History Main / InterrogatingTheDead

* ''ComicBook/KidEternity'': Kid Eternity sometimes used his power to summon anyone from the afterlife to assist him just to ask questions to deceased people he was convinced would have information that would help him in his present adventure. On some occasions, he'd even get someone framed of committing murder acquitted by interviewing the victim for evidence that could be used to identify the real murderer as well as prove the accused's innocence.

* ''ComicBook/KidEternity'': Kid Eternity sometimes used his power to summon anyone from the afterlife to assist him just to ask questions to deceased people he was convinced would have information that would help him in his present adventure. On some occasions, he'd even get someone falsely accused of murder acquitted by interviewing the victim for evidence that could be used to identify the real murderer as well as prove the accused's innocence.

%%* In ''Film/JonahHex'', this is pretty much the protagonists super power

* ''ComicBook/TransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'': Chromedome reveals that he has this ability, turning his fingers into needles and sticking them through the dead targets' eyes, seeing what they saw in their last moments.

'''Drift:''' I cannot ''begin'' to tell you what's [[ThisIsWrongOnSoManyLevels wrong with that sentence.]]

* ''Film/{{Rashomon}}'': A shinto priestess allows the victim to speak through her by magic and give his version of the murder.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' has the third-level clerical spell ''[[http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/speakWithDead.htm Speak with Dead.]]'' Although it actually draws information from an "imprint" left on the body rather than truly bringing them back to life. It allows you to ask one question of the dead person per two caster levels (up to 10 for a max-level cleric). One other drawback to Speak With Dead is that it requires the corpse to have a mostly intact mouth. Genre Savvy killers with enough time can defeat attempts to use by removing or destroying, say, the victim's jawbone.

* Wereravens in ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse'' have the unique ability to absorb the last sight of the dead by [[{{Squick}} eating their eyeballs]]. Among other uses, it lets them find out what killed the poor sap. Allegedly, this is an acquired taste.

* ''Film/DungeonsAndDragonsHonorAmongThieves'' features the heroes using a "Speak With Dead" spell on the graves of a BarbarianTribe to ask what they know about the whereabouts of the Helm of Disjunction. Like in [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons the game]], it briefly reanimates a corpse to ask exactly five questions before they die again for real, but the party learns the hard way that ''any'' question, including [[RhetoricalRequestBlunder rhetorical ones]] and questions amongst themselves count (and [[ComedicSociopathy more inconveniently for the corpses]], they have to be asked [[ExactWords no less than five]] lest they be left hanging). They end up taking a while to dig up several corpses to find what they're looking for.

* ''Film/DungeonsAndDragonsHonorAmongThieves'' features the heroes using a "Speak With Dead" spell on the graves of a BarbarianTribe to ask what they know about the whereabouts of the Helm of Disjunction. Like in [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons the game]], it briefly reanimates a corpse to ask exactly five questions before they die again for real, but the party learns the hard way that ''any'' question, including [[RhetoricalRequestBlunder rhetorical ones]] and questions amongst themselves count (and more inconveniently for the corpses, they have to be asked [[ExactWords exactly five]] lest they be left hanging). They end up taking a while to dig up several corpses to find what they're looking for.

* ''Literature/{{Eisenhorn}}'': In ''Xenos'', Inquisitor Eisenhorn and Commodus Voke attempt to interrogate the high level psyker they kill. The psyker turns the interrogation into a portal to the [[{{HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace}} warp]], sending multiple daemons to attack the gathered Inquisitors.

* In ''Series/{{MADtv}}'' there is a skit that parodies ''{{Series/CSI}}''. The victim, who was clearly murdered by the knife sticking out of his back, is straddled by the lead investigator, grabbed by his collar, and shaken while the lead investigator says, "HOW DID YOU DIE?"

* Ronan sometimes interrogates dead people in ''Videogame/MurderedSoulSuspect'' though it's not as helpful as one would expect because death is kind of traumatic and the victims remember as much as a normal person would, which is not much. In a nice twist, Ronan can do this because he is ''also'' dead.

* In ''{{LightNovel/Baccano}}!'', [[AxCrazy Ladd]] laments the fact that he can't do this to a dead comrade.
-->'''Ladd:''' [[ChewingTheScenery You poor faceless bastard!]]

* ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'': After people die some mental traces still linger for a while, so Psi-Judges often probe the minds of corpses to investigate the circumstances of their deaths. Judge Anderson is even introduced using this on the charred skeleton of Judge Death (though in that case it isn't so much "dead", but [[BodySurf "left for better digs"]]).

* ''ComicBook/TheSandman''

* ComicBook/TransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye: Chromedome reveals that he has this ability, turning his fingers into needles and sticking them through the dead targets eyes, seeing what they saw in their last moments.

* In ''Film/The6thDay '', the mind scan used to imprint clones with their donors memories also works on corpses for a few hours after death. As well as imprinting clones, the recordings can also be reviewed via computer, seeing through the eyes of the donor.

* ''Film/GIJoeTheRiseOfCobra'': Breaker stabs two needles in the sides of an dead assailant's head claiming that he can scan the mind for about three minutes after death. The guy is eaten by nanomachines before he can reveal anything more than a single image.
* ''Film/{{Hellboy|2004}}'': Hellboy digs up the corpse Ivan and reanimates him to have a guide in the Russian cemetary.
* ''Film/HellboyIITheGoldenArmy'', Dr. Krauss uses the gas he's made of to briefly reanimate one of the Tooth Fairies for interrogation.

* ''Film/ThePrincessBride''. Miracle Max uses a bellows to allow a mostly dead Westley to reveal that his motivation for living is "true love".

* In ''[[{{Literature/Eisenhorn}} Xenos]]'', Inquisitor Eisenhorn and Commodus Voke attempt to interrogate the high level psyker they kill. The psyker turns the interrogation into a portal to the [[{{HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace}} warp]], sending multiple daemons to attack the gathered Inquisitors.

* Standard police procedure in ''Series/AlteredCarbon'' due to everyone having a [[HeartDrive cortical stack]] that stores their memories and can be loaded into a new body or virtual reality. Though Neo-Catholics can't legally be "spun up" due to religious objections, which has led to the underworld using them as {{Disposable Sex Worker}}s [[spoiler: and even faking official conversions sometimes.]]
* ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'':

* ''Series/{{Fringe}}''

* In the ‘’Literature/PoeticEdda’’ Odin goes down to Hel and raises a long-dead witch to ask her about Baldr’s dreams of his impending death.

* The ''Film/{{Constantine}}'' videogame has a mission in which John uses necromancy to learn about the final moments of a murdered angel.

** As explained in [[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney the first game]], in the DL-6 incident, being a LockedRoomMystery, the police decided to ask the master of a spirit channeling school to channel the murder victim to know the killer's name. This led to the spirit of the murder victim accusing an actually innocent man for his death, and that led to the master (and the entire spirit channeling school) becoming disgraced. Eventually, Phoenix discovers the truth: [[spoiler:Gregory Edgeworth accused Yanni Yogi because only Gregory, his son Miles, and Yanni were trapped in that elevator, and Miles was Gregory's son; of course Gregory would never incriminate ''him''. All three were actually unconscious from oxygen deprivation when Gregory was murdered, so Gregory never knew that his killer was someone ''outside'' the elevator- Manfred von Karma, who'd opened the doors when everyone inside was out cold and taken the chance to kill Gregory [[DisproportionateRetribution for getting him penalized in court earlier]].]].

** As explained in [[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney the first game]], in the DL-6 incident, being a LockedRoomMystery, the police decided to ask the master of a spirit channeling school to channel the murder victim to know the killer's name. This led to the spirit of the murder victim accusing an actually innocent man for his death, and that led to the master (and the entire spirit channeling school) into disgrace. Eventually, Phoenix discovers the truth: [[spoiler:Gregory Edgeworth accused Yanni Yogi because only Gregory, his son Miles, and Yanni were trapped in that elevator, and Miles was Gregory's son; of course Gregory would never incriminate ''him''. All three were actually unconscious from oxygen deprivation when Gregory was murdered, so Gregory never knew that his killer was someone ''outside'' the elevator- Manfred von Karma, who'd opened the doors when everyone inside was out cold and taken the chance to kill Gregory [[DisproportionateRetribution for getting him penalized in court earlier]].]].

** As explained in [[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney the first game]], in the DL-6 incident, being a LockedRoomMystery, the police decided to ask the master of a spirit channeling school to channel the murder victim to know the killer's name. This led to the spirit of the murder victim accusing an actually innocent man for his death, and that led to the master (and the entire spirit channeling school) into disgrace. Eventually, Phoenix discovers the truth: [[spoiler:Gregory Edgeworth accused Yanni Yogi despite the fact he knew he wasn't the killer, but if it wasn't him, it had to be Gregory's own son Miles by process of elimination as he was the only other person present there, not knowing that the killer was a third party that wasn't present in the elevator and shot Gregory while the three people were unconscious]].
** And in ''Trials and Tribulations'', Phoenix gets to cross-examine a ghost that is being channeled. Said ghost [[spoiler:is the BigBad and Phoenix’s psycho ex-girlfriend, and not only she decides to twist the facts just to spite on Phoenix, but much like Gregory Edgeworth, she's unaware that someone killed the person who was channeling her, let alone knowing ''who'' was channeling her in the first place]].

Sometimes overlaps with DeadPersonConversation and ISeeDeadPeople Compare FateWorseThanDeath, when the interrogation is more about torturing the dead.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

** Parodied when Xykon has Redcloak necromantically question a dead goblin to [[FrivolousSummoning find his lost keys]].
** Played straighter later, when Durkon casts Speak with Dead on a deceased [[spoiler:Draketooth clan member]]. The end result is still humor at the Order's expense, since a dead brain takes the questions [[MathematiciansAnswer very literally]].

-->'''Chromedome:''' Ratchet, could you put his brain back in his head? With corpses, I prefer to go through the eye sockets.
-->'''Drift:''' I cannot ''begin'' to tell you what's [[ThisIsWrongOnSoManyLevels wrong with that sentence.]]
* ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'': After people die some mental traces still linger for a while, so Psi-Judges often probe the minds of corpses to investigate the circumstances of their deaths. Judge Anderson is even introduced using this on the charred skeleton of Judge Death (though in that case it isn't so much "dead", but [[BodySurf "left for better digs"]]).
* A common use of nekomancy in ''ComicBook/{{Monstress}}'', and the Sword of the East has six children who survived the battle of Constantine killed so their ghosts can be more reliably interrogated.

* Sinestro does this in ''WesternAnimation/GreenLanternFirstFlight'', reanimating Kanjar Ro (who he killed in the first place) to question him on the location of the Yellow Element.

* A shinto priestess allows the victim to speak through her by magic and give his version of the murder in ''Film/{{Rashomon}}''.
* In ''Film/The6thDay '', the mind scan used to imprint clones with their donors memories also works on corpses for a few hours after death. As well as imprinting clones, the recordings can also be reviewed via computer, seeing through the eyes of the donor.
* In ''Film/DarkStar'', dead and cryogenically frozen Commander Powell can still be asked for advice.
* In ''Film/JonahHex'', this is pretty much the protagonists super power

* ''Literature/JourneymanWizard'' by Mary Frances Zambrano has the heroes perform a Questing (the magical version of this), only to bring back the deceased's vengeful ghost instead.
* ''{{Literature/Discworld}}:''
** Played for laughs in the story "Theatre of Cruelty", in which it's mentioned that the existence of [[OurZombiesAreDifferent zombies]] mean that the victims are sometimes the key witnesses in their own murder.
** Also played straight-ish (as straight as any trope on the Disc can be played, anyways) in ''Literature/MakingMoney'', where a dead professor from the Unseen University is brought back to consult on an ancient civilization.

* Strange does this with some enemy soldiers in the Napoleonic War chapters of ''Literature/JonathanStrangeAndMrNorrell''.
* ''Speaking with the Dead'' by Elaine Cunningham (''[[TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms Realms of Mystery]]'' anthology), [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin as one can guess]], is about this with a "little" twist.
* In [[{{Literature/Eisenhorn}} Xenos]], Inquisitor Eisenhorn and Commodus Voke attempt to interrogate the high level psyker they kill. The psyker turns the interrogation into a portal to the [[{{HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace}} warp]], sending multiple daemons to attack the gathered Inquisitors.
* This is, perhaps unsurprisingly, one of the key tricks of ''Literature/JohannesCabalTheNecromancer'', later to be ''Literature/JohannesCabalTheDetective''.

* There are various ways to do this in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'', most of them against strictly-enforced rules. Rules enforced with pointy objects and angry wizards. Molly does one of the legitimate ones, on what turned out to be the victim of a succubus. Awkwardness ensued for the watchers. Most of those other ways tend to involve Necromancy, and invite Wardens to come and behead people.

* The first chapter of Creator/GregEgan's ''Literature/{{Distress}}'' features police with a technology that ''briefly'' brings back people from the dead, which is used to aid in solving murders.
* Odysseus Grant demonstrated that this was part of his [[MagiciansAreWizards bag of tricks]] during ''[[Literature/KittyNorville Kitty's House of Horrors]]''. It is not something he does lightly.
* Late in ''[[Literature/TheBelgariad The Malloreon]]'', the heroes bring in a Dal {{Necromancer}} (in the older meaning of the word) to force a post-mortem confession out of a minor villain.
* In ''[[Recap/EighthDoctorAdventuresCameraObscura Camera Obscura]]'', the Doctor's current nemesis, Sabbath, has one of the villains of the week killed, only later realizing that the whereabouts of the [[{{McGuffin}} extremely destructive broken time machine he and the Doctor are both trying locate]] died with him. The Doctor then provokes Sabbath's henchwoman into fatally stabbing him in order to travel to the realm of the dead to speak with the man, in a scene reminiscent of [[Myth/MesopotamianMythology Inanna's journey to the Underworld]].
* ''Literature/BarskTheElephantsGraveyard'': The only reason the Alliance maintains any contact with the uplifted elephants of Barsk is that they're the only sophonts in the galaxy that know how to make koph, a drug that rare people called "Speakers" can use to call up the particles of the dead and converse with them.
* A specialty of the Lan Sect in ''Literature/GrandmasterOfDemonicCultivationMoDaoZuShi.'' Members are taught a musical language they can then infuse with spiritual power, allowing spirits to answer in the same language. If the questioner is strong enough, they can compel the spirit to only speak the truth. Wei Wuxian also uses a technique called Empathy (it's unclear whether he invented, refined, or merely prefers the technique) that is far more dangerous but also far more comprehensive, allowing him to experience the spirit's memories.
* In the world of ''Literature/TheGoblinEmperor'', some clergy of [[GodOfTheDead Ulis]] have the ability to do this, termed Witnessing for the Dead in-universe. The discoveries of Witnesses are legally admissible, and any social stigma against the practice comes from divine magic being considered unfashionable and superstitious in some circles rather than any negative connotations of necromancy.
* ''Literature/RavnicaCycle'': In his first case, Agrus Kos and his partner stumble upon the site of a massacre. Noting the ghosts of the victims hovering overhead, Kos tries to interrogate one as a witness to its own murder, with mixed results due to the ghost's confused mental state.

* ''Series/PushingDaisies'': Ned can revive the dead by touching them once. Touching them a second time kills them again. He uses this to glean information from murder victims to help the team start their investigation.
* ''{{Series/Torchwood}}'' occasionally has the Torchwood team use a gauntlet that can revive the dead for about a minute to aid the investigation. It's a piece of ImportedAlienPhlebotinum they acquired before the series begins and they don't have the first clue how it actually works. It also ended up kicking off the whole plot of the pilot episode: [[spoiler: Torchwood operative Susie Costello had a pet theory that it held the key to immortality, and was attempting to learn more about it... which, unfortunately, required a steady supply of fresh corpses. [[SerialKiller You can see where this is going, can't you?]]]]
* ''Series/{{Fringe}}''
** Walter Bishop has developed a technique to extract information from a corpse, provided the body has been dead for less than five hours. It is implied that William Bell is capable of doing this as well.
** ''Fringe'' likes this trope. As well as providing the page quote, they have used the aforementioned technology to interrogate two people, sent the protagonist into a dreamstate to interrogate the mental ghost of her partner formed after a telepathic conversation, ''and'' used the "[[EyeRemember the eyes store the last thing you see]]" version.
* In ''Series/{{MADtv}}'' there is a skit that parodies ''{{Series/CSI}}''. The victim, who was clearly murdered by the knife sticking out of his back, is straddled by the lead investigator, grabbed by his collar, and shaken while the lead investigator says, "HOW DID YOU DIE?"
* Miles on ''{{Series/Lost}}'' can detect a dead person's last thought and determine how the person died, as long as he is near the body.

--->'''Host:''' ''(notices the knife sticking out of his chest)'' How am I still alive?\\
'''Demon:''' Not still. Again. That's my specialty, along with this. ''(rekills host)''

* Standard police procedure in ''Series/AlteredCarbon'' due to everyone having a [[HeartDrive cortical stack]] that stores their memories and can be loaded into a new body or virtual reality. Though Neo-Catholics can't legally be "spun up" due to religious objections, which has led to the underworld using them as {{Disposable Sex Worker}}s [[spoiler: and even faking official conversions sometimes.]]
* In ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'', "the late Arthur Aldridge" is brought into court to testify from his coffin.
* ''Series/MotherlandFortSalem'': A spell is capable of making the recently dead speak and relate their last moments. This is used to get intel or find information about how someone died. The necromancers do this to [[spoiler: Porter,]] to see if he truly committed suicide. [[spoiler: The Spree interfere with the ritual to protect Scylla, who actually killed him.]]

* Nearly every gameline in the ''TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness'' has a [[TabletopGame/VampireTheRequiem Discipline]]/[[TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening Spell]]/[[TabletopGame/GeistTheSinEaters Manifestation]]/[[TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost Contract]]/what-have-you to provide this sort of power, though the Sin-Eaters tend to do it most often.

* Wereravens in ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse'' have the unique ability to absorb the last sight of the dead by [[{{Squick}} eating their eyeballs]]. Among other uses, it lets them find out what killed the poor sap. Allegedly, this is an acquired taste.

* A high-level Wayward creed power in ''TabletopGame/HunterTheReckoning'' allows them to do this by looking into the eyes of the deceased, although if the deceased in question happened to be misinformed about something, they'll pass that misinformation on, thinking it to be the truth. The Wayward isn't automatically aware of whether the deceased is right or wrong, so double-checking may be required.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Ironclaw}}'' has a necromancy spell for when you simply want to talk to a corpse. Though, it has the same unique CriticalFailure condition as every other spell in the school so there's a small chance of the stiff jumping up and attempting to strangle you.
* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': A little-used power of the SpaceMarines is that they can consume a creatures brain to experience its memories.

* There's a scene in ''VideoGame/ZorkNemesis'' where you have to cut the head off a corpse, then mount it on a machine so you can ask it questions.

* The Nameless One from ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'' can do this once he learns the Stories-Bones-Tell ability.
* The party ends up assisting a Necromancer in interrogating a dead goblin early in ''Icewind Dale II'', garbling information about an incoming attack. Unfortunately, you're always [[TakeYourTime just too slow]] to do any good with the information.
* Done with magic crystals in ''VideoGame/PathwaysIntoDarkness''.

* ''VideoGame/TroubleInTerroristTown'' has gathering information from corpses as a major part of its gameplay and the main way to find out who's the traitor. They provide the living innocents who died, what weapon was used to kill them, how long since they died, [[EyeRemember the last person they saw]], what their last words were, and anybody they killed.

* In ''VideoGame/ShadowrunReturns'', interrogating the spirits of murder victims is a routine procedure for the police. Although the dead do have hazy memories, they often offer unique insight that living investigators usually miss.

* A variation in ''VideoGame/CustomRobo'' for the Gamecube. Marcia, your mostly stoic female team member, has the ability to 'half dive,' that is, read another person's control cube and see the last thing they saw from the viewpoint of their machine. Somewhat akin to watching a person's last saved replay. This is helpful in that it lets her identify the suspect when a man is found murdered after a match: [[spoiler: the problem is no one is prepared for the murderer to be an apparently-autonomous robot]].

* Kore the dwarven paladin use Speak with Dead in ''{{Webcomic/Goblins}}'' on the dead goblin fortuneteller Young-and-Beautiful.
* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'':
** Parodied when Xykon has Redcloak necromantically question a dead goblin to [[FrivolousSummoning find his lost keys]].
** Played straighter later, when Durkon casts Speak with Dead on a deceased [[spoiler:Draketooth clan member]]. The end result is still humor at the Order's expense, since a dead brain takes the questions [[MathematiciansAnswer very literally]].

** Parodied when Xykon needs the help of a dead goblin to find his keys.
** Played straighter later, when Durkon casts Speak with Dead on a deceased [[spoiler:Draketooth clan member]]. The end result is still humor at the Order's expense, since a dead brain takes the questions very literally.