Best Deaths in Movie history *will contain spoilers obviously*

I just recall Marve's death in 'Sin City', talk about defiant till the end.

Theo's death in Children of Men is very moving.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

He finds out that the girl will call her baby Dillan, after Theo's son who he has been grieving the whole way through the film.

But also Jasper's (Michael Caine) as well for the defiance of it.

Tommy's death in Trainspotting. Yeah, that's a death; slow, painful, self inflicted, stupid, meaningless, and disgusting. Spoiler:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Abandoned by his friends after they help him get hooked on heroin, he contracts AIDS and squats in a nasty flat in Scotland. Desperate to reclaim his life, he buys a kitten for the girlfriend whose dumping of him sparked the whole chain of events. Of course she sends his sore covered addict *ss packing, and the kitten ****s all over his apartment, to the point that he contracts toxoplasmosis, lapses into a coma, and rots in his apartment until someone notices the smell. Just to provide the final perfect indignity, the glimpse we get of him in this state suggests that the kitten may have started eating him before he was quite dead.

Gunny Hartman's death in Full Metal Jacket, for full circle existential realization. Having spent months breaking down young men to acquaint them with the reality of war, he is completely unable to understand the consequences of the pressure he piled on Private Pyle. The little girl Vietcong sniper who gets it later deserves an honorable mention.

For comedic effect, nothing beats the fat man in MP's The Meaning of Life. "Wafer thin mint, sir?" "**** off, I'm full!"

For impact, probably the Braveheart ending. Cheesy, expected, but effective nonetheless.

The Da Vinci Code. When the Opus Dei albino guy shoots his master by mistake. Comedy genius.

And the end of Saints and Soldiers, if anyone has seen it.

A lot of really good ones have been mentioned, but here's a personal favorite that I haven't seen listed yet: The death of Waring Hudsucker in The Hudsucker Proxy. Art and comedy have never been so at home together in a death scene.

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Originally Posted by TinCow

A lot of really good ones have been mentioned, but here's a personal favorite that I haven't seen listed yet: The death of Waring Hudsucker in The Hudsucker Proxy. Art and comedy have never been so at home together in a death scene.

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44 Floors.
Not counting the mezzanine! :laugh4:

Tony Montana in Scarface, and Vincent Vega's death in Pulp Fiction.

:balloon2:

Ben Kingsley and Morgan Freeman in Lucky Number Slevin. Poetic justice indeed.

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Originally Posted by InsaneApache

Ben Kingsley and Morgan Freeman in Lucky Number Slevin. Poetic justice indeed.

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And the cop.

Some 70's movie about a boy who is raising a bird from egg till buzzard, the moment he lets the buzzard fly free it get's shot down by a hunter... was supposed to be dramatic but it had me laughing for an hour seeing how my sister and I were just beforehand joking about how funny that would be...

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Originally Posted by ShadesPanther

And the cop.

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Yes. :yes:

Last frame of "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid".

American History X! Let us not forget Danny!

Ahhh, AHX! The curb eater :yes: . Danny's was okay, but the curbie was one of the rare times when I was glad the camera cut away from the action.

Amen to that. It made my teeth hurt for weeks after seeing that. Nice call btw.

YODA!!!!

The most memorable recent one is George Hansen in Easy Rider. So senseless, after a great speech too.

Also, Layercake. Unexpected, puts an entirely new twist on the movie.

L.A. Confindential. Kevin Spacey. He didn't even see it coming.

Other greats: Blade Runner, Leon, The Green Mile, Serenity (Like a leaf on the wind... awful after watching the series), the guy in the dead village in Carnivale, Donnie Darko, anything in Pan's Labyrinth.

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Originally Posted by TinCow

A lot of really good ones have been mentioned, but here's a personal favorite that I haven't seen listed yet: The death of Waring Hudsucker in The Hudsucker Proxy. Art and comedy have never been so at home together in a death scene.

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Ah, a vastly underrated film. Great stuff. Be sure to watch The Man Who Wasn't There.

Jacob in Jacob's Ladder.

The traffic cop in Electra Glide in Blue. Robert Blake IIRC. A naughty man in real life.

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Originally Posted by Geoffrey S

Also, Layercake. Unexpected, puts an entirely new twist on the movie.

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Agreed. I just saw this movie about a week ago, and I really enjoyed it -- a pretty slick caper with a good dose of dark humor. (Thank you, BBC America! :2thumbsup: ) The death at the end was a great unexpected twist.

DiCaprio in The Departed- I jumped when he ...how do I use spoiler tags again?

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Originally Posted by Decker

DiCaprio in The Departed- I jumped when he ...how do I use spoiler tags again?

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[spoil ] and [/spoil ], without the extra blanks, of course. Sometimes they don't work properly.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

like this

Malcom X had a good one in it...

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Originally Posted by Blodrast

[spoil ] and [/spoil ], without the extra blanks, of course. Sometimes they don't work properly.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

like this

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Thanks... now where was I? O yes...

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he comes out of the elevator and gets shot in the head at the end.

It worked!- anyways; That was one of the few times I've jumped while watching a movie. And because of that movie and Blood Diamond, I've gained new respect for the man as an actor.

Daniel Day Lewis in The Crucible, hung just before he is able to finish the Lord's prayer.

Also, while I'm thinking. Last of the the Mohicans when Alice Munro throws herself off the cliff rather than be captured.

Boramir in LOTR was excellant but Sean Bean always dies well.

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Originally Posted by Philipvs Vallindervs Calicvla

Boramir in LOTR was excellant but Sean Bean always dies well.

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It's what he does best.

I so thought he was the bad guy and was going to die in Flightplan. Purely from past form.

Princess Bride. Who can forget "Wine in front of me"?

D. Washington in Man on Fire. :no: so sad.

Nick's death in The Deer Hunter.

I liked Matt Damon's death at the end of the The Departed. Kind of anticlimatic, but it was nice to see him get what was coming to him.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

He looks like he's completely in the clear, and then as he's entering his apartment at the end, he gets shot.

Joe Pesci's death in goodfellas was also good.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

He thinks he's going to become a made man, then when he's taken into the room where it's supposed to take place, the room is empty. He realizes whats going on just in time to get shot in the back of the head.

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Originally Posted by ShadesPanther

It's what he does best.

I so thought he was the bad guy and was going to die in Flightplan. Purely from past form.

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Wuh? You thought from past form that Sharpe was the bad guy and like to die?

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Originally Posted by Philipvs Vallindervs Calicvla

Wuh? You thought from past form that Sharpe was the bad guy and like to die?

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Sharpe is one of his few good guy roles. Almost every Hollywood or big movie, he is the bad guy.

Here are just a few of his bad guy roles.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The Island
National Treasure
Don't Say a Word
Essex Boys
GoldenEye
Patriot Games
The Hitcher

There are others but I'm not really familiar with them.

He's really only been 2 good guys recently.
In Equilibrium and in Flightplan


There are also characters that are flawed like Boromir in LOTR

Which could make me add Sean Bean's death in Equilibrium.



And major spoilers
A list of all the movies he's died in and how.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Sean Bean's deaths

Sean Bean was also the bad guy in a movie called The Hitcher, where he was a hitchiker who murdered people who picked him up.

Lots of good ones, I figured I'd add a few more:

The last charge of the Samurai in "Last of the Samurai" when they open up with the gats. Very sad.

The death of the main antagonist in, "Rob Roy". You couldnt wait for him to die, or at least I couldn't.

The 'death' of Brad Pitt's character in, "Fight Club".

I'm surprised no one's mentioned this one even though its not shown, the dog in "Ol' Yeller". Its surprising how much of an effect an animal dying can be.

The nanny at the brithday party in, "The Omen." Actually, add the Priest to it as well.

Acht, and there are several more that I thought of while typing this that I now can't remember. Oh well when I do ...

William Blake in "Dead Man" by Jim Jarmush

In a ship burial.

CR: Good one.

Agreed on: Capt. from Private Ryan, Crowe in Gladiator, Hauer's character from Blade Runner, and Bean as Boromir (extended version much better lead in to this).

I'd add:

Jimmy Cagney's finale in White Heat.

John Vernon's in Questor Tapes (an otherwise thoroughly forgettable pilot).

Robert Redfords' in The Great Waldo Pepper.

George Peppard's in The Blue Max.

Gabriel Byrne's death in The Usual Suspects.

Marlon Brando's in Young Lions.

Matt Broderick's in Glory.

Toshiro Mifune's in Seven Samurai.

Henry Fondas AND Jason Robard's in Once Upon a Time in the West.

Most of the deaths in Hot Fuzz. It's creativity gone wild.

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Originally Posted by Sensei Warrior

Lots of good ones, I figured I'd add a few more:

The last charge of the Samurai in "Last of the Samurai" when they open up with the gats. Very sad.

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A very good scene. That commander character who yells to destroy them and keep shooting is one of those annoying roles.

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The 'death' of Brad Pitt's character in, "Fight Club".

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I don't find this a good death, though to each his taste. It was a good story but I was not particularly... "moved" by this representation of death.

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I'm surprised no one's mentioned this one even though its not shown, the dog in "Ol' Yeller". Its surprising how much of an effect an animal dying can be.

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I haven't seen it, but that title "Ol' Yeller" is funny :P

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Originally Posted by Bijo

A very good scene. That commander character who yells to destroy them and keep shooting is one of those annoying roles.

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I agree. The character was very slimy, scummy and underhanded. A nice depiction of the 'modern world', as compared to the Leader of the Samurai, upright, noble, and with honor. I'm not saying there was alot of symbolism, but I think someone took the time to construct those characters like that, to give you another emotional hook into those last few scenes.

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Originally Posted by Bijo

I don't find this a good death, though to each his taste. It was a good story but I was not particularly... "moved" by this representation of death.

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Hmm, true.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Just through the movie you start to see the character paint himself into a corner. Towards the end of the movie I was thinking how the heck he was gonna get out of it, short of killing himself.

Then the scene when the movie opened up, I went holy crap, I forgot all about the fact that he started the movie with a gun in his mouth, and then I went, uh oh, he's gonna die, then he shoots himself (visually that shot is spectacular), and lives. Left me kind of spinning.

Course, then again, I'm no movie critic ~;)

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Originally Posted by Bijo

I haven't seen it, but that title "Ol' Yeller" is funny :P

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It's been a long time since I've seen it. Its a Disney movie I think. About a farmer boy and his dog. The movie itself isn't memorable, except the end part. Anyone who has seen that, and the emotion it conveys, doesn't forget it.

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Originally Posted by Sensei Warrior

I agree. The character was very slimy, scummy and underhanded. A nice depiction of the 'modern world', as compared to the Leader of the Samurai, upright, noble, and with honor. I'm not saying there was alot of symbolism, but I think someone took the time to construct those characters like that, to give you another emotional hook into those last few scenes.

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Masato Harada, the man who played Omura also played a remarkably similar role in Fearless. In Fearless, he's a corrupt Japanese politician looking to exploit and humiliate China during the very early 1900's. Although he's only been in those two movies, I think he does a pretty good job. Turns out he's much more accomplished(at least in number of titles) as a film director.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masato_Harada

Add in the show openers for the first few seasons of Six Feet Under. Weird, Funny, Sad -- what a weirdly appropriate motif they had going.

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Originally Posted by Sensei Warrior

I agree. The character was very slimy, scummy and underhanded. A nice depiction of the 'modern world', as compared to the Leader of the Samurai, upright, noble, and with honor.

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Not old-fashioned, unwilling to move with the times, and a danger to the future sovereignty of Japan? ~;)

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Originally Posted by Geoffrey S

Not old-fashioned, unwilling to move with the times, and a danger to the future sovereignty of Japan? ~;)

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Exactly, and there in lies the rub, does it not?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The movie needed to do a little emotional manipulation in order to keep everything going the way they wanted to. The movie tries very hard to get you to sympathize with the samurai. Playing up the noble warrior role of the samurai to the hilt, willing to die for the emperor, the heroic last stand, dying for the 'right' cause, etc.

Not all samurai were like that. Most ruled their people using the same rules they lived by, that their people lived or died by their hand. Much the same as the samurai lived or died by the emperors hand. This often led to the samurai killing the peasants they ruled over the slightest infraction. Not necessarily the best trait for a good leader, but common enough back in the day. The japanese samurai, and feudal knights weren't too different from each other really.

The samurai were also stubborn, disturbingly traditional, and probably a little xenophobic. Thus the reality of them being unwilling to modernize. Of course rooting for dated tyrants who rule with an iron fist is hard to do, so the movie idealized the samurai bringing the ideal traits of them to the forefront and minimizing the not so ideal parts of them.

On the other hand Harada's character could have been very easily looking out for the best interests of Japan, but if they portrayed him as such, he wouldnt have seemed like the bad guy. Thus let the vilification commence.

In the end, the movie was romanticizing the Feudal Age of Japan and its traditional ways. Much like other movies do the same for the European Middle Ages, and we all know that Age was no bed of roses. Progression and modernization were vilified much like it always is, most people are very resistant to change. The two characters in the movie were polarized to that end.

As I look back on this post i realized, I'm probably starting to derail this thread. In the end, I happened to like 'Last of the Samurai', and even though it is probably nothing more than a mildly entertaining movie to most, it does seem to have some nice cinematic elements to it. However the point of the thread was to talk about memorable deaths in film, thus the spoiler tags so you guys can more easily ignore my ramblings. I make my apologies and exit stage left. :bow:

You make some good points, Sensei Warrior.


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Another good death is in the movie Troy when Achilles perishes.

(What I dislike about this movie though is the general story: it depicts the foolish primitive nature of humanity (which is usually seen in many movies) but especially the two young fools who cause a war because of that thing called "love". So... men are to die because a young prince acts like a fool.)

Welcome to the Illias~:cheers:
Though in the movie it was quite clear that the war was largely due to Agamemnon and his imperialistic ideas.
That said, I liked Achilles' death, but I really wanted to see Paris die too

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Originally Posted by Sensei Warrior

As I look back on this post i realized, I'm probably starting to derail this thread. In the end, I happened to like 'Last of the Samurai', and even though it is probably nothing more than a mildly entertaining movie to most, it does seem to have some nice cinematic elements to it. However the point of the thread was to talk about memorable deaths in film, thus the spoiler tags so you guys can more easily ignore my ramblings. I make my apologies and exit stage left. :bow:

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I agree with your post, and you make good points on the reasons behind the way The Last Samurai was made. The movie may have been a polarised and over-positive depiction, but I enjoyed it all the same for the fact that it was a good film.

In case you haven't seen it, you may want to try the oldish series Shogun. It's a bit dated at times now, but it doesn't glorify the samurai way but still evokes sympathy for most of its characters. The book's also good.

Did that series have Richard Chamberlain in it? If it did then I saw it. I saw a series of Samurai something back in the day, and I'm talking bout 11-12 years ago on VHS. Richard's character was a Portugese sailor that gets shipwrecked off the coast of Japan. Stroy continues on from there.

I agree, it has a much better depiction of Samurai, and ninjas IIRC.

That's the one.

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Originally Posted by Conradus

...but I really wanted to see Paris die too

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Isn't Ms. Hilton having enough problems of late. Why drag her into this?

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Originally Posted by Conradus

Welcome to the Illias~:cheers:
Though in the movie it was quite clear that the war was largely due to Agamemnon and his imperialistic ideas.
That said, I liked Achilles' death, but I really wanted to see Paris die too

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Perhaps, but those two young fools certainly gave him good reason to start in the first place and to intensify his anger and greed. In the movie "peace" has just been established and the foolish prince immediately takes away the young woman? Pah, he did no honour to his lands and folk nor to his father: he betrayed his father and his people and now poor men must fight and perish because of his foolish act.

Now HIS death would have been a splendid one indeed, but noooooo... he survives like a coward and shoots the GOOD (though that is subjective) Achilles down with a bow and arrow AGAIN like a coward! Argh! He has the worst role in the whole film! "Oh, I love you. I would kill for you. Let us flee, together." The fool :P

On second thought I find the death of Achilles a terrible one simply because that schmuck prince kills him. Didn't his brother die too? That was a good death scene (and unfortunately again because of the foolish young prince :laugh4:).