Top 20 movie falls

15. Sarah in Cliffhanger



While trying to rescue two of his friends from being stranded on a lonely mountaintop, Gabe Walker (Sylvester Stallone) shows off his impressive climbing skills, shaming both William Shatner and Tom Cruise in the process.

He manages to get Hal (Michael Rooker) safely off the peak and into a helicopter, but Sarah is not so lucky. As she makes her way across the chasm, her harness breaks, and she is left dangling perilously high above the ground. Walker makes his way out to try and save her, and manages to get a hold of her hand just as the harness gives way.

Unfortunately, she loses her grip and plummets to her death on the rocks below, and all her helpless and useless boyfriend can do is watch and wail from the safety of the helicopter. Ladies first, douche!

14. Madeleine Elster/Judy Barton in Vertigo



John "Scottie" Ferguson (James Stewart) is a cop with a fear of heights. So when he falls in love with the suicidal Madeleine Elster and takes her to an old monastery with a really high bell tower, he's just asking for trouble. After she leaps to her death from the top of the tower, Scottie has a nervous breakdown.

Then he meets Judy Barton, a young lady who could almost pass for Scottie's late, lamented love. Almost, that is, until Scottie obsessively makes her over into the spitting image of poor, dead Madeleine. Eventually, Scottie figures out that Judy may have had a substantial part to play in Maddy's death, and he takes her back to the top of the bell tower to confront her about this.

Sadly, Scottie's rather awful luck with women holds, and poor Judy plunges to her own death. Man, Hitch just hated women.

13. Father Karras in the Exorcist



After his mother's death, Father Damien Karras has begun to doubt his faith. Then he learns that a young girl named Regan (Linda Blair) has become possessed by a demon, and that he is the only person who can help her. So with the help of the wizened old Father Merrin (Max Von Sydow), Father Karras attempts to drive the devil out of Regan.

However, the wily beast proves to be more powerful than they could have imagined, and during the battle Father Merrin suffers a heart attack. Finally, when all hope seems lost, Father Karras tricks the demon into leaving Regan's body and entering his own, at which point he throws himself out the window, and he tumbles down a flight of stairs to his apparent death.

Apparent, because he pops up 10 years later in the unnecessary but still good second sequel, The Exorcist III.

12. Mola Ram in Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom



Mola Ram can pull a person's heart from his chest and show it to him before lowering the screaming sap into a pit of molten lava, all while the victim is still alive. So it should come as no surprise that it would take a lot to dispatch him from this mortal coil.

Intrepid archaeologist Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) learns this lesson the hard way; first, he drops Mola Ram off a rope bridge, but unfortunately for our hero, Mola Ram not only hangs on, but climbs up and tries to rip out Indy's heart. So Indy eschews science in favor of some mystic mumbo jumbo, causing the Sankara stones he's carrying in his bag to burst into flames and burn through the canvas, sending them tumbling into the river. Mola Ram tries to catch them and loses his grip, and is sent plummeting down into crocodile infested water below.

11. Michael Myers in Halloween



Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) stands in the bedroom doorway in the grip of shock, believing that she has finally dispatched the Shape, aka Michael Myers, once and for all. Unfortunately for her, he's not quite dead yet.

He gets up and immediately tries to strangle poor Laurie, but she's saved in the nick of time by a well-placed bullet from crazy ol' Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasance). Loomis keeps plugging away at Meyers, driving him back with every shot, until finally the masked monster tumbles over the porch railing and crashes down into the back yard.

Laurie asks if that was the boogeyman, and Loomis assures her it was. He then steps out onto the porch and peers over the railing, only to discover that Michael is nowhere to be found. Like Rob Zombie's awful remake, the evil is still out there, and the nightmare is only beginning.