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{{trope}}
[[File:Maxdead.jpg|link=Walkyverse|
Horror movies frequently have [[Genre Savvy]] characters. Sometimes the [[Black Dude Dies First|black guy]] takes the role, sometimes the [[Nerd]]. Regardless, the [[Genre Savvy]] character is nearly always [[Genre Blindness|blind]] to the most relevant [[Death Tropes|death trope]]: the [[Genre Savvy]] character ''[[Sorting Algorithm of Mortality|always]]'' dies.
Extra [[Death
This can become irritating or implausible, especially if it comes across as just a cheap shot to prove how "unstoppable" the killer is supposed to be. Compare [[Death By Pragmatism]], where simply being sensible gets you killed. See also [[Wrong Genre Savvy]].
{{deathtrope}}
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* Played for laughs when ''[[Kenichi:
* Michel Blanc in ''[[Macross Frontier]]'', though it's really his own fault. When Ozma nearly dies (in a way that was a blatantly obvious [[Shout
* In ''[[Blood C]]'', when the Elder Bain are massacring Saya's classmates, one of them manages to react faster than them and get out. He then gets killed when hit by glass shards; Saya has just jumped off a window.
== Films -- Live-Action ==
* [[Subverted Trope|Subverted]] in ''[[Evolution (
* Subverted in ''[[
* In the play and movie ''[[Arsenic and Old Lace]]'', Mortimer (played by Cary Grant in the movie) is a theater critic with a maniacal, murderous brother and two aunts who like to poison elderly guests. The brother's henchman tries to warn Mortimer that his brother wants to kill him, but Mortimer ignores him. The henchman wails, "Tell me, don't those plays you see all the time teach you anything? At least people in plays act like they've got sense!" Mortimer, laughing at the notion that people act intelligently in plays, proceeds to describe a really bad play with a character who "knows he's in a house with murderers -- he ought to know he's in danger. He's even been warned to get out of the house, and does he go? No, he stays there." He describes how the character sits down with his back to the murderer as the killer cuts down the curtain cord he's going to use to tie him up with. All the while, the evil brother is in the background, cutting down the curtain cord and preparing to tie him up with it. Just when Mortimer has reached the climax of his tirade against playwrights who make a supposedly intelligent guy act oblivious and just keep sitting where they are, "waiting to be tied up and gagged," his brother drops the curtain cord over his shoulders, and the henchman gags him with a handkerchief, commenting, "You were right about that fellow -- he ''wasn't'' very bright."
** For bonus points, in some adaptations, it didn't occur to the brother to tie him up with a curtain cord ''until Mortimer describes the act''.
* M. Night Shyamalan uses this in a [[Take That]] against film critics in the movie ''[[Lady in
{{quote|
[turns to run, and is promptly killed by the monster] }}
* Randy Meeks from the ''[[Scream (
** Randy is played by Jamie Kennedy. The movie character he's shouting at is the character played by [[Jamie Lee Curtis]]. What's he shouting? "[[Actor Allusion|Look behind you Jamie! Jamie! Look behind you!]]"
** In the second movie, the two girls who survive the crash where the killer is driving both run to the end of the block. One then turns around to check and see if the killer was dead. The second girl insists that they don't go. "This is stupid! Stupid people go back! We're not stupid people, are we!?" The killer then appears behind her and stabs her while the girl who went to check gets away.
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** She also thought this was an elaborate prank, so she said it with a tone that indicated she believed these events to all be ridiculously impossible. In fact, she breaks her own leg (and the bone shows, yeck!); the ''killer'' winces at that point. The irony was palpable.
* For how oddly genre savvy Narissa is in ''[[Enchanted]]'', she uses it in a way that ends up with her dead. By the time she has Robert in her clutches, scaling the building, it's blatantly obvious Edward and Giselle aren't joined at the hip any longer, and Giselle is not your average fairy tale princess. Now, had Narissa taken, say, Edward up the building, she might have survived. Assuming Pip didn't go after her anyway, or Nathaniel didn't go after him, being his lackey and all...
* In ''[[House
** Interestingly, in the original version of the script, he was the one who survived, while the black guy died.
* In ''[[
* In the slasher movie ''Halloween Night,'' the lesbian couple who just had sex are damn near an inversion of this trope since they made it to 3/4 of the way through the movie despite breaking pretty much every horror movie rule in the book. Still, at that point, the killer drops down in their room from...
* Subverted in ''[[Jurassic Park]],'' where Ian Malcolm, who has been predicting disaster from the start, is attacked by the T-Rex but survives. Played straight with Muldoon, who knows exactly how dangerous the dinosaurs are, and is killed by a velociraptor.
* Happens in ''[[The Cabin in
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== Live-Action TV ==
* In season 6 of ''[[
* In the episode "Exit Wounds" of ''[[
== [[Video Games]] ==
* The ''[[Star Wars]]'' game ''[[Main/Rebel Assault|Rebel Assault]] II'' has an [[Easter Egg]] that unlocks a [[Gag Dub]]. One scene of the Gag Dub has two Stormtroopers bemoaning their status as [[Red Shirt
{{quote|
'''Second Stormtrooper:''' That's a sucker bet.
'''First Stormtrooper:''' We'd probably have a chance if we weren't standing with our backs to the desert. }}
* ''[[Metroid
** From the original [[Metroid Prime|Prime]]: you're locked in a room, with a single Metroid in a stasis tank, you scan the Metroid and it breaks out. [[Genre Savvy]] players will assume you need [[Kill It
* In ''[[Metal Saga]]'', the player can once again be subjected to this. At one point, you get several messages warning you that the West is too dangerous and you'll die if you go there. A genre-savvy RPG player will take this to mean that should be their next destination. Turns out the advice is actually perfectly accurate, and if you do much more there than take the train over and pick up your choice of Soldier, you ''will'' be wiped out.
* One question in ''[[The Impossible Quiz]] 2'' warns, "PRESS THIS BUTTON TO KILL YOURSELF WITH DEATH BEFORE [[Timed Mission|THE BOMB]] DOES!" [[Insane Troll Logic|If you click the button itself, you go to the next question]]. If you click "THIS BUTTON", you die.
* The insanely [[Nintendo Hard|difficult]] game ''Syobon Action'' (also known as ''Cat Mario'') works around this concept and the game it emulates: ''[[Super Mario Bros]]'', and is does it with [[Everything Trying to Kill You|sadistic glee]]. Here, the coins are absolutely worthless, some coin blocks will kill you, the usual Mario powerups (Mushroom, Fire Flower, Starman) equal death in this world, the Warp Pipes (which in ''SMB'' were good news) will toss you to the air, and even ending a level the wrong way will destroy you.
** The sequel is gentler when it comes to
* In ''[[Mass Effect]]'', the Quarians create a race of machine slaves called the Geth who they accidentally let achieve artificial intelligence. Having seen plenty of [[Robot War|movies about this sort of thing]], they decide to preemptively strike against the Geth to soundly defeat them before [[Turned Against Their Masters|the inevitable]] occurs. They vastly underestimate the Geth, however, and bring the near total genocide of their species upon themselves and are permanently exiled from their homeworld and all other colonies. Then the player finds out that the Geth didn't have any real beef with the Quarians and were just confusedly defending themselves. 300 years later.
* In ''[[Alan Wake]]'', Nightingale becomes [[Genre Savvy]] due to his reading the manuscript pages. While gloating to a jailed Wake and Barry, he remembers that this very scene occurred in the manuscript and ended with him getting grabbed by the Dark Presence. He becomes terrified and starts looking for an exit, but... well, you know.
* A ''[[Touhou]]'' example: as a [[Bullet Hell]] [[Shoot'Em Up]], ''Touhou'' players know that getting trapped in a box of bullets is a bad idea. Anything that limits
== Webcomics ==
* In the ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' slasher pastiche "KITTEN," two [[Red Shirt
** And Cindy dies in the next strip by being cut in half, while one of the other characters comments "[[Incredibly Lame Pun|I always wanted to see Cindy topless.]]"
* [http://nonadventures.com/2006/10/28/the-rain-in-spain-stays-mainly-in-the-brains/ This] ''[[Wonderella]]'' strip.
* [http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/1059.html This] ''[[Irregular Webcomic]]'' strip, parodying ''[[
== Western Animation ==
* In an Episode of ''[[Alvin and the Chipmunks]]'', in an episode parody of ''Indiana Jones'', the villain forces Alvin(Indiana) to choose one of three mystic orbs on a pedestal. One of them is real, the other two are booby trapped. One of them has already been picked, leaving two. When Alvin reaches for the middle one, the villain immediately reasons that this is some sort of trick, and grabs the left one instead. It was the wrong choice.
** "You really should learn to trust people!"
* Henchman #24 in the Season 3 finale of ''[[The Venture Brothers]]''. Despite being genre savvy (As was his close friend, #21), buckling in a non-moving vehicle turned out to be his undoing.
** In typical Venture fashion, it's lampshaded hysterically.
{{quote|
'''#24''': I DON'T KNOOOWWW! }}
* Inverted somewhat in ''[[Teen Titans (
** Played straight a few minutes later, where Robin is taken when he's about to explain why everything's happening.
* In ''[[King of the Hill]]'', the Hills visit a Renaissance fair, where the "king" has fairgoers throw tomatoes at Peggy. She tells them that potatoes would be more historically accurate, at which point the fairgoers readily switch their ammo. Not a death per se, but Peggy didn't exactly do herself any favors.
** She's wrong about the potatoes anyway. Neither they, nor tomatoes, were known of in Europe during the Medieval period.
*** [[Completely Missing the Point|Turnips, maybe? Ouch.]]
* [[Subverted Trope|Subverted]] during the serial killer challenge on ''[[
* While he doesn't die (being a spirit, he probably ''can't'') Discord from ''[[My Little Pony:
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Death Tropes]]
[[Category:Metafiction Demanded This Index]]
[[Category:
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