10 Movie Characters Who Died In The Final Shot
1. Jack - The House That Jack Built
Lars von Trier is absolutely obsessed with doing this, having killed off the protagonist in the final shot of his movie numerous times.
But perhaps the most memorable - and certainly the most unexpectedly hilarious - of the bunch is in his hugely controversial psychological horror film The House That Jack Built.
Matt Dillon stars as Jack, a serial killer who recounts his various murders to Verge (Bruno Ganz) aka Vergil from Dante's Inferno, who is leading him through the nine circles of Hell.
At the very end of the film, Jack and Verge reach the ninth circle, at which point Jack notices a stairway leading out of Hell and back to Earth.
Due to the bridge to the stairway being broken, Jack attempts to scale the ninth circle's wall, climbing across to the steps. However, he ends up slipping, helplessly falling to his death in the molten abyss below.
At this point, von Trier holds on the sight of Hell's fiery mouth for a few seconds, before the shot turns negative and we smash-cut to the end credits, where Ray Charles' "Hit the Road Jack" ironically plays us out. Genius.