History Main / NotQuiteSavedEnough

As this is often a DeathTrope, '''spoilers will ensue'''.

* ''WesternAnimation/MiloMurphysLaw'': In [[Recap/MiloMurphysLawS1E12MurphysLard "Murphy's Lard"]], Dakota and Cavendish actually do a reasonably good work protecting the pistachio stand for once. Unfortunately, they remove their dome too soon, and [[ItMakesSenseInContext it gets squashed by a flaming pig]].

* ''WesternAnimation/MiloMurphysLaw'': Dakota and Cavendish actually do a reasonably good work protecting the pistachio stand [[Recap/MiloMurphysLawS1E12MurphysLard this time]]. Unfortunately, they remove their dome too soon, and the flaming pig returns.

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* ''Franchise/DotHack'': Aura, Mia and the entirety of ''[[VideoGame/DotHackR1Games The World R:1]]''. The original four ''.hack'' games end with Kite having secured his place in legend as the "Azure Flame" by saving the MMORPG The World and all the AI in it, including Aura, the daughter The World's creator wished he had, from the malevolent digital sentience Morganna and her Eight Phases. Mia, the purple catgirl who [[AmnesiacDissonance turned out to be one of the Eight Phases]], can also be restored at the end of the final game by plumbing the depths of a 100-floor bonus dungeon.
** Then we flash forward to the ''[[VideoGame/DotHackGUGames .hack//G.U.]]'', where [[MadScientist Jyotaro Amagi]] has single-handedly destroyed ''everything''. The World R:1 is no more, its servers having been destroyed in a colossal fire after Amagi went berserk when his R.A. project failed to bring Aura back after she went missing. More frustratingly, the R.A. project required the data from the Eight Phases, and obtaining this data involved ''vivisecting Mia''. That's right: they killed her off ''in backstory, after you had to go through all that trouble saving her.'' Sometimes ''.hack//G.U.'' feels like a colossal TakeThat at the entire fanbase.

* Can happen of a sort in ''VideoGame/Persona4''. If [[spoiler: you get the bad or neutral endings, in which Nanako(whom you've saved from the TV a few weeks prior to this) dies and stays in a perpetual coma, respectively]].

%% Image moved per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1438611383091692900
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* In an ad on Discovery channel, rescuers are returning a seal back to the ocean, after spending hundreds of dollars in donations rehabilitating him to go back to the ocean. Just as they are lowering him back into the water, a Great White Shark breaches and chomps down on him before they can release him (the newscaster blocks the actual bite). [[spoiler: It was an ad for ''Shark Week'']].

* Nia Teppelin from ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' dies in the ending as a direct result of destroying the [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Anti-Spiral]], even though Simon had spent the entire second half of the series trying to save her.
* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', Luffy goes to rescue [[spoiler:his brother Ace]] from the World Government. He fights through the world's worst prison only to find [[YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle he's at the Marine HQ]]. So he goes there, and manages to, with the aid of a massive army, rescue him just in the nick of time. [[spoiler:Only to have Ace baited back by some taunts by one of the Marine Admirals, forcing Luffy to follow him and try to convince him to keep running. Unfortunately, Luffy's body (which was running on fumes even before he got to Marine HQ) finally gave out during that critical moment, forcing his brother to make a HeroicSacrifice to save him.]]

* In ''Anime/PsychoPass'' Kogami spends two entire episodes protecting Akane's friend Yuki from being hunted by Toyohisa Senguji. He manages to kill Senguji but is wounded in the process. [[spoiler: After he falls unconscious from his wounds, [[BigBad Makishima]] comes in and takes Yuki hostage. Akane attempts to take him down with the Dominator, but Makishima is immune to it and slits Yuki's throat.]]
* The ending of the "Twins" and "Tokyo" arcs in ''Manga/BlackLagoon'' both end this way, with Rock attempting his best to help [[spoiler:Gretel and Yukio, respectively]] survive and overcome their problems, only for it not to stick and for them to get killed anyway despite his efforts. [[spoiler:Yukio]], in particular, outright [[HonorBeforeReason chooses to die rather than survive on someone else's terms]].

* ''ComicBook/AllNewWolverine'': [[ComicBook/{{X 23}} Wolverine]] is helping her three clones, who have been infested with {{Nanomachines}} that are slowly killing them. The eldest of the three, Zelda, is the worst off, and by issue 5 has slipped into unconsciousness and is on death's door. With no other options to save her life, Laura and Comicbook/TheWasp use one of [[ComicBook/AntMan Hank Pym's]] suits to enter Zelda's bloodstream, where the pair fight the nanites directly. They're successful, and Zelda regains consciousness once enough of the machines are destroyed...just in time for [[TheHeavy Captain Mooney]], who has been pursuing the girls since issue 2, to show up and shoot her dead.
* ''ComicBook/GreenLanterns'': The "Rage Planet" arc ends on what at first seems like a triumphant note, with Jessica ''finally'' making her first HardLight construct and destroying the Hell Tower in the process, saving the Earth from the Red Lantern Corps...but then the WhamShot at the end of the issue shows that Atrocitus' ''ultimate'' plan (to recreate [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast the Butcher]] entity) ''wasn't'' stopped, it is in fact coming along just nicely. And will probably cause all kinds of havoc, since said entity is ''growing inside the Earth's core''. Not only did the Red Lantern Corps ''win'', the titular heroes of the book don't even know it yet - they're convinced they averted the BadFuture that Simon saw when they haven't. That would be the Bad Future that will see them facing a Rage-infected Justice League...

* In an issue of ''ComicBook/Batgirl2000'' Cassandra Cain stumbles upon CIA agents hunting down a man whom they have tricked into killing political activists under the pretense of them being terrorists and once he started asking questions and disobeying orders, they want him dead. She saves him, beating a whole building worth of CIA agents with her bare hands in the process, and with help of the Oracle gets him a train ticket to safety and all documents he may need to go into hiding. Next issue Batman reveals to shocked Cass that on the train the man decided to call his mother to say goodbye, which was enough to let the CIA track down and assassinate him far away from a pesky Batgirl that could interfere.

* ''Film/DragMeToHell'', [[spoiler: where Christine's attempts to escape the gypsy's curse prove to be in vain, and [[DraggedOffToHell suffers the title fate]] after her boyfriend returns the button she needed to get rid of to her.]]
* In ''Film/TheRuins'', [[spoiler: Amy escapes the ruins, but not without having been infected.]]
* ''Film/DasBoot'' has a particularly cruel example. Most of the film deals with the sheer terror faced by the men in a German U-Boat during World War II, including several points where they're nearly sunk by Allied depth charges. [[spoiler: Somewhere in the last quarter of the film, the titular submarine actually sinks, but the crew manages to devise a plan, repair the damage, get to the surface, and return home. It seems like the film will have a happy ending as the crew survives and makes it back to port, and then the majority of them get killed in an air raid.]]
* In ''Film/PlayDirty'', another WWII movie, this one set in North Africa, the hero and TheLancer destroy a Nazi fuel depot the night before the Allies take the city it's in. They lay low in a nearby shack, and wait for the Allied forces to arrive, at which point [[spoiler: [[CavalryBetrayal both main characters are promptly shot because they had to don enemy uniforms to complete their mission, despite the fact that they are walking slowly with their hands up and holding a white flag]]. This means that there is only one member of the team who might still be alive at the end of the film, and that 'survivor' is immobilized with a serious gut wound in a vehicle that no one living knows about, making his death only a matter of time.]] [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Even worse, the Allied commanders had changed the minds about the fuel depot, deciding (too late) to try and take it intact, so the protagonists' efforts were all for nothing.]]

* This technically happens in ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'': The ''Reliant'', which Khan had hijacked, is [[GameBreakingInjury dead in space]] and unable to do any more harm to Kirk or the ''Enterprise'', and Khan himself lies dying on the bridge, with all of his fellow Augments dead around him. But then [[TakingYouWithMe he activates the Genesis Device]], and the ''Enterprise'' just doesn't have enough juice to get out from the device's detonation radius. Khan dies believing that this trope is going to happen to Kirk. Even though the Enterprise (obviously) doesn't go kaboom along with Khan, [[HeroicSacrifice its escape comes at the cost of Spock's life]].
* ''Film/{{Skyfall}}''. In the film's final act, [[BigBad Raoul Silva]] and his mooks arrive at Bond's ancestral home to kill M. After a prolonged firefight from the main house to the chapel across the field, Bond takes them all down ... [[TheHeroDies but M was mortally wounded in the course of the battle]].
* ''Film/TheLairOfTheWhiteWorm'': Cobra antivenom is proof against infection by the [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot Vampire Snake People's]] bite. [[Creator/PeterCapaldi Angus]] gets bitten in the final battle but doses himself up. [[spoiler: Then, after all the evil has been destroyed, he discovers there was a mix-up in the lab and they sent him an inert placebo sample by mistake. The film ends with him smirking ominously at his [[Creator/HughGrant fellow survivor.]]]]
* ''Film/Utoya22Juli'', a reenactment of the Breivik Massacre (which happened [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin on the island Utøya on 22. July 2011]]) from the perspective of the victims, has two examples:
** The main heroine Kaja discovers a little boy near the tents and directs him into the forest before the shooter comes back to the tents. The boy is later killed at the beach.
** Then there is [[spoiler: Kaja herself]], who, after surviving one perilous encounter after another, [[spoiler: [[SurprisinglySuddenDeath is suddenly shot]] by an InstantDeathBullet]]
* In ''Film/SpiderManHomecoming'', Peter tries to stop the bad guys from selling Chitauri-based weaponry and one of the weapons gets away, on the Staten Island Ferry, splitting it in half, midtrip. Peter uses his suit's A.I. to target and web-up the major stress points of the ferry, stopping when all the points are connected. Karen, the A.I., congratulates him, stating he was 98% successful. Peter nods for a sec before saying, "98%?" just as the webs start snapping. All seems lost until Iron Man comes to the rescue.
* In ''Film/MorningDeparture'', eight of the twelve trapped sailors manage to escape the crippled sub. The remaining four are waiting for the salvage ship to rescue them. But then one of them is killed by a gas leak, and a storm forces the salvage ship to return to port, leaving the last three sitting at the bottom of the sea awaiting their fate.
* During the opening of ''Film/JurassicWorldFallenKingdom'', a mercenary group is trying to extract an important item that kicks off the plot. One man handles communications on the ground while the rest of the team are in a helicopter and get the item. [[OhCrap Then the T. Rex appears]]. The man on the ground runs for his life to the chopper's ladder and grabs onto it with a last desperate move as it lifts off, but as they fly away Rexy chomps on the ladder trying to get him. After a struggle, she lets go and the team cheer in celebration... only for the Mosasaurus to burst out of the water like a whale and swallow the man alive.
* At the end of ''Film/{{Rovdyr}}'', FinalGirl Camilla has killed the three psychos who murdered her friends, and finds the path leading her out of the woods. Reaching the road, she flags down a car that turns out to be driven by the woman from the café. The woman calms down the hysterical Camilla and puts her in the back of the car drives off: presumably to the police station or the hospital. And that's when Camilla discovers that the doors in the back don't open from the inside... Roll credits.
* ''Film/ISpitOnYourGrave 2'' has a similar example. Katie, an aspiring model, is tricked into believing she is auditioning for modeling agents, but is instead kidnapped by them, and shipped overseas to some place in the Ukraine where they plan to use her as a sex slave. She is able to escape the house by going through their sewer from the basement and even made it to the local police. There she meets a women's rights activist, who seems to care about what happened to her and promises to protect her. She takes Katie back to her house. Katie walks about thinking she is safe, only to discover the same door to the basement that she escaped from, realizing she is back in the same house. The woman then attacks her, puts her back in the basement and reveals she is the sister to the head kidnapper.
* At the end of '' Film/LongWeekend'', Peter finally manages to escape from the bush after GoingInCircles for ages. He makes it to the main road and starts to flag down an approaching truck. [[spoiler:Then a cockatoo flies through the open window of the truck cab; getting in the truckie's face and causing him to swerve and run over Peter.]]

* Subverted in ''[[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings The Two Towers]]''. Sam has just won a vicious fight over Frodo with a [[TheDreaded dreaded]] GiantSpider named Shelob. However, when Sam pulls away the webbing, Frodo remains pale and unresponsive, even after hours have passed. Believing him dead, Sam forces himself to take the Ring and finish the Quest on his own...only to find out from listening to a bunch of local orcs that Shelob doesn't kill her prey before eating them. Sam chastises himself for his stupidity and sets off to rescue Frodo from the orcs.
* In the third book of the ''Tennis Shoe Adventure'' Series, Harry saves[[spoiler: Lamachi]] from being killed by one of Jacob's warriors. However [[spoiler: Lamachi]] was still badly hurt, and dies of infection only hours later.
** And while it doesn't quite stick, due to the nature of the series (time travel) the same happens to [[spoiler:Gid]] in a later book.
* ''Literature/WarForTheOaks'': The Queen of the Unseelie Court has [[spoiler: Willy Silver]] kidnapped in order to pressure the Seelie Court into conceding to them. Eddi determines to save him, recruits allies, and mounts a successful rescue attempt...all for nothing, when [[spoiler: her ex-boyfriend Stuart]] comes out of nowhere with a gun.
* The novel ''[[Film/DieHard Nothing Lasts Forever]]'' has retired detective Joseph Leland attempting to save his daughter from a terrorist named Anton Gruber. At the end, Leland is able to knock Gruber out a window... only for him to grab onto Leland's daughter and send both of them plummeting to the pavement below.

* Richard Laymon's ''Body Rides'' begins with the protagonist saving a woman from a killer...only for the killer to [[NotQuiteDead come back]] shortly afterward and finish murdering her.

** And then in the finale of ''Live Another Day'' [[spoiler: Audrey is saved from being held hostage by a sniper, only for another gunman to come out of nowhere and shoot her dead.]]

'''[[spoiler:Michael:]]''' Oh, Eleanor! That's it! My big mistake was bringing you all together [...] Next time, I'll spread you out so it's more of a slow burn.

* In the original release of ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil'', Richard Aiken will expire from a venomous snakebite if you take too long to deliver a serum to him. If you do make it in time, it still turns out to be too late and he dies moments after receiving treatment. This is double-subverted in the remake, however; if you get to him in time, he will recover from the snakebite just fine, [[DoomedByCanon only to die]] in a HeroicSacrifice later on.
* In ''[[VideoGame/ModernWarfare Call of Duty 4]]'', one of the protagonists, a US Marine, rescues a downed helicopter pilot and gets and his squad evacuates the capital. However, the villain sets off a nuke in his own capital, not only killing destroying most of the US expeditionary force but crashing the helicopter the Marine was on killing both the "rescued" helicopter pilot and the player, who is only able to stagger out of the wrecked chopper's exit ramp before collapsing and expiring.
* ''VideoGame/RhapsodyAMusicalAdventure'' has the Frog Kingdom: [[spoiler:after Micheal helps you retrieve the Earth Stone, the {{Jerkass}} King abruptly has him executed for grossly exaggerated 'crimes', just to keep him away from his daughter. Princess Caroline commits suicide shortly thereafter. While Cornet still technically got what she needed from the whole ordeal, the MoodWhiplash alone is staggering.]]
* ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsOriginalGeneration'', especially the 2.5/Gaiden. According to the OVA that it's based on, once Kyosuke saved Lamia from the Bartolls, all should be well. So they're free to chat leisurely, right? Then Juergen pops by and shot down Lamia, making everyone think she's dead and Kyosuke failed to save her. It then continues for the true save later in the Duminuss arc, though.
* ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaLamentOfInnocence''. Leon Belmont just saved his lover Sara Trantoul from the vampire Walter Bernhard. Just when Leon thought he could just put everything behind, he found out one nasty thing: Sara has been vampirized and is about to suffer FateWorseThanDeath. He's forced to use his Whip of Alchemy to put Sara out of misery, incidentally evolving it to the legendary Vampire Killer. Cue Leon's RoaringRampageOfRevenge. Oh, and the Vampire Killer has her soul sealed within it, for extra suckiness.
* In ''VideoGame/SamAndMaxTheDevilsPlayhouse Episode 2: The Tomb of Sammun-Mak'', [[IdenticalGrandfather Sameth and Maximus']] [[TwoFistedTales rip-roaring 20's-style pulpy adventure]] leads them through numerous close encounters with [[DeathTrap spring-loaded scimitars, diabolical crushing traps,]] [[BadSanta a villainous, gun-toting Santa Claus lookalike,]] [[EldritchAbomination mad priests of eldritch gods]] [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and an irate conductor]]: any one of these encounters can end in certain death for our two early 20th-century heroes, [[spoiler: but when all's said and done, the two are unavoidably skeletonized when Maximus mistakes little Bubbles' Protection Spell for her dreaded [[ForcedTransformation Holstein Hex]] and makes a break for it in the wrong direction.]] Considering, however, that the chapter ''starts'' with present-day Sam and Max finding their skeletons in the same boiler room that their story ends in, it's a ForegoneConclusion.
* ''[[VideoGame/{{Obscure}} Obscure 2]]'' has Mei's efforts to track down and save [[spoiler: her twin sister Jun]] all come to naught when they're killed literally right before Mei can reach them. This is just the first of a series of {{Plotline Death}}s that render the player's actions [[ShootTheShaggyDog practically pointless]], as only [[spoiler: two characters]] survive all the way to the [[spoiler: {{Bolivian Army|Ending}}]] end.
* In ''VideoGame/JadeEmpire'', you get to save your [[DoomedHometown village]] from bandits in the prologue with a bit of help from Master Li, but [[spoiler: the village gets firebombed and the population massacred anyway while you're out saving Dawn Star]].
* The Outcasts from ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' that a Light Side PlayerCharacter saves? They get to their Promised Land, only for Malak's orbital bombardment of the planet to bring everything to ruin within the day. They do actually survive the bombing, but they're left to die a slow and horrible death by being picked off by rakghouls, disease, starvation, and toxic waste.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Avernum}} 4'', [[spoiler:Vahnatai]] assassins magically ambush the king's adviser in his chamber in the party's presence. The unarmed NPC falls extremely easily in the ensuing battle, but with enough power and quick action, it is possible to defeat the assassins before he is killed. He then collapses and dies anyway, from a poisoned wound.
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'' opens with Link rescuing Zelda from the castle dungeon after [[TheMole Agahnim]] kills and usurps her father the king. Fast forward through three more dungeons and Link grabbing the SwordOfPlotAdvancement, and Agahnim will abduct Zelda and then do to her what he did to [[RuleOfSeven the other six maidens]] once Link catches up. Only once you clear Turtle Rock does Link saving Zelda finally stick.
* Can happen of a sort in ''VideoGame/Persona4''. If [[spoiler: you get the bad or neutral endings, in which Nanako(whom you've saved from the TV a few weeks prior to this) dies and stays in a perpetual coma, respectively.]]
* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'': Raiden goes through a bunch of crap trying to save Otacon's stepsister Emma, and has to guide her and protect for a good part of the latter half of the game, capped off during a sniping sequence where both he and Snake take out enemies while she's attempting to cross a platform. [[spoiler: Then Vamp suddenly shows up and takes her hostage.]] Even after taking him out, Emma manages to get fatally wounded in the process. D'oh!

* Every single one of the temporal screw-ups in ''VisualNovel/TimeHollow'' was caused by the villain futilely trying over and over to prevent his mother from dying.
* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'':
** This happens at the beginning of the game. After you've accompanied the Emperor and his bodyguards through the depths of the capital city, you finally make it to a safe room. The Emperor (who's [[YouCantFightFate seen his death in his dreams]]) then gives you the jewel that is the symbol of his office (and [[spoiler:keeps the LegionsOfHell out of the mortal world]]) before one of the assassins that's been trying to kill him pops out of a wall and knifes him in the back.
** In one quest, the man you're sent to rescue turns out to be trapped as bait, and you have to defend yourself against maniacs out HuntingTheMostDangerousGame. Once you kill all your assailants and find the key to escape, the mastermind behind the scheme shows up, kills your intended rescuee in a moment of CutsceneIncompetence, and reveals that he has the only real key.
* In Chapter 7 of ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine'', the player has a choice between saving a critically injured Agent Gould from execution or abandoning him to save some civilians. If the player chooses to save Gould, he lingers just long enough to tell Walker to continue his mission before dying of his injuries.
* A significant part of ''Vampire Legends: The True Story of Kisilova'' involves saving Rose from the BigBad. If you succeed, she waves goodbye to you as you leave. Then the bonus stage reveals that Rose became a vampire and started the chaos anew.
* ''Fire Emblem'' loves this trope.
** The first arc of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade'''s main story is finding and rescuing Eliwood's father, Lord Elbert. The party succeeds-[[spoiler: only for Nergal to interfere and use the BrainwashedAndCrazy Ninian to call a dragon using Elbert's quintessence! Nils arrives just in time to stop the madness and Elbert manages to wound Nergal, but he's too weak and dies in his son's arms.]]
** Queen Ismaire in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones''. [[spoiler: Even after Eirika's party kills the boss, Callaech kills Ismaire anyway when she refuses to hand over Jehanna's stone.]]
** In Chapter 9 of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'' [[spoiler: despite the well-planned attempt to rescue Emmeryn from her execution, she ends up committing HeroicSuicide anyway so Chrom doesn't have to hand over the Fire Emblem.]]

* In ''VideoGame/DeadToRights'', a long EscortMission requires Jack Slate to protect one of his allies by shooting {{mook}}s from a helicopter. Then, just when Jack thinks the coast is clear, one of the villains shows up and murders the ally [[CutsceneIncompetence without Jack able to do anything about it]]. (He does kill the villain in the subsequent boss fight, but still.)

* The first ''VideoGame/{{Splatterhouse}}'' game does this: after 5 stages of terror, you finally get to [[DamselInDistress Jennifer]]! [[spoiler:Then she turns into a monster and you have to kill her]].

* This fate can potentially befall both [[spoiler:Reko and Alice Yabusame]] in ''VisualNovel/YourTurnToDie''. The ending of 2-1 is a SadisticChoice between the two's lives, but if [[spoiler:Sou Hiyori]] was spared at the end of 2-2, then [[spoiler:Ranmaru Kageyama will murder the surviving sibling in 3-1.]]
* ''VideoGame/KirbyAndTheForgottenLand'': Kirby rescues [[spoiler:Elfilin]] from the Beast Pack, who captured him and were planning to [[spoiler:reunite him with his other half [[BigBad Fecto Forgo]]. Fecto Forgo wakes up and despite being defeated, manages to assimilate Elfilin anyway, turning into the UltimateLifeform Fecto Elfilis]]. It's subverted later on after Kirby [[spoiler:frees Elfilin from and defeats Fecto Elfilis, as Elfilin performs a HeroicSacrifice to close the unstable portal between Pop Star and the New World, but it's revealed that he survived]].

* ''WesternAnimation/MiloMurphysLaw'': Dakota and Cavendish actually do a reasonably good work protecting the pistachio stand [[Recap/MiloMurphysLawS1E12MurphysLard this time]]. Unfortunately, they remove their dome too soon, and the flaming pig returns.

* ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist'':
** In the [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist 2003 version]], Ed and Alphonse Elric save the town of Liore by bringing down the manipulative Father Cornello. After seeing he didn't have the Philosopher's Stone like they had hoped, they left. Soon after, Lust and Gluttony kill the real Cornello and have Envy impersonate him, splitting the city into two parts. Those who believe Cornello lives on, and those who no longer want to be cattle. These sides fight and cause open civil war, all thanks to the Elric brothers (and Envy). Scar sets up a massive transmutation circle from the streets of the city and waits for things to play out. Then the fantastic military gets involved, which can only end well. Of course, Ed and Al only learn about as they are assigned to investigate, and everyone they know has been hiding this from them. As the last of the civilians secretly evacuate, the majority of the military forces enter the city. [[spoiler:Scar activates his master plan, turning everyone caught inside the city into a Philosopher's Stone.]] And after that, things only get worse.

** Also partially subverted as the helicopter team were in the process of cutting the rope so they could escape, having no intention of saving their man on the ground.

* This technically happens in ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'': The ''Reliant'', which Khan had hijacked, is [[GameBreakingInjury dead in space]] and unable to do any more harm to Kirk or the ''Enterprise'', and Khan himself lies dying on the bridge, with all of his fellow Augments dead around him. But then [[TakingYouWithMe he activates the Genesis Device]], and the ''Enterprise'' just doesn't have enough juice to get out from the device's detonation radius. Khan dies believing that this trope is going to happen to Kirk.
--> '''Khan''': ''No...No, you can't get away...''
** Even though the Enterprise (obviously) doesn't go kaboom along with Khan, [[HeroicSacrifice its escape comes at the cost of Spock's life]].

* In ''Film/PlayDirty'', another WWII movie, this one set in North Africa, the hero and TheLancer destroy a Nazi fuel depot the night before the Allies take the city it's in. They lay low in a nearby shack, and wait for the Allied forces to arrive, at which point [[spoiler: [[CavalryBetrayal both main characters are promptly shot because they had to don enemy uniforms to complete their mission, despite the fact that they are walking slowly with their hands up and holding a white flag]]. [[KillEmAll This means that there is only one member of the team who might still be alive at the end of the film, and that 'survivor' is immobilized with a serious gut wound in a vehicle that no one living knows about, making his death only a matter of time.]] [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Even worse, the Allied commanders had changed the minds about the fuel depot, deciding (too late) to try and take it intact, so the protagonists' efforts were all for nothing.]]]]

* In ''VideoGame/SamAndMaxTheDevilsPlayhouse Episode 2: The Tomb of Sammun-Mak'', [[IdenticalGrandfather Sameth and Maximus']] [[TwoFistedTales rip-roaring 20's-style pulpy adventure]] leads them through numerous close encounters with [[DeathTrap spring-loaded scimitars, diabolical crushing traps,]] [[BadSanta a villainous, gun-toting Santa Claus lookalike,]] [[EldritchAbomination mad priests of eldritch gods]] [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and an irate conductor]]: any one of these encounters can end in certain death for our two early 20th-century heroes, [[spoiler: but when all's said and done, the two are unavoidably skeletonized when Maximus mistakes little [[strike: Nefertiti]] Bubbles' Protection Spell for her dreaded [[BalefulPolymorph Holstein Hex]] and makes a break for it in the wrong direction.]] Considering, however, that the chapter ''starts'' with present-day Sam and Max finding their skeletons in the same boiler room that their story ends in, it's a ForegoneConclusion.

* Perhaps the prototypal example is the original ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968''. In a movie filled with groundbreaking departures from tradition, this trope was perhaps the most significant. [[spoiler: After a heroic struggle, Ben is left the only survivor of a night of mayhem and horror in the farmhouse. The next morning he awakes to the sound of a rescue party approaching the house, but as he peers through the boarded-up windows for a glimpse of his potential saviors, they mistake him for just another zombie and perfunctorily shoot him in the head. The movie ends with a sequence of still images of Ben's lifeless, anonymous corpse impaled on a meat hook and dragged to a human bonfire. No one ever knows who he was or what he went through to survive the night . . . of the living dead.]]

** Can apply to the entire ''Normandy'' crew if the player ''seriously'' screws up enough. The Extended Cut has Shepard get their entire team out of the way during the final battle, even as they insist they can still go on. And if Shepard's Emergency Military Supplies score is low enough, then the ending results in the ''Normandy'' crashing and everyone on-board dying.

* ''Comicbook/AllNewWolverine'': [[Comicbook/{{X 23}} Wolverine]] is helping her three clones, who have been infested with {{Nanomachines}} that are slowly killing them. The eldest of the three, Zelda, is the worst off, and by issue 5 has slipped into unconsciousness and is on death's door. With no other options to save her life, Laura and Comicbook/TheWasp use one of [[Comicbook/AntMan Hank Pym's]] suits to enter Zelda's bloodstream, where the pair fight the nanites directly. They're successful, and Zelda regains consciousness once enough of the machines are destroyed...just in time for [[TheHeavy Captain Mooney]], who has been pursuing the girls since issue 2, to show up and shoot her dead.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'' opens with Link rescuing Zelda from the castle dungeon after [[TheMole Aga]]h[[EvilChancellor nim]] kills and usurps her father the king. Fast forward through three more dungeons and Link grabbing the SwordOfPlotAdvancement, and Agahnim will abduct Zelda and then do to her what he did to [[RuleOfSeven the other six maidens]] once Link catches up. Only once you clear Turtle Rock does Link saving Zelda finally stick.
* Can happen of a sort in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}''. If [[spoiler: you get the bad or neutral endings, in which Nanako(whom you've saved from the TV a few weeks prior to this) dies and stays in a perpetual coma, respectively.]]

* In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', a diplomatic player will be pleased to negotiate a mutually advantageous deal between the Tenpenny Tower residents and the ghouls nearby, letting everyone live together in peace and harmony. (As opposed to the other options, aiding one side and killing the other.) Return a few days later, and you'll find that the ghouls changed their minds and killed all the human residents...

** The first arc of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemElibe'''s main story is finding and rescuing Eliwood's father, Lord Elbert. The party succeeds-[[spoiler: only for Nergal to interfere and use the BrainwashedAndCrazy Ninian to call a dragon using Elbert's quintessence! Nils arrives just in time to stop the madness and Elbert manages to wound Nergal, but he's too weak and dies in his son's arms.]]

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* Can happen of a sort in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}''. If [[spoiler: you get the bad or neutral endings, in which Nanako dies and stays in a perpetual coma, respectively.]]

Compare PyrrhicVictory, CheatedDeathDiedAnyway, and TakeAMomentToCatchYourDeath. Can rely on CutsceneIncompetence. See also AllForNothing and YankTheDogsChain. In sequels, this can also manifest as HappyEndingOverride or SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome. In a work with MultipleEndings depending on the choices of the reader or player, this is typically a sign that the reader / player screwed up somewhere if it's near the end of the story, and/or doubling as a NonStandardGameOver.

* This fate can potentially befall both [[spoiler:Reko and Alice Yabusame]] in ''VisualNovel/YourTurnToDie''. The ending of 2-1 is a SadisticChoice between the two's lives, but if [[spoiler:Sou Hiyori]] was spared at the end of 2-2, then [[spoiler:Ranmaru Kageyama will murder the surviving Yabusame in 3-1.]]

* In the original release of ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil'', Richard Aiken will expire from a poisonous snakebite if you take too long to deliver a serum to him. If you do make it in time, it still turns out to be too late and he dies moments after receiving treatment. This is double-subverted in the remake, however; if you get to him in time, he will recover from the snakebite just fine, [[DoomedByCanon only to die]] in a HeroicSacrifice later on.