The death scene in most pop culture media (i.e., movies, TV, books, comics, etc.) can be a pivotal moment in anyone's favorite medium. After all, it is the death of a beloved -- or hated -- character which can change the entire course of the story. So, Jay and I decided to each pull together our massive pop culture knowledge of deaths and each pick our 10 most shocking, upsetting, core-shaking deaths in the worlds of cinema and literature. Here they are in no particular order:
WARNING: THERE ARE DEFINITE SPOILERS BELOW SO IF YOU SEE ANY TV SHOWS, MOVIES, BOOKS, OR COMICS YOU PLAN ON VIEWING, DO NOT READ ON!!!
Jay's Picks
Artax
The NeverEnding Story
OK, if you grew up in the 80's, then this death scene has to be at the top of your list. The NeverEnding Story is considered a classic today by all of us who went to the theaters to see it. But, who is the sick, demented son-of-a-bitch who made millions of children endure this heart-wrenching moment in what should be a simple children's fantasy? Well we could blame director, Wolfgang Peterson or writer, Michael Ende, but either way seeing the noble hero, Atreyu (Noah Halloway) fight to try and convince his horse, Artax to fight the all consuming grief of the Swamps of Sadness is still too much to bear. Watching the boy plead with his horse as it slowly sinks into the bog is really just emotional torture, and it all happens near the beginning of the movie. I still want to yell out to Artax along with Atreyu, "You've got to fight the sadness, Artax! ARTAX!!!!"
Hoban "Wash" Wasburne (Alan Tudyk)
Serenity
Before Game of Thrones made it popular, Joss Whedon had built a reputation for not being afraid to kill of one of his main characters with impunity. Well, I think the legions of Firefly fans would agree that no one saw this one coming. After being cancelled by Fox and going on to become one of the biggest cult TV shows to ever fail, Whedon was able to green light a feature film of his space western. That movie was called Serenity, and it totally kicks ass. Most of us who eagerly awaited its release has heard that a main character would die, but after losing Sheppard Book (Ron Glass) about half-way through, I have to admit, I thought he was done with death scenes. Oh, but no, he had to go on and give Wash, the witty pilot of the crew, one of the most shocking and gruesome deaths, ever. Right after he saves the lives of all on board the ship by maneuvering his way out of a giant space battle and crash landing safely on the surface of a planet, Wash is impaled by the space harpoon of an evil Reavers' ship. Damn you, Reavers! He was a leaf on the wind . . . . and he certainly did soar.
Lori Grimes (Sarah Wayne Callies)
The Walking Dead
This is some demented shit, right here. Be warned. When Lori Grimes, wife of The Walking Dead's main protagonist, Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), reveals she is pregnant, for a moment there is a subdued ray of hope for our survivors of the zombie apocalypse. I mean, it's a baby, right? That's a good thing .... yeah, not so much. When a horde of zombies are let into the prison where Rick and Co. have been living, Lori, Carl (Chandler Riggs) and Maggie (Lauren Cohan) find themselves trapped. With chaos erupting around them and things looking already their bleakest, the little bundle of joy inside of Lori decides that now is the time to come. As the birth gets more complicated by increased bleeding, Lori directs Maggie to "cut" the baby out of her, knowing that this is the only way to save the infant's life. Of course this means Lori has to sacrifice her own. It is a disturbing violent scene, made all the more sad by the presence of young Carl who has to share this horrific last few moments with his mother. On top of all of that Carl volunteers to stay behind and ensure that his mother doesn't become one of the living dead by putting a bullet in her brain. Very dark stuff and really one the emotional low points of the entire series.
Augustus "Gus" McCrae (Robert Duvall)
Lonesome Dove
Larry McMurtry's Pulitzer-Prize-Winning novel, Lonesome Dove, remains one of my favorites of all time. It is one of the greatest Westerns ever written, perfectly capturing a realistic version of the Old West. It's difficult to say that there can be any experience better than reading this fantastic book about friendship, love, adventure and discovering one last frontier. But, the mini-series remains one of the best adaptations of previously written material ever produced. The two main characters, Gus McCrae and Woodrow F. Call (Tommy Lee Jones) are opposites in so many ways, but their bond as friends has endured well into their old age. They embark on an epic journey to move a herd of cattle and horses to Montana. Once they reach their destination, Gus is attacked by a tribe of Native Americans and is shot through the leg with an arrow. After barely making it back to the nearest town, the local doctor informs him his leg is infected and has to be amputated. When the leg is removed in his sleep, without his consent, Gus arms himself and refuses to allow the doc or his friend Call take the other leg which now also has to removed to save his life. He slowly dies with his best friend at his side, forcing Call to promise to take his body back to Texas and bury it in an orchard where he spent time with his first love, Clara. I've never been so moved by the death of character in a book. With all his flaws he was such a purely honest, and good-hearted soul and McMurtry wrote him so well that I felt like I knew him.
Eddard "Ned" Stark (Sean Bean)
Game of Thrones
This is another choice that combines both a novel and television show, and I can tell you that as surprised viewers of the popular HBO show, Game of Thrones, were to see the main character die close to the end of the first season, those of us who read the books well before the series aired were even more shocked. George R.R. Martin wrote Game of Thrones in chapters that are presented from the point-of-view of one of the main protagonists. Jon, Bran, Tyrion, Daenerys, Arya and Sansa all have their stories told through individual chapters, but it is really Eddard's that drive the story forward with his reluctant journey to King's Landing to become the Hand of King Robert Baratheon (Mark Addy), his old friend. Ned's slow discovery of the truth behind Cersei Lannister's (Lena Headey) betrayal of her husband, the King, and ultimately his desperate and doomed attempt to secure the Iron Throne by revealing the truth about her relationship with her twin brother, Jaime, find him having to confess himself a traitor. But his decision to lie to save the life of his daughter and himself finds him betrayed by the young King Joffrey (Jack Gleason) on the Steps of Baelor, where he is executed with his own sword. For the readers and viewers, this was shocking because his story had dominated most of the book, but we should have seen it coming. In the harsh and cruel world of Westeros politics, a honorable and good man like Ned Stark was seriously out of his depth.
Private Mellish (Adam Goldberg)
Saving Private Ryan
So many soldiers die during Steven Spielberg's epic, World War II masterpiece, Saving Private Ryan, but for me the one that really got to me was the violent death of Private Mellish, played brilliantly by character actor, Adam Goldberg. Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) has led his men on a special mission to locate Private James Ryan (Matt Damon). After the finally find him, the company must mount a desperate defense against a German battalion, making its way into the French town they have occupied. Stationed in the second floor of one of the buildings, Mellish is discovered by a German soldier. The two men engage in desperate battle that captures all of the intensity of a real life or death situation. While they fight in the room, a scared and timid Corporal Upham (Jeremy Davies), a pacifist at heart, slowly climbs the stairs, fully aware of the struggle his fellow brother-in-arms is engaged in. But instead of bursting into the room and saving Mellish, which he could have easily done, Upham's fear overwhelms him as we watch in horror as the German soldier gains the upper hand and slowly plunges a knife into Mellish's chest, while the doomed private pleads for his enemy to stop. What made this death so tough to watch was the combination of such a realistic and violent death and also the young Upham's frustrating inability to muster the courage to help his friend.
Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank)
Million Dollar Baby
Clint Eastwood's Oscar-winning Million Dollar Baby did a fairly good job of hiding its secrets when it first came out. What started out as a simple story of one woman's rise through the ranks of female professional boxing and one man's shot at redemption became something much more tragic and serious. Once she is given a shot at the title, Maggie Fitzgerald suffers a traumatic injury at the hands of her opponent and finds herself paralyzed from the neck down. The remaining third of the film deals with Maggie's horrific ordeal and her trainer, Frankie's (Clint Eastwood) guilt over his perceived role in current state. As the movie nears its close a desperate Maggie pleads with the man who has become a surrogate father to her to help her end her life. Despite Frankie's religious beliefs he decides to give the young woman a lethal injection after sneaking into her hospital room one night. His final moments with Maggie are really heartbreaking and I don't think there was a dry eye in the theater when I saw it. It remains on the short list of movies that are just too painful to warrant a second viewing.
Tara Maclay (Amber Benson)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Tara Maclay's introduction as a love interest for Buffy's wiccan sidekick, Willow Rosenberg (Alyson Hannigan) was a huge step forward for the representation of LGBT relationships in television. Up until then, realistic lesbian relationships on a network TV show were pretty much non-existent and pretty much avoided. Tara and Willow's love story was handled very organically and it felt real and not trivialized or made cheap in any way. But in Season 6, Buffy fans were shocked when Tara was accidentally shot by nerdy wannabe villain, Warren Mears (Adam Busch) when he was actually trying to kill Buffy. His shot is deflected and instead the bullet hits Tara who is reconciling with Willow in the second floor bedroom. It happens so quickly and you never see it coming. Its suck a shocking and sad moment because of all the "Scooby Gang", Tara was the most innocent and pure. Her death would send Willow into a dark spiral of revenge and it would take combined efforts of all of her friends to try and stop her from literally destroying the world because of the pain she feels from losing her love.
Fredo Corleone (John Cazale)
The Godfather Part II
Maybe it's not exactly shocking per se, but Fredo's execution, ordered by his younger brother Michael (Al Pacino) has to be one of the saddest deaths in cinema history. It represents not just a despicable moment of fratricide, but also signals the tipping point of the Corleone Family towards something darker than it ever intended to be, and also condemns Michael as a man we might have sympathized with in the past into an evil man, disillusioned that he is doing the right thing for his family's survival. What makes it even worse is that after Fredo's betrayal, he tries to make amends with Michael and after sometime, the younger Corleone accepts his brother's apology in a touching scene at their mother's funeral. The look Michael gives his bodyguard as he hugs his brother is chilling, because we know what no one else in that room knows. Fredo is doomed to pay the price of his brother's vengeance. Even though in a third film some people have mentioned exists but I refuse to accept, Michael ultimately asks for forgiveness for his crimes and pays for them with his daughter's life, his decision to have Fredo killed is an awful crime and one of the most famous deaths in film history.
Matt's Picks
Joyce Summers (Kristine
Sutherland)
Buffy the Vampire
Slayer
Protagonist hero Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is used to slaying demons and battling other
disgusting monsters. And when any of her friends or acquaintances died, it
usually was due to supernatural means. So it was a major surprise when Buffy’s
ailing mother, Joyce (Sutherland) died – not from fighting monsters – but from
a brain aneurysm. In the aftermath of realizing she does not need a boyfriend, Riley, and everything is all hunky-dory, Buffy returns home to find her
mother’s lifeless body on the couch. What follows in the season 5 episode “The
Body” is one of the best written and produced pieces on death in TV history. The scene where Buffy informs Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg) of their mom's death alone is wonderfully, emotionally done so well! The entire episode was a gut-punch to Buffy
fans everywhere.
Marion Crane (Janet
Leigh)
Psycho
Alfred Hitchcock
took a novel – written by Robert Bloch,
based on the true-life events of Ed Gein
– and made one of the most influential suspense thrillers of all time! There
were plenty of shocks in this film, but it was Hitchcock’s decision to kill off
main protagonist Marion Crane (Leigh) only a quarter-of-the-way into the film –
and not simply in some offscreen fashion, but by being repeatedly stabbed in
the shower. This was a big surprise at the time (1960) as such a technique had
not really yet been done in American cinema. Of course, once Crane is killed,
the role of protagonist is transferred to a private investigator named Arbogast
(Martin Balsam). However, he is
killed and the characters of Lila (Vera
Miles) and Sam (John Gavin) are
believed to be the protagonists. This is one of the first films where the
antagonist – Norman Bates (Anthony
Perkins) – is the main character. This film opened doors for many emerging
and subsequent directors and writers, and it scared a lot of people into
locking the bathroom door in their hotel rooms before taking a shower.
Eddard “Ned” Stark
Game
of Thrones: A Song of Fire and Ice
To me, one of the most surprising deaths in literature was
in George R.R. Martin’s medieval
fantasy epic debut novel Game of Thrones:
A Song of Fire and Ice, in which supposed protagonist Eddard “Ned” Stark is
beheaded by the end of the novel! Reading the story, most would think this is
the anchor of the story. Stark is the good guy and the reader relates to him,
roots for him. Ned discovers the truth behind Joffrey’s lineage and that he is
not the spawn of King Robert Baratheon. He is about to relay this news when he
is captured by the late King’s guards – on orders by the King’s widow, Cersei.
A deal is struck with Ned that if he will keep his secret of Joffrey’s true
lineage and let Joffrey become king, Ned’s life – as well as the lives of his
sons and daughters – will be spared and he will be exiled. Fearing for his
daughters’ lives, Ned reluctantly makes the deal. However, when young boy
Joffrey becomes king due to Cersei’s machinations, he decides to go against the
deal and has Ned beheaded, making the reader wish for Joffrey’s death much
sooner rather than the dragged-out (especially in the TV series) later.
Hoban “Wash ”
Washburne (Alan Tudyk)
Serenity
After surviving the hit series Firefly, and a
magnificent space chase to avoid the ruthless, savage Reavers in the film Serenity, one of the fan favorites – the
humorous, beloved pilot, Wash (Tudyk) – says one of his sly, funny sayings,
then BAM, he is impaled by the Reavers’ ship’s harpoon, killing him instantly.
Creator/writer Joss Whedon has
always been known for killing off major characters, but none have ever been so
shocking or so sad as Wash. It’s one of those moments that leaves every viewer
asking Why!? Yet, it adds to the emotional
impact of the dire situation the crew has found themselves in. It’s just a
shame that Joss had to take away one of the most beloved characters in the –
who am I kidding? They’re all
beloved! Let this be a warning to you: If you get addicted to a Joss Whedon series, everyone is expendable!
Lt. Col. Henry Blake (McLean
Stevenson)
M*A*S*H
The M*A*S*H unit’s leader Lt. Colonel Henry Blake (Stevenson) was a bit of a bumbling,
sometimes ineffectual leader, but he was beloved by all of the doctors and
nurses in the unit. In season three’s season finale, there were laughs aplenty
and a celebratory storyline in which Blake gets news that he gets to go home –
every enlisted man on the show’s dream. All seems happy and weepy (in a good
way) when the crew says their goodbyes to Blake. However, war truly is hell and
this is evidenced in the closing moments of the episode when, during Pierce’s (Alan
Alda) and Burns’ (Larry Linville) usual comedic, adversarial banter,
a shocked Radar (Gary Burghoff) comes into the operating room and
announces the tragic death of Blake due to his plane being shot down by enemy
fire. The reaction of the actors is real as none of them knew of Blake’s fate
until the scene was shot. It remains one of those deaths which shook TV
audiences’ core – especially in a series which was mostly labeled a comedy.
Finn Hudson (Cory
Monteith)
Glee
Some people love this show and some people hated it. And
this is not so much shocking as it was upsetting (due to Cory Monteith's untimely death due to drug overdose). I have to first admit that Glee had one of the best debut seasons
ever; the first season is nearly flawless. And as a major anchor of that show
was the character of Finn Hudson (Monteith) – the high school star quarterback
who is blackmailed into joining the fledgling glee club at McKinley High School
Alexandria DeWitt
Green
Lantern #54 (1994)
Ah! Comic books! That medium which is mostly identified as
being for kids. However, in 1994, during the “dark age of comics,” probably one
of the most shocking deaths in any literature was displayed for all to see: the
rather graphic death of Green Lantern Kyle Rayner’s girlfriend, Alexandra DeWitt.
Sure, that full-page panel of Green Lantern villain, Black Hand, shooting himself in the head is pretty intense. But it is Alexandria's death which caused me to gasp back when I originally read it in 1994. She is not just killed by strangulation alone, or by some weapon or superpower.
DeWitt proves to be a good, down-to-earth, yet supportive, girlfriend to
Rayner, but their love is short-lived when the super-villain Major Force
strangles her and … stuffs her body into a refrigerator. Rayner comes home
after saving a city from an earthquake, hoping to find a special surprise from Alexandria, when he makes the gruesome
discovery, and it drives him to quickly forget all of the heroic ideals which
made him a Lantern in the first place (Buffy fans might recognize this technique, which Joss Whedon used in a season 2 episode involving Giles and Ms. Calendar). To this day, the “woman in the
refrigerator” has left a resonating mark within DC Comics, who continues to
push the envelope and explore themes not found in most other comics, as well as
the rest of the comic book world.
Agent 355
Y: The Last Man
Brian K. Vaughan’s
and artist Pia Guerra’s Y: The Last Man is probably one of the
best books – let alone graphic novels – to ever be released the past 15 years!
Running from 2002 to 2008, the comic book series tells the story of man-child
Yorick Brown and his pet Capuchin monkey, Ampersand. On
July 17, 2002, all living mammals that have a Y chromosome (males)
simultaneously die (this also includes embryos, fertilized eggs and sperm). All
males except Yorick and Ampersand. There are many horrific accidents and
society soon plunges into chaos as women think that, without men, the human
race is doomed to extinction. What starts off as a tongue-in-cheek title soon
takes a very serious angle. Yorick learns that being the only male human left
is not all it’s cracked up to be and he learns he has to disguise himself as he
sets off to find his mother, former U.S. Secretary of
Agriculture-and-now-President of the United States, Jennifer Brown; and his
girlfriend, Beth, who he believes to be stranded in Australia. Along his
journey, he is quickly joined by Agent 355, of the Culper Ring, who is assigned
by President Brown to protect Yorick and get him safely to Boston to meet an
expert geneticist to see if a cure can be found to the mysterious male-killing
virus. Of course, throughout the series, despite a few romantic distractions,
Yorick and 355 (as she is only known by) fall in love. By the end of the
series, they admit their love for one another. They kiss. And just when 355 is
about to confess her real name to Yorick, BAM!!!
A sniper’s gunshot to the head kills her instantly. An entire story of cheering
for the agent and Yorick to be together is felled with one small, heartbreaking
act. Alas, poor Yorick …
William and Margaret
The Decemberists’ “The Hazards of
Love”
Lead singer and songwriter for the folk rock band The
Decemberists, Colin Meloy, decided
he wanted to write a concept album around a story, featuring a cast of
characters straight out of a classic Brothers
Grimm folk fairy tale. Each character and storyline has its own leitmotif –
a musical technique of which I’m a big fan. Throughout the album’s songs, a
woman named Margaret finds an injured fawn in the forest one day and when she
stops to help it, it transforms into a man named William. The two fall in love,
make love, and Margaret becomes pregnant. However, William’s mother, the Forest
Queen, learns of the union and is angered. She accuses William of being
ungrateful of having been rescued by her when he was a baby and given the gift
of immortality. Still, begrudgingly, the Forest Queen grants William one night
of mortality to be with Margaret. However, a lecherous, murderous Rake – a very
bad man who is unremorseful for killing his three young children – kidnaps and
rapes Margaret, and is helped in his escape with her by the Forest Queen. After
making a dire deal with the Forest Queen, William eventually catches up to the
Rake and rescues Margaret, while the spirits of the Rake’s three dead children
take their revenge on him. William and Margaret try to escape but our overcome
by the raging river which had been parted by the Forest Queen. As the two sink
and drown, they vow their love for each other and have their own wedding of
sorts, featured in a beautifully-poignant-yet-tragic love song “The Hazards of
Love 4 (The Drowned),” lastly claiming that “these hazards of love, never more
will trouble us.” It’s a wonderful, imaginative tale told through catchy folk
alternative progressive rock. But to follow these two lovers and cheer for them
and their love only to have them die at the end is as sad as if you were to see
it on TV, a movie, or read it in a book. Yet, the music is beautiful, catchy,
haunting, and – despite the seriousness of themes – very easily an album which
could be played and enjoyed over and over. Romeo and Juliet don’t have anything
on these two as they have more against them than some petty family squabble.
This remains one of my favorite albums ever but I have to brace myself for that
ending!
Ben (Duane Jones)
Night of the Living Dead
When George A. Romero
wrote and directed Night of the Living
Dead in 1968, the real world was going through some pretty intense historic
moments: namely, the assassinations of Robert
F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King
Jr. The nation was going through some pretty disillusioned times and having
muddied thoughts about race, equality and social separation. Romero used Night of the Living Dead as an allegory
to society’s ills of that disillusionment and the closed-off nature which was
slowly pervading society. So it is no surprise when his main protagonist and
hero is Ben (Jones), an African-American man, who finds white woman Barbra (Judith O’Dea) – with a small group of
survivors – and helps barricade a small farmhouse from the invading walking
dead zombies. Ben survives the entire film and sees hope when he awakens the
next morning to find sheriff’s deputies shooting and killing off the remaining
zombies. However, that hope is dashed when Ben comes up from the cellar and is
shot dead by one of the deputies. This is a very bold statement by Romero,
basically saying that because Ben was black (not a zombie), his life was
insignificant and forfeit to the deputies, who killed him just because of his
skin color. Yes, it’s a downer of an ending – especially in this day and age –
and Ben’s death is shocking, but in 1968, it was revolutionary and remains one
of my most favorite social commentary films ever!
Outside of posting Ned Stark twice, this list is spot on. Nice article.
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