31 Movie Deaths That Were So Major, They Made People Sob, Scream, And Audibly React At The Theater

"I let out a shuddering sob that got others started as well, followed by sheepish chuckles as we realized we'd been found out for crying in a mostly adult-attended theater."

🚨Warning: MASSIVE spoilers ahead! 🚨

Content Warning: This post has mentions of sexual assault.

We asked the BuzzFeed Community to tell us which movie death scenes were so shocking, sad, or traumatizing that everyone in the theater had a collective reaction out loud. Here are some of the best responses:

1. When Mufasa dies in The Lion King:

Disney

"I’d been desperate to see it since catching the trailer, and its release coincided with my German pen pal visiting, so my folks took us both to the cinema as a treat. When the wildebeest stampede happened followed by THAT scene with Simba, I was crying so hard I was borderline hysterical. I’ll never forget my pen pal (a really lovely, sweet girl!) looking at me with complete bemusement as I stumbled out of the cinema to the loo, where I sobbed for a good 15 minutes before being able to go back in.

Thirty years later, and it’s still one of my all-time favorite films, and it still tears me to bits, especially since I lost my own dad."

—clothildedauphin

2. When "propeller guy," well, hits the propeller in Titanic:

Paramount Pictures

"The 'propeller man' in Titanic after falling off the ship while it was sinking. Everyone collectively clutched their pearls and gasped. 😳"

—ashgraeter

"My friend and I actually laughed out loud at that and got violently shushed LOL."

—catnelsonl

3. When James Bond dies in No Time to Die:

United Artists Releasing

"I was completely caught off guard and sobbed in the packed theater on opening day. I still can’t rewatch the film."

—abbyb4a17487c5

4. When Rue dies in The Hunger Games and Katniss honors her with a memorial:

Lionsgate

"Not a verbal reaction, but...on opening night of the first Hunger Games movie, when Katniss finished her memorial for Rue and gave the three-finger salute, most people in the theater were in tears and gave the salute as well."

—smokinace1113

5. When Dewey is killed by Ghostface after all these years in Scream 5:

Paramount Pictures

"I yelled 'NOOOOOO!' when Ghostface finally killed Dewey. It was loud! I was devastated, and people behind me laughed. I can get too emotionally involved with movies. RIP Dewey!" 

—Heather C, FB

"Real talk, Dewey's death in Scream 5 got me BAD. It was part third trimester pregnancy hormones, part having watched him onscreen for the last 15 years." 

—Lauren G, FB

6. When Carlisle Cullen gets beheaded in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 2:

Summit Entertainment

"When Aro killed Carlisle in Breaking Dawn — Part 2 and they have a huge fight only to find out it was all a vision in Aro’s mind from Alice. If you read the book, you knew it was a vision, but they set it up as if it was real, and my friends and I FREAKED OUT when it seemed like it was actually happening!"

—sararosacruz

"Carlisle losing his head in Breaking Dawn — Part 2 made 14-year-old me break down crying in the theater. I was so shocked that they would deviate from the books and kill off all my favorite characters. I will never forget the relief I felt when it was Alice’s vision."

—sydneyg4c730f697

"I’ve never known a reaction like it in a cinema either before or after! Total shock especially if you’ve read the books, totally not expecting it!"

—joolzr2

7. When Cassie is murdered in Promising Young Woman:

Focus Features

"Cassie's death at the hands of her friend's rapist who she was trying to get revenge on. Complete narrative shock that I don't think any audience member saw coming."

—indy1989

8. When Tony Stark dies after defeating Thanos in Avengers: Endgame:

Marvel

"My sister-in-law blew her nose, and the whole theater laughed. You could tell there were sobs everywhere."

—slytherinpride1010

9. When Black Widow sacrifices herself at Vormir in Avengers: Endgame:

Marvel

"It caused me to yell, 'You fucking assholes.' I didn't mean to; I just ended up overwhelmed and wound up."

—constanvee

10. When Snape kills Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince:

Warner Bros. Pictures

"I saw it on opening night in the theater, and the whole room gasped, and there was audible crying going on. Also me. I was crying."

—kckt

11. When Agent Mason is unceremoniously killed off before even the halfway point of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny:

Lucasfilm

"She was such an interesting character with the way her ideals and way of doing things conflicted with the rest of the antagonists, and I was really invested in seeing what they would do with her. Kill her off in 20 seconds and never talk about her again, I guess."

—fuzzycaterpillar0

12. When Thanos kills Loki at the beginning of Avengers: Infinity War:

Marvel

"The communal gasp when Thanos kills Loki at the very beginning of Avengers: Infinity War. I noticed it more the second time around as I was too busy gasping along with everyone else the first time around."

—jemsnation

13. When Skip dies (off screen) in My Dog Skip:

Warner BRos.

"When the main character narrates at the end of the movie how Skip died while he was away at college sleeping at the foot of the boy's empty bed every night absolutely gutted me as a child. I bawled my eyes out in the bathroom when I got home and then gave our dog a bath and a ton of dog biscuits."

—indy1989

"The death of his dog was the hardest thing for me to hear. I couldn’t stop crying."

—k

14. When Nemo's family is attacked at the beginning of Finding Nemo:

Disney

"Seeing Finding Nemo on opening weekend. After the barracuda attack in the beginning, the theater was dead quiet, and then someone yelled out, 'Goddamnit, Disney, why is it always the fucking mom?!' Everyone laughed, and it broke the tension of the moment."

—marif4e152f170

15. When THAT scene happens in Hereditary:

A24

"In Hereditary, when Peter inadvertently beheads his little sister, Charlie. I audibly gasped and held my hand over my mouth for five minutes."

—jaimeeliser

"The child decapitation scene in Hereditary and then the subsequent shot of the severed head the next day on the side of the road covered in flies and maggots. It comes pretty early in the movie, too. I love horror movies and was stoked to see Hereditary, but that was too much even for me. I just felt so trapped and uncomfortable for the rest of the film (I've yet to ever walk out of a movie). I can't deny that Hereditary is a well-made and interesting film, but I never want to see it again."

—indy1989

"I was eating popcorn while watching Hereditary, alone in the theater, on a weekday off. Telephone pole beheading scene — froze — silently put the popcorn away and watched the rest of the film in nearly unmoving silence."

—astronautsanchez

16. When Billy is shot in The Departed:

Warner Bros. Pictures

"The theater was silent when I saw The Departed. But when Leo’s character got shot, it happened so quickly and out of the blue that I remember hearing the whole theater gasp."

—crystalgem80

17. When John Coffey is executed at the end of The Green Mile:

Warner Bros.

"When John Coffey died in The Green Mile 😭 I bawled my eyes out."

—dat_flowerpot

"Lots of crying — pretty sure there were sobs as well, and it wasn’t just from me!"

—Meld84

18. When Howard shoots Emmett in 10 Cloverfield Lane:

Paramount Pictures

"I saw it with my Dad, and when Howard shoots Emmett, nobody in the cinema saw it coming. My Dad, lovely old gent that he is, did exactly what he does whenever he's shocked during a movie and yelled, 'OOH YOU BUGGER!' completely unintentionally. It made everyone in the cinema laugh, and broke the tension."

—constanvee

19. When everyone gets dusted in Avengers: Infinity War:

Marvel

"Infinity War. I was so braced through the film, thinking we would lose one Avenger (I was betting it being Iron Man or Captain America). I was not prepared for what happened in the dusting. I spent the film thinking that this was the scene we would lose somebody, I didn't see the possibility of losing so many!"

—emlou81

"Seeing Avengers: Infinity War in the theater, when Spider-Man DIED, a bunch of TEENAGE boys in the front row, literally jumped up and screamed 'NOOOOOOO!'"

—7seasofrhye

"When a volcano erupted here in Hawaii as Thanos snapped his fingers in Infinity War, and I was more in shock about half of a fictional world’s population disintegrating instead."

—misspandabear

20. And specifically, when T'Challa is dusted in Avengers: Infinity War:

Marvel

"When I saw Avengers: Infinity War, there was a woman in the theater who screamed out, 'T’Challa, NO!' when he got dusted. When I’ve watched it at home, I always say that now!"

—tomb4adc7727a

21. When Snape dies in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2:

Warner Bros. Pictures

"When Snape was dying in Deathly Hallows and Harry comes up with the vial to catch his tears, and he says, 'You have your mother’s eyes,' the entire theater broke. Everyone was already quietly crying and sniffling, but when the line was said, you could hear the turmoil in the room. People were gasping, crying out, and openly sobbing."

—megana459810788

22. And then when Neville kills Nagini in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2:

Warner Bros. Pictures

"When Neville slayed Nagini in Deathly Hollows: Part 2. I saw it the day it came out. I haven’t heard so many people cheer and laugh at the same time as loudly as that."

—hollyb31

23. When Olaf is "dying" in Frozen 2:

Disney

"When I saw Frozen 2, I started sobbing the moment I realized that Olaf was dying when Elsa froze. That moment is something I will never forget for as long as I live."

—mmlessner16

24. And when Flynn "dies" in Tangled:

Disney

"I saw Tangled in theaters, and when Flynn 'dies,' you could tell everyone in the audience was trying not to cry. Then, one little girl shouts at the top of her lungs 'I'M. SO. SAD.' It was so cute and pitiful, I think it helped a lot of people suck those tears back in."

—thebiggestsparrow

25. When Howard Ratner wins his bet, only to be killed right after in Uncut Gems:

A24

"The ending of Uncut Gems, right after Adam Sandler’s character finally, finally wins. The whole theater was completely silent with shock."

—hannahissassy

26. When Jojo finds his mother was hanged in Jojo Rabbit:

Fox Searchlight Pictures

"In Jojo Rabbit when Jojo is following the butterfly and then sees his mom’s feet swaying in the air because she’d been caught and killed. Outside of Marvel movies on opening night, I haven’t been in a theater with that big of a reaction — people were sobbing. The shot of Jojo trying to tie his mom’s shoelaces made me ugly cry."

—believeale

27. When Kylo Ren kills Han Solo in Star Wars: The Force Awakens:

Disney

"During The Force Awakens, some dude yelled, 'What the FUCK!' at full volume when Kylo Ren killed Han Solo."

—jconway

28. When Bing Bong sacrifices himself in Inside Out:

Disney/Pixar

"I cried actual tears."

—hannahg472fd3ea9

29. When E.T. appears to die near the end of the movie in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial:

Amblin Entertainment

"Here's an older one (ok, I'm old). I went to see E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial in the movie theaters. It was already devastating to see Elliott and E.T. sick and being attended by the scary people from NASA. When E.T. died, I let out a shuddering sob that got others started as well, followed by sheepish chuckles as we realized we'd been found out for crying in a mostly adult-attended theater."

—saltyspice75

30. When Joker kills Murray Franklin in Joker:

Warner Bros.

"When Joaquin Phoenix shot Robert De Niro on national television on a late night show in Joker. The entire theater audibly gasped when that happened."

—m4255f9f32

31. And finally, when Marley dies at the end in Marley & Me:

20th Century Fox

"Everyone in the theater was crying."

—kjorn

Of course we didn't cover EVERY shocking movie death, so share your own movie theater memories in the comments below and they might even be featured in a future post!