Basic Trope: A character does a particular habit one last time before he dies.
- Straight: Bob is a heavy smoker. When confronted by mooks in Emperor Evulz's castle, he knows that he'll never make it out of this one, so he has one last smoke before he dies.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob decides to smoke his entire box of cigarettes at once, because he knows he's about to die. Even more so if he was going to die of lung cancer in two years anyway.
- Every character faced with death indulges in their habit for the last time.
- Death Is Cheap in Bob's universe, so he comes Back from the Dead many times, and smokes a cigarette just before each of his many deaths.
- A dying Bob gives his killer one last act of defiance by blowing smoke into their face.
- Bob used to be a heavy smoker, but quit as a major plot point and struggled with it. His decision to have one last one for the road indicates how hopeless he sees his situation as.
- Downplayed: Bob only manages to light the cigarette before dropping dead.
- Justified: Smoking is a form of stress-relief for Bob, which he uses to help relieve the stress of his impending death.
- Inverted:
- Moments after Bob is born, he starts smoking a cigarette.
- Moments after being pardoned from a death sentence (or cheating death in some other way), Bob celebrates his victory over death by treating himself to another cigarette.
- Bob decides to try his very first cigarette, because he's about to die anyway.
- Bob has never smoked in his life, but after a near-death experience, he decides to try his very first cigarette. It may or may not be his only one.
- Subverted:
- Bob somehow cheats death, against his (and everyone else's) expectations.
- Bob's final wish is to have one last smoke before he dies, he pulls out the box, only to discover that it is empty.
- As the mooks approach, Bob lights up a cigarette... and uses a Cigar-Fuse Lighting to set off the trap he laid.
- Double Subverted:
- Bob quits smoking immediately after his near-death experience, so it turns out that his "last" cigarette really was his last.
- Somebody else hands Bob a cigarette.
- After Bob lights the trap he set with the cigarette, he smokes it, knowing full well he's not getting out of this firestorm either.
- Parodied:
- Bob gets killed by a Knight Templar for smoking in a no-smoking zone.
- Bob stops the action so he can casually get up and walk to the store to buy some cigarettes. He then comes back and continues as if had it never happened.
- In lieu of an actual cigarette, and out of sheer desperation, Bob smokes something that no logical person would even consider a cigarette, like a flower. Bonus points if the thing he smokes just so happens to be within reach.
- Zig Zagged: Susan is a heavy drinker. When she is about to die, she turns down a last drink, and instead opts to try smoking a cigarette for the first and only time.
- Averted:
- No one faces death at any point.
- None of the characters have a defining habit.
- Enforced: The executives order the writers to include a message against smoking tobacco. Having Bob smoke a cigarette in the face of death puts his normally innocent habit in a darker light.
- Lampshaded:
- "I'm about to die. It sounds like a good time for a smoke."
- "Those things will kill you, you know." "Oh, I don't think I need to worry about that."
- "Bob, you've had your whole life to smoke cigarettes. Now is not the time."
- Invoked:
- It's explicitly Bob's Last Request, and the Emperor helps him light it.
- Bob smokes a cigarette and then commits suicide.
- Bob smokes a cyanide cigarette.
- Exploited: Bob requests to have one more smoke before he dies. Right after he lights the cigarette, he pulls out an aerosol can which he uses to make his Last Stand.
- Defied:
- Bob turns down the offer of a final cigarette, calling it a filthy habit.
- When Bob enters the castle, he leaves his cigarettes behind.
- Discussed: "No, I'm not going to have one last smoke. Smoking is a fithy and unhygienic habit, and taking it up in the first place was a mistake."
- Conversed: "Why do characters always smoke just before they die?" "I guess it's because they no longer have to worry about the dangers of smoking."
- Deconstructed: Bob is dying of lung cancer from his own smoking addiction. He requests to have one last cigarette before he dies, much to the dismay of others who tried and failed to get him to stop up until his death.
- Reconstructed: Everybody was worried Bob was going to die from lung cancer, and once they take him to the hospital they are fairly sure that's why. Once the doctor tell the others that Bob got an infection saving Alice that was too late to treat, they let him have one last smoke because he's going to die anyway.
- Played For Laughs: Bob takes all of the cigarettes inside the box, puts them all in his mouth, lights them and starts smoking them like a desperate madman.note
Maybe I'll go back to One Last Smoke one more time before the end.
