HEAR YE, HEAR YE!
Is Gollum’s demise really… DEATH BY GRAVITY?? What about the two TERMINATORS? Read the shocking answers below!
We can quibble that the lava’s what really killed Gollum, the T-800 and the T-1000, but they descended to their messy deaths at the end of the movie. It’s … DEATH BY GRAVITY!! The lava is merely an inspired variation providing interesting visuals, and T-800’s slow lowering was done to impart dignity in light of its selfless programming and to prolong the stoic acceptance of its fate. Congratulations HPL!!
ANNOUNCEMENT. I am amending … DEATH BY GRAVITY!! to include the following variations.
… to die by the heartless indignity of something fall and crush them, often after surviving a fall. Frequently the money shot is the soon-to-be-deceased’s having a split second to look up and see it coming. EXAMPLES: 006’s death in GOLDENEYE, Nicholson’s Joker in BATMAN, Hoffman’s Captain Hook in HOOK.
… in many space movies there are deaths from tethered astronauts being suddenly cut off and set adrift in space or people blown out of airlocks into space. Granted, they’d likely die of collapsed lungs or freezing to death but it’s still… DEATH BY GRAVITY!! Consider the camera angles are often exactly the same as if they were falling to their deaths from a high building. EXAMPLES: The Alien Queens in ALIEN and ALIENS, and the final fate of Professor James Moriarity in the original first volume comic book League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
… Death by Gravity!! now comes in italics.
Possibly more variations to come.
Peter Morris. James Bond’s jump was at the beginning, not the end. Of course, he’ll survive! Good point about GOLDENEYE, so I amended 006’s slippery death. Jesse Custer’s demise was prevented by literally deux ex machina intervention in the middle of the saga. Michael Douglas’ character’s survival was part of an orchestrated twist. Thanks also for The Schrivener’s and Bryan Ekers’ contributions: Bourne’s fall was also mid-movie (IIRC) and Wile E. Coyote’s schtick is purposefully done for humorous effect.
Keep 'em coming! We haven’t even gotten to the definitively listing the Disney movies yet, although audreyayn gave us a couple and Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor cited the BLACK HOLE without mentioning any characters.
Incidentally, [hijack/rant]that was one of Ebert’s reviews that made me want to smack him. He couldn’t understand why the character had to die that way, because he thought it was gratuitous or something for Kathleen Quinlan’s character to shift gears to send the cab of the truck hurtling off the cliff to land on Walsh. For cryin’ out loud, that was her chance to get some getback! Sometimes I wonder if Ebert understands anything about character motivations.
Similarly;, there’s Chris Kattan in Undercover Brother, although that wasn’t death by defenestration. Off a cliff into an ocean, and a shark conveniently leaps up and swallows him in one gulp before he hits the water.
And Macaulay Culkin in The Good Son. (Yeah, I spoiled it; who cares.) And I’m surprised no one mentioned Rutger Hauer in Blade Runner.
Did he fall? I recall he just sort of shut-down, whatever it is happens inside a Replicant when they reach their sell by date. He saved Deckard from falling himself…
Tut, why do we always forget the little guys :rolleyes: You know, all the stormtroopers who are sent plummeting over cat walks, ledges and those inexplicable gaps in the floors of the landing bays.
And we know its the drop that kills them and not the blaster rifles (those pictures of killing efficiency that allows an entire squad to miss Luke from a hundred metres) because we can hear the Troopers scream as they fall over the edge to their doom…
The henchman who gets pushed off the roof in the Untouchables, Dick Jones in Robocop (again, not dead when he falls)
Unlike the corporate suit in Golgo 13 who is clearly dead from a bullet to the head before impact. I wonder if that’s because Golgo 13 was being humane or if it was an issue of honour to ensure he was the one to finish him off :dubious:
Batman has been mentioned, but the first sequel, Batman Returns, has even more people falling. Both films, in fact, have a enormous deal of verticality in them, with lots of folks falling, but not always dying (Batman, Catwoman)
Max Zorin in the Bond movie A View To A Kill. He fell off the very top of the Golden Gate Bridge, landed in San Fransico Bay and, as far as we know, is dead.
Then don’t forget Saddam Hussein in South Park: Bigger Longer and Uncut.
I’m pretty sure someone falls to their deat in Nort by Northwest. (Martin Landau?)
Several people in The Right Stuff.
The people who got eaten in Alive.
When is a sidewalk fully dressed? When it’s Warring Hudsucker! (The Hudsucker Proxy)
No, it’s one of the other henchmen – he’s got a name, but it’s one of those you wouldn’t know unless you saw the script. I’ve got the script, but it’s at home. Martin Landau, as noted, gets shot, and doesn’t seem to fall off.
In another Hitchcock film, Saboteur (or is it Sabotage? I get them mixed up) the Bad Guy falls from the torch on the Statue of Liberty.
Actually, I’d say he’s absolutely right. J.T. Walsh gets his just desserts more than adequately by the film’s end–but having Quinlan do what she does simply panders to the basest bullshit-revenge-fantasy mentality. It’s wholly gratuitous, completely unnecessary to the story’s resolution, and an ugly emotional cop-out to boot. A shame that such a well-done, tautly constructed thriller felt it had to resort to such a lame ending.
The Evil Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
The evil great white hunter, Clayton, in Tarzan
Mustafa in The Lion King (arguable, since he was stampeded, but gravity got him there)
Scar in The Lion King (arguable, since he was eaten by hyenas, but gravity got him there)
Gaston in Beauty and the Beast
Frollo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame
I’d say Disney movies really have a friend in gravity.
Also,
Lord Denethor, steward of Gondor, in LoTR: Return of the King. (Okay, set on fire and then ran off a cliff, but still…)
Innumerable orcs, Gondorians, Rohanites, etcetera who were creamed by catapults, trebuchets, and other gravity-dependent weapons.
The bad guy (Top Dollar) in The Crow
Captain Love in The Mask of Zorro
I think there should be at least two subcategories added:
Death by Gravity!!: Impalement
and Death by Gravity!!: Hot Lava
I recall he just sort of shut-down, whatever it is happens inside a Replicant when they reach their sell by date. He saved Deckard from falling himself…