10 Ballsy Movies That Kill Off A Major Star In The First Act
6. Southpaw (Rachel McAdams)
You may not be completely in love with Rachel McAdams due to her somewhat spotty record on the big screen. She hops between serious dramas, goofy comedies, and cornball romance fare like a rabbit with indiscriminate tastes and a nasty cocaine habit. That's bound to leave some people a little lukewarm.
But even the most avid Notebook haters were probably a little shocked and upset when McAdams took a bullet to the stomach in the first 20 minutes of Southpaw.
Though her death is far from a cheap stunt - it's used to propel the entirety of Jake Gyllenhaal's emotional story arc - you do have to feel just a little cheated at how abruptly she falls out of the picture. After all, if you believed the movie poster, the relationship between McAdams and Gyllenhaal was Southpaw's primary focus.
She looked like she was going to be the Adrian to Gyllenhaal's Rocky. Which is still kind of true, but only if you think of her as the version of Adrian who died off screen between Rocky V and Rocky Balboa.
The actual core story in Southpaw is between Gyllenhaal and Oona Laurence, who plays his daughter, Leila.