10 Sci-Fi Movie Deaths We’ll Never Get Over

Sci-fi movies use imaginative and futuristic concepts to eclipse the real-life limits of science, logic, and fact. Unfortunately for the characters who inhabit the genre, this status quo means that their on-screen fates can be worse than anything that exists in reality. As such, science-fiction has played host to a number of movie deaths that viewers will never get over, no matter how many times they watch them play out.

From the tragic losses of core characters to more speculative forms of death and suffering, many of the best sci-fi movies of all time prove that there’s no set formula for an unforgettable demise. Enacting a devastating emotional toll upon their audience, these moments compound their movies’ impact and leave viewers thinking about them long after the credits roll. Some of these on-screen fates are so shattering that viewers couldn’t forget them even if they tried.

10

Kay Harrison – Alien: Romulus

Murdered By The Offspring

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Alien: Romulus

R

Sci-Fi

Horror

Thriller

ScreenRant logo

7/10

152

8.2/10

Release Date

August 16, 2024

Runtime

119 Minutes

Cast

See All

  • Headshot Of Cailee Spaeny In The Los Angeles Special Screening Of A24's 'Civil War'

    Cailee Spaeny

    Rain

  • Headshot Of David Jonsson

    David Jonsson

    Andy

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The Alien movies are known for possessing some of the most brutal kills that science-fiction has to offer, with 2024’s Alien: Romulus proving no exception to this gruesome status quo. While there’s a litany of horrible ends to choose from amid Fede Alvarez’s foray into the movie series, Romulus’ crowning jewel is unequivocally the macabre fate of Isabela Merced’s Kay Harrison.

Goriest Alien Romulus Moments

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1

The pregnant Harrison eventually gives birth to a nightmarish human-Xenomorph hybrid during the movie’s climactic sequence, a complication arising after she imbibed a dose of Z-01 to heal rapidly. While Kay’s actual moment of death at the hands of her own monstrous offspring thankfully takes place off-camera, the visual of her abhorrent “child” feeding from the corpse of its lifeless mother is one that audiences won’t be forgetting in a hurry.

9

Seth Brundle – The Fly

Mercy Killed By Ronnie

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The Fly

R

Horror

Sci-Fi

Drama

ScreenRant logo

10/10

9/10

Release Date

August 15, 1986

Runtime

96 minutes

Cast

  • Headshot Of Jeff Goldblum In The 2024 BAFTA Television Awards

    Jeff Goldblum

    Seth Brundle

  • Headshot Of Geena Davis

    Geena Davis

    Veronica Quaife

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Widely regarded as body-horror director David Cronenberg’s best movie, 1986’s The Fly bestows one of cinema’s most disturbing fates upon its lead character. Attempting to perfect teleportation, Jeff Goldblum’s scientist, Seth Brundle, undergoes a nightmarish transformation after inadvertently splicing his DNA with a housefly, eventually turning into an abhorrent fly-human hybrid by the time the movie reaches its conclusion.

David Cronenberg’s highest rated movies on IMDb

Eastern Promises (2007)

7.6

The Fly (1986)

7.6

A History of Violence (2005)

7.4

Videodrome (1983)

7.2

The Dead Zone (1983)

7.2

A horrific miscalculation from Brundle in The Fly’s climactic sequence sees Goldblum’s demented scientist accidentally fusing his nightmarish form with his metal teleportation pods. This leaves him in perpetual agony and begging his love interest Ronnie to mercy kill him. Unable to speak after his final transformation, the desolating sight of Brundle silently pleading for death by lifting Ronnie’s shotgun to his own head is a visual that has lingered in audience’s minds since 1986.

8

Spock – Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Killed By Radiation Poisoning

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Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

PG

Action

Adventure

Science Fiction

Thriller

9.5/10

Release Date

June 4, 1982

Runtime

112 Minutes

Cast

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  • Headshot Of William Shatner

    William Shatner

  • Headshot of Leonard Nimoy

    Leonard Nimoy

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While he may have returned to life in 1984’s Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, the demise of Leonard Nimoy’s Vulcan charge in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is such a devastating moment that many fans have struggled to move past the trauma associated with the sequence, despite Spock’s subsequent resurrection. In one of science-fiction’s most emotional and intense scenes, Spock willingly sacrifices his own life by entering the radiation-flooded engine room to repair the Enterprise’s damaged warp drive.

Talking to Spock through a perspex screen, William Shatner’s James Kirk is forced to watch his dear friend slowly succumb to radiation poisoning in soul-cleaving fashion. Nimoy’s charge tugs on the audience’s heartstrings further with a rare display of emotion, telling Kirk that he will always be his friend before producing his iconic Vulcan salute and turning away to die quietly. Whatever Spock’s canonical fate, the loss of such an inimitable character in such upsetting fashion never fails to hit home.

7

Alderson – Cube

Dissected By The Cube

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Cube

R

Sci-Fi

Mystery

Thriller

Drama

7.3/10

Release Date

September 11, 1998

Runtime

90 minutes

Cast

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  • Cast Placeholder Image

    Nicole de Boer

  • Headshot Of David Hewlett

    David Hewlett

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The first entry in the Cube movie series, cult classic Cube sets the bar high for disturbing deaths in its very first scene. Introducing audiences to the film’s unforgiving universe with a sinister bang, the sequence depicts Julian Richings’ Alderson attempting to escape from one of the franchise’s signature cube-shaped rooms. Unfortunately for Alderson, he chooses the incorrect escape hatch, precipitating a particularly gruesome kill scene that many fans still likely haven’t gotten over.

Every character name in Cube is connected to a real-world prison; FPC Alderson is a federal prison in West Virginia.

Alderson dies in a flash, but that doesn’t take any of the shock factor out of his brutal end. Richings’ charge freezes in shock before thin red lines appear all across his body, with blood starting to pour rapidly from his wounds. Alderson is revealed to have been literally “cubed” by a grid of razor sharp wire. His dismembered body slowly collapses into a heap of bloody cubes, a gory and unsettling vision that will stick with viewers.

6

Miranda North – Life

Hurtling Endlessly Into Deep Space

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Life

R

Sci-Fi

Thriller

Horror

ScreenRant logo

5/10

8.5/10

Release Date

March 24, 2017

Runtime

104 Minutes

Cast

  • Ryan Reynolds Profile Picture

    Ryan Reynolds

  • Cast Placeholder Image

    Alexandre Nguyen

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Boasting an all-star ensemble cast, 2017’s Life follows a group of scientists aboard the ISS who find themselves hunted through the space station by a murderous extra-terrestrial entity dubbed Calvin. Boasting some of the more unenviable fates that science-fiction has to offer, Life saves its most unforgettably traumatic demise for last — a remarkable state of affairs given that death is merely implied.

These horrific circumstances are bestowed upon Rebecca Ferguson’s Miranda North in the movie’s final scene. Attempting to launch Calvin into deep space using an escape pod, the survivors’ plan backfires in appalling fashion. The alien ends up plunging to Earth instead, presumably precipitating the end of humanity. North’s pod is left hurtling unchecked into oblivion, leaving Ferguson’s charge with no recourse but to scream in despair until her oxygen supply inevitably runs out. It remains one of science-fiction’s most terrifying endings.

5

Edgar – Snowpiercer

Sacrificed By Curtis

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Snowpiercer

R

Action

Drama

Sci-Fi

ScreenRant logo

6/10

Release Date

July 11, 2014

Runtime

126 Minutes

Cast

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  • Headshot Of Chris Evans In The `The Sun`s Who Cares Wins Awards`

    Chris Evans

  • Headshot Of Jamie Bell

    Jamie Bell

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The English-language debut of Parasite director Bong Joon-ho, 2013’s Snowpiercer depicts a visceral class struggle aboard the titular locomotive, which bears humanity’s final survivors after a global extinction event. There’s no shortage of emotionally loaded deaths in Snowpiercer, but the fate of Jamie Bell’s Edgar arguably serves as the most memorable pick of a harrowing bunch.

The endlessly upbeat Edgar is killed in a brutal battle around the movie’s halfway mark. Chris Evans’ Curtis abandons Bell’s charge to his doom, despite having an opportunity to save him. He sacrifices his right-hand man in order to take Tilda Swinton’s loathsome Minister Mason hostage. A tear-jerking death that lives long in the memory, the heartbreaking nature of Edgar’s murder is further compounded when Curtis later reveals that he killed the young man’s mother when the apocalypse first broke out.

4

The Fairgoers – Nope

Devoured Alive By Jean Jacket

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Nope

r

Horror

Sci-Fi

ScreenRant logo

8/10

7.8/10

Release Date

July 22, 2022

Runtime

131 minutes

Cast

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The third feature film offering from modern horror virtuoso Jordan Peele, 2022’s Nope serves as a blend of the director’s traditional parent genre and fully-fledged science-fiction. Chronicling a mysterious series of unexplained phenomena as a predatory extra-terrestrial organism referred to as “Jean Jacket” terrorizes rural California, Nope features one of the most unforgettably harrowing death sequences in recent memory.

Jordan Peele movies ranked

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Compounding its shock factor, the scene sees a huge group of fairgoers killed by Jean Jacket in one go, rather than just depicting the death of a single individual. After these unfortunate victims are hoovered up by the alien, Peele produces the horrifying reveal that they are now being slowly digested alive in Jean Jacket’s digestive tract, bringing this nightmare to life through an array of horrifically claustrophobic shots and traumatizing howls of despair.

3

Han Solo – Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens

Stabbed By Kylo Ren

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Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens

PG-13

Action

Adventure

Fantasy

Sci-Fi

ScreenRant logo

8/10

26

7.1/10

Release Date

December 17, 2015

Runtime

136 Minutes

Cast

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  • Daisy Ridley Profile Picture

    Daisy Ridley

  • Headshot Of John Boyega

    John Boyega

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Bringing back one of the most iconic sci-fi characters of all time after an absence of more than 30 years, only to swiftly and brutally do away with him, sounds like an unimaginable course of action. However, that’s exactly the approach that Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens decided to adopt. The much-anticipated debut of the sequel trilogy saw Harrison Ford’s Han Solo murdered by Kylo Ren, run through with a lightsaber while attempting to make his estranged son see reason.

Harrison Ford’s Star Wars appearances

Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977)

Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983)

Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015)

Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

The sequel trilogy may have been rightfully lambasted by the vast majority of the Star Wars fan base, but this is undoubtedly one of the most moving scenes that the entire franchise has to offer. Chewbacca’s roar of despair and the visual of a mortally wounded Han reaching out to tenderly touch his son’s face never fails to tug on the heartstrings. It results in what is arguably Star Wars’ saddest death scene to date.

2

Romilly – Interstellar

Blown Up By A Booby Trap

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Interstellar

PG-13

Sci-Fi

Drama

Adventure

ScreenRant logo

7/10

136

8.9/10

Release Date

November 7, 2014

Runtime

169 Minutes

Cast

  • Headshot Of Matthew McConaughey In The 2024 Vanity Fair Oscar Party

    Matthew McConaughey

  • Headshot Of Anne Hathaway In The 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards

    Anne Hathaway

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Brought to life by Paul Gyasi, it’s hard to escape the notion that sci-fi masterpiece Interstellar’s Professor Romilly is one of the most unfortunate characters that sci-fi has to offer. The scientist spent 23 years in complete isolation aboard the Endurance after his crew was trapped on a planet where time was severely dilated. He’d given up hope that he would ever see a human face again by the time they eventually made it back to the ship.

…the scientist met his doom soon after the crew returned when he was unexpectedly killed by a booby trap engineered by Matt Damon’s Dr. Mann.

Unfortunately, things only got worse for Gyasi’s charge from there. Serving as the cherry atop the most tragic of cakes, the scientist met his doom soon after the crew returned, when he was unexpectedly killed by a booby trap engineered by Matt Damon’s Dr. Mann. Bearing the unenviable accolade of Interstellar’s whipping boy, Romilly was a kind and empathetic individual, compounding the emotional devastation associated with this character’s undeserved fate.

1

Roy Batty – Blade Runner

The Replicant’s Life Cycle Ends

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Blade Runner

R

Drama

Sci-Fi

Thriller

ScreenRant logo

9/10

18

9/10

Release Date

June 25, 1982

Runtime

117 minutes

Cast

See All

  • Headshot Of Harrison Ford In The 29th Annual Critics' Choice Awards

    Harrison Ford

  • Cast Placeholder Image

    Rutger Hauer

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Contentiously sci-fi’s most iconic demise, Roy Batty’s final moments serve as the crowning jewel for one of the greatest genre offerings of all time. With his body failing, Rutger Hauer’s replicant goes out in unforgettably poignant fashion after using the last of his strength to inexplicably save Harrison Ford’s Rick Deckard before producing what is arguably cinema’s finest soliloquy with his immortal “tears in rain” speech.

Roy Batty in Blade Runner-1

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Speaking of the wonders he has seen throughout his life-cycle, Batty mournfully laments that “All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.” Hauer’s flawlessly delivered monologue is only 42 words long but never fails to invite an inimitable level of existential introspection from anybody watching. Batty may have been a replicant, but his dying words encapsulate the universal human experience of being afraid to die in a manner that few sci-fi characters have ever come close to replicating.