Remember when people got really upset at how Superman showed an apparent disregard for human life while fighting General Zod inZack Snyder’sMan of Steel? (‘member??) Well the body count of that DC Comics / Warner Bros. film pales in comparison to two of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe installments, one of which takes the top spot in on-screen film fatalities by a huge margin. In fact,Man of Steeldidn’t even crack the top 200.
Whatdidmake the list, however, with a whopping body count of 83,871 on-screen deaths, is Marvel’sGuardians of the Galaxy. That’s the population of a moderately sized city, and though it would be quite the horrific tragedy in our real-world, the numbers of fictional fatalities don’t sound all that bad when considering that the alternative (world destruction, mass genocide, etc., etc.) would tally deaths in the millions or billions. What’s crazier than Marvel having two films on the top ten list is thatJ.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy universe has three.
Guardians of the GalaxydirectorJames Gunnexpressed his conflicted feelings about the news:
Check out the details on some other deadly films below!
According tothis breakdown(viaThe Guardian), here’s the Top Ten movies with the highest on-screen body count:
The top 10 deadliest Hollywood movies
1.Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) – 83,871 on-screen deaths
2.Dracula Untold (2014) – 5,687
3.The Sum of All fears (2002) – 2,922
4.The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003) - 2,798
5.300: Rise of An Empire (2014) – 2,234
6.Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) – 1,741
7.The Matrix Revolutions (2003) – 1,647
8.The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014) – 1,417
9.Braveheart (1995) – 1,297
10.The Avengers (2012) – 1,019
Now, you can explore many more films on that list and use built-in filters to sort out movies based on genres.Guardianstook the top spot due to a mass death event toward the end of the film when 80,000 Nova Corps pilots were wiped out. But movie deaths in general have been on the rise since the 1940s:
In 1940, there was just one film with 50 or more on-screen deaths, rising to four in 1950, 33 in 1960, 44 in 1970, 84 in 1980 and 119 in 1990. Four films from 2014 made it into the top 10.
If you were wondering,Man of Steelcomes in at #243 with 134 on-screen deaths. The originalStar Warsnotches 182 on-screen deaths to nab the #156 spot, which suggests that it’s a good thing Stormtroopers aren’t more accurate with their laser rifles than they already are (though it does beg the question, what about all those folks on Alderaan?).
Have fun messing with the list, let us know your favorites in the comments below, and feel free to argue for/against the methodology as well!
