25 Greatest Film Deaths This Century

To date, the deepest and most thematically-rich film in the MonsterVerse, Kong: Skull Island is a Vietnam War movie without either Vietnam or war. The mysterious island Kong inhabits in the Pacific draws the US government’s attention, and a rag-tag band of soldiers, contractors and the like are sent to investigate.

Once there, they come face to face with monsters of all kinds, and discover that giant ape Kong can be reasoned with - as well as being their only defence against the subterranean, reptilian "Skullcrawlers", which have brought Kong’s species to the brink of extinction.

Military Captain Earl Cole (Shea Whigham) is far from a main character, but he does have the best death scene. Faced with the onslaught of a big, bad Skullcrawler, Cole hangs back to sacrifice himself and save his team. He tells them to "go live their lives", gives a cheeky grin and then pulls a grenade, intending to get eaten by the beast and blow it to hell.

But this is immediately undercut as the creature sweeps him away with one flick of its tail, exploding him into the side of a hill. It’s a rare film that mashes heroism of this sort up against some balls-out gallows humour, and while we feel cheated of the promised moment, the comedy of it offers us an unexpected outlet. And, yes, you should feel guilty for laughing, but that's kind of the point. There ain't no heroes in 'Nam.