13 Crucial Death Scenes Ruined By Terrible Acting

9. Ruth's Pointless Death Is Made Worse By Terrible Acting - Dante's Peak

The Scene: Dr. Harry Dalton (Pierce Brosnan), Mayor Rachel Wando (Linda Hamilton), her two children and their grandma Ruth (Elizabeth Hoffman) are using a boat to get across an acidic lake, but the acid begins to eat away at the boat as they get closer to shore. Ruth decides to jump into the acid lake to help drag the boat to shore more quickly, after which Harry carries her to land and she dies shortly thereafter, in what's supposed to be a big, emotional, cathartic moment. Why It Sucks: For starters, it makes zero sense to jump out of the boat when it's literally just a few short feet from land, and Hoffman's hilarious screaming only makes the whole scene even more dumb. Things get funnier when Harry is carrying her through the woods and she pleads with him, "Please, stop!", and Rachel half-heartedly tries to convince Ruth that she's going to be fine, mere seconds before she dies. Granted, the cheeseball script doesn't much help here, but pretty much nobody in this scene gets away unscathed.