# Best death scene in a movie (General spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 18, 2006, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-movie-general-spoilers/357232 "2006-05-18T05:14:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2006, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-movie-general-spoilers/357232/41 "2006-05-18T17:17:07Z")
[QUOTE=Giles] Someone has to say it first: the most heart-rending death in the movies is that of Setsuko in [Grave of the Fireflies](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095327/). The fact that, in many wars, many five-year-olds have died and continue to die that way, does not make it better: in fact, Setsuko stands for all those millions of children who die in the insanity of war. [/QUOTE] I’m a 28 year old guy and this is the only movie that made me literally sob at the end. I completely lost it. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2006, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-movie-general-spoilers/357232/42 "2006-05-18T17:21:38Z")
Little Lukas Haas death in “Testament”. (a fairly obscure post-Apoc movie about people in a small No.Cal town) We see his mother carrying his almost lifeless body into the bathroom and frantically filling the sink with bottled water. She places his rear in the water and a moment later the sink is dirty with diarhea and blood. The next scene is his mother sewing the burial shroud around him. Boromir’s death still gets me teary… .actually… the moment when Merry and Pippin are surrounded by Uruks and Boromir appears running to their rescue (the only good use of slow-mo Jackson used in the movie)- THAT’s what gets me teary. Jason Robards death at the end of “Once Upon a Time in the West”. Although unnecessary really in the film. Its a nice quiet heart failure death which is probably the last thing a bad guy like his character would have expected. ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2006, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-movie-general-spoilers/357232/43 "2006-05-18T17:42:05Z")
Okay, it’s a mini-series and not technically a movie. But the death of Augustus in _I, Claudius_ is pretty astonishing. The elderly Augustus (Brian Blessed) has been a naughty boy and indulged a little too heavily in romantic notions of restoring the Republic. His all-knowing and beneficent wife Livia (Siân Phillips), understanding that the continuance of autocracy is the only means of [del]ensuring that her son, whom she fancies she can control, will inherit the throne[/del] stabilizing the empire, has decided that it’s finally time to teach him the error of his ways. So she whips up a batch of one of her favorite family remedies, tiptoes into the garden in the dead of night, and oh-so-carefully applies it to the figs growing from her hubby’s favorite tree. Naturally this has a most distressing effect on the imperial digestion. So, suffering from the effects of a shocking overdose of hemlock, the Divine Augustus lies dying on his bed. Livia, knowing that the end is near, cradles him in her arms and gives him the old “I did it all for my country” speech. As she does so, the camera zooms in on Augustus’ face, and holds the shot for about a minute. While you watch, the emperor grows still and stops breathing. The light goes out of his eyes and they seem to glaze over. You’d swear they had frozen the frame, but no. You can see the bedclothes moving as Livia finishes her speech. Amazing performance. ---
**Author:** ![bubastis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d07c76/32.png) [@bubastis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bubastis)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2006, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-movie-general-spoilers/357232/44 "2006-05-18T18:30:05Z")
The PBR captain in Apocalypse Now… He gets a spear in the back, in the middle of the Vietnam War. The look on his face, and his words “…a spear…?” as if to say, i’m fighting in a war all this time, and I get killed by a spear? With his last breath, he tries to kill Martin Sheen. Truly chilling. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2006, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-movie-general-spoilers/357232/45 "2006-05-18T18:45:38Z")
[QUOTE=bubastis] With his last breath, he tries to kill Martin Sheen. [/QUOTE] Damn, that must be some serious halitosis. ---
**Author:** ![PapSett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@PapSett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PapSett)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2006, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-movie-general-spoilers/357232/46 "2006-05-18T20:36:28Z")
Nicloas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas. I have only been able to watch that movie ONCE. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2006, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-movie-general-spoilers/357232/47 "2006-05-18T20:46:01Z")
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir] The American soldier stabbed to death by the big German soldier in a bombed-out upstairs room in _Saving Private Ryan_. The German soldier soothingly talks to him as he jabs him deeper and deeper. Chilling. [/QUOTE] I can’t watch that scene. It’s so _intimate_, with Melosh saying “Stop stop” like they’re a couple of boys roughing it up on the playground, and now he’s done playing and needs to get up now. I must tell you, the Irish boy in _Lonesome Dove_ as they’re crossing the river and stir up a nest’s of water mocassins…that last scene with a snake clamped to his cheek as he’s screaming and thrashing in the water… :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2006, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-movie-general-spoilers/357232/48 "2006-05-18T20:48:54Z")
[QUOTE=Pushkin] I think this topic was done a while back, I’ll nominate Kevin Spacey in _LA Confidential_ dying from a gunshot again. As the poster in the last thread said, you could just see the life draining out of his eyes. [/QUOTE] I hope that was me (I’m not sure). I don’t know what Kevin Spacey did in that scene, but I know I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s really spooky. Val Kilmer’s last moment as Doc Holliday in _Tombstone_ is a good one. His final words are “Oh, this is funny”- because he’s dying peacefully on a hospital bed instead of in a gunfight. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2006, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-movie-general-spoilers/357232/49 "2006-05-18T20:49:06Z")
The end of **Gallipoli** Makes me shake and cry every time The end of **Let Him Have It** The end of **Breaker Morant** ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2006, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-movie-general-spoilers/357232/50 "2006-05-18T20:57:39Z")
In the interest of honesty, I should add that not only did I hate watching that scene in _Saving Private Ryan_, I hated reading the posts about it. It’s that well-done. ---
**Author:** ![Diesel\_Cat\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Diesel\_Cat\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diesel_Cat_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2006, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-movie-general-spoilers/357232/51 "2006-05-18T21:06:57Z")
[QUOTE=Giles] Someone has to say it first: the most heart-rending death in the movies is that of Setsuko in [Grave of the Fireflies](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095327/). The fact that, in many wars, many five-year-olds have died and continue to die that way, does not make it better: in fact, Setsuko stands for all those millions of children who die in the insanity of war. [/QUOTE] Hear, hear. GOTF flowed through my Netflix queue not long ago; it took me nearly two weeks before I worked myself up to watch it. I’m not sure I’d want to again any time soon. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2006, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-movie-general-spoilers/357232/52 "2006-05-18T21:08:59Z")
[QUOTE=PapSett] Nicloas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas. I have only been able to watch that movie ONCE. [/QUOTE] Yeah, that was horrible, made more so by the general bleakness of the film. It makes me a little sick to my stomach now just thinking about it. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2006, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-movie-general-spoilers/357232/53 "2006-05-18T21:16:35Z")
Also in _Unforgiven_, Gene Hackman’s death from a pitiless Clint Eastwood. “I don’t deserve this. I was building a house.” “Deserve’s got nothin’ to do with it.” ---
**Author:** ![BMax](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bmax/32/4267_2.png) [@BMax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMax)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2006, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-movie-general-spoilers/357232/54 "2006-05-18T21:18:46Z")
[QUOTE=BwanaBob] How is it no one has mentioned \*\*Roy Batty’s \*\* death in **Blade Runner**? It always moves me. [/QUOTE] I was thinking of Pris’s death from the same movie. It was the antithesis of your average overdone movie death, all screaming, kicking and flopping around. Instead of quiet dignity, acceptance or a touching scene, you get to feel her anger at being gunned down in the prime of her intentionally short life. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2006, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-movie-general-spoilers/357232/55 "2006-05-18T21:27:17Z")
[QUOTE=Biffy the Elephant Shrew] Damn, that must be some serious halitosis. [/QUOTE] Either that or: The tooth…the tooth…remember the tooth… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2006, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-movie-general-spoilers/357232/56 "2006-05-18T21:39:14Z")
\ You are who you _choose_ to be… \ Suuuupermann!! \ \ ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2006, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-movie-general-spoilers/357232/57 "2006-05-18T22:09:32Z")
[QUOTE=Marley23] In the interest of honesty, I should add that not only did I hate watching that scene in _Saving Private Ryan_, I hated reading the posts about it. It’s that well-done. [/QUOTE] The other side of that is the German soldier very soothingly shushing him (Adam Goldberg? is that the actor?) like he’s trying to calm a crying baby. ---
**Author:** ![shelbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@shelbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shelbo)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2006, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-movie-general-spoilers/357232/58 "2006-05-18T22:30:28Z")
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir] The American soldier stabbed to death by the big German soldier in a bombed-out upstairs room in _Saving Private Ryan_. The German soldier soothingly talks to him as he jabs him deeper and deeper. Chilling. [/QUOTE] That’s the one I thought of too. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2006, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-movie-general-spoilers/357232/59 "2006-05-18T23:09:42Z")
The interaction between Sissy Spacek and Anne Bancroft in ['Night, Mother](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090556/). Jessie’s sheer determination to go through with her suicide (after telling her mother general instructions for keeping going in daily life) no matter what Thelma did. It was an amazing study in bone-weariness and defeat, then on the flip side, wild-eyed desperation and insane ineffectualness. There was no emotion or plea not made, nor a single one that wasn’t rejected. ☹ I don’t know if I’ve ever been that impacted by an onscreen death. Plus, it draws me in to the point that I don’t mind watching it repeatedly. Marvelous acting all the way around. ---
**Author:** ![want2know](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/50afbb/32.png) [@want2know](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/want2know)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2006, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-movie-general-spoilers/357232/60 "2006-05-18T23:49:03Z")
I’ve never been a fan of emotional, gut-wrenching death scenes, so my criteria may be a bit different. I do confess that the death of the alien in Dr. Lazarus’ arms in **Galaxy Quest** got to me a little, especially when Lazarus recites the “Grabthar’s hammer” speech, the first time it actually _meant_ something to him. Speaking of Alan Rickman, Hans Gruber’s slow-motion fall to his death in **Die Hard** was particularly effective. I agree with the previous poster who mentioned the scene from **Repo Man**. Good stuff! Piper Laurie’s death at the hands of **Carrie**. And, for a scene involving death, the scene in the back room of the funeral home in **Silence of the Lambs** is one of the most memorable . To this day, every time I hear the words “wrongful death” I still hear the coroner’s voice saying it. That, and the _whoosh_ of air when the cocoon is removed from the victim’s throat-- BRRRRRR! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-movie-general-spoilers/357232.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-death-scene-in-a-movie-general-spoilers/357232.md?page=4)