In the animated adaptation of Persepolis, Marjane tries to overdose on pills. She finds herself in a nebulous space with God and Karl Marx. God tells her that it's not time for her to die, and Marx agrees. They send Marjane back to her body, with Marx urging her as she goes...
Played for Laughs in the Korean film adaptation of the manga Antique Bakery. Min Seon-woo, after having his love confession to a male classmate rejected and a cake shoved in his face, attempts to hang himself in his home and fails miserably. This happens in the opening credits.
In the fratboy comedy Bachelor Party, a supporting character, despondent over his girlfriend dumping him, tries to slash his wrists... with an electric shaver.
Stanley Moon in Bedazzled (1967), feeling like a failure, unable to even talk to the woman he pines for, puts a noose around his neck, steps off a chair - and the pipe he's tied it to promptly snaps, dribbling water over him and making him out to be a total failure.
The movie Better Off Dead features multiple attempts by the central character to kill himself, all of which fail spectacularly (and hilariously).
Mark mentions how Laurel attempted suicide multiple times in the past.
Andy also makes an attempt after being ignored by Laurel.
In Bringing Out the Dead, the main character — a paramedic — responds to a suicide attempt where the victim has sliced his veins horizontally rather than vertically, thus ensuring that he's got plenty of time to be healed. Since the main character is going through something of a nervous breakdown at that point, he merely uses this as the starting off point for a rant in which he instructs the surprised and now-terrified victim how to do it correctly next time.
Chuck of Cast Away tries to commit suicide by hanging when stranded on an island, but he does a test run with a dummy and the tree branch snaps. He later says that was the moment when he hit rock bottom — he couldn't even die on his own terms.
Seong-yeun tries to kill himself by jumping off a bridge in Castaway on the Moon. Instead of drowning, he finds himself washed up on an island in the middle of the river, under the bridge. A Robinsonade commences from there.
One of the main characters in Cosy Dens (Pelíšky) attempts suicide by gas poisoning. Problem was that the oven he had put his head into was electric oven.
Veronica slits her wrists in the bath tub after the only clinic considering performing her daughter's heart transplant turns her down. She survives thanks to John, Frankie and Reno finding her in time.
After taking Veronica to the hospital, John notices scars on Frankie's wrists as well. She later explains that she was once a Sex Slave to Mr. Veltz and Reno bought her from him. Not knowing that Reno was trying to free her, she couldn't handle what her life had become any longer and tried to end it all. She was near-dead from blood-loss when she was sent to Reno, but he still freed her and saved her life.
Darlin': At one point, Darlin' attempts suicide or tries to force a miscarriage by drinking bleach. It doesn't work; she just becomes sick.
Dawning of the Dead: When Katya sees she alerted a horde of zombies to her location, she points her gun under her chin. Click!
In Detention, Riley attempts to hang herself but slips off the chair before she is ready and starts slowly strangling herself. She is only saved when Cinderhella, attempting to kill her with an axe, winds up cutting her down instead.
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Eleanor attempts suicide by jumping from a bridge. The cause and the aftermath of it, is what drives the story of Her.
In Doctor at Sea, Jenkins' attempt to hang himself is cut short by Dr. Sparrow and Mr. Whimble coming to the rescue.
D-Tox: Jaworski attempted to eat his gun but failed: shooting out his cheek and leaving him with a jagged scar down one side of his face.
The Narrator in Fight Club. Although it could be argued that this was less a Bungled Suicide and more a successful murder.
Happens once in Final Destination 2. Eugene tries to shoot himself in the head, but all the bullets fail because it wasn't his time to die yet. He dies later in the film of an explosion after mass equipment failure and bad luck at the hospital.
Happens again in Final Destination 4, George tries to off himself multiple times later in the movie, but fails for the same reason. He gets killed by an ambulance exiting a hospital.
The movie Folks has Tom Selleck trying to aid his elderly parents in their suicide attempts only for him to receive a series of comical injuries in the process instead.
Jude Law's character in Gattaca attempted suicide after the "accident" (which may or may not have been attempted suicide in itself) that crippled him. But he eventually did succeed after the main character, who had taken over his identity, finally got to go into space.
Played for Laughs in Gigi: "Liane d'Exelmans has committed suicide—again!" Apparently she's used "insufficient poison" several times before. This happens right after she's caught cheating on her boyfriend, Gaston. It becomes big gossip around town, with people congratulating Gaston on his "first suicide."
The Girl From Monday: Jack hates that he helped the ruling Triple M, and so nearly kills himself twice. However, in the first case he stops before doing it. In the second case he overdoses before planning to also shoot himself. He survives, simply passing out then waking up later.
Groundhog Day: Phil kills himself on a few occasions during his "Groundhog Day" Loop, but he keeps waking up in that damn bed and breakfast.
Woody Allen's character in Hannah and Her Sisters, despairing over the meaninglessness of life, tries to shoot himself with a rifle, but is so nervous and sweaty, he slips and misfires. He later finds a reason to go on watching a Marx Brothers movie.
In the Buster Keaton film Hard Luck, Keaton's character tries to commit suicide but has no luck at it. For instance, he once saw approaching headlights and put himself between them for the car to hit him, only to learn that it was actually two motorcycles running along side by side and avoided him easily.
Harold in Harold and Maude repeatedly attempts (apparently fake) suicide attempts, usually involving Rube Goldberg-style complicated processes.
In the short Haunted Spooks, the main character tries to kill himself by 1) Shooting himself with what turns out to be a water gun, 2) standing in front of a tram that takes a different track, 3) tying a rock to himself and jumping off a bridge into a river that ends up being ankle-deep, 4) jumping from another bridge, only to end up in a boat, and 5) standing in front of a car that stops in time.
In Home Room, Deanna discovers Alicia's suicide attempt scar on her wrist when attempting to take off Alicia's glove. It is implied she did it after her baby died.
Ingrid Goes West: Ingrid attempts suicide at the end when she ends up broke and alone. Dan gets her medical attention quickly, allowing her to survive.
Inside Daisy Clover: Towards the end, not wanting to return making a film for Control Freak producer Raymond Swan, actress Daisy Clover (Natalie Wood) attempts suicide by opening the gas in her kitchen (in order to suffocate herself at first). People keep ringing at her door, she stops to go open every time, then it's the phone. She then tries to put a burner on (to make the gas explode) and only manages to burn her hand. After that, she abandons her suicidal thoughts, puts the gas on again along with a burner, goes out and happily lets the house blow up instead.
Nick tries to kill himself in The Invisible, but it fails because of his ghostly state.
In Jailbait (2014), Anna cuts her wrists in solitary after having discussed the possibility earlier with other inmates. Of course, she was also naked in solitary while suffering from crack withdrawal, so she may not have been trying to kill herself.
The Lost Weekend is about an alcoholic wannabe writer. When he's confessing his bad habits to his girlfriend, he mentions that he bought a gun and bullets to kill himself on his 30th birthday, only he ended up pawning the gun to buy more booze, instead.
Herbie the Volkswagen in The Love Bug actually tries to leap off the Golden Gate Bridge. He's partially saved by the fact that his wheels won't let him climb the railing very easily, giving his owner time to reach him, so this is also something of a Interrupted Suicide.
Manchester by the Sea: Almost immediately after being told by the police that he's free to go home following the deaths of his kids, Lee grabs a gun from a nearby officer and attempts to shoot himself in the head. However, he can't fully pull the trigger because the safety is still on, and several more officers end up tackling him to the ground before he can successfully remove it.
In The Man in the Iron Mask, Porthos gets depressed and believes he has nothing to go on living for. He kisses the tavern girls goodbye and goes into the barn to hang himself. Naked. You hear a big thud, and Porthos swearing. Aramis knew he'd try to commit suicide and sawed through the beam. ...Then the barn collapses on him, since Aramis sawed the wrong beam (he lives).
Man on Fire: John Creasy attempts to shoot himself in the head with a pistol after he goes through a spell of depression and drinking while remembering his past, but the bullet turns out to be defective and doesn't go off. He's so surprised that he checks the gun and ejects the bullet, then calls his buddy up about it, who reminds him "a bullet never lies." It's actually enough to convince him to keep living.
A Man with a Maid: Spurned into Suicide, Jack attempts to hang himself and take a photograph of it at the same time: to be delivered to Alice on her wedding day. It fails when the beam he attaches the rope to gives way.
At the end of Thor, Loki lets himself fall into the abyss below the Bifrost after his father Odin rejects his actions, but The Stinger reveals that he survived the fall despite his family's expectations.
In Mermaid, Alice has one leg over the side of the bridge when Aleksandr pushes by her to jump. She jumps in after him and saves him. Later, Aleksandr attempts to get hit by cars, but Alice again saves him.
In 2023's Napoleon, upon being cornered for arrest, Maximilien Robespierre takes a pistol and attempts to shoot himself in the head, only to end up missing his own brain and destroying his own jaw instead.
In the film Never Weaken, Harold Lloyd has a Rube Goldberg setup that malfunctions, leaving him alive.
In Pathology, the first person Ted kills is a man who shot his wife and children, exection style and then shot himself once in the throat and twice in the stomach. Despite this, he survived and is in the hospital in the ICU.
Franz Liebkind in The Producers at one point breaks down and attempts to shoot himself. His gun doesn't fire, and he figures it's jammed. In the remake, he then drops the gun... and it goes off.
Zac Hobson did go through with his suicide attempt and did end up walking away from it at the start of the film. The subversion lies in the fact that he walked away because his suicide attempt was successful; he was at the moment of death, which protected him from the Event that wiped out most of humanity.
At the end of the film, the exact same thing happens when he attempts to make a Heroic Sacrifice to avert a second Event. He fails.
Rise: Blood Hunter: Sadie decides to kill herself after having been turned into a vampire, and jumps from an overpass. It doesn't work though-she survives with only cuts and bruises, as vampires regenerate from a lot of damage. She seeks vengeance against them instead after this.
Richie in The Royal Tenenbaums cuts his wrists after learning the romantic history of Margot, with whom he is in love. Complete with Important Haircut and some great music.
In A Safe Place (1971), Bari recounts waking up in the hospital after taking a bunch of sleeping pills. Although she didn't remember taking the pills, when she heard that her attempt had failed, she truly wanted to die.
It is revealed that John Kramer, having been diagnosed with an inoperable malignant brain tumor, attempted to commit suicide by driving off an embankment. His car was trashed, but he survived, and the incident gave him more appreciation for the time he had left. On the downside, this same incident also inspired him to become Jigsaw, out of a desire to help others gain a new lease on life just as he did, by having them play his "games".
The first movie also contains a subversion: Jigsaw's first victim was a man who slit his wrists in an apparent suicide attempt, but Jigsaw argues that he never intended to kill himself and was merely seeking some attention.
In Series 7: The Contenders, a terminal cancer sufferer named Jeff is selected by lottery to compete in a Deadly Game reality show. As soon as he's given a gun he tries to blow his brains out, but it isn't loaded. Later on, towards the end of the film, Dawn and Jeff agree to shoot each other, in essence committing suicide. Dawn dies, but Jeff falls into a coma, then later, to his horror, wakes up.
In a flashback to Teddy Daniels' war service in Shutter Island, Daniels, who took part in the liberation of Dachau concentration camp, found the camp commandant shot himself, but failed to kill himself, leaving the commandant with a horrific facial wound and desperately trying to reach out for the gun so he could finish himself off. Daniels took a moment to consider the horror of the concentration camp that he could see from looking out the window, then moved the gun away and out of the commandant’s reach to prolong his suffering. Teddy’s narration says it took the commandant another hour to die after Teddy first found him.
Side Effects: Emily attempts suicide early on by driving straight into a wall, but survives with only minor injuries. Then subverted when it's discovered she staged it simply to take a new antidepressant in a plot for another purpose, and kept her seat belt on specifically to survive.
In Skyfall, Big Bad Silva's Start of Darkness happened when M sold him out to the Chinese, who tortured him for months. Silva then used his Cyanide Pill but it didn't work, horribly disfiguring his jaw and teeth. He then dedicated the rest of his life to getting revenge on M.
In S.O.B., Felix Farmer makes multiple attempts to kill himself only to have each of them unintentionally thwarted. He ultimately ends up committing Suicide by Cop almost accidentally.
Sudden Impact: After his participation in the rape, Alby Jannings, the police chief's son, tried to kill himself by driving headlong into a brick wall, leaving him in a state not unlike Jennifer's sister. As a result of this, he winds up being the only rapist to survive, as Jennifer recognizes that he'd been remorseful (and had been pressured into it) unlike all the rest.
In Taxi Driver, after the final shootout, Travis tries to shoot himself, but all of his weapons are out of ammunition.
Theatre of Blood: Reviled theatre actor Edward Lionheart jumps into the Thames taking the critics' prize with him, and ends being saved by a bunch of methanol-drinking Crazy Homeless People. Though in this case he was unconscious in the water in such a position that he would have inevitably drowned had the homeless people not taken him out of the water.
Happens twice in a row with Winthorpe in Trading Places: first, he lifts his gun to his head and it fails to go off (but does fire when he throws it away), and Ophelia and Valentine save him after he takes a bunch of pills. In both cases, the aftermath is Played for Laughs.
In Truth or Dare (2012), Justin is telling the truth when he says that Felix hanged himself after receiving the postcard. However, the groundskeeper found him and cut him down before he died, but Felix had suffered brain damage from oxygen deprivation and is now permanently paralysed.
Vampire's Kiss: Peter tries to shoot himself with a gun that only has blanks.
In the final third of The World's End it's revealed that Gary had tried to commit suicide some time before the movie by slitting his wrists.
The Young Poisoner's Handbook: After Berridge kills himself and Dr. Zeigler drops him from his rehabilitation program, Graham attempts to hang himself with a bed sheet but fails.
