Best Deaths in Movie history *will contain spoilers obviously*

[Ronin]

In movie history we have been witness to some great death scenes......some have made us cry....some have made us laugh when a particularly dastardly villain met his end....and sometimes even the hero met his end in a death moment that defined badassery!!!

what I want is for everybody to say what is their favourite death in film, give details, movie, character and of course why it is your favorite


My pick:

The Movie - Dog Soldiers Dog Soldiers

The character - Pvt. 'Spoon' Witherspoon

Why this death - This movie is an English horror flick about a squad of English soldiers out on a training mission....little do they know that the Scottish woods that they are being sent into are actually the home of a pack of Werewolfs....what follows is one of my favorite horror movies of all times....as the squadies that would rather just had stayed home and watched the soccer match fight to survive the night inside an old isolated house....
Things soon go from bad to worse as the werewolfs manage to enter the house....our man spoon is caught in the kitchen with a werewolf...looking death in the face spoon decides he ain´t going down without a fight and using knifes, pots, and his own hands and feet procedes to fight the werewolf mano-a-mano .....but all to no avail....as second werewolf enters the room just as the first one revives.... ... grabbed by the throat and pinned against a wall our man has time to give the furries one last piece of his mind: "I hope I give you the *****, you ******* wimp" he then gets devoured (off-screen)

That´s it spoon! when you have nothing left.....give them attitude!!!

[Whacker]

This is how I'd like to die.

Hands down. If you're gonna go, why not take a 19km long super star destroyer with you, and a good chunk of a man-made planetoid for good measure?

[Conradus]

'V's death in "V for Vendetta"

After killing 12 men who emptied their entire clips on him, he kills them all with his knives before they reload. (Just as he said he would)
Then he dies and Evey (Natalie Portman) puts him on the metro he build to blow up the Houses of Parliament in London. And so goes V, with fireworks in the sky and on the ground. Truly a spectacular moment.

This isn't my preferred death, but the one I remember most fondly now.

[Samurai Waki]

Sir Bors, Monty Python and the Holy Grail;

Sir Bors: Right! Silly little bleeder. One rabbit stew comin' right up! ...

[Bijo]

Gladiator: when he dies at the end.

The Untouchables: when the cop dies in his house.

[GeneralHankerchief]

When Gen. Armistead bites it in Gettysburg.

[Togakure]

Miryea Mendez' death in Revenge (1990). Anthony Quinn plays her jealous, powerful, and corrupt husband Tibby, and Costner plays Tibby's friend. He falls in love with Tibby's wife, crosses the forbidden line, and gets caught.

I think it's the music that makes this scene so powerful for me (Maurice Jarre did the soundtrack). That, and she reminds me of a cherished "ex," with whom I've lost contact and wonder if she's still alive.

[Privateerkev]

By far my favorite death is when the soldier in "Saving Private Ryan" explodes from his own sticky bomb. It is still very amusing to watch the reactions of people who have never seen that scene before. It might not be as "epic" or "heroic" as some of the other choices on here. But, I would argue that, that scene has emotionally reached many people due to its abrubt and raw power.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

The death of Maximus in Gladiator.

[Bijo]

By far my favorite death is when the soldier in "Saving Private Ryan" explodes from his own sticky bomb. It is still very amusing to watch the reactions of people who have never seen that scene before. It might not be as "epic" or "heroic" as some of the other choices on here. But, I would argue that, that scene has emotionally reached many people due to its abrubt and raw power.

A far better death scene would be with the Captain in this movie. His death was glorious, heroic, etc. The Sergeant before him was also a good death scene, but not as dramatic as the Captain's.

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

-Sergeant Elias in Platoon. The scene where he throws up his arms in slow motion as Adaggio for Strings plays is a classic.

-Mr Big's death in Live and Let Die. He gets literally blown up by Bond using a compressed gas pellet gun.

-The eponymous Leon in Leon/The Professional. Utterly tragic, yet Gary Newman's wonderfully slimy portrayal makes it deliciously satisfying to see his character get his just deserts.

-The Terminator in Terminator 2. Who'd have thought Arnie being lowered into a vat of liquid metal would be such a tear-jerker?

-Apollo Creed in Rocky IV. This one's got both ridiculous slow-motion and sinister Russians.

[Martok]

I believe I already stated so in one of the other movie threads here in the Frontroom, but I'll say it again: Spock's death in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. It *still* chokes me up, even though I've literally seen the movie at least 100 times.

Saving Private Ryan has another death scene that really affected me, but I've not seen it mentioned here yet: When the medic is shot and dies after assaulting the radar station. When he starts crying for his mom in his death throes, I always want to bawl and vomit simultaneously. A very well done, very affecting scene IMO.

[Gawain of Orkeny]

No this is the best ever Death in Movie History

Batman89 - Batman and Joker Final Showdown

[Lemur]

I want to be like the screaming coward at the end of Yojimbo. A high-pitched terror whine will be just fine for me.

[Gregoshi]

Nevermind.

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

Ooh, how about Obi Wan Kenobi's death. Raising the saber, the sly smile to Luke-that's some powerful stuff.

[Crazed Rabbit]

I must have missed something...

CR

[Decker]

In Band of Brothers (I forgot the name of the episodes) the episodes where they are getting hammered above the town of Foy and the one before that where it follows the medic around during Bastogne. Some of the guys that you have followed since Curahee, either get killed or horrible maimed including new guys and a hospital full of wounded and civilian volunteers. I've never been in real combat let alone a war, but I have read enough about it to know that war is probably the closest thing to hell on earth and these two episodes certainly brought that home and induced a slight panic attack(to see that these things actually happen to people) when I first saw these episodes one after the other.

[Kralizec]

(Deleted hotlink pic - Beirut)

[HoreTore]

"WHAT is your favourite colour?"

"Red! ...no, blue! Aaaaaahhh!"

Best one ever.

[GiantMonkeyMan]

"WHAT is your favourite colour?"

"Red! ...no, blue! Aaaaaahhh!"

Best one ever.

monty python... a classic

'Spoon' from dog soldiers has a class death it's funny and heroic at the same time but my favourite movie death has to be in Deep Blue Sea when samuel l jackson is going on about how they need to work together to escape the 'evil' sharks and, just as his speech ends, a huge shark burst through the glass behind him and wipes him out... crap film but that made it worth while

[drone]

"Oh man, I shot Marvin in the face."

Totally senseless, funny, and unexpected. Great plot vehicle.

[econ21]

I am sure there are better ones, but the death of Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) in Blade Runner is memorable:

"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in the rain. Time to die."

[seireikhaan]

Hmm, Titanic. No, not Leonardo DeCrappio's death(obviously). When the ship is going down, and has nearly tipped vertical, one guy falls from the top of the ship. As he falls down, BOINK, he smashes into the propeller of the ship. Nah, I'm kidding.

Anyway, I dunno why exactly, but I really like Jet Li's death in Fearless. I guess because he held back against Tanaka, kinda cementing his 'transformation' from his earlier days.

[Odin]

1. I dont know the chainsaw in the shower scene of scarface comes to mind.

2.The bum on the street in clock work orange before alex's re education, when they kicked the crap out of him, i cant remember if he died but the scene immediately popped into my head as a "best death"

3. Lucy lu's charecter dieing, after a lengthy bloody battle with uma thurman in Kill Bill Vol 1.

4. Lee van cleef in the good the bad and the ugly. Not his death, but in the first part of the movie he kills a man who tells him about the cash box (and his son) and then takes his gold and explains to his employer (as he is sickly in bed) that he assumed that the man wanted him to kill the employer in retribution. Some laughter ensues on thier part and then Angel eyes pulls the pillow over the employers head and puts a bullet into it. (personal favorite because its not just one death, but a few killings intertwined).

5.Robert Shaw as "quint" in Jaws. he proclaims he will never put on a life jacket again after his boat went down in WWII after delivering the hiroshima bomb. The fishing boat he is on is damaged, the shark is circiling and he is looking at the chief (Roy schnieder). Now everytime the shark is in the water, you hear the infamous music, execept this time, no music just the sudden propelling of the shark on the boat, quint slips and tries to kick away from the shark. No luck he's crushed in its mouth.

those are 5 that came to mind when looking at this thread.

[Axeknight]

The Movie - Dog Soldiers

The character - Pvt. 'Spoon' Witherspoon

I love that film. It's great because the squaddies make all the right decisions (unlike most horror films, they never do stupid stuff like separating, turning lights off etc), they really give the werewolves a fight (the bit with the Land Rover and the shed being a prime example), but by the end you can see they really never had a chance. Spoon's last act of defiance was brilliant, but my favourite bit is the last shot of the next day's newspaper.

I am sure there are better ones, but the death of Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) in Blade Runner is memorable:

"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in the rain. Time to die."

He wrote that speech himself, you know. Very poignant, especially since he's been portrayed as pretty much the bad guy right through.

A few more favourites [SPOILERS: have put the titles in bold in case anyone doesn't want them spoiled] -

Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando) in Apocalypse Now - it's a cliche, but it's still pretty powerful, with Martin Sheen rising out of the swamp with a look in his eyes like he's possessed by a demon.

Daniel Craig in Layer Cake - just when it's over, just as he's finally won, he's killed by a nobody character he stole Sienna Miller from about 20 minutes in.

Sonny Corleone (James Caan) in The Godfather - for how the guard at the tollbooth drops to the floor and he suddenly realises he's been set up, and for the (quite literal) overkill of the assassins. And the way one kicks him afterwards, just to make sure.

Tony Montana (Al Pacino) in Scarface - another cliche, but nobody's mentioned it yet. The zoom out shot of the fountain is great (Al Pacino had to hold his breath for a ridiculous amount of time for that one).

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

"On this, Brian, the occasion of your martyrdom, we would like to extend to you our most sincere thanks for what you have done for us and our organization, and can only offer our condolences on what must be, after all, a very difficult time."

[Bijo]

-Sergeant Elias in Platoon. The scene where he throws up his arms in slow motion as Adaggio for Strings plays is a classic.

That was a good death scene. I saw this movie the first time at a fairly young age and recall it was a very (emotionally) powerful play.

[Soulforged]

I'll have to say the death of that anonymous fellow on the backseat during one of the scenes on Pulp Fiction for that great laughing death scene, it's unspected, shocking and terrible, but for the quality of the storytelling and the dialogue you just can't avoid the Quentin effect, I almost spill all my beverage on myself the first time I saw that.

For those greatly shocking death scenes I'll have to say the death of captain Rhodes on the underground of the safe facility while trying to escape the slaughter on Day of the Dead by Romero (correcting myself in another thread). Never has a death looked so real and nauseating on screen to the point in which you had to enjoy it or hate it, thanks to Tom Savini, at least in my opinion.

And finally for those great dramatic death scenes I'll have to choose, and it's a hard choice, the death of Coffey on The Green Mile by Frank Darabont based on a book by Stephen King. The character is great for suffering one of those deaths that can bring you to tears, the tragedy is elevated to monumental levels during his death. But images say more than words go see it for yourself.

I am sure there are better ones, but the death of Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) in Blade Runner is memorable:

"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in the rain. Time to die."

Oh yes that's one great scene. I think it could be the great philosophic death scene of all time, the movie tries to hard to bring some philosophic background in what could have been otherwise one of the best storytelling of all time, but only for a moment under the rain it achieves what it looks for, it's brief but powerful.

[Togakure]

... Spock's death in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. It *still* chokes me up, even though I've literally seen the movie at least 100 times.
...

How on earth could I have allowed this one to slip my mind in this thread. By far, this movie death has had the biggest impact on my character. The first time I saw it, I didn't choke up. I cried. I tear up whenever I watch it when I'm alone or in good company. I'm not embarrassed at all to say this.

I'd been watching Star Trek avidly from the time I was about age 6. It was easy to get me to behave as a kid--threaten to take away my Star Trek privileges for that evening. The depth and nature of friendships between Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Scottie became subconscious symbols of what True friendship is. When Spock died in the film, I felt like I'd lost a crucial role model. Being hapa, I related closely to many of Spock's struggles as a halfbreed. He is one of my life's great heros.

Kirk: Spock.
Spock: Ship... out of danger?
Kirk: Yes.
Spock: Don't grieve, Admiral. It is logical. The needs of the many outweigh...
Kirk: ...the needs of the few.
Spock: ...Or the one. I never took the Kobayashi Maru test until now. What do you think of my solution?
Kirk: Spock...
Spock: I have been and always shall be your friend.
[Holds up his hand in the Vulcan salute]
Spock: Live long and prosper.

Kirk: We are gathered here today to pay final respects to our honored dead. But it should be noted that this death takes place in the shadow of new life, the sunrise of a new world; a world that our beloved comrade gave his life to protect and nourish. He did not feel this sacrifice a vain or empty one, and we will not debate his profound wisdom at these proceedings. Of my friend, I can only say this: of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most... human.

McCoy: He's not really dead. As long as we remember him.
Kirk: It's a far, far better thing I do than I have ever done before. A far better resting place that I go to than I have ever known.
Carol Marcus: Is that a poem?
Kirk: No. Something Spock was trying to tell me. On my birthday.
McCoy: You okay, Jim? How do you feel?
Kirk: Young. I feel young.