10 Rushed Movie Deaths That Had No Emotional Impact

Everyone has that one movie, a work that they're experiencing with awe, losing their minds for the creative and narrative craft on display. It comes to a pivotal moment, a death scene that is supposed to shake the film and viewer's reaction up intensely, and it doesn't hit in the way it should. This happens with lots of films, good and bad, it's hard to juggle dozens of elements of storytelling and filmmaking to make every loss feel as substantial as it should.

An understanding of how easy it is to make a death scene not feel critically vital isn't a deterrent from criticism however, as all of these films had huge potential in these areas that still bother a lot of us to this day.

While many of these films are good (or at least interesting) and a discourse around a particular area doesn't equal dislike, it should be warned that you'll likely disagree with at least one of the entries on this list. Emotional reactions are all unique and it's more than okay if you felt a substantial reaction to a death scene here, try to take comfort in the fact that you got to feel something important that not everyone had the chance to.

This will obviously contain major plot spoilers for a variety of recent films so caution is advised, however there won't be any Rise of Skywalker mentions so those who haven't seen that film can read to their heart's content.

Say what you will about Christopher Nolan's propensity for the deaths of women in his films as a source of narrative progression, at least in most of his other films, it seems to mean something. The death of Rachel Dawes in The Dark Knight, the spectre of Mal Cobb in Inception, even the lingering absence of Leonard Shelby's wife in Memento, these all feel important and are boosted by their leading actor's selling of anguish.

While the death of Talia (also known as Miranda Tate for the majority of the film) serves a different purpose in the story than in those examples, the relationship that she had with Bruce Wayne and the subsequent betrayal should matter a lot more than it did.

Bruce's character in this sequel is more distant and broken, even before the literal decimation of his mind and body by Bane, his intimacy is stunted by his failings as Batman and the loss of his love Rachel in The Dark Knight. He is struggling emotionally so badly that even his father figure Alfred cannot bear to watch him break himself anymore. So his romantic tryst with Marion Cotillard's character should mean something, the betrayal and reveal of her relationship to a former enemy and her death in front of him should all have an impact..

However, the emotions of the coda are limited by a clustered finale and infamous overacting from Cotillard's part at the moment of death. Bale is an incredible actor but other Nolan films have relied on their lead's anguish to make it feel like it matters, but he doesn't sell the betrayal or the conflicting feelings of loss at all. Even as just a villain death, it comes quickly out of nowhere and lacks the impact it should have.