10 Shocking Movie Deaths That Came Out Of NOWHERE

With its relatable hero (Kurt Russell), menacing villain (David Suchet), generally stellar cast, and unbearably tense plot, Executive Decision is one of the all-time great Die Hard knock-offs, and it announces this early on with a clever surprise death that'll have caught everyone off-guard. 

These days, Steven Seagal mainly works in direct-to-video films and is more famous for being a terrible person than anything else, but, regardless of his wooden acting, he was a thing in the '90s for whatever reason. In fact, aside from Russell, he was the biggest star in this movie, and as such, most would've expected his character, Colonel Austin Travis, to have a large role in the picture. 

Instead, he's the first heroic character to die. 

While Kurt Russell's intelligence analyst and a team of SEALs are boarding a hijacked plane in mid-air, the transfer goes wrong and Travis sacrifices himself to allow the other men to get onboard the plane safely. This was a really smart subversion of expectations that really upped the jeopardy, as it leaves the team without their leader, and it's things like this that make Executive Decision so criminally underrated.