History Main / DeathFakedForYou

* ''Literature/{{Room}}'': As part of their scape plan, Joy makes Old Nick believe that her son died from the untreated illness so he would [[BodybagTrick take the body outside]].

* The Ashford family did this for the banished and dishonored royal siblings Lelouch and Nunnally when they were children in ''Anime/CodeGeass''.

* ''ComicBook/{{Drowntown}}'': Alexandra Bastet seems to have had this done to her (voluntarily or otherwise), with the added feature that she [[IdentityAmnesia doesn't even remember her past life]] herself. She used to be [[spoiler:Gina Cassel, and when Leo discovers this, he's jumped by goons who want the faked death to stick: "Gina Cassel's dead. Leave her that way."]]

* ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk'': ComicBook/RedHulk faked his daughter's death and put her on ice until somebody found a cure for her condition.
* ''ComicBook/StarTrekIDW'': Robert April, in Countdown to Darkness. Having allied himself with a seemingly-oppressed faction on an alien planet, he orders his first officer to declare him dead to Starfleet.

* At the end of ''ComicBook/ThePunisher'' books' ''ComicBook/ThePunisherSuicideRun'' event, the sheriff of Laastekist claims that Castle died in an explosion after letting him go.
* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'': In ''ComicBook/WhateverHappenedToTheManOfTomorrow'', after Superman renounces his powers, Lois Lane makes everybody believe that Superman walked into the snowbound Arctic wastelands and got frozen to death, so that he can start a new anonymous life.
* ''ComicBook/UltimateXMen'': Cable came from the future to kill him, and he did... or so it seemed. He staged a scene that would look as if he killed him, so he could take him to the future without being followed. There, he trained him to be able to resist Apocalypse when he was awoken.
* This is part of the premise of ''ComicBook/TheLosers'' but in an unusual case, their deaths were faked ''by accident''. They were meant to die when their chopper took an air-to-air missile after a mission, but they had found some hostages they wanted to evacuate and sent them ahead. Since the only one who knew it wasn't them in the Blackhawk when it blew up was the pilot, the military and the CIA believed they were dead for some time before they re-emerged on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge. Their families were informed, funerals were held, it puts a bit of strain on Pooch's marriage when he shows up at the house again and can't exactly explain what he's been up to or why he can't stay.

* This is how Film/EdwardScissorhands got saved at the end of his movie, as Kim reports that Edward and Jim killed each other.
* The film ''Film/{{Eraser}}'' has the main character go around faking deaths for witness protection. The opener shows him saving a witness and his girlfriend from a group of mobsters, taking pictures of their "deceased" bodies, dumping two dead bodies he'd stolen from the morgue that sort of look like them, then blowing up the house. Afterwards, he swaps the fingerprints records on the dead bodies with the ones of the witnesses.
* ''Film/ExtremePrejudice'' (1987). The movie opens with the [[AvengersAssemble Black Ops unit assembling]], stating how every one is listed as having been 'killed' while on military service, in order to aid PlausibleDeniability -- [[FridgeLogic even though]] it would be a lot more plausible to have them be [[RogueAgent thrown out of the military on fake charges]]. When a Texas Ranger realises he's caught several people officially listed as dead, it's obvious that there's some [[GovernmentConspiracy official funny business]] going on.

%%%** "Literature/TheGirlWithoutHands" ([[https://web.archive.org/web/20190906085231/http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/armlessmaiden/index.html link]])

%%%* "Literature/TheThreeLanguages" ([[https://web.archive.org/web/20200114191145/http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/grimms/33threelanguages.html link])

%%%* "[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/grimms/97wateroflife.html The Water Of Life]]"

* Mahmut did this in ''Manga/AltairARecordOfBattles'' for Sultan Fatma at the end of the Turkiye Civil War, as she was just a puppet regent for her young son. Had she been killed, a CycleOfRevenge would have started between her children.

* Conan's plan in the Mystery Train arc in ''Manga/CaseClosed'' is to fake Haibara's death so the Black Organization will no longer hunt her. Haibara herself is LockedOutOfTheLoop until the plan is well underway, partly due to Conan suspecting they were under observation and partly because the plan [[BatmanGambit depended on Haibara behaving in a particular manner]].

* In ''ComicBook/{{Drowntown}}'', Alexandra Bastet seems to have had this done to her (voluntarily or otherwise), with the added feature that she [[IdentityAmnesia doesn't even remember her past life]] herself. She used to be [[spoiler:Gina Cassel, and when Leo discovers this, he's jumped by goons who want the faked death to stick: "Gina Cassel's dead. Leave her that way."]]

* Issue 799 of ''ComicBook/TheFlashInfiniteFrontier'' reveals that Granny Goodness did this to [[spoiler:Donna Troy's son, Robbie Long; Tempest's son, Cerdian; and even the thought-unborn son of the second Mr. Terrific]] to use them as weapons against the heroes.

%%%[[folder:Fairy Tales]]
%%%* "Literature/SnowWhite"
%%%* "[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/armlessmaiden/index.html The Girl with No Hands]]"
%%%* "[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/grimms/33threelanguages.html The Three Languages]]"

%%%[[/folder]]

* The six titular heroes from ''Film/SixAssassins'' are assumed dead after the first act, but as it turns out, their deaths are faked by their benefactors, who wants their services on an assassination mission, which is made easier because they're assumed to be dead.

%%%* Dr. Yueh, for Jessica and Paul in ''Literature/{{Dune}}''.

* In the fairy tale "Literature/TheGoldMountain" a wealthy merchant sells his son to a dwarf, but the son is wise in fairy-lore and disputes the deal. Finally, they compromise by sending him away in a boat, so neither father or dwarf will have him, and the boy's fairy friends fake up a squall that capsizes and apparently sinks the boat.

* In ''[[Literature/TheShipWho PartnerShip]]'', when [[SapientShip Nancia]] lands outside of a PrivateProfitPrison one of her friends escapes the facility pursued by guards and begs to be let in. She lets him in, warms up her [[FutureFoodIsArtificial food synthesizers]], and has [[HandyHelper her brawn]] take her friend's ragged clothes off to put into her waste chute. When the guards approach she shows them a heap of hot ashes mixed with bones and smouldering scraps of clothing, and coolly tells them she killed the prisoner for unauthorized entry, then laughs as they gape at her. Nancia then discreetly takes the "remains" away - the most casual chemical analysis will reveal the deception that this is burned algae-protein "meat" and "bone" that she'd printed off and run through her waste incinerator.
* As part of their escape plan in ''Literature/{{Room}}'', Joy makes Old Nick believe that her son died from the untreated illness so he would [[BodybagTrick take the body outside]].
* In Richard Literature/{{Sharpe}}'s second court-martial, he's falsely accused of murdering a Spanish aristocrat. He's convicted and sentenced to hang for political reasons, but another convict is hanged in his place, leaving him free to clear his name.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'', King Raminas is killed in the prologue. To secure their control of Dalmasca, the empire pressures [[DoubleAgent Marquis Ondore]] to publicly announce that Basch has been executed for the murder of the king, and that Princess Ashe has committed suicide after the loss of her husband and her father. In reality, Basch spends the next two years imprisoned by the empire, and Ashe lives in hiding as the leader of a small anti-imperial resistance.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'', King Raminas is killed in the prologue. To secure their control of Dalmasca, the empire reports that Basch has been executed for the murder of the king, and that Princess Ashe has committed suicide after the loss of her husband and her father. In reality, Basch spends the next two years imprisoned by the empire, and Ashe lives in hiding as the leader of a small anti-imperial resistance.

* Chang Ge, the protagonist of ''Manhua/{{Choukakou}}'', had her family killed by the current emperor of China. Some high ranking officials sympathetic to her family, however, pretend she fell off a cliff and died. When she starts causing some trouble in the capital [[spoiler: said officials burn down a whole building with all the people inside to erase the evidence and also to send her a warning.]]

* ''Literature/StarterVillain'': [[PragmaticVillainy One of the services]] Jake's supervillain operation offers is to falsify someone's death thoroughly enough to fool a government investigation or another villain. Their methods aren't revealed but involve convincing video proof of death, usually via AcidPool -- one ex-government agent is disappointed that {{Lava Pit}}s and superlasers aren't options.

%%%* ''Film/LaFemmeNikita'' was an involuntary version.

* ''Film/MillersCrossing'' (1990). Bernie Bernbaum begs Tom Reagan to "Look into your heart" before pulling a classic [[TheFarmerandtheViper dick move]].
* In ''Film/MyNameIsNobody'' [[spoiler: Nobody organizes Jack Beauregard's fake death.]]
* In ''Film/NowYouSeeMe'', [[spoiler:Jack Wilder's death is faked with the assistance of the other Horsemen, as part of their overall plan.]]

* On ''Series/MyNameIsEarl'', Earl was in a relationship with a clingy ExtremeDoormat girl and wanted to get out of it, but didn't want to hurt her feelings. He had Randy give her a soaking wet AC/DC T-shirt and tell her that he'd been lost at sea and that they NeverFoundTheBody.

* ''Series/PersonOfInterest''. In the episode "Relevance", Hersh leaves Shaw dying on the street, but Team Machine is on hand to revive her. Finch then points out to Shaw that she's now officially dead, so can hide more effectively.
** The flashback episode "RAM" shows Reese during his days as a CIA assassin being ordered to kill a computer programmer accused of selling US government secrets to the Chinese. Reese realizes that the guy is no traitor and is targeted because he knows too much about a secret government project (the Machine). Instead of going through with the assassination Reese has the guy rip out some of his teeth and then uses them to convince his superiors that the target is dead and Reese has destroyed the body. The programmer then flees the country under a new identity. All of this is witnessed by Finch and leads to Finch recruiting Reese a year later.

* Dumbledore offered to do this for Draco in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince,'' but didn't get the chance. {{Averted}} with [[spoiler:Dumbledore himself]], despite what many fans (and Harry) believed.