I’m an absolute sucker for Top 10s, so it seemed the right and natural thing to do to write some myself. First up: my all time favourite movie deaths, inspired by crying yet again over Boromir’s death in Fellowship of the Ring last night. Before you go any further though, I’ll warn you: I’m a shameless blockbuster watcher…

1. The Shark – Jaws: “Smile you son of a – BOOM!”. Love it.
2. Edward Bloom – Big Fish: Ends are neatly tied up as the perpetually thirsty Edward Bloom is lowered into the water by his son and turns into a very big fish. What’s even better is the fact that his death is being described by his estranged son Will, who until now has shunned anything other than cold hard fact. Beautifully crafted, beautifully shot, very uplifting.
   

   American Beauty

3. Lester Burnham – American Beauty: “Remember those posters that said, “Today is the first day of the rest of your life”? Well, that’s true of every day but one – the day you die.” For a film that talks about death from the first lines, it’s got an awful lot of life in it, and even though you don’t really see Kevin Spacey kick the bucket, his ensuing speech and the shots of Carolyn (his wife) hugging his clothes, make this one of my most memorable.
4. Ofelia – Pan’s Labyrinth: It was a close one between this and Laura’s suicide in The Orphanage, but I decided to be loyal to the first Guillermo del Toro movie I saw.
5. Count Laszlo de Almasy – The English Patient: More for Juliette Binoche’s incredibly moving reaction to her patient’s silent request to pump him full of morphene, but Ralph Fiennes doesn’t give a bad performance, as performances go.
6. Casey Becker – Scream: Drew Barrymore getting stabbed then hung from a tree with her guts spilling out? In the first 20 minutes of the film? Well, it was original at the time (well, vaguely original; I guess Psycho got there first).
   

   Little Women

7. Beth – Little Women: Need I say more? I defy anyone not to cry when watching this.
8. Robert Muldoon – Jurassic Park: “Clever girl”.
9. The Ring – The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King: I’m so glad Peter Jackson and WETA didn’t screw this up. Originally they were going to have Gollum screaming in pain and the ring just melting away, but luckily they went for a less realistic version where Gollum’s focus is on his precious and the ringtakes its sweet time melting – the suspense and the storytelling are just incredible. And anyone who says that the ring isn’t a character hasn’t seen the movies.
10. Obi Wan Kenobi – Star Wars: A New Hope: Let’s just forget Ewan McGregor ever played this role (don’t get me wrong, I have a healthy respect for the Scotsman, but no-one was acting at their best in the new films) and remind ourselves of the quiet dignity of Alec Guinness in the classic mentor role. I challenge anyone to name a better-known movie death than this.

That’s it! I’ve missed out tonnes I know, but these are my favourites, and it was a tough choice. You can lambast my decisions below.