Instances where a character with a terminal illness is still alive at the end (SPOILERS LIKELY)

[Gordon_Urquhart]

@Tired_and_Cranky

Creed features an enfeebled, cancer-stricken Rocky Balboa, who is declining treatment. As you would expect only in this thread, Rocky does not die. The film ends with Rocky doing a blistering training run up the “Rocky steps” in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Okay, it’s more of a hobble. And Rocky’s getting help from Creed. But he’s heading up those steps at least one more time. Sequel possibilities in which Rocky recovers the heavyweight championship are not yet fully eliminated.

(I recommend Creed if you haven’t seen it.)

Evidence that Rocky survived the events of Creed, if not quite up to fight for the championship once again:

(I also recommend Creed – it’s a really good movie.)

[Little_Nemo]

@kenobi_65

As the TV series St. Elsewhere began, Dr. Daniel Auschlander (Norman Lloyd) had been diagnosed with metastatic liver cancer, with a very poor prognosis. Over the course of the series, his cancer went into remission, and the character survived through all six seasons of the series.

In the well-known series finale, Auschlander dies – but from a stroke, not cancer. However, when the final scene of the episode suggests that all of the events seen in the series have been in the imagination of Tommy Westphall (the autistic son of Dr. Donald Westphall), Auschlander is shown to be alive, and is apparently Tommy’s grandfather.

As a side note, Norman Lloyd is still alive at the age of 103.

[Bijou_Drains]

@Little_Nemo

As a side note, Norman Lloyd is still alive at the age of 103.

and he’s still acting too.

[xizor]

Haven’t read the book, but in the movie The Fault in Our Stars one of the two main characters is alive at the end.

[Omar_Little]

@Son_of_a_Rich

We don’t see Walter die at the end of Breaking Bad.

Pretty sure he dies from remote machine guy fire he set up himself.

[PastTense]

Short Time starring Dabney Coleman:

Seattle detective Burt Simpson (Coleman) is a man who is so concerned about planning for the future that he cannot enjoy the present. This strains his relationship with his wife Carolyn (Teri Garr) and young son Dougie. However, this is to change when a mix-up at the hospital (caused by a bus driver who is trying to hide his recent use of marijuana) makes him believe that he has two weeks to live. Finding out that his family will only receive a small amount of money if he dies of natural causes, but will receive hundreds of thousands if he is killed in the line of duty, he determines to find a way to make that happen.

Short Time

[Mahaloth]

@xizor

Haven’t read the book, but in the movie The Fault in Our Stars one of the two main characters is alive at the end.

It’s a fliparoo I think. The one who is terminal lives and the one who isn’t dies.

Been awhile, though.

[Marvin_the_Martian]

@Omar_Little

Pretty sure he dies from remote machine guy fire he set up himself.

Acute lead poisoning.

[The_Other_Waldo_Pepper]

As per the meme, Scotty shrugged off seemingly-fatal doses of red-shirtedness.

[Colibri]

@The_Other_Waldo_Pepper

As per the meme, Scotty shrugged off seemingly-fatal doses of red-shirtedness.

Yet, in keeping with the meme, in one episode (The Changling), he did in fact die. (Nomad brought him back after killing him.)