10 Dumbest Ways Movie Characters Got Themselves Killed
Sometimes even the best characters get the worst exits...
Look, we’re all heartbroken whenever a character bites the dust against our expectations. Even in the edgiest, most self-serious psychological thriller or dour crime drama, there’s nothing worse than the wasted investment of donating a few hours of our lives to a hero only for them to end up on the mortician’s slab as the credits roll.
Even worse is when a great villain falls victim to a lame, inconsequential death, with their out-of-character demise sapping them of any threat that came before. Wait, you can kill Pennywise off by talking smack at him? Truly terrifying stuff there.
Even if it’s only a minor victim in a movie with an impressive body count, a dumb movie death pulls us out of the moment and wastes audience goodwill, ending the suspension of disbelief and leaving fans uninterested in the fate of the rest of the cast.
A handful of the films on this list may manage to salvage themselves and still be seen as classics (we didn’t have the heart to put Kubrick in twice, but one particular character in The Shining really tested that resolve). Nonetheless, here are the filmic demises which left us facepalming instead of covering our eyes.
10. 28 Days Later - Animal Rights Protestors Release Rage Monkeys
We can’t speak for the political opinions of director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland, creators of the intense, bloody, and bloody brilliant hyper-kinetic zombie flick 28 Days Later. What we can say is that if any animal rights group in real life were ever as idiotic as the one depicted in this film; their protests would never even make it to the public before they blundered into their inevitable demise.
The animal rights group seen at the beginning of the film see fit to get the plot going via releasing a set of apes who have been infected with an extremely contagious, deadly, and dangerous strain of virus simply named “Rage”.
Cheery moniker, what could go wrong?
In fairness to the creators, the animal rights group are not the only ones depicted as absolute clowns in this bizarre opener, as the scientists urging them to stop warn them “They’ve got Rage!” As if the virus is a well-known contagion like malaria or Ebola, and the sentence isn’t just a silly non-sequitur which would do nothing to deter them from their dumb decision.