I believe you mean Eddie Mars. It is a good death scene.
Eisha Cook’s death scene with Steele is good, too.
@Ted Fontenot: Thanks for the correction! You are, of course, right that the bad guy killed at the end is Eddie Mars. Geiger is the owner of the bookstore seen earlier in the film.
And, yes, Elisha Cook’s death scene is good (albeit in a different, less spectacular way).
While I’m at it, has anyone mentioned the death of HAL in 200: A Space Odyssey?
Spoiler Alert!
The Great Silence (1968) by Sergio Corbucci.
Everybody dies in the end. The “hero,” Silence (Jean-Louis Trintignant), his woman, Paula (Vonetta McGee), and all of the unarmed Mormans are ruthlessly gunned down by Loco (Klaus Kinski) and his bounty hunter gang. A forced alternate ending was reshot and used for Northern African and Asian markets.
To Live and Die in L.A. (1985) by William Friedkin.
The lead, Chance (Willliam Petersen), a Secret Service agent, is killed by a shotgun slug to the head near the end of the film.
The Cowboys (1972) by Mark Rydell.
John Wayne was shot in the back and killed by Bruce Dern. This did harm to Bruce Dern’s career. Wayne played Will Andersen, an aging rancher on a cattle drive using boys as cow hands. Dern played the evil ex-con, Asa Watts.
Well one that’s always stuck in my head was Kinski’s death in Cobra Verde. Not a great film as a whole, but it has many wonderful little Herzog moments (similar to The Bad Lieutenant actually – but that’s for another thread). Also, Kinski’s death in Nosferatu (horrifying).
So, here prompts my declaration: Doesn’t Kinski portray the act of death better (and with such a variety of characters) than any other actor in recent memory? I didn’t originally intend to make this an “all about Kinski” post, but there it is.
Great post on the last page, Ted. Here are a few of mine:
Sorry for any repetition – yes, what is it about Sonny Corleone’s death (I’d rather talk about them than just list them) that shocks me every time I see it? Probably because his character epitomized the phrase, “live for today because tomorrow may never come”. You just don’t think that someone that full of life will die. He was also full of anger, was a multiple adulterer, and a pretty amoral man, and yet he was capable of love and warmth. And you realize that life is a crap shoot even with the elaborate Mafia plots in GF I & II.
Dorothy Stratten in Star 80. I doubt I’ll ever forget it and Eric Roberts’ convincingly creepy, pathetic portrayal of Paul Snider, who pimped his wife to Playboy and Hollywood and then killed her and himself when she broke away from his negative, destructive influence.
The murder of the mother in Heavenly Creatures is one of the most shocking put on film, especially since it was premeditated by two teenagers. And girls, who aren’t usually the ones who historically do that, increases the sense of dread before the fact.
Yuri Zhivago (Omar Sharif) goes through Hell and back again during the Russian Revolution and the aftermath, only to find Lara, who never knows his heart explodes while running after her streetcar. Talk about tragic.
Yes, I agree, Sonny’s death has some special emotional reverberation.
Michael Caine’s death in The Last Valley (you mentioning Sharif brings it to mind). An underrated movie that takes place during the 30-year’s war. It has an intellectual heft to, and although it would have probably been even better had it been directed by someone like Huston or Boorman, I give Clavell kudos for his attempt.
Speaking of vampire deaths, Cushing dispatching Christopher Lee in The Horror of Dracula has always stayed with me ever since I frist saw it as a kid. Memorable. Terrifying and exciting.
Oh yes, thanks for going there. A spec.tacular death, indeed. I enjoyed the death of Frank Langella’s Dracula as well, because it seemed a very fitting end for him. The ship that bore him to England’s shore contained no survivors and a ship was the instrument of his death by sun (being hauled up one of the masts).
And once again you’ve got the low down on a movie (Caine) I don’t recall seeing – thanks, I’ll check it out.
Roy Batty’s death in Blade Runner has a certain nobility about it; when your time is up, it’s up. It’s the whole appeal of Pinocchio becoming a real boy, I think, except that science and tech couldn’t quite get him there. Despite his raging against the dying of the light, he accepts it.
-John Hurt’s sudden death in Alien is bloody and a bit unforgettable, especially if you were terrified of it.
-I don’t want to really go there, but….Bambi’s mom.
-And the death of the forest in Princess Mononoke.
Leonardo diCaprio’s’ death in his 6 movies.
Tom Hanks in Road to Perdition.
Jack Nicholson in the Shining (YES!)
Richard Beymer in West Side Story
Vincent D’Onofrio in Full Metal Jacket
Everybody got cut to death in Ghost Ship
Ivana Baquero in Pan’s Labyrinth
Edward Norton in Painted Veil
recently: Bill Murray’s death in Zombieland.
In “Hunger” which comes out on Criterion next month, the lone graphic killing of a character I won’t identify as it will spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen the film, and if you haven’t you should, was the all time example of a cinematic murder I didn’t see coming.
ganz in 48 hrs.
“I got hit! I don’t believe it. I got shot.”
woody allens death in scoop…haha
michel’s death in breathless
and
ferdinand’s death in pierrot le fou…i know it’s been said, but it needs repeating.
Yves Montand celebrates life by driving off the road in Wages of Fear
Marlon Brando has time to stick his chewing gum under a railing before dying in Last Tango in Paris
Death by telephone cord in Detour
Marvin’s brain splattered backseat death by Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction
Death by giant marble phallus in Clockwork Orange
The unplugging of Hal in 2001 a Space Odyssey
Soldier reaches for a butterfly and is shot in All Quiet on the Western Front
Max Von Sydow smashes an adolescent’s head against a wall exacting revenge in The Virgin Spring (later copied by Bertolucci in 1900 with Donald Sutherland – in even more gruesome fashion)
sex crime or suicide? in In the Realm of the Senses – plus castration…
Jodhi May decides to jump off a cliff rather then live with the enemy in Last of the Mohicans
joe gideon’s final curtain call in All That Jazz
Look into your heart! What heart? – Miller’s Crossing
Bette Davis’ offscreen death in Dark Victory.
In Monty Python’s “The Meaning of Life,” Terry Jones as Mr. Creosote.
Pretty much all of Gary Oldman’s death scenes, particularly Leon.
‘Shit-’ BOOM!
John Voight’s death, never really seen but certain, in Runaway Train.
sorry, double post…
While I’m here… though his performance was not critically well received, I particularly enjoyed Gregory Peck’s portrayal of the maniacal Captain Ahab in Moby Dick, especially as he dies venting his fury at the white whale that had taken his leg.
Twin Peaks: Leland Palmer (remorse – after understanding what he’d done)
Midnight Cowboy: Ratso Rizzo (indignity — humiliated after being incontinent on the bus — all the more
moving when he tries to laugh as Joe Buck makes a joke about it)
Seven Samurai: Kikuchiyo (earnest — trying to redeem himself after causing Gorobei’s death)
La Dolce Vita: Steiner (suicide — the effects on everyone around him)
WOW! This is really depressing me! Better throw in this last one ….
The Princess Bride: Vizzini (If you gotta go this is the way: Laughing and thinking YOU won!)
Oh, yeah … this hurts too … HAL in 2010 (self-sacrifice)
HAL: … I understand … Thank-you for telling me the truth.
Dr. Chandler: You deserve it.
HAL: Dr. Chandler … will I dream?
Dr. Chandler: I don’t know …
Samurai Rebellion: Isaburo ( “I’m sorry Tomi! We can’t go to Edo anymore …” )
Final Note: Bob Balaban is phenomenal in two of these … strange, he dies in neither.
Not so strange: Two for Toshiro Mifune, he dies in BOTH.
Not to be repetitive:
Toshiro Mifune in Throne of Blood
John Wayne in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence
Alec Guinness in Last Holiday
Paul Newman in Hombre and in Cool Hand Luke
The Man in the hole in Ace in the Hole
Burt Lancaster in The Killers and with Cronyn in Brute Force
Aimee Thanatogenous in The Loved One
Michael Caine in the original Get Carter
Mr. Memory in The 39 Steps
Charlton Heston in Khartoum and in El Cid
I don’t think anyone has mentioned Juanita Moore’s deathbed soliloquy in IMITATION OF LIFE (Douglas Sirk, 1959), followed by her spectacular funeral with Mahalia Jackson singing in the cathedral and white, horse-drawn hearses parading through the thronged streets of Harlem. Then her prodigal daughter returns at the last minute to weep and apologize over her casket.
“Not a dry eye in the house…”
Frank, you are correct about Juanita Moore’s death scene. I have witnessed people turn on that movie at the end, without knowing anything at all about the rest of the story, and proceed to bawl and bawl and bawl.
I am not sure how honorable a directorial skill this is—the ability to shamelessly yank tears.
Howard F: You are also correct that Juanita Moore’s death scene is shamelessly tear-jerking, manipulative, and melodramatic, especially when Susan Kohner shows up late for the funeral cortege and interrupts the processional to weep (and overact) over her mother’s casket. But maybe Sirk and his screenwriter had to work extra hard on the schmaltz to draw tears for a black servant’s demise from an audience in 1959?
The scene is certainly “memorable,” though, which is the one of the criteria for this thread. And, besides, doctors tell us that a good cry is good for the tear ducts, which need occasional exercise to stay in shape. I therefore recommend the sequence not only for its cinematic elements but also for its health value. :-)
Besides, many of the (good) examples of death scenes above (including one that I posted — Eddie Mars’s death in THE BIG SLEEP) — involve gun play, explosions, stabbings, and other violent acts. Someone dying peacefully in bed deserves some attention too, no? Speaking of which, did anyone mention the end of DR. STRANGELOVE? (Nearly) everyone dies.
No spoilers for those who haven’t seen it but there’s a very special memorable deathj in Pierrot le fou.
The Dildo scene..(Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) a very worst way to die.
All the “death” scenes in Harold & Maude.
Frank P. Tomasulo, Ph.D.
SPOILER ALERT: The bad guy gangster Geiger is dispatched by his own men when Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart) sends him out of the house at the end of THE BIG SLEEP. Although he screams to his henchmen that it’s him and they shouldn’t shoot, he is machine-gunned to death — the bullets tracing a pattern across the closed door. So, the violence isn’t actually on screen (and the Production Code isn’t violated) but it’s even more gruesome and horrific than if he’s been shot on screen (imo).