History Main / DyingDream

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_death_experience Near Death Experiences]] have been reported by tens of thousands of people. [=NDEs=] usually have a journey through a tunnel into light, a life review, a meeting with dead family and friends, a glimpse of Heaven, and then a painful return to the physical body. The exact details of the experience and how it affects the rest of their lives varies from person to person. It's unclear whether they're real, or the result of oxygen deprivation.
** The recent AWARE study seems to debunk the oxygen deprivation hypothesis; as, of all the patients measured who had an NDE, oxygen content didn't seem to have any bearing on whether or not they had an experience (in fact, people with ''higher'' oxygen levels have a better recollection of their experience). Of course, there are still more questions than answers about this phenomenon.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_death_experience Near Death Experiences]] have been reported by tens of thousands of people. [=NDEs=] usually have a journey through a tunnel into light, a life review, a meeting with dead family and friends, a glimpse of Heaven, and then a painful return to the physical body. The exact details of the experience and how it affects the rest of their lives varies from person to person, it's unclear whether they're real, or the result of oxygen deprivation.

* ''VideoGame/EternalSonata'' is set in a fantasy world created in the mind of the composer Chopin, who is dying.

* The horror anthology ''The Hunger'' opened its second season with one in "Sanctuary". Eddie Falco is on the run for the murder of MadArtist Julian Priest's agent and asks the reclusive Julian (Music/DavidBowie) for help; Priest decides to make him the subject of an especially grisly piece of performance art. TheReveal is that this is '''Julian''''s deathdream. Eddie is actually a manifestation of Julian's regret over living long enough to have lost his touch as an artist, modeled on a rival who committed suicide back in TheSeventies and [[Main/DeadArtistsAreBetter thus cemented his reputation without risking the career downturn]] Julian did. In truth, Julian -- driven 'round the bend by outrage and shunning for his increasingly grotesque work -- killed his agent and then turned himself into his last work of art, resulting in a slow death, to achieve the immortality he wanted. It works too well, though -- rather than passing on into an afterlife, he becomes a ghost who dwells in the abandoned prison that became his home in life, and the [[Main/FauxlosophicNarration narrator]] who [[HorrorHost introduces and closes each subsequent episode]].

* The horror anthology ''The Hunger'' opened its second season with one in "Sanctuary". Eddie Falco is on the run for the murder of MadArtist Julian Priest's agent and asks the reclusive Julian (DavidBowie) for help; Priest decides to make him the subject of an especially grisly piece of performance art. TheReveal is that this is '''Julian''''s deathdream. Eddie is actually a manifestation of Julian's regret over living long enough to have lost his touch as a artist, modeled on a rival who committed suicide back in TheSeventies and [[Main/DeadArtistsAreBetter thus cemented his reputation without risking the career downturn]] Julian did. In truth, Julian -- driven 'round the bend by outrage and shunning for his increasingly grotesque work -- killed his agent and then turned himself into his last work of art, resulting in a slow death. He becomes a ghost who dwells in the abandoned prison that became his home in life, and the [[Main/FauxlosophicNarration narrator]] who introduces and closes each subsequent episode.

* The music video for GROUPLOVE's "Colours" (which was inspired by "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge")

* The music video for GROUPLOVE's "Colours"

** ''AshesToAshes'' is Alex's ''LifeOnMars'' wherein, Alex finds out that Sam died in a car crash shortly before she arrived. She hypothesizes that the time he spent in the "dream world" was actually [[TimeDilation the amount of time it took for him to die after he hit the ground in the real world]], and that her time in the dream world follows the same principle. As revealed in the finale, the entirety of Season 3 was actually post-death.

* ''Series/{{Life On Mars|2006}}'' was revealed in the end to be the dream of Sam Tyler as he lies in a coma. In the final episode he finally wakes up, but realises that he preferred his imaginary world to the real one and jumps off a building. In the final seconds before he hits the ground, he re-enters the dream world, where he apparently remains indefinitely (NB, this is a bit of a borderline case, since he apparently wakes up from the dream world for a bit. Still, eh?)
** In ''AshesToAshes'', Alex finds out that Sam died in a car crash shortly before she arrived. She hypothesizes that the time he spent in the "dream world" was actually the amount to time it took for him to die after he hit the ground in the real world, and that her time in the same world could be a few seconds in the real world between her getting shot and actually dying.

* Possibly the upcoming ''{{Driver}}: San Francisco'', which takes place with Tanner in a coma.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_death_experience Near Death Experiences]] have been reported by tens of thousands of people. [=NDEs=] usually have a journey through a tunnel into light, a life review, a meeting with dead family and friends, a glimpse of Heaven, and then a painful return to the physical body. The exact details of the experience and how it affects the rest of their lives varies from person to person, and YMMV on whether they're real, or the result of oxygen deprivation.

* A famous Hallowe'en ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'' story showed that the rest of the series is a hallucination experienced by the title character as he starved to death in an empty house. WordOfGod says otherwise, but people obviously insist it's the case, undoubtedly because TrueArtIsAngsty.

Compare DeadAllAlong and DeadToBeginWith. May overlap with SchrodingersButterfly. Contrast YourMindMakesItReal for the belief that dying in a dream [[KilledOffForReal kills you off for real]]. If the character finally manages to [[IRejectYourReality reject this fake reality]] and awaken (in a hospital, morgue, crypt or whatever floats your boat), it is AdventuresInComaland.

Compare DeadAllAlong and DeadToBeginWith. May overlap with SchrodingersButterfly. Contrast YourMindMakesItReal for the belief that dying in a dream [[KilledOffForReal kills you off for real]].

* In Creator/ConnieWillis's ''Literature/{{Passage}}'' large portions consist of a DyingDream.

* Max's happy ending in the first season finale of ''DarkAngel'' turned out to be a DyingDream as a result of her being shot in the heart by her clone. Don't worry, she got better.

* A somewhat [[MindScrew complicated one]] in the ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode "Barge of the Dead". It initially seems that B'elana Torres brings a cursed Klingon artifact in the wake of her shuttle after passing through a nebula. The episode progresses in this way for about twenty minutes until things turn really weird and B'elanna wakes up on the Barge of the Dead - a mythological ship which ferries the dishonored dead to the Klingon version of hell, and is told that she in fact died in the nebula and she had witnessed only "the dream before dying." Except she eventually wakes up on ''Voyager'' to find that, although her shuttle was damaged, she had survived and both dreams were just hallucinations brought on oxygen deprivation. Except, she becomes convinced that she really was on the barge of the dead, and that she needs to go back to rescue her mother (which she does by inducing yet another DyingDream).

* The entire game of ''VideoGame/VelvetAssassin'' is the DyingDream of Violette Summers, a young British secret agent during WWII who is dying in a hospital. The surreal, disjointed game missions are actually her memories, and there's even a disturbing "morphine mode" where, if Violette becomes too agitated remembering her missions, a nurse will inject her with morphine and time will slow down in the game world, allowing Violette to escape or come to terms with whatever is frightening her.

* The scenario of the PC game ''VideoGame/WeirdDreams''. Work your way through various fantastic scenarios trying to prevent them from just being part of a DyingDream.

* Saber's (a.k.a. KingArthur's story in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' (her only ending): while dying after the Battle of Camlann, she makes a pact with the world to allow her to atone for her perceived failure as a king. As a Heroic Spirit, she gets to participate in at least two Holy Grail Wars, finally returning to her time after their conclusion. Of course, her "afterlife" really did take place in a distant future but for her time, it was but a beautiful DyingDream.
* Shiki in ''{{Tsukihime}}'' experiences a long DyingDream in Ciel's True Ending, which serves as a foreshadowing of the Far Side of the Moon routes. Fortunately, he survives, in no small degree thanks to his actions within said dream.
* Also all of the 'sequel' ''Kagetsu Tohya''. Subverted in that it's not Shiki's DyingDream, but Len's.
* One theory is the the whole of Utsuki's phase from ''{{Kuon}}'' was just a DyingDream after she is killed by her sister.

* NeilGaiman's "WhateverHappenedToTheCapedCrusader?" is partly this as it is Batman's last dream as he dies from Darkseid's Omega Sanction attack in ''FinalCrisis'', and part sendoff to every version of the Bruce Wayne Franchise/{{Batman}} in similar vein of WhateverHappenedToTheManOfTomorrow of Superman lore.

* Of all things, ''VideoGame/DrawnToLife'', though Mike eventually wakes back up to see his sister, the only family he has left after the car accident that killed his parents and put him in a coma [[HeroicSacrifice when the Raposa willingly sacrifice themselves]] [[DreamApocalypse and their world]] [[UpTheRealRabbitHole to save his real self]]. Dammit, 5th Cell. Why even the need for that? Will Maxwell die at the end of ''{{Scribblenauts}} 2'', next?

* Of all things, ''VideoGame/DrawnToLife'', though Mike eventually wakes back up to see his sister, the only family he has left after the car accident that killed his parents and put him in a coma [[HeroicSacrifice when the Raposa willingly sacrifice themselves]] [[DreamApocalypse and their world]] [[UpTheRealRabbitHole to save his real self]]. Dammit, 5th Cell. Why even the need for that? Will Maxwell die at the end of ''{{Scribblenauts}} 2'', next?

* The final scene of Lois Lowry's ''TheGiver'' has provoked speculation that Jonas is having one while he freezes to death. However, the clues are intentionally vague.
** Since Jonas and his brother turn up in a sequel, that would seem to answer that.

* Revealed in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'', ''Wings of the Goddess'' : The Vana'diel you know ? Turns out to be a lie : the good guys never actually win the Crystal War, and the war is still ongoing. Oh, and this reality is trying to consume the ''dream'' you live in, because if it don't, it will disappear.

* NeilGaiman's "WhateverHappenedToTheCapedCrusader?" is partly this as it is Batman's last dream as he dies from Darkseid's Omega Sanction attack in ''FinalCrisis'', and part sendoff to every version of the Bruce Wayne {{Batman}} in similar vein of WhateverHappenedToTheManOfTomorrow of Superman lore.

* Near the end of ''Anime/GunXSword'', Ray is mortally wounded when the Claw's men gun him down. He wakes up in a rocking chair, on the porch of a house by the sea. His wife - long since killed by the Claw - asks him what he was dreaming about. They talk for a while before he joins her, and "Calling You" starts playing... [[TearJerker There's no shame in crying.]]
** Subverted in that this isn't how the show ends - It's AllJustADream Ray has as he dies.
* This is one of ''the'' most popular [[WildMassGuessing crazy theories]] in the ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' universe. Fans have speculated that Ash has been in a coma since ''the first episode'' after being struck by lightning.

* A somewhat common (and loudly promoted) [[EpilepticTrees fan theory]] for the ending of ''MassEffect3'', which features a DisappointingLastLevel that lacks a true "end boss", and then has an epilogue that, charitably put, goes [[MindScrew wildly off the rails]], is that Shepard is dying and/or [[MoreThanMindControl indoctrinated]] and the entire sequence is more or less one big fever dream. Despite the theory being [[WordOfGod roundly denied by the creators]] and {{Jossed}} by the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin aptly-named]] ''Extended Cut'' {{DLC}}, which adds a second, much more comprehensive epilogue that explains how the galaxy is affected by Shepard's final choice, it refuses to go away completely.
* Certain events in ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine'' imply that the ''entire game'' may be this for Walker. The developers have essentially gone ShrugOfGod over it, implying but never confirming.
** We do know the first two thirds of the game are a flashback Walker has while sitting in a wrecked helicopter. The less clear part is whether the last third of the game is also real or a hallucinogenic continuation of the flashback.
* [[http://squallsdead.com This]] site gives an impressively thorough analysis of a theory that everything after Disc 1 of ''FinalFantasyVIII'' is one of these for Squall.

->''"I find it kinda funny''\\
''I find it kinda sad''\\
''The dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had."''
-->-- '''Music/TearsForFears''', "Mad World"

* An unusual version of this is found in Creator/GregEgan's "Transition Dream". A man's brain is scanned and transferred to a computer. The end result is an exact copy, as though the man's mind had been instantaneously transferred from brain to computer. But the mind is conscious of the transfer, and realizes that all its dreamlike experiences of the process must be annihilated before it can be identical to the original brain scan. The real twist, though, is that the end of the story calls into question whether he even really ''is'' being transferred to a computer, or if he's just plain dying and the whole brain-scan thing is a hallucination born of denial.

** Not quite a dying dream - more like a FlashForward MyLifeFlashedBeforeMyEyes.

* [[http://squallsdead.com This]] site gives an impressively thorough analysis of how it's possible that everything after Disc 1 of ''FinalFantasyVIII'' is one of these for Squall.