Last Grasp at Life
A character dies falling into a Shark Pool, Acid Pool or Lava Pit, and their last action is a hand desperately reaching upwards to grasp at... nothing, before going under with the rest of them. Possibly it's the last part of their body to sink into the ooze, but a more dramatic version has them entirely submerged, before their hand bursts through the surface to give one final scare. Bonus points if it grabs someone's ankle.
This is generally, but not exclusively, reserved for villains. It's also by no means a guarantee they've been Killed Off for Real - possibly the hand clawing at life is a symbol of the kind of Heroic Willpower that can bring you Back from the Dead. The shot is often shown in reverse when someone digs out of their own grave.
See also Futile Hand Reach, which is more likely to be executed by a witness to the death.
As a Death Trope, all Spoilers will be unmarked ahead. Beware.
- The Joker in Tim Burton's Batman, as he sinks into the Acid Pool.
- Subverted in Terminator 2, as Arnie signs off being lowered into the crucible with the thumbs-up taught to him by Connor.
- Gollum in the film version of Return of the King as he falls into the lava pit at Mount Doom, holding the Ring in that one hand.
- Common in card art for Magic: The Gathering. Examples include Quicksand and Unsummon.
- The last we see of Dr. No in the titular James Bond movie is his Robot Hand trying to grasp a metal support beam as he drowns in the cooling tank of a nuclear reactor.
- In Aladdin, Jafar's hand is the last thing to disappear into the lamp, reaching out to take Iago with him. Because if you're going to spend eternity in an oil lamp, you want Gilbert Gottfried in there with you.
- Real Life: This is (supposedly) the origin of the phrase "grasping at straws". It comes from the idea that a drowning person would (if they have no means of rescue and can't swim) try to pull themselves back to the surface by grabbing straws floating on it. A related trope is the old belief that a drowning person would manage to resurface three times before finally succumbing. Hence "going down for the third time" as a way of saying this was the end. Old Bugs Bunny cartoons would often have a hand coming up from the water displaying 1, 2, 3 on its fingers before going down for the last time.
- In Nomads of Gor the Big Bad uses a living pool, "The Yellow Pool of Turia," as his preferred method of execution. He keeps it in a hothouse where there are vines growing around which he can manipulate via remote control so they're closer or further from the victim, to torture them by making them think they could grab a vine and pull themselves out. "I have even seen them reach for vines a spear's length above their head and think they could reach them!" Naturally this comes back to bite him in the ass during the climax.
- Thrax dies in this way in Osmosis Jones. The last part of him to go is his index finger, which is his signature weapon, bursting cells upon contact.
- The Terminator scene gets parodied in Lobo comics - while sinking in quick drying cement, Lobo (modified into a robocopesque cyborg at that time) uses his last gesture to give everyone a finger.
- The Naked Gun does this in the first movie, to a Mook sent by the main bad guy to kill Drebin at the slaughterhouse.
- In Flushed Away, when Rita's boat, the Jammy Dodger, sinks in a whirlpool, the last thing she sees is its mechanical arm giving a farewell salute.
- The Stinger of Metroid Prime shows Dark Samus' hand reach out of the remains of the titular Metroid Prime. And the eye on the back of her hand opens.
- In Twilight Princess, If Link falls into lava or quicksand, he'll sink down into it, with just his hand reaching up before he respawns.
- In Nation, First Mate Cox raises his gun one last time as he's sinking into the lagoon full of sharks.
- The second Der Wixxer movie gives us a variant of this, by having the bad guy giving the middle finger.
- Towards the end of Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow, Lady van Tassel is dragged to hell by the Hessian through the Tree of the Dead. All that remains of her in the physical world is her hand, which sticks out of the tree.
- In Super Mario Galaxy, if Mario falls into toxic waste, he is seen sinking in it and then drowns before he puts a hand up above the surface one last time.