10 Sci-Fi Movie Deaths That No One Saw Coming
7. Godzilla—Brody
A Godzilla movie starring Bryan Cranston as the hero? Nice!
When Monsters director Gareth Edwards was tapped to direct 2014’s Godzilla reboot, fans should have known something was up. The director subverted audience expectations masterfully with that 2010 debut, wherein the eponymous threat was barely seen and the film’s real focus was on the interpersonal drama of its everyday characters.
So when Edwards announced that Bryan Cranston, then fresh off his career best run on Breaking Bad, would play the hero of this monster horror, the subversion should have been obvious.
But he’s Bryan Cranston! And he’s playing a heroic science guy! Forget nebbish dweeb Matthew Broderick in the 1998 Roland Emmerich disaster, this is the hero Godzilla needs.
Wait, why is he falling ill only a half hour into the movie?
Why is everything so sombre all of a sudden?
What do you mean, “Edwards pulls off another masterful subversion”?
The death is brutal and effective, a sudden jarring shift which leaves viewers unmoored and unsure who will make it, managing to make every life matter in a movie where entire swathes of a city can be wiped out in an instant.