Top 30 Over the Top Villain Deaths

Top 30 Over the Top Villain Deaths

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most wacky villain sendoffs in movies. We’ll be getting into some zany spoilers, so consider this your warning.

#30: Cutler Beckett

“Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End” (2007)
This cold-blooded colonial was the perfect opponent for our favorite band of pirates. But despite thinking of himself as superior, Lord Beckett ends up losing everything in spectacular fashion. During his final stand against the pirates, his ship is more or less blown to smithereens. But while that seems like a harrowing experience, Beckett takes it all in stride. His attitude as he strolls through the chaos and down the stairs is at once stunning and horrifying. Even as his world falls apart, he seems serenely resigned to his fate. Well, whatever floats your boat, we guess!

#29: Egor Korshunov[a]

“Air Force One” (1997)
This airplane action thriller involves both high flying and high stakes. Now, in most cases parachutes are lifesavers–but here…not so much. As Russian terrorist Egor Korshunov battles President James Marshall aboard Air Force One, his luck ultimately runs out. With some clever maneuvering, the President manages to use Egor’s own parachute against him. The results aren’t pretty. Thanks to Marshall’s move, Egor does indeed ‘get off his plane’. Honestly, we’re not sure what’s more over the top: Egor’s untimely demise or just seeing the President duking it out against bad guys on Air Force One.

#28: Bennett

“Commando” (1985)
This classic 80s action thriller follows John Matrix, a Special Forces Colonel who must rescue his kidnapped daughter and take down an ex-dictator along the way. Spoiler alert: if you’re a bad guy in an action movie going up against Arnold Schwarzenegger, you’re pretty much screwed. Mercenary leader Bennett tries to hold his own, but when Matrix uses a steam pipe to his advantage, the battle is done! If this decisive takedown isn’t scorching hot enough, then the one-liner Matrix drops afterwards definitely is. That’s one way to turn up the heat!

#27: Howard Payne

“Speed” (1994)
For most of “Speed’s” runtime, vengeful mastermind Howard Payne is pulling all the strings. Officer Jack Traven and the rest of the LAPD scramble to stop him from blowing up a city bus. However, the tables turn when Jack catches up with Payne in person. As they brawl atop a subway train, Payne suddenly comes face to face with a subway light. It’s a situation that makes it hard to keep a level head. Let this be a PSA: never ride on top of the subway! Sometimes you need to slow down in life, otherwise you won’t have one!

#26: Ra’s al Ghul

“Batman Begins” (2005)
In the first film of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy, Batman faces off against Ra’s al Ghul, leader of the League of Shadows, who’s determined to destroy Gotham. Their final fight takes place aboard the city’s monorail train. With Gordon’s help, Batman makes sure that the train derails. Just as it does, he dips, leaving Ra’s stuck inside of a literal trainwreck. There’s no way Ra’s walked away from this. Interestingly, he’s not the only Batman villain to have plummeted to their death. Joker fell off of a building in the 1989 “Batman” movie. Two-Face fell to his death as well in “Batman Forever”. Huh, maybe Batman’s not their greatest foe, maybe it’s just gravity!

#25: Judge Doom

“Who Framed Roger Rabbit” (1988)
Judge Doom is a nefarious judge with a hatred of Toons. Near the end of the movie, he faces a setback in his plans when he’s crushed by a steamroller. However, that’s not what actually kills him, surprisingly— it turns out he’s a Toon himself! His true undoing comes from The Dip, a special acid that’s harmful to Toons. When he gets into close contact with it, the acid wipes him out. Have you seen what happens to the Wicked Witch of the West when she gets doused in water? That’s pretty much what happens to Doom. Toons might be able to take a lot of damage, but it’s going to be hard to come back from being melted!

#24: Vincent Ludwig[b]

“The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!” (1988)
There are numerous over-the-top deaths in this zany spoof. If you want to see just how absurd things can get, then look no further than corrupt businessman Vincent Ludwig’s demise. Cornered by Lieutenant Frank Drebin at Anaheim Stadium, he gets stunned in the neck by one of Drebin’s weaponized cufflinks. Though it wasn’t meant to be lethal on its own, it disorients Ludwig and causes him to fall from the top of a baseball stadium. And that’s still not the end! Admittedly, it’s pretty funny seeing the barrage of things that happen to him after he falls, but it’s definitely not pretty.

#23: Salim Abu Aziz[c]

“True Lies” (1994)
Usually if we say that someone’s got a rocket strapped to their back, it means they’re destined for greatness. But for terrorist leader Salim Abu Aziz, he’s destined for…well, basically the opposite. In James Cameron’s tongue-in-cheek action-comedy, Aziz spends his final moments in “True Lies” going out in a grand way. And by “grand”, we mean getting caught on the end of a plane missile that goes kablooey. We did mention that it’s a bad idea to go up against Arnie in an action movie! That’s especially true when there’s a good opportunity for a cheesy one liner.

#22: The T-1000

“Terminator 2: Judgment Day” (1991)
While “T2’s” T-1000 may not be as physically imposing as ole Arnie, he proves to be way more dangerous. The persistent Terminator chases Sarah and her son John Connor to the ends of the Earth, determined to kill them and ensure Skynet’s survival. Eventually, though, he’s defeated when he takes a grenade to the chest, courtesy of everyone’s favorite T-800. While the T-1000 may still have recovered from the damage, he then falls into a pool of molten steel, which (eventually) kills him once and for all. Yep, that will definitely do the trick!

#21: Pennywise

“It Chapter Two” (2019)
Despite manifesting as a killer clown, Pennywise is the one getting clowned in the end. The supernatural monster who terrorized Derry is finally destroyed in “It: Chapter Two”. This happens when the now grownup members of the Losers Club realize that the best way to take Pennywise down isn’t with weapons, but words. Well, something like that at least - what they’re really doing is denying the fear that It feeds on. The entity is essentially roasted to death by the group. No, seriously, the surprising verbal assault weakens It enough for the Losers to physically get ahold of It’s heart. Talk about heartbreak! Despite how scary Pennywise is, this kind of schoolyard hazing has us convinced that he wouldn’t last a day on the internet.

#20: Thanos

“Avengers: Endgame” (2019)
Well, we never thought we’d see this in a Marvel film, but hey, “Endgame” was full of surprises! In this rather surprising sequence, Thor blasts his way through the cabin and takes off Thanos’s arm. Bruce then pushes Thanos to the ground and Thor gets him with a quick swipe. Rocket can hardly believe what he just saw, and neither can the viewers. It’s a surprisingly dark, graphic, and violent scene for the MCU, and is really too much for children to handle. But then again, they had to continue the darker tone following that depressing ending to “Infinity War”...

#19: August Walker

“Mission: Impossible - Fallout” (2018)
This is arguably the best movie in the “Mission: Impossible” series, and August Walker makes for one of the best villains. It’s all there - Henry Cavill, a glorious mustache, and even a confusing bit of arm reloading. Walker also goes out in the coolest, most outlandish way possible. While dangling on the side of a massive cliff, Ethan yanks on a rope, causing a metal hook to slam into Walker’s face and drag him to the ground below. To make matters even better, his body bounces off the rocks and goes directly into an exploding helicopter. So, yeah, we think he’s dead.

#18: General Zod

“Man of Steel” (2013)
Henry Cavill has seen his fair share of over-the-top deaths. It’s not Cavill doing the dying in “Man of Steel,” he’s dishing it out. Superman gets Zod in a chokehold, but Zod begins shooting beams of heat from his eyes, threatening the lives of a nearby family. With no other choice, Supes gets cracking. The whole thing is very dramatic and over-the-top, complete with moody piano music, faded sound effects, Superman yelling “STOOOOP!”, and a cliché “Never!” from Zod. It also frustrated a lot of die-hard Superman fans, who claim that the superhero would never kill anyone - let alone in this manner. For some, this was moodiness for the sake of moodiness.

#17: Richmond Valentine

“Kingsman: The Secret Service” (2015)
This spy action film is nothing if not over-the-top. Luckily, it veers full-tilt into its own ridiculousness and never once takes itself seriously. The goofiness lasts from beginning to end, with Samuel L. Jackson’s Richmond Valentine experiencing a particularly hilarious death. Just as Valentine is activating the deadly signal, Eggsy snags one of Gazelle’s prosthetic knife legs and hurls it like a javelin into Valentine. Then, more grossness. Now how many villains can say they've barfed after meeting their end via a prosthetic knife leg?

#16: Frank D'Amico

“Kick-Ass” (2010)
This film is much like “Kingsman”. It’s incredibly violent, it doesn’t take itself seriously, and it contains some majorly bombastic action sequences. This is best represented with the death of antagonist Frank D’Amico. Frank gains the upper-hand against Hit Girl and goes to kill her. However, he is interrupted by Kick-Ass, who shoots at him with a rocket launcher. The rocket blows Frank out the window and sends him hurling through the air before exploding over the streets of New York. It’s completely ridiculous, and Frank’s prolonged scream aids the over-the-top visuals to create a truly hilarious demise.

#15: Kim Jong Un

“The Interview” (2014)
This Seth Rogen comedy received a lot of media attention, as North Korea essentially scared the United States from releasing it in theaters. They hacked Sony’s servers and threatened attacks, as they were incensed with the movie’s storyline about assassinating Kim Jong-un. And assassinate them they do, albeit in a very humorous and over-the-top fashion. A tank fires at the helicopter that Kim is riding in, and the movie utilizes both slow motion and a slowed-down, acoustic cover of Katy Perry’s “Firework” to add a faux-dramatic effect. Kim is then in flames in slow motion, and the helicopter falls to the ground and explodes.

#14: Senator McComb

“Timecop” (1994)
Being a Jean-Claude Van Damme film, everyone knew that “Timecop” was going to be silly. And silly it was. The story follows Van Damme’s Max Walker, a DC Metro cop turned member of the Time Enforcement Commission - a secret body that polices the use of time travel. The antagonist is Senator McComb, a corrupt politician using time travel to fund his presidential campaign. The climax of the film sees Walker luring a 1994 McComb into sharing the same space with a 2004 McComb. As “the same matter cannot occupy the same space”, Walker kicks the two McCombs together, who fuse into a writhing, fleshy mass that eventually melts into nothingness.

#13: Alec Trevelyan

“GoldenEye” (1995)
James Bond villains have met a wide variety of demises, some of which are more over-the-top than others. One of the craziest Bond deaths belongs to Alec Trevelyan, AKA 006. As 006 is played by Sean Bean, it was only natural that he be given a cinematic death for the ages. Following a brief fight atop a satellite dish, Bond literally drops the dude, and he falls like 100 stories to the ground. Only, for some bizarre reason, he doesn’t die. But no matter. The satellite then explodes in a massive fireball, and Trevelyan is crushed by the falling debris. Ouch.

#12: Thunder

“Big Trouble in Little China” (1986)
This is undoubtedly one of John Carpenter’s weirder movies. It involves ancient curses, a fantastic underworld, weather-based magic, and sorcerers - all of which can be found underneath San Francisco’s Chinatown. It also contains one of the silliest death scenes in movie history. Jack kills Lo Pan, and after discovering his body, Thunder sort of just...blows himself up. He inflates himself like a balloon, and steam begins shooting out of his nose and ears. He then explodes in a flash of green light. It’s interesting how, in the span of just eight years, John Carpenter went from the dark and dreary “Halloween” to...whatever the heck this is.

#11: Stuntman Mike

“Death Proof” (2007)
Twenty years after “Big Trouble in Little China”, Kurt Russell starred as Stuntman Mike in Quentin Tarantino’s “Death Proof”. This is Tarantino’s love letter to grindhouse films of the ‘70s, and Stuntman Mike is a deranged psycho. He eventually comes across a group of badass chicks who fight back, and the results are suitably satisfying and over-the-top. The women manage to knock Mike’s car off the road, and they pull the crying occupant from the wreckage. They then take turns punching. The dude takes dozens of vicious jabs before being knocked to the ground with a roundhouse kick to the kisser. He is then subjected to a...particularly gruesome kick to finish him off.

#10: Alfred

“Hudson Hawk” (1991)
One of Bruce Willis’s lesser efforts, “Hudson Hawk” stars Willis as the titular safe-cracker and Donald Burton as Alfred, the personal butler to the movie’s main bad guys (we know, very original name). The climactic battle isn’t between Hawk and the bad guys, but Hawk and the knife-wielding Alfred. The short fight ends in an especially intense fashion. Hawk uses Alfred’s knives against him and ends the battle with a horrible one-liner that would even have Roger Moore’s Bond cringing in embarrassment. “Hudson Hawk” is quite a goofy movie, and it contains a suitably goofy climax.

#9: Norman Stansfield

“Léon: The Professional” (1994)
This action thriller is all kinds of messed up. The storyline itself is quite dark, as it sees a professional hitman training a twelve-year-old girl named Mathilda so she can avenge her deceased brother. He and the rest of Mathilda’s family were killed by a strung-out DEA agent named Norman Stansfield, who is played by the always-wonderful Gary Oldman. As he dies, Léon puts something in Stansfield’s hand, saying that it’s from Mathilda. Stansfield finds a grenade pin, and after opening Léon’s jacket, discovers a large number of grenades. He can only squeak out a resigned curse before dying in a massive fireball that spreads to the outside street. Talk about going out with a bang.

#8: Captain Darrow

“The Rock” (1996)
Believe it or not, “The Rock” is actually one of Michael Bay’s most grounded movies. But even a low-key Michael Bay film is filled with bombast and ridiculous scenarios. Case in point - the hilarious death of Tony Todd’s Captain Darrow. Nicolas Cage utters one of the goofiest one-liners in movie history before launching a missile directly at his chest. The missile launches Darrow out the window, but the wicked blunt force trauma somehow doesn’t kill him. Rather, Darrow is carried outside the building and falls... in a particular bit of bad luck. The scene has Michael Bay written all over it, and it is glorious.

#7: Steve Hadley

“The Cabin in the Woods” (2012)
The final act of “The Cabin in the Woods” is totally bonkers. In the best way possible, of course. A large array of supernatural monsters are unleashed in a secret underground laboratory, resulting in many violent and brutal deaths. One of the funniest belongs to Bradley Whitford’s Steve Hadley. Hadley is launched through the air from an exploding grenade, which effectively puts him out of commission. His longtime wish then comes true, as he finally sees a Merman in the flesh. Unfortunately, said Merman proceeds to pounce on his face, and Steve dies at the hands of the monster he bet on. At least he realizes the irony before going out...

#6: Howard Saint

“The Punisher” (2004)
In this adaptation of the beloved Marvel series, John Travolta plays Howard Saint, a mafia boss who takes revenge against Frank Castle for the death of his son, Bobby. This results in a vicious cycle of violence, and Frank’s revenge against Howard. Frank bests Howard in a duel, and attaches the barely-conscious mob boss to the bumper of a car. He then sends the car into a lot filled with exploding cars, and… yeah. It’s only then that the car blows up, and we see that the explosions have formed the Punisher logo from above. That must have been very time consuming...

#5: Cyrus “The Virus” Grissom

“Con Air” (1997)
John Malkovich always makes for a fantastic villain, and he plays a great one in Simon West’s “Con Air”. He is Cyrus Grissom, a criminal mastermind who has been given the nickname The Virus. His death is both wickedly entertaining and unashamedly ridiculous. Cyrus does battle with Nicolas Cage’s Cameron Poe atop a speeding fire truck before being launched through a bridge and falling through some electrical wires and construction material. Somehow, Cyrus survives all this. But being gravely injured, he is unable to move when a giant rock crusher threatens his life. Cyrus comes to rest with his head directly underneath the heavy beam, and… yeah.

#4: Emil Antonowsky

“RoboCop” (1987)
No one said “RoboCop” was in good taste. The death of Clarence is particularly seriously graphic. But the most over-the-top death belongs to poor Emil. While attempting to hit RoboCop with his truck, Emil drives into a vat of toxic liquid, turning him into a deformed monster. He unleashes some truly horrific groans before staggering into the path of Clarence’s speeding car. The results are predictably messy, and, shall we say...wet? The whole scene is pure nightmare fuel, and it led to “RoboCop’s” reputation for being one of the most violent films of the ‘80s.

#3: Vilos Cohaagen

“Total Recall” (1990)
Arnold Schwarzenegger films certainly contain their fair share of outlandish deaths, but “Total Recall” contains the greatest of them all. Vilos Cohaagen is blown out onto the uninhabitable Martian surface by Quaid, and he proceeds to tumble down a massive rocky hill. He then suffers what can only be described as a disturbing death. We don’t know whether Cohaagen’s iconic suffocation is too crazed or traumatizing, but either way, it’s certainly memorable and very over-the-top. The gross visuals are truly something else, and Cohaagen’s screams of pain add to the scene’s relentless horror. Space is endlessly fascinating, but it’ll mess you up.

#2: The Nazis

“Raiders of the Lost Ark” (1981)
The early 1980s were...a different time for kids’ movies. While not specifically made for children, “Raiders of the Lost Ark” proved very popular with kids and families of the time, despite containing one of the most violent scenes in movie history. The Ark is opened, and while Indiana Jones and Marion close their eyes, the Nazis aren’t as smart. The magical properties of the Ark attack the Nazis. Many Nazis are shot with beams of energy, Toht’s face melts, and Belloq meets a grisly end. The whole sequence is unrelenting horror, complete with nightmarish music and a surprising amount of gore. Not surprisingly, the movie’s PG rating was immediately criticized and brought into question.

#1: Dieter Von Cunth

“MacGruber” (2010)
A parody of “MacGyver” and based on a popular “Saturday Night Live” sketch, “MacGruber” starred a slew of “SNL” veterans, including Will Forte, Maya Rudolph, and Kristen Wiig. It also contains what may very well be the most over-the-top death in movie history. MacGruber headbutts villain Cunth (played by Val Kilmer) and pushes him through a structure and off a cliff. He then grabs a machine gun and shoots Cunth a bunch of times on the way down, just for good measure. Not content with that, MacGruber keeps aiming at Cunth, who had finally come to rest at the bottom of the cliff. The scene is intentionally silly, parodying over-the-top action movies. But man, they really went all out here.




Is there an insanely over-the-top way a bad guy kicked the bucket that we missed? Let us know in the comments!


“Spider-Man” (2002)
Green Goblin dies, “Oh.”: https://youtu.be/q2DMDQWMpWs?t=233