10 Weirdest Deaths In Sci-Fi Movies & TV Shows

This article mentions suicide.

Summary

• Sci-fi death scenes stand out for being creative, gory, and sometimes disturbing, offering unusual scenarios not found in reality.
• Overused sci-fi tropes allow writers to explore compelling and unusual deaths that are deeply engaging for audiences.
• Unusual deaths in sci-fi often occur due to bizarre settings, ethical dilemmas, or the fantastical abilities of characters, challenging traditional views on mortality.

Death scenes in sci-fi stories tend to stand out from their counterparts in many other genres, as the fantastical nature of the story can often allow the macabre sequences to be far more creative than just the standard passing away of a character. Some horrifying sci-fi death scenes in movies and TV shows aren’t necessarily weird, but rather gory and somewhat disturbing. However, sci-fi deaths don’t have to be all blood and guts to be compelling. In fact, the weird sci-fi deaths and gory ones don’t often cross over, although there can obviously be some shared territory.

All the overused sci-fi tropes allow the genre’s writers to get pretty creative with death scenes, allowing for scenarios that simply wouldn’t occur in reality. That being said, even within the world of science-fiction, certain deaths still stand out as especially unusual. This can be due to a bizarre setting, an unknowable ethical dilemma, or even a character boasting abilities that are inarguably a work of fiction. If a weird sci-fi death sticks in the mind of the audience, the writers have done their job well.

9 Tuvix In Star Trek: Voyager

Tuvix’s existence presented Captain Janeway with an impossible decision

Star Trek: Voyager season 2, episode 24, “Tuvix,” is infamous among the fanbase for a decision made by Kate Mulgrew’s Captain Kathryn Janeway to end the life of one of her crew. The episode’s titular character, played by Tim Wright, was a genetic amalgamation of Tim Russ’ Tuvok and Ethan Phillips’ Neelix. The accidental member of Voyager’s crew bore the best and worst traits of both men, making him seem intensely familiar while also coming across as a stranger. His death wasn’t violent, but it placed a mental toll on Janeway as she ordered what was essentially Tuvix’s execution.

It’s a long and drawn-out death that spans almost the entire episode, with Tuvix himself even contributing to the work that eventually leads to his unwilling demise.

Throughout the episode, the crew is slowly working toward a solution to separate Tuvix back into the ship’s security officer and chef. However, the moment they achieve their goal of arriving at an answer is also the same moment they realize that Tuvix will need to die for them to pull it off. It’s a long and drawn-out death that spans almost the entire episode, with Tuvix himself even contributing to the work that eventually leads to his unwilling demise.

8 Ben Kenobi In Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope

Kenobi’s iconic death scene is still weird after so many years

Alec Guinness’ legendary Star Wars character becoming one with the Force seems pretty pedestrian by modern standards. However, speaking objectively, it’s still a very weird onscreen sci-fi death. Being struck with a lightsaber more often than not results in the unfortunate recipient losing a limb, or at the very least sustaining a minor burn. Kenobi’s special ability to transcend his physical form upon death leads to his entire body vanishing when Darth Vader lands the killing blow in A New Hope.

Although Kenobi does die at the hands of Vader, becoming ”
one with the Force
” allows Guinness’ character to continue interacting with the world of the living.

Ben Kenobi’s “death” changed what it meant for a Jedi’s life coming to an end. Although Kenobi does die at the hands of Vader, becoming “one with the Force” allows Guinness’ character to continue interacting with the world of the living. In a way, he becomes immortal, but not in the traditional sense. The development set a tone of endless hope in the Star Wars universe, with Yoda also following the same path when he dies at the end of Return of the Jedi, as well as Anakin following his redemption.

7 Laurens Bancroft In Altered Carbon

Bancroft’s thought-out death was by his own hand

Bancroft’s death in Altered Carbon season 1 is the heart of the story, with Joel Kinnaman’s Takeshi Kovacs being enlisted to find his employer’s killer. As it turns out, Bancroft shot himself, after being unable to live with himself because of his merciless killing of a prostitute. However, the weirdness of his passing lies in the show’s complex lore. In the world of Altered Carbon, devices known as “stacks” are implanted in the human spine and back up an individual’s memories. If the person dies, their stack can be “resleeved,” which means it can be inserted into a new body.

As a member of the social elite, James Purefoy’s
Altered Carbon
character has the added advantage of his stack’s data being backed up to a remote satellite every 48 hours.

If a stack is destroyed, the person is gone forever. As a member of the social elite, James Purefoy’s Altered Carbon character has the added advantage of his stack’s data being backed up to a remote satellite every 48 hours. So, he destroyed his stack knowing that as long as he did so before the backup cycle ended, the memory of the act he was so desperate to forget would be lost. Therefore, when Bancroft was resleeved, he returned as cold and unfeeling as he was before his murderous act. It was more of an extreme system restore than suicide.

In a way, the person Bancroft had become after he committed murder was scrubbed from existence when his older backup was resleeved.

6 Jason Dessen In Dark Matter

The Apple TV+ sci-fi show has its protagonist face off against multiple versions of himself

Some sci-fi deaths initially seem compelling rather than weird, until it’s considered that what the character is experiencing would indeed be incredibly bizarre if one were to witness it firsthand. During the early stages of Dark Matter‘s Jason Dessen trying to work out how multiversal travel works, he finds himself in a universe where he sees an alternate version of himself escaping to his interdimensional vessel marginally later than he did. The trippiness of the moment is compounded when his other self is gunned down before him by the lab security.

Dark Matter has other instances where different versions of Joel Edgerton’s Jason Dessen are forced to either kill one of their variants or watch them die. What’s especially harrowing is that the different versions of the character are all essentially the same man. Dark Matter‘s grounded approach to interdimensional travel avoids huge disparities between versions of its protagonist, so it doesn’t allow for the degree of separation that other multiverse stories might.

5 Termite’s Infamous Scene In The Boys

The Boys season 3’s opener immediately got weird

Prime Video’s The Boys is no stranger to iconic and gruesome death scenes, but very few fall under the category of “weird.” Instead, the superhero show tends to focus on gory deaths rather than unusual ones. The Boys season 3 premiere, “Payback,” wasted no time in adding to the show’s unconventional kill count. Within minutes of the episode beginning, Brett Geddes’ Termite shrinks down small enough to enter the aperture of his partner’s penis, and things very quickly go awry.

Termite is The Boys‘ answer to the MCU’s Ant-Man, so it’s especially unusual watching the parody of a family-friendly superhero engaged in such an explicitly sexual act. While it’s weird on its own, when Termite sneezes while deep into Peter’s anatomy, his involuntary return to his regular size results in one of the most bizarre onscreen deaths in sci-fi history – and the show gets to add to its gore tally too.

4 Edgar In Men In Black

The Bug consumes Edgar’s insides and wears his skin like a suit

The real Edgar isn’t in 1997’s Men in Black for very long, but Vincent D’Onofrio’s role goes far beyond the death of his first character in the movie. While the Daredevil and Echo star begins by playing a human character, Edgar is brutally killed offscreen by a nefarious extraterrestrial known simply as the Bug. While the death itself isn’t shown, the gruesome noises suggest an unpleasant demise. The weirdness comes immediately after the pained cries come to an end.

What’s possibly even weirder than the actual death is the lack of suspicion from Edgar’s wife when her “husband” returns looking and acting very differently.

Edgar has all of his insides drained by the Bug, with just his completely intact skin remaining. With the pesky organs, bones, and vital fluids out of the way, the movie’s alien antagonist is able to slip into his new disguise and masquerade as a human being for the duration of the movie. What’s possibly even weirder than the actual death is the lack of suspicion from Edgar’s wife when her “husband” returns looking and acting very differently.

3 Vision In WandaVision

Paul Bettany’s MCU character somehow died a second time

Vision is one of the few characters who died in 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War who wasn’t resurrected in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. Instead, he had to wait until the WandaVision TV show aired in 2021. Interestingly, Paul Bettany’s role in the WandaVision cast was as temporary as it was meta, as he wasn’t really playing the real version of Vision, but rather a memory forced into existence by Wanda Maximoff’s immense power. So, his “death” scene at the end of WandaVision ticks the rare combination of boxes relating to weird and moving as the Scarlett Witch accepts her reality.

The Scarlet Witch creates a new form of life, and in turn, a new form of demise.

There is a great deal of speculation surrounding whether Vision was a sentient being in WandaVision, but the awareness of his situation and the emotionally loaded farewell monologue suggest he was alive in one way or another. So, his death is equally bizarre, as he’s arguably experiencing his end for the first time, even though his memories would appear to come from – and at times exceed – what Wanda is capable of instilling in him. The Scarlet Witch creates a new form of life, and in turn, a new form of demise.

2 Own Harper In Torchwood

The Doctor Who spinoff show introduced a new form of death to the universe’s canon

Torchwood focuses on more mature themes than are addressed in Doctor Who, with the show featuring more sexual moments as well as greater levels of violence, existentialism, and even deep dives into death. One member of the Torchwood team meets his end in the conventional sense before being brought back using the resurrection gauntlet. While his comeback was intended to be temporary, the alien device brought him back for good, but in a state of permanent undeath in Torchwood season 2, episode 7, “Dead Man Walking.”

Owen’s death allows him to maintain his consciousness, movement, and autonomy. Unfortunately, his condition also comes with several hallmarks of real death. As well as being unable to sleep, digest food, or breathe, his wounds would not heal either. Eventually, he sacrifices himself to save the rest of the team in the Torchwood season 2 finale, “Exit Wounds,” but it’s unclear if any remains that may have “survived” the nuclear meltdown would have clung to the character’s new definition of life.

1 Andrew Martin In Bicentennial Man

Robin Williams’ take on this Isaac Asimov character redefines mortality

Robin Williams’ character in 1999’s Bicentennial Man has an interesting view of death. He begins the story as a robotic being, but his ultimate goal is to become mortal, gradually making his way to humanity. Andrew views death as a rite of passage that any human must experience, so he spends the movie gradually adapting himself piece by piece until he’s eventually transformed into a biological lifeform who can die like any other person.

The character’s spiritual view on existence and immortality is strangely refreshing and drives home the value of life and the fact it’s so precious because it’s also so fleeting. Many sci-fi characters without the ability to die often cling to their infinite lifespans with both hands. So, at first, it can be a little jarring to process Andrew’s alternative point of view. For a character who starts very far from human, it’s very weird seeing him experience a pedestrian death that almost feels like it has abandoned its sci-fi roots.