History Main / TimeTravelEscape

* Time-travel roleplaying game ''Continuum'' has rules for doing this (in cases where the body is proven to be that of the character) involving the character knowing that they are going to die in just that situation. Joan of Arc, for instance, is a canon NPC who was nonetheless burned at the stake. This didn't stop her from spending a few centuries as a Continuum city's entire police force.

* In ''Literature/PerryRhodan'', during the ongoing battle against the forces of chaos as embodied by the Decalog of Elements and after having been abducted into the past himself, the eponymous protagonist manages to strike a deal with a reasonably helpful alien species of ''natural'' time travelers that allows him to both rescue another (and technically enemy) species that was wiped out way back during the Andromeda arc in this fashion and eliminate the Decalog's Element of Time at once. (Said Element consisting of a species of animals with time powers of their own that the first aliens were very interested in 'adopting'...which was in fact the only reason they agreed to involve themselves in ''present'' events this one time instead of staying in the 'safe' past as per their traditional practice.)

* In the series "TimeRiders" by Alex Scarrow, Liam, Maddy, and Sal are recruited by 'The Agency' at the time of their deaths and offered the choice of dying, or become a time rider. [[spoiler: They choose the latter and are taken to The Agency's field office which is located underneath an archway of the Williamsburg Bridge in New York City in a two day 'Time Bubble', on 10 and 11 September 2001.]]

* In Leo Frankowski's ''TheCrossTimeEngineer'' series, Conrad tells his [[TimeTravel time-traveling]] cousin Tom that he (Conrad) saw Tom get killed by a Mongol spearman in 1241. Tom's response was "Hmmm... I guess I'll avoid going to Poland in 1241, then." Thus performing this trope on himself.

* In Leo Frankowski's ''The Cross TimeEngineer'' series, Conrad tells his [[TimeTravel time-traveling]] cousin Tom that he (Conrad) saw Tom get killed by a Mongol spearman in 1241. Tom's response was "Hmmm... I guess I'll avoid going to Poland in 1241, then." Thus performing this trope on himself.

* In Leo Frankowski's ''The Cross TimeE ngineer'' series, Conrad tells his [[TimeTravel time-traveling]] cousin Tom that he (Conrad) saw Tom get killed by a Mongol spearman in 1241. Tom's response was "Hmmm... I guess I'll avoid going to Poland in 1241, then." Thus performing this trope on himself.

** The same sort of plot happened some time after [[TheFlash BarryAllen's]] death when Barry appears at the current Flash, Wally West's doorstep. Wally is confused but glad to see his mentor come back, but things start to get weird when Barry acts more and more like a {{Jerkass}} KnightTemplar, making Wally afraid that he CameBackWrong. [[spoiler: In reality, the man who appeared was not Barry Allen, but a deluded fan of Barry Allen from the future who went so far as to give himself Barry's face and powers. After his defeat, he returned to the future where he would go on to become Professor Zoom, the Reverse Flash, one of Barry Allen's arch-enemies.]]

* Inverted in {{Discworld}}'s Discworld/NightWatch. Vimes (posing as Sergeant Keel) becomes the subject of this, and is replaced by the corpse of the previously-murdered Keel while Vimes gets to go home.

* In a recent issue of ''[[ComicBook/TheAvengers Avengers: Children's Crusade]]'', [[spoiler: Stature rescues her father from his death in ''Avengers Disassembled'' in this manner. Time will tell if it sticks.]]

* In ''BackToTheFuture III'', Marty and Doc save Clara Clayton from dying without realizing that doing so will [[AlternateHistory change history through the children she would have taught had she lived in the original timeline]]. In the end, Doc fixes this "mistake" by removing Clara from the timeline when he builds a second time machine and taking her into the future.

* In ''{{The Number of the Beast}}'' by Creator/RobertAHeinlein, Lazarus Long goes back in time to save his mother before she dies in a car accident, and takes her back to the future with him.

* In Leo Frankowski's ''Literature/TheCrossTimeEngineer'' series, Conrad tells his [[TimeTravel time-traveling]] cousin Tom that he (Conrad) saw Tom get killed by a Mongol spearman in 1241. Tom's response was "Hmmm... I guess I'll avoid going to Poland in 1241, then." Thus performing this trope on himself.

* ''Webcomic/TimesLikeThis'' does this to JoanOfArc: After Cassie & Matt pulled her from the stake just before she burned up (and leaving a [[DecoyGetaway dummy behind to get incinerated]], Joan now lives in the modern time as Joan Arquette.

* JohnVarley's novel ''Millennium'' is about {{time travel}}lers who rescue plane passengers just before their planes crash and replace them with realistic corpses. The passengers are taken forward in time to repopulate a devastated future Earth.

* In ''The Number of the Beast'' by Creator/RobertAHeinlein, Lazarus Long goes back in time to save his mother before she dies in a car accident, and takes her back to the future with him.

* In ''The Number of the Beast'' by RobertHeinlein, Lazarus Long goes back in time to save his mother before she dies in a car accident, and takes her back to the future with him.

* In ''{{Star Trek}}: Borg'', The U.S.S. ''Righteous'' was reported destroyed in the battle of Wolf 359. Q brought Cadet Furlong back in time to save his father (who served on the ''Righteous''), treating the whole thing as merely a joke. He never thought Furlong would actually DO it. Cue a time jump to save the crew of the ''Righteous'' from death at the hands of the Borg.

* The humpback whales George and Gracie in ''StarTrekIV'' were the subject of a TimeTravelEscape. All humpback whales were extinct by the end of the 21st century according to that timeframe, until the crew of the ''Bounty'' intervened.

* Subverted in the ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Yesterday's Enterprise", where the U.S.S. ''Enterprise-C'' is saved from destruction by travelling into the future... but must then ''return'' to be destroyed to repair the irrevocable damage to the timeline the ship's time-travelling caused, because what was important wasn't the fact that the ship was destroyed, but the fact that it was destroyed '' [[HeroicSacrifice in a heroic sacrifice]]'' that now never happened.

* ''TheJourneymanProject 2: Buried in Time:'' You are sent back in time to investigate, among other things, a space station that would later be found abandoned with even its AI destroyed. Said AI, Arthur, learns the truth when he scans you to find out what you're doing on the station: that he's going to die, and that even if both of you wanted to, you ''can't'' save him, because doing so would affect history. So, he ''copies'' himself onto a blank biochip you happen to be carrying, and is your sidekick for the rest of your time-traveling adventures in the game [[spoiler:until his HeroicSacrifice at the end, but [[IGotBetter he gets better]] for [=JP3=].]]

* [[spoiler:Crono]] from ''ChronoTrigger'' is seen getting obliterated by Lavos. After much grief and sadness, his friends manage to figure out a way to go back in time and replace him with a very realistic doll, so [[spoiler:Crono]] technically never died in the first place.

----

* In Marvel it looked like this happened, but it didn't. A man believing himself to be Captain Mar-Vell appears. Everyone thinks that he's avoided his death from cancer by jumping forward in time. It turns out that time travel wasn't involved in the first place; the guy's really a Skrull sleeper agent brainwashed into thinking he's the real deal.

* In a recent issue of ''Avengers: Children's Crusade'', [[spoiler: Stature rescues her father from his death in ''Avengers Disassembled'' in this manner. Time will tell if it sticks.]]

* Used in {{Freejack}}, even though the people aren't technically being rescued. Whenever a rich, dying person wants a new body, they arrange for a victim to be taken from the past at the moment of their death. The person lives, but their mind is wiped so they'll make a suitable host body.

* EarthBound sees Buzz Buzz escape to the past after Gigyas destroys the universe.

* The now dead webcomic ''RPGWorld'' had a few supporting character planning to use this kind of trick to revive a dead WrenchWench party member.