10 Painfully Emotional Dog Deaths In Movies
5. Turner & Hooch
It's easy to deride a buddy cop-dog movie where a french mastiff teaches a young Tom Hanks how to be one of the guys, but Turner & Hooch has got a heart of gold to make up for its flagrant silliness.
An obsessively tidy police investigator, Scott Turner (Tom Hanks), finds himself caring for a boisterous and particularly slobbery french mastiff, Hooch, who may be the only witness to his owners murder. Naturally the two don't get along at first, but they learn to love each other as the film progresses so that towards the end of the film Turner is more laid back and Hooch is slightly more obedient.
The two manage to track down the crooks responsible for the murder, stumbling across a drug-smuggling operation in the process, the final bust goes awry and Hooch bravely leaps into the fray, saving Turner but receiving a fatal gunshot wound for his efforts. Turner rushes Hooch to a vet, only to find that nothing can be done for him.
Hanks, who lends some much needed acting muscle to the production, performs Turners emotional breakdown wonderfully. Turner and Hooch worked so well together that you'd be forgiven for thinking that their story would have a happy ending. Instead we get a stirring send-off worthy of one of cinema's finest pooches.