#24. Hawkeye
The second act of this movie is devoted to establishing that Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) has a secret family living out there somewhere, and that his wife Laura (Linda Gardellini) really wans him to quit the superhero gig before he gets himself killed. This is a lot of red flags for the future of the character.
But he somehow makes it to the end of the movie and Quicksilver (Arron Taylor-Johnson) dies instead. We never had any emotional attachment to Quicksilver, so the moment was quite surprising. The whole scene seems intended to be actually about Hawkeye but he ends up surviving the fight.
#23. Cooper And Justin In Event Horizon
The movie about a spaceship traveling to literal hell by passing through a tear in the universe really calls for a few death characters. Specially in a spaceship so haunted that the ghosts work rotating shifts. Justin (Jack Noseworthy) and Cooper (Richard T. Jones) are the members of a rescue crew sent to recover the ship, so you really don't expect them to get to the end of the film.
Justin steps into a hell portal, goes catatonic and then tries to kill himself, and he survives. He spends the rest of the movie locked in the med bay. And Cooper gets launched into the void after the ship explodes and he is somehow back on the ship in time to save the day.
#22
The classic 1996 teen slasher film revitalized the genre, while remaining true to the tradition of hiring people in their late 20s to play high schoolers. Randy (Jamie Kennedy) was the embodiment of meta approach to horror films. He's the oddball nerd who patiently explains the rules of horror movies to his costars (and the audience) as they are being murdered.
He even realizes that he is the type of character who typically gets murdered silently and then is found folded into a refrigerator or something by the film's heroine. But he survives!
#21
A group of storm chasers led by Jo (Helen Hunt) and Bill (Bill Paxton) pursue tornadoes across the mid west with no visible source of income at all. The team stops at Jo's Aunt Meg's (Lois Smith) house at some point top make some expository dialogue.
She is the type of wise old character that dies to signify the hero's lower point. So when a twister is headed to Aunt Meg's hometown, we all thought that point was coming. We could almost see her giving Jo some kind of final last words of encouragement. She does end under a pile of debris but only to spend a night at the hospital.
#20
The villain of the movie, Ocean Master (Patrick Wilson), seeks to conquer all reals of the undersea kingdom to wage war on the surface world. Aquaman (Jason Momoa) has to stop him from destroying humanity when they find out they're brothers.
Tehy have an epic battle scene, like a Lord of the Rings but underwater battle. There´s a futuristic submarine wih mermaids and crab people, even a mythological Kraken appears. But then their mother Atlanna (Nicole Kidman) shows up and makes them stop. She sends Ocean Master to his room and the fight is over.
#19
Nick Van Owen (Vince Vaughn) is a professional photographer sent with a team of scientist to document the dinosaurs on Jurassic Park's Site B. He goes to the second island made for cloning an production, but he is a really forgettable character.
First, he sabotages another expedition to prevent them from killing a tyrannosaurus. This cost the lives of many in the expedition, it´s not like the dinosaur has he capacity to understand he was saved by them and show grattitude. Then Nick disappears during one of the film´s two climaxes. We follow Ian Malcom (Jeff Goldblum) and actually expect him to trip over Nick´s severed arm or something. So it was really strange when Nick jusr appears at the last minute with a fleet of rescue helicopter. At least Ian makes it too.
#18
Heath Ledger´s performnce as The Joker was iconic, it really made him a legend. And also set an impossible standard for all other Joker actors to follow. His take on this role was to make him chaotic, deranged, clever and violent. The Clown Prince of Crime completely destroys the lives of every single character in the film.
So when Batman (Christian Bale) encounters him at a construction site, we all thought he was going to get flung into oblivion. He does get tossed off, but Batman ends up hoisting him into safety, with a grapling hook on his leg, but alive. It´s bitersweat knowing we´ll never see him again.
#17
The catrooney villain Cal (Billy Zane) is determined to destry the romance budding between Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Rose (Kate Winslet). Cal even resorts to chasing them aroun with a handgun and chaining Jack while the ship sinks.
Cal somehow makes it to the end of the film. He get on a life boat and makes it to land. We later hear thar Cal ends up losing all his money in the stock market crash and commiting suicide. But that´s not as satisfying as seeing him get what he deserves on screen.
#16
The Operative (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is a relentless assassin tasked with retrieving River from her brother Simon, who rescued her from Alliance scientists and hid her in a spaceship. The crew of adorable witty miscreants welcomes them to their new life. But their irascible wit is not enough to hide from The Operative.
The unexpected deaths of two major characters are caused by The Operative. But when Captain Mal (Nathan Fillion) finally defeats him, he lets him live. The sequel to the beloved series Firefly is a really low punch to all the fans. To kill two major characters and leave the villain alive was just cruel.
#15. Gaear Grimsrud In Fargo
Fargo is a typical Coen Brothers film. The crime farce follows Jerry Ludengaard (William H. Macy) as he hires Carl (Steve Buscemi) and Gaear (peter Stormare) to kidnap his wife and get ransom money from his in-laws. Gaear violently kills Carl and Jerry's wife and thing spiral out of control.
So when Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand) catches Gaear, we really expect the cop to end the chaos and just shoot him. But she merely wounds him and gets him and Jerry to justice.
#14. Rod In Get Out
Rod (Lil Rel Howery) is a TSA agent who suspects his friend Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) is being held prisoner by Chris's new girlfriend Rose (Allison Williams). As the comic relief of the film, we all expected him to die at the end.
Not only does he not get murdered, but he manages to save the day at thelast minute. He gets Chris to safety after he horrific events in Rose's house. what a hero.
#13. Private Reiben In Saving Private Ryan
This Oscar-winning World War II drama starts with a sad old man visiting the graves of his comrades before flashing back to the D Day invasion in 1944. This scene just makes all of us think that every single character (except Private Ryan) is going to be dead before the end credits roll, especially Private Reiben (Edward Burns)
The movie kills off most of the characters, even Tom Hanks, but Private Reiben survives. Spielberg really made us experience he tragedy of war. Slide next to find out which character in a horror movie made it to he en credits.
#12. Melissa McBride In The Mist
David Drayton (Thomas Jane) find himself trapped in a supermarket with his kid, a neighbor and other people when a freak storm unleashes a species of bloodthirsty creatures on a small town. One woman (Melissa McBride) decides to ignore the warnings of others and leaves to go find her kids. Of course, you expect to never see her again.
But she appears at the end of the movie. We see her in the back of a military truck, riding safely with her children. If you've seen the movie, you know that's the ironic icing on the cake of one of the cruelest plot twists ever!
#11. Hans Landa In Inglorious Basterds
The villain of Tarantino's spaghetti western disguised as a World War II movie is Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz). The grimily charming Nazi really deserves to get shot in the head in various scenes in the movie.
But he suddenly decides he doesn't want to be a Nazi anymore and starts helping the Basterds in their plan to assassinate Hitler. So he gets away with everything. He does get a swastika carved in his forehead, though.
#10. Jefferson Davis In Spider-Man: Into The Spider-verse
This is one of the best superhero moviesever made, and a big part of it is all the emotional consequence in the film's storyline. In Miles Morales's (Shameik Moore) universe, Spider-Man gets killed. And when we see the estranged relationship between Miles and his father (Brian Tyree Henry), we can all see where the Uncle Ben arc is going to be.
But it turns out that Miles's uncle Aaron ends up tragically dying, istead of his father. Comic fans might have seen that coming. But the way things were set up left the audience shook.
#9. Jake And Hoagie In Jaws: The Revenge
The fourth Jaws film is the only one in the series that has a lower body count than Disney's Tarzan. It's also the only one featuring a knighted Academy Award-winning actor. Michael Caine, plays Hoagie the pilot! Both him and marine biologist Jake (Mario Van Peebles) are the comic relief side characters of the movie. So we really aren't expecting them to make it far.
Jake does fall into the sharks mouth at some point, leading us to believe they're dead. But they reappear to celebrate the shark's demise in the end.
#8. Hans In The Mighty Ducks
Gordon Bombay (Emilio Estevez) is an attorney forced to coach a pee wee hockey team after getting a DUI. He's haunted by the prospect of having to play against his old hockey coach, who he let down by missing a game-losing shot back in the day. His mentor Hans (Joss Ackland) offers him advise and encouragement along the way, and we all know these kinds of characters don't usually make it to the big final game.
Surprisingly, Hans turns out to be healthier than most wise old characters. He doesn't succumb to the narrative of dying tragically before the final act of the film.
#7. Hammond And Malcom In Jurassic Park
After getting stepped on by an angry dinosaur, Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) was on the list of characters to die by the hands of the monsters in the movie. John Hammond (Sir Richard Attenborough) was even in more danger of not making it. After all, he is the one who made the dinosaurs, so you would expect him to sacrifice himself for the others to get to safety
But the millionare does make it out of the park he built with his guests, and they have important roles in the sequel. The characters did die in Michael Crichton's novel, but Goldblum's casting was so popular that he brought him back to life in the sequel novel.
#6. Julius Levinson In Idependence Day: Resurgence
The sequel no one wanted doesn't even feature Will Smith. The rest of the cast from the original movie end up battling aliens, again. David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum) and his father Julius (Judd Hirsch) included. Even though we believed Julius dead in the initial alien attack.
Julius returns a few scenes later. He tries to drive some children to safety, and it's actually his second comeback. He capsizes his boat in the first 30 minutes of the movie. How many more incidents is this 80 year old going to survive?
#5. Peter In The Dawn Of The Dead (1978)
The four survivors in this film do their best to live out the zombie apocalypse in a shopping mall. They get whittled down by a zombie attack until only Fran (Gaylen Ross) and Peter (Ken Foree) remain. Peter decides to stay behind and hold off the hoard of zombies to give Fran time to escape.
Right when Peter is about to get buried in zombies, he snaps out and makes his way through the undead. He reaches Fran in time to escape together! Swipe next to find which beloved father figure made it to the end of the movie.
#4. Professor Henry Jones In Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade
Adventurer Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) has the task of rescuing his father, Professor Henry Jones (Sean Connery), who got abducted by Nazis. Although the main plot revolves around recovering the Holy Grail, Indy's estranged ralationship with his father is a big part of the movie.
Professor Jones does get shot in the stomach by Walter Donovan (Julian Glover), but Indy is able to bring him back to life with the Grail.
#3. Tennessee Faris I Alien: Covenant
Tennessee Faris (Danny McBride) is the cowboy-hat-wearing, wild card of the group. The group of colonists to a new world get sidetracked after Tennessee recognized someone singing "Country Roads" on a strange transmission. They fly to a planet massacred by monsters created by the mad scientist android David (Michael Fassbender).
He's the type of character that doesn't make it to the end of the movie. He's already fulfilled his purpose, so there's no reason to keep the charming hillbilly alive. But he makes it to the end. Although, it's implied that he'll get murdered in the sequel. Next character was a real surprise!
#2. Gabe In US
So Gabe is the ultimate dad. He drives his wife Adelaide (Lupita Nyong´o) and their children to the family lake for vacation.What he doesn't know is tat Adelaide had a close encounter with her evil double there, years before. Her doppelganger returns to kill them along with all the evil doubles of the family. So when his double grabs him, we though the was gone forever.
Because we all know what happens to the husband-dad character in these movies. But not Gabe. He kills his double with a boat propeller and gets the family to safety. Then their neighbor Josh (Tim Heidecker) attacks him, but he manages to kill that double too! Surprisingly, he makes it to the end of the movie.
#1. Chris Maniix In The Hateful Eight
An assorted group of strangers is forced to wait out a blizzard in a cabin. We later find out some of them are part of a gang and some others are bounty hunters. Among them is Chris Mannix (Walton Googins). The former Confederate soldier is a loudmouthed racist who claims to be the new sheriff. But everyone (audience included]) thinks he's lying and means to ambush them.
the truth. He's the only one who takes Major Warren's side. Also, when everyone else in the cabin turns out to be a member of the Domergue Gang trying to kill Warren and Ruth and free their captive, we find out Mannix was telling the truth. Those reasons were enough to get him riddled with bullets. That and the fact that hethe truth. He's the only one who takes Major Warren's sides super racist.But he ends up as one of the closest things to a "hero" this movie has.