3. Neo - The Matrix
The Death: Just as Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) leave The Matrix, Neo (Keanu Reeves) is ambushed by Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving), and shot dead.
The Resurrection: Back in reality, Trinity is watching Neo's life drain away before her, so she whispers in his ear that the Oracle told her she would fall in love with The One. She proceeds to kiss him, which allows Neo to stage a miraculous comeback in The Matrix, and destroy Agent Smith (albeit only temporarily).
Why He Should Have Stayed Dead: Not only would it have been a shocking way to defy convention, but the whole "love conquers all" shtick is head-smackingly corny, and it's never clearly conveyed how a freaking
kiss manages to bring him back from what his brain would surely interpret as death (and therefore, cause him to die). The key suggestion online seems to be that Trinity whispering in Neo's ear and kissing him allowed him, on a sub-conscious level, to understand that what he was experiencing in The Matrix was not real, and therefore be unaffected by the bullets. Still pretty hokey if you ask me.