Introduction: Deaths in film scenes can be either cool, teary, metaphoric, grisly, scary, bloody, amusing, violent, transcendental, unforgettable, spectacular, frightening, funny, or shocking. The victim's death may be well-deserved, accidental, expected, sudden, or intentional. Some effective death scenes even occur off-screen.

Other areas of this website have death scenes also. See Greatest Last Film Lines, some of which were uttered by a dying character, Greatest Melodramatic Films with many fine death scenes, or Greatest Film Scenes with some descriptions of death scenes included, or some of the Scariest Movie Moments and Scenes.

Total Film Magazine (in the UK), in their July 2004 issue, provided an article on the 50 Greatest Movie Deaths throughout cinematic history. Their results, based on a non-scientific poll taken from interviews with film critics, listed the 50 most highly-rated death scenes. Although there were some excellent and well-deserved choices in the Total Film list, there are many other great death scenes that were among the missing death scenes in Total Film's honored list of "cinema's best daisy-pushers" and "drop-dead moments". The Total Film selections are marked throughout the following compilation with this symbol and their ranking number.

Note: The films that are marked with a yellow star are the films that "The Greatest Films" site
has selected as the 100 Greatest Films.

Greatest Movie Death Scenes (chronological by film title) - Part 6 Intro | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15
Film Title	Description	Example
Easy Rider (1969)	The shotgun-blast deaths of bikers Captain America-Wyatt (Peter Fonda) and Billy (Dennis Hopper) by a redneck, and the pull-back helicopter view
Midnight Cowboy (1969)	Ratso Rizzo's (Dustin Hoffman) death in the arms of friend Joe Buck (Jon Voight) on a bus bound for sunny Florida
On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)	The famous ending in which just-married James Bond (George Lazenby) lost his new wife Tracy Di Vicenzo (Diane Rigg), when Blofeld (Telly Savalas) strafed their limousine with machine-gun fire - missing Bond but killing Tracy; the heart-breaking scene was punctuated by Louis Armstrong singing: "We Have All the Time In the World"
They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969)	The surprise ending - the shooting death of Depression-era dance marathon contestant Gloria Beatty (Jane Fonda) - shot in the head outside the music-hall (and her imagining herself falling in a grassy field) by her dance partner Robert (Michael Sarrazin)
The Wild Bunch (1969) # 40	The final monumental shoot-out as the Bunch suicidally attempts to rescue Angel (Jaime Sanchez) from 1,000 Mexicans
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970, It.) (aka L'Uccello dalle piume di cristallo)	Dario Argento's directorial debut was this plot-twisting thriller; its opening Psycho-like scene showed an unidentified cackling serial killer 'apparently' brutally slashing victim Monica Ranieri (Eva Renzi), the beautiful wife of art gallery owner Alberto Ranieri (Umberto Raho) (with POV shots from the victim's perspective pleading for help to witness Sam Dalmas (Tony Musante), an American writer living in Rome, who was locked outside)
Love Story (1970)	The untimely, early death of incurable Jenny Cavalleri Barrett (Ali McGraw) in the weepie melodrama
Dirty Harry (1971)	The satisfying ending sequence in the rock quarry in which "Dirty Harry" Callahan (Clint Eastwood) finally kills psycho-sadist Scorpio (Andy Robinson) with his .44 Magnum after repeating his earlier litany: "I know what you're thinkin', punk. You're thinkin', did he fire six shots or only five? And to tell you the truth, I forgot myself in all this excitement. But bein' this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and it'll blow your head clean off, you could ask yourself a question. Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?" The heartless and sick killer's body is propelled backward into a small lake, where Callahan watches the bloodied corpse float and slowly sink. He then thoughtfully hurls his police badge (Inspector 2211, SF Police) into the stagnant pond with the body - and walks away
The French Connection (1971)	The scene of Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle (Gene Hackman) gunning down murderous drug-ring sniper Pierre Nicoli (Marcel Bozzuffi) on the steps of a New York City elevated subway stop - this iconic image became the poster for the film
The Cat O'Nine Tails (1971, It.) (aka Il Gatto a Nove Code)	In the finale of this Italian horror thriller from Dario Argento, the spectacular death scene in which the film's murderer Dr. Casoni (Aldo Reggiani) fell down a deep elevator shaft on the rooftop of the Terzi Genetic Research Institute - with the cables sliding through his bloody, smoldering, and shredding hands; also, the 'accidental' death scene of lab geneticist Dr. Calabresi (Carlo Alighiero) being pushed in front of an oncoming train
Get Carter (1971) # 42	The shocking and depressing murder of London gangster Jack Carter (Michael Caine) by a single shot in the head from sniper fire as he walks along a beach after avenging his brother's murder
Harold and Maude (1971)	The many faked suicides of death-obsessed Harold (Bud Cort) to scare his mother (Vivian Pickles), and the shocking hari-kari death of Sunshine Dore (Ellen Geer) in this black comedy
The Last Picture Show (1971)	The accidental, senseless death of dim-witted Billy (Samuel Bottoms) when hit by a truck, and the indifference of the callous bystanders, except for an anguished Sonny (Timothy Bottoms) who screams: "He was sweepin', ya sons of bitches. He was sweepin'," and covers his friend with his letter jacket
McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)	The long death stalking sequence at dawn and John McCabe's (Warren Beatty) eventual demise in deep blowing snow
Sometimes a Great Notion (1971)	Joe Ben Stamper's (Richard Jaeckel) inevitable slow drowning while trapped under a huge log and the frantic efforts to save him by his brother Hank (Paul Newman) in a gripping death scene
Frenzy (1972)	The long and intense necktie rape-strangulation death scene of ex-Mrs. Brenda Blaney (Barbara Leigh-Hunt) - left dead with her twisted tongue hanging out; the second "you fill in the blanks' (off-screen) murder of Barbara Jane ('Babs') Milligan (Anna Massey) as the camera tracked back down the stairs and out across the busy street as she was assaulted in the killer's upstairs apartment; and the final trick apprehension of the necktie murderer with a corpse (murdered earlier offscreen)
The Godfather (1972) # 22	Sonny's (James Caan) grisly, bullet-riddled death (with 147 explosive squibs) at a tollbooth on the causeway
The Godfather (1972)	The eye-bulging strangulation of loyal Corleone henchman Luca Brasi (Lenny Montana) from behind with a garrot as he faced the camera - his fate: "to sleep with the fishes", Michael Corleone's (Al Pacino) killing of his three opponents in an out-of-the-way restaurant, Clemenza's (Richard Castellano) killing of Carlo (Gianni Russo) with a piano wire from the backseat, Don Corleone's (Marlon Brando) death in the garden with an orange peel in his mouth, and Moe Green's (Alex Rocco) death (shot through the eye) on a massage table in the conclusion's coordinated massacre during a baptism