History Main / SoundOnlyDeath

'''As a DeathTrope, expect unmarked spoilers. You have been warned.'''

* In the Turkish series ''Yakamoz S-245'', Defne discovers the shelter her fiancé had fled to was actually a SafeZoneHopeSpot. They find a mobile phone on his body and play a video message where he tells Defne that the [[Tempting shelter is protecting them]] from the SolarFlareDisaster even though the sun has been up for several minutes. Suddenly we hear screams on the video and Defne turns away so she doesn't have to see what happening.

* In the Turkish series ''Yakamoz S-245'', Defne discovers the shelter her fiancé had fled to was actually a SafeZoneHotSpot. They find a mobile phone on his body and play a video message where he tells Defne that the [[Tempting shelter is protecting them]] from the SolarFlareDisaster even though the sun has been up for several minutes. Suddenly we hear screams on the video and Defne turns away so she doesn't have to see what happening.

** [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/DoctorWhoS16E2ThePiratePlanet "The Pirate Planet"]]: One scene has the Captain's robot "parrot" swoop over and kill one of the bridge crew. Its use in this case has the double function of saving on the already strained special effects budget and adding four seconds of tension over whether the dead man is Mr Fibuli or someone else.

** PlayedForLaughs in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E12TheSoundOfDrums "The Sound of Drums"]]. The Master needs a pesky reporter taken care of; several Toclafane materializes in the room. The Master then hurriedly leaves with his wife, and until he closes the sound-proof door, we hear screams and the sounds of horrible sharp instruments. Then, after a little while, the Master ''opens'' the door again, and screams can ''still'' be heard from inside. He closes it again, waits a bit longer ... opens the door, and the victim is still screaming.

* Done in Euripides's Greek myth-inspired ''Theatre/{{Medea}}'', when the eponymous character murders her children, making this trope [[OlderThanFeudalism older than dirt]].

* Kaji's death in ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion''. He is standing alone somewhere and turns to say to an unknown individual, "Yo! You're a little late, aren't you?" This is followed by a gunshot over a black screen.
** Subverted in the movie ''Death and Rebirth'', where the gunshot is replaced by the sound of Asuka slapping Shinji out of disbelief and yelling at him when he tells her that Kaji is gone.[[note]]This was changed back in the English dub after the dubbers mistook the slap for a weak-sounding gunshot.[[/note]]

* ''WesternAnimation/IceAge1'': At the climax, Manny knocks the evil saber Soto to a rock wall, the impact knocking loose sharp icicles. We see Soto's final moments as he [[OhCrap looks up in horror at the icicles coming loose and falling toward him]], then we cut to his hench-cats cringing as a sickening stabbing sound is heard.
* In ''WesternAnimation/IceAgeTheMeltdown'', Fast Tony's glyptodon lackey Stu is swimming underwater, using a reed as a snorkel, when one of the two defrosted predators pulls him down to his doom. We see the reed disappear and hear a pained/frightened scream, then [[NothingIsScarier silence]] for a few moments ... until his completely empty shell resurfaces. It's a surprisingly dark moment for an otherwise LighterAndSofter sequel.

* Ironhide's death in ''WesternAnimation/TransformersTheMovie''; we see Megatron standing over him, fusion cannon pointing at his head and about to discharge, and then the scene cuts to an external shot of the hijacked shuttle as we hear the iconic sound of that cannon over the ending notes of "Instruments of Destruction".

* A [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qheb3JyMHSU rather famous scene]] in ''Film/TheLimey'' is this.

* In ''[[Literature/{{Twilight}} The Twilight Saga: Eclipse]]'', the story is told from Bella's first-person POV, so all the action is usually described through her own eyes. But when Bree is executed by the Voluturi, Bella closes her eyes, so can only describe the ''sounds'' of a vampire being dismembered.

* ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'' uses this to great effect when all the animatronics [[spoiler:finally get to Phone Guy during his Night 4 phone call.]]

* In ''VideoGame/TheReconstruction'', the screen abruptly fades to black right before Dehl kills [[BigBad Havan]], who we only hear screaming. This is rather odd, considering that there was a graphic FamilyUnfriendlyDeath not much earlier, plus the fact that the game has no reason to pretend it's still a happy-go-lucky family-friendly adventure story at that point.
** Although, it could be a way of showing that the extremely dark tone of chapter 6 is finally over and that the story is now going to return to a more lighthearted state.

* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': In ''[[VideoGame/DarkForcesSaga Jedi Outcast]]'', [[BigBad Desann]] tells [[TheDragon Tavion]] to kill Kyle's friend, Jan. You can hear an activating lightsaber and then a grunt. Later, when Tavion ends up being dangled over an abyss after an enraged Kyle defeated her in a lightsaber duel, she confesses that it was all a trick to anger him and that Jan is still alive, so the trope is averted in this case.

* ''VideoGame/{{Unreal}}''. After a couple of brief sightings of a Skaarj on your crashed ship, you come to a locked door. Behind the door, you hear some of the other prisoners or guards ([[RedShirt unsuccessfully]]) fighting the alien. Once the door finally opens, you see the Skaarj run off, leaving a pile of [[LudicrousGibs what used to be people]] on the floor behind him.

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* ''VisualNovel/SpiritHunterNG'':
** The victims of the Screaming Author case were taken up to the attic of Miroku Mansion and had their limbs amputated while they were still alive. This is all revealed via cassette tapes that Akira and his companions listen to, the screams from the girls having a heavy mental toll on them.
** In the Screaming Author's Bad Ends, Akira's companion is dragged off into the attic room and the door slams shut. Akira hears their scream and some painful-sounding contorting- by the time he opens the door, the companion is already dead.
* ''VisualNovel/TrappedWithJester'': When Jester tells the protagonist to close their eyes, only the dialogue box, the voices and violent noises from outside indicate that Jester is killing the carriage drivers. The eyes reopen to reveal an open door and blood staining the floor.
* Happens in the third arc of ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'' where Jessica (and the reader) only hears Nanjo getting murdered by Evatrice outside the room she is in. It is as scary as it sounds especially when Evatrice begins to taunt the blinded Jessica (earlier a gun went of next to her face and she was blinded by the discharge) from the other side of the door.
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[[folder:Webcomics]]

* ''Film/{{Predator}}''. As the fleeing party is being pursued by the title creature, one of them, Billy, decides to perform a YouShallNotPass to let the others escape. As they continue along they hear his scream as the Predator kills him.

* ''Film/{{Serenity}}''. When the unnamed female scientist on the video is attacked by a Reaver, it drags her down out of sight and we hear her screams as it rapes/kills/eats her.
* ''Film/SherlockHolmesAGameOfShadows''. Moriarty tells Irene Adler [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness he has no further need of her services]]. She gets up and leaves, staggering slightly as she does. Cut back to Moriarty calmly sipping his tea while a crash of crockery (a later flashback scene shows she knocked over a table as she fell) signifies Irene collapsing from the [[TamperingWithFoodAndDrink poisoned tea she just drank]].

* WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}: Malory and the gang phone Archer, and then, under the impression that this is yet another [[VoicemailConfusion elaborate voicemail prank]] listen with complete disinterest and boredom to 90 seconds of audio of Archer butchering a biker gang that found him in the trunk of a car.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'': P'Li's [[HavingABlast explosive powers]] end up backfiring when she has a metal shell clamped over her head while using them, causing her to [[NotEnoughToBury blasts her whole body to smithereens]]. The only thing you see is a big cloud of smoke, and the only thing you hear is a big bang from the explosion.

** ''Film/JurassicPark'': The goat eaten by the T-rex, the hacker eaten by the Dilophosaurus and, most notably, ''anything'' eaten by the Velociraptors, and for good reason- '' they are all eaten alive''.