Kaffee
05-15-2005, 08:42 PM
Role Call: Samuel L. Jackson
Doesn't it seem like Samuel L. Jackson is always dying in his movies? As we prepare for his final lightsaber battle in ''Star Wars: Episode III,'' we review his best cinematic swan songs by Gary Susman
Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith (2005)
THE STIFF Mace Windu, Jedi knight
CAUSE OF DEATH We're going to go out on a limb here and guess that it's death by lightsaber.
SCENE OF THE CRIME In interviews over the last few years, Samuel L. Jackson has frequently mentioned his desire for George Lucas to write his character a death scene that would allow him to go out in a blaze of glory. Reportedly, he got his wish.
FAMOUS LAST WORDS C'mon, we're not gonna give that away — though everyone's bound to know it after the movie's May 19 opening. We just wish he could have reprised his Ezekiel 25:17 speech from Pulp Fiction: ''And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers.'' (By the way, is that Jackson's Pulp pal John Travolta on the right, still wearing his alien dreadlocks from Battlefield Earth?)
POSTMORTEM To bring the Star Wars saga full circle to the point where Episode IV: A New Hope (a.k.a. the original 1977 Star Wars) begins, pretty much everyone except Obi-Wan, Darth Vader, and Yoda has to die, so Mace Windu's death has to be pretty darn special to stand out amid the carnage.
Goodfellas (1990)
THE STIFF Stacks Edwards, thief and Mob associate
CAUSE OF DEATH Gunshot
SCENE OF THE CRIME Ordered to hide the truck used in the notorious Lufthansa heist, Stacks instead leaves it where police easily discover it. Before the trail can lead to him, Mafia soldier Tommy (Joe Pesci) pays him a wake-up call at home. Still getting dressed, Stacks is tying his shoes when Tommy empties a silencer-equipped pistol into the back of his head.
FAMOUS LAST WORDS ''You'll be late to your own f---ing funeral,'' says Tommy, just before he shoots.
POSTMORTEM Tommy's casual, unexpected execution of Stacks begins the bloodbath that sees most of the Lufthansa heist accomplices whacked. It also underscores the axiom of narrator Henry Hill (Ray Liotta): In the Mob, ''your murderers come with smiles.''
DEATH SCENE GRADE B-
Jungle Fever (1991)
THE STIFF Gator Purify, homeless crackhead
CAUSE OF DEATH Gunshot
SCENE OF THE CRIME The aggressively needy Gator confronts his parents in their home once too often. His preacher father (Ossie Davis) pulls a Marvin Gaye Sr. and shoots his son in the gut. Gator expires in the arms of his sobbing mother (Ruby Dee).
POSTMORTEM Not only is this powerful and horrifying scene the emotional climax of the film, but it also transformed Jackson from relative unknown to in-demand character actor.
DEATH SCENE GRADE A
Jurassic Park (1993)
THE STIFF Ray Arnold, a technician at the dinosaur preserve
CAUSE OF DEATH Velociraptor
SCENE OF THE CRIME In the dark shed where she's resetting the park's electrical power grid, Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) feels a tap on her shoulder and sees Ray's hand… then screams when she discovers that Ray's arm is all that's been left behind by hungry lizards.
POSTMORTEM Though his demise occurs offscreen, it still makes for one of the Spielberg scarefest's greatest shock moments.
DEATH SCENE GRADE B+
Hard Eight (1996)
THE STIFF Jimmy, a Reno casino security guard
CAUSE OF DEATH Gunshot
SCENE OF THE CRIME Jimmy tries to blackmail Sydney (Philip Baker Hall), a veteran gambler, by threatening to reveal a secret that would destroy Sydney's surrogate father-son relationship with young gambler John. Sydney agrees to pay Jimmy but shoots him instead.
POSTMORTEM Jimmy is one of the sleaziest, scariest lowlifes in Jackson's rogue's gallery, and his death is gruesomely satisfying.
DEATH SCENE GRADE B
187 (1997)
THE STIFF Trevor Garfield, high school science teacher
CAUSE OF DEATH Gunshot
SCENE OF THE CRIME In the battle of wills between Mr. G. and the gang toughs in his classroom, both sides have grown violent. At their final showdown, when Cesar (Clifton Collins Jr.) and his crew confront Mr. G. at home and force him to play Russian roulette (Cesar has recently watched The Deer Hunter on TV), Mr. G. proves he can out-macho them by taking a few extra turns, one of which proves fatal. Not to be outdone, Cesar takes one last turn himself, with equally lethal results.
FAMOUS LAST WORDS ''I'm willing to die for stupidity, Cesar, if it'll teach you something.''
POSTMORTEM Coming at the end of an otherwise conventional dedicated-teacher-vs.-juvenile-delinquents movie, Mr. G.'s nihilistic gesture comes as a stunning, horrific surprise. It's an unusually pessimistic ending for a movie in this genre, but maybe a more realistic one than the hopeful and redemptive endings of most classroom dramas.
DEATH SCENE GRADE A-
Jackie Brown (1997)
THE STIFF Ordell Robbie, arms dealer
CAUSE OF DEATH Gunshot
SCENE OF THE CRIME In the movie's final showdown, Ordell confronts heroine Jackie (Pam Grier), bail bondsman Max (Robert Forster), and federal agent Ray Nicolette (Michael Keaton). Before Ordell can draw his gun, Ray shoots him three times in the chest. Director Quentin Tarantino offers a corpse-eye-view of Ordell's three adversaries looking down at him as he lies dead on the floor of Max's office.
POSTMORTEM Ray's quick dispatch of Ordell seems perfunctory and anticlimactic, given how violent and sadistic a villain Ordell's shown to be throughout the movie. Of course, he deserves to die for his crimes against grooming alone, like that long red ponytail and the braided rat-tail beard.
DEATH SCENE GRADE C
Deep Blue Sea (1999)
THE STIFF Russell Franklin, tycoon and adventurer
CAUSE OF DEATH Shark attack
SCENE OF THE CRIME After a freak set of catastrophes leaves an underwater laboratory flooded and at the mercy of super-intelligent sharks, Russell starts to rally the surviving humans with the standard motivational speech movie heroes give at such moments. But he's barely begun his pep talk when a giant shark suddenly surfaces behind him and snatches him away in one huge bite.
FAMOUS LAST WORDS ''Nature is lethal, but it doesn't hold a candle to man.''
POSTMORTEM For its canny subversion of genre conventions, this shark shocker gets our vote for the best death scene in any Hollywood movie since, oh, Psycho.
DEATH SCENE GRADE A+
Basic (2003)
THE STIFF Sgt. Nathan West, Army Ranger drill sergeant
CAUSE OF DEATH Gunshot, grenade, stabbing — depending on whom you believe
SCENE OF THE CRIME West and most of his squadron disappear in a hurricane during a training mission in Panama. Investigators question the survivors, who give several differing accounts, Ã* la Rashomon, of how the much-loathed West was killed by one of his own men. In one version, the killer is Mueller (Dash Mihok, left).
POSTMORTEM As viewers learn in one of the plot's twists-upon-twists, there's a reason all these death scenes appear a little far-fetched and over-the-top.
DEATH SCENE GRADE D
Kill Bill — Vol. 2 (2004)
THE STIFF Rufus, a musician
CAUSE OF DEATH Gunshot
SCENE OF THE CRIME Rufus is the organist for the wedding of Uma Thurman's Bride. He's shown only in glimpses, and we don't see him die, but he's an implied casualty of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad massacre that takes out the wedding party and leaves the Bride comatose.
POSTMORTEM Jackson's walk-on is more of a favor (his fourth appearance in a Quenin Tarantino film) than a character.
DEATH SCENE GRADE NA (Bummer! We don't actually see his face-off with the DiVAS, or even his corpse.)
Doesn't it seem like Samuel L. Jackson is always dying in his movies? As we prepare for his final lightsaber battle in ''Star Wars: Episode III,'' we review his best cinematic swan songs by Gary Susman
Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith (2005)
THE STIFF Mace Windu, Jedi knight
CAUSE OF DEATH We're going to go out on a limb here and guess that it's death by lightsaber.
SCENE OF THE CRIME In interviews over the last few years, Samuel L. Jackson has frequently mentioned his desire for George Lucas to write his character a death scene that would allow him to go out in a blaze of glory. Reportedly, he got his wish.
FAMOUS LAST WORDS C'mon, we're not gonna give that away — though everyone's bound to know it after the movie's May 19 opening. We just wish he could have reprised his Ezekiel 25:17 speech from Pulp Fiction: ''And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers.'' (By the way, is that Jackson's Pulp pal John Travolta on the right, still wearing his alien dreadlocks from Battlefield Earth?)
POSTMORTEM To bring the Star Wars saga full circle to the point where Episode IV: A New Hope (a.k.a. the original 1977 Star Wars) begins, pretty much everyone except Obi-Wan, Darth Vader, and Yoda has to die, so Mace Windu's death has to be pretty darn special to stand out amid the carnage.
Goodfellas (1990)
THE STIFF Stacks Edwards, thief and Mob associate
CAUSE OF DEATH Gunshot
SCENE OF THE CRIME Ordered to hide the truck used in the notorious Lufthansa heist, Stacks instead leaves it where police easily discover it. Before the trail can lead to him, Mafia soldier Tommy (Joe Pesci) pays him a wake-up call at home. Still getting dressed, Stacks is tying his shoes when Tommy empties a silencer-equipped pistol into the back of his head.
FAMOUS LAST WORDS ''You'll be late to your own f---ing funeral,'' says Tommy, just before he shoots.
POSTMORTEM Tommy's casual, unexpected execution of Stacks begins the bloodbath that sees most of the Lufthansa heist accomplices whacked. It also underscores the axiom of narrator Henry Hill (Ray Liotta): In the Mob, ''your murderers come with smiles.''
DEATH SCENE GRADE B-
Jungle Fever (1991)
THE STIFF Gator Purify, homeless crackhead
CAUSE OF DEATH Gunshot
SCENE OF THE CRIME The aggressively needy Gator confronts his parents in their home once too often. His preacher father (Ossie Davis) pulls a Marvin Gaye Sr. and shoots his son in the gut. Gator expires in the arms of his sobbing mother (Ruby Dee).
POSTMORTEM Not only is this powerful and horrifying scene the emotional climax of the film, but it also transformed Jackson from relative unknown to in-demand character actor.
DEATH SCENE GRADE A
Jurassic Park (1993)
THE STIFF Ray Arnold, a technician at the dinosaur preserve
CAUSE OF DEATH Velociraptor
SCENE OF THE CRIME In the dark shed where she's resetting the park's electrical power grid, Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) feels a tap on her shoulder and sees Ray's hand… then screams when she discovers that Ray's arm is all that's been left behind by hungry lizards.
POSTMORTEM Though his demise occurs offscreen, it still makes for one of the Spielberg scarefest's greatest shock moments.
DEATH SCENE GRADE B+
Hard Eight (1996)
THE STIFF Jimmy, a Reno casino security guard
CAUSE OF DEATH Gunshot
SCENE OF THE CRIME Jimmy tries to blackmail Sydney (Philip Baker Hall), a veteran gambler, by threatening to reveal a secret that would destroy Sydney's surrogate father-son relationship with young gambler John. Sydney agrees to pay Jimmy but shoots him instead.
POSTMORTEM Jimmy is one of the sleaziest, scariest lowlifes in Jackson's rogue's gallery, and his death is gruesomely satisfying.
DEATH SCENE GRADE B
187 (1997)
THE STIFF Trevor Garfield, high school science teacher
CAUSE OF DEATH Gunshot
SCENE OF THE CRIME In the battle of wills between Mr. G. and the gang toughs in his classroom, both sides have grown violent. At their final showdown, when Cesar (Clifton Collins Jr.) and his crew confront Mr. G. at home and force him to play Russian roulette (Cesar has recently watched The Deer Hunter on TV), Mr. G. proves he can out-macho them by taking a few extra turns, one of which proves fatal. Not to be outdone, Cesar takes one last turn himself, with equally lethal results.
FAMOUS LAST WORDS ''I'm willing to die for stupidity, Cesar, if it'll teach you something.''
POSTMORTEM Coming at the end of an otherwise conventional dedicated-teacher-vs.-juvenile-delinquents movie, Mr. G.'s nihilistic gesture comes as a stunning, horrific surprise. It's an unusually pessimistic ending for a movie in this genre, but maybe a more realistic one than the hopeful and redemptive endings of most classroom dramas.
DEATH SCENE GRADE A-
Jackie Brown (1997)
THE STIFF Ordell Robbie, arms dealer
CAUSE OF DEATH Gunshot
SCENE OF THE CRIME In the movie's final showdown, Ordell confronts heroine Jackie (Pam Grier), bail bondsman Max (Robert Forster), and federal agent Ray Nicolette (Michael Keaton). Before Ordell can draw his gun, Ray shoots him three times in the chest. Director Quentin Tarantino offers a corpse-eye-view of Ordell's three adversaries looking down at him as he lies dead on the floor of Max's office.
POSTMORTEM Ray's quick dispatch of Ordell seems perfunctory and anticlimactic, given how violent and sadistic a villain Ordell's shown to be throughout the movie. Of course, he deserves to die for his crimes against grooming alone, like that long red ponytail and the braided rat-tail beard.
DEATH SCENE GRADE C
Deep Blue Sea (1999)
THE STIFF Russell Franklin, tycoon and adventurer
CAUSE OF DEATH Shark attack
SCENE OF THE CRIME After a freak set of catastrophes leaves an underwater laboratory flooded and at the mercy of super-intelligent sharks, Russell starts to rally the surviving humans with the standard motivational speech movie heroes give at such moments. But he's barely begun his pep talk when a giant shark suddenly surfaces behind him and snatches him away in one huge bite.
FAMOUS LAST WORDS ''Nature is lethal, but it doesn't hold a candle to man.''
POSTMORTEM For its canny subversion of genre conventions, this shark shocker gets our vote for the best death scene in any Hollywood movie since, oh, Psycho.
DEATH SCENE GRADE A+
Basic (2003)
THE STIFF Sgt. Nathan West, Army Ranger drill sergeant
CAUSE OF DEATH Gunshot, grenade, stabbing — depending on whom you believe
SCENE OF THE CRIME West and most of his squadron disappear in a hurricane during a training mission in Panama. Investigators question the survivors, who give several differing accounts, Ã* la Rashomon, of how the much-loathed West was killed by one of his own men. In one version, the killer is Mueller (Dash Mihok, left).
POSTMORTEM As viewers learn in one of the plot's twists-upon-twists, there's a reason all these death scenes appear a little far-fetched and over-the-top.
DEATH SCENE GRADE D
Kill Bill — Vol. 2 (2004)
THE STIFF Rufus, a musician
CAUSE OF DEATH Gunshot
SCENE OF THE CRIME Rufus is the organist for the wedding of Uma Thurman's Bride. He's shown only in glimpses, and we don't see him die, but he's an implied casualty of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad massacre that takes out the wedding party and leaves the Bride comatose.
POSTMORTEM Jackson's walk-on is more of a favor (his fourth appearance in a Quenin Tarantino film) than a character.
DEATH SCENE GRADE NA (Bummer! We don't actually see his face-off with the DiVAS, or even his corpse.)