Summary
Fakeout deaths have become mildly predictable in pop culture, butsome recent as well as older movies have managed to pull off shocking returns for characters the audience believed to be dead.Fantasy and sci-fi movie franchises featurecharacters who keep dying and coming backacross many sequels, which usually results in the predictability element. If a series has established that resurrection and fakeout deaths are possible, the audience will expect it to happen again, so the writers don’t have to let go of a fan-favorite.
Unexpected deaths in movies provoke shock, butif the audience fully buys the character’s death, their subsequent return will be even better.However, the shock value may be due to the franchise having not yet become overwhelmed with resurrections. It is always possible thatmissing or dead characters will return inFast 11or the nextPirates of the Caribbeanmovie because of these franchises’ reputations for resurrections. Yet movies can still (rarely) create an effective fakeout death through unconventional storytelling.
10 Horror Movie Characters Who Survived Certain-Death Situations
Horror movies tend to feature surprise survivals, but there are some characters who seem to live through situations that should’ve ended in death.
10Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich)
Scream (1996)
Billy puts on a good show of being a protective boyfriend throughoutScream. There is also no indication that more than one person is involved in the charade of Ghostface. Therefore, when Ghostface crashes into the bedroom and stabs Billy, his death is pretty convincing.No one else has survived being attacked by Ghostface,and Sidney runs for her life.
Billy surprisingly reappears shortly after, pretending to only be wounded, before leading into one of the most iconic villain twists in movie history. He reveals that he killed Sidney’s mother in revenge for breaking up his parents’ marriage and thatStu is his accomplice, allowing for a lot of misdirection and for Billy to fake his own death.This has become a soft tradition for theScreamfranchise, asGhostface has faked their death three timestotal in all the movies — but none are as shocking as the first time.
Scream
1996’s Scream follows a teenage girl who is targeted by a masked killer a year after her mother’s murder who uses horror movies as a deadly game against her and her friends.
9Baymax (Scott Adsit)
Big Hero 6 (2014)
A lot ofBig Hero 6is about Hiro coming to terms with his brother’s death, which is why it would make sense for the story to end with him losing Baymax as well. Baymax is Hiro’s brother’s creation — another part of him Hiro doesn’t want to let go of — and his death would underscore how Hiro has learned to rely on his friends while cherishing the memory of Baymax.It’s not completely unbelievable that Disney would sacrifice Baymax in the final act of the movieand then end with Hiro continuing to pursue an education in robotics.
The moment the viewer sees the chip in Hiro’s hand, they know that the movie is redirecting to this assured happy ending.
Then it is revealed that Baymax managed to slip Hiro his chip,so Hiro can just build him again, and he will be exactly the same. The moment the viewer sees the chip in Hiro’s hand, they know that the movie is redirecting to this assured happy ending. However, it is still a nice surprise that Hiro gets to keep his new friend after all, as Baymax is too lovable for anyone to want him to stay dead.
Big Hero 6
In Walt Disney Animation Studios' Big Hero 6, the child genius Hiro Hamada works with his brother Tadashi’s inflatable robot, Baymax, to assemble a superhero team in the fictional city of San Fransokyo. The titular group of geeky heroes, composed of Honey Lemon, Go Go Tomago, Wasabi, and Fred, help Hiro and Baymax take down a masked villain powered by nanobots.
8Helen Brand (Janelle Monáe)
Glass Onion (2022)
Knives Outis a franchise that is too realistic to delve into explicit resurrection, but at the time ofGlass Onion, it hadn’t yet established what people have come to recognize as its formula. Given Janelle Monáe’s prominence in the advertising, it stands to reason that their character would be important, but she didn’t absolutely have to survive.The most suspicious part of Helen’s“death”is that the movie is only halfway over, but this is solved by restarting the timelineto give Monáe a lot more screen time.
Some keen-eyed audience members might have also noticed moments in the trailers featuring Helen that hadn’t happened yet. However,for the most part, Helen’s death is convincing:She shouldn’t survive a bullet to the chest and there is plenty of“blood”to sell the bit. Yet after the buildup back to her death in the second half of the movie, she just as quickly sits up and reveals her lucky survival.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery follows Detective Benoit Blanc’s continuing detective work in Greece. When tech billionaire Miles Bron invites his friends to his private island, Benoit Blanc must step in to solve the case when one of them is killed.
7Darth Maul (Ray Park/Sam Witwer)
Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
Before all ofStar Wars: The Clone Wars,Darth Maul’s death was a done deal.Being cut in half and thrown down a shaft should be a guarantee of death. If the viewer had no knowledge of the animated TV show that happened in betweenStar Wars: The Phantom MenaceandSolo: A Star Wars Story, Maul’s cameo/return in the latter would have been a completely wild, uncontextualized shock.
Even knowing that Maul was still alive in theStar Warsuniverse, his appearance in this movie is a surprise. However,Maul also gets his dramatic return inThe Clone Wars.Obi-Wan has several duels with MaulacrossStar Wars, creating a more classic rivalry for one of the originalStar Warscharacters. Maul becomes embroiled in the various complex storylines ofThe Clone Wars, including the ultimate lead-up to Order 66.
Solo: A Star Wars Story
Solo: A Star Wars Story explores the early adventures of Han Solo, showcasing his beginnings and key encounters with significant characters in the Star Wars universe. Set in a backdrop of galactic turmoil, the film delves into the origins of his famed relationships and his rise as a rebellious smuggler.
6Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund)
A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)
40 years later,A Nightmare on Elm Street’s endingstill doesn’t make complete sense. If one takes what is seen on screen as literal,Nancy does“kill”Freddy Krueger by turning her back on him.Nancy theorizes that if she were able to pull Krueger out of her dream and into the real world, they would be able to kill him. After lighting Krueger on fire and still failing to kill him, Nancy reclaims his power over her, and he evaporates, making it seem like he is dead — for a moment.
Then Krueger reappears in the ending scene, which may just mean Nancy is still stuck in a dream world.The ending toA Nightmare on Elm Streetis famously ambiguous,but Krueger being a part of it is necessary to make it so chilling. The hero asserting their own power is a way villains are defeated in other movies, butA Nightmare on Elm Streetshocks its audience multiple times with Krueger always returning.
A Nightmare on Elm Street
A Nightmare on Elm Street, released in 1984, explores the terror faced by a group of teenagers haunted in their dreams by Fred Krueger, a vengeful spirit. As they confront a series of mysterious deaths, Nancy Thompson uncovers the truth about Krueger’s dark past and seeks to stop him.
13 Most Brutal Deaths In Recent Horror Movies & TV Shows
Horror movies are full of deaths, shocks, and tense moments, but some recent movies and TV shows have upped the brutality in their death scenes.
5Alex Forrest (Glenn Close)
Fatal Attraction (1987)
Fatal Attractionis a harrowing psychological thriller, largely due to Glenn Close’s performance of Alex, a married man’s one-night stand who turns out to be a dangerous stalker. Alex latches on to Dan and his family, only becoming more disturbing as the movie goes on. Things culminate in a brutal fight between Alex and Dan, ended by Dan’s wife Beth. However, before this,Dan seems to have succeeded in killing Alex himself.
All Fatal Attraction gets out of this is the jump scare — which is worth it.
Dan holds Alex underwater in a bathtub until she seemingly drowns,and the movie’s constant tension is over. However, there is an electrifying jump scare when Alex quickly sits up and tries to stab Dan again but is shot by Beth. Unlike some horror movies, the fight doesn’t even carry on after the character fakeout death because Alex is immediately killed. AllFatal Attractiongets out of this is the jump scare — which is worth it.
Fatal Attraction
Dan Gallagher, a successful lawyer with a seemingly perfect family life, faces unimaginable turmoil after a brief affair with Alex Forrest. Initially, their fling appears to be a momentary lapse in judgment, but Alex’s intense and unstable behavior soon reveals her deep obsession. As Alex’s fixation on Dan grows, she begins to infiltrate his life, threatening his marriage, career, and even his family’s safety.
4Regina George (Rachel McAdams)
Mean Girls (2004)
“And that’s how Regina George died.”Mean Girls’death fakeout admittedly only lasts a few seconds,but that is why it works. This is not the genre of movie that anyone would expect would include a character’s death and the beat doesn’t last long enough for anyone to process it and call Cady out. Regina getting hit by a bus is brutal, and Cady’s response provokes momentary, horrified shock. She then quickly admits she’s kidding.
With all the over-the-top drama, briefly trying to convince the audience that Regina is dead is the ultimate way to pile on to the chaos.Cady watches the tensions among the girls at her school boil over in a way she didn’t think was possible,where the lines between“girl world”and“animal world”begin to blur. It comes down to her and Regina shouting at each other, the face-off the movie was always leading to before a well-timed bus shatters it all.
Mean Girls
Mean Girls tells the story of Cady (Lindsay Lohan), a teen girl who falls in with the wrong crowd. After returning to the USA after spending her childhood in Africa, Cady infiltrates her school’s group of mean girls, befriending the conniving Regina George (Rachel McAdams) and her cronies. However, Cady finds the high school hierarchy to be far more complicated than she had imagined, drawing her into a game of manipulation and deceit that threatens her reputation.
3Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.)
Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows (2011)
If moviegoers beganSherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadowswith a certain knowledge ofSherlock Holmeshistory, they might have realized that a death fakeout was coming. However, as the scene plays out in the movie, it highlights exactly how complicated Sherlock Holmes’“death”is in pop culture because of how convincing it is.Holmes and Moriarty famously fall to their deaths together over Reichenbach Falls,which is faithfully adapted inGame of Shadows.
When Sir Arthur Conan Doyle first wrote this, it provoked maybe the first instance of fan outrage, eventually leading Doyle to retcon the event with the reveal that Holmes had faked his death in another story (viaBBC). AfterGame of Shadowsshows Holmes falling to a certain death,the movie concludes with a few crazy minutes. Watson is writing the end of Holmes' story before he begins to suspect the truth, and it is revealed that Holmes did not only survive — he is in the very same room.
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is a 2011 mystery action film featuring Robert Downey Jr. as detective Sherlock Holmes. The story follows Holmes and his companion Dr. John Watson as they confront their formidable adversary, Professor Moriarty, whose schemes threaten to alter the course of history.
2Han Lue (Sung Kang)
F9 (2021)
Han is an interesting case because his return was known before the official premiere ofF9. However, the saga of the lead-up to his“death”and return and audience engagement with this storyline is also fascinating.Han first appears in the spinoffThe Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, where he dies in a crash— no strings attached. His role in subsequentFast & Furiousinstallments prompted a sense of dread among fans, who knew that these movies were acting as prequels in Han’s story and that he eventually would die.
This apparently comes to pass inFurious 7, with the“reveal”that Han’s death was orchestrated by Deckard Shaw. Then,after all this, Han’s death turned out to be another fakeout forFast & Furiousthat still hasn’t been completely explained. Like with Letty, Han’s return was advertised ahead of time. However, it probably made for a frustrating surprise when he started turning up in coverage ofF9.
F9: The Fast Saga
The Fast family reunites again for the ninth installment in the franchise, F9: The Fast Saga. Dominic Toretto must lead the team against the dangerous Cipher once more, as she has joined forces with an equally dangerous foe named Otto. This covert operative went rogue upon discovering a powerful weapon, Project Aries. Unfortunately for Dom, not all families are as loving and caring, as he’ll soon discover his estranged brother has returned, joining forces with the opposition.
10 Predictable Movie Twists That Everyone Saw Coming
There’s nothing quite like a surprising twist in the final moments of a movie, but sometimes the reveal is clearly evident right from the beginning.
1Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush)
Captain Barbossa is the classic villain in the classic swashbuckling adventure ofPirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. In service of this, he gets a perfectly executed death in the final battle against the heroes. This was the point in the franchise where it wasn’t yet a running joke that death is always temporary.There was no reason to believe that Barbossa wasn’t the one-off villain ofCurse of the Black Pearlwho had served his purpose and wouldn’t be coming back.
A lot happens inPirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chestthat has absolutely nothing to do with Barbossa, making his return in the final moments of the movie a complete wild card. However, his presence is one of the better parts of the subsequent movies, allowing his dynamics with the other characters to become more nuanced than straightforward animosity.Barbossa gets a great shocking return at the end ofDead Man’s Chestand some valuable scenes afterward,making it one of cinema’s better fakeout deaths.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest is the second installment in the swashbuckling franchise directed by Gore Verbinski. Johnny Depp returns as Captain Jack Sparrow, who must settle a blood debt with the legendary Davy Jones, portrayed by Bill Nighy. As Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) are drawn into Jack’s perilous quest, they face new dangers on the high seas and encounter the fearsome Kraken.
