# The Non-War film with the highest body count **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [August 11, 2021, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-non-war-film-with-the-highest-body-count/948435 "2021-08-11T09:54:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ralfy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ralfy/32/600_2.png) [@ralfy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralfy)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2021, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-non-war-film-with-the-highest-body-count/948435/21 "2021-08-12T14:17:56Z")
Try the movie _Knowing_ (2009). ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2021, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-non-war-film-with-the-highest-body-count/948435/22 "2021-08-12T14:59:34Z")
I think “World War Z” may be up there. Not only does most of the world’s population die, but they also die _twice_! ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2021, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-non-war-film-with-the-highest-body-count/948435/23 "2021-08-12T15:10:41Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > For individual depictions of death, there is a single scene in _Kill Bill Vol. 1_ where there are close to 88 fatalities. There weren’t really eighty-eight of them. They just called themselves “The Crazy 88” because they thought the name sounded cool. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2021, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-non-war-film-with-the-highest-body-count/948435/24 "2021-08-12T15:17:09Z")
To be sure you’d have to have somebody in the teahouse who is good at counting. Perhaps the 5.6.7.8’s? ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2021, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-non-war-film-with-the-highest-body-count/948435/25 "2021-08-12T15:18:30Z")
Were the people scooped up in Soylent Green all doomed? ---
**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:** [August 12, 2021, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-non-war-film-with-the-highest-body-count/948435/26 "2021-08-12T15:25:08Z")
> [@california\_jobcase](#): > > Were the people scooped up in Soylent Green all doomed? On the one hand, it sure seemed that way. But on the other hand that fact that SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE wasn’t know yet. So, maybe just taken off to work camps? It doesn’t matter - the world is doomed. The oceans are dead. And Soylent Green is not sustainable. ---
**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 12, 2021, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-non-war-film-with-the-highest-body-count/948435/27 "2021-08-12T15:38:04Z")
The original Star Wars probably deserves a mention. They showed the Death Star blowing up the entire planet Alderaan, which according to a fansite had a population of two billion. That’s probably the most deaths ever depicted on screen. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2021, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-non-war-film-with-the-highest-body-count/948435/28 "2021-08-12T15:47:04Z")
> [@Author\_Balk](#): > > > [@bob\_2](#): > > > > Is there a website anywhere with the statistics > > I found one. [Movie Body Counts: Charts: Highest Body Count Movies](http://www.moviebodycounts.com/Top-Movies.htm) I couldn’t open the link to the counting methodology, but it seems to me that “body count” is a bit tough to calculate. Fore example for Titanic they obviously don’t count all 1500+ people who went down with the ship. Do they count every extra, mannequin, or CGI character playing a floating corpse in the background? Is it just where we see a character’s on-screen death? ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2021, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-non-war-film-with-the-highest-body-count/948435/29 "2021-08-12T15:53:15Z")
Too many variables really for a definitive answer. Any film with explosions will assume bodies that we never see and may not even be referred to. The Titanic had a known death count, but the vast majority were not featured in the film. The film that triggered my query, doesn’t even feature in the list above. Maybe the list should be restricted to counting deaths of _named_ characters only. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2021, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-non-war-film-with-the-highest-body-count/948435/30 "2021-08-12T16:03:58Z")
If I remember right, _The World, The Flesh and The Devil_ got Earth depopulated down to 3 people. _The Stand_ also had a rather high body count. And let’s not forget Monty Python. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/Jdf5EXo6I68/maxresdefault.jpg "Monty Python - "Not Dead Yet" Scene (HD)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jdf5EXo6I68) ---
**Author:** ![Horseflesh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horseflesh/32/7502_2.png) [@Horseflesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horseflesh)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2021, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-non-war-film-with-the-highest-body-count/948435/31 "2021-08-12T16:10:06Z")
I would assume apocalypse movies would head the body count list. Greenland, 2012, The Day After Tomorrow, Deep Impact, etc. Then there’s other types like alien invasion and pandemics, like A Quite Place, I Am Legend, World War Z. Of course, these are mostly off screen, so I don’t know that that counts. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2021, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-non-war-film-with-the-highest-body-count/948435/32 "2021-08-13T04:21:25Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > The film that triggered my query, doesn’t even feature in the list above. Maybe the list should be restricted to counting deaths of _named_ characters only. Then I’ll nominate “The Wild Bunch.” The list of surviving named characters is what, 3? Both “good” and bad guys. None of them the title characters. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2021, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-non-war-film-with-the-highest-body-count/948435/33 "2021-08-13T05:49:31Z")
Then percentage-wise _Seven Samurai_ would beat that because there were three survivors out of the seven plus forty bandits (Mostly mooks) plus an unknown number of villagers, perhaps a dozen or two. Oh, yeah, two more during the recruiting part, the bandit who kidnapped a baby Shimada kills by disguising himself as a priest and the braggart Kyūzō opens up. ---
**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 13, 2021, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-non-war-film-with-the-highest-body-count/948435/34 "2021-08-13T07:37:44Z")
> [@Horseflesh](#): > > I would assume apocalypse movies would head the body count list. Greenland, 2012, The Day After Tomorrow, Deep Impact, etc. Then there’s other types like alien invasion and pandemics, like A Quite Place, I Am Legend, World War Z. Of course, these are mostly off screen, so I don’t know that that counts. I feel you have to restrict the body counts to deaths that are shown on screen. Otherwise, you can argue that a movie like _Dumbo_ has a massive body count. Sure, the audience didn’t see anybody die in that movie. But the movie was set in 1941 so millions of people were being killed in other parts of the world while the events of the movie were being shown. ---
**Author:** ![Horseflesh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horseflesh/32/7502_2.png) [@Horseflesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horseflesh)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2021, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-non-war-film-with-the-highest-body-count/948435/35 "2021-08-13T14:09:06Z")
Yeah, I thought about that. Then I wondered if something like Star Wars: A New Hope might take the crown. We see a planet of billions and a space station of millions explode on screen. Deaths are “felt”. Then again, you could argue Star Wars was a war movie, so… ---
**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:** [August 13, 2021, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-non-war-film-with-the-highest-body-count/948435/36 "2021-08-13T17:41:36Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > people actively or passively killed by the hero and villain, be they good guys, bad guys or “collateral damage”. The deaths have to be on screen and actively caused by a character. (Alderaan and the Death Star would count, but is it a “war movie”?) The characters do not have to have known names, All the unnamed soldiers killed by Matrix during Commando? They count. All of the 7 billion people zombified in the two Zombieland films? Don’t count. Only the ones specifically kiiled on screen by the characters should count. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2021, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-non-war-film-with-the-highest-body-count/948435/37 "2021-08-14T14:51:24Z")
Technically speaking, in [1951’s _Five_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_(1951_film)), half of the enitre human race, all named, dies onscreen. (By the start of the film, the human race has been reduced to six people.) ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2021, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-non-war-film-with-the-highest-body-count/948435/38 "2021-08-14T15:14:41Z")
The adaption of Cormac McCarthy’s ‘The Road’. Not only do most humans die, but almost all life on Earth, animal and plant. Unless you argue that the event that caused the catastrophe was a nuclear war, but I always assumed a giant meteorite or asteroid strike. ETA: > [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > The deaths have to be on screen and actively caused by a character. Just noticed this, but since it wasn’t stipulated by the OP, I’ll let my answer stand. ---
**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:** [August 14, 2021, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-non-war-film-with-the-highest-body-count/948435/39 "2021-08-14T17:38:09Z")
> [@solost](#): > > Just noticed this, but since it wasn’t stipulated by the OP, I’ll let my answer stand. It was only my definition. It’s non-binding.🙂 ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2021, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-non-war-film-with-the-highest-body-count/948435/40 "2021-08-14T18:01:27Z")
According to Deadline (how appropriate) the original Guardians of the Galaxy is on the run for the title. (Although there are starships attacking cities), there is no declared war.) > **[‘Guardians Of The Galaxy’ Slays Another Record: Hollywood’s Biggest Onscreen...](https://deadline.com/2016/10/guardians-of-the-galaxy-on-screen-body-count-leads-list-deadliest-films-1201830495/)** > > Guardians of the Galaxy has a dark side. The Marvel/Disney film that became the biggest August box office opener of all time when it took off with a $94.3M debut in 2014, then grossed $773.3M world… > Why so many? According to GoCompare, which compiled the report based on an examination of 653 films that had more than 50 on-screen deaths, the reason for the high number is because of the dramatic finale, which sees more than 80,000 Nova Corps pilots die in one scene. It’s comic book violence, to be sure, as opposed to gruesome, bloody deaths in other films. > > The methodology to arrive at this? First of all, films with death counts below 50 were excluded. A “kill” was counted when either a dead body was seen or a character was very heavily implied dead. “Implied” means being shot or stabbed severely, mentioned as killed (and never returning), blown up, thrown off a cliff or shot/stabbed just off-screen and never heard from again. “Blown up” means lit on fire, blown to bits, last seen in an incinerated building/object or thrown off their feet by an explosion, causing them to not get back up (death by concussion). Animals and robots were only counted where they were played (either physically or voiced) by a human. Check out the full report [here](https://deadline.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/guardians-of-the-galaxy-kills-wm1.pdf). > In second place in the grisly Top 10 list was Gary Shore’s _Dracula Untold_ (2014), followed by _The Sum of All Fears_ (2002) from director Phil Alden Robinson. The rest in order of most kills: _The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King_ , _300: Rise of an Empire_ , _The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers_ , _The Matrix Revolutions_ , _The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies_ , _Braveheart_ and _The Avengers_ . > **[guardians-of-the-galaxy-kills-wm1.pdf](https://deadline.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/guardians-of-the-galaxy-kills-wm1.pdf)** > > 1413.47 KB [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-non-war-film-with-the-highest-body-count/948435.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-non-war-film-with-the-highest-body-count/948435.md?page=3)