# Movies in which the main character commits suicide (spoilers, duh)
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-the-main-character-commits-suicide-spoilers-duh/404420
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [May 17, 2007, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-the-main-character-commits-suicide-spoilers-duh/404420 "2007-05-17T07:15:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Johnny\_Hildo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Hildo)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2007, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-the-main-character-commits-suicide-spoilers-duh/404420/1 "2007-05-17T07:15:48Z")
For some reason I can only recall two movies, the similarly titled ['night, Mother](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090556/) and [Mother Night](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117093/).
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### Author:  [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2007, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-the-main-character-commits-suicide-spoilers-duh/404420/2 "2007-05-17T07:26:42Z")
Any one about Van Gogh, obviously (_Vincent and Theo_ was a good one, there’s also _Lust for Life_).
_Whose Life Is It Anyway_, IIRC - doesn’t he get his way in the end?
_The Hours_, about Virginia Woolfe
_Sylvia_, (Sylvia Plath) (haven’t seen it, but she did off herself IRL)
_Harold and Maude_ (repeatedly) (bwahaha)
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### Author:  [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2007, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-the-main-character-commits-suicide-spoilers-duh/404420/3 "2007-05-17T07:28:00Z")
[Here’s a whole database of 'em.](http://www.moviedeaths.com/categories/suicide/) Seems skimpy, though, and isn’t limited to main characters.
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### Author:  [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2007, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-the-main-character-commits-suicide-spoilers-duh/404420/4 "2007-05-17T07:30:28Z")
Heh, I know of a few, though an IMDb keyword search would probably be your best bet.
Leaving Las Vegas
Full Metal Jacket
Shawshank Redemption
Thelma and Louise
Gattaca
A Few Good Men
Also a few where the lead is suicidal but lives through the credits:
Julian Po
Lethal Weapon
Groundhog Day
Scent of a Woman
ETA: Oops, **A Few Good Men** doesn’t qualify; it was a minor character (the informant) who got dressed in his formals and blew his brains out. And with **Gattaca** it wasn’t the lead, but pretty close. (Though c’mon, Private Pyle was the lead of the first act of **Full Metal Jacket**.)
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### Author:  [@Intravenus\_De\_Milo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intravenus_De_Milo)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2007, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-the-main-character-commits-suicide-spoilers-duh/404420/5 "2007-05-17T08:02:32Z")
I always wondered about the end of _Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon_…was her jump off that tall-ass mountain another ethereal wire-fu moment, or was it a death dive?
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### Author:  [@bbs2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbs2k)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2007, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-the-main-character-commits-suicide-spoilers-duh/404420/6 "2007-05-17T08:23:15Z")
All I’m gonna say is that the ending to the movie \*Pi \* was :eek: .
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### Author:  [@BooBoo316](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BooBoo316)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2007, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-the-main-character-commits-suicide-spoilers-duh/404420/7 "2007-05-17T08:33:13Z")
_Alien 3_, although the very existence of this movie is in some dispute.
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### Author:  [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2007, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-the-main-character-commits-suicide-spoilers-duh/404420/8 "2007-05-17T10:20:39Z")
Falling Down - (suicide by cop)
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### Author:  [@straight\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/straight_man)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2007, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-the-main-character-commits-suicide-spoilers-duh/404420/9 "2007-05-17T11:07:04Z")
[QUOTE=Intravenus De Milo]
I always wondered about the end of _Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon_…was her jump off that tall-ass mountain another ethereal wire-fu moment, or was it a death dive?
[/QUOTE]
Death dive. Nothing else makes sense (just to start, it wouldn’t be an ending, were it a wire-fu moment.)
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### Author:  [@Carson\_O\_Genic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carson_O_Genic)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2007, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-the-main-character-commits-suicide-spoilers-duh/404420/10 "2007-05-17T11:23:56Z")
The Sea Inside.
Ellis Dee, the suicide in Shawshank Redemption is a side,not main character.
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### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2007, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-the-main-character-commits-suicide-spoilers-duh/404420/11 "2007-05-17T12:16:26Z")
Inasmuch as he could be considered the main character, **Sin City**.
Booboo, not only did the movie not exist, she was recreated from her DNA complete with memories, so could it really be considered a successful suicide?
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### Author:  [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2007, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-the-main-character-commits-suicide-spoilers-duh/404420/12 "2007-05-17T12:19:09Z")
Vanishing Point. A rather spectacular suicide, actually.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2007, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-the-main-character-commits-suicide-spoilers-duh/404420/13 "2007-05-17T12:27:59Z")
Armageddon.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2007, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-the-main-character-commits-suicide-spoilers-duh/404420/14 "2007-05-17T12:45:36Z")
**The Front** – Zero Mostel is the second lead, so I think that counts.
**Hamlet** – Ophelia definitely.
**Romeo and Juliet** – both main characters, actually.
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### Author:  [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2007, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-the-main-character-commits-suicide-spoilers-duh/404420/15 "2007-05-17T12:47:09Z")
A Tale of Two Cities.
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### Author:  [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2007, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-the-main-character-commits-suicide-spoilers-duh/404420/16 "2007-05-17T13:30:22Z")
The title character in **Carrington** and the supporting male (and love rival, played by Joseph Fiennes) in \*\*Enemy at the Gates \*\* both kill themselves, but only after knowing their love will remain unrequited. The latter merely had to expose himself to a Nazi sniper.
Here’s a few born of a more-immediate desperation:
The male lead (played by Jake Weber) in the \*\*Dawn of the Dead \*\* remake – but he only does it to avoid becoming a zombie, after being bitten.
The female character in **Open Water** , with no immediate prospect of rescue, and only after surviving the sharks long enough to become utterly exhausted and demoralized (esp. from watching her husband die) – she releases herself from her buoyant scuba gear. (Although I very much doubt she would have had the luxury of drowning before the sharks attacked.)
The suicidal characters (Tea Leoni, her dad Max Schell, and her mother, Vanessa Redgrave) who opt for death in \*\*Deep Impact \*\* do so either by pills or exposing themselves to the deadly tsunami.
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### Author:  [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2007, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-the-main-character-commits-suicide-spoilers-duh/404420/17 "2007-05-17T13:46:22Z")
[QUOTE=Carson O’Genic]
The Sea Inside.
Ellis Dee, the suicide in Shawshank Redemption is a side,not main character.
[/QUOTE]
The only suicide I remember from Shawshank is the librararian (Brooks?), who is a pretty major character.
How about Gene Hackman’s preacher in The Poseidon Adventure. . .
“. . . take MEEEEEEE!” I love that scene!
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### Author:  [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2007, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-the-main-character-commits-suicide-spoilers-duh/404420/18 "2007-05-17T13:50:37Z")
[QUOTE=The Scrivener]
The female character in **Open Water** , with no immediate prospect of rescue, and only after surviving the sharks long enough to become utterly exhausted and demoralized (esp. from watching her husband die) – she releases herself from her buoyant scuba gear. (Although I very much doubt she would have had the luxury of drowning before the sharks attacked.)
[/QUOTE]
So, what, they just _died_? Geez, I’m glad I missed that one.
Next thing you know, someone’ll do time-elapsed videos of old geezers in nursing homes, catch their final minutes.
_Officer and a Gentleman_, not the protagonist, but one of the main characters does himself in
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### Author:  [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2007, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-the-main-character-commits-suicide-spoilers-duh/404420/19 "2007-05-17T13:58:00Z")
[QUOTE=Ludovic]
Booboo, not only did the movie not exist, she was recreated from her DNA complete with memories, so could it really be considered a successful suicide?
[/QUOTE]
That’s an interesting debate. Reminds me of a short story that goes something like this:
Guy invents a teleporter, which becomes a staple of everyday travel. But he realizes (or always knew) that it doesn’t actually teleport people at all; instead, it kills them and recreates a perfect facsimile on the other side, complete with all the person’s memories. Eventually he is the last person left alive who has never teleported; every other human was in effect just a doppleganger. In the end he is forced to go through against his will, so the last true human dies.
Anyone know the name of this story and/or the author?
ETA:
> [@Carson O'Genic](#):
>
> Ellis Dee, the suicide in Shawshank Redemption is a side,not main character.
I was thinking of Tim Robbins’ character. (Andy?)
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### Author:  [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2007, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-the-main-character-commits-suicide-spoilers-duh/404420/20 "2007-05-17T14:00:40Z")
[QUOTE=WOOKINPANUB]
The only suicide I remember from Shawshank is the librararian (Brooks?), who is a pretty major character.
[/QUOTE]
The Warden blew his brains out and he was very much a major character.
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