# 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:** 5
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2012, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-the-life-of-a-movie-character-who-didnt-deserve-to-die-the-way-they-did/631125/81 "2012-08-14T01:47:12Z")
Can I kill someone off who should’ve died? I’d make it so Thomas Magnum stayed dead, and didn’t come back for Season 8. ---
**Author:** ![MyFootsZZZ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/myfootszzz/32/12580_2.png) [@MyFootsZZZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MyFootsZZZ)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2012, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-the-life-of-a-movie-character-who-didnt-deserve-to-die-the-way-they-did/631125/82 "2012-08-14T14:27:36Z")
> [@Sodalite](#): > > 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? I only saw it once when it first came out, I didn’t remember what Dalacroix did to land him in the ol’ electric chair. I also forgot John died at the end movie, (I thought he passed down his illness to the guy who didn’t wet the sponge… or was he electrocuted? Now that I think about it, wasn’t it the warden’s wife with the illness or something? Did we see John get the chair?) All I remember really, is how hard it was to watch Delacroix get electrocuted. I was mad as hell, and my eyes were welling up. It effected me so much I never saw the movie again. So I would change my choice, (knowing he burned people alive, and ultimately John died)… I just didn’t remember bits of the movie that would have allowed me to make a more informed decision. I still can’t watch that movie again. I remember it tottaly got me in a mood. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2012, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-the-life-of-a-movie-character-who-didnt-deserve-to-die-the-way-they-did/631125/83 "2012-08-15T03:33:49Z")
> [@StGermain](#): > > I’ve never heard that. Do you have a cite? > > StG Sorry, gossip accepted as fact, [Joss killed Wash](http://www.empireonline.com/features/alan-tudyk-career/). [Page 7] ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2012, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-the-life-of-a-movie-character-who-didnt-deserve-to-die-the-way-they-did/631125/84 "2012-08-15T05:26:36Z")
> [@HenryGale](#): > > I’ve got to say that Dobby was always the Jar Jar Binks of the Harry Potter saga for me. If possible, I’d find a way to kill him twice. Yep. But as for Wash- 'twas Hollywood killed him. You know you cant have a happy monogamous hetero couple for very long. Something must end that travesty!:rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2012, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-the-life-of-a-movie-character-who-didnt-deserve-to-die-the-way-they-did/631125/85 "2012-08-15T05:28:14Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > F > > Of course, Glinda was also Oz’s greatest villain, but nobody talks about that. A base canard. That hack-wrttien travesty that shits on the good name of a great childrens fantasy has no part in the true History. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2012, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-the-life-of-a-movie-character-who-didnt-deserve-to-die-the-way-they-did/631125/86 "2012-08-15T05:30:28Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > Next, I’m bending the rules a bit, cuz I’m Oak and I do that, and going to Game of Thrones World. I’m going to save Ned Stark by drowning Geoffrey soon after the little rat bastard is born. I admire that man greatly but it was his King that killed him by putting him in that damned job, which was no place for a honorable man…with the political sense of a chipmunk. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2012, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-the-life-of-a-movie-character-who-didnt-deserve-to-die-the-way-they-did/631125/87 "2012-08-15T05:33:41Z")
Ben in _Night of the Living Dead_. He died pointlessly because George Romero couldn’t think of an ending. I’d save him by having the police officers have half a brain. ---
**Author:** ![singular1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@singular1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/singular1)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2012, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-the-life-of-a-movie-character-who-didnt-deserve-to-die-the-way-they-did/631125/88 "2012-08-15T12:07:01Z")
> [@MyFootsZZZ](#): > > That dude in **The Green Mile** who got electrocuted without the sponge being wet on his head… [hijack] That dude apparently wasn’t acting - what else but brain damage explains the fact that said dude is IRL voluntarily dating Omarosa!?!?!!:eek:[/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![singular1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@singular1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/singular1)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2012, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-the-life-of-a-movie-character-who-didnt-deserve-to-die-the-way-they-did/631125/89 "2012-08-15T12:20:01Z")
Oops-missed the edit- I thought that was John Coffey, like the drink. Anyways, jam that hunter’s gun and let Bambi’s mom get away! ---
**Author:** ![Ferd\_Burfel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecccb3/32.png) [@Ferd\_Burfel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferd_Burfel)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2012, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-the-life-of-a-movie-character-who-didnt-deserve-to-die-the-way-they-did/631125/90 "2012-08-15T12:42:58Z")
Cinematic universe, huh? OK, I’ll need a 5 pound bag of sugar, a sharp knife and someone ninja enough to sneak into and out of an RAF airfield (since sugar is rationed in WWII, my operative may need to stop in 1970 to pick up the sugar). MY plan is to disable the plane at the end of **The Glenn Miller Story** so that Jimmy Stewart doesn’t fly off and disappear into the mists of WWII and leave poor June Alyson crying in grief on Christmas. Poor June Alyson. Her weeping makes me sad. If you need to balance the scales somehow, please have Rose fall off the raft at the end of **Titanic** and join her lover in a forever icy embrace ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2012, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-the-life-of-a-movie-character-who-didnt-deserve-to-die-the-way-they-did/631125/91 "2012-08-15T13:03:56Z")
The Dobby talk reminded me- can I go and save whichever one of the Weasley twins it was that needlessly died off screen? Mainly because I once spent half an afternoon winding up my housemate by detailing the surviving twin’s sad decline, (oh right, it was Fred that died, not that it in any way matters) after his heart just goes out of the jokes business after the death of his twin, leading to his bankrupcy, and how he wound up living on the street in Nocturn Alley, before disappearing into the muggle world and presumably dying a sad and lonely death. I got a little too detailed, and now I can’t get it out of my head… Anyway, it should be pretty easy: I’ll just lock them both (just to prevent the ol’ switcheroo) in a broom cupboard or something until the big fight’s over. ---
**Author:** ![Satchmo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/satchmo/32/4223_2.png) [@Satchmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satchmo)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2012, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-the-life-of-a-movie-character-who-didnt-deserve-to-die-the-way-they-did/631125/92 "2012-08-15T13:59:56Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > A base canard. That hack-wrttien travesty that shits on the good name of a great childrens fantasy has no part in the true History. If you ever get a chance, pick up “A Barnstormer in Oz” by Phillip Jose Farmer. There are many things in Oz that make no sense, even in a fairy tale, Farmer makes a stab at explaining it all in a very interesting story. Yah, Glinda is the baddest witch in all the land, but she has to be. ---
**Author:** ![Vihaga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Vihaga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vihaga)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2012, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-the-life-of-a-movie-character-who-didnt-deserve-to-die-the-way-they-did/631125/93 "2012-08-15T14:19:11Z")
I’m going to grab Seito and Setsuko and adopt them or something. I don’t even need a SWAT team, just a transporter. Grave of the Fireflies killed me. Yes, I know we only get one. Um. One of you John Coffey folks get over here; he doesn’t need to be saved more than once! ---
**Author:** ![Mrs.Cake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2acd7d/32.png) [@Mrs.Cake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mrs.Cake)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2012, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-the-life-of-a-movie-character-who-didnt-deserve-to-die-the-way-they-did/631125/94 "2012-08-15T17:26:41Z")
The driver in _Ronin_. The nicest of the bunch did not deserve to die that way. Neither did the ice skater, but if I can only save one in the movie, she loses because of her terrible taste in men. ---
**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 16, 2012, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-the-life-of-a-movie-character-who-didnt-deserve-to-die-the-way-they-did/631125/95 "2012-08-16T00:52:37Z")
Oh, if I’m already in the Jurassic Park world, do you mind if I run over and free the third raptor from the fridge? I know, I just killed a raptor to save Robert Muldoon, but dying by slowly starving in a fridge is a sad way to go. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 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/631125/96 "2012-08-16T01:39:28Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > I wish Tara not killed. With or without Dark Willow. In which bullet shot by Warren (boo hiss) is at a different enough angle to miss anything vital of Tara’s. But say it still wounds her and still sprays Willow’s white blouse with blood. While caring for wounded Tara (who gets better before long, as always), Willow then faces a starkly dichotomous question: Go Dark anyway (because Tara’s hurt and it pisses her the everloving hell off), or decide that the only way Tara can ever be healed is by completely giving up Witchcraft? Which way do you think that would go? ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2012, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-the-life-of-a-movie-character-who-didnt-deserve-to-die-the-way-they-did/631125/97 "2012-08-16T02:22:51Z")
Haley Joel Osment’s character in _Pay It Forward_. Paul Newman in _Cool Hand Luke_. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2012, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-the-life-of-a-movie-character-who-didnt-deserve-to-die-the-way-they-did/631125/98 "2012-08-16T02:26:36Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > Oh, if I’m already in the Jurassic Park world, do you mind if I run over and free the third raptor from the fridge? I know, I just killed a raptor to save Robert Muldoon, but dying by slowly starving in a fridge is a sad way to go. I’ll be damned. I’m not the only one. ---
**Author:** ![Drum\_God](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drum_god/32/44_2.png) [@Drum\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drum_God)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2012, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-the-life-of-a-movie-character-who-didnt-deserve-to-die-the-way-they-did/631125/99 "2012-08-16T03:55:04Z")
I would save [Ensign Sito Jaxa](http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Sito_Jaxa)in the ST:TNG episode [_Lower Decks_](http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Lower_Decks_%28episode%29). If you’ll remember, she was involved in the Nova Squadron incident at Starfleet Academy in 2368. After her eventual graduation from the Academy, Picard requested she be posted to the _Enterprise_. Supposedly, he wants her to have the opportunity to prove herself in actual duty after her scandal at the Academy. He then proceeds to be a real ass toward her. After treating her like crap, he then manipulates her into volunteering for a mission, that if it goes according to plan, will be incredibly painful and unpleasant for her. Unfortunately, it doesn’t go well and she ends up getting killed. Jaxa is a flawed Bajoran, but she doesn’t deserve the crappy treatment she receives, nor being coerced to “volunteer” for a one-way mission just so she can impress Picard, who is being a real prick. I would save her by having Riker convince Picard that this is an awful idea and never going to work. Besides, we can’t just ship this girl off to be killed. I would examine the situation and come up with a better plan. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2012, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-the-life-of-a-movie-character-who-didnt-deserve-to-die-the-way-they-did/631125/100 "2012-08-16T04:06:39Z")
I would save Mr. Roberts. Let the captain or Ensign Pulver die instead. [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=4) [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=6)