Rain is often symbolic for depression, sadness, or misery.
So naturally, many people are shown dramatically dying in the rain. It may have something to do with how rain has a very dramatic effect on the field with friends or family dying.
Compare It Always Rains at Funerals, Battle in the Rain.
Contrast Rain, Rain, Go Away for people who want to defy the trope and hate rain, Happy Rain when it involves happiness.
Sub-Trope of Gray Rain of Depression.
Sister Trope to Snow Means Death and Partly Cloudy with a Chance of Death.
As this is a Death Trope, unmarked spoilers abound. Beware.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Akame ga Kill!: When Sheele was killed in an assassination attempt, Mine told everyone in Night Raid what happened to her while it was raining.
- Akudama Drive: Both Brawler and Master ended up in a Mutual Kill during their Battle in the Rain, with Hoodlum finding their corpses while it was raining.
- Bleach: It started to rain after Masaki Kurosaki, Ichigo's mother, was killed.
- Death Note: In the anime only, L's death is preceded by a miserable storm during which he and Light exchange veiled words on whether they might be "Not So Different" Remark, plus an even more Symbolic foot-washing scene.
- Dragon Ball Z: The History of Trunks: Trunks finds Gohan's corpse in the middle of a fierce rainstorm.
- Fairy Tail: Subverted. At the end of the Edolas arc, Elfman and Mirajane visit their sister Lisanna's (Edolas version) grave during a rainstorm when the real Lisanna shows up and tearfully reunites with her older siblings.
- My Hero Academia: The chapter "Light Fades to Rain" is titled in accordance with this trope. It begins to rain after Bakugo's death.
- Naruto:
- Tsuande learned about the death of her brother Nawaki during a rainstorm.
- When Tsunade's lover Dan dies in her arms, there is a strong downpour.
- Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon: In One Journey Ends Another Begins, when the elderly Stoutland dies, it begins to rain, leaving Litten distraught. When Ash and Professor Kukui arrive following this, they are seen carrying an umbrella.
- Tokyo Ghoul: Amon finds Mado's corpse in the rain.
Comic Books
- Asterix features a metatextual example: in Asterix in Belgium, the skies are overcast to reflect the death of writer René Goscinny. On page 29, rain starts to fall to mark the exact point in the writing he passed away, which persists through to the end of the book.
- Batman: Averted at the last moment in Batman: Knightfall. The Final Battle between Bane and Jean Paul Valley takes place in the rain. After Jean Paul delivers a brutal Curb-Stomp Battle, Bane demands that he kill him, even calling him Batman properly. Jean Paul is able to fight the urge to do just that, telling him he’s broken and Blackgate Prison can pick up the pieces.
Fanfiction
- A Game of Cat and Cat: It wasn't raining when Leon Belmont died, but he only realized he was a ghost when he noticed that the raindrops passed through his body. Centuries later, he still hates rain.
- In the Gullfriend31 fanfic Making Peace with the Past
(a Smile PreCure! story), it's revealed that Yayoi's late father Yuuichi was killed in a car accident. It had begun to rain, and the wheels of his vehicle lost traction on the road, causing him to crash into a tree. Though Yayoi survived due to her seatbelt, Yuuichi was not so lucky.
Films — Animated
- The Land Before Time: When Littlefoot's mother was dying from a serious injury after fighting off a Sharptooth, it started to rain.
- Lilo & Stitch (2002): Lilo's description of how she lost her parents is as follows: "It was rainy and they went for a drive." This implies that they were killed in a car accident due to the weather.
- Tarzan (1999):
- Tarzan returns to the jungle to save his ape family after Clayton reveals that he's going to sell them on the black market. Kerchak, the leader of the apes, gets shot by Clayton while protecting Tarzan, and a thunderstorm breaks out during the final battle. After the battle, it rains as Kerchak succumbs to his wounds, and with his dying words, apologizes to Tarzan for the years of hardship he put him through and makes him his successor.
- Clayton dies when a vine ends up making a noose after cutting too many vines with it being rainy.
Films — Live-Action
- Blade Runner: Roy Batty comes to terms with his mortality while fighting Deckard in the heavy rain. Realizing that there's nothing he can do to extend his life, he gives his List-of-Experiences Speech before he finally goes limp.
- Godzilla Minus One: After Noriko pushes Koichi out of the way to avoid the incoming debris caused by Godzilla's atomic breath, Koichi's wails of grief at her sacrifice are accompanied by a black, tarlike rain. Granted, she later had a black mark on her neck, suggesting wither radiation poisoning or a mutation, it's subverted as in the end of the movie, it's revealed that Noriko did survive.
- Grave of the Fireflies (2005): It's raining when Hisako, carrying food back from purchase that was bought in part with her wedding gift kimono, drops some of the food. The mailman stops to help her pick it up — then hands her a formal letter informing her her husband Genzou, who was drafted into the army, is dead. The rain persists as she tells her four children and his brother Yoshie of his death, and Seita tells her that her husband's death is something to rejoice over as he died serving his country and his own father and the navy will avenge Genzou, upsetting her more. She goes in the kitchen and sees the leak from the roof — as Genzou was unable to fix the roof before he left — and she breaks down crying alone next to the pot catching the leak's water.
- Phantom of the Paradise: After Winslow comes across Swan in bed with a clearly intoxicated Phoenix, he sits out on the roof of the Paradise and stabs himself in the chest as he is being drenched with rain. Much to his horror, he discovers that this does not kill him; the contract he signed with Swan specifically says that he cannot die until Swan releases him, which is his first clue that Swan's powers are more than just legal.
- Saving Private Ryan: During Charlie Company's first run in with the 101st, it's raining heavily. During an altercation with a French family, Pvt. Caparzo is shot by a sniper. He ends up slowly bleeding to death a few minutes later, his blood mixing in with the rainwater. Consequently, Jackson kills the German sniper who shot Caparzo shortly afterward. In a later scene, a squad of German soldiers end up gunned down by US paratroopers in the midst of the same downpour.
Literature
- "The Graveyard Rats": It's been raining for weeks when Masson decides to risk digging up the latest rich corpse in the graveyard. However, he is minutes behind on the rats also coming for the corpse and by the time Masson lifts the lid all he sees is a shoe disappear into the rats' tunnels. This provokes him into going after the corpse into the tunnels that among other dangers are all soggy and slippery from the rain. Masson does not survive his greedy decision.
- The Stormlight Archive: It was raining during the battle in which Tien died.
Live-Action TV
- Kamen Rider Ex-Aid loves Gray Rain of Depression to death, pun intended. It starts raining towards the end of Lazer/Genm fight, completely drenching Kiriya as he disintegrates into pixels.
- Torchwood: "Everything Changes": The dead body of a man is investigated in the middle of drenching rain. The rain ceases when Torchwood manages to briefly bring the corpse back to life using a Resurrection Gauntlet, coming back in full force when the man dies for good.
Music
- Enrique Iglesias: "Hero": In the music video, Iglesias’ character succumbs to his wounds in the rain at the end of the video.
- Jim Stafford: "Swamp Witch": One day, it starts to rain in the town in Okeechobee County and the rain doesn't let up for days if not weeks. The swamp water of the nearby bayou rises and mosquitoes carry disease into town, the first victim of which is the town doctor. The death count steadily rises until the local swamp witch intervenes and hands the townsfolk a cure. At the same time, the skies clear.
Mythology & Religion
- Irish Mythology: Invoked with the god Donn Fírinne. He was primarily a death god and a psychopomp, but he was also associated with rain and storms, especially sea storms. In fact "Donn is riding tonight" was another way of saying that it was raining.
Video Games
- Brothers in Arms: During the level "Black Friday" in Hell's Highway, Dean "Friar" Winchell ends up getting killed when a German mortar levels the bakery he and members of 2nd and 3rd Squad are in. All the while a downpour is happening outside, and all of the characters are soaked in rainwater.
- Crisis Core: It's raining while Zack dies.
- L.A. Noire: In the final mission "A Different Kind of War" both Ira Hogeboom and Cole Phelps die in the last part of the mission while it was raining, as well as most of the corrupt Vice Squad in Jack Kelso's shootout.
- Saints Row 2: During the mission where the Brotherhood kidnaps Carlos in revenge for the Saints disfiguring Maero, their leader, it starts to rain as the Boss gets closer to finding Carlos. Sure enough, he finds Carlos being dragged behind a truck, and even after stopping it, Carlos is so badly and painfully disfigured that the Boss can only give him a Mercy Kill as the rain keeps pouring.
- Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League: The death of the Batman Clone is marked by the start of rainfall.
- Xenoblade Chronicles 1: It's raining when Sorean Antiqua is killed by Metal Face
Western Animation
- Justice League: "Hereafter": After Superman was hit with Toyman's experimental weapon it started to rain. Subverted, when it was revealed that he was sent 30,000 years into the future instead.