8 Movie Heroes You Didn't Realise Probably Died Horrible Deaths

7. LaBoeuf - True Grit (2010)

The "Heroic" Ending...

True Grit is one of those rare movie remakes that actually works - so much so, in fact, that it might even be considered better than the original flick. And we owe that primarily to the Coen Brothers, whose screenplay was consistently excellent, and to some great performances from Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon and newcomer Hailee Steinfeld.

The movie ends in a heroic fashion, with Bridges' man of "true grit," U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn, taking on a dangerous posse single-handily, whilst Damon's character, LaBeouf, makes a one-in-a-million shot across a valley to save his friend. Then, riding through the night with an injured Mattie Ross, wholly determined to save her life, Cogburn departs from LaBeouf, who is too injured to ride. The movie ends with Mattie alive, and Cogburn a hero. Woo!

But wait...

Matt Damon's character, LaBeouf, was seriously injured when he was left alone in the middle of nowhere - he'd been bashed on the head with a rock, a hit hard enough to knock him unconscious and trigger a concussion, and was is likely low on supplies and food. Not to mention he'd bitten off half his tongue in a previous scene, and is noticeably delirious from his injury.

Not enough to justify his apparent death, you say? Well, in the original movie from the '60s, the LaBeouf character (played by Glen Campbell) actually succumbs and dies from exactly the same wound - a rock to the head. The whole thing is made even more obvious here, though, when an older Mattie actually comments that she never saw LaBeouf again. Why not? Surely he would have tried to find out if she was okay after everything they'd been through?

Nope: the likelihood is that he died right there on the ridge, and coyotes ate his body or something.