Last Kiss

Star-Crossed Lovers from a ballad, just before his death at her brothers' hands.

I lifted her head, and when she smiled and said
"Hold me, Darling, for a little while."
I held her close, I kissed her our last kiss;
I found the love that I knew I would miss
But now she's gone, even though I hold her tight
I lost my love, my life, that night.

— J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers, "Last Kiss"

The only kiss that's more meaningful and dramatic than the First Kiss (unless, as is frequently the case, they happen to be one and the same). It's not just the last one we'll see, it's the last one these two characters will ever share... as far as they know at this point, at least. If the characters don't think it could be their Last Kiss, the music and color scheme of the scene will definitely indicate to the audience that it is.

The favorite time to write it in seems to be when one (or both) of the partners is/are on their deathbed (or past it), literally or proverbially, such as just before someone goes off into battle (or their wedding). Possibly will be teary. Less dramatic in old shows where the main character could share one with every new Girl of the Week or Temporary Love Interest.

May be a Last Request.

Subtrope of Last Moment Together, and see also Final First Hug and Go Out with a Smile. Death's the time to show you love someone.

Sometimes overlaps with Dude, She's Like in a Coma.

Not to be confused with Kiss of Death or Sealed with a Kiss. And definitely not with I Love the Dead. If the characters think it's their Last Kiss but it turns out not to be, it's a Now or Never Kiss.

As a Death Trope, there may be unmarked spoilers ahead.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Used in +C: Sword and Cornett to portray Linna Orhadi's final moment with his Prince.
• In the Akame ga Kill! anime, Mine suffers Death by Adaptation and manages to get only one kiss from Tatsumi as she gives him her Dying Declaration of Love.
• Near the end of the Area 88 manga, Mickey and Sela kiss before they're both killed in an explosion.
• Subverted in Basilisk. The dying, despaired and insane Kagerou tries to kill a severely injured Gennosuke with her literal Kiss of Death, but she commits the mistake of briefly looking at her love rival Oboro... who's got the power of neutralizing any ninja's powers. Even more - Oboro had her eyes sealed with some Applied Phlebotinum, but the effect had just worn out as Kagerou was getting ready.
• Almost played straight in Bleach where Orihime is given 8 hours to say goodbye to one person before being abducted by Ulquiorra. She enters Ichigo's room. Unfortunately he's unconscious because of a battle, but she says goodbye anyway. She tries to sum up the courage to kiss him, but her insecurities hold her back.
• Code Geass: Near the end of the show, Kallen kisses Lelouch shortly before he crosses the point of no return and dies. The irony is that Kallen initiates the kiss without knowing it at the time.
• At the end of the third Cyber City Oedo 808 OAV, the Star-Crossed Lovers Benten and Remy share one before Remy goes into a voluntary Deep Sleep inside a capsule and Benten has to shoot it into space.
• Elfen Lied: Lucy kisses Kouta shortly before confronting the soldiers who have been assigned to kill her. (Her fate, however, is left ambiguous.)
• At the end of Future Diary, Yuno decides to give up her plans to kill Yukiteru and then stabs herself so he will become the new god. After doing so, she asks for one last kiss then dies in his arms after remarking that he had gotten so much better at kissing.
• In Hellsing and in episode 7 of Hellsing Ultimate, as Seras Victoria is heavily wounded and blinded and her partner and boyfriend Pip Bernadotte lays dying after getting impaled by Zorin Blitz, Pip manages to kiss Seras and tells her to drink his blood before dying. A grieving Seras does so, thus healing her wounds and unlocking her full vampiric power. She proceeds to rip Zorin to shreds. It's recreated in
• Kikyou and Inuyasha share a last kiss in Inuyasha, right before she definitely dies in his embrace.
• In The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (2016), Midna kisses Link before shattering the Mirror of Twilight, forever separating their worlds.
• Macross Delta: In Absolute Live, Freyja and Hayate share one before the former dies in the latter's arms. Crosses over with First Kiss.
• Played straight and subverted in the same episode of My-HiME:
  • Yukariko and Ishigami share one before they go down together.
  • Subverted moments later with Mai just barely missing out on one of these as Yuuichi disappears before their lips touch.
  • Natsuki kisses Shizuru and tells her how she feels about her (she may not have the feeling Shizuru wanted, but she's happy she loved her and also loves her) before destroying both their Childs, killing them both.
• In Negima! Magister Negi Magi, Asuna kisses Negi on the lips as a goodbye before she goes into a sleep that will last more than a century. She even tells him something by the lines of "You'll later kiss someone else. Make a good choice." When she returns 130 years later, Negi is long dead, but she gets sent back to the past right away, allowing her to stay with Negi and her friends in the new timeline.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion: Misato, knowing she's about to die from the bullet wound in her back, kisses Shinji, possibly to snap him out of the near comatose depression he's in. It backfires spectacularly as, moments later, Shinji wipes her blood off his mouth and realizes she has probably died.
• Ninja Scroll: In the cold universe of the film, where lust, violence and greed has cheapened sex as an expression of love, Kagero's simple kiss for Jubei was an expression of love stronger than any other.
• Plastic Memories: In the final episode, after their last date, Isla and Tsukasa share their only kiss before the latter retrieves the former at her insistence.
• In Saber Marionette R, Bloodberry kisses Junior at the end of episode 2 to say goodbye, knowing that she won't be back since she's out of energy. She gets better.
• In Sonic X, after the Kill Us Both scene, Cosmo kisses Tails as she fades away.
• Steins;Gate has another (rather heartrending) first-and-last-kiss between Kurisu and Okabe, as the latter confesses his feelings to her... the day before he has to switch timelines to a world where she's killed.
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann:
  • Yoko is a prime example of these, being kissed by Kamina and Kittan before both of them died in battle.
  • Kittan subverted it as he stole a kiss from her fully knowing he was going to die anyway, and he apologizes for his selfishness right after breaking said kiss. She understands and even hugs him before he leaves.
  • Nia's last act before she disappears into nothingness was kissing Simon.
• Subverted in episode 51 of Tokyo Mew Mew. Quiche gets killed trying to protect Ichigo from the Big Bad. As he lays dying, Ichigo holds him in her arms and he tries to kiss her, but dies before their lips can touch. He gets resurrected in the next episode, though.
• Iin Toriko, near the end of the Regal Mammoth Arc, Rin is fatally wounded by a GT Robo and Toriko fulfills her dying wish by giving her a farewell kiss. Fortunately, Rin's Gourmet Cells respond well to Toriko's saliva due to her strong feelings for him and they keep her alive long enough for her to get proper medical treatment.

Arts

• Implied in The Kiss (Hayez): There's a sense of desperation to their body language as they kiss, and other elements in the painting (his outfit, the figure on the stairs) imply that something big is about to happen to the man.

Comic Books

• Batman: Batman and Catwoman share their last kiss in the Pre-Crisis continuity during the burial of Mona Lamont at the end of Batman #399, right before she and her new panther leave Gotham behind for good. To make things even more poignant, it happens in the rain.
  Two loves have died. The haunting has only begun.
• Crisis on Infinite Earths: Alexander Luthor and Lois Lane of Earth-3, as they are being swallowed by the anti-matter wave.
• Runaways: Karolina and Xavin share their first and only on-panel kiss just before Xavin clocks Karolina, impersonates her, and offers herself up to the Majesdanians who have been tearing Malibu apart looking for her.
• Superman:
  • In Young Love, Supergirl and her childhood crush Dick Malverne gave each other one last kiss goodbye before he died from cancer.
  • In Superman's Return to Krypton, Kryptonian actress Lyla Lerrol and a time-displaced Kal-El kiss each other before shooting the final scene from "The Space Explorers". Suddenly, Lyla somehow feels she is about to lose Kal-El forever, and starts kissing him more passionately. Indeed she will never see him again because right afterwards Kal-El will get blasted into space, where he will get his powers back and realize his duty compels him to go back to present day Earth.
  • Superman Forever: In the intro recapping Superman's origin, Jor-El and Lara share one together as Krypton explodes and Kal-El is rocketed to safety.
• Teen Titans: When Raven and Beast Boy had their First Kiss, Beast Boy asked if she did it just because they were facing "certain death". He also admitted that he did this with Firehawk, and didn't seem too happy about it. But why? She's hot!
• Watchmen: In an iconic scene during a dream sequence, Nightowl and Silk Spectre kiss in front of a massive nuclear explosion. Even their skeletons continue to kiss as they perish.
• In Zero Hour: Crisis in Time!, Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl share a final kiss together as they and the surviving members of the Legion of Super-Heroes fade into the unknown and are rebooted in the Post-Zero Hour history of the team.

Fan Works

• In An Acceptable Arrangement, Hou Yue gets gets one of these with her husband, then with their wife before having a fatal C-Section.
• Between The Crosses: as Will lays dying in the trench near the end of the series, Joseph kisses his cheek and holds him until the stretcher comes.
• Children of an Elder God: In the final episode Shinji kissed Rei before she sacrificed herself to keep the Outer Gods sealed forever.
• Children of Time: In "Every Good Fairytale", Sherlock Holmes kisses his wife one last time as she's dying from a bullet wound. And then she dies as they do so.
• In the Total Drama story, Legacy, Chef Hatchet kisses a dying contestant on her forehead, "as a father might kiss a favorite daughter."
• In the first chapter of Recoil, Taylor finds Lisa as the latter is dying. She sits with her as Lisa's strength goes, and kisses her just before she dies. Each dream where Taylor and Lisa meet again ends with the same kiss.
  "Kiss me again, before I go?"
  I leaned forward, kissed her. Her lips tasted of dust and blood.
  "Huh." Her voice was barely audible. "Nice."
  And then she stopped speaking. Stopped breathing. Stopped doing everything a living person does.
• RWBY: Scars:
  • Pyrrha and Jaune dated for several weeks, but their First Kiss was their Last Kiss. Jaune was killed by Cinder a few moments afterwards.
  • Subverted with Blake and Weiss. They have their First Kiss during Beacon's fall. Most assume Blake died during the attacks, but they Never Found the Body and she's actually alive.
• In The Sanctuary Telepath Janine kisses James' (with whom they share an often complicated, but deep and loving relationship) hand as he dies.

Film — Animated

• In 5 Centimeters per Second, Takaki and Akari share a (first and) last kiss at the end of the first chapter. The remaining two chapters are about their separate lives afterward. Heartbreak ensues.
• In Avengers Confidential: Black Widow & Punisher, after Black Widow's friend Elihas Starr sacrificed himself to save her, she cradles his body and gives him a kiss on the forehead before zipping him up in a body bag.
• Justice League Dark: Apokolips War: Damian and Raven share one last kiss right when Flash (prompted by Constantine) decides to do another Flashpoint and reset the timeline again.
• Pocahontas: the full ending, restored for the 10th anniversary release, sees Pocahontas singing a Triumphant Reprise of "If I Never Knew You" and kissing John Smith goodbye before he sails back to England.

Film — Live-Action

• Jim and Selena's ...messy kiss from 28 Days Later. It's their third kiss throughout the film- the first was on the cheek and the second was intentional, but this is a full on, Chick Flick Hold, with-tongue affair, sure proof of being doomed. Shortly afterward, he gets shot. Depending on the ending, he usually dies.
• Battle Beyond the Stars. Realising that Sador is about to destroy the planet Akir with his Steller Converter, Cowboy gives the Akiran girl he's with a kiss before flying off in a likely futile attempt to destroy it.
  Cowboy: You pretty thing...
• In The Bourne Supremacy, the last kiss between Jason Bourne and Marie Kreutz is shown as a desperate attempt at resuscitation underwater.
• Part Now or Never Kiss and part Last Kiss in Captain America: The First Avenger when Steve and Peggy kiss since the audience knows he will be frozen and won't wake up for seventy years. As of Avengers: Endgame, it proves to not be their last.
• Shu Lien and Li Mu Bai share a kiss in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon as he's dying after he's poisoned by the already dead Jade Fox.
• In the film version of Death Note, Shiori and Light share a Last Kiss when Naomi Misora shoots her, as a tragic callback to Shiori stating that she would only kiss in public for her Last Kiss. Its a rather dark example since Light used the Death Note to bring about her death, and is exploiting this trope in order to make himself seem genuinely remorseful, as part of his Batmangambit to get onto the Kira investigation team.
• Dick Tracy. Breathless Mahoney and Dick Tracy had UST throughout the movie but Tracy can't respond to her flirtation because he's in love with Tess Trueheart. After Breathless is mortally wounded, she and Dick Tracy finally kiss just before she dies.
• This got elevated to somewhat disturbing levels during the Pierce Brosnan James Bond films where he gives the dead Paris Carver a last kiss before he goes and backseat drives in Tomorrow Never Dies, and to Elektra King before starting the final action sequence of The World Is Not Enough. Considering he shot her dead, Bond should logically be giving a smooch to a bloody mess.
• The Lovely Bones: Before Suzie moves on to Heaven, she briefly inhabits Ruth's body to share a kiss with Ray, whom she had meant to have a date with before she died.
• From The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Aragorn gave a dying Boromir a kiss on the forehead as part of a blessing.
• Mars Attacks!. Donald and Natalie share a last kiss (as disembodied heads) just before the saucer they're on crashes.
• The concept is used in The Mask, when the nightclub singer love interest asks her ex-boyfriend for one last kiss before he blows up the nightclub and kills them all. He is so moved by the request that he complies despite the fact that the bomb he planted is already activated and counting down (though it was just a ploy the girl hatched to get him to take off the mask and for her to get it to Stanley).
  Dorian: There's ALWAYS time for one last kiss!
• Neo and Trinity's last kiss before she dies in The Matrix Revolutions.
• In the 2003 version of Peter Pan, which now becomes a tragic love story between Wendy and Peter, the former realises she must leave Neverland to grow up, and therefore they will never be together. And before Hook makes her walk the plank, she asks to say goodbye to Peter and give him a "thimble". She then whispers "this belongs to you and always will", kissing him on the lips. While the day is saved because of the kiss, they never kiss again in the film, and the narration over the end says Wendy never saw Peter again.
• Played for Laughs in The Pink Panther Strikes Again. Inspector Clouseau enters the dressing room of a seductive gay nightclub singer, only to find the man mortally wounded from a kidnapping attempt. Clouseau kneels down to hear the singer's dramatic last words...and gets a smooch on the cheek before he expires.
• In Pirates of the Caribbean films, Elizabeth shares not one, but four last kisses with different partners: the Kiss of Death with Jack Sparrow at the end of Dead Man's Chest; one with James Norrington when he found out Redemption Equals Death; her wedding-cum-battle kiss with Will Turner; and a forced kiss from Sao Feng. Good thing death isn't always permanent.
  • Jack Sparrow lampshades this in the third movie when Elizabeth tries to kiss him, telling her that once was enough.
• The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946). A kiss in a car, and death follows quickly.
• The Professionals. Dolworth kisses a dying Chiquita, who used to be his lover when they fought alongside each other during the Mexican Revolution. She tries to shoot him in the middle of all this but he doesn't take it personally, given that he was the one who shot her.
• In Shakespeare in Love Shakespeare and Viola share one before she leaves with her new husband (not Shakespeare) to a colony.
• One such occurrence in Signs is based off an urban legend of a worker at a quarry who falls into the rock crusher and will die soon whether or not he is pulled out or left there, so a third option is taken: he's fed painkillers and his wife is called in who kisses him goodbye and then turns the machine back on.
• Spider-Man: No Way Home: With Doctor Strange in the process of casting a spell that will cause the entire universe to forget Peter Parker exists, Peter shares one of these with his girlfriend MJ shortly before she's about to forget him and their relationship. MJ in particular really goes for it since it's implied she already suspects Peter is not going to try to reconnect with her and Ned, as she says that if he doesn't remind her, she'll figure it out again on her own (she's tragically proven right in the ensuing epilogue as Peter ultimately refuses to reconnect with her and Ned due to believing they're safer without him in their lives).
• Star Wars: In The Rise of Skywalker, Rey and Ben share a kiss after Ben transfers his life force to Rey to resurrect her, sacrificing himself instead.
• Superman: The Movie. After Lois Lane is killed by being buried under a ton of dirt, Superman gives her a kiss before flying off in rage and despair. And then he turns back time to save her.
• The 1935 film of A Tale of Two Cities had Sydney Carton and the unnamed seamstress to the aristocracy share a kiss right before they're both guillotined.
• Another one from Disney: In TRON, Flynn kisses Yori (the spitting image of the ex-girlfriend he still carries a torch for) before making his Heroic Sacrifice.
• After Madeleine ominously tells Scottie in Vertigo, "If you lose me, then you'll know I loved you and wanted to go on loving you," she gives him a final kiss before heading off to the clock tower that seems to strangely draw her... Scottie runs after her, but is slowed down by his acrophobia enough to see her plunge to her death from the top of the tower.

Literature

• Liesel and Rudy share one in The Book Thief. Too bad Rudy was just killed in a bombing. The worst part is, Rudy has been trying to get Liesel to kiss him the whole book!! There's your kiss....
  • The book subverts this trope somewhat in that the narrator tells us halfway through the book that Rudy will go to his grave without being kissed by Liesel. After that, every time Rudy asks for a kiss, what is a light-hearted moment for the characters feels a little painful for the reader...
• In Poul Anderson's The Broken Sword, the dying hero's Last Request is for a Last Kiss.
• City of Bones by Martha Wells: Khat and Elen share one at the end of the story. They're attracted to each other and have some romantic feelings, but Khat thinks they're too different socially and he has too many trust issues to pursue a relationship, so he follows his Family of Choice to another city instead.
• In the Hetty Feather series, Jem and Hetty share a last kiss quite literally right before his wedding to Janet. Ouch.
• His Dark Materials: Will and Lyra and their respective dæmons share one final kiss (rushed, clumsy, and tearful) before Will seals their universes apart forever.
• The Hunger Games: A couple of times between Katniss and Peeta, never for real.
• In the Midnight World novel, Igor shares the Last Kiss with his wife when she is already beheaded by him (but still alive!)
• In Outbound Flight, Jedi Knight Lorana Jinzler and the Chiss syndic Mitth'ras'safis of the Eight Ruling Family, pulling an epic Heroic Sacrifice together, reach out and hold hands for a long moment. It overlaps with Security Cling and It Has Been an Honor, they were on a Full-Name Basis since there hadn't been time to exchange first and core names, and both of them were from emotionally cold societies, so exactly what the gesture meant is left to the reader, and some say it was the equivalent of a kiss.
• In G. K. Chesterton's The Return of Don Quixote, when John Braintree and Olive admit that their opposing principles mean they should not be a couple, they part after a kiss. At the climax, they realize that their principles can, in fact, be reconciled, so they are reconciled, too.
• A Series of Unfortunate Events had Count Olaf steal one last kiss from his old paramour, Kit Snicket. The two of them then recited poetry while dying from toxic mushroom spores.
• In Michael Flynn's Spiral Arm novel On the Razor's Edge, when Issa tells him to go in the Flashback, he can't even stay for a last kiss.
• Subverted in the Star Wars novel Star by Star, when Tahiri Veila leans in to kiss Anakin Solo, but pulls back, saying, "For that, you have to come back." He doesn't.
• In Transitions Catti-brie begs Mielikki for one final night with her husband, before she takes her away to the afterlife. The scene is doubly tragic in that while she knows that it will be their last kiss, Drizzt doesn't.
• Glinda and Elphaba of Wicked fame share such a kiss the last time they see each other. Changed to a hug for the musical.

Live-Action TV

• The Barrier: Alicia and Fernando share one last kiss after the latter has been fatally shot.
• Battlestar Galactica: Cylon Natalie kisses a fellow Number Six before pulling the trigger on her for killing one of their Colonial allies. Given the nature of the Cylons it's uncertain whether this would qualify as Les Yay or Sister Sister Incest. Also President Roslin has a vision of herself dying in Galactica's sickbay; after her heart monitor flatlines a weeping Adama kisses her, then places his wedding ring on her finger.
• Buffyverse:
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Buffy kisses Angel goodbye before sending him to hell in "Becoming Part 2"
  • Angel:
    • Doyle kissing Cordelia before his death in episode 9.
    • Also, Cordelia kissing Angel... after hers in "You're Welcome".
    • And Wesley kissing Fred in "A Hole in the World". "Please Wesley... why can't I stay?"
• Charmed (1998):
  • "Dead Man Dating" has a variation merged with an Almost Kiss. Piper falls in love with Mark, that week's innocent. Unfortunately, he's a ghost, and thus they can't touch. He says he isn't ready to move on, and Piper asks him to close his eyes and pretend he can feel her hand on his skin. She then leans in as close as she can for a kiss
  • In "Sleuthing With the Enemy", Phoebe decides to fake Cole's death to stop her sisters from looking for him, and shares what she thinks will be their last kiss. He even shimmers out mid-kiss.
  • In "The Lost Picture Show", JD the innocent of the week, shares a kiss with Billie before he goes off to make his Heroic Sacrifice. It also has practical reasons, since he uses it as a distraction to knock her out and prevent her from stopping him.
• Chuck and Sarah are trapped with a bomb about to go off, and go for what they believe will be their Last Kiss... and then the bomb doesn't go off. Awkward.. Even worse, it wasn't even a bomb. It was actually a Human Popsicle box.
• Parodied in, of course, Community, when Abed and Annie are about to get rained on with paint, thus eliminating them from the game, and also "killing" the Han Solo role he'd had been playing.
• In the Doctor Who episode "The Parting of the Ways", when Jack goes off to die, he kisses both the Doctor and Rose goodbye.
  • River kissing the Doctor in "Day of the Moon". Heartbreaking because River only realises afterwards that it's their last kiss from her perspective, because it's their First Kiss from the Doctor's perspective.
  • In "The Name of the Doctor" there's one between River and the Doctor. It's (probably) the last for both of them. River has already died, and the Doctor has run out on her timeline. Of course, given that Steven Moffat is showrunner, it may not remain the last between them...
• Farscape:
  • In the episode "Infinite Possibilities Part II: Icarus Abides", Aeryn and Crichton share a final kiss, shortly before he dies of radiation poisoning.
  • In "The Hidden Memory", Crichton shares a kiss with Gilina shortly before she succumbs to the mortal wound she received during her Heroic Sacrifice earlier in the episode.
  • Crichton and Aeryn again in the series finale, "Bad Timing," who leap into their arms and kiss each other as the alien fighter closes in to vaporize them. They get better in the miniseries.
• iCarly: Both the Sam/Freddie and Carly/Freddie have their own last kiss.
  • Sam/Freddie break up in iLove You, but decide to hold off for an hour on the break up so they can make out a bit more.
  • Carly/Freddie break up in iSaved Your Life, Freddie asks Carly that because he wasn't sure they were going to break up, if he could have one last kiss and she sweetly kisses him on the cheek.
• In the last episode of Inspector Morse, Lewis kisses his ex-boss on the forehead as a goodbye.
• Interview with the Vampire (2022): In the Season 1 finale, Louis de Pointe du Lac gives a heartfelt kiss to Lestat de Lioncourt during their dance at the Mardi Gras ball. Louis and Claudia will murder Lestat later that night to free themselves from his abuse, but because Louis still loves his boyfriend, this kiss is his loving way of saying goodbye to Lestat.
• Following actor Bill Owen's death, his Last of the Summer Wine character Compo was killed off, off-camera – we hear that he had a heart attack when woken up by Nora Batty, who was dressed as a cabaret dancing girl. She later recounted giving him mouth-to-mouth and his last words, "Can we try this again when I'm feeling better?".
• Little House on the Prairie: In the final scene of "Sylvia," the episode title's character and Albert kiss, shortly before she dies.
• Lost: Charlie kisses Claire right before diving down to The Looking Glass, which he knows will kill him.
  • Jack and Kate, after Jack has been stabbed and before he goes to re-activate the Island.
  • Sawyer and Juliet as well, right before she dies in his arms.
    Juliet: Kiss me.
    Sawyer: You got it, Blondie.
• Exaggerated in a MADtv (1995) sketch parodying Korean dramas. A woman has a Love Confession, kisses the protagonist, coughs once, and falls over dead. It's also subverted in that the woman is inexplicably revived later.
• In the Merlin (1998) series, Frik and Morgan le Fay kiss right before the latter dies of her injuries.
• In the Merlin (2008) series, Guinevere kisses Lancelot for the first and last time when he's about to sacrifice himself so that she can get to safety.
• Clifford tries to invoke this with Paula Abdul on Muppets Tonight, citing a stray cannonball as the source of his injury. (It's the Muppets) Paula isn't fooled, makes Clifford kiss Rizzo.
• On Penny Dreadful, Vanessa Ives asks for, and receives, a last kiss from Ethan Chandler before Ethan shoots her as she requests in order to avert the apocalyse.
• This is how Shaw goes out in the Person of Interest episode "If/Then/Else" (Person Of Interest S 04 E 11): she plants a hot one on Root, then performs a Heroic Sacrifice to save the team. Her fate was unknown for much of the next season ( She gets better).
• Psych has one episode where the wife of a murder victim gives him a Last Kiss at his funeral. It ends up being her Last Kiss as well. She dies in the middle of it.
• Pushing Daisies: In the pilot Ned revives Chuck to ask about how she was killed. His power means that a second touch will "re-kill" her. When her time is up Chuck asks him for "one last kiss" to bookend the fact that they were each other's First Kiss as children. Ned agrees but as he leans in he realises he can't bring himself to re-kill her and pulls away. For the rest of the series they have to build their relationship around the fact that if they kiss again without some sort of barrier (e.g. masks or saran wrap) it will be Chuck's last ever kiss.
• Robin Hood:
  • Kept alive only due to the fact that the sword is still jutting from her stomach,Robin and Marian share their Last Kiss after Guy stabs her. She then proceeds to remove the sword from her abdomen, which does, in fact, kill her.
  • This trope is subverted between Robin and his Replacement Goldfish Kate in the Grand Finale of the show. She attempts to kiss him goodbye after he's been fatally poisoned, only for him to deliberately turn his face away and give her a platonic hug instead. A few moments later, he dies and is reunited with his true love, Marian.
• In the Space: 1999 2nd season episode "The Beta Cloud", a monster is rampaging through Alpha Complex and nothing the crew tries can stop it. Maya and Tony Verdeschi are together waiting for the end when they suddenly start making out (kissing).
• Star Trek
  • Star Trek: Voyager: In "Threshold", an experiment has Gone Horribly Wrong, causing Tom Paris to mutate. He's confined behind a medical force field because he can't breathe oxygen. After rambling that he's going to die, Tom suddenly says, "Kiss me!" greatly confusing the Doctor. Tom explains he means the nurse Kes (his unrequited crush at the time) who points out that lowering the force field to do so would kill him. When Tom (temporarily) dies anyway, a distraught Kes then kisses him on the cheek.
  • Star Trek: Enterprise: Sim is a Walking Transplant clone of the ship's engineer, "Trip" Tucker. T'Pol is attracted to Trip, but as a Vulcan, she doesn't want to admit it. Shortly before his limited lifespan runs out, Sim admits that he (and by implication Trip) is in love with T'Pol, who kisses him in response.
    Sim: I guess I couldn't have picked a better going away present.
  • Star Trek: Picard: In "The Impossible Box", Narek knows that the kiss he gives to Soji in the Zhal Makh meditation chamber will be the final one they share because he's determined to follow his orders to execute her despite his romantic feelings.
• In the Supernatural episode "Abandon All Hope", Dean and Jo say good-bye to each other and everything that could have been with a last kiss.
• In The Terror, Bridgens kisses Peglar's hand after he dies. It is heavily implied that they are a couple before this moment, but the kiss makes it tragically and abundantly clear.

Manhua

• In Infinity Game the kiss between Lu Xiao and Long Wei, which was also a first kiss a Love Confession from the former.

Music

• Richard Thompson's "1952 Vincent Black Lightning" tells the story of a motorcycle-riding outlaw and his beloved, ending with her coming to the hospital and finding him shot and dying. He "gave her one last kiss and died," slipping her the keys to his titular motorcycle as he does so.
• Marty Robbin's song "El Paso" tells the tale of a man who loved a dancer in a bar and killed a man who shared his interest. He later runs off into the badlands of New Mexico to escape vengeance from the family of the man he killed only to come back to El Paso and be shot off his horse. Crawling to the door of the bar, the woman cradles him in her arms and kisses him before he succumbs to his wounds.
• In the 1960s, Teenage Death Songs were remarkably popular, including such classics as "Teen Angel" (Mark Dinning), "Patches" (Dickey Lee), "Tell Laura I Love Her" (Ray Peterson), "Leader of the Pack" (the Shangri-Las), "Ode to Billy Joe" (Bobbie Gentry), and, of course, the Trope Namer, famously Covered Up by Pearl Jam.
  • Spoofed by Jimmy Cross in a rather shocking manner in "I Want My Baby Back".
• Not necessarily an impending death, but still... "Ae Fond Kiss," by the 18th century Scots poet, Robert Burns:
  Ae fond kiss, and then we sever;
  Ae fareweel, alas, for ever!
  Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee,
  Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee!
• "Last Kiss" by Taylor Swift. However, the lyrics are more akin to a breakup song than a death one.
• A quite dark twist happens in the Kylie Minogue and Nick Cave duet "Where the Wild Roses Grow" that ends with:
  And I kissed her goodbye, said, "All beauty must die"
  And lent down and planted a rose between her teeth
• Rammstein's song "Nebel" is about a parting couple's teary last kiss. The final lines say that the kiss was so long ago, the man no longer remembers it.
• City and Colour's "As Much As I Ever Could". While not about death, it does talk about a great distance that would separate the lovers soon.
  So give me one last kiss
  For soon, such distance
  Will stretch between our limbs
  Now the day's losing light...
• Frank Sinatra's "We'll Be Together Again":
  We'll be together again
  Your kiss, your smile,
  Are memories I'll treasure forever
• La oreja de Van Gogh: The song "Jueves" is about a tragic love story inside one of the trains the day of the May 11, 2004 bomb terrorist attacks in Madrid, ends the lyrics like this (it is implied this happens after the explosion, when everything's in the dark):
  I find your face thanks to my hands
  I become brave and I kiss you on the lips
  you say that you love me, and I give you as a present
  the last beat of my heart...
  

Theater

• Discussed in Bye Bye Birdie in the song "One Last Kiss". Conrad Birdie, the Elvis Presley Expy, sings this song as a farewell to his fans before he is drafted into the army, with his record label planning a promotional stunt in which he shall kiss Kim MacAfee on TV.
• Miss Saigon: Kim asks Chris "hold me one more time as lies dying from her self-inflicted gunshot. He obliges and they share a passionate one of these.
• In Richard Wagner's Die Walküre from The Ring of the Nibelung, Wotan's kiss that strips his daughter Brünnhilde of her powers. The Leitmotif is quite touching.
• Romeo and Juliet has three:
  • Before Romeo is exiled (a Fate Worse than Death as far as he's concerned).
  • Romeo kissing the seemingly-dead Juliet after drinking his fatal poison: "Thus, with a kiss, I die."
  • Juliet's final kiss to the dead Romeo before stabbing herself. Doubles as a suicide attempt, as she hopes there might still be poison on his lips, but there is none, so she turns to his dagger instead.
• In certain productions of Wicked, like the Helsinki one, the usual hug between Elphaba and Glinda is changed to a last kiss.

Video Games

• Dragon Age: Origins has the possibility for one. If playing a female character who pursued a romance with Alistair, you don't take the third option, and the romance survives to the finale, Alistair and the main character share one before one of them has to make the ultimate sacrifice to kill the Archdemon. Hint: It's not going to be you.
• Subverted in the ending of Final Fantasy X wherein the hero begins losing physical form, so that when the heroine runs after him for the effective Last Kiss she runs through him instead, denying the characters (and the player) a sense of closure.
  • He does get to hug her, at least. Since he hasn't quite lost his physical form, he puts his arms over her shoulders and holds her there before he completely fades away.
    • Rendered Moot in the sequel, since, if one completes enough of the optional story, they are re-united
• Knights of the Old Republic had a possible figurative one for a male player and Bastila (it happens just before she is captured and tortured into turning to the Dark Side), which would become an actual one if you kill Bastila on the Star Forge instead of turning her back.
• Life Is Strange: in one of the endings Max goes back in time in order to let Nathan shot Chloe, which leads to the tornado never happening. Depending on the player's choices, Chloe and Max will have a last kiss before that.
• When Nier's title character is forced to kill Kainé in the third ending, he finally realises that he loves her and (despite her being a Shade at the time) gives her a hesitant kiss. Doubly emotional, since not only was it also their first kiss, but it's left unclear whether Kainé knew that Nier returned her feelings, since she couldn't speak.
• In Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, if you say the right thing, Tatsuya will give a final kiss to Maya before giving up the memories of the other side ruining any chance they have of being together since keeping would bring about The End of the World as We Know It.
• In Professor Layton and the Unwound Future, Layton and Claire share one before the latter walks off into her fate.
• In the Leon B scenario of Resident Evil 2, after dispatching Mr. X and getting mortally wounded herself, Ada shares one last kiss with Leon before she (apparently) dies in his arms. (She gets better a little later without any explanation, though.)
• Star Wars: The Force Unleashed ended its romantic subplot with this.
• In the manga version of Tales of Destiny 2: Kyle reaches for Reala as she's fading away, cups her jaw... And she dissolves before their lips can properly meet. In the game proper she hugs him from behind and slowly fades away.
• It may or may not be a trope in Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 4: The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood, but at the end of the chapter, as Elaine holds a dying Guybrush in her arms, after he utters out his last words, "Kick [LeChuck's] two-faced butt for me..." she is on the verge of tears as she promises, "From Melee to Monkey and all the islands in between, my love," and gets close to Guybrush as she closes her eyes and puts her lips on his cheek between her sobs. At least we think it's a kiss.
• In Tomb Raider (2013), Lara kisses a trapped Alex on the cheek when he decides blew himself up in a Heroic Sacrifice to kill the cultists on the Endurance, depending on the player's interpretation this was an act of pity or genuine affection from Lara. Interestingly Lara looked like she was going for the lips but Alex moved his face away as she leaned in, with a pained look on his face.
• In the final episode of The Walking Dead: Season Three, Clementine and a dying Gabe will share a kiss if neither Javi or Clem went to rescue him at the end, which leads to him getting bitten. The kiss only happens if you made a certain choice in the previous season.^note  If Clementine stayed with Jane. If she went with Kenny, she hugs him instead. Otherwise she just holds his hand.
• The Witcher: The rather psychotic Princess Adda has Geralt at crossbow-point in an impromptu firing squad and condemns him to die. He makes a last request, as is his right, and asks Adda to kiss him. She's scandalized, absolutely scandalized^note Never mind she herself Really Gets Around and has potentially slept with Geralt within the last week..., but grants the request. To cap it off, Triss is watching by a remote viewing spell, says something along the lines of, "Oh, no you don't, Geralt", and teleports him to safety before either kiss or arrows reach him.

Visual Novels

• Umineko: When They Cry: In the magic ending of Ep 8 Beatrice and Battler have managed to get off Rokkenjima on a boat when Beatrice asks Battler to close his eyes and gives him a kiss. But when he opens his eyes again, she, and the blanket containing the gold ingot, is gone. Cue the saddest scene in the series...

Webcomics

• In How Not to Run a Webcomic, Colby Purcell parodies and deconstructs this trope using the lead characters from his fantasy webcomic Lint:
  Bactine: Kiss me, Sangwine... one... last... time...
  Sangwine: Wouldn't the subtle pleasure of a kiss be completely lost in the searing pain of the three iron poles impaling your torso?
• Schlock Mercenary. Despite being a Celibate Hero, Captain Tagon kisses Lt. "Elf" Foxworthy before making a Heroic Sacrifice so she can escape by teraport (in a brutal subversion he then cuts off her head as there's not enough energy to teraport her whole body). Due to Time Travel shenanigans Tagon is brought back to life, and Elf gets severely annoyed when he can't think of any reason why they would have kissed at all.

Web Animation

• RWBY: Pyrrha has liked Jaune from the beginning, but he was initially only interested in Weiss until accepting that his feelings were one-sided. During the Volume 3 finale, the pair finally share a Big Damn Kiss before she leaves to fight Cinder. The kiss also doubles as a distraction to allow her to trap him in one of the weapon-delivery missile-lockers, preventing him from either stopping her or joining her and also dying. It takes Jaune until Volume 6 to fully understand and accept that Pyrrha knew she was going to her death, but felt compelled to try and save both the Academy and communications tower because she also knew she was the only person who could reach Cinder in time.

Western Animation

• Avatar: The Last Airbender: Princess Yue's already in spirit form when she gives Sokka one last kiss before disappearing.
• Batman: The Animated Series: While always insincere Poison Ivy loves to play this up when locking lips with her victims to end them, treating it like a final romantic exchange, satisfying her Femme Fatale kink at their expense. In "Pretty Poison" Ivy spends the first half of her encounter with Batman flirting with him, acting like their "late night rendezvous" is legit two lovers alone together, before readying herself to lean in for a deep, sultry goodnight kiss, smashing their lips together in a passionate, steamy embrace Batman is in no position to refuse.
• Star Wars Rebels: After Hera at last confesses her love to Kanan, they share a passionate kiss. Moments later, Kanan dies protecting her, Ezra, and Sabine.
• Superman: The Animated Series: Like in the comics, Jor-El and Lara embrace and kiss each other as Krypton explodes around them, after Lara refuses to leave her husband to save herself in the rocket that will carry baby Kal-El towards Earth.
• Teen Titans (2003): After several tries, Cyborg finally lets Sarasim kiss him as the two wait to go into battle.

Real Life

• Admiral Horatio Nelson, while lying on his death-bed, asked the captain of his flagship, Thomas Hardy, for a kiss before he died. Hardy kissed him twice, on the cheek and the forehead, as a last gesture of affection to the man who had been his mentor and leader for his entire adult life.
• According to her biography by Carolly Erickson, Queen Victoria nursed her husband, Prince Albert, through his fatal illness (presumed at the time to be typhoid fever, though modern physicians suspect he had stomach cancer). When she knew the time was near, she leaned over and asked him for a last kiss, which he gave on her cheek.

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