Disney Villain Death / Live-Action TV

Villain examples:

#-L

• On 24, Habib Marwan, main baddie on Day 4, decides to go out this way, plummeting off a parking garage.
  • In Live Another Day, Jack Bauer kills Margot Al-Harazi and her son Ian by throwing them out a window to their deaths.
• The Nineties Adventure Show The Adventures of Sinbad was extremely fond of this trope.
• In Alias, Sydney faces off against her mother, Irina Derevko, in the series finale. After a rather brutal showdown, the fight ends on a rooftop, where Irina ends up falling through a skylight to her death. Mmmm, closure.
  • In an earlier episode, Sydney throws a foe out a plane. He doesn't get to hit the ground, however, as he is sucked into the wing turbine.
• In the second episode of Batman (1966), "Smack In The Middle", the Riddler's moll and Girl of the Week Molly tries to shoot the Caped Crusader in the Batcave, but winds up falling into the atomic reactor to her death ("What a way to go-go") — the only time a woman is killed in the entire series.
• The Blacklist:
  • Reddington kills the Director by throwing him off a plane to his death. Played with in that we actually see the end result, as he falls through the roof of some family's house.
  • Lady Ambrosia also meets her end by being thrown down a well by her mentally handicapped son, who finally realized that she'd been emotionally abusing and manipulating him.
  • Mr. Kaplan ultimately chooses to throw herself off the bridge Reddington has cornered her on, in order to both spite him and trigger the contingency plan she had in place to ensure his downfall.
• Blake's 7 has a couple of nasty ones.
  • In "Star One", Travis finally meets his end when he's shot and falls screaming into a reactor well.
  • In "Volcano", a Mook Lieutenant is blown off the volcano's crater rim by a grenade and falls screaming into the lava.
• On Bones, Howard Epps hangs off a balcony and Booth grabs his hand and tries to stop Epps from falling the 50 ft. to his death. It fails, however, and Bones and Booth watch Epps fall and hit the pavement, ridding them of a major antagonist.
• On Breakout Kings, Big Bad serial killer Damien Fontleroy is finally pushed off a roof and onto the hood of a car. Considering that the show was cancelled after that season, it made for a pretty spectacular ending.
• In the season five finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy has a two second fight with Doc that ends this way. Technically, Buffy herself gets this treatment at the end of the episode, as her Disney Death doesn't take place until the following season.
• The Cold Case writing staff has this as the preferred method of killing off the Victim of the Week.
• In Crossing Jordan, the title character's half-brother threw himself from a third story window into the Charleston River when cornered by the police, taking all his secrets about their mother's murder with him. Though his body was never recovered, he never appeared on the show again, so it's a pretty safe assumption he's good and gone.
• CSI: NY:
  • During the Story Arc toward the end of season 3, Mac is chasing a serial killer across a rooftop. The killer feigns surrender, then attacks Mac, steals his handcuffs, cuffs himself, and tosses himself off the building onto a police car below. Disney Villain Suicide?
  • Also, Big Bad Shane Casey falls from a lighthouse near the end of "Vacation Getaway" but returns to wreak more havoc.
• The Devil Judge: A non-villainous example. K is kidnapped then dropped from a height.
• Doctor Who:
  • A heroic version in "The Daleks" when a character brings it on himself as a Heroic Sacrifice, as he's dangling over a ravine attached to a rope that's pulling his comrades over the edge too. The sight of him disappearing into blackness, coupled with the thunderous noise as he hits the bottom, is quite shocking for a young viewer.
  • The earliest villain example (or at least Dragon example) comes in Season One's "The Aztecs", when Ixta gets kicked off the top of a temple whilst trying to kill Ian.
  • First main villain example comes in Season Two's "The Rescue", where Bennett is so shocked by the appearance of the people he thought he'd killed that he backs away over a cliff edge.
  • In "The Hand of Fear", the villain falls down a deep black pit after being tripped up with the fourth Doctor's scarf. Being a being of stone, the Doctor suggests he may have survived.
  • In "The Brain of Morbius", the now mindless Morbius is forced off a cliff by the torch-wielding Sisterhood.
  • The Master suffers something similar in the TV Movie, when he falls into the Eye of Harmony. The Doctor's partly responsible, since he shines a light in the Master's face as he leaps at him and causes him to overshoot, but does offer him a hand. (Of course, he's revived to fight again in the Time War, which he also survives.)
  • The Sycorax Leader from "The Christmas Invasion" tries to underhandedly kill the Tenth Doctor, but he throws a satsuma at a button on the Sycorax ship, which causes a part of the ship to open up. This part of the ship just happens to be right underneath where the Leader is standing, and so he falls to his epic fail death.
  • "The Age of Steel": Cyber-Lumic falls to his doom after Pete Tyler cuts the ladder he was climbing. The place he's seen falling towards happens to be on fire.
  • Yet strangely averted in "The Idiot's Lantern", despite the finale taking place on Alexandra Palace Radio Tower. Then again, the villain wasn't exactly physical to begin with.
  • "Partners in Crime": Miss Foster, levitated to the height of the top of the Adipose Industries building, plummets to her death with a SPLAT! when her employers shut the levitation beam off to eliminate the evidence.
  • In "Robot of Sherwood", the villain is dueling with Robin Hood on a beam. Robin pulls the move the Doctor used on him earlier, knocking his opponent off the beam, from which he falls into the vat of molten gold below. The villain is given a dramatic falling shot, and soon after the camera shows he reached out and grabbed the lip of the vat before the gold hardened.
  • "The Woman Who Fell to Earth" plays with it: At the climax, after the villain, Tzim-Sha, activates DNA bombs that, unbeknownst to him, the Doctor tricked him into absorbing, and he begins to dissolve, the Doctor slaps his recall device onto his chest. Then Karl, Tim Shaw's intended victim, kicks him off of the crane they're on top of, and Tim disappears in midair. It's revealed in the season finale, "The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos", that Tim survived, but was teleported to the wrong planet.
• The Dukes of Hazzard: Averted several times:
  • "Goodbye, General Lee": It almost is for the show's signature (and heroic) car, when Boss Hogg, tired of the Duke boys constantly foiling his schemes (and perceiving the General Lee's "sheer power" in always playing a key role), picks up on Luke's off-handed remark that the General Lee isn't what it used to be. At one point, the trope kicks into effect when Rosco, having earlier locked up the Dukes on a minor traffic charge, and having impounded the General Lee has the car driven out to the country, places the car's transmission in neutral, and pushes it down the hill... toward a cliff. Cooter is conveniently nearby, sees what's going on, and manages to stop the General Lee (by using his tow truck as a "brake") but then Cooter has his own hands full when he has trouble stopping the truck. (Not to worry, Cooter got his tow truck to stop just at the very edge of the cliff!)
  • In "The Great Insurance Fraud", a pair of con artists out to take advantage of Boss Hogg's insurance scam stage an accident by having one of the accomplices drive his car over a cliff, after getting "fake Duke" Coy to engage him in a chase. Coy is led to believe that the other driver failed to escape his car before falling over the cliff, leading to his crushing (and fiery) death.
  • "Sitting Dukes": Uncle Jesse and Daisy are forced to drive a stolen vehicle (a laundry truck, taken by two escaped convicts that were that week's villains of the week) to try to divert attention of authorities who are pursuing the criminals and the Duke boys; the authorities are unaware (or, in Sheriff Little's case, uncaring) that Bo and Luke have been taken hostage and made at gunpoint to cooperate. Jesse and Daisy eventually decide to drive the truck to a winding road and jump out before the vehicle plummets into a ravine and bursts into flames, in their own attempt to get the authorities off their trail. (It didn't work, as Sheriff Little still takes them in for questioning.) Meanwhile, Bo and Luke are told — at gunpoint by their desperate captors — to drive the General Lee through a raging forest fire to get the authorities off their trail, putting everyone's life in extreme danger.
  • "When You Wish Upon a Hogg" begins with Hughie tricking Boss into believing in the power of an oil lamp... and ends with Bo and Luke having their hands full trying to save Hughie from tumbling (in his van) over a cliff; Hughie initially balks, afraid of what he thinks the Duke boys will do to him and wanting to save all his ill-gotten money. In the end Bo is able to pull Hughie from the van, just as it begins to topple from the cliff. (BTW, the beautiful "genie" that was "in the lamp" – the shockingly beautiful Trixie, was not harmed; she was already being held in jail as Hughie's accomplice.)
• A particularly chilling example with Wicked Stepmother Stella Crawford in EastEnders. She utters "Watch me daddy" before leaping from a very high roof to her death.
  • Dr. Yusef Khan is trapped in a burning house when the floor collapses beneath him and he falls into the flames.
  • Sadistic pimp Rob gets a Sherlock Holmes style death when he fights Ryan, the big brother of Whitney, whom Rob had tried to force into prostitution. Ryan throws himself at Rob and they fall from a pier into the ocean. Ryan lives, Rob doesn't.
  • Joe Macer (who had accidentally killed Pauline, then tried to murder Dot, the only person who knew about it) was killed falling out of a window and crashing through a market stall that happened to be underneath.
• Elsbeth: Asshole Victim Gloria Blecher from "A Classic New York Character" plummets from the balcony of her apartment building when the bolts on the railing are loosened.
• In the Farscape episode "The Choice", recurring villain Xhalax Sun leaps from a balcony rather than wait to painfully bleed to death after being shot.
• Also from Joss Whedon, the torturer from the Firefly episode "War Stories" falls into the abyss after being shot to death.
• Game of Thrones:
  • In Season 6, Balon Greyjoy is thrown from a bridge by Euron after several seasons of being Spared by the Adaptation.
  • Lysa Arryn is thrown out the Moon Door.
  • Deconstructed by the Hound, who must beg his companion to make an end of him after he is broken falling off a cliff. Also subverted when he's later shown to have survived thanks to timely medical help and then eventually played straight when he kills his brother by tackling him out the side of a crumbling castle into an inferno below.
  • Myranda falls to her death after being pushed off a balcony by Theon.
• General and I: He Xia dies when he gets pushed off a tower... and lands on a spear.
• In the season one finale of Gotham, the climactic showdown between the Penguin and Fish Mooney ends with the former pushing the latter off a rooftop and into the waters below. However, whether the fall actually killed her or not is left ambiguous.
• On Heroes, Nathan falls off a rooftop in his final appearance on the show.
  • Kaito Nakamura is tossed to his death off of the Deveaux rooftop by Adam Monroe.
• Hunter: The bad guy in the pilot episode accidentally jumps off a building when he charges Rick Hunter during a final Rooftop Confrontation.
• In Justified, Raylan has to confront Coover in Brother's Keeper, leading to Coover's plunge down the mine shaft.
• Doctor Shinigami/Ikadevil in the original Kamen Rider. Gets tossed off a cliff by Rider 1 (all while EEEEEEIIIIIII'ing) then, when he recovers from the fall, he immediately explodes.
  • Colonel Zol in his Gold Werewolf form is punched off a cliff by Kamen Rider 2 and explodes on impact.
  • Many decades later, Kamen Rider Gaim villain Sengoku Ryouma is the first in a long time to receive this death, tripping off the edge of a skyscraper while he's not transformed. Since what caused him to stagger over to the rooftop edge in the first place was taking a punch straight in the chest from a demigod, he's shown to die of his injuries before he hits the ground.
• On Las Vegas, Monica Mancuso ^note villain of a Tyrant Takes the Helm story arc stands on the rooftop of the Montecito in season three and rants about how, one day, she will own the entire Las Vegas strip. Then, in a bizarre twist, a huge gust of wind catches her ridiculous outfit and she flies off the roof and into a shoe store. Possibly a Casting Gag since she was played by the notoriously skinny Lara Flynn Boyle.
  • And in the season five premiere, Sam's kidnapper falls out of his airplane to his death.
• Leverage: Ruthless investor Latimer and the team's first client/target fall off a ledge while fighting over a gun, which goes off before a splash is heard. Unlike the above, their bodies aren't seen but it's highly unlikely they survived... probably.
• Happens to the White Witch in the BBC version of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe... but not in the book or, ironically, the Disney version where she gets mauled to death by Aslan (although we're spared the details). Apparently that was considered a bit strong for Sunday tea time viewing, so Aslan simply roars at her, causing her, either through magic or simple fear, to fall to her death.
• Another good guy (technically) example: in the Season 5 finale of Lost (technically by Disney too), Juliet bows out in a way very similar to Helga Sinclair. She falls down a deep pit — and survives. In a final Heroic Sacrifice, she triggers a bomb that was tossed in the pit earlier and then there's a fade to white... though she dies in the following episode from her fall-related injuries.
  • In the Series Finale, this is how The Man in Black goes out, when he is shot by Kate and kicked off the cliff by Jack.
  • You know, we can't bring up Lost without mentioning what Locke's father did to him, can we? Although it doesn't qualify as "Death", it broke his spine.

M-Z

• MacGyver (1985): In "Black Rhino", the Evil Poacher Ladysmith attempts to tip Mac over the edge of a dam only to end up going off the edge himself and plunging to his death atop his boat full of stolen rhino horn.
  • In "Phoenix Under Siege" the villainess Victoria James winds up doing this to herself by mistake as she tries to aim a flying kick at Mac Gyver when they are heaven knows how many stories up. He ducks under, but James winds up crashing to her death on the pavement below. Thankfully we don't fully see the full result of her death.
  • Murdoc also fell to what seemed like certain death three times- once off a cliff after Mac tricked him into cutting his own cable, once down a mineshaft after a cable wrapped around his leg, and once down a hill in a jeep while trying to run Mac over. However, he has a pretty big case of Joker Immunity, so he survived all three times.
• In the finale of Maddigan's Quest, Ozul and Maska follow Circus Brat Garland out onto the high wire rather than waiting at either end to trap her there. The result is rather predictable.
• The Magician: The mastermind in "The Manhunters" plunges to his death when he is washed over a spillway while trying to escape from Blake.
• In the Masters of Horror episode "Incident On and Off a Mountain Road", the villain Moonface meets his end after the heroine knocks him out of his mountain cabin and he falls into a ravine.
• Merlin — Aredian the Witchfinder dies by falling out a window rather than being killed by Merlin like most of the villains.
• In the season 2 finale of Nikita, this is how Nikita and Percy's final confrontation ends. As Percy's about to make his grand escape, he attempts to kill Nikita, and in their struggle, he falls over the edge of Division's missile silo. Nikita grabs him, but ultimately lets him drop. Ironically, when he hits the bottom, he crashes into the glass prison cell he spent the first half of the season locked up in.
• Queen Bansheera in Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue is karate kicked through a portal into Hell, where she is set upon by her own minions.
• Pretty Little Liars: After being revealed as A, Mona Vanderwaal falls off a ledge during a struggle with Spencer. Spencer even reaches out to try and pull her back, but isn't able to. In a subversion, Mona lives through the fall and is eventually found criminally insane and confined to an insane asylum for treatment.
• The third season finale of Primeval has a double-villain death. Helen Cutter is pounced on by a Velociraptor while standing near the edge of a very high cliff, pushing her off and resulting in the deaths of both her and the raptor.
• Reign of the Gargoyles: After Volthron is stabbed with the Spear of Destiny, he and all his gargoyles turn to stone and start plummeting to the Earth.
• Revenge:
  • It doesn't kill her, but in Season 3, after Daniel shoots Emily, she falls from the top of the boat and into the ocean.
  • He doesn't exactly fall from a high location, but Pascal is pushed backwards into helicopter rudders by Conrad and killed on impact.
  • Lyman Ellis' is true to the firm though. He struggles with his sister Louise over the flashdrive of info he stole from Nolan. He slips and goes over the Bluffs.
• Lionel Luthor is taken out of the show this way in Smallville, also an example of Klingon Promotion and Dying to Be Replaced.
• In Stargate Atlantis, Michael returns in the final season to kidnap Teyla's son. Mama Bear instincts kick in, and she ultimately throws him off the top of Atlantis' central spire. And that is NOT a short drop by any stretch of the imagination.
• Star Trek: Voyager — Michael Jonas falls to plasma in engineering and dies in his attempt to kill Neelix.
• Star Trek: Picard — During Seven and Nerissa's battle, Nerissa goes over a parapet and falls into the bowels of the Borg cube.
• Star Trek: Discovery — as Zareh and Book duke it out in the open turbolift car, Zareh makes the mistake of insulting Book's cat. Book promptly flings him out the door and he plummets into the massive turbolift shaft expanse that somehow exists inside ''Discovery'' and has artificial gravity for some reason.
• In season one of Supernatural, the Meg Masters demon is thrown out a seven story window. Being a demon, she survives. However, after the demon is purged from Meg's body, the girl dies from the wounds given to her from the fall that happened a few episodes ago.
• Third Watch: Though drug kingpin Donald Mann went down in a pool after being shot three times, right before the confrontation that leads to his death, he chucks a subordinate off the building roof, and we see the sod embedded into the roof of a car on the street below as Yokas and Cruz arrive on scene.
• Veronica Mars: At the end of Season 2, Cassidy Casablancas is unmasked as being the bus bomber. When Veronica and Logan get the upper hand, he calmly jumps from the roof and only the car alarm is heard.
• The Walking Dead (2010): In an episode of season 9, Daryl and Beta face off against each other. Daryl manages to trick Beta into falling down an elevator shaft, and that seems to be the end of the Whisperer. Then the end of the episode reveals that he subverted this, since he's shown to have actually survived the fall.

Hero/non-villain examples:

Hero/Non-Villain Examples

• Doctor Who:
  • In "Evil of the Daleks", Kemel goes out this way when Maxtible drops him off a cliff.
  • The Fourth Doctor dies as a result of falling off a radio telescope in "Logopolis". Of course, being a Time Lord, he soon regenerates.

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