11 Distressed Movie Characters Who Couldn't Kill Themselves To End Their Pain
When suicide isn't an option.
Somewhat curiously, throughout film history there's a surprisingly virile thread of bungled suicide as comedy, whether it's played for outright laughs, as in Bachelor Party and The Man In The Iron Mask (with added grotesque male nudity,) or for touching pathos, as in The Full Monty and Little Miss Sunshine. Apparently the utter despair of central characters is appropriate content to inspire a few disposable chuckles. But what about the tragic examples when characters are driven to suicide, and find themselves impotently unable to carry out their singular, morbid intention. They aren't convinced to change their minds, per se, (not in the majority of cases, anyway) or overcome by the necessary moral arc of their narrative (as in the case of Travis Bickle,) instead they are the grim personification of Tantalus, compelled by desire, but restrained by tragic circumstance. In the immortal words of the almost immortal T-1000 at the climax of Terminator 2, this tragic band of characters cannot "self-terminate," regardless of how much they want to. They are the damned, doomed to live half lives, and unable to bring it all to an end thanks to circumstances, logistics or the unhelpful, unrequested assistance of Good Samaritans.