Movies Where The Hero Dies Long Before The End
When the hero dies, that means the story is over, right? Since the whole point of a movie is usually to follow one character's journey, the movie presumably ends the moment that character's narrative ends, doesn't it? Well, some filmmakers must not have gotten the memo, because there are multiple films that kill off the hero long before the end credits start rolling. And no, we don't mean movies where the main character dies a heroic death in the final scene. For all of these films, the hero dies significantly before the end.
The movies on this list span decades, ranging from a classic 1940s noir film to a superhero blockbuster from the 2010s. Killing off the hero, it seems, is a time-honored tradition. Whether the hero meets his untimely demise in the opening scene or 15 minutes from the end, these films demonstrate that you don't necessarily need the protagonist to still be alive to finish the story they're telling.
Citizen Kane
If you've heard of the classic movie "Citizen Kane," then chances are that you know the main character dies in the opening scene. But for audiences who saw this film when it first came out, it was a huge shock to see Charles Foster Kane (Orson Welles) kick the bucket. The protagonist dies alone in his extravagant mansion, leaving viewers with hundreds of questions.
That is the end of Kane's story, but it also marks the beginning of another story — the quest of journalist Jerry Thompson (William Alland) to figure out the meaning of Kane's dying word: "Rosebud." Kane takes the answer to the grave with him, but Jerry interviews all the characters who knew Kane while he was still alive, in hopes of uncovering the truth. Through flashbacks, the life story of the film's central character unfolds — and this is far more compelling than if the movie had simply been told in chronological order. Rather than remaining passive observers, the viewers are invited to find out the answers for themselves.
By the end of the movie, Jerry still has no idea what Kane's last word meant. While viewers learn in the final scene that "Rosebud" is the name of Kane's childhood sled, Jerry and the other characters are still in the dark. Jerry concludes that it wouldn't matter if he knew the significance of "Rosebud" — Charles Foster Kane would still be an enigma.
Lawrence of Arabia
The opening sequence of "Lawrence of Arabia" shows the legendary T.E. Lawrence (Peter O'Toole) at one of his humblest moments. Viewers see just an ordinary guy filling up the gas tank of his motorcycle, a far cry from the heroic figure that the title leads us to expect. Then, less than five minutes into the movie, Lawrence crashes his motorcycle (in an accident that could have easily been avoided), and the film cuts to his funeral. Right from the get-go, we are reminded that the great Lawrence of Arabia is a mere mortal.
The folks attending Lawrence's memorial service all give conflicting descriptions of Lawrence, which further whets our curiosity about the man. Some feel like he doesn't deserve to have a bust on display in a cathedral. Others sing his praises in public but mutter complaints when they think nobody else is listening. One man passionately defends Lawrence, but admits, "I can't claim to have known him. I once had the honor to shake his hand in Damascus." The only thing everybody can agree on is that nobody really knew him. Over the course of the three-and-a-half hour movie, viewers will discover for themselves who Lawrence really was.
At the end of "Lawrence of Arabia," after Lawrence has been asked to step down because the Arabs no longer need a warrior, we glimpse a passing motorcycle. It's a totally different make, but it reminds viewers exactly how Lawrence's story will end.
Grave of the Fireflies
This audacious war film from Studio Ghibli doesn't pull any punches. In the opening scene, we see a starving young boy named Seita (voiced by Tsutomu Tatsumi and Adam Gibbs) slumped against a pillar in a train station. Seita tells viewers, "That was the night I died." His death is especially depressing because viewers know that World War II is already technically over. Afterward, we see Seita's spirit board a train, along with the spirit of his sister Setsuko (Ayano Shiraishi/Emily Neves). Their two deaths hang over the entire movie, and knowing how Seita's story ends arguably makes it even more painful to watch the children struggle to survive.
The only thing more disturbing than watching a child die is watching an even younger child die, knowing that it might have been avoided. Rather than live with an abusive aunt who steals their rations, Seita decides that he and his sister will strike out on their own and live off whatever food they can forage. He soon discovers that they can't survive on their own, but still he refuses to ask anybody else for help. By the time Seita finally remembers his emergency savings in the bank and brings his sister food, it's too late. The scene where Seita prepares his sister's funeral pyre might well be the most tear-jerking moment in the history of animation.
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Gandhi
While almost any moviegoer could tell you that Mahatma Gandhi (Ben Kingsley) was assassinated, we bet none of them would have guessed that this 1982 biopic dives right into his assassination in the opening scene — especially since the scene in question is so tranquil. In the opening scene of "Gandhi," Nathuram Godse (Harsh Nayyar) strolls calmly through lines of worshipers, and he seems at first to be just another admirer of Gandhi. When Godse is finally face-to-face with Gandhi, he bows, which makes it all the more shocking when he shoots Gandhi a second later. This moment perfectly captures the shock that the entire world felt after the man's assassination — how could anybody hate Gandhi?
By the end of the film, the story has come full circle. The final scene returns to Gandhi's assassination, but from a different angle; Gandhi is shown from the back this time. As before, Godse fires the fatal shot and Gandhi falls. The film ends with the image of Gandhi's ashes being scattered, along with a voice-over monologue in which Gandhi declares, "When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won." His words add a new layer of meaning to his death, reminding viewers that Gandhi's legacy has outlived him by far.
The Killers
The 1946 film "The Killers" begins as you might expect: with two killers committing a murder. However, what makes this film interesting is that their victim is the main character.
The movie begins with two armed characters holding up a diner. They are looking for a man known only as "the Swede" (Burt Lancaster), and somehow you don't get the sense that they plan to give him a friendly hello. One of the diner guests rushes to the Swede to warn him, yet the Swede doesn't seem to care whether he lives or dies. Soon the killers catch up with him, and he is dead before the 15-minute mark.
The film then backs up to show why these two men wanted to kill the Swede (and why he let them). Although insurance investigator Jim Reardon (Edmond O'Brien) drives the plot forward as he tries to untangle the Swede's story, he doesn't have a personal investment in the events. The true protagonist is the Swede. Over the course of the movie, viewers discover that he's a washed-up boxer who is willing to do anything for the woman he loves, even participate in a heist. His friends try to warn him that Kitty (Ava Gardner) is just playing him, but the Swede is too blinded by love to notice until Kitty betrays him. So when the killers show up at his door, the Swede decides he has nobody to blame but himself.
Sunset Boulevard
"Sunset Boulevard" is another movie that wastes no time in killing off its main character. The opening sequence is narrated by Hollywood writer Joe Gillis (William Holden), whom viewers soon learn is dead. As a string of police cars rushes to the scene of the crime, Joe cheerfully explains, "That's the homicide squad," as if it wasn't his death they were investigating. Joe adds that he wants to share the story of his death, before the tabloids can blow it out of proportion. Thanks to this darkly funny opening, viewers are intrigued to know how Joe ended up floating facedown in a pool.
To answer this question, the film explores the messy relationship between Joe and Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), a washed-up silent movie star whose career fell apart after Hollywood switched to talkies. Always the drama queen, Norma announces in the climax of the movie that she intends to kill herself. When she doesn't get the reaction she's hoping for (Joe doesn't believe her), Norma shoots Joe, who falls in her pool. Joe acknowledges in his voice-over that the film has come full circle in the most meta way possible, saying, "Well, this is where you came in." The last scene shows Norma being swarmed by reporters for her suspected involvement in Joe's death; she eats it up, delighted to have a chance to bask in the spotlight once more (another way that the film has come full circle).
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Avengers: Endgame
"Avengers: Endgame" is an ensemble piece, but if the story belongs to any one character, it's Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.). After all, it's his story that kicked off the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and his arc is arguably the most central to the Infinity Saga. The stakes are high in this film, but Tony probably has more to lose than any other Avenger, because he managed to find a happy ending after the Blip. By the end of the movie, Tony manages to bring back everybody lost during the Blip, but he must pay for it with his own life.
The film, already running for two and a half hours, continues for a full 15 minutes after Tony's death. Yet it needs every second. The ending of "Avengers: Endgame" is basically the ending of two movies. It's meant to wrap up the stories of dozens of characters, including some who haven't really appeared since "Avengers: Infinity War." The entire cast pays their respects at Tony's funeral, while Clint (Jeremy Renner) and Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) also mourn the people they've lost.
Meanwhile, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) passes the rule of New Asgard to Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), and there's also a small but kind of important loose end: Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) needs to go back in time and return the Infinity Stones that he borrowed, otherwise he will, as the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) puts it, "open up a bunch of nasty alternative realities."
Inglourious Basterds
Although Brad Pitt gets top billing and his character Aldo Raine is featured prominently in the trailers, there is no doubt that Shosanna (Mélanie Laurent) is the protagonist of "Inglourious Basterds." The movie begins with Nazis killing Shosanna's family and ends with her revenge plan being carried out; the entire mission is deeply personal to her.
Yet Shosanna doesn't live to see her plan come to fruition. While she successfully lures the Nazi high command into her movie theater and manages to switch out the propaganda reel with her own special film, she gets interrupted by Fredrick Zoller (Daniel Brühl). Zoller kills the heroine, even though there are eight minutes of film left to go. Luckily, Operation Kino is already set in motion, so the Nazi high command still gets blown sky-high. Viewers get to see Shosanna's face one last time as she appears on the big screen and gleefully tells the Nazis that she suckered them.
Still, the man who killed Shosanna's family, Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz), is not in the theater when it burns, and in fact it looks like he might walk away free. Yet Raine finishes the job for her. He is not allowed to kill Landa; the Nazi receives amnesty for selling out his fellow Nazis and allowing the Allies to win the war. But nothing says that Raine can't give Landa a swastika-shaped scar on his forehead, so nobody will ever forget what he's done. No doubt Shosanna would be pleased.
Little Shop of Horrors: The Director's Cut
In the theatrical version of "Little Shop of Horrors," Seymour (Rick Moranis) is alive and well at the end of the movie. However, that wasn't how it was originally supposed to end. In the off-Broadway musical that the movie was based on, Seymour gets eaten by the carnivorous plant Audrey II (Levi Stubbs). Director Frank Oz hoped to preserve that ending, which he preferred, in the movie, but test screening audiences hated the tragic finale. Oz was forced to shoot an alternate ending where Seymour and his girlfriend Audrey (Ellen Greene) live happily ever after; this was the ending that played in theaters. The long-lost original ending of "Little Shop of Horrors" was later released with certain special editions of the film.
The director's cut of "Little Shop of Horrors" kills off all the major characters several minutes before the end. Like the theatrical version, Seymour rescues Audrey, but here he discovers she is mortally wounded. She begs Seymour to feed her to the plant after she dies. After honoring Audrey's wishes, Seymour tries to destroy Audrey II, but the plant gobbles him up instead. What follows is an extended sequence of other plants like Audrey II spreading across America and wreaking Godzilla-level havoc on New York City. Once it becomes clear that humanity is doomed, the words "The End?!?" appear on the screen and the credits start rolling.
Pulp Fiction
Out of all the movies on this list, "Pulp Fiction" is the odd one out. The protagonist doesn't sacrifice himself a few scenes before the end, nor does it open with his death before backing up in time. Instead, this iconic movie completely breaks the rules of storytelling; the protagonist dies roughly two-thirds of the way through the film, in the most random and anticlimactic way possible.
Hitman Vincent Vega (John Travolta) is scouting out the apartment of Butch (Bruce Willis), whom he intends to kill. Yet while Vincent is in the bathroom, Butch manages to sneak into the apartment, stick some Pop Tarts in the toaster, and then shoot Vincent in the chest. This is not the last we see of Vincent, since the movie jumps around chronologically and shows some scenes from before Vincent's death. But for the rest of the movie, viewers know that the main character will end up dead in a bathroom.
The movie's final scene (which takes place chronologically before Vincent's death) is all the more poignant because we know where the characters are headed. In this scene, Vincent and his partner Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) successfully thwart two robbers without any bloodshed. Audiences know that after this scene, Jules will hang up his gun for good and start living a virtuous life. Meanwhile, Vincent will continue to do what he's always done, and will soon end up in a body bag.
Promising Young Woman
In "Promising Young Woman," Cassie (Carey Mulligan) promises to avenge her friend Nina, whose life is ruined after a boy named Al (Chris Lowell) rapes her. In the film's climax, Cassie infiltrates Al's bachelor party, disguised as a stripper. Yet before Cassie can carry out her plan to expose Al's true colors, he regains the upper hand and smothers Cassie with a pillow. The movie kills off its heroine with 10 minutes still left to go, and it seems like Al might get away with murder. Only Ryan (Bo Burnham) knows where Cassie went that night, and he chooses not to share the information, lest the police find out about his participation in Nina's rape.
Luckily, Cassie has a contingency plan. Before her death, she schedules several text messages to be sent out in the event that she doesn't come back from her revenge mission alive. Now these texts show up in Ryan's phone. Her first message is addressed to the audience just as much as it is to Ryan; she says, "You didn't think this was the end, did you?" It turns out that Cassie has alerted the police and led them right to Al's door. Her triumphant text message ("Enjoy the wedding!") is the last thing we see in the film, so even though the heroine dies long before the end, she still gets to have the last word.
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