Black Screen of Death

Two characters are about to fight. One charges towards the other, and suddenly...

The screen goes black.

After the screen is back, a few of these things might have happened:

• The charging character is on the floor, and the attacked character is standing perfectly fine. Often used in tandem with Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass or even as a form of comedy..
• Apparently nothing happens, and then one or both characters will drop on the floor; compare Bullet Holes and Revelations.
• Exactly what you would expect happens, and the Black Screen of Death was just a form of Relax-O-Vision or Discretion Shot.
• Cliff Hanger

The Black Screen of Death may be used as a form of censorship, but it is usually used for other reasons. It may be used to represent a character closing their eyes. Also, black may be replaced with white, though black is more likely for quick cuts whereas whiteouts tend to fade in. In games, it might also be used to avoid wasting space and programmers' time with sprites or model movements that would only be used once. This is often accompanied by the sound effects you would expect of the battle or in the case of bladed weapons the sound of a sword slicing through the air. Occasionally this will be accompanied by some slice marks across the screen reminiscent of a Clean Cut.

This type of censorship might be used by some directors to increase the (implied) violence beyond what they're capable of portraying. Two people are fighting and the screen goes black. What's happening behind the black screen is subject to the imagination of the observer. While the director is imagining a stab to the stomach to kill the enemy, another observer might be thinking of a decapitation. Or maybe they're denying what is really happening and enjoying a nice tea break instead. It's all up to you.

Not to be confused with a Blue Screen of Death, a Mac OSX kernel panic, or a black version of the BSOD that appears in earlier versions of Windows.

Compare Relax-O-Vision, Single-Stroke Battle, Bolivian Army Ending, Bolivian Army Cliffhanger.

Examples of Black Screen of Death include:

Anime And Manga

• Code Geass does this at the end of its first season with Lelouch and Suzaku shooting each other simultaneously.

Comic Books

• All Fall Down has a Black Page of Death, moments after Portia steps off the roof of her apartment building.

Film

• Used on several occasions in Cthulhu (2007), such as when the protagonist kills the Ancestor.
• Inception: Did the top topple or not? According to Christopher Nolan, even he isn't sure.
  • The answer is, of course, Yes, yes it did. Now can we get on with our lives?
• Used at the very end of Threads.
• River Tam and the Reavers at the end of Serenity.

Live Action TV

• Playr often fades to black for more violent scenes.
• The episode "You Are Cordially Invited" of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ends with O'Brien and Bashir charging at Worf and Dax, attacking them to conclude their wedding ceremony. The screen cuts to black rather than show O'Brien and Bashir getting schooled by a Klingon and his hot Trill wife, and the sound of clashing weapons is briefly heard.
• The series finale of Skins series 4 cuts to black in the middle of Cook attacking Freddie's killer. Hopefully The Movie will resolve the cliffhanger.
• Sherlock did it because at the time the writers were unsure if there was going to be a second series, so that the ending either closed the show or left viewers waiting for series 2 episode 1. Sherlock raises the gun, about to shoot a cluster of bombs that will kill him, James Moriarty and John Watson... and then the screen goes black, and the credits roll.
• Debatably used in The Sopranos, as Tony Soprano may have been killed just after a quick cut to the credits. Among the suspects: a character identified in the credits as "Members Only," plausibly, a Call Back to the episode of the same name.

Video Games

• In Fire Emblem 7, a member of the Black Fang is launching an attack at Nils when the screen turns black and Lyn appears.
• In a reference to Fire Emblem, when Lyn appears as an Assist Trophy in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the screen turns black the moment before she strikes.
• In Mega Man Battle Network 4, two members of the Mafia attempt to beat up their old (in both uses of old) leader. The screen turns black, and then we see the men on the floor.
• Akuma and his Raging Demon (Shun Goku Satsu) Dangerous Forbidden Technique in Street Fighter. In this case though, it's a "white screen of death".
  • It's sometimes black. See this video for how it has evolved over the years. It has also been copied (and parodied) in a number of other fighting games...and MUGEN.
• Knights of the Old Republic does it when the male PC kisses Bastila, to many fans' irritation.
  • Likely due to the limited number of animations in the game.
• Knights of the Old Republic II does it when Handmaiden is confronted by her sisters.
• Not the same, but similar. Done in first person in the Battlefield 2 mod Project Reality, where being dead or critically wounded blacks out the player's vision.
• In Mega Man Battle Network 6, Colonel RV has an attack in which he throws his cape at you, turns the screen black, and deletes you (or leaves you at 1 HP if you have Undershirt).
• Final Fantasy X does this when Auron confronts Isaaru after the latter attacks Yuna in the Via Purifico. Isaaru comes back just fine in the sequel, though.
• In Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, this is used for Classic Sub-Zero's spine rip fatality (since the animation couldn't be used in the new engine) and Scorpion's dopplegangers-in-hell fatality.
• Iji vs. Iosa.
• The "Frog VS Magus" ending in Chrono Trigger finishes with Frog and Magus readying for battle, then the screen goes dark as swords are heard clashing in the background while the credits roll. Then the screen fades in to show the victor standing on top of the castle: someone with a cape.
• In three of the endings to Shadow the Hedgehog, Shadow raises his hand up and delivers a sharp chop to Eggman's skull just after a cut to black, implying to have killed him.
• In Mother 3, during a scene when Lucas and his dog Boney meet Ionia, one of the Magypsies, in the Hot Springs, Ionia wants to teach Lucas how to use PSI by giving him a "test of endurance". Scene then fades to black before Ionia's words appear off-screen, telling Lucas not to struggle or scream (these words may imply rape or child sexual abuse). When the scene finally fades back in, Lucas is submerged and gets his head out of the water. When he does, he learns a few PK spells, including PK Love! (And all the while Ionia's clothes are lying near the ladder to the Hot Springs!)
• StarCraft: Brood War has one of these in the ending cinematic; General Gerard DuGalle, after reading out a letter to his wife and accepting that he will either return home in complete disgrace or be soon annihilated by Kerrigan's forces, takes out an antique pistol and puts it against his temple before the video cuts out... granted, a gunshot is heard.

Webcomics

• Homestuck uses the slice-marks variant to speed up animation in flash segments (the fact that the fight happened is generally more plot-important than animating fights carefully). Although usually it cuts to red, not black.

Web Original

• Used several times during Marble Hornets, the most noticeably when Jay gets attacked by Masky. Although it's justified by Jay dropping the camera during some sequences.
• In Everyman HYBRID This happens when Evan attacks the Slender Man. The screen cuts to black, by the end of it Slendy is gone and Evan is disoriented and bleeding from the mouth.
• This memtic take on the mysterious muted lines uttered by Gendo Ikari in The End of Evangelion cuts to black after each version.

Gendo: Ritsuko Akagi, the truth is [insert line]
Ritsuko: Huh, you liar. *BANG*

• As part of the fake CCG cards meme, a fake Magic: The Gathering card exists called Rule 34. It costs four black mana, has no art, and says "Everybody loses. No one wins." with flavor text along the lines of "All art submitted for this card was rejected."

Western Animation

• Avatar: The Last Airbender uses the cliffhanger variant in the episode "Appa's Lost Days" partway through the fight between the Kyoshi Warriors and Azula's team.
• One episode of Justice League Unlimited ends with Black Canary and the Huntress about to land flying kicks on each other when CUT TO BLACK End Credits!