Everyone has to face up to their mortality one day, and where movies are concerned, it’s always fascinating to see a character given a few precious moments to appreciate that their number is up.
What a character does in their final moments alive can ultimately end up defining their entire arc throughout the movie, especially if it involves an act of self-sacrifice or just doing something incredibly badass.
And so with that in mind, these sci-fi horror movie characters all knew they were circling the drain, but made the absolute best of the limited time they had left.
From heroes who left it all out on the field to villains who hilariously realised they were about to not exist, these characters were all acutely aware that they were positively cooked.
From the tragic to the brutal to the stupendously fun, these scenes all rank among the most memorable “I’m dead and I know it” moments in cinema history, regardless of genre.
Yet where sci-fi horror is concerned in particular, you won’t find more memorable instances of characters taking stock of their lives as they shuffle off their mortal coils…
A Quiet Place offers up an especially badass and unforgettable instance of a character who absolutely, positively knows their goose is cooked and at least makes the best of it.
In the alien invasion horror flick’s climax, father Lee (John Krasinski) is forced to make the ultimate sacrifice in order to lure one of the extraterrestrial monsters away from his children Regan (Millicent Simmonds) and Marcus (Noah Jupe), who are holed up inside a nearby truck.
Realising that his children are basically moments away from being torn apart by the creature, Lee knows there’s only one thing he can do. In his final moments, he signs to his deaf daughter “I love you, I have always loved you” and then screams at the top of his lungs.
At that moment, the monster turns its attention away from Regan and Marcus and vaults towards Lee, killing him while his horrified kids are able to ride the truck back to the safety of the family home.
Lee knew exactly what he had to do, and dammit, he did it.