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Top 10 Sean Bean Deaths

By Bethan Power · February 10, 2014

Many actors have had the joy of being typecast during their career. Hugh Grant, for example, will always be the loveable useless man who needs mothering. Nick Frost will always be Simon Pegg’s best friend. And Sean Bean will ALWAYS be called in when a spectacular death is in order.

Sean Bean has made a name for himself all over the cinema industry and over the internet as the ‘King of Death’. He has performed a transition from life to everlasting sleep over twenty times, and is hailed as an expert in the field. I agree wholeheartedly that no one pulls off a death quite like Sean Bean, and from the moment I see him in the title sequence of a film I immediately prepare for his inevitable demise.

So here are my favourite deceasements…if that is a word. I have selected what I feel is the most creatively imagined collection of final moments, meaning that many shootings have been omitted. However, I hope you find the select few entertaining and inspiring enough to include a death outside the box in your next screenplay, or at least outside the barrel of a gun…

But until then, enjoy the ultimate death reel:

10. Lorna Doone (1990)

The first of our tragic moments is embedded in a   romantic adaptation of the Richard D Blackmore novel Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor. It’s a British TV film, so it’s low budget, shakily shot, and yet my heart still bleeds a little when I see Bean’s poor son stand and watch his father get pulled away under the water. Little did Bean know that nearly 25 years later he would be famed for this sort of moment.

This makes the list because it’s small time small screen and shows Bean’s talent before he hit Hollywood blockbusters. But he has it there by the bucketful, as we shall see in the next installments of the list.

9. Equilibrium (2002)

Yes, yes, I know, I said I wouldn’t include any shootings in the list. And then I did. Slap on the wrist for me. I include this once not because of the way he gets killed, but the reasoning for it. It’s a beautiful setup and it provides a really nice plot device. The setting is a world that finds emotion to be a failing and stamps it out, creating an emotional equilibrium where logic dictates everything. Bean’s character has been trained to ignore emotion all his life, and then he finds a book and starts to read. his mind is opened up and he begins to feel new things and explore new ideas. And then he gets shot by his friend and superior. In the moments before he is shot, Bean’s few lines are filled with an emotion that is even more stark than the norm because the rest of the characters are devoid of such feeling. It makes the death poignant, the moment wonderful and the film make the list. Bravo Bean!

8. ‘Screen One’ Tell me That You Love Me (1991)

A tragic love story of good intent gone awry, Tell Me That You Love Me shows Sean Bean at his swooning finest. Sweeping in as the almost 'angel' Gabriel, he is portrayed as the perfect lover and romantic hero, before the psychosis and tragedy starts to take hold.

This is a small time TV drama, so why has it made the list I hear you cry? Ah well, the reason it lands a place here in the top moments is because this is an occasion where Sean Bean not only dies, but does the killing. Yes, his demise is brought upon him through the means of self inflicted stabbing. Sean Bean has become so expert on death that they let him do the killing too. A worthy contender on my list.

7. The Island (2005)

A great conceptual film, The Island had Sean Bean introduced not as a tough guy actioner or romantic but as a bureaucratic scientist. And scientists don’t die in movies unless they’re evil right…? An  hour into the movie, and the evil scientist persona is activated, leading to a bust-up.

You’d think that a grappling hook through the throat would be enough to fell any mortal man. But when Ewan McGregor’s troublemaker/revolutionary (depends on your point of view) de-throats Bean he keeps brawling. That is until platform he’s standing on gives way and he’s finally choked by the grappling hook’s cable. For more of Beans durability in life-threatening situations, see number 3.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=kvAByClqoOM

6. Patriot Games (1992)

Top 3 uses of an anchor. 1: as a mooring for a boat to stop it drifting away. 2: as a maritime symbol. 3: To incapacitate irish terrorists. Yes that’s right, not many people know that an anchor is the go-to weapon for anti-terrorism. The CIA should take note.

When the member of the provisional IRA is impaled on the aforementioned anchor, an explosion is a handy way to complete the job. Poor Bean. Perhaps this gruesome death was a punishment for a questionable mullet.

5. Far North (2007)

Time for a trip (as the title suggests) up north to cold perilous plains where we meet a mother, daughter and a soldier that threatens their survival. YES! It's Bean again. This is a poignant and intimate story that takes us on a roller coaster emotional journey, and when Loki (Bean) meets his frosty end at the hand of his lover, and endures this naked, you feel the true vulnerability of the man form in the most bitter sense. This is a truly beautiful and thought provoking moment, albeit heartbreaking. A very worthy contender on the list.

4. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

I feel for you in this movie, Bean. Your father and your country have been at war for decades. Your land and your countrymen are at great risk. The only thing that can save Gondor is around the neck of someone who (let’s be honest here) would be dead without Sams butlering. I’d be tempted to try and nick the ring too. The Fellowship of the Ring very cleverly forces us to sympathise with Bean throughout the film and leads us to understand and ultimately to forgive him. We forgive him for his rash actions, and we cheer him on during his Uruk-Hai slaying redemption.

But Sean Bean must die!

In perhaps the most forlorn, heroic stand Bean takes an arrow to the torso. He gets up, he fights then another arrow slams into him. He stands and fights once more then fzzt thud. But before he’s gone he confesses and is forgiven by his friends in a quietly poignant scene.

3. Goldeneye (1995)

When compiling a list of final moments, one as a Bond villain must make the shortlist. Bean plays opposite Piers Brosnan as 006 agent Alec Trevelyan, nemesis of Bond. He is initially thrown from a considerable distance off a cable pylon onto concrete ground, something that would finish off the best of us. Bean, however,  is a pro at death and miraculously skirts his way back into life. But as if that wasn’t enough, the pylon he was pushed off bursts into flames and then falls on him, crushing him and rendering him dead as a doornail. Well, you have to do a lot to kill a Bond villain, right?

This one makes the top end of the list because it is explosive, mad and VERY Bond. It’s also one where Bean is really playing the bad guy so it’s not too much of a tragic loss when he does pop his clogs, though we should all tip our hats in respect to some epic dying action.

2. Black Death (2010)

It's not a great place to be when you're suffering from the plague and all is rather poor and grom. But that is where we find Sean Bean in our next instalment on the list. And if that wasn't enough, he is gruesomely executed for all to see. This is one of the most graphic deaths, and one that is certainly not for the faint of heart, but the historically accurate (vaguely anyway) and the general creative nature of this death is what has earned it it's place. And take heed readers; never anger horses when your limbs are separately tied to many of them. They will have revenge. And it's messy.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=dVacQMneN9o

1. The Field (1990)

It takes skill to create a final moment that makes you shed a tear. It takes genius to create one that makes you shed a tear of sadness and a tear of laughter simultaneously. The Field does just that. The absurdity and hilarity of the cow chase contrasts with the sterling commitment to the cause of Bean to create the most out of this world death scene in modern cinema. Yes, I just made that claim. And once you watch the clip, you will agree. In my humble opinion, it's by far the top moment of Sean Bean’s career, and his best death.