History DeadStarWalking / LiveActionFilms

* ''Film/MurderOnTheOrientExpress2017'' has Creator/JohnnyDepp as the murder victim.

** Creator/JulietteBinoche (Sandra Brody) only appears in a prologue sequence at the beginning of the film and dies after being locked inside a chamber as it floods with radiation due to a failsafe mechanism. Notably, when Binoche was asked about her experience making the film, [[https://www.cinemablend.com/new/Read-Juliette-Binoche-Blunt-Harsh-Assessment-Shooting-Godzilla-67844.html she said]] "I don't know how much fun you can have when you have to die in two seconds, and you're the one real woman character and you're dead in three minutes and 45 seconds."

** Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness has [[Series/DoctorWho Noel Clarke]] blow himself up in the beginning.

* Creator/SalmaHayek in ''Film/{{Eternals}}''. Her character Ajak is TheLeader, and being such a big name, Hayek earns proeminent billing in both the poster and the credits. In the present day events, when the characters go after Ajak they discover she is dead, meaning all her scenes, before and after, are flashbacks. [[spoiler:Aside from one where shapeshifter Sprite disguises herself as Ajak as a deception.]]

** [[Film/{{Scream 4}} The fourth film]] kills off five characters -- Creator/LucyHale, Shenae Grimes, Creator/AnnaPaquin, Creator/AimeeTeegarden, and Creator/BrittRobertson -- before the title card. (Though Paquin was not killed in the movie, but rather in the [[ShowWithinAShow movie within a movie]]... and Hale and Grimes bought it in the movie within a movie ''within a movie''.)

** In [[Film/{{Scream 1996}} the first film]], Creator/DrewBarrymore is killed off within the first ten minutes. [[ThrowItIn She came up with the idea]], having been initially cast as [[FinalGirl Sidney]]. Notably, absolutely none of the advertising even suggested that Barrymore would be killed so soon -- it was a legitimate shock at the time.
** In [[Film/{{Scream 2}} the second film]], it's ''three'' dead stars walking -- Creator/OmarEpps and Creator/JadaPinkett are killed in the opening scene, and later, Creator/SarahMichelleGellar becomes Ghostface's first victim after the title card.
** In [[Film/{{Scream 3}} the third film]], it's Creator/LievSchreiber, whose character from the first two films [[SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome gets elevated to Opening Victim]].

** [[Film/Scream2022 The fifth film]] subverts this and plays this straight. Despite promo material implying that this would be the route Creator/JennaOrtega takes in the film, her character survives the opening attack. However, Creator/DylanMinnette plays this straight by being the first of the main group to die.

* In ''Film/{{Solo}}'', Val is portrayed by Creator/ThandieNewton and was fairly prominent in advertising leading up to the film's release; however in the film itself she's killed off less than half-way through, partly to show that AnyoneCanDie in her line of work. Writer Jonathan Kasdan actually stated he regretted not giving Val more screentime, feeling that Newton's casting gave viewers an unfair expectation of the character's prominence.

* Creator/GwynethPaltrow in ''Film/{{Contagion}}'', who is first introduced sneezing and coughing at an airport in Chicago, and, when she arrives home minutes into the film, she is rushed to a hospital, where she convulses and dies. The only footage seen of her afterwards is an autopsy scene (where doctors [[GoryDiscretionShot cut her skull open]]) and a flashback at the end of the film to how the virus was transmitted to her. Likewise, Creator/KateWinslet appears for a few minutes as a CDC researcher working to investigate the cure, but she gets infected and is rushed to a quarantine zone, and is only seen sometime later when she tries to give a patient a blanket before dying.

* Taken UpToEleven and PlayedForLaughs in ''Film/SpyKids3DGameOver''. After the team begins doubting Juni's claim of being [[TheChosenOne "The Guy"]], ''Creator/ElijahWood'' pops out of nowhere, claiming to be "The ''Real'' Guy". After about 15 seconds of acting badass, he is electrocuted to [[OneHitKO an immediate death]]. [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment This is never brought up again]].

* Zig-zagged in ''Film/{{Red}}''. Creator/MorganFreeman's character is killed off very early on. Then it turns out he's still alive. But he dies again about halfway through the film, this time for real.

* The ''Film/{{Fright Night|2011}}'' remake has Christopher Mintz-Plasse as "Evil" Ed, who's in it about 20 minutes before getting bitten by a vampire. He returns nearly an hour later, now having been turned, only to be killed in roughly five minutes.

* In ''Film/AGoodDayToDieHard'', Cole Hauser appears in one scene as a CIA handler who briefs Jack and John on the current situation in the area, just before he gets shot in the head by an enemy sniper.

* ''Film/TheLostCity'' eventually revealed in a trailer the presence of CreatorBradPitt, even if the rest of the promotion continued to focus only on the other two leads. Come the movie, turns out Pitt's character gets a bullet to the head. TheStinger [[TisOnlyABulletInTheBrain shows he's still alive, though]].

** In ''Film/MissionImpossibleII'', Rade Serbedzija (a notable European character actor) gets killed off in the first scene after "Ethan Hunt" (Sean Ambrose in disguise) knocks him out and crashes the plane he is traveling on.
** ''Film/MissionImpossibleIII'' introduces Creator/KeriRussell as a protege of Cruise's character, and then kills her off immediately after one scene when a micro-explosive in her head detonates.
** ''Film/MissionImpossibleGhostProtocol'' has Creator/JoshHolloway show up and get killed less than a minute into the film (although he gets more screen time in flashbacks later on), while Tom Wilkinson (who like Estevez above isn't credited) appears as an IMF handler who gets killed at the end of his single scene.

** Cole Hauser plays Roma, a Secret Service agent who manages to make a TitleDrop to other agents in the nearby area just before getting killed by a terrorist.

* ''Film/PitchBlack'': Cole Hauser plays Johns, a bounty hunter who is escorting Riddick (Creator/VinDiesel), and seems to be the main character alongside Carolyn (Radha Mitchell). Then, less than halfway through the film, Riddick fakes out Johns and lets him get eaten by some of the local predators, who messily chomp down on him while Riddick watches. Amusingly, this is the ''[[ChronicallyKilledActor third]]'' time this has happened to Hauser on this very page alone.

* Creator/JanetLeigh in ''Film/{{Psycho}}'' (although she didn't go as quickly as Drew Barrymore below). This is one of the oldest examples.

* John C. [=McGinley=] plays a drug dealer in ''Film/TruthOrConsequencesNM''. For three minutes. Then Creator/KieferSutherland's character shoots him in the forehead. [[PlotTriggeringDeath His death did have a huge impact on the story though]].

** In the original film, Ethan Hunt's backup team includes characters played by Creator/KristinScottThomas, Creator/EmilioEstevez, Emmanuelle Béart and Creator/JonVoight. Scott-Thomas' character is stabbed in the back and Estevez's hacker character is impaled through the eye in an elevator shaft, while the latter two turn out to be not dead after all, and are instead pulling ThePlan. Estevez isn't even ''credited''.

* There's an old 1967 romantic-drama titled ''Auntie Lan'', revolving around the love affair between the titular character and her fiancé, played by Creator/JimmyWangYu, then a major star and kung-fu icon thanks to the then-recent''Film/OneArmedSwordsman''. Roughly thirty minutes into the film, Lan's family had finally accepted her relationship with her lover after she discovers herself to be pregnant with his child, just as he's in the United States and about to return, at which point Lan intends to break out the good news upon seeing him... only to learn a scene later that he died in a plane crash en route from New York to Hong Kong.

* Creator/SeanBean in ''Film/{{Equilibrium}}''. [[Main/ChronicallyKilledActor Sean Bean in anything, really.]]

* The ''[[Film/FrightNight2011 Fright Night]]'' remake has Christopher Mintz-Plasse as "Evil" Ed, who's in it about 20 minutes before getting bitten by a vampire. He returns nearly an hour later, now having been turned, only to be killed in roughly five minutes.

* In ''Film/{{Stuber}}'', Creator/KarenGillan gets a bullet to the stomach 10 minutes in.

* There's an old 1967 romantic-drama titled ''Auntie Lan'', revolving around the love affair between the titular character and her fiancé, played by Creator/JimmyWangYu, then a major star and kung-fu icon thanks to the then-recent/Film/OneArmedSwordsman. Roughly thirty minutes into the film, Lan's family had finally accepted her relationship with her lover after she discovers herself to be pregnant with his child, just as he's in the United States and about to return, at which point Lan intends to break out the good news upon seeing him... only to learn a scene later that he died in a plane crash en route from New York to Hong Kong.