History Main / DeathFakedForYou

--->'''Dumbledore:''' He cannot kill you if you are already dead. Come over to the right side, Draco, and we can hide you more completely than you can possibly imagine. What is more, I can send members of the Order to your mother tonight to hide her likewise. Nobody would be surprised that you had died in your attempt to kill me -- forgive me, but Lord Voldemort probably expects it. Nor would the Death Eaters be surprised that we had captured and killed your mother -- it is what they would do themselves, after all. Your father is safe at the moment in Azkaban...when the time comes, we can protect him too. Come over to the right side, Draco... you are not a killer...

** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince'': Dumbledore offers to fake [[spoiler:Draco]]'s death so he can escape being TrappedInVillainy by Voldemort, but doesn't get the chance to follow through.

* In ''Manga/{{Claymore}}'', [[spoiler: After an attack on The Organization is defeated, several handlers find their [[SuperSoldier warriors]] hacking the body of the renegade named Phantom Miria into a bloody mass of meat with their [[{{BFS}} swords]]. Of course considering her HealingFactor this turned out to be the best way the warriors could protect from their superiors the woman that had taken such pains not to do them harm.]]

* Done by accident in ''Manga/DetectiveSchoolQ''. A businesswoman learned that the meeting she had hoped would save her company was a lost cause so she didn't bother going on the flight to the meeting site, giving her ticket to someone on the reserve list. The plane crashed, and the authorities assumed she died on the flight. Because her life insurance policy would yield enough to save the family business, she allowed the report of her death to stand. Unfortunately, she commited a huge mistake: [[spoiler: attempting to visit her remaining family under the disguise of a PhonyPsychic, so she could watch over her two sons and the heir apparent alias her youngest daughter. The sons, who believe their mother's dead and think that this "psychic" is a con artist employed by a greedy aunt who hopes to seize the company, [[MatriCide murder her]] [[KnightTemplarBigBrother in a desperate attempt to protect their little sister]].]]
* ''Manga/DGrayMan'': [[spoiler: Cross Marian is shot and his body disappears. This is made clear by the other generals that considering the head wound and the blood loss there is no way he could have disappeared by himself. Still, it is revealed by Road that he is still alive. The person who faked his death is still unknown]]

** After taking leadership of the CCG, [[spoiler: BigBad Furuta]] uses his formal introduction to the organization's members to publicly execute a fake "Haise Sasaki". His reasons for this ruse are unknown, and Kaneki is left trying to figure out how to take advantage of his "death".

* In ''ComicBook/TheMighty'', [[spoiler: Cole's wife, Janet, was thought of to be dead but was really kidnapped and experimented on by Alpha One.]]

* ''Fanfic/ForTheGloryOfIrk'' has a plot crucial example. [[spoiler: After the Tallest discover [[TheConspiracy the Control Brains' secret plans]] and are forced on the run when the Brains try to [[HeKnowsTooMuch silence them]], the Brains falsely announce their deaths so that they can be replaced with more compliant Irkens.]]
* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12881073/1/The-Guardian The Guardian]]'' Snape and Lucius fake Harry's death so he and his aunt and cousin can escape from his abusive uncle.

* In the ''Series/LawAndOrderUK'' story "[[https://m.fanfiction.net/s/7712514/1/Happy-New-Year Happy New Year]]", this is done for Matt Devlin after he's shot to protect him from his would-be killers. Unfortunately, his partner Ronnie and would-be lover Alesha are kept in the dark, leaving them genuinely grieving for him and getting the shock of their lives upon learning that he's alive after all. Matt himself was unaware of this until he awakened from surgery and only when told it was being done for his and his loved ones safety did his anger relent.

* In ''Series/Numb3rs'' story ''Fanfic/MissingPresumedDead'', [[spoiler:Colby's death was faked when he was kidnapped by Ian Edgerton and everyone thought he was dead for a month before he made contact]].

* In ''Fanfic/WeightOfTheWorld'' [[spoiler: Qrow tells RNJR that Alfred, Matthew, Pyrrha, and the others died in the exploding building. He chooses not to inform RNJR they're alive to keep those that would hunt Alfred/America/Vale in the dark about his location and survival]].
* In the ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'' fanfic ''Fanfic/PatronOfTheArtOfWar'', Thrawn makes Sabine believe that the Ghost Crew died in an attempt to save her with footage that makes it look like the ''Ghost'' was destroyed. She doesn't except it at first but when no rescue comes, she starts to lose hope and believes it. It isn't until the Crew rescues her a month later that she is finally sees them alive.

* In ''Film/TellNoOne'', [[spoiler: Jacques fakes Margot's death after she kills the son of the BigBad in self defense, to keep him from coming after her]].
* In the first ''Film/Underworld2003'' movie, [[spoiler:Kraven]] did this for [[spoiler:Lucian]] centuries ago.

** [[RedHerring May or may not]] be the case with [[spoiler: Aegon VI Targaryen, son of Rhaegar and Elia Martell]].

* ''Series/CriminalMinds'': [[spoiler: Emily]], by JJ and [[TeamMom Hotch]]. What's rough is that the two of them are forced to keep the truth from the rest of the [[TrueCompanions team]], and it's obvious that they hate it.

* Chang Ge, the protagonist of ''Manhua/{{Choukakou}}'', had her family killed by the current emperor of China. Some high ranking officials sympathetic to her family, however, pretend she fell off a cliff and died. When she starts causing some trouble in the capital [[spoiler: said officials burn down a whole building with all the people inside to erase the evidence and also to send her a warning.]]

** [[spoiler: The play's set in the Tudor era. Fairfax's relative wants him dead so he can inherit some entailed property, so had him condemned. Fairfax realises that under the terms of the entail, if he marries, he can keep the relative from inheriting, so arranges with a friendly guard to marry... anyone willing. Point and Elsie work as entertainers, and have come to the Tower of London looking to get money to help Elsie's dying mother. Elsie agrees to the marriage. Then the plot to break Fairfax out of jail by some other characters happens, and Fairfax gets disguised as the son of one of the guards.]]
** [[spoiler: This is set in the Tudor era, so marriage is pretty much unbreakable, morally and legally. Point decides the only way to rescue Elsie from the criminal is to fake Fairfax's death, and sets it up with the guard who took the blame for Fairfax's escape. The shot being fired interrupts Fairfax right at the brink of telling Elsie what's going on, and he's then forced to deal with Point trying to convince his wife that he's dead, and basically trying to trick her into committing bigamy. Fairfax is morally outraged about this, but it's been a few days, and Elsie likes "Leonard", so, when Point asks Fairfax to teach him how to woo Elsie, he agrees. The demonstration is completely successful, and Elsie agrees to marry him -- that him being Fairfax.]]
** [[spoiler: So, basically, Point's attempt to invoke this trope changes what would likely have been a gentle letdown into a series of horrible shocks for him, and, well, after one last, desperate attempt to win Elsie back, on her wedding day to Leonard, and just after it's revealed Leonard and Fairfax are the same person -- well, he basically ruins what Elsie was calling one of the happiest days of her life. His fatal, selfish flaw of making everything about him pretty much ruins any chance he had to even be friends with her, though she is still sorry for him, and, as she and Fairfax leave, he either dies or is just left a completely broken man (depending on production).]]

* Early in the game of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV'', [[spoiler: the empire invades Insomnia in Chapter 3, killing King Regis, obtaining the Crystal, and cementing their control over Lucis]]. Once again, the news reports that the Prince and his bride-to-be were also killed in the attack, which was probably the plan to begin with. However, Noctis had left the city days earlier [[spoiler: due to his father's foresight, and Lunafreya escapes the destruction with the help of a member of the Kingsglaive.]]

* At the end of ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil0'' [[spoiler: Rebecca says this of Billy, since he was sentenced to death for the murder of civilians while serving in the Marines (and almost certainly framed by the rest of his unit to protect his CO)]].

* In ''[[VideoGame/{{Tekken}} Tekken Tag Tournament 2]]'', it's strongly implied that [[spoiler: Emma Kliesen, after being relocated by her superiors, arranged for the six-year-old Steve Fox's death to be faked, and for Steve himself to be relocated to an orphanage, so he could finally have a chance at a proper human life]].

* In ''VisualNovel/SteinsGate'', [[spoiler: after Suzuha/John Titor goes back in time with Okabe to the beginning of the VN when Kurisu was stabbed, Okabe does this after saving her life and still needs to fake her death so Past!Okabe thinks she's dead and continues on the same route Present!Okabe took.]]

* In the ''Webcomic/{{Erma}}'' prequel comic "Spirit's Bloom", [[spoiler: Emiko's father]] does this against her will, making Sam and his family believe she died (complete with a fake corpse to bury). [[spoiler:She escapes with help from her sister and returns to Sam]].

* In the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' cartoon "The Hypocondri-cat", Hubie and Bertie not only [[InducedHypochondria convince Claude the Cat that he's deathly ill]], they eventually convince him he died, and use some helium balloons to send him on his way to "Cat Heaven".

* ''Literature/{{Room}}'': As part of their scape plan, Joy makes Old Nick believe that her son died from the untreated illness so he would [[BodybagTrick take the body outside]].

* The Ashford family did this for the banished and dishonored royal siblings Lelouch and Nunnally when they were children in ''Anime/CodeGeass''.

* ''ComicBook/{{Drowntown}}'': Alexandra Bastet seems to have had this done to her (voluntarily or otherwise), with the added feature that she [[IdentityAmnesia doesn't even remember her past life]] herself. She used to be [[spoiler:Gina Cassel, and when Leo discovers this, he's jumped by goons who want the faked death to stick: "Gina Cassel's dead. Leave her that way."]]

* ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk'': ComicBook/RedHulk faked his daughter's death and put her on ice until somebody found a cure for her condition.
* ''ComicBook/StarTrekIDW'': Robert April, in Countdown to Darkness. Having allied himself with a seemingly-oppressed faction on an alien planet, he orders his first officer to declare him dead to Starfleet.

* At the end of ''ComicBook/ThePunisher'' books' ''ComicBook/ThePunisherSuicideRun'' event, the sheriff of Laastekist claims that Castle died in an explosion after letting him go.
* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'': In ''ComicBook/WhateverHappenedToTheManOfTomorrow'', after Superman renounces his powers, Lois Lane makes everybody believe that Superman walked into the snowbound Arctic wastelands and got frozen to death, so that he can start a new anonymous life.
* ''ComicBook/UltimateXMen'': Cable came from the future to kill him, and he did... or so it seemed. He staged a scene that would look as if he killed him, so he could take him to the future without being followed. There, he trained him to be able to resist Apocalypse when he was awoken.
* This is part of the premise of ''ComicBook/TheLosers'' but in an unusual case, their deaths were faked ''by accident''. They were meant to die when their chopper took an air-to-air missile after a mission, but they had found some hostages they wanted to evacuate and sent them ahead. Since the only one who knew it wasn't them in the Blackhawk when it blew up was the pilot, the military and the CIA believed they were dead for some time before they re-emerged on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge. Their families were informed, funerals were held, it puts a bit of strain on Pooch's marriage when he shows up at the house again and can't exactly explain what he's been up to or why he can't stay.

* This is how Film/EdwardScissorhands got saved at the end of his movie, as Kim reports that Edward and Jim killed each other.
* The film ''Film/{{Eraser}}'' has the main character go around faking deaths for witness protection. The opener shows him saving a witness and his girlfriend from a group of mobsters, taking pictures of their "deceased" bodies, dumping two dead bodies he'd stolen from the morgue that sort of look like them, then blowing up the house. Afterwards, he swaps the fingerprints records on the dead bodies with the ones of the witnesses.
* ''Film/ExtremePrejudice'' (1987). The movie opens with the [[AvengersAssemble Black Ops unit assembling]], stating how every one is listed as having been 'killed' while on military service, in order to aid PlausibleDeniability -- [[FridgeLogic even though]] it would be a lot more plausible to have them be [[RogueAgent thrown out of the military on fake charges]]. When a Texas Ranger realises he's caught several people officially listed as dead, it's obvious that there's some [[GovernmentConspiracy official funny business]] going on.

%%%** "Literature/TheGirlWithoutHands" ([[https://web.archive.org/web/20190906085231/http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/armlessmaiden/index.html link]])

%%%* "Literature/TheThreeLanguages" ([[https://web.archive.org/web/20200114191145/http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/grimms/33threelanguages.html link])

%%%* "[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/grimms/97wateroflife.html The Water Of Life]]"

* Mahmut did this in ''Manga/AltairARecordOfBattles'' for Sultan Fatma at the end of the Turkiye Civil War, as she was just a puppet regent for her young son. Had she been killed, a CycleOfRevenge would have started between her children.

* Conan's plan in the Mystery Train arc in ''Manga/CaseClosed'' is to fake Haibara's death so the Black Organization will no longer hunt her. Haibara herself is LockedOutOfTheLoop until the plan is well underway, partly due to Conan suspecting they were under observation and partly because the plan [[BatmanGambit depended on Haibara behaving in a particular manner]].

* In ''ComicBook/{{Drowntown}}'', Alexandra Bastet seems to have had this done to her (voluntarily or otherwise), with the added feature that she [[IdentityAmnesia doesn't even remember her past life]] herself. She used to be [[spoiler:Gina Cassel, and when Leo discovers this, he's jumped by goons who want the faked death to stick: "Gina Cassel's dead. Leave her that way."]]

* Issue 799 of ''ComicBook/TheFlashInfiniteFrontier'' reveals that Granny Goodness did this to [[spoiler:Donna Troy's son, Robbie Long; Tempest's son, Cerdian; and even the thought-unborn son of the second Mr. Terrific]] to use them as weapons against the heroes.

%%%[[folder:Fairy Tales]]
%%%* "Literature/SnowWhite"
%%%* "[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/armlessmaiden/index.html The Girl with No Hands]]"
%%%* "[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/grimms/33threelanguages.html The Three Languages]]"

%%%[[/folder]]

* The six titular heroes from ''Film/SixAssassins'' are assumed dead after the first act, but as it turns out, their deaths are faked by their benefactors, who wants their services on an assassination mission, which is made easier because they're assumed to be dead.

%%%* Dr. Yueh, for Jessica and Paul in ''Literature/{{Dune}}''.

* In the fairy tale "Literature/TheGoldMountain" a wealthy merchant sells his son to a dwarf, but the son is wise in fairy-lore and disputes the deal. Finally, they compromise by sending him away in a boat, so neither father or dwarf will have him, and the boy's fairy friends fake up a squall that capsizes and apparently sinks the boat.

* In ''[[Literature/TheShipWho PartnerShip]]'', when [[SapientShip Nancia]] lands outside of a PrivateProfitPrison one of her friends escapes the facility pursued by guards and begs to be let in. She lets him in, warms up her [[FutureFoodIsArtificial food synthesizers]], and has [[HandyHelper her brawn]] take her friend's ragged clothes off to put into her waste chute. When the guards approach she shows them a heap of hot ashes mixed with bones and smouldering scraps of clothing, and coolly tells them she killed the prisoner for unauthorized entry, then laughs as they gape at her. Nancia then discreetly takes the "remains" away - the most casual chemical analysis will reveal the deception that this is burned algae-protein "meat" and "bone" that she'd printed off and run through her waste incinerator.
* As part of their escape plan in ''Literature/{{Room}}'', Joy makes Old Nick believe that her son died from the untreated illness so he would [[BodybagTrick take the body outside]].
* In Richard Literature/{{Sharpe}}'s second court-martial, he's falsely accused of murdering a Spanish aristocrat. He's convicted and sentenced to hang for political reasons, but another convict is hanged in his place, leaving him free to clear his name.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'', King Raminas is killed in the prologue. To secure their control of Dalmasca, the empire pressures [[DoubleAgent Marquis Ondore]] to publicly announce that Basch has been executed for the murder of the king, and that Princess Ashe has committed suicide after the loss of her husband and her father. In reality, Basch spends the next two years imprisoned by the empire, and Ashe lives in hiding as the leader of a small anti-imperial resistance.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'', King Raminas is killed in the prologue. To secure their control of Dalmasca, the empire reports that Basch has been executed for the murder of the king, and that Princess Ashe has committed suicide after the loss of her husband and her father. In reality, Basch spends the next two years imprisoned by the empire, and Ashe lives in hiding as the leader of a small anti-imperial resistance.

* Chang Ge, the protagonist of ''Manhua/{{Choukakou}}'', had her family killed by the current emperor of China. Some high ranking officials sympathetic to her family, however, pretend she fell off a cliff and died. When she starts causing some trouble in the capital [[spoiler: said officials burn down a whole building with all the people inside to erase the evidence and also to send her a warning.]]

* ''Literature/StarterVillain'': [[PragmaticVillainy One of the services]] Jake's supervillain operation offers is to falsify someone's death thoroughly enough to fool a government investigation or another villain. Their methods aren't revealed but involve convincing video proof of death, usually via AcidPool -- one ex-government agent is disappointed that {{Lava Pit}}s and superlasers aren't options.

%%%* ''Film/LaFemmeNikita'' was an involuntary version.

* ''Film/MillersCrossing'' (1990). Bernie Bernbaum begs Tom Reagan to "Look into your heart" before pulling a classic [[TheFarmerandtheViper dick move]].
* In ''Film/MyNameIsNobody'' [[spoiler: Nobody organizes Jack Beauregard's fake death.]]
* In ''Film/NowYouSeeMe'', [[spoiler:Jack Wilder's death is faked with the assistance of the other Horsemen, as part of their overall plan.]]

* On ''Series/MyNameIsEarl'', Earl was in a relationship with a clingy ExtremeDoormat girl and wanted to get out of it, but didn't want to hurt her feelings. He had Randy give her a soaking wet AC/DC T-shirt and tell her that he'd been lost at sea and that they NeverFoundTheBody.

* ''Series/PersonOfInterest''. In the episode "Relevance", Hersh leaves Shaw dying on the street, but Team Machine is on hand to revive her. Finch then points out to Shaw that she's now officially dead, so can hide more effectively.
** The flashback episode "RAM" shows Reese during his days as a CIA assassin being ordered to kill a computer programmer accused of selling US government secrets to the Chinese. Reese realizes that the guy is no traitor and is targeted because he knows too much about a secret government project (the Machine). Instead of going through with the assassination Reese has the guy rip out some of his teeth and then uses them to convince his superiors that the target is dead and Reese has destroyed the body. The programmer then flees the country under a new identity. All of this is witnessed by Finch and leads to Finch recruiting Reese a year later.

* Dumbledore offered to do this for Draco in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince,'' but didn't get the chance. {{Averted}} with [[spoiler:Dumbledore himself]], despite what many fans (and Harry) believed.