10 Movie Deaths That Completely Ruined You
6. The Shawshank Redemption - Brooks
The Shawshank Redemption has long been lauded as one of the best, if not THE best, film of all time, sitting comfortably at the top of IMDb’s top 250 for as long as anyone can be bothered to remember. As such, it’s no surprise that there’s one big fat death scene that will render you a blubbering mess: and of course, it’s that of Brooks that takes the honour.
The librarian and soft soul of Shawshank State Prison, Brooks Hatlen’s 50 year-long rehabilitation has seen the now-elderly man become used to his institutionalised way of life. So when a parole is granted and he’s let free into a world he no longer recognises, he takes his fate into his own hands.
Watching a man play out his own suicide through a penned letter to the inmates is deeply upsetting, even more so when he carves ‘Brooks was here’ onto the beam he then hangs himself from. He was nothing but good, despite whatever his crime may have been - watching him suffer from a system that failed him is a terrible reflection of our actual societal inadequacies.