Top 10 Most Shocking Moments in TMNT

“TMNT” (2007)

In this animated film, the red banded turtle becomes the crimefighter known as the Nightwatcher. When Leo discovers this, he scolds Raph for playing the lone wolf. Leo then takes it a step further by saying that he's the superior ninja. As you can imagine, Raph doesn't take it well. The sai wielding turtle does prove himself to be the better fighter. But we didn't expect him to break Leo's katanas and nearly kill him in a duel. Let's face it, this fight has been a long time coming. We've seen the teacher's pet and resident hothead bicker for years. But that doesn't make the outcome of their duel any less surprising.

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” (2012-2017)

Although some TMNT stories can be pretty absurd, the heroes in a half shell still face pretty grim and grounded situations. Take the episode "Requiem" from the 2012 series. In a final battle with a mutant Shredder, Splinter briefly appears to have won the fight. That is until a pair of massive blades are suddenly driven right through his body. And if there was any doubt that Splinter might have survived, he's then thrown off a roof to his death. His family is powerless to do anything to save him. Splinter’s ultimate fate wasn't totally out of the realm of possibility. After all, the show was coming to a close. But this death still felt unreal.

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” (2003-09)

There's a reason Leonardo is the team leader. He's the most competent and mature of his brothers. And in this duel with the Shredder, he proves to be the deadliest. In part 3 of "Return to New York", he wields the powerful sword of Tengu against his arch enemy. But he doesn't just kill him. He straight up slices Oroku's head off in one swing. It's revealed shortly after that the Shredder somehow survived in yet another jaw dropping reveal (xref). But as far as Leo knew, he just decapitated a human being. Even for a superhero show, that's surprisingly violent.

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” (2003-09)

No matter the era, the Rat King has remained horrifying across all iterations of the Turtles. In this particular episode, he comes face to face with the team and tries to feed them to his rats. That's a scary enough premise on its own. But it only gets worse. At the episode's climax, Leo and the Rat King duke it out above hundreds of hungry rats. When Leo comes out on top, he kicks the villain right into the sea of rodents without hesitation. We were shocked that Leo could be so ruthless. But in the most terrifying reveal, it’s shown that the Rat King emerged unscathed from the sea of rats and was getting ready for revenge.

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” (1990)

The franchise initially became popular through the lighthearted 80's cartoon. However, their foray into live action leaned more on the dark source material. And nothing represents its tone better than the unexpected death of its main villain. In the film, the Shredder is defeated when he falls off a roof and plummets into a garbage truck. It's a drop that likely would kill just about anyone. But Casey Jones doesn't leave it to chance. With somewhat disturbing glee, he activates the truck's compactor and crushes him to death. We even get to see Shredder’s helmeted head cave in. Of course, the sequel "Secret of the Ooze" retcons this. But his first death left an impact nonetheless. Even the 2012 rendition of this moment was startling.

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” (2003-09)

This particular scientific mishap became the most horrifying part of the 2003 series. When doctor Baxter Stockman creates a new body for himself, it and his sanity quickly start to deteriorate. And the results are horrendous. He then proceeds to blame everything that went wrong with his life on April O'Neil. So naturally, she becomes the target of yet another one of his schemes. Through it all, he's haunted by visions of his mother, the only one in his life who truly cared for him. Learning about his backstory did make him more sympathetic to the audience.But just when we start to understand him, his time in this body comes to an end. It's no wonder this body horror episode was initially banned from tv networks.

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” (2003-09)

The Turtles' most famous villain has had many interpretations through the years. At one point he was the man who killed Splinter's owner. He's also been depicted as a former friend of the rat sensei. Whatever the backtory, he typically remained human. But a 2003 version was a notable exception. During the show, the turtles battle the Shredder yet again and seemingly put him down for good. That is, until his chest opens up. It’s then revealed that their nemesis has been an alien in a robot body the whole time. Shredder secretly being an ancient alien was an idea so far out of left field that no one saw it coming.

“Turtles Forever” (2009)

While each entry in the franchise stands on its own, one crossover confirmed that they're all more connected than we thought. When Utrom Shredder is found by his counterpart from the 80's cartoon, he decides to take a look into other parallel dimensions. And what he finds confirmed our theories. Upon capturing his enemies, he reveals that every universe has their own version of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Everything from the live action films, to the short lived anime series, apparently all exist in a multiversal canon. Even the team from Eastman and Laird's original comic get in on the fun. While multiverse stories are fairly common nowadays, this crossover blew our mind long before we were familiar with the concept.

“Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” (2019)

This crossover has tons of epic moments we didn't know we wanted. And one of them involves a huge reveal at the very end. After the Bat family and the turtles defeat the Shredder, we learn that the big bad survived their battle at Ace Chemicals. You might recall that this is where an ordinary man fell into a chemical vat and became the Joker. But this time, it created something even deadlier. When Shredder emerges from the rubble, we see that he's been Jokerized. This isn’t the first time the villain’s had a huge upgrade. In the sequel to the original TMNT, he drank a canister of ooze and became the Super Shredder (xref). But his acid dip made for his most shocking transformation yet.

Even though this episode largely takes place in an alternate universe, the events that go down are still harrowing. When the turtles are ambushed by the villainous Ultimate Drako, Donatello is thrown into a future where he mysteriously disappeared for thirty years. Without him, the Shredder was able to defeat the turtles and take over the world. Both Splinter and Casey Jones were slain in the process. After processing those losses, Donatello then unites his brothers for one last assault against the Shredder. While their attack ultimately succeeds, Leo, Mikey, and Raph are all brutally killed in the battle. We'll never forget just how much this bone chilling episode caught us off guard.