We're on the case!
"Nothing's more destructive to the metaphysical fabric that binds us than the untimely murder of a human."
Tropes relating to that most heinous crime.
Tropes:
Useful Notes:
Related Indexes:
- Accidental Murder: When someone unintentionally kills another person.
- Accidental Child-Killer Backstory: A character who unintentionally caused a child's death in the past carries the burden into the present.
- I Didn't Mean to Kill Him: When the guilty party claims (honestly or not) that their killing was accidental.
- Murder by Mistake: When someone ends up killing the wrong person, instead of their intended victim.
- Accident, Not Murder: Circumstances cause a freak accident to appear to be a murder.
- Always Murder: In police/detective shows, the vast majority of the crimes they investigate involve a dead body from a homicide.
- And Show It to You: Killing someone by removing their heart and showing it to them.
- Animal Assassin: Using a deadly animal as a murder weapon.
- Anonymous Killer Narrator: Some sections of a story are written from a murderers' POV, though without giving away their identity.
- Any Last Words?: A character about to be killed is asked if they have any last words. They use the opportunity to turn the tables on the person who was about to kill them.
- Assassination Attempt: When someone tries to kill a particular targeted person (usually an (in)famously notorious individual), and they may or may not succeed in doing so.
- Assassin Outclassin': An assassination attempt ends up failing or getting foiled.
- Conspicuously Public Assassination: When the assassination is done in view of many witnesses.
- Fake Assassination: Killing the target was never the real intent of the crime, that was just a ruse for some other scheme.
- Attack on the Heart: Killing someone by directly inflicting damage to the heart.
- Ax-Crazy: A person who is both mentally unstable and violent; very likely to commit murders.
- Better Manhandle the Murder Weapon: Someone gets accused of murder because they got caught touching the murder weapon after the murder happened.
- Bleed 'em and Weep: Someone cries after killing someone.
- Blood-Stained Letter: Often a clue in a murder case, left by either the victim or the killer.
- Bloodbath Villain Origin: The villain's backstory involves them committing a massacre.
- Bludgeoned to Death: Killing someone by fatally beating them with a blunt object.
- Bluffing the Murderer: Tricking a killer into revealing their guilt.
- Board to Death: A villain gathers his accomplices at a meeting so that he can kill them.
- Body in a Breadbox: A corpse is found in a very unusual container.
- Boom, Headshot!: Killing someone by firing a single bullet through their brain.
- Carpet-Rolled Corpse: Wrapping up a dead body with a rug.
- Cement Shoes: When a (live or dead) victim gets tied down with blocks of concrete so that their body will sink down after being thrown into a body of water.
- Chute Sabotage: Killing a skydiver by damaging their parachute.
- Children Forced to Kill: Kids are coerced into committing murder. This typically happens to Child Soldiers.
- Cold Equation: Considering murder so others can live longer.
- Constructive Body Disposal: hiding a dead body in a man-made structure.
- Conversation Casualty: Killing someone while talking to them.
- Cop Killer: A person who kills a police officer.
- Cop Killer Manhunt: The police take the killing of their own very seriously.
- The Coroner Doth Protest Too Much: A murder is dubiously covered up by claiming that the death happened because of accident, suicide, or natural causes.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: A murder is covered up by making it look like an accidental death.
- Hunting "Accident": Taking someone along for a hunting trip just to "accidentally" shoot them.
- This Bear Was Framed: Disguising a murder as an animal attack.
- Never Suicide: A murder victim's demise is covered up by making it look like a suicide.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: A murder is covered up by making it look like an accidental death.
- The Corpse Stops Here: A person gets accused of murder just for being near the body.
- Coup de Grâce: The final blow that kills, often done to finish off a defeated opponent at the end of a fight.
- Cradling Your Kill: The corpse is cradled by the killer.
- Cramming the Coffin: Disposing of a body by hiding either in or under an occupied coffin.
- A Deadly Affair: An extramarital affair ends in the murder of one or more parties involved.
- Deadly Delivery: An assassin poses as a postal worker so they can personally meet their target to kill them.
- You Got Murder: The postal service itself is used to facilitate a murder attempt (such as by sending a mail bomb to the target).
- Deadly Game: An unusually violent contest in which players are required to survive to achieve victory.
- Deadly Graduation: To pass, you must kill your partner.
- Deadly Remote Control Toy: Remote control toys as murder weapons.
- Dead Man's Chest: Stuffing a corpse into a convenient container.
- Dead Serious: Showing how serious a threat the villain is by having them kill someone the audience cares about.
- Death by Falling Over: A push turns fatal.
- Death by Mocking
- Death by Woman Scorned
- Death in the Clouds: Murder onboard an aircraft.
- Death Flight: Execution from a plane.
- Death March: Prisoners are forced by their captors to travel on foot in lethally harsh conditions, leaving few or no survivors.
- Demanding Their Head: Ordering a character killed and his severed head returned, usually for a bounty.
- Divorce Requires Death: A person (usually the bride) ends their marriage by killing their spouse.
- Duel to the Death
- External Combustion: AKA car bombing; a classic assassination method, in which an explosive device hidden in a motor vehicle is used to kill anyone inside or nearby it.
- Failure-to-Save Murder: Someone is blamed for a death they were unable to prevent.
- Family Extermination: Eliminating everyone from an entire family.
- Ruling Family Massacre: Slaughtering all members of a royal dynasty.
- Fed to the Beast: Killing someone by handing them over to a monster or dangerous animal.
- Felony Murder: Laws which deem someone's death caused by another person committing a felony crime to be first-degree murder.
- Flaying Alive: Skinning someone while they are still alive; often proves fatal.
- Found the Killer, Lost the Murderer: Catching the trigger man, but the mastermind behind the crime escapes.
- Fright Deathtrap: Intentionally scaring someone to death.
- Gaining the Will to Kill: The act of deciding that a murder is necessary.
- Gangland Drive-By: Drive-by shootings are an assassination method favored by gangsters, in which gunmen riding in a motor vehicle pull up and spray bullets at their enemies before making a quick getaway.
- Gutted Like a Fish: Killing someone through disembowelment.
- Hanging Around: Killing someone by hanging them.
- He Knows Too Much: Killing someone because they have learned a dangerous secret they can't be allowed to know (or which they possibly plan to share with other people).
- Leave No Witnesses: Someone tries to avoid getting punished for their crimes by killing everyone who's seen them do the crimes.
- Hero Killer: The villain has successfully killed at least one hero who tried to stop them.
- High on Homicide: The killer gets some kind of natural high from having killed someone.
- High-Voltage Death: Killing someone by electrocuting them.
- Electrified Bathtub: Killing someone by dropping active electronics into a bathtub filled with water.
- Homophobic Hate Crime: If such an attack results in the victim's death.
- How Would You Like to Die?: The murderer asks the victim how they'd want to die.
- Human Sacrifice: Killing someone as part of a religious ritual.
- Appease the Volcano God: When it's done by throwing the sacrificial victim into a volcano.
- Targeted Human Sacrifice: They can't just grab any random person to kill, they need a specific type of individual for the sacrifice.
- Virgin Sacrifice: When the victim (usually a young woman or girl) is required to have never had sex before.
- Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: A human hunts other humans for sport, killing them like they were game animals.
- If I Can't Have You…: Someone tries to murder someone for leaving them or rejecting them romantically.
- I'll Kill You!
- I'm a Humanitarian: If a cannibal kills another person with the intention of eating their body.
- Inexperienced Killer: Someone who has little to no experience in killing and has never actually killed anyone before.
- Inheritance Murder: Killing someone in order to collect their inheritance.
- Inn of No Return: A shady hotel where guests have a worrisome tendency to never check out alive.
- The Killer Becomes the Killed: A murderer ends up murdered themselves.
- Killer Cop: A murderous policeman.
- Kill It with Fire: Using fire or burning heat as a weapon to kill people.
- Letterbox Arson: Killing someone by pouring flammable liquids through their house's mail slot and subsequently trapping them in a House Fire.
- Murder by Cremation: Shoving a live person into an oven to burn them to death.
- Kill It with Ice: Using ice or freezing cold as a weapon to kill people.
- Kill on Sight: Declaring that someone has been targeted for violent death.
- Kill Tally: Someone keeps score of how many lives they've taken.
- Body-Count Competition: Two or more people compete to see who can kill the most people.
- Kill the God
- Kill the Host Body: Getting rid of some body/mind-controlling entity by fatally wounding their victim.
- Kill the Ones You Love
- The Kingslayer: Someone who commits the murder of a monarch (regicide).
- Tyrannicide: Someone kills a brutal tyrant.
- Leave No Survivors: A massacre where nobody present is allowed to be left alive.
- Lights Off, Somebody Dies: The lights go out and when they come back on, someone has been murdered.
- Lotsa People Try to Dun It: It turns out that all the suspects tried to kill the victim.
- Make Sure He's Dead: The villain insists that they look for a body in the event that it's hard to tell if the victim died or not.
- Medication Tampering: Tampering with someone's medication, often with lethal intent.
- Mercy Kill: Killing someone to spare them from a much more painful and prolonged death (or a worse fate).
- Mistaken for Murderer: A person is mistakenly believed to have killed someone or be planning to kill someone.
- Mistaken for Own Murderer: A disguised or transformed person is mistaken for having killed their true self.
- Multiple Gunshot Death: Someone gets killed by being riddled with many bullets.
- The Murder After: Waking up next to a corpse, with no idea how it got there.
- Murder by Inaction: Killing someone indirectly by refusing to save their life.
- Murderers Are Rapists: A criminal rapes their victim before killing them.
- Murder Is the Best Solution: A character's knee-jerk solution to any problem they may face is to kill the people troubling them.
- Murder Makes You Crazy: Killing people isn't too good for your mental stability.
- Murder-Suicide: Killing another person before killing oneself.
- Suicide Attack: When someone simultaneously kills both themselves and another person, usually accomplished with explosives.
- Murder the Hypotenuse: Someone tries to get with the person they love by murdering the individual their beloved has chosen to be with.
- Murderer P.O.V.: A murder is depicted from the killer's perspective; their identity may or may not be concealed.
- Mutual Kill: Two people end up killing each other near-simultaneously.
- Nasty Party: A social gathering organised with the intention of killing someone.
- Neck Snap: Killing someone by twisting their neck hard enough to sever their spinal cord.
- Never One Murder: If one murder is committed, then there's a good chance there'll be more before the story ends.
- Not-So-Fake Prop Weapon: A real weapon disguised as a fake imitation is used to kill somebody.
- Not the First Victim: This killer has victims that weren't discovered before their public crimes.
- Off with His Head!: AKA beheading or decapitation; killing someone by slicing through their neck with a very sharp blade.
- Offing the Annoyance: Killing someone for being annoying.
- Offing the Mouth: Killing someone for making a snarky remark.
- Offing the Offspring: Killing your own children.
- Ordered to Die: Someone is forced to kill themselves by someone else's command.
- Over-the-Shoulder Murder Shot: The murderer is found crouched over their victim before looking over their shoulder, initially obscuring the crime and/or the perpatrator.
- Pater Familicide: Killing one's whole family, including spouse and kids, usually followed by oneself.
- Poison Is Evil: Killing someone with the use of a highly toxic chemical substance.
- Bitter Almonds: Cyanide poisoning leaves the telltale scent of bitter almonds.
- Tainted Tobacco: Poisoning someone's smoking materials.
- Prepare to Die: When applied to murderers; they will let their victim know they're about to kill them.
- Prestige Peril: Gaining a lofty position has the downside that any screw-up will result in you getting killed.
- Professional Killer: Also known as contract killers, hitmen, or assassins. They make a living by murdering other people for a paycheck.
- Carnival of Killers: A wide assortment of assassins, usually attracted by an open contract on someone's hide.
- Contract on the Hitman: When an assassin gets targeted for death themselves.
- Murder, Inc.: An organization of contract killers.
- Price on Their Head: All hitmen are motivated to receive a great monetary reward in exchange for eliminating a specifically targeted individual.
- Psychic-Assisted Suicide: Using Mind Control to force someone to kill themselves.
- Psycho Knife Nut: When applied to psychotic murderers, who may favor using a knife to do the deed.
- Rape, Pillage, and Burn: Ruthless soldiers attack a city or town and go on a merciless rampage of mass rape and murder against the unarmed civilians who live there.
- A Real Man Is a Killer
- Rube Goldberg Hates Your Guts: A Rube Goldberg Device is used to kill someone.
- Self-Defense Ruse: Pretending you simply had to kill someone to defend yourself.
- Self-Made Orphan: Someone kills their own parents.
- Serial Killer: A murderer who gradually kills a series of individual people, one after another.
- Jack the Ripoff: A copycat killer who uses the modus operandi of another serial killer.
- Serial-Killer Killer: A (vigilante) serial killer who targets other murderers.
- Serial Killings, Specific Target: A murderer who only really wants to kill a specific individual, but they try to hide their motives by murdering several other people to make it look like the work of a serial/spree killer.
- Theme Serial Killer: This murderer has a predictable gimmick as part of their M.O.
- Poetic Serial Killer: They like to use an ironic method against each of their victims.
- Shoot the Dangerous Minion: The villain kills their most competent minion because they could pose a threat to them.
- Shoot the Messenger: Killing a messenger just because they dared to inform you of bad news.
- Please Shoot the Messenger: A messenger unknowingly delivers a message that tells the recipient to kill them.
- Sibling Murder: Someone kills their own brother or sister (fratricide for brothers, sororicide for sisters).
- Sinister Suffocation: Murder by choking or strangulation.
- Vorpal Pillow: Killing someone by smothering them with a pillow.
- Slain in Their Sleep: Killing someone while they're asleep in bed.
- Sickbed Slaying: Killing someone lying in bed from illness or injury.
- Snuff Film: A recorded film of someone getting murdered.
- murder.com: A website that hosts videos of people getting killed.
- Spree Killer: A mass-murderer who kills multiple people within a short span of time.
- Going Postal: A disgruntled postal worker goes crazy and will likely start killing people.
- "Strangers on a Train"-Plot Murder: Two people who wish to kill someone swap victims.
- Suicidal Sadistic Choice: Forcing someone into killing themselves by threatening to do something worse to them.
- Suicide by Assassin: Someone hires another person to get themselves killed.
- Suicide by Cop: Someone intentionally provokes another person into killing them.
- Suicide, Not Murder: A suicide victim is mistaken for having been murdered.
- Suspect Existence Failure: The lead suspect of a murder gets killed by the real culprit.
- Sympathetic Murderer: The killer has a sympathetic motive for their crime (such as their victim being a bad person).
- Sympathetic Murder Backstory: A person's Dark and Troubled Past involves them being a sympathetic killer.
- Take Me Out At The Ballgame: Killing someone at a sports event.
- Taking You with Me: A person who gets killed makes it so that their killer dies with them.
- Team Killer: A treacherous member of a group murders their own comrades.
- Unfriendly Fire: A soldier gets killed by a fellow soldier from the same army — and it wasn't an accidental casualty of war.
- Ten Little Murder Victims: A group of people are stuck somewhere. One of them is a killer, the rest are potential victims.
- Terror at Make-Out Point: Teens canoodling at the local Make-Out Point become victims of murderers or monsters.
- These Hands Have Killed: Character looks down at his hands the first time he has killed.
- Thrown from the Zeppelin: Disposing of an objector immediately and in such a way as to quash further objection.
- Til Murder Do Us Part: Someone kills their own spouse.
- Black Widow: A woman who repeatedly kills her husbands.
- The Bluebeard: A man who repeatedly kills his wives.
- Trail of Blood: Often left behind following a murder.
- Tricked to Death: Intentionally deceiving or misleading someone into getting themselves killed.
- Trouble Magnet Gambit: Giving a target an object that is harmless in itself, but will attract lethal attention.
- Uriah Gambit: Sending a troublesome subordinate out to die in battle.
- Van Helsing Hate Crimes: If a monster hunter goes too far and tries to kill innocent monsters who were never actually hurting anyone else.
- Vehicle-Roof Body Disposal: Getting rid of body by placing it on top of vehicle heading out of town.
- Vehicular Sabotage: Sabotaging a vehicle. Can be lethal if you sabotage the brakes or steering.
- Murder by Remote Control Vehicle: Killing someone by taking control of their vehicle and making it crash.
- Vigilante Execution: Killing someone accused of a crime without the permission of the judicial system.
- Villain Killer: A character known for taking out villains.
- Wax Museum Morgue: A museum where the "statues" are really the preserved corpses of the owner's victims.
- Whodunnit to Me?: Someone (such as a ghost) must solve their own (attempted) murder.
- Who Murdered the Asshole?: An unsympathetic person has been killed, but it's hard to determine who killed them because the victim was such a dick that there is no shortage of people who despise the victim.
- You Have Failed Me: The villain kills an underling as punishment for failing them too often or too severely.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The villain kills an underling after they've done what they were ordered to do.
- You Killed My Father: Someone wants revenge for the murder of their loved one.
