History Main / DeathByLookingUp

* At the end of ''WesternAnimation/IceAge'', the evil saber-toothed cat Soto is impaled by several falling icicles.

* When Gru attempts for the last time to thwart Vector's fortress in ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe'', he looks up after hearing a bunch of guns cocking, and many missile laser sights cover his face. We then get a non-violent GoryDiscretionShot of a mushroom cloud from far away. As with any kid's movie, the scene ends with Gru after a DisneyDeath. Sort of.

* ''Film/JamesBond'':
** ''Film/GoldenEye'': The death of Janus. Ironic, since he's just survived what seems to be a ''hundred-meter-fall'' from the giant parabolic antenna that ends up crushing him.
** ''Film/DieAnotherDay'': Bond shoots a [[FallingChandelierOfDoom a giant chandelier]], Zao looks up and screams as it crushes him.
* ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' has such a scene, though it's a bit different: it was a car bomb. One of the Joker's victims was given an envelope telling her where she was going into hiding, and the only word inside was "up". She looked up... and then the car ''went'' up.

* ''Film/Transporter3'': The warehouse fight scene ends with Frank Martin hitting a switch that drops a car onto two temporarily incapacitated bad guys, who look up, scream, and hold their hands up (ineffectually).
* ''Film/OverHerDeadBody'': The VillainProtagonist dies at the beginning of the film because she just stood there staring at the falling statue, even though she had plenty of time to get out of the way.
* ''Film/MissionImpossible'': In the opening, the Hacker-type on Tom Cruise's team is killed in this way. However, he was sitting on top of a rising elevator at the time: it rose upwards and drove his face into some spikes ([[NoKillLikeOverkill not to mention being crushed as well]]).
* TheDragon from ''Film/LethalWeapon2'' got a face full of shipping container.
* Subverted in ''Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheReturnOfTheKing'', where Gothmog stares at the huge chunk of rock that is about to crush him, only to take a step back at the last second, causing it to miss him completely. And then he ''spits on it''.

* ''Film/MarsAttacks'': This is how the First Lady meets her end.
-->"The Nancy Reagan chandelier!" ''(crunch)''

* Subverted in ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'', as the trope doesn't kill its target. Talking to Doctor Strange on Titan, Thanos looks up to see Iron Man dropping down a building-sized piece of wreckage on him. Since it's [[BigBad Thanos]] we're talking about, this is only the opening salvo of the fight.

* ''Film/{{Creepshow}}'': In "Father's Day", Hank falls into Nathan's grave and gets pinned under Bedelia's body. He can only lie helplessly on on his back, looking up, as the top of Nathan's monument is pushed into the grave; directly on top of his head.
* In ''Film/TheDarwinAwards'', Perp dies when he and Burrows fall off his apartment building and land on the pavement. The heavy stone planter their rope had been wrapped round topples off the roof after them. Burrows rolls out of the way while Perp lies on the ground watching the pot plunge down on top his head.
* ''Film/TheDevilsMessenger'': In "Condemned in Crystal", John Radian is kneeling over Madame Germaine's body when the bust of her on the wall--damaged in their fight--falls. He looks up and is crushed by it.
* In ''Film/ArmyOfFrankensteins'', Abraham Lincoln gets knocked out of his box by the Frankenstein which is trying to protect him from Booth. The Frankenstein then falls out of the box. Lincoln, lying on the floor of the theatre, looks up and sees the Frankenstein plummeting towards him. It lands on top of him, crushing him to death.
* ''Film/{{Dredd}}''. When Peach Trees goes into LockDown, a nuclear blast door comes down on top of a BeggarWithASignboard before he can do more than look up. From his DullSurprise reaction, [[RockBottom he may not have cared]].

* ''Film/{{Predator}}'': After taking quite a beating, Dutch finally manages to vanquish the alien hunter by dropping a big log on it. The Predator has just the time to look up before being crushed.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E7TheUnicornAndTheWasp "The Unicorn and the Wasp"]], it happens to housekeeper Miss Chandrakala when the [[WickedWasp Vespiform]] pushes a gargoyle onto her.

* [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes The Road Runner]] played this trope up, down and sideways with all the various things that fell on Wile E. Coyote's head over the years. He's looked up and then opened a comically tiny umbrella to protect him; looked up, [[AsideGlance looked to the camera]], pointed up and gulped; looked up, seen the rock, stepped just out of the shadow on the ground and been hit anyway... you name it.
* The brilliant indie computer-animation short ''WebAnimation/PigeonImpossible'' has the lead pigeon meeting its demise in this manner while eating the all-important bagel for which much of Washington, DC was destroyed.
* Happened to [[CreatorCameo 45]] in the unaired version of the ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim [[ChristmasSpecial Most Horrible X-Mas Ever]]''. Since this took place after the regular series, it can be assumed he was KilledOffForReal.
** In the edited version, the scene cuts away just as he notices the ShadowOfImpendingDoom.

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!!Examples

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Film — Animation]]

[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]

* ''Film/Uncharted2022'': After falling out of a wrecked caravel into the ocean, Braddock surfaces just in time to see said ship falling right toward her.

[[folder:Pinball]]

--> '''Rafe:''' I earned this. All of it.
--> '''Nate:''' You want the treasure, Rafe? It's all yours.
--> Nate cuts the rope, Rafe looks up and large, roped up bag of treasure drops on him.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* In part two of ''WebAnimation/NazoUnleashed'', Super Sonic rushes into space and then aims back at Nazo back on earth in a manner similar to a meteor. When Super Sonic is close to impact, Super Shadow, who is currently fighting Nazo at this point, points up slightly. Nazo takes the hint and looks up... only for Super Sonic to collide into him and seriously injure him.
[[/folder]]

* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders'': Happens in classic cartoon fashion to Jotaro. He survives.

* ''Film/OverHerDeadBody'': The VillainProtagonist dies at the beginning of the film because she just stood there staring at the falling statue, even though [[WhatAnIdiot she had plenty of time to get out of the way]].

* In ''Film/{{Dredd}}'', a vagrant is sat begging in the area beneath the Peach Trees complex's blast doors. He's crushed to death When [[BigBad Ma-Ma]] orders the block be put into emergency lockdown.

* ''VideoGame/Uncharted4AThiefsEnd'' and this is how Rafe dies as Nate slices the rope using a broken rapier
--> Rafe: I earned this. All of it.
--> Nate: You want the treasure, Rafe? It's all yours.
--> Nate cuts the rope, Rafe looks up and the treasure drops on him.

* ''Over Her Dead Body'': The VillainProtagonist dies at the beginning of the film because she just stood there staring at the falling statue, even though [[WhatAnIdiot she had plenty of time to get out of the way]].

* In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' series, a spell called an Entropy Curse, which causes the victim to die in strange ways, can result in this. Done well, the Curse is completely plausible, such as a person tripping down stairs. Done poorly, the Curse results in utterly ridiculous deaths such as being hit by a speedboat -- while miles from the ocean. One person dies when a frozen turkey falls out of an airplane flying overhead -- and crushes the person's skull. The pop-up timer on it then goes "ding"
-->'Even by the standards of immortal creatures of the night that isn't something you see every day'

** In the series, there was a returning enemy called a wallmaster, which would appear [[{{wallmaster}} suddenly]] in dungeons, scare the crap outta you, grab onto your face, and pull you into oblivion. In most games this would incur some damage, and if you were on the brink of doom, you would crumple to the ground as soon as you reappeared at the beginning of the dungeon.

[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/{{Halo 3}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/halodeathlookup.jpg]]]]

* Giro and his henchwolves are all killed in an avalanche at the end of ''Literature/ArashiNoYoruNi''.

* ''Film/{{Transporter 3}}'': The warehouse fight scene ends with Frank Martin hitting a switch that drops a car onto two temporarily incapacitated bad guys, who look up, scream, and hold their hands up (ineffectually).

* Rosencrantz in ''Videogame/VagrantStory'' is killed in a slight variation of this trope, when Sydney manipulates him into standing beneath a statue of a multi-armed war goddess and brings the statue to life with dark magic. Rosencrantz glances upwards just as the goddess awakens and strikes him with her sword.

* ''Webcomic/{{Goblins}}''

* The brilliant indie computer-animation short ''PigeonImpossible'' has the lead pigeon meeting its demise in this manner while eating the all-important bagel for which much of Washington, DC was destroyed.

** The goblins of the warcamp, [[http://www.goblinscomic.com/10232005/ from a falling tree]].
** An alternate Forgath and Minmax, [[http://www.goblinscomic.com/09202011/ from a giant stone belt buckle]]. Note that they do try to run away -- just too late.

They will usually be alerted by a [[BombWhistle whistling sound]], combined with the [[ShadowOfImpendingDoom rapidly growing shadow]] of the object that is around them. It is rare (but not unknown) for characters to leap out of the way, and instead choose to [[DeerInTheHeadlights stare at it in shock]] until they are crushed. Of course, it's fairly surprising to see [[PianoDrop a piano bearing down on you]] in the middle of the sidewalk, and this is very much a case of TruthInTelevision. Sometimes, a character, if trying to invoke the trope on someone they are fighting against, will also point up slightly to hint that they should look up, to which the enemy inevitably falls for it just as they are flattened.

SubTrope of DeathByIrony. SuperTrope of FallingChandelierOfDoom. Almost always used with DeathFromAbove. Contrast DisneyVillainDeath.

* ''Discworld/SmallGods'' finishes Vorbis this way. After Brutha (who can hear his god, currently trapped in a tortoise body, directing an eagle just where to drop him) tells Vorbis he's going to die and it doesn't happen through an instant lightning bolt, Vorbis "smiled beatifically, spread his arms, and looked up at the sky" to see two pounds of tortoise heading for his face at terminal velocity. Apparently, there was just enough time for his [[OhCrap expression to change]].

* Subverted in ''Film/TheReturnOfTheKing'', where Gothmog stares at the huge chunk of rock that is about to crush him, only to take a step back at the last second, causing it to miss him completely. And then he ''spits on it''.