You know, I’ve been thinking. Don’t worry, it’s not about to become a habit anytime soon. Anyway, I was thinking about the cliche that states “The black guy always dies first in movies”. Now we’ve all heard it, but the only movie I can think of where it comes close to that is Jurassic Park, but I know that’s not right.
So in which movies do the black guy actually die first?
The only one I can think of off the top of my head probably isn’t what you’re looking for.
(I know, my English is badly)
Blackula. I mean, he’s a black vampire and vampires are dead, so he probably died even before the movie started.
Wasn’t Gennero, the lawyer, the first in the main cast to die first?
Well, it doesn’t hold true in :rolleyes: for using the spoiler: *Night Of The Living Dead
In Aliens the first character we see die is Frost (Ricco Ross), who happens to be black. He’s set on fire by Dietrich’s flamethrower, falls down a stairwell and then is blown to pieces when the flames reach the bag of ammunition he was carrying.
Yes, that brother sure is dead.
Okay, on reflection, the first character we see die is a female colonist who begs “please kill me”, seconds before a chestburster erupts from her torso. Frost is the first of the Marine squad to buy it.
Kill Bill Vol1. Of course, the guy is a gal
Actually, the cliche is that the black guy isn’t going to make it out of the movie alive, period, not that he’s going to die first among the cast. But it does happen occassionally that in some films where some rampaging deadly thing is on the loose, the black guys dies first.
The characters portrayed by Omar Epps(?) and Jada Pinkett-Smith at the start of Scream 2. Also, the black woman train conductor at the start of Species.
Didn’t Samuel L. Jackson die first in Deep Blue Sea?
Actually, I had heard that not about movies, but about Star Trek. IIRC, Eddie Murphy (or maybe Richard Pryor) used to do a routine about how there’s always a black guy that beams down in the landing party and gets killed right away. The aliens turn him into a cube, then Kirk says, “Analysis, Mr. Spock”, and Spock says, “The nigger’s a cube, sir.”
Pardon the language - that’s actually how the routine went, not my words.
What about Predator? I can’t remember the order that the people died, but the black guy didn’t make it to the end, did he?
Predator I, there were two, and neither made it.
In Predator II, Danny Glover was the hero, and lived.
In Predator there were two black guys (Carl Weathers and Bill Duke) neither of whom made it to the end. In fact, they pretty much died together.
There’s a scene in the movie Evolution in which Orlando Jones’ character refuses to get a sample because he says that the black guy always dies in the movies. Pretty funny scene.
Slasher/horror flicks are probably a good place to look for this kind of thing. I can’t remember any off the top of my head where the black guy dies first though.
Ah, Askia’s Law: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=5547575&postcount=4
I’ve been racking my brain to come up with exceptions apart from Deep Blue Sea, and so far I’ve got:
Michael Clarke Duncan in The Scorpion King
Chris Tucker in The Fifth Element
The Nubian dude {D’Joumon Hansou? sp?} in Gladiator
Hey! My link actually WORKED!
The Dirty Dozen. Haven’t seen it in a few years, but wasn’t Jim Brown the first to get killed?
Actually, from what I’ve seen of slasher movies, the black guy usually doesn’t die first…the first people to die are a couple of throwaway victims who die in the opening of the film, right before the initial title and credits run. They’re usually just stupid teenagers, unless it’s a flashback.
The black guy (or gal) is usually among the “group of hero’s buddies who don’t make it.”
As ashamed as I am to admit that I’ve seen Anaconda…
…the black guy (Ice Cube) survives, along with Jennifer Lopez. All the white guys die.
IIRC, he was the next to last casualty (John Cassavates got shot in the back on the way out). The first was either Telly Savalas or Donald Sutherland.
I’m pretty sure the comedian in question was Franklin Ajaye. And Carl Weathers does go pretty early on in Predator; I don’t remember if he was first, though.
As I said, it’s been a few years since the last viewing. Time to catch this classic again, I see. Thanks! 