10 Shocking Movie Character Deaths That Came Out Of Nowhere

Heroes who bought it! Sharp blades meeting soft necks! Women who can't see vehicles coming!

Layer Cake Daniel Craig
Sony Pictures Classics

There are few things quite as startling as when a flick unexpectedly offs a character with no prior warning. Sure, many films take her opposite approach and do well—a tense thriller can build toward a casualty slowly and deliberately, amping up suspense before finally dropping the hammer on the poor unfortunate soul, and the horror genre is infamous for dragging out the demises of its cannon fodder for excruciating sequences before putting them and the audience out of their shared misery.

But across all genres the sudden surprise death is a ubiquitous trope infamous for shocking audiences, leaving them unable to guess what’s coming next or whom amongst the central cast are likely to survive. Popping in everything from gangster movies, to road movies, to even the odd romance, there’s nothing quite like a brutal death out of nowhere to leave viewers reeling and unsure what to expect next.

With this in mind, here are ten movie deaths we had no idea were coming, and the films which blindsided is with them.

10. Jody Domergue - The Hateful Eight

Layer Cake Daniel Craig
The Weinstein Company

Poor Channing Tatum.

By 2015 the Step Up star had the world in his hands. Fresh off the success of the blockbuster cop comedy series 21 Jump Street, the actor had begun experimenting with artier fare to great acclaim. Whether it was the semi-autobiographical Magic Mike series created alongside indie legend Steven Soderbergh or the darker sports drama Foxcatcher, Tatum was wowing audiences and critics at every turn. And now he was appearing in a Tarantino film!

No doubt the megawatt star would play a pivotal role, or at least get himself a lot more screen time than his character actors co-stars like Tim Roth and Walter Goggins.

Fans of the actor must have been confused and frustrated by his absence for the opening half of the interminably long claustrophobic western, but patience paid off as we discovered Tatum and his co-conspirators has been beneath the floorboards, orchestrating proceedings out of sight this entire time. What a twist!

Almost as surprising as Tatum’s character getting his skull blown to pieces twenty seconds after finally appearing onscreen. It’ll be a miracle if Tatum’s fandom ever sits down to another Tarantino flick.

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Cathal Gunning hasn't written a bio just yet, but if they had... it would appear here.