Aashwin Joshi
The movies listed below have the most number of death counts. Either they feature violent, death ridden stories and characters or they impact the viewers in such a strong fashion that the latter’s thought process sways towards, or begins to commit, violent or deadly acts. These movies have an interesting catch as well. While some may call them socially destructive, others call it a great cathartic device for those with psychological problems. Following is the list of deadliest movies ever filmed. Note that some movies in this list feature death counts and those death counts are obtained from ‘Movie Body Counts’. A site which enumerates death counts in different movies.
12. Troy (2004)
The Director’s Cut of Troy features a total of 572 dead body counts which makes it one of the deadliest movies ever filmed. Directed by Wolfgang Peterson, ‘Troy’ features the epic story where the Greeks conquer Troy and the romance and drama which follows behind. The battle scenes at the Gates of Troy and post the Wooden Horse stratagem, involves a large number of kills in this director’s cut. Achilles, enacted by Brad Pitt has total of 35 kills himself with Odysseus (Sean Bean) and Hector (Eric Bana) having 13 and 14 kills respectively.
11. 300 (2006)
Zack Snyder’s motion picture has catered to the whims of a large number of public, in either in its original English language or a dubbed version. People are familiar with the iconic dialogue, “This Is Sparta!” by the bearded Spartan, King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) and have enacted it or made internet memes of it in real life. What’s interesting to note here is that ‘300’ features 600 kills, visualized in the grey mood by Snyder in the movie. In a battle of Spartans against Persians, a large number of soldiers and animals have died and thus ‘300’ is on the list of the deadliest movies ever filmed.
10. Titanic (1997)
Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet; those two became the icon of romance, post the release of ‘Titanic’. There’s sweet and brutal elements juxtaposed in this James Cameron masterpiece. Putting the innocence and the drama aside, 1500 people were victims of the real life sinking of the Titanic ship. The movie featured 307 deaths. For the victims of any accident, the movie’s love based theme was overshadowed by the gruesome manner in which people bid farewell to their lives. Older Kate’s expression gave quite a vivid picture of the tragedy which the deadly Titanic inflicted on the lives of the people.
9. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
The opening scene of this Steven Spielberg classic features a 10 minute long gunfight scene which is deadly to the core. It is also one of the greatest gunfight scenes of all time. We see Captain Miller’s (Tom Hanks) men getting killed in huge numbers by the enemy until they manage to take the lands for themselves. The movie also gets deadly during the gunfight scene, at the shattered French region occupied by the Germans. The movie has a total of 255 kills! Combine it with Spielberg’s vision and you have a deadly classic.
8. Django Unchained (2012)
This list would be incomplete without Quentin Tarantino. You might as well call the title of the article, ’12 Quentinesque Movies Ever Filmed’. In contemporary cinema, Tarantino is arguably the most stylist action/thriller filmmaker. ‘Django Unchained’ is a class apart. From Jamie Foxx’s suave to Samuel Jackson’s hilarious acting . Leonardo DiCaprio’s dedication to Chris Waltz’s demeanor; and yes obviously, Tarantino’s scripting and violence. This movie is so cool you never get tired of watching it all over again. Django also features one of the best gunfight scenes of all time. Violence is in the DNA of this feature and blood squirts out of bodies as if macabre is a kid’s stuff for Tarantino.
7. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
If someone repeats that idiotic internet post saying, “Alcohol. Because no great story ever started with Milk”, then you can confidently call that person ignorant as he/she is unaware of the Stanley Kubrick classic called, ‘A Clockwork Orange’. The notion of free will and the uninhibiting impulse to commit a violent act is shown in the most aesthetic manner by Kubrick. So powerful was his presentation that newspapers began criticizing the movie, as numerous incidents of crime started occurring where the criminals followed the pathway of the crimes committed in this movie. Kubrick started receiving threats for making such a psychologically disturbing artwork which resulted in, him banning people to watch his own film!
6. Jaws (1975)
There are events which overshadow other events, ever held. Then there are events which completely revolutionize the entire scenario. Steven Spielberg’s ‘Jaws’ was such an event. It changed the money minting scenario of Hollywood. Not only financially, but even psychologically it affected people to a deep level. With that deadly Great White Shark and its notoriety in the movie, people actually refrained from going to the water. Tourism industry suffered. Future movies attempted to exhibit that ‘Jaws’ effect but hardly a few ever made people scared for their lives. Spielberg excelled in heightening the fear of death in its viewers’ psyche.
5. The Exorcist (1973)
Warner Bros. would not have imagined that they would get sued by one of the viewers of their film, ‘The Exorcist’. Such was the drastic effect of this William Friedkin horror movie that people ended up puking or got fainted on the theatre. Not one or two faint hearted ones, but a large number of people. Technology, especially in case of CGIs is much more advanced now but the savage effects of the gruesome, ‘The Exorcist’ is still unbeatable by most of the horror flicks released these days.
4. Fight Club (1999)
Newspapers reported that when a student named Mateus Meira watched ‘Fight Club’ in a theatre in Sao Paulo, his mind got triggered and so did his gun, as he open fired at the audience. Interrogation revealed that he found himself in sync with the narrator of the movie. Reports also stated that many real life, deadly fight-clubs were opened up in several parts of the US, taking inspiration from the movie. It’s no doubt that Fincher, Norton and Pitt created a masterpiece, whose effects had a behemoth effect on the psyche of its viewers.
3. Kingdom Of Heaven (2005)
Funny, how Orlando Bloom is included in the top two movies with the highest count of dead bodies. ‘Kingdom Of Heaven’ is a Ridley Scott epic with a total number of 610 kills. While you do not consider Bloom to be an agent of the Grim Reaper, Ridley Scott makes him so by devoting a total of 40 kills by his character. This movie features high pitched battles and such battles involve a number of soldiers in the backdrop, whose dead bodies would become a hard task for anyone to count. Nevertheless, with 610 counts ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ is one of the deadliest movies ever made.
2. Taxi Driver (1976)
Quentin Tarantino hailed this Martin Scorsese masterpiece as one of the greatest character driven stories of all time. The story of this movie is not only fantastic but brutal as well. When the original version of the movie was sent to the censor board, they directed to cut some of the scenes from the ending of the movie as they were too bloody for people to handle. Talk about the goric chills of this movie, John Hinckley Jr. watched ‘Taxi Driver’ fifteen times before his attempt to shoot the former US president, Ronald Reagan in 1981.
1. The Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The Kings (Extended Edition) (2003)
The extended edition of ‘Return of the Kings’ is four hours long. That’s an insane amount of time for a movie to shed blood of its characters and this version does that. As per the website ‘Movie Body Counts’, 836 characters died in this movie. That’s deadly as hell! Aragorn, Legolas and Gandalf, Eowyn, Gimli have 17, 11, 9 and 5 kills respectively. Quite a lot of killings by individual characters, if you ask any movie buff.
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