History Main / StartsWithASuicide

* The plot to ''Film/IRobot'' is kicked off by the apparent suicide of Docotor Lanning, the world's foremost expert on robotics, which the main character Detective Spooner, a friend of Lanning, believes was a murder committed by a robot. [[spoiler: It turns out he was half-right. Lanning's robotic "son" Sonny did kill him, but only because the doctor asked him to do it in the hopes that Spooner would investigate and discover the plans of the BigBad, making it an Assisted Suicide, and this example an InvokedTrope]].

* The prologue of VideoGame/YomawariMidnightShadows ends with [[spoiler: Yui]] committing suicide after burying her dog. [[spoiler: The rest of the game follows her best friend Haru's attempts to reunite with her, not knowing that Yui has since died.]]

* The tutorial of VideoGame/YomawariMidnightShadows ends with [[spoiler: Yui]] committing suicide after burying her dog. [[spoiler: The rest of the game follows her best friend Haru's attempts to reunite with her, not knowing that Yui has since died.]]

* One of the ''Anime/{{Patlabor}}'' movies begins with a scientist committing suicide, which is eventually revealed to be the final step to set his plans in motion.

* ''Series/FellowTravelers'': "Your Nuts Roasting On An Open Fire" starts as a gay employee reels out of the State Department's M Unit (which investigated gays since they were viewed as security risks) then walks right into traffic to kill himself, as being outed in the early 1950s was generally a social death sentence.

* An episode in Season 5 of ''Series/{{House}}'' starts out with [[spoiler: Kutner]] doing this for ''no apparent reason''; Thirteen and Foreman go to his apartment because he didn't show up to work and find that he's shot himself in the head; they try to revive him to no avail. In all the time that we knew him he never showed any signs of mental illness, let alone suicidality, and several members of the team spend the episode trying to figure out why he did it and if they could have done anything to help. His death haunts House just as much as [[spoiler: Amber's]] does. (It was actually because his actor decided to quit the show and the writers needed a way to explain away his sudden departure -- why not with his death?)

* The first ''Film/LethalWeapon'' opens with a woman on cocaine jumping from a high-rise suite. The plot begins when heroes [[CowboyCop Riggs]] and [[ByTheBookCop Murtaugh]] are assigned to investigate the circumstances of her death.

* The anime of ''LightNovel/BeyondTheBoundary'' even starts with the word "suicide" and begins with Mirai standing at the edge of the school roof and Akihito trying to talk her out of suicide. Subverted when it turns out a minute later that that weren't her actual plans.

* The first ''LightNovel/TheGardenOfSinners'' movie starts with the latest of several suicides.
* One episode of ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex'' starts with a montage of gynoids killing themselves.

* ''LightNovel/AvestaOfBlackAndWhite'' opens on a bleak note with a woman jumping to her death as she knows she is carrying an Evil child in her womb as this is a world where BlackAndWhiteInsanity is the norm. And in the end it didn't matter as moments before she hits the ground, the fetus thanks her for being its first murder and would then go on to devour her from inside the womb and become one of the seven Archdemons.

* ''Film/{{Constantine}}'' starts with the apparent suicide of Angela's twin sister.

* The ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Eye of the Beholder" starts with a Starfleet lieutenant jumping into a plasma stream.

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''[[ComicBook/DCTheNewFrontier Justice League: The New Frontier]]'' opens with the writer of a children's book, whose sensitivity picks up on the emergence of the Centre. He tries to put everything down in a story, then, overwhelmed by despair at the coming catastrophe, picks up a gun and aims it straight at the viewer, since we see everything from his perspective. He then pulls the trigger, and the opening credits start to roll.
[[/folder]]

* ''Theatre/CactusFlower'' begins with Toni trying and failing to kill herself by leaving the gas on overnight.

* ''Film/{{Ariel}}'' begins with Taisto's father shooting himself after the mine where they both worked is closed.

* One case in ''Manga/KindaichiCaseFiles'' shows soemone found dead hanging, presumably from suicide (said victim's fate is not elaborated further) to establish the setting as a cursed place where people are driven to suicide by being there, the serial murder's gimmick in the case.

* ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'' apparently begins with Yukari attempting to commit suicide with a gun... but it doesn't take long for it to become clear that she's only trying to gather the courage needed to evoke her Persona. The gun doesn't even [[AbnormalAmmo shoot bullets]].
* ''VideoGame/TexMurphy: Overseer'' (which is a remake of the original Tex Murphy game, ''Mean Streets'')

** The NonSerialMovie ''Anime/DetectiveConanFilm06ThePhantomOfBakerStreet''
starts with the suicide of [[spoiler:[[ChildProdigy Hiroki]]]].

** The NonSerialMovie ''Phantom of Baker Street'' starts with the suicide of [[spoiler:[[ChildProdigy Hiroki]]]].

* An episode in Season 5 of ''Series/{{House}}'' starts out with Kutner doing this for ''no apparent reason''; Thirteen and Foreman show up to his apartment because he didn't show up to work and find that he's shot himself in the head; they try to revive him to no avail. In all the time that we knew him he never showed any signs of mental illness, let alone suicidality, and several members of the team spend the episode trying to figure out why he did it and if they could have done anything to help. (It was actually because his decided to quit the show and the writers needed a way to explain away his sudden departure -- why not with his death?)

* An episode in Season 5 of ''Series/{{House}}'' starts out with Kutner doing this for ''no apparent reason''; he had never shown any signs of mental illness, let alone suicidality, and several members of the team spend the episode trying to figure out why he did it and if they could have done anything to help. (It was actually because the actor decided to quit the show and the writers needed a way to explain away his sudden departure -- why not with his death?)

* An episode in Season 5 of ''Series/{{House}}'' starts out with one of the main characters doing this. ''For no reason''. (It was actually because the actor decided to quit the show.)

In comedies, a thwarted suicide is often used to set up a MeetCute between the suicidal character and their rescuer.

* ''Manga/DetectiveConan'':

* ''Devil in Miss Jones'' -- An otherwise saintly woman commits suicide and is therefore damned, but gets one last wish before she goes to hell for all eternity. It's a porno movie, so guess what that wish is.

* ''Girl on the Bridge'' starts with a woman about to jump off said bridge. A knife thrower looking for an assistant stops her...