History Main / Flatline

->''"Beep... beep... beep...beep...''\\

!!'''As a DeathTrope, all Spoilers will be unmarked ahead. Beware.'''

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* ''VideoGame/TraumaCenter'': The vitals bar has an ECG overlaid which, of course, flatlines when a patient undergoes cardiac arrest. A flatline is usually accompanied by intense ECG waves beforehand (due to ventricular fibrillation). When this happens, it's time to either break out the MagicalDefibrillator or perform a heart massage.

Prior to EKGs becoming common, a respirator bag served a similar purpose. Once it stopped inflating the audience knew the character was in trouble.

** An [[AprilFoolsPlot April Fools prank]] leaves Homer in a coma. A teary-eyed Bart confesses that he pulled the prank, and as Homer's EKG beeps faster, the lines form the shape of Bart's head, just before he comes to and strangles Bart.
** This was also parodied in another episode with Bart talking to an injured Milhouse who is hooked up to an EKG. While Milhouse is still alive, the monitor flatlines.

'''Milhouse:''' Oh, it always does that. HUNGH! ''[hits monitor, the monitor starts again]''

[[folder:Film]]

* In ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic: The Second Raid'', Gauron flatlines after Sousuke shoots him [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill repeatedly]]. However, the beeping actually ''starts up again'' (which lead to many people believing that [[MemeticBadass he had officially achieved immortality]]). Of course, the beeping turns out to be a bomb.

* Tricorders on the various ''Franchise/StarTrek'' will tend to make the noise if the person being scanned dies. It's rarely actually shown, though, just the reactions of the people that are around.
** The sickbay biobed monitor would usually set off an alarm if the readings of the patient in the bed went beyond the normal range of its species (which means a biobed monitor set for human readings would go nuts if Spock got on the bed without the monitor being reset for Vulcans). In the second pilot, however, when Gary Mitchell demonstrates his newfound powers by willing himself dead for a few seconds, the monitor bottoms out all of the readings and falls silent, only to resume normal readings when he revives himself.

* ''Series/{{UFO}}''
** Episode "Identified". After a UFO is shot down one of the aliens aboard it is captured. After he's exposed to the Earth's atmosphere he suffers from RapidAging. As the SHADO doctors try to save him a nurse watches a heart monitor. His heartbeat continues for a few seconds and then flatlines.
** Episode "Computer Affair". Straker decides to use one of the "new anodynes" on a captured alien in the hope that it will act as a TruthSerum on him. Instead, it makes his heart beat faster and then kills him, with a heart monitor showing the whole thing.
* In the ''Series/{{Intelligence|2014}}'' episode "Patient Zero", [[SubvertedTrope Gabriel fakes one]] while he and Riley investigate how an executed death row inmate could turn up as patient zero in a virus outbreak. Gabriel lies down on the death chamber gurney (no syringes) and has Riley activate the system, then hacks the EKG machine with his chip to produce a flatline result (partly as a [[ManChild prank]], but also to demonstrate that the machine was tampered with).

RuleOfPerception says that a flatline on film is always... well, a flat line. In RealLife there might be a drifting baseline, but this is not true electrical activity. The flatline may also wave in time with the 50Hz or 60Hz of mains power, especially if a mains filter is not used or is faulty. There is also a condition called PEA (Pulseless Electrical Activity), distinct from asystole, where there is an organized rhythm on the monitor, but no pulse. The eletrical activity is present, but the heart muscle is not responding. Both PEA and asystole are unshockable rhythms (the defibrillator will do absolutely nothing) and must be treated with continued CPR, epinephrine ASAP and then every 3-5 minutes, and attempting to reverse the causes of the rhythms--most commonly, hypovolemia and hypoxia.

The technical term for a "flatline" is asystole ("a-" for lacking, "systole" for the contraction cycle of a heartbeat). This event is not always the result of the character having a heart condition; asystole can be caused by lots of things, including profound hypoxia (lack of oxygen in the blood), poisonings and intoxications, and consequences of trauma (i.e. massive hemorrhage, tension pneumothorax - leaking air from a collapsed lung putting pressure on the heart, or cardiac tamponade - blood building up around the heart and squeezing it to death). However, the circumstances leading to asystole are always catastrophic in nature, such that even if you manage to re-establish a rhythm (itself usually a losing proposition), the patient's chances of actual recovery are abysmal (but not always zero; a patient recovering from cardiac arrest is known as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazarus_syndrome Lazarus syndrome]], named after the man UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} [[BackFromTheDead resurrects]] in the [[Literature/TheFourGospels Gospel of John]]).

* ''Fanfic/TheMoonstoneCup'' has Twilight's cardiac monitor do this. Because ''IT'' died, much to her chagrin ...
* [[http://krazycatqueen.deviantart.com/art/Regret-402782779 Regret by Krazykatqueen]] has this with a dying Renko after Yukari (once Maribel Hearn) tells her she was sorry for her absence.

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10615968/1/A-Trial-of-Will A Trial of Will]]'', Ash is [[TakingTheBullet shot twice]] and eventually [[NiceJobBreakingItHero flatlines from a last-ditch attempt to heal him]]. Then the machine [[BackFromTheDead starts beeping again]] and he wakes up.

* ''Series/{{Dallas}}'': The seventh-season ending, where Bobby Ewing dies; this is ''not'' the "shower scene" cliffhanger that aired a year later, but the episode where Bobby was struck by a car and mortally injured. As usually seems to be the case for "he's gonna die" episodes, the entire cast gathers at the victim's bedside (in this case, Bobby's) as the soon-to-be-deceased mumbles a few last words to family and loved ones; in this case, Bobby's last muttered words are, "I love you" before the flatline. Unintentionally comes off as being PlayedForLaughs because of the cheesy setup, the lack of emotion shown by a fake teary-eyed Creator/LarryHagman, and the foregone conclusion that Bobby was going to die (due to Patrick Duffy leaving the show due to conflicts with the show's producers and writers -- [[AllJustADream until he got them resolved a year later]]... ).

* An EKG flatline sample can be heard in parts of Music/{{Covenant}}'s [[https://youtu.be/qHIEfVkfdAU Leaving Babylon II"]].

The technical term for a "flatline" is asystole ("a-" for lacking, "systole" for the contraction cycle of a heartbeat). This event is not always the result of the character having a heart condition; asystole can be caused by lots of things, including profound hypoxia (lack of oxygen in the blood), poisonings and intoxications, and consequences of trauma (i.e. massive hemorrhage, tension pneumothorax - leaking air from a collapsed lung putting pressure on the heart, or cardiac tamponade - blood building up around the heart and squeezing it to death). However, the circumstances leading to asystole are always catastrophic in nature, such that even if you manage to re-establish a rhythm (itself usually a losing proposition), the patient's chances of actual recovery are abysmal (but not always zero; a patient recovering from cardiac arrest is known as Lazarus syndrome).

* ''LightNovel/VampireHunterD: Bloodlust''. After Grove sacrifices himself to save Leila from a vampire the audience can hear the flatline sound from the medical equipment attached to him.

For the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode, go [[{{Recap/DoctorWhoS34E9Flatline}} here]].

* ''FanFic/HousepetsTheSeries'' has a false alarm variety. Peanut was in a coma after fending off a mad dog to save his family. The doctors are alerted to a Code Blue in his room, and they rush in...to find Grape hugging a miraculously-awaken Peanut. She hugged him so passionately, she dislodged his ECG leads.
* ''FanFic/TheMoonstoneCup'' has Twilight's cardiac monitor do this. Because ''IT'' died, much to her chagrin ...

* In [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10615968/1/A-Trial-of-Will A Trial of Will]], Ash is [[TakingTheBullet shot twice]] and eventually [[NiceJobBreakingItHero flatlines from a last-ditch attempt to heal him]]. Then the machine [[BackFromTheDead starts beeping again]] and he wakes up.

* Subverted in ''Film/{{Apollo 13}}''. The flight surgeon at the control room freaks out when the astronauts' monitors flatline, but they hear their voices through the radios fine, and the director assures him that the astronauts simply took their medical leads off. "A little medical mutiny" because they've been under a lot of stress and are tired of hearing the operators fuss about their heart rates.

* In ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'', the DownerBeginning has the hero's mother die in hospital on a flatline sound.

* ''[[Film/{{Resurrection1980}} Resurrection]]'' features a heart monitor throughout the entire "near-death experience" scene, and yes it does flatline at one point.

* This was used with Nanako in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'', although [[ImprobableInfantSurvival she gets better]]... unless you decide to kill her would-be murderer.

* Used for player character death in ''Videogame/AlienResurrection'' LicensedGame.

* At the beginning of ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', Catherine, the player character's mother, has this when she [[DeathByChildbirth goes into cardiac arrest after childbirth.]] Also heard when you find her skeleton during the Punga hallucination in Point Lookout.

* The first episode of ''WesternAnimation/UltimateSpiderMan'' had Peter explaining to Aunt May that he's all right after his school was ambushed by the Frightful Four, but couldn't say the same for Harry, who wound up in the hospital. We cut to a heart monitor flatlining as if he had died, but it was just being switched off and wheeled out of his room by a nurse.

* In ''Anime/KillLaKill'', we see this in a flashback with a baby Ryuuko during the time where her parents tried to infuse her with life-fibers. Subverted in that she wasn't dead.