The 50 Greatest Fictional Deaths of All Time

[marmar]

The 50 Greatest Fictional Deaths of All Time
The most tearjerking, hilarious, satisfying, and shocking death scenes in 2,500 years of culture.

BY DAN KOIS
JULY 20, 20225:57 AM


(Slate) “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done,” Sydney Carton thinks on his way to the guillotine. That far better thing is dying tragically, for many reasons: to save an innocent man, to fulfill his own redemption, and—of course—to make us cry at the end of A Tale of Two Cities. The death scene is one of the sharpest tools in a writer’s toolbox, as likely to wound the writer themself as the reader—for if a well-written death scene can be thrilling, terrifying, or filled with despair, so can a poorly written one be bathetic, stupid, and eye-rolling.

But let’s not talk about those. Let’s talk about the good ones, the deathless death scenes. We’ve assembled the 50 greatest fictional deaths of all time—the most moving, most funny, most shocking, most influential scenes from books, movies, TV, theater, video games, and more. Spoilers abound: It’s a list that spans nearly 2,500 years of human culture, from Athens to A24, and is so competitive that even poor Sydney Carton and his famous last words couldn’t make it. (We even split Mafia movie deaths into their own list, because who can choose?) We’ve also talked to many of the creators behind the scenes on our list to ask them how they wrote them, why they killed off characters we loved, what makes a great death scene, and what final moments from fiction have stuck with them all their lives.

We’ve made this list during a pandemic, as real-life death has stalked us all, more tangible than ever. After all, one of the many things art can do is to help us navigate the pitfalls of life, and there’s no deeper pitfall than the final one. Here are the scenes that have shown us all what the big goodbye might actually be like, when it comes.

....(snip)....

Grendel in Beowulf

Author: The Beowulf poet
Year: Circa 975
Original medium: The oral tradition
Also: Book, movie, opera

-The great warrior Beowulf stakes his claim as the English tradition’s first recorded superhero in a bloody battle against a worthy foe: Grendel, a man-eating monster from the marshes, descendant of Cain, whose skin cannot be pierced by human swords. Beowulf rips off his freakin’ arm and sends the beast back to the marshes, “beaten in battle, bloodying the path,/ Hauling his doom to the demons’ mere.” The hell spawn gets to tell his side of the story in John Gardner’s remarkable 1971 novel Grendel, where his death is not a moment of heroism but of dumb luck and blunt tragedy.

....(snip)....

Marion Crane in Psycho

Author: Joseph Stefano (screenplay) and Alfred Hitchcock (director)
Year: 1960
Original medium: Movie

People Peopleremember the death of Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) because it takes place in a shower, and because of Bernard Herrmann’s music, and the editing, but it’s really none of these things that makes it the most shocking horror death there ever has been and the most shocking horror death there is ever likely to be. It’s that when Marion Crane dies, Alfred Hitchcock kills off his movie’s only protagonist, halfway through the movie. (The novel, by Robert Bloch, focused on Norman Bates.) Some movies since have attempted to do the same thing—to frightening or sometimes hilarious effect—but none of them will ever be able to re-create the shock of when Hitchcock pulled this trick for the very first time. ..........(more)

https://slate.com/culture/2022/07/best-death-scenes-movies-tv-books-theater-songs.html

[genxlib]

1. Interesting topic

But any such lists that doesn't include at least one Tarantino film is suspect. Maybe he should just receive a lifetime achievement award and we can call it good.

And I am calling foul on Bonnie and Clyde as a "fictional" death

[Throck]

2. Did Elvis make the list?

[iwillalwayswonderwhy]

3. I was 10 or 11 when I read Little Women

I was shocked and furious when Beth died.

[Midnight Writer]

4. Old Yeller? Bambi's mom?