Sometimes, a movie boils down to one decision, to kill or not to kill. Decisions that characters make onscreen are not always simple and when they actually decide that someone deserves to die, they don't always intend on doing it themselves, they get someone else to do it for them. Whatever the reason, when a death sentence is handed down, it almost always reveals something important about the character ordering the hit. Sometimes, it's subtle, sometimes it's made very clear, sometimes it's obvious, sometimes it completely takes us by surprise, but whatever the case, just as good as a great death scene, is a great death sentence. Featured here are my five favorite death sentences ever, along with my reason for thinking so. everyone is bound to have their own favorite, so which one is yours?
5- Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
"Wipe them out. All of them."
I'm not going to sugar coat it, Episode I has nearly zero redeeming features. In fact, if I were to look really hard, I could count them in one hand (but in all honesty, who would bother?). But among those very few attributes, is Lord Sidious' chilling condemnation of all those who stand in his way. One of the dumbest things about the new trilogy was the pretense that Sidious wasn't the Emperor all along, as his manner and voice (and costume for that matter) are unmistakably the same, and the one thing that was always great about the Emperor was his sinister voice and tone, and they are on full display in this scene.
4- ID4: Independence Day:
"Nuke 'em. Nuke the bastards."
Bill Pullman's President Whitmore in Independence Day is arguably the best cinematic president ever. He is intelligent, thoughtful, strategic, brave, compassionate, and can give one hell of a speech. Basically, as presidents go, he's the bomb. While at first hesitant to resort to nuclear warfare despite witnessing the destructive force of the aliens, he eventually comes around. After being told by one of the aliens that they would never stop and essentially getting mind-raped, he issues his order of execution.
3- The Godfather Part II:
"I don't want anything to happen to him, as long as my mother's alive."
The most frequently quoted and recognized line in The Godfather: Part II is clearly when Michael tells Fredo that he knows he betrayed him. It clearly would not sit well with his mother to kill his own brother, so after telling him he never wants to see him again, he tells his people that nothing is to happen to Fredo, until his mother is gone. He says it so coolly and heartless, that it kind of sends a chill down your spine. Later at his mother's funeral, he seals his sentence without uttering a single word.
2- The Untouchables:
"I want him dead! I want his family dead! I want his house burned to the ground!"
This movie is Robert De Niro at his best playing Al Capone, and upon discovering that the federal agent on his case just cost him an entire shipment illegal booze, saying he kind of lost his temper is a bit of an understatement (at least he didn't have his baseball bat handy).
1- Silverado:
"He can't hurt me, if he's dead."
I could go on and on about Silverado as a movie in whole, or just as a western. Given the quality of the post Wayne/ Eastwood westerns, there is no doubt that this is the best of them, and maybe the only one that is on par with those great classics we all know and love such as The Searchers, or The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Part of what makes it so great is its complexity in story line, as well as its terrific script and casting. This one particular scene has Paden, played by Kevin Kline, sitting at a bar drinking while his friends are being hunted because the town's corrupt sheriff has threatened the only woman he cares about should he get involved. She doesn't take this well, and proceeds to tell him how to solve this little dilemma regarding her own boss. When this sentence is carried out, it is perhaps the best death scene ever shot (no pun intended) in Hollywood, but that's another subject in and of itself.
Well, those are my top five, What's your favorite movie death sentence?
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