10 Movie Characters Who Had To Die To Win

We’re not sure whether this one counts, strictly speaking, since Alfred Molina’s tragic villain Doctor Octopus only decides to change his plan and sacrifice himself at the last second—and it’s to stop a plan he himself put in motion.

Nonetheless, none of us are without sin, and Otto Octavius does redeem himself in the closing moments of Sam Raimi’s still-underrated superhero classic Spider-Man 2. When unmasked by Peter Parker and temporarily subdued, Octavius has a change of heart and abandons his mad scientist nuclear-fusion scheme, an ambitious experiment which carries the risk of, you know, eradicating New York city if it succeeds (we think: it’s still a little unclear just what Doc Oc’s plan was, so answers on the back of a postcard if you’ve got them).

In the process Doc Oc redeems himself, dying as a man rather than a monster as he uses his nigh-on indestructible tentacles for good and destroys his experiment just in time to save Spidey and his love interest Mary Jane—but at the cost of his own life.