History Main / DIsneyDeath

* The film of ''Film/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe'' has Lucy seemingly being swept away by a raging icy river, before showing up seconds later unharmed. Later Edmund is stabbed and it seems like Lucy's [[HealingPotion healing cordial]] isn't administered in time, but a few seconds after he goes motionless he coughs and wakes up. Aslan dies for real, but gets better.

** Another episode had Timon actually die from eating a poison bug and being told that he needed to perform one good deed to get into meerkat heaven, and then spending the rest of the episode trying to avoid doing that in order to keep living. Eventually, he does get into meerkat heaven and actually ends up enjoying it there, but it then turns out the whole thing was AllJustADream.

** Also, in the Piglet Movie, both Piglet and Pooh seemingly die when the rotten log they are on plummets down a giant waterfall. After the other characters cry a bit, it turns out they really had hidden inside a hollow part of the log that stayed attached to the land. (this is a bit similar to ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'' where Indy goes off the cliff in a tank)

* In ''Franchise/StarWars Episode IV - Film/ANewHope'', R2-D2 is shot in the space battle, but in the final scene he is shown to be repaired and shined up. This happens again in ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'' when he gets electrocuted, but at the celebration, he's working again. ''R2's a droid''.
** Lampshaded before the celebration scene, when Luke assures C-3PO that R2 will be all right after 3PO offers to donate some of his own parts.
** Also in ''A New Hope'' in the scene where Obi-Wan Kenobi finds Luke after the Tusken Raiders attack him. The camera cuts to show C-3PO's detached arm on the ground, and for a few seconds the audience is led to think that 3PO has been destroyed.
** 3PO does get destroyed in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' after walking in on some Stormtroopers, but Chewbacca manages to get him functioning again and reassembles him offscreen much later.

* Disney itself wasn't always stuck on this syndrome. ''Disney/{{Bambi}}'' is a Disney movie that stayed more or less faithful to the books from which they were made, and dead does mean dead.
* Another nice exception: ''Disney/TheLionKing''. Pulling a Disney Death wouldn't make sense in a movie about the cycle of life and death (and inspired by ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'', which is about [[YouKilledMyFather avenging death]]); as a result, Mufasa gets killed in a massive stampede near the middle of the film, and when he dies, [[AnyoneCanDie he dies for real]]. Though [[SpiritAdvisor he does come back in spirit]].

* ''BrotherBear'' also averts this trope. Kenai's eldest brother dies when he sacrifices himself against a bear and is burned in a funeral pyre shortly afterwards. Kenai avenges him by killing the bear, leading to a literal, magic-induced case of IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim. He later meets a bear cub named Koda, who has recently been separated from his mother, [[spoiler:because Kenai killed her.]]

* OldYeller [[ItWasHisSled dies]], just like in the novel.

** In ''The Return of the King'', Faramir is grievously wounded in battle and would've been [[KillItWithFire killed with fire]], albeit accidentally, in his (admittedly off-his-rocker) father's suicide attempt had Gandalf and Pippin not shown up. After Pippin pushes him off his funeral pyre, he regains consciousness, something Denethor is only alerted to and acknowledges right before he himself catches fire and [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled throws himself off a cliff before the flames can do him in]].

* Elphaba and Fiyero in ''Theatre/{{Wicked}}'', who fake their deaths and leave Oz, although Glinda and all other denizens remain in the dark about this, since they can never return. Doubles as an example of SparedByTheAdaptation, since in the novel, [[DownerEnding both do indeed die]].

* On the topic of ''Disney/TheLionKing'', the sequel smashes Kovu's brother, Nuka, with lots and lots of logs. Their mother, Zira, fell from the top of the dam that collapsed on her son and hit a raging river, where she is apparently drowned or slammed into something. But seeing as this movie is ''RomeoAndJuliet'' with lions, ''someone'' had to die for real.

* Ted appears to get run through by a sword in medieval England in ''Film/BillAndTedsExcellentAdventure'', 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.)

* Diego, in ''WesternAnimation/IceAge'' straddles somewhere between this trope and UnexplainedRecovery with ambiguous "[[CatsHaveNineLives Nine lives, baby]]" after taking a killing blow meant for Manny.

* Ted appears to get run through by a sword in medieval England in ''BillAndTedsExcellentAdventure'', 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.)

* ''SupermanReturns''. When Superman was stomped to death by LexLuthor on his Kryptonite island, he was on the verge of death, but eventually he sprang back to life.
* In ''Film/{{Terminator}} 2: Judgment Day'', the T-800 robot 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 ''StarWars Episode IV - Film/ANewHope'', R2-D2 is shot in the space battle, but in the final scene he is shown to be repaired and shined up. This happens again in ''ReturnOfTheJedi'' when he gets electrocuted, but at the celebration, he's working again. ''R2's a droid''.

** 3PO does get destroyed in ''The Empire Strikes Back'' after walking in on some Stormtroopers, but Chewbacca manages to get him functioning again and reassembles him offscreen much later.

* In the StarWarsTheCloneWars Season 3 Episode, Altar of Mortis, [[spoiler: Ahsoka, who was possessed by the Son of Mortis, was [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness killed after she gives him the Dagger of Mortis]], but she doesn't remain dead, as she is brought back to life when the Daughter (who was stabbed by the Son when taking the stab intended for the Father) transfers her remaining life force into Ahsoka, using Anakin as medium]].

* Subverted in the ''{{Tintin}}'' series. Because of ExecutiveMeddling, creator Hergé was forced to imply the possibility of survival in the suicide note of astronaut Frank Wolff in ''Explorers on the Moon'', who stepped out of his space shuttle into space to [[HeroicSacrifice save oxygen for the remaining passengers]]. WordOfGod, after the fact, confirmed that there was no way Wolff survived.

* Diego, in ''IceAge'' straddles somewhere between this trope and UnexplainedRecovery with ambiguous "[[CatsHaveNineLives Nine lives, baby]]" after taking a killing blow meant for Manny.

* ''VideoGame/ProjectXZone'' has [[GhoulsNGhosts Arthur]] seemingly have one, but anyone familiar with his games would know better. The [[InterfaceScrew game telling you to readjust your units and still having him selectable doesn't help either.]]

** It's actually played straight in the Season 1 finale, when Buffy drowns... only to be brought back to life by Xander's [[CPRCleanPrettyReliable CPR]].

** And ''[[RuleOfThree again]]'' at the end of ''VideoGame/MassEffect3''. [[spoiler:If you choose Shepard to destroy synthetic life, he/she dies, like in the other endings. [[SubvertedTrope And stays dead]]. [[DoubleSubversion Unless you get 100% completion. Then there's a small scene where Shepard may have lived]].]]

** In ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIV'', [[spoiler:Orin]] performs a HeroicSacrifice to help the girls escape. The game gives all indication that he is dead, with the standard "No response, seems to be a corpse" message. But later on, [[spoiler:you find him wounded at the inn in Frenor.]]

* Unless you screw up quite royally, this is Nanako's fate in {{Persona 4}}. If you do screw up, you die.

* The JonnyQuest [[MadeForTVMovie TV movie]] ''JonnyQuestVersusTheCyberInsects'' has a particularly silly example. During a space battle caused by Jonny recklessly charging into the midst of some enemy fighters, an exploding control panel somehow injures Race in such a way that his heart stops beating. Not even two scenes later, Race inexplicably revives with no ill effects. The scene does serve a narrative purpose though - it's a rather sobering moment for Jonny, who blames himself, and after this is when he starts acting like less of a selfish, impulsive JerkAss.

* Every ''SpyVsSpy'' strip contains this trope. A black or white spy gets killed every comic, only to make a return next strip to treat the living spy to a death of their own.

* A ''WesternAnimation/FantasticFour'' episode has the Thing seemingly being killed in a brutal fight (or as DoctorDoom put it, an "athletic little Donnybrook") with the Hulk. He stays "dead" for a good couple of minutes, with nobody being able to get a pulse from him -- later revealed to be due to his rocky exterior.

[[folder:Marvel Studios]]

* A ''WesternAnimation/FantasticFour'' episode has the Thing seemingly being killed in a brutal fight (or as DoctorDoom put it, an "athletic little Donnybrook") with the Hulk. He stays "dead" for a good couple of minutes, with nobody being able to get a pulse from him -- later revealed to be due to his rocky exterior.

* In the first ''[[WesternAnimation/AvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes]]'' episode in which the Avengers fight [[KillerRobot Ultron]], Ultron appears to disintegrate [[spoiler: Comicbook/TheMightyThor]] during a battle, much to the shock of the other heroes. Actually, [[spoiler: [[DarkMagicalGirl Amora the Enchantress]] teleported Thor to Asgard less then a second before Ultron's beam could hit him]]. The next episode has the remaining Avengers hold a small funeral and swear to avenge [[spoiler: Thor]], although [[spoiler: he]] returns well before the episode's end.
** [[spoiler: ComicBook/BlackPanther]] fakes his death in another episode, to prevent the Kree from destroying the sun.

* ''Film/TheAvengers'': [[spoiler:Iron Man apparently exhausts his systems and life support in the climax of the film, and both Cap and and Thor lower their heads in honor of his sacrifice. However, a roar from the Hulk shocks old Shellhead awake.]]
** As revealed in ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'', Agent Coulson was out for all of eight (or 40, depending on who's telling the story) seconds after being run through by Loki, and Nick Fury faked his death and sent him on vacation in Tahiti. [[spoiler: At least, that's the version ''he'' was told. In reality, it took an unspecified number of days and extensive brain surgery for him to come back, and as he had lost the will to live, the Tahiti memories were implanted, and they vaguely echo what really happened, except the context is completely changed.]]
** In ''Film/IronMan3'', [[spoiler:Pepper Potts apparently falls to her death when [[ILetGwenStacyDie old Shellhead fails to catch her]]. Some time later, she shows up again to destroy the Mandarin, who Iron Man had already torched by destroying the Mark 42 suit with the Mandarin himself inside it.]]
** In ''Film/ThorTheDarkWorld'', after the second or third largest TearJerker in a film only 112 minutes long [[spoiler:Loki dies in Thor's arms,]], but then reappears in the final scene incognito, presumably after some surreptitious usurping.

* ''Film/GeorgeOfTheJungle'' [[LampshadeHanging hangs a lampshade]] on it, plays the trope straight, and takes it to a blatantly over-the-top extreme bordering on NighInvulnerability. In one of the first scenes, for example, one of the guides falls at least 400 meters from a RopeBridge over a cliff, at which point the {{Narrator}} reassures the audience: "Don't worry -- nobody dies in this story. They just get really big boo-boos."

* Yes, even 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 "The Doctor's Daughter" [[spoiler: Jenny 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.]]

*** The same applies to Jack Harkness. [[spoiler: And that guy from US Torchwood.]]

** As revealed in ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'', Agent Coulson was out for all of eight seconds after being run through by Loki, and Nick Fury faked his death and sent him on vacation in Tahiti. [[spoiler: At least, that's the version ''he'' was told. His superiors are keeping something fairly important from him.]]

** Following the Thals' missile strike against the Kaled City in "Genesis of the Daleks", the Fourth Doctor believed both Harry and Sarah Jane (whom he had sent to warn the Kaled leaders) had died in the attack. In fact, they had been waylaid by Mutos and never even reached the Kaled City.

->''"[[LemonyNarrator Yeah, boo hiss.]] I know, look, I hate it too. In movies, where [[ExecutiveMeddling the studio gets all paranoid about a]] DownerEnding [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall 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''

* Gabriel Belmont from ''CastlevaniaLordsOfShadow'' is killed by [[spoiler: Satan]] right before the final battle. His wife, Marie, resurrects him.

* In the best ending for ''HeavyRain,'' [[spoiler: it seems like Ethan is too late to save Shaun from drowning and collapses in tears. Then Shaun starts coughing...]]