History Main / SnowMeansDeath

* ''Fanfic/SnowAngel'' is a WhatIf ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' fic of the "What if Maria and Shadow escaped from ARK?" kind. Maria died on a snowy night just before spring began.

** In ''Hogfather,'' the dark pagan origins of the Hogfather, the local expy of SantaClaus, explain the choice of colours in his clothing: red and white from blood on the snow, ultimately coming from druidic human sacrifices in midwinter to make the sun come back. But ''The Little Match Girl'' version of the trope (above) is deconstructed when Death (who's filling in for the Hogfather) saves the local little match girl, dismissing her death as needlessly cruel, in the midst of his [[{{Deconstruction}} deconstructing]] a number of Christmas tropes.
** At the climax of ''The Last Hero'', [[spoiler:a band of geriatric barbarian heroes die by plunging into snow from a ''great'' height while clutching a powerful explosive charge. Or maybe they defy death itself, depending how you look at it. They’ve come to hate those sorts of trope]].
* Nello and Patrasche in ''Literature/ADogOfFlanders'' freeze to death on Christmas Eve.

* In Christina Rossetti's ''Literature/GoblinMarket'', Lizzie reminds her sister of Jeanie, who ate the goblin fruit, but sickened and "fell with the first snow" of winter. (Since Laura has already eaten the fruit, this lets readers know just how much time she has left.)
* The final fight in ''Literature/{{The Grimrose Girls}}'' takes place in a snowy landscape in the dead of winter. It ends in the middle of a frozen lake. The main characters all survive, but the villain dies, complete with blood splattering on the white background.
* ''Literature/HarryPotter'' visits his parents' graves for the first time in ''Deathly Hallows'', accompanied by Hermione. It so happens that they do this in December, and the graveyard is covered in snow. Harry, of course, [[TearJerker cannot help but cry]] (and neither can many readers).
* In ''Literature/HerMothersHope'', after Marta's mother finally succumbs to her long-term illness, her emotionally unstable sister, Elise, commits suicide by walking to a nearby meadow and laying down in the snow until she freezes to death
* ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' implies this. It is mentioned that several tributes froze to death one year because they hadn't been provided with any means of making fires which would have kept them warm.

* The Manor of Sleep, where ''VideoGame/FatalFrameIII'' takes place, is perpetually snowy. That's without mentioning the deceased spirits of the loved ones and the hostile ghosts that haunt the place...

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* In ''Manga/ZeroSevenGhost'', the first scene involves two hands (we are to assume they're Teito's) holding snow. Just as the line ''The snow was so beautiful...and so merciless'' appears, the snow immediately turns into blood. We later learn that this was foreshadowing to Teito's [[BigBrotherMentor foster father]]'s death.
* In ''Manga/SevenSeeds'', Mitsuru dies when she wears her old dancing kimono and dances "The Evening Crane" in the snow and ends up freezing to death.
* ''Anime/AngelBeats'' but on a smaller scale. Yuzuru Otonashi's sister Hatsune expires after her battle with an unknown illness on Christmas Eve.
* It snows in ''Manga/{{Bokurano}}'' during the deaths of Youko Machi (in the anime) and Kanji Yoshikawa (in the manga). The latter even comments on it.
-->"Sure is chilly. I didn't realize it was so cold out here. ''(notices a snowflake)'' Hey... snow? Even at a time like this, it's still possible to feel lucky and glad. How 'bout that? Ushiro…"
* ''Barely'' averted in ''Manga/CandyCandy''. When [[TheCutie Susanna]] crosses the DespairEventHorizon after the accident that took away both [[AnArmAndALeg her leg]] and [[TragicDream her dreams of being an actress]], she goes to the rooftop of a building in the middle of a snowstorm and attempts to throw herself from it. [[PluckyGirl Candy]] catches on her intentions, however, and [[InterruptedSuicide she decides otherwise]].
* ''Manga/CellsAtWork'' has a rather dark two-part story where the body goes into hypovolemic shock due to cranial trauma and blood loss, and the body's temperature dropping is represented by a massive blizzard kicking up.
* ''VisualNovel/{{Clannad}}'', an {{anime}} by Creator/KeyVisualArts, makes use of this trope on several occasions. As a young child, Nagisa nearly dies in the snow, thus {{foreshadowing}} events years later in ''~After Story~''. She dies soon after giving birth to Ushio; not only is it snowing at the time, but the snow-clogged streets bring about her death in that they made it impossible to get her to the hospital or to get a doctor to her in time. A few episodes later, when Ushio dies, it is not ''because'' of the snow (most likely) -- she's been ill for a long time -- but the scene ''does'' take place in the snow, and immediately afterwards her stricken father Tomoya dies of grief. In addition, in the Illusionary World, the little girl (who is Ushio after her death, minus all her memories of the real world) essentially freezes herself to death in the snow.
* The entire Northern Campaign in ''Manga/{{Claymore}}'' [[EverybodysDeadDave ends this way]]. Most emotional was when [[HeroicSacrifice Jean dies after helping]] [[ObiWanMoment and reassuring Clare]].
* Episode 13 of ''Anime/CowboyBebop'', as Gren's ship crashes in a snowy field. He doesn't die there, but he starts coughing up blood and is clearly a goner.
* The ''Manga/DeathNote'' anime has this one. It starts snowing just as Naomi lets down her guard enough to reveal her real name to Light, who sentences her to suicide. The snow continues as she walks to her fate. Also doubles as a massive amount of luck on Light's part, as the snow makes Kira Investigation member Aizawa get out his umbrella, obscuring his vision. The guy literally walks right past Light and Naomi without noticing either of them, because if he did see the two of them, Light's little reign would've ended then and there.
* ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba'': Tanjiro and Nezuko's family are all slain on a snowy mountain. Nezuko survives, but is turned into a demon.
* As ''Manga/CaseClosed'' is a series where people fall dead in almost every episode, there are ''many'' murder cases that happen in the snow, and where footprints and other signals happen to be totally ''vital'' as clues to reveal who killed the victim of the week:
** One of the most emblematic cases is The Ski Lodge Mystery, where a HotTeacher organizes a ski trip with her workmates... to murder two of them, in punishment for [[WouldHurtAChild having killed one of their students]] [[HeKnowstooMuch for knowing too much about their dirty deals]]. Both murders happen during a snowy night... And then Conan finds out and unmasks her through Ran. ([[BreakTheCutie Poor]], [[BrokenPedestal poor]] [[TearJerker/CaseClosed little]] [[TheWoobie Ran]].)
** Also ''weaponized'' in a filler case, where the [[DrivenByEnvy envious]] BodyDouble of a famous actress kills her boss via drugging her, putting her [[WhiteShirtOfDeath in a simple]] [[EtherealWhiteDress white kimono]] that offers no protection against the cold and burying her in the snow, thus causing her to die of hypothermia. The killer then impersonates her boss until it's time to discover the woman's body in the snow, trying to make everyone believe that she was DrivenToSuicide... Until Conan (through Kogoro) discovered her trick.
*** Even more meaningfully, said actress's StarMakingRole was the one of... a Yuki-Onna, who throws herself off a cliff. We even get to see bits of the movie at the start of the episode
** Invoked again when Officer Takagi, while he's visiting an old friend's grave in the ''very'' snowy Hokkaido prefecture, is captured and put in a very cruel DeathTrap inside a construction site -- where he will either freeze to death, be blown up by a timebomb ''or'' be strangled in a makeshift gallow. He spends ''almost two days'' like this, and while [[BigDamnHeroes he's rescued in the nick of time]], he's said to have suffered frostbite and thus had to stay in the hospital for some days. [[WhatdoYouMeanitsNotSymbolic To make things even more anvilicious]], when Satou, Megure and Conan arrive to rescue Takagi in an helicopter, ''it actually begins to snow.'' (And then it switches to SnowMeansLove, as not only [[ViolentlyProtectiveGirlfriend Satou]] is the one who rescues Takagi, but once he's saved [[SmoochOfVictory she happily kisses him on the lips]]... [[IsThisThingStillOn forgetting about]] [[Funny/CaseClosed a certain camera...]]
* ''Manga/{{Claudine}}'': Claude kills himself on a snowy night. It's still snowing when Rosemarie visits his grave.
* The DownerEnding to ''Anime/TheDogOfFlanders'', which can be read about [[http://dogasu.bulbagarden.net/comparisons/kanto/ep048.html here]].
* In the final episode of ''Anime/EurekaSevenAo'', it was snowing when Renton and Eureka were burying their firstborn infant daughter.
* Shows up in episode 10 of ''Anime/Figure17TsubasaAndHikaru'' which deals with Sho's sudden death. Shot of falling snowflakes against night sky is used repeatedly.
* In ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'' scenes at the Tucker house are often shown with the three kids playing in snow. Nina gets turned into a human/dog chimera with her pet Alexander by her father and subsequently killed by Scar, who also kills Shou.
* In ''Manga/FullMoon'', it's snowing once Mitsuki has learned of Eichi's death.
* ''Manga/FushigiYuugi'':
** The first Suzaku Seishi to die - and by extension the Seiryuu Seishi he did the death-battle with--does so after a bloody battle in a field of snow.
** Also invoked when the StarCrossedLovers Suzuno and Tatara get TogetherInDeath. It's snowing in both worlds as this happens, [[SnowMeansLove and their souls are reunited in a snowy forest]].
* ''Manga/FushigiYuugiGenbuKaiden'':
** Takiko finds Rimudo/Uruki when he ([[GenderBender in his female form]]) is chained and set to die in the snow.
** Towards the end, it's said that [[spoiler: Hokkan will be destroyed by a [[KillItWithIce a glacial era]]. Takiko manages to stop that by summoning Genbu and dedicating her first Wish to avert it.]]
* In the first episode of ''Manga/GalaxyExpress999'', Tetsuro's mother is killed in the snow by Count Mecha.
* The death of Tsukiyono's brother in ''Manga/GambleFish''.
* ''Literature/TheGardenOfSinners'': the deaths of Souren Araya and Lio Shirazumi, both villains. Narrowly averted with Shiki Ryougi, who gives up on living right after revenge-killing the latter, thinking her boyfriend was dead.
* In ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex'', the flashback origin story of Kuze takes place in the Korean winter. Let's just say it sufficiently explains how he became the terrorist leader.
* Toube from ''Anime/GingaDensetsuWeed'' freezes to death after fighting Kamikiri and his pack. The next day, the Ohu soldiers find him...literally frozen to death.
* ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'':
** The first ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing'' intro. A city in ruins and an EmpathyDollShot, all covered in a sheet of falling snow. TheMovie ''Endless Waltz'' actually shows how it happened (Heero accidentally blew up an apartment building during a mission... and a little girl and her puppy, whom he had befriended the day before, were among the victims); as the realization sinks in, snow starts to fall.
** Its use in ''Anime/AfterWarGundamX'' is quite flagrant when Carris Nautilus decides to try SuicideByCop. When he tricks Garrod into shooting him, it's after a battle during a snowfall. Later, it ''starts'' snowing again when he leaves the infirmary to go and die of exposure. The snowfall shuts off immediately once Garrod and Tiffa have convinced him to live.
** Stella's burial in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny''. As Shinn carries her corpse around and then [[BurialAtSea gently lets it sink to the bottom of a nearby lake]], it's snowing.
** In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamAGE'', as Yurin L'Ciel is dying, she shares a psychic vision of her time on Minsry with Flit. As the vision of Minsry's forest ends, the scenery changes and it starts to snow...
* ''Manga/GunslingerGirl''. The FinalBattle between the Agency and the terrorists led by Dante takes place in the Turin Nuclear Power Plant in the middle of a snowstorm. It's downplayed though as the main characters who get killed die inside the building, rather than outside in the snow like the RedShirt characters.
* In ''Manga/HisAndHerCircumstances'', the most severe beating that a tiny Soichirou Arima got from his [[AbusiveParents evil mother Ryouko]] was during a snowy and cold day. She later threw him out of the house and the poor kid was found bleeding severely in the snow-covered streets by his father Reiji, who immediately took him to safety and then decided to GiveHimANormalLife with his older uncle and aunt.
* In the ''Manga/HonooNoAlpenRose'' manga, Toulonchamp's goons dump the injured Jeudi and her pet bird Printemps in the middle of a snowy and abandoned place, hoping she will freeze to death since she can't walk away due to her injured foot. She does her best but ultimately gets lost ''and'' then a snowstorm rages in. A kind villager and his family find Printemps and then Jeudi just in time, taking care of her until Lundi and General Guisan come for her. As Lundi and Jeudi hug happily, the trope becomes SnowMeansLove.
* The [[TearJerker tear-jerking]] scene (which scarred many Latin American children in TheNineties) of ''Nobody's Boy Remi'' (''Anime/IeNakiKo'', based on French novel "''Literature/SansFamille''," by Hector Malot), when the performing monkey Jolie-Coeur dies of pneumonia after forcing itself to perform one last time on the snowy streets. It soon gets worse, since the already terminally ill [[PapaWolf Vitalis]] also dies in the snow few later, in an HeroicSacrifice to save Remi and Cappi (the only survivor out of the animals) from perishing with him. Remi and Cappi ultimately survive since a local family finds Vitalis's lifeless body just in time before the offered protection isn't enough for them.
* The entirety of ''Manga/ShimejiSimulation'''s Chapter 45 shows the world blanketed in snow, but the snow that falls are the [[spoiler:dream fragments of people in the simulation]], showing the state of the world's utter collapse because of the Sis clone's actions during the school festival. However, the "snow" also signifies [[spoiler:Big Sis' slow death, when she was simply found by Shijima, [[TheAtoner atoning for her past actions]], while also telling her DyingWish to her little sister: go back in time and reverse everything her clone caused, at the DIRECT expense of distancing herself from others.]]
* ''Manga/InTheseWords'' features a snowy outdoors setting when Asano wakes up from his torture session after being LeftForDead in a loosely closed coffin.
* In the 2006 version of ''VisualNovel/{{Kanon}}'', this trope is so prevalent that it's hard to pick out which examples fit it the best. The lyrics of the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mym-FZ6DCQI#t=32s opening theme]] ("Last Regrets") practically announce it.
** Yuuichi's RepressedMemories are first hinted at in how much he hates snow.
** When Makoto dies, the illusion of a green field fades to show that the surroundings were covered in snow.
** Snow is practically a central theme for Yuuichi's meetings and conversations with Shiori, who is terminally ill.
** Snow is arguably the ''cause'' of the subverted LookBothWays incident when Akiko's hit by a car that appears to be skidding out of control, and the imagery of the red strawberries thrown into the snow where it happened is painfully evocative.
** The same symbolism is made brutally real shortly after, when Yuuichi finally remembers what happened to Ayu years ago: she fell off a tree and was left comatose. Unable to take any more, Yuuichi runs out into a snowstorm calling for Ayu; he runs past the place where they used to play without recognizing it because it's covered in snow. With the snow now falling furiously all around him (just as the deaths seem to be), he lays down and waits to die. The upbeat [[http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3olm7_kanon-ed-2_shortfilms ending theme]] about someone trying to find their way home seems to contradict the trope, showing Ayu happily running through the snow - until one finds out where she's been all along.
* In ''Manga/KimiNiTodoke'', Ryu's mother died when he was young after her car crashed into an electric pole in a snowstorm. It goes on snowing for pretty much the whole chapter in which this takes place.
* ''Manga/TheKindaichiCaseFiles'': There's a legend in a Hokkaido village about a woman and her baby who died in the snow after failing to find shelter. She is then reborn to take revenge during harsh snowstorms.
* ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha'':
** The incident in the backstory of ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikers'', where Nanoha was unprepared for a sudden ambush. There was so much blood on her white Barrier Jacket and the snow-covered terrain, while Vita tried to keep her awake in the gently falling snow. Downplayed, since she didn't actually die (though she was almost crippled for life).
** And then there's Reinforce's last moments in ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaAs''. It was Christmas Day.
* Subverted in ''Manga/MarmaladeBoy'': Anju Kitahara has a massive heart attack during a snowy Christmas, but she survives. (Barely).
* The winter scenes in ''Anime/MillenniumActress'' portend doom: when she first meets and falls in love with the artist he's bleeding; later during WWII she's imprisoned for helping him and he gets captured and executed; during the 50s she tries to find him in the snow fields of Hokkaido and nearly dies. During her ''actual'' death [[GreyRainOfDepression it's raining - close enough.]]
* ''Anime/MyHime'': Immediately following Alyssa Searrs' defeat, the Searrs corporation ordered the "termination" of the project Alyssa had been created for due to her failure. This involves firing missiles at most of the main characters. No one actually dies from this, but it begins snowing immediately after. What happens next, you ask? Miyu, the robot girl, flees with a weakened Alyssa, who gets shot while Miyu is fetching water for her. So Miyu takes Alyssa's body, walks into a nearby pond with it, and freezes the two of them at the bottom.
* In ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', the deaths of Zabuza and Haku are marked with the falling of snow. Though this is also partially because Haku's name means white, and he comes from a snowy village...
* In ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'', [[DoomedHometown the destruction of Negi's hometown]] occurred over the course of one snowy night.
* ''Manga/OnePiece'':
** It was snowing when Donquixote Rocinante, the second "Corazon" of the Donquixote Family, was shot by his older brother Donquixote Doflamingo. As he lay dying, he clung to life as long as possible to ensure the "spell" he put on Law to keep him unheard stayed so Law could escape. He finally died when the falling snow completely covered up his body, while Law's cries could finally be heard, only to be drowned out by the sounds of the battle between the Donquixote Family and the Marines.
** The Going Merry's death at the end of the Enies Lobby arc.
* In ''Anime/{{Penguindrum}}'', when it looks like Himari Takakura will ''actually'' be KilledOffForReal, her brother Shouma and his LoveInterest Ringo quietly lean against each other in the snow.
* ''VisualNovel/{{planetarian}}'': In the finale, The closing scenes of the game reveal that the rain has stopped and the snow is finally falling which represents hope not only for the Junker, but for humanity.
* In ''Anime/ProjectK'' Mikoto kills the colorless king, and [[HesJustHiding seemingly Shiro]] during the first snow of winter. Moments later Mikoto himself dies.
* Snow falling in summer is taken as an omen of Happosai's impending death in ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf''. (He recovers, though.)
* The movie sequel of ''Literature/RascalDoesNotDreamOfBunnyGirlSenpai'' took place during winter and has a major arc revolving around [[spoiler: HeroicSacrifice]], culminating in [[spoiler: Mai's death on the day before Christmas. Even showing her blood pouring out amidst the snow when she was hit by the car from which she saved Sakuta.]]
* In ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'', Tomoe dies in the snow. More exactly, she attempts to help Kenshin during a very unfair fight but he accidentally strikes her alongside the enemy, and she dies few afterwards in the snowy fields.
* In the first ''Anime/SailorMoon'' series, the final confrontation with the Dark Kingdom takes place at "D Point" near the North Pole, and the penultimate episode in which the Senshi all die facing the Doom and Gloom Girls is appropriately snow-covered. To fit with the theme, each one of them also happens to die on a mountain-like structure of spiked ice. Usagi herself battles the Metallia!empowered Queen Beryl while standing on a similar ice structure and defeats her, but dies as a consequence of releasing the whole potential of the Silver Crystal. They all get better when said Crystal, acting on Usagi's last wish, revives them (as well and Mamoru) but with temporal TraumaInducedAmnesia.
* ''Manga/SaintSeiya'':
** At the end of the Galaxian Wars arc, it starts to snow in the mountains where Phoenix Ikki has just been defeated by the other Bronze Saints. While Seiya and the others hold off Docrates' forces, preventing them from stealing the Sagittarius Gold Cloth, a dying Ikki regards the snow as a symbol of his purification... and then gets up and [[RedemptionEqualsDeath brings down the mountain on himself and Docrates]] to save the Saints' lives, burying everything and everyone in rock and snow. Then again, he IS the ''[[BackFromTheDead Phoenix]]'' Saint.
** The Asgard {{filler}} arc happens in a very snowy environment in the North of Europe. All but one of the Asgard Saints die in the snow. Saori herself almost kicks it too trying to sub in for the BrainwashedAndCrazy Hilda, but she lives to tell.
** Similarly, another filler has the Crystal Saint dying in the middle of a snowy ''and'' icy scenario, with Hyoga desperately beggging him to live and Yakov and Seiya sadly watch over them. Later, Camus and Hyoga's duel in the Aquarius Temple leaves the whole place covered in ice - Camus dies, Hyoga almost kicks it too but [[HealingHands Saori]] heals him.
* In ''Manga/SakuraGari'', Sakurako dies this way, slitting her wrists open with a katana and then drowning self in a pond as the snow falls...
* In ''Manga/SandChronicles'' Ann's mother Miwako commits suicide and is found dead on top of a mountain in the winter when it's snowing quite badly.
* ''Anime/SoundOfTheSky'''s last three episodes happen in the middle of Winter. A minor secondary character commits suicide by walking out into a snowstorm, and the truce going on since the first episode is suddenly broken and war finally comes to the small town our heroines are deployed.
* The HappyFlashback to Sara meeting her brother Ralph in the snow in ''Anime/StrainStrategicArmoredInfantry'' appears just before they prepare to fight to the death in the present.
* In the second season of ''Manga/TokyoGhoul'', the major battles that open and close the series take place during snowfall. All that lovely snow, and bodies of mooks everywhere.
* The last episode of ''Anime/WelcomeToTheNHK'' combines this with SnowMeansLove; for various reasons, Sato and Misaki both attempt to commit suicide at a snow-covered jetty and realise they love each other.
* At the end of ''Anime/WinterCicada'', the doomed lovers commit ''{{seppuku}}'' in the snow.
* In ''Anime/WolfsRain'' there's a scene where Quent, thinking Blue is dead, lies down in the snow to die. It's a subversion because Toboe saves him by sharing his body warmth. In the final two episodes they and others end up dead anyway, and snow covers their bodies before the titular rain finally shows up.
* In ''Manga/YourLieInApril'', the last time Kousei sees Kaori alive is on a snowy rooftop. The way glowing particles fall to the ground during their possibly-imagined final performance together strongly evokes snowfall. Later, he retrieves Kaori's letter from her parents in front of the cemetery she's buried in under the raining snow.
[[/folder]]

* Alluded to in ''Anime/FiveCentimetersPerSecond'', though it's the death of a relationship rather than a person. In the first part, heavy snowfall delays Takaki's trip to see Akari at Tochigi. Their relationship reaches its peak when they kiss that night in the snow, but it's all downhill from there. Their LongDistanceRelationship subsequently unravels to the point that she has undergone AbsenceMakesTheHeartGoYonder, if not outright forgotten about Takaki, by the time they see each other (maybe) a long time later. In the third act, it's also in the snowing winter that Takaki's then-girlfriend Risa breaks up with him.

* In ''Anime/ChildrenWhoChaseLostVoices'', Asuna's father died during the winter. Morisaki is also shown standing over his wife's grave in the falling snow.

* ''Anime/WeatheringWithYou'': As bad as things get, it isn't until unseasonal snow starts falling that things rapidly race to their nadir.

[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]
* In Kunio Watanabe's 1958 version of ''Film/The47Ronin'', the whole film builds to the epic battle in a snow-covered courtyard.
* The movie ''Film/{{Alive}}'' dramatizes the story of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, where after the plane crashes atop the rugged Andes mountains, the survivors, which includes a rugby team, resort to cannibalizing the corpses of the other passenges in order to survive the freezing conditions until an expedition leads a rescue party to the crash location.
* Soviet film ''Film/TheAscent1977'' follows two Russian soldiers that belong to a partisan unit fighting the Germans during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. It is deep in the Russian winter and snow is everywhere, which fits the mood of a grim film about death and despair during a pitiless war.
* ''Film/BladeRunner2049'', the final scene shows K lying down in the falling snow. He is severely injured but doesn't actually die onscreen, leaving viewers to draw their own conclusion.
* In ''Film/BreakheartPass'', the first murder does not occur until they are above the snowline and there is nowhere for the TenLittleMurderVictims to go even if they could leave the train. All the deaths that follow take place amid scenery of pristine snowbound wilderness.
* In ''Film/CannibalGirls'', the cold Canadian winter serves as the backdrop of the film's story about a couple who become entangled with a [[ImAHumanitarian cannibal cult]] in [[TownWithADarkSecret a small Ontario town]]. [[spoiler:Only one makes it out alive, and the other is indoctrinated into the cult.]]
* Played with in the 2001 movie ''Film/CatsAndDogs''. Lou, the heroic beagle, is basically at ground zero right as the main storage tank in a ''Christmas flocking'' factory goes bang, generating an artificial snowstorm, and is dragged out of the factory by another dog, Butch...lying motionless on a Christmas Wreath. This movie being intended as a comedy, he got better.
* Not a straight example, but the snow globe in ''Film/CitizenKane'' should get an honorable mention.
* In ''Film/{{Curtains}}'', Christie notices a small hand protruding out of the snow while ice skating at the edge of a pond, and uncovers a porcelain doll. She is then attacked and decapitated by someone in a grotesque hag mask.
* In the 1989 film of ''Literature/DangerousLiaisons'', Valmont gets stabbed to death in a midwinter duel. This is pretty much entirely so the director can have a cool shot of his blood splattered across the snow.
* Played straight and subverted in ''Film/TheDayAfterTomorrow''. The first time, some survivors have fallen asleep and froze to death while sleeping. They look peaceful. The second time is the naysaying policeman, whose frozen expression is rather pained. But that's what you get for [[IgnoredExpert ignoring the expert]].
** Also the helicopter pilots in the beginning of the movie basically flash freeze to death.
* In ''Film/DeadPoetsSociety'', the boys are seen in a snowy field after learning of Neil's death. The sense of hopelessness that scene brings the rest of the film really is incredible. A less obvious but more literal SnowMeansDeath moment is when you see through the window that it's snowing just before Neil shoots himself. According to director Creator/PeterWeir, [[SerendipityWritesThePlot this was actually a spontaneous snowstorm that happened while filming, and Weir was inspired to relocate the former scene to fit the snow]].
* ''Film/DeadSnow'' is made of this trope, even if it's used for horror and comedy instead of explicit beauty.
* One segment of Akira Kurosawa's ''[[Film/AkiraKurosawasDreams Dreams]]'' features the story of a mountain climber who, trapped in a blizzard and suffering from frostbite, either hallucinates or experiences a visit from a {{Yukionna}} — a snow demon who takes the form of a beautiful woman. A yuki-onna also figures in one of the stories in ''Film/{{Kwaidan}}'', an anthology film adapting several Japanese folk tales.
* ''Film/Everest2015'': Naturally, when the climbers die, we see frozen bodies covered in snow. Subverted with [[spoiler:Beck who spends the night passed out in a blizzard but gets an UnexplainedRecovery.]]
* In ''Film/{{Fargo}}'', several people die before a snowy background.
* In ''Film/TheFountain'', the scientist's wife's funeral is on a snowy day.
* ''Film/TheHatefulEight'' takes place during a blizzard. By the end of the film, the entire cast are either dead or dying. Although ironically, none of them die from exposure.
* ''Film/TheHobbitTheBattleOfTheFiveArmies:'' It is snowing throughout most of the titular battle, but specific examples:
** Kíli, Fíli, and Bolg all die on a snowcapped mountaintop; and Thorin and Azog [[MutualKill kill each other]] on a frozen river.
** There is a scene of Thranduil walking through the ruins of Dale and seeing his dead kinsmen, while snow gently falls around them.
** It's even referenced in the lyrics of the film's song:
-->"As the snowflakes cover my fallen brothers..."
* The end of ''Film/HouseOfFlyingDaggers'' goes from brightly sunlit to a blizzard, just in time for the dramatic death scene.
* A positive example in ''Film/HussarBallad'': French invaders are fought off, in particular, by severe cold and snow.
* ''Film/TheIceStorm'' is the cinematic tribute to this trope.
* An interesting subversion in ''Film/ItsAWonderfulLife''. The snow ''stops'' after George wishes that he'd never been born and only starts up again after he decides that he wants to live again.
* In ''Film/TheJacket'', Jack and Jackie are visiting a snowed-in graveyard.
* O-Ren in ''Film/KillBill'' also enjoys picturesque death on the snow. Few consider getting the top of one's head lopped off anywhere near picturesque... but Creator/QuentinTarantino would.
* The 2023 movie ''La sociedad de la nieve'' (''Society of the Snow'') tells the story of survivors of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, and how they eventually resorted to cannibalism after being stranded on the frozen peak of an Andean mountaintop.
* In ''Film/LetterNeverSent'', the last two survivors of an expedition to find diamonds in the Siberian forests are already in desperate straits as they are staggering toward the river that offers hope of safety. Then it starts snowing. Not only is the Siberian winter very bad in and of itself, Tanya notes that the winter might freeze the river. Soon after, Tanya dies of hypothermia.
* ''Film/LetTheRightOneIn'' is full of this trope. Well, it takes place in UsefulNotes/{{Sweden}}...
* The ending of anti-Western ''Film/McCabeAndMrsMiller'' in which John [=McCabe=], having been shot three times, manages to kill the assassins who are after him. Without the strength to drag himself indoors, he curls up in the snow and dies.
* ''Film/MoulinRouge'' ends with the defeated Duke walking through a snowfall, leaving the theater in which [[spoiler:the heroine Satine]] has just died.
* Averted in a Soviet movie ''Film/TheNeedle'': the protagonist is stabbed with a knife, falls to his knees in the blood-stained snow... but he struggles to his feet and walks away, disappearing in the snowstorm, and we never see him dead. WordOfGod later stated that the protagonist survived.
* ''Film/NorthFace'' is about an attempt to [[ScalingTheSummit climb the north face of the Eiger]], a mountain famous for incredibly unpredictable and dangerous weather patterns. Things really start going bad when the snowstorm hits - an avalanche and hypothermia are, between them, responsible for killing most of the team.
* In ''Film/{{Orphan}}'' the entire movie takes place in snowy weather, and most of the film's violent scenes happen outside in the snow.
* In ''Film/ThePatriot2000'', a few battles are set in winter, with corpses covered by snow.
* The Chinese movie ''Film/RaiseTheRedLantern'' has the plot evolving by following the change of seasons. The climax fittingly takes place in winter, with the servant Yan'er kneeling outdoors in winter until she dies from the cold, while snow flakes fall around her. Then there is the unfaithful third wife accidentally being exposed by the protagonist [[InVinoVeritas when drunk]] and executed by her husband and servants.
* ''Film/TheRevenant'' shows many deaths human and animal set in vast snowscapes and mountain vistas, ice, snow and blizzards accompany death at all times.
* Inverted after being invoked in ''Film/RurouniKenshinKyotoInferno'': Shishio's getting betrayed involves him getting repeatedly stabbed in winter and then being left to burn on a funeral pyre. However, a sudden snowfall puts out the fire and ''saves'' him.
* Subverted in ''Film/TheShining''. Jack does freeze to death, but his expression is anything but peaceful!
* In ''Film/ShutterIsland'': [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Dachau]].
* ''Film/SinCity'': John shoots himself in a snowy field.
* In ''Film/ASingleMan'', George's lover, Jim, dies on a snowy road due to an accident.
* In ''Film/TheSnowman2017'', the killer kills his victims in the first snow of winter.
* In ''Film/{{Snowpiercer}}'', a few passengers attempted to escape the train earlier and walked a ''very'' short distance before freezing to death where they stood, making their frozen, standing corpses visible from the train years later. While this fate might have been played straight by the survivors of the train after it crashes, we see that a polar bear has survived, indicating that life can survive outside of the train at last.
* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
** In ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', Jedi master Ki Adi Mundi is leading the clonetroopers in a charge on Mygeeto, a snowy planet as [[ThePurge Order 66]] is issued to the troops, with Mundi trying and failing to fight them off.
** In ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', there are several notable deaths in the snow, all of which occur on the ice planet Hoth:
*** Luke's tauntaun dies when attacked by a Wampa, a yeti-like predator which hunts under the cover of snow.
*** Luke narrowly escapes this fate after escaping the Wampa when Han Solo leaves Echo Base to rescue him. Han Solo's tauntaun, however, succumbs to the cold, allowing Han to use it's dead but insulating carcass to keep the two alive during the night.
*** The Battle of Hoth shows us rebel soldiers dying in the snow as they are shot down by blaster fire by imperial forces.
** {{Subverted}} in ''Film/TheForceAwakens'', when Finn gets struck down by Kylo Ren on Starkiller Base. He gets better with medical assistance.
* ''Film/TheSweetHereafter'' depicts children in a horrific bus accident, caused and contrasted by the peacefulness of the snow around them. Snow and cold are used throughout the movie to symbolize the original serenity in the town.
* Both the deaths of a whole band of Shinsengumi and [[spoiler:Hama]] in ''Film/TheSwordOfDoom'' take place on snowy evenings.
* Used subtly in ''Film/SympathyForLadyVengeance''. The movie ends in the snow after the brutal murder of Mr. Baek. White is also used actively to symbolize purity, which is what Geum-ja is trying to move toward. ''Film/{{Oldboy 2003}}'' similarly ends in a field of snow after a similarly bloody climax. It may be used as a symbol for leaving the past behind or renewal.
* ''Film/TheThing1982'':
** When Bennings, who has been assimilated by the Thing, gets immolated after trying to escape.
** When Palmer, assimilated by the Thing, gets immolated and runs outside, attempting to put out the fire, before [=MacReady=] blows him apart with a stick of dynamite.
** After [=MacReady=] blows up the base, Childs returns, claiming to have gotten lost when chasing after Blair. They share a drink together after realizing that both of them will die whether one of them is a Thing or not.
* In the movie ''Film/ThreeDaysOfTheCondor'', the protagonist, Joseph Turner (a.k.a. Condor), notices that Kathy Hale photographs and displays only scenes of winter (bare trees, lifeless snow). He comments to her that she is focusing on death, which she confirms.
* ''Film/VerticalLimit'' takes this literally. The characters are climbing one of them most dangerous mountains in the world, and quite a few of them die, either in an avalanche or on the mission sent to rescue the first team. One of the points stressed by the movie is just how dangerous a thing climbing like that is.
* ''Film/WarAndPeace1956'': The straggling remnant of the French army retreating from Moscow. The retreat, which had already become difficult, becomes harrowing as the cold of winter arrives, and corpses start getting left behind in the snow.
* In ''Film/{{Wendigo}}'', all of the horror and death occurs in the beautiful snow shrouded countryside of upstate New York, where the crimson blood is in stark contrast to the pure white snow. George even quotes the poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Creator/RobertFrost when commenting on the beauty of the cold and the snow, [[spoiler:shortly before he gets shot while sledding]].
* ''Film/WhiteFang'', in the film, after getting wounded in a skirmish between her pack and a group of humans, White Fang's mother limps to her den before collapsing in the entrance, her pup goes out and she gives him a farewell lick, then it starts snowing.
* BookEnds ''Film/WindRiver''. The film opens on a teenage girl running barefoot through the snow at night, only to start coughing up blood onto the snow, then collapse and die. {{Justified|Trope}}: as explained in the film after her body is found, it was cold enough that night that the water vapor in your lungs would literally freeze and shred your insides if you were breathing too hard. [[spoiler:At the end of the film, Cory snowmobiles the last survivor of the men who gang-raped her up to the top of a snowy mountain and makes him run for the nearest road, so that he dies the same way she did.]]
* ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' subverts the trope during the poppy field scene. The Wicked Witch enchants the poppies to put Dorothy and her companions into an eternal ForcedSleep. Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion are overcome by the poppies and it is indeed peaceful... Until snow comes, sent by Glinda, which kills the poppies, wakes up Dorothy and the Lion, and saves their lives.
* ''Film/TheWorldOfKanako'': In the very end of the film, Akikazu and [[spoiler:Kanako's teacher]], who claims to have killed [[spoiler:Kanako]], find themselves on a windy snowfield where [[spoiler:Kanako]] is said to be buried. Akikazu wants to [[spoiler:find her corpse but Kanako's teacher can't remember where she lies]] so Akikazu keeps on searching the snow without success. Then the movie abruptly ends.
* ''Film/ZackSnydersJusticeLeague'': There's snow during the football match of [[AcademicAthlete Victor Stone]] that [[DaddyDidntShow his father didn't attend]]. He has an argument with his mother Elinore when coming back from that match, which causes the car accident that kills Elinore and cripples Victor.
[[/folder]]

* "Literature/TheWitch1869": The witch arrives at the home in the winter, with a carpet of snow outside and a sharp wind blowing. In so many words, she argues that she'll perish if she won't be let it. But by saving her, it is possible that the homeowner brought upon their own end.

* In ''Literature/SweetPiglet'', after its master dies, it is implied the titular piglet [[spoiler:dies at the beginning of winter]].

* In the ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' series:

* In ''VideoGame/ProfessorLaytonAndTheUnwoundFuture'', it begins snowing [[spoiler: just after Claire returns to 10 years in the past to die in the lab explosion]].

* The snow and fog used in the ''Franchise/SilentHill'' games (and the ice in ''VideoGame/SilentHillShatteredMemories'') might be a use of this trope.

* In ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'', Zelos gives a detailed account of his childhood, culminating in him witnessing his mother's murder in the snow. You get a really clear mental picture from it.
* In ''VideoGame/ThisWarOfMine'', if the player does not build a heater when winter arrives, the survivors will die from the cold.
* Yuyuko of the ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' is the Ghost Princess of the Netherworld and has the ability to induce death. Naturally, one of the things associated with her is snow, with her game taking place during a long winter. Even the weather effect assigned to her in ''Scarlet Weather Rhapsody'' is snow.

* TheUndead Scourge of ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'' make their base in the frozen north and are thematically linked to ice and cold, doubling as EvilIsDeathlyCold.

* In ''Literature/GreenAntarctica'', this is the Tsalal attitude, and why they fear the color white. Justified by the long, deadly, and very snowy winter, as well as the massive, uninhabitable glaciers in some antarctic regions.

* ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' subverts the trope during the poppy field scene. Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion are overcome by the poppies and it is indeed peaceful... Until snow comes, sent by Glenda, which kills the poppies, wakes up Dorothy and the Lion, and saves their lives.

** In his children's book ''Anime/RingingBell'' (''Chirin no Suzu'') it's implied that [[GruesomeGoat Chirin (now an adult ram)]] [[DyingAlone died alone]] after killing [[GruesomeGoat Woe the wolf]] [[YouKilledMyMother who killed his mother.]]

** Crying Wolf in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4'' is killed on the [[ContinuityNod exact same snow field that Sniper Wolf died on nine years earlier]].

** [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] in "Chrismas Truce", where snowfall signifies the beggining of Christmas and the (temporary) end of the fighting.

** Zig-zagged during Siege of Leningrad. While the deaths (mainly from starvation) peaked during winter time, that very same winter caused Lake Ladoga to froze, allowing food and munition supplies to arrive into besieged Leningrad even allowing some residents to escape (it wasn't named "Road of Life" for nothing). Still, the starvation during the siege was so severe that some peoples actually [[NoPartyLikeADonnerParty resorted to cannibalism]], not to mention the "Road of Life" itself was constantly harassed by German's bombardment.

A sub-trope of EmpathicEnvironment. Compare SceneryDissonance. For a different interpretation of snow, see SnowMeansLove. See WhiteShirtOfDeath and BloodSplatteredWeddingDress for a similar trope, only applied to clothing instead. May or may not be related to GrimUpNorth and TragicIceCharacter.