# suicide in film **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 30, 2003, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-in-film/178579 "2003-05-30T17:28:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2003, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-in-film/178579/21 "2003-05-31T06:54:25Z")
_Pump Up The Volume_ addresses it in an 80’s teen sort of way. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2003, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-in-film/178579/22 "2003-05-31T07:16:17Z")
> [@](#): > > **Harold and Maude** (not successful) Not to mention that Harold’s ‘attempts’ are HILARIOUS. However, the above is wrong, though I don’t want to ruin the movie. ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2003, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-in-film/178579/23 "2003-05-31T07:45:33Z")
I wholly admit to the possibility that I mighta missed it in some of those lists that people posted, but I’ll be dagnammed if this thread goes on without a mention of _Romeo and Juliet_. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a5b964/32.png) [@Bill\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_H)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2003, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-in-film/178579/24 "2003-05-31T07:49:41Z")
The Deerhunter ---
**Author:** ![sKipping\_girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e19adc/32.png) [@sKipping\_girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sKipping_girl)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2003, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-in-film/178579/25 "2003-05-31T10:31:18Z")
La Dolce Vita ---
**Author:** ![refusal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ac91a4/32.png) [@refusal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/refusal)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2003, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-in-film/178579/26 "2003-05-31T12:30:47Z")
It’s kind of hard to do this without spoilers. Abbas Kiarostami’s **The Taste of Cherry** is based around the story of a man trying to find someone to help kill himself. In science fiction, there’s Arnie in **Terminator 2** , and a bunch of Zombie movies including **Return of the Living Dead 3**. And I may be misremembering, but doesn’t the convict in **His Girl Friday** eventually jump out a window to his death, making it the earliest sort-of-suicide in a comedy? ---
**Author:** ![Amp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Amp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amp)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2003, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-in-film/178579/27 "2003-05-31T12:40:31Z")
Gattica has a suicide in the end. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2003, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-in-film/178579/28 "2003-05-31T12:44:45Z")
Does self-sacrifice count? If so, **Alien 3** ends with one, as do a bunch of others. **Jisatsu Saakuru** (_Suicide Circle_) starts off with a pretty gruesome/spectacular one, but I don’t think it’s been released in the west yet. For that matter, lots of Japanese suspense and horror films have suicides in them. ---
**Author:** ![Intaglio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/71e660/32.png) [@Intaglio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intaglio)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2003, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-in-film/178579/29 "2003-05-31T13:08:30Z")
Dead Poet’s Society - the guy in the play, who wants to be an actor, commits suicide (naked wearing only a piece of wardrobe -a crown of leaves from the play), because his father won’t let him. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2003, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-in-film/178579/30 "2003-05-31T14:17:08Z")
Amp, so does GATTACA _G_ Harold & Maude has several “attempts”- of varying success BUT let us not forget the really great musical suicide by Carl Anderson as Judas in JC SUPERSTAR: also David McCallum (sp?) gets two suicide scenes as Judas in THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD (I saw one as his spiritual self-destruction & the other as his physical) ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2003, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-in-film/178579/31 "2003-05-31T14:19:33Z")
there’s also a vampire suicide in BLOOD AND DONUTS ---
**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:** [May 31, 2003, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-in-film/178579/32 "2003-05-31T15:32:17Z")
_Beetlejuice_ - there was a prolonged joke about suicide victims _Better Off Dead_ - teen comedy with John Cusack _Coming Home_ - I’ll avoid the spoiler _Devil in Miss Jones_ - porno movie that opens with the lead character killing herself _Lethal Weapon_ - Mel Gibson’s character was suicidal _Masada_ - TV miniseries about a mass suicide _Short Time_ - comedy about a dying cop trying to get himself killed on duty for insurance purposes ---
**Author:** ![Tertius01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e99b99/32.png) [@Tertius01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tertius01)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2003, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-in-film/178579/33 "2003-05-31T16:18:57Z")
_The Game_ has a recalled suicide and an attempted suicide. The movie in large part is about it and is pretty entertaining if you can suspend disbelief. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2003, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-in-film/178579/34 "2003-05-31T17:27:33Z")
One of my favorite Japanese movies is Masaki Kobayashi’s “Seppuku” Like “Seven Samurai,” it takes place after the civil war when the clans were disbanded. An unemployed samurai shows up at the door of one of the remaining clans and asks for a hand-out, threatening to commit harakiri on the doorstep to disgrace the clan if he’s denied. The clan call his bluff and invites him to use their courtyard. They tell him (shown in grisly flashback) how another samurai had made the same threat earlier, and how he too had been obliged to kill himself in the courtyard - even though he only had a bamboo kendo sword (ouch!) At the end of the story, the samurai says “I know. That was my son-in law!” and goes through the place like a buzzsaw. ---
**Author:** ![bobkitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c67d28/32.png) [@bobkitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobkitty)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2003, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-in-film/178579/35 "2003-05-31T17:50:38Z")
I can’t believe I, as this film’s most vocal detractors, am about to do this: **Thelma and Louise.** I feel so dirty. ---
**Author:** ![karomon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@karomon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/karomon)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2003, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-in-film/178579/36 "2003-05-31T19:13:43Z")
Happiness. That was one hell of a movie. ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2003, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-in-film/178579/37 "2003-05-31T19:32:56Z")
Cleopatra Julius Caesar ---
**Author:** ![Protesilaus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Protesilaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Protesilaus)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2003, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-in-film/178579/38 "2003-05-31T20:37:15Z")
_The Devil’s Advocate Fatal Attraction Commandments Memento_ ---
**Author:** ![The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Man_With_The_Golden_Gun)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2003, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-in-film/178579/39 "2003-05-31T21:12:39Z")
There was a movie about jazz musicians in Germany during the beginning of the Holocaust called “Swingers” or something to that effect which had one of the swingers slash his wrists. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Man_With_The_Golden_Gun)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2003, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-in-film/178579/40 "2003-05-31T21:17:08Z")
Oh yes, and End of Days had Ah-nold as a suicidal security guard. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-in-film/178579.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-in-film/178579.md?page=3)