10 Movie Heroes Forced To Kill For The Greater Good
9. Superman Breaks Zod - Man Of Steel
As anyone with half an idea of what Superman means will be able to tell you, Krypton's most famous son has a fairly tight no-killing code at the core of his moral being. If he can avoid it (and it's wrong to say he's NEVER killed in the comics or in movies before), Supes prefers non-lethal methods of protecting his charges on Earth.
When he was faced with Zod in Man Of Steel, though, he seemed to have no choice. Despite the contradiction of him not killing EVERY potential threat to him or the people of Earth to save innocents, Superman snaps Zod's neck in anguish to stop him from killing an innocent family. It's an almighty show of strength, but more than anything it was designed to show that Superman could do the most difficult things in the name of the bigger picture.
It's been a point of serious contention since the film's release, but it actually made the Blue Boy Scout more interesting - a rare case of Snyder's eye for darkness improving things massively.