History DroppedABridgeOnHim / LiveActionFilms

** The {{Kraken|AndLeviathan}}. It's an incredibly dangerous menace in the [[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMansChest second film]] and is still around when it ends. Did you think the [[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd third film]] will have our protagonists engage the Kraken in an epic final battle? Well, if you were expecting that, you were probably very disappointed when the Kraken only appears in the third film ... as a corpse. It's stated Cutler Beckett ordered Davy Jones to kill it, the implication being that Jones having the Kraken made him too difficult or too dangerous for Beckett to control.
** Also, debatably, Sao Feng. The posters, trailers, and promotional material would have you believe he was on par with Jack, Will, and Barbossa in importance, but he gets killed rather anticlimactically by a stray cannonball halfway through ''At World's End''.

* ''Film/TerminatorDarkFate'' has right in the opening scene [[spoiler: John Connor being unceremoniously killed by a T-800 only three years after the events of ''Film/Terminator2JudgementDay'', a massive HappyEndingOverride and GutPunch.]]

* ''Film/PaulBlartMallCop'': In the sequel, it is stated ([[BlackComedyBurst and shown]]) that Paul's mother was hit by a milk truck not long after the events of the first movie.

* ''Film/{{Glass}}'': After 19 years of waiting for a sequel to ''Film/{{Unbreakable}}'', fans were less than pleased when David Dunn is drowned in a puddle. [[spoiler: While his death did ultimately turn out to have [[UnmasquedWorld meaning]], the unimpressive circumstances of his death has been a sore spot.]]

** Irma Bunt is implied to have met this fate between ''Film/OnHerMajestysSecretService'' and ''Diamonds Are Forever'' without even being mentioned. They had planned to put her in ''Diamonds'', but the actress died of a heart attack shortly before filming.

* ''Film/{{Glass}}'': After 19 years of waiting for a sequel to ''Film/Unbreakable'', fans were less than pleased when David Dunn is drowned in a puddle. [[spoiler: While his death did ultimately turn out to have [[UnmasquedWorld meaning]], the unimpressive circumstances of his death has been a sore spot.]]

* In ''Film/BurnAfterReading'', while sneaking around in the CIA agent's house, Brad Pitt scares the guy who's sleeping with the agent's wife, who quickly shoots him in the head. Of course, this all fits with the Farcical Black Comedy of the movie. Not to mention, his death comes as especially shocking, because it's a well-known trope that the "stupid but well-meaning goofball" almost NEVER dies.

* In Bruno Mattei's [[TheMockbuster unofficial]] ''Film/{{Jaws}}'' sequel ''Jaws 5: Cruel Jaws'' a bunch of characters are killed off very awkwardly in a scene where they're on a boat trying to shoot the shark when suddenly the woman in the group starts getting hysterical and for no reason grabs an open tank of gasoline and raises it over her head, accidentally pouring gasoline all over herself and the guy next to her, and then another guy [[TooDumbToLive gets right in the way of the pouring gasoline and fires a flare gun]], [[StuffBlowingUp causing the ship to explode]]. This was just an excuse to use footage of a boat blowing up, stolen from a similar scene in ''Jaws 2''.

** Hogun, Fandral and Volstagg are all casually dispatched by Hela near the beginning of ''Film/ThorRagnarok'', in a cross between a Bridge Drop and TheWorfEffect to demonstrate how powerful she is. Worse, we don't even get to see Thor mourn their deaths despite them having been three of his closest friends and allies in the previous movies, and poor Fandral doesn't even get ''any lines'' before Hela skewers him.

** In ''Film/KongSkullIsland'' Bill Randa is a major character throughout the first half of the film, only to abruptly be taken out by a Skullcrawler halfway through like a RedShirt and never be mentioned again. Its even worse when you realize he survived what was heavily implied to be a Godzilla attack.

* In ''Film/MrNiceGuy'', Diana, the DamselInDistress of the first act, may be either this or suffer from ChuckCunninghamSyndrome. She gets a knockout punch from one of the gangsters towards the end, and is never seen or mentioned again.

** The {{Kraken|AndLeviathan}}. It's an incredibly dangerous menace in the [[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMansChest second film]], and is still around when it ends. Did you think the [[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd third film]] will have our protagonists engage the Kraken in an epic final battle? Well, if you were expecting that, you were probably very disappointed when the Kraken only appears in the third film ... as a corpse. It's stated Cutler Beckett ordered Davy Jones to kill it, the implication being that Jones having the Kraken made him too difficult or too dangerous for Beckett to control.
** Also, debatably, Sao Feng. The posters, trailers and promotional material would have you believe he was on par with Jack, Will and Barbossa in importance, but he gets killed rather anticlimactically by a stray cannonball half way through ''At World's End''.

* Randy Meeks, who provided the "rules" for the first three ''Film/{{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. Though Randy was GenreSavvy enough to make a {{Video Will|s}}, as discovered in the third film.

*** The ''Enterprise''-D herself. Taken out by a century old Bird of Prey that by all rights shouldn't have posed a threat to a ''Galaxy''-class starship.

* Creator/LuisBunuel's final film ''Film/ThatObscureObjectOfDesire'' features a MayDecemberRomance 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.

** To some of the general public, [[Characters/MarvelComicsCyclops Cyclops]]' anti-climactic death might not have been that big of an issue as his screentime got shafted in the previous 2 films in favor of Wolverine, who acted as the series' cinematic alpha hero. However, for fans of the comics, the death was also a slap in the face of sorts since the film's plot was heavily influenced by the comics' extremely well-regarded ComicBook/TheDarkPhoenixSaga that focuses on Jean and Scott. Within the context of ''X-Men 3'', that story became a secondary plot thread, and Wolverine was substituted in as the romantic/heroic lead in light of Scott's less than stellar death. His death proved so unpopular that years later, [[spoiler: it was explicitly undone via CosmicRetcon in ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'']].

*** For comic book fans, the abrupt killing of Darwin was a solid example. For reference, his survival power works whether he wills it to or not and has done such things as cause him to bounce harmlessly off pavement while attempting suicide, be teleported ''two states away'' from an enemy he couldn't beat, survive the vacuum of space, be reconfigured into pure energy,, and copy the powers of a ''death goddess''. What kills him in the movie? A plasma ball not even bigger than a fist.

*** According to the tie-in material, Future Beast gets [[spoiler: dragged from his home and murdered by a mob of mutant-hating humans akin to the "Friends of Humanity" from the 90's animated series]]. Doubles as a CallBack if you're watching the prequel before watching the main X-Men trilogy.
*** ''Film/XMenFirstClass'' spent a good bit of time introducing some new mutants, such as Banshee, Emma Frost, Angel, Azazel, Riptide and Havok. One sequel later in this movie, Havok gets a few minutes of screen time before being rescued by Mystique. As for the rest, Riptide isn't mentioned, and Banshee, Emma, Angel, Azazel are all pronounced dead by Young Magneto. While they were killed between films, Raven/Mystique infiltrates Trask's office, where the audience is then treated to some photographs of the aforementioned mutants... [[FacialHorror post-autopsy.]] As a bonus, one of Angel's wings can be found in a vault.
* 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, ''Film/XXxStateOfTheUnion'', and was apparently somewhat unprofessional about it, it is [[ActorLeavesCharacterDies 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" than 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. See also the franchise's entry on the ActorLeavesCharacterDies page, as the reason for this abrupt and poorly-explained offscreen death was allegedly that Vin Diesel and the producers didn't part on good terms. By the time that Vin Diesel decided he wanted to [[Film/XXXReturnOfXanderCage return to the franchise]], this was obviously undone.

%% * The young protagonist of ''Film/PayItForward'', infamously.

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

* Looks to be what happens to most of the cast of the first ''Film/GIJoe'' film in the sequel, ''Film/GIJoeRetaliation''. Marlon Wayans, the actor who played Ripcord in the first film, jokingly mentioned that Ripcord was killed offscreen by friendly fire.

* ''Film/SherlockHolmesAGameOfShadows'' kills off Irene Adler, who was a very LoveableRogue in the first movie, unceremoniously during a flashback.

* One criticism of ''Film/TheSorcerersApprentice'' is that this happened to the secondary villains. Drake, Sun Loc, and Abigail all get rather anticlimactically killed off once Hovath has decided YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness.
* Please try not to mention ''Film/SpiderMan3'' to any Venom fans nearby you. The way he quickly gets shafted in it still leaves them pretty sore.

* 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, ''Film/XXxStateOfTheUnion'', 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" than 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. See also the franchise's entry on the McLeaned page, as the reason for this abrupt and poorly-explained offscreen death was allegedly that Vin Diesel and the producers didn't part on good terms. By the time that Vin Diesel decided he wanted to [[Film/XXXReturnOfXanderCage return to the franchise]], this was obviously undone.

* Captain James T. Kirk in ''Film/StarTrekGenerations''. {{Trope Namer|s}}.
** As originally written and filmed, Kirk was shot {{in the back}} by Soran, but test audiences really didn't like that at all. So they went back to the Valley of Fire and reshot the scene to have Kirk having to get Soran's remote while on a collapsing bridge, finally getting to use it just as the bridge gives out. So, Kirk was actually dropped ''with'' the bridge; it just ended up landing on top of him. (An actual case of "Bridge on the Captain," rather than "Captain on the Bridge.")
** It also applies to Robert and René Picard who both are killed off-screen.
** The ''Enterprise''-D herself. Taken out by a century old Bird of Prey that by all rights shouldn't have posed a threat to a ''Galaxy''-class starship.
*** In-universe it's plausible. The Bird-of-Prey had reconfigured their weapons to penetrate the shields on the Enterprise. Now, why the Enterprise couldn't respond with their far superior firepower instead of having to trigger the cloak to get them to lower their shields? Well...
** Data's death in ''Film/StarTrekNemesis''. In fairness, this one was actually decent conceptually, as Data rescues Picard and then dies in a HeroicSacrifice to destroy the BigBad's ship before it can wipe out all life on the ''Enterprise''-E and then Earth. It's more the execution that's at fault here, with Data not getting any last words with Picard, and then the ship's destruction being very abrupt and anti-climactic.

* ''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.

** Also, there's Plenty O'Toole. After being unceremoniously thrown out a window into one pool, she later shows up dead in a completely different pool. As she had utterly no connection to the main plot other than being a woman who hits on Bond in a casino, her somehow ending up in Tiffany's pool made no sense at all.

** Hogun, Fandral and Volstagg are all casually dispatched by Hela near the beginning of ''Film/ThorRagnarok'', in a cross between a Bridge Drop and TheWorfEffect to demonstrate how powerful she is. Worse, we don't even get to see Thor mourn their deaths [[spoiler: despite them having been three of his closest friends and allies in the previous movies]], and poor [[spoiler: Fandral]] doesn't even get ''any lines'' before Hela skewers him.

%% * ''Film/SherlockHolmesAGameOfShadows'' drops the bridge on Irene Adler, unceremoniously during a flashback.

** To some of the general public, [[Characters/MarvelComicsCyclops Cyclops]]' anti-climactic death might not have been that big of an issue as his screentime got shafted in the previous 2 films in favor of Wolverine, who acted as the series' cinematic alpha hero. However, for fans of the comics, the death was also a slap in the face of sorts since the film's plot was heavily influenced by the comics' extremely well-regarded "Dark Phoenix" storyline that focuses on Jean and Scott. Within the context of ''X-Men 3'', that story became a secondary plot thread, and Wolverine was substituted in as the romantic/heroic lead in light of Scott's less than stellar death. His death proved so unpopular that years later, [[spoiler: it was explicitly undone via CosmicRetcon in ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'']].
** Also, Professor X is killed off midway through the film. Coupled with the fact that Rogue and Mystique were both PutOnABus and Jean had basically removed herself from the X-Men/Brotherhood fray, you have a climax that barely features any of the characters from the previous two movies.

* ''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. Creator/JamesCameron was very critical of this, so it's somewhat ironic he did the same by suggesting the opening scene of ''Film/TerminatorDarkFate'', where only a few years after ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'', an unexpected T-800 appears and shoots John Connor.

* ''Film/ShootToKill:'' The innocent fishermen get several scenes as RedHerring suspects with some interesting CityMouse moments, then [[spoiler:all four of them]] die within the space of a minute or so [[spoiler:once Norman sees Steve's gun]] halfway through the movie.
* Captain James T. Kirk in ''Film/StarTrekGenerations''. TropeNamer.
** As originally written and filmed, Kirk was shot {{in the back}} by Soran, but test audences really didn't like that at all. So they went back to the Valley of Fire and reshot the scene to have Kirk having to get Soran's remote while on a collapsing bridge, finally getting to use it just as the bridge gives out. So, Kirk was actually dropped ''with'' the bridge; it just ended up landing on top of him. (An actual case of "Bridge on the Captain," rather than "Captain on the Bridge.")
** It also applies to Robert and René Picard who both are killed off-screen.
** The ''Enterprise''-D herself. Taken out by a century old Bird of Prey that by all rights shouldn't have posed a threat to a ''Galaxy''-class starship.
*** In-universe it's plausible. The Bird-of-Prey had reconfigured their weapons to penetrate the shields on the Enterprise. Now, why the Enterprise couldn't respond with their far superior firepower instead of having to trigger the cloak to get them to lower their shields? Well...
** Data's death in ''Film/StarTrekNemesis''. In fairness, this one was actually decent conceptually, as Data rescues Picard and then dies in a HeroicSacrifice to destroy the BigBad's ship before it can wipe out all life on the ''Enterprise''-E and then Earth. It's more the execution that's at fault here, with Data not getting any last words with Picard, and then the ship's destruction being very abrupt and anti-climactic.

* Bill in ''Film/KillBill'': After carving a bloody trail through 2 full movies just to get to Bill, Beatrix kills Bill in a ridiculously short fight scene that last just 20 seconds and doesn't involve Bill landing a single blow on her. Every single significant character Beatrix fought before Bill turned out to be a greater challenge than Bill was.
* From ''Franchise/StarWars'':
** ''Film/StarWarsEpisodeIIIRevengeOfTheSith'':
*** Many Jedi die quite abruptly, but Aayla Secura is executed particularly brutally, being shot over and over as if to assure us that she's really dead. Amazingly, some people still [[HesJustHiding insisted that she wasn't]].
*** Averted with Mace Windu. Samuel Jackson explicitly 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.
*** Count Dooku was powerful enough to [[CurbStompBattle curb stomp]] Obi-Wan and [[TheChosenOne Anakin]], and go head-to-head with Yoda. [[TooCoolToLive He gets killed]] unceremoniously in the first fifteen minutes of Episode III because Anakin's power has grown beyond Dooku at this point.
** In ''Film/TheLastJedi'':
*** Admiral Gial Ackbar (the Mon Calamari admiral from ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'') is blown into space by Kylo Ren's wingmen at the same time as Leia. Leia survives due to her use of the Force, but Ackbar is barely given a passing mention.
*** Supreme Leader Snoke's death happens midway through the film. Kylo Ren bisects him with Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber and he falls over dead, and that's about it. There is a moment given for him to appreciate the fact that his apprentice just turned on him, but it doesn't last long, and then it's on to the BackToBackBadasses scene.
* The character of Fox in ''Film/TheWarriors'' was originally meant to be a more substantial presence in the film, particularly in that Mercy, the girl the gang picks up during their escape back to Coney Island, was originally meant to be his love interest. Since the two actors playing Fox and Mercy had no chemistry together, the script was rewritten so that Mercy hooked up with gang leader Swan instead. The actor who played Fox actually left the film over this, so he was written out of the script by being run over by a subway train during a scuffle with a cop.

* 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, ''Film/XXxStateOfTheUnion'', 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" than 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.
** See also the franchise's entry on the {{Mcleaned}} page, as the reason for this abrupt and poorly-explained offscreen death was allegedly that Vin Diesel and the producers didn't part on good terms. By the time that Vin Diesel decided he wanted to [[Film/XXXReturnOfXanderCage return to the franchise]], this was obviously undone.
* ''Film/XMenFilmSeries'':
** Notoriously, ''Film/XMenTheLastStand'' eliminated several franchise regulars, with arguably the most controversial example being that of Scott Summers, aka Cyclops. Despite acting as the team's field leader and, within the regular comic series, their linchpin since inception, he's quickly killed off-screen within the first 30 minutes of the film by his newly resurrected fiancee, Jean Grey. As though that wasn't bad enough, his death barely registers with the rest of the cast later on in the film, with only a brief mention by Professor X who doesn't seem overly perturbed by the loss of his surrogate son.
** To some of the general public, ComicBook/{{Cyclops}}' anti-climactic death might not have been that big of an issue as his screentime got shafted in the previous 2 films in favor of Wolverine, who acted as the series' cinematic alpha hero. However, for fans of the comics, the death was also a slap in the face of sorts since the film's plot was heavily influenced by the comics' extremely well-regarded "Dark Phoenix" storyline that focuses on Jean and Scott. Within the context of ''X-Men 3'', that story became a secondary plot thread, and Wolverine was substituted in as the romantic/heroic lead in light of Scott's less than stellar death.
*** His death proved so unpopular that years later, [[spoiler: it was explicitly undone via CosmicRetcon in ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'']].
** Also, Professor X is killed off midway through the film. Coupled with the fact that Rogue and Mystique were both PutOnABus and Jean had basically removed herself from the X-Men/Brotherhood fray, you have a climax that barely features any of the characters from the previous two movies.
** Also of note in the third film are Kid Omega, Arclight, Psylocke, and (presumably) Juggernaut, all of whom unceremoniously fall victim to Jean Grey's psychotic "burn everything" episode near the film's conclusion.
** In ''Film/XMenFirstClass'', Oliver Platt's unnamed character is introduced as being a potential "M" for Xavier's Bond, providing a facility, sponsoring the recruitment of the X-Men, protecting them from the rest of the CIA, and above all he comes across as sympathetic to the mutants. Long-time X-Men fans familiar with the very early years of the franchise are also left wondering if he's Fred Duncan, a major ally of Xavier and his contact in the US Government during the 1960s, transplanted from the FBI to the CIA for the movie version. Then, not halfway through the film, [[spoiler: the base is attacked and Azazel drops the guy to his death from high in the sky, and that's the end of Mr. Platt's involvement in the film]].
*** For comic book fans, the abrupt killing of Darwin was a solid example. For reference, his survival power works whether he wills it to or not and has done such things as cause him to bounce harmlessly off pavement while attempting suicide, be teleported ''two states away'' from an enemy he couldn't beat, survive the vacuum of space, be reconfigured into pure energy,, and copy the powers of a ''death goddess''. What kills him in the movie? A plasma ball not even bigger than a fist.
** ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'':
*** In the tie-in material, [[spoiler: it's revealed that Warren Worthington III is killed by Sentinels during a mutant protest. He likely is brought back later by the CosmicRetcon.]]
*** According to the tie-in material, Future Beast gets [[spoiler: dragged from his home and murdered by a mob of mutant-hating humans akin to the "Friends of Humanity" from the 90's animated series.]] Doubles as a CallBack if you're watching the prequel before watching the main X-Men trilogy.
*** ''Film/XMenFirstClass'' spent a good bit of time introducing some new mutants, such as Banshee, Emma Frost, Angel, Azazel, Riptide and Havok. One sequel later in this movie, Havok gets a few minutes of screen time before being rescued by Mystique. As for the rest, Riptide isn't mentioned, and Banshee, Emma, Angel, Azazel are all pronounced dead by Young Magneto. While they were killed between films, Raven/Mystique infiltrates Trask's office, where the audience is then treated to some photographs of the aforementioned mutants... [[FacialHorror post-autopsy.]] As a bonus, one of Angel's wings can be found in a vault.
* Whistler dies at the beginning of ''Film/BladeTrinity'', pretty much for no other reason than to introduce a cool new team of sidekicks for Blade. Especially blatant since Creator/GuillermoDelToro went to all the trouble of resurrecting the character in ''Film/BladeII'' after he died in the [[Film/{{Blade}} first movie]]. Poor Whistler just can't catch a break!
* The character of Tank was killed between the first and second ''Film/TheMatrix'' films after the actor, Marcus Chong, was involved in an especially messy contract dispute. An alternate interpretation averts this trope if one chooses to believe that Tank died from the injuries he sustained during the first movie, thus turning his SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome into a HeroicSacrifice.
* ''Film/MortalKombatAnnihilation'' give us two examples:
** Johnny Cage is killed by Shao Kahn within the first 10 minutes of the film to show how powerful, not to mention [[ForTheEvulz petty]], Shao Kahn is.
** Sheeva is killed when a cage is dropped on her.
* In ''Film/BurnAfterReading'', while sneaking around in the CIA agent's house, Brad Pitt scares the guy who's sleeping with the agent's wife, who quickly shoots him in the head. Of course, this all fits with the Farcial Black Comedy of the movie.
** Not to mention, his death comes as especially shocking, because it's a well-known trope that the "stupid but well-meaning goofball" almost NEVER dies.
* Zoe Cox from the TV movie ''Film/AmericanMeltdown''. After spending most of the movie hiding from the terrorists, she finally starts to explore the power plant the terrorists have taken over and finds out someone set up a few bombs. Then she's abruptly shot to death.

** The Kraken. It's an incredibly dangerous menace in the [[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMansChest second film]], and is still around when it ends. Did you think the [[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd third film]] will have our protagonists engage the Kraken in an epic final battle? Well, if you were expecting that, you were probably very disappointed when the Kraken only appears in the third film ... as a corpse. It's stated Cutler Beckett ordered Davy Jones to kill it, the implication being that Jones having the Kraken made him too difficult or too dangerous for Beckett to control.

* In ''Film/MrNiceGuy'', Diana, the DistressedDamsel of the first act, may be either this or a BrotherChuck. She gets a knockout punch from one of the gangsters towards the end, and is never seen or mentioned again.

* ''Film/DiamondsAreForever''. Assuming that you count Blofeld's final demise as happening in this film, then the Biggest Bad in Bond history is killed because 007 gently swings his submarine into the side of the oil rig. Hardly the demise you'd expect for such a major character.
** Oh, don't worry, he returns as an unnamed, wheelchair-bound old man in ''Film/ForYourEyesOnly''... and is comically killed in the opening sequence. By being dropped down a chimney. While pleading for his life.
--->''Mister Bond! Mister Bond! We can do a deal! I'll buy you a delicatessen! In stainless steel!!''
** The person who owned the copyright to Blofeld was trying to use it to wrestle for control of the series proper. Knocking off a LawyerFriendlyCameo of Blofeld was basically the owners' declaration of independence and burning of bridges to assert that Bond did not depend upon Blofeld as an antagonist. Which is all well and good until you realize it doesn't make much sense to do it at that time in Roger Moore's fifth outing and several more films since Blofeld's last appearance.
** Irma Bunt is implied to have met this fate between ''Film/OnHerMajestysSecretService'' and ''Diamonds Are Forever'' without even being mentioned. They had planned to put her in ''Diamonds'', but the actress died of a heart attack shortly before filming.
** Also, there's Plenty O'Toole. After being unceremoniously thrown out a window into one pool, she later shows up dead in a completely different pool. As she had utterly no connection to the main plot other than being a woman who hits on Bond in a casino, her somehow ending up in Tiffany's pool made no sense at all.

* In Bruno Mattei's [[{{Mockbuster}} unofficial]] ''Film/{{Jaws}}'' sequel ''Jaws 5: Cruel Jaws'' a bunch of characters are killed off very awkwardly in a scene where they're on a boat trying to shoot the shark when suddenly the woman in the group starts getting hysterical and for no reason grabs an open tank of gasoline and raises it over her head, accidentally pouring gasoline all over herself and the guy next to her, and then another guy [[TooDumbToLive gets right in the way of the pouring gasoline and fires a flare gun]], [[StuffBlowingUp causing the ship to explode]]. This was just an excuse to use footage of a boat blowing up, stolen from a similar scene in ''Jaws 2''.
* ''Film/ScottPilgrimVsTheWorld'' had a strange one when rival rock band Crash and the Boys were unceremoniously killed off by Matthew Patel (in fact they were the only non-villains killed off) even though they had a larger role in the [[ComicBook/ScottPilgrim comic]].

* Particularly blatant example of both this and [[KickTheDog "Kick the Dog"]]: Sarah's death at the end of ''Film/TheCrowCityOfAngels''. A highly sympathetic ''child'' character in the previous film, ostensibly returning as a LoveInterest for TheHero, killed in passing by the BigBad in a meaningless, pointless anticlimax that added too little to the plot to even be called a [[SenselessSacrifice "sacrifice"]], and without even the closure that would be provided by, say, showing her spirit [[TogetherInDeath joining]] the [[ResurrectedForAJob temporarily-resurrected]] protagonist's when he's shown [[DiedHappilyEverAfter returning to the afterlife and rejoining his murdered son]].
%% * Destiny and Leroy in ''Film/MysteryTeam''.

%% * The young protagonist of ''Film/PayItForward'', infamously.
%% * ''Film/SherlockHolmesAGameOfShadows'' drops the bridge on Irene Adler, unceremoniously during a flashback.
* In ''The Crawlers'' a.k.a. ''Troll 3'' a.k.a. ''Creepers'' a.k.a. ''Contamination .7'', the heroes confront the BigBad and demand to know the location of the illegal dumping site he's been using to dump chemicals so he can embezzle money. He laughs at how they expect him to cooperate and pulls out a gun. Even though he could just shoot at least one of them or just tell them the location and run off with his embezzled money while they're busy, he instead shoots himself in the head.
* 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 ''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. YMMV on whether this had the intended effect, [[BrokenBase to put it mildly.]]
* The film version of ''Literature/SlaughterhouseFive'' has Derby, up to that point Billy Pilgrim's constant friend and companion, summarily executed at the back of the frame while two minor characters (both Germans) are talking in the foreground. It's actually very effective, because ... that's the way it happens in wartime.
* Two-Face in ''Film/TheDarkKnight'', his death certainly applies. After about 20 minutes of screen time after his turn to the dark side, and he quickly gets knocked off a building.
** Or Rachel. After the character development she gets in this movie, and the awesome scene of her standing up to ''the freaking Joker'', you'd think she'd get a somewhat meaningful death, not tied to a chair and blown up.
* Bane's death in ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'' was disappointingly anticlimactic. After spending the entire film being an ImplacableMan, being blown away in one shot by Catwoman was nigh humiliating to say the least. We didn't even get one last look at the body.
** This ''might'' be because he was shot by what amounted to a small tank cannon, which would kill anyone quickly and not leave much to look at beyond a very unpleasant (not to mention worthy of nothing less than an R rating) mulch of human pieces.
** Not to mention Talia al Ghul, who suffers ''death by whiplash!''
* One would expect the extremely badass Ironhide from ''Film/{{Transformers}}'' to go down in battle guns blazing but in ''[[Film/TransformersDarkOfTheMoon Dark of the Moon]]'', he's shot in the back by Sentinel Prime's cosmic rust gun and dissolves into a pile of rust.
* Looks to be what happens to most of the cast of the first ''Film/GIJoe'' film in the sequel, ''Film/GIJoeRetaliation''. Marlon Wayans, the actor who played Ripcord in the first film, jokingly mentioned that Ripcord was killed offscreen by friendly fire.
* ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesIITheSecretOfTheOoze'' strangely combines AnticlimaxBoss and DroppedABridgeOnHim by having Super Shredder drop a dock on himself. Close enough.
* ''Film/{{Kickboxer}}'', one of Creator/JeanClaudeVanDamme's most famous movies spawned four 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/SpiderMan3'' to any Venom fans nearby you. The way he quickly gets shafted in it still leaves them pretty sore.
* ''Film/BeneathThePlanetOfTheApes''. The protagonists of both the first ([[Creator/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.
* Randy Meeks, who provided the "rules" for the first three ''Film/{{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.
** Though Randy was GenreSavvy enough to make a VideoWill, as discovered in the third film.
* ''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.
* Creator/JamesCameron was very critical of the above, given his characters from ''Aliens'' were offed unceremoniously. So it's somewhat ironic he did the same by suggesting the opening scene of ''Film/TerminatorDarkFate'', where only a few years after ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'', an unexpected T-800 appears and shoots John Connor.
* ''Film/MonsterVerse'':
** ''Film/Godzilla2014'' sets up Bryan Cranston's character as a major protagonist with an integral role in the story. Minutes after [[spoiler: the male MUTO]] gets released, he LITERALLY gets a bridge dropped on him and dies without warning.
** In ''Film/KongSkullIsland'' Bill Randa is a major character throughout the first half of the film, only to abruptly be taken out by a Skullcrawler halfway through like a RedShirt and never be mentioned again. Its even worse when you realize he survived what was heavily implied to be a Godzilla attack.
** ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'' also has Dr. Vivienne Graham, a major character in ''Film/Godzilla2014'', gets eaten by King Ghidorah in a blink-and-you-miss-it moment. This has not sat well with [[Creator/SallyHawkins the actress]]' fans...
* ''Film/TheBourneSeries'' film ''The Bourne Legacy'' threatens a big showdown between Cross and LARX-3, but Marta tips over LARX-3's bike right before Cross and LARX-3 make contact.
* ''Film/HalloweenResurrection'' opens with Michael Myers killing [[spoiler:Laurie Strode, the [[FinalGirl heroine]] of the [[Film/Halloween1978 first two]] [[Film/HalloweenII1981 movies]] and the [[Film/HalloweenH20TwentyYearsLater last one]]]]. Given the character's track record against Michael in the past, the stupid mistake the character made while trying to finish him off for good (despite knowing better), the AssPull used to bring Michael back from his [[KilledOffForReal decisive death]] in the last movie, and the overall quality of the rest of ''Resurrection'', many fans prefer to declare the entire film to have [[FanonDiscontinuity never happened]].

* ''Film/PaulBlartMallCop'': In the sequel, it is stated ([[BlackComedyBurst and shown]]) that Paul's mother was hit by a milk truck not long after the events of the first movie.
* Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse:
** Hogun, Fandral and Volstagg are all casually dispatched by Hela near the beginning of ''Film/ThorRagnarok'', in a cross between a Bridge Drop and TheWorfEffect to demonstrate how powerful she is. Worse, we don't even get to see Thor mourn their deaths [[spoiler: despite them having been three of his closest friends and allies in the previous movies]], and poor [[spoiler: Fandral]] doesn't even get ''any lines'' before Hela skewers him.
** Earlier examples are in ''Film/{{Guardians of the Galaxy|2014}}'' where The Other (Thanos's servant who serves as contact between him and Loki without revealing Thanos's identity until the end of ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'') gets his head twisted 180 degrees by Ronan for WorfEffect, and ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' where Baron von Strucker, the shadowy Hydra agent seen at the end of ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'', is killed offscreen by Ultron shortly after capture.
** Vision was proven to be useful and powerful against Ultron after being created in ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' due to the fact that he can carry the Mjolnir and destroy several Ultron sentries. Until ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' came over where he gets drastically weakened due to Corvus Glaive's spear twice in a row (first in Scotland then in Wakanda) and [[spoiler: finally got killed by Thanos after stripping off the Mind Stone on his head leading to the completion on the Infinity Gauntlet, creating a triple threat combination of TheWorfEffect, WorfHadAFlu and getting a bridge dropped on him.]]
** Then, in ''Film/AvengersEndgame'', [[spoiler:a weakened Thanos is easily overpowered by the Avengers and decapitated by Thor at the beginning of the film, after having been built up to for six years before being the BigBad of ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' and wiping out half the universe. Partially averted in that an alternate timeline version of Thanos from 2014 (who was technically the same Thanos before the timeline split) travels to the main timeline to serve as the film's BigBad with a more climactic battle and death.]]
* ''Film/Utoya22Juli'', a reenactment of the Breivik Massacre (which happened [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin on the island Utøya on 22. July 2011]]) from the perspective of the victims has the death of Kaja, the main heroine. In a film where random characters have lengthy death scenes with lots of last words (wounded girl) or a long corpse scene to signify the horror of their death (little boy), Kaja gets neither. She is suddenly shot just before she can answer a silly line by Magnus, she appears OK at first, then keels over without as much as a sound. She gets NO last words, not even a ReallyDeadMontage. Worse, ''the camera itself'' betrays her - rather than stay with her in her last moments, it switches immediately to Magnus (who before that had, like 10 minutes of screen time) and concentrates on his escape, showing no more consideration for Kaja.
* In the third ''Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet'' film, three characters survive Freddy’s rampage. Then all three get killed by him in the fourth film, though the FinalGirl does at least get some dignity in her death.
* In ''Film/AgainstTheWall'', Ed is abruptly and quickly gunned down during the climactic raid. For some, it takes being told he got gunned down by Smith for it to click that he even died.
* ''Film/TheRental'': Mina is set up to be the FinalGirl as she is literally the last person left alive and she's running away from the killer...only to fall off a cliff to her death.
* ''Film/{{Glass}}'': After 19 years of waiting for a sequel to ''Film/Unbreakable'', fans were less than pleased when David Dunn is drowned in a puddle. [[spoiler: While his death did ultimately turn out to have [[UnmasquedWorld meaning]], the unimpressive circumstances of his death has been a sore spot.]]

** Earlier examples are in ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'' where The Other (Thanos's servant who serves as contact between him and Loki without revealing Thanos's identity until the end of ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'') gets his head twisted 180 degrees by Ronan for WorfEffect, and ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' where Baron von Strucker, the shadowy Hydra agent seen at the end of ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'', is killed offscreen by Ultron shortly after capture.

* In ''Mr. Nice Guy'', Diana, the DistressedDamsel of the first act, may be either this or a BrotherChuck. She gets a knockout punch from one of the gangsters towards the end, and is never seen or mentioned again.

** This ''might'' be because he was shot by what amounted to a small tank cannon, which would kill anyone quickly and not leave much to look at beyond a very unpleasant mulch of human pieces.

* ''Film/{{Glass}}'': After 19 years of waiting for a sequel to ''Film/Unbreakable'', fans were less than pleased when David Dunn is drowned in a puddle.

* Bill in ''Film/KillBill''
** After carving a bloody trail through 2 full movies just to get to Bill, Beatrix kills Bill in a ridiculously short fight scene that last just 20 seconds and doesn't involve Bill landing a single blow on her. Every single significant character Beatrix fought before Bill turned out to be a greater challenge than Bill was.

* ''Film/XMenFilmSeries''

** To some of the general public, Comicbook/{{Cyclops}}' anti-climactic death might not have been that big of an issue as his screentime got shafted in the previous 2 films in favor of Wolverine, who acted as the series' cinematic alpha hero. However, for fans of the comics, the death was also a slap in the face of sorts since the film's plot was heavily influenced by the comics' extremely well-regarded "Dark Phoenix" storyline that focuses on Jean and Scott. Within the context of ''X-Men 3'', that story became a secondary plot thread, and Wolverine was substituted in as the romantic/heroic lead in light of Scott's less than stellar death.

* Whistler dies at the beginning of ''Film/BladeTrinity'', pretty much for no other reason than to introduce a cool new team of sidekicks for Blade. Especially blatant since Creator/GuillermoDelToro went to all the trouble of resurrecting the character in ''Film/{{Blade II}}'' after he died in the [[Film/{{Blade}} first movie]]. Poor Whistler just can't catch a break!

* ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean''

* 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. YMMV on whether this had the intended effect, [[BrokenBase to put it mildly.]]

* ''Film/{{Alien 3}}'': 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.

** ''Film/{{Godzilla 2014}}'' sets up Bryan Cranston's character as a major protagonist with an integral role in the story. Minutes after [[spoiler: the male MUTO]] gets released, he LITERALLY gets a bridge dropped on him and dies without warning.

* ''Film/HalloweenResurrection'' opens with Michael Myers killing [[spoiler:Laurie Strode, the [[FinalGirl heroine]] of the [[Film/{{Halloween 1978}} first two]] [[Film/HalloweenII1981 movies]] and the [[Film/HalloweenH20TwentyYearsLater last one]]]]. Given the character's track record against Michael in the past, the stupid mistake the character made while trying to finish him off for good (despite knowing better), the AssPull used to bring Michael back from his [[KilledOffForReal decisive death]] in the last movie, and the overall quality of the rest of ''Resurrection'', many fans prefer to declare the entire film to have [[FanonDiscontinuity never happened]].

** Vision was proven to be useful and powerful against Ultron after being created in ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' due to the fact that he can carry the Mjolnir and destroy several Ultron sentries. Until ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' came over where he gets drastically weakened due to Corvus Glaive's spear twice in a row (first in Scotland then in Wakanda) and [[spoiler: finally got killed by Thanos after stripping off the Mind Stone on his head leading to the completion on the Infinity Gauntlet, a triple threat combination of TheWorfEffect, WorfHadAFlu and getting a bridge dropped on him.]]