History Main / FlatlinePlotline

* An early episode of ''[[{{Anime/Ptitlei015gc004kw4}} Pokémon]]'' has Ash and Pikachu go through this, temporarily turning into ghosts after being crushed under a fallen chandelier. This proves key in helping Ash bond with the ghostly trio of Haunter, Ghastly and Gengar.

* A recent episode of ''{{Medium}}'' had a doctor doing this so he could [[spoiler:travel as a ghost to see rich people doing bad things and then blackmail them]].

* This was on a (stupid) episode of ''{{Smallville}}''.

* Exactly the same idea as ''The Frighteners'' had been inverted about 20 years earlier by ''RandallAndHopkirkDeceased''. In that case, they needed the man they were interrogating to have a near-death experience so Hopkirk (the dead one) could talk to him.

* Subject on an episode of ''ForeverKnight''. Nick too crosses over, in order to find if he's damned forever.

-->-- '''Randy Steckle''', '''''{{Flatliners}}'''''

* ''{{The Adventures Of Doctor McNinja}}'': Happens in one of the major arcs. Dracula helps Benjamin Franklin create an elixir of immortality, so that he can die and come back (as a Headless Horseman) and tell him what the afterlife is like... he's gotten tired of his own immortal existence, and wants to know what the next world is like, so he can make an informed decision about passing on. Turns out that Purgatory is a restaurant with terrible service. The worst.
** Dracula was pretty pissed when he learned that Benjamin didn't even experience the true afterlife because the service of Purgatory was so slow. The elixir kicked in right after he was finished his meal, as Death came to make him move on.

Most of the time, this falls into YouFailBiologyForever, but for some reason writers keep using it.

Not to be confused with FauxDeath - that's when the character never really dies in the first place or with {{Flatline}}.

* Parodied in [[TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy]], where Hotblack Desiato, a rock star who is very much alive, is "spending a year dead for tax reasons."

* In [[LoisMcMasterBujold Lois McMaster Bujold's]] ''{{Chalion}},'' the previous queen and king tried to short-circuit a [[ProphecyTwist particularly tricky prophecy]] by drowning and reviving a friend three times. It didn't work the second time, and he stayed dead.
* The uber example: Jesus.

* ''{{House}}'' once shocked himself and was clinically dead for 97 seconds so he could see what another guy was talking about about the afterlife. [[spoiler:He saw nothing, which confirmed for him that there was no afterlife.]]
** He did this despite the fact that he'd experienced clinical death ''before'' [[PlotHole and seen visions]], which he'd already rejected as proof of an afterlife.

* ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' died briefly in the Season One finale, fulfilling (while subverting) a prophesy and giving rise to replacement Slayers Kendra and Faith.
* ''{{Supernatural}}'': To figure out why the people in a town have stopped dying, Sam and Dean decide to try astral projection so they can see ghosts and reapers.

* XenaWarriorPrincess had this happen as the conclusion of a deathmatch had to be well, death, and Zena didn't want to kill her opponent. [[IGotBetter She was only dead for a little while.]]

* In a season 2 episode of Eureka, Fargo is trapped inside a dangerously expanding forcefield. When the scientists figure out how to disrupt its normal power source, it switches to a backup system draining energy from Fargo. In order to stop it, they use a sonic weapon to stop his heart since the forcefield device won't drain him if he's dead.

-->''"I did not come to medical school to murder my class mates no matter how deranged they might be."''\\
-- Randy Steckle, ''{{Flatliners}}''

[[AC:Anime]]

* An early episode of ''[[{{Anime/Ptitlei015gc004kw4}} Pokémon]]'' has Ash and Pikachu go through this, temporarily turning into ghosts after being crushed under a fallen chandelier. This proves key in helping Ash bond with the ghostly trio of Haunter, Ghastly and Gengar.

[[AC:ComicBooks]]

[[AC:{{Film}}]]

* In ''Ghost Town'', Ricky Gervais's character briefly becomes one of the ghosts he sees.

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]

* In ''TheDresdenFiles'', ghosts are effectively echoes sticking around to take care of unfinished business, not necessarily the actual spirit or soul (or what not) of the deceased. So, when one was kicking his ass, [[spoiler: Harry came up with the plan to die just long enough for a ghost to be created, then have his friends resuscitate him so that he could ''team up with his own ghost'' to beat the baddie.]]

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]

* A recent episode of ''{{Medium}}'' had a doctor doing this so he could [[spoiler:travel as a ghost to see rich people doing bad things and then blackmail them]].
* An episode of ''TruCalling'' called "Haunted."

** He did this despite the fact that he'd experienced clinical death ''before'' [[PlotHole and seen visions]], which he'd already rejected as proof of an afterlife.

* In an episode of ''{{Sliders}}'', the team lands on a world where the Egyptian dynasties never ended, and people are conducting afterlife experiments by temporarily killing test subjects. Naturally, one of our heroes gets caught up in it.

* Parodied in an episode of ''UprightCitizensBrigade''; Anton is trying to improve his chess-playing skills by hooking himself up to a machine that briefly renders him clinically dead every time he makes a bad move. It doesn't work out well.

[[AC:Tabletop Games]]

[[AC:VideoGames]]
* Both played with and parodied in MassEffect 2. The Parody is akin to the one from the above-mentioned Hitchhiker's Guide gag, when a security officer states that being dead for a year is a popular tax-dodge.
* In {{Metal Gear Solid}}, Snake is able to lay in a pool of ketchup to convince a guard that he has died.
** In Metal Gear Solid 3, Big Boss can do a similar trick by using a Cyanide tablet to cause a temporary state of death.
** Lastly in MGS4 it is possible to lay among a group of corpses after a battle and play dead. This usually causes any passing guards to ignore you.

[[AC:{{Webcomics}}]]
* Happens in one of the major arcs of ''{{The Adventures Of Doctor McNinja}}''... Dracula helps Benjamin Franklin create an elixir of immortality, so that he can die and come back (as a Headless Horseman) and tell him what the afterlife is like... he's gotten tired of his own immortal existence, and wants to know what the next world is like, so he can make an informed decision about passing on. Turns out that Purgatory is a restaurant with terrible service. The worst.

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]

[[AC:{{Real Life}}]]

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<<|YouFailBiologyForever|>>

* The limited-run ''Orpheus'' RPG by White Wolf was all about this trope. The titular corporation flatlined its agents, who would become ghosts and be able to interact with the spirits of the recently deceased on behalf of well-paying clients.

** He did this despite the fact that [[WallBanger he'd experienced clinical death ''before'']] [[PlotHole and seen visions]], which he'd already rejected as proof of an afterlife.

* An early episode of ''[[{{Anime/Ptitlei015gc004kw4}} Pokémon]]'' has Ash and Pikachu go through this, temporarily turning into ghosts after being crushed under a fallen chandelier. This proves key in helping Ash bond with the ghostly trio of Haunter, Gastly and Gengar.

* An early episode of ''{{Anime/Pokemon}}'' has Ash and Pikachu go through this, temporarily turning into ghosts after being crushed under a fallen chandelier. This proves key helping Ash bond with the ghostly trio of Haunter, Gastly and Gengar.

* This is the climax of ''The Frighteners'', where Michael J Fox becomes a ghost to fight a ghost.

* In Terry Pratchett's [[Nation]], it's a way to pay a visit to the local death god.

Not to be confused with FauxDeath - that's when the character never really dies in the first place.

* In a season 2 episode of Eureka, Fargo is trapped inside a dangerously expanding forcefield. When the scientists figure out how to disrupt it's normal power source, it switches to a backup system draining energy from Fargo. In order to stop it, they use a sonic weapon to stop his heart since the forcefield device won't drain him if he's dead.

Extra fail points occur if the victim actually does flatline. Almost no one is successfully brought back once their cardiac cells have stopped channeling enough electricity to trigger an ECG blip. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinical_death Clinical death]] actually means cessation of breathing and circulation and is not the same as flatlining.

* In {{Firefly}}, Simon Tam smuggles himself and his sister River into a hospital as corpses, so they can get to the advanced medical equiptment without setting off the bio-sensors.

* In the Italian film ''Diabolik'' (the final episode of MST3k), Diabolik's elaborate BatmanGambit to rescue Eva and keep the emeralds he stole for her involved ingesting a pill that would make him appear dead for 12 hours, but would kill him if he didn't take the antidote before then. When does Eva bring him the antidote? [[AlwaysClose 11 hours, 57 minutes.]]

[[AC:VideoGames]]
* Both played with and parodied in MassEffect 2. The Parody is akin to the one from the above-mentioned Hitchhiker's Guide gag, when a security officer states that being dead for a year is a popular tax-dodge.