History Main / ResetButtonSuicideMission

* ''Literature/StarTrekCoda'', the GrandFinale of the ''Literature/StarTrekNovelverse'', reveals that this particular continuity has been an AlternateTimeline ever since the timey-wimey events of ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact''. The unique circumstances around that incident led the [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E26S6E1TimesArrow Devidians]] to figure out how to devour entire timelines, catapulting them from scavengers into the cosmic predators behind the [[ApocalypseHow/ClassX5 Temporal Apocalypse]] threatening the entire multiverse. The heroes eventually learn that the only way to stop the crisis is to erase their whole timeline, or else the Devidians will eat the timeline anyway and go on destroying the multiverse. A complex plan involving three interlocking suicide missions into enemy strongholds is launched; one to the Borg-assimilated Earth, one to the Bajoran wormhole in the mirror universe, and one into the Devidians' headquarters. Dozens of major characters are killed fighting off countless enemies, with only a bare handful living just long enough to see the erasure pulled off. There's even some bittersweet LeaningOnTheFourthWall about the concept, as characters note that they have to sacrifice their own existence to safeguard the "prime" timeline of canon, leaving no evidence that they ever existed.

** In the episode "[[Recap/StargateSG1S4E162010 2010]]", the heroes attempt to send a note backward through time to prevent the covert sterilization of humanity by what were believed to be friendly aliens. All four of them are killed, but they manage to send back a cryptic clue which eventually prevents involvement with the aliens, and thus the timeline that led to their deaths.
** In the final episode, "[[Recap/StargateSG1S10E20Unending Unending]]", the titular SG-1 are trapped between two [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Ori]] battleships. Samantha Carter freezes time outside of the ship. They grow old on board and eventually Carter works out a way to escape -- the twist being, they use the [[WaveMotionGun projectiles]] as an energy source to go back in time ([[{{Technobabble}} or something like that]]), but one of them has to stay old. They choose Teal'c, the TokenNonHuman, since he ages very slowly, and the ship is blown up by the laser. Luckily, it works, so Teal'c is sent back in time to put in a special program Carter wrote, allowing them to escape.

** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': In the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E15YesterdaysEnterprise Yesterday's Enterprise]]", the Enterprise-D sacrifices itself to cover the return of the Enterprise-C back to its original time in order to prevent the alternate timeline it emerged into from occurring.

** ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'': In the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekEnterpriseS03E08Twilight Twilight]]", an alternate future is shown where Humanity is all but wiped out by the Xindi, due to Archer losing his ability to form long-term memory, and thus not being able to lead the ''Enterprise'' crew to stop the Xindi from destroying Earth. When it is discovered that the parasites causing Archer's illness can be eliminated from the past by eliminating them from the present, the surviving members of the crew (after most of them are killed when the bridge is destroyed) attempt to complete Archer's treatment in order to change the past. As the ship is invaded, they gradually get killed off -- until Archer realizes that if he is destroyed, so will the parasites, thus using his dying moment to trigger the ship's self-destruct, destroying him and thus the parasites, and resetting the timeline.

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'': One episode sees Batman, Wonder Woman, and John Stewart travel to a BadFuture, where they team up with the future League to prevent it from ever occurring in the first place. Many of the future League members die in the battle, but the proper timeline, as seen in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'', is ultimately restored.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Wakfu}}'': Nox, the first season's ArcVillain, is on what could be described as a Reset Button ''Genocide'' Mission. He wants to go many years back in time to [[spoiler:save his family]] and doesn't care who he kills in the process because it'd all be undone if he's successful. The heroes oppose him because they ''[[WrongTimeTravelSavvy don't]]'' believe he can succeed, and may even destroy the universe trying. [[spoiler:Nox doesn't destroy the universe, but he was basically wrong. What he expected to bring him 200 years in the past only went back ''[[AllForNothing less than an hour]]''.]]

* ''VideoGame/CobaltCore'': Cat.exe uploads themself into the mainframe of the Cobalt in order to draw it out where you can fight it. The automated defenses annihilate them within milliseconds but they still succeed. They chat with their record survival time with certain crew members before the fight sometimes, since whether you win or lose you're stuck in a time loop and they'll be back for the next one either way.

* ''VideoGame/CobaltCore'': Cat.exe uploads themself into the mainframe of the cobalt in order to draw it out where you can fight it. The automated defenses annihilate them within milliseconds but they still succeed. They chat with their record survival time with certain crew members before the fight sometimes, since whether you win or lose you're stuck in a time loop and they'll be back for the next one either way.

* "VideoGame/CobaltCore": Cat.exe uploads themself into the mainframe of the cobalt in order to draw it out where you can fight it. The automated defenses annihilate them within milliseconds but they still succeed. They chat with their record survival time with certain crew members before the fight sometimes, since whether you win or lose you're stuck in a time loop and they'll be back for the next one either way.

A major disaster strikes: Cthulhu stomps through a gate, a critical bulwark to civilization is destroyed, or some person central to reality is killed. The lead characters have a plan for how to unwind time to fix it: building a time machine, performing a magic ritual, or something similar. In the process of pursuing the necessary {{MacGuffin}}s and dodging {{mooks}}, the ranks of our heroes dwindle, but they lay down their lives willingly, knowing that as long as the plan succeeds everything will be put back... including them. That foreknowledge of the coming reset is key to this trope.

This is a mashup of ResetButton and SuicideMission, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin obviously enough]]. In general this is also a subset of DwindlingParty, though it's possible that the characters may sacrifice themselves as a group. In contrast with ClimacticBattleResurrection, where the return of deceased characters to life is the prelude to a massive battle, in many cases of this trope nobody has any idea anything happened after the original disaster is undone. However, don't be surprised if some characters have RippleEffectProofMemory to remember it all in the end.

'''Since this is a DeathTrope, expect spoilers'''.

[[foldercontrol]]

* In ''Fanfic/TheRavensPlan'', the last few thousand living humans engage in a final, futile battle against the White Walkers to allow Bran, Arya and Sansa Stark, Tyrion Lannister, and Daenerys Targaryen the chance to execute a ritual meant to send them back into the past. Unfortunately, nobody took their sacrifice into account, resulting in far, far more [[ThePowerOfBlood blood]] than anyone expected and a severely overpowered ritual that sent countless souls back rather than only the heroes'.

* Zecora pulls this in the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E26TheCutieRemarkPart2 The Cutie Re-Mark – Part 2]]", in a [[BadFuture Bad Alternate Future]] that's ruled over by Queen Chrysalis. She knows that Twilight Sparkle can set the timeline right again and prevent it, and goes down fighting Chrysalis in a [[https://trixiebooru.org/1035161 surprisingly dark scene]]. [[WebVideo/NostalgiaCritic You know, for kids!]]

->'''Anyanka''': You trusting fool! How do you know the other world is any better than this?\\
'''Giles''': Because it has to be.
-->-- ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', "The Wish"

* In the "Rock of Ages" arc in the JLA comic, future Batman confronts Darkseid to distract him as the past JLA members return to the past and disable the mechanism that allowed him to ascend to full power, giving him TheReasonYouSuckSpeech in the process.

[[folder:Fanfiction]]

* In ''Fanfic/AsNApproachesInfinity'', Urahara sacrifices himself to allow Homura the chance to travel back in time.

* ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'': The X-Men in a BadFuture send Wolverine into the past with MentalTimeTravel to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong, and perform a heroic last stand to protect his body and buy him enough SanDimasTime to succeed. They all die, but history is changed just in time to save Wolverine's body from destruction, and when he wakes up back in it, he's in a new timeline where they all survived (as did a bunch of other people who'd died in the old timeline).
* ''Film/EdgeOfTomorrow'' double subverts it. Cage has the ability to rewind time by a day every time he dies through most of the movie, effectively making his whole mission this. But near the end, he loses the ability to reset, and leads a team to finish the Omega Mimic once and for all, sure enough, with them dying to the last man. But by killing the Omega, he regains the ability and shifts back ''two'' days, with the Omega retroactively dying and preventing the whole plot.

* ''Literature/StarTrekCoda'', the GrandFinale of the ''Literature/StarTrekNovelverse'', reveals that this particular continuity has been an AlternateTimeline ever since the timey-wimey events of ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact''. The unique circumstances around that incident led the [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E26S6E1TimesArrow Devidians]] to figure out how to devour entire timelines, catapulting them from scavengers into the cosmic predators behind the [[ApocalypseHow/ClassX5 Temporal Apocalypse]] threatening the entire multiverse. The heroes eventually learn that the only way to stop the crisis is to erase their whole timeline, or else the Devidians will eat the timeline anyway and go on destroying the multiverse. A complex plan involving three interlocking suicide missions into enemy strongholds is launched; one to the Borg-assimilated Earth, one to the Bajoran wormhole in the mirror universe, and one into the Devidians' headquarters. Dozens of major characters are killed fighting off countless enemies, with only a bare handful living just long enough to see the erasure pulled off.
** There's even some bittersweet LeaningOnTheFourthWall about the concept, as characters note that they have to sacrifice their own existence to safeguard the "prime" timeline of canon, leaving no evidence that they ever existed.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' runs with this in "The Wish." Cordelia, in a fit of jealousy, wishes that Buffy never came to Sunnydale, a wish granted by Anyanka, a [[JackassGenie Vengeance Demon]] masquerading as a high school student. In the resulting AlternateUniverse, Buffy never came to Sunnydale, never defeated The Master, and as a result the town is overrun with vampires, with Buffy's best friends, Willow and Xander, now being the Master's sadistic vampire lieutenants. Most of the cast die in the final fight, with the page quote above happening just before Giles destroys Anyanka's amulet, resetting the universe (and incidentally leaving Anyanka stuck as a human teenager struggling to make it through high school. [[RuleOfFunny Don't overthink it]].)

* ''Series/SevenDays'': This is a regular occurrence, where the team will work to send Frank back in time. In the second episode 98% of the world's population, including all the main characters except Frank, die due to a virus outbreak/attack. They work to get Frank and the sphere back in time, knowing that if he succeeds they'll all be fine.
* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': In the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS04E03TheVisitor The Visitor]]", Benjamin Sisko is trapped in subspace by a NegativeSpaceWedgie and periodically comes back for a few minutes at a time into the life of his son Jake, at ever increasing intervals. Jake abandons his writing career and spends his whole life trying to find a way to save his father. Eventually he determines that the tie between them can only be severed at the point of Jake's death, but that the outcome depends on Sisko's location at the time of Jake's death; if he's in subspace, he'll be lost forever, but if Jake's death occurs in one of the rare moments where Sisko is pulled into normal space, it will reset time to the time where the link was first formed -- the accident. He poisons himself so that he'll die at the exact time of Benjamin's next visit, sever the tie, undo about sixty years, and put Benjamin back a few seconds before the anomaly, giving him time to jump out of the way.
* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': In the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E15YesterdaysEnterprise Yesterday's Enterprise]]" the Enterprise-D sacrifices itself to cover the return of the Enterprise-C back to its original time in order to prevent the alternate timeline it emerged into from occurring.
* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': The "Year of Hell" two-parter has Janeway go up against a timeship that has the power to RetGone people and things. ''Voyager'''s shields turn out to block the time wave, allowing them to recognize the changes. At the end, Janeway uses ''Voyager'' to [[RammingAlwaysWorks ram the timeship]], causing it to RetGone ''itself'', erasing the eponymous year and setting all of history back in order.
-->'''Janeway:''' Time's. Up.
* ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'': In the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekEnterpriseS03E08Twilight Twilight]]", an alternate future is shown where Humanity is all but wiped out by the Xindi, due to Archer losing his ability to form long-term memory, and thus not being able to lead the ''Enterprise'' crew to stop the Xindi from destroying Earth. When it is discovered that the parasites causing Archer's illness can be eliminated from the past by eliminating them from the present, the surviving members of the crew (after most of them are killed when the bridge is destroyed) attempt to complete Archer's treatment in order to change the past. As the ship is invaded, they gradually get killed off - until Archer realises that if he is destroyed, so will the parasites, thus using his dying moment to trigger the ship's self-destruct, destroying him and thus the parasites, and resetting the timeline.

** In the episode "2010", the heroes attempt to send a note backward through time to prevent the covert sterilization of humanity by what were believed to be friendly aliens. All four of them are killed, but they manage to send back a cryptic clue which eventually prevents involvement with the aliens, and thus the timeline that lead to their deaths.
** In the final episode "Unending" the titular SG-1 are trapped between two [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Ori]] battleships. Samantha Carter freezes time outside of the ship. They grow old on board and eventually Carter works out a way to escape -- the twist being, they use the [[WaveMotionGun projectiles]] as an energy source to go back in time ([[TechnoBabble or something like that]]), but one of them has to stay old. They choose Teal'c, the TokenNonHuman, since he ages very slowly, and the ship is blown up by the laser. Luckily, it works, so Teal'c is sent back in time to put in a special program Carter wrote, allowing them to escape.
* ''Series/TwelveMonkeys'': This is essentially the whole plot, as Cole and the rest of Team Splinter acknowledge from the start that succeeding in [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong averting the plague]] will essentially [[RetGone wipe out]] the current versions of themselves. [[spoiler: Ultimately, for Cole it becomes a ''literal'' suicide mission, as it turns out that the only way to break the series of {{Stable Time Loop}}s is to erase himself from having ever existed in the first place.]]
* ''Series/{{Warehouse 13}}'': At the end of Season 3 the Warehouse is destroyed, important supporting characters were all dead, and the world was coming to an end. At the start of Season 4 the heroes can rewind time by 24 hours if they get the right magical goodies, but a secret society takes exception to it. The heroes drop like flies, but no problem, it'll all be fixed in the rewind.
* ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'': Towards the end of Season 2, the LegionOfDoom get the Spear of Destiny and use it to create [[VillainWorld Doom World]]. The Spear is then destroyed by Thawne, preventing the Legends from using it to fix reality. Out of options, they double back on their own timeline and try to keep the Spear from being taken by the Legion in the first place. They acknowledge that doing so will cause them to cease to exist, and deem it an acceptable price. All of the Doom World Legends except Sara die in the battle (several ensuring their counterparts survive), and once the Spear is destroyed she peacefully fades from existence.

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'': One story arc revolved around trying to undo a false-vacuum collapse that will obliterate space itself. The same disaster made time travel possible when ordinarily it isn't, so Kevyn is chosen to go back in time with the information that will prevent the disaster (and incidentally prevent the death of Captain Tagon). The physics of the time gate requires those left behind to keep it open as long as possible in order to send Kevyn as far back as possible; they all die doing so to give Kevyn a chance.

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'': one episode sees Batman, Wonder Woman, and John Stewart travel to a BadFuture, where they team up with the future League to prevent it from ever occurring in the first place. Many of the future League members die in the battle, but the proper timeline, as seen in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'', is ultimately restored.
* Averted in ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'', where it's explicitly said that even the "Return to the Past" ability of the supercomputer can't bring back the dead. Doesn't stop it from being activated when people are ''on the verge of'' being killed, though.

* Zecora pulls this in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' in a [[BadFuture Bad Alternate Future]] that's ruled over by Queen Chrysalis. She knows that Twilight Sparkle can set the timeline right again and prevent it, and goes down fighting Chrysalis in a [[https://trixiebooru.org/1035161 surprisingly dark scene]]. [[WebVideo/NostalgiaCritic You know, for kids!]]
* The start of the series finale of ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown'' is kickstarted cause Omi tried to go into the future to see his future self forgetting that if he wasn't in the past, he wouldn't be in the future. And since he took Dojo with him, the other monks weren't able to find the Shen Gong Wu allowing Jack Splicer to get them all and take over the world (Yes Jack, the bumbling idiot villain rather then more powerful Wuya, Chase Young or Hannibal Bean. [[NotSoHarmlessVillain Who knew?]]). Omi reunites his fellow monks, who obviously are old by this point, who help him get into Jack's fortress and get the Shen Gong Wu needed to go back in time and prevent this. However of course they end up meeting their end doing so just as Omi (or rather Dojo as Omi [[HeroicBSOD was in shock at witnessing this]]) activates the Wu.

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'': [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-5000 SCP-5000]] tells the story of a Foundation operative who went on a journey across the world on a mission to reset the universe after the Foundation discovers [[ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow something that leads them to believe that ending humanity is the best course of action]] and wreaks havoc. He succeeds, but falls to his death in the process and the story begins with his remains appearing in a flash of light in the new universe with his ApocalypticLog.

* ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'': In the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekEnterpriseS03E08Twilight Twilight]]", an alternate future is shown where Humanity is all but wiped out by the Xindi, due to Archer losing his ability to form long-term memory, and thus not being able to lead the Enterprise crew to stop the Xindi from attacking Earth. When it is discovered that the parasites causing Archer's illness can be eliminated from the past by eliminating them from the present, the surviving members of the crew (after most of them are killed when the bridge is destroyed) attempt to complete Archer's treatment in order to change the past. As the ship is invaded, they gradually get killed off - until Archer realises that if he is destroyed, so will the parasites, thus using his dying moment to trigger the ship to self-destruct, destroying him and thus the parasites, and resetting the timeline.

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'': one episode sees Batman, Wonder Woman, and John Steward travel to a BadFuture, where they team up with the future League to prevent it from ever occurring in the first place. Many of the future League members die in the battle, but the proper timeline, as seen in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'', is ultimately restored.

* The start of the series finale of ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown'' is kickstarted cause Omi tried to go into the future to see his future self forgetting that if he wasn't in the past, he wouldn't be in the future. And since he took Dojo with him, the other monks weren't able to find the Shen Gong Wu allowing Jack Splicer to get them all and take over the world (Yes Jack, the bumbling idiot villain rather then more powerful Wuya, Chase Young or Hannibal Bean. Who knew?). Omi reunites his fellow monks, who obviously are old by this point, who help him get into Jack's fortress and get the Shen Gong Wu needed to go back in time and prevent this. However of course they end up meeting their end doing so just as Omi (or rather Dojo as Omi [[HeroicBSOD was in shock at witnessing this]]) activates the Wu.

* In ''Fanfic/AsNApproachesInfinity]], Urahara sacrifices himself to allow Homura the chance to travel back in time.

* ''Series/Lost'': Deconstructed in Season 5. The characters in 1977 undertake the extremely reckless mission to detonate a hydrogen bomb on top of the electromagnetic energy pocket that will cause their plane to crash on the Island thirty years later, racking up a huge number of casualties on the way, on the assumption that it will all be undone when their mission succeeds. In the end [[spoiler: not only does the mission fail, it's implied to have [[StableTimeLoop caused the very disaster they were seeking to prevent]], and results in Pierre Chang losing his arm, along with the deaths of a large number of DHARMA Initiative workers, Daniel, Juliet, and Sayid, who becomes [[FaceHeelTurn a servant of]] [[BigBad the Man in Black]] for most of the final season after he is seemingly resurrected by him.]]

* ''VideoGame/AHatInTime'': In the finale, the BigBad has rewritten time to put themselves in charge. In a tantrum, the BigBad kills off several minor characters, which causes the characters to burst into healing Pons. [[EurekaMoment One of the Mafia realizes that they can help Hat Kid win by sacrificing themselves to create healing Pons for Hat Kid]], and if the Hat Kid wins, time is reset to what it should be, bringing ''them'' back too. This results in a large number of supporting characters punching each other out to keep the Hat Kid topped off on health during the final phase of the battle.

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': In the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS04E03TheVisitor The Visitor]]", Benjamin Sisko is trapped in subspace by a NegativeSpaceWedgie and periodically comes back for a few minutes at a time into the life of his son Jake, at ever increasing intervals. Jake abandons his writing career and spends his whole life trying to find a way to save his father. Eventually he determines that the tie between them can only be severed at the point of Jake's death, but that the outcome depends on Sisko's location at the time of Jake's death; if he's in subspace, he'll be lost forever, but if Jake happens to die in one of the rare moments where Sisko is pulled into normal space, it will reset time to the moment where the link was formed -- the accident. He poisons himself so that he'll die at the exact time of Benjamin's next visit, sever the tie, undo about sixty years, and put Benjamin back a few seconds before the anomaly, giving him time to jump out of the way.

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': In the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS04E03TheVisitor The Visitor]]", Benjamin Sisko is trapped in subspace by a NegativeSpaceWedgie and periodically comes back for a few minutes at a time into the life of his son Jake, at ever increasing intervals. Jake abandons his writing career and spends his whole life trying to find a way to save his father. Eventually he determines that the tie between them can only be severed at the point of Jake's death. He poisons himself so that he'll die at the exact time of Benjamin's next visit, sever the tie, undo about sixty years, and put Benjamin back a few seconds before the anomaly, giving him time to jump out of the way.

* ''VideoGame/GhostTrick'': After being stuck on a submarine Sissel and Missile say their farewells to Lyne to hitch a ride on a torpedo towards a separated room that contains Yomiel's body so that they can rewind time one last time and undo the death that started it all.

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'': [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-5000 SCP-5000]] tells the story of a Foundation operative who went on a journey across the world on a mission to reset the universe after the Foundation discovers [[ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow something that leads them to believe that ending humanity is the best course of action]] and wreaks havoc. He succeeds, but falls to his death in the process and the story begins with his remains appearing in a flash of light in the new universe with his logs.

* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': The "Year of Hell" two-parter has Janeway go up against a timeship that has the power to RetGone people and things. ''Voyager'' has shields designed to block the time wave, and goes up against it with allied ships with the same shields. At the end, she instructs her fellow ships to drop their shields, before having ''Voyager'' [[RammingAlwaysWorks ram the timeship]], causing the timeship to RetGone ''itself''.

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': In the episode ''[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS04E03TheVisitor The Visitor]]'', Benjamin Sisko is trapped in subspace by a NegativeSpaceWedgie and periodically comes back for a few minutes at a time into the life of his son Jake, at ever increasing intervals. Jake abandons his writing career and spends his whole life trying to find a way to save his father. Eventually he determines that the tie between them can only be severed at the point of Jake's death. He poisons himself so that he'll die at the exact time of Benjamin's next visit, sever the tie, undo about sixty years, and put Benjamin back a few seconds before the anomaly, giving him time to jump out of the way.
* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': In the episode ''[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E15YesterdaysEnterprise Yesterday's Enterprise]]'' the Enterprise-D sacrifices itself to cover the return of the Enterprise-C back to its original time in order to prevent the alternate timeline it emerged into from occurring.