pen- he bit down on the cap which had an ampoule of lethal poison concealed inside it. According to the Russian agent interrogating him, he was dead before he hit the floor. Metaphorical uses In economics, a suicide pill is a form of risk arbitrage used by corporations to suicide during hostile takeover attempts. As an extreme version of the poison pill defense, this crippling provision refers to any technique used by a target firm in which takeover protection could result in self-destruction. Variations of the suicide pill include the Jonestown Defense, the Scorched Earth defense, and the golden parachute. Space travel One urban legend suggests that American astronauts could carry suicide pills in case they are unable to return to Earth. It is possible this myth was started by the movie Contact in a scene where the main character is given suicide pills in case she cannot get back to Earth. This was disputed by astronaut Jim Lovell, who co-wrote Lost Moon (later renamed Apollo 13). On the DVD director's commentary, it was asserted that because marooned astronauts could easily commit suicide by simply venting the air from their spacecraft or suits, such a pill would not likely be necessary. Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov stated that the Soviet space program gave him a suicide pill for use if he could not reenter Voskhod 2 after his March 1965 spacewalk. In popular culture An episode of Extraordinary Attorney Woo depicted the head of a technology company publicly ingesting a cyanide pill in front of a courtroom to protest his company’s treatment by the legal system. He was promptly rushed to the hospital and did not die. References External links Poisons Suicide methods