Random Off-Screen Deaths That Still Pack A Major Punch (14 items)

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  (#1) Rosie, 'Jojo Rabbit'

  Rosie Betzle (Scarlett Johansson), the mother of brainwashed Hitler Youth fiend Jojo Betzle (Roman Griffin Davis), is a covert member of the German resistance to Nazis near the end of WWII. Rosie has been harboring Jewish teen Elsa (Thomasin McKenzie) against the rulers of her country, much to Jojo's chagrin.

  The Gestapo begin to look into Rosie's affairs as she heads into town. Jojo later discovers the dead body of Rosie, hung up in the town square.
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  (#10) Llewelyn Moss

  • No Country for Old Men

  Ostensible No Country for Old Men lead character Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) surprisingly meets his seemingly inevitable end off-screen. Moss has made off with $2 million in drug money, and has thus far managed to evade the hitman (Javier Bardem) who has been recruited to retrieve the cash, as well as local sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones). 

  After the married Llewelyn checks in to an El Paso motel and makes flirtatious chit-chat with a young lady by the pool, we cut away. We see Ed Tom Bell approaching the scene, just as shots ring out and a pickup truck pulls away from the motel. Llewelyn and his pool friend have been slain. Llewelyn's wife Carla Jean (Kelly Macdonald) shows up soon after. She and Ed are both shocked, a reaction we share since we didn't think we'd experience this moment retroactively.
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  (#12) Forrest Gump

  • Forrest Gump

  The love of intellectually disabled Forrest Gump's life, Jenny (Robin Wright Penn) has a rough go of it throughout the course of the Robert Zemeckis historical-fiction epic. From drug overdoses to meaningless sex, Jenny struggles to find her way in the eventful second half of the 20th century.

  She eventually marries Forrest after introducing him to his young son Forrest Jr. (Haley Joel Osment), though their idyllic family life is disrupted by Jenny's falling ill as a result of a mysterious illness. The film implies that this is another staple of the second half of the 20th century: HIV/AIDS. Jenny's passing happens off-screen, as did a lot of her life in relation to Forrest. She is ultimately an ancillary character, extant in the film to provide something for Forrest to react to.
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  (#11) Dr. Henry Jones, 'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'

  After Sir Sean Connery wisely opted not to return as Dr. Henry Jones Sr. for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, filmmakers Steven Spielberg and George Lucas (also wisely) decided to kill off the older Dr. Jones rather than replace him with another actor. In Crystal Skull, Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones Jr. (Harrison Ford) pays tribute to the memories of his father and their archaeologist/adventurer colleague Dr. Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliott, who had perished in between Last Crusade and Crystal Skull) with two framed portraits he keeps on his office desk.

  Crystal Skull was a disappointment to fans and critics alike, giving Indy an unconvincing son (Shia LaBeouf), a confusing triple-agent frenemy (Ray Winstone), a lackluster plot, and a bunch of frustrating CGI set pieces. Adding Dr. Jones Sr. would have improved the finished product, perhaps, but it probably would not have salvaged it.
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  (#7) Agatha, ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’

  Hotel owner Zero Moustafa recounts his life story throughout the Wes Anderson adventure The Grand Budapest Hotel, as he ascends from poor bellhop in 1932 to wealthy hotel owner in 1968. A teenage Zero (Tony Revolori) falls in love with scarred apprentice baker Agatha (Saoirse Ronan), and the two go on a series of adventures that ultimately bring them closer together.

  The 1968-vintage of Zero Moustafa (F. Murray Abraham) reveals that Agatha succumbed to the flu along with their baby son. He chooses to remember her as she was when they first met, and we (gratefully) do not bear witness to a flashback of her last days.
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  (#9) Newt And Hicks, 'Alien 3'

  In a controversial move that Alien franchise super-fan Neill Blomkamp was hoping to reverse, Ellen Ripley's Aliens cohorts Rebecca "Newt" Jorden (Carrie Henn) and Corporal Dwayne Hicks (Michael Biehn) did not survive their cryo-sleep in time to appear in Alien 3. The team's ship, the Sulaco, crash-lands on maximum security men's prison planet Fiorina 161, but the cryo-pods of Newt and Hicks burn to a crisp upon entering the planet's atmosphere. Only Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) and the detached head of android Bishop (Lance Henriksen) manage to survive the impact.

  We see a bit of the demise of Newt and Hicks in arty, music video-esque flashes during a fleeting credits sequence, but their ultimate expiration is confirmed to a tearful Ripley by Fiorina 161 doctor Jonathan Clemens (Charles Dance).

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