History Main / DieOrFly

* In ''Literature/VitaNuova'', Beatrice is said to make any who look upon her experience the joy of {{Heaven}} on Earth or [[BrownNote kill them where they stand]]. This is exaggerated, of course, but beyond poetic license, Dante does tend either to enter into a state of radical bliss or despair depending in each of his encounters with Lady Bea.

* ''Literature/SeptimusHeap'': In''Darke'', Septimus must try the '''Flyte''' spell without its charm in order to escape from Dungeon Number One, and succeeds at it.

* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'':
** Nathan Petrelli discovers he can fly when he unconsciously rises into the air while his car is being shunted from behind by employees of a crime boss he is attempting to prosecute. This happened completely against his will; without him in the driver's seat, the car crashes, paralyzing his wife from the waist down and leaving him with lasting guilt about his wife's condition.
** Claude attempts to help Nathan's brother, Peter, control his power-stealing powers by throwing him off a tall building, hoping to trigger the flight power he'd mimicked earlier from Nathan. In a unique subversion, [[spoiler:while Peter's flight power is ''not'' triggered by the attempt, the regeneration powers he took from Claire Bennet are triggered when he dies after crashing and being impaled on a cab.]]

* In ''Series/KamenRider555'', certain humans that are genetically predisposed to evolve into higher forms have no idea that they have the ability unless an early death kickstarts the process.

* In the Nickelodeon remake of ''Series/{{The Tomorrow People|1973}}'', Jade spends much of her series hanging out with Adam and Megabyte and wishing she could be a Tomorrow Person. Her powers are revealed when she saves herself (and her crush Megabyte) from an exploding boiler room.
* In ''Series/{{Fringe}}'', David Robert Jones subjects Olivia to a series of tests for telekinetic ability, including a game where you make lights go off with your mind. With the Bishops' help, she fakes the test. She later finds a bomb attached to a skyscraper that will take out half of downtown Boston unless she can beat the same test for real.
* In ''Series/Sanctuary2007'', as part of a very complex and convoluted endgame of his, Tesla [[spoiler:"experiments" on a group of kids whose DNA he mutates so that they will become vampires under his command in 30 years]]. They turn into very powerful vampires ([[spoiler:30 years ahead of time]]) when they're killed, because [[spoiler:the gene was designed to focus on self-preservation above all else]].
* ''Series/{{Sliders}}'' has a brief outro in one of its episodes where a woman attempts to push her daughter off their house in what attempts to be a murder attempt. However, it turns out that the woman is just using this trope as a teaching technique as the girl literally ''flies'' away while falling since in that world people have wings.

** A literal version in "Legends of Today" when Carter Hall tries to get Kendra to "emerge" as Hawkgirl by shoving her off a building. Turns out it's not that simple, but fortunately Barry Allen races down the side of the building with his SuperSpeed and catches her.
* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS6E6TrueQ True Q]]", Q invokes this to test a young woman that the Continuum thinks may be a Q. He instigates a breach of the warp core while she is in engineering, forcing her to use her latent powers, or die, along with everyone else on the ship.
* In the pilot episode of ''Series/StarTrekPicard'', "[[Recap/StarTrekPicardS1E01Remembrance Remembrance]]", a girl named Dahj is nearly abducted -- until she suddenly kills her attackers. It turns out that she's a "synth" with superhuman abilities that just activated.

** This is the only method of development that works on [[TheHero Ichigo]]. He has to be put into life-or-death situations where he has no choice but to power up or die, including when he first obtained his own shinigami powers - Urahara severed his chain of fate which meant Ichigo had to transform into a shinigami or die. Urahara is [[SinkOrSwimMentor a firm believer in this method of training anyway]], but all Ichigo's mentors have noticed it's the only way to train Ichigo. [[spoiler:His Quincy power was suppressing his Soul Reaper power in an attempt to protect him from the danger of being a Soul Reaper; it only lets up whenever Ichigo's in mortal peril.]] This doesn't work when he trains to develop his Fullbringer powers. Xcution forces him to fight a Yakuza member controlled by Riruka's powers and turned into a monster. While frantically dodging attacks and scared out of his mind, Ichigo fails to activate any powers, then eventually gives up and begs them to tell him how. Chad explains that a Fullbringer has to pour their emotions into an object with sentimental value. Ichigo them almost immediately succeeds.

** The Nekoken's training in a nuthsell - Cover a child in fish. Throw them into a pit full of starving cats. The child learns or dies.

* Shizuka Saeki in ''Manga/TalentlessNana'' discovered her time-rewinding ability when she [[spoiler: slit her wrist in hopes of joining her parents in the grave.]]

* In the ''[[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic MLP:FiM]]'' fanfic ''Aurora'', the BigBad ([[spoiler:and Twilight Sparkle!]]) ascend to a higher plane of existence in moments of desperation. [[spoiler: The Princesses' moments of desperation are worthy of terror...]]
* ''Fanfic/ThePowersOfHarmony'' invokes this when Blair, on Ophiuchus' insistence, forces Twilight to get over the mental block on using her powers by [[spoiler: tossing her over Neighagra Falls]]. To say that she's [[TranquilFury not happy]] afterwards is an understatement.

** Ash discovers the ability to [[spoiler: clone himself]] while [[spoiler: making a SadisticChoice.]]
** May discovers the ability to [[spoiler: change the material her body is made out of]] when [[spoiler: Giovanni shoots her]].
** [[spoiler: Serena discovers the ability to become completely undetectable when in a "bad situation."]]
** Barry discovers the ability to [[spoiler: move at impossible speeds]] when [[spoiler: carrying his team in a race.]]

%%* In Creator/JRRTolkien, magical powers are often unlocked by an intense need to use them.

* Several times in Katheryne Kurtz ''Literature/{{Deryni}}'' universe someone discovers that s/he has Deryni (magic-user) blood in an extreme situation. Not all Deryni, even very powerful ones, are Healers; but those who are often first discover that they have that power when someone is hurt and there is no Healer available.

* In ''Franchise/{{Dune}}'' the Bene Gesserit have at least two such tests. In the Gom Jabbar an acolyte must hold their hand in a pain inducer and endure unbearable pain or be pricked in the neck with a poisoned needle. In the ritual to become a Reverend Mother they ingest a deadly poison and have to exert conscious control over their biochemistry to neutralize it.
* In ''Literature/TheBelgariad'' and ''Malloreon'', Creator/DavidEddings uses this trope straight for sorcerers, who usually discover their power by accident in a fit of anger or frustration. Since the one unbreakable rule of the universe is "you can't unmake something with sorcery, and if you try, the universe unmakes ''you''", most potential sorcerers don't survive the discovery of their powers.
* Creator/StevenGould:
** ''Literature/{{Jumper}}'': Davy first "jumps" (teleports) involuntarily to escape his abusive father. At first he thinks he just blacked out after his dad beat him, and begins hitchhiking. The first time he consciously realizes he "jumped" is when some truckers try to rape him, and he is suddenly back in the library.
** Happens again in the sequel, ''Reflex'', in which the main character's girlfriend-in-the-first-book-wife-in-the-sequel "jumps" to safety after a probably-fatal fall. Apparently, being teleported by a teleporter enough times can pass on the ability, though the characters have NO idea how that works.

* ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'': This is exactly how Arthur Dent manages to fly, after reading from the guide that flying is the art of "throwing oneself at the ground and missing" - he has to completely focus his attention on something else (typically something immensely banal, as per the themes of Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy) or simply ''forget'' that he's supposed to be falling. Once achieved, he simply hovers there and can move around at will... but he has to be careful not to think too hard about what's going on.
--> '''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (on flying):''' ''...Do not listen to what anybody says to you at this point because they are unlikely to say anything helpful. They are most likely to say something along the lines of, 'Good God, you can't possibly be flying!' It is vitally important not to believe them or they will suddenly be right.''

* In ''Franchise/{{Mistborn}}'', Allomantic powers are activated by "Snapping", which involves some form of trauma. Most nobles give their children a savage beating at some point in their life, hoping they're latent Allomancers. Kelsier was Snapped by the death of his wife. Vin apparently snapped as a newborn due to an unusually difficult birth. [[spoiler: The best way is to experience "mist-sickness", which only affects latent Allomancers and by design causes just enough harm to Snap them.]]
* A key part of Clary's role as protagonist in ''Literature/TheMortalInstruments''. Despite having been raised with no knowledge of her Nephilim ancestry she starts to exhibit an intuitive, and encyclopedic, knowledge of angelic runes once she gets caught up in the events of the Shadow World. She is even able to come up with powerful runes that other Shadowhunters have never seen before. [[spoiler: It turns out that the captive angel Ithuriel had been putting them into her mind, and this aspect of her abilities starts to diminish after he is freed, such that she can no longer pull new runes out of her head at will]].
* This trope is played [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin literally straight]] in ''[[Literature/TheAgeOfFive Priestess of the White]]''--the heroine is knocked off a cliff and manages to use magic to stop herself before hitting the ground.

* In ''Literature/TheSecretTexts'' novels by Holly Lisle, [[spoiler:the shape-shifting characters only fly after dropping out of a building, or off of a mountain.]]
* In ''Literature/SeptimusHeap'' -- ''Darke'' Septimus must try the '''Flyte''' spell without its charm in order to escape from Dungeon Number One, and succeeds at it.

** [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] by Rock, when talking about [[spoiler: how to test the extent of Kaladin's Surgebinding powers]]
** Invoked in a ''horrifying'' manner by the Envisager cult in the same universe. They ''thought'' this trope was how you gained Surgebinding powers, and deliberately jumped off cliffs and otherwise put themselves in deathtraps in hopes of bringing back the Surgebinders. Since at that point it was impossible to create new Surgebinders (the spirits that allowed it having retreated to their own world after the humans killed most of them), all the Envisagers succeeded in doing was killing themselves in horrible ways.
* Gully Foyle of Alfred Bester's classic SF novel ''Literature/TheStarsMyDestination'' suddenly can "jaunt" ({{teleport|ation}}) much further than anyone has managed before when he is marooned in space -- and then gets really ticked off. "Jaunting" started as "burn or teleport" for the discoverer, Charles Fort Jaunte, about a century before. He was later put in an inescapable, slowly flooding chamber by his fellow scientists [[ForScience to force him to replicate the process]].
* ''Literature/TheSwordOfTruth'' series: Richard's magic, a lot of the time. Being a War Wizard, Richard's magic tends to do whatever the plot requires of it, without Richard understanding what he's doing, or how he's doing it.
* In Audrey Niffenegger's novel ''Literature/TheTimeTravelersWife'', great stress seems to be the activator of involuntary TimeTravel. The time traveller mentioned in the title uses his power for only the second time, completely involuntarily, to escape from the car crash which killed his mother. [[spoiler:And then later on, he [[BlessedWithSuck gets to travel]] ''[[BlessedWithSuck back]]'' [[BlessedWithSuck to this moment]] and watch it from the sidelines at multiple angles...]]

* In [[Creator/DanteAlighieri Dante]]'s ''Literature/VitaNuova'', Beatrice is said to make any who look upon her experience the joy of {{Heaven}} on Earth or [[BrownNote kill them where they stand]]. This is exaggerated, of course, but beyond poetic license, Dante does tend either to enter into a state of radical bliss or despair depending in each of his encounters with Lady Bea.
* In the Literature/WearingTheCape verse, breakthroughs usually occur as the result of a life-threatening or traumatic experience.
%%** The main character's best friend tried to do this literally before the story began, and failed.

** This probably refers to his mastery of the [[DreamLand World of Dreams]], particularly his EleventhHourSuperpower of [[spoiler: moving between the dreaming and waking worlds at will]]. He had a mentor, albeit a [[SinkOrSwimMentor tough one]], for most of it, but that particular trick was one that only one other person had ever accomplished, and that through very unusual means.

%%A [[DreamingOfThingsToCome prophetic dream]] from
%%--> Perrin (walking off a cliff): It must be done. I must learn to fly before I reach the bottom.

** Most [[DifferentlyPoweredIndividual parahumans]] get their powers in a TraumaticSuperpowerAwakening, which can include one of these; [[spoiler:Brandish]] and [[spoiler:Lady Photon]], for example, got their powers when they were about to be murdered, and Grue got his powers during a violent fight with [[spoiler: his and Aisha's abusive stepfather]].
** Faced with a situation beyond their ability to save themselves with their current powers, some parahumans have a ''second'' trigger event, which alters or enhances their powers to help them survive. [[spoiler: Grue, for example, had the power-draining effects of his darkness enhanced and gained the ability to copy others' powers with it, alongside more minor changes in how the darkness functions.]] The trauma that triggered it? [[spoiler: Having his body rearranged such that his organs were spread around a room [[AndIMustScream while still functioning]]. He needed the power-copying enhancement in order to copy a nearby parahuman's HealingFactor.]] It's speculated in-universe that particularly powerful parahumans had a second trigger event essentially at the same time as their first.

* ''VideoGame/AceCombat5TheUnsungWar'' has you seeing this trope applied firsthand in Mission 4, "First Flight" during the early hours of a war between [[EagleLand Osea]] and [[GloriousMotherRussia Yuktobania]] when Yuktobanian [[CoolPlane Rockwell B-1B]] bombers and [[UsefulNotes/GulfWar Panavia Tornado GR1]] fighter-bombers escorted by [[UsefulNotes/VietnamWar McDonnell Douglas F-4E Phantom II]] and [[UsefulNotes/ColdWar General Dynamics F-16C]] fighters attempt an [[AgainstTheSettingSun early evening]] bombing raid on Osea's isolated Sand Island airbase. A {{Fighter Launching Sequence}} ensues, with the [[AcePilot player character]] and his two wingmen - themselves recently-minted rookies, with only a taste of combat under their belts - taking off (amidst bombs falling on nearby hangars, and enemy jets BuzzingTheDeck) in their [[WhatAPieceOfJunk aging Northrop F-5]] fighters to engage the "Yukes" before they can bomb the base to smithereens. The only problem? There are three Osean fighters pitted against what amounts to at least a dozen or more Yuke planes all bearing down on the sparsely-defended airfield. Enter the untested rookie Osean pilot [[NewMeat Grimm]], who by {{falling into the cockpit}} is forced to either prove himself in some [[SkyConsumingDogfight high-intensity aerial combat]] or die trying. He succeeds and gets [[FireForgedFriends permanently assigned to Wardog Squadron]].

* ''VideoGame/DeadIsland2'': In order to awaken an immune survivor's Numen status[[note]]that is to say, turning them from simply [[TheImmune immune to the infection]] to a full on [[ArtificialHybrid Human-Zombie hybrid]][[/note]], the survivor must go through an event that pushes them beyond their physical limits.

* Happens to ''Webcomic/{{Terinu}}'' when his Bion abilities activate when he's drugged and kidnapped.
* A more literal example occurs in the current ''Webcomic/OneQuestion'' storyline, as Ranu falls off a building and his ''wings'' suddenly appear. Unfortuantely he needs some tutoring to learn how to use them...
* Also [[http://www.crfh.net/d/20040627.html literally happens to Marsha]] in ''Webcomic/CollegeRoomiesFromHell''.
* Faevv of ''Webcomic/{{Juathuur}}'', at first, seems to be able to release her powers only when threatened by imminent death.
* In ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', Vriska strands [[TheFool John]] on a tiny island in the middle of an ocean of oil that's about to be engulfed in fire in order to get him to develop his [[BlowYouAway powers as the Heir of Breath.]] [[spoiler: Luckily, it works.]]
** Happens to him again later when Typheus submerges him in oil in order to force him to master his retcon powers by forcing him to either drown, zap himself away (and make zero progress on his quest) or TakeAThirdOption by zapping the oil away.
** Even before that, she tried it in a much more literal sense with Tavros. [[spoiler:He didn't fly, and wound up paralyzed from the waist down for his trouble.]]
** [[AbusiveParents Dave's Bro]] threw him off a roof to teach him how to FlashStep.
* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', Grace first discovers how to create legion forms when she is under pressure to change to a form strong enough to maintain her telekinesis without passing out in order to save Ellen and Nanase's lives during the fight with the Omega Goo as seen [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2002-11-28 here]] and on the next page.
* Played with and lampshaded in ''Webcomic/TheDreamlandChronicles''. While taking flying lessons, Alex asks if the lessons involve him getting thrown off a cliff. The teacher asks why on earth he would do something so risky. After exhausting all of his other ideas, the teacher does throw Alex off the cliff, only to realize that also isn't going to work, so he reminds Alex of his promise to his LoveInterest. This motivates Alex enough to save himself and learn to fly.

--> "Wait... That was a secret attack!"
* In ''Webcomic/{{Pacificators}}'', this seems to be how [[NewMeat Daryl]] learns new tricks. When her platoon were stranded out on the ocean with no food supplies, she learned how to [[LightEmUp flare her staff's orb brightly]]. [[spoiler: Later, when faced with gun-toting Preservers, she became the first person to discover how to use [[ThePowerOfTheSun solar power]] and used it to sting the enemies.]]
* ''[[Webcomic/{{Morphe}} morphE]]'' begins with the galvanization party. The host puts captives in near death situations to activate their magical potential. It succeeds for 5 of the 8 entrants.
* In ''Webcomic/{{Crepuscule}}'', [[spoiler:Setz, who up until then had no special powers outside of the standard for vampires,]] manages to awaken a fire spirit who manifests to protect him just as he, while unconscious, is about to be killed.
* In ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'', Agatha finally consciously taps into her [[ScienceRelatedMemeticDisorder Spark]] while she and Gil are under attack from slaver wasps, creating some weapons for the two of them to use to fight their way out. Prior to this, Agatha had only been able to invent while asleep or in a fugue state with no awareness of what she was doing.

[[folder:Web Original]]

* In ''Literature/TheZombieKnight'', this happens a lot. The Zombies (resurrected people given power by undead reapers) can go through emergence in a life or death fight, but only if they are truly desperate, and not relying on emergence to save them... And the bad guys can have emergence triggered by the good guys emergence.
* In Alex Reynards online novel "Dangerous Lunatics", Holly discovered her near-immortality-level HealingFactor through attempting suicide... six times.

** It happens to Tennyo in her origin story. She wakes up and finds herself a prisoner, and finds she now has energy powers. When mutant assassins come after her (to send a message to her superhero parents), she finds out (in the nick of time, natch) that she can create an energy sword, and that she can fly.

* In ''Literature/{{Phaeton}}'', this is one way to trigger manifestation in the youngest of people.
* In ''Literature/{{Elcenia}}'', mages have powers over a single element, however, in order for a potential mage to access their powers they have to get into the a situation where they would otherwise die from their element (e.g.. water mages must drown, air mages must fall from a height that would kill them etc). Fortunately, potential mages can be identified before they manifest powers, though not all of them will choose to access their powers.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Ben 10}}'', this is how Ben discovered his Wildvine form in the episode ''Camp Fear''. It's downplayed in that Wildvine wasn't particularly useful that episode, though the form was able to handle the immediate threat.
* ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' busts out his Ghostly Wail to defeat his [[AxCrazy future self]] when it looks as though he's going to be defeated and everyone will die.
** Technically, he first got it when he was ganged up by some really angry ghosts, but the Ghostly Wail did serve as a hidden weapon for his final battle in the episode.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheHollow'':
** [[spoiler: Mira discovers that she has mermaid-like abilities after the group's ship crashes into the ocean and she gets stuck in the ejector seat]].
** [[spoiler: Kai discovers that he has fire powers when he and Benjamini are trapped in a burning haunted house ride]].
* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueAction'': Firestorm tries proving to an amnesiac Clark Kent that he's actually Superman by dropping him from the sky, hoping he'll remember to fly. He doesn't, but he does survive the fall unscathed, proving Firestorm right, much to his relief.

** In the unaired pilot, Aang jumps off of a cliff in an attempt to trigger [[DefenceMechanismSuperpower the Avatar State]].
** In "The Avatar State," an Earth Kingdom general attempts to induce the Avatar State by putting first Aang, then Katara in danger. [[GoneHorriblyRight It works.]]
** In "The Puppetmaster", Katara learns [[PeoplePuppets Bloodbending]] when her EvilMentor Hama takes control of Aang and Sokka and was about to make Sokka stab Aang.

** [[spoiler: Bumi discovers he's become an Airbender (as a result of Harmonic Convergence) when he falls from a cliff and inadvertantly saves himself by airbending inches from the ground.]]
** [[spoiler:Happens literally,]] with [[BigBad Zaheer]], after [[spoiler:his lover P'li dies and he is holding an unconscious Korra while surrounded at the edge of a cliff. He discovers that P'li dying severed his last attachment to the world, allowing him to fly like Superman, and continue the final phase of his plans.]]
** [[spoiler: Bolin]] discovers his ability to lavabend in "Enter the Void" when [[spoiler:he, Mako, Asami, and Tenzin were about to be killed by lava flow. With nowhere to run, Bolin steps towards the lava and tries to bend it... and succeeds!]]

** Happens in episode 16 when Rainbow Dash finally manages to pull off her Sonic Rainboom technique [[spoiler:to save her friend Rarity and her idols the Wonderbolts from plummeting to their doom after Rarity's wings failed and the Wonderbolts were knocked out in their attempt to rescue her.]]
** This is pretty much how Fluttershy's ability to fly at high-speeds works. She ''can'' match Rainbow Dash's flying speed, at least for brief moments, but only when it's absolutely necessarily, and other times seems to be an average flyer at best.\\
\\
In "The Cutie Mark Chronicles", however, this outright failed to work for Fluttershy in a flashback. As a filly, she was a weak flier, and when falling from the clouds to certain death, she couldn't fly to save herself. Fortunately, [[spoiler: her fall was broken by a swarm of butterflies.]]
** Also fails to work in "Sleepless in Ponyville", where the flightless pegasus Scootaloo still can't fly even when falling down a waterfall. [[spoiler: Thankfully, she is saved by the timely arrival of Rainbow Dash.]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'', Bloom discovers her powers in the pilot episode only after being threatened by [[OurOgresAreHungrier an ogre]] and some [[OurGhoulsAreCreepier ghouls]]. She also only unlocks her [[OurFairiesAreDifferent fairy form]] after almost being finished off by [[BigBad The Trix]].

* In ''Series/{{Sanctuary}}'', as part of a very complex and convoluted end-game of his, Tesla [[spoiler:"experiments" on a group of kids whose DNA he mutates so that they will become vampires under his command in 30 years]]. They turn into very powerful vampires ([[spoiler:30 years ahead of time]]) when they're killed, because [[spoiler:the gene was designed to focus on self-preservation above all else]].

** This is the only method of development that works on [[TheHero Ichigo]]. He has to be put into life-or-death situations where he has no choice but to power up or die, including when he first obtained his own shinigami powers - Urahara severed his chain of fate which meant Ichigo had to transform into a shinigami or die. Urahara is [[SinkOrSwimMentor a firm believer in this method of training anyway]], but all Ichigo's mentors have noticed it's the only way to train Ichigo. [[spoiler:His Quincy power was suppressing his Soul Reaper power in an attempt to protect him from the danger of being a Soul Reaper; it only lets up whenever Ichigo's in mortal peril.]]

* Early on in ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', Piccolo throws Gohan at a mountain for this express purpose. Good thing it worked. Of course, instead of flying, Gohan goes into "hidden power" mode and ''vaporizes'' the mountain, which was a lot more than Piccolo expected.

* In ''Manga/TheSevenDeadlySins'', King Arthur is said by several characters to have a lot of latent magical power, but he has no idea how to access it. He's repeatedly thrown himself into life or death fights in an attempt to access it, but so far, it doesn't work.

* The first time Leina pulls off the Dragon's Tail in ''Anime/QueensBlade'' is during her training session with Echidna. Said training session? Echidna openly and actively trying to kill her for three days straight. (Both combatants are coated in sap that prevents any injuries, but that sap ''does'' wear off over time...)

* ''Series/AlienWorlds2020''. Skygrazer young live on a heavy gravity planet, so the only way they can get off the ground is crawl to a cliff and launch themselves off. To provide further motivation, the {{Blob Monster}}s that prey on ground-dwelling species are following close behind them, so it's either jump and hope you can learn to fly on the way down, or be eaten.

* {{Invoked|Trope}} in ''Series/{{The Boys|2019}}'' when [[BewareTheSuperman Homelander]] tries to teach his son how to fly by pushing him off the roof of his house. It doesn't end well, although it wasn't too long a fall preventing it from being a literal instance of this trope.

* ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'':

* On ''Series/{{Fringe}}'', David Robert Jones subjects Olivia to a series of tests for telekinetic ability, including a game where you make lights go off with your mind. With the Bishops' help, she fakes the test. She later finds a bomb attached to a skyscraper that will take out half of downtown Boston unless she can beat the same test for real.
* On ''Series/{{Sanctuary}}'', Tesla's [[spoiler: "experiments", a group of kids whose DNA he mutated so they would]], as part of a very complex and convoluted end-game of his, [[spoiler:become Vampires under his command in 30 years,]] turn into very powerful Vampires ([[spoiler:30 years ahead of time]]) when they're killed, because the [[spoiler: gene was designed to, above all else, focus on self-preservation.]]
* ''Series/{{Sliders}}'' has a brief outro in one of its episodes where a woman attempts to push her daughter off their house in what attempts to be a murder attempt. However it turns out that the woman is just using this trope as a teaching technique as the girl literally ''flies'' away while falling since in that world people have wings.
* ''Series/TheFlash2014''

* In an episode of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', Q invokes this to test a young woman that the Continuum thinks may be a Q. He instigates a breach of the warp core while she is in engineering, forcing her to use her latent powers, or die, along with everyone else on the ship.
* In the pilot episode of ''Series/StarTrekPicard'', a girl named Dahj is nearly abducted -- until she suddenly kills her attackers. It turns out that she's a "synth" with superhuman abilities that just activated.
* On ''Series/SupermanAndLois'' An ongoing trend across seasons one and two is Jordan's superpowers manifesting one at a time and getting progressively stronger as he keeps finding himself in life-threatening situations where he needs his powers to survive and/or save somebody else. Both played straight and downplayed late in season two, when Clark takes Jordan to the Arctic for flying lessons. Which involves Jordan jumping into a massive chasm and needing to overcome his fear and activate his {{Flight}} before he hits bottom. The downplayed part is that Jordan already has SuperToughness and HealingFactor by this point, so the impact probably would not hurt him very much. He still screams most of the way down though before going airborne just as he almost reaches the ground.

* [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] in ''Series/TheBoys'' when [[BewareTheSuperman Homelander]] tries to teach his son how to fly by pushing him off the roof of his house. It doesn't end well, although it wasn't too long a fall preventing it from being a literal instance of this trope.

* ''Manga/BusoRenkin'': As a buso renkin is the physical embodiment of the wielder's fighting instinct and will to survive, it is common for people to learn how to summon them when their life is in serious danger. Kazuki, for example, learned how to summon the [[BladeOnAStick Sunlight Heart]] while fighting a [[OurHomunculiAreDifferent homunculus]] [[note]]Mita in the manga; Saruwatari in the anime[[/note]], while Tokiko gained the [[MultiArmedAndDangerous Valkyrie Skirt]] when she was attacked by a captured humanoid homunculus while having her injuries treated with a [[AlchemyIsMagic kakugane]].

* ''LightNovel/RebuildWorld'': Twice with Akira's more grounded BulletTime like ability called Compressed Time: First, Akira uses it unknowingly while falling through the air when fighting Nelia, but despite training on how to use the ability, he can't directly invoke it. It takes being EatenAlive by TheGreatSerpent MechanicalMonster and cut off from his VirtualSidekick for Akira to be able to muster the ability on his own. The ability stems from Akira being a rare DifferentlyPoweredIndividual resulting from [[BioAugmentation past genetic engineering]] known as an Old World Connector.

* Koizumi Itsuki from ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'' can already use ESP to fly and fight, but only inside [[PhantomZone closed spaces]]. In ''Fanfic/KyonBigDamnHero'', to make him realize his powers were unlocked for use anywhere it took being thrown off of a cliff to fight against a robot attacking Kyon by Haruhi ([[NeuroVault who had]] [[LaserGuidedAmnesia forgotten]] [[PoorCommunicationKills Koizumi didn't know]]).

* ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords'' applies this trope to the player character, who learns on-the-fly to survive extremely deadly situations, such as poison attacks.
* The ''Franchise/{{Persona}}'' series uses this trope for the main characters of each game, usually by having them attacked by {{Mooks}}. ''[[VideoGame/Persona2 Innocent Sin]]'' does it differently; the main characters all awakened their Personas at different times, and it's not {{Mooks}} they were in danger of.
** ''VideoGame/Persona3'' uses this as a ''game mechanic'', and it's symbolic.
** ''VideoGame/Persona4'' subverts this with most of your party members. While the Protagonist still has his classic "Per...So........Na..." invocation scene, his powers were [[spoiler:awakened by Izanami at the start of the game]], the source of the rest of your party's powers is the very same thing that would have ''caused'' the DieOrFly reaction in the first place.

* The player has to do this in ''VideoGame/SteelBattalion''. No training, no tutorial, just the imposing controller and a complex manual. Good luck!
* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings: The Two Towers'' throws you right into the fray after the lengthy unskippable intro.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'':

** Paige's first use of her teleportation power in was to escape her parents' car as it crashed and exploded (discovered through the magic of TimeTravel). Her first use of her [[HealingHands healing power]] came when she had only three options: orb out (exposing herself as magical in front of cameras, police, and civilian hostages), let her boyfriend Henry die right in front of her, or figure out how to heal (which is much less obvious as visually it's just a bit of light, and the wound didn't heal all the way as to seem suspicious). Naturally she was glad to discover that the third option was possible (as before she begins to heal him she had no idea that she could).

* Franchise/MarvelUniverse:
** There is a relatively new phenomenon called Secondary Mutation, in which known mutants (typically ComicBook/XMen) suddenly develop a new mutant power at [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands extremely convenient moments]], such as a healing power (after receiving an otherwise mortal wound) or the ability to become indestructible (in the middle of a bombing). It started as an excuse by Grant Morrison to give Emma Frost transform-into-diamond powers, since he was not allowed to bring the transform-into-metal Colossus back from the dead, and had a story idea he wanted to use that needed that power.
** The Richard Rider ComicBook/{{Nova}} is not a mutant, but he was depowered for a long time and the superhero, Night Thrasher, guessed that he could reignite Rider's powers with a high stress incident. To create one, he kidnapped Rider, dropped him off a building and found that his hunch was right when Rider instantly repowered in the fall, including his flight power. He tried it a second time after another depowering, only to be rescued before the splat and having it made very clear that a second power-up was not what would have happened (he got his powers back again, of course, in another story arc).
** ComicBook/SpiderMan first discovered his powers this way. While he is walking home feeling sick after being bitten by the spider, a car is about to hit him. His new Spider Sense kicks in and he instinctively leaps up the side of a building and clings to it.
** The transformation of ComicBook/JeanGrey into The Phoenix was originally presented as this, then retconned into a subversion, with a primal power of the universe using her as a template to create an avatar. (This ultimately [[GoneHorriblyWrong went horribly wrong]].)
** Amara from ''ComicBook/NewMutants'' discovers her powers like that. Selene [[NoOneCouldSurviveThat drops her in a volcano]] and she ends up learning to [[PlayingWithFire manipulate lava]]. Guess her CodeName? Magma, of course.
** ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} is a prime example of this--his claws first popped out during the attack on his parents.
** This is Darwin from ComicBook/XFactor's main power. He always mutates the most simple and convenient power he needs to survive whatever situation he's in. This can range from surviving without a head, to being part Death, to teleporting out of the way of an angry Hulk.
* [[Franchise/TheDCU DC Comics]]:
** The 1988 CrisisCrossover ''[[Comicbook/InvasionDCComics Invasion!]]'', introduced the "metagene", which gives humans superpowers as a way to survive lethal trauma, as a way to {{Handwave}} the many heroes and villains with FreakLabAccident [[SuperHeroOrigin origin stories]]. The concept was demonstrated by an alien scientist performing a mass execution of fifty abductees; six of them survived, gained powers, and briefly formed a superteam.

* There is a [[ComicBook/TheSandman Sandman]] short in which a dreaming man who falls off a cliff literally must fly or die. It ties into AnAesop about how you don't know if you can do something until you've done it.

* As a glitch, Vanellope from ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph'' has corrupted code and occasionally suffers from random short-range teleportation, especially when stressed. The trope develops in two stages. First, [[spoiler:when she exposes King Kandy as the rogue character Turbo, he tries to crash her into a column, forcing her to actually concentrate and figure out how to glitch ''consciously'' to escape the trap.]] Then, [[spoiler:she sees [[IntergenerationalFriendship Ralph]] falling to his death in a HeroicSacrifice, and effortlessly performs a TeleportSpam to CatchAFallingStar. After that point, she adopts the power for herself and it becomes her in-game ability, making her extremely popular with players.]]