20 Most Important Film Deaths This Decade

3. Luke Glanton - The Place Beyond The Pines (2013)

The Place Beyond the Pines is a movie that completely defies regular categorisation. Derek Cianfrance's follow-up to his superb Blue Valentine is an epic, sprawling crime drama packed with excellent performances, though one that ended up being shockingly curtailed was Ryan Gosling's turn as the seeming protagonist, motorcycle stuntman-turned-bank robber Luke Glanton. Luke tries to rob another bank, but this time things don't go as planned, and he ends up being pursued by the cops. After falling off his bike, he desperately runs inside a nearby house, where police officer Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper) gives chase. Luke is stuck in an upstairs room when Avery enters, shooting him and causing him to fall out of the window, hitting the concrete below before quickly turning into a bloody mess. That's right, folks, the guy who was clearly marketed as the star to see the movie for dies at the end of the first act, and the rest of the movie follows the years that pass and how Luke's death affects everyone involved, from his family to Cross himself. It's an extremely ballsy move, and one that was concealed cleverly by sly marketing. Thankfully taking Gosling out of the frame wasn't a mere shock tactic, and resting on the shoulders of actors as talented as Cooper and Dane DeHaan (as Gosling's son), the movie certainly didn't suffer from his absence.