# Best/Worst back from seeming death scene? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 22, 2006, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-back-from-seeming-death-scene/357805 "2006-05-22T20:11:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-back-from-seeming-death-scene/357805/1 "2006-05-22T20:11:34Z")
While I was in the Best Death thread, I thought about **True Romance** , where you can’t imagine Christian Slater is still alive, and in the next scene viola, he’s A-OK. Same with Wesley Snipes in the hideous\* **Sugar Hill**. Others? \*Redeemed only by the classic exchange when he is chatting up the babe he has met: “I’m an actress.” “Oh, yeah? Which restaurant?” ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-back-from-seeming-death-scene/357805/2 "2006-05-22T20:34:21Z")
This thread can’t continue until somebody mentions Glenn Close in a bathtub. The name of the movie isn’t even at issue. ---
**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 22, 2006, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-back-from-seeming-death-scene/357805/3 "2006-05-22T20:36:03Z")
Are you talking about when he gets it right above the eye? Best ‘back from the dead’ is from the Abyss, where she is berated into coming back to life. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-back-from-seeming-death-scene/357805/4 "2006-05-22T21:41:39Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > This thread can’t continue until somebody mentions Glenn Close in a bathtub. The name of the movie isn’t even at issue. Oh, and simliarly, (among many, I know) **Sleeping with the Enemy**. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-back-from-seeming-death-scene/357805/5 "2006-05-22T21:44:45Z")
Alan Arkin in “Wait Until Dark.” ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-back-from-seeming-death-scene/357805/6 "2006-05-22T21:47:47Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Alan Arkin in “Wait Until Dark.” That post should have said 'Best & Scariest." ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-back-from-seeming-death-scene/357805/7 "2006-05-22T23:29:42Z")
Not necessarily a favorite, but I think the quintessential “surprise non-death” would be when Indiana Jones crawled up the cliff to stand with his dad and everyone looking down crying over his demise. ---
**Author:** ![Sweetums](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Sweetums](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sweetums)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-back-from-seeming-death-scene/357805/8 "2006-05-22T23:46:08Z")
I think any slasher movie starring Freddy, Jason, or any of the multi sequel characters would qualify. ``` Chop them, stab them, shoot them, blow them up. Any one of them is unstopable, and imortal in wayx that would make the elder gods look like ants in a sandbox. ``` ---
**Author:** ![Talon\_Karrde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Talon\_Karrde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Talon_Karrde)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-back-from-seeming-death-scene/357805/9 "2006-05-22T23:53:08Z")
Han Solo being set free from the carbonite was great. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2006, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-back-from-seeming-death-scene/357805/10 "2006-05-23T00:06:00Z")
The worst return from the dead that springs to my mind is a literary one; Sherlock Holmes - it was such an obvious and bad way to wring some extra stories out of a series that had come to a quite satisfactory conclusion. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Who](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Doctor\_Who](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Who)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2006, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-back-from-seeming-death-scene/357805/11 "2006-05-23T00:18:48Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > The worst return from the dead that springs to my mind is a literary one; Sherlock Holmes - it was such an obvious and bad way to wring some extra stories out of a series that had come to a quite satisfactory conclusion. Ha! I’ll do you one better: Dallas. 'Nuff said. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2006, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-back-from-seeming-death-scene/357805/12 "2006-05-23T00:25:53Z")
Definitely Joe Highhawk in [Desert Kickboxer.](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104087/) You think that Santos’s bullet went into his head, but in actuality it just grazed the side. Hawk lies in the gravel, seemingly dead, but moments later his finger twitches. and he raises his head to look up. Unfortunately, he notices his trailer-home is on fire, and in seconds, after a montage of his posessions inside, it explodes in a gigantic fireball. A hawk then flies overhead, screeching. Amazing. ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2006, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-back-from-seeming-death-scene/357805/13 "2006-05-23T05:26:06Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > The worst return from the dead that springs to my mind is a literary one; Sherlock Holmes - it was such an obvious and bad way to wring some extra stories out of a series that had come to a quite satisfactory conclusion. IMHO, some of the best Sherlock Holmes stories were written after his ‘demise’; but I agree–it was a good, dramatic conclusion with its emotional impact cheapened by his resurrection afterwards. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2006, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-back-from-seeming-death-scene/357805/14 "2006-05-23T05:29:50Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > While I was in the Best Death thread, I thought about **True Romance** , where you can’t imagine Christian Slater is still alive, and in the next scene viola, he’s A-OK. Viola was in **Twelfth Night** , not **True Romance**. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2006, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-back-from-seeming-death-scene/357805/15 "2006-05-23T06:27:04Z")
Spock’s return to life in STIII has to be the worst. ---
**Author:** ![ACC\_Expat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/76d3ee/32.png) [@ACC\_Expat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ACC_Expat)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2006, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-back-from-seeming-death-scene/357805/16 "2006-05-23T06:28:25Z")
Does the Aragorn-over-cliff debacle from _The Two Towers_ qualify? (Obviously, no one who knew the books was fooled…but I suppose someone might have been.) If so, then that’s my choice for worst. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Wiseguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Mr.Wiseguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Wiseguy)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2006, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-back-from-seeming-death-scene/357805/17 "2006-05-23T06:58:52Z")
I don’t know if this quite qualifies, if the spirit of this thread is ‘apparently dead but just fine after’ …but does anybody remember that non-death scene from Seven? The drug dealer that was kept alive on only IVs for a year, and the cough that made your heart skip a beat? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2006, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-back-from-seeming-death-scene/357805/18 "2006-05-23T10:32:47Z")
As a counter-example, in the recent _House of Wax_ remake: The heroine just whales on one of the killers, giving him a good ten shots in the head with a baseball bat. That sucker’s D-E-D _dead_ and ain’t coming back. It was downright refreshing to see a character in a slasher flick having the determination to get the killer down and see it through, rather than putting in a half-effort and get chased again later by a seemingly-unstoppable killer. ---
**Author:** ![Staggerlee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/staggerlee/32/3134_2.png) [@Staggerlee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Staggerlee)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2006, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-back-from-seeming-death-scene/357805/19 "2006-05-23T10:57:33Z")
The son in the recent War of the Worlds. His coming back from presumed death forces the sickly icing onto that mediocre cake of a film. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2006, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-back-from-seeming-death-scene/357805/20 "2006-05-23T10:59:22Z")
> [@Doctor Who](#): > > Ha! I’ll do you one better: Dallas. 'Nuff said. Oh dear. I think I will concede on that one; way back in school, my English teacher told us that if we ever wrote a story that ended “…and I woke up and it had all been a dream”, he would beat us with sticks. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-back-from-seeming-death-scene/357805.md?page=2)