History Main / SelfDestructiveCharge

** And then, there's the leghts Shinji went in his attempt to save [[spoiler: Rei. Basically, his [[EmphaticWeapon EVA]] ran out of power, was skewered by the enemy, and we see Shinji spew up a fountain of HighPressureBlood, indicating quite possibly fatal internal injuries... then he reactivates the EVA by sheer force of will, [[DeclarationOfProtection proclaims that he wants her back]], and ''just keeps going'', no matter if his plug dephts go to levels that put both his life and humanity in mortal danger. His physical body must've burst into LCL at some point, but he didn't even notice. Towards the end, just as he is about to reach Rei, his skin burns off his hands and face, revealing blood and charred muscles beneath, and he ''keeps going'' untill he had pulled her out of the core of the angel that swallowed her. It ends up costing him 14 years of his life. Saddly, the third movie reveals that it was all for naught... ]]

* ''StarWars ReturnOfTheJedi'': The A-wing pilot ramming his disintegrating fighter into the bridge of the Executor during the climactic space battle.
** Vader killing Palpatine counts too. The Emperor's Force Lightning short circuited his life support system and left him mortally wounded.

* One of the Idirians in ConsiderPhlebas is left for dead. A bad idea when you are up against a species that is essentially biologically immortal (as a result of evolving on a DeathWorld that takes EverythingIsTryingToKillYou UpToEleven). He spends about an hour [[spoiler: dragging his own near-corpse to the train controls, finally succumbing just as he starts it on a collision course with the protagonists, eventually killing most of them]]

* In the ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' Series, specifically ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2'', it is at times possible to "exterminate" a zombie by destroying it's torso with a shotgun blast that also destroys the head, the catch is that the legs, in perfect working order, can continue their plodding charge. The kicker is that as the game keeps track of what enemies are defeated this pair of legs will remain in the room forever walking directly into a wall.

*** The French at Azincourt.

** And then, there's the leghts Shinji went in his attempt to save [[spoiler: Rei. Basically, his [[EmphaticWeapon EVA]] ran out of power, was skewered by the enemy, and we see Shinji spew up a fountain of HighPressureBlood, indicating quite possibly fatal internal injuries... then he reactivates the EVA by sheer force of will, [[IWillProtectHer proclaims that he wants her back]], and ''just keeps going'', no matter if his plug dephts go to levels that put both his life and humanity in mortal danger. His physical body must've burst into LCL at some point, but he didn't even notice. Towards the end, just as he is about to reach Rei, his skin burns off his hands and face, revealing blood and charred muscles beneath, and he ''keeps going'' untill he had pulled her out of the core of the angel that swallowed her. It ends up costing him 14 years of his life. Saddly, the third movie reveals that it was all for naught... ]]

* A [[ZergRush Human Wave Attack]] failing its objective will inevitably become a SelfDestructingCharge.

* "Us and Them", a song about the futility of war, from the ''PinkFloyd'' album "DarkSideOfTheMoon", has this gem

* Den does this twice in ''BattleAngelAlita''.
** It's undoubtably a Crowning Moment of Awesome, as his last charge [[spoiler: permanently disables a power cable to Tiphares, and causes children to be taught the legend]]

* A potential tactic in ''{{Halo}}'' in co-op mode, where as long as one player is alive the other will respawn. So one charges forward to remove a strong defense or locate snipers while the other hangs back.

* The HonorBeforeReason charge of Kenny, the first self-aware Literature/{{Bolo}}, which routed the enemy but left him too damaged to salvage.

* TheCaptain (Laurence Fishburne) from ''EventHorizon''. In the climax he gets his ass kicked from here to the dark side of the moon by Sam Neill's nutty scientist, but then saves the rest of the crew by blowing up the portal to the [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness Cthulhu dimension]] thingy.

* ''[[Film/{{Batman}} Batman Returns]]'': Max Shreck shoots Catwoman no less than five times (though somewhat inaccurately) as she approaches him with a taser and his back to the main generator of Gotham Zoo.

* Happens in several videogames:
** ''HalfLife 2'' 's headcrab zombies can be cut in half by razorblades launched by the gravity gun; sometimes they'll die on the spot, sometimes the crab will jump off and attempt to attack on its own, and sometimes the legless torso will keep coming after you.
** VideoGame/{{Unreal}}'s Krall warriors occasionally lose their legs as well; they'll often keep coming after you crawling on their bellies, shooting their staffs as they go.
** ''AlienVsPredator'' (1&2): at a distance, humorous as the xenomorphs drag themselves toward you... and in the poorly lit claustrophobic corridors where you're often firing wildly, it's terrifying.
** The [[DarkForcesSaga Jedi Knight]] games - where occasionally, limbs fall off.
** Not intentional, but still counts: ''SoldierOfFortune'' was one of the first games to allow enemies to be dismembered part by part. Only, it and its sequel had a bug that sometimes made those enemies ''keep fighting anyway'', so that eventually you'd be facing a shapeless blob of meat that still somehow was able to move and shoot.

* A truly epic example from the end of ''MetalGearSolid 4'', with [[spoiler:Snake stumbling then crawling his way to GW through a hallway literally cooking him with microwaves.]]
** If you take too long, [[spoiler: Snake will literally use his ''fingers'' to move himself inch by desperate inch towards the end of the hall.]]

* In the ''ResidentEvil'' Series, specifically RE 2, it is at times possible to "exterminate" a zombie by destroying it's torso with a shotgun blast that also destroys the head, the catch is that the legs, in perfect working order, can continue their plodding charge. The kicker is that as the game keeps track of what enemies are defeated this pair of legs will remain in the room forever walking directly into a wall.
* The ClimaxBoss battle against Luca Blight in ''SuikodenII'' is a perfect example of the 1st variety. Notable in that it continues for a lot longer than normal and he actually DOES reach his target, but he's been weakened enough that he can't best him in battle.
* A fairly common event in ''LeagueOfLegends'' is heroes who can't escape a turret, won't escape incoming enemies, are only alive because of some ability, or are going to be resurrected if they die, chasing enemies into danger to try and finish them off. Of course in the last case, the self-destructive aspect can be averted. Zilean's ultimate in particular encourages this kind of behavior because if you don't die while it's on you the spell does nothing. Kog'Maw has this built in - when he's killed he can still move for a while, then explodes for considerable damage to nearby enemies.
* In CommandAndConquer, many cyborgs can have their lower bodies blown off, and they'll just keep coming. Even the Cyborg Commando can do this, and it won't cost you the mission if that happens!
* In TechRomancer a small-scale version of this exists as a GameBreaker. The Steel Dash lets you charge your opponent without flinching, but taking full damage. You close distance very quickly, and if you hit them then they will be stunned.
* In ''TeamFortress2'''s "Meet The Medic", in the climax, the BLU Soldiers are doing this, even when the RED Medic ubers the RED Heavy, who mows them all down.

* The HonorBeforeReason charge of Kenny, the first self-aware {{Bolo}}, which routed the enemy but left him too damaged to salvage.

* Played for comedy with ''MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'''s Black Knight "Come back you coward, I'll bite your legs off!".

* The GrandFinale of ''TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' has the titular galaxy-sized mecha charging at the Grand Zamboa, knocking out each other in a CrossCounter. Then the planetoid-sized Chouginga Gurren-Lagann breaks off and charges, only to get impaled by the Grand Zamboa's tentacles. Then [[MetaMecha the mecha's mouth opens]] and the city-sized Arc Gurren-Lagann continues the charge, only to get impaled by the tentacles erupting from the Anti-Spiral homeworld. ''Then'', the Arc Gurren-Lagann's mouth opens and the building-sized Gurren-Lagann does the final charge, until the Anti-Spiral's tentacles impale it too. Viral's response? [[FastballSpecial Tear off the Lagann and throw it at the Anti-Spiral]]. Even though the Lagann is disintegrating around him, Simon continues charging at the BigBad, finishing it off with his trademark attack: '''"[[CallingYourAttacks LAGANN... IMPACTOOO!!!]]"'''. ''Epic is too mild of a word to describe the sequence: it's pure, undistilled {{HSQ}}.''

* Khan's activation of the Genesis device in ''[[StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan Star Trek II]]''.

* [[spoiler: Cielo's death]] in DigitalDevilSaga 2.

* The last episode of ''{{Ronin Warriors}}'s'' [=OVA=] ''Legend of the Inferno Armor'' does this, where Nadia and White Blaze race onto the battle field where Ryo and Mukala are fighting against each other in their Inferno Armors. The impacting forces of the armored warriors is so great that it literally blows Nadia and White Blaze away, killing them both.

* The ultimate warrior from ''{{Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind}}'' is ordered to fire on the advancing bugs; he does so even as his immature body is disintegrating around him. It eventually melts away completely.
* Tenshinhan and Chaozu both try this on Nappa in ''{{Dragonball Z}}''. Subverted in that it doesn't have much of an effect, but at least they tried.

* Guts tried this when he was confronted with his ArchNemesis Femto/Griffith two years after the Eclipse in ''{{Berserk}}''. So blinded by his [[UnstoppableRage rage]] of [[BerserkButton seeing Femto again]], that Guts - who sustained massive injuries after fighting the Count - charges toward Femto while forgetting that his brand, which bleeds and hurts when he's around lower Apostles, will explode with blood and pain when approaching one of the most powerful demons that the Berserkverse has ever seen. The pain can be so incredible that it can kill him. Lucky for Guts, it doesn't.

* In the MassEffect2 fic {{Fanfic/Pariah}}, the leading OC performs this with a heaping helping of TakingYouWithMe.

* In ''Film/{{X-Men}}: The Last Stand'', Wolverine's relentless advance towards Jean probably counts - his HealingFactor kept him regenerating in the face of the telekinetic assault, but still... I suspect it was only his MagicPants that kept his legs from getting the same treatment.

* One of the most memorable scenes of the classic movie ''{{The Birth of a Nation}}'' is when the protagonist charges a battery of guns, armed only with a flag, to the tune of ''Dixie.'' [[spoiler: He survives, [[ValuesDissonance and goes on to found the Ku Klux Klan in the final act]].]]
* ''StarWars {{Return of the Jedi}}'': The A-wing pilot ramming his disintegrating fighter into the bridge of the Executor during the climactic space battle.

** ''AlienVsPredator'' (1&2): at a distance, humorous as the xenomorphs drag themselves toward you... and in the poorly lit claustrophobic corridors where you're often firing wildly, it's terrifying.

* In the ''ResidentEvil'' Series, specifically RE 2, it is at times possible to "exterminate" a zombie by destroying it's torso with a shotgun blast that also destroys the head, the catch is that the legs, in perfect working order, can continue their plodding charge. The kicker is that as the game keeps track of what enemies are defeated this pair of legs will remain in the room forever walking directly into a wall.

* In the Unlimited Blade Works route of ''[[FateStayNight Fate/stay night]]'', you bear witness to Berserker doing this in his battle against Gilgamesh. Shirou observes that it's a simple battle--if Berserker can push through the hail of swords Gilgamesh is sending at him long enough to reach Gilgamesh, he wins. [[spoiler:Not only is that hopeless, but Shirou turns out to be dead wrong--even if Berserker did reach Gilgamesh, Gil could use [[TheEpicOfGilgamesh the same chain he used against the Bull of Heaven]] to render Berserker harmless in an instant.]]
** Shirou himself can pull this at several points, though it almost always results in his death. [[spoiler:A notable exception is when he tries something similar against Gilgamesh only to have Gilgamesh leave him on the brink of death.]]
* Den does this twice in ''BattleAngelAlita''.

** On horseback:

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