15 Best Movie Death Scenes Of All Time, Ranked

Death is inevitable, but few are happy to welcome it. The topic brings with it existential dread, if not terror, and thousands of years of philosophical and theological discussion, all to try and cope with that final frontier. While some learn to approach the end with acceptance, even peace, it’s seldom easy. And so, death in media becomes another tool by which we can confront this universal experience by whistling past the cemetery, if nothing else.

Dying in a movie can be a moment of tragedy. Done well, it can also be a black, vivacious laugh. Sometimes it’s bathos: anticlimactic, like that bit in James Cameron’s “Titanic” where some poor dude thunks off the sinking ship’s propeller. It’s a horrible laugh, but darn if it doesn’t ease the sorrow. In honor of that guy, we’re going down the list of 15 of the best cinematic deaths ever. It should be no surprise that these are all going to be spoilers. Some of them may even be upsetting. Grab your scythe and copy of the Death Note, and let’s head for those endless fields.

Going to the movies was still a treat in 1939, and seeing one in color? Possible, but nothing was like watching Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland) pass from her black and white reality into the fantastical, color-saturated world of Oz. Based on L. Frank Baum’s saga, Dorothy has to brave the Wicked Witch’s minions if she ever wants to go back home.

Today, “The Wizard of Oz” is still one of the first classics a kid might watch at a formative age, and that includes what was, back in its heyday, one wild and graphic death sequence. Far from unearned, the Witch (Margaret Hamilton) gets doused with a bucket of plain old water and screams in agony until she melts away. Gnarly. It’s a death with an impact so iconic that some fans of the musical version of “Wicked” can’t help but feel a little relief at the finale changes offered to its new, sympathetic version of the Witch. Time will tell if Cynthia Erivo’s film version will enjoy the same mercy, but we’re betting on it.

Death is a dedicated career guy in the “Final Destination” franchise, and he wants those souls on his timetable. But sometimes, somebody out there glitches their paperwork and a bunch of young adults get a glimpse of their future, desperate to avert Death’s normal weekday. In “Final Destination 2,” the best death scene is, thankfully for Thomas Burke (Michael Landes), just a vision. But what a vision it is.

Burke has a fate so visceral that, over twenty years later, we’re not over it. Hell, the latest entry, “Final Destination Bloodlines,” leans into those horrified memories by advertising it on log hauler trucks. Yup, Burke is that guy. When a glimpse of the future shows that a logging truck is going to cause a mass incident, Burke is designated “Most likely to be vaporized” as a log slams into his vehicle window and out the back, taking little globs of him with it. Yeah, that’ll get you to never tailgate a truck. You shouldn’t anyway, but watching Burke’s potential death is one hell of a life lesson.

Director David Cronenberg turned the viscera and shock of Troma-style body horror into an art form that the mainstream would, eventually, start accepting a little. Frankly, Troma creates art, too. But that’s another topic when we could be discussing one of Cronenberg’s first big movie moments. “Scanners” is his 1981 sci-fi cult hit about psychics being cultivated into capitalism and war, and Michael Ironside is the devastating walking weapon Revok. Revok is a titular Scanner, a powerful psychic with a few ideas of his own about the future of power, and he gets a chance to show off very early in the film.

Revok is cordially invited to a corporate event in order to show off his psychic capabilities. Boy, does he. It’s the moment that’s been giffed around the world, as Revok grimaces, almost smiling, as he forces a competing scanner’s head to explode into beefy bits while the investors watch. Created by straight up shooting a dummy head that was chock full of meat with a shotgun, it’s a gross-out with a message that burns throughout the rest of the movie: A scanner ain’t nothing to mess with.

A passing understanding of Catholicism is all one needs to understand two major points: “Evil” remains a real — if not supernatural — concept to the Vatican, and suicide will consign your soul to Hell. Father Karras (Jason Miller) may be a weary priest with thoughts of leaving his frock behind, but he still believes this much when he’s next to Father Merrin (Max von Sydow), trying to urge Pazuzu out of an innocent young girl.

But exorcisms aren’t easy even when they’re by the book, and Regan (Linda Blair) is stuck deep inside a demon whose real goal is getting back at Merrin for a showdown in his past that’s left vague. It wins, to Karras’ horror, and all he can do is muster his own strength to bully the gleeful demon out of the girl. What better prize than a priest after an innocent, and Pazuzu hasn’t latched on hard enough to stop Karras from doing the horrifying: Throwing himself, fatally, out the window and down the famous Georgetown steps. Despite this heresy, Karras’ friend administers last rites to him. Karras wins by virtue of his humanity, but it’s a heartbreaking victory.

Real-life Renaissance man Robert Shaw is the standout among a cast that includes stars Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss, with only the robotic shark Bruce causing more of a sensation in Spielberg’s blockbuster, “Jaws.” Quint is an irascible old sailor who’s seen it all — literally, as he’s already faced death in the water before, as a Navy man aboard the ill-fated USS Indianapolis. When Death comes for him dressed, once again, as a shark, Quint isn’t going to walk. Like Captain Ahab from “Moby Dick,” he buckles in for the final confrontation, come what may.

“Jaws” is the ultimate PG-rated movie that probably shouldn’t be, and although it’s about to celebrate its 50^th anniversary at the time of writing, Spielberg’s oceanic suffering and all, it’s still wildly easy for a too-young summertime kid to get an eyeful of the raging Quint stuck half in-half out of the massive shark’s maw. As his boat deteriorates around him, waterlogged devices like ropes and buoys resemble the internal organs surely leaking from Quint under the water’s surface. It’s death as defiant art, and it won’t be long before the shark joins Quint in the afterlife, where they’re probably still fighting to this day.

The only other guy to match David Cronenberg’s body horror in the ’80s was Paul Verhoeven, who did so with 1987’s “RoboCop.” And the only thing uglier than watching Officer Murphy (Peter Weller) eat lead for like a half-hour before becoming RoboCop is witnessing one of his murderers go down bad. Emil (Paul McCrane) is one of Clarence Boddicker’s nastier goons, a guy happy to torment college kids and crack wise about his jail time, not caring that his loyalty to Boddicker (Kurtwood Smith) is going to lead to an ugly end.

In the final act, Robo and Boddicker’s gang are shooting it up at a chemical warehouse, and because the movie isn’t subtle with its anti-capitalism, it’s one gross place. It’s not long before Emil gets knocked into a pool of nasty chemicals, and after that, he’s staggering around like a Toxic Avenger costume in the hot Phoenix sun. Boddicker, meanwhile, isn’t looking where he’s going when his car crosses paths with the groaning Emil. When they collide, there’s not enough left of Emil’s bones or internal organs to leave more than a wet splash all over Boddicker’s car. Gross, dude. But amazing cinema.

It was a fakeout that led to genuine shock among “Star Trek” fans when “The Wrath of Khan” landed in theaters in 1982. Rumors had been flying that Leonard Nimoy didn’t want to stay with the franchise, and the second “Trek” film might be Spock’s swan song. But when “Khan” opens with a simulation called the Kobayashi Maru, where failure is meant to be inevitable and Kirk (William Shatner) has to watch his crew, including Spock, pretend to die during a trainee’s mission, many fans were left saying, “whew.” That was it, right?

Unfortunately, Spock’s final hour really is in the cards, as he saves the Enterprise from destruction at Khan’s (Ricardo Montalban) hands, sacrificing himself to the dangerous amounts of radiation emanating from the core. Even Shatner, king of the hammy emotion, manages genuine agony as he watches his friend die. Decades later, it’s a death J.J. Abrams’ bad homage in “Into Darkness” can’t mar (although “Wrath of Khan” director Nicholas Meyer is still peeved about it), and the fact that Spock won’t stay dead for long doesn’t diminish the power of that sacrifice. This is the biggest trauma in “Star Trek” for hardcore fans, bar none.

“The Coffee Table” is a 2022 indie Spanish film that’s garnered a quiet but traumatized following of horror fans unsure how to recommend it. Or if they should. Tinged with jet-black comedy and a premise that vastly undersells the events, the movie plays out like this: Tired parents with a new baby have a fluffle over a tacky piece of living room furniture. Bringing the coffee table home will change their lives. Everyone’s lives. The viewer’s life. A short film of about an hour and a half, after baby Cayetano and the coffee table share their deadly moment, the rest of the film feels three hours and an eternity long. It’s the most in-depth depiction of internal suffering ever put to film.

The baby’s death is unseen, marked by a crashing noise, the tremulous voice of his father, Jesus (David Pareja), and a few glimpses of blood and injury. In truth, the entire film is an unforgettable scene of death. A glowing but hesitant review by /Film’s own Rafael Motamayor says, wisely, that either everyone should see this movie or no one should. But should you? All I know is I can’t stop thinking about it.

“Deadpool & Wolverine” might have opened with a bloody, cheeky callback to the events of “Logan,” but despite its impudence, it isn’t trying to corrupt what the prior movie had to say about sacrificing yourself doing the right thing. If anything, it underlines it with bittersweet sass. That’s how solid James Howlett aka Logan/Wolverine’s (Hugh Jackman) death is — full of intent and heart.

Logan’s lived a lonely life as the mutant world dwindles, and even Charles Xavier (Sir Patrick Stewart) is no comfort. Xavier’s losing himself to the indignities of old age, forgetting who or what’s around him, only to remember Logan at the moment of his own heartbreaking death. But by this point, Logan has started to care about Laura (Dafne Keen),  a girl who’s functionally his daughter, giving him something to cling to that he won’t admit he needs. In his final hour, he comes through in defiance of the worst aspects of himself, snatching victory with the last beats of his heart. This version of Logan’s death won’t be undone, and what he died for will matter forever.

Sean Bean is a master of getting killed off in movies, so it stands to reason he’s pretty good at it. But his magnum opus is, inarguably, the fall of Boromir in “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.” Briefly tempted by the lure of the One Ring, Boromir nonetheless stands against an Uruk-hai attack and sacrifices himself so that Frodo and Sam (Elijah Wood and Sean Astin) and their deadly cargo can flee on their lonely trip towards Mordor. Riddled with arrows yet still struggling, he calls the weeping Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) his king. For his sacrifice, Aragorn promises he’ll stand with Gondor in the coming conflict.

That’s not an easy promise to make. The sorrow and melancholy that follows Boromir’s loss haunt the rest of the trilogy, with his ghost feeling all too real when we later meet his grieving, near-forgotten brother, Faramir (David Wenham), and their horrific father, Denethor (John Noble).

Set on death row, Stephen King and Frank Darabont’s “The Green Mile” is no stranger to memorable deaths in the best of times. John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan) is a King character at his most unfortunate but well-intentioned best: This gentle Black man may well be an aspect of Jesus Christ incarnate, and he has no choice, no call but to take the sufferings of humanity into him. White humanity, anyway. There’s a lot to unpack, but we try to take it as King meant.

When Coffey comes to death row (called the titular Green Mile thanks to its aesthetic) carrying someone else’s murderous sins, crucifixion is no longer the execution method du jour. Instead, it’s the electric chair, and despite the monstrous death of a previous prisoner, poor Coffey eventually comes to the chair with peace in his heart, seeking release from the cruelties of the world. Now it’s the rest of the cast’s time to carry all those sins, and if you don’t have at least a few questions about the death penalty after this film, you might consider questioning your own soul.

Ari Aster’s “Hereditary” is an uncomfortable film about grief and demonic worship, and you may be lured into thinking the latter is some unimportant backdrop dressing for the former. No, there are definitely demons at the fringes of what happens to Annie Graham (Toni Collette) and her family, but there are the real horrors to experience first. Charlie (Milly Shapiro) is a weird kid; there’s no way around it. Deep down, a lot of her weirdness isn’t her fault. It’s a familiar case of family expectations gone wrong, in the most unfamiliar of ways.

Charlie was supposed to be a demon lord’s host, but Paimon isn’t thrilled with his digs. It’s hard to say how much is his influence and how much is just raw, unintentional, real-life agony, but nothing is going to blunt the fact that Charlie gets decapitated by a telephone pole. The spectacle is seen only in glimpses, burning her soulless eyes into us almost subliminally while Collette screams, and screams, and screams when she finds out. And then the head shows up as part of a grim ritual later, ensuring we get a good look at her decay.

If the Wicked Witch didn’t screw your kid up, count on a Disney classic to imbue them with a primal terror of death. Sure, Bambi’s mom is a gold standard, but it’s almost quaint when matched against the Shakespearean tragedy of Simba padding up towards his motionless father, Mufasa. Simba made a mistake, but it’s his uncle, Scar, who’s the scheming, murderous bastard gleefully flinging his brother into a stampede. Still, Simba’s grief and guilt drive him deep into the jungle for years.

Mufasa’s ghost lingers over Simba all that time, becoming a guardian spirit that helps him to realize it’s long past the hour he should confront his grief and repair the damage done. But nothing really erases the childhood horror of watching your proud and powerful father die, and believing to your core that it was your fault. Admit it. When you saw this movie for the first time, you cried till you threw up.

Sir Ridley Scott is a stickler for details, preferring to keep to the script written with little room for improvisation. That didn’t stop Rutger Hauer from offering his own take on Roy Batty’s final minutes, expanding his death into something so beautifully Byronic that it grants the Replicant the eternal life his soul deserved.

Roy’s speech is melancholic, evocative even without context, as he speaks of the wars he’s seen, the moments he’s lived, and the loss of knowledge gone with every fading life. It doesn’t matter that we don’t know for sure what a C-beam is, nor why it’s glittering in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. We picture it anyway; beautiful destruction somewhere in space, a portrait of awe only Roy saw, and will ever see, and now it’ll be lost with him. With his words and his final act of instinctive mercy towards Deckard (Harrison Ford), he proves he was more human than human, all along.

Catharsis is debated in psychological circles — do we benefit from the release of our strongest emotions in controlled situations? The answer is unclear, especially when it involves anger. But media catharsis is a little more flexible, and there’s rich satisfaction when we can watch our heroes corner the bad guy. Our mouths full of salty snacks, we mutter, gleefully, “get his ass,” and cheer a little when his ass is, indeed, gotten.

Quentin Tarantino is also hotly debated by film and social scholars, but if there is one thing he should go to his grave proud of, it’s “Inglorious Basterds.” When the Basterds try to corner Adolf Hitler in Shoshanna’s (Melanie Laurent) burning theater, we muttered to ourselves, “it would be cool if they could get Hitler’s ass,” and then Tarantino did it. That’s alternative history at its most beautiful, as the Basterds pump the Fuhrer so full of lead he could be listed as a Superfund site. In these divisive times, it’s nice to find comfort in the little things. That makes watching Hitler die like the trash he was into something special we can all enjoy.