10 War Films Where The Villain Kills The Hero
Only the dead see the end of war.
As is the mantra with many war films, death is not romantic. Many do not get a heroic send-off and are unceremoniously killed off by other unnamed, unseen and unknown soldiers.
The heroic deaths tend to be reserved for the main character.
The enemy could be a persistent force, an enemy general or someone on your side whose moral compass is a distance shy of 'good'. For the heroes of these movies, death is waiting patiently for them.
The deaths of the main characters in these films feel genuine and thus carry emotional weight. There are a number of films, however, in which our rugged protagonists withstand insurmountable odds to reach the end credits, but often is the case that this feels disingenuous to the realities of war.
War is an ugly, haunting reality that millions of people have faced for thousands of years. This is a list of some stories that Hollywood felt warranted telling.
Of course, some are completely fictional in terms of the scenarios and plots surrounding the main characters, but the realistic depictions of warfare are no fantasy.
War has heroes. Not all heroes survive.
MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD
10. Pearl Harbor (2001)
In a tale of two main characters - best friends Rafe McCawley and Danny Walker - we follow their complicated love triangle before the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces in December 1941.
Putting their love-lives aside, the pair of USAAC fighter pilots spring into action in the defence of the ship fleet, commandeering a P-40 airplane and launching a counter-attack.
The USA declares war on Japan the following day, and Danny and Rafe are set to be deployed in the war effort from California. Instead, they volunteer for a secret mission to bomb Tokyo using specially modified aircraft.
The bombing run is successful but their plane crashes in Japan before it can reach allied China.
They are held at gunpoint by a group of Japanese soldiers, and after a valiant effort to escape Rafe seems all but dead after he runs out of ammunition.
Instead, Danny throws himself into the volley of oncoming bullets, saving his best friend but losing his own life in the process.