History Main / WhatIsOneMansLifeInComparison

* Likewise TheBookOfMormon - "Behold the Lord slayeth the wicked to bring forth his righteous purposes. It is better that one man should perish than that a nation should dwindle and perish in unbelief." -- 1 Nephi 4:12.

* Invoked twice in ''FlashGordon'': first by Zarkoff and then by Flash himself, when faced with the prospect of having to sacrifice themselves to save the Earth. "It's not madness, it's a rational transaction: one life in exchange for millions."

** The irony in this verse is {{Lampshaded}}in the next verse, which says that the High Priest was speaking in his role as a prophet at the time, even though he didn't realize the implications of what he was saying.

* In ''SagaFrontier'', after defeating his twin in a WizardDuel, Blue finds out that he [[spoiler:was SplitAtBirth and manipulated into killing his other self]] so he'd become the ultimate magician and waltz into Hell in order to protect the Magic Kingdom from the demons within. Upon finding out, he initially refuses because the idea of the kingdom's existence being "much more important than any magician's life" is the most selfish thing he'd ever heard.

* In the film ''{{Sunshine}}'', a character comes close to mentioning this trope by name.

* In ''StrangerThanFiction'', the protagonist is told that he should allow the writer to kill him off, as the contribution to the world's literature as a whole is more important than his own life. It's implied that he [[spoiler: ultimately decides to sacrifice himself, not to for literature's sake, but to save a little boy]]

* In ''DoctorWho'', the Doctor leaves a lot of people as necessary victims of history, time or (in)convenience, sometimes directly against their will. He gets the other part of the rope in ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS4E17E18TheEndOfTime The End Of Time]]'', where he [[ScrewDestiny revolts against destiny]] as being more important and having the power to do much more before [[spoiler:entering into the ready-to-kill chamber.]]

A character is expected to make some sort HeroicSacrifice for the greater good, either BecauseDestinySaysSo or UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans. The only problem is--nobody ever told him. When he disagrees with his apparent fate, whoever expects him to give up his life ''willingly'' expresses the sentiment of "What is one man's life worth when weighed against the entire world?" or something similar.

-->'''Kyubey:''' [[spoiler: If you ever decide that your life is '''not''' too high a price to pay for saving the universe, let me know. We'll be ready.]]
--->--''PuellaMagiMadokaMagica''

* In ''StrangerThanFiction'', the protagonist is told that he should allow the writer to kill him off, as the contribution to the world's literature as a whole is more important than his own life.
** He sacrifices his life to save a little boy, not to contribute to the world of literature. The heavily implied reasoning is that all of the characters at the bus stop would be there whether or not Harold arrived to save the little boy and he was only so fast to react and push him out of the way because he already knew it was going to happen.

-->- {{Futurama}}, "The Why Of Fry"

* In {{Futurama}}, Fry was originally frozen so he'd survive long enough to save the universe in the year 3000, but because [[spoiler:The Nibblonians]] were afraid he'd say "no", they never gave him a choice in the matter.
* In SagaFrontier, after defeating his twin in a WizardDuel, Blue finds out that he [[spoiler:was SplitAtBirth and manipulated into killing his other self]] so he'd become the ultimate magician and waltz into Hell in order to protect the Magic Kingdom from the demons within. Upon finding out, he initially refuses because the idea of the kingdom's existence being "much more important than any magician's life" is the most selfish thing he'd ever heard.
* In StrangerThanFiction, the protagonist is told that he should allow the writer to kill him off, as the contribution to the world's literature as a whole is more important than his own life.

* Main plot point of the movie The Pink Panther Strikes Again. Dryfus creates a doomsday device and blackmails the world with it. All he wants is for someone to kill Clouseau.
* From TheBible-"Neither do you consider that it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not." -- John 11:50 ([[TheBible Douay-Reims]]).

* In the DeepSpaceNine episode ''In The Pale Moonlight'' [[RetiredMonster Garak]] kills a bunch of people for TheGreaterGood and then when [[TheCaptain The Sisko]] objects gives this little speech:

* The Doctor leaves a lot of people as necessary victims of history, time or (in)convenience, sometimes directly against their will. He gets the other part of the rope in ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS4E17E18TheEndOfTime The End Of Time]]'', where he [[ScrewDestiny revolts against destiny]] as being more important and having the power to do much more before [[spoiler:entering into the ready-to-kill chamber.]]

-->"What is one man's life weighed against the entire universe?"
-->"But... it was ''my'' life..."

* At the end of ''BloodOmen: LegacyOfKain'', Kain is given the choice between sacrificing his own life to restore balance to the world, or using the power he has accumulated to "rule the world in its ruination" - and furthermore, he had been deliberately manipulated towards this end, by someone who expected him to make the 'selfless' choice. He refuses, and so the sequel ''Soul Reaver'' kicks off in the CrapsackWorld that results. As the MindScrew threads of the TimeyWimeyBall are slowly unravelled, and the true identity of TheManBehindTheMan is revealed, however, it turns out that Kain didn't ''actually'' make a selfish decision - he knew that if he DID sacrifice himself, it would only condemn the world to dance at the strings of an unknowable EldritchAbomination. And so, he instead chose to appear as a CompleteMonster, while carefully engineering the timestream, pushing it to the point where he could "make the coin land on the edge", creating a [[TakeAThirdOption Third Option]] for the dilemma.

** Note that this is intentionally ironic. The next verse says that the High Priest was speaking in his role as a prophet at the time, even though he didn't realize the implications of what he was saying.

* In the DeepSpaceNine episode ''In The Pale Moonlight'' [[RetiredCompleteMonster Garak]] kills a bunch of people for TheGreaterGood and then when [[TheCaptain The Sisko]] objects gives this little speech: