Professor X has now died four times in movies.
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00:00 Killing off a beloved or iconic character can result in an unforgettable movie moment
00:05 that fans will talk about for years or maybe even decades.
00:09 The emotional impact of a meaningful death scene speaks for itself, though sometimes
00:13 apparently one death just isn't really enough.
00:16 These 10 movie characters kick the bucket on screen again and again and again for our
00:21 apparent entertainment.
00:23 And so with that in mind then, I'm Ellie with WhatCulture here with 10 Movie Characters
00:28 They Couldn't Stop Killing Off.
00:31 10.
00:32 Doctor Strange in the MCU Though a good number of the Avengers have
00:36 died at least once courtesy of Thanos' fateful finger snap, Sorcerer Supreme Doctor Strange
00:42 holds the distinction of having died way, way more than any other MCU superhero.
00:47 In his debut solo movie, Strange unforgettably uses the Eye of Agamotto to trap interdimensional
00:54 supervillain Dormammu in a time loop, prompting the incensed entity to repeatedly kill Strange
01:00 in an attempt to escape.
01:01 A hilarious montage shows Strange being killed around a dozen times, incinerated, stabbed,
01:07 crushed and so on.
01:08 But it's implied that the loop went on far, far longer than this before Dormammu gave
01:13 up and agreed to spare Earth.
01:15 Doctor Strange co-writer Jon Spaetz has stated that Strange died "dozens of times, if not
01:20 hundreds of times, so there it is."
01:22 But that's not all.
01:24 Strange was also one of the victims of the Blip, which turned him to dust for five years,
01:28 and then most recently in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
01:32 The Defender Strange variant is killed by a demon and outrageously resurrected as a
01:37 zombie later on.
01:38 Plus, don't forget about Strange Supreme, the version from Earth-838, who gets disintegrated
01:44 by Black Bolt and of course, the villainous Sinister Strange, who the Prime Strange impales
01:49 during their climactic fight.
01:51 Even a conservative estimate puts Strange's MCU deaths at close to 30.
01:55 But considering how many times Strange must have had to die to exasperate Dormammu enough
02:00 to leave Earth alone, he's surely died at least several hundred times, right?
02:06 9.
02:07 Agent Smith in The Matrix Agent Smith is of course the Matrix series'
02:12 recurring overarching antagonist, for the most part anyway.
02:15 Much like Doctor Strange, Smith has technically died many, many times over the course of the
02:20 original trilogy.
02:22 Smith is defeated and obliterated by Neo at the end of the first film, before returning
02:26 in The Matrix reloaded with the ability to copy himself onto anybody connected to the
02:31 Matrix, with all of these copies bound by a single consciousness.
02:35 In The Matrix Revolutions, then, we see Smith die basically innumerable times.
02:40 For starters, a Smith-possessed Bane gets beaten to death by Neo, and then at film's
02:45 end, Smith is returned to the Source by Neo, destroying both Smith Prime and all of his
02:50 enemies.
02:51 Given the implication that Smith more or less assimilated everybody connected to the Matrix,
02:55 and we know there are billions of people in it, it's safe to say that Smith effectively
02:59 died billions of times at the end of Revolutions.
03:03 What a trip.
03:04 Thankfully, everybody Smith assimilated returned to their prior form, though when Smith himself
03:09 resurfaced in the recent Matrix Resurrections, he surprisingly managed to survive this time
03:14 round.
03:15 8.
03:16 Brenda Meeks in Scary Movie Brenda Meeks is unquestionably one of the greatest,
03:22 if not the greatest, characters in the Scary Movie franchise, and a recurring gag through
03:26 the series saw her get killed off in one movie, only to inexplicably reappear in the next
03:32 one.
03:33 A commentary on the horror genre itself, surely?
03:35 Brenda's most memorable demise comes in the original film, where she's murdered
03:39 by a group of pissed-off cinema patrons trying to watch Shakespeare in Love in peace.
03:44 Brenda's constant talking and generally obnoxious behaviour sees her get stabbed and
03:48 beaten by the collective movie-going audience, before collapsing in front of the movie screen
03:53 a la Scream 2's opening sequence.
03:56 She then returns for Scary Movie 2, where she actually survives, only to die again in
04:01 Scary Movie 3 when she's attacked by Tabitha, a parody of Sadako from the Ring franchise.
04:07 To make her death seem even more definitive, Brenda's corpse is accidentally exploded
04:12 at her funeral.
04:13 And yet, Brenda comes back again for Scary Movie 4.
04:17 And though she doesn't actually die in the film itself, she is killed off in a hilarious
04:21 deleted scene.
04:22 Just as Brenda expresses relief at surviving, she's crushed by a giant shipping container
04:27 that randomly falls out of the sky.
04:29 Because why not?
04:31 Regina Hall opted not to return for Scary Movie 5, nor did co-star Anna Faris sensibly,
04:36 and so that's all she wrote for the character.
04:39 7.
04:40 Optimus Prime in Transformers
04:43 Despite being the most iconic Transformers character, Optimus Prime hasn't been spared
04:48 his fair share of death over the years.
04:50 Well, whatever dying means for a sentient robot lifeform, anyway.
04:54 Though Optimus has died literally dozens of times in both the Transformers comics and
04:59 cartoons, he's also kicked the bucket cinematically thrice over the last 35 years.
05:04 Optimus infamously died in 1986's animated film Transformers The Movie, expiring from
05:11 wounds sustained in his battle with Megatron, and traumatised an entire generation of kids
05:16 and prompted Hasbro to hastily resurrect him in the TV series.
05:21 In the second live-action movie, Transformers Revenge of the Fallen, at the end of the awesome
05:26 forest fight, Optimus is impaled and killed by Megatron, though is later resurrected by
05:31 Sam Witwicky.
05:32 And finally, in the 2013 animated film Transformers Prime Beast Hunters Predacons Rising, Optimus
05:40 gives up his own life to rejuvenate the Well of All Sparks, allowing life to be restored
05:45 to Cybertron.
05:46 As ever, though, it wasn't permanent and Optimus was resurrected a few years later.
05:52 6.
05:53 Thomas and Martha Wayne in Batman and DC
05:57 Bruce Wayne's parents, Thomas and Martha, are the all-time recurring punching bags as
06:02 tragic superhero origin stories go, edging out Spider-Man's Uncle Ben.
06:07 Despite everybody and their grandma knowing how Batman came to be, we've seen the Waynes
06:12 murdered in near-countless Batman and Batman-adjacent DC movies over the last three-plus decades.
06:19 In Tim Burton's 1989 Batman, we see them gunned down by a young Jack Napier, aka The
06:24 Joker.
06:25 And though Batman Forever is technically a sequel to the Burton movies, it's really
06:30 more of a soft reboot, where we again see Bruce Wayne's parents shot dead by a shadowy
06:35 gunman.
06:36 They're then shown dying in Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins, this time by Joe
06:40 Chill during a botched robbery.
06:42 They also die in the opening titles of Batman V Superman Dawn of Justice, and again in the
06:48 climax of Joker, where they're shot by a rioter.
06:51 Furthermore, the iconic scene has been recreated in the animated films Batman Gotham Night,
06:57 Batman Year One, Batman The Dark Knight Returns, Batman Vs. Robin, and Batman Bad Blood.
07:03 And let's not forget the single light-hearted depiction of the Waynes' deaths in Teen
07:07 Titans Go To The Movies, where the Teen Titans quite literally wrap a necklace around Martha
07:12 Wayne's neck and shove the pair into the fateful alleyway, in turn ensuring Batman's
07:17 creation.
07:18 While the recent The Batman was intimately centred around the Waynes' death, their murders
07:23 mercifully weren't shown this time.
07:25 Just let's be honest, we're all pretty sick of seeing Crime Alibi now, right?
07:30 Number 5.
07:31 Ellen Ripley in Alien
07:33 Ellen Ripley is the much-loved protagonist of the Alien franchise, and who controversially
07:38 died at the end of the wildly divisive Alien 3, diving into a vat of molten lead just as
07:44 the xenomorph queen she was impregnated with burst from her stomach.
07:48 As sad as it was to see Ripley go, it was a fittingly heroic end for the character.
07:53 That is, if not for the fact that sequel Alien Resurrection went the glorified fan fiction
07:58 route and brought her back by way of clones.
08:00 Ever a hallmark of quality storytelling.
08:03 A clone of Ripley is created using blood taken before her death, but because Ripley's DNA
08:08 combined with the xenomorphs while she was pregnant, and xenomorphs have genetic memories
08:12 of their hosts, it allowed the new Ripley to retain some of the original Ripley's
08:17 memories.
08:18 How convenient.
08:19 Anyway, the Ripley clone is referred to as Ripley 8, because seven failed clones were
08:23 created before her, yet either died or were euthanized due to their extensive mutations.
08:28 Memorably, we get an up-close glimpse of the horribly deformed Ripley 7, who Ripley 8 quickly
08:34 puts out of her misery with a flamethrower burst.
08:36 Ripley 8 ultimately survives the events of the movie, but with nobody having a clear
08:41 idea of how to continue her journey, we haven't seen any version of the character in the 25
08:46 years since.
08:48 Number 4 - The Camp Nightwing Killer in Fear Street
08:51 Fear Street's Camp Nightwing Killer, aka Tommy Slater, is very clearly an homage to
08:57 Friday the 13th's Jason Voorhees, a camp counsellor who gets possessed by Satan and
09:02 goes on a killing spree at Camp Nightwing.
09:05 But Tommy himself dies numerous times across the trilogy, in the 1994 set first film being
09:10 trapped in a Shadyside High School bathroom and exploded, before reanimating to continue
09:15 his rampage.
09:17 In Part 2, 1978, Tommy is stabbed to death by Cindy, but again resurrected, before Cindy
09:23 again offs him by brutally decapitating him with a shovel.
09:27 But that's not it either.
09:28 In Part 3, 1666, Nightwing resurfaces once more, dying in another trap set by the heroes,
09:35 only to be revived again and finally die for good when Sheriff Good is killed, causing
09:40 him and the other Shadyside killers to disintegrate.
09:44 Number 3 - Nicky in Little Nicky
09:47 Now admittedly in the case of the Adam Sandler comedy Little Nicky, his deaths all occur
09:52 in the span of a single film.
09:54 But considering that Little Nicky is neither a superhero film nor a time loop movie, it
09:58 is fairly unique in this regard.
10:00 The rub is that Nicky is the son of Satan and sent to Earth to prevent his evil brothers
10:05 from taking over the planet.
10:07 Nicky, having spent his entire life in Hell, struggles to adjust to life on Earth, resulting
10:11 in him dying a number of amusing times over the course of the film.
10:15 Yet the stakes are ultimately pretty low in Nicky's case, as he simply respawns in Hell
10:20 or, in the event of a sacrificial death, Heaven.
10:23 His deaths include being hit by a train twice, run over by a bus, creamed by a truck, mauled
10:28 by a polar bear, drowned by one of his friends, and having his skull crushed by a large rock.
10:33 In some of these cases, Nicky voluntarily lays down his life either to save another
10:37 or to quickly get back to Hell, while in others it's the result of sheer clumsiness.
10:41 Either way, the guy dies a lot over the course of Little Nicky's mere 90-minute runtime.
10:48 Number 2 - Professor Charles Xavier in X-Men and the MCU
10:53 Patrick Stewart's performance as Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men movies is one of
10:57 the greatest in the history of superhero cinema, and so it's surprising that filmmakers have
11:03 opted to kill him off so damn often.
11:05 Xavier's first on-screen death came in X-Men The Last Stand, where he was disintegrated
11:10 by the Phoenix-powered Jean Grey, only further frustrating fans already colossally disappointed
11:16 by basically everything the movie had to offer.
11:18 It's implied that Xavier came back from the dead by transferring his consciousness into
11:22 the mind of his comatose twin brother, but in X-Men Days of Future Past, he expires once
11:28 again, being annihilated by a sentinel in the film's climax.
11:32 Mercifully, though, the plot's timey-wimey shenanigans allow Xavier's death to be undone,
11:37 and for him to return in Logan, where he's suffering from the world's worst case of
11:41 dementia, which causes telepathic seizures that have killed hundreds.
11:45 Just as Xavier seems to find some peace, though, he's stabbed to death in his bed by X-24,
11:50 a clone of Logan, but at least lives long enough to learn that it wasn't Logan himself
11:55 who administered the fatal blow.
11:57 And finally, Xavier of course had a brief cameo appearance in Doctor Strange in the
12:01 Multiverse of Madness, showing up as the leader of the Illuminati on the 838 version of Earth.
12:07 Xavier telepathically enters Wanda's mind in an attempt to free her imprisoned 838 variant,
12:13 only for Wanda to snap Xavier's neck, killing him in the real world.
12:17 Considering that will almost certainly be the last time Patrick Stewart plays the part,
12:21 it's unlikely we'll see Xavier die on screen again any time soon.
12:26 1.
12:27 Tree in Happy Death Day Though we've generally refrained from including
12:31 time loop movies on this list because it's just too easy, Happy Death Day is a little
12:36 bit different because unlike most time loop films, it isn't a one-off.
12:39 The first film saw protagonist Tree die like a dozen different ways, including being stabbed
12:44 numerous times, drowned, hit by a truck, brained with a baseball bat, blown up, hanged by herself,
12:50 and finally eating a poisoned cupcake.
12:52 But the sequel, Happy Death Day 2U, brought Tree back for more punishment, falling or
12:57 jumping off buildings three times, electrocuting herself in the bathtub, drinking bleach, diving
13:03 into a wood chipper, being blown up, and driving into a power transformer.
13:07 Granted, in the sequel Tree is most often killing herself in order to quickly pass information
13:11 forward to the next time loop, but still, how many horror movie final girls have died
13:16 even once and yet lived to tell the tale?
13:19 And that concludes our list.
13:21 If you can think of any that we missed, then do let us know in the comments below.
13:24 And while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that notification bell.
13:28 Also head over to Twitter and follow us there, and I can be found across various social medias
13:32 just by searching Ellie Littlechild.
13:34 I've been Ellie with WhatCulture, I hope you have a magical day, and I'll see you real