Top 10 Worst Ways To Die In Movies
Man, what a way to go! Welcome to WatchMojo.com, and today we're counting down our picks for the Top 10 Worst Ways to Die in Movies. For this list, we're ranking the most painful, violent, or just downright cringe-inducing methods of death visualized in cinema.
Special thanks to our user Opst3r for submitting the idea using our interactive suggestion tool at http://www.WatchMojo.comsuggest
#10: Devoured by Zombies “Day of the Dead” (1985)
It can be easy to forget, given today’s zombie-friendly climate, just how shocking “death by the undead” was back in the genre’s earlier heyday. This style of demise is slow, agonizing, and demonstrated with vicious realism in George A. Romero’s 1985 classic “Day of the Dead,” as the villainous Captain Rhodes meets his end at the hands (and teeth) of a zombie horde. The best part: Rhodes’ defiant taunt of “choke on ‘em!” as the heroic zombie solider Bub looks on and salutes his fallen former tormentor.
#9: When Carnictis Attack “King Kong” (2005)
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Director Peter Jackson’s big budget remake of the iconic “King Kong” was notable for some pretty impressive CGI set pieces, including this scene where Carl Denham’s expedition to Skull Island encounters some serious bugs who don’t exactly take kindly to visitors. One member of Denham’s crew suffers a particularly nasty fate when a slimy worm-like creature swallows him alive head first, gruesomely digesting him while his screams echo to his hapless crewmates, all of whom are fighting off bug attacks of their own. It’s a disturbing scene that still manages to give us the willies every time we watch.
#8: Dinner for a Tyrannosaurus Rex “Jurassic Park” (1993)
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Squaring off against a Tyrannosaurus Rex is never a battle anyone wants to endure, but it’s made exponentially worse when one happens to be sitting on a toilet. Unfortunately, this is exactly what happens to lawyer Donald Gennaro when a devastating T-Rex runs roughshod in the original “Jurassic Park.” Gennaro is attempting to hide from the rampaging dinosaur king, but is soon discovered and devoured in what is one of the franchise’s most iconic scenes. Gennaro may live through Michael Crichton’s original novel, but his death in this big screen adaptation remains a classic.
#7: Shark Attack! “Jaws” (1975)
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Much has been said of the mechanical issues director Steven Spielberg encountered during the production of “Jaws,” leading to the decision to show as little of the shark as possible until the right moment. For us, that moment is the shocking and sudden death of Quint, the gruff, but lovable, shark hunter played by Robert Shaw. This brutal attack spares neither feelings nor sentiment when the audience is forced to witness this character they’ve come to love and admire suffering at the shark’s cruel, unrelenting jaws. It’s a scene that continues to shock and scare to this day.
#6: Human Sacrifice “Apocalypto” (2006)
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Mel Gibson is no stranger to onscreen violence and torture, with the actor’s gruesome demise in “Braveheart” still ringing loudly in our memory, but this sequence from the writer/director’s 2006 film stands out as particularly disturbing. Gibson’s tale of the Mayan culture’s twilight years is notable not only for its usage of indigenous actors and authentic language, but also for its unflinching depictions of violence, particularly during its scenes of human sacrifice. It may be the close shots of the victim’s eyes before the ceremonial knife plunges down, or it could be the numerous, shaking stab wounds, but this scene leaves us truly haunted.
#5: Bearing Witness to the Ark of the Covenant “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (1981)
There are some things that you just can’t un-see, and then there are those other things that burn out your eye sockets and melt the flesh from your bones. This was the unfortunate fate of the Nazi baddies who were arrogant enough to open the religious artifact known as the Ark of the Covenant in “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” It’s only thanks to the humility and awe shown by the captive Indy and Marion - who have their eyes tightly shut the entire time - that our heroes make it out of this heavenly wrath alive. Those Nazis? Not so much.
#4: Getting Stabbed in the Shower “Psycho” (1960)
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There are few situations more vulnerable and frightening than being accosted when you’re taking a shower, but this legendary scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” takes that paranoia and amplifies it tenfold. Not only does the lovely Janet Leigh show a daring amount of skin for 1960, but her iconic death as runaway criminal Marion Crane also set the gold standard for suspenseful slasher scenes for years to come. The mysterious, shadowed killer behind the shower curtain, Leigh’s piercingly tragic scream, the classic musical sting: it’s all the stuff of legend, and definitely one of the worst ways to die in a movie.
#3: Eaten Alive! “The Green Inferno” (2013)
Director Eli Roth’s “The Green Inferno” was an homage to the grindhouse Italian cannibal films of the 1970s and ‘80s, and nowhere is that gruesomeness more evident than in the chunk-blowing demise of Jonah on the cannibal altar of sacrifice. The kind, but tragically doomed, activist is literally ripped limb from limb and devoured by the cannibals, in shockingly gruesome detail. The tribe’s female elder thinks nothing of tearing out Jonah’s tongue, eyes, and innards, all while his friends watch helplessly from their cages. It’s a scene torn straight from the “Cannibal Holocaust” or “Cannibal Ferox” playbook - not for the weak stomached, or faint of heart.
#2: Toxic Waste Car Accident “RoboCop” (1987)
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Man, talk about two bad things that get worse when put together. Not only does one of Clarence Boddicker’s henchmen get doused in radioactive toxic waste in the original “Robocop,” but the mutated baddie is then unceremoniously splattered by a car driven by his own boss! Talk about a horrible way to die, made all the more messy by Emil’s wheezing, pained howls as his mutated skin literally melts from his bones as the waste takes its disastrous toll. This one is just gross. Before we reveal our worst way to die in the movies, here are a couple of honorable, or in this case, dishonorable mentions! Biting the Curb “American History X” (1998) Intestine Building Climbing “Machete” (2010) Decompression “Total Recall” (1990) Head Stomp “Drive” (2011) Bathtub Emasculation “I Spit on Your Grave” [aka “Day of the Woman”] (1978)
#1: Chestbursting “Alien” (1979)
The “Alien” franchise has come a long way since director Ridley Scott first introduced us to the Xenomorphs in the late ‘70s. One aspect of these creatures that remains a constant is their penchant for face-hugging their victims, laying eggs inside their human hosts, and waiting for the offspring to gestate before bursting through their chests... with bloody disastrous results. John Hurt remains the most well remembered victim of chestbursting, as evidenced by his character’s iconic death in the original film. Hurt would even satirize the scene years later in Mel Brooks’ “Spaceballs,” but for our money, the sequence still ranks as the worst way to die in a movie. Do you agree with our list? Which cinematic manner of death do you find the most horrifying? For more gruesomely fun top 10 lists published every day, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com!
