10 Movie Villains Who Tried To Cheat Death

1. Palpatine - Star Wars

His Plan: Palpatine aka Darth Sidious wanted to achieve immortality so he could rule over the galaxy forever more, using the powers learned by his master, Darth Plagueis, to eventually grant himself eternal life.

What Happened?: It's kept somewhat ambiguous, in the movies at least, exactly how much Palpatine learned from Plagueis before killing him, though it doesn't really matter considering he ends up thrown down the Death Star's reactor shaft by Darth Vader in Return of the Jedi anyway.

Though he does posthumously re-appear in various forms throughout the Expanded Universe, the canonical re-shuffle of recent years essentially jettisons it from the official continuity. In every sense of the word, then, Palpatine is as dead as a doornail. Nice try, though.

Which villainous attempt to cheat death entertained you the most? Got any others to add? Shout it out in the comments!