History Main / SuicideAttack

[[folder:Films]]

* Creator/RobertHeinlein's novel ''Literature/StarshipTroopers'' makes it a point to honor private Roger Young, who fought in the Pacific Theater in WWII. His unit was pinned down by an Japanese bunker after a failed attempt to advance and assault it, so Young disobeyed orders and stormed the bunker himself, managing to get close enough to throw a grenade into it, but taking multiple fatal wounds in the process.

* A wizard's death curse in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' involves the wizard using up their entire available store of energy, including the part that keeps their body running, to cast a single spell. Due to the sheer power behind them, a death curse is an order of magnitude greater than regular spells.

** Fujiwara no Mokou, the [[BonusBoss Extra Stage boss]] of ''VideoGame/TouhouEiyashouImperishableNight'', dies after her spell cards. However, since she's [[ResurrectiveImmortality immortal]], she just comes back to life and continues pelting you with danmaku until she gets tired. When she reappears in ''VideoGame/TouhouShinpirokuUrbanLegendInLimbo'' she has gained an attack that effectively annihilates her body in a pillar of fire. On the flip side, this Suicide Attack actually ''heals'' her of all [[CastFromHitPoints self-inflicted damage]].

* PlayedWith in Manga/AssassinationClassroom with three students making Nagisa Shiota try to kill Koro-sensei with a neckless grenade. However this method would only kill Koro-sensei due to the grenades explosion propelling bullets that only deal damage to Koro-Sensei at him. The thing is that Koro-sensei sees this as a reckless suicidal attack and scolds the students for engaging in such a incompetent attempt to take a life.

* This is the final action the hero does in [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/109581/1/i-did-not-want-to-die/i-did-not-want-to-die I Did Not Want To Die.]]

* In ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'', Ronan orders his Necrocraft pilots to dive-bomb the city as a distraction for the Nova Corps.

* Alice Margatroid of ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' seems to have this as a recurring theme in her attacks: "Suicide Squad," "Suicide Pact," "Straw Doll Kamikaze," "Artful Sacrifice," etc. Note that it's not Alice sacrificing ''herself'', but rather sending legions of her dolls to blow up on the enemy.
** Fujiwara no Mokou, the [[BonusBoss Extra Stage boss]] of ''Imperishable Night'', dies after her spell cards. However, since she's [[ResurrectiveImmortality immortal]], she just comes back to life and continues pelting you with danmaku until she gets tired. When she reappears in ''Urban Legend in Limbo'' she has gained an attack that effectively annihilates her body in a pillar of fire. On the flip side, this Suicide Attack actually ''heals'' her of all [[CastFromHitPoints self-inflicted damage]].

** [[VideoGame/{{Borderlands 2}} The sequel]] has Suicide Psychos, who has this as their primary attack as well as the EXP Loader, robots who run up to the player and self-destruct.

* In ''Videogame/SouthParkTheFracturedButWhole'', Mysterion's LimitBreak is to take out a bomb and blow himself up, dealing damage to all enemies adjacent to him. This isn't as bad as it sounds, since Mysterion has a passive ability that turns him into a ghost whenever he dies, which has its own moveset and LimitBreak which restores him to life. He ''is'' [[TheyKilledKennyAgain Kenny]], after all.

* In ''Videogame/FateGrandOrder'', Arash's [[LimitBreak Noble Phantasm]] "Stella: The Lone Meteor" is an [=AoE=] nuke that does immense damage but also immediately kills him. As a low-rarity Servant, this makes him useful as a cheap way to clear through trash mobs.

* PlayedWith in Manga/AssassinationClassroom with three students making Nagisa Shiota try to kill Koro-sensei with a neckless grenade. However this method would only kill Koro-sensei due to the grenades explosion propelling little BBs that only deal damage to Koro-Sensei at him. The thing is that Koro-sensei sees this as a reckless suicidal attack and scolds the students for engaging in such a incompetent attempt to take a life.

* PlayedWith in Manga/AssassinationClassroom with three students making Nagisa Shiota try to kill Koro-sensei with a neckless grenade. What kills Koro-sensei is little BBs in the grenade that will not harming Nagisa Shiota but will harm Koro-sensei. The thing is that Koro-sensei sees this as a reckless suicided attack and scolds the students for engaging in such a incompetent attempt to take a life.

** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': Even though Captain Picard and the crew of the ''Enterprise'' take the concerns of Sevora and her brother Rabal about warp drive seriously, Sevora commits what amounts to a suicide attack by detonating the warp core of her own ship to cause the [[NegativeSpaceWedgie rift]] she had been warning others about to form. This endangers a ship trapped within the rift she formed as well as her own home planet. Her actions cause a rift to form well before anyone is ready to deal with it.

* ''Series/DeepSpaceNine''. When the Federation first encounter the Jem'Hadar, one of their fighters does a suicide run into the warp nacelle of a Galaxy-class starship, destroying both vessels. There's no military necessity for this; it's done purely to demonstrate to the Federation that the Jem'Hadar are not to be taken lightly.

*** In ''Super'', Vegeta pulls the same move on Toppo during the Tournament of Power. [[spoiler:Not only does he succeed in eliminating his opponent, his increased strength in the intervening years allows him to ''survive'' with only his armor ruined!]]
*** In ''Anime/DragonBallGT'', Goku attempted a suicide attack on Omega Shenron which appeared to be a mixed of Chiaotzu and Vegeta's suicide attacks, he grabbed Omega and was going to release all the energy in his body at once. He was stopped by Vegeta who reminded him of his own lack of success with that technique.

* ''Anime/DragonBallZ'':
** The Mafuba (Evil Containment Wave) from the original series, which Master Mutaito used to imprison Piccolo. Roshi attempts to reseal him with it, but fails and dies in vain. However, a sufficiently powerful and young user can survive the technique: Tenshinhan did when he tried it against Piccolo (though he was ''severely'' weakened and, had Goku not pulled a BigDamnHeroes, he would've been defenseless against any upcoming attacks), and Kami was able to use it against Piccolo Jr (though had it reversed on him and was himself briefly sealed). And then Future Trunks did it in ''Anime/DragonBallSuper''. And later in ''Super'', Roshi has become sufficiently stronger that he's able to use it ''three times'' without dying. Though the third attempt ''almost'' killed him.
** The [[{{Mook}} Saibaman's]] self-destruct attack is the only instance in the entire series that kills its target as intended, and now Yamcha forever bears the shame of having been killed by cannon fodder.
** Chiaotzu tried this on Nappa. He died, [[TheWorfEffect Nappa didn't.]]
** Later, Tien tried to avenge him with the Kikoho (Tri-Beam), an attack [[CastFromHitpoints so deadly that it eats up the life of its user]], with the objective of both killing Nappa and killing himself, so he would see Chiaotzu again. It didn't work either, presumably because he was already badly injured before attempting it.
** Android #16 tries to destroy Cell by grappling him and activating the self-destruct system Dr. Gero built into all his Androids...and unfortunately, that's when he learns that Bulma removed the bomb when they were rebuilding him; Cell doesn't waste any time in destroying him. More's the shame, Cell's [[OhCrap reaction]] suggests that it might have actually worked.
** There's one example of a self-destruct successfully killing ''a'' target, but falling short of the intended effect. When Cell's fight with Gohan [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor wasn't going as planned]], in desperation he opted to [[TakingYouWithMe take everybody with him]] via a self-destruct so powerful [[EarthShatteringKaboom it would destroy the entire planet]]. What Cell failed to account for was that [[HeroicSacrifice Goku could grab Cell and teleport him off the planet before the explosion]].
** In the Buu Saga, Vegeta figures out since Majin Buu can regenerate FromASingleCell, the only way to kill him for good is to destroy him all at once, and performs a SphereOfDestruction attack that [[CastFromHitPoints expends his life energy]] (somehow causing his body to [[TakenForGranite turn to stone]] in the process). Unfortunately, he failed to get all of Buu with the attack.
*** In ''Super'', Vegeta pulls the same move on Toppo during the Tournament of Power. [[spoiler:Not only does he succeed in eliminating his opponent, his increased strength in the intervening years allows him to ''survive'' with only his armor ruined!]]
** In ''Anime/DragonBallGT'', Goku attempted a suicide attack on Omega Shenron which appeared to be a mixed of Chiaotzu and Vegeta's suicide attacks, he grabbed Omega and was going to release all the energy in his body at once. He was stopped by Vegeta who reminded him of his own lack of success with that technique.

* PlayedWith in Manga/AssassinationClassroom with three students making Nagisa Shiota try to kill Koro-sensei with a neckless grenade. The thing is that what kills Koro-sensei is little BBs in the grenade that will not harming Nagisa Shiota but will harm Koro-sensei. The thing is that Koro-sensei sees this as a reckless suicided attack and scolds the students for engaging in such a incompetent attempt to take a life.

** The plot of ''Series/{{Caprica}}'' is initiated by a suicide bombing.

* During the GrandFinale of Series/PowerRangersLostGalaxy, BigBad Trakeena has her entire army of [[{{Mook}} Stingwingers]] equiped with bombs and sends them on a massive suicide attack against Terra Venture and the Rangers. They take down two megazords and a great number of buildings this way, as well as wearing out the Rangers, who spend a lot of time directing them away from innocent civilians. It's one of the things that makes this season DarkerAndEdgier than an average PR season, and the fact Trakeena kills off her own army this way is one of the reasons her [[TheDragon Dragon]] Villamax questions her actions.

* The Techies in ''VideoGame/DefenseOfTheAncientsAllStars'' used to have a skill that blows themselves up for massive damage, and it was the only skill they had that didn't lay down a trap. While dying is a pretty bad thing in [=DotA=], [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled it denies enemies from getting a kill bounty from you]], and it also halves their respawn time and gives them the kill experience reward if their attack kills.

** According to Wiki/TheOtherWiki, Hezbollah introduced suicide bombing to the Middle East in 1983 with the attack on the US Marines. Suicide attacks were introduced in 162 BCE by Eleazar ben Mattathias, younger brother of Yehuda the Hammer, who hit upon the technique of killing a war elephant by running under it and stabbing up from underneath

** It has been alleged that Fatah provides large financial incentives for Palestinians to kill Israelis, which they will pay to the attacker's family even if the attacker dies.[[note]]The reality behind this is convoluted and hard to determine, as both sides involved have an interest in slanting and distorting the truth for propaganda purposes. It is incredibly hard to find unbiased and objective reporting on this issue. TheOtherWiki has a - possibly - balanced and bias-free article on this.[[/note]] However, they also provide incentives to survive, get caught, and be put in an Israeli jail for a very long time, zig-zagging the trope.

*** Taken UpToEleven with General Juhziz in the ExpansionPack ''Zero Hour'', who has an upgrade that will turn '''everything''' (bar main structures) into suicide attackers, and his Advanced Demo Traps are both cheaper and stronger. Meanwhile, MasterPoisoner Dr. Thrax has Toxin Terrorists, i.e. Terrorists that explode and leave behind poison clouds and Toxin Demo Traps, which do the same. Their Bomb Trucks are also locked into high-explosive and anthrax warheads, respectively.

* Similarly, in ''Series/LieToMe'', two young men blow themselves up in what seem to be suicide terrorist attacks. It turns out they are innocent and unaware, having been given remote-controlled bombs disguised as innocuous items.

* Creator/RobertHeinlein's novel ''Literature/StartshipTroopers'' makes it a point to honor private Roger Young, who fought in the Pacific Theater in WWII. His unit was pinned down by an Japanese bunker after a failed attempt to advance and assault it, so Young disobeyed orders and stormed the bunker himself, managing to get close enough to throw a grenade into it, but taking multiple fatal wounds in the process.

** Anything with ''[[TouchOfDeath Deathtouch]]'' will often have low power and toughness values, but they're perfectly capable of doing enough damage to take any creature they damage in battle with them[[note]]...assuming of course, they don't hav the ''[[TheJuggernaut Indestructible]] keyword[[/note]].

* The Techies have ''VideoGame/DefenseOfTheAncientsAllStars'' merely have a Suicide Attack to fall back on if they don't get the time to lay down traps, but it deals massive damage to compensate. To make this skill less painful to use on the long term, it also halves their respawn time and gives them the kill experience reward if their attack kills. It was replaced with a skill that launches them in the air and land with a huge explosion and makes them halfway dead, but can still be lethal.

* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'': A lot of goblin cards destroy themselves in the act of damage the enemy. Most are flavored as the result of goblins being rather stupid and prone to killing themselves by accident, but others, such as such as [[https://scryfall.com/card/ddt/45/goblin-grenade Goblin Grenade]] and [[https://scryfall.com/card/ema/138/mogg-fanatic Mogg Fanatic]], are presented as deliberate suicide attacks.

* {{WebVideo/Shaun}}: In ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCRTgtpC-Go Dropping the Bomb: Hiroshima & Nagasaki]]'' the fact that Japanese pilots late in the war were mostly reduced to suicide attacks due to limited resources and the depletion of their well trained pilots is brought up while discussing the many factors that led up to the decision to drop nuclear bombs on two cities.

This is closely related to MurderSuicide and TakingYouWithMe. Can be combined with ExternalCombustion if the attacker drives an explosive-laden vehicle to their target. Contrast with SuicideMission, where survival is unlikely but self-sacrifice is not mandatory.