2-Headed Shark Attack: While being brutally mauled by both shark heads at once, Kirsten manages to use a lighter to ignite a barrel of fuel and blow up one of the shark's heads.
The Spartans in the battle of Thermopylae, as dramatized in 300. Notably, one of Leonidas's final actions is to hurl a spear at Xerxes, the Persian "God-King", nicking Xerxes's cheek and proving his claim that "even a God-King can bleed."
If only his aim was a smidgen to the right, then his last action would have been proving that God-Kings can die as well.
Private Hudson spends a good chunk of the ordeal acting like a whiny, fatalistic wanker, but when the aliens finally lay siege to the heroes stronghold, he stands his ground and continues to gun down their attackers even while they drag him to his death.
Also, Vasquez and Gorman. Vazquez is Badass from the get-go, but Gorman has spent most of the movie as The Neidermeyer. When Vazquez is wounded by the aliens, she empties her pistol at them to buy time for the others to get away. Then Gorman crawls back to her. Cut off from escape, Gorman pulls the pin on their last grenade, and they go out together, taking several of the aliens with them.
You always were an asshole, Gorman.
Dillon from Alien³. The Xenormorphs have so far annihilated everyone in their path: engineers, colonists, space marines, Predators, without breaking a sweat. The climax of the film sees Dillon, Ripley and the xenomorph trapped together in a lead mould, but when the humans start to climb out, the xenomorph follows them. So what does Dillon do? He stays in the mould, takes off his glasses, and buys Ripley time to get out. Not just a sacrifice, though... they have a knock-down drag-out fight that lasts an uncomfortably long time, complete with the sounds of punches landing and flesh ripping, and Dillon's smacktalk.
COME ON, YOU MOTHERFUCKER! WHAT, IS THAT ALL YOU GOT?! COME ON!! FIGHT ME!! COME ON!!
Humorously subverted by one of the characters in Anacondas: Trail of Blood. The giant snake is bearing down on him and bullets won't stop it, so he pulls the pins out of two grenades and screams, expecting the snake to swallow him and explode....but it just slithers away instead, leaving him to explode by himself.
Army of the Dead: Chambers. Trapped in the middle of a vast crowd of zombies, she kills the first half-dozen with a knife before realising that stealth is no longer relevant and unloading multiple guns, scoring dozens of headshots. Finally, she's overwhelmed by the horde — and when Guzman steps up to give her a mercy shot, she makes eye contact with him and nods in approval before he fires.
“I’ll surrender, you mutant son-of-a-bitch. Five… four…”
In Battle: Los Angeles, Lieutenant Martinez is badly injured during the highway battle, and the aliens are moving in for their kill with their gun walker. Their attempt to set some C4 as a trap has been ruined by the gun walker's indiscriminate fire, which has destroyed the radio detonator. Martinez then has all of the remaining C4 piled next to him, and when the gun walker gets close to him, he triggers the manual detonator and destroys the walker, taking himself with it.
In Blade Runner, Roy Batty's last words easily grant him access to cinema immortality.
Roy: I've… seen things you people wouldn't believe… Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those… moments… will be lost in time, like [small cough] tears… in… rain. Time… to die…
For added context, Roy is an Artificial Human who has spent the whole film trying in vain to extend his four year lifespan (and killed many people on the way). In the end, he has the "hero" sent to kill him dangling over a ledge, and this is where another villain would spitefully stamp on his fingers. Not Roy. He instead lifts the hero up to safety with one arm and then delivers a final speech about how The World Is Just Awesome and he should live his life to the fullest, then he quietly powers down. One of the classiest villain deaths ever put to film and very nearly redeems his entire character with that one scene. And, for the icing on the cake, Rutger Hauer ad-libbed most of the speech.
William Wallace in Braveheart. Having gotten captured by the English, he refuses to swear allegiance to King Edward, and is sentenced to death. As gets tortured throughout a public display, he stays silent until the end, when the executioner grants him the opportunity to speak. Rather than saying "Mercy", Wallace defiantly yells "FREEDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!", and he gets beheaded.
Breaker Morant: As Lt. Morant and Lt. Handcock face a firing squad (on trumped-up murder charges), Morant calls out "Shoot straight, ya bastards! Don't make a mess of it!"
Burt's death in Cabin Fever. Last words: "Good night, fucker..."
Pitch Black: Paris. He drinks some wine, then breathes on his lighter to make it flare up, as one last "fuck you" to the creatures before they tear him apart.
The unnamed Furyan Necromonger in The Chronicles of Riddick. His last order from the Grand Marshall is to deliver a message to Riddick: 'Stay out of the Necromonger's way, and they will allow you to live'. He finds Riddick on planet Crematoria, sheltering inside a bunker from the intense heat of the sun, and delivers the message. Then he tells Riddick, from one Furyan to another, that he hopes Riddick will ignore the message and continue to fight against the Grand Marshall, and calmly strolls out of the bunker to be incinerated by the Crematorian sun.
The 2010 Clash of the Titans has Draco performing a Heroic Sacrifice, in order to distract and pin down Medusa so that Perseus can kill her. His Last Words? "Let them know men did this." And then he smiles as Medusa turns him to stone.
The grandmother from Dante's Peak, who voluntarily waded through a lake of acid to haul her trapped family's boat safely to shore. Stupid premise but, damn, even a volcano can't mess with granny!
Dark Victory. Judith's (Bette Davis) dignified death at the conclusion, telling her maid, "Is that you, Martha? I don't want to be disturbed." The death was awesome from a meta-standpoint, in that Davis and director Edmund Goulding fought to keep the downbeat (yet inspirational) ending intact.
In Suicide Squad, El Diablo's death. Finally embracing the powers he's been afraid of and unwilling to tap into all film, El Diablo transforms into a badass flaming skeleton and fights Incubus, holding him in place so the Squad can use a bomb to destroy Incubus once and for all.
From Neil Marshall's Dog Soldiers, as one of the soldiers is staring a werewolf in the face, about to be eaten.
"I hope I give you the shits, you fuckin' wimp."
It gets even better than that line; Spoon (the soldier) is attacked by the werewolf, and he fights back. Starting with kicking the werewolf in the face, and ending with bashing it with kitchen utensils. The only reason he loses is because another werewolf shows up and blindsides him.
There's also Joe's death: with the other soldiers providing a distraction, he runs into a nearby shed and hotwires a car so they can escape. However, as he pulls up to the house, he realizes there's a werewolf sitting behind him. Rather than panic or try to escape, he grabs a knife and screams in its face while futilely trying to stab it.
"I'll fucking have you!"
Sarge, having realized that he's been infected by his earlier werewolf-given wounds, decides to go down fighting rather than become one himself. And at the end of the final siege sequence, he forces Cooper to safety in the basement, then triggers a gas explosion to destroy the house, killing himself and most of the werewolf pack.
Donnie Darko, so much so he's laughing his ass off as the jet engine bears down on him.
Donnie was "fated" to die that night. Since he didn't, an Alternate Universe formed in a time loop. If Donnie didn't collapse the alternate universe by the end of the time loop, the whole universe would implode. Donnie was able to use his powers to send a falling damaged airplane turbine back in time to that night, killing him and preventing the alternate universe from forming. In a sort of compensation, Donnie gets all his memories of the alternate universe in that last moment before he dies, and he laughs as he realizes he's saved the universe, before the turbine crashes through his room and kills him. Alternate universe never created, destruction of the main universe averted.
Double Team: Mickey Rourke's character, standing on a mine that will explode once stepped off, a ferocious tiger approaching him, inside a coliseum filled with mines. What does he do? Step off the mine the second the tiger lunges at him and send the entire coliseum up in flames. It's going out with a bang taken up a notch.
Dr. Strangelove: The famous "Riding the Bomb" sequence. To elaborate, the plane under the command of Major Kong has been crippled by a missile. Running out of fuel, the crew aims for one attack on a target of opportunity. However, the bomb bay doors won't open so Major Kong jumps onto one of the bombs, and manages to fix the wiring and get the doors open. But when the bomb falls, he's still on top of it because he didn't have enough time to get clear. Kong, making the most of his last moments, rides it all the way down to the ground like a buckin' bronco, whoopin' an holleran' the entire time. Sadly, he just ended the world.
Dungeons & Dragons (2000): After being loud, obnoxious and cowardly the whole movie, the Plucky Comic Relief Snails spends his last moments fighting Damodar with everything he has, refusing to submit or beg even as he's beaten senseless. Then when he's taken hostage and used as a bargaining chip for the Dragon's Eye, he refuses to let Ridley comply: he throws the map to the Rod of Savrille to Ridley, causing an enraged Damodar to knife him to death.
Escape Plan: Breslin, Rottmeyer, and Javen manage to slip away during a riot and attempt to reach an exit to the outside of the prison. Before they get too far, Javen gets mortally shot by a guard. He then makes the others leave him behind with their guns, deciding to hold off the guards so the others have a chance at escape. He then proceeds to not only kill several guards, but takes an insane amount to bullets to the chest before going down. And even then, bleeding to death with Hobbes about to finish him off, he merely says "God is Great" in Arabic.
In Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, Blackout grabs Moreau. As Moreau slowly rots, he defiantly headbutts Blackout so hard his own head smashes apart, while stunning Blackout.
In Gladiator, Maximus endures a fatal knife wound long enough to defeat the corrupt Emperor Commodus in combat once and for all.
Godzilla, the King of the Monsters himself, gets a pretty awesome one in Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, which one can argue is happening THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE MOVIE as he's in the process of ripping himself apart due to his powers going out of control. Yet he still manages to fight off the military, several mini-Destoroyahs, reunite with his son in Tokyo, then essentially beat Destoroyah more or less to death (even if the Super X-III did technically get in a hit that froze the bastard and cause him to shatter), and withstood massive amounts of freezer weapons — and was in fact burning through most of it, and posthumously resurrected his dead son by the film's end!
Nameless, from Zhang Yimou's Hero (2002). After fighting through incredible odds, our protagonist faces the Emperor himself, only to be convinced of the ruler's righteousness. The court convinces the Emperor that nonetheless, Nameless must be executed, and he quietly stands at the palace gates facing thousands of arrows shot his way. His death is not shown, but afterwards the wall is thick with thousands of arrows crowded in against each other except for a single human-shaped bare patch.
"He was executed as a traitor... and buried as a hero"
Made all the more poignant knowing that Nameless could block the arrows if he wished (we saw him do as much earlier in the movie.)
Also, Broken Sword. Calmly letting the Broken Bird you love run you through with her sword certainly qualifies.
Here's the perspective: It's the final battle of the movie as all remaining human forces on Earth are mounting one last assault upon the no-longer-shielded alien ships. By the end of the battle, all missiles of the flight of F-18s fighting over Area 51 have been fired, and they barely made a dent against the ship. The ship is preparing to use its Wave-Motion Gun on Area 51, wherein lie a huge amount of civilian refugees from the decimated West Coast. Casse has the last missile in the entire flight of jets, and just when the time comes for him to disable the gun using it, he finds it's jammed. So Casse then opts to fly the damn missile RIGHT INTO THE GUN ITSELF.
Also: "In the words of my generation: Up. Youuuuuuuurs!!"
Earlier in the film, Donny is summoned to kill a German officer who refuses to be spared if he marks on a map the German positions. The soldier simply says "I respectfully refuse, sir". "The Bear Jew" is then summoned after the officer has been told that The Bear Jew beats German heads in with a baseball bat, a painful death for sure. The soldier sits expressionless and motionless as The Bear Jew approaches. knowing his fate, the officer's last word is a great example of the trope. The Bear Jew points out the officer's badge and asks what it is for which the officer replies "Bravery" before his head is batted in.
A View to a Kill: May Day decides to sacrifice herself by manually moving the bomb Max Zorin (who betrayed her) wanted to use to cause a chain of explosions in a mine filled with TNT to destroy Silicon Valley since it can't be moved any other way. Zorin sees his plan being reduced to nothing from his blimp as May Day goes boom outside the mine. She basically did so to rub it in his face, and asked Bond to kill Zorin for her.
No Time to Die: Bond himself. He gets very badly injured by gunshots courtesy of Safin, but still manages to overpower and kill him. He also gets infected with Heracles, which will be lethal to Madeleine and Mathilde, so he decides to stay on Safin’s island as it is bombarded with missiles and dies in a blaze of glory.
The eponymous character of Kill Bill, who after receiving the Five-Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique at the hands of the Bride, takes six steps rather than the five that most people take before dying to the technique.
In Kingsman: The Secret Service, Harry's death has him, though not by his own control, slaughter through a bunch of a Westboro-like church goers with minimal injuries. He then walks outside, has a friendly chat with Valentine, and faces his death like a true gentleman. Negated, however, by Kingsman: The Golden Circle, which reveals he survives after all thanks to Statesman's advanced medical technology.
Speaking of Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Merlin gets one when, after saving Eggsy from a landmine he triggers, he ends up triggering the landmine himself. He lures the henchmen toward him (with a badass rendition of "Take Me Home, Country Roads") and blows them all up with him to buy Harry and Eggsy more time.
The Last Samurai: Somewhat expected from Samurai to go out like this, or at least be Not Afraid to Die. Most notably Katsumoto's son Nobutada, who gets shot in the leg during his father's prison break and decides to stay behind and buy time for the other rescuers. He uses a traditional bow and arrows to take out one rifle-toting soldier after another, and when he runs out of arrows he dies with a sword in each hand, screaming defiantly at the soldiers riddling him with bullets.
In Looper, the protagonist injured his leg in a car crash and thus can't move fast enough to stop his future self from killing an innocent child. So he shoots his present self, and the future self poofs out of existence.
Gandalf the Grey gets this in the Mines of Moria, facing off against the Balrog in the trope-namingYou Shall Not Pass! moment, falling down thousands of feet while battling the creature in midair, lands in a giant underground lake, gradually fights the Balrog up the Endless Stair to the top of Mt. Celebdil, finishes the beast off, and finally passes out from his wounds. He does come back later in The Two Towers as Gandalf the White, sort of offsetting this trope. Oh, yeah, the battle, from the confrontation at the bridge to both Gandalf and the Balrog dying lasted Eight days.
Also, Boromir, protecting Merry and Pippin until he is overwhelmed by orcs. It happens "off-screen" in the books, but shown in all its poignant awesomeness in the movie. In retrospect, being portrayed by Sean Bean increases both your chances of death and of it being an awesome death —he's had a LOT of practice doing both. The fact that he initially almost succumbed to the ring's seduction and then fought off this defiantly made his death all the more impressive. By the moment he dies, he has countless arrows in his body, slain many orcs and only gets finished off when the orc general personally gets a hit on him.
Also, during the Final Battle, Valkyrie and the rest of the Vuvalini take down a good number of War Boys despite their modest numbers and dated weaponry. Unfortunately, pretty much none of them survive to celebrate that fact.
Morsov, the Mauve Shirt defending the Rig in the first battle sequence. Well, just watch this.note Basically, he first gets shot in the face with a crossbow. Then, he gets back up and jumps onto a vehicle, the bolt sticking out of his cheek, wielding two spears. With the engine exploding. No more car... War Boys in general aim for this, seeing as they're all dying from diseases and they'll get into Valhalla if they die doing something awesome.
Daniel Dravot in The Man Who Would be King. After his loyal subjects discover that he's not a god or a devil, but only a man, he and his best friend Peachy are overwhelmed by an angry mob. Faced with certain death, he asks for Peachy's forgiveness, then sets his crown upon his head and walks proudly to his doom, singing The Son of God goes forth to war and yelling mocking encouragement to his executioners.
And immediately previous to this, Billy Fish. Upon being offered a chance to flee on a donkey (the mob wants Dravot and Carnehan, not Billy), he responds, "Gurkha foot soldier, not cavalry! Rifleman Majendra Bahadur Gurung wishing you many good lucks!" and charges into the crowd with his kukri, where he takes out one or two men before dying horribly.
In Iron Man Yinsen had one of these when, in his last moments, he compelled Tony to not waste his life.
Captain America: The First Avenger gets a subversion: during his training, a grenade is thrown into the middle the group. Everyone else runs away, but Steve dives onto it, thinking its real (and looking like he fully expected to be blown to smithereens)... only to find out it was not a real grenade.
Upon seemingly dying, S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Phil Coulson in The Avengers not only manages to harm Loki with a BFG, but he also gives a defiant "The Reason You Suck" Speech to the demigod, telling Loki that his plans will fail. On top of that, he suggests to Nick Fury that he's fine with his fate, as it'll give the Avengers — specifically Iron Man and Captain America — that added push to finally work as a cohesive team.
In Thor: Ragnarok, Skurge starts off as Loki's lackey and becomes Hela's lackey when she arrives. During the climactic battle on the Bifrost, Skurge tries to blend into the crowd to escape on the refugee ship. When Hela impales the ship in place and her monster army climb aboard, Skurge dual wields two machine guns and shoots the monsters and eventually improvises by using the now empty weapons as clubs until Hela impales him.
At the climax of Avengers: Endgame, Tony manages to steal the Infinity Stones off of Thanos just before he can unleash another Snap on the universe, and gives one of his own to wipe out Thanos and all his minions, at the cost of the power overwhelming Tony and killing him.
Thanos: I am inevitable. (tries to snap, only to realize the Stones are gone)
Pacific Rim: During the last ditch assault on the Breach, Striker Eureka is crippled, and left unable to release its nuclear payload. Pentecost and Chuck decide to detonate it anyway, both killing the remaining Kaiju (and themselves) and giving Gipsy Danger a chance to finish the mission.
Fallon's death in Piranha 3D. He manages to kill more piranha in one scene than the cast has managed in every previous one, by use of an outboard motor. "Chew on this, motherfuckers!"
What makes it even better is that, even as he's being eaten alive, his only thought is to yell at people to get to safety on the shore.
The sequel reveals that he survived, only losing his legs. And the replacements are made of titanium, which allows him to go into a piranha-infested pool and take a weedwacker to them.
Jack Sparrow in Dead Man's Chest: "'Ello beastie." Sure, Jack didn't stay dead, but it still counts. Best part being that he'd just gotten halfway through the process of saving himself anyways, and simply ran out of time; he'd only bought himself the ability to look his death in the face and charge.
Also James Norrington in the next movie: When asked by Davy Jones if he's afraid of death — prelude to offering Norrington life in exchange for service to Jones — Norrington stabs the monster straight through where the heart should be, and dies.
Davy Jones: I take that as a "no."
Becket's death could be viewed as this. He calmly turns and walks down the stairs (as they are exploding behind him), casually trailing his hand along the railing, before coming to a stop, looking at the camera and accepting death. Most seem to see this as Becket being in denial over what has happened and is happening.
Davy Jones perishes in the middle of a massive whirpool battle while doing a Kick the Dog all round.
Seso the knife thrower in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time bravely battles the evil Hassassin knife thrower in order to get the Dagger back, resulting in an epic knife fight. Seso kills his opponent, only to look down and see that he had been struck in the chest by three knives. In his final moment, he grabs the dagger and tosses it out the window of the tower, falling several stories and impaling itself in the wood right next to where Dastan, Amar, and Tamina were waiting for it.
Amar: Did I mention he was the best?
"MADE IT, MA! TOP OF THE WORLD!" — White Heat, James Cagney. His character, Cody Jarrett, is atop a large fuel storage tank and is shot by a police sniper twice. His response is to giggle, shoot the pipes around him, shout the line while the police scurry to safety, and BOOM! Iconic film scene.
Robert, in Red Dawn (1984), is standing off against two armored helicopters, each fully capable of taking out an armored column...and manages to damage one of them enough to drive it off. His last act is to stand out in the open, proud and defiant, engaging the other helicopter with his AK-47... against heavy machine guns, and go down yelling his battle cry.
Tony Montana's death in Scarface (1983), with him being completely high on cocaine and taking out a couple of dozen of Sosa's gang members whilst being shot by what seems to be an armory's worth of bullets. "Say hello to my little friend" indeed.
In Serenity, Book's destruction of the ship that destroyed Haven. Though the shepherd himself would beg to differ on just how awesome his act of self-defense was.
Doc Ock's death in Spider-Man 2, where he overcomes his tentacles' control over his mind and uses them to bring down his fusion machine. "I will not die a monster!"
George Kirk's death at the beginning of Star Trek (2009). Taking temporary command while the captain goes to negotiate, George Kirk is forced to fight a far more powerful enemy. Remaining at the helm to protect the escape pods, he rams the Narada, inflicting so much damage that the Romulans spend the next twenty years repairing their ship.
Christopher Pike: Your father was captain of a starship for 12 minutes. He saved 800 lives, including your mother's...and yours. I dare you to do better.
The sequel has Kirk switch places with Spock in saving the crew by going into the warp core in order to get it working again. What's awesome is that Scotty said the radiation would kill him before he could make the climb; not only did Kirk make the climb, but he kept on going until the damn thing was fixed. And then had enough steam to crawl back to the door again. It may have copied Spock's death in Wrath of Khan, and it may not have lasted, but every fan can agree that Kirk finally got a death worthy of him.
Spock's death in Wrath of Khan. The Enterprise has disabled the Reliant commanded by Kirk's nemesis, Khan within the Mutara Nebula. Khan activates the Genesis Device he stole which will consume everything around it at the speed of light, and the warp engines are offline. Spock leaves the bridge, heads down to main engineering and opens up the warp core while it's still in operation. He then realigns the dilithium crystals by hand while enduring a column of face-melting warp plasma erupting from the open reactor.
Khan's own death was nothing to sneeze at either. Even after being horribly injured, with his ship inoperable and his entire crew dead, he still managed to activate the Genesis device in a last-ditch effort to destroy theEnterprise. Granted, it didn't work, for reasons explained above, but his utter, maniacal defiance in the face of total defeat was undeniably badass.
The Enterprise herself gets one of these in Star Trek III, taking almost the entire crew of the Klingom Bird of Prey with her and giving her captain and crew a fighting chance.
Star Trek V: "Your pain runs deep! Share it with me!"
In Starship Troopers during the final stand, after Watkins is gravely injured by a bug, he takes the ticking nuke in his hand and fights off the oncoming swarm of bugs with a single rifle, firing with one hand, as Rico, Carmen, and Ace escape, all the while shouting "YOU WANT MORE!" as the nuke ticks faster and faster and finally explodes, taking him and the rest of the bugs in the cave with him. Also qualifies as a Heroic Sacrifice.
And Theme Music Power-Up since he is able to stop the bugs with short bursts (unlike everyone else in the film who had to expend full magazines before one bug even started to go down) while the epic score by Basil Poledouris plays him away.
Davish Krail (Gold Five) in A New Hope. Not only does he call out the tower defenses on the Death Star, he predicts a fighter attack as soon as said defenses stop firing, tries to keep the panicking Gold Leader focused, and when all else fails he gets out of the trench and warns Garven Dreis (Red Leader) of the danger. Vader blows him apart, but without his info neither Dreis nor Luke would have been able to launch torpedoes. He never once loses his cool even knowing he's about to die.
In ROTJ, during the Battle of Endor, Green Leader aka Arvel Crynyd's fighter gets shot down. As his ship begins to break apart, the pilot manages to crash it clean through the bridge of the Executor, causing it to lose all control and smash into the Death Star. Not only that, but according to Expanded Universe, after the battle there was an award named after the pilot called the Crynyd Award, given for conspicuous bravery in space combat. The Rebels also named a captured Star Destroyer after the guy.
Lyra Erso shoots Krennic while defiantly yelling "You'll never win!" before she's shot by Death Troopers.
Saw Gerrera takes off his breathing mask and calmly stands watching the explosion generated by the destruction of Jedha getting closer as it vaporizes his base with him inside.
K-2SO holds off a small army of stormtroopers to keep them from entering the vault, before smashing the controls and shutting the door to protect Jyn and Cassian.
Chirrut Imwe (who is blind, mind you) walks calmly across the battlefield, chanting his Survival Mantra, direct through a hail of laser fire to flip the master switch needed to send the Death Star plans, before he is blown up by an explosion and dies in Baze's arms.
Bodhi Rook stays on the ship to ensure the signal transmission stays open, and successfully transmits a message moments before a grenade falls into the ship and blows it to pieces.
Baze Malbus chants a variation of Chirrut's Survival Mantra as he mows down sixDeath Troopers with his massive cannon before the last one drops a grenade that kills them both.
Jyn Erso transmits the Death Star plans from the top of the signal tower and confronts her archnemesis, Director Krennic. Cassian saves Jyn from Krennic, and when the Death Star fires on the planet's surface, the two of them embrace as the shockwave obliterates them.
The crew of the Rebel hammerhead freighter Lightmaker use their starship as a ram to shove a Star Destroyer into another Star Destroyer, causing both of them to crash into and destroy the Shield Gate around Scarif.
An entire squad of Rebel redshirts get this for pulling a You Shall Not Pass! on DarthVader long enough for one of them to escape with the plans onto the Tantive IV.
Admiral Raddus defies orders to bring crucial air support to Scarif, and presumably goes down with his ship after it's boarded by Darth Vader.
Director Krennic may have gotten a bum deal by comparison, but to be fair, not many can boast after death of being killed by a direct shot from the fucking Death Star.
Paige Tico manages to unload the bombs of her critically damaged and exploding bomber onto the First Order dreadnaught just in time before they can fire on the Raddus.
Admiral Holdo hyperspace-ramming the Raddus into Snoke's ship, splitting it in half and destroying several of the surrounding ships, to save what's left of the Resistance.
Luke Skywalker sacrificing himself to save the remaining rebels, all while trumping and humiliating Kylo Ren in battle with an Astral Projection from halfway across the galaxy, and then finally becoming one with The Force, knowing he is not the last Jedi.
They Live! ends with a Dying Moment that changes the world. Nada has finally located the machine which sends a signal that prevents the human race from seeing aliens that have assimilated society. In doing so, Nada finds himself on a rooftop, with guns aimed at him by cops in a helicopter, as well as Holly, a former ally fresh off a Face–Heel Turn. Nada's choice? "Fuck it." He shoots and kills Holly, then fires at the machine, destroying it. Nada is shot dead in the process, and his last act before succumbing to his wounds is to give the helicopter the finger. And with that, humans discover every last alien in their midst.
In Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Wheelie and Brains infiltrate a Decepticon ship during the battle of Chicago and sabotage it, causing it to crash (saving the lives of Bumblebee and other Autobot prisoners in the process). It isn't confirmed if they die, but they don't show up again after that, so...
The novel has them swimming away from the wreck. Also, Skids & Mudflap go out in style against Sentinel Prime in the novelization, the former giving his life to save Bumblebee and the latter charging the villain in a rage and trying to beat him to death, giving the others time to escape, and continuing to attack the Big Bad Bot even as he's disintegrating.
And to give the humans their due, there's the crews of the Ospreys carrying Lennox's men to the Final Battle. Hit by the Decepticons, knowing they're going to die in the pending crash, what do they do? Their jobs.
Pilot: Get them out!
Loadmaster: Go! Go! Go!
Tremors 7: Shrieker Island sees Burt Gummer finally die, in a way that only a consummate badass like himself could. He and new sidekick Jimmy lure the Queen Graboid into a trap, acting as bait to get it into position to ram itself off a cliff and onto a trap of spikes and explosives. As it lunges at them, Burt shoves Jimmy out of the way, leaving himself to be swallowed whole, his last act being to flip the Queen off as it eats him, right before falling to its own death.
V himself from V for Vendetta, as he takes no less than a bajillion bullets from a group of about 20 bad guys, and then kills them all with his daggers before they can reload. Even better, he announces exactly what he plans to do before he does it. The Big Bad is forced to helplessly watch while being justly subdued himself.
Beneath this mask there is an idea, Mr. Creedy. And ideas are bulletproof.
And he isn't done yet. While he is dying, he manages to get back to his explosive-loaded train, confess to Evey that he fell in love with her, died, and went on the one of the most epic funerals ever. To wit, he is cremated by an entire train full of explosives as it hits the Parliament and the entire building goes up in a show of fireworks, all to the tune of Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture in front of practically all London. In respect they all show up wearing his signature Guy Fawkes mask and take it off as the sparks fly.
In Warcraft (2016), Medivh, freed of his Demonic Possession, but crushed by his own golem, uses his last strengths to change Portal's destination from Draenor to Stormwind, allowing humans, trapped next to it by the orcs, to escape.
Hollis Mason's death from the film version of Watchmen, which was cut from the theatrical release.
.note War Boys in general aim for this, seeing as they're all dying from diseases and they'll get into Valhalla if they die doing something awesome.