Character deaths that upset the audience

cosmo_kramer

I've noticed that in nearly every film, there seems to be a death of a 'good guy'. Someone that the audience wouldn't want to die. I wonder if this was always intended from the get go to add more emotion to the films or what...

Quarrel getting torched
Kerim Bey getting killed by Grant
Tilly getting it from Oddjob
Paula taking herself out after getting captured
Aki getting poisoned
Tracy getting shot
Plenty drowning
Rosie getting shot
Andrea getting shot by Scaramanga
Max Kalba getting bitten by Jaws
Corinne getting mauled by the dogs
Vijay getting cut up
Sir Godfrey killed by Mayday
...can't think of one in TLD

If anyone can fill in the rest, do so.

Hardyboy

Back in the 1960s Kingsley Amis identified such characters as "obligatory sacrificial lambs," meaning they were people who served on the "right" side and whose deaths showed the ruthlessness of the villain, added a touch of realism to the story, and gave Bond a personal reason for going after the baddies.

Loeffelholz

Saunders is killed by the sabotaged sliding glass door in TLD...

Naturally, Della's death in LTK---plus Leiter's ordeal and Sharky's death...

In GE, 006's death (Bond thinks)...

In TND, Paris Carver...

In TWINE, Electra's father...?

In DAD, perhaps it's Bond's misfortune (being a prisoner)...?

In CR...well, you know who...

BestBondSean

had to chuckle at 'Max Kalba getting bitten by Jaws'
in TSWLM, in context to all the other names on the list.
Maybe in TSWLM the death of XXX's lover who gets killed by Bond in the opening minutes of the Film and the resulting tensions between Bond and Anya replaces this element.
In TWINE i'd say it's Valentin Zhukovskys death, not the classic ally i admit, yet the audience will mostly have developed a liking for the man by then.

yodboy007

BestBondSean wrote:

had to chuckle at 'Max Kalba getting bitten by Jaws'
in TSWLM, in context to all the other names on the list.
Maybe in TSWLM the death of XXX's lover who gets killed by Bond in the opening minutes of the Film and the resulting tensions between Bond and Anya replaces this element.
In TWINE i'd say it's Valentin Zhukovskys death, not the classic ally i admit, yet the audience will mostly have developed a liking for the man by then.

I agree with BestBondSean. Valentin Zuvkhosky was a character that I had always liked even as far back as GE. I agree that most people had just gotten around to liking the character. He was probably the best ally the Brosnan Bond ever had. Jack Wade was a distant second.

But what do the idiots Purvis and Wade do? They kill him off. Sure Coltrane would have been tied up with Potter films in the future even if his character lived, but I still wish he was still around to help out Bond at any moment. He provided good comic relief and always had great connections and resources to help Bond with.

Willie Garvin

cosmo_kramer wrote:

I've noticed that in nearly every film, there seems to be a death of a 'good guy'. Someone that the audience wouldn't want to die. I wonder if this was always intended from the get go to add more emotion to the films or what...

That's their exact purpose.We're upset when these characters are killed because we've grown to like these individuals.Their deaths help to underscore the reality that James Bond lives in a very dangerous world--one where his various friends and associates are not immune to attacks by his adversaries.

In the original novels, Ian Fleming has James Bond reflect more than once that as a direct result of his job ,almost everyone he cares about either dies or is badly wounded.Therefore, 007 always attempts to keep from forming new relationships--but despite his efforts, this always proves to be impossible.The movies reflect this situation within their various storylines.

sambwoy

Tibbett's death in AVATK was unnecessary and at the same time implausibly done. In the time that Tibbett drives from the chateau to the car wash, are there no telling signs that someone was in the car with him? Secondly, because as 'The Essential Bond' book puts it, he would have been a great ally in future Bonds, and of course a good trivial link to Patrick McNee's Avengers days.

Napoleon Plural

I thought Tibbet's death was very chilling, the way you see the figure creep up as the beam comes over in the car wash.

Lately I feel the emphasis has been on Bond 'getting personal' be it about 006 (supposedly), Paris Carver, poor Electra (supposedly) and himself and his own torture in DAD, that there isn't really a need for a cameo death.

positivelyshocking

Hmm Can't believe that you couldn't remember Saunders death by sliding cafe door in TLD. I remember being quite shocked by that one back in 1987. If you look carefully you can see splatters of blood on the glass and mirrors as Timothy Dalton finds the body.
I thought that the whole sequence right up to Bond spotting the "balloon seller" and jumping over the fence to find it is actually a small boy and his mother holding the balloons, accompanied by John Barrys driving score is such a great moment.

Tilly Masterson 007

There were many, but for me the most horrible one is Corinne Duffours death....maulded by dogs.

Oh, what about the guy that Bond accidently shoots out of the tree in Goldfinger?

words

positivelyshocking wrote:

Hmm Can't believe that you couldn't remember Saunders death by sliding cafe door in TLD. I remember being quite shocked by that one back in 1987. If you look carefully you can see splatters of blood on the glass and mirrors as Timothy Dalton finds the body.
I thought that the whole sequence right up to Bond spotting the "balloon seller" and jumping over the fence to find it is actually a small boy and his mother holding the balloons, accompanied by John Barrys driving score is such a great moment.

+1. A superbly acted and taught scene. Also loved Dalton's snarly delivery of the line:
'Yes.....I got the message...'

Tobias

I think Tracy's death in OHMSS is one of the most dramatic just like vespers in CR.

DrMaybe

Tobias wrote:

I think Tracy's death in OHMSS is one of the most dramatic just like vespers in CR.

I agree. I think that was a most memorable unjustified death, and would have been interested in seeing(at least one film) a married Bond in the sequel.

Alex

Cassandra Harris' Countess Lisl von Schlaf in FYEO. Rather graphic in it's depiction. Running barefoot from a speeding dune buggy magnifies extreme vulnerability in my estimation.

The wonderful and sadly late Mrs. Brosnan had excellent chemistry with Moore, and as Columbo states in the film, you too might end up with a heavy heart.

8420

Tilly Masterson 007 wrote:

There were many, but for me the most horrible one is Corinne Duffours death....maulded by dogs.

Oh, what about the guy that Bond accidently shoots out of the tree in Goldfinger?

It is not in Golfinger it is in Moonraker.

Prince Kamal Khan

Alex wrote:

Cassandra Harris' Countess Lisl von Schlaf in FYEO. Rather graphic in it's depiction. Running barefoot from a speeding dune buggy magnifies extreme vulnerability in my estimation.

The wonderful and sadly late Mrs. Brosnan had excellent chemistry with Moore, and as Columbo states in the film, you too might end up with a heavy heart.

Agreed. Lisl made a much more believable Bond girl for Moore's Bond than either Melina or Bibi.

Alex

We should also add Ferrara to the mix.

A minor player, one gets the feeling he's in over his head, such as Pleydell-Smith in the field might be.