Sci-fimovies use imaginative and futuristic concepts to eclipse the real-life limits of science, logic, and fact. Unfortunately for the characters who inhabit the genre, this status quo means that their on-screen fates can be worse than anything that exists in reality. As such,science-fiction has played host toa number of movie deaths that viewers will never get over,no matter how many times they watch them play out.
From the tragic losses of core characters to more speculative forms of death and suffering, many of thebest sci-fi movies of all timeprove that there’s no set formula for an unforgettable demise. Enacting a devastating emotional toll upon their audience, these moments compound their movies' impact and leave viewers thinking about them long after the credits roll. Some of these on-screen fates are so shattering that viewers couldn’t forget them even if they tried.
TheAlienmoviesare known for possessing some of the most brutal kills that science-fiction has to offer, with 2024’sAlien: Romulusproving no exception to this gruesome status quo. While there’s a litany of horrible ends to choose from amid Fede Alvarez’s foray into the movie series,Romulus’crowning jewel is unequivocally the macabre fate of Isabela Merced’s Kay Harrison.
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The pregnant Harrison eventually gives birth to a nightmarish human-Xenomorph hybrid during the movie’s climactic sequence, a complication arising after she imbibed a dose of Z-01 to heal rapidly. While Kay’s actual moment of death at the hands of her own monstrous offspring thankfully takes place off-camera,the visual of her abhorrent “child” feeding from the corpse of its lifeless motheris one that audiences won’t be forgetting in a hurry.
Widely regarded as body-horror directorDavid Cronenberg’s best movie,1986’sThe Flybestows one of cinema’s most disturbing fates upon its lead character. Attempting to perfect teleportation, Jeff Goldblum’s scientist, Seth Brundle, undergoes a nightmarish transformation after inadvertently splicing his DNA with a housefly, eventually turning into an abhorrent fly-human hybrid by the time the movie reaches its conclusion.
David Cronenberg’s highest rated movies on IMDb
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The Dead Zone (1983)
A horrific miscalculation from Brundle inThe Fly’sclimactic sequence sees Goldblum’s demented scientist accidentally fusing his nightmarish form with his metal teleportation pods. This leaves him in perpetual agony and begging his love interest Ronnie to mercy kill him. Unable to speak after his final transformation,the desolating sight of Brundle silently pleading for death by lifting Ronnie’s shotgun to his own headis a visual that has lingered in audience’s minds since 1986.
While he may have returned to life in 1984’sStar Trek III: The Search for Spock,the demise of Leonard Nimoy’s Vulcan charge inStar Trek II: The Wrath of Khanis such a devastating momentthat many fans have struggled to move past the trauma associated with the sequence, despite Spock’s subsequent resurrection. In one ofscience-fiction’s most emotional and intense scenes, Spock willingly sacrifices his own life by entering the radiation-flooded engine room to repair theEnterprise’sdamaged warp drive.
Talking to Spock through a perspex screen, William Shatner’s James Kirk is forced to watch his dear friend slowly succumb to radiation poisoning in soul-cleaving fashion.Nimoy’s charge tugs on the audience’s heartstrings further with a rare display of emotion, telling Kirk that he will always be his friend before producing his iconic Vulcan salute and turning away to die quietly. Whatever Spock’s canonical fate, the loss of such an inimitable character in such upsetting fashion never fails to hit home.
The first entry in theCubemovie series,cult classicCubesets the bar high for disturbing deaths in its very first scene. Introducing audiences to the film’s unforgiving universe with a sinister bang, the sequence depicts Julian Richings' Alderson attempting to escape from one of the franchise’s signature cube-shaped rooms. Unfortunately for Alderson, he chooses the incorrect escape hatch, precipitating a particularly gruesome kill scene that many fans still likely haven’t gotten over.
Every character name inCubeis connected to a real-world prison; FPC Alderson is a federal prison in West Virginia.
Alderson dies in a flash,but that doesn’t take any of the shock factor out of his brutal end.Richings' charge freezes in shock before thin red lines appear all across his body, with blood starting to pour rapidly from his wounds. Alderson is revealed to have been literally"cubed"by a grid of razor sharp wire. His dismembered body slowly collapses into a heap of bloody cubes, a gory and unsettling vision that will stick with viewers.
Boasting an all-star ensemble cast, 2017’sLifefollows a group of scientists aboard the ISS who find themselves hunted through the space station by a murderous extra-terrestrial entity dubbed Calvin. Boasting some of the more unenviable fates that science-fiction has to offer,Lifesaves its most unforgettably traumatic demise for last— a remarkable state of affairs given that death is merely implied.
These horrific circumstances are bestowed upon Rebecca Ferguson’s Miranda North in the movie’s final scene. Attempting to launch Calvin into deep space using an escape pod, the survivors' plan backfires in appalling fashion. The alien ends up plunging to Earth instead, presumably precipitating the end of humanity.North’s pod is left hurtling unchecked into oblivion,leaving Ferguson’s charge with no recourse but to scream in despair until her oxygen supply inevitably runs out. It remains one of science-fiction’s most terrifying endings.
The English-language debut ofParasitedirector Bong Joon-ho, 2013’sSnowpiercerdepicts a visceral class struggle aboard the titular locomotive, which bears humanity’s final survivors after a global extinction event. There’s no shortage of emotionally loaded deaths inSnowpiercer,butthe fate of Jamie Bell’s Edgar arguably serves as the most memorable pick of a harrowing bunch.
The endlessly upbeat Edgar is killed in a brutal battle around the movie’s halfway mark.Chris Evans' Curtisabandons Bell’s charge to his doom, despite having an opportunity to save him. He sacrifices his right-hand man in order to take Tilda Swinton’s loathsome Minister Mason hostage. A tear-jerking death that lives long in the memory, the heartbreaking nature of Edgar’s murder is further compounded when Curtis later reveals that he killed the young man’s mother when the apocalypse first broke out.
The third feature film offering from modern horror virtuoso Jordan Peele, 2022’sNopeserves as a blend of the director’s traditional parent genre and fully-fledged science-fiction. Chronicling a mysterious series of unexplained phenomena as a predatory extra-terrestrial organism referred to as"Jean Jacket"terrorizes rural California,Nopefeatures one of the most unforgettably harrowing death sequences in recent memory.
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Compounding its shock factor, the scene sees a huge group of fairgoers killed by Jean Jacket in one go, rather than just depicting the death of a single individual. After these unfortunate victims are hoovered up by the alien,Peele produces the horrifying reveal that they are now being slowly digested alivein Jean Jacket’s digestive tract, bringing this nightmare to life through an array of horrifically claustrophobic shots and traumatizing howls of despair.
Bringing back one of the most iconic sci-fi characters of all time after an absence of more than 30 years, only to swiftly and brutally do away with him, sounds like an unimaginable course of action. However, that’s exactly the approach thatStar Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakensdecided to adopt.The much-anticipated debut of the sequel trilogy saw Harrison Ford’s Han Solo murdered by Kylo Ren, run through with a lightsaber while attempting to make his estranged son see reason.
Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015)
Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
The sequel trilogy may have been rightfully lambasted by the vast majority of theStar Warsfan base, but this is undoubtedly one of the most moving scenes that the entire franchise has to offer. Chewbacca’s roar of despair and the visual of a mortally wounded Han reaching out to tenderly touch his son’s face never fails to tug on the heartstrings. It results in what is arguablyStar Wars’saddest death sceneto date.
Brought to life by Paul Gyasi, it’s hard to escape the notion that sci-fi masterpieceInterstellar’sProfessor Romilly is one of the most unfortunate characters that sci-fi has to offer. The scientist spent 23 years in complete isolation aboard theEnduranceafter his crew was trapped on a planet where time was severely dilated. He’d given up hope that he would ever see a human face again by the time they eventually made it back to the ship.
…the scientist met his doom soon after the crew returned when he was unexpectedly killed by a booby trap engineered by Matt Damon’s Dr. Mann.
Unfortunately, things only got worse for Gyasi’s charge from there. Serving as the cherry atop the most tragic of cakes, the scientist met his doom soon after the crew returned, whenhe was unexpectedly killed by a booby trap engineered by Matt Damon’s Dr. Mann. Bearing the unenviable accolade ofInterstellar’swhipping boy, Romilly was a kind and empathetic individual, compounding the emotional devastation associated with this character’s undeserved fate.
Contentiously sci-fi’s most iconic demise,Roy Batty’s final moments serve as the crowning jewel for one of the greatest genre offeringsof all time. With his body failing, Rutger Hauer’s replicant goes out in unforgettably poignant fashion after using the last of his strength to inexplicably save Harrison Ford’s Rick Deckard before producing what is arguably cinema’s finest soliloquy with his immortal"tears in rain"speech.
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Speaking of the wonders he has seen throughout his life-cycle, Batty mournfully laments that"All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.“Hauer’s flawlessly delivered monologue is only 42 words long but never fails to invite an inimitable level of existential introspection from anybody watching. Batty may have been a replicant, but his dying words encapsulate the universal human experience of being afraid to die in a manner that fewsci-ficharacters have ever come close to replicating.
