5. Chief Brody - Jaws: The Revenge
Here's another lame off-screen death that purposely compromises the integrity of a great movie character for no other reason than to roll out a lame sequel story: in this case,
Jaws: The Revenge clings to the notion that a great white shark could consciously target the Brody family in the aftermath of the other movies, given all the damage that Brody and inflicted upon its kind previously. To up the dramatic tension, I guess, the filmmakers behind this truly awful abomination open with a shocking revelation: Chief Brody has died from a heart attack. What? Why? Well, apparently he was overcome with fear because of the all the shark-related trauma he'd experienced in life, which makes no real sense given that he defeated them on both occasions. The worst thing about this, though, is that a character as awesome and iconic as Brody gets killed off-screen by something as lame as a heart attack - a heart attack induced by a fear of sharks,
which happened when the guy was on land, years later! Roy Scheider refused to reprise his role for a third time, of course, which is why this absurd idea was written in. Horrifying.