Movies are a lot like life: it often doesn’t go according to plan. And while Hollywood loves a good storybook ending, there’s also a long list of characters who were left holding the short end of the stick.
Below are examples of 10+ movie characters who deserved better.
RELATED STORIES
Some are heroes, others are villains, but all have been done an incredible injustice in one way or another.
Queen Amidala in *Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge Of The Sith*.
We’re just supposed to believe that she simply loses her will to live?
For three films Padme was portrayed as a warrior princess and then at the last minute, you reduce her to nothing more than a damsel in distress?
Brooks in *The Shawshank Redemption*.
Brooks spent most of his life locked away in Shawshank. His death was supposed to be a commentary on the dangers of institutionalizing human beings.
He deserved a modicum of happiness, not the end of a rope.
Henry Jones Sr. in *Indiana Jones And The Crystal Skull*.
I firmly believe that Sean Connery and Harrison Ford make the best father/son duo in the history of cinema.
That’s why it’s so shocking to think that Henry’s death wasn’t even addressed in Crystal Skull ! There was a brief shot of his photo with melancholy music playing in the background. That’s it.
Sarah Connor in *T3: Rise Of The Machines*.
Sarah Connor was one of the first female action heroes of modern cinema. In T2 , she turned her body into a weapon able to compete with the Terminator itself!
At least let her go out in a blaze of glory, not battling cancer off-screen.
Odin in *Thor: Ragnarok*.
Odin is actually one of the strongest characters in the entire MCU. Reducing him to a demented old man seemed like a betrayal.
Also, can someone please tell me what actually happened? He just turns into light and floats away; why?
Bane in *The Dark Knight Rises*.
Any actor who signs on to play a villain in the DCEU is fighting an uphill battle. Inevitably, they will be compared to Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight .
Tom Hardy’s Bane might, therefore, be only second best but it’s still an incredibly strong performance. Catwoman shooting him in the chest with a rocket seemed very deus ex-machina .
John ‘Ray’ Arnold in *Jurassic Park*.
You may remember Ray as the “Hold on to your butts” guy from Jurassic Park . This incredible line of dialogue is one of the most often quoted in the entire film!
Showing him as a dismembered arm and not giving him a proper on-screen death seemed like a cop-out.
Chief Martin Brody in *Jaws: The Revenge*.
Ugh. The Jaws franchise is a great argument for why filmmakers should never be allowed to do a sequel. Each film gets progressively worse.
In the fourth installment, we learn that Brody died of a heart attack. To make matters worse, it was caused from his fear of sharks!
Saruman in *The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers*.
The treatment of Saruman is borderline criminal.
Were it not for a deleted scene from the extended cut, audiences everywhere would have been left scratching their heads as to why the main villain of the first two films didn’t bother to show up for the final battle?
Joe Brody in *Godzilla*.
Why was Bryan Cranston cast at all in this movie? He’s dead and gone within the first half an hour of the film!
If the goal was to subvert expectations and turn movie customs on its head, then congratulations! You succeeded horribly.
Llewelyn Moss in *No Country For Old Men*.
I am a firm advocate that no character should ever be killed off-screen. That goes double for the main characters!
But of course, the Coen brothers go and do just that. To this day, I couldn’t tell you if I love or hate No Country For Old Men because of it.
Captain Steven Hiller in *Independence Day: Resurgence*.
Captain Steven Hiller once knocked out an alien with only one punch, exclaiming “Welcome to earth!” while he did it.
Glossing over his absence by attributing his death to a flight accident is an insult to his name.
Archibald Hicox in *Inglorious Basterds*.
Archie was one of the most captivating characters of the entire film. But in pure Tarantino fashion, he’s unceremoniously blown away right before our eyes.
The sudden nature of his death is what makes it most unnerving.
The Joker in *Suicide Squad*.
Was Jared Leto’s Joker doomed, to begin with? There’s an argument to be made. But without a doubt, the fault doesn’t solely rest on his shoulders.
Perhaps if we’d gotten to see more than a combined 15 minutes of Joker time, the character could have evolved better.
Han Solo in *Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens*.
I don’t care if Harrison Ford wanted to kill off the character. This space scoundrel is the entire reason why the resistance is alive to fight another day!
Han deserved more than a lightsaber in the belly.
