History Main / DoomedAppointment

* ''Series/MidsomerMurders'': In "The Noble Art", one of the suspects finds her flat [[RansackedRoom broken in to and ransacked]]. She calls Barnaby and tells him she will tell everything about what is going on, but that she is too scared to stay in her flat, and arranges to meet Barnaby at the statue of a local boxer. As she hangs up, she hears someone entering the flat. Barnaby and Jones wait at the statue and, when she doesn't show up, go to her flat and find her dead.

* Inverted in ''Series/{{Castle}}'' during the first season. The victim didn't make the appointment [[spoiler: because his wife told him that the blackmailer changed the location. When he went to the new rendezvous, he was murdered by his campaign manager.]]

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}'', Otterton found out about the Night Howlers and informed Mr. Big that he had something important to discuss. The latter sent his car but Otterton never arrived because of the ambush. Had Otterton told Mr. Big about his discovery over the phone, much of the plot could have been avoided.
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* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}'', Otterton found out about the Night Howlers and informed Mr. Big that he had something important to discuss. The latter sent his car but Otterton never arrived because of the ambush. Had Otterton told Mr. Big about his discovery over the phone, much of the plot could have been avoided.

* The Soldats member from ''Anime/{{Noir}}'' who was going to give Kirika and Mireille a copy of the book regarding Noir that they were looking for.
* A teacher at Narumi Ayumu's school in ''Manga/{{Spiral}}'' who intended to give Ayumu information on the Blade Children after school ended.
* In a specially angsty version of this trope, Jim in ''Manga/OutlawStar'' asks a girl out, neither knowing that each of them pilot opposing spaceships. Jim destroys the enemy vessel, but doesn't find out the reason she never showed up for their date is because he killed her.

* ''VisualNovel/RumblingHearts''; [[spoiler:The ENTIRE series and game hangs on one.]] As a matter of fact, [[spoiler:in the game, you can choose not to let Mitsuki detain you, and be on time for your date with Haruka...which results in a NonStandardGameOver.]]

* [[spoiler:Joe Buttataki]] in the ''Manga/SoulEater'' manga, who is killed on his way to an appointment with Marie after he noticed the presence of the insanity consuming the city, and then one of Death City's [[spoiler: tainted souls [[TheMole (Justin Law)]] found ''him'']]. Though in the chapter itself, the nature of his death was not clear.
* Hughes from ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist''. Though technically the information he had to relay and the appointment he was due for (His daughter's birthday) were two entirely separate things, but it still counts.
* This happens to guys who ask ''Anime/{{Madlax}}'' out on dates. [[CartwrightCurse Regularly.]]

* In ''Film/TheManWithTheGoldenGun'', Bond is scheduled to meet with BondGirl Andrea Anders at a boxing venue so she can give him the Solex Agitator. When he gets there he finds her dead - murdered by Scaramanga.

* In another Creator/JohnnyDepp movie, ''Film/{{Blow}}'', the "protagonist" (for lack of a better word) wants to pull OneLastJob before running away with his daughter. He is betrayed by former colleagues, who are working for law enforcement, and is unable to meet his daughter at the appointed time. The film attempts to make the audience sympathetic to the main character, who is one of the top cocaine smugglers, potentially responsible for many deaths and destroyed lives.

* Happens to [[spoiler:Tim Messenger]] in ''Film/HotFuzz''. Amusingly while he is still killed seconds before he can deliver his message, he was killed for entirely unrelated reasons. Made especially ironic due to the fact that his information [[spoiler: about the suspected EvilPlan wouldn't have helped anyway, because it was wrong.]]
* The film and the book ''Film/OneDay'' has one of the protagonists agree to meet for a dinner date after work. The woman doesn't drive and takes her bicycle to the event but forgets to LookBothWays and is killed by a truck. As her husband is waiting in the restaurant, he has no idea that his wife won't be making the appointment. The rest of the film is him trying to come to terms with her death.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}'', Otterton found out about the Night Howlers and informed Mr Big that he had something important to discuss. The latter sent his car but Otterton never arrived because of the ambush. Had Otterton told Mr Big about his discovery over the phone, much of the plot could have been avoided.

* Happens ''twice'' in John le Carré's novel ''Smiley's People'', although considering the high stakes involved [[spoiler: blackmailing one of the key members of Soviet Intelligence]] it's very much [[JustifiedTrope justified]].
* In the city watch books of the Literature/{{Discworld}} series this happens a lot with Commander Vimes, although he usually tries to make it happen (e.g. someone dies but instead of sending another person, he goes and ends up missing appointments.)

* ''Literature/SevenDaysInMay'': Presidential aide Paul Girard gets vital evidence about a looming military coup, but then dies in a plane crash. [[spoiler: Fortunately, the evidence survives the crash hidden inside Girard's cigarette case and is brought to its intended recipient belatedly, but still in time to help.]]

* Occurs in the pilot episode of ''Series/{{Monk}}''. It's dramatic but ultimately pointless, as Monk knows the messenger kept the information written on a scrap of paper in his hat. The ambush itself - the victim is at a stop sign when an individual disguised as a squeegee man comes up, cleans part of his windshield, then opens the door and smashes the victim's head against the steering wheel. The killer gets in, drives the car to a cliff without any guardrails, and pushes the car over the edge, intending to pass it off as an accident. [[spoiler: Monk proves otherwise since the windshield is half-cleaned, he knows the route the victim was going to take, and there are no tire tracks on the road.]]
* The first episode of ''Series/WomensMurderClub'' begins with the protagonist standing by her car waiting impatiently for a reporter who's supposed to meet her there. The reporter actually does soon show up... crashing into the roof of the protagonist's car, her corpse having been thrown from a nearby roof.
* In ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}'', one of Echo's "clients" wants to relive the moment he showed his wife what he had accomplished... but in his fantasy, [[JerkassWoobie his wife doesn't miss the appointment due to a fatal car accident]].

* Inverted in ''Series/{{Castle}}'' during the first season. The victim didn't make the appointment [[spoiler: because his wife told him that the blackmailer changed the location. When he went to the new rendezvous, he was murdered by his campaign manager.]]

* Near the end of season four of ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', Castiel visits Dean's dream and makes an appointment to meet him in a secluded place, saying he has something he needs to tell him and even Dean's dream isn't completely safe because someone could be watching. Naturally, somebody was watching, and when Sam and Dean show up at the meeting they find Castiel [[spoiler: gone, leaving only his clueless vessel Jimmy Novak, who has no idea what Cas wanted to tell them. And by the time Cas comes back (from Heaven), he's been [[ColdBloodedTorture persuaded]] to leave it alone.]]

* The death of [[spoiler:Luis Sera]] in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4''. Though his does live long enough after the fact to hand over [[spoiler: some medication which slows the effect of TheVirus, give a little exposition and admit what he was doing there.]]
* In the ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft Deathknight'' starting area, you get the quest to intercept a messenger (dooming his appointment), kill him, take his information and clothing and later pose as him. Actually, now that I think about it, you do that quite a lot in this game...

* In ''VideoGame/GabrielKnight: Sins of the Fathers'', the hero is just about to learn a vital piece of information, when the professor who sits on the information is killed at his office before Gabriel gets a chance to talk to him.
* In ''VideoGame/BrokenSword'':
** In ''VideoGame/TheShadowOfTheTemplars'', Plantard was supposed to meet Nico at the cafe to talk about a certain dead French politician. However, he dies before he can slip any information when the cafe is blown up by a terrorist.
** In ''VideoGame/TheSerpentsCurse'', Father Simeon tells George that he has more to say about the Gnostics and Lucifer later at the gallery. Guess who turns up dead before the meeting?

* In ''VisualNovel/ShikkokuNoSharnoth'' [[spoiler:Henrietta]] intended to meet with [[spoiler:Bram Stoker]] to confess her lover after a conversation she had that made her finally pluck up the nerve, but he never showed up [[spoiler:because he died almost immediately after hearing she wanted to meet up with him.]]