History Main / OneCharacterMultipleLives

* In ''Film/TwilightZoneTheMovie'' a racist man is shuttled back and forth in time to live lives as a black, Jewish, and Asian person. He was supposed to learn a moral, but [[RealLifeWritesThePlot due to the death of the actor while filming an action scene]] he gets sent off to the gas chamber as a Jew during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E23AWorldOfDifference A World of Difference]]", Arthur Curtis finds himself switching between two worlds - one where he's a normal businessman and another where he's an alcoholic actor named Gerry Raigan who's playing the role of businessman Arthur Curtis in the film ''The Private World of Arthur Curtis''.

* ''Series/{{Awake}}'': Main character Detective Britten suddenly begins switching between two universes every time he falls asleep after a car crash kills his wife in one universe and his son in the other. While his therapists in each universe try to convince him that the other universe is just a trauma-induced dream, he isn't so sure. Across the two lives, he begins to notice suspicious coincidences which he investigates seeking an explanation for what's happening to him which leads him to the heart of a dangerous conspiracy where he needs the time and information from both lives just to stay one step ahead of his enemies.

* In ''Literature/WelcomeToJapanMsElf'', Kazuhiro thinks he was [[AllJustADream just having dreams]] of the same fantasy world since childhood, with him waking up if he sleeps or dies in that world. It isn't until he shields his elf friend, Marie, from danger that he realizes it's this trope, as his actions accidentally teleports her into his bedroom in Japan.

* In ''Literature/WelcomeToJapanMsElf'', Kazuhiro thinks he was [[JustADream just having dreams]] of the same fantasy world since childhood, with him waking up if he sleeps or dies in that world. It isn't until he shields his elf friend, Marie, from danger that he realizes it's this trope, as his actions accidentally teleports her into his bedroom in Japan.

Most characters, like most [[RealLife people]], live one life beginning to end. While TimeTravel, [[AnotherDimension Alternate Dimensions]] and the occasional BodySwap can complicate things, they are still more or less one person, starring in one life, for one lifetime.

* A science-fiction novel ''Dayworld'' had as its premise that the entire world was divided into seven populations which took turns being active one day of the week each, while the other six are in stasis. The protagonist is a man who illegally maintains separate lives in each of the seven days.

* This is how the different arcs of ''Webcomic/ArthurKingOfTimeAndSpace'' work; Arthur's consciousness shifts between them, but all these worlds are real and exist even when he's not there. This is only fully clarified in the [[http://www.arthurkingoftimeandspace.com/3518.htm final strip]], when Morgan explains "We don't just go from one time to the next. We genuinely belong in all of them."

!!Examples

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6359046/1/Sleepless Sleepless]]'' every time Harry fell asleep he ended up in an alternate universe where he had to defend their version of the Malfoys against an attempt to legally execute them.

[[folder:Film]]

* In ''Film/DarkCorners'' a woman alternates between the lives of an affluent young woman about to get married and a mortician's assistant living in a squalid apartment in a dangerous neighbourhood, never sure which is real and which is a dream.

* In the short story "Literature/TheOtherWife" by Jack Finney, a man discovers a way to travel between alternate realities. In each one he is married to a different wife, and when he finds himself getting bored with one he returns to the other.

** In the classic episode [[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E2CityOfDeath "City of Death"]], it's revealed that the MonsterOfTheWeek, the Scaroth, is living multiple lives throughout Earth's history simultaneously, and using his shared knowledge of these lives to further his plans.
** In the modern episode [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E7AmysChoice "Amy's Choice"]], the Doctor, Rory and Amy keep going back and forth between two sets of lives -- one where they're all on the TARDIS and one where Amy & Rory are living on Earth & she's pregnant -- and have to decide which is the "right" timeline.

* In the ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode "The Changeling", Teal'c alternates between his life at Stargate Command and another life where he and the other SG-1 members are firefighters. Both seem equally real. [[spoiler:In truth, neither is real. He's hallucinating due to sharing his symbiote with Bra'tac after they were both shot during an ambush by Anubis' forces.]]
* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': In "Tempests", Commander John Virgil, the first officer of the spaceship ''Tempest'', is infected with the venom of a giant alien spider which causes him to hallucinate. His perspective begins to switch between two mutually exclusive realities: one in which he is hailed as a hero for delivering the serum that eliminated the virus Ellycia C that was devastating his home colony and one in which he must repair the severely damaged ''Tempest'' so that it can bring the serum to the colony. He must decide which is real and which is the illusion. [[spoiler: It turns out that neither is real and that the unconscious Virgil is trapped aboard the ''Tempest'' being fed on by one of the spiders, as are the rest of the crew.]]

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone'' Classic episode "A World of Difference". Arthur Curtis finds himself switching between two worlds - one where he's a normal businessman, and another where he's an alcoholic actor named Gerry Raigan who's playing the role of businessman Arthur Curtis in a movie.
* In the ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode "The Changeling" Teal'c alternates between his life at Stargate Command and another life where he and the other SG-1 members are firefighters. Both seem equally real. [[spoiler:In truth, neither is real. He's hallucinating due to sharing his symbiote with Bra'tac after they were both shot during an ambush by Anubis' forces.]]

* In ''Film/TwilightZoneTheMovie'' a racist man is shuttled back and forth in time to live lives as a black, Jewish, and Asian person. He was supposed to learn a moral, but [[RealLifeWritesThePlot due to the death of the actor while filming an action scene]] he gets sent off to the gas chamber as a Jew during WorldWarII.

Often, the switch between lives happens each time the character falls asleep, making this trope related to DreamLand with elements of AllJustADream and OrWasItADream?.

** In the classic episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E2CityOfDeath City of Death]]", it's revealed that the MonsterOfTheWeek, the Scaroth, is living multiple lives throughout Earth's history simultaneously, and using his shared knowledge of these lives to further his plans.
** In the modern episode, "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E07AmysChoice Amy's Choice]]", the Doctor, Rory and Amy keep going back and forth between two sets of lives - one where they're all on the TARDIS and one where Amy & Rory are living on Earth & she's pregnant - and have to decide which is the "right" timeline.

These separate lives may take place spread out across time or in AlternateUniverse|s. The character will often have to gather information between their lives in order to advance the plot. Their unique circumstance makes it possible to talk to people that died in one universe before they could deliver important news or lets the main character save someone in one universe by figuring out who killed them in the other.