History Main / CuriosityKilledTheCast

** The Fall of Man was brought about by Eve's curiosity about the ForbiddenFruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, as well as the serpent's lie which Eve believed. Adam and Eve don't die immediately, but they do doom themselves and all of their descendants to mortality because of it.

* UsefulNotes/ClassicalMythology's Pandora was created by the gods as revenge against Prometheus for stealing fire from them to give to man, and among her traits was an insatiable curiosity that led to her opening her eponymous box and unleashing evil upon the world. It should be noted that Ancient Greece was very patriarchal and had little use at all for women in general.

* ClassicalMythology's Pandora was created as revenge against Prometheus for stealing fire from the gods to give to man, and among her traits was an insatiable curiosity that led to her opening her eponymous box and unleashing evil upon the world. It should be noted that Ancient Greece was very patriarchal and had little use at all for women in general.

** As God is laying waste to Sodom and Gomorrah, He explicitly warns Lot and his family [[DontLookBack not to look back or stay in the region]]. Lot's wife does, and ends up [[TakenForGranite turned into a pillar of salt]] for her trouble.

* ''Literature/TheBible'', obviously (Adam and Eve don't die immediately, but still...), including its influence on all other Christian authors (like C.S.Lewis for the Narnia example).

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In his final story, "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E6TheCavesOfAndrozani The Caves of Androzani]]", the Fifth Doctor notices as much about himself.

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfHorror'': The "Eerie Episode of Evolving Eels" case gets kicked off by your neighbor Kana's eagerness to learn just what one of the other residents of your apartment complex has been up to recently. This can lead to her either [[EyeScream losing an eye]] or disappearing entirely.

* ''WebVideo/RatsSMP'': While destroying and removing patches of invasive fungus from the garden, Owen secretly ignores Scott's warnings of how deadly it is to investigate it for "science", first keeping one of the mushrooms in a containment chamber, then after planting said mushroom in the Boiler Room to get rid of the moth infestation there, ''going into the Boiler Room to investigate it further''. By the time he's realized what a bad idea ''that'' is, it's too late.

%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order. Thanks!

!!'''As a DeathTrope, all Spoilers will be unmarked ahead. Beware.'''

* ''LetsPlay/RatsSMP'': While destroying and removing patches of invasive fungus from the garden, Owen secretly ignores Scott's warnings of how deadly it is to investigate it for "science", first keeping one of the mushrooms in a containment chamber, then after planting said mushroom in the Boiler Room to get rid of the moth infestation there, ''going into the Boiler Room to investigate it further''. By the time he's realized what a bad idea ''that'' is, it's too late.

** The ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'' Inverts this with Izzy. His curiosity drives him to acquire knowledge and understand the digital world, and when he has that stolen he becomes a zombie until his partner snaps him out of it.
** ''Anime/DigimonTamers'' plays with this trope a bit. Kazu and Kenta, who are less mature and act more like their age than the other characters in the series, nearly get themselves killed multiple times when they go to the Digital World because of their curiosity and lack of understanding on how that place worked. On the other hand, it was curiosity and childlike belief that enabled another character to become a SixthRanger to the main team. The message seems be that that there's a line between healthy curiosity, which is what the latter had, and TooStupidToLive, which is what Kazu and Kenta can be sometimes.

* ''WebVideo/{{QSMP}}'': It was Vegetta ignoring the Duck's rule to not break down the {{wall|sOfTyranny}} dividing the players that got all of them trapped on Quesadilla Island, thus kicking off the events of the series.

[[folder:Webcomics]]

** The discovery of nuclear explosions is probably the first time that this trope has been played fairly straight in RealLife, aside from merely people (usually in positions of power) just not ''wanting'' people to be curious. Ironic considering the trope is OlderThanDirt, most of which have some sort of base in reality.

* When the Vesuvius erupted and destroyed the {{ancient Rom|e}}an city of Pompeii in 79 AD, Pliny the Elder wanted to have a closer look at the volcano... with predictable results.

* ''Series/BlakesSeven''. Just because they're rebels doesn't stop the crew of the Liberator checking things out from sheer boredom or curiosity, usually [[OnlySaneMan against the advice of Avon]]. In "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS3E9Sarcophagus Sacrophagus]]" they investigate a mysterious alien craft whose inhabitant nearly takes over the ship, [[AesopAmnesia only to have the exact same thing happen in the next episode!]]

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': In the alternate timeline in "Children of Time", Dax's curiosity about an unusual planet led to an accident that caused the ''Defiant'' to become trapped 200 years in the past, leading to Kira dying and the rest of the crew becoming stranded on the planet. When confronted about it by her sort-of future self in the form of Yedrin (ItMakesSenseInContext), she admits that her desire to see what was on the planet prevented her from recognizing how unstable the energy barrier around said planet was.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

A subtrope of TemptingFate. Compare ForbiddenFruit, DeathBySex, TooDumbToLive. In games, can be the cause of TotalPartyKill. Often the result of falling for SchmuckBait. See also CuriosityCausesConversion and HeKnowsTooMuch.

* [[OppositesAttract Riki and Iason]] in ''LightNovel/AiNoKusabi'' are StarCrossedLovers whose [[MasochismTango twisted romance]] was started by fateful intimate encounter fueled by curiosity on both their parts. It doesn't end well seeing how it took place in a [[{{Dystopia}} Dystopian]] [[CrapsackWorld Society]] where Iason had to follow the NoSexAllowed law.

* The Famous saying "curiosity killed the cat" is [[BeamMeUpScotty actually used incorrectly]]. The original saying was "care killed the cat" and care back then meant "worrying". So the meaning was "don't stress out over things so much or it'll end up killing you".

* Inverted as curiosity is also the reason behind many great scientific discoveries and technological advancements.

* [[http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2988/is-nuclear-power-safe Chernobyl]]
** As a quick summary, the linked article describes the catastrophic meltdown as not only stemming from shoddy design, but from its workers deciding to see what happened if [[TooStupidToLive they turned its few safety systems off]]. The emergency shutdown test ''was'' planned out thoroughly well in advance, but in a spectacular case of bad judgement it was postponed at the last minute for long enough that the experienced techs and supervisors that had planned and trained specifically for it had all gone off shift, and ''not'' long enough for them to come back the next day, so the entire operation was performed by the poorly-trained night crew.

If these characters are in a horror flick, such as a SlasherMovie, anyone showing the ''slightest bit'' of curiosity [[SortingAlgorithmOfMortality will die.]] Or release the SealedEvilInACan. Or get their GenreSavvy friend [[DeathByGenreSavviness killed]] as he complains that they shouldn't be there. Or gets them [[IHaveYouNowMyPretty captured]]. Etc, etc.

Outside of the slasher horror genre, the death rate of this trope drops considerably, even if it still stirs up a hornet's nest of trouble. Since curiosity is often the driving force that starts a plot, it can be used to get heroes into and out of several precarious situations. For example, considering the tone of her WebComic is goofy and mysterious, odds are Kat and Antimony aren't going to be dead at the end of that particular story... though you can bet your second shadow something interesting will happen!

* In the episode of ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' involving the retrovirus "Monkey Business", the protagonists stumble across a box containing a receptacle of the virus and are told not to open it. Faye is intrigued and opens it anyway, and Spike's use of brute force and firearms to separate the receptacle from its container--evidently based solely on curiosity--causes their hostage (who knows what is inside) much nervousness.

* ''Anime/DigimonTamers'' plays with this trope a bit. Kazu and Kenta, who are less mature and act more like their age than the other characters in the series, nearly get themselves killed multiple times when they go to the Digital World because of their curiosity and lack of understanding on how that place worked. On the other hand, it was curiosity and childlike belief that enabled another character to become a SixthRanger to the main team. The message seems be that that there's a line between healthy curiosity, which is what the latter had, and TooStupidToLive, which is what Kazu and Kenta can be sometimes.
* The ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'' Inverts this with Izzy. His curiosity drives him to acquire knowledge and understand the digital world, and when he has that stolen he becomes a zombie until his partner snaps him out of it.
* [[OppositesAttract Riki and Iason]] in ''LightNovel/AiNoKusabi'' are StarCrossedLovers whose [[MasochismTango twisted romance]] was started by fateful intimate encounter fueled by curiosity on both their parts. It doesn't end well seeing how it took place in a [[{{Dystopia}} Dystopian]] [[CrapsackWorld Society]] where Iason had to follow the NoSexAllowed law.

* Creator/DaveChappelle invoked this as a response to being told not to visit a strip bar:
--> "Naked women inside? I'd be like a white guy in a horror movie: 'I've got to investigate'".

* In ''ComicBook/ShadeTheChangingMan'', Shade traps a Celestial in a statue of the mythical Pandora (with box), and she comes to life. Kathy and Lenny find "Pandora's" box and give in to temptation by opening it. The box is empty, but it turns "Pandora" into dust.
* ''ComicBook/LabRats'': Poe is constantly yelling at Wu because he thinks Wu is going to get himself or the others killed with his habit of wandering into places he shouldn't be and poking around. In the end Wu is killed alongside Poe and Issac when they were suddenly attacked by a giant robot, that was created due to ''Trilby'' letting her curiosity get the better of her.

* In ''ComicStrip/SpyVsSpy'', any time one the spies lets his curiosity get the better of him, it invariably leads to his demise.

* In the ''Film/IronMan'' fic ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4540557/1/Huge_Success Huge Success]]'', Tony decides to peek at the pym particles sent to his lab for examination before Dr. Pym showed up. He ends up being six inches tall.

* In the latter parts of the ''Fanfic/Gensokyo20XX'' series, we have this with Reimu and the fact that bad things have happened because of her curiosity, the two being, 1),she crawls off into the "kitsune territory" and Ran is almost raped, leading her to be badly traumatized (20XXIV, Chapter 9 however, the door to their house was opened) and, 2), she drinks a kind of serum and the other kids drink it, reverting them to toddlers (20XXV, Chapter 35). The fact that Reimu has no sense of danger doesn't make this better.

* Shane Acker's ''WesternAnimation/{{Nine}}'' is made of this trope. In the feature film version, 9's combination of being both very naive and very curious gets over half the cast of the movie killed before it's all over. Admittedly, 1's death was heroic suicide, but it was 9's curiosity that lead him to jam the talisman in the machine and wake it up in the first place.

* ''Film/TheBox2018'': If that kid just left [[TitleDrop The Box]] in the woods where he found it, he wouldn't have [[spoiler:read that spell to summon a doppleganger to replace him, and trick the kid's mom into doing the same]].

* ''Film/DawnOfTheDead1978'': Narrowly averted with [[spoiler: Stephen, who ''routinely'' gets himself in a trouble by being too curious and impatient for his own good]]. He almost gets himself killed during the airfield scene and later, when the group just lands in the mall.

* ''Film/{{Them}}'': This is te fate of [[spoiler:Blackburn]].
* ''Film/AloneInTheDark2005'' has the cast about to open up a door to some other world or whatever. They decide not to as the last people that opened the door where wiped from the face of the earth but not without some questioning. The villain turns up, and for reasons completely unknown, opens up the door. Sure enough, they ''really'' shouldn't have opened the door.
* The characters in the ''Franchise/EvilDead'' films could have saved themselves a lot of trouble by just leaving that tape recorder alone.
** Likewise, Professor Knowby himself would've had a relaxing, uneventful weekend if, while working on his translations, he hadn't felt the need to recite a demon resurrection spell ''out loud''.
** But the most obvious idiocy belongs to Cheryl in [[Film/TheEvilDead1981 the first one]], who hears a sound and goes out into the woods at night alone to investigate. She doesn't get ''killed'', per se, but what happens to her when the [[WhenTreesAttack possessed trees get hold of her]] is [[RapeAsDrama just as bad]].
* The Umbrella Corporation people at the beginning of ''Film/ResidentEvilApocalypse''. The crack team of commandos they sent into The Hive never came back, and one of the two survivors who ''did'' barely make it out alive was infected with the T-Virus. What's the smartest move? Re-open the facility and send a second ''even less well-equipped'' team in [[WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong to investigate]]!
* ''Film/TheRizzle'': If [[TheProtagonist Elena]] had just not clicked on that video of The Rizzle, she never would have seen it, tried the dance, and [[spoiler:ended up trapped [=INSIDE=] of the video]].
* Ildith should really have listened to her husband Lot when he told her "DontLookBack" at the destruction of the title cities in ''Film/SodomAndGomorrah''. But a combination of her lack of faith in the god he says will destroy the cities and her own curiosity causes her to look back at the fiery explosions engulfing her former hometown... and one flash of light later, there's [[TakenForGranite a pillar of salt]] where she was standing seconds earlier.

* ''Literature/TheBible'', obviously (Adam and Eve don't die immediately, but still...), including its influence on all other Christian authors (like C.S.Lewis for the Narnia example).
* Pretty much the moral of half of Creator/HPLovecraft's stories, most notably “Literature/TheCallOfCthulhu”, in which everyone who learns too much about the Great Old Ones winds up dead, including the narrator.

* Non-fatal example: in ''Literature/{{Hogfather}}'', Ridcully opened the locked door to a steam-bath invented by "Bloody Stupid" Johnson, despite a sign posted on the door reading, [[SchmuckBait "Do not, under any circumstances, open this door."]] Indeed, this was why Ridcully wanted the door opened; [[TooDumbToLive to find out why it was locked.]] He survived the ordeal, but just barely.
-->"This exchange contains almost all you need to know about human civilization. At least, those bits of it that are now under the sea, fenced off or still smoking.”

* ''Series/BIMASatriaGaruda'': The hero Ray's father, driven by scientific curiosity, opens a portal to a parallel world. Too bad the inhabitants of the other world now want to invade our Earth for its natural resources and kill Ray's parents first.
* ''Series/BlakesSeven''. Just because they're rebels doesn't stop the crew of the Liberator checking things out from sheer boredom or curiosity, usually [[OnlySaneMan against the advice of Avon]]. In "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS3E9Sarcophagus Sacrophagus]]" they investigate a mysterious alien craft whose inhabitant nearly takes over the ship, [[AesopAmnesia only to have the exact same thing happen in the next episode!]]
* Narrowly subverted in the lion episode of ''Series/PlanetEarthDynasties''. The nearly-full-grown Red goes off to venture around his family's territory and ends walking straight into a clan of twenty hyenas. He would have died if his cousin Tatu hadn't noticed the commotion.

* It's such a well known thing within the horror or mystery genres of TabletopGames that it's progressed to the point where several games, such as ''Trail Of Cthulhu'' or mystery/horror variants of FATE, have mechanics to encourage/push GenreSavvy players away from averting this trope. It makes a dull game if everybody does the "smart" thing and decides that they don't want to leave the house after all.
** A related issue with even games like ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' is that players often create reluctant adventurers that constantly need "motivation" for why they would go on any particular quest. One recommended solution is to tell the player that if their character doesn't want to go on an adventure, that character has now become an NPC and they now have to roll up a character that ''does'' want to go adventure and live dangerously.

* Ride/UniversalStudios:

* ''VideoGame/ThePath'': The entire premise of this psychological horror game, based on Little Red Riding Hood, is guiding a young girl through the woods and off the path until she encounters her "wolf".
* In ''VideoGame/AoOni'', a group of teenagers decide to explore an old abandoned house and end up being chased by big purple monster. Most of the versions, only the protagonist survives. (There are versions that gives the player the option to save some of their friends.)

* ''VideoGame/{{Calling}}'' has this occur to majority of the cast. Their curiosity about The Black Page and talking in that chatroom leads them into being pulled into the Mnemonic Abyss and ultimately leads to Shin's death and that of others.
* Many character in the ''VideoGame/FatalFrame'' franchise are prone to this, heading into haunted places (some of them do so on purpose). Since those who die in this series become ghosts that players must fight to survive, it's safe to say few of them survive their encounters -- [[AnyoneCanDie even main protagonists aren't immune to this consequence.]]
* ''VideoGame/QuakeIV'': All it took for Medic Jeremiah Anderson to die was to inspect the Strogg Medical Lab. He was captured and [[NeverFoundTheBody seemingly]] killed by a Medic who then proceeds to fight [[PlayerCharacter Kane]].

* Averted in ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarOnline2''.. In ''EPISODE ONE'', a geologist and scholar named Rogio is curious as to why there's absolutely nothing on the planet Naberius and hires the PlayerCharacter to help out. After doing some research, he becomes convinced there is something entirely wrong with the planet and convinces ARKS to let him go down for further study. He goes missing and is presumed dead using this trope, but it turns out he was rescued and is forced into hiding. After the events of ''EPISODE TWO'', he gets to come back after a lot of ARKS' {{Dark Secret}}s gets aired out.

* ''WebAnimation/MysterySkullsAnimated'': A group of three amateur paranormal investigators and their "dog" enter an eerie CaveMouth to poke around despite the clear warning on the sign outside and the ''human skulls'' littering the cave. One of them ends up dead, another, who did not want to go in the cave in the first place, loses his arm and his memory of the events in the cave, and the third also loses part of her memory.

* ''Webcomic/CyanideAndHappiness'' gives us an example of this, both literally and figuratively in [[http://explosm.net/comics/2043/ this strip]].

** This is essentially the reason most Slender Man stories happen. Someone disappears or something happens, and [[TooDumbToLive someone goes to investigate.]]
* ''WebVideo/BenDrowned'': If only Jadusable's curiosity hadn't prompted him to accept the shady game cartridge from the old man, or posted anything to the internet, then the [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou reader's]] curiosity wouldn't have led them to open "The Truth.rtf", thus releasing Ben to the whole of the internet, and things might have gone a bit better for everyone involved.

* Shows up in the FanFilm of ''VideoGame/Left4Dead''. It's a particularly facepalm-worthy moment as the character in question is an ActionSurvivor with experience shooting the infected and has a very conspicuous assault rifle. Which she puts down before [[LetsSplitUpGang going upstairs]] and being lured in by the curious noise.

* Ferrets have had their curiosity turned UpToEleven through selective breeding, which combines poorly with their ability to get nearly anywhere.

* ''Film/{{Sinister}}'': A SmuckBait in the form of the Super 8 reels and projector, which Bughuul leaves in the attic whenever a new family moves in. Taken even further when [[spoiler:Ellison moves his family back to their old house, and Bughuul leaves the "Extended Cut" endings in his attic. His curiosity gets the better of him once again]].