25 Greatest Film Deaths This Century

No list of 21st-century movie deaths would be complete without an entry from The Lord of the Rings, and one death shines above the rest.

The Fellowship of the Ring introduces us to warring Middle-earth. On the one side are disparate groups of elves, men, dwarves, and hobbits, all seeking the survival of their people but using greatly differing methods. On the other side, a unified force of orcs, uruks, and other nasties under Lord Sauron, an unsightly orange blob that sits atop a tower, compelling unthinking hordes to do his bidding.

Champions of good unite in a small fellowship to take the One Ring - Sauron’s greatest weapon - behind enemy lines and cast it into the volcano it was forged in. Among them is Frodo (Elijah Wood), the hobbit ringbearer; Boromir (Sean Bean), heir to the stewardship of Gondor, the great city of men; and Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), direct descendant of the ancient King Isildur.

In the movie’s final sequence, Boromir comes to the defence of his hobbit companions, and in the process is shot down by uruk leader Lurtz (Lawrence Makoare). But despite taking arrow after arrow to the chest, he keeps fighting, slaying the uruks to their last. It’s an epic piece of badassery unparalleled in other fantasy films, and allows Boromir redemption after attempting to take the Ring from Frodo. Spent, he departs with his last immortal words to Aragorn, "I would have followed you, my brother, my captain, my king."