History Main / TalkingDownTheSuicidal

* A regular occurrence on ''Series/{{Flashpoint}}''; a significant number of SRU Team One's hot calls have involved this, and even some that started off as a different type of incident end up turning into this with the subject who was originally threatning others turning on themselves. More often than not, SRU succeeds in talking the person down, but unfortunately there are some subjects that are too far gone to save.

* A regular occurrence on ''Series/{{Flashpoint}}''; almost half of SRU Team One's hot calls have involved this, though they don't always succeed.

her grandfather. It turns out that the house is by a cliff that is a common suicide, and thus, Vivian needs to regularly talk people out of jumping to their deaths.

'''Martha:''' What?\\

** Kevin spots an inflated bounce house in the next carpark, and Pam and Jim realise Michael is actually going to "kill himself, pretending to kill himself." Pam and Jim then have to try to convince Michael to jump, both because he will not survive the fall, and because he is suddenly having thoughts of dissatisfaction and disappointment around his life.

** ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration The Next Generation]]'' had the episode "Eye of the Beholder" where a crewman who was being affected by latent "empathic echo" of a previous suicide, attempts to jump into a plasma stream. Riker tries to talk him out of it but is unsuccessful.

** A sidequest in ''VideoGame/Yakuza2'' involves Kiryu talking down a suicidal man by giving him a self-help book that he was previously gifted. It works... because the book is so bad that it convinces the man that if it could become a bestseller, ''he'' can still make something of his life too. Morbidly, your reward for this quest is the gun he was going to use to kill himself with.

* ''Series/TheLWord'': In Season 6 Alice must talk down Marie, a homeless girl who sent a heartrending letter about her brother's homophobic letter. Alice read it on her show, and Marie is threatening to jump off a roof, feeling depressed over her loss. Tasha points out that Alice is not a psychologist and really shouldn't be handling this. Alice manages to talk her down anyway though.

--->'''Butthead:''' Life sucks, and then you die.

* Happens in ''Literature/MobyDick''- Ishmael begs Queequeg not to kill himself after Queequeg sees what he believes is his impending death in the bones he casts. (it was probably really his death with the rest of the crew that he saw, if anything.) The movie has Ishmael going "Queequeg, don't. Queequeg, listen to me. Queequeg, I absolutely forbid you to die."

* ''Series/TheBennyHillShow'': Benny is a passing minister who tries to talk down a jumper until he finds out that the jumper is [[SeriousBusiness a fan of an opposing football team]]. "Well, flaming well jump then!"

** In the episode "I Only Have Eyes For You," Angel talks Buffy out of killing herself, but Angel and Buffy are both not themselves at the time - they are possessed by the ghosts of other people. What makes it weirder is that it happens during the time that Angel is [[spoiler:evil.]]

* In an [[Series/SaturdayNightLive SNL Digital Short]] we see a man with a bullhorn trying to talk down a "jumper" who - it is revealed - is only a few feet away from him at ground level.

* {{Subverted| trope}} in Music/SimonAndGarfunkel's "Save the Life of My Child". A boy appears on a ledge and everybody, taking him for a suicide, goes into a panic. No one really talks to him. At the end he flies away, indicating the whole thing has been a (divine?) test.

** Parodied in the episode "[[Recap/BeavisAndButtheadS4E6Jump Jump!]]" -- the title characters encounter a banker who attempts suicide when his embezzlement are exposed by the police. When they argue in favor of suicide, the man misinterprets their argument as assurance that he is not alone and other people care about him. He then embraces the duo, much to their displeasure.

* Parodied in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead'': the title characters encounter a banker who attempts suicide when his embezzlement are exposed by the police. When they argue in favor of suicide, the man misinterprets their argument as assurance that he is not alone and other people care about him. He then embraces the duo, much to their displeasure.
-->'''Butthead:''' Life sucks, and then you die.
** Very darkly subverted in the second Christmas special, which parodies ''Film/ItsAWonderfulLife''. Charlie is given the mission to get Butthead to kill himself after the duo's antics over the past year have caused so much damage that it causes everyone in town to desperately pray to the Powers That Be to make them go away. It fails, as Butthead is extremely unimpressed with the idyllic Highland that would apparently exist if he had never been born.

* ''Franchise/FantasticFour'': Reed talks down a lonely, suicidal man with terminal cancer by promising that he'll be there to save him from DyingAlone. He keeps his promise.

* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':

* This occurs at the end of ''Fanfic/VeritasDolor'' when Shadow tries to shoot himself on the anniversary of the ARK massacre. Rouge is able to talk Shadow down by telling him that Omega wouldn't physically be able to process how an immortal like Shadow could die. Shadow doesn't want Omega to short-circuit and die with him, so he puts down the gun. However, Rouge does note that Shadow will likely attempt again, and she hopes he can tall himself down if something were to happen to her.

* The Kurage-P Music/{{Vocaloid}} song "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mP6LCQc0I8 My R]]" is about a suicidal girl that keeps running into other girls when she goes to jump. She's shown making the first two girls realize that [[SpurnedIntoSuicide their]] [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer issues]] aren't worth dying over and convincing [[AbusiveParents the third one]] to wait a bit longer. [[spoiler: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] at the end of the song, when it's revealed that there never were any other girls. The song is actually about the girl going over her own motives for suicide and talking ''herself'' down. [[DrivenToSuicide By the end, she gives up on this and jumps.]]]]

* In ''[[ComicBook/RobinSeries Robin]]'' #156, Tim stops a would-be jumper by deducing enough about him to make him curious about what Robin has to say and then sitting with him and talking to him convincing him that [[YouAreNotAlone he is not alone]]. It's then heavily implied that Tim is experiencing suicidal thoughts or at least really needs to talk to someone about [[TraumaCongaLine all the losses]] in his own life so he calls [[ComicBook/{{Nightwing}} Dick]] and the issue ends with a set of numbers for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.