[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.

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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

Re: [OT] The best ever death...
 

I have another candidate :

"At such range they could not even hit an elep..."
Last words of General John Sedgwick, battle of Spotsylvania, 1864

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">That one has my vote. Especially considering Tex's reaction to the event.

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Call it corny, but I still find Kirk's "Bridge on the Captain!" death scene in ST: Generations a riot http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: [OT] The best ever death...
 

My favorite cinamatic death...Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid's death at the hands of the Bolivian Army.

Talk about overkill...!

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">heh, why not? Being jet-packed into the mouth of a giant sand... thing is a fairly cool way to go.

Like PvK says, it doesn't necessarily have to be noble, brave or heroic. Comic or fitting will do nicely- it just has to be an exit to remember.

How about the end of Dark Star? Or Silent Running?

Re: [OT] The best ever death...
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">heh, why not? Being jet-packed into the mouth of a giant sand... thing is a fairly cool way to go.

Like PvK says, it doesn't necessarily have to be noble, brave or heroic. Comic or fitting will do nicely- it just has to be an exit to remember.

How about the end of Dark Star? Or Silent Running?</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Boba Fett didn't die, he eventually made his way back out (it's described in a later novel, iirc)...more like a cool "near-death" http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

Re: [OT] The best ever death...
 

Would the death of the Enterprise in Star Trek III Count?

"Oh my god bones, what I have done?"
"What you always do Jim, turn death into a fighting chance to live."

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">You need to read the books to understand that death. Once you do it becomes very clear as why he died.

:"I always knew I would die alone."

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Just thought of another one that always gets me... Vasquez, in Aliens. She goes back down the tunnel for the other guy (Gorman?) but it's too late to save him and she's given her life for nothing. Then they grip the grenade together and....

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Mel Gibson in Breaveheart.

"FREEEEEEEDOM!!!!"

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">...and then she says "You always were an ******* Gorman."

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Dr. Who has some interesting 'deaths' before his regenerations.

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yeah, best performance by a bomb, ever!
"Let there be light." <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Good one too, but I wonder how many people will recognize that movie.

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">hehehehe, when started to read this topic, my mind started to think on this! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

But next, remembered Brando in the Last Tango in Paris. This is my favorite.

Re: [OT] The best ever death...
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">The best Doctor Who death was when Doctor #4 (Tom Baker) fell off the radio telescope while fighting the Master. That was a very sad episode. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

Re: [OT] The best ever death...
 

Some good deaths in The Seven Samurai, specifically the duelist, and also Toshiro Mifune's character.

as far as horrible deaths that made for great movie pathos, see Galipoli.

and for heroic ways to go, how about Michael Garibaldi in the alternate-future where he dies defending the station against invaders?

and how about that guy in point break that dies surfing in the storm.

Re: [OT] The best ever death...
 

Kenny, in every episode of South Park. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

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I'm surprised no one has mentioned Spock in "Wrath of Khan" or Tasha Yar in "Yesterday's Enterprise." Those are very good scenes. But, typical of Trek, they weren't really final, were they? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: [OT] The best ever death...
 

Every time the cursed prince in “Princess Mononoke” decapitates a samurai on horseback with an arrow and the other samurai are like “WTF?" . My wife and laughed so hard the first time we saw that we had tears running down our faces.

Re: [OT] The best ever death...
 

Bambi, in Bambi vs Godzilla.

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Speaking of Disney...

Old Yeller.

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Tom Baker forever!

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Speaking of Disney, Flynn in TRON. Though he didn't really die, I don't see that he knew he wouldn't. I guess he kind of ascended.

Re: [OT] The best ever death...
 

The death of Chuck Norris in his fight with Bruce Lee in Return of the Dragon.

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Army of Darkness

The well scene.
Hero just escapes the well and slings his "Boom Stick" over his shoulder and blows away Well monster who followed him up from the depths.

"This is my Boom Stick!"

Bruce Cambell, king of the one liners. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[ September 07, 2003, 03:58: Message edited by: Atrocities ]

Re: [OT] The best ever death...
 

the swordsman whom is shot by Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Lost Ark.

Re: [OT] The best ever death...
 

Oh here's a good one, from "night of the living dead.

***Spoiler***

After spending the entire film (an entire night) battling with the undead in a remote house, being horribly wounded, traumatised and having to not only watch his comrades fall and get their brains eaten, but then smash their heads in when they rise again as zombies, the hero somehow survives until dawn. People elsewhere have managed to organise a defence and are now patrolling, picking off any stray zombies. Two guys in a car spot the hero in a distant window, mistake him for a zombie and shoot him in the head...

Re: [OT] The best ever death...
 

Bolivar(?) from The Thirteenth Warrior. Dying from poison he drags himself forth to rally his troops and fight the final battle. He expires on a throne of their shattered defenses, a king even in death. Such is the stuff of legends. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: [OT] The best ever death...
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif Buliwyf. He was Nordic, not from South America! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: [OT] The best ever death...
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif Buliwyf. He was Nordic, not from South America! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yeah, I knew it was wrong but that was the only thing that came to mind (call it a brain-fart). I haven't seen the movie in a while and I knew someone would correct it. Thanks. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: [OT] The best ever death...
 

Best ever death?
Would be quietly in my sleep, just like my grandfather.
Not screaming in terror like the passengers in his car http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: [OT] The best ever death...
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I think that may have been an attempt at social commentary, though, I can't really say.

Re: [OT] The best ever death...
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif Buliwyf. He was Nordic, not from South America! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yeah, I knew it was wrong but that was the only thing that came to mind (call it a brain-fart). I haven't seen the movie in a while and I knew someone would correct it. Thanks. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif No problem. And yes, it was a good death for a warrior.