10 Movies That Weren’t Brave Enough To Kill The Main Character

9. Professor X - X-Men: The Last Stand

I could almost give The Last Stand as a whole a pass just for the Professor's death scene. Almost. As much of a fumble the handling of the Phoenix was, her final interaction with Charles Xavier was fairly heart-wrenching. As Jean overcomes her surrogate father's mental defences, she telekinetically lifts him out his chair, whilst Wolverine desperately stabs his way across the ceiling to try and stop her. We even get Magneto calling out for his old friend's safety, a nice nod to the respect and former friendship toward the two. Time comes to a standstill, and Xavier gives his last piece of advice to Jean; "Don't let it control you." This sequence was as well done as it could have been; amid all the chaos it played out slowly, carefully and emotionally.

And then in the post-credits scene Xavier abandons all his own morals and steals the body of a comatose lookalike. For the audience, it removes any emotion we may have had built up in the death scene. There was also no reason to bring him back, really. X-Men comics have functioned without Charles Xavier on-and-off for decades. His pupils also tend to grow more as characters without their erstwhile teacher around. At least this footnote-resurrection legitimately meant we could have Patrick Stewart back for Days Of Future Past. Not that Singer would have been stopped anyway; I'm sure he would've brought back the Professor simply because he damn well pleased.