# 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:** 3
### Author:  [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2007, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-the-main-character-commits-suicide-spoilers-duh/404420/41 "2007-05-17T20:54:30Z")
Didn’t Ben Kingsley’s character off himself in **House of Sand and Fog**? Maybe he wasn’t the main character but he was a pretty major character in the film.
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### Author:  [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2007, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-the-main-character-commits-suicide-spoilers-duh/404420/42 "2007-05-17T21:00:28Z")
**Tunes of Glory**
I know that Alec Guinness got top billing, but John Mills’ character was equally important to the story.
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### Author:  [@T\_SQUARE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/T_SQUARE)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2007, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-the-main-character-commits-suicide-spoilers-duh/404420/43 "2007-05-17T22:54:05Z")
**For Whom the Bell Tolls**. I think they made it into a movie, right?
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### Author:  [@dotchan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dotchan)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2007, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-the-main-character-commits-suicide-spoilers-duh/404420/44 "2007-05-17T23:14:53Z")
_Sonatine_
_Thelma and Louise_ (surprised nobody’s mentioned it)
You could make an argument for _End of Evangelion_, sort of.
[spoiler]Depending on whether or not you consider the forcible merging of all humanity into one mass conciousness as suicide.
But why does Shinji get to live, dammit? :P[/spoiler]
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### Author:  [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2007, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-the-main-character-commits-suicide-spoilers-duh/404420/45 "2007-05-17T23:34:43Z")
_Devil in Miss Jones_, right in the first scene.
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### Author:  [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2007, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-the-main-character-commits-suicide-spoilers-duh/404420/46 "2007-05-17T23:35:36Z")
[QUOTE=dotchan]
_Thelma and Louise_ (surprised nobody’s mentioned it)
[/QUOTE]
Surprised you didn’t read post #3.
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### Author:  [@DiggitCamara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiggitCamara)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2007, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-the-main-character-commits-suicide-spoilers-duh/404420/47 "2007-05-18T00:19:14Z")
[QUOTE=fessie]
Surprised you didn’t read post #3.
[/QUOTE]
Even more surprised she didn’t read post #4
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### Author:  [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2007, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-the-main-character-commits-suicide-spoilers-duh/404420/48 "2007-05-18T00:48:49Z")
::snort:: Gaudere strikes again
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### Author:  [@BooBoo316](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BooBoo316)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2007, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-the-main-character-commits-suicide-spoilers-duh/404420/49 "2007-05-18T01:50:04Z")
[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]
Very good point, but I think so. Ripley 2 is a completely different person (clone?) from the original. Ripley 1 did the swan dive and was completely destroyed. That they were able to scrape up enough cells to make a copy doesn’t change that the original is toast.
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### Author:  [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2007, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-the-main-character-commits-suicide-spoilers-duh/404420/50 "2007-05-18T09:41:32Z")
[QUOTE=Shoeless]
Didn’t Ben Kingsley’s character off himself in **House of Sand and Fog**? Maybe he wasn’t the main character but he was a pretty major character in the film.
[/QUOTE]
Good call. Even if _he_ wasn’t the main character, my recollection is that every single speaking part committed suicide.
That movie was an orgy of depression.
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### Author:  [@BunnyTVS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BunnyTVS)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2007, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-the-main-character-commits-suicide-spoilers-duh/404420/51 "2007-05-18T10:28:53Z")
[QUOTE=Ellis Dee]
ETA:I was thinking of Tim Robbins’ character. (Andy?)
[/QUOTE]
The DVD I’ve got ends with Morgan Freemans character coming home from his job packing bags at a grocery store. He finds a postcard from Tiahuana (sp) which is where Andy said he always wanted to go.
Last shot is Morgan walking along a beach, in the distance Andy is sitting on a beached boat.
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### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2007, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-the-main-character-commits-suicide-spoilers-duh/404420/52 "2007-05-18T12:27:50Z")
[QUOTE=Lute Skywatcher]
The theater release ends with Evan going back to a (birthday?) party where he meets Kayleigh for the first time. The three-year-old Evan scares Kayleigh into avoiding him like the plague, thus ensuring all the problems resulting from her wanting to be near him never happen. Evan then burns all his journals; the final scene has adult Evan and Kayleigh crossing paths in Manhattan.
[/QUOTE]
Standalone, it’s a bit better of an ending, I guess\*. But did the in-theatre cut mention the miscarriages the mother always had?That part wouldn’t make sense without the suicide.
\*And it makes the fact that there was a “Sequel” make a bit more sense. Although I haven’t seen the sequel. But yet, there is a possibility for a sequel even if he dies his dad is still living, right?
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### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2007, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-the-main-character-commits-suicide-spoilers-duh/404420/53 "2007-05-18T15:16:17Z")
[QUOTE=Ludovic]
I haven’t seen the sequel.
[/QUOTE]
Wikipedia says the sequel is just a rehashing of the original story with different characters, and an “Evan” who is more interested in improving his own life than that everyone else’s.
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### Author:  [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2007, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-the-main-character-commits-suicide-spoilers-duh/404420/54 "2007-05-18T16:32:19Z")
The Big Chill. Oh sure, only Kevin Costner’s slashed wrist made the final cut, but he central to the film’s plot.
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### Author:  [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2007, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-the-main-character-commits-suicide-spoilers-duh/404420/55 "2007-05-18T16:57:17Z")
I think “Looking for Mr. Goodbar” counts as a main character suicide. It’s also pretty depressing.
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### Author:  [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2007, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-the-main-character-commits-suicide-spoilers-duh/404420/56 "2007-05-19T00:53:57Z")
[QUOTE=Yllaria]
I think “Looking for Mr. Goodbar” counts as a main character suicide. It’s also pretty depressing.
[/QUOTE]
Maybe in the novel, but in the film, Diane Keaton’s character picks up a closeted gay psychopath who wigs out on her and slashes her, fatally.
\*\*Elvira Madigan \*\* – our young lovers on the lam enjoy the last of autumn’s wild strawberries, and, with the Swedish winter fast approaching, the soldier shoots his girlfriend and then himself. Very depressing.
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### Author:  [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2007, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-the-main-character-commits-suicide-spoilers-duh/404420/57 "2007-05-19T03:15:02Z")
M_A_S\*H, the original movie, one of the main characters \*attempts \*suicide. Hence the theme song. His friends keep him alive, though.
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### Author:  [@minty\_green](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minty_green)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2007, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-the-main-character-commits-suicide-spoilers-duh/404420/58 "2007-05-19T03:21:38Z")
Isn’t there a pretty significant difference between “suicide” and “noble sacrifice” or “no way out”?
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### Author:  [@Darth\_Nader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Nader)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2007, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-the-main-character-commits-suicide-spoilers-duh/404420/59 "2007-05-20T01:38:15Z")
How about _The Quiet Earth_? That one’s sorta tricky, though.
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### Author:  [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2007, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-the-main-character-commits-suicide-spoilers-duh/404420/60 "2007-05-21T23:18:32Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Maybe in the novel, but in the film, Diane Keaton’s character picks up a closeted gay psychopath who wigs out on her and slashes her, fatally.
Yes, but she was obviously working to get someone to abuse, if not kill her. She was going to keep picking up guys and then poking the bear until it finally got her.
So, maybe a passive/agressibe suicide, maybe not.
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