History Main / WakingUpAtTheMorgue

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': The episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E88TheLastRitesOfJeffMyrtlebank The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank]]" has a young hillbilly wake up at his own funeral. He insists he was just in a coma; the local coroner insists he was dead. His character changes; he becomes a go-getter, when before he was a layabout. The locals believe that he's occupied by a demon. He gives an angry speech denying it, but says if he is possessed, everybody better beware. He disperses the crowd, and his girl believes him -- until the end, when she sees him light a cigar without matches or a lighter.

* ''Series/RizzoliAndIsles'': Someone is delivered to the morgue not quite dead in "This Is How A Heart Breaks". Maura realises he is alive when she feels a pulse [[RagingStiffie in his penis]]. She saves his life by [[InstantDramaJustAddTracheotomy by performing an emergency tracheotomy]].

* In a episode of ''Series/{{Alias}}'', Sydney gets wheeled into a morgue as part of a FakingTheDead ploy. Naturally, she wakes up and beats people up.

->"''Waking up on a slab in a morgue. The story of a character who's been processed and discarded by the bureaucratic machinery of the world…''"

* An episode of ''Series/TalesFromTheCrypt'' involved a medical researcher getting some morbid payback on his practical-joking brother. The researcher (whose brother had accidentally maimed him during a long-ago botched prank) had developed a serum which induced a state of total bodily paralysis. He drugged his {{Jerkass}} bro with it, then let his helpless ''but conscious'' sibling believe he'd died, yet somehow remained aware of what happened to his body. The drug wore off just as the M.E. was leaning over him with the bone saw... [[spoiler: and then the jokester had a ''real'' heart attack, when the researcher popped into the (faked) "morgue" and the "M.E." revealed he'd been in on the prank. Nope, the guy didn't wake up in the for-real morgue.]]

* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': In the very aptly-named Season 4 episode "Night Terrors", Dr Crusher is working alone in an improvised morgue set up in one of the cargo bays containing bodies recovered from another Starfleet ship that had a fatal run-in with a NegativeSpaceWedgie, and turns around to see ''every single shrouded body'' sitting up on their gurneys. It turns out to be a hallucination, the cause of which is directly related to how the other starship's crew died.

* In the series 1 finale of ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'', Captain Jack Harkness fights an EldritchAbomination that feeds on life energy. Since Jack is [[{{Immortality}} immortal]], he lets the monster have as much as he wants from him, causing Abaddon to "choke" on it and die. Jack himself is seen as completely blue and unresponsive. The team assumes that this was too much even for Jack. As they say their good-byes in the Torchwood morgue, only Gwen is left by his side. She kisses him and turns to leave, only to hear a weak "Thank you." Slightly subverted in that he's used to being killed and is not shocked.

* Played for laughs in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV''. Michael is knocked unconscious so that he can infiltrate a hospital through the morgue. As he is waking up he hears a physician chat with his assistant about Michael's physical flaws, explaining how each is indicative of a different bad habit that probably contributed to his death.

* ''ComicBook/{{MINDMGMT}}: Bootleg'' has a particularly disturbing variant of this. Chiyo, who can't be killed thanks to her [[MasterOfYourDomain ability to subconsciously heal her own cells]], was ''born'' in a morgue. Her mother died in the Zanzibar City massacre, and a morgue attendant heard Chiyo's cries from within one of the morgue freezers.

* ''Film/GhostLab2021'': After being thrown off a balcony and falling a story, Dr. Wee comes to on a morgue table slab. He isn't dead, though, so [[spoiler:the ghost of Dr. Gla resumes his attack on him]].

** In "The Inheritors", Jacob Hardy is struck in the head by an apparent meteor fragment and dies instantly as the fragment became embedded in his brain. When his body is brought to the morgue, the pathologist Dr. Ian Michaels and his assistant Ollie Gibb begin to perform an autopsy. Ian's first step is to remove the fragment, which turns out to a metal projectile. A tentacle then emerges from the hole in Jacob's head, much to the horror of Ian and Ollie. Before they can react, Jacob opens his eyes, takes a deep breath and sits upright, having been resurrected by the alien technology.
** In "Inner Child", Anne Marie Reynolds dies in an emergency room, having lost all of her brain functions, after being struck in the head with a lead pipe by a mugger. Approximately ten or fifteen minutes later, she wakes up in the morgue. It is later determined that she is growing a second brain on her spine, which contains the personality of her [[ConjoinedTwins Conjoined Twin]] Marie who was absorbed into her during her mother's pregnancy.

* An episode of ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' has a young hillbilly wake up at his own funeral. He insists he was just in a coma; the local coroner insists he was dead. His character changes; he becomes a go-getter, where before he was a layabout. The locals believe that he's occupied by a demon. He gives an angry speech denying it, but says if he is possessed, everybody better beware. He disperses the crowd, and his girl believes him -- until the end, when she sees him light a cigar without matches or a lighter.

If you have a character that has a HealingFactor or ResurrectiveImmortality, a great way for them to discover the power is for them to wake up at the morgue. Can also be done if the character is drugged or FakingTheDead. Either way it can be shocking, as the last place a person wants to be is at the morgue.

Naturally, there will be much confusion the first time it happens to someone, with or without amnesia and will usually [[UndressingTheUnconscious have been completely undressed]], and may have to make do without any clothing or equipment. Compare RiseFromYourGrave and WakingUpElsewhere. Can be a form of FirstEpisodeResurrection.

Believe it or not, this is an example of TruthInTelevision. Rare today (though there is the occasional, erm, incident...), but more common in ages past when medical science wasn't all it is now. The only thing worse than waking up in the morgue, of course, was to be actually BuriedAlive, which could also happen from time to time.[[note]]The BuriedAlive part is virtually impossible today since the dead are usually either embalmed before burial, or cremated. Neither of which you could wake up from. Unless maybe you're a Phoenix.[[/note]] And better not think what would happen if you're slated for dissection, especially by a CreepyMortician...

* This happens to [[IllGirl Hyatt]] of ''Manga/ExcelSaga'' as a [[RunningGag matter of course]]. Her condition has her constantly dying in an exaggerated manner only to stand up again as she's incapable of staying dead.

* Ads for the series ''Series/{{Forever}}'' employ this trope, but it never happens on the series proper because Henry always resurrects in a nearby body of water.

* In a season 2 episode of ''Series/{{Lost}}'', "?", this has happened to a girl who was believed to have drowned. It's not actually shown, but we get to hear the coroner's audio recording of the interrupted autopsy. It's later indicated that the girl ''was'' actually dead for while.
** This is the only time ''Series/{{Lost}}'' ever ascends to actual horror with a genuinely chilling turn of events.

* Exploited in the first arc of ''[[ComicBook/{{X23}} All New Wolverine]]''. [[spoiler:Before the raid on the Alchemax labs, Laura and Bellona (an attempt by Alchemax to clone Laura who lacks her HealingFactor) [[TwinSwitch disguise themselves as each other]], then "Bellona" launches a frontal attack and gets machine-gunned so badly she flatlines. After "Wolverine" and Gabby "bolt", the casualty is hauled to an unguarded lab ''well inside the security perimeter'' for autopsy[=/=]dissection... with predicable results.]]
* In one issue of ''Comicbook/AstroCity: Local Heroes'', mention is made of the time Supersonic simply revived at the morgue despite being to all medical appearances 100% dead. A lawyer uses this as precedent to suggest that the woman his client "killed" could have been still alive before her autopsy was performed.

-->'''Deadpool:''' ''[wakes up on a dock]'' Huh, usually when I wake up in a bodybag I'm in a morgue. [[CaptainObvious This isn't a morgue.]]
* ''{{ComicBook/Hellboy}}'': After being killed by a jaguar god, Captain Daimio is seen slicing his way out of a body bag and demanding to know what the hell's going on from the terrified morgue attendant.
* In the first issue of ''ComicBook/ImmortalHulk'' after [[spoiler: getting shot in the head by a robber, Bruce's body is sent to the morgue although he doesn't stay dead for long as Devil Hulk forcefully makes their corpse transform and come back to life.]]

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': It happened to ComicBook/NormanOsborn in a {{Retcon}} after his climactic battle with Spider-Man in ''ComicBook/TheNightGwenStacyDied''--first thing he did was murder a vagrant who vaguely looked liked him and put the poor guy's corpse in his place, then made off for Europe to build a criminal empire once he saw that his son Harry was going to take over the Goblin identity.

* In ''ComicBook/RobynHood: I Love NY'' #7, the Vapor Lord - having possessed the body of one of his previous victims - awakens at the morgue as the body is being shown to the victim's sister. He proceeds to murder TheCoroner and the sister.

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': After dying from injuries sustained in a battle with Neron, Franchise/WonderWoman is transformed into a goddess and wakes up after being autopsied and stuffed into a bodybag.

* [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] in ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan2''. Max Dillon falls into a vat full of genetically engineered electric eels at his job at Oscorp that jolt him to high heaven, is pronounced dead and shipped off to the morgue. It quickly turns out that he didn't quite die though. His body was undergoing a radical transformation and he wakes up in his body bag having become an [[ShockAndAwe electricity based]] EnergyBeing.
* ''Film/BehindTheMaskTheRiseOfLeslieVernon.'' [[spoiler: During the end credits, Leslie Vernon is shown being wheeled around in a morgue. While the lab technician's back is turned, Vernon sits up on the table.]]
* In the first ''Film/{{Blade}}'' film, a vampire whom Blade set on fire wakes up in the middle of his own autopsy and takes a bite out of the medical examiner. Blade noted that the vampire in question and the BigBad were exceptionally hard to kill. Apparently, Blade had staked him before and it didn't take. Hence the fire, and the M.E. developing the magic ammo.

* While not quite a morgue, this becomes Mr. Black's RunningGag in ''Film/ComedyOfTerrors''. Black (played by Creator/BasilRathbone) has a form of catalepsy that makes him appear dead to the outside world. Of course crooked undertakers Waldo Trumble and his assistant, Felix Gilly (played respectively by Creator/VincentPrice and Creator/PeterLorre) have a plot to murder him and then make money off of his funeral. Every time they think he's safely dead, ThatDarnCat comes by and triggers Black's allergy, waking him up. It ends up in a RoaringRampageOfRevenge with a gleefully hammy Black chasing Trumbull and Gilly with an axe while shouting out quotes from ''Macbeth''.
* Sean William Scott's character does this in a post-credits in the movie ''Film/CopOut'' with no explanation as to how he survived.

* In ''Film/DeathBecomesHer'' Madeline fainted after finding out that she died. She ended up waking up in the morgue in a body bag.

* Parodied in ''Film/FletchLives''. Fletch fakes being dead to sneak into a morgue. He hides in a locker to avoid getting caught and ends up scaring a janitor.

* ''Franchise/{{Highlander}}''

* ''Film/InnocentBlood'', a recently-vampirized mob boss wakes up at the morgue. He is quite disgruntled to find a thermometer sticking out of his stomach and a man standing over him with a bonesaw.

* In ''Die Nacht der lebenden Loser'' (''Film/NightOfTheLivingDorks''), a German horror comedy, three boys are killed in a car accident while driving home after a voodoo ceremony. They wake up at the morgue as zombies.

* Happens in the 2007 movie ''Film/RiseBloodHunter'': The reporter Sadie Blake after being attacked and left for dead by a vampire wakes up in a cold box and has to kick it open to get out. [[spoiler: After hunting down and killing her attacker, she ends up dead again and the last shot is of her body being shelved into a cold box in the morgue. The ''very'' last shot is of her kicking open the box. ]]

* In the live-action ''Film/StreetFighter'' movie, an example that involves FakingTheDead as Guile wakes up in a morgue (scaring Chun-Li in the process) after apparently getting shot by Ryu and Ken during their prison break. Of course, it was all part of the plan [[spoiler:to get Ryu and Ken on Bison and Sagat's good side so that they could take them down later]].

* There is a short story by Creator/EdmondHamilton about a man who woke up in his family crypt, after being considered dead. He walked around the city, listened to what people really thought of him - and decided to go back into his coffin.

* ''Literature/BetsyTheVampireQueen'' in the ''Undead'' series by Mary Janice-Davidson discovers she's a vampire on waking up in a funeral home after a truck hits her. But having died isn't important to her; what's important is the ''hideous pink shoes'' she's in.
* In Christopher Moore's ''Literature/BloodsuckingFiends'', the protagonist, a vampire, wakes in a morgue after her body is discovered and her mortal boyfriend is arrested for murder. It is a rude awakening, as she is woken up by a necrophiliac mortician attempting to misuse her corpse.
* ''Literature/{{Chrestomanci}}'': The protagonist of ''Literature/TheLivesOfChristopherChant'' by Creator/DianaWynneJones learns of his regenerating power after he accidentally has his skull broken by a cricket bat, and wakes up in the morgue perfectly intact.

* Played with in Creator/MichaelCrichton's ''Literature/TheGreatTrainRobbery''. The crew exploits a Victorian-era fear of this by having a member fake being dead, but give a false positive on the bell attached to his finger in his casket so that the police would be reluctant to search the coffin with the grieving widow right there. To really seal the deal, they make him up to look obviously putrid (and rub a dead cat on him for the stink) and have the "widow" claim he died of something nice and contagious...

* In Creator/GordonRDickson's ''Literature/{{Necromancer}}'', the protagonist transfers his consciousness to a specially prepared body in a morgue.
* The protagonist from the novel ''One Foot In The Grave'' wakes up in the morgue in his backstory as a result of his being partially transformed into a vampire. Unfortunately to his horror his wife and daughter are on nearby tables in full view, and have already been autopsied.
* A man wakes up at his own funeral - or actually his ''wake'' in ''Literature/TheShippingNews''. The main character, Quoyle, has trouble explaining this to his young daughter, who doesn't quite understand the difference between death and sleep.

* Happens to ''Literature/TheStainlessSteelRat'' after he's ambushed by his EvilIsSexy opponent Angelina. His life is saved by luck and his bulletproof underwear, so he uses this as an opportunity to [[FakingTheDead fake his death]] as well as play Musical Identity Tags with the other corpses as a joke.

* Averted by Jack Fleming from ''Literature/TheVampireFiles'', who woke up on the shore of Lake Michigan instead. Invoked in-character by Escott in the same series, when he tells Gaylen that Fleming had died of food poisoning rather than reveal he'd been [[ColdBloodedTorture worked over]] and murdered by mobsters.

* "Breakdown", an episode the television show ''Series/AlfredHitchcockPresents'', based on a story by Louis Pollack (1955). Movie producer Mr. Callew fires a long-time employee on the phone and scoffs at his crying. Callew later gets into a car accident and is completely paralyzed. He is assumed to be dead and is ignored by everyone, and only gets the mortician's attentions with his tears.
* In a episode of ''Series/{{Alias}}'' Sydney gets wheeled into a morgue as part of a FakingTheDead ploy. Naturally, she wakes up and beats people up.
* In ''Series/{{Being Human|UK}}'', this happens to Sasha and the other zombies. In Sasha's case, she wakes up just as they're about to dissect her and proceeds to scream pissily at the coroner for it. She doesn't seem particularly fazed by any of it [[spoiler:but the other zombies, who are dissected while awake and thrown into furnaces, aren't quite so lucky.]]
* In one episode of ''Series/{{Bones}}'' the VictimOfTheWeek was presumed dead of a heart attack, but Bones knew better. It turned out he had been poisoned; but to add injury to injury, he hadn't quite been poisoned to death: he awoke in the funeral home's embalming room. The embalmer was so surprised he stabbed him to death.
* Happened more than once in ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' (unsurprisingly).

** The vampire in the hospital in "The Body".
** The vampire Teresa in "Phases" in season 2 wakes up in her coffin in a funeral home...
** As does some unnamed lady in "Help" in season 7.
** Also, the robot Ted mentions the look on the coroner's face after he woke up from an apparent death.

* Subverted in a ''Series/{{CSI}}'' episode, when the senior coroner was walking his assistant through a routine autopsy on a (supposed) death by cardiac arrest. When David (the assistant) began the Y-incision, though, the "corpse" bled heavily and the two doctors rushed to resuscitate the man. Unfortunately, the man dies without regaining consciousness, and the coroners eventually discover that he was poisoned. Cue Grissom and Brass.
* ''Series/CSIMiami'':
** A body of a young woman, was lying in a morgue locker, when she suddenly woke up. She was in shock, and disoriented. Luck was on her side, since coroner Alex Woods was close by, and was the one who opened the locker. As it later revealed, a woman was cooled by enormous amount of cold water. She survived.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E12DeathInHeaven "Death in Heaven"]]: Danny Pink does this, and finds to his horror that he's been turned into a Cyberman.
* ''Series/FatherBrown'': Happens to Father Brown in "The Wrath of Baron Samedi" when he is drugged with a poison that lowers his heart rate to the point where he appears to be dead.

* In vampire cop show ''Series/ForeverKnight'', the protagonist met his coroner friend when he woke up on her autopsy table.

* An early episode of ''Series/{{Heroes}}'', when Claire, a character with a HealingFactor apparently killed last episode, has her regeneration powers only kick in when the branch in her head is removed. She wakes up, looks down, and sees her ribs exposed for autopsy.

--->'''Bennett:''' ...holy sh-- [[CurseCutShort *episode ends*]]

-->'''House''': I guess the autopsy's going to have to wait a little bit.

* Largely averted in ''Series/{{iZombie}}'', because the VictimOfTheWeek is dead by the time Liv starts feeding. But Liv was on her way to the morgue when she reanimated in the pilot (she sat up in a body bag on the beach).

* ''Series/PrettyLittleLiars'': In "Game On, Charles", The Liars fail to escape A's dollhouse and get hit with a KnockoutGas. They wake up later in a morgue-like room, and notice that [[UndressingTheUnconscious they've been undressed]] and only have a ModestyBedsheet draped over their naked bodies.. Spencer theorizes A took photos of them like that to send to their families so that they assume they were dead and would stop looking for them.

* An episode of ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' has a young hillbilly wake up at his own funeral. He insists he was just in a coma; the local coroner insists he was dead. His character changes; he becomes a go-getter, where before he was a layabout. The locals believe that he's occupied by a demon. He gives an angry speech denying it, but says if he is possessed, everybody better beware. He disperses the crowd, and his girl believes him - until the end, when she sees him light a cigar without matches or a lighter.
* Leonard Betts, the MonsterOfTheWeek from ''Series/TheXFiles'' episode "Leonard Betts" walks away from the morgue. After decapitation, no less. His regenerative power was truly impressive.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}'', the protagonist does this near the beginning of the game, much to the surprise of the two (presumed) pathologists who were about to autopsy him (while he was still fully clothed, for some reason).[[note]]Alex is a TechnicallyNakedShapeshifter but the pathologists don't know that.[[/note]]

* Happens in the pilot of ''Series/NewAmsterdam''. Initially it appears to be a throwaway gag and a way to explain John's [[BlessedWithSuck "gift"]]. It actually ends up having serious repercussions across the season, as in this day and age you can't just stroll out of the morgue without explaining yourself.

* An episode of ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' has a young hillbilly wake up at his own funeral. He insists he was just in a coma; the local coroner insists he was dead. His character changes; he becomes a go-getter, where before he was a layabout. The locals believe that he's occupied by a demon. He gives an angry speech denying it, but says if he is possessed, everybody better beware. He disperses the crowd, and his girl believes him- until the end, when she sees him light a cigar without matches or a lighter.

* The music video for Incubus' ''Anna Molly''
* The Irish folk song "Tim Finnegan's Wake", thanks to some whiskey (not a morgue, but close enough)

* [[Website/TheOnion The Onion]] reports that [[http://www.theonion.com/articles/nude-biden-wakes-up-on-cold-slab-in-dc-morgue,34243/ this happened to Joe Biden.]] He was quoted as saying [[NoodleIncident Not again]].

* ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'' opens with this scene. Mind you, the morgue is three storeys high and staffed by, variously, zombies and skeletons in various states of decay and the death-obsessed. Features amnesia, although the character has [[HumanNotepad instructions]] ''[[RuleOfCool carved]]'' [[HumanNotepad on his back and a helpful talking flying smartmouthed skull willing to read them out loud to you]].

* In ''VideoGame/{{Sanitarium}}'', the act "The Morgue" starts you out, appropriately enough, inside a locker in the morgue. (Since you were just earlier a four-armed cyclopean hero from a comic book, how you ended up there in human form is not explained.)
* The ''VideoGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' game for the SNES opens with the AmnesiacHero Waking Up At The Morgue. And scaring the hell out of the morgue attendants, who think that he is a zombie.[[note]]And for those unfamiliar with Shadowrun, those ''do'' exist in [[ScienceFantasy the setting]], along with [[FantasyKitchenSink everything else]].[[/note]] This is also referenced in ''Videogame/ShadowrunReturns'' when you wake up [[spoiler:the very same Jake Armitage]] in the morgue.
* While it's not immediately after his assumed death, in ''VideoGame/GhostTrick'' [[spoiler: Yomiel uses Sissel's body to infiltrate the police morgue and possess his own seemingly-dead body. Yomiel then gets off the table and walks out the door. The medical examiner promptly quit his job in order to devote his life to finding out what the fuck just happened.]]

* An episode of ''Series/TheTwilightZone'' has a young hillbilly wake up at his own funeral. He insists he was just in a coma; the local coroner insists he was dead. His character changes; he becomes a go-getter, where before he was a layabout. The locals believe that he's occupied by a demon. He gives an angry speech denying it, but says if he is possessed, everybody better beware. He disperses the crowd, and his girl believes him- until the end, when she sees him light a cigar without matches or a lighter.

* Happened to ComicBook/NormanOsborn in a {{Retcon}} after his climactic battle with ComicBook/SpiderMan following the death of Gwen Stacy--first thing he did was murder a vagrant who vaguely looked liked him and put the poor guy's corpse in his place, then made off for Europe to build a criminal empire once he saw that his son Harry was going to take over the Goblin identity.

* ''ComicBook/{{Robin|Series}}'': After being injured by Tim and left in a desiccated state due to overusing his powers Johnny Warlock was presumed dead and woke up in the Kane Country Morgue. He casually strolled out the door with no-one the wiser for at least a month as his body was thought to have been misplaced.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'' ''[[ComicBook/Supergirl2005 Post-Crisis]]'' story ''Death and the Family'', ComicBook/LanaLang apparently dies due to an unknown illness. She wakes up in the morgue, her mind taken over by Insect Queen, which was making her ill as trying to repossess her body.

* In the first issue of ''ComicBook/TheImmortalHulk'' after [[spoiler: getting shot in the head by a robber, Bruce's body is sent to the morgue although he doesn't stay dead for long as Devil Hulk forcefully makes their corpse transform and come back to life.]]

* ''DarkSoulsIII'' takes it one further - the Ashen One wakes up ''in their grave'', starting the game in the Cemetery of Ash.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}'', Cassidy shoves a knife through his own throat in order to leave a serial killer's house in a bodybag during daylight hours. Once the sun's gone down he pops out of his bag, bums a cigarette from the morgue attendant and goes on his way.

%% Zero Context Examples were commented out. Please don't uncomment them without expanding upon them in the example descriptions.

%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1421596109071695900
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%%* "Breakdown", an episode the television show ''Series/AlfredHitchcockPresents'', based on a story by Louis Pollack (1955).

* ''Series/StElsewhere'': WakingUpAtTheMorgue: In "Where There's Hope, There's Crosby", Morrison is working in the morgue when he hears breathing coming from one of the shelves. He opens it to find that the supposedly dead Richard Jenkins is still alive, though only barely. Morrison and a crash team are able to resuscitate him. Elliot, who pronounced Jenkins DOA, swears that he was dead and is at a loss to explain it. Fiscus retorts that he was in fact AAKOA: alive and kicking on arrival. Jenkins is not grateful to Morrison for resuscitating him as he was trying to kill himself.

* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': In the very aptly-named Season 4 episode "Night Terrors", Dr Crusher is working alone in an improvised morgue set up in one of the cargo bays containing bodies recovered from another Starfleet ship that had a fatal run-in with a NegativeSpaceWedgie, and turns around to see ''every single shrouded body'' sitting up on their gurneys. It turns out to be a hallucination, the cause of which is directly related to how the other starship's crew died.

* ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'' opens with this scene. Mind you, the morgue is three storeys high and staffed by, variously, zombies and skeletons in various states of decay and the death-obsessed. Features amnesia, although the character has [[HumanNotepad instructions]] ''[[RuleOfCool carved]]'' [[HumanNotepad on his back and a helpful talking flying smartmouthed skull willing to read them out loud to you]].
* The ''VideoGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' game for the SNES opens with the AmnesiacHero Waking Up At The Morgue. And scaring the hell out of the morgue attendants, who think that he is a zombie.[[note]]And for those unfamiliar with Shadowrun, those ''do'' exist in [[ScienceFantasy the setting]], along with [[FantasyKitchenSink everything else]].[[/note]] This is also referenced in ''Videogame/ShadowrunReturns'' when you wake up [[spoiler:the very same Jake Armitage]] in the morgue.
* While it's not immediately after his assumed death, in ''VideoGame/GhostTrick'' [[spoiler: Yomiel uses Sissel's body to infiltrate the police morgue and possess his own seemingly-dead body. Yomiel then gets off the table and walks out the door. The medical examiner promptly quit his job in order to devote his life to finding out what the fuck just happened.]]
* ''Film/{{Nightbreed}}: The Interactive Movie'' highlights one of the problems with trying this mid-game. The player has to ''allow themself to be killed'' in order to awaken his hidden powers, which obviously isn't preferred. It doesn't help that this only works after a specific, completely un-hidden-power-related event has taken place (which involves another apparent fail condition, by the way). Then again, interactive movies are not known for their logic, self-consistency or quality...
* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' takes this to its logical extreme. If you start a new Undead character, you literally wake up inside a ''graveyard''.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}'', the protagonist does this near the beginning of the game, much to the surprise of the two (presumed) pathologists who were about to autopsy him (while he was still fully clothed, for some reason).[[note]]Alex is a TechnicallyNakedShapeshifter but the pathologists don't know that.[[/note]]

* ''Midnight Nowhere'' opens exactly like this.
* We don't get to see it, but it happens in ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum'': when you first visit the morgue, one of the bodies stored there is that of Ra's Al Ghul (which you can find out by investigating). Knowing who Ra's is, when you come back later, he's long gone from the morgue.
* In ''VideoGame/TheCurseOfMonkeyIsland'', Guybrush has to fake his death with a paralysing drink in order to get into a crypt by way of burial. He then has to do it ''again'' to get into another crypt.

* It's not technically a morgue, but in ''VideoGame/KingdomsOfAmalurReckoning'', you wake up in a rotting pile of corpses which is where the resident MadScientist has been storing his failed reincarnation experiments.

* Played for laughs in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV''. Michael is knocked unconscious so that he can infiltrate a hospital through the morgue. As he is waking up he hears a physician chat with his assistant about Michael's physical flaws, explaining how each is indicative of a different bad habit that probably contributed to his death.
* In the last main level of ''VideoGame/Hitman2016'', set at a hospital, one of the available starting options is 'undercover at the morgue', with Agent 47 beginning the mission on a trolley in said morgue. Not that the morticians ever notice that he's gone.

* The titular ''Webcomic/SidekickGirl'' does this once after being captured by The Coroner, a supervillain who wants to autopsy all the world's superheros so he can figure out how their powers work. Her healing factor allowed her to recover from his ministrations. The other super he captured wasn't so lucky.