Monday, May 2, 2011

DING, DONG: Y'all understand at this point the subjects for which this blog is not the place, and yet I couldn't quite imagine just returning to our normal routine today without some acknowledgment of last night's news.

So here's a question: what have been the most satisfying villain deaths for you in pop culture history? Is it Molly Weasley's not my daughter, you bitch! killing of Bellatrix Lestrange?  The melting Nazi in Raiders of the Lost Ark?  Hans Gruber's gravitational demise? One of the falling Disney deaths?

56 comments:

  1. I can't fault any of the ones you list.  I would have expected you also to list Rosalind Shays.  I will think of others, but Khan's death comes to mind.

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  2. Another thing that seems apropos is the West Wing third season finale, "Posse Comitatus," in which Bartlet gives the order to have Sharif killed and that's juxtaposed with the Shakespearan War of the Roses.  (Also featuring the death of Simon Donovan and the awesome "'Crime, Boy I Don't Know,' that's when I decided to kick your ass." moment.

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  3. In keeping with pop culture and not getting into politics, I will just add that in my head, Sydney Bristow was involved in the mission last night.

    And Arvin Sloane's not-a-death ranks high up there for me. Also, Bellatrix like Adam said, as well as Count Rugen in Princess Bride.

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  4. Lord Refa in Babylon 5. Gotta love "And the Rock Cried Out No Hiding Place."

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  5. Very good list.  At the end of Season Five of 'The Wire', where Slim Charles shoots a mouthing-off Cheese and says "That was for Joe" is up there.

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  6. It's not the death itself, but the loss of a finger just before death, that I find very satisifying in Heathers.

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  7. Personally, I didn't like Molly's killing of Bellatrix, for two reasons.  1. It was very derivative of the end of Aliens; 2. I think Ginny should have done it herself.  One of the subplots of the novels (which was accentuated in the movies, esp. movie 5) is that Ginny is a uniquely powerful witch... but she never had the chance to do anything awesome in book 7.

    ... Anyway, my most satisfying death would have to be in Jaws.  "Smile, you son of a bitch!", indeed!

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  8. christy in nyc10:13 AM

    I think I have an appropriately apolitical/pop-cultural comment about this: last night at around 9:30 I stopped looking at Twitter or Facebook or blogs or my phone. I watched one episode of Battlestar Galactica on my laptop (I've been going through the series for the first time and I am OBSESSED), then watched Treme on the DVR. At 11:30, I bopped along with the ending credits of Treme and then went to bed. I thought about checking my laptop one more time but I thought I'd get sucked in and stay up too late.

    Wake up and I have a text. Who would text me on Sunday night/Monday morning? Oh. OH. I missed everything! There was this whole communal moment where everyone was online experiencing this together... "What do you think he's going to announce...could it really be...it is!" And THAT'S why people stay glued to their technology to an annoying extent. Because there's always the potential for those kinds of moments.

    Of course, in hindsight, I guess I couldn't have picked two more post-9/11-ish series to be watching just as all this was about to unfold, except maybe if I'd been watching 24 or something. And there are DEFINITELY some satisfying bad guy deaths in BSG (but I'm not quite done with the series so LALALALA).

    Anyway: falling Disney villains: I've always been partial to the falling archdeacon in the Hunchback of Notre Dame. I remember thinking at the time that he was much worse than your average Disney villain (most of that credit probably goes to Victor Hugo, but still). Though in hindsight there are definitely similar layers to Jafar and Gaston's villainy that I probably should have picked up on but didn't as a tween.

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  9. heathalouise10:18 AM

    I think the deaths of Sully ("I let him go") and Bennett ("Let off some steam") in the 1985 Arnold Schwarzenegger classic "Commando" are worth noting here. I kind of love that B-movie.

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  10. When we were young and insensitive we used to celebrate the scene in RoboCop where the gangster villain comes to kill the corporate villain and, finding the corporate villain doing blow with a pair of prostitutes, emotionlessly growls "bitches leave" before getting on with the hit.  Something about the flat deliverly renders those words less than a command -- though certainly it is not a mere a suggestion -- and more of a general statement about a general condition or law of nature, like "rain falls" or "flowers grow".  Does that make sense?

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  11. Melting T-1000. Especially when he pops up as half-formed versions of all the guises he took on. Chilling.

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  12. Judge Frollo is nasty, he doesn't get enough credit (demerits?) because he has no supernatural powers.  He burns down gypsy houses!

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  13. Fred App10:48 AM

    "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." I can't even believe there's any debate about this.

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  14. <span>That was also the movie with Arnold saying of the guy on the plane, "He's dead tired", right?  My teenage self LOVED that stuff in the mid-80s.  (And my grown-up self still does.)</span>

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  15. Anne5710:48 AM

    The judge in Who framed Roger Rabbit has a very satisfying demise.

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  16. Eric J.10:53 AM

    For B5, I've got to go with Morden - or more specifically Vir's getting to fulfil his prediction.

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  17. Picking one is hard!  I definitely love Count Rugen in the Princess Bridge (I want my father back, you son of a bitch!")  Voldemort's death is definitely up there.  I'm going to add the death of Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs.  THAT was a satisfying one.

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  18. I thought that the consensus on twitter was that Jack Bauer handled this one?

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  19. <span>Matrix</span>: <span>Remember, Sully, when I promised to kill you last?</span>
    <span>Sully</span>: That's right, Matrix! You did!
    <span>Matrix</span>: I lied.

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  20. I can't believe it took me this long to think of Richie Aprile.

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  21. Anonymous11:21 AM

    Sue me, but I still get misty at the end of that movie.

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  22. Michael11:29 AM

    Ganz from 48HRS.

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  23. Benner11:40 AM

    I thought of Tosca killing Scarpia -- a day like this calls for some opera. 

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  24. I do wish it had been Ginny killing Bellarix, but there's something quite satisfying (to me at least) to seeing Molly go from soft comforting mother hen to a terrifying mother bear  FINALLY.  I mean she spends 7 books comforting and gentle and warm, and it's nice to see that she's also a force to be reckoned with. 

    Also, it totally makes me well up.  Though I attribute this to reading the 7th book while pregnant.

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  25. Devin McCullen11:47 AM

    Frank Nitti in The Untouchables.  "He's in the car."

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  26. Oh, yeah... that was a good one!

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  27. The Other Kate12:10 PM

    Two evil emperors: Commodus in Gladiator and Palpatine in Return of the Jedi.

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  28. Emperor Ming getting impaled on the rocket ship Ajax is pretty satisfying.  But does it count: http://mimg.ugo.com/200812/8357/FlashGordon-TheEnd.jpg

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  29. Speaking of The Sopranos, Phil Leotardo had a rather terrific death too.

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  30. Joseph Finn12:54 PM

    General Zod on Superman II is pretty freaking satisfying.

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  31. spacewoman1:08 PM

    If it makes you feel any better, we watched a DVR'd Game of Thrones last night and then went to sleep early.  I didn't find out until I was on my way to boot camp at 5:30 this morning, where I discovered that I was possibly the last person in America to hear the news.  There's nothing like trying to get your mind around something that big when everyone else has been there for hours.

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  32. Benner2:50 PM

    The "diplomatic immunity" guy in that Lethal Weapon movie?

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  33. Emily W2:51 PM

    I was still later than you! I watched my TiVoed TAR til about 9:40, while chatting with my best friend in DC, then logged off and went to bed. Hit the snooze repeatedly til about 5:45am when I finally got up and turned on the TV for the weather report to see crowds dancing in Times Square. I said to myself "Huh? There weren't any sports championships or anything last night....what's going on?"

    Then, I had to scrap my planned lesson for today and try to help my seniors wrap their heads around it! They barely remember a time when we weren't looking for him.

    And, to make this post relevant to the original question, my favorite movie villan death will always be the Wicked Witch in The Wizard of Oz. (Which is nicely paralleled in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" I think)

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  34. Squid3:07 PM

    Carter Hayes' departure at the end of Pacific Heights brought a certain kind of satisfaction.

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  35. The most satisfying TV death, to me, was Aaron Echolls' on Veronica Mars.

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  36. Adam C.3:48 PM

    "[neck roll, BLAMMO] Has just been revoked!"

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  37. christy in nyc3:58 PM

    Exactly, ladies! But uh...you get up early. I finally checked my phone then laptop just as I was leaving for work...around 8:30. Embarassing.

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  38. Adam C.3:58 PM

    Norman Lloyd's gravitational demise in Saboteur presaged Hans Gruber by over 45 years. 

    For tv, I was going to say it's hard to argue with the grim end Dark Willow wrought upon Warren.  But then I remembered Buffy Season 8.

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  39. Anonymous4:43 PM

    <p><span><span>Rosalind Shays definitely.</span></span><span></span>
    </p>

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  40. calliekl5:07 PM

    This is just reminding me how much I wish Mal had gotten a chance to kill Niska.

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  41. Benner5:11 PM

    One more:  "Get off my plane!"  Harrison Ford, Air Force One. 

    (Too political?  Too political.)

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  42. calliekl5:23 PM

    Oh I totally forgot one of my favorites- Eowyn killing the Witch King:

    WK: You fool! No man can kill me!
    E: (pulls off her helmet) I am no man.

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  43. Much as Mal is a cutthroat son of a bitch, part of what makes him a great character is his moral code, which calls for mercy (at least sometimes)--e.g., the duel in "Shindig," not throwing Jayne out of the airlock when he could have at the end of "Ariel," not killing Saffron in either of their encounters, and not killing The Operative.

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  44. As did Ralphie.

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  45. Joseph J. Finn8:50 PM

    Christina's choice as well.

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  46. lisased9:08 PM

    We watched this last year at Wolf Trap. When she ripped off her helmet, the whole lawn yelled the line and whooped for a solid minute.

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  47. If I remember "Air Force One" correctly, doesn't it open with a night-time helicopter raid on a high-priority foreign target on a guarded estate in hostile territory? 

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  48. I agree. This seemed obvious when the question was posed, and I'm surprised it didn't make the cut in the post itself and took two hours for someone to mention in the comments.

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  49. Ralphie's death I remember. Phil and Richie I don't. (Janice shot Richie?)

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  50. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwuGf7EGOxA

    Terrible continuity on that. She shoots him on the left side, and the bloodstain is dead center after he falls.

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  51. Genevieve9:58 AM

    I found out about the same time as Christy.  But the world has changed, for it to be embarrassing to learn something at 8:30 a.m. that was announced the previous night at 11:30.

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  52. LB mentioned Count Rugen's death above - third comment or so.

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  53. Both extremely satisfying, and a great falling death: Hans Gruber in Die Hard.

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  54. Oops, that was in the original post.  Um, I'm really tired from working our annual Gala last night.

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  55. Adam C.4:34 PM

    It's the 2011 version of this.

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