Decided to watch An American Werewolf in London last night because I don’t know if I’ve ever watched the movie. I knew how it ended because it’s 45 years old and there’s been plenty of videos on it, but I had never actually watched it. It was quite enjoyable.

It got me thinking about how many good movies end with the main hero/protagonist(s) dying. I can think of quite a few great movies off the top of my head, but I wanted to hear from Lemmy on their favorites!

  • eightpix@lemmy.world
    5·
    23 hours ago

    Needless to say, every answer on this list spoils the movie. But, really, how it happens is as essential as what happens.

    Everyone

    • Melancholia (one of the saddest movies I’ve seen)

    • Knowing (a little Nicholas Cage never hurt anybody)

    • Don’t Look Up (so well done, great soundtrack)

    • On the Beach (1959, classic!)

    • Sunshine (Alex Garland’s swing)

    Religious undertones

    • Constantine (“coffin nail”)

    • Dogma (God/Alanis Morissette is the real hero)

    • Meet Joe Black (the first death is the hardest)

    Anti-Heroes

    • Logan (heroes never die, right?)

    • White Heat (1949, classic!)

    • Kiss Me, Deadly (film noir, “the great whatsit”)

    • Dancer in the Dark (Björk, another saddest film)

  • DarkFuture@lemmy.worldEnglish
    9·
    1 day ago

    Excalibur (1981)

    Arthur is impaled, pulls himself down the length of the spear that has impaled him, and uses Excalibur to impale his godforsaken son.

    The greatest Arthurian movie ever made, bar none.

  • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    6·
    1 day ago

    Great film! The transformation scared the crap outta me when I somehow saw it on tv as a kid.

    Children of Men was also a good one. Trying to think what others, but I love when the hero dies because life is rarely fair and just and an unlikely happy ending ruins a story pretty effectively.

    • FenrirIII@lemmy.worldOP
      2·
      1 day ago

      There have probably been dozens of movies where the hero was supposed to die at the end but audience screenings or studio execs interfered.

  • tpyo@lemmy.world
    13·
    2 days ago

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prestige

    The Prestige

    I love this movie. It’s one of the few I’ll gladly rewatch because it keeps me engaged and the story keeps unfolding until the very end. Plus it has David Bowie playing Tesla which is one of my favorite people from history. If you haven’t seen it, watch it!

    • MIDItheKID@lemmy.world
      5·
      1 day ago

      Fantastic movie. Somebody suggested I watch it and they were going to tell me about it an I was like “No don’t tell me anything, I like to go in blind”. I didn’t look up anything about it either. Went in completely blind and holy moly what a wild ride. If you’re reading this, and you have never heard of this movie, I highly suggest you go watch it.

      I suppose the fact that it’s in this thread gives something away, but it actually doesn’t.

    • mrgoosmoos@lemmy.caEnglish
      4·
      1 day ago

      I will add that while I love The Prestige, its sister movie The Illusionist is also worth a watch or two.

  • DoobleDoo@lemmy.world
    7·
    1 day ago

    18 hours and nobody has said Avengers Endgame?

    Also, to be topical since it’s early November: V for Vendetta

    • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      1 day ago

      Ex-wife and I walked out gobsmacked.

      “That was a war movie not a Star Wars movie.”

      Forced to point to a favorite, it’s probably Rogue One.

    • BackgrndNoize@lemmy.world
      5·
      1 day ago

      As good as this movie is, it still has that Star Warism about it that makes it lesser compared to the Andor tv show, Andor changed my opinion on what Star Wars could be, if it was left to competent writers and didn’t have Disney corpo suits calling the shots to sell merch and appeal to the 4 quadrants

        • Bahnd Rollard@lemmy.world
          81·
          2 days ago

          Can we settle on the best one under the Disney era? (The correct answer is E5 and my favorite is E6)

          I do actually like that one, when introducing people to Star Wars, I do suggest starting there with a double feature into E4 in the same sitting. 1) because if someone has not seen Star Wars, they are very young or have been avoiding it for 50 years, giving them something modern feels like a good idea 2) the trasition from a 2016 film to a 1977 film (even with the remasters) is jarring and I like tormenting my friends :-p