Killing a character off in your feature script or episodic series is an easy way to create empathy and inject some much-needed catharsis into your screenplay. It can also help raise the stakes. When one character dies, others need to react. Plot points need to move forward and the narrative must tie up loose ends. This creates good drama and often leads to some very delicious twists and turns.
Read More: 10 Reasons to Consider Killing Your Main Character
But you want to avoid killing a character just for the shock value. That’s not enough. And the audience will resent you for it. Character deaths in movies and television need to mean something because if we don’t care if they died or not, it is a waste of prime screenplay real estate — and a waste of the audience’s time and investment.
With that in mind, here are seven ways to make your character deaths more memorable, heartbreaking and impactful.
Timing Is Everything
If you kill a character off too quickly, there’s no time for the audience to really care if they are gone or not. And if you kill them off at strange times throughout your script, the death may seem random and out of place.
One of the keys is to find the right time to kill your character.
- You can kill a character early, but only if you showcase their loss through the eyes of your protagonist.
- Another reason to kill characters early is to play on the expectations of the audience. If they feel there’s no way a character of a certain type or magnitude would die early, you can do that — as long as you showcase their loss through the eyes of other characters.
- You can also time the character deaths near crucial turning points in the plot, which allows you to enhance the effect of those turning points by showcasing added loss and the conflict that ensues.
Choose your timing wisely. Have a reason that you pick that particular time in your script to kill them off.
Attach Symbolism, Metaphors and Themes
You can create a deeper meaning for a character’s death by attaching it to any symbolism, themes or metaphors that can touch on those you are trying to inject into the overarching story.
When Obi-Wan Kenobi died in the original Star Wars, it later touched on the symbolism of the Force and how powerful it truly was. It also touched on the themes of Luke Skywalker’s loss after previously losing his aunt and uncle. Now all of his connections to Tatooine were gone, allowing him to fully mature and come of age amidst the battle to destroy the Death Star.
Showcase the Impact The Death Makes on Other Characters
How does their death affect the other characters they had connections with before their demise? We learn most about characters through their actions and reactions to the conflict they face. If surviving characters are left unaffected by the death of the character, it’s not going to be that memorable for the audience. But if they are devastated, the audience will feel that pain through them while doing what most audiences do, living vicariously through the movie’s protagonists.
Countering that, you could be creative by showing a character’s indifference to the death, which could lead to additional plot twists.
Read More: 18 Plot Devices You Can Use to Elevate Your Story
Have Them Sacrifice Their Lives for Others
The act of sacrificing oneself for the greater good — or the protection of loved ones — elicits an emotional response from the audience. That’s where empathy and catharsis can play a vital role in the success of your story. Audiences (and script readers) can relate to emotional loss — and sacrifice. They will be forced to imagine what it would be like to see a father, mother, daughter, son, friend, relative or peer sacrifice their life for them. That will then create a connection between the surviving characters and the audience, leading to a more memorable experience.
Star Wars paired sacrifice, shock (see below), and symbolism/theme for a memorable death.
Shock Value
Audiences love to be surprised and shocked, but it’s not enough to sustain a powerful narrative. People don’t want to see character deaths coming. If you’re a Star Trek fan, you know the element of the Red Shirt character that beams down with the captain — the character we’ve never met (usually wearing a red shirt) that we know is going to die because they’re presented as expendable.
While you can’t rely on shock alone to make a character’s death memorable, shock value is a, well, valuable asset to attach to another one of these.
That archetype of a character that never dies in a movie? Kill them off. That’s what made the death of the puppy in John Wick so impactful. The cute dogs in a movie hardly ever die. But that film killed the dog off for shock value, while also attaching it to the emotional arc of the protagonist (it was a gift from his deceased wife).
Build Emotional Investment By Giving Them an Arc
The easiest way to make their death memorable is by giving them their own arc. In Pixar’s Up, we didn’t get to know Ellie that well. She dies within the first 10 minutes of the film. However, we were shown her character arc during that time through a montage of character moments.
- We saw her and Karl meet.
- They fell in love.
- They built a life together.
- They suffered through the loss of a child.
- They grew old together.
When she died, audiences were heartbroken. It is one of the most cathartic moments in cinematic history — all for a character that we only knew for a brief period of time within the movie.
Whether it’s a major character or a supporting character, try to give them a character arc that audiences can become invested in. When they die, it will become one of the more memorable moments within your story.
Read More: Understanding the 3 Different Types of Character Arcs
Make the Actual Death Memorable Through Dialogue or Reveals
Yes, the death scene can be trite — especially when paired with a death monologue. There are plenty of cliched moments in cinematic history. But so many of them are memorable because of what is said during those last moments.
When Doc is on his deathbed in Tombstone, this killer marksman opens up about his friendship with Wyatt Earp. We see the humanity in him finally. But it goes deeper than that. We see two friends saying goodbye. And that is what creates the cathartic climax in the film. Sure, a sacrificial death could have been sufficient (although historically inaccurate). But the dialogue-driven scene is what made his otherwise quiet death so memorable.
Give a lot of attention to how you write these death scenes, and what your characters are saying during them. Look inward and find what would make you cry (or laugh for comedic death scenes).
You can also reveal further plot points, leading to twists or the completion of character arcs to make these scenes more memorable as well.
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Take this list of seven ways to make your character deaths more memorable, and use it to write some truly cathartic scenes that will stick with script readers and audiences. Mix and match them together — or use keep it simple by using just one. Regardless, don’t look upon a character’s death lightly in your writing. It’s usually one of the more memorable moments of your script — so make it as memorable and meaningful as possible.
Ken Miyamoto has worked in the film industry for nearly two decades, most notably as a studio liaison for Sony Studios and then as a script reader and story analyst for Sony Pictures.
He has many studio meetings under his belt as a produced screenwriter, meeting with the likes of Sony, Dreamworks, Universal, Disney, and Warner Brothers, as well as many production and management companies. He has had a previous development deal with Lionsgate, as well as multiple writing assignments, including the produced miniseries BLACKOUT, starring Anne Heche, Sean Patrick Flanery, Billy Zane, James Brolin, Haylie Duff, Brian Bloom, Eric La Salle, and Bruce Boxleitner, the feature thriller HUNTER’S CREED, and many produced Lifetime thrillers. Follow Ken on Twitter @KenMovies and Instagram @KenMovies76.
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Author: Ken Miyamoto
