Troperville
Editing Help
Tools
Toys
|
Financial planner: It doesn't look like you've been saving anything for the future! Wiggum: Well, you know how it is with cops. I'll be shot three days before retirement. In the business, we call it retirony. Planner: Well, what if you don't get shot? Wiggum: What a terrible thing to say! Oh, look! You made my wife cry!
Josie: This is supposed to be my last night of work, not my last night on the planet Earth!
Now a Dead Horse Trope, Retirony is a cheap and easy way to make the audience feel sorry for a character's death without having to actually give him more than ten minutes of screen time. Anybody in a dangerous job who's only a few days away from retirement or flying one last mission before going home to marry their childhood sweetheart is absolutely doomed to death by Retirony, whether that takes the form of a cold-blooded criminal, an ace German fighter pilot or a great big robotic monster.
If a writer is in a hurry, it's not even necessary to mention retirement. Just alluding to the existence of a character's family or showing a photo of them (preferably taped up somewhere so it can be adjusted lovingly just before its owner gets splatted) is enough for the audience to get the idea: the guy has a life outside of being a Red Shirt. Not that the viewers care, since we only got to see him for about five minutes.
In the rare case that an exception is made, it is usually because the thing the character is "going home to" is a child, especially the child his wife gave birth to some time after he shipped out — perhaps Infant Immortality has a proxy effect? If enough of this happens, they essentially get "promoted" up to Mauve Shirt.
As the page quote shows, Retirony is a portmanteau of retirement and Irony. Though how much of the latter it has is up for debate.
Often this involves Tempting Fate.
See also Fatal Family Photo.
Also see Nothing Can Stop Us Now and Nothing Can Save Us Now.
Examples:
open/close all folders
- Subverted in Last Exile: a soldier mentions that he only needs two more battle survival medals to retire, right before a hopeless battle in which it's clear that everyone is going to die. The battle is then cancelled, and the soldier survives. Subverted even more when that same soldier develops a relationship with a former enemy and makes a promise with her that they would both survive; later he appears to die after having basically saved the day, complete with all the trappings you would normally expect from this sort of death scene...and then, at the end of the last episode, he is shown to still be alive and living with that former enemy.
- Death Note, episode 5: FBI agent Ray Penbar is talking to his fiancée about the family they're going to have, right before Light takes control of him and kills him.
- Though the fact that he ignored his former FBI agent fiancee's advice and reminded her she wouldn't need to think after they get married undermines the sympathy. The wife on the other hand is definitely sympathetic (though is still subjected to misogyny).
- In the first episode of Soukou No Strain, the Grabera students are preparing to graduate and become glorious Humongous Mecha pilots just like Sara's brother. Guess who swoops in and kills everyone but Sara.
- In the second-to-last episode of the first season of Sailor Moon, the girls decide not to say any "just in case" goodbyes before fighting the final battle, instead choosing to think about where their lives will take them afterward. By the end of the episode, all but the title character are dead. On the other hand, they get better.
- In the Fullmetal Alchemist series, the first important character to die is Maes Hughes, who was one of the few characters in the series with a still-living family. A running gag in the series was that Maes Hughes would constantly talk about his daughter, or his wife. This is also Lampshaded in the manga when during a flashback to the Ishbalan war, Maes Hughes gets a letter from his then-girlfriend and immediately worries that other men might be taking advantage of his absence. Mustang is quick to point out that in movies and novels such talks are a surefire way to get the bullet.
- Sent up (like many cliches) in the first episode of The Tower Of Druaga. As they face the Crimson Knight, Black Knight (), poor, faceless armoured Utu completely out of the blue says he will go home and get married "just after they finish the battle with Crimson Knight, Black Knight." This despite having gone through many battles before this, without saying anything. He then charges straight at the Black/Crimson Knight by himself and gets skewered. Then, to show there is no possibility that he could have survived, there's a Say My Name moment (UTUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!) as well as an on-screen text which says "Utu has died".
- And again, later in the episode, after the earlier-defeated Crimson Knight, Black Knight saves the protagonist because he's The Only One Allowed To Defeat You, the Crimson Knight, Black Knight makes the mistake of saying the exact same thing, and suffers the exact same fate via dragonfire.
- And finally, in the protagonist's final confrontation with the Big Bad, the Big Bad says it too.
- The second part of Jojos Bizarre Adventure has a German soldier named Mark show up, and within two pages of his arrival declare that he and his girlfriend are getting married once he gets leave. Five pages later, he's dead.
- Inu Yasha manga- Kohaku: "Sister, is it okay if I live?" Arrow from Nowhere: "No." Well, he gets better, but the timing is hilarious.
- In an early chapter of 20th Century Boys, a legendary police detective collapses in the street and dies when he is just one week away from retirement (While on his way to his son's birthday party, no less). In this case, there is a reason for the timing. He had just passed on a case he had been working on to a trusted colleague. Unfortunately for him, the colleague was actually working for the enemy and decided He Knows Too Much.
- Asuma Saratobi of Naruto, a member of pretty much the only Official Couple, with a kid on the way.
- The Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro anime has a policeman obsessed with Cop Shows who attempts to invoke this trope on himself through a complicated plot involving killing cops which he frames a criminal for. It doesn't work.
- Lampshaded and parodied in Kidou Senshi Gundam San. The original TV series and movie have one of Char's comrades killed off during atmospheric entry. In the parody version, just before they launch, the same soldier shows Char a picture of his sweetheart and tells him they're planning to get married once the war is over. Char attempts to stop him, to no avail. Cut to the unfortunate victim plunging to earth, and Char going "I knew it."
- Subverted in Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni, when Ooishi, who is putting off his retirement for one last case only dies in a few arcs. Also subverted with Akasaka, an almost father: Rika tells Akasaka something terrible will happen if he does not go back to his family. Since the series has many innocent-turned-murderers running around, one would expect Akasaka to be the one to die, but instead his wife does, all the way back in the city. His daughter lives, though.
- Tony from Baccano! probably sets a new record for this: he survives all but thirty seconds after the retirement announcement before one of Russo's lackeys kills him and steals his uniform.
- The Record Of Lodoss War OVA includes a random unnamed soldier of the Holy Kingdom of Valis in the episode "The War of Heroes." At the beginning of the episode Parn notices a pendant on his neck, and the soldier says it was a gift from his son for good luck. At the end of the episode, when the battle is over, amongst the dead the pendant is found on a soldier's corpse, presumably the Red Shirt from the beginning.
- In BlackCat, Sven's old partner Lloyd is revealed to have died shortly after buying his daughter a present. Also a bit of a Disposable Man as after his death Sven receives one of his eyes in a transplant, giving him his Vision Eye and apparently a life philosophy to go with it.
- A last-minute aversion occurs in, of all shows, Mobile Suit Victory Gundam. In the midst of a protracted Zanscare assault on Earth, Zanscare's Lt. Duker Iq proposes to his subordinate, Renda, after learning of her own plans to live peacefully on Earth after the war. True to the form of this trope, both Iq's carrier flagship and Renda's mobile suit are destroyed in the battle that takes place immediately afterwards. However, Iq and Renda escape from the wreckage and ride away from the battlefield, unscathed and ready to start their new life together on Earth.
- Actually, they don't. We just see their Spirits ride off.
- Little Oars Jr. in One Piece. He appeared out of nowhere during the war between Marine HQ and Whitebeard, and got a whole montage of flashback about his relationship with Ace in order to get us to feel as bad as we could about his death.
- Yukishiro Tomoe's fiancee in Rurouni Kenshin is killed by Kenshin just before he is about to go home and be able to marry her. Also, one could say when Tomoe is killed right after she and Kenshin work out some stuff and it had seemed they might be alright after all, despite their pasts.
- In an Ultimate Marvel example, a middle-aged ex-assassin is seen playing with his grandchildren before being called out of retirement to kill Nick Fury. It's a trap and he gets killed.
- Subverted in Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, in which Commissioner Jim Gordon, mere days away from forced retirement, is accosted by gang members on his way home from work. Via narration, he says that he's thinking of his wife, and... Cut to a newscast, as the newscaster says that Commissioner Gordon was shot dead... before correcting herself and saying that he shot the gang members dead.
- Detective John Hartigan was on his last hour of his last day before retirement, as soon as he rescued skinny little Nancy Callahan. Too bad he lives in Sin City. He ended up being shot in the back by his partner, framed for raping the child he saved from an actual child rapist, then thrown into jail where he was resuscitated so that he could be beaten up some more, and then forced to confess to the accusations.
- This is subverted in chapters three and four of [[Nextwave]], where one Mac Mangel's last week before retiring contains his turning into a giant robot, getting the crap kicked out of him by the eponymous superheroes, and getting dragged into an alley and shot. However, it is made abundantly clear before that that he is a Very Bad Man.
- Finding instances of this trope in war films is the subject of the game 'Spot the Stiff', explained in this
 Punt and Dennis sketch.
- Parodied in Last Action Hero, a cop mortally wounded in an explosion (which of course leaves the Made Of Iron Action Hero untouched) gasps out with his last breath that he was "two days before retirement".
- The Genre Savvy main character (the boy, that is) sees this coming from a mile away, and calls it as the smoke fades.
- In the movie Sin City, John Hartigan is framed for the abduction of the girl he actually saved on the last day before his (forced) retirement, for which he spends eight years in prison. And then he dies, although not before kicking some serious arse.
- In We Were Soldiers, a soldier gleefully announces that his wife is due to give birth that day. Shortly thereafter, he is mortally wounded by napalm.
- Though her death doesn't immediately follow, when the older flight attendant in Snakes On A Plane says that she decided to make one last flight before retirement, you know she's a goner.
- Averted with the other female flight attendant, though. It's her last flight before leaving to study law. However, the combined force of the two having their "one last flight" at the same time is probably what really unleashed thousands of snakes on the plane.
- Against all odds, the exception comes through for SFC. Troy Barlow in the film Three Kings. During his little adventure in post-Gulf War Iraq, Barlow is shot (while wearing a kevlar vest), exposed to tear gas, captured by Iraqis, brutally tortured, shot again (sans the vest), and still survives to go home to his wife and daughter (who are brought up frequently). As for his Southern-accented friend who, self-admittedly, has no family to go home to? Not so fortunate.
- Taken to ridiculous heights to lampoon the idea in Hot Shots. One character, appropriately named "Dead Meat" Thompson receives a visit from his wife as he's preparing to fly a training mission, and what follows is an enormous list of things he has to live for, including his beautiful wife, that he's carrying his (unsigned) life insurance papers with him, and that he's figured out the real culprits in the Kennedy assassination but hasn't told anyone and has the evidence on him.
- In Falling Down Prendergast, the cop who is investigating Bill Foster's violent breakdown is retiring that very day (and the other detectives joke that he's bound to killed today) but it's subverted, he survives, and his encounter with Foster makes him decide not to retire after all
- In the Live Action Spawn movie, Al Simmons goes on one last mission before retiring with his wife to start a family. Take a wild guess what happens to him.
- In the 1986 movie Aliens, after the initial battle with the titular creatures goes to hell in a handbasket and it becomes clear to the survivors that they are trapped without assistance, PFC Hudson (played by Bill Paxton) rants "Aww man, time was getting short, too, four more weeks and out, now I'm gonna buy it on this rock!"
- In Letters From Iwo Jima, the one named Japanese soldier who survives is the one who was forced to leave his pregnant wife behind when he was called up and has never seen his daughter. Especially silly given that he attempted to attack a group of U.S. Marines with a shovel and they showed enough restraint to knock him out rather than simply shoot him.
- Subverted in Se7en, in which one of a pair of police partners is set to retire within the next few weeks and is on his last case, but the other guy...well, doesn't die, but snaps, is irreparably emotionally damaged, and presumably sent to prison, possibly for life.
- Almost used in the opening of Iron Man. When the soldiers in the car with Tony are staying quiet, everything's fine and dandy. When they start opening up at all, stuff blows up.
- Subverted in Lethal Weapon 3. Just before going into a building with a bomb, Sgt. Murtaugh says that he only has 8 days to retirement. He survives the subsequent bomb explosion. Later, his Genre Savvy wife insists that he wear a bulletproof vest at all times for the last six days before he retires. He ends up surviving the film.
- In Bruges - Harry leaves his loving family near Christmas to hunt down Ray; Ray has struck up a beautiful romance with a beautiful Belgian drug dealer. Their numbers are up, safe to say.
- Both used and subverted in The Patriot where a black slave named Occam joins in the war in place of his master in the promise to be able to live as a free man. He makes it all the way through and lives to start a new life. However Benjamin Martin's son Gabriel, who was newly wedded, wasn't so lucky as his wife was killed and in his anger was killed trying to kill Tarrington.
- Occam even stays with the milita after gaining his freedom, for reason of principle, although it's also possible that's he's simply Genre Savvy enought to realise that the afforementioned subversion has rendered him utterly invincible.
- Subverted as the entire plot of the lesser known film Short Time, where main character Burt Simpson (Dabney Coleman) is mistakenly diagnosed with a terminal illness and spends his last days on the job trying to get killed before he retires (so his son can use his life insurance money to go to Harvard) without success.
- Drugstore Cowboy. Bob is killed by the TV baby, just as he was getting over his drug addiction and going clean.
- The end of Carlito's Way. Carlito is on his way to leave when Benny Blanco from the Bronx shoots him over an earlier slight. Shamelessly ripped off by Layer Cake (see below) and doubtless in turn from somewhere else
- The end of Layer Cake, the character decides to leave the drug business with a nice nest egg only to get shot by his new girlfriend's jealous ex.
- In the book he survives with brain damage (so does not achieve his goal of getting in and out clean) but whether or not he survives in the film is open to interpretation.
- The Sting. Con artist Luther Coleman and his apprentice Johnny Hooker pull off a big score. Later we see Luther's wife and children, and he tells Hooker that he's going to use his share of the money to retire. That very night he's thrown out of a window to his death by thugs.
- In The Hunt For Red October, the instant the Russian sub officer says he plans to live in Montana, marry an American woman and raise rabbits once they defect, it's only a question of whether it's going to just be HIM who dies, or ALL of them.
- I'm Gonna Git You Sucka. Two extras (a man and a woman) are talking, with the man holding the woman's hands. A minor villain opens fire with a machine gun, killing the man. Later the woman pulls a box (with a ring inside) out of his pocket and puts the ring on her finger, saying "I waited 12 years for this!". He had been proposing marriage to her: the ring was an engagement ring. See it on YouTube, starting at about 0:50.
- The Rifftrax for The Empire Strikes Back, which has Chad Vader as a guest riffer, has Chad joking about Darth Vader's You Have Failed Me moment with Captain Needa.
Chad (as Darth Vader): Alright, we Needa new captain. Heh heh. Are any of you three days from retirement?
- To Live And Die In LA: William Petersen's partner is about to retire but, before he goes, he decides to try and bust a ring of counterfeiters. Bad move. He is shot and thrown into a dumpster for his troubles. Avenging his death gives Willliam Petersen the opportunity to enagage in a really awesome freeway chase.
- This is subverted in Star Trek VI, where all the original Enterprise crew are stated to be a mere three weeks from retirement, and escorting the Klingon chancellor is stated to be their last mission. Even though all sorts of crap happens, they kick the Shakespeare-spouting General Chang's butt and retire in dignity. Except Kirk, who then goes and gets swept into space in Star Trek Generations. Yay.
- Michael Mann's latest film, Public Enemies, turns the death of John Dillinger into one of these. Subverted, though, in that he is not killed in the middle of his last big score, but gunned down by the police on the night before; of course, that's what actually happened.
- Face/Off has an example of retirony where the character retiring doesn't actually die but is about to be put in a bad situation. FBI Agent Sean Archer is about to perform one final task to put an end to the reign of a terrorist (Castor Troy) he had been pursuing for years for killing his son. Once this case was closed he would request a desk job and be away from the action, putting his unfinished business behind him at last. The task? He was to take Troy's face and become him in order to infiltrate prison to speak to Troy's brother in order to glean information about where a bomb was planted. Unfortunately for Archer, Troy had awakened from coma while Archer was in prison, and took on Archer's identity, allowing him to take over the FBI division and call the shots. Archer would then be stuck in prison as Troy with no one else knowing his real identity. He'd be hunted by agents all over when he escaped. Meanwhile the real Troy made a name for himself unopposed with great power, wealth, and accolades for his 'fight' against terrorism. He would also screw Archer's wife and make life a living hell for Archer.
- The 2009 movie Moon has an original and heart-wrenching subversion to it. Sam Welles has two more weeks of his three-year contract on the Moon until he gets to go home. Then there's a automobile crash and it turns out he's actually a clone with implanted memories, who was rescued by another clone of himself. There were several clones of Sam Welles before him and even more stored in a basement. The mission's been going for about fifteen years, while his wife died and his baby daughter grew up. Kind of a subversion in that while the Sam Welles we see at the beginning doesn't get to go home, the second clone does.
- Lampshaded in the book Valor's Choice.
- Specifically, what happens is that one of the squad members is looking lovingly at a picture of his daughter, and another squad member snatches it out of his hands, rips it up and starts ranting about how anyone who starts making references to family or retirement is the next person to die. The first squad member, confused, starts to talk about his upcoming retirement and is summarily gagged.
- Aral Vorkosigan mentioned at one point that he was going to duck this trope by never retiring. And when last seen was still in active service, as planetary viceroy of Sergyar.
- Sergeant Jack Vincennes from LA Confidential manages to more or less fix the mess he's turned his life into, patch up his differences with his wife and is looking forward to retiring in a couple of weeks... so, naturally, he catches a bullet in the face.
- Matt Howard, the first person to die in the Honor Harrington series: the only thing we're told about him is his name and that he was due to retire from his service in two years.
- In Feet of Clay, Sergeant Colon makes a lot of noise about how he's six weeks away from retirement and wants to go live in the country and "buy a farm". This being Discworld, he doesn't actually "buy the farm", and after some far too up-close-and-personal experiences with animals, decides he wants nothing to do with rural life after all.
- In Angels in Iron, it happens before a mission that a Mauve Shirt knows ahead of time is going to be fatal. It does, indeed, kill him.
- In the novelisation of the Doctor Who story "Spearhead From Space", a policeman who is shot dead by Autons is going to retire the following day.
- Lampshaded in Descent: Stealing Thunder, when protagonist Ben St. John is shown worrying about this trope:
St. John: "Megan, the irony is, I'm a good pilot. I think I can survive another 26 days... But on the twenty-fifth day, the day I'm coming home for good, I'll catch a missile because short-timers are the most vulnerable... I got two words: screw that!"
- Star Trek New Frontier, "Missing In Action": A Romulan on a stealth ship desperately wants to get home to his pregnant wife. He dies by being blown out the airlock by Soleta, along with every other Romulan on the ship except the Subcommander, who saw his commander's treachery coming.
- The novelization of Jason X mentions that the soldier guarding the captive Jason at the beginning only has a few weeks of service left.
- In the Alex Rider book Scorpia, an elderly assassin in the SCORPIA organization decides to retire from the organization to spend more time with his grandchildren, but not before the Big Bad Julia Rothman gives him a suitcase containing something as a parting gift. When he opens it on the gondola, it turns out to be... full of poisonous scorpions!
- The narrator of All Quiet On The Western Front dies preceding the Armistice.
Live Action TV
- Col. Henry Blake, from M*A*S*H, was sent home from the Korean War by plane. The rest of the cast later finds out that his plane went down and that there were no survivors. To make the actors' reactions more believable, they had rehearsed the final scene with Radar reading a letter from Col. Blake, but at the last minute the director swapped it with the message about Col. Blake's death.
- An episode of CSI Miami, Horatio is talking to Speedle about his bike, saying Speedle might need something with a door one day. Speedle says he has plenty of time for that. Two minutes later, Speedle is dead.
- Done to Gallant in Iraq in ER. The instant he starts to say he has a wife at home he can't wait to get back to, the truck he's in blows up.
- In Psych, a bounty hunter mentions that the Case of the Week is his last before retirement. Shawn instinctively ducks, then brings up this trope.
- In a brutal invoking of this trope, a character is brought out of retirement in The Grid and killed shortly after.
- Played straight in the first season of The West Wing: President Bartlet asks his friend the happily married army doctor about his wife and kids... he's dead by the end of the episode.
- In a sense, Lister from Red Dwarf causes an inversion. He tells Rimmer about his plan to save up all of his money, take only a few more trips on the ship, and then retire to Fiji with his cat. He is then forced to go into stasis, which means that he survives while everyone else on the ship dies, leaving him stranded in a ship that's been adrift for 3 million years.
- In Farscape, two bounty hunters gets a quick mention at the start of the episode that this is going to be their last mission. Oh gee, I wonder if they'll survive it...
- Happens again to Chiana's friend in "Home on the Remains"—she strikes it rich and of course gets mauled to death before she can collect her riches and retire.
- Inverted in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica. Commander Adama is a few days from retirement in the miniseries, and is one of the only humans who doesn't die.
- Then again, he doesn't end up retiring, either.
- The ship itself was mid-decommission ceremony when the Cylons attacked, so that sorta counts.
- In the second episode of Maou, a friend of the protagonist's details his plans to quit being a loan shark and open up a restaurant. Before the end of the episode, he's died of an asthma attack while being threatened by an angry client who thinks he kidnapped her daughter because she couldn't pay back her loan.
- Subverted by the Genre Savvy Xander in the season 3 finale of Buffy The Vampire Slayer:
Xander: I’ve been lucky too many times. My number’s coming up. And now we’re short! One more rotation and I’m shipping state-side, you know what I mean?
- Subverted in the Stargate SG-1 episode "Heroes". After there is an unspecified fatality, the audience is led to believe it was O'Neill. For the Genre Savvy viewers who see through this, the battle also involved a never-before-seen young soldier mentioned to have a pregnant wife. It turns out it was neither of them who died. It was Dr. Fraiser, who got shot while saving the young soldier. He proceeded to name his newborn daughter after her.
- Subverted by the Brigadier in the 1989 Doctor Who serial Battlefield. While the early scenes showing the Brig enjoying a cosy retirement with his wife before answering the call of duty once more are designed to set up a tragic end, he miraculously survives the climatic face off with the Destroyer.
- One Mad TV sketch features a cop one day from retirement and his partner encountering a pair of armed robbers. They exchange shots, and every bullet fired hits the near-retiree. Even the ones fired after the fleeing robbers ricochet back just to hit the retiring cop.
- this clip from Whose Line Is It Anyway parodies this trope as used in Saving Private Ryan.
Waiter: Here, have some wine. This is my last table before I go home and see the wife and (mimics being shot) kkkkghh!
- Notably subverted in The History Boys: Hector is being forced to retire early when the headmaster discovers that he has been groping his students. At the end of the show, he is allowed to come back next year, only to be killed on his way home when his motorbike crashes.
Video Games
- Inverted(-ish) in Girl Genius, where the seneschal's story begins "I was not in the castle at the time of the attack. I had retired only three days before, and was enjoying the luxury of playing with my grandchildren..."
- In the same vein, a Genre Savvy overseer stops a prisoner just before she can declare that she's nearly earned her freedom. "Fool! Never total your points out loud!"
- This one is possibly justified by the fact that they are all prisoners in a giant, sentient, psychopathic castle which thinks it has a sense of humor; it is entirely possible that announcing that you're just one week away from freedom there could directly get you killed.
- The prisoners aren't much better, no need for the other prisoners to have any conceivable new reason to kill you.
- This Captain SNES halloween special.
- Darths And Droids parodies this trope, with Darth Maul.
- Parodied in the "Henchman Retirement" arc of Evil Inc.. The titular company has to find a way to off the soon-to-be-retired oldest living henchman, Abe Vitale, otherwise they'll go bankrupt from his $28,000,000.00-a-year pension. "No one ever expected a henchman to retire" and the investment funds were misused due to a misprint and lost. Luckily, Lightning Lady catches him by surprise while popping open the champagne, causing Abe to have a heart attack.
- Lampshaded by the Genre Savvy Elan in this Order Of The Stick.
Web Original
- Labtech 062 was killed (...sort of) during his retirement party.
- Parodied in this article at The Onion.
- Referenced repeatedly in the Nostalgia Critic review of Alone in the Dark
Linkara:And it probably doesn't help that the security guard has just two days left before retirement.
Later...
Spoony:And it's probably a bad thing to mention that every single one of these soldiers has just two days left before retirement.
Later still...
Spoony: And you know, what makes it really tragic is that everyone in the city had just two days left till retirement!
Western Animation
- In addition to the Trope Naming exchange quoted above, The Simpsons parodies this in a McBain movie, where McBain's sidekick talks of his retirement and even shows a picture of his boat (christened, "Live-4-Ever") seconds before he is gunned down.
- In addition to those two examples, Wiggum's car, a police dog and a giant novelty hat containing a hidden camera have all been one day from retirement. Also, the prisoners Marge frees when she runs her car into the prison walls are one day away from total rehabilitation.
- Jokingly used in a "What If?" episode of Futurama. General Pac Man, leading Earth's defenses against an invading horde of video game characters, mentions his retirement plans and immediately gets shot. Ms. Pac-Man (Or Mrs., or Widow Pac-Man) comes up and starts crying over his body.
- Parodied in the Family Guy Star Wars episode, where one of the rebels killed by stormtroopers says "I had two days until retirement!" as he collapses.
- In the Grand Finale of Avatar The Last Airbender, Iroh mentions his dream of retiring, and averted when he (and in fact everyone) survives to enjoy it.
- In a cutaway gag in The Cleveland Show, a job-hunting Cleveland becomes a cop two days away from retirement. Subverted in that he refuses to draw fire, resulting in his younger partner getting killed instead.
Real Life
- Capt. Edward Smith of the RMS Titanic had announced his intention to retire after the ship had completed its maiden voyage.
- Inverted in the case of Charles M. Schulz, author of Peanuts, in that he died on his first day of retirement.
- Inverted as well in the case of Desmond Llewelyn, who played Q in just about every James Bond film until ''The World Is Not Enough." He then died in a car accident right after retiring. Considering his apparent age, this is truly some Retirony in the grandest sense.
- Anyone who's read the nonfiction novel Black Hawk Down (the movie works, but doesn't get into as much detail about the individuals) probably noticed that more than half of the men killed were recently married, intending to marry, intending to get a new job or a promotion, a new father, an expecting father, etc. It's pretty sad.
- This is the worst: A 60 year old Japanese man was accidentally killed by his coworkers AT HIS RETIREMENT PARTY!
- Roy O. Disney, Walt Disney's older brother, was just about to retire from the Walt Disney Company when his younger brother passed away. Roy had to put aside his retirement to get the company through this difficult time for the next few years. Seeing that Disney World opened successfully was his last act before finally retiring...only to die two months later. The day he died was the very day he was supposed to take his grandchildren to Disneyland.
- Michael Jackson WAS going to retire after one last worldwide tour... But it didn't work out.
- General George S. Patton died the same year the war ended in a car accident, he may have survived if he was allowed to go to the Pacific Theater.
- The Red Baron Mannfred von Richtoven was finally shot down 2 days before he was due to go home on leave.
- This troper had a cat who died 2 days before his 1 year old birthday.
|
|
