# Movies that have the dog die (possible spoilers?) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 20, 2009, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-the-dog-die-possible-spoilers/493744 "2009-04-20T17:00:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2009, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-the-dog-die-possible-spoilers/493744/61 "2009-04-21T15:43:25Z")
Not only in the 1982 remake (as noted above), but also in the 1950s original **The Thing from Another World** , the sled dogs are killed by the Thing. One of them ends up in a box in the greenhouse and causes a minor shock. Dogs end up with human heads in the 1979 **Invasion of the Body Snatchers** and in **Mars Attacks!**. One assumes that the chihuahua with Sarah Jessica Parker’s body in the latter dies, since the ship crashes. The saddest dof dying, to me, wasn’t Old Yeller in a movie, but the real-life **Laika** , sent up in a Sputnik. I remember all the books and articles at the time talking about how great it was that she was a Dog in Orbit, but nobody said anything about her dying up there. It was pretty clear to me that she did, since nothing was ever written about her coming back. ---
**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:** [April 21, 2009, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-the-dog-die-possible-spoilers/493744/62 "2009-04-21T19:00:33Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Dogs end up with human heads in the 1979 **Invasion of the Body Snatchers** and in **Mars Attacks!**. One assumes that the chihuahua with Sarah Jessica Parker’s body in the latter dies, since the ship crashes. Yes, but there’s a far less ambiguous example in _Mars Attacks!_ When the Martian agent sneaks into the White House and gets all the way to the Presidential bedroom, he’s distracted by and reflexively fries the president’s dog, giving the president and first lady a chance to dodge the second blast. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2009, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-the-dog-die-possible-spoilers/493744/63 "2009-04-21T19:59:45Z")
> [@](#): > > The animated film The Plague Dogs ends with an assumption that the two canine protagonists die – drowning while trying to escape the Biritsh military. The novel contains an extra chapter in which the dogs are rescued by a passing boat but the film gives no hint to that. And even in the book, Richard Adams is quite explicit (in the body of the text, through the fourth wall) that it’s a _Deus ex Machina_, inserted only because the readers wouldn’t like it if it weren’t. ---
**Author:** ![daygecko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/91b2a8/32.png) [@daygecko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/daygecko)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2009, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-the-dog-die-possible-spoilers/493744/64 "2009-04-22T00:26:21Z")
The Body Snatcher (1945) with Boris Karloff. ---
**Author:** ![Hi\_Neighbor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hi_neighbor/32/494_2.png) [@Hi\_Neighbor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hi_Neighbor)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2009, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-the-dog-die-possible-spoilers/493744/65 "2009-04-22T01:14:13Z")
Well, I just thought of the movie _One Eight Seven_, starring Samuel Jackson. The gang members kill the teacher’s dog to send a message. ---
**Author:** ![Anduinel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Anduinel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anduinel)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2009, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-the-dog-die-possible-spoilers/493744/66 "2009-04-22T02:16:01Z")
I know there have been a couple of movie versions of _Sounder_, but I don’t know if they keep the book’s ending intact. Also not-quite-dogs, but there are a lot of canine deaths in the _Wolf’s Rain_ anime and OVA. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2009, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-the-dog-die-possible-spoilers/493744/67 "2009-04-22T03:39:15Z")
> [@](#): > > Yes, but there’s a far less ambiguous example in Mars Attacks! When the Martian agent sneaks into the White House and gets all the way to the Presidential bedroom, he’s distracted by and reflexively fries the president’s dog, giving the president and first lady a chance to dodge the second blast. I’d forgotten that. Like many moments in that film, it’s clearly inspired by the original 1960s cards, which include one entitled _Destroyinging a Dog_, which constitutes another example from pop culture of the dog dying: [http://www.marsattacksfan.com/36.htm](http://www.marsattacksfan.com/36.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2009, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-the-dog-die-possible-spoilers/493744/68 "2009-04-22T03:50:12Z")
Oooo! Oooo! Ooo! Mistah Kottah! I am Legend! ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2009, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-the-dog-die-possible-spoilers/493744/69 "2009-04-22T04:01:59Z")
> [@Kizarvexius](#): > > This is the second time this week I’ve mentioned _Big Jake_. John Wayne’s character has a loyal and ferocious dog (looks like a collie mix) christened with the oh-so-creative name “Dog”. In the climactic battle, Dog makes the ultimate sacrifice defending his master and is slain in the line of duty by a machete-wielding bad guy. I came in to mention that one. I was going to have to look it up, since I couldn’t remember if it was _Big Jake_ or _Rooster Cogburn_. You saved me a trip to IMDB. I like how Jake’s only command to the dog was just “Dog!” The inflection he placed on the word gave the command. I have no idea if you could train a dog that way, but it was cool anyway. A minor dog, but in _Cool Hand Luke_, one of the bloodhounds runs itself to death trying to catch up to Luke. The weeping handler carries the limp dog back to the prison camp after they fail to catch Luke. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2009, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-the-dog-die-possible-spoilers/493744/70 "2009-04-22T04:21:12Z")
Oooh! There’s yet _another_ dog death in Mars Attacks! – the cards, not the movie. In the new set, painted in 1989 but unreleased until 1994, card #64 – **Slaughter in the Suburvs** – features yet another Martian-killed dog: [http://www.marsattacksfan.com/64.htm](http://www.marsattacksfan.com/64.htm) Those dastardly Martians! They burning our dog! At least in card #36 ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2009, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-the-dog-die-possible-spoilers/493744/71 "2009-04-22T04:40:26Z")
Chuck Norris’s dog-wolf hybrid in _Lone Wolf McQuade_ gets kilt by the bad guys. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2009, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-the-dog-die-possible-spoilers/493744/72 "2009-04-22T12:32:53Z")
> [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](#): > > Oooo! Oooo! Ooo! Mistah Kottah! > > I am Legend! I hate to burst your bubble, there, Horschach, but … um … [gestures wordlessly toward the OP]. ---
**Author:** ![melodyharmonius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/melodyharmonius/32/21310_2.png) [@melodyharmonius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/melodyharmonius)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2009, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-the-dog-die-possible-spoilers/493744/73 "2009-04-22T12:49:08Z")
Didn’t a dog die in _To Kill A Mockingbird_? I remember Gregory Peck having to kill a rabid dog . . . [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-have-the-dog-die-possible-spoilers/493744.md?page=3)