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"So cold... can't move... can't feel... can't make complete sentences..."
James Humphrey, Cannibal! The Musical

They're right to be bothered: saying "I'm cold" means that a character is seriously unwell. It can be a sign that a character will be Killed Off for Real and these are their Last Words. When a new, unknown character says this it can even mean that they are a ghost. This is also something dead people are traditionally expected to tell anyone they talk to on the telephone.

This is because death... is cold.

There's sense in the trope: cold skin is a sign of shock. Coldness can also indicate blood loss or impaired blood circulation and, of course, corpses lack body-warmth. Additionally, a person suffering from a rising fever will feel cold and shiver. A mythological reason might be that Purgatory (which can sometimes include wandering the earth as a ghost) was depicted as being a cold and miserably damp place. Sleepiness or Blood from the Mouth tend to go hand in hand with this. Perversely, one emergency that often does not feature this is hypothermia: cold becomes an emergency if the victim stops being able to feel it, or is too tired to shiver. In fact, exposure victims are often found partly undressed because the lowering of their internal temperature makes them feel too warm.

A sister trope, also due to the above, is Dangerous Drowsiness, which may be rendered as "I'm tired...so tired."

Is dangerously on the verge of becoming Narm.

See Evil Is Deathly Cold for a motif. Compare Ghostly Chill; and see Incurable Cough of Death for another example of a symptom which is moderate in Real Life but presented as a sure sign of death in the world of tropes.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Advertising 
  • A Pillsbury Pizza Pop ad has a young man cradling the head of a robot, whimpering his name, as the robot says that he can't feel his legs and is "so...cold". As it happens, an exploding pizza pop the robot was too slow to catch blew his body off.

    Anime and Manga 
  • In Naruto, Sakura remarks how cold Sasuke's body feels. Apparently, that's one of the effects of the deathlike state he was put into.
  • This happens in the manga version of Chrono Crusade. A character that is, Rosette Christopher collapses to the ground, near death, while a friend or her love interest and partner, Chrono runs to her side. We see the scene through her eyes, unable to hear the words of the panicking friend, while she has a dying Inner Monologue that finishes with "It's getting cold, isn't it? You can use my scarf, if you want."
  • Inverted in Sailor Moon Sailor Stars where people are explicitly warm to the touch when they die. Lines that reference it are Tear Jerker material for fans. For example...
    Sailor Uranus: You're warm, Michiru.
  • In Ceres, Celestial Legend, Chidori took the bullet for Yuuri and sustained injures to her back. While he's carrying her, she mentions how warm his back is. Yuuri tells her to cling to him, then, all while trying to talk about how he'll cook her favorite foods when they make it out of here, only for her to die as she begins to confess her feelings.
  • Hiroki tends to use this phrase in a slightly more life-affirming way in Junjou Romantica.
  • Gunslinger Girl:
  • In Fate/stay night [Unlimited Blade Works], Illya said this when she's dying.
  • In Bokurano, in the anime, Misumi says this after suffering several gunshot wounds to the chest, which soon result in her death. For a moment, Tamotsu thinks she's talking about the weather, since winter is coming.

    Comic Books 
  • A scene in The Crow which was never adapted into the film: This trope invoked because of shock, bloodloss, and death when Eric removes one of his first targets at the shins. Quite possibly the most unpleasant scene of the lot.
  • Justified in the second Silver Surfer series when Frankie Raye, a fire elemental, is fatally injured. Her flame then starts to dwindle before dying out.
  • Hulk: The End ends on this kind of line. Hulk has finally gotten his wish, to be alone. Completely alone. Bruce Banner has just died, and now Hulk is not just the strongest one there is, he's the only one there is. As he sits there, the Hulk realizes that he's cold.
  • The Sandman (1989): In issue 23, Season of Mists, after receiving the key to Hell from Lucifer Morningstar, the King of Dreams watches him vanishing into the vast, empty Hell. He holds the key in his hand for a moment, finishing the chapter with the words "I feel cold". Being the owner of an empty Hell may look nice on paper, it might destroy you (or it might not).

    Fan Works 
  • This Emergency! fic has one of the somewhat incorrect hypothermic person variety after Gage is dragged through the snow tied to a horse. He survives, though.
  • A couple of subversion occurs in the Gensokyo 20XX series Eirin, who notes, in her diary before her suicide, that she feels colder than the winter and we also have this with the case of Reimu, who isn't dying, notes that she feels so cold, remarking that she doesn't like that feeling.
  • In Ma Fille, a bad bout of the flu makes Joe feel dreadfully cold, even when wrapped in a thick blanket. However, he lives in the end.
  • In My Huntsman Academia, Izuku dives into the ocean in the middle of winter to save someone he just knocked unconscious. When he's finally fished out by his friends, he doesn't feel all that cold even though he's shivering from head to toe. Then he realizes that he's suffering from hypothermia as his Aura drains itself to keep him warm and returns the sensation of cold to him.
  • In Amazing Fantasy, Izuku feels deathly cold while reeling from the effects of the spider bite. The feeling persists up to the point that he collapses. He doesn't die, but he does end up in a coma and the doctors at the hospital are amazed that he survived.
  • In Part 11 of Astral Journey: It's Complicated has Melanie mentioning that's she's cold and appear to be suffering from sign of hypothermia thanks to her "treatment" in order to comply to her mandated treatment for an eating disorder. Both Victoria and Emma questions this. Despite not actually dying, Melanie still found herself in "mock" funeral.

    Films — Animated 

    Films — Live-Action 
  • In Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, after the title curse is broken, rendering Barbossa and his men mortals again, Jack Sparrow shoots Barbossa, who says, "I feel... cold." and promptly falls over dead. Bonus points on this one, because this is the very first thing Barbossa felt since he was cursed, and he actually sounds happy to be able to feel something.
  • RoboCop 2. The child criminal Hob has been badly shot up by the Cain cyborg. When Robocop finds him, Hob says that he feels cold. Robocop (who's sympathetic toward Hob, given that he knows what dying feels like) tells him that he's going into shock.
  • Lampshaded when, in Lethal Weapon 3, annoying sidekick Leo struggles with the Big Bad for a gun, and is shot in the shoulder for his efforts. He thinks he's dying because he feels numb and cold all over... which is only natural, since he was lying on the ice of a hockey rink.
  • An especially creepy example occurs in Event Horizon, when Dr. Weir first encounters an apparition of his dead wife. Makes sense when we realize she killed herself by cutting her wrists.
  • Spoofed in Loaded Weapon 1 where Destiny utters this line at the end of the movie, Colt then removes a bag of ice that was on her for no good reason.
  • Also spoofed in Spy Hard, where the love interest says this after Agent Steele absentmindedly parked her gurney under an automated ice cube machine.
  • In the live-action Casper movie, Kat tells the title character that he feels cold. Also, it's later revealed that Casper's death was caused from being out in the cold too long.
  • In the movie Conan the Barbarian (1982) the last words said by Valeria as she dies in Conan's arms are: "I'm cold, so cold, keep me warm." This may have been an effect of the venom from the snake with which Thulsa Doom shot her beforehand.
  • Parodied in Tropic Thunder - Tugg Speedman, in an Ironic Echo, says that he can't feel his legs; Lazarus has to point out that he's fine, it's just that his legs are knee deep in a pool of cold, muddy water.
  • An interesting version happens in The Return of the Living Dead. After two of the main characters are exposed to Trioxin, they start feeling crappy and complain about the cold. Near the climax they feel better as zombies.
  • Subverted in Titanic (1997) where Rose says "I'm so cold," and later "I can't feel my body." It's already a foregone conclusion that she survives, as she is the narrator for the whole movie, plus she's drenched and floating on a bit of wreckage in the icy North Atlantic, she's not just mystically drifting closer to mortality.
  • In X-Men Origins: Wolverine, some of Kayla's parting words was this.
  • Red Dawn. When Action Girl Toni is fatally wounded by Hind gunships she asks Jed to leave her a hand grenade to kill herself with, saying "I don't want to be cold". She doesn't use it though; just leaves the grenade under her body to kill the first Dirty Communist that tries to move her.
    • Likely also a Call-Back to the movie's discussion on He Who Fights Monsters: One of the kids is warned that his hatred of the Russians will burn him up inside. The kid replies nonchalantly that it keeps him warm.
  • Tobias in Dark Floors spent most of the movie being "cold", as well as coming back as a zombie to save Sarah.
    Tobias: I'm not cold anymore, Sarah
  • Poltergeist III had a sequence where Lara Flynn Boyle comes back from the other side and exclaims how cold she is, so her family tries to warm her up in the shower. Except, of course, that it wasn't really her. It was her mirror-double and she was faking for attention.
  • Point Break (1991): Played straight and discussed: Roach complains of being cold after being shot.
  • Frantic. The last words of Michelle, the Paris street waif who has been helping the protagonist search for his kidnapped wife, fatally wounded in the film's climax.
  • In Vertical Limit, Tom MacLaren basically says this. Justified in that he's severely wounded and dying of hypothermia halfway up K2. He's really in trouble when he stops feeling cold.
  • Parodied in The Mask. The Mask, dressed like a cowboy, is shot in the chest and falls into the shooter's arms, overly dramatically telling him he's "so cold" while coughing, and saying his last wishes before dying dramatically. He then receives an Oscar for his performance, while the shooter starts weeping.
  • Said verbatim by Emu O'Hara in the film adaptation of Crying Freeman. Completely justified, as she has taken a few bullets and suffers from a large blood loss.
  • Played straight as an arrow in Mulholland Falls with the death of Elleroy.
  • Parodied in Ghosthunters On Icy Trails: Hugo says that he is cold with much pathos, shortly before he's frozen solid by the ice ghost. He is also close to dying permanently, but that's not related to the cold.
  • Sonne in Victoria (2015) utters these lines during his last moments.
  • Inverted in Welcome to Dongmakgol when a gutshot Yeo-il says "It's hot" right before she dies.
  • Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid: In Spanish! Billy rescues a Mexican husband and wife from Chisum's goons, but it's too late for the husband, who says "Siento mucho frio", then says "Como te sientes tu, Billy?" ("How do you feel?") right before he dies.
  • Chariot. Michael says after being shot, "I'm cold, so cold. I know what that means."
  • Moulin Rouge!: Satine says this as she dies in Christian's arms.
  • Holes puts a tragically ironic twist on it with Kissin' Kate Barlow, who wasn't in physically bad health even in the Thirsty Desert, but was still dead inside after losing basically everything innocent she cared about, including her lover.
    Kate: It's so hot, Sam... but I feel so cold...
  • Parodied in Sonic the Hedgehog 2: when Rachel's fiancé Randall jumps in front of her to protect her from a taser shot, he lies on the ground as if he's on death's door, claiming that he feels cold. An unamused Rachel points out that he landed on top of their ice sculpture..

    Literature 
  • Subverted in Dragon Bones: Ward says that he will never be warm again, after killing someone else.
  • In Catch-22, the rear gunner, Snowden, who Yossarian tries and fails to save mutters this repeatedly as Yossarian tries to patch up his leg. Yossarian thinks this is because they're high in the sky in the tail of a plane with holes shot it in it. It's also because the gunner has been nearly shot in half - though is still alive - and Yossarian doesn't realize he's had his gut torn open by shrapnel which got underneath his flak jacket.
    Snowden: "I'm cold . . . I'm so cold . . ."
    Yossarian: "Don't worry. Don't worry, you're gonna be fine."
    Snowden: "I'M COLD!"
    Yossarian: [panicky] "IT'S VERY WARM ON THIS PLANE!"
  • While he never says the trope, the Marquis de Carabas from Neverwhere describes death as "very dark, and very cold".
  • Animorphs has this in a rather chilling portion with this exchange:
    So cold. Just... Can you just get me a blanket or... I'm scared. Does that... Does that make you happy, Andalite?
    Jake: No. No, it doesn't make me happy.
  • Although he never records himself saying these exact words, Frodo spends a lot of the time after he has been stabbed with the Morgul knife shivering and describing how cold he feels.
  • Wuthering Heights.
    'I heard distinctly the gusty wind, and the driving of the snow; I heard, also, the fir bough repeat its teasing sound, and ascribed it to the right cause: but it annoyed me so much, that I resolved to silence it, if possible; and, I thought, I rose and endeavoured to unhasp the casement....'I must stop it, nevertheless!' I muttered, knocking my knuckles through the glass, and stretching an arm out to seize the importunate branch; instead of which, my fingers closed on the fingers of a little, ice-cold hand! The intense horror of nightmare came over me: I tried to draw back my arm, but the hand clung to it, and a most melancholy voice sobbed, 'Let me in - let me in!' 'Who are you?' I asked, struggling, meanwhile, to disengage myself. 'Catherine Linton,' it replied, shiveringly.... 'I'm come home: I'd lost my way on the moor!'
  • From Fool Moon:
    Harry (after Murphy nonfatally shoots him): I'm so cold.
    Murphy (angry): We're all cold, moron....it must be below forty, already, and we're wet besides.
  • Last words of a Drachelander (German-descended) knight in the first book of the World of Tiers series, after he was swarmed by enemies and the protagonist arrived just too late to save him: "'siz kalt."
  • Bill Bryson discusses the dangers of hypothermia to Appalachian Trail hikers in A Walk In The Woods, and the 'Paradoxical Undressing' phenomena (see below). He also recounts a day when he went off hiking and forget to pack his waterproofs. He gets soaked by the incessant drizzle and starts to lose track of time... it turns out that his watch had stopped.
  • In the Redwall series book Lord Brocktree, Fleetscut dies with a smile on his face; "Funny. Don't feel hungry anymore. Jolly cold, wot!"
  • Justified by Demnor in The Stone Prince even before he nearly dies of battle wounds; he's a Rebel Prince, and his very angry mother is the avatar of a fire god, able to withdraw Its warmth from her son.
  • Inverted in The Lost Fleet: Captain Geary feels incredibly cold after being revived from 100 years of being a Human Popsicle. Apparently, this is a normal side-effect of the cryosleep process, but it's also implied that it might be partly psychosomatic; he's occasionally mentioned as feeling an echo of that chill whenever his stress levels begin to elevate for days afterwards.
  • The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons. Tatiana says this after Alexander rescues her from a bombed out building, but it's because she's in shock from several broken bones, not because she's near death. Shock can be life-threatening if not treated, but fortunately Alexander is there to share his bodily warmth.
  • In Roger Elwood's The Wandering, Ferene describes his death as this.
  • Said word for word by a ghost that Lucy and Lockwood encounter in Lockwood & Co.
    Annabel: I'm cold, lost and cold. Lost and cold...and DEAD!
  • Played with in Black Man. Ertekin makes a Deathbed Confession that she'd planned to murder a police colleague who'd betrayed her genetically engineered husband to the authorities, but she lacked the ruthlessness to carry it through. "You have to be cold, so cold..."
  • Broken Gate plays with this in Nezumi's case. While she isn't dying until much later, a sign that she's not long for the world is when she has a twinge of feeling anything (being emotionless). The closest thing she feels to the pain of lament (besides numbness) is cold and it says something if she hadn't felt cold up until that point either.
  • Fire & Blood reveals that feeling cold was the first symptom of the Shivers, a deadly disease that ravaged the Seven Kingdoms in 59-60 AC. The Targaryens at that point were believed to be immune to human diseases, until one night:
    Princess Daenerys (daughter of Alysanne): Mommy, I'm cold.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Angel: Wesley in "The Thin Dead Line", after the zombie cop shoots him. He doesn't die, though.
    Wesley: Is anyone else cold?
  • In the Charmed (1998) episode "All Hell Breaks Loose", when Piper is shot by a sniper and is close to death, she says:
    "Prue, I'm cold. I can't - I can't - I can't feel my legs. Don't go. I love you."
  • When a Cold Case villain flashes back to his first kill (inadvertent, as he merely let the woman die rather than outright harming her), he remembers a woman trapped in a well, frantically treading water and babbling, "Cold... so cold".
  • Doctor Who:
    • Subverted in "The Age of Steel" when a downed Cyberman whose emotional inhibitor has been removed asks "why... am... I... cold?" It's revealed she has no idea what has happened, and still thinks she's on the way to her wedding. (The trope name drop is especially apt, as this is what finally convinces the Doctor that the Cybermen are no longer really alive, and therefore can be destroyed.)
    • Played with in "Twice Upon a Time". A British army captain is in a Mexican Standoff with a German soldier in a muddy crater in World War One. He says, "Cold, isn't it? It's about to get colder, I suppose, for one of us."
  • Subverted in Firefly when Kaylee says something like this after being shot, but she recovers without complication. She says it not because of impending death, but because she's going in to shock from the traumatic injury.
  • Forever Knight: When criminals try to rob vampire hangout The Raven, Nick Knight tries to hypnotise them into dropping their weapons, but it doesn't work and a human bystander gets shot. She gives this trope to Nick while the other vampires are shown looking on coldly.
  • Subverted in Haven. When Nathan is killed in one round of a "Groundhog Day" Loop, he reassures Audrey, who holds him while he passes, that the only thing he feels is her.
  • The pilot of Look Around You uses this trope in the conversation with intelligent calcium, where the aforementioned substance answers the scientist's question of "how do you feel?" with "cold". The scientist then forces the obvious conclusion by capping the test tube, suffocating the intelligent calcium inside.
  • The Outer Limits (1995): Played with in "White Light Fever". An old, rich, selfish man who nearly died says that death feels cold. When he dies, he meets an innocent girl who died earlier as a result of his selfishness, and asks to go with her. She says he can't because they're not going to the same place; where she's going, it's warm. Then she says that she always thought it was the other way around.
  • Person of Interest: Played with in "Terra Incognita". An apparent flashback has John Reese on a stakeout, during which he keeps complaining of the cold and turning up the heater. Later it's revealed this is a Fever Dream Episode, and Reese is actually dying of shock and hypothermia after being shot by the villain of the week.
  • Subverted in Smallville. Eric says something like this when he is drained of Clark's powers, but he survived.
  • Star Trek: Voyager:
  • That's So Raven: In "Soup to Nuts", Raven does this while faking an illness to avoid going to school. This is brought back up later, when Raven finds out that she missed a Senior Surprise Day trip to a water park due to her "illness".
    Raven: Senior Surprise Day? And I missed it?!
    Cory: Yeah, because you were "so cold, so cold".
    Raven: You keep going, you're gonna be out cold in a second.
  • In Warehouse 13, this is the sign of the artifact of season 3's "Insatiable" affecting someone. Other side effects include an insatiable hunger and eventual death from hypothermia.

    Music 
  • "Second Birth" by Obsidian Shell starts with "So cold... am I dying?"
  • In the Blue October song Into the Ocean the narrator—a boy struggling with suicide after a loss—dreams of committing suicide by drowning. While drowning he laments "I'm cold as cold as cold can be..."
  • In "Wuthering Heights" by Kate Bush, the refrain includes the words "I'm so cold." The narrator is a ghost.

    Radio 

    Theatre 
  • In the musical RENT Mimi complains of being cold in the finale, where she appears to be on the edge of death but subverted in that she doesn't actually die.
  • Invoked, then poignantly subverted in Puccini's Opera La Bohème (the 'original' Rent). As she lies dying, Mimi is 'cold, so cold' and longs at least to warm her hands. Her friends rush out to buy her a fur muff. She is happy, and murmurs as she drifts off to sleep that she feels warm at last. These are her last words - she dies quietly, while the dramatic focus is on the other characters.
  • In Les Misérables, as Fantine lies dying, she hallucinates that she's watching her daughter Cosette playing, and beckons her to come inside to go to bed. She repeatedly speaks of how the night is growing colder.

    Video Games 
  • This is a common death line in Fire Emblem.
  • Baldur's Gate:
    • In Baldur's Gate, this is Imoen's last words before her hit points drop to zero.
    • In Baldur's Gate II, "I feel so cold" are Aerie's last words before her hit points drop to zero.
    • There's also a ghost in the expansion to the second game who complains of this. He won't say anything else until you light a fire in the hearth for him.
  • Shai-Gen Corporation cronies in Crackdown tend to spout this as they die. Even if they died from immolation.
  • Mayu will sometimes remark on this in Fatal Frame II, as you're in a ghostly haunted house. Lampshaded by Markiplier in his Let's Play:
    Mark: Maybe it's cause there's... GHOSTS! Maybe it's cause there's GHOSTS EVERYWHERE! HUH?!
  • Justified in the Golden Sun series— the Fire Clan members who say it are freezing to death, having been deprived of the strength to warm themselves or escape.
  • One of the enemy officer death lines in the Dynasty Warriors / Samurai Warriors crossover Warriors Orochi is 'Such a cold embrace...'
  • In Pathways into Darkness, one of the dead Nazis you encounter has completely forgotten about everything except that death is cold.
  • In Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, this is one of the things Hifumi Yamada says in their final moments.
  • In one of the Slayers videogames, the gang barely manages to rescue Amelia, but when they do, she says "I feel...so cold..."
  • In Silent Hill, Lisa Garland tells Harry Mason that she's "scared and cold" in a futile attempt to convince Harry to stay with her. When he meets up with her again, she reveals her discovery that she's been Dead All Along, and begins bleeding from every pore as Harry watches in horror.
  • MadWorld works this trope into the form of a song, aptly titled So Cold, which takes over the previously boastful boss theme halfway through the final fight. That said, it's a Subverted Trope; what you're really looking at, in the lyrics and the battle alike, is cold fury.
  • In Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, Apollo actually watches someone die... and the victim says 'I'm cold... so cold' as he tells Apollo who the witness is.
  • In Shannara, Shella, as she lies dying, says to Jak 'I'm cold...so cold".
  • At a certain spot in Amnesia: The Dark Descent you'll hear this phrase as a disembodied whisper.
  • The skeletons from later parts of They Hunger sometimes mutter, "...Cold..."
  • Left 4 Dead has a music track for being close to dying while incapacitated explicitly called I Am So Cold
    • In some unused dialogue in the first game would have been used in a cutscene immediately after completing the "No Mercy" campaign implies that the helicopter pilot had been infected before he picked them up, and was about to make the transformation mid-flight. The pilot then uses the "I'm cold" line.
  • Some of the midget deaths from Borderlands 2: "SO COLD! Sooo cooold..."
  • Gaffgarion's final words in Final Fantasy Tactics.
  • When you take Stanley to the Everdoor in Spiritfarer, he'll mention feeling cold as he's about to pass on.
  • The Servants in Thief II: The Metal Age will occasionally utter the phrase "So cold...So very cold..." Considering the nature of their servitude, one can imagine why they feel like that.
  • Some of the ghosts in the Dark Fall series plead, "Cold. So cold here." if you answer telephones or other communication devices. Hidden messages elsewhere imply that it's actually the Dark Fall trying to distract you.
  • Telepath Tactics has two examples. Phoebe's death message is "I've often wondered what it would feel like to die. The cold...it trickles in like water..." Sarn Kamina's is in Lissit, but can be translated as "I am cold..." (There's some ambiguity, as the word for "cold" can also mean "afraid".) Harynx's death message also features Dangerous Drowsiness.
  • In Undertale, you eventually encounter a monster whose check and flavor text is "It's so cold." She's one of the most pitiful fights of the game; her attacks are listless and a few don't even enter the battle box. Unlike the other amalgamates, Snowdrake's mother seems to barely even be alive.
  • Slay the Princess: Almost every iteration of the Princess comments on how cold they suddenly feel before the Shifting Mound claims them as a vessel.

    Webcomics 
  • In Sluggy Freelance a man has this reaction after having to put gym shorts on a Duh-Mentor.
    • Subverted elsewhere, when it turns out Jane's been playing with the thermostat to make Gwynn think she's died and risen as a zombie.
  • Subverted in Terinu. When the title character is badly wounded, he starts feeling warmer as he slips into shock, since his body is losing the ability regulate temperature correctly. The comic's author is a nurse, so this counts as a case of Shown Their Work.
  • This Dysfunctional Family Circus from the 1990s shows Jeffy holding up a teddy bear for a security guard, with his mom, Thel, in the background. One of the captions has Jeffy telling the security guard, "But don't let him bite you. He got Thel, and now all she can say is, 'sooo coold.'"

    Web Original 
  • Editor Wilbur: Wilbur's Arc Words.
  • Pirates SMP: Zig-Zagging Trope. One of the trademark effects of being inflicted with the curse on the treasure from the Golden Isle is feeling "the warmth of the Sun and Moon slowly fade (and eventually vanish) from one's skin", which can lead to frostbite and one's surroundings freezing over if left unchecked. However, the curse can also cause one to feel unbearably hot or to experience both temperature extremes, but these potential symptoms are far less common than the cold variant.
  • A Scotsman in Egypt: Used dramatically but somewhat realistically in one of the battle scenes, when a young prince suffers a seemingly minor injury but keeps on fighting. And yet he keeps absently muttering to nobody in particular, "Why is it so cold?" Turns out his wound was far worse than it initially appeared, but shock and adrenaline were keeping him from feeling the full extent of it. Nobody catches on until he finally faints from blood loss and falls from his mount, by which time it's too late to save his life.

    Western Animation 
  • In Avatar: The Last Airbender, this doesn't actually happen, but is the topic of a ghost story Katara tells to the Gang. Of course, said story is set at the South Pole, and the death did occur during a week-long blizzard.
  • Happens in an episode of Ben 10 when Ben offers another character a piece of chocolate, which ended up poisoning him due to it coincidentally being his Kryptonite Factor.
  • A disturbing example from an obscure BBC children's cartoon called The Brollys, about a boy making friends with a man and a woman who control the weather. While most of the weather is rather pleasant, the ice and snow brings with it the terrifying Jack Frost, who not only freezes Mr. and Mrs. Brolly but also tries to kill the little boy by making him succumb to sleeping in the cold.
  • Danny Phantom: In "Urban Jungle", Danny complains about being really, really cold, despite the warm weather. Later, this turns out to be a sign of his ice powers awakening.
    • Also, Danny's ghost-sense, which is mentioned to be related to his ice powers, apparently feels like the sudden chill caused by a ghost's presence.
  • In The Dick Tracy Show episode "The Venetian Bind," the Mole and Sketch Paree are stealing all the statues in Venice, and they have their eyes on the only one left—it's in the home of the city's mayor. Disguised as physicians, they enter past Joe Jitsu and Detective Lardini and disguise the statue as the mayor's wife. Putting it on a stretcher, Joe puts his hand on the statue's forehead. (It's this that tips them off that Sketch and the Mole have made off with the statue.)
    Det. Lardini: How-a she feel?
    Joe: (solemnly) Cold. Very cold.
    Det. Lardini: (in tears) Ohhh....
    Joe: Cold like stone!
  • Dilbert: During the Dogbert Day parade in "Holiday", Dilberts obnoxious co-worker, the aptly named Dick, who has spent the entire episode making Dilbert even more miserable than usual, is crushed along with his equally obnoxious SUV by Dogberts giant parade float. As he lies in the wreckage, he utters this trope. Dilbert, who is watching the parade on TV with his mother, remarks that the holidays are a magical season.
  • In the Futurama episode "Anthology of Interest II", General Pac-Man's last words after being hit by a Space Invader's beam is "So cold...".
  • In Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, the Jetsons arrive in Birdman's office, but have to walk to his desk, as there is no conveyor belt. Eventually, Astro collapses during the trek, saying "Ro rold, ro rold..."
  • Ren says this in an episode of The Pirates of Dark Water. Justified in that Tula was purposefully lowering his body temperature in order to kill him so they could save Ioz.
  • Played for Laughs in the first episode of Oddballs. When Max is hit by a piece of toast from Toasty, it looks like he's dying, complete with green blood. He says he feels cold, which prompts James to point out that as an alligator, he's cold-blooded. Max makes a sudden and full recovery immediately.
  • The Powerpuff Girls (2016): Parodied in "The Long Skate Home". Bubbles is hit in the face with a ball and collapses, then starts moaning that she's cold. Blossom tells her to zip up her jacket. She does so and recovers.
  • The Simpsons
    • Om the episode "Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily", when Bart is discovered to have head lice on class picture day (as a result of playing with a monkey Milhouse found), he comments "Nothing ever happens to Milhouse." We then see Milhouse standing there pale, wrapped in a blanket, muttering "Cold, so very, very cold" (the implication being that Milhouse has malaria).
    • In one episode, the GPS from Homer's car says "So cold, so cold..." after Homer rips it out and throws it in a nearby fountain.
  • Ezra in Star Wars Rebels says “I feel cold” when he and the Ghost crew fight against Darth Vader’s TIE fighter, which also ties into Vader’s Evil Is Deathly Cold
  • Total Drama:
  • In one episode of The Venture Brothers, a group that seems oddly familiar infiltrates Dr. Venture's mansion and snoops around. At the end, they run afoul of a berserking Brock Sampson, who promptly kills the Fred, Shaggy and Scooby equivalents. As Shaggy dies, gutshot and bleeding out on the floor, he whimpers, "So cold, man...."

    Real Life 
  • Victims of shock frequently complain of feeling cold, and cold clammy (diaphoretic) skin is a major sign of shock, along with rapid heart rate and low blood pressure. Sudden complaint of cold in a trauma patient or one with known risk of shock (from infection, heart failure, internal bleeding, etc) is a very ominous sign indeed.
  • Cold itself is also a leading contributor to morbidity and mortality in shock patients, as it forms one of the three bases of the "trauma triad" or "triad of death": cold induces massive shivering as the patient attempts to maintain body heat, which generates lactic acid buildup in the bloodstream through anaerobic metabolism, which in turn impairs tissue oxygenation and promotes coagulopathy (inability to clot blood properly). Survival rates in this situation are dismal. Modern care of the shock victim frequently involves aggressive rewarming measures in addition to the usual protocols (fluid and/or blood product replacement, pressors where indicated, etc) in recognition of the risks of this outcome.
  • In cases of drowning and hypothermia, severe cold serves as a protective mechanism in a euvolemic victim (i.e. one not in shock to begin with). Below a certain point (usually around 32 C), low core temperatures drastically slow metabolism, preserving organs from hypoxic damage, and occasionally allowing successful resuscitation in a victim who would otherwise be long past saving. To that end, an old aphorism of emergency medicine states that hypothermia victims "aren't dead till they're warm and dead." The same effect is also exploited in active cooling therapies for heart attack and stroke patients, in which the patient is deliberately rendered hypothermic in the ICU to protect the heart or brain from further ischemic insult. This has also been used as an effective treatment for those suffering from spinal injuries.
  • In severe hypothermia cases, the victim may engage in 'paradoxical undressing' wherein they remove all their clothes. No one has experienced this and survived, but it has been suggested that at such a late stage the blood vessels close to the skin 'give up' and widen as they do when experiencing heat, causing the victim to feel too hot and strip. In this case, "I'm hot... so hot" might be more appropriate!
  • A slight variation in cases of severe blood loss: in addition to the usual drowsiness and disorientation, the lowered bodily fluid levels can cause the victim to feel extremely thirsty. There have been many accounts of the aftermath of battles and disasters where the dying were heard begging for water as they bled out.
  • The last transmission from the Mars rover Opportunity that was received on June 10, 2018 detailed fading power in its batteries and increasing opacity in the Martian atmosphere due to a persistent dust storm preventing the rover's solar panels from collecting enough power to keep itself running. After several months and over a thousand contact attempts without response, NASA announced on February 12, 2019 that the program would be concluded, and one journalist elected to relay Opportunity's last transmission as "My battery is low and it's getting dark." This, along with the rover operating way longer than expected (it was only planned to function for three months and ended up going for fifteen years), sparked a wave of tributes and memorials among the public as if it were a funeral.


 
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Jenna Darabond

Jenna Darabond's cruel last waking moments.

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