History DroppedABridgeOnHim / LiveActionFilms

* ''Film/{{Kickboxer}}'', one of JeanClaudeVanDamme's most famous movies spawned 4 direct-to-video sequels, none of which actually feature Van Damme. ''Kickboxer 2'' starts with Van Damme's character and his older brother already dead after being shot by the vengeful Tong Po (who is, apparently, a sore loser), and switches to their (previously unmentioned) younger brother who, of course, must fight Tong Po in the end. ''Kickboxer 5'' has the younger brother killed off-screen by the new BigBad for refusing to let the guy promote him in the very first scene.

*** What makes this one especially stupid is, if you really think about it, ''there was absolutely no narrative reason whatsoever that she needed to die''.

* ''Beneath The PlanetOfTheApes''. The protagonists of both the first ([[CharltonHeston Taylor]]) and the second ([[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute Brent]]) being shot by gorillas after an intense battle, followed by an EarthShatteringKaboom, is [[DownerEnding cruel]] but not anticlimactic. The preceding scene, where Taylor's girl Nova is shot down by a single gorilla, not so much.

* ''Film/Alien3'': After battling their way through to the end of ''Film/{{Aliens}}'', Newt and Hicks are killed off in the opening scene of Alien³, effectively making the events of the previous movie [[AllForNothing pointless]]. Their deaths are not even seen [[KilledOffScreen on screen]]. They just died when their ship crashed.

** Though Randy was {{Genre Savvy}} enough to make a {{Video Will}}, as discovered in the third film.
* {{Alien 3}}: After battling their way through to the end of ''{{Aliens}}'', Newt and Hicks are killed off in the opening scene of Alien³, effectively making the events of the previous movie [[AllForNothing pointless]]. Their deaths are not even seen [[KilledOffScreen on screen]]. They just died when their ship crashed.

* One criticism of ''TheSorcerersApprentice'' is that this happened to the secondary villains. [[MinionWithAnFInEvil Drake]], [[YellowPeril Sun Loc]], and [[CreepyChild Abigail]] all get rather anticlimatically killed off once Hovath has decided YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness.

* Captain James T. Kirk in ''StarTrekGenerations''. TropeNamer.

* From ''Franchise/StarWars Episode III: Film/RevengeOfTheSith'':

* The character of Grandpa Gohan in ''DragonballEvolution'' is killed by having a...house dropped on him. In the manga that this was (very, VERY loosely) based upon, he got stepped on by Oozaru-mode Goku, although this was from before the series had started.

* Luis Bunuel's final film ''That Obscure Object of Desire'' features a May-December romance couple where in the young girl keeps on breaking the old man's heart, but he keeps winning her back over and over again. The final scene sees them walking happily only to start arguing again and suddenly the screen is consumed by a random explosion that kills them.

* In ''Film/XXx'', Creator/VinDiesel plays an extreme sports master named Xander Cage who is recruited for his unconventional specialties and skills by a secret government organization. When Vin Diesel dropped out of the sequel, ''xXx: State of the Union'', and was apparently somewhat unprofessional about it, it is [[McLeaned announced early in the film that his character has been killed offscreen]], and a new character, Darius Stone, replaces him. On top of that, Stone is said to be "tougher and nastier" then Cage when xXx's superior is considering his replacement. In the DVD release, this is explained: Simply put, he goes into a building, which promptly blows up. To emphasize the deadness, two things come flying out of the wreckage - [[BodyHorror his charred torso and the portion of his neck with the 'xXx' tattoo on it, complete with ears]]. They must have forgotten their own script, because in the movie, Agent Shavers tells Darius Stone that the last xXx died in some sort of freak snowboarding accident.

* Wash in ''Film/{{Serenity}}''. Also an example of [[KilledMidSentence Killed Mid-Sentence]]. He is celebrating his safe landing when a harpoon [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice crashes through a window and impales him]], killing him instantly. It was used deliberately in this instance, to give the following scenario -- with the entire cast trapped and fighting a holding action to give Mal enough time to transmit a message -- a real sense of AnyoneCanDie jeopardy that was lacking in the original script. Joss says in the Film/{{Serenity}} commentary that he originally didn't intend for anyone other than Book to die, but then he finished the script and realised that the stakes weren't high enough, and that it was kind of implausible for them all to get through unscathed. Therefore, he did his evil Joss trick of picking the character that would be the most heart-wrenching to kill, and proceeding.

* From ''StarWars Episode III: RevengeOfTheSith'':

** Averted with Mace Windu. Samuel Jackson explicity refused to participate in the movie if a bridge was to be dropped on his character. That said, his death scene was one of the most memorable of the film.
*** Note that the body was [[NeverFoundTheBody never found]].

* Danny Glover's U.S. President in Roland Emmerich's ''TwentyTwelve''. Introduced the subtrope Dropped An Aircraft Carrier On Him.

** Kaylee would've been worse.
* ''Film/SherlockHolmesAGameOfShadows'' drops the bridge on Irene Adler, unceremoniously during a flashback.

** It also applies to Robert and René Picard who are killed off-screen.

* In ''XXx'', VinDiesel plays an extreme sports master named Xander Cage who is recruited for his unconventional specialties and skills by a secret government organization. When Vin Diesel dropped out of the sequel, ''xXx: State of the Union'', and was apparently somewhat unprofessional about it, it is [[McLeaned announced early in the film that his character has been killed offscreen]], and a new character, Darius Stone, replaces him. On top of that, Stone is said to be "tougher and nastier" then Cage when xXx's superior is considering his replacement. In the DVD release, this is explained: Simply put, he goes into a building, which promptly blows up. To emphasize the deadness, two things come flying out of the wreckage - [[BodyHorror his charred torso and the portion of his neck with the 'xXx' tattoo on it, complete with ears]]. They must have forgotten their own script, because in the movie, Agent Shavers tells Darius Stone that the last xXx died in some sort of freak snowboarding accident.

* ''{{Kickboxer}}'', one of JeanClaudeVanDamme's most famous movies spawned 4 direct-to-video sequels, none of which actually feature Van Damme. ''Kickboxer 2'' starts with Van Damme's character and his older brother already dead after being shot by the vengeful Tong Po (who is, apparently, a sore loser), and switches to their (previously unmentioned) younger brother who, of course, must fight Tong Po in the end. ''Kickboxer 5'' has the younger brother killed off-screen by the new BigBad for refusing to let the guy promote him in the very first scene.
* Please try not to mention ''Film/SpiderMan 3'' to any Venom fans nearby you. The way he quickly gets shafted in it still leaves them pretty sore.

* Randy Meeks, who provided the "rules" for the first three ''{{Scream}}'' films gets unexpectedly yanked into Gale's news van about halfway through the second film during a telephone call with the killer (who had been hiding in the van), and is then stabbed to death. The same goes with Cotton Weary who, after getting a BigDamnHeroes moment at the end of the second film, is killed off in the opening prologue of the third in about ten minutes of screentime.

* Randy Meeks, who provided the "rules" for the first three ''Film/Scream'' films gets yanked into a van mid-sentence about halfway through the second film and stabbed to death by the killer. The same goes with Cotton Weary who, after getting a BigDamnHeroes moment at the end of the second film, is killed off in the opening prologue of the third in about ten minutes of screentime.