History Main / MarkedToDie

** This feature is naturally extremely effective as a {{Foreshadowing}} tool. If a lot of people share the same number, it's indicative of a potential large-scale disaster soon to come. [[spoiler:In-game, ''everyone'' inside the Yamanote Line encirclement is slated to perish by the final day of the in-game week of events, whether it is by [[TheLegionsOfHell demonic invasion]], [[CouncilOfAngels divine punishment]] or [[GovernmentConspiracy a secret super weapon]] [[GodzillaThreshold that will fry every COMP in the encirclement]] [[NecessaryEvil as well as every human and MAYBE some demons.]]]]

** As a corollary to the above, taking certain actions (or even just ''deciding to take certain actions'') will instead cause your Death Clock to '''[[OhCrap go down.]]''' In-story this is mainly reflected when someone with a higher Death Clock joins your party, as the main characters are unfortunate enough to [[ScrewDestiny have to repeatedly avert their predicted, gruesome deaths.]] There are at least a couple of instances where [[NiceJobBreakingItHero your sharing of information with someone leads to them making a decision that drops their Death Clock,]] which serves as an impetus to go save them afterwards.

** If multiple individuals with modified [=COMPs=] form a group link, everyone but the designated leader COMP's owner will lose the ability to see the Death Clocks. This means anyone joining your party has to rely on the Main Character to break the news of current Death Clock readings.

** If the person has ten or more days left to live, the Death Clock won't display (in the original version) or it will only display an upwards arrow rather than the exact number (in the UpdatedRerelease).
** If multiple individuals with modified [=COMPs=] form a group link, everyone but the designated leader COMP's owner will lose the ability to see the Death Clocks.
** The Death Clocks are estimates and not absolute countdowns, and are calculated based on the most probable cause of death as predicted by the Laplace System. If the person in question [[ScrewDestiny successfully averts the cause of death predicted by the Laplace System,]] they can force their Death Clock number to raise, signifying an extension of their estimated lifetime.

** Following on the above, the Death Clock reading is not only affected by the person's own actions, but others as well. It's thus possible to abuse the Death Clock feature to figure out who's in danger of dying soon and then take the steps to avert ''their'' deaths.
** [[LampshadeHanging As noted by Naoya,]] merely diverting the path of destiny won't affect the prediction; the cause of death must be ''decisively'' eliminated or averted, or else Fate will reassert itself merely by figuring out a new way for the same cause of death to do the deed.

* The horror game ''VideoGame/DeathMark'' (死印 ''Shiin'') revolves around people who bear the eponymous Mark, who are fated to die after having it for too long, and suffer memory loss in the meantime (which affects their ability to live normally). Marks are the doing of malevolent [[OurGhostsAreDifferent spirits]]; they must be dispelled in order to cure their Marked victims. The {{Protagonist}} has been Marked by a unique spirit in H City, leaving him with a Mark for the game's duration until he can finally locate and dispel that spirit, whoever or whatever it was.

[[folder:Video Games]]

* In ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'', the worst criminals whom Batman kicks the crap out of are left branded with a bat symbol. It's rumored that this constitutes being MarkedForDeath, as other prison inmates single out anyone thus branded for attack or abuse.

** In ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E10FaceTheRaven Face the Raven]]'', a minor character receiving one of these - a tattoo of a number which keeps changing, counting down the minutes until his death - drives the plot of the episode. [[spoiler: Clara takes the mark onto herself partway through to free the original victim from it; unfortunately this turns out to make the mark impossible to remove and she dies at the end of the episode.]]

* In ''Series/DoctorWho'''s "The Curse of the Black Spot", anyone whose blood is drawn on the pirate ship has a black spot appear on their arm, and is promptly lured in and then disintegrated by a siren. [[spoiler:It's subverted in the end: the "siren" is an advanced medical hologram, and the disintegration actually teleports them into a spaceship's sickbay.]]

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[[AC: Film]]

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[[AC: Live-Action TV]]

* Agent Demetri Noh in ''FlashForward2009''; while everyone else has seen visions of themselves six months in the future, he has not, a strong indicator that he doesn't live that long.

** In ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E10FaceTheRaven Face the Raven]]'', an extra character receiving one of these - a tattoo of a number which keeps changing, counting down the minutes until his death - drives the plot of the episode. [[spoiler: Clara takes the mark onto herself partway through to free the original victim from it; unfortunately this turns out to make the mark impossible to remove and she dies at the end of the episode.]]

* Photos of characters slated to die in ''Film/TheOmen'' showed strange marks indicating the imminent cause of death.

** A trope it pretty much copied from ''Film/TheOmenII'', FWIW.

* [[FlashForward2009 Agent Demetri Noh]].

* In ''TreasureIsland'', Billy Bones receives "The BlackSpot," which means he's about to die.

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* In the ''ComicBook/AstroCity'' mini-series, The Dark Ages, a character is marked for death by the vigilante Blue Knight by the appearance of a crosshairs on the back of his neck.

* In the animated version of ''GingaDensetsuWeed'' any time a character has their ear bitten off, it's a pretty sure sign their death is coming up pretty soon.

* In a third season episode of ''{{Criminal Minds}}'', the victims all appear on "Have You Seen Me" posters before they disappear.

* In ''PiratesOfTheCaribbean'', a character was marked with a literal black spot on his hand in the second film.
* The creatures in the horror movie ''{{They}}'' mark their victims with a dime-sized sore that houses a long, thin bone. This mark is used to track their victims down when the creatures are ready to eat.
* In ''TheFrighteners'', a number appears on the forehead of the person that the reaper is going to come after.
* The ''FinalDestination'' series is pretty much built on this trope.
* ''LChangeTheWorld'': [[spoiler: After writing his name in the Death Note at the end of the live action Manga/DeathNote movie, L has 23 days left to live. Using that time to solve cases, L is essentially invincible until his time runs out.]]