History Main / SelfPoisoningGambit

* Detective Hobbes, at the end of the film ''Film/{{Fallen}}'' drives to a remote location, shoots his partner ([[spoiler:currently possessed by a demon]]) then dies of the poison in his cigarettes. His plan was [[spoiler:TakingYouWithMe. With no one else around, the demon would have no other bodies to possess and be permanently destroyed.]]

* In the Creator/DashiellHammett [[Literature/TheContinentalOp Continental Op]] short story "Fly Paper" (1929), a woman wants to poison her abusive boyfriend, but is afraid he'll be suspicious if she gives him something without drinking it herself. After reading ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo'' she takes small doses of arsenic (extracted from flypaper) to build up an AcquiredPoisonImmunity, but instead fatally poisons herself. In discussing the case afterward the detectives reveal that the book is wrong; while some people have a natural resistance to arsenic, it's not possible to build up an immunity through controlled exposure. The poison of choice in ''The Count of Monte Cristo'' is in fact [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brucine Brucine,]] and '''is''' subject to Mithridatism.

* The eponymous Carl of ''Literature/DungeonCrawlerCarl'' poisons himself ''twice'' at the end of the circus quest in the second book. The first time, [[spoiler:he poisons himself to kill an otherwise nearly unkillable plant thing that has a horde of mind-controlled minions]], then he negotiates a deal with the people who wrote the quest in order to keep himself alive and stay part of their story. Having done so, he [[spoiler:heals himself, heals the Vine, then deliberately infects himself with the Vines mind-controlling worms (having used a spell to protect himself from most of the effects, then walks outside to craft a different end to this episode of the quest]].

* ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' [[PlayedForLaughs played this trope for laughs]]. The Janitor takes a bite of a pie he offered to J.D. to prove that it's not one of his pranks. Unlike most versions, Janitor has no immunity, and the next shot is both of them sitting in the bathroom due to the stolen laxatives he put in the pie. J.D. asks, "Who would do this to themselves?!", to which Janitor replies, "WorthIt!"

* ''Manhua/RavagesOfTime'': Lu Bu steals a kiss from Diao Chan, [[spoiler:actually assassin Xiao Meng in disguise]], and realizes, too late, that her lips had poison on them.

->'''Vizzini:''' I switched glasses when your back was turned. Ha ha! You fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is "Never get involved in a land war in Asia," but only slightly less well-known is this: "Never go in against a Sicilian when ''death'' is on the line!"\\
''[He laughs for a few seconds, then stops abruptly and falls over dead]''\\

* ''Fanfic/TheFairySapphire'': In order to convince Peter Pan into drinking some wine, Rumple drinks some of it himself first, then offers it to Belle. The wine was mixed with [[spoiler:water from the strait; the childless Belle is unaffected, while Rumple and Pan are both poisoned]].

* ''Anime/TheLegendOfSnowWhite'' features a variant of this trope combined with HeroicSacrifice when Snow White is offered the poisoned apple by the disguised Queen Chrystal. Snow White sees straight through the trick and knows the apple is poisoned. But at the same time, the whole rest of the forest has been [[TakenForGranite turned to stone]], which only Queen Chrystal's magic staff can reverse. Seeing no other way, Snow White takes a bite of the apple, which distracts Chrystal just long enough for Snow White to grab her staff and use her last moments of life ([[DisneyDeath for the time being]], that is) to break the petrification spell.

[[folder: Fairy Tales]]

* ''Film/TheFrenchDispatch'': When the kidnappers of the police commissioner's son are rightfully suspicious that the food they were given was poisoned, Lt. Nescaffier eats a bite of each dish in front of them. He is luckily rescued before he fully succumbs and recovers. Roebuck theorises that the only reason he wasn't killed near-immediately was because the Lieutenant was a chef and had eaten a lot of things not pleasant to normal stomachs.

* In the climax of ''Literature/{{Airman}}'', [[spoiler: Bonvilain attempts this with Queen Isabella and Conor's parents while they're having a toast]]. However, [[spoiler:they suspect what he's up to and refuse to have their drinks, and he's later [[HoistByHisOwnPetard weakened enough by his own poison]] for Conor to kill him.]]
* ''Literature/TheBelgariad'': A Tolnedran politician killed another by sharing with them a poison that kills the drinker if they get angry.

* In ''Literature/{{Dune}}'', Dr. Yueh Wellington put a poison capsule tooth on Duke Leto Atreides's mouth and told him that when he gets captured by the Harkonnens and delivered to Baron Vladimir Harkonnen himself, he must bite the capsule when the Baron goes near him in order to ensure that the poisoned gas would be released. Since they're both aware that Leto would not make out of this alive, Yueh reassures to him that Jessica and Paul are safe and out of the Harkonnens' way. [[spoiler:The plan nearly worked except Leto only got to kill the Harkonnen's mentat, Piter de Vries, and several soldiers while the Baron was lucky to step out of the distance]].

* In ''Exiled: Clan of the Claw'', a Mrem slave tells the ambitious Liskash princess how her seemingly weak PsychicPowers can be used to kill, and talks her into getting herself a KlingonPromotion. He then serves poisoned wine at her coronation dinner, wiping out the Liskash leadership and allowing all the other Mrem to stage a breakout. When the new queen challenges the slave to drink some of the wine himself before she has any, he does so with a smile, knowing that he's buying freedom for his friends.
-->'''Mrem:''' ''[to dying queen with his last breath]'' IDieFree. I die for my people. You just die.

* Downplayed ([[PlayedForLaughs for laughs]]) in an episode of ''Series/{{Reba}}'' wherein the "poison" is some indeterminate-but-bad-tasting substance in cookies used for a revenge prank from Reba to Van. She also uses a third party to pull it off. She presents Van with a plate of cookies, which he suspects she's tampered with. After she leaves the room, Jake walks in, seemingly knowing nothing about the conflict or the cookies, and Van offers him one as a test. Jake takes a bite, declares it's good, and then finds Reba, smiles, and says "I took the cookie you told me to." Cut back to Van, gagging.
* In ''Series/{{Justified}}'' season two, Mags shares moonshine with Walt. Walt is suspicious, as Mags has motive to kill him. But he is reassured when he sees her filling their glasses out of the same bottle of moonshine and she drinks first. As he begins to die and stares at her in surprise, she tells him, "the poison was in the glass..." At season's end [[spoiler:she reverses the trick just before Raylan can take her to prison, using the same line to reassure Raylan that she had only poisoned herself]].

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'', Jimmy takes his friends to search for a scientist who invites them for dinner, but turns out he added a chemical into the food that would transform them into seaweed golem slaves. When Jimmy points out that he ate it as well, he simply answers that he has an antidote, and proceeds to drink it.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheEmperorsNewGroove'', Yzma's plan to poison Kuzco fails because Kronk forgot which cup had the poison, so he had to mix all the drinks together and he and Yzma only pretend to drink with Kuzco. It didn't matter anyway if they had, since Kronk had used extract of llama instead of poison, and only succeeds in turning Kuzco into a llama.

->'''Vizzini:''' I switched glasses when your back was turned. Ha ha! You fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders[...]never go in against a Sicilian when ''death'' is on the line! ''[laughs for a few seconds, then stops abruptly and falls over dead]''\\