# Save the life of a movie character who didn't deserve to die the way they did. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 10, 2012, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-the-life-of-a-movie-character-who-didnt-deserve-to-die-the-way-they-did/631125 "2012-08-10T21:14:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Simmerdown](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simmerdown/32/14859_2.png) [@Simmerdown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simmerdown)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-the-life-of-a-movie-character-who-didnt-deserve-to-die-the-way-they-did/631125/61 "2012-08-13T15:52:30Z")
Daud in _Lawrence of Arabia_. In the desert quicksand. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-the-life-of-a-movie-character-who-didnt-deserve-to-die-the-way-they-did/631125/62 "2012-08-13T15:56:39Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > I’d want to save Kutner too. And Amber, certainly. Come to think of it, I don’t think there was a single death on House that didn’t annoy me. The one character they \*should \*have killed off was Thirteen, as she was the one with the fatal disease, and she somehow walked away and instead went off to the Caribbean (or whatever it was) with her hot girlfriend. I declined to watch House after they turned him into an attempted murderer without the common decency to allow for the fact that he might have killed a little girl with his temper tantrum … but as I understand it, didn’t Thirteen head off into the sunset because her symptoms were becoming worse and she knew her days were numbered anyway? My point is, she was as doomed at the end of the series as Wilson was, and neither was actually dead at the end; just dying. Also Olivia Wilde is too pretty to die. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-the-life-of-a-movie-character-who-didnt-deserve-to-die-the-way-they-did/631125/63 "2012-08-13T16:05:12Z")
> [@PSXer](#): > > he only promised to kill him last, not to let him live :smack: Shit! You’re right! ---
**Author:** ![Moonlitherial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Moonlitherial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonlitherial)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-the-life-of-a-movie-character-who-didnt-deserve-to-die-the-way-they-did/631125/64 "2012-08-13T16:16:25Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > I’m on board with the Kirk plan, but Rhymer Enterprises rules do not allow for the killing of children under any circumstances, up to and including “the kid is destined to become the Anti-Christ.” > > You can borrow a Phantom Zone projector an dump Geoff there once he turns 19, though. Unfortunately he’s not 19 yet and Ned is already dead so how about we keep Ned alive by making him NOT AN IDIOT. Don’t tell the wrong people your plan and for Dragons sake just man up and take control even if you need to forge your dead friends name to do it. ---
**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:** [August 13, 2012, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-the-life-of-a-movie-character-who-didnt-deserve-to-die-the-way-they-did/631125/65 "2012-08-13T16:20:30Z")
I’d go back to Munchkinland, install Storm Tracker Doppler Radar and save the Wicked Witch of the East. Her death was pretty much gratuitous – it didn’t free the Munchkins from evil (her sister stepped right into that role) and and having the slippers didn’t get Dorothy back home any quicker. In fact, without the WWotW trying to get revenge, Dorothy probably would have had a pleasant stroll down the Yellow Brick Road and gotten to the Emerald City that much faster. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-the-life-of-a-movie-character-who-didnt-deserve-to-die-the-way-they-did/631125/66 "2012-08-13T16:31:07Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > I’d go back to Munchkinland, install Storm Tracker Doppler Radar and save the Wicked Witch of the East. Her death was pretty much gratuitous – it didn’t free the Munchkins from evil (her sister stepped right into that role) and and having the slippers didn’t get Dorothy back home any quicker. In fact, without the WWotW trying to get revenge, Dorothy probably would have had a pleasant stroll down the Yellow Brick Road and gotten to the Emerald City that much faster. Fool of Winkie! The death of the WWotE obviously _did_ free the Munchkins. Glinda was able to chase the Wicked Witch of West out of Munchkinland with virtually no effort, and laughingly comments that she, the WWofW, has no power there at all. Of course, Glinda was also Oz’s greatest villain, but nobody talks about that. ---
**Author:** ![Heropsychodreamer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@Heropsychodreamer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heropsychodreamer)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-the-life-of-a-movie-character-who-didnt-deserve-to-die-the-way-they-did/631125/67 "2012-08-13T17:20:45Z")
I realize it wouldn’t make for a better movie, but I would have Heat end with McCauley in the car with his girlfriend and he DOESN’t turn the car around and go after Waingro. I would have them hit the airport and live happily ever after. It makes me mad everytime I watch it, though I agree it is really how the movie has to go and the ending is excellent as is. ---
**Author:** ![Jaledin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jaledin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaledin)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-the-life-of-a-movie-character-who-didnt-deserve-to-die-the-way-they-did/631125/68 "2012-08-13T17:54:17Z")
Randy Quaid’s character shitbird Meadows in /The Last Detail/. Not really dead, but after Buddusky and Mulhall render him in Portsmouth, that little flathat is going to be raped to death by the grunts. Easy to save him – just kidnap him while carrying something “a little more dangerous” than a horse cock after everyone finishes their hotdogs at the park, them drive that little shitbird out west and sell him as a landlocked cabin boy at a ranch in Montana. ---
**Author:** ![psiekier](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psiekier/32/116_2.png) [@psiekier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psiekier)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-the-life-of-a-movie-character-who-didnt-deserve-to-die-the-way-they-did/631125/69 "2012-08-13T18:05:14Z")
Can I save Bruce Campbell’s character from _Congo_? Or at least give him a magic book, shotgun, chainsaw, and an Oldsmobile with a giant propeller on the front so he has a fighting chance against all the apes? Maybe the best way to save him would be for him not to be in that movie at all… ---
**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:** [August 13, 2012, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-the-life-of-a-movie-character-who-didnt-deserve-to-die-the-way-they-did/631125/70 "2012-08-13T19:13:31Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > You know those guys, the last survivors of the massacre of bad guys in the Bond films, who take one last shot at Bond in the last scene of the movie before Bond floats off the the babe for some horizontal R&R? > > I wanna save the first of those guys, though without research I don’t recall which one that is. But saving the first one means Bond ends up dead, and the rest are saved too. It appears you think movie producers won’t stoop to vile behaviors such as rebooting the series. Bond and pretty much the entirety of MI5 died at the end of _Casino Royale_. You actually see them all up in heaven with their wings and harp. So every Bond film since 1967 is nothing but a stinkin’ retcon. ---
**Author:** ![Sodalite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/34f0e0/32.png) [@Sodalite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sodalite)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-the-life-of-a-movie-character-who-didnt-deserve-to-die-the-way-they-did/631125/71 "2012-08-13T22:08:02Z")
> [@MyFootsZZZ](#): > > That dude in **The Green Mile** who got electrocuted without the sponge being wet on his head… Delacroix? You’d go in there to save the guy who burned six people alive trying to cover up raping and murdering a woman but not John Coffey who was innocent and had that amazing healing power? > [@foolsguinea](#): > > One of Romeo’s friends finds the letter explaining Juliet’s plan, and rushes in at the last minute to stop Romeo from drinking the poison. Juliet’s plan is never derailed, she gets out alive, and the families still think they’ve taken a horrible loss for their feud. I would save Mercutio by pretending to be a messenger of Mab or some such thing. “Dude, don’t get into any fights on Romeo’s behalf, mkay? He’ll get your ass killed for no good reason.” ---
**Author:** ![Phnord\_Prephect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/df705f/32.png) [@Phnord\_Prephect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phnord_Prephect)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-the-life-of-a-movie-character-who-didnt-deserve-to-die-the-way-they-did/631125/72 "2012-08-13T22:18:39Z")
[QUOTE=Walter] Donny was a good bowler, and a good man. He was…He was one of us. He was a man who loved the outdoors, and bowling, and as a surfer explored the beaches of southern California from Redondo to Calabassos. And he was an avid bowler. And a good friend. He died – he died as so many of his generation, before his time. In your wisdom you took him, Lord. As you took so many bright flowering young men, at Khe San and Lan Doc AND HILL 364! These young men gave their lives. And Donny too. Donny…who…who loved bowling. [/QUOTE] Shut the fuck up, Donny, and get in the ambulance. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-the-life-of-a-movie-character-who-didnt-deserve-to-die-the-way-they-did/631125/73 "2012-08-13T22:34:53Z")
> [@StGermain](#): > > Wash. > > Joss Whedon is evil. > > StG Actually, I heard that was Alan Tudyk’s idea. He wanted his character to die to prove Zoe was a soldier. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-the-life-of-a-movie-character-who-didnt-deserve-to-die-the-way-they-did/631125/74 "2012-08-13T22:35:06Z")
Robert Muldoon. I’d hide in the bushes holding a shotgun and wearing a scent-masking suit. When the raptor "clever girl"s Muldoon, I’d “clever boy” it by shooting it in the face. Muldoon would then take out the other raptor and the only guy who deserved to live would get away. ---
**Author:** ![Scougs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scougs/32/3158_2.png) [@Scougs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scougs)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-the-life-of-a-movie-character-who-didnt-deserve-to-die-the-way-they-did/631125/75 "2012-08-13T22:54:58Z")
Miles Dyson in Terminator 2. I feel so sorry for that guy every time I see that film. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-the-life-of-a-movie-character-who-didnt-deserve-to-die-the-way-they-did/631125/76 "2012-08-13T23:05:06Z")
Henry Blake. I’d make him miss his plane. If he’s too stewed to walk, he’ll have to sleep it off. So, plenty o booze! ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-the-life-of-a-movie-character-who-didnt-deserve-to-die-the-way-they-did/631125/77 "2012-08-13T23:35:36Z")
> [@Scougs](#): > > Miles Dyson in Terminator 2. I feel so sorry for that guy every time I see that film. Likewise the police captain in the original _Terminator_, played by Paul Winfield. I met Mr. Winfield once at a pug show, where he was kind and helpful to me. I don’t like to see him get all shot up even in movie-pretend mode. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2012, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-the-life-of-a-movie-character-who-didnt-deserve-to-die-the-way-they-did/631125/78 "2012-08-14T00:40:03Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > Actually, I heard that was Alan Tudyk’s idea. He wanted his character to die to prove Zoe was a soldier. I’ve never heard that. Do you have a cite? StG ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2012, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-the-life-of-a-movie-character-who-didnt-deserve-to-die-the-way-they-did/631125/79 "2012-08-14T00:54:50Z")
Joe Ben Stamper in Sometimes a Great Notion. What a nasty way to go, I would have either figured out some way to make him a quick snorkel or just cut his legs off to get him out of there. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2012, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-the-life-of-a-movie-character-who-didnt-deserve-to-die-the-way-they-did/631125/80 "2012-08-14T01:39:48Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Since the TV precedent has been set: > > Marcus. I’d pop in when he’s only _mostly_ drained by the machine, where he’s still at a point where he could recover, but still given enough. I mean, Susan could have at least boinked him once. …of course, while technically deceased: Ivanova kept his body around, just in case! [![](https://neatnik2009.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/sleeping-in-light-17.jpg) ](https://neatnik2009.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/sleeping-in-light-17.jpg) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-the-life-of-a-movie-character-who-didnt-deserve-to-die-the-way-they-did/631125.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-the-life-of-a-movie-character-who-didnt-deserve-to-die-the-way-they-did/631125.md?page=5)