The hero’s life isn’t always a pretty one. You wake up in the morning and have to spend every second being a badass. Then you go to sleep but you still have to be a badass so you can wake up the next day and – guess what – be a badass again.
And the worst part is, you don’t even always win at the end. Sometimes a hero has to make the ultimate sacrifice. Why? Because life isn’t always fun, that’s why.
Let’s take a look at some of the best movies ever made where the hero gets killed by the villain.
10 – The Matrix Revolutions
Yup, I still consider this a good trilogy. Sure, CGI has evolved a lot since then and nobody’s impressed by “bullet time” anymore, but Agent Smith kills/absorbs Neo so it gets a spot on this list.
9 – The Wicker Man
If you get to investigate an island where people get sacrificed for good crops, odds are you’re going to get burned yourself.
8 – Boys Don’t Cry
This story about a transgender boy that gets brutally assaulted and raped by a bunch of drunk idiots, only to come back and reconnect with his girlfriend; this doesn’t end well. The spoiler: the two drunk idiots track him down and shoot him.
7 – Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens
Poor Han. Getting thrown down a shaft like Palpetine and getting stabbed with a lightsaber like Qui-Gon Jinn. Other heroes this series killed by the hands of a villain: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Mace Windu, the entire goddamn Jedi Order, Anakin Skywalker when he wasn’t Darth Vader for six full seconds, the entire Rogue One crew. If you come anywhere near a lightsaber in a Star Wars movie, you’re probably going to die.
6 – Pan’s Labyrinth
Guillermo Del Toro’s best work has a little girl as protagonist. So yeah, she dies. But she comes back as a queen of a fantasy world, so it’s all good. I guess.
5 – Léon: The Professional
If you’re gonna take down a crooked DEA cop, might as well let him shoot you and blow him up as he stands over your corpse. 10/10 would suicide bomb again.
4 – Saving Private Ryan
First you save Matt Damon, then you show mercy to a Nazi soldier, then you get shot by said Nazi soldier. Damn Spielberg, that’s cold.
3 – The Departed
Hurrah, you’re an undercover cop called Leo DiCaprio and you’ve found the Matt Damon-mole! Now you’ll suddenly get shot in the head.
2 – Braveheart
At least they didn’t take his freedom. They took pretty much everything else from ol’ William Wallace, but he knew that could happen. And he did it all for Scotland, which is a pretty good reason to die.
1 – Gladiator
“Are you not entertained?” Not when you died, I wasn’t. At least Maximus is back with his family now.
