50 Movie Deaths That Destroyed Our Childhood
We're not crying, it's just raining on our face
Tarzan (1999)
The Movie Death: Clayton the hunter gets entangled in some vines up a tall tree and, as he tries to cut himself free, he ends up falling. While we don't see his actual death, a flash of lightning reveals the silhouette of his lifeless hanging body.
How It Broke Us: The shadow of a hanging man is particularly graphic, especially in such dark, ominous lighting. But the real scary part is the thought of those vines tightening around his throat - this is why we don't trust house plants.
My Girl (1991)
The Movie Death: Vada’s new best friend Thomas J. Sennet dies from an allergic reaction when he is stung by a hornet.
How It Broke Us: Isn’t there enough to worry about in life? Now we have to be scared of hornets killing us too?
The Land Before Time (1988)
The Movie Death: Young Littlefoot's mother receives a bite to her spine and slowly dies... right in front of him.
How It Broke Us: Watching your own parent die before your eyes? This is beyond tragic and it's probably the sole reason why we make sure we call our mums at least once a week.
The Dark Crystal (1982)
The Movie Death: The Skeksis Emperor dies naturally in his bed, which for some reason causes his already-terrifying face to crumple in on itself.
Sign up for the Total Film Newsletter
Bringing all the latest movie news, features, and reviews to your inbox
How It Broke Us: The creatures of The Dark Crystal were already enough to make our six-year-old selves sleep with a night light on, but then we had to see their face break slowly apart? It’s like a nightmare’s nightmare. It’s the kind of thing that would keep Freddy Krueger awake at night.
Watership Down (1978)
The Movie Death: In this sweet fluffy tale of vicious rabbits fighting each other to the death, Blackavar tries to defend the warren against General Woundwort but gets into a brutal skirmish and has his throat ripped out for his efforts.
How It Broke Us: It’s the completely unexpected violence and gore dressed up as a cute, innocent cartoon that shocks more than anything. Like someone giving you an olive at the age of five and telling you it’s a sweet, ripe grape. As a result, we’ll never trust a bunny rabbit ever again. Murderous psychopaths, the lot of ‘em.
The Transformers: The Movie (1986)
The Movie Death: Optimus Prime is mortally wounded after a fight with Megatron, leading him to turn dark grey and die on a stone cold table. All because Hasbro wanted to make room for a new line of toys.
How It Broke Us: He was the leader of the good guys! If he can die, then NO ONE is safe (*hugs a kitten*)
The Neverending Story (1984)
The Movie Death: Young warrior Atreyu travels to the Swamps Of Sadness where he loses his beloved horse Artax, who sinks in the swamp and dies.
How It Broke Us: Oh God, it’s Atreyu’s wailing cries to save his horse and best friend while being helpless to do so. That will stick with us forever. Excuse us, we’re just going to call everyone we know to tell them we love them.
Bambi (1942)
The Movie Death: While out foraging for food in the snow, Bambi's mother is shot dead by a hunter.
How It Broke Us: While at an age when all we know is our parents, we learned that they can be cruelly taken from us at any moment. It also taught us that Walt Disney is a harsh teacher of the worst kind of life lesson.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988)
The Movie Death: Having been revealed as a Toon wearing a very convincing human disguise, baddie Judge Doom ends up awash in his own "dip", causing him to melt into a puddle of fleshy goo.
How It Broke Us: It's basically an acid bath for your favourite cartoon characters. Suddenly we could imagine Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny and even our personal fave Betty Rubble die horrible, disfiguring deaths.
The Lion King (1994)
The Movie Death : Yes, The Lion King again. This time though, it’s Mufasar falling screaming to his death that’s making us wipe away a tear. Especially as we are left with the sight of son Simba nudging his lifeless corpse, urging him to wake up.
How It Broke Us: The death of a parent, the sight of his dead body and knowing that Simba still has to realise the truth? That's a triple threat of gut-wrenching tragedy right there, teaching us that life can be an utter bastard for no good reason. Ugh, seriously why even bother?
Sonic 3 director explains the thinking behind picking those new post-credits arrivals: "It's always 'which character is going to give us something new?'"
The Inside Out 2 panic attack scene is one of the best depictions of anxiety ever – and something Pixar director Kelsey Mann is incredibly proud of: "I couldn't be happier"