Movie franchises have brought their supposedly dead characters back in some incredibly silly ways, proving that death is never necessarily the end for many cinematic roles. The saddest movie deaths hit incredibly hard, providing a sense of finality and loss that muscles past the fourth wall and into the hearts of viewers. Of course, movies are just as apt to bring back dead characters with some truly absurd justifications for doing so.

There are sorts of bizarre methods by which movies find an excuse to bring back dead characters. Typically, genres like science fiction or fantasy movies have a better chance of doing so thanks to the presence of magical spells or fantastical technology. But in some cases, film franchises with access to none of these will nonetheless find a way to bring a fan favorite back from the grave, making the decision even more confounding.

10 Chelios Gets His Heart Swapped Out For A Battery

Crank: High Voltage (2009)

Crank is a lesser-known but woefully underappreciated action staple in Jason Statham's catalog, telling the story of Chev Chelios, an assassin who is poisoned with a drug that forces him to keep his adrenaline high. The premise made for some interesting action setpieces and voyeuristic displays of public affection, but in the end, Chelios seemingly dies when he falls out of a helicopter in flight.

At least, that's what audiences were led to believe until Crank: High Voltage. The appropriately-named sequel reveals that Chelios actually survived the incredible fall and was brought back to life by having his heart replaced by a batter. Even more absurdly, Chelios needs to find either a heavy electric charge or a suitable enough source of friction to stay alive, setting up more obnoxious love-making. Considering that Chev Chelios fell multiple stories, a new ticker should've been the least of his worries.

9 Neo And Trinity Come Back Through The Power Of Love, Friendship, And Plot Armor

The Matrix (1999)

Though the film franchise takes place largely in a simulated reality, the rules of the Matrix are made clear from the very first film - If you die in the Matrix, you die in real life. Unless, of course, you're a character that the plot needs to keep alive, such as Neo. Throughout the Matrix movies, the concept of Neo being "The One" as a prophecy isn't explained all that well, only offering some real clarity in the much-maligned legacy sequel Matrix Resurrections.

But nothing in the fourth entry reliably explains how Trinity is seemingly able to bring Neo back to life with true love's kiss. Like something out of a fairy tale, Trinity kisses Neo's comatose body after he's shot by Agent Smith in The Matrix, telling him that he must be The One because the Oracle told her she'd one day fall in love with him. This confession is somehow enough to warp the Matrix and reality itself into resurrecting Neo simply so the plot can continue.

8 Landfill Is Replaced By His Identical Twin

Beerfest (2006)

Sometimes, a silly resurrection can be knowingly absurd, stressed as the punchline to an excellent ongoing joke. In the underrated Broken Lizard ensemble comedy Beerfest, Phil "Landfill" Krundle endures an unfortunate fate when he drowns in a massive vat of beer. After a brief mourning period, a hilariously out-of-nowhere revelation is made that Phil had a never-before-mentioned identical twin brother, Gil, also played by Kevin Heffernan.

Gil assures the group that his brother already told him all of their memories together, so he's fully caught up to speed, and even invites them to call him Landfill in honor of his fallen sibling. This comically lazy way to bring back Heffernan's character with hardly any changes is an amazing bit that Beerfest manages to keep up without missing a beat. One of the only people who notices the differences is Phil's widow, who soon shacks up with Gil after finding him to be twice the man his brother was.

7 Harry Hart Comes Back From A Headshot

Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017)

Few franchises have had as dramatic a falloff in quality from the original to the first sequel as the Kingsman movies have had. A big part of the second film's poor critical reception had to do with the return of Colin Firth's character and Eggsy's super spy mentor, Harry Hart.

This bizarre choice dramatically advanced the setting of the super spy series to sci-fi levels while also making the first movie's emotional low narratively moot.

Kingsman: The Secret Service ends with Harry being shot in the head by the film's villain, Valentine, played by Samuel L. Jackson. The series seemingly got cold feet with retiring the character after Firth's portrayal of Harry proved to be quite popular, and the story quickly floundered to find an excuse to bring them back.

Its answer is an advanced nanomachine treatment used by the Kingsmen's U.S. equivalents, the Statesmen, strong enough to repair vital brain tissue. This bizarre choice dramatically advanced the setting of the super spy series to sci-fi levels while also making the first movie's emotional low narratively moot.

6 Ramírez Is Summoned Back To Life Via The Quickening

Highlander II: The Quickening (1991)

One of the rare sequels to have burned through good will as fast as Kingsmen: The Golden Circle happened years earlier with Highlander II: The Quickening. The sequel to the acclaimed fantasy series of sword duels between long-lived immortal beings, Highlander II: The Quickening is infamous for retconning the first movie, over-explaining the Highlanders' supernatural origins as alien beings.

On top of that, the film needlessly brought back a returning dead character with an explanation handwaved by the new unwanted worldbuilding. In the original film, Ramírez finally falls to his ancient nemesis the Kurgan, dying in the only way of his species of Immortals can; Decapitation.

Yet thanks to the lame "Quickening" energy introduced by the second film's extraterrestrial elements, MacLeod is able to resurrect him with no problem. The Quickening itself is already a nebulous and ill-defined concept, but it's apparently capable of restoring life to race of beings known for only being able to be killed by one specific thing.

5 Somehow, Palpatine Has Returned

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

Not many resurrections are as major or obviously last-minute as the re-introduction of Emperor Palpatine, a.k.a. Darth Sidious, to the Star Wars franchise in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. As described by the infamous opening crawl of the film, "The dead speak!" when Palpatine makes a sudden re-emergence in the galaxy as the overarching villain and leader of the Sith, smashing the previous conflict with the First Order.

It's eventually explained that Palpatine was able to return by projecting his consciousness into a series of clones, one of which ended up fathering Rey's own father. ittedly, in a franchise already established to have advanced cloning and space magic, this explanation doesn't exactly break any rules. But it's the rushed nature of Palpatine's sudden inclusion and the way his presence clearly undoes what the previous two films were building on that makes his return truly silly.

4 The Original Cultists Are Given Shore Leave By The Devil

The Babysitter: Killer Queen (2020)

Horror movies are particularly egregious defenders when it comes to bringing back seemingly dead characters, particularly in the case of unkillable villains like Freddy Krueger or Michael Meyers. But none of these killers have been as difficult to justify a return of as the blood-drawing cult from 2017's The Babysitter.

The film centers on a young boy whose older teen babysitter is revealed to be a part of a demonic cult bent on harvesting his blood. After narrowly escaping with his life, the sequel suddenly harasses the protagonist with several new cult , along with a handful of the original film's villains somehow back from the dead.

It's explained that the group was given one more day above ground by the devil himself to finish what they started, making for a fittingly profane resurrection. Considering the magical elements of the first film are also a little more ambiguous, it's also a huge jump to suddenly see the old antagonists upright and walking again.

3 Steve Trevor Takes Over A Random Guy's Body

Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)

In the pantheon of DCEU movies, Wonder Woman 1984 isn't regarded particularly highly. This is thanks in large part due to the way the film managed to shoehorn in the return of Chris Pine as Wonder Woman's lover from the first film, the World War I pilot Steve Trevor.

Steve Trevor ends up essentially possessing the body of a random stranger, who the narrative hilariously doesn't focus on much or even name.

Even if he had lived through the events of Wonder Woman, Diana was always destined to watch Steve Trevor die before her. This makes it all the more significant when Wonder Woman 1984's MacGuffin, the Dreamstone, is able to bring him back. The exact mechanism of his revival raises some alarming questions, however.

Steve Trevor ends up essentially possessing the body of a random stranger, who the narrative hilariously doesn't focus on much or even name. It's quite suspect that Steve and Diana nevertheless engage in some intimacy using the helpless victim's body, making the possession of another man via soul power thanks to a magical rock one of the stranger resurrections in movie history.

2 Westley Is Given A Miracle After Only Being "Mostly" Dead

The Princess Bride (1987)

One of the most memorably hilarious scenes of The Princess Bride occurs when Inigo rescues the heroic Westley from Rugen's torture chambers. Inigo and Fezzik bring Westley's limp body to one "Miracle Max", played up by Billy Crystal's guffaw-worthy performance through layers of makeup. Upon inspecting Westley, Max declares that the young hero is only "mostly dead", which is apparently quite different from actually being dead.

From there (after some heavy persuasion), Max is able to treat Westley, laying his hands on him and filling his lungs full of air with a fireplace bellows. The thing that truly does the trick is a "miracle pill", coated in chocolate to help it go down better. If The Princess Bride had to include a resurrection for the sake of moving the plot forward, it's at least able to get some jokes in with a particularly absurd method of healing.

1 Superman Spins The Earth Backwards To Revive Lois Lane

Superman (1978)

Even if it isn't one of the best Superman movie scenes of all time, Superman saving Lois' life in the original 1978 film is certainly one of the most infamous. After Lois is killed by an earthquake caused by Lex Luthor's missile, the mournful Superman does whatever he can to fix the situation. Eventually, he decides to fly around the world over and over again until the globe begins to spin in the opposite direction.

Apparently, this causes time to move in reverse, undoing the events of the climax and bringing Lois back to life, giving Superman another chance to save her. Treating physics like a plaything, this contrivance is one of the most infamously strange methods of resurrection ever used in a superhero film. At least the moment does provide a touching emotional satisfaction to the very first Superman movie.