15 Best Movie Deaths Of 2017
We’re a morbid bunch, aren’t we?
Uplifting moments and happy endings are all very well and good but more often than not the most memorable scenes in movies aren’t their most upbeat. There's a far more pronounced currency around the saddest, most devastating and most gruesome moments.
Nothing sells big franchise movies like the death of a main character (and the speculation around it ahead of release), and there are whole franchises built solely on the macabre fetishism of death like Saw and Final Destination. Seemingly, we don't just like to see characters killed off, we like to see them die well.
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what makes a movie death a good movie death, but one thing is certain: whether it’s a hero, a villain or a supporting character their death has to have some sort of impact. That could be laughter, tears or stomach-churning disgust... whatever the means, it has to leave to mark.
The best movie deaths of 2017 are a mix of all these things – some are heart-wrenching and some funny, while others are gruesome and shocking. You know, the precise mix that keeps us all coming back for more...
15. Alien: Covenant – Ledward
A lot of people had quite a few not-so-nice things to say about the competence of the crew aboard the titular ship in Ridley Scott’s Alien: Covenant. While it’s true a good number of characters make some rather stupid decisions – especially for a bunch of scientists and astronauts – if people in movies made logical decisions they’d probably be pretty boring.
Case in point: security team member Ledward. While investigating Planet 4 he removes his helmet so he can smoke a cigarette and take a leak, which turns out to be a Darwin Award-worthy move when he’s infected with Neomorph spores. But if Ledward hadn’t acted so irresponsibly, we wouldn’t get what comes next: his inevitable and gruesome demise.
In a twist on the classic Xenomorph death move ‘the chest-burster’, we see the doomed Ledward start to convulse just before an infant Neomorph bursts out of his back taking his spinal cord with it in a gruesomely gratifying scene that is everything an Alien death should be.