History Main / TimeTravelEscape

* Subverted in the ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Yesterday's Enterprise", where the U.S.S. ''Enterprise-C'' is saved from destruction by travelling into the future... but must then ''return'' to be destroyed to repair the irrevocable damage to the timeline the ship's time-travelling caused, because what was important wasn't the fact that the ship was destroyed, but the fact that it was destroyed ''in a HeroicSacrifice'' that now never happened.

* In Leo Frankowski's TheCrossTimeEngineer series, Conrad tells his [[TimeTravel time-traveling]] cousin Tom that he (Conrad) saw Tom get killed by a Mongol spearman in 1241. Tom's response was "Hmmm... I guess I'll avoid going to Poland in 1241, then." Thus performing this trope on himself.

* In Literature/TimeScout, people who are known to have been killed cannot be rescued. A group of activists begs for the rescue of JackTheRipper's victims. Experienced time travelers roll their eyes. Anyone who's completely unimportant can have their lives altered... but that means you don't know what to alter or how. Escape averted.

* In Leo Frankowski's''The Cross-Time Engineer'' series, Conrad tells his [[TimeTravel time-traveling]] cousin Tom that he (Conrad) saw Tom get killed by a Mongol spearman in 1241. Tom's response was "Hmmm... I guess I'll avoid going to Poland in 1241, then." Thus performing this trope on himself.

* In ''JusticeLeagueUnlimited'', history says that three Leaguers were taken to the future for a mission, but only two returned. Turns out that Supergirl decides to stay in the future.

* Subverted in {{Freejack}}, as the people transported from the past to the future are not being rescued. Rather, they're kidnapped so that their identities can be wiped and their bodies, made host to the minds of the rich, powerful, and terminally ill.

* In ''BackToTheFuture'', Marty saves the life of Doc Brown by informing him of his murder at the hands of terrorists ahead of time.
** In ''BackToTheFuture III'', Marty and Doc save Clara Clayton from dying without realizing that doing so will [[AlternateHistory change history through the children she would have taught had she lived in the original timeline]]. In the end, Doc fixes this "mistake" by removing Clara from the timeline when he builds a second time machine and taking her into the future.

* In the ''{{Gargoyles}}'' episode "M.I.A." Goliath uses the Phoenix Gate to resolve a stable time loop, bringing the London Clan gargoyle Griff back to the present after the universe seemed out to kill him in Blitz-era London.

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* In the ''DoctorWho'' ExpandedUniverse novel "The Crystal Bucephalus", this is part of the backstory; a future religious cult were trying to develop a time machine so they could rescue their Messiah-figure from his execution. It turns out that [[spoiler:they succeeded. And he promptly turned out to be a crook, who'd set up the cult to rescue him from his perfectly justified execution. Unfortunately for him, time machines work both ways...]]

* ''DoctorWho'' has Davros saved from death by Dalek Caan in the Series 4 finale.

* ''TheJourneymanProject 2: Buried in Time:'' You are sent back in time to investigate, among other things, a space station that would later be found abandoned with even its AI destroyed. Said AI, Arthur, learns the truth when he scans you to find out what you're doing on the station: that he's going to die, and that even if both of you wanted to, you ''can't'' save him, because doing so would affect history. So, he ''copies'' himself onto a blank biochip you happen to be carrying, and is your sidekick for the rest of your time-traveling adventures in the game [[spoiler:until his HeroicSacrifice at the end, but [[IGotBetter he gets better]] for JP3.]]

* Ultra-Man, a member of the [[GlobalGuardiansPBEMUniverse Global Guardians]], originally fought the [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazis]] in the 1940s. He was brought to the present when a villain's superweapon accidentally ripped a whole in the Time-Space Continuum.

* In ''JusticeLeagueUnlimited'', history says that three Leaguers were taken to the future for a mission, but only two returned. Turns out that Supergirl decides to stay in the future. This isn't in spoilers because, well...does TimeTravel justify {{Anvilicious}} {{Foreshadowing}}?

** [[AdaptationDecay The film version made a complete mess of it]].

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* John Varley's novel ''Millennium'' is about {{time travel}}lers who rescue plane passengers just before their planes crash and replace them with realistic corpses. The passengers are taken forward in time to repopulate a devastated future Earth.

* In Marvel it looked like this happened, but it didn't. A man believing himself to be [[CaptainMar-Vell Captain Mar-Vell]] appears. Everyone thinks that he's avoided his death from cancer by jumping forward in time. It turns out that time travel wasn't involved in the first place; the guy's really a Skrull sleeper agent brainwashed into thinking he's the real deal.

* In Marvel it looked like this happened, but it didn't. A man believing himself to be CaptainMar-Vell appears. Everyone thinks that he's avoided his death from cancer by jumping forward in time. It turns out that time travel wasn't involved in the first place; the guy's really a Skrull sleeper agent brainwashed into thinking he's the real deal.

* In Marvel it looked like this happened, but it didn't. A man believing himself to be [[CaptainMar-vell Captain Mar-Vell]] appears. Everyone thinks that he's avoided his death from cancer by jumping forward in time. It turns out that time travel wasn't involved in the first place; the guy's really a Skrull sleeper agent brainwashed into thinking he's the real deal.

* In Marvel it looked like this happened, but it didn't. A man believing himself to be [[CaptainMarvell Captain Mar-Vell]] appears. Everyone thinks that he's avoided his death from cancer by jumping forward in time. It turns out that time travel wasn't involved in the first place; the guy's really a Skrull sleeper agent brainwashed into thinking he's the real deal.

* In Marvel it looked like this happened, but it didn't. A man believing himself to be CaptainMar-Vell appears. Everyone thinks that he's avoided his death from cancer by jumping forward in time. It turns out that time travel wasn't involved in the first place; the guy's really a Skrull sleeper agent brainwashed into thinking he's the real deal.

* In Marvel it looked like this happened, but it didn't. A man believing himself to be Mar-Vell appears. Everyone thinks that he's avoided his death from cancer by jumping forward in time. It turns out that time travel wasn't involved in the first place; the guy's really a Skrull sleeper agent brainwashed into thinking he's the real deal.

* Subverted in ''Freejack'', as the people transported from the past to the future are not being rescued. Rather, they're kidnapped so that their identities can be wiped and their bodies, made host to the minds of the rich, powerful, and terminally ill.

* In Margaret Peterson Haddix's ''Found'' series, people from the future do this with the missing children of the past (e.g Anastasia), and give them to families in the future. Unfortunately, the time machine went wrong and ended up in an airport in the 90s. When people found it, it was an airplane filled with babies. These babies were put into foster care and adopted by various families.