10 Movie Deaths No-One Was Ready For

4. Artax - The Never-Ending Story

The Never-Ending Story is a family film. Hell, it's probably more accurate to say it's a kids fantasy film, in actual fact. That's worth remembering as you settle down to watch it and are faced first with a terrifying wolf-beast that will haunt your dreams for years, the idea of nihilistic depression destroying the world and an innocent horse drowning on screen.

All good adventures need a moment of adversity, but watching Atreyu's beloved companion Artax be overcome by the utter despair of the Swamp Of Sadness was an unexpected gut punch that most younger viewers would never have expected. This was supposed to have a happy ending - we weren't supposed to be contemplating how awful sorrow must be to make a HORSE so devastated.

The rest of the film deals with some heavy material, but there's nothing to rival how unexpected and shocking Artax's seemingly needless death was.