->"Sir, I've checked around and [[NominalImportance no one aboard this ship has a name]]."\\
"So what?"\\
"[[GenreSavvy So it means we're goons. Faceless cannon fodder!]]"\\
"Bah! You have no proof of that."\\
"Sir, in case you hadn't noticed... EVERYONE ON THE SHIP IS WEARING A [[RedShirt RED SHIRT]]!"\\
"Bah! Sheer coincidence!"\\
"YOU'RE LIVING IN DENIAL! HE'S GONNA WIPE US ALL OUT!"\\
"BAH! YOU'RE CRACKING UNDER THE PRESSURE LAD. JUST RELAX. HERE, LET ME SHOW YOU SOMETHING. It's a picture of my wife and kids! Ain't they something? They're the reason that I'm here. I'm fighting for them. I ain't going to let them down."\\
"...Well, nice knowing you, Captain."
->--''CaptainSNES'' [[http://www.captainsnes.com/2003/06/04/345-cutscene/ #345]]

{{Retirony}}'s equally devious brother. Whenever a character shows the others a picture of their family and/or loved ones, they're shot to the top of the SortingAlgorithmOfMortality.

It mostly works as a cheap "look at my lovely family" moment so we feel bad for them when the character dies. This isn't immediately lethal though; it usually takes a while to kill the character because it bumps the RedShirt into the MauveShirt's sweet spot for "less likely to die meaninglessly, ''much'' likelier to die meaningfully because it'll hurt more."

The variation where the picture ''directly'' leads to the character's death could be seen as a subtle [[LampshadeHanging acknowledgment]] of the trope.

Contrast PersonalEffectsReveal, which often involves finding a family photo after the death.

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!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]
* [[spoiler: Physica]] from ''Macross 7'', has to be the master of this Trope, not only does he show us a picture of his wife and daughter before he's kiled in Combat. But [[spoiler: He's about to be re-united with his family a day late for his Daughters Birthday]], and the photo he shows us is in a [[spoiler: handmade music box for the daughters Birthday]]. He tugs more at our heart strings by telling us [[spoiler: that his daughter doesn't recognize his face]]... what's more after he dies a senseless death and his team mate (one of the ''Love Triangle'', goes to dilever the [[spoiler: birthday gift/family photo]] to his wife and child, it's implied that his wife was cheating on him. This series doesn't kill very often so they make sure to get their millage. The only other death of note is the ''Heroic Sacrifice''.
** "Heroic Sacrifice" only? There's a certain ''awesome'' character in the original series that was TooCoolToLive.
** Yeah but I was talking about Macross 7 (and only the TV series not Dynamite 7) on the UN Spacy side only two characters die, in that series.
* In the ''FullMetalAlchemist'' manga, [[spoiler: Lt. Colonel Hughes]] carries a photo of his fiancée with him during the Ishbalan war. GenreSavvy Colonel Mustang then points out that [[DiscussedTrope if they were in a war story]], carrying a photo of her around and showing it off so proudly would be a sure-fire way to die ironically on the battlefield. Of course, this is a reference to the fact that all through the series, he's showing off pictures of his daughter and occasionally of his wife... [[spoiler: and is the first important character to die.]]
** Also played with in manga Hohenheim's case: he chats about his family picture with a young mother on a coach, the coach gets attacked by thugs, Hohenheim [[HeroicSacrifice gets shot while defending the other passengers]]... Turns out that [[spoiler: he's putting his near-invincibility to good use and that the thugs don't manage to kill or even wound him no matter how many times they shoot him.]] "[[spoiler: How cruel... Shooting so many times]]. Oh good, the picture has nothing."
* The moment Kinue Crossroad was seen looking at the picture of her family in ''{{Gundam 00}}'', it was obvious her time was up. Didn't take long.
** Season 2 has the same thing happen to Barack Zinin.
** [[spoiler: Sergei Smirnov]] is arguably killed by at least five family photos on his mantelpiece at home.
* In the ''ExcelSaga'' anime, the titular main character is working part time at a construction site where her Co-worker Pedro weeps passionately about being separated from his adoring family. Naturally, he provides us with a photograph as well as some lampshaded flash back footage. Later on, the construction site catches fire and he dies horribly when he [[TooDumbToLive runs back into the inferno to retrieve his family photo.]]
** That doesn't stop him from becoming a major character, though.
* In ''Saikano'', all of the characters that carry the photos of their loved ones to war die horribly. [[spoiler: Their loved ones die too]]
** This doesn't really count as ''[[KillEmAll everyone]]'' in ''SaiKano'' dies horribly. [[spoiler:Except Shuuji and, depending on your interpretation and whether you're watching the anime or reading the manga, Chise.]]
* The first episode of [[TheTowerOfDruaga Aegis of Uruk]] lampoons this trope heavily.
* Happens picture-perfectly in the second volume of ''{{JoJos Bizarre Adventure}}''. Joseph and Cesare accompany a young Nazi soldier and friend of Cesare to witness the Three Men In The Pillar, and the young man shows them a picture of his girlfriend. Guess who's among the first victims when the men awakens?
[[/folder]]

[[folder:ComicBooks]]
* Slightly subverted in the original GI Joe comics during ''[[VietNam 'Nam]]'', Snake-eyes was always carrying around a picture of his sister as a good luck charm... while he doesn't die he his horribly wounded and the picture is damaged... when he gets back to The States he learns that it is his family who dies... so the photo didn't do in the soldier but did in the family.
** To further twist the knife, the other passenger in the auto accident that killed his family was the brother of a used-car salesman. The salesman became so embittered over the accident that he started a scheme for revenge that ultimately led to [[spoiler:him forming Cobra and becoming Cobra Commander]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:{{Film}}]]
* In the beginning of ''{{Shooter}}'' Swagger's spotter shows off a picture of his wife and has a chat with the main character about her. He is dead within four and half minutes. [[spoiler:However, the wife in question is a ChekhovsGunman; she turns out to be the only person Swagger can go to for help.]]
* ''TheCore'': [[spoiler:Sergei]] shows those damn photos so often that anyone with half a brain can see that he won't make it out alive.
* ''AlienVersusPredator'' (the first movie): Then again, the victim's photos were the only distinguishing thing about his character (most of the other characters weren't so lucky).
* In the first ''{{Terminator}}'' movie, Kyle has a picture of Sarah Connor he treasures.
* ''BlackHawkDown'' has Mike Durant showing others a photo of his family. Long after the Black Hawk he was piloting crashes, he's surrounded by Somalians and his photo is lost in the crowd. [[spoiler:He survives the entire conflict as a hostage, and is eventually released afterward.]]
* Leads to a death in the film ''Sum of All Fears'', where an Israeli pilot's picture of his wife and kids falls off his plane's control panel, his brief distraction of quickly picking the photo back up and placing it into it's original place leads to him now seeing too late the surface to air missile that's flying towards him and he explodes.
**Tom Clancy himself states that this is the reason why various Air Forces do not allow pilots to bring up family photos, Making this the first in a series of {{DidNotDoTheResearch}}
* Parodied and {{lampshaded}} in ''HotShots!'' One of the pilots shows everyone pictures of his perfect family, and his beautiful, perky wife even shows up at the base to tell him how things are going with the house they just bought. He also puts off putting the single last signature needed onto the insurance on his life until after this flight, and takes some crucial evidence to the JFK assassination and a winning lottery ticket along with him; his call sign? Dead Meat.
* Doubly-subverted by Grig in ''TheLastStarfighter'', when he shows the hero a picture-cube of his family. Grig ultimately survives, and since he has twelve thousand offspring, the cube starts flashing rapid-fire/near-subliminal images of every last one of them.
* ''IndependenceDay''. As Russell Casse is flying underneath the invader's ship, he looks at a picture of his three children in the cockpit just before he performs a HeroicSacrifice by flying his jet into the ship's primary weapon and destroying it.
* During the Joe Don Baker stinker ''Final Justice'' (as presented on MST3K), Joe Don Baker's Texas lawman is looking at family photos with his partner, moments before the partner is gunned down:
-->'''Joe Don Baker''': Travis is a cute kid. Yer a lucky man, Bob.
-->'''Crow''': Uh oh.
* Used as foreboding in ''DeepImpact''. When Jenny's estranged father returns and gives her several family photos, it begins a series of events where Jenny gives up the chance to escape the mega-tsunami created by the smaller half of the comet and spends her last moments with her father.
* Subverted in ''[[TransformersFilmSeries Transformers]]'', at least partially. Jorge Figuerosa talks about going back to his mother's house and eating alligator stew, while Captain Lennox actually talks ''to'' his wife via webcam and sees his baby. Neither of them die in the movie (although Fig died in a cut scene).
* We see a brief shot of Dryden's picture of his wife and kids on a table when JamesBond kills him in the opening of ''CasinoRoyale''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* Referenced in TerryPratchett's {{Discworld}} novel ''Jingo'', where a young soldier who has been killed is remarked to have shown his sergeant a picture of his girlfriend the night previous.
* ''HarryPotter.'' [[spoiler: Lupin! How could you have taken out that photograph of your newborn son! And you, Fleur, giving him reason, too! You fools!]]
** [[spoiler:I have to say I'm impressed with the rapidity with which this trope took effect, there. One minute he's stupidly playing show and tell practically in the middle of a battle, and no more than ten pages later...]]
** The weirdest part is that he only took out the picture and started blabbing about it to relieve the tension from the uncomfortable moment [[spoiler: Percy's sudden return]] had created.
*** As if to add insult to injury(or death), his wife dies as well. Good job,[[spoiler: Lupin]]
* Played with in DanAbnett's GauntsGhosts novel ''Straight Silver''. [[spoiler:Gutes]] laments that he has no photographs of his dead daughter and granddaughter; they had intended to send him some after, but then Chaos destroyed their planet. Then he dies.
* Inverted in ''The Things They Carried''. In one section, Tim O'Brien is showing Kiowa a picture of his girlfriend when an attack on the camp begins. O'Brien survives, but Kiowa doesn't.
* In GrahamMcNeill's {{Warhammer 40000}} {{Ultramarines}} novel ''Warriors of Ultramar'', a Guardsman has just such a photo. [[spoiler:He survives the battle, and Uriel tracks him down in the hospital and is shown it. And then he survives the war and tracks down Uriel in the hospital, and Uriel is [[GreenEyedMonster envious]] of him, having a family to go to.]]
* [[spoiler: Beckendorf]] from ''PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians''. Before moving out on their mission to [[spoiler: blow up the ''Princess Andromeda,'' Beckendorf]] pulls out a picture of his girlfriend, [[spoiler: Silena.]] A mere fifteen pages later, he is dead. This troper was shocked at how blantantly this trope was invoked, and quickly it took affect.
* Appears somewhat differently in ''AllQuietOnTheWesternFront'': after Paul kills a French soldier, he founds pictures of his wife and daughter.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:LiveActionTV]]
* Parodied and LampShaded in an episode of ''TheGoodies''. When one Nazi sentry starts showing his partner a photo of his girlfriend in Dusseldorf, the other starts telling him to put it away and ends up screaming at the top of the lungs to the British commandos he is certain are about to leap and murder them that he is not with this guy.
* Played straight several times in ''[[TwentyFour 24]]'', but subverted in season 7. Jack & Tony go to a dock to intercept a weapons shipment, where we see a security guard working the night shift and getting off the phone with his wife, who is pregnant with twins. Jack & Tony inform him of the dangerous shipment and convince him to go undercover for them. After the guard leaves the room, Jack feels bad for him and Tony tells Jack that "we both knew he was dead as soon as he walked out that door." But Jack defies tradition and saves the guard's life when he's about to get killed for "knowing too much", even though it jeopardizes the mission.
* Subverted on ''StargateSG1'', in "Heroes, Part 1". One of the members of SG-13 passes round an ultrasound picture of his unborn child. He then goes on to be the first one to get shot, [[spoiler:but he's not the one that dies...]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:New Media]]
* A DiscussedTrope in the ''Battlefield: Bad Company'' blog by Sweetwater (We're dead, 6/16/2008), calling [[SouthernFriedPrivate Haggard]] and Bobby Sanford stupid for discussing home, and for Sanford showing a photo of his wife and daughter, calling that particular action 'like signing your own death warrant!'. AsYouKnow, his proof for it is war movies. Also played straight as the Sanford guy does die (apparently, by a tank while trying to defecate).
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
*Inverted in ''GearsOfWar 2'', where Dominic shows everyone a picture of Maria, his wife who had gone missing in the war. It turns out that [[spoiler: She was captured by the Locusts, put into a Work Camp and gets a FateWorseThanDeath. So Dom has to kill her.]]
**The first GearsOfWar plays it straight with Rojas. The first mention of him is when you see an unidentified corpse from a bridge, and one of your squadmates says something along the lines of 'I hope that's not Rojas. His little boy turned two last week". The corpse you saw WASN'T Rojas, but you do find his mutilated body later.
* ''AceCombat Zero'' has Patrick "PJ" James, who was the ButtMonkey of the Crow Team of fighter pilots due to his girlfriend back at the air base. Nevertheless, both as Crow 3 and as Galm 2, he's perfectly fine. Well, until after successfully destroying [[spoiler:the WMD controllers inside the Avalon Dam]], he announces to you that he's going to propose to her when he gets back...
* In the introduction sequence of ''XenoGears'' we see the Captain open up and look at a photo locket before he sets off the SelfDestructMechanism. As the scene plays out the camera focus pulls back to show us that it's a photo of his (presumed) wife and child. On a second play through of the game you [[spoiler:realise that they bear a remarkable resemblance to some of the characters in the game that follows]].
* Barry Burton of ''ResidentEvil''. The guy's a nut for his family and keeps a photo of them in his pocket. Later in the game, If the player decided, Barry will be knocked off a cliff to his death, leaving the photo of his family behind. In a reverse example, in Jill Valentine's ending (if Barry survives, and if the player dosen't rescue Chris Redfield) Barry will show the same picture to Jill and talk a bit about his family
* Defied in ''GrandTheftAutoIV'': there's a mission where the characters are ambushed by the Feds and have to run. You're riding with the guy who was supposed to watch for them, who says it's because he was distracted thinking about his wife, who he just got married to. He offers to show Niko a picture [[TooDumbToLive in the middle of the chase]]. Niko's response: "I don't want to see a fucking picture!" [[SoYeah And he survives.]]
** He actually ''can'' die, but you pretty much have to shoot him yourself to make it happen. SoYeah.
* Done twice in ''MetalGear'':
** In ''MetalGear 2'', Snake and Natasha take cover in a sewer and she tells him about her mother and ex-fiance. As soon as she leaves the sewer, she gets blown up.
** In ''MetalGearSolid 3'', Sokolov shows Snake a picture of his wife and son. He gets tortured to death in the very next cutscene. [[spoiler:Subverted. He got better.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:WesternAnimation]]
* ''TheSimpsons'' had a flashback to Skinner and his buddy in Vietnam. IIRC his buddy got killed showing Skinner his pictures of his girlfriend, because the photo album was brightly-colored and broke his camouflage.
* Averted in ''{{Robotech}}: New Generation'' and ''Shadow Chronicles'', where Scott and Marcus carry the locket showing Marlene around - [[spoiler: and survive, often just as one of few]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:RealLife]]
*Major Dale Buis is reported as "showing his new friends pictures of his three young sons" shortly before being attacked and gunned down by six [[VietnamWar Viet Cong terrorists]].
[[/folder]]

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