# Most disturbing death scene **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [August 6, 2001, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-death-scene/75061 "2001-08-06T02:35:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2024, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-death-scene/75061/162 "2024-06-13T20:52:30Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > Nobody has yet mentioned the scene in **The Great Waldo Pepper** where Waldo puts his friend out of his misery as he burns to death. I was 12 when I saw that, and it stuck with me for a _long_ time. The scene where the young woman falls off the airplane has haunted me to this day. ---
**Author:** ![Capn\_Carl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Capn\_Carl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capn_Carl)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2024, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-death-scene/75061/163 "2024-06-13T20:53:09Z")
Reminds me of a similar scene in _The Sand Pebbles_, where Steve McQueen’s Chinese friend is being flayed by an angry mob, so Steve shoots his friend. Ugh. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2024, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-death-scene/75061/164 "2024-06-13T21:34:27Z")
In Combat Shock, the guy kills his wife, kills their deformed baby, and then shoots himself in the head. All shown on screen. It’s certainly memorable. ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2024, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-death-scene/75061/165 "2024-06-14T00:55:44Z")
Part of the story line involves Sherlock Holmes dealing with his mind slowly deteriorating. My late wife suffered from Parkinson’s, and it took a sudden turn into dementia. So the subject hits a little too close to home. ---
**Author:** ![Capn\_Carl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Capn\_Carl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capn_Carl)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2024, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-death-scene/75061/166 "2024-06-14T02:29:08Z")
An understandable reaction. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2024, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-death-scene/75061/167 "2024-06-14T04:39:13Z")
> [@Capn\_Carl](#): > > Reminds me of a similar scene in _The Sand Pebbles_, where Steve McQueen’s Chinese friend is being flayed by an angry mob, so Steve shoots his friend. Ugh. I thought of this one just today. Po-han’s death profoundly upset me. I was 16 when it came out, first movie death that really grabbed me. Damn. Another one that I’d forgotten about was 1974’s **Buster and Billie**. Billie’s rape/murder disturbed the hell out of me. ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2024, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-death-scene/75061/168 "2024-06-18T12:34:25Z")
in one of those really bad 1980ies B-action movies (think: Stephen Segal / Van Damm ) an evildoer is lowered alive into an industrial meat-grinder in a meat processing plant. then you can see the ground “beef” coming out below … and the movie was so bad, the ground beef was twitching …IIRC anybody any idea what movie that could have been? (just wondering, no intention to revisit) What I did revisit a few months ago was John Carpenter’s “The Thing” and I really found it quite lacking (compared to my memories) ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2024, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-death-scene/75061/169 "2024-06-18T18:19:02Z")
I don’t see it already mentioned here, sorry if I missed it: In the movie **Sometimes a Great Notion** , where the man is trapped under a tree trunk in the river, and as the water begins to rise, he knows he’s going to drown… ---
**Author:** ![Toxgoddess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Toxgoddess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxgoddess)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2024, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-death-scene/75061/170 "2024-06-18T18:37:51Z")
Not sure if this was mentioned yet, but Shireen’s death in _Game of Thrones_. Even though it wasn’t explicitly shown on-screen, watching a little girl burn to death, screaming for mercy, while her parents, who consented to it, watch impassively…dear God, nightmare material. ---
**Author:** ![XOldiesJock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/ec9cab/32.png) [@XOldiesJock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XOldiesJock)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2024, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-death-scene/75061/171 "2024-06-18T19:30:09Z")
We’ve been watching a now-old HBO series on Amazon, “Six Feet Under.” It takes place in a funeral home. Starting each episode is a death, most often an adult. One episode began with the death of an infant, presumably crib death. It was very upsetting to me, not because of any personal experience, but just because. The adult deaths have sometimes been unsettling, even rather clever and bizarre, but the death of a baby was too much for me. It was just a step too far. I almost stopped watching the show over it. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2024, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-death-scene/75061/172 "2024-06-18T21:23:11Z")
Honestly, the De Niro shoot out at the end of Taxi Driver was extremely disturbing to me. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2024, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-death-scene/75061/173 "2024-06-18T21:47:26Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > In the movie **Sometimes a Great Notion** , where the man is trapped under a tree trunk in the river, and as the water begins to rise, he knows he’s going to drown… I read the book twice before seeing the movie (a long time ago). As horrible as the scene is on film, I think it was even more upsetting/tragic in Kesey’s novel. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stainless_steel_rat/32/5727_2.png) [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2024, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-death-scene/75061/174 "2024-06-19T14:22:58Z")
Can’t believe it hasn’t been mentioned yet, but **The Mist** , based on a story by Stephen King, has one of the more disturbing death scenes, made all the more despairing by what occurs right after the death(s). Won’t spoiler it, but it occurs at the end of the film and will not be forgotten. For short films, a 20 minute film from 1969 called “The Lottery” has a death scene that is set up during the movie but still is disturbing. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2024, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-death-scene/75061/175 "2024-06-19T14:30:10Z")
I’ve been bingeing on the UK series “Heartbeat”. Generally a lot of fun and nothing too heavy. But the show in which Kate Rowan dies is one of the saddest but well acted death scenes. I’m not one to cry during a show but this brought me close. ---
**Author:** ![veryfrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/87869e/32.png) [@veryfrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/veryfrank)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2024, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-death-scene/75061/176 "2024-06-19T16:25:01Z")
> [@Toxgoddess](#): > > Not sure if this was mentioned yet, but Shireen’s death in _Game of Thrones_. Even though it wasn’t explicitly shown on-screen, watching a little girl burn to death, screaming for mercy, while her parents, who consented to it, watch impassively…dear God, nightmare material. Consented to it? If memory serves, Stannis was the one who tied her to the stake. Yeah, pure nightmare fuel. When I did the _Game of Thrones_ locations tour out of Belfast, our guide pointed out the field “where Stannis Baratheon won his father-of-the-year award.” ---
**Author:** ![veryfrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/87869e/32.png) [@veryfrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/veryfrank)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2024, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-death-scene/75061/177 "2024-06-19T16:47:12Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > There are only a few scenes that I find disturbing. Probably the worst one was feeding Ray Liotta his own brain in _Hannibal._ That franchise in general has some of the grizliest deaths imaginable. Hannibal gives Mason Verger hallucinogenics and convinces him to cut his own face off, then paralyzes him. In the TV version, Verger later dies when an electric eel is shoved down his throat. The worst fate may be Abel Gideon’s. Held captive by Hannibal, his limbs are successively amputated and he’s forced to take part in a feast of them each time. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2024, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-death-scene/75061/178 "2024-06-19T17:19:43Z")
To me grisly or graphic doesn’t equate with disturbing. Feeding someone their own brain while they are still alive is disturbing. I didn’t watch the Tv show so I don’t know what my reaction would be to those. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2024, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-death-scene/75061/179 "2024-06-20T12:29:59Z")
Got a new one as of last night. Caught the first half of the first episode of **Gunpowder** on Max last night. Two grisly executions- a woman was crushed to death and a man was hanged but not dead and disemboweled while alive than beheaded. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2024, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-death-scene/75061/180 "2024-06-20T16:22:09Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Got a new one as of last night. Caught the first half of the first episode of **Gunpowder** on Max last night. Two grisly executions- a woman was crushed to death and a man was hanged but not dead and disemboweled while alive than beheaded. In the movie _The Beast_ there is a scene where a man is slowly crushed to death under the tread of a T-55 tank. Feet first. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2024, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-death-scene/75061/181 "2024-07-04T21:28:06Z")
The scene with the ship in **3 Body Problem** was one of those things that you think “This will look cool on screen”… and then the horror of the reality of it sinks in. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-death-scene/75061.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-death-scene/75061.md?page=10)