10 Best Movie Deaths Of 2019

3. Murray Franklin (Joker)

once upon a time in hollywood flamethrower
Warner Bros. Pictures

Joker is a movie that's packed to the gills with standout moments, but its most compelling scene is easily the talk show sequence that concludes with the death of Robert De Niro's smarmy host, Murray Franklin.

It features some of the best acting we've seen all year, particularly from Joaquin Phoenix as the title character, who is on mesmerising form as he delivers a painfully honest speech about the miserable experience of being one of the "little guys" in society, before pulling out a gun and shooting Murray in the head.

Because of how unpredictable Arthur's behavior has become, it's a massive shock to the system to see him - without a flicker of hesitation - draw a pistol and murder a celebrity on live TV, and the way he sits there and smiles when the deed is done is, chillingly, a moment of real happiness, one of the few times in the movie that Arthur actually feels pride in himself.

While the simple action of killing someone with a gun is hardly the most creative thing we've seen in movies, it's the masterful execution of this scene that elevated Murray's death to among the best of the year.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.