Faint In Shock / Film

• The Addams Family: Gomez faints in Addams Family Values when baby Pubert turns "normal". A slightly unusual example since Gomez is a skilled swordfighter and knife-thrower and Made of Iron rather than the kind of weak and cowardly character the trope is usually associated with (though in the '60s show he was apparently much weaker and quite sickly when he was younger), but then, he is also a Large Ham and to some extent parodies Victorian gothic/romantic novel tropes with his melodramatic behaviour, complete with offscreen coughing up blood that doesn't seem to affect his ability to swordfight.
• The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert: Bernadette faints in shock after discovering that Tick has a son. She later complains of having a bump on her head during the show, for which she blames Tick.
• Animal Crackers: The film of this The Marx Brothers creation has Captain Spaulding fainting as Mrs. Rittenhouse is hailing him for fearlessly journeying through Darkest Africa.
• Are You Being Served?:
  • Mrs. Slocombe remarks her fear of needles is so bad that even the sight of a needle makes her pass out.
  • Mr. Humphries nearly does when he is bit by some novelty chattering teeth Mr. Lucas had hidden in a mannequin's underwear.
• Back to the Future Part II:
  • Marty's girlfriend Jennifer is accidentally brought into her future home. As she's about to leave, she comes across the 2015 version of herself:
    Jennifer (seventeen): [gasps] I'M OLD!!
    Jennifer (forty-seven): [gasps] I'M YOUNG!!
    [both faint simultaneously]^note This faint lasts a ridiculously long time: Doc predicts that Jennifer would stay unconscious for several hours based on the severity of the shock, which very rarely happens in real life. Jennifer is placed on her house's front porch swing just after 9 at night, and it is already almost noon the next day by the time she finally wakes up in Part III
  • Doc Brown faints at the end, after Marty (whom he had just sent away in the time machine) reappears behind him.
    Doc: [screams upon seeing Marty]
    Marty: Doc, calm down, okay, it's me! It's Marty!
    Doc: It can't be! I just sent you back to the future!
    Marty: I know, Doc, you did send me back to the future, but I'm back. I'm back from the future.
    [beat]]
    Doc: Great... Scott! [faints dead away]^note This faint also lasts for many hours, implying that it's simply normal for people who faint from shock to stay unconscious for this long in the universe that these films are set in
• Batman:
  • When Jack Napier's girlfriend Alicia Hunt comes home and discovers not only that he's not dead but that he's turned into the Joker, she faints dead away.
    Joker: Honey? You'll never believe what happened to me today!
  • The Joker goes to Vicki Vale's apartment and scares her out of her wits, including apparently killing Bruce Wayne. After the Joker leaves, Vicki Vale opens the box he left her. A hand holding a bunch of withered flowers pops out, and she collapses to the ground.
• Beauty and the Beast: Belle faints upon seeing the Beast for the first time, and he tenderly carries her through the castle to a bed, her peasant garb magically changing to a princess-worthy gown along the way.
• In The Big Clock, the highly-strung antiques dealer faints on being confronted by George Stroud, whom he believes to be the murderer. Stroud hides his unconscious form inside a caravan and continues on his way. Later, during the gathering of the witnesses, the barman spots Stroud in the corridor and announces it's the murderer. The antiques dealer faints again.
• Blood Waters of Dr. Z: Contains probably the most egregious example of this trope, with the kidnapped heroine managing to remain unconscious while being roughly carried through a hot, noisy, fetid swamp for several miles.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Love interest Pike (not to be confused with Spike from the TV series) faints several times over the course of the movie, to the point where it becomes a running gag.
• Casper:
  • Sassy teenager Kat faints from meeting the ghostly hero for the first time.
  • Kat's father James Harvey faints when Casper's trouble-making uncles pull a surprise Nightmare Face on the Dr.
• Charlotte's Web:
  • Fainting in fear is still Wilbur's Character Tic, just like the book
  • Ike passes out when Charlotte mentions that she drinks fly blood. (he's arachnophobic.)
• The Climax: The soprano who is told that she is to replace Jarmila Vadek faints out of sheer excitement. Leads to a funny moment when everyone else storms out of the office for various reasons, leaving her still passed out on the floor.
• Clue: Mrs Peacock begins to faint at the sight of a murder. The butler catches her... and then she slips through his arms and thuds to the floor.^note Doubles as an Actor Allusion to Eileen Brennan's (Mrs. Peacock) previous role of Tess in Murder by Death, when another butler tries catching her. See that film's entry below to find out how THAT turned out.
• The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course: After discovering that her rifle won't work thanks to being in the water, Brozzie faints at the thought of facing down the problem crocodile without it. Luckily, the croc just retreats into the river.
• Death Bell: One of the girls faints in shock/fear when a body drops out of the ceiling in the auditorium.
• The Devil and Miss Jones: Joe, when he finds out that Thomas Higgins is actually John P. Merrick.
• Dick Tracy, Detective: Tess faints when she looks up and sees the Splitface looming over her; his deformed visage leering at her and a huge knife clutched in his hand.
• Doctor... Series:
  • Doctor in the House (1954): Medical student Simon Sparrow passes out the first time he sees an operation in person.
  • Doctor in Distress (1963): A nervous woman on the train faints when Dr. Sparrow tries to share a compartment with her.
  • Doctor in Clover: Before his operation, Wendover catches sight of the needle that is to be used to inject him with anesthetic. It is unneeded, however, as the image of it alone makes Wendover pass out in fright.
  • Doctor in Trouble:
    • When complaining about how Basil isn't a real doctor, Dr. Burke remarks he'd faint if he saw as much as a cut finger.
    • When learning that Wendover isn't as rich as he seems only after he marries her daughter, Dawn, Mrs. Dailey faints and has to be carried away by the two.
• Dracula vs. Frankenstein: Judith faints after Mike is struck by a blast from Dracula's ring and burns to ash in front of her eyes.
• The Fifth Element:
  • In the Distant Prologue, Professor Pacoli (the archaeologist) faints after being confronted to the Mondoshawan aliens.
  • Vito Cornelius drops stiff after realizing that the unconscious woman Korben Dallas has brought to his office is in fact the Fifth Element.
• The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas:
  • Wilma's mother faints in shock twice during Fred and Wilma's wedding.
  • Fred imagines Wilma fainting at the sight of his giant engagement ring earlier in the movie.
• Frankenstein: Judy faints when she opens the door of her bedroom, expecting to see Mike, and is instead confronted by the monster. It is possible that she actually dies of fright at this point, as in the next scene she is lying dead in Victor's lab with no indication of how she died.
• Galaxy Quest:
  • Guy passes out when he finally meets Sarris in person.
  • In the final moments, a Fangirl faints when she witnesses The Big Damn Kiss between Jason and Gwen on stage.
• George of the Jungle: Ursula faints again and again.
  • First from seeing George's jungle residence for the first time.
  • Then from the shock of Ape being a Talking Animal. Repeated a third and fourth time immediately upon waking, as the shock is still too great.
  • In the sequel, the sight of an elephant wearing New Balance causes Ursula once more to faint dead away.
• Home Alone 2: Lost in New York: Kate faints at the airport upon realizing that her entire family has somehow neglected to bring her son Kevin along on their trip for a second time.
• Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: Diane faints once per film in the series (as well as in the theme park ride) upon learning of the latest shrink ray disaster. Several other characters in the series also contribute to the faint count upon witnessing examples of the machine's results.
• The House On Skull Mountain: Thomas has to render Lorena unconscious first in order to possess her to join in a voodoo ritual. He does this by getting a snake (which has been planted under the bed on which she is sleeping) to slither onto the bed and over her sleeping body. The movement wakes Lorena from her sleep, upon which she sees the snake on top of her, inches away from her face. She stares in abject terror for a few seconds, and then noiselessly faints right there in her bed.
• The Incredible Mr. Limpet: When George Stickle hears the supposedly drowned Henry Limpet's voice coming from the sea, he faints dead away—probably because he thinks he's hearing Henry's ghost.
• Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom: During the "feast" at Pankot Palace, Willie passes out when offered chilled monkey brains.
• In I Think I Do, Bob faints when the fact that he slept with Brendan is about to be exposed. A few seconds later, Sterling and Sarah both faint from the revelation.
• Jumanji: Sarah faints upon seeing her childhood friend Alan on her doorstep —the last she'd seen of him was when he got sucked into a cursed board game twenty-six years before. She's spent all that time trying to convince herself that it was a hallucination.
  Peter: You killed her.
• Jurassic Park: Downplayed Alan Grant gets woozy and needs to sit down when Hammond's big reveal of living dinosaurs starts to sink in.
• The Kid: As Amy realizes Russ and Rusty are the same person, she notes "I wish I was standing on a carpet." before fainting.
• Kit Kittredge: An American Girl: Stirling faints twice, both times after discovering hobos.
• Legend: When she first meets the terrifying villain Darkness, Lili faints and collapses to the ground. She wakes up a few seconds later and has a long conversation with him.
• Liz & Dick: Liz faints in a no-nonsense manner upon hearing of Dick's death. Possibly pays homage to ElizabethTaylor's iconic faint in the role of Angela in A Place in the Sun.
• Meet John Doe: At the climax of the movie, a distraught and guilt-ridden Ann pleads desperately to John on the roof of City Hall not to kill himself. At the height of her emotions, she confesses her love for him, and in the next instant, sinks in his arms in a dead faint. As a result, as John finally decides not to jump at the end of the film and Henry tells off a defeated Norton with a Take That!. Ann is thoroughly passed out throughout and misses all of this.
• Men in Black: After the Bug gets into his new Edgar suit, Edgar's wife Beatrice tells him that "Your skin is hanging off your bones." The Bug pulls Edgar's face back into a horribly distorted mask and Beatrice faints dead away.
• Miss Congeniality: During the climax, Gracie works out that the crown given to the pageant winner is rigged with explosives. She rips the crown off Cheryl's head and hurls it to the back of the stage just before it explodes. On seeing how close she came to death Cheryl immediately passes out and faints into Gracie's arms, who then crumples to the ground under their combined weight.
• Murder by Death: Moments after her boss Sam Diamond is apparently crushed to death by a falling gargoyle (he gets better), Tess announces she's going to faint and orders the butler to catch her. The butler (who's blind), misses her completely and she thuds to the floor.
• Mystery of the Wax Museum: When Charlotte is shown the truth behind the wax museum, she faints.
• Nanny McPhee: Lady Adelaide Stitch learns that the young woman she has been fostering is in fact her nephew’s scullery maid, and when the two declare their intent to marry right in front of her, she gasps and faints at the impropriety of it all.
• National Velvet: Velvet faints in joy when she receives her pet horse The Pie.
• Niagara: Rose plans to have her lover Patrick murder her husband George. Unbeknownst to Rose, George actually manages to kill Patrick in self-defense instead. When Rose, confident that the plan has succeeded, is summoned to identify whether or not the found corpse is her husband's, she faints instantly without uttering a single word upon seeing Patrick's body in the morgue. At this, everybody present ends up believing that the victim really was George as they wrongly presume that she fainted from grief. Many hours later, long after the police have been informed that George has not died, Rose was still lying on a hospital bed completely out cold from the shock of this moment.
• No Kidding: When the Robinsons believe someone has kidnapped the children (minus Lionel and Priscilla) and stolen their car, David remarks only a maniac would want all of them. The very thought of a maniac with the children makes Catherine panic and faint in David's arms.
• The Notebook: Allie faints during her wedding dress fitting when she sees Noah's picture in the newspaper. She thought that he was gone from her life forever.
• Our Miss Brooks: In The Movie Grand Finale, Mr. Conklin faints dead away upon learning the position of "Coordinator of Education" pays only $500 a year. He had been campaigning for the position, essentially head of the public school board.
• Paul: The general reaction to seeing Paul for the first time.
• Paws: Zac faints upon seeing PC, a dog, talk to him using his computer. Later, Samantha does the same when PC talks to her, now using a Translator Collar.
• A Place in the Sun has what is widely considered perhaps the best faint in film history: Angela is told that her Love Interest George is likely to be sentenced to the electric chair. She calmly thanks her mother for allowing her to hear this information before walking back into her room. There, she stands dazed for a few seconds, and crashes hard and limp onto the floor without even the tiniest movement to break her fall, as though already utterly out like a light before she began to plunge down.
• Please Turn Over: When Ian reveals to her that the author of Naked Revolt is actually her daughter Jo Halliday and not someone with the same name, Janet faints and has to be caught to avoid going face-first into the pavement. She also faints when she learns that Jo's left home for London with Robert.
• Relative Fear: Linda collapses after she finds the housekeeper Margaret's body.
• The Return of Sherlock Holmes: Mrs. Hudson faints in shock when Holmes returns from Faking the Dead.
• The Rocky Horror Picture Show:
  • Done by Janet Weiss (SLUT!) when she sees Frank N. Furter for the first time.
  • Parodied during "The Time Warp" and "Sweet Transvestite", when Janet Weiss faints three times during the songs. Perhaps all the pelvic thrusting was too scandalous for her.
• Séance on a Wet Afternoon: Phony Psychic Myra Savage pretends to faint after becoming overwhelmed by the emotions of supposedly communicating with the spirit of kidnapping victim Amanda Clayton at a séance attended by Amanda's mother. Myra's husband Billy rushes in to attend to her and usher out the guests... but as he and Myra are the ones who kidnapped Amanda, and in his haste to attend to his wife, he accidentally leaves Amanda's door unlocked, Myra's fake fainting spell starts a chain reaction that causes their scheme to unravel.
• Secrets In The Hot Spring: Some characters, like Lu Qun and Qie's grandpa, are prone to doing this.
• Sense and Sensibility: Marianne nearly faints when she sees that her disappeared beau, Willoughby, is with another woman at a ball. Her sister Elinor and Mrs. Jennings catch her and keep her walking.
• She-Devil: When Andrew throws a piece of branch for the dogs to catch, Mary's dog, Juliet, decides to chase after it and falls into the sea. Shocked, Mary immediately passed out.
• Singin' in the Rain: One of the spectators blacks out due to seeing all the celebrities.
• Sleepy Hollow: The "cowardly" Ichabod Crane is the hero and can't very well show true cowardice, so he tends to stick out any dangerous situation (like, say, any time the Headless Horseman shows up and makes with the headchopping) and then pass out once it's over.
• Soap Dish:
  • Celeste's eyes roll up into her head and she collapses when she learns that Jeffrey will be reprising his role as the Back from the Dead Rod Randall.
  • Later in the movie, Tawny, the costume designer, also faints briefly upon learning that Montana Moorehead used to be a man.
• Sonic the Hedgehog: Upon seeing Sonic for the first time, Maddie's sister Rachel barely has enough time to ask her young daughter to catch her before passing out.
• Spaceballs:
  • Princess Vespa faints when she realizes that her reunion with her father was a sham and a trap.
  • Vespa again, when she is about to be mutilated as part of an extortion attempt on her father.
• Star Trek: First Contact: This appears to be the case when Lily faints after seeing that Data is bulletproof. However, it's then subverted when Dr. Crusher reveals that she actually fainted due to the effects of a radiation leak from the Phoenix.
• Star Wars:
  • In The Phantom Menace, after the Gungans agree to join the fight against the Federation droids invading Naboo, Boss Nass announces to Jar Jar Binks that he's going to make him a general and he'll lead the assault. Jar Jar promptly swoons and faints in shock.
  • In A New Hope, while he probably doesn't actually faint (being a droid and all), C-3PO topples backwards when he first sees the Tusken Raider. He is found some time later just recovering the droid equivalent of consciousness. He seems to have slipped in surprise at the Raider, tumbled down a rough incline, and took damage that knocked him offline for a time. In presentation, it very much captures the feel of "weak character fainting when confronted with sudden, surprising danger."
• Strippers Vs. Werewolves: After Raven and Dani get the werewolves to leave, and then Dani has Raven explain her owning tanning lights, Dani asks to pass out. Raven gives her permission.
• Superman:
  • Superman: The Movie: Superman deposits Lois on the top of a building after catching and saving both her and the helicopter that she fell from. She watches him fly away before collapsing atop the helipad in a dead faint.
  • Superman II: In the Director's Cut, Lois tries to force Clark to expose himself as Superman by jumping out of the window of her office right in front of him. He breaks her fall in a way that doesn't break his disguise, allowing her to land safely on top of a fruit vendor's stand on the street below. He appears back upstairs as Clark at the window by the time Lois looks up again. The (incorrect) realization that Clark isn't Superman after all, embarrassment, and the realization of how easily she could have killed herself cause Lois to pass out cold on the pile of watermelons and tomatoes.
  • Superman Returns: In an homage to the original faint scene from the 1978 film, an aircraft malfunction almost kills all of the passengers, including Lois. Superman makes his first public reappearance by saving the aircraft and landing it safely in a packed sports arena. He then personally speaks to Lois, echoing their conversation on the helipad in the original film. Completely overwhelmed, Lois follows him out of the aircraft's exit and once again watches speechlessly as he flies off into the sky before she drops and slides limply down the plane's inflated evacuation slide, unconscious.^note The Novelization cuts the part where Lois faints, but adds an original part where a nurse faints when discovering that Superman has fully healed and left the hospital on his own.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The franchise loves the trope:
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze: Keno faints when he first meets Splinter.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: In a callback to "II", Kenshin also faints when he meets Splinter. Lampshaded:
    Donatello: You sure have a strange effect on people, don't you, Master?
    Splinter: Hmmmm... out cold.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014): True to more than one previous animated incarnation of the character, April O'Neil faints upon meeting the turtles for the first time. Unlike them, however, she does not stay unconscious for very long.
    April: [hyperventilating, already in great shock from seeing the turtles]
    Michelangelo: [suddenly jumps to right behind her] No, no, no, no. Whoa. Whoa. Chill.
    April: [hyperventilates even harder]
    Michelangelo: It's just a mask. See? Don't freak out. [takes off bandana, making it even more undeniable that they're turtles] Right?
    April: ... Haah. [eyes glaze over and roll back]
    *THUD*
• The Three Stooges: in "Brideless Groom", Shemp dramatically faints into a chair when he hears the terms behind his inheritance. It's Parodied in that he makes sure that the chair is there first and immediately snaps out of it when Moe mentions a catch to the terms of the will.
• To All the Boys I've Loved Before: When Lara Jean learns that the secret love letters that she never intended anyone to read have all been sent out to their respective suitors, she faints in the middle of the school track.^note By contrast, in the book Lara Jean just feels like fainting and points out that fainting would be just like being in a movie.
• Twice Round the Daffodils: After Joyce tells him she is in love with another man, Bob tries walking away, only to clutch his chest and pass out from a combination of heartache and tuberculosis.
• Water: Baxter Thwaites threatens to blow up the Spenco well using dynamite strapped to a member of the Cascaran Liberation Front. He holds a cigarette lighter to the fuse until everyone else puts down their weapons, whereupon the bomb guy promptly faints.
• Werewolves Within: Pete is so freaked out from having half his hand bitten off that he doesn't realize he's been shot until someone points it out. He passes out after seeing the bullet hole.
• The Wizard of Oz: During the meeting with the Wizard, each member of Dorothy's group is called forward to face him. When it's the Cowardly Lion's turn, he faints dead away.

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