facing death theme

A character is confronted with the fact of their own (more or less) impending expiration. This typically happens when a character learns that they have a terminal illness or is about to be executed.

48 total · 3 choice · 21 major · 24 minor

StoryLevelMotivation
ahp2x31 choice Johnny believed the end was neigh, so took to the bottle, swiped some expensive Cognac from a bar, scared an old lady, and shot dead a toy store security guard.
as1985e1x05 choice Central to the story was Jonathan being trapped in the underside ball turret of a B-17 bomber with no apparent hope of surviving an emergence belly landing after the plane had lost its landing wheels.
rbt1985e2x11 choice The old woman, Tildy, had evidently for many years been preoccupied with preparations for facing off against the grim reaper, should he presume to come for her.
boccachio1353d01s01 major the story regarded Master Ciappelletto's last days
ldr2019e1x11 major Space debris damaged Alexandrina's spacesuit and pushed her out into space. She was left drifting with 14 minutes of oxygen and no chance of being rescued. After entertaining the grim prospect of dying by asphyxiation, she sacrificed her own arm in order to generate the necessary momentum to get back to her spacecraft.
ldr2019e3x03 major Kivelson resolved to trek back to her landing site with little hope of making it back.
movie: Deep Impact (1998) major All but a select few faced the prospect that they were going to die horribly once the comets hit Earth.
movie: Minor Premise (2020) major The more agreeable of Ethan's ten personas were working against the clock to reintegrate Ethan's ten various selves into one Ethan before his brain was irreparably damaged.
movie: Oxygen (2021) major Central to the story was the Elizabeth clone grappling with the fact that she had less than an hour's worth of oxygen left and little hope of survival.
movie: PeutEtre (1999) major Ako was faced with the prospect of vanishing into thin air should he fail in his attempts to convince his son, Arthur, to impregnate his mother, Lucie.