Movies in which the main character commits suicide (spoilers, duh)

[Johnny Hildo]

For some reason I can only recall two movies, the similarly titled 'night, Mother and Mother Night.

[fessie]

Any one about Van Gogh, obviously (Vincent and Theo was a good one, there's also Lust for Life).

Whose Life Is It Anyway, IIRC - doesn't he get his way in the end?

The Hours, about Virginia Woolfe

Sylvia, (Sylvia Plath) (haven't seen it, but she did off herself IRL)

Harold and Maude (repeatedly) (bwahaha)

[fessie]

Here's a whole database of 'em. Seems skimpy, though, and isn't limited to main characters.

[Ellis Dee]

Heh, I know of a few, though an IMDb keyword search would probably be your best bet.

Leaving Las Vegas
Full Metal Jacket
Shawshank Redemption
Thelma and Louise
Gattaca
A Few Good Men

Also a few where the lead is suicidal but lives through the credits:

Julian Po
Lethal Weapon
Groundhog Day
Scent of a Woman

ETA: Oops, A Few Good Men doesn't qualify; it was a minor character (the informant) who got dressed in his formals and blew his brains out. And with Gattaca it wasn't the lead, but pretty close. (Though c'mon, Private Pyle was the lead of the first act of Full Metal Jacket.)

[Intravenus De Milo]

I always wondered about the end of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon...was her jump off that tall-ass mountain another ethereal wire-fu moment, or was it a death dive?

[bbs2k]

All I'm gonna say is that the ending to the movie Pi was .

[BooBoo316]

Alien 3, although the very existence of this movie is in some dispute.

[Peter Morris]

Falling Down - (suicide by cop)

[straight man]

Originally Posted by Intravenus De Milo

I always wondered about the end of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon...was her jump off that tall-ass mountain another ethereal wire-fu moment, or was it a death dive?

Death dive. Nothing else makes sense (just to start, it wouldn't be an ending, were it a wire-fu moment.)

[Carson O'Genic]

The Sea Inside.

Ellis Dee, the suicide in Shawshank Redemption is a side,not main character.

[Ludovic]

Inasmuch as he could be considered the main character, Sin City.

Booboo, not only did the movie not exist, she was recreated from her DNA complete with memories, so could it really be considered a successful suicide?

[lieu]

Vanishing Point. A rather spectacular suicide, actually.

[Mangetout]

Armageddon.

[RealityChuck]

The Front -- Zero Mostel is the second lead, so I think that counts.
Hamlet -- Ophelia definitely.
Romeo and Juliet -- both main characters, actually.

[Quartz]

A Tale of Two Cities.

[The Scrivener]

The title character in Carrington and the supporting male (and love rival, played by Joseph Fiennes) in Enemy at the Gates both kill themselves, but only after knowing their love will remain unrequited. The latter merely had to expose himself to a Nazi sniper.


Here's a few born of a more-immediate desperation:

The male lead (played by Jake Weber) in the Dawn of the Dead remake -- but he only does it to avoid becoming a zombie, after being bitten.

The female character in Open Water, with no immediate prospect of rescue, and only after surviving the sharks long enough to become utterly exhausted and demoralized (esp. from watching her husband die) -- she releases herself from her buoyant scuba gear. (Although I very much doubt she would have had the luxury of drowning before the sharks attacked.)

The suicidal characters (Tea Leoni, her dad Max Schell, and her mother, Vanessa Redgrave) who opt for death in Deep Impact do so either by pills or exposing themselves to the deadly tsunami.

[WOOKINPANUB]

Originally Posted by Carson O'Genic

The Sea Inside.

Ellis Dee, the suicide in Shawshank Redemption is a side,not main character.

The only suicide I remember from Shawshank is the librararian (Brooks?), who is a pretty major character.

How about Gene Hackman's preacher in The Poseidon Adventure. . .

". . . take MEEEEEEE!" I love that scene!

[fessie]

Originally Posted by The Scrivener

The female character in Open Water, with no immediate prospect of rescue, and only after surviving the sharks long enough to become utterly exhausted and demoralized (esp. from watching her husband die) -- she releases herself from her buoyant scuba gear. (Although I very much doubt she would have had the luxury of drowning before the sharks attacked.)

So, what, they just died? Geez, I'm glad I missed that one.


Next thing you know, someone'll do time-elapsed videos of old geezers in nursing homes, catch their final minutes.


Officer and a Gentleman, not the protagonist, but one of the main characters does himself in

[Ellis Dee]

Originally Posted by Ludovic

Booboo, not only did the movie not exist, she was recreated from her DNA complete with memories, so could it really be considered a successful suicide?

That's an interesting debate. Reminds me of a short story that goes something like this:

Guy invents a teleporter, which becomes a staple of everyday travel. But he realizes (or always knew) that it doesn't actually teleport people at all; instead, it kills them and recreates a perfect facsimile on the other side, complete with all the person's memories. Eventually he is the last person left alive who has never teleported; every other human was in effect just a doppleganger. In the end he is forced to go through against his will, so the last true human dies.

Anyone know the name of this story and/or the author?

ETA:

Originally Posted by Carson O'Genic

Ellis Dee, the suicide in Shawshank Redemption is a side,not main character.

I was thinking of Tim Robbins' character. (Andy?)

[plnnr]

Originally Posted by WOOKINPANUB

The only suicide I remember from Shawshank is the librararian (Brooks?), who is a pretty major character.

The Warden blew his brains out and he was very much a major character.

[It's Not Rocket Surgery!]

What about Terminator 2? The T-1 had to off himself, and was as much a main character as anyone.

[Mangetout]

Silent Running

[Spoke]

Depending on whom you consider to be the main character: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.

And if self-sacrificial death counts, The Boys in Company C.

There's a suicide in The Last of the Mohicans but not the main character.

[Beadalin]

Dead Poets Society

And in a way, Donnie Darko.

[It's Not Rocket Surgery!]

Originally Posted by Beadalin

Dead Poets Society

And in a way, Donnie Darko.

Yes. Donnie Darko is definitely a suicide.

[Manatee]

Keanu's character in The Devil's Advocate.

[Johnny Hildo]

Just remembered Lon Chaney in The Ace of Hearts from 1921. Probably one of the earliest cinematic depictions of a suicide bomber.

[Diceman]

The last Death Wish movie (#5?) ends with Bronson committing suicide-by-cop.

[RealityChuck]

On the Beach

[Beadalin]

Oh, and here's a shocker: The Virgin Suicides.

[BubbaDog]

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Although you get the impression that they thought they had a chance.

[Spoke]

The Shootist, sorta.

[Antinor01]

The Butterfly Effect

[Lute Skywatcher]

The End, if attempted suicides count.

Originally Posted by Antinor01

The Butterfly Effect

Only in the Director's Cut, though.

[Antinor01]

Originally Posted by Lute Skywatcher

Only in the Director's Cut, though.

Really? That must be the one I saw then. I didn't see it in the theater.

[Lute Skywatcher]

Originally Posted by Antinor01

Really? That must be the one I saw then. I didn't see it in the theater.

The theater release ends with Evan going back to a (birthday?) party where he meets Kayleigh for the first time. The three-year-old Evan scares Kayleigh into avoiding him like the plague, thus ensuring all the problems resulting from her wanting to be near him never happen. Evan then burns all his journals; the final scene has adult Evan and Kayleigh crossing paths in Manhattan.

[Kythereia]

If you stretch the rules of 'suicide' slightly, the original British ending of The Descent

SPOILER:

has the main character awakening from her imagined 'escape' from the cave, only to realize that she's still trapped and the crawlers (evil monsters) are headed for her. She makes no further attempts to escape, but merely sits still and hallucinates her daughter blowing out the candles on her birthday cake as the crawlers close in on her.

[muldoonthief]

It's a bit of a stretch, but Spock in Wrath of Khan.

[lieu]

There was Vesper in Casino Royale.

[Mahaloth]

Originally Posted by lieu

There was Vesper in Casino Royale.

Isn't this thread about the main character?

James Bond did not commit suicide.

[Shoeless]

Didn't Ben Kingsley's character off himself in House of Sand and Fog? Maybe he wasn't the main character but he was a pretty major character in the film.

[mbh]

Tunes of Glory

I know that Alec Guinness got top billing, but John Mills' character was equally important to the story.

[T_SQUARE]

For Whom the Bell Tolls. I think they made it into a movie, right?

[dotchan]

Sonatine

Thelma and Louise (surprised nobody's mentioned it)

You could make an argument for End of Evangelion, sort of.

SPOILER:

Depending on whether or not you consider the forcible merging of all humanity into one mass conciousness as suicide.

But why does Shinji get to live, dammit? :P

[KneadToKnow]

Devil in Miss Jones, right in the first scene.

[fessie]

Originally Posted by dotchan

Thelma and Louise (surprised nobody's mentioned it)

Surprised you didn't read post #3.

[DiggitCamara]

Originally Posted by fessie

Surprised you didn't read post #3.

Even more surprised she didn't read post #4

[fessie]

::snort:: Gaudere strikes again

[BooBoo316]

Originally Posted by Ludovic

Booboo, not only did the movie not exist, she was recreated from her DNA complete with memories, so could it really be considered a successful suicide?

Very good point, but I think so. Ripley 2 is a completely different person (clone?) from the original. Ripley 1 did the swan dive and was completely destroyed. That they were able to scrape up enough cells to make a copy doesn't change that the original is toast.

[Ellis Dee]

Originally Posted by Shoeless

Didn't Ben Kingsley's character off himself in House of Sand and Fog? Maybe he wasn't the main character but he was a pretty major character in the film.

Good call. Even if he wasn't the main character, my recollection is that every single speaking part committed suicide.

That movie was an orgy of depression.