Guardians Of The Galaxy Tops List Of Movies With Most On-Screen Fatalities

It’s no secret that the entertainment industry has a thing for violence. Both film and [...]

By Megan Peters

It's no secret that the entertainment industry has a thing for violence. Both film and television have been inundated by gory action and unbridled violence, leaving many viewers desensitized to on-screen catastrophes. You might expect horror flicks to boast the deadliest stats of any film, but then you'd be wrong. Instead, the honor goes to one of Marvel Studios' most far-out flicks about space renegades.

According to GoCompare, Guardians of the Galaxy stands as the most deadly blockbuster since the 1940s - and likely beyond. The site tallied up how many on-screen deaths were seen in hundreds of favorable films, ultimately leading the group to crown Guardians as number one.

The space film sees more than 80,000 people killed when a hoard of Nova Corps pilots die in a fiery explosion. The military members sacrificed their lives to stop Ronan from entering the atmosphere of Xandar by connected their spacecrafts to form a blockade. However, the villain is able to break through the barrier with the Dark Aster, killing thousands of people along the way.

By the film's close, more than 83,000 people have died. The film which comes closest to that staggering number is Dracula Untold (2014) with 5,687 deaths.

The Top 10 list of deadliest movies features several unexpected films, namely a few Tolkein adaptations. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King comes in at 2,700+ while The Two Towers contained 1,741 fatalities. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies had just 1,414 deaths.

A familiar Marvel flick rounds out that list with The Avengers. The beloved superhero film killed off more than 1,000 civilians during its runtime - but Guardians still takes the cake by more than 80,000 lives.

Yikes.

Director James Gunn has responded to the reports, sharing his dismay about the subject. "So I guess [Guardians of the Galaxy] is now the deadliest film in movie history. By, like, a lot. Um, yay?" he tweeted. The reaction was followed by several other posts wherein Gunn defended his film's reigning championship.

When asked about the destruction of Alderaan from the Star Wars films, Gunn stressed the site was just counting on-screen deaths and not "seeing a planet explode."

"They're talking about actual onscreen, individual expirations. We see tons of planets explode in movies, even in the Collectors' museum," Gunn explained.

And, after a fan asked whether the sequel to Guardians would top the kill-count, Gunn answered with a definitive "No."

So, fans can expect a bit less violence from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 if the director is to be believed. Chris Pratt, who plays Star Lord, did say he believes the film will "be the biggest spectacle movies of all time."

For now, viewers will have to wait to see how many deaths the sequel will contain. Even if a trailer may be a ways out, fans are growing more desperate to see footage of the film than ever before following the franchise's deadly revelation.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is scheduled to hit theaters on May 5, 2017.

[H/T] The Guardian, GoCompare

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