History Main / EyeAwaken

* Used ''and'' subverted in ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesIITheSecretOfTheOoze''. At the start of the film, Shredder does the "hand bursting from rubble" variant to show he survived his fate at the end of [[Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1990 the previous movie]]. At the climax, Super Shredder's hand bursts from the wreckage of the docks he brought down on himself, leading the Turtles to exclaim "NoOneCouldSurviveThat!" A second later, the hand goes limp, proving them right.

* Something like this happened in ''Film/Catwoman2004'' when the main character's '''iris''' suddenly transforms to reveal that she is alive.

* At the end of ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'', [=GLaDOS=] does this, in a room of spare eye parts. Then starts to [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome sing]].
** She does it again in the ''VideoGame/Portal2'' E3 trailer, with the "eye" light on her head turning on just before she starts to move.

* In ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2'', after the player defeats [[ImplacableMan Mr. X]] for the first time and leaves the room, we are treated to an ingame cutscene of him standing up again, apparently unharmed. The low texture resolution prevents us from seeing his eyes open per se, but it still fits the trope.

[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/landbeforetimeeyeawaken.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"I think I left the oven on!"]]

[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/eye_awaken_3.jpg]]]]

[[quoteright:159:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/eye-awaken_7656.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:159:What can be scarier than a [[KillerTeddyBear respawning giant teddy bear?]]]]

* In ''{{VideoGame/Contra}} III: The Alien Wars'', the final boss is a giant brain with an eye in the center. Once it's defeated, the player characters grab onto the missile hanging from a support helicopter and fly away. Playing on Easy or Normal difficulty leads to the brain reviving, the eye opening, and a deafening roar [[LoadBearingBoss as the base explodes]]... Playing on Hard means the brain gets a brand new metallic PoweredArmor and ''chases the heroes out of the base''.

* A variant in ''Film/TheOldGuard'', a movie about a team of immortal mercenaries. Their immortality is revealed to the audience after they're all gunned down in an ambush, followed by a slow camera pan across their corpses, all of who have [[DiesWideOpen died with their eyes open]]. The first sign of them coming back to life is when the pupils of their leader contract suddenly as they focus on what's in front of her.

* In ''Film/{{Wyvern}}'', part of a glacier melts away to reveal the titular creature's closed eye, which then opens.

* ''Film/{{Lifeforce}}'': A security guard, seemingly not in full control of himself, enters the autopsy room where the nude female rescued by the astronauts from the derelict spaceship lies on a medic table. As he approaches her, the female suddenly opens her eyes, startling him. [[GaspOfLife Breathing heavily]] and never losing eye-contact with the man, the female raises from the table and kisses the guard, [[Main/KissOfDeath draining]] of his LifeEnergy and reducing him to a withered corpse.

* In ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon'', Toothless the dragon pulls this when Hiccup examines his prone body.

* At the end of ''[[Literature/{{Twilight}} Breaking Dawn Part 1]]'', [[spoiler: Bella opens her red eyes as a newborn vampire.]]

[[folder: Fan Works]]
* ''Fanfic/AbraxasHrodvitnon'': [[Characters/AbraxasHrodvitnon San]] has had two over the course of the story. One when he and Vivienne are first reborn as TwoBeingsOneBody from Ghidorah's decapitated head, and the Eye Awaken catches one of Alan Jonah's mercs off-guard. Then San has another one (which is unambiguously heroic following his CharacterDevelopment) when [[spoiler:Vivienne's [[ShockAndAwe lightning]] surges into and seemingly awakens his freshly-severed head]].

* The Film/MonsterVerse:
** ''Film/Godzilla2014''. Twice. PlayedStraight when the female MUTO realizes that the humans are taking off with the nuke that she and her mate were using to nest their offspring, and goes on the attack to get it back [[spoiler:and to kill Brody for destroying her nest and killing her babies a few moments earlier]]. Downplayed at the ending when Godzilla awakens, exhausted from his battle with the [=MUTOs=] the other night.
** ''Film/KongSkullIsland'': During the climax, shortly after the giant Skullcrawler reaches the surface to attack the human cast, Kong wakes up shortly after preparing to battle it, but not after [[spoiler:killing Lt. Packard, who attempted to kill Kong for killing his men during their fire bombing of Skull Island]].
** ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'': Downplayed again [[spoiler:when Serizawa [[HeroicSacrifice sacrifices himself to revive a dying Godzilla with an exploding nuke]]]]. Serizawa shares his final moments with Godzilla, who weakly opens his eyes to see who is before him before his incoming revival.
** ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'': An ominous GlowingMechanicalEyes variation happens whenever [[Characters/MonsterVerseKingGhidorah Mechagodzilla]] is activated, often with a close-up on his optics.

* ''WesternAnimation/FinalSpace'': In "[[Recap/FinalSpaceS3E10UntilTheSkyFalls Until the Sky Falls]]", the growing Titan fetus' giant yellow eyes snap open when the Lord Commander finds it and tries to merge with it.