History Main / DyingDream

* Subverted in ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDead'' Season Two, where Clementine is shot in the chest by Arvo and has a dream about Lee, her caretaker and the protagonist from Season One. She doesn't die, though.

* ''VideoGame/JimmyAndThePulsatingMass'' is the dying dream of a child with cancer, centering around the illness and how it effects the members of his family.

* Music/LadyGaga's "911" has a woman waking up sprawled over in a desert next to a broken bicycle before venturing into a small town full of bizarre inhabitants, including a woman cradling a mummy[[note]]In reality, a fatality in the accident held by a bystander[[/note]], a man repeatedly pressing his face into a pillow[[note]]A man trapped in a car behind an airbag[[/note]] and raising it again and eventually a handsome man and a black woman in a strange white dress descending from the sky.[[note]]Paramedics arriving in a helicopter[[/note]] The man walks around touching people[[note]]Confirming the "mummy" is dead[[/note]] and putting a mask on a man on a throne[[note]]An oxygen mask[[/note]] before throwing a rope to catch the woman by the leg and pull her off as she begins drifting into the air before putting a lock on the leg.[[note]]Stabilizing her condition before she dies for real and putting a tourniquet on her leg[[/note]] Meanwhile, the black woman continuously tilts a mirror to reflect sunlight.[[note]]Actually a flashlight being repeatedly shone in her face to check for eye dilation[[/note]]. Not only are these the thoughts racing through brain of an at best semiconscious dying woman trying to piece together what's going on, the entire incident apparently happened as a result of not taking her pain medication and causing a terrible accident. After all, the song is a whole is about Lady Gaga's relationship with the anti psychosis medication she has to take to function properly.

* Music/LadyGaga's "911" has a woman waking up sprawled over in a desert next to a broken bicycle before venturing into a small town full of bizarre inhabitants, including a woman cradling a mummy[[note]]In reality, a fatality in the accident held by a bystander[[/note]], a man repeatedly pressing his face into a pillow[[/note]]A man trapped in a car behind an airbag[[/note]] and raising it again and eventually a handsome man and a black woman in a strange white dress descending from the sky.[[note]]Paramedics arriving in a helicopter[[/note]] The man walks around touching people[[note]]Confirming the "mummy" is dead[[/note]] and putting a mask on a man on a throne[[note]]An oxygen mask[[/note]] before throwing a rope to catch the woman by the leg and pull her off as she begins drifting into the air before putting a lock on the leg.[[note]]Stabilizing her condition before she dies for real and putting a tourniquet on her leg[[/note]] Meanwhile, the black woman continuously tilts a mirror to reflect sunlight.[[note]]Actually a flashlight being repeatedly shone in her face to check for eye dilation[[/note]]. Not only are these the thoughts racing through brain of an at best semiconscious dying woman trying to piece together what's going on, the entire incident apparently happened as a result of not taking her pain medication and causing a terrible accident. After all, the song is a whole is about Lady Gaga's relationship with the anti psychosis medication she has to take to function properly.

--->'''Lottie:''' Natalie, it's not evil, just hungry. Just let it in.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'': The third ''Green Lantern Corps Annual'' had a story titled "Guardian Angel", where a Green Lantern named Shingo-Wol believe he had overcome his power ring's weakness towards the color yellow to defeat a whole battalion colored yellow, but the last page reveals that he was actually killed and hallucinated his victory during his final moments.

* ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'': The third ''Green Lantern Corps Annual'' had a story titled "Guardian Angel", where a Green Lantern named Shingo-Wol believed he had overcome his power ring's weakness towards the color yellow to defeat a whole battalion colored yellow, but the last page reveals that he was actually killed and hallucinated his victory during his final moments.

* ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'': The third ''Green Lantern Corps Annual'' had a story titled "Guardian Angel", where a Green Lantern named Shingo-Wol believed he had overcome his power ring's weakness over the color yellow to defeat a whole battalion colored yellow, but the last page reveals that he was actually killed and hallucinated his victory during his final moments.

* ''ComicBook/GreenLant

* In ''ComicBook/TheBoys'', Creator/GarthEnnis' sendup of traditional caped heroes, the local Batman Expy dies in a HeroicSacrifice that results in this trope. After pushing a woman and her child out of the way of a falling meteorite (one that heralds an ''Armageddon''-style meteor shower) the mortal hero makes an unlikely flight into orbit to personally destroy an enormous asteroid about to smash the Earth. Turns out the initial "meteorite" that he saved the family from was actually a wheelbarrow load of bricks spilled from above by a construction worker and the hero suffered fatal head trauma from said bricks.

* The horror anthology ''Series/TheHunger'' 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 narrator who [[HorrorHost introduces and closes each subsequent episode]].

* ''WebVideo/{{Phelous}}'' has the end of the ''Film/JacobsLadder'' review declare everything to be Phelan's dream after dying from a heart attack reviewing ''Film/MacAndMe'', his very first episode. It's implied that almost all of Website/ThatGuyWithTheGlasses since November 2008 was part of the dream. [[EpilepticTrees Or, depending on how the line is taken, that Kickassia and Suburban Knights were real things that happened.]] The next episode begins with him in the same "dead" position for a bit and then just getting up and introducing ''WesternAnimation/AladdinAndTheAdventureOfAllTime'' like nothing had happened.

* DyingDream: The narrator of the short story "In the Twilight" capsizes with a boat and bumps his head on a boat's keel. As he desperately tries swimming upwards, he hears the people in the boats above him say that they "must leave him now", to be followed by the river, the river banks, and the sky all taking their leave from him and disappearing. Subsequently he has several visions of places where he spent his childhood and youth, such as the valley of his childhood and his old school, where he he sees old friends and classmates and also the heroes of Literature/{{the Iliad}} and [[Literature/{{Anabasis}} the Ten Thousand]] (implied to be his boyhood heroes), all of which tell him "Goodbye". His last vision is of himself standing with a crowd of people at the near end of a "white highway with darkness and stars below it that led into darkness and stars". A lone man is walking down the highway away from the crowd towards the darkness, despite the people calling the man by his name, "and it was a very strange name". The narrator gets angry because the man won't react to the people calling him and tries with "great effort" to call the man's name--only to wake up and find himself lying on the river bank and a crowd of people resuscitating him, "and the name that the people called was my own name".

* The narrator of Creator/LordDunsany's short story "In the Twilight" capsizes with a boat and bumps his head on a boat's keel. As he desperately tries swimming upwards, he hears the people in the boats above him say that they "must leave him now", to be followed by the river, the river banks, and the sky all taking their leave from him and disappearing. Subsequently he has several visions of places where he spent his childhood and youth, such as the valley of his childhood and his old school, where he sees old friends and classmates and also the heroes of Literature/{{the Iliad}} and [[Literature/{{Anabasis}} the Ten Thousand]] (implied to be his boyhood heroes), all of which tell him "Goodbye". His last vision is of himself standing with a crowd of people at the near end of a "white highway with darkness and stars below it that led into darkness and stars". A lone man is walking down the highway away from the crowd towards the darkness, despite the people calling the man by his name, "and it was a very strange name". The narrator gets angry because the man won't stop or turn back and makes a "great effort" to call the man's name, and "with the effort" opens his eyes to find himself lying on the river bank with a crowd of people resuscitating him, "and the name that the people called was my own name".

* The country and western song Green Green Grass of Home. The protagonist is wakened up to be taken to be executed.

* A DiscussedTrope in ''Anime/CowboyBebop'', where main character Spike 'lives' under the philosophy that he may not be alive at all and died during his backstory. [[spoiler:Julia's death seems to end the uncertainty, as Spike's reaction to her death is to undertake a SuicideMission to clean up his past.]]

* ''Manga/GetBackers'': Babylon City was more virtual than expected & [[spoiler:Ginji]] was dead the whole time.

* ''Anime/PacificRimTheBlack'': After [[spoiler: Brina]] is mortally wounded helping to save the Boy from [[ApocalypseCult the Sisters]], Loa and Hayley place her in a Drift-created simulation of them all reaching [[ThePromisedLand Sydney]] and being reunited with [[spoiler: the siblings' father]]. She passes away shortly after this moment occurs in the simulation.

* Kafei from ''Animation/HappyHeroes'' [[spoiler:at the near end of season 14, in the final confrontation against Dark Demon]], before dying, she have a dream where she reunited with her former boyfriend.

* ''ComicBook/SpiderGirl'': Issue #63 features dying dreams of both Normie Osborne (Harry's son) and The Kingpin, the former being haunted by his grandfather Norman Osborn, the original Green Goblin, while the latter is tormented by his son Richard Fisk. One survives, but you don't find out which until the next issue. [[spoiler:It's Normie.]]

* ''Beyond'' is about a couple hiding from aliens after an invasion, with flashbacks to their life before: meeting, falling in love, arguing, pregnancy, wondering what will happen if the looming asteroid hits Earth. The ending [[spoiler: implies that everything in the story present is the man's dying dream after he was shot trying to get to the hospital for the birth.]]

* ''Film/TheEscapist'': [[spoiler: Although it’s debatable. Frank clearly dies, but it’s implied that the escape was real and at the very least Lacey escaped.]]

* Rob Zombie confirmed the ending of ''Film/HalloweenII2009's'' director's cut is [[spoiler:this for Laurie.]]
* One interpretation of the last 15 minutes of ''Theatre/HedwigAndTheAngryInch'', because it has no dialogue, is that Hedwig died in the crash and the rest is a dying dream.

* ''Film/SecretlyGreatly'': After [[spoiler:Hae-rang is killed by a grenade and Ryu-hwan jumps off a roof with Hae-jin's bullet-ridden body]], we get a flashback of the three spies cleaning anchovies back in the village. They discuss their wants and dreams in life.

* The movie ''Sublime'' plays with this and combines it with YourMindMakesItReal, as it turns out [[spoiler: everything was a dream he had during a coma. When he finally realises this he jumps out of the window and turns it into his dying dream]].

* Music/{{iamamiwhoami}}'s video for "20101104" depicts a double suicide, who some believe to be the "real world" bodies of the mandragora and the "bearded" man from the previous videos. Another theory is that they represent Jonna Lee and Claes Björklund, the artists behind the AnonymousBand, "killing" or leaving behind their past careers to become fully immersed in only their iamamiwhoami project.

* This was one popular theory about what the surreal, [[WorldOfSymbolism highly symbolic]] ''VideoGame/TheBindingOfIsaac'' is. Eventually the MindScrewdriver of ''Afterbirth+'' [[spoiler:confirmed this was indeed the case, with the caveat that it begins with most of the intro; Isaac's mom never tried to kill him. ''Everything'' from that point onwards was part of the dream, complete with it breaking down by the time you fight the TrueFinalBoss of them all. ''Repentance'' either denies this completely, or simply extends the dream far enough that Isaac can at least forgive himself and move on to the afterlife properly]].

* The entirety of the game ''VideoGame/EternalSonata'' is Frederick Chopin's dying dream. [[spoiler:The final boss fight is ''against him'' as he refuses to accept he'll die when the dream is over. In the Playstation 3 version, if you lose this fight, you get a NonstandardGameOver where he ''wakes up'', muses about how odd his dream was, and then falls back asleep, presumably dying.]]

** Retroactive aversion, as ''VideoGame/SilentHill3'' shows that he survived, [[spoiler:just long enough to bring up Heather and then take a giant knife to the chest]].
** ''VideoGame/SilentHillShatteredMemories'' seems to follow the same ending. Albeit, with an unforeseen twist. [[spoiler:In every ending, Harry is having a dying dream... 18 years after he actually died. And despite it being a dying dream, he's apparently really able to interact with real, living people. And it was all in Cheryl's mind.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Terranigma}}'' plays the credits over the final dream that [[spoiler:the protagonist]] is having, dreaming of being a bird that flies across the world and witnessing its technological progress.

* Subverted in ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDead'' Season Two, where Clementine [[spoiler:is shot in the chest by Arvo and has a dream about Lee, her caretaker and the protagonist from Season One.]] She doesn't die, though.

* WebVideo/SolidJJ: "Breaking Down" is implied to be [[Series/BreakingBad Walter White]]'s. It starts with Walt telling Jesse that they need to cook meth as typical of him, only for Jesse to explain that they already did and Walt can rest now. After feeling a headache, Walt meets characters who are dead in ''Breaking Bad''; [[spoiler:Gus and Mike]] tells Walt to rest, [[spoiler:while Hank]] offers him a drink.

* The penultimate episode of ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman'' has [=BoJack=] attending a dinner and show at his mother's old house, and reuniting with his deceased family and friends [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg (and Zach Braff)]]. It soon becomes clear that this is a dream he's having while drowning in the pool of his old home, as everyone slowly succumbs to [[CessationOfExistence all-encompassing tar]] as they speak of their own lives and deaths. [[spoiler:It's revealed in the final episode that Bojack did manage to survive.]]

* 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]]. The revised ending in the series' CompilationRerelease changes it to a more standard version of AdventuresInComaland, as he fell out of a tree instead.

-->-- '''Ambrose Bierce''', ''Literature/AnOccurrenceAtOwlCreekBridge''

'''WARNING: As this is often an EndingTrope, expect major unmarked spoilers ahead.'''

* ''Literature/ThebeAndTheAngryRedEye'', the tale of an ill-fated space voyage, includes a variation. Near the end of the story, CharacterNarrator Thomas (the SoileSurvivor of the tragedy) has a vivid dream about how the astronauts' journey ''should'' have ended, with himself and his shipmates returning to UsefulNotes/{{Earth}} safely and receiving a [[CelebratingTheHeroes heroes' welcome]]. And then, just as Thomas is about to embrace his beloved wife Katie, he wakes up...