Bambi’s mother or Old Yeller
Sean Connery in The Untouchables.
Mr Blonde’s death in Reservoir Dogs. Less for the moment itself than for all the build-up, and the revelation of who shot him and why.
Betty/Diane’s suicide at the end of Mulholland Drive. The onimous knocks at the door, the incredibly creepy grinning old people screaming at her… it all just builds up to an unbearable crescendo, so that it’s almost a relief when she pulls out a gun and shoots herself.
Bruno’s death in Strangers on a Train. Such a great character, such a great way to go out; squished under an out-of-control merry-go-round, still trying to work a little maliciously innocent manipulation on the hero.
Sergeant Howie in The Wicker Man.
Al Pacino in Scarface
The soldiers getting cut up in the laser room in Resident Evil was pretty cool too.
Spock in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
I agree, although I think the scene itself, while visually cool, was a bad idea, since it eliminated a lot of tension by removing about half the team at one stroke, instead of allowing fear and paranoia to build up. Still, it was a cool moment in a film that had a lot of cool moments, if, IMO, little over-all substance.
The same effect, btw, was used in the film Cube where someone gets sliced into pieces, although with blades rather than lasers.
Optimus Prime’s death in Transformers the Movie 
Opening sequence of Jaws.
Oddly my favorite death scenes both feature the same actor. In Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves when Robin Hood stabs the Sheriff of Naughtingham(sp?) his death scene over-the-top but great because of it.
The same actor played Hans Grouber the Exceptional Thief in the first Die Hard movie. In the scene he’s holding on to Holly McClains watch while bringing his gun to bear on John McClain, when McClain undoes the clasp. The look on his face is priceless and looks totally authentic.
Ooh and on preview a second for the opening in Jaws.
This thread has gone nearly thirty posts and nobody’s mentioned Boromir in Lord of the Rings? :eek:
checks again
Oh, wait, someone did. Good call, Tangent. 
Okay, then, Bardolph’s execution in the Branagh Henry V.
I saw the South Park movie last night. Even though it animation, Kenny’s death sequence really, really disturbs me. That is exactly how I don’t want to die.
What about when Shaw gets eaten?! I can’t imagine a more gruesome way to go, unless it’s that old thing about sliding down a rusty razor blade into a vat of acid.
Watching oneself being eaten can’t be a thrill.
OK, am I being whooshed here? Didn’t he die while having sex with her?
Rutge Hauer in Blade Runner.
Saving Private Ryan…I nominate three deaths:
The medic, dying of a belly wound. The night before, we’d gotten some sense of his resentment towards his mother leaving him at night to work at a hosptial, yet his dying breath he calls, “Mama, mama.”
The knife scene with Melosh. I still can’t watch all of that…it’s so intense. Melosh lying on his back, urging the German to stop, like, “Okay, I call Uncle, can we go back to my house for lemonade now?” and the German whispering, “Ssh, ssh” as he pushes the blade into Melosh’s heart.
Tom Hanks’ death. It’s over, he has a fatal wound, but by God, he’s going to keep shooting at those tanks with his pistol until he runs out of bullets.
Major Kong, the B-52 pilot in Dr. Strangelove
DD
The death scenes I really love are the ones which have a villain so detestable, you want to see him die from the first moment you see him. Gary Oldman as the corrupt DEA director in the movie “The Professional” is just such a character. The film was great and starred Jean Reno and a young Natalie Portman.
One of my favorite cinematic quotes “from Matilda”. If you saw the movie you KNOW what happens next. (Hey, I don’t want to be a spoiler).
The list so far is:
100: Anonymous Swordsman in Indiana Jones (gunshot wound)
99: Terminator and T1000 in Terminator II (vat of molten metal)
98: Irene Walker in Prizzi’s Honor (knife)
97: Lady Jane Grey in Lady Jane (execution)
96: Sonny Corleone in The Godfather
95: Karl Malden in Nevada Smith (gunshot wounds to knees and elbows)
94: Gene Simmons in Wanted Dead or Alive (grenade in mouth)
93: Billy Zane in Dead Calm (disintegrated by flare)
92: Maximus and Commodus in Gladiator (fight to their mutual deaths)
91: Anonymous guard in Silence of the Lambs (hanging)
90: Italian detective in Hannibal (hanged and disembowled)
89: Boromir in The Fellowship of the Ring (injured in fight with orcs)
88: Little Bill in Unforgiven (gunshot wound to the head)
87: Tyler Durden in Fight Club
86: Marvin in Pulp Fiction
85: Christian Slater in Heathers
84: Lawyer dude from Jurassic Park (eaten by T-Rex)
83: Kane in Citizen Kane
82: Spock in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (radiation poisoning)
81: Fredo Corleone in The Godfather II
80: John Coffey in The Green Mile (execution)
79: Danny Vinyard in American History X (gunshot wound)
78: Clayton in Disney’s Tarzan (hanging)
77: RAM in Tron
76: Queen in Akira Kurosawa’s Ran
75: Michael Ironside in in Scanners
74: John Hurt in Alien
73: Nicky Santoro in Cansino (beaten and left to die in a grave)
72: Neil McCauley in Heat
71: John Wayne in The Cowboys
70: John Wayne in The Shootist
69: Donnie in Donnie Darko (crushed by plane engine)
68: Sal Mineo in Rebel Without A Cause
67: Bambi’s Mother in Bambi (gunshot wound)
66: Old Yeller in Old Yeller (gunshot wound)
65: Sean Connery in The Untouchables
64: Mr. Blond in Resevoir Dogs (gunshot wound)
63: Betty/Diane in Mulholland Drive (self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head)
62: Bruno in Strangers on a Train (crushed by out-of-control merry-go-round)
61: Sergeant Howie in The Wicker Man
60: Al Pacino in Scarface (multiple gunshot wounds)
59: Optimus Prime in Transformers the Movie
58: Girl in opening scene and Shaw in Jaws (eaten by shark)
57: Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (stab wound)
56: Hans Gruber in Die Hard (fall from great height)
55: Bardolph in Henry V (execution)
54: Kenny in South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut
53: Rutger Hauer in Blade Runner
52: The medic, Melosh, and Tom Hanks in Saving Private Ryan (belly wound, knife to the heart, gunshot wound respectively)
51: Major Kong, the B-52 pilot in Dr. Strangelove
50: Stansfield in The Professional (blown to itty-bitty bits)
49: Todd in Final Destination (accidental strangulation in the shower)
All deaths from the same movie will go in one place, unless the deaths occur in different sequels (hence Godfather and Godfather II’s deaths are listed separately). Also, I omitted the submissions that didn’t include a name of some kind (even the actor’s name) but I’ll gladly add them if a name is supplied. I included means of death if I knew it or if the poster supplied it.
.:Nichol:.
Baseball bat scene in The Untouchables.
Nichol_storm
Excellent summarizing. Might I suggest letting the list build to at least 150 (maybe more) and then closing the “nominations” and have everybody select their Top 10 from the nominations list? Using 10 for highest preference down to 1 for lowest of the 10, you could then order the resulting list by sum-of-scores and have an “official” SDMB list of the deaths?
Lotta work on your part, but I had considered a similar approach to some similar “best of” threads I started.
Just an idea.