Lt. South Burning in Mobile Suit Gundam 0083. It’s a giant-robot-piloted by people anime.
They just managed a succesful sorty against the same group of Zeon Marines that trashed Kou’s (the main hero’s) Mobile Suit earlier in the series, and are flying back to the Carrier. Burning talks to Kou a little about holding onto keepsakes of a woman you love (related to the comedic relief sidestory earlier in the episode), and then reveals that he recovered secured documents from one of the trashed enemy MS’. As he starts to go over them, he realizes they contain the entire plans for Operation Stardust. Just as he’s about to begin going over them, one of the forward-braking thrusters on his MS ruptures from damage it took earlier, sending his Suit careening out of control. Before they can even react he’s beyond radio-range.
We never really know for sure if he dies in the explosion, or if he’s left to die gradually from loss of air, but either way it’s a cold, chilling scene. Just watching the reflection of the scene on Kou’s visor as he turns this way and that talking to the static hoping his mentor will respond. Not to mention the psychological impact of suddenly taking things from the cheery, upbeat, “now we can go back to the ship and relax for a while” to this tragic death scene. Even the way the Albion’s (the carrier they were on) crew react during his service and the Captain’s announcement of the reassigning of MS pilots is realistic. Everyone’s broken up, but except for his old friend Moncha (who up till then has been shown as an irresponsible, loud-mouthed lush), they’re all still in a state of shock from the suddenness of it.
Brilliantly played.
PS. there’s a cool scene earlier where they meet up with a supply-ship, and one of the characters fails to give Burning a letter. At the end of the ep, she hands it to the captain, and it’s a leter from Burning’s wife (earlier in the series it’s established that he’s married, but separated due to his having cheated on her, which he now regrets). There’s this awkward moment as the Captain realizes he’s going to have to tell the woman her husband died, just as she began to seek a reconciliation.
Phew, wasn’t expecting to talk at such length about it. But I loved this episode.
After Pike (William Holden) kills Mapache (Emilio Fernandez), they way they stare down the other officers and the entire garrison is taut. Then you can see the “the hell with it” in their eyes, and the fight is on.
I know it’s sorta “collective” than individual, but it was an ensemble cast.
I have always loved the scene in The Last of the Mohicans - not only when Uncas is killed, but then when Alice jumps after him. Just the look on her face just before she leaps, it’s so touching.
It’s hard to beat that scene in Saving Prigvate Ryan that has been mentioned. But I’d add another one fro the Godfather movies (2?). The scene when Luca Brazzi gets his hand nailed to the table with a knife while he gets killed.
I mentioned Tombstone, but I forgot my real second-favorite: Billy Bob Thornton at the end of The Man Who Wasn’t There. He’s about to die in the electric chair, but the room is whited-out - you don’t see much except for him, the chair, and maybe a man or two flipping the switch. So it’s alien-looking as it is. Just before he dies, he says the following in a voiceover, and I think it’s the most haunting piece of dialogue I’ve ever heard.
When I watched this movie, and I really should see it again, the computer froze up for a fraction of a second after the switch was pulled - so we got a slightly-extended glimpse of Thornton’s skull as he was killed before everything else faded to white. Obviously that stuck with me.
Okay, some anime has been mentioned here, but was I the only one stunned by the death of Spike Spiegel? He’s won a final battle with his past and is clearly mortally wounded, and walks down a long staircase to find a ton of bad guys. He raises his fingers, points them like a gun, says “Bang” and falls, dead and at peace at last. And on top of that scene, the credit tag reads “YOU’RE GONNA CARRY THAT WEIGHT” - a music reference that’s in character with the series, and also sums up the entire arc of the show in five words. I can’t think of a show with a better ending.
Not a death per se, but a scene around death, in Marvin’s Room. Diane Keaton is dying of cancer and says how she isn’t afraid and that she’s been lucky to have had so much love in her life. Her sister says, yes, our parents really love you. And she says, no, I mean I’ve been so lucky to have them to love.
It really rang true with me and the whole “to love another person is to see the face of God” thing.
I should have mentioned the deaths of most of the crew of Discovery in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Poole is killed by HAL using a spacepod, and Bowman chases after his spacesuited corpse. While he’s away, HAL kills the three scientists in suspended animation, and you see their vital signs flatline. Bowman returns in his pod, having let Poole’s body go into the depths of space.
There’s a wonderful little scene where Bowman just sits there, stunned with the realization that he’s as alone as anyone in human history ever has been. Very powerful.
For a film that’s mostly calm and serene, the death of Poole is quite frantic. The way in which the camera zooms in on Hal’s “eye” in the pod in quick steps rather than a smooth zoom (I don’t think we see the camera zooming at all through the film.) Suddenly, the sound of the astronaut’s breathing stops and we see both the pod and Poole rushing through space. It was a bit of a rush compared to the rest of the film (except the stargate sequence naturally!)
Ooh, I forgot. I can see how other folks might think this is hokey, but the death of the Brindle-Fly in the remake of The Fly always holds me fascinated and horrified. Jeff Goldblum has mutated almost beyond recognition, but he still retains enough of his original self to wish to be killed. Geena Davis is a bit silly, but the creature and its wish for death gets me every time.
