Most impressive deaths?

baawhoosh

You heard it, whats the most impressive movie deaths you've seen on screen?

Be it impressive build up, random as hell, gory or just plain funny post 'em up

Heres a nice little compilation:

I remember nearly getting sick when i saw this as a kid:

now its just funny

mike65

In before the lock

Edward G Robinson in Soylent Green. In real life and in art.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7U4EQXFMBE

DazMarz

Thread has a real chance of falling into the dreaded ''list thread'' category, but nonetheless, I feel that a death scene can bring a film to logical and thrilling climax, particularly if it is that of a central hero/villain. Some standout ones for me include:

-Alec Trevelyan/006 (Sean Bean) in Goldeneye (1995); Following the betrayal and subsequent chase and battle with James Bond (Pierce Brosnan), Trevelyan appears to gain the upper hand in the close quarters fight. But this fight is taking place upon a very small platform 200 feet above a gaping satellite receiver, and Trevelyan loses his footing and falls, only to be caught by Bond at the last moment. Sneering up at his former friend, Trevelyan reprises an earlier statement that Bond never lets personal friendships or issues interrupt his loyalty to the mission. "For England, James?" he sneers. Bond: "No, for me." He then lets his former friend go, sending him plunging and screaming to his death below.

-

Sergeant Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon)

in The Departed (2006); having appeared to get away with every betrayal and deceit he has been party to for years,

Sullivan

returns home one day only to find the

recently fired Staff Sergeant Dignam (Mark Wahlberg)

waiting for him.

Dignam

is wearing surgical scrubs (to prevent evidence transfers) and is armed with a semi-automatic pistol with a suppressor attached.

Sullivan

finally realises the game is up. He resigns himself to his fate, without protest or hapless begging, and simply says "Alright" before

Dignam

shoots him in the head and escapes.

-Detective Alonso Harris (Denzel Washington) in Training Day (2001); having failed to

pay the Russian Mafia $1,000,000 he owes them

thanks to the actions of his new trainee (Ethan Hawke), Harris is attempting to escape to L.A.X. when he stops at a red traffic light. As he moves off as the light turns green, his car is surrounded by two vans and a 4x4. As he attempts to shield himself, the

Russian hitmen pump bullets into his car

. They cease fire and Harris stumbles from his car, bleeding and barely able to breathe. He slumps against his car,

and the Russians open fire again, riddling his body. They drive away, leaving the corrupt narcotics detective dead in the street

.

-Santino 'Sonny' Corleone (James Caan) in The Godfather (1972); on his way to assist his sister who has been beaten up by her wayward husband, Santino is stopped at a turnpike. As he is stopped, rival mobsters pop up from the booth and a car in front of him and proceed to machine gun the violent Corleone heir apparent to death. He manages to get out of his car, only to be shot further. When he finally slumps to the ground, one of the assassins kicks him in the head before they all escape, leaving Santino bloodied and destroyed on the ground.

-Cody Jarrett (Jimmy Cagney) in White Heat (1949); the Oedipal gangster Jarrett often told his beloved Ma that he would make it to 'The Top Of The World'. Surrounded by dozens of police officers following a botched robbery of a chemical plant atop a storage tank, Jarrett begins blasting away indiscriminantly at his surroundings, igniting the storage. The police officers scramble to get away and find cover. As the Hades-like flames grow and tower around him, Jarrett looks skyward and screams "Made it, Ma!!! Top o' the world!!!". The silo then explodes in a fireball, taking Jarrett with it. As one federal agent says, "He finally made it to the top of the world. And it blew up in his face."

-

Carl Stowalter (Steve Buscemi)

in Fargo (1996); following an argument with

Gaer Grimsruud (Peter Stormare)

over who will

take possession of a new car they received in partial payment for the kidnapping Jerry Lundegaard's (William H. Macy) wife

,

Gaer

drives an axe into

Carl's

head. To dispose of the body,

Gaer

starts grinding it through a wood chipper, turning the body into pulp. Last seen part of

Carl

is a foot that

Gaer

can't seem to get into the chipper.

Several others I'm sure... But these are the ones that stick out for me!!!

niallon

Nice work against a list thread Daz.

It's interesting actually that you mention death scenes as being important, particularly in contribution to a film climax.

I particularly agree with Goldeneye. It's a perfect example of a smarter take on the "big bad guy" getting his just desserts. The small bit of dialogue included, though technically an action movie one liner, really added to it and it stands up there as one of the best.

Also as regards the importance of how a death scene is handled, when done badly they canc take away from a film so much. I still can't get over SPOILER: this from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. What a terrible way to get rid of such an important character and indeed actor, of the series. I'm not a Pothead but this pissed even me off!!

Galvasean

I'll leave this open considering there is some quality discussion going on (notice how 'listy' posts have been deleted).

niallon wrote: »

Also as regards the importance of how a death scene is handled, when done badly they canc take away from a film so much. I still can't get over SPOILER: this from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. What a terrible way to get rid of such an important character and indeed actor, of the series. I'm not a Pothead but this pissed even me off!!

HAHAAHAHAHA!!!! That was pathetic. Like watching a terrible version of Lord of the Rings, right down to the bit where a guy who looks kind of like Sean Bean hold back the screaming (but muted under the score) Frodo Harry.

Hmm, I'd like to discuss other films in detail, but need to think of ways that don't spoil them...

Duggy747

I liked how in Lord Of The Rings - The Fellowship

how Gandalf's "death" was done. The score and the sequence was fitting to a key character lost. As was Boromir's (Sean Bean) death, too

Goldeneye was a good choice, I liked how that was a more personal kill to him rather than following up with a usually callous, witty quip in the other movies.

Another honorable mention would be Heat where

Pacino stands over DeNiro watching him die, he feels no honour or pride in killing a man he otherwise could've been friends with had it not been for their professions

And where would we be without the tearjerker of Arnie giving the tumbs up in Terminator 2 as he's lowered to his end..............."I....I just have something in my eye, that's all!"

indough

for me good death scenes are about creative ways of killing and deaths that are just plain funny rather than gore

ok so american psycho has a couple of good deaths especially

the chainsaw stairwell scene

, i like the way they kept things quite humourous in the scenes despite what was going on

also i though the scene from the omega man where

the lead character died

as it was funny in the way it tried in vain to be symbolic and serious

the scene from kiss me deadly when

she opens the box and bursts into flames

is comical

i also second white heat just because it was a cool movie and great way to end it

niallon

indough wrote: »

also i though the scene from the omega man where...as it was funny in the way it tried in vain to be symbolic and serious

By far the most offensively obvious death scene ever committed to film!

Another one below for incredibly well executed death scenes. Has all the right dialogue, correct context and was shot and acted in such a convincing fashion that I honestly, to this day, still cannot watch it start to finish without trying somehow to ditract myself.

SPOILERS BELOW:

Saving Private Ryan

Wade's death scene at the radar station.

baawhoosh

I wasnt aware of the disdain of list threads, (off topic i know but why is that?)

In that vein, heres a couple of oldies (with the spoiler tags even though they're probably not necessary )
In Fight Club

when the narrator (norton) kills durden through a failed suicide attempt

i was damn impressed.

In Full Metal Jacket

Pvt.Pyle's suicide was shocking and a hell of a way to end an act

but now im desensitised to it and will actually watch the film up until that point then am happy to change the channel.

In JFK when the president

just kidding

DazMarz

Death scenes nearly always tend to be powerful, moving moments in film and are usually used to provoke reaction and thought from the audience. But it usually has to be a well developed character, and a well liked one, for it to have any impact. This is why we have "The Stormtrooper Effect", so named after the hapless, white-uniformed Imperial soldiers from Star Wars. Bazillions of them were killed in the course of the films, but can you honestly say that it had any impact on you at all?!?!

The above mentioned "...Effect" is prevalent in many action movies where minor henchmen are killed purely for visceral thrills. (See: Die Hard series, Lethal Weapon series, etc.)

But in certain films, the death (or even near death) of a central character (even a "bad guy" sometimes) can have a huge impact on the audience. This can be true even if the death is not "impressive" or "spectacular". I know it's not a film, but rather a T.V. series, but for me the death of

Livia Soprano

on The Sopranos ranked up there. No dramatic end, no splashy cinematics. A quiet, peaceful stroke while sleeping. Despite all the chaos the character caused, a prime antagonist for many, the end was so unobtrusive. Yet it was powerful in its impact as the episode

"Proshai Livushka"

demonstrated.

krudler

Joe Pesci

in Casino, what a way to go, beaten half to death with baseball bats then buried while still barely alive in the desert, also the guy with his head in a vice,nasty

MikeC101

The Wild Bunch - Though there's an awful lot of death in the movie (I can only imagine the impact it must have made at the time) the standout is of course, the iconic scene

the march down the street to the four men left in the gang, and Pikes death, hand still clutching the gatling gun. In a way, you want him and his gang to live, but the whole film has been heading towards this - there's only ever going to be one fitting ending for these men. "Give 'em hell Pike!"

Actually - a significant number of Westerns do the heroic / sacrificial death quite well.

bnt

In Cronenberg's Crash, the character with the greatest death wish was Vaughan (Elias Koteas). Even his car had "Death" written all over it: a Lincoln Continental, a car forever associated with the assassination of President Kennedy. His one was all beaten up, with about 60 degrees of play in the steering, and he drove it like it was a bull elephant on heat. Did Vaughan get his wish?

I think so: going over the side of a freeway bridge, in to a bus full of people. Even in death, he had to drag other people in to his schemes. The car survived, barely.

steve_

Star Wars:

Boba Fett

!!! i couldnt get over how he died, it was such an anti climax. He was bad ass and they killed him off in a horrible horrible fashion!! :mad:

krudler

steve_ wrote: »

Star Wars:

Boba Fett

!!! i couldnt get over how he died, it was such an anti climax. He was bad ass and they killed him off in a horrible horrible fashion!! :mad:

Just like most villains in the SW universe then,

Darth Maul, Count Dooku, Jango Fett

to name but a few, they also made most of the Jedi look like incompetent buffoons throughout the prequel trilogy, I waited years to see what a fully trained, in their prime Jedi acted like, morons apparently.

edit:

Fett didnt actually die in the Sarlacc Pitt though, he got out and got off Tatooine later

according to the expanded universe storylines, but as far as the movie goes, yeah, crappy death.

krudler

Trinity

in Matrix Revolutions is impressive purely for how bloody boring it was watching one of the central characters of the trilogy die, what should have been an emotional moment was ruined by a death speech that went on for what felt like 15 minutes, and what a stupid way to go,

impaled by a random piece of metal

steve_

In bruges had a pretty shocking death scene, just one of them out of the blue things that i wasnt expecting. When

Gleeson

jumps off the tower onto the street below.

Also gotta mention when

vincent vega

dies in pulp fiction, i loved him as a character!! but he was alive at the end so that means he didnt die :P

DazMarz

steve_ wrote: »

Also gotta mention when

vincent vega

dies in pulp fiction, i loved him as a character!! but he was alive at the end so that means he didnt die :P

Sorry to burst your bubble, but Pulp Fiction was told in non-chronological order; the ''end'' of the film was actually set before the story-line that involved

Vincent Vega

getting killed. So despite the fact that he is alive at the end of the film, in the grander scheme of things, he is very much dead...

steve_

Ha ha i know i know. I remember watching the making of and tarantino was saying how he wanted to have

vincent

alive at the end so to create a kind of happy ever after ending.

mudokon

One that sticks out in my mind is from American History X. It is a brutal death scene that is the catalyst to the direction the film takes & how the two main characters cirumstances/ attitudes change.

FortuneChip

Robin Hood Prince of Thieves!

The Sheriffs

death is completely over the top and almost worthy of laughing aloud! The only part of the movie I actually remember thinking "Wow, that was great". To be fair though, if we've learned one thing about

Alan Rickman

, he loved a good death early in his career!

In the Prestige I quite like how

Robert Angier

met his demise. It happens shortly after a few chaotic scenes, and I fear that most viewers were still trying to piece together all the complicated twists and turns in the plot that they may have missed out

Angier's

farewell speech. After spending a lot of the movie thinking he was the antagonist, it becomes harder to distinguish between the two

Galvasean

Spolier tags people. Even if its a very famous/well known film/character just slap a spoiler tag on the character's name, just to be safe.

It's a bit like sex without a rubber: sure it feels good when you're doing it, but someone might get inadvertently hurt.

niallon

Galvasean wrote: »

It's a bit like sex without a rubber: sure it feels good when you're doing it, but someone might get inadvertently hurt.

Yet another to add to the cannon of emotional death scenes handled with aplumb:

Platoon:

Willem Dafoe's demise. The music, the acting, good God!

Link

Another interesting death scene question, anyone have any that they would've done differently? It sounds silly but as has been pointed out many times here already, a badly handled demise of a main character can sully a film to no end. I can't help but think of the above mentioned Matrix Revolutions

. The obvious choice would be to remove Woody Reeves but realistically, even the below par punk ass death Trinity suffered could've been improved with a mildly more stirring score and some more choice dialogue for parting words.

Zapp Brannigan

In The Road when

the man

dies. Knew it was coming from reading the book, but the way the scene was directed and the acting was all spot on. Proper tear-jerking moment!

karma_

Capas'

death in Sunshine was great I thought.

When time starts to distort the closer he gets to the sun, and his acceptance of his own fate when the bomb explodes and he stares at the beauty of it. Powerful stuff, especially when it flashes to his family on earth and the Sun as it grows brighter.

bonerm

Alan Rickman falling off the skyscraper

in Die Hard. Impressive as much for *how* they did it as for the end result.

The death was achieved by building a giant greenscreen set with a 20 foot high greenscreen ledge. Rickman was then told to hang on the edge and await for prompt that would warn him that he was going to be dropped from the full height by whatever mechanism they had in place. Thing is director John McTiernan never delivered this prompt when the time came.. Instead he deliberately dropped Rickman early and that is why the the look of shock you see on Rickmans/Grubers face looks so real. It's because it IS real.

niallon

!!!karma!!!

Spoiler tagged the wrong text there chief...:rolleyes:

FortuneChip

Saving Private Ryan -

Adam Goldberg/Pvt Mellish? at the hands of the Nazi with that lovely knife

Even 12 years after first seeing it, I still find this death completely uncomfortable to watch! It's brutal, slow, it sounds painful... Great Death Scene for that reason

krudler

Are most of these spoiler tags really necessary? if you havent seen Die Hard you shouldnt be posting on a film forum

Necronomicon

The most effective death I've seen was actually from a television show rather than a movie.

It was from Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

It was in the finale, when Derek Reese was killed.

The reason it was so effective is because it was so damn cold.

He appears in the shot and almost as soon as we see him, he's killed. The camera then cuts away from him and the scene goes on, his death isn't acknowledged until minutes after.

I actually had to rewind to make sure I saw it right. It was essentially giving a major character a red-shirt death. Big contrast to most of the drawn out, slow deaths and much more effective I think.

old hippy

krudler wrote: »

Joe Pesci

in Casino, what a way to go, beaten half to death with baseball bats then buried while still barely alive in the desert, also the guy with his head in a vice,nasty

Ugh, hated that first scene. Really awful.

niallon

krudler wrote: »

Are most of these spoiler tags really necessary? if you havent seen Die Hard you shouldnt be posting on a film forum

I think I'd be happier with all spoiler tags to be honesy, kind've hard to filter to be 100% certain what everyone has and hasn't seen. Otherwise my viewing of The Road tonight would've been ruined!

bonerm

krudler wrote: »

Are most of these spoiler tags really necessary?

Yes

krudler

niallon wrote: »

I think I'd be happier with all spoiler tags to be honesy, kind've hard to filter to be 100% certain what everyone has and hasn't seen. Otherwise my viewing of The Road tonight would've been ruined!

True about newer movies, but Die Hard? Robin Hood Prince of Thieves? Lord of the Rings? what movie fan worth their salt hasnt seen any of those? i guess theres no line as to where old/newer movies comes into play so maybe you're right. anyhoo..

Felix

in Grosse Pointe Blank, only because I watched it last night,

stabbed in the neck after a great fight, then chucked into a boiler, all to the sound of 99 red baloons, brilliant

Bluebell35

mudokon wrote: »

One that sticks out in my mind is from American History X. It is a brutal death scene that is the catalyst to the direction the film takes & how the two main characters cirumstances/ attitudes change.

OOh that is definitely mine too, are you talking about

the bite the kerb

scene ? oouch sore face

mudokon

Bluebell35 wrote: »

OOh that is definitely mine too

I was, you might want to edit your post with a spoiler in case other people havent seen this film yet.

DazMarz

It's also true that an off-screen death can be far more effective and chilling and even traumatic for the audience. I found this with several films:

-We never see

Bambi's Mother

get shot or killed, but that does not stop that particular passage being one of the most sad and upsetting (for kids anyway.... ok I'll say it even had me in tears!) scenes in films.

-

Jimmy Cagney's

character in

"Angels With Dirty Faces"

decides to die in a cowardly fashion on the advice of his friend, so young kids don't look up to him as a hero. He dies off-screen, but his cries for mercy and pleading can be heard, and his friend just smiles, despite his death. He died 'yellow' and disgraced himself to save kids from going the same route as he did.

And on the note of the above scene, we have the honorable deaths; one person sacrifices themselves to save someone or something from peril. This can also be a redemptive act for a person who has wronged themselves in some way and makes the ultimate sacrifice to repent on their wrongdoing they have done.

Can't honestly think of any 'honorable deaths' off the top of my head!!:o Anyone got a few??? I'm kicking myself over that one!

niallon

DazMarz wrote: »

Can't honestly think of any 'honorable deaths' off the top of my head!!:o Anyone got a few??? I'm kicking myself over that one!

I was trying to think of some earlier too but couldn't!! Although the afformentioned

Boromir

would count I think!

And how the hell could we forget this

Spock...Khan...epic...and I hate Star Trek!!

sprinkles

Honorable, from Star Wars:

Obi-Wan

Youtube Link

krudler

sprinkles wrote: »

Honorable:

Might wanna spoiler that, you might ruin it for some people :rolleyes:

Ski Boz

Most shocking death scene i have ever seen was in a French movie. Cant actually remember the name of the movie though. Anyone know it? It begins with a middle aged french couple recieving a video tape which is a recording of their house. They then recieve more tapes and the increasingly stressed husband tries to find out who is behind the tapes. Death scene in this movie absolutely blew me away for shock value, just didnt see it coming at all....

krudler

Speaking of French movies, Irreversible, the fire extinguisher scene, enough said really for anyone whos seen it...

Roisinbunny

DazMarz wrote: »

Can't honestly think of any 'honorable deaths' off the top of my head!!:o Anyone got a few??? I'm kicking myself over that one!

I thought

Boromir

had a particularly noble death. I find that whole scene very moving, with the amazing score and how he battles on alone to protect

Merry and Pippin

to the end to somehow atone for his weakness..

I'm surprised no one has mentioned

Maximus

at the end of "Gladiator"? He was so loyal, noble and such a symbol of strength the whole way through the film. In some way, he knew if he had the strength to kill

Commodus

in that final fight, he would be protecting

Lucilla and her son

the way he felt he had should have done for his

own wife and child

.again the score at the end really made it special.. ..Love that film,

Roisinbunny

krudler wrote: »

Speaking of French movies...

If anyone saw Banlieue 13, thought the scene where the head kingpin is suddenly

turned on by all his cronies when they they think he's broke and can't pay them.. I mean how many bullets can one man take, he was like a piece of swiss cheese

It was very unintentionally funny.. great film tho

sprinkles

krudler wrote: »

Might wanna spoiler that, you might ruin it for some people :rolleyes:

Done.... just in case there is someone who has internet access that hasn't seen Star Wars... although that is very unlikely!!!

ps: you should change my quote!!

Bluebell35

mudokon wrote: »

I was, you might want to edit your post with a spoiler in case other people havent seen this film yet.

How do I do that i'm a total newbie (insert embarrassed emoticon)

indough

almost every death in a paul verhoeven action scifi deserves a mention, particularly the ultraviolent escalator scene in total recall and the equally ott toxic waste and ED-209 scenes in robocop

mudokon

Bluebell35 wrote: »

How do I do that i'm a total newbie (insert embarrassed emoticon)

I just sent you a pm on this rather than cluttering up the thread too much.

Bluebell35

Thanks Mudokan

norrie rugger

Guys,it is a bit mad spoiler tagging the name of the movie and character.

You then have to look into at least one spoiler to see if it is one you have seen.

I think having the movie title visible might make sense

rednik

For me it is one killing in particular from Marathon Man.

When the Lawerence Olivier character kills the Roy Scheider character with a knife and continues the stabbing motion by pushing the knife upwards with all the force he can muster. I remember watching this in the cinema and the feeling was we were actually watching a real stabbing, it has a similar feeling to the stabbing mentioned in Saving Private Ryan in that you can really feel that knife.