Basic Trope: A character may or may not have died.
- Straight: Alice is last seen being chased by Bob, a serial killer. We never find out if he killed her.
- Exaggerated: The work ends with the possibility of an Apocalypse How killing everyone, but it's left unclear whether said apocalypse will happen.
- Downplayed: The work ends with Alice suffering from a disease that's certainly terminal. However, she is last seen closing her eyes and it's unsure whether she died onscreen, or if she just fell asleep.
- Justified: After learning all that Alice has done, Charles decided to let her stew in her own juice and went to his next adventure. As the work is from Charles' POV, we never get to see if Alice dies as Charles leaves before Bob could catch up to Alice.
- Inverted:
- Alice is a zombie, but she's last seen running into Charles, who promises to try to turn her back into a human. We never find out if she succeeds or not.
- Alice spends most of the story in utero, but her mother Diane disappears halfway through and appears in pain, suggesting she's in labour. Thus, we never know if Alice got born in the story or not.
- Alice is already dead, but at one point, there is a chill in the air and a dramatic close-up on her grave, suggesting that she came back as a ghost.
- Subverted:
- A sequel reveals that Alice is alive.
- In the sequel, Charles reveals that Bob did indeed kill Alice.
- Double Subverted:
- Actually, that wasn't Alice; that was her identical twin sister Emily. Even Emily herself doesn't know whether Alice survived her encounter with Bob.
- Then Diane claims that Charles was wrong and Alice did survive. We never find out who's right.
- Parodied: The characters act as though it's a big mystery whether Alice survived, despite her being either clearly dead or clearly alive.
- Zig-Zagged: Alice is seen being chased by Bob. The sequel seems to show her safe and sound... except that's actually Emily instead, who doesn't know her sister's fate. Charles claims the real Alice was indeed killed by Bob, Diane claims she's alive, and Fred claims Bob didn't kill Alice but she later died anyway. We never find out which of those three is right.
- Averted: Alice is explicitly killed, or not killed, by Bob.
- Enforced: Two writers were arguing about whether to kill off Alice, so they tried to meet halfway.
- Lampshaded: "Wait, so... is she dead?!"
- Invoked: Alice is aware of the fourth wall, so she runs away knowing that if the audience doesn't see Bob kill her, she at least has a chance.
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: Alice's fate is made absolutely clear; Depending on the Writer, Alice either dies or manages to escape the killer.
- Discussed: "So what happened to Alice. Did she get murdered?"
- Conversed: "Man, that was intense! Seeing as we don't know whether Alice died, it wasn't even sad— it was ambiguously sad! And that's even worse because at least with a sad work, you can grieve. With an ambiguously sad movie, you're just left with this big question mark!"
- Played for Laughs: Alice is last seen with a giant anvil with the words "The End...?" painted on it falling towards her. It's unclear if she died or not.
- Played for Drama: Diane and Emily, Alice's sisters, suffer greatly from not knowing whether their sister is alive or dead.
- Played for Horror:
- Nothing Is Scarier
- It's noted that Bob may or may not have killed Alice, but regardless, he's still at large. Then, he addresses the audience...
Anyone seen Uncertain Doom in a while? Should we be worried...?
