History Main / DyingClue

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[[quoteright:350:[[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyJusticeForAll https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/maggie_or_maggey.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:It seems [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E1WhoShotMrBurnsPartTwo Mr. Burns]] wasn't her only victim.]]

* One ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'' comic sees small-time villain the Ventriloquist, or Arnold Wesker, shot in the head in a theater; the killer also takes the time to stomp on Wesker's dummy Scarface. Wesker uses his last moments to use Scarface's fingers to write a message in blood -- a street name that proves helpful to the investigation.

[[folder: Films -- Animated]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* In ''Film/KnivesOut'', [[spoiler:Fran]] tells [[spoiler:Marta]] "[[spoiler:You did this!]]" before passing out, much to [[spoiler:Marta]]'s confusion. She was actually saying "[[spoiler:Hugh did this!]]"
* In ''Film/DickTracysDilemma'', the watchman killed at the fur warehouse manages to scrawl and conceal a note stating that three perpetrators performed the hit against the warehouse. It also mentions that they used a truck with the name "Daisy" on it and part of a license plate. The note has the legitimately awful handwriting of dying man, and Tracy and Patton have to subject the note to forensic analysis to decipher the scrawl.

* This shows up repeatedly throughout ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiPartnersInTime''. A key item in the game is a hastily-drawn sketch that Toadbert, an amnesiac Toad who was traveling with Princess Peach, made during Princess Shroob's attack on her; it depicts Peach wielding the powerful Cobalt Star as a weapon against the evil alien. Similarly, Toadiko, another of the Princess's companions, is strapped to a tree that sucks out Toads' "vim," or life energy, to power Shroob operations. As Toadiko is drained of the last of her vim, she murmurs "Gather...shards...", prompting the Mario Bros. and their baby counterparts to [[GottaCatchEmAll seek out the shattered Cobalt Star and restore it]]. [[spoiler: But they have it all wrong. The sketch, which needs to be cleaned off later in the game, doesn't show Princess Peach using the Cobalt Star as a weapon--it shows her using the Star to seal Elder Princess Shroob inside of it. Similarly, Toadiko was apparently trying to warn the Bros. ''not'' to gather the shards, as reassembling it was the key to setting the giant alien free again.]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* Coded dying clues pop up quite a bit in ''Manga/TheKindaichiCaseFiles''
** One involved a Japanese keyboard (which became a letter-shifting code in English)
** One involved Morse code (using different forms of Kanji to represent dots and dashes)

* A case from ''Manga/DetectiveSchoolQ'', early on in the anime. The victim is found dead in front of a computer, with a seemingly significant set of letters typed in. The resident InsufferableGenius tries every possible code to crack it, but fails until he takes the advice of TheAce [[TheHero Hero]], Kyu. [[spoiler:there ''was no code'' to the message, the victim literally wrote the killer's name onto the keyboard in kanji with their finger.]]
* PlayedForLaughs in a two-part (non-canon) [[PrintBonus bonus comic]] from ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist''. [[ColonelBadass Mustang]] promises that when he becomes [[OurPresidentsAreDifferent President-Fuhrer]] he will change the military's dress code to require all female members to wear [[MinidressOfPower miniskirts]]. Initially his male subordinates [[AllMenArePerverts are all for this plan]], until Mustang reveals that he will also make it illegal for men to serve as soldiers. After this Mustang is found [[SarcasmMode mysteriously]] shot in the back, and his last act was to write 'MINISKIRT' in his own blood.

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* In ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfare3'', [[spoiler:Soap is barely able to choke out "Makarov knows Yuri" before dying. Price confronts Yuri shortly thereafter and we see Yuri's backstory]].

* In the fifth case of ''VideoGame/LaytonBrothersMysteryRoom'', [[spoiler:the culprit tried making his female victim's death look like a suicide by using a perfume bottle to hold the poison. The bewildered, dying victim wanted to leave ''some'' mark to show she was murdered, so with her last strength she took the perfume bottle and hurled it at a nearby wall. Her actions weren't in vain, as the culprit, who didn't know she had done this, ends up calling calling the container a perfume bottle, before even the ''police'' have worked out what the shattered remains originally were. Just the final nail in the coffin that Alfendi and Lucy needed to arrest him.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/OKKOLetsBeHeroes'': Parodied at the end of "K.O.'s Video Channel", when the characters [[ShowWithinAShow make a movie]]. Enid is murdered, and writes the killer's name "in her own [[ABloodyMess ketchup]]!" The joke is that Movie!Rad, looking at it upside-down, misreads the killer's name as "[[SdrawkcabName O.K.]]"

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* Parodied in ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'', with the Last Words of Joseph Of Arimathea: "[[AC:He who is valiant and pure of spirit may find the holy grail in the Castle of [=AAAAAAaaaaaaargh=].]]" Brother Maynard speculates that Joseph must have died while carving it, but Arthur quickly points out just how ridiculous that idea is. [[spoiler:As it happens, the message ''is'' complete - the Grail is literally in the Castle Aaaaaaaaargh]]

* Parodied in ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'', with the Last Words of Joseph Of Arimathea: "[[AC:Seek Ye The Grail In The Castle [=AAAAAAaaaaaaargh=].]]" [[spoiler:As it happens, the message ''is'' complete - the Grail is literally in the Castle Aaaaaaaaargh, a.k.a. the French castle from the start of the film.]]
--> "Maybe he died while writing it."
--> "If he was dying, he wouldn't bother to carve 'aaaargh', he'd just say it!"
--> "Perhaps he was dictating."