50 Most Unforgettable Movie Deaths
Splat! Stab! Squelch!
Friday The 13th (1980)
The Movie Death: A fresh-faced Kevin Bacon plays one of the horny teens in this slasher classic. After a bit of hanky-panky, he ends up with an arrow through his neck while smoking a fag in bed.
Why We’ll Never Forget It: It's a brilliantly-orchestrated jump scare in and of itself - but the prosthetic effects are also second to none, meaning we totally buy this, even now.
Grosse Pointe Blank (1997)
The Movie Death: Martin Blank (John Cusack) proves he really is the killer to beat as he tackles rival assassin LaPoubelle (Benny Urquidez) at his high school reunion - and kills him using a ballpoint pen.
Why We’ll Never Forget It: In a pre-Bourne world, this is vicious AND cool. Speaking of, we'd love to see Blank vs Bourne one day…
Jurassic Park (1993)
The Movie Death: Donald Gennaro (Martin Ferrero) leaves the kids in the car and goes to hide from the T-Rex in a toilet. Naturally, the T-Rex finds him and chomps him down pretty sharpish.
Why We’ll Never Forget It: For a PG, this is surprisingly graphic, and it treads a fine line between blackly humorous and genuinely scary.
Also, points for embarrassment. Seriously, who wants to get eaten while sitting on the loo?
Black Christmas (1974)
The Movie Death: We get our first taste of 'Billy's' bloodlust when he hides in a sorority girl's closet, then jumps out to grab and suffocate her using a plastic bag.
Why We’ll Never Forget It: The plastic bag is see-through, so we get to observe poor Claire's (Lynne Griffin) dying gasps no problem.
Plus the fact that 'Billy' then bungs Claire in the attic, where she can watch out the window, makes for a truly chilling image.
Cannibal Holocaust (1980)
The Movie Death: With the cannibals chasing him and his group, Jack (Perry Pirkanen) is the unlucky one who ends up impaled on a cannibal's spear.
He's then shot by buddy Alan (Gabriel Yorke), who watches as the cannibal's mutilate Jack's body.
Why We’ll Never Forget It: Well, it's graphic, for a start, the mutilation starting with Jack's privates before moving on. The fact that Alan wants to observe the cannibals' rituals is also pretty horrific.
Halloween (1978)
The Movie Death: John Carpenter's camera glides through the Myers home, giving us young Michael's POV as he first grabs a knife from the kitchen and then heads upstairs, where he stabs his sister to death.
Why We’ll Never Forget It: The final shot of Michael standing with the bloody knife, an unreadable expression on his face, is haunting to say the least.
Plus, is Carpenter really inviting us to identify with Michael by using POV?
Se7en (1995)
The Movie Death : David Mills (Brad Pitt) receives an unexpected delivery in the middle of nowhere - a box that could contain something pretty nasty. It turns out to be the severed head of his wife Tracy (Gwyneth Paltrow).
Why We’ll Never Forget It : "What's in the box?" has become an oft-used phrase by movie-goers for good reason.
This is a terrifically mean way to close out David Fincher's thriller, with the one virtuous person (Gwynnie) destroyed by evil.
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Serenity (2005)
The Movie Death: Spaceship Serenity is being pursued by deadly Reavers, but Wash (Alan Tudyk) is on top of it, attempting to steer them to freedom. Until, that is, he's impaled by a Reaver.
"I am a leaf on the wind, watch how I…"
Why We’ll Never Forget It: Though it's typical Joss Whedon to unexpectedly kill off a beloved character, here it's even more shocking because he's ALREADY killed Shepherd earlier in the film.
Plus he doesn't even let Wash finish off his one-liner…
Pulp Fiction (1994)
The Movie Death: Vincent Vega (John Travolta) comes out of the bathroom, only to be shot dead by Butch (Bruce Willis), who's been waiting for him.
Why We’ll Never Forget It: Like all Tarantino films, it's violent and shocking, but also unexpectedly (and brilliantly) links two plot strands together.
Plus Vega's so cool we didn't expect him to bite it.
Wild At Heart (1990)
The Movie Death: Criminal weirdo Bobby Peru (Willem Dafoe) forces Sailor (Nicolas Cage) to help him out with a robbery, only for Peru to make a serious cock-up with his firearm. He blows his own head off.
Why We’ll Never Forget It: It's a huge 'what the eff?!' moment, and typically off-the-wall for director David Lynch.
Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.