Bad guy gets shot or whatever, and he dies before the good guy actually saves the day, so he dies thinking he’s won.
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This idea was brought about by the season 2 finale of Sherlock. Moriarty’s plan didn’t exactly succeed, but he kills himself thinking that at least Sherlock’s friends will be killed.
Some others I came up with:
Executive Decision: Nassan knows the soldiers have taken the plane, but as he’s dying he shoots the pilots, thinking that the plane will crash and the bombs will detonate.
Octopussy: The General is shot on the train tracks, but thinks the bomb will go off anyway. “Yes, but by tomorrow, I shall be the hero of the Soviet Union…”
Ah, I suppose The Return of the Jedi, when the Emperor gets flung into the shaft of the Death Star (apparently, they didn’t have OSHA in a galaxy far, far away). Granted, he didn’t capture Luke’s heart and mind, but as far as he knew, the Death Star was fully functional and about to demolish the Rebel fleet. So he had that little consolation.
And maybe the Sicilian in The Princess Bride. Up until the Iocane powder took effect, he was convinced Wesley had drunk the poisoned cup.
The Eagle Has Landed (1976), about a ring of Nazi spies sent to assassinate Winston Churchill. Michael Caine is excellent as the Nazi squad leader, and one character actually says “Let him die thinking he changed the course of history.” Well worth a Netflix rental.
I’m not usually one to complain about open spoilers, but your thread title indicates open MOVIE spoilers and immediately I have season 2 of Sherlock spoiled for me. Thanks.
Maybe a mod could change the title to be clearer on the types of spoilers that will be posted (I’ve reported the thread with this hope, anyway).
“You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is never get involved in a land war in Asia, but only slightly less well known, is never go up against a Sicilian when death is on the line! Hahahaha Hahahaha <thud>”
I may be misremembering here, so please correct me if I’m wrong, but I think that in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, when Tom Cruise fights Michael Nyqvist in that circular parking garage for control of that briefcase that launches the nuclear weapon. Nyqvist actually launches the weapon, and then dies, and it is only after his death that Cruise figures out how to deflect it harmlessly(?) into the ocean.
Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid… “at least I got… Terre Haute…”
Probably not quite what you’re looking for, though.
Star Wars–the Death Star is on target, they’ve started their firing sequence, they’re about to vaporize Darth Vader’s daughter, and then his son blows them up real good. The big, bad, main bad guys (Darth & The Emperor) don’t die, but I think enough people die on the Death Star to make this work.
Maybe Bruno in Strangers on a Train, although the end of the movie is somewhat ambiguous on this point. Right up to his last breath, he insists on implicating Guy in his wife’s murder. On the other hand, he’s holding the incriminating lighter that will prove Guy is telling the truth clenched in his fist, where the police are sure to find it after he’s dead.
Grand Moff Tarkin though is pretty important (keys to the Death Star and all that) and is wonderfully arrogant, he alone dying fits the bill. IIRC his last line in the movie admonishes an underling who offers to get him off the Death Star before it goes up.
I assume in “Von Ryan’s Express” Major von Klemment dies thinking it’s just a matter of time before the Germans capture all the Allied prisoners on the train. But most of them make it to Switzerland.