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Top 50 Best Movie Deaths

Movie Feature

Rich

27th January 2009

10. PISSING OFF PRIVATE PYLE
FULL METAL JACKET (1987)
We're sure he's a lovely fella, but we would not like to meet Vincent D'Onofrio. He's probably kind to children and maybe even donates a large part of his Law and Order paycheque to charities involved in rescuing damp kittens. Nevertheless, his Private Pyle creeps us out. Driven crazy by the intense training and the other recruits' tormenting, Pyle is found in the barracks bathroom by Matthew Modine's Joker and R. Lee Ermey's Gunnery Sergeant Hartman. Two retorts from Charlene later, and only Modine is left standing.



9. TUMMY TROUBLE
ALIEN (1979)
John Hurt's twitching may be a little over the top, and the little alien bugger may look a little dated to our 21st Century eyes, but it's the reactions of the other actors that are key here, as Ridley Scott famously neglected the tell the professional pretenders what they'd be facing before he started shooting. Even Ripley looks a little flustered, and only Ian Holm's Ash maintains a passive visage. And we all know why that is. Overall, a great movie death, although we can't quite forgive that its success indirectly lead to Alien vs. Predator: Requiem.



8. "TAH-DAH!"
THE DARK KNIGHT (2008)
"How about a magic trick?" If the scars and sloppily applied make-up wasn't enough to instantly tell us that Jack Nicholson had left the building, city, state and country, Ledger finished the job with a trick that we'd pay cash money to see Paul Daniels pull off. It couldn't be further from Cesar Romero's clown, and it instantly establishes this Joker as a bone fida badass who would prefer knives to guns, and who carries a potato peeler, but suspiciously, no potatoes.



7. MEXICAN AMERICAN STAND-OFF
RESERVOIR DOGS (1992)
It's a bit of a misnomer to say that this is just the death of Tim Roth's Mr. Orange, as this epic clip might just showcase more blood than the whole of Saving Private Ryan. Since Mr. Orange spent most of the movie with a hole in his epidermis, he can have main billing, but note should also be taken of Harvey "I shot Nice Guy Eddie. No really, I just have crazy-fast hands" Keitel, and Chris "LARRY STOP POINTING THAT GUN AT MY DAD!" Penn. A tremendous display of death.



6. ONE MAN LEFT BEHIND
PLATOON (1986)
It make have been aped in a million military parodies (most recently by Ben Stiller's Tropic Thunder), but the sight of a wounded Willem Defoe with his arms aloft is still enough to bring a tear to the eye of many a big, butch, macho, manly-man who placed in the International Testicle Scratching Competition and drinks lager for fun. You should never have left a man behind, Charlie Sheen. We'll never forgive you.



5. WASH OUT
SERENITY (2005)
None of the deaths in this list are more shocking. The crew have just survived an epic space battle and Wash has just glided the less than aerodynamic Serenity in for a less than graceful landing. The danger's over. Wash was a leaf on the wind. Watch how he soars. Then Joss Whedon kills off a character we've spent 14 episodes and 90 minutes falling in love with. The shock is so effective that you are utterly convinced that the next brutal firefight will see off the rest of the crew. It's 10 minutes of extraordinarily tense cinema. And it's all thanks to the sacrifice of Hoban Washburn. RIP, Wash.



4. AN ELEGANT WEAPON
STAR WARS (1977)
Han shot first. That is all.



3. MONTANA'S LAST STAND
SCARFACE (1983)
With some help from his li'l friend, Montana has taken out a small army before superior numbers and a shotgun in the back take their toll. Before he crashes through the railing into the fountain below, Pacino catches a whole bunch of bullets, and probably has just enough time to realise that after all the carnage his interior decorator was going to be pissed. Enjoy Montana's last stand, then endure his wretched videogame resurrection.



2. CHECKING OUT
PSYCHO (1960)
It's not so much the actual mechanics of the murder that make this so special (there are some swipes of the blade that blatantly don't go anywhere near the target), it's the pulsating score, the cinematography and the editing. The cut from the plumbing to Janet Leigh's cold, lifeless eye is astonishing, as is the slow, twisting pull out to reveal her face pressed against the wet tiles. If you want to know why Hitchcock was a master of the medium, watch this clip.



1. BILL KILLED
KILL BILL VOL. 2 (2004)
A movie called Kill Bill would be pretty rubbish without Bill being Killed, and you'd expect something special for such an eponymous death. Luckily, QT outdid himself with David Carradine's send off. Classic dialogue, awesome music, a samurai sword being sheathed as a defensive move, and then the Bride's super-special finishing move: the Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique. Despite calling Uma the c-word, Bill is a vision of elegance as he wipes the blood from his mouth, rises, buttons his coat, takes 5 steps, and dies. Thurman then wipes away a lone tear, using her massive hands. Bill being Killed: number one without a bullet. Rich



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