25 Greatest Film Deaths This Century

The past 25 years have served up an enormous number of onscreen deaths; so many that it can often be difficult to know where to start when looking at which were the best handled by their actors, directors and editors. Well, fear no more, because we are here to steer you in the right direction.

A great death scene doesn't have just one definition, as our favourite and most hated characters die for innumerable reasons, all of which serve different purposes for the films they feature in. As such, the greatest movie deaths span all genres, serving up moments that are pure badass, steeped in romance, mind-bogglingly epic, or downright righteous. These scenes shock, entertain, do the characters justice, fulfil or release things set up by their films, and even shine light on themes and ideas far larger than the scenes themselves.

You know what we're talking about: the deeply affecting deaths we find in indie-tinged flicks like Million Dollar Baby and Monster; the epic and noble sacrifices from big franchises like Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings; and the ghastly dissections the likes of Osgood Perkins and Damien Leone have delighted in showing us in recent years. 

We're looking just at live-action movies this time around, and, of course, all fiction, because we're not interested in snuff. So wait no more: get stuck into one per year of the greatest film deaths this century. 

Revisionist WWII flick Inglourious Basterds is one of Quentin Tarantino’s best films, bringing together his iconic dialogue scenes and love of bloodshed in a narrative that anyone can get behind: a rag-tag group of soldiers and civilians concoct conflicting plans to terminate Nazi Germany's leaders in a Paris cinema.

Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) is an undercover Allied agent who, after narrowly escaping from a bar shootout with some German soldiers, minus her shoe, comes up against SS Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) and doesn’t live to tell the tale. Her final scene mirrors the tension of the film’s opening, when Landa is interrogating a rural family harbouring Jews under their floorboards. But this time, we know the game he’s playing from the start, and although Bridget thinks that if she holds her nerve she might escape, once Landa slips the missing shoe onto her foot, the game’s up and he strangles the life from her.

This is one of the most understated and overlooked kills of Inglourious Basterds, and it’s not hard to see why, given the unholy bloodshed in the film that surrounds it. But it’s unique and notable for Tarantino because it feels and looks so authentic - not overdone, no scenery chewing, just hard tension and a woman being choked to death.

Plus, when it came to getting the close-up, Tarantino himself donned the military jacket, his hands became the unscripted stunt-doubles for Waltz’s, and another legendary death scene was written in the Hollywood annals.