History Main / OutOfContinues

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': Assuming the mechanics of regeneration from the classic series are still intact, The Doctor only has a couple of regenerations left before he's KilledOffForReal. The writers have said something to the effect of "we're going to have to think of a way around that," not suggesting what it might be. TheMaster actually did run out during the classic series, but got around it via [[GrandTheftMe body-snatching]]. Of course, given he was resurrected by the Time Lords during the Time War, his John Simm incarnation may effectively be his first regeneration.

* Saash in ''[[YoungWizards The Book of Night With Moon]]'' by DianeDuane is a cat on her ninth life.

** Shortly after it is revealed that [[spoiler: River Song]] is genetically a Time Lord [[spoiler: she uses up all her regenerations to heal the Doctor from a deadly poison]]

* ''DoctorWho'': Assuming the mechanics of regeneration from the classic series are still intact, The Doctor only has a couple of regenerations left before he's KilledOffForReal. The writers have said something to the effect of "we're going to have to think of a way around that," not suggesting what it might be. TheMaster actually did run out during the classic series, but got around it via [[GrandTheftMe body-snatching]]. Of course, given he was resurrected by the Time Lords during the Time War, his John Simm incarnation may effectively be his first regeneration.

* ''UnrealTournamentIII'' uses the HandWave of "respawn teleporters" to explain how people can die and return; OutOfContinues, in this context, means your teleporter's out of juice.

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* ''TheCrow'' suffers this in the movie, while his bird is being held by the BigBad's sister. He got better, and then he didn't.
* Slightly related: in the JohnTravolta movie ''Michael'', Michael is using his very last trip to earth.
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* It is implied early on that the protagonist of ''ImmortalDefense'' and his fellow path defenders are a case of this: their minds may be immortal and nigh-godlike entities in pathspace, capable of raining destruction upon countless fleets of enemy ships, but destroying their original physical body will kill them. [[spoiler: It's later revealed that this is an outright lie. Path defenders exist independently of their bodies: they cannot be killed, period, nor can they ever return to their physical forms. [[BlessedWithSuck This is]] [[CursedWithAwesome not necessarily]] [[FateWorseThanDeath a good]] [[AndIMustScream thing.]]]]

Some AppliedPhlebotinum has made it so that a character's [[DeathIsCheap ability to shrug off death]] has [[OneBuwwetWeft run out]]: the next time they die, they will be KilledOffForReal.

If they've already died/been killed but are still living out the remainder of their lives, they're LivingOnBorrowedTime.

* In FullmetalAlchemist, the homonoculi do a good job making themselves look invincible (and mostly act as though they were, even Greed who cut himself off from the one way of recharging his stone), but there is a limit on the number of times they can heal themselves before they run out of juice. Good luck burning through it all in one sitting though. [[spoiler: Unless you're Colonel Mustang and incredibly pissed.]]

* One EC horror comic from the fifties (later adapted into a ''TalesFromTheCrypt'' episode) had a doctor discover that [[CatsHaveNineLives a cat does have nine lives]] thanks to a special gland, and also that he can transfer it into a human. He performs the process on a man, and they then go into show business. (Cause you know, [[CutLexLuthorACheck that's the only possible use for it.]]) The man becomes "Ulric the Undying," and does things like leaping over Niagara Falls and getting the electric chair. For his grand finale (his eighth life) he'll be sealed into a coffin and buried alive for three hours. As he lies there, he reflects on the whole experience... and then [[MandatoryTwistEnding realizes]] that the process of transferring the gland ''killed the cat'', thus that one life had already been spent. Oops.

* The page quote comes from the Alien Inventor from LucasArts' ''TheDig'', who sealed himself away in a pyramid so that future generations who arrived on the planet could revive him (using the very same life crystals he invented) and learn of his grievous errors. Chatting with him reveals that the crystals' effect wears off with each subsequent use, until the crystals fail to resurrect the subject at all.
* In ''{{Left 4 Dead}}'', going down one too many times will result in your vision turning greyscale. If you get knocked down again without recieving medical help, you're not getting up.

* In FullmetalAlchemist, the homonoculi do a good job making themselves look invincible (and mostly act as though they were, even Greed who cut himself off from the one way of recharging his stone), but there is a limit on the number of times they can heal themselves before they run out of juice. Good luck burning through it all in one sitting though.

* We'll see if it sticks, but supposedly this is the case for the ''entire DCU'' in the wake of BlackestNight; according to Dan DiDio, DeathIsCheap, which had been taken to absurd levels in recent years, no longer applies.

* In Left 4 Dead, going down one too many times will result in your vision turning greyscale. If you get knocked down again without recieving medical help, you're not getting up.

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<<|DeathTropes|>>

* After Heaven burned down in ''{{Achewood}}'', [[spoiler:Roast Beef]]'s next death was much less straightforward.

* In ''HigurashiNoNakuKoroNi'' [[spoiler:Hanyuu's ability to send Rika back in time when she dies is each time less effective than the last]], so it eventually becomes useless.

* ''UnrealTournament III'' uses the HandWave of "respawn teleporters" to explain how people can die and return; OutOfContinues, in this context, means your teleporter's out of juice.

** Another example from HarryPotter would be Voldemort's Horcruxes, a set of {{Soul Jar}}s he created to ensure his immortality. By the end of the seventh book, they've all been destroyed through the efforts of Harry his friends.

** Another example from HarryPotter would be Voldemort's Horcruxes, a set of {{Soul Jar}}s he created to ensure his immortality. By the end of the seventh book, they've all been destroyed through the efforts of [[strike:Harry and]] his friends.

* ''DoctorWho'': Assuming the mechanics of regeneration from the classic series are still intact, The Doctor only has a couple of regenerations left before he's KilledOffForReal. The writers have said something to the effect of "we're going to have to think of a way around that," not suggesting what it might be. TheMaster actually did run out during the classic series, but managed to cheat and get himself an extra one. Of course, given he was resurrected by the Time Lords during the Time War, his John Simm incarnation may effectively be his first regeneration.

** On the spin-off ''TheSarahJaneAdventures'', the Doctor states that he can regenerate 507 times. Of course, this was [[CloudCuckoolander Eleven]] speaking, so it's entirely possibly he was making things up.

** Another example from HarryPotter would be Voldemort's Horcruxes, a set of {{Soul Jar}}s he created to ensure his immortality. By the end of the seventh book, they've all been destroyed through the efforts of Harry and his friends.

* In ''DrawnTogether'', [[LegendOfZelda Link]] {{Expy}} Xander decides to commit suicide and does so... but re-appears with 98 lives instead of 99. He spends the entire episode killing himself until he has only one life left, at which point he decides to continue living.

* We'll see if it sticks, but supposedly this is the case for the entire DCU in the wake of BlackestNight; according to Dan DiDio, DeathIsCheap, which had been taken to absurd levels in recent years, no longer applies.