Top 10 Saddest Movie Deaths That You Never Actually See

WatchMojo

It turns out what we don't see CAN hurt us. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most devastating character deaths that take place off-screen.

Transcript

00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most devastating character

00:09deaths that take place off screen.

00:11Obviously, this list reveals some major plot points, so a spoiler alert is in effect.

00:21Number 10.

00:22Newt and Hicks, Alien 3

00:42When fans found out Sigourney Weaver's battle against the acid-blooded Xenomorphs was not

00:45over, they eagerly awaited the third installment of the Alien series.

00:49Once we left Lieutenant Ripley, she had safely escaped in a spacecraft with Corporal Hicks

00:53and her surrogate daughter, Newt.

01:01The noticeably darker-in-tone Alien 3 opens with Ripley's escape pod landing on a penal

01:05colony.

01:06Newt and Hicks are revealed to have perished in that crash.

01:09Fans who were eager to see the deepening of Ripley's relationship with Newt were left

01:12devastated and confused by the choice to kill the character before the main titles were

01:16even over.

01:24Number 9.

01:25Llewellyn Moss, No Country for Old Men

01:28The Coen Brothers' 2007 neo-Western follows a veteran, played by Josh Brolin, who stumbles

01:33upon a mislaid pile of cash from an aborted drug deal.

01:36He finds himself the target of a vicious and cold-blooded hitman as a result.

01:55Moss dies in an off-screen shootout at a motel, where his body is found by Sheriff Ed Tom

02:00Bell.

02:01Like many Coen protagonists, Llewellyn's not exactly a model citizen who makes incredible

02:05decisions, but he's devoted to his wife Carla Jean.

02:20It's exactly that quality that makes his death all the more depressing.

02:23The fact that the Coens don't let us see it leaves us to focus less on the gunplay

02:28the story.

02:42Number 8.

02:43Tom Robinson, To Kill a Mockingbird

02:53This Harper Lee adaptation stars Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch, the lawyer defending a

02:57black man in the Jim Crow South.

02:59Accused of attacking a local white girl, Atticus' client, Tom Robinson, is found guilty despite

03:04mounting evidence pointing to his innocence.

03:06Atticus later learns Tom was killed while supposedly trying to escape prison, but keeping

03:19Tom's death off-screen leaves enough room for doubt.

03:22Did he really try to flee, or was he murdered in retaliation?

03:25We'll never know.

03:26However, the trial has broken open the truth about how deep racism and hatred goes in this

03:31community and we can never trust the official story again.

03:44Number 7.

03:45Leslie Burke, Bridge to Terabithia

03:54Adapted from a beloved children's book, this movie follows two middle schoolers who

03:58invent an imaginary kingdom in the woods.

04:00Jess and Leslie find a refuge from their loneliness for a while, but then the real world comes

04:05crashing in.

04:06One day, Jess comes home to find out his friend died playing in the woods without him.

04:18As it does in real life, her death comes out of nowhere.

04:21There's no build-up, no real foreshadowing.

04:24She's there one minute and gone the next.

04:26It's a devastating way for a child to learn how harsh the world can be.

04:43Number 6.

04:44Chris Chambers, Stand By Me

04:51Gordy LaChance narrates this tale of the summer he and his three friends went on an adventure

04:55to see a dead body.

04:56Based on a comparatively light-hearted story by Stephen King, Stand By Me ends with Gordy

05:00meditating on the whereabouts of his three friends.

05:15It's equal parts sad, nostalgic, and hauntingly realistic.

05:19Gordy saves the final gut-punch for last.

05:21His best friend, Chris, was stabbed to death in a restaurant the week prior to writing

05:25their story.

05:26If that weren't enough, Atcher River Phoenix dissolves from the frame like a fading memory

05:30as Gordy tells us his fate.

05:38Number 5.

05:39T'Challa, Black Panther, Wakanda Forever

05:49Early in this MCU sequel, T'Challa, also known as the Black Panther, dies from an unnamed

05:54illness.

05:55Despite the joyous and celebratory funeral procession, his sister, Shuri, breaks down

05:59in grief as Wakanda's savior is laid to rest.

06:02Not only is it a solemn end for a heroic character, it also serves as an on-screen tribute to

06:06T'Challa's actor.

06:21The legendary Chadwick Boseman passed away in 2020 after a long and private battle with

06:26cancer.

06:27The sequel was rewritten as a result, and the scene served as a way for fans to say

06:31goodbye to Boseman and the superhero he played.

06:42Number 4.

06:43Thomas J. Sennett, My Girl

06:55This coming-of-age classic about Veda, a morbid and precocious mortician's daughter who

07:00is fascinated by death, has one of the most tear-jerking funeral scenes of all time.

07:04Her only friend is Thomas J., a nerdy outcast played by a post-Home Alone Macaulay Culkin.

07:20Late in the movie, Thomas J. is stung by bees and dies of an allergic reaction.

07:24The last we see of him is the bees swarming and his glasses falling to the ground.

07:29The scene where Veda finds out, and her subsequent breakdown beside his casket, make for an on-screen

07:33death that really stays with you.

07:45Number 3.

07:46Tracey Mills, Seven

07:57The sociopathic serial killer at the center of this morose neo-noir has patterned his

08:01murders off of the Seven Deadly Sins.

08:03After turning himself in, the suspect leads Detective Mills and Somerset to a spot in

08:07the desert where a mysterious box is delivered.

08:10We never see its contents, but the killer implies it is the severed head of Mills'

08:14wife.

08:15The revelation is too much for Mills.

08:30He completes John Doe's master plan by embodying rage and shooting the envious killer dead

08:35in retaliation.

08:36It's one of those plot twists that's made all the more horrifying by leaving it up to

08:39our imagination.

08:55Number 2.

08:56Rosie Betzler, Jojo Rabbit

09:09Taika Waititi's heart-breaking dark comedy tells the story of Jojo Betzler, a young German

09:14boy living in Germany during the Third Reich.

09:16His mother, Rosie, is revealed to be working with anti-Nazi political groups to undermine

09:20Hitler's poisonous influence, however, she pays the price for her betrayal of the state.

09:35Jojo finds her hanged in the street alongside several other traitors.

09:38As Jojo is our point-of-view character, we experience it from his perspective.

09:42The camera remains at Jojo's height, never letting us see her entirely.

09:46We only know her from her distinctive shoes.

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10:20Number 1.

10:21Guido Orefice, Life is Beautiful

10:23Writer, director, and star Roberto Benigni headlines this WWII film about a Jewish bookshop

10:35proprietor named Guido, who ends up in a concentration camp with his young son.

10:39Guido finds new and inventive ways of fooling his son into believing the camp is an elaborate

10:44game.

10:55Even as Guido is led to his death by soldiers, he winks at his son, keeping up the ruse that

11:00their time in the camp is not at all what it seems.

11:02His son, of course, has no idea that this is the last time he'll see his father, who

11:06sacrificed so much to shield him from the horrors of their imprisonment.

11:27Which off-screen death haunted you the most?

11:29Tell us in the comments.

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