10 Movie Deaths That Totally Trolled Audiences

3. Paul Conroy - Buried

This low-budget suspense thriller stars Ryan Reynolds as Paul Conroy, an American contractor buried alive in Iraq with no apparent means of escape.

Buried is a deliciously intense, superbly directed one-man show which takes place entirely inside a coffin, serving as an impeccable showcase for Reynolds' acting chops in the process.

And it's fair to say that Reynolds' involvement prompted most audiences to assume that, at the end of the film's palm-sweating rollercoaster ride, he'd be rescued.

But to the surprise of just about everybody, that isn't in fact the case.

Buried does a fantastic job turning the screws tight in its third act, with hostage negotiator Dan Brenner (Robert Paterson) desperately racing against time to save Conroy, with Brenner telling Conroy that he saved a man, Mark White, from a similar situation several weeks prior.

But in the film's final moments, Brenner and his team arrive at Conroy's apparent location, only to open the coffin and find that they've been led to the grave of Mark White. Not only did Brenner lie about rescuing him, but there's now no chance of Conroy being saved.

Sand then fills Conroy's coffin as Brenner apologises to him, the movie ends and that's all she wrote.

Given that Conroy's survival certainly would've felt earned by the end of this 95-minute romp, it was genuinely shocking that director Rodrigo Cortés stayed committed to a bleak ending all the way to the finish line.