Line #47 Main/MatterOfLifeAndDeath


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7	Sometimes, things really are serious.
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9	The stock situation -- and {{Stock Phrase\|s}} -- is a Matter of Life and Death. The ObstructiveBureaucrat is prone to get this flung in his face when causing a RestrictedRescueOperation. Although considerable variation is allowed in the face of different situations: whatever the problem is (or problems are) can be used instead.
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11	People on your side who do not take it seriously -- such as the CavalierCompetitor -- may also be told "This is NotAGame."
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13	When the stock phrase is used erroneously, it's probably an example of SeriousBusiness.
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15	Not to be confused with the 1946 David Niven movie ''Film/AMatterOfLifeAndDeath'' or the 2006 Music/IronMaiden album of the same name. ''Definitely'' should not be confused with the WesternAnimation/WallaceAndGromit short, "WesternAnimation/AMatterOfLoafAndDeath".
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17	----
18	!!Examples:
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20	[[foldercontrol]]
21
22	[[folder:Fan Works]]
23	* In ''Fire Burns'', Katherine is convincing James to let her into the Gryffindor common room. James is being difficult.
24	-->'''James:''' Come back tomorrow. If it's that important, I'm sure you'll still remember it.\
25	'''Katherine:''' It's very important, James.\
26	'''James:''' Oh yeah? A matter of life and death, I suppose.\
27	'''Katherine:''' ''(smiling unpleasantly)'' Damn straight.
28	* ''Blog/MiraculousRewrite'': Chat Noir's tendency to crack jokes and screw around during akuma battles causes tensions to rise between him and Ladybug, as she warns him that their jobs are NotAGame. When Syren floods the city, he decides this would be the ''perfect'' time to try {{Blackmail}}ing Plagg, threatening to pull an AchillesInHisTent unless the kwami starts coughing up answers. This results in Master Fu revealing himself, upbraiding him for his SkewedPriorities and [[spoiler:stripping him of the Ring]], forcing Adrien to prove that he actually ''can'' recognize when things are serious and hunker down.
29	[[/folder]]
30
31	[[folder:Film]]
32	* ''Film/TheBigLebowski'':
33	-->'''Walter Sobchak:''' I'm saying, I see what you're getting at, Dude, he kept the money. My point is, here we are, it's shabbas, the sabbath, which I'm allowed to break only if it's a matter of life or death...
34	* ''Film/AClockworkOrange'':
35	-->'''Alex:''' Missus! It's a matter of life and death!
36	* ''Film/EverAfter'': An old man convinces Prince Henry to retrieve a treasure stolen by a gypsy, as [[MetaphoricallyTrue "it is my life"]]. Henry is not pleased to learn after that it was a painting.
37	-->'''Prince Henry:''' You claimed it was a matter of life and death.\
38	'''Old Man:''' A woman always is, sire. ''(unrolls the painting to [[TheReveal reveal]] [[Creator/LeonardoDaVinci the Mona Lisa]])''
39	* ''Film/NightAtTheMuseum: Battle of the Smithsonian'':
40	-->'''The Thinker statue:''' I'll tell you what's the matter of life and death: ''that girl over there''.
41	* ''WesternAnimation/TheWildThornberrysMovie'': Eliza says this to her boarding school roommate when she has to leave.
42	[[/folder]]
43
44	[[folder:Literature]]
45	* ''Literature/CiaphasCain'': In ''Cain's Last Stand'', Cain, hearing Magos Tayber wants to talk to him, knows it's a matter of life and death because she didn't vox him.
46	* In ''Literature/DarkshipThieves'''s sequel ''Darkship Renegades'', Thena reflects on how treating the mentally ill started only after it became feasible; before, when they could threaten the existence of the tribe, they were probably killed.
47	* ''Literature/GauntsGhosts'':
48	** In ''First & Only'', seeing that Gaunt will die unless he acts, Dorden fires a gun [[ActualPacifist for the first and only time in the series]].
49	** In ''Ghostmaker'', Dorden has authority to go into the ship's supplies, and yells at someone trying to check up on him: he is trying to get medical supplies for a soldier in critical condition.
50	* In ''Goodbye, Mickey Mouse'' by Creator/LenDeighton, a married woman rings the US airbase demanding that the American pilot she had an affair with get in contact with her immediately. On being asked if this is a matter of life and death, she shrieks that it is and hangs up. When the pilot goes round to her house, he finds that her husband who's returned from fighting in Burma forced her to make the call at gunpoint as he's planning a MurderSuicide of [[LoveTriangle all three parties]].
51	* ''Literature/LordPeterWimsey'':
52	** In ''Whose Body?'', Sir Julian Freke runs up when Parker is getting in a cab, blathering that he needs to go and it's a matter of life and death.
53	** In ''Clouds of Witness'', Mary comes looking for Peter on the grounds it's a matter of life and death.
54	** In ''Gaudy Night'', Harriet talks of her undergraduate days, when she had believed that the only spirits on the college were kept under lock and key for life-and-death emergencies.
55	* In Creator/PoulAnderson's "Marque and Reprisal", a spokesman speaks of how the issues before them are of life and death.
56	* In ''Literature/{{Mort}}'', Mort wakes up Ysabelle in the middle of the night and demands she come help him, urging that it's a matter of life and death. (Death had vanished.)
57	* ''Literature/OctoberDaye'':
58	** In ''Rosemary and Rue'', when Devin withdraws his offer of a freebie for help, Toby's not surprised; this was a matter of life and death, not something trivial.
59	** In ''One Salt Sea'', Walther asks how important it is -- nice to know or life and death -- and Toby tells him life and death.
60	* In ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'', Rachel uses this on her father to convince him that Percy is in danger.
61	* ''Literature/ProsperosDaughter'': In ''Prospero Lost'', when Miranda complains about Mab's driving, he says she had told him it was a matter of life and death.
62	* In the ''Literature/SeptimusHeap'' book ''Flyte'', Jenna insists on a message being sent because it's a matter of life and death. Later, when Marcia and Aunt Zelda quarrels, it's on the grounds that it's a matter of life and death.
63	* ''Literature/TheStainlessSteelRat'': The con-man title character says this while posing as a League Admiral, then quietly reprimands himself for over-playing his part.
64	* ''Literature/SuperPowereds'': Nick invokes this in year 2 for the final battle. With the entire team (especially Vince) in danger of washing out, Nick knows they need an impressive win against people who have been beating them all year. So he [[spoiler:blackmails one of his opponents into brainwashing Vince into seeing the objective as an innocent in need of protection, and all the other students as inhuman monsters trying to kill her]]. [[LetsGetDangerous Vince proceeds to prove himself the most powerful student in the school by a wide margin]].
65	-->Many of the students would one day look back at this day, their final match of sophomore year, as the moment when they finally understood what it was they were aspiring toward. The matches they'd had previously, while difficult, had been controlled by their very nature. There were always safeguards, always rules, always a set number of variables to be accounted for. In the last five minutes of this match, none of that was true. It was their first taste of true battle. There was no order, no simple objectives. There was only chaos, and fear, and violence.\
66	And fire. All of them would remember that quite clearly. There was so very much fire.
67	[[/folder]]
68
69	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
70	* In ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'', Lucille Bluth consistently refers to one of these in text messages as "a matter of land" (she means "l" and "d"). People mostly wind up wondering what land has to do with anything.
71	* Spoofed in ''Series/GetSmart''. Maxwell Smart is trapped in a phone booth that's flooding with water. He tries to ring Control for help, but finds he's run out of quarters.
72	-->'''Smart:''' Operator, this is a matter of life and death!\
73	'''Operator:''' That's what they ''all'' say.
74	* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' ("Unexpected"):
75	--> '''Matt Parkman:''' [to Ted] Hey, I only came here because you said this was a matter of life and death. You can't go blowing anything more up.
76	* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' ("[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E8ThePrice The Price]]"):
77	-->'''Devinoni Ral:''' Yes -- protection. Your protection, your captain, your crew, your... edge. Yes. Now, it's a matter of life and death when you take the advantage; me... I deal in property -- exchanges. Nobody gets hurt. So you tell me -- which one of us would you say has more of a problem with ethics?
78	* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' ("[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S1E9PerchanceToDream Perchance to Dream]]"):
79	-->'''Narrator: [opening narration]''' Twelve o'clock noon. An ordinary scene, an ordinary city. Lunchtime for thousands of ordinary people. To most of them, this hour will be a rest, a pleasant break in the day's routine. To most, but not all. To Edward Hall, time is an enemy, and the hour to come is a matter of life and death.
80	[[/folder]]
81
82	[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
83	* When ''ComicStrip/FrankAndErnest'' are opticians visited by ComicBook/{{Superman}}, who misjudged distance and nearly fell into a building, they cheerfully observe that it's a matter of life and depth.
84	[[/folder]]
85
86	[[folder:Video Games]]
87	* ''VideoGame/Fallout1'':
88	-->'''Vault Dweller:''' I would much rather tell him in person. It's a matter of life and death.
89	[[/folder]]
90
91	[[folder:Webcomics]]
92	* In ''Webcomic/AntiHEROES'', [[http://www.antiheroescomic.com/comic/40 used for ]] SeriousBusiness -- like expired milk.
93	* In ''Webcomic/DocRat'', [[http://www.docrat.com.au/default.asp?thisItem=915 Doc is distressed because he's only used to facing questions of life and death, not justice.]]
94	* In ''Webcomic/DragonMango'', [[http://www.dragon-mango.com/comic/chapter04/dm04-10.htm after her father threatens to eat one,]] [[http://dragon-mango.com/comic/chapter04/dm04-33.htm Bleu Berry insists on telling her fellow students how to defend themselves from dragons because it's a matter of life and death.]]
95	* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': Agatha [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20090311 throws a fit]] when her companions talk about her boyfriends in the face of multiple crises and enumerates all the problems.
96	* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': Julia tries to get Durkon's attention by telling him it's a life or death emergency. (He was justifiably busy, though.)
97	* In ''Webcomic/SandraAndWoo'', [[http://www.sandraandwoo.com/2012/04/19/0369-horn-of-plenty/ pleading for food to rescue the squirrel from his mate.]]
98	[[/folder]]
99
100	[[folder:Western Animation]]
101	* ''WesternAnimation/TheBeatles'': In the episode "Chains", the boys are about see the movie ''Film/MutinyOnTheBounty'', which John says is "When men were men and the struggle against the ocean was a matter of life and death."
102	* ''WesternAnimation/TheHairBearBunch'': In the episode "The Bear who Came to Dinner", Peevly is calling a vet to examine Square Bear who is faking an injury so the bears can use his cottage at the zoo for three hots and a cot. Hair Bear has tapped the phone line and gets Gabby the parrot on the other end to be the receptionist:
103	-->'''Gabby:''' ''[to Peevly]'' Is it urgent?\
104	'''Peevly:''' Yes, and tell the doctor that it's a matter of life and death... mine.
105	* A good line from ''WesternAnimation/ThePenguinsOfMadagascar'' comes from when Julian busts into the penguins home while they're busy. "This better be a matter of life or death, Ringtail. Because if not, then we can arrange those stakes!"
106	[[/folder]]

Context Main / MatterOfLifeAndDeath