25 Greatest Film Deaths This Century

25. Bridget von Hammersmark - Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Revisionist WWII flick Inglourious Basterds is one of Quentin Tarantino’s best films, bringing together his iconic dialogue scenes and love of bloodshed in a narrative that anyone can get behind: a rag-tag group of soldiers and civilians concoct conflicting plans to terminate Nazi Germany's leaders in a Paris cinema.

Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) is an undercover Allied agent who, after narrowly escaping from a bar shootout with some German soldiers, minus her shoe, comes up against SS Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) and doesn’t live to tell the tale. Her final scene mirrors the tension of the film’s opening, when Landa is interrogating a rural family harbouring Jews under their floorboards. But this time, we know the game he’s playing from the start, and although Bridget thinks that if she holds her nerve she might escape, once Landa slips the missing shoe onto her foot, the game’s up and he strangles the life from her.

This is one of the most understated and overlooked kills of Inglourious Basterds, and it’s not hard to see why, given the unholy bloodshed in the film that surrounds it. But it’s unique and notable for Tarantino because it feels and looks so authentic - not overdone, no scenery chewing, just hard tension and a woman being choked to death.

Plus, when it came to getting the close-up, Tarantino himself donned the military jacket, his hands became the unscripted stunt-doubles for Waltz’s, and another legendary death scene was written in the Hollywood annals.