Left to their fates

[Attrage]

We all know of famous death scenes and famous last words scenes etc, but I thought it might be fun to list a few of those times in movies where a character or characters are left to their fates, ie their deaths happen off screen but we kind of know what is going to happen or are left to imagine it. What ones can you think of that scare you or you think would be particularly horrible/gruesome? It happens to good and bad-guy alike.

Like a character being left to float off into space with nothing but the air in his spacesuit, or Zed’s demise in Pulp Fiction (the mental image of “a pair of pliers and a blowtorch” made me cringe)…or Wilson the volleyball in Cast Away (poor little dude!!), or all the guys that fell into the Sarlacc in Return of the Jedi…(what do you do when you’re going to be slowly digested over a thousand years? Sit around and play poker? – “Hey, deal Bill out next hand, the sarlacc just digested his arms!”)

Any others you can think of?

[mavrach]

I'm usually skeptical of an offscreen death. That tends to be a cheap device for that character to show up later on in the movie and reveal that what really happened was they were able to survive that incidient.

Sarclacc is interesting because supposedly the expanded comics had Boba Fett crawling out and surviving some time later. Even if it was meant to be death, there's somebody out there waiting to exploit any doubt with a retcon.

[Bryan Pope]

I was watching the original Dawn of the Dead recently, which may be why it comes to mind reading this thread. Even though Peter and Francine are alive when the final credits roll, their future looks pretty dang bleak. Their comrades are dead, they have no idea how far away the next safe haven is, they presumably didn't have time to grab food and water, Francine has a bun in the oven and their helicopter has very little gas. Like I said, pretty grim prospects.

I think the remake would have benefitted from losing the coda tacked on during its closing credits.

Also, the endings of The Blair Witch Project, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), John Carpenter's The Thing.

[Paul Kile]

How about Back From Eternity, or its predecessor Five Came Back? A plane makes a forced landing in the South American jungle, the crew is able to repair an oil leak and a damaged propeller and clear a strip to allow the plane to take off, but with the reduced power and short takeoff distance, not all those aboard can leave. Their camp is surrounded by vicious Jivaro headhunters, which creates a bit of a problem for those who elect to stay behind. In the end, we are left with an image of those on the ground watching the DC-3 heading off into the sunlight, as the Jivaro war drums build in intensity...

I left the ending a bit vague for those who haven't seen either of the movies.

[mkiker2089]

I seem to recall a bonus feature on Shaun of the Dead that went into detail about an off-screen death not being a death later on.

Dawn of the Dead was Romero trying to give an proper ending despite being a bit too green. Romero fell into the same artschool mentality that has plauged the system since the times of Shakespeare in that down endings are cool. The truth that real artists learn is that the ending needs to fit the story and more specifically the characters you created in the story. He wanted them to commit suicide in his script and threw together the new ending as a last minute change. They go into more detail on it in one of the DVD sets I have. Apparently they had a fake head rigged up for the suicide scene and ended up using it earlier in the movie instead.

[Andrew Forbes]

Dawn of the Dead was Romero trying to give an proper ending despite being a bit too green. Romero fell into the same artschool mentality that has plauged the system since the times of Shakespeare in that down endings are cool. The truth that real artists learn is that the ending needs to fit the story and more specifically the characters you created in the story. He wanted them to commit suicide in his script and threw together the new ending as a last minute change. They go into more detail on it in one of the DVD sets I have. Apparently they had a fake head rigged up for the suicide scene and ended up using it earlier in the movie instead.

Yurp. Peter was supposed to shoot himself and Fran was supposed to put her head into the rotors after being surrounded by the dead.

[Kenneth Morgan]

One powerful example that comes to mind is all of the Americans left behind in the Phillipines in "They Were Expendable". They're outnumbered, ill-equipped and it's made very clear that the can expect no help from anyone. They're either going to get killed or, even worse, get captured. We're never told which of them, if any, survived. It's an unforgettable finish, and the ambiguity is better than any sort of definite ending.

[Dan Mancini]

Romero fell into the same artschool mentality that has plauged the system since the times of Shakespeare in that down endings are cool.

Yeah, that finale to Hamlet is pure tweed-jacketed egghead folderol.

[mkiker2089]

Romero fell into the same artschool mentality that has plagued the system since the times of Shakespeare in that down endings are cool.

Yeah, that finale to Hamlet is pure tweed-jacketed egghead folderol.

I said the times of Shakespeare. not necessarily Shakespeare himself. I seem to recall that he often paired people off at the end of his plays. then again the ending of Othello was a downer. I won't say it wasn't correct for the characters and story however. Part of what makes Shakespeare so long lasting is that he wasn't afraid to go against the norms. He was the exception that proves the rule.

[Attrage]

Sarclacc is interesting because supposedly the expanded comics had Boba Fett crawling out and surviving some time later.

Nah, I heard the other guys kicked him out because Fett’s always cheating at cards.

[Dan Mancini]

Romero fell into the same artschool mentality that has plagued the system since the times of Shakespeare in that down endings are cool.

Yeah, that finale to Hamlet is pure tweed-jacketed egghead folderol.

I said the times of Shakespeare. not necessarily Shakespeare himself. I seem to recall that he often paired people off at the end of his plays. then again the ending of Othello was a downer. I won't say it wasn't correct for the characters and story however. Part of what makes Shakespeare so long lasting is that he wasn't afraid to go against the norms. He was the exception that proves the rule.

Here's all you need to know about how Shakespeare structured plots: All of his plays exist in a self-correcting universe. If, in the act of rebooting itself, the universe unites people (usually lovers) who were once at odds, it's called comedy. If the universe crushes everyone in its path, it's called tragedy. Such is life.

And by the way, Romero's originally planned ending to Dawn of the Dead sounds truly awful.