History Main / SurprisinglySuddenDeath

* Kaname Tousen from ''{{Bleach}}''. He has a decent fight first with Shinji, then with former best friend Komamura and his ex Vice Captain Hisagi. He then pulls out his [[OneWingedAngel Hollow form]], the first villain in the series to demonstrate such a power, and while busy laughing at how screwed the heroes are...is promptly stabbed in the head by Hisagi, before he can show anything.

* ''{{Elfen Lied}}'' is full of these.
* ''{{Hellsing}}'' In the first fight with Alucard, Anderson attempts it. Averted when he almost kills Seras but not quite. He misses her heart, but let's face it, if she weren't a vampire she would've been dead anyway.

* Kaname Tousen in ''{{Bleach}}''. He has a decent fight first with Shinji, then with former best friend Komamura and his ex Vice Captain Hisagi. He then pulls out his [[OneWingedAngel Hollow form]], the first villain in the series to demonstrate such a power, and while busy laughing at how screwed the heroes are...is promptly stabbed in the head by Hisagi, before he can show anything.

* ''{{Hellsing}}'' In the first fight with Alucard, Anderson attempts it. Averted when he almost kills Seras but not quite. He misses her heart but let's face it, if she weren't a vampire she would've been dead anyway.
** Also, when Seras and Alucard are ordered to chase down the vampire couple that are massacring houses. Alucard blasts the male vampire through the door when he goes to answer it, he then empties a entire clip into him riddling him with holes and then reaches into his chest and crushes his heart, killing him.

* Kaname Tousen in ''{{Bleach}}''. He has a decent fight first with Shinji, then with former best friend Komamura and his ex Vice Captain Hisagi. He then pulls out his [[OneWingedAngel Hollow form]], the first villain in the series to demonstrate such a power, and while busy laughing at how screwed the heroess are...is promptly stabbed in the head by Hisagi, before he can show anything.

* ''ChildrenOfMen'': JulianneMoore gets shot in the neck out of nowhere while riding along in a car.

* ''Film/TheThing'' invokes this trope when one of the members has an apparent heart attack and the doctor tries to revive him with a defibrillator. Turns out the team member was the titular Thing when the guy's chest splits open and [[IncrediblyLamePun literally]] [[{{Squick}} disarms the doctor]].

* Used for comedy in ''BoondockSaints''. In the middle of a relatively serious scene of the main characters getting drunk and discussing plans, Rocco slams his fists down on the table. This sets off his gun, resulting in his girlfriend's cat getting blown all over the wall to the complete shock of everyone involved. [[DidNotDoTheResearch Because that's how guns work!]]

* Used for comedy in ''BoondockSaints''. In the middle of a relatively serious scene of the main characters getting drunk and discussing plans, Rocco slams his fists down on the table. This sets off his gun, resulting in his girlfriend's cat getting blown all over the wall to the complete shock of everyone involved.

* Cthulhu. Anytime he shows up it's pretty much a guaranteed horrific demise. In the short story ''The Call of Cthulhu'' a group of sailors encounter a structure with non-Euclidean geometry. One of the sailor climbs onto the structure and after some prodding is pulled inside and subsequently devoured. The rest of the crew is promptly snatched by Cthulhu's tentacles and a devoured. Two sailors escape when Cthulhu is injured by the boat propeller and this serves as enough of an inconvenience to [[SealedEvilInACan stuff him back in the can]].
** Actually, [[HPLovecraft Lovecraft]]'s work tends not to feature this sort of thing much. Instead there's usually a good bit of old-fashioned suspense building and the protagonists ''know'' something's wrong (and about where and with whom) long before TheReveal. A sort-of example might be ''The Thing on the Doorstep'', where the surprise twist near the end really does come kind of out of the blue for the narrator...but the Thing mentioned in the title is hardly a guest of the deadly variety, anymore.

The protagonists are walking down a hallway or simply just relaxing and minding their own business when suddenly out of nowhere one of them is killed in a horrific manner. This often can and does fall in the category of {{Gorn}}. This form of demise can lead to TheReveal and can often lead to the confrontation with the BigBad. Typically includes or is accompanied by ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice. Sometimes is foreshadowed very briefly before mentioned demise by killer being shown just before the character's death. Most commonly associated with Horror and typically the responsible party is of the monster variety. It can also be used to reveal any obstacles in the protagonist's way by killing a less important character or a RedShirt, if there are any. Not limited to villains, however, as it can also be done as part of a MookHorrorShow.

** ''Alien'': The dinner scene. Kane, having been infected previously leading to AllThereIsToKnowAboutTheCryingGame, eats dinner after recovering appearing perfectly normal when he starts convulsing and is killed by a chest burster. And of course in typical hungry Alien fashion devours the entire crew except for Ripley when it is ThrownOutTheAirlock after stowing away on the escape pod.

* In ''{{Resistance}} 2'', Hawthorne and Warner are killed by BigBad Daedalus surprising the characters in separate instances as they walk ahead of Hale in spacious corridors by impaling them with his tentacles in order to discourage Hale from advancing to him, a sort of FinalBossPreview.

* Steelhooves/Applesnack is on the wrong end of a Hellhound attack very early on in Chapter 39. This comes as a bit of a shock due to his status as a Canterlot ghoul, hence able to revive from most forms of damage. Turns out decapitation isn't something he can revive from.

* One death scene in {{Film/Psycho}} was filmed to invoke this, as focusing the camera on the man's feet would clue the audience in that something was about to happen.

* ''JurassicPark'', this happens with the programmer played by Samuel L. Jackson when he goes to reset the circuit breakers and is eaten alive by a Velociraptor. Ellen has to run from the very same Velociraptor when she enters the bunker to reset the breaker.

* In ''{{Resistance}} 2'', [[spoiler:Hawthorne and Warner]] are killed by BigBad Daedalus surprising the characters in separate instances as they walk ahead of Hale in spacious corridors by impaling them with his tentacles in order to discourage Hale from advancing to him, a sort of FinalBossPreview.

Can also be considered a subtrope of HarbingerOfImpendingDoom but is generally a plot twist. As in, up to this point everything has been going in the protagonists favor up until this trope is invoked. Also compare with DynamicEntry, which is usually nonfatal and portrayed in a [[LighterAndSofter lighter tone.]] InTheBack may use this.

* In the ''Left4Dead'' comic two guards just heard the alarm to evacuate their base, then their are killed by a Hunter and a Smoker before they could react.

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* The first ''ResidentEvil'' movie does this not only one, not twice, not even three times but four times.

* Used for comedy in BoondockSaints. In the middle of a relatively serious scene of the main characters getting drunk and discussing plans, Rocco slams his fists down on the table. This sets off his gun, resulting in his girlfriend's cat getting blown all over the wall to the complete shock of everyone involved.

* In the second episode of the second season of ''BattlestarGalactica'', "Valley of Darkness", some Viper pilots are relaxing after fighting off a Cylon basestar in the previous episode, "Scattered". Cue one of the Cylon Centurions who've boarded the ''Galactica'' looming out and slashing one of them across the chest.

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* Inverted in ''{{Prototype}}'', where '''you''' as Alex Mercer can turn a lethal DynamicEntry into one of these for the victim. With the proper upgrades he can (just as an example) come screaming out of nowhere to karate kick one guy to death in a spray of gore, ride the carcass a few feet, and then flipkick the body into someone else, killing them too.

* In ''{{Fallout}} 3'', just before entering GNR, Initiate [[RedShirt Reddin]] gets this treatment courtesy of a Super Mutant Behemoth.

* In the Left4Dead comic two guards just heard the alarm to evacuate their base, then their are killed by a Hunter and a Smoker before they could react.

** In ''[[{{FEAR}} F.E.A.R. 2]]'', after Terry Halford gives you a nice little energy weapon, it looks like you're going to be saddled with an EscortMission...that is, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jpr5nwAb3I until a Replica Assassin teleports in from behind and rips the guy's head off]].

* In ''{{Fallout}} 3'', just before entering GNR, Initiate [[RedShirt Reddin]] gets this treatment courtesy of a Super Mutant Behemoth giving out a SurprisinglySuddenDeath.
* An E3 trailer for ''CallOfDuty: Black Ops'' shows the player character moving down a tunnel, a comrade in front of him. Your comrade turns to talk to you, but shortly after someone appears from BehindTheBlack and kills him.

* ''[[{{Infamous}} inFamous]]'': One mission called "The Informant" has a citizen telling you they saw something they shouldn't have. Now those who are at least passably GenreSavvy would come to the conclusion this is a cue for an escort mission. But instead a group of {{Mooks}} comes in and promptly shoots the citizen and you have to fight them off.