# When the kid dies in a movie **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [March 15, 2022, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-kid-dies-in-a-movie/961127 "2022-03-15T18:26:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2022, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-kid-dies-in-a-movie/961127/21 "2022-03-15T20:12:50Z")
No, that’s okay, number doesn’t matter. I know kids die, it’s just that in movies it seems that more adults than kids are killed. There were kids in the Jurassic Park movies, but the only deaths we see, that I remember, are adults. What if a kid had been hiding in the bathroom, rather than the lawyer? ---
**Author:** ![teelabrown](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/teelabrown/32/8412_2.png) [@teelabrown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teelabrown)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2022, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-kid-dies-in-a-movie/961127/22 "2022-03-15T20:16:25Z")
In _Lord of the Flies_, one of the main boys dies. It has been a long time, so I don’t remember if other boys died, too. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2022, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-kid-dies-in-a-movie/961127/23 "2022-03-15T20:23:16Z")
I feel bad for Anna Chlumsky. I think there’s a whole generation of us who think of her as “the kid who’s best friend died.” I just watched her in _Inventing Anna_ and that’s all I could think. The same goes for _Veep_. ---
**Author:** ![LVBoPeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/858c86/32.png) [@LVBoPeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LVBoPeep)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2022, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-kid-dies-in-a-movie/961127/24 "2022-03-15T20:25:44Z")
In _Deadwood_, Seth Bullock’s young stepson is run over by a horse and lingers a bit before dying. I remember being surprised they had him die but it ended up being interesting the way it affected his relationship with the boy’s mother. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2022, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-kid-dies-in-a-movie/961127/25 "2022-03-15T20:28:34Z")
On-screen death of the protagonist’s brother, by the protagonist accidentally slicing him in half with a machete, in the second scene of the comedy _Walk Hard_ (2007). ~Max ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2022, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-kid-dies-in-a-movie/961127/26 "2022-03-15T20:37:22Z")
Didn’t a kid get chestbursted early on in _Aliens v Predator: Requiem_? That was a bit over the top. ~Max ---
**Author:** ![Reeses\_Monkey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reeses_monkey/32/2885_2.png) [@Reeses\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeses_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2022, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-kid-dies-in-a-movie/961127/27 "2022-03-15T20:39:23Z")
Wrong kid died! ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2022, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-kid-dies-in-a-movie/961127/28 "2022-03-15T20:40:16Z")
_Dynamite_ (1929) – A kid gets run over offscreen (though I’m not 100% certain he dies ). _Sabotage_ (1936) – Young boy on bus unknowingly carries bomb which goes ka-boom. _Leave Her to Heaven_ (1945) – Gene Tierney lets 14-year-old Darryl Hickman drown. _The Bad Seed_ (1956) – 8-year-old Patty McCormack has a most spectacular demise. _Slander_ (1957) – 10-year-old Richard Eyer goes to the Land Beyond Beyond after getting hit by a car. _Night of the Living Dead_ (1968) – The Cooper’s injured young daughter has a bad night. ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2022, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-kid-dies-in-a-movie/961127/29 "2022-03-15T20:44:05Z")
_The Outsiders_ (1983) “Stay gold Ponyboy, stay gold.” And several others… ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2022, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-kid-dies-in-a-movie/961127/30 "2022-03-15T20:47:34Z")
_Max Max_’s wife and kid get run over in the original, a good way into the movie so you are invested in them. Although I think they cut away to a shoe or something. ~Max ---
**Author:** ![Akaj](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/akaj/32/145_2.png) [@Akaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akaj)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2022, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-kid-dies-in-a-movie/961127/31 "2022-03-15T20:57:11Z")
> [@Dropo](#): > > _Sabotage_ (1936) – Young boy on bus unknowingly carries bomb which goes ka-boom. Similar to the opening of _The Untouchables_: Hey mister, you forgot your BOOM! ---
**Author:** ![de\_Worde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/838e76/32.png) [@de\_Worde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/de_Worde)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2022, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-kid-dies-in-a-movie/961127/32 "2022-03-15T21:21:30Z")
I just found out, that a girl got killed here last week, and you knew it! You knew there was a shark out there! You knew it was dangerous! But you let people go swimming anyway? You knew all those things! But still my boy is dead now. And there’s nothing you can do about it. My boy is dead. I wanted you to know that. ---
**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:** [March 15, 2022, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-kid-dies-in-a-movie/961127/33 "2022-03-15T21:25:41Z")
> [@Max\_S](#): > > On-screen death of the protagonist’s brother, by the protagonist accidentally slicing him in half with a machete, in the second scene of the comedy _Walk Hard_ (2007). > > ~Max That was a particularly bad case of being cut in half with a machete. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2022, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-kid-dies-in-a-movie/961127/34 "2022-03-15T21:30:16Z")
> [@Max\_S](#): > > On-screen death of the protagonist’s brother, by the protagonist accidentally slicing him in half with a machete, in the second scene of the comedy _Walk Hard_ (2007). And the movie that inspired the gag, the Johnny Cash biopic _Walk the Line_, starts out with Cash’s older brother accidentally dying in a sawmill accident - one that, in real life, apparently nearly cut the boy in half. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2022, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-kid-dies-in-a-movie/961127/35 "2022-03-15T21:31:07Z")
Yeah, I guess people don’t realize just how easy it is to accidentally cut someone in half. ~Max ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2022, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-kid-dies-in-a-movie/961127/36 "2022-03-15T21:37:55Z")
How did I forget that one? Now, I’m beginning to realize more kids have been killed than I thought. Max\_S, I do count teens. If anyone here is into silent movies, I remember Lillian Gish’s character in _Broken Blossoms_ was supposed to be fourteen. She was beaten to death by her own father. That was one dark film! ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2022, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-kid-dies-in-a-movie/961127/37 "2022-03-15T21:38:09Z")
And the teenage girl in _Jaws 2_, if you count teenagers as kids. ~Max ---
**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:** [March 15, 2022, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-kid-dies-in-a-movie/961127/38 "2022-03-15T21:38:54Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > And the movie that inspired the gag, the Johnny Cash biopic _Walk the Line_ , starts out with Cash’s older brother accidentally dying in a sawmill accident - one that, in real life, apparently nearly cut the boy in half. I think it’s also a mashup with the Ray Charles biopic, where Ray Charles’ younger brother dies by drowning in a washbasin and soon after he starts to lose his vision, like Dewey Cox goes “smell blind”. > [@Max\_S](#): > > Yeah, I guess people don’t realize just how easy it is to accidentally cut someone in half. It’s what the country doctor says to the family “sorry, there’s nothing I could do. It was a particularly bad case of being cut in half with a machete.” Coincidentally I just rewatched ‘Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story” two days ago. What a criminally underrated comedy. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2022, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-kid-dies-in-a-movie/961127/39 "2022-03-15T21:39:56Z")
> [@solost](#): > > It’s what the country doctor says to the family “sorry, there’s nothing I could do. It was a particularly bad case of being cut in half with a machete.” And at the end, the dad says he didn’t realize just how easy it is to accidentally cut someone in half. ~Max ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2022, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-kid-dies-in-a-movie/961127/40 "2022-03-15T21:40:03Z")
_Ratcatcher_ (1999): the 12-year-old main character’s best friend drowns in a canal. _Manchester by the Sea_ (2016): in a flashback, the main character’s children are burned to death in a house fire. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-kid-dies-in-a-movie/961127.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-kid-dies-in-a-movie/961127.md?page=3)