History Main / SuicidalGotcha

* ''WesternAnimation/TheDeep'': In "The Dark Orca", Finn has Fontaine and Ant cornered on board a small tugboat in the open ocean. He is amazed when, instead of surrendering, they throw themselves off the side of the boat. However, it is then revealed that they have jumped into their parents' speedboat which has pulled up alongside the tug.

* In the Season 1 finale of ''WesternAnimation/{{Harley Quinn 2019}}'', the Joker cooks up a vat of chemicals that will undo Harley's personality and make her just another boring civilian. He's about to push Harley in when she decides to jump in. Joker takes it as a job well done and prepares to leave, but stops and asks if any of his henchmen heard a splash. [[spoiler: As it turns out, Harley spotted a resurrected Poison Ivy below, who caught Harley with her plants before carrying her back up to defeat Joker]].

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'': When Kefka sets Figaro Castle aflame, he and his soldiers seem to have Prince Edgar cornered on a ledge. Then he vaults over the side, landing on the back of one of the chocobos Locke and Terra are riding, and the whole castle starts shaking as its defenses kick ing...

* Comedic example in ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}''. Jesse and his vampire friend Cassidy are on the top of the Empire State Building, chatting. Spontaneously, Cassidy starts yelling that he's going to end it all, and jumps over the side. Rushing over, Jesse sees that Cassidy has dug his fingers into the side of the building, and then says a sing-song "Fooled you!". Jesse is not amused.
* Has happened too many times to count in scenes involving Franchise/{{Superman}}. Villains are getting increasingly exasperated by the Man of Steel's tendency to show up just after Clark Kent is tossed off a roof.

** Franchise/SpiderMan has done this several times as well. One AntiVillain, the Prowler, was sufficiently shaken up by the apparent demise that he panicked until Spidey let him know that Parker was "saved".
* In the ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'' book ''Recap/TintinTheRedSeaSharks'', recurring BigBad Rastapopulous has been caught as the master of the EvilPlan which involved [[MoralEventHorizon literal slave-trading]], and the navy is closing on his superyacht. He goes out in a launch, supposedly to give himself up, but it suddenly sinks. The heroes and the world media think that he is dead, but he has in fact escaped in [[EscapePod a mini-submarine hidden in the launch]].
* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: Diana Prince has fallen out of airplanes and at least once been trapped in a fire and presumed dead only for Wonder Woman to show up at the scene, and claim she saved Diana and got her to safety. On at least one occasion her timing was off, as she needed to get the plane she'd jumped to from ComicBook/SteveTrevor's plane back to Paradise Island before revealing herself, and she got to interrupt Gen. Darnell and Steve planning her own funeral. Darnell was shocked to see his secretary come back, but Steve seemed more amused.

* ''VideoGame/ShadowHearts: Covenant'' sees Rasputin doing this with the Sapientes Gladio airship. Yuri responds by becoming Amon and blowing the ship to pieces.

* ''Franchise/SuperMarioBrothers'': [[Characters/SuperMarioBrosBowser Bowser]] tends to do this often.

* An {{inver|tedTrope}}sion occurs within the story mode of ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Brawl''. In a confrontation, Mario/Link chases Bowser to a ledge, down which Bowser falls. After a tense pause of about a second, Bowser taunts Mario/Link from the safety of his flying clown copter, which was apparently waiting below the whole time. In a later scene, most of the heroes are aboard Meta Knight's battleship, the Halberd, on their way to stop the giant Subspace Cannon which has just appeared out of a warp portal. The ship flies at max speed straight for the cannon, even as it takes heavy laser fire and starts to break apart. Then the main cannon fires, and the Halberd is spit-roasted from stem to bow, breaks in half and explodes. Cut to a closeup on Ganondorf and Bowser, smirking triumphantly while standing on the bridge of the Subspace ship... only to have several heroes' smaller ships [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome fly out of the explosion, dodge all the incoming laser fire and set up a distraction for Kirby to finish the cannon off]]. Ganondorf and Bowser, apparently quite humbled, silently retreat into the portal as their ship collapses.

One of the most effective attempts at TryAndFollow. A subtrope of NoEscapeButDown. Compare HighDiveEscape. The unintentional version of this trope is SavedByThePlatformBelow.

* ''Web animation/RedVsBlue'' features a murder-suicide variant, as Agent Carolina pulls two of her fellow Freelancers over the edge of a platform... only to emerge on the back of a Pelican.

* [[Web animation/RedVsBlue]] features a murder-suicide variant, as Agent Carolina pulls two of her fellow Freelancers over the edge of a platform... only to emerge on the back of a Pelican.

* [[Web animation/RedvsBlue]] features a murder-suicide variant, as Agent Carolina pulls two of her fellow Freelancers over the edge of a platform... only to emerge on the back of a Pelican.

* [[Web animation/Redvs.Blue]] features a murder-suicide variant, as Agent Carolina pulls two of her fellow Freelancers over the edge of a platform... only to emerge on the back of a Pelican.