Movies where the hero dies in the end *spoilers*

Message in a Bottle really pissed me off! The guys finally gets over his wife & is happy again so lets kill him!!!

City of Angels...ARHHHHHHHH

Sorry - not hero's but still!

DEFINITELY gonna be spoilers in this thread

Saving Private Ryan comes to mind.

Star Wars, once you put all six movies in order and view them as a single tale about Anakin Skywalker, as Lucas envisioned the story from the beginning.

The Lord of the Rings, in a way. Frodo leaves middle earth to travel to the grey havens with the elves, so that's a 'death' of sorts.

Children of Men. I was pissed at the end, after all that Clive Owen had been through, and then he died as he got the woman and her baby to safety.

That Gladiator movie with whatshisname called . . .oh, Gladiator

Serenity. (HEY - I bawled my face off, and still do every time)

Old Yeller.

Turner and Hooch (don't be tellin' me those dogs weren't the heros!)

Frak - I'm tearing up. Gotta go.

The Big Fish: Edward Bloom Sr.. Possibly one of the most beautiful death scenes I have ever seen

The Man Who Wasn't There: Ed Crane is executed through the electric chair; I cried with his speech at the end

La Jeteé and 12 monkeys: Man watches himself die after returning in time to save humanity

Sin City: 2 out of 3/ Hartigan and Marv

Ikiru: Man dies of cancer; when he discovers he is going to die he tries to do something for the world

How has no one mentioned The Departed? EVERYONE dies in the end!

maxmordon said:

Sin City: 2 out of 3/ Hartigan and Marv

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Isn't Marv in Sin City 2? Is it just an earlier storyline or something?

The Passion of the Christ, but if you didn't see that coming you're really blind. It turned out good for him, though.

The Incredible Melting Man.

'Nuff said. Close thread.

III said:

Isn't Marv in Sin City 2? Is it just an earlier storyline or something?

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I guess most be an earlier story. He gets executed in the first movie...

maxmordon said:

I guess most be an earlier story. He gets executed in the first movie...

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Yeah, but he's pretty hard to kill I can't wait for SC2.

Oh boy, this thread is oozing spoilers like boils...



The Painted Veil. A three-hankies ending. Perfect.

300 (Duh!).

American Beauty (but it doesn't really count since the main character told you he was dead at the beginning).

Resurrecting the Champ (well, one of the leads anyway).

Pan's Labyrinth.

The Notebook (Can Nicholas Sparks write something where the hero doesn't die at the end?).

The Horse Whisperer.

Troy.

The Guardian (yeah, like you can't smell the death from a mile away).

My favorite: Sommersby--but if he didn't die, he couldn't've won. Total tear-jerker. Love it.

And how about Brokeback Mountain and Cold Mountain? Can't have a Hollywood blockbuster romance without someone dying and ruining the happily ever after. (I hate that about Hollywood.)

lakewriter said:

Would you say you like the surprise of the hero dying? Or does it make you mad, or does it depend on how it's done?

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If it's a suprise, it usually pisses me off, honestly. I want it to be a good death, a meaningful death, even a heroic death. But just whacking a major character (doesn't even have to be the hero) just for the sake of a shock value is a guaranteed "I want my money back" move. I've got enough surprises in my life (including the kind where the cops knock on the door with unhappy looks on their faces) to enjoy that in my entertainment.

Thus, to me, the difference between Sommersby or Titanic and City of Angels or either of the Mountain movies.

As always, your mileage may vary.

If I want to see a movie, but suspect that the hero dies, I'll go out of my way to find spoilers before watching it.

I hate crying !

DeleyanLee said:

If it's a suprise, it usually pisses me off, honestly. I want it to be a good death, a meaningful death, even a heroic death. But just whacking a major character (doesn't even have to be the hero) just for the sake of a shock value is a guaranteed "I want my money back" move.

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I agree with that completely.

In Pay It Forward, for example, the movie seems to be coming to its conclusion - a simple and fairly pleasant movie - and then the kid gets knifed for no apparent reason. I really could not see the point of this at all as everything appeared to be resolved just before it happened. Ruined it for me.

On the other end of the spectrum I think LOTR would have been better served with Frodo and/or Aragorn and/or Gandolf biting the dust at the end rather than the seven(teen) endings it did have. Similarly, Chronicles of Narnia was severely weakened for me by Aslan "reviving" everybody the White Witch had "killed". Yes, I know all about the Christian allegory, but it made me lose complete interest in the story.

There are plenty of occasions when it is absolutely the right move for the hero to die at the end. It just has to happen for a genuine reason.

La vita è bella, Braveheart, Michael Collins and Titanic are a few more more off the top of my head.
And of course... The Life of Brian

Pay it Forward -- I can see the reason for his death. The kid finally stood up to a bully and ended up getting killed for it. It was a statement about how pervasive violence is in our world and how often a person can get kicked in the teeth or even die for trying to do the right thing. It brought tears to my eyes.

Oh oh! American History X! Who saw THAT ending coming?

MidnightMuse said:

If I want to see a movie, but suspect that the hero dies, I'll go out of my way to find spoilers before watching it.

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The moment we discover it's a "Hollywood romance", my best friend refuses to see the movie until she finds someone to tell her the ending. If they don't get to survive and live happily ever after, she'll never see the movie. It's not a matter of her crying, it's a matter that if she really likes these characters and this couple, she'll become depressed, literally depressed, for days, even weeks.

She's far more extreme than I am, but it does make a HUGE difference to a lot of people, I think.

DeleyanLee said:

If it's a suprise, it usually pisses me off, honestly. I want it to be a good death, a meaningful death, even a heroic death.

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I agree... I hate it when they kill the guy for no reason other than so you can cry... well, nope, I ain't going to cry because that's just dumb (ahem, Message in a Bottle...) Now, if the death comes naturally (or at least have some reasons for it), I can tolerate that. I may not like it, but at least I know there's a point and the story calls for it (Sommersby, for example). I hated the ending of Cold Mountain.

The Prestige -- now, those are good deaths.

maestrowork said:

The Prestige -- now, those are good deaths.

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All 100 of them

Yes, that was a very good movie.

I suppose a Dracula movie doesn't count in this topic, no?
I was always hoping that Dracula would come out on top. I know that makes me sound bloodthirsty and all, but I support the bad guy over a bland good guy every time.

The Life of David Gale is another one where the hero's death is the perfect ending. Also Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others) has a very powerful ending with the death of a major character