It turns out what we don't see CAN hurt us. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most devastating character deaths that take place off-screen.
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00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most devastating character
00:09deaths that take place off screen.
00:11Obviously, this list reveals some major plot points, so a spoiler alert is in effect.
00:21Number 10.
00:22Newt and Hicks, Alien 3
00:42When fans found out Sigourney Weaver's battle against the acid-blooded Xenomorphs was not
00:45over, they eagerly awaited the third installment of the Alien series.
00:49Once we left Lieutenant Ripley, she had safely escaped in a spacecraft with Corporal Hicks
00:53and her surrogate daughter, Newt.
01:01The noticeably darker-in-tone Alien 3 opens with Ripley's escape pod landing on a penal
01:05colony.
01:06Newt and Hicks are revealed to have perished in that crash.
01:09Fans who were eager to see the deepening of Ripley's relationship with Newt were left
01:12devastated and confused by the choice to kill the character before the main titles were
01:16even over.
01:24Number 9.
01:25Llewellyn Moss, No Country for Old Men
01:28The Coen Brothers' 2007 neo-Western follows a veteran, played by Josh Brolin, who stumbles
01:33upon a mislaid pile of cash from an aborted drug deal.
01:36He finds himself the target of a vicious and cold-blooded hitman as a result.
01:55Moss dies in an off-screen shootout at a motel, where his body is found by Sheriff Ed Tom
02:00Bell.
02:01Like many Coen protagonists, Llewellyn's not exactly a model citizen who makes incredible
02:05decisions, but he's devoted to his wife Carla Jean.
02:20It's exactly that quality that makes his death all the more depressing.
02:23The fact that the Coens don't let us see it leaves us to focus less on the gunplay
02:28the story.
02:42Number 8.
02:43Tom Robinson, To Kill a Mockingbird
02:53This Harper Lee adaptation stars Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch, the lawyer defending a
02:57black man in the Jim Crow South.
02:59Accused of attacking a local white girl, Atticus' client, Tom Robinson, is found guilty despite
03:04mounting evidence pointing to his innocence.
03:06Atticus later learns Tom was killed while supposedly trying to escape prison, but keeping
03:19Tom's death off-screen leaves enough room for doubt.
03:22Did he really try to flee, or was he murdered in retaliation?
03:25We'll never know.
03:26However, the trial has broken open the truth about how deep racism and hatred goes in this
03:31community and we can never trust the official story again.
03:44Number 7.
03:45Leslie Burke, Bridge to Terabithia
03:54Adapted from a beloved children's book, this movie follows two middle schoolers who
03:58invent an imaginary kingdom in the woods.
04:00Jess and Leslie find a refuge from their loneliness for a while, but then the real world comes
04:05crashing in.
04:06One day, Jess comes home to find out his friend died playing in the woods without him.
04:18As it does in real life, her death comes out of nowhere.
04:21There's no build-up, no real foreshadowing.
04:24She's there one minute and gone the next.
04:26It's a devastating way for a child to learn how harsh the world can be.
04:43Number 6.
04:44Chris Chambers, Stand By Me
04:51Gordy LaChance narrates this tale of the summer he and his three friends went on an adventure
04:55to see a dead body.
04:56Based on a comparatively light-hearted story by Stephen King, Stand By Me ends with Gordy
05:00meditating on the whereabouts of his three friends.
05:15It's equal parts sad, nostalgic, and hauntingly realistic.
05:19Gordy saves the final gut-punch for last.
05:21His best friend, Chris, was stabbed to death in a restaurant the week prior to writing
05:25their story.
05:26If that weren't enough, Atcher River Phoenix dissolves from the frame like a fading memory
05:30as Gordy tells us his fate.
05:38Number 5.
05:39T'Challa, Black Panther, Wakanda Forever
05:49Early in this MCU sequel, T'Challa, also known as the Black Panther, dies from an unnamed
05:54illness.
05:55Despite the joyous and celebratory funeral procession, his sister, Shuri, breaks down
05:59in grief as Wakanda's savior is laid to rest.
06:02Not only is it a solemn end for a heroic character, it also serves as an on-screen tribute to
06:06T'Challa's actor.
06:21The legendary Chadwick Boseman passed away in 2020 after a long and private battle with
06:26cancer.
06:27The sequel was rewritten as a result, and the scene served as a way for fans to say
06:31goodbye to Boseman and the superhero he played.
06:42Number 4.
06:43Thomas J. Sennett, My Girl
06:55This coming-of-age classic about Veda, a morbid and precocious mortician's daughter who
07:00is fascinated by death, has one of the most tear-jerking funeral scenes of all time.
07:04Her only friend is Thomas J., a nerdy outcast played by a post-Home Alone Macaulay Culkin.
07:20Late in the movie, Thomas J. is stung by bees and dies of an allergic reaction.
07:24The last we see of him is the bees swarming and his glasses falling to the ground.
07:29The scene where Veda finds out, and her subsequent breakdown beside his casket, make for an on-screen
07:33death that really stays with you.
07:45Number 3.
07:46Tracey Mills, Seven
07:57The sociopathic serial killer at the center of this morose neo-noir has patterned his
08:01murders off of the Seven Deadly Sins.
08:03After turning himself in, the suspect leads Detective Mills and Somerset to a spot in
08:07the desert where a mysterious box is delivered.
08:10We never see its contents, but the killer implies it is the severed head of Mills'
08:14wife.
08:15The revelation is too much for Mills.
08:30He completes John Doe's master plan by embodying rage and shooting the envious killer dead
08:35in retaliation.
08:36It's one of those plot twists that's made all the more horrifying by leaving it up to
08:39our imagination.
08:55Number 2.
08:56Rosie Betzler, Jojo Rabbit
09:09Taika Waititi's heart-breaking dark comedy tells the story of Jojo Betzler, a young German
09:14boy living in Germany during the Third Reich.
09:16His mother, Rosie, is revealed to be working with anti-Nazi political groups to undermine
09:20Hitler's poisonous influence, however, she pays the price for her betrayal of the state.
09:35Jojo finds her hanged in the street alongside several other traitors.
09:38As Jojo is our point-of-view character, we experience it from his perspective.
09:42The camera remains at Jojo's height, never letting us see her entirely.
09:46We only know her from her distinctive shoes.
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10:20Number 1.
10:21Guido Orefice, Life is Beautiful
10:23Writer, director, and star Roberto Benigni headlines this WWII film about a Jewish bookshop
10:35proprietor named Guido, who ends up in a concentration camp with his young son.
10:39Guido finds new and inventive ways of fooling his son into believing the camp is an elaborate
10:44game.
10:55Even as Guido is led to his death by soldiers, he winks at his son, keeping up the ruse that
11:00their time in the camp is not at all what it seems.
11:02His son, of course, has no idea that this is the last time he'll see his father, who
11:06sacrificed so much to shield him from the horrors of their imprisonment.
11:27Which off-screen death haunted you the most?
11:29Tell us in the comments.