History Main / ImmortalityHurts

* ''{{Highlander}}'' had an immortal Nazi get chained up and dumped in a river for 60-odd years, coming to life and drowning every few minutes. When he finally gets out, he's a bit peeved. Another adversary was left on a deserted island. After eating everything on it, he starved to death. Then came back. And starved to death again...
** The original film contains a scene set sometime during the 17th century in which Connor [=McLeod=] shows up to fight a duel while stinking drunk. His opponent swiftly runs him through - to no effect, since Connor is both immortal and too drunk to pretend otherwise, and simply gets right back up. A montage of Connor getting run through repeatedly ensues, until finally, still drunk, Connor apologizes for his behavior towards his opponent's wife and wanders off none the worse for wear. The other guy's face is priceless.
** There was also an immortal who was one of Cleopatra's attendants, and ended up entombed for 2000 years. The likelihood that she repeatedly revived and then died again of asphyxiation‎ in the sealed tomb isn't brought up in the episode, but it would explain her insanity when she got out.

* The titular artifact of ''The Misenchanted Sword'' grants its owner eternal life so long as they retain their ownership. However, this portion of the magic has two staggering flaws that the first, and so far only, wielder discovered. First, [[AgeWithoutYouth it doesn't prevent the wielder from aging]], and will in fact [[WhoWantsToLiveForever prevent a natural death]]. Second, it will only prevent the wielder from dying. It is perfectly alright with letting them be maimed, blinded, or any number of other horrible things that happen when one wields a bloodthirsty sword.

* ''ReturnOfTheLivingDead''.
-->'''Ernie:''' Why do you eat people?
-->'''Zombie:''' Not people. Brains.
-->'''Ernie:''' Brains only?
-->'''Zombie:''' Yes.
-->'''Ernie:''' Why?
-->'''Zombie:''' The PAIN!
-->'''Ernie:''' What about the pain?
-->'''Zombie:''' The pain of being DEAD!
-->'''Ernie:''' It hurts... to be dead.
-->'''Zombie:''' I can feel myself rotting.
-->'''Ernie:''' Eating brains... How does that make you feel?
-->'''Zombie:''' It makes the pain go away!
* ''DeathBecomesHer'': Goldie Hawn and Meryl Streep become immortal, but they can still be injured (though it doesn't hurt). They beat each other up a lot. At the end of the film, [[spoiler:they're both shattered to pieces, but still alive]].
** To clarify, the method by which the characters received their immortality prevents death in the sense that one's soul (consciousness, what have you) leaves the body. It does ''not'', however, prevent the body itself from dying. Both characters learn this the hard way and are forced to spend eternity as barely-preserved living corpses.
* In ''ElGoonishShive'', Nanase can create a "fairy doll" proxy body. She doesn't die if the doll is destroyed and can instantly create a new one. She does, however, feel all the pain. At one point, she needs to distract a villain from killing her girlfriend before help arrives. She uses the spell, only for the doll to be destroyed. Again and again...
* The immortality of Jack Harkness in ''DoctorWho'' and ''{{Torchwood}}''. He dies, then simply comes back to life a short while later. In some cases, this ends up happening every few minutes or so, which must be incredibly painful and unfortunate.
** In ''Children of Earth'', we get to see him come back from being blown to smithereens. [[{{Understatement}} It's not pleasant.]]
** The Doctor himself revealed in a WhamLine in the latest transition that changing from one Doctor to another ''hurts'', and the pain is ''infinite'' - and that the Doctor really ''is'' dying. A whole host of FridgeHorror there.

* In ''TheMummy'', Imhotep is cursed with immortality specifically so he could suffer AndIMustScream. (Unfortunately, the curse in question transforms him into ThePunishment if he is ever released.)

* In Greek mythology, the gods lack full regenerative powers, resulting in lasting injuries.
** Uranus getting castrated.
** Hephaestus was left with a permanent limp after getting in the way of his father's [[TheMasochismTango Masochism Tango]].
** Prometheus can regenerate his liver; it's torn out of his body every day by a hungry eagle. Also, according to the ancient Greek drama, the manacles that hold him to the rock include a metal spike going through his chest.
*** Unusialy for Greek myths, this has happy ending; Heracles slew the eagle and broke the chains that held him.
** Chiron the centaur was gifted with immortality, but was forced to renounce it when accidentally shot by Hercules: the arrow, poisoned with the Hydra's bile, caused a [[WoundThatWillNotHeal unhealing, festering wound]], unable to kill the centaur but causing him constant agony.
*** In some version of the myth he was freed when he gave up his immortality in exchange for Prometheus' freedom and was place in the heavens as the constellation Centaurus or Sagittarius.
* In ''PiratesOfTheCaribbean'', Will's father was stuck at the bottom of the ocean, constantly crushed by the pressure but unable to die. ([[IGotBetter He got better,]] though through a [[DealWithTheDevil deal with Davy Jones]].)
* The BigBad of ''NinjaScroll'' comes to seriously regret his immortality when he is gutted, covered in molten gold and dropped to the bottom of the sea.
* Similar to the ''PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' example above, in the season 3 finale of ''{{Angel}}'', Connor traps Angel in a box and drops the box in the ocean, theoretically for eternity.
** Also from ''Angel'', in the episode "Hell Bound", there was a ghost who didn't want to got to hell, so he sent other spirits in his place. In the end, he was made corporeal and trapped in (another) box, destined to spend eternity not going to hell, but staring at a brick out the small window.
* ''{{Highlander}}'' had an immortal Nazi get chained up and dumped in a river for 60-odd years, coming to life and drowning every few minutes. When he finally gets out, he's a bit peeved. Another adversary was left on a deserted island. After eating everything on it, he starved to death. Then came back. And starved to death again...
** The original film contains a scene set sometime during the 17th century in which Connor [=McLeod=] shows up to fight a duel while stinking drunk. His opponent swiftly runs him through - to no effect, since Connor is both immortal and too drunk to pretend otherwise, and simply gets right back up. A montage of Connor getting run through repeatedly ensues, until finally, still drunk, Connor apologizes for his behavior towards his opponent's wife and wanders off none the worse for wear. The other guy's face is priceless.

* There was an episode of ''TheTwilightZone'' where a guy made made a DealWithTheDevil to live forever. Getting bored with life over the decades, he eventually amused himself by committing crimes. When he was finally caught and arrested, he got a life sentence. He then pleaded with the devil to die, and the devil granted his wish.
* In YuYuHakusho, Kurama traps [[CompleteMonster Elder Toguro]] in a plant which gives its victims visions of their worst fears while slowly draining the life out of them. Unfortunately for Elder Toguro, his regenerative capabilities surpass the draining capabilities of the plant, so he'll forever live his nightmare of being unable to kill Kurama.
* ''CaptainScarlet'' is indestructible because his body will regenerate after being killed, but that apparently doesn't make death any less painful for him. Which may explain why he seems so grumpy all the time.
* This comes up in ''{{Mnemosyne}}'' - the immortal protagonist gets put through a lot of pain and suffering.
* In ''TrueBlood'', the vampires' bodies regenerate when they're injured. While this is generally a pretty good thing, Jessica discovers a nasty side effect. She's a virgin when she gets turned, has sex for the first time in her vampire form, and then discovers that her hymen grows back. After each time. Forever.
* The trope is also said verbatim by one of the QuirkyMinibossSquad in JackieChanAdventures when he gets slammed into a rock wall at sixty miles per hour (with immortality).
--> '''Finn:''' Immortality hurts...
** Also of note is that he had just traded the Healing talisman to one of his teammates because he thought having Healing ''and'' Immortality was redundant.
** Clarification: the immortality talisman makes you immune to damage, but you still feel the pain of getting hit/burned/whatever. The mook in question learned this the hard way: he was trying to use his newly acquired FlyingBrick status to take out the supports of the overhang by bodily smashing through them.
** Also note that he got flight by trading his HealingFactor away, which would have help.
* In the ''{{Touhou}}'' project, Fujiwara no Mokou and Kaguya-hime both have resurrective immortality and hate each other's guts, so they spend their time killing each other.
** The boss fight against Mokou involves killing her over and over and over until she's in too much pain to move any more. The youkai member of each party then tries to convince the human member to rip out Mokou's guts and eat them to gain immortality (or in Yuyuko's case, contemplates [[BigEater doing it herself]]).
* In the MagicTheGathering book "The Thran" a planeswalker (read:god) is betrayed and captured. They can instantly regenerate any injury, and teleport across dimensions at will. So a drill is inserted into their head, constantly scrambling their brain while they're vivisected.
* The ''RobotChicken'' short "{{Jesus}} and the Argonauts" has [[CaptainObvious Jesus]] leading half of the Argonauts on adventures and getting them killed while fighting monsters due to his [[StupidGood pacifist]] ways. Whenever he gets killed, cue angelic choir and pillar of light, and he's back on his feet again. [[spoiler:At the end, he gets clubbed into the ground by a cyclops, resurrects, and gets clubbed ad-infinitum.]]
-->'''Jesus''': Dad dammit!
* Csezlaw Meyer of ''{{Baccano}}''. He was tortured by another immortal that he had deeply trusted for at least one hundred years under the pretenses of "testing the limits of immortality". Understandably, at his first opportunity he cut his right hand free to devour his torturer (the only way to kill an immortal, performed by placing your right hand on their head and thinking you want to eat). As if ''that'' wasn't enough, devouring absorbs memories, so he has memories of doing all that to ''himself'' for a century, along with the knowledge that it was done [[ForTheEvulz purely out of sadism]].
** Even after that, it turns out he could ''still'' be traumatized further: [[spoiler:after he tried to have an entire train car full of innocents killed [[CrazySurvivalist out of paranoia]], Vino decides to dish out [[NoKillLikeOverkill some of that]] [[{{Gorn}} special Rail Tracer justice]] and grind his limbs off on the train tracks until he (Vino) gets bored.]]
* In the ''{{Belgariad}}'', [[PhysicalGod the gods]] have no HealingFactor because, being invulnerable, they have no need for it. When [[BigBad Torak]] finds out the hard way they ''aren't'' invulnerable to things more powerful than themselves, he spends the rest of his life in terrible agony from the resulting burn.
** The immortal [[TheArchmage archmage]] Zedar is condemned to eternity sealed in solid rock.
* As shown by the page quote, [[TheyKilledKenny Kenny]] of SouthPark, every time he dies his mom gives birth to him again and no one remembers him dying.
* In the ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' episode ''The Zeppo'', Xander gets undead sociopath Jack to back down and deactivate his bomb in the school basement by pointing out how immortality won't be any fun when he's blown to bits. The story thankfully didn't dwell on the aspect of Jack and his undead pals being decapitated, crushed, or eaten.
** Affable villain Mayor Wilkins ended up the one to get Buffy and Angel to seriously consider their relationship when he relates how painful it was to watch his mortal wife grow old and die while he stayed the same.

* In the first episode of the second season of [[JackieChanAdventures Jackie Chan Adventures]] Finn gets his hands on the dog talisman, which grants the bearer immortality. Shortly afterwards he recites the trope name verbitam when he stands on the roof of a truck as it goes through a tunnel.
* In the manga, ''Blade of the Immortal'', the protagonist Manji is cursed with an infestation of "sacred bloodworms" which close and heal any wounds he suffers - even severed limbs. However, Manji still feels the pain of his injuries, and the series is about his quest to redeem himself for his previous crimes to end the curse.
* [[spoiler:Nessiah]] of ''YggdraUnion'', ''YggdraUnison'', and ''BlazeUnion'' is relatively blase about simply dying--he's been through it so many times that he's gotten used to the pain, and in ''YggdraUnion'' and ''BlazeUnion'', he dies slowly and painfully several times onscreen, mostly from being skewered or badly beaten. He is extremely ''not'' blase about the fact that [[BodyHorror his real body is slowly beginning to rot]]. One of ''BlazeUnion'''s endings has him lose his ability to manifest separately, [[FateWorseThanDeath thus confining him to that decaying body forever]]. The game tries not to draw too much attention to this. [[DisproportionateRetribution Wonder]] [[FridgeHorror why]].
* Similar to the ''TrueBlood'' example listed above, ''{{Lucifer}}'' has a single issue detailing an immortal woman who was cursed with eternal life in Phoenician times for disrespect to the gods. Part of that curse is that her body basically repeats what it was doing the same she was cursed, day after day. And she miscarried a few hours before she was cursed.

WhoWantsToLiveForever? Everyone, duh. Unfortunately, a lot of people who actually pull it off find out it's not what it's cracked up to be.

* ''{{Highlander}}'' had an immortal Nazi get chained up and dumped in a river for 60-odd years, coming to life and drowning every few minutes. When he finally gets out, he's a bit peeved.

** The boss fight against Mokou involves killing her over and over and over until she's in too much pain to move any more. The youkai member of each party then tries to convince the human member to rip out Mokou's guts and eat them (or in Yuyuko's case, contemplates doing it herself).

* PlayedForLaughs in JackieChanAdventures one of the mooks has two talismans that grants immortality and flight each, he runs into the side of a bridge/tunnel [[hottip:*: someone please clarify]] and actually says "immortality hurts" straight afterwards.
** Clarification: the immortality talisman makes you immune to damage, but you still feel the pain of getting hit/burned/whatever. The mook in question learned this the hard way: he was trying to use his newly acquired FlyingBrick status to take out the supports of the overhang by bodily smashing through them.
** Also note that he got flight by trading his HealingFactor away, which would have help.

** Clarification: the immortality talisman makes you immune to damage, but you still feel the pain of getting hit/burned/whatever. The mook in question learned this the hard way: he was trying to use his newly acquired FlyingBrick status to take out the supports of the overhang by bodily smashing through them.

* PlayedForLaughs in JackieChanAdventures one of the mooks has two talismans that grants immortality and flight each, he runs into the side of a bridge/tunnel [[hottip:*: someone please clarify]] and actually says "immortality hurts" straight afterwards.

* PlayedForLaughs in JackieChanAdventures on of the mooks has talismans that grants immortality and flight each, he runs into the side of a bridge/tunnel [[hottip:*: someone please clarify]] an actually says "immortality hurts" straight afterwards.

** Affable villain Mayor Wilkins ended up the one to get Buffy and Angel to seriously consider their relationship when he relates how painful it was to watch his mortal wife grow old and die while he stayed the same.

* As shown by the page quote, [[TheyKilledKenny Kenny]] of SouthPark, every time he dies his mom gives birth to him again and no one remembers him dying.

** The immortal [[TheArchmage archmage]] Zedar is condemned to eternity sealed in solid rock.

* Csezlaw Meyer of ''{{Baccano}}''. [[spoiler: He was tortured by another immortal that he deeply trusted for at least one hundred years under the (most likely false) pretenses of "testing the limits of immortality".]] Understandably, at his first opportunity he cut his right hand free to devour his torturer (the only way to kill an immortal, performed by placing your right hand on their head and thinking you want to eat). As if ''that'' wasn't enough, devouring absorbs memories, so he has memories of doing all that to ''himself'' for a century.

* Csezlaw Meyer of ''{{Baccano}}''. [[spoiler: He was tortured by another immortal that he deeply trusted for at least one hundred years under the (most likely false) pretenses of "testing the limits of immortality".]] Understandably, at his first opportunity he cut his right hand free to devour his torturer (the only way to kill an immortal, performed by placing your right hand on their head and thinking you want to eat). As if ''that'' wasn't enough, devouring absorbs memories, so he has memories of doing all that to ''himself'' for a century.

* In ''TrueBlood'', the vampires' bodies regenerate when they're injured. While this is generally a pretty good thing, Jessica discovers a nasty side effect. She's a virgin when she gets turned, has sex for the first time in her vampire form, and then discovers that her hymen grows back. After each time. Forever. SoYeah.

-->'''Jesus''': Dad dammit!