25 Greatest Film Deaths This Century

Rogue One managed the unthinkable in 2016, offering up a Star Wars story that stands on its own feet while dovetailing nicely with the Saga. The film brings together a group of outcasts, terrorists, and Rebels to find those infamous Death Star plans detailing the space station’s weakness and make sure they get into the right hands.

The final sequence of the picture manages to erase all the film’s protagonists, and while each earns a worthy death, one in particular stands out. Fighting Imperial forces to transmit the plans to the Rebels, blind, Force-sensitive warrior Chirrut Îmwe (Donnie Yen) finds himself the only one able to reach a control panel that will allow communication with the Rebel fleet above the planet.

Thus, in the ultimate hero’s sacrifice, he strides out into a raging battlefield in order to save his friends and the Rebel cause, and it’s made all the extra badass by the fact that the Force literally guides and protects him from the surrounding chaos. At least it does until he reaches the panel and flips the switch, whence he is blown to hell by troopers.

But, in typical Star Wars fashion, Chirrut gets a dying word or two, cradled in the lap of his friend Baze Malbus (Jiang Wen). He assures Baze that he will always find him in the Force, passing on his mantra and his connection to his friend, however briefly.

We’re not crying, you’re crying!