Parting Shots

[maryportfuncity 10,646]

As sober aesthetes, appreciating of earthly demise in its many and varied forms, what are our favourite film scenes of finality?

 

I'd plump for a great moment in an otherwise turgid film, John Hurt's death in Waterworld. He spends most of his smallish role tottering around on the remaining oil stocks of a rusting tanker, checking the remaining fuel and hating his life. Towards the end of the film the boat is attacked and given a mortal wound when the oil catches fire. We get one head on shot of Hurt, looking through mirrored shades at the oncoming fireball of death, he emits a world weary; 'Thank God!'

 

Class.

[VSBfromH 74]

Sorry to plump for the blatantly obvious, but you for a spectacular end, I would have to go for Cagney in "White Heat"

 

 

"Made it Ma... Top of the world!"

[Godot 149]

I liked the death of Hal in 2001, singing Daisy, Daisy... to fade out.

[Bald rick 9]

Does Steve Irwin count?

[Tempus Fugit 214]

Edward Woodward's demise in The Wicker Man was pretty hot.

 

[Dave to the Grave 11]

Edward Woodward's demise in The Wicker Man was pretty hot.

 

Well, Edward Woodward would burn well.

[Godot 149]

Jesus, in the Greatest Man Who Ever Lived, a bit predictable yes, but not John Wayne's final line delivered in his inimitable drawl: "Surely this man was the son of God."

[Cowboy Ronnie 78]

I'd go for when Michael Corleone comes out of the bog and shoots Sollozzo and the crooked police chief in The Godfather. Unfortunately this was the only pic of the scene I could find - would much preferred one of the cop taking two shots in the head and neck.

 

 

In 2nd place would be at the start of Cliffhanger, when Stallone drops his mate's girlfriend 5,000 feet off the side of a mountain.

[in eternum+ 22]

What about some of the Disney deaths, like in Bambi. I appreciate how girly that sounds, but I know plenty of guys who admit to having wept during the film .

 

There's an interesting article by Gary Laderman called The Disney Way of Death, in which he asserts that children, rather than being sheltered from death, are in fact introduced to it via Disney films. It's been a while since I read the article, and although I found it interesting I remember feeling that his argument was weak in certain ways.

[DevonDeathTrip 2,358]

That chap in the James Bond film who got fed feet first in to a ham slicer.

[football_fan 42]

For me it would have to be Clint Eastwood as detective Harry Callahan, aka Dirty Harry, in the movie Sudden Impact.

 

In the opening scene, he goes to a diner for a cup of coffee. A hostage situation develops when a man holds a gun to a waitress's head and threatens to shoot her.

 

Instead of just backing off and complying with the gunman's request, Dirty Harry pulls out his 44 magnum and said "Go ahead, make my day" before dispatching him.

[Godot 149]

That chap in Fargo who got fed head first in to a tree shredder.

[Phantom 2,533]

How about Steve Buscemi's death in Fargo when he's chopped up and then fed into the wood chipper by Peter Stormare?

[Godot 149]

For me it would have to be Clint Eastwood as detective Harry Callahan, aka Dirty Harry, in the movie Sudden Impact.

 

In the opening scene, he goes to a diner for a cup of coffee. A hostage situation develops when a man holds a gun to a waitress's head and threatens to shoot her.

 

Instead of just backing off and complying with the gunman's request, Dirty Harry pulls out his 44 magnum and said "Go ahead, make my day" before dispatching him.

I know what you're thinking. Did he fire six shots or only five? Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement, I've kinda lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya punk?

[BrunoBrimley 86]

You can find all sorts of fun ways of kicking off here at the ever popular ever delightful always scratching saws buzzing in the dandelions site which I have usau=allly with no restrictivemeasures of productive reproductivity included imbibing invariably soluable liquids on Thursdays even when I am thirsty......

 

 

 

So a bilateral visit to Cinemorgue may now necessarily be in order and CINEMORGUE can be located on the interneree at:::: cinemorgue2 at geocities.com Over time Ihave seeen many photos there. Here we see the fine actor George Kennedy in a tub.... I also remember seeing some fellow named Pringle drowning in a tub once.

[Lady Die 63]

I'm looking forward to Fred Elliot (ah say Fred Elliot) popping his clogs in Corrie stonight.

[BrunoBrimley 86]

Really? I had no idea he woreth clogs.

[Godot 149]

Slim Pickens as major Kong astride a nuclear warhead at the end of Dr Strangelove.

 

[Typhoid Harry 23]

Slim Pickens is the obvious choice, and a close second would be Alan Rickman in Diehard.

[Godot 149]

Charlton Heston at the end of El Cid, a rare example of a corpse acting as opposed to an actor corpsing.

[Guest That Unregistered Bloke]

Marvin from "Pulp Fiction", where Vincent Vega mistakenly pulled the gun's trigger as the car they were travelling in went over a bump in the road (a funny one, but very messy)...

 

Also Jim Malone's death in "The Untouchables" (played by Sean Connery) - mown down in a hail of bullets, but just hangs on long enough to pass top-secret information on to Eliot Ness (a very sad end, IMO)...

[football_fan 42]

For me it would have to be Clint Eastwood as detective Harry Callahan, aka Dirty Harry, in the movie Sudden Impact.

 

In the opening scene, he goes to a diner for a cup of coffee. A hostage situation develops when a man holds a gun to a waitress's head and threatens to shoot her.

 

Instead of just backing off and complying with the gunman's request, Dirty Harry pulls out his 44 magnum and said "Go ahead, make my day" before dispatching him.

I know what you're thinking. Did he fire six shots or only five? Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement, I've kinda lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya punk?

It was five shots. The person who played the part of the robber was the late "Albert Popwell" 1999. Look at question #14 in the link below.

 

"In which movie does Harry thwart a bank robbery, kill several suspects, and then approach the surviving suspect as he lay wounded in the street?"

 

Dirty Harry trivia

[Star Crossed 33]

Well, Edward Woodward would burn well.

Superb, DttG. No mention of Ewar Woowar would be complete without a nice play-on-words.

 

I've got 3 suggestions:-

 

1) Tony Montana (Pacino) in "Scarface"; goes out with all guns blazing, coke all over his face, dead coppers everywhere.

"Ha ha ha ha ha! You whores, you scum, I piss in your faces !!!! Ha ha ha ha ha!!"

- a man after my own heart! The Skull then shoots him in the back at point blank with a shotgun and he falls 20 feet into a pool. Dead.

 

2) Brooks Hatlen (James Whitmore) in "The Shawshank Redemption" - one of the saddest film deaths I can think of. Brooks kills himself, an old man who cannot adjust to life in the modern world. After 30 years in prison, he's fully "institutionalised" and life on the outside is frenetic, bewildering and lonely. He hangs himself after scratching "Brooks was here" on the ceiling beam, which Red (Morgan Freeman) later sees when he's allocated the same flophouse room upon his release. A real tearjerker.

 

3) That Steve Buscemi chap in "Fargo" when he's chopped up and fed into a wood chipper. I like that one.

[football_fan 42]

http://www.funtrivia.com/en/Movies/Dirty-Harry-2818.html

 

I love how that website purports to be a font of expertise on Dirty Harry trivia, and it's got all the nice colours and whatnot, yet when it comes to the simple question of which film features the line "Do you feel lucky?", it gets it totally wrong and lists Dirty Harry. Brilliant.

 

The internet. Where you can prove to 2 billion people just how clueless you are

Actually they were right, except what Clint Eastwood says in Dirty Harry (1971) is not "Do you feel lucky?" The actual quote is:

 

"You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya punk?"

[Octopus of Odstock 2,195]

When Dennis Hopper gets decapitated in Speed. (or Speed 2, I can never remember)

 

Or when Alec Guiness dies in Bridge of the River Kwai & in doing so, blows the bridge up.

 

Or John Wayne's glorious death in the Shootist, his last film.

 

Or Alec Guiness again in Star Wars, as is Yoda's. Pure Jedi to the last.

 

These are just five I remember. I'm sure there are many more if I put my mind to it.