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January 19, 2006 6:24 PM Subscribe
The Movie Deaths Database. 273 movie deaths, categorized and rated by greatness.
James Leer
posted by fire&wings at 6:40 PM on January 19, 2006
posted by fire&wings at 6:40 PM on January 19, 2006
What? No exploding head in Scanners? Heck any number of Cronenbergs grisly ways to die is better than the 1% rating of End of Days.
posted by Gungho at 6:59 PM on January 19, 2006
posted by Gungho at 6:59 PM on January 19, 2006
Just cause it can be done doesn't mean it should.
posted by gagglezoomer at 7:01 PM on January 19, 2006
posted by gagglezoomer at 7:01 PM on January 19, 2006
No kidding, Gungho. A scene from goddamn Troy is on there, but no Scanners?
posted by brundlefly at 7:03 PM on January 19, 2006
posted by brundlefly at 7:03 PM on January 19, 2006
This is what happens when you let intellectuals make lists. Although I do see a way where one can suggest a movie or death. What about 'random bar guy #3' in Near Dark? I'm preety sure having your head pulled off and then having vampires deink your blood from a beer mug should qualify somehow.
posted by Gungho at 7:11 PM on January 19, 2006
posted by Gungho at 7:11 PM on January 19, 2006
Sorry, didn't include Rutger Hauer (Roy Batty)'s "Time to Die" speech. Aside from being great poetry (in my little humble opinion) the coolest thing about this is that apparently Rutger Hauer improvised it during the take, and, also amazing, if you look at Harrison Ford's face while this is all going on he's looking like WTF?
posted by Turtles all the way down at 7:34 PM on January 19, 2006
posted by Turtles all the way down at 7:34 PM on January 19, 2006
Nedry from Jurassic Park? Maybe I've mixed up the book and the movie but I think there was a part when he was holding his own guts. Does it get better than that?
posted by Firas at 7:41 PM on January 19, 2006
posted by Firas at 7:41 PM on January 19, 2006
They did recognize War of the Worlds as the steaming turd that it was, which is more than I can say for a lot of people.
They explain the lack of a comprehensive listing of Movie Deaths in their FAQ. It's laziness.
posted by unsupervised at 7:46 PM on January 19, 2006
They explain the lack of a comprehensive listing of Movie Deaths in their FAQ. It's laziness.
posted by unsupervised at 7:46 PM on January 19, 2006
Wow. No Roy Batty. The database seems to be a work in progress and is missing lots and lots of stuff. (I had to write up and submit an entry for Bill, for example.) It also seems to prefer "bad" deaths to really interesting ones, sometimes. However, at least a few of the great ones do appear.
(Also annoying: it doesn't seem like you can vote on the ratings of these films.)
posted by washburn at 7:46 PM on January 19, 2006
(Also annoying: it doesn't seem like you can vote on the ratings of these films.)
posted by washburn at 7:46 PM on January 19, 2006
No exploding head in Scanners?
All's I'm gonna say about that is that frame-stepping through the relevant part on the DVD is stupendously wonderful. One of the most bestest 1/24 seconds ever captured on film.
And they have Dr. Mathias from Serenity, but not Gur Vzcnyrzrag bs Jnfu?
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 7:59 PM on January 19, 2006
All's I'm gonna say about that is that frame-stepping through the relevant part on the DVD is stupendously wonderful. One of the most bestest 1/24 seconds ever captured on film.
And they have Dr. Mathias from Serenity, but not Gur Vzcnyrzrag bs Jnfu?
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 7:59 PM on January 19, 2006
Awfully light on the burning-men, too. No mention for poor Wossname in Carpenter's The Thing, wandering out into the snow all ablazey? Ptui.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 8:00 PM on January 19, 2006
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 8:00 PM on January 19, 2006
I seem to remember a few more memorable deaths in The Thing than the guy going into the snow. Like the guy whose head splits in half and grows teeth, and then proceeds to chomp another guy's head, which, when decapitated, grows spider legs and an extra set of eyes before trying to scurry away. Damn, that movie was disgusting.
posted by Ndwright at 8:16 PM on January 19, 2006
posted by Ndwright at 8:16 PM on January 19, 2006
Dunno if was the best, but one of the most memorable deaths I've seen was an ape from the movie length premier of Tales of the Gold Monkey.
Mate, it was one of the most prolonged, over acted deaths I've ever seen. Straight out of a 50s Western!
(Although I was sure it was ...Brass Monkey when I saw it in Australia???)
posted by uncanny hengeman at 8:18 PM on January 19, 2006
For some reason I thought this was going to be a list of actors who'd died while filming movies and was a bit disappointed when it wasn't. Although rating the deaths of real people is certainly not in good taste, now that I think about it. *discards idea of movie set deaths website*
posted by witchstone at 8:32 PM on January 19, 2006
posted by witchstone at 8:32 PM on January 19, 2006
They gave Padme an 80%? Jesus H. Crackerbarrel, she died of death. She keeled over from a bad case of cop-out brought on by complications from not being in the first movie.
posted by L. Fitzgerald Sjoberg at 8:42 PM on January 19, 2006
posted by L. Fitzgerald Sjoberg at 8:42 PM on January 19, 2006
Ahem...
*SPOILER ALERT*
When Michael Hunsaker was drinking from a milk carton and got shot by a sniper from a helicopter (in Lethal Weapon). That was pretty cool.
posted by uncanny hengeman at 9:09 PM on January 19, 2006
*SPOILER ALERT*
When Michael Hunsaker was drinking from a milk carton and got shot by a sniper from a helicopter (in Lethal Weapon). That was pretty cool.
posted by uncanny hengeman at 9:09 PM on January 19, 2006
They missed the great scene in Never Say Never Again where Bond (Sean Connery) throws everything in his arsenal at Lippe (Pat Roach) in an extended fight scene at Shrublands Health Farm. Finally Bond throws a beaker of what appears to be acid at Lippe's face, sending screaming backwards into shelves of beakers and bottles that finish him off. Bond looks at the label on the beaker: Urine Sample--J. Bond.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 9:10 PM on January 19, 2006
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 9:10 PM on January 19, 2006
Yeah, this is a really lame site, maybe it'll get better with more submissions but these two obvious omissions ensure I won't be checking in the future:
Ben Kingsley in Sexy Beast. Awesome and not because of the gore. Anyone who can get his abdomen totally blown out and still cuss the living shit out of everyone is one bad mutherfucker.
Also Sonny Corleone in The Godfather. No more needs to be said.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 9:17 PM on January 19, 2006
Ben Kingsley in Sexy Beast. Awesome and not because of the gore. Anyone who can get his abdomen totally blown out and still cuss the living shit out of everyone is one bad mutherfucker.
Also Sonny Corleone in The Godfather. No more needs to be said.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 9:17 PM on January 19, 2006
No Wicked Witch of the West? What a world...
posted by Robot Johnny at 9:34 PM on January 19, 2006
posted by Robot Johnny at 9:34 PM on January 19, 2006
Speaking of Rutger Hauer, I'd like an honorable mention of Gene Simmons exploding at the end of Wanted: Dead or Alive.
posted by Token Meme at 9:41 PM on January 19, 2006
posted by Token Meme at 9:41 PM on January 19, 2006
I'm voting for Pee-Wee in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie...
posted by bigschmoove at 10:09 PM on January 19, 2006
posted by bigschmoove at 10:09 PM on January 19, 2006
Just to reveal my unmanliness and lack of actionability:
[and yes: SPOILER ALERTS for movies that are A HALF A CENTURY OLD]:
-- Janet Leigh stabbed in the shower in Psycho?
-- Charles Foster Kane whispering "Rosebud" and dropping the glass ball?
-- Harry Lime in The Third Man?
-- Toshiro Mifune's agonized death in the rain in The Seven Samurai?
-- James Cagney screaming "Top of the world, ma!" at the end of White Heat?
-- The liberal senator shot through the milk carton in The Manchurian Candidate, so that he literally bleeds milk?
-- How about the death of us all, to the tune of "We'll Meet Again," in Dr. Strangelove?
-- Or, while we're on the subject of Kubrick, HAL singing DAAAAIIISSYYYY while he's being "killed?"
But then I guess there isn't room for this sort of crap when Killer Klowns from Outer Space is out there.
posted by argybarg at 10:12 PM on January 19, 2006
[and yes: SPOILER ALERTS for movies that are A HALF A CENTURY OLD]:
-- Janet Leigh stabbed in the shower in Psycho?
-- Charles Foster Kane whispering "Rosebud" and dropping the glass ball?
-- Harry Lime in The Third Man?
-- Toshiro Mifune's agonized death in the rain in The Seven Samurai?
-- James Cagney screaming "Top of the world, ma!" at the end of White Heat?
-- The liberal senator shot through the milk carton in The Manchurian Candidate, so that he literally bleeds milk?
-- How about the death of us all, to the tune of "We'll Meet Again," in Dr. Strangelove?
-- Or, while we're on the subject of Kubrick, HAL singing DAAAAIIISSYYYY while he's being "killed?"
But then I guess there isn't room for this sort of crap when Killer Klowns from Outer Space is out there.
posted by argybarg at 10:12 PM on January 19, 2006
Another Cronenberg... The video nerd guy in Videodrome who gets his hand "sharpened" in James Woods' abdomen/VCR/vaginal slit... then explodes. Or, hell, Barry Convex when tumors tear him apart from the inside.
Amen on The Thing, by the way. The movie that got me into movies...
posted by brundlefly at 10:15 PM on January 19, 2006
Amen on The Thing, by the way. The movie that got me into movies...
posted by brundlefly at 10:15 PM on January 19, 2006
*sigh*
Yeah you right, argybarg. Testament to my narrow mindedness that I was only thinking horror films...
posted by brundlefly at 10:17 PM on January 19, 2006
Yeah you right, argybarg. Testament to my narrow mindedness that I was only thinking horror films...
posted by brundlefly at 10:17 PM on January 19, 2006
Weak, they missed one of the greatest and most often overlooked movie deaths... In "Money Train" the scene where that random criminal gets lit on fire and THEN hit by a subway train while he's on fire. Like the director couldn't decide which was better so he just did BOTH. It's obscene in that it's not just overkill, but the kind of blatant and fantastical overkill that only happens when someone is writing it into a story. It's so unnecessary that you just have to applaud.
posted by Farengast at 10:29 PM on January 19, 2006
posted by Farengast at 10:29 PM on January 19, 2006
Aye, turtles...
I've, seen things, you people wouldn't believe. A-TTack 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 rain. Time, to die.
I'll also throw in the final sequence from John Woo's The Killer where Jong and Jennie pass each other, like ships in the night.
posted by PurplePorpoise at 10:33 PM on January 19, 2006
I've, seen things, you people wouldn't believe. A-TTack 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 rain. Time, to die.
I'll also throw in the final sequence from John Woo's The Killer where Jong and Jennie pass each other, like ships in the night.
posted by PurplePorpoise at 10:33 PM on January 19, 2006
and yes: SPOILER ALERTS for movies that are A HALF A CENTURY OLD
I am teh considerate, aren't I?
posted by uncanny hengeman at 10:50 PM on January 19, 2006
I am teh considerate, aren't I?
posted by uncanny hengeman at 10:50 PM on January 19, 2006
Only 273 deaths? That doesn't even cover the entire Rambo series.
posted by FormlessOne at 11:10 PM on January 19, 2006
posted by FormlessOne at 11:10 PM on January 19, 2006
James Cagney screaming "Top of the world, ma!" at the end of White Heat?
Loads of good Cagney deaths. Like the one where he's dragged, screaming to the chair, because Pat O'Brien wants the Dead End Kids to think he's yellow and stop looking up to him.
Or the Roaring Twenties, where he lies bleeding in the snow as the strings play 'Melancholy Baby'.
Cagney gave good death scene.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 11:53 PM on January 19, 2006
Loads of good Cagney deaths. Like the one where he's dragged, screaming to the chair, because Pat O'Brien wants the Dead End Kids to think he's yellow and stop looking up to him.
Or the Roaring Twenties, where he lies bleeding in the snow as the strings play 'Melancholy Baby'.
Cagney gave good death scene.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 11:53 PM on January 19, 2006
And how about the guy who dies when his lover castrates him in Ai No Corrida?
posted by PeterMcDermott at 11:55 PM on January 19, 2006
posted by PeterMcDermott at 11:55 PM on January 19, 2006
I thought the nine gratuitous screen caps from the end of Point Break were a nice touch.
posted by Sonny Jim at 12:33 AM on January 20, 2006
posted by Sonny Jim at 12:33 AM on January 20, 2006
SPOILER ALERT for a 50+ year old movie, I guess ...
Four of my favorite movie deaths are:
From the movie Rashomon, the death of Takehiro at the hands of the bandit Tajomaru.
From the movie Rashomon, the death of Takehiro (probably) at the hands of his wife, Masako.
From the movie Rashomon, the death of Takehiro at by own hand, and
From the movie Rashomon, the death of Takehiro at the hands of the bandit Tajomaru.
posted by CrunchyFrog at 12:35 AM on January 20, 2006
Four of my favorite movie deaths are:
From the movie Rashomon, the death of Takehiro at the hands of the bandit Tajomaru.
From the movie Rashomon, the death of Takehiro (probably) at the hands of his wife, Masako.
From the movie Rashomon, the death of Takehiro at by own hand, and
From the movie Rashomon, the death of Takehiro at the hands of the bandit Tajomaru.
posted by CrunchyFrog at 12:35 AM on January 20, 2006
Runaway Train. [SPOILER ALERT]
Am I the only person in the world who absolutely loves this hugely underrated film? OK, you don't actually see Voight die at the end but you know it is inevitable and the final shot... literally sent shivers up and down my spine when I first saw it. It still does, sometimes.
If you've ever tried to watch this movie and been put off by the somewhat formulaic prison movie aspects of the first part, try again and stick with it. It's awesome.
posted by Decani at 5:27 AM on January 20, 2006
Am I the only person in the world who absolutely loves this hugely underrated film? OK, you don't actually see Voight die at the end but you know it is inevitable and the final shot... literally sent shivers up and down my spine when I first saw it. It still does, sometimes.
If you've ever tried to watch this movie and been put off by the somewhat formulaic prison movie aspects of the first part, try again and stick with it. It's awesome.
posted by Decani at 5:27 AM on January 20, 2006
In the climax of Raiders of the Lost Ark, when Ronald Lacey and Wolf Kahler melt. Looks hokey now that I've seen it a few times, but it really disturbed me the first time.
posted by alumshubby at 6:05 AM on January 20, 2006
posted by alumshubby at 6:05 AM on January 20, 2006
I can't get the site either. Do they include the little blonde girl who gets shot through her ice cream in the original Assault on Precinct 13? Cause that death just rocks it.
Actually, there are great deaths in all of John Carpenter's films, now that I think about it.
posted by Astro Zombie at 6:21 AM on January 20, 2006
Actually, there are great deaths in all of John Carpenter's films, now that I think about it.
posted by Astro Zombie at 6:21 AM on January 20, 2006
This is a great idea. Too bad the site seems to be broken this morning. Did they include the guy in a wheelchair from Leonard Part 6 who plunges into a tub of acid while firing a tommy gun and shouting "DEATH TO ALL MANKIND!"?
'Cause that's how I want to go out.
posted by you just lost the game at 6:39 AM on January 20, 2006
'Cause that's how I want to go out.
posted by you just lost the game at 6:39 AM on January 20, 2006
They gave Padme an 80%? Jesus H. Crackerbarrel, she died of death. She keeled over from a bad case of cop-out brought on by complications from not being in the first movie.
posted by L. Fitzgerald Sjoberg at 11:42 PM EST on January 19 [!]
The next time NASA sends out an interplanetary probe and some forward-thinking science-type person creates a Message from Earth record in the event it is picked up by aliens, I hope to god they include an archive of The Brunching Shuttlecocks.
Bless you, sir.
posted by bondcliff at 6:57 AM on January 20, 2006
posted by L. Fitzgerald Sjoberg at 11:42 PM EST on January 19 [!]
The next time NASA sends out an interplanetary probe and some forward-thinking science-type person creates a Message from Earth record in the event it is picked up by aliens, I hope to god they include an archive of The Brunching Shuttlecocks.
Bless you, sir.
posted by bondcliff at 6:57 AM on January 20, 2006
This list has way too many Star Wars deaths listed, instead of some of the aforementioned ommissions (Roy Batty), thus rendering it teh lame.
posted by NationalKato at 6:57 AM on January 20, 2006
posted by NationalKato at 6:57 AM on January 20, 2006
Yes to the Manchurian Candidate shot-through-the-milk-carton scene!
and yes, Runaway Train was great.
posted by atchafalaya at 7:49 AM on January 20, 2006
and yes, Runaway Train was great.
posted by atchafalaya at 7:49 AM on January 20, 2006
Near Dark
I completely forgot that excellent, excellent movie.
posted by OmieWise at 7:58 AM on January 20, 2006
I completely forgot that excellent, excellent movie.
posted by OmieWise at 7:58 AM on January 20, 2006
Yes to the Manchurian Candidates hot-through-the-milk-carton scene!
or the T2 stabbed-through-the-milk-carton scene!
posted by phearlez at 9:54 AM on January 20, 2006
or the T2 stabbed-through-the-milk-carton scene!
posted by phearlez at 9:54 AM on January 20, 2006
This list is useless without Heston's death in Omega Man.
I also second bigschmoove on Pee-Wee's death in BTVS. Hilarious.
posted by Malenfant at 10:28 AM on January 20, 2006
I also second bigschmoove on Pee-Wee's death in BTVS. Hilarious.
posted by Malenfant at 10:28 AM on January 20, 2006
This list is useless without Heston's death in Omega Man.
I also second bigschmoove on Pee-Wee's death in BTVS. Hilarious.
posted by Malenfant at 10:45 AM on January 20, 2006
I also second bigschmoove on Pee-Wee's death in BTVS. Hilarious.
posted by Malenfant at 10:45 AM on January 20, 2006
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posted by fleetmouse at 6:37 PM on January 19, 2006