History Main / EmptyPilesOfClothing

* "Literature/FromBeyond": The servants of the crazed experimenter are given instructions to leave the electricity off while his Resonator is operating. One forgets and turns on a light. [[spoiler:The experimenter hears screams -- and then finds their clothing dropped where they stood.]]

* ''Literature/{{Slimer}}'' concerns a [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever mutated great white shark]] which absorbs the minds and bodies of its victims (similar to ''Phantoms'') leaving behind just their slime-drenched empty clothing.

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[[caption-width-right:350:[[ComicallyMissingThePoint Man]], [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodSandwich they wasted a perfectly good breakfast.]]]]

-->-- '''The Dwarves''', ''Videogame/DeepRockGalactic''

* In ''Anime/LilyCAT'', a flesh-absorbing virus leaves only clothing behind after it assimilates crew members on board the ship.
* ''Franchise/DragonBall'':
** In ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', one of the ways Cell can absorb people is by plunging his stinger tail into them, then sucking up their body as he would liquid through a straw, only leaving their clothes behind. A whole city full of empty clothes is a sure sign that Cell has been feeding (though his victims fortunately end up being revived later).
** ''Anime/DragonBallGT'': In the final episode, [[spoiler:Goku's uniform is left behind when he vanishes with Shenron for a hundred years.]]
* ''Anime/DarkerThanBlack'':
** Kirihara followed an agent she saw at the scene where she didn't expect him, and found his clothes. The next thing she saw was a chair with another set of clothes "sitting" on it, with sleeves on armpads. It was a case of [[{{Fanservice}} perve]]-[[NakedOnArrival portation]], but she didn't know this at the time.
** Also, [[spoiler: Amber's [[PowerAtAPrice remuneration for her power]] is [[FountainOfYouth getting younger]]. After she sacrifices herself to help Hei, she ends up disappearing altogether, with her empty clothes being all that's left of her]].
* Used in ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'' when Alphonse Elric's body is destroyed when he and his brother Edward attempt [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique human transmutation]]. When Edward sees Al's clothes on the floor empty he knows his little experiment has truly GoneHorriblyWrong.

** In "Turn Back the Pendulum" arc, the ninth division knows that something terrible befell the ten Soul Reapers sent to investigate a string of disappearances when they find ten loose uniforms that were removed without being untied.
** After Kenpachi defeats Gremmy Thoumeaux, he turns to Yachiru only to find her empty uniform.

* Combined with NoBodyLeftBehind in ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'': when Saffron is absorbing everything in range during his metamorphosis, Akane tries to shut off the magical water he needs by closing the Phoenix Tap. Unfortunately, the heat-based Kinjakan, a weapon used to open the device, instantly disintegrates anything that touches it while water is running through the tap. So Akane manages to shut the tap off, Ranma screams at her to run and -- after a flash of light, Akane's empty clothes flutter to the ground. [[spoiler:It turns out that she had only been magically dehydrated into the size of a doll, and was still inside those clothes, but pretty much everyone had a HeroicBSOD until they found out they could still save her]].
* ''LightNovel/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero'': Naofumi and Raphtalia both get worried when they wake up to find the clothing of Princess Melty but no Princess Melty. Then they remember that Filo, a giant bird, had expressed a desire to eat members of her own species and start wondering if that lack of scruples might extend to humans as well. Just as they start reproaching Filo over this the matter is settled when a sleepy Melty sticks her head out of Filo's feathers and wants to know what is going on. It turns out that she had found that sleeping in Filo's down was comfortable and warm but was definitely too warm for clothing. When Raphtalia experimentally sticks her arm in the down she finds it comfortable too and immediately falls asleep. Naofumi mutters something and goes back to bed as well.
* In ''VisualNovel/{{Shuffle}} Memories'' ep 12, practically the whole group [[spoiler: is shrunk]], one by one while on a cruise ship, leaving behind their swimsuits. This happens offscreen and the characters and audience are both left in the dark as to what has happened. [[spoiler:The characters' version of "something ominous having happened" seems to amount to ''one disappeared character having sex with another''.]]
* ''Manga/TheSevenDeadlySins'': We see [[spoiler:Hendricksen ready to melt Dreyfus with his acid powers]]. When Meliodas arrives, the only thing left is [[spoiler:Dreyfus's empty armor.]] [[spoiler:Subverted however, as Dreyfus survived, but only because Fraudrin, the demon that was possessing Dreyfus, staged the whole thing and used Dreyfus's "death" as a means of escape to continue on with his plan unhindered.]]
* In ''Anime/CrossAnge'', the main character Ange is teleported away by Embryo, the bad guy, out of her ship and her clothes.
* ''Manga/DoubleArts'': This is what happens whenever someone dies of Troy in . First the seizures, then the victims become transparent and disappear.
* In ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaAs'', after [[spoiler:Signum and Shamal are absorbed into the Book of Darkness]], only their winter coats remain on the ground. This is repeated in TheMovie remake, except the empty clothes are now hanging off the tentacles that stabbed [[spoiler:the Wolkenritter]] until they're blown off by the high-altitude winds.
* In ''LightNovel/StrikeTheBlood'', when [[KidFromTheFuture Reina]] returns to her own time, she vanished in a burst of lightning, and her borrowed clothes fall to the ground.
* ''Manga/OnePiece'' uses this trope [[GoryDiscretionShot to signify how]] [[spoiler: a very young Charlotte "Big Mom" Linlin accidentally ''ate her ParentalSubstitute Mother Carmel and the children of the Sheep's House alive''.]]

* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'': Eri's Quirk allows her to [[DevolutionDevice "rewind" living beings to a previous state]], [[DeathByDeaging including a point when they did]] ''[[DeathByDeaging not]]'' [[DeathByDeaging exist at all.]] She accidentally used it on her father, leaving only his clothes behind and a spilled cup of coffee on the floor.
* ''Manga/BlastOfTempest'': When Hakaze Kusaribe time travels to the past, she vanishes in a flash of light but her clothes fall to the floor, and she arrives naked.
* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'': This is the end result of [[spoiler:Third-Impact. The elimination of a Human's A.T Field results in the Human completely losing their physical form, transforming them into LCL. The only thing that's left of the person is their clothes and whatever inorganic components that were on them.]]

* ''ComicBook/{{Legends|DCComics}}'': The [[http://images.wikia.com/marvel_dc/images/c/cd/Legends_5.jpg cover]] of issue 5 has [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]] standing amidst a pile of empty superhero clothes.
* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'':
** ''ComicBook/TheCondemnedLegionnaires'': When Satan Girl's body vanishes, only her outfit is left behind as the only evidence that ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'s evil duplicate ever existed.
** ''ComicBook/Supergirl2011'' #23 has ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} infected with Kryptonite poisoning. Cyborg Superman plans to use her flesh as a building block to rebuild himself. He uses a machine that totally disintegrates Supergirl's body, 1) to scrub the poison in her system, 2) to analyze her form so he can remake his. The process leaves her empty costume crumpled in a heap on the floor.
** In one of the stories that took place during the ''ComicBook/Millennium1988'' crossover, ComicBook/GreenLantern Hal Jordan found empty piles of clothing left behind by the Guardians Of The Universe and the Zamarons when they were using their power to hide from the Manhunter Highmaster.

* ''ComicBook/XMen'':
** ''X-Men: The Hidden Years #1'' "Once More the Savage Land": Marvel Girl is said to have passed onto the land of the dead, showing only her empty costume lying across a table.
** ''ComicBook/UltimateXMen'': In issue #41, a young man known only as "J"'s mutant power manifests one morning, which is to involuntarily vaporise all organic matter within a certain radius of himself after a short time of it being exposed to him. He wakes up on a normal day to find the house deserted and his mother’s clothes lying on the floor and all the organic food in the kitchen vanished. He heads off to school, passing an empty dog collar on the ground, then spots some people nearby but doesn’t notice them disintegrating as he turns away. When he arrives at school students start disintegrating around him shortly after he arrives leaving their clothing behind, including his girlfriend who identifies him as the source of the phenomenon as she burns away. The story cuts to ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} (who's immune to J's power thanks to his HealingFactor) entering a cave where J is hiding having been sent by ComicBook/ProfessorX who explains what's happened, that at least two hundred and sixty five people were killed by his power. After explaining that the situation will be covered up by a story saying a corrosive chemical leak will be blamed, Wolverine has to tell J that the story can never get out as if it becomes public a mutant was responsible it would lead to a worldwide pogrom against mutants. J, already distraught that his power is to be an uncontrolled WalkingWasteland understands the implication and tells Wolverine to "just do it".

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}}'': This happens to [[spoiler:Mother Gothel]] at the end, as a result of Flynn finally cutting Rapunzel's hair [[spoiler: and depriving her of her FountainOfYouth, which kills her.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/QuestForCamelot'', only Ruber's armor (shoulder pads and chest and back plates) appears to be blown off his cleavage right before Ruber is vaporised by the stone. One of the shoulder pads falls back to earth.

* In ''Film/TheVoyageOfTheDawnTreader'', Edmund and Caspian find Eustace's smoldering clothes and assume something terrible has happened to him. [[ForcedTransformation It has]], though not what they expect.
* In ''Film/NightOfTheComet'', after almost everyone on Earth goes outside to look at a comet, their bodies are reduced to a red dust, leaving their clothes scattered on the ground with the dust spilling out of them.
* In ''Film/VanishingOn7thStreet'', during a brief power failure, just about everyone in the city vanishes, leaving only their clothes.

* In the film called ''Film/TheMomentAfter'', the beginning scenes show signs of the recent "rapture" event, showing piles of empty clothes littering the street and homes.
* In ''Film/Troll2'', a girl drinks a potion from a woman pretending to help. It turns out that the woman is in league with the goblins and the potion given to the girl slowly melts her into slime. You have to look close but you can see her clothes laying in the puddle of green slime before the goblins come to eat her.
* In ''Film/DaddyDayCare'', the guys panic when they find Tony's empty Flash costume. In homage to this trope's prevalence in science fiction, uber-nerd Marvin even worries that he's been vaporized. Turns out he just doesn't want to be Flash anymore. He wants to be Tony.
* In the first movie in the ''Film/{{Apocalypse}}'' film series, when the Rapture takes place, believers in Christ leave behind empty piles of ''neatly folded'' clothing.
* When the cult leader in ''Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers'' is killed, his body disappears leaving only his clothes behind. This makes the main character question if he truly is dead.
* In ''Film/OBrotherWhereArtThou'', one of the trio's completely missing except for his neatly arranged clothing (and a toad), leading the other two to believe he's been turned into one.
* During the opening credits of ''Film/RapturePalooza'', clothes fall in slow motion [[CaughtUpInTheRapture while the Rapture occurs]]. Only a few people remain in a bowling alley, but piles of clothes lay in place of where people once stood.
* ''Franchise/StarWars'': In ''Film/ANewHope'', Ben Kenobi's cloak is left behind when he is struck down by Vader and becomes a Force ghost. In ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'', the same happens to Yoda when he dies of old age. In ''Film/TheLastJedi'', [[spoiler:Luke Skywalker]] follows suit when he becomes one with the Force.

* These are all that's left of the victims of the sentient (and hungry) reel film in ''Film/RecordedLive''.

* In the movie ''Kids Vs Monsters'', a bratty rich girl is disintegrated by an evil coffee-dispensing robot while the other kids in her group watch on. They are horrified as her empty hipster outfit falls to the floor at the robot's feet.

* {{Averted|Trope}} in ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar''. [[spoiler:The people who crumble into dust as a result of Thanos' BadassFingersnap take their clothes with them. Even Bucky's mechanical arm crumbles. The only confirmed things left behind are Bucky's gun, and Fury's pager]].
* ''Film/CubeZero'': One of the prisoners looks in a room of the booby-trapped Cube and sees piles of blood-soaked clothing and declares he's not going in there. He gets shoved in there anyway by a fellow prisoner (because he's been infected with a contagion and they want to get rid of him), whereupon sound emitters deploy from the walls and emit a BrownNote that causes [[YourHeadAsplode Your Body Asplode]].
* ''Film/TheOldGuard'': The protagonists are hired to rescue some Sudanese schoolgirls kidnapped by a warlord. After infiltrating his base, they find a pile of childrens' shoes outside a building, so they charge inside only to find the building empty except for the squad of mercenaries waiting in ambush. Afterwards they agree that the shoes were a particularly good touch from the man who set them up.
* ''Film/MomAndDadSaveTheWorld'': The effect of the light grenade is "Pff! Grenade remains, person disappears." At one point a patrol of soldiers trigger one, leaving it surrounded by empty uniforms. Played for comedy.
* The Decepticon invaders in ''Film/TransformersDarkOfTheMoon'' have this effect on the hapless citizens of Chicago, since weapons that are designed to kill 30-foot tall machines of living metal will of course have more drastic effects on small, fleshy humans, though it isn't explained why the humans ''bodies'' are vaporized but their clothes are left intact, since one would assume both would be obliterated, but it is played up for dramatic effect later, with several soldiers passing areas ''covered'' with abandoned clothing, to give a sense of scale to the massacre committed by the Decepticons.
* At the end of ''Film/JumanjiWelcomeToTheJungle'', when Fridge is transported out of the game, Mouse's backpack is left behind. When Spencer picks it up, it's completely empty, presumably because it's ''only'' Mouse (the designated "Weapons Valet") who can retrieve items from it.

* Used in ''Literature/LeftBehind'' and other "Rapture" stories to indicate that the person in question has been taken by the Lord. Depending on the skill of the writer, this can still be pretty terrifying.
* Subverted in ''The Rapture of Canaan''. In a religious community, everyone believes that the narrator's illegitimate son is the second coming of Christ and thus figure that the Rapture is on the way. One morning, they find the leader of the community's pile of clothes lying around, leading the more extreme members to assume that the Rapture happened and they weren't taken because they'd sinned. Most of the other members assumed that their leader (who had recently had a stroke) just went crazy and ran off with no clothes on. [[spoiler:Turns out, that's just what happened.]]
* In the book ''Literature/BloodMusic'' by Greg Bear, a strange infection ravages North America that totally and complete destroys the human (in most cases almost instantly), leaving only their clothes.
* In one of Creator/EllisPeters's ''Literature/BrotherCadfael'' murder mysteries, a monk who was standing an all-night vigil is found in the morning to have vanished, leaving only his clothes behind, and many of his fellow monks assume he's been bodily assumed into heaven. The truth is rather more mundane.
* ''Literature/{{Cape}}'': When [[RubberMan The Stretcher]] grabs an escaping villain, he just vanishes, leaving only his costume behind. The girls each take part of it and use it to become superheroes.
* ''Literature/TheClone'' has an interesting variation. The [=titular=] BlobMonster is an ExtremeOmnivore that absorbs both living and nonliving matter, but there are certain types of fabrics it won't eat. Nylon, for example, will get incorporated into the "clone" mass, but cotton will be rejected. Regardless, there's always ''some'' kind of empty clothes left after it gets done with someone.
* Used in Creator/HPLovecraft's short story "From Beyond". The servants of the crazed experimenter are given instructions to leave the electricity off while his Resonator is operating. One forgets and turns on a light. [[spoiler:The experimenter hears screams - and then finds their clothing dropped where they stood.]]
* In the Creator/StephenKing book series ''Franchise/TheDarkTower: Literature/TheGunslinger -- Little Sisters of Eluria'', one of the sisters betrays the others to help Roland, The Lone Gunslinger. After they have gotten away and believe they are safe, they rest in a cave. But during the sleep, Roland hears tiny bells and awakes to find only the empty clothes of the woman who helped him. [[spoiler:She was turned into a bunch of tiny bugs by the sound of the bell.]]
* Averted somewhat weirdly in Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/TheLangoliers'', where most of the passangers disappear from a plane when it crosses a time rip, and they leave behind watches, glasses, jewels, even surgical pins -- but not clothes. One character lampshades this, saying: "What was taken and what was left behind [...] doesn't seem to have a lot of rhyme or reason to it."
* [[spoiler: [[PokemonSpeak Eppon]] the weapon]] in ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear: Army of Terror'' kills by turning peoples' bodies to gel and absorbing them, leaving their clothes and weapons to fall empty. Full armor and no exposed skin seems to help, but that's not its only attack.
* In one of ''Literature/TheGreatMerlini'' short stories, breaking into the locked room reveals no gun, one shot corpse, and one unconscious nude man -- all his clothing, including underwear, is laying on the ground as if he'd phased through it. The deceased was a [=UFO=] believer, but it wasn't aliens, it was an alibi. It was pretty easy to prove the now-revived nude man wasn't smuggling a gun out of the room.
* Used in ''Literature/TheTimeTravelersWife'', when the title time traveler... time travels.
* In the William Essex novel ''Slime'', the living, flesh-eating toxic waste dissolves and consumes its victims, leaving nothing but their empty clothes behind, without any blood or even any residue of itself.
* ''Literature/{{Slimer}}'' by Harry Adam Knight concerns a [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever mutated great white shark]] which absorbs the minds and bodies of its victims (similar to ''Phantoms'') leaving behind just their slime-drenched empty clothing.
* In ''Literature/QuantumDevilSagaAvatarTuner'', one of the first things that clue the Embryon in on that something is seriously wrong at the Vanguards base is when they find no one around other than scattered piles of weapons and clothing.
* In Frank Bonham's ''Literature/TheMissingPersonsLeague'', the villains go out this way after taking the protagonists hostage and trying to force their way into a silo. Everyone is trapped in an anteroom with a light that turns flesh translucent, then begins to dissolve the rest of the body [[BodyHorror over a minute or so]], leaving only their clothes behind. The protagonists are protected by gaudy rings previously given to them by the underground movement controlling the silos, who led them there.

* ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'': As said in ''[[http://whateleyacademy.net/index.php/content_page/item/317-i-looked-into-the-abyss-and-it-winked-part-1 I Looked into the Abyss, and it Winked (Part 1)]]'', it's what's left of Doctor Crawford Tillinghast's housekeeping staff, lost to Franchise/CthulhuMythos entities:
--> "Did he really kill his entire housekeeping staff?"\\
"Your guess is as good as mine," answered the man in the sharp black suit. "All we found were piles of clothes."
* At the end of Michael Reaves' ''The Shattered World'', upon ascending out of the Labyrinth into upper Darkhaven, Amber and Pandrogas find piles of clothing and dust: all that's left of [[spoiler: Undya and the other servants, who had been DeadAllAlong and went to their final rest after the Necromancer's revival]].
* Invoked in ''Literature/MistbornSecretHistory''. The ghost [[spoiler:Kelsier]] is generally solid, but can [[IntangibleMan pass through certain objects]] with effort, such as the ground. When trying to steal a certain object from a squadron in a thick forest, he first isolates the leader (who is carrying his quarry) by making her horse bolt. He discourages her companions from searching for her by stealing her hooded cloak, wearing it, and waiting for them to catch sight of him from the back before sinking into the ground, leaving the cloak on the surface. From their point of view, their leader was disintegrated, so they panic and run.

* ''[[Series/{{AreYouAfraidOftheDark}} Are You Afraid Of the Dark?]]'': In "The Tale of the Hatching", [[spoiler:when the Taylors (who were alien creatures disguised as humans who ran a boarding school), the mother creature, and their eggs are blown apart by loud music from a PA speaker wired to a Walkman, all that remains of the Taylors are their clothes laying in the slimy mess.]]
* ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'': In the episode "How to Make a Quilt Out of Americans", 3 elderly ladies want to regain their youth, but their spell backfires and instead of restoring their youth, the villain turns them into dust, resulting in this trope.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E11Utopia "Utopia"]]: A crewman is vaporised by stet radiation, leaving only his clothes behind.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E1PartnersInCrime "Partners in Crime"]]: Little creatures called Adipose are born from the fat of those who have been taking the enzyme used to create them. In a pinch, however, the Adipose can convert all types of cell tissue, resulting in this trope.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E7AmysChoice "Amy's Choice"]]: The first sign that something is wrong in the Leadworth reality are these, coupled with piles of dust.
* In an episode of ''Series/TheFlash1990'', the Flash's Mirror Twin Pollux sacrifices himself to save Barry Allen from being shot by the scientist who created Pollux, and in dying [[NoBodyLeftBehind vanished]], leaving only his suit.
** In the [[Series/TheFlash2014 2014 series]], Eliza Harmon aka Trajectory injects herself with Velocity-9 to give herself SuperSpeed, but runs so fast she ends up disintegrating, leaving only her suit behind.

* Parodied in ''Series/{{Glee}}'' when Kitty punishes Dottie Kazatori. She has her Left Behind Club leave piles of clothing all over the meeting room right after Dottie leaves, and when she returns she thinks the rapture has occurred.
* In the Filipino soap opera ''Kokak'', a girl is cursed at birth by a witch so that whenever her feet get wet she turns into a small frog, then hops out of the pile of clothes she was wearing. This happens a surprising amount of times throughout the show's run.
* ''Series/TheMandalorian'': The title character's disruptor rifle disintegrates people and send their empty clothes flying. As demonstrated by [[https://youtu.be/KSfsE9FiCto these Jawas]].
* Implied on ''Series/NightCourt'', but only to another character. ([[DramaticIrony The audience is fully apprised.]]) After receiving information on their latest crisis, the group heads off to handle it and Harry leaves his robe on the couch in his chambers. Meanwhile, Al has been trying to fix the court's electrical system and makes another attempt after they leave, resulting in an electrical discharge in the chambers. He goes in to check on everyone, sees Harry's robe, and assumes the worst.

** This is also what is left after an attack with the Dakara Superweapon set to destroy living matter, in season 10 episode "Counterstrike".
* ''Series/{{Star Trek|The Original Series}}'': "The Omega Glory" is a subversion as the crew's uniforms weren't empty: they still had crystals (the remains of the crew's bodies) inside of them.
* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': In "The Best of Both Worlds", after Picard is captured by the Borg, the search party looking for him on the Borg cube initially find only his uniform in a locker. They shortly thereafter find out he's been turned into a Borg himself.
* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''. In the episode "Innocence", Tuvok meets a group of alien children on a planet who start disappearing off-screen only leaving behind their clothes. As it turns out [[spoiler:the children's species age in reverse, turning into children toward the end of their life and then turn into energy when they die of old age.]]

* ''Series/TheXFiles'' episode "Agua Mala" has wet piles of clothes left behind as the only trace of victims of a water-born parasite. This is because the parasite converts the human body to water in order to further its reproductive cycle.

** A [[RunningGag frequent problem]] with Jenna, as she's a [[TheWormThatWalks mass of sentient insects]] that will disperse if she requires them to, or is otherwise spooked. This then leaves a pile of empty human clothes in her wake for others to come across and ponder over.

* In ''The Chimera Program'', an arc from ''Podcast/CoolKidsTable'' Void destroys any organic material they come in contact with. After walking through a squad of soldiers, only their gear remains.

* In ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', mysteriously abandoned armor is often the only warning you'll get that the room it's in is filled with a nigh-invisible, flesh-dissolving gelatinous cube.

* ''VideoGame/TheDarksideDetective: A Fumble in the Dark'': One case involves people disappearing into thin air, leaving behind a pile of empty clothes. It turns out they've been shanghaied into another dimension to become contestants in a DeadlyGame.
* In the arcade game ''VideoGame/{{Riot}}'', the EvilSorceror main villain, upon defeat in the final stage, firstly gets StrippedToTheBone. Then his bone turns to dust, leaving him a set of robes in his throne.
* ''VideoGame/RuleOfRose'': Empty piles of clothes are shown in the background during the Stray Dog bossfight. It's not really explained, but the prevalent fan theory is that Jennifer is mentally censoring out the corpses that should be inhabiting them. It's a justification for the practical reason that showing dead children in a video game, a console game at any rate, is a big no-no. The game pretty masterfully avoids showing almost any of the horrible things kids go through in the story, arguably making it feel a lot worse than if they just said and showed things straight up.
* In the game ''Missing on Lost Island'' you and your girlfriend are attacked by goons. During the fight your girlfriend is shot by a strange ray gun and vanishes leaving only her clothes. Soon after, you are also shot with the same gun.
* ''VideoGame/ProfessorLaytonAndTheAzranLegacy'': invoked in one of the mysteries of the game. In the village of Hoogland, young girls are regularly "wed", or rather sacrificed, to a wind deity so as to calm its wrath down and ease the winds and tornadoes that plague the village. The girls are said to transform into a breeze upon their sacrifice, as evidenced by their empty clothes being left in the sacrificial chapel. [[spoiler:It's actually a hoax pulled off by the women of the village: by going through a secret passage, they are able to save the girls before they are actually sacrificed. They left behind their clothes to fool the men into thinking the deity accepted the sacrifice.]]
* In this text-based game ''The Forgotten Nightmare'' there are piles of empty clothing in various places in the game. The disappeared people seem to be in various stages of activity. The mystery is even more creepy because there are many people still present and walking around. It becomes apparent that [[spoiler:the people have been taken in the Rapture. The Protagonist was left behind, and events from the book of Revelation seem to be happening...]]
* In the PC game ''Legend of Kyrandia 2 Hand of Fate'', one of the many ways Zanthia, the main character dies is when she touches an electrified wheel that generates electricity is electrocuted. The shock vaporizes her until nothing is left but her clothes.
* When a city is pulled into the Nexus in ''VideoGame/NexusClash'' nearly everyone in it spontaneously disappears, which means this trope is the most likely explanation for why there are loads of spare clothes lying around for player [[RainbowPimpGear fashionistas]] to try on. At least, we ''hope'' that's why the beaches are littered with [[MakingLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces discarded swimsuits]].

* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind''[='s=] ''Tribunal'' expansion, you visit a [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame Dwemer]] ruin beneath the city of Mournhold which has been untouched since the day the [[RiddleForTheAges entire Dwemer race simultaneously disappeared]] from the face of Nirn. Included are piles of ash next to empty suits of Dwemer armor and weapons dropped onto the floor.
* ''VideoGame/GenerationZero:'' Empty piles of clothing are a common sight in the wake of the RobotRebellion.
* ''Videogame/DeepRockGalactic'' lets you encounter the emptied-out armor and clothing of your former colleagues every now and then, still surrounded by the scattered minerals they once carried. While there's no indication of what happened, knowing [[DeathWorld Hoxxes IV]] they were probably eaten by wildlife.
* In ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles3'', Consuls O and P set [[RivalsTeamUp Ethel and Cammuravi]] (the former under the threat of the annihilation of the recently-liberated Colony 4) against the Ouroboros, aboard specially-made [[HumongousMecha Ferronises]]. However, after Cammuravi [[EyeScream gouged out his own Iris]] to prevent the Consuls from controlling him, he and Ethel decided to forego their orders and [[BloodKnight engage in one last joyous duel against each other]]. Their life force was drained as they [[MutualKill both struck the other with a killing blow]], and their bodies faded into motes of light, leaving their clothes behind in the Ferronis cockpits.

* TropeNamer: In one strip of ''Webcomic/TheDragonDoctors,'' an explorer investigating a science station exclaims, "Empty piles of discarded clothing! That's bad. That's always a bad sign!" He wonders if they've been disintegrated or mutated into monsters; turns out most of them overdosed on a FountainOfYouth.

* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': The Corbettite abbot [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20141024 recounts]] to Agatha how the monks found various nasty inventions, including one that turns people into glowing cubes leaving their clothes behind.
* ''Webcomic/BobTheAngryFlower'': In the strip [[http://www.angryflower.com/118.html "Spofford, Texas,"]] two variations for the price of one: first, the people of the town have been replaced with piles of sand, not vanished entirely, and two, their clothes are gone as well -- except for their ''hats.''

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation''
** [[http://scp-wiki.net/scp-093 SCP-093 ("Red Sea Object")]]
*** During the "Green" test the explorer finds a set of children's clothing laid out on the ground as if they were being worn.
*** During the "Violet" test an explorer is attacked by one of the weird half-giants and his body is absorbed, leaving only his clothes and equipment.
*** "SCP-093-Recovered Materials" file. Herverf Jakulsiv's diary says that a Blessed man stopped by his home one day and then left. When Jakulsiv's daughter Lisstieria went to look for him she found his clothes and gear, but not him.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' Christmas episode "For Whom the Sleigh Bell Tolls", the Smiths dig up Santa's corpse to find that Santa's body has vanished, leaving the iconic Santa outfit behind. Turns out [[spoiler:he was magically transported to the North Pole to regenerate]].
** Also occurred in "Rapture's Delight", where all who were raptured left their clothes behind.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'' episode "The High Five Of Doom", after learning the truth about Filburt and why he was doing the weird things they witnessed, Rocko and Heffer come to the conclusion that Filburt isn't an alien after all - that is until he slaps both of them a high five at once, thus vaporizing the two, leaving Rocko and Heffer's clothes falling to the ground as Filburt and his crew circle around the spot where Rocko's house used to be. [[spoiler:In the end, it turns out that everything that happened in the entire episode was all a story that Rocko and Heffer read from Filburt's journal.]]
* Twice in ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'':
** In "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS2E7PrehibernationWeekLifeOfCrime Prehibernation Week]]" [=SpongeBob=] ends up leaving his clothes behind on a plant when hiding and Sandy thinks that he's gone missing ("[=SpongeBob=] always folds his clothes before running around... in the nude!").
** In "The Incredible Shrinking Sponge", [=SpongeBob=] winds up shrinking out of his clothes after an urchin sets the grill's heat to maximum.
* [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] in ''WesternAnimation/{{Cyberchase}}''. An early episode had the Cybersquad go to a cybersite where everything was scaled ten times bigger than them. At first they believe they had shrunk, but Inez says this trope would have happened if they really shrank.
* ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated'': Happens to the clothes of the other members of the gang when Fred appears to have ended up in a BadFuture. [[spoiler:It's part of the fake movie set set up by his parents.]]
* In the final episode of ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'', [[spoiler:Ashi suffers a RetGone, and all that is left of her is her bridal kimono.]]

* In ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', one of the ways Cell can absorb people is by plunging his stinger tail into them, then sucking up their body as he would liquid through a straw, only leaving their clothes behind. As pictured above, a whole city full of empty clothes is a sure sign that Cell has been feeding (though his victims fortunately end up being revived later).
* In the series finale of ''Anime/DragonBallGT'', [[spoiler:Goku's uniform is left behind when he vanishes with Shenron for a hundred years.]]

* In ''[[VisualNovel/{{Shuffle}} SHUFFLE! Memories]]'' ep 12, practically the whole group [[spoiler: is shrunk]], one by one while on a cruise ship, leaving behind their swimsuits. This happens offscreen and the characters and audience are both left in the dark as to what has happened. [[spoiler:The characters' version of "something ominous having happened" seems to amount to ''one disappeared character having sex with another''.]]
* A horrible example in ''Manga/TheSevenDeadlySins''. We see [[spoiler:Hendricksen ready to melt Dreyfus with his acid powers]]. When Meliodas arrives, the only thing left is [[spoiler:Dreyfus's empty armor.]] [[spoiler:Subverted however, as Dreyfus survived, but only because Fraudrin, the demon that was possessing Dreyfus, staged the whole thing and used Dreyfus's "death" as a means of escape to continue on with his plan unhindered.]]

* This is what happens whenever someone dies of Troy in ''Manga/DoubleArts''. First the seizures, then the victims become transparent and disappear.

* In ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', this is basically the end result of [[spoiler: [[ApocalypseWow Third-Impact]]. The elimination of a Human's A.T Field results in the Human completely losing their physical form, transforming them into LCL. The only thing that's left of the person is their clothes and whatever inorganic components that were on them.]]

* In the ''ComicBook/{{Chick Tract|s}}'' "Last Generation," this happens to the people who ascend in the Rapture.
* ''ComicBook/XMen: The Hidden Years #1'' "Once More the Savage Land": Marvel Girl is said to have passed onto the land of the dead, showing only her empty costume lying across a table.
* The [[http://images.wikia.com/marvel_dc/images/c/cd/Legends_5.jpg cover]] of DC Comics' ''ComicBook/{{Legends|DCComics}}'' issue 5 has [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]] standing amidst a pile of empty superhero clothes.
* In one of the stories of ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' that took place during the ComicBook/Millennium1988 crossover, Green Lantern Hal Jordan found empty piles of clothing left behind by the Guardians Of The Universe and the Zamarons when they were using their power to hide from the Manhunter Highmaster.
* The new 52 ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} #23 has Supergirl infected with Kryptonite poisoning. Cyborg Superman plans to use her flesh as a building block to rebuild himself. He uses a machine that totally disintegrates Supergirl's body, 1) to scrub the poison in her system, 2) to analyze her form so he can remake his. The process leaves her empty costume crumpled in a heap on the floor.

* An extremely dark version in ''ComicBook/UltimateXMen Vol 1 41''. A young man known only as "J"’s mutant power manifests one morning, which is to involuntarily vaporise all organic matter within a certain radius of himself after a short time of it being exposed to him. He wakes up on a normal day to find the house deserted and his mother’s clothes lying on the floor and all the organic food in the kitchen vanished. He heads off to school, passing an empty dog collar on the ground, then spots some people nearby but doesn’t notice them disintegrating as he turns away. When he arrives at school students start disintegrating around him shortly after he arrives leaving their clothing behind, including his girlfriend who identifies him as the source of the phenomenon as she burns away. The story cuts to ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} (who’s immune to J’s power thanks to his HealingFactor) entering a cave where J is hiding having been sent by ComicBook/ProfessorX who explains what’s happened, that at least two hundred and sixty five people were killed by his power. After explaining that the situation will be covered up by a story saying a corrosive chemical leak will be blamed, Wolverine has to tell J that the story can never get out as if it becomes public a mutant was responsible it would lead to a worldwide pogrom against mutants. J, already distraught that his power is to be an uncontrolled WalkingWasteland understands the implication and tells Wolverine to "just do it". Wolverine is shown leaving the cave alone the next morning, implying that he made in off panel MercyKill of J and buried the body in the cave.

* The creature from the CreepyPasta ''The Horror From The Vault'' assimilates all animal bio-matter into itself, including blood. When it breaks into a house in its larval "ghoul" form, it leaves behind a set of empty and perfectly laundered clothes.

** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-2454 SCP-2454 ("Negation").]] SCP-2454 is a ship filled with empty clothing (and other equipment). It's the remains of hundreds of Foundation personnel who entered it and were destroyed by the unknown entity inside it.

* In ''Film/VanishingOnSeventhStreet'', during a brief power failure, just about everyone in the city vanishes, leaving only their clothes.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}}'': Happens to [[spoiler:Mother Gothel]] at the end, as a result of Flynn finally cutting Rapunzel's hair [[spoiler: and depriving her of her FountainOfYouth, which kills her.]]
* {{Subverted|Trope}} in ''WesternAnimation/Shrek2'': After [[spoiler: King Harold shields Fiona from one of the Fairy Godmother's spells, his suit of armor seems to be the only thing left of him... Until he comes out of the armor, in his original frog form, and reveals the truth about that to the heroes]].

[[folder:Film — Animation]]

* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek 2}}'' : After [[spoiler: King Harold shields Fiona from one of the Fairy Godmother's spells, his suit of armor seems to be the only thing left of him... Until he comes out of the armor, in his original frog form, and reveals the truth about that to the heroes]].

[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]
* ''Film/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'': In ''Film/TheVoyageOfTheDawnTreader'', Edmund and Caspian find Eustace's smoldering clothes and assume something terrible has happened to him. [[ForcedTransformation It has]], though not what they expect.
* Another variant in ''Film/NightOfTheComet''. After almost everyone on Earth goes outside to look at a comet, their bodies are reduced to a red dust, leaving their clothes scattered on the ground with the dust spilling out of them.
* In the film ''Film/VanishingOnSeventhStreet'', during a brief power failure, just about everyone in the city vanishes, leaving only their clothes.
* In the film ''Film/TheHMan'', there is a radioactive blob going around absorbing people until only their clothes are left.

* In the movie ''Film/Troll2'', a girl drinks a potion from a woman pretending to help. It turns out that the woman is in league with the goblins and the potion given to the girl slowly melts her into slime. You have to look close but you can see her clothes laying in the puddle of green slime before the goblins come to eat her.

* In ''Film/OBrotherWhereArtThou'', one of the trio's completely missing except for his neatly-arranged clothing (and a toad), leading the other two to believe he's been turned into one.
* In the movie ''Film/RapturePalooza'', at the beginning, people are at the bowling alley but the rapture took place. During the opening credits, clothes are falling at slow motion because the people are raptured. Only a few remain in the bowling alley, but piles of clothes are in the place where people once stood.
* In ''Franchise/StarWars: Film/ANewHope'', Ben Kenobi's cloak is left behind when he is struck down by Vader and becomes a Force ghost. In ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'', the same happens to Yoda when he dies of old age. And then in ''Film/TheLastJedi'', [[spoiler:Luke Skywalker]] follows suit when he becomes one with the Force.
* This happens to [[spoiler: the main character, Lucy,]] in the film ''Film/{{Lucy}}''.
* These are all that's left of the victims of the sentient (and hungry) reel film in the 1975 short film ''Film/RecordedLive''.
* Presumably one of the magic effects in ''Film/NowYouSeeMe'': the Second Act

* The tripod's weapon in ''Film/WarOfTheWorlds'' disintegrates any humans it hits, leaving only their clothing behind. The scene where Tom Cruise's character pauses for breath after barely escaping the initial attack with his life, only to see dozens of discarded items of clothing slowly floating down a river, is [[NothingIsScarier one of the most chilling moments in the film.]]

* ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'': Averted. [[spoiler:The people who crumble into dust as a result of Thanos' BadassFingersnap take their clothes with them. Even Bucky's mechanical arm crumbles. The only confirmed things left behind are Bucky's gun, and Fury's pager]].
* ''Film/CubeZero''. One of the prisoners looks in a room of the booby-trapped Cube and sees piles of blood-soaked clothing and declares he's not going in there. He gets shoved in there anyway by a fellow prisoner (because he's been infected with a contagion and they want to get rid of him), whereupon sound emitters deploy from the walls and emit a BrownNote that causes [[YourHeadAsplode Your Body Asplode]].
* ''Film/TheOldGuard''. The protagonists are hired to rescue some Sudanese schoolgirls kidnapped by a warlord. After infiltrating his base, they find a pile of childrens' shoes outside a building, so they charge inside only to find the building empty except for the squad of mercenaries waiting in ambush. Afterwards they agree that the shoes were a particularly good touch from the man who set them up.

After all, those clothes used to belong to ''somebody'', and people don't just... decide to take off and leave their clothes behind on a regular basis. (Sure, NakedPeopleAreFunny, but let's be serious here.) Therefore, discovering a pile of uninhabited clothing is a definite clue that something... ''unnatural'' happened to its owner. The cause may be anything (disintegration, a ShrinkRay, BalefulPolymorph, CaughtUpInTheRapture, an OutOfClothesExperience, overdosing on a FountainOfYouth, etc.) but for this trope to play, an onscreen character, the audience — or both — must be less than certain about the ''how''. The {{Foreshadowing}} goes double if the clothing is ripped, torn, or otherwise provides forensic clues about what might have happened to them.

* ''Film/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'': In ''Film/TheVoyageOfTheDawnTreader'', Edmund and Caspian find Eustace's smoldering clothes and assume something terrible has happened to him. [[BalefulPolymorph It has]], though not what they expect.

* In Rise Of The Shield Hero Naofumi and Raphthalia both get worried when they wake up to find the clothing of Princess Melty but no Princess Melty. Then they remember that Filo, a giant bird, had expressed a desire to eat members of her own species and start wondering if that lack of scruples might extend to humans as well. Just as they start reproaching Filo over this the matter is settled when a sleepy Melty stick her head out of Filo's feathers and wants to know what is going on. It turns out that she had found that sleeping in Filo's down was comfortable and warm but was definitely too warm for clothing. When Raphthalia experimentally sticks her arm in the down she finds it comfortable too and immediately falls asleep. Naofumi mutters something and goes back to bed as well.

* Used in H.P. Lovecraft's short story "From Beyond". The servants of the crazed experimenter are given instructions to leave the electricity off while his Resonator is operating. One forgets and turns on a light. [[spoiler:The experimenter hears screams - and then finds their clothing dropped where they stood.]]

* The [[http://images.wikia.com/marvel_dc/images/c/cd/Legends_5.jpg cover]] of DC Comics' ''[[ComicBook/LegendsDC Legends]]'' issue 5 has [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]] standing amidst a pile of empty superhero clothes.

->''Either something ''horrific'' happened, or there's a naked dwarf running around somewhere...''

* In one of the stories of ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' that took place during the ComicBook/{{Millennium}} crossover, Green Lantern Hal Jordan found empty piles of clothing left behind by the Guardians Of The Universe and the Zamarons when they were using their power to hide from the Manhunter Highmaster.

* ''Film/MomAndDadSaveTheWorld'': The effect of the light grenade is "Pff! Grenade remains, person disappears." At one point a patrol of soldiers trigger one, living it surrounded by empty uniforms. Played for comedy.

->''Either something ''horrible'' happened, or there's a naked dwarf running around somewhere...''

* In the Creator/StephenKing book series ''Franchise/TheDarkTower: Literature/TheGunslinger -- Little Sisters of Eluria'', one of the sisters betrays the others to help Roland, The Lone Gunslinger. After they have gotten away and believe they are safe, they rest in a cave. But during the sleep, Roland hears tiny bells and awakes to find only the empty clothes of the woman who helped him.

[[spoiler:She was turned into a bunch of tiny bugs by the sound of the bell.]]

** In "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS2E7PrehibernationWeekLifeOfCrime Prehibernation Week]]" [=SpongeBob=] ends up leaving his clothes behind on a plant when hiding and Sandy thinks that he's gone missing ("[=SpongeBob=] always folds his clothes before running around... in the nude!"). Naturally, when she gets the town to look for him, HilarityEnsues.

* In the film ''The H-Man'', there is a radioactive blob going around absorbing people until only their clothes are left.
* In the film called ''The Moment After'', the beginning scenes show signs of the recent "rapture" event, showing piles of empty clothes littering the street and homes.

* In ''ComicBook/ZeroHour'', Wally West's physical form discorporates when he runs at full speed straight toward the entropy rift in order to collapse it, leaving his superhero costume behind.