History Main / WhiteShirtOfDeath

* ''[[{{Hitman}} Hitman 2]]'' makes good use of this, cutting to a white screen whenever you die that really highlights your character's blood pooling around his body. In addition, there's the [[spoiler:funeral shootout]] at the very end of ''Hitman Blood Money''.

* Ah Jong (ChowYunFat) finishes out TheKiller in a white suit, which gets plenty bloody.

* HeroicBloodshed movies do this a lot, and the deaths of people who wear white get quite bloody. Usually, it's the villain wearing white, but at least one tragic hero ([[spoiler:Ah Jong from ''Film/TheKiller'') has worn white.

* HeroicBloodshed movies do this a lot, and the deaths of people who wear white get quite bloody. Usually, it's the villain wearing white, but at least one tragic hero has worn white.

Ever notice [[{{RuleOfDrama}} how much more dramatic]] blood looks on a white background? It follows that wearing a white shirt can be more hazardous than wearing a RedShirt. The death of a white shirt wearer will be [[{{Gorn}} much]] [[{{Bloody Hilarious}} bloodier]] than that of your traditional RedShirt.

Since this is a [[{{DeathTropes}} Death Trope]], expect spoilers.

* Ladd Russo from ''[[LightNovel/{{Baccano}} Baccano!]]'' finds himself subject to this trope -- see page image. He doesn't ''die'' per se, but he does get his ear clipped off and his left arm [[NightmareFuel completely skinned to the bone]]. Notably, Ladd invoked the trope, explaining that he and his friends all wear white because he thinks blood spatters look best on white clothing. Of course, at the time, he probably didn't think it would be ''his'' blood... And ''then'' there is the Rail Tracer, whose [[spoiler:white conductor uniform]] gets completely coated in blood of his victims.
* [[spoiler:Chidori]] from ''{{Ayashi No Ceres}}'' is wearing a white dress when she is fatally shot in the chest to protect [[spoiler: Yuuhi]].\\

* The Kurama vs. Karasu fight in ''{{Yu Yu Hakusho}}'' is definitely an example of this. Karasu's bombs eventually make Kurama bleed so much the entire front of his outfit and some of the back is dyed red.

* The {{Big Bad}} in ''{{Film/Gladiator}}'' wears a full white suit before his climactic duel with Maximus. [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Makes his blood readily apparent when Maximus shows that he is completely outclassed]].

* In the Hindi film {{Dil Se}} the song and dance "Satrangi Re" foreshadows the fate of Amar by showing him in a black outfit for most of the song then in all white at the end. Usually the dancers in Hindi song and dance numbers have multiple costume changes in one song. Limiting Amar to the 2 outfits accentuated the symbolism. (his dance partner wore at least 7 different outfits in the same song.)

* [[spoiler:Samantha Roth]] on ''TwentyFour''. Also, later on in the same season, [[spoiler:Erica]].

* Every standard headcrab zombie in ''[[HalfLife Half-Life 2]]'' wears a very blood-covered white shirt. This was [[{{LampshadeHanging}} lampshaded]] in the ''Half-Life'' parody comic ''{{Concerned}}'': Frohman becomes a zombie and laments that "He had to be wearing white" at the time (referncing both the zombies' bloody white shirts and the fact that he had started to adjust to life in Ravenholm).

* Ladd Russo from ''[[{{Baccano}} Baccano!]]'' finds himself subject to this trope -- see page image. He doesn't ''die'' per se, but he does get his ear clipped off and his left arm [[NightmareFuel completely skinned to the bone]]. Notably, Ladd invoked the trope, explaining that he and his friends all wear white because he thinks blood spatters look best on white clothing. Of course, at the time, he probably didn't think it would be ''his'' blood... And ''then'' there is the Rail Tracer, whose [[spoiler:white conductor uniform]] gets completely coated in blood of his victims.

----

* Shaun in ''ShaunOfTheDead'' never changes his white office shirt throughout the ZombieApocalypse. "You've got red on you" becomes a RunningGag because of it.

* In ''KillBill'', the Bride faces and messily defeats O-Ren Ishii while the latter is clothed in a white kimono and [[SnowMeansDeath standing in snow]].
* In ''[[LethalWeapon Lethal Weapon 4]]'', Jet Li's character enters the final showdown dressed entirely in a white version of the black suit he's been wearing for the rest of the movie. [[ForegoneConclusion They couldn't have made it more clear what was going to happen to him.]]
* In ''HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince'', Harry slices Draco up like a Christmas ham in the bathroom and Draco nearly dies, but [[UnexplainedRecovery he gets better]]. His white shirt was covered in his blood.

* Ladd Russo from ''[[{{Baccano}} Baccano!]]'' finds himself subject to this trope -- see page image. He doesn't ''die'' per se, but he does get his ear clipped off and his left arm [[NightmareFuel completely skinned to the bone]]. Notably, Ladd invoked the trope, explaining that he and his friends all wear white because he thinks blood spatters look best on white clothing. Of course, at the time, he probably didn't think it would be ''his'' blood...

* HeroicBloodshed movies do this a lot, and the deaths of people who wear white get quite bloody. Usually, it's the villain wearing white, but at least one tragic hero (such as [[spoiler:Ah Jong]] from ''TheKiller'') has worn white.

* In ''{{Bound}}'' a character is shot to death wearing a white shirt ''and'' standing in a room-wide puddle of pure white paint.

-->''But... it was so artistically done...''

* Variation: When [[spoiler:Tara]] gets shot in ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', we can tell because it splatters onto [[spoiler:Willow's]] white shirt. For added effect, she doesn't ''realize'' she was shot; her last words are a confused "Your shirt?" before she falls.

* The ''XFiles'' has a couple

** [[spoiler:Mr. X]], although in an unusual variation it's a white shirt with pinstripes.

* In an extension, after each character dies in the musical ''Theatre/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet'' they're outfitted with a red-streaked white shirt for the rest of the show (since they still need to be on-stage as the chorus or to play instruments or whatever, depending on staging). In one production the dead characters put white makeup on and powdered their hair white/grey, and spent the rest of the show as ghosts.

* Every standard headcrab zombie in ''[[HalfLife Half-Life 2]]'' wears a very blood-covered white shirt. This was [[{{LampshadeHanging}} lampshaded]] in the ''Half-Life'' parody comic ''{{Concerned}}'': Frohman becomes a zombie and laments that "He had to be wearing white" at the time (referncing both the zombies' bloody white shirts and the fact he had started to adjust to life in Ravenholm).

Whenever you die in ''Killer7'', you get a shot of your character's severed head on a completely white background exploding into a smear of blood. There's a lot of blood in ''Killer7''. tThe blood smear when you die in ''Killer7'' is shaped like a screaming skull.
* ''GhostTrick'': [[spoiler: Partially subverted. Cabanela does die (though you fix it) but [[BloodlessCarnage his coat remains unstained.]] He just falls over.]]

* All six of the Handmaidens in ''[[KnightsOfTheOldRepublic Knights Of The Old Republic 2]]'' wear white jumpsuits, or grey robes. Every appearance of the five who stick with their white jumpsuits fighting ends with them getting their asses handed to them.

* Junior officers in the French Army in 1914 thought it chic to die in white gloves, perhaps so they could press their hand to the fatal wound and remove it dramatically. The French Army was... slightly crazy at this point in time, with a very Napoleonic and romantic attitude to the way modern war should be waged, and it paid accordingly.

Also, in Korea, China, Japan and any FantasyCounterpartCulture strongly influenced by the same, white is the traditional color for funeral dresses.

A quite literal interpretation of the trope existed in the Bulgarian army around the beginning of the 20th century as some common soldiers would keep a white shirt for last and put it on when defeat seemed imminent in odd contrast to BringMyRedJacket.

* For the final arc of ''CodeGeass'' [[spoiler:''Emperor'' Lelouch]] wears a fancy white set of robe. In the very last episode [[spoiler:he is stabbed through the chest with a big honking sword, [[ThanatosGambit just as he planned]]. A lot of focus is put on the blood .]]

* Solf J. Kimblee in ''FullmetalAlchemist'', starts wearing a entirely white suit after being released from prison. His death? Having his jugular vein and possibly the carotid artery bitten off by a chimera, which Pride lampshades [[spoiler:before eating him and gaining his alchemic power]].

* [[spoiler:Vladimir Lem]] in ''[[MaxPayne Max Payne 2]]''.

* The duel at the end of ''Film/DangerousLiaisons''.

-->--'''Ladd Russo''', ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}''

[[quoteright:305:[[{{Baccano}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/whiteonred.jpg]]]]

-->--'''Ladd Russo''', ''{{Baccano}}''

* Mr. Blank from ''SamAndFuzzy'' wears [[HighlyVisibleNinja an all-white ninja tunic]], which tends to get blood-splattered [[http://samandfuzzy.com/704 when he goes into combat]] ([[OneManArmy though not with]] ''[[OneManArmy his]]'' [[OneManArmy blood]]). [[spoiler:His death is remarkably bloodless if we ignore the part where he got his face and mask torn off by a killer robot -- he fell of the side of a building.]]

* In ''HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince'', Harry slices Draco up like a Christmas ham in the bathroom and Draco nearly dies, but [[UnexplanedRecovery he gets better]]. His white shirt was covered in his blood.

* The Kurama vs. Karasu fight in {{Yu Yu Hakusho}} is definitely an example of this. Karasu's bombs eventually make Kurama bleed so much the entire front of his outfit and some of the back is dyed red.
* [[spoiler: Hakuron]] from HaouAiren is shot to death while wearing a white suit.

* In ''HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince'', Harry slices Draco up like a Christmas ham in the bathroom and Draco nearly dies, but [[IGotBetter he gets better]]. His white shirt was covered in his blood.

* The duel at the end of ''Dangerous Liaisons''.

** [[JustifiedTrope Well, to be fair, he's employed as a forensic blood-spatter analyst, and he often wears a lab coat or white plastic suit and uses an entirely white room to test and clearly see spatter patterns]].

** [[JustifiedTrope Well, to be fair, his other job is a forensic analyst, who wears a ''lab coat'']].

* Solf J. Kimblee in ''FullmetalAlchemist'',starts wearing a entirely white suit after being released from prison. His death? Having his jugular vein and possibly the carotid artery bitten off by a chimera, which Pride lampshades [[spoiler:before eating him and gaining his alchemic power]].

* [[spoiler:The Consultant]] in ''The International''. Also, the protagonist's white shirt gets a lot of blood splattered on it from those who get shot around him in that scene.

* Subverted with hospital scrubs; all uniforms used to be white, but blood is much less disturbing-looking against blue and green scrubs.