History Main / DisconnectedByDeath

[[AC:Literature]]

* The first episode of ''{{Jericho}}'' had Dale listen to an answering machine message from his mother. What we hear is the destruction of Atlanta by nuclear bomb, then the line going dead.

* Video phone example in the ''StarshipTroopers'' movie. Rico is talking with his mother and father, who live in Buenos Aires. As they're talking, a shadow comes across the parents' ends of the line. The screen then dissolves into static and a short time later the news shows the destruction of the city.

-->'''Crow (as cop)''': "Hello? Mr. "Oh My God Crunch Crunch"? Look, spit out whatever you're eating and start again!"

-->'''Crow (as cop)''' "Hello? Mr. "Oh My God Crunch Crunch"? are you still there?"

* A variation happens in ''DirkGently's Holistic Detective Agency'', where Gordon Way pauses in his rambling monologue to his sister's answering machine to check on a noise and gets shot. The answering machine records the vital information of the time of the murder (Gordon had stated the exact time earlier in the message) and Gordon's first post-death words.

* A variant happens in the first arc of ''HigurashiNoNakuKoroNi'' to [[spoiler:Keiichi Maebara, who claws out his own throat in a phone booth while under the effects of Oyashiro-sama's curse, trying to contact the police about the TownWithADarkSecret. Thanks to his paranoia, his last words to the police - and the audience - ''indicate'' someone is coming to kill him, but all the evidence suggests suicide... leaving the existence of the killer in doubt until better answers about Oyashiro-sama come along in later chapters.]].

The basic structure of this trope is that one character has information that they '''must''' get to another character (usually the hero, or at least, one of the Good Guys). They make a phone call. They are killed after the phone is answered on the other end, but before they can pass along the information. There may be a BigNo or scream for audible over the 'phone if the victim sees the killer.

Within this structure, the trope has visual and aural variants; the visual versions can use a old-style free-standing phone booth, a land-line telephone not in a phone booth, or a cel phone. The aural version has dial-tone (where the killer hangs up the phone, causing the hero to hear a dial tone) and open-line (where the killer doesn't hang up. The Hero then spends some time yelling "Hello! Hello?" before concluding "[[CaptainObvious Something's happened]].") Since either of the aural versions can be combined with any of the visual versions, and all of them can be used alone, there are 11 possible combinations.

For extra points, the victim has [[HisNameIs said part but not all of his message]] (or even [[AlmostDeadGuy gasps a few words out as he dies]]), allowing the heroes to get a clue that will save the day later, but only after they rack their brains really hard to get what the victim was trying to say. Even more bonus points if the informant turns and says [[YouExclamation "it's you!"]] before being offed.

* Subverted, along with tonnes of suspense film tropes, in ''[[MelBrooks High Anxiety]]'', when the protagonist, Dr. Richard H. Thorndyke, calls up Victoria Brisbane and "Braces" attempts to kill him in the phone booth. She mistakes his agonized gasping for an [[HarassingPhoneCall obscene phone call]].

* In the ''{{Clue}}'' movie, it's used along with a GoryDiscretionShot, when the cop is killed. He is seen talking on a phone, cut to the lead pipe being raised, then used to disconnect the call.

* A variation in TheMatrix , Trinity spends the first minutes of the movie trying to reach a phone booth, and when she finally reaches it and pick up the phone, a truck demolishes the phone booth. Thankfully, since the landline was her exit, Trinity is not injured.

The basic structure of this trope is that one character has information that they '''must''' get to another character (usually the hero, or at least, one of the Good Guys). They make a phone call. They are killed after the phone is answered on the other end, but before they can pass along the information. There may be a BigNo into the 'phone if the victim sees the killer.

The basic structure of this trope is that one character has information that they '''must''' get to another character (usually the hero, or at least, one of the Good Guys). They make a phone call. They are killed after the phone is answered on the other end, but before they can pass along the information.

[[caption-width-right:350:This is what happens when YouKnowTooMuch...]]Specific subtrope of the DoomedAppointment.

In the phone booth version of this trope, an informant or {{Turncoat}} is trying to give the heroes information, arranging to meet them from a public telephone box. Suddenly, one of two things happens.
# A shadow falls across him, as one of the villains appears in the door of the booth. The informant yells a BigNo or screams for mercy, then the phone is slammed down. His body may or may not turn up later.
# A shot rings out, and a neat hole is punched in the glass of the booth. The informant falls dead, and the hero's voice may be heard saying "Hello... hello..?" over the dangling phone.

Due to the fact that TechnologyMarchesOn and the phone booths are nearly extinct from all city streets, expect it to happen far less often [[ForgottenTrope in recent works]] (although it could work just as well with a cell phone).

* In the ''{{Clue}}'' movie, the second type is used, along with a GoryDiscretionShot, when the cop is killed. He is seen talking on a phone, cut to the lead pipe being raised, then used to disconnect the call.

* A variation in TheMatrix , Trinity spends the first minutes of the movie trying to reach a phone booth, and when she finally reaches it and pick up the phone, a truck demolishes the phone booth, thankfully, since the landline was her exit, Trinity is not injured.

* In the mystery story ''Maniac Manor'', somebody gets kidnapped in mid sentence, but not killed. We do still have a type two reaction.

[[quoteright:300: [[FullmetalAlchemist http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/MurderedInAPhoneBooth_142.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:300:This is what happens when YouKnowTooMuch...]]Specific subtrope of the DoomedAppointment.

* Subverted in {{Tremors}}, albeit over a radio set instead of a phone. Burt Grummer, after being told that the graboids are coming straight for his house, is last heard saying, "Jesus Chr-!" before the line goes dead as a graboid bursts through his wall. [[spoiler:As it turned out, that graboid did indeed break into the wrong rec room.]]

Due to the fact that TechnologyMarchesOn and the phone booths are nearly extinct from all city streets, expect it to happen far less often [[ForgottenTrope in recent works]].

* Subverted, along with tonnes of suspense film tropes, in ''[[MelBrooks High Anxiety]]'', when the protagonist, Dr. Richard H. Thorndyke, calls up Victoria Brisbane and "Braces" attempts to kill him in the phone booth. She mistakes his agonized gasping for an ObscenePhoneCall.

[[AC:WebOriginal]]
* [[http://www.animegalleries.net/img/373725 This gory anime picture]]

* [[spoiler:Maes Hughes]] infamously meets his end in ''FullmetalAlchemist'' while trying to reach [[spoiler:Roy Mustang]] from a pay phone. When Roy finds out that [[spoiler:Envy]] is Roy's best friend's killer, he goes into a [[IncrediblyLamePun snapping and explosive rampage]].