12 Movie Deaths You Knew Were Coming (That Still Broke You)

This one wasn’t just foreshadowing—beleaguered suburban dad/ mid-life crisis suffering everymen Lester Burnham tells us during his open narration that he’s close to death, before deciding to wax philosophical about the constraints of society and ideology instead of, you know, hinting at how this is going to happen.

As a result, the audience is so invested in Lester getting back his mojo that we completely forget his foreboding opening narration whilst Sam Mendes’ hypnotic and enthralling Oscar winner unfolds.

We’re too busy watching Thora Birch and Wes Bentley’s tentative romance, Mena Suvari’s career-best turn as a bitchy high schooler barely veiling her innocence, and Chris Cooper’s wildly underrated brittle performance as a self-hating marine to recall that these are Lester’s last days alive—then comes the devastating climax, wherein everything seems sadder for its brutal inevitability.