Bungled Suicide: Difference between revisions

 

{{deathtrope}}

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* ''[[Paranoia Agent]]'' has an episode dealing with 3 people who had made a suicide pact over the internet. Over the course of the episode, all of their attempts to kill themselves (jumping in the path of a subway train, hanging) are thwarted, and it's all [[Played for Laughs]]. Subverted in that at the end it's revealed that they're [[Dead All Along]].

* In ''Hoshi wa Utau'', {{spoiler|this is what happened to Chihiro's previous love Sakura. Her attempt left her comatose in the hospital.}}

* It's implied in ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' that Asuka cut her wrists in episode 24, and is seen in a bathtub with water that looks like it's stained red. It's also implied that she was starving herself. She survived only because Section 2 found her before she bled out and she was too weak to resist being taken into custody.

** The first scene of ''End of Evangelion'' heavily implies that Shinji tried to drown himself but failed. After watching the rest of the movie, everyone will agree that it would've been better for everyone if he ''succeeded''.

* ''[[Berserk]]'' provides a particularly depressing example with Griffith. After enduring a year of [[Cold-Blooded Torture]] that left him permanently crippled, seeing all his dreams and ambitions go up in smoke, and finding out that both his [[Love Interest]]s hooked up with each other, he tries to kill himself, only to find that he can't even do that right. Unfortunately for the entire cast, this sends him over the mother of all [[Moral Event Horizon]]s.

* One of the characters in ''[[Life (manga)|Life]]'' attempts to kill herself by jumping from a school balcony, but only ends up fracturing her foot and hurting herself.

* In the very beginning of the [[Manhwa]] ''My Lovable Fatty'' the protagonist tries to hang herself but ends up breaking the rope.

 

== Comic Books ==

* In ''[[Alpha Flight]]'', Jerry Jaxon tried to hang himself. He survived but did enough damage to leave himself paralyzed.

* This pops up in ''[[Ultimate Fantastic Four]]'' as part of deconstructing the Thing's [[Blessed with Suck]]/[[Cursed with Awesome]] powers. He's a huge, freakish rock monster, stands out anywhere, has to be careful about crushing anything he touches, has almost no sense of touch. In the 616 [[Marvel Universe]], this is played for drama now and then but sometimes falls into [[Wangst]] territory. In the [[Ultimate Marvel]] universe, which is both [[Darker and Edgier]] and is earlier in the characters' timelines, he tried to kill himself several times but has not found anything that can break his skin.

 

== Film ==

{{quote|'''Aramis:''' [[I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder|I'm genius, not an engineer!]]}}

* Happens once in ''[[Final Destination]] 2.'' Eugene tries to shoot himself in the head, but all the bullets fail because it wasn't his time to die yet. He dies later in the film of an explosion after '''[[Failsafe Failure|mass equipment failure]]''' and bad luck at the hospital.

** Happens again in ''The Final Destination,'' George tries to off himself multiple times later in the movie, but fails for the same reason. He gets killed by an ambulance exiting a hospital.

* Norma from ''[[Sunset Boulevard]]''

* Jude Law's character in ''[[Gattaca]]'' attempted suicide after the "accident" (which may or may not have been attempted suicide in itself) that crippled him. But he eventually did succeed after the main character, who had taken over his identity, finally got to go into space.

* Franz Liebkind in ''[[The Producers]]'' at one point breaks down and attempts to shoot himself. His gun doesn't fire, and he figures it's out of bullets. Then he drops the gun... and it goes off.

* Harold in ''[[Harold and Maude]]'' repeatedly attempts (apparently fake) suicide attempts, usually involving [[Rube Goldberg]]-style complicated processes.

* Stanley Moon in ''[[Bedazzled]]'', feeling like a failure, unable to even talk to the woman he pines for, puts a noose around his neck, steps off a chair - and the pipe he's tied it to promptly snaps, dribbling water over him and making him out to be a ''total'' failure.

{{quote|"So that's when you tried to kill yourself?"

"Yep. And I failed at that as well." }}

** At the end of the film, the exact same thing happens when he attempts to make a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] to avert a second Event. He fails.

* Woody Allen's character in ''[[Hannah and Her Sisters]]'', despairing over the meaninglessness of life, tries to shoot himself with a rifle, but is so nervous and sweaty, he slips and misfires. He later finds a reason to go on watching a [[Marx Brothers]] movie.

* In the ''[[Saw]]'' films, it is revealed that John Kramer, having been diagnosed with an inoperable malignant brain tumor, attempts to commit suicide by driving off an embankment. His car is trashed, but he survives, the incident having given him more appreciation for the time he has left. On the downside, this same incident also inspires him to become Jigsaw.

** The first movie also contains a subversion: Jigsaw's first victim was a man who appeared to have attempted suicide, but Jigsaw argues that he never intended to kill himself and was merely seeking some attention.

* Herbie the Volkswagen in ''[[The Love Bug]]'' actually tries to leap off the Golden Gate Bridge. He's partially saved by the fact that his wheels won't let him climb the railing very easily, giving his owner time to reach him, so this is also something of a [[Interrupted Suicide]].

* Richie in ''[[The Royal Tenenbaums]]'' cuts his wrists after learning the romantic history of {{spoiler|Margot, with whom he is in love}}. Complete with [[Important Haircut]] and some great music.

* In ''[[Bringing Out The Dead]]'', the main character—a paramedic—responds to a suicide attempt where the victim has sliced his veins horizontally rather than vertically, thus ensuring that he's got plenty of time to be healed. Since the main character is going through something of a nervous breakdown at that point, he merely uses this as the starting off point for a rant in which he instructs the surprised and now-terrified victim how to do it ''correctly'' next time.

* In ''[[S.O.B.]]'', Felix Farmer makes multiple attempts to kill himself only to have each of them unintentionally thwarted. He ultimately ends up committing [[Suicide by Cop]] almost accidentally.

* Chuck of ''[[Cast Away]]'' tries to commit suicide when stranded on an island by hanging himself but the rope snapped.

 

== Literature ==

* Ethan and Mattie in the novella ''[[Ethan Frome]]''

* [[Heralds of Valdemar|Vanyel]] tries to kill himself in the chapel where his dead love Tylendel is laid out pre-burial. Yfandes raises the alarm in time for rescuers to save Vanyel's life, aided by the fact that Vanyel "didn't know the right way to slit his wrists".

* In ''Sometimes A Great Notion'', [[Establishing Character Moment|Leland is introduced]] with one of these. As he explains later, he was lying in bed waiting for his house to fill with the gas he'd turned on in the kitchen, when he [[What an Idiot!|suddenly decides to have a cigarette]]. The house explodes, but Leland is miraculously unharmed, and he finds a letter from his brother (along with an understandably confused postman) on what's left of his front porch and decides that he might as well return home and help his family fill their logging quota.

* In ''[[Duma Key]],'' this is Wireman's story. After his wife and daughter died, he decided to shoot himself in the head and actually went through with it. Instead of killing him, the bullet lodged in his brain, causing him trouble later.

* In ''[[A Scanner Darkly]]'', Charles Freck tried to commit suicide by taking a bunch of downers with some wine. He failed and only hallucinated. It's arguable, however, that the hallucination is a [[Dying Dream]] - Freck never appears in the story again either way.

** Played straight in the film version as Freck shows up later in one of the group therapy sessions at New Path

 

== Live Action TV ==

* Discussed in ''[[The Wire]]'': Omar's brother "No Heart" Anthony got his nickname from bungling his suicide attempt when he was sentenced to several years in prison. He attempted to shoot himself in the chest, but came away with only "a contact wound and a new nickname".

* Neil's hapless attempt in ''The Young Ones''.

* The short lived TV News Show Drama ''Live Shot'' had a character about to shoot himself in the head. We get a [[Gory Discretion Shot]] of a bullet cracking the glass on a picture on his wall, followed by the attempted suicide lamenting that "I missed. How did I miss?"

* In the ''Superman The Musical'' TV Special, Superman was depressed after Metropolis shunned him. So, he tried to kill himself by tying an anchor to himself and jumping off of a bridge. Did I mention that this is the 'Man of Steel'?

And you somehow survived }}

* [[Word of God|Dave Mustaine]] once introduced [[Megadeth]]'s "Skin o' My Teeth" in concert with "This is a song about how many times I tried to kill myself and just couldn't get the fucking job done."

 

 

== Newspaper Comics ==

 

== Tabletop Games ==

 

 

* Warbot from ''[[Warbot in Accounting]]''... though he's also a robot.

* Happens several times in the early strips of the "Suicide Girl" storyline of the extremely NSFW comic ''[[Sexy Losers]]'', though she eventually does end up offing herself when she mistakes a handgun that she bought to protect herself from the lecherous Shiunji (who wants to have sex with her dead body) for a hairdryer. [[It Got Worse|Things get worse from there]].

 

== Western Animation ==

** Another ''[[South Park]]'' example: in one episode, Cartman tries to commit suicide (over ''[[High School Musical]]'''s popularity) by sitting in his mom's car in the garage with the engine running. This doesn't work since his mom drives a hybrid.

** In the ''Coon and Friends'' story arc, Kenny, aware of his immortality, sometimes shoots himself in front of his friends in the frustration of them not being able to remember his deaths. At the end of part II, he says "good night" by shooting himself in the head, knowing that he'll just wake up in his bed the next morning.

** Another one played for laughs is Mr. Burns' in "The Fool Monty", where he survives an airplane hitting him, then slamming against pine tree branches and whacked away by a bear.

* An Eastern European cartoon humorously showed a despondent man trying suicide and failing repeatedly...until he's held up at gunpoint, and abruptly fearing death, gives away his money as well as all his clothes. It ends with him naked and loving life.

 

== [[Urban Legends]] ==

* [[Planescape: Torment|The Nameless One]] can actually stage these as a means to at least two ends, thanks to his immortality. First to knock a suicidal Dustman back on his rails in the Hive, then to discredit a lecturer's claims of afterlife during your stay at the Civic Festhall.

* ''[[.hack GU Games|.hack//G.U.]]'' has Atoli's player Chigusa, who bears several marks on her left wrists from failed suicide attempts. She has stopped trying to end her life after meeting Haseo.

 

== Visual Novels ==

* [[Maximilien Robespierre]]; most sources agree that he tried to shoot himself during The Thermidorian Reaction,<ref>a reaction to the [[French Revolution]] -- some interpret as a response to the revolution being a [[Full-Circle Revolution]]</ref> but missed and hit his jaw.

* Stalin's son Yakov Dzhugashvili also attempted suicide. Stalin, [[The Unfavorite|who didn't like him]], noted that he couldn't even get ''suicide'' right.

* Napoleon Bonaparte carried a vial of poison with him after the retreat from Moscow in 1812. He drank it in 1814 after surrendering to the Allied armies, but after two years it had lost most of its toxicity and he survived.

* It's possible, though unpleasant, to survive gunshot wounds to important body parts. The skull, especially the face, is surprisingly good at protecting the brain, and it's not always clear to a layperson what parts of the brain are necessary for life rather than less vital functions like conscious thought, memory, or motor control.

* Two guys attempted suicide after allegedly hearing [[Subliminal Seduction|subliminal messages]] in [[Judas Priest]]'s ''Stained Class'' album. [[Preacher (Comic Book)|One succeeded, the other failed, but blew out his maxilla]].

* Herbert Sobel, the [[Drill Sergeant Nasty|universally hated captain]] portrayed by David Schwimmer in ''[[Band of Brothers (TV series)|Band of Brothers]]'' became greatly depressed and resentful after the war and finally shot himself in the head in the '60s—except it failed to kill him and rendered him blind. He lived for seventeen more years in an assisted living facility and eventually died of malnutrition. He may have been [[Jerkass|terrible to his men]], but that's still [[Tear Jerker|depressing as fuck.]]

* On one episode of ''Stan Lee's Superhumans'', one of the people interviewed attempted to kill himself by grabbing the coils of a power station at a younger age. He was unharmed due to the superhuman level of electrical resistance his body has.

* Nedeljko Cabrinovic, a would-be assassin of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, had a spectacularly Bungled Suicide to go with his Bungled Assassination. After accidentally blowing up the car ''behind'' Franz Ferdinand's vehicle, Cabrinovic tried to kill himself by jumping in the nearby river—which was only three foot deep. Then he tried to shoot himself, only to discover that his gun had gotten wet and wouldn't fire. Finally, he took a cyanide pill, which turned out to be old, and only succeeded in making Cabrinovic throw up. Then he nearly got killed by the angry mob who had witnessed his attempt on Franz Ferdinand's life, before the local police intervened and saved him.