10 Movie Characters Destroyed By The Fourth Wall

Ripley would be dead if not for a camer-man and a wind chime...

By Jack Pooley /

20th Century Fox

The fourth wall is of course the perspective from which the audience witnesses a movie unfold, and as per typical filmmaking convention, the actors don't draw attention to this invisible line or make any attempt to interact with the audience.

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But of course, some movies, especially comedies, do indeed make an active effort to break the fourth wall and address viewers, be it by way of a wink-wink gag or straight-up directly speaking to them as though it were a one-on-one conversation.

Fourth wall breaks are generally played for laughs, yes, but every so often it can actually have a significant impact on the plot, or better yet, drastically affect the fates of the movie's characters.

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These 10 movies all condemned characters, be they heroes or villains, protagonists or minor characters, to grim ends, be it a brutal death or a lifetime in jail.

But had each film maintained the fourth wall that conventional cinema demands, these characters' fates would've all fared decidedly more favourably...

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