History Main / WatchingTheSunset

* ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTailFievelGoesWest'': While everyone else celebrate their victory over the BigBad, [[RetiredBadass Wylie Burp]] walks to the desert to watch the sunset, with [[KidHero Fievel]] giving him company. The old sheriff gives Fievel his badge to thank him for pulling him out of the gutter and gives him a speech that inspires the young mouse to be his own kind of a hero instead of aspiring to be one like Wylie.[[note]]The PassingTheTorch analogue becomes especially poignant with the fact that Wylie was the last role of Creator/JimmyStewart before he passed away.[[/note]]

** The first such scene in ''Film/ANewHope'' is the most famous in the series. Luke Skywalker, early in the film, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEUGF3NGbPg watches the twin setting suns]] of Tatooine, as his longing to leave and do great things conflicts with his duty to his uncle. The scene's power is [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic cemented musically]], as "[[{{Leitmotif}} The Force Theme]]" plays in the background, and the BinarySuns give the scene a memorable touch, reminding you that it's not Earth you're looking at. It was such an effective scene that future ''Star Wars'' films would occasionally make homage to it.

* It's indicated in ''Film/{{Beaches}}'' that C.C. sat by as her friend Hillary died while they watched the sun set on the beach.

** The final scene involving Claes, the last of the first generation cyborgs who is living out her final days on an Agency research vessel involves her looking at the sunset over the ocean with Jean. Her memory blocks are starting to fail along with her cyborg body, so she mentions remembering a man (Captain Raballo, her former handler and surrogate father, erased from her memory by the Agency) walking away from her into the sunset.

* At the end of ''ComicBook/TheSandman: Season of Mists'', Lucifer's watching the sunset when an old man comes down. The old man talks about sunsets, saying that despite the pain in his life, the beauty of the sunsets still makes him respect God. After the old man walks away, Lucifer admits he had a point.

* ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'': [[OfficialCouple Sora and Kairi]] watch the sunset together a few hours before TheHeartless attack their island. [[HeterosexualLifePartners Axel and Roxas]] do the same thing in ''[[LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition Kingdom Hearts II: FM+]]'' They, along with [[ThreeAmigos Xion]], also do it a ''lot'' in ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2 358/2 Days.]]'' The fact that Twilight Town is in perpetual sunset definitely helps.

* Creator/JRRTolkien's ''Literature/TheFallOfGondolin'': The survivors of Gondolin have managed to flee into the hills, but before climbing up the mountain pass, they turn around to watch how their city burns in the fading light of dusk. The crowd see the last standing tower burning and collapsing before the sun sinks completely, stressing the fact that the hidden city has ceased to exist.
* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheSorcerersStone'': The cover for the American version has Harry trying to catch a snitch while the sun sets in the background. The cover for ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'' has Harry trying to catch the Elder Wand while the sun rises in the background. Both covers represent an ending becoming a beginning.
* ''Literature/TheHungerGames'': In ''Catching Fire'', Peeta wakes Katniss up from dozing off to see the sunset from the roof of the Training Center the day before their pre-Quarter Quell interviews. (Sunset orange is also Peeta's favorite color.)
-->'''Katniss:''' ''"...I can count on my fingers the number of sunsets I have left..."''

* In ''Literature/TheYearOfTheJackpot'' by Creator/RobertHeinlein, the two protagonists start watching the sunset just before the sun goes nova.

* In ''Series/{{Angel}}'', the eponymous hero had [[RingOfPower a ring that made the wearer invincible]]. He destroyed it, but not before wearing it for a full day, finally crushing it after the sun set.
* In ''Series/BabylonFive'', the episode ''Sleeping in Light'' shows Sheridan making a point of WatchingTheSunset [[spoiler:after he's confirmed his time to die has come]]. Delenn continues the tradition started by Sheridan [[spoiler:after he disappears when his time comes]].
* ''Series/{{Baywatch}}''. Mitch takes the dying Tracy to the beach so that she can do this one last time.
* On ''Series/FamilyTies'', soon after baby Andrew was born, his parents wanted to take him outside to watch his first sunset. By the time they got everything together...
-->'''Steven:''' "The sun has already set."

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': Subverted at the end of one episode. Worf suggests that he and Jadzia romantically watch the sun set at the end of the day, but she proposes they go SkinnyDipping instead.
* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''. In "Collective", Captain Janeway invokes this trope while trying to get some children who have been assimilated into the Borg HiveMind to remember their individuality.

* The climax of ''Film/BlackPanther2018'' sees Killmonger regarding the sunset over Wakanda [[spoiler: as he breathes his last with T'Challa at his side.]]

-->'''Stephen:''' "The sun has already set."

* In ''Anime/{{Pokemon}} Sun and Moon'', Ash's Rockruff evolves into Dusk Lycanroc after seeing the "green flash" moment of sunset, the point where the horizon turns green as the Sun disappears beneath the horizon.