having the Doctor use his old [[ChekhovsGun severed hand]] as a receptacle for the regeneration energy, allowing him to heal himself without having to change his appearance]].
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E13TheBigBang "The Big Bang"]] has ''two''. [[spoiler:In 1996, Centurion Rory is presumed dead from pulling the Pandorica out of the fires of the Blitz during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. He's actually the night watchman of the museum holding the Pandorica. The Doctor also gets one. He travels back in time a few minutes faking his death from a partially powered Dalek raygun. He uses this as a diversion to travel back to the Pandorica to jump start the universe in a [[TitleDrop Big Bang]] Two. Geronimo indeed.]] %%Amy was Only Mostly Dead, but still clinically dead for a few minutes, so it's not this trope.
** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E8LetsKillHitler Let's Kill Hitler]]" plays this trope straight. The 11th Doctor has been poisoned by a brainwashed [[spoiler:River Song]] to the point of no regeneration. After he's died, [[spoiler:River redeems herself by sacrificing her regenerations]] to bring the Doctor back to life.
** A season wide Double Subversion makes up the whole plot of Series Six. The opening, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E1TheImpossibleAstronaut "The Impossile Astronaut"]], has the 11th Doctor shot dead and killed by an unknown assailaint in a space suit [[spoiler:who later turns out to be River Song being forced to do it against her will]]. 11 later reappears a few moments later, but it turns out that the 11 everyone saw die is him sometime in the future, and because it's a fixed point in time, there's no way to stop it [[YourDaysAreNumbered with 11 gradually approaching the day of his death]]. Then in the finale, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E13TheWeddingOfRiverSong "The Wedding of River Song"]], it turns out that [[spoiler:11 is able to TakeAThirdOption by meeting with the shape-shifting android assassin who attempted to kill Hitler from the aforementioned "Let's Kill Hitler" and having it take his form, revealing that that's the one who "died" in "The Impossible Astronaut," allowing 11 to survive and keep the timeline intact.]]
* ''Series/DrakeAndJosh'': In "The Great Doheny", a retired magician named Henry Doheny takes up residance at the Parker-Nichols house; to get him out, Drake and Josh host a magic show to get him out of retirement. The trick involves Doheny lying in a box while the boys impale him with swords and he teleports out unharmed; but when he does not teleport out, a doctor comes over and sees the swords killed him, thus a funeral is held. All of a sudden, Doheny appears, having did his best trick ever by coming BackFromTheDead. It was revealed at the end that Megan was the one who came up with the trick.
* [[CruelTwistEnding Rather mean subversion]] in ''Series/GhostWhisperer'': At the end of season one, Melinda's best friend (and the only main character other than Melinda at this point) realizes that she, not her brother, is the ghost and she was killed in the plane crash earlier in the episode. The season two premiere reveals that she was merely in a coma, thus allowing her spirit to wander (as has happened at least once before) and she has a very good chance of recovery. Then Melinda wakes up; it was a dream and her friend really ''is'' dead. She has remained dead ever since.
* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' has two characters (Adam and Claire) whose power is essentially to always have a Disney Death: they come back to life, assuming that something isn't preventing them from regenerating, and if the thing is removed they regenerate as normal. This also allows Peter and Sylar to gain similar powers, from their abilities to absorb powers of others. To make matters ridiculous, it's revealed that if anyone is given a transfusion of Claire's (or Peter's) blood, they regenerate as well. This allows characters that have been definitely killed off to come back if needed (it may be that you can receive this transfusion even if you're dead -- HRG must have been cold before he got his transfusion).
** On the flip side, Mr. Lindermann has the ability to heal others which includes, apparently, bringing people back to life. As long as Linderman is nearby (and willing), anybody can have a Disney Death.
*** This is not so remarkable, given that it is a superhero show. The "willing" part is harder, though, because Linderman tosses BadPowersBadPeople out the window by being a ''BigBad'' whose power is healing. ([[AffablyEvil He's a darned good cook, too.]])
** Except that [[spoiler:Arthur Petrelli killed Adam]].
* ''{{Series/House}}'':
** During the series finale [[spoiler:House is trapped in a burning building and dies when the building collapses on him. Paramedics pull a body out of the rubble and confirm that the body was indeed House. At his funeral, Wilson receives a text message from House during his speech. It turned out that House actually faked his death so he could be with Wilson during his final 5 months instead of spending it in prison]].
* In ''Series/KamenRiderDragonKnight'' the term venting is used to describe the disintegration of the losing Rider at the end of a battle. By saying that the Riders were trapped in a void instead of dead, it enabled lost Riders to be pulled back in for the climactic battle at the end of the series.
* ''Series/KamenRiderRevice'' sees Hiromi Kadota falling off a cliff and presumed to be dead, but way later (almost 10 episodes later) it is revealed that he survived, went back to live with his mother and lost his memory of when he was at Fenix.
* ADA Alexandra Cabot from ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' is shot and declared dead in Season 5. At the end of that episode, Stabler and Benson are brought out to a secluded spot, where they meet Cabot, who has only been injured and are informed that she is going into Witness Protection. They are the only ones who know, creating some trust issues with Cragen when she reappears.
* ''Series/{{Lost}}'' basically runs on DeathIsCheap:
** "All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues" uses a very cheap Disney Death, when Charlie is found strung up by the neck, not breathing and with no pulse. But after a particularly protracted CPR session, Jack is able to revive him. Some fans decided to blame the unlikely event on the possibly magic island (similar to AWizardDidIt).
** Shannon apparently dies in "Hearts and Minds", but the sequence is shown to have been a drug-fueled hallucination by her brother Boone.
** At the end of season 4, the Kahana explodes [[spoiler:with Jin on board]]. A few episodes into season 5, he's found alive and clinging to shipwreck.
** In season 6, [[spoiler:Lapidus is whacked round the head as the submarine sinks from the Man in Black's bomb, and he is presumed dead by viewers]]. However, he resurfaces clinging to debris several episodes later.
** Near the end of season 3, [[spoiler:Locke gets shot and thrown into a hole full of bodies]], but eventually gets back out of the pit. He later mentions that he didn't die because [[spoiler:[[ArtisticLicenseBiology the injury location was where his stolen kidney used to be, and if he'd still had that kidney, he would have died]]]].
** On the villain front, Mikhail Bakunin survived multiple seemingly fatal incidents in Season 3. Including impaling.
* In the Season 2 opener of ''Series/{{Mayday}}'', Captain Tim Lancaster is partially sucked out of a cockpit window, and everyone thinks he's dead, especially when the flight attendants see that his eyes are open and not blinking. To the surprise of everyone, he turns out to be alive and not even that badly hurt. (''Mayday'' being a non-fiction series, this is a true story, but the episode plays into this trope by setting up the narrative to conceal Lancaster's survival and make the viewer think he's dead, only to hit them with TheReveal about halfway through the episode.)
* ''Series/TheMiddleman'' episode "The Boyband Superfan Interrogation" plays the Robot Disney Death relatively straight (though with tongue firmly in cheek, as with everything on the show). {{Ridiculously Human Robot|s}} Ida is destroyed defeating the villain's scheme, given a hero's funeral -- and then Wendy finds a box with a brand-new Ida robot inside. It is never mentioned again.
** It is implied again that they can just 'get a new model' when Ida malfunctions in a later episode, although they don't realize this (or know how) until it's far too late, leading Wendy to start making an impromptu {{Video Will|s}}. [[spoiler:Naturally, she gets out of danger at the last minute.]]
* In the series 3 finale of ''Series/MooneBoy'', "Gershwin's Bucket List", George Gershwin, Grandpa Joe's imaginary friend, is assumed to have kicked the bucket upon [[spoiler:Grandpa Joe's unexpected death following a line dance outing]], only to turn up at his own funeral as Sean is delivering the eulogy.
* ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' was doing this even before they were owned by Disney.
** ''Series/PowerRangersInSpace'': In the series finale, Andros has a final clash with his sister Karone which seemingly kills her. As Andros weeps over her body, she is revealed to be alive and free of the brainwashing that reverted her back to Astronema.
** ''Series/PowerRangersLostGalaxy'':
*** The two-part season premiere, Leo's brother Mike seemingly dies after giving him the Red Quasar Saber. It is later revealed that the crevice Mike fell down was the same one the Magna Defender was in. The Defender absorbed Mike's soul to free himself and later gives his life to resurrect Mike.
*** Kendrix performs a HeroicSacrifice to stop Psycho Pink in "The Power of Pink". She is inexplicably resurrected in the season finale.
*** In the final battle with Trakeena, Leo activates a self-destruct device on his PoweredArmor to destroy her and seemingly himself. As the Rangers fear he may be dead, he appears, his helmet damaged but still alive, and gives them a thumbs up.
** ''Series/PowerRangersLightspeedRescue'': In "Curse of the Cobra", Carter unleashes a point-blank energy blast upon the MonsterOfTheWeek after being told that it could possibly kill him too at that range. The rangers despair that Carter is dead, only for him to emerge from the rubble a few minutes later.
** ''Series/PowerRangersWildForce'': The Wild Zords, who are living creatures unlike most Zords in the series, are destroyed by Master Org in the finale only to be resurrected to defeat him for good.
** ''Series/PowerRangersSPD'': In the finale, the Rangers find a weakness that will allow them to destroy the Magnificence, the biomechinal creature that Grumm had been taking orders from. Unfortunately, as Cruger and his wife Isinia are still in Omni's body, this runs the risk of killing them too. The rangers destroy the Magnifince, and seemingly Cruger and Isninia along with it, only for the two to survive against all odds.
** ''Series/PowerRangersMysticForce'': Leanbow and Daggeron are killed by the BigBad in the penultimate episode. They are revived in the finale just in time to finish off the villain.
** ''Series/PowerRangersOperationOverdrive'': Mack destroys the final villain Florious and dies as well in the process. He is resurrected as a human by the Sentinel Knight.
** ''Series/PowerRangersMegaforce'': Robo Knight gives his life to revive Orion, only to be seen fighting alongside the Rangers in the final battle.
** In the ''Series/PowerRangersRPM'' finale, [[spoiler:Venjix breaks into Dr. K's lab, hacks her computers, and downloads everything to do with the Rangers. Using this data, he can not only "delete" megazords out of existence, but also the Rangers themselves. He finishes the first of the two episodes by "deleting" Gem and Gemma (Gold and Silver), but with help from Tenaya, Dr. K is able to retrieve their data and reassemble her first two friends to help defeat Venjix once and for all... [[TheEndOrIsIt or did they]]? The final scene of the series is one light on one of the Rangers' morphers lighting, red like the Venjix Eye, with the big V's theme music playing. One good Disney Death deserves another]].
** Its source material, ''Series/EngineSentaiGoOnger'', also features an example: [[spoiler:in [=GP35=], Yogostein turns Sousuke [[TakenForGranite into a bronze statue]], seemingly killing him off... until the next episode, where he's revived and defeats Yogostein in a one-on-one duel]].
** In ''Series/TensouSentaiGoseiger'', [[spoiler:Buredoran embodies this trope and is a rare villainous example. Not counting his reappearances in movies, he seemingly dies twice. First as Buredoran of the Comet and second as Buredoran of the Chupercabra when he's revived as [=BuredoRUN=] after being OnlyMostlyDead. He's finally killed for good, ...for the time being, after his reveal as Brajira of the Messiah]].
* ''Series/RedDwarf'': This happens twice in "[[Recap/RedDwarfThePromisedLand The Promised Land]]", with Rimmer first being believed dead when the bomb he is carrying explodes over a moon (before it's revealed that he did survive), and then Kryten shutting down near the end, only to be saved by Rimmer using his Light Bee to recharge him (at the cost of his Diamond Light powers).
* The first season finale of ''Series/RobinHood'', where [[spoiler:Marian is mourned, avenged, and then discovered to be still alive]]. (Setting the scene for a major audience shock when [[spoiler:she dies for real in the second season finale]].)
* ''Series/{{Sliders}}'':
** In one episode, crooner Mel Torme helps the Sliders with their mission, only to apparently die in a car bomb. He inexplicably resurfaces at the end, though, to wish the Sliders well on their way.
** Another episode had a rather cruel example. The characters land in a world run by the Russians and help the Resistance in one of their operations. During the pull out though female protagonist Wade Wells is shot and mortally wounded. The other main characters start to grieve for her till she suddenly appears right behind them alive and well. [[ExpendableAlternateUniverse Turns out it was her double from this particular alternate earth that got killed not her.]]
** The same method of death happens in another episode with [[spoiler:Arturo]]. This was just stretched out for years after the show ended. It took the WordOfGod to clear things up.
* ''Series/{{Spaced}}''. Mike is shot by a paintgun to [[HeroicSacrifice "save"]] his friend Tim. Tim sobs hysterically as Mike passes out in his arms and [[AffectionateParody vomits yellow paint]] (Mike not Tim). Cut to the two of them walking out of the paintball centre, happily reminiscing the game.
* Lucretia in ''Series/SpartacusBloodAndSand'' was stabbed through her stomach by Crixus and she managed to walk up to her husband and she fell over, seemingly dead. Then come the next season, she was fine and dandy. The whole thing was {{lampshade|Hanging}}d where everyone thought that it was the [[DeusExMachina work of the gods]].
* ''Franchise/{{Stargate|Verse}}'':
** ''Series/StargateSG1'': Daniel Jackson has several of these. Considering [[TheyKilledKennyAgain he dies over twenty times in the series and all the movies]], it's fairly understandable. The [[Creator/{{Syfy}} Sci Fi Channel]] once had a "They're dead, no they're not, yes they are, no they aren't!" marathon.
** In the episode "Doppelganger" in ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' [[spoiler:Rodney [=McKay=] ]] dies from a entity that kills people in their sleep, while [[spoiler:John Sheppard]] is trying to save him. Turns out, the whole thing was really [[spoiler:John]]'s Nightmare, and the character wakes up in the real world, perfectly fine, minus a technical cardiac arrest.
*** In the series finale, [[spoiler:Ronan]] is killed by the Wraith in order to up the stakes for the remaining characters and then gets [[AssPull Ass Pull'd]] back to life (also by the Wraith, because they're a bunch of morons).
* Every other person dies once a season in ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', but they always seem to make it back fine. Dean, Sam and Castiel alone have died a collective 20 times on-screen (with Dean dying an additional 100+, non-shown times in the time-loop episode). Why does anybody even try to kill them anymore?
* Another [[CruelTwistEnding rather mean subversion]] in ''Series/UglyBetty'' in the beginning of the second season. Throughout the whole episode Hilda and Santos are shown in her bedroom going over details of their impending marriage, him having only been injured when he was shot. However at the end of the episode, it is revealed that it was all in Hilda's head, and that Santos really is dead.
* In the final episode of the original ''Series/{{Ultraman}}'' series, Ultraman is felled by Zetton, and is KilledOffForReal, until Zoffy comes to rescue him.
* The ending of the second season of ''Series/VeronicaMars'' has the season's BigBad [[spoiler:Cassidy]] detonating a remote bomb aboard a plane that presumably has Veronica's dad on it. However, it turns out that her father drove home and he wasn't on the plane.
* In the ''Series/{{Voyagers}}'' pilot "[[Recap/VoyagersS1E1Voyagers Voyagers]]", Bogg crashes the Wright Brothers' glider during an attempt to prove it works and winds up lying unmoving amidst the wreckage for a few minutes, causing Jeffrey to think he died in the crash. He's fine, if a bit battered.
* Happens on some occasions in ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'':
** In Season 3's "Till Death Do Us Part", Walker himself suffers this while trying to rescue a toddler whose mother's car was teetering off a bridge due to a hit-and-run accident while he and Alex were en route to a trial. The car teetered off the bridge and Walker, as a result, ended up in a coma. After C.D. and Trivette find the driver responsible, Walker eventually comes out of his coma.
** Season 4's "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS4E22Deadline Deadline]]" is a more nightmarish example. The episode detailed the daughter of a state senator being kidnapped by bank robbers in order to extort her father's fortune and being put through the worst hell imaginable of being BuriedAlive until she finally suffocated and having her hopes and dreams stolen from her. Just as Walker and Trivette find the villains responsible, she has just run out of air in her makeshift coffin, but eventually regains consciousness after they dig it up in time.
** Season 5's "Devil's Turf" had an undercover Texas Ranger-- posing as a student at a high school while his contact (Walker) posed as a teacher-- being caught infiltrating Mick Stanley's gym, which is the source of a deadly drug used to help students improve their sporting skills, but instead, kills them, and is brutally beaten up and left for dead by the time they dump him back at the high school. He is hospitalized for the remainder of the episode, but eventually pulls through after Walker and Trivette (with help from his older brother, the custodian) arrest Stanley and his goons before they could kill a student who was a regular at the gym and his girlfriend.
** In Season 6's "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS6E10RainbowsEnd Rainbow's End]]", this happens to the titular racehorse when one of the VillainOfTheWeek's henchmen [[MuggedForDisguise knock out one of the stablemen and steal his uniform]] in order to poison his food so he could lose an upcoming match against the villain's horse, Samurai. Rainbow's End still wins the race by a nose, but the poison takes full effect after the fact. Luckily, after Walker arrests the villain (having arrested the phony stableman earlier, who went on to confess his involvement in the attempted murder and the murder of another rival racehorse at the beginning of the episode), Rainbow survives the poison, and then wins the Texas Derby.
[[/folder]]

** Season 5's "Devil's Turf" had an undercover Texas Ranger-- posing as a student at a high school while his contact (Walker) posed as a teacher-- being caught infiltrating Mick Stanley's gym, which is the source of a deadly drug used to help students improve their sporting skills, but instead, kills them, and is brutally beaten up and left for dead by the time they dump him back at the high school. He is hospitalized for the remainder of the episode, but eventually pulls through after Walker and Trivette arrest Stanley and his goons before they could kill a student who was a regular at the gym and his girlfriend.

** Season 4's "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS4E22Deadline Deadline]]" is a more nightmarish example. The episode detailed the daughter of a state senator being kidnapped by bank robbers in order to extort her father's fortune and being put through the worst hell imaginable of being BuriedAlive until she finally suffocated and having her hopes and dreams stolen from her. Just as Walker and Trivette find the villains responsible, she has just run out of air in her makeshift coffin, but eventually regains consciousness after they dig it up.

[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]
%%* Used in ''Film/TenThousandBC'', helped along by ThePowerOfLove, or something close to it.
* In ''A Night on the Town''/''Film/AdventuresInBabysitting'', a character gets a knife thrown at his foot. He's rushed to the doctor, the doctor administers the solitary necessary stitch. He then gets told that while he was administering this tiny stitch to a tiny wound a man with a stab wound just died. He then meets the plucky bunch of kids in the hall, who want to know what happened to their friend with the stab wound. He tells them he died, they go into a fit of mourning, he walks into the corridor asking everyone what they're crying about, "Don't you ever die on me again!", etc.
* About halfway through ''Film/TheAdventuresOfSharkboyAndLavagirl'', Lavagirl [[HeroicSacrifice jumps into a lake filled with water]] [[AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachother to save Sharkboy]], knowing full well that it will kill her. Sharkboy then throws her body into a volcano, reviving her.
* In ''Film/AgainstACrookedSky'', Charlotte is falsely accused of the murder of Cut Tongue, and Sam sees what he thinks is her being shot with an arrow and falling off a cliff. He sadly returns home to tell his parents that Charlotte is dead, and only learns that she's actually alive when she suddenly appears for a visit. It turns out that Ashkea [[HeroicSacrifice took the arrow for her]].
* In ''Film/AlienResurrection'', [[spoiler:after Mason Wren betrays the group and shoots Call, a later scene reveals that Call had survived the gunshot wound, [[RoboticReveal because she is an android]]]].
* Doc's survival of the Libyan terrorists in ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' could certainly qualify (though it is one of the more clever examples).
* ''Film/BillAndTedsExcellentAdventure'':
** Ted appears to get run through by a sword in medieval England, causing Bill to mourn him ("Ted, don't be dead, dude!"). But it turns out Ted fell out of the armor just when he hit the ground; the armor got stabbed, not him. (Never mind the fact that he was completely strapped into this complex outfit.) It's also a ForegoneConclusion, due to the fact that Ted's future self had been seen alive and well earlier.
** The sequel, ''Film/BillAndTedsBogusJourney'', is built around this trope. A militaristic rebel from Rufus's utopian future sends robot duplicates of the title duo to kill the real ones as part of his plan to take over... ''and the robots actually succeed in offing them.'' However, their spirits manage to escape the Grim Reaper, and spend a good chunk of the movie literally journeying through Heaven and Hell to bring themselves back to life.
* In ''Film/TheBoatThatRocked'', [[spoiler:Phillip Seymour Hoffman's character nobly sacrifices himself and goes down with the ship, broadcasting to the end. As the other characters are saved and jubilant, they take a moment to remember him, just as he splutters to the surface decidedly undrowned]].
* In ''Film/BrideOfFrankenstein'', Henry is thought to be dead in the beginning but turns out just fine after being taken home.
* In ''Film/CatsAndDogs'' Lou is dragged out of an explosion unresponsive after the climax, seemingly dead. He wakes up after Scottie tells him he's his best friend.
* Yes, even Creator/LucioFulci did this at least once (shenanigans of the living dead notwithstanding, of course) -- ''Film/CityOfTheLivingDead'' has this happen early on, as Mary Woodhouse is presumed dead of shock and is taken straight to a cemetery for burial before regaining consciousness after finding herself six feet under. If not for Peter Bell, she would've suffocated to death for sure.
* In Creator/BrokenLizard's ''Film/ClubDread'', Sam appears to have drowned in mud, but [[spoiler:turns out to be not only alive, but also the actual killer]].
* Toward the end of ''Film/CrocodileDundeeII'' the hero appears to have been fallen off a cliff, but we later discover that [[spoiler:he and the villain had switched clothes]]. The characters figure it out before the reveal.
* ''Film/CruzDiablo'': When Marcela is convinced that Carlos is dead and she'll have to live the rest of her life with [[DirtyOldMan Marquiss Pedro de Florida]], she decides to commit suicide with some poison Malvina left for her. The poison was actually replaced by Nostromus for one that only interrupts the life for a few hours, giving Cruz Diablo time to kill Diego de la Barrera and the Marquis.
* ''Film/TheDarkCrystal'' has female lead Kira die in hero Jen's arms, but she is then revived at the very end.
%%* ''Film/{{DARYL}}'' features a classic Robot Disney Death as part of its climax/denouement.
* In a particularly pointless version that removes the very last bit of pathos from the film, Snails in ''Film/DungeonsAndDragons2000''. Especially JustForFun/{{egregious}} is that this ending was apparently at the behest of focus groups, who didn't like the original graveside ending where Snails is still clearly dead. The original scene was the closest thing to respectable dignity the movie could manage, but even that got stripped away.
* In ''Film/EndOfWatch'', [[spoiler:Taylor is shot in the chest and falls unconscious as his partner, Zeke, stays at his side, before the villains catch up and shoot Zeke fatally, leaving both protagonists lifeless in the alley as the cavalry arrives. The next scene shows an injured Taylor at Zeke's funeral]].
* In ''Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial'', the title character appears to have died from an illness. See also the climax of the infamous ripoff ''Film/MacAndMe''. Not only do Mac and his family seem to perish in an explosion when they get into a shootout with the police, but their young human friend Eric dies as well, as the kid was near the explosion. The filmmakers work ''hard'' to jerk the tears here, culminating in his mom arriving on the awful scene by helicopter (she'd been searching for him). But the aliens emerge from the flames unharmed, and use their powers to revive him.
* In 2010's ''Film/TheExpendables'' (featuring a bevy of action stars from the 80s and 90s), Gunner is apparently killed by boss-man Barney who is forced to ShootTheDog when Gunner goes homicidally berzerk in a drug-induced homicidal rampage after he went rogue due to resentment at being ejected from the team due to his continued drug habit. Cue implied CradlingYourKill as Gunner whispers his dying message to Barney in exchange for a decent burial in an apparent DeathEqualsRedemption. In the epilogue, he is miraculously still alive and back to normal in a happy reunion with the rest of the team, a fact which is even {{lampshade|Hanging}}d by Barney commenting on it, with Gunner replying that he's thankful that he was still spared by his friend despite everything that happened.
* In the second live-action movie of ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'', ''Film/AFairlyOddChristmas'', Timmy falls off a cliff while saving Mr. Crocker's life. After everyone mourning his death, and Mr. Crocker [[{{Foreshadowing}} suggesting]] a [[TookALevelInKindness heart growing]] moment, Timmy is revealed being alive, climbing the cliff using some candy canes that Santa [[{{Foreshadowing}} had given him before]].
* At the end of ''Film/AFishCalledWanda'', [[spoiler:Otto is run over by a steam roller but manages to survive for one final gag]].
* ''Film/FreebieAndTheBean'': [[spoiler:Bean is shot in the chest. When Freebie returns to the scene, a blanket has been pulled over his face, leading Freebie to think that he is dead, until the ambulance ride, when he suddenly pushes the blanket off and starts talking. Freebie is so angry that he immediately gets into a brawl with Bean.]]
* This happens may times in the ''Franchise/FridayThe13th'' movies. [[JokerImmunity Jason Voorhees just keeps coming back]]. Even when he's supposedly incinerated by the time ''[[Film/FridayThe13thTheFinalChapter Part IV]]'' is over, it's revealed at the start of ''[[Film/FridayThe13thPartVIJasonLives Part VI]]'' that his (still-living, surprisingly enough) father went out of his way to pay for him to be properly buried. Tommy, already driven crazy by Jason trying to enter his mind from beyond the grave (to the point of almost becoming the his replacement in ''[[Film/FridayThe13thPARTVANewBeginning Part V]]''), exhumes him to [[KillItWithFire finish the job]], but lightning strikes before he can torch him, and Jason is back ''yet again''.
* At the end of ''Film/FuriousSeven'' [[spoiler:Dom apparently dies finishing off Jakande during the climax, and all of Brian's attempts to resuscitate him seem to fail. The shock of this causes Letty to regain her memories and reveals that she remembers that they were married. Dom then opens his eyes moments later and it turns out he heard her say all of this]].
* In the ''Film/GetSmart'' movie, Max appears to be killed when he is dragged behind a car that crashes into a train. It lasts long enough for a grief-stricken 99 to admit that she loves him before he appears behind her, battered but alive. But what about the train? "Missed it by ''[[MythologyGag that]]'' {{m|ythologyGag}}uch."
* ''Film/Ghostbusters1984'' ends with the heroes defeating Gozer, but tragically Dana and (to a lesser extent) Louis have seemingly died after being transformed into Gozer's demonic dog minions and then getting burnt to a crisp. The team barely has time to mourn before learning that the two are still alive, and human, inside the now destroyed demon husks and proceed to help them break out.
* In ''Film/{{Godzilla 2014}}'', the nuke that was dropped on Godzilla in the beginning should've killed him, right? Nope, he lived through it, in true Kaiju style. [[spoiler:This happens twice in the last battle, both times coming out alive but exhausted after a long and brutal fight with each of the Mutos. The first time occurs when he's buried by a skyscraper after crushing the male Muto against it. The second time occurs when he literally collapses to the ground after killing the female Muto, and stays there well into the next day before waking up.]]
* Subverted/justified in ''Film/GroundhogDay''. Phil Connors is finally driven to commit suicide to escape from living the same day seemingly for eternity. He kidnaps the local groundhog and drives a truck off a cliff. Phil's cameraman says he might be okay, but then the truck blows up. The next thing Phil knows, it's morning again; not even his death can stop the time loop. Cue montage of him killing himself in every way possible.
* Danny from ''Film/HotFuzz'' gets shot and is caught in an explosion. The movie tries to make you think he's dead, but it's really his mother's grave.
%%* ''Film/HowardTheDuck''. Howard does it ''twice'' in one scene.
* One of the most mind-boggling examples is in ''Film/HudsonHawk'', when a friend of the Creator/BruceWillis character, who seems to have died in a car fire shortly before, shows up again and explains, "The sprinkler system turned on!" This in spite of the fact that the car careened off of a cliff and exploded upon impact with the ground (but it is a parody/comedy). Since the line immediately following is, "yeah! I bet that's what happened!" its mind-boggling improbability can be chalked up to the RuleOfFunny.
%%* ''Film/TheHungerGamesCatchingFire'': Peeta has one of these on the first day of the Quarter Quell.
* In ''Film/IndependenceDay'', our two heroes set off a nuclear explosion in the alien mothership and try to OutrunTheFireball, but it catches up to them. Cut to their friends on the ground having their victory celebration interrupted by news that they had lost contact with the heroes. We get about five seconds for the mood to set in before they see something on radar, drive out to the desert and find them walking away from their crashed ship unscathed.
* In ''Film/IronEagle'', Chappy gets shot down during the mission, and Doug is forced to go alone. However, it's later revealed that Chappy was picked up by American forces after he got shot down.
** In the sequel, Doug is shot down by Soviet pilots in a dogfight within the first few minutes of the movie, but in the fourth movie, it is revealed that he had ejected from his plane, but was later captured and held prisoner by the Soviets.
* In ''Film/JurassicParkIII'', Alan Grant's assistant Billy [[RedemptionEqualsDeath redeems himself]] for putting them all in danger by stealing raptors eggs by making a HeroicSacrifice to save the KidSidekick from pteradons and is last seen being pecked to death by a number of them. Except about half an hour of screen time later, when the survivors are picked up by a rescue chopper, they inexplicably find him already onboard, with noticeable but apparently not life-threatening injuries.
* In ''Film/KillerKlownsFromOuterSpace'', the Klowns' spaceship blows up at the end of the film with [[spoiler:Dave and the Terenzi brothers]] on board. All three of them are alive and well a minute later.
* Played with in ''Film/KissKissBangBang'' when Gay Perry stays alive after getting shot in the chest. [[LemonyNarrator Harry]] then [[LampshadeHanging comments how he hates it when]] [[ExecutiveMeddling movie studio executives]] change a death into a Disney Death to force [[FocusGroupEnding a happy ending]], and they might as well [[EverybodyLives bring back everyone who died]] (and then all of the dead characters, plus Elvis and Abraham Lincoln, walk into the hospital room), but [[ThisIsReality in this case]], Perry did survive.
* Alpha Centauri, the TricksterMentor from ''Film/TheLastStarfighter'', appears to die heroically halfway through the movie, only to reappear with a {{Handwave}} at the end of the movie.
* In ''Film/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'', Sawyer apparently dies helping prevent the destruction of Venice, but it turns out he didn't somehow.
* In ''Film/{{Legion}}'', the archangel Michael is killed but reappears in the end due to God's intervention.
* ''Film/LethalWeapon''
** In ''Film/LethalWeapon2'', a SmugSnake diplomat shoots the Creator/MelGibson character, who falls into a pit. In response, the Danny Glover character shoots the diplomat. Then he goes down into the pit to check on Mel Gibson. And guess what? He's fine! Well, mostly fine, anyway.
** In ''Film/LethalWeapon3'', Lorna is shot several times by [[BigBad Jack Travis]] with the cop-killer bullets. However, after Riggs kills Travis, it turns out that Lorna had actually worn ''two'' bulletproof vests prior to this shootout, but it still wounded her.
* Subverted amusingly in ''Film/LittleBigMan''. Cheyenne chief Old Lodge Skins, Jack's blind mentor, has finally grown tired of life. He and Jack ascend a hill where Old Lodge Skins prays for his death and lies down with his eyes closed. It then begins raining. Old Lodge Skin blinks, then sighs. "Sometimes the magic works. Sometimes it doesn't." and they both go back to their village.
* It seems like anyone who falls off a cliff in ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' movies is going to show up later (apart from {{Mooks}}, but [[WhatMeasureIsAMook since when have they counted?]]).
** [[spoiler:Frodo]] is seemingly killed when he is stabbed by the troll in ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheFellowshipOfTheRing The Fellowship of the Ring]]'', and again in ''The Return of the King'' when he is [[spoiler:poisoned by Shelob but turns out just to be paralyzed]]. (Both incidents are canon.)
** In ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheTwoTowers The Two Towers]]'', Frodo appears to fall to his death, but we are immediately shown that he only fell a couple of feet into the fog. (Not canon.)
** Also in ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheTwoTowers The Two Towers]]'', [[spoiler:Aragorn]] is seen to fall over a multi-hundred foot cliff and all the characters mourn, but it turns out he's completely uninjured, besides a little dizziness and some scrapes. (Definitely not canon but almost lethal to Creator/ViggoMortensen who came close to drowning while filming that.)
** In ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheReturnOfTheKing The Return of the King]]'', Faramir is grievously wounded in battle and would've been [[KillItWithFire killed with fire]], albeit accidentally, in his insane father's suicide attempt had Gandalf and Pippin not shown up. After he's rescued, he regains consciousness. (Basically canon.)
* ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'':
** The apparent death of [[spoiler: Bucky Barnes]] in ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger'' is central not only to the Captain America trilogy, but also the whole Avengers arc. [[spoiler: Bucky appears to fall to his death during a combat mission during WWII, but is instead captured, brainwashed and periodically cryogenically frozen by HYDRA and used as their most effective assassin-weapon for over seventy years. The discovery of this by Steve Rogers and his commitment to saving his lifelong best friend leads to the discovery that SHIELD has been infiltrated by HYDRA, the effective dismantling of both those organizations and the “Civil War” between the Avengers which then leaves the whole planet more vulnerable to intergalactic threats like Thanos.]]
** Zigzagged in ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2014''. Plant-being Groot heroically sacrifices himself to save the other Guardians--but his friend Rocket finds a still-living twig and plants it. By the end-credits, we see a little baby Groot growing again. But he looks subtly different, and in the sequel we find that he has quite a different personality. WordOfGod [[https://www.cbr.com/guardians-of-the-galaxy-groot-dead-baby-groot-son/ confirmed]] that Groot had in fact died, and "baby Groot" is a different being--essentially, the old Groot's son.
** In ''Film/BlackPanther2018'', during a DuelToTheDeath for the Throne of Wakanda, [[spoiler: T’Challa is thrown over a waterfall by his cousin Killmonger]]. He gets better though and virtually [[LampshadeHanging Lampshades]] this trope when he returns for the final battle.
** In the climactic final battle of ''Film/{{Eternals}}'', Ikaris grabs [[spoiler: Druig]] by the throat, lifting him into the sky, hurls him into the side of a volcano and then violently lasers him into the ground for good measure. Ikaris then flies back to the other Eternals and reports that [[spoiler: Druig]] is gone, earning himself a revenge-fueled beatdown from a grief stricken and enraged [[spoiler: Makkari]], only for the supposed murder victim to turn up just in the nick of time to save [[spoiler: Sersi’s]] life so that she can [[spoiler: kill the Celestial Tiamut and prevent his planet-destroying Emergence, [[NiceJobFixingItVillain which was the reason Ikaris tried to kill Druig and previously killed Ajak]] in the first place]].
*** On a slightly Meta level, the previous deaths of [[spoiler: fellow Eternals, Ajak and Gilgamesh]] did make the potential killing of [[spoiler: Druig]] more credible in the eyes of both the rest of the Eternals and the audience, having set up an AnyoneCanDie precedent.
* ''Film/MeanGirls'' plays with this trope with the "just kidding" death of Regina, who gets ''much'' better after [[LookBothWays being run over by a bus]].
* In ''[[Literature/TheMillenniumTrilogy Millennium 2: The Girl Who Played with Fire]]'', protagonist Lisbeth Salander gets shot in the head and buried. At dawn, she climbs out and goes AxCrazy.
* ''Film/TheMummyTrilogy''
** ''[[Film/TheMummy1999 The Mummy (1999)]]'': Ardeth Bay pulls a YouShallNotPass on an army of mummies. Cut to the end and he's alive somehow [[note]]He was originally scripted to die, but the filmmakers liked him so much that they wanted to keep him alive for the sequel, which was easy to get away with since his fate was shown off-screen[[/note]].
** In ''Film/TheMummyReturns'', [[spoiler:Anck-Su-Namun stabs Evy to death; her son Alex later gets his hands on the Book of the Dead and brings her BackFromTheDead]].
* ''[[Film/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters]]'' is probably the record holder. The film shows some ''five'' Disney Deaths, of which one barely lasts a minute.
* In ''Film/ThePhiladelphiaExperiment'', the protagonist David Herzeg dives back into the time vortex after breaking the mechanism that was keeping a 1943 Navy destroyer and a 1984 Midwest town suspended in hyperspace. After the vortex collapses, Allison is wandering through the freshly restored town in 1984 when David appears out of nowhere, having not only survived but magically returned to his {{Love Interest|s}}.
* ''Film/{{The Princess|2022}}'': Linh appears to be slain by Julius before he's killed as a classic case of MentorOccupationalHazard, but turns out to have survived at the end. Foreshadowed by the fact that Khai is shown hustling her off, presumably to see to her wound.
%%* In ''Film/ProblemChild'', prunes stop bullets.
* At the end of ''Film/RamboLastBlood'', Rambo is shown wounded and bleeding after killing Hugo and his men, having been shot twice. Perhaps on his last leg, he sits on a chair on the porch of his father's house, as if to pass out and die from his wounds. After the montage of previous movies are shown during the credits, he gets back up and takes a horse for another ride.
* In 1934's ''Film/{{The Scarlet Pimpernel|1934}}'' Sir Percy Blakeney steps out in front of a firing squad, and we hear the "Ready! Present muskets! Fire!" and the report of the muskets. Then Sir Percy comes in for his hat.
* ''Film/ShortCircuit'' subtly {{lampshade|Hanging}}s, then utterly subverts the Robot Disney Death version of the trope. The SAINT-model robot that NOVA Robotics destroyed (and cannibalized) at the end of the movie was a mindless, remote-control replica which the real Number Five was controlling from the safety of the supply van. This, after showing how said van was completely equipped with enough spare parts to build a whole new robot from the ground up, Number Five's expertise at reassembling himself and rewiring his own circuits, as well as him playing with the TV using his remote-control transmitter.
* In ''Film/ShortCircuit2'', Number Five (who in this movie insisted on being called Johnny Five) seemed to die after running out of both his main power and backup power just after capturing the jewel thief who ordered him to be destroyed in the first place. He is brought back to life by {{Magical Defibrillator}}s which were used to "recharge" his batteries, and also gave the human actors a chance to do some of the best soap opera acting this side of ''Series/GeneralHospital''.
* Marv and Hartigan both get these in ''Film/SinCity'' where the characters suffer a dramatic wound and the screen goes black for a few seconds. We then cut to them surviving in one way or another.
* While picking up the defeated Commando Elite in his yard in ''Film/SmallSoldiers'', Alan sees an inanimate Archer. He starts to repeat himself and Alan thinks his chip was fried, but Archer and the rest of the Gorgonites survived.
* In ''Film/SonicTheHedgehog2020'', [[spoiler:when Sonic and Robotnik crash into Green Hills in the climax, Sonic ends up being so beaten from having to run from Robotnik, not to mention the force of the explosion, that he apparently starts to die. Then, when Tom admits that Sonic was his friend while supposedly mourning him to the town, Sonic suddenly receives a burst of energy that revives him, the same energy that caused the blackout, getting the strength he needs to defeat Robotnik]].
* ''Film/SpaceJamANewLegacy'': After performing a move that glitches the game, [[spoiler: Bugs Bunny ends up fading out of existence. He later reappears at the end of the film, after [=LeBron=] sends his son to game design camp]].
* [[spoiler:Kirk]] in ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness'' dies in a scene mirroring ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'', but gets better soon... too soon.
* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
** Done a few times with the droids in the original trilogy, but perhaps the most memorable is when 3PO gets destroyed in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' after walking in on some Stormtroopers, and Chewbacca manages to get him functioning again and reassembles him offscreen much later.
** ''Film/TheForceAwakens'': Finn believes Poe died after [[NeverFoundTheBody their fighter crashed and was engulfed by a sinkhole]]. Much later, Poe reappears leading the GunshipRescue at Maz's castle, [[TheGreatestStoryNeverTold only briefly addressing his]] UnexplainedRecovery. The real-life explanation is that Oscar Isaac was reluctant to play [[ChronicallyKilledActor another character who gets killed off]], and J.J. Abrams reworked the script so Poe would return in the final act.
** ''Film/RogueOne'': Initially played straight with Cassian, who appears to fall to his death while [[ActionGirl Jyn]] flees with the Death Star plans. When Krennic nearly kills Jyn, Cassian comes to her aid and [[BigDamnHeroes guns him down]] despite severe injuries. It's {{Subverted}} when the Death Star fires on Scarif, and [[EverybodyDiesEnding obliterates everyone left on the base, including the protagonists]]. Not to mention, ''every single character'' who wasn't SavedByCanon dies during the movie.
* ''Film/SupermanReturns''. When Superman was stomped to death by ComicBook/LexLuthor on his Kryptonite island, he was on the verge of death, but eventually he sprang back to life.
* In ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2014'', Raphael's assumed dead by the Foot Clan when his brothers are captured. He was just knocked out.
* ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'':
** In ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'', the T-800 is seemingly beaten then impaled by the T-1000, leaving Sarah and John Connor helpless. Then his backup power source turns on, and he [[BigDamnHeroes heads off to save the day]]. Moments later he does die for real, [[ICannotSelfTerminate but by choice]]. In the novel version, he deliberately feigned death after the impaling in order to give himself the chance of a surprise attack.
** In ''Film/TerminatorGenisys'', [[spoiler:"Pops" appears to die after holding off John in the quantum field generator, but survives thanks to a little dip in the liquid metal]].
* ''Film/TransformersFilmSeries'':
** ''Film/TransformersRevengeOfTheFallen'': When one of [[TheScrappy the Twins]] is sucked up by Devestator, all the other characters are sad. However, moments later, he fights his way through Devestator's head.
*** Also happens with [[spoiler:the main character near the end, who has a dream vision of the original Primes before being miraculously brought back. Lampooned upon in Kirbopher's ''Revenge of the Lollin'' where a solider says "he's dead," cutting to a few Primes on a cliff stating "And now he isn't!"]]
** Prime gets his own Robot Disney Death too, as did Megatron in the first movie.
** In ''Film/TransformersDarkOfTheMoon'', the Autobots were believed to have killed by Starscream under Dylan Gould's orders when the Xanthium was destroyed during launch. However, it turns out they faked their deaths (hiding themselves in the booster section instead of the Xanthium itself) in order to have humanity realize that the Decepticons aren't true to their words, and then pulled a BigDamnHeroes moment in Chicago to reveal their survival.
* Happens to [[spoiler:Bella Swan]] at the climax of ''Film/TheTwilightSaga: Breaking Dawn Part I''. [[spoiler:Having earlier been given permission by Edward himself to kill him [[IfYouEverDoAnythingToHurtHer should anything happen to Bella]], [[NotWorthKilling Jacob tells him right to his face that living with his loss is punishment enough for what happened]]. And then Edward's venom finally gets around to kicking in and transforming her, bringing her back to life in the process.]]
* In ''Film/TwoOfAKind1983'', the fate of the universe hinges on whether a morally dubious couple (played by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John) can make sacrifices for each other out of their newfound love, which would prove to God that humans are redeemable. She keeps him from going to prison for his attempted bank robbery that started the Earthly plot, but what about him? In the climax, with minutes left to go before God starts over with everything, she is taken hostage by a robber (actually a disguised Satan, whose existence is at risk!) and his attempt to save her leaves him dead. This proves a sufficient sacrifice, and not only does God spare the universe, He also brings the dead lover back to life.
* Ray's son Robbie in ''Film/WarOfTheWorlds2005''. About halfway through the movie, he leaves his father and runs into a battlefield which is then obliterated in a fiery Martian burst of death from which nothing can survive; at the climax, however, he shows up at his mother's house in Boston without so much as a scratch. Granted, we never actually saw a body, but it's still pretty cheesy and something of a cheat.
* The heroine of ''Film/WhaleRider'' nearly drowns in the climax (and her narration informs us she "was not afraid to die", since she's rescued the pod), but she is found and recovers in the hospital.
* ''Film/WildWildWest''. Jim West. He takes a point-blank gunshot to the chest and falls 80 feet to the desert floor [[spoiler:but survives because he was wearing one of Artemus Gordon's "Impermeable" bullet-proof vests]].
* In ''Film/WandaNevada'', Beau is shot in the chest with the Apache ghost's arrow. He manages to remove it before passing out. Wanda cries over him and begs him not to die, but leaves and ends up back at the OrphanageOfFear. She thinks he's dead until [[spoiler:Beau arrives to pick her up in the new car he bough with the gold he and Wanda found in the Grand Canyon. It's never explained how he survived]].
* In ''Film/WhatAboutBob'', when Dr Marvin attempts to wake Bob the next morning after he's spent the night with the Marvins, he doesn't wake up. A great deal of {{foreshadowing}} has gone into suggesting that he would die. But then he is woken up by the alarm.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]
* Parodied in ''Film/KungPowEnterTheFist'': the Chosen One's mentor Master Tang, love interest Ling, rival Wimp Lo, and his beloved dog are dying. After imparting their "final wisdom" to him, it turns out Master Tang's not dead! And Ling's not dead either! And dog is fine!
-->'''Chosen One:''' Then surely Wimp Lo!...\\
''[he runs to Wimp Lo; we hear flies buzzing]''\\
'''Chosen One:''' ... oh.
* In ''Film/LastActionHero'', when the Schwarzenegger character receives a fatal blow in the "real" world, he needs the main character's help to get back into the movie world, where the same shot qualifies only as a "flesh wound".
* In ''National Lampoon's Film/LoadedWeapon1'', the Jon Lovitz character (modeled after the Creator/JoePesci character in the ''Film/LethalWeapon'' sequels) dies early on, only to return a few scenes later. When asked how he got back, he replies, "I thought this was the sequel!"
* Many characters in ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'' receive what ought to be fatal blows, only to keep on coming. Most memorably seen in the Black Knight ("It's [[OnlyAFleshWound just a flesh wound]]!"), but repeated in variations throughout the movie by other characters ("I'm not dead yet!")
** Another memorable moment has the King of Swamp Castle actually managing to subvert the typical Disney Death and {{lampshade|Hanging}} it at the same time by acknowledging that a man previously stabbed ''in the head'' by Lancelot is now suddenly on a road to recovery and then adds in that suddenly he died without explanation... and the man he describes proceeds to do just that!
* In ''Film/ScaryMovie 3'', Brenda is killed in the first act. In ''Scary Movie 4'', she is inexplicably alive. Cindy even remarks that she thought she was dead. Brenda simply replies that a lot of people thought that.
* In addition to its more serious examples, ''Franchise/StarWars: Episode IV — Film/ANewHope'' also features a more humorous take when C-3PO and R2-D2 are desperately trying to save Luke, Han, Leia, and Chewbacca from being crushed inside a trash compactor. R2 successfully shuts it off, leading to everyone in the compactor to start crying out in joy, but 3PO initially believes that they're screaming from being crushed to death and that they failed to save them in time.
[[/folder]]

* ''Fanfic/LastChildOfKrypton'': [[spoiler:Shinji]] is briefly thought dead after the battle with [[spoiler:Zeruel]].
* In ''Mortality'', the first book of the ''Fanfic/DeliverUsFromEvilSeries'', Literature/SherlockHolmes is believed to have been killed by his ArchEnemy, [[DiabolicalMastermind Professor]] [[BigBad Moriarty]]. It isn't until a few chapters later that the reader knows for certain that Holmes is still alive, but the heroes themselves don't know for sure until InspectorLestrade and [[TheHero Dr. Watson]] overhear [[TheDragon Moran]] confirming it.
* ''Fanfic/InnerDemons'': [[spoiler:Rarity is seemingly killed by [[TheDragon Trixie]] during the Battle of Fillydelphia]], but it turns out she was just rendered comatose.
* ''Fanfic/TheImmortalGame'': [[spoiler:Fluttershy]] is seemingly killed by [[BrainwashedAndCrazy Wrong!Dash]] during the final fight with [[BloodKnight Nihilus]], but it turns out that [[spoiler:Fluttershy]] has a HealingFactor (something that only Earth ponies are supposed to have), which saves her life.
* ''[[FanFic/JusticeLeagueOfEquestria Mare of Steel]]'': Rainbow Dash is caught in an explosion of magic at the end of the first arc. She is badly injured, almost to the point of death, but manages to recover.
* In two separate [[Fanfic/Swing123AndGarfieldodiesCalvinverse Calvinverse]] stories - specifically, ''Fanfic/CalvinAndHobbesTheMovie'' and ''Fanfic/TroubleIsland'' - Hobbes is hit with a machine that makes ''everyone'' see him as a stuffed animal, even Calvin. Both times, he comes back.
* ''FanFic/OjamajoDoremiRiseOfTheShadows'': Towards the end of the fic, Majorin and the Ojamajos are slain by their Shadows. However, the Queen's SuperMode allows her to bring them all back without anyone else dying.
* ''FanFic/NobodyDies'': After a failed attack on an Angel, Shinji is informed by Asuka that he was clinically dead for 15 minutes.
* Late in the ''[[Film/TheMummyTrilogy The Mummy]]'' fic ''Fanfic/FairyTalesAndHokum'', [[spoiler:[[OldFriend Tom]]]] is attacked by pygmy mummies behind a caved-in ceiling; the sudden silence leads Jonathan to believe he died. He doesn't, and turns up alive a few chapters later.
* ''Fanfic/TheGreatDisneyAdventureSaga'': What do you expect? It's a Disney world. So this happens quite a bit with characters being near death before being healed or being revealed as ok.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}'' fic ''[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/10195775?view_full_work=true Guardian Blue - Season 1,]]'' [[spoiler:Nick falls into the water recycling system while saving a wolf pup from the villain Darmaw who also falls in. Darmaw's body is later recovered, but Nick's is never found. After several days of searching he is pronounced dead. Judy learns of a hidden location his body could have possibly washed into and ventures in to retrieve his body and get closure. Ultimately she discovers that Nick is still alive but badly hurt and is able to pull him back out to safety]].

* The surprisingly plausible fan sequel to ''Literature/EarthsChildren'', [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7666095/10/Broud-s-Destiny "Broud's Destiny,"]] has Ayla's chief antagonist defending the Clan against gangs of Others who paint themselves white and kill "flatheads" for kicks. At the climax, the leader of the "chalk-faces" viciously stabs Broud in the abdomen at the same moment Broud breaks his neck. Broud drops to the ground and everything looks like a beautiful death scene. End of chapter. The next chapter opens with a Clan funeral ceremony... turns out it's for Broud's mom Ebra. Broud will take time to recover but is fine.

* Franchise/{{Superman}} in ''Fanfic/YoungJusticeDarknessFalls''. As per [[ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman tradition]], he gets beaten to death by Doomsday, absorbs lots of solar radiation and finally comes back to life when he is needed the most.

* Deconstructed in ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/19465732 where ash accidentally reveals too much and when alain asks him about it he reveals so much more that he didn’t really mean to]]''. By Kalos, Ash has died at least six times since age ten and it doesn't faze him anymore, or at least so he says. But, to Alain, it's freaky and sad because people aren't supposed to die and be revived like that, especially kids.
* ''Fanfic/ADiplomaticVisit'': Happens in chapter 11 of the third story, ''Diplomacy Through Schooling''. [[spoiler: The final clash with Tirek kicks off when he destroys Twilight's home and the school she founded, making her think he killed all her students and their teachers. After the fight, it turns out they're all just fine, having evacuated in time.]]
* ''Fanfic/SonOfTheSannin'': The five jinchuriki (Ukataka, Yugito Nii, Roshi, Han, and Yagura) who were captured and killed by Akatsuki over the course of the story are temporarily resurrected as {{Revenant Zombie}}s by Naruto during the final battle. However, when Obito uses the Rinne Tensei at the cost of his life, he ends up making their resurrection permanent.

* ''Fanfic/{{Moonshadow}}'': King is presumedly killed by Bill of the Titan Trappers in chapter 10 with The Collector unable to use their reversal spell to heal him due to having their magic drained. In chapter 11 Camila examination of King reveals that The Collector had enough magic in them to heal King internally and Camila can save the rest of him.

** In Season 3's "Till Death Do Us Part", Walker suffers this while trying to rescue a toddler whose mother's car was teetering off a bridge due to a hit-and-run accident. The car teetered off the bridge and Walker, as a result, ended up in a coma. After C.D. and Trivette find the driver responsible, Walker eventually comes out of his coma.

** In ''Film/BlackPanther'', during a DuelToTheDeath for the Throne of Wakanda, [[spoiler: T’Challa is thrown over a waterfall by his cousin Killmonger]]. He gets better though and virtually [[LampshadeHanging Lampshades]] this trope when he returns for the final battle.

* In the ''Film/GetSmart'' movie, Max appears to be killed when he is dragged behind a car that crashes into a train. It lasts long enough for a grief-stricken 99 to admit that she loves him before he appears behind her, battered but alive. But what about the train? "[[{{Catchphrase}} Missed it by]] ''[[MythologyGag that]]'' {{m|ythologyGag}}uch."

A beloved [[KilledOffForReal major character is seemingly killed]] at the climax of the movie/episode, [[TearJerker hearts are wrenched, four-year-olds are traumatized, grown men are reduced to tears,]] and then -- oh look, the character is NotQuiteDead after all. "I thought you were dead!", [[StockPhrases they recite]] before walking off into the sunset.

* The main character's son in the Creator/{{S|tevenSpielberg}}pielberg version of ''Film/WarOfTheWorlds''; about halfway through the movie, he leaves his father and runs into a battlefield which is then obliterated in a fiery Martian burst of death from which nothing can survive; at the climax, however, he shows up at his mother's house in Boston without so much as a scratch. Granted, we never actually saw a body, but it's still pretty cheesy and something of a cheat.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'' [[DeconstructedTrope deconstructs]] the realistic emotional toll of such an event. Bob spends an entire night in despair thinking that Syndrome shot down the plane killing Helen and the kids. This sends him into a grieving rage after Mirage frees him and he's quite willing to kill her. She is saved only because she reveals his family is still alive. Later, we see that the plane incident has left Bob emotionally raw. He is irrationally adamant about facing the Omnidroid alone since he cannott deal with possibility of losing his family again.

* There are two in the first ''Animation/PleasantGoatAndBigBigWolf'' movie. First, Wolffy is eaten by Cha Cha, only for him and Weslie to be pooped back out when the latter uses some of Mr. Slowy's medicines on Cha Cha. Then, Weslie himself ends up stuck in Cha Cha's flooded headquarters, but comes back completely fine later after he is deposited in the toxins from Granny Snail and uses some enlargement pills left behind by Wolffy to return himself back to his normal size.

->'''Donald:''' Quack. (Oh my god Sora is gonna die. This is like the saddest moment in the history. How are we gonna live our lives knowing that such a brave young boy has died for our cause. Sora, I hope you rest well in the afterlife. You deserve it.)\\
'''Sora:''' And now I’m fine.
-->-- ''[[WebVideo/KingdomHeartsInANutshell Kingdom Hearts 1 in a nutshell]]''

->''"Yeah, boo hiss. I know, look, I hate it too. In movies, where the studio gets all paranoid about a downer ending so the guy shows up, he's magically alive on crutches? I hate that. I mean, shit, why not bring them all back?"''
-->-- '''Harry''', ''Film/KissKissBangBang''

** In Season 6's "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS6E10RainbowsEnd Rainbow's End]]", this happens to the titular racehorse when one of the VillainOfTheWeek's henchmen [[MuggedForDisguise knock out one of the stablemen and steal his uniform]] in order to poison his food so he could lose an upcoming match against the VillainOfTheWeek's horse, Samurai. Rainbow's End still wins the race by a nose, but the poison takes full effect after the fact. Luckily, after Walker arrests the villain (having arrested the phony stableman earlier, who went on to confess his involvement in the attempted murder and the murder of another rival racehorse at the beginning of the episode), Rainbow survives the poison, and then wins the Texas Derby.

** In Season 6's "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS6E10RainbowsEnd Rainbow's End]]", this happens to the titular horse when one of the VillainOfTheWeek's henchmen [[MuggedForDisguise knocks out one of the stablemen and steals his uniform]] in order to poison his food so he could lose an upcoming match against the villain's horse, Samurai. Rainbow's End still wins the race by a nose, but the poison takes effect after the fact. Luckily, after Walker arrests the villain (having arrested the phony stableman earlier, who went on to confess his involvement in the attempted murder and the murder of another rival racehorse at the beginning of the episode), Rainbow survives the poison, and then wins the Texas Derby.

** In Season 6's "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS6E10RainbowsEnd Rainbow's End]]", this happens to the titular horse when one of the VillainOfTheWeek's henchmen disguises himself as a stableman and poisons his food so he could lose an upcoming match against the villain's horse, Samurai. Rainbow's End still wins the race, but the poison takes effect after the fact. Luckily, after Walker arrests the villain (having arrested the phony stableman earlier, who went on to confess his involvement in the attempted murder and the murder of another rival racehorse at the beginning of the episode), Rainbow survives the poison, and then wins the Texas Derby.

** In Season 6's "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS6E10RainbowsEnd Rainbow's End]]", this happens to the titular horse when one of the VillainOfTheWeek's henchmen disguises himself as a stableman and poisons his food so he could lose an upcoming match against the villain's horse, Samurai. Rainbow's End still wins the race, but the poison takes effect after the fact. Luckily, after Walker arrests the villain (having arrested the phony stableman earlier, who went on to confess his involvement in the attempted murder and the murder of another rival racehorse at the beginning of the episode), Rainbow survives the poison, and then win the Texas Derby.

** In Season 6's "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS6E10RainbowsEnd Rainbow's End]]", this happens to the titular horse when one of the VillainOfTheWeek's henchmen disguises himself as a stableman and poisons his food so he could lose an upcoming match against the villain's horse, Samurai. Rainbow's End still wins the race, but the poison takes effect after the fact. Walker arrests the villain after the phony stableman is arrested and interrogated (even confessing to having murdered a rival racehorse and its owner and trainer at the start of the episode) and Rainbow still manages to pull through and then win the Texas Derby.

* In the ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'' episode "Rainbow's End", this happens to the titular horse when one of the VillainOfTheWeek's henchmen disguises himself as a stableman and poisons his food so he could lose an upcoming match against the villain's horse, Samurai. Rainbow's End still wins the race, but the poison takes effect after the fact. Walker arrests the villain after the phony stableman is arrested and interrogated (even confessing to having murdered a rival racehorse and its owner and trainer at the start of the episode) and Rainbow still manages to pull through and then win the Texas Derby.