[OT] The best ever death...
 

OK, kind of a wierd idea for a thread, but I was inspired by a quote from the Star Wars trivia thread, where someone posted
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">So here's the question: Everyone's got to die sometime, but who has the coolest exit? I'm thinking poredominantly TV/film here, but historical figures could count too, I guess. Adolescent fantasies about drowning under a mountain of beer-soaked naked women etc need not be posted, unless you have pictures, in which case email them to me.

Anyway, here's mine. When my time comes, I will happy if I check out with half as much cool as this guy:
It's from the film Sinnui yauman II, (A chinese Ghost story II.) The character is this ice-cool warrior-general guy with a dodgy moustache, an improbable number of swords on his back and a cloak full of throwing knives. (There's a pic of him on this site ). He's fighting a bunch of invisible demon-monks, and what with them being invisible and all he doesn't really stand a chance. They cut his right arm off before he can even hit one, but he doesn't even blink: He just grabs his sword between his teeth and keeps fighting until they finally chop him into bits. It has to be the classiest, most heroic death ever=-)

So come on, who do you think has the best death?

Re: [OT] The best ever death...
 

Roy / Rutger Hauer in Bladerunner.

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the darkness at Tan Hauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time like tears in rain. Time to die.

Re: [OT] The best ever death...
 

Good choice. Apparently that line was improvised as well.

Re: [OT] The best ever death...
 

No question about it. The best cinimatic death of all time was "The Black Knight" from the Python's Holy Grail. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Of course you don't exactly see him die in the scene, but anyone who can stare down his imminent demise with such disregard has balls. Well, he had balls anyway... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

"Come here then! I'll bite your legs off!"

[ September 01, 2003, 14:34: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

Re: [OT] The best ever death...
 

Well, I won't call it a masterpiece of the cinema, but I have one that qualifies...

My college gaming buddies and I were sitting around on a Saturday morning watching a chop-suey kung fu movie - ridiculous stunts, bad dubbing, the whole works. Towards the end, one of the bad guys was doing a flying leap attack on one of the heroes, who promptly skewered him on a large pike, like a shish kabob. The baddie lay on the ground, grimacing in pain, and said his Last (apropriately enough, badly dubbed) lines...

"At least it was a glorious ninja death!"

Whereupon my buddies and I - literally - were rolling on the floor laughing our rear ends off.

The phrase passed into a proverb for us. Whenever somebody screwed up big time - in game or RL - we'd remark, "It was a glorious ninja death." http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[ September 01, 2003, 14:47: Message edited by: General Woundwort ]

Re: [OT] The best ever death...
 

Well...this death isn't noble...but it sticks in my mind for some reason. It's from the ol' "Showdown at the OK Corral" movie with Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas...and strangely Doc McCoy from Star Trek...wierd... But here it is...Last words of a bit part character, quoted carelessly:

"Come out Earp! Come out and get it!" Followed by a reckless charge into a good hearty bullet riddling.

Hmmm....another from Magnificent Seven - the cowardly character is shot as he stands cockily *is that a word?* with his lips puckered up towards the end of a battle in which he mostly stood around watching. He spins around and slides down a wall...his lips sort of slobbering down it as the dramatic music plays.

Not noble deaths i know...but very memorable ones.

Re: [OT] The best ever death...
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">So come on, who do you think has the best death?</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">That quote would hve been from me. He said it on the Tonight show. Odd how things work out, its like carma. The Last time I recall watching Leno, Sam Jackson was there and commented about how cool it was to sit next to yoda. That was his first day of filming PM.

This may not be the best death scene, but it was one for the books. The Head bad guys death in the original Die Hard. Something about the look on his face as he dropped from the window said "Ohhhhh ssssshhhhiiiiiitttt!"

[ September 01, 2003, 14:57: Message edited by: Atrocities ]

Re: [OT] The best ever death...
 

"Cockily" is a word.

I don't think there is a "best ever" death. There are many very good deaths, though. I feel the best deaths are those that are not only dramatic and/or amazing, entertaining, or humorous, but that also have uniqueness and personality, so that they make a great epitaph for the person. The uniqueness of a great death makes it impossible to directly weigh its worth against a different great death.

Some other great cinematic deaths:

The end of The Wild Bunch (a great western film).

The A-bomb-riding pilot in Doctor Strangelove.

Various faked deaths in Harold and Maude.

Pretty much all the many deaths in The Abominable Doctor Phibes, and related films. I think my personal favorite is the man impaled by a bronze unicorn head catapulted from across the street.

Monty Python offers heaps and heaps of great comic deaths.

There are so many...

PvK

Re: [OT] The best ever death...
 

What about crushed to death by a giant wood rabbit thrown out of a castle in Monty Python's Holy Grail ?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Holy S..T !!! It has been an eternity since I read a comment about that wonderful movie !

[ September 01, 2003, 21:39: Message edited by: Unknown_Enemy ]

Re: [OT] The best ever death...
 

guess boba fett will not be making this list http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif