Top 10 Most Gruesome Ways Characters Died in the Marvel Cinematic Universe
This list explains the gruesome ways that characters have died in any of the MCU media.
I will also list which MCU characters get killed in these ways as well.
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Levitated and crushed to death
Happens to: General Hale and Agent Kim in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
There's a very good reason this is the #1 pick. All I can say about it is "wow." Using Hale as an example, Glenn Talbot uses his gravity abilities to lift her and crumples her with those telekinetic powers. Even her blood gets crumpled. It's easily the most gruesome death in the MCU, even though it came from a TV show.
I haven't seen Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., fortunately, but that seems pretty gruesome.
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Suffocated in space
Happens to: several Ravagers and Yondu in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Ebony Maw in Infinity War, also almost happens to Star-Lord in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 and Vol. 3, and Glenn Talbot in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
This one is kind of obvious, but suffocating in space is a slow, painful death. It's supposedly one of the most agonizing ways to die in the MCU. Like the #1 pick, it shows the character is conscious in their final moments. It's probably worse because we see them drifting away, cold, losing motor functions, and everything else.
I always found these deaths sad and horrible. Why can't they just shoot them in the head?
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Devoured from the inside out
Happens to: Stephanie Malick and Kirk Vogel in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (maybe also anything related to Extremis in Iron Man 3?)
I could fill this entire list with deaths from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. The insanity of this death is that the Hive entity enters the body and melts the skin from the inside.
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Heart ripped out
Happens to: Ultron Prime in Age of Ultron (his main body, although another of his bodies survives a bit longer before being eradicated by Vision), Quan Chen in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
At the climax of Age of Ultron, Wanda confronts Ultron after her brother dies. She says she also died and that it felt like having her heart ripped open, and then rips out the core of Ultron Prime, ultimately destroying that body.
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Disintegrated by a Splinter Bomb
Happens to: Sunil Bakshi, Adamo Dioli, Noelle Walters, The Banker in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
This bomb, used by HYDRA, is quite insane, capable of petrifying and immediately disintegrating anything it touches.
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Skull opened
Happens to: Vision in Infinity War, Korath in GOTG1, Rowan Hamilton, D. Anderson, R. Moore, Alphonso Mackenzie's L.M.D. in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Phil Gallo in Daredevil: Born Again
Basically, a stronger character punctures the head of another. It's very gruesome, even for an android like Vision.
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Hung upside down and drowned by a running sink
Happens to: Vasily Karpov in Captain America: Civil War
This is truly a cruel death orchestrated by Zemo, who invades Karpov's house to obtain Bucky's trigger words. He hangs the guy upside down over a running sink, which eventually drowns Karpov slowly.
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Disintegrated by burning
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Impaled through the chest
Happens to: Phil Coulson in Avengers, Frigga in Thor: The Dark World, Zuri in Black Panther, the Warriors Three, several Asgardian warriors, and Skurge in Thor: Ragnarok, Doctor Strange in Doctor Strange (multiple times but reversed), Heimdall and Corvus Glaive in Infinity War, Gilgamesh in Eternals (combined with lifeforce sucking), and several characters in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
This is perhaps the most common death in the series, and oddly enough, it's usually bloodless. But in many cases, particularly the Warriors Three and Doctor Strange, they are impaled with extreme prejudice.
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Tossed off a cliff
Happens to: Gamora in Infinity War, Natasha in Endgame (though she does this herself)
This one hurts even more for Gamora, considering Thanos tearfully does it. Gamora screams at him while she falls to her death, and then we see her lifeless body as the music reaches its most somber note.
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Crushed to death in a time cube
Happens to: General Dox and her loyal followers in Loki.
Another type of death that may just be way too over the top for non-mature audiences, and it happens in the Loki TV series. There's a device owned by the TVA (Time Variance Authority) called a Gizmo. This is used to create Time Cubes, cubes that imprison their target and can be resized as necessary. Its intention in the series is as a torture device, and Loki actually uses it against Hunter X-05 (Brad Wolfe), but he does talk to Loki to avoid death this way. This cannot be said for General Dox of the TVA. She and a group of loyalists were hatching a plan for the TVA, but were caught, and all were imprisoned into a cube that shrank so much that it crushed Dox and the followers to death. You cannot IMAGINE just how gruesome the end result of this is.
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Head repeatedly bashed on a car door
Happens to: Anatoly Ranskahov in Daredevil
In the Daredevil TV series in the fourth episode, we have a character death that has appeared on some of the nastiest MCU death lists that I've seen, and those who only watch the movies are not aware of this one. Anatoly worked with Wilson Fisk (Kingpin), but upon embarrassing him, Fisk bashes Anatoly's head against a car door in a manner so gruesome, Anatoly loses his head as a result.
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Brain blown up via sonic impulse
Happens to: Illuminati version of Black Bolt in Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness.
Let it be known that this list was made before the second Doctor Strange movie was released, so this not being here yet made sense at the time.
But this is a #1 gruesome death, as Wanda uses her powers to remove Black Bolt's mouth. When he speaks, he can actually create a sonic impulse that can vaporize things (which he ended up doing to his multiverse version of Doctor Strange earlier). Wanda removing his mouth causes Black Bolt to panic. The sonic powers resonating in his head backfire, vaporizing his own brain, causing his head to limp as he falls lifeless.
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Body torn apart magically
Happens to: Illuminati version of Reed Richards in Doctor Strange 2
This one comes immediately after Black Bolt. Reed's attempt to restrain Wanda is met with a powerful magical spell that tears his stretchy body apart from his feet up to his head, blowing him up and leaving slithery remains behind. It's bad enough that this happens to Mr. Fantastic in this multiverse, but you can only imagine how much worse it would be for a regular human.
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Molecularly dissolved by an unstable shrinking weapon
Happens to: Frank in Ant-Man, as well as a test-subject goat.
How in the world did I forget this one when I made this list? This is way, WAY nastier than it looks, believe me.
Frank argues with Darren Cross about the usage of his tech, and Darren has this small prototype shrink ray that is unfortunately unstable. When he's had enough, he zaps Frank with it. No, this doesn't shrink him. It completely destroys Frank's entire body, and he's reduced to a tiny, bloody mess. This is extremely terrifying to consider. Darren even flushes his remains into a toilet.
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Ceasing to operate as a physical body
Happens to: Lucian Aster in Doctor Strange
You may think this looks like a painless death from a physical standpoint, and that is what it seems. However, a person's astral form and physical form cannot exist without each other. While many other deaths on this list are physical, when Lucian Aster fights Stephen Strange, Strange uses the power of the defibrillators that Christine Palmer applies to his physical body. This energizes Stephen and incinerates Lucian's astral form. When that dies, so does Lucian's physical body, which is elsewhere.
There's even a hole in his brain, which may be a side effect.
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Turned to dust
Happens to: Ego in GOTG2, half of the universe in Infinity War, Thanos and his armies in Endgame.
Some are very much aware of what is going on, especially since characters who turn to dust can go before them. It is very easy to tell with certain characters, like Mantis senses something was going on, and Spider-Man's spidey-sense was in overdrive as a result and he straight up did NOT want to go. Others don't know it's happening like Sam Wilson or T'Challa.
And then the other side of the coin was when this happened to Thanos and his army, Thanos was the last one to succumb to it, essentially resigning himself after everything he had went before him. It's quite taxing because in these cases, it's something that if it was prevented, it would be prevented entirely, but once it started happening, there's no stopping it.
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Skin and muscles removed via telekinesis
Happens to: Johnny Storm in Deadpool & Wolverine
This happens in just a blink, and the result was incredibly gruesome. The Human Torch variant who was sent to the Void was captured along with the title characters, and words are put in his mouth and he's swiftly and brutally executed this way. For a second, he stands and even blinks before his body and blood become mush on the ground.
This honestly eclipses so many deaths on this list so far, even though it's only happened once. (The closest other moment here would be Ego in GOTG2, but he's fully capable of regenerating shot-off/run-over skin and doesn't even die from this.)
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Telekinetic neck snap
Happens to: Illuminati version of Professor X in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Pyro in Deadpool & Wolverine
Normal human force will usually not cause neck snaps. Both examples above are telekinetic and are much more powerful and violent, even for Professor X which happens in a plane outside reality.
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Imploded
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Cut into pieces
Happens to: an unnamed HYDRA grunt in Captain America, Proxima Midnight in Infinity War, Kro in Eternals, and a number of Deadpool Corps and TVA agents in Deadpool & Wolverine. (The Deadpool Corps all survive because of a healing factor.)
I don't really need to explain this one much. Whether it's being torn to pieces from a HYDRA airplane or Thresher or cut up with weapons, it's something that even Star Wars doesn't go too far with the gore.