History Main / HeroicSuicide

* '''Necessity:''' Ask yourself if there's even a theoretical possibility that the character could accomplish their goal ''without'' dying. If there is, it's probably a regular HeroicSacrifice. For example, say you [[Literature/PeterPan drink poison intended for someone else]], [[Literature/ATaleOfTwoCities trade places with a man on death row]], or [[Film/StarTrek2009 turn your spaceship into a guided missile]]. None of those qualify, because in each case your death is only a side-effect of what you are doing. The point is to prevent the other person from drinking the poison, buy time for the man to escape, or disable the enemy ship. You would still accomplish these goals even if you discovered you were miraculously immune to poison, received a last-minute pardon, or were beamed off your ship at the moment of impact. This trope only comes into play if the character ''has to'' die to accomplish their goal. Though [[BackFromTheDead that isn't to say their death will always be permanent]].

** ''VideoGame/TalesFromTheBorderlands'': Episode five has one during its climax. [[spoiler: Fiona and Sasha are inside the vault monster that the rest of the team is fighting while the two of them plant an explosive inside of it to finish it off. Fiona is at the wheel of their caravan, driving at breakneck speed, but when she tries to pull the detonator's trigger, she realizes it's out of range and that they'll have to get closer to the bomb itself to make it go off. Her and Rhys try to figure out how to get to the bomb, and you can see Sasha slowly look at Fiona, and then the detonator. Fiona tells Rhys they'll have to turn back, but the camera slowly pans over to Sasha, standing in the open doorway, detonator in hand, and before Fiona can stop her, she tells her it's okay, and jumps out, flying backwards towards the bomb. It works, and she's on death's door after the monster dies, but the regenerative device Felix gave Fiona for safekeeping brings her back to full health.]]

** ''VideoGame/TalesFromTheBorderlands'': Episode five has one during its climax. [[spoiler: Fiona and Sasha are inside the vault monster that the rest of the team is fighting while the two of them plant an explosive inside of it to finish it off. Fiona is at the wheel of their caravan, driving at breakneck speed, but when she tries to pull the detonator's trigger, she realizes it's out of range and that they'll have to get closer to the bomb itself to make it go off. Her and Rhys try to figure out how to get to the bomb, and you can see Sasha slowly look at Fiona, and then the detonator. Fiona tells Rhys they'll have to turn back, but the camera slowly pans over to Sasha, standing in the open doorway, detonator in hand, and before Fiona can stop her, she smiles, tells her it's okay, and jumps out, flying backwards towards the bomb. It works, and she's on death's door after the monster dies, but the regenerative device Felix gave Fiona for safekeeping brings her back to full health.]]

** Attempted by Hoshi Sato in ''[[Series/StarTrekEnterprise Enterprise]]'' when the [[ReptilesAreAbhorrent Reptilian Xindi]] have captured her and pumped her full of [[{{Brainwashed}} mind-control parasites]] so she can crack the codes of the [[EarthShatteringKaboom superweapon]]. When they let their guard down, she breaks free and tries to throw herself to her death. The Reptilians grab her before she can succeed, but they are impressed by her willpower.

** Episode five of ''VideoGame/TalesFromTheBorderlands'' has one during its climax. [[spoiler: Fiona and Sasha are inside the vault monster that the rest of the team is fighting while the two of them plant an explosive inside of it to finish it off. Fiona is at the wheel of their caravan, driving at breakneck speed, but when she tries to pull the detonator's trigger, she realizes it's out of range and that they'll have to get closer to the bomb itself to make it go off. Her and Rhys try to figure out how to get to the bomb, and you can see Sasha slowly look at Fiona, and then the detonator. Fiona tells Rhys they'll have to turn back, but the camera slowly pans over to Sasha, standing in the open doorway, detonator in hand, and before Fiona can stop her, she smiles, tells her it's okay, and jumps out, flying backwards towards the bomb. It works, and she's on death's door after the monster dies, but the regenerative device Felix gave Fiona for safekeeping brings her back to full health.]]

* ''Fanfic/AFrozenFlower'': Although it doesn't happen in-story, this is Orchid's ultimate fate as an awoken ''[[PersonOfMassDestruction lambero]]'' with a short lifespan. By the end of the story, she is in possession of a FantasyKeepsake, a white circle with a red button that will end her life when it's pressed and that she chooses not to look at unless she has to. She tries to kill herself a couple times before she grabs ahold of the keepsake, but fails each time. Up until the time comes, she will live the best life she can working at Odd Squad as an Investigation agent and with Grimes and his group no longer a threat.

* ''Film/ConanTheBarbarian2011'': Conan's father kills himself so that Conan will survive.

* ''Film/{{Dragonheart}}'': At the climax of the film, Draco lifts up his chest scale, so that Bowen can kill him with an axe, killing Einon in the process.

* ''Web of Evil;; #14 features the story "Lighthouse of the Dead" wherein Captain Pearly, the lighthouse keeper for the coastal town of Searock has been dutifully rowing himself out to the old lighthouse each full moon for over a decade, in spite of the fact that passenger liners stopped coming in ages ago. However, the city fathers have elected to widen the harbor, tearing the lighthouse down in the process. Upon learning about this, the horrified Pearly tries to stop them, only to be thrown into the village madhouse, pleading with them to keep the lighthouse running as it keeps Searock safe from the ghosts of the dead and helpless to watch as the next full moon rises...and the dead rise from the ocean to walk the town once more. It turns out that each full moon, Pearly had been using the incredibly bright beam of the lighthouse to fend off the fishermen and sailors of Searock who'd been lost at sea and trying to return to town even after their deaths. The revenants, believing themselves to still be alive but stuck on a long fishing trip, are outraged at the changes that have occurred in Searock in their absence, and wreak havoc, heedless of their victims' cries that they've been dead and gone for decades. Some of the citizens let Pearly out of his cell and plead with him to save them. Although he admonishes them for not listening to his warnings, he has an idea of how to return the dead to the ocean, but only if they promise to rebuild the lighthouse so this doesn't happen again. [[spoiler:He calls out to the dead people to follow him and they break off their rampages to walk in line behind him. The horrified townsfolk realize they they're listening to Pearly because he's decided to make himself a fellow dead man by leading them all into the ocean--a one way trip. He calls out to the people of Searock to remember his warnings as waves crash over his head, and they do indeed build a new lighthouse]].

* ''Film/TheGreyZone'': A female prisoner runs into an electrified fence to keep the guards from shooting more of her friends unless she gives them the information they want. Her friend shoots herself after grabbing a guard's gun to the same thing after this.

* ''Literature/DragonBones'' has a heroic ICannotSelfTerminate variation with Oreg, the [[MadeASlave enslaved]] GeniusLoci of Hurog Keep. The villains have invaded the keep and are closing in on the titular dragon bones, which will grant them immense power, and the heroes aren't close enough to fight back...but the spell binding Oreg to the building has a trade-off in that if he is killed, the Keep collapses. He can only be killed by his "owner", and so Ward stabs him to death at his own request, bringing the keep down on their enemies' heads. It helps that Oreg [[DrivenToSuicide very much wants to die]]. [[spoiler:Eventually subverted, as it turns out that the death doesn't stick.]]

* Numerous priestesses in ''Literature/ChantersOfTremaris'' poison themselves so their bodies can be sealed into the wall of ice in an attempt to stop the spread of the illness killing magicians. [[spoiler:However, they were forced by the High Priestess. It's unclear whether they would have sacrificed themselves given any actual choice in the matter.]]

** [[spoiler:[[AnIcePerson Ur]] used her ice powers]] to seal away an Etherious by turning her body into an unmelting ice prison, killing her in the process.

This is a specific sub-trope of HeroicSacrifice. The difference is that in most {{Heroic Sacrifice}}s dying is merely an unfortunate by-product of a heroic act. In a Heroic Suicide, '''dying is necessary''' to perform the heroic act. Or, to put it another way, a HeroicSacrifice engages in heroic activity even though it can get them killed. '''A Heroic Suicide engages in heroic activity KNOWING it will get them killed.'''

* ''Series/DarkMatter'': Milo kills himself rather than be used again by the Seers to further their aims.

'''Warning: This is a DeathTrope. Expect ''lots'' of unmarked spoilers.'''

* In ''Franchise/{{Naruto}}'':
** Rin Nohara. The Three-Tailed Beast had been sealed inside her by agents of Kirigakure and intended for Rin to return to Konoha, where the beast would break out and rampage, destroying the village. Instead, when Kakashi tried to kill one of the Mist-nin pursuing them, Rin chose to save her village from this fate by putting herself in the way of his attack, which resulted in both she and the Sanbi (temporarily, in the Sanbi's case - Tailed Beasts cannot truly die, being living chakra, though they take some time to reform after their host dies with the beast still sealed in them) dying and thwarting Mist's plan. Cue Obito undergoing a FaceHeelTurn out of grief over her death, and the rest is history.
** Shisui Uchiha, in a roundabout way. He originally intended to use his mangekyou sharingan to prevent the Uchiha Clan's coup via genjutsu. However, Danzo stole one of his eyes, ruining his plan. With that no longer a viable option, Shisui gave his other eye to Itachi and committed suicide so Itachi could gain the mangekyou sharingan and prevent the coup himself.
** Because of the nature of the Dead Demon Consuming Seal, which allows its user to seal any soul at the cost of their own, both the Third and Fourth Hokage pull this off.

* ''Manga/FairyTail''

* ''Series/UnsereMütter,UnsereVäter'': The final episode includes Friedhelm leading an inexperienced group of Hitler Youth child soldiers who are all gung-ho about dying for the Führer. In order to make them fear death and not throw their lives away, he charges headlong into a Soviet position, prompting the kids to surrender instead.

* ''Franchise/XMen'' - A vaccine for the deadly Legacy Virus is created by Henry [=McCoy=]. If an unaffected mutant were to inject himself with this vaccine he would die, but an anti-virus would be created and spread throughout the world, curing mutants infected with the virus, and make the rest immune. Colossus (Piotr Rasputin) makes this sacrifice. And then he got better. It should be noted that Colossus is very prone to depression - maybe even bipolar.

* In ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' fanfic ''Fanfic/StarTrekSomethingWickedThisWayComes,'' a starship crew is trapped in an [[EldritchLocation Alternate Universe]], and the price for their escape, as demanded by one of that Universe's denizens, is [[DealWithTheDevil a human sacrifice, carried out in a pretty gruesome fashion.]] TheCaptain naturally refuses to do that to any of his crew, but as their situation gets increasingly desperate, he opts to kill himself as the required sacrifice. The remaining members of his crew try their best to talk him out of it, [[MoreExpendableThanYou most of them offering to do it themselves.]] He refuses, but a [[RedShirt yeoman]] sneaks off and completes the sacrifice with herself as the victim while the others are arguing. [[spoiler: This actually helps, since the creature had no intention of helping and merely intended to use the psychic energy of the nasty murder as a powerup, but as the girl, who had nothing to do with the decision to enter the dimension in the first place and as such was completely innocent, releases a purer sort of psychic energy that weakens the creature, contributing to its later defeat.]]

[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]

* ''Film/{{Constantine}}'':

* ''Manga/DeathNote'': Once your name is written in a Death Note the first occurrence takes precedence and any later instance is invalidated. In the live-action films [[spoiler:L takes advantage of this by writing his own name in the Death Note while giving himself the maximum amount of time to live, dying when the moment comes but preventing anyone else from killing him with a Death Note in the meantime. This allowed him to fake his death when Rem writes his name in the Death Note, and prove once and for all that Light was Kira when Light gloated about his victory on camera. He considers the sacrifice mostly worth it, but regrets that Watari became collateral damage in the process]].

* ''Film/TheThing1982'': {{Implied}} with Fuchs, who is found as a charred corpse. There was no reason for the Thing to kill him off instead of assimilating him, so it's safe to assume that he did it to himself in order to avoid being assimilated and thus being used to assimilate the rest. [=MacReady=], Nauls and Garry later decide to destroy the camp and themselves with it to prevent the alien infection from spreading to the rest of the world.

* ''Film/TheWolfman2010'': {{Discussed}} when Lawrence asks his father why he didn't kill himself to prevent anyone else's death when he became a werewolf. However, he couldn't do it even knowing what would happen. In the climatic battle it's revealed that he even removed the powder years ago from the silver bullets his manservant was supposed to use if he escaped his confinement.

* In the Literature/KrisLongknife series, upon learning of the existence and coming into conflict with the omnicidal aliens, the crews of the human warships have a policy of blowing up their own vessels if disabled, ensuring the aliens learn as little of human technology as possible and, more importantly, cannot discover the way to human space.

* [[spoiler:Al Gough]] on ''Series/{{Flash Forward|2009}}'' learns that in the future an innocent woman will die due to his actions, so he jumps off a building so as to ScrewDestiny so it can never happen.

* ''Series/OrphanBlack'': In Season 4, [[spoiler:it’s revealed that Beth’s suicide was this rather than despair or pressure. She got closer to the true masterminds than anyone, but they threatened her with the lives of everyone she cared about if she didn’t take her own life]].

* In ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'':
** In "The Vessel", a writer goes on a shuttle flight into space, but something causes the shuttle to crash on re-entry, with the writer walking away without a scratch. He later finds out that an alien EnergyBeing is living inside his body, having entered him in orbit, as the alien's own ship suffered damage near Earth (the alien's actions also unintentionally caused the crash). When the authorities figure it out, they capture the writer and perform tests on him. They eventually determine that his body can't handle the stress of two beings living in it for too long. From what the viewers are shown, the alien appears to give the writer the means to kill it, so that he can live. The writer explains the procedure to the scientists, who perform it, and let him go. Later, one of the scientists wonders if they really destroyed the alien instead of the writer. This is confirmed by the "writer" himself, as a flashback reveals that it was the writer who wanted to allow himself to die so that the alien could live.
** In the episode "Better Luck Next Time", the two protagonists defeat two evil {{Body Surf}}ing aliens by killing the host bodies and then themselves. Too far away from any other people, the aliens die.
** "Summit" has an almost literal example when the sole survivors of a peace summit offer to kill themselves to prove their sincerity and ensure that the peace treaty they negotiated before terrorists murdered the other representative party was accepted. All but one shoot themselves, but one refuses to die by a weapon of war and electrocutes himself instead.

* [[VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles3 Xenoblade Chronicles 3]]: When the gang encounter M and N while trying to escape prison, [[spoiler: M switches bodies with Mio during their battle, knowing very well that her body has [[YourDaysAreNumbered only has about a month left]] before it [[DisappearsIntoLight disappears.]] When the gang are imprisoned for a month and Mio’s old body vanishes, M dies along with it so that Mio can continue to fight alongside her friends. She also did it in an attempt to show N the error of his ways and that [[HeelRealization he needs to start charging]].]]