Best Film Death Scenes

2008

Burn After Reading (2008)

In this Coen Brothers' dark but comedic crime spy-thriller, the espionage-related plot followed the tangled, inexplicable repercussions of the loss of a CIA analyst job by a Balkan expert.

The film's tagline was: "Intelligence is Relative."

• after being fired, CIA agent/analyst Osbourne Cox's (John Osbourne) CD-ROM disc - possibly with important classified information - was accidentally lost at a Georgetown fitness gym, where two employees found it and attempted to sell it to any interested parties
• preening, narcissistic Hardbodies gym personal trainer Chad Feldheimer (Brad Pitt in an against-type role) died unnecessarily; he was attempting, foolishly, with fellow gym employee Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand) to blackmail (for 50,000ドル) Osbourne Cox for the return of his CD disk
• while searching through Cox's house for further incriminating information, Chad hid in a closet when live-in womanizing Treasury agent Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney) unexpectedly returned to the house after jogging
• startled to find him there, Pfarrer shot Chad in the forehead, killing him instantly, and then dumped his unidentified body in Chesapeake Bay (later it was recovered and burned by the CIA)

The Dark Knight (2008)

In director Christopher Nolan's violent and action-packed superhero, comic-book film - it was a sequel following Batman Begins (2005) , and became the middle film in the Dark Knight Trilogy, followed by The Dark Knight Rises (2012) .

The superhero film followed the efforts of the caped Gotham City vigilante Batman (Christian Bale) (Bruce Wayne in disguise), Police Lt. James Gordon (Gary Oldman), and Gotham's DA Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), to fight organized crime in the city, by seizing mob-run banks and flushing out its dirty money with marked bills. Their main opponents were The Joker (Heath Ledger), mob bosses, and a scary drug-dealing character known as the Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy).

Batman was pitted against one of his most treacherous opponents - the Joker (previously portrayed on film by Jack Nicholson and Cesar Romero).

• one of the film's most startling murders occurred during an underground kitchen meeting of underworld crime bosses, who were discussing coordinating efforts to combat increased police opposition and prosecution of US banks with mobster money, and where to protectively hide their money, now that US banks were targeted:
  • Salvatore Maroni (Eric Roberts)
  • The Chechan (Ritchie Coster)
  • Gambol (Michael Jai White), an African-American gang leader
• the meeting was interrupted by laughter from the freakish, maniacal and ghoulish-looking Joker (Heath Ledger), who entered the kitchen and quipped:
  • "I thought my jokes were bad"
• he first demonstrated a 'magic trick' on a table-top to intimidate them - he struck the table surface with a leaded pencil that stood upright:
  • "How about a magic trick? I'm gonna make this pencil disappear."
• after one of Gambol's henchman approached, he smashed the guy's head face-first into the pencil - and it did disappear as he had predicted. He declared:
  • "Ta-daaaa! It's gone!"

The Happening (2008)

In writer/director M. Night Shyamalan's first R-rated film and apocalyptic horror-thriller film, it was generally considered less effective than many of his other plot-twisting tales; it posited the idea of a wave of unexplained mass suicides sweeping across the populated northeastern part of the United States (first in Central Park in New York, then the Philadelphia area, Boston, Princeton, New Jersey and then into rural areas) for a period of approximately one day.

The deaths were marked by screams, people standing still, whistling wind across grass surfaces or in the trees, disoriented speech, power outages, incomplete radio transmissions, and other outward signs. Immediately after the appearance of those signs, an infected individual would find a convenient means to kill him/herself.

One opinionated scientist, Dr. William Ross (Stephen Singer) - from the Department of Botanical Toxocology at the University of Chicago predicted on television that the happening was only a "prelude, a warning, like the first spot of a rash - we have become a threat to this planet." After a three-month lull, the same pandemic wave began to occur in the Louvre's Tuileries Gardens in Paris, France as dark clouds gathered, when the film ended.

The deaths of infected individuals were many and varied:

• impaling one's own jugular vein with a hair-bun needle
• shooting oneself with a gun
• jumping off a roof or building
• a zookeeper offering his arms to a lion
• slitting one's wrist with glass shards
• hanging oneself from a tree
• crashing one's vehicle into a tree
• lying down in front of a giant lawnmower
• smashing one's head through a window

There were numerous speculative explanations for the epidemic (none definitive), such as bioterrorism, secret government experiments with drugs having psychotropic properties as a defense against terrorist chemical weapons, toxic airborne plant emissions, a strange virus, the effects of nuclear power plants, or nature turning against humanity - or forces at work beyond our understanding.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)

In director Steven Spielberg's (and Paramount Pictures') action-adventure film, it was the 4th installment of the long-running Indiana Jones franchise-series (from 1981 to 2008).

The plot revolved around an ancient legend that an elongated crystal skull of Akator (with powerful magnetic properties) had been stolen from a Mayan temple (in the legendary and lost city of gold called El Dorado) in the Amazonian jungles of South America. According to legend, the one who found it and returned it would be rewarded with "treasure." [Note: Conquistador Francisco de Orellana also vainly searched for it in the 1540s.] The Soviets were intent on uncovering the secret behind mysterious artifacts known as the Crystal Skulls.

With a budget of 185ドル million, the blockbuster grossed 317ドル.1 million (domestic) and 786ドル.6 million (worldwide).

• set in the year 1957 during the Cold War, the film's villains were introduced - the Russians - who were on a maniacal quest for the film's sacred object or artifact (to be used as a cosmic mind weapon to militarily rule the world):
  • Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett), the psychic leader of the agent-operatives, with a black page-boy haircut; she was the head of Russian psychic research
  • Antonin Dovchenko (Igor Jijikine), Irina's evil henchman
• the Russians had infiltrated into a Nevada desert's secret military base and its Warehouse 51, to locate a storage container placed there reportedly containing mummified remains of an extra-terrestrial being that had crashed 10 years earlier at Roswell, NM
• famed globe-trotting Marshall College archaeologist-adventurer Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones, Jr. (an aging 60-ish Harrison Ford) had been coerced by the Russians to lead them to the crate, and he was able to identify the hidden crate through its magnetic composition
• after the crate's location was determined, a battle ensued against the Soviets, and Jones was able to escape on a rocket sled that propelled him into the desert through a tunnel to the outside; he realized that he was in the middle of a mock-model home-community populated with plastic dummies during secret nuclear bomb testing at a site in the Nevada desert, when he heard a warning: ("All personnel, it is now one minute to zero time. Put on goggles or turn away. Do not remove goggles or face burst until 10 seconds after first light"); as he heard the countdown, he rushed to escape by hiding inside a lead-lined refrigerator; he avoided the effects of an atomic blast by hiding in a lead-lined refrigerator localed in a nuclear test home
• the impact of the nuclear blast sent Indy inside the refrigerator a long distance from the target; in silhousette, he experienced the awe-inspiring sight of the nuclear explosion
• back at Marshall College where Indy taught, he and motorbike 'greaser' "Mutt" Williams (Shia LaBeouf) fled on Mutt's cycle from a 50s style diner as they were pursued by two KGB agents in the streets of the town during an anti-Red student rally; they drove into the college campus and straight into the school's library
• Jones then learned from "Mutt" that his surrogate father (and Indiana's previous colleague) - elderly Professor Harold "Ox" Oxley (John Hurt) - had been kidnapped by the Soviets from his cell in a mental hospital; he had begun to suffer from dementia 6 months earlier after discovering a rare, pre-Colombian artifact in Peru composed of a single piece of quartz; it was a mysterious, powerful crystal skull found hidden in the South American jungle, in the sold-gold Temple of Akator (aka The Lost City of Gold or legendary city of El Dorado)
• Jones knew about the legend of the Crystal Skulls - one of the skulls was now missing after its theft; it was thought that the individual who brought the skull back to the city of Akator would attain supernatural powers
• once Jones and "Mutt" arrived in Peru on a frantic search and race against the Soviets to locate the ancient pyramidal structure at Akator that held the crystal skulls, Mutt and Indy were taken captive by:
  • the Russian KGB leading psychic operative Irina Spalko, and her henchman Antonin Dovchenko
  • Indy's gambling-addicted colleague - his ex-WWII British partner George "Mac" McHale (Ray Winstone), a traitorous turncoat "triple agent" who had already double-crossed Indy in Nevada, and ever since had been aiding the Russians by dropping blinking tracking beacons so that Irina and the Russians could follow close behind
• they were joined up with two other prisoners:
  • the insane Professor Oxley
  • Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), Indy's feisty ex-love interest
• the story's fragments began to fall into place; the missing crystal skull had belonged to the inter-dimensional alien whose mummified corpse was found in the warehouse crate in the film's opening
• in one of the film's side-stories, the Russians revealed that Mutt's mother was Indiana's old girlfriend/lover Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), although Mutt thought his father was treasure-hunting explorer Dr. Harold Oxley; (Indy: "Marion Ravenwood is your mother?"); a second genealogical revelation occurred when Marion and Indy were caught in quicksand, and it was revealed that Mutt's real-name was Henry Jones III - Mutt was Indy's own biological son!: ("His name is Henry!...He's your son...Henry Jones the Third")
• in the jungles of the Amazonian rainforest, the foursome (Jones, Marion, Mutt and Oxley) were able to escape from the Russians; during a spectacular nail-biting pursuit and chase sequence, "Mutt" fought in a sword duel with the villainous Russian-KGB Dr. Irina Spalko while both were atop Jeeps racing side-by-side through the jungle, as everyone struggled to get possession of the crystal skull in a burlap bag; the sequence ended in an area with giant, swarming man-eating siafu ants
• Russian Colonel Antonin Dovchenko was devoured in a mound of giant flesh-eating siafu ants; at first, an army of giant siafu ants covered his body, then dragged his body toward a massive anthill and stuffed him into the hole head-first to be further devoured

• once the group arrived at the ancient temple and entered, in the film's climactic and other-worldly finale, the obsessed Soviet agent Irina admitted her objective - to dominate the world telepathically by obtaining the great psychic powers of the Crystal Skulls
• in the inner chamber of the temple, it housed 13 crystal skeletons (one with a missing skull) seated in a circle; Russian KGB leading psychic operative Irina Spalko replaced the retrieved crystal skull onto the spinal cord of one of 13 aliens (arranged in a circle) and stepped forward to obtain her reward from the supernatural alien being (the collective of all 13 aliens); Indy sensed danger: "I've got a bad feeling about this!"

• once Oxley's stolen skull was returned to the 10th skeleton by Spalko, an extra-terrestrial life-form appeared who explained that the aliens long ago, seen as gods, had passed on their advanced technology and knowledge to the ancient civilizations
  • [Note: The treasure of the Mayans in the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was revealed to be knowledge.]
• Spalka insisently demanded:
  • "Tell me everything you know. I want to know everything. I want to know...I want to know. I want to know. Tell me. I'm ready. I want to know. I can see!"
• as she absorbed knowledge, the alien being (with a crystal skeleton) overloaded her skull with too much knowledge as she kept demanding more and more; she was powerfully overwhelmed when the skeletal beings merged and formed a single being; her brain (and eye sockets) ignited and exploded, and her body disintegrated into pieces as it was absorbed into the portal that opened up around her

• her remains and those of other Soviet henchmen (including Mac) were taken up within a vortex up into a giant spaceship above (into another dimension?)
• the temple was also sucked into an activated giant portal from another dimension, from which a massive flying saucer emerged before flying off
• Indy and his friends Mutt, Marion, and the restored Oxley escaped from the crumbling temple, they watched from afar as the temple collapsed, the whirling, spinning flying saucer created a vortex in its ascension, and the valley floor was covered over by Amazonian waters ("Like a broom to their footprints"). Oxley summarized where the saucer went: "Not into space. Into the space between spaces."
• Indy also contributed this afterthought:
  • "Their treasure wasn't gold - it was knowledge. Knowledge was their treasure"

Kung Fu Panda (2008)

In directors Marc Osborne's/John Stevenson's (and DreamWorks') animated martial-arts comedy-adventure film, it was set in ancient China. It was the first in a series of films in a new franchise featuring anthropomorphic animals. In this opening chapter, the title character - a giant clumsy and overweight panda named Po Ping who was a kung-fu fanatic, was improbably chosen to be the Valley's "Dragon Warrior" to defeat its arch-enemy.

• Kung Fu Panda (2008)
• Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)
• Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016)
• Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024)

With a budget of 130ドル million, the film was highly successful with revenues of 216ドル million (domestic) and 632ドル.4 million (worldwide).

• in the Valley of Peace lived the wizened, elderly philosophizing Galapagos Turtle - a spiritual leader and founder of kung fu named Grand Kung Fu Master Oogway (voice of Randall Duk Kim); Oogway predicted that the evil, villainous and malevolent snow leopard, Kung Fu Master Tai Lung (voice of Ian McShane), would soon escape from prison and attack the Valley; he would return to obtain the Dragon Scroll - an artifact said to grant limitless power
• before he passed on, the mentoring Oogway spoke to doubtful yet wise, red-colored panda named Kung Fu Master Shifu (voice of Dustin Hoffman) about how he was concerned about Tai Lung's approach; afterwards, Master Shifu announced a kung fu tournament to identify the next "Dragon Warrior" - the truly prophesied hero worthy of reading the Scroll
  • [Note: Tai Lung was Shifu's adopted son and former student.]
• Master Shifu had trained a quintet of skilled kung fu warriors (known as the Furious Five) - Tigress, Monkey, Mantis, Viper, and Crane; during the tournament, it was expected that one of the five would win the title; at the end of the competition, everyone was shocked when Oogway chose overweight, slovenly, Kung Fu-obsessed panda Po Ping (voice of Jack Black) to become the new Dragon Warrior
• Oogway told Shifu that he was confident that Po could defeat Tai Lung, with the proper training; however, it was very unlikely that Kung Fu Panda Po Ping was really the 'Chosen One' ("Dragon Warrior") who could defeat Tai Lung and save everyone in the Valley of Peace
• Oogway gave a life lesson to Shifu about the illusion of control, by illustrating his story with a nearby peach tree:
  • "Look at this tree, Shifu. I cannot make it blossom when it suits me, nor make it bear fruit before its time....Ah yes, but no matter what you do, that seed will grow to be a peach tree. You may wish for an apple or an orange, but you will get a peach."
• Shifu was fearful: "But a peach cannot defeat Tai Lung!" Oogway tried to encourage Shifu to nurture the seed/plant of young Po ("Maybe it can if you are willing to guide it, to nurture it, to believe in it"); he made him promise to believe in the young Kung Fu panda and train him:
  • "You just need to believe. Promise me Shifu, promise me you will believe."
• Shifu put Po through a series of challenging and torturous training exercises, to encourage him to quit; meanwhile, it was reported that the evil snow leopard Tai Lung had recently broken out of prison and was returning to the Valley
• and then, Oogway realized that he was about to die (the only one in the film to perish):
  • "My time has come, you must continue your journey without me...You must believe."
• Oogway experienced a beautiful and artistic death in a scene under the peach blossoms of a peach tree; he was enveloped or dissolved into a swirling and encircling cloud of peach tree blossom petals that floated or ascended into the sky and vanished into the stars (or afterlife)

Milk (2008)

In Gus Van Sant's dramatic biopic, although filmed in a dreamy, silent, overly-aestheticized way, it shockingly dramatized an ill-fated, double assassination scene that historically occurred in San Francisco, California in late 1978.

• troubled, internally-damaged and tormented fellow politician Dan White (Josh Brolin), in the City Hall offices, first shot progressive Mayor George Moscone (Victor Garber) dead, seen in a skewed mirror reflection

• Dan White then proceeded down the hallway to gun down 48 year-old San Francisco City Supervisor Harvey Milk (Best Actor-winning Sean Penn) - the first openly gay man to be voted into public office in America

Quantum of Solace (2008, UK)

In director Marc Forster's (and MGM's) grim and violent 24th action-spy Bond film thriller, it was Daniel Craig's second Bond film, and functioned as a direct sequel and a let-down after Casino Royale (2006).

The film's main villain was evil environmentalist Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), whose plan was to cause a regime change - a coup d'etat and take-over of the Bolivian government by bribing the right officials (including cohort General Medrano). His plan was to acquire a barren piece of worthless Bolivian desert land (not for oil or for building a pipeline, but for water - the film's major reveal!), that he would resell back to the new goverment - at profitable, grossly-inflated prices.

With a gigantic budget of 200ドル million, this Bond film underperformed domestically with only 168ドル.4 million, but recouped its losses with worldwide revenue of 589ドル.6 million.

• part-way through the plot, tall, red-haired M16 agent Miss (Strawberry) Fields (Gemma Arterton), an employee of the British consulate in La Paz, Bolivia, met British secret agent 007 James Bond (Daniel Craig) at the Bolivian airport; she informed him that she had been ordered by the highest authorities to turn him around onto the next plane flight to London; with the night still ahead of them, he ordered their taxi to take them to the fancy Andean Grand Hotel, instead of a cheaper hotel that she had arranged for him
• after sharing his fancy Grand Hotel room for a seduction, they attended an Eco-Park charity fund-raiser and cocktail party held later that evening by the film's chief villain Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric)
• the next morning, she wrote a one-word warning note to Bond ("RUN") just before she unfortunately met a grisly fate at the hands of the film's charismatic yet ruthless Greene; he had Miss Fields killed by drowning her in crude oil - and her blackened body was stretched out on their hotel bed
• M (Judi Dench) told a shocked Bond:
  • "You might like to tell her your theory about there being no oil. Her lungs are full of it"
• Bond knew it was Greene's attempt at "misdirection" - the villain's main objective in the film was water, not oil
  • [Note: This film's death scene paid homage to the iconic death scene in the earlier Bond film Goldfinger (1964) of villain Goldfinger's escort Jill Masterson (Shirley Eaton) who was painted entirely with gold paint and lying on a bed - dead due to skin suffocation.]