00:00Giving a notable character a big-screen demise worthy of their station isn't easy, and these
00:05films all promptly drop the ball for one reason or another.
00:09So let's dive in, I'm Adam, this is WhatCulture, and here are huge movie deaths that totally
00:14fell flat.
00:16Javert Les Miserables
00:19Inspector Javert's suicide in the stage version of Les Miserables is one of its most dramatic
00:24high points.
00:24A tragic and devastating moment in which a man at the end of his rope hurls himself
00:29into the river Seine.
00:30But as operatic as Tom Hooper's big budget-screen adaptation of the hit musical was, this moment
00:36landed with only unintentionally comical impact, in the most literal sense.
00:41Even ignoring the mixed reviews for Russell Crowe's vocal performance, in the very least
00:45he's clearly pouring his heart into the dramatic meat of the scene, of conveying Javert's
00:50inner turmoil and desperation.
00:52But what sinks the moment in record time, the completely ridiculous bone-crunch sound
00:57effects that's deployed after Javert sails through the air and makes contact with the
01:01fountain below.
01:02It's all scored by intensely dramatic music and only makes this feel that much more jarring
01:08in an otherwise classy and meticulously crafted movie.
01:11Despite being widely mocked online though, the scene didn't stop the film from receiving
01:16a Best Sound Mixing Oscar nomination.
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01:36James T Kirk, Star Trek Generations
01:39Captain James T Kirk is one of the most iconic characters in all of pop culture.
01:44And while the idea of killing him off in a Star Trek movie certainly wasn't sacrilegious,
01:49the filmmakers absolutely needed to make it count.
01:52And oh boy, Star Trek Generations was marketed as a Trekkies dream movie, a crossover event
01:58which through dimensional hooey not worth worrying about, teamed Captain Kirk up with the next
02:02generation's Captain Jean-Luc Picard.
02:05This ends up being just a small sliver of the movie though, and culminates with Kirk's
02:09demise while fighting to stop the villainous Soren.
02:12A sacrificial death to prevent a terrorist from wiping out an entire planetary system
02:16sounds like a fitting end for Kirk on paper.
02:19But as the saying goes, it's all about the execution.
02:22Kirk dies during the final battle when the bridge he's climbing up collapses, causing him
02:26to fall and be fatally crushed by it.
02:29Even with Shatner's memorable, ambiguous final utterance of, oh my, it was such an unceremonious,
02:35anticlimactic end to a legendary character.
02:38It's all the most startling when you appreciate that this was actually a reshoot, as test audiences
02:43questioned Kirk's original death where Soren simply shot him in the back.
02:48President Whitmore, Independence Day Resurgence.
02:51US President Whitmore's iconic rallying speech in the original Independence Day is well
02:56known to those who have never even seen the movie.
02:59So if he was to receive a sacrificial death in the belated sequel, it sure as hell needed
03:04to mean something.
03:05Uh, about that.
03:07Near the end of the movie, Whitmore decides to lay down his life, performing a kamikaze
03:11attack on the alien harvester queen by flying a ship towards her and detonating a bomb.
03:16Even with Bill Pullman's mildly kickass one-liner send off, on behalf of the people of Earth,
03:21happy 4th of July, this was a hugely underwhelming death for such an awesome character.
03:26All the more so given that it didn't actually kill the queen, but simply force her out into
03:31the open.
03:32Whitmore dying a hero's death wasn't a terrible idea in isolation, but it ended up feeling
03:37like a totally unnecessary afterthought devoid of all emotion and excitement.
03:42Hell, even Whitmore's pre-death speech couldn't hold a candle to his monologue from the original.
03:47Padme Amidala, Star Wars, Revenge of the Sith
03:50It wasn't exactly a secret that Padme Amidala was going to die at the end of the Star Wars
03:56prequel trilogies capping entry, Revenge of the Sith, but the manner in which she croaked,
04:01well...
04:02A heavily pregnant Padme is critically injured while trying to persuade Anakin back to the
04:07light side when he force chokes her unconscious.
04:10Padme stays alive long enough to deliver her twins, Luke and Leia, before dying, and a medical
04:15droid literally tells Obi-Wan that she was medically healthy and simply lost the will to live.
04:21Basically Padme died of a broken heart, an explanation which nevertheless settles as pretty flimsy
04:26for many Star Wars fans.
04:28Given that Padme's death is one of the most important events in the history of Star Wars,
04:32for it to feel so vague and wishy washy washy was a huge disappointment, which fans continue
04:37to complain about to this very day.
04:39Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice
04:43Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice isn't a very good movie, and even its bolder storytelling
04:49choices ultimately feel so obviously misguided and ill-advised, namely Zack Snyder's decision
04:55to kill Superman at the end of the film during the climactic clash against Doomsday.
04:59The death of Superman is an iconic and pivotal comic book arc in the history of DC, and there
05:05was certainly an audience appetite to see it brought to glossy live-action life.
05:09This soon, though, not a chance.
05:12After all, Batman v Superman was only Henry Cavill's second time playing Superman, and
05:17Superman dying could have been a supremely emotional and impactful moment if it felt earned,
05:22no matter that audiences knew his resurrection was inevitable.
05:25But by speedrunning through this whole arc, it landed with a thud of indifference.
05:29It didn't help at all that the final scene heavily teased Superman's resurrection
05:33before his body had even been buried, whereas leaving his fate up in the air between movies
05:37would have likely stoked more intrigue for the Justice League follow-up.
05:41Mufasa The Lion King
05:43Mufasa's death in the original animated version of The Lion King is one of the most devastating
05:48and traumatic death scenes of all cinema, and so 2019's live-action remake certainly
05:54had its work cut out, replicating the same level of emotion.
05:57But even with Jon Favreau at the helm, this CGI iteration of the legendary scene just felt
06:02so soulless and lacking.
06:04A big part of the problem is that the ultra-photorealistic renditions of Mufasa, Scar and Simba rob these
06:10characters of the expressiveness they had in the original animation.
06:14By striving so hard to be realistic, it feels less real, emotionally speaking.
06:19On top of this, basically everything about the scene is worse this time around.
06:23Scar's utterance of long live the king, the swipe which sends Mufasa falling to his death,
06:28Mufasa's comical falling scream, and even Simba's terrified NO!
06:33Even with the audience's inbuilt affection for this story, Mufasa's death roused a fraction
06:38of the heartbreak that it did in the 1994 animation, which really highlights the problem with the
06:43whole movie.
06:44It feels like an obligatory product rather than a story someone genuinely wanted to tell.
06:49Dark Phoenix
06:51Even ignoring the fact that audience enthusiasm for Fox's X-Men franchise had all but evaporated
06:57leading up to Dark Phoenix's belated release, the film made desperately little effort to
07:02make viewers feel even a flicker of emotion for Mystique's mid-film death.
07:06As Jean Grey's Phoenix powers grow ever more unstable, the other X-Men attempt to bring
07:11her under control, leading to Jean having an outburst which catapults Mystique into a piece
07:15of exposed debris, mortally wounding her.
07:18It's a total damp squib of her death scene for many reasons, the clumsy staging, utter lack
07:23of a dynamic between Jean and Mystique, and being blatantly spoiled in trailers months before
07:28the movie's release.
07:29Yet perhaps the biggest issue of all is Jennifer Lawrence herself, who was so clearly over the
07:34franchise by this point.
07:35The reactions of the other X-Men to her demise also seem strangely clipped, further robbing
07:41the scene of the expected emotion.
07:43It is, in its own way, an apt metaphor for the movie itself, a climactic event which few
07:48could convince themselves to care about.
07:51The Golden Circle As sequels to great movies go, Kingsman
07:55the Golden Circle is just a carnival of poor creative decisions, and Merlin's climactic
08:00sacrificial death surely didn't help.
08:03When Eggsy and Merlin arrive at villain Poppy's lush hideout, Eggsy accidentally steps on a land
08:08mine, at which point Merlin decides to switch places with him, and then detonates the mine,
08:13obliterating himself and Poppy's surrounding goons.
08:16Even Mark Strong's spirited rendition of Take Me Home Country Roads in Merlin's final
08:21moments couldn't save this one from being a total flop.
08:24In a movie that already pointlessly killed off another likeable hero, Roxy, Merlin's
08:29death was a massive letdown.
08:31It was too good a character to waste on this nonsense.
08:34And more to the point, given that this film established that death means nothing in the
08:38Kingsman franchise, what with Harry Hart being resurrected in highly convoluted fashion,
08:43why should we even take Merlin's apparent demise seriously?
08:46Well, seriously.
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