History SacrificialLion / Film

{{Sacrificial Lion}}s in {{Film}}s.

** ''Film/{{Alien 3}}'': When Ripley first crash lands on the prison planet, she is treated by Creator/CharlesDance's kindly doctor/former inmate Clemens. As the film progresses, the two form an increasingly close bond and eventually sleep together, implying that Clemens will be a major character and, at the very least, be given a HeroicSacrifice towards the end -- then the alien appears, and Clemens is one of the first to die.

* Morgan Freeman's character in ''The Sum Of All Fears'' is one of these.

* ''Ironhide'' is killed by the treacherous Sentinel Prime in ''Film/TransformersDarkOfTheMoon'' (immediately following an awesome MexicanStandoff scene with the 'Cons) by being shot in the back. He has enough time to ask "[[EtTuBrute What have you done?]]" before Sentinel sadistically "releases" the soldier from duty. It comes as especially shocking as up until then Sentinel was portrayed as an almost grandfatherly figure and mentor to Optimus.

* In ''Film/TransformersAgeOfExtinction'', it's ''Ratchet's'' turn to be killed, just to show how bad the humans' purging of the Autobots has become.
* ''Film/TwentyEightWeeksLater'' has at least three. Firstly, it looks like Creator/RobertCarlyle's character, Don, is going to be the main protagonist, since, at the time of release, he was the biggest name in the film, and most of the promotional material focused on him. However, he's actually the first person infected by the zombie virus. Then Scarlet, a scientist looking for a cure, and Doyle, a soldier who helps them, are the new protagonists. Doyle performs a HeroicSacrifice pretty soon, and Scarlet is killed by, ironically enough, Don, the film's first SacrificialLion.
** And the first film has Frank, infected halfway through.

* [[NobleBigotWithABadge Jim Malone]]'s fatal ambush by Capone's men serves this purpose in ''Film/TheUntouchables'', especially since for a [[HopeSpot brief moment]] it looks like he has the situation well in hand.

* {{Subverted}} in ''Film/BackToTheFuture''. Doc Brown's death appears to be a Sacrificial Lion (or maybe a SacrificialLamb). But the Libyans play no further role except to drive Marty into TheFifties. Then Doc Brown's death turns out to be a delayed DisneyDeath.

* Gabriel, the son of Creator/MelGibson's protagonist character Benjamin Martin in ''Film/ThePatriot'', gets a good amount of screen time and character development establishing him as a secondary protagonist. Then Gabriel's love interest and her family are burned to death when the film's BigBad Tavington [[MoralEventHorizon locks them in a church and sets it on fire]]. Gabriel attempts to get vengeance on Tavington, but is instead stabbed to death by Tavington in the fight. Of course, Tavington ''already'' crossed the MoralEventHorizon with the church-burning incident, so Gabriel's death basically serves to remind us that it's Mel Gibson's character who's the protagonist, and only ''he'' is allowed to finally kill Tavington at the end. Gabriel's death just gives Benjamin Martin added motivation.

* Robert Muldoon in ''Film/JurassicPark1993F'' is the first major character we are introduced to and is given more screentime and like ability factor than most of the Red Shirt type characters that are usually eaten by the creatures in these kinds of films. [[TheWorldsExpertOnGettingKilled He is also portrayed as "knowing more about raptors than anyone" and being a Badass who will likely have an ultimate showdown with the raptors]]. (Indeed, in the original book, he not only manages to survive a raptor attack, he actually beats one to death with a length of rebar.) However, in the end he is ambushed and killed by [[MemeticMutation the clever girls]].

** ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' Loki and Heimdall are just two of the casualties caused by Thanos in the opening scene.
** ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol2'' kills off [[spoiler:Yondu]] at the end of the final battle. Not one of the main Guardians team members, but important enough such that some emotion could be milked from the viewers. Very similar to what happens to [[spoiler:Quicksilver]] in Age of Ultron.

* Robert Muldoon in ''Film/JurassicPark'' is the first major character we are introduced to and is given more screentime and like ability factor than most of the Red Shirt type characters that are usually eaten by the creatures in these kinds of films. [[TheWorldsExpertOnGettingKilled He is also portrayed as "knowing more about raptors than anyone" and being a Badass who will likely have an ultimate showdown with the raptors]]. (Indeed, in the original book, he not only manages to survive a raptor attack, he actually beats one to death with a length of rebar.) However, in the end he is ambushed and killed by [[MemeticMutation the clever girls]].

** ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'' has Agent Coulson being impaled by [[BigBad Loki]] while trying to keep him away from the console that would drop the caged Thor. He does get his DyingMomentOfAwesome when he fires off his {{BFG}} that he didn't even know what it would do. The subtext of the subsequent discussion of and allusions to his death also hints that he's the thing that "the Avengers" (until this moment only a government codename) are going to be, well, ''avenging'' from now on.
** In ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'', [[spoiler:ComicBook/{{Quicksilver}}]] is killed during the final battle, allowing the film to feature the death of an Avenger without killing a character who has their own film franchise.

** ''Film/{{Guardians of the Galaxy Vol2}}'' kills off [[spoiler: Yondu, played by Michael Rooker]] at the end of the final battle. Not one of the main Guardians team members, but important enough such that some emotion could be milked from the viewers. Very similar to what happens to [[spoiler: Quicksilver]] in Age of Ultron.
** ''Film/DoctorStrangeInTheMultiverseOfMadness'' has [[spoiler: the Illuminati of the 838 universe, alternate versions of powerful and recognizable characters, including the long-awaited Reed Richards and Professor Xavier.]] [[TheWorfEffect They are slaughtered messily]] by the film's villain to showcase just how [[ImplacableMan terrifyingly unstoppable]] [[spoiler: Wanda]] is.

* ''Film/WonderWoman2017'': ComicBook/SteveTrevor's {{heroic sacrifice}} in the final act provides the {{heroic second wind}} Diana needs to defeat Ares.

* Russel Franklin, Creator/SamuelLJackson's character in ''Film/DeepBlueSea''. Most of the first half of the movie is character development for this man. You get to know him. Get to know how adventuresome and noble and kind-hearted but not naive he is. He is '''''obviously''''' the hero... or at least a decent secondary protagonist. He even gets to give a moving speech about how they'll all get out of there alive if they just pull together! And then [[IncrediblyLamePun out of the blue]], a shark eats him.

* Benicio del Toro admitted in the DVD commentary that this was his character's purposes in ''Film/TheUsualSuspects''. He also said he added the accent and the behavior, because if he had to die, he at least wanted to be memorable.

* The titular lion in ''Film/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe''. He seems to like being this character. [[MessianicArchetype He recovers]] this time though.

* ''Film/PacificRim'': Appears to be the case with [[spoiler:both Cherno Alpha and Crimson Typhoon]]. They are both given dramatic introductions and have their records recounted: both have at least half-a-dozen impressive kills and are veterans of a decade-long war that has destroyed all but four Jaegers. Protagonist Raleigh Beckett recognizes them on sight and knows of their exploits. During the battle of Hong Kong they are deployed in a badass sequence befitting of their heroic reputations and manage to get the edge on the attacking kaiju on more than one occasion, but are then quickly destroyed one after the other to show how the war has evolved- the kaiju have developed new and deadly weapons and intelligent tactics for which even these veterans are completely unprepared.

* ''Film/PacificRim'': Appears to be the case with [[spoiler:both Cherno Alpha and Crimson Typhoon]], who are destroyed during the battle of Hong Kong.

** In ''Film/TransformersAgeOfExtinction'', it's ''Ratchet's'' turn to be killed, just to show how bad the humans' purging of the Autobots has become.

* Robert Muldoon in ''Film/JurassicPark'' is the first major character we are introduced to and is given more screentime and like ability factor than most of the Red Shirt type characters that are usually eaten by the creatures in these kinds of films. He is also portrayed as "knowing more about raptors than anyone" and being a Badass who will likely have an ultimate showdown with the raptors. (Indeed, in the original book, he not only manages to survive a raptor attack, he actually beats one to death with a length of rebar.) However, in the end he is ambushed and killed by [[MemeticMutation the clever girls]].

** [[MentorOccupationalHazard Obi-Wan Kenobi]] plays this role in ''Film/ANewHope'', which is mirrored by Qui-Gon Jinn in ''Film/ThePhantomMenace''. Comparing with Luke's uncle and aunt illustrates the contrast between the SacrificialLion and the SacrificialLamb.
** Mace Windu in ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith''. Anakin's culpability in his death is the direct cause of his FaceHeelTurn.

* In ''Film/StarTrek2009'', it establishes early on that the second-in-command is George Kirk, Jim Kirk's father. The ([[OneSceneWonder memorable]]) Captain promotes Kirk to captain, implying that he knows full well he won't make it back alive from the meeting with the Romulans in the super-powerful ship. Once the ship resumes attacking George Kirk orders an evacuation and stays behind to fight off the Romulans, eventually making [[RammingAlwaysWorks suicide run]]. Spock's mother, too, is killed when Vulcan is destroyed, both of which reinforce that anything can happen in this timeline.
* David in ''Film/StarTrekIIITheSearchForSpock''.
* Lt. Hawk in ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'', while not getting an extreme amount of screen time he was presented as basically Worf's replacement onboard the Enterprise-E while Worf was stationed at [[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]].
* In ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness'', [[spoiler:[[ReasonableAuthorityFigure Christopher Pike]]]] is killed early in the film to show how dangerous John Harrison is.

** ''Film/{{Scream|1996}}'': [[spoiler:Tatum, Sidney's best friend, is the first casualty of the final act.]]
** ''Film/{{Scream 2}}'': [[spoiler:Randy (one of the characters who survived the first film), and Hallie (Sidney's best friend).]]
** ''Film/{{Scream 3}}'': [[spoiler:Averted with Dewey and Gale, who survive, but are nearly killed when Ghostface threatens to murder them unless Sidney shows up.]]
** ''Film/{{Scream 4}}'': [[spoiler:Kirby.]]

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** ''Film/RogueOne'' is [[HeroOfAnotherStory told entirely from the perspective of]] characters who are, essentially, Sacrificial Lions with respect to the greater franchise - every original character is dead by the end, including the main heroine, but their banner is taken up by the film's minor characters... who are, of course, the overall franchise's ''major'' characters.

* ''Film/Fortress1992'': There's a nervous guy in the opening when Brennick gets sent to prison who is just there to demonstrate the prison's security systems by getting his stomach blown up.

* ''Film/TheHungerGames'': Several tributes are seen being threatened/killed both on-screen and off, such as the curly-haired teenager who hides in the Cornucopia before getting sliced by Cato when he tries to escape. [[spoiler:Rue and Foxface]] could also be a case of this.

* ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'' has Agent Coulson being impaled by [[BigBad Loki]] while trying to keep him away from the console that would drop the caged Thor. He does get his DyingMomentOfAwesome when he fires off his {{BFG}} that he didn't even know what it would do. The subtext of the subsequent discussion of and allusions to his death also hints that he's the thing that "the Avengers" (until this moment only a government codename) are going to be, well, ''avenging'' from now on.
* In ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'', [[spoiler:ComicBook/{{Quicksilver}}]] is killed during the final battle, allowing the film to feature the death of an Avenger without killing a character who has their own film franchise.
* ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' Loki and Heimdall are just two of the casualties caused by Thanos in the opening scene.

* ''Film/{{Guardians of the Galaxy Vol2}}'' kills off [[spoiler: Yondu, played by Michael Rooker]] at the end of the final battle. Not one of the main Guardians team members, but important enough such that some emotion could be milked from the viewers. Very similar to what happens to [[spoiler: Quicksilver]] in Age of Ultron.

* Many of the allies and love interests of Film/JamesBond throughout the series: Quarrel in ''Film/DrNo'', Kerim Bey in ''Film/FromRussiaWithLove'', Paula in ''Film/{{Thunderball}}'', Aki in ''Film/YouOnlyLiveTwice'', Ferrarra in ''Film/ForYourEyesOnly'', Veejay in ''Film/{{Octopussy}}'', Sir Godfrey Tibbett in ''Film/AViewToAKill'', etc. Tracy from ''Film/OnHerMajestysSecretService'' is arguably the best known of the lot, though her death doesn't truly have an effect on Bond until ''Film/LicenceToKill'', where another wedding ends in tragedy and leaves another lion, Felix Lieter, mauled.