9 Unintentionally Hilarious Movie Deaths

WhatCulture

Some of the most iconic roles in cinema could have turned out very differently…

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00:00People die in movies all the damn time, and while these deaths can of course be purposefully funny,

00:06it's far more common for them to either try and shock you, as in the horror genre,

00:10or garner a devastated emotional response. Sometimes though, filmmakers don't quite get

00:15the tonal balance right, and the result is a death scene that, while filmed with entire

00:20seriousness, ends up leaving audiences uproariously yucking their guts up.

00:25So with that in mind, I'm Ellie for WhatCulture, and here are unintentionally hilarious movies

00:29deaths.

00:30Royce Garrett, Vertical Limit

00:33The opening sequence to Vertical Limit should be goddamn harrowing, but usually dependable

00:39filmmaker Martin Campbell had a rather strange idea of how to film the death of Peter and

00:44Annie's father, Royce. A freak accident while the trio are climbing leaves Peter forced to

00:50cut his father loose in order to save himself and Annie, a horrifying dilemma that's aptly

00:55conveyed through dread-filled performances from the three actors. Except just as Peter

01:00begins cutting the rope, Campbell bafflingly cuts to a strangely tranquil wide shot of the

01:05surrounding area, complete with a buzzard circling, holding for a moment before Royce's body violently

01:12lands on the ground. The framing and pacing feel wholly inappropriate for a serious scene.

01:17It's a glorified comedy cut that somehow found its way into a supposedly devastating accident sequence.

01:23Considering this piece is the emotional foundation of the entire movie, it puts it on the back heel

01:28from the very beginning. Denethor, The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King

01:32The death of Gondor's corrupt steward Denethor in The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King

01:38achieves a beguiling fusion of epicness and accidental hilarity. Driven mad by the apparent

01:44death of his son Faramir, poor Denny vows to burn himself and his not-so-late son on a pyre,

01:50only for Gandalf and Pippin to pull the pair from the flames. Denethor doesn't take kindly to having

01:55his ceremony interrupted though, prompting Gandalf's trusty steed, Shadowfox, to kick him back into the

02:01fire. Denethor gets just long enough to realise Faramir isn't dead before he bursts into flames

02:07and runs off. We then cut to Denethor having inconceivably run all the way out of Gondor Tower,

02:13towards the nearest cliff edge, a considerable distance away, while still on fire, before flinging

02:19himself to his demise. On one hand, it looks cool as hell, but on the other, it's absolutely

02:24ridiculous to picture Denny legging it for a literal hot minute or two before finally getting his end.

02:29Dr. Andrew Fastback, World War Z. World War Z is a zombie film that mostly takes itself very

02:36seriously, and so the basically slapstick-infused demise of one Dr. Andrew Fastback ends up sticking

02:42out like a sore thumb. Virologist Fastback is handed a gun as part of the military convoy in South Korea,

02:48and though our intrepid hero Jerry Lane pointedly warns the good doctor about keeping his finger

02:53off the trigger, lest he means to shoot, he just doesn't listen. Once the zombies attack,

02:59the convoy Fastback books it to the back of the plane, where he slips on the wet cargo ramp,

03:04causing him to accidentally fire the gun straight into his own cranium, killing himself instantly.

03:10While the intent was clearly to demonstrate how blind panic can quickly get someone killed,

03:15the sheer implausibility of such a slip-up causing one's death, combined with Jerry's weirdly

03:20unfussed grumble of damn it, makes it impossible to take this death scene seriously at all.

03:26Javert, Les Miserables. In the legendary stage musical Les Miserables, Inspector Javert's suicide

03:33is one of its most unforgettable and tragically devastating moments, as a despondent Javert flings

03:38himself into the scene. It should have made for a brilliantly operatic moment in the big screen

03:44Hollywood adaptation then, and it got pretty close, save for one howlingly misguided sound design choice.

03:52Sure, Russell Crowe's singing isn't the most technically proficient, but he's giving everything

03:57he's got to imbue the scene with the requisite sadness. Yet all that effort is categorically undone

04:03once Javert flies through the air and hits the fountain below. Rather than tastefully keep the

04:08visceral sound effects to a minimum, the sound team decided to accompany the swelling musical score

04:14with a cartoonish bone-crunch sound effect that would sound more at home in a Mortal Kombat game.

04:20You can basically picture the foley artist enthusiastically snapping a celery stick in two

04:25when Javert collides with the side of the fountain, which probably wasn't the intent.

04:30The joke's evidently on us, though, as it didn't stop Les Mis from nabbing a Best Sound Mixing Oscar

04:35nomination, Marge Thompson, A Nightmare on Elm Street. A Nightmare on Elm Street is one of the

04:41greatest horror films of all time, a near-perfect rendition of a ferociously original premise,

04:47albeit one that makes an unfortunate misstep in literally its final ten seconds. The ominous

04:52closing dream sequence sees protagonist Nancy drive off with her somehow-still-alive friends,

04:58while Nancy's mother, Marge, looks on from the porch. After a beat, however, we get one final

05:04scare. Freddy Krueger's bladed glove smashes through the front door's window and drags Marge into the

05:10house through the tiny window hole. Even though it's physically impossible for a human being to be

05:15pulled through such a small space, it's embarrassingly obvious we're looking at a very cheap dummy here.

05:21The texture of its skin and utterly lifeless movements failing to cohere with the frantic physicality

05:27of Ronnie Blakely's performance in the shot prior. In fairness to director Wes Craven,

05:31his original ending had no sequel-baiting twist whatsoever, but he was encouraged to shoot this

05:37ending by New Line cinema boss Bob Shea, and shortly before his death admitted that he regretted ever

05:43agreeing to it, and you can kinda see why. Mufasa, The Lion King 2019

05:49This one really hurts, given that Mufasa's death in the original animated version of The Lion King is

05:55basically tattooed on the retinas of an entire generation, serving as one of the most traumatic

06:00and brilliantly executed death scenes in cinema history. It was THE scene Jon Favreau needed to get

06:07right for his live-action remake, and it's the one that he categorically whiffed due to the awkwardness

06:13of the technology involved. Objectively, the visual renditions of the central characters are

06:17mind-bogglingly impressive, as photorealistic recreations of real animals. But something

06:23vitally important is also lost in the quest for realism. Soul and expressiveness. The Disney animation

06:30wasn't ever trying to be realistic, and so taking characters who look exactly like actual animals and

06:37slapping human voices on their largely blank, expression-devoid faces causes a fundamental

06:42disconnect with the viewer. And this is never more brutally felt than when Scar swipes Mufasa to

06:48his death. At which point, Mufasa lets out a distinctly human scream that feels wholly at odds

06:54with his very animalistic, dying expression. Couple this with the same rather silly-looking slow-mo,

07:00and you've got the recipe for ruining an iconic death scene.

07:03Paolo, The First Omen

07:05The First Omen is a surprisingly robust horror prequel, though there is a single scene that

07:11induces inadvertent chuckles, when a man Margaret met, Paolo, is hit by a truck out of nowhere.

07:17Paolo is left pinned against a truck as Margaret desperately attempts to help him,

07:22seemingly pulling him free. Except a moment later, we hear screams from the crowd watching,

07:27and cut to a wide shot of the scene, where we see that Margaret is only holding Paolo's

07:31bisected upper half. The wide shot looks like something you'd see in a parody film than a

07:36serious horror movie, and it's made further ridiculous by the fact that Margaret somehow

07:40didn't realise that Paolo, well, half of him, weighed suspiciously little.

07:45Nell Tiger 3 basically saves the scene by acting her heart out, but it's an incredibly silly part of

07:52an otherwise exceptionally well-crafted piece of work.

07:55Andre Sator, Tenet

07:57There's no denying that the death of Tenet's villain, Andre Sator, is supposed to be a satisfying,

08:02fist-pumping moment for the audience, but it probably wasn't meant to be quite so funny.

08:07In the climax, Sator's estranged wife, Kat, shoots him in the chest, after which she wheelbarrows his

08:13corpse over the edge of the boat. And here's where the funny part happens. As Sator's head makes

08:18brutal contact with the side of the boat, the musical score suddenly cuts out for a brief

08:23moment as we witness Sator's body flop into the water. Only once it makes contact does the score

08:29resume, with a sense of timing that can only really be described as comical. Not since the

08:34propeller guy in Titanic has blunt force trauma elicited quite such uproar as laughs, for despite

08:40being one of Tenet's most important dramatic moments, Christopher Nolan inadvertently made it

08:45something you're more likely to guffaw at. Tyg McCabe, The Field

08:49Jim Sheridan's otherwise very good 1990 drama The Field climaxes with one of the most misguidedly

08:55daft death scenes ever inserted into a deadly serious, even awards-baiting movie. In the climax,

09:02Father Bull McCabe herds his cattle to the cliffs in a fit of insanity, and as his son Tyg tries to stop

09:08the herd, he ends up being hurled over the cliff edge by the cattle. Even if you can forgive that Tyg

09:14clearly graduated from the Prometheus school of running away from things, and the awkwardly

09:19serene music, the shot selections are just overwhelmingly goofy, from the slow-mo imagery

09:24of Tyg flying backwards, to the POV shot of him spinning through the air, and the ludicrous

09:30visage of cattle yeeting themselves off the cliff. To modern audiences in particular, it comes off as

09:36hilariously histrionic, and couldn't feel more out of place in a bleak, otherwise awards-friendly drama.

09:43Hello.

09:44Ok.

09:45Hello.

09:46Hello.

09:47Thanks for presenting this movement.

09:48Yep.

09:49Hi.

09:50Hi.

09:52Hi.

09:54Hi.

09:54Ah.

09:54Hi.

09:55Hi.

09:55Hил.

09:57Hi.

09:58electro.

09:58So, yes.

09:58Hi.

09:59Hi.

10:00Hi.

10:01Hi.

10:01Whoops.

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10:03Hi.

10:04Hi.

10:05Hi.

10:06Hi.

10:09war.

10:10Hi.

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