There are many ways for a director to surprise their audiences and create a real emotion by pulling the rug out from under them. The best way to do that is by unexpectedly killing one of the main characters. Here are the most surprising main character deaths in movies, ranked.
10Casey Becker - Scream (1996)
Screamstarts with a scene where Casey (Drew Barrymore) is at home and gets a phone call. She doesn’t survive that scene and is the first Ghostface victim. The fact that Barrymore was a well-known actress made audiences believe she would be the final girl, and what happens is exactly the opposite. This first scene showed this horror film was going to be different from the start by killing its most famous actress. And it worked as more than 20 years later, we’re still gettingScreammovies. About the scene,Barrymore told Hot Ones: “What I wanted to do is to take that comfort zone away," she said. “I asked if I could be Casey Becker, so we would establish this rule does not apply in this film.”
9Joe Black - Meet Joe Black (1998)
Meet Joe Blackis a romantic film with a surprising start. Joe (Brad Pitt) meets Susan (Claire Forlani), and they have a very cute interaction. Just after that, he gets run over by two cars and dies. The scene is surprising, and the way it was filmed made it become a gif. Once Joe is dead, Death itself uses his body to have an earned holiday on Earth and discover everything humans do and feel, including love. His character befriends William Parrish (Anthony Hopkins), Susan’s father, and it gives him more time to live as long as he helps Joe live this new life to the maximum. This movie hasone of Brad Pitt’s most essential moments, and is a sweet film, even though its almost three-hour duration is a bit much.
Dead Poets Societytells the story of a group of kids in a boarding school who get their lives changed through the teachings of their unique English teacher, John Keating (Robin Williams). Keating’s character isone of the most heroic characters who is not a superheroand inspires the boys. One of them is Neil (Robert Sean Leonard), who wants to be an actor. Unfortunately, his father, Mr. Perry (Kurtwood Smith), doesn’t like the artistic ideas his teenage son has and wants to send him to military school. Neil can’t take that, so he ends his own life. It’s the turning point of the movie, a moment as surprising as it is sad, that changes the chemistry of the film and catapults it to its cathartic ending where the kids in the Dead Poets Society all get over their desks to show Keating how he has changed their lives.
7Jack Dawson - Titanic (1997)
Jack Dawson’s (Leonardo DiCaprio) death inTitanicis still debated all these years later. Was it avoidable? Some think so. What’s for sure is that his death is what transformed the film into a romantic epic that’s still one of the Top-5 biggest box office successes in cinema history all these years later. The movie is all action and spectacle with a beautiful romantic story in the middle between Jack and Rose (Kate Winslet). Could’ve Jack gotten over the door and not died? Audiences will keep discussing it for the rest of their lives as it was an awful surprise for all of them.
6Iron Man - Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Many heroes died inAvengers: Infinity War, but that wasn’t the most surprising moment in the MCU; no, that happened in its next movieAvengers: Endgame.Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) aka Iron Man, started the MCU as an egomaniacal, selfish playboy, and he ended it by sacrificing himself for the greater good and saving humanity from Thanos (Josh Brolin) in an incredible character arc that lasted more than a decade. His “And I’m Iron Man” still gives viewers chills four years later. It was unexpected, heartfelt, emotional, and the perfect end for his character.
Related:These Are Some of the Best Movie Death Scenes
5Vincent Vega - Pulp Fiction (1994)
Pulp Fictiontells three different intertwined criminal stories in 90s Los Angeles. Vincent Vega (John Travolta) is one of the leads in one of those stories and, surprisingly gets killed in another one, by Butch (Bruce Willis) after going to the bathroom in Butch’s house. It’s surprising as it’s graphic, as he gets killed by many bullets. The fact that the stories aren’t in chronological order also means that, although audiences know Vincent’s fate, they spend more time with him after seeing him die, as he has the worst day ever with his friend Jules (Samuel L. Jackson).
4Llewelyn Moss - No Country for Old Man (2007)
No Country for Old Mentells the story of Llewelyn (Josh Brolin), who finds a bag full of drug money and takes it. He must escape from a killer, Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), hired by the cartel to get the money back. The character played by Bardem is the one that stole the moviewith every unique scary scene, but what’s most surprising happens halfway through, as Moss is not only killed, but it happens off-screen, as audiences listen to the shots, and find him already dead. From then on, the movie changes the lead characters, and both Chigurh and Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) become the focal point.
3Malcolm Crowe - The Sixth Sense (1999)
The Sixth Sensetwist is one of the most famous of the last thirty years. Audiences discover that Malcolm died in the first scene shooting and that during the whole movie, he’s only been seen by Cole Sear, the kid with a sixth sense that makes him see dead people. His realization of what’s really happened isone ofBruce Willis’s best acting momentsand the surprise of his demise is what made the film a box office success.
2Billy Costigan - The Departed (2006)
The Departedtells the story of two cops, Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a cop planted as a mole on Costello’s (Jack Nicholson) criminal gang to put the crime lord in prison, while Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) is a cop planted by Costello so that he can avoid prison. The cat-and-mouse game between the two cops ends when Costigan finds out who Sullivan is, and puts handcuffs on him. Suddenly, the elevator doors open and Costigan is shot in the head by another corrupt cop, dying instantly. Tragic, unnecessary, and surprising, audiences shouted a loud “Oooh!” when they saw it in theaters.
About his character,DiCaprio told Film Ink: “But the fact that my character is having a 24-hour panic attack and is surrounded by people who would literally blow his head off if he gave them any indication of who he actually is – coupled with the fact that he’s sitting across the table from a homicidal maniac that will maybe light him on fire – gave my character a whole new dynamic and it completely altered and shifted the scene in a completely different direction”
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1Marion Crane - Psycho (1960)
This had to be number one. Alfred Hitchcock loved to play with audiences and made them react as he wanted with every scene and frame he directed. InPsycho, he did his biggest trick yet as her famous lead actressJanet Leighgets surprisingly killed with most of the movie still to go, changing its point of view to become Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) story. The shower kill scene is as iconic as they come, and this idea changed the boundaries of storytelling forever. AfterPsycho, no lead character was safe, and as you’ve seen in this list, screenwriters and directors have kept using this surprising idea ever since.
