May be a Hospital Surprise. Often the result of a Post-Victory Collapse.
As an Ending Trope, all spoilers in the examples below are unmarked!
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Dragon Ball, by nature of being a story focused around fighting, will use use this trope from time to time:
- The ending of the Saiyan Arc has Goku, Gohan and Krillin in the hospital. Rather than rest up, they plan how they're going to get to Namek to bring back everyone they lost.
- Dragon Ball Z: Super Android 13! ends this way. After the battle with the titular antagonist, everyone is shown in the hospital healing.
- The anime adaptation of Happy Sugar Life ends with Satou and Shio being caught in the fire Satou's aunt set and decide to commit lover's suicide, but while falling Satou realizes true love and shields Shio's body with her own, sacrificing her life in the process. Asahi is finally reunited with Shio in a hospital, but Shio rejects him in favor of Satou and decides to live for herself, keeping Satou's love and their "Happy Sugar Life" in her heart forever.
- The first season of My Hero Academia ends with Izuku and All Might both recovering in the hospital, after their first encounter with the League of Villains.
Asian Animation
- Happy Heroes: Near the end of Season 12 episode 25, Sweet S. wakes up in a hospital after having hurt herself in an incident involving a spaceship.
- The Simple Samosa episode "Chhote Rajaji" ends with Dhokla, Jalebi, and Vada visiting Samosa as he is recovering from the spicy sickness in the hospital.
Comic Books
- Fables: The final chapter of the Farm arc begins with Snow White in a fable hospital after being shot in the head by Goldilocks. It jumps ahead a few times to show her slow recovery, as well as the consequences of the events at the farm.
Fan Works
- The NUMB3RS story Pop Quiz ends in Larry's hospital room, where he is recovering after being shot by Robert Evans, who Charlie and Larry were trying to prove he was cheating on math tests, which is grounds for being expelled.
- In the Turning Red fanfic The Great Red Panda Rescue, the penultimate chapter ends with Mei waking up in a hospital.
Films — Live-Action
- Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) ends with Riggan's daughter visiting him in the hospital after his Bungled Suicide.
- Zigzagged with the end of Captain America: The First Avenger. Steve Rogers wakes up and is told that he's in a recovery room in New York City. However, the whole thing turns out to be a ruse by Nick Fury to soften the blow of Steve realizing he's now in the twenty-first century.
- Happens again in Captain America: The Winter Soldier: after saving the day and almost dying (a feat for a Super-Soldier with an incredible healing ability), Cap wakes up in the hospital with Sam watching over him, playing the jazz song they discussed at the beginning of the film. Cap gets Sam's attention by saying "On your left".
- Towards the end of Netflix's Death Note (2017) (adapted from the manga and anime of the same name), Light is put into a medically induced coma that lasts two days, during which several criminals die, seemingly proving that he is not Kira. He wakes up later with his father (and Ryuk) in his room and is told by the former that he knows he is Kira.
- The Dirty Dozen ends showing the survivors of the mission being treated at an Allied hospital. It shows they escaped enemy territory and that the convict earned his pardon and will be reinstated.
- At the end of The Final Girls, Max wakes up in the hospital, reunited with her friends. Given that her friends had all died after they'd been sucked into Camp Bloodbath, Max thinks she's escaped being Trapped in TV Land... until they hear Billy Murphy's leitmotif and realize that they're now in Camp Bloodbath 2: Cruel Summer.
- The end of Friday the 13th (1980) has Alice waking up in the hospital, wondering whether or not she dreamed the final Jump Scare where Jason jumped out of the water to grab her from the boat.
- The entirety of Halloween II (1981) can be seen as this to the original film, taking place at the hospital where Laurie is recovering from her injuries.
- At the end of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Harry wakes up in the hospital wing and is visited by Ron, Hermione, and Dumbledore.
- It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World: In the wild climax, all of the male main characters suffer serious injuries. The last scene occurs in a hospital, where the men are heavily bandaged. They are visited by their female relatives, who are angry about the males' greediness.
- Mission: Impossible – Fallout: After defeating Walker, Ethan recovers from his near-mortal wounds in a hospital in the Karakoram mountains, with Benji, Ilsa, and Julia at his side.
- The true final act of Scream 4 comes at the hospital, where Jill, Gale, and Sidney are all hospitalized from their wounds. Jill accidentally lets slip to Gale something that only the killer would know, forcing her to resume her killing spree in her wounded state. Jill even lampshades the Ending Fatigue.
"The ending of the movie was supposed to be at the house. I mean, this is just silly."
- The ending of The Shining originally included a scene where Wendy Torrance is in the hospital being told that her husband Jack's body could not be found. The scene was cut a week into the film's run.
- Star Trek Into Darkness: Jim Kirk wakes up in a hospital on Earth after dying of radiation poisoning, having been cured by Dr. McCoy using some of Khan's blood.
- At the end of The Strangers: Prey at Night, Luke and Kinsey are at the hospital, with Kinsey going to get a glass of water only to drop it when she hears a knocking on the door. It's left up in the air if the villains are Not Quite Dead or if Kinsey is still shell-shocked by what had happened.
- Security ends with a hospital scene where the recovering hero and the girl he protected have a heartwarming talk.
Literature
- Camp X: The final chapter is of George waking up in a hospital bed and being informed by Little Bill of what happened with the Nazi spies. Their plan ultimately failed, and was all for naught because they intel they had was false anyway. Mr. Krum, however, was killed in the gunfight. Jack also survived, however, and is recovering in another room, and the military came up with a cover story to tell George's and Jack's mom.
- The Catcher in the Rye begins and ends with Holden in some kind of hospital or medical facility.
- Fight Club ends with the Narrator in a mental hospital; at least one of his followers works there. The follower indicates that they're still ready to follow him.
- Harry Potter wakes up in the hospital wing of Hogwarts after the climactic encounter with Quirrel and Voldemort in the first book, with Dumbledore telling him that Quirrel is dead, Voldemort is on the run, and the Philosopher's Stone is to be destroyed.
- Legend Series: The very end of the final book, Champion, features Day in the hospital after the climactic battle. He'll be okay, but due to his injuries, he'll no longer be able to remember much about the rebellion, including his love interest and fellow-protagonist June.
- Point Horror Unleashed does this in Fright Train. Protagonists Vicky and Darren wake up in the hospital, having seemingly survived the horrific train crash that occurred near the start of the book. However, they both suffer from Laser-Guided Amnesia so they don't remember their trip to Hell.
- Happens in The Shadow of the Wind. Everyone goes to the hospital to visit Daniel after he needed to be revived after being shot by the Big Bad.
- Given the nature of his job, the only book in The Dresden Files that doesn't end with someone in the hospital recovering is Storm Front, the first one. Every. Single. Other. Book has someone being seriously injured, usually Harry himself. The ending of Small Favor has a number of people in the hospital, but Michael is the one on death's door.
- After the climactic battle of The Book of Three, Taran wakes up in the Bright Castle of Caer Dathyl, being tended to by healers.
Live-Action TV
- The Brittas Empire:
- The episode "Assassin" ends with Brittas lying in intensive care after having been run over by a treacle lorry.
- “We All Fall Down” ends with Brittas visiting Helen (who had been electrocuted due to a Peace ceremony gone wrong) in hospital and dropping off some blackcurrant juice for the children who were electrocuted alongside her in intensive care, not knowing that Helen had drugged the juice with laxatives earlier in the episode.
- Emergency! had a few. Being firefighters, the guys got hurt a few times. In one case Johnny was already hospitalized but Roy and Marco join him in the end. Another is after Roy was electrocuted accidentally.
- In an episode of Everybody Hates Chris, Chris begins acting tough in an attempt to attract the attention of a girl he likes, and at the end of the episode, to show her how tough he really is, he rudely talks back to his mom. He wakes up in the hospital, and is shown recovering from the procedure to remove one of his mother's shoes from his rectum.
- Firefly
- “Out of Gas” ends with Mal waking up in the ship’s infirmary, which is as close to a hospital as they get. Mal is recovering from being shot and Wash is hooked up to him giving him blood. Zoe is still recovering from the explosion earlier in the episode but is finally awake, and the others are there assuring themselves Mal is okay.
- “Trash” has Simon treating a temporarily paralyzed Jayne. Simon knows by then that Jayne tried to betray them but says he’ll never harm Jayne while treating him. River then peeks in and delivers her famous “I can kill you with my brain” line. Cue Oh, Crap! from Jayne.
- Seen in the first episode of Forever, where Henry and Jo end their adventure with Jo waking up in the hospital, being treated for the gunshot sustained on the roof of Grand Central, and Henry has come to visit her.
- At the end of the Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode "Blind Spot," after her abduction by (and escape from) a sadistic killer, Eames is shown recuperating in a hospital room with Goren at her side.
- An episode of Magnum, P.I. ends with Magnum visiting his friends and colleagues, who are in the hospital recuperating from injuries gotten in a shootout.
- NUMB3RS: The episode "The Fifth Man" ends with the team meeting in Don's hospital room as he is recovering from being stabbed and he and Charlie have a talk about neither wanting Charlie to have Don's life but Charlie promises to see his older brother in the FBI office soon.
- The Office (U.S.): At the end of "Weight Loss: Part 2," Toby is seen in the hospital during The Stinger, having suffered from a zip-lining accident shortly after arriving in Puerto Rico.
- Happens in the Space: 1999 episode "The Beta Cloud". While fighting against an alien robot, Tony Verdeschi is injured. The episode ends with his girlfriend Maya visiting him in Sickbay.
- Star Trek: The Original Series: At the end of the episode "Journey to Babel", Captain Kirk, Commander Spock, and Ambassador Sarek are in Sickbay recovering (Kirk from a stab wound that nearly killed him, Spock from giving massive amounts of blood, and Sarek from the surgery he just underwent).
- The first season of Stranger Things ends with Will waking up in a hospital after being rescued from the Upside-Down, where he is greeted by his family and later his friends.
- Supernatural: The Fourth Season Episode "On the Head of a Pin" ends with a battered Dean in the hospital, having an intense conversation with Castiel.
Podcasts
- The final scene of the pilot arc of The Adventure Zone: Amnesty features Aubrey waking up in hospital after blacking out fighting against the Abomination at the climax of that episode.
Radio
- Our Miss Brooks: In "Pensacola Popovers", Mrs. Davis' Pensacola Popovers are guaranteed to make anyone (or any animal) that eats one sick-to-the-stomach. Miss Brooks gives a few to Mr. Boynton (along with a good deal of junk food) so she can nurse him back to health, part of a Zany Scheme to get Boynton to propose marriage. It doesn't seem to work. Yet, at the end of the episode Mr. Boynton suddenly passes out in the middle of the Biologist's Club dinner. He ends up telephoning Miss Brooks from the hospital.
Theatre
- The ending of Be More Chill involves Jeremy waking up in hospital, with Rich in the bed next to him, after all the Squips are destroyed. He is visited by his father and Michael, and Rich, now free from the Squip, proudly embraces his former self.
Video Games
- Played for Drama at the end of BlazBlue: Central Fiction. One of the villains, Nu-13, becomes bedridden in a church managed by her "sisters" Noel and Lambda-11. She looks rather catatonic due to not just the beatdown she took from Hakumen, but also Ragna taking away her memories of him, making her lose her only drive for living.
- Dreamfall: The Longest Journey ends with Zoe in a hospital — she is not recovering, however, but is instead put in a coma by the villains until the sequel. Said sequel, Dreamfall Chapters, also ends with Zoe in a hospital following a Heroic RRoD-slash-Post-Victory Collapse, but waking up this time around and reconciling with her estranged father.
- In Alisa's storyline in Front Mission 3, Emma is subjected to Mind Rape by the Big Bad, which leaves her comatose. The epilogue begins in the hospital, with the main cast looking after Emma and waiting for her to wake up. When she finally does, the first thing she notices are the pretty Cherry Blossoms outside the window.
- At the end of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Eyes of Heaven, Jotaro's changes to the timeline using Star Platinum: The World Over Heaven revives Avdol, Iggy, and Kakyoin, who died in the original telling of the story. The three are seen in the hospital at the end, recovering from DIO's and Vanilla Ice's attacks, but still alive.
- The last post-credits scene of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is a wheelchair-bound Kazuma Kiryu being visited in hospital by Haruka Sawamura and her son Haruto.
- Mega Man Star Force 3: Ace, who got heavily injured after fighting Dread Joker, is seen later recovering in a hospital in the credits, accompanied by his ex Queen Tia.
- In Metal Slug 4, if you fail to escape from the final level during its self-destruction sequence, your character will end up being sent to a hospital. At least Tarma and Eri gifting them with fruit takes the sting out of it...
- OMORI: Both of the main route's endings end with Sunny and Basil hospitalized as a result of a fight between them the previous night. Depending on the outcome of the prior Battle in the Center of the Mind, Sunny then either kills himself via jumping, or visits Basil's room to confess the Awful Truth to his friends.
- Project: Horned Owl ends with the heroes recovering from their ordeal after destroying the villains' Space Base and crashing their escape shuttle. With Player One apparently suffering an Eye Scream in the process.
- Rival Schools: In the second game's epilogue, the Big Bad Kurow gets sent into the hospital after his beatdown at the hands of Hyo, but later he seemed to have escaped the hospital room some hours later.
- In the Escape and Mother endings of Silent Hill 4, Henry finally manages to escape his apartment, having defeated Walter Sullivan and undone all the damage the 21 Sacraments have inflicted and visits Eileen in-person at the hospital.
- The Hard Mode ending of M.U.S.H.A. as well as GG Aleste show Ellinor recovering in a hospital. And if GG Aleste 3 is beaten on Normal Mode, the ending will show Luna on a wheelchair in a hospital.
Web Original
- The Flying Man ends with Mike waking up in a hospital after surviving an encounter with the titular character, with the accompanying radio report speculating on whether or not he was deliberately spared.
- Shows up in this
Let's Play of SimCity 2000. In later chapters, it is revealed that the game being played was actually that player's coma dream following a car accident, and his building up the city was essentially a depiction of his brain being repaired. He eventually wakes up in a hospital when his work is done (an arcology represents a full recovery).
Western Animation
- The Amazing World of Gumball:
- The episode "The Date" ends with the Wattersons visiting Gumball in the hospital after he's bitten by the Fitzgeralds' pet spider.
- "The Goons" ends with most of the participants in Gumball's Dumb Race hospitalized for one reason or another.
- The Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy cartoon "Talk It Up, Pup" ends with Doggie Daddy hospitalized after his attempts to get Augie to talk again gets him seriously injured (Augie was giving Doggie Daddy the silent treatment for 24 hours).
- In the last episode of Over the Garden Wall, Wirt wakes up in a hospital after he and Greg nearly drowned. Greg is already out of bed and on his feet and is implied to be telling the other people of his and Wirt's adventures.
- An episode of Super Chicken ends with Super Chicken in the hospital, having taken too much "special sauce".
- Trollhunters:
- The mid-season finale of the first season actually begins with Jim in the hospital, recovering from his battle in the previous episode. He tries to hide the truth by telling Barbara that he was attacked by coyotes. She doesn't buy it.
- Later, in the actual season finale, Barbara loses her memories of discovering the troll world shortly after making Jim promise to tell her everything later. She later wakes up in a hospital with no memory of what happened. In spite of his promise, Jim lies and says that they were in an accident.
- The seventh season of Voltron: Legendary Defender ends with the Paladins being seen in a hospital, recovering from their injuries. There, they are visited by several characters who were previously Put on the Bus but have now come to Earth, including Matt, Krolia, and Shay.
- Porky's Hare Hunt ends with Porky hospitalized after dynamite explodes in front of him. The rabbit he'd been chasing visits him and still has the last laugh.
