History Main / DeathByMaterialism

** In ''Raiders'', the villains are killed when they open the Ark. In ''Temple of Doom'', Mola Ram dies when he tries to catch the stone and his hand is burned, then eaten by crocodiles. The Indiana Jones movies ARE this trope.
*** The Mola Ram example is a bit of a WallBanger really, as this villain had JUST displayed a bit of GenreSavvy by pointing out to Indiana that if he dropped the stones, they could simply be found again (so WHY did he bother trying to grab them as they fall when he was now in actual danger himself?)

* The infamous ''DwarfFortress'' LetsPlay ''Boatmurdered'' has dwarves rushing under the Elephants' feet to loot their trampled comrades.

* No Face in SpiritedAway is the living embodiment of this. If your greedy(you go for the coins he offers), he eats you. If your really greedy, he goes on an apeshit killing spree

* In ''ThePrincessAndTheFrog'', Doctor Facilier's entire plan - kidnapping and [[BalefulPolymorph transforming Prince Naveen]], having a servant toy with Charlotte, and eventual [[spoiler:promise the "wayward" souls of everyone in New Orleans to a group of demons]] - steams from his jealousy over Big Daddy Lebouf's vast fortune and his desire to acquire it. This, of course, serves as a foil to Tiana and Naveen who desperately want money themselves but use legal methods of obtaining it (Tiana works several jobs and Naveen...erm plans to marry Charlotte as well [[spoiler:but then later decides against this and works for a living in Tiana's restaurant after they are married]]).

* In the 1989 ''{{Batman}}'' movie, numerous Gothamites grab cash offered by a known serial killer. Many walk away in good shape, thanks entirely to Batman, but at least some disregarded warnings until it was too late.

* In ''[[RanmaOneHalf Ranma 1/2]]'', Nabiki is challenged by Kinnosuke Kashao to a date in which neither can spend even a single yen of their own money --the loser has to pay for all expenses incurred throughout the date. At the end, having rented a helicopter, Kinnosuke bails out and Nabiki, Ranma, and Akane (there as Nabiki's chaperones) find out the helicopter controls run on five-yen coins, and bail out themselves. When Kinnosuke discovers his parachute is a fake (planted there by Nabiki in advance) she offers to sell him a real parachute for one yen. He smacks into the solid asphalt hard enough to leave a [[EfficientDisplacement Kinnosuke-shaped impression.]] (But [[AmusingInjuries still survives]].)
* Humorously subverted in an early episode of ''{{Dragonball}}''. A {{Mook}} decides ScrewThisImOuttaHere when Goku starts trashing the bad guy's fortress, and stops by the treasury to steal as much stuff as they can. While they're trying to escape they get shot full of holes by the heroes, but [[PocketProtector survive because all the jewels they stuffed down their shirt stopped the bullets.]]

* No Face in SpirtedAway is the living embodiment of this. If your greedy(you go for the coins he offers), he eats you. If your really greedy, he goes on an apeshit killing spree

* Meta example: how many times have you fallen to your death trying to get that last [[{{Mario}} coin,]] [[SonicTheHedgehog ring,]] [[Game/MegaMan screw,]] or [[{{Irony}} extra life?]]

* [[AtlantisTheLostEmpire Captain Rourke, Helga, and the rest of the crew]] kidnap the super-powered Kida for this reason, condemning the people of Atlantis to die when their lifesource is taken away. Most of the crew abandons the plan [[ShamingTheMob out of guilt]] after Milo [[WhatTheHellHero calls them out on it]]. Rourke and Helga follow through. [[spoiler:Helga winds up falling a ''long'' way down and is crushed by a flaming Zeppelin. Rourke winds up as a blue crystal monster and ultimately gets hacked up in the propellers of his air craft.]]

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->'''Mugger:''' Don't make a move, this is a stickup. Now, come on--your money or your life.
->'''[[TheJackBennyProgram Jack Benny]]:''' ''(silence)''
->'''Mugger:''' Look, bud! I said, your money or your life!
->'''Jack Benny:''' ''I'm thinking it over!!''

[[quoteright:265:[[GuyDoubleTarget http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/guyawakeningofthedevil_wardenheel.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:265:She apparently had it coming.]]

* In ''TheAeneid'', Nisus and Euryalus are spotted and killed in the woods after a raid because the loot they stole sparkles in the moonlight. Unusual in that it's presented as tragic instead of a deserved comeuppance, and because they are explicitly stated to be [[HoYay lovers]] who die defending one another.

* One of the funniest parts in the {{Mockumentary}} ZombieApocalypse novel ''WorldWarZ'' is when a bunch of celebrities (including not-so-hidden pastiches of Paris Hilton, Bill Maher and Ann Coulter) set themselves up in a fortified mansion on Long Island and then broadcast the resulting party to the world. The compound is promptly overrun, not by zombies, but by desperate still-living humans, following the transmissions and looking for a safe place to hide. Cue the rich, arrogant bastards dying and the mercenary/bodyguard narrator fleeing the scene, along with Hilton's dog.

This is of course a highly {{Anvilicious}} [[AnAesop aesop]] that shows that greed is one of the SevenDeadlySins, along with how often {{Corrupt Corporate Executive}}s bite it in disaster films and {{Jaws}} [[FollowTheLeader ripoffs]].

[[quoteright:265:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/guyawakeningofthedevil_wardenheel.jpg]]

*** The Mola Ram example is a bit of a WallBanger really, as this villain had JUST displayed a bit of GenreSavy by pointing out to Indiana that if he dropped the stones, they could simply be found again (so WHY did he bother trying to grab them as they fall when he was now in actual danger himself?)

* Meta example: how many times have you fallen to your death trying to get that last [[{{Mario}} coin,]] [[SonicTheHedgehog ring,]] [[MegaMan screw,]] or [[{{Irony}} extra life?]]

* There's a monster in ''Monster Rancher 4'' that looks exactly like a treasure box. If you "open" it, it attacks.

* This nearly happens to Cruella in Disney's ''101Dalmations''. She loves her fur coats and will willingly murder a group of puppies for one. She is forced off of a road and down a cliff during the final chase scene, but is shown to have survived.
* The villain in ''TheRescuersDownUnder'' isn't shown to have died for his crimes (poaching and then trying to murder a child to get a valuable eagle), but is last seen falling off of a waterfall with a group of alligators coming after him. Didn't look good for him.
* Clayton from ''Tarzan'' anyone? Tries to make a lot of money by kidnapping gorillas? Winds up [[NightmareFuel hung by a vine]]?

* Before ''Land of the Dead,'' George Romero's previous movie, ''Dawn of the Dead'' had this trope as its main theme. The survivors holed up in a mall that happened to attract zombies even when there were no living people around there at first, apparently the zombies were drawn there because it was "an important place in their lives" and this is to say nothing of Roger dying to help secure the mall instead of leave it and Stephen dying after shooting at bikers for trying to loot ''their'' mall...to say nothing of the bikers themselves, {{So Yeah}}.

* The villain in ''TheRescuersDownUnder'' isn't shown to have died for his crimes (poaching and then trying to murder a child to get a valuable eagle), but is last seen falling off of a waterfall with a group of alligators coming after him. So yeah, didn't look good for him.

* TokyoBabylon features a haunted Chanel suit. It doesn't actually kill its owner, though. Its entire arc/chapter is clearly meant to criticise consumerism; Hokuto does an outright speech at the end.

*Nearly happens to DonaldDuck in DonRosa's comic story "The Money Pit", where Donald gets buried alive while digging for rare coins in Uncle Scrooge's money bin.
* In one ''OrderOfTheStick'' comic that ran in {{Dragon}} Magazine, Haley explained the "copper coin trap" to Belkar to get him to leave behind a huge number of copper coins; basically, a huge amount of low-currency coins that amount to a good bit of money, but weigh so much that it'll slow you down, allowing monsters to catch you. (When he agrees to leave the huge pile behind, Haley surreptiously puts it into her bag of holding instead.)

** In Raiders, the villains are killed when they open the Ark. In Temple of Doom, Mola Ram dies when he tries to catch the stone and his hand is burned, then eaten by crocodiles. The Indiana Jones movies ARE this trope.

* If some street robbers on {{Discworld}} demands "Your money or your life" from some dwarves, they should be prepared for a long wait while the dwarves discuss.

** Also in {{Discworld}}, the Luggage often suckers bandits or other riffraff into biting range by sitting perfectly still with its lid open, exposing a fortune in gold coins within.

* In TheAeneid, Nisus and Euryalus are spotted and killed in the woods after a raid because the loot they stole sparkles in the moonlight. Unusual in that it's presented as tragic instead of a deserved comeuppance, and because they are explicitly stated to be [[HoYay lovers]] who die defending one another.

* Monsters such as the mimic from D&D often mimic treasure chests or the like, the better to lure in gullible adventurers.

* Daffy Duck in many LooneyTunes cartoons. But particularly in "AliBabaBunny", where after he finds a genie in a lamp in a treasure trove, this is his reaction:

** In Raiders, the villains are killed when they open the Ark. In Temple of Doom, Mola Ram dies when he tries to catch the stone and his hand is burned. The Indiana Jones movies ARE this trope.

* Daffy Duck in many LooneyTunes cartoons. But particularly in "Ali Baba Bunny", where after he finds a genie in a lamp in a treasure trove, this is his reaction:

** Zapped and shrunk to 3 inches in height. At the end he then runs out of a tiny hole in the ground and steals a pearl from Bugs Bunny.
* Subverted in an episode where, at the end Daffy is counting his reward money for recapturing the Tasmanian Devil when one of the dollar bills falls into its cage. He rushes in, the audience hears the sounds of someone being beaten up... then Daffy emerges from the cage, largely unscathed, with a badly injured Devil behind him, proclaiming "I may be a coward, but I'm a ''greedy'' coward!"

*Nearly happens to Donald Duck in DonRosa's comic story "The Money Pit", where Donald gets buried alive while digging for rare coins in Uncle Scrooge's money bin.

* ''TheTreasureOfTheSierraMadre'' is more or less all about this trope.

** In ''Guy: SecondTarget'', the villains are running a CorruptChurch, and have a giant statue made of gold (even though it turns into a demon).

** In the end of ''GuyAwakeningOfTheDevil'', the villain is [[FurAndLoathing wearing a white fur coat]], and is frantically trying to pick up [[EverythingsSparklyWithJewelry the jewelry]] she dropped.
** In ''GuySecondTarget'', the villains are running a CorruptChurch, and have a giant statue made of gold (even though it turns into a demon).