10 Shocking Movie Deaths That Came Out Of NOWHERE
What just happened?!
As Ralph Fiennes says in the recent legacy sequel 28 Years Later, "There are many different kinds of death. Some better than others."
That definitely applies to movie deaths, too, for there are so many different ways in which a filmmaker can kill off their characters, yet it's arguable that many of the best movie deaths are those which come out of absolutely nowhere. That kind of rug-pull is always a joy to watch, and these are often the demises that really linger with audiences for years afterward. Sometimes, they've even been the primary thing their films were remembered for.
Who could ever forget Samuel L Jackson's brilliant death scene in the shark-themed B-movie Deep Blue Sea? Or the bus death from Final Destination? Or a certain death from Ari Aster's Hereditary that was so shocking, viewers thought they were being tricked? And of course, there's Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, which changed cinematic conventions altogether by unexpectedly killing off its lead character halfway through.
Those are some of the most well-known surprise death scenes, but they're far from the only ones. The following ten will also leave you staring open-mouthed at the screen, and many of these scenes are also criminally underrated.
10. Die Hard 2 - Corporal Telford
Die Hard 2 is a bit of a mixed bag, and it's probably the weakest of the good Die Hard films (i.e. anything aside from the fifth one!), but it does have plenty going for it, and one of its strongest assets is a razor-sharp surprise villain twist late in the movie.
The movie sees deranged US Colonel William Stuart (William Sadler) taking over Dulles International Airport and jeopardizing thousands of airborne passengers. He demands that a villainous foreign general (Franco Nero) be allowed to land safely and escape, or he'll crash the planes. John McClane (Bruce Willis), whose wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia) is on one of the planes, fights to stop them and gets assistance from various others, including a counter-terrorism squad led by Major Grant (John Amos).
One of Grant's team is a rookie, Corporal Telford (Patrick O'Neal), who's only there because the usual guy got Appendicitis. Later, while the team is on the road, they are reminiscing about a past mission. Telford expresses regret he wasn't there, and Grant replies, "Yeah, me too, kid." "Really, Sir?" Telford responds.
"Sure. Or we wouldn't have to do this."
Grant then cuts the poor man's throat, revealing in the coldest way imaginable that he and his whole team are allied with Colonel Stuart. This was a fantastic twist, whichever way you cut it, and one of the very best moments in the film.