When you think of actors who have made a career out of their characters dying onscreen, it would be no surprise ifSean Bean’s name pops up. According to an article fromCBR, Bean’s characters have died 25 times as of 2020. That’s 25 different roles in which we have seen a new character have to die. Whether that is from beheading, gunshot, or even arrows, Bean has proven to be an expert at faking death!
Out of his 25 deaths, a handful have stood out among the rest. His character Ned inGame of Thrones’House Starkmay have been short-lived, but it’s a role Bean will be remembered for some time. His character was in the first season of the series, but is still brought up due to the gruesome nature of his death, the domino effect it caused throughout Westeros, and the revenge his family consequently sought. Similarly, Bean played Boromir who died during the skirmish at Amon Hen, one ofthe best battlesin theLord of the Ringsfilms. Both character deaths brought tears to his fans.
While Bean has died heroic deaths, sometimes his characters are villains like in the James Bond film,Goldeneye,where he played one of thefranchise’s better villainsAlec Trevelyan. In the 2007 remake of the classic film,The Hitcher, Bean plays the villain again, who torments Sophia Bush’s character to the end. Whether hero or villain, let’s take a look at Bean’s 8 best character deaths.
InCa$h, one of the two characters played by Bean ends up dying. He plays identical twins Pyke and Reese. Reese is in jail while Pyke is sort of a mercenary for hire, who sets out to retrieve the money he previously stole from a heist. The couple who found his money already spent $75,000, which Pkye forces them to somehow pay back, along with the rest of the $625,000. In a fight with the protagonists, one of the brothers is shot dead.
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7GoldenEye
In Pierce Brosnan’s first film as the iconic James Bond,Goldeneye, we see Bean as the villain, Alec Trevelyan, a 006 agent who was though to be dead, but is now a renegade MI6 agent who plans on using Goldeneye to wipe out London. Goldeneye is a secret space-based weapons program that Bond is sent out to retrieve after it is stolen by a Russian crime syndicate. To make matters worse, Bond finds out the truth about Alec, who was his friend back at the agency. During the realization scene, only one of the two can stay alive. Bean ends up falling off of an antenna/satellite to his death.
6The Hitcher (2007)
The Hitcheris another film where Bean’s death is justifiable as he is the main antagonist. In the 2007 remake of the cult classic 1986 thriller,The Hitcher, Bean plays the titular character whose name is really John Ryder. John is picked up by Jim (Zachary Knighton) and Grace (Sophia Bush) while driving through the New Mexico desert. John threatens them at knife-point before being tossed from the car. The next day, Jim and Grace see John in the car of a different family. They attempt to warn them, but find the family has already been murdered. Jim gets in contact with the police, but that doesn’t end well. Instead, the classic game of cat and mouse ensues resulting in a few deaths, including Bean’s character getting shot.
5Patriot Games
Patriot Gamesstars a young Bean alongside Harrison Ford. Ford plays former CIA analyst Jack Ryan, who witnesses an explosion outside of Buckingham Palace while on vacation in England. He ends up being able to stop the abduction attempt, killing one of the Irish revolutionaries. The surviving brother Sean Miller (Bean), vows to avenge his brother’s death. He targets Jack’s pregnant wife and daughter, forcing Jack to return to the CIA to try and capture Sean before his family is hurt. As is the case when you are the antagonist, Bean’s death is imminent. What works well in this movie is how his character is killed: instead of being shot, which is an easy way to go, he is actually impaled with an anchor.
4Don’t Say a Word
In the 2001 thrillerDon’t Say a Word, Bean plays Patrick, the leader of a group of thieves. During one of their robberies, he is double-crossed by his men and loses the gem he was attempting to steal. Ten years later, he abducts a psychiatrist’s daughter as a way to force him to help discover the whereabouts of the gem by treating a new patient who was just admitted to his hospital. Michael Douglas stars as Nathan, the psychiatrist, with Brittany Murphy playing Elisabeth, the troubled patient. By the end of the film, Patrick has karma working against him when he is buried alive. While his death isn’t technically on screen, you can admit being buried alive is not a great way to go.
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3Black Death
Black Deathtakes Bean back to Medieval England, which is suffering from the bubonic plague, also known as the Black Death. In the movie, Bean plays Ulrich, a fearsome knight who is sent on a quest by a young monk (Eddie Redmayne) to hunt down a necromancer or someone who can bring the dead back to life. Unfortunately, by finding this woman, a fight between good and evil ends up in play. Bean’s death is a painful one as he is killed by having his body pulled apart by horses while tied up to posts in the ground.
2The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
In the first film oftheLord of the Ringsfranchise,The Fellowship of the Ring, Bean plays Boromir. An unlikely group of men, an elf, dwarf, and hobbits sets off to accompany Frodo, a hobbit, on his journey to destroy the powerful One Ring. The ring begins to influence Boromir to steal it from Frodo, but what starts as a moment of weakness ends up turning into one of the saddest deaths in the franchise. Boromir realizes his mistake and fights to save the hobbits from a group of Orcs who have found the group. Despite having been struck by multiple arrows, he continues to fight until the final shot. It’s perhaps this character death that marks one of Bean’s most heroic.
1Game of Thrones
In perhaps one of the more horrific death scenes Bean has encountered, he is beheaded in front of a group of people including his two young daughters. In the first season ofGame of Thrones, Bean plays Ned of House Stark, who is asked to join his friend, the King, and become his second in command, The Hand of the King. As Hand, Ned begins to uncover some truths about the King’s wife, and when the King is killed by a boar-hunting “accident,” Ned finds himself on trial for alleging that the King’s heir is not in fact his son.He is beheadedby the new King despite his claims being correct. His death sparks a desire for revenge in the rest of his family and starts a series of gruesome deaths among many of theGOTcast.
