The Black Guy Dies. Thread

Have you ever noticed how dark skinned actors tend to die in some films in an odd sort of 'served your plot purpose, so go away now' way?

View to a Kill (Mayday sacrifices herself to save San Francisco. Oh, and James Bond.)

King Kong. (Sacrifices himself to save Billy Elliot. )
Planet of the Apes (Tim Burton's. Black Apes stupid. White apes intelligent/cunning. Really black ape dies... getting stabbed by white ape.)

Games:
Fear: Perseus Mandate (First companion NPC to die is African American.)

I've noticed that dark-skinned actors get typecast as wholesome and selfless... Which means they die at some point so viewers learn an important moral lesson about SACRIFICE & FAMILY.

Any other examples come to mind?

Chewbaca dies to save a bunch of people from the yu zon vong in one of the star wars comics.

Edited by: 501stcaptainrex

He wasn't dark-skinned though, was he? My point is that black actors get cast in roles where they are predestined to die, often by sacrificing themselves.

Chewbaca is dark skinned actualy, and sorry you asked for any more examples of the black guy dies.

Oh... I do see your point. Chewie is a disposable character because he's brave and furry. So by killing him, the authors milk sympathy.

This trope was largely averted in DS9.

Ambient_Malice wrote: Any other examples come to mind?

Myles Dyson, Terminator 2

I can't think of any others... I can think of a lot more instances of non-black people sacrificing themselves or dying once they've served the plot...

Edited by: JigsawPieces

Chronicle Movie 2012. *SPOILER* (Highlight to read.) Black guy gets struck by lightning by white dude. Dies.

Edited by: Icedecknight

Space Jam.

On a serious note though, the token black guy doesn't always die (like in DieHard, GIJoe, Transformers, etc). If its a comedy then chances are they'll even make fun of the trope (though they may still die). The same goes for Michelle Rodriguez. If she is a side character in a film, I'm putting money on that character dying.

Edited by: Cryrid

An even surer predictor of imminent death is any time a character starts talking about what they're going to do when they're "done with this"/"out of here"/"back home". As soon as anyone takes a photograph out of his wallet, you just know they're not going to be around much longer.

Token Black guy always dies first...

The House on the Haunted Hill

It's a long time since I watched it, but at the end a black guy appears to die, only to be saved the last second.

"Aaawww we killed off the black guy, and you thought he'd live since he was 5 cms from the escape hatch. Oh, waait, we fooled you again, he gets to live"

Shark Night.

Black guy is not first to die, but he sure as sacrifices himself.

Noremakk wrote: An even surer predictor of imminent death is any time a character starts talking about what they're going to do when they're "done with this"/"out of here"/"back home". As soon as anyone takes a photograph out of his wallet, you just know they're not going to be around much longer.

Yes, so much yes.

You must see some weird movies, because most movies I see, it's pretty random who die, concerning skin colour.

All asians know martial arts, they will surround the protagonist in a circle and go one by one to fight him and make unnecessary sounds.. BUT in the end there will be one evil minion who is slightly overgrown and you can hit him as many times as you want and he will just laugh, but then ofcourse the protagonist will make a witty joke about him and afterwards kick him in his groin from which the big guy dies... (the big guy is either russian or a sumo fighter..)
Those would be stereotypes i have seen in movies (annoys me a bit) , but about black guys always dying, not really..

An even surer predictor of imminent death is any time a character starts talking about what they're going to do when they're "done with this"/"out of here"/"back home". As soon as anyone takes a photograph out of his wallet, you just know they're not going to be around much longer.

Funnyordie.com

I never said 'black guy always dies'. I said 'black actors typecast as sacrificial/noble/buddies'.

*Hmm... So for maximum dramatic tension, someone needs to die here. Choices: Male lead. Hot babe. Trusty black sidekick with a crush on hot babe.*
*We could kill the babe*
*Out of the question. We've cast her in two sequels*
*Kill the black sidekick?*
*Original!*
*And wait, imagine if he dies to SAVE THE HOT BABE!*
*Brilliant! Then the love triangle is resolved and our male lead gets to shag the babe to help with the emotional healing process*
*Very tasteful. They could have a kid and name it after the black sidekick*
*We're brilliant, aren't we?*

So true

The reverse of this cliche was Leonardo Dicaprio in Blood Diamond, where the White guy sacrifices himself for the Black guy. Though it added to another cliche, "Dicaprio always dies". Was a pretty good movie though.

Final Fantasy The Spirits Within had the trusty Black dude saves all the White people cliche in it as well, in the form of Ryan Whittaker's death, he's crushed under a car and fights off the Phantoms till death.

Edited by: formerlyknownasMrCP