10 Surprisingly Violent Deaths In Family Friendly Movies

6. Admiral Marcus (Star Trek Into Darkness)

Admiral Marcus dies
Paramount

Current BBFC Rating: 12 (12a in cinemas).

Cause Of Death: Head crushed.

Star Trek Into Darkness is, for the most part, a fun-filled cosmic adventure that doesn't get too dark, or heavy-hitting - that is, however, until we get to the death of Admiral Marcus toward the film's end.

After giving Kirk a couple of hearty punches and casually breaking Carol Marcus' leg like it was bamboo, Benedict Cumberbatch's Khan sets his sights on the shifty Admiral.

Once he catches up to the man, he doesn't knock him out and kill him later, or beat him to death, or shoot him. Oh no. He grabs his head and slowly crushes it until it pops, a moment accompanied by a sound effect that can only be described as 'stomach-churning'.

Seriously. Listen to that bite over and over. It's sickening. While the gore remains entirely offscreen, sometimes it's what you don't see that's the scary bit, and this death sticks out like a sore thumb among the rest of the movie's toned-down, family-friendly violence.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!