10 Movie Franchises That Stupidly Killed Off Their Best Character

Though Final Destination's original protagonist was Alex Browning (Devon Sawa), because scheduling issues prevented Devon Sawa from returning for the sequel, he was given an (undeniably lame) off-screen death-by-brick, at which point the series' lead became his love interest from the first movie, Clear Rivers (Ali Larter).

And Clear had by far the most interesting arc of any character in the franchise - in the second film, following Alex's sudden remise she admitted herself to a psych ward, hoping that the padded walls and hermetically sealed environment would prevent Death from being able to reach her.

Yet when Clear is approached by the movie's new group of doomed survivors, she reluctantly leaves her self-imposed confinement to help them, seemingly cementing her as the Final Destination series' badass heroine.

Except, not quite.

Ultimately Clear is suddenly killed in a hospital explosion at the end of the movie, leaving the only survivors as Kim (A. J. Cook) and Officer Burke (Michael Landes).

And what a waste it was. The remaining films in the series struggled to introduce a single character as memorable as Clear, and while the franchise's entire premise is that death comes for everyone eventually, saving Clear's demise for a later sequel would've given it much greater emotional impact.