Basic Trope: A mortally wounded murder victim tries to leave a clue to their killer's identity.
- Straight:
- After Alice shoots Bob, he tries to write her name in his own blood, but only gets as far as "I". The police investigators try to figure out who "Ali" is until they realize he meant "Alice".
- After Alice shoots Bob, he's able to crawl to his bookcase and grab a copy of Alice in Wonderland. After the police go through the list of suspects, they examine some more before someone finally makes the connection.
- Exaggerated:
- After Alice shoots Bob, he's able to write a scathing letter to her in his own blood which details all of her failings in life and various other criticisms, finally ending with her name...which he's halfway through writing when he dies.
- After Alice shoots Bob, he's able to crawl to his bookcase and grab a book in which someone is murdered in exactly the same way he was by someone who coincidentally is also named Alice. The police brush it off as too much of a coincidence until they finally decide to look into it.
- Downplayed:
- After Alice shoots Bob, he's able to write Alice's name in his own blood. However, he lives but doesn't remember it was Alice who shot him or that he wrote the message due to the trauma.
- Alice chases Bob with a gun, intending to kill him. Hiding in his usually immaculately kept library, Bob manages to pull a copy of Alice in Wonderland and hides it under the table before Alice enters and shoots him dead.
- Justified: Bob didn't want Alice to get away with killing him.
- Inverted: After Alice shoots Bob, she absentmindedly leaves a clue of her guilt at the crime scene. For some reason, Bob doesn't want her to get caught and uses his last ounces of strength to destroy the clue.
- Subverted: After Alice shoots Bob, she plants a fake clue that implicates Charlie in Bob's murder...
- Double Subverted:...but Charlie has an airtight alibi and the police realize it's fake. They then start to question who would want to frame Charlie as well as kill Bob.
- Parodied: Bob writes a lengthy explanation for how Alice murdered him, going off on various tangents and strange observations. One of the investigators wonders why he didn't use the time to call for an ambulance.
- Zig-Zagged: Alice shoots Bob and he tries to write her name in his own blood, but only gets as far as "I". The four detectives investigating his murder all have different theories based on his dying message. One is that it doesn't make sense and they need to investigate further. Another thinks it's a Red Herring and ignores it. Another immediately suspects Alice. The last thinks he was praising Muhammad Ali.
- Averted: After Alice shoots Bob, he doesn't live long enough to leave a clue to her guilt.
- Enforced: Bob has to die and Alice needs to get caught for the plot to advance, but Alice is too good to leave a clue behind. So, they have Bob leave a clue that she killed him so she has time before they can positively identify her.
- Lampshaded: After Alice shoots Bob, he grabs a tape recorder and says "I know you think murder victims leaving clues behind about their killers is a cliche, but I'm leaving one anyway. What are you gonna do? Shoot me? Oh right, Al..."
- Invoked: After Alice shoots Bob, she taunts him and dares him to leave a message fingering her as his killer. She doesn't realize he's still alive and has enough strength to actually leave a message.
- Exploited: After Charlie discovers that Bob left a message identifying Alice as his killer, he decides to blackmail her into doing his bidding.
- Defied:
- After Bob leaves his message identifying Alice as his killer, she comes back and removes the clue. (Wipes away the blood, puts the book back...)
- After shooting Bob, Alice makes absolutely sure he's dead so he can't leave a message.
- Discussed: "It would have been nice if the victim had left a clue to his killer as he was dying."
- Conversed: "When you're investigating a murder, one thing you should always look for is a clue left by the victim. That usually leads to the killer's identity."
- Deconstructed: Bob writes Alice's name in his own blood after she shoots him. During the subsequent police investigation, David is able to make the arrest easily. Afterwards, he accepts messages like these as absolute proof of the person's guilt. He later arrests Oscar for Peter's murder when his name is found written in blood at the crime scene, not realizing that Quincy was the real killer and wrote Oscar's name to throw off the police. By the time David finds out Quincy was the real killer, Oscar has been executed.
- Reconstructed: So David goes back to only looking in that direction when tipped off by a clue and not making an arrest until he's absolutely sure about that suspect's guilt.
I...was killed...by Dying Clue
