# Needless Movie/TV Deaths **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 14, 2018, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needless-movie-tv-deaths/814173 "2018-05-14T23:31:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![golffan1963](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4af34b/32.png) [@golffan1963](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/golffan1963)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2018, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needless-movie-tv-deaths/814173/1 "2018-05-14T23:31:12Z")
As I posted on another thread, Jack’s death in _Titanic_ seems to me to be needless. The guy had a plan for every situation, and tried to the last to survive, which he should have. Any other deaths in the movies that seemed unnecessary? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2018, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needless-movie-tv-deaths/814173/2 "2018-05-14T23:35:18Z")
_City of Angels_. A literal truck ending that was just to be poetically ironic. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2018, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needless-movie-tv-deaths/814173/3 "2018-05-14T23:51:29Z")
> [@golffan1963](#): > > As I posted on another thread, Jack’s death in _Titanic_ seems to me to be needless. The guy had a plan for every situation, and tried to the last to survive, which he should have. Caveat: 30 degree F water will do a total number on your muscles & nerves. Consider yourself lucky if you can move at all. But, if I were him, I simply start pushing her and the thing towards the nearest life raft. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needless-movie-tv-deaths/814173/4 "2018-05-15T00:07:44Z")
Capt. James T. Kirk in _Star Trek Generations_. They couldn’t have given him a more heroic death than having a bridge collapse on him? At least [del]William Shatner[/del] Judith and Gar Reeves-Stevens found a way to bring him back in some of the novels. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needless-movie-tv-deaths/814173/5 "2018-05-15T00:21:57Z")
Henry Blake’s death in _M_A_S_H\* was needless. But that was the point, wasn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needless-movie-tv-deaths/814173/6 "2018-05-15T00:31:45Z")
> [@golffan1963](#): > > As I posted on another thread, Jack’s death in _Titanic_ seems to me to be needless. The guy had a plan for every situation, and tried to the last to survive, which he should have. If Rose had stayed in the lifeboat, then Jack could have climbed up on the debris and they’d have both lived. That’s what always struck me as needless about it. ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needless-movie-tv-deaths/814173/7 "2018-05-15T02:05:45Z")
Three that come to mind: _Wages of Fear_ (1953) – The classic in the rare adventure film sub-genre of Truck Movies; nevertheless the final death is entirely needless resulting in a facile irony that mildly taints an otherwise awesome flick. _The Black Scorpion_ (1957) – The army lures the last remaining giant scorpion into a sports stadium where they plan to shoot an electrode into it and electrocute it. The first shot goes awry and an army dude pulls the electrode back in…but the juice was never turned off, so the instant he touches it, he dies (somewhat hilariously). _The Mist_ (2007) – I list this not for the needless deaths at the end, but owing to the needless death of the Toby Jones character, who it seems, must die because he saved the lead’s son by clipping a clearly insane character who wanted to sacrifice him. Movie morality at its worst. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needless-movie-tv-deaths/814173/8 "2018-05-15T03:06:48Z")
Tasha Yar’s death in ST:TNG. But they even admitted that later. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needless-movie-tv-deaths/814173/9 "2018-05-15T03:48:07Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > If Rose had stayed in the lifeboat, then Jack could have climbed up on the debris and they’d have both lived. That’s what always struck me as needless about it. # I always thought there was room on that table/door thing for 2. Dumb movie, dumb ending. Glen on The Walking dead. Old Yeller. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needless-movie-tv-deaths/814173/10 "2018-05-15T03:58:54Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > I always thought there was room on that table/door thing for 2. Did the raft begin to capsize when Jack tried to climb aboard it? ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needless-movie-tv-deaths/814173/11 "2018-05-15T04:20:52Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Tasha Yar’s death in ST:TNG. But they even admitted that later. However, one of the few episodes in that show that caused me to feel something. I’m not enough of a fanboy to know why they did this, I always assumed it was because the actress wanted out of the commitment of a weekly show. So here’s another one, for the same reason: Cait’s murder in NCIS. I thought Sasha Alexander was very good in that part, and I couldn’t stand her replacement. And all because the show was too much work (if I remember correctly). Then she ended up on another weekly cop-type show. I don’t get it. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needless-movie-tv-deaths/814173/12 "2018-05-15T04:48:06Z")
_“He’s DEAD, Jim!”_ Ode to the Redshirts. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needless-movie-tv-deaths/814173/13 "2018-05-15T04:53:53Z")
J.R. Ewing… Oh wait, that was a dream or something, wasn’t it? Jeez, that was a long time ago. Criminy! ---
**Author:** ![golffan1963](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4af34b/32.png) [@golffan1963](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/golffan1963)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needless-movie-tv-deaths/814173/14 "2018-05-15T06:11:36Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > J.R. Ewing… > Oh wait, that was a dream or something, wasn’t it? Jeez, that was a long time ago. Criminy! Almost forty years, if my memory is correct. Your post also reminds me of a humorous moment in another _Dallas_ episode: As JR’s brother Bobby Ewing was about to die, JR blurts out “Don’t do this to me, Bobby!”. On it’s own, it’s not much of a line…but Larry Hagman delivered it in such an over-the-top, rapid fire fashion that it made me laugh like crazy when he uttered the words. I’m also trying to remember…was it JR who had the dream or Bobby? Ah, how memories fade. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needless-movie-tv-deaths/814173/15 "2018-05-15T14:35:06Z")
JR was shot, but didn’t die. Bobby died, only it was all a dream. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needless-movie-tv-deaths/814173/16 "2018-05-15T14:48:59Z")
Lesser known film, but fresh in my head,as I just watched it. High Road to China. The film starts out with this older gentlemen who was dispatched to Istanbul to find wacky heiress Eve Tozer and her father. While looking like a retired banker, the gentleman shows hidden skills as he dispatches with cool efficiency a person sent to kill him. Later, additional killers attack him and Eve on the street, and this time, instead of skillfully avoiding the killers, he walks into a knife without so much as a by-your-leave. There was no reason in the plot he had to die. Lots of people showed up to drive the plot and were never heard from again in the film. It isn’t like his death inspired Eve to scream NOOOOO and wreak vengeance upon the killers. Nope, poor guy was forgotten 1 minute later. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needless-movie-tv-deaths/814173/17 "2018-05-15T14:49:19Z")
Wash and Shepherd Book in _Serenity_. ---
**Author:** ![cormac262](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@cormac262](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cormac262)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needless-movie-tv-deaths/814173/18 "2018-05-15T15:00:00Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Wash and Shepherd Book in _Serenity_. This was the first thing I thought of. BUT, whereas I would agree about Wash, I think Book’s death is important for the storyline. Book’s death, and Mal determining that it was the Alliance and not the Reavers, is key to pushing Mal to take on the Alliance (and blow the lid off the paxil/Reaver cover-up). One could argue that Wash’s death was similarly “necessary” to turn Zoe into a human terminator to take on the Reavers, but it would seem mere survival would be enough motivation for that. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needless-movie-tv-deaths/814173/19 "2018-05-15T15:00:32Z")
Would Ensign Peter Preston’s death in ST:TWoK be considered needless? Of all the trainees on the Enterprise, it appears only one person died in the ensuing chase and battles with Khan. No one ever cried so hard for a red shirt before. What did it add? Yes, I know he was Scotty’s nephew, but that fact wasn’t in the theatrical version. And I can’t help but wonder if he could have been saved had Scotty taken him to sickbay rather than the bridge. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needless-movie-tv-deaths/814173/20 "2018-05-15T15:16:06Z")
Kumar (I know that’s not the actor or character’s name) suddenly committing suicide on _House_. It’s never explained. (IRL, it’s because the actor suddenly quit the show to work for Obama) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needless-movie-tv-deaths/814173.md?page=2)