History Main / DisneyVillainDeath

May involve a RingOut, NooseCatch, or DeathFlight. SmokestackDrop is a SubTrope. See also HighAltitudeInterrogation and UnhandThemVillain, as well as DeathByFallingOver. When RecycledInSpace, it's ThrownOutTheAirlock. Video game examples can relate to RingOutBoss.

* The first volume of ''ComicBook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'' ends with this happening to the BigBad Moriarty, who it had already happened to before. Hmmm. Like the ''Treasure Planet'' example, he fell ''up''. In addition, after the book proper is over, there's a small splash page featuring the silhouette of his corpse continually floating, presumably in space.
** In the ''Minions of the Moon'' text story in ''Century: 1910'', during a trip through space, Mina comes across his corpse, still clutching the cavorite.
* The ComicBook/CaptainAmerica villain Baron Zemo has gone this way about five times in his various incarnations. He is also known as "Gravity's Bitch".
* In ''ComicBook/{{Amulet}}'', Luger dies this way. [[spoiler:Averted, however, as it's later revealed that he survived, and [[HeelFaceTurn has become a good person]]. And averted again even later with Gabilan, whom Emily tosses off a cliff, but he's caught by his flying bird-creature.]]
* In the early ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'' comics, the Joker did this at least four times, but [[JokerImmunity always survived]].
** In "Mad Love" from ''ComicBook/TheBatmanAdventures'', he even screams [[OhNoNotAgain "Not agaaaaaain!"]] as he falls in a smokestack ([[CallBack a reference to his origin story of falling in a vat of chemicals after a fight with Bats]]).
** Lampshaded in the Creator/PaulDini-written issue of Detective Comics 826, where Robin kicks the Joker out of a moving car off of a bridge. Neither he nor Batman think it likely that he's dead, but at least he'll be out of commission for a good couple of weeks, which is really the best you could've hoped for.
** StarterVillain Alfred Stryker was knocked into a vat of acid during his scuffle with Batman.
* ''ComicBook/BatmanBlackAndWhite'': The villain of "Heroes", a Nazi spy, gets in a fight with the Batman at the top of a skyscraper, and falls to his death.

* In the ''ComicBook/{{Hellboy}}'' comics, [[BrainInAJar Herman von Klempt]] falls off a cliff, his jar exploding.
* Used in the beginning of ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'', when The Comedian falls to his death, and we see the body wrecked and the blood spilled. The [[Film/{{Watchmen}} movie]] in particular treats it with much spectacle.
* Nicodemus West in ''ComicBook/DoctorStrange: The Oath'' slips and falls from the roof of a New York skyscraper. If he hadn't suspended Strange's ability to use magic three minutes earlier, he would have lived.
* ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}'' has two examples:
** [[FatBastard Allfather D'Aronique]]. Realizing that [[TheStarscream Starr]] had rigged the entire base of Masada with explosives, the human wrecking ball tried to escape via his personal chopper. Sadly for him, Starr managed to intercept and hijack the helicopter in midair. During the struggle, Starr pushed the massive leader of the Grail to his death.
** [[TheDragon Eisenstein]]. The bureaucratic soul of the Grail knew that Starr had a hand -- or rather a whole arm -- in the demise of the Allfather. And Starr knew that as long as there was any kind of lead, [[{{Determinator}} Eisenstein would be able to track him to the ends of the Earth]]. After trying everything to dispose of him, from car bombs to snipers and [[GratuitousNinja ninjas]], Starr was able to corner Eisenstein in a building in San Francisco and successfully threw the little man off the rooftop.
* In the ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'' story ''ComicBook/TheKMetalFromKrypton'', when Superman finally confronts Daryl Bronson, the man who made a pact with a gangster to take over a gold mine and then tried to murder them all, the villain fearfully steps back, forgetting he is standing on the edge of a cliff, and falls off, landing on a pile of rocks and dying.
* ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'':
** ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMarvel'': Issue #8 had Ratchet and the Dinobots defeat Megatron in this style. Ratchet manages to knock Megatron over a cliffside they're fighting on, sending Megatron tumbling down the cliff to his apparent demise. Subverted, however, as it later turns out he survived.
** ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'' had [[spoiler:Pharma]] meet this fate in issue 5. It's played with, though, as one of the heroes purposefully causes it to happen, something this trope was implicitly designed to avoid.
* In ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}} [[Recap/AsterixAndTheCauldron and the Cauldron]]'', Whosemoralsareelastix is defeated this way -- he disarms Asterix in a sword fight, is about to go in for the killing blow, and the cliff edge collapses under him along with all of his money. [[SaveTheVillain Asterix decides to help him up, though]], [[CruelMercy saying the loss of his money was enough of a punishment]].
* In ''ComicBook/{{Violine}}'', [[spoiler:Muller]] falls to his apparent death in a trapdoor leading to a moat full of crocodiles, but he survives and comes back with a vengeance.
* ''ComicBook/SpiderManReign'': During Spider-Man's fight with Scorpion, the latter boasts that with his new tail, he can do anything. Spidey responds by asking if he can fly, and then kicks him out the window.

* ''ComicBook/BatmanGordonOfGotham:'' When Gordon's ally, Sheriff "Shotgun" Smith, is captured and tortured, he throws himself against his main captor, knocking them both out of a third floor window. The villain, [[spoiler:Captain Daugherty's son,]] dies in the process of breaking Smith's fall.
* ''ComicBook/TheBlueStreak'': Johnny King, an acrobat who turned to robbery, is knocked off a high platform while fighting the Blue Streak.
* ''ComicBook/TheEyeSees'': Carter and Koba, two assassins sent to kill a businessman, are flung out of their plane by the Eye.

* ''ComicBook/YokoTsuno'': Most of the villains are killed in a fall, either by accident, after being pushed or trying to push someone. Even an android is destroyed after being thrown from a great height by a rebelling underling.
* ''ComicBook/AcePowers'': The Panther jumps off a burning building and is seemingly killed by the fall at the end of Silver Streak Comics #4, but he survives and returns in the next issue. In said next issue, the Panther and his gang are all knocked into a deep hole by debris that buries them alive. The Panther survives this, only to be killed by his boss the Spook, but his goons are killed.
* ''ComicBook/CaptainFlash'':
** The Iron Mask is thrown out a multi-story window at the end of his titular story.
** In "The Black Knight," Dr. Konrad Krueger, the titular medieval-themed robber, is thrown off his helicopter down a dam. However, he survives and returns in the final issue.
* ''ComicBook/TheMadHatter'': Frank "The Gargoyle" Faro, BigBad of the second story of The Mad Hatter #2, is thrown off a roller coaster by the Mad Hatter who's stopping him from killing a woman and her child.
* The original modern day ''ComicBook/BlackKnight'' was named Nathan Garrett, and was a villain who worked for Baron Zemo and his Masters of Evil. His end came when, during an air battle with Iron Man, he was knocked from his winged horse and fell a good distance to the ground. Interestingly, Garrett survived for quite some time and summoned his nephew, Dane Whitman, encouraging him to take up the mantle of the Black Knight and restore its name before passing away from his injuries.
* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: At one point before her HeelFaceTurn Paula gets shot off a wall and falls headfirst into a rocky bit of coastline. She of course appears again later.
* ''ComicBook/AmericaVsTheJusticeSociety'': Brainwave uses a fall that nearly killed him to let the heroes think he really had died. In reality his robe got caught on a pole which prevented him from falling to his death despite it looking like he had.
* ''ComicBook/TintinAndAlphArtYvesRodier'' has the main villain, Endaddine Akass (really the returning [[spoiler:Rastapopoulos]]) thrown to his death over the edge of a cliff, following a botched attempt to hang Tintin and Captain Haddock. The actual moment of impact occurs off-page, but part of his body is subsequently seen when Thomson and Thompson confirm his death.

* ''ComicBook/TheMall2018'': At the end of Issue #1, a balding mobster who attacked Leonard Cardini is killed by being knocked off the second floor of the mall and falling to his death. The last image of the comic is him lying on the floor below, dead, with two pools of blood coming from him (one from the bullet wound in his leg, and the other from his head).
* In ''ComicBook/{{Paranoia}}'', King throws Lance-R-LOT off a cliff after he kills King's wife Ala. [[spoiler:He gets better.]]
* In the 95th issue of ''ComicBook/JourneyIntoMystery'', the villain is Professor Zaxton, who uses an invention of his to create an EvilKnockoff of Thor. Zaxton ultimately [[SelfDisposingVillain causes his own demise]] when he tries to reach for his machine, only to fall to his death while the contraption is destroyed, leaving behind [[MorallySuperiorCopy a benign clone of Zaxton]].

* The second and third ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon'' both have this.

None can illustrate villain death trends like Gaston!]][[note]] he's especially good at his [[BackstabBackfire backstab failings!]] [[OverlyLongGag My what a guy, that Gaston!]] [[/note]] '']]-]

* In the climax of ''Literature/WhereAreTheChildren, Carl Harmon falls through the railing around The Lookout's widow's walk and into the sea below. The police manage to fish him out alive, but he soon dies from his injuries sustained in the fall.

* ''Manga/TheLegendOfZeldaAkiraHimekawa'': In the adaptation of the ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask Majora's Mask]]'', Goron Link wrangles Goht and throws the monster off the mountainside.

* In the [[Manga/TheLegendOfZeldaAkiraHimekawa manga adaptation]] of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'', Goron Link wrangles Goht and throws the monster off the mountainside.

!!As this is a DeathTrope, [[Administrivia/SpoilersOff all spoilers will be unmarked]] ahead in the examples below. [[Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned Beware!]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheRugratsMovie''/Rugrats: 360 3-D: Scar Snout the Vasto Wolf is dragged off the bridge (cliff in Rugrats: 360 3-D) by Spike, and while Scar Snout falls into the water below, (pulls the last car of the tram and tries to eat the passengers from the tram after failing to get the Rugrats from the cliff but gets his neck snapped by the Reptar by bashing him into a canyon wall multiple times in Rugrats: 360 3-D), Spike is thought to be dead too until it's revealed [[DisneyDeath he's in the rafters]].

* At Ride/Rugrats:3603-D:
** The Juvenile V-Wolf gets crushed by a boulder by the Reptar and gets thrown down a cliff.
** The Bull V-Wolf gets it's jaws pried apart and snapped by the Reptar.
** Scar Snout (the main antagonist of The Rugrats Movie and the attraction) gets his neck snapped and was thrown into the river by the Reptar by bashing him into a canyon wall multiple times while trying to eat the guests from the tram after failing to get the babies up the cliff.

[[/folder]]

* ''Fanfic/OldWest'': A subverted example occurs with [[PsychoForHire Henry]] when [[BigBad Dufayel]] turns [[ShootTheDangerousMinion against him]]. With some assistance from [[TheDragon Ramirez Arvenga]], the fox shoots the kingsnake [[DestinationDefenestration out of his office window]]. Dufayel and Arvenga assume Henry to have died, but he survives and discreetly flees to have his revenge another day.

* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}''. The film ''starts'' with the titular VillainProtagonist seemingly falling to his death, before flashing back to his StartOfDarkness and explaining [[HowWeGotHere how he got there]]. By the time it catches up, not only is he [[HeelFaceTurn no longer a villain anymore]], he also figures out a way to survive the fall.

None can illustrate villain death trends like Gaston!]][[note]] he's especially good at his [[BackstabBackfire backstab failings!]] [[OverlyLongGag my what a guy that Gaston!]] [[/note]] '']]-]

None can illustrate villain death trends like Gaston!]][[note]] he's especially good at [[BackstabBackfire backstab failings!]] [[OverlyLongGag my what a guy that Gaston!]] [[/note]] '']]-]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheRugratsMovie'': Scar Snout the Wolf is dragged off the bridge by Spike, and while Scar Snout plummets into the water below, Spike is thought to be dead too until it's revealed [[DisneyDeath he's in the rafters]].

None can illustrate villain death trends like Gaston!]]'']]-]

[-[[caption-width-right:350: [[MemeticMutation No one screams as they fall to their death like Gaston!]]]]-]

* ''Literature/TheBloodGuard'': Legion and several of the Bend Sinister agents fall victim to this when Greta's Pure soul being expulsed blasts them off the rooftop. Head Truelove willingly falls to his death shortly afterwards.

# It serves the seemingly contradictory needs of both allowing the audience to reasonably believe "Yup, he's ''[[NoOneCouldSurviveThat definitely]]'' dead" and also [[NeverFoundTheBody leaving the door open]] for a villain's return, if they are [[JokerImmunity particularly popular.]] (Obviously, this one applies primarily to long-running series more so than single installments.)

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Balto}}'', Steele falls off the side of a cliff while trying to kill Balto, hitting cliffs on the way down. However, he manages to survive and continue to cause Balto trouble. However, it's ultimately averted at the end of the movie where Steele not only survives the movies events, but is ultimately branded as a hated outcast by the entire village once all of his crimes are finally exposed.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Balto}}'', Steele falls off the side of a cliff while trying to kill Balto, hitting cliffs on the way down. However, he manages to survive and continue to cause Balto trouble.

* ''Literature/WordsOfRadiance'' (book two of ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive''): In the final battle, Adolin headbutts Eshonai into a chasm. She's wearing [[PoweredArmor Shardplate]] at the time, so she probably survived the actual fall, but [[HostileWeather a Highstorm and an Everstorm]] [[YinYangBomb crashed into each other right above her head]], so her survival remains ambiguous. The next book confirms her death (against all fan expectations) when her sister Venli finds the body.

* In the 95th issue of ''ComicBook/JourneyIntoMystery'', the villain is Professor Zaxton, who uses an invention of his to create an EvilKnockoff of Thor. Zaxton ultimately [[SelfDisposingVillain causes his own death]] when he tries to reach for his machine, only to fall to his death while the contraption is destroyed, leaving behind [[MorallySuperiorCopy a benign clone]].