9 Awesome Characters Who Had Really Lame Deaths

If a great character must die, they should go out in a fittingly epic way. Think of Hans Gruber’s death in Die Hard, Bruce Willis in Armageddon or Sean Bean in about ninety percent of his CV; heck, even the shark in Jaws got a memorably explosive demise.

The epic character equals epic death formula makes sense, so it’s surprising how many movies fumble this very simple equation. Imagine, for example, if Tony Montana had died of a heart attack when the hit squad attacked his mansion; it might have made sense given the amount of coke he just snorted, but it would completely rob the ending of its impact.

In that regard, some iconic movie characters have suffered really lame, anti-climatic deaths that fans are still whining about to this day. The filmmakers responsible might defend their creative choices - and in a couple of cases they might retcon to change the outcome - but there’s no denying that the following death scenes were a huge disappointment to the audience.

9. Bane - The Dark Knight Rises

While fans love to make fun of his voice, there’s no denying Tom Hardy was a terrifying force playing Bane. He’s the only villain in Christopher Nolan’s trilogy who was both a mental and physical match for Batman, and his casual destruction of the character during their first battle showed how formidable he was.

So obviously Bane’s comeuppance would need to be epic and fitting, and Batman would have to use his wits and cunning to defeat him. Right? Well, not so much. In the finale, he abruptly gets blasted by Catwoman, who delivers a quick gag before Bane is promptly forgotten about.

Nolan was obviously going for some humour in the midst of the intense climax, but getting rid of a memorable villain in such a flippant way is a tad anti-climatic. Bane clearly had to go, so having Catwoman deliver the final blow was probably a way to get around Batman’s no killing rule, but it doesn’t make it any less disappointing.