History Main / DeadlyGraduation

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': [[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E12Helpless "Helpless"]] is the best example of this in the series, with Buffy's deadly ordeal of fighting a vampire while BroughtDownToNormal. The element of moral compromise is there too, but it's Giles who is having his morals tested, not Buffy.

* The Wong Jing film ''Film/NakedWeapon'' does this particularly graphically.

* ''Series/{{Treadstone}}''. John Bentley has the "shoot the hooded man as a final test" as in ''Film/TheBourneUltimatum'', in this case to check his conditioning as a Soviet ManchurianAgent (he finds the corpse later and removes the hood to find he's killed a fellow CIA agent). In the next episode John has a dream of being chained up underwater, and fighting another man in similar straits [[ColdEquation for the key to release his chains before he drowns]].

* ''Series/{{Treadstone}}''. John Bentley has the "shoot the hooded man as a final test" as in ''Film/TheBourneUltimatum'', in this case to check his conditioning as a Soviet ManchurianAgent (he finds the corpse later and removes the hood to find he's killed a fellow CIA agent). In the next episode John has a dream of him being chained up underwater, and fighting another man in similar straits [[ColdEquation for the key to release his chains before he drowns]].

* ''Series/TheAvengers1960s''. In "Invasion of the Earthmen", the villain is training students to conquer space, including a survival exercise involving two students where only one is allowed to return. Meanwhile our heroes are infiltrating the school and end up getting into a fight with the students. Steed ties one up, and he watches horrified as the other student approaches him...only to cut him free. Turns out the exercise has been cancelled as everyone has been ordered to kill the heroes instead.

* ''Series/TheAvengers''. In "Invasion of the Earthmen", the villain is training students to conquer space, including a survival exercise involving two students where only one is allowed to return. Meanwhile our heroes are infiltrating the school and end up getting into a fight with the students. Steed ties one up, and he watches horrified as the other student approaches him...only to cut him free. Turns out the exercise has been cancelled as everyone has been ordered to kill the heroes instead.

* The trailer for the fifth season of ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'' shows one of the Daughters of Aku brutally killing one of her sisters without a care; an instructor then tells her and some of the others that their training is complete.

Occasionally, it is a SecretTestOfCharacter, in one of two ways. Either you're not supposed to ShootYourMate, or you ARE but the gun is loaded with blanks.

SubTrope of InvoluntaryBattleToTheDeath. See also TestedOnHumans.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "The Secret War of Lisa Simpson", the commander of Rommelwood Military School mentions to Bart and Lisa's class that the MilitarySchool used to force its students to fight to the death to see who eould graduate (which makes Lisa nervous). Turns out that it's a BaitAndSwitch -- [[RealityEnsues the Supreme Court ordered the school to stop this practice]] because it was a blatant act of child cruelty, so the school started to use a DeathCourse called "The Eliminator" as its UltimateFinalExam instead.

** ''Discworld/{{Pyramids}}'' includes a graduation test for Pteppic, in which he's supposed to assassinate someone who is sleeping in a room "guarded" by one of his teachers. Pteppic is terrified by the idea of actually killing someone, however, and ends up firing his crossbow at nothing rather than kill (but still hits the target due to a "lucky" shot). Rumour among the student body is that the victim for an exam is a student who previously failed said exam, but it turns out to just be a dummy under a sheet. They're also perfectly allowed to inhume the examiners to pass with full marks... but the savvy ones don't tend to risk it.
** In ''Discworld/WyrdSisters'' it's mentioned that "competitive examination" means the number of student Assassins is drastically reduced by the end of the year (even before the Final Exam), which doesn't stop students at the [[BoardingSchoolOfHorrors Fools' Guild]] from envying them.

* The ''Franchise/{{Star Wars|Expanded Universe}}'' comic ''Crimson Empire'' has this as the final exam for Royal Guards.

** In the "Shadow Academy" story arc of the Young Jedi Knights series, it's revealed that exactly this is necessary to earn the title of Darkest Knight in the Shadow Academy.

* In the [[Characters/NewGods Granny Goodness]] backstory her final exam was to kill the loyal dog she had trained. She avoided this by killing the examiner. Darkseid later forced her to complete the test by siccing the dog on her.

* Inverted by minor Decepticon [[MeaningfulName Triggerhappy]] in the comics, in that rather than requiring he kill someone to graduate, he graduated from boot camp after an incident where he killed a lot of people. In this case, he fell off a hoverboard while firing a machine gun and hit his head, unwittingly disintegrating a half-dozen observing instructors in the process. Apparently such a display convinced the camp commander that this reckless idiot was sufficiently lethal, such that he graduated Triggerhappy on the spot and sent him to join the front lines.

* The main premise of Monokuma's DeadlyGame in ''VisualNovel/DanganRonpa'': the only way anyone can escape their ClosedCircle GildedCage is to kill one of their classmates, then successfully cover up the crime. If the others students can't figure out who the murderer is, the culprit gets to leave... while the rest suffer a brutal punishment. If they're ''caught'', though... [[HangingJudge well]]...

* On ''Series/{{Charmed}}'', one episode has Prue get in touch with an old friend of hers, who has fallen into a demon recruitment program and is about to graduate with this kind of initiatory killing of an innocent.

* In the ''Film/{{Kingsman}}'' fanfic ''Trials'', when faced with the test mentioned below, Eggsy [[TakeAThirdOption takes a third option]]: he shoots Arthur, the leader of Kingsman and the one administering the test, instead. [[spoiler: This takes him off the Kingsman trials but puts him on the fast track to become the next ''Arthur'', as a knight does what he's told, but a ''king'' does what is ''right''.]] Needless to say, Arthur was less than pleased with this turn of events.

* One of the tests in ''Film/KingsmanTheSecretService'' is to shoot the dog the candidate had partnered with and cared for throughout the test. Failing to do so means they're booted from the tests. The gun's loaded with blanks. Eggsy failed to shoot JB, but after the Valentine crisis, he's allowed to be a Kingsman anyway. In ''Film/KingsmanTheGoldenCircle'' Eggsy used his knowledge of this test to try to traumatize an amnesiac Harry into regaining his memories by accusing him of being a dog murderer.
--"It was a fucking blank! I would never hurt Mr. Pickle!"

* Exaggerated in ''WesternAnimation/{{Metalocalypse}}'' with the [[RedShirt Klokateers]] [[TrainingFromHell first training step]] : all the candidates are put together in a large room and each one choses a partner whom they must kill with their bare fists in order to make it to the next step.

* Exaggerated in ''WesternAnimation/Metalocalypse'' with the [[RedShirt Klokateers]] [[TrainingFromHell first training step]] : all the candidates are put together in a large room and each one choses a partner whom they must kill with their bare fists in order to make it to the next step.

* In ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' the final test for a [[ThePoliticalOfficer Commissarial cadet]] before they graduate from the [[MilitaryAcademy Schola Progenium]] is to execute their closest friend at the training facility. This test is to ensure that the cadet will not hesitate to execute the troopers he is assigned to watch over as he has already killed someone far more important to him.

** ''Discworld/{{Pyramids}}'' includes a graduation test for Pteppic, in which he's supposed to assassinate someone who is sleeping in a room "guarded" by one of his teachers. Pteppic is terrified by the idea of actually killing someone, however, and ends up firing his crossbow at nothing rather than kill (but still hits the target due to a "lucky" shot). Rumour among the student body is that the victim is a student who failed the exam, but it turns out to just be a dummy under a sheet. They're also perfectly allowed to inhume the examiners... but the savvy ones don't tend to risk it.