5. Private Mellish (Adam Goldberg) - Saving Private Ryan (1998)
An absolutely harrowing death scene comes in the midst of one of the most ill-conceived action sequences in recent movie history (seriously Spielberg, a Dirty Dozen homage to cap off a bleak reconstruction of the D-Day landings? Thats like putting a pie fight at the end of Schindlers List). Any soldiers death in a war movie is enough to make you fear conscription whatever the weather, but Mellishs fruitless struggle to cling on to life as a German soldier slowly forces a knife into his heart is one of the most chilling. Its the Americans shrieking death throes and bloody gargling, as well as his desperate plees for his assailant to stop that really hammer the message home. The hulking German brute lullabying Mellish to permanent sleep may think hes helping, but really hes just warning a generation about the perils of trying to beat the Nazis in hand-to-hand combat.