Summary

• Deaths in sci-fi movies push the boundaries of the genre, featuring shocking and nightmarish demises that are hard to forget.
• Sci-fi deaths often involve fantasy elements and creative ways to kill characters, from being eaten by dinosaurs to explosive decompressions.
• Some iconic sci-fi deaths include being impaled by Reavers, morphing with a fly, and having an alien burst out of the chest, leaving a lasting impact.

The sci-fi genre is packed with action and suspense but also horror, and some sci-fi characters went through some truly horrifying deaths. Sci-fi can be considered a very flexible genre as it easily mixes with other genres to bring engaging and exciting stories. Sci-fi has close ties to fantasy and horror, but it has also successfully blended with comedy, romance, action, and drama multiple times. However, no matter what genre sci-fi mixes with and how funny, suspenseful, or scary these movies are, more often than not they feature some shocking and nightmarish deaths that push the boundaries of the genre.

Deaths in sci-fi movies go the extra mile to shock the audience, and the genre’s fantasy elements give writers and filmmakers plenty of options to get creative with. As a result, many deaths in sci-fi movies can come off as over-the-top and hard to believe, but it can’t be denied that they are pretty shocking and hard to forget, and some of them are just plain terrifying. These deaths go from being eaten by huge animals, succumbing to illnesses or exposure to deadly chemicals, or even surprise deaths caused by mysterious creatures.

10 Donald Gennaro - Jurassic Park

Cause of death: eaten by a dinosaur while in the toilet

Donald Gennaro (Martin Ferrero) is a lawyer sent to Jurassic Park by the park’s investors due to safety concerns. In the Jurassic Park novel, Gennaro survives the chaotic park experience, but in the movie, he is given a horrible death. After coming across a T-Rex, Gennaro runs out of the car and into a nearby portable bathroom, where he sits frightfully on the toilet. The T-Rex then destroys the bathroom, leaving Gennaro completely helpless, right in front of the dinosaur, which proceeds to devour him.

9 Baron Harkonnen - Dune (1984)

Cause of death: poisoned with a gom jabbar

David Lynch’s 1984 adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune saw Kenneth McMillan as Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, Duke Leto’s rival and main antagonist of the novel and movie. Baron Harkonnen is a grotesque but wealthy and evil figure who gets an equally grotesque but deserving ending. Baron Harkonnen is poisoned with a gom jabbar (a needle tipped with meta-cyanide poison) by Alia Atreides, Paul’s sister and the Baron’s granddaughter. This causes the Baron to float away into a ing giant sandworm. Although the scene has been endlessly mocked, it can’t be denied that it’s a pretty horrible death.

8 Dr. Mann - Interstellar

Cause of death: decompression

Interstellar introduced Dr. Mann (Matt Damon), a NASA astronaut sent to an icy planet during the Lazarus program. Mann ended up turning on Cooper’s crew and hijacked a Ranger so that he could dock with the Endurance and take control. It didn’t take long for Mann to pay for his betrayal, and as he gave a ionate speech about his mission, he failed to properly dock in space and was instantly killed when the airlock depressurized. Although it was a quick death, it’s still a horrifying one.

7 Wash - Serenity

Cause of death: impaled by Reavers

Hoban Washburne a.k.a. Wash (Alan Tudyk) was the pilot of the Serenity in both the TV series Firefly and the movie Serenity, as well as the husband of the ship’s first mate Zoë (Gina Torres). Although he was a fan-favorite character, Serenity had a heartbreaking twist saved for its third act, in which Wash was killed by a Reaver ship. Wash crash-landed the Serenity near the broadcast tower, and though everything seemed fine, he was suddenly impaled by a Reaver spear, killing him instantly.

6 Tarlow - Outland

Cause of death: explosive decompression

Tarlow (John Ratzenberg) is a miner on the moon of Io, where conditions are rather difficult. Because of this, Tarlow suffers an attack of stimulant psychosis that causes him to see spiders, leading him to rip open his spacesuit. This, unfortunately, results in his instant death by explosive decompression. What makes Tarlow’s death so horribly memorable are the visual effects that left nothing to the imagination.

5 Marlena - Cloverfield

Cause of death: parasite bite

Marlena Diamond (Lizzy Caplan) met Rob and the rest at a party, and she followed Hud, Lily, and Rob to rescue Beth. They soon found themselves in a battle between the Cloverfield monster and the military, so they ran into the subway for safety. However, not even the subway was safe, and they came across several parasites, and while saving Hud, Marlena was bitten by one of them. The group made it out of the subway and were found by soldiers and taken to a command center. There, Marlena’s condition got worse and she started bleeding from her eyes before exploding. Marlena’s death was slow and painful, and totally undeserving.

4 Frank Poole - 2001: A Space Odyssey

Cause of death: blasted off into space

Dr. Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood) was part of the Discovery One mission along with Dr. Dave Bowman (Keir Dullea). When HAL 9000 started acting erratically, Frank and Dave agreed to disconnect HAL, but when Frank was outside the ship to replace the antenna unit, HAL took control of his pod and blasted Frank off into space. Dave used another pod to rescue Frank and brought his corpse back to the ship, but HAL refused to let them in, so Dave was forced to release Frank’s body into the infinity of space. Although Frank’s death is not graphic, drifting away into space is definitely a horrible way to die.

3 Emil - RoboCop

Cause of death: toxic waste

Emil Antonowsky (Paul McCrane) was part of Clarence Boddicker’s gang, and he had a pretty graphic and grotesque death. While chasing RoboCop, Emil ran his truck into a vat of toxic waste, and as he stumbled away, his body started to decompose and fall apart, causing Emil a lot of pain. To make it even worse, Emil tried to get help but his condition was too shocking, and he ended up being hit by his own boss in his car, completely destroying Emil’s deformed body.

2 Seth Brundle - The Fly

Cause of death: accidentally morphing with a fly

Seth Brundle’s (Jeff Goldblum) teleportation experiment was successful, but he didn’t know there was a fly in one of the pods, so the machine ended up fusing him with the fly at the molecular-genetic level. Although at first this granted Seth increased strength, agility, stamina, and more, he started to mutate physically, and by the end of The Fly, he had transformed into a monstrous, fly-human creature. After accidentally amalgamating himself with a part of the telepod, Seth crawled to Ronnie (Geena Davis) and silently begged her to kill him with a shotgun, which she did. Seth had a slow, painful, and grotesque death, which earned a place in sci-fi history.

1 Kane - Alien

Cause of death: alien exploding out of his chest

Kane (John Hurt) was the one who found the huge eggs on a moon, from which an alien creature sprung out, got through Kane’s helmet, and attached to his face. An unconscious Kane was taken back to the Nostromo, where after some attempts to remove the creature from his face, it freely detached and was found dead. Kane woke up with some memory loss, and during the final crew meal, Kane choked and convulsed. While lying on the table, Kane’s chest exploded and an alien creature came out of it, killing him on the spot and escaping into the ship.